by A. J. Sikes
Right before 39th, in front of a big industrial building, Jed felt his side burn and then stab. Breathing got hard enough that he had to fall back a pace from the other two. He made it another block or so, but Jed was out of gas, and he knew it. His legs burned, the stitch in his side felt like a knife, and the damn LBE was rubbing like hell against his hips.
“Sergeant,” he said. Then Jed was watching the street come up to meet his face. He got one hand out in time, and set the butt of his weapon on the street before his knees cracked down.
“The fuck?” Sergeant Townsend shouted. Jed struggled to one knee, ready to rise again. The NCO and Rainey slowed their pace and turned back to him.
“You comin’, Welch?” the NCO asked.
They were still stepping backward, and Rainey had his weapon up.
“I’m not bit, man,” Jed said. “Just—Fuck, I can’t keep up. I can’t…”
He thought they would leave him there. They weren’t coming back for him, and Rainey was about to turn and run. Jed could tell.
Sergeant Townsend brought his weapon up and scanned the area. They were at the edge of the rail yards now, just past 39th where Skillman jogged around the neighborhood. Some burned up train cars sat on the tracks nearest them.
“Yo, Welch,” Sergeant Townsend said, with that note in his voice that only an NCO could get.
They’re gonna leave me behind.
“Sergeant, I—”
The roar of a truck motor put them all on alert. It was coming up a neighborhood street somewhere to their left. Rainey kept his weapon up, and Jed watched him trade a look with Sergeant Townsend. The NCO gave a nod and Rainey moved in a crouch; he followed Skillman to the mouth of the next street that went into the neighborhood. Sergeant Townsend kept watching the rooftops in between flashing a look at Jed.
He’s waiting for me! Gotta do this. C’mon Jed. C’mon!
Jed got up on his feet, still shaky and still thinking the other guys were going to leave him behind. He got to his feet just as Rainey rushed back into the street with a grin on his face.
“It’s them, Sergeant. The evac convoy.”
“Hell yeah. Looks like you get that ride after all, Welch. C’mon, Marine. Keep up.”
Jed coughed once, swallowed hard, and moved out after the other two Marines.
Might be back in the suck. But at least I’m alive.
***
The convoy was a line of three school buses led by a truck like the one Jed had been in before. He could make out the profile of a Humvee at the back. Looked like it had a heavy gun up top, but he couldn’t be sure.
Inside the buses were crowds of scared civilians. They all had their faces up to the windows, looking everywhere except at each other. It was kids with their moms and dads mostly, but a few folks who looked like they were loners, or just old people who didn’t have nobody else to come with them.
The truck up front had about a squad inside it. Weapons bristled out like spines, but they only had enough guys to cover the front and a little bit on both sides. Jed spotted a SAW up at the front. Everyone else up there had an M16.
Someone up there, probably another NCO, lifted a hand and waved at Sergeant Townsend. He double-timed it to the truck cab. The driver slowed down enough for him to hop on so he could talk to whoever was inside. After a few words went back and forth, the truck came to a stop and the buses and Humvee pulled up.
Everyone inside the buses started freaking out and Jed heard the screams of fear coming through the glass. Open palms slapped on the glass as the people hollered.
“Why are we stopped? Are they out there?”
“We have to go!”
Sergeant Townsend waved Rainey and Jed over and told them to get into the truck.
“Checkpoint’s down. We’re crossing with them. Mount up and take a zone of fire.”
“Who are they?” Jed asked as they approached the truck.
“Army Civil Affairs. Sergeant Kuhn up front. You with them, Welch?”
Jed didn’t remember anybody named Kuhn, but he double-checked to be sure. He didn’t see any familiar faces. Jed hoped and prayed nobody in the truck had seen him take off back on the boulevard.
None of the other four guys gave him any notice, though. They were all too busy watching the neighborhood. Jed let out a sigh he didn’t know he’d been holding. But when him and Rainey got up on the tailgate, Jed’s heart sank.
Sergeant Boon was in the bed of the truck, lying on a stretcher with his hands bandaged up like they’d been torn to shit. He had a bloody stain running down both arms. Jed covered a zone of fire on the left side next to one of the CA guys. Rainey came up after Jed, putting him in the middle. Sergeant Townsend went to the rear of the truck. With the two CA guys on the other side, and the NCO and SAW gunner up front, they had a full perimeter now. The truck moved out and the buses followed.
Jed thought about Boon and hoped he hadn’t spotted him. A second later his gut turned over and he thought he might spew over the side of the truck.
“That you, Hardcore Welch? The fuck you doing here?”
Jed risked a quick glance over his shoulder before going back to watching the neighborhood. “Sergeant Boon? You—They get you?” he asked over his shoulder.
“The fuck’s it look like, Hardcore? I asked you why you’re here.”
The other guys couldn’t help hearing their conversation, and Jed knew he had about two seconds to make it all go right or Boon would fuck him.
“I’m with them, Sergeant,” he said, nodding in Rainey and Sergeant Townsend’s direction.
“Your old unit,” Sergeant Boon said, and he didn’t make any effort to hide his doubt about Jed.
— 19 —
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Meg held the firehose ready while Eric and Rex helped haul two loaded flatbed carts into the app floor. Rachel and Jason had piled the carts with a stack of two-by-four lumber, some hammers and a box of nails, and a few sheets of thick plywood. Jason shook his head as they closed the shutters and sealed themselves in again.
“It’s not as much as we need. We couldn’t spare the time to check the engine for more masks, either. If we make it through the night, we’ll try again in the morning.”
Meg gave the hose and Bowring back to Eric, then went to help Jason. Rachel and Rex already had a plywood panel over the doorway to the chief’s office and were hammering it in place. Meg and Jason each used a spare boot to carry their hammers and a few handfuls of nails. The punk girl offered to help carry the wood, and so did the mother of the little girl with pigtails.
“Momma will be right back, baby girl. You wait here with Mrs. Cannady, okay? I’ll be right back.”
The girl sat up close to the older black woman who’d asked about getting medicine.
“You’re gonna be fine,” Mrs. Cannady said, putting an arm around the little girl’s shoulders. “Go ahead, Dayone. Help them keep us safe.”
Meg looked at the woman and little girl, and she tried to smile. They both did their best to smile back, and Mrs. Cannady nodded.
Dayone went to the carts and hoisted an armful of two-by-four lumber. Meg joined her and picked up the other end of the boards. When they had the load balanced, they followed the punk girl and Jason up the stairs.
“Thanks for the help,” Jason said when they got to the top. The punk girl just nodded and went back downstairs. Dayone offered to help.
“I can go get more wood. Or some nails in case you run out.”
“You should rest, conserve your energy. Your daughter needs you,” Jason said before Meg could reply. She added her own thoughts as Dayone turned to go.
“Thank you, Dayone. If we need anything, I’ll come get you.”
The woman gave a nervous wave and went back downstairs.
“We shouldn’t ignore their offers, Jason. We might be in better shape physically than most of them, but we need to conserve our energy as much as they do.”
“They’re exhausted, and even
if they’re aren’t, I don’t think we can expect much out of them.”
“Why not? Two of them did just help us, right? And one of them was Little Miss Emo.”
“Sure, but most of them…they’ve never done anything like this. They’re the kind of people who expect people like you and me to do everything when the shit hits the fan.”
Meg looked at him for a breath before giving up. She didn’t have the energy to argue. And she knew he was sort of right.
Sort of.
The survivors were all exhausted, and some were probably close to a state of shock. Mental at least. Before they’d come upstairs, Meg scanned the group for signs of infection, but was happy to see a few of them had managed to fall asleep, even with Rex and Rachel hammering down there. The echo of their blows came up the stairs. As she and Jason got to work, Meg tried to keep her hammering as quiet as she could. She hadn’t seen any of the monsters outside yet, but daylight was fading.
They got the first set of windows covered before they had to make a trip for more lumber and nails from downstairs.
Jason took a break to use the bathroom first. Meg went downstairs ahead of him and sat on the bottom step. Eric was near the shutters, watching the street. He still had the hose with him, but kept it hanging over his shoulder now. Rex and Rachel were putting the last nails into a double layer of plywood on the chief’s office. That left them with one more sheet of plywood. Meg thought about taking it upstairs, but decided it would be better down here.
I hope we have enough to seal this place up for the night.
Over on the cots, Dayone and her daughter were asleep, and Mrs. Cannady looked like she was ready to nod off. Abeer huddled against the wall with her child, but Meg heard the woman’s soft cooing. Most of the others were already asleep, or just huddled together and looking scared.
The punk girl was in the corner at the back of the floor angrily swiping at a tablet she had across her knees.
“You’ve got service?” Meg asked.
“No,” the girl said, not looking up.
Meg left it at that. What good would it do? Meg could tell her to get some rest instead of playing some game or whatever the hell she was doing. She could also conserve what little patience she had left.
Might need it soon. We all might.
Jason came down and stepped past her. He went to where Rex and Rachel were finishing up. They exchanged a few words Meg didn’t catch. Then Jason wheeled the cart of wood over nearer to the stairs.
“We might need to come back down for more. Closer is better.”
Meg grunted a reply. She was losing her edge. Impatience, hunger, fatigue. It was all settling onto her shoulders and pushing her closer to the floor. She stood up, stretched her arms, and shook herself awake.
“You okay?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. Just running on fumes.”
“Ditto,” he said, and lifted more two-by-fours onto his shoulder. Meg grabbed what she could carry and led the way upstairs.
“We’ll go next time,” Meg said once she and Jason were back upstairs. “Me and Eric. Or Rex. You shouldn’t have to take the risk every time.”
“What’s with Rex anyway? You don’t seem to like him much.”
That caught Meg off guard. She wasn’t used to people she didn’t know calling her out that way. Eric got away with it, but he was Eric. And Rex had nothing but clumsy flirting in his bag of tricks.
“He’s a probie, and… I don’t know. He’s not my people I guess.”
“We’re all each other’s people now, aren’t we? Probie or not.”
Meg paused. It really had come to this. Rex might be the one to save her life. That was always the case, but now it sunk in, and Meg had to accept it.
“Yeah. We are.”
They did the rest of the work in silence, except for the banging of the hammers as they drove nails into the two-by-fours over the last window. They’d created a grid work across the windows in the dorm room. It gave them another layer of protection, and allowed them to look outside without immediately showing themselves to whomever was out there. Meg corrected herself: Whatever was out there.
Those things aren’t people.
Jason lifted the final two-by-four into place while Meg drove the nails to hold it against the others. She had one end fixed and was moving to the other when she spotted one of them on top of a car across the street.
“Shit. They’re back.”
Jason edged back from the side of the window and peered around the boards they’d nailed up. He darted back quickly.
“I don’t think it saw us,” he said. “Get that end nailed in. Last one and we’re done.”
Meg hesitated. The first thing Rachel had said when they came in was that the monsters were attracted to noise.
Thank God they’re finished downstairs, otherwise…
“C’mon, Meg,” Jason said. “Last one. Let’s go.”
“It’ll hear us. Wait until it leaves.”
The thing still sat on the car with its head tilted back, like it was sniffing the air, swiveling its face side to side. Meg couldn’t see its eyes or sucker mouth at this distance, but she still had the image in her mind. The fading light cast weak shadows around the monster and made its white flesh even more ghastly to look at.
Should she hammer the nail in? It wasn’t even looking at their building. She put a nail to the wood and held the hammer ready. But she couldn’t stop looking out the window to watch the thing on the car. It leaped away and scrambled up the building across the street, slinking through a broken window like a trapdoor spider returning to its nest. Meg stared at the window as she lifted the hammer for a swing.
You’ll smash your thumb if you don’t watch what you’re doing. Then you’ll scream and make even more noise.
Meg focused on the nail head and swung the hammer.
Bang.
She looked back at the window. The monster hadn’t come back.
Bang.
She looked again. Still nothing but a dark, empty window. Every window in the building across the street looked just the same. Broken, dark, and empty.
“C’mon,” Jason said. “Finish it up.”
Bang. Bang.
Something darted away in Meg’s peripheral vision. She couldn’t tell if it had come from the building, or if it was just a trick of the light, or her frightened, anxious, exhausted mind playing tricks on her. Meg set a second nail to the board and hit it.
Bang.
Meg drove the rest of the nail in with rapid blows, not bothering to look out the window anymore. Jason grabbed the hammer he’d been using and went downstairs ahead of her. Meg hit the nail a final time before looking out the window. Her hand whipped up over her mouth as she backpedaled away and stumbled over the boot they’d carried the nails in. Across the street, at least a dozen of the monsters came scrambling out of the dark windows, leaping onto cars and the fire engine. And stalking their way across the street on a path leading directly to the station house.
Meg whipped around and flew down the stairs two at a time. She nearly bowled Rex over backward as she descended. He had his gloves on.
“They’re at the front door. The locker,” he said. Meg heard the scratching and shrieking and it sounded like they were in the chief’s office. Rex’s face was a mask of panic. A sheen of sweat glistened across his brow and his jaw shook.
“Get it together, man,” Jason said. “We need those people upstairs.”
A louder banging followed and then a splintering sound. Meg heard Eric’s shouting mixed with a rush of water at the front of the app floor. Jason shoved Rex aside. Meg looked at the probie. He shivered, like he was ready to collapse from fright.
“Rex,” she said. His eyes moved to meet hers, but she could tell he wasn’t home. “Goddamit!”
Meg pushed her way past him as screams echoed through the app floor.
— 20 —
Long Island City, Queens
Jed felt his finger slide from the housing t
o the trigger on his weapon. They’d made the turn onto Skillman and were going by the rail yards again. Sergeant Boon had let off him for a bit, but he could be the guy back there muttering under his breath in between grunting in pain.
The streets were chill at least. No sign of the monsters anywhere. But just his luck, Jed’s side of the truck faced the neighborhood, with its broken windows, cars and trucks smashed together on the sides of the streets. It looked like somebody ran a bulldozer through the neighborhood and just shoved everything that wasn’t alive out of the way. The street the convoy had come down was clear, but the farther down Skillman they went, the more Jed realized just how messed up New York had become.
It’s like the apocalypse is finally here. Shit’s just tore up everywhere.
“Yo, Welch,” Boon said. “So, you’re back in the Corps, huh? You get any of ’em yet? You even seen one of the monsters that did this to me?”
Jed waited a beat before he replied, and he didn’t bother answering the sergeant’s questions. If Boon was gonna fuck him, he was gonna fuck him, and there was nothing Jed could do about it. So he went with the script whenever a guy gets hurt, figuring it was the safest play he had. “You’re gonna be okay, Sergeant,” he said.
“Fuck you, Welch,” Sergeant Boon said. “I’m gonna be okay. After they tore my fuckin’ hands off. I’m gonna be okay? Fuckin’ homie from the damn block. I saw you, Welch. I—”
Jed had looked over his shoulder, out the corner of his eye, and just in time to see Sergeant Boon’s eyes roll up as his head lolled over to the side.
“Shit!” Sergeant Kuhn said. He’d turned around and was watching Boon. Jed had his eyes on the dead man, but everyone else seemed to be trying to watch their zone and keep an eye on Boon at the same time.
“Watch your zones, men,” Kuhn said. “Sergeant Townsend, we need to remove this body from the truck.”
Jed turned around even as he felt Sergeant Townsend coming up the truck bed next to him.
“Get his ankles,” Kuhn said.
Jed kept a close eye on Boon’s feet. Sergeant Townsend reached down, and as he did, his shoulder brushed against the muzzle of Jed’s weapon, which was now aimed at Boon’s face.