The Redemption Trilogy

by A. J. Sikes

  Jed tapped Parsons on the shoulder, signaling him to follow. He whispered over his shoulder for McKitrick and Keoh to stay at the door, and to tell Garza and Mehta to keep watch in the hall.

  The sucking sounds grew louder, and the moaning stopped. Parsons waited behind him, and Jed could feel the fear radiating off the kid. He put his hand back, pressing on Parsons’s chest.

  “Hang back,” he whispered.

  Jed paced forward one step, then two. He waited. The noises continued, so he moved again, slow and sure. One step, then two. He pivoted to his right, aiming down the last aisle between the shelves and the garage wall. A shadowy form, like a lump, sat beside the door, hunched over something else.

  Jed took aim, fired once, then twice. He sent one more round in to be sure the thing was dead. Then he called his squad forward.

  “Close the door into the house. Barricade it and then we’ll get lights on so we can see what we’re dealing with.”

  Keoh was behind him and flicked her red lens on. “Glad it was him,” she said.

  Jed turned his light on and looked at the body. It was the Petty Officer who couldn’t keep his eyes off Keoh and McKitrick. The monster had chewed a hole in his chest.

  “Where’s the sucker face?” he asked, roving the floor with his light. A trail of blood marked a path toward the front of the garage.

  “Shit, it’s still alive!”

  Screams erupted from one aisle over, then a rattle of gunfire that impacted on the garage ceiling. Jed raced around the shelves. “It’s on Parsons!” he yelled as he rounded the shelving. His light revealed a monster wrapped around Parsons’s neck, with its face buried into his collar. The private’s body slumped against the shelving, then slid down to the floor. Jed followed the monster’s movement down, firing as he tracked it. He saw it jerk with the shots until it fell away from Parsons and lay still in the growing pool of blood.

  Jed roared his anger. The others were there now. Someone was checking Parsons, but Jed knew he’d fucked up. He’d failed Parsons, letting him hang behind as he stalked forward on his own. He’d forgotten his training and his battle sense, and Parsons was dead because of it.

  “He’s gone,” Garza said.

  Keoh or McKitrick said something then, and everyone had their lights on, scanning the shelves, top to bottom, checking for more of the things.

  Jed was too angry to focus. He stalked back to the sailor’s body. He wanted to kick him in the teeth, to let out his rage at having been led into this place by the man’s dying moans. He’d been a useless pogue, just an idiot in a uniform, and now Jed had lost a man because he thought the idiot was worth saving from the monsters.

  “Sergeant?” Keoh said. “I’m sorry.”

  Jed turned to see her standing behind him, a look of shame on her face.

  “What for?”

  “I should’ve checked on Parsons, made sure he was good. I pushed by him after I heard you shoot. I wanted to see if this dude was dead, and—”

  Jed was in her face in a flash. “Listen up. I’m the reason he’s dead. Me. Not you. Not even him. I fucked up.”

  She nodded, and Jed let that be enough. Maybe she didn’t believe it yet, and maybe she never would. But the monsters were still attacking the neighborhood out there, and Jed still had four people counting on him.

  “Mehta, can you get Parsons’ tags and ammo?” he asked.

  “Rah, Sergeant. And his grenade.”

  “Grab the radio, too. Just swap packs. Move whatever you need from yours. Make it quick.”

  Mehta mumbled Errr, and set to work.

  “Rest of y’all, grab whatever chow and water you can. See what Mercer was hoarding in here.”

  “I’ma ratfuck his whole MRE stash,” Garza said.

  “Just get what you can carry. We’re safe inside for now, but we can’t stay in here. Gear up, then we move out. There’s people outside who need help.”

  “Sergeant,” McKitrick said. “I think Mercer’s people lost. Can’t you hear them?”

  “Who?” Jed asked. He gave his attention to the world outside the garage for the first time since he let Parsons die. The gunfire had slowed down. A few cracks and short bursts came across the night before going silent. The snarling and screeching remained, and sounded like it came from every house in the area. The only thing Jed didn’t hear anymore was human screaming.

  “They’re all dead, Sergeant,” McKitrick said. “We go out there, it’ll be the same for us.”

  Jed went back to where Parsons was lying. The sucker face was there, curled up in death. He kicked it to turn it over and slapped a hand over his mouth. The thing looked almost exactly like a pitbull until you got to its head. The face was longer than a pit’s, and the mouth had needle teeth all along the jaw line, and sticking out around the muzzle. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth like a dead snake.

  A loud thump on the roof snapped everyone’s attention upward. Jed aimed and was about to fire when a second thump sounded. A third followed, and then a swarm of them came, bumping and scrabbling across the rooftop.

  A shrill whistle echoed across the night and Jed felt his stomach turn.

  “What the hell was that?” Garza asked.

  The whistling continued, and Jed could swear he heard men’s voices calling in the night.

  “C’mon now! Time to go!”

  “Good dog!”

  “C’mon now, boys! C’mon!”

  The thumping on the roof became a din of skittering and scraping claws. Soon, the entire neighborhood echoed with the cries and braying of predators on the hunt.

  Jed looked at his people, one at a time, meeting their eyes. He saw in their faces everything he felt in his own chest: the resolve he’d come to expect, but not without a measure of fear.

  Mehta wiped a tear from his cheek. “Sergeant, what the fuck did we just hear?”

  “Something that shouldn’t be real. Something crazy,” Jed said.

  “There’s people working with those things,” Keoh said. “People!”

  “I know!” Jed hollered. “I seen it in New York. Makes sense that’s not the only place that had collaborators. But this is different. In New York, the Variants were the masters. Shoe’s on the other foot in Texas, I guess.”

  “We’re so fucked,” Garza said.

  “We are not,” Jed shot back. “We shelter in place. Use the gear in here to harden things up. If they find us, we give ’em hell until there’s nothing left to give. If they don’t, we leave in the morning. Let’s move Parsons and the other ones inside if we can.”

  With nods and quiet grunts of agreement, his people went to work. Jed breached the door going into the house and confirmed the hall was clear. Then he went carefully inside and barricaded the front door with more furniture from the room with the television. He could still hear the monsters howling and snarling in the dark outside, but they were moving away.

  Jed went back to the garage and grabbed the dead sucker face by the hind legs. He flung it into the front room of the house. When he got back to the others, he helped Mehta move Parsons’ body inside. A door down the hall led to a master bedroom with an actual bed in it. They put Parsons there with his arms crossed over his rifle on his chest. On their way back to the garage, they ran into Keoh. She was hauling the dead sailor into the house by herself.

  Jed sent Mehta to the garage, to fortify their shelter. Then he helped Keoh carry the sailor into the bathtub.

  They joined the others and worked as fast as they could to barricade the main garage door, side door, and the door back to the house. They left that one the easiest to breach, in case they needed to retreat inside.

  By the time they’d finished, they had stacked bags of concrete around the smaller doors. The shelves were moved to prevent access through the side door and main door.

  “Two on watch at a time. Two hours,” Jed said. “McKitrick, Garza; you’re first. Wake up Keoh and me next.”

  His Marines acknowledged the order with muffled Errs
.

  The center of the floor was empty except for the puddle of Parsons’ blood. Jed opened a sack of concrete and spread it over the mess. Then he lay down beside it, and did his best to let sleep take him from this place and its horrors.

  — 15 —

  As the monster came down at them, Emily pushed herself backwards with her legs, still holding her wounded arm. Angie’s arm moved upward, and Emily saw the monster wrap its claws around Angie’s hand as it bit at her face. The girl fell onto her back, and the monster followed her to the floor. They landed with a crash in front of the fireplace, then both figures lay motionless.

  Danitha was behind Emily, but came forward now. “Is it dead? Is she dead?”

  “No,” Angie’s shaking voice answered. “But I’m hurt. Get it off me. Please.”

  Emily moved off the mattress and shuffled on her knees to where Angie lay beneath the dead monster.

  “Help me, Dani,” she said, slowly reaching with her good arm to grab the creature. Touching its skin made her recoil, but she steeled herself and got a grip around its neck.

  “Just pull it off,” Angie said. “Fast. Please.”

  With a jerk, Emily yanked the thing away from Angie, and the girl’s scream pierced her heart. Her knife was stuck in the monster’s chest up to the hilt. She’d killed it, but two thick cuts marked her shoulder where its claws had sunk in. Blood jetted and poured from the wound. Her hand and wrist were cut up, too, but her shoulder got the worst of it. Emily put her good hand over the wounds, but the blood kept coming, and she knew they couldn’t help Angie.

  “Make a sling,” Angie said, her voice growing weaker and shaking. “For your arm—use the curtains. Front room by the…”

  Danitha came over and took the girl’s hand in her own. Emily pressed harder with her hand, even though she knew it was futile. “Mija, no, you stay with us. Stay here. You helped us. We will help you.”

  “Look for traps,” Angie said. “Next to cars. Usually on the driver side.”

  “What traps, Angela? What do you mean?”

  “Militia…traps cars that have gas in ’em. Catch people outside their wire. Find a trapped car…find a ride. Get on… Galveston.”

  Angie’s eyes rolled up and she shook for a moment before she stopped breathing.

  After some time spent sitting in the dark, over Angie’s body, Emily stood in a daze. She went to the dead monster and pulled Angie’s knife from its chest. She wiped the blade on its side, then walked into the front room and tried to slice enough fabric from the curtains to make a sling for her arm. Danitha came to help.

  “I ain’t hurt yet. Let me do it,” she said.

  Emily gave her the knife and went back to the mattresses to wait. She stared at Angie’s face, so peaceful and quiet in death. The girl had scared her when they’d met. Emily cursed herself for doubting Angie’s sincerity, for thinking that she would betray them.

  She had saved their lives, and ultimately gave her own life to do it.

  Danitha brought a strip of the curtains in and fashioned a sling to hold Emily’s arm against her chest. Moving her arm caused more pain than she thought possible. She felt her eyes close, and snapped awake to find herself lying on the mattress with her arm in agony.

  “Dani, I can’t do this. My arm is broken.”

  “My turn to push us, I guess,” Danitha said. “Ain’t a question of can or can’t, Professor. Just a question of do or don’t. C’mon and let’s get going.”

  Emily opened her mouth to speak, but held back. She had words she wanted to say. And none of them felt good. Nothing that found its way to her tongue would be helpful now, so she simply nodded her agreement.

  “Okay, Professor. Let’s see about what she was saying. How the militia guys who came here must’ve had a car. And if they don’t, then we go looking for cars with traps, just like she said.”

  Emily hesitated, wanting to do nothing but scream at the world.

  “C’mon now. Don’t be wasting Angie’s sacrifice. She gave herself, and we need to respect that.”

  “You—you’re right,” Emily finally said. Choking back tears and anger, she let her arm rest in the sling Dani had made. There would be time to grieve and mourn. Time to cry, and time to scream at God.

  Danitha picked up both of Angie’s guns. She held the pistol out to Emily, who took it and slid it into her coat pocket. Danitha held the rifle in both hands, just like Angie had done. She led the way out of the house, going through the rooms Angie had been in when the shooting happened. They moved slowly and carefully, with Danitha looked at every piece of floor she stepped on in case one of Angie’s traps were there.

  Outside, the sky hung above them like a shroud. Emily could make out the boxy shapes of abandoned vehicles along the frontage road they’d taken to get here. Somewhere in the tangle of cars and trucks might be the militia vehicle. Or maybe the attackers had walked here, just like Emily and Danitha had done.

  All they had to do was get through Baytown and across the water to LaPorte. From there, they would follow the highway south to Texas City. Driving or walking, they would get there. She would see her brother again, and they would be safe.

  They stood in front of the house until the sun crawled high enough to illuminate the ground better. Three dark shapes lay in the pasture. Two near the edge closest to the house, and a third farther back, near the road. A black truck was parked beside the fence there.

  “See, that girl wasn’t lyin’,” Danitha said. “Militia brought our ride to us.”

  Emily had to fight to keep from falling to her knees. Her fatigue, and the pain of her injury threatened to overwhelm her with every step. But she kept on, trailing only a few feet behind Danitha as she went to each of the men Angie had killed. She stripped them of their ammunition first, then searched their pockets. She found the keys on the body closest to the road.

  “Bingo. Now we got a ride out of here,” she said.

  Emily looked at the dead man by her feet. His unshaven face was sprayed with blood from a wound high in his chest. Some of the blood had gotten into his eyes.

  She looked closer and nearly stumbled backwards as she reeled away from the dead Variant.

  “Dani—Dani, his eyes!”

  They were yellow, veined with blood. His lips bulged out just enough to remind Emily of the monsters that had eaten the world, but his teeth were still normal. Emily drew the gun from her coat and pointed it at the dead man’s face. She crouched and moved closer, so she could see his mouth better.

  Tiny needle-like teeth protruded from his gums, above his human teeth.

  Dani shivered and stepped away from the body. “Professor, what are they? Tell me they just dead men. Please.”

  “They are monsters, Dani. New ones.”

  She looked at the man’s body, examining it for more signs that he had been infected with the virus. His hands were still human, and his joints all seemed to be normal as well. She prodded his knee with the pistol, to see if it would click. The leg moved like a human leg. Emily stood up and staggered away from the corpse, still holding the gun aimed at its face. She noticed the man’s uniform then. He was dressed like Chava, in the same camouflage and boots. It could have been a militia creep who had stolen the uniform from a real Marine, but Emily couldn’t shake the feeling that she was looking at one of Chava’s brothers.

  “We gotta go, Professor,” Dani said. She’d moved away and was looking into the truck.

  Emily joined her and they climbed in. The engine was still warm. It fired right up when Danitha turned the key. She had them back on the main highway quickly, traveling south at a good speed, and only slowed down to avoid debris or vehicles that hadn’t been pushed off the road.

  “Tank is half full,” Danitha said. “That should get us to Galveston.”

  For the first time since they had escaped, Emily felt a dread that their plan was going to be all for nothing. If the dead men had all been Marines, and they were all infected, would her brother be also? Wo
uld she see him again, and would they be safe with him on Galveston? Or would they be going into a trap where her own brother would try to kill her?

  She was still thinking this when Danitha muttered a curse.

  “Headlights on the road behind us,” she said.

  “Dani, step on it. Get us out of here.”

  Danitha stomped down on the gas and the truck surged forward. Emily gripped the dashboard and braced herself with her feet against the floor. They flew past cars and trucks smashed together along the shoulder. Emily kept looking over her shoulder then back to the road ahead. The lights behind them were getting closer.

  Then Danitha shrieked and the truck swerved. Emily spun back to face the windshield in time to see a van burst from a tangle of wrecked cars on the shoulder. A truck with a push bar on the grill shot out from the other side of the road. Danitha slammed on the brakes and Emily only had time to scream before they were struck and she rocked forward. She was slammed back into the seat by a third impact from behind.

  Men climbed out of the vehicles with guns aimed at them.

  One shouted, “Get your hands where we can see ’em! You do anything else, you’re dead!”

  — 16 —

  Jed let Keoh rack out after their guard shift. He thought about waking up Mehta and pulling the last shift with him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he sat up by himself staring at the garage door and daring any of the monsters or the men outside to try getting in. They were still out there, calling their dogs and whistling. The snarls and barks had turned to whines.

  After a while, the monsters and their masters were gone. Everything was silent except for Keoh’s and Mehta’s soft snoring, and Jed’s groaning stomach. He should eat, but couldn’t imagine doing it. His mind and body only had the energy to sit in the cold stillness.