Dark Days (Book 1): The Collapse

by Davis, James

  "Alright, I guess I'm going next," Clay said taking a few breaths and preparing to make the mad dash to join Chris. He stepped into the clearing and immediately backpedaled into cover as several shots struck the ground in front of him sending dirt and grass flying up into his face.

  "Jesus Christ, I need new pants after that one!" Clay exclaimed

  Hank chuckled.

  "Give me some cover, I'm gonna go pay them a visit." Clay nodded and stepped out from his cover and began firing as Hank disappeared deeper into the woods. Hank moved silently from one tree to the next as his brothers exchanged fire with the intruders. He could see a dark haired man, with a five o'clock shadow standing next to a tall, slim blonde unleashing round after round into the clearing. His pace slowed as he drew near and crept toward the pair, hoping to keep the element of surprise. Hank covered the last ten yards in full charge, lowering his shoulder and plowing into the woman's back sending her careening to the ground several feet in front of her. As she tumbled to the ground her rifle flew from her grasp and landed a few feet outside of the tree line.

  Hank straightened up and turned to face the second attacker. He frantically scanned the woods for the man. Before he could see his new target, his air supply was suddenly cut off as an arm wrapped around his neck. Hank shoved himself backwards with all of his weight slamming his attacker into a tree behind him, he stepped forward and slammed backwards again as the arm tightened around his neck. He stepped forward and once more slammed as hard as he could manage backwards. This time the arm released its grip. Gasping for breath, he reached for his weapon. Before he could grasp it, a fist slammed into the side of his head, then another, and another.

  He spun around and charged the man, grabbing his waist and tackling him to the ground. Hank hit him hard in the chest and then began landing blow after blow to his face. The intruder got his foot between them and shoved hard sending Hank stumbling backwards, as he scrambled to his feet and quickly retrieving a black switchblade from his pocket. The man pressed a button and the blade shot up, he spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground and charged.

  Hank regained his footing just in time to sidestep the incoming attack, suffering only a minor cut to his bicep. He pulled his own Bowie from its sheath and stepped in quick, plunging it deep into the man's gut. He felt a stinging sensation in his left eye as the switchblade made a shallow slice across his brow. He pulled his own knife from the man's belly and thrust upward, jamming it to the hilt into the man's neck. He gave the knife a twist and yanked, blood began to spill from the hole as the man’s mouth fell open and his eyes snapped shut before his lifeless corpse fell to the ground.

  He bent down and wiped his blade on the man's shirt and returned it to its sheath. He turned to see the woman running full speed deeper into the woods. Drawing his pistol, he emptied the clip in the direction of the woman. He cursed and reloaded his pistol as the woman disappeared into the woods. He began to jog back towards Clay, holstering his pistol as he moved.

  "It's me." Hank called as he reached the spot where he had left Clay.

  "Over here," Clay called back. Clay was seated next to a large tree wrapping a blood-soaked cloth around his right calf.

  "Shit, you ok?" Hank asked kneeling down to inspect his brother's wound.

  "Sons of bitches put one in my leg" Clay replied through gritted teeth as Hank pulled the cloth tight and finish tying it off.

  "Looks like it went in and out clean, let’s get you back underground and get that properly looked at." Hank said straightening up and extending his arm down to help Clay to his feet. Clay took his hand and pulled himself up with a grunt, throwing his right arm around Hank's neck for support. The two men emerged from the woods and slowly made their way across the field. Chris saw the men and lowered his rifle. Running toward the two he slipped underneath Clay's other arm.

  "The hell happened to you? Did we get em all?" Chris asked.

  "Took one in the leg, hurts like hell." Clay replied, wincing with every jostle he sustained.

  "The woman escaped, but I don't think she'll be back. I think we got everyone else." Hank added.

  "Let's just get him inside and fixed up, we can search for her later.” Chris nodded and moved to the shed, entering the pin and holding the door open as Hank helped Clay through. He entered a second pin and lifted the hatch. Hank climbed down first and Chris helped Clay into the hatch. Just as Chris turned to close the door, something round and green sailed past his face and neatly fell into the open hatch. He looked around confused before hearing Hank shout from below.

  "Grenade!"

  Chapter 11

  Chris had turned back to see who had tossed the grenade when a large hairy fist slammed into the side of his face. The hit was hard, dazing him and causing him to stumble. He shook the hit off just in time to keep himself from following the grenade through the open hatch. He turned to see a man with a large scar on one side of his face charging toward him. He reached down for his pistol, but the man was on him in a flash. They smashed through the wall of the shed and hit the ground hard just as a loud explosion sounded from underneath them.

  The ground shook and started to cave in all around them. Chris jumped to his feet and dove away from the large hole that was quickly forming in the ground around the shed. His attacker wasn't so lucky. The earth swallowed the man up like a demon had been summoned to drag him straight to Hell. Chris sat there staring at the large hole, a shocked expression covered his face as the probable demise of his family dawned upon him. He got to his feet and bolted to the edge of the hole. He could not let his family die like this. He had to save them.

  Chris jumped over the edge, lost his footing, and slid to the bottom of the hole. As he got to his knees, he began digging frantically with his bare hands, dirt flying through the air at an impressive rate. Chris dug for what seemed like hours before a light chuff sounded from behind causing him turn to see Sarge and Bella slowly coming down into the hole. When they made it to Chris, Sarge licked the side of his face and immediately started helping Chris dig. Bella joined soon after and together they were moving a massive amount of dirt.

  Chris dug another hand into the dirt and started to pull it free when a hairy knuckled hand shot up out of the ground underneath him and latched onto his throat. Chris yelped as the scarred man rose out of the dirt like a zombie in a bad movie. Choking noises escaped Chris’ mouth as the man squeezed, the force almost enough to collapse his airway. The man had his right hand gripping Chris’ throat and his left holding him in place by the back of his neck. Chris frantically searched for a weapon, any weapon to get this madman off of him, but came up with nothing.

  His vision started to fade from the lack of oxygen reaching his brain, but before Chris was completely unconscious, the pressure suddenly released from his throat and air surged into his lungs. Screams mixed with the growls and snarls of an animal sounded from his left, and he turned just in time to see Bella’s massive jaws clamped down on the man’s forearm. She was shaking her head back and forth, tearing and ripping at the man’s flesh with vicious intent. Sarge slammed into the man next, clamping his own powerful jaws around the back of the man’s neck. Chris had never seen such brutal ferocity from Sarge and Bella until now.

  The man was still alive and screaming as Sarge continued to bite and shake the man’s neck violently. Chris lowered his head, having no interest in seeing the two dogs rip the man apart. The screams stopped suddenly and Chris looked up to see Sarge rip the man’s throat from his body. Blood spurted from the large wound in a bright red pulsing stream. The man fell still and the dogs released him. They were both covered in blood as they made their way over to Chris and sat beside him.

  “Thank you for saving my ass guys. You two are damn fine dogs!” Chris managed to croak out as he got to his feet and climbed out of the hole. He turned around and peered down into the void, making sure to keep quiet, so he could hear if anyone down there was still alive. He waited and listened for what seemed like hours but he
ard nothing. No screams of pain, or for help. He tried digging them out with his bare hands but it was a futile attempt at best. Chris sank to his knees and started to sob. His entire family was now dead and there was not a damn thing he could do to stop it.

  Sarge and Bella came over and sat next to him, licking his face. "I'm sorry guys, I couldn't save them." Chris said in between sobs. Sarge's ears perked up signaling Chris that he had heard something coming from the woods and took off running, Bella not far behind. Chris' hand shot to his pistol as he stood and spun around in the direction the two dogs had taken off in. Chris ran as fast as he could, trying to catch up with the dogs but it was no use. They were just too fast for him to keep up with. Chris stopped running and put his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He could hear Sarge barking non-stop off in the distance.

  He took a few long deep breaths before taking off in the direction Sarge’s barks were coming from. When he finally reached them they were laying down next to a large steel box that had a thick padlock attached to it. As Chris got closer to the box he could hear the muffled sounds of a child crying.

  "It's ok, I'm going to get you out of there! Hang on!" Chris shouted as he started slamming the butt of his pistol into the lock.

  *****

  Hank wobbled as he got to his feet, his ears ringing, his head pounding, and just about every part of his body screaming in pain.

  "You ok?" he asked, extending his arm downward toward his brother.

  "Hell no!" he replied, accepting Hank’s outstretched arm and pulling himself up, "is everyone else okay?"

  "They're fine, they made it into the bedroom before the charge detonated." Hank replied as he and Clay limped toward the back of the bunker.

  "Chris?" Clay asked

  "I don't know, he was up top right before the blast. Let's get out of here through the emergency exit and see if we can find him."

  Ashley gasped as her husband entered the door supported by Hank

  "Oh my god, are you okay?" she demanded, rushing to his side.

  "He's fine." Hank said.

  "Fine? This is fine to you? He's bleeding and you're carrying him like a sack of potatoes!" Ashley yelled.

  "You call this fine Hank? He is clearly not fine!" Karen said, joining the assault.

  "I'll be fine." Clay assured them.

  "Let's just get out of here." Hank said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He grabbed the bed and quickly pushed it to the side. Kneeling down, he carefully removed the wood panel revealing an opening. Ashley helped Clay through the opening followed by Karen and the two children. Hank went through last, carefully replacing the panel from the inside.

  "Where's Chris?" Karen asked as they made their way down a long dark tunnel.

  Hank shrugged,

  "He was up top when the grenade blew, we gotta get out of here and get to him." The group reached the end of the long tunnel and stood at the bottom of a ladder.

  “I'll go up first and make sure it's clear. I'll call down when it's safe.” Hank offered. Clay nodded as Hank climbed the ladder.

  “It's locked from the outside,” Hank said stepping off of the ladder.

  “Someone just had to have a lock on the outside of an escape hatch.” Clay barked.

  “Shut up, what good is an escape hatch if anyone can come in willy nilly. That's what you call a back door.” Hank shot back with venom in his voice.

  “What good is an escape hatch if you can't escape, dumbass? That's what you call a shitty idea.” Clay argued back, making a pretty good point. Emma began to cry, sensing the tension brewing between the men.

  "Stop arguing, you're scaring the kids." Karen scolded.

  "Can you try to shoot if off?" Ashley asked.

  The sound of clanging metal echoed throughout the narrow halls, as Hank lifted his rifle, motioning for the rest of the group to back away.

  *****

  Jeff and Randy were up early hunting as usual. They were after small game on this trip. They had enough deer meat in their freezers to feed a small army and they wanted to stock up on rabbit and squirrel so that they would have more of a selection come meal time. Several hours later they climbed down from their horses to continue on foot. They hadn’t made it fifty yards when an explosion made the ground tremble beneath their feet.

  “What the hell was that?” Jeff exclaimed as he dropped to a knee and began scanning the area with his scope.

  “Sounded like a grenade, but it was too quiet to be unless someone set it off underground.” Randy replied. Jeff continued to scan the area until he caught movement from the corner of his eye.

  “Got one ahead, eleven o clock.” Jeff stated as he followed the newcomer with his sights.

  “Come on, let’s move in closer.” Randy murmured. Jeff got to his feet and followed. A few minutes later they were close enough to hear the man's voice. He looked like he just came out of a war zone.

  “Damn, I wonder what happened to that sorry bastard?” Jeff said with an incredulous look on his face. Randy shrugged, “Stay here and be my overwatch. I’m going to try and take him by surprise. Don’t shoot unless he is clearly trying to kill me.” Randy said in a low whisper as he inched his way closer to the tree line. The man was beating on a large green steel box and two massive dogs sat off to the side of the man while he worked. Randy looked back at Jeff and said in the lowest voice he could manage.

  “Watch those damn dogs. If they try anything put them down immediately.” Jeff nodded once and peered back through the scope. Randy started forward again, then stopped when he noticed the man and both dogs were now gone. He turned back to Jeff to ask if he saw where the man had gone, but now Jeff was nowhere in sight. Randy froze. There was a chance the man hadn’t spotted him yet and he had no intention of letting that happen if he could help it.

  The sound of a twig snapping behind him caught his attention. Before he could even turn his head, a gun barrel was pressed firmly to the back of his head. “Get up.” The man said as he backed away to give Randy room to get to his feet. Before he could stand all the way up an enormous mastiff trotted up to him and licked his forehead with its gigantic tongue.

  “Where’s my brother?” Randy asked. The man took a few steps back next to a large oak tree and pulled Jeff out from behind it. Randy noticed that the man had zip tied Jeff’s hands together. He walked Jeff over to Randy and pulled out a knife to cut the zip tie from Jeff’s wrists.

  “Why were you trying to sneak up on me?” Chris asked as he closed the knife and stuffed it back in his pocket.

  “Actually we were coming to see what blew up. We saw you and thought you might be up to no good, so we decided to sneak up and grab you to get some answers.” Chris shook his head,

  “You two are lucky you’re not both on the ground bleeding out right now. I just about killed you guys.” Jeff and Randy gulped in response, realizing just how lucky they were to still be alive.

  “So why didn’t you?” they asked at the same time.

  “Look if you guys want to keep playing twenty questions we’re going to have to do it over here. My family is stuck down in that hatch and I don’t know if they’re ok or not. I need to get them out of there,” The man said, walking over to the green box he had been beating on earlier. Jeff and Randy followed him over and watched as he started beating on the box again.

  “What’s your name?” Jeff shouted over the loud banging. The man stopped his assault on the box and turned around to face them again

  “Chris Mitchell.” he said, sticking a hand out to the two men. Randy grabbed his hand and introduced himself and his brother,

  “I’m Randy, and this is my little brother Jeff. Do you need some help getting that lock off? Jeff here can pick just about any lock.” Randy said. Chris’ eyes got wide,

  “Yeah do it! Why the hell didn’t you just start with that?” Chris asked.

  “Sorry.” Jeff shrugged with a sheepish look on his face. He walked over to the box and pulled a small leather pack out of his back pocke
t. The pack had all the tools one would need to open most locks. Jeff took a knee and started working the tools inside the lock. Less than a minute later Jeff pulled the lock free, “Done.”

  Chris walked over and threw the door open and peered down inside to see a gun aimed right at him.

  “Hank it’s me, Chris! Don’t shoot!” Chris shouted as he ducked out of the way.

  “Get your ass down here and help me get Clay!” Hank shouted as he set the rifle down. Chris bounded down the short ladder. When he got to the bottom, Hank grabbed him in a strong embrace.

  “We weren't sure if you were dead or not, little brother. It’s damn good to see you!” Hank said, squeezing Chris like a boa constrictor.

  “It’s good to see you too, bro. I thought that bastard got all of you with that grenade.” Chris replied.

  “It would take a lot more than a pansy ass grenade to kill the Mitchell clan.” Hank said.

  “You know, the rest of us would like to get the hell out of here if you two are done jerking each other off.” Clay said with a pained smile. That got him a one-fingered salute from his two brothers before they helped him to the ladder. Ashley and Karen were the first ones out of the bunker, followed by the kids. Jeff and Randy helped them get out then they did what they could to help Hank and Chris lift Clay’s large frame out of the hatch. Once they were all above ground, Hank looked at Chris and asked.

  “Did you kill that son of a bitch that did this?”

  “You can bet your sweet ass I did.” Chris said with a devilish grin before telling Hank everything that happened. Hank just shook his head, not saying a word as he listened to his brother.

  “Jeff, get Pop on the radio. Tell him to hook the horse trailer to the tractor and come out here to get us,” Randy said as he pointed at his brother.

  “Y’all just come out to the house till we can sort this mess out.” Jeff said, as he got up to use the radio. A couple of hours later they could hear Dub’s tractor chugging through the forest.