State of | Book 2 | State of Ruin

by Martinez, P. S.

  He was missing balance, yet no one would argue that these kids now had a fighting chance of making it.

  “Survivors!” Warren bellowed out, rousing the baby out of her sleep.

  “Yes, Sir?” the children chimed in unison.

  “What is the first thing all survivors must learn to do?”

  “We must learn to forage, to take what we need. We loot!” they chorused perfectly.

  “And what is the second thing survivors must learn to do?”

  “We must learn to fight, to wield a knife. We shoot!”

  “And what is the final thing all survivors must learn to do?”

  “We must run, we must move, we keep going. We scoot!” they shouted.

  “One more time!” Warren commanded, his booming voice bouncing around the gymnasium.

  “We LOOT! We SHOOT! We SCOOT!”

  “Who are we?” Warren roared.

  “Survivors ‘til the end!” the children chanted.

  I stood there in awe and horror. A child army of survivors, indeed.

  “Warren?” Nick chimed up from across the room. I narrowed my eyes at the boy. Of all the living I’d come in contact with over the past two years, Nick had to be one of the worst for making my skin crawl.

  “Yes, Nick?”

  “Will is ready,” he said with a sure spark of excitement. An excited Nick made me nervous.

  “Oh, good. Let’s see him off then, shall we?” Warren said, walking toward the back of the gym. Once we started moving, the kids in the line began dispersing, but a large group of them followed in the direction where we were going.

  Near the back exit there stood Carter, the teen girl from the lunchroom, and a young boy.

  Nick handed Warren a backpack. Warren opened up the bag and inspected the contents. He nodded and then handed it over to Carter, who helped secure it on the little boy’s back.

  “What’s going on?” Maria asked.

  “Tonight, Will here is going through his final phase of testing,” Warren said over his shoulder.

  My stomach immediately knotted. This wasn’t going to be good.

  Maria shifted on her feet and the baby stared over her shoulder and up at me.

  Not thinking, I held my finger out to her.

  She immediately wrapped her chubby little fingers around it and smiled.

  “Each child who comes into the camp goes through a lot of different exercises to better prepare them to take care of themselves in the dead-infested world. Then they go through three phases of testing, with the final phase being the most rigorous.”

  Every word Warren uttered began to make me more and more uneasy.

  “And the final phase is?” I asked, not really wanting to hear it, yet needing to know despite myself.

  “We give the child a bag filled with a few necessary items. Water, a little food, matches, and a knife. Three days prior we pick a location and stash a bag of loot, usually a new weapon, a pack of rare goodies, etc., there.”

  Warren was checking over the boy, looking at the weapon he carried, making sure everything looked ship-shape.

  “Then, when they feel they are ready, we send them out alone one night to retrieve the pack and bring it back to camp.”

  Holy shit, I thought, but then I heard kids nearby me snicker.

  It took me a moment to realize Maria had said exactly what I’d thought out loud.

  “How long does it usually take them to do this?” I asked.

  Warren shrugged.

  “Sometimes a day, sometimes up to three,” he said.

  “What do you do if they don’t make it back?” Maria asked, watching the little boy prepare to head out into the zombie infested dark alone with only a knife and a small bag of supplies.

  Warren shrugged again.

  “You don’t go out looking for them?” she asked.

  Carter shifted on his feet and the teenage girl near him wouldn’t look us in the eye.

  They both looked a little uncomfortable.

  “No. If they can’t make it to the loot and then back without getting killed at this point, they’re as good as dead anyway,” Nick said harshly.

  Maria moved to argue. I put a hand on her shoulder.

  We weren’t here to liberate these kids, they were all there on their own accord, just like the people back at Camp Victory.

  Kids came by to pat little Will on the shoulder and to wish him good luck. Then he was led through the back door of the gymnasium by Carter and the teen girl, all of them swallowed up by the darkness before the door swung shut.

  “He’s going to do it. He’ll be fine,” a little voice said from nearby.

  I turned to the girl and saw her big, blue eyes riveted to the closed door.

  She was about ten years old, maybe a few years older than Will.

  “He has a good chance with all the training he’s received,” I agreed to soothe the anxiousness I saw in her gaze.

  “He will be,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “My little brother is tough,” she added softly to herself.

  Maria sucked in a breath through her teeth. The little girl’s eyes raised to mine and Maria’s.

  “If he doesn’t make it back, then he isn’t a survivor and he never would’ve made it in this world anyway,” she said vehemently and then walked away.

  Warren started moving back toward the front of the gym and we fell in step behind him. After only a few minutes, I knew where we were headed.

  “Here we are,” he said after stopping outside of the door of the room we’d been held in earlier that day.

  “So, when were we supposed to discuss whatever it is you want us to help you with?” I asked impatiently.

  “And if we decide to help you, will you let us go free?” Maria added in.

  “We’ll talk about that tomorrow, Tex. And yes, you will be allowed to go ,” he said to Maria.

  Maria entered the little room first and we found two mattresses and fresh linens waiting for us. Rose was cooing, rubbing her eyes, so I imagined she’d be getting tired soon. It looked like we were going to have to bed down in the cell for the night.

  “We’ll talk tomorrow,” Warren said as the door was shut and secured with locks.

  “Yes we will,” I muttered to no one in particular.

  “At least we have the night to think everything through,” Maria said, sensing my darkening mood. “I don’t think he means to kill us,” she said optimistically. I walked over and helped her get the mattresses covered so Rose could play until she wore herself out.

  “I don’t think he does either,” I said, mostly to reassure Maria, to let her sleep somewhat peacefully for one more night. I knew, however, Warren was up to something.

  Two more people wouldn’t make that much of a difference in taking over an overrun school. Warren didn’t want us dead… not yet at least, but he definitely didn’t just want an extra set of hands for a day.

  He had something up his sleeve, and I was very sure we weren’t going to like it.

  “We should get some rest,” I said to Maria.

  She lay down on her mattress, pulling Rose over to play in the circle of her body.

  Rose jabbered softly, chewing on the ear of her stuffed elephant. I lay down on my mattress and pulled my hat down over my eyes.

  “I hope that little boy makes it back safely,” Maria whispered into the tiny room.

  “So do I, sweetheart, so do I.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Welcome to the New World

  “We don’t know much beyond what has been told to us at this point,” Captain Parsons told the crowd gathered around him.

  “What we do know is that the virus is spreading rapidly, it is killing fast, and it is allowing the dead to reanimate.”

  We’d been hearing talk all day.

  Some said that the outbreak that had happened over the past twenty-four hours was multiplying out of control. Some said the end of the world was here, others that it was just a scare tactic to
keep everyone quarantined so we could keep our world leaders safe until it all blew over. I didn’t know what to think.

  All I knew was that when I’d tried to leave an hour ago armed soldiers were telling everyone no one was permitted to leave and that we were to remain at the base per official orders. That made me extremely nervous. Military didn’t quarantine their own unless some serious shit was going down.

  All I could think was that I needed to get out and to get to my wife.

  “Reanimate? What does that even mean?” a soldier braved to ask, speaking out even though it was against protocol.

  Captain Parsons looked out at us, clearly trying to decide how much to let us know. I wondered how much he was even allowed to let us know. That uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach tripled.

  “The dead are coming back to life, killing and… eating the living,” he said gruffly. A cry went up throughout the room.

  “Why aren’t we being allowed to leave?” someone else asked over the murmurs.

  “We are under orders directly from the President to keep all military personnel that are currently on base under quarantine. No one leaves and no one enters.”

  “What about our families?”

  “What about the soldiers off base?”

  Everyone was hurling questions, but I only had one.

  “Captain,” I said loudly, capturing my commanding officer’s attention.

  “How bad is it here in Charlotte?”

  The crowd hushed, waiting for the Captain’s answer.

  “The city is already overrun,” he said loudly. Gasps and cries echoed in the building followed by horrified silence.

  “People are panicking, city streets are clogged, and the dead— the infected— are multiplying faster than anything the CDC has ever seen before.”

  “Surely we’ll get this under control,” Sergio suggested from beside me.

  “Surely we have protocol for this type of thing.”

  I watched Parsons’ face and realized the truth before he even spoke it.

  “All protocol we have in place doesn’t come close to being prepared to deal with something like this.”

  I knew better. I knew what it was he wasn’t saying.

  The only protocols we’ve ever had as a nation, as the human race, was very simple: Drop bombs, wipe out the threat, even if it means the lives of innocents have to be lost in the process.

  The very fact that after only twenty-four hours of an outbreak all military were on lockdown instead of gearing up to face the threat was a clue. The military weren’t going to try to contain the spreading virus, they were going to try to burn it and everything it might have come in contact with, living or dead, away.

  “What do we do now?” Sergio asked.

  “We wait. We work. And we pray.”

  With that, the captain held the mini microphone out to his second in command.

  “We need everyone who has been off base in the past twenty-four hours to go with us. Anyone who has been on leave, had physical contact with anyone off base, or might have been in direct contact with anyone who may have been sick or showing signs of illness, please report to the medical wing of the base right now.”

  Several soldiers started heading out of the room toward the medical wing. I felt an itch at the base of my skull. I needed to get home. There was nothing I could do here.

  They weren’t sending us out to face the threat, they were only keeping us here to make sure we didn’t contract whatever it was that was spreading.

  Fucking dead coming back to life and killing people?

  I was suddenly living in a George Romero flick and it wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been. Real life rarely lived up to Hollywood hype.

  Sergio was agitated, and I mean more agitated than usual. I’d known him since I’d joined the Army, since that first day in basic when I thought I was going to die from the pressure and the physical stress we were under.

  Sergio was always hyperactive. Constantly moving, constantly going and fidgeting. At first I wanted to knock him out and make him relax a little. His edginess made me edgy, and I was usually a laid back sort of guy.

  But I’d grown used to it.

  He was out of control agitated right then though.

  “Hey, man. You okay?” I asked when we entered our assigned bunks.

  Sergio didn’t even act like he’d heard me.

  “Yo, Sergio.” I whistled loudly, trying to snap him out of his little quivering bubble of energy. He jumped, startled by the sound of my voice.

  “Yeah? What?” he snapped.

  “You okay? It’s going to be alright, you know that, right?” I asked.

  Sergio’s eyes weren’t really focused, but he nodded anyway.

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “You going to head to the medical wing?”

  “What?” Sergio asked, his eyes wide.

  “You were off base yesterday. You going to medical now?” I asked, raising a brow.

  Even for Sergio, this was a little crazy. Dude needed to calm down. We couldn’t do anything until they opened up the doors for us. Nothing except sit and wait and hope, just like the captain said.

  Sergio sat in a chair a few feet away and ran a hand back and forth on his closely-shaven head. His knee bobbed up and down, a nervous tic I’d gotten used to after a while.

  “I’ll go in the morning,” he said after a minute.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.

  “They seemed to want everyone to go right away.”

  Sergio relaxed back in the chair and shrugged. His knee stopped bouncing.

  “They’ll be busy all night with all the people who headed there right now. I’ll get there in the morning and I’ll still probably have to wait,” he said, looking up at his bunk.

  “I just need some rest,” he added softly, almost to himself.

  Made sense. The medical wing was going to be a madhouse.

  “Alright. I’m bushed. Let’s call it a night. I’m sure there will be more news in the morning. And we both know how early morning starts around here,” I said.

  Sergio didn’t answer.

  He just sat there staring at his hands. I lay there a long time thinking of my wife and the house she was in… her parents’ house. How many windows were there? Was it close to a main city street? Were the neighbors dangerous if there was chaos surrounding them?

  Of course they were. Everyone was dangerous if they were trying to survive. Everyone was in danger. No matter what, I had to get to her the next morning.

  A long time later I fell into a restless sleep.

  Moaning, I turned over and put a pillow over my face.

  Sergio must be dreaming. He talked in his sleep sometimes. Even when he was supposed to be asleep, the bastard was moving and talking.

  I kicked the bed above me.

  “Shut it, Sergio,” I snapped.

  I needed some rest. I needed to be clear headed for whatever was going to happen later in the day. A deep gurgle bubbled out of Sergio’s throat and I froze where I lay.

  That didn’t sound right.

  Sounded like he might be ill. If he was, I needed to get him to the medical wing.

  “Hey. You okay, Sergio?”

  Sergio didn’t answer, only more gurgling and raspy breathing. I sat up and pushed my sheets back, right as Sergio fell from the top bunk.

  The loud THUD was followed by more sounds that I’d never thought I’d hear.

  Something of a mix of the death rattle and liquid insides all pushing forth from a deep hollowness of the body. The hairs on my arms stood on end. I ignored them and jumped out of bed to help Sergio free himself from the tangle of sheets and blankets that he was thrashing around in.

  The stench hit me about the time I registered how soaked the blankets were. Was that all sweat? Had he wet himself in the night? So many thoughts and questions slipped through my mind as I removed the last of the blankets.

  None of it mattered though.


  I needed to make sure Sergio was alright.

  Once free from the encumbrance of his bed clothes, Sergio lunged for me.

  “Sergio!” I shouted as he crashed into me, knocking me off my feet and onto the floor.

  A lamp, a laptop, everything on our desk went crashing to the floor along with us. Sergio was on top of me. I held him off with all of my strength, trying to keep him from wrapping his hand around my neck.

  His teeth were snapping and as he struggled to get free from my grip, he thrashed his head from side-to-side, liquid dribbled out of his mouth and landed on my chest.

  My arms tired rapidly, and still he pushed and lunged, trying to…was he trying to bite me?

  I reached a hand out frantically, searching for anything I could use against the crazed soldier on top of me. My hand finally found the smashed lamp. I wrapped my hand around the base, ignoring the broken glass cutting into my hand.

  I swung out, bringing the heavy metal base of the lamp against Sergio’s left temple. I didn’t want to kill him, just stun him. Get him off me until I could get help. The thwack of metal against his skull would have put a man of any size down, but it didn’t dislodge him.

  He didn’t even seem to notice that I’d hit him.

  It only enraged him more, making him try to step up his efforts to rip me apart.

  My next swing caught him in the exact same place, and the blow, much harder than the previous one, caught him just right and he stumbled back off me, stunned.

  I backpedaled on all fours until I hit the door to our room.

  Sergio was already getting back up and heading in my direction when I stood and reached for the handle. He was in front of me so fast all I could do was swing the broken lamp again. I threw the door open right as Sergio lunged a third time.

  I hit him with all my strength and heard the bones in his skull give way with a sickening crunch. And still he didn’t stay down.

  I stumbled out into the hallway, unaware that people were running in our direction. When Sergio made his fourth appearance, we were in the hallway and bathed in the fluorescent lighting.