Dead Last, Vol. 3

by Quaranta, Marc

  “I know! I’m sorry. I love you! Please, I love you!”

  “You love me? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I love you!”

  I walked over to her, but she aggressively shoved the gun in my direction and walked sideways further away.

  “Stop saying that!”

  “I’m sorry!”

  “We fucked! That’s it! You’re a psycho!”

  “It was more than that and you know it! I know you cared about me! I know you did!”

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Sarah.” I stopped trying to follow after her and dropped my hands to my side. I could only talk and hope she listen. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied to you and I’m sorry for the things that I’ve done. My past has caught up to me and it breaks my heart. The things I’ve done, the people I’ve hurt, the way I’ve hurt you. All of it just breaks my heart.”

  I looked around the apartment and already had so many cherished memories of my short time living there.

  “I lost my mind, okay? I didn’t handle the outbreak very well. I’d lost my wife…I’d lost my baby girl without ever getting to say goodbye. I didn’t get to say goodbye to my daughter, Sarah. I lost everything. I’m sorry. So many people have done horrible things, but I am sorry. I love you. I have never felt like this. Ever. I just…I just thought you’d look passed everything. I thought you were someone who could understand.”

  I waited calmly for her to respond. I needed her badly. I would have locked the door and boarded up the windows to be with her. I just needed her to want me, too. So, I waited for her response.

  A few seconds went by that seemed more like hours before she walked closer to me. She wasn’t close enough to touch but was shrinking the distance between us.

  “I could never, never understand a monster like you. I could never love you. You’re sick. If you come near me again, Scott, I will shoot you.”

  I felt my heart fall from my chest, hit my shoe, and bounce around on the floor. I looked down as if I was going to watch it roll away. I couldn’t look her in the face again, and I probably never would be able to again.

  She left the room and the door closed behind her.

  I walked over to the kitchen and slid my fingers across the countertops. I pulled at every drawer opening every single one with no intention of taking anything out.

  Finally, I came to the knife block. I pulled the biggest chef knife out with my right hand and slide my left index finger down the sharp edge. It was sharp, but I didn’t press hard enough to draw any blood.

  I walked to the center of the apartment and dropped to my knees. What I wouldn’t have given for a gun? I held the knife out in front of me and turned my wrist so the blade was pointed directly toward my chest. Was this the best way? I didn’t know, but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to slice my wrists or cut my throat. I needed it to be quick. Stabbing myself in the chest seemed to be the quickest way.

  I moved the blade forward until the very point was pressed against my skin. I didn’t want to hear anything. I just wanted to feel the cold steel slide between my warm blood.

  But I heard noise. I heard a lot of noise. Bullets were spraying around in the bar below me. I could hear screams and glass shattering. I could even hear bodies hit the floor. Then there was silence.

  Silence except for loud, slow-moving footsteps. There was a thud and another followed by the creaking of the old wood below their feet.

  The apartment door slowly opened and three soldiers that I had never seen before came into my apartment. They looked at me and looked around to see if there was anyone else. They didn’t react quickly. I think they were curious to see if I was going to push the knife into my chest. When I didn’t do it, one of the guards came closer and then kneeled down in front of me. He looked at the knife and couldn’t believe what he saw.

  “I’m sorry that you couldn’t join our cause, brother,” he said. He had thick goatee whiskers that moved when he spoke. “There wasn’t enough time to get you involved.”

  He knew who I was apparently, and now I knew that this had been in the works long before my people showed up.

  “Here.” He reached behind and showed me the handgun that he had been carrying. He set it down on the floor in front of me. “This’ll be quicker.”

  He nodded and then the three of them left me to die.

  Sarah was going to hate me forever. The people of WTIX were going to hate me forever, but I found that little measure of hope within when I thought back to Kurt telling me to get to Glen’s. He still wanted me there. Maybe Sarah was going there anyway. I needed to get there.

  I dropped the knife and put the gun in the back of my pants. I moved slowly down the stairs so that I wouldn’t come up on any of the guards or stragglers. It was time to move quickly but carefully.

  When I got to the bottom of the stairs, it was a bloodbath. Those three soldiers didn’t wait for the stragglers to rip the people apart. They did it. The entire bar was shot up and red covered the walls. The dozen or so people that had been hiding in the bar were spread out along the floor.

  It didn’t take me too long to find Sarah’s body.

  44

  Haylea Meyers

  A s the sun quickly set below the tree line, we were running through the forest. It was growing darker and every second it got darker, I became more and more afraid.

  Things were turning so quickly. I was proposed to a half hour ago by the love of my life. We were planning on spending the rest of our life together in District 7-1. It was the perfect little place. That was all over with.

  I didn’t know much about Ryan, but he was a decent guy. He reminded me of a young Captain America type soldier. He was a southern gentleman. He was polite, walked tall, stood up straight, and was chivalrous. He ran ahead of me clearing limbs and trees out of the way so that I could run freely.

  He didn’t have to come with me, but when Kurt asked him to, he didn’t hesitate. He was a good soldier through and through. He was the kind of guy that would do great in our group back at WTIX. It sucked that I was thinking that way again. We weren’t supposed to have a little group anymore.

  “It’s right up here,” Ryan said. We popped out of the woods and crept up behind a small shed.

  I put my hand on his back to slow down a second. He was a great soldier. In great shape. I wasn’t. I was trying to catch my breath. He held my hand and slowly started walking forward.

  We walked around the shed and Ryan fell back into me. A soldier had been running from the other direction and bumped into Ryan.

  We both fell onto our backs, but Ryan was ready to fight. He held out the gun as he fell and readied to shoot anyone who was going to start trouble.

  “Wait, wait!” the guy said. He was dressed like the rest of the soldiers.

  “Luke?” Ryan said. “What are you doing?”

  “Please, don’t shoot me. I won’t cause any trouble. Please.”

  “Are you…you’re not working with them?”

  “What? No! I had no part in this.”

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “I’m heading to my house. Averie and the kids were at home. I was working the far north side when I heard the explosions. I’ve got to get home.”

  “Luke, we aren’t a part of this. We’re doing the same thing.”

  “Why are they doing this?” Luke asked. He calmed down when we told him we weren’t the bad guys.

  “I don’t know, I’m sorry. I hope your family is okay. Be safe.”

  Ryan shook Luke’s hand and the guy sprinted around us. He looked at me and I could see the fear in his eyes. At some point in our life, we start caring about other certain people more than we care about ourselves. Usually, when a parent holds their child for the first time or when you’re saying your vows on your wedding day.

  I could see Luke no longer cared about himself. He was going to go through hell or high water to get back to his house and to his wife and kids. I wouldn’t wan
t to be the man that came across him and tried to stop him. There was nothing more dangerous than someone trying to protect their family.

  “Shit,” Ryan said.

  There was a group of stragglers that must have been following Luke. They were headed right toward us from the other side of the yard and were blocking our way back to the house.

  Shot. Shot. Ryan kept firing and was able to kill a few of the stragglers, but there were too many.

  “We’ll go through,” I said.

  We ran through the yard and made it to the house’s back door. We moved slowly so as not to draw any attention to ourselves. Ryan stopped me from going in so that he could go first. Another gentlemanly move from him.

  Once in, he pulled me in and then gently let the door close behind him so it wouldn’t make a noise.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  “What is it?”

  “This is Father Ricky’s house,” I said. I hadn’t even realized the shed that we were leaning on was the one that we originally hid in when we first got to District 7-1. It had come full circle. The first night we were on the run, we ended up in the shed, just like what was shaping up to be our last night here.

  “Shh,” Ryan said. He held his finger to his mouth and waited.

  There were murmurs and mumbling from the other room. Somebody was having a conversation. It was quiet and personal. Ryan slowly stepped forward to the edge of the kitchen walking on his heels. I followed him closely. Walking on the heels of the feet was actually quieter than walking on the toes.

  Ryan leaned forward just to peek, and then pulled his head back quickly. He looked back at me and nodded that it was alright. He was just being precautionary.

  I leaned forward with him and saw Father Ricky sitting on the couch in his living room. He was facing toward us but hadn’t yet seen us.

  There were two soldiers standing off to the side with their back to us. I didn’t recognize either one of them.

  “It is amazing it has come to this,” said a familiar voice.

  Darren Kendrick walked toward Ricky and sat down in a chair across from him.

  “It shouldn’t have come to this. You could say this is all your fault. I’d say that,” Kendrick said.

  “This is all on your hands,” Father Ricky said.

  “You were always against me. You always had it out for me. From the second this project got started. From the second you met me you were against me. Why?”

  “Look around. I don’t like people that are capable of doing something like this.”

  “Ricky. Ricky, you have no idea what I am capable of. You think this is bad? This is only the beginning. Although, it is a shame you won’t be able to see. You couldn’t just let me kill them the night they got here, could you?”

  “That blood will not be on my hands.”

  “Oh, but it is. There is a lot of blood on your hands.”

  Kendrick scratched the side of his head with the barrel of the handgun he was carrying. He stood from his chair and stepped closer to Father Ricky.

  His gun went off. He put a bullet into the stomach of Father Ricky. Ricky moaned and Kendrick held his arms so he couldn’t put pressure on his wound. He couldn’t move or deal with the pain. He just had to sit there and feel it.

  “My God,” I said probably too loudly.

  Ryan turned around quickly and threw his hand over my mouth. He grabbed me and we quickly, but quietly ran out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

  We could hear the footsteps of them coming for us.

  “Listen to me, do not say a word. Just shut up and wait. I’ll get rid of them,” Ryan said to me. He opened the hallway closet and pushed me into it.

  It was pitch black. I could hear from the other side.

  “Hey!” I could hear Ryan talk. “Hey, it’s just me. It’s Ryan.”

  After that, everything was quiet. I couldn’t hear the mumbling or the conversation anymore. They must have taken Ryan back into the living room with Father Ricky.

  I thought about sliding down and sitting in the closet. I thought about closing my eyes and waiting for everything to blow over, but I was going to have to get up and keep going. At this point, the exhaustion was taking over.

  Bang.

  Another gunshot came from the living room. I covered my own mouth this time so I wouldn’t give my hiding place away. I waited a few more minutes, listening, but there was nothing coming from the other side of the door.

  I slowly twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open. It was in great shape. The door didn’t creak or crack. I poked my head out and looked both ways quickly. Nobody was in the hallway.

  I leaned back onto my heels and quietly walked back around to the kitchen, then around the corner to check the living room. The soldiers were gone. Ryan’s body wasn’t anywhere to be found. Over on the couch, though, Father Ricky’s lifeless body sat. He’d fallen over onto his side and his face was buried into the cushion.

  I was positive the house was empty, but I walked to the front door knowing anybody could show up at any minute. When I reached the door, I looked out to see the streets fluttered with stragglers and dead citizens of District 7-1.

  I had to make it, though. I ran through the door, turned left, and sprinted through the yards as fast as I could. Some of the stragglers noticed me. Some of them tried to grab me, but I was going as quick as I’d ever moved.

  I came around the corner and sprinted up the porch to our house where everybody last had been. I opened the door and slammed it behind me. Elyse was gone. Jack was already gone. Emily’s body still lay there.

  I walked up to her and made sure that her eyes were closed. I quietly said my goodbyes to her.

  “Jack!” I shouted. I turned to run upstairs but heard a noise back in the kitchen.

  I walked back in and on the other side of the island was jack sitting on the floor.

  “Jack! Oh my God. We need to go.”

  He didn’t respond. I crouched down next to him and slapped him a few times in the face to snap him out of the depressed trance he was in.

  “Jack. Come on.”

  “Why? What’s the point?”

  “Jack, don’t do this. Not now. Just come with me, please. We need to go.”

  “Everybody dies, Haylea. We’re not going to make it. Nobody is going to make it. This was the perfect world, wasn’t it? We were all going to be happy. We were all going to live happily ever after.”

  “Jack, we were wrong. We can talk about it later because if we stay here, we are going to die.”

  “If we go out there, we’re going to die. There’s no place to run to. There’s no place to hide anymore.”

  “Jack.” I tried to pull him, but he didn’t move.

  “It’s not the air. It’s not those fucking things—it’s us. We’re the problem. We’re going to just keep killing each other and hurting each other. There’s no reason to keep fighting.”

  I stood up and wanted to kick him in the side. I looked to my left and there was a straggler in the kitchen coming right to me. I don’t know how it got in, but I screamed and backed up.

  As soon as I saw it, it was dead. A couple of bullets shot through the air and took the stragglers scalp clean off. The thing fell to the ground and covered the floor in more blood.

  “Haylea?!” Ryan ran from around the wall and came into the kitchen.

  “Ryan? What the hell happened?”

  “I got out.”

  “How?”

  “I told Kendrick that I was with him. I convinced him I was on his side.”

  “But how? I heard the gunshot, I thought he killed you.”

  “No,” he said. He paused. He didn’t want to admit the next part. “The gunshot was mine. The only way to convince him that I was with him…I killed Father Ricky.”

  He was almost in tears having to relive that and admit it out loud. I knew he didn’t’ have another choice and he knew that, too, but still couldn’t forgive himself.

  “Ryan, it’
s okay. What other choice did you have? You did what you had to do. It’s okay.”

  “Are we ready?” He changed the subject quickly.

  “Not, exactly.” I leaned back down to Jack. “Jack, listen. Kendrick is out. Zach broke him out. And these people are going to hurt and torture and kill. These are the people you’re talking about. Not us. We are the good people. There are a lot of people out there that are going to get hurt. You really think Emily would be okay with you sitting on your ass and giving up?”

  “Haylea, don’t,” Jack said.

  “She’d want you to get up and fight for the people that she called family. So, get off your ass and help me survive. Help your family survive.”

  He looked at me. I could see that I sparked something inside of him. It was going to be a long time before he got over what happened to Emily. If Elyse survived with us, too, I wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive her. I think Jack was broken enough to actually kill Elyse if he saw her. But he wasn’t ready to die.

  He reached out and took my hand. I pulled him to his feet and we started walking out of the house. Ryan smacked him on the back and the three of us sprinted out of the house that I very quickly had to accept was mine, and now very quickly had to accept that I’d never see it again.

  45

  Kurt Elkins

  I remember a few years back Haylea had a surgery. Running through the yards and dodging stragglers, I couldn’t remember what the surgery was for, but it was pretty complex.

  I remember that after the surgery, they gave her this little apparatus, this little contraption that was supposed to help her breathing. It was called an inventive meter or spirometer, or something like that. It had marks on the sides and levels where she was supposed to reach. She’d take a deep breath, then blow a constant, long breath and eventually her breathing would get stronger.

  I needed that. The wounds of my chest were keeping everything so tight and compressed. My breathing was short. I couldn’t stop running and take a long inhale, because my chest wouldn’t stretch. Every short breath, I’d only get a little bit of oxygen in and out. I was sure as shit I was going to pass out.