They began to march forward, slowly at first. As the swarm of disease infested dead made their way closer and closer, the players began to run towards them. Some players were praying as they ran, others yelling, one or two crying.
Jaylen was out in front, and he was the first to initiate contact. The first zombie approached, he cocked back and took a violent swing, clubbing its head in and stopping it in its tracks. He felt a gleam of hope, he approached another and went to swing, but another came at him at the same time and he couldn’t hit both. The zombie slammed into him but he didn’t fall to the ground, he was able to deter one off with his bat, but the other was biting at his upper arm, and he fainted.
Keith was up at bat as a zombie was making a bee-line right for him. He took a full swing and clocked it in the side of the head, its neck snapped and it fell. He looked over and saw one of his teammates about to get double-teamed, he ran over and dropped another, saving his teammate. Two more approached him, one a little closer than the other, he took down the first one with a powerful swing that left his body’s weight away from his natural righty batting stance, as the next zombie was a split second away. He spun and swung straight upwards with an uppercut swing that cracked the zombie right in the chin.
He then looked right and saw two zombies coming at him from the other side of the street simultaneously, he couldn’t hit both. He readied himself to resist when Pablo came in out of nowhere and took down the zombie on the right. Keith’s hope returned and he clobbered the other one. He looked up and smiled at Pablo, who returned the smile.
But then up ahead at the intersection, a group of over a hundred zombies turned the corner and headed straight for them. They were in a tight, compact group, there was no way they could hit them without being attacked by another.
“Run!” Keith yelled. And they took off away from them. The zombies were faster. Every second they got closer and closer. They ran as fast as they could, pushing themselves to speeds they’ve never before hit. But it didn’t make a difference; they still got closer and closer. There was nothing they could do to get away, they were going to die. Finally, Pablo decided to stop, and go down swinging, not running. He turned, loaded his stance, and took a monstrous swing at the zombie in front, its head dangled by a thread from its shoulders. But in no time he was in the middle of the pack undoubtedly being killed.
Keith realized if he was going to die, Pablo’s way was a better one. So he did the same, he turned and let out a haunting grunt as he took one last killing swing, before he died.
****
“If you chop down a tree, does it die or is it just shorter?” Tommy asked, as he looked out the window in the morning.
“Dude, that is so deep. Is that Walt Whitman?” Bobby answered.
“Huh?”
“Ralph Waldo Emerson?”
“What? No, I’m just asking.”
Bobby laughed, “Just busting your chops bud. You excited to see Keith today?”
“Very! It’ll be nice having that dumbass around here.”
“Hey Matt!” Bobby called up to the guest room. “Matt!”
“Yeah?” He yelled down as he opened the door.
“You coming with us today?”
“Not today Bobby, sorry.”
“It’s fine we’ll see you later.” Bobby said, as Matt went back to bed. It wasn’t fine, it sucked. But what can you do.
Jordyn was making breakfast this morning. She toasted the last of the Eggo waffles, and cooked the last of the eggs. The eggs were much better when actually cooked. The best thing about the Fortress was the available food. But it was becoming scarce as the six of them had no intentions of fasting. They were also running out of gas for the generator.
“So what have you guys got planned for today?” Tommy asked.
“I was going to do some reading, you guys have a pretty great book collection.” Jordyn said.
“Glad you like ‘em! What have you been reading?”
“Catch-22, I’m about half-way through.”
“Love that one, how about you Nick any big plans?”
“I was thinking I could go to the grocery store for us. Borrow one of your guns and head out somewhere close and-“
“No.” Tommy said.
“What why?”
“We don’t think it’s safe for you to be going outside, especially alone.”
“But it’s okay for you?”
“Well, word on the street is you’re not the most… coordinated guy.”
“I’m no star athlete but I can go to a food store and back!”
“Well you say that…” Tommy said.
“Nick, we just don’t want you to get hurt, or to unknowingly lure them back to the Fortress.” Bobby chimed in.
“Oh but I thought the Fortress was so impenetrable?” Nick said sarcastically.
“Don’t you dare insult the Fortress you buffoon!” Tommy yelled, clearly faking his anger.
“Hey Tommy, calm down man,” Bobby comforted, “Nick come on he’s sensitive about the Fortress.”
“You two are insufferable.”
“Sorry.”
“We’re going to need food soon.”
“We’re aware,” Tommy said, “Bobby and I have already discussed and we’re going tomorrow.”
“We?”
“As in us two.”
“Come on, at least let me go with you.” Nick pleaded. Tommy and Bobby exchanged dozens of looks for about ten seconds, to let Nick stir a bit.
“We’ll think on it.”
“Good morning Julia!” Ned said as he walked up to Jordyn and kissed her on the cheek. “Ben, Ryan, how are my boys this morning?” Motioning to Tommy and Bobby. The group was stunned, and didn’t say anything. Jordyn looked genuinely concerned for him, her face resembled someone being dumped after years of a happy union.
“Uhh we’re doing good… Dad?” Bobby answered. Tommy elbowed him hard in the arm, not agreeing with his catering to his delusions.
“And who’s this fella?” He said talking to Nick.
“Um… I’m Nick?” He said, as if he wasn’t sure himself.
“Nice to meet you Nick! It’s always nice to meet a friend of my boys here. I’m going to go take a quick shower!” He sprung upstairs, spirits high. The group stood in disbelief.
“Oh my God, that poor guy.” Jordyn said.
“Does he honestly think we’re his family?” Tommy asked.
“I guess so,” Bobby answered, “Dude we have to get our cousins and Aunt Julia.”
“How can we? He doesn’t even know what town they were in?”
“Dammit, Ned.” Bobby said softly.
“I guess for now we’ll just have to deal with Ned being crazy.”
****
It was the seventh time they’d knocked. With each knock Tommy’s mindset gradually went from glimmering excitement to see his best friend, to wondering where else he could be, to the dreaded realization that he may not be with us anymore. They knew he wasn’t home with his parents; they’ve passed his house numerous times. Where else could he be? Finally they kicked down the locked door to see the inside of a vacant house. Tommy felt an anvil drop from his chest to his stomach. He sat down on the floor, threw the assault rifle that was hanging by its shoulder strap, and knew that his friend was dead. Bobby sat down next to him, and threw his arm around him. Tommy briefly thought about how this resembled him comforting Matt the night before, but that thought was quickly trampled by the overpowering thought of Keith. They sat there for 30 minutes, as Tommy wept.
“Alright let’s go.” Tommy finally said.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, nothing we can do now.” They made their way out the door and walked towards the Humvee. Bobby stopped in his tracks as he heard a faint “Psst!”
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Hey!” A girl-toned, hushed yell barely made it across the street and into their ears. This time they both heard it. They looked at
each other, raised their guns just in case, and made their way across the street, eyes locked on the windows of the house.
“Tommy, is that you?” the girl said out the window.
“Who is that?” He answered, gun aimed towards the voice.
“It’s Casey!”
“Casey who?”
“Casey Stacey!”
As if having rhyming names with your twin wasn’t corny enough, Casey and Tracey Stacey had the misfortune of rhyming with their last name as well. But other than the Dr. Seuss line that is their names, they were almost nothing alike. Casey thrived socially. She was popular, a cheerleader, a party-goer, a below average student, and had a habit of occasionally being kind of a bitch. Tracey was a bookworm, an honor student, a trumpet player, a randomly good artist although she hated it, and was incredibly shy. The Stacey parents paid full tuition for Casey, the school was honored to pay for Tracey’s entire tuition. Casey went out almost nightly at college. Tracey was a member of the student government, biology club, and school newspaper. Casey had dirty blonde hair and Tracey had brown hair. Casey wore contacts and Tracey wore glasses. Although they shared zero similar interest, they loved each other very much and choose to live together come college time.
They were in Tommy’s graduating class and he knew both of them personally. Casey from the general high school social scene, he didn’t really know how they met. And Tracey from a few shared classes. He liked Tracey more; she was a genuinely sweet girl once you got to know her. And after he saw Casey make out with a wall (yes, a wall) just for a free shot of vodka that was $8 a bottle, he lost some respect for her, and the guys encouraging her.
Their house was remarkably messy. It was almost as if zombies had come in and tore the place apart and left without staying for dinner. There were random clothes lying around, dust everywhere, broken chips on the carpet, a sink full of dishes whose smell lingered throughout the room, and a few empty liquor bottles in the corner.
“Nice place.” Bobby said as he walked in.
“We used to clean it but we stopped seeing the point, plus no electricity or running water.” Casey replied.
“How are you girls holding up?” Tommy asked.
“Not great T, we-“
“Don’t call me T.”
“Alright, we-“
“Sorry it’s just a pet-peeve.” He interrupted again. Melanie sometimes called him T to annoy him, deep down he liked it, but only when she said it.
“Fair enough, and we’re not doing too great Tommy, really low on food and-“
“Do you know what happened to Keith?” He blurted. Casey’s face dropped.
“I’m not 100% sure,” Tracey said, “But we saw the baseball kids storm outside and try to fight them off. They… weren’t doing too well, Tommy. Some tried to run away, but I don’t think they made it. There were just too many of them. I’m so sorry.”
“Such an idiot.” Tommy said with half a smile, knowing if he was with him he would’ve done the same thing. His eyes grew heavy as they began to water again. “I’ll go wait in the car.” The rest waited for him to leave before they began to talk again.
“I’m Bobby, Tommy’s brother, so how are you guys doing again?”
Tommy sat in the passenger seat and tried to fight back his tears. Crying wouldn’t help anything, he told himself. A few sobs were let out here and there, but he kept it together pretty well. Deep down he knew all along that Keith would choose fight over flight, even when he didn’t stand a chance. So this wasn’t a shock for Tommy. But when the last flicker of hope goes out the weight of it can crush a person. He started to think about Melanie. How he would feel if he lost that flicker with her. He fleetingly thought about not going to Pittsburgh, that having that flicker was worlds better than losing it. But if he did make it there alive, and found her sitting there on her brother’s sofa, there would be no better feeling in the world than seeing those green eyes gleam at him. And be in a room that radiated when she smiled.
He heard the driver seat door open, and then the rear doors opened which surprised him. He turned to see Casey and Tracey climb in with their bags packed.
“They’re going to come with us Tommy.” Bobby said. With Tommy being so focused on losing his friend, he didn’t realize how the Stacey’s were struggling. He turned to notice their fragile-looking bodies that also had not been washed in some time. He didn’t notice the reason they called them over from across the street is because they needed them. He felt bad for having missed what was an obvious call for help.
“Good to have you on board Stacey’s.” He said with a smile.
Chapter 13
“As many of you know,” Bobby began at the Fortress meeting, “today we have added two more members to this fine establishment, Ms. Stacey and Ms. Stacey. Let’s give them a round of applause.” They gave a resounding applause. “The Fortress now houses seven people, quite a bit to be living under one roof. With that said, Tommy and I would like to go over some general guidelines we’d like to instill.”
“What, like rules?” Nick butted in.
“We prefer the term guidelines.” Bobby replied, “Don’t interrupt, that’s guideline number 1... Just kidding, but seriously, don’t interrupt.” Tommy laughed. “Alright, but the actual guideline number 1,” Bobby continued, “No leaving the Fortress at night. The night is scary, and we doubt zombies sleep. Also not being able to see zombies coming is a pretty clear disadvantage. We all agree?” The group nodded.
“Which brings us to number 2:” Tommy said, “No leaving the Fortress… ever.”
“Oh come on!” Nick said. “W-“
“Unless!” Tommy talked over him, “Unless, your last name is Nagel, or…” He aimed his gaze directly at Nick and paused for a moment. Nick felt hopeful, he eagerly hung on to that “or” awaiting the next phrase. “Or you are a Sergeant Major in the United States Marine Corps.” Matt sarcastically pumped his fist with excitement.
“That’s not fair!” Nick yelled.
“Nick… Are you or are you not a Sergeant Major in the United States Marine Corps?” Tommy asked.
“We’ll accept other branches of the United States military as well.” Bobby added.
“That’s true, or if you are a higher ranking officer than Sergeant Major.”
“Of course, yes.”
“So you’re telling me I’m physically not allowed to leave the Fortress?”
“If you want to live behind the safe walls of the Fortress you have to follow the guidelines, don’t yell at us we didn’t make the rules.” Tommy said.
“What? Yes you did make the rules! You just said earlier you guys wrote these rules.”
“Not rules, guidelines.” Tommy said with a smile.
“Might I interject, kind sirs?” Matt chimed in.
“Of course, Sergeant Major. And we appreciate your politeness in asking.” Bobby said.
“My pleasure. I say why not give the kid a shot? He knows the risks, let’s take him out sometime and see what he’s got.”
“Matt as you know we trust your judgment greatly. You sure this is the right move?” Tommy asked.
“As long as he knows we aren’t going to babysit him out there, he’s going to have to contribute and keep his own head on a swivel. But having another gun couldn’t hurt could it? As long as he doesn’t shoot us with it.” The three of them laughed.
“Well let’s hope.” Bobby said through his chuckle, “Alright Tommy you okay with this too?”
“Yeah sure, we’ll take him tomorrow to go grocery shopping with us.”
“Really? I can come?” Nick asked.
“Yes sir, you can thank Matt for that.” Tommy said, “Alright, guideline number 3: do not ration your food. You may think ‘Oh this is a zombie apocalypse I better not eat so much and save food!’ Forget that, if we run out we’ll go get more. Eat up, enjoy yourselves. Deal?” The crowd nodded and smiled in agreement.
“Number 4:” Bobby started loudly, “Shower daily! We have runnin
g water, use it. We don’t want anybody smelling up the Fortress for the rest of us. I know we don’t have to worry about Ned’s showering since he goes 7 times a day, right Ned?” Ned was facing the complete opposite direction and didn’t even flinch at the sound of his name. “Anyways, yeah shower. Be clean and enjoy the crisp water.”
“Can we shower more than once a day?” Casey asked.
“Yes Casey that will be allowed.”
“Can I shower now? Because that last one felt amazing-“ She added.
“Not until we’re done Casey!” Tommy sarcastically screamed to the room, the whole group (minus Ned) laughed.
“Number 5,” Bobby started, “Wait is it 5 or 4 I lost track?”
“5, 4 was shower daily.” Tommy answered.
“Then what was 3?”
“The food thing.”
“Oh right, right. Ok, number 5, do not disrespect the Fortress. We’ve had some problems in the past with people disrespecting this house, but I’m not going to name names. But you’re welcome, for the free food, and water, and electricity, and safety from the zombies.”
“And finally, number 6:” Tommy said, “Be nice. We’re all living under the same roof, disagreements will occur. But right now, like it or not, this is our family. And personally I like it. I never imagined having this group of people all in the same room, it’s a bit random. But everyone here brings something to the table I love. Even you Nick, I like arguing I think it’s fun, so thank you. Anyway treat each other like you would your family.”
“Agreed?” Bobby asked the group.
“Agreed.” They said back, not in unison.
“Alright one last thing before this meeting is adjourned,” Bobby went on, “We’ve all had one hell of a week-“
“Eight days.” Tommy corrected.
“One hell of an eight days,” Bobby continued, “I think we all need to let loose a bit. So tonight, we’re going bust out some alcohol for us all, and we’re going to have a little shindig, who’s in?”
The group had mixed feelings. Casey was ecstatic. Matt was pumped. Tracey was indifferent. Jordyn wanted a casual drink or two and was looking forward to the entertainment. Nick didn’t care too much, he was still high on the thought that he was getting out of the house tomorrow. Crazy Uncle Ned stared at a wall. And Tommy and Bobby were both pretty excited.
The Fortress Page 7