The Night

by Steinwachs, Mark

  “CP, Post 20. Unknown number in the store. Could be as many as twenty-five in the area. Cars gathering on the street. Civilians out and armed. Advise. Over.”

  “Roger, Post 20. Sending backup. Secure the store. Out.”

  “Corporal! We’ve got Zs coming from the back!” The sound of Nelson’s M-16 mixed with the alarms. “Shit, shit, shit! They got one! I need a hand back here!”

  Some people ducked back into their cars, a couple got behind their doors ready to fire, and a few made a break for the store. Mattias didn’t know if they were part of the group but it didn’t matter anymore. “Calm down, private! Take out the Zs. Do your job!”

  Mattias dropped prone and took two quick shots. Neither hit their mark of the oncoming civilians. They veered but didn’t turn back, heading for the front doors. The marine’s fire was met by rounds from across the parking lot, two ricocheted off the building close to him. Mattias took aim and pulled the trigger. The round lanced through the chest of one of the civilians running towards the store. The man tumbled to the ground, clutching his chest. The other two people kept going and in seconds were past Mattias’s line of sight and inside.

  More rounds were fired from behind him. Screams of pain from the injured man joined the other sounds of combat. Mattias pushed back from the edge, watching in front of him as he radioed again. “ETA, CP? We have at least one civilian injured. I count ten others all armed and I bet they are getting pretty jumpy. Zombies have—”

  Nelson cut in. “I think I got the last of them, Corporal! I don’t see any more. Oh, shit! A pack of them. Where the fuck!”

  Mattias ignored Nelson and raised his voice to be heard over the gunfire. “Zs have descended on our position. Not sure how many yet. I count at least four people inside the store, but again, I bet there are more. Over.”

  “There will be a React Team arriving in three minutes. Over.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Corporal, a Z made it past me into the store.” Nelson’s voice was rising and wavering. “I think I got the rest. They got one civilian.”

  “Nelson, get inside. You hold the dock area. Don’t let anyone out. I’m going to hold the front doors. We have three minutes till we get backup.”

  “But what if they—“

  “Don’t let anyone out, marine. That’s an order,” Mattias cut Nelson off. He pulled himself back near the edge of the store. Mattias looked out at a dozen cars, some of them were empty, others had their passengers crouched behind open doors or the side of the car. Every one of them had a firearm, but no one seemed to be focused on him up on the roof. He pushed himself back again and got into a crouch, then ran for the door that led into the store. The sun warmed his face as he ran and he suddenly wished he was back in the desert.

  Mattias quickly slid down the ladder and his combat boots slapped against the floor. He wheeled around with his finger on the trigger of his M-4. He didn’t think anyone would be waiting for him but he couldn’t be sure. Mattias hurried past the break room and out into the store. None of the overheads were on but enough sun came through the skylights that visibility wasn’t an issue. He wove his way through electronics, past the few rows of cell phones and video games, and into the boys’ clothing section. He stopped between two of the racks and waited. Hushed voices carried in the store. He stayed low and worked his way towards the front. His gear kept rustling along the tightly spaced racks, the clothes and hangers shifting. If they were paying attention, he would be an easy target.

  Mattias quickly dashed from boy’s clothing to jewelry and got behind the counter. Sounds echoed in the store as people got louder. Mattias got on one knee and took a firing position, resting his gun on the counter. He scanned the grocery area, able to see the produce section and the main aisle from the entrance. A man and woman were loading duffle bags with food.

  Mattias took aim, all he had to do was squeeze the trigger and the man would fall. He pulled his finger back slightly. Right before the point of no return he let go of the trigger. Nelson’s words echoed in his mind, “just following orders.” Is that what we’ve become? What I’ve become?

  Mattias closed his eyes, he was back in Afghanistan.

  ***

  Blood stained the ground around the boy who no longer gurgled and struggled for life. The boy who tried to kill him. The picture that circled the globe showed the boy, broken, dead. The talk was about war taking the life of a child. Mattias was gone when the picture was taken and never mentioned. Only he and his squad knew the real story.

  ***

  I’m not just following orders. I’m following orders. People didn’t understand, they will never understand.

  He opened his eyes; two more people rushed down the main aisle. Mattias tracked them and pulled the trigger. His muzzle flashed in the shadowed store and the round struck home. The woman screamed and dropped her bag of food when her partner crumpled to the ground.

  Mattias dashed across the open main aisle and behind a register. Three more people ran through the doors. One peeled off to help the injured man, while the other two kept going, deeper into the store.

  Mattias keyed his radio. “CP, I have visual on seven people in the store, one wounded. Private Nelson is holding the docks, he had a visual on multiple Zs. Over.”

  “React one minute out. Shoot on sight, corporal. Out.”

  A pop-pop filled the air and two bullets slammed into the candy display next to him. Mattias dropped low and spun around, firing two quick rounds as he did. Both shots sailed into the air. A man ducked back into the aisle near the other door. Muffled bursts of gunfire came from the back of the store and got louder when Nelson opened his mic, “Corporal, I’ve got three Zs back here and about a half dozen people. I got one but I need support .”

  “Copy that, Nelson. Hold your position. Shoot on sight. Just another few minutes.”

  Mattias took in a breath to collect himself. There were about fifteen people scattered throughout the store, all armed, all gunning for him and Nelson, and throw in a few Zs on top of that. He wasn’t sure if the zombies were the hunted or they were now. Mattias crawled back to the main aisle across the back of the registers. He peeked around. The woman sobbed kneeling next to the man Mattias shot. He couldn’t see the third person now, and didn’t like that at all. Mattias looked down the sight of his M-4 at the woman. He pulled the trigger and pushed himself back to cover.

  Mattias got himself into a crouching position and made a break for the restrooms at the front of the store. He chanced exposing himself for a few seconds to get a wall behind his back and a firing position where he had a wide field of vision.

  Mattias stood and braced himself, his gun at the ready, pointed towards the grocery side of the store. He risked missing people through the other doors but it was a chance he had to take, and he was covered enough it would take one hell of a shot to get him before he could react. A woman ran through the doors and sprinted towards the food as a man carrying a full backpack rushed towards the door.

  Mattias shifted aim from the woman to the man. He didn’t miss from that range. Another quick shot and there were now four bodies strewn across the store.

  Heavy gunfire started from outside the building. Mattias waited for the React Team to finish off the people outside and come in, but the firefight continued. There was chaos all around him but for a brief moment everything was calm right where he was.

  Nelson’s voice broke the calm, “Corporal, I’ve been hit. They got me in the leg, I can’t walk. I’m in camping supplies. I think a couple people followed me out to the floor.”

  “Copy that, Nelson. Try to find cover. There are about ten people in here now. Shoot anything that moves till I get to you.”

  Mattias sprinted towards the seasonal section at the front of the store. He caught sight of a person running out with a bag of food. He let him go, the guys outside would get him. Mattias’s mission had changed. Get Nelson and get the hell out.

  He kept to the front of the store, rushin
g past greeting cards and wrapping paper. He glanced down the aisles as he ran past them. He got to the corner and stopped. There was no one between him and automotive. He took off, sprinting past the gardening section. Gunfire rang out off to his right and bullets slammed into the toys on the shelves he just passed.

  Mattias half-cursed, half-grunted, and turned left, running past Legos and games, trying to find some cover from his unseen attacker. His boots echoed around the toy section, giving away his position. He kept moving fast and hoped he was lucky enough to stay out of sight of anyone else.

  He turned right onto one of the main aisles of the store. There was no cover. Mattias debated darting through the clothes section and looping back but quickly dismissed it when he heard gunfire and shouting where Nelson was.

  He turned right when he got past automotive. A zombie, its arm hanging limp at its side with blood seeping from it, stood next to the shelf looking at the marine. It snarled and rushed towards him. Mattias didn’t break his stride as he brought his M-4 up, firing off two rounds wildly. One of them slammed into its knee, and it stumbled forward. Mattias kept running and swung the butt end of his rifle up, smashing it into the zombie’s jaw. As its face split open from the impact, the zombie spun and fell back against the shelves.

  Mattias left it in a heap behind him and made the turn into the camping section. Nelson sat with his back to the corner. Blood pooled around his left leg, his face splotched red. Nelson had a shirt tied off around his knee where the bullet caught him.

  “Let’s get you out of here, Nelson,” Mattias said. He slung both of their rifles over the younger marine’s shoulder and pulled out his pistol.

  “Thank you, Corporal,” Nelson replied as he drew his own pistol.

  Mattias crouched and pulled Nelson up onto his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Both marines had their pistols out but Mattias knew neither of them would be very accurate. Their only real hope was to get out without being seen.

  He headed along the back of the store, passing the craft area and into electronics. Gunfire echoed in the stock room on the other side of the wall and he heard shouting from the grocery section.

  Mattias darted towards the middle of the store. He got to the end of electronics and looked to his left. An injured zombie was crawling on one leg and one good arm. A man armed with a pistol appeared from around the corner and put two rounds into it, splattering more blood on the floor. The man locked eyes with Mattias and brought his gun up. Mattias picked up his pace and heard Nelson grunt out when his injured knee slammed into Mattias’s ribcage. The man fired a shot but missed the two marines.

  Mattias zig-zagged his way through the clothing department, still heading in the general direction of the front doors. There was no way to hide with Nelson on his back. If the guy behind them wanted to follow, there was nothing the two of them could do about it. He got back to the jewelry counter where he had been a few minutes ago and rushed past it. All he had to do was get them outside.

  The sounds of a firefight from out front hit him. They couldn’t still be possibly fighting out there, could they? They must have handled that situation, unless it had gotten a whole lot worse.

  Whatever was going on, there didn’t seem to be anyone coming in from outside. Mattias kept pushing himself towards the doors. He got past the cash registers and went for the doors to his left, heading away from groceries. He made the final turn and would have dove for cover if Nelson hadn’t been draped over him.

  The parking lot was alive with gunfire. A civilian Jeep sped by with a man standing up in the back firing a rifle. Civilians were pressing in from the edge of the parking lot. He got the two of them closer and set Nelson against the shopping carts. “Cover me. I’m going to see what the hell is going on out there.”

  “Copy that, Corporal.”

  Mattias took his M-4 back and got to the broken doors. The bulk of the fighting was in front of him, with the marines pinned back at the other entrance. Mattias stepped out and took cover behind a trash can. He tried getting a count of civilians but gave up after about twenty-five with no end in sight. Cars had parked at all angles in the parking lot, some had people behind them firing their guns, some had people slumped over them. There were a few bodies on the ground closer to his door. The marines had two Humvees parked next to each other along the front of the store and there was a police car flanking the other side of the door.

  Mattias was trying to figure out what his next step would be when the answer was forced on him. Two men made a break from their car and headed for his door. He took aim at the first one. The man screamed and dropped to the ground as a bullet hit him. Mattias shifted and took a shot. It went harmlessly by the second man but it was enough to slow him up. Mattias took another shot and this time hit his mark. The impact sent the second man tumbling to the ground.

  Shots fired off behind Mattias. He spun around and saw Nelson with his rifle up, firing back at an angle into the store.

  “Shit!” Mattias turned back inside and knew by the angle Nelson was firing, that whoever it was, was near the middle of the store. Mattias darted to the corner and crouched. He took a quick glance around the corner and caught a man ducking behind a register. Mattias took aim while Nelson reloaded. The man popped up when Nelson stopped firing, but Mattias was ready. The marine fired a burst of three shots, but none of them hit the target and the man dove back down.

  Mattias kept his gun trained where the man hid as the cacophony of battle from outside began to lessen. There were a few sporadic shots, then nothing.

  People rushed in the door at the other end of the store. Mattias watched them and realized what it meant. He turned to face Nelson. The young marine had shifted his aim to the door. He fired, taking out a couple people, but it didn’t matter. They were through the doors. Mattias watched his partner’s body jerk back against the shopping carts as bullets pounded into him.

  Sharp bites of pain laced across Mattias’s chest as he fell back against the wall and slid to the floor. He pushed himself up and tried to bring his rifle around. A boot connected with the side of his head and knocked him back. He started to pull the trigger when he felt the rifle ripped from his hands.

  His finger twitched one last time, trying to fire a gun that wasn’t there, at someone who never should have been his enemy.

  The Curfew

  One of the first things President Lansing did was institute a nationwide curfew. All civilians had to be indoors during these hours. Military personnel were instructed to shoot on sight.

  Most people wondered what would happen in the inner cities. Would the government be able to keep control? The inner cities weren’t the problem because zombies were most prevalent there. People didn’t want to leave their homes.

  It was the suburbs. The upper middle class. Too many of them thought the rules didn’t apply. That didn’t last long.

  Excerpt from “The Decade”

  Dr. Rudolph Graham

  I turned the steering wheel of my Humvee and glided along another darkened side street. I didn’t know exactly where I was and I didn’t have to. Our orders were to drive. Being a presence will make all the difference in the world is what the Captain told us. I’d been driving around some town called Brentwood for the last couple hours with a private straight out of boot camp in the turret.

  “Corporal?” The radio crackled in my ear.

  “Yeah, Pollard? What’s up?”

  “You just turned down another dead end.”

  “Your city is frickin' ridiculous, Pollard. You know that, right? Why can’t there be blocks like normal cities?” I said as I swung the vehicle wide in the cul-de-sac.

  My headlights caught a zombie between two of the houses. It snarled at us and charged forward. I waited for Pollard to open up with his 50 cal. but only heard one round fire off, the private showing great control in not wasting ammo. The bullet hit home and the zombie spun as it punched through its shoulder. The creature surged again, sprinting towards the idling Humvee. I was
about to move my foot from the brake when another report filled the air and the zombie’s head ripped in half, its body kicking out and hitting the ground.

  “Shit! Nice shot, Pollard, but stay sharp up there. I doubt there is only one.” I reached up and flipped on the searchlight, sliding the handle back and forth, scanning the yards looking for any more company. A curtain pulled back on the house in front of us. A boy shielded his eyes from my light but smiled and waved at us, an odd contrast to the mangled corpse at the edge of the sidewalk.

  “Pollard, report this in,” I said, as I kept scanning the yards in front of us

  “I’m not sure exactly where we are, Corporal,” Pollard replied. “I didn’t see any street signs when you made your last couple of turns.”

  “I thought you grew up here! Fucking hell.” I looked down and tapped the screen on my phone. “Thank god for satellite maps. Titan, this is Jackson 1138. We took out one Z. I’m sending you a screen shot of my location. Over.”

  “Roger that, Jackson. Titan out.”

  Blasts from Pollard’s weapon shook our idling Humvee. I finished sending the picture, not bothering to look up. I trusted Pollard would let me know if it was bad. I lifted my head as the zombie landed on the hood of the vehicle. “What the!” I slammed my foot on the gas and the Humvee shot forward. I cranked the wheel to the left and heard the screech of metal as I sideswiped a parked car. The zombie head-butted the windshield. I mashed the brakes and the creature lost its grip, tumbling to the ground. Pollard’s 50 cal. tore into the night, firing at the houses behind us.

  “Dammit, Pollard, what’s going on?”