Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness

by Robert Bartlett

  “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

  – Charles Darwin

  Chapter Twenty Three

  The team exits the house the same way they went in, Levi on the point with Grant defending the rear, still trying to process everything that just happened. Ally is waiting for them just outside the doorway next to a line of dead bushes that lead back towards the house that they had searched earlier and to where their wagon lay hidden with all of their collected supplies. “Ok good, now that you guys are done ringing the dinner bell we have to get your supplies and get back to where ever it is that you’re using as a base camp. It’s not safe out here anymore. Any gashers that were within hearing distance of all that gunfire are going to be crawling out from everywhere” Ally says as soon as they all exit the house. “You just hold on a minute” Paige says to Ally, “we’re not taking you anywhere with us until we find out just exactly who the hell you are.” “I already told you who I was, my name is Ally and we don’t have time for this” Ally shoots back at Paige, quickly becoming annoyed at being questioned. “Well then we’ll make time” Levi answers, “Who the hell were those people in there and what the hell is a gasher?” “Look I apologize if I seem hasty but like I already said inside the house, what you guys did in there was foolish and careless. Anyone within ten blocks of here now knows exactly where we are and we really need to get moving. I’ll explain everything once we’re out of sight and under cover” Ally finishes her statement as she turns and starts walking back towards to where the food was stashed in the dead bushes of the second of the three searched houses without waiting for a response from Levi or Paige. The team is still standing just outside the back door of the house watching Ally walk away, taking turns looking back and forth from Ally to each other until finally Laura just shrugs and begins to follow Ally back towards the second house. Levi breaks into a slow jog in an attempt to catch up to the young girl that just seemed to manifest out of nowhere named Ally, his curiosity and lack of trust getting the better of him. Paige, Laura, and Grant begin to jog too not only mimicking Levi’s steps but also echoing his feelings on the newcomer as well.

  The group quickly makes its way back to the second house and the stashed cans of food they had hidden there. A storm had begun during the pandemonium of the day making the gathering gashers barely visible in the dark and rain as they stealthily make their way up towards the house the group had just been in, approaching it from all sides. Hunching down and doing the their best to get behind whatever type of cover they can to conceal themselves, they all but crawl the final twenty or so yards remaining between them and the house. “Well it looks like you’ve drawn in just about every gasher in the entire area out here right to us” Ally whispers to them obviously annoyed as they crawl up next to her. “Unintentionally” Levi is quick to point out even though he is astonished at the sheer number of them that can be made out trough the rain and the dark making their way up the streets. “We’ve never seen people like this before. I’m sure you can appreciate the shock it was to all of us to find them now” Levi finishes getting more defensive as Ally continues to show annoyance to their lack of knowledge of the dangers in the city. “Besides it doesn’t matter now it’s done and over with it’s not like we can go back and change it” Paige adds. “And now we all have to deal with it together so let’s start acting like we’re all the same team here guys” Laura puts in trying to defuse the situation before it gets completely out of hand. Levi looks from Laura to Ally then from Ally to Laura before letting his shoulders drop a little and while releasing a heavy sigh he nods at them both and utters “Agreed.” Levi turns his attention over to Grant trying to get a gauge on his condition. Grant, who is just sitting there in stunned silence, hasn’t uttered a sound since just after the incident in the kitchen when he thought the woman Levi had slain had been an actual zombie. Ally nods at the group in agreement “I..I’m sorry” she begins, “I’ve been out here searching alone trying to find anything I can for my group and I let the fear and stress of it get the better of me.” “Apology accepted but we can talk about that later, right now we have to figure out how we’re going to get this food, and ourselves past these ‘things’ and back to the dr.’s office” Laura states. “Well there’s no way we’re all just going to get up and waltz on across the yard pulling a wagon full of food” Paige observes. “Yeah even in this weather we can make out way more of these things than I’m comfortable with” Levi say agreeing with Paige. “I’ve still got quite a bit of room in my pack. We didn’t really find that much” Laura pauses as she looks up at Levi and then looks back down at her pack before finishing her statement, “medicine.” Levi appreciates the empathy in the gesture and places his hand on Laura’s shoulder before stating “Laura’s right, if we combine what we already have into one or two of the packs we can fill the emptied packs with the scavenged food. That way we can move slowly and stay low to the ground as we make our way back to the dr.’s office.” “Sounds like as good a plan as any. Once we get around the other side of that little brick house over there” Paige adds as she cautiously points at a little house about fifty yards in the distance off to their left, “we should be in the clear and from there it’s a straight shot back to the office building.” “Grant” Levi whispers as loud as he dares to draw Grants attention from the gathering gashers and back to the group, “Grant!” Levi hisses causing Grant to finally pull his eyes off of the wave of bodies entering the house and looks in Levi’s direction but still says nothing. “Hey man it’s ok. You did the right thing in there. No one is upset with you, but we really need you here with us right now so we can get out of this. Alright?” Levi says to Grant trying to pull his friend back in from wherever it is his psyche is trying to take him to cope with all of the day’s events. Grant sighs loudly, too loudly for Ally’s comfort as she instantly begins casting nervous glances in every direction. Grant nods at the group before dropping his eyes and removing his pack, he hands it to Laura. Levi trades a look of concern with Paige over the Grant situation and the predicament they now find themselves in as he hands his pack to her for the transfer of goods from his pack to hers. They utter a silent prayer and sigh with relief that they were actually able to fit all of the found food in the packs without making them weigh a thousand pounds. Finishing the task of re-loading their packs they all begin to cautiously but purposefully crawl towards the little brick house just off in the distance. The chaos of the feeding frenzy and the melee over the newly dead escaping the house behind them is all the motivation they need as it provides the battle hymn for their dedicated march back to safety.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  “Thank God!” Ray exclaims embracing his children as they re-enter the dr.’s office. “What in god’s name happened out there?” Ray asks as Levi, Laura, and Paige begin to give a recount of everything that had happened while they were out on the search. Ray and Jim sit and listen in stunned silence as they explain about the gashers and the accidental finding of one of their dens. They describe the room of horror and what they had witnessed hidden inside of it. They explain the fragility of Grants psyche, the meeting of Ally, and their desperate crawl back to safety as the newly motivated gashers began to gather and search for anything or anyone that was deemed edible. As the trio finish the recounting of the day’s events, exhaustion, and the feeling of safety finally winning out as they collapse into their sleeping bags and fall almost instantly asleep. Too tired to even eat or drink the stress of the day wearing them down almost completely. Ray shows Ally where she can lay down and get some much needed rest sighing as he hands her Colts now unused sleeping bag. “I’m glad you found them out there Ally. Hopefully things will calm down outside while you all get some rest. Then we can get everything packed up, go pick up the rest of your group and get headed back home to the compound” Ray tells Ally as she crawls into the sleeping bag. “Thank you” is all she can whisper before she too
is overtaken by sleep and exhaustion.

  “Holy shit” is the first thing out of Jims mouth as he and Ray meet back up in the break room of the dr.’s office and begin the task of preparing everything to leave. Ray nods at him in his agreement of the short simple statement. “You can say that again.” “And we still have the Clay issue to deal with” Ray adds as he glances in the direction of the room he knows Levi is now sleeping in. “Yeah I was thinking about that too. Hell other than the arrow wound we still don’t really know what’s wrong with Clay” Jim says. “I think I do” Ray says as he continues to work on the preparations. He stops and looks at Jim as he can feel Jim’s eyes expectedly on him waiting for him to elaborate on his statement. Ray takes in a deep breath and sighing as he releases it he begins “When we went looking for a medical diagnosis book I started thinking about anyone that I could remember of ever being as sick as Clay and I remembered I had this buddy of mine once that I went to trade school with named Keith. That was the sickest person I had ever seen.” Ray takes in another breath, stops what he’s doing and goes and sits down at the table in deep concentration of the memory. “We were learning how to hook up engines to the hoist and lift them up out of a car. Well we got one all hooked up and got it lifted but when we started pulling it back away from the car my buddy Keith tripped and fell. He was still holding the large flat head screwdriver we were using to pry the engine loose from all the muck that had it stuck in place. Old oil, grease, and road dust all caked up around the engine bolts. When Keith fell he drove that screwdriver all the way into his left thigh. It entered just above the knee and drove in the meat all the way to handle just about a half inch below the skin. Nastiest thing I’ve ever seen” Ray wrinkles up his face in disgust of the memory. “I mean you could actually SEE the impression of the screwdriver under his skin. Anyway, so there’s poor Keith is screaming and hollering with this screwdriver sticking out of his leg. Blood is everywhere and we can’t pull the damn thing out because of all the blood and grime all over it.” “Damn that sucks” Jim says wearing a look of disgust and sympathy for Ray’s old friend. “Yeah well it gets better. So anyway we finally get enough shop rags around it to pull it out and get him to hospital. We all thought that would be the end of it, that Keith would have a scar and a story and we’d all get a laugh out of it around the shop making fun of him for being so clumsy. But he never came back” Ray sighs again at the memory of his lost friend. “What d’ya mean he never came back? What happened?”Jim asks confused. “Well the hospital cleaned him up the best they could but the screwdriver had driven so deep into his leg that they evidentially couldn’t get all the dirt out of his wound. He got septicemia and died about a week later” Ray finishes. “Damn” Jim says softly, “I didn’t see that coming.” “None of us did. We were all shocked” Ray says. “So, what is septicemia?” Jim asks. “Septicemia is an infection you get in your blood from wounds that are either to deep to be cleaned thoroughly or from extremely dirty conditions” Ray explains. “Or both” Jim adds looking in Clay’s direction as he does. “Yeah or both, anyway your blood goes everywhere in your body so it spreads like wildfire, infection gets into all of your organs and they start shutting down.” The grimness of the situation is beginning to dawn on Jim as Ray continues explaining the symptoms of a blood infection. As Ray finishes Jim asks “Isn’t there anything we can do for him?” “Super duty antibiotics would work but aside from that, no. No there isn’t.” “So Colt killed himself and Clay” Jim exclaims as he slams his fist down onto the table he and Ray were sitting at, “Son of a bitch!” “Yeah it certainly appears that way. And now the last thing Colt told Clay makes sense” Ray observes, “I couldn’t figure it out before.” “What do you mean? What did Colt say to Clay” Jim asks curiously. Ray raises his head and looks Jim directly in the eyes, “He said, I’m sorry Clay, I’m so sorry. Tell Veronica I’m so very sorry.”

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Year One, Day Three Hundred and Twenty Six

  “I don’t understand, how did Colt shoot my dad? WHY did Colt shoot my dad?” Levi exclaims, visibly shaken by the news that Colt had somehow accidentally shot Clay with an arrow during their search of the waiting room and by the bleakness of the expected outcome of his dad’s illness. “From what we can piece together with the information your dad was able to give us, we assume that Colt was searching the right side of the waiting room when he was startled by the corpse of the dead secretary” Ray begins to explain. “Which is what caused him to stumble backwards into the table” Jim adds. “Exactly and well Colt evidentially had an arrow knocked, drawn, and ready to release as a precaution to whatever danger may or may not have been waiting for him as he searched the room. When the corpse startled him he must’ve released it in your dads’ direction when he fell through the glass table which struck Clay in his right side.” Sighing, Ray continues, “The dirtiness of our conditions, the unexpected situation with Colt possibly bleeding to death, and the inability to properly clean it or to keep it clean led to him developing what we think is an illness called sepsis or septicemia. This is an infection in his blood.” The room sits in silence stunned by the new and unexpected situation with Clay as well as its expected outcome. Tears slowly fall down Laura’s face to fall in her lap as Paige sits next to her slowly shaking her head back and forth uttering “No, no, no” over and over again. Grant, who sits off to himself in a corner, says nothing wearing the same vacant expression he had worn since the encounter with the gashers yesterday. Ally also sits just outside of the circle of the apparently very tight knit group trying to gauge the severity of the situation and her place within it. Levi sits on the floor where he had fallen to his knees his masked face buried in his gloved hands shaking as Ray and Jim both walk up to him each placing a hand on one of his shoulders. Neither one of them bother to speak as they both know that there aren’t any words of empathy that could quench the burning pit of despair or the scorched feelings of lose that were now erupting inside of the young man over his father. Both men sharing the opinion that these feelings were beginning to become far too common within the group here lately as they exit the room. They needed to check on Clay and to discuss the situation of Ally and the rest of her group that they have still yet to meet.

  “Ok everyone, here are the facts. We simply just don’t have enough room in the vehicles to carry Ally and her group back to the compound with us this time out. So what we are going to have to do is drive back to the compound and come back with only the bare essential supplies and the minimum amount of people needed to pick up Ally and her group” Ray begins. “With the supplies, Colts body, and the size of the group taking up all the available space within and on top of the vehicles.” “And with Clay being so sick” Jim interjects, Ray nods at him in agreement before finishing, “Unfortunately it’s the only real option we have here guys.” Levi, Paige, and the others sit and listen to what Ray and Jim are saying trying to take it all in “We can’t just leave Ally at the dr.’s office to fend for herself as she tries to reconnect with her group” Laura pleads, “we have to at least help her get back to the safety of her own group.” “Yeah we can’t just leave her out here” Levi adds. “No matter how sick my dad is he wouldn’t want us to do that.” “We agree” Jim says. “Absolutely” Ray begins again as he turns to Ally and asks her “How many people did you say are in your group again Ally?” “And about how far away is it from here?” Jim adds. Ally stands up as she addresses Ray and Jim’s questions looking at them directly before respectfully meeting the gazes from everyone else in the group. Ally instantly earns more respect from everyone with her show of confidence in facing this situation with people that are (for all intent and purposes) total strangers. And the fact that she’s doing it in spite of only being fifteen raises the confidence level of everyone in the group that Ally at least would be a welcomed addition to their group back at the compound. “My group consists of me, my father whose name is Alexander, but everyone just calls him Xander. The owners of the house tha
t we live in are Broderick Thomas, his wife Jackie, and their two sons Benny and Larry.” “Ok so when we come back to get you we’ll need to be able to seat five additional people plus any belongings or supplies that you would want as well as what we could add to the stock pile at the compound” Ray says more to himself than to anyone else in the room. “Maybe, maybe not” Ally says quietly dropping her gaze to look at her feet as she does. “What do you mean?” Levi asks her. Ally looks up at Levi who has walked over to stand next to her in the center of the room “Mrs. Jackie is very ill with what we think started out as the flu and has unfortunately turned into pneumonia. That’s why I was on this side of town. I was hoping to find some antibiotics in one of the offices over here. We thought since they were kind of out of the way they might not have been looted as badly as the rest of the local area.” Levi sub-consciously looks back in the direction of his sick and dying father as Ally tells of her own hopes in finding some antibiotics to help a sick member of her group. Just like they had hoped to find some for the sick member of their group as they searched through the houses yesterday. “We haven’t found anything like that, just some over the counter cold and flu remedies” Paige tells her, “but you’re welcome to look through it if you think some of it will help your friend.” “Honestly, I don’t really think any of it will, unfortunately I think her pneumonia is too far advanced. But thank you for offering” Ally says. “Ok, well anyway let’s get moving everyone. Jim and I already have all of the supplies loaded in the trucks so now all we need to do is get Clay situated and we can be on our way” Ray tells the group as he stands up motioning towards the room where they have Clay resting. “Levi why don’t you and I get your dad, Jim you and Laura get the basic directions from Ally and get everyone buckled in. Laura with Clay like he is you’ll have to drive the jeep and I’ll take over as lead vehicle, do you think you’ll be ok with that?” “Yes sir” Laura answers. “Good. Let’s get moving everyone, Paige you and Grant give this place one last look over to make sure we’re not forgetting anything useful, I don’t know about you guys but I’m ready to be back home at the compound. Maybe Ol’ Willy will have an idea on how we might be able to help Clay” Ray says this last part while looking directly at Levi, giving him a reassuring nod as he does. Levi returns the nod appreciating the gesture of hope from the closest friend his father had aside from his mother.