by Stevie Kopas
“Hey,” she stopped moving when he spoke but did not look at him. “We got this. You know that.”
Andrew and Clyde moved down the stairs with a sort of practiced grace, they knew silent footsteps were necessary but speed counted for everything. They exited the foyer that linked Clyde’s apartment with the shop underneath it and moved quickly to the front, weapons ready. The last man standing from the group awaited the onslaught of the dead and began firing with bloody knuckles into the vicious screaming crowd. The two brothers silently moved out and behind the man. Andrew climbed up on a nearby car while Clyde went out into the street to get a good angle on the eaters. The man from the group didn’t even flinch when he heard the other shots join his and the dead began dropping. The closest eaters to him were met with a hard kick and a smash to the head from a Louisville Slugger. It seemed that the twenty or so eaters were no match for the three of them.
Heads popped and exploded like zits and bodies dropped to the ground all around the men as they fought off the creatures like it was a piece of cake. Andrew dropped down to the street from the car, “I’m empty!” He pulled a golf club, his Lieutenant’s favorite, from its place on his waistband. Joining the last man standing, he charged the remaining eaters, bludgeoning them into a second death while his brother fired rounds into the ones that didn’t stay down.
The street soon became silent and the trio stood panting and listening, waiting to hear more of their screams in the distance but the city didn’t have anything more for the men at that time. The man with the bloody knuckles turned to face Andrew, his clothes stained and his skin streaked with gore. “Thanks.” It was all he could manage to say as he turned away from the man who had helped save his life and crouched down. He checked the pulses of both the heavyset man lying motionless on the sidewalk and the small woman a few feet from him.
“I’m sorry about your friends, I wish we had been out here sooner.” Andrew spoke solemnly as his brother came up beside him, watching the man prop up his friend against the brick wall of the building and drag the body of the woman over, placing her into his arms. He didn’t need to check the pulse of the skinny teenager lying not far from them because half his face was gone and an enormous hole in his torso revealed his guts had been torn out. The man dragged his body over as well and sat him next to the others. He remained on one knee for a moment, just looking at what was now gone; perhaps reminiscing, or perhaps not thinking of anything at all.
“Ben.” He stood and extended a hand.
“Andrew, this is my brother, Clyde.” They all shook hands.
“I appreciate the back up. I was goin’ down with a fight no matter what happened, but you saved my ass. I always wondered when somebody was gonna have to, now I can safely say I’m not looking forward to the next time.”
“Good, because there won’t be a next time. Not from us anyway.” They all were startled by Juliette’s sudden appearance.
“That would be Juliette. My brother’s lack of better judgment.” Clyde spit as he said it, giving Juliette a nasty look.
“Fuck you Clyde, you can stay out here and leave with this asshole for all I care.”
“Enough with that shit. We already talked about this, if the two of you can’t get along then don’t talk at all. Ever.” Andrew was so tired of their bickering, they never liked each other and always seemed to pick the worst times to show it. “Look, Ben, we got to get off the street. I can spare some ammunition for you, but the three of us had a prior agreement about taking others in.”
Ben mildly chuckled to himself and thought of Pisano’s. “Yeah, we did too.” He motioned to the bodies of Sal and Lucy behind him. “This is why I couldn’t stay even if you wanted me to. There’s a girl running around out there and he was all she had left.” He pointed to Isaac’s corpse and kept talking. “When we were holed up in my place, we talked it over, we said we weren’t taking our chances with anyone and then these two kids literally come crashing through our window the other night.” He lifted his shirt and wiped his brow. “They gave me a reason to leave this city, to leave that shithole apartment and made me rethink my end of the world plans.” Andrew and Clyde listened as he spoke while Juliette stared angrily at her boyfriend, mouthing something to him that Andrew thought might have been don’t even think about it.
“The fact that everyone’s dead and she’s running around by herself is not their fault. It’s not yours, it’s not mine. It’s these two pieces of shit.” He grunted as he kicked the head of the man he had beaten to death. “I really appreciate you goin’ out on a limb for me, but I’ve gotta go find my friend.” Ben gathered the bags and placed them on both broad shoulders. He nodded at the men and ignored Juliette behind him. He nonchalantly walked away, moving the bat as he went, as if practicing his swing.
“Hey man, why’d you tell us all that?” Clyde called out to him with his hands on his hips. Ben stopped and turned, shrugging his shoulders.
“Because it looks to me like you’re in the same situation I was in a few days ago and everyone deserves an opportunity to get out while they can.” He turned and continued walking.
Andrew couldn’t help but stare at the bodies Ben had so tenderly placed next to each other. Everybody was once somebody. He looked up at Juliette, her hardened expression still fixed on him. When had she become so selfish? He thought of all the others that she forced him to ignore. The helpless people on the highway that he ran from instead of staying and protecting. All of it to keep her safe. He was an officer of the law, his duty was once to serve and protect and yet he’d been shut up in his brother’s apartment taking orders from his girlfriend because she didn’t want to get her hands dirty.
“Andrew, goddamnit!” She yelled at him as he suddenly began jogging after Ben.
“Hey man, hey! Wait up!” Ben slowed and Andrew met up with him. “Look, this girl, you sure she wasn’t bitten?”
“No, I’m not. But I feel like I owe it to her brother to find out.”
“Damn man.” He ran his hand over his sweating head. “Alright look, where you headed?”
“Paradise Bay.”
“Ok, I used to be a cop in Franklin Township. I know the area real well. I could come with you, I can handle myself coming back once you find her.”
“I appreciate it, but that’s not necessary.”
“Look man,” Andrew had almost a look of remorse in his eyes as he spoke, “I owe it to myself to help out. Since all this shit went down I’ve been pretty useless, and that’s not who I was. That’s not who I am.” Ben nodded. He understood. He hadn’t had a lot of interactions with too many people since the world fell apart but he knew one thing was true, that it was up to you to decide what kind of person you were going to be, and for some that was a struggle.
II
Despite Juliette’s protests, Ben came back with them into the apartment. Ben instantly disliked her. She was a tall, thin blonde with birdlike facial features. She paced a lot and was more than happy to inform Ben that she was a vegetarian and a personal trainer. She was the typical brat liberal type and he was surprised she’d even made it past the initial outbreak.
Andrew decided that he wanted to take the day to pack up and given the morning’s events, that it might be a good idea for Ben to get himself cleaned up and rested. Ben didn’t like the idea of wasting time but he was pretty hungry and still in shock that Sal and Lucy, the people who took him in when he had nothing and treated him like family for so long, were gone.
Andrew showed Ben his enormous cache of weapons. “Holy hell, where did all this come from?”
“Well, some of it belongs to Clyde, I’m to blame for that hobby. I mean, he’s a big guy and all, but he’s actually a pretty big sissy.”
“Fuck you Drew.” Clyde yelled from the kitchen. Andrew chuckled.
“Anyway, I had a lot, obviously, I mean, I took a lot of stuff from the station.”
“If you were already out of the city, why would you come back? I mean, I understand that th
ings were probably bad everywhere but didn’t they want all the cops on the street to break up the ‘so called rioting?’” He made over exaggerated air quotes and rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t stupid. I knew it wasn’t no rioting. Even my own LT told me that. Told me to grab my girl and get outta dodge. Only the getting back out part never happened. At least not yet.” Clyde entered the bedroom and whistled at the weaponry that was spread out on the king size bed.
“Here ya go, we’re probably ‘bout the same size. Figure you need to get some clean clothes on you.” Ben took the bundle of clothes from him and thanked him. He removed a few things from his pockets and began changing. “Oh here I got some of these too, get some of that nasty shit off of ya’.” Clyde came out of his bathroom with some baby wipes and winked, handing them to Ben.
Andrew rolled his eyes, “Ignore him. Please.”
“Oh, do you mind?” Clyde picked up Ben’s pack of cigarettes.
“Nah, help yourself.”
Clyde smoked in the bathroom while Andrew and Ben continued talking. Ben furiously scrubbed at his arms with the wipes to get the blood off of his skin. He thought he’d never get the smell of the dead out of his nose though. He remembered seeing all the mayhem out on the street, he remembered the single eater he had put down and then watching people literally get ripped apart right outside of Pisano’s soon after that, but he had never been up close and personal with so many before. He was surprised he wasn’t more shook up about it, but then again he wasn’t. Not many things conjured up any emotion in him these days.
“Me and my LT, we were pretty tight. Hank was one cool dude, we worked together for years. He was always up front with me about shit. I was trying to calm things down with some others out at the high school, a news reporter had been attacked and we didn’t need any more incidents like that. We were told to clear out the area, but I mean, how the hell do you clear out the area when there are kids attacking each other? We couldn’t believe our own eyes man. It was a mess. The kids out in Franklin wouldn’t have been caught dead following the rules so of course none of them stayed in their homes. If only they had listened…” Andrew’s sentence trailed off as his eyes seemed to glaze over while he talked about that day. “I couldn’t begin to tell you who was sick and who wasn’t, or where it came from. I don’t think anyone could. But it was so fast and there were so many people protesting or taking pictures and tryin’ to tweet shit with their fuckin’ phones that everybody was too wrapped up in their own stupid shit to notice. All it took was one of them things to come outta nowhere and get one of the kids. You had some parents standing around, so naturally they jumped on in, grabbin’ and pullin’ the thing off and before you know it the kid who was just layin’ in his own blood jumps up and starts biting the lady next to him. We put so many down but it was like they just kept coming, from everywhere. I emptied my weapon twice before Hank ordered us to fall back.”
Ben sat down in an oversized purple armchair in the corner of the room, allowing Andrew to tell his story that he probably didn’t get to talk much about because of Juliette. Clyde tossed Ben his zippo and pack, pointing to a crystal bowl on the dresser next to him.
“We jumped into my cruiser, I was screamin’ for the others to fall back, right alongside Hank but whether or not they were listening, who knows. Hank told me to floor it and so we did. I mean, shit, we just left them all there. Hank told me not to worry about it, just get back to the station. And we did, probably in record time. It was funny though, you’d think that when we got back to the station that shit would have been crazy. I imagined the building teeming with those damn things and yet when we got there it was like nothing had happened. The parking lot was empty, there was no chaos at all. Betty in dispatch sat at her desk lookin’ crazy. I just remember her sittin’ there cryin’ and Hank told her to go home. I don’t even think he finished his sentence before she was up out of her seat and out the door. We looked everywhere for the Captain but never found him. Our next step was to get as many guns and shit as we could and head into the city. In the cruiser on the way, I remember him tellin’ me that he didn’t know what he would do if his wife was dead. He told me to do whatever it took to keep my girl safe.”
“How did you navigate the highway? I heard, no, I know for a fact that it was bumper to bumper.” A clap of thunder startled all of them as rain began to pour down outside.
“Yeah, leaving it was bad, but nobody wanted to get back in. Who the hell would? We were crazy for it, but we did what we had to do. The thing was, all these people that were runnin’ away from the shit in the city, they had no idea that the same thing was comin’ straight for them. It was a mess. I was able to finally get a phone call out to Juliette and she was freaking out, she was trapped at her place, couldn’t get out, those things were practically beating down the doors to get into her house because she was makin’ so much noise. I couldn’t help it, all those people in their cars, I just ignored them. Some of them were trapped inside their vehicles and others were jumpin’ off the bridge, just killin’ themselves. I’ll never forget those screams. Hank helped me when we finally got to Juliette’s house. There were only a few of the crazies outside but two of them were her parents. I always hated her old man, he had somethin’ against her bein’ with a black guy, but that didn’t mean I wanted to necessarily put a bullet in his head one day, ya know? Before Hank left he handed me his favorite nine iron, told me it was good luck and he took off towards his place, lookin’ for his wife.”
“And that’s how they ended up crashin’ my party.” Clyde was leaned up against the bathroom door frame, listening to the story with full attention. “She’s had us locked in here and callin’ all the shots since day one, I can’t stand it. This man is pussy whipped like you wouldn’t believe. And that bitch is crazy as hell too, she got all-”
“Hey,” Andrew shot him a hurt look, cutting him off, “I keep tellin’ you man, ease up with the Juliette shit. She’s scared, that’s all. She don’t wanna lose anyone else.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re smoking in the house now?” Juliette walked into the bedroom, the light from the candles Clyde had lit danced across her face. “Ya’ll make me sick. This guy is a bad influence, I can’t believe you let him in here.” She walked right back out almost as soon as she came in.
Clyde put a hand on his hip and dramatically flipped his long braids over his shoulder. “You see what I’m sayin’?” Andrew shook his head and Ben put his cigarette out in the crystal bowl next to him. This ought to be a blast he thought to himself as he lit another.
III
The remaining day was a long one. Clyde cleared the bed off and told Ben if he’d like some time to himself he should take advantage of it. Even through the closed door Ben could hear Andrew and Juliette arguing, he was sure it was about him. I didn’t ask for this. He felt like getting up right now and taking off, but now that he had already wasted so much time here, it wouldn’t make sense heading out at night when he had no idea where he would even begin to look for Veronica. He didn’t know why he felt so obligated to find her, but that’s all he could think about. Ever since she had told him about their plan to get out of the city and head for the water, he had felt the smallest spark of hope come alive. When things got bad in the street that spark tried to go out, but he had looked at Sal and Lucy, together on the sidewalk with Isaac, and that spark was brighter than ever because he knew he wasn’t ready to join them yet. And he knew Veronica wasn’t either. In the short time he had spent with her he knew that girl had more smarts and more balls than any of them. If anyone could make it out there on their own it would be her.
Drops of water fell from the gutters onto the air conditioning unit that took up the small window in the room. Ben thought of himself getting caught in the storm that had so quickly come on and was glad he had decided to stick around. He got up from the armchair after having one last cigarette and practically collapsed onto the comforter. The décor of the room was deep purpl
e, everything matched including the walls, which were lined with a gold colored trim. Feather boas were draped on both bed posts and it made Ben laugh. He had no problem with homosexuality, but he definitely had a problem with Clyde’s taste in home furnishings. Each room of his apartment was a different theme of feminine colors and odd knick knacks and there was a very large black and white photo in the living room of naked men’s silhouettes. At least he didn’t hang it in this room.
He hadn’t slept well at all the night before they decided to leave his apartment above Pisano’s and felt he deserved a nap. The sounds of the storm were entrancing and he dozed off immediately. Ben slept for about two hours before waking up to Juliette and Andrew bickering and Clyde singing in the background. Ben wondered if Clyde was singing on purpose, he seemed like the type to instigate things. He stretched and got up, putting his cigarettes and zippo back in his pocket, although Clyde’s jeans were a little tight on him, it was nice to have clean pants on. He threw Clyde’s red t-shirt on and walked into the hall, cringing at Juliette’s raised voice.
“We had a plan, you know how important it is for me to have a plan!”
“Baby, I understand, but just like before all this mess, plans fall through, plans change.” Ben could tell she was the neurotic type; definitely OCD. She was undoubtedly traumatized by the fact that her parents were trying to get in the house and eat her and then that was probably made worse by Andrew having to kill them. “This is good for us, this might be a blessing in disguise. We saved a man’s life this morning and we have the chance to help someone else.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Nobody asked you to come with us.”
Andrew looked at Clyde with a raised eyebrow. “Us? What you mean us?”