Apocalyptic Beginnings Box Set

by M. D. Massey

  “Here.” Claire tried to shove her gun at Henry.

  “You’re going to need this.” He pushed it back to her.

  “I can’t. I can’t do it. I can’t shoot anyone I know.” She looked down at her feet. “Especially if it’s Marc.”

  “Marc, as you knew him, is already gone. The virus is running his body now.”

  “I can’t!”

  I grabbed Claire by the arms. “Do you think I want to shoot my family?” I asked, calmer than I felt.

  “No! Of course not!”

  “We need you, Claire.”

  Henry stopped us. “Shhh, ladies. Listen.” He spoke in a hushed tone, his gaze lowered. “If it comes down to it, I will take care of Marc for you.”

  “Take care of him? Take care of him!?” She had become furious, getting in Henry’s face. “It shouldn’t be like this! Because of whatever you do in your secret life, the love of my life is probably eating one of Elaina’s family members!”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to offer you.” Henry turned away from us.

  I took her by the hands. “Claire, please. We have to trust him.”

  “Why?! Because he said so?! Come on, Elaina! He lied to us…to you! You trust him about as much as I do, and I know you know that!”

  I looked at Henry, then back at Claire. She was right. My trust for him flew out the window when I saw him pull out the gun at the church.

  “I understand that, but… I don’t know. I have to trust him. It’s all I’ve got to go on. If it weren’t for him, we’d both be undead.”

  “If it weren’t for him, all of this may never have happened!”

  Claire was spitting mad, and I was getting angry myself. How dare she accuse Henry of the atrocity around us? He would never make something like this happen, would he? I was so confused, but I had to press on.

  “This isn’t his fault! He’s trying to protect us! I have to trust him. I’m left with no other options right now.” I could feel the lump in my throat growing larger. I needed Henry. He always knew how to bring me back from the brink of despair.

  “How can you trust him when you don’t even know him? You said so yourself!”

  “I have seen bits of the Henry I know,” I choked out, holding back tears.

  “Enough. I appreciate you defending my honor, Elaina, but it’s time we got down to business.” I looked in the direction Henry stared.

  It was like a herd of well-dressed drunk people staggering in our direction. A herd of our friends and family, all in an undead state.

  “Gather yourselves and come over here!” He waved us to the rear of his Tahoe. I went to him, Claire reluctantly following. My heart raced as I raised the gun, holding it with both hands. My arms shook as I tried to hold it steady.

  “I can’t, Henry. I can’t do it.” Tears welled up in my eyes again. As far as I could tell, everyone stumbling toward us were people I knew and loved.

  “Yes, you can. They are no longer who they were.”

  “I still love them.” My eyes pleaded with him to free me from the horrific task.

  “You love who they were, not who they are now.” My jaw trembled. “This was one reason I wanted you two to stay back at our place. I didn’t want you to have to face this.”

  “I couldn’t bear to sit there and wait, wondering if you would come back.” I tried so hard not to cry. I had cried way too many times already.

  “I understand, but enough of this. We need to focus. You ladies can do this. I know it.”

  I looked up, seeing the first undeads about ten feet away.

  It was crazy Aunt Lisa, growling and moaning at the same time. Thick, sticky blood oozed out of her mouth, she had a gaping bite wound on her neck, and her mismatched two-piece suit was torn and bloodied.

  “I’m so sorry, Elaina,” Henry whispered. “Please forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

  He shot her between the eyes. The back of her head exploded, tissue and matter splattering everywhere. I gasped. Claire screamed. Aunt Lisa dropped like a sack of potatoes, lying motionless on the ground.

  My stomach reminded me that it was still there, and it wasn’t about to settle down any time soon. Henry looked over at me. I could see he was torn.

  “Be ready, love. There are more coming.” He knelt and looked around the bumper. “Elaina, stand above me for a sec. Claire, cover us and make sure there aren’t any coming up from behind. If you see an undead, shoot to kill.” He looked at Claire giving a slight smile. “I know you can do this.”

  Claire shook to the core, but nodded. As much as she didn’t want to do it, she knew it was something that had to be done. With a small hesitation, she turned around and covered us.

  “All right, Elaina. I’m going to walk toward them.”

  “No, you are not!” I couldn’t understand why he would do such a thing.

  “We can’t hide here and wait for them to come to us. We’ll get overrun. We have to go to them. They aren’t as fast as we are. We can take them out before they get too close.”

  “No.” My heart said no, as well. I was having so many mixed emotions about Henry, I didn’t know which one to go with.

  “Please, trust me. I know what I’m doing.” He stood and walked out into the middle of the street before I could grab him.

  Damn it, I thought.

  I followed, covering him. Claire looked over her shoulder and took a few steps to her left, toward the middle of the street.

  “Ready?” Henry asked.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be to kill my own family and friends.”

  “They’re already dead. You’re just helping the process along and ending their suffering.”

  I raised my gun again, holding it with both hands. The cool steel chilled me to the bone, knowing what I was about to do. I aimed at the next one, my friend Brian. I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger, hearing him drop to the ground. I let out a strangled whimper and lowered the gun to my side.

  “It’s okay, Elaina. You did what was best.” The undeads staggered closer. “Fire at will, love.” We both raised our guns. I squinted, tears running down my cheeks.

  Next were my cousins, Trish and Julian, Henry’s host mother, Margaret, my Uncle Tim… Then I saw him.

  My father.

  “No. No. No, no, no!” Henry, aiming his gun, looked over at me. “No, Henry, don’t…please!” I wanted to rush to my father’s aide.

  “Elaina, it’s not him. I’ll take care of him.” Henry still had him in his sights.

  Memories of my father ran rampant through my head. Playing at the park, reading my favorite books, kicking a soccer ball around in our yard, the way he looked at me as I prepared to walk down the aisle…the fear in his eyes when he saw what was happening in the church. I shuddered, knowing what I had to do.

  “No.” I paused. “I will do it. I want to be there for him like he has always been there for me.” Henry nodded and took my waist, keeping me stable.

  I brought the gun up, held on with both hands, and put a bullet in my father’s head. It was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

  Before I could process what I had just done, I heard Claire’s blood-curdling scream come from behind us. Henry and I spun around. Marc, missing part of his arm and dragging his right leg, was about twenty feet away, heading straight for her.

  “Shoot, Claire! Shoot!” Henry yelled.

  I turned back around to cover us. There were a couple more undeads coming. I unloaded my gun at them, mentally blocking out their identities. When I heard a gunshot behind me, I spun around. Claire was on her knees, holding her gun, sobbing.

  “Claire… Claire!” I went to her and grabbed her. Suddenly, she struggled against me, breaking free and running toward Marc. Henry tried to grab her, but she was already too far away. Marc lay in an awkward position on the street, half his head in bits all around him.

  “Claire! Don’t touch him! Claire! Stop!” Henry ran to her and caught her around the waist, causing her to dro
p her gun. She struggled against him, but it was no use. He was far stronger. “Claire, I don’t want you to touch him.” She collapsed against his chest. He held her close while she sobbed. “Come on, love. We have to move forward.”

  In between sobs, Claire choked out, “No! I have to go to him!”

  “I can’t let you do that.” Henry held her face in his hands. “I know what he meant to you. You loved him and he loved you.” He looked over at me, hoping I would acknowledge he was talking about us, as well. “I know this is hard, Claire, but we have to move forward.”

  Claire grabbed Henry’s hands and jerked them away. She stuck her finger in his face. “You bastard!” she screamed. “You don’t know shit! You have Elaina! I have no one!” Then she punched him in the face, Henry stumbling backward.

  I ran over. “Claire, stop. You have to stop. You will attract more.”

  “I don’t give a flipping fuck if I attract more!” Her body trembled. She took a step back and held her arms out to her sides. “Shoot me.” My jaw gaped. I could never shoot her…could I? I just shot my father.

  “No way!”

  “Stop being a pansy, you obstinate bitch, and shoot me! I don’t want to live without him.” I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was all too much to process. Everyone was changing right in front of me, whether into an undead or a defeated person. “Don’t you get it, Elaina? You said it yourself. We’re going to die anyway. Why not by our own choosing? Shoot me. I want to die now. I can’t live without him, and I don’t want to turn into what he was.”

  She stood with her arms still out, waiting. I looked over at Henry, who still rubbed his face where she had decked him. I was stunned. I wanted to end her pain, but not in that way.

  “Yes, you can live without him.”

  “No, I can’t. You don’t understand!”

  “Understand what? My life has changed today, as well! When I got up this morning, I never thought I would be shooting undeads when I should have been fucking my new husband’s brains out! I just shot my father! I just shot a bunch of my family!”

  She put her arms back down to her sides. She turned toward Marc and fell to her knees. When Henry started to go to her, I grabbed his arms. “Let her be for a moment. She needs to say goodbye.” Reluctantly, he walked back to the Tahoe.

  I stood in the middle of “Undead Alley” and watched, feeling helpless, while my best friend experienced one of the worst things that had ever happened in her life, aside from the death of her parents.

  I wanted to run to her, hold her and console her, but I was so angry. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare we were experiencing. I wanted all the madness to end, but it wasn’t going to. It would only get worse.

  Far worse.

  Claire wiped her face on her sleeve, then got up and walked over to me. She put her arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I know it’s hard for you, as well. That wasn’t fair for me to say.” I accepted her apology, even though it was unnecessary. I gave her a tight hug, then we walked away from Marc. “This is just unreal.” She bent over and grabbed the gun she had dropped.

  Henry waved us to him and we headed over, holding hands. “Listen, I know this is all very overwhelming, but you have to stay focused out here. Once we get back to our flat, you can let your emotions out.” He spoke like he had no emotion, like a machine.

  “Henry, please. We just had to do the unthinkable. We need a minute.”

  “I realize that. I have been there, but there’s no time.”

  I cocked my head a bit. I have been there… His words ran through my head. I felt like that was the first real piece of information I had gotten about him.

  Realizing the gears turned in my head, he said, “We’ll talk about that at another point. Right now, we need to focus. We need to get to the people Nate saw, then go to the flower shop to pick him up.”

  Henry opened the back passenger door and grabbed his pack. I opened the lift gate, got a couple bottles of water, and jammed them into the side pockets of his pack. We reloaded our guns, then he set the truck alarm and pocketed his keys.

  “So we can hear if anyone tries to break in.” I nodded. The last thing we needed was for someone to steal our cache of weapons and what little supplies we had in there. Or, worse, the truck itself.

  We slowly walked down the street. Claire and I were next to one another, guns ready. Henry was behind us, covering. When we walked past my true dead family, I tried not to look at my father. My eyes filled with tears again, but I held my breath and kept my head up as we pressed on. I couldn’t look at him or I would have been right there on the ground next to him.

  Henry kept stopping, nudging everybody with the toe of his boot to make sure they were true dead. The closer we got to the church, the worse the streets and buildings looked. I was blown away by how fast it had progressed. Total annihilation. The surrounding area was eerily quiet, but I could hear music playing from the clothing store.

  “Henry, do you want to check the stores for people who are alive?” I asked, crossing my fingers that he would say no.

  “No. Let’s just keep going.” I acknowledged his request, feeling relief. We looked like vigilantes: calculated movements, heads high, armed to the hilt. The church was a short distance ahead.

  I heard a banging sound, like someone knocking. I looked around. It came from the flower shop on our right. It was our wedding coordinator, Nate, pounding on the front windows, pointing across the way. Face contorted with fear, he was yelling, but I couldn’t make out what it was through all the gore on the window. I looked toward the church, where he pointed. I could vaguely see two people behind the gates to the lot.

  It looked like my brother, Nick, but I wasn’t sure. He seemed to be fighting off an undead. I started over there, but Henry yelled, “Wait! Let me go check them out. I want to see if they have any bites. Cover me.” I tried to stay calm, but I didn’t think I could bear seeing another member of my family slaughtered.

  Claire and I stood back-to-back in the middle of the street, holding our guns, watching for undeads. I almost felt like we were having a Charlie’s Angels moment. I kept looking back and forth between Nate and at Henry. Nate was pressed up against the window, still pounding on it.

  There was blood all over the windows and doors of the shops. It had to have been from people trying to escape the madness of the street.

  Henry stopped a few feet short of the gate, his gun pointed toward the scuffle.

  “Elaina!” he called out.

  “Yeah?” I responded, watching Nate carefully.

  “It’s Nick and Jenna!”

  I whipped around. “Oh, my god.”

  As I ran over to him, he turned and held his hand up. “No. Stand down!”

  “Why?”

  “Jenna is undead and Nick’s trying to hold her off.”

  Jenna was my brother’s girlfriend of about two months. He always had a new flame, claiming she was “the one”, but they never lasted more than six months. I swear, he had more girlfriends than Hugh Hefner.

  I admit that I did like Jenna, even though I had only known her for a short period of time. She was level-headed and had a great job at a marketing firm in the city. She was beautiful and, to be frank, did seem like marriage material. Nick’s scream snapped me back to reality.

  “Did she bite him? Nick! Are you bit?!” I shook all over at the thought of possibly having to shoot my brother.

  “No! Help me, please!”

  “Henry, let me come over.”

  Henry looked back and forth between Nick and me. “All right, but Jenna needs true death.”

  “I know,” I said, just above a whisper, the anxiety setting in. “I’ll take care of it.” I needed to help him. I needed to save my family, even if it was just one person.

  Henry walked back toward me as I headed toward him. He stopped and put his hand on my face, making me look into his eyes. Those brilliant green eyes looked a bit faded.

  “Look him over carefully. If
he’s bit…”

  “I know.” He kissed my forehead, and I walked to my brother, trying to stay as calm as possible.

  “Elaina!” Nick cried. “Please, you have got to help me!”

  “Nick, I have to shoot Jenna.” It was a bit blunt and business-like, but there was no time to beat around the bush.

  “No. No, please…don’t. She’s the love of my life,” he pleaded.

  “I understand that, Nick, but she is gravely ill and won’t get better.”

  “What is happening? I don’t know what’s going on.” He was talking between tears and holding Jenna back with a piece of metal handrail from the church.

  “I don’t know all the details, but we can explain this later. Now, step back.”

  “No, please. Please…don’t! I love her.”

  “I have to or she will hurt you or someone else.” I raised my gun and aimed at Jenna’s head. “Back away, Nick.”

  “No, Elaina. Please…”

  I pulled the trigger and down she went. I was stunned by my accuracy. In my mind’s eye, I saw Jenna drop over and over again. The sound of Nick dropping the metal rail brought me back to the present. He stood silent for a moment, then looked over at me. He had Jenna’s blood and matter all over him.

  “Why? Why the hell did you do that?” I stepped closer to the gate. “Stay back!” Full of aggression, he pointed at me. “You are no longer my sister!”

  “Nick, please. You don’t understand.” It was my turn to plead.

  “I understand perfectly. You shot Jenna! My love, the woman I was going to marry.”

  I felt bad, but I had to do it. “Nick, please listen.” I moved closer to the gate, trying to examine his physical state while staying calm. When he leaned down to Jenna, I yelled, “Stay back! Nick, have you been bit?”

  “Why?! Are you going to shoot me, too?!”

  “She may have to, mate.” The sound of Henry’s calm voice startled me.

  Nick furrowed his brows. “Henry? What the fuck? This is no time for games! What’s with the British accent? Quit fucking around, you asshole! Do you not see what’s happening here?”