When Danny walked down the steps, he found Eric standing over the corpse. The bearded man sunk down and grabbed the revolver, carefully plying it from the dead man's grip. He opened the cylinder and let the rounds fall on the floor.
"That's some raw shit," Eric said.
When Danny walked up to him he noticed Eric’s face was hidden under a bandana to cover his mouth as he grabbed the unspent rounds and slid it in his pocket. He stuffed the weapon in his dump pouch and looked up at Danny.
Danny cleared his throat before he spoke. "That bedroom upstairs looks like a good spot for the night. You should get set up there. I'll secure everything down here."
Eric nodded slightly as he headed for the stairs. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs hanging his head. "That was some shit, wasn’t it?"
Danny shook his head. "We are lucky to just be standing here."
"I...uh." Eric shook his head. "Chad wouldn’t have made it anyway."
Danny could feel the raw pain start to rise in his throat.
Push it down deep, Danny. There is no place for weakness in a world like this.
"You’re probably right," Danny said, expressionless.
Eric gave Danny a fake smile and walked up the stairs. The whole series of events ran through his mind. He could see Chad’s hand as another volley of rounds entered the windshield. Danny ran his hand over his face feeling the small cuts from the glass. He took a deep breath letting his left hand fall to the soft fur on his belt line.
It’s alright, Jazzy. We are safe for now.
Danny had locked all the doors. His initial scan through the kitchen only turned up a few packets of oatmeal, but he felt his way under the sink and found a quarter of a bottle of brandy.
Could take the edge off at least maybe for Eric.
He set the kitchen table against the sliding glass door in the back and braced it best he could. There wasn't much Danny could do as far as the front door except lock everything and close the blinds. As a reward, he took a long swig of the bottle. It tasted harsh, almost how Danny thought poison would taste. He wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the memories that flooded his mind after he grudgingly swallowed the drink. All that was left in his mind was Ken’s body laying in a pool of blood the night Danny was drunk.
I’m done.
Danny capped the bottle leaving just enough for Eric to have a good time. His last effort was to leave the dining room chairs upside down on the stairs. He walked upstairs to find Eric staring out the window. Smoke could be seen a few blocks away, but everything was calm. For a moment, Danny could almost forget all that happened at that moment, but the look on Eric's face brought him right back to where he was.
"How long do you want to wait this out?" Danny asked, holding out the bottle to Eric.
He snatched it up taking a giant sip. It looked like he was drinking water until he swallowed the last of it. Eric's face contorted as he set the bottle on the ground.
"Figured we'd move before daybreak tomorrow." Eric laid back on the bed with a heavy sigh as he looked up at the ceiling.
Danny unbuckled his helmet and sat on the bed. "I keep running through everything that happened---"
"Dan, it's done," Eric said. His voice was dull, almost lifeless. Danny kept his eyes focused on a tree outside that was stripped of all its leaves. "I just didn't see it in time."
Eric looked over at him. "Sometimes when your number is up, it's just...up. Nothing you can do about it."
"How are you so cut off from this?" Danny said. There was a rawness to his voice.
"I'm not cut off." Eric looked over at Danny. "If anything, I'm more in touch with this shit than anyone else."
Danny rolled his eyes. "How can that be?"
"I've lived in my nightmares before, and I've lost men that I was much closer with than I was with Chad." His voice grew tenser. "This shit is never easy, Etter, but he is dead. Right now, in this instance, he is no help to either of us."
Danny laid back and stared up at the ceiling. "I'm sorry. It's just, I feel responsible—"
"Don't, he is dead. It's as simple as that. The thing you should be worried about is how the fuck we are going to get out of here." Eric said as he stood.
Danny could hear Eric sit down on the chair and begin cleaning his rifle. The sweat that was caked over his body felt like it had hardened as his eyes felt heavy. He struggled to keep them open as they began to relax.
***
Something nudged Danny awake. He grasped his rifle, ready to move at any moment. Gunshots sent him sputtering out of the poncho liner that was laid over his body. The dryness of his mouth overwhelmed him as he sank to the floor. Danny grabbed his kevlar helmet that sat next to his pack and buckled it. Eric was nestled in the corner. He had a wad of dip in his mouth as he looked over at Danny.
"Eric, what's going on?" Danny said, keeping his voice low.
"There were a few gunshots a couple of minutes ago, but then all of a sudden shit started to get real heated," Eric replied.
It was dark in the room with only a small amount of light coming from the window that faced south. Eric kept his eyes scanning outside the window. More gunshots went off, and a massive rolling thunder erupted, which Danny guessed was a fifty caliber machine gun. They heard screams that were drowned out every time the machine gun fired in long bursts.
The glass panes rattled as a jet cut low overhead. The roar of its engines shook the entire building as it made a low flyby. Suddenly, bright flashes lit up the whole room. Danny could see Eric, who was shielding his eyes and opening his mouth. A concussive blast rippled through the home making Danny sink closer to the floor. Another plane flew overhead. It sounded like a loud buzzsaw that filled the air as more lights flashed from the window. Both of the aircraft took off, heading away from the town, leaving small arms fire to fill the large void of space.
"Dan, start packing your shit," Eric said. He stood up, slinging his pack on his back. Danny could hear the canvas straps as Eric synched them down. "We gotta get out of here."
"What the hell is going on?" Danny said he was gathering his things as fast as possible.
"That's CAS, which means that troops are getting overrun. If they start losing then they are going to start leveling the entire fucking area." Eric pulled the dip from his mouth and threw it on the floor. "We gotta get as far away as possible from this shit show."
The gunshots grew closer now as Danny stood up. There were small flashes that caught Danny's eyes. He looked out the window and saw a group sprinting across the patch of dirt that divided the complex from the back sides of the business outlet. He saw a few stop and fire towards the alley where they emerged.
Eric sank down below the window. "Looks like we got some company."
Another group emerged from the street. Danny could make out the shadows of people who were sprinting after the group. The group of soldiers tried to hold their ground as they increased their rate of fire. More and more shadows came from the alley overwhelming the suppressive fire. One man broke the formation suddenly and darted right towards the complex Danny and Eric were in. Then like a cracking dam, all the men broke ranks sprinting right for the complex.
"Guess we are staying," Danny said over the gunfire.
"I guess so. If we go out there, we are gonna fucking die." Eric shut the door in front of Danny and started pulling on the bed frame.
Danny stood there for a moment staring at the horde that was coming right for them. He shook himself out of it and began helping Eric with the bed. They slammed it into the door and braced it with the dresser, so there was no way to open the door without breaking it. Both men stood back, taking opposite corners of the room. Their weapons aimed at the door.
"Hold this spot. If we get overwhelmed, we are ditching out the window," Eric said.
Danny only saw darkness, but Eric's voice conveyed his expression. He pulled out his magazine feeling the round on the left side and inserted it back into his rifle, racking the bolt. He pulled the ma
gazine back out, and the round on top was on the right.
Okay. It’s gonna be okay.
Gunshots erupted to the right, next to the apartment, making Danny flinch to the ground slightly. He held back his breath as fear ran through his body.
Leave us alone. Leave us alone. LEAVE US!
The glass crashed inside. Danny could hear someone yelling, and heavy footsteps pounded on the tile floor downstairs.
"Back door! Use the back door!" a strident voice yelled.
Heavy gunshots went off downstairs and more footsteps thundered below. Danny heard a high-pitched scream, and more shots went off. The sound of glass shattering drew Danny to the window. He saw someone fall outside in the backyard below. Another person landed on whoever it was. Both of the people hit and tore at each other as they fought on the ground. Two more shadows emerged, and Danny heard something heavy get thrown down on the pavement. It happened again over and over. The two figures stood back clapping and laughing as they watched the third crazy bash in the soldier's skull.
Danny's eyes were pulled from the window, and he quietly backed to the corner. A single set of footsteps started walking up the stairs. Each step left a resonating thump. A crash came from below and then another. All the other sounds faded away leaving Danny to focus on the two feet that were making their way to them. The steps grew louder. The wood staircase creaked and whined now as Danny could hear heavy breathing on the other side of the door.
Fuck!
The steps stopped in front of the door. Danny watched the faint reflection of the brass colored knob jerk left, then right. It stopped. Danny could hear breathing on the other side of the door like someone was sniffing just below the bottom crack of the door. Then, a knock came from the other side of the door. Danny kept trying to grip his rifle with his sweaty hands, but the gun felt awkward and clumsy in his hands.
Go away. Please!
A soldier yelled from the next door, and three loud shots went off. The creature on the other side cried out. Danny covered his mouth with his hand just to keep his breathing at bay. The footsteps stormed down the stairs joining the chaos outside. Eric exhaled and sank to the ground almost in sync with Danny. Laughing outside began to drown out the screams as chaos took over yet again.
Danny unclipped his helmet and set it gently on the floor. He slid down the side of the wall and sat there in silence, in the pitch black. The incident went on for what felt like a lifetime. Danny could nearly count the number of times someone was overrun and torn to pieces. He felt no remorse though because it was those men that had almost killed him this morning. It was those men, who were being slaughtered outside, that had murdered Chad in cold blood.
Better them than me.
Danny watched from the window as the flames from the airstrike started to die down. The small arms fire faded as well, meaning that whoever that group was, whether it be the National Guard or some other reserve force, they were losing. It made Danny feel uneasy, knowing that even the military couldn't hold back whatever this was.
The thought made Danny want to break down. He felt so exposed, like a child who was lost. The feeling of uncertainty and dread poured into his body. The chaos finally went silent, leaving Danny's hollow thoughts to manifest. He closed his eyes, thinking of the sweet memories of his life before everything went wrong, but even that seemed infected by this new hell that was spreading like cancer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE DOOR CREAKED open, letting the putrid smell of the rotting corpses below fill the once safeguarded room. Danny took one last breath before he immersed himself in the stench. He felt the wall with his side as he carefully made his way down the stairs. Each step downward revealed more of the horrors that transpired the night before.
What happened?
The first floor looked like a scene from The Hangover. The windows were all shattered, leaving the curtains to sway with the wind as the elements began to invade the home. A bundle of bloody mush was visible from the kitchen. Danny nearly tripped as he stepped on something. A severed arm was sitting on the lip of the stairs. It was pale with a watch still strapped to the wrist. Danny kicked it away with his boot as he walked to the front door. When he looked back, he noticed Eric was holding the severed arm in his hand, working the buckle of the watch band off.
"Are you kidding?" Danny mouthed.
Eric shrugged slightly and stowed the watch in his pocket. He shook the severed hand and set it down on the step. Danny couldn’t help but laugh. He hated himself for it, but maybe that's how people stayed sane in times like these. Nevertheless, it was disconcerting how death was becoming a normal everyday thing, and it seemed that Eric was right at home with all of it.
The front door was still closed as the men approached it. Eric pushed to the window and scanned the outside. He gave a nod to Danny, who opened the door with his rifle ready to fire. Danny took the lead, cutting to the right and walking down the outside hallway with his rifle scanning every potential threat. The courtyard was to his left, and he kept the apartment wall to his right. Eric kept in tow with him covering the rear. The two of them were starting to gel, and Danny could almost predict what moves Eric was going to make before he even made them.
A pile of bodies littered the entrance to the apartment complex. In a corner, Danny could see massive arterial blood sprays on the wall with a puddle of blood, bone, and tissue in the corner. He quickly darted his eyes away.
Like I said, better them than me.
They quickly moved their way out of the apartment complex, carefully tiptoeing around the bodies. They set up at the end of the building still heading north with the intent to get to the mountains that stood in the backdrop. Danny peeked around the corner quickly. A large SUV had run into a pickup. The accident sat in the middle of the road and was beginning to get surrounded by trash and debris. The other side of the street was a residential area with single-story duplexes surrounded outlined with a long white picket fence.
"Okay, chief," Eric said quietly. "I'm going to make it across this street, then it's your go."
Danny set up at the corner of the building with his rifle at the ready. "You better move your ass." He took a deep breath and aimed his rifle down the street. "On you."
The scraping of boots on pavement sent Eric sprinting across the asphalt. He quickly posted up behind a brick encased mailbox and clicked on the headset on his radio.
"Everything looks clear. I have you covered on the right," Eric said over the radio.
Danny double-clicked his headset.
Alright, Dan. Just get there. Don't think, just go.
He made a run for it. Each step felt labored as his muscles started to scream. Danny looked up only to find he had covered ten feet. He cursed himself as he pushed harder. Danny looked up and was midway there. The truck was next to him, and he was just past it when his radio screeched.
"Stop!" Eric said over the radio.
Danny froze and pushed back behind the cover of the vehicle and looked over at Eric. "What is it?"
"I have eyes on a bunch of crazies that just emerged from down the road."
Danny watched as Eric disappeared in an assortment of bushes and flowers. Slowly he laid on the ground to see under the truck. What he saw made things worse as he silently got up into a crouch.
Eric talked to Danny through the radio. "Dan, they are coming this way. You can either risk it and haul ass to me, or you hide."
"Thanks for the options there." Danny's face started to turn red as anger and panic began to set in.
He was about to try the door handle.
What if it was locked or worse, the alarm went off?
Danny had to do it. He closed his eyes and held his breath.
I'm screwed either way.
He pulled the handle. The door popped open, and nothing happened.
"Thank you, baby Jesus," Danny muttered to himself.
He hopped in as fast as he could. The carpet smelled like feet and dogs in the back seat where he
laid down. Nothing could hide him except the tint from the windows, which he hoped would be enough. He curled up in the leg area of the back seat, trying to stay out of the light. He kept his head facing the position where they were coming and laid his pack over himself to hide. His left hand rubbed the soft fur of Jazzy Bear.
"Dan, they are right on top of you," Eric said over the radio.
He could smell them through the top cracked window in the front of the truck.
"Why did I do that?" one woman yelled.
A man started to cry to himself. "Just a few hours. I’ll close my eyes for just a few----"
"Fuck them, and then kill them. Or is it the other way around? Wait, when do we eat them?"
They all muttered strange things to themselves. Some sobbed, while others laughed and clapped aloud. He saw a few heads pass the window, but none seemed to even bother with the car.
Danny wanted to breathe so badly, but the stench alone would make him want to gag, so he held it. He closed his eyes trying to ignore the madness outside. The footsteps began to fade, and Danny's heart rate began to slow. He let out his breath slowly and inhaled as quietly as he could. The stench was still there, but nothing like it could have been.
Danny clicked his headset. "Eric, I'm going to move. Let me know when I am clear."
"Dan, back window."
What?
Danny's eyes went upward. His head followed until he could see the window to the door to his back. A wide smile with lipless teeth was looking down at him. The crazy used his hands to cup the window so he could see through the dark tint. Its eyes jumped from the cabin to its prey in such a violent motion that it made Danny feel sick. A hand went away from the window, and Danny heard it pull on the door handle.
"I'm taking him out. Get ready to haul ass," Eric said over the radio.
Danny fumbled for his headset, but a loud crack went off, and Danny watched the creature’s head snap back. Parts of bone and brain matter splattered on the window as it went limp.
REM Page 19