State of Panic: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

by Jack Hunt

  I stared into a window and saw the reflection of one of them creeping up the side with a large knife in his hand. The ground beneath me was nothing more than gravel. I took a handful of it and tossed it towards the tree line. When I saw him turn, I came out and fired a round into him then ducked back out of sight.

  I could hear them cursing.

  “Give me that,” I heard Bryan scream.

  “Come on.”

  He fired off four rounds in frustration in multiple directions.

  “This is not over, Frost.”

  I then heard their feet pound the ground and become distant. As I looked over they were gone. Two down and the other three had run.

  I breathed out hard, went over to the guy who was closest to me and checked his pockets. I grabbed a packet of cigarettes out, banged one out and lit it. I coughed hard. Shit, I need to give these up. I peered over the hood of a car, took the knife from the guy and pinched the bridge of my nose. I felt something sticky and wiped my mouth with my hand. As I looked at it, I saw it was covered in blood. But it wasn’t mine. It was his.

  The smell of iron, and its taste on my lips made my stomach turn again. I brought a hand up to my mouth to stop myself from throwing up for the second time that evening.

  RISKY BUSINESS

  I returned to City Hall by cutting through the maintenance supply building and a health food store. When they opened the back door, Billy rushed me inside and cast a nervous glance around. Ally took one look at me and then craned her head to see if her father was behind.

  “Where is he?”

  I was panting and out of breath. I placed a hand on my knee and pulled the backpack off my shoulder. “He’s been shot.”

  “What?” she screamed.

  “He’s alive but he needs our help.”

  I passed the two-way to them and they tried getting through to Murphy but there was no answer. That only increased their anxiety. I couldn’t imagine he would answer. By now the skinheads would be crawling all over the place trying to get at them. I just hoped they were still alive.

  I unzipped the bag and turned it over. The contents went all over the floor. There were four handguns of various makes, Glock, Browning, Ruger and Sig Sauer. In addition to this were several boxes of ammo.

  Both Sara and Ally kept peppering me with questions but I couldn’t answer them. First because they were asking at the same time, and second because I had this ringing in my ears from shooting the last guy.

  “Give the kid some space,” Matt said getting between them and me. “Just give him a minute to catch his breath.”

  An older woman came up with a bottle of water. I thanked her and chugged it down then took a seat. Billy grabbed up one of the handguns and began loading it.

  “Do you know what you’re doing with that, boy?” an older man with grey hair said.

  “I’m not a boy, old man.” He popped out the magazine and began loading bullets one on top of the next. Once he had it filled he slapped it in the bottom and loaded one in the chamber.

  I brought them up to speed on what had taken place with Kate. I saw the look in Sara’s eyes. There was obviously something going on there. Perhaps Murphy was seeing her on the side. Maybe that was what had caused their marriage to fall apart.

  “Anyone who wants to stay, stay. I’m going with him,” Matt said taking one of the guns and loading it. Sara frowned and grabbed his arm. She shook her head.

  “I’m not losing you.”

  “He needs our help.”

  Ally grabbed one of the guns.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Sara said taking the weapon from her hand.

  “If dad is in trouble, I’m going.”

  “No, she’s right, you need to stay here,” Matt said.

  “I’ll go,” Corey added.

  Raymond Wells, an insurance agent, pushed his way forward. “Don’t be a fool, boy. You are just a kid.” He tried to take the gun from Corey, but that was the worst thing he could do.

  Corey pushed him back. “Get the fuck off me.”

  “You need someone to teach you manners,” he shot back.

  “What? And you’re the guy to do it?”

  Raymond moved forward. “Just like your father, he was a loser.”

  Corey lifted the gun at him, holding it in some kind of gangster angle, like he’d seen on TV. “You better back up, bitch.”

  Billy started laughing.

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  “Oh what, you going to make me?” Billy raised his weapon. A few gasps came from the oldies and Matt tried to intervene. Things were spiraling out of control real fast.

  “Guys, this isn’t helping Murphy,” I said.

  There was a moment of awkward tension and then Billy lowered his weapon. If only Murphy could have seen this. We really needed six months with him. He had only begun to scratch the surface of our problems. The friction between Billy and Corey had been ongoing since day one of our arrival at Camp Zero. Billy had been acting like he was mentally insane in an attempt to get himself sent home and Corey was the first one to see through his charade. From then on out, they had been at each other’s throats.

  “I’m just saying, you’re not old enough to fire a handgun,” Raymond said.

  “Are you willing to go out there? Do you want to face those skinheads?” Corey asked.

  Raymond’s chin dropped a little.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Corey, he has a point,” Sara tried to provide a voice of reason.

  “Well then, let’s put it to a vote. If there are four adults who want to go, fine. We’ll stay.”

  Corey looked over to Billy.

  “Speak for yourself. I’m going,” Billy replied.

  “Three then.”

  Another icy glare was exchanged; thankfully handguns weren’t waved around this time. Matt asked people to raise their hands if they wanted to help. We could tell within the first thirty seconds that no one wanted to go out there. It was risky business and the chances of coming back were slim.

  “Then it’s settled,” Corey said picking his gun back up and moving out with a box of ammo in the other hand. I don’t think it was as much a matter of bravery as it was that he really didn’t give two shits about his life.

  “I’ll go,” Brett said.

  “That’s five.”

  Corey, Billy, Matt, Brett and me.

  “No, Brett, they will lynch you,” Jodi said.

  “Then so be it. I’m not going to sit by watching them destroy our town.”

  “Maybe you don’t need to.”

  I was eyeing Ally from across the room. “Did your old man ever teach you how to fire a gun?”

  She let out a chuckle. “I could shoot a cap off a bottle from fifty yards.”

  “Yeah, right,” Billy said before mimicking puppet movements with his hand as though she was all talk.

  “Let’s put a cap on your head then.”

  “Screw you.”

  “Hey,” Matt said coming to her defense.

  “She’s not going out, Sam,” Sara said. “Trained or not, I won’t risk it.”

  “Fair enough.”

  It was interesting to see the level of concern that she had for her. Brett and Jodi? They were different. They had what I classed as a vested interest in me. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

  “Let’s go,” Matt said.

  A few hugs were exchanged while Corey and Billy pulled back the chairs and tables from behind the door. I glanced at the clock. It was a little after eleven at night. Billy shouldered the door and surveyed the area outside. It was so damn dark that if any skinheads were waiting to pop us the moment we came out, we would have died for sure. Thankfully, as far as I knew, no one was aware that anyone was inside City Hall. It would have been one of the last places to check. They would have gone to homes and raided businesses long before they approached any government building. Then of course there was the police station that was directly beside it.

  Getting ba
ck wasn’t an easy task. The streets were filled with them. It was like a war zone. The sound of gunfire could still be heard.

  “You think they’re still alive?”

  “As long as they haven’t run out of ammo and are on top of the roofs. There is only one way up onto those roofs.”

  “I don’t like this one bit,” Matt said.

  We stayed in a line with Corey and Brett keeping an eye on the rear, while Billy and I forged ahead. It took us the better part of fifteen minutes to get close to the block where Luke had killed the two guys.

  “Just follow the sound of rapid gunfire. That has to be Murphy.”

  We were down between two buildings in a narrow dark alley when the first wave of attacks began. They must have seen us coming as it happened so fast. I don’t even know where they were hiding as it was so damn dark. One of us managed to get a round off but after that it was all hands on. One of the skinheads wielded his bat, I ducked and shouldered his gut taking him to the floor. Jab after jab, I unleashed a flurry of hits on him until someone kicked me in the face.

  The sound of another gun went off and then they stopped.

  “Don’t you fucking move!”

  Matt was holding his gun out and waving it around and for a few brief seconds I thought we were in the clear. When the baseball bat came swinging out of the darkness and hit him square in the face, I think we all winced. The gun went off and the brawling began again. I scrambled to my feet and threw as many punches as I could get in. It was hard to see who was winning as it was like a mosh pit in the dark. Arm, legs, hands, groans of pain and then I was being pulled off the guy whose face I had pummeled.

  “Sam.”

  I swung around instinctively and nearly took out Brett.

  “That’s enough.”

  I looked down at the guy whose face was bloodied and beaten to a pulp. My hands were shaking. I stared at the back of my raw knuckles. The shock didn’t set in until I saw Matt further down from us. He lay motionless.

  “Matt?”

  “He’s dead. We need to go,” Brett said pushing on.

  All of us looked as if we had been dragged through a bush backwards. Bruised, battered but still alive we pressed on until we reached the building I’d been on. I tried communicating with Murphy but there was still no answer. We climbed up and that’s when we got a better view of what was going on. Skinheads were on the tops of various buildings and were firing at one that held all three of them. Luke, Murphy and Edgar were returning fire. Crouched down low we assessed the situation. I tried to communicate again but they weren’t picking up. The noise of gunfire was deafening. It was like the Battle of Mogadishu, except none of us were soldiers and none of us had training on what to do. We were fortunate to have survived so far through brute force of will. Matt hadn’t been so lucky. It could have been any one of us.

  “We aren’t going to be able to help them from here. These handguns won’t give us the distance.”

  I peered over the edge into the streets to see where the officers were. The crowd had dispersed. The only light came from cars that were on fire. I could see bodies everywhere. There had to have been at least sixty or seventy people dead.

  I pulled back and slumped down behind the brick wall. The others were watching the mayhem when the radio crackled. “Sam.”

  It was Luke.

  “Yeah.”

  “You got the others?”

  “Three.”

  “Three!” he stammered and I pulled the speaker away from my ear.

  “That’s it,” I replied.

  “Murphy wants you to go find Shaw.”

  “Oh, I’ll just stroll on into the chaos down below and locate her. Are you out of your mind?”

  “That’s his words not mine. Hold up.”

  The sound of gunfire intensified for a minute or two. I peered over the edge and could see that some skinheads had attempted to go up the side of the building. One was carrying a lit Molotov cocktail. Luke shot the guy before he had a chance to toss it. Instead it dropped and smashed over the two below him. They fell off the side of the building covered in flames, screaming.

  “Sorry about that. Some asshole was at the door,” Luke continued.

  “Tell Murphy we’ve lost the rifle and shotgun. But we still have the handguns.”

  “Any other good news?” Luke enquired.

  I hesitated before speaking into the mic. “Matt’s dead.”

  There was silence on the other end. I was expecting Billy to make a crack about how having his ex’s boyfriend out of the picture might have been good news. But he didn’t.

  “I got to go.”

  I waited there for a few seconds looking over the tops of the roofs.

  “Well, you heard him.”

  “He expects us to go back down there?” Billy asked.

  “Kate could die.”

  “So could hundreds of other people. Why should she be treated any different?” Billy asked. “Hell, my family is out there too. He wants us to risk our neck for some cop? The same one that busted our ass multiple times?” He paused. “No, screw that. If he has a death wish he can go down there and save her. I came here to help these guys get back to City Hall.”

  “And then what?”

  “We hunker down until the cavalry shows up.”

  “The military have their hands full, Billy. No one is coming.”

  “There are thousands of military personnel on aircraft carriers. The military is coming.”

  “Even if they make it back to land, you think they are going to come to our little neck of the woods? They are going to focus on continuity of government and the largest cities first.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you think.”

  “And what? You think these skinheads are going to sit by and wait? We have just opened up a can of worms, kicked a hornet’s nest and unleashed hell on this town.”

  “That wasn’t my call.”

  “No, no it wasn’t but you’re in it now. If you didn’t want to help then you shouldn’t have come.”

  “Oh screw you, Sam.”

  “Guys,” Brett said, gesturing with his head out across the town. We followed his gaze to a group that was coming up the street carrying Molotov cocktails.

  “Oh shit.”

  I got up and ran over to the edge and began making my way down. Corey and Brett followed suit. Billy was the only one that hesitated and the only reason I think he moved was because he didn’t want to be left alone. As soon as my boots hit the floor I broke into a fast-paced jog keeping my gun low and hugging the sides of the buildings. Once I made it to the corner of the U.S. Post Office, I crouched down in a comfortable position. Corey took up a spot behind a burnt-out car. Brett climbed up a small pipe that led to an overhang on a building and laid down. Billy came up behind me and was droning on about how we were all going to end up dead.

  “Good, maybe then I will get some peace from listening to you.”

  He huffed and took a spot over by Corey. We watched the group get closer to the side of the building.

  “Wait.”

  They stopped and looked around for a few seconds before beginning to climb. I no longer thought about not wanting to kill. The thought didn’t even cross my mind. We had no other option. We weren’t going to let Murphy and the others die up there. They were already under heavy gunfire from across the roofs. It was a means to distract them while another group attempted to come up the other fire escape. Even if Luke could hold them off, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ammo.

  I focused on the one beginning to climb, aiming for his back. A short pause. A final second and then I fired. The moment I did so, the others did also. The guy fell causing the Molotov cocktail to set alight the ground around their feet. Chaos erupted as others began returning fire at our unexpected attack. The only advantage we had was there were no vehicles nearby us that were on fire, so we were shrouded by the darkness of night. However that didn’t stop them from firing wildly at us. When Luke
leaned over and started raining bullets down on them, they retreated back like rats into the sewers.

  “Move out,” Corey said.

  Stepping out from behind the vehicle he rushed across the road and took cover while continuing to fire. We covered each other as we tried to close the gap between us and the building. I radioed up.

  “Get ready to go,” I shouted.

  Murphy got on the line this time. “No, we’re aren’t going yet. We need to get Shaw and the other cops.”

  “I admire your heart, Murphy, you get ten for effort but Shaw could be anywhere by now.”

  “She’s not. They dragged them inside the church.”

  “Yeah, and probably executed them.”

  “I have to know.”

  “And you expect us to go in there with nothing more than handguns?”

  “I don’t expect you to do anything. If you want to run, hide or get out of town, that’s your choice. But I’m not leaving without her.”

  “Matt is dead,” I said.

  He didn’t even pause. “He knew the risk coming out.”

  And that was it, nothing more than a passing comment before he was back to yelling out orders to Luke.

  “Are you with us?” he asked.

  “You want to define that?” I said while firing off two more rounds at a skinhead who was trying to make his way up to us with an AK45 in his hand. A flurry of bullets came from him, which forced us down on the ground.

  I heard Billy screaming something. I turned and saw that he had pissed himself out of fear. I didn’t imagine that was the worst of what was seen by military when they were under attack. I was expecting at least one of us to curl into a ball and cry. This wasn’t a game. Those were real rounds flying at us and we all knew we could die.

  SHAW

  War. I had never been in one but the thought had crossed my mind of signing up for the military. There was something very admirable about those who defended the country. It wasn’t like they got paid a lot. A recruiter had once visited our school and that was one of the questions that somebody asked. It was then followed by another about why would anyone do it if it paid badly? The recruiter just smiled and shook his head. It was as if words could never clearly convey why. Sure, some joined because they had no other goals but that didn’t account for all those eager to get out there on the frontlines. What drove them? What pushed them to want to risk their life? I had heard of soldiers willing to die rather than leave behind one of their own but never understood it. There had to have been some kind of bond forged by battle itself.