The Red X Chronicles (Book 1): Emergent

by Sullivan, Robert Patrick

  “No!” the second one replied. “He’s worth more alive. I’m sure the boss will want to have a word with him.”

  “Turn around.” The other masked man said and pulled the shotgun strapped across John’s shoulder off. “Get out there.” He held the gun to the back of his head. “We’ve got your friend here! You might as well come out!”

  “Yeah you’re not the only one!” We looked across the store and could see Dennis holding one of the men captive.

  “Let him go, or your friend dies!” The man near us yelled.

  “I don’t think so! There’s nothing stopping you from opening fire after that!” Dennis had already moved to a more defensible position.

  “I guess we’re just going to have to do this hard way.” I heard the man next to me say “Shoot hi-“

  I didn’t understand what was going on yet, but Steve had caught on and made a move. “Wait!” He yelled from behind clothes.

  “Come out!” They yelled back at Steve.

  “What are you doing kid?” John asked with anger in his voice.

  He put his hands up and walked out from behind our hiding spot. Steve was greeted with a gun to his face. “Dennis let him go!”

  “Like hell I will!” He tightened his arm around his hostage’s throat.

  “They won’t shoot!” Steve yelled back.

  “What makes you so sure of that?” Dennis asked.

  “They don’t want to waste the bullets! They’re only in this for the money. They’re looters, they don’t give a shit about who’s here, or our food.”

  “Smart kid.” I heard one of the men in front of me say.

  “Yeah? Well if that’s the case, then let John go! If you’re telling the truth then you have no reason to keep him at gun point!” Dennis was still worked up.

  “Let him go.” Steve said.

  The masked men looked at each other. The one pointing his gun at Steve shrugged his shoulders. “It would be better if we didn’t have to fight.”

  “Alright! We’ll be the sensible ones.” They dropped their aim from John and Steve. “Now let him go.”

  Dennis was torn by the decision, but he made his choice and released the man from his arms. “Ok, are we good then?”

  “So long as we can take the cash, we’ve got no reason to bother one another.” They replied.

  John let out a deep exhale before speaking. “Can I get my guns back?”

  The men looked at each other and debated it. “Should we?”

  “I don’t think so, but he’s not going anywhere.”

  “Yeah it’s hell outside. Then again he might have to defend himself, should any of those bastards get in here.”

  “It’ll keep things smoother for now too… Alright here.” He handed him back his shotgun and let him pick the pistol up off the floor. We all came to meet in the middle of the room. “Just stay out of our way and we won’t have a problem.”

  “Deal.” Dennis said with a hint of malice in his voice. “I better go tell everyone so it doesn’t cause a panic.”

  One of the men chuckled. “How many people do you have in here?”

  Dennis stopped. “About a hundred.” He walked off to spread his message.

  I was going to follow him but I stopped when the man who had put the gun in Steve’s face grabbed his shoulder. It startled him as he was still jumpy. “Hey kid?”

  “Um, yeah?” Steve hesitantly asked.

  “It looks like you prevented a massacre. And you made our job easier. Good work.” I don’t imagine he was too thrilled where the praise was coming from, but it was well deserved.

  Chapter 12

  “You two.” John got our attention when the men had gone about looting the various stores.

  “What?” Steve asked. His knees were still barely shaking.

  “Go get Will and Elizabeth and meet me in the security room when these guys take off.” John started walking away but stopped.

  “Oh, and I would appreciate it if what those masked sons-a-bitches said about me stayed between them and us. No sense getting everyone worked up at the thought of them coming back here.”

  “You don’t think they’re going to take you with them when they leave?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so, they are loading way too much cargo into that semi-truck. I would wager they’re already going to be sitting on each other’s laps for the ride home.” He stared at us blankly. “Well don’t just stand there, go find Will and Elizabeth.”

  We did as we were told. Walking through the mall we could tell that the recent events had really stirred people up. The look of worry on their faces was incredibly worse than before. A lot of the folks in the mall were upset that we would just let people loot it for cash, but I don’t think that was what was really going on. I think they were mad at the looters for not ditching the cargo and helping us leave, and that I could understand.

  “Hey Steve?” I asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Why did you put yourself at risk back there?”

  “Hmm, I’m not really sure.” He thought it over for a couple seconds while we were walking. “I guess it’s just something you do, rather than think about. I mean yeah, I could have died, but not doing anything would have been worse.”

  “I guess…” My reply was hesitant. “I just don’t see how though… I mean I understand it all in hindsight. What I am really asking is, in that moment what made you do it?”

  “I couldn’t sit back and watch good people get hurt. Truth be told, I didn’t even think about myself till afterward.” His response stuck with me. It wasn’t something that I understood at all. It was selflessness to the full degree. But as I was, I couldn’t just throw myself out of the equation, and I couldn’t fathom how to do it. It was foreign to me, yet admirable.

  “I guess…” I accepted his answer without much thought after that, and went back to the task at hand. “I think we should split up.”

  “Why?” Steve scratched the side of his head.

  “If we split up, we can cover more ground and get back to John faster.”

  “Alright, sounds good.”

  “You go look for Will, and I’ll see if I can’t find Elizabeth.”

  Steve jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow. “Oh I see what’s going on here! You’re trying to get sweet with her, aren’t you?”

  “Har har.” I mocked his gesture, even if it was partially true. “I’m more concerned about Will. I haven’t spoke to him since… Well you saw what happened last time. I’m thinking he might be a little nicer to you than me.”

  “He sure doesn’t seem to like you, if that’s what you mean. So I guess you’ve got a point there… But you owe me!” Steve pointed his finger at me to emphasize his words.

  “Yeah yeah, I owe you one.” We separated as the plan was finalized. I walked through the mall checking the shops and calling for her. I occasionally asked one of the friendlier refugees if they had seen her, though I eventually found her on my own.

  “Hey?” I asked getting her attention.

  She looked over at me from her chair. “What is it Mark?”

  “John wants to see us.”

  “Again? What is it this time?” She slumped back in her chair.

  “He wants to…” I stopped to make sure that no one was listening, but when I saw a few people nearby I rethought my words. “He wants to talk about the quarantine...”

  She didn’t catch my meaning. “What about it?” She raised her hands in confusion.

  “Let’s just go, and bring your stuff. You know… All of it.” I wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked but it got my point across.

  “Oh.” She paused to look around and make sure she had her things, which by all accounts wasn’t much. “Ok let’s go then.”

  We were heading where we needed to go when I broke the silence. “So… is everything alright with you?”

  She gave me this look of disapproval and disbelief. “No… Nothing is alright…”

  I bit my lip after
realizing just how stupid a question it was. “I meant relatively speaking, as in… how are you doing after, what happened with Will?”

  She crushed her eyes together, only briefly before opening them back up to see where she was going. “I guess… I’ll be ok.”

  “Good good…” I didn’t know why I thought bringing that up was a good idea, and it certainly wasn’t the best time, but it was at least a minor distraction from what we were about to do. And even if we agreed that leaving was the best option, it certainly wasn’t an appealing one.

  When we made it to the room we found Steve had already brought Will back. “Alright that’s all of us.” John said checking his weapon to make sure it was in working order. “Those fuckers just took off. Is everyone ready to go? I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to.”

  Most of us nodded in agreement while Dennis spoke for his family. “We’re good.” He clutched his wife and child trying to steel their nerves. It was a harrowing concept heading out there, and we all needed the moment to ready ourselves.

  John cut us short however. He tapped at the monitor. “The door is clear, we should get moving before that changes.” He led the way out of the room but addressed us while we walked down the hallway. “Try not to draw attention to us, I don’t want anyone following.”

  His attempt to remind us only made the situation worse because we were now focused on the people who were looking at us. Their glances were more of confusion than anything else. I don’t suppose they could have known what we were doing, but at the same time, it must have looked strange to them that we were all walking together as a group.

  When we came to the door, which was fortunately out of sight, John motioned to the handle. “Steve.” Was all he said.

  Steve got the meaning and began fumbling for the key in his pocket. He inserted it into the hole, then rested his hand on top. I saw him take a deep breath and a gulp before turning the key, and opening the door slowly.

  John held his gun toward the opening ready to fire if it was needed. When it was clear that it wasn’t, he lowered the weapon. “Let’s go.” He walked out first. When I was outside I could see why the door was clear, the area for the carts was surrounded by brick walls on all sides, with only one gate from which they could enter or exit. The walls were about six and a half feet tall. “Steve, close this door and lock it.”

  “Yeah.” Steve replied then did as he was instructed.

  John had a serious tone in his voice but was notably frustrated that he forgot to explain what he was about to say inside. “Everyone stay close when we’re out there, and try not to make any noise. We’re going to be moving fast and quiet. These things seem to be attracted to sound, so I don’t want to fire unless I have to. Got that?”

  “Yes…” Will was the only one of us dumb enough to answer out loud and I would be lying if I said that I was the only one to roll my eyes at his response.

  John peeked over the wall to make sure that our path was clear. “There’s no clear way out on either side. We’re heading for the wall, I think it’s backed up against some houses, so the other side should be empty, from there we can make our move. Ok let’s go.” He scaled the wall with little effort, though few of us were so capable. When the last of us had made it over the wall, we could see that there were zombies in the distance that we had alerted by our presence. I could see Steve standing there, dumbfounded. I could tell that unlike everyone else in our group, he hadn’t actually had the experience of being in their presence, even if they were a couple hundred feet away.

  “Steve we’ve got to go.” I tugged on his shoulder. It was enough to snap him out of his stupor.

  We were running to get to the back wall of the parking lot. It wasn’t very far, but none of us wanted to stay out in the open any longer than we had to. And to top things off we were going to have to climb the wall when we got there. Dennis stopped for a second to pick up his daughter, as her tiny legs couldn’t carry her fast enough to keep up with the group. “Come on Sweety.” I heard him say quietly.

  We were lucky that there weren’t any zombies close enough that we had to deal with them, at least not yet. John got to the wall first and hopped up on top of it. He scanned the other side long enough to make sure that there was no apparent danger. “Alright, it’s clear, come on.” He reached down a hand to help us out. One by one he hauled us up and over into the back yard of a house. Dennis made sure to hand his daughter up before he climbed the wall himself.

  As soon as we were over John stopped us from going any further. “Hold on, we’ve got a problem.” He spoke very quietly and motioned to Jill. “We’re going to have trouble keeping a good pace if someone doesn’t carry her.”

  Dennis was quick to reply. “I’ve got her, it’s really no big deal-”

  John cut him off. “You need to be ready to shoot if you have to, and something tells me you won’t be able to hold her and fire very easily.” Dennis nodded in agreement, though he wasn’t happy about it.

  “I can do it.” I said getting ready to pick her up.

  “No.” Helena stopped me. “I’ll hold her. I think it would be better if I did it.”

  Helena wasn’t a large woman, she certainly didn’t appear very strong. So thinking that I was somehow weaker than her, was slightly discouraging to me. I didn’t mean to let it show on my face, but John could tell and took me with him to the front gate. “It really is better if she does it Mark.” He whispered to me.

  “Why is that?” I was keeping my voice down, but I was still upset.

  “It has nothing to do with whether or not you could do it.” I was caught off guard by his words. “If Jill panics out there she’ll cling to her mother. On the other hand, she might just jump off your back.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s nothing personal. Now stay focused.”

  I felt the weight of the situation slide off me. He had a point and I knew it, even if I was a better option physically. “Alright…” I replied hesitantly.

  John peeked over the fence to see if it was clear enough to head out into the street from there. He held up a hand and waved the group over to him. “Ok everyone, let’s move.” He whispered just loud enough for us to hear him. He swung open the gate and we followed behind him. When we ran into the street it didn’t take long for us to see zombies. Although they were sparse in the neighborhood, we knew it wouldn’t take long for us to get surrounded if we stopped.

  We moved quickly and tried to stay as quiet as possible, but we were still drawing attention. It would have been easy enough for us not to get pinned down, but none of us knew the street we were on, and soon enough we ran into a cul-de-sac. “Shit” I heard John whisper to himself. He turned back to see the way we came in getting more and more crowded.

  “Great! What do we do now?” Will’s attitude came through in his voice.

  “Would you keep it down!” John’s voice was hushed but forceful. “I’d rather not-“

  “Fuck it man, we’ll just jump one of these fences.” Will cut him off and ran to the nearest house before throwing himself over the fence.

  “Wait till we-“ John barely had to open his mouth before Will cried out from the other side of the fence.

  “Oh shit! Get the fuck off me!” I could hear him struggling.

  John immediately sprinted to the fence. “I fucking knew it.” I heard him say. He pulled himself up to look over. He was muttering to himself when he pointed the gun over the fence and took a second to line up a clear shot. The sound of gunfire rang through the neighborhood for miles, and we knew it was a mistake immediately. The sound of groaning rose around us. Not that any one particular voice stood out, but in the dead quiet, the noise of hundreds, or maybe thousands of those things calling was terrifying. “Everyone over here!” John yelled at us.

  We followed him over the fence into the yard where Will had jumped. He was still struggling to push the corpse off his body. “That’s fucking gross!” He had been sprayed with the innards of his assailant’s head.


  John grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out from under the body. “What were you thinking?”

  Will shook his head back and forth. “What did I do?”

  “Just shut up Will, you fucking idiot.” I muttered in an attempt to get us moving.

  “What did you say to me?” He shoved me into the fence, but Dennis grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off me.

  “He’s right, shut up, we don’t have time for this. You hear that noise?” Dennis paused for a second for us to listen. The sound of their shuffling feet getting closer was enough to sink his point in. “They are going to break down this fence any minute, we have to go… Now!” He pushed him toward the rest of the group. I could barely hear Will muttering his disdain under his breath while we ran into the backyard.

  “Check over the fences.” John ordered. We split up, each of us going to the sides to determine if the path was clear.

  I didn’t even have to look over mine, I just saw a hand reaching over as I got near it. It startled me to say the least, but it didn’t get a hold of me. “This way’s no good.” I reported.

  Elizabeth hopped down from her side and complained. “I don’t think we’re going to find an easy way out of this.

  John griped along with her. “Yeah me either.” He was looking over the back fence and took a second to think it through. “Alright, we’ll go this way. It should lead us to another street at least. Just let me clear it first.” He took a few shots over the fence, cursing at the ones he had missed. “Come on, up and over.”

  I could hear the hands grasping at the fence we had come from while we climbed over into the new yard. When I hit the ground I slipped on something… awful. The mostly eaten remains of a dog didn’t make for the sturdiest place to put your feet. “Oh… gross…” I grumbled and cringed, pulling myself back to my feet.

  John dashed to the front of the house to see if the path was clear. “Well, there’s less of them, but I still don’t think we should go that way.”

  Dennis peaked over the fence beside him before giving his two cents. “We don’t have a lot of options… Maybe we should just take them out-“