The Red X Chronicles (Book 1): Emergent

by Sullivan, Robert Patrick

  “Wait!” I cut him off and looked back at the mangled corpse on which I had fallen. I winced at the thought of what I was about to do. “I’ve got an idea.” I reached down and took a hold of the bloody mess. It was disgusting. The dog was missing its left legs, and entrails were strewn from its torso. I couldn’t even pick all of it up without it falling in two. The looks I was getting matched my own, but it was the best shot we had. I walked over to the fence and reeled back, tossing it a good twenty feet. The three of us popped our heads over the fence to see the reaction.

  John patted me on the shoulder when those shuffling bastards turned to what was left of the dog. “Sorry you had to do that, but not bad kid.”

  “Yeah.” Dennis agreed. “It’s not going to buy us a lot of time though.” He spun around to the group. “Come on, this is our window.”

  We jumped over the fence but scarcely drew any attention as the zombies huddled around their meal. We rushed down the street with John trying to make heads or tails of our desired direction. He didn’t take much time to decide, which was definitely the best move. Even though we weren’t sure how to get back to the quarantine zone, indecision was sure to lead to death out in the open, and after a few wrong turns, we made it to the main street.

  We were sure to move fast, which was working well being that there weren’t any large swarms out on the street. We pushed forward, but the pace was taking its toll. We were all panting by the time we saw the quarantine line. It was a clear shot to the fence. I saw men behind it pacing with rifles and the bodies of the dead from the time we were there before, but something was off. There were even more bodies now than there were back then, and not just zombies, fresh ones too.

  “One final push!” I heard Steve yell, he had made his way to the front of the pack, he was sprinting for the gate when I realized what was happening.

  I saw the men shouldering their weapons and barely had time to call out “Steve wait!” I was too late though. Shots rang out, and red holes began to riddle his body.

  We took cover behind the abandoned cars in the road. “What the hell was that?” Dennis raged. “They just shot him!”

  Elizabeth was shocked by the scene. “Is… Is Steve going to be ok?”

  Dennis grabbed her by the shoulder and shook his head in response.

  John peered over the edge of the car only to have more shots whiz past his face. “Shit! You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  “What’s going on? Why did they shoot him?” Will asked.

  “We can talk about it later! For now, just keep your heads down.” John’s words snapped angrily. He looked back where we came from, and sure enough, we were being followed.

  “What should we do?” I asked nervously.

  John took a second to survey our situation. He crushed his eyes together and sighed. “Well… If it worked once.” he mused to himself. “Alright here’s the plan, we’re going to wait till the zombies are right on top of us, those bastards behind the fence will have more targets to worry about that way. Then Dennis and I will provide covering fire while we sprint into that alley.”

  “Oh not this shit again!” Will was irritated.

  “If you’ve got a better plan then- no never mind, you don’t.”John looked at me before continuing. “Mark, get that manhole cover open again, it’s our only shot.” I nodded in reply. “Wait for my signal.” He waited until the shuffling corpses inched forward. It wasn’t but thirty seconds before they were right on top of us, that’s when the men behind the fence opened fire on them. “Go!” John shouted popping his head up and returning a few shots of his own.

  I ran as fast as I could down the alley trying not to pay attention to what was going on. The gunshots kept coming while I wriggled my way down the same storm-drain I had been in just a few days earlier. I caught a brief glimpse of Dennis and John darting from behind the cars and narrowly avoiding the zombies’ grasps while I turned my head to fit it inside. Once again I used my back to force the cover open. Hands reached down through the crack and slid it to the side while I jumped down out of the way. They piled in behind me and we closed the cover while the sound of gunshots continued to litter the street above us.

  It wasn’t exactly comfortable, all of us squished together in that concrete room. I wasn’t sure if another person could fit, but I still had to ask. “Everyone made it right?” My voice was jittery from the adrenaline.

  “I made sure we all got in.” Dennis sounded out in the dark.

  “Everyone but Steve…” Elizabeth said.

  “Yeah I know…” Dennis continued. “What the hell do we do now?”

  “This way.” John replied. “This tunnel leads to another manhole cover near a canal.”

  “Do I even want to know how you know that?”

  John released a heavy sigh. “Let’s just say it wasn’t fun the first time we were here either.”

  “Is it clear? Maybe I should go first.”

  “It should be…” John said, his words sounded exhausted. “I’ll go first, I’ve got more ammo. Dennis you take the rear. If something does happen we’ll be covered from both ends that way.”

  Shuffling against each other we squeezed our way back into the tube. Will was the first to break the silence. “I thought you said this isn’t a sewer, what is that fucking smell?”

  “Think about it kid…” John hesitated before speaking again. “With all those bodies up on the street… It’s blood…”

  Chapter 13

  Will was right, the stench was awful. The floor felt almost greasy beneath our feet, our shoes slipped and struggled to keep steady as we hunched our way through the drain pipe. We might not have been able to see it, and I think that was a good thing for our already dwindling morale, but the blood that flowed from the street had been there a few days, which meant that it had coagulated and rotted, making the texture beneath our feet seem… chunky. It must have mixed with water runoff at some point, seeing as it sloshed more the farther we got.

  “My back is killing me.” Dennis muttered to himself. “How long is this thing?”

  I swear I heard John suppress a snicker before he replied. “It’s something like a mile, not exactly sure. It takes a while at this pace.”

  “So… what’s the plan?” I asked trying to keep myself distracted from the fluid filling my shoes.

  It was quiet for a lot longer than I was hoping for. “I’m not sure.” John sounded tired.

  “We should try and find a way around those assholes at the gate.” Will said all too loud right in my ear.

  “I don’t think that’ll do any good.” John paused to think before he spoke again. “It’s a quarantine, the whole point is to keep things in. If there were a way around, well it would be a pretty shitty quarantine now wouldn’t it?”

  “We’ve got to do something.” Dennis added.

  “I know I know! Just let me-“ John trailed off and stopped moving.

  “We can’t just stay in here John, and we’re not-“ Dennis was cutoff.

  “Shut up.” John’s voice was a strained whisper. Sure enough, I could hear what he was afraid of. The light splashing noises echoing down the pipe from in front of us. “Crap, we’re not alone.” I heard him fiddling with his gun. “I can’t see shit, does anyone have a light?”

  “Will, you charged your phone at the mall right?” I asked.

  “Yeah hold on.” I could hear him trying to dig it out of his pocket.

  “Hurry up, the noise is getting closer.” John blurted.

  “Just a second, here.” Will’s phone lit up the tunnel. I felt him push it into my hand, but I didn’t get a good grip before he let go. It fell, bouncing around for a moment off the curved pipe before sinking into the murky water and flickering into darkness. “Shit my phone!”

  “I can’t see a thing!” John yelled at us. “Does anybody have anything else?” A barrage of no’s and other disagreements were returned, much to his dismay. “Oh come on…” He calmed down after he thought of what to do. �
�We’ll just wait for it to get closer, I’ll squeeze off a shot, and hopefully that will give me enough light to line up a second one.” It wasn’t much, but it was a plan, and none of us objected to it. The seconds passed by with the splashing getting closer, and closer, each one seemed longer than the last, until it was right on top of us. John never fired his shot, instead he just waited until the sound of the splashing went beneath our feet. I felt something, or maybe I should say many things, brush against my legs, which of course made me jump into the ceiling.

  After a few seconds, John laughed. “Holy crap, phew, it was just rats. I should have told you, but I figured you heard the squeaking too.” He let out a huge sigh of relief. “Fucking rats, what the hell were they doing anyway?” He was musing to himself at that point. “Running past us like that, it’s like they were afraid of something…” He stopped dead in his words, and we could hear a moaning sound coming from up ahead. “Shit!” John pulled up his gun and fired into the blackness. I could only barely catch a glimpse of what was going on. Again and again he fired. I could see new holes getting closer and closer to the zombies head appearing with each subsequent flash, until the last few shots revealed it falling to the ground lifeless.

  I was breathing heavily in the dark, not that anybody else was calm, but my focus was drawn inward. “Is it dead?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I think so.” John seemed shaken too. “Did we remember to put the cover back when we got out of here the first time?”

  It was hard to hear him, the sound of the gunshots had echoed off the walls louder than anything I had ever heard before, my ears were ringing. “I guess not.” I gulped. “What now?”

  Dennis called from behind us. “Well we’re not going back. There’s nothing back there but more of these bastards and hail of bullets.”

  John sighed before speaking. “He’s right, the only way is to press on.” I felt him pull away from me. “Let’s go.” The rest of the trip was brought to a crawl. We didn’t want to run into another one of those things unprepared. As things were, distance was the only thing which made them manageable, so moving a couple of feet and stopping to listen was our only viable tactic. We tried our best to keep quiet for the rest of the journey. It was slow, it was painful, it was disgusting, and honestly, I wish I could forget it.

  When we finally made it to the ladder, all of us were glad to just be outside of that mess, but we kept ourselves from exiting the pipe too hastily. Just because we didn’t run into any more down in the drain didn’t mean we couldn’t be surrounded when we got out. Luckily for us, the canal area was still clear.

  “Where are we going?” Dennis was looking around to make sure the area was clear.

  “I’m not really sure.” John said doing much the same as Dennis, but his face was full of uncertainty.

  “We can’t just stand around in the open like this…” He waited a moment. “John?” Dennis asked again. When he didn’t get an answer he continued. “John!”

  “I don’t fucking know! Ok?” John threw his arms up in defeat.

  Dennis grabbed his wife by the arm and lead her along. “Come on, we’re going into one of these houses until we can come up with a plan.”

  “Alright, whatever.” John thrashed his arm in defeat.

  We climbed into the nearest backyard. It was backed up right against the canal, so we weren’t seen entering. “We’ll make sure the house is clear.” Dennis said and gestured over to John. “Everybody else wait here and stay quiet.” We could do nothing but agree. Dennis tapped on the glass of a sliding glass door and waited for a few seconds. “If anyone… or anything is in there, it’s not making a sound.” He checked the handle to see if the door was open. “No luck.” He walked around the side of the house. “Let’s break through this window.”

  When they smashed through the window it wasn’t exactly silent, though it didn’t seem to get anything’s attention. After they entered, we waited outside for a few minutes, light shuffling could be heard from the inside. I saw them for a brief moment make their way past the glass door we saw earlier. I didn’t like just sitting there, waiting. I don’t think any of us did, to tell the truth, but there wasn’t a lot we could have done if there was any trouble anyway.

  Finally, after what seemed far too long, John came back and opened the door for us. He waved his hand and spoke softly. “Come on, it’s clear.”

  It wasn’t a very nice home, on the cheap side of middle class, but saying it was better than being out on the street would be an understatement. I went to sit down on the couch but was stopped by Dennis grabbing my shoulder. “Don’t rest just yet, we should barricade the doors and windows. No sense taking any chances while we’re in here.”

  I was frustrated and tired, but he was right, we needed to know we were safe, or at least safer. Truth be told, it didn’t take that long to get the place at least somewhat secure. We mostly just moved the furniture around to block the doors and windows. And when that was done I took my seat. I felt disgusting. I had blood all over me, my shoes were soaked with a fluid that I didn’t even want to know what it was, and even though I felt absolutely gross, I just wanted to sit there and take a long rest. Nobody made any attempt to bother me while I laid back and waited for instruction. Soon enough my eyes got heavier than I could hold open.

  When I did finally open them again it was light outside. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it didn’t seem to matter. I looked around to find Elizabeth looking through the pantry and John hunched over at the table. I got up and walked into the kitchen. My pants and shoes had dried out more or less, which meant that they were crusty. “Good morning.” I said softly.

  Elizabeth stared at me coldly. “Not really.” She said under her breath.

  “That’s a fair point I guess…” I tried to avert my gaze but couldn’t help notice her clothes were different. “Did you change? Where’d you get the clothes?”

  She grabbed some cereal from the pantry and shut the door. “In one of the dressers. I couldn’t stand being filthy anymore.” She continued to make herself breakfast with her back turned toward me. “The shoes don’t fit quite right, but at least they don’t have blood in them.”

  “Did you notice anything I could wear?”

  She turned back to face me with frustration in her voice. “You know, I wasn’t really paying attention. Why don’t you go look for yourself?” It came off as rude, but I could understand why. None of us were in the best shape, especially not emotionally.

  I didn’t say anything when I left her there. I noticed John was snoring face down on the table. My guess is that he was trying to keep watch when the night finally caught up to him. As things were, there was no reason I had to wake him, so I just moved on by. I went to check the back rooms in the house, the first one had some clothes that were mostly my size, and seeing as I wasn’t in too great of a mood to keep looking I took the first thing that looked like it would fit. There weren’t any shoes that seemed reasonable, but something stuck out to me when I opened a drawer looking for some socks. Just the corner of a small red cardboard box peeked out from under a shirt. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was heavy and I could hear metal clinking inside as I moved it. I flipped open the side to see the easily recognizable brass casings of bullets. I put it in my pocket, though it barely fit, and kept on looking for socks, which I was thoroughly happy to find.

  After that, I went looking for the bathroom and was relieved at the sight of a shower. I hadn’t had a chance to get clean since I first left my apartment, and even though it wasn’t much I didn’t hesitate to jump it. All the grime blood and sweat from the last few days took a while to wash away. I kept picking chunks of… I didn’t even want to think about what it was, to be honest, but I had so much of it stuck in my hair it took forever to get it all out.

  I was feeling better after the shower, not a hundred percent but certainly better. I quickly realized I had forgotten to grab a towel. It wasn’t a big deal though, I just put on my new clothes any
way. When I got out I found Elizabeth sitting in the living room, staring straight into the now empty cereal bowl. I stopped and looked at her, waiting long enough to get her attention, though she never looked over at me. “Are you ok?” I asked.

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Of course not…” Her chest raised with a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  She rolled her eyes before looking at me. “For being mean earlier, I didn’t mean to…” She let her head hang low, then raised it up to make eye contact once more. “Things have gotten really bad out there, and we haven’t exactly had it easy, but that’s no excuse for treating other people poorly. Especially not the one who saved your life.”

  “I don’t know about me saving your life, I mean I just kind of-“

  She interrupted me. “Mark, where would I be if you hadn’t come to get me?”

  I smiled and drew my hand to the back of my neck nervously. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

  A chair screeched from across the room as John got to his feet. He stretched his back while he was shuffling toward the hall and he was mumbling something under his breath which I couldn’t make out till I heard him say “Get a room.” My face turned the color of a beet, and I looked at him wide eyed, not that he was paying attention.

  Elizabeth, on the other hand, took it in better stride. “Why don’t you get a room?” She sneered back.

  John stopped, rubbed an eye and responded only slightly less groggy than he was when he first got up. “I think I should get a room.” He mirrored what he said before so we could understand it. “I was talking to myself.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them with a yawn. “Since you two are up there’s no reason I can’t catch some 'Z's. If anything happens wake me up.” With that he walked off into the back of the house.

  “He’s kind of an asshole.” Elizabeth added when we could hear the door shut down the hall.

  “Hey he’s not all that bad, I mean he saved most of our lives.” I continued when she didn’t respond. “Not that he really wanted to… Still, I think we owe him a chance?”