Desolation

by Mark Campbell

  Jerri turned towards him, terrified.

  “What do we do…? Where is there left to go?” she asked.

  “We have to get to my source, the one who knows how to smuggle people out of here. We clearly can’t take the front gate; they have that place covered,” Andrew said, looking at the barbaric crowd below with concern. “I spent my last few bullets when I shot through the skylight, so to make matters worse we’re weaponless.”

  One of the civilians below stabbed an infected woman in the forehead with a rusty machete, screaming. He pulled the blade back and the infected victim collapsed on the ground.

  The lanky man, clutching a makeshift club covered in gore, breathed frantically and glanced up towards Andrew. He started shouting at the others nearby, getting their attention.

  “Shit,” Andrew hissed. “We have to move! Now! Follow me!” Andrew cradled the baby against his chest and took off running across the roof, keeping his head low. Jerri ran behind him. The roof creaked and groaned as the fire gutted the building. Flames ate through large sections of the roof and flared up into the sky, thirsty for oxygen. Portions of the roof sunk and collapsed into the inferno, creating an obstacle course of black smoke and fiery pits.

  Andrew coughed violently as he ran through the smoke, struggling to keep his eyes open to avoid the growing number of pitfalls. Jerri followed close behind him, covering her mouth with her shirt collar to shield herself from the heat and smoke.

  Andrew and Jerri disappeared into the black cloud. “Where the fuck he’d go?!” one of the rioters shouted. “Take the sides of the building! Pig can’t stay up there forever!”

  Andrew reached the edge of the roof and nearly tumbled off of the edge. He threw a panicked glance at the alley below. The alley was littered with arrows. Badly mangled corpses with most of their appendages gnawed off lay strew across the blood soaked ground. Their violated corpses looked up at Andrew and squirmed hungrily, snapping their teeth, growling. They flailed their bloody numbs up at him as they tried ineffectively to stand. The tents along the alley lay tattered and disheveled. A shambling infected elderly man roamed near the end of the alleyway, sniffing the air.

  Two rioters wielding police batons entered the alley from the opposite way, focusing their attention towards the encroaching infected. They walked right below Andrew, quickly raising their batons to strike.

  “Okay,” Andrew whispered to himself. “It’s only one story, don’t be a pussy...”

  Jerri emerged blindly out from the smoke behind him and crashed into his back.

  “Holy fuck!” Andrew said, nearly toppling over the edge. He quickly righted himself and prevented his fall.

  Jacob started screaming in his arms. “The fuck is that?!” one of the rioters said, pointing his gun at the roof. He was a scraggly white man wearing a burlap parka. “It’s a goddamn Eye!”

  The second rioter screamed as he repeatedly struck the infected old man; he didn’t pay his companion any mind, considering he had problems of his own.

  “Get this fucker off of me before he bites me!” he said. “Then we’ll worry about that idiot on the roof!”

  The white rioter turned away from Andrew and started striking the infected man.

  “Here,” Andrew told Jerri sternly as he shoved Jacob into her arms. “What are you going to do?” Jerri asked, cradling Jacob. “Something stupid,” Andrew said.

  Andrew leaped down onto the white man below. He landed hard on the unsuspecting man just as he was about to strike with the baton. The baton fell onto the ground.

  The white rioter tussled with Andrew, shouting obscenities. Andrew struck the man in the center of his chest, making the shrouded man expel the air from his lungs. He struggled to regain his breath.

  The black rioter yelled and, using all of his strength, shoved the old man who was attacking him backwards. He quickly raised his baton and swung it at Andrew.

  Andrew quickly rolled onto his back, grabbing the white rioter as he did so. He held the man in front of him like a shield.

  The baton cracked the back of the white man’s head. Blood began to pour out of his fractured skull.

  The man looked down at Andrew with wide eyes and collapsed onto the ground.

  Andrew hurled the unconscious man off of him and picked the baton off of the ground. The black man started to step forward to strike Andrew– Andrew swung the baton across the man’s face.

  Blood spurted out of the black man’s broken nose and he fell backwards. The infected cadaver descended on the fallen man and started to claw into the man’s abdomen. The man screamed and quickly went silent as his body went into shock. The cadaver pulled out handfuls of stringy innards and shoveled them into his mouth, gorging himself.

  Andrew scooted across the ground and pressed himself against the dorm, letting out a sigh of relief, heart thumping madly. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hand, trying to compose himself.

  The old man turned away from his meal and focused his attention towards Andrew, snarling, bloody spittle dribbling out the corners of his mouth.

  “Ah, fuck,” Andrew muttered, letting out a bated breath. A knife landed in the sand next to Andrew, startling him. It was Jerri’s blade.

  The old man lunged towards Andrew, ready to attack.

  Andrew grabbed the knife, flicked the blade open, and drove it through the man’s left eye. The old man pushed himself deeper onto the blade, oblivious to the pain, in his attempt to get closer to Andrew. When the blade finally slid deep enough to pierce the man’s frontal lobe, his body froze and he let out his last raspy moan.

  The old man slid off the blade and fell to the desert floor. Andrew quickly stood up, flung the blood off of the knife, and ran towards the fallen rioters. He drove the blade into the back of both men’s necks, angling it up towards the brain stem.

  Panting, Andrew stepped away from his gruesome work and made sure the men remained motionless.

  “Thanks,” he said as he looked up at Jerri still breathing heavily. “Now hold the baby tight against your chest and jump onto the sheet.” He quickly grabbed hold of one of the flattened sheets, remnants of a tent tied to the building, and pulled it taut. The building was burning out of the control and the roof was almost fully ablaze. The flames lapped high into the sky and polluted the air with dense smoke.

  “Are you insane?!” Jerri said, looking at the ground below. Her skin goosefleshed; she had a chronic fear of heights. “Maybe, but that isn’t the goddamn point right now!” Andrew shouted back. “Either you get down here or you’ll burn! Jump! I’ll catch you!”

  “You better,” she snipped. She shushed Jacob and pressed him tightly against her chest and let herself fall backwards towards the sheet, screaming.

  Jerri landed hard in the middle of the sheet. It ripped in the center and she landed on her buttocks, cursing.

  Andrew panicked, dropped the torn sheet, and ran towards her. She groaned and slowly sat up, baby Jacob still nestled against her chest.

  Jacob was laughing, looking up at Jerri with his soulful eyes. “Are you okay?!” Andrew shouted, quickly examining her up and down. “Is he okay?!” “No I fell off a goddamn building! Of course I’m not okay!” she snapped. She looked at Jacob and examined him carefully. He looked positively gleeful. “Jacob’s fine, but he thinks you’re an asshole, too.”

  “I see you still have your grace and well-cultured tongue,” he said, scanning down the alleyway. He helped her back onto her feet and brushed the sand and ash off of her.

  “Fuck you,” she snapped. “And thanks.”

  A bullet whistled between her and Andrew and a second one struck the ground below.

  A hunting party of civilians had gathered at the end of the alleyway, pointing towards Andrew.

  “The Eye and his bitch are down here! Get your asses over here and help!” one of the men shouted.

  Only one in the group was armed with a pistol, the rest had makeshift clubs and police batons.

  “We have to g
o,” Andrew said, grabbing Jerri’s elbow. They ran down the alley away from the pursuing group of civilians. Bullets whistled past their heads, narrowly missing them. “Where is your connection?!” Jerri asked, panting.

  “He hangs in the medical building,” Andrew shouted, ducking as he ran. “If he hasn’t bailed yet, that’s where we’ll find him.” They reached the end of the alley, took a hard right, and took shelter against the back of brick building. “We’ll have to lose these fucking idiots before we do anything, though,” Andrew said, giving an aggravated sigh. He never wanted a cigarette so bad in his life. He handed the knife back to Jerri.

  Jerri flipped the blade closed and slid it into her pocket. They pressed their backs against the building and looked around, trying to gather their surroundings.

  Jacob pulled at Jerri’s shirt, crying from the sound of the gunshots.

  Jerri looked down and tried to comfort the child best she could. She tried not to let the child sense her fear. The building they were hiding behind had wooden carts stacked with emptied body bags and ropes next to a loading bay. The loading bay led up to a large cargo sally port that led into the building. A sign on the building read FOOD SERVICES ANNEX.

  “We’re at the back of the mess hall,” Andrew said, hurrying towards the sally port. He looked up at the sally port wires. As expected, they had been sliced; the cooks didn’t like the hassle of the sally port system. “The cold storage is right behind the sally port and past that is the kitchen and after the kitchen there’s the dining hall itself. It’s a goddamn maze inside. We can lose our tail inside and then snake our way out towards medical.”

  “Is it safe inside?” Jerri asked.

  Andrew shrugged.

  “Safe is a relative term at the moment,” he said. Reanimated cadavers started to shamble out from the opposite side of the building, moaning, stumbling towards their prey. “Come on.”

  Jerri ran towards the sally port with Jacob in her arms. The hunting pack emerged out of the alley. The one holding the pistol quickly pointed his weapon at Andrew, panting. Andrew harshly shoved Jerri into the safe confines of the breached sally port. He drew his depleted pistol and pointed at the rioters, swiping the barrel across them slowly from side-to-side.

  “Easy, chief,” the haggard man holding the pistol said, pointing it at Andrew’s chest. The man wore a trucker’s cap and was chewing on a toothpick. “Just drop your weapon and give up.”

  Andrew laughed.

  The man in the trucker’s hat became infuriated.

  “What’s so funny, boy?” the man said.

  “What’s funny is that you fucking idiots brought clubs and one nearly depleted pistol to a gunfight,” Andrew said with a smirk. “It was obvious from the alley that you can’t hit the broadside of a barn.”

  The men carrying batons and clubs lowered them and looked at each other in a stupor, embarrassed.

  Andrew raised his empty gun and cocked the hammer. He shook his head and continued his bluff.

  “Just stay where you and drop your weapons, fellas,” Andrew ordered. “Can’t you see, boy?!” the trucker said, spitting the sliver of wood out of his mouth. “I have a gun, too, and now we’re at close range. You’re done.”

  “You’re one person and untrained, idiot,” Andrew responded. “The time it'll take you to pull that trigger once I'll have dropped you and your friends.”

  The group looked at each other, clearly concerned. “Well…” the trucker struggled to think of something. “If you get shot, you’re good as dead!” “Provided you hit me, yes,” Andrew said, keeping his empty gun raised. “But given your latest performance in the alleyway, I’m not too concerned. The point is you’ll be as dead as I’ll be. How much satisfaction will you feel about shooting me when your brains are scattered across the Arizonian sand?”

  The civilians slowly started to lower their weapons to the ground, looking at each other with confusion and hesitation. One of the men raised his hands in the air.

  “Wait a second,” the trucker said, narrowing his gaze at Andrew. He kept his pistol raised. “How come you wasn’t shootin’ at us when we was chasing you?”

  “Did I say you could talk, Cletus?!” Andrew said as he kept his depleted pistol pointed forward.

  The trucker grinned. “I’m just sayin is all,” the trucker continued. “When I was busy firing and whatnot, you could’ve turned around and taken us down no problem, right?”

  “And I still can! So shut the fuck up and drop your weapon!” Andrew snapped.

  The trucker took a step forward, cautious yet confident. “Naw,” the trucker said, “I don’t reckon you can, son. I don’t even remember you drawing that steel when we were chasing you… don’t you think that would have been the first thing you would’ve grabbed if you were being chased?”

  The others started to raise their weapons.

  “Last warning!” Andrew shouted.

  The trucker took another step forward and grinned with tobaccostained teeth. “I never was much of betting man, son. Hell, I didn’t even play the Powerball. But I’d bet you all the money in the world that the steel you’re holding is,” the trucker took a step, “bone,” another step, “fucking,” and another, “dry.”

  Andrew quickly ducked away and retreated into the open sally port just as the man fired, narrowly missing him.

  The rioters chased after him with the trucker in the lead.

  20

  Andrew rolled the sally port door shut behind him. A red lever was housed in a glass case next to the door handle. He shattered the glass with his elbow and pulled the lever back, grunting.

  The hydraulics inside the door hissed and steam shot out of the door vents.

  “Attention, manual emergency lockdown activated,” the overhead speaker announced.

  The civilians banged against the steel door, shouting, cursing. “Shamblers!” one of them shouted, alerting the others. “They’re coming round the bend!”

  “Ah, fuck it!” the trucker shouted. “Pull back and regroup at the front!” Andrew heard their footsteps as they ran away, followed closely by the growls of the infected. Something slapped its open palm against the outside of the door, scratching at it.

  He holstered his weapon and backed out of the sally port and bumped against Jerri, startling them both.

  The air inside the building was frigid and made him shiver. “Jesus! Stop that!” Jerri whispered, cradling the baby against her chest. Despite the circumstances, the baby seemed to have calmed. “Sorry,” Andrew muttered. “I almost had them until Cletus had a coherent thought and saw through my bluff.” He paced in a tight circle and shook his head. “Goddammit! It’s going to be next to impossible to maneuver across this camp without a single weapon. This place is festering.”

  Jerri looked around her surroundings and tried to peer into the all-encompassing darkness. The air smelled foul and had the coppery tang of blood. Flies buzzed in the air.

  She stifled a scream and kicked a roach off of her leg, stumbling forward. Glass shards crackled underneath her feet and something wet sloshed against her.

  Jerri looked up and saw that the glass had fallen from above; all of the skylights were shattered.

  Even with the moon above, her eyes couldn’t adjust to the darkness.

  “I can’t see two foot in front of me, Andrew,” she whispered. Andrew blindly snatched the flashlight off of his duty belt and turned it on, scanning the beam across the room. The room looked like a large refrigerated warehouse; thick air vents ran the expanse of the ceiling alongside the skylights. Thousands of chains hung from the ceiling with hooks attached to them. A handful of human corpses hung from the hooks by their feet, dangling upside-down. Their throats had been slit, allowing their blood to run down into the mesh drains on the floor below them. Their half-frozen bodies were riddled with arrows that had descended from above. The chains were all attached to mechanical pulleys, allowing the bodies to be raised or lowered as needed.

  “Holy mother of God,�
� Andrew murmured, holding back his gag reflex. He had no idea how bad it was. Jerri bit her tongue to keep from screaming.

  “This is…” she stammered.

  “We have to keep moving. Don’t say anything and stay behind me, okay? The sooner we get out of here, the better,” Andrew whispered. He led the way through the strung-up cadavers, trying to keep his eyes fixed on the ground so as not to look any of them in the face. The air was a strange mixture of body odor, rot, and defecation. He snaked through the swinging corpses as fast as he could, trying not to touch any of them.

  Jerri stayed close behind on Andrew’s heels. She kept Jacob close to her. She was thankful that the child wouldn’t remember the horrors and hoped that he would forget the pungent smell of death.

  She looked up and almost crashed into a rather bloated corpse with a tattoo on his chest of a snake wrapped around a sword. Multiple arrows were stuck in the corpse’s body. She looked closer before her eyes went wide with terrible recognition. She stumbled back in horror.

  “Teddy,” she said aloud, one hand covering her mouth. Teddy’s eyes shot open at the sound of her voice. They were hazed and covered in a thin layer of frost. Jerri screamed and the baby started crying.

  All of the corpses in the room wriggled on their hooks and moved their rigid frozen joints as they tried to get down, moaning. The rattle of the chains became deafening.

  Teddy snarled and reached his cold hands out towards Jerri. He managed to grab the front of her shirt and tried to pull her towards him. Jerri jerked back and bumped against an upside-down elderly woman, hyperventilating – The elderly woman wrapped her arms around Jerri from behind. She tried to bite into Jerri’s shoulder but didn’t have a single tooth in her mouth; they threw away the woman’s dentures when they stripped her down.

  Jerri elbowed the woman off of her and panicked as the child screamed in her arms.

  Andrew grabbed Jerri’s wrist and squeezed.

  Jerri struggled to pull free but then settled as she locked her eyes with his.

  Despite the horrific circumstances, Andrew looked cool, calm, and composed. “Follow me,” he said in his calm voice.