Countdown: The Wasteland Chronicles Book One

by Rashad Freeman

  Half-burned pamphlets and torn pieces of paper were littered across the floor. The remnants of a sofa and other furniture had been crammed long ways against the windows. A pile of filthy blankets were arranged like a bed in the corner.

  It had all the signs of being lived in. Empty soda cans and noodle wrappings that couldn’t have been more than a week old. A folded shirt and a pair of shoes and even a book with the pages folded over.

  Lenny looked around a moment longer and then continued towards the back with Rebecca right behind him. The narrow beam on his flashlight was the only thing keeping them from complete darkness.

  “Lights,” he whispered.

  Rebecca fumbled with her gun trying to locate the switch. Her hands shook feverishly and the rifle slipped from her fingers. She grabbed it by the trigger guard as the barrel swung around.

  With a deafening crackle the gun went off and Lenny instantaneously cried out in pain. With a thud he toppled to the ground and grabbed his right leg.

  “Fuck!” he yelled.

  Rebecca scurried to his side. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I…I don’t know what happened.”

  “You fucking shot me. That’s what happened,” Lenny retorted.

  He lifted his hand and revealed torn clothing and a bleeding scratch across his thigh. Rebecca sucked her teeth and elbowed him.

  “It barely grazed you,” she smirked.

  “Let me graze you and see how you feel.”

  Rebecca started to respond, but she heard a thud and a shuffling sound coming from down the hallway. Lenny scampered backwards and grabbed his gun. Rebecca jumped to her feet and pointed her rifle forward. They both stared into the darkness in silence.

  There was another thud and then another. It sounded like the footfalls of a giant, each step getting closer and louder. It was like someone or something was running toward them. The pounding was a rapidly increasing drum beat, a signal of their impending doom. Then with a strange clatter it suddenly stopped.

  Lenny shuffled towards the hallway, his rifle ready to fire, his heart racing furiously. Rebecca reached out and grabbed his arm.

  “Don’t!” she stammered.

  Lenny glanced at her, brushing off her hand and taking another step. As he turned back toward the hallway someone dove from the shadows and tackled him. They both crumbled to the floor and Lenny let out a muffled groan as the attacker landed on his injured leg.

  Like a wounded wolverine, Lenny sprang into action. He grabbed the strangers head with one hand and smashed his fist into it. The attacker moaned, but fought back with deathly intensity.

  Like a heap of twisted clothing, they rolled over, shouting as they attempted to bludgeon one another. Lenny would strike out like a cobra and the attacker did the same.

  “Lenny stop!” Rebecca screamed.

  But her words fell on deaf ears. Lenny had finally managed to mount the shadowy figure and reached for his boot where he kept his knife. Gripping it tightly he drove it towards the strangers head barely stopping in time when he heard his own name.

  “Lenny,” the man on the ground croaked.

  Rebecca grabbed her rifle and shined the light on them both. Lenny was on top and on the bottom was a hefty man with a graying beard. His face was scratched and bleeding and was covered in gashes that couldn’t have just occurred.

  “Maddox?” Lenny said in astonishment.

  He stood up and helped the man to his feet. Leaning forward with his hands on his knees he breathed deeply. It took a minute to recuperate and then Lenny turned to Maddox and raised his eyebrows.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Suddenly, a loud noise rumbled down the hallway followed by a bone-chilling snarl. Maddox took off for the door with Rebecca and Lenny on his heels. Out of nowhere someone appeared on the other side of the door and they all slid to the ground.

  Mark hovered in the doorway. His rifle was raised and an evil sneer was etched across his face.

  Lenny looked up at him and then back towards the dark hallway. Something he’d never seen before exploded from the shadows. It was the size of a bear and blacker than the darkest night. Thick, mangled fur covered it enormous body. Its red eyes glowed like fire and it puffed steam into the air with each breath like an angry dragon.

  In a flash, it lunged at them, its razor sharp teeth bared, green mucus dripping from them like icing. There was nowhere to go and Lenny couldn’t get to his gun.

  Reluctantly, Mark stepped into the doorway. He looked down at the three of them then unloaded his weapon.

  The bullets tore into the creature with such force that it spun and slammed into the wall. The 308 shells shredded its thick hide, ripping clean through its body.

  Collapsing to the floor, the animal gasped and stopped moving. Grinning, Mark took his finger off of the trigger and slowly walked towards it. He kicked the foul creature then looked back at Lenny.

  “That’s why they call me beast.”

  CHAPTER 3

  THE INTERROGATION

  “So tell me one more time, what the fuck happened out there?” Tim asked as he stared down at Maddox curiously.

  “We need to go! We need to go now!” Maddox yelled hysterically.

  “And we’ll do that, but I have to understand what happened to our people.”

  “We need to fucking leave! They’re coming. We’re not safe here, nobody is safe here! Just let me go, let me the fuck out of here!”

  Maddox jerked and pulled, but the handcuffs held him firmly to the metal chair. He’d been ranting and lashing out since they returned a day ago. Mark and Lenny had to hog tie him just get him into the Jeep.

  “Maddox…you’re fucking pissing me off,” Tim raised his voice.

  “Let me give it a try,” Lenny said poking his head in from the door.

  They were in a small, cramped room that had been previously used as a coach’s office. Tim was standing over Maddox scratching his chin. Mark leaned against a shaky desk with his arms folded across his chest. It was a classic bad cop, bad cop interrogation.

  Lenny slowly entered the room as Tim turned around with an exhausted look on his face. Maddox glanced towards the door and then went back to rambling.

  “We have to go! We have to fucking go!” he mumbled.

  “It’s okay man just calm down,” Lenny said and took a few steps closer.

  Tim took a step back and watched as Lenny tried to console him. Lenny and Maddox had been pretty close and if there was anyone that could get through to him Lenny could.

  “You think I can talk to him alone for a minute?” Lenny asked.

  Tim shot a look back at Mark. Mark chewed the inside of his cheek and rubbed his chin. With a sigh he stood up and walked out of the room.

  “Five minutes,” Tim said then followed Mark out.

  Lenny watched them go then turned to Maddox with a worried look on his face. “Maddox…what happened? What happened to everyone? What the fuck was that back there?”

  Maddox jittered and looked around the tiny office. He avoided Lenny’s inquisitive gaze and focused on the peeling paint on the wall.

  “Maddox!” Lenny said and grabbed his shoulders.

  “They’re real Lenny. They…they come out of nowhere and just suck you away. They took em all Lenny, every last one of them,” Maddox stuttered, still quivering and glancing around nervously.

  “You mean the aliens? Come on Maddox, not this shit again. You’re saying that thing, that thing in the office…was that one of them?”

  “No…no! They send those out like fucking hounds. It’s like one big game. They hunt you down and then they come, then they come and take you,” Maddox squirmed in the chair.

  “Calm down buddy, you’re safe now,” Lenny said.

  “No one’s safe!”

  Lenny sighed. He walked to the desk and grabbed a chair. He slid it in front of Maddox and took a seat facing him.

  “Look man, you have to calm down. I want to get you out of here, but with you screaming a
nd going crazy, that’s not gonna happen.”

  “You were there Lenny. You saw it; you know what they’ll do,” Maddox whimpered and then started to cry. “You…you don’t understand.”

  “What don’t I understand?” Lenny asked softly.

  “I don’t know what they are. They look like us, but they’re not us. They get into your mind and make you go crazy, make you do awful things.”

  Lenny gave him a skeptical look and sighed. He’d heard enough alien shit from Tim and Mark. Their hysteria was becoming contagious.

  “There were six of us,” Maddox continued. “We were making good time so Neil wanted to look around a few places in the city. We split up and me, Neil and Zoey headed towards the old shopping district thinking we might find some clothes or shoes.”

  Maddox stopped talking and stared at the wall. He squinted and contorted his face like he was trying hard to remember something.

  “Then…then we heard a yell,” he continued. “And we ran back to the truck. The others were still standing there and when we asked them what happened they started acting strange.”

  “Strange, strange how?” Lenny leaned in.

  “Like they didn’t know who we were or who they were. They just kept asking the same thing over and over. When are we? When are we? So Neil helped me get them into the truck and then those things, those beasts showed up,” Maddox shivered as he spoke. “I got them to follow me and I ran through the buildings. I lost one of them and the other one I shot. But when I got back to the truck…” Maddox stopped and lowered his head.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay now,” Lenny said and edged him on.

  “I got back to the truck and Zoey…she’d gone crazy. She’d torn Neil open and…it was like she was looking for something. She had blood all over her. And everyone else was missing.”

  Lenny couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but one look at Maddox’s face and he knew it was the truth.

  “She…she asked me to help her find it. Said they wanted it and they needed her help,” Maddox sniffled as tears started to run down his face. “I tried…I begged her to stop. And then they showed up. They fucking look like us Lenny. Just like us.”

  “They look human?” Lenny asked as he tried to soak in what Maddox was telling him.

  “They look like us. It was four of them and they all looked just like Neil. Exactly like Neil. They walked over to Zoey. They stroked her hair and she smiled. Then one of them whispered something to her and she took her gun and shot herself in the head.”

  “Maddox, are you …are you sure? Are you sure about what you saw?” Lenny mumbled.

  “Of course I’m fucking sure,” Maddox stammered then lowered his head. “I ran and I hid. I’m a Goddamn coward Lenny. They killed her and I just ran.”

  Lenny didn’t have time to pacify Maddox. He needed answers; he needed to know what was going on. “But there were no bodies, just one in the truck. What happened to everyone else?” Lenny asked.

  “I don’t know. I went into the office and I hid. Like the coward I am I hid for days until you guys showed up. At first I didn’t know if you were really you, but then that thing attacked you and I knew you weren’t one of them.”

  “Why do you think they’re coming here?” Lenny asked. “Why don’t you think we’re safe?”

  “They’re coming, I just know, they’re coming.”

  CHAPTER 4

  BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

  A candle flickered and cast a dim glow around the room. Lenny was sound asleep, snoring like he didn’t have a care in the world. Rebecca stared at him and grinned. She ran her fingers through his hair and he shifted and turned over.

  The full size bed was a welcomed upgrade from the cot she’d grown accustom to sleeping on. They adorned it with dusty sheets they found in storage and although they smelled like old water, it was better than nothing. Thanks to the number of people they’d lost recently, Lenny and Rebecca were finally able to get their own room. Rebecca gave it her own personal touch by hanging a tool rack on the wall and sketching their names under it.

  Maddox was still in lock up. He yelled all night about how “they” were coming and Tim didn’t think it was safe to have him around anyone else. Lenny couldn’t get him to calm down and he quickly grew tired of his rambling.

  None of them had talked much about the strange creature they encountered in the field or odd things that happened on their way to Atlanta. Lenny wasn’t buying the alien story and he explained it away with earthquakes and crazed bears.

  Like a bad dream the entire incident was soon forgotten and everyone shifted back into their daily routine. After several long days on the road Lenny was finally able to find some much needed sleep.

  There was a gentle knock at the door and Rebecca jumped up. Through the orange glow she could see a giant shadow looming just outside. She took another look at Lenny then slipped from under the covers and tip-toed out of the room.

  Mark was waiting outside grinning. Rebecca closed the door behind her and slid next to him. He placed his massive hands on her waist and pulled her closer. With a hint of excitement, she grabbed the sides of his face and crooned.

  “I knew sooner or later you’d come around,” he said enthusiastically.

  “What can I say? That brute stuff works on me,” Rebecca smiled back. “So…where do you want to do this, right here? I think Lenny will hear us.”

  “So what, let him hear. He can watch for all I care.”

  Rebecca gasped and then her eyes lit up. Mark slid his hands up her waist, slowly moving her shirt as he did. She stepped back until she slammed up against the wall with a thud.

  Mark fumbled with his belt buckle, anxiously trying to remove his pants.

  “Come on, come on. Take them off,” Rebecca moaned.

  She slid her hands across his stubbly chin and down his neck. She grasped his massive shoulders and he leaned in with his mouth wide open.

  With blistering speed Rebecca suddenly drove her knee into Mark’s groin and he slumped to the floor. He didn’t make a noise, but his face turned red and his eyes welled with tears.

  “Seriously Mark,” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “Fuck off you idiot!”

  Shoving him to the ground, Rebecca turned around and went back to her room. She slammed the door behind her and turned to the bed. Lenny was sitting up staring at her, his face unreadable.

  “I…I was,” Rebecca started to stutter.

  “I heard,” Lenny said. “Did you have fun?”

  “I did. Mark didn’t,” Rebecca grinned.

  Lenny slid over and patted the mattress. Taking her cue Rebecca shuffled into bed next to him and pulled his arms over her.

  “What do you think they’ll do with Maddox?” she asked.

  “No clue, but I seriously don’t know what to believe,” Lenny whispered. “Tim’s screaming aliens, Maddox yelling about body snatchers and Mark is just trying to get into your pants. What a cluster fuck!”

  “But Maddox, he said there were more of those things? That they are like hunting us?”

  “Maddox is crazy Becca. I wouldn’t worry too much about what he says. It’ll be okay, just try to get some sleep,” Lenny said and rubbed her shoulders.

  Rebecca took a deep breath and pushed herself further into his arms. She stared at the wall as her mind began to race and ponder the endless possibilities that tomorrow could bring. Lenny however, had begun to snore as soon as he finished talking.

  Rebecca glared at him with envy and yanked at the blanket. Lenny grunted and rolled over, flailing his arms and sprawling his body across the bed.

  “Lenny,” Rebecca griped.

  Annoyed, she snatched the entire blanket from him and left the bed. Griping, she found a chair at the back of the room and plopped into it. She stared at Lenny in contempt as he snored and spread out across the small mattress. She cursed under her breath as she tried to find a comfortable position in the tiny wooden chair.

  Hours passed and Rebecca still couldn�
��t sleep. She squirmed around in the seat tucking her legs to her chest and balling up like a cat. The candle near the bed had melted down to a puddle of wax and burned out. Rebecca found herself showered in darkness, staring across the room, soaking in the emptiness.

  The entire civic center was deathly silent except for Lenny’s snoring. He sounded like a hibernating bear and if Rebecca hadn’t been accustomed to it already she would’ve been terrified.

  Restless and annoyed with Lenny’s symphony of grunting, Rebecca stood up and crept out of the room. She quietly closed the door behind her and turned around staring down a long, dark hallway.

  It was much colder in the hallway than it’d been in her room. The cement floor felt like a block of ice to her bare feet. At the end of the hall there was a red, iron door with a small window in the center. It led into the courtyard that housed the majority of their vehicles.

  With cat-like stealth, Rebecca walked down the hall and stopped at the door. Standing on her tippy toes she peered out of the window and into the night.

  A small spotlight attached to the wall cast light into the courtyard. An assortment of trucks and Jeeps fitted with machine guns were parked facing away from the building. A brick wall surrounded the courtyard except for the entrance that was blocked by a ten foot, black, iron gate. The rays from the light fell just shy of the entrance, leaving the surrounding area covered in darkness. In the early days a guard would’ve been present, but complacency had taken its toll and now sleep held a higher priority.

  Rebecca leaned against the door and pressed her face to the glass. She thought about the nights when she’d go running to ease her mind. She’d normally take off well after midnight, covering at least eight miles before returning home. Now, she wouldn’t dare venture into the dark alone. It was scary enough going out in broad daylight with a team.

  Her breath fogged up the window and she wiped it off and sighed. She took one last glance outside then stepped back. As she turned to head to her room something crashed against the door with tremendous force. Rebecca jolted at the sound and stumbled into the wall.