“You’re infected, and you’ll turn anytime now,” Emmett said, pulling the Beretta from his shoulder holster.
“How do you know that?” George asked, weakly pointing an accusing finger.
“I’ve seen it happen before.”
“So you’re going to kill me? Just like that?” George coughed again and looked down in horror. Blood was splattered on his hand and dripped from his mouth.
“Just like that,” Emmett said, training his gun on George’s forehead.
Jane came around the truck, running to George. “Stop it!” she yelled desperately as she went to stand in front of her husband. “You can’t kill him!”
“Sure I can. It’s either that or he’ll die, turn into one of them, and kill us. And I’m not letting you decide that.” He kept his gun pointed at George.
“Dad’s right. Something’s wrong with him,” Alexis said from the backseat of the truck. “Just look at him. But maybe we can take him to a hospital. We don’t have to kill him.”
George bent over, coughing. Blood covered his hands and the ground below him. Jane looked at him, distressed, tears in her eyes as she tried to think of some way to help.
“He needs help! Can’t you see that! We have to help him!”
George fell to the ground and started to spasm. Jane went down next to him, tears streaming freely down her face as she tried to hold him.
“Get back, now! He’s turning!” But Jane didn’t move, so he addressed his daughter. “Look away.”
He had taken four steps towards them when George stopped coughing, stopped moving, stopped breathing. He lay there, dead.
“We need to go, now!” Emmett said, trying to pull Jane away from her husband’s lifeless body.
“No…” Jane whispered as she stubbornly held on to him.
George opened his eyes.
But they weren’t his eyes anymore. These eyes were bloodshot, grey, lifeless. He let out a groan and moved his hand towards Jane’s face. She gasped, pulling away. There were bruises all over his body from where his blood veins had burst open under the skin.
“BACK! NOW!” This time she didn’t resist as Emmett roughly hauled her away from the undead George.
“Honey, are you okay?” Jane asked George as Emmett let her go.
George cocked his head as he looked towards her, rising unsteadily to his feet. He growled and lunged for them but was stopped mid-lunge as the muzzle of Emmett’s gun flashed in the gathering darkness and the bullet tore a hole through his head. His head jerked back and he fell, rolling into a ditch on the side of the road.
“NO!” Jane screamed as she tried to run to him, but Emmett grabbed ahold of her. “You bastard!” She hit him, trying to get loose.
“Alexis, come get your mom and get her back into the truck, now!” He handed Jane to Alexis, and then he went down to the ditch.
A second gunshot could be heard over Jane’s screams for her husband. He rolled George over with his foot. There was a hole in his forehead, and half his face was missing.
“Just like that,” Emmett said. He turned around and walked back to the truck, climbing in and speeding off down the road with one less passenger.
Jane was crying in the backseat with her head in her hands.
“I’m so sorry mom,” Alexis said trying to comfort her mother. She reached over and gently laid her hand on her mother’s shoulder.
“Are we going to Dallas, where we’re safe from this… infection?” Alexis asked.
“No, we’re going north. It won’t be long before this spreads to the bigger cities,” he said as he topped out at seventy miles an hour, heading west to the interstate.
As they hit I-45 an hour later, they had passed no one on the road. But now they began to see the headlights of traffic. Emmett turned on the radio to hear a series of three beeps followed by a prolonged beep.
“This is the Emergency Alert System. This is not a test. There have been major power outages all over Texas and we urge citizens to stay indoor—” The broadcast cut off as Emmett changed the radio to a classic rock station.
Jane had stopped crying and was looking out the window with a blank expression.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
“Something really bad, honey, and it’s just beginning.”
3
Close Call
The crosshairs of the scope settled on the zombie’s head as it stared blankly through the window of the sporting goods store.
“They’re everywhere,” Connor whispered to his brother who was lying next to him with a pair of 10x42 Vortex binoculars in hand.
“Yes, they are, and I think it’s just recently been overrun,” James said as he took in the carnage. “There’s no way we can drive in there with that horde by the grocery store. They’d be on us in no time. We’ll have to sneak in.”
This used to be a peaceful town full of good people. Now it was a bloody shell of what it had once been. He stood up and walked to the back of his truck parked in the middle of the overpass outside of town.
“Well, we have a choice to make. Do we want to go in and get supplies from the sporting goods store? Or play it safe and take our chances with the next town?” Connor asked as he stood up and walked over to the truck, setting his .308 rifle in the backseat and taking out his AR.
“I think we can get in and out, no problem, plus there could be survivors that need help,” James said standing also. He set down his binoculars and swung his AR from his back.
“James, come on, bro. There are going to be survivors and they will need help. But we can’t go into every overrun town just to save a few people. I want to help too, you know that, but we can’t save everyone.”
James was about to respond, but stopped himself and thought about it. In the end, he knew his brother was right. They couldn’t save everyone. He checked his gear, both of them understanding that they were going in.
“They could have suppressors,” James said as he finished throwing a few freeze-dried meals, water, and some boxes of ammo into his Kryptek hunting backpack.
“That would be ideal. More ammo and spare guns would be nice, too,” Connor said as he did the same thing. “We’ll only grab what we need. Let’s hope no one else got to it first.”
Connor grabbed his machete from the front passenger seat, and James grabbed his katana from the backseat, slipping the sheath into the back of his tactical vest.
“Switching to melee weapons,” James said, cracking a smile.
They burst into laughter but quieted almost instantly, remembering all the zombies a few hundred yards away. However, they continued to chuckle softly as they started down the ramp into Miles, Montana.
Coming to the first gas station, they ducked behind it. Most of the zombies were clustered around the grocery store which sat behind the sporting goods store. The brothers were about six hundred yards from their target, with a couple dozen zombies between them and it.
James came to a halt before rounding the corner as he heard noises coming from the other side. He took point with his katana at the ready, AR slung at his side, and peeked around the corner. Ten feet away, kneeling over a gutted corpse, were two zombies munching away on the entrails. He moved back around the corner and held up two fingers.
Connor nodded.
James glided around the corner, his brother coming up beside him on the right. They quickly crept up to the zombies, which took no notice of them as they ate on a fresh meal. James brought his katana down on the one on the left as Connor brought his machete down on the other one. The zombies fell forward as the brothers pulled their weapons from their heads. Flipping the bodies over, they looked at them.
They were zombies alright, with grey lifeless eyes, gaping wounds, and intense bruising under the skin. The brothers looked at each other. These were the first they had killed and inspected afterwards. The zombies were beyond saving, and they knew that, but looking at them there was no doubt they had once been human. James felt a slight twinge of guilt but qu
ickly dismissed it. They were zombies, and it was time to do whatever was necessary to survive. It had come to a point in the world where it was either kill or be eaten.
Moving on, they slipped around the back of the casino, encountering no zombies as they moved to the far edge. Looking around the corner at the street before them, they saw that there was no cover until the fast food restaurant on the other side. Ten zombies were shambling around in the street between them and where they needed to go. The brothers looked at each other and silently nodded. They knew what needed to be done.
Breaking from cover, they ran at the two nearest zombies. Their weapons came into contact with the zombies’ heads and they fell to the ground, blood seeping from the wounds. The rest of the zombies in the street noticed the brothers and started walking towards them. They stood, back-to-back, waiting for the zombies to close in. The first one came at Connor, who took three steps forward and swung at its head, the machete sinking in a few inches. He yanked his machete from the zombie’s head, and as it fell, he took three steps back to rejoin his brother.
James took a few steps forward and swung the katana, cutting a zombie’s head clean off. He was surprised at how sharp the blade was as the headless body fell to the ground, another zombie taking its place. He quickly swung again, his katana taking the zombie in the side of the head as Connor’s machete sank into a zombie’s face. Now they were surrounded by four zombies, all of them coming at once. They slashed and stabbed, and when they were finished, there was a small pile of bodies around them. Looking at each other and their blood-covered blades, they smiled.
“Is it wrong that I enjoy this?” Connor asked as they ran across the street.
“Not at all. I do too, a little,” James said as he wiped the blood from his katana. “But then again, brother, we were always a little different.”
“That’s true,” Connor said, chuckling.
Their weirdness would be what would help them survive this horror. They moved to the back of the building, entering the alley. Two blocks down they spied the back door to the sporting goods store.
“It looks clear,” Connor whispered to his brother.
“Let’s go.”
They took off across the alleyway to the back of the building, reaching the back door and glancing around, seeing nothing. Checking the door, they found it unlocked.
“Looks like they forgot to lock it in all the hurry,” James said.
“Lucky for us,” Connor said as he took point, James opening the door for him.
Connor entered the store with his brother following behind, covering his six. They swept left and right, but the back room was empty.
“Be alert. They could be anywhere,” Connor whispered.
They moved through the room, their heads on a swivel, and arrived at the door leading to the shopping floor. Peeking through the small window set into the door, Connor saw two zombies staggering around. He looked at his brother and held up two fingers. They crept through the door and headed towards the zombies, their melee weapons at the ready. The zombies took notice as the door shut behind them, but it was too late, and their bodies dropped to the floor seconds later. The brothers quickly scanned for more, but finding the room apparently clear, they headed straight for the gun counter where they let out a collective groan.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones with this idea,” James said, looking at the empty gun rack and shelves. He hopped over the counter and started to scavenge around behind it, looking for anything useful. Meanwhile, Connor was taking all the ammo they could use, which wasn’t much, and shoving it into his backpack.
“Score!” James said as he picked up a box and set it on the counter. It was a suppressor for a .22 rifle. “There are more down here. We just need to find the right ones for our ARs.”
After a minute of digging around, they were able to find four suppressors that fit their ARs, along with a few for various handguns and rifles. They unscrewed the birdcages off the end of their barrels, replacing them with the suppressors, and then shoved the remaining suppressors into their packs.
“Now that’s more like it,” Connor said, inspecting his newly accessorized AR-15.
“You like your new look?” James whispered to his AR, Victoria. He looked up at his brother, who was shaking his head, “What? You know she looks sexy.”
James winked and Connor chuckled, then went back to collecting the few boxes of ammo scattered on the floor. James went throughout the store looking for anything useful. He came back with half a dozen tactical tomahawks and sets of two-way radios.
“These may come in handy,” James said, giving his brother a tomahawk.
“Ooh, but it’s not Christmas yet!” Connor said with a gleam in his eye as he looked at the fierce weapon.
They each attached a tomahawk to their belts using the accompanying sheathes. Connor pulled his out of its sheath, and the metal snaps easily came undone. He had the weapon ready in one smooth motion.
Connor smiled and looked at his brother. “Thanks for the new toy, bro.”
“Anytime.”
James put the rest of the tomahawks and radios into his pack and went over to the wall he’d seen the freeze-dried meals on. He grabbed a bunch, along with a few camping stoves and small propane canisters. Connor finished collecting the boxes of ammo and grabbed each of them a camouflage yeti suit. His brother gave him a look.
“What? You never know when we may be hiding in a forest. I don’t think the only thing we’ll have to worry about is brainless zombies. Even during a disaster like this there are still evil people and—even more concerning—desperate people.”
James had been thinking about that, too. Before all this was over, zombies wouldn’t be the only thing they would have to kill. That thought didn’t sit well with him, but he let it go for now and looked around. They had collected all they needed from here.
“You ready?” James asked, hoisting his pack onto his back.
He regarded his brother, standing there with his pack on, AR at his left side, tomahawk on his hip, holding a bloody machete in his hand, and dressed in his Kryptek Highlander camouflage. They must look formidable to anyone thinking of confronting them. Good, James thought, that might discourage anyone from messing with us.
“Let’s do this,” Connor said, moving to the back door. He signaled to his brother, who opened the door.
They exited the store into the alley and started back the way they’d come. Arriving at the street, they looked to their left. The horde of zombies was still clustered around the grocery store. There must be hundreds of them! James thought, knowing right away that something was different. The zombies seemed in a frenzy to get at something in the parking lot. Suddenly, a vehicle revved up, and they saw a blue car burst out of the horde and speed across the parking lot.
They looked at each other and quickly attached one another’s melee weapons to the outside of their packs, then brought their ARs to their shoulders. The car sped around an overturned semi, only to unexpectedly collide with a zombie. The driver swerved as the windshield wipers failed to get the blood off the glass, and the car crashed into a light pole at the edge of the parking lot. Three figures stumbled out and began staggering away from the horde of encroaching zombies. One of the figures was clearly a male, while the other two looked female. None of them were armed.
The brothers assessed the situation.
“We have to try,” James said to his brother, who nodded in agreement. They started off at a swift pace towards the three people.
“Hey! Over here! Help us!” the man yelled, waving his arm as he supported one of the women, who had an injured leg. The brothers were twenty yards from the trio, who were thirty yards from the lead zombies in pursuit of them.
“Head to the overpass. We have our truck parked just outside of town,” James said when he made it to the group.
The man was Native American and had his long black hair in a ponytail. The woman he was supporting had short-cropped, multicolored hair,
and her leg was clearly broken. The other woman was short and had long blonde hair in a messy jumble. They all appeared to be in their late twenties and were looking around in wide-eyed desperation.
“Go now!” James said when the trio slowed, having reached the brothers.
Connor was already past them when James got to the back of the group and took aim at the nearest zombie. Connor was the first to open fire, his shot taking the lead zombie in the head and dropping it to the ground. Another zombie fell with a hole in its head as Connor acquired his next target and squeezed the trigger. They were in perfect harmony. While one brother shot, the other acquired another target. They didn’t “spray and pray” like in all the movies. They took their time and made quick headshots. Considering the range and the optics they had, it was hard to miss, although they still did a few times.
After a few seconds there were corpses scattered around the parking lot, tripping up some of the other zombies. James glanced over his shoulder to see where the group was and saw they were making good progress, turning into the alley behind the casino.
“Let’s move,” James said.
Connor fired one last shot, then got up and sprinted past James, tapping him on the shoulder as he ran by. James turned around and followed his brother towards the trio as they disappeared into the alley.
As the brothers rounded the corner, they saw the man trying to fend off a zombie with a trash can. Connor came to a stop and fired, and the zombie crumpled to the ground. The man glanced at them.
James passed them, taking point, “Come on!”
The man helped the woman with the broken leg up from the ground and they started off again, Connor bringing up the rear. They made it through the alley to the gas station at the edge of town without seeing any zombies. But when they stopped in the alley and James looked around the corner, he saw a horde of them between the gas station and the ramp leading out of town.
Connor joined his brother at the head of the group. “We can’t stop for too long or they’ll catch us.”
“We have a bigger problem,” James said, nodding to the corner of the building. Connor poked his head out and cursed under his breath.
The Brother's Creed (Book 1): Outbreak Page 3