Alexis threw on her jacket and got out of the truck, looking around nervously. Emmett got out and went towards the building. Inside, he cleared both restrooms. There was no blood or bodies. Alexis and Jane went into the restroom before bed while he unstuffed two of the three sleeping bags in the bed of the truck and laid each on a mattress. He threw the other one onto the roof of the topper next to the shooting bench. The girls came out and looked at the sleeping bags and mattresses.
“Is this for us?” Alexis asked, surprised.
“Of course,” he said, enjoying her reaction. “I’ll keep a watch from the roof. Just make sure all the windows are closed back there. You’ll see that the tailgate and topper can be opened and closed from the inside.”
After they climbed into the bed of the truck, he heard the latch lock and knew they were safely inside. He climbed onto the topper and crawled into his sleeping bag, his M4 within reach. He closed his eyes, going into a light sleep, and knew even the slightest sound would wake him.
Emmett woke up early the next morning, sore and stiff from sleeping on the hard surface. I’m not as young as I once was, he lamented to himself. He looked around at the rest area, and saw that it was empty, same as the night before. Taking care not to wake the girls, he grabbed his M4, climbed off the topper, and walked into the restroom where he splashed cold water on his face. When he left, he felt awake and ready for the day.
He knocked on the topper window. “Girls, it’s time to get up,” he said, receiving only a series of groans as a reply.
He grabbed his rifle from the weapons rack and climbed onto the roof again, where he sat resting his rifle on the bench. The girls got out of the truck and went straight into the restroom. They came out only a few minutes later, surprising him. He had lived with them for years and had never seen them get ready this fast. I guess the apocalypse really does change people, he thought.
They retrieved their things from the bed of the truck and hopped into the backseat. Jane immediately laid her head against the window and closed her eyes while Alexis rested her shotgun next to her and buckled up. He did one final scan, then climbed off the topper, stored the rifle on the rack, and got into the driver’s seat. A minute later, they were back on the interstate, driving north toward the Land of the Midnight Sun.
5
A Killer’s Conscience
“Yes, Mom, we’ll be safe. We love you, and we’ll call tomorrow,” James said as he hung up and turned to his brother. “Mom and Dad are safe. They’re holed up in a farmhouse out in the country. They were attacked by zombies this afternoon. Grandma and grandpa didn’t make it; it’s only them now. They barely made it out alive, and in their hurry, dad was only able to grab a hunting rifle.”
James gazed out the window at the barren landscape of South Dakota as it passed by. They were dead. He’d known this would happen eventually, but now that they were actually gone, it made this whole “apocalypse” thing seem much more real.
After a few minutes of silence, Connor spoke. “I figured they wouldn’t last long. Maybe this is for the best.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your grandparents,” Felicia said from the backseat.
She hadn’t said much since they’d rescued her in Miles, but he couldn’t blame her. She’d been the only one of her group to survive.
“Thanks,” James said, taking his eyes off the road and glancing back, giving her a friendly smile.
He couldn’t help his eyes lingering on her. She had long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, striking blue eyes, and soft features. She was short, with an athletic build, and couldn’t have stood much over five feet. However, the reason his eyes lingered was the fear in her eyes. There was hopelessness also, and he could tell she was having a hard time dealing with this.
“I’m sorry about your friends,” James said, turning his attention back to the road.
Checking the gas gauge, he noticed they were at a quarter tank. They had only filled up once after Miles.
“It’s okay. They weren’t my friends, really. We went to the same college, but I hadn’t known them till… this,” she said, looking out the window.
“Do you want us to find you a vehicle at the next stop so you can head back to your family?” James asked. He knew he was taking a risk, asking about her family, but if she wanted to go back it was best to let her go as soon as possible.
“No…” she said, pausing. “My family’s gone.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“They’ve been gone for a few years now, and I don’t really have anyone.”
“Surely you have someone,” Connor said, chiming in, “a strong, pretty girl like you.”
James looked at his brother, shocked at how straightforward he’d been. Connor returned his look and shrugged, mouthing “apocalypse.”
Felicia smiled a little. “Surprising, right? I was very close to my family, and after they passed in the same year as my best friend, I decided I didn’t ever want to hurt like that again.”
“Makes sense,” Connor said, distracted.
He was no longer listening. His attention was on the car driving towards them on the highway. As it got closer, it began slowing down.
“Bro, you might want to check this out,” Connor said, pointing.
The car drove across the line into their lane, where it stopped and four people got out. They were armed with a shotgun, two rifles, and a semi-auto rifle.
“I don’t think they’re friendly,” James said as he eyed the people. “We may want to prepare ourselves.”
“Already on it,” Connor said.
He rolled down his window and stuck his .308 rifle out. James slowed the truck when they were two hundred yards away and pulled a little to the left to give his brother a steady rest on the side-view mirror.
“How’s the shot?” James asked his brother as he watched the people start to walk towards them.
“Good,” Connor responded, aiming through the ten-power scope.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” James yelled out his window as he leaned out, aiming with his AR.
“We’re friends,” the lead man said, smiling. There were three men and one woman. They looked disheveled, with spots of dirt and blood on their clothes.
“Stop there and we can talk,” James said. He watched their casual movements as they continued forward, guns lowered.
“We shouldn’t have to yell. We’ll come to you,” the leader said.
“I said stop there!” James yelled back.
When they didn’t stop, Connor let a round fly right at their feet to accentuate the point. The group stopped, raising their guns. Connor already had another round in the chamber and was scoped on the leader. He would be the first to die.
“I told you to stop. We can talk from here. No need to get closer.”
“What? You don’t trust us?”
“Not at all,” James said.
“We just wanted to see if you had any room for us to hop in,” the leader said, his smile still plastered on his face. It unnerved James how much this man smiled. No one should smile while they were being shot at. The leader continued, “As you can see, our little car over there is not the best for running over zombies. But that truck of yours. . . damn, it looks good. You get it lifted?” They began to lower their guns as the leader continued talking.
“Yea—” James was cut off as two things happened at once.
First, he heard a shot echo through the truck as his brother fired. Second, the leader fired one shot before falling to the ground, blood spraying from his neck. The shot just missed the truck, whizzing by as James aimed at the other man with a rifle, who was shouldering his weapon as he sighted in on them. James fired when his crosshairs settled on the man’s head, and the bullet struck the ground just to the man’s right, but it was enough to make him flinch and miss his shot. James wasn’t used to being shot at while he was trying to aim.
He heard his brother shoot again and saw the woman with the other rifle fa
ll to the ground, blood staining her shirt. James got his target back in his scope and squeezed the trigger. His shot took the man in the shoulder as he was bringing the gun back to his eye from racking the bolt. The man dropped the rifle, his arm no longer able to support it, and had begun to pull out a handgun when James’s third shot took him square in the chest.
In the span of a few seconds, three of the four lay on the ground, dead or dying. After shooting at the brothers a couple times, the man with the shotgun realized his firearm wasn’t effective at that range. He sprinted in a crouch back toward their car. James sighted on him but hesitated. He was running away and wasn’t a threat to them now. Most likely, he would get in the car and high-tail it out of here. But what if he didn’t? What if he had a rifle in the car, or something worse? James was too late making up his mind as his brother’s rifle barked and the man fell forward.
James looked around, noticing there were a few zombies heading towards them from some of the abandoned vehicles in the ditches. The noise of the gunfire must have drawn them.
Connor pulled the rifle back inside, opening the empty bolt, and began loading.
“Just another reason to load a bullet in the chamber when the mag’s full,” Connor said, as he finished and set the rifle in the backseat. “Let’s roll up and get their guns.”
James shook his head. He needed to wrap his mind around this or he would get them into trouble. He glanced at his brother.
“Sorry, bro,” James said in a half whisper.
“I had him. No reason for you to waste ammo at that range,” Connor said, a hard look in his eyes.
“Yeah, but—”
“We can talk about it later. Let’s get those guns and get out of here.”
James sighed and pulled the truck forward two hundred yards to the first three bodies. A zombie had already started to eat on one of the bodies and more were a hundred yards away. Connor hopped out of the truck, grabbing his machete and dropping the zombie with a blow to the head. He then stabbed the three bodies in the head and grabbed their firearms and all of the ammo they had, which wasn’t much. He jumped back into the truck, throwing the guns into the backseat opposite Felicia, who sat there looking scared and unsure.
James pulled the truck forward and Connor got out again, grabbing the shotgun off the last man and walking the few yards to their car. Several zombies were gathered around it. Connor slashed the first one in the head, dropping it. James leaned on the side-view mirror with his suppressed AR and took out two zombies closing in on his brother, and Connor took care of the last two. James jumped out of the truck and shot a zombie heading their way. The zombies were scattered enough that they wouldn’t overwhelm them anytime soon, so he walked up to his brother who was loading some items into a bag.
“Anything good?” James asked.
“Some ammo and a few other miscellaneous items,” Connor said, pulling his head out of the backseat and zipping the bag shut. “Pop the trunk.”
James went to the driver’s door and did as he’d been asked.
“Bastards,” Connor whispered.
James came around the side of the car and gasped. There was a woman in the trunk, tied up and bloody, and she looked to be in pretty bad shape. Connor felt for a pulse at her neck. Pulling his hand back, he shook his head and drew out his KA-BAR, gently shoving it into the back of the woman’s neck at the base of her skull.
“No reason for her to come back like this,” Connor said softly.
James was always amazed with his brother. He was a hard man who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an evil man in the back. But on the same coin, he would show compassion to a dead woman who had suffered.
“Let’s go,” James said, watching the growing swarm of zombies.
He raised his AR and sighted on the closest one, dropping it to the ground. Connor picked up the bag and went back to the truck. James followed and jumped in, set the AR next to him and drove around the car with the dead woman in the trunk as they continued on their way.
They’d been driving for a few minutes when Felicia finally spoke. “How…?”
They both shrugged.
“It was them or us,” Connor said, “and I’m not ready to die yet. Are you?”
“No… but it was so easy for you,” she said.
“Killing isn’t the hard part. You just aim and squeeze the trigger. Killing a person is no different than killing an animal, especially when it comes to survival. No, the act of self-defense isn’t a hard choice. Squeezing the trigger is easy. It’s living with that choice afterwards that’s hard,” Connor said, some of the hardness leaving his eyes.
“But—” she began.
“You cannot hesitate in war, and make no mistake, this is a battlefield,” Connor said, looking over at his brother.
James could feel his brother’s eyes on him and knew what he was saying with that look. Get it together, bro.
James knew his brother was right. His hesitation would get them killed, and he couldn’t do it again, not with a zombie or person. It was them against the world. He thought about the commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.” How could he kill without murdering? He thought about all the soldiers fighting overseas. Were they murderers? No, he knew that wasn’t true. They were in a physical and spiritual war against evil. But was this the same thing? His brother’s last comment replayed in his head. “Make no mistake, this is a battlefield.” If this was a war then he would have to man up and move forward. He would not let his hesitation be the end of them. He would just have to come to terms with what needed to be done.
~~~
James fueled the truck while Connor kept watch. The pump kicked off and he topped off the tank, then hung up the nozzle.
“We should gather all the food we can from inside,” James said, walking around the front of the truck to join his brother.
“I need to use the restroom,” Felicia said, getting out of the truck and stretching.
James watched her. She was pretty—not like an overdone hotness but the gentle type of cuteness he preferred.
“I can escort you,” James said, walking over to her and smiling.
“Thanks,” she said, giving him a small smile.
“You’d better take this,” Connor said, offering her the 12-gauge semi-auto shotgun. “It’s fully loaded. All you have to do is click the safety off and pull the trigger.”
She took it and James showed her the safety and how to shoulder it. He nodded and Connor led the way to the gas station.
They reached the building and Connor stopped beside the door while James came up to it and nodded to his brother. Connor opened the door and James took a step inside, scanning the room. There was nothing he could see right away, but he could smell something rotten. Felicia and then his brother came in behind him.
“What is that?” Felicia asked, putting a hand up to block her nose.
“Rotting flesh,” Connor said.
“Connor,” James said, chastising.
“What? It’s the truth,” he said, glancing at Felicia who was growing pale. “Sorry, I meant to say… a field of roses.”
James chuckled and Felicia smiled despite the situation. As they moved further into the room, the brothers swung their ARs to their sides and pulled out their tomahawks. They made it to the back of the room, finding nothing, and only had the restrooms to check.
“I’ll get the men’s. You get the women’s,” James told his brother.
“Yes! I have always wanted to go into a women’s restroom,” Connor said. James and Felicia gave him a look. “What? I’m curious. Do you have couches where you sit and talk, or vending machines, or…”
He trailed off as Felicia started laughing.
“Boys,” she said.
“Let’s just check these,” James said, shaking his head.
He couldn’t take his brother anywhere, even at the end of the world. James pushed into the men’s restroom and noticed right away all the blood on the floor and walls and the chunks of flesh lying ar
ound the room. He searched around but didn’t see a body, only pieces of one. Crouching down, he looked into the single stall. It was empty. Hearing a thud from the other side of the wall, he exited the restroom, quickly opening the door to the women’s room and looking in. There was a body lying on the floor, blood leaking from its head. His brother came out of the second stall.
“Clear in here,” Connor said as he walked past his brother and out the open door.
James grabbed the body by a leg and hauled it out of the restroom.
“There you go,” he said to Felicia as she went inside.
James walked over to his brother who was searching the gas station for anything useful.
“I won’t hesitate again,” James said.
“I know, bro,” Connor responded. “I have full confidence you would’ve done it. You just would’ve taken a little longer. I envy you sometimes, you know.”
James looked at his brother in surprise.
“What? I do, I’ve been wondering…” Connor said, standing as he looked at his older brother. “It’s easier for me to do all this, but is that really a good thing? Does my lack of hesitation mean I’m just as bad as them?”
“No, it means you’re stronger in your resolve than I am. You have to remember, Connor, you were a marine. Yes, you never saw combat, but you had the mindset and were ready for war. You were ready to die and to kill for your family and country. This is no different. I’ve been thinking about it for the past few hours. What makes it murder?” James paused and noticed he had his brother’s full attention. “I think I have an answer.”
After a brief pause, Connor said, “And?”
“Think about it. God knows our hearts, minds, and souls. He knows everything about us, what we will do and what we could do. He knows our hearts, and that’s the difference,” James said, becoming animated. “We don’t want to kill; we’re driven to do it. But an evil man, he wants to kill. God looks at our hearts. It’s that simple.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Connor said in a hushed voice.
The Brother's Creed (Book 1): Outbreak Page 5