by Eric Vall
Eric Vall
Chapter 1
The moon was high in the sky as my crew and I headed toward the shore and the massive fort that awaited us. Just at the shoreline, I could see the outline of four men that I assumed were sent to escort us.
Though the voice that had come over the loudspeaker was a familiar one, I didn’t trust any situation where I wasn’t allowed to leave when I so chose, and since my old Ranger acquaintance, Brody, had insisted we come into the fort, I was that much more skeptical.
I knew the man behind the speaker, but barely, and it had been years since I’d last seen him. There was no way for me to tell what kind of person this world had turned him into.
“Tav,” Tara, the beautiful platinum blonde, said quietly as we sailed closer to the shore.
“Yes?” I asked.
“What do we do if this old friend of yours turns out to be a total dick?” the platinum blonde asked with a raised eyebrow, echoing my own thoughts.
“He sounded nice,” Bailey, the blonde hippie, said with a shrug.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Anna, my redheaded second in command, added.
“We don’t have a choice but to go in,” Paige, the bookish brunette, said. “So we may as well just see what it’s like before we judge.”
“Paige is right,” I said. “If Brody wanted to hurt us, he would have already by now. Seems like he’s got the firepower to do it.”
Not only did the men on the wall of the fort have weapons, including a Howitzer LW115, but so did those that waited for us. Each of the men had a military issued M16, which made me all the more wary of what we had gotten ourselves into. We finally reached the shore, and the men that waited for us tied our boat up.
“Thanks,” I said as I hopped off with my weapons still on me.
The men said nothing, they simply turned around and began to head toward the fort. Part of me had expected them to frisk us or ask us to remove our weapons, but they did neither, which calmed my nerves slightly, but not enough for me to let my guard down.
Each of the men had a rifle on them, but they carried them with their fingers on the trigger which led me to believe that they were civilians instead of soldiers. They also appeared to be quite thin, with gaunt cheeks and clothes that hung off them ever so slightly. I wondered if they’d had food troubles over the winter. There was plenty of area to hunt and fish around the fort, but if they had been swarmed by Canadians trying to make it south for winter, then they could have been stuck inside the fort, unable to hunt.
“What’s their problem?” Tara asked, and she looked at me with pinched eyebrows.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m sure we’ll find out soon.”
It wasn’t a long walk to the fort, but the silence of the men in front of us was unnerving, and I felt on edge as we walked in the darkness. I looked around at my girls and saw that each of them scanned the area carefully as well, their eyes intent on the land and people around them. I was proud of their observance and smiled to myself about how far they had come since the first time I had met them.
Finally, we reached the wall that surrounded the fort. The place was even more massive up close, and I looked up the tall walls of the place in awe as I tried to figure out why we had been forced to come inside in the first place. What did Brody want?
Something like a clinking chain sounded, and the doors opened slowly to reveal that light shone from inside. The fort was massive, with a huge center courtyard filled with firewood, supplies, and a few people as well. The stone walls were large, but seemed to become larger the more I looked at them, and the buildings posted at the tops of the inside walls appeared to match the grand scale of the rest of the place.
“Tav!” Brody called as he ran over to me. I almost didn’t recognize the man. His thick, black hair was longer than I had ever seen it, though still shorter than mine, and I thought I saw a few more scars littered about his face.
“Hey Brody,” I said hesitantly, and I stuck my hand out toward him. “It’s good to see you.”
“Get over here, you sonofabitch,” the dark haired man laughed, and he pulled me into him. “How have you been? Crazy seeing you on my waters.”
Brody was a large man, but most of the men I served with in the Rangers were. He was about six foot two, with wide shoulders and a wide face to match. He had dark brown eyes and scarred up hands he had once told me was from all the bar fights he got into before he joined the service.
I thought I saw a few fresh-looking scars there as well.
“We were scouting the area,” I said as I pulled away from the large man. I didn’t like the way he said ‘my waters.’ Something about it put me that much more on edge, though he had a good-natured smile, and I wasn’t sure if I was being too skeptical.
The girls all looked at me with narrowed eyes of confusion, and I shrugged slightly to show them that I didn’t understand why this guy was so excited to see me either. I had done a few missions with him back in Sierra Leone, and I had even saved his life once, but I had done that for quite a few men, and Brody and I had never been good friends, more acquaintances than anything else. But, considering the state of the world it seemed seeing anybody you knew before would be exciting. After all, it wasn’t like you could send anybody a text or email now, and you assumed most people you knew before were dead or long gone. I didn’t share his excitement, but I could understand it.
“And who are these beautiful ladies with you?” Brody asked as he peered around me at the girls.
“This is my team,” I said seriously. I didn’t like the way he eyed them up and down, and I felt my fingers clench into a fist.
I still didn’t know what we were doing there in the first place, and I wasn’t about to let anything happen to my girls.
“Your team, huh?” the dark haired man asked with a raised brow, but then he broke into a wide grin. “Well, you all must be parched, how about a drink?”
“We really should be going,” I said sternly.
“Nonsense!” Brody exclaimed. “It’s late. You can leave tomorrow if you wish, but I insist you stay for dinner. It’s been too long, brother, we should catch up some more.”
I looked at the girls, and they shrugged at me. I didn’t like it, but if I was being honest, then I knew that Brody hadn’t been anything but hospitable so far. They hadn’t taken our weapons, and as of that moment I had no true reason to doubt his sincerity.
“Alright,” I agreed, a little less on edge than before. “We’ll stay for the evening, but tomorrow we gotta go.”
“Ah, Tav,” Brody laughed, and he looked at the girls. “Always working, isn’t he? Come, let’s have a drink!”
The dark haired man sauntered off toward the buildings on the top of the fort and up a stone staircase. I followed warily with the girls behind me. I had always known Brody to be somewhat eccentric, but it seemed that had gotten even worse with the end of the modern world.
“This guy is weird,” Anna whispered as we walked.
“I feel it, too,” Paige said in hushed tones. “He’s being too nice.”
“Maybe this is how people feel about us,” Bailey said. “We’re really nice to people, too.”
“That’s true,” Tara whispered. “For now I say we give him a chance.”
“You’re only saying that because he offered us drinks,” Anna said with an eyeroll.
“Damn right,” the platinum blonde agreed with a grin.
“Alright,” I said. “We’re going to stay the night, just be vigilant and stay alert. We don’t know these people well enough to let our guards down.”
“Agreed,” Paige said with a nod.
“Come along!” Brody shouted from the top of the staircase.
I led the girls up the stone s
tairs and followed Brody to a large dining room. There was a massive fireplace on one end that heated the room and stung my cheeks as I pulled up a chair by the fire.
The room itself looked like a great hall in some castle. It was huge and made of stone. There was a large wooden table in the center of the room, and some small tables here and there. I imagined the furniture in the room was ancient, and most of the small vases and paintings were probably artifacts that were never meant to be touched, but these were different times, and everything had a function now.
“I’ve been so rude,” the dark haired man said. “I’m Brody, and you ladies are?”
“Tara,” the platinum blonde said.
“I’m Bailey,” the blonde hippie added with a smile.
“Paige,” the brunette said, and she pushed her glasses further up her nose.
“And I’m Anna,” the redhead announced with a cool air of authority.
“Great, let me grab us some drinks,” Brody said as he walked over to a small table nearby.
The large, dark haired man poured what looked like water out of a large glass pitcher and handed each of us a cup.
“What is it?” Bailey asked as she smelled the drink and her nose crinkled in response.
“Potato vodka,” Brody announced. “We made it ourselves.”
“Mmm,” Tara said after she took a drink. “This isn’t bad.”
“I’d hope not,” the dark haired man laughed. “Dinner should be ready shortly.”
“Should we help?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “Tara’s a great cook.”
“No need,” Brody said with a dismissive wave. “It’s already being handled.”
“We don’t mind working for our share,” Anna said, and she eyed Brody seriously.
“You are guests!” the dark haired man exclaimed with a grin. “Drink up and relax. Tonight is one for good friends and stories.”
“If you say so,” Tara said as she took another swig of the homemade vodka.
“Tav,” Brody said. “You haven’t tried your drink yet.”
I brought the cup to my lips and took a small swig of the clear liquid. It was fire as it burned its way down my throat, and there was no flavor at all except that of alcohol. It reminded me of the everclear I had tried once as a teenager that had left me so incapacitated I nearly died in a field.
“There you are,” the dark haired man laughed. “Drink up.”
“So, Brody,” Paige said. “How did you wind up here?”
“Well, it wasn’t by accident,” the large man chuckled. “I grew up in New York, born and raised. And when shit popped off, I knew there was one place I needed to head.”
“You planned on coming to this fort?” Anna asked, her eyebrows pinched together.
“Oh, yes,” Brody agreed. “Ever since I saw my first zombie movie. I knew this was the place to go when the world went to hell.”
“You like zombie movies?” Anna asked skeptically. I knew the redhead was wary of Brody as well, but I also knew her diehard love for horror flicks.
“Oh, I love them!” Brody exclaimed. “That’s one of the things I miss most about television.”
“Which are your favorites?” She asked.
“Any of the ones with zombies,” he chucked. “I forget the names of them. I like them all. Even normal people seem kind of like mindless-zombies sometimes. Ya know?”
“Hm,” Anna said with narrowed eyes. She seemed unimpressed by Brody’s answer, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“How did this place hold up throughout the winter?” Bailey asked.
“It did alright,” Brody said. “We’re all alive and well at least.”
“Did you get overrun?” I asked.
“We had a few bitch-ass Canadians come through here,” he answered.
“Bitch-ass Canadians?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, I never liked those cunts,” Brody laughed. “Always going on about how Americans are too violent and how big our military is. Meanwhile, they reaped all the benefits of having us protect them. Big old bitch-ass hypocrites. Ain’t that right, Tav?”
“It’s really unfortunate that the EMP hit,” I sighed. “I don’t wish ill will on any race or creed.”
“But you’ve probably had to kill a bunch of ‘em, eh, hoser?” Brody laughed. “Anyways, the horde of Canadian zombies was nothing we couldn’t handle.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “I saw that Howitzer out there.”
“The LW155,” Brody sighed. “She’s a beast and a savior. My favorite weapon, really.”
“That’s what that big ass gun is called?” Anna asked, and she looked to me for confirmation.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s got some serious firepower.”
“Speaking of that,” Brody laughed. “I see you all still have your rifles on you. You can set them on the wall if you’d like. You’re plenty safe within these walls.”
“Oh,” I said when I realized he was right. “It’s a habit.”
I was a bit more at ease then than I had been when we first arrived, but I never liked being asked to set aside my weapon, no matter who it was that did the asking.
“I understand,” the dark haired man said.
The girls got up and set their weapons against the wall, and I reluctantly followed. We still had our pistols, and Brody seemed like he was doing well enough for himself, but I still didn’t know the man very well.
I didn’t want to let my guard down for a second around him or any of his men, untrained as they might be.
“How about another drink, little lady?” Brody asked Tara and he held out the pitcher.
The platinum blonde looked at me, and I raised a brow at her. She gave me a pretty smile, then held her cup out.
“Thanks,” she said before she took another swig.
“Of course,” Brody said. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”
“You have your own still?” I asked.
“Sorta,” Brody laughed.
“You also have a working spotlight,” Paige pointed out. “And lights inside. How did you manage that?”
“Sheer luck on that one,” the large man said with a grin. “One of the civilians here is an electrical engineer. She does some damn fine work. Got the power going for us.”
“We just got power back at our place, too, over the winter,” Tara said, and I shot her a look. I didn’t want to give out too much information until I had assessed the situation fully.
“Oh, really,” Brody said, and he leaned forward with interest. “How’d you manage that?
“Sheer luck really,” I said, repeating his previous statement. “Solar panels and a computer engineer.”
“And where are you living now?” the dark haired man asked, and his eyes narrowed in thought.
“It’s a college campus near--” Bailey began.
“Burlington,” I interrupted. “We managed to set up shop on the University of Vermont campus.”
“No kidding,” the dark haired man said with a smile, and he turned to me. “So how’d you wind up there with all these lovely ladies, you lucky dog?”
“Tav saved us,” Paige said. The brunette gave me a knowing look, and a slight nod to show that she understood. I could always count on my book worm to catch on quickly.
“He seems to do a lot of that,” Brody chuckled. “Tav is a good dude. Naw, scratch that, he’s a great dude, and one hell of a Ranger. How’d he save you?”
“We were under attack by bikers,” Anna explained. “And Tav came out of nowhere and took them out. He’s been with us ever since.”
“Of course, he has,” the dark haired man laughed. “Tav never could resist someone in distress.”
“I try to do my best to help,” I said, and I took another small swig of my drink. The stuff was nasty as hell, but at the rate Brody chugged it, and how red his face was getting, I didn’t think we were in much danger. Plus, I had to keep up the appearance that I at least worked on my drink.
/> “Hey,” Paige said. “Since you have power, do you have a working radio?”
“I suppose,” Brody said with a shrug. “But it’s never used.”
“You didn’t hear any broadcasts over the winter?” the brunette asked.
“No,” the large man said, and his eyes narrowed. “What’s this about?”
“There was a broadcast from North Korea this winter,” Anna said, and she gave me a look to gauge my reaction to her revealing the information, so I gave her a slight nod in return. I was curious if he had heard it as well.
“I heard a rumor that it was them who did this whole thing with the EMP,” Brody said with a wave of his hand. “But I don’t buy it for a second.”
“What do you mean?” Anna asked, her eyebrows pinched together. “We saw orders from Washington D.C. that described the North Korean weapons.”
“Anybody could forge a letter,” Brody said, and Anna looked at me like ‘is this guy serious?’
“Are you saying you don’t think North Korea had any part in this?” I asked.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Brody said, and he took a large swig of his drink that ended with an audible ‘ah’ sound. “Now the Chinese, them I could see being behind this, but not the Koreans. Those gook dirt farmers can’t even wipe their asses right.”
We all sat quietly for a moment while we took in Brody’s remark. I wasn’t sure if it was pure racism, pure ignorance, or anger that had brought those words out from his mouth, but part of me wanted to push the subject further while the other part thought that there was no point.
“So how did you get along this winter?” Bailey asked after a moment of silence. “You said you had Canadians come through?”
“It seems kind of out of the way for people to come through,” Anna pointed out.
“That’s what I thought, too,” Brody said. “But they still came through. I think they didn’t know the area well and tried to go a different way than the rest of the people.”
“How did you all survive with food and water?” I asked. “Rations much have been scarce unless you planned ahead.”
“Our engineer gal hooked up the water system,” the dark haired man said. “So that was no problem, and we stocked up some food from last year's harvest. Plus there’s plenty of hunting around here.”