by A. R. Wise
"What?" Annie withdrew her hand in confusion.
"Did you come from the Facility?" I asked.
She shook her head and glanced at Hero as if hoping he might be able to explain. "No. What's the Facility?"
Hero pointed back toward DIA. "That's what they call the airport. They've been living down there all their lives. I don't know what they're doing in there, but it's some creepy shit. Not only are they farming chicks, they're also filling trucks up with corpses. This truck is overflowing with Poppers." We could still hear the corpses shifting in the box behind us.
Annie set the butt of her gun on the ground and used it to lean on as she chuckled and shook her head. "Levon, you're the only person in the world that could walk into a military complex that is breeding zombies and walk out with two white girls on your arm."
"A pimp's a pimp, baby. No helping that."
"I wonder what Jill's going to think about that," said Annie with a wink.
Hero became suddenly serious. "Don't play me like that, Annie. That's not even right. I didn't do anything wrong."
"Okay, then Jill shouldn't mind that you had a girl on your lap." Annie was enjoying Hero's discomfort.
"You know that's not fair. The girl didn't want to sit in the bloodstain. Do you want to watch me get beat down or something? I thought we were friends, girl."
"I'm fucking with you," said Annie as she walked down the road, away from the truck. "Let's get going before the sun goes down. We need to get back to Vineyard before it gets too dark."
"What about your sister and Stitch?" asked Hero.
"We wouldn't be able to get back there before dark. They'll be fine for the night. The Poppers aren't going to be able to get out of Hanger."
I stood beside Hailey as Hero and Annie talked. I put my hand in hers and she was surprised at my approach. She pulled away before she saw it was me, then she relaxed and smiled as she clasped my hand.
We walked to their vehicle and Annie asked us questions about the Facility. We did our best to answer, but she was intent on knowing what we were there for and how we were being used by the military. Neither of us could answer her, and she was flabbergasted by our ignorance. I apologized to her, but she seemed more curious than perturbed by us. She unzipped her suit and pulled it off to reveal her svelte form. Beneath the camouflage suit she wore a pair of tight shorts and a tank top that was soaked in sweat.
I had a thousand more questions for them about the Surface, and when we got into the jeep I asked about the hundreds of birds in the air. Hailey and I sat in the back while Annie drove and Hero sat beside her. I wanted to continue talking, but when we started to drive the wind drowned me out. It whipped my hair about and stung my eyes if I didn't squint. Hailey's hair was longer than mine and flowed out behind us as the vehicle sped along. I glanced at her and saw that she was gloriously happy. She smiled at me as her hair obstructed her face and then she put her arms in the air and screamed out in joy. I enjoyed seeing her like this, and honestly couldn't recall ever seeing anyone happier than she was at that moment.
She turned to look at me again with a wide smile and then wrapped her arms around me. Her cheek pressed against mine, with her mouth beside my ear, so that I could hear when she said, "We made it! I love this so much. It's so beautiful out here."
I held her and said, "Your hair looks so pretty in the sunlight. You're gorgeous."
"I can't wait to be naked with you again," she said and then started kissing my neck.
I saw Annie watching us from the rearview mirror and she punched Hero in the leg before pointing back at us. Hero glanced at us and then back at Annie. He held his hands up, shrugged, and said something that I couldn't hear. The two of them were laughing and I decided to close my eyes and focus on Hailey. It felt tremendous to hold her in the open air, on the Surface.
Hailey curled up into my embrace as we watched the sun set behind the mountains in the distance. The blue sky was replaced with a brilliant display of orange and red as the sun disappeared, and the white clouds that drifted on the horizon were swimming in colors I'd never even dreamt of. I glanced down at Hailey as she rested on my chest and marveled at how the sky had turned the same color as her hair.
She looked beautiful in the sunlight, and I cherished having her in my arms. The emotions that the Instructors told us we would share with men when we achieved Surface Status could only pale in comparison to what I felt for Hailey. I was excited to start a new life with her, and to experience everything the Surface had to offer for the first time with her at my side.
Annie picked up a thin disc from between her and Hero that she then put in a slot on the dashboard of the jeep. I watched curiously as the disc slid inside, as if pulled by a mechanism within, and then music started to play from a speaker beside us. It was loud at first, but Hero quickly reached out and turned a knob on the dash that brought the volume down.
Hailey and I were familiar with music, but not like what Annie played. This music was more abrasive, and the singing was harsher than I'd ever heard in what was piped into the Facility. Hailey looked up at me with childlike enthusiasm at the sound and I smiled back down at her as we listened to music that we never knew existed.
I saw a herd of animals in the distance and I excitedly pointed at them for Hailey to see. We'd learned about several types of animals while in the Facility, and I could recognize that this was a herd of cattle. It was mostly females and their calves, but I saw one older male among them. Several calves walked clumsily beside their mothers, and we watched as one suckled at his mother's teat.
Then we saw something else, dark and fast, sliding through the high brown grass. I tensed as another shape followed the first, zipping through the overgrowth beside the herd. One of the cattle stiffened and stomped as it caught sight of the predator. Suddenly, the entire herd began to run. They stampeded as a pack of dogs burst from the cover of weeds and descended upon their prey. There were more dogs than I'd realized and they tore across the earth in a mad frenzy to feed.
Hailey gasped and sat up to get a better view of the spectacle as one of the calves struggled to keep up with his mother. The dogs focused on the calf and moved in to cut it off from the herd. It staggered and tried to turn, but one of the dogs ran in and nipped at its heel, causing it to stumble. The other dogs circled as the calf spun and cried out in fear.
Then the pack lunged.
The mother tried to intervene, but was unable to stop the pack. She cried out in terror and fear, but had to flee to stay alive as her baby was murdered.
Hailey couldn't watch and turned back to me. She pushed her head into my chest and I held her as I watched the scene unfold. The calf was hidden to me as the dogs ravaged it. All I could see was a squirming mass of dog hair that was slickened with fresh blood.
The Surface felt suddenly wicked.
I kissed Hailey's head and held her as I closed my eyes. I could feel her sobbing and wanted nothing more than to erase her pain. At first, I was surprised by her reaction to the sight of the calf being murdered. We'd spent the past hour watching far more horrific things than that happen. But the murder of the calf affected me as well, and I realized that it was the loss of innocence that we were lamenting. The people that had been murdered while we watched (the Instructor, the truck driver, and the guard) were adults and conscious of the possibility of violence.
The calf was innocent, and unaware of the horrible nature of the world. It was like us, and the realization made me hold Hailey tighter. The world had no love of the innocent, and we'd become suddenly aware of that. It was heartbreaking, and I was inexplicably scared for Hailey's safety.
It wasn't much longer before we reached our destination. We drove off the large road that we'd been on for most of the journey and onto a smaller road that wound through a series of destroyed buildings. The stark contrast between the beauty of our early drive and this introduction to the destruction that the apocalypse caused was a mirror to our emotions as we faced the stark realism of th
e Surface world. The people living in this new world were doing it despite the will of nature, as evidenced by the way plants seemed intent on wiping them out.
Trees and vines curled through the hollow buildings, pulling apart their structure and leaving them broken shells of what they'd once been. Animals skittered through the dark, and each new movement sent a shiver of fear through me. This was not the paradise we were promised.
Annie drove us through the town, and Hero turned off the music as we went. He kept his rifle ready as the sunlight faded and the sky turned dark.
"You smell that?" asked Hero. Now that we had slowed down I could hear the two of them in the front seat.
"Yes," said Annie. "They're smoking meat out on the hill."
"That's right. I forgot about that."
"What are they doing?" I asked as I caught the smell of smoke as well.
"The people in this town cook food out on that hill over there." Annie pointed off to a hill in the distance. "They set up smoking pits and fill them with meat to let it cook all night. Then, the next day, they can see if the smell has attracted any attention from a safe distance." She pointed off to the right, toward the middle of the dilapidated town that we were driving through. "Vineyard is out that way. They set up on top of the buildings to watch the hill, and if it's clear they go out to get the food and bring it back."
"Some of the best damn food you'll ever get these days. The folks in Vineyard know how to cook," said Hero.
"That's for sure," added Annie. "If we're lucky, they'll let us have some."
"What kind of meat?" asked Hailey.
"Beef, pork, and camels usually. Why?" asked Hero.
Hailey shook her head and crossed her arms over her stomach as if fighting illness. "I don't know if I can eat meat."
Hero turned to look at us. "Didn't they serve you meat in that place?"
"Yes, but I never really thought about where it came from," said Hailey.
"Don't worry," said Annie. "One taste and you'll get past that. Trust me."
"There's not enough good food around anymore," said Hero. "When you can get your hands on some, you eat it."
Annie stopped the car in a paved area that was filled with other vehicles. There was a ramp that led down to what looked like a lower level, also filled with vehicles.
Annie stopped the engine and hopped out. The rest of us followed suit and I stared at the surroundings. This was once a bustling town, but now it was quiet and overrun with plants that climbed through cracks in the façade of every building around.
"Where's the town?" I asked.
Annie pointed up. "Vineyard is a rooftop town. You can find it if you follow the strings of lights that are hanging around the area."
I looked up and noticed there were green strands of wire tied to poles on the side of the road. Purple balls were tied to the string every few feet, and the strand stretched across the street. Annie explained that the founders of the town, Beach and Bonnie, preferred that visitors parked far from the entrance to prevent raiders from easily discovering how to get up.
Hero and Annie led us for a long walk and I was able to glimpse the inside of the buildings as we went. I was startled when I saw a person standing, silent and still, inside one of the ravaged buildings, but Hero told us that they weren't real. The people I saw inside were made of plastic and had bells tied to their clothes.
Each of the buildings had been gutted, and you could see clear across from one side to the other once you looked in through the windows. We learned that this was to make it easier to hunt and kill zombies that wandered into town. It also prevented anything from easily reaching the roof of any building, since that was where Vineyard was located. There were only a few entrances into the town, and it was nearly impossible to find them unless someone showed you where they were.
Annie stopped us outside of a yellow building that had a purple circle painted near the door. "Let me do the talking for you two. Okay? I don't think we should let them know you came from DIA. They might not trust you if they knew that."
Hailey and I nodded in agreement. We entered the unassuming building and made our way through a hallway, past a row of the eerie, plastic people. There were several red handled axes on the walls that I assumed could be used to fight off zombies in an emergency.
Annie led us up a flight of stairs to the third floor and then to a metal door that was painted with a series of intertwining vines. The door looked like it belonged to a different structure and not the drab wooden hallway it was set inside. She pounded on the door with the side of her fist in three quick knocks. Then she looked up and I followed suit. Surprisingly, there was a latch on the ceiling that slid open as someone peered down at us.
Annie waved at the pair of eyes that studied us. "It's me, Annie. I'm with Levon and two other girls."
"New recruits?" asked the man above.
"Yes. They're harmless."
"You know your sister's here too. Just showed up about ten minutes ago. Did you hear what happened to Juniper and Hanger?"
"No. Why don't you open the hatch and let me in so you can tell me about it." I was impressed with Annie's forceful demeanor. She didn't seem to be much older than Hailey and I, but she carried herself with a level of confidence that we could never emulate.
"Sorry," said the man above as he closed the small opening that he was staring through and opened the hatch. He dropped down a rope ladder that Levon grabbed hold of and pinned under his foot as he ushered us up before him.
"So the door isn't the entrance?" I asked as I mounted the wobbling ladder.
Hero shook his head and explained, "No. They have that here as a decoy. If anyone tries to bust their way in, they get a face full of lead from up high."
Annie smacked my butt. "Hurry up, Blondie."
The hatch led to a rooftop area that had a wooden canopy built over it with exposed sides that let fresh air in. There was just one man to greet us, a short, fat fellow with hair on his face but not on his head. He helped me up and whistled at me as I walked by him.
"Sweet God all mighty," he said and then looked back down the hole to help Hailey. "Where did you say you got these two? Because I'd swear they came straight from Heaven." He winked at me and I postulated that he was giving us a compliment, despite the fact that I didn't know where Heaven was or why he thought I might've come from there.
He pulled Hailey up and then gasped with wide-eyed amazement at her breasts as they pressed together inside of her tight jumpsuit. "Hot damn!" He waved his hand in front of his face to fan himself. "I'm about to have a heart attack looking at these two."
"Stop it, Ollie." Annie climbed up behind Hailey and held her hand out for him to help her take the final few steps, but he was busy ogling Hailey. She slapped her palm against the floor and held her hand out again for him. "Can I get a little help, Ollie? I'm carrying a 50 cal here."
"Sorry, sorry, beautiful. You know you're always my favorite, even when some fresh eye candy shows up." Ollie chuckled as he took Annie's hand and pulled her up. She had her large rifle strapped to her back, which made getting through the hatch more difficult for her than it had been for us. "Come with me girls, I'll take you to where Bonnie and Beach are at."
He led us away from the hatch and then called out behind him, over his shoulder, "Close up the hatch when you get up, Hero."
"Fuck you very much, Ollie!" Hero shouted out from below as we left him behind to climb the rope ladder alone.
Ollie led us to the edge of the building where a short bridge connected it to another building across a wide expanse. There were ropes to hang onto on either side of the bridge, but it was still a precarious walk that caused my stomach to turn when I glanced over the edge. I couldn't help but think of the man falling from the ceiling back at the Facility.
Ollie stopped before walking onto the bridge and turned to Annie as if he'd just recalled something. "So you don't know about what happened in Hanger and Juniper?"
"I know that Hanger is los
t," said Annie. "But I didn't know about Juniper. Are they infected too?"
Ollie glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one else was close enough to hear. "Yes, but don't bring it up. Your sister told Beach about it, but we decided to keep it quiet until the morning."
"Why?" Annie sounded perturbed.
I stared at the bridge as they spoke. I was terrified at the prospect of crossing it and Hailey sensed my trepidation. She put her hands on my thighs as she stood behind me and whispered, "Are you okay?"
"I don't like being so high up," I whispered back.
Ollie continued speaking with Annie, "Because tomorrow is the anniversary, and we're celebrating tonight. There's nothing we can do about Hanger and Juniper for now, so Beach wants to keep it quiet until the morning. Beach and I are the only ones that know about the outbreaks besides your sister and the other three that came with her."
"Other three?" asked Annie.
Ollie nodded. "Yeah, she showed up with that bald girl with the tattoos," he pointed at his lips.
"Stitch. I knew she was with her, but who else is she with?"
"Harrison and some friend of his."
Annie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Good old Harrison. Has he stolen anything yet?"
Ollie snickered as he started to walk across the bridge. "Not yet, but the night is young."
Annie expected me to follow after Ollie, but then saw that I was hesitant. "You'll do fine. Just don't look down," said Annie from behind me as Ollie headed out onto the bridge. "You'll be fine. If it can support Ollie's tubby ass, it can handle a twig like you." She put her gun down against the wall beside the bridge and I heard it thump with surprising heft. Then she put her hands on my waist and pushed me onto the wooden beam bridge. I gasped in fear but managed to quickly grip the ropes on either side and walk across.
"Just think of the balance beam back home," said Hailey. "This beam's a lot wider than that one."
"Yeah, but the beam at the Facil… back home isn't hanging over a forty foot drop."
Ollie stopped and turned around. "What's wrong?"