The Regulators - 02

by Michael Clary

  I pulled off on Sunland and drove up to an old house I used to rent with my first wife. It didn’t have a lot of windows, and the few it had were small. The place would be pretty secure.

  I backed into the driveway, hopped out of the truck, jumped the fence and broke down the back door. I then ran into the garage and opened the automatic garage door by pushing the button on the side of the wall.

  After the truck was safely hidden inside the garage, we carried Charlie into one of the bedrooms. Katie did her best to clean the wound, while I ransacked the house looking for painkillers. Luck wasn’t with me. Poor Charlie would have to suffer.

  Katie wanted to check the EPUA website, when we remembered that Martha had been carrying the laptop. It was gone, and I wasn’t going to go back for it.

  We spent the rest of that day keeping Charlie quiet. He was turning; it was just taking a long time. I couldn’t stand seeing him in so much pain. It was horrible. The thought of making it to the Safe Zone was still there, but to even consider moving Charlie was unthinkable.

  By the second day, his breathing had become labored. He wasn’t able to take in any fluids and he was in so much pain he could barely talk.

  “You need to leave me,” he said when I went to check on him.

  “I can’t leave you like this Charlie.”

  “I don’t want you to,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I’m not going to get any better. I don’t want to turn into one of those things. It hurts Nick. It hurts a lot. Be a pal.”

  I knew immediately what he wanted. For a moment, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. Then I realized I was being selfish. I was only thinking about myself. My friend was suffering, and he needed me.

  I pulled the .38 out of my waistband and covered it with a pillow. The gunshot was muffled, but it was loud enough to bring Katie running into the room.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I couldn’t let him suffer anymore,” I answered.

  Then I began to sob.

  Like I said before, I’d been in plenty of brawls in my time, but I had never before given anyone a serious injury. I was having some trouble coping with what I had just done. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know. All I know is that Charlie was suffering terribly, and I did what he asked me.

  It took another day before I was able to function again.

  “You missed everyone leaving the Safe Zone didn’t you?”

  Yeah, the bastards left without me. We had no way of knowing that they were going to storm the gates and demand their freedom. I figured that we had all the time in the world. It was my fault. I just needed time to recover.

  The fences were closed up tight when we arrived. There were no zombies in sight. However, there were no living people in sight either. I had no idea what was going on. I got the fences opened; I pulled my truck inside the Safe Zone and parked it on the side of the street. There was plenty of food left behind, not just in Georgie’s house, but in a few of the houses.

  I started using Georgie’s computer. We found out that everyone had left the area not long before we arrived at the gates. We had no other choice but to sit and wait for help. As soon as it was announced that the Regulators were coming back into El Paso in order to rescue all the survivors, I started announcing our location.

  I’ll be the first to admit that I was more than a little pissed off. Talk about bum fucking luck. To go all that way and find the stupid place deserted. To add insult to injury, I’m announcing our location over and over and still getting lost in the shuffle of all the other survivors who were also announcing their locations over and over.

  By the time someone responded to me, the first thing I let them know was that I was a friend of the General.

  “And then help arrived?”

  About two hours later, and it wasn’t Jaxon. It was his little followers. After I outmaneuvered them and when they were through pissing their pants, I brought out Katie and Jason. I had kept them hidden upstairs in Georgie’s bedroom just in case something went wrong. Not that I thought anything would go wrong; I just wasn’t going to take any chances with their lives after everything that happened.

  Once again I asked the question.

  “So where’s Jaxon?”

  “We kind of lost him,” Dudley said.

  “You did what?”

  “We lost him. I’m sure he’s fine, but we’re waiting to make contact with him.”

  “No wonder you assholes ignored me the first time I asked,” I responded.

  By the time everything was explained to me, the sun was coming up, and it was too late to make an extraction. We decided to wait out the day in Georgie’s house and head for the extraction point come sundown.

  Georgie made a pretty decent fuss about not getting to sleep in his own bedroom, but when I threatened to toss another bottle his way, he grumbled off into his daughter’s room.

  “Were you relieved when they showed up?”

  Yes and no. I mean, I was relieved that Katie and Jason were going to get out of that hellhole, but at the same time I was kinda worried about Jaxon, and I could tell that the others were worried as well.

  I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to leave the situation in the hands of those guys. Dudley is a pretty cool guy, but the others aren’t exactly considered tough guys under normal circumstances if you know what I mean.

  I wasn’t able to sleep. Part of me wanted on the next train out of there, but the other part was telling me to stay and help Jaxon. I wasn’t exactly a huge believer in him being all special at the time. I figured that the guy just had a mean set of brass balls. I was a little surprised when Georgie put his face under the faucet and the bruise I gave him kinda melted away, but it still wasn’t enough to convince me that these guys were going to have the kind of stones needed to find Jaxon.

  An hour after sunset, all my worries were alleviated. Jaxon found us, kind of.

  We were inside the garage getting ready to hop into the Jeep. I was arguing with Georgie because I wanted to drive. Georgie said I wasn’t part of the team. I told him to stick his team up his ass. Dudley told me to get in the back. I told him to get in the back. For a moment, it looked like he was going to shoot me, and then the call came in.

  “Jaxon, is that you?” Dudley said into his earpiece. “What’s happening…we’re in the safe zone…yeah, we’ll be in the watchtowers.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Alright everybody, listen up,” said Dudley. “Jaxon is on his way to us. He’s in some kind of trouble. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he was shooting. So, we’re arming up and setting up on the two watchtowers on either side of the gate. Once we see him drive up, we are to open fire on whatever is chasing him.”

  “What’s chasing him?” Kingsley asked.

  “I don’t know; there was a lot of background noise, but something’s after him. Now let’s move, because he gonna be here any minute.”

  I sent Katie and Jason back inside Georgie’s house. I wanted them safe and out of danger. Then, I grabbed the assault rifle in the back of Jeep.

  “How do you work this thing?” I asked Georgie.

  “You should get inside the house,” Georgie answered. “This is Regulator business.”

  “How bout I just aim it at your balls and pull the trigger till it fires?”

  “Dudley!” he screamed like a little bitch.

  Dudley eyeballed the situation.

  “Fuck it,” he said. “Show him how to use it and give him some ammo.”

  The gun was a pretty simple weapon to use. I just wished I had taken a few moments to look it over myself before asking Georgie. I was going to help my buddy Jax no matter what any of them said and I really didn’t want to give them an opportunity to think otherwise.

  It was pretty cold up in the watchtower. The slight bit of wind had just enough bite to make me miserable without forcing me to go back to the house. The others seemed comfortab
le enough with their olive drab colored suits and gloves, but all I was wearing were a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt.

  I was in the same tower as Dudley. Georgie, Javie and Kingsley had a tower to themselves. I was glad Georgie wasn’t here with me; I might have been tempted to throw him off.

  We sat for a while and watched the empty street with our weapons held at the ready. I was a little nervous being on top of the tower. It didn’t exactly seem very sturdy. I had time to think thoughts like this because the wait was a long one.

  “How far away was he?” I asked.

  “Be quiet,” Dudley responded.

  “Just answer the fucking question,” I replied.

  “I don’t know, now shut up.”

  Since he was being an ass, I stopped trying to talk to him and focused my attention on the street. There were a couple of street lights, so visibility wasn’t going to be a problem, but sitting there and waiting was completely nerve racking. I felt like one of those little villagers waiting for King Kong to show up after they tied that chick up as a sacrifice. You know what I’m talking about?

  “I do.”

  Then we heard the engine. It was loud, so that meant that Jaxon was hauling ass. Just a moment later, we saw the headlights and then the Jeep was turning up the road and heading right towards us. I couldn’t see beyond the glare of the headlights. I began to panic and started shouting at him to turn off his lights.

  Dudley smacked me on the arm.

  “Shut up,” he growled.

  The Jeep wasn’t slowing down. I began to worry that it was going to collide with the gate. If that happened and the gate fell, the two watchtowers would probably go with it.

  “Dude, tell him to slow the fuck down.” I told Dudley.

  “Nick,” he growled without taking his eyes off the road. “You’re going to be in a fight very soon. If you can’t stop acting mental, then just duck down out of sight and I will let you know when it’s over.”

  With just enough room, Jaxon hit the brakes and squealed his tires in a wicked slide that put the passenger door almost at our gate and faced the driver’s side door down the open street. The Jeep had been beaten all to hell. I was immediately thinking that he must have driven it through a big bunch of zombies and I started wondering how many were going to show up hot on his trail.

  Jaxon stepped out of the vehicle with his pistol aimed down the road. I could have recognized him even without the heads up from Dudley. There’s just no mistaking those big ass shoulders of his or the usual scruff on his chin. He was wearing the same olive drab fatigues that the other guys were wearing, but his were a hell of a lot filthier and his left sleeve was completely torn off. Accompanying all of this was the black Harley Davidson cap over his light brown hair which as always, was turned backwards so that the bill was over his neck. He was tense. I could tell that from his posture. He was rapidly moving the gun from left to right as he desperately searched for something to shoot.

  I looked from Dudley to the morons in the other tower. They were all watching Jax and looking pretty confused. I decided to watch the street instead of Jax. I was hoping to find a target before anyone else, that way I could give them hell later.

  The nighttime air was deathly quiet. The only sound around for miles was that of the crunching gravel under Jaxons shoes. It was a weird silence. It didn’t feel right. I’m not really sure how describe it.

  A young woman in a white dress climbed onto the rooftop about six houses down. I knew she wasn’t a zombie just by looking at her. She just didn’t move like a zombie. It was obvious that she also didn’t want Jax to see her by the stealthy way in which she hid herself in the shadows of a chimney. I wasn’t sure why she was being so sneaky, but her white dress was filthy and her hair was shaggy enough to confuse a person. I was worried that Jaxon might take a shot at her if she came out of her hiding place.

  I was about to warn everybody not to shoot at her when I realized that she was looking right at me. I’m not sure how she managed to find me, the streets weren’t bright enough to provide that kind of visibility, but I was positive that she was looking right at me.

  Then, she placed her finger to her lips and gave me the ‘shush’ gesture as if I were about to ruin a big surprise.

  “JAXON,” I shouted. “DON’T SHOOT THAT CHICK ON THE ROOF.”

  Jax turned at the sound of my voice.

  Everything began to happen all at once.

  The woman in the white dress ran freakishly fast towards the edge of the roof. Jaxon spotted her immediately and began firing off shots. When the chick reached the edge, she leapt out into the darkened sky. I was worried that she was going to kill herself when she landed, but instead, she sailed through the air this incredible distance and landed lightly on her bare feet.

  Jaxon kept shooting at her. I could see the little flashes of light from the barrel of his gun and I could hear the muffled thumps even with the silencer. She hit the ground running and rapidly began to close the mere twenty feet that separated her from Jaxon.

  She ran in a zigzagging manner, as if she were trying to avoid all the bullets Jaxon’s pistol was spitting out in her direction. When she reached him, she swung out her fist and knocked him from his feet and into the side of the Jeep so hard, the Jeep actually shifted about a foot from where it was parked.

  That was enough for Dudley; he drilled her right in the chest with about five rapid fire shots. I actually saw the bullets make little puckers in the skin around her collar bone, and I saw the black ooze of what must have been blood mingle with the other stains of her dress.

  She took a few backwards, stumbling steps from the impact. Then, she lifted her head towards Dudley, opened her mouth and roared at him.

  “She roared at him?”

  I don’t know how else to describe it. The sound was earsplitting. It wasn’t a scream; it was more like a sound of fury, almost like she was telling us to mind our own business.

  “What happened next?”

  Jaxon was on his feet again. He rose up right in front of her. At the time, I was shocked. I mean, that bitch hit him hard. The impact with the Jeep alone should have broken some ribs, but he just stood right back up as if the punch and the slam against the Jeep didn’t bother him at all.

  He had his tomahawk in his hand.

  I saw the thing’s eyes go wide.

  She barely had enough time to lift up her arm in a defensive gesture. The blow was intended for her head, but instead the tomahawk buried itself deep into her forearm. I heard the crunch as the blade met bone. Yet, the arm didn’t sever. I saw more of that black ooze as Jaxon yanked his blade out of her arm and pulled back to swing again.

  The woman just about vanished from the street.

  “She ran away?”

  It was more than that. She moved fast, almost too fast to be real. She also ran straight up the side of the nearest house and disappeared over the rooftop.

  All of us stood there in a sort of stunned silence for a moment before Georgie started babbling.

  “Did you guys see that shit with her mouth when she shrieked at Dudley?”

  “See what with her mouth?” I asked.

  Of course I knew what he was talking about. I was just trying to pretend that I didn’t. It’s kind of funny, but I was hoping that by acting like I didn’t see it, then maybe I wouldn’t have to be worried about it, but Georgie is a dick.

  “Her mouth was filled with fangs,” Georgie said.

  Chapter 4

  Jaxon

  My second meeting with Jaxon started out very differently than the last one. Both of us were having trouble focusing through our laughter.

  I had told him about Nick’s reaction to be called a ‘wanton man whore with no quality control’. Jaxon didn’t really think I’d be brave enough to repeat his words. I proved him wrong. It also turns out that Nick went and asked him about the incident. In front of the other Regulators. All of which began to laugh like crazy when Nick told them what had happened.
>
  It’s a strange feeling to be joking around with this man. Every time he walks into a room with me, I feel just a little bit intimidated, every single time.

  Eventually, we laughed ourselves out, and I was able to continue the interview.

  “So tell me, what took you two days to rejoin the other members of your team? I’ve been dying to know.”

  Do you want me to start from the moment I charged into the horde?

  “Yes, please.”

  Well, there really didn’t seem to be any other option. We weren’t going to shoot down enough of them to make it inside the house so I charged into them. Unfortunately, they were so close that I wasn’t able to build up as much momentum as I would have liked and ended up having to hack and slash my way through.

  It wasn’t pretty.

  “Now, the entire world saw you fight an even larger mass when you and the other survivors left the city. Why didn’t you stand your ground and fight?”

  Well, for starters, when I fought that large mass of the undead that was caught on those fifteen minutes of footage, I had no other choice. They wouldn’t open the gates and allow us to get to safety. Also, those zombies had just gone through a pretty decent sized explosion. They weren’t exactly in top condition, and it still almost killed me.

  The mass of shamblers I was charging into were in as good a shape as zombies can hope to be, and by that I mean that they were all functioning at high levels.

  “So they were all trying to eat you?”

  Exactly, but before they could eat me, they had to catch me. That was the trick to the whole thing as far as I could figure. If I let any of them grab on to me and slow me down, I was a goner. I mentioned last time that I dropped my rifle. Well, it was still connected to me by the shoulder strap. The zombies grabbed it almost immediately. There I was, hauling as much ass as I could, right through the middle of them and all of a sudden I felt the yank around my neck. I had to cut the strap with my Cold Steel Recon 1 knife.