The Rabid Mind Two

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  The General was quiet, so he continued.

  “Sir, you’re well aware of how my parents were killed by those monsters, but what you don’t know, is how they gained access to our home. My father was a very cautious man, but he had a big heart, and so did my mother. One day, we were home when a car pulled up and a man ran out to our door and knocked, my dad instructed the man to leave, but the man would not. He begged, he pleaded, he had a pregnant wife he said, and they were in serious need of a few supplies as hospitals were either burned down, or the home of infected during the day. My mother took pity on him because of his pregnant wife and showed kindness, when the dispensary was in terribly short supply, due to the scourge. That’s the kind of woman she was. Had she not though, they would still be alive now, and I would not be this hateful, paranoid being how I have become. Turned out, the “pregnant woman” was actually a man in disguise, and immediately they gained access to our house, they attacked my father and disarmed him. My mother rushed for her gun, and they shot her, she died on the spot sir. My father was blind with rage, probably blaming himself for her death, and he attacked the one holding him, and broke free, but he couldn’t get to his weapon in time, and they shot him too. I just stood there, unable to do anything to prevent the senseless massacre of my parents by people they had tried to help. I was too weak. I was paralyzed where I stood and they would have killed me too, but see, my father wasn’t dead yet, so he took his gun and shot the “pregnant woman” killing him instantly. Yes you heard me correctly killed HIM. It was guy dressed to look like a woman. and as his partner riddled my father with bullets, I stabbed the man in the neck. So, you see sir? These monsters will employ any means, carve out any sob story, just to gain access, and when they do, they leave death and destruction in their wake.”

  The General looked up at him. “I understand your reasons for being on guard, and I can assure you that the same thought crossed my mind. For what it’s worth, I’ve assigned Shannon to follow them, never leave their side, a babysitter of sorts. If they are canvassing the area in anyway, trying to get useful intel they can use to infiltrate and take over this fort in larger numbers, she’ll let me know, and they will not live to tell their group what they’ve discovered, you can be rest assured of that. Moreover, they’re just going to be here till Ernest arrives and he’s due to arrive in two days. So, don’t fret. Everything is under control.”

  Marcus was livid with rage. Under control? Under control? The old man has no idea what these people are capable of.

  “Sir, with all due respect, I still think they should be confined to their quarters sir, it is my duty to protect the people in this camp, and I will not stand idly by while a pair of raiders, masquerading as innocents, scope out vital information about this fort that will LEAD TO ITS FALL!” His voice had risen now, and his hands were visibly shaking from contained rage.

  “Don’t presume to raise your voice at me boy. Did you not hear what I said earlier?” The General asked, calmly, too calmly. He watched the boy shake in anger and shook his head, he would not find peace, until he forgave himself for not being able to prevent what happened to his parents.

  “This conversation is over Marcus. You are dismissed.” He watched the boy flounce away, muttering under his breath. He sighed, and returned to cleaning his gun, wondering if in all that babble, the boy actually did have a point.

  Jim was amazed at the level of organization the General had been able to carve out in this time when disorganization and chaos was the order of the day. The guards at the gate were changed every four hours, Shannon explained, and everyone coming in said a code word which they were given before they left. She took them to the training arena, it was at the back of the cabins. Six guys, and two ladies today was cross bow training. Each person had to have the strength to pull the bow back in the lock position. Load and fire six bolts in thirty seconds. Ammunition was highly prized and cross-bow bolts were being made by an old man in the wood shop. The tips were being made from old radiator fan blades string steel, hardened strongly. All the turkey feathers from hunters were saved for fletching.

  “Our goal is one hundred bolts per crossbow. Ten crossbows. That should save one thousand rounds of ammunition.” Shannon smiled. Well, in theory anyway. As we all know things rarely go according to plans.”

  “Nice, very nice setup.” He complimented, and Shannon bowed a little in recognition of the compliment.

  “Hey Marcus, what’s up?” Shannon asked smiling.

  “Why don’t you tell me?” He answered, staring at Jim and Debbie,

  “I don’t understand”

  “Oh, I’m sure you don’t, so please, allow me to enlighten you. I’d like to know why these two are being given a tour of the fort when we have not yet confirmed if they are really who they say they are. You have basically handed them secrets and information on the workings of the fort and how best to cripple us.” Marcus accused, indicating Jim and Debbie as ‘these two.’

  Shannon smiled and shook her head, she knew where Marcus’ accusations stemmed from, every member of the fort was very aware of his beef with raiders and his ever-present suspicion, she was about to speak, when Jim stepped forward.

  “Now hold on son, nobody’s trying to cripple anybody. We mean y’all no harm.”

  “I’m not your son old man, now step back.” Marcus replied angrily.

  Jim was taken aback by the disrespect, Debbie piped up. “Do you have a problem with us? We don’t even know you.” She asked.

  “In fact, I do. I don’t trust you. You come in here masquerading as a mother just looking for her kids. Next thing you’re canvassing the area, assessing strengths and weaknesses, getting information from us that could potentially be used to cripple us. Yes, I very much do have a problem with you.” He took a step towards Debbie, Jim reached out instinctively to block his movement, and protect her from whatever he had planned. He knocked Jim’s hand out of the way, and pulling his gun, pointed it at them, at this point. Shannon stepped in between them and the gun.

  “Hey, hey, Marcus, what is wrong with you? Stop this nonsense right now.”

  “What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you? I’m the only one who seems able to see clearly, while the rest of you are going about your jobs like everything is alright. These two can’t be trusted.”

  Shannon grabbed the barrel of the gun and put it to her chest. If you going to shot them you have to shoot me first.“

  He wavered and lower the gun. “Make that the last time you ever point a gun at guests or me, for that matter, ever again, you got that?” Marcus just stared daggers at her, so she continued.

  “I know what you’ve gone through at the hands of raiders, and I’m sympathetic and that’s the only reason you’re still alive right now.”

  “You’re going to get us all killed.” He stormed off madder than a wet hornet.

  “You guys okay?” She asked.

  “Yeah, sure, just a little shaken. Who was that?” Jim asked.

  “Marcus Finnigan. You’re going to have to cut him some slack, his family was killed by raiders, right in front of him. He sorta has a personal vendetta against the whole lot of them. He’ll get over it.”

  “So much anger.” Debbie commented.

  Shannon showed them the food storage. Debbie was taken by the large collection of canned food and other forms of packaged food items, flour, salt, milk, pepper, sugar were in large quantity, two baskets filled with packets of coffee, creamer and more sugar, a lot of dried fruits and vegetables. In the back was a heap of cured meat that they got from hunting in the surrounding forests and mountain area. She now understood why they needed all those precautions surrounding the fort, currently, so many supplies in one place made them prime target for raiders hoping to hit a large score.

  “This is quite a large collection of food you’ve got here.” She said, when she finally found her voice.

  Sh
annon turned her attention from Jim and went over to where Debbie stood.

  “Yeah, I know. The boys go all over the country on supply runs. Sometimes they can be away for two weeks. The longest a team has been so far is a month. On three different occasions, they were trapped in the same location with infected sleeping in lower floors of building, and had to fight of raiders on several occasions. The fact that they came back was a miracle.”

  Debbie laughed, and relayed her experience with Jim trapped in the attic with a bunch of sleeping infected underneath.

  “This one suddenly had to pee.” She said indicating Jim.

  “Boys.” Shannon said rolling her eyes, and both women laughed. Debbie liked Shannon, talking to the lady was easy. She was much different from the woman they’d met in the alley.

  “Okay Jim, you can stop drooling over our food stock, now. You too Deb, let’s go. This is the end of tour a’la Shannon.”

  The trio laughed, as they exited the storehouse.

  That night, from the top of one of the lookout towers Marcus watched the part of the fort and fence he was assigned too. Something bad was going to happen, he just knew it, he didn’t know how he knew, or whether or not those two were involved, he didn’t know for sure, all he knew was that when shit went down, they would not be caught off guard, he wouldn’t let them be caught off guard. Not on his watch.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Paradise lost.

  The engine spluttered and died, Sam looked at the dashboard and groaned in frustration, they were out of gas.

  “What just happened?” Claire asked, from the backseat, she’d dozed off, the drive here had taken too long, and she was very tired.

  “We’re out of gas babe,” Jet replied from the passenger seat while Sam just groaned again.

  “Didn’t we take like, spare gas or something?” she asked, still a bit groggy from sleep.

  “Yup, we did, and we have Sammy boy here to thank for that. I’ll got get it and pour it in. Pop the trunk, Sam.” Jet replied, getting out and heading for the trunk. He retrieved the gas can and began the process of pouring it into the tank. Sam got out and went to pee.

  “Hurry up Jet, the sun’s beginning to set,” Claire urged from inside the car,

  “Almost done babe, we’ve got to make sure we have enough to take us where we’re going, moreover, we’ll soon find a house to spend the night, no worries,” he replied, emptying the last of the gas into the tank. He returned the can to the trunk, locked it and got back in the passenger seat.

  “Yo, where the hell is Sam?” He asked after they’d waited for ten minutes.

  “I don’t know exactly, he said he was going to pee and went that way.” Claire replied pointing in the direction Sam had gone.

  After waiting for five more minutes, he checked the ignition and the dashboard, “Motherfucker took the damn keys. Lucky him, I’d have left his ass out here.”

  “Don’t say that.” She said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Go find him.”

  He groaned and got out of the car, “Alright, alright, I’m gonna go find him, lock the door, keep the windows up, and keep your gun with you okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know the drill, I’ll be fine.” She said, he bent down and kissed her, then he retrieved his .44 magnum from the glove compartment, checked to make sure it was fully loaded, locking the door, he started towards the direction she’d pointed in.

  Just like Sam to take forever to use the bathroom. Only God knows if he’s taking the longest crap in history, he chuckled at the thought.

  He called out to him, but received no reply, he was starting to get on edge, his mind flashed to his girlfriend in the car. Claire can take care of herself, he thought, reassuring himself. He reached the side of the building and still saw no sign of his friend.

  “Sam?? Stop fucking around man, this is serious, we’ve got to go, it’s getting late. I dunno about you, but I’m in no mood to fight those crazies today.” He called out, when suddenly, a shot rang out from inside a building, followed by two more and then someone jumped out through a window, shards of glass scattered about, and the person collapsed painfully on top of them. The person didn’t stay down for long and was instantly on his feet, and started running towards Jet. It was Sam, he had a limp from the fall but still struggled to run, his shotgun hung limply in his left hand by his side. Jet took off towards his friend.

  “Shit man, what happened?” Jet asked, closing the distance between him and his friend very quickly, “You’re bleeding.” He hooked one arm around his friend and they hobbled back towards the car.

  “Crazies man, so many of them, I hid…but they sniffed me out. Had to shoot my way out…I think I must have messed up my leg when I landed on the glass.” Sam quickly said, by way of explanation.

  “Did you get all of ‘em?” Jet asked, looking round, wondering why they weren’t surrounded by the infected yet.

  “No, they were right behind me.” His eyes widened with sudden apprehension. “Claire!”

  Jet instantly worried about her, his hold on Sam’s shoulder tightened, we must hurry he thought apprehensively and they hastened their movement. Suddenly they heard Claire scream, and two shots ring out.

  “Shit! Bastards must have gone around to block us off and seen Claire in the process. I don’t recall them being so smart.” Sam said with a grimace.

  They cleared the building and saw Claire, she was not much of a shot, and seeing as there were no bodies dropped by her two first shots, it was clear she missed, I thought I told her to stay in the car and keep the windows up? Jet thought she must have come out too looking for us after we took too long, damn!

  “Go help her, I’m right behind you.” Sam urged and with nothing but a nod of acknowledgement, Jet started off towards the car. Stopping he took aim and dropped the two closest to her, seeing the opening, she ran towards him, they followed. Once she reached him, she quickly turned around and started firing, she managed to injure a few, then she fired a round and it went wide, and right into their front tire, deflating it instantly.

  “Shit.” She cursed, reloading, why were her hands shaking so much? This wasn’t her first time. She should be used to this chaos by now, now she’d ruined the car, even if they killed all of them, how were they to find a new car quickly enough? All these crossed her mind as she reloaded.

  Sam had stopped running now, he went down on his the knee of his good leg, and was picking them out one by one, but they kept pouring out of the houses, awakened from their day nap by the noise, and encouraged by the proximity to potential kills. Suddenly, Jet heard Sam scream, he turned around and saw an infected straddling Sam, his shotgun lay a few yards away from him, lost in the fight, it struck blows to his head, savagely, and rearing back, lunged at his neck, severing his jugular in one bite. The blood sprayed like a fountain. Ten feet up in the air.

  “SAM!!!” Jet screamed, and shot the infected, it flopped down on top of him. He ran towards him, he heard the drone of an engine and saw the glow of headlamps, but that didn’t matter, he had to save Sam, shit! Why hadn’t he just taking a shit outside?

  ***

  Matt looked back, the group of infected had fallen back a bit, he hated this so much. He’d searched a different part of town for the rebar, but he hadn’t found any. He’d cut wood for the fence posts the day before, but alone, it was very strenuous and slow work. Slowly the fence post was taking shape. The rebar was an important part of the fence fortification, he was at his wits end finding some. Jim would know what to do, he thought with melancholy. Good thing he’d left Sandra at home this time, he felt much calmer only having to worry about himself, although he didn’t very much fancy the idea of her alone in the house the entire night. Especially with the fence still absent, but, there was the reinforced door, and she had her guns…his train of thought was interrupted suddenly when he heard gunshots from a distance in front of him, he slow
ed down, survivors? Raiders? His mind puzzled. Then, rounding a bend, he caught sight of them, two guys and a girl from the looks of it, and a whole pile of dead infected, they didn’t look much like raiders, one of them was on his knee a little distance from the rest doing a mighty good job of taking down the infected that attacked them, God! He didn’t like the idea of being trapped between two groups of infected, they looked like decent shots, but still, he didn’t like their odds. He was approaching them when he saw an infected crawl out of the shadows towards the one on his knee, the young man didn’t even turn, he had no idea the danger that lurked behind him. Matt honked repeatedly to get his attention, but the sound of the horn was drowned by the sound of gunfire and screams of the infected, shit he is goanna die and floored the gas pedal to save him, turn around, turn around, turn around man he urged in his mind, but the guy just kept on shooting. Shit! Too late, the infected was on him, a small scuffle ensued, and the guy lost his gun, it fell a few yards away from him, the infected took a bite from his arm, and raising his hands, started pounding away at the guy’s face, the other guy must have heard his colleague scream, because he turned around and shot the loco. But it was too late his friend was dead. Matt could see the blood spraying in the air. He screeched to a halt beside them, and jumped out.

  ***

  Claire fired off two more rounds and turned around and ran towards Sam. She’d seen him go down, she had to know if he was okay. The few remaining infected took off after her. She saw headlights of an approaching vehicle, it was moving fast, suddenly it stopped with a screech, and a young man jumped out, lifted his rifle and took five consecutive shots, dropping the infected that attempted to follow her. All this barely registered though, she had no time, thanks would have to come later, right now, she had to see if Sam was okay, and nothing else mattered.

  Jet was already hunched over him, he had taken off his shirt and was holding it to the wound to stop the bleeding, deep down inside he knew it was too little, too late. There was no saving his friend.