by DeLeon, Jon
Knock.
Kurt swung his feet around. He was on all fours now. He started crawling toward the door. Is it possible?
Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.
Kurt's mind was somewhere else. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His body kept moving on its own, crawling toward the noise. Then it came. A voice from beyond echoed through the metal door.
"Kurt?"
Kurt continued to crawl slowly. This was impossible. He was dead.
"Kurt, are you in there?"
Kurt crawled to within reach of the door. He could hear the voices outside now.
"Joe, we have to go. There are more zombies coming out of the forest."
"I'm sorry, Kurt, wherever you are," Joe said as he took a step away from the door.
Kurt screamed with all his might, which ended up being a small squeak. "Wait!" His throat was barely opening. He had been overwhelmed with emotions.
Joe heard it. He jumped back to the door. He shoved his cheek against the door, speaking through to the other side. "Kurt!"
"I'm here," Kurt said, tears coming to his eyes.
Joe banged on the door, crying openly. "Kurt! I found you!"
Kurt started laughing and crying at the same time in relief.
Joe could hear him crying. "Kurt, are you okay?"
"Yeah . . . yeah, I'm fine," Kurt said, fighting back his emotions.
"Okay, open the door. We need to get you out of there," Joe said.
Kurt's mind snapped back into his body. "Yeah, of course. Hang on." Kurt stood up and pushed the toolbox away from the door handle. It fell to the floor with a loud bang, sending wrenches and other tools spilling out across the cement. Kurt turned the handle and opened the door. There Joe stood. He was real. This was not just some wild fantasy or dream. His brother had come.
Kurt and Joe shared a hug that both had needed for some time. Kurt could feel the love from his brother's embrace. He was safe. It could last for only a second, but that was a great second.
"I'm so glad you're alive, man." Kurt was so grateful. He had spent the last week believing his brother was dead. His best friend in the world had just come back from the grave.
"Me too, man," Joe said.
Ricahrd spoke up. "The pilot says a massive horde is coming. We have to go now!"
Joe broke the brotherly hug. He looked at his brother. "Let's get out of here."
"Sounds good to me," Kurt said, a smile on his face bigger than he may have ever experienced.
Joe and Kurt took off running, following Ricahrd out the front door of the hospital. Figures moved in the trees. Every gap in the forest was filled with undead eyes. Hundreds had heard the siren. They were all marching down on the hospital in search of a meal.
Kurt's heart began racing. Just before he could ask what the plan was, a helicopter came overhead. It set down on the far end of the hospital. The three men ran around the building, racing to the helicopter, which had landed in a large grassy patch. Kurt won the race and jumped into the open side door of the military helicopter. A man greeted him, giving him a hand to help him inside. The man pointed to a machine gun mounted to the chopper.
"Just pull trigger," Teo said, jumping out of the helicopter. He took off running toward the hospital.
Ricahrd had twisted his ankle stepping into a hole in the grass on their run. Joe was struggling to help him make it to the Black Hawk. Teo joined them, helping carry the injured man. They only had about one hundred meters to go, but the zombie horde was moving fast. They were already coming around the edges of the hospital. A massive wave. The front runners had broken away from the main horde. Must be well fed, the alphas, Kurt thought. Joe and these other two men needed more time. There was only one thing left to do. Kurt had been running and running. Flight had been his choice of survival. Now he looked at his brother. It was his turn to change sides. Now he had to fight.
Kurt grabbed the machine gun. Just pull trigger.
"Down!" he yelled.
Joe and Teo heard Kurt, throwing Ricahrd to the ground and hitting the deck themselves.
Kurt squeezed the trigger. Rounds flew out of the muzzle of the gun. Windows shattered as he fired into the building. The kickback from the weapon affected his aim. Glass flew into the air. Tracers set small fires in the building. Kurt adjusted, lowering his fire. The machine gun rattled, sending spent ammunition flying. The front line of zombies began to get chewed up. Arms, legs and body parts fell to the ground or flew through the air. The machine gun was acting like a meat grinder. The alpha zombie wave quickly became a pile of mush.
He stopped firing, the front runners completely wiped out. "Hurry!"
Joe and Teo picked Ricahrd back up and continued their hobbled shuffle.
Kurt started firing again, this time aiming at the side of the building, where the main horde was still pouring around the hospital. Kurt held the trigger down, letting the full auto scream.
Kurt felt the helicopter begin to lift. He let go of the trigger long enough to brace himself against the gun, ensuring he didn't fall out. He turned, looking around the inside of the helicopter. The man who had helped him into the chopper was strapping the injured man, whom Kurt had heard Joe call “Ricahrd,” into a seat. Joe was next to him, pointing his rifle out the door with him. He was scanning for any surviving attackers that were too close. There weren't any. Kurt smiled. His brother and he were finally fighting the zombie plague together.
Kurt watched as the Russian landscape disappeared beneath him. Within minutes, the trees were whizzing by as the chopper sailed through the air. Joe slapped him on the shoulder, nodding toward an empty seat. Kurt sat down across from his brother. Joe gave him a thumbs up. Kurt gave him one back. Joe pointed to a set of headphones hanging on the seat beside Kurt. Kurt put them on.
"We're going to be heading out to the Black Sea, where we'll land for fuel and rest. Until then, man, relax. You're safe," Joe said over the radio. "The injured man next to you is Ricahrd. He's from Miami, He's a good man."
Kurt shook Ricahrd's hand.
"Thanks for saving our asses back there," Ricahrd said over the radio.
"Thanks for coming to Russia for mine."
Ricahrd nodded back.
"The other man is Teo. He's from Newlantis."
"Nice to meet you," Kurt said.
Teo turned and waved back.
"What's the pilot's name?" Kurt asked Joe.
"Uh . . ." Joe stammered, realizing he'd never asked.
The pilot came over the radio. "My name is pilot."
Kurt and Joe looked at each other and laughed.
After about an hour, Kurt watched as the ground turned to water as they reached the Black Sea. Kurt felt truly safe for the first time since the outbreak. Watching the waves lap below, he let sleep overtake him.
Kurt opened his eyes to the dark and cold of the boiler room. He was lying face-first on the floor next to the bent door. He could hear voices on the other side of the door.
"Joe, we have to go. There are more zombies coming out of the forest."
"I'm sorry, Kurt, wherever you are."
Kurt began to panic. Joe's boot steps led away in the hall. Kurt went to scream, but nothing came out. His voice was gone. No matter how much effort he put into his throat, nothing came out. Joe's boot steps became a distant noise.
Kurt finally broke the lock on his vocal chords. "JOE! JOE! DON'T LEAVE ME! JOE! JOE!"
Kurt woke up sweating.
Joe was sitting across from him on the helicopter seat. "You all right, man?" he asked with concern in his eyes.
Kurt started crying.
"I'm here. I'm here, man." Joe reached out and put his hand on Kurt's knee.
Kurt stared with bloodshot eyes at the waves.
The next few hours went by slowly. After a long ride, the helicopter set down on a barge in the Black Sea. Everyone would rest here for the night before heading west in the morning. It was the first time Joe and Kurt had really been able to talk. They s
at in a small bunk room, sharing the lower of two stacked beds. Ricahrd was on the top of the two, already asleep.
Joe and Kurt were sitting up against the head and foot of the bed, facing each other. They were both exhausted, but neither wanted to go to sleep. Joe was looking at Kurt with a huge smile spread across his face. Kurt shared his countenance.
"I'm so glad I found you, man," Joe said as he adjusted his feet.
"Me too. How did you, by the way?" Kurt asked.
"Well after I got your voicemail, I knew you survived the initial craziness. After that, well I knew who you were. I knew you would survive until I got here. I just never lost my faith in you. I just had to get to you."
Kurt lowered his eyes, and the smile disappeared from his face, guilt filling him.
Joe continued. "It's kind of a long story, but I'll tell you the short version. When everything went down, I was on South Beach. Everything went to hell fast. I'm sure you've noticed these things can't swim."
Kurt nodded in acknowledgment.
"Well I made a beeline for the marina. I got on a yacht with Kira, Aaron and his kids, and we got out."
"Who're Kira and Aaron?" Kurt asked, curious.
"Oh yeah, you haven't met Kira or Jack, Christine and Elizabeth yet. You're going to love them. Kira is . . . well she is . . . she's amazing. I love her, man."
Kurt laughed, the smile returning to his face. "Love? What happened to the single-for-life mantra?"
"It's a different world, dude." Joe laughed back.
"That's for sure," Kurt said, laughing. "Is she hot?"
"Oh yeah," Joe said.
"Nice. What about Christine and Elizabeth? Are they hot?"
"They're pretty cute. I mean, they're like nine years old though." Joe laughed as Kurt sucked his eyes back in his head in confusion.
"How long have I been in Russia?"
"Funny. They aren't mine, well not genetically, but they're good kids. You'll like them. Jack reminds me of you when you were younger."
"I will like him then," Kurt said.
"Yeah."
"What about Aaron? Who's he?" Kurt asked.
"He is, or I should say was, the kids' father. He didn't make it."
Kurt noticed Joe turn his fist into a ball. "Sorry, man."
Joe relaxed his hand. "Yeah, me too. Hey, but, uh, surprisingly enough, Jolie is also with us!"
"Jolie? How did that happen?"
"We, well Kira really, rescued her from New Miami."
"Miami still exists?" Kurt asked, shocked.
"Not really. It's . . . different. We barely got out of there in one piece. Anyway, back to the story, after South Beach, we were in Key West for a while before going to New Miami and joining a convoy heading to Europe. I was able to get a dedicated helicopter to fly me out here and find you. Ricahrd is the security leader of the convoy. He agreed to come with me to get you while the convoy is dumping fuel in Newlantis." Joe pointed to the bunk above them.
Ricahrd tossed in his cot.
"Newlantis?" Kurt asked.
"Yeah, it's one of the first new human cities," Joe answered.
"Where at?"
"It's floating in the middle of the Mediterranean."
"A floating city?" Kurt sounded doubtful.
"More like a bunch of boats tied together in one huge mass, but yeah, it's huge," Joe said, smiling about the kind of surprise Kurt would be witness to.
"That's something I'd like to see," Kurt said.
"Oh, you're going to. That's where we're headed.
"So you were in Newlantis." Kurt prodded Joe's story on.
"Yeah, and well, we hopped our way along these coastal barges up to the Black Sea area, in search of a distress call that was recorded as sending out the code '314.'" Joe smiled at Kurt. Kurt smiled back. Joe continued. "We went to the satellite base, and when we couldn't find you, I knew you would do what all those nature shows tell you to do when you're lost in the woods."
"Follow the water," Kurt said.
"Exactly. So we flew downstream, and—"
"Wait," Kurt interrupted, "did you follow the river when you flew to the missile base?"
"Uh," Joe thought, "yeah, I mean mostly. Why?"
"I think I heard you."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we were riding a canoe down that thing, and I heard what sounded like a helicopter, but I figured I was just imagining it." Kurt laughed.
"A canoe? That river looked like it was raging! Who's we?" Joe asked.
"Tyler and I." Kurt got serious and looked at his feet. "He didn't make it. He died in that hospital, just before you got there."
"Sorry, man. I wish we could have gotten there sooner. We were trying to move slowly, following the river, to not miss any signs of life. Then we received that SOS call on the radio. The pilot almost had a heart attack when he heard English coming over his headset. We were scanning all the frequencies, and the SOS call said you were at a lake at the bottom of the flow of the river, so we sped to the lake. That's when we spotted the ambulance's flashing lights. We figured it was a sign for us. So we circled, trying to spot anyone. When we didn't, the pilot dropped Ricahrd and me off and we went inside, and well, when we found the zombies all bashing on that door, we figured someone must be inside. So we unloaded on them, and that led us to you."
"Well thank God you got there when you did," Kurt said. "You said you heard an SOS call?"
"Yeah, I heard your call on the radio."
"I didn't . . ." Kurt trailed off thinking.
"Was that your friend?" Joe asked.
Kurt couldn't answer. Tyler had inadvertently saved him, and in return, Kurt had killed him.
Joe sensed Kurt's discomfort. "Anyway, tell me your story."
"My story?" Kurt asked. He felt sick in his stomach, the guilt filling his gut.
"Yeah." Joe asked again, "How'd you end up in that place after all these months?"
"Well . . ." Kurt was staring at nothing in particular as he started his story. "I started running when I saw the news articles. Took the backpacking pack and headed into the woods just trying to get away from any signs of civilization."
"Did Dad's camping tips actually help?" Joe asked, amused.
Kurt smiled and looked at Joe again, his mind shifting from his guilt. "Saved my life, man."
"He would have liked to know that," Joe said with a thoughtful smile.
"Are they?" Kurt asked, afraid of the answer.
"Yeah." Joe clenched his jaw.
Kurt nodded. He felt his emotions overtake him and began crying, placing his face in his hands.
Joe scooted himself forward and hugged his brother. Soon he joined Kurt in crying. Together they shared this moment of loss. After their tears dried up, they both sat cross-legged, shoulder to shoulder in the bed. A long silence of grief was broken when Joe asked Kurt, "So you were running in the woods?"
Kurt nodded. "I was lost, just trying to head south to the coast, and on my way, I ran into a road, where I got picked up by two Americans in an old Winnebago." Kurt laughed.
Joe laughed with him. "Really?"
Kurt laughed. "Yeah. They almost killed me at first, but instead we had a little weird postapocalyptic road trip."
"Was your friend one of them?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, Tyler and Liz were their names. They were actually on their honeymoon."
Joe raised an eyebrow, confused by their choice of destination.
Kurt picked up on it. "That's what I thought, but hey, I'm glad they were there. I got really close with them."
Joe nodded. "I'm glad they were there too."
"Well after some crisscrossing, we stumbled upon a settlement set up by an American family and some Russian propane workers. That's where we stayed for the winter. I didn't want to stay. I wanted to keep trying to find my way back to you, but I'm glad I did."
"Yeah?" Joe asked.
"Dude, Russian winters fucking suck," Kurt said, remembering the cold.
Joe laughed at
how authentic his brother had said the last statement.
"After the winter, though, was a different thing. Zombies. They came out of the ground and ripped the settlement apart."
"Out of the ground?" Joe was confused.
"Yeah, I don't know how exactly, but we had a pallet of Enerjax that had gotten snowed on, and when it melted, I think it leaked into the ground. I'm sure I saw a World War II uniform on one of the zombies. I think we were on top of a mass grave and maybe they were buried in the winter, so some of their cells were like cryogenically frozen or something, and the Enerjax turned them back on. I don't know. All I know is, everything went to hell. Liz . . ." Kurt paused. "Liz didn't make it out of there."
"I'm sorry."
"Honestly, I didn't think anyone did at first. Then I ran into Tyler in that satellite building."
"You were in the satellite building?"
"Yeah. Did you find that?" Kurt asked Joe.
"Yeah, and the phone y'all wired into it."
"Tyler was an engineer, so he knew that stuff. That's where I called you from. Um, well, we were only there for a night before other survivors showed up, and with them more zombies. We ran like hell, like crazy. Tyler and I followed them onto this little island. We had a bonfire, as like a wake to remember those we lost, and everyone drank like crazy. I mean, like our college days, man."
"Did you get crazy?" Joe asked.
"No, honestly I fell asleep. Thank God I didn't though. The next morning, the zombies tunneled to us. Only Tyler and I escaped. We fell off a waterfall into the river, and Tyler hurt himself bad. So we ended up staying in this little Russian cabin until he healed. Mainly just relaxing and working out."
"I was going to say you were looking jacked, bro."
"Thanks, that's what cabin CrossFit can do for you."
Joe laughed. "Ha ha, sounds terrible."
"It was. But it helped Tyler heal and got us both back in shape. Which is good, because rowing the river in a canoe was seriously the hardest thing I may have done in my life."
"Harder than rowing in after our fishing trip?" Joe asked.