Enduring Armageddon

by Parker, Brian

  The three of us had finished eating by the time Robert finally reemerged from the bathroom. “Do not go in there,” he said waving his hand in front of his nose.

  “Eww, gross, man. Did you wash your hands?” Sam asked.

  Robert shook his head and worked his way along the wall to where we were sitting. We waited for him to complete his meal before collecting everything up. We didn’t know how long we’d be on the road, so I used some old clothes to clean the bowls and silverware and wrapped them in a clean t-shirt to be packed away in the plastic bag as well.

  “Alright, looks like everything is set. Let’s go,” I said.

  We went out the back door and got into the truck. I didn’t want to risk being confined to the cab if something stumbled out of the woods so I sat in the snow in the bed of the truck while the other three sat inside. The truck took several attempts to start, but thankfully the battery wasn’t dead and it finally cranked up. Jesse gave an ill-advised whoop of excitement and I hopped down and forced my way into the cab of the truck.

  We made our way cautiously down Highway 4 towards Virden. We’d started early again today and walked for about five miles through the snow, but the radio’s clock showed that we’d taken a lot longer than we should have. It was nearing 6:00 p.m. and would probably be dark before we made it the twenty-five miles back to the stronghold. Jesse drove cautiously, but at a steady pace that ate up the miles faster than we could have ever hoped to travel on foot.

  The time passed fairly quickly as Jesse drove, but something kept nagging me to urge him to drive faster. I didn’t say anything though because we were already traveling faster than was safe in these conditions. Jesse pushed it since we were literally the only people on the road, although I was certain that there were several times when we’d completely left the road and were driving in the ditch.

  The old man must have kept the truck in peak condition because the engine was quieter than I’d have thought the old clunker would have been. As we got nearer to Virden, we could hear automatic gunfire over the engine’s dull roar and the low, dark clouds sitting over the town reflected the light from a hundred dancing fires. “Shit!” Jesse exclaimed and punched the gas pedal down.

  We burst around a corner to a scene of utter chaos. Virden was virtually surrounded by an armada of trucks and SUVs studded with added-on armor and roll cages. Whereas our force had been made up of semis and means to transport looted goods, this was an army specifically designed for war. We’d been overmatched when we went to their city and fought against an enemy that we never really came face to face with, but now that I saw the equipment that they operated with, I was positive that we’d been fooled into attacking a much stronger opponent.

  “Whoa, Mad Max to the extreme,” Sam muttered.

  People milled around the vehicles and stared at us as we wove our way through the ring of trucks surrounding Virden until they finally realized that we weren’t part of their crew. Several of them took pot shots at us when we burst through the inner ring of vehicles and went through an open section in the wall. As we drove by the ruined fence, I realized that they’d hooked chains up to it and pulled it apart with tow trucks. Smart and effective.

  The windshield splintered and spider-webbed as it received several rounds from defenders inside the town. I pulled out my little armband and held it out the window as we continued to race towards the barriers set up inside the wall facing the hole we’d just driven through. Jesse slammed on the brakes and yelled out the window, “Stop firing you stupid fucks! We’re from Virden!”

  It took him a few more shouts, combined with my pathetic armband-waving, to get the defenders to stop shooting at us. The leader at the barrier was one of the men I’d seen the other day at Allan’s house. “Jesse, is that you?” he asked tentatively.

  “Yes Nabih, you stupid idiot, it’s me. Let us through, we’ve got to go see Allan,” Jesse replied.

  “Who else do you have with you?” Nabih asked.

  “I’ve got Chuck Broussard, Robert Cavender and Sam…what’s your last name?” Jesse asked as rounds impacted the back of the truck from a few attackers who continued to fire at us.

  “Hustead,” she replied from underneath Robert.

  I took the opportunity to raise my head above the dashboard and peek out at the defenders. I wasn’t certain, but most of the shapes seemed much too small to be the men and women that I’d taken with me to attack Springfield.

  “Alright, come over, but you won’t be able to make it through,” Nabih said. Jesse eased his foot off the brake and drove forward. He pulled the truck off to the side of the road where it was blocked from the view of the attackers and we got out. Several children peeked over the rows of cars that they’d set up as barriers and I knew that they were all goners if they stayed to defend this town.

  “Jesse, we’ve got to get them out,” I whispered.

  “And take them where, Chuck? If we can even get out ourselves, then we might be able to take one or two, but we couldn’t save them all,” he replied as he shook his head. I hated to admit it, but he was right. Fuck, I hated everything about this place and the world we lived in.

  We ran over to the row of cars and climbed over the top of them. They’d done a nice job using the terrain to canalize the attacking force, but if they chose to break through at any other point than along Highway 4, then they’d go right around this obstacle. We helped pull and push Robert across until we reached the far end.

  “How long have they been here?” I asked.

  “They got here in force, at about noon. More and more of them came down Highway 4 and slowly circled the town. We tried to scare them off with our snipers on the wall, but eventually they’d killed most of our men, so we abandoned the wall and set up barriers inside to keep them from driving right through,” Nabih said. “They just opened that hole in the wall about thirty minutes ago, but we’ve shot everyone who’s tried to come through so far.”

  “So, there are other barriers like this set up in the town?” Jesse asked.

  “Oh, yeah. This was part of Allan’s defense plan from the beginning.”

  “Why didn’t I know about it?” Jesse asked.

  “Need to know basis. Allan didn’t want anyone who went on missions outside of Virden knowing about our defense capabilities in case they were captured.”

  “Capabilities?” I shouted incredulously. “You’re using children as infantrymen!”

  “Sure, this attack came at a bad time since you guys were up in Springfield, but looks like you’re back now, right? We can kick their ass and send them to hell, just like Allan predicted,” Nabih said.

  “What do you mean? We’re all that’s left,” Jesse replied as he pointed at the three of us. “No one else is coming, those people outside wiped us out in Springfield and then hopped in their trucks and drove their happy asses down here to finish the job.”

  Nabih blinked several times, then shook his head and placed his hands over his ears like a child. “No, no, no, NO!” he said. “Allan told us that you guys were going to come down from the north and we’d smash these guys between your counterattacking force and the walls of Virden. Allan said that…”

  “Get over it, man!” Jesse slapped him. “Allan was wrong. He wasted all of our men and most of the weapons. Now we’re sitting ducks and there’s not much we can do about it.” I glanced at all the children who’d begun to cry at Jesse’s words.

  “Hey, let’s go talk to Allan and revise the plan so we can win,” I said loudly with a hand on Jesse’s shoulder.

  He turned to look questioningly at me, but then realized that the kids were upset. “Oh, right,” Jesse nodded. “Let’s go talk to him. Hey, are there any vehicles with keys on the inside of your barrier?”

  “Yeah, we’ve got a few down the road a ways. Keys should be in them,” Nabih said. We started walking towards the cars. “Hey, what are we supposed to do?” he yelled at us.

  “Keep shooting the people who try to come through that hole,�
�� Jesse said over his shoulder.

  We found an old El Camino and crammed in. The car careened down Springfield Street towards downtown and Robert asked us to drop him off at his place. He couldn’t walk any further so he was going to take his chances here in Virden with his family. None of us liked it, but he refused to attempt to leave the town. I helped him to the door and when his wife answered she almost knocked him over with the force of her embrace. We shook hands, said our goodbyes and then I jogged back to the car. Jesse shot off towards our homes where we would pick up our gear before confronting Allan. Sam didn’t have anything to pick up from her place other than what she was wearing so she stayed in the car.

  After our stops, we drove the rest of the way across town to Allan’s house. The place was just like I’d remembered it except it was even darker and his hit squad wasn’t outside on the porch. I bounded up the steps and knocked on the door. There wasn’t an answer so I opened the door and went in. The foyer was dark but I heard a weapon bolt cycle through as someone chambered a round behind me. I raised my hands over my head.

  “Relax, I was just putting a bullet in the chamber, man,” Jesse said from the doorway. “Let’s go, they’re probably downstairs, I know the combination to the door so I can get us in.”

  He led the way and we followed his shadow towards the interior of the house. He gently pushed me against the wall outside of the closet and hugged against it himself. “Can’t be too careful,” he said as he opened the door. I didn’t mean to, but I held my breath, expecting the door to be booby trapped.

  Nothing happened, so we went into the closet and Jesse handed me a mini flashlight to shine on the combination. “When D’Andre and I were part of Allan’s inner circle, he gave us the combination to the door, so I should be able to open it and we can get Trisha and Rebecca and get the hell out of here.” He turned his full attention to the combination wheel and in a few moments, the door clicked open and he gave it a push. The door glided inwards on well-oiled hinges.

  “Sam, stay here and watch our back,” I whispered. She nodded silently and adjusted her grip on my baseball bat.

  We crept down the stairs as softly as we could, but I still felt like the noise was too much. Jesse had his rifle up to his shoulder so he could fire quickly. He reached the landing first and then waved me down. I rounded the corner to an almost empty room. Trisha was sitting on one of the couches with her hands taped together behind her and a gag in her mouth. Her eyes widened in recognition of Jesse’s clothing and gas mask.

  He raced into the room and knelt beside her. I entered a little more cautiously and checked the corners and behind the couches for hidden assailants. Jesse eased the gag out of her mouth and she said, “You’ve gotta stop him. He drugged her up and took her into the bedroom. Hurry!”

  “Where’s the bedroom?” I asked Jesse.

  “Is anyone else down here?” he asked Trisha.

  “No, just him. Stop him!” she pleaded.

  “Follow me,” Jesse said to me and I fell in line behind him. We rushed over to the row of closed doors and Jesse used his linebacker-sized shoulders to burst through the middle one. I was through it before the pieces even had time to land.

  Allan half turned and then fell backwards onto the bed because of the pants around his ankles. I saw his tiny, erect penis, partially hidden underneath his hairy stomach and I freaked out. He tried to scramble backwards over Rebecca’s unconscious form but I reached him first.

  I reared my rifle back and smashed the wooden stock as hard as I could into the bridge of his nose. The cartilage shattered and blood exploded onto his face. He slid forward and fell off the bed. Allan held his hands up over his head and cowered on the floor.

  “I didn’t do anything,” he sputtered. “I didn’t touch her, I promise. I promise!”

  I glanced at Rebecca. She was naked from the waist up but she still had on her underwear. Jesse moved over and placed the barrel of his gun against Allan’s head so I could check on my wife. I moved around to the side of the bed and tore my mask off before I gently shook her on the shoulder. “Honey, wake up. It’s Chuck, are you alright?”

  “Mmm, Chuck?” she slurred. She tried to rise up on her elbow, but her body didn’t respond. “Sleepy. Five more minutes, ‘kay?” she said and closed her eyes again.

  I picked up her hand and dropped it. The mattress made a soft thudding sound as her arm hit the bed. “What the fuck did you give her?” I asked out loud so Allan could hear me.

  “I…I gave her Zolpidem to calm her down,” he answered. “She was freaking out about the attack outside Chuck. She…”

  “Shut the fuck up you sick fuck. What is ‘Zolpadam’?” I asked.

  “It’s a sleep aid. You know, to help her sleep and calm down.”

  I crossed quickly to the bottom of the bed and kicked him in the ribs. “You were going to rape her and we got here just in time, didn’t we?” I stated as I pointed to his now-flaccid penis.

  “No, I promise. I—Fuck!” he screamed as I hit him in the side of the head with my rifle.

  “Did you stick your dick in my wife?” I screamed into his ear.

  “No, please, Chuck. I would never do that. I was just trying to calm…” I shut him up with as hard a kick to the face as I could muster.

  “You’we pafetic Thuck,” he managed to say through his badly misshapen jaw. “I own Viwden. Thith it my town!”

  “Not anymore,” I said and pulled out my KA-BAR.

  “Pleathe, Thuck, don’t do thith,” he pleaded.

  “You’ve been leeching off this town for too long. You’re responsible for the death of thousands of people in Central Illinois. You…” I was cut off by his scream as he surged to his feet with his hands outstretched to choke me.

  I let him wrap his fingers around my neck. I didn’t care. It wouldn’t make a difference in the outcome. The pure hatred that poured from his eyes as he squeezed tighter against my throat convinced me that this man was worthless and needed to be stopped. With a gentle thrust I shoved my knife all the way up to the cross guard.

  His eyes jerked completely open and the pressure against my neck let up enough for me to breathe again. I inhaled deeply and pulled my knife from his abdomen. I sank it in again from the side where I thought his kidney would be and the pressure let up a little more. I pulled the blade out and stabbed between his ribs to tear either his heart or lung, I didn’t care which.

  “You thon of a bith,” he mumbled and fell.

  “I am what you made me,” I said simply and grabbed his dick, stretching it out as far as it would go. Allan was too weak to protest any more than to try and twist away. I placed the blade at the base of his penis and pressed down hard while pulling the giant knife towards me. His dick came completely off in my hand and he screamed in pain and anger.

  I casually tossed it aside and stabbed my knife through his eye into his brain. His body spasmed uncontrollably for several seconds then stopped. Without my mask on, I smelled the filth as his muscles relaxed and he shit himself. I pulled the knife out and wiped it on the sheets before replacing it in the sheath.

  “Dude, you’ve fucking lost it,” Jesse said.

  “I’m better now,” I replied. “If I didn’t kill him, he’d probably hunt us down for the rest of our days.”

  “You cut off his fucking dick man.”

  “He’s a rapist,” I replied as I stared blankly at him.

  He shook his head and said, “I’m going to go untie Trisha. And then we need to go.”

  “Yeah. Give me a minute to get Rebecca’s clothes on,” I said.

  He turned and left the bedroom. I stared at the man that I’d just killed. Besides the zombies, all of the people that I’d killed had been far away. I’d shot more people than I could remember, but none of them had been up close and personal, talking to me one moment before I ended their life. Allan was a horrible person and I said that he made me the way I am, but was that true? Or was I simply performing the actions that I’d alway
s been capable of, but resisted because of the penalties associated with murder back when there were laws, police, courts and jails?

  I didn’t have time to dwell on my actions. We needed to get out of town before the walls were completely breached and the kids who were defending them were overrun. I searched the floor until I found Rebecca’s clothes. Fuck! Allan’s dick was resting right where I’d thrown it: On top of her clothes. I kicked it off and picked up the pile.

  Rebecca was so limp that putting her clothes on her was harder than I’d have imagined. Every time I tried to push or pull a piece of clothing, her joint would buckle and I had to unbunch the garment to get it on her. I finally got her dressed and carried her out of the room. She was so much heavier than I expected, a dead weight in my arms.

  “Oh my God! Is she dead?” Trisha screamed. Rebecca’s head and limbs were flopped backwards and she did indeed look dead.

  I lay her down on the couch and said, “No. She’s been heavily drugged with a sleeping aid. How long ago did he give it to her?”

  “I don’t know. Twenty or thirty minutes ago,” she said. “He’d treated us so nice all week but after the town got surrounded and he sent his guys out to defend the place he started getting weird and slapped us a few times. Rebecca was freaking out about him beating her up, so he finally just taped us up and then forced some liquid down her throat. He told me to keep quiet or I’d get the same stuff.

  “He stormed around the place and said things like ‘The three of us could survive down here for years’ and that ‘Rebecca and I would learn to love him in time.’ Then Rebecca passed out and he started rubbing his crotch and mumbling to himself. Next thing I know he grabbed her and dragged her to the bedroom by her ankles.”

  “Hey, I found a couple of gas masks for the girls and some M-4s,” Jesse said holding up two military-style rifles. “These will be a lot better when we break through the army outside than our bolt-action hunting rifles.”