Into the Darkness (Book 1): Vigilante

by Deane, Cliff

  I gotta’ tell you, sir, I used to think Army stood for, Ain’t Really Marines Yet, but not anymore ‘cause every single one of these guys would make good Marines. So, sir, all in all, we have it covered at least for tonight.”

  “Ain’t Really Marines Yet, huh? Well, I always heard USMC stood for Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.

  You know, Sergeant. Guy, I think we are going to get along just fine. Good brief, stay alert, I want everyone alive in the morning.”

  Saluting, the sergeant said, “Count on it, sir.”

  Levi returned the salute, shook his sergeant’s hand and said, “I’ll see you at around 0800. Roger?”

  “Ooh Rah, we ain’t got no place else to go. Don’t worry, sir, we won’t let you down.”

  As we walked away, Ralph said, “Did you notice how both Ben and Guyardo both said that they wouldn’t let you down. Not Defiance, but you Levi.

  Should I be worried, because if that sergeant cleaves to you, the others will follow. I will not allow Defiance to turn into a military dictatorship. I mean it Levi.”

  “Mr. Mayor, I know you mean it, and I give you my oath that you have nothing to worry about. Our sole mission will be to serve and protect Defiance. Will you accept that, or are you asking me to leave?”

  “Leave? Are you out of your fucking mind? Of course, I’m not asking that. You have already proven that you are even more of an asset to Defiance than I had, at first thought.

  Bottom line Levi is that I want to build a place where people can live in safety and prosperity instead of like cavemen.”

  “Oh, I see, you want Shangri-La, a Utopia, well, Ralph, there will always be storms, and struggles...and trusts. We just have to strive to find some kind of happy middle ground.

  Say, do you remember a song called Whiskey for my men and beer for my horses?”

  “Yeah, I love that song, why?”

  “Because Mr. Mayor I am absolutely positive that we will have to live up to that song. We gotta’ draw a hard line to protect our own, and perhaps a hard line even within our ranks.”

  On the way back to Defiance, Levi wouldn’t talk about his vision for Defiance saying that they needed to be seated with a cold beer before looking into the crystal ball.

  ***

  Chapter 6

  Buckle up Buttercup

  March 30th, 1830 hours

  Levi’s tent

  Defiance, NC

  Sitting down with a cold Bud, Ralph said, “Ok, Captain Levins, share your thoughts and plans.”

  “Wow, jumping right in, okay. First, we need to discuss the survivability of Defiance, and without a lot of work and dedicated activity, it will not happen. Ralph, the bottom line is, you ain’t ready. With six former military combat guys, I could take this entire place in ten minutes.

  So, my job, as I see it will be to secure Defiance against a Battalion of Infantry, and that should have been done a year ago. No matter now, I have the skill set to get it done, and Ralph…We will git er dun. Okay?”

  “You are a rascal, you know that, but seriously, why do you say we are in such desperate shape? Don’t you think this is a pretty nice place? We have good fresh water; we’re secluded enough to be off the beaten track, I mean there’s just a dirt road to the county road. I’ve stockpiled hundreds of weapons and over two-hundred thousand rounds of ammo over the years, a crap load of dynamite and blasting caps. We’ve got enough food for around 60 people for a couple of years with the Walmart stuff. Come on, Levi, we’re in good shape here.”

  Portraying a wry smile, Levi said, “There are a number of reasons why you only have a start, but the most two most glaring reasons are numbers and intelligence.

  Ralph looked indignant and started to say, “Now just hold on a min…”

  “Easy Ralph, not individual intelligence, I meant knowing what is happening around us, and what may be coming at us.”

  “Oh, well okay,” said a mollified Mayor.

  “Starting tomorrow at the latest, food is going to be gone from the stores, and not in just the big cities, which, incidentally places this area very near an inevitable migration route for those going south to find a place to start again, and those moving north to find relatives who they believe can offer them shelter.”

  Ralph, looked doubtful and asked, “Okay, I get that but how many can there possibly be? We can handle it.”

  “How many you ask, okay, I’ll give you the low number first, and the high if you want to hear it…ten to twelve million on the move over the next two weeks, and that’s just along the Eastern Seaboard, hungry and desperate people. They and their families will be starving, dirty, exhausted and desperate to take what we have if they can.

  I’m talking about good, church going people. They will steal, murder and do anything else to feed their starving children. Shit, 99% of them were good honest people when civilization controlled the food distribution. Now, there simply will be no food. The old rules are gone. From this day forward we must be prepared to fight for what we have or what we must have if we can’t trade for it.”

  “Levi, how do you know this? I mean, you could be wrong, couldn’t you? Oh, crap, no; that just can’t be right! No, you are wrong, you just have to be. Ten million starving refugees… No, wait, we are so far east of the main routes. Won’t they just keep going north and south, bypassing us?”

  “Most certainly will, but we could still face a hundred thousand refugees coming our way, just foraging, and that is at a minimum. Ultimately, does it matter whether the number is one hundred thousand, one million, or ten million, with those numbers; does it really matter how many?”

  Ralph stared at the map Levi had placed on the table, “Yes, of course, you’re right a million or a hundred thousand is still an army searching for food. Sorry, Levi, it’s just so much to absorb all at once, I mean, honestly, we had no idea it would get that bad.”

  “Ralph, remember, I was in Military Intelligence, and I participated in many exercises for just this exact emergency…we were never successful in controlling them.

  Our people in training exercises pretended to shoot tens of thousands of Americans. I mean, come on, we can only kill so many people before we are overrun by sheer numbers.

  Ultimately the commanders would just wave their magic logistics wand and declare victory.

  Ultimately the realism was non-existent. Moreover, those in the Head Shed realized that in a true disaster, no organized movement was possible, because, well, how do you stop ten million people, coming from all directions, who have nothing but the hope that they will find salvation over the next hill.”

  Ralph hung his head and in a whisper uttered, “Oh, dear God, if what you say is true, we are doomed. All of the work we’ve done has been wasted…”

  “No, Ralph, I believe that it can be done, if we hurry and get the necessary things done, and I do mean quickly.”

  Ralph was almost in shock but raised his head at this single ray of hope from Levi. “What? If what you’ve said is true, what can we possibly do?”

  “Okay, now listen up. We need to take this thing in stages. Since we know we cannot fight our way out of this mess, we have to think our way out. Oh yeah, there will be lots of fighting, but if we rely on that we will just be overwhelmed, and we will die.

  First, you need to understand that the refugees will not be thinking, they will be following whoever is in front of them. It’s called herd mentality; where those in front go, the rest will follow.

  Tomorrow we must crater Route 34 leading to us…”

  Ralph started to interrupt, but Levi silenced him with a hand-up, palm out motion, before continuing.

  “Yes, we both know that will not stop the walkers, but it will divert those in trucks. Those guys will tend to be in better health and thus far more dangerous; they’ll also be armed.

  We then place signs along their path announcing that our no-go area is mined. Signs alone will not deter them for long, so we must get mines and punji pits into the ground, ASAP.”r />
  Again Ralph started to interrupt.

  Ralph wait, please let me finish.

  Sadly, we’ll have to kill perhaps thousands at these points to redirect them around us. You see, the mine fields will guide them around us, and we’ll only fire on those who don’t take the path we want. As the days pass, the dead will become an additional deterrent to the moving mass of people.

  Those in front will, hopefully, not want to go through a killing field when a clear, far easier path lies before them. Put yourself in the shoes of the walkers; where those in front of you go, go you.”

  Ralph was near to tears, but knew that we could not help those in this mass migration, but asked in a pleading voice, “Levi isn’t there anything we can do to help, rather than murder thousands of fellow Americans.”

  “Ralph, there is no way this is murder, it is quite simply kill or be killed…Self-defense. If we do not try to protect ourselves, we’ll die and the millions remaining will just keep walking.

  Consider one hundred thousand rolling over us, taking our food. How many could actually eat? The number would be less than one or two hundred out of one hundred thousand, and they’ll be killing each other left and right for what’s here. You see, again the end result is the same, they die, only in this scenario, we also die, and that is not acceptable to me. Those people are doomed, but I do not intend to join them, do you?

  Ralph, I need to know, and right now; are you up to this? If not I won’t stay to be killed by starving zombies. I’ll just head for my home in Paradise, West Virginia.

  Look at me, my friend, DAMN IT! LOOK AT ME! Thank you, now listen up because what I have to say now is also going to be very tough for you. It must be you, and you alone who presents this plan to the residents of Defiance.”

  “Me, why me, you are the one who understands what we are facing. Don’t you think you could convince them better than I?”

  Realizing that Ralph was losing it, Levi’s tone again became even less like a Priest, and more like a Drill Sergeant, “Ralph, you are the face of the government in Defiance, so put on your big boy boxers and Buckle up Buttercup.

  If it comes from me, no one will ever again look to you for leadership, and I will be expected to take the reins, and Ralph, that I will not do.

  I know that you’ve been through a lot today but stop the crybaby bullshit. You have got to snap out of it and be the leader these people need. So, what’s it going to be?”

  “Levi, I just don’t know if I can do it…kill thousands of people just because they are hungry and need help.”

  Levi stood and looked down at Ralph as he continued to wallow in his own self-pity before saying, “Ralph, I guess I was wrong about you. I thought you were a man who had the guts to lead these people, but I was obviously wrong.

  So go ahead and wallow in your little pity party. You’re acting like a piss ant wuss who would let his friends die, rather than save them and maintain a bit of humanity and civilization. Go fuck yourself, Ralph; I’m just glad I won’t be around to see your dead body being cannibalized by the starving walking dead.”

  Levi turned to leave when Ralph calmly said, “You’re right Levi, and I have been wallowing in a first class pity party. Look, I know you’re right, I know it, but that pep talk you just gave me made me realize that I must not be that wussie guy.

  The turning point was when you said that I was willing to let my friends die. Well, no, I’m not that guy, so yeah; I’ll put on my big boy boxers and buckle up. If we can stop them from overrunning us, then I’ll do whatever it takes.

  How long do you think the migration will last?”

  Levi laughed out loud and said, “Now that’s the man I feared was gone. Let’s get to it, and I don’t think the migration will last more than a couple of weeks at the most because starvation and preying on each other will kill them off fairly quickly. It’s that initial push we have to blunt.”

  “Only a couple of weeks, hey we can do that, and our troubles will be over, right?”

  ***

  Chapter 7

  Spiders and rats and snakes, oh my…

  March 30th, 1830 hours

  Levi’s tent

  Defiance

  “Ralph, you are the eternal optimist, you know that? But no, our troubles will just be beginning. How do we clean up all the dead bodies? We don’t because we just don’t have the manpower, or the ability to bury just the fifty to one hundred thousand dead in our area. At that point, we hunker down, and maybe, just maybe we can avoid most of the myriad of diseases about to overtake the country.

  It only takes one person to become infected to kill us all, and though that is a real concern. Sadly, we can’t just hunker down and wait until the danger passes. There is just too much to be done in far too short a time.

  That is not even my biggest fear. Rats carrying disease is my worst fear.”

  “Rats, why…Oh…My…God…they’ll be feeding off the dead. We’re in for a Biblical explosion in the rat population. What can we do?”

  Levi said, “Not much in reality, but we still have to try. If we had the time, I’d build a moat around the settlement area, but it’s too late for that. Let’s bring in every rat trap from our stores and set them everywhere, especially around the perimeter of the housing area. We’ll use copious amounts of rat poison. See a rat, kill a rat.

  Ralph, that’s only one aspect of the coming plagues. Starting from the bottom of the food chain, ants; they, along with other critters will consume the rotting bodies out there, but ants become prey for other critters, like spiders.

  Because of the sudden and immense increase in available food, the devourers of those rotting carcasses will have a population explosion right up the food chain. This summer we’ll be overrun by ants, spiders, rats, snakes and God knows what else.

  The entire cycle will be short lived; hopefully, it will begin slowing by late June and end when winter sets in. Once the bodies are cleaned to the skeletons, the over populated food chain will collapse and fall back to current levels fairly quickly.”

  Stunned by this forecast, Ralph slumped back in his seat and stammered, “My God, I had no idea…ew…I hate spiders.”

  ***

  Chapter 9

  The March Begins

  April 1st, 2300 hours

  Defiance, North Carolina

  At around midnight, Levi stepped outside to get a breath of the fresh spring air before going to bed.

  As he looked around, he saw the light from many fires. The looting and death of America had begun in earnest.

  His attention was drawn to the horizon by flashes of lightening, followed much later by distant thunder.

  Defiance was in blackout condition as the refugee march was steadily growing.

  He turned to go back into his tent then decided to take a turn around the encampment to check on the guard posts.

  “Halt, who goes there?” asked a guard at the main entrance in a whisper.

  “Captain Levins,” whispered Levi.

  “Double dog,” came the challenge.

  “Dare,” answered Levi.

  “Advance and be recognized.”

  Levi stepped forward until the guard, in concealment could see his Captain.

  “Good evening sir, couldn’t sleep?”

  “No, I just thought I’d take one last look at our listening posts. Anything going on between here and the road?”

  “No sir, not so far. The forward Listening Post reported back at 2200 that the refugees seem have stopped for the night.”

  Levi said, “Good report, soldier. Stay alert, some of ‘em may well be foraging. It’ll get worse if this weather holds. We could sure use a tropical storm.”

  “Yes sir, but it is a little early in the year for that.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is, stay sharp, we don’t want anyone hurt.”

  “Roger that, sir, don’t worry, we’re on it.”

  Levi smiled in the darkness and said, “I know you are, well, good night.”

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nbsp; “Good night sir and I hope you get some rest; you’ve been going pretty hard these last few days.”

  “Yep, haven’t we all,” said Levi as he returned to his tent.

  Sleep did come…after many lonely tears, and as he slept Sarah returned with the same message, but this night with a kiss on his cheek. His sleep improved…but not his yearning for Sarah.

  *

  Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus

  April 2nd, 0400

  Defiance

  The entire camp was brought fully awake by the loud rumble of thunder as black skies, heavy with rain closed rapidly with the shoreline. Lightning flashed nearly overhead lighting up Defiance in flashes of a brilliant, but cold, frightening light.

  Gunfire erupted from the gate, and the four-man designated Reaction Force (RF) grabbed their weapons and advanced to the sound of the action. Others made their way to defensive positions around the camp to prevent a flanking attack.

  By the light of the flashing lightning, the RF could see bodies lying in the road. “Hold positions, everyone stay put. We can wait for sunrise to find out if there are more.”

  Captain Levins arrived and received a Situation Report (Sitrep) from the sergeant in charge of the RF.

  “Sir, it appears that some people came up the road and were engaged by our LP. I’ve ordered everyone to hold position until first light before we check them out. Since I don’t hear any moaning, my guess is that our LPs are good shots.”

  “Yes, so it would seem,” replied Levi, “Good Sitrep sergeant, I’m pleased.

  “Since you obviously have things so well in hand, I think I’ll head on back to my tent and get dressed. Oh, what’s your name?”