Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  He took a shot with the pistol. A few people winced; one woman put her fingers in her ears and glared balefully. He pointed. “See?” he asked. A few were wide eyed. Most were grimly determined. “The nine mil just ricocheted off. If it hit in the right spot it might have stopped this guy for a second or so, but then he'd be all over you.”

  He turned to a life size prop one of Walt's people had made. “See?” he asked. He took the stick from Lois and pointed it with his free hand at the same angle the pistol was. “The angle. It's not just the armor its the angle too. When you hit the armor at an angle it naturally wants to deflect off.” He handed the stick back to Lois. “What you need to do...” he looked at Lois who nodded. Lois poked the creature over onto its side.

  “What you need to do is hit the underside,” he said. Lois tapped the armored side and then the softer underbelly. The neck was armored but the underside wasn't. It was spongy and fleshy. Leathery flesh, but flesh none the less.

  “Its hard to get to, but its there. A weak spot, such as it is,” the sheriff said looking at each of them. He turned in one smooth fluid motion and shot from a two handed pose. The round tore into the animal's stomach and blue blood and gore splattered the area. “See?”

  A guy turned and barfed. Shane, walking by wrinkled his nose. “Typical,” he sighed. He came over and nodded to Lois and Wayne. He didn't want to stick around for long, once the smell of barf was in the air just about everyone around would be nauseated in minutes.

  “As you can see, the round penetrated. Not well though,” Wayne said.

  “Not well?” a woman asked, tentatively raising her hand.

  “Not well enough,” Lois said. He poked at the entry hole. “It went in, but ricocheted off the inside of the armor. That's actually a good thing. The round bounces around and tears up its vitals. But it lost some energy so there is no guarantee of a kill. We've seen these things take gut shots and thrash around kicking and squalling. If you're close you could get tore up,” he said.

  “And the other problem is, if it gets away it can regenerate,” Shane said loudly. The class and teachers looked at him.

  “Regenerate?” Lois asked uncertainly.

  “Yes. Doc Phillips just confirmed it. If an animal takes less than a vital hit it can regenerate. It costs them something in their metabolism, but it can heal or even regrow lost limbs or damage fast.”

  “How fast?” Leon asked coming over.

  “Fast enough to be back on its feet in say a day or so,” Shane said. “Depending on the damage of course,” he said. “If they can get enough food, maybe hours.”

  “Ouch,” Leon said wincing. The big black guy wandered off whistling. The squat guy with him, Bronsky looked pissed.

  “Yeah ouch,” Shane said nodding and fixing his eyes on the class. “So the name of the game is killing it before it kills you. Don't let them go. They become someone else's problem. And we all know a wounded animal is even more dangerous than a normal one. Its got a lot less left to lose,” he said.

  “Geesh,” a guy muttered shaking his head. “What did I sign up for?” he asked.

  “You can all bow out now, we won't stop you. This is strictly volunteer folks,” Wayne said. “We don't need heroes, we don't need victims, we need soldiers. People who can think clearly on their feet react to the threat and take it down. Cover your partner. Now, we’ll work on techniques to take a charging Hellcat or Hellhound down. Unfortunately the best advice we can offer is to get it from the flank or when its mid-leap. Both aren't always optional, so...”

  Shane noted something going on nearby and patted Wayne on the shoulder and went to investigate.

  Chapter 23

  He looked at the crew coming back empty handed and shook his head. “Something wrong?” he asked as Walt and Sheila climbed out of the lead truck.

  “You could say that,” Walt said kicking a rock. He looked at the other trucks coming in and parking.

  “Cárdenas’s is cleaned out,” Sheila said. He raised an inquiring eyebrow at her. She shook her head. “The store on Sunnymead I mean. We had left some of the canned stuff on the floor for pick up. Canned goods, pet food, and boxed goods that weren't a priority. Apparently another group got to them first,” she said sounding disgusted. “I've got scouts out as far as Perris and Alessandro who have said the same thing.”

  “First come, first served,” Shane said with a nod. They both looked at him in confusion and annoyance. He shrugged. They were annoyed because they had lost out? Their group had hit over two dozen grocery stores, major and minor. Someone else coming in was to be expected. “They have a right to survive just as we do,” he said.

  “The point we realized when we changed targets to the Fresh and Easy down here off Fredrick,” Sheila said pointing in the right direction.

  “What happened? Cleaned out as well?”

  “No, occupied,” Walt interjected before Sheila could. “About a hundred or so people. We didn't stop to count noses when they got a bit prickly at our approach and started pulling out guns and stuff,” he said.

  “Ah, I don't blame you for trucking on,” Shane said with a nod. “I thought that store was never opened?” he asked, looking from one to the other.

  “It was finished, they were about to open it before Christmas. Partially stocked,” Sheila said. “I think.”

  “Oh?”

  “Saw a flier,” she said in way of explanation.

  He nodded. “So you hit another store?”

  “Another Fresh and Easy, also cleaned out.” She sighed. “So we went down Sunnymead to hit the restaurants beyond Indian. You know, Denny's and such. All cleaned out, they even took the packets of sugar and salt,” she said waving her hands.

  “We're getting diminished returns on harvesting businesses now,” Shane muttered. “We're going to have to switch targets,” he said.

  “Oh?” they asked.

  “Clearly other groups are hitting the businesses as well. They haven't hit business rooms with break rooms and vending machines but I'm betting it's only a matter of time. They are still focused on the concentrated food stores after all. We're going to have to take a step back and start hitting homes more. Start with apartments or condos and work our way through them.”

  “Ah boss man; you realize how dangerous that is?” Walt asked looking at Sheila and then to him. Others were gathering around. A few were muttering. “A few are occupied by people still. Others are well, nests for the aliens,” he said.

  “Which we'll have to account for. We've already been sending teams into kill the aliens and then clean them out. Why do you think I've been training my teams to do it after all? Occupied by humans we'll of course bypass. But the aliens, they can be cleaned out. We've been doing it for the past week remember?” Shane said, instinctively raising his voice to cover the crowd. The muttering ceased and then picked up again.

  He cleared his throat. “The easy targets are over folks. Now we're going to have to work for it even harder than before. We knew this was coming. We've been working on it. We're going to have to come up with a system for our people.” He looked around and then nodded to a few gunners lounging against the trucks. “We've got experienced people now. People who can knock down doors and clear nests out. It's a risk, I know. We'll get it done anyway. We'll just shift most of our harvesters to come in behind our people. People like Bobby who has been doing that anyway.”

  “What about resupply from well,” Walt pointed up.

  “What, FEMA?” Shane asked amused. He shook his head and then raised his voice again as he looked around. “Folks we can't count on outside help. They were hit just like us. The people in FEMA lived in neighborhoods just like we did. Many were hammered just like ours. If there are enough holes in their chain of command then its going to take them time to get organized.” He looked around once more, gauging their reaction before returning to Walt and Sheila. “Which means we can't sit on our ass hoping for a miracle. You want food? Well, we've got few choices, grow it, hunt
it, or find it. We've cleared the condos nearby. Now we need to shop elsewhere,” he said.

  Sheila suddenly nodded. “Bakeries, I know of one. The woman runs a food cart out of her garage. Its down um...” She pointed. “Off Indian and Dracea Street I think. I can picture the neighborhood I just can't remember the side streets.”

  “Yeah, yeah! I know a guy who was running those vans. You know the ice cream vans. He's on Alessandro just past the hospital,” a woman said excitedly.

  “You know where they live and you didn't shoot them on sight?” another guy joked. A few people laughed at that.

  “I know a woman who sold Mexican food she made in her kitchen. I bet we can check there too,” another woman said hesitantly. “If she's there, can we bring her back?” Shane nodded.

  “I know a family that did extreme couponing. They were trying to get on that show on TLC.”

  “Okay, so not all of them are out,” Shane said nodding. “Make up a list with addresses. See Sheila here, or Jayne or Jen or one of the other domestic managers. Hermes if no one else is available. I know some of you still have your phones. Gabriel is setting up a better network and internet node here. When he does we'll have internet again, not just our local intranet.”

  A few cheered at that. He nodded. “I'm not saying you'll have your Facebook or whatever ISP you had, but it will help us locally,” he said indicating the mall area. “We'll tie it into the internet when we make full contact,” he said.

  “Good to know,” Walt said nodding slowly.

  “Walt,” Shane said resting a hand on the guy's shoulder. “Get with Torres and Wayne, whichever is on site now. I think Torres is with Kyle. Work with them to make some door knockers.”

  “Door knockers? What do you want with them?” Walt asked wrinkling his nose.

  “I'm talking the SWAT kind of course,” Shane said amused.

  “Um...”

  “Big thing, Pipe with handles. Smashes in doors,” a guy said and then blinked as if a light bulb went off. “Hey wait, can we do that thing from the movie? You know the SWAT movie the one where it had this spike thing, grappling hook thing that went through the wall and ripped it out?”

  “They used a tow truck for that!” a guy said snapping his fingers in excitement. “I know what you mean. DUDE! Talk about a wakeup call! We'd hit them with one hell of a bang! Bring the house down!” he said.

  “Good idea,” Shane said, glancing at Walt who was suddenly smiling a little, rubbing his chin. “Get with Walt here and get the design on paper. We've got plenty of buildings to test it on.”

  “How the hell can we get it to work without gunpowder? I mean the grapple...”

  “Compressed air man, or hydraulics. Just bam!” his friend said, smacking his palms together and sliding them apart.

  “Oh yeah!” the guy said excitedly. They looked over to Walt who was grinning a little. “I do believe this is going to be the beginning of a beeaaautiful friendship,” the guy crowed. “Beer!” he said.

  “Beer, hell, beer and a camera. I so want to see this on replay,” the other guy said. Walt laughed and the men walked off exchanging ideas.

  Shane shook his head as he glanced at Sheila. She looked a little amused. She cocked her head at him. “So what do we do?” she asked, indicating her and the remaining people.

  “Work up that list like I said. Start with the closest places. I want a list of where survivors are too. We'll have to either trade with them or avoid them.”

  “Right,” she said nodding.

  “Call Wayne and Hernandez. Get some lunch then give one or both of them a ring and go to where they are working. Come in behind him and clean up the spoils.”

  “The spoils,” Sheila asked wrinkling her nose. “After a nest is shot up?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “It'll be messy, and not really a place for the squeamish I admit. But checking pantries and such is important. Also look for a ton of other stuff in the garage and medicine cabinets. Bobby has a list you can look over.” Reluctantly she and others nodded.

  “And this way its already cleaned out,” she said glancing at the others. Slowly they broke up into smaller and smaller groups, either heading inside or off to talk quietly. Shane nodded and then turned to his radio.

  “Bob, Jayne, when Bill wakes we need to have a pow wow. Major change in exterior operations in the works,” he said.

  “Roger,” Bob said sighing. “What gives?”

  “Never mind,” Jayne said testily. She didn't like having to wear a radio. “We'll find out at the meeting,” she said.

  “Roger,” he answered. Shane shook his head and went back to work.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “You were right about the stores,” Walt said coming in and shaking his head as he wiped his hands.

  “Oh?”

  “We just got another group in who went down to Indian and Alessandro. The Food 4 Less there. It seems the people around there have staked it out as theirs.”

  “Ah,” he nodded. “I was expecting something along those lines sooner.”

  “Yeah well, they forted up in the SecurCare self-storage facility right next to the apartments half way between Bay and Alessandro, right across from...”

  “Food 4 Less, I know where you're talking about,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Yeah. Place has some wicked high walls on a couple of sides, so they turned it into quite a fortress. They are claiming the stores on that end of Alessandro too,” he said.

  “So we need to focus on the houses,” Shane said.

  “The empty houses you mean,” Walt said. “Though I need to hit Autozone or Kraigens or some of the other stores if we're going to keep all these vehicles going. The stock of parts we've got here isn't going to last forever you know. Not with all the modifications we've been doing,” the mechanic said. “I think the super stores on the other end of town are probably picked over but we can still get automotive and plant stuff there too right?”

  “Right, add it to the list,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Did that, I just thought I'd let you know,” Walt said sitting down with a sigh. “Victim of our own success I think,” he said.

  “How so?”

  “People saw what we were doing and that we were stripping the place and decided to either emulate us or stake it out so we can't do it.”

  “Which means we've got to focus on the house to house stuff and growing our own food,” Jayne said coming in. They looked at her. “I heard. Grapevine around here is light speed.”

  “Apparently so,” Shane said. She looked tired. She had bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess, despite being in a ponytail.

  “Come on in, take a load off,” Walt said, slapping a chair bottom.

  “Don't mind if I do,” she said with another sigh, coming in and sitting down. “Wayne and the others will be working more closely with us to clear out nests I guess,” she said.

  “Probably,” Wayne said coming in. He nodded to each of them. “I don't see us doing much search and rescue anymore. It’s way past the seventy-two hour mark, hell we've been at this ten days, he should know that. Anyone left who was trapped or in hiding is most likely dead.”

  “Or food,” Walt said with a wince.

  “Or that,” Shane said grimacing. “How can they have a base on Bay? I thought there was a major nest in the March schools? You know March middle school and the high school on Perris?”

  Walt shrugged. “Apparently they don't hunt. They just forted up and make runs across the streets for food when they need to do so. Shop by day for the minimum and then rush home with their tails tucked.”

  “Shit,” Hernandez said. “So we can't count on them for anything?” the army private said coming in.

  “Nope. We got the don't call us, we'll call you shit fed to us,” Jen said coming in and sitting down tiredly.

  Shane looked at her in shocked surprise. “Jen?”

  “What?” she asked taking a water bottle out and taking a drink. She passe
d it to Jayne who saluted her with it and took a swig.

  “You went?” he asked.

  “Yeah. They've got a makeshift barrier of cars across the streets. People man them during the day to keep others out. No passing through at all, you have to detour. They don't welcome outsiders either,” she said shaking her head. “We're the only open door place. Everyone else is turning into a Mad Max clone,” she said.

  “Not yet,” Wayne said grimacing. “Not if we can help it. Damn it if we could get a leg up...”

  “You'd what? Clear the entire city all by yourself?” Kyle said coming in. Bob, Bill, Gabriel, and Torres followed. “You know better. This town needed dozens to watch over it before. Now... We don't have the man power. Let alone the firepower,” he said.

  “What about all this stuff you're making?” Jayne asked.

  Kyle shook his head as he rolled to the end of the table. Ross came in last, carefully sitting near the door. “Sure I've got the M-60 and a pair of BAR's but they are it. The stuff we're making is really only good for fixed positions. Defensive. Shit like the cannons and stuff are best for that. Oh we could do flame throwers. Propane, a little gas or oil and an air compressor and we'd be in business. But do you really want to start torching buildings? I mean on a day to day basis? We'd have one hell of a firestorm on our hands,” he said waving to indicate the area.

  “True,” Jen said nodding. The lack of water was on all their minds suddenly. It was hard enough to get water to drink and water their plants... but to fight a fire?

  “It's happening in Colorado and New Mexico right now,” Gabriel said. They all looked at him. He seemed to gulp. “Firestorms,” he said. He glanced at the doorway as doctor Niederman came in.

  “What did I miss?” Jerry asked taking his seat.

  “Not much, just small talk really Jer,” Jen said. “I think,” she glanced at the others.

  “We'll fill you in. It started like this. Sheila and I...” Walt began. Shane sat back and listened to the story unfold once more.