by SD Tanner
Dawn was breaking and light was slowly filtering through the open curtains of the wide window in the lounge. They lived in what must have once been a comfortable residence in Akron, Ohio, and had chosen an apartment with an old-fashioned fire stairwell running down the side of the building. They used the external stairs to make their way in and out of the apartment without having to walk through the dark corridors of the building. Nothing in the apartment worked, and there was no running water or electricity, but they were always on the move, so it didn’t really matter. They avoided other survivors, and every day they looked for supplies and tried to sleep somewhere safe from the hunters. Usually they only stayed in one location for a week or so, and very occasionally, a few months.
Initially they were optimistic the government would restore order and there would be a camp they could join, but to date they hadn’t found one. They’d travelled from Detroit to Akron and only found nothing more than abandoned towns and cities with small groups of survivors, much like their own. Originally they’d tried to form a larger group of survivors, but they learned that didn’t help, and if anything, it made life harder. Larger groups of people led to tension which led to conflict, and with the twins, she always felt vulnerable. Marky and Nicky were her angels, and if not for them, she might have given up on life. The twins were only two years old when the virus erupted, and she always prayed they’d live long enough to grow into adults able to protect themselves.
She’d married Ron when she was eighteen and they’d been together for ten years. Life with Ron had been okay, not great, but okay. He worked as a low-level manager in a factory and she was a colorist in a local hairdressing salon. Happy enough with her lot in life, she’d spent her days chatting with women while she applied chemicals and foils to their hair, and caring for her home. Discounting the odd fumble with a boy in the back of their car, Ron was the only man she’d ever been with. Being twelve years older than her, she’d thought he was mature and immediately devoted herself to him. When Ron wanted to be he could be the most charming, attentive and loving man a woman could want, but he had a temper and alcohol brought out the worst in him. Her life disintegrated into a cycle of good times followed by very bad times. More than once she concealed the bruises he left on her face with thick makeup, and occasionally she’d needed medical attention for a wrenched shoulder or a loose tooth. When she was twenty-three, Ron decided it was time for them to have children. She hadn’t been keen on the idea, but whatever Ron wanted he always got. She’d hoped fatherhood might calm him down, but nothing changed, except now she had children to protect as well as herself.
The outbreak of the virus did nothing to improve Ron’s temper, but at least now he mostly took out his aggression against everyone else. In this strange new world, his anger and intensity seemed to play in her favor. Everywhere they went they met more desperate survivors fighting for food, weapons and shelter, and Ron was willing to kill anyone for what he needed. She knew if not for his determination to survive, she and the twins would have perished long ago. It seemed Ron was a bad husband when times were good, but an excellent shield when times went bad. Although she’d often dreamt of leaving him before the outbreak of the virus, she was now willing to put up with anything to ensure their survival. He wasn’t a good man, but sometimes a bad man was what was needed, and although he was a violent bully, she would continue to cope with him for the sake of her children.
From behind her, a woman’s voice asked, “What are you doing up?”
The voice belonged to a woman called Alyssa. She was with Doug and they, along with Faith and Mickey, made up their small party of six adults and two children. Ron thought six people was an optimum number and couples were easier to manage. Originally they found Doug and Mickey, but it quickly became apparent the young and fit men wouldn’t be happy without female company. Ron agreed to help them find suitable women, and in this day and age it wasn’t difficult. Women were keen to find men who could help them survive and Ron offered them a reasonable deal. The women would be expected to pull their weight, but the men would do the heavy lifting. That left Ron, Doug and Mickey to fight with the living and the hunters, while she, Alyssa and Faith made a home and a meal wherever they were and with whatever they had. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than being alone, and she needed the men to protect her babies. Mostly it worked out fine, unless the men found alcohol and then they were all in for a hellish night.
Briefly blinking to clear her mind of unpleasant memories, she turned and said brightly, “I thought I heard a voice. It woke me up.”
Alyssa was a small girl in her late teens, and even underweight, she was naturally busty and still quite top heavy. No doubt she’d once been proud of her trim figure, but these days she tended to wear baggy clothes to conceal her body from prying eyes. Having only just woken up, Alyssa was wearing a revealing tank top with no bra, and looked more like the young, fragile teen she really was.
Anxiously, Alyssa asked, “What food do we have for breakfast?”
“What we had last night. There were four cans of soup and two boxes of crackers left.” To soothe her worry, she touched Alyssa’s arm gently. “It’ll do for the morning and the men will find more food.”
There were many apartments in Akron and Ron expected to find small stashes of food and other supplies in the abandoned homes. Ron, Doug and Mikey had a routine that seemed to work. They would pick apartment blocks and find a way to the top floors, which were often undisturbed. Most people wouldn’t risk trying to make their way through the lower levels to the upper floors of any buildings, but with three strong men they were usually able to find a safe way into the apartments. Often they scaled the balconies to avoid the hunters and broke in through the windows. It was dangerous, and before Doug and Mikey there’d been others who scavenged with Ron, but they were now dead or worse.
Alyssa shook her head firmly, “I don’t think so, Annie. I heard noises out here last night and I think Faith may have gotten into the food again.”
She sighed and wished she’d taken their meagre food supply into their room like she meant to. Before the outbreak, Faith had clearly been a big girl who used food as a comfort, and now she was even more stressed than ever, but she couldn’t use food to bury her emotions. Although she’d only been with them for a month, it was becoming apparent she couldn’t be trusted around their supplies. Walking over to the pack that contained their breakfast, she opened it to see the extent of the damage. Inside two cans were opened and their contents had spilled, leaving a mess of soup throughout the backpack. Puzzled, she carefully pulled the cans out and saw they’d exploded, and shards of metal jutted at all angles from the cans.
Sounding both puzzled and dismayed, she asked, “How did this happen?”
Ron would be furious. As he often told her, all she had to do was keep the home fires burning, which meant making sure she could make a meal out of whatever food he provided, and now there was nowhere near enough food to feed six adults and two children. Mentally she reassigned the remaining food assuming she, Faith and Alyssa didn’t eat at all, but there wasn’t nearly enough and she knew Ron would be angry. With the collapse of society, he felt no need to curb his temper, and she could almost feel the bruises he’d make when he found out the food was gone.
Blinking back the tears threatening to form, she smiled tiredly. “We’ll make it work.”
Before she could say anything else, Ron appeared at the bedroom door, scratching and yawning. Ignoring her and Alyssa, he strolled over to the open window, and proceeded to urinate out onto the street ten floors below. Even though there was no reason he couldn’t relieve himself that way, she still wrinkled her nose in disgust. She understood their world had changed, but she worried the twins would grow up to be completely uncivilized. Walking back to the bedroom, she smiled happily when she saw two blonde heads pop up from behind the bed.
“Mommy!” Nicky squealed happily.
She walked into the room and hugged her daughter. “He
llo, pumpkin, did you have good dreams?”
Not wanting to be left out, Marky wriggled out from under the blanket and snuggled up to her chest.
“I’m hungry,” he complained quietly.
She felt her heart ache. Of all the things she’d worried about being able to give her children, food hadn’t been on the list. When she was pregnant, her main concern was whether they would have enough money to send them to good schools and onto College. Now the twins often cried over their empty bellies, and although it broke her heart to hear their pain, there was nothing she could do about it. When feeling overwhelmed, Faith might occasionally steal food at night, but she didn’t believe she’d intentionally deprived the children. Thinking about the exploded cans of soup, she decided Faith hadn’t done it and wondered what could have happened.
None of the women ate that morning, not even Faith, and later while cleaning the backpack, they talked about what could have caused the tins to explode. Ron blamed it on poor manufacturing, but she wasn’t so sure. Why would the cans explode now? It was at least two years and probably longer since the cans were filled and sealed, and she couldn’t imagine what triggered them to explode. Once they’d eaten their meagre breakfast, they climbed down the external fire stairs and back onto the street, where they stood surveying the barren road. There was nothing left, only rusting cars, dust and broken windows. Below the apartment block were a few shops clearly pillaged long ago, but Ron saw a smart modern looking group of five story apartments, and he was convinced there would be good pickings inside. Setting off in the direction of the apartments, they all turned in surprise at the sound of many loud vehicles coming towards them.
“Get behind the cars,” Ron called sharply.
She grabbed Nicky and Marky, and dragging them behind a dusty sedan, she said with false brightness, “You remember this game. We have to be quiet as mice.”
Marky looked at her balefully as if to say he knew it was no game, but remained silent. Can’t lie to kids, she thought, while she watched Ron, Doug and Mickey move to take up positions behind several other cars. Alyssa and Faith were hiding behind a car on her left. Mickey took a position behind a car on her right, and Ron and Doug were also hiding behind cars on the opposite side of the road. It bothered her Ron no longer seemed to worry where she and the twins were, and lately she’d caught him openly leering at Alyssa. Although she wasn’t jealous of Alyssa, she was frightened what might happen to her and the children if he chose to abandon them.
Two chunky looking military-style vehicles pulled up alongside the cars they were hiding behind, but that was the least of their problems. Following the vehicles were at least thirty hunters, all running with a frightening ease. When the hunters approached the vehicles they were hiding behind, they veered away. Suddenly she was confronted by three hunters peering down at her and the twins. It all happened so quickly there was no time to react. The hunters weren’t breathing heavily, but they were snorting and growling and she sensed they wanted to attack. This was the first time she’d ever seen hunters so close to her. With remnants of clothes stuck to their skin, they were lean and dried looking, with startling eyes that glowered at her. One bent its head forward, bared its teeth and snarled. Thick strings of saliva dripped from its open mouth, and it held its hands like claws with dirty, gnarled nails. Down its exposed chest were deep rends, like something had torn into its flesh and the wound never fully healed. Through the deepest rip on its rubbery torso, there was an oily black substance that seemed to ooze slightly with every move it made. While it breathed down on her, she could smell the stench of vomit and it made her nauseous.
Terror gripped her bowels, and clutching the heads of the twins to her breasts, she said desperately, “Don’t look.”
Expecting to feel the dried and clawed hands tear into her body, she continued to stare wide-eyed at the hunter. It stared back at her equally as intensely, but then she heard a voice through a PA system.
“You have a choice. You can come with us or we can leave, but if we leave, the hunters will eat you alive. If you want to come with us, then drop your weapons at the front of the truck, step back, and lie flat on the ground with your hands behind your head.”
Daring to glance over the top of the car she was hiding behind, she watched Ron slowly stand and walk to the front of the truck. Loosely holding his AR15, he asked, “How do we know you won’t kill us?”
“I can’t fuckin’ hear you. Do what you’re told, or on the count of three, we’ll keep driving and leave you to the hunters. This isn’t a negotiation or an order. It’s a choice. Take it or leave it, I don’t give a shit.”
Desperately, she tried to look past the hunters now surrounding her to see if there was any way to escape. Briefly glancing at the hunter next to her, she wondered how it could see them. Everyone knew hunters couldn’t see well in daylight, but given how intently it was staring at her, she knew it certainly could. Peeking over the top of the car, Ron slowly and deliberately laid his gun down in front of the truck and stepped back as ordered.
“Everyone get out here!” Ron shouted. “It’s this or death.”
Mickey and Doug emerged, and copying Ron, they laid their guns down and stepped back. Alyssa and Faith followed their lead, and both women walked to the center of the road to stand behind the men, who now had their hands on their heads.
The voice spoke again. “Is that it?”
“Annie, get your ass out here!” Ron ordered abruptly. “And bring them kids with you.”
Shuddering, she said haltingly, “I don’t want to. We don’t know who these people are.”
Without bothering to speak, Ron stormed across the road, and shouldering his way past the hunters, he stood over her. “Get the fuck up, Annie!”
She tried to draw the twins into her body, and pulling back against the car, she said anxiously, “No, Ron, they could hurt the children.”
His eyes widened in disbelief. “Take a look around you. We’re fuckin’ dead if we don’t. Now, do as you’re damned told.”
Whoever these people were, every fiber in her being told her not to go with them. There was something very wrong about how the hunters were behaving, and for as much as she was terrified of them, she was even more frightened by anything that could control them.
“No, Ron, don’t do this.”
Shaking his head, Ron replied coldly, “It’s done.”
While they argued, a man appeared next to Ron. He was tall, pale, grey-haired and wore wire-rimmed glasses. Pushing Ron aside, the man looked down at her. “You can’t escape, so you might as well come with us and live.”
With his back to Ron and sounding stern, he also smiled gently and slowly winked. She instantly understood the man would help her, and when he put out his hand offering to help her to her feet, she took it and felt him squeeze it in a reassuring grip.
While she got to her feet, the man said calmly, “It’ll be alright. My name’s Gray.”
Continuing to clutch the twins protectively to her body, she stared wide-eyed at Gray and the hunters that surrounded him. A stocky man wearing ACUs stalked over to where she was still standing, and almost respectfully, the hunters moved out of his way.
Quickly scanning her body, he growled angrily, “We’ve no use for the kids.” Pausing, he looked her in the eye and sneeringly added, “Or whiny bitches.”
She felt her stomach contract as the man continued to stare at her with a hunger in his eyes. It wasn’t a look of sexual interest, but more of malicious intent and he terrified her more than Ron ever could. There was something evil in his look and he had a flippant disregard for her children. While he continued to stare at her, another man appeared behind him, and he looked over at her and the children with a mischievous smile.
“Hull found us a snack!”
Her eyes widened in horror and looking at Ron, she said pleadingly, “Ron…no!”
Ron shook his head. “Nah, the kids are mine. I don’t think I can just hand ‘em over to you like that. Th
e missus really won’t like it.”
The man called Hull shrugged. “Then you have a choice to make. You can either join us, and you’ll be able to control the hunters and live a comfortable life, or you can die with your brats.” Sighing as if bored, he added, “I don’t care what you do.”
Scratching his chin contemplatively, Ron asked, “What exactly is the deal here?”
She couldn’t believe Ron was considering the man’s offer, and shaking her head frantically, she said in dismay, “Ron, you can’t be serious. These are your children for God’s sake.”
Giving her a filthy look, he said angrily, “Take a good look around you, Annie! In case you haven’t noticed, God left the party a long time ago. Are you fuckin’ stupid! I can’t keep scratching a living out here. You and the kids are a fuckin’ burden I don’t want. I’ve been thinking of getting rid of you for a while anyway.”
Realizing he would be no help, she appealed to the only person who seemed to care and looked at Gray. “Please don’t let them kill my children.”
Gray nodded at her. “Hull, this is not the way to bring anyone to our side. Ruler left explicit orders we were to recruit more people to become Dead Souls, but he didn’t say we had to cause mayhem while we did it. Ruler needs cooperative soldiers, not ones that were bullied into joining him. They’ll make bad troops in the long run.”
Hull sneered and said sarcastically, “I think it’s cute you still think there’s a long term plan.”