The Week of the Dead

by Viktor Longfellow

  Devin broke in. “Look, just let our friends go, and we’ll walk away. We’ll be out of your hair, and you can keep the shit. There are guns and supplies in the van.” The sun reflected off something that shone in Devin’s eye. He brushed it off as it returned again and again. The sound of engines filled the tense air.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Ferret began to laugh. “I know that sound!” He shared a smirk with Devin.

  “Are you sure we can’t handle this peacefully?” Devin asked. The man with the brimmed hat took his hand off the pump of the shotgun and placed it over his eyebrows.

  “Someone’s coming!” one of his comrades spoke.

  “I know that, fool!”

  “Yes, the glorious sound of American muscle. Here come my friends, and we do not take kindly to this behavior. Lay down your weapons, and you shall be spared!” Ferret spoke with his hands raised.

  “Bullshit!” the man said. “Get ready, boys!” he said as he stood behind Ferret with his shotgun pressed against him. He tried to use Ferret as a human shield.

  The engines got closer and came to a stop. Except for the motorcycles that came racing in. They stopped short of the parked convoy, and the motorcycles came to a screeching halt. Redbeard was the first to jump off his motorcycle as he grabbed his mace. Tara rode in on Ferret’s motorcycle, and she quickly drew Devin’s bow. Razor, Jericho, Tank, and Malik all joined in as well. The man with the shotgun broke out in laughter again.

  “Well, holy fucking Moses! Looks like we got the band back together!” he said as he kept an eye on his new foes.

  “Throw down your guns, and we’ll let you leave. Take the shit, and go!” Devin said trying to keep the bloodshed to a minimum.

  “Looks like we’re in a Mexican stand off!” the man said.

  “Not really,” Redbeard said as he raised his mace in the air and brought his arm down to his side. Tara released her arrow, and three of the man’s comrades dropped to the ground. Panic began to fill the man’s head as he watched one arrow take out three separate men.

  “What is this?”

  “Three down!” The walkie-talkie on Razor’s belt spoke. “Jamison,” Devin spoke to himself. Devin began counting with his fingers in the air and pointing.

  “I’ll kill him I swear!” the man said as he backed himself against the hood of the ambulance. Again, Tara raised her bow at the man on the roof of the SWAT van keeping an aerial view.

  “No shot. Two down!” the walkie-talkie spoke again.

  “Snipers!” one of the comrades spoke as he witnessed his friend bleeding from the chest without an arrow sticking in it.

  Redbeard placed his helmet on his head. “Cover fire understood,” said Jamison.

  “Roo-yah!” Redbeard exclaimed. There was a silent count of two before the rest of the Vikings expelled “roo-yah!” from their bellies. The small group of armored men charged forward carrying shields as Tara fired from her bow. Redbeard swung his mighty mace at the first man he saw. Razor and Tank both charged forward slamming into their unsuspecting victims with brute force. Tank held steel batons over his head as he pounded a man’s chest inward. Ferret, taking the moment of opportunity, slammed his elbow into his captor’s chest and pushed the gun away. He gave him a mighty kick, bouncing the man’s head against the hood of the ambulance. He grabbed his daggers and joined his brothers.

  Devin clothes-lined one of the men with his helmet who was trying to get in a vehicle. He grabbed the gun in the rim of the man’s pants and fired wildly hitting the femoral artery. He was able to pull it free and dispense shells at anyone who wasn’t wearing battle armor. “Malik! The hostages!” Devin shouted as he met up with the black Viking and began searching vehicles. They made it to the last vehicle and found Isaac and other people in scrubs hogtied in the back of an SUV. There were no more rounds being fired. The silent air was filled with a chorus of “roo-yah!” The men encircled the man unconscious in front of the ambulance. He stirred to find an army of warriors looking down at him. “Ferret, teach him.”

  Without Redbeard finishing his statement, the small man lifted the stranger onto his feet and held him by the collar. Tank and Razor held down his arms. “What are the Virtues you’ve broken?” Ferret asked him.

  “Wha-what?” the man asked puzzled. Ferret broke his nose by squeezing it. The man hollered in pain.

  “You have broken the sacred virtues! Do you know them?” Ferret was in the man’s face.

  “N-n-no!” the man began to cry. Ferret spoke as he forced his hand to the man’s body. “One! Courage! You have none!” Ferret punched him in the stomach. “Two! Truth! You broke that too!” another punch to the chest. “Three! Honor! You have none!” a punch to the genitals forced the man to bow over. Devin and the others watched as Ferret was schooling the man. “Four! Fidelity! You make fun of my God!” Ferret’s fist returned to the man’s lungs, forcing all the wind from his body. “Five! Discipline! You are receiving it now!” Ferret wiped blood from his student and drew onto his forehead. It was a series of what looked like letters unknown to Devin. “Six! Hospitality! You suck!” He slammed the man’s head back against the hood of the ambulance. “Seven! Industrialness! You do not work hard. You rob from the side of the road!” a fist slammed down breaking one of the man’s collarbones. “Eight! Self-reliance! You…you actually kind of made that one…,” Ferret spoke looking at his fellow Vikings who nodded in agreement.

  Ferret faked his fist like he was going to punch the man in the nose, who reared his head back into the hood of the ambulance. The Vikings broke out in laughter until Ferret spoke again “Nine! Perseverance! You kept your word. We shall let you live under one condition.” The man looked at into Ferret’s eyes with mercy. “You must bury your friends. They were brave. They died like true warriors.” Tank and Razor released the man who slid down the hood of the ambulance. The Vikings hugged each other and looked at each other’s wounds. The man began to sob on the ground. He eyed his dead comrades. He scooted closer to one of the bodies and grabbed the firearm slung around his shoulder. The man picked it up and aimed it at Ferret’s back. “Hey!” Devin exclaimed as he saw the man. Devin watched as the man was taking aim. Devin too raised his gun until he saw a Jamadhar dagger fly into the man’s chest.

  Red blood flowed by gravity as the man raised the rifle into the air and fired until his muscles ceased. Ferret looked at Devin who gave him a silent nod. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Tara said as she jumped on the back of Redbeard’s motorcycle, leaving Ferret’s for its owner. Devin finished cutting the binding from Isaac and the medical people. Every vehicle drove away, leaving the bodies to rot. As they were driving away, Tara took the radio. “I like this bow,” she said in a sultry voice.

  “Keep it,” Devin said with a chuckle. “You earned it.”

  THE WALL

  CHAPTER 60

  THURSDAY 0228 CST

  FORT KNOX

  Fort Knox was tense. Everyone was in his or her positions. They waited as the sloppy footsteps got closer. The spotlights were trained on the tree line. The humans watched as trees were being torn down with brute force. Ethan and Josh stood side by side on the wall as Henry called out the enemy movement he watched from the Predator drone.

  “If this doesn’t pan out, go to the bunker with that guy,” Ethan said to Josh.

  “Man, how can you think like that? Ever since we were kids, you’ve always been a Debbie Downer. Besides, how do we know that guy is even real? How do we know he won’t kidnap us and rape us?”

  “At least we’re keeping up our sex appeal,” Ethan joked.

  “But seriously, go tell the others. Tell that northern guy and the others. Especially Tripod and Reynolds. Those guys are hardcore.”

  “What about Michaels?” Josh asked. Ethan pulled out the revolver from his leather and eyed the pistol.

  “I don’t know, man. I think he’s cracked.”

  “Well, I guess that leaves you in charge, bro,” Josh said tapping the shoulder of Ethan’s ja
cket. “Oh, ha-ha. You dick.” His tone changed.

  “It’s fucking scary, dude, having all these people under your protection, having to think about all the possibilities. Are we the only human civilization left? Where is the aid? Where are the laser guns and shit?”

  “Probably in the basement in between the mountain of gold bars and where Reynolds found the flamethrowers,” Ethan joked. Josh could see the look in his friend’s eyes as he looked off into the distance. Something was coming; something began to amass in the distance. “I want you to get a vehicle, get the girls, and grab whatever you can. I don’t care what it is, just in case this turns bad.”

  The sound of sloppy feet marching came to a stop following a bloodcurdling high-pitched scream. There in the spotlight stood a large Alpha. It was followed by ten other Alphas and as many tweaking creatures that could fill the range of vision. “Oh…fuck!” was all that could escape Ethan’s mouth. “Positions! Move!” he forced himself to say. He looked at his assault rifle. “This isn’t going to do. Machine guns to the wall!” Assault rifles were being passed back on the ground. Light machine guns with belt-fed ammunition were being slung over shoulders. “I want it broken into two. I want one firing, the other one reloading his weapon.”

  “Javelins!” Reynolds shouted over the microphone. The men next to the crates picked up their shoulder-mounted launchers and fired on the count of three. Smoke filled the air as the handful of rockets flew straight forward for a few feet and lifted into the air. Ethan and Josh watched as seven Javelin missiles flew straight up into the night sky. Their eyes trailed the rockets back down to earth as they exploded a few feet off the ground, sending shrapnel in every direction. Ethan and Josh ducked as they heard the first ping of metal ding against the walls. “What the hell was that, Reynolds?”

  “Javelins are tank busters, not troop killers,” Reynolds replied in dismay.

  “Got any more left?” Ethan asked.

  “Just two,” Reynolds spoke over the walkie-talkie.

  “Well save them damn it!”

  “Roger.”

  The spotlights that weren’t full of shrapnel were still facing the trees. Suddenly, whole trees can be seen falling to the ground and being thrown aside. “What the hell is this?” Josh said, starting to panic.

  “Whatever it is, it can bleed. Is everyone safe?”

  “As they can be. The girls are in a Humvee with those Yankee dudes. They have a mic if you want to talk to them.”

  Ethan gave Josh a fist bump. “Look man, I don’t know what’s going to happen—”

  Josh cut him off. “Save it, dude. We got bigger shit to worry about than you getting all mushy on me.” Ethan’s solemn face turned red as he began to chuckle. “Only at the end of the world do you show your true feelings!” Josh continued.

  “Until the end, bro.” Ethan grabbed Josh by the back of the neck and gave him a gentle shake. “Until the end.”

  The action took place over the wall. Trees were being broken and splintered. “What do you have Henry?” An excited voice came over the walkie-talkie. “There are thousands of them…marching! There are a lot of those big fuckers! They’re pushing some kind of vehicle! Knocking trees out of the way!”

  “What kind of goddamn vehicle, Henry!” Ethan spoke as he lost his patience with Henry.

  “It looks…like a tanker truck!” Ethan’s face sank as he pictured in his head of giant snarling beasts that were once human, dragging a tanker truck full of fuel toward them.

  “What the hell are they going to do with that?” Josh asked breaking Ethan’s concentration.

  “Reynolds!” Ethan shouted into his radio.

  “Yeah, I heard that! What the hell?”

  “Can you target the truck with the Javelins?”

  “We can try!”

  Reynolds radioed his men. They came up on the platform. Two men arrived. One carried the launch tube with the heads-up display computer attached, and the other carried a plastic protective case for the extra missile. “Aim for the truck!” The man with the missile case said, “Acquired…Firing.” That was followed by the whirling sound of the missile leaving the tube in a fury. The men watched as it was launched into the air and barreled straight down. Devin watched through binoculars as the missile was heading toward its target. There was an explosion midair that swept left. “They threw a goddamn tree at it!” Devin shouted back to the camp. His anger led him to forget the radio in his hand.

  “Fire again, straight shot,” Reynolds said. This time the men loaded the launcher and took off the aiming reticule.

  “Firing!” the man said as he pressed the trigger. The missile whizzed over Devin and Josh’s heads as it was met at the tree line with what Devin could only describe as a smaller creature being thrown in the air. “They’re using them as shields!” someone said.

  “A hundred dollars to the person who blows up the truck before it hits us!” Josh shouted into the radio. There was an outcry of automatic gunfire. Bullets hit or ricocheted off the front and cab of the tanker truck. There was an Alpha roar. The recently bitten began to march forward out of the tree line. They moaned with hunger as they filed from the broken tree line and made their way to the wall.

  Ethan picked up a light machine gun in each arm and began firing wildly into the encircling mass. “Josh. Truck!” Ethan shouted while firing his guns. Josh kept firing at the tanker truck. It was being riddled with bullets. “It’s not blowing up!” The tanker truck was being pulled and pushed by six gigantic Alphas. “Alphas!” Ethan shouted in the air for anyone to hear him over the gunfire. Molotov cocktails were being thrown from the ground behind the wall.

  “They’re getting closer!” someone shouted.

  “Fire everything!” Another Alpha had ripped a small car in half and was carrying one half in each hand. It ran forward in front of the tanker truck. It placed the pieces of vehicle in front of itself and used them as shields as it ran straight for the wall. “Does anyone have any kind of fucking explosives?” Reynolds shouted.

  “They’re…too…close!” Ethan said as he continued firing at the smaller ones. The creature with the car as a shield slammed itself into the wall. It pounded the pieces of vehicle like a battering ram. Josh leaned over the side and placed an entire cylinder of .44 magnum into its skull until it crashed to the ground, pulling the car parts on top of it. The tanker truck was lifted on its side and forced against the wall. The creatures that were moving it were easily cut down but quickly replaced with more. “They’re trying to climb over it!” someone shouted. The creatures had pushed the metal semitruck container on its side. There was a pair of double wheels next to their heads. Josh and Ethan both felt the surge of kinetic energy as the container was pushed flat against the wall.

  “That was close,” Reynolds said over the microphone. He was on the roof of one of the buildings with his sniper rifle. A bullet zipped over Ethan’s head as he was reloading. One of the recently bitten creatures had climbed on the truck and fell over with a bullet wound in between its eyes. Ethan gave a polite nod in Reynolds direction. “Everyone! To the ground!” Ethan shouted. Every human defending the wall jumped off the platform and began firing at creatures climbing over the tanker truck.

  “Henry! Get up here!” Ethan spoke over the eruption of fresh magazines.

  “What about the drone?” he asked.

  “Fuck it! It ain’t got guns, but you do!” Henry pressed a button on the Predator control and got up from the table to join the fight.

  The lead Alphas stood against the tree line and watched their smaller pawns attempt to storm the fort. They were being bottlenecked. They only had the truck to climb over the wall. The sun was beginning to rise as the Alpha looked up to see the blinking lights of three helicopters flying above and then down to another set of blinking lights. It watched as the Predator drone slowly landed in the middle of the ground between the concrete wall and the tree line. It walked over to inspect the machine. It was as long as the creature. The creature ackno
wledged the old landing strip that used to be grass was now covered in ash and bodies. The creature picked up the drone and roared with delight as it handed it to the smaller, faster Alpha.

  With simple body language and a series of moans, the smaller Alpha nodded with understanding. The leader motioned for two of the Alphas to attack. These Alphas were different. They were twins. Six feet tall, their skin had turned green, and their once human legs had bent backward at the knee. They growled as they leaped from their positions and again in the dirt and once more over the concrete wall. There, they created havoc as the Alpha carried the Predator drone to the tanker truck. There, it began to bang the Predator drone against the tanker truck. It smashed the drone to pieces. It picked up the biggest piece of drone and hit it against the aluminum container. The metal on metal began to spark. With just the right connection, the drone wing ignited to fuel container on the trailer. There was an explosion of light and shadow as the truck was forced against the concrete wall with explosive force. The quickly constructed concrete tumbled over like a sandcastle. It created a wide gap in the wall. Josh was hit with some shrapnel from the concrete wall. A piece of rebar stuck out of his leg.

  A GAME OF PICKUP

  CHAPTER 61

  WEDNESDAY 1600 CST

  MILAN

  The caravan had passed the ruins of Humboldt and made their way to Milan. The route they were taking took them through the outskirts of town. Jamison led the way in the transport truck. He was making good time until he came to an overpass. Someone clicked over the radio. “Hey, can we stop? I have to pee,” the woman in the Red Pickup called out.

  “Roger that. Let’s find somewhere.”

  The transport truck turned into Milan exit. “This is Milan, right?” asked Blue Hybrid.