Mister sleepyhead wasn’t out long and when he came to, instantly he began to freak out, that is until he saw the gun in his face.
“I suggest, unless you want a bullet in your head, you keep your mouth shut at all times. Are we clear?” I said, to which he quickly nodded.
“Why in god’s green earth are you still sitting in the same damn spot?” A voice protruded from the walkie.
“Is that the guy you were talking to just a minute ago?” I asked him.
He nodded again.
“Tell him you’re moving now,” I demanded. “And remember, I will shoot you if you deviate the slightest from what I told you to say.”
My attention, for some unknown reason went to my left hand and the bandage that covered the bite I had taken over a week ago. They had to have seen it after, or during placing me in the classroom alone. They had to have known what it was, where I had gotten it, and what it would lead to. Yet instead of making me Smith’s first test subject, like I would have done if had been running things and was a sick twisted fucker. They chose to test my Daughter and after her they would do Johnny. Why?
Something wasn’t adding up and I was just beginning to realize that. Was there something they had figured out about me that I didn’t know? I wanted answers even though I had no way of knowing for sure if they even knew anything. Smith would have been the one to ask, but he had a slight case of death now, so asking him was out of the question. That left Officer Morris. He was aware of what was going on, so he would be the next in line to ask.
“Is it really worth risking everything for?” I asked aloud.
“What?” My passenger said.
“Nothing, I wasn’t talking to you,” I said.
Chapter Ten
“Why is he still out there?” The Second Guard asked Morris. “Is he dicking off again?”
Morris rubbed the mustache on his face a few times and wondered the same question. “He said he was about to move. Where are those binoculars?”
“I have no idea. We haven’t seen them in days.”
Morris was perturbed by the answer. “Can we not find anything around this goddamned place anymore? You would think it was the end of the god damned world or something!”
There was no response from the Second Guard. They both stood there on the top floor watching through a stained window as the pickup continued to remain still.
“Are you sure this dumbass is even going to be able to find this guy’s gear and bring it back? I mean he’s not the brightest lightbulb in the bunch after all, not to mention there are a lot of those things out there as well.” The Second Guard asked.
“Would you rather go yourself?” Morris asked without a single look.
“No, I’m fine right where I’m at,” he replied.
“Then stand there and keep your mouth shut! I’m perfectly capable of running shit around here, and if I need any advice… I’ll ask someone else,” he stated.
The pickup started moving and made its way slowly up to the front of the complex. Morris instructed, who he thought was one of his men, where to stop and how far over to the left the body would be, and then waited high above for his commands to be carried out.
“There’s too many of those things down here, so we’ll have to wait till later to clear them out,” the Truck Guard confessed. “It’d be better during daylight and without the rain.”
I smiled to him behind the trigger of a loaded .9mm automatic.
“Well, you can see that location better than I can. If it’s too dangerous, then we’ll wait until first light and start clearing them out,” Morris said. “Park the truck and get in here.”
“On my way,” he replied.
I put the walkie in the seat beside me. “How many guards are there inside?”
The guy looked at me as though he didn’t understand a single word I had just said.
“You friends in there. How many strong are you?” I asked. “Ten, twenty… how many?”
“More than you can handle by yourself,” he announced. “You’d be smart to just let me out and drive away, buddy. They’ll kill you if you don’t.”
I thought deeply into what the man had just said to me, knowing that he was right, but something deep down told me that these people would continue with their research even with Smith out of the way, they’d find a way. As long as they were in the complex and allowed to live, others would die and no matter how bad I wanted to get away and forget them all together… I couldn’t. I was no hero, we have already established that, but I would not let them abduct or trick anymore unsuspecting people into this place under false pretenses.
“Those people in there – your friends – have murdered who knows how many people in the last week, and for what? Do they actually think they can use a science room in some shithole town to find a cure, really?”
“Professor Smith was adamant that he knew how to stop this thing,” the Truck Guard said in defense.
“Oh, he did, did he?” I said in a sarcastic tone and pushed the truck down the side of the school to where I had fallen. There were still plenty of undead around and I slid the truck sideways toward them and rolled the passenger window down. The Guard in the floorboard heard the window and looked up to see and feel the rain.
“What the hell are you doing?” He asked.
I watched as they undead shuffled up to the passenger side of the truck and quickly spotted my captive in the floorboard. They began reaching for him, yet I held him there with a pistol to his head.
“Does it look like he stopped this thing?” I asked in a firm tone. “Or do you still see those things like I do? Go ahead, take a good long look for yourself and tell me that he cured them, that they won’t hurt anyone anymore… go ahead!”
Their hands slithered down to where the Guard was and he could feel them grabbing at him, smell the musty odor of their decomposing bodies, all the while trying to push away from them only to be stopped by a gun barrel to his head.
“Tell me he cured them, because that’s what you just said,” I said aloud. “Tell me that Smith was a good man and never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it. Tell me all the children he used as pin cushions are better now and will thank him!” By this time I was screaming.
The anger and hate I had for this man were overflowing and I was certain that the Guard in the floorboard would actually think that Smith was a good guy. And the moment he agreed with that bullshit statement, I would throw him out and watch him be torn limb-from-limb with a smile.
The Young Woman would have.
“Roll that damn window up, please!” He begged me.
“Tell me!” I roared.
“It’s the blood!” He shouted as one of the undead grabbed him by the neck and began trying to pull him free of the truck. He kicked and swung his arms violently, breaking its grips.
“The blood?” I asked.
“Yes. He was convinced that if we had lots of blood on hand and we were bitten, we could undergo a blood transfusion and be alright!”
“So he was murdering innocent people under a false flag of salvation?” I asked. “Telling them he could cure them so they’d go along with his procedure, only to drain them of their blood and move on to the next unsuspecting person?”
The Guard nodded.
“And all of those assholes in there knew that, you included and did nothing to stop it?”
“I don’t want to die,” he added. “He had me convinced for a while, that is until nothing changed. That’s when I began to suspect something, but I only get rid of the bodies, that’s what I just got through doing before running into you.”
“So you let innocent people, children included, die so that you can continue to breath?” I shot back at him.
“What else am I supposed to do?” He asked me. “Roam around out there with those damn things, living moment by moment hoping that I don’t screw up and run into a group of them or get hurt and watch them eat me alive. I did what I did to stay alive… just like what you are doi
ng now. There’s no difference between us… we just have a different means to the same damn end.”
There was a moment of enlightenment as I listened to his rant, sitting there looking into the Guard’s eyes, realizing that he knew the truth, but would never tell me that. My hate for all of them had nowhere left to go. I grabbed the SBR and shot him in the leg. He screamed in pain and I rolled both windows all the way down, grabbed the keys and slid out the back window into the bed. From there I was able to jump over and outrun the undead, disappearing around the corner of the complex in the pouring rain.
The undead flogged the truck and even if the Guard could get out, he’d never make it far on one leg. I had seen personally to that.
At the rear of the complex where I came to rest, my mind surged with hate for those that were inside, yet there was a part of me that wanted to just run away and make my way back to the base somewhere to the East. I knew that I could do it, although it may take several days, I was more than sure it was possible.
“Run away… run away little coward. After all, that is what you are,” the ghostly voice spoke to me.
I remained still and would not bring myself to turn in its direction.
“How many people have you let die in the course of a week?” It added. “You’re no different than they are, yet you stand there like a god deciding if they should live or die. What a hypocrite you are.”
I ensured the magazine was full, which it was, inserted it back into the short rifle and walked away. The ghostly voice continued on with its lecture even as I slipped under a large window and left its proximity.
Morris could not see the pickup from where he was, nor had he heard anything from the driver in several minutes. “Get him on the radio and see what’s taking so long.”
The rain fell harder and was mixed with brilliant lightning and long rolling thunder that swept across the blackened sky. It made seeing more than twenty feet down right hard, not to mention the feeling that Morris was getting. He could sense approaching danger, although he was sure that it was simply the vast amounts of adrenaline leaving his body from the gunfight earlier. Still, he would make it a point to have extra security around as the night progressed… just in case.
“He’s not answering,” the Second Guard stated.
He spun around with the look of a madman burning in his eyes. “What do you mean he’s not answering?”
“Exactly what I said,” the Second Guard replied quickly. “I tried to raise him on the radio and he will not answer. He could be putting the truck up, you know. The reception out there is pretty bad.”
Morris pounded his fist against the wall, yet instead of blowing up, he turned to his second in command now. “You’re right, the reception does suck pretty bad out there. When he comes through the back, tell him I would like to speak to him.”
“I will,” The Second Guard said.
“I’m going to get something to eat. I’ll be back shortly, so keep an eye out.”
“I’ve got this,” he stated.
“Get everyone to increase the patrols, also. We don’t need any more of those things getting in here,” he instructed.
The Second Guard was not as convinced as his leader was. He wasn’t even sure if there was anyone out there to begin with, as the Guard in the truck could have easily walked away from his walkie talkie or fell victim to the things that surrounded them. With it being dark outside, as well as raining, he could have not heard or seen them until it was too late.
“I think we should take a moment and really think this through, before we blindly run out into the rain for nothing,” he stated.
The Lead Guard spun around and placed the Glock in his face, the barrel touching his nose. “Don’t you ever question my authority or commands again, do you hear me?” He asked, but didn’t wait for a reply. “Not get your ass moving and do what I said!”
The Guard stood there looking down the barrel of the gun petrified that he would be killed in the next few seconds. He simply nodded to the leader and took a few steps back until he was several feet away, and then turned and left the room.
In the hallway his fear quickly became anger and he cursed the Leader under his breath. The manner in which the man led with fear was slowly becoming his weakest point, forcing the others to quietly question him when he wasn’t around. A rebellion was building with each new incident and eventually they would act and overthrow him, or kill him.
“You time is coming dickhead,” the Second Guard stated to himself and disappeared into the stairwell as a long continuous blast of thunder struck overhead and bounded to the west for miles. It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off, shaking the floor beneath him and rattling windows that he could not see, but hear.
I weighed in on what I was about to do, seriously thinking about the outcomes that would happen when I went back in. Was it all worth it, I mean was me dying really going to change anything? If I didn’t get them all, then no it wouldn’t. If I went through with this, then I had to be absolutely certain that I could kill them all, as a single person could simply escape and set up shop somewhere else. If I was going to die, then all of them needed to die with me.
The massive bound of thunder really called to life what I was thinking. This wasn’t me, it wasn’t what I would have done a week ago, hell none of what I’d done so far would have ever been on a list of things I needed to do. This new world was making me into a monster. I was almost no different than the undead, both of us killing whatever we ran across, although I still held a small portion of my dignity, and I was civilized, that is until you tried to hurt my Daughter and let me know that my Son was just another body to be thrown out in the trash.
I thought about Gage, there on the side of the school complex. I could see the playground just behind me and knew that at one point he had played there with his friends. They had pretended to be astronauts on some top-secret mission to mars, slipping the bonds of space in a high-tech spacecraft. From where I knelt I could almost see them, which called to mind one last thought. I no longer had any pictures of him. My wallet was gone, the house I used to own would be vandalized and stripped by other people, so the closest thing I had to my Son was the playground equipment.
My mind was made up, yet I still considered each of the outcomes in great detail. I had made far too many mistakes in the past and look where I had gotten me. I couldn’t afford to be wrong anymore, so if I was going to enter the school and eliminate them all, I was damn sure going to plan things out this time around and have a backup plan, just in case.
Taking a quick inventory of my supplies, I found I had seven mags left for the SBR, four for the Beretta, a can of juice, and two power bars. I had no idea what time it was or when the sun would rise, which increased the perplexity of the already precarious situation I found myself in. As the darkness was the only ally I had and needed it to move away undetected or attack with precise surprise. Not knowing how much night remained ultimately made me rethink my decision to attack.
A few gunshots raced outward to me and I hunkered against the wall waiting to hear voices screaming my location, followed by a barrage of lead coming my way. But there was none and I quickly understood why. The undead that had gained entrance into the complex were being dealt with by the Guards. If ever there was a time to initiate an attack, that time was now, as they would be confused about how many undead there were and from which direction they were coming.
Now is the perfect time. My mind told me and I agreed immediately. Suddenly though, my nose caught something that I could not hear or see and spun to see three undead almost on top of me. I turned to sprint away, tripped on my own feet and fell to the ground. It wasn’t a long fall, yet it might as well have been from the Empire State building. I rolled onto my back lodging the short rifle in an awkward position that made it impossible to pull free.
They were steps from me and the only resolve I had to offer was my unsuppressed .9mm pistol, but the moment I fired it in defense I would give my position away. Th
e element of surprise that I had would be gone in the blink of an eye.
Their rotting bodies trodded closer and I jerked the handgun free and thrust it toward them, finger on the trigger, ready to do the deed in order to save myself. But they stopped abruptly and looked at me, or at least in my direction. After a few harrowing moments of sheer terror, they turned toward the front of the complex and shuffled away from me. I was astounded by their actions, unsure if they had even seen me to begin with, but they had to have. I was right in front of them. How could they miss me?
Were they blind? Is that it? Had they, like me, caught the smell of something familiar, followed it with intense enthusiasm, and then when I fell they suddenly lost interest, or the trail altogether? What gives? I held the pistol on them and watched as they moved further away, now interested in the gunfire from within.
“What the hell just happened,” I asked myself, wondering if that had really happened or was I dreaming all of this. The answer was about to hit my like a speeding freight train.
I got to my feet when the undeniable sound of footsteps in full sprint entered my ears. I tried to turn, but was immediately slammed hard against the brick wall, to which I quickly attempted to utilize my pistol. I wasn’t out of the fight yet and would do whatever was necessary to survive. I was grabbed again and slammed once more into the same wall, although this time I could see my attacker, as I had spun, trying to get away, and I was now looking into the eyes of a young man that had to be in his early twenties.
He held me firmly against the wall, his grip was like a vice and the more I struggled to get free and raise my gun, which was pointed harmlessly toward the earth, the tighter it got. He stared into my eyes and I was close enough to see that his pupils were not dilated like the others had been. He didn’t reek of death, nor was his body decomposing or even showing signs of a brutal end. He looked just like me.
Day One (Book 2): Choices Page 18