by A. R. Wise
“Sir, with all due respect, we might see more of our men desert us if we don’t…”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said as I turned to look out at the Undying that wandered the street below, bellowing up at us. I felt myself getting sick again, and leaned out to vomit on them. After finishing, I said, “I want them to be safe. They’re good men. They deserve a shot at a decent life. That’s what this has all been about since the start.”
“Yes, sir,” said Bear. “Is there anything else that you need from me?”
“No. Go deliver the news, and let’s get moving. I’m not sure how much time I’ve got left.”
Another gust of wind hit us, bringing the chill of the impending storm with it. Winter wasn’t finished with us just yet. The grey gloom settling in hid the sun and stole our warmth. The pallor of the world took on the color of the dead, grey and lifeless.
* * *
Beatrice Dell
“The purge system?” I screamed my question at the hapless twit as she tried to explain what had happened. “What are you blathering on about? That was supposed to seal us in. The only level that was supposed to open was Covington’s. Why are they all opening?”
“I don’t know,” said the young, blonde Administrator that was trying to explain why the facility’s defense system was deactivating. Level by level, the locks that had been set up to prevent any unwanted visitors from getting in were now shutting off. “It’s functioning exactly like the purge system was designed to, but just in reverse.”
We were standing in the area beside the Dawns level, in what was known as the Administrator’s Den, where the computers that controlled the lives of the Dawns were located. The girl at the console was one of the few that had stayed after Jerald’s insurrection, leaving us woefully understaffed to handle even the facility’s basic maintenance. Adding a mechanical failure of this magnitude promised absolute disaster.
“Then stop it,” I said as if it should be easy.
“I’m… I’m trying, but this isn’t… I don’t…” She stammered as she tried to decipher the program that controlled the system. “The lab.” The girl screamed as she pointed at her screen. The image of the facility’s layout was flashing red as we watched the doors opening on their own. “The lab’s shutting down.”
“What does that mean?” I could tell by her rising panic that there was something in the lab that she didn’t want to get out. “What’s in there?”
“Undying,” she said with a hushed tone inspired by sudden fear. “That’s where they were doing the tests. That’s where…”
I interrupted her, “There’re zombies in here with us? In the same facility as the Dawn program? You must be joking.”
“No,” she said as she pointed at the screen. “They were doing tests on them to try and find a cure. They were…”
“And I’m only hearing about this now?”
“I’m sorry,” said the pretty young thing as she became more flustered each second. “No one knew what was going on. We didn’t know Jerald was lying to you.”
“Does this mean we’re about to be swarmed by Undying?” I asked as I watched more doors opening on her screen.
She stuttered at first, but then answered plainly, “Yes.”
The elevator behind us chimed before the doors opened. The other members of The Electorate that Jerald had captured were in the elevator along with one of the soldiers that had been loyal to us all along.
“Gabe,” I said when I saw the red-haired man holding the elevator door open for us. “Do you know how to stop this?” I hadn’t been aware that Hank had enlisted Gabe, but I was thankful he had.
“We can’t,” said Gabe. “Jerald sabotaged the entire facility. I’ve already sent men in with the Dawns, and another group is headed out to try and contain the Undying.”
My mind was spinning. All of my carefully constructed plans had fallen apart. I’d wanted the purge system to activate and lock us in because then Covington’s level would be unsealed. He’d set it up that way so that the doctors could get to him in the event of an emergency, but now it seemed that the entire system was functioning the same, unlocking every door in the entire facility. “Their doors?” I asked as I stared at the screen. “The doors on the Dawn’s level are going to open as well?”
“Yes,” said Gabe. He was holding the elevator door open for me, with the rest of The Electorate members cowering behind him. “There’s nothing we can do to stop it. I have orders straight from The Electorate to get you out of here, Ms. Dell.”
“Out of here?” I asked, confounded. “And leave the Dawns?”
“We’re abandoning the Dawn program,” said Gabe with only the faintest trace of sympathy. “My job is to get you and the other Electorate to safety.”
“How?”
“We have a helicopter standing by,” said Gabe.
“Take me with you,” said the young woman that I’d been working with. She stood up and headed for the elevator. “Take me with…”
Gabe drew his pistol and fired without hesitation. The young woman fell dead, her head spurting blood from the wound left behind. The stream wet the floor at my feet, and I backed away to avoid getting my shoes bloody.
“Come on, Ms. Dell, we’re running out of time.”
“We’re giving up?” I asked, stalled by regret. “We’re just giving up on them?” I glanced back at the computer, at the flashing symbols that represented doors opening all throughout the underground facility, and felt a growing panic. “Our daughters.”
“Ms. Dell, it’s over,” said Gabe. “There’s nothing you can do for them. The transfer facilities have been shut down, and the other Dawn programs are in the process of purging.”
I gasped in shock. To hear that The Electorate had reacted this way was a shock that numbed me.
Gabe held out his hand and motioned for me to join him. “It’s over. Let’s get you home.”
I walked around the dead girl, and joined Gabe and the others in the elevator.
29 – What it’s All About
Billy Hendrix
Clyde screamed out to us that he needed help. I was outside with the rest of the Rollers, still preparing for our assault on the airport, and I forced myself up to go see what was wrong. Abe and two other Rollers got to him first as I struggled to walk through the parking lot. My back ached as I went, but I ignored the pain, as I’d been doing as often as possible for far too many years now.
“She’s in labor,” said Clyde, and the others muttered in concern.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as I approached.
“Jill’s having her baby,” said Abe, and I could tell he wasn’t certain if he should be happy or concerned.
“For real this time?” I’d been tricked into thinking she was finally giving birth more than a couple times over the past month, and was used to being disappointed.
“Yeah, for real,” said Clyde. “I need some help. Get me anyone with any sort of medical experience. And get me lots of water. Hurry.” He left us to head back inside, and I tried to think of anyone that might be able to help out.
“Get Adrian, and Locke.” Neither of them were experienced medics, but they’d have to do. “I’ll go too.”
Abe did as I asked, and he had a big smile on his face as he pat me on the shoulder. “Hero’s baby, man! I can hardly wait to meet the kid.”
“Yeah,” I said, although my nerves prevented me from smiling. I walked back into the rehab center, and past the waiting room. Clyde had already run to Jill’s room, and I could hear her quick, short, pained yelps echoing through the hall.
I knocked on the door, although it was already open, and then said, “It’s me, Billy. Can I come in?”
“Sure,” said Clyde.
“I’ll help any way I can.” I went in and saw Jill lying on the bed, her knees up high and her legs spread. Clyde had removed the bed’s footboard so that he could work easier, and was on his knees with his gloved hands on Jill’s ankles. He’d pulled down the bo
ards that had been covering the windows to allow natural light in, and had opened the window for fresh air.
“Go sit by her,” said Clyde. “Hold her hand.”
“Jill, honey, how’re you doing?” I asked as I pulled a chair over to sit beside her bed.
“Oh, I’ve been better.” Her attempt at humor ended with a grimace as another contraction started. She grasped out at me for my hand, which I gladly gave her, and she squeezed hard enough to cause me to wince.
“This is it, this is it, this is it,” she said in a burst before holding her breath and clenching her eyes shut.
“No it’s not, Jill,” said Clyde. “Just breathe. Breathe.”
I echoed Clyde, but Jill wasn’t putting up with my instruction.
She slammed my hand down on the side of the bed over and over in frustration and said, “Damn it, Billy. Don’t… Fuck! Don’t tell me to fucking breathe.”
I apologized, and got yelled at for it. I got a quick lesson in bedside manner during labor. Basically, I was there to bear the brunt of whatever anger she lashed out with, and my job was to endure it with as much compassion as possible.
Her contraction eased, and she lightened her grip on my hand.
“I’m sorry, Billy,” she said as she gasped. “I don’t mean to be nasty.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” I said as I used a towel to mop the sweat from her brow. Adrian and Locke came in with some water, and I opened a bottle to offer Jill. We propped her head up with some more pillows, and I helped her take a drink.
I set the bottle down on the nightstand and right then she was reaching out to grab my hand again as she said, “Oh, I feel another one coming. Clyde, I feel another one.”
“It’s okay, Jill, just breathe. You’re doing good. Keep it up.”
I said the same, “Keep it up, Jill. Let’s get that baby out of you.”
Her increasing pain was evident in her expression as she started to squeeze my hand tighter. “Billy, you piss me off so bad sometimes.”
“I know,” I said with a quick laugh. “I’ll be quiet.”
“It’s not that…” she squeezed and held her breath as Clyde told her to stay calm. Then she continued to berate me, “I’m in labor. Okay? So I get to say whatever the heck I want. All right? That’s the deal.”
“Sounds good,” I said to placate her. “Rip into me, Jill. I can take it.”
She grimaced again, and then Clyde said, “Okay, Jill, everything’s looking good.”
“Can I push?” she asked him as she suffered.
“Not yet,” said Clyde. “Let’s wait until the next contraction. Then we’ll give it a go.”
I held her hand until this contraction subsided, and then used the towel to clean her head again. “Jill, you can call me every name in the book, darling. Go ahead and squeeze my hand until it pops off. I’m here for you.”
“I love you, Billy,” said Jill, sounding exhausted as she stared up at the ceiling. “You know I do, but this has got to end. It just isn’t worth it.”
“What’s got to end?”
She turned her head to look at me, the pillow crinkling beneath her. “Your war.”
I had no response, and just looked down.
“Listen to me, Billy. I don’t blame you for anything that’s happened, but this war cost my baby his daddy. As much as I love you, it should be Hero that’s holding my hand right now and sitting here listening to me bitch at him.”
“I know,” I said without looking up at her. “If I could switch places with him…”
“I don’t want you switching places with him. I wish we were all here together. The world’s going to be tough enough for this kid as it is. I don’t want him having to worry about going off to war on top of everything else.”
Clyde was asking Adrian to get a basin, and then told Locke to close the door. I looked back and saw that there were Rollers in the hall, eagerly anticipating the birth of Hero’s child.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, yes, of course, Jill. I’m right here.”
“I know you’re right there,” she said, mocking me. “Are you listening to me?”
“I hear ya. Believe me, if there was anything I could do to get Hero back, I’d do it.”
“I know you would. But he’s gone, and that’s just the way it is. I’ve got you here with me now, and I want to keep you, you big dumb idiot.” She gripped my hand tight and shook it. “I want to keep you, so don’t go doing stupid shit that’s going to get you killed.”
“I’m just trying to…”
She squeezed my hand harder, and I thought it was because she was going to argue with me some more, but when I looked up at her I saw that she was in pain. I got closer and put my free arm under her pillow to help support her.
“Here comes another,” she said loudly.
“All right, Jill,” said Clyde, “we’re going to push this time. All right?”
She nodded and I encouraged her as best I could.
Adrian and Locke helped Clyde while I sat beside Jill, wiping her brow when needed and trying my best to be supportive. It was a grueling process, and one that I’m not sure I could’ve survived had the roles been reversed. Lots of women have told me that they feel sorry for men because we never get to have the experience of having another life growing inside of us, but they can go right ahead and take that honor, because the thought of squeezing a baby out of any opening my body currently has sounds like pure torture.
Jill didn’t bother hiding her anger and pain during the multiple contractions that followed, and the bones in my hand felt like they were going to snap any second. I remember when Clyde said that he could see the baby’s head, and I assumed that we were almost done, but we were far from it.
I don’t know how long it took, or how many contractions she went through, but Clyde finally made the decision to cut her. Locke handed him the angled scissors, and I heard the sickening snip of flesh being cut as Jill screamed in pain. Then, after another round of pushing and a good amount of blood, I heard Clyde say that he had the baby.
But there were no cries.
“Is it a boy?” asked Jill.
Clyde didn’t answer, and I couldn’t see what he was doing past the blanket that was draped over Jill’s legs. The new mother was wet with tears and sweat, and her hand was trembling as I held it.
“Clyde?” she asked. The desperation in her voice stilled my heart.
“It’s a boy,” answered Locke with no joy in the words.
“Clyde?” asked Jill, ignoring Locke. “Clyde, what’s wrong?”
Now I could see. Clyde was on the floor, with what looked like a bloody, purple mass of flesh on a blanket under him. I could see the umbilical cord lying beside him, and realized that the mass he was hovering over was Jill’s baby. It wasn’t moving. I could see the baby’s tiny hand up in the air, its chubby fingers sitting perfectly still.
“Billy, what’s wrong?” asked Jill, panic beginning to take hold.
“It’s okay,” I said weakly. ‘Please, God, be okay,’ I said to myself, and repeated it over and over.
Clyde had a plastic balloon of some sort that was attached to a mouthpiece, and he was trying to fit it over the baby’s mouth. It was too large, and he tossed it aside in frustration. The balloon hit the wall and then bounced out across the floor to my right, leaving a trail of blood behind. Jill saw it and knew what was happening.
“He’s not breathing,” she said, far more familiar with what was happening than I was. “Clyde, clear the passage. Clyde, clear his mouth!”
“He did,” said Locke.
Adrian turned away, tears in his eyes.
“Clyde!” Jill was screaming, and started to get out of the bed. I laid down over her, pinning her down and pleading with her to stay where she was. She struggled, but her body was too weary to push me away. I gripped the other side of the bed to restrain her as she cried out in agony, “No, no, no.”
Between the bouts of screaming, I
could hear Clyde counting and then huffing, counting and then huffing, and I knew he was trying to breathe life into the child. He was pumping his fingers against the baby’s chest, and trying everything he could to get Hero’s only child to live.
And then, just when my heart threatened to crack in two, I heard a tiny, precious cough, followed by the sweetest cry I’ve ever heard.
I got off of Jill, and looked back to see Clyde standing up with Hero’s son in his arms. The baby was crying out, with his eyes clenched shut and his arms and legs sticking straight up. Those chubby little fingers where grasping at the air, and the sight caused me to burst into tears.
“Would you like to meet your son?” asked Clyde.
“Bring him here,” said Jill, her voice like a soft verse in a long overdue song.
Clyde brought Mark to his mother, and she held him to her breast as tears streamed down all of our faces. I put my hand on Clyde’s shoulder, and then pulled him in for a hug. “You did it, man. You saved that kid’s life.”
“This is what it’s all about, brother,” said Clyde in a whisper.
I looked down at Jill and her new baby, and knew exactly what Clyde meant.
30 – End of the Road
Annie Conrad
I drove past the exit that led to the rehab facility, and then turned off onto a dirt road a mile past. We hadn’t seen any drones, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Ben had been right about the car dealership, and we found a Range Rover in new condition. After a quick fill up, we’d thundered back out onto the highway. It wasn’t an eventless trip, and we had a few close calls on the road with stray Greys, but nothing close to as harrowing as what we’d survived the day before.
We parked along the gravel road, and the cool breeze carried the dust we kicked up over us. The weather had begun to turn, giving winter one last chance to bite at us before spring arrived. Luckily, the apartment we’d slept in overnight had plenty of clothes, and both of us had taken the opportunity to clean ourselves up. We dressed in layers because of the shift in weather overnight, and I was happy we did. It was clear now that winter wasn’t quite finished with us yet.