Midnight Outbreak

by Jeffus Corona, Brandy

  They got into their truck, one that had been refurbished with top-of-the-line defense weapons. Each truck in the army had gotten a makeover. The windows had been redone with bulletproof glass. Guns were fitted on the roof so someone could stand in the bed and man it. The grills were given spikes in case they ran into a dead head herd. They could easily take them out. They were impressive beasts, ones that had to be tweaked in light of their new enemies. There was no holding back, no rules of engagement, no restrictions on how they could handle the dead.

  That’s what made the men vicious. The ability to take out their aggression, their pain, their fears, and especially their hatred. Elijah was the worst. He was vile, and would often piss or shit on the zombies’ bodies. Josh couldn’t stand the young punk. He was arrogant and conceited. Always bragging about how smart he was in high school, how perfect he was. There had been several times that they had gotten into it and Josh loved the satisfaction he felt when his fist connected to the dumbass’s face. Later, after the fight, he and Will would laugh their asses off at what had happened. Will often congratulated him on showing the fool up. Will couldn’t stand him, either.

  The mission started off easily enough. However, they soon found themselves in hot water when they trudged through and came upon a bridge.

  Dozens of dead heads had moved in one big group. They were all shuffling together, sometimes off center, slamming into the back of one another, but they kept moving, getting dangerously close to the beach.

  “Yo, JJ,” Will called; he motioned to a path that was to their right. Josh nodded and they took off. The other three kept on moving. They would get them cornered from both sides and then attack. Josh and Will half-jogged down the path. Josh kept checking his pockets. He felt like he was missing something.

  “Where’s my damn grenade? I had two, but now I just have one.”

  “Maybe one of the numb nuts took it.”

  “I’ll shank them. I’m so sick of them jacking my shit. They have their own.” Josh muttered in disgust.

  “Yeah,” Will said. “But you know they get carried away; they use all their ammo going buck wild with things.”

  They paused at a bench set up on the boardwalk. They had made it one hundred yards ahead in no time. The dead heads were slow; that was a great weakness.

  “I know. We’ve all become savages. Well, most of us…”

  “I blame it on not getting laid.”

  Josh snorted. “You would.”

  “You’re just jealous. I think Van’s sister had a thing for you before we took off.”

  “Yeah, well a whole hell of a lot good that did for me, huh?” Josh replied bitterly.

  Will frowned. “Yeah I know, dude. I’m sorry. We’ll make it back, though, man. You’ve just got to have faith.” His hand rested on the handle of his katana. He had argued with the lieutenant on letting him keep it. He had threatened to leave and let them handle themselves if he couldn’t use his own weapon. They reluctantly agreed.

  They fell into silence, watching the herd move closer and closer. Then they spotted the other part of their unit, moving stealthy between broken piles of trash and garbage. They were moving too fast, though. Josh knew the faster they moved, the more likely it was that they would make some careless mistake.

  He knew it because it had happened before. Plenty of times before.

  “Get ready; these idiots are going to attack before it’s time,” Will whispered, voicing aloud Josh’s thoughts. He nodded and grabbed his last grenade. The plan was always to throw the grenade first, take advantage of the element of surprise, and kill most of them right off the bat. Then they would attack.

  “Go ahead, JJ, do it!” Will urged. Josh pulled the pin, cocked his arm back, and threw it, aiming for the center. He and Will ducked down to the sand as a big boom sounded. Josh’s aim was perfect, the explosion happening right in the center, throwing body parts every which way. A flaming foot and arm torpedoed past them, bringing with them the smell of burning flesh.

  “Go!” Josh screamed, bringing out his machete, still watching for the other men.

  As his legs pumped furiously, Josh reached the first dead head and quickly took the machete against his neck. With this size of a group it was all about precision; there wasn’t any time to butcher them, because giving in to that hateful aggression led to mistakes and being attacked.

  He noticed Will to his left, silently taking his katana across two zombies at once. The only noise that came from him was the whoosh of the blade as it bit into the necks of his enemies.

  The other three idiots were hooting and hollering like always, cussing at the zombies as they stabbed their knives through their heads.

  Quickly, Josh brought the machete up and over, cutting in to the rubbery head of a severely rotten zombie. It reminded him of cracking open pumpkins in his youth; his bad boy days of terrorizing neighborhoods during Halloween.

  While the three stooges—Josh’s nickname for his crew—were loud and obnoxious, they were good fighters. They moved forward, leaving zombies crumbled on the ground in their wake. They stayed together, the three of them moving together in unison.

  Thinking of all this, Josh killed four more decayed zombies. All of them ugly as sin; the last six-plus years hadn’t been good to them.

  Josh was going to town, cutting off heads left and right. He knew that they were close. It would be over soon.

  All of a sudden, Will let out a yell, a horrified strangling scream that made Josh’s blood go cold. He saw Will’s face beet red and his body halfway leaning. He was about to fall, but what was scary was he had a zombie attached to his right shoulder blade.

  “Fuck!” Josh groaned. He made his way over to his friend, his machete held out to his side. He felt a tug and cold fingers grabbing at his arm. A low growl came from a face that made bile rise up in his throat. The dead head dug in so hard he dropped his machete.

  “Dammit! Motherfucker…” Josh reared back with his left arm, his hand fisted, and released. His aim was off, his fist landed square in the middle of the zombie’s throat and went straight through. His hand was covered in cold, sticky goo and when he retracted, he grabbed hold of something hard and solid. He gripped his fingers around it and pulled hard. The sound of bones breaking and snapping spurred something deep in Josh. Then Will came to the forefront of his mind and he dropped part of the spinal column he was holding. The zombie had fallen to the ground, a big ugly hole in his throat. He had just throat punched a zombie. A first for him.

  He ran up to Will, who was wrestling with the zombie that bit him. A string of expletives came tumbling out of his mouth as he gripped the dead head’s throat. He held it off him and Josh took that moment to rear back and kick the head. It flipped off completely, leaving a lifeless body to collapse on Will.

  “Fuck, that damn thing bit me. Dammit!” Will cried out, disgusted as he threw the body off him, and took Josh’s outstretched hand. They both looked around and realized that the herd was obliterated, completely gone.

  “Let me see, man,” Josh turned Will around and gingerly placed a hand on Will’s arm.

  “How bad is it?”

  Josh grimaced at the wound. A big chunk was missing from his shoulder. The wound was an angry red. “It’s not that bad,” he lied.

  “Bullshit; it hurts like hell. Who’s got the medic box?”

  “Mark, I think.” Josh put his fingers to his lips and whistled loud. The three stooges looked up and he motioned for them to come over. They bounded over, jumping over dead bodies, or just stepped right on them, squishing them, creating more of a bloody mess.

  “He got bit. Get out the medic box,” Josh demanded. Mark took a knee and dug it out of his backpack. Even though they were vaccinated, procedure called for an injection to be given in case of a bite.

  The vaccination was a wonder. Took ye
ars to develop, but it worked. Josh himself had never been bitten, but others had, just like Will, and they had turned out fine. The scar was nasty—there was nothing they could do about repairing a chunk of missing flesh—but that was better than the alternative.

  Mark expertly filled the syringe with the vial of medicine and injected it into Will’s shoulder. The shot had to be delivered next to the wound. Will hissed, drawing breath in between gritted teeth. “Shit man, you could’ve warned me,” he growled.

  Mark laughed quietly. “Sorry.”

  “At least buy me dinner first,” Will quipped.

  This time, everyone laughed out loud. They were all riding on an adrenaline high, their bodies slowly coming down from the enormous amounts of testosterone and whatever else running rampant in their systems.

  “That shit is going to make you nauseous dude, so take it easy,” Mark warned.

  “Well, you ugly fuckers are going to have to carry me to the home then.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  Josh stepped back and took out his walkie to let their sergeant know that things were cleared. The next step would be clearing out the bodies, but they didn’t do that. Not when it was a big herd. A plow would come and push them all into a huge pile. Then they would burn them. That was the best way to dispose of the bodies.

  “Alright ladies, let’s head back home; we’ve been cleared,” Josh announced.

  Will winced with every step he took. He was alive, and for that he was grateful. Well, most days anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Life at the compound with the army was different. For one thing, everyone was full, finally gaining weight. The food that was brought in kept coming, and everyone was thankful. The compound family still kept the vampires under wraps. And they stayed inside the house at night, but soon that was starting to get old. The vampires itched for normalcy—well, the normalcy that they had in the pre-army days—and one night Sienna decided that she’d had enough.

  She took Lukas aside, venting about being cooped up. They had never felt so claustrophobic before. Being a vampire meant being free, being able to fly hundreds of miles out in a second.

  “I just feel like I’m going crazy. I need some air, some space.”

  “Well let’s just fly over a few towns and walk around. Maybe see if some of our friends are still around in the next council?” Lukas suggested.

  He, too, was feeling the same way. He wanted out. He knew Lexi and Miguel would be against it. They would throw their two cents in and make them both feel like idiots. So they didn’t tell them. Luna, well, Lukas didn’t know if she would notice. She was beside herself with grief and worry.

  Often, she would stay in Mari’s room, watching over her while she slept. Lukas understood her, though; he never rebuked her from doing so. Mari reminded her of Brendan. When a vampire fell in love, be it with a vampire or a human, it was hard to let go. That’s why Lexi and Miguel always ended up back together. They would take breaks, and then always find their way back to each other. So he left Luna alone, but made Sienna and Lexi make sure that she kept feeding. They encouraged her to take care of herself because Brendan was coming back and they were going to be together in the end.

  It was a cold winter night. Not cold enough for snow, but still chilly, with wind whistling through the naked tree limbs. Sienna and Lukas snuck out the basement door holding hands and, after checking to make sure nobody was around, flew up into the dark night.

  They returned hours later, drunk and giddy off their freedom. They had travelled to another town, one that was completely deserted, and they acted like kids. Playing on the broken down playground, trying to ignore the sad feeling that kept creeping into their minds reminding them what used to be, who used to play here and how everything was gone, changed.

  Perhaps they should have been more aware, more tuned in to their senses. Vampires, after all, were blessed with heightened awareness, to be able to hear a beating heart from miles away or smell the distinct scent of a human. They weren’t. They were happy, and the night had been great for both of them.

  As they walked back to the house, intending to go in the south side—the one that wasn’t guarded as well as the others—they heard, too late, the sound of two sets of footsteps and two guns being cocked into place.

  “Don’t fucking move,” a low growl sounded to the left of them. Sienna’s heart plummeted to her belly. Her eyes narrowed and she focused on the two army soldiers.

  “Shit,” she whispered.

  “Shut the fuck up! Tell us who you are.”

  Lukas exchanged a glance with his vampire wife. It was a look laced with sorrow and regret. They could take out these two in an instant. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the consequences afterward, explaining how two soldiers wound up dead, and bringing their human friends into the mess.

  Sienna put her hands up. “We’re not going to hurt you; we were just out taking a walk.”

  “We don’t recognize either one of you. This is property of the US and Canada army regime. You two are not part of the household.”

  Lukas shook his head. “We thought it was abandoned, we apologize.”

  Just then, Sienna barely registered Mari’s smell as she swooped in front of them, standing at attention with a small pistol in her hands. She was shaking and Sienna could hear the girl’s heart beat thundering in her chest.

  “They are a part of my household, assholes,” she whispered. Then before anyone could say anything she pulled the trigger. Once, twice, shooting both soldiers in the head.

  Sienna’s jaw dropped as the gunshots rang throughout the air. Mari lowered the gun with one hand and put her hand to her other ear. The men crumpled to the ground, neat little round holes in their foreheads now, blood pouring out.

  “Get out of here, now! Go to the basement and I’ll cover. Please, hurry, go!” Mari pleaded, her eyes big and round.

  Lukas nodded and grabbed Sienna’s hand, pulling her behind him.

  They heard the humans shouting and running towards Mari.

  “What did she just do?! Why? No, no, poor Mari.” Sienna sobbed as they settled into the basement. Lukas tried to comfort her, but failed.

  “She did that for us and now, oh no, Lukas, she’s just a kid. She’s just a kid and she tried to protect us.”

  Lexi and Miguel slammed the basement door open and rushed toward them. Somehow Lexi knew what had happened without them even telling her. But she demanded that they tell her anyway.

  “She just showed up; what was she doing with that gun? And she just shot them, both without hesitation, headshots.” Sienna was rambling, not making much sense. They were all in disbelief over the little girl they had watched grow up.

  “They’re all outside right now with her,” Lexi said simply. She was stunned and had taken a seat. “That was so very stupid of both of you to go out. You know better. So very stupid.”

  Sienna cried some more. She couldn’t be consoled. She feared that now her little human friend would be forever changed in ways she knew too well.

  ***

  Tears streamed down Mari’s cheeks, making her skin feel hot and wet and scratchy. The tears were real. She had just killed two people. Her story was completely false, made up from the top of her head and she prayed silently that it was believable. Her heart was beating so fast, she felt dizzy and weak. Sarai had instantly taken her vitals and her blood pressure was through the roof. She made Mari lie down in the living room while the army captain sat opposite of her, interrogating her. They were stunned to see two dead soldiers and a small little girl confessing to their murders.

  “I was just sneaking out. It’s been so boring here lately. I just, I…I like being outside at night time. We used to do it all the time,” she sniffed. Sarai sat at her feet, mindlessly patting her calves, her eyes sad. The capta
in was stone-faced, staring at her without blinking as she rambled on.

  “I’ve been carrying my gun with me ever since my daddy left. He told me to! Especially if I’m alone. I walked around for a bit, but it’s too cold out, so I came back. They were standing in the shadows and I thought they were the dead heads ‘cause they just groaned and didn’t say anything—”

  “They were groaning?” The captain asked incredulously. Mari didn’t pause; she knew pauses meant you were trying to think.

  “Yes, they were. And so I thought they were dead heads and I saw their shadows, but I couldn’t see their faces. Ever since the breach happened and Uncle Peter died, I’ve been scared. They came so close last time. So I shot them. In the head, ‘cause that’s the only way dead heads can die. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. I thought I was in danger!”

  Mari continued to whimper. Her small body shook and Sarai did her best to comfort her. For several tense minutes, all the captain did was stare. His breathing was even, controlled, and it scared Mari to death.

  He finally spoke. “Young lady—Mari, is it?”

  She nodded, dragging her palms across her eyes. Her tears continued to flow, even though she felt like her ducts should’ve been completely dried.

  “I am very sorry for your situation. It could have happened to anyone, and now, sadly, I’ve lost two good men. Our country has lost two good soldiers.” He stood up. “But, alas this is what happens sometimes in war time. We will clean up the mess and in the morning we will convene with a new plan. Things have been too lax, and when that happens, mistakes happen.”

  Sarai and Mari exchanged a glance. He spoke, like always, with authority and stiffness.

  “You ladies try to get some rest and we will talk in the morning.” With a curt nod, he left.

  A thousand emotions ran through Mari. As soon as the army men left the house, her family gathered around. They wanted answers—they wanted the truth. Mari decided to tell them the truth. This was her family, none by blood, but all by circumstance and years. They took her confession; one told in hushed whispers and mangled sobs. They accepted it and loved her.