Midnight Outbreak

by Jeffus Corona, Brandy

  The vampires came upstairs. Lukas and Sienna were beside themselves with guilt. They both gathered Mari in their arms and hugged her tight.

  “You saved us, Mari,” Sienna crooned. Mari smiled through her tears and reached up to kiss her on the cheek.

  “I love you two. I couldn’t let them know about y’all,” she whispered.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The day after their assignment, the lieutenant himself flew out to their bunker. Josh and Will stood up right in front of the doorway, watching as the helicopter came down. The lieutenant hopped out; they hadn’t seen him in over a year. He was always flying off somewhere or recruiting more survivors. He had three other people with him and neither man could believe his eyes.

  Lieutenant marched up to the doorway, stopping right in front of them outside. Brendan stood behind him in the doorway, his body lean, no visible fat at all. He looked like a different person, with a buzz cut and scars all up and down his arm. A hint of a smile played on his lips as he looked at his friends.

  Josh and Will both stood up, confusion covering their expressions.

  “Men, you’ve served us well in the last eighteen months you’ve been with us. You’ve been brave and have helped our country make monumental movements toward winning this war.

  “Today, I’m adding Brendan to your unit. Unfortunately, the other soldier who came with your group passed away a year ago in an attack up north. There are two more assignments to do, and then after those, you three are free to return home. Your service will be completed and we appreciate you all for fighting the good fight. America is rising again, gentlemen, and you should all be proud that you had a hand in it.” The lieutenant saluted them and walked off toward the helicopter, leaving Brendan alone with them.

  “Well,” Josh finally said, “you’re still one ugly son of a bitch. Maybe even uglier.”

  Brendan’s face broke out into a grin and the three men reached for each other in a weird, three-way man-hug. They embraced for a long time. Josh and Will had always speculated about Brendan, wondered where he ended up, if he had died. They were scared for him, because of what he left behind.

  “Man, you two are a sight for sore eyes,” Brendan said, his voice muffled. They pulled away, and Josh saw him wipe his eyes. Hell, he was feeling teary-eyed too. It was like reuniting with a long-lost brother. Actually, that’s exactly what it was.

  They invited him into their bunker; the three stooges had come out from the back room to see the commotion. They made their introductions. Brendan was polite, but it was apparent he was ready to catch up with his buddies. The other guys excused themselves back to their room.

  Will went to the fridge and grabbed bottles of beer for the three of them and handed them out.

  Brendan popped the cap and took a long swig. “Y’all are lucky here. We didn’t have it good up north.”

  “Dude, were you there when Nathan died?” Josh asked.

  Brendan’s gaze fell to the floor. “Yeah, I was. It was bad. We were ambushed and not properly ready for what we were thrown into. Nathan was out front like he always was, too much guts and not enough brains,” he paused. “Sad to say that, but y’all know how he was. It’s the truth.” Will and Josh nodded; sometimes the truth hurt.

  “I can’t believe we get to go home. I thought we were going to be here forever,” Will remarked.

  “Man, I know. Believe me, I know. Mari’s probably all grown up by now,” he said, his eyes growing misty again. “But we are winning this war. That’s no bullshit. All the years and weather hasn’t been good for the dead heads. They’re being wiped out, section by section. We were in the middle of Canada and the snow is what killed them off. All the ones who didn’t die were killed by us. The officers have made sure that we do detailed searches for them and when we couldn’t find any, they sent me off.”

  Each man took another swig from their bottles, the cold amber liquid making them feel like they were back home, not stuck in some army bunker thousands of miles away from it.

  ***

  “Hey, you know what day it is?” Brendan asked as he sat down next to Josh during breakfast the next day.

  “No, I don’t carry a planner, numb nuts.”

  “Valentine’s Day,” Brendan went on.

  “No shit?”

  There was a pause of silence and then Josh laughed. “I’ve always hated that stupid holiday. Luckily, Myra, did too. She said it was nothing but a commercialized holiday. I made the mistake of buying her something that first year we were dating and she scoffed at me and said she would break up with me if I ever bought here anything for Valentine’s Day again. She was a quirky one, alright.”

  “Yeah, Claire was the opposite. She decorated the house for it. But then again, I think she decorated the house for every little holiday.”

  Josh nodded; he remembered seeing their porch decorated with foil hearts and garland. “I remember that.”

  “Yeah,” Brendan nodded. “We met on that day, actually. We had both been stood up by our dates. So we ended up at the same bar, drinking our sorrows away. Made out in the alleyway and the rest is history, as they say.”

  “It’s so weird how many holidays have passed. Uncle John always tried to keep the spirit up. Remember that first year’s Thanksgiving?”

  “Yup. Roasted deer and some hog. That was good eating.”

  “Here though, the time passes by with nothing. No thanksgiving. No Christmas. No Valentine’s.”

  “Huh. I don’t remember Uncle John celebrating that one.”

  “Nah, don’t think he did!” Josh agreed.

  Will walked out just then with a beer in his hand, and sat down opposite of them. If it was one thing they had a ready supply of, it was beer, and all the soldiers drank quite extensively. No matter what time of day it was, most men had alcohol with every meal.

  “What you ugly mugs talking about out here?” Will asked.

  Brendan and Josh looked at each other and cracked a smile. “Valentine’s day,” they answered in unison, and then both laughed. Will looked from one to the other with confusion on his face.

  “What are you pansies talking about Valentine’s Day for? Y’all got each other promise rings or some shit?” He smirked.

  “Nah, Josh said he got you one though, going to get down on one knee and all that jazz,” Brendan retorted.

  Josh reached over and slapped him lightly on the back of the head. It was nice to have this light relationship with his comrade. The ability to laugh and shoot the shit. They continued to make fun of each other and crack jokes until it was time for them to take stations.

  A couple of straggler dead heads came to the west side where Josh and Brendan were standing watch. They were buzzed and felt a little guilty because they weren’t sober on their watch, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

  It was a man and woman zombie, but it was hard to tell sometimes. As the years went and as their bodies deteriorated more and more, they became unisex almost. Each one of them was ugly as sin. They came stumbling in close to the chicken coop.

  Almost lazily, Josh brought up his machete and swung at the guy’s head, lobbing it off. The woman got mad and shuffled toward him. Josh was about to swing when Brendan came from behind, punching the back of the dead head with a sickening wet noise, Josh just stood there and stared as Brendan’s hand coming out of the woman’s chest. Then he retracted, something bloody in his hand.

  “Dude? Are you holding its heart?”

  Brendan laughed. “How’s that for a happy Valentine’s Day, guys?” He squeezed it and it burst, making another sickening squishy noise. Bile rose in Josh’s mouth for the first time in a while.

  “Ugh, that’s fucking nasty.”

  “Sorry, JJ.”

  “Dude, you’re sick.”

  �
�Yeah, a little,” he laughed. He grabbed a towel from his back pocket and wiped his hands. “Fuck Valentine’s Day.”

  “Yeah!” Josh exclaimed.

  “Fuck dead heads!”

  “Yeah!”

  “Man, I need another beer. That was kind of sick, huh?” Brendan shook his head.

  “Hell yeah!” They walked off toward the bunker, ready for another beer.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  It had been several weeks since Mari had killed the army soldiers, and things took a turn for the worse. The next day, the captain had set some ground rules for them. A curfew was in place, and lights were installed all around the perimeter of the house. Big, industrial-sized lights that lit up the house as if it were daylight. It made sleeping hard; the curtains were so threadbare and worn, they let the light right in.

  He had tried to take their weapons, but the house drew the line at that. Nobody would be leaving them unarmed, no matter what. Joan reminded the captain that their living situation was supposed to be temporary. This was still their home, not the army’s headquarters for their area.

  The vampires were on lookout. Every night, they stayed in the basement or rushed to the upstairs bedroom. None of them wanted to be caught because their future was uncertain if they were. Mari had sacrificed her innocence for them and they were not about to screw anything up.

  Lexi was more overprotected than usual with Mari. Making sure she was okay, sitting with her for hours, reading classics to her. Mari was acting about as normal as possible, the fact that she had taken two lives slowly sinking in. She cried to her family about what a horrible person she was, how her daddy would be so disappointed in her now.

  Van cut that talk short. “You listen, baby girl. Your daddy, when he gets back, is going to be so damn proud of you. So proud. You put your family first. You did what you thought was right, and for that he is going to know how grown-up you’ve become.” Van’s voice was wobbly as tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. She had come to love Mari as her own, and she couldn’t handle seeing the little girl deal with so much inner turmoil.

  Sienna agreed. “Mari, you did something that no other human has ever done for me. It means the world to me. And to Lukas. We are so grateful to you and your bravery. That’s what it was—bravery, sweet Mari. You are the bravest young lady I have ever known.”

  After those talks, Mari seemed to cheer up a little.

  Lexi, on the other hand kept imagining the showdown. It played nonstop in her head. Her heart ached for Mari, who was too young to have to go through something like that.

  At the same time, her heart rejoiced that Mari was so protective of her vampire friends. It made her feel a tiny bit of hope that maybe one day vampires and humans could get along and coexist in peace. Even Will and Josh didn’t hate them as much as they did in the beginning. They didn’t treat them differently anymore. There wasn’t as much tension in the air between them. To coexist after this plague would be the best thing that had ever happened.

  Lexi knew the vampires had died out considerably since the plague happened. Miguel and Lukas figured out numbers of previous councils and the results broke her heart. The numbers were almost nonexistent. The number of vampires in North America had dwindled down to barely a hundred. Now those numbers across seas were different, and Miguel had thrown the idea around about moving over there once their commitment was fulfilled.

  Lexi didn’t know, though. She didn’t want to leave. Mainly because of Mari, even though she would grow up and no longer need her around. Lexi knew that no matter how long she lived after this, her life would never be the same without her Mari.

  The captain continued to be stiff and authoritative. Mari prayed for winter to come to an end. She longed to play out in the sunlight, to start her gardening again. She had dreams of when the season changed, imagining that her daddy and uncles would be back. In one dream, the sun was shining, and the crisp Texas spring air was cool on her skin. She was outside on the porch and her daddy appeared out of thin air. Other dreams were slightly different, but the outcome was always the same. The men would come back and deep down, she knew everything would finally be okay once they did.

  ***

  Van was taking a nap in the hammock she and Makayla had rigged up in the back of the house. It was Makayla’s idea when they had found an old cloth sail in the shed one day.

  Rigging it up had proven difficult. Often one of them would wind up on their ass on the ground, laughing hard. Once it was up, they were proud. It was used. A lot. It became Van’s favorite place. Since they didn’t pull guards anymore, she spent her hours out there, staring up into the gray sky.

  What woke Van was the hard swinging of the hammock. It rocked from side to side violently. Her eyes snapped open and she noticed the branches moving with a high wind.

  “What in the world…” she muttered aloud.

  Mari ran out the back door. “Van! Van! There’s a chopper in the air. It’s landing!”

  Van hopped out of the hammock and followed the girl around the house. The rest of their family was out on the porch, shielding their eyes from the wind as a helicopter came closer and closer to the ground. It was unusual. The army relied on their trucks, hardly using the helicopters.

  They huddled together, holding onto one another as they witnessed something that they never thought was going to happen.

  Josh was out first. He was dressed in cargo camouflage pants and a thin shirt with a camo jacket on. He looked the same, except more muscular. Makayla gasped. She reached for her sister’s hand and squeezed. Will was next, his body even more transformed than Josh’s. He had on the same type of clothes and a baseball bat, his katana sheathed at his side. He scanned the small group, locked eyes with Van, and smiled. Van instantly felt dizzy.

  Brendan was last, and they couldn’t hold Mari back once she saw him. At the top of her lungs she screamed, “Daddy!” She then ran as hard as she could, her ponytail bouncing up and down. Tears came to Van’s eyes at the reunion. Brendan dropped the bag he was carrying and bent down on one knee with arms wide open. She ran straight into them, knocking Brendan slightly off balance. It was a beautiful sight. Van couldn’t help herself; she broke away from the group’s grasp and ran toward Will, who picked her up with one arm, immediately kissing her. Makayla shyly walked toward Josh and gave him a hug. He surprised her with a kiss.

  After more reuniting, more hugging and tears, everyone settled in the kitchen. Mari wouldn’t let her daddy go, and Brendan didn’t seem to mind the least bit.

  The captain left them alone during their reunion. The helicopter flew off, but nobody paid attention as they got reacquainted with the guys. They told them about losing Nathan, Brendan’s voice wobbling as he shared the news. They told them about Peter, and the men’s faces fell. There was so much to catch up on, they didn’t know where else to start. They took the rest of the day talking, laughing, and listening intently to the stories that the war would soon be over.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Change didn’t happen overnight. It felt like it wouldn’t happen at all at some points. Brendan, Josh, and Will adjusted to life back at the compound and the presence of their fellow soldiers. They took up command posts, working with the captain on certain aspects. They found him to be an arrogant and harsh man. He regarded Brendan, as Mari’s father, with resentment about his men being killed. He was standoffish, afraid that he was going to lose their camp now that they were back.

  Will and Josh sat around after dinner on the porch a couple weeks after they had returned. Each held a beer as they sat in the old rocking chairs overlooking the yard.

  “War changes people; we’ve always heard that phrase. I just didn’t know how true it was until now,” Will said one evening as they were sitting on the porch drinking a beer. Somehow, the army was in constant supply of the beverage.
/>
  “When I served, I didn’t have to serve in any war. Some of my buddies did, and they were never the same. That’s how it is now. We will never be the same. You know how Mark, Paul, and Elijah all kind of went a little insane? I think that’s normal. We travelled down that rabbit hole and we came back up completely different men. And I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t. We’ve seen too much shit. Shit we would have never seen if we had stayed here. Even killing vampires in the past never amounted to the kind of stuff I did while we were gone, man. It’s just… I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. Van never asks me what happened. But sometimes JJ, sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat with tears running down my damn face because of stupid ass nightmares that won’t leave me alone.” Will exhaled loudly and slumped over, like the admission had taken a physical toll on his body.

  Josh cleared his throat, took a long pull of his beer, and said, “I know, Will. All those dead heads we killed were people once. Like me and you. I just don’t understand why this happened. Why it only took one damn vampire to turn one dead human into a zombie and all hell broke loose? I have nightmares too, man, where Mark and Elijah would hack away at those dead heads until they were nothing but a pile of blood and skin and bones. It was disgusting how animalistic they became, how funny they thought it was. Sure, my rage and aggression got the best of me sometimes, but if I ever resort to that, shoot me. Straight up just put a bullet in my head, ‘cause once I cross that line, I don’t need to be around anymore.”

  “Brendan kind of scared me that time with the whole Valentine’s thing. Pulling the heart out and squishing it. I think he had a really hard time wherever he was,” Will said.