Rage: A Story of Survival

by Greene, Dane

  “Get into the bathroom. I’m going to get the others.” Without waiting for confirmation, I head toward my older sister’s room, where the earlier screams must have come from. Running into Sarah’s room, I’m greeted with a sight like the one in my room. Four sets of hands are reaching through my sister’s windows, grasping for a hold to pull themselves through.

  “Go to the bathroom, Sarah. Now!” Sarah looks panicked, but she does what I tell her and runs past me and toward our bathroom. I follow behind her, shutting the bedroom door as I do so. Once I’m out of the room, I’m startled to see Melany, my younger sister, in the hallway.

  “Aaron, what’s going on? I heard screaming.”

  “I’m not sure, Melany, but for now, go into the bathroom with Luke and Jason.” Melany nods and runs to safety. I follow behind her, walking backward to make sure no one attacks from behind. When we arrive at the bathroom, I glimpse everyone inside. They’re all clearly worried, but I can tell they aren’t frantic. Jason, unlike the others, seems collected and calm. Realizing they are weaponless, I give Jason my gun.

  “Those are my sisters. Protect them with your life. And, Jason, don’t open the door for anyone other than me or my parents.”

  Before Jason can respond, I hear gunfire coming from my parents’ room. Without another thought, I run into their room. When I get there, I’m greeted by a terrible sight. One of the attackers has managed to force his way into my parents’ room. He has cuts along his body, and blood drips from them and onto the carpet. His shoulder has a large wound, mangled by what I presume is a bullet. Despite this, the man seems unfazed. He rushes toward my parents, and a sense of dread overtakes me.

  My instincts kick in and I run to intercept their attacker. I manage to run between the crazed man and my parents. He seems uncaring and charges me as if I was his original target. Before he can reach me, I swing my right fist into the side of his jaw. The blow connects and the force of it snaps his head back.

  I know from experience that a blow like that should knock out or disorient someone. Knowing this, I let my guard down. With an unnatural suddenness, the pale man starts swinging his head at me. His jaw agape, he appears to be moving to bite me, and I know by some primal instinct that I’m in trouble.

  I pull my hands up in defense as the pale man’s face races toward mine. Before he collides with me, I hear a gun fire and feel something warm splatter onto my arms. I look down and see the man lying on the floor. Only a fragmented mess of skull and gore remains of what was once his head.

  My stomach turns and threatens to dislodge its contents. I know I don’t have time for that, though, so I force my nausea down. I look to my father. He looks as shocked as me, and I can tell that he’s struggling with what he did. “The girls are in the bathroom. We should regroup in the garage.”

  My father nods in agreement, regaining his composure. Together, my parents and I leave the room. We make our way to the bathroom, and once there, my mother knocks on the door.

  The door swings open, and I see Jason holding the gun up at us, ready to fire. My mother jumps and lets out a quiet yelp. Jason’s face is calm, and he lowers the gun.

  “What’s going on?” Jason asks as if nothing happened.

  “We’re moving to the garage to regroup and figure out what’s going on.” Jason nods. Before we leave the bathroom, I grab a towel and clean the blood off my arms and face.

  “Alright, Jason, I’ll take front and you can take the back. Whatever’s going on, these people won’t stop unless they are dead. Don’t hold back if they attack. One more thing: they don’t seem to stop from wounds, so shoot to kill.”

  Taking the lead, I stay a few feet ahead of everyone else. As we make our way through the house, I hear doors closing at the end of our little group. I assume it’s Jason’s idea and commend him on it. The doors should delay any pursuers and let us know when they’re coming. Everything is quiet in the home, and I don’t know where the attackers are. Did they even make their way outside? We don’t run into anyone and make it to the garage unscathed.

  “Whatever’s going on,” Luke whispers from behind me, “I don’t think this garage will be a good place to stay for very long.”

  “How are we supposed to stay safe from these Palemen?” I ask. And for the first time, our attackers get a name.

  My mind drifts to other thoughts. These things are so like science fiction zombies. The Palemen attacking us don’t seem like healthy humans. They have no self-preservation instincts and don’t show any signs of understanding us. It’s hard to believe it, but how can I deny what I’ve seen?

  Whatever’s affecting these people has turned them mindless. I don’t know how the infection spreads, but it’s safe to assume it isn’t airborne. The man at the park comes up in my memory, and I recall how he said that he was bitten. Whatever changed these people, I bet it spreads through bites or blood.

  Thinking back, I try to remember if any of the blood from the Paleman my father shot entered my eyes or mouth. Remembering the spray of blood, I know that, chances are, it did.

  We reach the garage and look around. It’s clear of any Palemen, and other than old unusable tools, the only thing inside is a motorcycle with a sidecar that my father managed to get working.

  My thoughts halt when I see everyone looking at me. They look as if they’re expecting me to come up with an answer. My focus shifts to figuring out a way to get everyone safe. If I’m infected, I’ll know soon enough, but right now, I need to get everyone to safety.

  While I ponder different plans, I’m hit by an epiphany. The Palemen don’t think; they broke through the windows, cutting themselves on the glass. They didn’t even try to avoid our attacks. They didn’t listen to reason or respond to warnings. Furthermore, they seem to attack senselessly. So the safest place I can think of would be a place someone couldn’t reach without using reason or problem-solving skills.

  Somewhere you could only reach with a ladder.

  “Hold on. I know where to go. Do you guys remember that decrepit building we worked on earlier this summer? Before the power outage?”

  Jason nods and answers me. “Yes, I remember, but why are you mentioning it?”

  “It’s high up on a second story, and we can defend it pretty well. I doubt my house is the only one under attack. Think about it. These things are mindless. If we went there, we could remove the stairs and be safe on the second floor. I doubt they’re good climbers. Besides, can you think of anywhere better?”

  Jason looks at me, and I can see that he’s thinking my plan through. “No, it seems like a pretty good place to be right now.” Everyone else nods in agreement with the plan.

  “Alright then,” I say. “Let’s grab food, supplies, and anything else you can think of. Let’s go under the assumption that we’ll be there for an extended amount of time.”

  Everyone agrees, and we get to work gathering food from the nearby kitchen, packing it into duffel bags that my dad keeps in the garage. Even better, we find that my dad packed several months’ worth of food and supplies into our crawlspace. With everything we grab, we should be pretty well supplied for a month or two.

  When we finish gathering supplies, we let the dogs in from the back yard. Since the back yard has a fence, it’s free of any Palemen. I’m not sure how useful the dogs will be, but I’m still glad we aren’t going to abandon them.

  We load everything into the motorcycle and sidecar. The fact that we have a mechanical motorcycle is amazing, and I know my father went to a lot of work to build it. I’ve never been more thankful or proud of him than at this moment. The motorcycle has a two-person cab, so altogether, it has a four-person capacity.

  Looking at my father, I see his gaze is on the motorcycle. We both understand who will take the bike. “I’ll see you there,” I say to my father, knowing he understands what I mean. “Plus, I’m sure Jason and Luke want to get their own families anyway, so why don’t I help them with that?”

  My father nods and helps my cryi
ng mother and sisters onto the bike and cab. I can’t blame them for crying; everything is moving so fast. If I’d let myself, I’m sure I’d be crying right now as well. Taking a long look at them, I pray that it isn’t my last. The bike starts, and I take that as a signal to open the garage door. I pull a latch, and a few suspended sandbags fall slowly as the garage door opens.

  Jason readies the gun I gave him. As the garage opens, a scene from some hellish horror greets us. Palemen are stumbling through the streets. From where we are, I can see several corpses littering the streets. Smoke billows from some distant, unknown fire. Right outside the garage are two Palemen. Luckily, neither is blocking the motorcycle’s path.

  To Jason’s credit, he doesn’t hesitate. He opens fire, and one of the Palemen drops to the ground, lifeless. My father, seeing a clear path, accelerates out of the garage. One of the dogs rushes the other Paleman shortly after. Looking past the driveway, I can see several more Palemen coming toward us. They ignore the motorcycle, which is making a clean escape.

  “Aaron, we have to go now. If we stay any longer, we’ll be trapped.” Jason’s voice pushes me into action, and I nod at him. Together, Jason, Luke, and I start running. We run along my drive and onto the street. Before long, several Palemen are chasing us. Their movements are clumsy and erratic, so it’s easy to stay ahead of them. The fear of death keeps me from slowing, and it’s only when we hit a patch of grass and the Palemen stop pursuing us that I slow down and stop. The others follow suit, and we watch as the Palemen seem to have lost us.

  Luke starts to say something, and like a radar, the Palemen home in on us. Once again, we run, but learning from experience, we lose them by going into another patch of grass. Jason and Luke look at me, both not making a sound. I motion for them to follow, and we make it a safe distance from our pursuers. Only when I can look around and not see any Palemen within a few hundred yards do I dare whisper to them.

  “Weird, it seems like they only react to sound. Maybe they are blind or something.”

  “If that’s the case, it wouldn’t surprise me if that gunshot earlier attracted a bunch to your house.” I nod at Jason’s remark. He comments about how few guns we have. I know my dad has a pistol, but we forgot the shotgun at home. I suppose there’s no retrieving it now. I do have a good idea of where to get some more guns, though.

  “Why don’t we head down to the police station so we can arm ourselves?”

  Both Jason and Luke agree with my idea, so we take a detour to the police station. On our way, we see total chaos. Screaming people run in the streets, and Palemen are everywhere. Gunfire pops and fires blaze through the town. We do our best to stay silent and hidden from everyone, and somehow we make it to the police station.

  We go into the police station and find several dead bodies inside. One look at the bodies on the floor tells me these Palemen aren’t immortal. The floors are littered with not only dead Palemen, but also several officers I recognize. Grief threatens to overtake me, but I force myself to maintain my composure. We cannot afford a breakdown now. I shut my emotions off, knowing they’ll only get in the way. Looking at the dead, I see that they haven’t transformed into Palemen. Whatever is creating these monsters doesn’t appear to happen after death, like in the movies.

  As we walk through the station, I lose hope of finding survivors. We push past the dead, brutalized bodies. I hear someone throwing up along the way, but I don’t look to see who it is. When we arrive at the station’s armory, I notice some movement against the far wall. At first, thinking it might be a Paleman, I prepare myself. On second look, I see that he isn’t turned—or at least not all the way. His skin is pale and his eyes are tinged with red. Something about the way he looks at me tells me that he’s still in control.

  He’s bleeding from several wounds. The bodies of his fellow officers and those of Palemen surround him. It’s obvious that a large fight took place here and that he is the only survivor. The man sees us and tries to raise his arm. It’s only then that I notice a gun in his hand.

  “Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot.” I look at the man and feel sympathy for him. I don’t recognize him as an officer, but that isn’t surprising. There are plenty of officers I’ve never met; I was only on the force for a few months, after all.

  “Calm down. I’m an officer, like you. I was off duty today. Could you tell me what happened here?” The man relaxes, and I approach him. When I look closer, I can see several bite marks on his arms.

  “Those things—they came in and attacked us. I’m the only one that survived.”

  The man sobs and spits up some blood. He’s clearly in deep physical and emotional pain. After a few seconds, he continues.

  “Some of the other officers were out on patrol this morning in the fields a few miles outside of town. They were bitten by something. Of course, we patched them up when they got back.”

  The man’s breaths come in gasps as he fights off whatever is attacking him. He seems to become more frantic, and bloody spittle collects at the corners of his mouth.

  “They declined into a mad state and started attacking us a few hours later. It’s like I’ve seen in the movies: they are vicious and act as though they aren’t alive. We got things under control, but that’s when the rest of them arrived.”

  The man starts laughing and screams something unintelligible and full of anger. It seems as though the man is slipping, and Jason looks ready to shoot him. I motion for Jason to give me the gun, and when he does, I see a weight lift from him. As I walk toward the man, I realize that my suspicion of transferal through bite is accurate. I also realize that the dead officers didn’t change. These aren’t supernatural living dead. This realization is somehow comforting. It’s reassuring to know that what we are facing is as mortal as we are.

  “I don’t have much more time. Please, kill me now, before I turn into one of them. I beg you: at least let me die with my sanity.”

  I look at the man, knowing that he is right. I ready myself to shoot him. I hesitate. I’ve never taken a human life. Even though this man is asking me to kill him, I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do.

  The man’s gaze is starting to fade, and I realize I have to decide now. Without another thought, I steady my aim and turn off the safety. The man smiles at me and mouths “thank you.”

  I hear the bang. I want to blink and look away, but I don’t. The bullet hits its mark, and the man’s head splatters against the back wall. All the emotion I’ve been holding back floods me, and I fall to the ground, weeping. It isn’t until Jason puts a hand on my shoulder that I’m able to put myself back together and stand up.

  “There are some guns in that locker, and the rifles are in the one next to it,” I say, directing Jason and Luke to the lockers. They collect all the guns and bullets they find. After taking another moment to collect myself, I go through the building, gathering guns from the dead police officers. They no longer need them, and we could use them to protect our families. That’s what I tell myself to make it feel okay.

  After we have all the guns and ammo we can find, we load them into police-marked duffel bags and head out the back door. It won’t be long before more Palemen arrive, attracted by the sound of the gunfire. Fortunately, we find two bicycles in the back of the station. “Well, it looks like I’m walking,” I say to the others.

  “You guys get to your families and get them to come to the rendezvous site, where my family should be now. We’ll need a ladder and food. Jason, you bring the ladder, and both of you bring food. I have to presume my family is safe, so I’m going to go check on one of my friends and try to get his family to join us. I know plenty of people are dying right now, but I wouldn’t feel right letting a friend face this horde on his own.” Both Jason and Luke nod. Before they go, I grab another pistol and some ammo, which I put in my pockets. I also take a hatchet and combat knife from the supplies.

  After I do this, they ride off without saying another word. I hope they remain safe, and I know the
weapons will go a long way to help. With them gone, I start walking toward Brian’s house. The walk is slow. I try to shut out the death and screams for help as I sneak my way through town. Part of me wants to help, but I know that every minute I delay is another chance for Brian and his family to die.

  Chapter 4: Brian

  May 10th

  My eyes open and the dreams I was having fade into forgotten memories. As I roll over, a part of me wishes I could go back to sleep. A sigh of frustration escapes my lips as I turn over to look out my bedroom window. Through the window, I see the sundial I set up for this exact purpose. The sundial tells me it’s around 5:30 in the morning. Though I’m a little frustrated that I’ll be the only one up this early, I do enjoy the solitude. As I roll out of bed, I grab the set of clothes I laid out the night before. The pile is missing socks, so I walk over to my dresser to grab them.

  I pull open my sock drawer and panic when I see a gun. It takes me a second, but I remember that it should be there. The gun scares me, but I know it’s a good idea to have it. My parents and sister still have no idea that it’s here. Three months ago, Aaron gave it to me, and I’ve kept it a secret since.

  My parents haven’t been able to cope with what’s happened. If they knew I had a gun, they’d try to take it away from me and give it to a police officer. In their minds, they think nothing has changed in the world since the power went out. I don’t understand how they can still believe that the power will come back on in only a few days.

  My parents’ refusal to face reality has confined my sister and me to our house. They’ve refused to let anyone come over, except for Aaron, and that’s only because he’s a police officer. Aaron is the only connection to the outside world that my sister and I have.

  Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I take another glance at the sundial and see that it’s now seven. There are chores that need to be done, so I finish getting dressed and leave my room.