by Greene, Dane
After we put a few hundred feet between us and any Palemen, Brian helps me climb onto the railway. Once on top, we rest for a minute and check my wound again. It’s still bleeding, but the flow has slowed considerably, so we decide to start moving toward the meeting point we set up with Melany.
The walk there is painful, and each step sends new waves of fire through my arm. When we arrive at the billboard we said would be the meeting place, I’m in a stupor. Brian tells me he sees Melany and guides me down off the railway and into a building. Melany rushes to us.
“Melany, she needs help. Get the others.” I’m so tired that I collapse. Brian catches me and guides me into a lying position. He cries and tells me it’ll be alright. My eyes close, and I mumble that it’ll be okay.
On the edge of consciousness, I float, knowing at least that I’m still alive. Something pricks my arm, and I open my eyes. When I do, I see Brian standing behind a woman I’ve never seen.
“Melany, Brian, I need you to make a stretcher so we can carry her up the stairs. Aaron, Jason, you keep watch. I’m going to suture her arm. She looks like she’s lost a fair amount of blood, but she should be okay if I clean and stitch her wounds.” Even if I don’t know the woman, the fact that my friends are here keeps me calm.
Coldness moves up my arm, and the pain fades. The woman cleans and stitches my wound, but there’s almost no pain when she does. Euphoria grips me and clouds my vision and thinking. Even when I’m rolled onto something and feel myself lifted into the air, I don’t panic.
Trying to force my mind to stay conscious, I’m aware that I’m being carried over what feels like stairs. Fading in and out of consciousness, I’m not sure how many there are. When I’m set down, someone strokes my good arm and tells me that it’s going to be okay, that I’m safe now.
Looking up, I see Brian. Smiling, I let myself relax. If he’s with me, everything will be okay. My eyes close, and I finally succumb to the overwhelming feeling of tiredness.
Chapter 13: Marcus
July 26th
As I stand on the window ledge, an occasional Paleman walks by. The Palemen aren’t what worry me. I know we are plenty secure up here in the apartment. What worries me is the increasing hostility and isolation between the families. It’s only been a few weeks, but the absence of Jason has led to his family losing any sanity they had. Jason was a close friend of my son, Aaron, and I liked the boy. How he could’ve been so different than his family will always be beyond me. His family has always been dysfunctional, and I never trusted them.
Since the power outage, Jason’s family has broken down completely. Before the outage, they were crazy but manageable. Even after, they could be dealt with, but now that Jason is gone, the floodgates have opened. They act erratically, and I’m worried about what they might do. The first thing I noticed was them stealing food, but lately I’ve seen some strange things.
The grandmother, and matriarch of the family, has started muttering. She’s built a shrine and worships the Palemen. There are bowls crusted with blood all around where they stay. I confronted her once, and she told me it was paint.
After I confronted her, I finally shut my family’s living space off from theirs, moving our food away from the group stockpile to our own. The day I did that, I could hear the screams and curses. Part of me is still surprised there wasn’t a firefight that day.
Alexis moved in with us around that time. Her parents had moved their food and secluded themselves long before that. She finally gave up on them. She doesn’t talk about it much, but from what I understand, her parents sit in the dark all day, afraid that if they leave the room, a Paleman will kill them. Her parents became so paranoid that they walled themselves into the room with their supplies. No one has heard from them since.
There have been late-night murmurs lately—and frantic shouting. Tonight, I’ll start to build a wall. It’ll only take a few days, but I’ll feel much safer when there’s something protecting my family. After I seal us off, the only concern is our food supply.
We have about six months of food remaining. We would have more, but Jason’s family ate a year’s worth of our food supply before we moved it. Even if we went down to half rations, we’d run out in about a year, and I know that isn’t long enough.
A dog runs through the streets. It’s clearly feral now. Dogs might make a good food source, but hunting them might prove challenging. Alexis has already started exploring outside, and if I asked her to, she would figure out how to trap them.
If we catch one dog a month, the population should remain stable. Doing so would stretch our food supply out another three months. No matter how I look at it, the only way we’ll be able to get more food is by growing it.
My concern with growing is the danger. Anything we grow on the ground would leave us exposed to the Palemen. Anything we grow on the roof by Jason’s family would pilfer. We have the seeds to grow for a season, but if they steal too much, there will be no way to grow food for the next season.
My mind races and I try to think of a solution. The thought of executing the family comes to my mind, and I push it away. The Palemen have taken my way of life, my friends, and almost everything I had. I won’t let them take my humanity as well.
My mind is so lost in thought that when someone taps my shoulder, I jump, almost losing my balance and falling out the window. Whoever tapped my shoulder grabs onto my arm and helps steady me. When I turn around, I see an apologetic look from Alexis.
“Hey, Mr. Grey. Sorry to startle you, but there’s something you need to see.” Alexis has become a member of my family, but she’s always worked to be unnoticed. In the few months I’ve known her, she’s earned my respect, and I know that if she’s asking me to look at something, something serious is going on.
She turns before I can reply, then walks away. Trusting her, I follow as she walks through the apartment.
Before long, we’re on the side Jason’s family lives in. I wouldn’t normally come here, but with Alexis leading, I have little choice. She leads me to a window and motions for me to look through it. When I do, what I see is so shocking that all I can do is stare. After I stand there, watching for a few seconds, Alexis speaks to me.
“I don’t know why they’re playing in the street. I saw them from the roof and came straight to you.” In the street are Jason’s younger siblings. They’re running and playing around a Paleman. They’re acting like the Paleman is completely harmless. Close by, their grandmother looks like she is chanting.
I can only describe what I’m seeing as a pagan ritual. The family looks like it’s whipped itself into a religious frenzy. The horror of what’s happening hits me as I hear frantic screaming. The grandmother has gone into a full-on frenzy and is moving with a crazed vigor while yelling into the air.
Her skin is pale, and I catch a glimpse of blood-red eyes. She’s turned, but she still seems to be in control of herself. The Paleman at the end of the road is standing still. From the looks of it, I’d say the grandmother is controlling it.
My mind rejects what’s happening in front of me, and I try to back up, bumping into some furniture behind me. To my horror, the grandmother spins around and looks at me. When she does, I see the Paleman at the end of the ally lunge for one of the children.
Pulling out my gun, I take aim, but I’m too late. By the time I fire, the child’s shoulder is already in the creature’s mouth. My bullet hits the Paleman in the eye all the same, and the child and creature fall to the ground together.
A second later, I hear gunfire, and pieces of drywall and glass hit me in the face. Alexis and I drop to the ground and crawl a few dozen feet before standing and running back to our living quarters. Once there, my wife comes to me, and I tell her to help me set up a barricade. She does so without further questions.
My wife, Alexis, and I work on building a barricade and setting up some basic perimeter traps. After it’s set up, we sit behind an overturned metal file cabinet. For the first few minutes, there’s no
thing but silence. After those minutes, my wife asks me what happens, and I tell her everything that went on.
After I tell her, we spend the next several hours waiting for something to happen. As the hours pass, my tension lessens. Once darkness falls, I tell my wife and Alexis to get some sleep and check on Sarah, who I’m sure is hiding.
As the hours crawl by, I start thinking of what we can do in the future to seal ourselves off. Even though I know it’s likely pointless, I try to focus on what to do to seal ourselves off. The bitten child has turned by this point, and I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time until he infects his whole family.
A few more hours pass. I’m considering going to bed when I hear cans moving. For a second, I’m confused, until I remember my perimeter traps. Moving myself, I peek over the file cabinet and through a hole in the barricade.
A figure lies on the ground, injured. I debate helping him for a second, then realize that I have to. Even if it is a trap, I have to help the man I see in front of me. When I look at Alexis, she nods, and I know she understands what I’m about to do.
As I stand, my heart starts pounding and my palms sweat. I move through the barricade, expecting to be shot. When I get out, there’s a brief second when I’m sure I’ll die. The second passes, and I realize there’s no danger.
Going over to the man, I see him look at me with his red eyes. Thinking he’s gone, I pull out my gun, but the man speaks.
“Please, hear me out. I want to try to explain things to you. All I want is to tell you how my family led themselves to where we are now.”
No hostility emanates from the man, and I decide to listen to his story. “Alright, I’ll listen.”
The man relaxes a little, so I sit down a few feet away from him. My gun stays by my side in case he turns, but I don’t point it at him. Now that I’m closer, I recognize this man as Jason’s grandfather.
“Thank you for letting me speak,” he says. “Lesser men would have shot me without a second thought. To be honest, I deserve to be shot. The guilt is too much. I’m damned, and I know it. I watched my family descend into insanity, and I let fear get in the way of helping them.” Tears are in the man’s eyes. The fact that he thinks himself damned makes me sad. Nothing he could’ve done would have put him past salvation in my mind.
I would tell him this, but I decide to let him continue his confession, since I’m not sure how much time he has left. If there’s time, I’ll console him after he’s told me what he wants.
“It started with my wife. She had dementia before the power outage. No one wanted to admit it, but we all knew. Things were okay when Jason was around. He was the only person brave enough in our family to tell her she was wrong. You see, my wife has always been a pushy woman. With the dementia, though, she often pushed us to do things that made little or no sense.”
Dementia helps explain things. It doesn’t explain how Jason’s grandmother became infected or how she retained control, so I continue listening. “It was only a matter of time before she was bitten,” he continues. “She would wander off and leave the apartment so often it’s surprising it took so long. She hid the bite, but her eyes and skin gave away the infection. It was madness, but she manipulated our family into hiding her. Funny thing is, she never finished turning. She stopped partway, and though her dementia was worse than ever, she was in control of herself. She was even able to control Palemen. Our family started listening to her out of fear, respect, guilt, and cowardice. Before long, we were worshiping the Palemen as the next step of human evolution.”
The man’s voice cracks and he sits for a while. His confession is shocking and disturbing, and I’m not sure I can find forgiveness for him. After a few minutes, he continues, and I try to listen and maintain my calm.
“Tonight was the last straw. I tried to tell my wife we needed to end this, and she snapped. She killed the children first; when I tried to stop her, she bit me and threw me into a wall. I tried to get up, but Palemen appeared and pinned me down. Those poor children, their parents were so far gone. When they were told to sacrifice themselves to feed my wife and her children, they did so without hesitation. She made me watch it all—every second. When she finished eating my grandchildren, my son, and his wife, she had those filthy henchmen of hers throw me out.” The man is shaking, and I can tell he doesn’t have long. He looks at me, and I know what he’s asking for.
My limbs burn as I give the man a final blessing. I’ve never had such a difficult time being a pastor. Part of me feels this man is worthy of salvation, but the choice isn’t mine to make. As the blessing ends, I move the gun to his head.
“Do you have any last words?”
The man looks at me, and with the last of his sanity fading, he says, “Kill her.” The gun fires, and the bullet passes through the man’s head and into the floor.
“Don’t worry. I will,” I say as I start walking through the apartment, going to where Jason’s family used to live. The situation is too dangerous not to act now. Not only has Jason’s grandmother turned, but she’s controlling other Palemen.
Even if I didn’t feel the need to hunt her down, there’s a reason she must die. She’s endangering my family, and I know that if I don’t kill the creature she has become now, they might perish.
Hearing footsteps behind me, I turn, aiming the gun. My trigger finger itches, but I stop myself from firing when I see Alexis. Realizing she heard the gunshot and came to help, I mouth, “Thank you.” She nods, and we continue toward Jason’s old area. When we get closer, I whisper to Alexis, “Stay back. I’m going to go in alone. If it’s a trap, I’ll need you out here to help me finish off whatever’s in there.” Alexis looks at me, and I see she is worried, but she nods, and I know she will do what I asked her to.
As I make my way through the final doorway and into the living area of Jason’s family, my stomach turns. A propane lantern lights up the room, and blood is everywhere. In the corner is a pile of bones, I don’t have to think long to know whom they belong to. The walls are painted with blood, as are the floors and ceiling.
Standing in front of a mirror and looking at herself is Jason’s grandmother. She doesn’t turn or even acknowledge me, but she knows I’m here. Four Palemen come from the corners of the room.
They don’t get close enough to attack me, but they do get close enough to threaten me. So I didn’t imagine what I saw earlier—she can control them. Earlier, she had to perform a ritual. Now she has a powerful control, even though she doesn’t appear to be trying.
The cold steel of the pistol in my hand calms me, and I’m about to bring the gun up when I hear a voice.
“So you’re finally here? I wondered how long it would take for that idiot of a man to whine his story at you. What did he tell you? That I beat him and killed his family while making him watch? He’s a liar; they were not murdered, and they sacrificed their life energy to me. I absorbed them, and I’ve grown stronger. All this has to be done. I understand now. I’ve seen the future, and humans are no more! I’ll lead my children into a new dawn! Their flesh will give me the strength to ascend! Bend your knee and become my slave, and I might spare you! I’m your god!”
Her voice builds until she’s screaming with such force that I know Alexis can hear it from outside. Looking at the woman, I can tell I’d be able to throw her off if I kneel, but I know I can’t. Even with the world how it is, I still consider myself a man of God. I won’t bend my knee to anyone or anything claiming to be a god, no matter the cost.
“Go to hell, you hag.” As I shout this, I hear Alexis move through the door, and I make my move. I lift the gun and fire at the closest Paleman. I manage to hit him in the head, and he falls to the ground. Before I can move, I hear two more shots, and bodies fall behind me.
There should be two more Palemen, one behind me and the other Jason’s grandmother. My mind flies at a million miles an hour while I try to think of whom to go after first.
When I hear Alexis scream, my mind’s made up. I turn
my back on Jason’s grandmother. Glancing at Alexis, I see that her gun’s jammed. Running forward, I aim my gun and fire. It jams. Of all times, why must it jam now? The Paleman lurches toward Alexis with an open mouth. She looks shocked, and I know she’s about to be bitten. Pushing myself forward, I tackle the Paleman in time to save her.
My mistake was forgetting Jason grandmother.
“Idiot, you killed my children, and now I kill your wife.” Turning toward Jason’s grandmother, I see her standing about ten feet from me, holding a gun. She points it toward the door, and I’m confused about what she’s doing—until I realize she mentioned my wife.
The gun fires and hits my wife, who’s standing in the doorway. She looks surprised as she falls to the ground, holding her stomach.
Floodgates break in my mind, and anger pours out of me. I punch the Paleman beneath me in the neck with an inhuman amount of strength, and something in his neck snaps. Without stopping, I stand and charge Jason’s grandmother. The gun goes off several times, and bullets rip through me, but I don’t slow.
When I reach her, she’s squeezing the trigger of her gun, but there are no more bullets. For the briefest second, I see fear on her face. My fist slams into her throat, and my hand cracks from the blow. She falls to the ground, choking for breath.
“Take it back! Take it back!” I scream as I kick her in the sides, then the head. My kicks continue until she stops moving. Even then, it takes a few more kicks before I can stop.
Anger pulses through me, and with each pulse, all my wounds pump out blood. She must have shot me at least eight times. On top of that, I received a bite from a Paleman and broke my hand.
Anger fades as pain takes its place, and I fall to the ground. My vision is hazy, but I see Alexis over my wife in the distance. Crawling, I’m desperate to reach them. Every movement I make is full of pain. My body screams in agony, but the desperation forces it to be silent. My life is fading, but I won’t allow myself to die. Not yet.