The hundred or so zombies that were littered around the building were buried in the rubble. It didn’t mean we wiped out all the zombies in the area, but we sure as hell made a huge fucking dent.
“I’ve seen that explosion on the news. It was a gigantic mushroom cloud that could be seen from the blockades around El Paso. For a while there, the citizens were worried that the government had started bombing the city. It took about five press conferences before people began to believe that the government had nothing to do with it.”
Yeah, it was just my uncle visiting a friend.
“You make it sound all nonchalant.”
To be honest, we were just happy to be alive. We knew the military had quarantined the city and after the initial shock wore off, we knew the citizens outside the city were demanding that something be done, but all of it was rather far away and disconnected. We were at ground zero. It was almost like the outside world didn’t exist.
“So you never considered that people outside the military blockade would see the explosion?”
I doubt any of us even gave it a seconds worth of thought. We still had to get back to the safe zone. That’s all we cared about. We headed towards the four way intersection as fast as we could go, because at that point, the neighboring apartment buildings began to catch fire from all the burning debris. Jaxon was limping. His back was pretty messed up. Every now and then I could see him wince. Yet, he never complained. I secretly think he used his own body to shield either Tito or myself.
There will still zombies afoot, let’s not be incorrect on that point. As of yet, they weren’t part of any large groups, so they were at least easy enough to shoot down. I finally relented and gave Tito my pistol. Didn’t do him much good, he can’t shoot.
We had crossed the intersection and were heading back up towards the desert before things got interesting. The houses were now on either side of us and it was a good thing, because Jaxon was reaching his limit of pain tolerance.
“Jaxon,” I said. “The sprinklers in that yard are going off.”
“So?”
“They’re spraying water everywhere.” I answered. “Go sit in front of it for a second and see if that helps any.”
He didn’t say another word. He just walked over and dropped in the soggy grass, right in front of a sprinkler. The water began to spray over him. It was cleansing the blood off of his back and for the first time, I actually saw it happen.
The grass all around him began to writhe and churn. Jaxon didn’t seem to notice, it was like he’d found a little slice of heaven. He was just kneeling there as the water hit his back. His eyes were closed…
Have you ever had one of those deep tissue massages?
“Yes…why?”
It looked kinda like that. He was there, but not really. There was a definite easing of pain; I could see it in his face. His entire body was relaxing.
“What about the grass?”
It was still moving, like it was alive. It grew and stretched towards him. It wrapped around his fingers and eased up his arms and back. The weirdest thing was, Jaxon didn’t seem to mind. Then his eyes opened.
He was looking past our astonished faces and back down the road. Then, his eyes narrowed and he pointed.
The corpses that weren’t utterly destroyed in the fire came forth. They were far away, but they were moving as fast as their damaged and burnt bodies could carry them. Personally, I couldn’t believe it. I had thought that we’d gotten all of them, but zombies just keep on coming. It’s irritating how relentless they are.
We only had moments.
“We need to move,” said Tito.
He was right. We needed to get to the quads as soon as possible. The dead were coming fast and they were many.
Jaxon just stood up. All the grass that was wrapping around his body immediately released him.
“That’s pretty fucking weird.” He said.
We ran as fast as we could. It wasn’t easy, I was exhausted and Tito, who constantly bragged about being able to run something like eight miles a day, was really feeling the exhaustion. He later blamed it on being cooped up in his apartment without enough food. I call bullshit.
Jaxon was re-energized. It was like he had all the energy in the world to just burn and throw away. Still, the zombies were gaining. We’d been through too much. Jaxon was behind us and pushing at our backs.
I began to smell the charred skin as they got closer and closer. The zombie screams shattered the once quiet neighborhood as they rattled forth from the dried out husks that used to be human throats.
Then the fun began.
The zombies that were inside the homes came out. It must have been those weird screams. They were ahead of us, blocking us off from the guard rail and the quads behind it.
Jaxon had a tomahawk in his right hand and his pistol in the other. He ran forth to meet them head on.
Boom, boom, boom, the corpses that didn’t fall from his bullets met the crunching power of his tomahawk. He was clearing our way.
“Keep moving!” He shouted. “Don’t try to fight them, just keep moving forward.”
We did what he said and followed the wake of destruction that became our path to survival.
I would have liked to stop and admire his efficient killing abilities, but I was just so exhausted. I grabbed Tito and pulled him along beside me. The burnt zombies that were chasing after us were too damn close.
Jaxon was over the guard rail and starting the quads. The sound was beautiful. They were so close, but still so far away.
With the quads running, he stood on the guard rail and took aim with his rifle. I panicked at this point. If he felt the need to fire off some shots, the zombies must be closer to us than I thought.
I didn’t want to look behind me, but I did anyway…less than ten feet and gaining.
I poured on the last of my strength. Crack, crack, crack!
The shots rang out. They were deafening. They were salvation. The dead that met the bullets began to fall. The ones behind them began to trip over their fallen brethren. We began to pull away. Not much, but enough.
Enough that when we went over the guard rail, we had enough time to jump on the quads and zoom away in a trail of hot sand and small rocks.
The dead could not keep up. We lost them in the desert. No doubt that they’d eventually turn up around the fences of our safe zone, but they’d be easy enough to deal with there.
“Another daring escape, you survived the un-survivable once again. Mentally, how were you holding up?”
I felt pretty good to be honest with you. I mean, I was exhausted and worried that we might ride around some large hill and end up in the middle of a large pack of zombies before we made it back to the safe zone, but I really felt pretty damn good.
“Did you encounter another large pack of zombies?”
In point of fact, we did not. It was smooth sailing all the way back. We even stopped at one point to have some water and let the quads cool down.
“Well that was fun,” said Tito after a few uncomfortable moments of silence.
“You ready to do it again?” asked Jaxon.
“Hell no,” shouted Tito back at him. “I never wanna be anywhere near another zombie.”
We laughed for a long time. Finally, I asked the question that was on probably everyone’s mind.
“What the hell was up with the sprinklers and the water? I can’t believe that actually worked.”
“Hell if I know,” answered Jax. “It was your idea. The water kinda numbed the pain and by the time the grass began to move over me, the damage was just sort of melting away. In fact, I feel a lot better now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You look it. Ever since the park, you’ve been different somehow. Back at the apartment complex, when you ran your head under the water… it healed that deep cut you had.”
“Not completely.” He answered. “The cuts still there, but it’s not bleeding anymore.”
“I bet the longer you sta
y under the water or under the grass, the more it will heal.” I said.
“What the hell are the two of you smoking?” asked Tito with a definite annoyance in his tone. “Jaxon is no different from anyone else. He’s no champion. He’s no hero. He’s just a guy that keeps getting lucky.”
“Then why do his wounds heal?” I asked.
“They probably weren’t as deep or as bad as we thought they were,” said Tito. “It’s not like either one of us actually studied the damage before he sat under the sprinklers.”
“What about the way the grass moved over him?”
“Maybe the grass was going to eat him or something. Maybe it’s infected in the same fucked up way that the zombies are.”
“Alright Tito, whatever you say.” I wasn’t going to waste any more of my time arguing with him.
It was the weirdest thing…I, like most people wanted Jaxon to be special in some way. It very much sounded like Tito was angry at the idea that Jaxon might be special.
“Why did you want Jaxon to be special and why do you think other people wanted him to be special as well?”
Because we were trapped in hell, on every side we were staring down evil. It was nice to have hope. These vile, rowdy monsters rose up from their own deaths and destroyed a city in less than one day. That’s a horrible thought. It meant our time was very limited, but what if there was an opposite? What if there was some guy that could right the wrongs and stamp them out?
“Kind of like an antidote to a poison?”
Exactly…a savior, that’s what everyone wanted. Someone that they could stand behind, someone that could win…Tito just didn’t want that someone to be Jaxon.
“Why do you suppose that is?”
Jealousy.
Chapter 4
Jaxon
On my second round of questions for Jaxon, he’s already waiting for me in his backyard.. As usual, Merrick is by his side. She gives a quick bark when I enter and then proceeds to jump all over me.
Jaxons attitude is still very relaxed, despite all the papers on the table detailing assignments and other emergencies. For a moment I feel what Ivana felt when she first heard that this man was the General…A suspension of belief. Could this seemingly normal looking person, who’d rather crack jokes and hang out with his friends, really be the hero I’ve been hearing about. He isn’t ten feet tall; he doesn’t wear some S on his chest, where does it all come from?
So how are your interviews coming?
“Pretty good, I’ve just finished with Dudley telling me about how the two of you rescued Tito.”
I heard you talked to Ivana. Is that true?
“Yes. She gave me some interesting insights.”
On what?
“What things were like for someone that wasn’t really able to fight back.”
Ah…you see, I disagree with that, I think on a basic level, everyone is capable of fighting back. What they don’t want is to be put into a position in which they have to fight back.
“Is that what you tell your critics?”
I have critics?
“You didn’t know?”
He’s laughing and so am I. The fact is, there have been a number of factions that would like to see the General retired. They believe that as an average citizen with zero military or government experience, he has been given too much power.
Actually, I don’t tell my critics anything.
“Why is that?”
They aren’t really important. I mean at the end of the day, I’m going to be doing exactly what it is that I do. The government sanctions it and unfortunately, some people really need it. If I stop, people die. That’s something that I’m not prepared to live with at the moment. Maybe there will come a day when I’m not needed anymore. It’s what I’m hoping for at least.
“I think it’s entirely fair to say that you’re a hero to many.”
I’ve often wondered what would happen if one of these so called critics were surrounded by an army of dead. Would they at that point stop whining and realize that I’m actually needed?
“That’s an interesting thought. Would you help them?”
Of course I would, but I’d be rubbing it in the entire time. I’m no saint.
“So, after rescuing Tito, what happened when you returned to the safe zone?”
I took a shower. It was lovely. It was heaven. I can’t tell you how glad I was to be able to shower. I guess I’m a bit of a clean freak.
“Did you have trouble getting into the safe zone?”
Not really. The guards were keeping everything pretty devoid of any undead lives. This of course, is a nice way of saying that they shot down every zombie that they saw.
One of the happiest moments was when I realized that our numbers had swelled. More and more people were traveling to our safe zone. They were braving the dangers and joining our ranks. We were barely gone a day and I think close to a hundred people had already arrived.
Unfortunately, they did bring some bad news with them.
“What was that?”
The zombies were coming.
Our guards killed anywhere from ten to twenty a day. Not a big deal, but some of our new arrivals claimed to have narrowly avoided a mass of thousands.
Maybe it was all the human smells coming from the safe zone. I really have no idea. All I knew is that if a mass that large attacked, there was no way our fences would hold.
Now, the survivors that saw this mass told us that they weren’t all traveling together like some great army, zombies don’t work that way, but they were more than certain that the zombies were headed right towards us.
“And you think it was the human smell coming from the safe zone?”
It’s just a guess. The fact is, I have no idea. All I know is that zombies follow humans. I don’t know how, but they do. The more humans you have together, the more zombies you’ll have attracted.
They wouldn’t all come at once, but once they reached the area, it would only be a few short days before our fences were totally surrounded by the dead. After that, it wouldn’t take long before those same fences fell. We simply didn’t have enough bullets or people for that kind of force.
We needed to act and we needed to act fast.
We had two or three days at the most.
That night we had a meeting. My usual gang was all that were in attendance. I didn’t invite the others in the safe zone, because it would have then become a free for all with about a thousand different ideas and nothing would get done.
The group was small and after all, whatever we decided to do, we weren’t forcing others to do it with us. If they didn’t like our ideas, they were free to follow their own paths.
I should also mention that Georgie was very glad to have me back safe and sound, but at the same time he was somewhat pissed at me. I told him to get over it, we had work to do and to his credit he did what I asked.
The first thing we realized is that people exaggerate. Someone had to go out into the night and find out just how large this mass of the undead was. That was our first idea. It might just end up being something we could handle without a problem. At least that’s what we were hoping for.
As usual for Tito, he was playing devil’s advocate.
“I don’t think it’s right for us to be making these decisions,” said Tito.
“We aren’t making decisions for anyone.” I answered. “They don’t have to go along with what we decide.”
“Yet, they will,” he answered. “And sooner or later they’ll resent you for it. You weren’t elected. They didn’t choose you.”
“They did choose him,” said Ivana. “I chose him. As soon as I found out where he was, I went there. I wanted to be along side of him.”
“Okay, some people may have decided to stand beside this so called General,” answered Tito. “But what are his qualifications? Why should they follow Jax? He’s just a normal guy that got lucky?”
“Are you seriously saying that the things he accomplished
were due to luck?” answered Dudley. “I was there dude. I had a front row seat to everything he did and I can tell you with the utmost certainty that there was no luck involved. He was born to do this shit.”
“I’m sure there was a little luck involved.” I laughed. Might as well make light of a tense situation and in truth, I never expect anyone to be on my side. It’s always a bit of a shock when they are.
“Why is that?”
I’m just used to fighting my own battles. Plus, most people won’t engage themselves in a confrontation. I however, have never had much of a problem with that.
“Let’s make it simple.” I said. “If there’s anyone here that doesn’t think I’m a fit leader, raise your hand.”
No hands were raised, including Tito’s.
“Tito, are you sure you want involved with this?” I asked with a bit of pleasure. “You were the one so against me leading.”
“I’m with you.” He answered. “I just think that whatever decisions you make should at least be run by us first.”
“I can agree with that.” I said. “When I have the time, I’ll run my ideas by everyone.”
Nobody said a word. All that I meant was that in the middle of a fight or something I didn’t want to have to ask permission before I gave out some orders.
“Were you comfortable giving these orders?”
Somebody had to do it. Nobody else was stepping up. I was getting kind of used to it. Still, if the government got off its ass and threw us a bone, I’d gladly step out of the way. That just wasn’t happening. All those people were looking to me. They weren’t asking to be lead by some group; they were asking to be led by me.
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