Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  Guns were near impossible to find, so people used whatever they could find. Axes, machetes, and baseball bats were common. Everyone understood that if one of their friends or family members died, they only had a short time to destroy the brain before becoming that person’s next meal.

  The governments of the world had gone underground, and broadcasts of their plans for the continuation of civilization had slowed to a trickle and then stopped altogether.

  News broadcasts were given from the roofs of buildings, and all were saying the same thing over and over. The end of civilization was here, and the end of the human race was surely soon to follow.

  RUN

  Tin and Jax led the run back to the vehicles. Marty was barely able to maintain a quick walk, and his state of mind was just as much an issue; he was sobbing loudly and begging anyone to kill him.

  Teeny kept consoling him and encouraging him to hurry. She snuck a concerned look at Tin, and he only gave her a half shrug that meant, “I don’t know what to do!”

  Rocky moved up to Marty’s other arm and helped her move him along. She gave Teeny a look that said, “Maybe we should do what he is asking.”

  Teeny shook her head vehemently.

  Laudner and O’Reilly were bringing up the rear, O’Reilly wincing and holding his ribs.

  When they cleared the woods by the vehicles, they saw lightning in the distance toward the coast. Tin grabbed the keys from the hiding place and moved over to open the back door of the ambulance.

  Rocky pointed at Laudner. “You, nerdy guy, ride with Jaxxy. I have some catching up to do with Teeny.”

  “Uh sure. I mean, I guess. But he’s kind of freaking me out.”

  “Come on, Dexter. You obviously need to put your glasses on. I am way better looking than that toad.”

  “It’s Laudner, or Tim. And I don’t wear glasses anymore. Besides, if you were wearing the same clothes, there would be no way to tell you two apart.”

  Jax smiled and waved him over to the passenger seat of the pickup. When he rounded the back of the truck, he cried out in pain and fell to his knees, grabbing his head in pain. Teeny pulled a vial and syringe out of the pocket of her backpack.

  “Only two doses left, guys. I’m going to need you two to limit your activity until we figure out how to fix you permanently.”

  She stabbed Laudner in the belly, and he relaxed enough to stand up. She pulled out another syringe and did the same for O’Reilly. He smiled though he was in obvious pain. The smile was short lived. His eyes shifted to the tree line over her shoulder. “Oh, shit!”

  Anderson was crouched at the edge of the tree line, snorting like a bull ready to charge. Two other men appeared out of the woods to crouch next to him.

  Jax watched them as he moved up next to his brother. “Who the fuck are these guys?”

  “Uh, somebody we really don’t want to deal with right now.”

  Just then a bolt of lightning hit a tree right behind the three ragers. Tendrils of the lightning followed the root system out and lit up the ankles and legs of the three and knocked them off their feet. The tree smoked and crackled as it fell toward them. The boom of the thunder shook the earth like an earthquake. Seconds later, a deluge of rain started. They saw Anderson sit up just before the sheets of rain started coming down hard enough to make him disappear from sight.

  Teeny was the first to snap out of the stupor. “Tin, we need to get the hell out of here. Now!”

  Tin looked at her for a split second and screamed to be heard above the rain and rumbles of thunder. “Wake up, people! God has given us a chance to escape. Let’s not disappoint him.”

  They all woke up and ran to jump into the vehicles, Jax and Laudner into the pickup and Tin and O’Reilly into the cab of the ambulance.

  Teeny threw open the doors at the back of the ambulance, and when Rocky started to help Marty climb in, Teeny remembered Raines was in the back.

  Rocky stopped and looked at Teeny. “Oh, yeah. What the hell is this?”

  “I’ll explain on the way back to the hospital. Let’s go!”

  The ambulance started up as they jumped in and slammed the doors. Tin hit the gas, and the diesel motor clacked and roared as the wheels spun and shot gravel behind them. Rocky was watching this when two faces appeared at the back-door windows. One was the humungous man they had called Anderson. Both faces pressed against the windows so they could see inside. Anderson gave a big smile, and the other rager punched the glass out of his window. Reaching through with lightning-quick reflexes, he grabbed Rocky’s jacket and pulled her toward the door. She spun out of the jacket and whipped the samurai sword up and stabbed the growling man in the eye. His grip fell away as he did the same, rolling away to lie motionless in the road. She shifted her attention to the other window just in time to see Anderson head butt the glass out. She ducked away from the flying glass and, without hesitating, stabbed at the rager with her sword. He moved his head to the side, and the sword stabbed through his cheek and out his ear. When she pulled it back, he grabbed his damaged face with his right hand, holding on to the open window with his left.

  Teeny grabbed a small oxygen tank that was next to her and swung it, smashing Anderson’s fingers and making him release his grip.

  They were now doing in excess of fifty miles per hour. So when the rager hit the pavement, he skidded, flopped, and rolled several times before coming to a stop on the median of the boulevard-style entrance of Bio-Sure. The pickup and then the ambulance squealed around the corner and onto the highway that led to the town of Trudeau and the hospital sanctuary that they had left a few hours before.

  _______

  Teeny, Marty, and Rocky sat in the back of the ambulance in silence for a few minutes as Rocky caught her breath. She sat back, looking at Teeny first and then at Marty. He had settled into a ball in the farthest corner he could get into, still sobbing and covering his mutilated face with his arms.

  She looked back at Teeny. “What the hell was that?”

  “That was Corporal Anderson. I think that he contracted rabies, and it recombined with the Spartan virus and enhancement drugs to cause a mutant virus.”

  “Spartan?”

  “People call it axola flu.”

  “Yeah, I got that. Everyone did.”

  “Not everyone. Tin didn’t. He’s immune. The only person I know—that is, as far as I know.”

  “Huh. Well, you know two now. His brother didn’t catch the flu either. Cuts have to be stitched just like before the flu.”

  Teeny hesitated and looked in the direction of her mate in the cab of the ambulance.

  _______

  Jax had to slow the truck because the road was under about six inches of water. The rain had stopped for the moment, but he knew that hurricane storm cells came in bands. The relief would be short lived.

  He had let the ambulance take lead now because supposedly they had a hospital where they could bug in for a while, but he didn’t know where it was located. A hospital would be perfect because they were built to be shelters for this kind of weather.

  As they moved slowly through the streets of Trudeau, they saw wanderers shuffling around as if they had forgotten where they were supposed to be. Jax saw one with a sign hung around his neck.

  “Hey, Laudner, what does that say?”

  Laudner recited as he read. “Repent! The end is here!”

  Then they saw another. “The Lord has spoken! Accept your fate!”

  When they rounded the corner onto the street that led to the hospital, they saw about a dozen men, some in fatigues and some in civilian clothes. The men turned their attention from a man who was standing in the back of a huge pickup truck with American flags and a large wooden cross mounted to the back of the cab.

  The ambulance stopped, so he stopped too.

  All of the men jumped into the bed of the pickup
, and it started moving to turn around and come in their direction.

  When the truck full of men pulled up, Jax saw Tin and O’Reilly jump out of the ambulance. “Let’s go Laud-nerd.”

  Laudner stared at him as he exited the truck. “Have you been talking to that asshole O’Reilly?”

  Jax answered with a laugh. “Bwa ha ha!”

  They both moved up next to Tin, and Jax spoke as he stared at the now-stopped truck. “So what do you think, brother?”

  Tin gave him a quick sideways glance. “You need to let me do the talking. This is a serious situation, laughing boy.”

  Jax gave him a “what did I do?” look.

  Tin gave him a slight shake of his head before turning back to the other group.

  Teeny and Rocky had moved up behind the team and noticed the exchange. Rocky leaned toward Teeny. “Ah ha. So you can tell the bookends apart.”

  Teeny looked at her and gave a slight agreeing smile. She knew she had gotten the brother who best suited her. She already felt like kicking Laughing Boy in the nuts.

  As if on cue, the two huge men looked back at the same time, one with his eyebrows furrowed as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders, the other with a snarky smile that said, “Let’s get the fun started.”

  The man who had been standing in the bed of the truck talking to the rest when they first saw them stepped forward through the line of men. He was dressed similarly to a stereotypical Bible-thumping Southern preacher. After all, South Carolina was the buckle on the Bible Belt.

  He had pistols in holsters strapped so that the jacket he was wearing hid most of them. The three in the group who looked like soldiers carried rifles. They were holding them at the ready, but both Tin and Jax could tell that by their posture and stance, they were likely low on or out of ammo. The stocks of the weapons were bloodied, as though they were used more for clubs than shooting.

  The leader was another case altogether. He exuded confidence laced with tinges of batshit crazy. After looking each of the team members up and down, he spoke with a deep, commanding baritone voice. His voice matched exactly the way he looked. He spoke directly to Tin, as it was obvious that he was the leader of their group—not to mention that he was the only one in either group who still had his full uniform and rank insignias displayed.

  The reverend spoke with a pronounced Southern accent. “Well, looks like the Lord has sent us some heroes. Good evening, Lieutenant. It is always nice to see the living these days. It has been less and less frequent lately.”

  He smiled and nodded, closing his eyes as he did so.

  “My name is Reverend Isaiah Trudeau. And yes, my family founded the town in the late seventeenth century. In fact, my ancestral home is where we have been staying.”

  He glanced both ways to include his crew.

  When his gaze returned to them, a startled look came across his face that made everyone look back. Marty had wrapped his head in gauze so that only his eyes showed.

  When Tin and Jax turned back to the other group, the reverend had his pistols drawn and was aiming toward Marty. “Is somebody going to give this one the Lord’s mercy so that I don’t have to waste ammo?”

  Teeny threw up her hands as several of the reverend’s people started to move toward the disfigured man. “Wait! He’s not dead.”

  When the reverend lowered his weapons, she continued. “He was tortured by a lunatic at Bio-Sure.”

  Jax noticed that the soldiers brought their rifles up to shoot this time. They weren’t out of ammo but were probably reluctant to use it, as it was very hard to come by. The reverend was smart. He probably used the cudgel hanging at his belt for kills unless shooting was absolutely necessary.

  Tin spoke up then. “Look, we don’t want any trouble. We just have to get some medical attention for our friends. That’s all.”

  The reverend holstered his .45-caliber revolvers. Obvious antiques. Someone like that would have more weapons, but there certainly would be a shortage of ammo for them. That may be why not all of his men carried them.

  He pointed down the street.

  “Mercy Hospital is right down there. But I don’t think you’ll find any staff.”

  The men behind the reverend kept whispering and looking behind Jax to where the women were.

  Jax looked at them, back at Rocky, then back at the men. The smile left his face as he leaned forward toward them menacingly. They all lost their smiles and gripped the weapons in their hands tighter. Jax just started smiling again.

  Tin continued. “No need to worry about us, Reverend. We have it covered.”

  The reverend pointed at the sky. “Getting inside soon is probably advisable. God’s wrath will soon be upon us again.”

  As if by his will, it started raining again, and the wind started to rise.

  “I think we’ll join you at the hospital. My home is too far to make it now.”

  He and Tin stared at each other for a few seconds.

  “That is, if you don’t mind, Lieutenant.”

  Teeny, Rocky, and Marty all were shaking their heads.

  Tin looked back at them.

  “Of course, Reverend. We have no true claim on the hospital. And you’re right. The storm is about to turn for the worse again.”

  Both Tin and the reverend nodded at each other and turned to corral their teams back into their vehicles.

  _______

  When the three trucks pulled up to the emergency entrance, the wind and rain were picking up to hurricane intensity. But that wasn’t the worst thing. Wanderers had instinctively moved to the place where the wind was the least, which was at the doors. There was a writhing gauntlet of chompers that they would have to run to get into the building. Scores of them were pressed together to block their way.

  O’Reilly stared with his mouth hung open. “Uhhh, that’s a problem.”

  Teeny and Rocky had moved up to the opening behind the seats. “Shit!”

  The ambulance was rocking from the wind as Teeny knelt down between the seats. “What are we going to do, Tin?”

  “Well, we need to get into the hospital for sure. I have an idea.”

  He waved for Jax to pull close enough for him to give him instructions. He had to shout above the whistling wind. “See those broken-out windows above the ambulance by the doors?”

  Jax nodded.

  “That’s our way in.” He thumbed toward the reverend. “Let him know.”

  Jax nodded again and drove away.

  Tin moved the ambulance up slowly, and several of the dead noticed the movement. They started to move toward the ambulance, and once they were away from the building, the wind swept them away.

  O’Reilly looked at Tin. “Did you see that?”

  O’Reilly turned back toward the group of wanderers and jumped out of the ambulance. Tin, stunned, wasn’t able to say anything before he had slammed the door and fought the wind to get to a light-pole base. The light pole itself had been knocked over, but he was able to get a handhold to anchor himself.

  He yelled toward the crowd of dead, and they started to move toward him one by one. As they moved away from the building, the wind knocked them over and pushed them down the sloped parking lot.

  Tin watched as bigger groups tried to get to O’Reilly and paid the price. The ambulance started rocking even more, and at one point, he thought the wheels had started to come off of the ground. They weren’t going to be able to wait for all of the wanderers to get blown away. He moved the ambulance closer to the ambulance that was blocking the entrance and pushed up against the remaining dead to squeeze them into place so they couldn’t move. They could just wave their arms while they groaned and wailed in anger at not being able to move toward what they were hoping was their next meal.

  Tin turned and moved to the back of the ambulance through the opening behind the seats. “OK
. We need to move around the edge of the vehicle and onto the hood, then up to the top of the other ambulance. From there we’ll get into the hospital through the windows.”

  The wind died down a little, and everyone looked up as though they could see it through the roof.

  “This is our chance. Go, go, go!”

  Teeny grabbed Marty and helped him up as she looked at Tin. “What about Raines?”

  Tin looked at the wiggling dead man. “I may be able to do something for him.” He looked back at Teeny with a crooked smile.

  “Really?”

  Just then the back doors swung open. Jax and Laudner stuck their heads in, and Jax smiled at them. “And just what the fuck are we waiting for?”

  They could see the reverend’s men making their way to the front of the ambulance to get into the second-story window.

  Tin looked back at Teeny again when she spoke up. “Come on, Camel Toe. He can’t infect you. Are you afraid of a couple of scratches?”

  Jax got a surprised look on his face. “What did she call you?”

  “Bwa ha ha! Come on, Camel Toe. Let’s move.”

  “Bwa ha ha!”

  Tin gave her an angry look, and Teeny got a sheepish look as she mouthed, “Sorry.”

  He just shook his head and started to unstrap Raines. “Jax, get up here and help me.”

  “Yes, sir, Lieutenant Camel Toe,” Jax said, saluting and beaming a huge smile as he jumped up.

  Tin pointed at Teeny. “Get the hell out of here. I’m sure he’s going to be flopping around. I wouldn’t want my thoughtful girlfriend to get injured.”

  Teeny just put her head down and helped Marty out of the back and around the side of the ambulance opposite the crowd of wanderers.

  When she rounded the side, she saw the reverend’s crew climbing up to the top of the box on the ambulance under the window. The reverend was already up there with what looked like his two most trusted on either side of him. They weren’t helping any of the others up—just staring down at the rest struggling to climb.