Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

  All of the survivors in Andrew’s group realize they have nothing to settle in with, not even a change of clothes. Andrew reminds Riggs of this. Eventually, they come to the agreement that a master list will need to be written up for all of the members in their group pertaining to personal affects such as basic hygeine items and extra pairs of clothing. Andrew walks around the cell block to every member of the group and gets their lists jotted down on pen and paper. One of the most needy ones, Andrew realized, was Tammy. She requested cosmetic supplies and feminum hygeine products you would find in Lord and Taylor or Filenes. Eventually as a result, Andrew had to become blunt with her.

  “Sorry to say this miss, but you don’t need high heels in this world. Nor do you need make up and lipstick. You definately don’t need facial cream. When we go out there to gather up supplies we will be risking our lives. Think bare essentials,” Andrew explains in blunt honesty without blinking.

  Tammy falls silent and places her head down as if she was just told that her flight to the Bahamas has just been cancelled. “Look, my time in the service gave me a pretty good idea on what a person may need in uncomfortable situations like these. I’ll help you out, Tammy,” Andrew states with a smile.

  He goes on to list tooth brushes, bars of soap, pairs of socks, T-shirts, underwear, tooth paste, towels and additional bare essential items.

  “Here, i’ll even jot you down for some running shoes. Can never undermine a good pair of running shoes, especially in this day in age,” Andrew goes on to explain in a comforting voice in order to lift her spirits.

  Shortly after, he takes down her shoe size and additional measurements for pants and shirts. Once he is done, he goes on to the other survivors and realizes what ridicilious requests they conjured up. Especially the women.

  Once he makes his way to Young Andrew, he is amused to find that the boy requests nothing but Xbox 360 games and toys without even mentioning an Xbox 360 system. Andrew plays along then becomes honest with him. However, he does promise that he will bring him back some toys to play with. Once Andrew asks what type of toys, Young Andrew counters with “nothing but Army men and G.I. Joe,” Young Andrew excitingly claims with eagerness in his eyes.

  Andrew smiles and tells him he should of known as he writes his toys down in specific order. “Now little soldier, I can’t promise you that I can get all of these, however I will definately try,” Andrew promises. Young Andrew has a widened smile which can not be brought down at this point.

  Once Andrew arrives to Linda, she lists off the common items. Once she reaches special requests, she asks for reading materials such as novels and most importantly, the bible.

  “I am not sure of anything these days. However, I do have a hunch that the Bible is in high demand right now,” Linda wisely states to Andrew.

  He agrees and writes it down on the list with a star beside it indicating it as a priority for her. Andrew decides the men do not need a list for they know what they will need when the time comes as they will be out there helping the group look for items. Some of the more ridicilious requests Andrew overheard the males conversing about, was Randall’s intention to find a nice and formidible suit for him to wear. Indicating where his priorities lie as Andrew shakes his head and jokes about it with Riggs. Dwayne makes it clear that he intends on finding fine jewelry and gold chains. Lance wants to find more Florida Gators attire.

  Once Andrew compiles all the lists together for the group, he evenly disperses them out to the males. Andrew makes sure he keeps Tammy and Young Andrew’s list for himself so he can personally be the one to grab those items as he promised. Once this task is complete and the group starts bedding down for the night once darkness falls, Andrew lies in his bunk, overhearing Riggs and Dwayne snoring.

  He thinks about his brother Trevor whom he so darely misses. Andrew comes to the joking conclusion that if Trevor was here, he would place the show “Desperate Housewives” on the top of his useless items list. He wonders if Trevor ever got to finish his show that he was so unusually obsessed with. Andrew then begins to feel a sense of sadness come over him as his eyesight begins to fade and slips into comatose. He wonders if his brother ever made it out of Iraq or met a gruesome fate like so many others have.

  The thought of this just reinforces his will and urge to find his brother’s family so he can protect him like he promised once before. In this day in age, all a man has now is his word. Money, power, looks is completely out of the equation Andrew decides as he takes his final thought before submitting to his body’s demand for rest.

  Young Andrew, still unable to sleep at this point, sneaks out of his bottom bunk. He quietly passes Linda, whom is dead asleep across the way from him and makes his way into the hallway. Still curious and excited about the new place he is now living in, he figures he has much to explore. In addition, a few hours of playing with his new friend Amy prior to being tucked into bed, still left him very energetic.

  The boredom of night time rest consumes him as he makes his way down the dark hallways of Cell Block A in the middle of the night. Young Andrew figures he will poke around and see if he can find anything cool to play with. After around ten minutes go by of playing with some of the weights in the weight room and trying to shoot some hoops in the inside basketball court, he makes his way over to the administration office.

  He tries the door on it but realizes it is locked. Once he figures this out, he makes his way down an additional lonely hallway leading over to Aaron’s office. Right before he turns the corner leading to the hallway where Aaron’s office resides, he hears whisphers and the sound of people talking just as he is about to turn the corner. He quickly stops himself and sneaks up to the edge of the corner as he pokes his little head out to see what was going on. Curiousity now fills the boy, as he witnesses out in front of Aaron’s office, the man whom he can only describe as his new best friend Amy’s dad, leaning up against his doorway talking to a group of twenty to thirty people. His voice grows louder as if he is giving them a speech and instructing them on something. Andrew hears his name multiple times, along with other members of the group as Aaron points his finger towards some of the guards in an aggresive fashion.

  Andrew is now confused. He wonders why the man has mentioned his name multiple times, for he has nothing to do with this man nor has ever spoken with him. Andrew decides to turn back the way he came from as he skips along singing a song to himself his mother used to sing to him before she would tuck him into bed at night.

  Morning comes. Riggs is the first to wake up and prepare for what the day holds. He wakes Andrew and the other males of the group up and reminds them where they need to be in the next thirty minutes. Their tour guide told them all the males would meet over by Aaron’s office by 0730 hours(7:30 AM).

  None of them feel too enthiusiastic about waking up at this point to start the day. Randall and Dwayne retreat back to their covers as Andrew sits on the edge of his bed with blood shot eyes keeping his head down attempting to work up the energy to stand up.

  Riggs walks down to Lance and Tabatha’s cell and taps Lance on the shoulder until he awakes. Angry at being bothered, he pops off to Riggs.

  “Don’t touch me. Get the hell away,” yells a half asleep Lance as he rolls back over to Tabatha in the bed.

  An angered Riggs now kicks the frame of the bunk until Lance shoots up glaring at him.

  “You know where you have to be in the next thirty minutes. Wake your little ass up!” orders Riggs.

  Lance says nothing in response. Riggs then walks back to his cell to check on the others. He does not wake the females because they have a later first call than the men. Yesterday Linda was designated leader of that group and in charge of making sure they are where they need to be.

  Once Riggs has all the men rounded up, they proceed over to the armorery. It appears that only the males within the prison are awake this early in the morning Andrew noticed as he passes sleeping families and single women. Once the group arrives to the doors of t
he armorery, they encounter a long line stretching down the hallway which originates at the doorway of the arms room. Riggs and everyone else falls in line with the other residents of the prison, many of whom who give them odd stares as if they were studying the newcomers. Andrew noticed the males in line making small talk before himself and the rest of his group walked up. Now, many of them fall silent as they gaze on in Andrew’s direction.

  “So why are we in line to draw weapons? I thought that we had our own?” Andrew curiously asks Riggs as they standby in the line. “Oh yeah something I forgot to mention, Aaron wanted us to use his weapons and ammo after I gave him our personal round and fire arm count. He told us to save it for the trip ahead once it comes time to leave here. Such a nice guy isn’t he?” Riggs responds.

  “Can’t argue with that,” Andrew adds.

  Moments later, Andrew turns around and informs the rest of the group of what is going on. All of them appeared delighted about the news. The line seems to go quickly as Andrew’s turn approaches, for he is first in line out of his group. Andrew notices men walking out with AK-47 assault rifles, wooden M14’s, some M16 and AR-15 models. Some of the men also carried tactical shotguns with surefire lights attached to them. Majority of the shotguns possessed collaspable stocks and pistol grip pumps. He even saw one man walk out with an RPK and bipod legs attached. Riggs eyes grow wide.

  “These guys are well stocked. Hope they give me a formidable weapon,” Riggs jokes to Andrew. Andrew never noticed Riggs to be this antsy and excited. He appeared to be a kid waking up on Christmas Day to presents waiting underneath the tree. Randall, Dwayne and Lance appear to be in way over their heads as they glance over at the armed men walking by them with a fearful and a culture shocked look in their eyes.

  Riggs notice this and as a result makes him smile.

  Dwayne turns over to Randall once he notices Riggs smiling.

  “Bro, what the hell are these guys going to have us do. I don’t like the looks of this,” Dwayne concernly states to a shaken Randall.

  “Yeah I agree. This isn’t my area of expertise. Got a bad feeling about this,” Randall concludes to Dwayne. Lance stands there in silence attempting to act like the situation doesn’t even phase him. Andrew is first of the group to walk in the doorway, where he notices a short man who is keeping count of the weapons with a clipboard and pencil. Aaron is standing beside him as he notices Andrew.

  “Ah, new guys are here. Tommy, hook these guys up with some decent fire power. Hey soldier, looks like you could handle something heavy. Try out one of these AK-47’s. Also, grab some SAIGA 12 gauges as well,” Aaron hollers to Andrew who is only two feet in front of him.

  “Man these guys are well stocked. Makes my collection look mediocre,” adds Riggs as he talks to himself while looking around. Andrew picks up an AK-47 then proceeds to grab a few 7.62x39mm banana clips located below the rifle rack in a drawer. Moments later he attempts to walk out the doorway until Aaron stops him.

  “Wait a moment. You need a rig as well. Go in the back room over there and pick one out. We got some ALICE configurations, as well as MOLLE vests. Take what you like,” Aaron goes on to add. Andrew wastes no time and proceeds to the back room.

  Riggs instantly goes for the SAIGA assault shotgun. After he takes a look at it, he grabs his shells and wastes no time following Andrew into the back. Once the last three members of the group enter, they all admit to Aaron about their inexperience with fire arms. As a response, Aaron gives them a degrading look.

  “We’ll give you both simple pump action shotguns,” Aaron says as he walks up to the shelf and picks one long barrell birdshot weapon with a wooden stock and an over and under shotgun which only fires two rounds before a reload off the rack. He hands them to Lance and Dwayne then insists on giving them a quick class on how to use it. Once he is finished, he hands them their rounds and sends them to the back room to grab equipment. Once they are gone, Randall comes walking up with a scared look on his face.

  Aaron stares back in contempt. “Here, i’m not willing to take a chance with you,” Aaron admits while he goes through the bottom of the pistol cage. Once he finds what he is looking for, he hands Randall a Smith & Wesson .38 special revolver and a box of 40 target practice rounds.

  “I don’t trust men in suits. You only get this,” he tells Randall while looking into his eyes.

  Randall avoids eye contact and walks out into the hallway. Once the rest of the men are finished rummeging through the bins of green utility belts and pouches, they find what matches their preferences and walk outside into the hallway to join back up with a quiet Randall.

  All of the men in the group, with the exception of Randall, who places his .38 revolver in the jacket pocket of his suit, now have on tactical OD green and black utility pouches slung across their chests. They shuffle through their pouches in an attempt to place their magazines in them as they walk down the hallway to link back up with the crowd of the prison group males whom are congregated by the entrance to the courtyard of the prison. Riggs and Andrew give Randall an akward stare, as he is apparently the only one who doesn’t have a vest on.

  “Looks like you got short handed, huh Randall?” Andrew jokes. Randall shrugs stoically as if none of it mattered to him. Once Riggs and the rest fused with the group of strangers, he begins asking a few of them questions. Mainly to include, “Where are we going? What are we doing and how are we getting there?”.

  None of them really gave them a solid answer, however, made one thing clear.

  “When we get there it is going to be dangerous. Open your ears and follow orders. No room for question,” a few of the men conclude. Riggs humbly agreed in the physical form. However, mentally, not so much. Riggs feels he doesn’t need to be ordered around. He knows that he is capable of controlling most situations. On the other hand, in a world where the dead walks, Riggs decides it might be in his best interest to stay in the passenger seat on this one.

  Moments later after getting a feel for the task, he huddles up the other members of his group and gives them a run down of what he has just been told. All of them agree to listen to the others out there in order to avoid needless confrontation.

  Many of the strangers they are hanging out with while waiting for their briefing and ultimately, the ride out, are standing around joking with eachother. Just about all of them are smoking cigerettes and drinking their morning coffee out of their thermostats. Andrew gets the impression of a battle hardened veteran platoon amongst these men. Similiar to soldiers he met in the Army just in how they conduct themselves and joke about various offensive subjects.

  Around twenty minutes later, the noise of laughter and talking falls silent as Aaron walks out into the court yard with his assistant Tommy and a few members from his bodyguard. Tommy walks behind Aaron with a giant dry erase board with what appears to be imagery of a town and surrounding outskirts attached to the board. Tommy quickly places it down for all to see. Once Aaron stops, he tells all the men of the group to get comfortable. A few rows in the front take seats on the pavement as men in the back row continue to stand.

  Riggs and Andrew are quite impressed at this point. If there were any doubt about their organization prior to this briefing, there isn’t any now. Everything this group does is well thought out and planned. This comforts both of them in a way.

  Aaron begins briefing the men. Which lasts only for thirty five minutes. Once he is finished, he asks if anyone has any questions. Dwayne quickly raises his hand. Aaron immediately points in his direction signaling him to say his peace.

  “How many of those things out there should we expect. Do you know?” Dwayne warily asks.

  Aaron changes his facial expression and begins pacing around while holding his waistline as if he was in deep thought. “You know, that is unknown at this time. We have only had a few scouting parties drive by this area when they were identifying prospects. At the time, there was low level activity. However, there could be more. Members of the “Death’s Head�
� were also recently spotted in that area causing a ruckus so we suspect there will be more activity. After all, we all know they are attracted to sound,” Aaron says.

  “Death’s Head?” a shocked Dwayne quickly snaps back.

  Andrew and Riggs, now with confused looks on their faces, quickly chime in.

  “Who are they?” Andrew exclaims out loud.

  “There is obviously something here that we have not been told,” Riggs adds.

  Aaron, realizing what he said, now has his eyes wide open and places his head down while shaking it back and forth.

  “I didn’t want to startle you boys,” Aarons responds. Riggs becomes more persistant. “I think we have the right to know what we may be getting involved in here,” Riggs politely states.

  “You need to tell us everything please,” Andrew adds.

  The other members of Aaron’s group now feel uncomfortable and fall short of words as they look back to their leader to break it to them. “Okay listen. The Death’s Head is a biker gang. A very hostile biker gang. Especially towards us. They discovered us not too long ago and ever since been harassing us. Those signs you’ve seen on the road were not put up by us. We are trying to remain quiet and unseen out here. It’s essential to our survival. These vicious biker’s harrassment and hostility has been steadily picking up. We believe they put up those signs leading you to us to make us targets for more outlaw groups traveling on the road and people with intention to bring harm. That is why we were so cautious with you at first,” Aaron explains.

  Dwayne throws his arms up in the air in disgust as he walks back a few paces. Lance squeezes his way through the crowd to address Aaron.

  “So you’re pretty much getting us involved in a gang war?” Lance sarcastically asks.