Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

  Andrew smiles at his comment. The bikers are now in plan view. There are more than a dozen of them, all fully armed on top of their Harley Davidson motorcycles. A black van is also seen following behind them. Andrew notices some with shotguns and assault rifles slung across their backs and wedged in between their ape hanger handle bars.

  All of them appear to be wearing German Army helmets as was used in World War II. Just about all of them appear to be sporting cut up jeans of a variety of dark and blue colors. All of them are wearing the signature black vests representing that they are part of a motorcycle club. Various patches and insignia can be seen attached to their chests and helmets including The Death’s Head symbol which was used by Adolf Hitler’s SS during the last great war.

  The bikers are now on the main strip of road which leads to the front gate. All of them drive around the obstacle which knocked out Andrew’s bus before indicating they been here before. Upon stopping at the edge of the gate, the roaring sound of motors die down before all of them come to a complete stop.

  Aaron just stands there in silence waiting for the situation to unfold. The biker who is in the lead, Deploys the stilt on his bike and hops off while the rest stay seated. One of the men in the back, whom has a boombox attached to one of his saddle bags on his bike, turns around to turn off the music which was playing ever so loudly.

  The man who is now standing in the lead of the pack, reaches behind his back and draws out a twin barrel sawed off shotgun from a makeshift holster he had slung over him. He has a long black and grey beard with a muscular build. He wears cut up light blue jeans. In addition, long sleeves of offensive and death themed tattoos can be seen going up and down both of his bulging arms.

  Andrew figures he is in his late 30’s or early 40’s. He also appears to be the only one with the patch which reads “1%”. In addition, it also becomes apparent that he is the leader of the orginization. The main clue which gave that away to Andrew was one of his name tapes which read “President” with a Ranger Battalion scroll right above it.

  The tall intimidating looking man, looks up into the watch tower as he slowly walks forward a few feet with his shotgun being held in one hand. With his free hand, he takes off his sun glasses.

  “Aaron! Aaron! Get your ass out here!” yells the violent looking man.

  His voice is horrendous, almost scary Andrew thought. That is when Aaron begins waving his arms signaling the biker leader to look in his direction.

  “I’m right here Trim Vain. State your fucking business here!” yells Aaron in response. “You know why i’m here! We have some unfinished business! But today, we can deal with another matter at hand!” the biker leader boldy states with fearlessness in his eyes

  The man, obviously known as Trim Vain, leader of The Death’s Head, now places his non-firing hand up in the air and snaps his fingers signaling his men to do something. Three of the bikers in the back quickly hop off their bikes and walk to the back of the convey where the black van remains parked.

  “What the hell is going on!” Riggs whisphers to himself forgetting that Andrew is right next to him listening. The men are seen opening up the doors to the van and pulling off two individuals with black bags attached to their heads. Their hands are bound behind their backs and tied up with rope. The bikers grab the men by the back of their necks and walk them up to Trim Vain. Once the apparent prisoners are in front of their leader, the bikers proceed to kick the bound individuals in the back of the knees forcing them down onto the pavement in kneeling positions with their heads down as they are lined up.

  “Now Aaron, I think you know who these boys are. We sure do. I don’t forget shit! You kill members of the Death’s Head, retribution follows swiftly. However, I am a nice guy. A very nice guy in matter of fact. So because I am such a nice guy, I am willing to make you a trade. How does that sound? Are you willing to do business with your old boy Trim?” the biker arrogantly sounds off in an aggresive yet confident demeanor.

  “Now you look here you son of a bitch! Your boys shot at us first! Remember that!” a now furious Aaron yells down to Trim Vain. The guard behind the Remington looks back to Aaron.

  “Come on man go easy. They got the Dulin brothers. Sherry been worried sick and thought they were dead, Aaron!” the man pleads to Aaron as he attempts to reason with his leader. Aaron tells the man to shut his mouth and keep watching.

  “Now I don’t think you understand the ramifications of your words. You even going to hear me out?” Trim Vain warns as he places the barrel of his shotgun to the back of one of the men’s head.

  Aaron now growing worried for his men’s safety, attempts to reason with the viscious biker.

  “What is it you boys want then?” Aaron reluctantly asks.

  Trim Vain now busts out laughing histerically. Everyone else in the tower are in akward silence.

  Even Trim Vain’s men, still seated on their bikes start to bust out laughing as well. Once their leader stops laughing, the rest stop as well.

  Trim Vain, with his barrel still to the back of one of the men’s head, decides to finally answer Aaron. “You know just as well as I do, there has been some crazy shit going on out here, yeah? You know with the dead walking and all and mother fuckers being eaten alive, a man can get lonely in a post-apocalyptic world. Especially a traveling man of my caliber and stature. Seems like three main essentials are growing ever scarce in this world as the days go by. You feel me Aaron?” Trim Vain sarcastically asks as he appears to be toying with Aaron.

  Aaron shakes his head in silence. “Let’s just get down to business, fearless leader. I want half your arsenal, half your fuel supply and six of your women. Pussy, guns and fuel. I know you got enough to share. If you give me those three things, you can have these brothers back. Aren’t family reunions so touching, Aaron?” Trim Vain states with a sinister grin on his face. Aaron’s eyes grow wide as he stands there speechless.

  “I’m going to smoke this cigerette. Once i’m finished, I want an answer,” Trim Vain says as he walks back to his bike and takes a seat. At that point Aaron decides to sit down on the floor and lean his back against the wall. The guards inside the tower lower their weapons and walk up to him as they begin whisphering to their leader in private.

  Riggs tells Andrew to stay put and keep eyes on them as he walks up to the group to weigh his opinion in. That is when Aaron begins yelling at Riggs for him to stay out of it and go back to his position. Riggs shakes his head in frustration and walks back to Andrew.

  “Mother fucker. Let his people deal with it then,” Riggs tells Andrew as he gets back behind his weapon. Some time goes by as they watch Trim Vain lean back on his bike placing his hands behind his head while taking puffs from his cigerette. The man looks relaxed and calm. The other two men with bags over their heads are still kneeling. Andrew can hear one of them starting to cry out loud from inside the bag.

  As a result, the bikers begin laughing as if they were getting some type of sick pleasure out of the torment of another human being.

  Trim Vain finally finishes his smoke.

  “Aaron!” yells Trim Vain as he stands up from his seat on his dark bike.

  Aaron and his guards have just concluded their meeting.

  “What’s it going to be little man?” Trim Vain taunts.

  Aaron, whom is now looking at Riggs and Andrew with regret, gives his response. “I will give you five women. Half the guns and half the fuel. Then you give our boys back and leave us the hell alone for good!” reluctantly responds Aaron in a broken voice.

  “No can do you cheap bastard. I got six captains, all of whom are horny as hell and enjoy long walks on the beach with their future wives. I can’t go sharing the fifth one. You are going to have to do better than that!” yells Trim Vain.

  Andrew and Riggs are now apalled at what Aaron just agreed to. They now place their weapons down and stare at eachother in shock.

  “Hey, what five women is Aaron talking about?” asks Andrew as his eye brow ra
ises in suspicion.

  “Not sure, but I think that I got a pretty good idea,” Riggs responds as he thinks of Linda, Tabatha, Tammy, Audrey and Cynthia.

  “Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Aaron?” Riggs yells as he stands up with his rifle at the low ready. Riggs is now contemplating drawing it on Aaron.

  “Sit the hell down Riggs,” Aaron screams back.

  “What five are you about to offer that scum bag, Aaron?” Andrew now yells.

  “We have no choice. I can’t let those boys down,” Aaron says while placing his head down in sorrow.

  “Well guess what, you can’t have them,” Riggs firmly orders. Aaron now glares at the men as his guards bring their weapons down as if they were about to draw them on Riggs and Andrew. At that moment, Trim Vain begins counting down from ten at the top of his lungs.

  “10 . . . . 9 . . . . 8 . . . . 7 . . . . 6 . . . . 5,” Trim Vain yells encouraging Aaron to give in to his will.

  Everyone in the tower now moves to the ledge to over look what is going on.

  “Give me that sixth piece of pussy, Aaron,” Trim Vain taunts as he replants the barrels of the shotgun to the head of one of the men.

  At that moment, a few of the bikers run up to the other bound man on the ground and proceed to drag him back into the black van out of sight of the tower.

  “4 . . . . 3 . . . . 2 . . . . ,” Trim Vain continues.

  “Don’t do this!” Aaron yells. “One.” The sound of the shotgun going off is loud and thunderous as it echos throughout the woodline and the compound. The man whom was kneeling with a bag over his head is now laying flat on his stomach on the pavement as blood runs out of the open wound of his neck. His head is now scattered in dozens of little places by the edge of the gate. Brain matter and flesh can be seen flying in every different direction. The pool of blood grows larger as Trim Vain wipes some of it off his leather vest.

  Seconds later, all of the bikers begin reving their motors in celeberation and begin cheering. All the guards in the towers now draw their weapons on Trim Vain and prepare to open fire until Aaron begins frantically yelling for them to stop.

  “They still got the other one. Hold your damn fire! I said hold your damn fire!” orders Aaron over the radio numerous times. Nobody shoots.

  A smiling, joyful Trim Vain looks back up to Aaron with a wide smile. He is now looking him in his eyes.

  “We’ll be back,” Trim Vain vowes before he turns around and hops back on his bike.

  All of the bikers turn around yelling and whistleing as they take off with the van in the rear once again.

  At that moment, Riggs throws down his weapon and marches up to Aaron in a fit of rage.

  “You son of a bitch!” Riggs yells as he grabs Aaron by his collar and shoves him up against the wall.

  The guards quickly tackle Riggs as a result. Andrew sees this and goes running to Rigg’s aid.

  Once he hops into the pile of embattled men, Andrew begins throwing blows at the guards in order to get them off his friend.

  “Stop this! Stop this right now!” orders Aaron as he draws his .45 on the group whom are now paused while looking up at Aaron on the ground.

  “Both of you come to my office now. We’ll talk,” orders Aaron. Riggs and Andrew rise up in silence while they stare down the guards as they exit the tower.

  An hour goes by while Andrew and Riggs work out their differences with Aaron in his office, alone. Once they finally conclude the meeting, the pair walk out of the office being greeted by Linda and the rest of the group.

  “What happened? Is everyone okay?” an anxious Audrey asks Andrew as she dashes for him the moment he steps out into the hallway. Everyone else has questioned of there own. Except for Young Andrew, who is off playing with Amy as usual.

  Riggs tells Andrew to hold off on the information. He then tells everyone to head back to their row and meet him in his cell for a meeting shortly. Linda seems concerned as usual and walks with Riggs back to their living area conversing amongst eachother.

  Aaron is seen walking out of his office shortly after the group makes it down the hallway. Andrew noticed that he appeared to be walking back to the guard tower they all just came from.

  Once everyone huddled into Riggs and Andrew’s cell and found themselves a spot to sit, Riggs went on to explain the situation.

  Once he got to the horrific part about the mock execution by the biker leader known as “Trim Vain”, all of them appeared disgusted and shocked as a result. Once Andrew explained Aaron’s selfish intentions of pawning the women of the group off, Lance immediately entered a fit of rage and tried to storm out the cell to attack Aaron. Dwayne and Andrew quickly stopped him and talked him down. At that point, Tabatha and Tammy began crying in fear of what was to come.

  Riggs calms their nerves later on, by telling them Aaron’s supposed “true” intentions, which he explained to Andrew and Riggs later on in the office. Only resulting in the peaceful resolution which has followed.

  “He assured me that he never would have done that. He was just trying to bide time. It would of gave him enough time to head back into the compound and round up as many fighters as possible and to position snipers up on the rooftops. He gives us his word,” Riggs convincingly explains.

  Dwayne, Lance nor any of the women bought it. “Yeah right. All they would have to do is send their men in here armed and force us out into the street. What could we have done? You really think they would have fought to the death for us?” a frightened Tammy exclaims.

  “Tammy is right. they wouldn’t have sacrificed their own for us strangers,” Cynthia adds.

  Riggs is speechless.

  “I don’t like this place Riggs. We can’t trust them,” Linda adds agreeing with the rest of the women.

  Tabatha stays silent, apparently now shaking. Lance attempts to comfort her.

  “So what about those bikers? The Death’s what?” Audrey curiously asks while trying to extract more information out of Riggs.

  “The Death’s Head, Audrey. They said they would be back,” Riggs truthfully admits.

  “Yeah they still have one of Aaron’s men. So it isn’t over. Nothing good is going to come of this. We should leave,” firmly states Andrew.

  Randall begins shaking his head in disagreement.

  “How can you say that! We are safe here. Hot food, showers everyday, clean clothes and security. We go out there and it’s practically a death sentence!” Randall pleads.

  “Stay here any longer and we just might get the chair,” Dwayne counters. “Dwayne and Andrew are right, Riggs. One of the ladies I was working with earlier told me about her run in with the Death’s Head. This has been going on longer than we thought. It will only get worse from here on out,” Linda reasonably states.

  Everyone at this point agrees with the exception of Randall. Riggs isn’t quite convinced yet either. “Look, a few more raids into the built up areas will bide us enough time to prepare for the road. In the next coming days if we can’t get the rest of those tires, we’ll just have to secure us a ride out there and drive it back. I’ll talk to Aaron about it. However, at this time, I told him we are still being team players. We need to stay on their good side long enough to get what we need and be out of here. As much as I hate to admit,” Riggs reasons with the group in a desperate attempt to prevent anymore needless danger.

  Everyone is silent at this point. Andrew likes what he is hearing and agrees with Riggs. Regardless of the matter, they all want out at this point. Which is good for his cause. Linda gives Riggs her serious face as she agrees with him. Riggs looks around shortly after Linda gave the go ahead and asks if anyone objects. Everybody seems okay with it at this point, of course, with the exception of Randall who wants to stay permanently.

  The next raid planned by Aaron and his men came shortly later in the week. All of the men, including Rigg’s team, were involved. One of the towns they were to hit were believed to posess a number of weapons and ammunitions still locked
away in one of the local gunshops located in the center of town near it’s police station and town hall.

  In addition, Aaron’s scouts identified a secure section of the police station where many squad cars and tactical assault vans still remained unscathed. Rigg’s made it clear to Aaron he needed to attain one of those vehicles for his group. As a gesture of good will, he gave up posession of the bus to Aaron for whatever purpose they may use for it later on down the line. Aaron agreed to all of this without any incident.

  “Do what you have to do,” he politely told Riggs once it was brought to his attention.

  Riggs realized after this raid, if everything went according to plan, maybe they would just have to do one more to grab some food and water for the road. The raiding party received their briefing by Aaron. Tactical positioning was briefed, along with duties and responsibilities. Once Aaron briefed the final last known activity in the area, the men saddled up to go hit yet another town.

  The place they were going to this time, wasn’t as far as the first one. It has been mainly overlooked for quite some time due to the major activity of the dead roaming the streets in vast numbers. Over time, they wandered off in all different direction after the “food supply” became depleted. This was Aaron’s emo. Wait for activity to die down and sweep the area for whatever they could get their hands on. Bare essentials mostly.

  It was only a thirty minute drive to the area they needed to be in. Riggs volunteered his group to search the police station for any additional weapons while the other teams hit the gun store across the street. Once they entered the town and the main down town strip, the obvious sight was ever present just like all the other towns they ever went into.

  Charred vehicles, rotten corpses, bullet riddled buildings and broken out shop windows. On the way in, only a few infected individuals were spotted still roaming the area by the roads. Aaron’s men quickly disposed of them with the front grills of their trucks. Aaron made it clear, like always, to hold fire unless absolutely necessary after learning that sound is what can attract them from miles away.