A Broken World: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller

by Andrew Lauck

  Invigorated by the sight of a town, I took off in a jog, and covered the distance quickly. I don’t know why I did that with reckless abandon. Maybe it was because I was losing it, or maybe it was my lack of foresight.

  Oak Lawn was no longer a city. There were no tall buildings jutting skyward—not that there ever had been, I don’t think. Instead, it was a fort. A ten foot wall surrounded the area inside. I scoured the exterior for an entrance, but there seemed to be none. The inhabitants were literally boxed in with no way out. I was, of course, assuming there were any inhabitants left.

  I looked around to check if I had gained any zombie stragglers from my earlier stupidity and was actually surprised to be alone. It’s sad when you expect to be followed by zombies, and you’ve been out here way too long when you almost hope there’s something with you. The key word there being “almost.”

  “Hello?” I risked calling out with my hands cupped over my mouth. No one responded, and I was about to head past Oak Lawn when I realized I had no plan. I’ve never been good with geography, so I honestly had no clue where I would be going or what I would be walking into.

  Luckily, my thoughts were broken by a scuffling sound inside the fort.

  The barrel of a shotgun emerged over the top of the wall, and an elderly-looking man with tattered clothing and a beard peeked over with it.

  “Go away. We have nothing to give you.”

  I must admit I was taken aback at that statement. Was the world really so bad that people automatically assumed that people were hostile? I mean, I hadn’t encountered many before but this was ridiculous.

  “Sir, you misunderstand. I mean you no trouble. I’ve been walking since Chicago, and I was just hoping to find a place with some honest-to-God people left. Is there any way I could just stay with you for a little while?”

  The man moved back and disappeared behind the railing. I heard a distinctly feminine voice before a woman popped her head over the rail.

  “You come on in. We’ll throw down a rope.” She smiled to comfort me, but something just didn’t feel right. Of course, that’s hindsight speaking. At that moment, I was just happy to see a living person.

  Chapter 5

  1830 Hours

  Inside the fort

  After climbing up the rope and being greeted by those overly nice people, I knew there was something wrong. The woman’s teeth were slightly yellowed and seemed more pointed than normal; the man gave off that Deliverance vibe, and there was a strange scent coming from a nearby building that I wanted to investigate. Of course, I couldn’t really do anything about it because the guy had a shotgun trained on me the whole time I was being shown to my room, but I was just glad to find some people.

  My room was pretty dark and reminded me a lot of a prison cell, which I can’t say helped the ominous feeling any. Still, there was a small lantern hanging on the wall and a bedspread in the corner, so I kept my thoughts to myself.

  Now that we’re all caught up, I sat down to dinner with the folks. The table looked nice with a floral-pattern cloth neatly laid over it. That scent, though…I needed to check it out tonight when everyone was asleep. The woman brought out a bowl of stew, and I shared an awkward look with the man before saying grace and digging in.

  There’s one thing I’ve never liked about relatives and that’s the odd question segment at every reunion. I’m a firm believer that my private life should be private, so I tried my best to skirt the topics that might trigger hostility from these natives.

  The wife, or at least I assume she was his wife, asked about my travels up to this point, and I vaguely described my journey since Chicago. I left out the gory details, though. Then the man asked who I was and what I did before the outbreak, noting my rifle when I arrived.

  “Well, I was a soldier, sir.” I didn’t say anything more because that was none of their business, and one never knew if these people were hippies that were so anti-military that they’d leap across the table and eviscerate me. This statement elicited a spell of awkward silence, so I rushed to finish eating, and offered to wash the dishes.

  The man gave me a look that spoke volumes of anger, and the wife looked shocked at the idea. My perspective shifted to thinking the husband was abusive or something at that point. I apologized for asking and walked quickly to my room, wondering if someone would stab me in my sleep tonight. There was definitely a lack of trust with these people, and I aimed to find out just what the hell is going on, so I set my rifle next to me on the floor, and kept my Sig under the pillow, closing my eyes and waiting patiently for everyone to sleep.

  After about five hours, the light in their room was out, so I slid the pistol out from under my pillow and set out into the night. There was an open clearing between me and the building I wanted to investigate, so I stayed low and jogged to the doors, glancing around to make sure I wasn’t seen. I looked down and saw that a lock had been placed on the door. That was odd.

  I briefly considered breaking it with my handgun, but then shut that thought down, since it would have been a moot point. I looked around for a key, checking under rocks, over the door frame, and in the grass. No dice. The key must have been with the man. Damn.

  Walking on the balls of my feet, I slowly made my way into their room, praying that the door didn’t squeak. Once I was in the room, I saw the two sleeping quietly in their own little corner. As I scanned the room, I hoped the key wasn’t on some necklace around his neck. Against one wall was a small jewelry stand with a mirror and a few glass containers.

  I moved across the room, carefully checking my footing to avoid weak floor boards, and peaked around the stand. Luckily, I picked the lid off of a container and withdrew a key, replacing the lid and trying to calm my heartbeat before exiting. I was two feet from the door when I heard the man stir.

  Holding my breath and reaching my hand to my belt, I turned silently to see him roll over and snort before snoring loudly. Blinking my eyes to clear my head of paranoia, I shook my head loose and left, closing the door quietly behind me. My excitement was almost as great as my curiosity as I returned to the lock and inserted the key, hoping it was the right one. The pins turn and the lock released, and I exhaled softly realizing I was holding my breath. I slipped the lock into my back pocket, and patiently opened the door, not wanting to ruin my mission this close to completion.

  The smell that washed over me was so revolting I took a few reeling steps backward and felt nauseous. I could only imagine how comically disgusted my expression was as I pulled my shirt over my nose to lessen the awful stench. It was dark inside the room since it was two in the morning, but I could make out shapes throughout the room by the moonlight shining in through slats in the roof.

  I walked into something heavy and pushed it back, hearing something grind back and forth as the thing gently swung into me again. I tried to squint and make out what the hell it is, but it was too dark. I dug in my pocket and pulled out the lighter. I didn’t want to use it in fear that it would alert the people, but I needed to know the truth.

  Flicking it open, I scrolled the flint, and the small fire lit up a limited area enough for me to realize what the swinging object is. Holding in a panicked yell, I felt my eyes widen as I was face to face with a dead man. The clear, plastic bag over his body masked the stench slightly, but the pale face and eyes rolled back in his skull brought chills along my back.

  Recovering from my fear, I realized the bastard was missing most of his body as he hung from a hook in the wooden roof. Rotating the lighter around with me, I felt the blood leave my face. A dozen bodies surrounded me like there was a special on bagged meat at Wal-Mart. My stomach wretched, and the nausea hit an all-time high, but I tried to maintain a numb feeling as I pressed further back.

  I don’t know how many bodies I gently pushed aside as I made my way to the back half of the room, entering through a doorway and finding a mostly empty room, but I somehow managed to do so. Dried blood caked the floor and some of the walls in splattered patterns,
and in the back of the room was a steel table. Curious, I took a few cautious steps forward, holding the lighter out in front of me in one hand as I pulled out the Sig and aimed it ahead of me. The cold steel in my palm gave me a sense of comfort, and I felt my body relax a little.

  Horrified at what I found, I resisted the urge to vomit. A girl was strewn on the table, her limbs bound by leather. Her clothes were in a pile next to the slab making me wonder what these people did. At that point, the film Deliverance came to mind in a surreal, awful way. The oddity that bothered me most was the presence of a gag in her mouth. If she were dead, there would have been no need for a gag, right?

  Hesitantly reaching forward, I checked her throat for a pulse with my gun-hand. Her eyes popped open, and I saw a scream coming, so I fought the urge to jump back in terror and whispered a pleading shush. She regarded me with obvious fear, and I knew she must have thought I was with the insane couple, so I held up my gun and put it away slowly as a sign of good intention. Her eyes followed each movement, but I noticed her head slightly nod as I brought up my empty hand.

  “I’m going to take out the gag, okay? Please don’t scream, or they’ll hear you.” I reached forward and untied the gag behind her head, the suspense in the air thickening as I expected her to scream her lungs out. But as the cloth fell to the floor, she licked her lips and glared at me.

  “How do I know you’re not just a plant?” Once again, I was confused. Seemed to be a recurring trait these days.

  “What?”

  “You know. They send you in here, get me to trust you, you lead me somewhere to play their little game, and then you all kill me.”

  “Look, lady, I don’t have a clue what the fuck you’re talking about. I just got here this afternoon, broke in here, and found you tied up. If you don’t trust me, fine, but I can’t just leave you here.” I pulled out my knife and reached down to cut the bonds when I heard a gun being cocked near my ear.

  Closing my eyes and cursing myself for not paying more attention, I slowly turned my head around to stare down the twin barrels of a shotgun held by the deranged man. He smiled and revealed his own set of disgusting, pointed teeth.

  “Stranger, I don’t know who you think you are, but you know too much. Now, I’m just gonna have to kill you.” In one swift motion, he snapped the gun up and slammed the stock into my forehead, sending me to the ground. I retained consciousness long enough to hear the girl scream and see the wife standing in the doorway before the heel of a size twelve boot sent me to sleep.

  Chapter 6

  I woke up and everything was blurry. I felt tension on my arms, and my wrists were chafing, so I looked up and squinted to make out chains on a hook in the ceiling. Damn hillbillies wanted to serve me up for dinner. So after a few minutes of headache-worthy vision, and the sense I was on the set of Deliverance, I managed to blink enough to make out the dark room.

  The scent was familiar, and the moonlight drifted in through slats in the hastily-constructed roof. As my head pounded like a dozen tiny hammers were being smashed against my brain, I realized I was in a second building for harvest. I asked myself how many poor bastards were stashed in this place, but didn’t have the luxury to care as I heard a gruff voice talking outside. Being in the back room of the building, I couldn’t make out anything they were saying, so I continued to examine my cozy little cell.

  Something moved in the corner, and I tensed, wondering if the chained girl from earlier was a trap. Still, I risked a conversation.

  “Who’s there?” Chains rattled, and I heard a brief whimper.

  “Wh…where are we?” The female voice was the same, so I assumed they had moved me and the girl to another area of the fort that I hadn’t had time to see. That realization sucked because it meant I had no clue where I was.

  “I have no idea, but I know we can’t stay for dinner.” I reached up and tested the chains, jerking them to see how much stress they could take. They felt rusty, but they held. The hook in the ceiling however shook, and dust sifted down.

  “I’m guessing you’re not with them?” She was just full of bright ideas, and her tone wasn’t helping my frustration.

  “Look, as you can see we’re in some serious shit here, so once I figure out how to leave, if you want to go on your own, you’re more than welcome to. Until then, please let me just focus on busting out of here.” I felt kind of bad for snapping at her, but in my defense, I was being pushed to the breaking point. I mean, were zombies not bad enough? Now I had to deal with cannibals? Time passed as I continued to test the hook, yanking on it and watching the dust fall all around.

  “My name is Katherine, Kat for short. I wasn’t trying to accuse you.” She sounded scared, and I did feel bad, so I gave the kid a break.

  “Eric. As much as I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, the situation isn’t exactly my ideal meeting spot.” I exhaled as defeat sank in, realizing I wouldn’t break the ceiling. “I’m sorry about yelling.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, her tone becoming more understanding. “I’m sorry I got you into this.” That made me laugh.

  “Kat, you didn’t get me into anything. My own damn curiosity got me here.” I shrugged even though she couldn’t see it. “I’m kind of glad I did, though. I’ve been out there alone for so long, it’s nice to have someone to talk to again.”

  Kat was about to talk, but someone opened the front door, and I heard heavy footfalls approaching so I told her to act asleep. I did the same, but kept one eye trained on the door in my peripheral vision. A woman walked in, and I noted that she wasn’t the wife. This woman wore a scowl on her horrendous face, and I could smell cooked meat on her clothing.

  She walked over towards me, so I shut my eyes. I heard her sniffing my neck, and then I felt her smack my face. Needless to say, I perked up quick.

  “Ow! What the hell, lady?” I worked my jaw, feeling the sting of her hand. The woman had one heck of a backhand.

  “Shut your mouth, boy.” She slapped me again. “You’ll speak when spoken to.” I almost opened my mouth again, but caught myself and obeyed for that moment. “That’s better.” She patted my cheek, and I grimaced at the thought of where that hand had been. “Will anyone come looking for you?”

  “Why would I tell you anything?” I looked her dead in the eyes. I grinned and glanced around. “Love what you’ve done with the place, by the way.”

  Smiling and revealing a set of disgusting teeth, she walked over and smacked Kat, who screamed. I shouted, “No,” but the woman brought out a small knife and cut into Kat’s shoulder.

  “No! Stop it! Dammit, bitch, stop! I’m alone! Please…” I trailed off and saw the pained tears dripping from Kat’s eyes, soaking the dry wood floor. The woman stopped and walked back over to me, that smile still on her face. She brought the knife up to her lips and licked the blade, chuckling.

  “Good boy.” She put the knife away and flicked my neck. “I could just eat you up.”

  “Try me, bitch. I swear to God I’ll kill you.” The woman frowned, but I ignored it. I glanced over her shoulder and saw Kat crying. “Hey, stay with me, Kat.” The woman looked over her shoulder and back to me.

  “Been making friends, I see.” She pulled back out the knife. “Maybe I’ll carve her up nice and fresh for breakfast. Won’t that be nice?” She turned around, and I heard Kat rustling her chains, trying to get away. I jerked on the chains and strained my muscles, pulling myself up as the chains dug into my wrists. I wrapped my legs around her neck and squeezed, crossing my ankles in a vice that brought her to her knees in seconds. Once she was passed out, I flipped my legs up and clamped onto the hook while I slid the chains off and grabbed the hook with my hands to gently step onto the floor. No reason to alert anyone camped outside.

  I picked up the knife and gripped the woman’s hair, tilting her head up and leaning down to her ear.

  “Rot in Hell you sick bitch.” I stabbed the knife sideways into her neck, severing the arteries and pushed out through t
he trachea. She gasped for air as the blood left her throat, and her eyes glazed over. I stood and walked over to Katherine, kneeling next to her and cutting the rope that bound her. She held her face and cried, leaning into me with her good shoulder. I glanced at the wound on her other shoulder, checking to see if it needed stitches. Luckily, it wasn’t a deep cut, so it would heal on its own.

  “What do you say we get the hell out of here?” She nodded against my chest, and I felt her wet tears against my shirt, but I helped her to her feet, and I walked over to the doorway, checking the next room. It was clear, but the hard part would be getting out of the fort alive.

  Chapter 7

  I figure I should take a moment here to explain something to anyone who happens to find this. Given, that probably means I’m dead, and I can’t say I’m relishing that thought, but I guess it was bound to happen someday. Anyway, from the time we made our break to when I’m finally getting time to write this, things only got harder. I wish I could say that what happened next was a work of fiction, that it was all some horrible dream, but I’d be lying.

  Kat was stronger than I gave her credit for. She wiped away her tears and asked me if I was wearing two shirts by any chance. It hadn’t occurred to me that she was still naked from when I first found her, and neither of us wanted to check the dead woman. I removed my long-sleeve shirt and held it out, barely able to see my own arm in the dim-lit room. Though I couldn’t see anything anyway, I averted my eyes out of respect and walked into the next room to make sure we wouldn’t be assaulted again.

  I felt a hand on my back and almost brought up the knife on a reflex, but reminded myself I was no longer alone. It would take some time to get used to having a partner again.

  We moved through the empty room feeling the walls as we went. I kept the knife extended out front, mostly to avoid looking like an idiot and running into the door. The room was twelve feet long before we had to turn. I felt a slight gap between boards and moved my hand up and down to locate hinges. On the other side of the door I heard a slight breeze that carried the conversation of two men. I knew the one as the man who let me into the fort earlier that day. The son of a bitch was about to find out what a mistake he made.