by Kirk Withrow
Ignoring the nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that screamed for him to turn back, Montes reluctantly continued forward. He cracked his window, and the woman’s fervent pleas for help became clear.
“Help! Please! My son is trapped! Help me! He’s just a boy! Please!”
The frantic look on her face seemed incongruous with her body language, as though it were trying to mask something lurking just under the surface. While her face and voice certainly conveyed fear and desperation, her tense body—coiled like a snake ready to strike—belied them both. Slowly, it all started to clear in Montes’ mind.
As he lay on his back nervously scanning from side to side, Garza saw that the road was flanked by more elevated positions than he cared to think about. Windows of derelict buildings, rooftops, and all manner of abandoned constructions provided more potential hide spots than he could ever hope to keep an eye on. He knew he was hidden from anyone on the road, but he was completely exposed to anyone occupying the higher ground. With no cover in the truck bed, he felt like a sitting duck. They were entering the perfect location for an ambush, and the sweat beading on his forehead told him they were in for hard times in short order. Oh shit! This is not good. This is not good. He was struck by a profound sense of déjà vu as the stretch of road in his home state began to look a lot like the one in Nasiriyah, Iraq that he had tried so hard to forget.
As he was about to relay his concern to General Montes, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Although only a fleeting glimpse, he was certain he had seen someone peering out of a second story window to the left of the truck. The figure faded into the shadows before he could ascertain any further details about the person. Perceived movement from several other areas vied for his attention simultaneously, and he began to think he was imagining things until he saw the clear outline of a man lying prone on the edge of an old railroad trestle. While he could not say for sure without raising up to get a better look, he swore the man had a rifle trained on them. That would be an easy shot even if you couldn’t shoot worth a damn, and I’ve got no cover!
Sensing the time to act was now or never, Garza made his decision. Uncertain if the man on the railroad trestle had seen him, Garza popped up, placed the reticle of his holographic sight on the man’s head, and fired two quick shots. The man’s head slumped forward, and in an instant, the truck was engulfed in pandemonium as gunfire erupted on all sides. Garza and Lin dropped down, hoping to find cover, while Montes gunned the truck’s engine.
Before he managed to escape the ambush, however, a car pulled out and blocked the road just beyond where the stranded woman stood. Enraged and no longer waving, the woman wheeled around to face them, standing between the two vehicles with an assault rifle in hand. With only his eyes above the dash, General Montes saw a look of shocked terror wash over the woman’s face. It was obvious she had expected him to stop, but the roar of the truck’s engine made it clear that he had no intention of doing so.
“Brace yourselves!” General Montes bellowed, loud enough for Garza to hear him in the back of the truck.
There was a thundering crunch as the large truck plowed into the car blocking their path, riving it apart like a can opener cutting through a tin can. The impact bisected the formerly stranded woman at the waist, her face smashing against the windshield before the upper half of her body rolled over the truck’s cab. The startled look in her eyes never faded as she vanished from Montes’ field of view. Her torso, slick with blood, slid off the roof and into the bed with Garza before slamming against the tailgate with a meaty thud.
While the impact with the car slowed the truck considerably, the momentum kept them moving as the gunfire intensified behind them. Round after round plinked against the truck’s metal body as someone opened up with a burst of fully automatic gunfire. Feeling completely exposed and fearing for his life, Garza slid toward the tailgate and grabbed the woman’s torso by the hair. He pulled hard, flipping the half-corpse on top of him. Several dull thuds and a fine crimson mist told him that he managed to find cover just before several rounds punched through the sheet metal.
“Get us the hell out of here! Those shooters are chewing right through this thing!” Garza screamed. In the chaos of the one-sided gunfight, he failed to notice the truck steadily losing speed. Now, it was all but stopped. General Montes chanced a look in the side mirror and saw several figures emerging from places of concealment on both sides of the street. He knew they were not infected; their movement was too purposeful as they advanced on the truck, and they each carried a rifle.
“Garza, the truck’s shot, and I count at least five armed combatants closing on our six! You need to find cover!” Montes shouted.
“You don’t say! The truck’s shot?” Garza muttered, as he slid out of the bed and dropped to the ground. He rolled under the truck just as a string of bullets stitched a path along the pavement. Coming out on the other side, he dove for cover behind a stalled car as several more shots rang out.
Drawing his pistol, General Montes returned fire over the hood of the truck, allowing Garza enough time to get settled. In turn, Garza popped up and fired a quick burst that took out the legs of one the advancing attackers. His guttural cries of pain echoed between the buildings, further agitating the infected already converging on the sounds of the fierce gun battle.
The first pack of infected broke from between the parked cars, directly in front of two of the approaching gunmen. They fired into the group of ten, but with few headshots, it did little to slow them down. The infected fell on the two hapless gunmen just as several others silenced the man whose legs Garza had decimated.
From where she crouched in the truck’s foot well, Lin heard the collective growl of countless infected reverberating through the cab. Blinded by fear, she jumped out of the truck, intent on fleeing for her life.
“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” a gruff voice yelled from less than ten yards away.
Turning, Lin found herself staring down the barrel of a rifle cradled in the hands of a dirty man wearing a trucker’s hat and filthy coveralls. Petrified, she stood like a statue, directly in Montes’ line of fire.
Garza, who was engaging the other remaining gunmen, had not yet noticed the situation.
On instinct, Lin held up her hands as if to say, you got me, take me in. Unfortunately the deranged look in the man’s eyes told her that was the last thing he intended to do. In that instant, Lin knew it was all over. She had traveled all the way from Brazil at the cost of innumerable lives, only to be killed in a botched carjacking by a bunch of crazed, redneck survivors. She closed her eyes in anticipation of the gun blast and the blinding pain it would inevitably bring. At least this will all be over for me, finally…no more death.
After a couple of seconds passed, and still she felt no pain, her eyes slowly opened. What she saw proved more alarming than anything else she had seen in this messed-up apocalyptic wasteland. A dark blur, like that of some lycanthropic beast, leapt toward the gunman’s blind side. The ferocious snarl drew the man’s attention, causing him to shift his aim from Lin to the feral sound bearing down upon him. A single shot rang out from his rifle, but he was unable to raise the barrel up to the monster in time. The round punched through the car door directly in front of him, as the vicious creature slammed into him. The gunman was knocked to the ground and thoroughly mauled by the beast. The growls, mixed with the sound of rending flesh and the agonal shrieks of pain, left Lin feeling paralyzed. Despite the fact that the victim had been mere seconds away from ending her life, the voracity of the attack appalled her. Nobody deserves to die such a brutal death—not even scum like him.
“Charon, protect!”
Lin heard the unmistakable sound of a person’s voice coming from the same direction the beast had. While she could not make out exactly what was said, two things happened that frightened her to the core. Upon hearing the person’s voice, the beast broke into a full sprint, heading directly for her. With its massive body out of the way,
she saw the last gunman racing to the spot where the man had been mauled to death. The hairy monster lunged at Lin, knocking her to the ground just as a shot rang out from Garza’s M4.
Scrambling back, Lin stared helplessly at the animal’s bloodstained maw as it fixed her with its intense eyes. Its growls of exertion quickly fizzled out, dying in its throat only to be replaced by a soft, unmistakable whimper. The stark counterpoint to the wolfish display she just witnessed was so great, Lin wondered if the tiny sound came from one of the gunmen bleeding out on the ground beyond. Only when the animal opened its jaws wide, licked its drooping jowls, and began panting did Lin finally see the thing for what it was—a dog. At that moment, Garza and Montes appeared by her side, looking as bewildered as Lin as they stared at the imposing animal.
The big dog stood nearly three feet tall from the ground to the top of its formidable head. Its pink tongue, red-tinged with blood from the recent kill, lolled playfully out of its rectangular muzzle as though waiting for its owner to toss it a ball. Despite its seemingly nonchalant demeanor, its powerful, well-muscled body remained poised and ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. The dog’s blue coat, adorned with faint white patches on its toes and chin, bristled with energy. When the dog sat back on its haunches, it displayed a striking white mark in the shape of a sword on its chest, the tip of which ended just under its jaw. Despite the growing sound of the infected closing in from behind the huge dog, none of them dared move a muscle for fear of eliciting the animal’s wrath.
“Charon, come!”
Without batting an eye, the dog vaulted to its feet, turning on a dime as it did. It covered the distance to the figure crouching behind one of the parked cars faster than one would have thought possible given the animal’s substantial size. Its hackles went up immediately, and it let out a deep, menacing snarl as several of the infected approached the pair.
“Charon, follow!”
The figure stood and started across to the other side of the road, the dog following closely behind.
Lin gasped, “It’s a boy! That dog is with a young boy!”
“Lucky boy,” Garza said, as he drew a bead on the closest of the infected.
He fired four shots, and four of the infected went down. A split second later, the boy came running through the gap directly toward them. The reason for the boy’s change of heart became immediately apparent when the sound of the dog engaged in a fierce scuffle erupted behind him. Another group of infected had cut them off, forcing the hasty retreat.
Advancing, Garza yelled, “Kid! Get down!” As the boy threw himself to the ground, Garza and Montes took out the remaining infected not yet dispatched by the dog.
Lin ran to the boy while the soldiers kept their weapons trained on the horde of infected in the distance. While they were still far enough away that they did not pose an immediate threat, they had definitely taken notice of the noise and were steadily shambling toward them.
“We need to move now! And we need to get some quieter weapons!” Garza said.
Reaching for his arms, Lin helped the boy up despite his being nearly as tall as she. “Come with us!” she said. “We need to get away from here.”
“Wait! My Dog!” the boy cried, as he turned to look for his faithful companion. “Charon, come!”
Bounding out of the shadows, the dog seemed to materialize out of thin air. In just a few long strides he was by their side. His hair was so matted with blood and gore that it gave his coat a brindled appearance.
“Good boy, Charon! Man, do you need a bath!” the boy said as he nuzzled the dog’s enormous, slavering muzzle. He did not seem to notice the rotting, yeasty pannus and hot dog shit smell that made the normal wet dog odor seem like top-shelf cologne.
Lin’s stomach roiled at the thought of being that close to the dog, even though it had saved her life. I guess a boy loves his dog…
Rushing past them, Garza scanned the area with his weapon at the ready. “Let’s go!”
“Wait! This way. I know a safe place,” the boy said as he grabbed Lin by the hand and pulled her toward a narrow alley to the left of the street.
Garza turned to Montes, who shrugged before falling in behind them. The tight confines of the alleyway made Garza extremely nervous. With tall buildings on each side, there were only two ways in or out so it wouldn’t take much to box them in. Garza pushed ahead, trying to catch up to Lin and the boy.
The big dog was virtually silent as it ran alongside the pair. When they reached the cross street, the boy ground to a halt and pulled Lin down behind a small dumpster. After another step, Garza saw the reason for their action. A group of eight infected staggered across the road less than a block away, presumably still moving toward the sound of the gunfire and the ambush. The boy held a finger to his mouth, signaling both Lin and the dog to remain quiet. He kept his eyes on the ragged group as they continued their relentless procession. The moment they were out of sight, he stood and darted across the street into the alley on the other side, with Lin in tow. “Almost there, just a couple more blocks,” the boy said in a low whisper.
They moved in this manner for the next two blocks, cautiously avoiding the scattered infected they encountered along the way. They saw no uninfected humans. When they reached the end of the last alley, the boy pointed to a small mom and pop grocery store with all of its windows smashed on the opposite side of the street. The store’s interior was dark and foreboding, giving Garza serious reservations about heading into the building. Sensing the soldier’s apprehension, the boy said in a low whisper, “No, it’s behind the store.”
After ensuring the coast was clear, they rushed across the street and slipped around to the back of the small grocery. A rusty metal staircase that led up to an equally rusty door was fixed to the rear of the building. The paint flaked off the dented door revealing various previous colors beneath, camouflaging it against the weathered walls of the building.
As the boy tiptoed up the staircase, Garza saw why the room above the store had fared so much better than the store below. If anyone even saw the old door, nothing about it would make you want to check it out.
The boy pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. As soon as they were all safely inside, he closed and bolted it from the inside. For a moment, all was quiet within the dim room until Lin asked, “What is this place?”
“It’s the storeroom for the grocery downstairs. It belongs to Bobby’s parents. That’s how I knew where to find the key. I came here after I went to Bobby’s house and no one was there. I was hoping they would show up, but I don’t think they will anymore,” the boy said pensively.
“What’s your name?” Lin asked.
“Anthony. Anthony Obol. Most people just call me Ant,” the boy replied shyly.
“Well, Anthony. It’s good to meet you. My name is Lin San, and this is General Montes and Sergeant Garza. The General and I are from Brazil, and Sergeant Garza is with the U.S. military.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Anthony said. “Thanks for helping me back there.”
Stepping forward, General Montes extended his hand, and said, “No, son, thank you. If it weren’t for you and your dog I’m not sure we would have made it out of there.”
“Charon has kept me alive so far. I know I wouldn’t have made it without him. He’s an amazing dog,” Anthony said.
“That he is. What kind of dog is he?” Garza asked.
“He’s a corso. He was my father’s dog before…you know.”
They had all seen it before, the way the boy’s eyes dropped toward the floor as his voice trailed off, and it told them everything they needed to know.
“How old are you, Anthony?” Lin asked.
“I’m thirteen—almost fourteen,” Anthony said.
“And it’s just you and Charon?” Lin asked.
Anthony nodded, and said, “We’ve been here since the start of all this. I didn’t know what was going on but after seeing what happened to my family, as well as everything else g
oing on in the city, I knew it wasn’t safe to be out there. My parents always told me that if I ever needed anything and couldn’t reach them, I should go to the Murdock’s house. That’s my friend Bobby’s house. When they weren’t home, I came here, but the store had already been robbed and no one was here either.”
Lin saw the pain in Anthony’s eyes, and even though she had no kids of her own, she felt a strong motherly urge to comfort him. Despite the massive dog lying next to him, his keen eyes locked on the three newcomers, Lin took a chance and moved toward the boy. The dog did not react as she wrapped him in a hug, and said, “I’m so sorry, Anthony. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for you all alone here.” A sloppy, malodorous tongue slurped across Lin’s cheek, reminding her that he was not alone. Despite Charon’s overpowering breath that reeked of hot death, she couldn’t help but giggle as the tongue’s coarse texture tickled her skin. Scratching the dog’s head, she added, “I know, you’ve been here with him the whole time.” The dog let out a small bark, as if in appreciation of the acknowledgement.
As his eyes adjusted to the low light, Garza glanced around the small, but reasonably well-stocked storeroom, taking a mental tally of the resources at their disposal. Illuminated only by the meager light filtering in through the two dirty skylights, the windowless room was dim even at high noon. With night fast approaching, Garza found it difficult to see much farther than an arm’s length in front of him. In one corner he saw a makeshift pallet fashioned out of paper, bubble wrap, and an old tarp. Shelves containing surplus dry goods and other overstock from the store below occupied the majority of the remaining space. Canned goods, toiletries, basic medicine, and bottled water were among the items that caught his eye. Although useless without electricity, an old refrigerator stood against the wall opposite the boy’s sleeping quarters. Just as he was about to give up his inspections due to the darkness settling into the room, he heard a soft click as a beam of yellow light flooded the area.
“Here you go, sir,” Anthony said. “I have to use the flashlights at night since the power’s off. It’s too creepy in here when it’s pitch black.”