Etna Station

by Mark Tufo

“Things have changed,” I yelled down to him. “You can probably only see a blob from down there but this entire town is surrounded by zombies. A hundred thousand, maybe more.”

  “Not doctored?” Sanders asked.

  “Do I look like I know how to use photoshop?” Knox said to me.

  “Definitely not!” I told Sanders.

  “I’m coming up.”

  “No weapons,” Knox said.

  “Horse shit.” Sanders holstered his weapon and was with us in a few minutes. I noticed him looking pretty intently at a certain area of the map without trying to make it too obvious. I had a good idea where Kylie and Tracy were, and it didn’t look good, as the house was right in the heavy band of the undead. “So, what does this shitbird want us to do about it?” Sanders asked me.

  I didn’t think poking the psychopath was such a good idea. Knox laughed it off like they were friends and this was an old routine.

  “Alright, I’m good,” he said to his men. All of them left, like, each and every fucking one of them. “Yes, I realize there are three of you and just little old me up here, but remember, I still have members of your family, and if I were to, say, make a two-story leap from here, they would suffer some harm as well.”

  I wanted to tell him I’d take my chances, but I wasn’t interested, not at all. “Go on,” I told him.

  “Listen. Your group has been kicking my ass since we came across you. I chased you down because I wanted to make an example of those that would stand against my rise to power.”

  Sanders scoffed; Knox continued.

  “I had hoped for a quick kill and an absorption of some of your people, double win for me. When that didn’t happen, it was becoming difficult trying to justify this detour with my followers. I was trying to find a way to pull the plug on the entire operation, take who I had with me, and go back.”

  “But the zombies changed that,” I said. “So now, what? We’re just going to be one, big, cohesive, happy unit and work together for the greater good?”

  “I still want you and him dead,” he pointed to BT, “in the worst way possible, like, so much I can feel it in my toes.” It was not lost on me that he jabbed a finger into his head when he said toes. “But, you’re leaving the East Coast completely; that much I got from your man. I can live with that. I can spin it that I forced you out. You go live on your coast and I’ll live on mine. Someday, I will have power over all of this land and we will meet again, but that’s in the future. We have to deal with the present, with today. If we don’t make it out of here, how can we continue our legendary conflict?”

  This guy was certifiable, but I could play the nuts game. I’d walked that fence long enough to speak the same language.

  “Like Ali, Frasier, Tyson, Holyfield, North and South Korea, shit, even like North and South Carolina!” I said.

  “He gets it.” BT stopped me.

  “I do get it,” Knox said excitedly, that old familiar slant of insanity burning heavily through his eyes. “I don’t want to die here, this isn’t my destiny. I’m meant for much greater things; I’ve been told that.”

  I left it alone that it was only the voices in his head that had told him anything of the sort. We were playing nice, and he still had possession of my toys, so to speak, and I wanted them back all in one piece.

  “I get my people back, and then we talk in earnest,” I told him. “Hey, it’s not like I can go anywhere.”

  “I don’t like that. What’s to stop you from going it alone?” Knox asked.

  “Listen, man, I’m nucking futs, I get it. But it seems to me that you’re bringing much more to the party than I am. Not really thrilled to say it, but we need you more than you need us,” I told him.

  “Just hand him the keys to the city,” BT said. It was easy enough to tell from Sanders stance he was thinking the same thing.

  “I like the insurance of having them around; you’re very pliable this way,” Knox said.

  “Talbot, right now I’ve been assured that Knox’s head is in the sights of my unit’s best sniper. You say the word, I have him taken out, and we launch a rescue attempt for your family.” Sanders lifted his uniform to reveal three pistols in his waistband.

  “See? This is what I’m talking about. None of you ever give up. Why you don’t want to join me is beyond my understanding.” Knox lifted a small radio to his mouth. “Phillips, release our guests.”

  BT and I looked over the lip of the building as my sister, her son, Gary, Ryan, Nicole, and Wesley exited the building. Sanders had kept his eye on Knox the entire time.

  “What about Deneaux?” I asked, once I saw that Biddeford had met and then moved my loved ones away.

  Knox smiled at that. “Oh no, you can’t have that one. She’s very important to me now.” He pointed to the device. She made it perfectly clear that killing her will end this thing’s usefulness, and now that I have it, I can’t imagine how I ever survived without it. You should have been more careful. Plus, she made it abundantly clear that if I exposed her, you would more than likely put a bullet in her head.”

  “Trust me, I’d be doing you a favor. Since we’re friends and all now, I’ll let you in on a little secret. That woman isn’t a fox in a henhouse–she’s a wolf.”

  “Her? She’s a frail old woman.”

  “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that while she smokes a cigarette over your body,” BT said.

  “There was another car,” I said.

  “We found the wreck. Some blood, but no one was in it,” Knox said.

  I wasn’t so sure I believed him. It was more likely he was lying and was going to use them against me if I tried anything, or even if I didn’t.

  “How long until your reinforcements get here?” Sanders asked.

  “They’re on their way, should only be a couple of hours.”

  “What kind of weaponry do they have?” he asked.

  “So, we’re buddy-buddy?” BT asked me while Sanders and Knox talked about their arsenals.

  “You saw what I saw, right?”

  “He’ll kill us as soon as he thinks he’s safe.”

  “Naw, man, look. He’s had a change of heart.”

  “You’re crazier than him if you think that,” BT said.

  “Not really sure what to do here. If we somehow get by this horde we’ll have to deal with his whole army. He actually might think of letting us go now, but the moment he realizes he can have it all, there definitely isn’t a voice of reason that’s going to rein him in,” I said.

  “If you two Sallys are done with your little bromance, wouldn’t mind having you over here so we can discuss this,” Sanders said.

  “Sallys. Oh, how I miss the Marines and their political correctness,” I said.

  “Did he just call us women?” BT asked.

  “The Marines somehow feel it is a negative motivator to call you a woman. Now, the misogynistic person might believe that this is because women are perceived as inferior, so the Marines in question need to step up their game. But you and I both know who holds the real power; I’ll take it as a compliment to be called a Sally.”

  “You would,” Sanders said.

  “Should I repeat your stance to some other people?” I asked, referring to his wife.

  “No, we’ll just let this be between us,” he replied. “As far as our problem right now, I see that we have two options. We bluntly try to force our way through, which, even with Knox’s substantial armament is destined for failure, or we have the approaching men create a massive distraction that will draw enough zombies away that our force here will be able to weave through the opening.”

  “I’m all for the diversion, I’m just not sure it will do much. Sure, it will create a shift, but these numbers; they’ll never all go for it. They’re smart and getting smarter. They’ll send what they need to deal with the attack, but they’ve set up shop around us for a reason. They won’t so easily yield their position.”

  “You’re giving a mighty amount of credit to the deader
s,” Sanders said, clearly not giving any stock to my concerns.

  “Well, near as I can tell, they have encamped a huge horde around the entire town, effectively trapping us. They’re not moving off or through; seems pretty intelligent to me,” I said.

  “Yeah, it does,” BT echoed.

  “What about burning them…burning them all.” I could see the licks of flames in Knox’s eyes as he said this.

  “Not a good idea,” BT piped in. “It’s been tried. They don’t disperse, but rather converge. This entire town would be a forest of flames in a couple of hours.”

  Knox still looked like this was an acceptable outcome.

  “We’d be in the blaze zone,” I said, trying to get him back.

  “Is that like being in the danger zone?” BT asked.

  “You did not just pull out a Kenny Loggins reference. Listen, I realize you’re happy that some of our people are free, but really, man?” I asked.

  “Fuck you, Talbot.”

  “There’s the surly beast I know.”

  “And love” he added. “You’re supposed to say ‘and love.’”

  “Am I?”

  “Dick.”

  “Sally.”

  “You two!” Sanders shouted. “We’re in some serious trouble here. Could really use you shitbricks in this conversation.”

  “Shitbrick?” BT asked.

  “It’s a Marine Corps thing. Pretty much believes we’re incompetent,” I explained.

  “Well, he is,” BT said.

  “And you wonder why I didn’t add the last part to my statement. I’m sorry,” I said to Sanders, who looked like he wanted to punch me in the head. “It’s how I deal with adversity. I would imagine it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

  “You don’t think if I had my men get some trucks that they’d be able to force their way through?” Knox asked.

  “A few tanks, those huge mining trucks, maybe. I don’t think a semi or dump truck could do it, even fitted with a plow. It would bog down.” I’d had enough experience with trucks to know they could crush through a few cars, but not a sea of the inhumanity.

  “We might be able to find a tank or two; there are National Guard posts all along the coast,” Knox said. “Will take longer, though.”

  “For some reason, the zombies aren’t moving. I’m in favor of tanks,” I said. “Plus, it will give us some time to look for our missing people.” I was keeping an eye on Knox to see if he gave away a tell that he might be lying about their whereabouts. If he was holding them, I saw nothing that made me believe that was the case.

  “I wish it was just Trip,” BT said. “I’d be more inclined to leave him here.”

  Knox was warring within himself like he’d just remembered we were the enemy and he wanted us dead. “I don’t think I like you running around all that much,” he said.

  “You have the device; you can monitor where we go. I still need to get those of us here on board. And you’re forgetting, we’re hoping you can get us out of here,” I told him, letting him believe he was the absolute power in this equation, and he would be, at least right up until I leaked his twisted brains all over the ground. I had to. There was no way I would be able to sleep at night knowing I’d stepped aside and let him bring his own version of what the world should be like to any unsuspecting souls.

  I let the thought linger of grabbing a pistol from Sanders and killing Knox or maybe giving a nod to the sniper to do so. I could hope the house of cards he had built would come crashing down if the crazy glue was gone. But really, we were going to need him or at least his leadership to get out of here. Maybe that’s selfish; I was putting the lives of those with me and myself over the lives of countless, nameless others. But shouldn’t I be?

  “Holy fuck,” I said aloud, shaking my head, trying to erase that line of logic.

  “You alright, man?” BT asked.

  “I think I had a mind convergence with Deneaux for a second.”

  I got “the look.” You’d think BT would be used to me by now.

  “Could you show me where you saw that car?” I asked.

  He did so, it was so friggin’ weird, him being helpful, like maybe his rabies was in remission, if such a thing were possible.

  “Remember, when this is all over, you said you were keeping Deneaux,” I told Knox as I headed to go downstairs.

  “You’ll want to take this.” He handed me a radio. “I’ll let you know when my men are in position or if anything changes. Don’t make me regret that I reached across the river; I can still drown you.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” And then I went down. Still a bunch of murderous intent staring at me; maybe their boss was cool with it, but these guys had suffered the loss of friends and family at our hands. They would want payback. The thing about Knox was he was a sociopath, on top of the other dozen ailments he possessed, and for the most part, he could not bond with another, so felt no great loss when he lost one. Right now, that was working to our advantage–as long as he kept the rest of his goons in line.

  “Winters still has a shot,” Sanders said to me just as we cleared the entrance.

  “It’s like he’s daring us to,” BT said.

  “Make the call, Talbot.”

  “No, he could be lying about where Trip and the others are. Maybe Knox’s world domination plans are knocked loose when he goes, but those men back there want us dead and the only thing holding them back is the crazy man. And if that isn’t bad enough, we’re dealing with a small city’s worth of zombies that have decided to play ring around the rosy. We need him, if you can believe that.”

  8

  Mike Journal Entry 8

  “Are you guys alright?” I was so happy to see them, I was nearly reduced to tears. Relief flooded through me at seeing them all. I gave each one of them a hug and was reassured that Knox had, for the most part, been a decent captor. This guy made about as much sense as those people that used to go on the Jerry Springer show. Like, literally. I once saw an episode where they had a woman that confessed to eating four rolls of toilet paper a week. A lot of fiber, I’m supposing, but umm…well, you get it.

  BT gave my sister a hug that I thought was going to swallow her up completely–definitely weird from my perspective. Not many times that a best friend dating a sister works out too well. But these times were all about unprecedented precedence.

  “What are you doing?” my sister asked him quietly.

  “Don’t worry, I told him,” BT said.

  “Wait ‘til I tell mom you’re dating a giant. You know how she feels about interspecies romance,” I told her. My sister flipped me off, but she looked happy enough. Jesse, on the other hand, looked like he might have swallowed a whole lemon.

  “Talbot, our safe house is right smack dab in the middle of that zombie ring, and I can’t pick my wife up on the radio. That can be good and bad news,” Sanders said.

  “I’m listening.”

  “I know my wife. She saw those zombies coming a mile away, and they’re all in the bunker.”

  “The bad…?” I prodded.

  It was Biddeford that was looking a little sheepish. “I was working on the receiver in the bunker; one of the boards went down and I didn’t finish fixing it.”

  “Don’t they have one of these?” I asked, holding up the handheld.

  “I’m sure. It just won’t penetrate the concrete.” Winters finished.

  “They’ll be fine inside,” Sanders said. “Plenty of air, water, and food, but no comms. I don’t know how we can possibly get to them.”

  “We don’t, we just leave them there,” I said.

  “There are easier ways to get a divorce,” Gary said.

  “Funny. No, the zombies are here for someone in the city, don’t know who, but once we all leave, we wait until they vacate, and then double back,” I said.

  “And if they don’t move?” Sanders asked.

  “You’re a Marine; don’t over think it,” I told him. “Right now, we need
to use the time afforded us to finding Trip and the rest. Knox is either going to rethink his position or the zombies are. Either way, it’s bad news for us.”

  We made it to the crash zone just as a soft breeze picked up, bringing with it all manner of ill tidings. Maybe ill-smellings is a better way to describe it. The inside of the car was indeed bathed in a fair amount of dried, red liquid, but it was not blood.

  “Hot sauce,” I said, dipping a finger into it and smelling before wiping it away on a seat.

  “You hear that?” Winters had his head cocked to the side. I watched as others began to swivel around, looking.

  “Fucking concerts,” I said. I, as of yet, had not picked up the sound.

  “Choppers,” Sanders said. “Military.”

  “CH forty-seven F, Chinook.” It was a familiar voice directly behind me, his breath smelled suspiciously like weed and cheese. Not a pleasant combination.

  “Trip!” I turned quickly. “Are you alright?”

  “Ponch? What are you doing at the State Fair?”

  I didn’t have to ask if everyone else was fine as they were all walking toward us. My relief was palpable. Stephanie had Zach in her arms, with Tiffany, Porkchop, Sty, Melissa, and Mark following closely.

  By now we could see the machines as they flew past us on our left, heading to where Knox was.

  “What the hell?” I may have asked it, but everyone was thinking it. Two of the three choppers had landed, we could no longer see them.

  “He’s offering cover,” Sanders said as we watched.

  “What is going on?” Some part of me knew, though I didn’t want to believe it.

  “Looks like our new ally found a ride out of here. Son of a bitch,” Sanders said.

  “He had those in his pocket the entire time. So why the spectacle, then?” BT asked. “I mean, I’m glad we got our people back, but why would he bother?”

  “Because he’s a sick fuck and he’s going to watch all of us get buried together with his eye in the sky,” I said.

  “At least we know the sat schedule now,” BT said, pulling a watch from his pocket.

  I wanted to ask him why he had a watch, like, what was he going to be late for? But in this particular case, it worked out.