1
New Day, New Setbacks
i
____The endless road came and went, came and went, like a sprawling river of pavement. Only the occasional bump in the road sent life jumping into Thomas’ nerves, reminding him that what lay beyond the windshield wasn’t just a projection on a screen. They were really moving, had been moving for a long time now, and the surreal and repetitive nature of it all let him dip into memories in the pause that followed real victory. He was still adapting to what had transpired that day, and was drifting into the monotony of the road while the others in the car continued to celebrate.
____He ought to remain vigilant, but the way was clear, and he’d earned a worn smile if nothing else. It clashed with his reminiscing on the past, a silent thank you having turned into a long-winded vigil for the dead, the present hardly winning over regrets of years ago. Only the sudden onset of noise in the sky snapped him out of it.
____Helicopters. Thomas watched them pass flying in the rear-view mirror, a cluster of five out in the far distance. He wondered if they were with VACC, out furiously searching for them on Nazar’s orders. But that wasn’t a chance he was willing to take right now. Nazar’d had plenty of chances to fetch this cure himself. Thomas kept driving.
____Everyone else was still talking: loudly, giddily. Their victory was a social one, too busy and excited to dwell on anything else. Thomas’ own recent thoughts had been too somber: he wasn’t in the mood to join them.
____Gene was beside him in the passenger seat, head and shoulder too close to Thomas as he constantly leaned and looked to those in the back, recounting his experiences with still-unbelieving eyes. “Okay, okay, real talk…” He jested loudly as he spoke to the two girls in the back, “How much do we sell this cure for? It needs to be a lot, and divisible by eight.”
____“Shut up!” Stacey giggled. She was behind him and in equally high spirits: kicking at his seat as he continued. Both of them were acting like children.
____“Stacey! Stacey.” Gene deepened his voice, “
Stacey…”
____“What?”
____“How much? Remember: divisible by eight.”
____She smiled at him, “By seven. You didn’t do anything! You never do anything!”
____“I’m in shock.
La femme has no respect for noble Admiral Gene. Even being an extra body to distract the zombies doesn’t count?” He sighed and shook his head, “All right, then. You’ve convinced me. Next time I’ll make the ultimate sacrifice. I’ll die so that everyone can live. And you’ll cry, Stacey. So much.”
____She kicked his seat again, “Don’t even joke about that sort of thing! Lid it!”
____“Kids, kids…!” Brooke spoke up. She was quieter, vigilant to guard the vial she held in her hands. Still full of smiles and cheer just the same as them, banking on her optimism to the fullest, but certainly less loud about it. She frequently looked to the rear-view mirror, Thomas looking back at her in silent understanding.
____He was probably letting their met gaze linger too long, focus needed for the road ahead. But Brooke’s eyes drew his attention further. They were happy, but both tired. He could feel it, merely offering her a nostalgic half-smile in place of words. She smiled back, clutching the cure tightly. Saying without words,
We did it. We made it.
____Revving engines broke their silent hold, the Humvee behind Thomas carrying the other half of their group suddenly picking up a burst of speed. It overtook their vehicle and slid into the other lane, catching up and then matching their speed.
____The driver’s side window went down and Cpl. Thorn leaned out gesturing to Gene and shouting something loud yet blurred under the speed and closed windows of Thomas’ own Humvee. Something was up. He snapped Gene and Stacey out of their yappy banter as he rolled down the passenger side window, “Hey, quiet, heads up…!”
____Thorn meanwhile struggled to keep the other car straight, nearly squished by his comrade Header leaning over him and shouting even louder. The voice was clear now, “Pull over! Stop the car!”
____“What?!” Gene shouted back.
____The Sergeant grimaced fiercely, “
Pull over! Get out!”
____“What?! Why!?” Stacey protested, more to Thomas than the soldiers, looking to him for answers. He only bit his lip, knowing that they hadn’t been on the road long enough before making this sudden stop.
____Header’s voice remained loud and dire, “
Do as I say!! Hurry!!”
____“Sh*t…!” It would take a lot of things for Thomas to disobey one of the Sergeant’s orders. The man was a chunk of rock to be sure, but damn if he hadn’t reliably saved them all several times over thus far. He quickly braked, only being gradual enough to comfort his passengers, then parked the car and got out. Already Thorn had done the same right next to them. He looked grim too. Thomas bit his lip harder, “This better be good.”
____The Corporal waved them over, “Come on, come on…!”
____Header was already jogging off to the right of the road. The last of their surviving group, Reed and Jaxson, were right behind him. Thomas ushered Brooke out of the car, cure still in her clutching hands, and sent his own passengers in that direction.
____The way sloped down gradually and quickly met a wall of trees and bushes leading who-knew-where. In everyone was piled, Header only shushing any words or noise. Thomas said nothing as he went in last—only grunting at the mild scraping of the bushes against him. The most he could gather was from Header’s already-drawn M16 rifle. His hands weren’t shaking, but his thumbs did lightly scrape along the black plastic body of the weapon: a nervous habit of some sort. He silently watched the road.
____“(What are we doing…?)” Thomas finally whispered.
____Jaxson was the closest to him, “(I don’t know. The two of them suddenly freaked out.)”
____More silence. Stacey scowled and tugged at one of the many straps on Header’s armor, “Hey…! Dammit, why are we just sitting here?!”
____“Shaddup!!” He snapped at her, making her flinch and back off. The Sergeant cooled his jets and instead pointed upward, “...Quiet… Listen…!”
____Blades spinning. Everyone laid low as they could in the dense foliage. Thorn and Header, the most camouflaged of the group, laid and rested their backs against the bushes, keeping their eyes skyward and their rifles tight in their hands.
____The cluster of five black helicopters reappeared overhead, flying in no particular formation. They moved northward and turned west once above the road, three of them slowing and circling the abandoned vehicles while the other two continued on ahead.
____“...Damn…!” Header barely mouthed the word, watching the flying machines as they swerved about surveying the scene. Dust and leaves kicked madly in the air about them as they slowly circled, not four feet off the ground at their lowest. One took off overhead further down the woods beyond, while another swung and seemed to look back into the treeline. Looking for them. Header stayed still as a tombstone. The airborne vehicles weren’t of a model he recognized, being slightly larger than Little Bird copters, and armed similarly.
____“What do you make, old man?” Thorn finally whispered, or the lowest one could talk without being drowned out by the din of the aircraft.
____“They ain’t ours, kid.” Header replied. He glanced at Gene curiously peeking out on the other end of the brush, reaching out and shoving him back, “Stay down!”
____“What is it?” Brooke asked him, “Who are they?”
____“Don’t know, ma’am. But they’re armed. Ain’t one of our birds—idn’t marked—and ain’t no way in hell there’s any spare transport copters out here in the middle of nowhere.”
____Thorn subtly gestured westward, “Probably friends of that Elias guy back at the lab. Maybe looking for us now. We need to get the hell out of here. Wait for them to leave, or try to get deeper into the forest. Don’t get spotted or we’ll get shredded by those guns.”
____As if on cue, the two remaining aircraft slowly lifted higher into the air. One turned and flew off while the other continued circling the Humvees. As it did so it fired upon them, a terrible buzzing of bullets shot too rapidly to individually track. Windows shattered and holes tore all through the hood and body of one car and then the other, the copter strafing both several times with liberal amounts of gunfire before turning and flying off as well. Bullet casings clattered generously onto the pavement, glinting in the daylight as they rolled about.
____“...Whew!” Jaxson uncovered his ears as the gunfire and roaring rotors finally ceased, “Sh*t!”
____Everyone gradually got to their feet. While most of them grimaced, Reed had instead chosen to scowl, “Sh*t is putting it lightly. We’re not even a damn hour out of that damn place and we’re already sh*t outta luck and sh*t outta cars a-goddamned-gain! I shoulda known we were still half-past-porked even with the cure in hand. C’mon, we oughta—”
____“Quiet!” Header barked at him, “I’m gonna check the cars. Reed’s right about one thing: I’ll be hogtied and goddamned b’fore I hafta walk cross-country again.” He crept out into the open and while all watched with baited breath checked the vehicles thoroughly, “It’s a no-go, Kid. We’re wheelless in the middle o’ nowhere.”
____Thomas frowned, “We should get out of here fast. This place is dangerous.”
____Jaxson shook his head, “It’s a heck of a long walk back to VACC. It was a long drive.”
____Thomas pointed east, “We still got the general heading. We only need one ride along the way and the cure’s back to safety.”
____Reed scoffed, “Relying on dumb luck, pft.”
____Brooke bit her lip as she watched the bickering. She had been ready to rest, cure safely cradled in her hands even now, comforted with the notion of success after the many weeks of continuous death. But it’d been yanked out from under her. So soon too.
____“Guys…” She spoke up, reluctantly at first, “Maybe we should head back to the lab.”
____Stacey gawked at the suggestion, “Are you nuts?!”
____“No!” Brooke snapped back, “...But… well, we left the limo back there. It’s a car, isn’t it?”
____“Sorry, but no.” Header told her, “That place was sweatin’ out zombies from its every pore. I got six bullets left in Missy-16 ‘ere. It’d be a long walk back just to git eaten.”
____“But Header! Maybe they’ve dispersed. And Elias must’ve had a car, right?”
____“If them copters are friends of his, they’ll be around there too. It’s too dangerous.”
____Brooke stared at the ground, “But it feels wrong to leave them all behind like that!”
____Thorn raised an eyebrow, “Them? …Oh.”
____“Slip of the tongue.”
____The Corporal patted her shoulder, “We can’t do anything more for Shelley and Stanley, not more than we already did, and not more than we’re already doing by getting this cure
away from that place. Not closer toward it. Okay?”
____“...Yeah…”
____Thomas shrugged at the inevitable conclusion, “Shoot. So further into these woods then?”
____Header nodded, “Yup. We’ll need the cover of these trees. At least ‘till them copters have moved on for good. Come on, move it. I want this setback to only be temporary.”
____Not a few steps in and Jaxson already yelped and pointed at movement within the woods, “Sh*t! Zombie!”
____Lumbering between the trees was a lone undead, mouth agape and arms dangling limply. One of its hands looked like it was about to fall off, and its torso had several wide gashes along it, as if it had been mauled by a bear. Slowly it staggered out toward the living, outstretching one arm.
____“Relax. It’s just the one.” Header said, “Slow one too. Come on, into the woods. Southeast seems like the best direction.”
____“Into the woods? That’s where it came from. There might be—
SH*T!” Jaxson jumped and covered his ears as Reed casually raised his rifle and blew the zombie’s head off without warning, “What’re you thinking?!”
____Reed shrugged, “What?”
____“…The noise. There might be more of them in there.”
____“Uh huh.” Reed agreed plainly as he trudged into the forest, again slinging his rifle over his shoulder. Header didn’t chew him out, just going that same way with his weapon drawn. Where he went all the civvies followed by default, as they all cautiously crept into the woods.
ii
____There wasn’t much time to argue or complain, the newfound sense of danger getting everyone in gear. Survival ever remained the most important factor. Thomas didn’t much like the way things were going, but he more than gladly got to his feet and followed the Sergeant. There were the undead of course, then that Elias guy, and now these helicopters, all within a few miles’ radius. Their group was in bad company. If they all died before getting back to VACC it would have truly been all for nothing.
____The eight of them trudged through the woods, taking slow detours around every odd zombie that popped up amongst the trees. They were sparse and slow, but Thomas still couldn’t help but be alarmed at their numbers given how middle-of-nowhere this place was. Perhaps these were from the lab. There’d been a perpetual army in that facility, and some might have been trickling out of there into the neighboring lands for quite some time. Hopefully most of the “special case” zombies had stayed at home.
____“Why aren’t we shooting them?” Stacey muttered to him as the group moved around yet another zombie.
____Thomas could only shrug, “Saving ammo, I guess?”
____“You guess?” She frowned and stared at the lonely creature staggering about after them, “I know we can outpace them, but how are we gonna sleep with all of these out here?”
____“Very carefully.” He replied, glancing to her. She looked genuinely fatigued with them having to ditch their rides, so he tried to cheer her with some of that levity she was so fond of, “Not it for night watch.”
____She only smirked, but that was something, “Yeah, not it for me either. Walking all day, sleeping on dirt and rocks… it’s just like the good old times. I wanna go home.”
____Thomas smirked back. She’d finally settled: the beginning of the zombie apocalypse was the Old Times, and the science facility of VACC was Home. They’d managed to claim some form of comfort and familiarity by climbing their way up to transportation and then shelter. They didn’t do half bad.
____“Yeah.” He agreed, “Just like old times. Don’t worry. We’ll be back with the rest of the family soon enough, Sis.”
____It seemed to amuse her just a bit, thinking of each other as siblings. Yes, they were a family. And families needed to be together, so they needed to return to VACC in one piece. Abbey and Miles were probably missing them right about now.
____“Miles.” She said aloud, half to herself, a smile returning to her face, “He’s got a big fluffy bed right now. It’s not fair. We’ve gotta get to VACC so I can slap him.”
____Thomas smiled too. Now there was that Stacey-branded fire.
____The group traveled for several hours without much of anything going on. The zombies didn’t wane much in number, a reminder that they were always on the clock while the sluggish undead slowly pursued them. The sun was at the brink of beginning to set, the sky just about to turn the corner to darker colors.
____Despite this they were still surrounded by woods and dead foliage, no signs of civilization in sight. Thomas was beginning to wonder if they’d stumbled into a forest too big for their britches, here to get lost and turned around in their simple endeavor to evade the copters. They wouldn’t likely be found in here, but he wasn’t convinced that meant they were safe. That cure Brooke had did the world no good out here.
____Finally Thorn halted dead in his tracks and raised one arm, hand clenched in a fist. Header stopped but everyone else kept trudging onward. The Corporal rolled his eyes and quietly snapped at them, “Stop!”
____“What?” Jaxson asked, “What now?”
____“Quiet! … Listen…” The Corporal said. It was very quiet here, nearly silent once the crunching of leaves and twigs under their shoes had ceased. Save for the rustling of the trees in the soft wind, and the faintest humming of… “Can you hear it? It’s water.”
____Running water, indeed. The bubbling of some stream, perhaps. But there wasn’t one in sight. It’d have to be bigger than some meager creek to be so audible from out of view, surely. The Corporal turned and began to head in its direction, everyone cautiously following close behind.
____Sure enough, there was the makings of a river not far from their location, the greenery soon giving way and revealing the large channel before them. Gene simply put his hands on his hips as he beheld the snaking body of water, “Well, look Brooke: a brook.”
____“Ah, I dropped my e.” She replied dryly, turning to Thorn, “What’d you make of it?”
____“I make infinite source of fresh water,” He replied, “and direction. Rivers lead places. Cuts off any undead on one side of us too.”
____“Corners us by that same logic.” Thomas refuted, eyeing the distance to the shore opposite. About twenty feet at its narrowest here.
____“We can swim across if the worst comes to the worst. It’s a road to follow, and the canopy of the trees is still right over us if those copters come back.”
____Header nodded his approval, “Kid’s right. Let’s keep moving. And stay hydrated.”
____The two soldiers quickly refilled their canteens and any other spare containers they were carrying on behalf of the civvies, and heartily encouraged anyone else to do the same, Header assuring them he’d boil it all later when he had time. Gene for one didn’t care that much about waiting, finding the water to be clear and cold and good enough to drink right then and there. He slaked his fill, then splashed his face, ran cupped hands through his messy hair, then just downright let himself fall in.
____“Whew!” He surfaced and trembled, joy and pain crossing his face at once, “Yow, that’s cold! Oh, but it’s great to get all that muck off my skin!”
____Jaxson shrugged and followed his lead, diving in as Gene shivered his way back out.
____Stacey frowned at him as he approached, “Great, now you smell like a wet dog!”
____“I’m not the one who’s still got zombie blood on me.” He said, “You should try it. It’s great!”
____“No way. Not with all of you watching.”
____Thorn only wet his hair with the water, getting back up and motioning to keep moving as soon as he was done, “C’mon. Let’s follow downstream.”
____They trailed the river down its southward flow, finding it to be waxing as they went. Nightfall came quickly, and the Sergeant ducked away from the river for only a few short seconds. He returned, tucking his thumbs into his belt as he addressed everyone, “Should be safe enough to camp. But I want a small fire an’ the means t’ put it out quick, case those copters come back. Understand?”
____“I haven’t heard anything all day.” Jaxson said, “Are you sure they’re still around?”
____“I dunno, but I don’t wanna push our luck. Not with that one fragile vial over there in our hands.” He nodded at the cure still held safely by Brooke, “They know we abandoned the cars nearby. We’re gonna play everything real conservative ‘till we git back to base. Small fire, got it?”
____“Yeah, yeah.” Reed stooped and began scraping out a fire pit. He’d seen pike leaping from the river as they trudged, and he wanted to kill one and cook it to impress the girls.
____“Well.” Gene rose to his feet as everyone quietly dawdled making their fire, “I’m going to have a look around. I need to p*ss.”
____“That’s great; thanks for sharing!” Stacey replied, but he seemed to interpret her overenthusiastic smile and nod as genuine, returning the expression before aimlessly wandering off.
____It wasn’t so dark out that he couldn’t see, Gene keeping an eye lazily peeled for movement in the forest as he walked. Part of him also wanted to make sure there wasn’t any trouble lurking around farther than what Header had checked out. Make himself useful, so to speak. He was pretty inherently lucky outside of the pursuits of women and work—he knew that—so perhaps he’d make for a good slippery scout.
____A satisfying distance from the others, Gene took his leak. Something caught his eye past the tree he was blankly staring at, something white far in the distance. It was partially hidden amongst dirt and foliage, but its color made it stand out in the dark. Gene raised an eyebrow, “Well, what have we here?”
____He cautiously approached, wondering if it was some sort of dead animal curled up. Getting close, he could see that it was a large trash bag—or something similar to one. It looked old, like it’d been there for quite some time. Gene frowned; there wasn’t anything around here for miles as far as he knew, and it seemed a strange place to litter. Probably the closest thing around was the lab all the way back down the road.
____Hmm, the lab… Perhaps this was from there, discarded… or
stashed. There was a chance, however remote, that there could be something of value in there. Something biologically dangerous, sure, but perhaps it might be useful instead.
____He was willing to hedge on risk. Why else did he leave VACC at all if not for chance? Carefully Gene reached to open it, unsure if he should expect anything but garbage inside. Perhaps a curled up zombie was waiting in there to spring at him, or perhaps it was filled with cash. He genuinely had no idea.
____Opening the bag, Gene was greeted by long-since-faded skin. What exactly it was he couldn’t say, so he pushed his luck a bit further and opened the bag more.
____The initial flesh he’d seen was an arm, but the unfurled garbage bag revealed it to be alone: cut off. There were more…
people parts that’d been chopped up as well. The corpse was in pieces, stuffed tightly into the bag with nothing else save for tattered paper towels around the base. It appeared to be a woman, uninfected. Possibly dead before the outbreak judging by the decomposition.
____Gene backed off and began coughing from the sight and smell, “Oh, God! God!”
____He stood back and leaned against a tree, wheezing desperately. It took a great amount of stamina to recover and look back at the body, only for him to fall back into the coughing fit.
____“Guys, guys!” He didn’t know why, but he needed other people to see, turning and running off.
____Reed had caught and killed his fish by the time Gene returned, mood soured at the Sergeant calling him a marksman and viciously arguing with the others that it didn’t smell bad, and that he was preparing the shot mauled thing perfectly over the fire. Gene stumbled into the conversation, catching his breath between sentences.
____“You guys! …Guys…! I found a dead body.” He panted.
____“…Thanks for sharing?” Jaxson said, confused.
____Gene slowly recovered his breath, “I think I’m traumatized.”
____Header seemed to take it seriously, taking his rifle and rising to his feet, “Corporal, on me. We’ll go check it out, son. Which way?”
____“That-a-way.” Gene pointed, “In a white bag. About so many paces off.” He slumped back down by the fire, looking rather glum.
____Brooke frowned at him, feeling bad for him having to stumble across something so macabre. There was something cursed about this general area, she could tell. Not just the lab. She looked skyward. There the winged moon loomed up above them all, huge and full. It had watched them all suffer the last few months, all sorts of strange occurrences happening under its light. “It’s okay, Gene.” She told him, sitting next to him and patting his back, “It’s going to be okay. Just focus on making it home.”
____“Yeah…”
____Brooke kept patting and sighed silently. She clutched the cure in her other hand, not having let go of it since she stole it from the lab all those hours ago. She’d sooner die than let go of it now, knowing all the potential it represented.
____You’re not going to win. She thought, speaking to that strange evil nothing that permeated the air on nights like this under the winged moon,
We’re going to endure this all together.
____Header stooped down examining the corpse, reaching out his rifle and poking it carelessly, “Uh huh. That’s a body, all right.”
____Thorn frowned at the sight, “Doesn’t seem tied to anything going on here.”
____“Aye, kid.” The Sergeant grimaced, “Just is what it is. Murder victim if I had to wager a guess. Incidental, unrelated to the lab.”
____“Poor woman. I hope whoever did it’s not still out there.”
____“Probably is.” The senior soldier paused, “Well, probably isn’t after the outbreak.”
____Thorn shrugged, “Good for the outbreak then.”
____“Thank Apostle, kid?” Header snarked.
____Thorn heard shouting and splashing in the direction of the campsite. People: alive, playing. He looked back at the dead body in the darkness and sighed, “You got me there.”
____“Gah, it’s just a bad omen. Don’t mean nothing more to us. Let’s bury this gal real quick. It’ll be less painful than trying to gulp down whatever’s left of that fish Reed blew away.”
____“We do seem to get omens a lot these days.” Thorn glanced skyward and then back down at the body one last time before they set to work.
____Maybe Header was right about it being a sign. After all of Elias’ predicating this was an unfortunate reminder that the old world was still a cruel one. And indeed after fighting off the Apostle enforcer and fleeing the helicopters, it was also a sign that there were more than zombies that would pose a threat to humanity. What if they did actually get the cure to VACC? There’d still be those people out there, possibly concocting another biological terror even if their first was thwarted. The Corporal grimaced at the thought.
____No. He’d stop them, even if the cure couldn’t. He’d stop them the hard way, the time-consuming way—the way he’d always done it. One at a time if he had to. Starting with Alex Silvin, ending with whoever just happened to be last. But first the zombies had to be stopped. That way the civvies at least could rest and sleep peacefully like they were supposed to, while he did the work protecting their living and avenging their dead.
____“Okay,” He said, stooping down to the earth, “Let’s do it.”
____The two soldiers set to tearing up the soil, both used to hasty improvised digging. The body went in and was covered just as fast. While Header stamped the earth down, the sound of shouting caught his attention.
____In raced Gene, waving them back, “Guys, guys! Come back quick! It’s an emergency!”
____“Again?! Yer leadin’ us all over today. Kid, back on the clock.” Header barked, nodding in that direction and jogging off. Thorn only started to follow him as a gesture, stopping after the first few steps. He turned to the tree by the spot they’d buried the woman at and drew his knife, quickly cutting words into the bark.
____NOT FORGOTTEN.
iii
____Things happened while the two soldiers were gone.
____Thomas paced about nervously while everyone sat around ruminating on the day’s events. He’d been miraculously hopeful on the road earlier but had soured every hour since then. VACC seemed an eternity away, and he just knew that circumstances would find a way to come together like conspirators in order to ruin all their hard work.
____They were like a turtle on its side right now. He checked his gun: Cecil’s old M9 pistol that had carried him this far. Only three bullets remained in it right now, the rest having been poured into zombie after zombie back at the lab. This was the first he’d checked its contents since before going in there. Three more expenditures and he’d have fired blanks right into a zombie’s gaping mouth. That close to dying unexpectedly.
____I had enough to finish off Elias. He thought to himself,
But still… I could’ve squeezed this trigger three more times unnecessarily and thus be dead right now. And now that we’re out here, I’ve got three last chances to defend myself. If they’re gone before VACC…
____“We have to be careful.” He said aloud, watching the quietly lapping waters of the river in the darkness, “I’ve only got three shots left in here. It’s not going to be enough to make it back should anything happen. And things are going to happen.”
____Jaxson took out the pistol Miles had lent him and checked it to reply with his own bullet count, but he was cut off by the sound of Brooke screaming: “
Thomas!!”
____Thomas turned, confused, but a sharp pain to his left side cut everything off. He went flying, into the dark. That was all he could feel.
____The Doorman had crept up despite its speed and size, silent as the grave as it moved, the crunching its feet made against the ground easily mistakable for the soldiers returning. It had stepped into the firelight and with a single swing of one oversized, over-lanky arm knocked Thomas aside with ease. He vanished into the river.
____Jaxson stared up at the beast with wide eyes, caught off-guard by the lab monster’s sudden appearance. All the way out here too? He fumbled with the initial panic, caught here without Header or Thorn, and of course him with his magazine out of the weapon.
____“Ah!” He tried to cram the clip back in his pistol but somehow managed to slip up, watching Gene and the girls scatter behind him. Reed stood and lifted his rifle but he was the closest to the beast. The Doorman’s enormous claws swatted the weapon from his hands while it grasped and lifted him. Messy jaws opened wide.
____Shoomp!! As suddenly as the monster had appeared a literal harpoon of all things flew from the dark and punched cleanly through the creature’s skull. It gasped silently and collapsed, twitching violently as blood pooled around its punctured head. Reed fell with it and quickly scrambled to his feet, looking for the source, “The hell?!”
____It was a boat. A sizable yacht, almost too big for this part of the river, slowly cruising along eastward in the dark. Its white paint was faded enough to retain its glinting metal texture, and its freeboard was tall and deck high as if made for deeper and more violent waters. It had slowed to a near crawl as it came across the group’s makeshift camp, completely unnoticed thanks to the Doorman’s equally sudden appearance. A figure standing close to the very stern of the ship dropped whatever rifle he’d used to launch the harpoon and dove into the waters.
____Brooke saw him do this and snapped back to attention, racing to the water’s edge, “Thomas, Thomas!!”
____Darkness answered her. Then out came the stranger, sloshing to shore completely drenched. He wore a sleeveless vest: his bare muscular arms bulging with effort as he dragged Thomas back to dry land.
____“Thomas—Oh!” Brooke’s relief was suckerpunched with a knee-jerk shock at the man’s appearance. He was generally normal-looking for a bulky man approaching middle-age—hair already graying fast—but he was nearly missing half his face on the right side, only barely managing to keep his eyeball above the destroyed cheek. She sucked it up and silently scolded herself for visibly reacting to something a person couldn’t control, “Thank you…!”
____The man lay Thomas down on the shore, feeling him as he sensed for signs of life, “He’s out cold. That monster clocked him pretty damn hard.”
____Gene had fled to fetch the soldiers and Reed was kicking the Doorman to make sure it was properly dead. Jaxson walked over, feeling the need to redeem himself. He almost never tripped, so when he did he’d have to make up for it somehow. He stooped, “Hold on. I know a thing or two.”
____Shooing Brooke away as she insistently crowded him, Jaxson leaned Thomas’ head back and then began giving him his best rescue breaths. Nothing yet. He checked for pulse. Brooke frowned at the lack of results, “Let me help. I used to volunteer at a hospital.”
____“I know. Hold on.” Jaxson tried again, Thomas sputtering to life this time. He coughed and gagged, suddenly sitting up and pointing an invisible gun at an invisible threat before seeing that his hand was empty. No gun, wet, dead Doorman over there. Oh.
____“My pistol…!” Was the first thing he said, that having been what was on his mind when it’d happened, “I dropped my pistol.”
____Jaxson sighed and smiled, “Sorry, Thomas. You got got. Here, have mine.”
____The soldiers returned as he handed Miles’ pistol over, Header seeing the scene and snorting, “Can’t I leave you people alone for five minutes? Who’s this here?”
____“The name’s Jarek.” The stranger answered, rising to his feet. He took a pistol up from the shore and held it aloft, “And I believe you dropped this, Mr. Midnight Dipper.”
____Thomas looked up, relieved to have dropped it within reach. He quickly gave Jaxson his gun back.
____Jarek frowned at Thorn nervously handling his M4A1 and looking at him with uncertainty, “Have I done something wrong?”
____“Not yet. But I’d like you to give Thomas his gun back and now.”
____Brooke knew what he was thinking and leapt to the newcomer’s defense, “Calm down, Thorn! I’m sorry, Jarek. It’s just we’re on a super-important mission and so we’re all a little on edge.”
____Thorn remained cautious, “Brooke, be careful. Let’s not forget where we’re at and the last person we spilled our guts to.”
____“This guy saved Thomas’ life! He’s just a normal person who happened to pass by. No helicopters. And no Apostle symbol—he’s not like Elias at all.”
____Jarek watched them bicker with only mild confusion, “‘Eel-e-us’? That’s not how it’s pronounced.”
____“Whatever.” Reed stormed over, suddenly upset with them all again, “Don’t know if any of you were watching, but he saved my life too! Remember Reed? This dude’s okay in my book. You damn military guys are bein’ too overcautious if you ask me. Almost got us killed campin’ by the shore here with nowhere to run to. There’s still lab rats loose even this far out. Take us on your boat; it’ll be safer on the river!”
____“Hold the phone!” Header piped up quickly, “Safer from zombies perhaps, yer right about that. But it’s a big fat target if those copters come back.”
____“We’ll take our chances.” Reed concluded, “If you’ll have us.”
____The boat had slowed to a crawl as all this had occurred, its tiny cabin having since lit up with a damp, near-dead orange glow. Someone else peered over deck, calling out, “You’re all right down there?”
____“We’re fine!” Jarek replied. He went to wrench the harpoon from the Doorman, talking as he worked, “That’s my mate Gavin up there. It’s only the two of us, and we could have space for more. Still, with eight of you…”
____Gavin watched them from above, arms crossed over the edge of the vessel. He had short messy black hair and wore an expression of youthful eagerness, still unaged by the apocalypse thus far, “Hey now…! We’ll take the chicks at minimum.”
____Brooke glanced to Thomas, whispering, “It’s faster than walking. Only one of us needs to make it to VACC with the cure.”
____“Don’t be naïve.” He muttered, “Even if they’re not Apostle, I’d feel much safer if we outnumbered them. You’re not going by yourself.”
____Header exhaled loudly. He didn’t like having to barter with civvies, “What do you need?”
____Jarek wiped blood off the javelin before tossing it way up to Gavin above, “Well, we wouldn’t say no to one of those fancy assault rifles. Badass as the harpoon gun is…”
____The Sergeant shook his head, “Sorry sir, but none of our guns have the ammo to make them worth trading.”
____“We barely have any food.”
____“Hm. We do got rations.” Header slung his rifle and sifted through the many, many packs all over his body, “Packed enough for ten, our original party when we left. An’ it just so happens that there’s two of you. It’s not much… I can give you extras fer everybody else’s stuff.”
____He tossed one of the boxes to Jarek, who caught it and examined the contents. He nodded, “Oh, this is good stuff here. I thought you all looked unusually well-fed.”
____Header laughed loudly at this, “Ha! Soldiers gotta eat, you know.”
____Gavin threw down a shoddily put-together rope ladder. It lazily slapped the side of the boat and wobbled in the water, Jarek leading the way aboard. Everyone waded in after him and ascended. Stacey was the last one up, Thomas helping her aboard. She frowned and looked back to shore, “You sure about this?”
____“Still moving even as we nap? I’m pretty sure.” He replied.
____She looked doubtful, “Those two could kill us all in our sleep, you know.”
____“Jarek saved my life back there.”
____“Saviors can be monsters.”
____He didn’t like how certain she sounded. He nodded to the riverbank, where the Doorman still lay dead, “Monsters are right over there. We’ll have to hedge our bets somewhere. Just until we get to safety, or a vehicle, or…”
____Stacey sighed and shrugged.
____“Tell you what.” Thomas told her, “I’ll retract my earlier statement. I’ll take the night watch; make sure no one guts you in the night. Okay?”
____“...'Kay.”
____Header meanwhile looked about the yacht, finding it to be pleasingly large. Large as in it wasn’t tiny: just big enough to house all ten of them on its deck. The cabin was an itsy little thing, just a flimsy white lemonade-stand box with windows and a dim light inside. Two lawn chairs and a little table on the stern in the back, and a small door leading below deck in front of the cabin. He nodded to himself, “Hm. Satisfactory.”
____“It’s home.” Jarek said simply, “Keeps the zombies away, anyhow.”
____“Very nice.” Reed abruptly spoke up, “Hey, do you guys have any guns on board?”
____Gavin shrugged, “No sir. Why?”
____“No reason.”
____Thomas cringed. Perhaps Reed had been thinking the worst, as Stacey had just been doing, but blatant questions were not the way to go about it—even ignoring the possible interpretation of his inquiry being a preamble to robbery. The potential for such had seemed to pass clear over Gavin’s head, the man answering the question equally dumbly. This ironically helped make the case for trust. Mildly Thomas lowered his guard.
____While Reed had no intention of staging a robbery, Header seemed to have his own ideas. He quite suddenly took his rifle and cocked it, “Okay, listen. Now that we’re up here I’m commandeering your vehicle.”
____“
What?!” Gavin shouted.
____“Look, we’ll still give you supplies and what not. But we really need to make for a specific heading, understand? To call it of the utmost importance would be an understatement. Corporal, find us a map to chart an appropriate course.”
____“Aye sir.” Thorn ducked below deck.
____Jarek watched him go, not overreacting right away, “Utmost importance, eh? Where to?”
____“I can’t necessarily tell you that right now.” Header watched Thorn return with a map of the state, leaning over it and already beginning to chart a course.
____“Header!” Brooke scolded him, “We can tell these guys about VACC. It’s fine.”
____“...” Header said nothing. He’d prefer to keep it all close to the chest, but Brooke was willful and had done enough damage already. He let the civvies spill it all without saying anything further. They’d name-dropped VACC to Elias already, after all.
____Jarek raised an eyebrow, “VACC?”
____“How to describe it…” Gene said, stroking his chin, “Well, it’s a facility we’ve been staying at. Not like a survival bunker, per se, but more like a lab with built-in facilities. Space for about twenty.”
____“We have friends there.” Brooke added, looking to the vial, “And we really need to get this to the scientists there. They might be able to use it to stop the zombies, and people have tried to kill us for it. They want to destroy it before we can save the world!”
____Gene nodded, “If you can help us get back to VACC in one piece you’re welcome to stay there. It’s very nice and… well, two vacancies just opened up there.”
____Brooke looked sad.
____Jarek listed to them very seriously, nodding with approval at their words, “Sounds good to me. No wonder you’re all doing so well for yourselves. I’m between survival zones right now as it happens. You let us in this VACC place and you can change our heading all you want.”
____“Spiffy.” Header concluded, “Corporal, divvy up our rations an’ give these gents one-fifth of our total.”
____“Aye sir.”
____“Oh good, I’m starving.” Gavin sauntered over, peering at each block of foodstuff the Corporal laid down. Not all of it was MRE, and Gavin practically salivated over the sight of the fresher-looking portions they’d taken from VACC when they left, “Our oven’s busted but most our stuff cooks just fine over a fire, if that’s okay with you.”
____“Sounds lovely this time of year.” Brooke said.
____“Would be but maybe not,” Jaxson nodded skyward, “Open flames and all.”
____Jarek cocked his head, “What do you mean?”
____“Well surely you’ve heard the helicopters earlier today.”
____“So?”
____Header grimaced, “They ain’t necessarily good, sir. There’s a damn fine chance they wanna destroy the cure too, and prob’ly us with it. Tell ya what: show me yer busted stove an’ maybe I can fix it.”
____“Same.” Jaxson agreed, “As thanks for the ride.”