APOSTLE'S CREED - a zombie story

[TheAverageFan]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

Subconscious preconceptions are tricky things - I generally just say 'there's stuff I don't like' and leave it at that, at least until the Author's Note at the end. Even pointing out where a problem is will make me look for it, and possibly be overly critical in that area. More overly critical than I already am, obviously. We'll see how that goes.

I'd sooner risk that than have you also dislike the beginning and have to ask if the story ever gets any better That is the last thing I wanna hear from the reader.

Originally Posted by TGRF

Ask.

The magic of me reading and rereading and rereading while editing and before posting and still missing these minor errors.

Originally Posted by TGRF

Oof. That wording makes her sound way more brutal than I remember thinking on the initial read. I guess she's probably a zombie now though, so... karma?

It's sort of framed in an aloof manner, but yes she left him for dead:

Originally Posted by The Moon Has Wings, Chapter 8

____ Stacey frowned, “Do you have any idea what’s going on, mister?”
____ “It’s Gene.” The man rubbed his eyes, “Well, something about zombies? Hysteria? Stay in your homes? Orson Welles, eat your heart out.”
____ “It’s not a joke, man.” Jaxson informed him, “Your whole neighborhood has been cleared out. We’ve been running from the undead for a while now.”
____ “You’re serious?”
____ “Yeah. Seriously serious.”
____ Gene looked around the room, blinking repeatedly to wake up, “Mackenzie said it was a joke… Ah… that b*tch! She got me drunk off my ass and left me for dead!”

Originally Posted by TGRF

I guess the baby was never named. Man, I can't even keep everyone straight in the recap.

I've corrected the list to make it a bit harder to mistake. It's only mentioned once, but Abbey's baby was named Gabe, for reference.

Originally Posted by TGRF

I feel like this was in TMHW too, so I'm not going to mention it every time I see it. But when a dialogue sentence ends with a period, but the non-dialogue sentence is not over yet, a comma is used. Aka: "Mom," he replied. Basically the whole thing is one sentence. No period, no extra capital. Also, you use a comma where there should be a period frequently, when a sentence ends and the next one starts with dialogue. Those are two sentences, and should be separated by a period.

This error likely exists in every single thing I've ever written and so obviously I won't be fixing it for this or any of the subsequent 380 pages yet to be uploaded

Originally Posted by TGRF

Don't know if this is just some uncut text, or actually intentional repetition. If it's intentional, I think a period between the two halves might make it easier to read, rather than a comma.

Two peace's in quick succession... could change one of them to 'calm' or even 'at rest'.

Both of these are intentional instances of repetition: being projection on both counts.

Originally Posted by TGRF

At first I assumed this was well in the past, with a younger Thomas. I also didn't know who Allison was. Now I'm realizing he's got to be older, but I'm still unsure just how old he's supposed to be.

Thomas is in/just out of college during the Prologue and is age 25 by the time of TMHW, so not too terribly long ago. Allison was mentioned just once in TMHW, so I don't exactly blame you for not recalling her.

Originally Posted by TGRF

Lying.

I remember reading your explanation of when to use each version of laying/lying/laid/leen in your previous comments and being unable to make heads or tails of it. I'm willing to bet every instance of it in this story is incorrect: not even any incidentally correct by chance

Thanks for your comments. I've corrected the grammatical mistakes mentioned and will continue to closely monitor your feedback.

~TAF

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

I've corrected the grammatical mistakes mentioned and will continue to closely monitor your feedback.

~TAF

As far as lie/lay goes, it's common to mix them up. I blame English. In case you are interested though, here's the breakdown as straightforward as I can put it:

Spoiler Alert!

Lie (to rest or recline). I lie down. He lies down. He lay down. He has lain down. He is lying down.
Lay (to put or place). I lay it on the table. He lays it on the table. He laid it on the table. He has laid it on the table. He is laying it on the table.

Basically one has the 'eye' sound, one has the 'ay' sound. You use 'eye' when talking about lying down, perhaps to rest your eyes. You use 'ay' when you put something down, perhaps on hay to cushion it. The only confusion is in the past of lying down: Lay and Lain. Just remember: Laying something down always has the 'ay' sound, and 'Lied' is not a word in this context.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

On with the next chapter:

Spoiler Alert!

2
Overboard

i

____The sound of the water constantly lapping at the boat was a noise Thomas was unused to. It had grown very dark out—winter certainly here, make no mistake—but the noise and the movement were a constant reminder of the river. He couldn’t sleep because of it, or perhaps his insomnia problem was just expanded because of it.
____Out on deck there were only three lights: one signal bulb at the head of the ship, white Christmas lights strung at the back, and one orange overhead in the cabin. All three were terribly and yet comfortably dim. Gavin was at the wheel, yawning as he slowly steered the ship whenever the gradual curve of the river demanded it. Thomas ignored him and instead ventured out to the back of the vessel. He could barely see Brooke there, sat alone by the Christmas lights and staring blankly off into the distance. Only her form in the dark and barest illumination of her cheek and shoulder was visible. She must’ve heard him approach, glancing back and relaxing slightly at the sight of him.
____“What are you doing up?” He asked, “It’s late. Thought you’d be crashed with everyone else downstairs.”
____She rubbed her eyes, “I know. Late night for a long day.”
____Her glance drifted briefly to the cabin, Thomas immediately knowing how to interpret it. She didn’t fully trust Gavin right away, or either of the two strangers really. She’d never admit it out loud of course, but Thomas got the picture nonetheless.
____He put his hands on his hips, “Yeah, too bad. I was telling Stacey this is one of the few times one keeps on moving while they’re sleeping. Next best thing to a car. No better time to rest than while aboard some reliable transport.”
____“Nothing’s reliable anymore. And you know I can’t sleep, not while holding onto this thing.” The pink liquid sloshed about in the vial as she opened her hand, watching it roll slightly in her palm.
____Thomas’ sarcastic smile faded. He needed to be someone else right now. A more hardy, consoling person she could lean on, like he sometimes did in the shows. He stooped where he could see her better, sitting close in the empty chair and reaching to put his hand on hers, “Hey, listen to me. It’s going to be all right. Let yourself breathe.”
____She looked into his eyes, “I didn’t say it had anything to do with that.”
____“Didn’t have to.”
____Brooke sighed, squeezing his hand, “I’m scared, Thomas. I watched Stanley die. I heard that malevolence mocking him as he bled. It’s still out there. There’s people—killers—after us now. This vial is the only one left in all the world! I can feel the knife’s edge under my feet. And, well… I thought I’d lost you three times today.”
____“You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
____“Don’t… joke about that, please.”
____He held her hand in both of his now, “Hey, listen. I was ready to die in that lab. Ready to eat those bullets so that you could escape with the vial. But every shot Elias fired missed me: every single one. Now wouldn’t you call that a miracle? Wouldn’t you?”
____“You’re just saying that to make me feel better. You don’t believe in miracles.”
____“I don’t. But do you?”
____Brooke sighed, “I do.”
____“Do you believe that what I don’t believe matters in regard to that sort of thing?”
____“No.”
____“Then take comfort knowing that I’m still here for a reason.” Thomas gradually pried the vial from her clutched hand as he continued, “Even if for such a small purpose as helping you rest easier tonight. So rest. I’ll take care of it until you wake.”
____She caught the rounded tail end of the glass just as he coaxed it from her, “Wait!”
____“Don’t you trust me?”
____Brooke paused, knowing she was handing over the most important item in the world. Her grip ceased, “I trust you.”
____“Thank you. It means a lot.” Thomas held the delicate little vial in his hands. Perhaps not too delicate: the glass felt thicker to the touch than it looked, likely safe to drop this short distance onto the wooden floor without fear. Still he gripped it gently, knowing that he was now the target: the last one onstage in the final act—last chance to trip up and ruin the whole show.
____Brooke sighed again and leaned on him, “I just have this strange feeling that something terrible is going to happen. This whole area feels evil. And the men who want to burn the whole world down are still out there in force, looking for us.”
____Thomas nodded, “Apostle, you mean. No, I wouldn’t call your feeling strange at all.”
____“If they find us… If they even find out about VACC…! We could be homeless again. No shelter, nowhere to put that cure, constantly running from the undead. I don’t want to put the people there through that. It’s all just so uncertain again.”
____“Certainty definitely makes for comfort. That’s what people like about religion.” Thomas reasoned, “If VACC falls apart, we’ll find another certainty. We’ll make our own if we have to. Can’t let them win, right?”
____“Right. We can’t.”
____“Good. So we can’t keep doubting ourselves. You especially. It’s unlike you.”
____“You’re right. As usual. Okay, chin up.” She mustered a more resolute look, “We’re gonna get back, alive. All of us. Cure in hand. Besides, I need my guitar back. I can’t do much for our song without it. I promised I’d make it.”
____“Can’t you hum it?”
____“No! It’s not finished yet.”
____He smiled, “That’s too bad. I was starting to miss listening to your music.”
____“You can listen to the water.” She left it at that, leaning back and closing her eyes, “It’s at least partially soothing.”
____“...Yes it is. Relax.”
____Silence. Silence shared between the two of them: peaceful. It felt closer, more fulfilling than flirting to Thomas: company making them whole without even needing to speak. Like an old married couple just sitting together on a front porch in the summer: all words already spoken, simply partaking in each other’s presence.
____“...Thomas?” She finally said.
____“Yes?”
____“Steal some of Header’s smokes for me?”
____He smirked, “Go to bed.”
____Brooke smiled, but it expressed exhaustion more than anything. Freed of the burden of keeping the cure, she sat upright, kissed his cheek, then got up and walked to the door leading below deck. Nervously wishing Gavin a good night on the way before disappearing down below.
____Thomas watched her leave, eyes falling to the cure in his lonely hands. He looked up and mildly frowned as Brooke was replaced by Reed having wandered up above and over. He spied Brooke just as she ducked below deck, pointing her way then back to Thomas: “Hey, Thomas …You an’ her, huh?”
____Reed ranked reliably low on the list of people Thomas would like to talk to concerning this topic, answering sparsely: “It seems that way.”
____“Well ain’t that swell for you! I just knew it all along! Brooke and Tommy!” He gestured suggestively as he walked over to take her seat, “She’s got that nice big ass, you know what I’m saying?”
____Thomas gave him his best why-are-you-telling-me-this look, “Uhm… yes, that’s right.”
____Reed sat down and kept right on, “Yeah, this hell’s got us all wound pretty tight. Everybody could probably use a good screw right about now. Especially with it getting real cold, I usually find. Last winter I was plowin’ three chicks a week from Turkey Day to New Year’s. Those were the times. Y’think I oughta cozy up with Stacey for the winter? I think she’s kinda into me, you know? But we don’t talk much.”
____Like an engine unable to fully rev to life, Thomas tried and failed several times to connect the dots he’d been given, replying only to fill the awkward silence, “...No …No I don’t think she’s particularly into you, Reed. I think she might like someone else.”
____“What, you think she leans the other way? Or don’t tell me you’re poundin’ both of them? Not that I’d blame you; she’s real—”
____“Reed, have you ever noticed anyone get… oddly quiet when you’re talking at them?”
____“No, not really. Why?”
____“Forget about it.” Thomas leaned way back in his seat, “I think we’d best turn in. Today was mildly exhausting, all things considered.”
____Reed looked confused, “I just sat down! You know we barely talk, and you’re bailing after fourteen seconds?”
____“Good night, Reed.” Thomas closed his eyes and stayed perfectly still, trying his damndest not to actually slip off into a genuine slumber. He waited for Reed’s muttering to gradually diminish as he sulked off to find someone else to irk, leaving the actor alone in peace.
____When he was gone Thomas opened his eyes again, finding only the stars above him as he leaned back. He held the vial aloft and continued staring at the cure: suddenly relieved to be left alone with the gravity of oblivion cradled between his fingers.

____Header sat up out of the open stove and spat out something that had fallen on his face. He accepted a washcloth from Thorn and ventured back in, continuing to tinker with it. Below deck was more spacious than he had expected, the taller ship permitting more room, but this little kitchen was still terribly cramped for a man of his size. Being in the oven didn’t feel too dissimilar than being outside it. He fished for more information from Jarek while he worked, “So, you said you was in a survivor zone once?”
____“That’s right. The official ones the military crowded us into after the evacuation.”
____Header glanced out his way, “Operation Urban Retrieve? How’s it going out there?”
____Jarek smirked at the Sergeant’s earnest, almost naïve question, “Sheltering huge numbers in a short time-span? Put together by the public sector’s best and brightest? It was a sh*tshow, what do you think?”
____“That bad, huh?” Thorn asked, knowing full-well how blessed his group likely was for dodging it altogether and ending up in VACC instead.
____“The bureaucracy was in full effect: trying to get us all off with the minimum, forgetting or underdelivering the bare essentials. They couldn’t understand our plight much, taking such good care of themselves.” Jarek shook his head, “It was like being in prison, safe from the zombies and real snug with each other. You can imagine the problems that popped up. Humanity should never be tightly packed with nowhere to go.”
____“So you escaped?”
____“In a sense. There was an attack. Four days in at the bunker near Kansas City… turns out not all the loons detonated their bombs on the day of the outbreak. A chemical explosive was set off right in the quarantine zone at the entrance. Some got in and a third of us died before they contained it.” Jarek pointed to his scarred face, “I got smeared right on the cheek. Had to cut it off on the spot. Maybe it was needless, but better safe than sorry. The zone was compromised so we all got moved to another one near Des Moines.”
____“And you won’t believe what happened.” Gavin chimed in as he quickly ducked below deck to swipe another ration, seeming to find the storytelling amusing.
____“He doesn’t believe me. Too strange.” Jarek said, “It was less than three weeks ago, now. The brass said they were going to move us. All the way to the west coast to be evacuated, again, God knows where.”
____Header raised an eyebrow, “Do you know who gave those orders? Or why?”
____“No. There was another attack before that happened. Not a bomber… it was like we were being shelled by artillery or something. I couldn’t tell you. But once those holes were punched into the shelter in came those gas bombs. I got the hell out of there and ran into Gavin not long after. We’ve been going it solo ever since. I’m damn well not going back to any of the other survival zones. I’m done being cattled by incompetent ‘public servants’ and lined up for the terrorists to blast fish-in-a-barrel style.”
____“Did you see what was shelling you?” Header inquired, just trying to gather what info he could about the front lines still out there beyond their current journey.
____Jarek shrugged, “It was the dead of night. But there were… there were red lights in the sky. Like red stars. I didn’t see anything out in the distance. I just ran and ran. Don’t know who, if anyone, made it out ‘sides me.”
____“Well…” Header turned a crank within the stove and felt heat, “Suppose it could’ve been aircraft of some sort, if the lights were moving.”
____“Not that I could tell.”
____“There have been…” Thorn glanced to Header before continuing, “...strange things happening. Powerful enough to open a definitively locked door. Who can say what’s really going on anymore, especially at night.”
____“Not always at night, kid.” Header corrected, Thorn knowing what he was referring to and shutting up at that. THEY DIDN’T MAKE IT—the first sign of the impossible all the way back on Day One of the outbreak. The Sergeant spoke little of it, probably because he didn’t want to talk about it. He rose to his powerful full height (or as much as the space below deck allowed) and tapped the oven, “Okay, that oughta do it. Cook yer food, eat yer food, be happy. Otherwise I’d like to ask that we keep a low profile while we sail.”
____“Good enough.” Jarek said, “No more open flames above deck.”
____“Good. Beautiful.”
____Reed stormed down and ducked into the kitchen, “Hey, do you guys think things ever get quiet when I’m talking to people?”
____“…” Everyone stared at him.
____Reed scowled and bowed out, “Whatever. Good night.”

ii

____Morning light and distant buzzing in the air woke Thomas up, as did the sound of Cpl. Thorn’s boots pacing quickly against the deck. He jumped a bit as he was shaken to further rouse him, “Get up, Thomas.”
____“Uh?” Thomas sat up and blinked, cramped from sleeping in the chair, half his muscles still asleep. Asleep: he’d slipped up and drifted off last night, rocked by the boat and smothered under the length of that day. But despite how much he might’ve needed it it was still a restless lidless sort of sleep that hadn’t satisfied him. Unearned rest that wasn’t genuinely slaking, and he’d failed his promise to Brooke. Thomas nearly jolted with panic at the thought, looking down to his hand and relaxing at the sight of the vial still there: rolling subtly in his palm. He’d clutched it throughout the night. Thomas glanced up at Thorn, “What is it?”
____The Corporal looked concerned, weapon gripped tight in his hands, wide-awake despite the early hours. He glanced skyward, “They’re back.”
____Thomas got to his feet and listened. Yes, that buzzing. Helicopters again, though it was distant. He scanned the skies. Dim dawn greeted him, the soft blue gray of colder seasons’ mornings. Not being blinded by bright morning daylight allowed him to see the little black bird hovering high in the air some distance up the river behind the boat. Even that far away the whirring of its blades was audible, its force kicking at the trees below and bending their branches in its wake.
____“Has it seen us?” He asked.
____“Not yet. But it will, I’m sure. Looks like our gambit failed.” Thorn walked off, “Get off the deck. Header’s waking everyone else.”
____Dammit. Thomas followed him, glancing again to the cure in his hand. Damn, damn! As he followed close behind, he could already hear those below: Stacey’s voice asking what they were going to do.
____“Stay down. We’re playin’ dead.” Came Header’s reply.
____Jarek was the one piloting the vessel now, the only other one still up above besides Thomas. He grimly looked to the copter and back, “Not anymore we’re not.”
____Thomas looked again to the helicopter. It was facing them, watching them.
____Thorn scowled at the sight, “Sh*t. Header, it sees us!”
____Up came the Sergeant, drawing his rifle, “Great…! Everybody up! Above deck, now! I say we abandon ship.”
____“What?!” Gavin shouldered his way up through the tightly-packed stairway, “We can’t do that!”
____Thomas grimaced as he watched the aircraft descend upon them, nearing by the second. Their voyage was going to be a short one, it seemed, “I think we have to. They want to destroy the cure we’ve got.”
____“Then get rid of it!”
____By now everyone was above deck, Brooke quickly snatching it from Thomas as Gavin tried to take it. She backed up quickly, putting people in her group between herself and the newcomer, “Don’t you dare, Gavin!”
____The helicopter drew closer.
____Jarek watched it grimly, also looking reluctant to give up the ship, “Leave the lass alone, Gavin. If they’re as bad as they say, they won’t take any chances with anyone, vial or not…” He turned to the Sergeant beside him, “Can’t you shoot it down?”
____Header shook his head, “I only got a couple shots left in this thing, an’ none in my trusty AA12. The odds of me hittin’ the pilots from this distance aren’t great. I’ll try if I can, should they git closer, but y’all should bail long before it comes to that.”
____Jarek said nothing, his face sour with hesitation.
____“Look, yer jus’ gonna hafta trust me!” Header barked, “They are hostile! We’ll keep you safe from any zombies on land, I promise! You got my word on that!”
____“...But…” Jarek muttered, “...You’re feds…!”
____The copter was very close now, its proximity causing the river water beneath it to spray countless invisible droplets everywhere. Everyone gradually grew damp as it advanced ever-nearer.
____“There ain’t no time for explaining!” Reed shouted, “And there ain’t no time for debatin’ either! I agree with Header. And Sergeant outranks Captain. Move it, Jarek!”
____He without warning stole Stacey up and threw her overboard. The river had fattened over the night as the ship ventured into vaster branches, the girl falling into waters generous enough to catch her. She shrieked and was gone, Thomas only hearing the splash.
____Gavin stepped away from Reed, “Son of a b*tch—you’re completely mad!”
____“Probably.” Thomas admitted, “But I think he’s right. Brooke, best do what he says.”
____She nodded solemnly and reluctantly edged to the side of the vessel, peering overboard with morbid curiosity. In the barely lit morning the water was black. She felt frigid just looking at it.
____Jarek watched her with disbelief, as if she were about to willingly commit ritualistic suicide out of some cult-like mentality, “No, wait… it’s too dangerous out there!”
____Gavin nodded his agreement and bolted to get down below deck, shouldering past Thorn as the Corporal ushered Gene and Jaxson to jump. The soldier caught Gavin’s arm right before he could disappear down the steps, “Gavin, don’t!”
____But he insisted, prying free, “You say they want that cure? They’ll follow it. You guys run away, they’ll follow you. Off you go!”
____By now the helicopter had fully descended and continued to follow the boat closely. It was still at too great a skyward angle for Thomas to see the pilots, but somehow he knew they could see him. Some device mounted below the machine’s tiny wings moved—aimed, rather—downward in their general direction. It then sparked to life, buzzing and brightening as if a series of firecrackers had gone off within it. Bztztztztztztzt!!!
____Bullets unmistakably drilled into the boat, the helicopter firing upon them without a word needed to explain themselves. Instantly everyone scattered as holes appeared on the deck and snaked their way up across the vessel. Gavin fled below deck, Jarek running down shouting after him.
____Brooke screamed and threw herself overboard. The cold water slapped her hard as she fell into the river, more of a wakeup call than even the gunfire had been. The icy shock held her still for only a second, Brooke snapping herself out of it and swimming. She surfaced and spat out the yucky drink, simply floating there trying to keep as low a profile as could be maintained while there were people shooting at them.
____Stacey swam up to her, having kept up with the boat surprisingly well, muttering hatreds for Reed under her stressed breaths. She merely touched Brooke’s shoulder and pointed to the shore nearby, specifically behind the helicopter’s current position, before moving on toward Gene and Jaxson who had both leapt overboard as well. Brooke nodded and ducked back under the water, hiding.
____Reed meanwhile aimed and fired his rifle at the hovering helicopter, the round striking but having no apparent effect. The aircraft maintained its position, offering no signs of weakness to the meager pedestrians below. Another rain of gunfire tore holes along the boat in a random swerving pattern. One such shot nearly took Thomas’ foot off, forcing him to back up and hide behind the cabin.
____“Sh*t!” He tried to stop his shaking, still unused to battle. Uncertainty choked him: nowhere to run without being exposed at least for a second.
____But things were about to get even better. The floor beneath Thomas’ feet quite suddenly dipped down. Ever so slightly, but it was enough to trip his senses and tell him something was wrong. Downward movement could only mean one thing: the boat was beginning to sink. It’d been punctured countless times with the gunfire, taking on water likely at a very gradual rate. Sinking slowly was still sinking though.
____“Sarge!” He shouted, “We’re taking on water!”
____“Damn…!” Header muttered under his breath as he yanked at the slide of his M16. His rifle had just jammed, not that he could discern any damage to the aircraft he’d been shooting at. Two bursts of precious rifle ammo wasted. They weren’t doing any good here beyond biding their time for the others, “Al’ight, goin’ overboard!”
____He threw himself into the water with little grace, the helicopter above swerving slightly as he did so—seeming to watch him. It turned its attention back to the vessel, maintaining its fire. The attack was widespread and inaccurate, mostly just seeming to exist to shred the boat and keep those aboard pinned down. Accepting this, Thorn waited for the gunfire to spread to the other end of the deck and then simply sprinted to the edge and threw himself overboard as well.
____Again the helicopter tilted to watch the survivor leap into the water before returning its attention to the boat. Something adjacent to its guns churned and clanked, followed by some sort of canister launching from the aircraft. It landed on deck and skidded along to the bow, cracking open and spraying out red smoke. Or gas, rather. The virus.
____Thomas looked at it in confusion at first. Reed reached the conclusion before he could, “Sh*t! Bail out now!” He unhooked the gas mask he carried with him and donned it, merely holding it over his face in his haste. He then recklessly charged towards the canister and snatched it up, screaming at Thomas all the while, “Get off the boat! Now! Now!”
____The helicopter above could still fire at them, but the dangers of being around the chemical weapon unmasked urged Thomas to run out into the open anyway. Not even waiting for the gunfire to be focused elsewhere, he raced out from behind the cabin and threw himself overboard.
____Splash!
____The water was cold and unwelcoming, Thomas feeling its clammy embrace. He immediately surfaced and began swimming to the nearby shore, Stacey meeting him halfway and tugging him away from it. “Stay in the water!” She snapped, “Lay low!”
____Thomas shakily nodded, somewhat following the logic. Being on shore with the copter so near was hardly different than still being up on deck. He stayed put with her, watching both the boat and the helicopter gradually pass over them. The two of them stayed safe out of the aircraft’s sight, watching the boat nervously to see if their last crewmate would make it.
____More gunfire, no Reed. What the hell was taking him so long?
____Thomas craned his neck. He could barely see Reed running around, smoking canister in hand. Now he was down below deck. The helicopter ducked down low and then shot back up into the air. Thomas could still hear it circling up above. After a few seconds he saw it descend again, now accompanied by a second helicopter. Both circling the ship still, riddling it with bullets. One broke off the attack and flew down low to the water, looking for them.
____Christ! Thomas had to duck back down as quickly yet as subtly as he could, having to guess when best to surface again. They could not be more screwed if they tried.
____They were saved by Reed, amazingly. He’d come back up, no canister in hand, drawing his rifle and firing at the copter scanning the river. BANG! The glass of the aircraft’s cockpit cracked under the impact.
____This helicopter had flown too close and too low, apparently spooked by the rifle shot and taking off again. With that Reed finally leapt off the increasingly sinking ship, diving in and hurriedly swimming over to the others. Going as quick as he could before the copter swung back around to punish him for harrying it.
____Apparently still unsatisfied, the remaining helicopter continued to follow the boat even with nobody up above, maintaining its gunfire. Slowly the vessel dipped deeper into the water as it was riddled with more holes.
____Reed swam over to the rest of them, “Get out of the water. Quick!”
____Stacey only glared at him.
____He responded by violently shoving her, “I said now!!”
____Everyone took the hint and obeyed, Reed apparently knowing what he was talking about. The river clung to their bodies as they made it to the nearest shore and fled into the protective canopy of the woods. Only Header didn’t look uncomfortable at all—of course—instead simply unjamming his rifle and peering downriver, nodding his approval, “Good. We’re safe. For now.”
____Gene ran two hands through his soaked hair, “What’d they want?”
____“I don’t know. My best workin’ theory is that they jus’ thought there was more people in the boat than on top of it. If’n the cure were inside they’d want it sunk.”
____Stacey didn’t seem interested in the conversation in progress. Instead she stormed up to Reed and furiously slapped the back of his head. “You’re a monster!!” She shouted, “You monster! You bastard!!”
____He flinched and snapped back with an equal amount of anger, “What!? What’d I do?! Cut that out!”
____“I saw you! You threw that canister down where Gavin and Jarek were. You didn’t even hesitate! Murderer!”
____He scoffed, “Give me a break. That was an infection capsule, no mistakin’ it. If I didn’t pitch it, you’d all be zombies right now. Or in a few days, rather. You can thank me now.”
____“You didn’t have to throw it down where they were!!”
____“They were dead already. Soon as they decided to hide down there.”
____“Were they now?” Came Jarek’s voice. Reed turned, beholding the older man trudging his way up to their company. He looked hellishly ragged, as if still sweaty even while dripping wet. He approached Reed with a closed hand extended, “Here, take it.”
____“Huh, take what?” But as he reached to see what was held Jarek’s other fist came swinging to suckerpunch him across the face. Reed fell flat on his ass, reeling.
____Jarek continued as if they were still conversing normally, “I save your life from that monster ashore, and you repay me by sealing Gavin’s fate needlessly. Even I might be infected right now. Who can tell, until the time comes?”
____Reed sat up, “There was nowhere else to pitch it but down there, Mr. Pragmatic. Now quit your b*itchin’ and let’s get outta here before things get worse.”
____He must’ve struck a nerve with Brooke, because now she was on his case, “Nowhere else? How about overboard?”
____Reed rolled his eyes, “It’d get in the water.”
____She frowned, “It got in the water anyway, Reed! The boat was sinking!”
____“Well I didn’t think about that! Ah, whatever.”
____“Your life is an ‘ah, whatever’!” Jarek snapped furiously, grasping his collar, “My friend—”
____“That’s enough!” The Corporal snapped at them both, “We can discuss this later. Right now we gotta go, before they come back.”
____Stacey scoffed, pointing at Reed, “I’m not going anywhere with him!”
____Reed seemed to be in equal spirits, “Hey, some thanks for savin’ your life, b*tch.”
____“Don’t call me that!”
____Again Thorn tried to mediate, “Please, please…!” Stacey stamped her foot and Jarek crossed his arms furiously. The Corporal sighed and continued, “Forward.”
____“Right… Forward.” Jaxson glanced downriver, looking uncertain.
____Thorn nodded slowly, processing their situation as quiet fell over them all, “Uh, so… what do you think, Sergeant?”
____Header hadn’t participated much in the scuffle and the following conversation. His head was in the clouds, or pointed skyward rather. He appeared to be deep in thought, which was to say he looked neutral, the end of his lips pinched together musingly being the only tell. He spoke up, “Bad ideas, kid. I’ve got some bad ideas.”
____“I’ve got no ideas. They’re still onto us. I’ll bite.” Thomas said.
____“Well,” The Sergeant withdrew a cigarette and began to light it, only to frown at the damp worthless thing drooping down from his mouth and give up. He flicked it down into the mud and stowed the lighter, “I’m thinking we lay low an’ follow the coastline here. An’ when that bird gives up on th’ boat an’ heads wherever it’s goin’, we follow it.”
____“You want to follow the helicopter?!” Brooke for the first time thought she knew better than the military mind of the group, “Are you mad? Ignoring the fact that they tried to kill us, we can’t possibly keep up with it.”
____“Yeah, yeah,” Header kept pawing at the pocket where he kept his cigarettes, longing for one but constantly reminding himself that they were soaked, “but an aircraft like that one don’t fly too far most of th’ time. It’s a li’l thing, not capable of long flights. It’s gotta set down somewhere eventually. Somewhere close by, perhaps? In this area twice in two days, af’er all.”
____“It may lead us to a high priority target.” Thorn supposed, “Or other survivors. Or, dare I say it, some more vehicles.”
____“Precisely, kid. We are middle-of-nowhere otherwise. Now gear up, everyone.”
____Thomas wasn’t the only one not to immediately hop to it. This didn’t seem like the best idea, chasing these killers when the group had just been trying to get away from them. But he knew that Thorn and Header were competent, their levelheadedness a boon beyond words in such dire times. Less rational minds would let Reed’s actions schism the group into two emotionally-fueled warring factions. But the soldiers remained pragmatic as always. Therefore he shrugged away his doubts, helping everyone gather any external belongings and beginning to head downriver.
____The now familiar buzz of a distant aircraft didn’t take too long to get back to, the helicopter again high in the air overhead. Not far behind lay the remnants of the wrecked boat sunken into the river, only shredded metal still sticking out of the water. It was difficult not to morbidly look at it, thinking of Gavin presumably somewhere still in there.
____Jarek sighed grimly, “I hope for his sake this quest of yours is worth it. He knew it little and it cost him everything.”
____He was just here a few minutes ago. Thomas morosely figured, I was talking to him just a short while ago. What have we done?
____He still wasn’t used to the concept of fresh corpses and sudden deaths. People were still people—people he got to know even just a little bit before they were blasted into oblivion: unique souls lost forever.
____Thomas snapped out of his stupor and looked away from the boat. They had to keep moving. The helicopter above swerved in the air and began slowly moving due north. Header watched it go, his stoic demeanor contrasting everyone else’s weariness and doubts. The other one was nowhere to be seen.
____“I see one headin’ away. Other’s lookin’ where we might’ve gone.” The Sergeant nodded, “Corporal, how much air time you reckon a bird like that gets?”
____Thorn didn’t seem to think about it long, “Hours, maybe? I dunno.”
____“Hm.” Sgt. Header rapped his knuckles against his chin, “Looks like we got our making. Let ‘em sweep the forest to their hearts’ content. We ain’t hiding like they think.”
____After a short hike the trees faded and once again the group found themselves out in the middle of nowhere. Yellowed grass stretched on and on, empty skies overhead offering similarly consistent vacancy. The breeze here was sharper, but the sun was also brighter without the constant company of shade. It felt a bit better to be out here while soaked.
____The only real landmark of note was a road stretching on throughout the distance, very possibly the same one they’d been traveling down when the incident first happened. The helicopter was nowhere in sight. Reed looked unimpressed with the landscape, shouldering his rifle and turning to the Sergeant, “What now, master tactician?”
____Header didn’t bother acknowledging the sarcasm, “Keep movin’ north.”
____Doubt gnawed and worried glances were exchanged, but no one spoke up. And so they went. Other than the cure which could save the world, they had nothing.

As always let me know your thoughts

~TAF

[TGRF]

Chapter 1:

Spoiler Alert!

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.

I'm as much a fan of original descriptions and bigger words than the next guy, but there is a point, particularly close to the beginning of a chapter, where they can be too much. I had to read those two paragraphs three times to fully understand what was being said. It's not that the phrases are hard to understand, it's that there's multiples of them in the same sentence, which cuts down on the ability of the reader to immediately grasp what you're saying.

In everyone was piled, Header only shushing any words or noise.

I feel like 'was' could be dropped. 'In everyone piled'. Or 'Inside, everyone was piled'.

“(What are we doing…?)” Thomas finally whispered.

I assume the parentheses are meant to show whispering. It's a style I haven't seen before, so I include it in case it's just an editing thing that wasn't cut.

While I appreciate the atmosphere created by Header telling everyone to be quiet, I feel like I have to question why. Surely no one on the helicopters can hear them, and even if there was someone to hear them, the noise from the helicopters would drown it out, wouldn't it?

He glanced Gene curiously peeking out on the other end of the brush

Missing an 'at'.

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.”

I assume this is still Header speaking, in which case it's weird because he's over by the cars and Thorn is still in the woods, but suddenly he's speaking to Thorn like they're side by side. We need something else here: either he's calling back to them, or comes back and then speaks.

Jaxson shook his head, “It’s a heck of a long walk back to VACC.

So I know a big part of these stories is the mystery, and that's great, but at this point I really do need an explanation for just who the group thinks Nazar is. It seems obvious to me that Nazar and Elias are both Apostle. I need to know why the group doesn't think that, or I feel like there's going to be a big disconnect for me with their goals. Do they know something about Nazar I don't? Or have they really just not noticed how Nazar and Elias are both ignored by zombies in the exact same manner?

Not a few steps in and Jaxson already yelped and pointed at movement

Again, this is really sudden. We need a line saying they got up and started off. Also the inclusion of 'already' is weird here - I initially thought Header was still speaking.

but he more than gladly got to his feet and followed the Sergeant.

Opposite problem here - we already established them getting up and following - don't need to do it again.

Finally Thorn halted dead in his tracks and raised one arm, hand clenched in a fist. Header stopped but everyone else kept trudging onward.

Even I know what a raised fist means. Didn't they have cable before the apocalypse? Or even movies?

Cuts off any undead on one side of us too.”
“Corners us by that same logic.” Thomas refuted,

I can find it hard to accurately predict how multiple people in a conversation will react to any one thing. Points for Thomas being the one to point out the down-side, because it's exactly what he would do.

“Poor woman. I hope whoever did it’s not still out there.”

If you write it without a contraction, the phase would be 'whoever did it is not still out there.' Therefore the contraction should be 'whoever did it isn't still out there.' Obviously there's some leeway with dialogue, but there is actually a word missing.

He’d stop them the hard way, the time-consuming way—the way he’s always done it.

'He'd' instead of 'he's'.

They were like a turtle on its side right now

I've... never seen a turtle on it's side. Wouldn't they just roll over? I imagine you mean a turtle on it's back...

It was a boat.

*drumroll* Moooooore canon fodder!

“Thomas—Oh!” Brooke’s relief was suckerpunched

Another description I would never think of.

Brooke looked sad.

With all the top-notch descriptions flying around, this line took me by surprise.

I’m between survival zones right now as it happens.

Heck no, this guy is no good, I can tell already. I predict VACC in flames in the near future. Or some safe haven, if not VACC.

~TGRF, taking his time in reading to ensure plentiful chapters when the urge for more zombies strikes.

[TheAverageFan]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

I'm as much a fan of original descriptions and bigger words than the next guy, but there is a point, particularly close to the beginning of a chapter, where they can be too much. I had to read those two paragraphs three times to fully understand what was being said. It's not that the phrases are hard to understand, it's that there's multiples of them in the same sentence, which cuts down on the ability of the reader to immediately grasp what you're saying.

It's an amateurish mistake to be sure—having all the "writing-isms" come spilling out all at once on the very first thing you write, only to quickly run out and not appear consistently in any of the paragraphs following. I'm surprised it was never edited out, because even if it were good it still sticks out badly.

Originally Posted by TGRF

I assume the parentheses are meant to show whispering. It's a style I haven't seen before, so I include it in case it's just an editing thing that wasn't cut.

It's just a stylistic choice I use. Italics are already taken for internal thoughts, so parentheses it is for muttering. Makes sense to me.

Originally Posted by TGRF

So I know a big part of these stories is the mystery, and that's great, but at this point I really do need an explanation for just who the group thinks Nazar is. It seems obvious to me that Nazar and Elias are both Apostle. I need to know why the group doesn't think that, or I feel like there's going to be a big disconnect for me with their goals. Do they know something about Nazar I don't? Or have they really just not noticed how Nazar and Elias are both ignored by zombies in the exact same manner?

There is only one person who's aware that Nazar is also immune and that is Brooke. She's more trusting of him than the others though, probably because he saved her in Chicago:

Originally Posted by The Moon Has Wings, Chapter 24

Somehow they seemed to sense his allegiance, blatantly ignoring him as they closed in on Brooke’s group in mounting numbers. So Elias was like Nazar. She had almost forgotten, that having been her first exposure to the zombies—still in shock and not yet familiar with the rules. Did it mean that Elias had a cure of his own? Why then was he here trying to destroy Joetex’s? Was immunity something only Apostle had for itself? What did that mean for Nazar? She didn’t know and didn’t have time to think on it.

Everyone else is relatively wary of him simply because he left Joetex's hails to rot, but they're still taking the cure to VACC to give to the scientists there. Dr. Brett and Dr. Lance were included in the discussion the group had behind Nazar's back about what Thomas found and what to do about it. They at least are trusted by the group:

Originally Posted by The Moon Has Wings, Chapter 18

“So it’s settled then?”
“I suppose so.” Dr. Brett observed from behind folded arms draped over the chair he was sitting in backwards, “Obviously the good Dr. Lance and I can’t leave our stations, but if you do actually find anything out there, you bring it right back here for analysis. I’d like to see what this guy purportedly has that we don’t. Got it?”
Stacey saluted, “Yes sir!”
“Just don’t let your boss lump the cure in the trash heap too.” Gene joked

I can find it hard to accurately predict how multiple people in a conversation will react to any one thing. Points for Thomas being the one to point out the down-side, because it's exactly what he would do.

Thank you for noticing a minor detail such as this. Character consistency is really important to me: making sure characters don't say things contradictory to their nature which rubs the reader the wrong way. Or worse yet have characters flat enough where anyone could say anything without the reader noticing that it is or isn't in character

Glad you're liking it so far

~TAF

[TGRF]

Chapter 2:

Spoiler Alert!

winter certainly here, make no mistake

Missing a 'was'.

“Certainty definitely makes for comfort.

Weird double adverb there - dunno if that's something which you forgot to cut.

Like an old married couple just sitting together on a front porch in the Summer:

The seasons actually are not capitalized, because... English.

Asleep: he’d slipped up and drifted off last night

The 'up' in slipped up felt strange here... it kind of conveyed an idea contrary to falling asleep.

Not a whole lot to say about this chapter. I do kind of question the wisdom of following the helicopter. It'll take them to civilization, sure, and possibly vehicles, but there's just way too many if's. The place is bound to be dangerous, and I don't see how they plan to steal enough cars for everyone with a handful of rounds between them. Cars will be at premium right now - they'll be locked up tight in a bunker, not sitting out unattended. And even then, all you're doing is gaining speed at the cost of stealth. If you get a car, you'll just get tracked down again, shot up, and then you'll be right back where you started. Or worse, you lead the terrorists straight to VACC. Obviously there are zombies in the woods, and the Initiated could be an issue... but yeah I'd stay on foot. Better to take my chances than walk straight into the enemy. Slow and steady and stealthy wins the race.

Honestly the plan to get back to VACC still doesn't quite sit right with me. Based on your explanation, everyone knows that Nazar is doing his best to bury the cure - that right there is a solid reason not to bring the cure within ten nautical miles of him. Honestly if I were these guys, I would scrap VACC as an option, get to somewhere with a radio, and contact Tandom like they did in the last book. He's bound to have people who can synthesize the cure. And plus, he can give the group air support. Obviously you're trusting him with the cure, but you'd have to trust VACC with it otherwise. I mean, sure, the scientists seem like decent fellows, but what are they going to do? Replicate the cure and then administer by hand to the world? They're going to need resources, and Nazar controls those.

Yeah honestly I'd be making for Tandom.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Chapter 3:

Spoiler Alert!

3
Old Connections

i

____A day and a half went by. The sun had set on their eventful morning after the sinking without further incident, with the group traveling slowly. They stopped only to hide at the first sign of any noise, being far more exposed to spying eyes above here in the open landscape. The day after had been similarly uneventful. Moving without purpose had a way of draining morale and energy alike. Not even an undead appearance presented itself just to shake up the monotony.
____They traveled in relatively miserable silence. The footing was quite good all things considered, as was the weather for the time being. It was that downtrodden morale, walking for hours on end with no apparent destination. Like a death march.
____As evening gradually overtook the sky the group finally made headway, spurring some life back into their bodies like a droplet of water after a long hot drought. The even terrain had ramped slightly hours before, and now it led to a sharp decline to another flat valley below. As they approached the ridge leading down, the familiar buzzing of a helicopter came within earshot.
____Well damn. They hadn’t had a true sign of their quarry in the last thirty hours. Thomas couldn’t have been alone in assuming they’d never see it again, despite Thorn’s assurances of the aircraft only flying a short amount at a time.
____“That’s it.” Header’s pace became more brisk, “Kid, take point.”
____They had the last of the day’s sun accompany them to the edge of the ridge, black darkness setting in soon enough. It had been incredibly murky the night before, nothing more than the stars to keep them company and the two soldiers insisting on forgoing a fire or light of any sort. But here there was a glow of light in the valley below, bright white artificial ones that reminded Thomas of the lights around baseball fields at night.
____About a quarter-mile ahead of where the sloped ground evened out down there there was a series of pitched boxlike tents surrounding a bramble of branching roads connected to a highway. They were getting closer to civilization, however slightly. The lights stood around the perimeter of the makeshift buildings, keeping it all brightly illuminated in the dark. What this place’s purpose was Thomas could not guess, but he didn’t see a soul down there amidst the strange setting and that made him nervous.
____The helicopter was above the tents, bright blinding lights pointed down to the area below. There were actually two copters here—no, three as another aircraft gradually took off from behind the camp. None seemed to have spied the group yet.
____“What do you make of it?” Thorn muttered as he watched it fly off.
____“Hm.” Header spied the scene carefully, “Looks like a pitched Army base to me.”
____“Then where’s our boys at?”
____“Don’t know kid. I don’t wanna say the worst. Might’ve abandoned it in a hurry.” The Sergeant glanced back to all the civvies behind him, mulling things over, “Whatever the case, these guys seem to be using it now. Let’s wait fer there to only be one copter. Then we can attack.”
____Thomas bit his lip at their muttering. The helicopters had shrugged off their earlier efforts. But then it had to set down eventually. The men inside had to leave sooner or later.
____“Okay.” Header turned to Reed, “Look, I’m sh*t outta ammo. You got any shots left?”
____Reed shrugged, “A couple, yeah.”
____“Good. We’ve got a decent vantage point here. Let’s get a bit closer, wait ‘till that copter lands, then we can shoot the pilots.”
____Thorn smirked, “And then hijack the helo and give the vial a lift to VACC?”
____“That was my line of thinkin’, yeah.”
____“Don’t suppose you can fly one of those things?”
____The Sergeant paused, “Hm. Can you?”
____“Gosh.” Thorn ran a hand through his hair, “Ranston gave me a couple pointers once.”
____Jaxson seemed unimpressed, “Are you guys trying to get us killed?”
____Header snorted, “Lookit, flyin’s a hell of a lot faster than anything else! Unless you wanna marathon-run the cure back to VACC. Think that’d be faster?”
____“I suppose not. But if VACC were only twenty-six miles or less away then I totally would, just saying.”
____Jarek scoffed, “You lot always so full of banter? Just go.”
____The group waited there, night gradually blanketing them in darkness. At last the second of the two helicopters lifted off and flew away: heading southeast. The only remaining aircraft descended and finally set down. The blades buzzed, then spun, then crawled, then ceased. At last their pursuers could be seen: two pilots exiting and walking around the helicopter.
____“You see ‘em?” Header asked, lying prone along the hill’s crest, using his empty gun’s scope to survey the situation while Thorn and Reed aimed.
____“Uh huh.” Reed slowly tracked the pilots, rifle’s barrel gradually turning, “Got the one on the right.”
____Thomas just watched. He’d drawn his pistol, knowing it was for no reason other than self-comfort. To the soldiers he was for close-quarters encounters with brainless shambling zombies only. He’d be no use here, at so far a distance.
____The pilots’ appearances offered him no hints as he watched. Just two men in dark-navy jumpsuits: helmets hiding their faces. Not a speck of skin to be seen. They were just refueling the copter by the looks of it, saying and doing nothing else. Almost creepily-professional: not bothering with chatting or smoking or anything other than getting back in the skies to keep hunting.
____Reed watched them work, “Should we wait for them to finish?”
____“Naw.” Header said, “We can do that fer them. You gotta shot?”
____“In position.” Thorn replied flatly, not dissimilar from the two pilots when in the zone: his casual personality falling off like an unhitched saddle from a horse’s back when soldiering.
____“Mmkay.” Header watched for a few seconds longer, waiting for what was apparently the right time, “Open fire.”
____BANG!
____Two shots offed at once, indistinguishable in their proximity. Thomas’ gut dropped at the sight of blood exploding out the back of one of the two men, dropping him instantly. He fell flat, helmet clacking against the pavement and welling quickly with blood.
____But the other: he hadn’t bled at all. White pieces of helmet flew in the air, flashing in the moonlight. He’d only been scraped by the rifle bullet across the head, now ducking and running.
____“God, sh*t. Goddammit.” Reed cursed, quickly bolting his gun and firing again. BANG! But his target was running now. Another miss. He was behind the helicopter now.
____“Sh*t.” Header got up, “Go, go, go!”
____Both he and Thorn got up and dashed down the hill like madmen. Jaxson was quick behind them, drawing his pistol and knowing he might be needed. Thomas cursed under his breath and followed. For whatever he might be worth: three bullets.
____The helicopter was starting back up. Header sprinted, equipment bouncing along his body. He ran fast for a big guy, having to duck and dive as his advance was met with a spray of return fire. The pilot had grabbed a gun.
____“Flank, flank!” Header barked at Thorn and the other two as they caught up. The Corporal ducked right, while Thomas gulped and darted the other way, trying to be useful.
____Jaxson right behind him, the two weaved between the empty tents. Or mostly empty: two zombies lumbering out to greet them. One was obviously a soldier, Thomas grimacing and trying to simply avoid it. Jaxson dumbly shot it, having more ammo to spare, but its helmet and vest simply ate the bullets. The athlete frowned, feeling stupid. He quickly shot the other, then hurried after Thomas. The slow zombies could wait.
____The helicopter was terribly loud now, but not as loud as the gunshots the pilot was firing as Thomas ran over. Some kind of machinegun, not a thought that lent him confidence as he turned the corner and leveled his measly pistol.
____The pilot stood outside the copter. He held a small submachine gun in his gloved hands, not shooting at Header or the others but instead unloading the weapon into the helicopter’s controls. Bastard! He was crippling their escape! Thomas aimed and shot as fast as he could, just trying to kill the enemy before he could shoot back. Bang!
____He missed. The pilot saw him and aimed quickly.
____Bang bang!! But his chest burst with blood and he fell, Thorn quickly coming up behind him. Smoke welled from the barrel of his raised M4.
____He checked the pilot’s pulse first, then rose and watched the helicopter gradually die as he checked the damage. It’d been shredded.
____“Great…” He said, stooping down and picking up the dead pilot’s weapon, checking it briefly. He held it out to Thomas and Jaxson as they approached, “Who wants an MP5 with a quarter-clip left?”
____“You want me to have a machinegun?” Thomas asked, giving it more serious thought, “With that little left in it, I could kill a lot of zombies… for half a second.”
____The Corporal simply removed and tossed him the magazine instead, “Here, then I guess you’d better take the bullets for your pistol instead. They both use 9x19mm.”
____Thomas counted eight rounds. So now he was up to ten. Wonderful.
____The helicopter offered no help to them now, and while it was no longer a threat it didn’t change the fact that there were four more just like it still probably in the general area. The cure wasn’t about to reach VACC by air. Still they had options, having come across this base: other roads and buildings in sight not far beyond.
____As the others caught up Header rooted through the dead machine, “It’s a worthless hunk of scrap now. Damn bastard put it out of commission for good. Any other ideas?”
____“Well…” Gene began, thinking slowly, “We could wait for another to come by and pull the same trick.”
____The Sergeant shook his head, “Naw. We oughta scram while we can.”
____“Why’s that?”
____Thorn gestured to the busted aircraft, “They probably keep in touch with each other. Once this bird stops reporting it, the others’ll come back around sure… but they won’t exactly walk into a trap. They’ll know we’re here.”
____“Exactly. Best get scarce again.” Header looked about their surroundings, “C’mon, let’s see what we can find here while we can. Stay on guard, everyone.”
____They all grouped up tightly and moved cautiously around the base, wanting to get out of the dark. Thorn took the lead, expertly dispatching any lone zombies that popped up as they went: armored or no. The Corporal switched his weapon’s flashlight on and deftly moved from one tent into another, checking each corner with professional efficiency. No signs of anyone else with a pulse, and the tents were sparely populated with meager supplies. Not even that many zombies.
____“Clear.” Thorn stepped back and allowed everyone to pour into the confirmed-safe corner of the camp. He switched the flashlight off and reported his diagnosis to the Sergeant, “Looks like this place was left in a damn hurry. Not sure why, sir.”
____ Header only grimaced, “I sure don’t see signs of a battle. Nuthin’ riddled with bullet holes, at least. Still, I don’t like the idea of them guys usin’ it fer themselves, yeah?”
____“Hooah.”
____“Left a lotta sh*t behind.” Reed commented, poking a crate of ammunition with his rifle, “What say we stock up? Ya mind carryin’ this sh*t, guys?”
____He’d gestured to Jaxson and Gene, who both shrugged and made themselves useful: awkwardly piling the belts of heavy bullets within into their arms and over their shoulders. Thorn smirked, “Knock that off, Reed.”
____Jaxson glanced up, “Huh?”
____“We won’t get much use out of 7.62-milimeter rounds, bud.” The Corporal explained.
____“Oh.” Feeling stupid, Jaxson dropped the worthless ammo, scowling at Reed who smugly grinned back.
____Stacey crossed her arms, clearly still bitter over what had happened back at the boat, “Yeah, very funny. Now is there anything useful around here?”
____“Yes but only for me.” Header said. He’d found another M16 among the scattered supplies, gladly swapping out his empty magazines for fresh ones that lay around it. This particular rifle lacked the scope his possessed, but it did have an underbarrel grenade launcher which the Sergeant also stole. He screwed it onto his own and pocketed the box of six more rounds that lay next to it, giving a rare smile, “Heh heh heh…”
____“That sounds ominous.” Thorn noted, “Please be careful with those, sir.”
____“Yeah, yeah, kid. You keep lookin’ around.” Header instructed, “ I want a Sitrep. See if you can find us some functioning wheels.”
____“Aye sir.”
____As Thorn left, Brooke called out to the rest of them, “Hey, what about this over here? Looks like… communicative equipment.”
____Thomas perked up: she was gone, having slipped off and wandered into another tent nearby. Instantly he raised his pistol and hurried over, finding her not far off gawking at a mismatched collection of radio equipment.
____“Brooke…!” He checked the tent’s corners and sighed, lowering his weapon, “Don’t do that.”
____“Do what?” She stopped fiddling with the knobs on one of the radios, probably thinking that was what he was referring to.
____“Just walk away from the rest of us without saying anything.” He felt stupid himself just having to explain it, “Lest we forget that there could still be zombies in the general vicinity. And that you’re unarmed. And that you have this.”
____He held up her hand still clutching the cure, but the risk had passed without incident and everyone else was now piled in with them before he could reprimand further. Jarek did it for him: “You shouldn’t wander, lass. Sit still when it’s dangerous.”
____“Suppose she at least found this.” Thomas relented with a sigh. He stood back and out of the way as Header walked over and examined the setup.
____“Well, sh*t.” The Sergeant muttered, sitting down and opening one of the laptops and checking the channels it displayed, “Still left open.”
____“Can you reach VACC, you think?” Brooke asked him.
____“Gimmie a second, ma’am. I’m gonna try.”
____Thorn had already returned by now, looking curious to see them all in a new tent but nonetheless hurrying over and ducking down to his superior, muttering in his ear: “(There’s three working cars outside the base, sir. Not a lot of fuel between them, but I can siphon the gas out of one and it ought to be enough.)
____“Really? Hop to it then; I don't wanna waste a second chance.” Header glanced back to the lot of them, “Good news kiddos: looks like we ain’t gonna be carless fer long.”
____“Yes! Yes, yes!” Stacey exclaimed, enthusiastic enough to demonstrate everyone’s relief all on her own, “We’re back on track! Let’s go, let’s go!”
____“Hold yer horses, missy. An’ pipe down, we gotta scram at the first sign of one of them helos coming back.” Header nodded his approval to Thorn’s whispered proposal, who promptly took his leave, “I’d still like to try to open a channel to VACC if I can. Just to let them know we’re in one piece an’ coming home.”
____“That’s fine by me.” Jaxson said, “I wanna tell Miles and Abbey we’re okay. Won’t they be surprised to find out we succeeded. Hasn’t even been a week, either.”
____Thorn had to do his siphoning anyway. Thomas decided it was a safe enough time to push their luck, “Just make sure they haven’t tapped these lines or anything.”
____“Yeah, yeah, not that I can tell.” Header said, actually managing to pull off whatever commands were needed to spur the radios to life. Static hissed and the monitor before him lit up.
____After a few seconds of garbling and further twisting of knobs an actual voice came through: a female operator of indiscernible age: “This is Op-C. We read you, Post-71. Please state your sign.”
____“(Whew!)” The Sergeant relaxed at his success, an unusual kind of movement for him, “This is Sgt. Brysen Header, specially assigned to Foxtrot Division, Operation Urban Retrieve. I am not with Post-71. Sign is Alpha-Alpha-Star-Digit.”
____“...” Silence on the other line for a few seconds too long, Header grimacing. They all stood there, hoping his code wasn’t out-of-date. But finally the audio came back to life, replying: “Confirmed. Countersign is Texas-Digit. How can I help you, Sergeant?”
____“I need to get in contact with a special base: should be under V.A.C.C. one-zero-four. Can you do that?”
____“Yes sir. I’ll put your channel through. One moment.” Static for a bit, the voice returning not long after, “Sergeant, can you get vocal confirmation from Post-71’s command in the meantime?”
____“Negative. I’ve reason to believe this base was compromised. My group found no signs of ‘em here. They are MIA.”
____“Affirmative. I will put you through then. Please destroy your equipment there once you are finished using it.”
____“Yes ma’am.”
____Back to static. Thomas mused on the words. They sounded dire, not the sort of things he wanted to overhear between the military types. It made him think of other empty military bases elsewhere, or of moles within the army. The damage they could do: misdirecting, attacking, sabotaging, all while the zombies kept everyone’s hands full as is. Things just had to be multiple ways of bad, didn’t they? He supposed if they weren’t then they wouldn’t be so bad to begin with.
____“Hello? Brysen?” The radio finally spoke back. That flat male voice: familiar. Only one man who wasn’t his dad would call the Sergeant by his first name. And that was Montag, “Do you read me?”
____“I hear you, I hear you. Hold on…” Header turned another knob and the voice grew louder, “We’re here.”
____“We’re alive!” Gene added.
____“Thank God!” Montag replied. Thomas could hear him fiddling with communications on his end, “Louis is getting everybody, one second… let me see if I can get this big screen on. There we go, hello!”
____Header did the same, pressing a few keys into the laptop and bringing up a video feed. That big control room back at VACC appeared on the other end, with Montag sat there smiling at the camera.
____“You all look good!” He said, “However grainy and… low-frame-ratey you might be. We didn’t think we’d hear from you again, that is until you made it back or didn’t! Oh, that was terribly macabre of me. I apologize.”
____Jarek raised an eyebrow, muttering: “This prissy thing a military official?”
____“An author.” Jaxson corrected with a smirk.
____Header grunted, amused, “There’s nuthin’ to be sorry about, Montag. We weren’t expectin’ to make a call anyhow.”
____Another voice came through on the other side, Louis shouldering his way into the camera’s view. His arm—unmistakable while bearing his neon wristbands which stood out so much against the rest of the muted colors in that room—came in first, pushing Montag out of the way, replaced next by Louis’ face peering into the camera: eye made huge as he leaned too close to the lens.
____“We’re all here!” He said loudly, obviously piled into the room with too many other people, “Now who didn’t make it? I brought Brooke’s guitar—I told her I’d smash it if she had the gall to die on us, and I meant it!”
____“Don’t you dare, Louis!” Brooke squirmed her way up to the front of their bunched-up group, her shouting still playful in tone, “So help me, my undead corpse would cross mountains and rivers to get you if you bust my guitar!”
____His big eye shrunk back down small as he leaned back, holding her guitar case safe and sound in his arms, “Chill out, mon amour. It remains safe… for now.”
____Jaxson’s turn to peer in close, “Yeah, yeah, get off the screen. Is Miles there?”
____“Here!” In his friend peered. He had Abbey with him. While they both looked well-rested, she still managed to have permanent bags under her eyes. Still she smiled at seeing them. Miles waved, “Hey, hey, hello! I see that nothing still keeps you guys down. I suppose you’re here to guilt me for staying behind.”
____“I was thinking about it.” Jaxson told him, “But really we just wanted to let you guys know we’re okay and heading home.”
____“Did anyone…?” Abbey could only shyly ask. She didn’t see Thorn among them.
____“Shelley and Stanley bit it, and Jarek here is new.” Header told her plainly, “Everyone else is okay, if a little roughed up. Needless to say things got a bit crazy at the coordinates we were given.”
____Montag was trying to squeeze his way back into frame, “Does that mean…?”
____“Bam!” Brooke held up the cure in her hands, “Thomas was right!”
____“Yes, I—” Thomas began but there were too many excited people talking for him to get a word in. Brooke continued:
____“It was a lab! One of the guys who helped make the virus—”
____Now Gene interceded, “He had been making all kinds of monsters, but then he engineered a cure—!”
____Stacey next: “He was dead, though, and we had to have a shootout with some guy while a million zombies piled into the room on all sides! We barely got out with our lives!”
____Back to Gene, “But then a bunch of attack helicopters blew up our cars, and—”
____Header forced his way past all of them, getting to the point, “Point is we got something. Is Nazar there? We need to get this thing to the feds for analysis ASAP.”
____A calm voice replied, “Unfortunately he is not here.”
____The two resident scientists at that particular VACC base—Dr. Brett and Dr. Lance—crammed their way into view. Dr. Lance took the lead seat, the generous amount of cigarette smoke he exhaled giving him a wide berth from the others in that tight space.
____“Nazar, Lavender, and that driver of his all left not long after you lot.” He explained, “Needless to say… he was mildly upset. But he had to make some reports elsewhere and left just the same. Apologies if you were still needing what was left of that car you brought.”
____“(So the bastard really did take the half-destroyed junker we left behind.)” Thomas muttered to himself, honestly impressed.
____“Still, I will do what I can in his stead.” Lance continued, eyeing the vial curiously.
____Brooke held it closer to the camera, as if that helped, “What can you tell us, Doctor?”
____“...Hm… Well it’s pink.” He leaned back and held up his cigarette for another long drag, “Unfortunately that’s about all we’ll be able to say until you bring it here. It’s a serum of some kind, but without labels or the creator to elaborate further I don’t know a thing about it. Its exact composition and how it works… well, I’ll be very interested to find out about that. And whatever it is this scientist found that we all somehow missed.”
____“You really think it’ll work?” Header asked.
____“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. All I know is that Nazar had no interest in fetching it, and I trust his judgment.” Lance noticed their doubts, “…But still!”
____Miles looked from the scientist to his friends and back, adding his own two cents to their findings, “The important thing is that you got it and you’re okay.”
____“It is a victory.” The eldest of their VACC-based friends, Mr. Collis, added from off camera. His bearded gray head peeked into view, “And sometimes that’s all you need to turn everything around. Bring it home and it works, and it’ll be humanity’s El-Alamein.”
____Thomas raised an eyebrow, “Our what?”
____“‘Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat!’” The old entrepreneur proudly recited.
____“Right, right. Thank you for the trivia.” Dr. Brett cut him off quickly, “Listen, what’s your current position? We can send for you and get that cure to base right away. I’d sooner pop the champagne once you’re all back.”
____“Some abandoned FOB called Post-71.” Header replied, “But listen, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to wait around that long. We got at least four hostile aircraft on our asses, an’ a near-guarantee that they’re gonna come tear this place up.”
____The Doctor sighed but nodded, “All right, give me a second. I might be able to at least find the closest operational FOB to your current location. Get there safely and we can airlift you the rest of the way from there, savvy?”
____“Yessir.” Header reached out and yanked a second laptop over to him, opening it and doing some more typing, bringing up maps, “I wanna say we are… relatively close to… Niobrara, Nebraska.”
____Dr. Brett was offscreen by now, likely pouring over data of his own. The clicking sound of keys could be heard, “Okay… sh*t, you guys got off course, yeah?”
____“A little.” Jaxson said, “Anywhere you can point us?”
____“Closest other base is near Omaha. Southeast. Takes you closer to VACC just the same. 41.262213, -95.933037. That’ll be N 13th Street. Relatively close to the river. I’ll let them know you’re coming, yeah?”
____The Sergeant jotted the numbers down and then did a quick bit of charting, “Okay. Closest road is 14. We’ll take that way down to I-80 and it’s a straight shot from there.”
____Louis butted back in, “Hey, hey, wait! Guy and I came from near there.”
____Header sounded confused, “What about it?”
____“No no no no no. It’s a disaster. Or it was a disaster.” Louis continued, “Just take NE-12. It’s a much straighter shot.”
____“You sure?” Brooke asked him, “We got out of Chicago on 88 okay. Is 80 that much worse? And all the way out in Nebraska?”
____“Hmm, now that you mention it… Come on, I was there!” He cupped his hands together, “It’s more of a ‘scenic route’, but trust me I’m saving you a ginormous headache. You can take it to I-29; that goes down to Omaha. You wanna get that cure here fast, you take that one, ‘kay?”
____“Fair enough, suppose.” Header just shrugged and amended his notes. Louis seemed to know what he was talking about, even if he always spoke as if he knew what he was talking about. And the last thing anyone wanted was to finally get cars only to hit a wall of abandoned traffic and have to turn around. That was ignoring the possibility of zombies crowding such areas: easy zones for cultivating such hordes. The Sergeant did more jotting, “Okay. FOB outta Omaha, 41, -95. Go up, grab NE-12 east onto I-29 from there an’ take it down to the objective. Clear as mud.” He made quick copies of his notes and handed them back, “Thomas, I’m makin’ you the driver of our second car. Think you can manage?”
____He dryly accepted the role by now, “If there’s anything I’m good for, it’s driving. That’s, that’s for sure.”
____“Good.” The Sergeant turned back to the camera, “Al’ight, folks. Thanks for the directions. We’ve dallied too long here t’ be honest. With some luck we’ll be back soon.”
____Dr. Lance leaned forward, as if he was trying to see their surroundings better, “See if you can get a functioning handheld radio to take with you. That way we can keep in touch easier.”
____“Hm.” Header rooted through all the junk assembled before him, “Yeah, I think we can manage that.”
____“Good.” Montag said, “I’ll get you our frequency. Louis should be at the security panel often enough when you radio in. He’s always hanging around up there anyway.”
____Louis smirked, “Well, up above more often than not. But yeah I’ll make sure to be here as often as I can to pick up, should you come ringing. Keep us updated.”
____The Sergeant located a small rectangular device with a shoulder speaker jacked to it, latching it to his vest, “Right as rain, then. Okay, we’ll buzz you when we can or if anything comes up. Otherwise we’ll touch base again at Omaha. Come on, everybody.”
____“Take care, please.” Abbey told them as everyone squeezed in their goodbyes, “Stay safe.”
____“We miss you, see you soon.” Brooke said, sad to see them go already. But Header was right: they were chancing time when those helicopters could come back at any moment. They needed to drive off while they could, or else risk getting their rides shot to pieces all over again.
____Montag gave them the frequency, wished them luck one final time, then off went the monitor and they were alone again. The warming of the get-together subsiding, danger crept back around them.
____“You were right.” Jarek admitted once the line was cut, “It is a luxury.”
____“How do you figure?” Thomas asked him.
____“They seem normal even this far in. Not at all like most others still alive. Not haggard, not desperate, not savage.” The older man’s eyes narrowed, “Not yet anyway.”
____“We’re keeping Thorn waiting.” Header said simply, gesturing for them all to leave. He waited for everyone to be gone before facing the equipment and bashing it all to pieces with his rifle. Everything that’d given them a chance to speak with their friends had to be thoroughly destroyed, before it could be used for less sincere means.

ii

____Thorn was waiting for them by the cars: three jet-black jeeps not dissimilar from the Humvees they’d been forced to abandon previously. He’d fueled up two at the expense of the third, protecting them from being trailed on land if nothing else. But no one was worried about threats on the ground right now. They’d been at the base too long, and could expect company by air any minute now.
____Thomas focused on the task at hand and drove. If they could get clear enough road as Louis promised, they could make it to the other base by end of day tomorrow. Not that Thomas was one to hope for such things, nor would he be one to trust Louis’ words so easily. That loudmouth could sell a horse as a car if you only let him while closing your eyes and holding your nose. But he had no reason to lie, Thomas knew that—he himself was just being childishly distrustful simply because he didn’t really like the man.
____They pulled out of the base onto the meager road closest and turned north. From there it was a short drive to Niobrara. It was barren and empty, and looked as if it had always been so even before the apocalypse. But barren meant few zombies. The roads were open as predicted. Thomas turned right onto NE-12 as instructed and drove freely through the town unobstructed.
____The sky was clear and crisp and bitter with cold’s onset. No clouds, no helicopters. Wind was the only ambient sound outside the vehicle, free of the aircraft’s loud alarming noise. They were able to escape. Thomas didn’t hesitate to floor it. Out they went.
____They made out of Niobrara like bandits, driving unobstructed for a short while in peace as the last tide of sunlight gradually faded into eclipsing night. Being unhindered by obstacles or pursuing helicopters allowed them to cover no short distance in that time.
____Before long the winged moon was out above them in the darkness. Only three wings were visible at this stage of its lunar cycle, and its light did little to brighten the night despite its size. The moving car wavered slightly as Thomas drove while rubbing his eyes, only one hand on the wheel.
____Brooke watched him, “Think we’ve driven enough for one day?”
____He shook his head slightly, eyes glued to the road, “No. I want to get there.”
____“You didn’t even sleep last night.”
____That wasn’t true. He wished it were true. But he was still tired. They drove until the first building came into view—a simple auto garage out on its lonesome by the roadside—which the group pulled into. Header wouldn’t risk driving at night when the copters might be out and about: headlights would be a dead giveaway that anyone miles away could see with ease. Driving in the complete darkness was no less risky when a roadblock could appear in an instant. Or worse yet a mob of dead. They had little choice but to stop.
____A simple check of the building and its surroundings revealed no zombies of any kind. Not terribly surprising given the sparse nature of this area: hardly enough of a population in the surrounding miles to assemble an undead army. Even if such a force had been raised it seemed likely that they would’ve wandered off long ago in search of other prey. It almost seemed a shame—if it weren’t for the human hostiles and nearby lab this place could be a something of a safe haven to hide in.
____“We’re clear.” Thorn announced once satisfied. He opened the shop’s garages and helped lead both jeeps in where they’d be covered from aerial eyes, then shut and locked all the doors. Everyone got out, save for Jaxson who’d already fallen asleep in the car. Thorn shook him, “Yo, wake up. Time for bed.”
____He startled groggily, “Huh, what? Uh… okay.”

____One of the garage’s handheld lights on a wire was flipped to its dimmest setting and placed on the floor while Header set up a MRE for the group to eat before bed. Only those who wanted dinner waited around for it.
____Gene watched the Sergeant unpack and set up each ugly dish, “I don’t wanna sound spoiled, but I miss VACC dinners.”
____Header snorted with what one could only guess to be amusement, “This ain’t lavish, son, I’ll admit. But we’ll be back there soon enough.”
____“Maybe.” Thomas glanced to the front office adjacent to the garage. Brooke had borrowed Header’s radio and slipped off that way. He got up, “Let me know when it’s ready.”
____“Boy, it’s a Meal, Ready-to-Eat.”
____But Thomas had already left. He felt oddly wrought with worry that she was chatting it up with Louis. He didn’t know why he cared that they talked, why it got just a little under his skin. Juvenile paranoia really, blotted out by its sheer unimportance compared to their world-changing task. He was possessive, he’d come to know that, and part of him just couldn’t help but eavesdrop out of simple curiosity and suspicion.
____What a child you are. He thought to himself, A petty child and a fretting old man, all at once. Don’t you trust her at all? She trusted you last night, didn’t she?
____He could hear her, and the radio’s reply. It really was him. Thomas suppressed a knee-jerk reaction. Louis would be the only one at VACC still up this late.
____“No, we’re just stopped for the night. Thought I’d test this out.” Brooke was pacing around like a teenager who’d been on the phone for hours, “I don’t know where exactly. Thorn said it was a bad idea to drive at night since they’d see our headlights real easily.”
____“That makes sense.” Came Louis’ staticy reply from the radio, “I think you should be able to make it tomorrow, provided clear skies and yada yada.”
____“Roads are clear so far. Thanks again for pointing us this way.” Brooke said, “Did Montag reach out to the place we’re headed?”
____“Yes ma’am. As soon as you guys left. Lt. Oakerley is patiently awaiting your arrival.”
____“Good, great.” Brooke looked to the vial in her hand, “Then we’ll be back to VACC real soon. I hope this cure works. I hope things can get back to normal.”
____Louis laughed, “Hey, it’s a start to back to normal. And you never know: if we don’t administer it to the conservatives things could be better than normal once it’s over.”
____“Don’t say that! God, you’re the only person who’d still be concerned about that kind of stuff after all that’s happened.”
____“Someone has to be. I’m just saying, I don’t know who started this mess trying to end the world, but if I had to hedge my bets…”
____Brooke gave a gentle scoff, “Just watch that tone around Mr. Collis: I think he might find it offensive. You shouldn’t go upsetting people you’re confined with.”
____“Ah, he knows I’m a bastard by now.”
____“All right, well I’m going to bed. Give everyone our best. I’ll try to report in tomorrow and keep you updated, and hopefully we’ll be there real soon.”
____“I’ll be on, I’ll leave the channel open. Ciao.”
____She fiddled with the radio a bit before managing to flip it off, yawned, and turned to leave. Thomas pressed against the wall, suddenly feeling guilty for being there in the first place, not knowing what to say to her. Instead he slipped off into another room adjacent—a supply closet—finding a secluded place to sleep in the dark.
____Why was he doing that? Couldn’t he explain himself to her? There had to be some way of doing so without it coming across as weird. But he couldn’t think of such a path right now, and stayed there getting that sleep they’d pulled over for. Even giving up his chance at dinner in order to do so.
____He knew why it felt shameful. It was because she had trusted him on the boat with the vial, and he’d fallen asleep. And when given the chance to trust her—even for such a non-issue as speaking to another man over a radio—he hadn’t. It wasn’t because she didn’t deserve trust. It was a weakness in him, not her. Just one crack in the overall broken picture.

____He wasn’t the only one with relationships on the mind. Outside the garage Reed snuck out into the open cold and approached Thorn standing all on his own by the road. He called out rather loudly, shattering the cool quiet atmosphere, “Yo, Corporal!”
____“Reed.” Thorn didn’t turn to meet him, “I’m taking a leak right now.”
____“Yeah, it’s no problem.” Reed dismissed, walking up to him, “I wanted to talk to you about Stacey.”
____“What about her? Is she okay?”
____He frowned at the Corporal’s unassuming answer, “No, she’s fine. Look, it’s getting to be cold season. Cozy season, pairin’ season. And I am a gentleman, so I thought you oughta know: Thomas told me that she wasn’t into me.”
____Thorn gave him a very concerned look, “...No way.”
____Cold rigid grass crunched as Reed paced, “So I was thinking about it. And I’m pretty sure if she’s not into me, then she must be into you. It makes the most sense.”
____“What makes you suspect that?”
____Reed scoffed, “I can tell with these sorts of things, okay! So as a bro, I’m doing you a favor by letting you know in advance. I’m willing to let you take bat, if that’s what she wants.”
____Thorn sighed, zipped up, and fully faced his guest. He put on his serious face for the spiel ahead: “I appreciate your concern, Reed. But I am on-duty, so to speak. As such I can’t exactly permit myself to be seeking flings when I need to be completely focused on the task at hand: keeping everyone safe, including Stacey. And what’s more, I don’t think she wants anyone—including me—to get anywhere near her in that sense, for the sake of her own comfort.”
____“Why would you say that?!”
____“Because we are living in a hellscape where being ‘uncomfortable’ is very easy and very possible, Reed. I know this was before you joined us, but I had to stand there and watch her get sexually assaulted, and that was still only the third-worst thing to happen that particular day. I’m not going to add to that discomfort. I suggest you do the same.”
____Reed followed him as he turned to leave, not allowing the conversation to end at that. “Well ain’t you the dignified knight!” He criticized, “You think walkin’ on eggshells is gonna do anything?”
____“Watch it.” Thorn warned him.
____“No! Think about it: if I’m right and she does like you, do you think she wants someone who stays all distant? I’d think she’d want someone to lean on. Y’know, up close.”
____The Corporal sighed and stopped, glancing through the garage windows at those inside. There Stacey was: not too close to anyone as she ate. Not acting bubbly when she was tired.
____Reed stuffed his hands into his leather jacket pockets and continued, “It’s too bad, you letting assault be the last touch she experienced. Oh well. I’m sure she’ll figure out you ain’t interested soon enough. Then I’ll go swoopin’ right in!”
____“God damn it.” Thorn shut his eyes tight as he rubbed his brow. There was no time for this nonsense. They had to get back to VACC. Then Dr. Brett and Lance could develop and deploy the cure. The civvies could decide who cuddled with who over the winter. And he could focus on his one true goal: putting a cold knife through Alex Silvin’s colder heart. Because in spite of everything that damn lucky bastard was still out there alive and well. That could not be allowed to continue.
____He thought again of Stacey: admiring her plenty, liking her even. But even if what Reed said was true, he couldn’t ever give her what she would want. He wasn’t like other men: himself remaining so single-minded, so consumed with Silvin. With all the tours and ballistics and tactics that’d been poured into killing that man. What else was there should it all be peeled away? He’d rid himself of everything he hated about himself: and that was nearly everything. He was just a warm body otherwise.
____Thorn spoke just to end the conversation with Reed, answering simply: “No matter what happens, do not engage with her, okay?”
____Reed shrugged, “You can hate me, pretty boy. But you know I’d make her howl. Awoooooo!!”
____“Talk like that is why. No unwanted harassing, got it? It’s the last thing she needs right now.”
____“Gimmie some credit. I’d make it wanted.”
____“Stop. I don’t even like having this talk about her without her. It’s like we’re discussing an arranged marriage or something.” Thorn led the way back inside, just pacing around and giving everything one last general double-check before turning in. But there was nothing that stood out as problematic. He frowned to himself and returned to those gathered around the light, “I hate to say it but sleeping in the cars might be the most comfortable place here. I suggest turning in once you’re done eating. We should leave early tomorrow.”
____Jaxson looked up at him, “Uh, yeah. As usual.”
____“...” Thorn stood there in silence for a few seconds, “...Do you need a blanket or something, Stacey? It’s getting cold and you’re still dressed for summer.”
____“I’ve got one in my backpack, thanks.” She dismissed.
____Gene perked up, “Well, I could use a blanket. This dress shirt is not exactly what I’d call insulating.”
____“Oh, okay.” Thorn looked around, “...I, I don’t have one.”
____Everyone stared at him. Stacey dropped her gaze first, hugging her arms and—possibly feeling singled out—opened her backpack and fetched the blanket she’d mentioned. She wrapped herself up in it.
____You damn idiot. The Corporal thought, feeling more like his fat clumsy old self for the first time in a long while, All the civvies are still dressed for summer and she knows that. Now she feels exposed. Nicely done, Casanova. God damn you, Reed.
____Reed was watching from near the main office, quietly cackling at the exchange. He stepped aside as Brooke exited from there, heading over to report to the main group (and Thorn blessed her for doing so: diverting attention elsewhere). “Louis was still up.” She said, handing the radio back to Header, “Montag called the base we’re heading for. They’ll know we’re coming.”
____“Hot dog.” Header reholstered the shoulder speaker, “Unless there’s any birds in the sky, we’ll leave at six tomorrow. Corporal, yer gonna split the watch with me. Shouldn’t be too bad, though.”
____“Aye sir.” Thorn replied, trying to mask a sigh in it. Keeping watch he could do.

~TAF

[TheAverageFan]

We move on to the next chapter:

Spoiler Alert!

4
In the Path of the Stranger

i

____Miles could hardly sleep that night, staring up at the ceiling thinking constantly about all that had happened. He’d been safely tucked away at VACC while the rest of their number had been out and about, busy saving the world. Now that they’d actually reported back, magic chemical in hand, he felt stupid and selfish for hiding the way he had. Abbey had stayed too, and he enjoyed keeping her company. But he didn’t have the myriad of excuses for retiring here that she had. No one would blame her for staying at VACC forever. He meanwhile was an able-bodied youth. He’d even pawned off his own weapon to Jaxson, letting him deal with whatever was out there. Cowardly.
____It was fine. Everything had worked out fine. He’d have only gotten in the way, he brilliantly informed himself. They’d all be back soon, and none of them would give him a hard time for staying behind. He hoped. Miles exhaled and silently counted to ten.
____There was a knock at the door, followed by Lynn’s faded concerned voice coming from the other side, “You up, Miles? I made some breakfast.”
____Lynn was everyone’s mom here. She was a pleasant woman who liked to keep busy, and she was also handicapped with some sort of past injury: as such no one would dare refuse any offer of hers. Who could turn down coffee when she put so much strain into making it? And he’d have taken some regardless. Miles got up.
____He threw on some pants and answered the door, “I’m awake. Did anyone call in this morning? Are they doing okay?”
____“You’ll have to ask Louis.”
____Miles nodded and headed down the hall toward the kitchen. While he’d grown plenty accustomed to the spotless white corridors and bright even lighting of this VACC bunker, it was awfully monochromatic and as such an eyesore at times. Occasionally he had to excuse himself above ground just to be outside to appreciate the greens and blues and the wind and the sun. Part of him wished that the whole facility could be more open-aired, but that was terribly choosy for a beggar who was damn well-off all things considered.
____Maybe he had to admit that he was just a touch claustrophobic. Just a bit.
____Mr. Collis was in the kitchen eyeing what Lynn had made over a cup of coffee. He was sharply dressed as usual, possibly the only survivor in a thousand miles who’d still willingly be wearing dress shoes at a time like this. Brooke had very vehemently defended his honor as a well-to-do billionaire, but truth be told Miles had never heard of Collis Corp. before the apocalypse. Turns out it was mostly a parent company of a bunch of other brands he was more familiar with.
____“Pharmaceuticals, mostly.” Collis had told him, “I myself generally only managed the shares, a big game of fish eating the little fish. The only thing Collis Corp. ever sold in the beginning was toothpaste. God, to be back in those days…”
____He was a nice man, but Miles found him difficult to approach due to his station: even though that ought to be irrelevant now. He had a hard enough time talking to people in his own age and wage group.
____The exception to that was Abbey, the only other one up at the moment: sitting alone at the table, quietly nursing some coffee of her own. They had a strange kinship: being the only ones left of their own group before being absorbed into the other—like Collis’ shares he supposed—and also being the only two of that specific lot to remain at VACC when asked to leave in search of a cure. Miles tried to be a good friend to her.
____How she got up so early while actively depressed he wasn’t sure. He took the seat opposite and spoke, “Any of you had the chance to check with Louis yet?”
____“You called?” The door behind Miles opened and in Louis came. He sauntered over, “I feel popular all of a sudden.”
____“Well…” Miles leaned back as Lynn set a plate and cup down in front of him (wordlessly, again like his mother would). Sunny-side-up eggs perfect as plastic replicas, stared back up at him, huddled between toast and strips of bacon thin and crisp as wrapping paper. The accompanying coffee was almond-colored and foamy. Miles paused at it, again feeling almost-guilty about it after talking to his friends in the hellhole outside, “Er, did they call in this morning?”
____Louis leaned against the white wall and nodded, “Header radioed in earlier. They’re still on the same road but they should make it to the base soonish.” He swiped some coffee for himself as he circled the room, “Provided everything goes smoothly at least, heh.”
____Mr. Collis frowned, “It’s their last chance to jinx it. I wouldn’t speak of it at all, to be honest.”
____“Hm.” Was the only noise Miles could muster in agreement. He looked again to Abbey but she said nothing. How could she be on edge regarding the cure? Hope meant so little to her now, after all. It wouldn’t bring anyone back. He bit his lip.
____“You all talk as if it’s out of their hands.” Lynn said, “They’ve made it this far. We’ve just got to trust in them. And then trust in the doctors once they get that cure back here. Louis, don’t leave without a bite to eat.”
____“Yeah, yeah.” He took only a slice of toast and then headed back the way he came, “Listen, I’m gonna stay on the horn, in case they ring us again once they’re in Omaha.”
____“That won’t be necessary.” A monotone voice answered him as he opened the door to exit.
____“WAH!” Louis almost fell back, startled coffee splattering the perfect white floor around him. A man in a navy suit came in, standing at the doorway. Miles recognized him, they all did.
____“Nazar.” He said simply, feeling like he should rise but staying seated.
____Nazar glared down at them with a very serious expression. He removed his jacket—revealing another navy article beneath—folded it, and handed it off behind him. Out came a woman’s slender hand to take it, his assistant Lavender having accompanied him. She silently hovered around behind him like a ghost, saying nothing as he spoke.
____“I had assumed they were dead when I’d heard they left.” Nazar said plainly, “Now Montag tells me they’re alive and well, and bearing Harold Joetex’s supposed miracle cure.”
____He'd only just arrived and already he'd squeezed the details from that limp writer. Everyone in that group seemed afraid of him and said nothing, even Louis holding his tongue. Abbey too remained silent, so Miles stepped up to bat. He had to be brave for his friends’ sakes, standing albeit a bit shakily and replying: “That’s right. They didn’t give up or refuse to act. Now they’re coming back—”
____“Fools…” Nazar cut him off, “...But they are alive and that’s what counts. Now that I know they’re not dead, tell me whose idiotic idea this escapade was.”
____It had been Thomas’ idea, but Miles didn’t spill it just like that. He answered with a question, “Why?”
____“So I know which one of them to kill when they return.”

____Thomas again led the way, calmly driving down the open road and trying to keep his weary eyes shielded from the morning sun as best he could. He’d managed to sleep in that cramped room because of the darkness more than anything else: now he was forced to confront the light as he drove east. Luckily it was a mindless enough task, and no helicopters had shown up to ruin the momentum so far. The road was smaller than he’d like for an expressway, remote and country to be sure, but it was as empty as Louis had promised: winding and going on and on with little debris or abandoned traffic to block the way.
____Louis, Thomas thought again. Why did that man get under his skin so much? Maybe he really was just so petty and jealous as to let Brooke talking to this other guy affect him so. He had done the same thing before with Allison, before it all cracked and shattered to pieces. The grief hadn’t just made him not there for her, it had made him insecure as well. Seeking to control, because he knew he was failing and grew ever-more paranoid of losing her as a result. And he had lost her.
____Thomas’ mind glazed with thoughts of the past, the voices of Gene and Stacey and Brooke in the car growing distant and dim. Those regrets would always still be there, for his entire life most likely. Somehow he could still sense that he wouldn’t heed them with Brooke—no of course he wouldn’t, he was doing it already with Louis. Yes he found Louis annoying, but that should be the start and end of it. Trust her, be there for her, the rest would take care of itself.
____Why wasn’t that obvious to him in the moment? And would it just disappear the next time he was challenged to uphold it? He didn’t know. Thinking about it made him tired. Everything about back then made him tired. It was all an ugly past, and he’d never stop fretting on it even when the open window of happiness with Brooke was plainly there for him. All he had to do was just turn that page over forever. But could he really be counted on not to make those same mistakes?
____Where would I be if I had just taken up Lucas on those tickets?
____The question remained unanswered.
____He wasn’t paying attention.
____Gene next to him quite suddenly snapped upright, gawking at the road ahead wild-eyed. He pointed for only a second because that’s all the time there was, “DUDE, LOOK OUT!!!”
____A look to the finger and then to the road was precious time lost too late. Thomas only stole a glimpse of the obstacle in a split-second: a lone man standing in the middle of the road ahead. Dark eyes gazed out at the incoming vehicle with a knowing stare—not those of a zombie’s at all.
____When had he walked into their path? The obstruction had come out of nowhere. There was no time to veer, no time to spare him. Thomas gripped the wheel tighter than death and closed his eyes, knowing it was coming. The vehicle at this speed would make short work of anyone. The best he could hope for was forgiveness from this stranger for the unavoidable. Their mission was important enough to warrant it.
____The two parties collided.
____CRASH!!!!!!
____Quite the opposite of Thomas’ perceived physics occurred, the jeep smashing into the man and giving up its front engine. The second vehicle right behind them had no time to react to the result either, smashing the back of the car and wrecking them both. Thomas’ mind spun in split-second shock as he felt the jeep careening along the side of the road from the double impact, totaled front and back. It’d been flipped on its head, slowly skidding to a halt and spewing sparks as the roof of the car slid against the pavement.
____The victim himself had oddly fared much better, merely flung back and rolling along the road and stopping only a short distance from where their car had ground to. How had he caused so much and endured so little damage? It was as if his body was secretly extremely dense or made of iron.
____The side of Thomas’ head was bleeding and he couldn’t feel one leg. Had it not been for the sturdiness of his particular ride he might not have even survived the ordeal. Thick mountains of smoke fled from the destroyed engine of the car. The dashboard was smashed in and shattered, the steering wheel pinned to his gut fiercely. His head felt much like the totaled engine before him, Thomas muttering a curse word he couldn’t hear and struggling to get a grip on the random situation. Bleeding. Upside-down. Blurred vision gradually recovering.
____He could see the man lying on the pavement ahead. Thomas watched in wordless shock as the stranger he’d hit with a car at seventy miles an hour slowly got back to his feet. No worse for wear. The man turned and slowly, silently approached.
____His size and age were both difficult to gauge, broad but not unreasonably tall, face featureless but not young. Wildly long hair covered much of his now-bloodied head, an equally guising cloak covering most of his body. It was large and encompassing—an unusually elegant design of weaving golds and dark violets hiding whatever lay beneath, almost making it look like he had no arms. His skin was as pallid as death, contrasted with his eyes which were all black save for the violet irises. They were like pits in the daylight, staring unblinking at the wrecked vehicle. He did not belong here in the light and the nature of the outdoors.
____Thomas’ mind raced at that sight. This man. Not normal. Not possible. Supernatural. Here for them. Here for the cure. The cure. Sh*t. Brooke! Forcing effort back into his muscles, he squirmed behind the wheel and his seatbelt. His lungs were empty, and it took multiple tries to summon a voice, “…oke! …Brooke!”
____Craning his neck, he could see that she had pried herself out of the seat and tumbled out the broken window onto the side of the road: gasping for breath and continuously falling to her knees while trying to stand. Miraculously the vial had survived the crash, clutched tight in one cut hand. Her shocked, wide eyes looked around in search for answers to this inexplicable situation. They fell first to Thomas.
____He couldn’t offer her any clues. Again it took several efforts to make words, even one in this instance while the blood was racing to his head, “…Run…!”
____But she didn’t, risen to her feet but looking paralyzed with fear—only backing away step by step. She’d seen the man approaching silently, his eyes locked with hers.
____“Run, damn it!” Thomas wheezed. He reached out of the shattered window as the stranger passed, trying in vain to reach his legs or do anything. He was useless to intervene!
____Brooke remained, staring paralyzed, confronted with something she could never explain. It was gazing right back at her, unmoving eyes full of nothing but an endless tunnel of inexplicable hate: she could sense it piercing her. There was no hint of reason or emotion fueling it; no logic or history to justify it. Just a pure alien hatred at her existence. Her fast-beating heart raced for an explanation, seeking understanding to alleviate her terror, but there was nothing to find. She just could not move, as if locked in a nightmare.
____“Brooke!” The sharp command came from the second vehicle. It was smashed and reeling just like the first, but far less so, and its inhabitants weren’t as dazed as a result. Already Sgt. Header and Cpl. Thorn were opening the doors and stepping out. Without a moment’s hesitation both fired upon the intruder, deafening gunfire filling the air.
____At the same time Jaxson came racing over to her rescue, knowing the risks but also knowing shock when he saw it. Jarek was right behind him. He sprinted to her side and grasped her wrist, “Move!”
____The stranger approached, the bullets punching through his cloak. Jaxson could see silver gleaming in the sunlight under the holes, the resounding clang clang! of metal hitting metal. The man was wearing some kind of thick, heavy armor under his garb. The bullets weren’t stopping him.
____Recognizing this, Jaxson yanked Brooke behind him fiercely and she staggered back into Jarek’s catching hands. Without even hesitating he then threw himself forward at the enemy, rushing in to stop his advance. He had less than a second to react as he did so: the man responding with a sudden burst of speed. He lunged forth, lashing out at Jaxson faster than anyone so heavily armored had any right to. Jaxson stumbled back and ducked at the sudden counterattack, moving as fast as he could, “Ah—!”
____For the first time, he wasn’t quick enough. He had pulled back away from the man, but not so soon as needed. There was a flash of silver in the air and then his right hand exploded into pain. Half of it was gone, only his thumb and most of the palm remaining. His fingers fell to the pavement in a large splash of blood.
____The man held a blade in his outstretched arm. A medieval broadsword had been concealed under that cloak: now glinting bared in the daylight, glistening with blood. He’d have taken the whole arm had Jaxson not been quick to dodge as he was. But still not fast enough. He collapsed, clutching his severed palm and screaming. The man left him there, moving on ahead to Brooke who stood gawking at what he had done to her friend.
____He’d even been shot in the head by the soldiers by now, blood sprayed all across the road behind him. Brooke could see the bullet holes in his face as he nonetheless continued wordlessly advancing: the blood and brain matter dripping within, the visible exit wound on the other side. Yet he still kept moving. Not even the zombies survived such a thing.
____Jarek didn’t wait for her to snap out of it, just grasping her shoulders and yanking back, “Lass, you’re not gonna wake up! It’s time to go!”
____This was really happening. Brooke staggered back against him, snapping free at last. But then even as Jaxson had only just struck the ground and they had only taken their first step backward there came a second burst of speed and the stranger was right there before the two of them. Only the brush of wind past her bangs indicated movement. There he was inches from her face already.
____Brooke stared in shock at the stranger so close to her, seeing his own gaze fixated now on Jarek. His armored hand was raised, sword held tight with its blade running just past her ear. Her eyes followed and she saw past the hilt that the shaft had sunk directly into Jarek’s forehead. He’d been stabbed right through, eyes blank, body twitching. Not even having possessed the time to react.
____She was clutched haplessly in the rigid hands of this dead man with their attacker right before her. In that breath of stilled time she saw those violet irises dart back to her. The only thing she had time to do was widen her eyes. Again he swiftly moved forth, electing to simply headbutt her while his blade remained lodged in the other victim. Instantly she was on the ground, with Jarek’s body collapsing down beside her as the sword was wrenched out.
____“Brooke!” Thomas screamed as he watched her fall. He’d at last clawed his way from the wreck and onto the pavement, scrambling to his feet and racing over heedless of what had befallen the others who’d similarly rushed to her aid.
____The man plainly ignored him, following the vial as it tumbled from Brooke’s limp open hand. It rolled along the road, stopped under his hard-falling boot. He stamped it out of existence, crushing it deliberately and without commentary. Thomas winced at the sight. A dream crushed under the weight of reality, as if to say “This could never come to be”.
____The vial had been filled up with the liquid cure, leaving a healthy puddle in its wake. Unsatisfied with this, the man again set his foot down upon it—still ignoring the bullets penetrating him—and watched the ground. Slowly, without reason or explanation, the liquid dripped upward as if spilt in reverse. It gathered around his ironclad boot and trickled up his leg with an unnaturalness that could only be seen to be believed. The cure journeyed up him of its own accord, and vanished behind his lengthy cloak, never to be seen again. It was gone.
____Slowly the man turned to face them again. The bullet wounds in his face were already mending: flesh stitching back together on its own. He wasn’t going to stop.
____The only thing Thomas could think of was saving Brooke. She was the most important matter to him, Thomas wresting her to her feet and slinging her arm over his shoulder. They had to get out of here.
____“Run!” He shouted to whoever hadn’t already fled. Reed had rescued unconscious Gene from the wreck and was retreating into the woods closest to the road, and he’d seen Stacey—bloodied and panicked—dragging Jaxson away out of the corner of his eye as he’d raced to Brooke’s side. Thorn and Header just kept shooting in vain. They backed up as Thomas limped past them, slowly giving ground as the man relentlessly continued his advance. Nothing was stopping him. Thomas left the two behind and followed after Reed.
____Header stopped to reload, muttering curses at his weapon’s sudden futility. There was no possible explanation for what was going on here, only that they were screwed. Even headshots had done nothing. He fumbled the reload and gave up, shouldering the rifle and running: away at first, circling around back to the jeep. The man ignored him, following Thorn who kept up the retreat. The Corporal just continued firing without result, sweat visible on his brow, having no clue what else to possibly do to thwart the enemy.
____Header got in the jeep and fired it up, throwing it in Reverse and backing up some distance. The vehicle wheezed and gasped smoke from its wrecked hood, the Sergeant not knowing if it’d give out at any second. The man kept moving toward Thorn.
____Walk, you sluggish bastard. Header watched and gauged, Right… about… there!
____The man had now walked in front of Thomas’ totaled car. Header threw it into Drive and floored it, lurching forward and deliberately plunging right back into the jeep a second time. The invincible intruder was of course between them, rammed by the hood and pinned against the upside-down trunk of the other car. CRASH!!!
____The Sergeant flinched from the jerking impact, arms straining against the wheel. Both cars were completely wasted now, serving instead to pin their attacker for the time being. Header exhaled sharply through his nose. Good enough. Like before the impact didn’t affect the stranger as much as one would expect. Already he was moving, looking from one vehicle to the next, not at all seeming troubled with being crushed between the two automobiles.
____Header exited, racing over to Thorn’s side. The Corporal had backed off a bit from the second crash but was still shooting, getting off headshot after headshot in some vain attempt to blow the enemy away completely. His eyes were wide with disbelief at his lack of success. Header grabbed his shoulder, “Corporal!”
____“...eh?” Thorn glanced to him.
____The Sergeant shook him free of his stupor, “Come on, yer wastin’ yer ammo here! The civvies are all scattered like headless chickens! We gotta go! Now come on!”
____Thorn paused, suddenly remembering the mission. Everything had all at once been shattered: the vial obliterated and everyone fleeing. He was needed and badly. He nodded and the two began to hobble off, leaving the stranger stuck in the midst of the second crash. For now. Header led the way south where he’d seen Reed and Thomas flee.
____“Brysen…!” A woman’s voice called for him as he took the first steps of the retreat. He stiffened. That was his Colleen’s voice, a sound he’d given up on hearing again in this world. He dared to look back.
____There was only the stranger back there: still moving, gradually pushing the crashed cars aside with what could only be inhuman strength. His face was hard to see now: silver hair draped over so much of it, flesh and bone and gaping holes showing through so many of the shots Thorn had put in him. Only one black-tar eye could be seen, glaring at the Sergeant as he slowly freed himself.
____That voice had come from him.
____Breath only barely escaped through Header’s clenched teeth, the Sergeant just backing away. He shouldered Thorn and broke into a full-fledged jog as the two finally fled, leaving the man behind.

ii

____Thomas ran as far as he could. Brooke remained slumped against him as he had fled, carried in his arms. He didn’t dare to set her down, only stopping once he’d managed to catch up to the others, gasping with exhaustion. Reed had slowed once the threat was a good distance out of sight. He’d set the unconscious Gene down and now paced furiously back and forth: still trying to compute what had happened.
____Stacey and Jaxson, well, Thomas didn’t see them anywhere. They must’ve fled in a different direction. He looked to Reed, “Did you see where the others went?”
____“Who cares—we’re screwed!” He concluded simply, seeing Brooke limp in his arms, “Is she dead too?”
____“Hold on.” Thomas said, laying Brooke flat and checking for a pulse. She hadn’t moved since the man knocked her down, sprawled and limp like a corpse. Like a corpse—he desperately hoped that was the closest she’d get.
____But for all his fears he could feel her pulse, relaxing somewhat at the confirmation. He carefully cupped one hand under her head, gradually raising it. It’d been hit awfully hard when she had been knocked down. She flinched at his touch, clenching her shut eyes and biting her lip. Stifling a cry of pain, she slowly sat up.
____“Easy there.” Thomas warned, brushing the hair on the back of her head aside and checking for blood. She’d been struck hard from front and then back, the headbutt already leaving a nasty bruise upon her forehead and the pavement not terribly kind to the other side either.
____“Oh…” Brooke slowly clutched her head, wincing at the bump her hand found there.
____Thomas first clutched and then held her wrist with gradually increasing gentleness. A dangerous balancing act of powerful concern and delicate care dueled in his muscles. They made peace and joined, Thomas simply hugging her. Brooke only softly winced at his embrace. Instead she managed a smile and rubbed the side of her badly bruised head.
____“How do I look?” She said, her voice still hushed and reeling from the encounter.
____“Alive.” Thomas assured her.
____“I…” She looked at her hands, seeing that they were empty, “I dropped it.”
____She meant the cure. He just nodded.
____“Ha…!” Brooke stifled a laugh at the notion that it was gone, “I couldn’t… I mean… I just stood there!”
____Thomas silently held her gaze.
____She laughed again, holding her hand up to her lips as if to shut herself up. But she didn’t and kept laughing, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, “I just stood there! Why did I do that? Who would do that, Thomas? Why couldn’t I do anything? It’s gone…!”
____What could he possibly say to that? It was all true. While the mysterious attacker had gradually sauntered over she had simply stood frozen, knees shaking with fear. She had only done so for a few seconds, but that had been enough. Jaxson had lost his hand intervening to save her, and Jarek had lost his life, but it ultimately hadn’t mattered. Thomas couldn’t bring himself to be upset with her right now; he didn’t doubt that was what everyone else likely had in store for her. So he instead just hugged her and let her weep.
____By now the two soldiers had caught up to them, seeing their rather sorry state. Thorn frowned and got right to work, starting by checking Gene’s vitals. They had to start with something. The Corporal felt his neck and then reached down and pushed hard on his chest.
____Gene heaved and sat up in an instant, “Gah! Watch out!” He’d preemptively flinched, sitting there and gradually lowering his arms as he realized they weren’t in the cars anymore, glancing to Thorn next to him, “Don’t tell me…”
____“It’s okay. You’re good.” The Corporal told him, “Good, good… We’re alive.”
____Here came Reed. He hadn’t been nearly as roughed up by the crash and had managed to escape the scene without further injury, but such a positive term as Alive had drawn out his barely-pent wrath.
____“‘Alive’? ‘Alive’!? Sh*t to that, Corporal!” One accusing finger shot straight out in the direction of their run-in where they’d lost the vial, “Does that look fine to you? We came all the way out here—bled an’ ducked an’ died—and all for what now? It’s… it’s… GONE!!!”
____He ran to the side of the clearing they sat at and threw his rifle into the waving empty grasses stretching onward. Knees buckling, he then fell down and starting screaming a recital of the most vulgar words his mouth could conjure. It was a display that would border on comical were it not for the fact that they all felt much the same deep down inside.
____Thomas wasn’t one for denial but he didn’t quite feel like throwing a similar tantrum, knowing it wasn’t exactly going to help Brooke’s spirits. He wiped her latest tears away then got up, walked over and pried Reed from the ground, swiping his rifle as he went. Reed fought his grip. Thomas doubled down, “Come on now. Stop embarrassing yourself. You could’ve hurt someone lobbing your gun like that. Don’t be an idiot.”
____He winced a bit at his own words, understanding that they could be turned on him for running into the stranger in the first place. But Reed either didn’t know or chose not to bring it up. He cooled his tone in only the slightest amount, “Okay, okay! I’m calm. Get the hell off of me!”
____Thomas let him go and backed off, “Listen. We all agreed to come out here knowing and expecting full-well that we’d more likely than not come back empty handed. There’s… there’s no reason to despair.”
____“Oh, okay.” Reed nodded skeptically and exaggeratedly, “Well, listen, I’m real glad your girlfriend’s okay. But that don’t mean much in the long run without no damn cure. So, expectations or not, we’re still bust when it comes to surviving. Nil. Zilch! We’re dead! We are dead!”
____His words were followed by silence, plenty of time for them to sink in. He wasn’t wrong. Thorn looked to Header for leadership but the Sergeant suddenly seemed to be staring off into space, deep in thought. The Corporal sighed and scowled and rose to his feet, taking charge, “We’re not dead. But we need to keep moving if we’re gonna make it to Omaha, and back to VACC from there.”
____Reed scoffed, flashed him his middle finger, then walked off to sulk some more. No one else seemed much more keen. Even Gene looked doubtful, shaking his head, “Well, if I may, what’s the point?”
____“Because we’re still alive.” Thorn said, storming over and helping Brooke to her shaky feet as he talked, “And while that’s the case we still have hope of making it to VACC and staying safe there…” He gradually helped Gene up next, “...which was the only hope we had before, and it was enough for us then. But first we’ve gotta get there, okay?”
____Thomas watched him work, trying to pick up the entire group and carry them home himself. How he was supposed to corral all this broken morale and get it shaped up and marched to VACC Thomas didn’t know. But if there was one man who could do it, it’d be the Corporal, “All right. I’ll do what I can to help.”
____“That’s the spirit.” Thorn faced them all, “Now we’ve still got some intel we can take to VACC. Names and the like. We can still do something to help in humanity’s fight. We can still win.”
____Brooke wiped her eyes, then looked at her cut hand. The Corporal was right. Nothing—no matter how bad it ever got—was pointless. She knew that much, knew it was true because it simply had to be. Evil never won, not in the very end. Thinking on this she spoke out.
____“I did cut myself on one of the vials during the fight with Elias.” She said, “Maybe some of it got in my blood. Maybe the doctors at VACC can extract something from it. Even if it’s the tiniest speck… maybe…”
____“Precisely.” Thorn told her, “Then we better get going.”
____Thomas smiled, though it was kind of a smirk. He knew Brooke’s hypothesis was probably bullsh*t, but if thinking they still in some way had the cure got them to VACC then it’d be worth it. He didn’t allow himself to hope on it: knowing futility when he saw it. A droplet or even less going into her cut hand and being preserved all the way to VACC? A fantasy as far as he was concerned. But believing a lie could boost the others’ esteem out of this sudden rut they found themselves in. He’d act like her theory was a certainty if he had to, for the sake of the rest of them.
____Where did he get off like that, he suddenly wondered. He had sworn that he would never let himself believe a lie no matter how good it might make him feel. Knowing how hard reality would slap back against him if he ever chose to do so. Should he really enable the rest of them to do the same? Just to postpone the crushed hopes to a later date? Why would he be okay doing that? For the love of Brooke, perhaps? She already believed in the invisible man in the sky, and Thomas knew it was going to explode in her face at some point. And yet he enabled it by letting her play pretend without interruption, knowing that it was ultimately going to be toxic when reality slapped back against her as well. That despair could kill her, or worse yet sour her against the whole of reality just as Elias claimed had happened to him. Maybe that was the stuff Apostle was made of.
____Don’t overthink it. He thought to himself, You were plenty willing to hope when you left VACC in search of the cure. As far as you could tell then it was a one-in-a-million shot. And you still went, and it worked. Why can’t we hope for the same with what Brooke’s said? We don’t know anything about the cure or how it works. Maybe a speck in the bloodstream’s enough. If anything it’s a better chance than the odds we gambled on when we left VACC.
____That was good enough for him, though a small part still wondered if her influence was making him more optimistic in nature. That would never be a good thing in the long run, but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.
____“Brooke’s right.” He lied, “It could be a speck of DNA in the blood and it might be enough for what the doctors need. We won’t know until we get there.”
____She smiled, but he could see Reed scowling at him.
____“That was my line of thinking.” Thorn looked around the clearing, “Now did any of you see where Stacey and Jaxson got to? We can’t leave them behind.”
____“I don’t think we have time.” Gene paled and pointed. Out in the distance the stranger lumbered into view. He’d already freed himself from the cars, deftly walking after them. Bloodied sword still drawn.
____“Sh*t.” Header grunted. Now that the attacker was sufficiently away from the civilians he aimed and fired his grenade launcher, hoping that would do something—anything. He reloaded and watched the explosion and subsequent smoke cloud, preemptively backing up, “Goddammit. Move yer asses, people!”
____Reed suddenly looked deep in thought, watching the man exit the smoke unhindered and rapidly healing. He seemed to reach a conclusion, walking over and snatching his rifle from Thomas’ hands. He shouldered it and turned his back to them all, “Naw, screw that. If there’s no cure, then there’s no me. You guys are bad luck.”
____“Now’s not the time!” Thorn shouted at him, “We need to stay together, not further splinter apart!”
____“Try an’ stop me, gomer. You can’t kill civvies for desertion. ‘Sides, I was always better off alone. See ya, chump.” With that he turned and just jogged off in a strangely casual way.
____“Reed, goddammit!” Thorn repeated. But what had been said was true: there was little he could do, and right now they needed to make themselves scarce first and argue later. Muttering curses, he led the retreat onward.
____They fled into the woods, and the stranger silently followed. Only Jarek remained behind, dead on the road.

The game has changed; where will it lead?

~TAF

[TGRF]

I am still here. Due to the long nature of the chapters, I'm only reading when I have a decent-sized chunk of time, which with my schedule tends to vary a lot. Planning to get to chapter 3 soon.

Your comment on chapter four that 'the game has changed' has piqued my interest. I feel like so far (admittedly only two chapters in), things aren't too different from TMHW - dodging zombies and terrorists as the group attempts to reach VACC. A 'game-changing' is sure to mix things up.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter 3:

Spoiler Alert!

spurning some life back into their bodies

Probably meant 'spurring' here... spurning actually means the opposite of what you want.

It had been incredibly murky the night before, nothing more than the stars to keep them company

Either this is an oversight or the moon has suddenly vanished and this is a subtle hint. I'm inclined to think it's just an oversight, as I would imagine the moon vanishing would be something people would be noting... But if it isn't, and the moon really has disappeared...

About a quarter-mile ahead of where the sloped ground evened out down there there was a series of pitched boxlike tents surrounding a bramble of branching roads connected to a highway. They were getting closer to civilization, however slightly. The lights stood around the perimeter of the makeshift buildings, keeping it all brightly illuminated in the dark. What this place’s purpose was Thomas could not guess, but he didn’t see a soul down there amidst the strange setting and that made him nervous.

Yeah you and me both, Thomas. A camp in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with no walls? It's either Apostle or zombies for sure.

The group bickering about shooting the pilots and airlifting the cure to VACC read almost like people finally bringing up my own concerns to Header. It made me grin when they only ask now if they have the ammo for this, and realize no one can fly the helicopter. But hey, something's going to happen either way, so I suppose questionable decisions for the sake of possible speed are better than 30+ chapters of slow zombie-dodging in the woods.

Reed watched them work, “Should we wait for them to finish?”
“Naw.” Header said, “We can do that fer them. You gotta shot?”

I'm no tactical officer, but given a choice between sitting tight in a vantage point where there are no current threats, and hanging around an unknown camp with bright lights shining on you while you finish refueling... yeah, I'd let them finish refueling before taking them out.

For whatever he might be worth: three bullets.

For all the mentions of just how much ammo Thomas has, I'm beginning to wonder if he'll soon be in a situation where he'll be counting his shots as the hordes press in...

Thomas counted eight rounds. So now he was up to ten. Wonderful.

Yeah, this is definitely a literal loaded Checkov's gun at this point...

needed to spurn the radios to life

Spur again. Spurn means to shove away or reject.

Is Nazar there? We need to get this thing to the feds for analysis ASAP.”
A calm voice replied, “Unfortunately he is not here.”

I feel like I still don't quite get the view on Nazar. They found him shredding evidence of the cure... why is Header eager to tell him about it? Wouldn't they be trying to get to the scientists at VACC without him noticing?

driving unobstructed for a short while in peace as the last tide of sunlight gradually faded into eclipsing night.

I feel like this is just a mistake. It was night when they were looking at the camp. Now it's dusk, then night again:

Originally Posted by Previously

They had the last of the day’s sun accompany them to the edge of the ridge, black darkness setting in soon enough.

Only three wings were visible at this stage of its lunar cycle

I thought the moon explicitly did not have cycles any longer. Isn't it full all the time?

But you know I’d make her howl. Awoooooo!!”

Take a hint, Reed. This guy needs to get it.

Again not a whole lot to note. We've gone a few nights without anything supernatural happening, and with everyone bunking down in a secluded area, I'm fully expecting something to go down.

Not sure what to make of Reed at this point. I didn't get any sense from him in TMHW as being into Stacey or so completely oblivious and/or uncaring about where she's at. Either this is all set up for some group antagonism (probably ending in burning cars and dead bodies), or Reed is genuinely acting weird. Maybe he's being possessed, and that's where this is coming from? Either way, something is going to go down fairly soon, I feel.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

Probably meant 'spurring' here... spurning actually means the opposite of what you want.

Thank you for this catch. Much like Clambering and Clamoring, or Laying and Lying before, these are just two words my monkey brain automatically uses interchangeably. I've corrected all further instances of it throughout.

The group bickering about shooting the pilots and airlifting the cure to VACC read almost like people finally bringing up my own concerns to Header. It made me grin when they only ask now if they have the ammo for this, and realize no one can fly the helicopter. But hey, something's going to happen either way, so I suppose questionable decisions for the sake of possible speed are better than 30+ chapters of slow zombie-dodging in the woods.

Thank you, making the reader grin is a big win for me as the author. Attempts at comedy or banter are a dangerous game to play given the overall tone. Also questionable decisions are these guys' specialty

I feel like I still don't quite get the view on Nazar. They found him shredding evidence of the cure... why is Header eager to tell him about it? Wouldn't they be trying to get to the scientists at VACC without him noticing?

Header at least still bluntly defers to Nazar's authority, more likely to believe that the guy just didn't buy that the email was legit than that he's an evil conspirator. The doctors have a similar outlook, hence the "unfortunately"

I feel like this is just a mistake. It was night when they were looking at the camp. Now it's dusk, then night again:

This is a mistake; the camp scene was at night then was changed to dusk but the black darkness setting in soon enough slipped through the changes.

I thought the moon explicitly did not have cycles any longer. Isn't it full all the time?

No, it does continue to cycle. However it is often full when it isn't supposed to be—always during a supernatural occurrence. This is what causes the characters to associate or blame the lunacy on the moon somehow.

Not sure what to make of Reed at this point. I didn't get any sense from him in TMHW as being into Stacey or so completely oblivious and/or uncaring about where she's at. Either this is all set up for some group antagonism (probably ending in burning cars and dead bodies), or Reed is genuinely acting weird. Maybe he's being possessed, and that's where this is coming from?

Reed is spontaneous and can be difficult to read as a result. He explains his mood through the changing seasons, but who knows what he's up to or if he's just being dumb

I will likely post another chapter tonight, but I may slow the progress from there to permit more time to be fully caught up

~TAF

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

I will likely post another chapter tonight, but I may slow the progress from there to permit more time to be fully caught up

~TAF

No need to slow posting progress. I'm intentionally staying a chapter or two behind. I don't want to find myself with time to read, and nothing to actually read.

~TGRF.