Betrayal (3 page)

“Order?”

“Order gives semblance to what we once had.” Rafael stifled a laugh and wiped his lower lip. “Sounds crazy, yes?”

Jared nodded, and Rafael s
tepped forward until their noses were millimeters apart.

“If I were in better
conditions,
cabrón
, I’d be teaching you a lesson about respecting order. But as it is, Carol and I have something else in mind for you. Follow me.”

Jar
ed lowered his eyes and tailed Rafael down the stairs and across the property.

CHAPTER TWO

“Did you hear they’
re planning a raid today?” Alicia Turner asked her older sister Kimberly. She plopped down on her mattress, picked up a magazine from beside the bed, and eagerly awaited an answer.

Kimberly adjusted her bra in the cracked mirror hung over their table/dresser. “Don’t get your hopes up, sis.” She cupped her small breasts, pressed them together, and blew a kiss.

Alicia frowned and opened up the magazine. “You don’t think they’ll find anything?”

Brushing her dark blonde hair behind her ears, Kimberly turned to Alicia. “Didn’t find anything last time
.”

Eight-year-old Alicia turned to a page that displayed a snowy owl with its wings fully spread. She admired not only the beauty of the
bird, she found herself transfixed in the tranquility of the light blue sky and mountainous terrain in the backdrop. Looking around the dimly lit shack in which they lived, another frown crossed her young face. Her skies were always gray; her weather was almost always gloomy. Alicia couldn’t recall the last time the sun had peeked out from its hiding place in the firmament.

“Do you… Do you ever think we’ll be able to leave this place?” she asked.

Kimberly picked up a ragged comb and brushed it through her hair. She caught her little sister’s glare in the mirror and shook her head. “Have you been outside lately?”

“Yeah,” answered Alicia. She flipped the page to one where an oil tanker was spilling its payload into the precious sea. A few oth
er ships surrounded it, and one of the helicopters soaring above looked like the one Trevor flew.

Setting down her brush, Ki
mberly turned to her sister and flipped to a page where a family of cats was sound asleep in front of a fireplace.

“Hey,” she said with a smile, “why don’t you go out and play with some of the other kids, huh?”

Alicia lowered her head. “Th-They don’t like me. They always call me names.”

Kimberly caressed
her little sister’s cheeks. “They’re just jealous.”

“Why?”

“Because most of them don’t have family anymore, sweetie.” Kimberly bent down, still smiling, and kissed Alicia’s forehead. “Most of them have to sleep with complete strangers, or with people they don’t like. We have each other, and they want that too.”

Alicia placed
her book on the floor. “But can’t I just stay here with you?”

“Mister Lassiter and Mister Hall are coming over so we can play,” Kimberly replied. She lowered her eyes. “Then we’ll have a few more cans of food for our stash.”

A knock came from the thin plywood door.

“This isn’t up for debate, Alicia.” She patted her little sister’s head. “It’ll be done soon, and then we can play hide-and-seek.”

Alicia’s bright green eyes lit up.

***

“So this is it,” Trevor said, walking the line of three men while doing his best to forget the reek of Janine’s breath and the sagging skin that had made up the worst pair of tits he’d ever seen. “The best the Colony can offer?” He glanced over to Carol and Rafael and shook his head.

“You’ll do the best you can with what you have, pilot,” said Rafael. His face was sweaty and pale; his right eye twitched. Despite his pallor
, he stood tall, both hands behind his back. “Our lives and safety depend on it.”

A crowd of s
urvivors was forming, and Trevor couldn’t help but to look at them. He felt pity at the sight. Many appeared frail and malnourished, their eyes pleading for sustenance, for the will to carry on. The burden of knowing that they looked to him, to the men he’d be leading into the mouth of hell, and saw what was quite possibly their only path to salvation gave him a bittersweet feeling of power. He glanced at Jonathan, who was kneeling before his daughter and brushing her short, matted hair to the side. This place was unraveling at its core. Now, more than ever, Trevor Spencer wanted out.

“All
right,” he said. “Let’s roll.”

Carol nodded and ushered the crowd back. Rafael crossed his arms, keeping eye contact with Trevor.

“We’ll be seeing you soon,” the head of security said with a stern expression.

***

Kimberly had been having a lot of the adults come by to play ever since she turned sixteen a few months back. Little Alicia mused over just how many as she passed the rows of housing—“the slums,” as her sister coined them—and lost count after twelve. The only thing of which the little girl was sure was that they had an ever-growing supply of canned goods and those icky meals that came dried in brown pouches. She knew they weren’t supposed to steal from the supply house, but Kimberly had insisted that they were gifts bestowed upon them by all the new friends she was making. Even Rafael had been over a few times. He was the nicest; he didn’t act like Alicia was a nuisance like the others. And he always brought a toy or snack for her. But she just wanted her sister back. Now, abandoned by what seemed like every survivor except a few adults, Alicia couldn’t help but feel that Big Sis was slowly pushing her away. The thought made her cheeks grow uncomfortably warm and her eyes a little watery. She wondered if this was what it was like beyond the walls that kept her safe.

As she passed the dying crop field, Alicia looked to the ashen sky. This was all too much for
the eight-year-old to wrap her mind around.

A few of the children and teenagers were playing a game
of tag on the far end of the Colony; she could barely make out the cries of laughter. No bother. Alicia made her way past the crops toward the deer pen. A doe, the smallest of the group of four, came up to her. She stuck her hand between the fencing and giggled as it licked away. Robin was the name Alicia had given this one; Kimberly had said that was their mother’s name. Robin was the closest thing she had to a friend other than her sister, and there was no telling when the creature would be taken away and served to the colonists in the slop line.

Pulling back her hand, Alicia said her goodbyes and made for a withered tree near the back of the complex. This was the place she found herself
coming to more often than not. Here, it was peaceful. Here, she could free herself from the confines of this small, desolate refuge. Sliding off her worn backpack, Alicia opened it and fished out her notebook and two pencils—the most recent presents Rafael had given her. She sat with her back against the tree, opened the notebook, and found the next free page, which was between a drawing of Kimberly and one of
them—
the monsters that haunted her dreams. Touching lead to paper, little Alicia took herself to another world.

CHAPTER THREE

Stryker City was peaceful from high above. All the dead looked like ants swarming
instead of ravenous corpses seeking their next warm meal. Trevor took the group over the police station, pointed out that was where the marines’ last stand had taken place, and then led them toward the Stryker International.

As the Huey descended, Mark Goodman glanced to each of the stains on the runway. There were so many that, from above, they took the form of a Rorschach inkblot test. He
closed his eyes, and Mark saw his family running from the dead and the fiery explosion that had ended their existence in the blink of an eye. Though he couldn’t say for sure that his family had been vaporized by the nuclear blast that hit Chicago, he found it hard not to believe so. Hillside wasn’t that far away from the city. Even still, if they’d managed to survive the initial blast, assuming the dead hadn’t already torn them apart, they would surely have—

He blinked and turned away from the runway, away from that train of thought. Survival meant staying on top of your shit, and that’
s exactly why he was still alive. Too many times he had seen people die out here because they couldn’t just let go. Not that he was fond of that idea; it was just a hard truth that very few could accept. Lowering his head, he thanked his lucky stars that he’d spent that summer with his uncle in Stryker City.

“You okay, kid?”

Mark looked up to see Jonathan watching him with a curious glare.

“I’m fine,” he answered, glancing out the window once more. “Just haven’t been out here since… you know.”

Jonathan smiled. “Not many of us have.”

Trevor, with light glinting off
his aviators, turned to the mechanic. “Let’s hope this is the last time we have to be out here for a while, huh?”

“I hear that,” Jared said from beside Mark.

***

Short
ly after the helicopter had left, Kimberly found Alicia and initiated their favorite game: hide-and-seek. Most of the adults and children were at the dining hall by now. The yard was theirs for the taking; they would be able to hide almost everywhere. Big sis was very good at hiding and Alicia had been looking for her for ten minutes. They only had two rules: Don’t go past the slums, and never go on the wall.

Trotting past the deer pens and smiling at Robin, Alicia slowed her pace as she came up on the first home. Many of them were now vacant, their residents succumbing to death in one manner or another. These were the best places to hide; some of th
em were even propped up so that, if you were small enough, you could climb underneath and get even more of a head start on the person searching for you.

“Gotcha,” said Alicia as she ripped open the cut tarp serving as the entrance. A frown played on her face as she found the little place bereft of life. “I’ll find you, sissy.”

***

“Get your asses in gear,” Trevor said as the Huey touched ground. “There’s no telling if there are any Zacks hiding out in one of those hangars.”

Jared flipped off the safety on his carbine and stepped out behind Mark. The propellers’ winding nearly caused his hat to fly off; he grabbed it with his free hand
and jogged over to the refueling truck which was sitting on all flat tires and appearing as if it were on its last leg. He noted several piles of corpses that were so far into decay they reminded him of mummies he’d seen in movies and books before the rising of the dead.

He eyed the three hangars in the distance; each bay door was aj
ar. There were planes scattered about the runway, all seemingly derelict. The thought crossed his mind that, if things ever got too bad back at the Colony, they could secure the airport; transport the remaining survivors here, fuel up one of the better-looking small jets, and fly for safety somewhere far, far from here.

Jonathan pulled him out of his reverie with a tug on the shoulder. The mechanic pointed to the east end, where most of the planes were.

“Watch this end,” he said over the whirring of the propellers. “Be ready for anything.”

Turning around, Jared saw Mark, one of the night watchmen, at the refuel truck. The young man pressed a switch. Trevor was at the nozzle, and began fuelling.

Seconds later, like screeching banshees, the howls of dead pierced Jared’s ears.

“Zacks,” yelled Jonathan. “C
oming from the hangars.”

Feeling his stomach go light, Jared snapped his neck around just in time to see a crowd of the dead running toward them with desperate fervor
, arms outstretched and reaching. Jonathan aimed and took two shots, the lead one dropped, the back of its head exploding as it collapsed. Raising his carbine, feeling a pit forming in his stomach, Jared sighted a naked man, his rotting member dancing from side to side. He released a slow breath and squeezed the trigger, smiling as the dead pusbag fell and tripped three of its brethren.

Jonathan, whilst slamming in a fresh magazine, cocked his head back to
the refueling truck and yelled. “Mark, behind you!”

Rounding the front of the vehicle was a trio
of rotting cadavers.

Jared had just enough time to glance back and see Mark down the first two before the ground was torn from beneath him. He sucked in a gulp of air and tasted the stink of decayed flesh. A sickly thing with long
black hair and no shirt pounced and began pummeling him. His head, his stomach, his shoulders, they were bursting with pain as the creature assaulted him.

Jared, despite having the wind knocked out of him from the fall, managed to use the weight of the dead as it reared in for another punch. Grabbing its icy arm, Jared thrust his midsection up
and kicked with both legs. The thing lifted off the ground with unanticipated ease and dropped behind him.

Realizing his ears were ringing from all the gunshots, Jared stole a peek at the others
. Mark, with one of his Berettas aiming down, was walking up to the corpse of a young woman who was pulling the upper half of her torso forward with an arm so chewed that only bone remained; Jonathan was downing the last of the dead spawning from the hangars; Trevor was pointing to Jared with a scowl. The dead that had ungrounded him was regaining its footing. Jared hefted up his rifle, but hesitated a moment. The infected was staring at him; its eyes had a light orange tint. Lips twitched, revealing jagged, yellow teeth; the creature snarled.

“Shoot the son of a bitch,” yelled Trevor.

But Jared stood frozen. Never had he seen one of the dead have any color to its eyes other than gray. Through all the horror he’d experienced, all the death and consumption from innumerable Zacks that ruled the land, never had one stood staring. He felt the thing sizing him up, and he watched as it shifted its weight to the back of its feet.

“What in the hell are you?”

Jonathan’s rifle answered with a shot tearing through the dead’s neck. Before the man could get off another shot, Jared dropped it with a bullet between its eyes.

“We’ve got more coming from the hangars,” Marked hollered.
“On the other side of the runway.”

Jared ran out, past an abandoned Cessna, and felt his heart nearly break through his chest.

Ahead, at least thirty infected bounded toward them.

***

Alicia found herself back at the withered tree where she’d been drawing a mountain range free from the monstrosities outside the walls of the Colony. She’d checked most of the homes and found not a single trace of her sister. The tree, though, had been split a few feet up from when lightning had hit it during one of the summer’s violent storms. Now she was able reach her little hands between the gaps and pull up. The branch on which she found herself extended out and up for about ten feet. This perch gave her a fantastic, sweeping view of most of the yard. Even better, it afforded her the opportunity to get a better look at the mountain range beyond the walls.

The dead, while still out of view, could be heard even clearer from here as well. Was this what it was like being one of the watchmen? The thought both scared and intrigued Alicia.
While she was terrified of the monsters out there, the serenity of the distant outside world made her yearn for something she’d never truly known: freedom.

“Hey, squirt,” said Kimberly from below. “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for me or something?” She smiled and crossed her arms.

“I couldn’t find you,” Alicia answered as she climbed down. “Where were you hiding?”

“If I told you that, then where would I hide next time, huh?”

Alicia giggled. She turned toward the mountains. “I wanna hide out there one day.”

Kneeling, Kimberly hugged her little sister. “We’ll be out there sooner than
you think.”

***

Jared slapped in a fresh magazine, chambered a round, and shot three-round bursts into the growing horde.
The hangars must have been teeming with the rotting pus fucks
, he thought as five of them collapsed. Jonathan had retreated to Mark to ensure his safety, and his assault rifle sounded to be spewing out lead like a teen that’d drank more than their share.

As he focused on another pair that dashe
d from inside the first hangar, Jared couldn’t help but wonder why these things had waited until they started fueling to reveal themselves.
I mean,
it’s not like the chopper’s got a stealth mode. Anything could hear us coming from a damn mile away.

T
he two running dead dropped, a baker’s dozen trampling over them.

When the rifle clicked,
Jared reached for his last mag and was yanked to the side. Trevor was saying something, but the ringing in his ears made it impossible to hear. The pilot ran back to his seat, and Jared saw Mark and Jonathan doing the same. The nozzle from the refuel truck was on the pavement; he stepped over it and hopped into the cabin.

Jared’s heart was beating so fast that his chest was beginning to hurt. He lowered his head and took in a deep breath. As
he released it, the helicopter lifted off the ground. A glance toward Jonathan showed the man pointing to Jared’s left. He was shouting something, but again Jared couldn’t hear. Mark pushed him back, aimed one of his Berettas out the cabin door and fired. Jared turned in time to see a dead woman slide out and onto the runway.