In the Lone and Level Sands (31 page)

“Get the shit, and let’s get the fuck out!”
Butch said with his back to the doors. Frantically, the others
gathered food and supplies. As they were finishing, Butch screamed.
Evan set down the supplies he’d gathered and hurried out to the
main eating area.

“Butch!” Vanessa said.

A zombie had managed to push the door open
and grab Butch. Vanessa was doing her best to pry the two apart
while still holding the doors shut. The zombies reached in through
the small gap between the doors, not minding when the hard wood
slammed into their arms and legs. Another zombie tugged sharply at
Butch’s blood-stained slacks. This forced Butch to the floor, and
he cried out in pain as his kneecap slammed into the ground. Pain
shot through his leg. He grabbed his knee, then one of the zombies
sank its cold, bloody teeth into his ankle.

“No!” Vanessa screamed.

Others from the kitchen dropped their
gatherings near Evan’s and went to help. Evan and Eugene worked to
pull Butch free while Stephanie and Vanessa kept the doors closed.
Daisy took care of the zombie biting Butch.

Evan and Eugene sat Butch at a table. His
breathing was ragged, and he was crying, his head hanging low.
Jason and Daisy helped with the door, and Vanessa stepped back and
ran to Butch.

“I-I’m done. This is it,” Butch said, wiping
his nose. His head tilted up quickly, and he looked through the
misty layer on the surface of his eyes at his wife. “Nessa.” She
looked into Butch’s eyes, tears rushing down her face.

“Butch, I’m here!” She took his hand.

“I’m not going to make it, but I just wanted
to say—” Butch groaned. Vanessa sobbed.

“You don’t need to say anything,
please.”

“I do. I love you, Nessa, and I wish I could
keep on being here for you.”

“It’s not your fault. I love you.”

Butch was silent for a moment, and then he
looked from Vanessa to Stephanie, who was inspecting his wounds. He
waved her off.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “No point.
You all just get back to where you need to be.” He pointed in the
direction of the door. Evan, Daisy, and Eugene had taken care of
the remaining zombies by letting them through one at a time.

“We’re ready to go,” Evan said, “and we need
to leave now!”

“Yes, the c-coast is clear,” Eugene
said.

“Nessa…”

“What? What is it?”

“You have to go with them,” Butch said.
“You’re still good, no bites.” Vanessa’s eyes widened.

“No,” she said. “No! I can’t leave you,
Butch! I’m staying here, with you.” She turned to the rest of the
group. “Go! All of you, go on!”

Evan and Eugene stood guard at the doorway
as the others grabbed their food. Evan looked back at the couple as
he and the others were about to leave. He was looking at a marriage
broken, but not by divorce. These two loved each other very much.
They would never grow apart like he and Cynthia had.

…
for better or for worse, for richer, for
poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from
this day forward until death do us part.

It nearly brought tears to Evan’s eyes.

“We’re on the 22
^nd
floor, if you
change your mind,” he said.

He felt a deep reluctance as he left two
human beings for dead. He felt guilty, but there was no forcing
Vanessa to join them.

For the five remaining survivors, the trip
back to Art’s office suite was a blur. They passed the bodies and
the blood splatters as quickly and quietly as they could.

When they reached the office, they opened
the door, piled in, and slammed it shut, sealing it off with the
heavy oak desk. They topped it with the medium-sized file cabinet,
then settled into the room and waited for their hearts to settle
down.

36

With the Soldiers

Laughter was the first thing Max heard. It
started in a dream, one that faded upon waking up, though the last
few seconds stayed clear as day. It was the laughter of his
brother, in dreams. In the waking world, it was the laughter of one
of the soldiers.

It was dark out. The soldiers sat around a
campfire, and Max was wrapped up in one of their sleeping bags. The
Humvee was parked on the side of the road, and the group was a few
feet into the woods.

The soldier who had manned the gun on the
Humvee noticed Max had woken up, and the smile faded from his face.
His fellow soldiers noticed and turned to see Max, who was sitting
up.

“Where are we?” Max asked.

“We just passed Spartanburg,” the soldier
said. “You slept all day.”

“Where’s the rest of the Army?”

“No one knows, kid,” the soldier who had
found Max said. “What’s your name?”

“Max. Max Greenwald.”

“Well, Max, I’m Private Ortiz. This is
Private Johns,” Ortiz said as he gestured to the black soldier.
“This is Lou.” He pointed to the man who had been driving.

“Are you in charge?” Max asked. The man had
a sort of “in charge” air about him.

“Technically, I’m a Private,” Lou said.

“We look up to him anyway,” Johns said.
“He’s good at telling us what to do, so as far as we’re concerned,
he calls the shots. And he saved our asses.”

“You saved mine,” Max said.

“For the time being,” Ortiz replied. The
three soldiers looked at each other.

“What happened?”

“The shit hit the fan, that’s what
happened,” Lou said.

“We were called out from the reserves as
soon as it became clear that the police force wasn’t enough,” Ortiz
said.

“We were told things were going crazy,”
Johns said, “but
shit.
We showed up, and everyone was
running around, everyone was screaming, everyone was being killed.
Or killing. We didn’t even know what we were supposed to be
doing.”

“We never stood a chance,” Lou said. “What
do you do when you can’t tell if the person heading toward you is
asking you to save their life, or trying to end yours?”

“So we got split up,” Ortiz said. “Then one
of our own, Jackson, he started firing at random. He killed the
highest-ranking officer present. Things just got worse from
there.”

“We realized people were going nuts,” Johns
said. “We were given the order to fire. We weren’t told what to
fire at. But we were good soldiers. So we fired.”

“In a matter of hours, Arcadia Heights was
almost completely wiped out,” Ortiz said. “We helped, but a lot of
it happened on its own.”

“But we helped,” Lou said.

“We had no base to go back to, no one to
contact. We couldn’t get in touch with anyone, radios just stopped
working. We were as alone as the people we were sent to help. We
set up a makeshift base of operations on the edge of town. We split
into smaller groups, took turns going out and trying to help
however we could, but fewer and fewer of us came back.”

“When we woke up for our shift one day and
the previous group hadn’t returned, we knew it was the end,” Johns
said.

“The end?” Max said.

“Of the world. Of life as we know it,” Ortiz
said. “There was no more law. There were no more orders. We
couldn’t even find anyone to save anymore. Suddenly, it was just
the three of us, and the hundreds of thousands of them.”

“We did all we could, then we just got out
of there,” Johns said. “Soon after, we found you.”

“Who’s left?” Max asked.

“The three of us,” Lou said. “You. Others,
I’d hope. I haven’t seen anyone else since we did our sweeps, but I
hope they’re out there.” There was a silence. Max tried to soak it
all in. Then, he stood up.

“We have to find someone! We have to fix
it!”

The soldiers just looked at him.

“Come on! What are you waiting for? You’re
the bravest of the brave! Get up, do something! What about your
families? What about Americans? What about the President?”

“The President’s dead,” Lou said.

Max sat back down and grew very quiet. Then
he began to cry. The reality of the situation came rushing to him
all at once. He missed his family, he wanted them with him.

Lou got up sat next to him. Max felt
embarrassed, and he expected Lou or the other soldiers to make him
stop crying, give him some speech about being a man, or being a
soldier. But nobody said a word. They just waited until he was
done.

“I’m sorry,” Max said, finally.

“Hey, man,” Johns said, “we all have our
scars.”

“I’ll give you this one,” Lou said. “Maybe a
few more. But if you’re going to stay with us, you’re going to have
to learn from us.”

“Why would I stay with you? I need to find
my family.”

“Kid, they’re—” Lou said, but Ortiz stopped
him with his eyes.

“Look,” Ortiz said, “we don’t know where
your family is. And we don’t know of any safe place. You’re the
first survivor we’ve found since we left Arcadia Heights. So, at
least for the time being, you’re going to have to stick with
us.”

After some time, Max said, “Where are we
going?” The soldiers looked at each other.

“We’re not even sure,” Johns said. “For a
while, we were just driving around, taking out as many as we could.
We have no commanding officer. There’s no more commander-in-chief.
I guess finding you kind of snapped us out of our funk.”

“So… I guess we’ll have to try to find more
survivors,” Ortiz said.

“There has to be some place for survivors to
go,” Lou said. “I heard some towns set up safe zones.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too,” Johns said. “I
heard some football stadium in Washington was set up for survivors.
I also heard it all went to shit, there.”

“We have to find some way of getting
survivors to some place we can keep safe,” Ortiz said.

“I’m not sure there
is
any place we
can keep safe,” Lou replied.

“The middle of nowhere,” Max said. The
soldiers looked at him. “If we find some place away from the
cities, it’ll be safer. It’ll be harder for people to get to, but
in the long run, it’ll be safer. At least for a little while.”

“The kid’s got a point,” Johns said.

“Not bad thinking,” Lou said. “But
where?”

“There’s a community college nearby,” Johns
said. “It ain’t exactly Buttfuck Nowhere, but it’s away from the
city.”

“So we get to the community college, clear
it out, barricade it off,” Ortiz said. “How do we get people to go
there without attracting the zombies?”

“Radio?” Max said.

“No good,” Lou said. “Like we said, radio
went out. It never came back. We’re mute.”

“So there isn’t any form of
communication?”

“Only the one God gave us,” Lou said.

“You’re wrong,” Ortiz said. He walked over
to the Humvee and pulled a bag out of the back. He brought it to
the circle and opened it up.

“Ortiz, you’re a genius,” Lou said. Max
looked inside the bag. There were a few dozen cans of spray
paint.

“Graffiti?” Max said.

“We’ll tag up the city,” Ortiz said. “Put
directions up all over.”

“I think we officially have a plan,” Lou
said. “We’ll head for the college tomorrow. You know the way?”

“I can get us there, yeah,” Johns said. “But
that means…” He looked at Max.

“What?”

“Nothing. We’ll talk about this tomorrow,
all right?”

Max thought it was a bit strange, but he
didn’t push the soldier further.

As their talk strayed from the plan to
everyday chatter, Max’s thoughts shifted back to his family. He
didn’t want everyone to see him crying again, but he wasn’t sure if
he could hold back the tears. He returned to his sleeping bag and
faded from the waking world to the sound of soldiers laughing, the
warm glow of the fire pit, and the taste of salt on his face.

****

When Max woke up, the soldiers were getting
ready to leave.

“Are we ready?” Max said.

“Yeah,” Ortiz said. “We need you to do
something.”

“Normally, I’m out here, running the gun,”
Johns said.

“But he’ll be giving me directions to the
college,” Lou said.

“And we figured it would be a good time to
start training you,” Ortiz said.

“We want you to man the minigun,” Johns
said.

Max stood there a moment. “Why can’t you do
it?” he asked Ortiz.

“I could,” Ortiz replied. “But like we said,
if you’re going to be with us, you’re going to need to be one of
us.”

“You’ve gotta learn this sometime, kid,”
Johns said.

Max looked at the gun mounted on the Humvee.
“Okay. Show me what to do.”

****

Max was strapped into a chair. His feet
barely touched the ground, just enough for him to be able to turn
the minigun. There were two handles, and a small button he could
reach with his thumb would fire the gun. It seemed simple
enough.

“I’ll keep you loaded,” Ortiz said. “I’ll
also cover you.”

“Okay.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Johns
asked.

“Yeah,” Max said. He was nowhere near ready,
but he thought he never would be. It wasn’t a long drive, and Ortiz
would be there to take control if anything went wrong, but Max
couldn’t help feeling nervous.

“Hang on tight!” Lou said. The engine
revved, and they were off.

For the first few minutes, it was mostly
trees and dirt road. Max felt like he was going to throw up (the
fact that he was sitting atop a car and moving backward didn’t
help), but he was trying his hardest to keep himself composed.

They got out of the woods and onto the
highway. The Humvee went slower as it weaved around groups of
stopped vehicles.

Then the first zombies showed up. They were
able to run, and they appeared to be moving in groups. They took
notice of the Humvee, and most of them headed for it.

“What are you waiting for?” Ortiz said. Max
pointed the minigun at an approaching group of zombies and pushed
the button.