Revealed: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction (4 page)

Big Game Hunting

Chaz stopped and reached for his binoculars.  The others caught up.

"What do you see, Colonel?" said Alex.

"Some vehicles up ahead.  First good news of the day."

"Great, anything that looks salvageable?"

"Salvageable for sure.  I'm not sure what they're doing there though."

"What do you mean?"

"They're military vehicles.  Three of them in total.  They look abandoned, which makes me a little nervous.  Let's get closer and see what's going on."

They got within a couple hundred yards and stopped. They could make out the vehicles, but there was no sign of people.  One was an ambulance, the second was a personnel carrier, and the third an armored unit with a machine-gun turret.  They were just stopped in the middle of the road.  Chaz scanned the area with the binoculars.

"See anything, or anyone, Colonel?"

"The vehicles are from Fort Knox.  I can see their insignia on the side of the ambulance.  I don't see any people though.  Not sure why they're just abandoned there.  It can't be good.  Wait a sec.  I think I saw the canvas move on the personnel carrier."

"Maybe just the wind."

"Yeah, maybe.  Let's check for sure."

They approached the trio of vehicles with weapons ready.  Even Christa had a knife, but kept well back from the other two. 

"Keep an eye behind us, Christa.  Speak up if you hear or see anything," Alex ordered.

The first vehicle in the caravan was the armored unit.  The driver’s-side door was open, and there were bullet casings lying around the turret.  Chaz approached the driver’s-side door, and cautiously poked his head in. He couldn't quite see into the back of the vehicle where the turret gunner would have stood. 

"Alex, get the other door; I'm going into the back."

Alex opened the passenger door.  They both leaned in, weapons aiming into the back.  Nothing stirred, nothing moved.  The back was empty.  The smell of machine-gun fire was still in the air.

"There were people here not that long ago, sir."

"Yeah, but where the hell are they now?  Why would they just desert their vehicles?"

As they climbed out of the truck, they heard the noise of the canvas flapping coming from the rear of the caravan. 

"You hear that, sir?"

"Yep, let's move back and check it out."

They moved down opposite sides of the ambulance.  It appeared empty, but all the doors were locked.  They kept moving back.  Low moans came from the carrier as they got closer.  Both front seats were empty.

"This is bad, Colonel.  Where is everyone?"

They reached the rear of the carrier simultaneously.  Alex trained his gun on the rear as Chaz reached for the canvas door flap.  Just then, Christa's screams shattered the silence.  Alex and Chaz both looked at each other with that "I-thought-she-was-with-you" look. 

Alex spoke first.  "I told her to hang back, just in case things got out of hand.  I didn't realize she was that far back.  Which direction was that scream from?"

They both looked in the direction of the scream, but there was no sign of Christa.  The second scream came from Chaz's side of the road.  They sprinted down the roadside. 

"Alex, keep your eye on the woods, scan the ditch."

They both saw her at the same time.  She was just down the road, desperately trying to climb her way out of a drainage ditch.   She was panicking and not making any headway.  When they reached her, it was obvious what had gotten her so upset.  The ditch was full of corpses.  Some were zombies, but a lot weren't.  The human corpses wore military uniforms.  Chaz recognized a couple of medical-officer insignias amongst the dead.  The ditch was at least eight feet deep, and the walls were steep and muddy.  Alex slid down and grabbed a hold of Christa.  She reciprocated, and held on to him for dear life.  Her whole body shook.

"Christa, it's alright.  They can't hurt you.  They're all dead.  You're going to be fine."

"I know, I know," she cried between sobs.  "But I thought I saw one moving in the pile.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to get into trouble.  I was just looking over the edge, I wanted to see what was down here.  I slipped in the mud.  It's loose over there."  She point to the spot where Alex had slid in. 

"It's alright, we're gonna get you out of here."  Alex joined his hands together.  "Here, let me boost you up."

Chaz lay down in the weeds at the ditch edge, and reached an arm to help her up.  As Alex boosted her, Chaz was easily able to lift her small frame up and out of the ditch.  He didn't say a word, but shook his head as they briefly made eye contact.  Once she was up, Chaz offered his arm to help Alex.

"Hang on a second, Colonel, I want to check things out."

"Careful there, son.  She said she saw something moving." He nodded to where Christa had indicated.

Alex approached the corpses.  The zombie corpses had a mesh entwined amongst them.  He poked at it with his semi, then tried pulling the mesh away, but it was all entangled around the corpses.  It was pretty tangled.

"Colonel, there's some kind of netting mixed in with the corpses.  I think it's a hunting net, like you'd use for catching big game.  The military don’t use hunting nets, do they?  This is really weird.  It's like they were trying to hunt a bunch of zombies with a net.  Like they were trying to catch them alive.  Why would anyone want to capture live zombies?"

"I don't know, son, maybe research, but let's just get you out of there.  We still need to see who's in the back of that carrier.  They may need our help."

"Yes, sir, let's do that.  Just what my day needs is a little more excitement."

Zombie Convoy

Chaz motioned for Alex to come back, and lay down to offer him a hand.  Alex grabbed it, and worked himself up the slippery slope. 

"Let's check that carrier now.  Christa, you follow Alex.  Stay right behind him.  We don't need any more diversions today.  The first two vehicles are empty, so we need to check out the last one.  Stay close; we need to know where you are."

Christa nodded in agreement.

As they approached the carrier, the sounds were more pronounced.  Nothing intelligible, but more persistent and desperate than before.  Given the guttural sounds, whatever was inside couldn't be human.  As Chaz pulled back the canvas covering, Christa stepped back.  Inside were a half dozen makeshift cots in place of benches.  On each cot was a zombie in varying degrees of agitation.  One wasn't moving at all. Most looked groggy, but the two up at the front were frantic.  Leather straps kept them all restrained to their cots.  Straps bound their wrists, ankles, foreheads, chests, and upper legs.  Whoever had done this wasn't taking any chances.  Even stranger was that each cot had an intravenous bag feeding into the arm of each zombie.  The bags of the two frantic zombies were both empty.  They almost tore their straps once they saw Chaz and Alex.

Chaz pulled both sides of the canvas and secured them open. "What in hell is going on here!  Since when does the US military capture live damn zombies?"

"I'd say right now, sir.  I think it's a sedative in those intravenous bags.  I'd say a couple of them need a refill."

"Yeah, well, I've got half a mind to just put a bullet through the whole group of them and be done with it."

"I don't know, sir.  That may not be the best idea.  Someone wants these things alive, and they've gone to a lot of trouble."

"A lot of trouble, and a lot of wasted lives, based on what we saw in that ditch.  This is incredibly risky.  Why would they be doing this?"

"I'd guess some kind of research experiment?"

Chaz nodded in agreement. "If the stories we've heard from Atlanta are true, then that's exactly what's going on here.  These are Fort Knox vehicles, so there must be research going on there.  The rumors are true."

"The question is, sir, what are we going to do with them?  I'm assuming we're taking at least one of these vehicles.  Should we take more?"

"Yes, definitely.  I'm done walking for a while.  Driving will get us there quicker. As much as I like the firepower of the turret truck, I'm not sure we need it.  I don't really want to, but I think we need to take these freaks with us."

Christa stepped into the truck, and the two frantic zombies settled right down.  She walked right to the front of the truck.

Alex leaned protectively towards Christa. "Easy, Christa, these two are a little upset. I don't think you want to be standing so close."

"It's OK, Alex, they won't hurt me."

"Really? How do you know that?  They likely haven't fed in a while, and were pretty pissed just a few seconds ago."

"I know, but look.  They're happy now.  They won't hurt me.  They can't."

Chaz  shook his head. "Happy.  You think they're happy now?  And yes, they can hurt you.  I've seen these monsters rip bindings before.  You need to step back off the truck."

"They won't.  I know they won't."

Alex guided Christa back off the truck, and Chaz followed them.  As soon as the back cover closed, the two zombies starting moaning and thrashing about again.

"Alright, son, here's what we're going to do.  I'd really like to take the ambulance and the turret truck. But something tells me the folks at Fort Knox would much rather see these drugged-up zombies show up at their door.  They've sacrificed a lot of their men to get this far, so it's obviously important to them."

"Sure, that makes sense.  I really don't want to drive this carrier with those things thrashing around in the back for hours."

"Neither do I.  We could sit Christa back with them.  She seems to calm them down pretty good.  I don't much trust her alone with them, but it would get us there in one piece."

"No damn way, sir!  Sorry, sir, but you can't lock a little girl in the back of a moving truck filled with starving zombies.  Are you nuts?"

"A little.  Don't be so sure she's just a girl.  We still don't know what she is, but I'm betting it's not human."

"Damn, Chaz, she can hear you."

Christa looked away from the men, wandered further away, then plunked herself down in the middle of the road with her back turned.

"I don't want her locked in the back with those things.  Let me see if I can find anything in the ambulance to help.  Maybe there's more of those IV bags we could hook up.  Those dead soldiers wouldn't have driven all the way home with a truck full of frantic zombies lunging for their throats."

"Good idea.  Go check."

The ambulance was still locked, but a few blows with the butt of his semi and Alex had the door open.  He squeezed between the front seats, climbed over a divider and made his way into the rear.  It was loaded with medical supplies.  He rummaged around cabinets and drawers, not finding any IV bags.  Then he noticed a big red cooler near the rear doors, stamped with toxic bio-hazard logos.  Sure enough, he opened the cooler and found a stash of IV bags.  He exited the rear doors, and headed for the carrier.

Christa remained seated on the road with her back turned.  Chaz watched her intently from behind.  The sounds from the carrier were louder than before.

"Colonel, I found them, a whole cooler full.  This has to be the same stuff those zombies inside are hooked up to.  The bags are unmarked, but so were the ones feeding them."

"Only one way to find out, boy."  Chaz kept his eyes on Christa.  "Go swap out those empty IV bags."  He kept staring at Christa. "You can do that, right?"

"Yes, sir, of course.   I've had medical field training."

"Good, get to it.  Hook the things up, and let's get the hell out of here.  I'm tired of flying blind.  I want some answers.  The kid is riding with you in the ambulance.  I'll escort our happy patients here, as soon as you get them back to zombie dreamland."

Road Side Chat

Within minutes of swapping out the old IV bags, things got quiet in the truck.  They found keys in the personnel truck, but the keys for the ambulance were missing.  No one volunteered to search the pockets of the corpses in the ditch, so Alex hotwired the ambulance.  They siphoned gas from the turret truck, and divided it up between the other vehicles.  Both tanks read about three-quarters full.  Rummaging around in the turret truck netted them handguns, one semi-automatic, and a few rounds of ammunition.  Soon, they were rolling down the road towards Fort Knox.  Chaz took the lead with the zombies.  Alex followed behind, keeping an eye out for anything funny going on in the back of Chaz's truck.  They secured the rear flaps open just for that purpose, and gave Christa the binoculars.

"Christa, you let me know if you see any movement from within that truck."

Christa just stared out her window.

"Christa, I'm serious.  We need to get everyone to the fort safe and sound.  That includes those patients in the back of that truck.  Do you understand me?"

Silence.

"Christa ... Christa!"

"Yes, I understand.  I'm not deaf."

"I know that, I just wanted to make sure you understood.  I'm not your enemy here.  We're a team.  OK?"

"Yeah, OK. I get it. A team."

The drive through Nashville was relatively uneventful.  Occasionally a few lost souls wandered along the highway, but Chaz never slowed down.  Racing by, it was hard to tell if they were zombie or human.  Not that any of them cared.  The last few days had been eventful enough, and nobody in this caravan was looking for more adventure.  The strange events of the last few days had everyone on edge.  It was one thing to be at war when you knew your enemy. But when the rules change and you're not sure who the enemy is, what’s the point?  Everyone needs goals, targets, a reason for doing what they do.  Soldiers even more so.  Alex knew Chaz was a hardcore soldier through and through.  While Chaz rarely showed his emotions, this had to be making him question himself.  Christa was getting harder to read.  She was withdrawing.  That worried Alex.

Chaz kept the pace up, staying on the main highways.  Right now getting to Fort Knox was the only thing that mattered.  Once he got to the larger centers like Nashville he stuck to the outskirts, staying away from the populated areas. Neither Alex nor Chaz liked the idea of transporting a truck of zombies, drugged or not.  No one wanted to explain to local authorities why they had a bunch of comatose zombies in a commandeered military truck.

Once they had cleared Nashville and were back on the main highway, Chaz pulled over.  Alex stopped behind. 

"Stay here, Christa, and keep watch.  If you see anything, honk the horn."

"Sure thing."

Chaz was already in the back of his truck as Alex walked up.

"Anything wrong, Colonel?"

"I just wanted to check that everything was still secure.  Maybe give me a little more peace of mind."

"Don't worry, Colonel, we've got your back.  Christa's been keeping a keen watch on them."

"Yeah, I bet she has."

"What do you mean by that?"

Chaz looked away, and continued checking the straps.  "You could help here instead of just chattering away.  Make sure all those IVs have plenty of fluid.  Double check the straps there."

"Sure thing."

Once everything seemed secure, they both exited the truck.  "What I meant was, I'm sure she's keeping an eye on them.  What I'm not so sure about is why she's keeping an eye on them.  For our benefit, or for hers?  It wasn't too long ago that she was one of them.  And even when zombies look like little girls, you know very well what they're capable of.  Right?"

"I get that.  She seems pretty good though.  As human as you and I."

"Oh, so now you're an expert on zombie transformations?  I feel so much better knowing the world’s leading expert in zombies turning into little girls has my back."

"Colonel, I just meant …"

"Yeah, I know what you meant.  Get back in the ambulance.  I'd like to get there while we're still under cover of dark.  With this motley crew, I’d rather not have anybody see us coming."

"Yes, sir."