Zombie Dawn Apocalypse (12 page)

“Yeah, all clear by luck, you fucking idiot.”

“What do you want?” asked Dale.

“Nothing, except to know I can rely on you to do your job.”

“Alright, I’m awake.”

“Really? You feeling ok?” asked Greg.

“Exhausted, but what’s new?”

“Alright, stick with it, stay sharp. You’ll have your turn to rest before long.”

Greg wandered back to the other side of the camp, hoping his shock treatment would keep his brother awake, the adrenaline would certainly help. Dale stayed wide awake and alert for twenty minutes before the fatigue again overtook him, he relaxed further into the chair, his breathing slowed further, until it became a gasp. Dale felt his body slow down, more than just to sleep, he thought this must be the end, hardly a bad thing. The man took his last breath and then went limp in his chair.

“Hey, asshole,” said Greg.

Dale’s brother approached from behind the chair where he was sitting. His head was tilting over, asleep again. Greg was tolerant towards his brother, but only up to a point. He’d seen the result of negligence and laziness before, death and destruction. He quickened his pace and walked around in front of the chair. Looking down at Dale, his brother was completely out for count.
 

“Wake the fuck up,” said Greg.

When he got no answer, he grappled him by the collar and shook him. Dale’s eyes shot open, but before Greg realised what had happened to his brother, Dale seized his clothing and pulled him closer, biting into his windpipe and ripping flesh from his neck. Greg dropped to the ground, trying to shout out a warning to his fellow survivors, but unable to release a sound, the blood choking him.

Five minutes later Madison sprung from a deep sleep, alerted by a scream of pain and fear. Jack woke at the same time to an abysmal sight, one that they had all feared for years. Three of their friends were screaming in either pain or shock, blood was scattered about, some in mouths of the standing, some on the clothes and flesh of others that were either lifeless or writhing in agony on the ground.

“Jesus Christ!” shouted Jack.

Jack grabbed for the whistle hanging on a ribbon around his neck and blew the high-pitched device, hoping to salvage at least some support and survivors. He leapt to his feet and grabbed his hatchet from beside his bed. He ran at the man he used to know as Greg, who had blood covering his shirt, a mix of his own and others. He spun the tool around and smashed Greg in the head with the blunt back edge, knowing he could not risk getting the weapon stuck. Greg dropped to the floor with the impact, the skull slightly splitting and leaking blood from beneath his hair. Jack hit again in the same fashion to be sure, striking the brain ferociously.

Turning around to survey the situation, Jack could see Madison hitting out at the outstretched arm of what used to be their friend Dale. The second strike of her hammer burst the creature’s nose and forced it to stumble backwards. Before the beast could regain its footing, Madison leapt forward and dealt a deadly strike to the temple with a well-aimed swing, the creature falling to a lifeless mess. Madison and Jack looked around, a few other survivors had managed to get to their feet, but many were lifeless or bloody and wounded.

“What do we do?” she asked.

“We must purge all signs of the creatures!” shouted Wells.

“You mean kill what, half our friends?”

Jack sighed, he looked at his feet, not wanting to admit the situation to himself, let alone to Madison.

“You know it has to be done, or we’ll all be dead within forty-eight hours!” said Wells.

“So what do we do, kill at random?” asked Jack.

“We need to divide the infected and the uninfected immediately,” said Wells.

“How?” asked Madison.

“Everyone, listen up, those without injury, step to my right, into the open,
Maddy
and Wells will check you over,” said Jack.

Jade began to cry, she sat down, cradling her legs with her arms, knowing she was finished. Several of the wounded could do barely more than groan. Riley and Justin ambled over to where Jack had pointed, and Joey finally followed.

“
Maddy
, Wells, check them thoroughly,” Jack ordered.

It was a horrific situation, neither was comfortable with what had to be done. The father and daughter began checking their friends as if they were terrorists.

“Listen up, you all knew this day was coming sooner or later. This world we now live in, it was insane to think we could survive, but we have this far, we have earned and fought for a longer life. No matter how much crap we have faced these last ten years we have maintained a community, and we have had some good times, we have maintained our humanity. For many of you that road has ended. Accept it, there is no shame in it,” said Jack.

Jade, still weeping, burst out with sadness.

“So what, you’re just going to kill us?”

“If you have been bitten, you have two choices. Let us end your life before you become one of those fuckers, or you take a walk in the opposite direction, right now, and don’t stop until you can’t walk any longer,” Jack answered.

“That’s it!” shouted Katy.

“What do you want me to say? You all know the reality of this, the longer you stay around, the more you risk our lives. We will finish off those who cannot walk, as peacefully and quickly as we can, and then we’ll move off in a different direction.”

“So this is it?” cried Jade.

“I’m sorry to say, my dear, yes,” said Wells.

“I’m sorry too, but we have no choice, and time is not on our side. First we must finish off anybody who is at risk of turning in the next hour,” Jack added.

“How do we decide that?” cried Madison.

“If they’re bitten and cannot stand, then put them out of their misery. If they’re bitten and can walk, either get them moving now or end it for them,” said Jack.

Madison looked at Jack with a look of terror in her eyes. She had faced all manner of evil and hardship in the last few years, but never had she had to kill her friends on such a huge scale. As far as she was concerned they were the last twenty-two people in the world, to have to kill or let die over three quarters of them seemed utterly dire and beyond belief.

“And then what, what are we going to do?” she asked.

“Load up, head out,” said Jack.

“With so few of us left?”

“That’s what we have, we can’t change that,” said Wells.

“Come on, we have to get this done, or we’ll all be finished,” whispered Jack.

“Madison, you check Riley, Justin and Joey over. Wells, you’re with me, grab a weapon.”

Wells picked up a hammer that was lying on the ground, Jack took up his two handed mace, a far better weapon when you had the space and time to manoeuvre it.
 
Jack looked out across the bloody mess of the dead and wounded. None of those able to move had done so yet, not wanting to leave the community they’d lived and worked for.

“Go on! Go!” shouted Jack.

Those that could finally began to stagger away from the camp, eight in total, wandering into the wilderness knowing full well that they had a matter of hours to live, or at least as human beings. Jack lifted his crude club and smashed it down onto the head of his first victim.

“Jack!” shouted Madison.

He spun around, on edge and alert.

“What is it?”

“Get over here quick!”

He rushed over, not sure what to expect, but already concerned by her long face. He reached her position as she pointed to Joey’s blood stained jacket. She lifted the jacket up revealing ripped flesh and blood beneath. Jack lowered his head in disappointment, yet another friend who was finished.

“Hey, Joey, when did you get bit?” asked Jack.

“What?”

“That bite on your side, that just happen?”

“What? I didn’t get bit!” shouted Joey.

 
“That isn’t a scratch, Joey!” shouted Jack.

“But I didn’t feel anything, I would have noticed!”

“Maybe you were asleep, maybe with the adrenaline and panic you didn’t feel it, I don’t know, but the only way you got that injury is from a bite. I’m sorry, but your time is over,” said Jack quietly.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m not going to do anything, you’re going to take a walk and not come back.”

“This is bullshit.
Maddy
, you don’t believe that do you?” asked Joey.

“I’m sorry, but that’s the truth, nothing any of us can do about it,” she answered him.

“This is fucking bullshit, so I am supposed to go and die somewhere?”

“Afraid so, or let us end it for you quickly,” Jack said.

“Well fuck this and fuck you!” shouted Joey.

He threw down the iron bar he was holding and stormed out of the camp, mortified by his situation, and disgusted by his friend’s response.

“That could have gone better,” said Riley.

“Not really, how else can you tell a man he’s going to die, either alone and without fuss, or risk the lives of everyone around him? He’ll realise before the end that he made the right decision,” said Wells.

“Not to be funny here, but now there are only five of us, how can we survive?” asked Justin.

“We do our best, it’s all anyone can do, and all that God can expect of us,” said Wells.

“And that’s done us a world of good so far.”

Madison was about to agree with Justin, but stopped as she noticed an increasingly loud banging noise.

“What the hell is that?” she asked.

“What?” asked Jack.

“Listen, that noise.”

They all went silent, intently listening. The noise got louder and more frequent, a crashing noise, something that was truly worrying in a world with so few humans left. Jack grabbed his binoculars and walked twenty yards until he stood in what loosely resembled a street, staring down the line of dusty buildings. He raised his binoculars to his eyes and looked out for some sign of movement. At first he could see nothing, but then his attention was drawn to something that vibrated as he panned across the street. He focused on the front of the old church building, the doors shook, not through wind, but the force of creatures. He could see chains wrapped around the doors and secured with two padlocks, the doors thrashed against the chains, straining them.

“Jesus fuck me Christ, this is not our day.”

He ran back to the others.
 
A look of dread on his face that the others had gotten used to understanding, they knew bad news would follow.

“That’s the church, it’s locked up and chained, but something is giving the door hell, I can only imagine it’s most of the former population of the village.”

“What do we do?” asked Madison desperately.

“We can’t stay, we have no idea on their numbers, and we are now so few.”

“So we just put our tail between our legs and run?” asked Justin.

“That’d be about it, yeah,” replied Jack.

“Let’s do this, I’m sick of the sight of this place,” said Riley.

“All agreed?”

“Not like we have a choice,” added Wells.

“Alright,” said Justin.

Madison nodded in agreement.

“Ok, we have no idea how long those doors will hold for, who knows, we must assume we’re on borrowed time,” Jack explained.

“What can we do?” asked Madison.

“We can’t take the wagon, grab your horses and a few spares, load up essential supplies only. Make sure we have as much water as possible.”

“And be careful about what you take, there’s a lot of blood around this camp, we cannot risk taking anything infectious,” Wells added.

Moments later the handful of survivors were busy salvaging everything they could, in just five minutes they had loaded and prepared all that mattered in their world. Jack pulled himself wearily up onto his horse. Setting out every day was tedious and miserable, but doing it with less than a quarter of your friends surviving, and too little sleep, made it feel more hellish than ever. Jack wondered about Madison’s desperate state the day before, wondering about their purpose in life, maybe they didn’t have one. Maybe life was over for them, and they were just prolonging their misery. He put the thoughts to the back of his mind, his responsibilities as the leader overtaking his personal misery.