Resurrection (5 page)

     “Mister,” she said, “you’re not just going to leave me here, I, I mean thank you for helping me.”

     Charlie did not stop and again she followed after him.

     “Hey, I want to apologize for that and say thank you, you know.”

     Charlie stopped and faced the woman, “your welcome, now, go on back to your people.”

     She looked at Charlie; his face was barely visible in the flickering amber of the campfire. “I don’t have any people, not anymore at least, they killed them all,” She said looking back at the men in the camp.    

     Charlie looked at her face and it was then that he realized that she was no more than a girl, eighteen at best and it was obvious that she had no place to go.

     “I got nothing for you, look I can’t feed you,” he said, “I got no room for strays,” he said.

“Well, I’m no stray and you ain’t leaving me here. I can carry my own weight.”

     They stood eyeing one another, a warm desert breeze blew back her hair, Charlie sighed and then he moved back into the camp. He stood over one of the men he had killed.

     “Strip this guy,” he said “put on his clothes and boots, “he looks to be close to your size.”

     “Take his clothes off?” she asked.

     “Yes, now move, quickly, they may have friends out there,” He demanded.

      She removed the man’s clothing and put them on, they were a little loose but the boots fit her fairly well.   

     “Alright, take this,” he said, handing the girl a pistol he had taken off one of the men, she examined the weapon and then strapped it around her waist. Charlie took ammunition and as much food as he could carry.

      “Let’s go,” he said.

     The girl followed behind Charlie, he stopped and picked up the pack he had left behind and soon they were back at the bluff where he had concealed himself during the day.    

     “We’ll stay for here for the rest of the night, we don’t want to have trouble with Wasters,” he said.

     You don’t think they would come out this far, do you?” She asked

     “We need rest and food,” he said, ignoring the girl completely.

     They ate from the stash that he had commandeered from the camp and afterward he climbed to the top of the bluff.

     The girl watched from below as he scrutinized the inky black desert. “What are you looking for,” she asked as she joined him on top of the hill.

     “Making sure we don’t get any surprises.”

She stood beside him and strained her eyes in an attempt to see anything, then turned her gaze to the night sky; stars sparkled like precious gems in the velvet blackness.    

     “Can you see anything? I mean it is so dark out there,” she asked.

     He did not answer her and then sat down on the edge of the overhang with his legs hanging over the side. The girl sat beside him. She was not sure whether she should engage him in conversion; he seemed so distant and cold.

     “Were you looking for me?” she said timidly.         

     Charlie never shifted his gaze, “nope.”

     She sat silent for another moment, thinking. “So how did you find me?”

     “I didn’t, you just happened to be there.”

She sat silent for several minutes and then picked up a few rocks and threw them out into the darkness.

     “How did you pick that man up?” she said finally, I mean, you picked him up over your head and threw him, how did you do that?”

     Charlie slowly turned to her, “you ask a lot of questions.”

     I’m just curious,” she continued, “I mean you’re standing up there looking out into the dark and you’re wearing those dark goggles or whatever they are, how can you possibly see anything?

     Again He did not respond,

     “Do you think this is the end of the world?” she asked. Do you think we will ever live normal lives again?”

     For the first time he looked at her and examined her face, her dark skin softly glowing in the muted moonlight. Her hair jet black, her dark eyes that matched her hair and also for the first time he noticed how pretty she was

     “There is no normal life,” he answered looking away from her. “There’s just life, that’s all we have.”

     “But, I mean, will we ever be able to live as we did before this all began, like people used to?”

     He turned his face into the warm desert breeze and considered her question and then realized he had not given a minutes worth of thought about life returning to what it used to be in some time, this had become normal to him. Having contemplated her question and as strange as it seemed he did not wish for normalcy to return, for him it was too late.

     He turned back to the girl and put his finger to her lips, “shhhhh,” he said. Then he jumped off the overhang, “time for you to get some sleep.”

Chapter 11

    
Charlie
stood vigil over Elizabeth’s body throughout the night. The rain became heavy and pounded upon the metal roof of the house. He was always amazed at the lack of lightning.

He missed the lightning and its younger sibling thunder. When he was young the rumbling of a distant thunderstorm in the night made him melancholy, but now it was the lack of which dispirited him.

     Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw movement in the sheet which covered his wife’s body. Was it the flickering flame of the candle playing games with his eyes or did she indeed stir? He rose from his chair and came close to her and watched for any movement, but there was none.

     He had not long returned to his seat when Elizabeth’s leg kicked out from the sheet, it hung loosely over the side of the bed and began to swing back and forth. Slowly at first but with more intensity as the clock ticked.

      Without warning Elizabeth’s eyes popped open and she rose to a sitting position on the bed. Her eyes appeared as if they had been replaced with a child’s toy marbles. Charlie stood and moved to her side.

     “Elizabeth, can you hear me?”

     There was no response, He reached out his hand and lightly placed it on her shoulder, “Elizabeth?”

     Suddenly her head spun round and he heard a loud cracking in her neck as it did so and her cold agate eyes set upon him. Her mouth opened exposing her teeth and a low gurgling sound emanated from her throat.

     In an instant she sprang from the bed and grabbed him by the hair and bit him on his left shoulder. His mouth opened in a silent shriek as she tore through his flesh and deep into his shoulder muscle.

    He fell back against the nightstand, his head made contact with the corner of the headboard nearly knocking him cold. She leapt on top of him, her teeth gnashing, her black tongue flitting in and out of her mouth like that of a serpent searching the air for the scent of blood.

     Charlie grabbed her by the throat, the strength and ferocity of her attack had taken him by surprise but even so he managed to force her head to the floor. Her nails cut a deep gash in his cheek as she reached for him. With his right hand he held her down and with his left he reached into the nightstand and found his pistol.

     He took the weapon and put it to his wife’s temple, “I’m sorry,” he screamed and with that, part of Elizabeth’s head exploded.

     Under cover of darkness, Charlie Lynch of Anywhere U.S.A. took what remained of his wife to the basement and there he took a shovel and separated her head from her torso and then bound her body with a heavy rope. He lowered her into a hole he had dug in the dirt floor and put her to rest next to their five children.

Chapter 12

     Charlie and the girl set off well before sunrise, hiking through the flat, dusty plain. The desert was baking by nine o’clock and the sun beat down on them. By very late in the afternoon they had entered a large valley.

     Suddenly, he stopped atop a small knoll. The girl, who was trailing him by several yards, saw him halt and then quickly lie down on his belly.    

     “What is it?” she said as she ran toward him.

     “Quiet,” he said “get down low and come up here.”

     The girl joined him. “What is it?”

     He handed her the binoculars and there, through a shimmering mirage she could see a small village. She handed the binoculars back to Charlie.

     “It‘s a town,” she said. “We’re not going in there, are we?”

     He rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky.

“We need water, he said. “We’re relatively safe out here, I say relatively, but if we go into that town all that goes down the drain.”

     “That’s why we should leave this place, now,” she said urgently.

      “Look we’re almost out of water and there may be a well or something there, we’ve got to find out.”

     He gazed through the binoculars again and studied the small town for any sign of life but he could discern no movement.

      We need water,” he repeated. “We’ll wait until dark then go in.”

     She looked at his face and studied it for any sign of uncertainty.

     “Won’t there be a danger of wasters at night? I mean they mostly stay close to towns, mostly. Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”

     “There’s danger either way” he said. “But we can move around more easily at night and hide easier too. I can’t leave you out here by yourself we have to stick together now.”

     They entered the small village at around two in the morning. The houses on each side of the street were abandoned and dilapidated. He ordered her to stay right behind him and in the tree line.

     The girl had her pistol in her hand, “you know how to use that?” He asked her. She nodded affirmation. He took the pistol from her and chambered a round and then handed the weapon back to her.

     “Don’t hesitate, don’t stop to think, pull the trigger. You see someone, anyone you shoot them, just don’t pull the trigger in my direction,” he whispered.

     Charlie cautiously walked up to one of the houses, some of the homes had been boarded up but this one was not. Gingerly he stepped through the front doorway. The girl followed close behind but was having trouble finding her way in the dark.

     “This is strange,” He said.

     She was unable to see him but she made an attempt to follow the sound of his voice.    

     “What’s strange, what do you see?” She asked with a note of anxiety in her voice.

     He picked up an opened can of food from the table and sniffed it. “There are some freshly opened tins of food here, someone left in a hurry and not too long ago.”

      Charlie turned and something caught his eye outside of the window above the kitchen sink, what he saw made his blood run cold.

     “Wasters, there are Wasters,” he pushed the words out under his breath.

     He grabbed the girl by her coat and dragged her into the front room, through the open front door he could now see that about five Wasters were in the street, they turned in unison when they saw Charlie and the girl.

    He hauled her into one of the bedrooms and tossed her inside and then slammed the door.

      He pulled his shotgun from its scabbard, and then put his back against the wall and prepared to make a stand against the monsters.

     One of the Wasters came through the door and he shot it in the head and it immediately fell in the doorway. The fallen Waster served as a temporary block in the way of the others, giving him some time to consider his options, which at this point were few.

     The Waster he had shot was back on its feet within a minute and it led the others right to Charlie. He pulled a machete and started swinging and the demon lost its head, the body of the thing staggered off into the kitchen.

     The other four came at Charlie, they backed him into the wall and he lost his grip on the machete. He picked up one of the zombies and shoved it into the others but it was too late, they were overpowering him.   

     He tried to recover his blade but it was to no avail. They clawed at him, he fought back violently but their strength was too great for him. Suddenly, the room was ablaze with light. A collective scream arose from the group of Wasters. On the opposite side of the room behind the wasters a blinding spot of light and then the world went black.

Chapter 13

    He heard a distant voice,” Charlie, Charlie, you ok?”

     He lay on the floor and when he opened his eyes he saw someone kneeling next to him, “Elizabeth?” The name slipped coarsely across his lips.  

     As he regained consciousness he realized the figure was a man, he wore black mask and a helmet with a light attached to it.

     “Hey, you ok man?” he asked as he shook Charlie by the shoulder again.

     The light hurt Charlie’s eyes but it brought him out of his shock.

     “You want to get that light out of my face?” Charlie asked bluntly.

     He sat up and leaned back against the wall still stunned, the man turned the light off.

     “There, that better Charlie, I had forgotten about your eyes, can you still see me?”

     “Yeah, I can see you, who the hell are you?” Charlie said. He was looking directly into the man’s eyes; there was something about them and his voice that seemed familiar.    

     The man took his mask off and Charlie immediately recognized him.

     “Jim, what are you doing here?” Charlie sat dumbfounded staring into a face from his past.

     “Been following you for days, Charlie, you took me by surprise though when I heard you outside, I figured you would avoid civilization.” 

     Charlie was silent for a moment, while he gathered his thoughts.

     “Following me, why have you been following me Jim? I haven’t seen you in years.”

     Just then there was a sound of breaking glass and a scream from the bedroom.

“The girl!” Charlie jumped up, grabbed his machete and shotgun and ran for the bedroom.

     Throwing open the door, he saw a Waster and it had the girl by the hair. Charlie took a step toward the creature and in a split second the freak bit down on the girl’s neck and she screamed in terror and pain.

     Charlie swung the machete and the demon’s head went spinning to the floor. The headless torso, still clinging to the girl began to stumble about the room.

      He again swung the machete and lopped off its arm it dropped her to the floor. She fell next to the severed head of the Waster, its jaws still chomping as it tried to get at her again; the eyes wild with hunger.

     Charlie pulled his shotgun, and without hesitation he blew of the legs off of the stumbling corpse, it fell against the wall but still it attempted to get back up.

     Charlie ran to the girl and knelt beside her and put his arm under her head and lifted her to his chest. He brushed her hair from out of her eyes, the waster had ripped her throat out and she was already gone.

     “Damn, Damn, I should not have left her alone, God; I never even knew her name.”

     He shook his head and put a gloved hand to her face and caressed it and then closed her eyes. He carefully let her back down to the floor, then, he pointed his shotgun at Jim.    

     “Now, I’m gonna ask you again what the hell are you doing here, why have you been following me?”    

     Jim hesitated, “Charlie, I was sent by the government, the two you killed in the firefight at the house were from the government.”

     “There is no government,” Charlie said half laughing. “What’s the real reason?”   

     “You haven’t heard?” Jim looked down at the shotgun Charlie had trained on him. “No I guess you wouldn’t have. The government has begun to reestablish itself, Washington is coming back.”

     “Washington,” Charlie said with a sneer, “What has that to do with me?”

     Jim studied Charlie for a second,” mind if I smoke?” he pulled a pack of Chesterfields from his jacket.

     “Be my guest,” Charlie said.

     Jim lit his cigarette then offered the pack to Charlie, he waved his hand and Jim put the pack back in his jacket.

     “You see Charlie,” Jim started. “The initial infection has run its course, and now it’s only being spread by the Wasters. The government has begun a project to destroy them, to kill them all.

   “Kill them? You can’t kill them,” Charlie said pointing the rifle at the head which was still gnashing its teeth in the corner.

   “I don’t have all the details Charlie; I just know what I have been told.”

     Jim took a long drag from the cigarette; the red tip glowed brightly in the dark room.

     “So why have you been following me, what does this have to do with me?” Charlie said.

     “Well, you see, I was hired to hunt those who have not gone over, like you Charlie, so I hunted you,” Jim said bluntly.

     Charlie stood up, still holding the shotgun on Jim.

     “Hired to hunt, what do you mean Jim?”

     “Hell Charlie, has this all gone over your head? The virus has stopped somehow and the wasters have to be wiped out to restore civilization. People like you could go over at any moment, and the government sees you and others like you as a threat, just as much a threat as these pathetic creatures here.

     Charlie took in Jim’s words and slowly lowered the shotgun.    

     “So Jim, what are you waiting for, you have a job to do, so do it,” Charlie stood looking at Jim.

     Jim took another drag off his cigarette and then flipped it at the wall; a shower of red sparks flew in every direction.

     “Charlie, I’m still your brother, yeah I came to kill you and we have strict orders to kill, no exterminate, that’s the word they used, anyone who does not have this mark,” Jim put his arm out and revealed a tattoo on his inner wrist.    

     “I came out here to exterminate you, but I can’t do it. I want you to hide, find a secluded place and stay there. They are afraid of you, they hate you and they will not stop until you and all of the others like you are history. This is a new world, mankind has another chance and you represent disease and death to them.”

     Jim moved out of the doorway and allowed Charlie to pass. Charlie looked down at the girl and shook his head.

     “What a waste,” he said.

    He walked past Jim and into the front room and then turned and held out his fist. Jim put his hand out and Charlie dropped the gold necklace that he had taken from the dead woman into his palm. Dawn was breaking as he stepped out onto the front porch, pastel gold and orange hues colored the sky.

     “Stay out of trouble Charlie,” Jim said as he watched his brother walk away down the street. He lit another cigarette and leaned against the doorway. He knew this would be the last time the two of them would see each other.