The Renegades (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Novel) (16 page)

“This is madness,” Baja said getting up. He wandered into another room, lighting a joint on his way in. Izzy leaned into Jess and began whispering. I got up and went down after Dax. When I made it downstairs he was staring at a photo on the wall of the couple who owned the place. He didn’t turn around. I looked around the store. It had been trashed. No doubt by the same men who we were about to face.

“Do you remember when dad and mom used to take us camping?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. How could I forget?”

He shook his head, placing the photo frame back on the wall.

“Your unwillingness to do anything he told you. God, it pissed him off.”

I ran my hand over a Chinese ornament of a lion.

“Yeah, I guess doing what others want has never been my thing.”

“No, Johnny. It hasn’t but I’ve always admired it.”

I let out a laugh, then frowned.

“What?” I replied.

“But one day it’s going to get you killed. I don’t want to be around when that happens.”

“Dax.”

“Listen.” He turned around and was dead serious. “You get your ass out of there. I’m not doing this alone.”

“You think I’m going to leave you behind, brother?”

“I’m just saying. If push comes to shove, get your ass out. Don’t try to be the hero.”

I smiled. “Whenever have I tried that?”

He grabbed hold of me, patted me hard on the back then walked back upstairs. That was the first time I’d ever sensed that he actually gave a shit. I think he meant it.

Truth be told, this was an insane idea. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it out alive. Anyone else would have run for the hills. Taken the opportunity to get out while they could.

I looked around at what remained of someone’s livelihood. Shelves overturned. Ornaments broken. Glass smashed. It looked the way I felt. You see, none of us had planned for this to happen in our town. Our once quiet small community had been turned upside down, shaken and destroyed at the hands of a virus that we had no clue about. All we knew was that we had to stay alive.

But now this wasn’t just about us. There were others, if we turned a blind eye, were we any better than the men who were holding these girls? If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to do it as a coward.

T
he moans
of the dead filled our ears as we moved out of the alleyway into the exposed stretch of street that led up to the saloon. We had been monitoring their position for the past hour. We’d seen the Colonel leave. Three of his guys remained. Now what you have to understand is none of them were dressed in fatigues, which had led us to believe that maybe the Colonel was the only one that was military. Perhaps he was telling the truth. Dax said the way the men moved, carried their guns, and kept watch over the street, it was a clear giveaway.

“They are amateurs. Probably just ordinary guys that he managed to coax to follow him.”

For him this was a good thing, it meant they didn’t have their wits about them. They would be easier to overcome. Baja had suggested removing a few layers of clothes from Izzy and Jess to make it look more convincing, to which they pounded his arm and he let out a laugh. But this was no laughing matter. The danger was very real. We were taking a risk going out there. It was very possible that the Colonel had instructed his men to shoot me on sight. I was the only one that was going to be carrying a weapon. Dax, Specs, and Baja would keep a close eye on us from the rooftops, spread out in several positions. If things got hot, they could rain down some bullets on them. The plan was to have the girls’ hands tied behind their back with zip ties, and to tie both of them together with rope. I would hold the rope behind and pull them forward, announcing that I was surrendering and bringing with me a peace offering. It was an insane move but knowing their taste for women and lack of regard for human life, I thought it would be the best way to gain trust, if I hadn’t already ruined it.

It was time. I glanced up at Dax on the roof and we exchanged a final look before I moved out. He wanted me to carry an assault rifle, but they were only going to take the weapon. There was no point giving them anything more than handgun. I took a deep breath, pulled my gun out, and tugged the girls forward. I had talked with them beforehand about what we were going to do if they took us back to the shelter. They both knew the risk, and there was a strong possibility the men would lay hands on them before they got there. But I told them I would do my best to make sure that didn’t happen.

I rolled out from behind the cover of the building with purpose, with full intent that if this went south, I would at least go down shooting. I carried my weapon by my side. I ambled past burnt-out cars that held the charred remains of locals. The two girls shuffled behind me.

There were several Z’s in the street at that time. I didn’t waste any bullets; I simply pulled my knife and stabbed them in the forehead. The walk to where the three men were keeping watch on the street was only a few blocks. As I came over the rise in the road, I knew they had spotted me. Two of them dashed out into the street with assault rifles aimed at me.

“Don’t shoot. I’m surrendering. Joining. Bringing with me a peace offering.”

They didn’t move a muscle. I saw one of them start talking into his radio. It looked like they had stolen them off the police.

“Throw the weapon over here, and get down on your knees.”

I knew the others would be watching. They would have their rifles aimed at the men’s heads. But it still didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. It was unnerving to know that one pull of a trigger and I could be dead. I tried to make use of the time before they had hold of us to explain.

“The Colonel said I could join. I know I ran but that was because of the Z’s. I’ve brought back some women I came across in an apartment. I’m thinking you guys could use them.”

They squinted, looking the girls up and down. One of them moved around to check out if the girls were holding any weapons behind them. He shook his head and gave the thumbs-up. As they started to approach I continued.

“Look, I’m just like you guys. I want to survive. I’m ready to do whatever the Colonel wants.”

I heard the crackle of their radios. Again, one of them spoke into his. This time I heard what he said.

“We’ve got the kid. He’s got two bitches with him. Says he wants to join. What do you want us to do?”

They were now standing over me. My head was turned, both arms stretched out on the ground. One of them patted me down, checking for weapons. He removed my knife and took the handgun.

“I think I’ll check these ones.”

I watched as a slimy fat guy with a bald head approached Izzy and Jess and began feeling them up. He ran his hands up their legs and lingered there for a moment.

“Fuck off,” Izzy said.

He let out a laugh. “Feisty. I like that. I think I’ll make you mine.”

When he shifted to Jess, I felt my skin crawl. I wanted to kill him so badly. I saw Jess’s face grimace as he manhandled her breasts and ran his hands over her buttocks.

“You’re the quiet one, eh?” He licked the side of her face. “I’ll soon make you noisy.”

She didn’t utter a word. The tallest and largest one of the bunch, a guy responding to the name of Harvey, pulled me up by the arm.

“Where’s your other pals?”

“They bolted.”

“Bullshit.”

“Do you really think I’m dumb enough to hand myself in if I thought that for even a second that you were going to kill me?”

“Don’t hold your breath. We still might.”

He eyed me with contempt. A look of skepticism danced across his face.

A gun fired, then another. For a moment I thought they had shot the girls. Twisting around I was relieved to see that the fat one had just taken out a couple of Z’s. Their twisted, mangled bodies lay on the ground with blood gushing from their mouths.

Harvey updated the Colonel over the radio on what I had just told them.

“Bring ’em in.”

“Roger.”

“Seems it’s your lucky day.”

“Any of you got a cigarette?”

“Don’t push it,” he replied.

He came around me and tied my wrists with a zip tie.

“Is this necessary?” I asked.

“For now. Yeah. You got a problem?”

He got up close to my face like a drill instructor at a boot camp. For a moment he reminded me of a counselor from the juvenile reform facility. The guy was always up in my face shouting. He had once made me run in the rain for ten miles while he drove behind me in a jeep. I collapsed and he beat my legs with bamboo until I got up. You could say I learned about the will to live from that place. It didn’t just shape your character, it shaped your mind. You had to be tough to survive in there. The moment they saw a chink in your armor, they would break it open and expose it. Most kids had an attitude when they arrived. Within a week they would have bent over and taken it up the ass rather than endure the mental torture that was inflicted on them.

The key was to not let on that they were breaking you. There were some days, I thought of taking my own life when I was in there. Any kid who said they hadn’t thought about it, was a liar.

“No. No problem,” I replied.

“Good.” His steely eyes remained fixed on mine before he pushed me towards a dark blue truck they had parked outside. They threw us in the back and two of them sat with their weapons pointed at us while the other one turned over the ignition and rolled out of there. I glanced up briefly hoping to see the guys on the roof. But they weren’t there. In many ways we were on our own now. Specs would be in the process of rolling out a fuse cord from the old dynamite to a remote detonator.

I had no idea how he was going to do it, I just had to hope it was done right. Baja would be at Specs’s house waiting by the ham radio for the signal to blow it. I had them swear, that no matter what, they were to blow it on the hour even if I didn’t get out. Dax planned to follow us out to the shelter in a truck. He would park a safe distance away. Once he saw us go in, he would set his watch. I would activate mine, it was already set up for an hour. Then we had to hope to God that we could find a way to get those girls out. I would be a fool to say that I was confident about it, I wasn’t. There was a lot that was out of our control. We would have to rely on rapport, skill, and a helluva lot of luck if we were going to make it out of there alive.

On the ride out to the shelter, the men stared at Jess and Izzy. I could tell they saw them as nothing but meat. You don’t ever think what people will become when they are faced with an end of the world situation. Whatever men hide deep inside their psyche is brought to the surface. When there are no rules, no one to govern right from wrong, and no one watching. What would people do, if they knew they could get away with it?

The truck bumped its way down the dusty roads. The same road Specs and I had come out on many a time growing up together. I remembered when his father built the place. Back then it seemed insane. He’d always imagined it as a safe haven. Now it was being used as prison.

Having my wrists tied reminded me of the night I was taken to the juvenile reform facility. The fight I had put up before two hulking men threw me to the ground and cuffed my wrists and then tossed me in the back of a van. I had pleaded with my father to not do it. All he could do was look on, nodding his head. Like a political leader approving of some atrocity.

The reform facility might as well have been Guantánamo Bay. It was run by an ex-military guy who had a serious problem with anyone who spoke back to him. I learned fast to keep my mouth shut. When I arrived at Tagon in Utah, we were lined up. I and four others were made to wait outside in the blistering heat for four hours until one ex-military asshole showed up. He walked up and down the line, eyeballing us as if he had received a new influx of men for military boot camp.

He brought each and every one of us to our knees in tears before we were shown to our housing. He used shouting for one kid. That was all it took. The kid pissed his pants. For another he made the kid lick his boot. Literally, clean his dirty boot with his tongue. Another he beat with a stick. Me? By the time he got to me, I think he just expected me to roll over and cry. Instead, I just spat in his face and told him that I hoped he liked the taste. I was beaten black and blue. Forced into a room and sprayed with freezing cold water, and then went without food for a day.

The way I saw it, I’d rather have taken everything they could throw at me on day one, as that way all the days after that would be easy. In many ways they were. But you know what? At least I never gave that motherfucker the satisfaction of seeing me cry. It’s not that I wanted to be some macho asshole. I just wanted him to work for his pay.

W
hen we arrived
at the shelter, they pulled us from the back of the truck like bags of potatoes. Two of them tossed the girls over their shoulders, and carried them into the RV. The third man, Harvey, shoved me forward.

“Nice setup.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

I turned my head to see if Dax had been following. I was hoping a plume of dust above a hill would at least give me some indication. Instead I saw nothing. Not exactly comforting, but what could I do? Inside the RV, I spotted the ham radio. Harvey cut the zip tie around my wrist and gestured for me to head down into the hole. That’s what it was. A big hole in the ground. The steel ladder disappeared down. It was all lit up inside, running off a generator. When we reached the first of the five levels, the Colonel was sitting in a chair smoking. What I saw beside him, I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. A girl. The same one I’d seen on the video. She wore nothing but underwear. He had a chain around her neck, she was sitting beside him. I didn’t even want to think about what he had done to her. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen years of age. Her face looked familiar. She had a short dark bob and dark eyes. A really slender figure, like the kind a cheerleader has. It took me a short while before it clicked.

She was the daughter of Steven Bommer.

He ran a car dealership in the town. We went to the same school. She would have graduated the same day I would have. Her eye was bruised, she had a cut on a lip, no doubt from resisting.

“The prodigal son returns.”

He opened his arms wide. Harvey shoved me forward. I turned back to see where they were taking Jess, as I looked back I felt the full force of his fist hit me in the face. I fell to the ground, immediately feeling my eyes water up, and my nose burn.

“That’s for killing one of my men.”

He then helped me up and brushed me off.

“Don’t ever do it again.”

I nodded. His serious face turned into a smile.

“Ah, I see you come bearing gifts.” He pointed at me. “Nice.”

He walked around Jess and Izzy, his eyes darting between them as if he was comparing two cows at a farmers’ market. “I like it. Where did you find them?”

“Hiding in an apartment. Above the music store.”

The Colonel turned to Harvey. “Didn’t I ask you to clear that store?”

“Sir, we did. We didn’t come across them.”

“They were hiding.”

His eyes narrowed. I was beginning to wonder if he believed me. Thankfully Jess spoke up.

“Yeah, you fucking bastard. We would have been there now if it wasn’t for you.”

She spit in my direction. I wanted to smile, kiss her even. She just saved our asses.

“Oh, must be the time of the month.” He let out a laugh and took a hold of her and planted his lips on hers. As he did he turned as if he wanted me to see him kissing her.

“Oh you taste sweet, honey.”

He gestured to the fat guy to take them away.

“Well. Let me show you around.”

This was it. We were now in the lion’s den.