Z-Risen: Outbreak

Free Ride

11:25 hours approximate

Location: Undead Central, San Diego CA — Roz’s Roof

Supplies:

I tried to sleep. Tried.

It was a losing battle. The moment I closed my eyes all I heard were the dead. They milled, staggered, walked into the garage wall, and every five to ten minutes a shuffler launched itself at the roof.

The truth was that I was too damn scared to sleep. If I were really tired enough I’d have dozed off hours ago. Instead, adrenalin kicked my nerves up a notch. A side effect was that I felt like shit. My muscles ached from being clenched and my mind was filled with all the horrible things I’d seen over the course of two weeks. From a narrow escape aboard the USS McClusky to fighting for our lives in the very garage we were stranded on, and all of the terrible shit in between.

Roz huddled up next to Joel Kelly. I didn’t take it as a slight, even though I’d saved her life. Joel had saved my life quite a few times and I’d saved his. I think. Yeah, I probably pulled his ass out of a few bad situations. Kinda hard to survive in this ridiculous world if you aren’t helping keep your best buddy from becoming zombie chow.

She didn’t exactly invite him she just happened to lay down next to him. Joel was snoring away and rolled onto his side. She was close and they ended up with their arms over each other. How she could sleep through his snoring was beyond me. How any of us could sleep.

I didn’t get jealous. Why should I? It’s not like she and I were together. We had that little hug and ass grab yesterday in the garage, but we both thought we were about to die. Even if we had made it back inside, I doubted I had the balls to go after her. They were too busy being shrunk up inside my gut in fear.

I rolled over again and tried to fix the lumps that made up my backpack. Then I tried to doze on my arm but it fell asleep. I rolled onto my stomach and got a face full of leaves and dirt. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was even a layer of moss up here that I was now inhaling.

“Can you eat moss?” I asked, voice low.

“Gross, dude,” Craig said.

“I’m starving, man and pretty soon a bowl of moss stew might look good to you too,” I said. “Maybe a bowl of moss stew with pork belly to add some salt.”

“Pork belly? Sounds just as gross,” he whispered back.

“It’s just another name for bacon.”

“I’d kill a guy for some bacon.”

My stomach rumbled in response.

Hours passed and I may have dozed. My ankle ached like a bitch and the rest of my body wasn’t much better. The next time I run into a fucking zombie apocalypse, I plan to bring some serious painkillers to the party. Not to mention a duffle bag filled with Twinkies and MREs. Yeah, I’d eat the hell out of some MREs right now.

We had quite a few of them. The problem? They were in a house filled with the dead, so that idea was just as fucking dead. Going back into the house wasn’t happening unless we figured out a way to go in Ironman-style, complete with metal suit and weaponry. The way these undead assholes acted, they’d probably drag us down, iron suit or not.

I don’t remember when, but I finally fell asleep and got an hour or two of REM. Good for fucking me.

06:00 hours approximate

Location: Undead Central, San Diego CA — Roz’s Roof

I woke up with a pounding headache. My ankle was swollen from last night’s activities. My back hurt from sleeping on the roof. My shoulder barely worked thanks to falling asleep on my own arm.

I rubbed my eyes but it didn’t help. They still felt like sand paper.

“You might have gotten uglier,” Joel observed.

I didn’t have the energy to flip him off.

“I feel like shit.”

“Dehydrated. You need water. We all do,” he said.

Joel crept to the edge of the roof and looked over the side of the building. He came back up and shook his head. Roz stayed low and stared after him. The kids were a few feet away, conferring in whispered voices.

It was overcast, and from the chill in the air I’d guess it was no later than about 0600 hours.

“Not good. We can’t get down. We can’t go back in the garage, and we can’t get in the house.”

“Still full of dead fucks?”

“Yep,” he said. “Craig reconnoitered earlier.”

“Brave kid.”

“And he’s light. Don’t want a fresh hole in the roof.”

Another helicopter thundered against the morning sky. I’d put it at a mile or two out. We could see it, but it couldn’t see us, because we were a speck in a big old pile of fuck you. Too bad we couldn’t set a home on fire to signal the chopper.

“Anyone got a flare gun?” I asked.

Joel Kelly rolled his eyes.

The chopper cut to the east and then zipped into the distance until we couldn’t hear it anymore.

The morning brought some fog and a creepy view of the world below. Where we’d seen the undead on the ground, now they seemed to be creeping out of the mist with heads and arms floating. A shuffler appeared out of the fog with a leap and then was gone, five or six feet away like some kind of fucked up zombie frog.

The nearest house was twenty or thirty feet away and no matter how fast we could run, there was no way in hell we’d make that sprint. The dead were too thick. I’d have a better chance of pogo-sticking off heads than outrunning the tightly packed horde.

“What if one of us put on a lot of clothes? Then the bites wouldn’t get through,” Christy said.

“You’d be dragged down and torn apart,” I said.

Not a good way to go. Sure they might not be able to bite, yet, but enough of those things on top of the kid and they’d have his arms and legs separated from his torso in no time.

“Uh. Yeah. Bad idea,” Christy said.

“Can we make a rope out of our clothes and hook it to the house over there?” Craig pointed at the nearest rooftop.

Poor kid. He looked worse than me. His hair was a mess but his eyes were the really sad part. He must have been rubbing at them because one was dark red and he looked as tired as anyone I’d ever seen. Craig lifted one hand to point at the house but it hung limp, almost like a Z’s hand. Even his words were slurred.

“One, I don’t want to be dangling buck ass naked over those bastards. A shuffler would surely get us. Two, none of us can possibly James Bond the rope over there.”

“It was just a suggestion,” he said and frowned. Craig lay back down and stared in the direction of the slow rising sun.

“Yeah. It was a good one,” I said, but he didn’t acknowledge my words.

Joel looked at me but I could only shrug.

The sound of a helicopter again. I sat up and tried to get a glimpse but couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from.

“There!” Joel said. He was up on his knees pointing west of San Diego, out toward the water.

The chopper cut across my vision like a fucking messiah. If Jesus himself had risen from the ground and taken to the air, I don’t think I’d have been this excited.

The thundering grew louder. The big green military transport did a zig-zag over buildings and roads. As it moved I found myself getting up. First, one foot under a knee. Then I was up in a crouch and trying to ignore the pain in my ankle. I licked my dry lips, but it didn’t help, even though I was, for some reason, salivating.

“Is it coming this way?” Roz moved beside me and put her hand on my waist.

I looked her way and tried not to grin like a crazy man.

“Yeah. It’s coming our way.”

It was. I thought for sure it would go anywhere else but it kept doing a serpentine strut across the sky. Its general direction was still toward us.

I jumped to my feet and waved my hands in the air and started to shout.

“Hey! Hey! We’re right fucking here!”

Roz did the same and so did the kids. Craig didn’t get to his feet but he waved. His hand was nearly as listless as his body. I hoped the poor kid wasn’t sick.

Thank the fuck Christ someone was coming. I was worried about the kid. I’d just met him a day or two ago but he and his sister didn’t deserve this crazy new world. I couldn’t help but wonder if this part of the country was infected but the rest of the world was fine and dandy. Maybe families were rising even now to have breakfast together. To watch the morning news or sit through children’s cartoons. Mom and Dad rushing off to work while the kids try to stay awake in school.

I shook my head and made my brain focus on the task at hand—getting that chopper’s attention.

The helicopter must have seen us because they made a beeline straight toward Roz’s house.

There was one side effect of our antics and shouts of joy. The horde below had gone into a frenzy. They pressed in on the sides of the garage and howled for our blood. A pair of shufflers flung themselves at the building like we were a side of bacon left out for their morning meal.

The chopper slowed as it neared us. It was green and had large side doors. One was open and had a machine gun pointed out just like they were in a war zone — and that wasn’t far from the truth.

The pilot and co-pilot were hard to make out, but I was sure one of them nodded in our direction. A face appeared behind them and studied us intently.

The wash of the blades as the helicopter came to hover in front of us blew Joel Kelly’s FDNY cap off his head. He waved but the pilots didn’t wave back.

The chopper swung to the side and my gut twisted.

“No!” I screamed. “Don’t leave us!”

Roz jumped up and down but I couldn’t hear her over the rush of wind.

The side door came into view and with it, the big machine gun. I thought for a crazy moment that they were about to open up on us.

The man that I’d seen a few seconds ago leaned out and waved. He was tall and had dark hair laced with grey. He looked like Gunny, but this man was older. He waved again and we waved back. I felt dumb for it, but it was the best I had in place of a hug and a wet kiss. I’d save that for after we were rescued.

The helicopter hovered just out of reach, then the guy hanging onto the doorway motioned for us to get down. I didn’t need a second invitation and dropped to a crouch on my sore ankle. It screamed in pain but I pushed it to the back of my mind.

The man produced a bullhorn and fiddled with the buttons. A woman dressed in combat gear moved beside him and said something. He nodded at her and then lifted a bullhorn.

“Stay down just like that. When we get close make your way onto the craft. When you are onboard sit down and don’t move. Got it?”

I gave the thumbs up. He nodded at us and then yelled something at the pilots.

Roz knelt while she talked to the kids. Christy looked at Craig and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

The dead around us went into a frenzy. The shuffler that had haunted us all night tried to leap onto the helicopter but it was a good twelve feet off the ground. The down draft from the blades flattened a couple that were on shaky limbs, or worse, were missing them entirely.

The horde moved in on us again and pressed against the side of the garage. They beat at it and moaned. Even with the immense noise it was truly a fucking chorus of the damned.

Joel prodded Craig and pointed at the edge of the roof. Craig took Christy’s hand and together they crept toward the side of the building. He kept his hand in front of his face while she stayed low and let Craig take most of the wash. When they were close enough to step on to the strut, a guy inside reached out, grabbed her arm, and hauled Christy inside.

Craig collapsed when Christy was gone. He didn’t move, just sat there with his legs folded under his butt.

The dead went into a fresh frenzy when they saw their prize getting away. The shuffler howled and gibbered. He leapt at the building over and over until he was bloody. The other’s pressed from all sides.

Roz was next with Joel helping her toward the end. They tried to prod Craig but he pushed hands away.

The building shook and a corner of the roof swayed, then collapsed as the wall beneath it gave way. Roz made it to the helicopter strut and was helped on board.

The roof tilted but didn’t go down. I grabbed Craig and hauled him to his feet.

“Come on. We’re almost there!” I yelled.

He nodded once and said something but I couldn’t make out the words.

Hands helped him onboard as the roof tilted again. I leaned forward and barely kept my feet. One quick glance over my shoulder told me that this was going to be a very short day if I didn’t get my sorry ass on the chopper.

I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my back. The huge wrench got me right in the kidney. I almost doubled over in pain. Then I moved to the edge of the roof and prepared to avoid being zombie chow.

There was a moment where Joel and I met eyes. He prodded me onboard, but I did the same. We stared back at each other like a pair of idiot heroes in a buddy action movie. I didn’t feel particularly heroic. All I really wanted to do was get on the helicopter, get to somewhere safe, and take a long shit because my sphincter was not up to the business of me being scared to death all the goddamn time.

Joel pushed and I advanced on the chopper. It was only a few feet away but below was a mass of dead like I’d never seen before. All eyes were on me as I stepped toward the helicopter strut.

The older man’s hand came out and I got one foot on the strut while my other was still on the roof. That’s when the damn thing gave in. Joel managed to make it to the edge but the second wall crumbed to kindling beneath us.

The shifting caused me to end up stretched between two worlds with hell directly underneath. Someone grabbed the guy in the transport, and with that as an anchor, he hauled me, screaming, into the helicopter.

Joel held on for dear life, and behind him came the dead. The collapsed roof had created a perfect platform to serve him up like dinner. The Z’s moved up the newly created ramp while Joel looked on in horror.

“We can’t risk it. That building’s gonna collapse any minute and probably take us with it!” The woman in the chopper yelled over the “whump whump” of the blades.

The older man looked at us. I had taken a seat on the floor but when I saw Joel’s panicked face I came to my feet.

“You can’t leave him. He’s saved all of us more than once.”

“Sorry, son,” he said and leaned over to say something to the pilot.

I didn’t think. I pushed him to the side and stepped back onto the helicopter strut. I used the machine gun barrel as an anchor and stretched out for Joel.

“Get off! I can’t shoot if you’re in the way!” the woman said.

“Good!” I bellowed back.

I reached over my shoulder and ripped the huge wrench out and swung it around to lean out as far as I could.

Joel got one hand on the wrench head. Another garage wall went down and took the roof with it. Z’s scrambled for purchase but slid down the platform with arms and legs flailing.

Except for one.

The shuffler was nasty. He had long strands of hair but they weren’t enough to cover his head. They hung over his face like wisps of white cotton. I shuddered because he made a leap, mouth open, and managed to reach the edge of the garage wall that Joel was balanced on.

I pulled as hard as I could and Joel came along for the ride. The man grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I pulled Joel along until he was on the helicopter strut. The engine screamed above us as all of our weight settled and pulled the transport closer to the collapsing building.

Joel got his hand on the side of the chopper and pulled himself inside. I struggled against the tilting chopper and managed to get one leg in before the shuffler leapt.

We were rising when it caught the strut and managed to hold on. The helicopter tilted once again and suddenly I was looking down at about a hundred hungry mouths.

“Asshole!” I yelled and kicked the shuffler in the face. I did it again and he fell away into the crowd.

They hauled me in and all I could do was collapse as my heart thundered within my chest in rhythm to the blades above us.

After a few deep breaths I looked up into the face of a grinning Marine named Joel Kelly.

“I am not cut out for this fucking hero bullshit!” I yelled.

“Me either, man. But I love you just the same.” He clapped my shoulder one time then took a seat.

The old man looked us over appraisingly but didn’t say a word.

“Thanks for saving us,” I said after I’d managed to catch my breath. “I’m Jackson Creed and my gay lover there is Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly.”

The man nodded at us.

“I’m not his gay… whatever, man. Thanks for picking us up.”

“You folks were about to be zombie chow.”

“Yeah. Not much choice. We were stuck up there until you came along.”

“I’d like to get real friendly but we gotta make sure you’re safe. This won’t take long so save the introductions. I’d hate to shake hands and then have to blow your brains out.” He grinned, but there was no humor behind the gesture.

The guy nodded at the gunner. She slid a silver metal box about the size of a briefcase out from under the metal bench. The guy took it from her and opened it to reveal a computer display. There was a camera attached by a bunch of wires. Shit looked like a science lab experiment.

“We just need a picture of your eye,” he said and extended the camera.

“A picture?”

“Yep. We figured out how to spot the virus. Doesn’t always set in right away. I’ve seen guys walk around infected for three days before turning.”

“Damn,” I said and submitted to a shot.

The flash was bright and left me blinking furiously for a few seconds.

We took turns opening an eye wide while he snapped a shot. After each picture he typed something on a keyboard and waited.

“Where’re we headed?” I asked.

“We have a base but it’s not much. Damn zeek’s nearly overrun it every day. All the ammo in the world and we can’t keep clear of them. Piles and piles of the dead. Never smelled anything so foul in my life.”

The sound of the rotor overhead was a constant throb against the cabin as I peered over the lid of the silver box to see if I could get a peek at the display.

“What’s going on out there?” I asked.

“Out there? Out in the world you mean? How long you boys been stuck out here?”

Roz cleared her throat.

“Sorry miss.” He smiled in her direction.

“No problem.” She grinned back but it was just as empty of humor.

“Almost two weeks. Our ship crashed into the base. We’ve been on the run ever since.” Joel filled in the details.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on out there.” He looked at each of us in the eye. “The worst things you can imagine. When you think it can’t get worse, it does. When you think that humanity can’t get any worse, it does. And when you think the damned Z’s can’t get any nastier.”

The man stared hard at the screen and then swallowed.

“They do.”

“Are we good?” Jackson nodded toward the screen.

Craig and Christy looked on with wide eyes. They were huddled together on the hard metal bench.

“Oh, we’re good.” The guy smiled.

He moved toward the door opposite the machine gun and looked outside.

“Don’t be scared, kids.” He smiled at Christy and Craig. “Come here, bud. I’ll show you something that will make you feel better.”

Craig had been slumped against the wall. He stared into space like she hadn’t heard the man.

“Here you go.” The older man smiled and produced one of those juice boxes with the little plastic straw glued to the side. It was all I could do not to leap across the tiny space and tear it out of his hand.

Craig made a little noise and slipped off the bench.

I slid my backpack off and pushed it into a corner and got a glance at our rescuer’s boots. Instead of military issue he was wearing something out of a cowboy movie. Were those snakeskin boots? Talk about an action hero come to life.

Joel had lost his assault rifle in the excitement and looked like his best friend had died. Glad that wasn’t true, since I was probably the closest thing to a best friend he’d ever had.

“So who are you?” I asked over the loud thumping of the rotor blades.

The smell of gas and oil filled the cabin but it was whisked away in a blast as air as the man that had rescued us slid the door open.

“Hey man, that’s loud.”

The guy didn’t say a word. He grabbed Craig by the back of the neck, and pulled him all the way off the bench. He looked at the guy in silent shock, but his silence turned into a scream as the man threw Craig out of the doorway.

“The fuck!” Joel Kelly came off the seat just as I tried to stand. He reached for a non-existent side arm. I went for my bag because I was going to haul out eight pounds of metal and bush his fucking head in!

The machine gunner pulled her gun but Joel did some Marine shit. He swiped her arm up and locked his hand over hers. She didn’t sit around for that and fought back.

Christy hauled off and threw a poorly aimed punch but the guy slid aside and knocked the girl to the hard floor.

“Knock it off back there!” The pilot turned his head to shout at us.

I ripped my wrench free of the backpack but there was no room to swing it in the tiny cabin.

Roz stared on in shock and then covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

The guy who had just tossed Craig to his death pulled out a huge gun and pointed it at my head. My resolve deflated, as did my grip on the wrench. The fight went out of me. I was done. The days of running and hiding piled on top of the escape, combined with Craig’s sudden death nearly made me pass out.

“Stop this!” the guy yelled. “Stop it now or there’s gonna be a lot more blood.”

“Ouch, bastard!” the gunner said.

“Sails! Enough!” the man with the huge gun pointed at me said.

Joel Kelly managed to get the gun away from the gunner, Sails, and none to gently. He got a look at the big barrel pointed my way and he relaxed his grip on the woman and lowered the gun.

She must not have taken too kindly to Joel’s rough handling because she slapped him.

“He’s trying to help. You don’t know what’s going on here, asshole,” she said and rubbed her wrist.

“What about what’s going on here? He just tossed a teenage boy out the goddamn door. That’s what’s going on here. I don’t know how you people are used to dealing with civilians but you don’t just kill them.”

“You don’t? Is that right, son? How many have you killed since this all began?”

“I killed Z’s. The dead. I didn’t kill innocent people.”

He kept the gun pointed at my head but turned the box to face us and lifted the lid. A laptop screen was set into a hard foam backing. The screen had an image of the inside of an eyeball. I’d seen something like this when I got my eyes checked a few years ago.

“What the fuck are we looking at?” Joel rubbed his face where the gunner had smacked him.

“This is your friend that I just tossed. See the dark spots? Those are dead cells. A lot of dead cells. In a few more days or maybe hours — hell, could be minutes, he would have turned. You want a Z in here? You wanna be stuck with a monster in this tiny little box? No you do not.”

“Craig was fine!” Christy went crazy.

She lashed out and caught the guy across the nose with the back of her fist. It wasn’t a great shot, but it got the job done. The man fell back and a shot rang out in the cabin. I sucked in a breath expecting a bullet to be lodged in me, but it wasn’t. The shot went high and punched through the canopy.

The man pushed Christy against the wall hard, and she collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

Joel wanted to go nuts; I saw it in his eyes and the way his fists clenched on the bench seat. The gunner ripped her gun tight then put it to Joel’s head.

“Listen to him. He knows what he’s talking about.”

Something coughed and the helicopter shuddered. A light flashed in my periphery and then alarms sounded. I didn’t need to, but I followed everyone’s eyes to the top of the chopper where a hole whistled air. What were the chances?

“Oh shit!” Sails said.

The pilot punched buttons and swore. Our ride swayed one way and then the other. I got slammed against the door and then went flat so it wouldn’t happen again. When the chopper tilted to the side I got a look at a huge stadium filled with white tents. Figures moved around the location, but from their wobbling, I assumed none of them were alive. I wasn’t sure, but thought it was probably the old Balboa stadium.

Joel held on for dear life as the chopper went into a slow spin.

The pilot did something because we managed to straighten out for all of two seconds before our craft hit the ground. Hard.

I was lifted into the air and smashed into the deck. Breath left my body and I had a hell of a time getting it back.

The gunner had been smashed against the side of the craft and lolled in Joel’s lap. The man who’d saved us seemed to be the only one unharmed. He grabbed Christy’s form and ripped the door open. The pilot swore, hit some buttons and then ditched.

“This way!” The guy yelled to us as he kept his hold on Christy.

I struggled to my knees while Joel got Sails out of the door. The pilots fell out one after another and then they were on our feet.

I snatched up my backpack and hit the ground right behind them, staggering on my already aching ankle.

No time to rest. No time to worry about the pain shooting up my leg in waves.

“There. It’s not far!” The guy picked up Christy and shrugged him over his shoulder. He pointed at a fence

Joel smacked Sails, none too gently. She stirred, looked at him and snarled. Jeez. She looked like one of them for a second. Girl would be cute if she wasn’t pointing guns and hitting people.

On the run again? That could mean only one thing.

I looked back and there they were.

There were at least fifty of them. Maybe more. Howling, screaming, and moaning, they walked, crawled, and dragged body parts. They were covered in blood and filth. They were the worst of the worst and they all wanted us.

Not only that, but two shufflers came at us.

I had a vague sense of where we were in relation to the base and San Diego itself, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the huge buildings ahead of us were part of the naval medical center. There was a bunch of activity around it as military trucks, transports, and gun-toting HUMVEEs moved around the perimeter of a huge metal fence.

If I were lucky I’d have time to marvel at the construction later. For now I had to actually make it.

We ran our asses off.

If we were in good shape, fresh off the rack, it might have been a cake walk to sprint to the finish line. Not today. I was running on empty. Joel was in bad shape and he had Sails to carry. Roz looked like someone had just punched her in the stomach. The only one that seemed capable of moving was the asshole and he was carrying Christy over his shoulder. I had the urge to sprint and bash in the fuckers head and leave him for the Z’s but my ankle barely left me room to stagger at a half sprint.

We might not make it anyway. None of us.

The first of the dead were on us.

Joel slung Sails to the side and fired her gun. He hit a Z right in the chest, dropping him for now. The guy carrying Christy turned and fired a couple of shots dropping a zombie that snarled in our wake.

Roz paused but I motioned her on. There was no point in here trying to be a hero with no weapon.

A shuffler jumped.

I ripped the wrench up in an arc that terminated with the bastards head. He went down, but it was a temporary respite. There were dozens of dead on our heels.

More gun shots and I used what little energy I had left to sprint forward until I reached Roz. I touched her shoulder.

“Just like last night, eh?”

“Fuck this!” she said in reply.

It wouldn’t be long now and I didn’t even have a gun to finish me and Roz off before they got us. The horde was going to rip us apart.

Gunshots from ahead and several Z’s fell. More shots and more bodies dropped.

Holy shit! The cavalry had arrived.

A full contingent of military advanced on our position. Beautiful men and women in full combat gear and packing enough heat to start a war in some third world country.

I did the smart thing and dropped to my knees, dragging Roz down with me.

It was over in seconds. They must have fired five or six hundred rounds but they stopped the horde in its tracks. Even a shuffler, so frightening to us before, was taken down with at least half a dozen bullets.

The trek to the base wasn’t as hectic now that help had arrived.

The guy that had rescued us and killed Craig talked to someone that looked like they were in charge. He pointed at us and at the helicopter. A group broke away and headed toward the transport no doubt to see if it was worth trying to fix before being overrun with dead.

The grass here was trampled flat. There was a road running near the base but it was packed with military transports either coming or going. Engines rumbled around us and it felt good to not only be alive but to be back near something resembling civilization with living people moving around.

The guy met us as we stumbled to the bases entrance and he didn’t look happy. He’d handed over Christy to one of the men at the gate. He spoke to the man for a few seconds then shrugged the listless body off his shoulder. Another soldier joined them and helped carry Christy into the base.

The man spun on us.

“Listen to me and listen well. This ain’t fucking lala land. You know that if you been in the city for any amount of time. There is a shit storm of hate just waiting to suck us all in and we can’t take any chances. Got that? No chances. On any other day I’d leave all of you to the dead. That stunt almost cost us all our lives. You do some shit like that again and I’ll put a bullet in your head myself.”

“You didn’t have to do it!” I yelled back. This guy could have been a fucking admiral for all I cared. All I wanted to do was kick his ass.

“This base is secure. No one with a hint of the virus gets in but they get out. In pieces.”

“Fucking asshole,” I said.

Joel touched my shoulder to pull me back but I wasn’t having it. This guy was tall and he looked commanding but I was still a hell of a lot bigger than him. I hefted the wrench but Joel pushed my hand down. I looked at him and he shook his head.

“I am that, but I’m also one alive fucking asshole. Now do yourself a favor and stay alive too. We need every able body we can find. Don’t forget. I’m the one who rescued you.”

“Oh I won’t forget everything you’ve done. What’s your name, anyway?” I gritted my teeth.

He turned to leave, snake skin boots kicking up dirt as he strolled away. He looked over his shoulder and fixed me with his eyes.

“Names Lee and that’s all you need to know for now. Good luck, soldier,” he said and strolled into a gate that opened for him.

“I’m gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch,” I muttered.

“Get in line,” Joel said.

Together with Roz, the injured gunner named Sails, and Joel, we limped into the base before the sliding chain link fence rattled closed.

This is Machinist Mate First Class Jackson Creed and I am still alive.