Day One (Book 2): Choices Read online

  After only a few seconds, which could easily have passed for at least an hour, I had built the proper amount of courage needed to do what my mind had told me was purely logical. I romped down on the accelerator and the Sentra tires spun for traction. I was pushed back into the seat as the car lunged forward and we were off and running. “No mistakes. No hesitation,” I said aloud as the car built speed. “No mistakes. No hesitations.” I repeated and continued to repeat.

  Rounding a very long and shallow corner, I could see the intersection and the massive amount of undead that had not taken the bait. Against the words I had just spoken to myself, I let off the gas pedal, hesitating to think weather I was doing the right thing or not. “Screw them!” I pounced on the accelerator again and looked for the perfect place to initiate my half thought out plan.

  “Did I get enough of them away from the intersection?” Johnny asked.

  I keyed the radio without breaking my attention from the road. “Nope, but it’s too late to try again. I’m almost there!”

  “What?” Johnny shouted in dismay. “Please tell me you’re kidding?”

  “No time to talk… I’ll see you in a few,” I replied and attached both hands to the wheel.

  The undead that remained heard the engine and looked in my direction. They must not have had any comprehension of the two ton bullet that was barreling down on them, as they didn’t try to get out of the way. They simply came straight for me. The lights were on bright hoping to blind some of them, but to be honest with you, I don’t think it really mattered.

  “Almost there… just a few more seconds,” I told myself. “Right… about… now!” I spun the wheel to the right, pulled the emergency brake and let inertia do the rest, as I hung on for dear life. The car spun sideways slamming into the group of undead with brutal force. I watched as they were run over, a few were ejected all the way across the road, and as the rear end spun ninety degrees and continued to plow through them, I grabbed the open sunroof and prepared to move.

  The car slid to a stop and without a second of wasted time, I emerged through the roof, took in the total number of remaining undead, calculated which ones would be close enough to be a true threat to me and shouldered the SBR. I gunned down the first three I saw, switched directions and fired upon a group of eight. They each fell in turn before I switched directions once more and began engaging those that were shuffling at me. Half way through the fight, I dropped the empty mag, inserted a new one and got back to business.

  Johnny spun the bird around and headed back toward the intersection, fully expecting to find me being overrun with undead and far out of the grasp of his help. Yet as he neared the intersection, he could see piles of the undead on the road, me shooting from the open sunroof, and hordes more flocking toward me. “Holy shit!” He stated. “What the hell are you doing?”

  I could hear the bird, even felt the rotor wash blowing across my face and through my hair, but I didn’t take my eyes off of the undead and continued to gun them down as they approached me. Shell casings flew in all directions as I spun and mercilessly continued to kill anything in front of me. I cleared another mag, dropped inside the car to reload, and then popped right back up to shoot again. A single undead mounted the car and I was unable to get my weapon through the opening in time, so I whipped the Berretta out and quickly dispatched him before returning to my main weapon.

  “You crazy son of a bitch, you’re going to get yourself killed!” Johnny shouted over the radio, but I was too far engaged to stop and answer him.

  Some of the remaining undead went after the helicopter, as the rest filtered over the corpses and assaulted me from three different angles. I was beginning to see that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. There were a lot more undead than I had expected and they seemed to be coming out of nowhere, like some never ending sea of gnashing teeth and ripping death. “Get you some, bastards!”

  This time when I dropped into the vehicle to reload, the driver door abruptly opened and three undead loomed over me. Once again the Beretta was yanked from its holster and took care of them for good. In the process I had fumbled one of the full mags, dropping it to the floorboard, to which I didn’t want to retrieve it and lose sight of the mounting undead. If I lost just one of them, they would have the advantage over me and I was not in the most tactical of places to be initiating a firefight. I was too exposed and had nowhere to retreat if I was overrun. I was, in essence, a sitting duck. “Shit, shit, shit!” I yelled trying to pull another mag from the chest rig and get it loaded into my weapon before the two undead I had spotted reached me and turned me into a late night snack. I used my foot to shut the door, slowing them down sort of.

  I loaded and fired through the windshield, getting both of them before popping out of the sunroof to finish them off.

  “Get moving while there’s a break in their numbers,” Johnny shouted. I waved to him and dove through the opening, back into the driver seat, put the car in gear, and pounded on the gas pedal. The car shot forward and I ran three of them down in the process of fleeing.

  “Son of a bitch, that was close!” I shouted as I broke clear of the undead and looked back to see them fade into the night.

  “You’re gonna have to either abandon the car and go on foot, or keep going, because they are coming after you,” Johnny announced over the radio.

  “Coming after me?” I asked. “How many of them?”

  “All of them,” he replied.

  I pounded the steering wheel with my hand. The street sign where I needed to turn came into my headlights and I looked in the rear view mirror, but could see no one. “Are you sure, because I don’t see any of them,” I asked.

  “Trust me, they are coming… and they look pissed!”

  Choices, choices. I let off the gas pedal, nearing the turn and wondered if I’d have the time to get to the second location, locate my son, and then get him out of the area without any more problems. I knew better than that, even if I didn’t want to believe it, I still knew there would be only a minute, maybe two before they stumbled in upon us. And then there was the fact that he could be elsewhere. He had friends that lived in this small town and he could have easily went there instead of to his grandmother’s house. He could be anywhere, for that matter, and placing myself in direct danger would do nothing to save him if I was in the wrong location.

  I put my foot back on the gas pedal and sped up. “I’m gonna try and lead them away from the location,” I told Johnny. “Once I manage that, I’ll come back. Can you fly over the house a few times, maybe the noise will attract him and he’ll come to see who it is.”

  “You got it, bud. Just keep your chin up and loose those bastards! If he’s there I’ll keep him safe… you have my word.”

  I slowed a bit, to let them see my brake lights and know that they were on the right track, although I hated having to keep driving when my son could have been only a few hundred feet away. Scared, confused, and all alone. A father, a real father, would never abandon his kids no matter what they had done or who they had become. The love for a child was supposed to be superior to anything else, no matter their age. Any one that could do such a thing was not a true father, and more than likely never had been. I knew how that felt though. It was something that my kids would never feel though, I guarantee you that… I bet my life on it.

  I passed through the lower part of the town without so much as seeing a single undead. As I neared the city limits, I thought about speeding up and losing my pursuers, only to double back a different way to where I needed to be. My Ex’s car wasn’t a valuable object anymore, which meant I could push it far beyond its limits without consequences. I could use it to cross fields, which surrounded the small town on at least two sides, that I knew of.

  From the porch of the second location, I had heard several horns as the trains passed through. Although I could never really see them from the front of the house, there was a fence at the end of the street blocking my view, I was certain that a
field separated that fence from the railroad tracks. I had NVG’s, so I could douse the lights and drive under the cover of darkness, however, the vehicle still made noise and even if they couldn’t see me, there was still the chance that they could follow the noise back to the location in question.

  “God dammit! Give me a little help here, please!” I shouted, feeling the anxiety and anger mixing within me like a volatile solution, threatening to explode at a moment’s notice and without warning. I picked up the radio. “Anything?”

  There was a brief pause of a few seconds and then Johnny answered. “Not yet, but he could be wise enough not to come outside to investigate. He could be peeking through curtains or shades. He’s made it this far, which proves he’s smart, so he’ll continue to keep out of sight. He knows that if they can’t hear or see him, they won’t come looking for him.”

  I listened to Johnny’s words, wondering which of them had been filler to make me feel better and which part was bullshit. He didn’t think my son was still alive. How could anyone after what they’ve seen and experienced over the last week. I began to wonder if I really believed all the shit I had said and was looking for him because I knew he was out here somewhere, or was I looking to blind myself to the realism that he was dead already? Dead because I had been a fucking coward and left him to save my own ass.

  I stopped the car and got out. I had to get some fresh air and clear my head. I lit a cigarette and looked up at the stars, which shined brightly through a few patches where the clouds were broken. I needed to determine within the next few minutes if this search was worth the price it could cost if things went south, as I still had my Daughter to think of.

  “What are the actual odds that he could still be alive?” I asked myself and took another drag. As the smoke exited my mouth I replied to my own question. “Just because his room was full of candy wrappers, food wrappers, juice boxes, and his covers were under the bed does not mean he is still alive. He could have survived the first few days, and then went looking for help… that’s when it could have happened.”

  A light breeze crossed my path as I stood there thinking. All kinds of things poured into my brain, none of which were good, and I felt even more helpless and tiny. It was as if I was fighting against the entire world, and uphill at that. I had taken a perfectly good situation, one that my Daughter had safety in and placed her in harm’s way once again with this stupid rescue mission bullshit. I was not the person to be leading this thing – hell let’s face it, I could barely lead myself to the bathroom, let alone undertake a massive campaign to find my son, who I should have went and got over a week ago.

  I had my chance and I did the wrong thing, although under the false pretense of good intentions at that. The people that had built the nuclear bomb had good intentions I’m sure. Those that had helped Hitler in the beginning probably had good intentions and look how that turned out. Who was I trying to fool? Myself, my Daughter, Johnny?

  I had survived only because of the Young Woman. A woman that was aggressive and brutal. She was also smart and seemed to be two steps ahead of everyone else, which I clearly was not. To survive in this new world, one first had to put away all of the moral compasses and any thoughts of restoration, as the old world was never going to return. What we saw now was how things would be… and it was only going to get worse with each new day.

  I tossed the cigarette, grabbed the weapon, and got back into the car. It was pointless to go on, I knew that now, but we were already here and would certainly suffer when we returned to the military base, so I might as well finish the search and know the truth as opposed to leave and always wonder.

  With the Sentra turned around and heading back into town, I used the NVG’s to drive in the darkness, slipping past a small group of undead without any issues. They kept shuffling the other way and I kept going my way. The quietness of the vehicle as I coasted past them, seemed not to bother them in the slightest.

  “Where are you?” Johnny cut out over the radio.

  I grabbed the radio. “I lost my guests, now I’m headed back into town. I should be at the second location within two, maybe three minutes.”

  “Roger that,” Johnny stated.

  The drive back to the house from my distant past took what seemed to be only seconds, and before I knew it I was pulling into the driveway. I scanned the area as I got out, making sure that none of the undead from the intersection had accidently stumbled upon my main objective. When I was sure the area was clear, I made my way up the cracked driveway to the front door. It was light gray with an oval cut out of glass, obscured by a red frilly curtain.

  I had pulled the pistol, allowing the rifle to dangle as I approached. It was shorter than the average rifle, but still it was longer than a pistol and going into another hallway hard and fast, I wanted as much room to maneuver as possible. If things got out of hand abruptly, the rifle was just a tug away.

  I reached for the door knob wondering what the odds of it being unlocked were. It would be easy to get through if it was locked, as it had been so many times in the past. I grabbed the knob and turned it a full one hundred and eighty degrees and pushed. It was locked. I could hear the rotor blades beating the air somewhere above me, yet I didn’t take my eyes from the door.

  Inside I had that feeling of anxiousness mixed with disappointment. I wanted to find him somewhere within, well hidden and maybe thin from not eating a good meal in over a week, but nonetheless still find him alive. The disappointment came from the fact that I was smart enough to know that he wouldn’t be inside, he wouldn’t be at a friend’s house, as certain as I was now that he hadn’t been at his mom’s house. My son was dead and all I could hope for is that he hadn’t turned into one of those undead things.

  “I’m going in,” I told Johnny over the radio. “If I’m not back out in five minutes, do what you gotta do.” I put the radio in a narrow pocket on the right side of my chest rig and positioned the butt of the SBR toward the glass. I figured one good hit and the glass would break, allowing me to either crawl through the oval or just unlock the deadbolt and slid in through the open door.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” I said and cocked the make-shift hammer weapon up around my neck, and then swung it down swiftly, turning my head to keep any flying glass from blinding me. The weapon swung, missed the glass and was abruptly stopped. I opened my eyes and swung them toward the door to see a pale colored man with bright blue eyes looking back at me. He held a massive revolver in his hand, which was pointed at my chest. “What are you doing here? Who are you? What do you want?” he asked in a flurry of questions, none of which I could answer before he asked another question.

  “I know the people that live here, so who the hell are you?” I shot back.

  “Release the weapon or I’ll put a half dozen slugs in your chest before you can blink twice,” he said snidely as he tugged on the butt of the SBR. I clutched it with both hands tightly and he was unable to break my two handed grip with his single grip.

  “You need to calm down,” I stated, to which he thrust the revolver in my face.

  “I’ll blow you fucking head off right here and right now if you don’t let go of this weapon,” his words thundered in my ears as I could feel the hate flow into my hands. I wanted to grab him by the throat and choke the life from him. He was probably the one that was responsible for my son’s death. He probably showed up playing the role of someone needing help and my son being the good kid that he was more than likely let him in. From there my mind blocked out the possibilities, as it knew if the thoughts continued I would have the back of my head blown off trying to kill the son of a bitch standing in front of me.

  “Calm down,” I said and released the SBR. When he brought the weapon closer to have a better look at it, what little instincts I had, what little the Young Woman had taught me, kicked in. I pushed the revolver out of my face and kept him from pulling it back, all the while my right hand dipped and retrieved the Beretta, which I shoved into his throat and pu
shed him back into the dark house. I slammed him against the wall and the rage pushed the barrel further into his throat, hard enough that I could see the pain reflecting in his eyes. “What did you do with him you sick bastard? Did you throw him out to those things after he helped you, or did you kill him yourself?”

  “Wha… what are you talking about?” He asked.

  I slammed him harder against the wall. “I’m going to ask you one more time, and then I’m gonna shoot you in the throat and let you bleed out, but not before I let a few of those things in here to chew on your ass while you’re still alive,” I explained. “Where is he?”

  “Where is who? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about… I don’t know!”

  A voice rang out from my right. “Let him go asshole, or else!”

  I jerked the man away from the wall and used him as a shield to see a taller and much scruffier looking man with a revolver also pointed at me.

  “Let him go, I said!” The Man shouted further commands to me.

  “You’re out numbered dickhead. Best to put that gun down before you get hurt,” the Man I was holding said.

  Two more people stepped out from the corner, all armed and trained directly at me. I never flinched as I sized them all up.

  “Let me go!” the Man said and tried to break free. I thrust the barrel further into his neck causing all sorts of discomfort to fall into the rest of his body. “You can all die, if that’s what you want, I don’t give a shit. But somebody better start telling me where my son is, now!”

  The Man directly in front of me began to smile. “I’m not sure what your problem is, pal or what kid you’re referring too, but if you don’t release my friend…”

  “And your idle threats will do nothing but put a bullet through his head, and then seconds later, yours!” I stated.

  My Captive spoke. “There’s no kids here, buddy. There was no one here when we got here.”