TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE

BY

JOSEPH M CHIRON

St John from the book of The Revelation

“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark.”

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS STATEMENT

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously; any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, or undead is entirely coincidental.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

CHAPTER 1: September 10, 10 a.m.

PARADISE ISLAND, NASSAU, BAHAMAS.

“The universal tagging program of all adults over the age of 21 has begun in earnest today on all seven world continents and in every major city on the planet. The tagging program officially begun today is expected to be 97% complete within five years according to current estimates.” The male newscaster spoke with a British accent and smiled reflexively after finishing the sentence. Splashed on the screen were images of people of every color and nation smiling, chatting and laughing, waiting in long lines for their tag. Marvin Jones recognized some of the buildings when they splashed a local feed of the white government building in the center of town. “The tag is a simple computer chip about 1/16th the size of a normal grain of rice. It is to be implanted quickly and painlessly into the right hand or onto the forehead of the recipient.”

“You’re the friggin’ mafia. That’s what you are. All the guns; All the power; You can do whatever you want and we just have to take it. Is that it?” Marvin waved his half-empty glass of rum and coke at the television, spilling some on the rug. “Honey,” Marvin called toward the shower which had just turned off, “You need to come and see this. This is just…incredible.”

“I’ll be right out.” Samantha Jones called from behind the closed door of the bathroom.

Splashed onto the screen were compliant and smiling shots of people receiving their tag from a large hand-held device that looked a lot like a white staple gun wielded by pleasant and efficient men and women wearing white medical jackets. A mother comforted a young boy who was crying and rubbing his right hand. “Tagging for minors under the age of twenty one is completely voluntary at this time. However, many are choosing to beat the rush when mandatory tagging for all becomes law in ninety days.”

“What is the world coming to? I never thought I would live to see this.” Marvin shook his head sadly and perched unsteadily on the edge of the hotel bed. He leaned into the television set to give it a piece of his mind. “That’s my money. I earned that money. You can’t have it.”

“Oh, I think you’re overreacting, darling,” Samantha cooed, stepping out of the shower into the air-conditioned hotel room in a cloud of steam. She was completely nude, which in the fifteen years they had been married, was about as rare as a speckled unicorn sighting. She was always covered by something at least partially at all times, especially since she had turned the clock over past forty. But not today. Marvin paused and enjoyed the rare, unobstructed view, instantly feeling more sober. He placed his rum and coke on the nightstand and sat up a little straighter. Samantha was a fine looking woman. Marvin hadn’t married her for her looks, but that never hurt. His eyes roamed her body, lingering in Brazil upon the excellent bikini waxing she had just had done for the trip.

“You look great darling,” he said, as she grabbed his head with both her hands pulling him into her cleavage, and then gave him a long kiss.

“You smell like liquor.” She wrinkled her little nose disapprovingly.

“I just had one,” he lied. Marvin pushed her back out to arms length to look at her. She stepped back, turned one knee in demurely, placed her fists on her bare hips and turned this way and that so he could get a better look. “I mean, all of you. You really look great!” Marvin willed himself to sober up. Sam hated it when he got drunk, but they were on this tiny island, stuck in this hotel room during the day. What else was there to do?“I know, right!” She beamed happily.

“They said there might be some side effects to the procedure, but I was expecting something more like nausea and vomiting…not this.”

“Well, they said this is the new and improved sequencing,” she joked. “I feel fantastic! and I just weighed myself and I’ve lost seven pounds in two days!” Samantha held out her hands. “And look at my fingernails. They’re growing like crazy, and stronger too.” She tapped them on the edge of the TV table.

“You’re hair looks great, too. Did you do anything to it? Mousse it or something?”

“No. I think my hair is thicker too. I woke up this morning and there’s just more of it. And practically nothing came out in the shower, either.” She leaned toward him offering the top of her head, which he obligingly ran his fingers through. She turned her back to him and rested against his legs, her signal for a head massage. He automatically began massaging her head and she moaned in pleasure, encouraging him to continue. His hot naked wife, looking hotter than she had in the last ten years, was pressed against him and instead of plowing his garden this fine Caribbean morning, he’s giving the obligatory five to ten minute head massage to warm her up. He continued to massage her head with his left hand, while his right went impatiently down over her bare shoulder to play with her breast and her nipple. She leaned back into him, enjoying the attention.

Coming to the Bahamas for this not yet FDA-approved face lift procedure had turned out to be a very good decision, Marvin mused. They got to sit on the beach for a day before the procedure. He opened the first of what he expected to become many private overseas trust accounts designed to protect private wealth from the coming over-regulation heralded by the “universal tagging program”. And Samantha was happy. Marvin hadn’t seen her this happy or beautiful in years. This made him happy. Samantha threw her hands up to stroke his forearms encouragingly and leaned back into him, offering him the all access pass. She pretended surprise at his growing hardness on her neck and spun around to crouch between the legs that a moment before had wrapped her small shoulders in their loving embrace. She smiled mischievously as one hand went to his shorts and began massaging him. “My strong man,” she said, and gave him a loud theatrical smooch on his shorts between his legs, then looked up at him with innocent school girl eyes. Her long hair fell all around her lovely face. She looked ten years younger, Marvin thought, as he kissed the crown of her head and stroked her cheeks. She surfaced for a long and passionate kiss on the lips, her naked body melting deliciously into his, her small hand continuing its important work, now snaking down inside his pants.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were ready to go again, Mr. Jones.” Samantha unzipped his shorts and pulled them down to his ankles.

“We’re like teenagers.”

“Is that what you want? Do you want me to put on my cheerleader outfit?” She cocked her head and laughed. “I brought it with me you know.”

“You’re cheerleader outfit?” She really thought of everything. He loved the cheerleader outfit.

“Yeah,” She kissed him in a rush. She jumped over to the luggage a few feet away and hastily slipped on a short tartan skirt over her naked torso, glancing over her shoulder as she did. Marvin laughed in delight, worrying a little about his performance, since he had been drinking. He wasn’t 19 years old anymore. She seemed to sense his thoughts. She rushed back to him, wearing only the tartan skirt, grabbed his penis in her hand, gave it a few licks and then a long and powerful suck. Satisfied that all was still going well, she jumped to her feet with the vigor of a school girl. “Give me a “B”!” She formed her arms and legs into a “B”.

“B!” Marvin laughed.

“Give me an “A”!

“A!”

“Give me an “H!” With each letter Samantha jumped and formed a new letter with her now leaner body. The skirt jumped around mesmerizing him. Her now younger, firmer breasts bounced and her bottle blond hair fell around her face.

“H!”

“What does it spell?” She pushed him back onto the bedspread and straddled him.

“Bah? I have no idea!” He cried.

“I was going to spell Bahamas but it’s just too looong. I could spell Paradise Island. Give me a P.” She jokingly thrust out a small fist half-heartedly, lying down on top of him. There was a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead as he kissed her and rolled her onto the bottom. Nose to nose, she watched his eyes as she guided him in with her hand. She closed her eyes and sighed. He could feel her body relax under him as they joined. The smell of her sweat and her musk was intoxicating. She was wetter than usual. He kissed her long on the mouth, then posted up on his hands to begin his work.

“My garden; my love,” he said. Married for fifteen years and two children, he knew her well. He knew her moods and he could even predict her thoughts, but she was different today- thinner, more energy and bigger hair. It felt like the procedure had actually reversed the aging process for her. Perhaps he would have the procedure done as well, he thought.

He rolled himself onto the bottom and she leaned back, sitting on him, bouncing rhythmically, and balancing herself with one hand on his chest. She leaned over and tickled his face and chest with her long hair.

The procedure, not yet approved in the United States or in Europe, was a form of stem cell therapy. It was simple really. Samantha sent them by mail a sample of DNA- just some nail clippings, a small skin sample and a bit of fat extracted from her thighs through her dermatologist. The scientists sequenced it, isolated the genes that caused aging and effectively turned back on the gene that caused regeneration at the cellular levels. Ten days later, they flew outside of the USA (the Bahamas had become a big destination for this procedure but all the Caribbean islands had now caught the smell of big money) and doctors injected Samantha with her own improved cells. Just like Botox really. A couple of injections around the eyes and mouth and the stem cells did the rest.

He sat up from the bottom, embraced her, kissing her mouth and her neck, still strong inside her. She continued to bounce hungrily as he kissed her. She was very hot now and beads of sweat had broken out on her lower back. She whined and moaned quietly and urgently like a puppy as she bounced. He turned her around and leaned her over the bed. She stood on her tip toes and watched his face as he entered her from behind, doggy style.

Marvin had been against the procedure initially. Too risky, he said. You don’t know what could happen. But Samantha was insistent and other women in their wealthy Los Altos enclave of northern California were doing it and had seemed to suffer no ill effects. In fact, some of them looked fantastic! And with the tagging program passing Congress it dawned on him that this was the perfect excuse to fly out of the country and begin protecting their substantial assets.

One of the main drawbacks was that the doctors were very strict about the patient staying out of the sun for at least seventy two hours, which on a tropical island was not the easiest thing to do. So after the procedure they were pretty much trapped in the hotel room until the sun went down, which frankly was not turning out so bad.

He held tight to her soft hips and thrust into her as hard as he could as they both built to a crescendo of pleasure. Their bodies made loud slapping sounds as their sweat and bodies mingled. Samantha moaned and whined and squealed louder and louder. Sam was a screamer and he loved it. Her enjoyment of the moment increased his own pleasure. It hadn’t been this good in a while. He would probably grab a pack of cigarettes for them afterward or have room service bring up some chocolate Sunday’s.. She gasped and shuddered in his hands and exhaled loudly, grabbing his butt cheeks and pulling him into her. She arched her back as he let go. She clenched tight around him as his body shuddered and rocked. It seemed to go on forever. His head spun and he experienced momentary vertigo. They fell on the bed sweating and exhausted. She molded herself around his body and gave him wet kisses. His mouth and lips tingled, the tips of his fingers too. He felt like laughing.

Samantha snuggled into his neck and traced random shapes on his chest and thighs with her nails. “I love you, Mr. Jones.”

CHAPTER 2: September 11, Midnight

LOS ALTOS, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The sound that woke him was very much like a bed sheet tearing.

They arrived back home from the Bahamas at 8:30 p.m., too late to go to the doctors. Marvin had switched their flight, shortening their trip by two days. He had made an emergency appointment with their internist, first thing in the morning. He was an excellent physician and Marvin was certain he would know what to do. Marvin jumped out of the small twin bed in the guest room, where he had been sleeping. Samantha was in the master bedroom.

He first noticed it on the plane ride. There was an odor about her and it was becoming more pronounced with each passing hour. It was like the smell of rotting meat. He shook his head vigorously to remove the olfactory memory, but it was still there and stronger than ever.

The sound of the bed sheet tearing again jarred him and he knew it wasn’t a dream. He heard footsteps and then, “Oh my God! Daddy!” It was his seventeen year old daughter Quincy in the hall. Thank heaven his younger child Dan had stayed an extra night with his friend. He didn’t want him to see his mother like this. No sense in scaring the boy unnecessarily. Marvin took a deep breath and flung open the door.

There on the floor in the hall was a nude skeleton with the hair and skin still attached. For a moment, he didn’t even recognize his wife Samantha. How could this disease progress so fast? They should have gone straight to the emergency room. He was going to sue the bastards who had done this! “What’s happening, Dad? What’s wrong with Mom?” Quincy looked at him with terror in her eyes. Marvin realized this was the first she had seen of her mom since they had arrived home.

“Call 911, Baby. Go. Now!” Most of all Marvin just wanted to get her out of the hallway and doing something else.

Black vomit came gushing out Samantha’s mouth, adding to the puddle already on the floor. Samantha was covered in a sheen of sweat, crouched on all fours on the wooden hallway floor, like an animal. Her thick yellow fingernails made deep scratches in the wood as her body convulsed with each new expulsion of the black vomit. Her hair was long and thick and full; thicker and fuller than he had ever seen it. It reminded him of a lion’s mane. Her skin was a sickly pale grey with disturbing red boils the size of grapefruit and weeping puss-filled black blotches where others had burst. Spider webs of blue veins were visible under the skin all over her body.

“Quincy called the ambulance. They’re coming.” Samantha’s back was like an oven where he touched it to comfort her. She stared straight ahead with unfocused eyes. She didn’t react to him when he touched her or acknowledge his presence in any way. The smell of death and sweat and vomit was overpowering. Marvin ran and yanked the sheet off the bed in the spare room, covering his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. He threw the sheet over her naked body crouched on the floor. She turned her head to look at him then, and he couldn’t tell if she was trying to smile or if she was snarling at him. Her teeth looked huge, like they were too big for her face and shrunken, emaciated body.

“Daddy, what’s wrong with Mom? Why does she look like that?” Quincy stood in her bedroom doorway with her iphone.

“Did you call 911?”

“Yes.”

“Go out front and wait for them. Make sure they can get in.” Quincy blinked back tears as she stared at her Dad. She couldn’t look at the naked beast under the sheet in the hall. She stood there crying, arms crossed over her chest in her oversized night shirt, overwhelmed. “Go wait out front, honey.”

“Samantha. Samantha. Samantha.’ Samantha lifted her head the third time he called her name and looked in his direction, but she seemed to look right through him with unfocused eyes. “The ambulance is coming. I need you to hang in there.” Marvin forced himself to smile through the smell of death, the vomit, and most of all her hideous appearance. She seemed to see him then and her eyes locked onto his. She coiled and sprang on top of him like a lion. Marvin clenched his eyes shut, screamed and thrashed in terror. Her weight crushed him like a two ton pickup. He couldn’t breath. His heart skipped several beats, then hammered like a thing possessed. There was a pain in his left arm like it was being ripped off.

Blackness.

“He’s waking up. Mr. Jones can you hear me? Mr. Jones you’ve had a heart attack.” Marvin was inside an ambulance. An EMT in a bright orange shirt was speaking loudly to him and shining a light into his eyes to check pupil dilation. His shirt was off and he was hooked to a heart monitor.

“My wife…” Marvin tried to speak, but his voice came out as only a harsh whisper. He noted that all his limbs were still attached.

The EMT just looked at him. Outside the ambulance beyond his feet, he could hear Quincy crying. He lifted his head. She was crouched over someone beneath a sheet. “Don’t move Mr. Jones. You’ve just suffered a heart attack.” The EMT pushed Marvin back down onto the cot with his hand.

“But she’s not dead! DO SOMETHING!” He could hear Quincy screaming hysterically at the EMT standing between her and the covered body on the rolling cot.

“There’s nothing we can do. I’m sorry.” The EMT said quietly but firmly.

A uniformed police officer appeared at his feet. “I’m going to need to ask you some questions about what happened here, sir.”

“Is Samantha okay?” Marvin whispered.

“No,” he shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye Marvin saw the EMT beside him widen his eyes and shake his head, mouthing silently, “don’t upset him.”

“What happened?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” the officer said.

“Mom? Mom! I told you she’s alive!” Quincy’s voice rang out beyond his feet. Then he heard a long agonizing high pitched scream.

“Mrs. Jones lay down. Mrs. Jones…” Then a garbled cry from the EMT.

Marvin lifted his head up in the cot. This time the EMT beside him didn’t push him down but instead jumped out of the back of the ambulance to give aid to his downed colleague. Beyond the doors was the young police officer with his gun drawn. “Stop now! I’m ordering you to stop!” Two steps in front of him was his wife, crouched on all fours like a lion, staring intently at the officer. Beyond was a bloody corpse lying face down with a tangle of long blond hair that couldn’t possibly be Quincy. Closer was the second EMT on his knees with blood gushing over his hands from a gaping slash wound to his throat. The beast that was Samantha sprang and tackled the officer. He heard the pistol fire and the officer screaming.

“Quincy, run! Run, baby!” Marvin whisper-yelled as best he could from his cot. He was strapped across the chest and waist. His arms were pinned at his sides. He was only able to lift his head. The pain in his chest and arm was excruciating. He struggled weakly to free himself like a drowning fish in a net. The second EMT turned his back to sprint away, but he was brought down before he took two steps. Marvin frantically peered over the edge of the cot searching for the clasp to release the straps. There it was just below shoulder height attached to the metal cot. He struggled and squirmed to move his left hand to release it but he was barely able to touch it.

Then she was there in the doorway of the ambulance at his feet. She jumped up like a lion, then stood up on two feet like a human. Her hair was thick and full. She had a mouthful of giant teeth. He could see four pronounced canines in the front and strong claws where her fingernails had been. Her strong body was shriveled and emaciated with her ribs and hip bones sticking out prominently like a concentration camp victim. Her stench was overpowering, like a deer carcass left to rot on the side of the road.

“Samantha. Samantha, my darling,” Marvin whispered. She looked at him with no recognition in her weird red eyes. Marvin realized that the irises of her eyes had flipped and were now vertical like a cat’s eyes, not horizontal anymore. She parted her lips and showed him strong teeth with four pronounced canines in the front. This is a dream. I am hallucinating, Marvin thought. “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” He found himself repeating the childhood nursery rhyme as she slowly leaned over to smell him then savagely tore a fist sized chunk of flesh from his neck with her strong teeth. Marvin screamed.

CHAPTER 3: September 26, 11 a.m.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

“I am here to offer you eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.” Warren Dubrowski loudly proclaimed hoping to avoid startling the man as he approached from his blind side.

The tall man with the loose fitting psychedelic shirt and the dreadlocks down to his waist was clearly startled as he stood in the side doorway of his rambler in the anonymous suburbs of San Jose, California and his left hand immediately went to reach for something just inside the door. Probably a gun, Warren thought. He’s putting his life on the line every day for these people. Warren smiled and held up his empty hands to show he wasn’t a threat. He knew he was a sight to behold by now. He had a week old growth of beard and a burlap sack across his shoulders with a hole ripped for his head. His appearance was intentionally disheveled. Warren could see something very large moving just inside the screened door, watching him intently, and beyond that the profile of a double barreled shotgun. Warren breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the door click shut. “That’s a big dog you have there.” Except for breathing, the dog didn’t make a sound.

“Boxer-Pitt mix.” The man looked him up and down and then at those in the street behind him.He relaxed a bit eventually removing his hand from the door handle. Then realizing that Warren was not a threat, the man reached into his pockets and pulled out a stubby cigar. As soon as the hippy lit it, the smell hit Warren and he knew that this was a blunt – a cigar mixed with San Jose’s finest weed. With a straight face, the hippy offered it to Warren, “smoke?” Through the open side door, Warren could see what looked like a forest of plants. This was Warren’s first sighting of a cannabis grow house.

Warren took a half step back and laughed. He knew the hippy with the long dreads was mocking him. He smiled and was momentarily at a loss for words.

The hippy nodded to the crowd behind Warren in the street, the noise of which had surely brought him out of the safety of his home. Warren knew that they must look like freaks even to this hippy. There were three ‘drummers’ making a lot of disjointed noise banging on trash cans and an empty food bucket and two tambourine girls dancing – Tiffany was actually kinda hot - and trying to play in some sort of rhythm. In the front was a man he knew only as “Samson,” a big man that from all appearances was a former juice head gym rat with exquisitely defined muscles, stripped to the waist and carrying a huge nine foot cross hewn from raw timber and held together with nails and twine. Behind him in a rough line were the flagellants: five men also stripped to the waist, holding various chains, heavy corded ropes, and one with what looked like a leather whip from the S&M sex shop. They beat their backs as they slowly walked down the center of the street. Warren could see the hippy looking them over with interest. On either side, as well as the front and the back, were men holding large bibles, wearing burlap like himself and screaming various canned slogans such as “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The hippy put his hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. Warren turned to see what he was looking at, and his eyes rested on the S&M whip being used by one of the flagellants in front. Warren thought his name was Jeff, but he wasn’t sure. He imagined the unholy acts in which that particular whip had participated prior to being co-opted by them.

“Isn’t that a little dangerous? I mean won’t the blood draw them to you?” The hippy pulled his long, waist-length blond dreadlocks back out of his face with both hands and tied them off with a scrunchy over the back of his psychedelic shirt.

“We have to save as many as we can.” Warren stood there uncertainly. He glanced at his wrist at a watch that was no longer there. He had traded it for a can of tuna the day prior to joining the flagellants. It was getting late in the day. They would need to find a place to set up camp soon. Those things came out at night. They were always exposed. Warren was exhausted and beginning to wonder if he had really been “called” to go with the flagellants or if he had just been at the end of his rope. Rock bottom as they say. No doubt talking to this hippy would be just a waste of time for both of them. Warren looked back at the slowly moving crowd of flagellants to make certain he didn’t fall too far behind. He would keep this one brief. “The infected don’t attack us. God protects us.”

“God protects you?” The hippy bent down to cup the blunt in his mouth and re-lit it. He had to turn his face to the left to avoid lighting his giant tangle of hair. “Mind if I smoke?” He said, after lighting.

“Yes. I mean, smoking is fine.” Warren unconsciously put his head down and squinted his eyes as he opened his giant bible and began flipping through. He knew the hippy was being intentionally rude to him. Why even bother? Warren began to read, “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth…da daa de dum” Warren looked over his shoulder, gauging the distance the flagellants had moved. “…Here it is - out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.” Power came into Warren’s voice when he read the scripture. It just felt so right. It didn’t really matter if this man responded to the Word as long as he was faithful. Warren looked up from reading, surprised to see the hippy listening intently, then continued, “The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle…their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.”

“I was outside the night of the eruptions and IT DID look like a star fell out of the sky. What was that?” Sven asked.

“I only saw it on the news myself. But then the Yellowstone caldera erupted. Supervolcano! Yellowstone erupting touched off a chain reaction down the Pacific Rim and around the world. Isn’t this what the scripture predicted?” Warren could feel the hippy’s interest. Maybe this wasn’t a waste of his time.

“Darkness and a new ice age.” The hippy shook his head sadly, taking a long, thoughtful pull on his fragrant blunt. “Ok, wise man, since your God did this, any word on when the darkness will lift?”

“The scientists say it could be years. No one knows really. This is the first time in recorded history this has happened. Many believe that a giant dust cloud caused by a meteor strike in the Yucatan Peninsula is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.”

“So you think this could be an extinction event for mankind?”

“No. I don’t think so, but only because man is smarter than the dinosaurs. We will find a way to survive; even if only a few of us.”

The hippy took a long, thoughtful drag on his blunt, then blew it out of the side of his mouth. “You said they will seek death but won’t find it. So you think these things are dead?”

“Yes!” Warren brightened. This hippy was sharp and he was listening. “They’re dead, but they can’t die. They’ve been sent here by God to punish those without the seal of God on their forehead. Sort of like hell on earth.”

“Why?”

“So they’ll repent of their wickedness.” Warren knew the moment it left his mouth that the hippy wasn’t going to like what he was hearing.

The hippy took another long drag on his blunt, this time exhaling the smoke directly into Warren’s face in silent protest. “Let me get this straight. So, the infected don’t attack you? That’s what you’re telling me?” Warren could hear the disbelief in the man’s voice. He’d lost him.

Warren Dubrowski glanced nervously at the receding crowd of flagellants moving slowly down the block and decided to wrap it up. “We have the seal of God on our foreheads. They can’t touch us.”

“I don’t see anything on your forehead, dude, except sweat and some dirt.”

“The seal is visible only to God and his angels.” Warren was clipped and brief. He began rocking his body and moving away from the hippy.

“Well, now isn’t that convenient.” The hippy was beginning to turn red in the face. God was protecting him, Warren reminded himself, glancing again at the dog and the gun behind the thin screen. “So, the entire world is being bitten by these, these things with the teeth and the hair and the claws, but none of your group has been bitten?”

“No,” Warren said. “Ok, well, some of the newer converts get bitten, but we think maybe they’re not really saved…” The hippy shook his head and laughed quietly. Warren took another half-step backward, about to depart and catch up to the crowd of flagellants, then said, “Jesus is the lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world. He came as a lamb to be slain, but he has returned as a lion.”

The hippy hung his head and said something about a lamb Warren couldn’t hear under his breath.

“Do you mind if I pray with you before I go?” Warren didn’t feel the change in the hippy’s tone, but he always asked if they wanted to pray together before leaving. He was surprised to find that the answer was almost always yes.

The hippy nodded and silently bowed his head. You can never tell, Warren thought to himself as he clumsily reached up and put a hand on the tall hippy’s boney shoulder, “Lord, may you open the eyes of this blind man before me. As the scales fell from the eyes of Saul, the great persecutor of the early church, may the scales fall from this man’s eyes, and may he see your glorious truth. Lord, may your protection be upon this man from the wild beasts that roam the earth attacking those without your mark upon them…”

From the instant Warren put his hand on the hippy’s shoulder it was as though there was an electric wire attached to him and a brilliant light filled his mind. Warren blinked his eyes wondering about the brilliant light, but the light was inside his mind. Inside Warren’s head a movie played. The hippy was now a clean cut young boy of Thirteen back in rural southwestern Virginia. The hippy was holding his lamb Buster, in his arms, and telling him that they were running away again. Then the hippy’s father was home, and the boy was putting Buster into the pen behind the house. The boy’s father was drinking and beating the boy, calling him a fag and telling him that he was ashamed that he was his son. The boy cowered and shrank away as his father waved his hands, “accidentally” brushing the boy’s cheek with the lit end of his cigar, burning him. Then came the day that the boy returned from school and his father was on the porch in the middle of the day drinking and smoking. There was the smell of meat on the grill and it smelled delicious. “You want something to eat?” Warren could smell the meat and feel the ache in the boy’s stomach, the vision was so real.

The boy’s mouth was watering. It was his father’s favorite pastime to force the boy to sit at the dinner table while he cooked up a big juicy steak and a baked potato and ate it in front of him. Then he would send the boy to bed with no dinner. The boy nodded but didn’t say anything. For the past three nights, Warren knew that the boy had been forced to sit at the table while his father ate in front of him. As a result, the boy had a lot of gas in his stomach and was constantly burping and farting. His breath smelled like unwashed ass, and his teeth were getting loose. The boy didn’t know it, but he was starving to death and had developed scurvy and malnutrition. The boy was shocked when his father put a large plate of steaming roasted meat and bread in front of him.

“Eat.”

The boy tentatively took a bite, expecting at any second for the food to be snatched away or to be punched or slapped in the side of his head. But his father just smiled that strange smile and took another giant swig of Vodka mixed with V8 juice.

The boy gobbled down the entire plate.

“More?” His father smiled again while the boy had a fit of hiccups trying to keep down the food which he had eaten too quickly. It was a weird smile. The boy’s father smiled only with his teeth as his eyes watched the boy narrowly. His father filled his plate again, and watched the boy but didn’t have any himself.

The boy ate as much as he could but he was full to bursting. He couldn’t finish the rest. His father saw him struggling to eat more. He said, “I’ll save the rest for you. Go out and play with Buster.”

Buster his lamb always greeted him when he came home from school. Buster was his best friend. Buster was his only friend. His father smiled his cruel smile even more broadly. “Where’s Buster? Go out and play with Buster.”

Warren could feel his terror as the boy jumped up and looked out of the kitchen window at Buster’s empty pen in the back yard. The boy had a sudden uncontrollable urge to throw up, but he needed the food, so he clapped his hand over his mouth to stop it. The boy’s father laughed and grabbed at him from behind, slapping him roughly in the face and punching him as the boy lost consciousness and the vision went dark. Warren removed his hand.

“Who are you?” The hippy asked.

“Warren Dubrowski. I was a software engineer for Google up in the valley. I got divorced. My wife took everything. She kept the kids away from me – wouldn’t let me see them. Accused me of just…just the most disgusting things, said I was stalking her, harassing her…I was in court for three years. It was awful.” Warren shook his head sadly, surprised at his own brutal honesty to this stranger, but this was the end and it was likely the man in front of him would be dead by morning. “I was planning to kill myself when this all happened.” He held out his hand to shake, “What’s your name, friend?”

The hippy had a far away look in his eye. He said something unintelligible.

“What?”

The hippy began walking with long, loping strides toward the group of flagellants, “Mene, mene tekel parsin.”

“Wait, the – earth -  has - been - weighed on the - - -scale and - found wanting.” Warren painfully translated the first sentence.

The hippy absently unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it on the ground as he walked, revealing a tall, almost skeletal form, “Erblomunin brath grymithan, Erblomunin brat er,” he said.

“God is great. God is one.” Warren Dubrowski interpreted more quickly. “This is incredible. I can understand angelic language. Hey, check it out! I prayed with this guy and he got the Spirit!” One of the tambourine girls looked back and smiled. Tiffany stopped and gave Warren her attention.

“Tan blrmn a grbnm…”

“Bend the knee to the Lord of Hosts, who was, who is, and who is to come. The kingdoms shall fall. The nations shall tremble at the mighty word of the Lord,” Warren Dubrowski translated more confidently with each word.

“The Spirit is upon him. He’s prophesying in the angelic language!” Tiffany, a tall, thin Asian girl holding a tambourine, called to get the attention of the group. The procession stopped. The whips and the cries and the groans paused and waited for the hippy and Warren to catch up.

“Ta Erblomunin cwq hkmno…” The hippy intoned in a trance.

“The Lord saw that every inclination of the thoughts of man was only evil all the time. God was grieved that he had made man,” Warren Dubrowski translated loudly for all to hear, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth!”

“Yes! Yes that’s right! Amen! Praise the Lord!” Tiffany cried, when she heard the translation.

“Do you think it’s real? Do they know each other?” John, a dumpy middle-aged male follower of the flagellants, asked skeptically from the tail of the procession.

“Of course it’s real.” Doug, one of the flagellants, insisted. He was stripped to the waist. His back bore many welts from the days thrashing. “Bring him to the front. Hear the Word of the Lord.”

Tiffany and Warren proudly sheparded Sven down to the front of the procession before the flagellants and the cross bearer.  “I’m Tiffany.” The thin girl held out her hand to the hippy, “What’s your name?” But the hippy’s eyes were far away. “You should cut your hair. It makes you look a little like..them.”

“Erblomunin ewq piklw e mqzxpl…” the hippy walked in front now and the cross bearer and flagellants fell in behind. Warren Dubrowski and Tiffany stood on his right and left, their eyes bright with excitement.

“God is love. He calls all people to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Tiffany translated.

“No,” Warren said, trying to hide his irritation, “He said something about a furnace…the Day of the Lord is coming and is now here. That day will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble and that Day shall set them on fire. Not a single root or branch will be left to those who practice evil on the earth.”

“How do you know what he said?” Tiffany frowned.

“gbp cxq iut rbwqaz…”

“But for you who revere my name, the sun, or rather Son of righteousness, will rise with healing in his wings. The righteous shall go out and leap like calves released from the stall after a long and bitter winter. You shall trample the wicked. They shall be ashes beneath the soles of your feet,” Warren translated.

“Praise the Lord!”

“Yes! Tell it brother!”

There were screams from ahead in the street. People began running and there was the sound of doors slamming, an engine revving and then a gunshot. The procession of flagellants stopped.

The gunshot snapped the hippy out of his trance, and he stopped. “Where am I?”

“Blessed be the name of the Lord,” Tiffany translated.

“That was English,” Warren said.

“I know…” Tiffany glared at Warren.

“Who are you?” Sven asked.

“Warren Dubrowski. I prayed with you at your house. Don’t you remember?”

“No.”

“Tiffany.” Tiffany smiled and offered her hand again. “That was awesome.”

“What’s your name, brother?” Warren asked, offering his hand again.

“Sven.”

“You were prophesying, Sven. The spirit of the Lord was upon you.” Warren smiled, and looked into Sven’s eyes for comprehension but saw only confusion.

“What? Where am I?” Sven lifted his nose, catching a whiff of their stench even before he saw them. He stopped.

“The infected. Run!”

A few of the flagellant followers began to scatter, especially the new ones in the rear. The flagellants looked around nervously. Through the gloom, Warren could see dark shapes moving down the middle and sides of the street. They looked like large cats. They were lithe and lean. This was a daily occurrence. They terrified him every time. Warren put a hand on Sven’s shoulder. He looked to be calculating whether he could run back to his house before they caught up to him, back to the safety of his guns. “You must stay here with us. Don’t run.”

“STAND YOUR GROUND! The infected will not harm us. You have the covering of the Lord upon you,” Samson, the cross bearer, turned and yelled loudly at the group. Warren could not sense any fear in the man. Several in the back ran and knocked on doors, pleading to get in. “Make the circle!” Samson ordered. Instantly, the flagellants formed a tight circle in the middle of the street. There were thirty or forty of them. Each convert held a trashcan lid or flat piece of wood and all had a club or a knife in the other hand. A trashcan lid was thrust into Warren’s hand. Warren could feel Sven squirming like a cornered animal under his other hand. “Stay here, brother. You are protected.” Warren was terrified too. Saying the words helped him to believe them. Thankfully, they were trapped inside the circle of flagellants.

A female cat-thing locked eyes with him from at least a football field away. It was nude; covered with large angry red boils alternating with weeping black pustules, where the boils had burst. It had gigantic canine teeth and a thick full tangle of hair on its head that reminded him of a lion. But the worst for Warren was her/ its face. The beast wore a mask of rage and agony. It seemed to want to kill him to relieve its own terrible agony. Warren found himself fascinated by it. There were two others mirroring its approach on either side and behind them was a large mass of what appeared to be writhing darkness. There looked to be hundreds of them, maybe even a thousand or more, moving as a horde down this street.

The flagellant beside him threw up on his leg. Warren shook his leg, and moved away a mere inch in the tight space, pressing against a bigger man on the other side, who didn’t give. The smell was awful. Another man vomited, then Tiffany. The stench from the beasts was overpowering. It was like being submerged up to his neck in fresh shit, sprayed by one thousand pissed-off skunks, then left in the hot sun for a couple of hours. Sven emptied his stomach on the street, trying unsuccessfully to miss the legs of the men around him. Warren was impressed he had held out so long.

“The Lord is my shepard, I shall not want.” Samson, the cross bearer, led them in prayer. They repeated his words as one. The words calmed Warren. “He leads me beside quiet waters. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.”

Warren felt the terror in his breast rising as the mass of undead beasts moved closer. The scripture called them locusts. He understood as he watched them. They consumed everything as they moved and left no human alive where they passed. The animals ran from them in terror, but the locusts did not pursue the animals. Their eyes were for the humans alone. The smell of death grew stronger and stronger until every stomach was emptied on the ground at their feet. “Move back!” The cross bearer ordered to get them out of the slippery mess.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” the prayer continued.

“You are safe here, brother.” Warren met Sven’s eyes calmly. Warren wanted to scream. He wanted to run for his life. He saw Tiffany watching him in terror from an inch away, her nose nearly touching his face. She sensed his fear and it frightened her even more. He realized that, despite their outwardly calm demeanors, all with him were as terrified as he, and their terror made them pack together even closer, like links in a chain. He was trapped. He couldn’t even move. “Let me out,” Sven said.

“No, brother. It is safer here.”

“Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” Then a great roar rose from the flagellants and they lifted their clubs and knives in the air. The flagellants beat their shields with their clubs and knives and shouted like wild savages, preparing for the onslaught of the undead. A few nicked themselves to draw blood. Others whipped themselves and screamed out bible passages with wild eyes.

The flagellants fell silent. Every shield was raised, every knife and club at the ready, as the first wave came upon them. The undead beasts rammed into the shields but they didn’t pierce through. Instead, the beasts flowed around them as if their little group was a rock in a flood. For the most part, the beasts ignored them like they were a car or a fire hydrant. Warren thanked God for this miracle, as he did every time, because he knew that the beasts could easily jump over the barrier of the shields and savage them. But none did. The first wave was eight hundred or more – too many to count. All around, on every side, beasts leapt upon survivors and savaged them with their teeth and claws. All around were the screams and cries of the dead and dying. Through a crack, Warren saw a beast break through the window of a house, a woman screaming, then a gunshot. The noise drew them and two, three, ten, then fifty more (too many and too fast to count) flooded through the window into the house. A beast brought down a couple trying to run to the safety of a large SUV. In an instant, the other beasts, smelling blood, were upon them five, then ten, then fifty, tearing mercilessly at their flesh. Warren tore his eyes away, their screams ringing in his ears. Truly, they were like locusts. There were so many, how could anyone stand against them? They consumed everyone as they moved. No human was left standing. There was no escape. God’s judgment was being carried out before his very eyes.

At least five waves of hundreds and hundreds of beasts flowed around his little group, before the larger group of beasts behind shifted course slightly to the left. Now there were only stragglers among the beasts; singles or groups of two or three running around and drinking the blood of the victims lying moaning on the streets. Warren could see humans further up the street, that had appeared to be dead, now rising to their feet and swaying drunkenly. One man had a huge chunk of flesh bitten from his face and another from his neck, yet he moved forward even though he appeared to be in enormous pain. Many of the newly changed screamed and contorted their limbs and faces in anguish. They moaned in pain almost continuously. They appeared to Warren as tortured souls, very much what he imagined hell would be, yet trapped in a dead body. As the disease progressed and their hair and nails grew and the physical body withered to a skeleton, the pain and anguish seemed to harden into an insatiable hunger and thirst. Their eyes grew bright with fresh hatred, their teeth and claws sharpened to razors, their bodies became nimble and strong for their work. They were like demons released on the earth, Warren mused, tortured souls whose only relief was the blood of the living. The newly dead were slow and moved like they were drunk. Best to stop them quick. In a matter of an hour, sometimes less, they would become feral and much more aggressive. Soon they would become the beasts and run with the pack.

The flagellants broke into smaller groups of three to five and walked around smashing the skulls of the dead and newly changed. “You have to smash the heads. That’s the only thing that kills them. They are dead,” Warren Dubrowski explained.

“Why didn’t the beasts attack us?” Sven asked.

“We have the protection of the Lord. Because you stood among us, we protected you, but you are not yet one of us.”

There was the pop – pop of gunfire directly to his right.

“Use a club or a blade, friend. The noise attracts them.”

“Jackie! Where were you, brother?” Jackie, a large dark-skinned man, stood there, with a Glock 9mm in each hand, beside two dead beasts. They were recently infected, so had hardly changed at all.

“I saw you strip off your shirt, but I was too far away to catch up before the horde came through. I locked myself in the attic of a house. That was some scary shit,” Jackie shook his shaved head sadly. “There was a family hiding in the basement. I heard their screams…but there was nothing I could do.”

Jackie leaned in to whisper into Sven’s ear but Warren could still hear, “Raul sold me a bunch of guns and ammo. It’s even worse than I thought. Here, put your shirt on.” Jackie handed him his shirt.

“You are one of us, brother.” Warren put his hand again on Sven’s shoulder, but could feel him drawing away with his friend Jackie near. His words felt hollow, as though they landed on deaf ears. “Leave all you have and come follow us. Don’t even return to your house for a bag or clothes. Come as you are. The Lord will provide. You are welcome to come too, friend.”

“Fuck off!” Jackie turned his strong back to Warren. “Don’t listen to this freak. Do you want to live or do you want to die?” Jackie grabbed Sven and began pulling him away.

Sven stopped Jackie, “I have to go back for Dixon and Bugs. They will starve without me. But, it’s true; the beasts did not attack us. We stood in the middle of the road. It’s as if they didn’t even see us.”

“Of course, you may bring your family. However, the bible teaches that the end will cleave apart even father and son, husband and wife, brothers and sisters. If they resist you in this, you must go on without them,” Warren could feel Sven’s spirit moving away. The pull of this other man, Jackie, was very strong on him. There was a darkness surrounding this new man, Jackie. He looked like someone who had spent time in prison and had blood on his hands. He spoke directly to Sven, ignoring the other man, Jackie. “If you leave, brother, I don’t know if you are protected. You must come with us now.”

“Yes, come with us.” Tiffany stood close beside Warren. “You were touched by the Spirit. You are one of us now.”

“You want to go with these fruit loops? Beat yourself bloody... preach the Kingdom of God is at hand…beg for food?” Jackie stared at Sven. “If you do, you’re on your own. I’m not going with you.”

“It’s true. We carry little with us. We face death daily. We depend on God to provide for our daily needs. It is a hard life,” Warren said.

“It’s the best life there is! Come with us!” Tiffany effused.

“Who doesn’t face death daily?” Jackie shook his head in disgust, “Look around!”

“In Him is life and that life is the light of man. Join us, brother.” The cross bearer spoke with authority in a deep baritone.

“Is your name really Samson?” Sven asked.

“Behold, all things shall be made new. This is the end, my friend. Who I was before is of no consequence.” The strong man spoke quietly with great humility. “God will give you too a new name. Join us.”

“Thank you. Something definitely happened here. Thank you, I mean it. I admire what you are doing, but…” Sven turned as Jackie again began pulling him away down the street.

Warren could feel the darkness in the man Jackie. He watched them walking away. He believed he could see the dark spirits landing like flies on and off, on and off of this man Jackie. He could also see a light burning in the hippy Sven.

CHAPTER 4: October 15, 11 a.m.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

“We need to turn the lights out.” Susan, Eve’s mother, held her hands together in a gesture of worry. She was stooped and her face was pinched. She looked much older than her forty four years. Eve hoped she didn’t look like that when she was her age.

“What?” Dennis opened his puffy eyes with a start, where he was dozing in a chair. The chair creaked loudly as he shifted his four hundred pound frame to sit up.

“No!” Brit almost shouted. Brit was thirty years old, tall, slim, athletic and sported a full head of wavy brown hair. He was a fox. Eve could tell that the other nuclear engineers didn’t take his opinions seriously, maybe because he was young and handsome.

“Absolutely not! We,” Kirk motioned with his long bony hand around the room at the others present, “are here to prevent meltdown. Keep this plant operational. We are here to keep the lights on.” Kirk was Eve’s father and the senior ranking engineer at the nuclear power plant. He was still in charge. Eve smiled encouragement at her father. He was the only thing keeping her mother Susan from nagging her to death, or worse, locking her in a room until she turned eighteen.

“The lights are drawing the refugees like flies. There’s more every day, every hour. We are like a beacon in the dark.” Susan wrung her hands.

“All those people out there will die. We should let them in.” Eve spoke up from outside the circle, where she was slumped very unlady like in her chair in apparent boredom. Why were people so mean? She wondered. They were discussing people’s lives. Those were real people out there. Susan burned her with a glare. Kirk listened attentively, as did Brit. Today, Eve’s hair was a calculated mess of locks falling every which way around her face. She wore big shit-stomper boots with what appeared to be truck tire tread soles ending below the knee. She wore a plaid mini skirt on her tiny waist. She wore no stockings on her slender and shapely bare legs above the boots and before the mini. On top, she wore a raggedly cut-off black sweatshirt with the sleeves gone, and cut in a midriff style which showed the maximum amount of firm, flat, youthful stomach. The black sweatshirt had been cut a little too high and showed a peek of her black lace bra on the bottom left, and the arm holes were too big, so that when she moved her arms, she was constantly in danger of revealing too much.On top of the midriff sweatshirt, she had draped a thick fishnet blouse which covered absolutely nothing and ended above the knee. On top of that, she wore a black waist length leather jacket with numerous zippers and chains dangling from it. Where her mother Susan was sterile and dry, every ounce of Eve’s one hundred and five pounds exuded anger, rebellion and most of all a fierce, challenging sexuality with her every movement. They seemed to expect her to say more, but that was it. Finally, Brit saved her.

“We need to let some of them in,” Brit spoke up. “There’s a fence builder out there with his truck. He can fortify the fence. There’s a guy with a large cache of guns. We may need those.”

“Our guards are armed with M-16’s and handguns…” Kirk looked at his wife Susan for support. Eve smiled at him again but he didn’t notice. At least Brit seemed to have a good heart. Two weeks ago before all this happened, Eve had gone to a party at a kids house from her high school. She ended up getting really drunk and making out with one of the cheerleaders on the couch. The girl was known for being bi-curious when drunk. She also smoked when she drank. It got heavier and heavier and there was more and more alcohol. The other cheerleaders and the footballers making out with and feeling the other girls up on the surrounding couches were pretending to ignore them but were in fact really focused on Amber and herself. Every time she tried to leave, they would pull her back in and force her to drink more beer and take another shot. Eve must have blacked out because she woke up on a bed with Amber on top of her, feeling up her shirt and tongue-kissing her. It got really heavy after that. There was a large crowd in the hall at the door laughing and cheering Amber on. Eve didn’t know what to do and it was probably all going to be worth it because Amber was a cheerleader and really popular. The next day, no one at school would talk to her. They were all whispering as she went by. It all felt like a set up. They planned it out and set her up and then blamed her for what they did. Probably most of those kids were dead now. People were so mean.

“Four guards out of fifty left to protect fifty acres. One may be infected. The others brought their families…” Brit had only been working at the plant for a few months. This was the most they had heard him speak since arriving. Eve smiled at Brit. Brit looked down. Eve had almost been with a guy once. She had been drunk then, too. She ended up just watching him from the bottom as he lay on top of her, in some bedroom, dry humping her and feeling her up, under her top. It was like she was watching someone else having sex with her body. When he noticed her just watching him, he was embarrassed and quickly stopped. She hadn’t really felt any passion. No pleasure at all with him, just curiosity. With Amber, at least she had enjoyed it, at the time.

“We have to keep everyone out! We don’t know who is infected.” Susan sat bolt upright.

All of them looked out the large wall-sized one hundred and eighty degree windows facing the front gates, at the growing crowd of trucks, an RV and various cars piling up outside the gate. There was even a guy out there with a front loader, complete with digging crane. Beyond that were hundreds of fires blazing unhindered in the dry northern California sky, the soot blocking out the sun. The power plant was surrounded on three sides by water. The gate in front was twelve feet high with razor wire on top. The entrance was fitted with a large guardhouse with several rooms. Installed in the asphalt leading through the gate were retractable metal posts rated to withstand the assault of a large truck. There were additional weapons and ammunition locked in the guardhouse.

“We have electricity to last five hundred years. Everywhere else is dark. The military and the government have pulled out and gone underground. We have barely seen the sun in 2 months and we may not see it again for several years with all the dust in the air from the fires and the earthquakes. Not to mention the nuke they dropped on Memphis trying to contain the infection…” Brit was passionate.

“We have at least six months MRE’s,” Kirk was calm, but firm. “The military will come back. We just have to wait it out.”

“They evacuated the entire government! They went underground. We haven’t seen the military or the National Guard in nine days! The banks are closed. The stock market collapsed. The infection has been reported in every major city on every continent. There are rioters and looters running unchecked in every major city. We’re on our own! We are going to have to grow our own food. We need to barter with these people at the gate. Thank God we found that hippy guy – what’s his name?” Brit pressed.

“Sven” Dennis interjected from where he had apparently been sleeping in the chair. Dennis, when still, nearly always appeared to be sleeping. At the apex of his mountainous frame, his eyes were heavily lidded with long sensuous lashes, and it was nearly impossible to tell most of the time. He had plump, ruddy cheeks that hid his eyes effectively and large, moist lips. Despite his appearance, Dennis was an encyclopedia of knowledge. On the tip of his tongue were obscure and useful facts relating to virtually any subject. He was possessed of a razor-sharp, exacting mind, and his opinions, when spoken, were rarely disputed. He was probably the smartest person Eve had ever met, except maybe for her dad, Kirk.

“We need to get rid of him. I don’t like him,” Susan was adamant. “How do you know he’s not infected?”

“He’s not infected!” Brit and Dennis spoke in unison.

“Well, I don’t like him. He’s a drug addict. He’s a bad influence on Eve.” Susan glanced at Eve, who was now draped, spread-eagle, over a reversed chair facing the group. The tiny mini skirt revealed more than it covered. “Honey, can you give us a minute? The adults need to talk.”

Eve shot her mother a smoldering look and then rose noisily, nearly knocking over the chair, before standing to look out the window with her back to the group. Sometimes she really hated her mother. The adults need to talk, she repeated to herself, under her breath, in a singsong voice.

“He smokes a little pot. He’s harmless,” Brit defended him.

“A little pot? The man reeks of it,” Susan tried to keep her voice down.

“He’s a professional grower. He knows how to grow plants indoors without natural light. We’re going to need him. We’re going to need to grow our own food and we don’t know when the sun will break through the haze. It could be…a long time...years…maybe never,” Brit spoke quietly and passionately, his words dropping off to a whisper at the end. Dennis was fully awake now. He nodded emphatically.

“He’s a drug dealer! I don’t like the man. He’s taken an interest in Eve.” Of course, Susan had noticed her interest in Sven. He was so cool; nothing at all like the cheerleaders and football players. There was a moment of silence.

“Susan, with all due respect,” Dennis spoke diplomatically. His wet lips smacked and his long, sensuous eyelashes fluttered, “your daughter is your responsibility as a parent. Besides, I think it might be more accurate to say that she may have taken an interest in him.”

“We need him. He stays,” Brit was firm.

CHAPTER 5: October 15, 11 a.m.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

“Dixon! Come here boy!” Sven cried to the one hundred and seventy pound male Boxer-Pitt Bull mix sitting expectantly outside of the ordinary-looking rambler in an ordinary-looking development on an ordinary street in the sprawling suburbs of San Jose, California. Images of Dixon shot and Bugs half-eaten had raced through his mind up until this point. He was glad he had found the power plant and really it was because of something that guy Warren had said, but it wasn’t worth the loss of Dixon and Bugs. Sven let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Chris’ eyes went wide with fear and he involuntarily began raising his M-16 to face the threat. As soon as Dixon stood on all four legs, he was a giant, wiggling puppy overcome with joy at seeing his master. Dixon jumped up to Sven’s chest, draping his paws over Sven’s shoulders and shyly licked Sven’s cheek. Sven laughed and kissed him back, scruffing his neck with both hands. The other guard lowered his weapon and laughed.

“That’s your dog?!” Chris was shaken. He looked like he wanted to run. “I don’t like dogs.”

“This is Dixon. Dixon meet Chris and Adams.” Dixon cocked his head attentively, looking only at Sven. Chris looked fearfully at the dog. Adams stayed on the other side of the truck.

Sven swept his waist-length blond dreadlocks off of his face with a long, bony hand and retied them with a scrunchy over his neck. Sven had a giant head with an even bigger garden of dirty blond dreadlocks over a long thin body. He stooped a little, increasing the impression that his head was too heavy for his body.  “Dixon, where’s Bugs? Where’s Bugs?” If Dixon was okay, then Bugs was probably nearby.

Dixon barked in response. The bark was high pitched for such a large dog.

A large, white rabbit with a pink-rimmed nose and black, liquid eyes hopped tentatively into the open driveway from behind the bushes. “Bugs!” Sven cried, running to the rabbit. Dixon bounded around him. The rabbit showed no fear of either, but stood his ground, waiting for Sven. Sven picked him up into his arms and cuddled him, kissing his head and ears like a furry, fat white baby as Dixon jumped around excitedly.

“This guy is a regular Tarzan,” Adams quipped, shaking his head, still making no movement to come around the truck.

“Everybody’s hungry.” Sven poured generous helpings of dry dog food and dry rabbit food into side-by-side bowls labeled “Dixon” and “Bugs.”

Sven pushed with a single finger the broken side door to the rambler. A powerful smell like a long dead skunk assaulted them. Chris and Adams grabbed at their noses. “What is that?”

“Ahhhhh,” Sven took a deep breath and then another. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” He turned to Chris and Adams, suddenly all business. “Ok, everything goes. All the plants, all the soil, the lights, the grid, the generator, the water pump, the ventilator, everything.” Sven paused in the doorway; beyond him, they could see a large, greasy blackened stain where the booby-trapped shotgun mounted in the door had blown a hole in the now dead man. The looter had tried to break in and was killed at the door. Now, there was only a dried trail of blood and a disgustingly rank stain where he had expired before rising again to join the undead beasts in their hunt. There was an additional dried trail of blood leading away across the driveway from a second looter injured by the same blast. All three of them stepped over the very fragrant stain. Sven expertly untied the shotgun, checked the barrels and put it over his shoulder. There were no other signs of forced entry.

“Well now Shut The Front Door…” Chris whistled under his breath. Beyond Sven lay three floors and three thousand square feet of potted green plants. Thick, green plastic sheeting covered the floor. A grid of lights with electrical cords snaked down on all sides covered the ceiling. Large, flexible air ducts ran here and there among the ceiling grid. The power was out here, so the house was unbearably hot and humid.

“Too hot; blower’s out; everybody needs water,” Sven ticked off automatically the list of things he would normally handle. His hands went to his head in a gesture of futility. “I’m a grower. This is a grow house.”

“This is going to take more than one trip,” Adams said, as he hefted the first potted plant toward the waiting trucks.

“Oh no! I forgot the spray paint. Do we have any spray paint?” Sven asked.

Chris shrugged. “You can check the trucks,” Adams said.

“I need to tell Jackie and Candy to go to the power plant to find me.” Sven grabbed handfuls of dreadlocks in his hands. He was hoping to find them here.

“We’ll have to come back, if we can get back,” Chris said.

“They’ll figure it out,” Adams laughed.

CHAPTER 6: October 15, 3 p.m.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The sky was an angry slate color. Grey ash floated down like snow. It was three o’clock in the afternoon and it would be getting dark soon. The press of humanity in front of the power plant had grown by the power of ten since their trip to the grow house earlier this morning. There was only one road in and out of the nuclear power plant. It was essentially a giant funnel leading to the gate of the facility. Sven could see that under normal circumstances this was a highly effective security procedure. The two trucks loaded with supplies from the grow house had made it perhaps two thirds of the way. Cars, trucks, vans, campers and every different kind of vehicle were parked every which way across the roadway and the two shoulders. People were out of the vehicles everywhere, knocking on Sven’s windows. It was a scene of chaos and desperation.

“Keep moving! Don’t stop!” Adams screamed into the hand held radio on the dash. Adams leaned on his horn in frustration. Sven turned down the ear piercing squawk of the radio on his dash.

“Everything’s blocked. There’s no where to go,” Sven said. The two trucks had made it to perhaps a quarter mile from the power plant. Sven pounded the steering wheel in frustration. Everything was blocked. His entire world had stopped and he was constipated. He had been so stressed out, he hadn’t been able to take a dump in three days. Where were Jackie and Candy? He had expected to find them at the grow house. Getting a place in this power plant was a life saver, especially now, but not without his crew. Sven lit up a blunt and took a long drag to calm himself. Fuck! He should have gone with the flagellants. But they were gone now and wandering alone out there was certain death. At least he had Dixon and Bugs…

“Go around! To the right! To the right!” Sven fumbled the blunt while turning the wheel, dropping it at his feet, then frantically looked down as he drove, hoping to quickly recover the life-sustaining weed.

Dixon stood in the cab of the truck, the hackles on his neck up, his teeth bared, barking and snarling viciously at the press of the crowds blocking the road with their cars, hands held out beseechingly to the trucks. Bugs hopped around Sven’s legs as he tried to drive, his eyes wide with fear, wanting to run and hide somewhere. “Chill out, dudes,” Sven admonished quietly, realizing that Bugs and Dixon were as stressed out as he was.

In his rear view mirror, Sven could see a line of four cars driving into their wake, also trying to make it to the gate. There were people on foot milling around the stopped cars. Vendors were out, walking among the cars bartering their wares; tube socks, sweatshirts, winter coats, a taco truck. Paper money was still passing hands in many cases. A few recently Tagged offered their right hand or forehead to be scanned. Off to the right of the gate, men were erecting a new fence, preparing for nightfall. A front loader was digging a ditch in front of the newly erected fence – smart, Sven thought. In and among this activity wandered the newly infected. Weird red eyes, blank stares, some with angry red boils visible on their necks and faces, bloody noses that wouldn’t stop bleeding, some were even weeping or sweating blood. It was cold, so everyone was bundled up in warm clothes. When the boils popped they would leave terrifying cavernous holes in the skin which would initially be hidden by the clothes. But the worst was the smell of death that lingered on and around them. It was a deep, earthy smell so strong that no perfume could possibly mask it. It was the smell of the dead walking on the earth among the living. The smell intensified as the disease progressed. In the later stages, the infected person would strip off their clothing, apparently due to the heat of the fever, even in below freezing temperatures, and wander, not knowing who they are or even their name. At the end came the change. The infected person would bleed out. They would go into convulsions, spewing the black vomit. Black vomit was not really black, but black bile mixed with fresh blood. It smelled like a slaughterhouse. It seemed that the infection literally liquefied the insides of its victim, and the infected person would spew the infection mixed with their own blood from every pore and opening in their body until they became nothing more than an empty husk; a skeleton with big hair, claws and teeth. Upon death came the change. The infected individual would become like a lion, instinctively attacking any human it encountered, biting, scratching and spitting to spread the deadly disease. The disease increased their metabolism to such a fevered pitch that they were all starving, and they fed on the humans they killed by sucking their blood for sustenance. But the worst part was that they naturally banded together to hunt in packs; the larger the pack the better. Like locusts, they would sweep across the land as an unstoppable army, devouring every human they came across. Fifty or even one hundred at a time would fall on one living human fighting amongst each other to tear at him and drink his blood. There was no escape.

Up ahead, a forty foot RV stood sideways across the road, blocking it. On either side, blocking the shoulders and even up onto the grass were two more sturdy work trucks. Sven turned his wheel hard to the right coming within a few centimeters of the RV blocking his path. Two men with guns pointed with their fingers and shouted down at him from the roof of the vehicle. There were men in the other trucks with rifles as well.

“Back up! It’s a trap! Back up!” Sven screamed into the radio, jamming the truck into reverse. Sven felt a jolt as one of the four cars in their wake jammed itself into the rear wheel of his truck, stopping any reverse movement. Another jolt as the truck behind hit. Dixon was barking like a mad dog everywhere at the same time. Bugs jumped out of the window and disappeared under a nearby car.

Suddenly, there was a man with a gun at his window wearing a mask. “Just do what I tell you and no one is going to get hurt.” The voice sounded familiar. Sven held up his left hand, while he felt for the triggers of the double barreled shotgun sitting across his lap with his right hand. Dixon growled, beginning to coil for a leap through the window at the man’s throat, then sniffed the air and began tentatively wagging his stub of a tail.

“Sven! Dixon!” Immediately, the man pulled off his ski mask with his free hand.

“Jackie!” Sven cried with relief. “Jackie O! My man!” They clasped hands through the window and pulled each other in giving man hugs through the open window. Dixon smiled and wagged his tail at Jackie. Then whipped around and barked viciously at someone on the passenger side.

“Everybody BACK OFF! He’s with me. STAND DOWN!” Jackie looked directly past Sven through the cab of the truck. Sven saw from the corner of his eye another man in the side view passenger window with a gun. The man on the passenger side had the drop on both him and Dixon.

Two shots rang out behind them at the other truck. Jackie vanished into the gloom. He reappeared at Sven’s window moments later. “It’s cool. Come on out.”

Sven, not unaccustomed to being confronted by violent trigger happy men with guns, put both hands out through the window, then stepped slowly onto the street. He held his empty hands up to show he was unarmed. He closed the door, locking Dixon in the cab, to protect him from being shot. “This is Sven. He’s with me! He’s with me!” Jackie’s voice boomed, as he waved both arms shielding Sven with his own body, and giving the all clear signal. Adams was on his knees in the road, his hands on his head. Chris was sprawled out behind, bleeding. He was writhing and moaning in pain. Four men pointed guns at them. The man with the rifle on his drivers’ side door hung back. Dixon rattled the windows barking at the man.

“I thought we lost you, man. We went to the grow house. We couldn’t find you. It’s so good to see you,” Jackie said.

“Ditto, Bro.” Sven couldn’t stop smiling at the return of his friend. “What’s this?” Sven motioned at the blockade and the guns.

“Hostages. They won’t let us through the gate. If we stay out here like this we’re dead, Homes. The infected will get all of us,” Jackie said.

A young boy pocketing a handgun came and stood close beside Jackie with a hat covering his face. The boy didn’t even reach Jackie’s massive shoulder. Jackie smiled. The boy looked up beaming at Sven from under a knitted hat and layers of bulky clothing. “Candy!” Sven exclaimed. They hugged. Candy kissed Sven on the cheek. “What about…”

“Needles?” Candy tilted her head to the left at a man staring blankly into the gloom; his face was a blank mask and his nose was bleeding. “He’s infected.”

“We have to try to help Needles,” Sven said.

“I’m a medical doctor.” A small birdlike man walked out of the crowd slowly, but purposefully, with his hands up toward Chris and crouched over to examine him. There was no resistance. “This man must get inside and stabilized or he’s going to die. We don’t know the extent of his injuries.”

“Okay, change of plans,” Jackie said to Sven. “We have to get him inside now. We go in with you.”

“I’m an EMT.” A woman on the edge of the crowd volunteered, joining the doctor by Chris’ side. Suddenly, one more, then three more, then four more women, identified themselves as nurses, and also appeared at the side of the doctor.

“Clear the road,” Jackie ordered. Sven, Jackie and Candy squeezed into the cab with Dixon. Bugs was still AWOL. Candy tried to shepherd Needles into the cab as well, but Dixon started growling and his hackles went up, which was strange because Dixon had always liked Needles. Needles would go with the doctor and nurses in the truck in front.

At the gate, the guards were firm, but nervous, about the overwhelming numbers outside. There was no way they could keep out even half this number of people, if they rushed the gate. Sven could hear the tinny voice of Susan squawking over the guards’ radio. “I’m sorry,” the guard said to the doctor, the EMT and the four nurses. “We can only let in the people who went out.”

“Chris will die, you idiot! We need a doctor,” Sven was angry. The guards’ radio squawked more fervently.

“This is Chris, man. We need to help him,” Adams, the other guard spoke to the head guard.

“Okay. Okay. Go ahead.” He turned his radio down with irritation. The doctor, EMT and four nurses went through with the injured guard Chris and Needles immediately.

“These are my friends. They’re with me.” Sven waved his thumb over Jackie and Candy beside him in the cab and drove through the gate before the guards could object. There was no way Sven was leaving them outside the gate. The first stop was the medical building that was well-stocked, clean and virtually untouched. The doctor and his assistants went right to work on Chris in the medical room. Needles stood there catatonic, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He didn’t seem to be aware of anything. He stared blankly at the floor. The doctor and nurses pushed Sven and the rest into the waiting room and shut the door.

Eve showed up within thirty seconds of their arrival. “Are you okay?” She smiled in greeting, going straight to Sven, looked him up and down for injuries, and then kissed him on the mouth, pressing her body close against him. “What happened?”

Daaaaamn! She looked good, and she smelled good, too. He had forgotten about Eve in all the stress and mayhem and worry. “Chris was shot.”

“Is he going to be alright?”

“We don’t know yet. The doctor and some nurses are in the next room with him.”

“What doctor?”

“We picked them up outside the fence.”

Eve seemed satisfied for now. “Who are your friends?”

“Sven honey, why didn’t you tell us?” Candy winked at Sven and then hugged Eve in greeting. “I’m Candace. You’re beautiful darlin’. How old are you?”

“Eighteen.” Eve looked challengingly at Candy, then looked down.

“This is Jackie and that’s Needles in the other room. Needles is infected.”

Jackie held onto Eve’s hand, “Who’s in charge here?”

“My Mom and my Dad. Well, my Dad officially – he’s the chief nuclear engineer for the plant, but my Mom seems to be running things. Kirk and Susan…”

The door to the waiting room opened with a bang. Two heavily armed guards outfitted with M-16’s, blue fatigues, military boots, bullet proof vests and side arms strapped to their legs entered and took positions on either side of the door. Behind was Susan, then Kirk. Behind them were Britt and Dennis. “Who are these people?” Susan demanded. Then, without waiting for a reply, she motioned to the medical room and the forms of the multiple persons behind the clouded glass, “and who are those people in there?” She stomped forward toward the door to the medical room, but Sven stepped in front before she could open it.

“Now, calm down,” Kirk touched her shoulder from behind.

“These are my friends; my business associates. They’re growers too,” Sven said. “Chris has been shot. There’s a doctor and five nurses trying to save him in there.” Eve came over and stood beside Sven, clinging to him like a vine.

“Who shot him?” Susan demanded, already knowing the answer. They had seen everything from the window in the control tower.

Jackie stepped forward. “There are people outside that need to come in. There are at least four electricians out there; a gun smith; a fence guy and his family; a guy with a front loader; couple of construction workers; a beer brewer…”

“You’re all leaving now; them too.” She motioned toward everyone in the other room.

“Whoaa,” Dennis stepped forward. “We’re not throwing the doctor out. We need a doctor.”

“Chris will die without medical care,” Brit joined in.

Susan stomped past them, yanked open the door to the medical room, and surprised everyone huddled around an unconscious Chris spread out on the table. The doctor and the nurses wore blood-spattered, white gowns with surgical masks and gloves. They looked up alarmed. “We don’t know who’s infected. You could all be infected.”

A sound like a bed sheet tearing, erupted in the room. Needles, who had been sitting catatonic in a chair in the corner threw up. Black vomit gushed out of his mouth onto the floor. He tipped over head first, unconscious, into the black vomit, sliding across the floor on his shoulder and arm. His body was stiff and rigid, like someone was pulling him in opposite directions with a string attached to his head and feet. His body convulsed and more black vomit spewed out of his mouth onto the floor. A large, bloody, black stain spread across the seat of his pants from the inside. Susan screamed and slammed the door. Her hands shook with rage and fear as she pressed her back to the closed door. “Get them out of here now!  They’re all infected!”

In a flash, Candy stripped off her clothes. She pulled off the bulky down jacket; the three sweatshirts and the long underwear over her head; then yanked down to her muddy boots the thick ski pants and long underwear underneath. “We are not infected. None of us are infected,” She said, looking right at Susan. Then, for emphasis, she unsnapped her bra and pulled her matching pink thong down to the boots as well.

Candy held out her arms and did a slow turn. Under those bulky clothes hid a spectacular form. Her skin was a lovely golden color. There were no tan lines – anywhere on her body. Her breasts were too large for her tiny frame and they rode unnaturally firm and high. She had an ass that wouldn’t quit and a small muscular waist and strong legs that had obviously taken many hours to achieve. Candy was a professional pole dancer. She had just launched her own subscription webcam site to moderate success following the posting of a twelve minute masturbation video online as free advertising before the trouble began. Most importantly, there were obviously no bites, scratches, or lesions on her perfect skin.

“For goodness sake…” Susan’s hand went involuntarily to cover her mouth. The guard closest to the door lowered his weapon slightly and smiled to the other guard.

Candy nodded to Jackie and Sven, who also stripped off their clothes. They stripped off everything down to their boots, same as Candy. Jackie was a mountain of a man. His dark skin was heavily muscled with a large belly. Bristles of grey and black hair stuck out of the most unlikely places; his neck; his shoulders; and even his ears. His back was a bearskin rug. He had surprisingly small hands and feet. Even naked, he was menacing. Sven was over six feet tall and too thin; concentration camp thin. His large head and even larger mane of wheat-colored Rasta dreadlocks made his body appear even thinner. His hands and feet, like his head, appeared too large for his body, but that was not the part of his anatomy that caught Eve’s eye.

Eve gasped and put her hands to her face, attempting to cover her eyes.

“For the love of…what the hell is the matter with you people!” Susan ranted, grabbed her daughter Eve and pulled her out of the room. Eve was blushing furiously, but couldn’t tear her eyes off of Sven. Sven smiled calmly and blew her a kiss. It’s on, Sven thought, watching Eve fluster and blush, yeah, it’s on like Donkey Kong.

The guards looked confused. Brit shrugged and grinned shyly in Sven’s direction. Dennis laughed and shook his head. “We are not infected,” Candy said again, placing her hands on her hips and thrusting them forward aggressively.

“I’ll talk to my wife…I’ll reason with her,” Kirk said, and walked out. The guards, Brit and Dennis followed.

“Put everyone we need inside the new fence outside the gate.” Jackie shuffled them immediately into a huddle with their pants still around their ankles. “Make sure there are no infected inside the new fence. Tell them to check everyone. We wait for nightfall.”

CHAPTER 7: October 15, 6 p.m.

Jackie pounded on the locked door to the control tower. On the other side of that door were several armed guards, Kirk, Susan, Eve, Brit and Dennis. Sven had tried desperately to get Eve away from Susan and the others, but Susan was like a bear with her cub and wouldn’t let Eve out of her sight. Sven shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. And Sven was still completely stopped up down there. He needed some Milk of Magnesia - that would do the trick, but getting to the pharmacy could present a small problem. The engineers had armed themselves at the guardhouse after the confrontation by Susan with the newcomers earlier, although it was unlikely that any of them had ever fired a weapon. “Lay your weapons down and come out with your hands up. We’re not going to hurt you.” Behind Jackie were Sven and three other men, plus Candy holding Dixon on a leash; or perhaps Dixon was controlling Candy with the leash. All were heavily armed with assault rifles, hand guns and extra ammo, thanks to the end–of-the-world NRA gun nut at the gate who had been preparing for this moment his entire life. His name was Jeb, and he was the first one admitted through the new fence.

Jeb led the assault on the guards posted outside the door with his son Tiny, a giant of a man. The guards were disarmed without a struggle when they saw how well armed were Jackie and his men. Even so, Sven was going to keep a close eye on Jeb and his sons. Jeb wasn’t part of his crew, and he wasn’t sure he could trust him, yet.

“We saw you shoot the guards,” Susan’s voice was shrill.

“Is there another exit?” Jackie whispered.

“Covered; my boys are on it. They’re trapped.” Jeb grinned like a crocodile missing a few teeth.

“That was an accident.” Jackie’s booming voice easily carried through the thick metal door. “They shot at my men.” In fact, the infected had begun rushing the fence just after full darkness around four thirty. The extra fence had been built connecting to the power plant fence about fifty yards west of the guard gate. While the guards had their hands full making sure the infected didn’t breach the fence, Jackie’s men cut a man-sized opening and walked men and weapons through. It all took about a minute for the fence guy with his bolt cutters. Moments later, Jeb’s eldest son stood next to the guards who were shooting the infected that were trying to climb the fence. This surprised the armed guard, who unwisely shot the unknown man. Jeb and his men instantly unloaded on the remaining guards, who were all killed within fifteen seconds. Jeb and his men held the gate. “Clear!” They left several men behind, and then Jeb and his boys joined Jackie in storming the control tower.

“Somebody’s gonna pay for that accident,” Jeb muttered, lifting his worn NRA ball cap to scratch his greasy hair. “That was my boy got shot. Look, why don’t I jus’ shoot this here lock out and we’ll go on in.” Jeb lifted his assault rifle to shoot out the lock.

“Wait…” Jackie said.

“You need us to run this power plant,” It was Dennis’ voice. “You kill us and you have no electricity and then you have nuclear meltdown. Is that what you want?”

“You’re right. We need you. We are not going to hurt you. Just lay your weapons down and come out with your hands up,” Jackie said, through the metal door.

Sven could hear muffled voices arguing through the door, then, “Okay, WE’RE COMING OUT. DON’T SHOOT!”

“You’re not going out there!” It was Susan’s voice. “These criminals are not taking the power plant!”

“They already have,” Dennis said.

“There’s no choice. It’s best just to cooperate with them,” Brit said. “WE’RE COMING OUT.”

Suddenly, there was a loud report from behind the door, and a man screamed in pain. Then, a second shot. Jeb blew the lock open with his assault rifle. Jackie kicked open the door. All of them had their assault rifles shouldered and ready.

“BACK UP!” Susan screamed at a pitch sufficient to shatter glass, while simultaneously putting a pistol to her daughter Eve’s head, and holding onto her throat with her free hand. Brit was on the ground a few feet away, writhing in agony from a gun shot wound to the torso. Dennis threw up his empty hands and clumsily backed up to the wall out of the line of fire.

“STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!” Kirk stood closest to his wife and daughter, his hands out in helpless supplication..

“He’s in love with our daughter,” Susan nodded toward Sven. “Get out now; all of you. Leave this plant and I won’t hurt her.”

“Susan! Mom…” Eve twisted in her mother’s grasp, but she held her tighter and pressed the gun painfully to her head. “Ow!”

“This is for your own good,” Susan said, securing her grip on her neck. “I would rather see you dead, than let that man put his hands on you,” she sniffed at Sven.

“Nothing has happened…” Sven held out his hands in a gesture of supplication.

Jeb raised his assault rifle. “You want I should shoot em? I’ll do it.” Luckily, his sons were outside on the other door, or they would already be dead, Sven thought.

“NO!” Sven, Jackie and Candy screamed simultaneously.

“We’re NOT going to hurt you. Just put the gun down.” Jackie spoke calmly and even managed a smile.

“You’re animals!” Susan screamed. “Drug dealers! You will never touch my daughter! I will kill you first!” Susan waved the gun toward Sven, who jumped back and ducked. Jeb and Jackie pressed forward, fingers itching for a clean head shot. Even Candy went for the handgun on her hip and loosened her grip on Dixon. Dixon powered forward, towing Candy on the leash, and flexed his giant muscles, ready to tear Susan to pieces.

Sven laid down his assault rifle and stepped forward, showing empty hands. “Please stop. This is your daughter, Eve. You wouldn’t hurt your daughter.”

“BACK UP!” Susan screamed, backing into the corner with the other door. Jeb and Jackie could definitely kill Susan, but they might hit Eve. No one could stop Dixon if he lunged. Susan was feeling trapped. With her free hand, Susan pushed down on the door handle. She was planning to take her daughter through the back door. Jeb and Jackie and the men followed her every move, weapons shouldered, pointing at her head.

“DROP IT!!” Susan was met with an assault rifle against her head from the other side. It was Jeb’s second son, Mack.

“Arggghhhh!!!!!!” Susan screamed like a wild animal, and pulled the trigger pressed against Eve’s head. There was a loud “CLICK!” Everyone froze for an instant. Eve twisted out of her mother’s grasp, eyes wide with fear, and threw herself down on the floor, rolling away.

Kirk looked like he was going to collapse, then when the gun didn’t fire, rushed his wife to envelop her in his arms. “DON’T SHOOT! DON’T SHOOT!” He screamed.

He was too late. Mack, Jeb’s son at the door, took the head shot on Susan the instant after the CLICK. Her head exploded. Then, five shooters with assault rifles riddled their bodies with bullets. It was a free for all. They were dead before they hit the ground. They were dead after they hit the ground. Dead. Dead. Dead.

CHAPTER 8: October 15, 6:15 p.m.

Blam! Blam! Jeb’s son Mack immediately put one bullet each in the heads of what was left of Susan and Kirk.

“Noooooooo!” Eve held out both hands in front of her, wailing and running futilely toward her parents with loud chopping steps from her boots. Mack looked up sheepishly, still holding the rifle pointed at the head of her dead father, and turned away. Candy ran after her, enfolding her in a soft bosomy embrace and pressed her head to her shoulder. “Shhhh,” she said as she rocked Eve, while she wept great gasping sobs. Dixon pressed his solid muscular body against their legs, offering his support and protectively guarding them both.

“I’m sorry.” Sven was barely visible through a waterfall of tears and sobs. Eve pressed her face into Candy’s shoulder and turned away from him. “I..I don’t know how this happened…” Candy shooed him away with her hand. She loved her father and mother. Yes, she loved her mother. And she knew her mother had loved her, too. Then why had she done that? She had pressed a gun against her head and pulled the trigger to blow her brains out! Who does that? Sven had saved her. Oh God, she thought, my parents are DEAD!!! I’m dead, she thought. Who will take care of me? What’s going to happen to me?

“I’ve got you, Darlin’,” Candy cooed, holding her tightly, rocking her and stroking her hair. It felt good. “I’ve got you.”

“Take their badges,” Jackie bent over her dead parents and unclipped Kurt’s badge from his belt. “All the doors open electronically with these badges.” Jackie was all business as he tossed Brit’s badge to Sven, who clipped it to his belt. Eve watched Sven, even as he watched her every move, out of the corner of his eye. A part of her liked the attention, but Sven and his friends had just murdered her parents. She hated them. She couldn’t remember why she had been attracted to him. These were awful people.

Brit regained consciousness and began moaning loudly, just like the infected. Mack and the two brothers swiveled their guns toward his head. Eve stiffened, terrified that they were now going to shoot Brit. Eve grabbed her head and screamed to drown out the inevitable gunshot. She felt that she was losing her mind. Candy held her tighter.

“Stop! Don’t kill him,” Jackie barked. “Search them. Take their weapons,” Jackie ordered. Jeb and his sons lined up the remaining survivors against the wall at gunpoint while Jackie and Jeb covered them.

Candy walked Eve over to some chairs. “Come over here, Darlin’.” Dixon followed closely.

“He could be infected,” Jeb said, referring to Brit.

“He’s been shot, not bitten,” Jackie said. “Doc, we need you in the control tower now, over.” Jackie pulled the rechargeable guard radio out of his back pocket and spoke into it.

“I’ll try to get over there. It’s getting pretty crxxxxx….” The higher-pitched voice of the doctor was drowned out by garbled static.

Only Dennis and the two guards were left alive. The first guard was carrying a portable arsenal, including an M-16, a Glock 9mm on his hip, a seven-inch folding knife in his back pocket, three stun grenades on his belt, twenty pounds of extra ammo, a backup pistol strapped to his leg and a telescoping metal baton. “Jackpot,” Mack said. The brothers snapped up the loot, fighting over it the moment it hit the ground.

“We’re on your side,” the other guard complained, perspiring heavily. “You don’t have to do this.” He was immediately relieved of his M-16 and the Glock 9mm on his thigh, all his extra ammo, a Taser and two cans of mace. Mack attached the guard’s electronic badge to his belt. When Mack lifted his shirt, there was a weeping chasm in his side that went all the way down to expose the hip bone. Mack jumped back like he’d been bitten by a snake, furiously wiping his hand on his pants, and then immediately ran over to the antibacterial dispenser by the door to disinfect them. Mack’s brothers, Bubba and Tiny, pointed their weapons at the sick man. The other guard and Dennis dove away. The putrid smell of rot filled the room from his sores. The guard turned toward them with weird red eyes and big teeth, “Please,” he said.

Jeb fired the head shot that put him down. Bubba and Tiny fired several shots of their own.

Eve heard someone screaming hysterically and suddenly realized it was herself. Candy held onto her tightly, desperately trying to calm her. Eve couldn’t breathe, and when she stood up her head spun. She felt like she was going to pass out.

“Get her out of here!” Jackie ordered.

“Where?” Candy said, holding Eve up. “There isn’t any place else.”

“If you kill me, you’re all dead! This place goes into melt down and you’re all toast!” Dennis screamed, pressing his four hundred pound frame to the wall in an attempt to disappear.

“Cease fire!” Jackie calmed the shooters. “He’s right. Take your clothes off.”

Dennis looked at Jackie like he was speaking Greek. “Now! Take your clothes off; both of you.” Jeb and his sons raised their weapons threateningly. Dennis complied, peeling off his tee shirt to reveal layers of flapping blubber and man boobs much larger than her own, and larger than any woman’s Eve had ever seen. “All of it. Now.” Jackie forced both men to remove all of their clothes, even their socks. “Now turn around slowly.”

When Jackie and Zeb were satisfied there were no bites or scratches on the men, Jackie said, “Okay, put your clothes back on. Now, him and her.” Jackie pointed to Brit and then Eve. Eve shrank further into Candy’s arms. Now she would be raped, Eve thought. First, her parents were murdered and now she would be raped.

“No,” Sven stood between them.

“Hasn’t she been through enough? She just lost her parents, Jackie,” Candy said.

Jackie’s face softened toward his friends, but his words were firm, “We have to know if she’s been bitten or scratched.”

“I can check her,” Candy said. Eve looked hopefully at Candy. They seemed to listen to her.

“They’re rushing the fences. We barely made it over here. Two of my nurses turned back.” The doctor entered in a hurry, and after a moment of confusion from the other three dead bodies littering the floor, he made a bee line straight for the moaning Brit. “He’s lost some blood. We need to get him to medical, stat.”

“The doctor will check her for bites,” Sven said.

Dixon barked at the window. Candy said, “Holy shit! Have you seen what’s happening out there?”

All present immediately looked out the one-hundred-and-eighty-degree windows to see what appeared from there to be ants covering the twelve foot high fence, crowded against the entrance and spread out along each side. Behind that was a mass of black shapes jumping and writhing and moving in the darkness.

“They’re rushing the fences,” Sven said. “We need to get out there.”

“Candy, you’re in charge of the two prisoners and the girl. Accompany the doctor to medical and stay there,” Jackie ordered.

“Where am I gonna go, out there?” The guard said.

“You need me to run this plant,” Dennis reminded them. Candy unclipped his badge from his belt and hung it around her neck.

“Lock them in the exam room at medical. Don’t let them out of your sight.”

“Keep Dixon with you. I don’t want him getting hurt.” Sven reached for Eve, but she recoiled closer into Candy. “And take care of Eve.”

CHAPTER 9: October 15, 7 p.m.

“The good news is that the bullet didn’t hit any vital organs and just passed through,” the doctor explained over the unconscious Brit on the exam table. “We stopped the bleeding. As long as he rests for twenty four to forty eight hours, he’ll probably be fine. As long as…well, a lot of things could go wrong, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Please don’t shoot him, Eve prayed silently.

“So he’s not infected,” Dennis said.

“No. I’m fairly certain the ravening infection is transmitted primarily through bites. Although, any direct saliva to blood transmission method will suffice.”

“So you have to be bitten to get infected,” Dennis explained.

“Or scratched or have an infected spit into an open wound…”

“Ewww…” Eve said.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news.” The doctor folded his hands and assumed a professionally somber tone. “Several hours ago, your friend Needles succumbed to the infection.”

“What?” Candy looked at him confused. She, like the others, was still recovering from the sprint from the control tower with the injured Brit. They carried Brit on a stretcher. On one end was the doctor. Initially two nurses took the foot end, but were more unwilling than unable to carry the load, so the guard replaced them, easily carrying his half of the load. The guard seemed to feel better about his imprisonment after helping out.

There was a pitched battle going on at the fence. The shooting, the shouting of the men was only a hundred yards away. It felt like it could break through at any moment.

“Brace yourselves.” The doctor grabbed a floor-length heavy curtain with both hands and then yanked it back to reveal the darkened glass-enclosed examination room. Immediately, something threw itself at the glass to get at them; then again and again. Whatever it was clearly did not understand that there was thick glass between them and it.

The examination room was darkened with all the lights out, inside the room with lights on outside the glass where they stood. They could only hear the pounding and see glimpses of the dark shape as it threw itself against the glass to get at them. It’s red eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.

“Watch this.” The doctor flicked three light switches and the room was flooded with light. The beast shrieked and with lightning speed crumpled itself into a ball under the gurney, covering its eyes and head to escape the light. “They are very sensitive to the light. Apparently, they are only active during dusk and evening. They see better during the night than we see in the day.” The doctor flicked two of the three light switches and then another switch beside. Now the room they stood in was darkened and a few track lights illuminated the opposite wall leaving the rest of the exam room in darkness. With lightning speed the beast rose and launched itself again at the window.

“The good news is they are not active during the daylight. The bad news is that with all the dust and debris in the atmosphere, the sun only breaks through the haze about six to eight hours on a sunny day.”

“Oh Needles. I’m sorry,” Candy said.

“What are those red marks all over its arms?” Eve asked. Saliva ran down the thick glass where the beast had been spitting at them and trying to bite them through it. It had a thick mane of hair like a lion, four pronounced canines and seemed to prefer to move on four legs, but could move just as easily on two. It looked like a skeleton.

“I’m glad you asked that,” the doctor smiled. “Apparently, it’s starving. It seems to feed only on blood and lacking any other food source it will feed on itself. It will literally drink itself dry, I suspect, hastening its own demise, unless it finds another food source.”

“You mean us - humans?” Eve said.

“That’s my friend in there, you son of a bitch.” Candy sounded defeated, her eyes misting.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…the thing is, it’s not your friend, Needles, anymore.”

“Ben. His real name was Benjamin.”

“It’s not Benjamin, anymore. You see your friend Benjamin succumbed to his infection about six hours ago. He was clinically dead. No heartbeat; no breathing. We had him connected to an EKG machine at the time. He flat-lined for approximately sixty seconds before re-animating. The interesting thing is that there appeared to be no indication that either the heart or lungs were working following re-animation. It’s dead. The infection itself actually re-animates the corpse. The hair and the nails grow extremely fast and the teeth- clearly this is some bi-product of the infection itself. In fact, even when humans die, the hair and nails continue to grow for several weeks or even months after death. Anyway, what I’m trying to tell you is its actually dead. It’s a walking corpse.”

“Ben. Benjamin!” Candy called through the glass. The beast stopped, clearly hearing her call. It sniffed the air. Candy felt a moment of hope, then it lunged against the glass, baring its teeth and attempting to scratch and bite its way through the glass. The doctor calmly flicked the two light switches flooding the room with light; it scream/growled and like a flash it was under the gurney in a ball.

“It moves so fast,” Eve said.

“It’s actually moving quite a bit slower than it was. It’s growing weaker and slower from lack of a food source and drinking its own blood. Here’s the problem. A lot of the medical supplies are in that room. Ideally, it will expire on it’s own in a day or two. Otherwise, well, we may have to go in there and put it down.”

Candy turned away, covering her face with her hand.

“And now for the really bad news,” the doctor folded his hands and stood opposite them. “Out in that waiting room are lots of people who have been bitten, scratched, and spit on by these things. We need to separate them from the general population before they die and become one of these things too.”

“Where’s Thompson?” Candy asked.

“Who?”

“The guard that we took as a prisoner from the control tower. I only know his name, because his badge is around my neck.” Candy waved the electronic badge with his picture on it.

“Hang onto that. That could come in handy later,” Dennis said.

They left Brit with a nurse in the separate examination room. He would probably be safer there than in the general population.

CHAPTER 10: October 15, 7:15 p.m.

The smell hit them all as they entered the medical unit. Eve doubled over and threw up from the stench. Dixon sniffed it and immediately began lapping it off the floor before Candy could yank him away.

“You can’t bring that dog in here,” the doctor said.

Candy stiffened, “His name is Dixon and he goes wherever I go.”

The doctor peered at her momentarily over his wire-rimmed glasses, then nodded assent and continued walking. “I need your help triaging the patients.” He walked over to the woman with the toddler Eve had seen earlier. The child was sitting at her feet looking dazed, with very bloodshot eyes. The mother looked even worse up close. Her entire left side was covered with blood. “Miss, I’m a doctor. I’m going to take a look at your arm.” She gave no indication she had heard anything. The doctor gently lifted up her blood-soaked sleeve to reveal the arm ripped off below the elbow. The bone was visible, and the arm itself looked like it had been chewed off. He lifted her chin to look in her eyes and then checked both hands. He shook his head sadly, bending down to look into the young child’s eyes. Immediately he said, “Group A top priority. Have a nurse re-apply a tourniquet. She’s been seriously injured, and both appear to be in the advanced stages of infection. We need to remove them both from the general population, stat. Take them to that room there.” “Come with me Darlin,” Candy said to the woman who stared blankly ahead. She then got behind her and began gently moving her and the child toward the other room. Dixon let out a low growl and remained a discrete distance from the woman and her child. Eve stuck to Candy like a lost puppy.

Eve waved her hand in front of her nose, clapping a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from chucking again. “The smell. It’s them,” she whispered to Candy. It was a combination of body odor, vomit and something much worse she couldn’t quite put her finger on but that if pressed would describe only as the smell of death itself. They put the woman and child into the room, just as three of the nurses showed up to help.

The visibly ill were not hard to find. It seemed that around twenty five percent had a scratch or a bite, boils or fever. And the sicker they were, the worse they smelled. Dixon growled and his hackles went up whenever they got close to an obviously infected person. He also seemed to growl at a lot of people that didn’t appear to be sick. Maybe this giant dog was a little freaked out too, Eve thought.

“What if the doctor’s right that all the sick ones turn into those things?” Eve whispered in Candy’s ear.

Candy led them to the doctor who was examining a patient in the midst of the chaos. “We put all the sick ones we could find in the other room.”

“Very good.”

A muffled scream sounded to their left.

“What’s happening in there?” Dennis pointed through the glass into the Group A top priority sick room, where they were separating the bitten, scratched, and visibly sick patients from the general population.

Two nurses had been tending to the woman with the arm ripped off and the sick child. From the other side of the glass, they could see that a small animal had latched onto the neck of one of the two female nurses with its teeth. A closer look revealed that it was the young child of the injured mother. The other nurse and several by standers were frantically trying to get it off. The mother seemed to be unaware of anything around her. A well-intentioned male bystander yanked on the feet of the toddler, dislodging it from the nurse’s throat, suddenly releasing a torrent of blood from the neck of the nurse. The nurse collapsed in a puddle of her own blood. There were screams, and people inside began rushing to get out of the room back into the general population, but the door was locked.

“This is bad,” Dennis said.

“We have to help them. Get them out,” Candy said, raising her pistol and looking to Dennis and Eve for support. “We have to unlock that door or they’ll all die.” Candy pushed toward the door, gun in one hand, with the other hand pulling Eve, who held Dixon on the leash. As Candy reached for the handle to unlock it, blood spattered the door and glass in a wave. People were screaming inside.

Dennis grabbed her wrist. “Don’t. It’s too late. You let them in here and we’re all dead.”

Candy pulled her wrist from his grip, then stood there looking defeated in through the glass. Apparently, at least four had turned. The toddler was biting and scratching ankles and calves like a Tasmanian devil. Its mother, with the missing arm, suddenly became vicious, ferociously bringing down two more and scratching five more in the few seconds since they began. The others, who had changed, were equally vicious, biting and savaging any within their reach. Everyone had blood on them. A young woman with a gigantic, red welt on her neck pressed herself against the glass, begging them to open the door. Candy’s hand began to rise to open the door. Dennis gripped it strongly. “Look at her neck. It’s too late.”

“Do you think we’re safe in here?” Eve asked.

Two men and a woman in the general population room where they stood, who had not previously appeared to be ill, suddenly dropped to the floor unconscious and began vomiting. “Oh shit,” Dennis said under his breath.

Candy grabbed Eve and pulled her and Dixon toward the door. Dennis stuck to them like a shadow. “Come on, we’re going back to the control tower.” But just as they reached the entrance to the medical unit, the men who had been fighting at the fence came running from everywhere. Many were cramming themselves through the door like Black Friday at WalMart.

On the other side of the room, by the priority sick room, a large scuffle erupted, and they could hear screaming and then two gun shots rang out. “Follow me.” Dennis grabbed Candy by her hand and they formed a train cutting through the crowd. Candy held onto Dixon’s leash and Eve held onto Candy’s pants with her hand.

The doctor appeared in front of them, gloved hands covered in fresh blood. There was fear in his eyes. “They’re turning too fast. We have to quarantine them.”

An older man with a fresh carpet of new hair on his previously bald head, and big teeth, lunged at Dennis, who for a big man, moved surprisingly fast to get out of the way. Dixon tackled the beast-man with his chest, biting his face and neck, and then picked him up in his massive jaws, shaking him like a rag doll until Eve heard his neck snap loudly. Eve pulled him off and Candy shot him in the head from point-blank range.

“It’s too late,” Candy said.

They ducked into the examination room to collect Brit, now on a rolling gurney. The nurse, who had been watching him, was nowhere to be found. They hardly noticed Needles at the glass. Each door they badged through with Thompson’s badge around Candy’s neck closed and locked behind them as soon as they passed through. Dennis led them deeper into the facility, right, left, right, right. Finally, they came to a large open area with darkened neon signs.

“A lunchroom?” Candy said.

The doctor went straight to the sink, where he removed his bloody gloves and began washing his hands with soap and water.

“It’s perfect. Food, water, there’s a bathroom over there. We’ll be safe here, I think.” Dennis grabbed a metal gate, pulling it across an open entrance area and padlocked it shut. “Who wants a cheeseburger?”

“How can you eat at a time like this?” Eve said.

“I have to go back in there. I have to do what I can,” The doctor said moving toward the padlocked gate.

“No one’s going in or out of that door before morning. If even one of those things gets in here, we’re all dead. You saw how fast they are,” Dennis said.

“He’s right,” Candy said. “If we go back out there, we’re dead.”

“The dog’s been scratched,” Dennis peered at the large, bloody gash on Dixon’s neck from a safe distance. “If this dog turns, we’re all dead. I’m afraid we’re going to have to put him down.”

“No!” Eve cried.

“It’s extremely unlikely the dog will turn, even if he’s bitten. No doubt, he’s naturally immune. These diseases rarely cross species. For instance, the Asian Bird Flu crossed from birds to humans, extremely rare, and therefore, extremely deadly. AIDS, they believe, was originally passed from monkeys in Africa, and then jumped species to humans. We all know how deadly that is. There’s still no cure.” The doctor came and put a hand on Eve’s shoulder to calm her. Dixon looked suspiciously from one to the other. He was clearly aware they were talking about him. “I don’t believe this ravening virus has crossed species. It seems only to affect humans. And I suspect that, as with any disease, there’s a certain percentage of the human population who is also naturally immune. That percentage may be very low, but there are almost certainly people among us here at the power plant who carry this immunity. They hold the key to curing this outbreak…”

“Yes, yes, fascinating doctor,” Dennis challenged sarcastically. “But how can you know for sure? I don’t want that dog changing into one of those things in the middle of the night and killing us all.”

“I can assure you that he won’t.”

Dennis looked unconvinced.

“We’ll tie his leash to the table by the door.”

“That dog could smash that table like a toothpick.”

“Help me to clean the wound,” Candy leaned over Dixon. “Sven loves this dog more than you know.”

CHAPTER 11: October 15, 7 p.m.

It was a jailbreak scene in reverse.

Throngs of people were pressed against the fence and dozens were climbing the fence topped with razor wire in an effort to get away from what was behind.

But the worst part was the screaming. It sounded like hundreds of women of all ages were simultaneously screaming and wailing at a pitch sufficient to shatter glass. Beneath that were the throatier, anguished cries of men and boys. Behind the mass of people pressing the fence and gates was a much larger, darker mass. Sven thought that he could see dark masses swirling behind them like the demons of hell. Ever since meeting Warren and the flagellants, Sven had been seeing things like dark shapes moving among the people and the beasts. It was like the people and the beasts were merely puppets to be manipulated by these dark shadow-things hovering around them, attaching to them, and racing through them.

“Shoot the climbers!” Zeb shouted.

They opened fire on the shapes climbing the fence. Two fell screaming into the writhing masses of panicked survivors beneath. Another climber paused, pulled a pistol from his pocket, and began shooting back. Two more men beneath the climber began shooting at Jackie and the others.

“They’re shooting back!” Bubba, Zeb’s son, went down with a strike to the thigh. Zeb and his sons targeted the shooter and anyone in the general area of fire. Mack and Tiny carried Bubba like a battering ram through the crowds behind to the medical unit and returned moments later to the battle.

“They’re alive! Don’t shoot them,” Sven shouted, running for the gate. “Open the gate! Open the gate!”

When the gate opened, it was like Black Friday at Walmart. The people flooded through wild-eyed, others hoarse from shouting and screaming. Tears of relief streamed down many faces.

“The infected…they’re coming…” Behind the survivors was a gigantic dark amoebic mass of ravening infected, feeding on the survivors, pushing them forward toward the gates of the power plant.

“Close the gate!” Jackie shouted, and Sven, Zeb, Mack and Tiny ran to muscle the gate closed against the ebbing stream of humanity.

It took a few minutes and five strong men to close the main gate, and still the survivors streamed through the pedestrian gate.

CHAPTER 12: October 15, 7:15 p.m.

Those survivors left outside the gate clamored to be let in, and others immediately began climbing the twelve-foot fence. The pedestrian gate was opened to allow a constant stream of survivors to tumble through just ahead of the ravening hordes.

Just beyond the fence and entrance gate lights, Sven could see what appeared to be a solid mass of beasts moving toward them. He had never seen so many of anything in one place before. He had seen the buffalo once on the plains of Yellowstone. Thousands of them moved as one. The sound of their hoofs shook the very earth beneath like an earthquake. Awesome. This was more like ants or wolves. They were terrifying with their glowing, red, unearthly eyes, fierce teeth and mane of hair over skeletal bodies. “Hair like women. Teeth like lions. They move as locusts consuming all before them.” Sven remembered the words of the flagellants. Could these things be the judgment of God? The smell of death was overpowering as they approached. Tiny doubled over, vomiting, then Mack. Sven stepped away slightly to avoid losing his dinner.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jeb said.

“Men to the front!” Jackie ordered to the men in the rear protecting their families. “All men to the front! Line up along the fence.” Mostly, they followed the order. The younger men tended to stand closest to the fence, eager to fight, with the older men and families closer to the rear.

The first beasts jumped in among the survivors scrambling to get through the gate. It was terrifying to see them ripped to shreds. The first volleys through the fence were panicked over reactions that ripped indiscriminately through beasts and survivors alike.

“Aim for the head! Body shots don’t stop them!” Jackie ordered.

Sven felt courage when he saw so many standing with them. There must have been at least five hundred men with him at the gate. All of them were armed with something. The majority had a pistol or rifle. Those who didn’t had at least a machete or a club. They held the strong position. They should be able to fight off the horde.

More survivors streamed through the gate, but the beasts were viciously attacking all. A woman with three young children entered with a toddler on her hip. Two young girls entered, clinging to each other wild-eyed. Men shepherded their families in front of them. Single men tried not to appear terrified. The women and children pressed to the back, and most of the men returned to join in the fight.

“Close the gate!” Jackie and Sven ran to bar the pedestrian gate, to prevent any more entering. Those remaining outside wailed hopelessly and gnashed their teeth, pleading, ”Let us in.”

“Head shots only! Fire! Fire!” Jackie ordered.

At first, it seemed they were winning. The beasts were going down in droves. The survivors stood along the fence and just picked them off. Often, they would get two for the price of one bullet. Even three downed with one bullet a few times, the beasts were so thick. In death, again, the beasts looked pitiful: skeletons with gigantic suppurating sores, frequently bones were broken, or joints hanging by a single ligament. He didn’t understand how they could move, much less jump, and lunge with such great speed. But most disturbing were the twisted second death masks of agony. The beasts were in so much pain.

“Need ammo! I’m out!” Cries began coming from the defenders inside the fence. Quickly another defender would re-supply them from their own stash.

“Conserve your ammo! Head shots only!” Jackie ordered again. The order moved down the line.

The dead beasts were stacking like cord wood along the fence. Yet behind, Sven could see an unbroken mass, relentlessly moving toward them. There must have been several hundred thousand of them. They continued firing through the fence.

“I’m out!” Sven cried above the din. Jackie re-supplied him with fifty rounds for his Glock. Zeb gave him another two hundred rounds. Jackie and Sven, Zeb, Mack and Tiny - Zeb’s son’s - fought together as a unit. Sven was determined to save his ammunition. This was only the first night and the first skirmish. How many more would there be?

Soon the beasts and dead and dying survivors piled as high as the twelve-foot fence in places, yet still they came straight at them, for the most part. The beasts focused their efforts in these spots, although they were so numerous that they attacked on all fronts simultaneously.

“They’re trying to break through!” Zeb’s son, Mack rushed toward the fence where the beasts were piling nearly as high as the fence. Zeb and Tiny followed immediately, fighting as a unit. Jackie and Sven were close behind. The beasts came charging straight at the pile and climbed as fast as they could, before being repeatedly shot by the defenders. The bodies just piled higher and higher. Then, one of the beasts ascended the top of the pile, holding a dying and bleeding human out in front of it like a shield. Sven tried to shoot around the human. Two more beasts copied the idea. Then, in one giant leap, they were across the fence.

“Shoot them!” Sven yelled, shooting the beasts even as the shots ripped through the dying humans. As soon as the beasts were across the fence, some dropped the humans and charged. Others swung the dying humans like clubs in one claw and slashed and bit with the other.

The first beast over the mountain of bodies killed and injured fifteen or more defenders in a few seconds before being brought down in a hail of gunfire. It was naked and skeletal, with big hair and wild, red eyes. It moved like lightning, slashing with its claws and biting. Two more were stopped at the top of the dog pile of bodies, but in mere seconds more and more beasts came pouring through the gap in their defenses. Before they had time to react or regroup, the beasts were among them slashing and biting. They were everywhere and nowhere at once.

Sven felt the confidence and esprit de corps evaporate among the men, replaced by panic. An equal number of defenders were shot by friendly fire attempting to hit the beasts among them, in those few seconds, than were savaged by the beasts themselves.

“Retreat!” Sven heard Jackie scream. At the time, Sven was at the fence with Tiny and Mack, trying in vain to stop the flood of beasts over the beast dog-pile. Jackie and Zeb were fighting together. They had switched to using machetes and improvised shields to conserve ammo.

The five of them sprinted to the control tower. As they arrived at the door, Sven turned to see another fifty beasts coming over the fence. It was an overwhelming flood. Behind them were an unstoppable army of thousands more. On the grounds, outside the fence and inside, were uncountable newly-infected dead. They were drunkenly rising from the dog pile to reanimate. The infected had red eyes, gigantic suppurating sores that would pop and eat away the flesh underneath in big chasms. In a few hours, they would transform into the beasts with the mane of hair, the wicked strong nails, and the big, canine teeth. They rose in whatever condition they died. One was missing half of his face. Another had his arm nearly torn off. Others had only bites and scratches.

The steel door slammed shut behind them and it was suddenly quiet. The moans and the screams and the gunshots were now muted. It was as if Sven had found the volume switch on the stereo and turned it down. And the smell, that awful smell, was muted.

Sven ran up the circular stairs two at a time and flung open the steel door at the top. There was no one there. “Candy? Dixon? Where is Eve?”

“They went with the doctor to Medical.”

“I have to go get them.”

“You can’t go back out there. You won’t make it five steps.”

Sven plowed forward, but Jackie caught him and stopped him. “They’re safe. They’re with the doctor. He’s smart. He’ll know what to do.”

“They’re in God’s hands now, son,” Jeb said.

CHAPTER 13: October 15, 7 p.m.

“Thompson!” Thompson was outside chuckling to himself when he heard his name called. Getting away from his captors had been child’s play. They were such amateurs. He just held the door open for them all to pass through ahead of him like a gentleman should, then turned and walked the other way. He watched through the glass for a moment. No one even noticed his absence. “Thompson!” Thompson turned his head this way and that, looking for the source of the voice.

“It’s me, Rusty.” Red-headed Rusty stepped out of the shadows along the wall a few feet away, wearing his guard uniform. One time Thompson had stood beside Rusty at a gas station in town, and he hadn’t recognized him without his uniform. “Are you bit or scratched?”

Thompson shook his head. “You?”

“Let me see your eyes,” Rusty said, as he approached him warily. After staring into Thompson’s eyes for a moment and shining a small flashlight back and forth over them, he seemed satisfied. “Okay,” he said.

“They took my weapons. Lend me your Glock.” Thompson tried not to look too longingly at the holstered weapon at Rusty’s side. Rusty held an M-16 in his hands.

Thompson was surprised when Rusty handed over the Glock without argument. “We need to get to the guard tower. There’s more weapons and ammo in there. Follow me.”

Rusty led Thompson around the corner of the building where two more guards were huddled in the shadows. On the other side raged a pitched battle. The defenders were lined up along the fence, shooting the beasts like fish in a barrel as they charged. The dead-again beasts were piling up along the fence in some sections nearly to the top of the twelve foot fence. The beasts advanced in wave after endless wave, and the defenders kept shooting them. Thompson shook his head, wondering if those things even had brains.

“We don’t have much time. We have to get to the guard tower. It’s the safest place if they breach the fence. There’s weapons and food in there. As a last resort, we can lock ourselves in the holding cells.” Rusty slapped Thompson on the shoulder and ran ahead of them. “Come on!”

Thompson felt a surge of elation in finding a band of his fellow guards. The gods were smiling upon him. Then it happened. The first of the beasts scaled the bodies of its fallen comrades along the fence, then did a spectacular leap over the fence. Suddenly, it was among the defenders slashing and biting. It bit and slashed five to ten defenders in mere seconds. Thompson paused from running to aim his Glock carefully with both hands. He took it down with the second shot. “Got it.”

“Run!” Rusty screamed. Instantly, there were five more beasts over the fence. Then ten, then twenty! Thompson ran headlong toward the guardhouse. He was dead last of the four guards. If only he had eaten less and taken his physical training more seriously. Thompson tripped over something and pitched onto his chest in the dirt. It was a body, and it seemed to stir slightly. There was no time. He got up and sprinted forward, struggling to catch up. The other three were now further ahead. The beasts were everywhere. Thompson heard shouts of “Retreat!” and the defenders were scattering like rats from a burning ship.

The beast came screaming in from the side, leaped, and bit a giant gash out of the arm of one of the guards in front. The other two shot it repeatedly. “I’m okay. I think, I’m okay,” the bitten guard said as blood gushed from the arm wound, soaking his jacket.

They sprinted the last few yards to the door. Rusty stopped and turned in the door, blocking it with his body. “Sorry man. You’ve been bit. You’re infected.”

“I’m fine, Rusty! Really, it’s just a scratch.” The guard’s face fell and he began pleading.

“Let me see,” Rusty said, leaning in. Then, without warning, he pulled the trigger, shooting the guard in the face with the Glock concealed in his other hand. The guard flopped onto his back with half his face gone, and jerked spasmodically on the ground in the final throes of death. Thompson caught up to them. He was out of breath. Rusty took the dead guard’s M-16 assault rifle and bandolier of ammo and handed them to Thompson. “You get bit, you become one of them.”

In mere minutes, the area that had been held so effectively by the defenders was nearly overrun with beasts. It was now a killing field. Ten beasts cornered five defenders against the wall, who were frantically looking for a way out. Thompson reached for the electronic badge at his hip, but it wasn’t there. That woman, Candy, was wearing it around her neck. Shit!

A beast came from Rusty’s blind side and tackled him as they stood impatiently in front of the door. Thompson shot it in the head. Rusty shook it off. Even in death a second time, the thing’s razor sharp claws raked his chest through his heavy clothes as he shook it off. Three more beasts rushed them. They all turned and put them down in a hail of gunfire.

Rusty slapped his badge against the electronic keypad. Finally, they heard the loud click of the lock and they tumbled into the guardhouse, slamming the door behind them.

Frantically, Rusty pulled his clothes off to check if the beast had drawn blood. He exhaled heavily, seeing only very minor red marks across his chest.

The quiet inside was jarring.

CHAPTER 14: October 16, 9:45 a.m.

The tinkling of breaking glass sounded just beyond their safe enclosure in the cafeteria. Eve had fallen asleep next to Brit, lying on his gurney. He had stopped moaning at some point during the night and slept soundly after that. He would groan painfully whenever he had to make even the slightest movement. Last night he had looked like he was going to die. This morning, he looked almost normal, just really tired with dark circles under his eyes.

“Thank you for watching over me.” Brit spoke in a hoarse whisper as he touched Eve’s arm.

Eve had butterflies in her stomach. He was so handsome, and his eyes were a clear bright blue. The doctor came and changed Brit’s bandages. “You’re looking a lot better. You just need a little rest and maybe something for the pain.”

“They’re coming closer. We have to get outside. It’s not safe here.” Candy stood in front of Dennis, who appeared to be sleeping.

All night, Eve heard the screams of the dying all around them, as the beasts ravaged them. Several times it sounded like they were getting much closer, but they never found their area. Candy let Dixon off the leash as soon as she was sure he wasn’t going to change during the night into one of the beasts. Even so, the wound turned an angry red and puffy. Dixon whined constantly about his confinement until she finally let him loose. Dixon was on high alert most of the night. Thankfully, he wasn’t a dog who barked a lot. He had barked early on once, but she and Candy had instantly clapped their hands over his muzzle to silence him. He settled for low rumbling growls. She didn’t think anyone had slept.

Dennis shifted slowly and ponderously from his position on the chair. “This is the safest place. It’s not safe outside.” Dennis seemed to do nothing but eat, sleep and silently scheme beneath those heavily lidded eyes. Eve had trouble knowing when he was awake or asleep, he was so still sitting on that chair most of the time. She was beginning not to trust him.

“Remember Needles, I mean Ben? Remember how he reacted when I turned on the lights?” The doctor said.

“They can’t stand the light,” Candy said. “We’re safe in the light.”

The sound of breaking glass sounded closer this time. “They’re breaking out the lights. They have to stay inside during the day.”

Dennis jumped up from the chair, suddenly full of energy. “We need to get out of here. Follow me. I know the way.”

CHAPTER 15: October 16, 10 a.m.

“All survivors report to the control tower.” Jackie spoke loudly into the P.A. microphone he had found attached to an impressive bank of controls overlooking the facility.

Sven stood outside, anxiously searching the survivors as they trickled in toward the tower. Sven had been unable to sleep all night, worried about Dixon, Candy and Eve. Why had he let them go with the doctor and Candy? He should have told them to stay in the control tower where it was safe. All night he had been haunted by visions of them bloody and ravaged, turning into the undead beasts. Smoking had calmed him, finally. He had taken to smoking in the still functioning bathroom - because there was still electricity at the power plant – and realized that pot was really a weed. He chewed and swallowed some, getting a nice buzz in the process, and finally, sometime in the middle of the night, his bowels had unlocked. The nightmarish visions still played through his mind, but he was more detached and he could watch them more like a movie. He ate some more grass when he awoke in the morning, delighted to find yet another legitimate medicinal quality present in this wonder plant he had spent his entire adult life cultivating.

“Rough night,” Zeb said, as the survivors straggled toward the tower. It appeared that none had slept. Some were obviously injured. Many had torn clothes, some were limping.

Dixon yanked himself off the leash held by Candy and jumped up on Sven, smothering him with kisses, overjoyed at seeing him. Sven spotted the gash on his neck immediately, “What happened?”

“He bit an infected, who attacked us. It scratched him. He didn’t turn,” Candy said.

“I’m pretty sure the ravening virus has no effect on animals. But we’ll know for sure in a day or two,” the doctor said.

“I was so afraid I’d lost you. Don’t ever leave me again.” Sven spoke lovingly to Dixon, who smiled up at him, wagging his stub of a tail. “How are you? Are you all right?” Sven looked first at Candy, then at Eve. Eve stood beside the gurney with Brit, barely glancing up at Sven as he spoke. She helped Brit to sit up as he groaned painfully.

“You guys are so cute together,” Candy smiled. “See, I told you he loves that dog more than life itself,” she said quietly to Eve, who smiled into her hand and moved her body closer to Brit, sitting on the gurney. Brit leaned toward her almost imperceptibly. Sven noticed that Eve barely looked at him even when he spoke, and she seemed to be attached at the hip to that guy, Brit. Probably, he was wrong about her, but at least he and his crew were inside the power plant. Better than being outside those gates by a long shot.

Jackie stood on top of the low concrete wall surrounding the control tower and performed a count of the survivors. “I count 48.”

“I reckon we had five hundred defenders last night plus family members.” Zeb scratched thoughtfully at his day-old beard.

“They annihilated us,” Mack said.

“We need a change of strategy,” Jackie said. “Any ideas?”

“They are sensitive to the light.” The doctor stepped forward.

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked.

“Well, the sun is out and here we all are out in the open. Where are the ones infected with the ravening virus?” The doctor didn’t wait for an answer but continued, “They’re in there. They’re inside the buildings, waiting for nightfall. When nightfall comes, they will own this area.”

“It’s true. We could hear them breaking the lights all night,” Brit said. Eve nodded agreement beside him.

“What do you propose?”

“We take a strong, fortified position and we flood the perimeter with lights - as many lights as possible.” The doctor looked at the control tower as he spoke.

“He’s right. Those things are in the buildings right now. Why haven’t they come out and attacked us?” Zeb said.

“Well, we’ve got two extra powerful spot lights up there on either side of the tower catwalk, plus there’s two more on top of the guardhouse. We can take those down and bring them up to the control tower,” Sven said.

“I need all available manpower to go get those lights off the top of the guardhouse,” Jackie shouted.

“We need tools,” Sven said. “We don’t want to damage the lights.”

“I know where the maintenance office is and all the tools you could need.” Dennis stepped forward.

Two survivors, a man and a woman, suddenly doubled over, vomiting. They had been standing in the shadow of the building, out of the sun. The woman looked up after vomiting. There was blood streaming from her eyes and nose, and bloody vomit covering her chin. She looked terrified.

“Oh shit,” Candy said.

Immediately, two nearby male survivors fell upon them with clubs and smashed their heads.

CHAPTER 16: October 16, 11 a.m.

“Everybody strips NOW!” Jackie’s voice boomed over the forty eight survivors. Zeb and his sons, Sven, Eve, Candy and Dixon rallied around him facing the others. Zeb and his sons readied their weapons.

“Now! Everybody strips!”

“Anyone else manifesting symptoms must be quarantined immediately,” the doctor said.

“It’s cold,” A female survivor said.

“I’m not taking off my clothes,” another said.

“We have to know who is infected. You will take off your clothes or you will survive on your own outside this fence. Now! Do it!” Jackie shouted, raising his weapon. Zeb and his sons raised their weapons. In the rear, a man sprinted away. In a flash, Mack shouldered his weapon, aimed and fired. The crack of the bullet split the still air and the man dropped almost before anyone else realized what was happening.

“Take off your clothes, or you will be shot,” Zeb said. The men immediately began removing their clothes. Some of the women also more slowly began removing their clothes.

“Men on this side. Women on this side,” the doctor ordered. It was a scene straight out of the holocaust. Men and women shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, embarrassed. A few fit, strong men stood with their hands on their hips, apparently unashamed. Candy, Eve, Sven and Dennis stood beside Jackie fully clothed facing the others, as they had already been examined the day before. Candy seemed to be sizing up the other women in front of her, making mental notes.

As soon as the clothes were off, five more were immediately identified as in the early stages of infection. Three had enormous boils on their necks or in their groin area over the lymph nodes. Two already had extreme light sensitivity and were weeping or sweating blood in addition to boils. One had very thick hair, evidence of canines and claws. He bolted and was also shot by Mack.

“Damn brother, let me get one!” Tiny complained half seriously. Bubba had died during the battle.

“You’ll miss,” Mack winked.

On closer examination by the doctor and two nurses, three more were identified as possibly infected. An older man complained that he suffered from a bad case of hemorrhoids. The doctor decided he would be quarantined separately.

The quarantine area was two rooms in the basement of the control tower where they would be locked in.

A sharp ear-piercing whistle from the locked gates broke through, “Hey! Let us in! Why are you all naked?”

CHAPTER 17: October 16, 11:30 a.m.

“Everybody get dressed. I need twenty men to help me with these lights,” Jackie said. “Show Sven where are the tools and maintenance room.” Dennis motioned to Sven, and they walked together toward the control tower.

“Why is everybody naked?” the loud mouthed jokester outside the gate asked, when Jackie and his men approached. There were at least twenty people pressed against the gate with him, clamoring to get in, and behind him a growing crowd of sixty more.

“What do you think?” Jackie spoke quietly to Zeb.

“I think we let ‘em in. We need them. They need us.”

“Every one of them has to be checked.”

“Yep.”

Jackie spoke loudly through the fence. “All new arrivals will line up to my left along the fence. Everyone else get dressed.” Zeb stepped back with his boys, who raised their weapons slightly to form a posse to Jackie’s right. Some of the other men also raised their weapons, copying Zeb and the boys. “You will remove all of your clothes. No exceptions. This is for your safety and ours. Anyone who runs will be shot. Anyone who refuses to strip will not remain inside these gates,” he nodded to Zeb. “Any infected persons will be safely quarantined. You will not be harmed.”

Out of the eighty new arrivals, four were found to be in the early stages of infection and were quarantined without incident.

“How are we going to feed all these people?” Zeb asked Jackie.

“I don’t know. But we better think of something fast,” Jackie said.

CHAPTER 18: October 16, 11:35 a.m.

The loudmouth jokester at the fence turned out to be Frank from Portland, who had been down to see some family in the San Francisco bay area when everything hit. He knew his way around a tool box and quickly took charge of removing the lights from the tower in a safe and non-damaging manner.

“Put the hammer down. Step away from the hammer.” Frank grabbed the head of the hammer just as a member of team #2 on the tower was about to give the now mangled light casing another whack to free it from its mounting. The guy holding the other end looked at Frank in surprise. Frank took the hammer and replaced it with a ½ inch ratchet.

“The next guy hits a light with a hammer is spending the night outside. You! You’re in charge up there,” Jackie boomed from below. “Do what he tells you. What’s your name?”

“Frank, from Portland.”

“Okay then, Frank from Portland, make sure those lights get down here undamaged. I don’t see any replacements lying about. Do you?”

“Aye, Captain,” Frank saluted.

“I didn’t hit the light. It was the bracket holding it.” The hammer wielder defended himself in a polished voice.

“What did you do before the infection?” Jackie asked.

“I was Vice President of Advertising at Hertzog, Francis,” he replied proudly.

“And you?” Jackie pointed at the long haired greasy kid beside him. “What did you do?”

“Me?” The greasy kid tried to shrink away unnoticed. “I delivered Pizza and Chinese food.”

“We need both of you down here,” Jackie diplomatically relieved them of their duties.

“Get up there and make sure nothing else gets broken,” Jackie said to Sven. Sven ascended the tower to replace those two. Frank had pretty much taken care of business by the time Sven arrived topside.

The teams, led by Frank and now Sven, mounted the new lights on top of the control tower, five stories from the ground, next to the other flood lights mounted there. Additionally, the guardhouse was the home of two powerful search lights that gave a directed beam of light and were housed on rolling carts that swiveled. These were tied securely and lowered down from the guard tower with ropes to avoid going inside in case any infected were hiding inside, waiting for full darkness.

All of these lights were re-mounted and the search lights installed on the catwalk encircling the top of the tower, shortly after noon.

“Hey, there’s people inside the guardhouse,” Frank called to Sven.

“You mean like infected?” Sven said.

“No, they look alive to me.”

CHAPTER 19: October 16, 1 p.m.

“For I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Jeb read a passage from the Bible as his remaining sons, Mack and Tiny, stood by stoically.

A pit was dug with the backhoe in the far corner of the fence, on the ocean side, as far from the buildings as possible. Two smaller holes, off to the side, were dug for Eve’s parents and for Zeb’s sons Bubba and Jeb Jr,, who had died in the fighting the evening before. They discovered that there were surprisingly few bodies to collect and inter, when they sent around a flatbed trailer dragged by a pickup. Only the handful of dead that had been shot in the head did not reanimate.

Eve wept bitterly as her parents were buried, flanked on either side by Candy and Brit. Dennis and all the remaining survivors were there to show respect. The guards they found in the guardhouse did not make an appearance.

Jackie shook his head sadly, “Seems like a futile endeavor. We’ll be killing them again tonight.”

“Do you think that these things are the immortality Jeb read about?” Sven spoke quietly. Sven had felt electric as he listened to the words Jeb read. He felt that God was giving him understanding, but he wanted to test the waters first by playing dumb.

“No. Those things are dead. They’re decaying and rotting,” Jackie said.

“Those guards we found in the guardhouse didn’t show,” Sven said. “Do you think we’re going to have problems with them later?”

“Later, more likely than not,” Jackie said. “Right now, we’re all just surviving. They may not make it through another night of the infected. We’ll deal with them later.”

“Dennis seemed pretty happy to see them,” Sven said.

“Brit, too.”

Sven walked over to Jeb, Mack and Tiny and shook each of their hands in turn. “They’re in a better place,” Sven said. Jackie followed behind. Behind them formed a cue of the survivors to offer their condolences.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Jeb had tears in his eyes.

“I’m sorry for your loss. Nobody meant for that… to happen to your parents,” Sven approached Eve, who was flanked by Brit and Candy. Candy looked at him encouragingly, while Brit maintained a poker face at his approach.

“I know,” she said. “Stuff…just happened.”

To Sven’s surprise, Eve threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

CHAPTER 20: October 16, 2 p.m.

Everyone brought something to share, and for the first time all the survivors as a group shared a meal. Most brought canned goods, since they were non-perishable. Frank from Portland generously killed five of his chickens and roasted them up. Nothing went to waste. When the guards heard the commotion, they came out of the guardhouse, and lined up with everyone else to get a plate. Eve was sure she was not the only one to notice they didn’t bring anything to share, even though they stacked their plates high and returned for seconds without asking.

It wasn’t just a funeral for her parents and Zeb’s sons. Everyone there had lost someone. In fact, everyone there had lost everything. All they had were the clothes on their backs, and no one knew if they would even live another day. Eve felt really touched that people cared enough to honor her parents death. She genuinely shared the pain of every person present.

“Dixon jumped up and grabbed the beast by the throat and shook it. I could hear the neck breaking!” Candy was recounting the story to Sven, who smiled at her, as Eve joined them.

“Yeah,” Eve said. “We would probably be coming to feed on you tonight if not for Dixon. He saved us.”

“So, is Candy watching out for you?” Sven asked, in a half joking manner.

“Yeah, she’s taking good care of me,” Eve smiled.

“I’m gonna take a little smoke break.” Sven arched his eyebrows. “You want to come? Might cheer you up.”

It wasn’t Sven’s fault that her parents were dead. In fact, he tried to stop them from being shot. Without Dixon guarding her last night and taking out that beast that lunged at them, she probably would be infected right now. “Okay,” she said.

It was electric, when Sven took her hand, to lead her off around the side of the building. Dixon didn’t follow, preferring to stay near the food. Sven was always so cool: never flustered, never raised his voice. She really liked that about him. Also, his friends were all so dangerous, but he was so cool, so seemingly unaffected. She watched as he lit up the fragrant weed and took a long drag, holding it in his lungs before passing it to her. She had smoked pot before but this time she was nervous because of him. She started to inhale, but ended up in a nervous coughing fit. Sven smiled with his mouth and lungs still full of smoke. He leaned toward her slowly, gently taking her head in his hands, then pressed his lips to hers and exhaled into her mouth until her lungs were filled with the smoke that had been in his. He smiled at her and said, “Hold it in.”

She coughed a little before putting her hand to her mouth to keep it in. She kept her eyes locked to his. Finally he exhaled, giving her the signal and she let out a long exhale of smoky air. Her head felt very light and she found herself giggling as he took another drag. He seemed calm and unaffected. Sven gave her another very mellow smile and handed her the blunt. This time she was able to take a drag and hold it in. Sven nodded his approval and squeezed her hand. Afterward, she noticed that he didn’t let her hand go. It felt good, and she liked it. She released the smoke in a flurry of uncontrollable giggles. She didn’t even know what she was laughing about. Her mind was racing from topic to topic. Sven was laughing with her. She was laughing so hard, she found herself doubled over, her head pressed against his long torso, her hands resting against his chest.

Then she found herself looking up into his face. They kissed. It happened so fast, and the kiss was so brief, she wondered if she had only dreamed it. Her heart pounded in her ears. She could hear that his heart had sped up too. She buried her head into his chest not wanting to pull away but afraid of what might happen is she met his eyes again.

Someone cleared their throat loudly behind Sven. Eve and Sven jumped apart as though they had not been touching. “She’s only sixteen, you know,” Rusty said, fingering the butt of his pistol. Next to him were Thompson and the other guard. Behind them was Brit, looking like he had just been sucking on a lemon.

“We were just talking,” Sven said.

“Looked to me like you were rounding second base,” Thompson chimed in, looking to Rusty for support and finding it.

“What’s going on here?” Jackie and Candy appeared behind Rusty and Thompson.

“That one there,” Rusty pointed at Sven, “was kissing a sixteen year old girl.”

“I’m not sixteen,” Eve said. “I’m eighteen, and we weren’t doing anything. We were just talking.”

“Well then, I’m going to need to see a driver’s license for proof.”

“I must have left that in my other purse,” Eve countered sarcastically.

“What’s that in your hand there?” Rusty demanded.

“That’s pot,” Thompson said. “I can smell it.”

“So?” Sven said.

“Yeah, so what?” Candy pushed forward to defend Sven. Dixon powered through the crowd to come stand beside Sven. He looked at Sven and then looked at Rusty and Thompson and the other guard. A low rumbling growl began sounding from him.

“You better hang onto that dog or I might have to shoot it,” Rusty stepped back.

Sven jumped to his feet, “Then you would be a dead man.”

“Did you just threaten me?” Rusty drew his pistol. Instantly, Jackie, Candy, Sven, Jeb and Mack had guns pointed at all the guards.

“Whoaa! Whoaa!” Dennis lumbered to the front, “What’s going on here? Everyone just calm down now. Nobody’s going to get shot today. Hasn’t there been enough killing?”

“This is a federal installation and we are duly appointed federal officers sworn to protect this installation.” Rusty was red in the face. “You’re under arrest for possession of a controlled substance. We’ll put him in the holding cell until the government shows up.” Rusty nodded to Thompson and the other guard, who began to move toward Sven with hand cuffs. Dixon let out a snarl and lunged at Thompson, knocking both he and the other guard on their backs like ten pins with his massive chest. Candy jumped in and stopped Dixon from going for Thompson’s neck with his massive jaws. Sven grabbed Rusty’s pistol and wrestled it up to prevent Dixon from being shot, then head butted Rusty on the bridge of his nose until Rusty’s knees wobbled and his nose was bleeding pretty badly.

Jackie and Zeb stepped in, knocking Rusty, Thompson and the third guard out cold with the butts of their rifles. “Get their weapons. Cuff them,” Jackie ordered.

CHAPTER 21: October 16, 3 p.m.

“This is a federal facility. You’re all trespassing,” Rusty screamed from the ground, where he was cuffed and his feet were tied and then all of that was tied to his hand cuffs behind his back to complete a very tight, very uncomfortable-looking hog tie. “As federal officers, we are in charge of this facility. We are ordering you to leave now or risk being shot.” Thompson and the other guard were tied the same way.

Sven laughed, lit up a blunt, took a long drag and blew the smoke into Rusty’s face. “The government went underground to their bunkers. They’re hiding. They left us all up here to die.”

“There’s nowhere to go. If we left we would be eaten by the beasts,” an older matronly female survivor said.

“I say we kill them.” Jackie spoke quietly to Zeb and Mack, who nodded. “Save us a lot of trouble later.”

“No. No. No.” Dennis was everywhere now, dancing around like a ninety-pound ballerina, fighting for their lives. “They’re just following orders. They didn’t mean anything by it. Just let them go. They’ll stay in the guardhouse.”

“I don’t know…”

“You can’t go killing everybody who knows how to run this plant,” Dennis argued. “These guys have been here for years. They know how everything works. You need to keep them around.”

“You can’t kill them!” The older matronly female survivor pleaded, while several others in the crowd grumbled agreement and nodded vigorously, “They’re not infected.”

The crowd was clearly against killing the men. “Okay, but we’re taking their weapons as punishment, and they need to stay out in the guardhouse,” Jackie said.

“No more food for them,” Sven said.

“They have to provide their own food.” Dennis was agreeing to anything at this point.

“Okay, take all their weapons.” Next, Jackie ordered a search of the guardhouse, and all remaining firearms and ammunition were confiscated and put upstairs in the tower. A small armory with nine new M-16s, bullet-proof vests, lots of ammunition, and more handcuffs and hobbles was found in the tower. Two more spotlights were found and moved to the upper tower.

“This is a death sentence. How will we defend ourselves against the beasts?” Rusty complained, as he and the other guards were released.

Jackie pointed to his head, “Use this for starters.”

“Fight with an axe, metal bar, whatever,” Zeb said. Sven just smiled. Dixon stood close by, occasionally emitting a low grumbling growl.

“I don’t like this,” Jackie spoke quietly to Sven. “But the remaining survivors have seen too much death and I don’t think they would stand for us killing any living people at this point.”

“It’s not over,” Sven said. Eve stood close beside him.

CHAPTER 22: October 16, 4:30 p.m.

Sven was keeping his distance from Eve, since their brief encounter. He glanced around the room uncomfortably. Everyone seemed to be doing something else, but he knew all eyes in the tower were focused on Eve and him. Wherever he stood, he could feel eyes on the back of his neck. Every time he would glance back to see, she would look away. Only Brit stared openly. He sat on a table watching Sven, while a nurse examined and changed the bandage on his wound. “It’s healing well. No infection…” She stopped as she realized others’ ears would perk up at the word infection.

“Sven, I need you over here on this light. It’s getting dark,” Jackie barked from the catwalk.

Glancing back again, Sven saw that Candy now had an arm around Eve’s shoulder. Eve and Candy watched him as he walked away. Brit stared at him with malignant hatred.

“Aren’t we a little thin up here?” Sven asked, looking around at the few men manning the lights. “Where are the new arrivals?”

“Down below,” Jackie pointed. “They’re all on the first floor with a steel door between us and them. They’re the first line of defense.”

“If the infected get in they’ll tear through them like a hot knife through butter.”

“They’re down there and we’re up here in case some of them are infected and change. That way they won’t get all of us.”

“Smart.”

“If we keep taking big losses like the past few days,” Jackie shook his head, “God help us. We’re not going to make it.”

Both men were silent as they realized that tonight’s battle would probably decide whether they would make it or not. Sven unconsciously turned to look toward Eve, to find her watching him. He looked away.

“There’s one. You see it?” Jackie pointed to a lone wolfish figure emerging from the next building, where it had been waiting out the murky daylight. It was just after 4:30 p.m..

“Hit the lights!” Jackie barked, loud enough to wake the dead. Zeb was standing by to immediately flick a bank of switches flooding the base of the tower with light. Immediately, the beast disappeared back through the door to avoid the light. Several more times over the next few minutes the same door cracked open only to close with nothing emerging. Finally, a small group of beasts could be seen standing in the shadows over to the left. Sven could see a few of them raising their noses to sniff the air. Then from another direction, another group of infected began throwing dirt, sand, rocks and sticks at the lights. A single light broke, hit by one of the rocks. Gunfire erupted from below, as the defenders in the bottom of the tower began shooting at the infected.

“Hit them with the spots!” Jackie ordered. Sven flicked on the powerful spotlight and lit up the shadows like the noon day sun. The infected hiding there from the gunfire scattered instantly.

“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Jackie yelled into the radio clipped at his waist. The firing finally stopped. “Save your ammo. Only fire if one of them gets close. One shot one kill. Got it? One shot one kill.”

Zeb came and stood next to his son, Tiny, who was manning the other spotlight. “Seems to be working,” Zeb said, absently fingering his weapon, while manipulating a toothpick with his tongue.

“Whenever you see a group of them, hit them with the spot. There. Right there,” Jackie pointed to another group that had formed in the shadows. Sven and Tiny both eagerly hit the group with their spots. The beasts banged into each other and the wall and the door, so great was their haste to escape the bright light.

“Whoop!!” Zeb let out a whoop. Tiny laughed. Jackie slapped Sven on the back.

“Okay, Tiny, you take that side. Sven, you handle this side of the tower. Light up anything that gets close.”

At the locked outer gate, a small group of late survivors drawn by the lights, rattled the chain link fence and called toward them, “Let us in!”

Sven and Tiny lit them up with the spots, just as four to six beasts were fast approaching, with a writhing wall of darkness on their heels. The beasts veered away from the bright spots. Jackie waved his arms and yelled, “Hide! It’s not safe! Get in the cars!”

“Hide!” Sven screamed.

It was a man, woman and two young children. They jumped back as the beasts came toward them. “Help us!” they screamed. The man began firing into the near darkness dropping a few beasts and enraging others further. Sven could see dark figures running toward them from every direction, drawn by the noise; hundreds, maybe thousands, deterred momentarily only by the pinpoint lights of the spots on them.

“We have to do something!” Mack jumped up with his rifle, ready to rush out the door. Two more men jumped up to join him.

“No, son!” Zeb held his hand out to stop him.

“It’s suicide!” Jackie said.

The door on the bottom floor of the tower opened, and four men came out, guns bristling like SWAT, firing as they moved toward the family at the fence. Jackie ran to the steel door and flung it open to get to the floor below. Mack and the other two followed on his heels.“Shut that door!” He screamed to the ten men standing guard at it with their rifles, backing up the four who just exited.

Sven watched in horror as the two daughters and then the woman were snatched from the beams of light. He could hear their screams. The man was firing wildly into the darkness all around him, calling out their names. Everywhere Sven moved his light, the thick masses of beasts scattered, but he didn’t see the woman or the girls. He could only hear their screams. When Sven moved his light back to where the man had been an instant before, he was gone. In his place were hundreds of beasts, writhing like maggots from this distance.

The four men, who had an instant before so bravely ventured out, began retreating, firing as they went. One by one, the beasts snatched them out of the lights. Only one man remained to run back to the steel tower door the well lit distance. He pounded on the door, looking nervously to his left and firing. He was swept away from the light by at least thirty beasts before he could look in the other direction. His terrified screams echoed in the darkness.

CHAPTER 23: October 29, 11 a.m.

“I think Brit is gay!” Candy was holding Eve and rocking her as she cried. Eve really needed someone she could trust.

Candy laughed almost unkindly, “Of course! You didn’t know that? I could tell just by looking at him. He’s in such great shape. His hair and body are perfect, and haven’t you noticed the way he stares at Sven? I think he has a thing for him.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?” Eve lifted her head from Candy’s breast to stare her in the eye.

Candy just laughed, pulled Eve’s head back to her breast and kissed her forehead tenderly. “You’re just young, baby. You’ll learn. You’ll learn.”

“I thought he was interested in me. He seemed so nice.” Eve was still sorting out the morning’s events clouding her mind. “I practically threw myself at him. I laughed at all his jokes...”

“But he is interested in you, honey. You’re close to Sven.”

“Not as close as Alexis…”

“Ohhhh, so that’s what this is about…a little revenge fucking. Maybe make Sven a little jealous so he will return to you.”

Eve was a little taken aback at the dirty language, “No…I don’t know. What does Sven see in her anyway?”

“She’s not you, honey.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sven and I have been friends for a long time - long before any of this happened. He’s feeling a little crowded right now, but he likes you. He’ll come back. He doesn’t have any feelings for Alexis.”

“Really?” Eve searched Candy’s eyes.

Candy covered the two inches between them and gave Eve a kiss on the lips. Eve pulled away. The kiss was gentle but firm and Candy tasted sweeter than a man. Eve felt that she should end this, run away, but the moment was so intimate, so tender, and Eve just really needed a friend right now. Candy kissed her again on the lips, this time longer. She swept her hair out of her face with her hand and then let it rest on her breast as she kissed her again, more deeply, adding a little tongue. Candy played gently with her nipple as she kissed her again and again. Eve could feel her body responding, even as her mind was confused. Candy was so gentle and she seemed to respond to Eve, even before Eve became aware of her own feelings. Eve marveled at how different this felt from her limited experience with men.

Then, Candy was unbuttoning her shirt and removing her bra. Every time Eve thought to protest or try to move away, Candy gave her a new delight, a new bodily pleasure. The madam was in her element and demonstrating her prowess. Eve felt that she was being sucked into a great abyss of pleasure, tied with silken ropes from which there was no escape. Any thought of escape was overwhelmed instantly with new and different surges of previously unimagined pleasures.

Eventually, Eve gave herself over to the pleasures that Candy was offering. She felt safe in that moment. Candy brought her to new and exciting heights that she had never before dreamed of. Eve did not know these powerful feelings she experienced in her body were even possible. Eve was like a violin in the hands of a master. It seemed to go on for hours. Candy was teaching her, coaching her, telling her what to do and how. Correcting, encouraging almost like a class. In Candy’s sure hands, Eve learned not only the pleasures of responding to a lover, but the power of initiating and providing that pleasure. Eventually, Candy slowed and then finally stopped. She pulled her panties on and attached her bra, now looking down impatiently at Eve, who suddenly felt very naked, lying on Candy’s bed. Eve pulled the sheet over to cover herself.

“I think you are ready now,” Candy said, very matter of fact.

Eve looked at her.

“Old enough to enjoy it.” Candy pulled her blouse on over her bra. “I was six-teen when I started stripping to pay the rent,” Candy emphasized her age. “You’re going to have to start pulling your weight around here.”

CHAPTER 24: October 30, 10 a.m.

Sven was holding onto Eve’s tiny hand. They were slightly out of breath from their strenuous hike up the mountain. Sven put his pack down while Eve spread out the blanket she carried. He had a bottle of wine, some cheese with crackers and sandwiches. The sun on his face was warm and below them, the world was green again. She was touching her belly and looking at him. “Are you?” he asked, looking into her eyes for the answer.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

It was a miracle. His heart felt like it would burst inside him. He was the luckiest man alive. “I love you so much,” he said, and then they kissed, and then again. Her kisses were wet and her body was warm beside him on the blanket. Her tongue darted into his mouth.

“What?” she said.

“I..” Sven opened his eyes and blinked as the dream faded and his mind refocused. Alexis lay on the bed with him. She was nude under the comforter. He was on the mattress in the back of the tower and he could feel the sharp chill of the morning just before the grow lights clicked on. Two weeks ago Jackie, Jeb and the boys had helped him knock down two walls to combine three of the largest rooms in the rear part of the upper tower to set up his grow operation. They lay on a mattress in the back, behind a jungle of pot plants. Dixon lay with his head on his paws four feet away, his eyes shifting uncomfortably between them. Sven estimated only one more week before his first post apocalypse harvest.

“You were talking in your sleep again last night,” Alexis smiled at him, making fun.

“Oh.” Alexis was Candy’s top girl. After the thing with Eve, Jackie saw them talking and he brought her to him. She had been coming to visit a few times a week. They would smoke some and then have sex. He gave her a bag of dope in trade. She was selling it, but it was hers to do with as she pleased. She was twenty two and a looker. Blond, slim and long legged - nothing at all like diminutive, dark-haired Eve. Before the infection, she had been a corporate secretary, and had just been admitted to law school. Like almost all of Candy’s girls, she had no idea where was her family, and was lucky to make it to the power plant with little more than the clothes on her back.

“You were saying something about…”

Sven planted a kiss on her to shut her up. He didn’t want to hear it. He continued kissing her until she responded and they went through the motions of sexual passion. Afterward, she wrapped the sheet around herself for the walk to the shower. “Did you say…you loved me?” She turned, smiling a little uncertainly. He was her ticket out from under Candy. She could move upstairs. She could help Sven with the garden and sales. She would have more and better everything. Her place and her world would be secure but best of all, no more bartering for sex.

Sven just looked at her for a moment. He didn’t know how to answer. Finally he said, “You’re great, Alexis. You’re awesome.” Her smile instantly faded and she turned on her heel toward the bath.

Sven put some fresh weed into his water bong and lit up. Dixon smiled, wagging his stub of a tail and went forehead to forehead, wet nose and stinky dog breath to dry nose with Sven, for his usual good morning greeting, and then laid back down a few feet away to watch.

Except for Eve, things were going really well. The bright lights kept the infected at bay. Any that wandered close, they shot. The infected were not completely brainless. They learned quickly that this area was well defended and the hunting was better just about anywhere else. The swarm moved past them. Only infected stragglers remained to hide in the buildings and in the abandoned cars nearby. Two large trenches eight feet deep had been dug out in front of the entrance and sea water pumped in. Two additional twelve foot fences had been erected in front of each of the trenches. This created a large, open kill zone for the infected trying to get to the plant. Only the road remained, and that was blocked with more than a hundred mostly abandoned vehicles of all types. Eve was safe and staying with Candy in the bottom of the tower. Jackie, Jeb and the boys, Big Dennis and himself had set up in the top of the tower.

Candy had about twelve girls now in the base of the tower, thirteen counting Eve. Yesterday, Candy had come to Sven and approached him about putting Eve to work with the other girls. She told him that the other girls were jealous that Eve was getting a free ride, getting all the benefits and doing none of the work herself. “…And she’s sleeping with Brit.” Sven could feel Candy watching him like a hawk, “I believe her exact words were that she had to ‘practically throw herself at him.’”

Sven nodded noncommittally.” Sven had seen Eve and Brit together talking almost every day, recently.

The girls were under Candy, and the lions share of the scavenged goods ended up locked in the tower in trade for sex. It was the age old trine of sex, drugs and alcohol. There was a constant stream of refugees coming through the gates, from morning until they closed them around 4:00 p.m.. There was a lot of debris in the air, and sometimes it was dark all day. But if the sun did break through, it was between 10 and 4:30 p.m.. That was the safest time, and the infected generally stayed hidden and out of the daylight. The busiest time for the girls was first thing in the morning, around 10 am. The busiest time for liquor and smoke was after noon until just before dusk.

The tower, and those inside of it, had the best of everything the new world had to offer. The best lights, the best weapons, the most and best food and the girls, the liquor and smoke brought more in barter daily.

Sven went straight to Jackie and talked to him about Candy wanting to put Eve to work, before dropping the bomb. “She said Eve is sleeping with Brit.” Sven felt confused, betrayed, and maybe a little disgusted even though he was sleeping with Alexis.

“Not sure I’m seeing it, bro,” Jackie replied. There was a long moment of comfortable silence between the two men as Jackie gathered his thoughts. “Eve would be a huge money maker for Candy, for all of us. That’s where Candy’s head is at. You feel me?”

Sven nodded thoughtfully.

Sven had spent the rest of the day before avoiding Candy, who went out of her way to be standing wherever Sven walked. She watched him, waiting for his decision with pursed lips. Finally at dusk, Candy approached him. “Today alone I have two offers on the table, and I haven’t even had time to put the word out properly. Two chickens from one; a whole pig from another. She’s a gold mine - young and pretty and clean. Guns, store bought liquor, cigarettes…” Candy glared at him angrily for interfering in her business. He knew she would go to Jackie, but the decision was Sven’s. “Really?”

Big Dennis made daily rounds to ensure the lights stayed on at the plant and it didn’t go into meltdown. He was accompanied by heavily armed Mack and Tiny, Jeb’s boys, who’s job it was to learn the procedures as backup. Sometimes Jackie would go too. Now that Brit was up and around, Brit had also been accompanying Dennis on his rounds. For the electricity provided by the plant, the crew had discussed during their daily meetings a tax on all the residents of the power plant. After discussion, it had been decided that now was not the right time and that they could utilize this currently untapped resource whenever the time seemed right. Brit was staying in the guardhouse with the former guards. Jeb had been welcomed into the crew due to his moon shining ability and the fact that his sons Mack and Tiny provided most of the security for the girls.

Over the past few weeks, their numbers at the power plant had grown to a solid five hundred. Everyone was welcomed inside the fence. But the newcomers, after being checked over by the Doc and nurses, went to the largest Admin building with the least resources and also the least secure of the three. The remaining guards and Brit had taken up residence in the guard gatehouse, which was actually three stories tall. Additionally, the gatehouse had a basement and still had one remaining spotlight and a catwalk for snipers. The guards, not unexpectedly, had quickly re-armed themselves. Jackie and Jeb had plundered the armory in the guardhouse immediately realizing the value of the weapons, ammo and the spot lights. Before anyone could object, the better part of those things were residing securely inside the top of the control tower. The other half of the remaining weapons and lights were acquired by the tower through the working girls in trade. Folks were real stressed out these days. Every day could be your last. Men were willing to trade for a little stress release and Candy was right there to provide it. For the most part, she had her pick of the finest looking women among the refugees, and so far all her recruits seemed satisfied with the trade offs. No one was compelled to stay, and a few quit in the beginning. They were quickly replaced by new girls among the refugees. After seeing the inferior conditions, food and security outside of the tower, several had tried to return, but Candy had turned them away. One of the most persistent girls stood outside the door all day pleading to be allowed to work again with tears streaming down her face, but Candy stood strong and finally resorted to throwing rocks at her to drive her away. She had been bitten by the infected later that same evening on her way to the Admin building. Not a single girl had quit since then.

“Chicken run, today. You ready?” Jackie came loudly through the door.

“Yeah.” Sven said, turning his back and hastily pulling some jeans on. An abandoned poultry farm about fifteen miles east had been discovered and reported by several refugees the day before. In exchange for the information and their help, the now trusted Portland Frank and his people would run the chicken operation for the benefit of all from a secured spot in the Admin building.

Jackie and Sven exchanged the usual manly hugs. “Brit’s moving over to the tower with us today. He’s too valuable an asset to leave waving in the wind.” Sven nodded. “Me, you, Mack and Tiny we’ll go in heavy so there’s no arguing. Bring him here. He’ll bunk with Zeb and the boys. Keep him on a short leash for a while.”

Sven nodded, “Okay.” Jackie would discuss things one on one with his crew, but he made the decisions. Those decisions were usually final.

“I want you with us. I know there’s some tension between you and Brit – that thing with Eve. I’m thinking you should run point on this; show him who’s boss, okay?”

Alexis emerged from the shower completely nude, holding the bed sheet casually draped over one hand. She feigned surprise at seeing Jackie and covered herself briefly, ineffectively and not very convincingly with her long delicate hands, as she took confident strides with her long legs toward them. Jackie stopped and stared at her.

“Hello, Jackie.” She dropped the sheet, pressing her large pink nipples and naked body against Jackie and giving him a big kiss on the cheek. Even bare footed she was slightly taller than Jackie in his heavy boots. She looked frankly at Sven after the kiss, her hand lingering on his massive shoulder completely un-self-conscious. “I’m sorry, were you boys talking business?” Alexis strode to the mattress on the floor past Sven, folded over double ostensibly to look inside the overnight bag beside it. She then looked over her shoulder, upside down, at Jackie past her shapely bare ass and the bulls eyed side ways poker faced money shot she was offering him. Satisfied, she turned and strode back to the shower, casually ignoring Sven as she passed him, swinging her bag, head held high.

“Chicken run. Ten minutes.” Jackie turned and was gone.

CHAPTER 25: October 30, 10 a.m.

SNIP!

Eve’s long dark locks fell silently to the floor around her. Eve slapped herself on the forehead, “Stupid!” She said. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” She hit herself in the same spot with the flat of her hand, with the repetition of each word. Her forehead quickly turned an angry red.

SNIP! SNIP!

This was even worse than that thing with Amber that slutty bitch of a cheerleader! How could she be so stupid to let herself be set up like that again? At least Amber was probably dead, or more likely one of the undead things roaming the earth. Eve tried to take some satisfaction in the thought, but all she felt was rage.

SNIP!

If she was going to be forced to work as a prostitute, at least she was going to be ugly.

SNIP! SNIP! SNIP!

She had trusted Candy. She had confided in her like a big sister or a friend. During some of the long nights of the first attacks, Eve, unable to sleep, had crawled into Candy’s bed and fallen asleep safely wrapped in her arms. Sven had even instructed Candy to ‘watch out for her.’ Eve’s rage melted into a heavy sadness. Her limbs suddenly felt like they weighed a thousand pounds, and her eyes filled with anguished tears. “Why?!!!” Then the tears came gushing out of her, and once they started, they wouldn’t stop. She found herself doubled over weeping great gasping sobs over the sink.

Pull yourself together, Eve.

SLAP!

She slapped herself hard across the face. It stung, badly, but her tears stopped instantly.

SLAP! SLAP!

She smiled or was it a snarl like one of the infected? In a twisted way it felt really good. Not good exactly, more like just real. The pain pulled her back to reality. It pulled her out of her bottomless well of emotions, into the here and now. She needed it. She craved it.

She took a heavy breath and examined her work in the mirror. She looked like shit. Her thick, dark brown hair once flowing gracefully over her shoulders now was just ragged clumps of unevenly sheered off…fur really. Her eyes were red, and there were dark circles rimming them. Raccoon face.

SNIP! SNIP! SNIP!

Done, if you could call it that. She didn’t look ugly as much as she looked more like a scrawny, frightened little boy - like someone had rubbed all the cute girl-shine off of her. She looked at the heavy scissors in her hands. She opened the blades and rubbed the sharp edge lightly against her arm, tracing the line of the prominent blue vein just beneath. She pressed a little harder, feeling the sharp edge pressing against her soft skin. The blade left a reddish white trail that quickly faded but didn’t break the skin.

This was no kind of life to live. She had no one and nothing left to live for. Her parents were both dead. As much as she felt bound and restricted by them while they were here, at least they loved her. Even her crazy mother loved her in her own twisted way- at least before she went off the deep end. Eve shook her head to expel the thought of her mother’s last moments on earth. Sven was fucking that bitch Alexis, who made certain to remind her at least one thousand times a day with a look, or a nod, or a self satisfied smirk every time they passed each other in the bottom of the tower. To Candy, she was just a commodity to be used - used and discarded when she had served her purpose.

Someone pounded loudly on the bathroom door, “Chicken run!”

She could kill herself but why bother, she realized, when death was all around her? One misstep, one false move, one momentary lapse of attention and the infected got you. Pull yourself together, Eve.

“Coming!” Eve called through the locked door. She quickly splashed water on her face, collected herself and rushed out the door.

CHAPTER 26: October 30, 10:15 a.m.

“This is it. It’s now or never. They all went on the chicken run.” Dennis spoke in a harsh whisper to Brit inside the guardhouse. Thompson and Rusty followed close behind.

“I don’t know. Things are going really well. The community is finally getting on its feet. With the chickens and the pigs they found, we may finally have a sustainable community without having to rely on scavenging so much.” Brit shook his head.

“What?! Why didn’t you say this before?” Dennis was turning red.

“I’m in,” Thompson said.

“I’m in, too. This is a federal installation and we are duly appointed federal officers sworn to protect this installation.” Rusty rehashed his well rehearsed outrage speech, “They are trespassing on federal property, running a house of prostitution, operating multiple criminal enterprises, drug dealing, moon-shining, growing marijuana…somebody, please correct me if I am saying anything that isn’t true! They treat us like second class citizens around here. They stole our weapons! Weapons issued to us by the United States- God bless America- and provided to us for the protection of this installation. This is our power plant. I’ve been working this gate for fifteen years.”

“Exactly!” Dennis said, “and how do you run a power plant without nuclear engineers?”

Thompson made the sound of an explosion. “You’d have meltdown,” Rusty said. Rusty roughly shoved Brit. “Are you with us or not?”

Dennis quickly stepped between them. “We’d all be dead without them,” Brit said.

“We’d all be sitting on a year’s worth of food, safe and warm, with heat and lights and working plumbing,” Thompson said.

“The survivors would have rushed the gates. There would have been no way to keep them out. What would you have done, shoot them?” Brit said.

“Well, yeah,” Rusty said. “It’s us or them.”

“This is our place,” Thompson said.

“This is our power plant,” Dennis was the calm voice of reason. “You know they’ve turned this place into a circus…a whorehouse.”

“Yeah,” Thompson nodded vigorously.

“That’s fucked up!” Rusty’s face was turning a disturbing shade of crimson.

“I live over in the control tower. They’ve got everything. Stockpiles of food, weapons, ammunition, lights, you name it. And they got all of it from pimping those girls, selling pot and making liquor.”

“Those are our guns!” Rusty almost screamed.

“A lot of the guns and ammunition were taken from the armory inside this guardhouse,” Dennis said.

“No violence.” Brit felt the argument was lost.

“No violence.” Dennis immediately agreed before hotheaded Rusty could jump in.

Rusty seemed to be having a hard time swallowing it but finally agreed, not very convincingly, “Okay. Okay, then.”

“We’re just going to get more of what’s ours for running the plant. Things are going to get divided more fairly from now on,” Dennis continued.

“Yes. Okay,” Brit nodded.

“This is our power plant. We run it. We provide the infrastructure that makes everything else possible.” Dennis waved his hands expansively.

“Yeah!”

“We provide the heat, the lights, the power…”

“And the security,” Thompson added.

“Damn straight!” Rusty nodded.

“Think of us like the government. We’re just going to levy a tax,” Dennis said.

“We get our cut,” Rusty was catching on.

“Of everything,” Thompson’s eyes went wide, realizing the possibilities.

“So what’s the plan then? We talk to them when they get back?” Brit asked.

“Hit em’ where it hurts,” Rusty said.

“Remember, Sven took advantage of Eve after her parents died.” Dennis spoke directly to Brit, watching him closely to gauge his reaction.

Brit didn’t know what to say. This was supposedly why he was living in the guardhouse. Recently, Jackie had been pressuring him relentlessly to come live in the tower with them. It was safer, better food and the guards were filthy, vile pigs. A gigantic nest of cockroaches had sprung up in the kitchen area. Of course, the cockroaches would survive the apocalypse. They had become so numerous that yesterday he found a cockroach in his bed. It was so large it actually challenged him. He could hardly stand it over here. But the real reason was that he just couldn’t face Sven. He couldn’t wake up every morning knowing that he was in the next room screwing some girl, the latest of which was Alexis. Brit knew that eventually Sven would realize that he was in love with him and that his reaction to Eve had been pure jealousy. “We don’t know what really happened.”

“Fuck ‘em!” Rusty shouted.

CHAPTER 27: October 30, Noon

“Poor chickens. This is why I’m a vegetarian.” Eve squinted to look into the dim chicken coop through the small crack in the rear of the giant industrial barn-sized plastic structure. The inside of the coop was a kill zone. Dead chicken carcasses were piled a foot deep or more on the floor. They lay bent, twisted, mangled and smashed in piles of feathers, dust, blood, chicken shit and dirt. The survivors sat nervously jerking their long necks spasmodically, wide-eyed from the topmost tiers of long wooden racks attached to the walls among piles of crusty, chicken shit straw.

The sound attracted her attention even before her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Hundreds and hundreds of infected packed together in the center of the coop, touching, jostling, biting, snarling and writhing like maggots. It was what she imagined hell would sound like and it chilled her to the bone and made her involuntarily shiver and wrap her arms around herself. A terrible and constant moaning emanated from them, almost like a twisted meditation chant. The voices all mixed together in some terrible harmony, the higher voices of the undead women and children and the lower voices of the undead men groaning and moaning in agony. Layered beneath and within this festering harmony were the sounds of many teeth grinding and gnashing and jaws snapping, the sounds of an unquenchable thirst and hunger for human flesh and blood. A high wail pierced through the moans. It began quietly at a high pitch and steadily increased in volume until Eve wanted to scream and she had to cover her ears. It was like someone slowly driving a knife into the wailing victim’s heart and with every millimeter deeper the pitch became louder and more fervent and more painfully desperate. Two more wailers joined in and a low pitched male voice screamed, and then five more. It almost sounded like the screamer was calling for help, but he was dead. He was infected. There would be no help for him or any of them. They were the damned. Other voices joined in what sounded like howling. Each voice that joined in held so much pain. The howlers mixed with the wailers into a twisted chorus of agony and now more howlers had joined. Eve wanted to scream. She wanted to do something; anything to make it stop.

“Eve!” Jackie called from the truck where they were loading their meager catch of fourteen chickens clumsily corralled and finally trapped in a large commercial fishing net. “Get away from there. It’s too dangerous.” Just beyond Jackie, she could see Sven watching her.

“We have to help the chickens,” Eve said. “The infected just kill them. They’re not even eating them.”

Jackie covered his mouth, trying to suppress a chuckle, and turned away towards Sven. Several of the men loading the chickens smiled, and even Sven! Now she was mad. “Come over here,” Jackie waved to her and then turned his back dismissively.

“We could open the door to let the chickens escape. The infected won’t come out because of the light…” No one was listening. She could see Sven talking to Jackie and smiling.

She tried to peer back into the coop but something lunged at her from the other side snarling and drooling and scratching with heavy claws. She caught a glimpse of its eyes and teeth. It was filled with rage and thirst and hate. She wished she had a gun, but they wouldn’t give her one. She felt in her pockets and found her lighter. Before she even knew what she was doing, she bent down and lit the dry grass mixed with the hay sticking out of the sides of the coop. She turned and walked toward the truck. Sven was still watching her. Good. But now he looked surprised.

She heard a whooshing sound behind her, and the side of the coop erupted in flame. She could hear the panicked chickens clucking and flapping and the sounds of the infected moaning became louder.

“Come on, we have to open the door.” She ran around to the front of the coop and began struggling with the large barn-sized door.

“Get the nets!” Jackie ordered, and everyone scrambled to arrange the two empty remaining nets in front of the door. Smoke was filling the coop and the chickens were throwing themselves against the door and walls, flapping and clucking, desperate to escape the smoke and billowing flames. “Shooters ready!” The shooters lined up on the truck beds, and pointed their weapons down at the closed barn-sized doors, over the heads of Eve and the men down below.

Jackie and Sven each had pistols in one hand and long rifles strapped to their backs. Sven handed Eve a pistol. Jackie, Sven and Eve flung open the giant double doors and out came pouring smoke and panicked chickens. A few infected wandered blindly into the light and were shot by Sven, Jackie and the shooters. The smoke seemed to confuse the infected and they seemed much less aggressive.

In the span of three minutes, hundreds of panicked chickens flew into the nets. They increased the day’s chicken run take by the power of ten in three minutes. Most of the infected remained packed together in their circle in the middle. A few stood in deeper shadows near the door. They were shot.

Some of the men wanted to shoot into the pack. “No!” Jackie said. “If they rush us, we’re dead. Help me lock these doors back up.”

The net of chickens was so heavy it took every available hand to load into the open beds of the large truck. The entire building was consumed in flames now. A few infected ran out of cracks in the building, their thick hairy manes aflame, their tattered clothes alight carrying the sweet sickly smell of burning human flesh in the smoky air. They were shot immediately. Horrible screams and sounds of torment issued from the burning coop. Eve strained her eyes from the truck, afraid to approach, ready to flee. Finally, through the fire and smoke, she thought she glimpsed a huddle of infected digging into the dirt and throwing it on top of themselves. They couldn’t run safely into the dim daylight of the last days.

“We will return tomorrow for the rest of the chickens in the other coup,” Jackie said.

Eve held out the gun butt first to return it to Sven. Sven began reaching for it then changed his mind, instead tousling her newly cropped hair with his large hand. Her body temperature flashed hot at his touch, and she felt her cheeks flush. “I like your hair. Did you do something to it?”

Eve was tongue tied, and she was angry with herself for reacting so transparently. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Sven cocked his head and leaned down to get a look into her down cast eyes.“You keep the pistol. You’ve earned it.”

A fresh issue of tormented screams and howling emanated from the building as they pulled away in their truck. The building collapsed in flames but she saw no infected run out of it. Sven smiled at Eve before getting behind the wheel of the truck. Everyone was smiling at her and had words of encouragement for her. Eve realized that she wasn’t afraid, and right now at least, she didn’t want to die.

CHAPTER 28: October 30, Noon

Animals. These men were filthy animals. Actually, animals were much better than these men. Brit peered out from the corner of the guardhouse, feeling trapped. “You have to stop this. This is going to get us all killed.” Brit spoke quietly to Dennis. Thompson had removed Alexis from the cell where they were holding all the girls, to have his way with her. Alexis said, “Be gentle, big boy,” and forced a nervous smile.

When Thompson was done, immediately Rusty wanted a turn. Candy said, “Leave her alone now. That’s enough.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to, bitch?” Rusty opened the cell and slapped Candy across the mouth. “You’re not in charge.”

“And you think you are?” Candy said under her breath, then smiled very broadly. “Look, this will be over in a few hours. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Rusty pulled her roughly out of the cell and shoved her into the next room. “I’ll show you who’s in charge.”

Candy never made a sound, but when she came out of the room to be put back into the cell with the other girls, her clothes were disheveled and there was a large red handprint across her face where Rusty had slapped her.

“She is fucking hot!” Rusty had a big smile on his face. Thompson smiled back. “Like porn star hot! No wonder she charges so much. I think I’ll have a go at Alexis after all.” He moved toward the cell after the briefest of pauses. Alexis shrank toward the back of the cell, behind the other girls.

“No. That’s enough.” Dennis stepped in front of the cell. “They’re on their way back. Pull it together.” Dennis dispatched them to the guard gate catwalk.

“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?” Brit went to the cell after they were gone. The girls huddled in the back in a terrified bunch. “Do you need anything?”

“Yeah, let us out of here.” Candy fixed him with a steely glare. “Look at what they’re doing to my girls. Brit, I can offer you unlimited free visits. You help me, I help you. Let us out. They’ll never know what happened, and I’ll owe you one.” Candy realized her mistake after the words were already out of her mouth.

“I…I can’t.” Brit turned away, involuntarily putting his hand to his mouth to choke back the bile. “I’m sorry. I really am,” he said, and hastily shut the door behind him. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than constant pressure to have sex with women, by accepting free unlimited visits to the girls.

CHAPTER 29: October 30, 1 p.m.

Sven mulled over Eve’s reaction to him moments before. It was obvious she liked him and they had a connection. When he touched her hair, he could feel her immediately respond and it was hot! He wanted her. At that moment, all he could think about was taking her to a private place to cuddle up with her. He needed to know her physically, emotionally and at the deepest levels of his being. But there was the issue of Brit…was she simply playing them off against each other? Raising her price by playing the field? Sven had to admit that to some extent this was what his thing with Alexis was about. Sure, she was an attractive woman, but really he just needed a little emotional space from Eve who had become a bit clingy after the death of her parents and it never hurt to gauge a woman’s interest…

“They took the girls…Candy…over.” Zeb’s voice crackled over the radio as they came within a few miles of the plant.

“Say again?” Jackie spoke into the radio riding shotgun while Sven drove.

“They took Candy and the girls. They are holding them hostage in the guardhouse.” Sven slammed on the breaks, crushing the chickens against one another in the net, and tossing Eve and the others forward in the back of the truck. They needed to think this through. There could be an ambush waiting ahead.

“They better not hurt Candy,” Sven shook his head.

“What do you advise? Over.” Jackie stepped out of the truck and spoke loudly into the radio.

“They say they just want to talk,” Jeb said. “Frank, the Doc and some others are set up in the bottom of the tower as defenders. About half of the folks from Building 3 are in the bottom of the tower. The other half stayed in Building 3. We’re buttoned up tight here at the top. It’s just me and Mack up here.” No one had seriously considered the possibility of attack from within their own ranks.

“Sit tight. Don’t let anyone in or out. Don’t engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary…” Jackie began.

“There won’t be any shooting from our side,” Dennis broke into their conversation. Apparently, he’d been listening the entire time. Jackie took his thumb off of the send button and stomped around outside the truck cursing silently. “This is a peaceful protest, if you will, of the current division of goods in the community. We merely wanted to get your attention.”

“You have my attention, Dennis.” Jackie spoke through gritted teeth. “What is it that you want?”

“We want half of everything. And as a show of good faith, we want all of the chickens you scavenged today.”

“Let’s go back. First of all, I understand you are holding Candy and the girls as hostages.”

“They are not hostages. We needed to get your attention.”

“Have any of them been harmed?”

“Absolutely not,” Dennis lied.

“I’m going to need to speak to Candy before we can continue negotiating,” Jackie said, getting control of himself.

“First of all, I’m calling the shots here, not you. Number one, I’m going to need you to agree to our demands. Number two, upon agreement, I can offer you safe passage back into the power plant and the tower. I would hate to see you all have to spend the night outside the gate. No telling what could happen out there…” Dennis’ voice was measured and reasonable in an ‘I’ve got you by the balls’ kind of way.

“If we don’t get these chickens out of this net and inside they’re all going to die. That means no food. We don’t bring these chickens in, you starve. We are prepared to spend the night outside the gate. We considered this possibility before going on this scavenging run,” Jackie lied.

“Half of everything and all of the chickens in exchange for Candy and the girls,” Dennis said.

After ten more minutes of negotiation, Jackie bargained Dennis down to half of the chickens in exchange for Candy and the girls and safe passage. The remaining exchange of goods would occur the following day.

CHAPTER 30: October 30, 3 p.m.

Brit chewed his fingernails mercilessly as he watched the exchange of the chickens. Candy and the girls were held at gunpoint by Rusty and Thompson at the front of the guard tower facing the entrance. This was bad, really bad.

“If any of you ladies decides to run, you’ll be shot,” Rusty threatened.

Candy just glared at Rusty. She never took her eyes off of him. Alexis held her stomach and looked down. Brit saw movement out of the corner of his eye by the fence to his right. It was a sniper wearing camouflage lining up a shot on them. Brit was too far to see his eyes, but he looked at him and nodded and then stepped back into the concrete entry way out of the line of fire. Finally, peaking tentatively around, he thought he saw the sniper nod back. He hoped that the man, whoever it was would tell Jackie that he saw him and didn’t reveal his position. He knew that Zeb had more shooters on top of the tower facing the fence, but they were on the other side of the guard gate house. Likewise, they had all available guards up on their catwalk, ready to fire should anything go wrong.

Jackie and Sven had the chickens ready when Dennis lumbered over. Dennis was having trouble dragging the chickens himself, so Thompson ran out to help. Dennis gave the signal to Rusty, who released the girls. They took off running toward the tower. Candy just stood there looking at Rusty with something in her mouth. She stepped toward him and spit a big wad of gooey phlegm into his face.

Rusty was momentarily in shock, then back handed her across the face where she landed in a heap at his feet. Then realizing he had a rifle, he turned the butt side to her and was about to bash her before she could get up. Candy lifted her arm to protect her face.

“Let her go! Candy, get out of there!” Jackie boomed. Every gun from the chicken run trained on Rusty and Dennis.

“Let her go, Rusty,” Dennis called. Rusty lowered his weapon. Candy turned and slowly walked away toward the tower with her head held high, not looking back.

CHAPTER 31: October 30, 3:30 p.m.

“That one. That motherfucker right there. The one with the red hair. See him?” Candy pointed, stone faced, at Rusty. Rusty could feel someone watching him on the back of his neck as he helped Dennis and Thompson to drag the net of clucking, squawking and flapping chickens the final few feet into the guardhouse. Rusty turned and saw Candy pointing at him. They locked eyes momentarily from a distance. “Dead. You hear me, Jackie? That fucker is dead.” She turned her back and stalked away into the tower.

“We’ll take care of it,” Jackie nodded. “It was a mistake letting them go the first time. No good deed goes unpunished.”

“He raped me.” Alexis stood behind Candy, speaking barely above a whisper to Jackie, her face a mask of pain, tears flowing. Jackie turned away. Alexis immediately turned toward Sven, “He raped me.”

“Who?”

“Thompson.” Alexis appeared terrified as she pried her eyes from her feet to look across the gap between the buildings, but didn’t point and showed only defeat and pain, not anger.

“Tell Candy,” Sven said, and began pulling again at the net filled with terrified chickens. Alexis took it like a slap in the face, her mouth hung open with the shock of the latest blow. Sven saw her reaction and regretted blowing her off, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Lock it up!” Jackie boomed the moment they entered the door of the tower. “No one goes in or out.”

“I’ll put the chickens in my area with the plants. They’ll like that.” Sven was good at growing things. Plants and animals liked him and thrived around his energy. Jackie waved his hand at him dismissively. Alexis stumbled around behind Sven in his wake, weeping and confused.

The lower tower was crammed full of men and families, refugees from Building 3. Babies fussed, mothers sang lullabies, people ate. “You, you, you, you…come with me now.” Jackie waded through the crowd, tapping men on the shoulder. “You also, yes, you and you.” He made a circle, ending at the stairs to the upper tower. Men hurried to fall into his wake. The door to the upper tower opened and Jeb peeked his head out. “Report.” Jackie was the general in full command, walking with his troops into the stronghold of the upper tower.

CHAPTER 32: November 1, 4:30 p.m.

“Hey, Dennis...” Rusty’s hands and face were covered in chicken grease as he chewed on more chicken. Every time Brit had seen him in the past two days, he and the other guards had been eating chicken. The smell of cooking chicken now permeated every corner of the three level guardhouse. “It’s getting dark. Shouldn’t we turn the lights on?”

Dennis jumped up from the chair where he had been dozing. He grabbed Brit as he did, pulling him along. Since the conflict started Dennis would not let Brit out of his sight for a moment, in case he decided to run for the other side. Dennis flicked the light switch on the wall up and down, up and down. “Are the lights working downstairs?” He asked Rusty, who just shrugged.

“Is there a breaker box or something maybe downstairs in the basement?” Rusty took an enormous bite of breast meat, adding more grease to his already greasy, reddish brown, patchy beard.

Dennis peered out of the window from the third floor of the guardhouse. “The tower is lit up like a Christmas tree.” He rushed into the room they had just left and looked through the window at Building 3. “3 is dark too.”

Brit could see shapes moving in the shadows of Building 3. “Who is that?” Immediately, as if it had heard Brit, the thing in the shadows threw its head back and a long, mournful howl pierced the growing darkness. Brit could clearly see the silhouette of its shaggy mane and sharp teeth. He noticed movement next to it. He could make out six or seven more in that shadowy place waiting for full darkness. Two more threw their heads back and joined the first one howling. Brit heard snapping and snarling as others jostled and fought, and the low, ever-present moaning sound, like wind through the trees.

“Come on!” Rusty put down his half-eaten plate of chicken and wiped his greasy hands on his pants as he began running. Dennis was close behind, dragging Brit along with him. They found the breaker box with their flashlights in the basement. Dennis frantically clicked the tumblers on and off. Next to it was a larger power switch to the entire building. He clicked that up and down while Rusty tried his hand, frantically flipping the breaker tumblers on and off, to no effect.

“I guess that’s why they call it the control tower,” Dennis said quietly under his breath. His shoulders were slumped and he looked defeated.

“What?” Rusty stopped flipping breakers, which he seemed to believe would work by sheer determined willpower, and turned wild-eyed toward Dennis.

“They have controls to operate the entire plant in the tower. I guess they figured out how to turn off the power to the rest of the plant.”

“We’re in for a rough night,” Brit said.

“The lights are out. Get everyone into defensive positions,” Rusty spoke into his radio.

“Well, turn them back on,” Thompson replied through the radio.

“Meet me at the third floor, gate side.” Rusty, Dennis and Brit ran up the eight flights of stairs. Rusty took them two at a time. Dennis followed for half a flight, then switched to one stair at a time. Dennis was beet red and sweating. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack. The howling was getting louder and seemed to be coming from all around the building. Brit looked out of the front windows at a crowd gathering at the gate.

Thompson looked through the scope on his rifle, “Infected at the gate.” Brit estimated that there must be at least thirty already. As if to erase any lingering doubt, several threw their heads back and howled. Their shaggy manes could be seen clearly in the fading light. Thompson and Rusty began shooting out of the windows. Normally this entire area was flooded with lights for almost one hundred yards. Tonight it was dark. Between them, they downed five or six, but twenty replaced them before the last went down. He could hear them snapping, snarling, and moaning.

“Hopefully, the fences will keep most of them out,” Rusty said. As if in answer, many of them started scratching the road and the dirt alongside the fence with their long sharp claws. And then, the first one squeezed under the fence on the right side of the road just west of the gate.

“Hit them with your lights,” Rusty said, as he pulled his large Mag light off his belt and shined it at the fifty or so infected now crowding the main gate. Immediately, many of them shielded their eyes from the very dim, distant light source, but didn’t move or stop digging. It only seemed to antagonize them and the snarls, howls, and moans increased. The five or so under the fence on the right side shielded their weird, red eyes from the dim pinpoint of light and sprinted the few feet to the door of the guardhouse.

“Turn it off! You’re giving away our position!” Thompson grabbed Rusty’s light and pulled it down.

“If we don’t have lights, then the tower shouldn’t have lights either!” Rusty screamed maniacally and ran to the north side windows. He broke out the windows with the butt of his rifle and took aim at the big spotlight. It exploded instantly in a dramatic shower of sparks. Thompson joined and shot out a smaller fixed light beside it. They laughed and high-fived each other. Then the two windows they stood in erupted in a hail of gunfire from the tower. Brit and Dennis jumped back and hid behind a doorway. Rusty and Thompson dropped flat to the floor. Rusty was cut by flying glass on the back of his hand. Neither had been hit directly. Brit could see the other remaining spotlight on this side moving away. He knew they couldn’t risk having more shot out.

There was a loud scratching sound below. They ran to the third floor windows and looked down. Below were a hundred or more infected at the door. A steady stream of infected was coming under the fence on both sides of the gate. There were now several hundred at the gate. “The windows have bars on the first floor and the door is bolted shut. We should be all right,” Dennis said. As he said that, two began climbing with their sharp claws right up the sides of the bricked-in windows, toward the second floor. More followed. There were no bars on the second or third floor windows.

“What do we do?” Thompson turned white as a sheet and looked like he’d just taken a crap in his pants. Brit grabbed his nose as the stench reached him.

“Shitfire and Assnation!” Rusty glared at Thompson.

“Take all the guns and ammo and lock ourselves in the holding cells. They won’t be able to get to us.” Dennis took off at a sprint toward the cells in the basement.

As they passed the second floor, there was a loud shattering of glass, and an infected climbed in through the window, oblivious to the deep cuts it received from the broken glass. With unwavering focus, it snarled and advanced toward them at lightning speed. Rusty and Thompson took it down after five shots. Three more infected poked their shaggy heads through the same broken window. Rusty and Thompson fired wildly at them not hitting anything. Dennis kept running, dragging Brit along behind him. “Come on! Stop wasting bullets!” Dennis screamed.

Rusty and Thompson reached the basement just behind them, slamming the steel door and bolting it behind them as they reached the dark and dank cell area. Heavy scratching of claws on the metal door told them the infected had arrived. They flicked their flashlights on. The cells were below ground and the only windows were tiny six-inch-thick “4x4”s at the top of each cell. “Put all the guns and ammo in the cells,” Dennis ordered.

No one moved. Brit jumped at a shadow in the corner. He thought he saw the shaggy form of an infected, but it was a mop standing on its end, business side up. “All we have is what’s on us,” Rusty drawled. “All the rest is up on the third floor.”

“Maybe we can make it back to the third floor,” Thompson said hopefully.

A pack of infected howled at the door so loud they had to cover their ears. There was more scratching, snarling and loud moaning at the door. Brit estimated there were at least five infected at the door now and they were howling, calling more to come. ‘Fresh meat,’ they howled. “We’ll never make it past that door,” Brit said quietly. “All the food is up there, too.”

“We just have to make it through the night. Help me find the keys to the cells!” Dennis searched through the metal desk. The infected were punching large dings in the metal door as they struggled to get in.

“There, on the wall.” Brit pointed to a large key ring on a nail pounded into the cement wall.

Dennis snatched them off the wall, then tried them on the cell doors. “These are the ones!”

Not a moment too soon. They all turned their heads in horror as the top corner of the metal door bent back like a tin can and an infected poked its head through. Rusty put his rifle right up to its face and pulled the trigger, blowing it back through the hole. “Into the cells!”

CHAPTER 33: November 2, 9:45 a.m.

It was morning, finally.

Dennis unlocked the cell as quietly as he could, but it still made a loud click as the tumblers turned. It took all four of them to push the pile of dead infected from in front of the cell door. The infected had peeled back the metal door like it was a cheap can of coke, and then they were inside, slashing, snarling, spitting, moaning and howling. Dinner! If not for the bars of the cells, they would have been dead for certain. After the initial panicked shots, Rusty and Thompson had decided only to shoot the infected that came right up to the bars of the cells trying to slash and bite them.

Brit could hear the infected moaning all around him. From the sound of it, there was a large murder of them directly above, hibernating during the daylight hours on the first floor of the guardhouse. They crept quietly out of the guardhouse, into the dim sunlight.

“Stop! Right there!” Sven had rounded the corner and saw Brit, Dennis, Rusty and Thompson. Rusty and Thompson were in front. Sven was alone and didn’t appear to have a weapon on him.

Rusty smiled and began to lift his rifle, “Ohhh, I’m a gonna enjoy this, I am.”

“Freeze! Drop your guns! Sven, get back!” It was Jackie on the catwalk on top of the tower. Jeb and Mack immediately joined him, sighting their weapons on the men. Mack was a crack shot and could down any of them from there.

“I surrender!” Brit yelled; anything as long as he didn’t have to make it through another night of the infected. “I’m unarmed.”

“Down on your faces. Now!” Jackie ordered. Jackie and Zeb stayed sighted on the men from the tower catwalk, while he sent Mack and Tiny down to join Sven.

“If we surrender, you’re not going to kill us, right?” Dennis asked.

They laid down their weapons and then went to their knees in the dirt. All the fight had gone out of them from the previous night. Mack and Tiny appeared with their weapons. They all put their hands on top of their heads.

“Oh hold on now…” Rusty said, as Candy appeared in the doorway.

“Stay down! Don’t move or I will shoot you!” Jackie shouted from the catwalk, a cruel smile playing briefly about his lips.

Rusty didn’t know what to do. He wanted to run, but he knew Jackie wasn’t bluffing. Candy walked fast toward him, holding something behind her back. When she pulled the handgun out from behind her back and pointed it directly at Rusty’s head, Rusty only had time to make a terrified “O” face before she fired once into his head at point blank range, dropping him like a sack of potatoes, then moved forward to stand directly over him before firing her second shot. Brit jumped up with his hands in the air and backed away, ready to run. In the confusion, Dennis and Thompson ran for it. Mack grabbed the gun away from her before she could shoot someone else.

Sven put his body between Brit and Candy. “It’s okay.”

“I told you MOTHERFUCKER! What did I say?” Candy screamed at Rusty’s dying body.

Brit hugged Sven, grateful to be alive, and wept.

CHAPTER 34: November 2, 10 a.m.

“Shit!” Thompson screamed inside his own mind as he ran. He was not in the best of shape. He was 6’-1” 280 pounds. He wasn’t going to be able to run more than a quarter of a mile before stopping. He looked at Dennis, who closely resembled a giant bowl of jiggling jelly, in front of him. He could outrun Dennis. They rounded the guardhouse and kept going. They made a bee line for Cooling Tower 1. “What are we going to do?”

Just then, the power switched on in the rest of the plant. They could hear the screams of the infected, where they had been hibernating in the darkened rooms, that were now suddenly flooded with artificial light. They heard screams, snarls and glass breaking as the bulbs were hastily shattered. “Come on. I know a place.”

Dennis ran for the cooling tower. “We have to hurry, before they come looking for us.” Thompson lagged behind. They probably didn’t want to kill him. Rusty had raped Candy, but she was a whore. She had sex with men for a living, and she was a porn star. How can that be rape? He had sex with Alexis. She didn’t seem to like it very much, but that’s just because he didn’t pay her anything. It was more like petty theft in Thompson’s mind, but it wasn’t rape. He didn’t need to rape a woman to get what he wanted. He could get it for free. They wouldn’t kill him, would they? Candy might. That bitch was crazy. He saw what she did to Rusty, and no one did anything to stop her. She could do whatever she wanted.

Dennis led them into the cooling tower, left, right, left, right, right. He led them to a small control room and slammed the door shut behind them. There were large pipes with handles and written warnings. Luckily there were no infected there. “This is the safest place. No one comes back here.” Dennis was red faced and sweating. He was panting heavily as he sat down on the largest pipe. The lights went out again. Apparently, they had turned the power back on in the control tower and then turned it off again immediately to prevent them from going into the buildings. “They turned the power off. The badges don’t work. We can get out but they can’t get in unless they turn the power back on.”

Thompson was also panting heavily, and his shirt was soaked with sweat. His feet felt like lead. He found himself hyperventilating a little from the fear. No, he would have to stick with Dennis. There was a good chance they would just kill him if he went back. “That was fucked up! Can you believe that shit? The bitch just shot his face off! Nobody did anything to stop her.”

“Keep your voice down.” Dennis was calm, trying to slow his breathing. His eyes were half closed and he seemed deep in thought, or meditating, or maybe about to nod off for a nap. “There’s some pry bars over there,” he pointed toward a corner with some tools. “We can’t use our guns unless absolutely necessary. They will give away our position.”

“I say we get the fuck out of here. We can’t stay. We’re going to have to take our chances out there.” Thompson pointed in the general direction of the front gate. “We can’t travel at night. We have to leave now.” Thompson jumped up.

“Sit down. We can’t go outside. They’re looking for us out there right now.” Dennis got up himself and picked up two pry bars and two large screw drivers. He handed one pry bar and screw driver to Thompson.

Thompson sat down, his adrenaline slowly ebbing. “How come there’s no infected in here?”

Dennis shrugged, “Luck maybe. They’re in all the other buildings except the control tower. Or maybe the infected are drawn to the smell of humans and no one has been in here since this all started. I came into the cooling towers once in the very beginning, then haven’t been back since.”

“So you stayed away on purpose?” Thompson asked. Maybe Dennis was thinking ahead.

“Something like that. I wanted there to be a safe place in case I had to get away for a few hours; besides, there’s nothing in here but the water pipes and the backup generators to cool the reactor. As long as the pumps keep working and the water keeps flowing into the reactor, there’s really no reason to come in here.”

“So what do we do now?” Thompson asked.

“When they turned off the power to the other buildings, they turned off the pumps…which would cause the reactor to overheat. However, these pumps are so important that they are all hooked up to a bank of backup batteries and generators that automatically kick in when the charge on the batteries dips down below a certain level.” The loud sound of generators turning on shook the building. Dennis got up.

“Where are you going?” Thompson asked.

“To take a look at the backup generators.” Thompson followed him. Dennis seemed to have forgotten that he was there. He was engrossed in tracing the wiring from the backup generators to the batteries.

“What are we doing? We need to get out of here.” Thompson was eager to make a run for it.

“We sit tight for a few hours, to let things cool down,” Dennis smiled at his own pun. “Then we take off and we get as far away from here as we can.”

CHAPTER 35: November 3, 11 a.m.

“Some of us are getting out of here.” Portland Frank had cornered Eve, out of sight of the tower, on the way to Building 3 during daylight. He stood very close and whispered conspiratorially. “We want you to come with us.”

Eve looked up at Frank. He carried the fresh smell of the outdoors and chickens on him, but kept his hair longer. He looked nervous.

“They’re not going to be able to keep this place running without Dennis and Brit. It’s time to bug out.” Eve found herself looking down, staring at his thick, strong hands. Frank grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look into his eyes. “The land is empty. It’s ours for the taking. Three hundred million Americans are down to a few million, maybe less. We’re going to find some cattle, chickens, stake out a big piece of good farm land in the California valley.”

“What about the infected?” Eve asked. “You won’t get a mile from here without the lights.”

“We don’t need the electric lights. That’s over anyway. You live in the open. The fire keeps them away. That’s what the other survivors are telling us.”

“I don’t know,” Eve said. “We have everything here. It’s going pretty good.”

“It’s over. The writing is on the wall. This place is going into meltdown. We’re leaving.”

Eve just looked at him, trying to process Frank’s words. Frank came closer, invading her personal space. He spoke into her face, even more intensely. “I’m not sure that you’re understanding me. I want you to come with me. We are four families. There’s nobody left. We’re starting the world all over.”

Eve stared into his eyes, shock and surprise fading into realization, “What…what are you asking me?”

“I want you to be my wife.” Frank looked down, the sound of his words dropping of at the last word. It was out in the open. He was suddenly an insecure teenage boy asking a pretty girl to the school dance, no longer a strong and capable man.

“Am I interrupting something?” Alexis came around the corner. She stood there smirking, eyes narrowed and calculating, one hand on her hip.

“No. Nothing.” Frank jumped away from Eve, who was resting her back against the wall.

“Looked like something from here.” Alexis pressed her lips together. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Nothing.” Frank turned to walk away but Alexis grabbed his arm.

Eve put her head down and began inching away.

“What are you not telling me?” Alexis held firmly onto Frank’s arm. “Maybe this is something that Candy needs to know about.”

Frank nodded at Eve, signaling her opportunity to escape. Eve walked quickly away with her head down.

Eve’s head was spinning. Her stomach was in her throat, and there were butterflies in her stomach. Did Frank just propose marriage?

She admired him as a leader, but she had never really looked at him that way.

CHAPTER 36: November 3, 11:30 a.m.

Something was definitely up, and Frank wasn’t going anywhere until she got to the bottom of it. Alexis pulled him closer, smiled, and rubbed her large natural breasts against him, realizing with consternation those beauties were bound up in a bra. “Come on Frank, you can tell me.”

“It’s nothing. We were just talking.” Frank was blinking rapidly, trying to backpedal and get away.

Alexis leaned into him, grabbed his collar and pulled him closer. “Come on Frank, you can trust me.” She pressed her body against him, grinding her pelvis against his to simultaneously block his escape and create friction.

“We were just talking about Dennis and Brit. It’s going to be hard to run the power plant with just Brit left.” Frank smiled nervously, hoping the half truth would satisfy her.

Alexis pulled him in and kissed him on each cheek in turn, “True, true.” She took her other hand and squeezed his ass through his pants and then moved around to the front until she found his cock and began rubbing it, still holding onto his collar so he couldn’t escape. “That seemed like an intimate moment that I interrupted. Are you sweet on Eve? That’s Sven’s girl. He might like to know about that.”

“Alexis, please.” Frank pushed her hand away from his pants, but she immediately went right back to work. He squirmed uncomfortably trying to get his face away from hers. She kissed him again on the cheek, and then went for his lips, giving him an unwelcome wet French kiss, her hand rhythmically rubbing him over his pants. “What do you want from me?”

“I just want the truth.” She kissed him again on the mouth, deeply. She could feel him hardening in her hand as she continued rubbing and squeezing. Men were so weak, she thought. She looked him in the eye, then dramatically down at the pronounced bulge she held in her hand via the front of his pants. She arched her eyebrows into a question. Frank nodded defeat.

Alexis, holding firmly onto his balls with one hand, pulled him toward her until her back was against the wall, then knelt down and unbuttoned his pants. He was fully erect when she put him into her mouth. She made quick, expert work of it.

“How much?” He said, when it was done.

“Just the truth. What do you want with Eve?”

“Nothing.”

Alexis had played all of the sex cards available at that moment. “Then I’ll just have to talk to Sven,” she threatened.

“If I tell, you have to keep it a secret.” Frank felt that there was simply no escape.

“You know you can trust me.”

“I’m serious. Some of us are planning to leave soon. You can’t tell anyone.”

“And you weren’t going to tell me?” Alexis was genuinely upset. “I want to come with you.”

“There’s just a few of us and no one else can find out. I’m serious, Alexis.”

“Take me with you. You know how much I love you,” Alexis said, reaching for him again, not believing it herself, even as he evaded her touch. But this was a great opportunity.

“The group is small, a few families only. It’s better that way.”

“Oh,” Alexis suddenly had a realization, “then Eve is for you, like a family. She’s just a girl. She can’t do for you what I can do.”

“She’s young and strong. It’s not going to be easy.”

“You’re planning to have children then.”

“Eventually, yes.”

“No one can compete with me in the bedroom.”

“How many men have you been with Alexis? How do you even know you can still have children?” Frank looked up and saw that he had wounded her with his honesty. “I mean, I asked Eve. It’s her choice. You are a beautiful woman and very smart. You would be a great asset.”

Alexis felt stabbed in the heart. Frank didn’t want her. He didn’t respect her as a woman. He couldn’t see her as a mother to his children. How had this happened to her, she wondered? When had she ceased to be a beautiful, powerful woman, aggressively mastering her world, and become a prostitute prowling the street?

Upon leaving, Eve wondered if she could see Frank and Alexis if she went all the way up to the upper tower and stood on the catwalk facing the fence and leaned out a bit. She could and she did. They looked like a freaky Barbie and a Ken doll from there. Why did Frank allow Alexis to do that to him? It was disgusting.

CHAPTER 37: November 5, 9:30 a.m.

Today was the day Sven would talk to Eve about Brit. Even if something had gone on between Eve and Brit, there was no denying Eve’s reaction when Sven had touched her hair on the chicken run. There was also no denying how he had felt at that moment. There was definitely chemistry between them. Today’s pot harvest would be a perfect opportunity. There would be a party to celebrate the harvest; a little celebration with food, music, drink and, of course, pot. Everyone would be in high spirits, and when the time was right, he would simply pull her aside to chat privately.

A tiny yellow chick stood valiantly on top of Dixon’s head, peep-peeping as Sven lay there on his mattress, surrounded by the plants. Dixon furrowed his brow and looked at Sven, but didn’t move. All around him were a mother and seven more chicks. When they arrived, Dixon chased the chickens. Sven only had to reprimand him a few times, then he came to understand that it was his job to protect the chickens the same way that he protected Sven.

Now that things were set up, he would have a harvest every four to six weeks. He started first thing in the morning, and it took him all day. It was a solid harvest, especially with all that had been going on. He hung the harvest up on lines to dry. He showered all the stickiness off of himself and changed his clothes before going out for the regular evening meeting in the tower control room.

“Where is Waldo?” Sven asked Jackie.

“It’s been four days since we’ve seen Dennis or Thompson,” Jackie said.

“Some folks have been seeing fires at night up the hill. Seems like maybe we should send a team to check what’s up there,” Jeb spoke slowly. Mack and Tiny nodded, suddenly realizing they’d just been nominated.

“We’ll take a look in the morning,” Jackie said, “on our way out to pick up those dairy cattle.” A herd of dairy cattle had been reported by a new arrival, about ten miles away. They would become a valuable source of meat and milk and cheese. These also would go under Portland Frank’s supervision, with the new guy and his family handling the details, all ultimately under the supervision of Jackie and crew. There wasn’t enough room in the tower for everyone, and no one seemed willing to move back to Building 3 since the events with Dennis. So, the cattle being there should make others comfortable enough to move back over to 3.

“I think Dennis and Thompson are gone,” Sven said, lighting up his bong.

“Or the infected got them,” Jeb said, taking a large slug of his home brew, then passing it to his left.

“No, we would have seen their hairy asses around the compound if the infected got them. They’re either gone or holed up somewhere,” Jackie said, holding out his hand for the bong.

“So, I’ll pop down and call Candy and the girls and the rest up for our little celebration. See who else wants to come…” Sven said, walking toward the metal door dividing the top of the tower from the bottom. Maybe this was his chance to talk to Eve alone.

The lights dimmed and flickered. “What was that?” Jackie said. The lights returned for five seconds, then dimmed to only emergency lights on the walls. Alarms began bleating loudly from all over the power plant. A calm, electronic female voice intoned loudly, “Code yellow. Reactor temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. Immediate action required. Code yellow. Reactor temperatures…” The message repeated itself infinitely, never tiring.

CHAPTER 38: November 5, 5 p.m.

The controls in the tower lit up like a Christmas tree. There were lights blinking everywhere.

Jackie, Sven, Jeb and the boys crowded into the control room in a keystone-cops like jumble. “What’s happening? Why did the lights go out?”

“We are on emergency power only. The plant automatically shuts down all non-essential power usage,” Brit explained, furiously pushing and flicking buttons, trying to figure out what was wrong.

“Code yellow,” The electronic female voice calmly intoned, “Reactor temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. Immediate action required.”

“How do we fix it?” Sven asked, feeling panic rising in his chest. Everything they had worked so hard for could be swept away in a night.

“I don’t know yet. Give me a minute.” Brit hustled around the control room, ignoring everyone else.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jeb asked quietly, almost to himself.

“I had only been here three months when the infection started. I’m still officially on probation. There’s a lot I don’t know,” Brit said.

“Great! That’s just great!” Mack shook his head and exhaled forcefully.

“How much time do we have?” Jackie grabbed Brits arm and held him in place.

“Not sure. We’re code yellow, not code red. If I don’t fix this code yellow, the crisis will go to code red. At code red, I have four to eight hours to fix the problem before reactor failure.”

“You mean nuclear meltdown?” Sven asked, his eyes wide.

“Yes, nuclear meltdown. At that point, the best you can do is get as far away as possible and hope that there is no explosion.”

“Oh shit…” Sven was looking out at the fence where the floodlights had just clicked off. Already there were fifteen to twenty infected around the gate. One slipped under the fence on the right side. They had planned to concrete all along the fence to both close and prevent the infected from digging under the fence again, but they hadn’t gotten to it yet. “We have to turn the lights back on! How do we turn the lights back on?”

Everyone turned to Brit, “I can’t. The computer won’t let me. It’s an automatic override of the entire system. We have to correct the code yellow, then we get control back.”

“Everybody strap up. We’re going out there in two minutes,” Jackie ordered. He turned to Brit and got right in his face. “We’re going to take a look at the plant and we’re going to fix this problem now. Understood?”

“Dennis destroyed all the plant manuals, but I kept one and hid it in Building 3 behind the turbines,” Brit was visibly shaking at the thought of going out among the infected after nightfall. “We have to get to that manual. There are code yellow procedures.”

“Will that tell us what’s wrong?”

“It…it could be anything. The plant is a very complex piece of machinery. It takes dozens of people to run this plant normally. I’m just one person.” Brit shook his head hopelessly and began chewing his already chewed nails.

Jackie grabbed Brit by his shoulders and shook him until he held his gaze, “If you don’t fix this, we’re all dead. Everything we worked for up until now will be gone and we’ll be back out there at the mercy of the infected. We have to fix it. We don’t have a choice.”

CHAPTER 39: November 5, 5:30 p.m.

When they rushed through the steel door with Brit to the lower tower, it was madness. A bucket brigade had been formed to throw every mattress and every stick of furniture out into the yard. Through the door, he could see men breaking up the furniture and lighting it on fire.

“What are you doing?” Jeb asked.

“Staying inside is a death trap. Out there,” Portland Frank pointed toward the fence, “if you hide in the buildings at night, you’re dead. They climb, they dig, they get in. You can’t keep them out. It’s just a matter of time without electric lights. We had electric lights.”

“So what - you’re going to burn all the furniture?” Mack asked.

“Yes. We have to get out in the open. Create a circle of fire. They won’t come into the fire,” Frank said, not pausing from his work.

“They don’t like the fire, huh?” Jeb said. Then to Tiny he said, “Stay here and do what this man tells you.”

“Are you going out there?” The man said to Jeb.

“We have to fix the code yellow. No choice,” Jackie answered.

“Those flashlights are useless. You need torches. Some of the infected will still come after you but the torches will keep most away. Let me fix you up.”

Candy led a group of fifteen women and several young children carried by their mothers, sprinting away into the growing darkness. “Stop! Where are you going?” Sven called after them.

“The guardhouse. We’re going to lock ourselves into the cells,” Candy called behind her as she ran. Several more joined them, running to catch up, maybe twenty in all.

“Where is Eve?” Sven looked around frantically.

“Here,” she said from steps away.

“Stay in the ring of fire until I return.” Eve nodded. Sven really wanted to connect with her but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Sven thought that was strange, but there really wasn’t time right now. Sven turned to Tiny, “Make sure nothing happens to her.” Tiny nodded.

“She’s safe with me,” Portland Frank said.

“The cells in the guardhouse is not a bad idea, really,” Jeb said thoughtfully.

“It’s safest in the open,” another man beside Frank said. He was new and Sven had seen them together often recently, but wasn’t sure of the man’s name. “I know it’s counter intuitive. We’re trained to think it’s safer inside. It’s not. The rules have changed. Until I got here, we stayed out in the open and we made fires. They don’t come into the fire. This is the safest place. You all can do what you please. Me and my people we’re making this fire, and one way or another, we’re going to be here in the morning.”

“Make us some torches,” Jackie said.

“When we left a town, every morning we torched all the buildings.” The man continued, “The infected hide out the day in the buildings. This is how you kill them…as much as you can kill something that’s already dead.”

CHAPTER 40: November 5, 5 p.m.

Candy began loudly panicking almost the moment the lights went out. “What’s happening? What-The-Fuck-is-Happening?! Will someone please tell me?” Then, when Frank and the other guy started carting all the mattresses and furniture outside into the circle for burning, that’s when she really freaked out. Alexis could already see the infected standing in the deep shadows around Building 3, their weird red eyes shining. The other girls saw them too and that’s when panic set in.

“Lock down the bottom tower,” Candy ordered.

“It’s not safe in there without the lights,” Frank said, not pausing from his work. “You’re better off out here.”

Alexis could already hear the howls of the infected, and the moaning was getting louder as she and twenty other women squeezed themselves into the cell at the bottom of the guardhouse, where Candy had led them. Alexis had already decided that whatever Candy did, she would do the opposite, but her fear won her over when Frank and the other guy lit the furniture ablaze. She just couldn’t see herself out in the open all night with the infected all around her, howling and moaning.

“Move forward!” Alexis pushed against the women in front of her. “I’m not in!”

Then, just as she closed the gate on the cell, the infected got through the shattered metal door to the basement cells. There were three. What looked like a female and two males. The female seemed to be their leader even though she was smaller than the other two. They moved like lightening with their thick manes flowing behind them. Before Alexis could force her way forward into the packed, locked cell, the female had her with it’s claws around her neck, holding her there trapped against the bars and unable to move.

Alexis could feel the female’s strong claws digging into the soft flesh of her neck and shoulder and she felt something warm running slowly down her arm. She looked down and saw her own blood. The other two had caught the woman next to her and they ripped her open with their claws, ripping at her neck and face with their teeth. The other woman screamed hysterically as they ripped her apart through the bars. Five more beasts heard the screams, and smelling blood crowded through the ruined door into the cell block. Like a pack of ravening wolves, they flung themselves into the fray to get a piece of the bleeding and dying woman next to her.

Alexis wondered why she was not being ripped apart. She thought she would be terrified at her death, but instead she was very calm. She turned toward the beast holding her with it’s claws through the bars. It was the alpha female and it looked curiously back at her with those intense, weird red eyes. Four others immediately turned toward Alexis awaiting their cue to rip apart their latest victim, but the alpha just watched her. Alexis tried to wiggle subtly out of it’s grip and she felt it flex it’s claws and dig deeper into her flesh. “Owww!” She said.

It opened it’s mouth slightly and it’s eyes brightened into an almost human expression beneath the feral mask. Was it laughing at her pain? Alexis wondered. It was just holding her there. It seemed to be savoring the moment. “Kill me already, you bitch!” Alexis screamed, and threw a punch through the bars, hitting it square in the nose. It snarled and ripped open Alexis’ left side as it moved to avoid the strike. The others snarled, and two others snapped, biting into her right hand before she could pull it back through the bars, tearing at her flesh. Another bit into her right side, tearing a chunk out of her small spare tire there.

Alexis felt herself getting weaker and weaker as the blood drained from her body. She imagined that she could feel the infection inside her, clouding her brain and turning her into one of the things outside the bars. The alpha female was saving her from being ripped apart so that she would infect the rest inside the cell. If she was too torn up, then her attack would be less effective.

Alexis again looked into the now narrowed eyes of the alpha female. She was too weak to fight back. The female was calm, simply holding her there as her life ebbed from her. The other infected snarled and snapped and moaned, fighting amongst each other to lap up the blood, her blood, as it fell like raindrops into a puddle at her feet. The hammering of her heart pounded loudly inside her head between her ears. Then, suddenly it stopped. She actually heard her heart stop. The alpha seemed to nod understanding and then she felt like she was floating weightlessly to the floor. She could see the empty shell of her body lying broken in a pool of her own blood on the floor, the infected lapping up her blood, the shattered body of the other girl lay beside her own, nothing more than a pulpy, bloody mass, and the rest of the girls pressed into the back of the cell like sardines in a tin can. All the pain was gone, momentarily, as she floated there. She sensed dark shapes around her and felt a pang of fear.

Then suddenly, she heard screaming, and she felt intense pain and an unquenchable fury. Alexis was back in her body. She could smell live humans very close, their sweat and their stink and the coppery smell of their blood. She rose up to feed.

CHAPTER 41: November 6, 9:30 a.m.

A thin dawn broke through the constant gloom to the east and with it the calm female voice intoned loudly, “Code red. Code red. Reactor core meltdown imminent. Reactor temperatures have reached critical levels. Take immediate corrective action. Reactor core meltdown imminent. Code red. Code red. Reactor core meltdown imminent…”

Sven, Jackie, Mack, Brit and Dixon had spent the entire evening trying to run down the problems causing the code yellow. In between sporadic battles with infected desperate enough to attack despite their flaming torches, they combed through what seemed like every inch of the power plant. The first stop had been Building 3 to recover one of the thick operations manuals Brit had hidden. It was gone. The next stop was the reactor itself, which they could only view from behind the steel door and the eight inch glass, wearing special goggles. If they went in, their DNA would be fried and lead to a slow and painful death. They were close enough to see that the water against the rods was clearly boiling and failing to cool the rods as it was meant to do.

They had failed.

All that was left was to grab as much as they could, as quickly as they could, load it onto trucks, and get out of there before the reactor blew, contaminating everything for several hundred miles. Up ahead by the gate, he could already see figures hustling to get items into trucks to escape.

“Oh shit. We better make sure there’s trucks left for us to get out of here.” Jackie and Mack took off running for the gate. Brit stood there defeated, hanging his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, over by the cooling towers, Sven saw a flash of white. Bugs? He turned to see a white rabbit about fifty yards away, looking none the worse for wear from this distance. “Bugs, is that you?” Dixon took off running for the rabbit before Sven could stop him with the leash, his entire body wiggling a little with joy at seeing his friend. Bugs hopped around in a big nervous circle in front of the cooling tower as Dixon charged, then dashed inside the open door. Dixon charged in after him. “Bugs! Dixon! Shit! What if there’s infected in there?”

Sven looked ahead for Jackie and Mack, but they were too far away. Dixon had already been scratched and cut by infected previously, and had not become infected. The infected tended to ignore animals unless they got too close. Then, they would kill or maim them, just out of pure evil. Sven stood at the door with his torch and peered tentatively inside, “Dixon! Dixon, come here now!” Sven heard a bark from inside. If he was injured or under attack, Sven had to save him. There was no time to go back and get others. “Are you armed? We’re going in.” Dixon barked loudly from somewhere inside. He was normally pretty quiet and he didn’t bark often.

To Sven’s right, an infected ran from a doorway deeper into the cooling tower to escape Sven’s flaming torch, hissing before it fled. Sven stopped abruptly, startled. Brit bumped into him, following close behind. “Let’s get out of here.” If there was a group of infected inside, they would probably attack.

“Dixon!” Sven continued slowly moving forward, sweeping his flaming torch right to left, a handgun in the other hand. Brit mirrored his steps behind. Then to his left through the open door, he could see Dixon and his long rope leash had become tangled in some equipment. Dixon wiggled with joy at the sight of Sven. Sven swept the torch right and left. There were large twenty inch diameter pipes with silent mechanical equipment attached, and beyond that were several banks of batteries. Bugs was there, hiding under the big pipe. He couldn’t see any infected in the room and Dixon would be growling at them if there were.

“Of course!” Brit said.

“Come here, boy. My big, slobbery, boy. Don’t run away from me like that anymore,” Sven said, leaning down to untangle Dixon’s rope leash and getting a face full of wet tongue. “Come here, Bugs. It’s good to see you. Where have you been?” Sven called to Bugs who took a single tentative hop toward him.

“He disconnected the batteries. The batteries are the backup. He turned off the generators. That’s how he did it,” Brit said to himself, lost in thought.

“Did what?” Sven asked, finally scooping up Bugs into his arms and giving him a big kiss. “I’m never letting you go. Never.”

“The code red. There’s no fresh water being pumped into the core to cool it. Dennis disconnected the generators and the backups and that’s why the reactor core is overheating. If we can get this back online we might still be able to cool down the core and save the plant.”

Immediately, Sven was on his handheld radio, “Jackie, Jeb come in….”

CHAPTER 42: November 6, 10 a.m.

The reactor core temperature began dropping almost the instant the pumps were turned back on. Within fifteen minutes, the batteries were hooked back up and recharging in parallel. After twenty minutes of pumping one hundred gallons a minute of cool fresh water into the reactor core, the code red changed back to code yellow. Five minutes after that, the code yellow turned off and the lights came back on all at once.

“You stopped the meltdown. We were ready to flee.”

“That’s the guy right there,” Sven pointed at Brit and mimed clapping with Bugs in his hands and the smoldering torch in his right. “He did it.”

“Dennis turned the water pumps off,” Brit said.

Jackie came over and hugged Brit, picking him off the ground like a feather. Jeb waited and shook his hand. “Good work.”

“Where’s Candy?” Sven asked. Tiny shook his head and turned away. Jackie and Jeb looked down.

Finally, Jackie put his hand on Sven’s shoulder. “She didn’t make it. Come on. We were just about to go over there.”

“Where is Eve?” Sven asked Tiny who appeared exhausted sitting inside the smoldering fire ring outside the door of the tower. He pointed toward the tower entrance. Sven ran over to her and kissed her on the lips and squeezed her with a hug. She didn’t respond but just received his kiss and hug like a limp rag doll. Portland Frank stood two feet away watching them very closely. “How are you? Are you ok? I’m sorry about the kiss. I’m just happy you’re okay.”

Sven handed off Bugs to Eve, “Lock Bugs in the top of the tower with the chickens. It’s safe up there, right?”

Tiny shook his head. “Infected got into the lower tower during the night. We have to go in and clear them out. A few thought it would be safer inside the tower than in the ring of fire.”

“Can I leave Bugs here with you?” Eve shrugged and looked down. Immediately, Eve was flanked by two newer arrivals, a seven year old girl in a tattered dress and her even dirtier younger brother, who immediately reached out to pet Bugs.

CHAPTER 43: November 6, 10:05 a.m.

“Help! Help us! Let us out!”

The unmistakable smell of decay hit Sven, like a brick in the face, from the doorway of the guardhouse. Sven grabbed his nose. Mack doubled over for an involuntary dry heave.

“Candy! Candy!” Sven cried, and rushed forward toward the cell block. Jackie stopped him with one hand. Dixon rushed forward and stood between Sven and the cells growling a warning.

“We’re too late,” Jackie said, holding onto Sven.

Twenty or so women and some children were packed into the tiny cell designed to hold two persons or perhaps four in a pinch, which had been locked to keep out the infected. Unfortunately, they were packed so tight that the women on the outside of the cell couldn’t get away from the bars when the infected attacked, and they were bitten and scratched mercilessly through the bars. Those women then became infected and infected the others inside the cell.

“Sven, let us out!” A woman pleaded, her hand extended from the cell. Sven looked at her hand reaching for him and saw the thick yellowish claws forming. Her hair was very thick and full, and there were the first hint of canine’s on top. “Let us out!” She grabbed for him, nearly raking his arm with her sharp claws. Her top shifted as she did, exposing a gigantic red boil on her neck. The stench wafting off of her was unbearable.

Sven jumped back. “Do you think all of them are infected?”

“We are not infected! Let us out!” Someone in the back screamed. There was dry blood spattered everywhere. Sven looked closer at the woman calling to him. He could see canine marks on her neck where she had been bitten and sucked dry of her blood. There were also multiple bites on the insides of her arms. All of them wore torn clothing.

“We will have the doctor and nurses come and examine you,” Jackie said, pulling Sven back.

“They’re all infected. Every one of them,” Jeb whispered, covering his mouth.

“Candy. Candy, can you talk to me?” Sven called with tears in his eyes.

Candy stood in the back of the cell, her head down, eyes slits filled with hatred, clawed hands clenching and unclenching. Around her withered neck, hung a ring of keys suspended by a simple string. Jeb raised his torch above Sven’s head for a better look. Most snarled and turned their backs to the flame. Candy raised her claws to shield her eyes. Then, faster than he could see she lunged at the bars, a fury of snarling, spitting and slashing claws, determined to get at them. Sven jumped back. Jeb knocked the flaming torch on Sven’s head, nearly dropping it before recovering. Mack shouldered his gun, leveling it at Candy’s head.

“If they get out, we’re all dead,” Jeb whispered to Jackie.

“It’s daylight. But no, we don’t want that key turning the locks to let them out. We’ll post some guards at the door to make sure no one gets out,” Jackie whispered back. Then loudly for all to hear, “We’ll bring the doctor right back to examine you ladies. Hang tight.”

“Let us out!” They pleaded through the bars. Two, closer to the bars licked their lips, staring with fascination at the pulsing vein in Sven’s neck. Alexis’ eyes followed Sven’s, Jackie’s and Jeb’s to the keys hanging around Candy’s neck. Slowly she raised her claw and began reaching for the key. Candy snarled absently.

“Alexis! Alexis look at me!” Sven cried, jumping around in front of the gate to distract her. She barely turned her head. Her name was becoming a distant memory. Perhaps it was already erased by the infection. Somehow, she knew that key was important. Would she know what to do with it when she got it?

Sven grabbed huge handfuls of his dreadlocks in his hands. He didn’t know what to do. Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Jackie’s hand yanked him back and out of the way. Mack and Jeb stood side by side firing their rifles at point blank range through the bars dropping the infected one by one with head shots. The worst was the little girl with her mother. They shot her last.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Sven fell to his butt and sat with his head in his hands.

“There’s a large group approaching the front gate.” Eve stood at the entrance to the guardhouse holding Bugs in her arms, not wanting to enter because of the smell and the shots. “Looks like bandits. There’s a lot of them.”

CHAPTER 44: November 6, 10:15 a.m.

“They’re infected! Only the infected look like that,” Mack said, sighting through his scope at the approaching mass still at least two hundred yards distant. Someone waved something white from behind the cover of an abandoned car.

“It’s a trap,” Tiny said.

One of them peeled off from the front of the group. He dropped a rucksack he had been carrying. He approached the gate alone, both hands raised and empty except for a long wooden staff.

“Infected don’t move like that.” Jeb spat out a stream of tobacco. “He’s alive, that one is.”

“Don’t fire until they get right up to the gate. Keep an eye on the perimeter. Make sure they don’t flank us. One shot one kill,” Jackie instructed. They were all hunkered down with their rifles behind the unburned mattresses and spread out along the bottom of the tower, unable to enter the tower and get to the upper tower for the best defensive position since they hadn’t had time to clear the lower tower of any infected that might still be in there.

“At least we’ve got the lights back,” Mack said.

“Until they shoot them out,” Jackie said.

“Wait…Warren?” Sven stood up, exposing himself to fire.

“Get down!” Jackie yanked him back down. Sven immediately popped back up. “It’s Warren.”

“Who?”

“Those guys, you know the ones who beat themselves and preach about God.”

“The flagellants?”

“Sven. Brother, how are you?” Warren called calmly from the gate but made no effort to enter. He was dressed in what appeared to be a ghillie suit. A ghillie suit was what snipers wore to offset the form of a man and appear, when standing still, to be a bush or tree. “Greetings in the name of the Most High God. May we enter?”

“Impeccable timing,” Jackie said sarcastically. “Like we don’t have enough to deal with right now.”

“Well, I’ll be…” Jeb said.

“Of course. Welcome! Come in.” Sven ran to meet him and then turned around to wave the all clear for any other shooters he didn’t already see. “It’s cool! They’re with me.” Sven and Warren greeted each other with hand shakes and then with big hugs. Warren turned and waved in the rest of his group, led in front by Tiffany, with Samson carrying the huge wooden cross behind.

“You look well friend.” Warren clapped him on the shoulders and looked him over.

Sven couldn’t help but notice the glow about Warren. His blue eyes shone with a strong inner light from his dirty face and strong hands; same with Tiffany and Samson. They looked lean and strong, almost gnarled from the hardships, but their eyes were liquid pools of light and joy. “You guys look fantastic. Where have you been?”

“Here and there, roaming to and fro upon the earth.” Warren threw back his head and laughed delightedly at his private joke.

“Introduce me to your wife.” Warren smiled at Sven and glanced at Eve, who was standing next to Frank, or vice versa.

“Oh, this is Eve. She’s not my wife.”

“She is strong. The Lord showed her to me last night in a vision. She will stay with you through the tribulation that is to come.”

“Aren’t we already in the tribulation?”

“Ah, you’ve been reading the bible I gave to you. No, this is only the beginning. The worst is yet to come.” Samson, Tiffany and the other two hundred or so flagellants arrived. “You remember Samson.” Samson shook Sven’s hand heartily. “And Tiffany. Tiffany and Samson are married now.” Tiffany smiled and hugged Sven, then stood beside her husband.

“What about you? Are you married now?” Sven asked.

“No. I have chosen celibacy and the Lord has blessed me greatly for it. The Lord has set me apart for his purpose.” Sven only nodded. “Come, let us break bread together.”

“We can’t feed you. There are more of you than there are of us. If we feed you, we will all starve. I’m not sure that’s what God would want,” Jackie said. “Besides, we have to clear out the infected from the tower now.

“You should wait until dusk to clear the infected from your tower. It will be much easier then,” Warren said. “In fact, we will be glad to do it for you.”

“You have only a few spears,” Jackie said disdainfully.

“And fire,” Warren said.

“Yes, we use torches to clear the infected from the buildings. It works well.”

“You wait until dusk because if you try to clear the infected now during daylight, they have nowhere to go. They cannot go out into the light so they will fight you to the bitter end. Wait until dusk and they will simply leave through the nearest exit. Then seal the exit behind them.”

“Smart,” Sven said.

“Which segues into why we are here. We came to warn you – the great burning has begun,” Warren said dramatically. Tiffany nodded vigorously behind him. “The earth shall be tested with fire and the fire shall burn off all the dross until there is left only the purest gold.”

“What’s the great burning?” Jackie was interested.

“The military and the government have come out from their underground bunkers. They are now moving across the land, burning all the towns and every building during the day…”

“Because the infected hide in the buildings during the daylight…”

“Yes, so the military is going through with flame throwers, burning everything and killing most of the infected in the process.”

“Well, that’s great news isn’t it?” The doctor came forward earnestly.

“Hurray! Did you hear that? The government is back!” Several in the crowd shouted the news to those behind. The excitement was palpable.

“I see you bear the mark on your right hand,” Warren said, then his eyes moved to the nurses and EMT flanking him, “and you, and you, and you. But not you,” he said to one of the nurses.

“I was in my last semester of college. I hadn’t graduated yet,” she explained.

The doctor looked at Warren confused for a moment, “Oh yes, the chip. All medical and first responders, firefighters and police were required to get the chip. We were the first ones. However, I don’t understand what you are seeing, there’s no mark per se.”

“Their arrival represents no danger to you,” Warren was matter of fact, “but to those without the mark there is much danger.”

“It’s completely painless,” the doctor said. “No significant adverse side affects have been noted…”

“But we are heroes!” Sven said. “Look at all the people who were saved. The government abandoned us.”

“We had to survive,” Jackie said.

“All true. But the government may not see it that way. You should come with us when we leave.”

“But no one survives out there,” Sven said.

“We survive out there,” Samson said in his deep baritone.

“We can show you,” Tiffany said.

“Enough heavy talk. This is a celebration,” Warren said, raising his hands and smiling. “Let’s eat.”

CHAPTER 45: November 6, Noon

“Dude! This is the best party ever!” Sven exclaimed.

“Today, we celebrate the completion of a cycle,” Warren said. “The fourth seal is nearly completed. Who is worthy to open the fifth seal?”

“I looked and there before me was a pale horse. It’s rider was named Death and hades followed close behind.” Samson’s voice boomed, as he read from a giant bible. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” The flagellants stood in hushed silence. Tiffany continued, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying “How long, O Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on them who dwell on the earth?”Several lound “amens” an “ummm hmmm” and a “bless you sister” were heard.

“Time’s up!” Warren screamed, turning red in the face.

“Amen! Preach it brother!”

“God is about to roll up the heavens like a scroll. God is going to shake the earth and everyone in it. The very stars will fall from the sky. Time as we understand it, from the human perspective, is merely an illusion. There is no time!” Warren had worked himself into a wild-eyed lather. “It’s all one piece, from the beginning of creation until this very moment, and stretching out until the very end of time.”

“Wow.” Sven shook his head.

“This brothers and sisters is the unity, the oneness of all creation that Jesus himself spoke of in the gospel of John chapter 17. Just as God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, we also are one. Just as we are one in God, so also is all of creation one including time.”

Sven began to weep. Eve wept, even Jackie was misty eyed. Jeb and his sons nodded solemnly. Warren marveled at the power of the Lord to change hearts.

“But what of the evildoers of this world? Are they one, too?”

“Yes?” Someone answered uncertainly.

“Yessssss!!!” Warren hissed, “until God separates the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the dross, the just from the unjust. That time is here-now! Why does darkness rule the earth and the undead devour the living?” Warren paused and looked in every eye. Sven felt he could jump out his skin with anticipation. “Because now darkness reigns over the earth. Until this point in creation, all is one. The good and the evil, the just and the unjust, all mixed together. But the keeper of the olive grove, the man in charge of the vineyard, despite laboring day and night, pruning the olive trees and tending the grove, and even slathering the ground with copious quantities of fertilizer- shit!, there are no more olives.”

“No more olives?” Sven blubbered. Warren was speaking to the deepest part of his soul and deep down he understood every word, but his mind had yet to catch up.

“Yes!!!” Warren hissed again, a little disturbingly. “The earth is God’s vineyard and we are the fruit of that vineyard; the just; the redeemed. What happens when the vineyard bears no more fruit?”

“Burned up,” Jeb said quietly.

“What?”

“You burn it up. Start over,” Jeb said, much louder for all to hear.

“That’s right!” Warren screamed. “We are all one, here and now. But there’s no more fruit coming from the vineyard. God is harvesting the few olives left in his vineyard and then he’s going to burn up the rest. This vineyard is of no use to Him anymore.”

“Oh no!” Sven cried.

“There is no such thing as time. God has chosen you, in Him, from before the creation of the world itself, yet I say to you make your choice. Are you of this olive grove or not? The path laid out for you is hard, you shall walk through the very shadow of death. You will curse the day you were born and the mother who bore you into this cursed land of death. Choose today whom you will serve. Step forward to signify your choice.”

Sven and Eve immediately stepped forward, then each noticed the other. Frank stood behind, shaking his head. Jeb, Mack and Tiny were next. Jackie was last.

“Today you rise to new life.” Warren spoke to all, as he clapped Jackie on both shoulders, “It is written.”

One by one they were dunked in clean water and raised up again. Many of the survivors came forward. The flagellants clapped and cheered loudly for each. The sun shone strongly on them, almost like before. The feast began.

CHAPTER 46: November 6, 3:45 p.m.

“Where is all this food coming from?” Jackie asked Jeb privately. “We only gave them a single chicken.”

“Tiny has eaten four whole chickens, all by himself. I’m working on my third,” Jeb said. “And there’s one, two, three…ten more grilling right now.”

“Our chickens are in the top of the tower behind the steel door and we haven’t cleared the lower tower of infected yet,” Jackie said. “Do you think they got in there somehow and are feeding us our own chickens?”

“Jackster, try this weed, bro. I don’t know where they got it, but it’s even better than the strain we’re growing.” Sven passed him a smoking pipe which Jackie puffed on and quickly nodded his head in agreement. “I need to get some clippings. The aroma; the flavor; the THC must be off the charts.”

“Who brought this wine? Did you see them carrying any wine?” Mack asked, a little tipsy. “We haven’t dipped into my stores of home brew yet.”

“We don’t have much, but what we have, we share freely with you,” Warren said.

“I didn’t see you bringing anything in,” Jackie said.

“Jehovah Jirah the Lord is our provider. Light the circle,” Warren ordered loudly. He hadn’t moved for at least an hour and seemed drained after preaching. Several men lit torches from the grills and then lit a large circle of remaining furnishings roughly one hundred feet in circumference, including the door to the tower. Sven realized dusk was falling, and he suddenly felt a pang of fear. Warren clapped him on the shoulder. “It is safe inside the circle. Don’t leave the circle.”

“What about the tower? We still haven’t cleared it.” Jackie waved his right arm in a circle above his head, “Rally up!”

“We will clear the tower for you.” Samson stepped forward with four men holding long spears and hand-held torches.

“With only spears and torches?” Jackie and Jeb were skeptical.

“Watch how we do it.” Samson and his men advanced into the lower tower without waiting for his reply. Jackie, Jeb, Mack and Tiny followed behind.

The tower was cleared before Sven realized it had even begun. He and Eve were chatting with Warren, who was regaling them with his and the flagellants adventures all over Northern California.

“Where were you?” Jackie asked Sven.

“The tower is clear!” Jackie announced. Survivors immediately began filing back into the tower to use the bathrooms and check on their things. All that remained of the infected was the putrid smell of the dead lingering in the air.

“I didn’t hear a single shot,” Sven said.

“They didn’t attack us. The infected simply fled. Jeb and his boys are boarding up the window where they broke through, now. We’ll put a spot there to keep them away tonight.” Jackie was incredulous.

The feast continued for three days. There was always more food and more wine and more smoke. Everyone feasted like they hadn’t eaten in a decade. They lived in a little bubble for those few days. The trouble of the world around them was forgotten like a distant memory. Several times a day, Warren would read long passages from the bible and then explain them. Warren was almost frantic in his need to teach them as much as possible before time ran out. Only Warren seemed to be aware of the time constraints present. Most listened attentively, but some scoffed and made fun behind his back. All day long the baptisms continued, as the people streamed forward to be dunked by Samson, while Tiffany prepared them on the shore and counseled them after.

“Come with us when we leave,” Warren pierced Sven with his unnaturally bright clear eyes.

“Where will you go? Stay here with us,” Sven said. “We have food and electricity. We are rebuilding the world.”

“These things which you hold to are nothing more than dust and ashes,” Warren waved his hand to encompass all around them. “The world as you knew it has passed away. It is dying. It is in the final throws of death. Can’t you see?”

“Yes, you preached on this yesterday…and this morning. I’m not sure I understand,” Sven said.

“You are one of us. The Spirit is strong in you.” Warren grasped him firmly by the shoulders. “You have saved many and you have done well. You think you are rich but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

“I don’t understand. You speak in riddles.”

“Then I will speak plainly. Tomorrow, you will see for yourself.” Warren was sad. “Whatever you do, do not accept the mark.” Sven nodded. “Where did Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins meet up at the end of the Shawshank Redemption?”

“I love that movie.”

“Za wa…za wa,” Eve never left Sven’s side, now. They were inseparable. Frank lurked nearby, glowering jealously.

“Zihuatenejo, Mexico.” Samson spoke in his deep baritone. “The darkness is coming and is now upon us.”

“Follow the Jericho road. Our people are there, but they are hiding their light. You must find them to survive. Trust no one you meet on the road. Remain faithful, and you will find help there.”

“Sleep now.” Warren moved his hands in front of their faces like a Star Wars Jedi. “You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER 47: November 9, 9:30 a.m.

“Knock, knock, bitches!”

Thompson stood in the gun turret of the front tank, threw his head back, and laughed maniacally as it overturned with a crash and screeching of metal on metal, the first of three cars blocking the roadway to the power plant. There were another two hundred or so more in front of them, but the first ones went pretty good.

“That was awesome!” Thompson screamed over the roar of the engines. He fingered his M-16. He hoped they ran or resisted so he could shoot them. He had an elaborate plan laid out to gain access to their holding cells, so he could hurt them. He wanted to hurt that skinny pothead soooo bad! He hated all of them. Especially that bitch Candy. He was going to take care of her. He never even touched her the first time, but he was accused of rape. Well, he was going to take care of that this time.

Off to the right where the woods began and thickened, the flagellants crouched down off the road. They moved silently, making their way further and further off the road as the military slowly plowed a path to the plant. Warren prayed continuously for Sven and Jackie and Jeb. From his position in the trees he counted three tanks, five personnel carriers and several hundred foot soldiers moving beside them, scanning vigilantly for infected.

“Daddy’s home!” Thompson called in a sing song voice.

CHAPTER 48: November 9, 9:30 a.m.

It stood there blending almost seamlessly into the folds of the dark ruffled velvet curtains and the night-shrouded door. It was a man and it was watching him. He wore a tri-corner hat and what looked like clothes from the American Revolution. Sven sat up and blinked his eyes to get a better look. The man stood in profile, half facing away from him and not looking directly at Sven as though he were guarding him. He opened the door a crack to reveal a very bright light. He looked back at Sven and he seemed to give a nod and a half smile before stepping through and shutting it behind him. Sven rubbed the sleep from his eyes, still staring at the curtain and the door and the man who was no longer there. Dixon huffed, lifting his huge head and watching Sven from a few feet away. Chickens pecked contentedly around him.

Awake now, there was no curtain. There was no door. Sven found himself staring at a thick leafy tangle of cannabis plants and deep shadows. He didn’t remember coming up to his mattress in the back room of the upper tower last night. Beside him Eve slept. Sven felt the ache in his loins, remembering the fulfilling joy of finally joining with Eve. He pulled her toward himself and kissed her eye lids, cheeks and neck to wake her for another round. She turned her head toward him and stretched, smiling at him and kissed him back.

“Guess what today is?” Eve said.

“Groundhog day, I hope,” Sven smiled.

“It’s my birthday! I’m a legal adult now. Hurray. Well, yesterday actually, but there was a lot going on.”

There was a terrible screech of metal on metal and what sounded like a car crash outside.

At the second even louder screech and crash, Sven flung open the locked metal door and Dixon muscled ahead of him as he stepped through into the tower control room. Jackie, Jeb and Mack were already there looking out of the panorama windows at the gates. Eve joined them.

The tanks rolled up to the front gate just after first light. There were three of them and behind that were two hard top personnel carriers and behind that were lots of civilian cars with green spray painted “US ARMY” written on them. Why not? It seems that the original owners no longer needed them. Lots of soldiers walked alongside the vehicles with their M-16 rifles at the ready.

The flagellants had evaporated in the night. They departed as quickly and quietly as they had arrived. Sven, Jackie, Eve, Mack and Tiny were sleeping in the relative safety of the upper tower. A number of survivors also left with the flagellants.

The immovable tangle of cars rusting in front of the gates was easy work for the tanks. They just pushed them out of the way with a great roar of the engine and screech of metal until the road was clear again all the way to the gate.

The remaining survivors gathered at the gates and cheered, waving white tee shirts and handkerchiefs. Many were weeping at the sight of the military and their beloved government in action.

CHAPTER 49: November 9, 9:45 a.m.

“They shot Dixon!” Eve was hysterical. “I went out to see what was going on and I didn’t even realize Dixon was with me…he just followed me and a soldier saw him and just – shot – him. I’m so sorry…”

Sven grabbed his rifle and bolted for the gate crowded with tanks, people, and soldiers. “Show me.”

“Wait!” Jackie called, but it was no use. Jackie, Jeb, Mack and Tiny had been discussing whether to hang back or go talk to the soldiers. They were heavily leaning toward hanging back, or even disappearing for a while, just a moment before.

Sven saw red. Eve trailed close behind, unable to control her tears. He was going to kill whoever had done this.

“I never should have stayed. I should have left with Frank,” Eve wept. “Then this would never have happened. You will never forgive me.”

“Drop your weapons!” Suddenly, there were 40 soldiers pointing guns at him and Jackie. He stopped in his tracks. There was Dixon on the ground ten feet ahead, looking at him. The life had bled from him and his eyes were dead. Sven wasn’t sure he could recognize him. Sven ran over, threw down his gun, and put his hands on Dixon searching for the wounds. “FREEZE! Don’t move!” Dixon had been struck multiple times in his chest near his heart. The wounds were pumping blood out so fast.

“Who did this?!” Sven lifted his head and demanded. Blackness descended as a rifle butt crashed across the side of his head.

Sven woke to dirt in his teeth. His hands and feet were zip tied together and he was on his face in the dirt. “Sleeping beauty awakes,” someone said. Sven couldn’t focus his eyes and his head felt like it had been run over by a truck. A trickle of blood flowed down from his head to his upper lip. “That’s gotta sting.” Jackie was bound to his left. Dixon was no longer moving and his eyes were empty glass. There was a giant puddle of blood around his body. A man in a uniform came over and put another bullet in Dixon’s skull.

“Remember me?” A man wearing the uniform of the power plant guards stepped forward in front of Sven. “I shot your dog.” Sven immediately recognized Thompson, who had participated with Dennis in the uprising.

“You raped Candy…” Sven said, remembering. Thompson kicked Sven hard, right in the ribs, with steel toed boots, knocking all the air out of him.

Thompson leaned over him, “No, that was Rusty. You killed him, remember?” Then more loudly for everyone to hear, “This man raped an under-aged girl. That girl right there,” he pointed at Eve. Dennis emerged from the cab of the second personnel carrier.

“No, he didn’t! He never touched me!” Eve cried, throwing her body protectively over Sven. The officer nodded and five soldiers grabbed hold of her, pulling her away from Sven.

The officer in charge stood directly in front of both Sven and Jackie and read the charges, “You have taken possession of a critical federal infrastructure facility for non-governmental purposes. You are under arrest for treason, terrorist acts, assault on government officials…”

“We saved all these people,” Sven said. “They would all be dead, now, if not for us. And, where the hell was the government anyway?”

“That’s not what these men tell us. They tell us you executed the guards and murdered anyone who did not do what you told them.” He motioned to Dennis and Thompson. Dennis came and stood next to Thompson, nodding agreement, while Thompson grinned maniacally, looking like he wanted to lunge at him and tear him to pieces.

“They saved us,” Eve spoke up. “They’re heroes!”

“The women were used as sex slaves,” Dennis said. “They had no choice in the matter.”

“That’s not really accurate,” A man and his new wife stepped forward. “My wife was one of Candy’s Girls for a while, but I purchased her freedom.”

“What do you mean you purchased her freedom?” Dennis asked.

“There’s not many women anymore. It’s harder for them. Men outnumber women ten to one.”

“If you wished to marry her, why couldn’t she just go with you?” Dennis asked.

“Like I said, she was one of Candy’s girls. Lot’s of men wanted to marry her. I’m the lucky one.”

“A prostitute.”

“I don’t like your tone, Mr.”

“In other words, she worked for Candy. Candy owned her. You had to buy her from Candy. She was a slave; property; chattel. ”

“Arrest that man,” the officer ordered. Ten soldiers jumped on him, wrestling him to the ground, and zip tied his hands behind his back. They roughly forced him onto his knees next to Sven and Jackie. Sven kept his head down but glanced toward the tower. He saw no sign of Jeb, Mack or Tiny. “You can’t purchase another human being like a car or a horse. We’ll figure out the specific charge later.”

“No!” The wife ran to the bound husband, then pleaded with the officer. “He’s done nothing wrong. He’s my husband. He saved me. Please!” Four men in fatigues came and stood between her and the officer.

“At first light, a military tribunal shall be assembled and you shall be tried for your crimes. Let’s see, war profiteering, running a house of prostitution, running an illegal drug operation, a moon shining operation, treason against the United States, false imprisonment, …did I miss anything?” The officer turned to Dennis who was smiling.

“Looting,” Dennis said.

“This is war time. We are under martial law. For the looting alone, I can have you summarily executed.”

“Looting?! Everyone is dead, more or less.”

“Take them to the holding cells. They’ll be tried first thing in the morning,” the officer ordered, “and I want everyone here blood tested, tagged and identified before coming back into this facility.”

“We won’t accept your tag,” Sven said.

“Then you’ll be imprisoned until such time as you comply…which won’t matter much in your case. Test them first,” the officer ordered.

A medic in fatigues rushed over with a hand held device and efficiently drew a small sample of blood from Sven, Jackie and the other man. “Sir, I think you should see this.”

“What is it?”

“We have a possible hit here. These two appear to have immunity to the virus.”

“Well, you two are special.” The officer folded his arms and stood authoritatively over them. “I want a full battery of tests done on these two, immediately. If you are immune, which is quite rare, we are finding about one to three percent of the population carries immunity to the virus naturally. Your cooperation will be extremely helpful to our efforts toward curing this disease. You two however, are prisoners of the United States. As such, you have no rights. You will be found guilty in the morning. We will do with you what is most expedient.”

“Human guinea pigs,” Thompson smiled.

To the third man he said, “If you have no previous criminal record, and you consent to tagging, then we can probably let you go after seizure of any ill gotten gain.”

“I’ll take the tag. If that’s what it takes to survive.”

“We’ll take the tag. Just let him go,” his wife said.

“Two lines right here. Blood test and tag,” the officer ordered. The enlisted men hustled everyone into lines facing the plant gates. Everyone receiving the tag will immediately be given food rations for three days. All weapons must be turned over at that time.”

“How will we defend ourselves?” A man near the back of the line demanded.

“We will defend you. You will be under the protection of the United States government. You will be granted access to the power plant and given 5,000 credits until your identity can be verified and you are given access to all of your accounts and financial assets. Any medicines on file will be issued to you at that time.”

“What happens when the infected get in to the plant?”

“The infected will not get into the plant.”

“They’re in there now!”

“Who said that? I want that man identified.”

Several figures were seen melting into the crowds at the back of the line. Some of them seemed to be secreting food and weapons beneath and within the abandoned cars on the sides of the road for later retrieval.

CHAPTER 50: November 9, 10:30 a.m.

Eve felt torn in half as the soldiers took Sven and Jackie away. She stood there, hands hanging limply at her sides. Her parents were dead, Dixon was dead and now Sven had been arrested and was facing a fate worse than death.

“Do you believe me now?” Frank was suddenly in her face, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the back of the lines. His eyes shifted nervously left and right and repeatedly glanced behind them as they moved. “It’s over! I told you this would happen. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing anyone can do.”

“We can’t leave. We have to help them.” Eve gasped through her sobs. “There must be something we can do. You have to help me.”

“Did you sleep with him?” Frank stopped suddenly and confronted her. “Did you sleep with him? I have to know!”

Eve just looked at Frank, her tears stopping their flow almost instantly. “I…I would be dead if not for Sven. Sven protected me after my parents died.”

“I know you slept with him.” Frank was purple with jealousy, but they resumed moving until they had passed the back of the two lines and ducked into the woods. “I don’t know how you could do that to me after all I’ve done for you. I love you. I asked you to be my wife, and this is how you repay me?” He stopped pulling her again, clenched both his fists together in front of himself and confronted her again. “I should just leave you here. Is that what you want? Do you want me to just leave you here?”

“Frank, it means a lot to me that you asked me to go with you.” Eve felt that her life was in danger and maybe she should go back to the power plant. “I know you were sleeping with Alexis.”

“She was a whore! It didn’t mean anything.” Frank’s words were still strong, but it took the sharp edge off his attack.

“Why did you let her blow you like two minutes after you asked me to marry you?” Eve accused.

“You saw that?”

Eve nodded, watching him carefully. Then to her left, Eve saw movement in the woods. A man waved. He was wearing full camouflage and was practically invisible if he stood still. “Jeb!”

“Shhhh!” Jeb said, and then next to him Mack and Tiny appeared, also covered in camo. They were heavily armed. Behind them was a cache of more weapons and food. Behind the cache was a group of several others that apparently were the rest of Frank’s group heading down to the California valley. “You okay, darling?”

CHAPTER 51: November 10, Noon

“Here, drink this.” The doctor came and gave them each two plastic bottles of Ensure. “It will help you regain your strength.”

“I’m not feeling very well,” Sven looked down at his arms which now looked like dart boards.

“I’ve never seen anyone take that much blood from someone all at once.”

“We’re guinea pigs,” Jackie said, downing the Ensure and handed it back to the doctor, who secreted it in the pocket of his lab coat. Sven did the same.

“I can’t be a part of this. I don’t care if they are trying to cure the ravening virus.” The doctor looked angry, “What they are doing to you is actually illegal. However, just before the government went underground they passed several new laws stating that anyone who refused to be tagged lost their right to a driver’s license, right to work, right to a bank account, right to a passport, even their citizenship… essentially all their human rights. Without the tag, you no longer exist. All official records of your existence on this earth are now kept under the unique identifiers present in that tag. Since you both refused the tag, they can do whatever they want with you.”

Sven and Jackie just looked at him.

“Listen, tonight at dusk, I’m going to disconnect the door sensor and leave the door unlocked.” The doctor looked at them meaningfully. “That trial they held for you was ridiculous. I was planning to testify in your defense, but…”

At first light, Sven and Jackie had been brought in chains before the Officer and two enlisted men on either side. First Dennis, then Thompson had stood up and accused them of everything under the sun. Four other survivors came forward and testified against them, apparently for better treatment under the new world order. Even Brit was brought forward to testify, but his answers to their accusations of hostage taking and kidnapping him were very evasive, and he did everything except refuse to cooperate. Sven gave him a grateful smile. When Sven thought he would then have his opportunity to give his defense, the Officer/Judge moved for ‘summary judgment,’ pounding his gavel, and immediately pronounced them guilty. He sentenced both Jackie and Sven to ‘Death,’ then commuted their sentence in the public interest to ‘Life Imprisonment,’ to serve as ‘Medical Volunteers’ until the time of their death or the ravening virus was cured and expunged from the face of the earth. Sven tried to protest but he and Jackie were immediately grabbed and dragged back to their cells in the bottom of the gate house, where blood was taken and tests were started on them. The stench of the infected was still heavy from the other cell where the bodies of Candy and the girls had been removed only hours before.

“Get some rest,” the doctor encouraged, “God be with you.”

CHAPTER 52: November 10, 3:30 p.m.

Just before dusk, the doctor came by and checked on them again. This time he was accompanied by three Army medics wearing fatigues, who watched his every movement. He checked Sven’s vitals, breathing and blood pressure and asked how he was feeling. “Do we have the results back from the blood tests?” he asked a young male medic, who couldn’t have been older than 19.

“I…I think they will be ready in the morning,” he replied.

“Can you check for me? I have an idea that warrants immediate pursuit.”

“Sure.” The young medic turned to leave.

“And take these two with you,” the doctor said.

“We are under orders not to leave your presence at any time,” the slightly more senior female medic answered.

“That was an order, soldier,” the doctor said.

“Your order contradicts our standing orders, sir,” she replied nervously, looking to the other soldiers for support. “I’m going to have to check with the captain.”

“As a medical doctor, I hold the rank of colonel,” the doctor reasoned still polite and smiling, although firm. “I outrank the captain. Are you refusing to perform a direct order from a field commissioned colonel? I believe the penalty for failing to perform a direct order from a superior officer is court martial or death.” The doctor smiled again.

“No sir!” All three of them snapped to attention and saluted, “right away, sir.”

“I’ll be there in a moment,” the doctor adopted a kind demeanor, “wait for me at the lab.”

“Yes sir!” The three soldiers bumped into each other in their haste to exit through the door.

“Wait until I am gone,” the doctor whispered, nodding subtly at Sven and Jackie. Then, very loudly for anyone that might be listening, “you’re looking as well as can be expected. I’m going to order you double rations for the time being.” He made notes on their charts.

Jackie and Sven waited for the doctor to exit, then jumped up from their beds to check the cell door. Jackie pushed the heavy cell door with his finger which inched open, unlocked. He then got on his hands and knees and crawled to the metal hallway door, which had been replaced already, and found it also to be unlocked. Jackie nodded to Sven. Sven crawled on his hands and knees to join Jackie. Sven took a deep breath. This was it. Either they would escape or be killed during the attempt.

“Whatever happens, brother, I want you to know I love you man,” Sven said meaningfully, touching Jackie on the shoulder.

“Yeah.” Jackie was not the sentimental type. “We need weapons, and we need to get out of these clothes.” They had been dressed by their captors in pocket-less black and white striped jump suits.

A giant BOOM erupted from an area near the front gate. Short staccato bursts of gunfire sounded all around them. Sven heard men yelling and the sounds of booted feet drumming the ground. Sven heard a tank starting up, and the almost deafening roar as it advanced toward the gate.

Another series of four successive BOOMS sounded to the left and behind, somewhere in the vicinity of Building 3. The lights flashed once, then went dark. “Code yellow,” the familiar recorded female voice intoned. “Reactor temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. Immediate action required. Code yellow. Reactor temperatures are rising…” The message repeated itself infinitely, never tiring.

“Go!” Jackie said, shoving Sven through the open door.

CHAPTER 53: November 10, 3:30 p.m.

Eve was hunkered down just inside the tree line on the east side of the power plant when the first explosion went off directly in front of the plant gates, just before dusk. Beside her were Jeb, Mack and Tiny. It was a good sized explosion, making a very big BOOM. Jeb had made a simple pipe bomb with gunpowder, sealed the pipe and then covered the entire thing in a jacket of nuts, bolts and nails. Mack and Tiny had then sneaked out and attached it to the car with the most gas left in the tank, about fifty yards from the power plant gates.

The BOOM had the desired effect, causing a flurry of activity around the gates, with soldiers running frantically, shouting and brandishing weapons. One of the tanks was started up and the gates opened for it to exit and meet the undefined threat. A loose contingent of forty soldiers ran behind it, using it for cover. The explosion in front of the gates was simply a diversion from the real plan. When the time was right, Tiny crawled forward and cut a three foot line from the bottom of the fence that they quickly squeezed through and ran to the cover of the cooling tower, twenty yards away fast and low to the ground. All of them were wearing camouflage, which made them invisible when still. However, the human eye was drawn to movement and there were soldiers everywhere.

Frank and the other four families with which Eve was supposed to have gone southeast to the California valley, to farm and raise cattle, were hidden in the woods in front near the car they just blew. They were only supposed to shoot to draw out the soldiers further if they didn’t come through the gate to investigate. The plan was to lure as many soldiers out of the gate as possible so Jeb, his sons, and Eve could come in the side unnoticed.

Originally, Jeb had assigned Eve to stay back with Frank and the other four couples and one toddler, since it was safer, but Eve’s reception by the four women had been ice cold. She had received a few tentatively welcoming smiles from two of the men. But the eight of them had been stuck there waiting outside the gate for the past three days, because Frank refused to leave without Eve, his wife to be, who was inside the power plant falling back in love with Sven and finally sleeping with him. They were all firmly on Frank’s side, who was still sulking. Eve had approached Jeb then and shook her head subtly ‘no’ when he tried to assign her to stay behind.

“But I’m going to need someone to keep an eye on our cache of weapons and food,” Jeb whispered to her. “Can’t have that stuff disappearing while we’re in there being good Samaritans, springing Sven and Jackie.”

“I want to come with you,” Eve pleaded quietly, with her back to Frank. “I can’t stay here with them.”

“Okay,” Jeb finally agreed. “But stay down and do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you to do it.” He then lent Eve the smallest camo pants and shirt he still had from his dead son. The shirt and pants were still at least three sizes too big, and instead of looking tough, Eve now looked like a young child playing dress up in her daddy’s army outfit.

The sprint to the cooling tower went off without a hitch, as all the attention was on the front gate as planned. Soldiers were running and massing to defend against an attack at the gate, leaving big holes in their defenses. Mack and Tiny went into the cooling tower, while Eve and Jeb kept watch at the outer door. Eve heard the POP, POP of gunfire inside. Jeb and Eve kept watch by cracking the door, and were glad that the small pops didn’t draw any attention. Finally there were four giant BOOMS, as Mack and Tiny detonated hand grenades, shutting down the water pumps and destroying the backup generators, simultaneously. The two big men came sprinting around the corner, nearly knocking into Eve and Jeb immediately after the booms. They both had huge smiles on their faces, and Tiny was having a silent belly laugh. “We had to down a couple of infected,” Mack explained, through the ringing in their ears.

“Code yellow,” the familiar recorded female voice intoned. “Reactor temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. Immediate action required. Code yellow. Reactor temperatures are rising…” The message repeated itself infinitely, never tiring.

There was no more time for celebration, as soldiers would be coming to investigate at any moment. Jeb turned to them and motioned for them to go out counting down with his fingers silently, three-two-one-go!

They sprinted out the door low and fast. Tiny was first, followed by Mack second, Eve third, and finally Jeb, who held the door open and called all the shots. The first shot came up high and wild from behind the tower before they even knew the soldier was there. He was running toward the gate when he saw them. Mack shouldered his rifle and put him down with one shot before he had a chance to fire a second time. Mack and Tiny quickly pulled the man into the shadows of the cooling tower, behind some dry shrubs ringing it. Jeb and Eve sprinted into the cover of Building 3, where they had a clear view of any threats approaching Mack and Tiny from the front, as well as a clear view of the guardhouse. The plan was to enter from the back somehow, get in to the basement cell areas and spring Sven and Jackie. There was a single door in the middle of the three story gate house, but it was solid metal and looked to be reinforced.

Jeb shook his head sadly. “We could blow it, but I don’t think we brought enough explosives, since we didn’t plan on this.” He turned to his sons, “Do you have any more grenades?” They shook their heads.

“Shoot the lock,” Eve said. She felt Sven slipping away from her. They were so close, they had to get in and rescue him.

Jeb was already looking at the windows, all of which were barred on the first level. The second and third story windows were not barred, but they would need a ladder or have to boost each other up to get there, and they would be exposed to fire should any of the enemy see them at it.

“Boost me up!” Eve said, reaching her hands toward Tiny’s thick neck. “I’m smaller. I’ll go in and unlock the door from the inside.”

Just then two men in black and white striped jump suits came barreling through the door, running into them. One had long blond dreadlocks, and the other man was dark-skinned and thickly built. Mack shouldered his rifle instantly. The two men were unarmed.

“Sven!” Eve cried.

“Shhhhh,” Jeb said.

Sven and Eve flung themselves into the other’s arms, hugging and kissing passionately. The feelings Eve felt at Sven’s appearance erased any lingering doubts that she had made the right decision to choose Sven over Frank.

“Boy, am I glad to see you,” Jackie said to quick man hugs and back slaps all around. “I knew those explosions had to come from you. How do we get out of here?”

“Follow us,” Jeb said. “Stay low.”

CHAPTER 54: November 10, 4 p.m.

Frank and three of the four other men were being marched at gunpoint back toward the power plant by thirty soldiers. Frank cried out when he saw all four women in his group marched at gunpoint from the woods by another group of soldiers. Sven was too far away to hear. Eve stood beside him, tears silently running down her face.

Frank’s outburst got him a kick in the stomach from one of the soldiers that dropped him painfully to his knees in the dirt. That was followed up immediately by a rifle butt strike to the back of the head by another soldier which left him punch drunk. Jeb was leading them off to the right as far away from the road as possible and into the thickest woods. Sven could see another man in Frank’s group motioning with his arms. He seemed to be describing the explosions.

Another group of twenty soldiers was now bringing forward Jeb’s cache of weapons and food that had been secreted not far off the road.

“So much for the weapons and food,” Jeb said.

They threaded their way through the tall trees all the way to the right, until they hit water. The problem was that the power plant was built at the end of a thin peninsula. The land itself was essentially a bottle neck with only the one small ribbon of road leading to and from the gate. Soldiers were combing the woods everywhere they went.

“I have the feeling Frank is giving us up right about now,” Jackie said. “I’m not sure we have much more time before they find us. Any ideas for getting out of here quick?”

“Working on it,” Jeb said, chewing a toothpick and fingering his rifle. Darkness was quickly falling and all around them, rose the savage sounds of the infected attacking the exposed soldiers, and sporadic gunfire. “Retreat!” was heard and the sounds of boots running through the forest. They followed a cliff north, keeping the inlet on their right and the road beyond the trees further and further off to their left. They moved silently, stopping whenever Jeb or Jackie heard or saw something. As they crested the final ridge connecting the small peninsula to the larger body of land, Sven could see a pitched battle occurring between the soldiers who had retreated behind the gates of the plant and a massive horde of the ravening infected. A few small emergency lights still burned at the plant. A tank lay stranded outside the blocked gate, along with several of the adopted cars with “US Army” scrawled on them in green spray paint. Infected jumped freely in and out of the tank port. The fighting was clearly inside the gates now, and the infected were among the soldiers. There was no more line, and the soldiers looked to be panicking. A large ring of military vehicles quickly made a circle inside the gate and lit up a large area with huge spot lights. The beleaguered soldiers stood within the ring, firing out at the infected. Sven could see survivors waving from the top of the control tower, where they were cut off from the protection of the lights and the soldiers.

Off in the distance, the calm electronic female voice intoned to newly flashing red lights, “Code red. Code red. Reactor core meltdown imminent. Reactor temperatures have reached critical levels. Take immediate corrective action. Reactor core meltdown imminent. Code red. Code red. Reactor core meltdown imminent…”

“The soldiers are going to make it until the dawn with their lights, but most or even all of the survivors are screwed,” Jackie observed.

From their hillside vantage point, Sven could see infected attacking and tearing apart survivors on the tower catwalk, who moments before had been waving for help from the soldiers. Survivors were jumping from the catwalk to their death rather than be bitten by the infected, who were swarming onto the catwalk to get them. Some of the infected, after biting and savaging their victims, copied the behavior by throwing survivors from the catwalk to the concrete below, howling with evil glee.

“They took their weapons too,” Sven said. “Only the soldiers have weapons.”

The soldiers began shooting up at the tower catwalk, downing survivors and infected alike without discrimination.

“The soldiers are just shooting them,” Eve said, incredulous.

“Do you think they have the know-how to stop the code red before meltdown?” Sven asked.

“They have Dennis and Brit and lots of manpower and equipment, so I’m going to have to say they’ll be able to stop it,” Jackie answered.

Sven ducked pulling Eve with him down to the ground, as a heavy rumbling sound like a freight train coming straight at them caught his attention. It was an earthquake. In his many years living in California he had never before felt one like it. They all ended up flat to the ground as it shook, and the giant trees swayed terrifyingly all around them. There were ear-splitting cracks as trees and limbs broke and crashed to the ground. A great crack opened in the earth, running along the road far below them for some distance, and lead right up into the power plant. A large plume of steam began rising from one of the cooling towers, which appeared to be cracked in half even from here.

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal.” Sven had a distant look in his eyes. “There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”

“How do you know the words like that?” Eve asked, still holding Sven’s hand.

“I don’t know,” Sven said.

“What happens now?”

“They hunt us,” Sven was matter of fact. “By the end, our kind shall be rarer than pure gold. And if God had not shortened the days of mankind’s trial, every son of Adam on the earth would have perished.”

“We better keep moving,” Jackie said.

“Where to?”

“Look at all the shooting stars,” Mack pointed as the sky nearly lit up with bright lights that went streaking across the dark sky.

“Zawatenejo,” Eve said.

“Mexico,” Jackie said.

"Tagged The Apocalypse" is Joseph M Chiron's first novel.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: September 10, 10 a.m.

CHAPTER 2: September 11, Midnight

CHAPTER 3: September 26, 11 a.m.

CHAPTER 4: October 15, 11 a.m.

CHAPTER 5: October 15, 11 a.m.

CHAPTER 6: October 15, 3 p.m.

CHAPTER 7 – October 15, 6pm

CHAPTER 8: October 15, 6:15pm

CHAPTER 9: October 15, 7pm

CHAPTER 10: October 15, 7:15pm

CHAPTER 11: October 15, 7pm

CHAPTER 12: October 15, 7:15pm

CHAPTER 13: October 15, 7pm

CHAPTER 14: October 16, 9:45am

CHAPTER 15: October 16, 10am

CHAPTER 16: October 16. 11am

CHAPTER 17: October 16, 11:30am

CHAPTER 18: October 16, 11:35am

CHAPTER 19: October 16, 1pm

CHAPTER 20: October 16, 2pm

CHAPTER 21: October 16, 3pm

CHAPTER 22: October 16, 4:30pm

CHAPTER 23: October 29, 11am

CHAPTER 24: October 30, 10am

CHAPTER 25, October 30, 10am

CHAPTER 26: October 30, 10:15am

CHAPTER 27: October 30, Noon

CHAPTER 28: October 30, Noon

CHAPTER 29: October 30, 1pm

CHAPTER 30: October 30, 2:15pm

CHAPTER 31: October 30, 3pm

CHAPTER 32: November 1, 4:30pm

CHAPTER 33: November 2, 9:45am

CHAPTER 34: November 2, 10am

CHAPTER 35, November 3, 11am

CHAPTER 36: November 3, 11:30am

CHAPTER 37: November 5, 9:30am

CHAPTER 38: November 5, 3:30pm

CHAPTER 39: November 5, 4pm

CHAPTER 40: November 5, 3:30pm

CHAPTER 41: November 6, 9:30am

CHAPTER 42: November 6, 10am

CHAPTER 43, November 6, 10:05am

CHAPTER 44: November 6, 10:15am

CHAPTER 45: November 6, Noon

CHAPTER 46: November 6, 3:45pm

CHAPTER 47: November 9, 9:30am

CHAPTER 48: November 9, 9:30am

CHAPTER 49: November 9, 9:45am

CHAPTER 50: November 9, 10:30am

CHAPTER 51: November 9, Noon

CHAPTER 52: November 10, 3: 30 p.m.

CHAPTER 53: November 7, 3:30pm

CHAPTER 54: November 10, 4 p.m.