Chapter 15
Marcus said to Zack, “Do I kill you for insulting me or kiss you because you are the first friendly face that I’ve seen in a long time. Where is the rest of the caravan?”
“Most of your friends are dead, but some of them are alive, holding out in a building just down the street,” said Mitch. Marcus asked, “What happened? Where are the others?”
Every man was silent for a solid minute before Zack raised his voice. He said, “Apparently, the military is split in half. Some of them see you as a possible friend. The rest of those assholes want to kill you. And you can pretty much guess which side had antiaircraft cannons.”
“If they shot the planes out of the sky, then how did you survive?”
“They saved a lot of ammo by hitting just the engines. We slowly fell, and me and twenty others crowded on poor Demmy’s back. When we got to the city, the better evil side of the military asked us to join them. Another three hundred men are coming once we start slitting throats.”
“This would have been a remake of the battle of Thermopylae.”
“Yeah, well anyway, we had three girls with us. The other assholes took them from us and were able to trap Dem and the others in some kind of metal chain net. Of course, these guys didn’t trust us at first, so we had to earn our way. Vietnam in the city. It was fun until we started to lose men. We were going to launch a surprise attack, but I guess you took care of that for us, eh asshole?”
“Yes, the deed is done.”
One of the other men built up the courage to say, “What about my daughters? Are they still alive?”
“I could not say, as there were hundreds of prisoner women. Many of them were not old enough to fully understand why the soldiers wanted them. Now they are safe. You may enter the island to look for them. Take these three with you, if you do not mind.”
Marcus turned to a nearby bush where the girls he rescued were hiding. They rose, and one of them ran to the man that just spoke. She cried with tears of joy. Marcus guessed that she was his daughter. They embraced each other and Marcus turned to Mitch.
“Are the turrets still in use?”
“No, but I can go turn them back on.”
“I will fly you over,” he said before he turned to the other men and asked, “Can I trust you to hold off any undead that approach this gate?”
Zack said, “I ripped off the broadside of an Abrams tank with this sword. I think I can handle a few zombies.”
“Good, get inside and wait for us to return. I will have a few tasks for you to keep yourselves busy for the time being.”
“But what about the rest of our forces? We still have a small army coming over here. Plus, we need to get our families out of their hiding place.”
“I will handle that myself. Mitch, come with me. As for the rest of you, stay inside.”
Mitch climbed to Marcus’s shoulders and he took flight. Marcus landed next to the line of skyscrapers and walked into the city, as his wings were too large for flight in the cramped spacing. He found a somewhat fresh scent and followed the trail laid out before him. Mitch called out from Marcus’s back and there was no immediate response. He called out as Marcus walked and they passed by another large glass building. As soon as Marcus was past it, he lost the scent. He turned back and leaned close to the building, where the scent was strongest. A voice sounded out, “Who are you?”
“I am a friend. We’re here to get you to safety.”
“Is that what you told our girls when you dragged them off? You’ll need to do better than that.”
Marcus roared, “We are here to take you to safety. If you do not comply the first time, then I will leave you here for death or worse.”
A child from inside the building started yelling, “It’s the dragon! It’s the dragon!”
Marcus could hear people whispering, and he tried to stick his head into the building. Mass gunfire created sparks across his head. He pulled out; the ricochets could kill someone. When the gunfire ended, people were yelling for the gunmen to stop. Marcus tried again, and this time, his teeth were showing. His skull could not fit through the small doorway, but the lobby was open enough for both his head and the resulting rubble to fit.
Twenty men stood around him with guns drawn. Marcus said in a menacing voice like before, “Lower your weapons. You should be saving your ammo for the fighting to come. Besides, the ricochets would only kill the others around you.”
There were over a hundred men, women, and children hiding in the building. Marcus recognized about thirty of them and wondered if he could carry that kind of weight at once. He looked from person to person. The thirty were very happy with his unexpected appearance, but the others were frightened.
He said to the crowd, “I will give you the choice; we all go out as a group on the ground or I carry twenty at a time via the air.”
Mitch walked by Marcus’s head and looked at the armed soldiers. He said, “We’ll be walking a quarter mile before Marcus can take flight, but that’s still shorter than the first rout.”
Marcus countered, “True, but the undead stay away from me. I will act as a front guard until we reach the bridge, if that is indeed the group’s choice. I would suggest you all make your decision quickly; I will not wait forever for those who cannot choose.”
One of the men from his original caravan said, “My wife is pregnant, so she can’t fly. I vote for the ground rout.”
“Does anyone else wish to take this rout?”
The others from the caravan, including the three boys, raised their hands. Marcus said, “Does anyone disagree, or know of a safer way?”
“Yeah, I do,” one of the men Marcus didn’t recognize said, “we all stay here until the others get back. We’ve held ourselves for seven hours now, and we can hold out for another week.”
“And we who took the military’s base in the middle of the bay can hold out for a decade. The entire east coast is infected and they march to us even as we speak. How will you defend yourselves then? I can take much more punishment than you, and we have much better defenses. You will all die here once your ammo runs dry. The others from my own flock have already decided the method of travel. Now it is you duty to decide; Do you stay here or follow me?”
Some of the soldiers lowered their guns and walked over to him, as did the rest of his “flock” and most of the others. Seven of them stayed put. There was a group of three: a man, a woman, and an infant. The other group was made of children that hid behind the robes of a priest. He looked at the last few and asked, “Are you sure this is what you want? You cannot hope to survive, should the undead make their way here.”
He turned to the priest and said, “Tell me, Father; you would die for your faith?”
“Yes I would.”
“And you would have the children die with you?”
He started to sweat, and Marcus knew his question had hit home. Marcus said, “I know what your Holy Book says about my kind; that we are monsters. I am not a monster; I was once human and I cling to my faith as a lifeline in these dark times. With the knowledge that you may be the only priest left alive on this side of the world, I ask you one final time; will you come with us?”
The children looked at him. They did not know what to do and looked to him for guidance. He said, “Do you mean what you say?”
“Every word. I am as God-fearing as you, Father.”
He looked at the children and they moved forward as a group. Marcus turned to the last three and said, “Will you come with us? I will only ask you once.”
The woman walked forward with her infant in her grasp. The man looked at Marcus and then at his wife. He walked down to join her and Marcus backed out of the hole.
“Most of your friends are dead, but some of them are alive, holding out in a building just down the street,” said Mitch. Marcus asked, “What happened? Where are the others?”
Every man was silent for a solid minute before Zack raised his voice. He said, “Apparently, the military is split in half. Some of them see you as a possible friend. The rest of those assholes want to kill you. And you can pretty much guess which side had antiaircraft cannons.”
“If they shot the planes out of the sky, then how did you survive?”
“They saved a lot of ammo by hitting just the engines. We slowly fell, and me and twenty others crowded on poor Demmy’s back. When we got to the city, the better evil side of the military asked us to join them. Another three hundred men are coming once we start slitting throats.”
“This would have been a remake of the battle of Thermopylae.”
“Yeah, well anyway, we had three girls with us. The other assholes took them from us and were able to trap Dem and the others in some kind of metal chain net. Of course, these guys didn’t trust us at first, so we had to earn our way. Vietnam in the city. It was fun until we started to lose men. We were going to launch a surprise attack, but I guess you took care of that for us, eh asshole?”
“Yes, the deed is done.”
One of the other men built up the courage to say, “What about my daughters? Are they still alive?”
“I could not say, as there were hundreds of prisoner women. Many of them were not old enough to fully understand why the soldiers wanted them. Now they are safe. You may enter the island to look for them. Take these three with you, if you do not mind.”
Marcus turned to a nearby bush where the girls he rescued were hiding. They rose, and one of them ran to the man that just spoke. She cried with tears of joy. Marcus guessed that she was his daughter. They embraced each other and Marcus turned to Mitch.
“Are the turrets still in use?”
“No, but I can go turn them back on.”
“I will fly you over,” he said before he turned to the other men and asked, “Can I trust you to hold off any undead that approach this gate?”
Zack said, “I ripped off the broadside of an Abrams tank with this sword. I think I can handle a few zombies.”
“Good, get inside and wait for us to return. I will have a few tasks for you to keep yourselves busy for the time being.”
“But what about the rest of our forces? We still have a small army coming over here. Plus, we need to get our families out of their hiding place.”
“I will handle that myself. Mitch, come with me. As for the rest of you, stay inside.”
Mitch climbed to Marcus’s shoulders and he took flight. Marcus landed next to the line of skyscrapers and walked into the city, as his wings were too large for flight in the cramped spacing. He found a somewhat fresh scent and followed the trail laid out before him. Mitch called out from Marcus’s back and there was no immediate response. He called out as Marcus walked and they passed by another large glass building. As soon as Marcus was past it, he lost the scent. He turned back and leaned close to the building, where the scent was strongest. A voice sounded out, “Who are you?”
“I am a friend. We’re here to get you to safety.”
“Is that what you told our girls when you dragged them off? You’ll need to do better than that.”
Marcus roared, “We are here to take you to safety. If you do not comply the first time, then I will leave you here for death or worse.”
A child from inside the building started yelling, “It’s the dragon! It’s the dragon!”
Marcus could hear people whispering, and he tried to stick his head into the building. Mass gunfire created sparks across his head. He pulled out; the ricochets could kill someone. When the gunfire ended, people were yelling for the gunmen to stop. Marcus tried again, and this time, his teeth were showing. His skull could not fit through the small doorway, but the lobby was open enough for both his head and the resulting rubble to fit.
Twenty men stood around him with guns drawn. Marcus said in a menacing voice like before, “Lower your weapons. You should be saving your ammo for the fighting to come. Besides, the ricochets would only kill the others around you.”
There were over a hundred men, women, and children hiding in the building. Marcus recognized about thirty of them and wondered if he could carry that kind of weight at once. He looked from person to person. The thirty were very happy with his unexpected appearance, but the others were frightened.
He said to the crowd, “I will give you the choice; we all go out as a group on the ground or I carry twenty at a time via the air.”
Mitch walked by Marcus’s head and looked at the armed soldiers. He said, “We’ll be walking a quarter mile before Marcus can take flight, but that’s still shorter than the first rout.”
Marcus countered, “True, but the undead stay away from me. I will act as a front guard until we reach the bridge, if that is indeed the group’s choice. I would suggest you all make your decision quickly; I will not wait forever for those who cannot choose.”
One of the men from his original caravan said, “My wife is pregnant, so she can’t fly. I vote for the ground rout.”
“Does anyone else wish to take this rout?”
The others from the caravan, including the three boys, raised their hands. Marcus said, “Does anyone disagree, or know of a safer way?”
“Yeah, I do,” one of the men Marcus didn’t recognize said, “we all stay here until the others get back. We’ve held ourselves for seven hours now, and we can hold out for another week.”
“And we who took the military’s base in the middle of the bay can hold out for a decade. The entire east coast is infected and they march to us even as we speak. How will you defend yourselves then? I can take much more punishment than you, and we have much better defenses. You will all die here once your ammo runs dry. The others from my own flock have already decided the method of travel. Now it is you duty to decide; Do you stay here or follow me?”
Some of the soldiers lowered their guns and walked over to him, as did the rest of his “flock” and most of the others. Seven of them stayed put. There was a group of three: a man, a woman, and an infant. The other group was made of children that hid behind the robes of a priest. He looked at the last few and asked, “Are you sure this is what you want? You cannot hope to survive, should the undead make their way here.”
He turned to the priest and said, “Tell me, Father; you would die for your faith?”
“Yes I would.”
“And you would have the children die with you?”
He started to sweat, and Marcus knew his question had hit home. Marcus said, “I know what your Holy Book says about my kind; that we are monsters. I am not a monster; I was once human and I cling to my faith as a lifeline in these dark times. With the knowledge that you may be the only priest left alive on this side of the world, I ask you one final time; will you come with us?”
The children looked at him. They did not know what to do and looked to him for guidance. He said, “Do you mean what you say?”
“Every word. I am as God-fearing as you, Father.”
He looked at the children and they moved forward as a group. Marcus turned to the last three and said, “Will you come with us? I will only ask you once.”
The woman walked forward with her infant in her grasp. The man looked at Marcus and then at his wife. He walked down to join her and Marcus backed out of the hole.