Chapter 5

Jaxon

 

There was a moment after I had told Jaxon about my meeting with Skie in which I was truly afraid. It was the way in which his eyes narrowed, and his lip curled. He seemed a man very capable of committing unspeakable acts against anyone foolish enough to harm his loved ones.

And then, just as quickly as the rage appeared on his face, it was gone.

Can I tell you something?

“Of course you can. That’s why I’m here.”

It’s the intelligent ones you have to worry about. Only intelligent beings can be vindictive. The zombies are dangerous. There’s no doubt about that. If but one of them escaped El Paso, the entire country…the entire world would be in danger.

But a zombie isn’t capable of seeking revenge. Only intelligent creatures are truly capable of intentionally hitting you where it really hurts. Only intelligent beings are vile enough to open fire upon a group of innocent people.

My wife had been gravely injured. That was something that never should have happened. It was a mistake we never made again. Nowadays, we expect the smart ones to be vindictive.

Each and every member of the entire team’s family is now protected. If something goes wrong, if for any reason we feel they might be threatened, a bubble of safety is instantly projected around them.

I can’t tell you a whole lot about our methods. That’s top secret, but I’m sure you remember how fast we were able to react when Kingsley killed Lucy.

“I do remember that.”

I believe I told you that I thought Hardin probably kept tabs on all our families. Well, he does. I just didn’t want to go into too much detail at the time. Our security measures were put in place because of what happened to Skie that evening. It isn’t really something I like to talk about.

“I understand.”

I’ll tell you what happened, but just so you know, I’m far from proud about many things I did that night. The beginning was pretty confusing. We never expected to be attacked. El Paso was the dangerous place, and we weren’t in El Paso.

The gunmen had locked us all in the banquet hall. The doors were made of metal and covered in wood. None of us had any idea we were even being locked in. We were too busy drinking and partying. Hell, we were so drunk it took us a while to even react to being shot at.

After the first girl died, I shoved Skie under the cover of a solid table I flipped on its side. Keeping her out of harm’s way was the best I could do for her. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. Ivana was with her. I even placed Georgie there to protect them.

“What did you do?”

I went to go kill all the assassins.

There was a slight pause as Jaxon stared at the floor before locking eyes with me once again.

Did my wife really describe her gunshot wound as a rosebud?

“Yes.”

Jaxon was quiet for a moment. His eyes were once again fixed in a hard stare upon the floor. Merrick left my side and padded softly to him. She gently reached up with a paw and scratched at his leg until he relaxed and reached down to pet the top of her head.

Sorry.

“There’s no need to apologize.”

Okay.

It took us a little bit to regroup. It also took us a bit to get our hands on some firearms. Still, one by one we armed up, and went after them. By the time I realized Georgie was under heavy fire, I was under some pretty heavy fire myself.

Javie was next to me. He took a few rounds in his hip and went down. I couldn’t do anything for him either. If I broke cover, I’d be shot. If the shooters broke cover, I’d shoot them. It was pretty much a stalemate.

Fortunately, Dudley and Nick weren’t pinned down. Those two were the ones that saved most of the people. They went around the room shooting down any assassin that was firing on the partygoers. It took them some time to get to us. The killers fought back immediately when they realized Dudley and Nick were picking them off one after another, instead of fighting alongside Javie and me, so they had their own nasty and bloody fight.

At some point, Nick shot at one of the large windows then threw a chair through the cracked glass. The people now had an escape route, and they were fleeing the attack.

While all that was going on, I managed to shoot down two more of the assassins, but I also took a round in my stomach. It hurt like a bitch, but I couldn’t afford to fix the damage while I was under fire. As soon as Dudley found me, I ducked down to see how badly I’d been hit while he took over shooting for me.

It wasn’t the worst wound I’d ever seen, and it was nothing compared to how badly Javie had been hit. He was bleeding like a stuck pig. His features were pale, and he wasn’t even trying to staunch the flow of blood.

I crawled over to him, ripped off a piece of tablecloth and pressed the white material against his wound. The tablecloth turned red with blood almost immediately. I turned him slightly and noticed that one of the bullets had struck him in the lower back.

I panicked. Slapping Javie in the face brought him around. I told him to keep pressure on the wound, and I crawled away to find some water.

Nick ran into me as I scurried here and there in an attempt to find a pitcher of water that hadn’t been spilled or shot to Hell. He grabbed my ankle to get my attention, and I almost stabbed him in the face.

I told him what had happened to Javie. I told him to look for a water source. My voice was loud, and I realized the screaming and gunfire had stopped. I crawled to my feet.

Dudley was pointing out the window.

The remaining gunman had fled the scene after killing seventy-four innocent partygoers and secret service agents.

That’s when I heard Ivana crying for help.

My blood went cold. My stomach dropped, and a horrible feeling crept up my spine. My legs were jelly as I ran to her. I didn’t know if it was because of my wounds or my fear.

She was kneeling over Georgie and a somewhat smaller form. My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing. I stood there numbly, staring down at them.

“Jaxon,” Ivana cried. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

She moved away slightly, and I saw my wife’s face. I was sure she was dead. She had to be dead. The damage was too great. There was too much blood. The wound was in the middle of her chest.

I don’t remember grabbing Skie. I don’t even remember moving, but somehow I had dropped to my knees and scooped her up in my arms. Blood from the wound in my arm was dripping down upon her dress as I squeezed her body against mine. There was a noise. I had no idea where it was coming from but it sounded like a long moan that wouldn’t end. I really wanted the noise to stop, instead it grew louder and louder. Eventually it turned into a scream, and I realized that it was coming from me.

After that, I only saw red.

There was no thought except destruction. There was no meaning in the entire world except vengeance. I wanted blood. I wanted to rip apart anyone or anything that had a connection to what had just happened.

The scream became a growl.

The growl became a roar.

Dudley was in front of me. Behind him, Nick was carrying Javie. Dudley’s eyes were wide with fear. He was shouting something at me; I couldn’t hear him over the noises I was making. Then he was trying to take Skie away from me. I fought against him, and Ivana tried to hold me back.

Dudley pointed to the window. I finally understood. There was grass outside. Natural things will heal us. I ran through the broken window. Dudley followed with Georgie. I heard gunshots and saw flashing lights in the distance. The police had finally arrived.

I placed my wife down on the grass, and waited for something to happen. She’s been touched by the Guardian’s power but not nearly as much as the team. She won’t age, but she’s not any stronger, and she certainly doesn’t heal like the rest of us.

The grass didn’t move.

It didn’t cover her body and heal her wounds. I could already feel the tendrils creeping up my legs in an attempt to heal the damage on my body but they did nothing for Skie. Water began to pour over her chest. I looked up, and saw that Ivana had found a hose.

I pushed my wife’s damp hair out of her face and made room for the spray of water. I started talking to Skie.

“Don’t you leave me,” I begged. “Don’t go, baby. I’ll get you out of this. I’ll get you someplace safe. Come back to me.”

I started crying. No, that’s not true. I started bawling. Horrible wracking sobs that were so loud they hurt my chest as they poured out of me. My wife wasn’t moving. She wasn’t responding. She was limp in my arms. Her hand was cold against mine.

Dudley had his arms around me, trying to pull me away. I wouldn’t budge. I kept rocking my wife’s still form back and forth. I also kept screaming. A terrible rage that alternated violently with intense sadness kept pouring forth. I couldn’t control it. I was a slave to its power. I never once checked her pulse. I never once laid my head against her blood soaked dress and attempted to hear a heartbeat.

The paramedics arrived, and I was still holding my wife while Ivana poured water over her wound. It was a struggle for them to get her out of my arms. I’m pretty sure I hit a few of them before Dudley and Nick helped hold me down.

“I’ve got a pulse,” a paramedic announced.

I stopped struggling.

“What?” I asked. “What did he say?”

Dudley was wiping tears out of his eyes.

“They found a pulse,” Dudley said. “It’s not over yet.”

I remember seeing them pull Javie and Georgie out of the grass that had grown around them. I remember driving in a car towards the hospital. They wouldn’t allow me in the ambulance. I was too out of control and way too dangerous for something like that.

I don’t know who drove me. Nick was beside me the entire way. Ivana rode with Skie, and Dudley rode with Georgie, and Javie.

Doctors came up to me in the emergency ward. They wanted to fix the damage to my stomach and arm. I told them to leave me alone, and when they didn’t listen I shoved them away.

Eventually Dudley and Nick were forced to stand next to me. They did this so no one would approach me and get hurt. Through a little window on a pale door I watched as doctors and nurses attempted to save my wife’s life.

You see, I don’t talk about her much, but Skie is my life. She means the world to me. I adore her. Her smile brightens my day. When I’ve been out killing monsters and fighting for my life, her voice is the beacon I need to find my way home, to get up and fight harder so I can hold her one more time. I need her. I absolutely one hundred percent need her.

Tears began to softly fall from the General’s eyes.

Excuse me.

“No need.”

It was a tough time.

“I can only imagine.”

Finally, a doctor came out of the room, and walked over to me.

“You’re her husband?” The doctor asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“We were able to remove the bullet,” the doctor said. “But she has extensive damage to her heart and one lung. Somehow, some of that damage seems to have healed, which is probably why she’s still alive, but in all honesty, I don’t think she’ll make it through the night.”

The words hit me like a runaway freight train. Dudley began to ask questions. Ivana began to ask questions. I stood there as still as a statue. My heart was running wild in my chest. I wanted to scream. I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm myself down. My hands began to shake.

I could hear the doctor telling everyone that the wound was fatal. I could hear him spelling it out for Ivana so that she wouldn’t cling to any false hopes. My wife was going to die. I had failed her. I had saved so many people, but I couldn’t save my own wife. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t acceptable.

My eyes opened.

I saw the doctor backing away. He’d given his best effort towards my wife, and he was now allowing nature to take its course. I was on him in an instant. My friends were too shocked to react as I grabbed the man by the back of the neck, and marched him into the room in which they had been working on my wife.

I dragged him to her dying body, and I forced him to look at her.

“Do you know who I am?” I asked.

“Yes,” the doctor answered.

“This is my wife,” I growled.

There were nurses in the room. They ran out almost immediately. Security rushed forward to replace them. I heard them coming down the hall. I saw Nick and Dudley stop them at the door. They were buying me time.

“I understand she’s your wife, sir,” the doctor said. “I’ve done my best for her…”

“Your best isn’t good enough,” I snarled and shoved the doctor against the nearest wall. He bounced off, and would have hit the floor, but I caught him with my arm. Fingers that were barely under control wrapped around his throat, and I lifted him in the air. His feet and hands scrambled against the wall behind him.

“If she dies,” I whispered in his ear after he had stopped struggling. “I’ll kill you. I will find you, and I kill you. If you have a family, I’ll kill them as well. Your wife and your children will feel my pain…”

“Jaxon, please,” Ivana cried out from behind me. I squeezed harder on the doctors neck. I felt a soft hand touch my arm. I turned and looked into Ivana’s face. She looked so sad I melted. I dropped the doctor, and left the room.

Nick and Dudley immediately followed me. They kept the security away. I honestly don’t know where I was headed. I only knew I had to move away before someone got hurt.

Miriam appeared before me.

I don’t know where she came from; she was just suddenly right in front of me, and grabbing my arms.

“Hope is not yet lost,” Miriam announced.

I think I sagged just a bit. That’s all I could really do. I mean, I probably would have dropped to the floor, but the woman is pretty damn strong.

“Do you hear me, Jaxon?” Miriam demanded. “Hope is not yet lost.”

Her words gave me no comfort. I knew she spoke with the best of intentions but she hadn’t seen Skie. She didn’t hold her still form and feel the warmth leave her body. My wife was gone. Nothing would bring her back, and Miriam was no doctor.

Dudley’s phone rang.

“Answer it,” Miriam ordered.

Dudley did as she asked. He spoke for a few moments with whoever was on the other line, and when he hung up he seemed angry.

“That was Hardin,” Dudley announced. “He said that five of the shooters have been apprehended. High winds at the local airport are keeping the President’s plane from taking off, so the shooters are being re-routed to Roswell in order to keep both parties away from each other. He wasn’t sure where they’re flying to after they drive to Roswell, but right now they are being held at the police station while they await transport.”

“So what?” Nick questioned.

“He said some of his government contacts are warning him that something’s in the wind, whatever that means. He wants us to find out who’s behind the shooting ASAP. He sounds a bit worried, but he wouldn’t elaborate on anything.”

“Then let’s go to the police headquarters and talk to the shooters,” Nick said.

We borrowed Miriam’s car, and hauled ass to the station. Everyone looked at me sort of funny when I announced I was going as well. It wasn’t because I didn’t care about my wife; I simply needed to do something. The rage was burning a hole in my chest. I was having a difficult time keeping myself under control.

Maybe I was also a coward.

“Why would you say that?”

I think a part of me just refused to say goodbye. A part of me wanted to run away from the pain. I couldn’t stand the thought of spending another minute in that hospital. I couldn’t stand the way everyone stared at me.

The police force in Ruidoso is pretty small. There were only a couple cops in the entire station when we showed up. Most of the force was probably at the banquet hall, doing whatever it is that police do when a mass shooting takes place.

The two cops were shocked to see us walk into the reception area, wearing our bloody clothes. I held my badge up to the nearest of them and demanded to see the shooters.

“Just a minute,” the cop said before vanishing down the hall.

I didn’t like the way the remaining cop sized us up as if we were something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

“You got something to say?” I asked him.

Before the man could reply, his buddy came back with four other men. They weren’t cops. Their cheap black suits reeked of Government, but they didn’t give me a Secret Service vibe. They seemed a bit more on the sinister side.

“I’m the one that has something to say,” the leader of the group announced.

I didn’t like the situation, and I didn’t like the man’s face either. He seemed as if he were trying to take charge of things.

“You know who I am?” I asked.

His men flanked out around the room.

“I do indeed,” the man smiled. “I have some questions for you boys. Why don’t we go on back to the sheriff’s office and have ourselves a nice chat?”

He made the mistake of grabbing me by the arm. I was apparently wrong. The man wasn’t trying to take control of the situation. He thought he already had control.

I jerked my arm away from his grasp, and punched him in the sternum. It wasn’t my hardest punch but it was enough to put him on the floor. The three other men responded immediately. Each of them reached into their jackets for their pistols.

Unfortunately, they never faced off against anyone like us before. Not a single weapon cleared leather before all of the men were down and out.

The two cops never moved.

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked the one with the attitude.

“Not sure,” Mr. Attitude replied. “Those government assholes came in about twenty minutes ago, and took charge of the entire station. They sent the surviving Secret Service agents out of town, and put the Police Department on traffic control around the banquet hall. A more impolite bunch of people I never did meet. The chief tried to make some calls and find out whom they are, but whomever he called wouldn’t tell him anything other than to give them whatever they wanted. The Chief was so pissed, he up and went home for the night.”

“Where are the shooters?” I asked.

“They were shipped out a few minutes before you got here. They’re in a black SUV, guarded by four more of those agent fellows you just beat the snot out of. I think I heard something about Roswell.”

“We need to move,” I growled.

“I’m not sure you do,” the policeman added. “The main road to Roswell is out right now due to a rock slide. Unfortunately, nobody told the agents that. My guess is they’ll go all the way up to Lincoln, before they realize they need to turn around, and take a detour through Devil’s Canyon. Maybe next time they come into our town they’ll mind their manners a bit more.”

“All right,” I growled. “That gives us more than enough time to stop at the cabin and suit up. If these fuckers want a problem, let’s give them one.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” the policeman interrupted, “but you’re the fellah that’s been running around and fighting them zombies, ain’t ya?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“My sister was in El Paso,” the policeman said. “Your team saved her life.”

With that, the man offered me his hand, which I accepted. Maybe he didn’t have such a bad attitude after all.

No one said a word as we drove to my parents’ cabin. My parents were, of course, worried sick. They had about a thousand questions, but I really wasn’t able to answer any of them. I left all of that up to Dudley and Nick. Fortunately the kids, Otis, and Amy, were asleep. I don’t think I would have been able to tell them about their mother.

As soon as we could, we made our way to the backyard.

“What was in the backyard?”

My own personal Batcave…Or, more accurately: an underground bunker, marked only by a hinged metal door in the ground that opens up to a ladder, and descends ten feet under the earth. At the bottom of the ladder is a metal door that opens up by keypad. Beyond the door are four buried storage containers that have been outfitted into a modified living space.

It’s also where I keep a lot of spare weapons.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure why I even had the place. Nobody ever used it. I guess I thought it might be a good idea to have it if anyone staying at the cabin needed a decent place to seek shelter, in case the shit ever hit the fan.

Dudley and Nick followed me down. The three of us suited up in our bite suits and grabbed our weapons. I had a sudden stab of sorrow as I grabbed my tactical vest. I’m not sure if I ever told you this before or not, but it was Skie that designed the bandana-wearing skull and crossed pistols I wear on the chest of my vest.

“I don’t believe you mentioned that to me.”

Well, we took the name Regulators from a gang Billy the Kid was in. It’s kind of homage to the West. Skie always thought I needed something on my chest that people could recognize. That’s why she made me a design that paid tribute to the name of our group.

“Is the bandana over the skull’s mouth a reference to outlaws?”

It is, but she goofed on the musket pistols. In the days of Billy the Kid, single action Colt revolvers ruled most of the land. Skie didn’t know that. She’s not really all that interested in gunfighter history. I think I loved the design even more with the little mistake.

“I’ve noticed that the team members have started wearing the design as well.”

Yeah. They all have a patch on the left arm of their bite suits. Georgie and Dudley even went so far as to have it printed on t-shirts. It helps them pick up girls when they go out.

“Did the others notice you were having difficulties?”

Not at that moment. They were more concerned about catching the shooters.

“So what’s the plan?” Nick asked abruptly.

“We get to Devil’s Canyon ahead of them and take the prisoners.”

“An ambush?” Dudley asked.

“Pretty much,” I answered.

“What I don’t get,” Nick said, “is why we need to do any ambushing in the first place? Why were those government pricks trying to get us into the back of the station? Because to me, it looked like they were going to arrest us. I know what being arrested feels like, and trust me, it feels a lot like that.”

“It felt like it was heading that way,” I agreed.

“Hardin said something was in the wind,” Dudley said. “But what the fuck did we do wrong? How many people at that award ceremony are alive right now because of us? We’re freakin’ heroes as far as I’m concerned.”

An image of Skie forced its way into my head. I wasn’t a hero. In my mind, my wife was covered in blood, and she wasn’t moving. I had to grip the edge of a nearby table to keep myself from falling. My wife was dying. I was powerless to save her. It suddenly became very hard to breathe. I felt beads of sweat forming on my brow.

Dudley put a hand on my shoulder. He noticed, that time.

“It’s ok, Jax,” Dudley said. “You can sit this one out if you want. We can go get these guys and get whatever answers we need.”

Without another word, I left my underground bunker.

As soon as I got above ground, I could hear sirens coming from the banquet hall in the distance. The sound made me wonder if any of those odd government morons we’d met at the police station were headed our way. Dealing with government agents didn’t really worry me, but I found it irritating. All that mattered at the time was getting my hands on the shooters. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to teach them all about regret. Nothing was going to stop me.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get a few things straight. Obviously, there is some group of government-type agents against us. These agents have assumed control over the police force, and they don’t seem to give a shit about my pretty little badge. I don’t know what they want, and I don’t know who they’re working for, but it’s probably very safe to assume they aren’t on our side. Fuck that! I’m going after the men that shot my wife and friends. I’m going after the people responsible for the massacre at the banquet hall. My plan is simple. I’m going to kill them all. If anyone stands in my way, I’ll go through him. Are you two certain you want to come?”

Dudley crossed his right arm over his chest, and made a fist over his heart.

“I’m a Regulator,” Dudley said. “Until the bitter end.”

“Fuck yeah,” Nick smiled.

“Then leave Miriam’s car,” I said. “We’re taking the Harleys.”

Merrick came running up to me in the garage. She didn’t want me to leave her behind. I stopped, scratched her behind the ears, and then walked her back to my Mom and Dad who were watching us from the front porch.

“You be careful out there,” my Mom said as she hugged me.

Nick and Dudley weren’t exactly experts when it came to riding motorcycles, but I figured if anyone was after us, they probably knew we had Miriam’s car. Anyway, the Harleys were fast. We knew the area, we had a gigantic head start, and if by some chance we did get spotted and pursued, we’d also have an easier time losing them on the bikes.

“How many Harleys were at the cabin?”

I think, at that time, we had five in the garage. Two of them were mine, and three of them belonged to Georgie.

I grabbed my Sportster 72. I wanted a light bike that would be easy to maneuver. Dudley chose Georgie’s Street Bob, and complained loudly when Nick climbed on the back. I guess Nick didn’t really feel comfortable enough on a bike to ride his own. When I think back on it now, the two of them sharing a Harley is pretty damn funny. At the time, however, not much was breaking through to me.

We set out immediately. My parents waved, despite being unhappy about us leaving. I think among other things, they were also worried about my mental state. Maybe it was coming out in the few words I spoke; perhaps it the look on my face. I’m not sure, but I think I was making people nervous.

The wind was cold. Even I could feel it on my fingers. Fingerless gloves aren’t all they’re cracked up to be when riding a motorcycle. I hit the barely paved road leading to Devil’s Canyon doing about sixty. I slowed down and corrected my speed to allow Dudley an opportunity to catch up. The twists and turns of the single lane road could be perilous. I didn’t want him to endanger himself trying to keep up with me.

It wasn’t long before we found the perfect spot for our ambush. It was at the bottom of a hill, which meant the government agents would be right on top of us before they even knew we were there.

I parked my bike in the middle of the road. We pushed the other Harley into the woods, and Nick and Dudley took up their positions.

I put my earpiece in my ear and tried to radio in to Hardin. There was no answer. I tried again, and again. Still, there was no answer. I kept trying. It was a good way to pass the time. One time I thought I actually heard someone answer, but the voice was muffled and gone before I could be sure.

Three hours after we took our positions, my attempts at contact were interrupted.

“I see lights in the distance,” Dudley said through his own earpiece.

“Be ready,” I answered.

I leaned against my Harley and waited for the SUV to make its way down the small hill. A moment after the headlights announced the descent of the vehicle, I blared the high beams of my Harley. The SUV slammed its breaks to avoid hitting me, went sideways for a moment, but eventually righted itself on the road.

I didn’t move. Instead, I let them see me. I let the headlights wash over the skull on my chest. I wanted them to know it was me. I wanted to give them a chance to turn over their prisoners.

The driver stepped out of the vehicle.

He was wearing another one of those cheap black suits. I couldn’t make out his face over the headlights, but I made sure that I could see his hands.

“What’s your plan, General?” the man asked.

“That depends on you,” I answered, “but I’m taking your prisoners.”

“I think perhaps your boss Mr. Hardin might have led you a bit astray,” the man countered. “Things are changing up a bit. I think the best thing you can do is wait right here, while I call some of my associates to pick you up.”

“If you move,” I said, “I’ll kill you. If you reach for the gun on your hip, or reach for the phone in your pocket, I’ll shoot you dead.”

The agent smiled.

“Are you sure this is the route you want to take?” He asked.

“Try me and find out.”

He did.

He actually went for his gun. His fingers almost managed to rub against the grip when I pulled my Sig and put a nine-millimeter round through the center of his forehead.

After that, the SUV erupted with movement. The rest of the agents came spilling out of the doors immediately. Dudley and Nick jumped out of the woods on either side of the vehicle. Everyone began firing. It was a quick fight.

Echoes of gunfire rolled out over the hills and valleys. The air smelled of gunpowder. Four government agents were dead on the roughly paved road.

“We’re in it now,” Nick said.

“Let them come,” I replied.

On the horizon, the sun was just beginning to peek out over the mountains in the distance. We needed to move.

Nick took the large SUV. Dudley and I fired up the bikes, and away we went. Sooner or later, the area was going to be hot with more agents, and possibly even the police. We needed some distance and a good place to hide.

Dudley had that covered. He occasionally knocked boots with a girl whose parents owned a cabin closer to town. According to him, the girl’s parents didn’t actually live at the cabin: they just used it for vacationing. Most of the year the place was empty, so it sounded like an excellent hideout for us to use during the day.

As we pulled out, we heard cars tearing up the unpaved road in the distance. The agents must have radioed their predicament in before they got out of the car. It wasn’t a big deal, however; I knew all the twist and turns, so avoiding them was relatively easy.

The cabin was alone on the top of a small mountain. The road leading up to it revealed no other driveways, so we didn’t have to worry about any nosy neighbors. We stashed the vehicles in the garage. I watched from a distance as Nick led the prisoners out of the vehicle. Each of them was handcuffed and wore a black bag over their head.

I grabbed my binoculars and scanned the landscape. We weren’t being followed so the vehicle evidently wasn’t bugged. Regardless, I stayed outside in the morning air and planned my next move.

My tomahawk was on the back of my belt, as always. My hand twitched with the longing to pull it free. I told my hand to be patient. We had time to kill, and the prisoners weren’t going anywhere.

When I finally made my way into the house, I noticed Dudley and Nick had cleared out all the furniture from the living room. In place of the furniture, five chairs had been brought out for the five prisoners. They were still wearing the bags over their heads.

“Remove the bags,” I said.

Nick complied immediately. One man looked defiant. He openly glared at me with hatred in his eyes. Three of the others avoided looking at me altogether, and the final man looked frightened.

I stared at them for a moment.

Then I withdrew my tomahawk slowly from the back of my belt. Four of the men tensed up; the defiant man did not. I calmly centered my gaze upon him, and he glared back at me in defiance. With a snarl, I launched myself towards him. My first swing buried the tomahawk into the center of his face, ending his life instantly.

The man’s chair toppled over from the impact. His buddies screamed out in fear. I paid them zero attention. I ripped my weapon free of the man’s face and brought it down again and again. I think I was growling, maybe I was snarling, probably I was screaming.

I ended the assault, composed myself, and stepped in front of the four remaining prisoners.

“I want you each to know that I’m going to kill you,” I said in a calm voice. “Nothing on the face of this earth can prevent your death. I’m going to make you pay for what you did. I’m going to make three of you suffer horribly, but only three. The remaining man will go painlessly because that will be the man that answers my questions.”

I walked away. Dudley and Nick followed.

“You think they’ll talk?” Nick asked.

“They have no choice,” I answered.

“Are you going to be able to do this?” Dudley asked.

“Do I look squeamish to you?” I asked in return.

“That’s not what I meant,” Dudley answered. “I only meant that torture isn’t really your kind of thing.”

“Ssshhh,” Nick interrupted. “They’re talking in there. I can hear them.

All of us got quiet. We could hear them whispering in a foreign language, so we couldn’t understand what they were saying. Suddenly the whispering began to sound more like gagging and retching.

“What the fuck kind of language is that?” Nick asked.

Confusion turned to realization in the span of a heartbeat, and I ran back into the living room. Three of the four men were dead but still twitching. The only one left alive happened to be the frightened man. He was frantically snapping his jaws open and shut while his tongue worked against something in the back of his mouth.

I swung my fist in a downward motion. The blow broke his bottom jaw, and snapped it out of place. My punch was a bit on the side of overkill but it worked regardless.

I reached into the man’s mouth, and searched until I found what I was looking for. He had a fake tooth containing poison. The pricks were killing themselves.

In retrospect, I’m glad things went down the way they did. I was fully prepared to torture and kill each of them. They shot my wife. I wanted them dead. However, while I have no problems killing someone that’s trying to kill me, I worry about the damage to my soul should I ever follow the path of a torturer.

“Now what?” Dudley asked.

“Same as before,” I answered. “I just concentrate everything on this guy.”

The man started crying.

I pulled out my Bowie knife. I ran the tip down the man’s shin. He began to mumble.

“They were supposed to let us go,” the man mumbled. “They were supposed to let us go after we left the city.”

“Who was supposed to let you go?” I asked.

“The men driving us,” he answered. “The men in black.”

“Were they going to take you somewhere?” I asked.

“We were to regroup in El Paso.”

That one floored me. Why would anyone want to go to El Paso?

“What’s in El Paso?” I asked.

“Our leader is there,” the man mumbled in answer. “My fellow soldiers are there.”

Things weren’t making a lot of sense.

“Who was your target at the banquet hall?” I asked. “If you were after the President, you were a little late to the party. Maybe you were after me?”

The man looked confused.

“We…we…we were told to kill the woman,” he finally stammered.

“What woman?” I shouted.

“Your wife,” He answered through his broken jaw. “We were ordered to kill the wife of the General.”

It was a struggle to maintain control over myself. It was a struggle to keep my hands from closing around the man’s neck and squeezing the life from him.

“Why go after my wife?” I asked. “Why not just come after me?”

“Because our leader hates you so very much, he wants you to suffer. He wants you to come to him, so he can kill you himself.”

I stepped away from our prisoner. I walked to the other side of the room and opened a window. The cool air felt good on my face. I needed it. I was having problems focusing. I noticed that the wounds I received during the attack had begun bleeding again.

“Who the Hell are you assholes?” Dudley demanded. “Where the Hell did you come from?”

“I am Albanian Mafia,” the man mumbled. “All of us are Albanian Mafia.”

“This makes no fucking sense,” Nick grumbled loudly.

“Who’s your leader?” Dudley asked the prisoner.

“I do not know his name. We simply call him the Monster.”

“Why are you working for him?” Dudley asked.

“My brothers and I were in the worst prison this world has to offer. All of us had death sentences but on the day of our executions we instead met with our Bajrak in a room deep underground. They informed us of an alliance they had made with a military man from your country. In exchange for our lives, we were to serve as his army.”

“So their leader is someone from the United States military.” Dudley mused aloud.

“No, we never met the military man. The Monster is someone else, someone who works for the military man.”

I had heard enough. I really didn’t care who did what. I planned on killing all of them, and the so-called leader of their little group was the best place to start. I walked over and stood once more in front of our prisoner.

“How many of you are there?” I asked.

“Forty of us came to your country,” the man mumbled and coughed. “Many fell to the Monsters rages. Some of us were sent to kill the woman. Twenty remain in El Paso.”

“How do I find the Monster?”

“You go to El Paso, and he will find you.”

“Fair enough,” I answered.

I went behind the prisoner, and after a swift cut with the knife, he was free. The man reluctantly got to his feet. I then went to Dudley and held out my hand. It took a moment for him to register what I wanted but eventually he handed me his battered .45. It was a bit of a shock to see the weapon. To this day, I’m still not sure how he got it back after he surrendered it at the banquet hall.

Anyway, I tossed the pistol at our former prisoner. He was clumsy about it but he caught it. I squared off against him. Dudley and Nick backed out of the way. The former prisoner looked at the weapon in his hands. The pistol was cocked and loaded. All he needed to do was bring it up and pull the trigger.

His eyes met mine.

I smiled, and drew my Sig.

He wasn’t very quick. I could have put at least three more bullets in him in the time it took him to raise the gun. I settled on only the one.

The three of us watched his body crumple to the floor in a heap. I picked up Dudley’s gun and handed it back to him.

“I wish you would quit doing that,” Dudley said.

“So do they,” I answered.

“We’ve got problems, you guys,” Nick interrupted. “Mr. Hardin was right. There is something in the wind. I bet those agents are working for the bad guys, which means everything’s a big cluster-fuck full of Albanians, black-suited government agents, some military dude, some asshole called the ‘Monster,’ and all of them want to arrest us or kill us.”

“He’s right,” Dudley agreed. “For whatever reason, the government has turned against us.”

“We don’t know how bad it is,” I said. “This could only be a small group. Hardin still has our backs. I’m sure he’s working on it.”

“Mr. Hardin is MIA,” Dudley said. “We haven’t been able to reach him.”

“He’s probably pretty busy trying to figure out who’s coming after us,” I said. “He’ll make contact after he gets somewhere. In the meantime, we continue as we were. We’re going to El Paso, and we’re going to bring down the man responsible for the death of my wife.”

“Jax,” Dudley whispered. “She’s not…you don’t…”

“Just let it go,” I said. “I’m grabbing some shut-eye. You guys should do the same. We’re heading out at sunset.”

I walked away. I had nothing more to say. I didn’t want to talk about my feelings. I didn’t want my friends to try and console me. I wanted the anger. I wanted the rage.

I spent the day in a sort of trance, deadening my sorrow. If I let what happened to Skie consume my mind, I would fall apart. I would collapse on the floor and never rise. She was my “everything,” and she was dying. For all I knew, she was already gone.

A part of me wanted to call the hospital and find out if she was still alive, but I was terrified of the answer. I couldn’t stand the thought of somebody telling me she had died during the night. So, I put my feelings away. I locked them deep down inside me. When all was said and done, when the people that hurt her were all rotting in the ground, I would go back to my wife, but not before. The uncertainty was better than the impending sorrow.

After seeing the damage they did to her…Well, it was an almost mortal wound that rocked most of my sanity right out of me.

What was left was frightening. I was little more than a beast. A raging sea thrashed and churned inside me. I couldn’t wait to let it out. I couldn’t wait to destroy the Monster.

Anyway, that’s how I spent the time. I didn’t sleep; I sat by the window and looked out at the forest. I wasn’t aware of the passage of time. I wasn’t even aware that the sky was darkening until Dudley knocked gently, and came in the room. He had to call my name a few times before he got my attention.

“What is it?” I mumbled.

“The sun is setting,” Dudley answered.

“Then let’s go,” I said.

We took the SUV and left the motorcycles behind. I didn’t plan on running from anyone. If someone stood in my way, I was going to take him down hard, and he wasn’t going to get back up. Still, we took the secret roads out of town, and never met any resistance.

The drive from Ruidoso to El Paso normally takes around three hours. We made the drive in about two hours, and it only took that long because we switched vehicles three times. Curiously, it was Dudley that hotwired our borrowed vehicles.

“You stole three cars?”

I prefer the term “borrow” and, yes, we “borrowed” three cars. Those damn agents had the highway covered in check points. The hunt was on, and we could no longer use the road. Instead, we “borrowed” four-wheel drives, and went straight through the desert.

It wasn’t too difficult for us, even though we almost got spotted by a helicopter with a searchlight once or twice.

As easy as the journey was, entrance to our destination proved to be much more difficult. El Paso had been encircled by a gigantic fence…and I’m not talking about some sort of average chain link. No, this fence was close to fifteen feet high, covered with barbed wire, and went on as far as I could see. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t been on this side of El Paso since the outbreak. I had no idea a fence like that even existed.

We could have ditched the vehicle and climbed over but walking through zombie infested territory really wasn’t a good idea. Instead, we followed the fence back to the highway. After climbing a few hills, we saw gigantic watchtowers with blazing lights in the distance.

We also saw fires.

Of course we knew what had happened, from following the fence. There were no guards. There was a walkway on top of the fence for patrols, but it was vacant. The walkway had been deserted.

When we reached the highway, and stood before the towering gates, our worries were confirmed. The fence had been attacked.

We searched for survivors, and found none. Vehicles were overturned and burning. The road was torn up. Military structures were reduced to rubble. The fallen lay sprawled across the landscape where they died. Most of the bodies were riddled with bullet holes. Some of them were beaten to death, as if someone had battered their bodies until the bones shattered and the skulls caved in.

An entire battalion of soldiers had met their end here, attacked by a force they never anticipated. A force they were unprepared for. Those brave men kept the zombies from escaping. They died so that something even worse than the dead could enter the city.

Eventually, I was able to pull my eyes away from the ground. I looked over, and I saw that the gates were wide open and hanging from their hinges. Now, these gates were huge. They were also very solid; they had to be. In case of an emergency, these gates needed to be strong enough to hold back the zombies.

“Who the Hell could have done this to so many soldiers?” Dudley asked.

“I’m not sure,” I answered, “but I mean to find out.”

“It looks like every soldier on this side of the mountain came to help,” Nick said.

“I’m guessing about a hundred and fifty to two hundred dead,” Dudley said. “Why didn’t they radio in for some real backup?”

I picked up a fallen radio from a pile of rocks and cement. The casing had been shattered, and the wires and other components inside were falling out the cracks.

“Who said they didn’t call for help?” I whispered.

“You think they were abandoned?” Nick asked.

“Oh shit,” Dudley said. “How many times have we tried to get into contact with Mr. Hardin? We haven’t made contact with him, or anyone else, since he called me at the hospital.”

“You think the headquarters was attacked?” Nick asked.

“Why else would nobody be communicating with us?” I asked.

“Dude,” Nick grumbled. “It’s not possible. There’re only twenty of these Albanian fuckers. Twenty guys couldn’t tear through our headquarters and then do all this damage. At our headquarters alone, there are a couple hundred soldiers, and that’s not counting the elite groups that help clean out the city.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “But something kept the big guns from arriving.”

“You don’t think any zombies got out do you?” Dudley asked.

I looked at the damaged gate once again. Then I cast my eyes down the road in the opposite direction.

“I don’t think so,” I answered. “Most of the soldiers were armed with sniper rifles. They probably kept the area pretty clean. Still, with the noise of battle, and the smell of blood in the air, it won’t be long before this place is a hot zone.”

“I bet I can fix those gates,” Nick said. “It won’t be extremely secure but it should hold until someone with some know-how gets here.”

I thought about it for a bit. I didn’t want to waste time fixing stupid fences. I wanted to chase after the man that ordered the attack on my wife. Still, I couldn’t leave the gate open. I couldn’t risk the outbreak spreading outside the city.

“All right, Nick,” I said. “See what you can do about the gate. Dudley, you scout around and see if you can find anything that might be interesting.”

While Nick and Dudley went to work, I climbed to the top of the fence underneath the spotlights. The walkway was damaged. I could see hundreds of bullet holes. I also saw some heavy scarring that probably came from an explosion of some kind.

My guess was that the men at the gate were attacked suddenly, and violently. They called for backup, and the only help they received came from soldiers farther down the fence. The only thing the enemy had to do was open fire whenever someone new arrived on the scene.

Still, something wasn’t right. The soldiers were combat trained. A piece of the puzzle was missing. Nick was correct; twenty men couldn’t take out so many soldiers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly in a good state of mind. I wasn’t spending enough time trying to puzzle out what was happening all around me.

“Your thoughts were on your wife?”

The question came out bluntly and without tact. The General was so shocked by the question; it took him a few moments to reply.

My thoughts were random and chaotic. There was still a great need to know if she was alive, and that need was growing in intensity with each passing moment. I wanted her to be alive. I needed her to be alive. Realistically, I didn’t have much hope. Not after speaking with the doctor, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to bear the news. That was the important part, that’s why I didn’t make the call. I knew I wouldn’t be able to bear it if she was gone. I wasn’t strong enough. So I continued to tell myself to wait. I continued to push it off until the right time. Deal only with what I could handle. Punish the men responsible.

Mind you, these thoughts were all locked deep inside the cellar of my mind, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still there. They clawed at the doors that barred their way. They scratched at the walls, and echoes of their need crept into my mind. Is she still alive? Is she still alive?

I would immediately shove away the slightest glimmer that managed to escape, and then I would refocus on what was before me. Still, I wasn’t all there. I should have been watching out for Nick. I should have been keeping an eye open for shamblers.

I heard movement farther up the road. It was a dull sort of slapping sound that pulled me away from my internal struggle. I looked below me. Nick was wedged into the gate. His position was so awkward; he couldn’t reach for his pistol in the holster at his side, and his rifle was nowhere to be found. I watched as he struggled frantically against the gate but he appeared to be stuck somehow.

I couldn’t find Dudley. He was lost somewhere in the carnage of burning cars and broken buildings. It was up to me. I raised my rifle. I put the red dot on the first zombie that came before me. I fired. I missed, cursed and fired again. I missed a second time.

The third shot was a hit. The shambler’s legs turned to jelly and he collapsed mid-run. His friends were close behind him. They tripped over his body and skidded down the street.

I fired on the first one to his feet. I took him out instantly. I fired on the second zombie, and I missed the headshot. Instead I plugged a hole into her shoulder, and spun her around. My second shot went into her ear. She dropped on top of the other two.

I sighed deeply and realized I was covered in a cold sweat. It worried me that I missed so many times. That wasn’t like me at all.

There were more zombies in the distance.

I could hear their moans. I could see their faint outlines becoming clearer and clearer. Eventually I heard their screams. Dudley had finally appeared. He immediately began helping Nick free himself from the gate.

I tossed my rifle over my shoulder, and jumped off the fence into El Paso. I didn’t roll when I landed. I just absorbed the shock with bent legs and then walked over towards Dudley and Nick.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“His leg is pinned,” Dudley answered.

“I didn’t expect the gate to weigh so much,” Nick said. “When I popped it back into the hinge it slammed into me and got my leg.”

“Can you get him free?” I asked Dudley.

“Almost there,” Dudley replied. “Just a few more seconds.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll buy you some time.”

In the center of the road, I took a knee, and aimed my weapon. That’s when I noticed my hands were shaking. I watched them for just a brief moment, took aim, and fired off a shot.

I hit the zombie on the chin, and removed most of its lower jaw. My second shot hit its shoulder. My third shot left a puckered red hole in the center of its chest. My mind flashed to Skie. She had a hole in her chest.

I started hyperventilating. My vision blurred; I couldn’t aim. I became so dizzy I fell to my side. I could hear Dudley screaming for me. I felt something wet against my waist. I reached my hand under my shirt, and it came away wet with blood.

I had forgotten about my bullet wounds. I never healed them up properly. During the day I had managed to splash just enough water on them to stop the bleeding but I still had a hole in my stomach.

It trickled blood occasionally during our drive. I knew this because the trickle felt like a bug crawling down the inside of my bite suit, and annoyed the shit out of me. The jump off the fence must have royally screwed up the injury. The trickle had increased to a flow.

I tried to find my feet but the asphalt of the highway was too inviting. I was tired. I hadn’t slept. Dudley kept shouting at me. I wanted to see what he was getting so upset about, but turning around to look at him seemed to require too much effort on my part.

Something landed on top of me. I felt the weight of it slam into my body. There was a tugging sensation against my bite collar. It was irritating, so I tried to smack it away. A horrible pinching sensation ignited my arm on fire. I think it was the sudden pain in my arm that snapped me out of my stupor.

A shambler was latched onto my arm. She was biting down on the bite suit, so it wasn’t puncturing flesh, but she had a hold of the skin under the sleeve as well, and it hurt like Hell. I freaked out, and began beating my fist against the top of her head.

She barely seemed to notice.

I felt another slam. The zombie hit my legs, and again came that horrible pinching feeling; this time it was in my thigh. The bite suit did its job—it did its job very well—but that didn’t mean I couldn’t feel the pain.

I screamed out.

I didn’t have the strength to get them off of me, and I was getting pissed. Obviously, I still wasn’t in my right mind. I’m not sure if that was because of the blood loss due to my stomach wound, or my emotional state, but it never once occurred to me to grab my weapon and shoot them.

The zombies were jerking me all over the road as they gnawed their teeth against my bite suit. At some point, I got a good look down the road. There was an even larger group of zombies headed right for me.

I panicked and struck my attackers even harder. In response to my clumsy attack they doubled their efforts to find the flesh and blood underneath the suit.

At that point, I really thought the end was rapidly approaching. I didn’t stop struggling because giving up isn’t in my nature, but I really thought they were going to get me.

A blade whistled through the air, the sound ending abruptly with a moist crunch. The female that had me by the arm flopped on top of me. There was another whistle of air and the zombie that had me by the leg dropped to my side.

Dudley pushed the female shambler off of my chest. His machete was barely dripping any blood; his strikes were that deadly. I felt rather proud of him.

He dropped to a knee, put a hand on my chest to keep me down, and he began firing at the charging zombies. Beyond him, Nick had taken the same position and was firing his weapon.

The fight was over inside of five minutes.

“What the Hell happened to you?” Dudley asked.

“Stomach opened up,” I answered.

He unzipped my utility vest, lifted my shirt, and took a look at the wound.

“Son of a bitch, Jaxon,” He growled. “Why didn’t you heal that before we left?”

“Because I’m an idiot,” I answered.

Apparently, all three of us were idiots, because not a single one of us had a drop of water. Sure, we grabbed some backpacks but unfortunately they were all devoid of water. We did, however, have an experimental blood-clotting agent. It burned like Hell when Dudley dumped it on the bullet hole but it did stop the bleeding.

I took a few minutes then got to my feet. Dudley had found something, and he wanted to show it to us. So we walked back to the now working gate, exited El Paso, and stepped back into the path of destruction and fallen soldiers.

We didn’t need our flashlights. The still burning fires gave off enough illumination for us to pick our way through the debris.

“You’re not going to believe this shit,” Dudley said after we had followed him behind a broken building.

With a flourish, he pulled an old tarp from one of our armored Jeeps. The vehicle was undamaged. Nick ran his hand down the black matted paint and approached the driver’s side door.

“Looks like the Monster wants you to drive safely,” Nick announced.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“He left you a note on the steering wheel,” Nick said.

He handed me the note.

“Welcome home Guardian,” I read aloud.

“The word “home” is underlined three times,” Dudley said. “You think that’s an invitation?”

“We’re about to find out,” I answered.

“It’s bound to be a trap,” Nick said.

“Of course it is,” I replied, “but we know the area. We can get in there, check things out, and bring their little trap down upon their heads.”

We spent about thirty minutes investigating the Jeep. We didn’t want the damn thing blowing up on us when we turned the key. Regardless, I think we were all a bit nervous when the engine hesitated a bit before turning over.

We drove through the rubble carefully. We didn’t want to run over any of the soldiers. Nick jumped out at the gate and let us through before closing it up tight behind him.

There were more zombies in the area. This wasn’t a problem for us. If one of them got too close for comfort, Dudley shot him down from the backseat.

We entered through the Northeast side of town. I’ll be the first to admit I am relatively unfamiliar with that side of El Paso. I spent most of my time in the Westside and Upper Valley. Nick, however, had spent a lot of time over there so he was able to show us the easiest route to Trans Mountain Road.

“Can you tell me what Trans Mountain Road is?”

Between the Northeast and the Westside of El Paso is a mountain range called the Franklin Mountains. This mountain range has a long winding road—called the Trans Mountain Road—that cuts right through it. It saves people a lot of time, because without that road they would need to use the freeway and drive all the way around the range. We already knew the freeways on the Northeast were impassable due to abandoned cars. So we headed for the mountain.

“How did that go?”

It went pretty badly right from the beginning. Before we even got there, we encountered numerous roadblocks, and had to find alternate routes that ate up both my time, and patience. We had a really nifty GPS in the Jeep. It didn’t just show us directions; it had a feature that was able to show us the width of the road and where we were on it. That thing came in handy once Dudley explained to Nick how to use it.

Eventually, we found our way to the stretch of road that marked the first leg of ascension. Things looked pretty easy going at that point. The road was clear of the abandoned and wrecked vehicles that normally slowed us down.

The part of Trans Mountain Road we were traveling is right before the actual mountain, and therefore a miniature desert of flat land lies on either side. The night was dark. We had left the lights of civilization behind, so we had no idea that the living dead littered the desert around us.

At first, only a few of them came running up behind the jeep. Dudley took care of them pretty easily. A sharp zombie scream would pierce the quiet night. We would scan our surroundings for the culprit, and Dudley would take aim at the shadowy figures running madly towards us, once we found them.

That’s how things began. That’s what the first few minutes looked like. We weren’t worried. An occasional group of four or five zombies could be expected. Halfway up that first stretch of road, things took a turn for the worse.

The groups of zombies became larger, and they appeared more frequently. Dudley eventually stopped shooting at them. He didn’t want to run out of ammo like he did when we were stuck in that building downtown. By the time we hit the first curve of the road, we had a pretty decent horde running behind us.

We were a little nervous about that, but things weren’t all bad. All I had to do was drive fast enough to keep them from grabbing onto the Jeep. That wasn’t a problem; let me tell you. Nothing motivates you to step on the accelerator more than a horde of screaming zombies so thick they fill up the entire street.

I was driving pretty fast. I wanted to create a big enough gap between us, and the horde, for when I had to slow down on the turns. You really don’t want to haul ass in a Jeep, and then hit a sharp turn. The last thing we needed was to flip our wheels with all those ravenous corpses Hell-bent on catching up to us.

The very next turn was a descent into madness.

The zombies were waiting for us. No, that’s not right. They weren’t actually waiting for us with wide-open arms or anything, but they were there. Groups of them were spread out across the road.

Their numbers were nowhere near as impressive as the horde chasing after us, but there were enough of them to force me to slow down considerably. Still, we fought our way through. Dudley began firing his weapon once again, and Nick even joined in to lend him a hand.

I ran over any shambler that was brave enough to step out in front of the Jeep, but I wasn’t dumb enough to hit them too hard. I didn’t want to damage our wheels. Even with the large, reinforced, front bumper, a vehicle can only take so much.

The next turn was a descent into Hell.

We had driven right into another horde and were trapped. The mountain rose up on each side of the road at this point. The zombies were so thick on the ground; we could see nothing beyond their headlight-illuminated forms. They rushed immediately. They must have heard us coming from a long way away with all those zombie screams following us up the mountain. It looked as if they were on edge, and actively looking for the reason for those screams, well before we rounded the bend.

I slammed the Jeep in reverse and hit the gas.

One of them managed to jump onto our hood, despite my frantic retreat. Nick had to reach for it over the windshield and push it off the side. Then, we almost lost Nick. He slammed into the windshield when I smashed the rear bumper into the shins of the fastest zombies from the trailing horde and slammed the brakes.

He gasped for air as the breath was knocked from his body.

I didn’t ask him if he was okay. I didn’t have the time. We were surrounded, and had only a few seconds to spare, before the rotting faces with their gnashing teeth filled the vehicle. Instead, I grabbed Nick’s arm, and yanked him back into his seat. I yelled for Dudley to get down and hit the lever next to the four-wheel drive stick.

The armored top shot up and out, instantly wrapping the three of us in its protective cocoon. Dudley began to laugh from the backseat. It wasn’t a real laugh, mind you. It was only his way of getting rid of all the tension.

Clawed hands scratched at the windows. Rotting bodies crawled onto the hood. I could see ruined faces peering at me through the safety glass. I could hear their teeth grinding against the armor.

“Now what?” Nick asked.

“We need to keep moving forward,” I answered. “There’re too many of them. They can flip the Jeep if we stay still too long.”

I pressed my foot on the accelerator; the Jeep inched forward. The shamblers pushed back. The tires began to squeal against the asphalt. The rear left corner began to lift into the air, then something gave, and we moved forward into the mass of undead.

Corpses banged and thumped against the front of the vehicle. Dead flesh slapped against an unyielding bumper, straight out of a Mad Max movie. Legs were broken; skulls were crunched under the tires. The dead did their very best to hold us back, but the big ass, souped-up, engine, on our Jeep would not be denied.

“You need to move faster,” Nick shouted in my ear. “You really, really, need to move faster.”

“I can’t,” I replied.

“Why the fuck not?” Nick asked.

“I can’t see where I’m going,” I answered.

The dead were too tightly packed, and the stretch of road was too narrow. We were fish attempting to swim upstream with bears trying to grab us.

“I can’t even see the damn mountainside,” Dudley shouted in agreement.

The Jeep began to rock back and forth as the zombies pressed and shoved against it. I saw the face of a young woman pressed up against my window. She’d probably been an attractive girl when she was alive. Now, her features were distorted with rot, and hunger. Her neck had been savagely torn open. The grayish skin on her face was blistered, and cracked. She couldn’t be reasoned with. She couldn’t be satisfied. Only a thin piece of armored glass kept her snapping jaws away from me.

We were moving forward, but slowly, way too slowly. We were blind, and I was afraid to drive off the road, or crash into the rock of the mountainside.

Then a glow from the dash caught my eye.

“Nick!” I shouted. “Use the GPS.”

“Do what?” Nick asked.

“Use the GPS to see our position,” I shouted.

Nick immediately began to play with the GPS. I could tell he was having problems concentrating with all the noise. There were zombies banging against his windows. The screams threatened to split all of our skulls, and I’m not even gonna tell you how bad the shamblers smelled.

“Keep going straight,” Nick said.

I did as he asked, and picked up the speed.

“Turn to the left a little bit,” Nick said. “You’re getting too close to the rocks.”

I obeyed his directions.

I wasn’t able to drive very fast but our pace had definitely improved. As a result, the Jeep was no longer in danger of being tipped to its side.

Eventually, the left side of the mountain dropped off, and faded away. The road ahead opened up; the zombies were more spread out. I picked up a lot more speed at that point. I wasn’t about to win any races, but I was able to maneuver in, and around, the charging corpses and make up a bit of time.

Unfortunately, all too soon, the mountain rose up again, and we headed into another canyon of rock. For whatever reason, this canyon was even more packed with zombies than the last one. Even from inside the vehicle we could feel the pressure against the front bumper as the Jeep pushed against them. The resistance was immense but I pressed down even harder on the gas pedal, and inch-by-inch we found our momentum.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Dudley grumbled from the back seat.

I looked at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He was hunched over in the middle of the backseat. His eyes were focused gloomily on the front windshield, and the corpses were banging against the windows all around him.

With Nick giving me directions, we parted the sea of dead. It wasn’t an ideal position for us to be in, but I was confident we were going to make it out in one piece. Eventually, the canyon of rock would open up, and we’d have enough space to pick up some speed. When that happened, my plan was to push the pace. I wanted to leave them far behind as we made our way down the other side of the mountain. As things were, the zombies were ruining my plans. I didn’t want to fight them. I didn’t give a shit about zombies at that particular moment. I wanted to fight the Monster.

“Turn a bit to the right,” Nick said. “Too much, back off a bit, there ya go.”

CRUNCH!

The front of the Jeep slammed into something immovable, but we couldn’t see what it was for a few moments, due to all the hungry dead on the hood of the vehicle.

“What did we hit?” I asked.

“No idea,” Nick answered.

“Did you run us into the fuckin’ mountain you asshole?” Dudley demanded.

“No,” Nick answered. “The little arrow on the GPS says we’re in the middle of the road.”

A number of zombies moved in just the right way and I was able to see that we had run into the rear end of a semi-truck trailer.

“We hit a semi-trailer,” I announced. “I’ll back up, and we’ll go around it.”

Secretly, I was having flashbacks about the time that vampire chick was chasing me down, and I got my front bumper stuck on another car after I ran into it.

The Jeep tipped obscenely to the left as I was having that thought. The dead had finally gotten a good grip on us. Dudley screamed out from the backseat, and slid into the side window. Fortunately, Nick was buckled into his seat, or I would have been smooshed beneath his bulk.

I slammed the shifter into reverse, and floored the gas pedal. Tires met flesh, and zombies were thrown away from the wheels. It was the moment I needed. Not all of the shamblers had been thrashed by the tires, but the ruckus weakened them enough that we reversed out of their grasp.

We didn’t go far, mind you. Almost immediately we crunched and shattered the shinbones of the dead behind us. I kept going, though. I backed into them relentlessly. I probably gave myself about ten feet of distance from the semi-trailer, and then I punched forward once again.

I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was the sudden lurch in speed, but most of the zombies weren’t being smacked out of the way. Instead, they were being sucked under the tires. The ground beneath us suddenly became squishy and soft.

I wanted to go wide around the semi-trailer, but I didn’t have enough control with the bumpy, loose, corpses, underneath the tires. The side of the Jeep ground against the metal of the trailer, and we sparked our way down its side.

Nick was screaming.

He was worried that his window was going to break away. The screeching sound was horrendous. It was louder than the zombie screams. It was louder than Nicks screams. Under better circumstances, I would probably have been laughing at him.

Then we were free of the trailer. We were over the mass of corpses. The tires met road with a satisfying forward jerk of traction, and we were once again on our way.

I was going a bit slower than before. I didn’t want to meet up with another abandoned vehicle. I was too worried about getting stuck, and giving the zombies enough time to flip us.

“How much more of this shit do we need to go through?” Dudley asked.

I didn’t answer. I was more familiar with Trans Mountain Road than he was. I didn’t want to tell him the bad news. Instead, I kept driving. I kept moving forward. Never stopping, stopping was bad. Stopping would get us killed.

We pushed, and pushed. The zombies in our windows became a blur of forgotten faces. In our minds for a brief moment, and replaced by a hundred more the next. All in all, the drive took about three hours. We scraped some more cars along the way, but we never hit them hard enough to require any backtracking.

The drive was scary. It would make an incredible ride at an amusement park. Drive through zombies in an armored vehicle, ten dollars a ticket. See if you can make it across the mountain.

The horde began to thin out on the final downward slope.

We picked up speed immediately. I could finally see the road ahead of us. Nothing was going to hold us back. There were only a few cars in the road ahead, and going around them gave us no problems.

I kept peeking at my rearview mirror in order to watch all the rotten faces become smaller and smaller. They did their best to keep up with us. I’ve gotta give them that, but it was pretty easy to leave them behind.

“They’re still chasing after us,” Dudley said as we pulled farther and farther away.

“Let them,” Nick replied. “Not like they’re gonna catch us now.”

“Well,” Dudley continued. “We just led thousands upon thousands of zombies to the Westside. We need to be on the Westside. Am I the only one thinking there might be a problem?”

Dudley was, in fact, the only one thinking that. All those zombies would be pouring into the same side of town we needed to be on. To make matters worse, my old house was located in the Upper Valley, and the Upper Valley isn’t really all that far from Trans Mountain Road.

Not good. I wasn’t thinking ahead. I was charging blindly into danger. I needed to start using my brain before one of us got hurt.

I slowed down immediately. I couldn’t take the chance of them infiltrating my old neighborhood. I needed to lead them in the opposite direction. So, I took the first left turn we came upon.

“I’ll lead them to the desert past our old Safe Zone,” I said. “Then we’ll take Redd Road back to my house.”

Getting zombies to follow after you is a really easy thing to do. All you have to do is let them see you. Dudley and I were pretty used to it, but it always had some sort of weird effect on us. It probably always will. I’m not sure how to describe it, except to say that it’s chilling.

I led the horde away from the Upper Valley. In fact, I led them back in the same general direction we had all come from; I was just using a different road. This time, however, I also had the option of using intersecting side streets if I needed to change course on our long journey to the desert. I waited until I had a massive group following in the right direction, and then I hit the gas.

I left them far behind as we headed towards our destination. When I was finally out of their line of sight, I honked the horn so they would be able to hear that we were still ahead of them, and would head towards the sound. I had to take a few turns, but I eventually got to a place where the roads ended, and the desert began.

We made a lot of noise once we got there. We honked the horn, and we screamed out the windows. Then, we listened. The night was quiet, so we began making noise again.

We had to do this about five times. It wasn’t much really. Zombies don’t need all that much. On the fifth time making noise, we finally heard them. They were far away, but they were coming. We sat there listening to them for a few minutes. We needed to make sure they didn’t get distracted.

Their moans kept getting louder and louder. The rumbling sound of those many, many, bodies, moving towards us became more and more distinct.

We left.

I gunned the Jeep down the road. I made sure to keep at least a few streets between us and the road that the horde was using, but we still heard them as we passed by. The plan had worked. The shamblers had lost our trail. Hell, for all we knew, once they ran out of road they might forget about us entirely, and just wander back to Trans Mountain.

The way to my old house was now clear. Very soon I would have my vengeance. I was shivering with anticipation.

“You okay?” Nick asked after noticing.

“I’m fine,” I answered.

“Then why are you shaking so much?” Nick asked.

The shaking was getting pretty bad. Or at least bad enough that I could no longer chalk it up as anticipation, even though I had no other explanation. Then it hit me.

I was cold.

I turned on the Jeep’s heater and warmed up the car.

“You normally don’t get very cold, Jax,” Dudley said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m pretty fucking fine considering how much blood I lost from that hole in my stomach,” I snapped. “Now stop worrying about me. Get your head in the game. I want a plan in place before we reach Doniphan.”

Doniphan was a street that cut right through Redd Road. Once we hit that street, we were only a few minutes from my old house.

“I think we should leave the Jeep on Doniphan and head out on foot,” Nick said. “We can move all stealthily and shit like that. Get a good look at things without anyone hearing or seeing us.”

A few zombies came running out from between two houses. I hit the lever by the shifter and collapsed the armored top. Dudley took aim with his MP7 and brought the zombies down quickly. One of them still managed a scream but it wasn’t extremely loud.

“What the Hell were so many zombies doing on Trans Mountain?” Nick asked. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“I’m thinking a bunch of them on the Westside heard the battle sounds when the Monster broke into the city. They probably all started wandering up the mountain together looking for a meal.”

“I guess so,” Nick said. “I was just hoping it wasn’t a trap or something. I’ve never heard anyone say anything about hordes of zombies on the mountain.”

“Nah,” Dudley said. “I don’t think it was a trap. If the Monster wanted to trap us, he would have found a way to disable our vehicle in the middle of all that shit. That would have been a death sentence for sure.”

“Instead, the Monster probably assumed there would be some heavy zombie activity after the battle,” Nick said, “so he left us an undamaged Jeep in order to travel safely. Does that sound right to you?”

“It does to me,” I interrupted. “He wants to fight me. He went after my wife to bring me here, and now he wants to make sure I show up.”

“This asshole is going to get a lot more than he bargained for,” Nick said.

“You got that right,” I agreed.

Once we reached the intersection of Doniphan and Redd Road, we killed the engine, and sat in the Jeep for a bit. I had parked between some abandoned vehicles, so we had plenty of cover. Anyone passing by might even mistake our ride for just another derelict automobile polluting the street.

None of us could hear or see anything out of the ordinary, so we quietly set out on foot. In order to stay unseen, we ran through an apartment complex. The place looked a mess. Doors were shattered, and human remains littered the ground.

It wasn’t pleasant at all. We could still see dried blood on the walls of some of the buildings. It’s sometimes rather hard to remember all the good we were able to do. Especially when we see how much we lost. Who were these people? They lived so close to me, and I never knew them. How many died here? Would we ever find out?

Dudley tapped me on the shoulder. He pointed back towards the mountain. Even from where we were on the ground we could see the muzzle flashes of weapons being fired.

“Somebody followed us,” I said.

“Why would anyone wanna go and do that?” Dudley asked.

“Beats me,” I answered. “They must be dumber than we are.”

“How many shamblers do you think followed us off the mountain?” Nick asked.

“A good bunch,” I replied. “They’re moving faster than we did.”

“You think they’re looking for trouble?” Dudley asked. “I doubt those government boys would follow us into El Paso. There are easier ways to get yourself killed.”

“Let’s expect trouble,” I said.

Then I began moving through the alleys of the apartment complex. There were moans coming from behind a few of the closed doors. We also heard the scratches of broken nails sliding across glass windows.

“None of them are screaming yet,” Nick whispered.

“That’s because they haven’t seen us,” I said. “I think they just smell food.”

“How bad do you think it’ll be if one of them screams out?” Dudley asked.

“Not as bad as the mountain,” I answered.

We continued on. We took cover where we found it, and stayed out of the open. Bushes and shrubs were our friends. Dark passageways became our allies.

At the opposite end of the apartment complex was a rock wall. We scaled it quietly. At the top, we looked for danger. A sea of overgrown backyards ran from left to right, as apartments gave way to houses. The yard before us had a swimming pool. In the pool was a zombie. It had seen us through the water and was frantically trying to make its way to the shallow end in order to climb out and attack us.

“Looks like this is as good a place as any,” Dudley said.

The three of us jumped. The landing hurt my stomach. It was a sharp pain that made me grit my teeth. I was getting cold again.

I met the zombie as its upper body breached the surface of the pool. It made watery moans but it couldn’t scream. The greenish flesh on its face looked doughy, and ready to fall off. The tomahawk was in my hand. I didn’t remember grabbing it but I used it anyway.

The corpse slid back into the water with barely a sound.

We went around the house. There was no reason to go through it. That would have only added more danger, and we’d had our fill of zombie fun for the evening.

At the edge of the front yard, the three of us crouched behind a bush (in dire need of a trim), and surveyed the street before us. A few of the porch lights burned in the surrounding houses, but other than that, darkness reigned.

We bolted across the street, ran through the front of another yard, moved around the side of that house, scaled a low wall, and entered a backyard. This yard had four zombies, one of which was a child.

I took out the kid first. Let the image of that kill find a final resting place in my head. It could fight to be remembered, along with all the other crappy things I wish I never had to see. Dudley and Nick didn’t need to have that on their conscience.

The other three zombies were easy enough to bring down. We were moving quickly and efficiently. None of them were even able to scream out. We were on them too quickly for that.

“AAAAWWWWOOOOAAAA!”

That’s the best way I can describe the sound. It was like hearing the demented combination of a human being, and a foghorn. One minute everything was quiet, and the next that sound was reaching out across the night sky, echoing across the flat land surrounding the area. Each of us looked at the other, first in confusion, and then in worry, due to how loud the sound was.

“What the shit was that?” Nick asked.

“That’s no zombie,” Dudley said. “That’s something new.”

“It wasn’t human,” Nick whispered. “There was no way that could be human. It had to be a machine. Maybe it’s some sort of alarm at that milk factory at the end of the road.”

“No,” Dudley said. “The milk factory doesn’t have an alarm.”

I was ignoring them. I wasn’t ready to be concerned about the source of the sound. I was still stuck on what effect the sound would have. I listened as hard as I could.

I didn’t take long.

The neighborhood was coming to life around us. Well, I guess you can’t really say that. There wasn’t anything living nearby. No, I think it would be better to say that the sound was loud enough to wake the dead.

I heard the sounds of shuffling from inside the nearby homes. I heard fists pound against doors. I heard the moans behind the walls. There were a lot of zombies in the area.

After Nick and Dudley quieted down for a moment, they began to hear them as well. Nick’s face darted around as he picked up different sounds from different directions. He was looking nervous.

The sound of splintering wood could be heard from several different directions. The zombies were leaving their resting places.

“Time to move,” I said.

We kept low, communicated through hand gestures, and remained undetected. Around us, we could hear the shamblers take to the streets. They were searching for prey. It wasn’t long before we saw a few small groups of them wandering aimlessly farther down the road.

We stayed clear of them, and continued on our way until we came to the canal at the very end of Redd Road. It wasn’t much too see: two small hills divided by a flowing body of water. The top of each hill was wide enough to fit a car. In fact, Dudley and I took the canal trail on the first day of the outbreak. The roads had been packed with cars. The dead were following us. The only choice we had was to take the canal all the way to the Rio Grande.

One side of the canal bordered on a street called Montoya. The other side ran along the backs of rock walls. Between the walls and the canals was a long, low, ditch. We stayed away from the street. The street had too much movement.

We did our best to move quietly, but it was difficult with all the ground litter in the muddy ditch. Thin branches and dead leaves were our enemies. We moved slower to cut down the noise. We stayed in the shadows.

“Maybe we should make a bunch of noise,” Nick said. “Get all the zombies in the area to follow us. Then lead them to your old house and let them deal with this Monster fucker.”

“No,” I said. “I’m going to deal with the Monster. Keep it quiet. If you get spotted, attack quickly before they can scream.”

After moving down the ditch for a while, I crawled up the small hill, and peered over the top of the canal. We were right where we needed to be. Looking out over Montoya, I could see my old street. The lights of my old house were the only lights on in the neighborhood.

Other than that, I saw nothing.

“No movement on the street,” I announced. “The lights are on though. I’m going to make a run for it.”

“I have a better idea,” Dudley said. “Let’s stay out of the open. We can move farther down the canal, cut down the next street over, and move through the open field behind your house. I bet the grass has grown pretty long. It’ll be great cover.”

Dudley was right, and from the field we would be able to use our binoculars to get a better look at the situation. I still wasn’t using my head. I was rushing things in my desire to get my hands on the Monster. I was being an idiot.

We moved a street over. On our way there, we ran into another zombie. This one was missing half its body. It gurgled and moaned when it saw us. I would have shot it, but we could hear a sizable group of shamblers on the road on the other side of the canal. A muffled weapon still makes a sound, and we couldn’t afford any attention.

So, I jumped on the bastard.

I also shoved his filthy head into the mud he was crawling through. I was fast enough to prevent him from screaming out but his thrashing arms were still making too much noise. I fumbled around my utility belt a bit before I managed to find the handle of my Bowie knife. It made a soft sound as I pulled it from its leather sheath.

I buried the blade into the base of the zombie’s skull. The creature went still beneath me. I looked up at Dudley and Nick. Their eyes were wide. I motioned for one of them to look over the top of the canal and see if the other shamblers heard any noise.

Dudley crawled to the top. He surveyed the street for a few minutes; then he slid back down and shook his head.

“How bad is it on the street?” I asked.

“There are about five big groups of ten or more, and a bunch of lone wanderers,” Dudley answered.

“Can we make it across Montoya?” I asked.

“I think so,” Dudley answered. “No guarantees though.”

The three of us crawled to the top of the canal. Once we reached the top, we’d stay as low as possible. Fortunately for us, the top of the canal was overgrown; we were camouflaged by the weeds, and grass. The growing things kept trying to heal my wounds as we moved.

Since we were all crawling, it took some time for us to reach the little metal bridge that provided the easiest way to cross the canal. I went first. I moved at a crouch. I also moved slowly so my footsteps wouldn’t echo on the metal.

Once across, I lay flat in the weeds, and again felt them slowly crawl across my body. I didn’t like the looks of the street. There were too many zombies, and attempting to clear them out would only attract more. We were in a situation. Nick came across next and took a position right next to me.

Peering through the weeds, he grimaced and frowned at all the zombies.

“This sucks,” he said.

“I agree,” I said.

Dudley made his way across and took his position next to Nick.

“Let’s wait them out,” Dudley said.

“How long is that going to take?” Nick asked.

“Well,” Dudley answered. “They all seem to be moving away from this location. So hopefully, it won’t take too damn long.”

The wait was longer than I would have liked. According to the Protrek on my wrist, it took thirty-two minutes. During that time we moved as little as possible. Once, one of shamblers wandered uncomfortably close to our position. None of us moved, but the zombie still managed to catch our scent. Using its hands and feet to dig into the mud, the shambler began to climb up the muddy hill. When he reached the top, he was face to face with Dudley. The zombie’s eyes grew big when he saw the waiting meal only inches away. Dudley had his complete attention. The corpse never noticed Nick’s small pocketknife moving towards its head until it was embedded hilt-deep into its temple.

Dudley moved quickly as soon as the body went limp. He didn’t want to risk any noise by having the body tumble down the side of the canal, so he grabbed it under the arms, and with Nick’s help, pulled it on top of him.

The dead zombie was a life saver. The smell masked our human scents. It kept others of its kind from investigating our area.

Finally, it became a bit safer to make our way across the street. I was the first to move. I slid down the hill of the canal face first and crouched at the bottom. I surveyed the area, and then bolted across the street.

Dudley rolled out from under the corpse, and followed behind me. Nick came immediately after him. We got our bearings while hiding next to a large, droopy, tree. Then we moved down the road.

We quietly passed house after house until we came upon the open field we were looking for. The field was enclosed with a rusty chain-link fence. We scaled it easily. Dudley was right about the grass in the field: it was, at least, four feet high. It wasn’t exactly healthy grass, perhaps it wasn’t even grass at all. The color suggested a dire need of water. But that didn’t stop the wispy tendrils of life from clinging to my body in an effort to heal the damage on my arm and stomach.

I investigated my wounds. My arm seemed pretty good. There was very little blood, but it emitted a dull ache whenever I moved it. The hole in my stomach was oozing slowly. All the movement must have aggravated it again.

“You okay?” Dudley asked.

“I think so,” I answered.

“Well, you better be sure,” Dudley said. “We have no idea what we’re about to face.”

“I’ll be fine,” I grumbled.

“Is he bleeding again?” Nick asked from a short distance away.

“I think so,” Dudley answered.

“Fucking Jax,” Nick growled. “Get yourself fixed up before you bleed to death, dumbass.”

A moan came from somewhere to our left.

The three of us dropped to our stomachs in response. We weren’t alone in this field, and Nick’s shitty volume control let them know they had company.

We waited silently.

Finally, a zombie rose up from the tall grass. It was followed by another, and another, and another. There were about twenty zombies in the field with us. I can’t tell you what they were doing there, lying down in the grass. I can’t even tell you how long they had been there. Zombies do some weird shit when nobody’s looking. Some of the monster geeks think that when there isn’t a food source around, the zombies can occasionally fall into a sort of slumber. I’ll take their word for it. Most of the zombies I’ve seen were trying to eat me.

The hunt was on.

The zombies were searching for us in the grass. We were hunting them. Our goal was to bring all of them down, before they could scream and give away our position. Their goal was to eat us, and they were probably pretty damn hungry.

The zombies moved, and we moved. They made their way to our position by the fence, and we circled around them.

Our attack was from the rear. We avoided being seen, in an effort to avoid any screams. We moved through the grass like lions. When we got behind a zombie, we launched ourselves up, and brought them down as violently as possible.

The three of us split up. We began to attack from different angles as the zombies spread out all over as they searched for us. In the first attack alone, all of us were successful. Three zombies went down silently.

The shamblers never even realized the prey had become the hunter. Not that it would have mattered if they had. They would have simply kept coming for us: that’s what zombies do.

I guess I had about five kills, when I caught a glimpse of Nick bringing down a zombie, out of the corner of my eye. Unfortunately, there was another zombie a mere five feet away that Nick never saw. Well, that zombie sure as Hell saw Nick jump up, and drag down its undead buddy.

It crouched forward, and began its undead stalk through the grass. I’m not sure why it didn’t scream out. Perhaps it only caught a glimpse of Nick’s movement. Not enough to be positive it saw food, but enough to make it curious. That’s only a guess, though. Its posture, however, made it painfully obvious that it wasn’t taking any chances. It even clawed its hands up like a Velociraptor.

I moved to help Nick.

Staying low, I made a beeline straight for him. When I stopped to look again, the zombie pursuing him had vanished. I moved faster and, in doing so, made more noise. I heard him from a few feet away. I couldn’t see him through the grass, but I could hear him grunting, and cursing.

I parted the grass in front of me. Nick had managed to kill his first zombie, but the second one—the zombie that spotted him—was in full attack mode, and poor Nick was pinned to the ground by its immense bulk.

Now, I had seen the shambler coming for him from a distance. It looked to be pretty fat, but that was nothing compared to seeing it up close. The zombie was probably over four hundred pounds.

Nick could barely breathe, and I had no idea how he even managed to turn around so they were chest-to-chest after the zombie jumped on him. However, he managed to do just that, and the only reason the fat zombie hadn’t screamed was because Nick had jammed the handle of his fire axe into its snapping jaws.

I swung my tomahawk.

The back of the shambler’s head went flying off into the grass. The body dropped limply on top of Nick. Nick grunted, and then gagged as black juices from the open skull poured onto his face and hair.

“Get this thing off of me,” Nick shrieked.

“Be quiet,” I whispered.

I grabbed the corpse by the arm. I pulled, and Nick pushed. Together we rolled the beast off of him. Nick got to his knees immediately, and began to frantically rub away the vile juices with his sleeve.

“Oh man,” Nick said. “Oh man, I got some in my nose.”

“Be quiet,” I said.

It was too late for my warnings. We had already drawn attention. Four of them came at us through the grass, one after another. The first one was a woman. She made a weird sigh when she saw us. She wore a filthy t-shirt and torn jeans that showed the putrid flesh of her thighs.

I threw my tomahawk the second I saw her. The blade punched through her face, and stuck. I heard a crunch behind me and spun around with my Bowie knife. Before the shambler’s hands could get a hold of me, I brought the knife down in a chopping motion, and cleaved its skull all the way to the nose.

The corpse of an old man without a shirt tackled me from the side. I spun before I hit the ground, and buried my knife into the roof of its mouth, deep enough to penetrate the brain.

The final zombie came at Nick.

It was a skinny girl: probably a teenager judging by her skirt, and tiny shirt. Nick swatted her to the ground with one hand. Pushing himself up with the other, he buried his fireman’s axe in her skull before she got back to her feet.

My stomach was bleeding again.

I could feel the slight trickle of blood oozing down around my stomach. I hated the feeling. I hated myself for not healing the wound properly, and I silently vowed to not allow it to weaken me.

I clamped a hand over the wound. I couldn’t really put too much pressure on the damage due to the bite suit and vest, but it seemed to work sufficiently.

Dudley came up to us as I was retrieving my tomahawk.

“What the Hell have you guys been doing?” Dudley asked.

“What do you think, asshole?” Nick replied testily.

“Well, I took out the rest of them,” Dudley said, ignoring Nick’s question entirely.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

By way of reply, Dudley stood up in the grass. Nothing charged him, and no screams shattered the quiet night.

“How did you guys keep all those fuckers from screaming?” Dudley asked after surveying the bloody scene a second time.

“We nailed them as soon as they saw us,” I answered.

“Damn,” Dudley said. “That’s some good work.”

“I did most of it,” Nick grumbled while he continued to wipe at his face.

“You look like you tried to wear one of them for a hat,” Dudley said to him.

“Well, let’s see what you look like after having the weight of some fat ass drop on top of you,” Nick replied.

“How much noise did we make?” I interrupted.

“Not much,” Dudley answered. “I thought I heard Nick saying something. I might have heard the weapons hitting the zombies, but you guys were pretty quiet.”

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get to the house.”

I led the way. Dudley and Nick fanned out behind me. After the grass came a thin stretch of old trees, and beyond that was my backyard’s rock wall. We climbed over the wall and landed in the landscaping of my backyard. We crunched past the rocky part of the landscaping to the grass area, and made our way onto the rear patio.

Light from the windows blazed down upon us. I didn’t appreciate stepping out of the darkness, but at least nothing would be able to creep out at us through the shadows.

The three of us went to the side entrance, where ages ago a trio of dead had slammed against the sliding glass door, and chased us from my home. I don’t know what I expected to see but things were just as we had left them.

The glass door was still broken. Only the frame and a few jagged shards were left to keep out the dirt and weather. The carpet inside was ruined. No amount of cleaning would ever make it right again.

The zombies chasing after us stepped on the fallen glass. Bloody footprints ran from the side entrance all the way to the remains of the flimsy wooden door that led to the garage.

“Wow,” Dudley whispered. “It feels weird to be back here.”

“Do you remember leaving any lights on?” I asked.

“I don’t,” Dudley answered.

“Then you guys had company,” Nick said. “Because someone came in here and turned on all your lights.”

“Captain Obvious,” Dudley said.

“I saw the place from the street,” I said, “so I knew the lights were on, but I only took a quick glance, so I figured it was only the outside lights. Why would someone come in here and turn on every single light?”

“It doesn’t make much sense,” Dudley said.

“You guys check out the downstairs,” I said. “I’ll go up and check out my bedroom.”

I didn’t wait to receive a response. I wanted to see my old room too badly for that. I wanted to face the dread creeping into my heart. Of course, I had no idea what I was dreading. Maybe it was the thought of someone disturbing the bedroom.

Bedrooms are normally a private place. They aren’t something visitors often spend a lot of time in. It was also the only room on the second floor. So intruders from parties, or whatever, weren’t normally inclined to wander so far away from the usual groups of people in the kitchen and backyard.

Then again, maybe it was none of that. This was Skie’s room as much as mine. Perhaps under the circumstances, I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone entering a place that held so many memories dear to my heart.

I saw footprints on the dusty stairs. My guard was up. Something wasn’t right about the house. The lights had been turned on for a reason. We had taken the bait, and stepped into the trap. When was the damn mystery going to reveal itself?

I entered my old bedroom slowly and cautiously. Nothing was out of place. I checked the closets. I checked the bathroom. Finally, I stopped before the bed.

I’m sure it was my imagination. It had to have been my imagination, but I caught the faint scent of Skie’s perfume. It was coming from somewhere in the sheets. I moved closer to the bed. The scent was coming from her favorite pillow.

I picked up the pillow, shaking the dust off it. I smelled it again. Nothing. I pushed my face into it. The softness…the gentle touch of the fabric of the pillowcase against my skin took me to a different place. It brought up memories I didn’t know I still had.

I never found the scent again.

However, I had something else. I had memories of better times, a past that had never known the evil of the present. I’m not sure how long I stood there with my face pressed into that pillow. I lost track of time. My world was falling down around me, but alone in that room, I was with my wife.

I sat down on the bed. A sudden wave of grief crashed against the rocky shore of my soul. For a brief moment, I let it flow all around me. I let it consume me. With a groan, I began to push it away.

A loud crack echoed through the quiet night. Glass broke from somewhere downstairs, a soft crunch and a tinkle of sound, followed by two dropping bodies. Nick cursed loudly.

“This is it!” he shouted out when he finished with his litany of four letter words.

A brief moment later, the windows downstairs began exploding inward as bullets peppered the house. The sound was deafening. We were facing some serious firepower.

The bedroom, however, was not under fire. I gently placed the pillow back on the bed and tapped my earpiece.

“Dudley,” I said. “Kill the lights.”

“On it,” Dudley replied.

Peeking my head out the door, I watched as one by one, the lights downstairs began to extinguish. Some of them were simply turned off, others had their cords yanked out of the sockets and others, too far away to reach, were shot out. I quickly turned off the bedroom and bathroom lights then had to brave the hail of gunfire to extinguish the hallway light outside the bedroom. For that, I almost took a bullet in the hand.

“Can you make it upstairs?” I asked.

“Not unless we wanna get shot,” Dudley answered. “Can you make it downstairs?”

“No,” I answered. “Return fire and distract them. I’m going to the roof.”

I went to the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony. I checked around, and saw plenty of places that would be great for a sniper wanting to take a shot at me. However, none of them were very secure, and with all the noise, the dead were headed towards us. I could see them climbing the fences of the field we had used to reach the house. I could hear them moaning and screaming from the street in the front of the house.

No sniper would find a safe place in the midst of the moving dead. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get shot at, so I went out on the balcony, and quietly climbed up to the roof. Now, the roof has many angles, and different levels. Therefore, it wasn’t too difficult for me to remain unseen by the bad guys as I made my way to the front of the house.

I could see the muzzle flashes easily. The attack was coming from the house next door. I moved to a different location to get a better look. The doors and windows of the house were all reinforced.

The house had been prepared for war.

The trap became very clear. Our enemy used a human foghorn to wake up the zombies in the neighborhood. Then they opened fire on us as soon as we had trapped ourselves in a home with all the lights on. All the while, they remained safe in a house with boarded up windows. After that, it was a toss-up as to who would get us first: the shooters, or the shamblers responding to all the noise?

We were in a bad spot.

Yet that didn’t worry me. I had expected a trap. We endangered ourselves, and allowed them to make the first move, so we could find them. I was even a bit shocked that the morons hadn’t managed to wound at least one of us.

I had explosives. My plan was to sneak down and blow the front of their house open. I wanted to see how brave they would be if the zombies had access to their sanctuary. I tapped my earpiece.

“Stay low,” I told Dudley. “I’m going to open up their sardine can.”

“Not a problem,” Dudley answered. “Take your time.”

I made my way down the opposite side of the house. My boots crunched on the rock landscaping. I shot down three zombies making a run for me, and began to worry about how much time I would have to set the explosives.

I ran to the front of the house. The dead were everywhere. I looked to the house next door where the shooters had taken up residence. The front yard on that house was getting pretty crowded with the dearly departed.

I wasn’t going to be able to use the explosives. At least not the way I had intended. I had a moment of indecision, a brief loss of situational awareness. A cold hand arm wrapped around my neck and tried to yank me to the ground.

I heard the sound of teeth scraping against my bite collar, and I shoved the shambler away in a fury. I looked around. The dead were surrounding me. I sized up my chances. It didn’t look good. There were too many.

I spun around. I needed an exit through the crowd. My plan had gone to Hell, and I couldn’t think of a backup. I needed a moment to collect my thoughts, and that wasn’t going to happen while I was being attacked.

I saw the gap I was looking for, and something completely unexpected. The house directly across the street from mine had an upstairs light on. I could see the glow through the large window. Even more important, was the solitary figure standing there with his arms crossed as he watched the scene below him unfold.

I had found the Monster.

I charged through the gap. Dead hands reached out for me. Jaws snapped when I got too close. I ducked, dived, and weaved in and out, making my escape. I didn’t run directly to the Monster. Hell, I’m not that stupid. Instead, I ran down the road.

My new plan was to lead the gathering horde away. This would improve the odds for Nick, and Dudley, and I also didn’t want a bunch of hungry zombies following me into the Monster’s house.

With my stomach injury, I wasn’t moving as fast as I usually can. In order to compensate for the lack of distance I would normally be able to create with a sprint, I cut off down the road, and jumped a rock wall.

I screamed out in pain as I hurled myself on the other side. The tearing sensation in my stomach was bad. I didn’t even land cleanly. Instead I slapped cement with my tailbone and elbows. The hard plastic guards protecting my elbows worked pretty well, but my ass took a beating.

The dead were right behind me.

I didn’t have time to cry about things. I got up and limped to the next wall. I was slower going over this wall but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. Immediately I scanned the new yard. The house had a clawed up wooden door, and it was hanging open.

I ran for the door. The zombies were starting to climb over the rock wall. I could see their disgusting hands reaching up for a grip. I closed the door quietly behind me. I heard a quiet moan emanating out from the shadows surrounding me.

I wasn’t alone.

Through a small window, I saw the majority of the horde run out of the backyard as they searched for me. Unfortunately, some of them decided to hang around and investigate. Eventually, the hang-arounds were gonna sniff me out.

I set off away from the backyard door, and made my way deeper into the dangerous shadows. I used my flashlight, keeping my fingers over the beam so it wouldn’t be too bright. In the living room, I found the half-eaten remains of four bodies.

I heard banging on the back door.

I sped up. I listened for the quiet moan, and when I heard it again, I zeroed in on its location. The house I was in was only one-story, but it was a big one. So, the dead were already through the wooden door, and searching for me, before I managed to locate the former owner.

I found her in one of the back bedrooms. She seemed to be an elderly woman, though age can often be difficult to determine due to a zombie’s decay. Her grey hair was more than enough evidence for me. She’d been tied at the wrists to the frame of a hospital bed, and a wall of medical equipment, long turned off, was next to the bed.

My best guess is that she had been someone’s sick grandmother. The former occupants of the house probably attempted to take care of her after she was bitten, but eventually the zombies broke in, and got them all. At least that would explain all the scratches on the back door and the corpses in the living room. I’m not sure what the medical equipment was for; I suppose the woman had health problems before she was bitten.

Regardless, grandma was excited to see me. She moaned and groaned happily while she strained against her bonds. She even tried some sort of scream but for whatever reason, it wasn’t very loud.

The stink in the room was horrible, but I didn’t let that bother me. I grabbed the sheets right off of her and crawled under her bed.

The dead were close behind me. Then again, when are they not?

They rushed into the room. They knocked over the medical equipment. I stayed perfectly still under the sheets. Grandma was jabbering about a mile a minute, but the zombies couldn’t understand why she was so excited.

In no time at all, they moved out of the room and began to search the rest of the house. I think I had to stay there about thirty minutes before it was safe to leave.

During my wait, I tapped my earpiece.

“I couldn’t blow the front of their house,” I told Dudley. “There were too many shamblers out there. How are you guys doing?”

“We finally made it to the upstairs bedroom,” Dudley answered. “But we’re still trapped.”

“I found the Monster,” I said. “Let me take him out, and then we’ll see what happens.”

“Make it quick,” Dudley said. “The freakin’ shamblers are starting to get inside the house.”

That wasn’t the best of news. Obviously, more zombies had arrived, because I had led the bunch in front of the house away. I sighed heavily, and sat back to wait things out.

When I could finally leave the safety of my hiding place, I stood up and took stock of my injuries. The wound in my stomach was bleeding again. My arm hurt like a bitch. None of it bothered me very much though. I would soon have my revenge.

I paused at the door.

Grandma reached out for me. If it hadn’t been for her stinky room, I would have been devoured. In a sense, she saved my life. I went back, and put her out of her misery.

After that, I put down a few more zombies as I made my way to the front door. I used my tomahawk. I wanted to feel the weapon in my hands. I wanted to hear the blade sing through the air. The road outside appeared to be clear. Regardless, there was no sense in taking a chance. I hugged the rock walls and bits of shrubbery as I made my way back towards the Monster’s house.

It took a bit of skill in order to remain undetected. It also took a bit of time. However, the time was well spent. The streets were full of the dead. I couldn’t risk being spotted. Otherwise, I’d be spending my time trying to lose my pursuers instead of breaking the Monster.

I hated the man. I wanted to punish him. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted to bring him pain. I had just the briefest glimpse of his silhouette in the window, so I really couldn’t picture him in my mind, but I was still able to break that shadowy image. I was still able to crush his ribs, and cleave into his skull, if only in my imagination…for the moment, anyway.

I was almost discovered by the horde in the street numerous times, due to my daydreaming as I made my way to the correct house.

Once there, I spared a brief moment to look across the street in order to see how the remnants of my team were doing. Things weren’t horrible. The zombies were concentrating on the house next door, instead of my old house. That made sense. All the gunfire and noise were from next door. Yet, there were still twenty or thirty curious zombies just loitering around my front yard. They would eventually find their way in like the others had. I was hoping Dudley and Nick had enough ammo to hold them back.

After I took out the Monster, I planned on healing myself, and making a run for the Jeep. Then, I would head back, and pick up Dudley, and Nick, after they blazed their way to the vehicle.

I went to the front door of the Monster’s lair. The knob turned in my hand, and I entered. I waited the briefest of moments in order to allow my eyes time to adjust to the darkness. Then I set out, searching for the stairway.

I found it right outside the main hallway. The stairs were carpeted. My footsteps were muffled. I dropped my rifle and let it dangle by the strap. I didn’t plan on shooting the Monster. I planned on ripping him apart with my hands.

My fists clenched and released. For the first time, I realized how cold my fingers had become. I wasn’t sure if that was due to the temperature or the blood loss, but I could feel their coldness through the leather of my half-fingered gloves.

Like my old house, there was only one room upstairs. The door was wide open. I could see a large section of the room. The light was still blazing, but the Monster was no longer in front of the window.

I looked behind me. I was afraid he’d outsmarted me and was sneaking up to stab me in the back. He wasn’t. There was nothing behind me but a small table in the short hallway. I waited for him to stand before the window once again. I waited patiently. The end was near. There was no reason to rush anything and make a mistake.

Eventually, he entered my field of vision. He wasn’t a large man. He was smaller than me. He was also unarmed.

I stood up from the shadows and silently approached him.

I crept forward slowly. He had no idea I was behind him. His attention was fully on the scene that was taking place below him on the street.

From five feet away I lunged. My hand found the back of his skull, and I slammed his head on the window so hard, the glass cracked. Then I spun him around. His forehead was bleeding but the man was wide-awake. His eyes were wide with fear.

He put a hand upon my chest as if he could push me away. I reached up and broke four of his fingers. He screamed out, but I clamped my other hand over his mouth as I forced him to his knees.

“This won’t be over quickly,” I whispered into his ear. “I’m going to spend days taking you apart. Welcome to Hell.”

His eyes began to fill with tears. I struck him in the face but I knew. I knew it but I didn’t want to admit it. He tried to speak, and I hit him again. He began sobbing after that. I released him from my grasp, and he dropped to the floor.

I paced the room in a fury.

“If you have something to say,” I growled. “You better spit it out.”

“I…I…I am not the man you are looking for,” the coward stammered.

No shit. No man that earned the name the Monster among a foreign mafia would start crying like a baby the second he got hurt.

“Tell me where he is,” I growled.

“I…I will take you to him,” the coward said. “That…that is my job.”

Everything clicked.

I was wrong about the trap. The trap was only to separate me from the rest of my team. The bad guys didn’t fire a single shot into the upstairs bedroom. Nick and Dudley were pinned down but I was able to leave easily. I saw the man in the window when I was outside in the front yard. I went after him, and left my team behind.

I was an idiot.

I was outsmarted.

There was only one thing left to do: play the game.

“Let’s go,” I said.

I lifted the man by his collar and shoved him in front of me. We went down the stairs, and as I was about to leave through the front door, he motioned me to the garage. Inside was another one of our Jeeps.

“Upon entering the city,” the coward said, “we stole many weapons and a few vehicles.”

“You also killed many people,” I replied.

“The Monster has declared war,” the coward said. “In war, there are casualties, but the war shall soon end.”

“It’s going to end?” I asked.

“Yes,” the coward answered. “The Monster will soon kill you.”

“Get used to disappointment,” I said.

“Yes,” said the coward. “I understand. You think you can beat him. You cannot. No one can defeat the Monster.”

I didn’t have much to say after that. I kept my weapon aimed at the man, and I let him drive us out of the neighborhood. The zombies were everywhere. They rushed at the Jeep and bounced off the armor. The man didn’t drive very fast, but he drove fast enough to not get surrounded by any large groups.

From a few streets over, I heard the sound of squealing brakes, and the muffled thumps of silenced gunfire. Somebody was coming late to the party, and that didn’t bode well for Nick and Dudley.

“More of your people?” I asked.

“No,” answered the coward.

I didn’t believe him. I wanted to go back to my team. I tapped my earpiece.

“You have company headed your way,” I told Dudley.

“Good guys or bad guys?”

“Undetermined,” I said.

“Fuck it then,” Dudley said. “We made our way to the roof. So, we’re sitting nice and pretty for the time being. You kill that bastard yet?”

“On my way now,” I said.

“I’ll see you when you’re done.”

We eventually made our way to Redd Road. He wove the vehicle in and out of abandoned cars. He even used the large front bumper to push cars out of his way when he couldn’t find an alternate route.

We crossed Doniphan and continued up Redd. We were headed in the same direction as our old Safe Zone.

However, instead of continuing up the road, the coward turned into the large parking lot of the supermarket near Georgie’s house and parked the Jeep. I’ve told you about this supermarket before. I’m not sure if you remember, though.

“Is this the place you tried to go to shortly after the outbreak happened?”

Yes. Then a bunch of shamblers rushed us. I ended up falling out of the Jeep.

“I remember you telling me about that quite well.”

It looked different this time, let me tell you. There were zombies all over the place but they weren’t exactly moving. Someone had gone ape-shit and killed every single one of them. There were mounds of burning corpses piled four feet high in some places.

I could smell the stink from inside the Jeep. It was horrible. I looked to the supermarket. There were lights on inside but not all of them. The interior was shadowy.

“The Monster cleared the way for you,” the coward said. “He does not wish to be interrupted while he kills you.”

“He’s inside the supermarket?” I asked.

“Yes,” the coward answered.

“Thanks,” I said before jamming the blade of my Ti-lite into his neck and killing him.

After his body stopped thrashing around, I got out of the vehicle, and walked around to the driver’s side. I pulled the corpse from behind the wheel, and I pocketed the keys.

I felt good. The pain in my stomach had calmed down somewhat. The oozing blood seemed to have stopped. The pain in my arm was still there but I had full mobility. I was ready.

I moved towards the open glass doors. I could see inside but didn’t see anything important. I looked behind me towards the parking lot at the many mounds of burning corpses. The man that did that would be one Hell of fighter. That was good. I wanted him to be a fighter.

I went inside the supermarket.

Most of the overhead lights had been shot out. The ones left intact created a dim and moody atmosphere.

The design of the place was simplistic, an immense rectangular room. Except for the odd piece of trash littering the concrete floor, the place was completely empty, broken up only by large support columns that ran from ceiling to floor. The racks, which created the many aisles and shelves of a typical supermarket, had been pushed off to one side, creating a mountain of debris. There were no lights above the mountain, and as a result, I couldn’t make out much detail in that area.

My eyes scanned from left to right. I saw nothing. I threw my rifle to the floor. I could always grab my pistol if I took any fire, but I didn’t believe the Monster would shoot at me. He wanted to kill me with his bare hands. For some reason, this man hated me. I didn’t really care why he hated me. I rarely care why anyone hates me. What I cared about were the places his hatred led him.

The stale air of the supermarket was a big improvement from the parking lot. I strained my ears in an attempt to locate the Monster.

Nothing.

Not a sound.

I walked to the center of the vast room, and I pulled out my tomahawk. If the asshole wanted to play hide ‘n’ seek, he was going to play it alone. I was here for a fight.

I heard singing. The open space echoed, so I couldn’t pin down where it was coming from. The voice simply reverberated off the walls, and to be honest, it made me nervous. The Monster wasn’t afraid of me. His voice sounded entirely too calm.

The voice was also off somehow. I’m not sure how to describe it. It sounded metallic. If you’ve ever heard rain pouring down on a tin roof, well it sounded sort of like that, but in a voice. Then the singing was abruptly cut off.

“Welcome to El Paso,” said the tin-sounding voice.

A dark shadow rose up and detached itself from the debris on the far end of the room. I had seen that particular mass of shadow when I entered but I assumed it was part of a shelf. I was wrong. It was a large man.

At first glance, the man was larger than Nick, and that’s not an easy thing to accomplish unless you’re a basketball player. I’d estimate his height at least around 6’5. He was also very wide. People like to say that my shoulders are huge; I had nothing on this guy. He was about two of me put together.

“The Guardian arrives,” said the Monster.

“I’m going to kill you,” I said. “Then I’m going to go back and kill all your friends.”

“Is your wife dead?” The Monster asked.

I didn’t answer.

“I knew if I went after your wife it would have an effect on you. It would bring out the anger. I want your anger. I want your hatred. It’s best not to give a smart one like you time to think and plan. That’s how you beat me the first time we met. I underestimated your intelligence. You outsmarted me. This time, I believe the shoe is on the other foot.”

The voice was vaguely familiar.

The large man stepped into the dim light.

I didn’t recognize him at first. His face was covered in scars. He wore combat books and camouflage pants. On his chest he wore a black tank top underneath a denim jacket. He slowly removed the jacket, and I saw that the scars also crossed his arms. A glowing disk was attached to his chest directly over his heart.

He stepped a bit closer.

His long black hair gave him away instantly, but the open wound on his left check was no longer quite the same. It had been covered up with a piece of metal that somehow fit flush with the rest of the skin on his face. I was looking at Max.

“Wait a second. You were looking at Max, the former Guardian?”

Yeah.

“But you killed him.”

I did.

“I don’t understand.”

Neither did I.

“Do you remember me, Guardian?” Max asked.

I was at a loss for words. Max wasn’t nearly this large of a person. He used to be skinny and not extremely tall. It looked as if someone had glued his head on top of some behemoth’s body.

Max stepped closer.

His skin had a pale bluish hue. It looked waxy. Not quite human. I took an involuntary step back.

“How?” I asked.

“I have Major Crass to thank for my present condition,” Max answered. “It turns out he hates you far more than me. I am to handle you, and he is to handle Mr. Hardin. Tell me, have you talked to Mr. Hardin lately? I’m curious to see how he’s holding up against Crass.”

“Major Crass is the man that was running things after Mr. Hardin retired, correct?”

Yeah.

“What happened to him after Mr. Hardin came out of retirement?”

No idea. I never saw him again. Hardin had him out of there long before I ever came back. With all the shit he pulled, I always assumed they put him in prison.

“I killed you,” I said.

“You did indeed,” Max laughed. “I was the better fighter but my powers were waning while yours were growing. I thought you would be easy prey. I was wrong. It’s a mistake I won’t be making again.”

“Crass wasted his time,” I said.

“How so?” Max asked.

“I’m just going to kill you again.”

I closed the distance between us and swung my tomahawk. Max dodged out of the way. He moved impossibly fast for someone so large. The force of my swing spun me around, and I kicked out with my left leg. My foot connected with his lower stomach, and I heard a great gush of air leave his body.

“A fine hit,” Max said. “I think you have become stronger than I was when I held the mantle of Guardian.”

He swung a meaty fist towards me, and I barely ducked out of the way. We circled each other. Each of us was looking for an opening; each of us was searching for a drop in the other’s guard.

I got tired of waiting.

I faked low and struck high with my tomahawk. Max fell for it. He blocked low, and I buried my tomahawk in his shoulder. He growled in pain, and jerked away, ripping the handle of the weapon out of my grip.

“Tricky bastard,” Max snarled as he pulled my tomahawk out of his shoulder and casually cast it away. His blood was clear and thick with a pink tinge. It didn’t gush or even flow out of the wound. It seemed to have the consistency of Jell-O.

I came at him again.

I wanted to strike while he was injured. I had no idea if he could heal or not. I dove in low for the take down. Ground fighting wasn’t exactly his thing last time we met. I was hoping it still wasn’t.

I slammed my head into his groin and gripped the backs of his tree trunk-sized legs. I pushed forward with all my might but I couldn’t bring him down. He drove an elbow into my spine that made my legs go weak.

I backed off.

Then I came at him again.

I tried to grab him around the waist. I wanted to lift him into the air and slam him on the ground. He was so wide: my fingers could barely touch. I tried to lift him anyway. He slammed a knee into my groin.

I lost air, and even worse, my wound began to bleed once again.

 

“What’s this?” Max asked noticing the blood dripping to the floor from under my shirt and vest. “You came to me injured? Are you that stupid?”

“Go fuck yourself,” I answered as I pulled free my large Bowie knife.

Max began to laugh.

“Of course you are that stupid,” Max announced. “Don’t you see how well I played you? I attacked your wife. Because of that, you have lost all reason. You’re a dangerous opponent because you’re so smart, but fill you up with rage, and you become a mere plaything. You’ve lost this fight before it ever began, little Guardian.”

I sliced at his stomach. I wanted to spill his guts on the floor. I figured that would slow him down. Most of all, I wanted him to shut his mouth. His mocking voice was driving me insane. My blade sank but the flesh was tough. The cut took effort. It felt like I was using a dull blade. I left my mark but his guts didn’t drop to the floor, instead more of that pink tinged gelatinous fluid oozed slowly from the wound.

Luckily, the cut had a decent effect. He grunted and folded over. I really went to work on him then. I jumped onto his back and began hammering my knife into his shoulder blades. He screamed in agony, grabbed a hold of my legs, and ran full speed in reverse until my back collided with the nearest support column.

The impact stunned me.

I fell to the floor while Max slowly walked away. He then turned and stared back at me with the slightest bit of respect. He thought he could beat me. I could see it in his eyes. He really thought he could beat me. He simply needed to be a bit more careful

I charged him.

I moved fast. I have to hand it to myself. From a position of injury, I was on my feet, and back in the fight in a frightening instant. It didn’t much matter though. Max dodged me like a bullfighter, and then grabbed me by my bite collar and utility belt. My knife fell from my hand as he spun my body around and hurled me across the room.

After gravity took over and I hit the ground, I slid for another ten or fifteen feet right past my discarded tomahawk. My hand snaked out and grabbed it up. When the ride finally came to an end, I was on my feet again.

I stared at Max. Max stared at me and smiled. I screamed out my frustration. He smiled harder. Both of us walked back towards the center of the room.

Once there, we began circling each other again.

“I can see your hatred,” Max said. “It makes you sloppy. It robs you of thought. I have your wife to thank for that. Her sacrifice has granted me victory.”

His words bit deep. In a rage, I made my move. I swung my tomahawk. He snatched my hand out of the air and wrenched my wrist. A bone snapped, and when we broke apart, he had my weapon.

“A worthless tool,” Max said as he studied the blade. “You shouldn’t rely on it.”

He snapped my tomahawk in half over his knee and threw the pieces to the ground. Breaking my weapon had an effect on me. It felt as if I’d been struck.

We flew at each other. Despite the broken wrist, I was still punching him. Unfortunately, he was also punching me. For every hit I managed to land, he was able to connect with four, and he hit a lot harder than me. I could feel the damage. I didn’t need a mirror in order to figure things out. My face was being battered. His face, however, didn’t have a mark on it.

The brute was tough. I couldn’t allow him to continue punishing me. I started trying to avoid his blows. Whenever he’d miss, I’d throw out a power punch with enough force to cripple a mule. If I managed to connect, I’d hear the impact. but I never felt any of his bones break. I never managed to slow him down.

“Can you feel what’s happening?” Max asked. “Is your arrogance so great that you fail to realize what’s right in front of your face? You’re losing, Guardian. You’re becoming weaker. I am beating you.”

We broke apart from one another. There wasn’t a sound in the room except for my breathing, my loud, obnoxious breathing. I was sucking serious air. I was hurt. I was dizzy. I was tired. Max was correct. I was losing.

I pulled out my pistol and started shooting him. I watched his body jerk and fall backwards to the floor. Once he was down, I emptied the weapon on him.

It was cheating. I realize that but there was no way I was going to let him win after what he’d done to Skie. Victory was mine. At the end of the day, I managed to outsmart the dumbass. He showed up to a gunfight with nothing but his fists. There was a weird rattle in my lungs from the punches to my body but that didn’t really concern me. I’d survived worse after fighting the Master Vampire.

I stared down at Max’s body. I even snickered that despite how fierce he had become, I still whooped his ass. Hell, it was easy once I pulled my pistol out. I wondered briefly about what Crass had done to bring him back. I also wondered why two people that hated each other started working together. Then I decided I didn’t give a shit.

The drama was over. True, I wanted the Monster to suffer. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands but things seldom turn out the way we want them to. I was lucky enough to come away with my life.

I kicked Max in the head as I walked away.

My friends needed my help. I fully intended to be there for them. On the way towards the entrance, I stopped and picked up the pieces of my tomahawk, stuffing them in my backpack. As I searched for my rifle, I heard something metallic clatter to the floor behind me.

I spun around as quickly as my bruised body would allow. Max was no longer on the floor. He was nowhere to be seen. I suddenly felt very tired. My body was finished. I went looking for him anyway.

There were smears of his gelatinous blood on the concrete floor where I had shot him. Other than that, not a sign of him remained. I looked to the side of the room where the debris had been piled up.

I searched for movement.

Nothing moved.

I looked around the room. It was empty. He had to be in the mountain of debris. I slowly walked over there. It was a tangled mess of twisted steel and broken plastic. I’m guessing it was about eight feet deep, and it ran the entire length of the wall.

I stayed a few feet away for the debris. I couldn’t make out any details in the darkness. I reloaded my pistol then shone my flashlight over everything. I walked from one side to the other in front of the tangled mess in an effort to locate my enemy.

I heard the sound of a vehicle outside the supermarket.

I turned my head for the briefest moment, and I felt a warm hand reach out and snatch my pistol away.

I jumped back in an effort to gain some space and fell on my ass. I was too slow. Max stood up in the mass of trash. Metal bent, and clattered to the floor around him as he shoved his way out of the debris, and rushed towards me.

“You gave it a good try,” Max sneered. “You really did. I’m almost shocked you lasted so long. But you’re out of your depth. The last time we met you won. This time it’ll be me. This is how it should have been all along.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I responded.

Max reached down for me slowly, his impossibly big hand getting closer and closer as if he had all the time in the world. I reached into my pocket and placed my hand on my Ti-Lite folding knife.

The muffled sounds of automatic gunfire peppered against Max’s big chest. I spun around and saw Nick and Dudley, but they had some friends with them as well, who were firing from a position of cover, whereas Nick and Dudley strode boldly into the open.

Max screamed out more in rage than pain as his body jerked underneath the onslaught of bullets. I scurried out of the way as quickly as possible. By the time Max dropped, I was standing next to Dudley.

“You look like shit,” Dudley said.

I didn’t answer him.

“We need to move,” a voice called out. “How bad is he?”

“He took a beating,” Dudley answered. “But he’ll live.”

“Can he fight?” The voice asked.

“We need to get him healed up,” Dudley answered.

“Then let’s go.”

Dudley made a move to help me walk but I shrugged him away. I think it was the sting of my wounded pride. I had been beaten. Shooting the bastard didn’t win the fight for me. My friends had to come to my aide. My Ti-Lite wasn’t going to save me, and I wasn’t used to losing. I didn’t like it one bit, but I sure as Hell deserved it.

I had charged into that fight without a plan. I had no idea who or what I was fighting, and I never took a second to find out. I was blinded with rage. My head wasn’t in the game, and I almost got killed for it.

Failing isn’t something I’m used to doing. I didn’t much like the feeling. I walked to the entrance without a backwards glance. I wanted to leave. I wanted to go to my wife. My vengeance wasn’t entirely satisfied, but it was the best I was going to get.

I passed our friends as I made my way out the building. Snake Charmer and Scalp Hunter stood up, and followed behind Dudley as we left.

“Where did they come from?” I asked Nick who was in front of me.

“They bailed us out of your house,” Nick answered. “They’ve been following us ever since we entered the city, but they got a bit delayed on the mountain, dumbasses.”

“We’ve been in the city for a few weeks now,” Snake Charmer added. “We were finally sent back to help with the elimination of the undead population. Everything was as normal as it gets around here, until the Northeast entrance was attacked. Communications went down shortly after that. We made our way over there anyway. Obviously, we were too late to do anything, but we saw your Jeep’s lights headed up the mountain, and we figured we might as well follow.”

“I saw them coming down the road while we were on the roof,” Dudley added. “I figured, I’d try and radio them, just in case they were the good guys.”

“We heard you radioing in for Mr. Hardin plenty of times,” Snake Charmer said. “We weren’t sure if it was a trap or not. Good thing I recognized Nick; we weren’t sure who we should attack.”

“They pulled up in front of the bad guy’s house, and let loose with some serious firepower,” Nick said. The bad guys stopped shooting at us—the zombies got distracted by the new arrivals—so we made our way off the roof, and hauled ass down the street. As soon as we were in the clear, they picked us up.”

“Don’t you boys normally travel in bigger teams?” I asked.

“We were reinforcements for another team that suffered some casualties,” Scalp Hunter answered. “Unfortunately we…”

I turned around immediately. Everyone turned around immediately.

Max was standing behind us. He was holding Scalp Hunter’s severed head in his hand.

“You think it’s going to be that easy?” Max asked before throwing the head at me.

Then, he puffed up his chest, and arched his back before letting out the very same human-foghorn bellow we had heard before. The dead would soon be coming.

Snake Charmer screamed out for his fallen friend. Dudley and Nick began shooting at Max. Max began forcing his way towards us, despite the bullets peppering his body.

From across the street, I heard squealing tires followed by the cracking sounds of many machine guns. Max’s Albanian Mafia friends had arrived in two stolen Jeeps.

I grabbed hold of Snake Charmer, and I pulled him towards the Jeep I had used to get to the Supermarket. Fortunately, it was parked between us, and the Albanian Mafia trying to shoot us. I dove in with Snake Charmer. Nick grabbed onto Dudley, and both of them jumped in the seat. Somehow, despite their tangled bodies, Nick was still able to close the door behind him.

Max approached the window.

He was smiling.

His face and body were smeared with that weird gelatinous blood of his, but he didn’t seem in pain.

Then the smile faded as I handed Nick the keys and he started the Jeep. Max tried the door. Nick had locked it. Max began to pound on the window. The Jeep rocked from the impact of his fists.

“Holy shit!” Nick exclaimed. “Who the fuck is this guy?”

“He’s the former Guardian,” I answered.

Nick tore off right as a mass of zombies flooded into the parking lot. I then understood why Snake Charmer wanted to leave so quickly: shamblers had followed them.

“Slow down,” I ordered from the backseat. “I wanna see this asshole get eaten.”

I was hoping to see the horde of shamblers tear Max to pieces. I wanted to see them tear him to pieces. I wasn’t able to beat him but that didn’t mean I wanted him to have a free pass. Dead was dead, and I wanted to see him die.

The zombies rushed towards him.

Max didn’t move.

I think he was still smiling.

They approached him, and slowed down. They surrounded him. They sniffed at him. Then they lost interest, and started chasing after the Albanians who immediately stopped shooting at us, and fled the scene in their stolen vehicles.

“What the fuck?” Nick asked.

“I have no idea,” I said.

Nick sped off. I’m not sure where he was headed. That wasn’t really important at the moment. The only important thing was that we put some distance between Max, the horde of shamblers, and us.

We drove in silence for a while. Nick was driving, so we were all occasionally thrown around the vehicle as he went over curbs, and bumped into abandoned cars. I was worried about Snake Charmer. The man had been close to Scalp Hunter. That was obvious from the first time I met them.

Still, he was a professional.

“Head Downtown,” Snake Charmer advised. “The city has the highest concentration of the undead. They may not go after the former Guardian, but they’ll go after his men. I doubt they’ll follow us down there.”

“Maybe not,” Nick said, “but the shamblers will definitely come after us along with Max’s men.”

“Do what he says,” I added. “We have experience on our side.”

The ride was uneventful, even with the occasional small group of zombies chasing after us. None of them warranted a bullet, not with Nick behind the wheel.

A block away from the city, a voice appeared in our ear.

“Headquarters contacting the General,” the voice said. “Headquarters contacting the General. Come in Jaxon.”

I tapped my earpiece.

“This is Jaxon,” I answered. “Who’s this?”

“Are you alive and well?” The voice asked.

“We’re fine,” I answered. “Now who is this? Where’s Hardin?”

“Hardin has been injured,” the voice answered. “There was an attack. I’m here to arrange your extraction.”

“How many times do we need to attempt contact with you morons before you answer us?” Nick interrupted.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the voice answered. “There was an attack. We established communication as soon as we could.”

“Well, fuck you anyway!” Nick yelled.

“We’ll be on the roof of the Abraham Chavez Theater,” I said. “Pick us up there.”

I’m not sure if you remember this or not, but the Abraham Chavez Theater is where I killed Max. I wanted to see if his body was still there. I was having a hard time believing he was somehow resurrected from the dead.

“Wouldn’t the zombies have picked his corpse clean?”

That was certainly a possibility, but even if they had, I was still hoping to see some bones. Zombies don’t normally eat bones. They seem much more interested in the red and bleeding parts.

We used the parking garage entrance. I borrowed a pistol from Snake Charmer. It was a Remington .45, a 1911 that had been customized for a silencer. Not a bad weapon at all, but a little bit much for plugging a zombie in the head.

He also didn’t have a lot of ammo for it.

We didn’t run into much opposition. A few zombies rushed out at us from between the cars but they were put down immediately. Snake Charmer’s shooting was impressive. He hit the forehead on every shot. I had developed a bad case of double vision, so I didn’t even bother trying to shoot. I left it to the others, and conserved my ammo. Besides, I hadn’t been shooting very well since I entered El Paso.

Silently, we walked into the theater.

The last time we were here, we left the place crawling with shamblers. There were certain to be a few around. A part of me wondered about Snake Charmer. The man was only human, but he was with us one hundred percent. A bite would be fatal to him, but he never seemed too concerned about that. The man followed us into danger like a consummate professional. He impressed me. If Georgie or Javie died from their wounds, we probably already had our next team member.

The thought of losing Georgie, or Javie, tore me up inside. They were my friends, my family. They had to be okay. Whatever power worked inside of me, also worked inside of them. They were stronger than Skie. They healed fast. Not as fast as me, but they still healed pretty fast. They had to be okay.

Skie.

I had one chance to avenge her, and I had failed. I had charged in like an idiotic ape, and I had lost. The Monster tore me apart like I was an amateur. He would have killed me if the team hadn’t arrived when they did. I couldn’t stop thinking about that. I couldn’t believe that someone had beaten me so easily. It was all I thought about on our journey downtown. It kept circling around in my mind. The Monster had beaten me.

NO.

I couldn’t think like that. I could beat him. I would have beaten him. My Ti-Lite was in my hand. It had worked for me before. I was ready to make my move. The opportunity never came, because reinforcements arrived. Forget my earlier thoughts. Forget how tired I was. Forget about the injuries I suffered. I could beat him. I could kill him. I needed another chance.

I wanted another chance.

Someone turned on a light in the hallway. I panicked at first, but nobody else did. It was one of us that had found the switch. Everyone was looking at me. I wasn’t paying attention. I was lost in my own head with my stupid pride.

We made our way to the theater where Max and I had our battle.

The place hadn’t been touched. It looked exactly the same: the little walkways made in the seating area, and the chains hanging from the ceiling.

“Don’t touch the chains,” I warned.

I moved to where Max had fallen. I remembered it quite well. The carpet was heavily stained with his blood. There was no body. There were no bones. There were no remains at all. I sighed heavily. My head was pounding. I probably had a concussion from too many shots to the head.

“Well, that settles it,” Dudley said. “Let’s make our way to the roof now. We’ll figure out how to beat this fucker later. We’ll come back with the rest of the team. We’ll take him out big time. “

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

We left the theater area without a backwards glance. Somehow, Max was still alive. Somehow, he was different. He was bigger. He was stronger. Injuries had no lasting effects on him. I had made a grave mistake bringing everyone here. We were lucky to be alive. Scalp Hunter paid for my error with his life.

I should have planned. I should have known my enemy. I shouldn’t have come when I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

I didn’t want to leave. There was still some fight in me. Another round with the Monster was what I felt like doing. I had so much anger, and I was ready for another fight.

He went after my wife.

Out of all the cowardly things a person could do, I think that one tops the list. Skie was innocent. She wasn’t a fighter. He went after my wife.

I could feel my busted lip pulling away from my teeth in a snarl. What the Hell did I do wrong? A mistake was made somehow. I should have beaten him easily. Too many punches to the head, that’s what messed me up. A little more blocking, a little more dodging, that’s what I needed.

If I could get behind him, I’d be able to choke him out. Maybe even break his neck. Let’s see the bastard walk around with a broken neck. My hands were swollen from punching him. I clenched them into fists anyway.

“Jax,” Dudley asked. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Seems like you drifted off for a minute there,” Dudley continued.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Keep walking.”

I had no idea where we were even going. I was only following the group. I know Nick mentioned something about banging a girl that used to work in the theater. Since he was leading the way, I assumed he knew a way to the roof without having to use the air ducts.

The hallway we had entered seemed a bit unfinished. The walls were white and rather flimsy looking. They weren’t painted, and you could see the different sections of dry wall that had been tacked up. It was a long hallway but the lights were working when Dudley hit the switch. We could see a single wooden door at the far end.

“Obviously they’ve done some remodeling since I’ve been here,” Nick said. “But I bet this hallway still leads to…”

“AAAAWWWWOOOOAAAA!”

We all froze, and looked back and forth at one another. Max had arrived. He was in the theater.

“We need to move,” Snake Charmer said. “That guy will mow through all of us in this enclosed space.”

“Speak for yourself,” Nick grumbled. “I haven’t taken him on yet.”

“He’s just attracted an army of the dead to back him up,” Snake Charmer added. “You like those odds?”

“Not really,” Nick said.

We picked up the pace. From outside the building we could hear the screams of the dead. From the inside of the building we could hear moans, screams, and bodies scraping against the walls.

“I can smell them,” Dudley said. “There’s got to be a bunch.”

I never noticed it before, but the hallway didn’t have the smell of rot. The air was stale but it was clean. That was all changing rapidly. I didn’t even want to think about how many shamblers had entered the building.

When we drove up, we avoided streets that would put us out in the open. We stayed in alleys, kept our lights off, and didn’t see any of the large hordes that populated the Downtown area. That didn’t mean they weren’t there. It only meant we were successful in our sneakiness.

The Monster didn’t bother hiding himself. He had no need to fear the dead. Max had probably been doing his best to attract them since he entered the area. Judging by the current noise level and smell, he had been successful. Hordes of them must have been right around the block from where we entered the parking garage.

We needed to be long gone before they found their way to the roof.

Something seemed off when we reached the lone door.

“Wait,” I said.

Nick pulled his hand away from the knob immediately.

Everyone was looking at me.

“What’s beyond that door?” I asked.

“A concrete stairwell to the roof,” Nick answered.

“I dunno,” I said. “Something feels off.”

“Maybe it’s the beating you took,” Nick said.

“Show some respect,” Dudley snapped.

“Well, look at him,” Nick said. “His face is all fucked up. He took some lumps. He might not be thinking clearly.”

“Disrespect him one more time,” Dudley shouted. “And I’ll leave you here.”

“I’m not disrespecting him,” Nick said. “It’s the truth. Jax is injured.”

Dudley was about to argue.

“It’s fine,” I interrupted. “I am injured. I know I’m having problems focusing. Let’s just go.”

Nick opened the door.

It must have been a pretty solid-ass door. Because, for some reason, we were unable to hear the horde of shamblers rushing up the stairwell right beyond it. Or, perhaps, we were unable to hear them due to the noise level in general. I’m sure I’ve said it about a thousand times, but zombies are freakin’ loud when they’re chasing down their supper.

A zombie immediately attached itself to Nick. In response, Nick stumbled backwards in an attempt to throw it off. He ran straight into me, knocking me off my already unstable feet.

From the ground, I watched as Dudley and Snake Charmer attempted to close the door. It was too late for that, however; shamblers were already trying to push their way into the hallway.

Snake Charmer pulled a grenade from his vest. He lobbed it beyond the door. Dudley fell away as the explosion rocked the building. Snake Charmer was somehow unaffected by the blast. He was attempting to close the door.

I’m not sure if it was an arm or a leg, but something was jammed. Dudley tried to help him clear the jam but they weren’t in synch. The door remained open.

I shot the shambler on top of Nick. Its brains splattered against the white dry wall. Damn, the .45 was overkill when it came to zombies.

“It almost bit me,” Nick screamed. “Damn that was close. I could feel its fucking teeth through my sleeve.”

“Relax,” I said. “We’re almost out of here.”

The dead kept pushing against the door.

Eventually, Dudley, and Snake Charmer, abandoned their efforts. Instead, they backed away, and shot at the rushing horde. In the first moments of action, they were able to drop every single one of them at the doorway, but the horde was relentless. They climbed over the fallen bodies and shoved against each other. They kept pushing through the doorway until a wave of corpses finally flooded into the hallway.

Dudley and Snake Charmer remained calm. They kept up a backwards retreat, and continued firing. I yanked Nick to his feet.

“We need another way out of here,” I shouted.

“I don’t know another way to the roof,” Nick said.

“All right,” I said. “We’ll take the air duct like we did last time. Help Dudley and Snake Charmer. I’ll make sure the way behind us is clear.”

Nick jumped into action. He lined up next to Dudley immediately, and the three of them kept the approaching horde from overtaking us. Since I had only the pistol, and limited ammunition, I covered their backs.

The hallway was filling with smoke but I somehow managed to see the door we were headed towards. I saw it fly right off its hinges as if it had exploded. I also saw the large man standing beyond the doorway.

Max had arrived.

I looked back towards my friends. They were in retreat, and preventing the mass of dead from overtaking us.

“Hold your position,” I shouted. “I’ll clear the way.”

Everyone did as I asked. They stood their ground, and they spent their ammo. I faced Max. Both of us walked down the long hallway towards each other. He had abandoned his shirt. His body was riddled with holes, and all the holes were seeping that thick, gelatinous, blood of his.

I rolled my head on my shoulders in an effort to prepare myself. I had been given a second chance at revenge. I wasn’t about to fail.

My eyes focused on the glowing disk above his heart. It was pulsing out a black light. It would be my target. He had to have a weakness. I should have gone after the disk before.

I unloaded the 1911 on him. Only one of my shots hit the disk. Max began to laugh as the disk shorted out. Then he ripped the damn thing out of his chest.

“If that was a weakness,” Max said, “don’t you think I would have covered it up?”

I rushed him.

At the last second, I dove at his waist in another attempt to take him down. I failed just as I had failed before. He merely sprawled backwards slightly, and elbowed my spine once again.

I dropped to my knees, and came up with a beautiful uppercut. Max absorbed the punch and smiled at me. Then, he picked me straight up by my vest.

I felt helpless.

I never feel helpless.

I struck out with both hands and clapped his ears. He dropped me instantly. I landed on my feet and began to punch him.

I punched him, and punched him, and punched him. I battered his head until he dropped to his knees. I stomped his face. I punched his neck. The skin underneath my gloves began to split around the knuckles due to the amount of strikes I had given him.

I was gasping for air.

I began to scream out my rage as I beat the man to death.

Max began to laugh.

He was playing with me.

I hadn’t left a mark on him.

He easily got to his feet. I backed a step or two out of his way. I wasn’t finished. I wasn’t discouraged. I attacked him again as soon as we locked eyes. He blocked my punches. He absorbed my kicks.

Then he fought back.

His first punch was to the side of my head. The impact wobbled me. His second attack came at my left knee. I felt something pop, and I dropped to the floor.

“I have you now, Guardian,” Max said. “Your team can’t hold back the tide forever. Soon they will be overcome, but not before I break you. Not before I beat you down. Not before I snatch the life out of you.”

With those words, the beating began. I tried my best. I tried to fight back. I tried to hurt him but he rained his fists upon me. He battered my head and body. Each of his punches took years off my life. He hit that hard.

I found myself on the ground, pinned between the unfinished wall, and his flying fists. I was trapped. The punches kept coming. I tried to put my arms over my head in order to protect myself but it was too late. The damage was already done. Also, with both of my arms occupied, I couldn’t get off the floor.

Blood was flowing freely from my shattered nose due to one of the many punches that got past my feeble defense. I could feel it running past my mouth. I saw large drops splatter on the floor as I sank lower and lower. It was hard to see. My eyes were almost swollen shut. My left leg didn’t seem to be functioning below the knee. It was hanging awkwardly to the side.

I needed just a brief moment. I waited. I took the punishment.

Finally, Max stood back to gloat.

“Are you still alive?” Max asked.

I sprang at him using only my right leg to push off with. In my hand was my Ti-Lite. I drove the blade straight towards his heart with one hand. The other hand curled around the back of his head so I could stare into his eyes as I turned the tide of the fight.

My knife sunk less than an inch before it met resistance. I pulled it out and stabbed him again. The blade bent in my hands. It didn’t puncture. There was something under his skin that protected his vital organs.

He swatted me to the floor.

The useless knife fell from my hand. I felt his heavy boot step down on my fingers. I felt the bones snap and pop. I screamed out when he began to grind his heel. Through the pain, I found focus. I reached into my utility belt.

Max seized me by the vest once more, and when he lifted me up I slammed a handful of Georgie’s boom balls into his face. The small explosions destroyed my good hand. I wasn’t missing any fingers but the end result was horrible to look at. My fingers were splayed in a variety of directions, and none of them wanted to work.

Max dropped me, took a step back and rubbed his face. I wanted to move. I wanted to press the attack, but my leg was shot. My hands were shattered, and I could barely see. I tried anyway. I forced myself to roll onto my knees. I put my arm against the wall and tried to lever myself to my feet.

I was about halfway up when Max shattered my hip with a kick. I dropped back to the floor limply. For the first time I noticed the hallway. There were blood smears all over the walls, and none of them were from Max. I had a sudden realization that I wasn’t going to survive.

“I respect you, Guardian,” Max said. “I need you to know that. Never before have I fought a man or monster with more determination than you. Your body has been defeated but your spirit still rages against me.”

“Fuck you,” I gurgled through a mouth full of blood. In my delirium I found the gurgle just a bit funny, and I snorted out a laugh. That was a big mistake. Blood gushed out of my nose, and my eyes instantly swelled shut. The last image I had was of Max’s nose. Georgie’s boom balls had really fucked it up.

I felt myself lifted into the air. I felt myself slammed onto the floor. I felt the movement but I was powerless to do anything. My body was a ragdoll being tossed around by a giant. I tried to lift my head. I didn’t want to quit. I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to fight. I wanted to live just long enough to kill the bastard.

There was a final impact on the back of my head. After that, I don’t remember anything.