Nick is a very large man. I realized just how large the minute he walked into the room. I’ve seen him in photos before, but photos simply do not do his size justice. He makes all the other team members look rather small. According to Dudley, he’s even taller than Kingsley who tops out close to 6’2”. His arms are massive and his legs were just shy of tree trunks. He has black hair and a somewhat boyish face that carries a ready smile.
He offered me his hand immediately. His skin was soft and somewhat clammy.
It’s about time you decided to interview me. You should have talked to me last time.
“I was doing a story about the General and how he came to be.”
Came to be?
“I was doing a story about his origins and how things started in El Paso.”
Yeah, yeah, I knew what you meant. I’ve seen you before ya know? When you went and interviewed Jax the first time. You were looking all nervous. It’s a pretty good look on you. I tried to get him to introduce us, but he never did.
“Uh huh, well I’ve certainly heard about you. Make no mistake about that.”
Really, what have you heard?
“I probably shouldn’t say.”
Go ahead.
“Well, I heard about you from Jaxon.”
Never mind, I don’t wanna hear it.
“He said that you’re a wanton man whore with no quality control. Shall I go on?”
He’s an asshole sometimes.
“He told me that you’d say that. He also told me to start off my interview by mentioning your quality control problems. He thought it might help you focus.”
Well I guess when we are all finished here I’ll have a few things to bring up with him.
“He said you would go there as well. Would you like to hear his response?”
He actually took a moment to think about his options before he decided to ignore my question completely and changed the subject.
So what did you want to ask me?
“I’ve been speaking with Dudley; he took me all the way to the moment he met up with you at Georgie’s house. Do you think you could lead me up to that moment as well?”
Did he tell you how I pegged Georgie in the head with the beer bottle?
“Yes, he did.”
That was pretty fucking funny. I didn’t mean to actually hit the dumbass, but it was still pretty funny.
“So what were you doing in El Paso? I understand that you don’t actually live there.”
I went to visit a friend of mine.
“I’m curious as to why Jaxon didn’t come and rescue you like he rescued Tito from his apartment.”
That would be because I don’t need someone to come and rescue me, and also because none of them even knew I was in town. I was visiting a lady friend.
“Did she make it out?”
No clue, I really don’t know her that well.
“I see.”
No, no, don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I ditched her or anything. She went to work the day things started to go bad. I was in my motel room because she didn’t want her husband or kids to find out about me. Whatever. The point is: I was nowhere near her. If she had been with me when the shamblers came, I would have protected her. Unless she slowed me down, then I would have just pillow snuffed her.
I was completely floored that he actually admitted that, and said it so casually.
He started laughing at the expression on my face.
Gotcha.
“You were making fun of me?”
I was. The reason I did that is because after talking to Jaxon, you have some preconceived notion that I’m this dumb asshole. I could tell by the looks you were giving me, and I don’t think that’s very fair. I may be rough around the edges, and I may have some personality conflicts with certain people, but I’m still a Regulator. I still go out and save people with the rest of the team. Besides that, have you ever even seen Jaxon in polite society? He’s rude. He’s like the rudest person I’ve ever met. I’m at least nice to people when I meet them. All in all, I’m a pretty good guy.
I was a little shocked by all that he said. I was indeed thinking of him as a sort of dumb brute. It was surprising that he seemed rather intelligent.
“You’re right; I wasn’t being very fair to you. Let’s start over please.”
Much better. Now what kind of panties are you wearing and how do I get them off?
Once again, I was completely floored and speechless.
So anyway, I was in my motel room when the fucking zombies came. I was staying at the Camino Real. Jaxon would probably call that pretentious, but I like to stay in nice places. If he wants to slum it, he’s more than welcome.
It’s a pretty tall building. I forget what floor I was on, but I was up there pretty high and I was able to see all the mayhem on the streets below from my window when it finally came my way. It wasn’t a pretty sight. It wasn’t a pretty sight at all. People were attacking and eating other people.
The idea of fighting back didn’t even cross my mind. I was concerned with self-preservation. At that moment, nobody was thinking about fighting back. Everyone was running. They were even trampling each other in their haste to get away.
I was safe in my room when it started, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay there forever. I ran into the hallway towards the vending machine. I used a well-placed kick to break the glass and snagged every single food item it held.
After that, I went to another machine that held bottled water and sodas. It took a few trips from there and back to my room, but I was able to empty it out. There were a few other people hiding out on my floor as well. I shared with the ones I met in the hallway.
After I was back in my room, I pushed a large wooden dresser in front of the door to make sure I was safe.
I guess I ended up staying in that room for a few days. It was pretty lonely. I had no contact with the outside world; then again, that was kind of the point. The outside world had gone to shit. I could see that much from my window, and I had no intention of getting any closer.
My truck was waiting for me in the parking garage if I ever decided to leave, but where would I go? For all I knew the entire world had been overrun by those things. I watch movies, I know about zombies. They multiply pretty fast, and from what I had seen out of my window, El Paso was overrun with them.
The only problem I had was food. After those few days of being locked up in that room, I was almost out of it. I still had plenty of fluids, and the water in the bathroom still ran, but I was going to need a new food source. I didn’t relish the idea of leaving the safety of my room, but I figured that the hotel kitchen would have enough canned goods to last me a pretty long time.
I left my room the day after I ate the last bit of crackers. My stomach was grumbling as I pushed the heavy dresser away from the door.
I opened it just enough to peek out.
I looked from left to right. The hallway was deserted. I wondered what had happened to the people I saw when I raided the vending machines, whether they were still somewhere on my floor perhaps hiding behind a locked door.
I’m a hunter. I own a variety of different types of firearms, from pistols all the way to rifles. I’m also a pretty damn good shot, unlike Georgie. However, I had no weapon. All of them were back at my home in Laredo. I didn’t even keep a pistol in the glove box of my truck.
That was the worst part, knowing that I could defend myself really well, and not having the means to do so. I hate that useless feeling. When you are dealing with zombies, you need a weapon. That’s pretty much all there is to it. I mean, I’ve been in plenty of street fights, I was no stranger to beating people up, but you can’t punch out a zombie. You can’t even hurt those damn things unless you destroy the brain. As hard as I can hit, I can’t hit that hard.
When I left the safety of my room, I was completely defenseless.
I thought about Jax at that moment. He always has a knife on him. I would have loved a knife in my hand. It wouldn’t be much and I wasn’t exactly a knife fighter, but it would have been better than nothing.
I chose the elevator instead of the stairs. I had no idea what the doors would open up on, but I didn’t want to be all tired from taking the stairs.
I figured the kitchen would be located on the first floor somewhere near the bar and restaurant. The elevator still played music as it descended; I remember that much. I also remember just how terrified I was that the door was going to open onto a room full of zombies.
I watched the floors count down on the electric panel.
I was damn near pissing my pants.
Finally, the doors opened. The way was clear. I crouched low, just in case I needed to duck behind something and made my way forward. Fortunately, the lights were all on so I wasn’t lost in the dark. Unfortunately, I could see all the carnage.
The dead had been through here. There were at least eight bodies lying about in the bar area. Those bodies had been devoured so completely that they weren’t able to rise back up. It was nauseating. I felt the bile rise in the back of my throat and swallowed hard to push it back down. Retching would make noise. Noise would attract the attention of the dead.
It took awhile, but I finally found the kitchen. The lights in the room were off, and the smell of spoiled meat hit me like a closed fist. That didn’t bother me too much though. It was much more pleasant than the foul odors of blood and internal organs reeking off the unfortunate corpses I had just passed.
I went to the pantry. Inside were enough canned goods to keep me going for a good while. I had brought pillowcases with me in order to carry supplies. I filled them up as rapidly as I could, making sure to grab a can opener as well. I also found some trash bags. I filled those up as well. I wasn’t going to starve anytime soon.
When I was finished, I had two large trash bags and two pillowcases stuffed with food. It was more than I could comfortable carry, but I didn’t want to come back down here before I needed to. It was a dilemma, but common sense told me to stay away from the ground floor. The dead could easily enter there. It might be clear at the moment, but that might not be the case when I needed to come back.
I was taking all of my loot. It wasn’t far back to the elevator, and I could drag the trash bags with one hand and sling the pillowcases over my shoulder with the other.
I had barely gotten back to the bar when I heard the tin sound of music coming from a set of headphones. If my head was turned in another direction, I probably would have missed it, but my head was exactly where it needed to be to pick up the quiet sounds.
It was so quiet that I wasn’t alarmed. I was, however curious. I scanned the room in the direction of the music but saw nothing. I let go of my bundles and took a closer look. I found the source of the music underneath a booth.
It was a child. He was probably ten years old. I have a son close to that age.
“You have a son?”
Actually, I have 3 children. Two girls and a boy, the boy is the middle child. The oldest is a teenager.
“You’re divorced correct?”
Twice divorced, but I’m still very, very, close to my kids. I was worried about them. I spent hours every day in my room just praying they were okay, that somehow they were someplace safe, and nowhere near this Hell.
“Being cut off and secluded, you didn’t realize that the situation had been contained inside El Paso?”
Nope, for all I knew, the entire planet had gone to shit. As for that boy, I wasn’t going to leave him behind. I was hoping that maybe he had a parent or parents hiding somewhere nearby, and I could reunite them. Maybe he even had a single mom that would be very grateful to have her son back, if you know what I mean.
I was almost beginning to respect his sleazy honesty. It seemed that since I already knew he was a man whore, he offered up no further attempts to be anything but his normal self.
I knelt down under the table and whispered to the terrified kid.
“What’s your name little guy?”
“Jason,” he answered after removing his headphones.
“Are you here all alone?”
“No,” he answered.
“Are you with your Mom?”
“She’s not here.”
“Then who are you here with?”
“My Dad,” he answered.
“Where’s your Dad at now?”
“Behind you,” said Jason as he pointed with a shaky finger.
It was one of the corpses I had passed earlier. Most of its torso had been eaten away. Silly me, I thought that was enough to keep it from coming back. Still, it seemed to be having a hard time standing upright without all the necessary muscles. It was leaning heavily on the bar as it made its way over to us.
I had never seen one of those things up close and personal before. I was lucky enough to be safe inside my room and looking out at them through the window. Now, the thing was a mere five feet away from me. I couldn’t help but take in all the gory details and wonder how it could keep moving.
It was a young guy. I could tell that easily enough, because his face was completely intact. He must have died not very long ago. There was no sign of decay on his face at all; it wasn’t a normal-looking face though, make no mistake about that. It was filled with hatred and all twisted up in blind rage.
The chest and arms were also intact, but his button up shirt was savagely ripped away from his stomach area. I say ‘stomach area’ because his stomach seemed to be missing, along with whatever other vital organs were normally in there. His legs seemed unmolested, but ropes of torn intestines hung from his stomach cavity down to his kneecaps, and smeared gore all over his khaki pants.
Without warning, he screamed at me.
It was the first time I had heard a scream up close. It sent a surge of adrenaline straight into my body. I reacted immediately and jumped straight to my feet while swinging my fist straight into the side of the zombie’s head.
He went limp as soon as I connected. His body slammed into the bar behind him and then crashed to the floor amid a smattering of barstools.
He was back on his feet almost instantly.
I picked up one of the barstools and swung it at his head. I hit him square, but unfortunately it was the cushioned part that connected. When he dropped, I brought the barstool down on his head once again.
He tried to rise as soon as I stepped back.
I brought the barstool down on his head again, and again. The barstool broke apart after about three more hits, so I picked up two legs from the pieces and hit him over and over again. I hit him until my arms felt like lead, and his brain was a smashed puddle on the floor.
I was about to throw the gory wooden legs of the barstool away from me in disgust, when I heard another scream coming from down a hallway to my right side. I reacted without thinking and grabbed the kid. I ran back to the kitchen. It was about the worst place I could have chosen. It was a dead end, but like I said, I wasn’t thinking.
I gave the kid a shushing gesture and wondered if the new monster would leave if we stayed quiet. I guess I was hoping it would get bored if it didn’t spot us immediately and leave the area without trying to find us.
It searched the room, found the gory remains of the kid’s father and made a beeline for the kitchen.
How this one knew where we were hiding, I had no idea at the time. Obviously now I know that they have a great sense of smell when it comes to humans, but at the time I didn’t have a clue.
I was able to get a good look at the creature’s face as it peered at me through the circular window of the kitchen door. This one had its lips torn away from his mouth. It was missing one eye, and it looked as if some of the skin on its forehead had been peeled away.
The kitchen door was one of those doors that swing forward and backward. I braced my body against it as the zombie slammed himself forward in an effort to get inside the kitchen. I’m a strong guy. I’m a very strong guy, but I was having a Hell of a shoving match with this thing and I only had a flimsy wooden door to separate us.
I scanned the room behind me and noticed that a stainless steel oven wasn’t very far away. I told the kid to open the oven, and move off to the side of the room. When he did as I had asked, I moved away from the swinging door just as the zombie gave a final charge of fury.
The walking corpse flew into the room and cracked his shins on the open oven door. The impact didn’t seem to faze him, but it did trip him up, and he sprawled over the door. I quickly ran behind him, grabbed him by both legs and pulled him backwards until only his head remained over the open door.
I slammed the oven door shut on his head and neck. He squirmed and fought for freedom, but I had all the leverage and I used all of my remaining strength to push that door against his head and neck. I’m not sure what gave out first, but I heard the crunch and saw his body go limp.
I was beat. I slid to the ground right beside the zombies still form. I knew I should grab the kid and get the hell out of the area, but I was exhausted. I just wanted to sit there and get my breathing back under control. I wanted to shake the lead out of my limbs. My legs felt as though I had just run a marathon.
I didn’t get my wish.
I heard the pounding in the distance. It didn’t sound very far away. I grabbed the kid by the arm and pulled him along behind me. I stopped in the bar just long enough to grab the two trash bags of food, but I left the pillowcases behind.
I couldn’t lead the kid anymore; my hands were full. My left hand gripped the ends of the two trash bags, and my right hand carried one of the bar stool legs. I passed the second bar stool leg over to Jason and told him to keep right behind me.
I still heard the pounding. It was coming from outside. It was louder now and more frantic. I was pretty sure it was coming from an area of large windows. At least, it sounded like a bunch of fists pounding on glass. I had seen that area before, I just couldn’t remember when. Still, it was in the back of my mind somewhere. I think I must have seen it when I arrived at the hotel.
I had a vague recollection of where those windows were, and avoided them by taking a longer route back to the elevators. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going, but I figured that it was best to stay away from any windows.
Eventually, we passed some offices and I felt Jason tug at my shirt.
“My Mom’s in there,” he said.
Acidic fear dripped into my stomach.
“Is your Mom still alive?”
“She was trying to find a phone or a computer,” he answered with a confused look on his face.
I realized that Jason probably didn’t understand that it was his father’s corpse that attacked us. In his eyes, if his father was walking around, and making noise, he must have been alive. There was also the possibility that his parents kept the truth about what was happening out there from him in order to keep him from panicking. The poor kid was shaking violently. It was a miracle that he hadn’t run away from me screaming after he saw me beat on his father. Still, he didn’t look very well, and I briefly wondered if he was going into shock.
“Is your Mom angry like your Dad?”
“No, she was really scared.”
That sounded much better, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I had my bar stool leg held high and ready. I went into the small waiting room of the main office. The stench rose up like a fist once again and punched my face. It was awful. I found myself fighting to control my gag reflex.
When I calmed down somewhat, I dropped my trash bags and motioned for Jason to hide behind a desk. I didn’t want anything eating him while I checked out the closed door just beyond the waiting room.
I tightened my grip on my weapon as I tested the doorknob. It turned easily and quietly. The smell was worse beyond the door. It was creeping out from under the space between the door and the floor.
The floor.
I don’t know why I missed it when I walked into the room, but there was a nasty slime trail as if something oozing came into this office and then closed the door behind it.
Ah fuck it, I thought.
I threw the door open in a rush and prepared to nail whatever lurked inside. I saw nothing, but that wasn’t very shocking. The room was pitch black. I heard a scratching noise.
The growl came at once. It was low in volume, but that somehow made it even creepier. I felt the chills crawling up my spine as I fumbled for a light switch.
Click.
The room was instantly bathed in fluorescent lighting. Beyond the main desk was a closet. The door had been closed on the sleeve of a pitiful looking zombie. The beast was once a woman, but she was now missing the lower half of her body. She even lacked the hanging entrails of Jason’s father.
She also happened to be missing her left arm and lower jaw. Her face was hideous. It was in an advanced stage of decay. The nose was missing, the ears were barely nubs; still, the look in her eyes was unmistakable. It was rage.
It was her trapped arm making the scratching noise on the door as her fingers clenched and released only to clench again in frustration.
I brought the bar stool leg down on top of her head in a muffled crunch.
After making sure the disgusting corpse wasn’t getting up, I knocked on the door.
There was no answer.
I knocked on the door once again.
“If you are alive in there, you better let me know!” I yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m coming in swinging if you don’t answer.”
“I’m alive,” she said from behind the door.
She sounded like she might be sort of sexy.
I opened the door, and pushed the corpse out of the way. Luck wasn’t on my side; she was just sort of average looking.
“At a time like that, you were concerned about her looks?”
So?
“What about her well being?”
I saved her didn’t I?
“I guess you did.”
Whatever. You’re judgmental. It’s not like I looked at her and left her ass there. I even offered her my hand and helped her to her feet.
Together, we walked back into the waiting room. Jason took one look at his Mom and ran into her arms. I let them have their moment as I gathered up the second bar stool leg that Jason had just dropped.
I told Jason’s Mother, her name was Katie, to pick up the trash bags and I led the way to the elevators. It was a struggle for her to carry the weight, but Jason helped her and I needed to have my hands on my makeshift weapons in case we met any other hostiles.
We were near the elevators when the glass finally shattered from the continued onslaught. I heard the sound very clearly. I fought off the temptation to run away in a blind panic. I couldn’t leave Katie and Jason behind. I needed them to carry the food so we wouldn’t starve once we reached the safety of my room.
I can’t tell you how freaked out I was when we reached the elevator and the doors did not immediately open after I pushed the button. There must have still been more people in the hotel and one of those dumbasses had used my elevator.
I could now hear the sounds of running feet, combined with growls and snarls. We were going to have company very soon, and it sounded like there were a bunch of them.
Just a moment later, I heard that stupid scream they make. I roughly shoved Jason and Katie behind, me and prepared to fight the two zombies that just rounded the corner of the elevators hallway.
Then, two became ten, and ten became thirty.
I lost count after that because none of them stood still. They just saw us and charged. I knew I was going to die; I just wished I could smack the motherfucker that stole my elevator in the head before I went down.
I wasn’t going to go without a fight, however. To Hell with that. I was preparing to charge them right back when the doors suddenly opened behind me. I felt Katie’s hand on the collar of my shirt. She was pulling me backwards into the elevator when the first two zombies reached the door.
I started swinging like a madman. I was screaming as loud as they were. In no time at all, the rest of the large group had joined them. I was swinging and swinging in an effort to keep them out of the elevator, but it wasn’t easy. My arms were getting tired fast, and I was only slowing them down.
“Close the fucking doors!” I screamed. “Close the fucking doors!”
I was pounding away when Jason hit the button and the doors began to close. I was still pounding when the doors came to a sudden stop on one head and a bunch of reaching arms. I battered at them as well. I battered, and pounded, until the head and arms were forced away and my blows began to fall on just the metal doors of the elevator.
I had cleared the way. I had survived. I crumpled to the floor. I couldn’t get my breathing under control. I began to scream. That’s all I really remember, just laying there on the floor of the elevator, and screaming my head off.
I came back to myself hours later in the bed of my hotel room. I didn’t remember telling them what floor and what room, but I was finally safe in my room once again and I had even managed to save my new friends.
“Were things different with Katie and Jason with you?”
It wasn’t just Katie and Jason. Somewhere along the lines, we picked up some more people. I was introduced to a chubby guy named Ruben, who was a janitor for the hotel. A teenage girl named Martha who watched her entire family be devoured, and Charlie, a businessman who happened to be staying in the hotel when things went down just like I had been.
They were all pretty impressed by my performance. Jason couldn’t stop talking about how I fought off all the zombies. I could tell he was terrified. It was probably just his way of dealing with things.
“What do you mean?”
Well, he was acting like I was some sort of hero. I think that maybe in very bad times it helps to have a hero. I didn’t feel like much of a hero, in fact I felt pretty scared. I just wasn’t going to let anyone know that.
Ruben was smart enough to freeze the elevator on our floor, so it couldn’t move. He was also smart enough to seal the stairway. Somehow, Martha, Ruben, and Charlie, had been together since the dead came back. I kind of tuned out when they were sharing their stories with Katie. They had holed up a few floors below us, but when they saw the elevator move on our return trip they decided to go investigate the floor it landed on.
They used the stairway to reach us, and it was a good thing they did it when they did. A few moments after Martha, Ruben and Charlie reached our floor; the zombies found the door to the stairs on the ground floor. They flooded into the stairwell within moments.
From the noise levels echoing through the walls, ceilings and floors the only safe place in the entire hotel was probably the floor we were currently occupying.
We were trapped.
Fortunately, they had more food with them. Even better, we now had some weapons. Ruben had a Smith and Wesson .38 Special and Charlie had a baseball bat, and a big fireman’s axe. I chose the axe. I wasn’t a fan of the large red handle, but the black coating over the metal blade looked pretty cool.
I would rather have taken the .38, but no amount of bribing could make Ruben part with it.
“How long did the six of you stay there?”
It was kind of hard to keep track of time, but it was a few weeks at least, maybe more. The only reason we left is because we ran low on food.
“Did anyone know about the EPUA website?”
Martha had heard about it. She probably got her information from the TV, before the stations went off the air. All of us were curious about it. None of us knew what was happening outside the floor of our hotel. We could see things from the windows, of course, but they weren’t pretty things.
“What did you see?”
We saw an army of zombies. We saw blood on the streets, and rotting corpses. I once spent most of a day watching a zombie with two broken legs crawl down the sidewalk.
It was depressing. We were basically just waiting to die. Eventually, the time came when we were so low on food that it became necessary to replenish our supplies. Someone would need to leave the safety of our sealed off floor.
I volunteered.
I knew where the kitchen was, and I knew where I had left the pillowcases full of canned food. Ruben agreed to come with me, just in case I got turned around. He also knew where the hotel manager kept a laptop. We were all anxious to find out what was going on in the world.
I watched Ruben engage the elevator, and down we went.
The trip was over way too quickly. I wasn’t at all anxious to run for my life again while fighting off what was now, more than likely, hundreds of zombies.
The situation was terrible. I wasn’t convinced that starvation was worse than being eaten.
When the doors opened on the ground floor, my heart was threatening to burst out of my chest. Fortunately, the hall was deserted.
I followed Ruben as he led me down the quickest path to the pillowcases full of food. I jokingly whispered to him that he didn’t even need me and for all the good I was doing, I might as well just wait for him in the elevator. He laughed at that and squeezed my arm.
“You’re the hero here, my friend,” he said. “I may know the way to the food, but I may also need your muscles to get us there.”
I didn’t like the idea of everyone seeing me as the tough guy. Like I said before, I wasn’t feeling very tough. I gripped the handle of my axe very tightly. I was determined not to let him down, no matter how I was truly feeling.
I used the axe four times in order for us to get to the food. In all four times, we were lucky and had the element of surprise. Therefore, there were no screams . We didn’t want them to scream: screams led to more zombies. Too many zombies, and Ruben and I were going to die.
After the food was gathered up, we headed to the manager’s office. Ruben pulled the laptop out of the desk drawer along with a power cable. All of it and some of the manager’s personal items were safely secured in a nylon case complete with a shoulder strap. I carried the laptop along with most of the food.
“Did you gather more food along with the pillowcases full of cans?”
Yeah, we were pretty set. We gathered up enough to last us about a month, and maybe more, if we rationed them properly. After those ran out, we were out of luck. At that point, the kitchen was empty.
The attack came when we reached the elevator.
Ruben and I were busy marveling about how easy things had been. We were amazed at how much food we had gathered. We were just happy to have succeeded.
The corpse came at us as soon as Ruben stepped into the elevator behind me. He was joking around and pretending that he was having problems dragging the large trash bag he was carrying through the door.
The zombie was moving so fast he collided with the one side of the elevator doors before he fell on top of Ruben and tore into his stomach.
Ruben screamed. I will never forget the sound of that scream. I will never forget the way he reached out for me as if I could help him. Once the bite punctures the flesh, it’s all over.
There was blood all over the floor by the time I managed to pull the zombie off of him. I threw the corpse against the wall opposite the elevator. It was a young man, probably in his early twenties. There wasn’t a mark on him except for the bite on his hand.
He screamed and charged at me. I swung my axe and took him off his feet. I stomped on his neck in order to retrieve my weapon. I enjoyed the crunching sound the weapon made as I pulled it free.
Three more zombies responded to the call. They were rushing down the hallway as I stepped back inside the elevator and closed the doors.
Ruben died on the ride back to our floor. Later that night, he came back, and I killed him again.
Up until that moment, they had all been faceless and unknown to me. It’s a different feeling when you know them. It’s not a good feeling. I liked Ruben. I liked him a lot.
Nobody ever asked what happened. Nobody said a single word the rest of that day. I threw my clothes away; they were covered in Ruben’s blood.
It took another week or so before we even remembered the laptop.
“Is that when you first heard about the General?”
Yes, but we didn’t pay much attention to the rumors at first. We were more concerned with how the rest of the world was dealing with things. Imagine our surprise when we realized it was only in El Paso. On one hand, it was great news. If we ever got out of here, we would be safe. On the other hand, we had the misfortune to be stuck at ground zero when the “undead bomb” went off.
The people on the website were really nice. They patiently answered all our questions, and were genuinely happy that we were alive. Some of those people were trapped just like we were. Some were undiscovered and had nowhere to run to.
“Don’t worry,” they wrote. “The General is real.”
“He’s going to save everyone.”
“He’s ten feet tall.”
“The zombies are afraid of him.”
“I’ve seen him; he drove by my house.”
“I know his real name, but I’m not telling.
“He’s just a legend. He isn’t real.”
So many random thoughts kept scrolling along the page. At first, I ignored them. I was only interested in having my many questions answered, but the people just kept writing about him. They never stopped.
Day in, and day out, they never stopped.
I began to wonder if such a man truly existed. I wondered how he found the courage to stand up to these things and fight back. I mean: I’m not a weak man, by any means. I couldn’t even tell you how many fistfights I’ve been in during my life. I don’t scare easily, but these things...these things...they’re monsters.
I read about his Safe Zone. I knew the location. Georgie’s house was right in the middle. I wrote to Georgie, but with so many messages scrolling by, it was no surprise that he never responded.
“When did you first realize that the General was Jaxon?”
When he and Dudley went and rescued that punk-ass Tito. There was no lead up or warning—none of that shit. He was suddenly there, on the EPUA website, asking Georgie how to blow up a stove or some shit. I recognized Georgie’s screen name. He hadn’t bothered to change it since college.
It took a bit, but I made the connection. The General was rescuing Tito and blowing up a building in the process. Georgie’s house was located inside the Safe Zone. Jaxon had to be the General. Who else knew both Tito and Georgie and also had enough balls to do the kind of shit that he was attempting.
“So your old college pal was the General. What were you thinking?”
It was unbelievable. I mean, back in the day, Jax was more interested in getting laid than being any kind of leader. I realize that other people who met him later have different opinions, but many, many girls will tell you the same thing. Back then; he was only interested in having a good time.
“Why do you think other people feel so differently?”
Probably because he’s so damn famous. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Undoubtedly, he’s highly intelligent. He outsmarted just about everybody. He just tends to use his intelligence to play practical jokes and to harass his friends.
“So you saw him mainly as a pretty smart guy that liked to have fun and joke around?”
Yeah, but those were really my initial thoughts. I could also see him as a fighter. That was another thing he got involved in on a somewhat regular basis. It wasn’t in his personality to back down from a fight.
He was also fiercely loyal to his friends. Their problems were his problems. He wasn’t the type of guy to let his buddies down.
I started remembering these things, and everything slowly started to click together. The guy I knew in college, my fraternity brother if you must know, had all these gifts and personality traits even back then. They were the same traits that would one day assist him in his role as a hero. Of course he wasn’t making any beneficial use of his gifts and personality traits back in those days, but they were there. They were just waiting for him to grow up and become a leader. It’s those aspects of his personality that make him so effective.
Still, I was floored.
I had to laugh at that. I heard a roughly a similar story from Ivana. It’s nothing new, but it is entertaining to hear people tell me what Jaxon was like before he became the General.
“After all that you just told me, why were you still floored?”
I guess it’s just weird to think that you know the guy everybody was talking about. Hell I knew all of the Regulators. Jaxon, Georgie, Tito and I all went to the same college. I knew Dudley since he was a kid and I met Javie and Kingsley through Jaxon before I moved away. Jaxon and I kept up with each other after I moved as well. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen him in a long time. If I came into town, we would hang out, and he was always talking smack to me over the internet. We even went to his parent’s cabin in Ruidoso one weekend so I could take my son skiing. My son and Jaxon got along famously by the way. It’s funny, because Jaxon normally doesn’t relate very well to kids.
I guess it was when he blew up Tito’s apartment complex that things really sunk in for me. I just remember going to the nearest window that faced the West side. Everyone in my group followed me. I guess we all wanted to see what would happen. They were all pretty excited when I told them I knew the General and that he was about to do something crazy.
All of us crowded by the window. I told them where to look and we waited. I never told them what was going to happen, I just told them to watch.
BOOM!
We could see the mushroom cloud rise up into the sky. It was a beautiful sight. All of us started dancing around. That explosion meant something to us. It meant that the General was real. It meant that all of us could once again dare to hope. To hope for a rescue, to hope for a way out, you name it, we could once again dream it.
It meant that we were no longer just waiting to die, because, and this is important, there’s one other thing I forgot to tell you about Jaxon. He’s a stubborn guy. He’s so stubborn—he just doesn’t know when to quit. I knew he wasn’t going to stop fighting. That explosion was a declaration of war, and Jaxon was going to win.
Once again, Nick had managed to shock me. His eyes began to well up, and his voice began to crack as he told me this last bit of information about his friend. I didn’t think he was the type of man to get emotional, but I have long since realized that Jaxon’s deeds can often have emotional impact for even the hardest of people.
I gave him a few moments to get himself together. I could tell he was embarrassed, but he wasn’t the first to become emotional when discussing those days.
So where were we?
“You were talking about the Jaxon that you knew in college and how . . .”
Yeah, whatever, I wasn’t crying: so don’t think that. I was never able to get through to him or that idiot Georgie. There were too many people asking for help. I got lost in the shuffle. I tried pretty hard, but in the end, no luck.
We followed EPUA almost religiously as the days went by. Everyone was excited when Jaxon came Downtown. They thought he had come to rescue everyone.
“Everyone?”
Oh yeah, we were far from being the only group of people who were trapped. We used to communicate with different buildings by blinking our lights. It was nice to know that there were others.
It also gave me a fair amount of hope. There was a decent chance that one of those other buildings held some good-looking women.
I didn’t, however, harbor any hope of being rescued by Jaxon. One look out my window and I knew those odds would prove insurmountable for him. There were just too many zombies on the streets, and they were always on the move. One day we would only see about twenty, but on the next day, there would be hundreds down there.
Jaxon himself wouldn’t be able to clear out that area. There was no way. He was coming for a look. He wanted to see how many zombies were in the area. He would probably be driving his Jeep. Jax only drives two types of vehicles, by the way, and those are Harleys, and Jeeps. Regardless, neither one of them were big enough for any kind of rescue mission.
There were gunshots when he was in the area. We knew it was him even before we saw the square taillights of his Jeep. We also saw the enormous legion of zombies he led out of the area. At the time, I literally thought he was crazy. I mean, what was he trying to accomplish? Leading zombies around like that was crazy.
“He was trying to reduce the numbers of undead, so the people trapped in the area would have a better chance.”
You’re right, and he certainly gave me a better chance. The minute I saw that mob moving away from the area I was in action. I was gathering up the little bit of food we still had left, which wasn’t very much mind you. A pretty decent amount of time had passed between when Ruben and I had gathered up the food till the time Jax led the zombies out of the area.
I quickly informed everyone of my plan as I packed. They thought I was crazy. Charlie wanted to wait for help. I told him that help had just arrived and we were going to take advantage of it.
With much respect, I grabbed Ruben’s .38 special. I loaded the gun rapidly, and pocketed the extra box of ammo we had found in his few belongings.
I pretty much shoved everyone into the elevator. I wanted to be moving. I didn’t want to give them any time to think about what we were going to do and begin to panic. We took the elevator all the way down to the parking garage.
They were on us as soon as the elevator doors opened.
There were probably about twenty or so of them just wandering around down there. They screamed at us and charged. I chopped and chopped with my axe. Charlie swung his bat; even Martha and Katie did their part with my old bar stool legs. We kept Jason safe. That was the important thing. Not one of those suckers could get near him.
I dragged him behind me the entire way. That was the basic idea behind my plan. We would never stop. No matter how many of them came at us, we were never going to stop. We would just keep pushing forward until we reached our destination.
The screams brought more of them. I could hear them in the distance: the screams, the moans, and the sounds of running feet slapping against the concrete. If too many of them reached us, we weren’t going to make it.
Martha was the first person we lost. I can’t really tell you how it happened. There were just too many of them. All it took was one to grab a hold, and drag her down. She screamed for help, Charlie tried; he really tried. By the time he fought his way to her, she had stopped screaming.
So we ran.
I swung my axe at anything stupid enough to get in my way. I can’t tell you the elation I felt when I saw my truck. My key ring was wrapped around one of my fingers. I was ready to go. Thank God, the battery wasn’t dead when I remotely unlocked the doors.
I remember Jason and Katie diving in the cab as Charlie and I held off our pursuers. I remember trying to shove Charlie in as well and the look he gave me as the last of the zombies fell to the ground.
Time froze still for just a brief moment. Charlie should have been happy. We were almost home free. Instead, he looked miserable. His eyes left my face and moved down towards his hand. I followed his gaze and saw the bite mark. I don’t know when he was bitten; I didn’t see it happen.
At that moment, another wave of zombies entered the parking garage. There must have been hundreds of them. Charlie looked over at all of them as they rushed towards us. Then he looked back towards me with the saddest look on his face.
“We almost made it, didn’t we?” he asked.
I knew what he was thinking, and I knew what he was going to do.
I punched him right in the gut and threw him into the cab of my truck.
“Day ain’t over,” I said.
Now Jaxon may prefer his Jeep, but I’m a big fan of Chevy trucks with big ol’ V-8 engines. I can’t say that I plowed through the zombies because that would have damaged the vehicle. I can’t say that I crawled over them either. I’m not sure how to describe my pace. All I can tell you is that I went fast enough to not get trapped by them, and slow enough that I didn’t damage the vehicle and trap us all.
In just a short time, we were free and headed to the Safe Zone.
We were reaching Sunland Park Dr. when Charlie started getting sick. His bite was worse than I thought. The garage was pretty dark, but as the sun rose in the sky I could see just how bad the damage was. Two of his fingers were barely hanging on. He was in a lot of pain, and the wound was already infected. Actually, that was an understatement: the wound had just about the worst infection I’ve ever seen in my life.
I pulled off on Sunland and drove up to an old house I used to rent with my first wife. It didn’t have a lot of windows, and the few it had were small. The place would be pretty secure.
I backed into the driveway, hopped out of the truck, jumped the fence and broke down the back door. I then ran into the garage and opened the automatic garage door by pushing the button on the side of the wall.
After the truck was safely hidden inside the garage, we carried Charlie into one of the bedrooms. Katie did her best to clean the wound, while I ransacked the house looking for painkillers. Luck wasn’t with me. Poor Charlie would have to suffer.
Katie wanted to check the EPUA website, when we remembered that Martha had been carrying the laptop. It was gone, and I wasn’t going to go back for it.
We spent the rest of that day keeping Charlie quiet. He was turning; it was just taking a long time. I couldn’t stand seeing him in so much pain. It was horrible. The thought of making it to the Safe Zone was still there, but to even consider moving Charlie was unthinkable.
By the second day, his breathing had become labored. He wasn’t able to take in any fluids and he was in so much pain he could barely talk.
“You need to leave me,” he said when I went to check on him.
“I can’t leave you like this Charlie.”
“I don’t want you to,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m not going to get any better. I don’t want to turn into one of those things. It hurts, Nick. It hurts a lot. Be a pal.”
I knew immediately what he wanted. For a moment, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. Then I realized I was being selfish. I was only thinking about myself. My friend was suffering, and he needed me.
I pulled the .38 out of my waistband and covered it with a pillow. The gunshot was muffled, but it was loud enough to bring Katie running into the room.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I couldn’t let him suffer anymore,” I answered.
Then I began to sob.
Like I said before, I’d been in plenty of brawls in my time, but I had never before given anyone a serious injury. I was having some trouble coping with what I had just done. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know. All I know is that Charlie was suffering terribly, and I did what he asked me.
It took another day before I was able to function again.
“You missed everyone leaving the Safe Zone didn’t you?”
Yeah, the bastards left without me. We had no way of knowing they were going to storm the gates and demand their freedom. I figured we had all the time in the world. It was my fault. I just needed time to recover.
The fences were closed up tight when we arrived. There were no zombies in sight. However, there were no living people in sight either. I had no idea what was going on. I got the fences opened; I pulled my truck inside the Safe Zone and parked it on the side of the street. There was plenty of food left behind, not just in Georgie’s house, but in others as well.
I started using Georgie’s computer. We found out that everyone had left the area not long before we arrived at the gates. We had no other choice but to sit and wait for help. As soon as it was announced that the Regulators were coming back into El Paso in order to rescue all the survivors, I started announcing our location.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was more than a little pissed off. Talk about bum-fucking luck. To go all that way and find the stupid place deserted. To add insult to injury, I’m announcing our location over and over and still getting lost in the shuffle of all the other survivors who were also announcing their locations over and over.
By the time someone responded to me, the first thing I told them is that I was a friend of the General.
“And then help arrived?”
About two hours later, and it wasn’t Jaxon. It was his little followers. After I outmaneuvered them, and when they were through pissing their pants, I brought out Katie and Jason. I had kept them hidden upstairs in Georgie’s bedroom just in case something went wrong. Not that I thought anything would go wrong; I just wasn’t going to take any chances with their lives after everything that happened.
Once again I asked the question.
“So where’s Jaxon?”
“We kind of lost him,” Dudley said.
“You did what?”
“We lost him. I’m sure he’s fine, but we’re waiting to make contact with him.”
“No wonder you assholes ignored me the first time I asked,” I responded.
By the time everything was explained to me, the sun was coming up, and it was too late to make an extraction. We decided to wait out the day in Georgie’s house and head for the extraction point come sundown.
Georgie made a pretty decent fuss about not getting to sleep in his own bedroom, but when I threatened to toss another bottle his way, he grumbled off into his daughter’s room.
“Were you relieved when they showed up?”
Yes, and no. I mean: I was relieved that Katie and Jason were going to get out of that hellhole, but at the same time I was kinda worried about Jaxon, and I could tell that the others were worried as well.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to leave the situation in the hands of those guys. Dudley is a pretty cool guy, but the others aren’t exactly considered tough guys under normal circumstances if you know what I mean.
I wasn’t able to sleep. Part of me wanted on the next train out of there, but the other part was telling me to stay and help Jaxon. I wasn’t exactly a huge believer in him being all “special” at the time. I figured the guy just had a mean set of brass balls. I was a little surprised when Georgie put his face under the faucet and the bruise I gave him kinda melted away, but it still wasn’t enough to convince me these guys were going to have the kind of stones needed to find Jaxon.
An hour after sunset, all my worries were alleviated. Jaxon found us, kind of.
We were inside the garage getting ready to hop into the Jeep. I was arguing with Georgie because I wanted to drive. Georgie said I wasn’t part of the team. I told him to stick his team up his ass. Dudley told me to get in the back. I told him to get in the back. For a moment, it looked like he was going to shoot me, and then the call came in.
“Jaxon, is that you?” Dudley said into his earpiece. “What’s happening...we’re in the Safe Zone...yeah, we’ll be in the watchtowers.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“All right everybody, listen up,” said Dudley. “Jaxon is on his way to us. He’s in some kind of trouble. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he was shooting. So, we’re arming up and setting up on the two watchtowers on either side of the gate. Once we see him drive up, we are to open fire on whatever is chasing him.”
“What’s chasing him?” Kingsley asked.
“I don’t know; there was a lot of background noise, but something’s after him. Now let’s move, because he gonna be here any minute.”
I sent Katie and Jason back inside Georgie’s house. I wanted them safe and out of danger. Then, I grabbed the assault rifle in the back of Jeep.
“How do you work this thing?” I asked Georgie.
“You should get inside the house,” Georgie answered. “This is Regulator business.”
“How bout I just aim it at your balls and pull the trigger till it fires?”
“Dudley!” he screamed like a little bitch.
Dudley eyeballed the situation.
“Fuck it,” he said. “Show him how to use it and give him some ammo.”
The gun was a pretty simple weapon to use. I just wished I had taken a few moments to look it over myself before asking Georgie. I was going to help my buddy Jax no matter what any of them said and I really didn’t want to give them an opportunity to think otherwise.
It was pretty cold up in the watchtower. The slight bit of wind had just enough bite to make me miserable without forcing me to go back to the house. The others seemed comfortable enough with their olive drab colored suits and gloves, but all I was wearing were a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt.
I was in the same tower as Dudley. Georgie, Javie and Kingsley had a tower to themselves. I was glad Georgie wasn’t here with me; I might have been tempted to throw him off.
We sat for a while and watched the empty street with our weapons held at the ready. I was a little nervous being on top of the tower. It didn’t exactly seem very sturdy. I had time to think thoughts like this because the wait was a long one.
“How far away was he?” I asked.
“Be quiet,” Dudley responded.
“Just answer the fucking question,” I replied.
“I don’t know, now shut up.”
Since he was being an ass, I stopped trying to talk to him and focused my attention on the street. There were a couple of street lights, so visibility wasn’t going to be a problem, but sitting there and waiting was completely nerve racking. I felt like one of those little villagers waiting for King Kong to show up after they tied that chick up as a sacrifice. You know what I’m talking about?
“I do.”
Then we heard the engine. It was loud, so that meant that Jaxon was hauling ass. Just a moment later, we saw the headlights and then the Jeep was turning up the road and heading right towards us. I couldn’t see beyond the glare of the headlights. I began to panic and started shouting at him to turn off his lights.
Dudley smacked me on the arm.
“Shut up,” he growled.
The Jeep wasn’t slowing down. I began to worry that it was going to collide with the gate. If that happened and the gate fell, the two watchtowers would probably go with it.
“Dude, tell him to slow the fuck down.” I told Dudley.
“Nick,” he growled without taking his eyes off the road. “You’re going to be in a fight very soon. If you can’t stop acting mental, then just duck down out of sight, and I will let you know when it’s over.”
With just enough room, Jaxon hit the brakes, squealed his tires in a wicked slide that put the passenger door almost at our gate, and faced the driver’s side door down the open street. The Jeep had been beaten all to hell. I immediately thought that he must have driven it through a big bunch of zombies, and I started wondering how many were going to show up hot on his trail.
Jaxon stepped out of the vehicle with his pistol aimed down the road. I could have recognized him even without the heads up from Dudley. There’s just no mistaking those big ass shoulders of his or the scruff on his chin. He was wearing the same olive drab fatigues that the other guys were wearing, but his were a Hell of a lot filthier and his left sleeve was completely torn off. Accompanying all of this was the black Harley Davidson cap over his light brown hair that, as always, was turned backwards so that the bill was over his neck. He was tense. I could tell that from his posture. He was rapidly moving the gun from left to right as he desperately searched for something to shoot.
I looked from Dudley to the morons in the other tower. They were all watching Jax and looking pretty confused. I decided to watch the street instead of Jax. I was hoping to find a target before anyone else, that way I could give them Hell later.
The nighttime air was deathly quiet. The only sound around for miles was that of the crunching gravel under Jaxon’s shoes. It was a weird silence. It didn’t feel right. I’m not really sure how describe it.
A young woman in a white dress climbed onto the rooftop about six houses down. I knew she wasn’t a zombie just by looking at her. She just didn’t move like a zombie. It was obvious that she also didn’t want Jax to see her by the stealthy way in which she hid herself in the shadows of a chimney. I wasn’t sure why she was being so sneaky, but her white dress was filthy and her hair was shaggy enough to confuse a person. I was worried that Jaxon might take a shot at her if she came out of her hiding place.
I was about to warn everybody not to shoot at her when I realized that she was looking right at me. I’m not sure how she managed to find me, the streets weren’t bright enough to provide that kind of visibility, but I was positive she was looking right at me.
Then, she placed her finger to her lips and gave me the ‘shush’ gesture as if I were about to ruin a big surprise.
“JAXON,” I shouted. “DON’T SHOOT THAT CHICK ON THE ROOF!”
Jax turned at the sound of my voice.
Everything began to happen all at once.
The woman in the white dress ran freakishly fast towards the edge of the roof. Jaxon spotted her immediately, and began firing off shots. When the chick reached the edge, she leapt out into the darkened sky. I was worried she was going to kill herself when she landed, but instead, she sailed through the air this incredible distance, and landed lightly on her bare feet.
Jaxon kept shooting at her. I could see the little flashes of light from the barrel of his gun and I could hear the muffled thumps even with the silencer. She hit the ground running and rapidly began to close the mere twenty feet that separated her from Jaxon.
She ran in a zigzagging manner, as if she were trying to avoid all the bullets Jaxon’s pistol was spitting out in her direction. When she reached him, she swung out her fist and knocked him from his feet and into the side of the Jeep so hard, the Jeep damn near shifted about a foot from where it was parked.
That was enough for Dudley; he drilled her right in the chest with five rapid-fire shots. I actually saw the bullets make little puckers in the skin around her collarbone, and I saw the black ooze of what must have been blood mingle with the other stains of her dress.
She took a few backwards, stumbling steps from the impact. Then, she lifted her head towards Dudley, opened her mouth and roared at him.
“She roared at him?”
I don’t know how else to describe it. The sound was earsplitting. It wasn’t a scream; it was more like a sound of fury, almost like she was telling us to mind our own business.
“What happened next?”
Jaxon was on his feet again. He rose up right in front of her. At the time, I was shocked. I mean: that bitch hit him hard. The impact with the Jeep alone should have broken some ribs, but he just stood right back up as if the punch and the slam against the Jeep didn’t bother him at all.
He had his tomahawk in his hand.
I saw the thing’s eyes go wide.
She barely had enough time to lift up her arm in a defensive gesture. The blow was intended for her head, but instead the tomahawk buried itself deep into her forearm. I heard the crunch as the blade met bone. Yet, the arm didn’t sever. I saw more of that black ooze as Jaxon yanked his blade out of her arm, and pulled back to swing again.
The woman just about vanished from the street.
“She ran away?”
It was more than that. She moved fast, almost too fast to be real. She also ran straight up the side of the nearest house and disappeared over the rooftop.
All of us stood there in a sort of stunned silence for a moment before Georgie started babbling.
“Did you guys see that shit with her mouth when she shrieked at Dudley?”
“See what with her mouth?” I asked.
Of course I knew what he was talking about. I was just trying to pretend I didn’t. It’s kind of funny, but I was hoping that by acting like I didn’t see it, then maybe I wouldn’t have to be worried about it, but Georgie is a dick.
“Her mouth was filled with fangs,” Georgie said.