Charon's Blight: Day Two (the Rotting Souls series Book 2) Read online

BAM

  BAM

  BAM

  A door creaked open and there came a bustling of feet over the speakers.

  “Oh hey, what’s up?”

  “Where is she?”

  “Uh, not here. I sent you a map of where she’s heading, snuck a peek at her phone while she was napping. Some place called Morenci. I thought I told you that she had gone, I must have been mistaken.”

  “And I told you that you were to stay with her.”

  “Mari…”

  “I don’t care about what your wife wants. I warned you. I told you what would happen if you didn’t do it; you were told to stay with her. That was the price you paid for me letting you get home to your precious wife and kid, your fucking ass shook on it.”

  “Dude, I go where my wife goes, and she didn’t want to go with her. She thinks she’s nuts.”

  “I can speak for myself.”

  “I know! Look man, I tried okay? I got her phone, I found out where they were going, and I told you. That was the deal; we’re done.”

  “We are done when I say we’re done.”

  WHACK

  A scream ripped it’s way over the baby monitor, echoing across the room.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Put the gun down.”

  “No, I think it’s time you leave. If you put your hands on me again, I’ll fucking kill you pendejo. Wait! Don’t—”

  WHAM

  THUNK

  “Hey, don’t kill the guy!”

  “Shut that bitch up!”

  WHAM

  More screams bellowed over the speaker and then suddenly, one of them was forever silenced.

  “You didn’t have to kill him!”

  “You want to be next? Now shut that bitch up.”

  “What about the baby?”

  “You want to survive? You move quiet and babies don’t do quiet.”

  “Aw man, you don’t mean—”

  “Tie her up, tape up that fucking mouth and bring her along. Leave the baby.”

  “No man, I’m not leaving no kid to die.”

  WHAM

  THUNK

  “Anyone else? Good, get moving. Tie her up and let’s go. On second thought, bring the kid; we might need a distraction later. But if it cries, you die next. Let’s go, we got some ground to make up.”

  After a few more minutes the sounds started moving away and with the closing of the front door, the apartment was silent once more. The monitor crackled again, a single red light blinking, then it faded to dark as everything around it grew still.

  Sabrina was just getting on the interstate when her phone went off. Thinking it was Todd again, she threw it to Erik, who suddenly gasped. “What?” she asked him, sure that some dark news of their road ahead was about to come up.

  He showed her the screen:

  5205553862: Rob coming Im sorry

  Chapter 14

  Hackers

  Todd

  Compound 2

  He was leaning on the rail of the south tower, looking at the land beyond and lost in thought. Somewhere out there were his family and friends; some on their way, some simply lost. He wanted to go out there and help them; something other than standing here just hoping.

  He didn’t call his parents because his dad wouldn’t talk while driving and his mother would talk too much.

  No, he had called Sabrina instead.

  She had been more reserved than she usually was and he had expected her to chew his ass out for how long it took them to get out of town. His parents had done exactly what he had told them not to; they had packed more than they needed and had taken too much time getting out of town.

  Luckily, they were now on the highway heading towards Wilcox and so far, things were going okay. Most of the traffic had left the highway to go south towards Mexico; which was funny when he thought of it. He doubted there was a border patrol on the other side of the border to turn the refugees away; it was not an eventuality that anyone had ever prepared for.

  His phone distracted him from his thoughts.

  Ben: you need to see this

  Taking one last look at the two-hundred acres around him, he took a long breath then made his way below. One of the dogs was waiting for him at the base of the tower and the German Shepherd followed after him as he made his way towards the main building.

  Arthas was one of the many German Shepherds they had bred and trained at the compound. He was just over two years old and was overly excited by recent events; as if sensing that something out of the ordinary was going on. The kids were keeping the dogs occupied, but Arthas had sought him out the moment he emerged from the main building, then had waited patiently for him to come down from the tower; the training that he’d gone through was showing. He hadn’t barked once the entire time they had been there. They were all taught from birth to restrain that urge, to keep them from attracting unwanted attention.

  As he neared the door, he reached down and scratched Arthas behind the ears. After a brief moment, he sent him to join his brothers and sisters and continued inside.

  Five minutes later, he walked through a door and saw a very excited Ben waiting for him. “You’ve got to see this!”

  “Okay, okay, show me,” he responded and watched as the young man turned quickly and started punching keys.

  “I was monitoring YouTube when suddenly I noticed a small shift and the site froze. Someone’s hacked it! I don’t know how they did it, but they’ve taken control away from the government,” Ben told him excitedly; unable to contain himself.

  “How?” he asked, the sudden interest breaking through everything else that had gone on during the day. He had not seen Sean since the meeting this morning and no matter how hard he tried, he could not seem to catch up to the man. He tried to track what Ben was doing on the computer, but even as trained as he was, he was having difficulty keeping up.

  “I don’t know man; these people are way beyond me. I handle our shit well because that’s what I’ve been constantly working on for years. These people must be the elite, because the government has tried to shut them down multiple times and they just keep going. I can’t begin to tell you what this feels like. The revolution is on man!”

  The excitement bubbling out of Ben was contagious and Todd made the mistake of reaching for the mouse and got slapped for it.

  “You want to tell the others?” he asked, unable to move his eyes from the screens.

  “Nah, I’ll tell them after. Just thought of you when all this shit began and I’ve been busy trying to record as much as possible in case something happens. You were the last number I sent a text to,” Ben said, eyeing the screens.

  “Record it? Why?”

  Ben laughed, “because even though the videos are posting, someone is immediately deleting them just as fast as they appear. It’s a game of save it before it goes. Sometimes it lasts longer but others, it’s too fast for me to grab.”

  He double clicked on something and the screen on his right went black. Then a video began to play.

  The government is lying to you!

  They are not going to save you!

  They are killing millions right now and no one is there to stop them!

  They have shredded the constitution

  Your rights are being violated!

  Even now they are trying to stop us from telling you this!

  Do not believe them!

  The world is not what they make it out to be!

  Wake up America!

  The screen stayed black for half a second, then video began to play. After the black screen and white lettering, his eyes had to adjust to the glare of the images, and his heart nearly stopped by what he was seeing.

  The video was so clear it seemed like he was looking through a window instead of a monitor. Vegas being destroyed by the military. Planes screaming across the sky; missiles firing. Tanks rolling down an interstate, rolling over cars and dead bodies while firing at hordes of people in the distance. A live camera feed of some
military man gunning down civilians who were being attacked by zombies. The White House in flames. A well-known news-anchor sniped entering a CBS building. More battles in places he didn’t immediately recognize. Then a cut to the Arizona Cardinals Stadium being blown up. Images from hospitals of men in military uniform killing the sick and burning the buildings to the ground. Mass graves. A video of a biological weapon landing and people melting from some kind of gas. The last video was one he already knew; the mushroom cloud over the Hoover Dam.

  You are not safe!

  They are not coming to save you!

  The world will never be the same again!

  Choose to live!

  Fight!

  For if you are not willing to stand, then you will die on your knees!

  Zombie 101

  Head shots are the only way to put them down!

  Quit shooting people who get bit!

  You are fucking murdering them!

  You only turn if you die!

  If you are going to die, do the world a favor

  Eat a bullet!

  Before a bullet finds you

  Fight America!

  #ResistanceNotFutile

  The national anthem began to play. More images were tearing across the screen but he couldn’t look anymore. The horror being displayed was beyond anything that he could have imagined and he had the sudden need to call and see where his folks were.

  “Wow,” was all he could manage as the video ceased.

  “I know, right? Fuckin-A,” Ben grinned.

  “Has there been more?” he asked, not sure if he wanted to know.

  He had argued earlier about informing the public, but this was a whole new level. It was more likely to force people further into hiding than bring them out fighting. Their own government was out there shooting civilians and while he understood it from a strategic point; he couldn’t help but feel disgusted at the unneeded loss of life.

  “From them? Not so much. This got deleted almost immediately after posting. Most of the back and forth now is over the other videos people are uploading. Mobile phones mostly,” Ben responded.

  “Oh, my God,” he whispered, trying his best to not think about it, but it was beyond that at this point.

  “Dude, I don’t think God is listening, it’s going straight to voicemail.”

  Chapter 15

  Resupply

  Robert

  Tucson, AZ

  Things were finally looking up. He had his dark moments, but the light was finally beginning to shine through the clouds. Standing there in the fire station, watching that bitch drive away, walkers banging at the door; it didn’t seem it could get any darker than that.

  They had fought their way out and many of them had died in the process, but he had survived. The bat he had been using was splintered and gone; it was a reflection of the world and he had tossed it away like he did his misgivings over the things he had done.

  Was it evil, what he was becoming? He didn’t think so. He was simply doing what needed to be done.

  If you got bit, you turned, you killed someone else. Kill those that get bit. If a horde of zombies comes at you and six of you are going to die, is it really evil to sacrifice one so that the others may live? When he was doing it, it felt right; he had no doubt about that. No, that came after. He had begun to second guess himself until the moment he banged on Caesar’s door.

  If there had been a line, he had crossed it there.

  Not only did his rage overwhelm him and took his conscience away; it had filled him with power; the power to grant or take life in an instant with no hesitation on his part. It was intoxicating and had consumed him and before his rage was done; a member of their group lay dead on the floor at Caesar’s side. He had no second thoughts, no remorse, had simply walked through the door to the balcony beyond and waited for his orders to be carried out.

  As he drove the truck down Valencia; he looked in the rear-view mirror at the terrified eyes of the woman in the backseat. Her mouth was taped and she had been crying. The corners of the tape had loosened from the tears and he made a mental note to apply another one before they went too much further. Fourteen vehicles followed after; different makes and models, but all of them four-wheel drive. That was another thing that had come to him; they could take what they wanted and no one was going to stop them. The world had gone to shit and no one cared if you boosted a car.

  After all, this was a fight to survive—and only the fittest would.

  After the encounter at Caesar’s, he had stood there on that balcony, looking down at his bloodied hands and realized that they would have to arm themselves better before following after Sabrina. He knew from Marisol that they had only a few rifles among them, but he knew in Todd’s case that would be different. He had spoken in length about his “Bunker” and what they were doing to prepare. They would be well armed and would not go so easily from that fucking hiding place of theirs. Well, now his group was heavily armed as well.

  There was a Big 5 sporting goods store not far from where the fire station was. So, they had backtracked and half their group went to the Super Walmart across the street for supplies while the rest broke into the Big 5 and relieved them of their armaments. Surprisingly, they were the first ones there and they made sure to clean the place out. Several trucks were overladen with gear, while other vehicles were full of food and other necessities.

  He wanted it spread out. He didn’t trust everyone in his group not to break off the first chance they got; no matter how many promises he made them and it was better not to put everything in one place.

  He had felt the power grow within as he armed himself and now as he drove onto the onramp, he began to smile and plan out every single detail of an encounter he was sure was not too far off in the future. He would catch her and wipe that fucking smile off her face. Whatever humanity there had been left in him was trying to claw its way to the surface, but as he drank in his newfound role in the New World; he let it slither away to die off in some remote corner of his soul.

  Ever since the death of his daughter, his heart had hardened, and no longer did he question the right and wrong of what he had to do in this world being born. If he was a monster, then he had been born in that moment and whatever came after was a reflection of that loss.

  Now that he knew that Todd had knowledge of what was going to happen and hadn’t shared it with anyone? Well, that put it on him as well. All it took was one text message, one mention of it on Facebook and his daughter might still be alive. The rage that he felt left him with no qualms about what was coming.

  No, he’d take his revenge and once that compound was his, he’d glorify in his victory with no regrets about how it came to pass.

  “I’m coming for you Todd,” he growled. Then he grinned and waved at someone that let him onto the interstate. Gunning it, he turned his truck east and watched in the mirror as the rest of his followers followed suit. “Morenci, here we come.”

  Chapter 16

  Server’s Down

  Todd

  Compound 2

  They came together as a group and Ben showed them the video that he had recorded. He didn’t watch it, couldn’t bear too. He sat there and observed the faces of the others instead, watching the horror that he felt spread and feeling relieved that he wasn’t the only one having a problem with it; they were just as shocked by it as he was.

  It ended and there was a collective sigh amongst them as they all sat in silence, absorbing everything they had just seen.

  “Wow, they really hate our government, don’t they?” Michelle remarked. He and Monica had a fight on whether or not to include her; he was still trying to protect his little girl, but had to concede the point that keeping her ignorant would only make matters worse. He had to start trusting her and treating her like an adult now.

  He had felt that hatred as well when he had watched and nodded in approval of her picking up on it as well. “It seemed like it was something that was already brewing and g
ot thrown together and focused when this shit started. Maybe they were already planning something or even started this themselves.”

  “You don’t know that,” Ben responded. “These are hackers trying to get their message out; not extremist looking to destroy the world.”

  “How can you be so sure?” he returned. “For all we know these hackers are the same people that started this shit and are now trying to get us to overthrow their hated government in response.”

  “You will have to trust me on this, they didn’t start this,” the young boy returned, his eyes dead serious.

  “You are going to have to do better than that,” he returned, but the boy leaned back and made it clear that he wasn’t going to argue the point any further. Did he know something they didn’t?

  “I don’t know guys. Looking at those images and videos makes me hate our government a little as well,” Casey said, sober and probably wishing he wasn’t. He was coming down off his pain meds and was stroking his temple. “I mean, fuck, did you see that shit?”

  “Didn’t need to see it twice,” he answered; his stomach still upset with him and wanting to unload its contents. “For something that is supposed to give people advice on zombies, I saw very little of them in that video. A lot of that horror was old fashioned people killing people.”

  “You expect someone to stand there and video a zombie coming at them?” Casey piped in. “Most of those shots were taken from video feeds or shot from a safe distance.”

  Ben let out a heavy sigh and slid his laptop away from him across the desk. “Well, fuck,” he said in a frustrated voice.

  He looked over at the pissed young man across from him, trying to ignore how feisty his young stoner friend was getting; he was literally talking out of his ass. “What is it?”

  “The internet is off,” he said simply. “It’s gone, I can’t access anything.”

  “Wait, are we just not getting service or what?” Monica asked, leaning across the table and pouring herself another glass of water. They hadn’t spent much time together since getting here and he felt her absence whenever they were apart. There was just no time for tender moments when their friends and family were being eaten by monsters.