The Red X Chronicles (Book 1): Emergent Read online

  “So what happens to the people who stay here?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Who cares?” Will’s words were only full of self-interest. “At least we’ll be safe.”

  “We’re no-“ John started speaking but Elizabeth interrupted him.

  “That’s just like you.” She said with malice in her words.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Will asked.

  “You don’t give a shit about anybody but yourself!” Her words were becoming heated. Helena covered her daughter’s ears.

  “That’s not true, I care about you.”

  “No you don’t! You only care about having me as your ‘girl!’ You never gave a damn about anything I ever cared about!” We were all just staring shocked at the train wreck that was happening before us.

  “I put up with so much of your stupid ass shit! You have no idea how much bullshit I’ve gone through for you!” They were yelling over each other’s voices at this point.

  Dennis grabbed a hold of his wife and pulled her to the side. I could barely hear him whisper in her ear. “Take Jill and wait outside.”

  “You fucking piece of shit! I can’t believe I ever even bothered with someone like you.” Elizabeth stood up from the table, her shoulders tensed.

  “Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?” Will stood up yelling in her face.

  “I’m breaking up with you, you dumb motherfucker!” Elizabeth’s words brought a flush of blood to Will’s face, he was beet red.

  “No you’re fucking not!” Will screamed.

  “Alright break it up!” John tried to interrupt, but they were too busy yelling to even notice him. “Help me out here Mark.” He said to me, and we grabbed a hold of Will pulling him back.

  He struggled violently, elbowing me in the face. “Let me go you fuckers!”

  “Elizabeth get out of here, you’ve already made your point! There’s nothing more to say.” John said getting her to back off.

  “Fine!” She yelled and walked out slamming the door behind her.

  “Let me go!” Will screamed at us till John forced him into a chair.

  “Shut up! We’ve got bigger shit to deal with than your stupid relationship bullshit right now! People could die if you don’t keep your shit together!” John was yelling down at him. “Now you’re going to take this shit like a man! Do you hear me? You can settle things later. For now, we’re going to focus on getting out of this city alive.”

  “But I-“ Will started.

  John cut him off though. “No ‘buts’ just shut up! You can deal with this later.” John was authoritative in his words.

  Will looked around the room frustrated. “Alright!” He was still red in the face. “Can I go now? I want to be alone.”

  John looked at Dennis and I to make sure we weren’t going to add anything else. “Yeah, get the fuck out of here.” He let him up, and Will stormed out of the room. John closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

  “Is he going to be a problem?” Dennis asked in a serious tone as soon as he was sure that Will couldn’t hear him.

  John opened his eyes and looked over at Dennis. “Yeah! He’s been a pain in my ass the whole night, I’m sure he will. But if he causes too much trouble I’ll just have to read him his rights again. Right Mark?” He looked over at me and stopped talking for a second. “Go change that shirt.”

  I felt my nose where Will’s elbow had hit me in the face and I was bleeding. It ran down onto the new shirt I had just put on. “Awe, come on!” I said to myself.

  “Well if you think you can handle it I’ll leave it to you.” Dennis added, and left the room to be with his family.

  John sat back down at the computer. “Are you alright?”

  “I think so, it’s just a nosebleed.” I paused.

  “Good!” He started looking through the screens again. “And at least you’ve got a shot now.”

  I was embarrassed by his comment. “Now’s not a good time.”

  Chapter 10

  I had found a roll of paper towels in the office, and jammed half of them up my nose to stop the bleeding. I was sitting down at the table where I had been during the fight and was resting my head between my hands.

  “Hello.” John sounded happy.

  “Um… Hello?” I said back to him. My words were nasally because of the paper wadded up my nose.

  “Shut up.” He shook his head back and forth. “Come take a look at this.” I got up from the table and looked at the screen he was pointing to. “See that?”

  “It’s a door alright.”

  “Ok smart ass.” John paused before he continued. He pointed his finger at a second monitor. “That’s the other side of that door.” There was nothing on the other side. No zombies no trace of anything. “That could be our way out of here.” He tapped the screen. “Yeah… Go get that Steve guy, I want to ask him some questions.” I gave him a disgruntled look. “That reminds me, go check on the idiot and make sure he’s not harassing that poor girl.”

  I rolled my eyes and leaned my head back. “Do I have to?”

  John stared at me. “Just go.”

  I departed with a heavy sigh. I was in no hurry while I walked to find Will. I didn’t want to talk to him, but that was an understatement. I only met him a few hours ago, but I never liked him. My nose especially didn’t like him. It was throbbing at that point. “Maybe I can find some painkillers.” I said to myself.

  Walking the mall was strange, people were beginning to calm down, but it didn’t mean things were easy. They were waiting for help but knew that no one even knew where we were. I could see the desperation on people’s faces, and I tried to mind my own business. I asked around to find Steve, as I would’ve rather talked to him, and I didn’t want to be alone with Will. It didn’t take very long to track him down.

  He was a nice guy, and surprisingly calm. “It's Mark right? What happened to you?” He gestured toward the paper towels still crammed up my nostrils.

  “This? I got elbowed in the face… Look I’d rather not talk about it.” I replied.

  “Ok… So what do you need?”

  “John’s back in the security room and he wants to ask you some questions. Can you come with me?”

  “I don’t see why not, there’s really nothing to do around here.” He walked beside me back toward the security room.

  “You seem to be handling this well.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’m freaking out on the inside.” He was showing more emotion the longer we talked. “Don’t get me wrong, unlike most of the people here I still haven’t been in any immediate danger. “

  “What do you mean?” I asked keeping an eye out for Will should we come across him.

  “Well I was in the mall to begin with, so I was here when they built the barricades. I never came within twenty feet of a zombie, well besides the one at the gate when I let you in. I guess a few of them did get in here though.”

  I was confused. “Wait, how did they get in, if they built the barricades before it was a problem?”

  “We let some people in that had gotten bitten… Luckily some people were able to smash their brains in before anyone else got killed. But it still set us on edge. That’s why I didn’t want to open the door for you at first.”

  “I can’t blame you for that.” We were quiet for a few seconds. “So how long does it take? You know, to turn into one of them?”

  “I don’t think anyone’s sure. The first girl turned in maybe ten minutes, but she was chewed up pretty bad. Another one of them was barely bitten, more like teeth marks. It just barely broke the skin. It took him about two hours, I guess.”

  “So the size of the bite is what makes the difference?”

  “I think, but it’s not like I really know. A person’s weight might have something to do with it too.”

  “That makes sense. Everybody is a little different.” That’s when I saw Will out of the corner of my eye. He was leaning head first against a glass wall, but he wasn’t looking in the
store. “Hold on Steve. Hey Will? Are you alright?”

  He didn’t even look at us. “Fuck off!” He yelled still standing there. I could see him muttering to himself.

  “Ok, I’ll get right on that. ” I wasn’t about to get him any more pissed off than he already was.

  We continued on our way, and after a minute or so Steve asked me about him. “What’s his problem?”

  “His girlfriend, you know the blonde girl that was with us, Elizabeth? She just broke up with him.”

  “Oh… That’s harsh” He shook his head.

  “Eh,” I shrugged my shoulders. “He’s kind of an asshole. He busted my nose. I don’t think he meant to do it on purpose, but I get the feeling he wanted to anyway. I doubt I’ll ever get an apology out of him.”

  “It still sucks.”

  I looked away because I didn’t want to admit it. “I guess you’re right.”

  We got back to the security room. When we opened the door John was still searching the monitors. “Here he is.” I said plainly.

  “Oh, good hold on a second.” John fiddled with the buttons till the screen switched back to the door he was looking at earlier. “Steve, I just want to ask you a quick couple of questions.”

  “Um sure, what is it?” He replied.

  “This door.” John tapped on the screen. “This is the other side of it right?” He flipped a second monitor to show what he was talking about.

  “Yeah, that’s right, what about it?”

  “Where does this lead outside?” John continued his questioning.

  “That’s the area where they charge and store the security carts for the night?”

  “Security carts?” I asked not quite catching his meaning.

  “You know, golf carts with the word security painted on them.”

  John shook his head before speaking. “Anyway… So where is that on the map here?” He got up and walked over to the map bringing Steve with him.

  “It’s uh, right here.” He pointed to the small area behind the mall near where we came in from. It was on our side of the barricade.

  “Great! Thanks. Hey Mark let’s go check it out.”

  I opened the door, but Steve asked us a question before we could leave. “Wait, why?”

  “Oh, you know…” I was trying to come up with a lie, but couldn’t before he caught on.

  “Don’t go bullshitting me. You’re looking for a way out. You two better tell me why.” Steve’s eyes were darting between us looking for an answer.

  “You’re pretty sharp. But we’ve got no reason to tell you.” John smirked victoriously and shrugged his shoulders.

  “That’s a security area…” Steve interrupted and gave us a disconcerting look. “You’re going to need a key.” He raised an eyebrow and jingled the small flanks of metal in his pocket.

  John ran his right hand through his hair until it stopped at the back of his neck. He was wincing. “Shit...” He paused unusually long. “It looks like we’re bringing one more.”

  Chapter 11

  It didn’t take long to get Steve on board with the plan. In fact, he made it clear in the first place that he would have left if he had a car, so all in all it made sense. We checked out the area in which they charged the golf carts, and it was a perfect location to make our break from the mall. It was small and walled off, with a chained gate that led out back of the mall. From there we could see there weren’t many zombies making their way around the back, as we had already come to expect. But they were swarming either side of the parking lot, which meant that the safest way out was for us to climb back the wall and head out from there.

  And with the plan set, the only thing left to do was wait. The first night was hell, not that it was too crowded, though the mattress store was swamped with people trying to get a good night’s sleep. I instead found myself sleeping, or I guess I should say trying to sleep, in a recliner which no one had paid any mind to. Sleeping was hard for everyone. Not a single person was comfortable knowing that if the barricade didn’t hold up those things would be in there with us in a moment’s notice. We stationed guards who would sleep in shifts of course for the sake of warning us should anything go wrong, but it barely helped calm us.

  The next two days moved as slow as molasses. Sure there were plenty of things to do in a mall, but they tend to get old really quick, even more so when they are the only things that you can do. Still, we all wanted to find a way to distract ourselves from the monsters just outside the door, so we all desperately tried to make the most of the entertainment at hand. The department stores had big screen T.Vs in them, which were playing movies nonstop, and people huddled around them trying to ignore the fact that our food stores were running thin quickly. I think the odd part was that few people amongst the group had any sort of plan other than to wait it out, and I can’t say I would have thought much differently if it were not for John and the others.

  It was nearing the end of the second day when Steve came to talk with me. “Hey Mark.”

  “Yeah what is it?” I was busy trying to distract myself with some video game when he came up. I didn’t look at him as I was too involved.

  “Tomorrow morning... Early before everyone wakes up.” He tried to leave it at that, but I hadn’t caught his meaning.

  “What about it?” I asked still playing away.

  I could hear him sigh. “That’s when we’re.” I caught him out of the corner of my eye stopping to make sure that no one else was nearby. “That’s when we’re leaving. John wanted me to tell you.”

  I paused the game. “Oh…” I looked about to make sure nobody was listening as well. “Does everyone else already know?”

  “Yeah, you were the last-“ But he was cut off by the sound of John yelling at the top of his lungs.

  “Dennis! Dennis!” We could hear him practically screaming. “Where the fuck are you?” He ran by the opening of the store looking inside for only a fraction of a second before running off.

  “What was that about?” I asked hoping that it was something Steve knew about that I didn’t.

  “I have no clue.” Steve was beginning to look worried.

  “He sounded frantic.” I added and rose from my chair. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Let’s go.” Steve said. We both ran after him keeping an eye out for zombies. We were concerned that they had broken through a barricade, but it wasn’t the case.

  When we caught up to him he had found Dennis. “We’ve got a fucking problem!” John shouted as he checked the function on his guns.

  “What, what’s going on?” Dennis asked.

  “There’s some men out around the back, they just pulled up in a big ass truck, and they’re breaking into the loading bay of the department store.” John was panting, but it didn’t stop him from speaking clearly.

  “Who are they military?” Dennis asked with some gleam of hope in his eye.

  “They’ve certainly got the guns! But the black masks make me think they aren’t here to help.”

  “Oh shit. Helena!” He pulled out his pistol and turned to face his wife.

  “What?” She asked nervously.

  “Get Jill and hide in the changing room over there. We’ve got to go take care of this.” He followed after John who led us towards the store they were coming in through.

  “How did you find out about them?” Dennis asked. We had slowed to a walk as we entered the store.

  “I was checking the cameras, just in case there was a better way to get out of here.” John said.

  “What should we do?” I asked.

  John looked at me wide eyed. “Well, pull out the gun you’ve been keeping up your ass for the past couple days and give us a hand, otherwise you better get the hell out of here!” I turned to run but felt John’s hand pull me to the ground. “Never mind! Get down!” We were behind a counter. Dennis had taken cover one counter over, and we could see them walking in, guns drawn and ready to fire.

  “We heard you!” The one in the center ca
lled out as he took cover quickly.

  “You better get out of here, we don’t have enough to go around as it is!” Dennis yelled back at them.

  “I’m afraid we won’t be doing that.” The man had calmed his voice down.

  Dennis yelled out again. “If you make one move you’re going to get an ass full of lead, you just get back in your truck and leave!”

  “If you want a firefight, you’ve got one!” He yelled back shooting his gun into the counter where Dennis was hiding. He quickly dove out of the way, with the glass of the display case shattering in his wake.

  John popped up for a second to shoot a couple rounds from his pistol. “Missed!” he yelled to himself ducking back down. “Move move move!” He yelled to us and motioned to the racks of clothing off to the side.

  I was hesitant. “Those won’t stop a bullet.”

  “Neither will this counter! Go!” He shoved us out into the open. We kept our heads down and somehow managed to not get hit with all the bullets whirring around us.

  The clothing didn’t provide any protection other than there was a lot of it, and keeping low meant we could hide. I looked back to see where John went but I couldn’t find him. He must have moved in a different direction from behind the counter because when I turned around he had made his way between our attackers and us. “Keep moving.” He whispered. “And keep down.”

  We worked our way through the clothes stopping every so often for John to try and take a shot. Steve and I kept a rack or two of clothing between John and us. John fired again and after three shots his gun clicked.

  He immediately crouched back down and took the magazine out. He was reaching for his spare when a man came up beside him. He pointed his gun at John. “Drop it.”

  “Fuck!” John tossed the gun on the floor away from him.

  “Up.” The man said as he waived the point of his gun.

  “Hey I know you…” Another masked man came up beside the first. “If it isn’t the hero cop John Maxton. You cost us a lot of money.”

  Steve and I were still hiding when the first one spoke again. “Should I just shoot him now?” He pulled his gun up to his shoulder and got ready to fire.