The Apocalypse

Chapter 35

Ram

Western Desert



Despite the death and the pain in her life, and despite the endless zombies that had them hiding or fighting with guns that burned to the touch, Julia saw the world as she hoped it would be instead of how it really was. She saw Cassie as just a wayward child who would come around eventually if given enough love, while in Ram she saw a man who could sit on his growing feelings without acting on them.

Indefinitely.

He tried to in all honesty, while Cassie tried in all dishonesty.

To Julia's face, Cassie had changed from a petulant demanding child to a girl aiming to please, but behind her back, she was vindictive and undermining. Cassie made it clear to Ram in word and deed that she would take over where Julia had left off when it came to sex, anytime he was ready. Once she had simply knelt in front of Ram with an invitingly open mouth.

“It'll pass,” Julia explained when he told her about it. “She has a need to act out.”

“Ok, so those are her needs, what about my needs?” Ram asked, feeling distinctly odd about saying it. He wasn't used to expressing his feelings beyond a grunt.


“Those are your wants, and I want them too,” she said, touching his arm. “We will have each other again, I promise. We just have to give it time.”

This mollified Ram—her words and the way she touched him so lightly. “It sure feels like a need to me, and a big one,” he joked, stepping closer so that he was right on top of her.

“You are currently fulfilling your most basic need,” she said, becoming clinical. She did this at times, retreating into the world of science, hiding behind five dollar words to avoid being human. That's how he saw it at least. She went on, pulling away emotionally and physically, “You have a hero complex. You don't value yourself unless you are protecting another. I saw it when I had the gun to my head, you changed right in front of my eyes. One second you were twitchy and your eyes were sort of lifeless and then in the next second you had pulled yourself together.”

“No, I don't think I have any complex,” Ram said, “You were in trouble. That's all. And why didn't I do anything to protect Cassie when she was being raped? And why did I leave those men back…back before? A hero would've stayed.”

She looked at him closely before saying, “Those men were men, and not just any men, they were warriors. Warriors don't need saving. And we both know how you think of Cassie, that she's tougher than she looks. Maybe I'm wrong. Unless there was someone else you were protecting before me. Someone who died?”

Shelton

“No one,” Ram said, looking away as if keeping an eye out for stiffs. “So what is my prognosis if I had this complex?”

“I don't know,” she said with a laugh, becoming herself again. “In the real world it could lead to neurosis or worse, but this isn't the real world any longer. Now it just may lead you to saving me. So don't look for me to cure you!”

Despite that it went against their mutual promise to “behave”, Ram leaned in for a quick kiss and then left holding her hand until distance parted their fingers. That was how their relationship grew. Secret looks, little touches when Cassie wasn't around, and knowing smiles when she was. Despite the lack of sex between them Ram had never felt closer to a woman.

They traveled in this way throughout the American southwest going from one tiny town to the next, eating into their food reserves and always finding just enough gas to make it one more day. Of weapons and ammo they were well stocked, having come upon a strange eight-wheeled military vehicle parked in the desert south of Albuquerque.

A soldier in dun colored battle fatigues stood outside it, while more sat within. Ram, sick with relief, hurried to them exclaiming, “Thank God! Am I glad to see you guys. We haven't seen another human so close…”

The standing soldier turned and its helmet wiggled oddly on its head. It had little flesh left on its face and so much of its scalp had been torn away that white skull was clearly visible. Ram's eyes went buggy at the sight and he froze in confusion as the zombie came at him. He would have died right there since he had left his M16 in the Bronco, but Julia, cool as the underside of the pillow, marched up quick and shot the creature in the face from five feet, making a hell of a mess.

Two more of the soldier zombies had to be destroyed as well, but it was worth it. In crates they unearthed were thousands of rounds of M16 ammunition. And better than that, in Ram's eyes was the SAW that had been strapped uselessly to one of the zombies.

“A machine gun?” Julia asked as Ram came out of the Stryker with it on his thick shoulder. “Let's hope it doesn't come to that.”

“If it does, hope won't save us, but a Squad Automatic Weapon just might.” He went to the Bronco and studied it for a while saying, “Hmmm.” And, “Maybe.”

“What you gonna do?” Cassie asked, sweat running down her face as she lugged the heavy ammo boxes to the back of the truck.

“I want to mount this on top, but I'm afraid I don't have either the tools or the skill. Well, what I really want, if I had my way, is for us to ditch the Bronco and take the Stryker,” he said this with a sigh, wondering how on earth zombies had killed three fully armed men in an armored personnel carrier.

“It didn't seem to help them,” Julia said as if reading his thoughts. “And, gas is already hard to come by.” She wasn't wrong in this either, as all military vehicles, Strykers were gas hogs and would leave them even more at the whim of fate. Fuel and clean water were the most valuable commodities in the desert. Even food was found here and there, though never in great amounts.

Because of the zombie menace in the larger cities the three avoided these, however, by their third day on the road they sipped the last of their water and they decided to chance Amarillo, in northern Texas. At one point it had been home to a quarter of a million people; not exactly a crammed to the hilt metropolis, yet still way too large when the zombie threat was assessed. Not willing to risk driving straight through the heart of the city they decided to slip by its northern suburbs first, only to find every Wal-Mart, Target, grocery, and convenience store had been looted long before. Even the homes were empty, save for the many zombies that is.

For the first time since they had met, the three worked as a team. Cassie would watch the street, while Julia and Ram searched from room to room. Singular zombies were dispatched by Ram, usually with a thrust of his wickedly sharp bayonet that he had affixed to the muzzle of his M16.

If there was a herd, their plan was to run or hide, and this worked for the most part. They would scamper low around empty shelves and counters or sit in closets, waiting until the dead moved on, however twice the stiffs came too fast and the pair had to resort to firing their weapons. On both of these occasions the gunfire caused a swarm to coalesce around them that had to be seen to be believed.

The stiffs came out of nowhere and everywhere like roaches and Ram and Julia were hard pressed to make it back to the Bronco on both occasions. Sweating, and wild-eyed they would speed away only to slow after a few blocks and again creep along. The slower the car went the less the zombies seemed to care about its existence.

“This isn't working,” Ram said discouraged. So far, after two hours of searching and hiding and running, they had discovered a very stale box of triscuits and two cans of Mr Pib. Just then they were slumped down in the vehicle outside an office park where the streets were relatively empty.

“Why don't we try in there?” Cassie said, pointing at the three-story high brick office building.

“For what? Staplers?” Ram replied.

“I could use a desk lamp,” Julia said. “Or a computer to use as a paper weight.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess all theys got is junk,” Cassie said with a shrug. “It was a stupid idea.”

“It wasn't stupid at all,” Julia said. As always quick to prop the girl up. “Maybe they have something in there we could use.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Like what?”

Julia couldn't think of anything, but just then Ram imagined what the building would be like if there were actual people in it. What they'd be doing. What sort of work. What they'd be jawing over standing around the water cooler. Or where...he laughed all of a sudden.

“Water coolers!” he said excitedly. “How many offices have them? A lot I'm thinking.”

“And snack machines,” Julia said. She turned to Cassie. “See, it was a smart idea.”

Cassie gave one of her fake smiles that Julia bought into every time, but didn't say anything. Since they knew their roles, nothing needed to be said. Ram left the car first, hurrying to the door followed by Julia and Cassie.


The door was locked, which was both good and bad. It meant that the likelihood that looters had been inside was negligible, while at the same time it meant making noise. A heavy rock that had probably been used to prop the door open for the smokers sat near to them and Ram sent it crashing into the bottom half of the glass. He kicked in the remaining shards and then all three scurried through the low opening.

Just as in the other buildings Cassie was left at the door to keep watch on the street, as Ram and Julia crept along, glancing into each office, looking for zombies, but their luck was good and the place was locked up tight.

“This could be it,” Ram said, relaxing. “But I don't want night to catch us here so I think we should split up. Since this floor is empty, start here. Do a once over for anything obvious and if you don't see anything go through the drawers. You never know what people stash in their cubbies. I'm heading upstairs.”

He kissed her once, before she could pull away and then went into the stairwell where black night descended on him as soon as the door shut. The deep dark actually had him unnerved. And the first step tripping him up didn't help. Thankfully he only went to the second floor and there, one of the first things he saw was a water cooler—he drank greedily despite that it was warm and stale tasting. He then hoisted the big clear drum off its base, turning it before he could lose more than a cup.

“Look what I found!” he gushed to Julia as soon as he came to the first floor. She was just exiting one of the offices straining under a cardboard box that was filled with all sorts of yummy goodies, none of which was nutritional in the least.

“Thank goodness. I found a six pack of warm Pepsi that I wasn't looking forward to brushing my teeth with.” They went to the door and Cassie's eyes were big for everything they had found so far. Julia brushed her with the box in a friendly way and said, “This is all thanks to you.” She and Ram hurried to the Bronco and back to the office building in less than half a minute though they still managed to draw some attention to themselves from the local stiffs.

They were pretty far away so Ram did not worry over much. “Keep an eye on them,” he advised Cassie and then went after Julia. “Find me some deodorant,” he said to her.

“If you find me a bathtub filled with clean water.”

He goosed her before heading into the dark stairwell. The second floor had been used as a call center for an insurance company and as such the pickings were slim. Mostly more junk food, still he took as much of this as he could carry in a waste paper basket he had upended. One person was a little more healthy and had three cans of tuna—these went into his pockets.

The nicest offices were along the west side where the windows allowed the workers a better view than just more workers or the grey side of a cubicle. “Well, look at these.” The owner of that first office was a bit of drinker. He had five little bottles of vodka, the tiny shot sized variety found on airplanes or in the desks of alcoholics.

“Waste not want not,” Ram said with a smile, placing them carefully in his pocket. As he did he happened to glance at the view outside the window and felt his heart flutter in his chest. A stream of zombies were charging toward the building...to the very door that Ram had broken into.

The wastepaper basket of goodies was forgotten and falling to the floor unheeded as Ram sprinted through the maze of cubicles, heading for the stairs. He did not make it before he heard the first shots fired.

“Shiiit,” he moaned. He could tell by where the blasts were coming from that Julia was the one firing and she was alone. It was only the single gun.

Where was Cassie? Why wasn't she helping?

Ram hit the dark of the stairs and stumbled down the first flight before he righted himself and swung his M16 off his back and into the ready position—and then he was in the light again and stiffs were pushing through the same doorway he had goosed Julia in only ten minutes before.

Holding back the fearful bile in his throat, Ram resisted the overarching desire to charge the stiffs. There were too many crowding the hall, dozens and dozens, with more pushing in from outside. Instead he sighted the M16 and began firing with single well-aimed shots.

How many had flooded into the large office Julia was in he didn't know, but his shooting caught the attention of the ones still in the hall and all ninety of them came rushing at him. He kept firing and they fell over their dead brothers in their eagerness to get at the man and rend and eat him.

He fired until his bolt sucked on nothing but air and then he ran into the next office and threw himself against the door. Immediately the beasts were on it pounding and slamming their weight in an all out effort to bash it down. It wouldn't last above a minute, while in the room next to his he could hear the desperate clatter of the lone M16 rattling away.

Julia was burning through ammo too fast. Just as he did, she carried three- thirty round magazines and there had already been two significant pauses in her shooting, suggesting she was down to her last mag. He slapped a fresh one in place and sank the bolt home just as silence came from next door—silence and then screams.

Desperation swelled in his soul and his fear for her caused actual pain in his chest. He couldn't go back in the hall; there were simply more of the stiffs than he had rounds, which left only one way to get to Julia.

Now he set the rifle to three-round burst, and running at the glass of the far wall he fired, pulling the trigger three times, and before him the window seemed to turn into frozen water and this rained down upon him as he jumped through. Thankful that he was on the ground floor he turned the gun to the window of the next office and again fired three times.

This one he didn't jump through. There really wasn't a need to. A crowd of zombies were in a literal pile seven or eight feet high, tearing at something beneath them. Ram should've run away. He should've saved his ammo and not called any more attention to himself—however his anger and his grief was a force that overrode any common sense. Gritting his teeth, he fired into the pile, not worried that he would hit Julia because he knew that for her it would be a blessing to catch an errant bullet in the brain.

He fired, knocking the stiffs back from the pile; laying them out with gaping holes in their nauseating heads. In apparent confusion at the new attack, the stiffs turned slowly from their meal, giving Ram time to mow them down one by one, until his bolt went back a second time on an empty magazine. With calm deliberate motions he pulled his final mag as the stiffs came up to the low wall that marked the border between inside and out. They began to climb through in their clumsy way and he only stood there sneering in hatred as his hands worked, and then behind him, just as he sent the bolt flashing forward, chambering a round, he could hear the door to the office he had just left come crashing in.

Things are about to get interesting, he thought. And yet they grew far more interesting than he could have ever dreamed as his eyes lit upon where the zombies had been feasting on Julia. She was still alive!

She had hidden under a desk and had pulled a swivel chair in front of her and had held on with all her strength while the beasts had crushed in around her. There were still two more of them right on top of her, both pulling at the chair in opposite directions. Ram fired at the one with his back to him and it was only then that he noticed the odd way his gun vibrated—he was still on three round burst!

With his ammunition situation so desperate, he flicked the weapon to single shot, brought the gun back up to his cheek and paused. There was Julia running at an angle for the broken window. Beyond her the second zombie had fallen backward when the tug of war over the chair had ended so unexpectedly, while behind more zombies flooded the room.


Julia wasn't even thirty and was still spry. She leapt passed the zombies struggling among the jagged shards of the window and then the two of them were running for their lives.

“Keep the gun!” Ram said. Julia had been trying to pull the strap over her head as they booked around the back of the office building. “We'll make it and I don't want to have to try to go back for it.” Now that they were in the open, he was confident in their chances. Though a zombie could practically run forever they were generally slow and all Ram had to do was get around one more wing of the building and then they'd be able to make it to the Bronco.

Except when they cleared the back of the building, the Bronco was gone. Only zombies, numbering in the hundreds remained. The sight was beyond terrifying but what was worse was Julia's leg.

“I'm bleeding,” she said breathlessly and shaking. “I'm going to become one of them.”