《Last Voice in the Darkness Series, Book 1 - Survivor》 Chapter 1 - Stuck in the Closet I am stuck in a closet with the voices in my head. What a way to find out the world has ended right? Hey there reader of my favorite little journal, my name is Tom King, but everyone calls me TK. I have been writing in this journal for a few years now, but not because I am a super author or anything. I do this because my shrink thinks that having a method to express myself allows me to better manage the voices in my head. Yeah I know what you are thinking and you are more than likely right on target. I came back from Iraq, after getting blown the fuck up, and woke up to a room full of faceless people talking to me. Sometime the people are familiar, but they don¡¯t have names, just voices and personalities, so I often name them based on that. For example, I sit here trapped in the closet while some infected zombie freako bastard is pounding on the door and I am currently surrounded by Fat Loudmouth, Quiet Onlooker, Yes Man, and Angry Old Man. I am sure you understand what I mean now right? Here, let me share a bit of the conversation while I wait here to die. Fat Loudmouth yells in my face ¡°Hey dick head, you know we¡¯re gonna fucking die in here right? How about you reach down, grab your man parts, and go kill that fucking thing out there so we can go home.¡± Finishing with a loud belch and a scratch of his, I assume hairy, ass. Quiet Onlooker nodded in passive agreement while I ignored them both. I hated them both, even if I agreed with his idea. Yes Man loudly proclaimed ¡°I am with you big guy! Let¡¯s go give em the ol¡¯ one two smack a roo eh? Yessiree bob lets go smack em in the mouth!¡± I try to ignore him too. He generally only agrees with the last thing anyone said and even then only the conversations I tune into. I liked Angry Old Man though he cracked me the hell up. ¡°Fuck these cheddar heads TK, let¡¯s wait a spell and see what happens. Worst that could happen is we die right?¡± Angry Old Man cackled, slapping his knee in amusement. I silently agreed with him and he beamed at the other three yelling ¡°Get off my lawn you dumb bastards. I am still the favorite with this smart young whipper snapper.¡± The other three figments of my imagination responded to this abuse by my favorite by slowly disappearing. I am going to tune them out again, for now, but I think you get the picture right? My grasp on reality is tentative at best most of the time sorry to say. As I sit here trying to turn over what the hell is going on I am starting to realize that the things that make me nuttier than a shit house rat are directly related to how I ended up in this closet without a clue as to what in the hell is really going on outside. Let me back up a bit and explain a bit about how I got stuck here with cannibal human thingamabobs outside the door knocking to get in oh so politely¡­ BOOM BOOM BOOM. Heh, that¡¯s them politely knocking to get in! Get it? Well, Angry Old Guy grinned at least you spoil sport. So, to start, I am completely bonkers, that¡¯s the scientific term and you can look it up if you don¡¯t believe me. I came back from Iraq, even though I don¡¯t remember being a soldier or much of my life before waking up in a hospital bed surrounded by faceless people yelling things at me. I woke up in a cold white hospital bed, a little groggy, and not really sure where I was much less who I was with a gaggle, again that¡¯s a real term you can check, ofpeople in my room shouting things all at the same time. I remember not noticing there was something wrong with them until I realized all their yelling was starting to hurt my head so I looked over at one of them to tell him to shut the hell up and froze. He had no face. I don¡¯t mean that he was a burn victim, or that it was just smooth flesh like in a horror movie, his face was just GONE! There was a big, round, black hole looking space where the face SHOULD have been. The rest of the body was there and he looked familiar at the time. I came to know him as Fat Loudmouth. Looking around the room I saw that everyone yelling was faceless. I remember yelling at them all to shut up and let me think and Fat Loudmouth snorted with a ¡°That will be a first I guess.¡± Clearly in response to my request. I remember getting pissed and arguing arguing with him and who I came to know as Dick McDickness. This continued for a few minutes, rapidly getting more heated as we continued out back and forth. I probably would have hurt myself trying to get out of the bed to kick their asses from all the disrespectful shit they were slinging at me if it had kept up much long. I mean, I couldn¡¯t even remember having a mother so how dare they make up stories about things she probably does with farm animals! At least, looking back on it, I HOPE they were just making stuff up. I can¡¯t tell sometimes but I am going to lean towards them making it up because to believe otherwise of one¡¯s own mother was just disrespectful. Anyways, as I was trying to get out of bed and go punch Dick in the face for being, well a dick really, a nurse walked by my room looking around to see what all the noise was. She stepped inside the small white room, me doing a double take because this nurse had a face like she was supposed to, and started trying to calm me down while calling for a doctor. I remember telling her I would calm down but I wanted all these people out of my room NOW! She looked at me with a weird look, then took a quick glance around the room, and asked. ¡°Sir, you have been in a coma! Are you alright? Are you in pain?¡± ¡°I am doing great lady! I woke up in a hospital, have no idea where I am, how I got here, and I don¡¯t know who I am but other than those assholes all over the room screaming and yelling at me I am just peachy.¡± I answered her sarcastically. ¡°Sir, there isn¡¯t anyone else in the room but you and me, are you sure you didn¡¯t have a bad dream?¡± she asked giving me a matronly does of the old stink eye, like I had cooties. I must have had a quizzical look on my face because she just patted me on the arm and pushed me back onto the bed before asking ¡°Please just lie back down sir and please calm down. I have the doctor on the way to check you over and explain everything that has happened. Can you do that for me?¡± I remember slowly sinking back down onto the bed and nodding in agreement but I don¡¯t remember a lot of other details from the hospital stay. My old man told me a few weeks later, after I was released, that I had been in a convoy with my unit in Baghdad. We got hit by an array of EFPs while out doing some kind of vehicle based patrol. The details on what exactly we had been doing and why were never really given to him, or to me. Looking back on it I am betting that it was some real crazy government need to know kind of shit. Now for those who don¡¯t speak Army hoodoo lingo, EFP stands for explosively formed projectile, which is fancy speak for something that goes BOOM behind a piece of copper shaped like a concave bowl. The boom super heats the copper into a big shot gun slug of a projectile that just has the raw power to punch through damn near anything, including all armor the military currently has on their vehicles. My convoy, four up armored Humvees, got hit by between 12 and 14 of these slugs. My truck, I was driving the lead vehicle, got flipped into a canal where I SHOULD have drowned. Instead some local kid, we were buddies Dad told me, pulled me out and kept an eye on me until the rest of our unit could respond and help us. According to the reports the Army had shared with my old man, no one expected me to live. I had broken bones as well as shrapnel embedded inside my brain and muscle tissue all over my body. I had severe third degree burns across my head, neck, back and right arm so severe that I overheard a woman explain to her child that God had made all people out of clay and that I must have been dropped and the clay smeared before I was born as flesh. I remember thinking that was a really good story and wondering if the kid believed her. I would rather that kid thing that I am a special creation of some being beyond our imagination than have him know the truth and think me a monster. This whole situation left me a mess and I am sure you, dear reader, can completely understand. I spent two years in different hospitals, medical ones at first and then mental ones, before they eventually determined that while crazy as hell I wasn¡¯t a danger to anyone including myself. I regained full control of my arm, through some very severe and painful rehabilitation at the medical hospitals and while the burns healed they had been severe enough that hair no longer grew anywhere on my face, not even a beard. Combined with all the scars along the top and running down the back and sides of my head from the, rather invasive, surgeries needed to remove the worst of the shrapnel and I felt like a monster right out of a comic book. I scared the shit out of a shrink once when she tried to tell me I was still beautiful, on the inside. ¡°Lady, I am a living fucking patchwork quilt. You call me fucking beautiful one more God damned time and maybe I come find you with a can of gas and some matches and see how fucking cute you feel when we get done.¡± I clearly remember saying to her, slowly at first, but quickly rising in volume and anger until I was standing over her, my large frame dwarfing her as she cowered, the fear in her eyes evident. That was the first and last time I lost my temper over my looks. I ended up spending another 6 months in a psych ward after this because I had threatened that poor woman, but eventually I was released. I think the fact that I genuinely feel bad about it and wrote her a sincere letter that apologized for losing my temper about something that I knew she was only trying to help me with was the clincher. It hadn¡¯t been hard to write, I really did feel bad about it. I had allowed my own feelings of pity, fear, and anger over the unfairness of it all change me from the kind of person people told me I used to be and that I wanted to be again one day, into the monster that many assumed when they saw my battered features and large size for the first time. I vowed never again to let myself respond like that. Now I don¡¯t remember much about my past before the first time I awoke in the hospital but let me tell you the government has taken pretty good care of me since I did wake up. You know, except for the 6 months of electro shock therapy. Oh and the multiple attempts to cancel my medical retirement pay because I was obviously physically well, never mind that I couldn¡¯t hold a job and people didn¡¯t want to hire someone talking to voices in his head. Then, let¡¯s not forget, the 12 months after I was medically retired I couldn¡¯t get treatments because the VA system in this country is just a mess. Other than all that it¡¯s just been a fantastic home coming and I couldn¡¯t be happier! All of those treatments and medical procedures boiled down into a few things in my life.
  1. I don¡¯t generally like or trust humans. Given the chance they will fuck me over every time. The few human beings that earn my trust and respect make their way from the ¡°human¡± classification in my head over to the ¡°people¡± side of the balance sheet.
  2. I can¡¯t watch movies or listen to music. I don¡¯t know why but it brings out ALL the voices in my head. Most popular entertainment just ends up devolving into a shouting match between all the faceless until I give up and go do something else.
  3. My only escapes from life are drinking (which I am not supposed to do on my meds, death and all that being a pretty bad side effect, hard physical labor (the voices HATE actually DOING anything so when I am working they make themselves scarce or I would put their freeloading asses to work), and books.
My old man told me I loved to read before the ¡°accident¡±, as he calls it. I usually scoff and point to the many scars on my head and face with my right arm looking like a mozzarella cheese stick left in the sun too long as my response to his use of ¡°accident¡±. I believe him, but even if he is lying to me I LOVE to read now. It¡¯s been my only escape from my own head that doesn¡¯t involve faceless people for as long as I can remember. I love the stories and worlds that other people create for two reasons. The first reason is because all the amazing stories humans create help me forget how much I hate and revile most human beings. I mean anyone who can make such beautiful new realities, worlds, and characters can¡¯t be all bad right? The second, and to me most important, reason is because when I am reading the faceless all go away. They just disappear. No murmuring, no shouting, no arguments, no faceless people lounging around, just me, my own thoughts, and the love that is a different world to explore. I almost feel normal again while I am reading and this peace usually extends for about 30-60 minutes after I finish reading which is just a great bonus. But no matter how long I read, the voices eventually wise up that I am back from mental adventures and pick right up again with all their antics. Now my mental state, how I feel about humans, and the limitations on things I can use to provide myself with any kind of peace are what led my old man help me get a piece of land up in the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. Most of my family is close by, the rural stretch of land keeps me away from most other humans, and it gives me all the hard labor I can stand. I built a small, one room, cabin on my land, starting the very day that the final documents were signed and it was officially mine. I spent the first spring and summer, living in a tent while I build the cabin and began planting crops. My cabin is beautiful by the way, well if you find rough living, wood heat, sleeping in a loft, cold floors, 8 foot snow banks, and 5 months of bitter cold each year to be beautiful anyways. I love my cabin and the 23.7 acres that go with it, as they are all mine. I like the idea of turning that rough piece of land into everything and anything I can imagine needing to be happy, healthy, and as sane as I possibly can be. I have done most of the work in building up my little farm homestead myself, with occasional help from my old man for jobs that are just too much for a single person. I had power lines run in so I could have some basic appliances, backup heat, lights, electric fences, and a few other odds and ends but the buildings, gardens, chickens, and beef cows I raised were all me. I didn¡¯t have internet or a phone, part of the whole not trusting humans and the faceless going crazy around popular entertainment sources, you understand I am sure. Now, I was typically busy from sunup to sundown, performing the numerous chores and manual labors that are common on any farm homestead and reading most evenings until I fell asleep. I don¡¯t go into town much unless I absolutely have to. I planned on a single trip every few months with my old man to hit up a large warehouse store a couple hours away. We did this to stock up on stuff we couldn¡¯t make, grow, or breed ourselves. I also went into town every month or so to stock up on new books.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Let me take a step back from my past to clarify a bit. I dislike, distrust, and don¡¯t want interactions with most humans. Nasty, dirty, and sometimes just plain evil these humans tend to be, but some humans have earned their way onto the people list in my mind. I like people. People treat others with respect, keep their word, and don¡¯t treat me like a dangerous animal when I have to threaten to bust Dick McDickness in the face now and then to shut him up, and then go back to talking to them. Of course my family members are on the people list, even though they sometimes bother me. I know they mean well as they try to mother hen me quite a bit, they worry and want the best for me. There are a few other people on this list, I am not sure where they are now, but the only other local person was Ginny. Ginny is smoking hot, feisty, intelligent, and a red head of about five feet four inches. She had a slight slim build and a ¡°fuck with me and I will break your knee caps faster than you can blink¡± attitude that was a part time librarian at the little community library in town. She was all of those things and more, but it was her eyes that stood out the most. She had these green eyes that just sparkled with mischief, humor, and the kind of intelligence that has driven mankind forward in past centuries. Now Ginny is ten years younger than me and has always shown me a great deal of kindness and respect so while I can tell you (me) that I find her to be just an all-around grade A person, I would never inflict my thoughts on her now. If I had known her before I lost my memory like I do now¡­ well I would probably have already tried to capture her heart, but I knew what I looked like now and how most humans perceived me. She cared for me, showing kindness and understanding, while treating me as a person, which was more than I expected or could ask for since my ¡°accident¡± so I did the same for her and left it at that. Ginny knew about some of my issues and my old man had explained to her the importance of books to maintaining good mental health so Ginny not only accepted this but she also helped me figure out how to break the rules of the head library cun¡­ I mean head library manager. See head library manager was a nosy old biddy who hated me. She hated everyone, I think, but me in particular because I was different and had ¡°special needs¡±. She was also a real ball breaker. Whenever she could be openly and maliciously compliant with the libraries rules she was. Normally the library only allowed someone to checkout 10 paperback and 5 hardback books at a time. You could keep them for 2 weeks before they had to be returned which didn¡¯t work very well for me. I would lose track of days and would often finish the few books I was allowed to get so quickly that I would run out of things to keep me sane after working all day. I hated dealing with people so I would put off coming back into town to swap them and it was just a huge mess. Ginny helped me through those first few rough months by setting up a couple of extra fake library accounts, with cards even, and she would go through and pull out 60-70 books for me every month so I could make one trip in, hang out with her for a little bit, and then go home. She also re-checked them out for me as many times as she needed to until I made it back into town to get the next batch. Ginny is the freaking best. I really hope she is still alive. Alright, find Ginny is now on my list of things to do. Fat Loudmouth piped up ¡°Yeah, Ginny is on my list of things to do too!¡± He sneered like a pervert after saying it. I ignored him. Now why are all of these things important to the reason that I am stuck in a closet you ask? Good question dear friend, and by dear friend I of course mean myself because if anyone else is reading this it means I am dead since I will never show my journal to anyone. The answer is because I ran out of books to read last night and came into town this afternoon, after the work was done at home, to get more. Now I didn¡¯t see anything out of the ordinary most of the way driving in, not that I was paying close attention. Ginny had told me the last time I was in town that a series I had been reading had put out two more books and she would have them waiting for me this time, so I was thinking of those. So I was cruising along, it generally took about 45 minutes to get into town, and had just started passing the gas station on this end of town when I had to slam on the breaks. I froze, the sudden images I was seeing registering in my mind gave me chills. The God damn street looked like a warzone straight out of pictures you might see in a movie or news magazine. I had seen pictures from before I lost my memory of my time in Iraq and this had the same feeling of active destruction. There were wrecked cars everywhere, some smashed into each other, others wrapped around poles and run into buildings. There was smoke rising in a couple of places, which isn¡¯t unusual in the fall as the nights get colder, but instead of it being calm plumes of gray and white it was thick black roiling smoke. This was the kind of smoke you get when you are burning things that generally shouldn¡¯t like plastic, tires, or bodies. Huh, I don¡¯t know why I know what kind of smoke bodies being burned looks and smells like but I knew I was right somehow. Now I was concerned, you see I don¡¯t watch TV, listen to the radio, or cruise the interwebz as the kids say. I have no idea what¡¯s going on. Had the US been invaded? Did my small home town suddenly have a problem with marauding gangs or riots? Maybe aliens had finally decided they were done watching us fuck up the world? I had no idea and every imaginable scenario was running through my head while I was sitting there, transfixed by the scene I was looking at on Main street. I was pulled roughly from my day dreams by a scream, the sounds of breaking glass, and then after a moment more a loud gurgling noise. The sudden noises were coming from my right, towards the gas station I had stopped in front of. The gas station wasn¡¯t anything special, just one of two stations on either end of town. Two fuel pumps out front, a diesel and kerosene pump on either side of the station itself with a small glass main room where the station attendant ran the register, also filled with snacks and drinks. The rest of the building was made up of two small garage bays running the length of the building. I quickly scrutinized the station trying to see what was going on through the glass front of the store. There was a dark substance smeared all over the front window, oil I hoped. I put the truck into reverse and pulled slowly into the station as I tried to find where the scream came from and why it stopped just as suddenly. I slowly pulled my truck into the gas station, peering through the glass window into the darkened room and without thinking I let my truck roll over one of those stupid compressed air bells that ding inside letting the workers know ¡°Hey guys, here I am, come and service me big boys.¡± Before the second ding sound had faded away a couple of shapes in the garage bay, bordering the front cashier room, slowly stood and began shambling into the bright sunlight streaming through the window as the sun slowly set. I froze for the second time in less than five minutes as they walked forward giving me a clear look at them. I am not ashamed to say I MAY have shat myself a bit. I will neither confirm nor deny WHY I had to remove my underwear after entering this closet¡­ ¡°Shut up! Dick McDickness, if you say one more word I will pop you in your fucking mouth again.¡± Sorry about the interruption dear reader but what I saw were humans, they had faces so definitely weren¡¯t part of the faceless crew currently plaguing my life, but they looked like they had been in the same explosion I had been in. They were fucked up hardcore! The first thing I noticed was the blood. They had blood all OVER themselves and I realized the smears on the window weren¡¯t oil after all. They were also naked, for some odd reason, and I was too shocked to be worried. They had shuffled into the room stopping as the fading sunlight covered them all the while staring at me. They had dead, flat eyes that were the same milky white a day old corpse gets and was a little concerned at how I knew what day old corpse eyes look like. I quickly looked around my vehicle to see if there were others and when I looked back I jumped a little¡­ and maybe made more of an underpants mess as I realized there were even more shuffling into the light and stopping. I counted at least five of these folks, a mix of nude men and women. Most of them were covered in bites, chunks of flesh missing, they had lacerations, scratches, and one guy looked like he had 5-6 bullet holes in his chest right where his heart and lungs were. Don¡¯t ask me how I know what bullet holes look like, I don¡¯t own a gun because, you know, crazy as hell but I think I need to find one when I get out of this closet. I sat there checking them over while they stood there watching me. I had my foot on the accelerator ready to take off, like a cat with his tail on fire, but a quiet voice suddenly said in my right ear ¡°Why are they just staring at us?¡± I didn¡¯t recognize this voice. I wondered was it a voice in my head that I had never met or was there someone in the bed of my truck? I quickly twisted around, hampered by my seat belt, but didn¡¯t see anyone. I concluded it was a new voice and named it Scared Kid, because that¡¯s just what it sounded like as I nodded my head and made a mental shrugging motion to the new voice. It was a good question though, were they hurt and in shock, just not processing what was going on like a bombing victim or maybe they were in shock from some kind of sickness or blood loss? I reached over and rolled the window down a little, noticing their eyes never left me as I moved around the interior of my truck. When the window was down just a crack I called out loudly ¡°Hey, are you folks ok?¡± No answer and they just kept staring as the sun dropped a little more. The setting sun was lengthening the shadows in the front room and they deepened further as the sun continued moving away from where they were standing. As soon as they were in shadow they moved forward again, shuffling, until they hit the patch of sunlight again before stopping as before, while their eyes never left me. Ok, now I was officially freaked out but still wanted to make sure I gave these people the benefit of the doubt. I never got the benefit of the doubt from humans but I wanted to be a good person so I called out one more time ¡°It¡¯s kind of a cold autumn this year to be running around naked, are you sure you folks don¡¯t need some help?¡± Again no answer and just the damn staring at me was my only response. ¡°Fuck this shit.¡± I muttered quietly to myself as I slowly pulled away. I was creeping forward, darting glances between the road into town and the weird people in the gas station. The sun finally dropped behind a hill, dropping the entire gas station and the road in front of it into deep shadows. I noticed this drop in direct sunlight at the same time I heard the glass shatter behind me. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw the small group of five people shuffling out of the gas station and moving at a slow walk towards my truck. Nope. I was done being Mr. Helpful at this point and so, having zero fucks left to give, I jumped on the gas to get the hell out of there. I decided to drive through town and take the back way home, which goes by my parent¡¯s house, I needed to check on them and find out what was going on ASAP. I was weaving quickly through the traffic jams and I noticed more and more things out of place. A body hanging out of a window from the granary we bought animal feed from, a smoldering pile of bodies by a car wrapped around a light pole, someone belted into the back of a crashed, naked, covered in blood, and thrashing around trying to get free as they stared at me with white milky eyes. I was in a full blown panic by now and no shit, a tree suddenly jumped out in front of me. Well, that¡¯s what I told the Old Cranky Lady anyways when she started complaining about how I had damaged ¡°our¡± truck to shut her up. She didn¡¯t need to know that tree came out of nowhere at least 50 years ago am I right? Of course I am! Now I was telling her to shut up mentally as I was dazed and bleeding from what was probably only a small gash somewhere on my head. I had apparently decided to test the hardness of my steering wheel, with my forehead, when we hit that tree. Do I need to explain that the steering wheel won? Yeah, well it did and I knew if it could speak it would be taunting me. I threw open the door, stumbling out, bleeding and a little dazed. I was probably in shock from what I was seeing and the voices doing running commentary on it ranging from ¡°This is so cool!¡± to ¡°Does he not realize he shat himself or does he like the smell that much?¡± to ¡°Kill everything you see with fire. Fire. FIRE. FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!¡± While I was looking around, shaking my head to clear both the fog from my brain and the blood running down my face from my eyes, I heard a bone chilling moan behind me. I almost got killed but luckily Angry Old Man had my back, literally, as he warned loudly ¡°Run you dumb bastard or he is going to get you!¡± Without thinking I stumbled away from my truck a few hurried steps towards the middle of the street and half turned to see a naked form, covered in blood of course, falling down from a failed lunge at the spot I had just been standing. I must have been a bad ass in a past life because I reacted without thinking by taking a single stride forward and stomping on its head twice. The first stomp I could feel some give, and with the second stomp the skull cracked and shattered like a frozen watermelon. I froze, my foot still lodged in the remains of a man¡¯s, I think it was a man anyways, head as I processed that I had just killed someone. Another new voice chimed in with a calm, methodical cadence, ¡°You curb stomped him. Don¡¯t stress over it brother, he was trying to do something wrong to you and you defended yourself. Get your shit together and move the fuck out soldier.¡± I looked up and saw someone in a set of ACUs, the name tag looked familiar but was blurry. I thought about what he had said and nodded to Soldier in thanks. I decided he was right and now wasn¡¯t the time to reflect and that I needed to get the fuck out of dodge! I didn¡¯t see any more monsters wandering around nearby but saw movement in pools of shadow up and down the road as it got darker outside. Most of the buildings, that I could see from where I was standing, were small single family houses so I moved to the one closest to me and tried the front door. Finding it unlocked, I swung the door open calling loudly ¡°Hello! Is anyone here? I was in an accident out front and need to use your phone if I can.¡± I waited for a moment, hearing no response, no sounds of movement, and with the voices blessedly silent for once I quickly stepped across the threshold, closing and locking the door behind me. Sighing in relief I turned to look around and was face to face with a naked, bloody, huge behemoth of a man flying through the air to tackle me. I went down like 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag let me tell you. Luckily, some muscle memory kicked in again and as I went down I had the presence of mind to grab his out stretched arm, spinning into him as I fell so that he landed mostly underneath me. I quickly spun back towards him, flipping a leg over his torso as I did so, and before I could fully grasp what I was doing I was smashing this old fat guy in the face with heavy forward drops of my elbows, using the full weight of my upper body and propelling myself forward just a little with my legs straddling his naked blood covered torso to drive them in. The first couple didn¡¯t seem to do much but obscure his vision as he kept waving his arms trying to grab and pull me towards his teeth. The next 4-5 elbow drops in I felt his nose cartilage shatter and he slowed, 4-5 more and I felt the bone between his eyes cave into his skull cavity, 2-3 more after that and I could smell the coppery blood from his fresh wounds and something sickly sweet from his open head cavity as I looked at what was left of his brain. I sat there stunned, staring at the brain surgery I had just performed. ¡°See, I told your Mom you were smart enough to be a neurologist.¡± Snooty Guy said as I was heaving in deep breaths, struggling to regain my breath as the adrenaline in my system ran wild. I heard a window crash from somewhere deeper inside the house and without thinking I stood, saw a door to my right, by the locked front door, roughly pulled the door open, and stepped inside pulling it closed behind me. It took me about ten minutes to realize I was in a closet and another fifteen minutes more before I thought to check for a light. I was still standing in the close, the adrenaline rush fading, while I listened to another monster start banging on the door. Now that you are caught up to our current predicament and I have my thoughts straight we need to figure out what to do. I sighed and spoke in my head ¡°Guys, I need your help to get out of this mess.¡± And after a moment added, ¡°Please.¡± as an afterthought. Chapter 2 - I Know What Love is Ginny The closet immediately got a lot more crowded as a bunch of faceless crowded in for this special occasion. You see what was special about it wasn¡¯t that I was trapped in a closet, that I had killed two different human things in the last couple of hours, or that there was a slow but steady booming from the door separating me from what wanted to eat me. Nope, what was special was that this was the first time I had ever asked the voices for anything other than for them to shut up and go away. This was the first time I had ever allowed myself to think of the faceless as more than just a burden to be lived with. This was the first time I had ever said please to them. Apparently, when dealing with your own insanity, please really is a magic word. Who would have thought right? Now this wasn¡¯t a large closet, it was a little deeper than I expected and was just long enough I could lie down and have about an inch from the wall to my body on either side, but somehow all the faceless found a way to fit, even if they only showed themselves from the shoulders up. I looked around at all of them as they floated, stood, and hung from the ceiling silently appraising me to see what I would do next. There were quite a few faces I knew from my constant verbal jousting, and a whole lot of them that I didn¡¯t. Towards the back of the crowd was where most of the unknown and infrequent fliers of Crazy Brain Airlines were congregating and I saw The Soldier standing there at parade rest with several other soldier looking guys doing the same. Close by was the one faceless that kind of scared me, I called him the Psycho. He was the one who was always screaming about hurting humans, setting shit on fire, and just some very not nice things. The shit he was always yelling about was nightmare level scary and I tried to drive him away as much as I could. I often thought of kittens playing, puppies running after kids, and watching the water flow past on a calm river near my cabin. Psycho hates this shit and usually leaves after a few minutes of talking about lovey and calming stuff. I imagined him flinching a bit as I looked at him and this thought crossed my mind, but he didn¡¯t leave and wasn¡¯t talking so I let him stay, after all, this was an all hands on deck emergency. I decided right then that we needed some ground rules to keep this constructive so I quietly spoke to myself, them, whatever, you get it. ¡°Thank you all for coming. I know we don¡¯t always see eye to eye and that before now I have often tried to keep you all as far away as possible. This is mostly because some of you have seem to take a particular delight in messing with my head.¡± I started slowly, quietly. I saw a few nods and murmurs of assent. I continued slowly ¡°I have never asked you folks for anything, mostly because I was somewhat able to function on my own.¡± There were a few nods from some, a few head shakes in the negative from others and more murmuring but they settled down quickly. ¡°I am not trying to take you for granted here and I am willing to listen to your views and advice on this matter.¡± I started as the quiet started to crank up into a manic building of speech from all corners, drowning each other out in their attempts to be heard. I quickly held up both hands, closed my eyes, and lowered my head refusing to continue until they all lapsed back into silence again. I looked up ¡°I am willing to listen BUT,¡± I held up a finger and with a stern look to prevent the mob of voices from rising again ¡°we must have some order in how we do this or it¡¯s going to end up like every other time you guys all want to be heard. I think we can all agree that you want to be heard, that I am willing to listen, and that we need to do this in a way that allows you each to be heard by me yes?¡± I queried with short glances at the most opinionated faceless I was familiar with. I saw nods and heard more murmurs of assent from the crowd in general. ¡°Alright,¡± I started, pausing to think about it ¡°how about this then. I am the leader, we all know that even if you don¡¯t like it, because I have the ability to make the ultimate decision but you have all just been promoted to my council. Everyone has a say, everyone gets a vote, but I ultimately get the final say. I will announce a topic and anyone that wants to voice an original opinion not already covered can raise their hands. I will pick you, one at a time, to share your thoughts and once everyone has gotten a chance to be heard I will call for a vote of hands and then decide. Fair?¡± I waited a few minutes as the faceless were looking at each other, I knew they were communicating in a way that I could not follow so I waited patiently for a response. The Soldier snapped to attention and raised a single hand over his head with a fluid, crisp movement and holding it there perfectly still while he stared forward into the distance. I noticed the rest of the crowd quieting down quickly and started darting glances between me and him as they waited to see what would happen next. I reached up to rub the stubble on my chin as I called ¡°Yes soldier?¡± The Soldier dropped his hand to his side and barked out ¡°Request for clarification sir!¡± This was a little more formal than I expected but I responded with a simple ¡°Please continue soldier.¡± The Soldier barked again ¡°Sir, are you aware that there are three groups of what you call ¡°faceless¡± that you are currently able to interact with?¡± I sat digesting what he said and was vaguely concerned over his use of ¡°currently able to interact with¡±, but I had not been aware there were groups. I responded ¡°No soldier, I was not aware of this. Why?¡± He quickly nodded once, a sharp up and down movement of his head before barking ¡°Sir, we need to be able to make decisions quickly. Giving each faceless a voice in a time of calm is fine, but during times of crisis it could be the difference between life and death.¡± I turned this over in my head and could not fault the logic. I mean we had been sitting here talking for at least a good 5 minutes since I first said please to them. I nodded and asked ¡°I assume you have a recommendation on how to resolve this soldier?¡± Another sharp nod of assent as he stated ¡°Yes sir, I recommend you have each group of faceless elect a representative for their group. This will allow the rep to quickly figure out what their faction would like and present it to you. This will allow you to have three quick options, a simple 3 vote system, and all faceless will get a voice. It also allows you to deal with a single faceless on most occasions and will let you make requests of any faceless causing concern through their leader in the future sir!¡± Finished with what he had to say he snapped a salute in my direction and then returned to parade rest, hands clasped tightly behind his back. I looked around the small closet and simply asked ¡°Does anyone disagree?¡± I saw no further raised hands, simply head nods and murmurs of assent. I nodded again to myself and said out loud ¡°I have decided to implement The Soldier¡¯s idea. I assume you all know which faction you belong to so when each faction leader and faction name is chosen please stand in front of me and raise your hands again.¡± Hearing a louder babbling of voices, none of which I could make out, I sat back against the wall and wished that I knew if Ginny was ok. I started thinking about the things I knew about Ginny, things that would help me try to check on her. I knew she worked at the library Thursday through Sunday in the afternoons. I knew her favorite meat was a thick rare steak, that her favorite fruit was an apple, and that she had dropped out of college to come home and take care of her grandmother when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer''s. I knew that she had a small red Honda Fit ¡°smart car¡±, that she lived a few miles from here near the only gym in town, and that she was an avid sport shooter. She had even ranked in the top 3 of the State for the last three years running. I knew she was 25, her birthday was a month before mine, and that she was ten years younger than me. I knew she didn¡¯t have a boyfriend or any other living family. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. My train of thought was interrupted, the babbling of the faceless dying off in the closet, the only remaining sound the occasional booming on the door. Looking up in surprise, I had expected it to take a lot longer for all the faceless to settle into any kind of order, I saw that there were indeed three of them standing there with their hands raised waiting. From left to right I saw The Soldier, standing at rigid attention with hand raised high, next was Fat Loudmouth standing there with a slouch and his hand half raised. I couldn¡¯t see his face but I could FEEL him smirking at me, and finally was the most unexpected of the three. The Psycho. He was quiet so far today, standing somewhat straight with his hand raised high. I pointed to The Soldier first asking ¡°Alright you first, what do you prefer I call you?¡± He quickly dropped his hand back to attention, taking a step forward and barking out ¡°Sir, you can continue calling me The Soldier, sir!¡± I nodded and he took a step back as I pointed at Fat Loudmouth and asked ¡°What about you?¡± Still feeling his smirk, he belched and drawled out ¡°Well mister ¡°leader¡± you can call me amazing, all the other ladies do!¡± He finished with an elbow into the ribs of The Soldier standing next to him. Continuing with a laugh he said ¡°I don¡¯t give a damn what you call me dipshit, call me Fats if you like since it¡¯s close to what you always think about me anyways.¡± He finished with what I assumed was another annoying smirk. I stared at him for a minute before he backed down a bit and stepped back grumbling quietly to himself about ¡°Dickhead leaders.¡± And ¡°Stupid idea anyways¡±. Lastly I turned and looked at The Psycho. I was trying to figure out what I should say to him as I felt him silently appraising me. He scared me, his methods scared me, his words scared me, and I was more scared that he was part of a faction of others that must think like he does. I finally broke the silent appraisals going back and forth with a terse ¡°What about you?¡± He nodded and responded with a simple reply of ¡°Call me Killer.¡± I simply nodded as he stepped back into line with the others. Sitting forward with my legs crossed on the floor I outlined our current issue simply to the ¡°Council¡±. ¡°Alright folks, we are trapped in a closet with at least one of those humans outside pounding on the door. It¡¯s locked and seems to be holding up pretty well but who knows for how long it will keep trying to get in or how long the door will last. I have light from that one bare bulb¡± I continued pointing at the ceiling light fixture ¡°but unless there is a gun or knife in here somewhere that I missed we have no weapons. We don¡¯t know why humans are suddenly going cannibal, if we might go cannibal too, or how wide spread this is. I want to check on Ginny while in town, if possible, and then check on my parents on the way home. We might want to think about arming up before heading home too but our most immediate concern is the bastard banging on the door and what to do next. What do you guys think our options are?¡± Killer immediately raised his hand and starting speaking in a low flat tone. ¡°Look around the closet. Find or make a weapon. Throw the door open, timing it so that it happens the next time it hits the door, to knock it down. Bash, stab, stomp, burn, and kill it until it stops moving. Then make more weapons. Kill more of them. Kill all of them. You can¡¯t save them but you can kill them and have some fun too.¡± He quickly stepped back before I responded. Well, he might be nuts but he did raise a good point as I looked around me. It was a normal entryway closet filled with coats and shoes, a small old style vacuum cleaner with a bag in the corner, and looking up I saw a small shelf that I hadn¡¯t closely looked over. I moved from sitting into a low hunched over standing position so I could poke my head over the top of the shelf and immediately saw a couple of motorcycle helmets. These triggered a thought see, I don¡¯t remember riding motorcycles but somehow I knew that most people who did tended to like wearing gear to help protect against road rash and road debris being kicked up into them. Moving the helmets I saw a pair of men¡¯s leather gloves and grabbed them. They were a nice soft black leather, well broken in, and thick. These would help protect my from the biting bastards I thought to myself as I quickly slipped them onto my large hands. I heard The Soldier sound off with ¡°Sir, I recommend looking for a leather jacket and riding pants in that rack of hanging coats as well!¡± I responded with a nod and by sitting back down to reach above my head and move them across the metal rack. I stopped with a sudden flash of insight as Fats piped up with, ¡°About time you started using your head dipshit. That bar that all this stupid shit is hanging on would make a pretty good weapon to bash the sick fucks in the head with eh?¡± He finished with a long scratch of his armpit to really drive the point home I thought in disgust. But he was correct as I had just realized the bar in the closet would make a pretty good weapon if I could break it free. The bar was at least 6 feet long, steel, and didn¡¯t sound hollow from a quick testing knock on it. It was a really solid bar of metal. I started pulling hangers of coats and sweaters off the rack on one end and found it was just loosely set into a notched frame attached to the wall and could easily be removed. Things were starting to look up indeed! I kept removing hanging coats, still looking for more motorcycle riding gear but didn¡¯t find anything else that would fit. I quickly pushed all the removed clothing down as flat as I could get it under me so I would be less likely to trip over it and then pulled the steel bar down from the notches it loosely sat in. The bar pulled free easily and as I took a closer look at it I found it to be about 1.5 inches thick and just over six feet long. It was going to be a little unwieldy and was heavy as hell, but it wouldn¡¯t take more than a single good swing to crush a skull, break an arm or leg, and it had enough weight behind it that I could easily use it as a barricade across something if I needed to. I could see Killer out of the corner of my eye and hear him gently singing to himself ¡°A killing we will go, a killing we will go, hi ho alright let¡¯s go! A killing we will go.¡± I turned to look at him as he shrugged and started humming a tune instead. I understood what he was trying to imply even if I didn¡¯t like it. I was going to have to get out of here but I didn¡¯t want to go at night. I remembered how the monsters at the gas station had reacted to the sunlight streaming into the front of the store. They moved with the darkness and seemed to freeze in the actual sunlight. I didn¡¯t really notice it before but now I was thinking about it more carefully. If they were moving around a lot in dark spaces and the sun stopped them for some reason, is that why I didn¡¯t notice anything until I got near town? Maybe that¡¯s why I didn¡¯t start seeing them wandering around outside until the sun had dipped behind the hills. ¡°What do you guys think?¡± I asked aloud looking at the faceless. The Soldier immediately responded with ¡°Never enter an enemies preferred battle ground unless you have to, it¡¯s better to force them to fight in areas that you have prepared and in this case with the sun literally at your back.¡± I nodded and looked at the other two. Fats just nodded and said ¡°Don¡¯t look at me, I just hope all the sexy ladies haven¡¯t turned into those freaks. Don¡¯t die until you get one though. I wanna watch you two doing the nasty.¡± I didn¡¯t bother to even roll my eyes as I turned to Killer. He shrugged and simply said ¡°I just want you to kill them all. A smart predator always attacks prey when they are at their weakest. We are the predators, so we set the time line to kill, maim, burn, crush, and kill some more.¡± Again, a creepy little bastard but he wasn¡¯t wrong. I glanced at my watch, it was only around 10pm, I had been in here at least five hours by this point and was tired from the work I had done on my homestead earlier in the day as well as from all the adrenaline fueled spikes in my blood pressure from when I came to town. I looked around at the Council and said ¡°Thanks for all the help guys. I mean it. I really appreciate the advice and I have decided I am going to try and get some sleep until after the sun is up tomorrow. I figure if the sun is up I can deal with the one outside the door first then move out into the street to use sunlight as a possible defense. If they really do stop in sunlight then I can use that to my advantage and figure out where to go from there, probably grab a car and start looking for Ginny as I make my way over to my parents place. If they aren¡¯t stopped by the sun, then at least I will be in a more open area where I have choices I can make about how and where to move from there. Understood?¡± They all nodded in agreement and for the first time ever, without reading a book, all the faceless faded away leaving me alone in the closet with just my own thoughts to keep me company. I reached up and grabbed the pull string on the light, turning it off with a double clicking noise. I settled down onto the coats on the floor, grabbing a large women¡¯s fur to keep warm. I lay there, basking in the silence of no faceless, and ignoring the booming sounds of the monster hitting the door. I slowly drifted towards sleep with thoughts of finding Ginny and what I would do next bouncing around in my very battered and very broken mind. Chapter 3 - I Would Never Hurt You Ginny I had a moment of panic when I woke up, forgetting for a moment where I was. I panicked, feeling like I had been buried alive in a coffin, before my hand touched the steel pole next to me on the pile of coats. I recoiled from the sudden pain and all of the previous night¡¯s events came rushing back to me, leaving me in stunned silence on the floor. I thought back over the previous day and realized this was the first time I had slept that well from as far back as I can remember. I had no nightmares, didn¡¯t wake up multiple times throughout the night screaming and in pain, and there were no faceless trying to coerce me into listening to their stories. I stretched as far apart as I could in the small closet and sat up noticing that there was no pounding on the outside of the door anymore. I listened carefully, trying to pick out any sound of movement or breathing on the other side of the door. It was just too quiet and this worried me greatly. I could hear birds chirping outside and see the light of the new day under the door. Seeing the sunlight through the crack at the bottom of the door I sat back and pondered my plan from the night before. The way I saw it was that the infected either got tired of beating on the door and left to find easier prey or the sunlight I was seeing under the door might be enough that it stopped him in his tracks. I couldn¡¯t be sure right now unfortunately. I reached up and pulled the string for the light, half expecting nothing to happen, but it came back on and I could see nothing had changed inside the small closet. I decided there was no time to waste so I put on the leather gloves I had found the night before, picked up the steel bar, and deciding to act like the monster was still somewhere in the house I unlocked the door and hit it like a linebacker with the Superbowl on the line. It swung open fast and hard, encountering no resistance as I barreled through the door and slammed into the wall on the other side of the hall. I quickly recovered, steel rod in hand, and spun in place looking around. The front door was still closed from where I had closed and locked in the night before. Looking around I didn¡¯t see any sign of the infected from the night before. I had made a lot of noise when I came rushing out of the closet but nothing seemed to be reacting to it. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor for the moment I unlocked the front door. Having quietly opened it I stuck my head out to make sure there were no immediate dangers. Seeing no other infected I stepped out leaving the door open behind me. I strode forward, quickly, into the street looking around at all of the destruction, car crashes, and bodies strewn about. There was blood smeared on fences, streets, sidewalks, cars, windows, houses, and just anywhere you could imagine a human having once walked. I stood there transfixed by the scene around me seeing all this death and destruction. I didn¡¯t see anything moving however, so that was either a very good sign or a very bad one. I walked towards where I had crashed my truck and stopped in my tracks. The tree that had jumped out in front of me was still there but my fucking truck was gone. ¡°Damn it!¡± I said quietly to myself. I knew I had taken a pretty hard knock to my face when I hit the tree and must have left my keys in it. I was so busy stomping out the infected that had tried to grab me from behind that I didn¡¯t even check to see if it was still running. I had been reacting purely on instinct after getting my bell rung crashing. I wondered if someone who wasn¡¯t an infected had taken it or if a survivor had seen what happened and figured I was already dead so the truck was fair game. Another, far more terrifying though came to mind, what if the infected somehow knew how to drive. I heard Fats belch and chuckle as he appeared behind me walking up the street as he said ¡°Who gives a shit fucko, the damn thing is gone now and you need to get moving. If you are still out here when it gets dark¡­ you are going to get raped like new pretty boy meat in prison.¡± He chuckled again and vanished. I shrugged irritably, I knew he was right but that was my damn truck. I looked around, one last time, and then tried to think about how I would proceed from here. I didn¡¯t know how to hotwire a car so theft was very unlikely. I didn¡¯t know anyone in town close enough to where I was in order to try and borrow theirs. I had a sudden thought but quickly discounted it as the nearest dealership where I might be able to steal a vehicle was about 40 minutes away. I knew it was time for the old shoe leather express to carry me home. Resigned to having to walk I turned towards the street that would take me downtown into my small country town and started walking. The steel bar was too heavy to carry in a ready to swing stance, so I had it draped over one shoulder like some cartoon thug. I felt like a thug too covered in scars, wearing dirty clothes and leather gloves, walking down the middle of the street with a six foot piece of steel draped over a shoulder. If it weren¡¯t for the all the destruction around me, I would have felt pretty badass as well. I wasn¡¯t sure how many other survivors there were but to be wandering around as the only living person I knew of through all this had me feeling like I owned the damn place. Walking down the street, I kept my eyes peeled for anything to be concerned about and was checking the cars I passed by looking for keys or anything useful. Normally I would never think of taking stuff out of someone else¡¯s car but, considering the state of my small town, if it was still there the original owner probably wasn¡¯t coming back for it. ¡°You should check the trunks too, that¡¯s where all the best stuff gets hidden, like weapons or bodies.¡± Killer suddenly inserted into my stream of thoughts with a dry raspy laugh of amusement. I nodded internally to him and started popping trunks open as well. I didn¡¯t find as much as I would have liked but I did find a back pack full of books. The backpack wasn¡¯t anything special but it was better than trying to carry anything I did find by hand so I quickly dumped the books out and slung it over my back. I was slowly making my way downtown to the library and thinking that it was pretty unlikely that I would find Ginny there but that I needed to check, just in case. The old library would be one of my stops if I had needed a place to barricade and hole up quick inside town when all this needed to go down. At one time, in the 1800s when the town was founded, the library had started off as a stone defensible building in case the town was attacked. The lowest window on it was a good ten feet off the ground and it had a solid eight inch thick wooden door for the front and back entrances. It also had a full basement that had been converted into a nuclear attack shelter by the local government in the 50s or 60s. I had been down there once when Ginny was curious about some of the gear stored there. It was funny because while I might not remember much from before my ¡°accident¡± I could easily tell her what everything down there was, how it worked, and if it was still good. They also had a natural spring well down there, but I wasn¡¯t sure about a food supply. No weapons either so while I considered trying to use it as a base in town while I figured out what was going on I quickly dismissed it as folly. I wanted to find Ginny but of the places I knew that I could check there weren¡¯t enough that I would need to stay in town for long. I made it to Main Street, after about a 20 minute walk, and still hadn¡¯t seen a living soul. Looking up the street towards the dead end cul-de-sac that lead to the library along with some other civic buildings I saw a couple of the naked infected standing still in the middle of the road. They hadn¡¯t noticed me yet and were just standing there, staring at the police station. ¡°Sir, remember how those tangos stared you down when they hit the sunlight yesterday at the gas station?¡± The Soldier suddenly asked in my ear. I nodded quietly and mentally waved a hand at him to continue as I settled down behind a car to hide and observe for a bit. ¡°Well sir, they are awfully interested in something that isn¡¯t you. Could be something new we haven¡¯t seen them do, more likely to be another living human. I suggest taking them out while they are frozen in place. Best case scenario a friendly human sees and gives us some intel, mid case scenario they avoid us, worst case scenario that many less tangos you have to dodge if you get stuck here after dark again sir.¡± The Soldier finished up. Killer giggled and started singing a song about killing which I took as agreement that we should kill the infected before moving on. I nodded in agreement and directed a mental thank you to them in my head as they went quiet again, leaving me to concentrate on the task at hand. I checked the other way up the street but it was empty of any threat that I could see, just more of the destruction that I was quickly becoming to feel at home in. I hefted my pipe off my shoulder into a ready to swing stance and moved quietly around the back of the car I was crouched behind. I moved in a low crouch to the other side of the street behind the monsters as quietly as I could to avoid attention. I was PRETTY sure they weren¡¯t going to move, but I wanted to catch them by surprise if I could just in case. Stepping quickly I got within striking range of the first of the four in the small group. I hadn¡¯t noticed how small they were when I was moving up on them, just the normal nudity and blood covered wounds but as I closed in from behind I realized they were children. These four were infected kids. I quietly took a step back, indecision running through my head. I had been ok dealing with adult infected but it had totally slipped my mind that if the adult humans could be infected what about the kids? ¡°What¡¯s the issue? They are only smaller humans, still prey for killing! KILL THEM!¡± Killer hissed in my ear in anger. I rounded faster than I think I have ever moved and stared right into where his face should have been, my sadness gone and replaced with an anger so hot it was rolling off me in waves of white fire. Killer shrank back from me quickly in the face of such a barrage of intense feeling directed at him. ¡°Never children. We don¡¯t EVER kill kids. Don¡¯t even bring it up again or so help me I will find a way to kill any faceless who so much as looks like he might bring it up again. Are we clear?¡± I stated slowly, quietly in a low eerily calm voice to Killer and all the rest as well. I knew they were listening and I was done with their shit. I wasn¡¯t trapped in reality with them, they were trapped in my head with ME and I was calling all the shots. Killer nodded while raising his hands in an open gesture of ¡°don¡¯t murder me please¡± placation before disappearing. I stood there seething for a minute and then turned trying to figure out what to do about the kids. I saw The Soldier out of the corner of my eye looking directly at me. That was new, as usually he was standing stiffly at attention somewhere. I turned and looked directly at him and asked ¡°What do you think I should do about this?¡± He stared at me and shook his head. He didn¡¯t need to say it, he was a figment of my imagination and even though I had JUST said no kids, never kids, these weren¡¯t really kids anymore, they were infected and judging by the blood running down their faces had become killers as well. I started to wonder what favors I was doing these things if I didn¡¯t put them down now and just how many other people they might hurt if I didn¡¯t take this chance to put them down. I turned my head again and asked softly. ¡°They aren¡¯t kids anymore are they? I mean kids wouldn¡¯t be standing naked in a road covered in wounds and blood right? Does that make it better than if I killed a normal adult human?¡± The Soldier reached out and put a hand on my shoulder and simply said ¡°Some actions we have to carry through with, even when they hurt, even when they go against everything we thought was right and true, because in this reality, the kindest thing you can do is put them down quickly and show them the respect due a fallen comrade.¡± I nodded as I roughly wiped away the moisture in my eyes and gripped my pipe tightly. I moved back into position and with four hard swings, broke each of their tiny skulls. I tried to do it as quickly as I could so if they did still feel pain it was over too fast for them to understand. It was also over too quickly for them to turn and stare at me. After they were dead I dropped my pipe and sank to the ground sobbing like I never remember having done. I thought I was dealing with the whole ¡°going to the library and now the world has turned into a horror movie¡± thing experiencing pretty well up until now but God damn this hurt. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I was already broken in a world full of humans that always seemed to be so alien to me. Now I was broken in a world full of infected and the things I once knew as being stable, right and wrong, were just gone out the fucking window like flipping a switch to the off position. I sat there crying so hard that I didn¡¯t really hear or at least process that someone was calling my name. Large body wracking sobs shook my frame as tears and snot ran down my face and I knew I looked like some kind of cartoon baby crying their eyes out. I was still adrift in the sea of emotions when I felt a hand touch my shoulder. Assuming it was one of the faceless I shook it off and told them all to leave me alone. I was quickly brought to realize the error of my ways when a huge slap caught me across the face rocking me backwards. Recoiling in shock and pain I looked up to see Ginny standing there with a really worried look on her face. I just sat there starting at her when I realized her lips were moving and tuned back into what my ears were trying to tell me ¡°Have you been bitten TK?! God damn it TK snap out of it! I am not one of the voices in your head!¡± she was quietly but insistently saying to me as she cocked her hand back for another huge slap. I quickly held my hands up and responded ¡°No I haven¡¯t been bitten, not that they haven¡¯t been trying since last night. ¡° She looked relieved dropping her hand and picking up a piece of iron rebar covered with dried blood. I noticed she was looking a little disheveled, thinner around her cheeks, huge dark bags under her eyes, and that she was nervous as a mouse in a glass house full of cats. She kept looking over her shoulder and around at everything. Before I knew what I was really doing I reached up and dragged her into a massive hug. I really did dwarf her small height and frame but I was just so happy to see someone I like alive! I was starting to wonder if I might be all that¡¯s left. I must have caught her completely by surprise because I felt her stiffen up and then go limp as she realized I was just saying hello to a friend. Then she started crying, like I had been, and just letting it all come out. ¡°What a bunch of hippie, kumbaya, drum circle pounding, hair braiding, and Nancy boy loving bullshit!¡± I heard Fats say in my ear. I ignored him of course. Fuck Fats. I have my friend back. After a few minutes of this Ginny quickly pulled herself together and stepped back a bit while looking around, much more steady than she had been a few minutes ago. ¡°What happened here Ginny? I came into town for books last night and damn near got munched on. I had to hole up in a closet in some random house after curb stomping some naked guy trying to take a bite out of me.¡± I asked quietly. She shook her head, looking around she quietly said ¡°Not here TK, these little infected cornered me in there last night and had me trapped inside. I¡¯m not sure how you managed to sneak up on them and take them all out like that but we need to get back to the library. I have some other survivors there and now we have some real weapons.¡± She showed me a couple of duffle bags that I hadn¡¯t noticed sitting on the ground. She must have brought them out when she came to check on me. Smart girl I thought, looking over the contents of the overfilled bags. Pump shotguns, 9mm and .45 pistols, a couple of .308 bolt action rifles with scopes, and about a dozen AR-15s. She even had magazines and ammo for all of them. I nodded my head at her in understanding, reached down and picked up two of the larger bags will all the ammo and larger rifles. She looked at me in surprise, smiled tightly and grabbed the smaller bag with pistols. She started to crouch and move around the cars and I asked ¡°Why are you sneaking? It¡¯s daylight out.¡± She looked back at me like I as stupid and pointed at the kid monsters. I didn¡¯t dare risk another look at them as I shook my head and explained ¡°They don¡¯t seem to like daylight, it freezes them stiff like water outside in the winter. They stare at you pretty fierce but they won¡¯t move. I have seen them do it a couple times now. They will move in shadows and stuff but direct sun stops them dead Ginny.¡± She looked a little disbelieving but stood up hesitantly and just said ¡°I guess that¡¯s why I am still alive then. I noticed there weren¡¯t any around the library before dawn and was making my way down the street when these little bastards saw me.¡± She spat on the ground and continued ¡°They almost cornered me in the alley behind the police station but I managed to shimmy up the rain gutter drain pipe to the roof and climbed in through the window vents they have.¡± She started walking, still keeping a close eye on our surroundings, as I followed along listening with the two bags over one shoulder steel pipe over the other. We moved to the center of the road and she continued ¡°I knew where the Sheriff kept his spare keys to the armory from one night when he was drunk and hitting on me at the bar. He tried to impress me by sharing how big his gun collection was. As if a gun collection was enough to get into MY pants, what an idiot. I grabbed everything they had left and don¡¯t think I missed much. When I was trying to head back to the library out the front door I got to the street right before the sun rose and those little infected came around the side of the building looking for me. I dropped the bags and lured them around the edge of the cars so I could circle back inside and they stopped right at the bags. I didn¡¯t know the sunlight stopped them so I assumed they were guarding them and waiting for me to make my move inside.¡± We kept watch and kept walking, no threats in sight. I asked her ¡°How many others are at the library?¡± The grimace she gave me before answering was telling ¡°Just a couple of kids who were at the libraries weekly story time, some out of town college frat boy, and the head librarian.¡± She finished with a sour look. I nodded in understanding. No one liked Rina, the head of the library. She was one of those women who like to attend church, not because she got anything out of it or really seemed to believe in their positive messages, she just liked to gossip about everyone and twist the words of her chosen holy book in such a way as to condemn anyone she didn¡¯t like and make their lives hell. I had a run in with her the very first day we met and it had set the tone of our entire relationship from then on. My old man had brought me to the library and was showing me where all my favorite sections were, Rina was coming out of a back room as I passed, and when she turned around she did this huge fake gasp, put the back of her hand to her head like some actress in an old movie about to faint, and sat down in her chair. I had scowled at her, I knew what I looked like but she had seen me before on the street and made some snide side handed comments to her little coven of fellow witches¡­ I mean friends. I had kept walking, my Dad pushing my from behind to get me away from her, when she shouted at my retreating form ¡°You must be rude as a side effect of suffering God¡¯s wrath.¡± I had stopped dead in my tracks and turned around to glare at her. There were only a few feet separating us and I think she had realized she went too far as she shrank back into the little wooden bench she was sitting on. I asked in a low voice ¡°God¡¯s wrath?¡± not really thinking that she would be stupid enough to answer I stared her down and started to turn away again. But she stupidly answered in a low voice ¡°God made you a monster on the outside to match the monster you are inside.¡± I spun back and took a step forward, her face draining of color she jumped to her feet and took off like a bat out of hell as my old man threw his arms around me holding me back so that I couldn¡¯t pursue her. She never said anything quite so stupid to me again, to my face anyways, but she always made sure to make my life as miserable as she could without risking life and limb again. We made it to the end of the dead end avenue reaching the library. ¡°Ginny,¡± I quietly said ¡°why were you out here finding weapons by yourself?¡± Ginny looked down at her feet for a minute and said ¡°If you promise to let me handle it I will tell you why TK. I know you and I need you to let ME deal with this. OK?¡± I thought about this and figured that Rina must be the reason. I shook my head in a negative, set the bags down, looked Ginny in the face and said ¡°No Ginny, I will not promise that. I trust you, but not Rina, and I am not going in to give that crazy manipulative bitch a bunch of guns. If you want to, I understand, but I will just go home. You are welcome to come with me, you know how remote my cabin is. Hell you can even bring the others, except for Rina. I have food, water, shelter, and we can stay far away from these infected and figure out what to do next.¡± I could see Ginny working this over in her head, feeling suddenly hungry and thirsty I sat down on the hood of a car parked in the street to wait for a response. She looked at me, nodding, and opened the bags of weaponry we had carried. She started sorting through the stuff and broke it down into two bags, putting some of the overflow on the hood of the car I was sitting in. I just watched and waited for her response. Ginny finished sorting and stated ¡°Give me your backpack TK.¡± I quickly unslung it and handed it to her as she loaded a couple of pistols with magazines and box after box of ammunition into it. She handed the pack back to me and I re-slung it, still waiting for a response. She looked me dead in the eyes and before I knew what was happening she reached up, her slim warm hand running over the scars on my neck and the back of my head, she pulled me down towards her and kissed me. Her lips were warm, soft, and parted as her tongue slipped through into mine. I froze for a moment and wrapped her into a hug as the kiss ended as quickly as it had started. Burying her face into my shoulder her lips brushed my ear as she whispered ¡°You are a good man TK, never let anyone tell you different. Wait here, I will drop off this bag of guns and see if the kids want to come with me. Why don¡¯t you see if you can find a ride for us at the police station? I saw a bunch of keys on a board by their back door leading into their impound lot.¡± I loosened my hug and she leaned back looking up into my icy blue eyes with her intelligent green eyes. My mind was blank. I just nodded in agreement. I would do anything for this woman and we both knew it. She stepped back as I saw the softness and emotion in her face harden into determination as she refocused on what she was going to do. I simply asked ¡°Are you going to be safe going in there alone or should I stay?¡± She looked up at me with a silly little smirk and replied ¡°I got this big guy. I don¡¯t think there will be any real issues but be back here with a ride in 10 minutes if you can ok? I don¡¯t want to hang around after this all goes down.¡± I stood and nodded. While she watched I broke the driver side window of the car I was sitting on, reaching inside for the latch to pop the trunk, and put my pack and the duffel of guns we were keeping into the trunk closing it afterwards. She had kept a small pistol, a .380 from the look of the size of it, and put it into her jacket pocket showing no sign it was even there. She turned to me, stood on her tip toes and gave me another peck on the check with a smile that promised more than I could ever have hoped for, and she strode towards the front door of the library. I knew that if I watched her leave I would follow so I quickly shouldered my length of pipe and strode back down the street to the police station. I didn¡¯t see anything different on the street as I walked back so I quickly went in the front door that Ginny had left unlocked and slightly ajar. I carefully made my way through the station and saw some dead bodies here and there. Most were naked and had head damage of some kind, mostly gun shots, so not Ginny kills then I thought back to when she came outside with nothing but the length of rebar pipe she had carried. I worked my way towards the back of the station, checking desks for spare ammo and anything useful. I found a couple spare pairs of handcuffs and keys, which I put into my cargo pockets. I passed a break room and looking in saw the vending machines had been left untouched. I finished clearing the building and hurried back. Taking my pipe I quickly smashed open the glass fronts of the drink and snack machines. Looking under the single sink I found some garbage bags, which I pocketed, and using one I took all the snacks and drinks left in the machine. Taking my bag of goodies I quickly found the board by the back door Ginny had mentioned. I looked out the window into the fenced in area, looking for a vehicle worth taking and saw a pristine extended cab truck, looked like it might even be a diesel, with a full cap over the bed of the truck. I looked over the key board until I found the keys tagged with the license plate on the truck and stepped outside moving carefully to the truck, eyes scanning around me for potential dangers. Seeing nothing I quickly unlocked the truck and made sure it wasn¡¯t hiding any infected waiting to attack me. Seeing nothing unusual I unlocked the cap over the bed of the truck and put my bag of vending machine finds inside closing it. I was turning over the logistics of having sudden guests at my homestead and realized I wouldn¡¯t have enough beds for everyone. I had a sudden flash of thought, so I quickly started the truck, with no issues luckily, and pulled it back over towards the back door of the station backing it in to line up the bed of the truck with the back door. I went back inside straight to the holding cells and quickly stripped the beds of their mattresses, quickly loading them into the truck. I found the small closet where they stored the linen and pillows for guests of the jail and looted that closet full of clean blankets, sheets, and pillows as well. I only had a small cabin with a small bed so the kids will need places to sleep when we get back I thought to myself. I had a small guest apartment in the loft of my barn already and imagined it wouldn¡¯t take too much work to add on another room or two for them to share during the warmer month. I was actually SMILING to myself as I closed the back of the truck and started opening the sliding chain link fence gate to leave. I knew things were going too well when I heard something that stopped my heart for just a moment. I counted at least 7 shots and all of them were coming from the direction of the library. Ginny!