46

Remy

"As an ember will ignite a flame, we will reignite the human race," Vaughn was saying as his speech meandered around again. His voice became shrill at times, and his eyes were practically bursting out from his skull. His face had a puffiness, like maybe he was drinking too much booze, or maybe having a mild allergic reaction to something.

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from," Vaugh said, adding a recitation of T.S. Eliot to his already long speech.

"There is something seriously wrong with that man," I told Boden as I glared up at the mayor on the stage.

"Hey, where did Stella go?" Max asked. He was holding the baby and glancing around.

"Wasn't she just here with us?" Boden asked, sounding alarmed.

The air felt charged and dangerous, and out in the town plaza, we were exposed and vulnerable.

"We have to find her, and we have to go," I said, and there was no pushback from either Max or Boden.

They mayor was still talking because the band was still on a break. At the edge of the plaza, Harlow was sitting at a picnic table between Lazlo and her girlfriend Kimber. Nova stood nearby with Sage in her arms .

"Take care of Max and the baby," I told Boden, and I went straight for Lazlo and Harlow. "Have you seen Stella?"

Harlow looked at me with tears in her eyes, and her girlfriend wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "She was here when I saw Mercy, but I haven't seen her since then."

"Did something happen?" Nova asked me.

"I don't –" I began, but a low rumbling sound stopped me short.

At first I thought it was thunder, but then I realized it was coming from the front gate. The whole crowd slowly fell silent, and everyone turned to look toward it.

"Why aren't the Guardians talking or sounding alarms?" Boden asked quietly, and he and Max had followed me.

"Where is the safest place in town?" I asked, hoping that anyone would answer, but I never took my eyes off the darkness around the gates.

"Um, the mayor's office, maybe," Nova said. "There's a storm shelter in the basement."

The fencing abruptly crashed forward with a bang so loud that it shook the earth. Spotlights illuminated the chain link fences that provided a maze-like entrance passed the examination sheds, and they partially obscured the view of the gates and the exterior fence. But the beast who broke through was an incredible monster.

It was the largest fucking zombie I had ever seen. It was a gorilla, and he was way over two meters tall and probably half a ton of raging muscle. His fur was balding and missing in thick chunks, leaving leathery skin covered in open wounds. His bottom lip had been ripped off, revealing monstrously large and horrific teeth.

There was only a split second – a very fraction of a moment – to appreciate the enormity of the danger that had flattened all of the fences like a child crumpling up paper. And then the zombie horde flooded around the gorilla, overtaking the city like crashing waves.

It was too late for yelling and planning now. There was only moving and survival.

I turned around and started pushing Max towards the mayor's office at the edge of downtown. I stayed behind him, shielding him from the zombies that were charging at our heels, and Boden was at his side. I grabbed a hefty sledgehammer from where it had been left leaning after being used to hammer up festival posts and décor, because I needed a weapon.

It was already chaos around us. Everyone was running and screaming in a panic. The zombies were howling, and they attacked anyone they could sink their teeth into. There were so many children, so many people, and there was nothing to be done for them.

My vision had shrunk to a pinhole, but it was narrow and clear so I knew where to go. I could only focus on what mattered.

Whenever a zombie came anywhere near us, I swung my hammer, and it either knocked them back or sometimes even took off their heads..

Somewhere, there was a fire, and the acrid smoke filled the air. The bulbs on the lights strung across the plaza exploded and rained down shards of glass as everything became darker. Blood splashed hot on my face, and I don't even know where it came from.

People were running into their nearby homes or shops, but the zombies crashed in after them, through the windows and knocking down doors.

"Nowhere is safe anymore!" Nova yelled from behind me, but I didn't know what that meant for us. We couldn't just stay here and die .

"The garage just west of the the mayor's office!" Lazlo shouted.

"Come on!" Boden ran ahead of me and Max, clearing the path for us. His blade was in his hand, and he used it on any zombie that crossed him.

People saw us running and some followed us, but that didn't stop zombies from tackling them to the ground and devouring them while they were still alive. There was no time for help, not even time for mercy, and I kept pushing Max forward.

Jovie emerged from the crowd. Her clothes were torn, and her head was bleeding. Serg was running right on her heels. He was still wearing an apron from cooking, but he didn't look like he'd been injured at all.

"Have you seen Stella?" Max asked as we all ran together.

"Isn't that her there?" Jovie pointed ahead, and I saw a very dazed Stella staggering out of the mayor's office.

She wasn't running or moving quickly, not like she should be, even when Max screamed at her to run. Boden was in front of us, and he sprinted over to her and grabbed her up, throwing her over his shoulder like a ragdoll.

The garage was just to the left of the office, and I used my sledgehammer to take out three more zombies before we finally reached it. The door was locked with a bolt, and it took two strikes with my sledgehammer before it popped open.

Boden put Stella down, and Max had a moment to hug her quickly. Then I grabbed Serg's hand, and I shoved them all inside.

I finally looked back to see who was still with us. Lazlo, Nova, Sage, Harlow and Kimber were all together. Jovie was there, too, and Samara and Castor were huddled next to one another. Along with them were a dozen or so strangers I've never seen before.

"Was there a giant monkey with them?" Castor asked in shock as I ushered them in and shut the door behind them.

"All of the great apes can get the virus," Jovie said, leaning against the wall as she caught her breath.

"I think it was a lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graureri )," Stella replied.

"How could you possibly know that?" Samara asked.

"My only education was an encyclopedia set and nature books," she replied with a shrug.

"His name is the King, and he's been waiting an awfully long time to kill me," Harlow added flatly.

Meanwhile, Boden, Lazlo, Serg, and I were rushing all around to check what vehicles we had at our disposal. I was really doubting that this building or anywhere in town would survive the night.

I'd been rummaging through the cupboards and drawers along one wall, looking for keys to start the few ATVs and electric pickup truck. But I paused long enough to glance over at Harlow, and she didn't seem to be fully present in the moment. She stared vacantly into space as her girlfriend tried to snap her out of it.

"I found a set of keys for an ATV, I think!" Serg announced.

"Who gives a shit?" Samara asked. "Nobody will survive on the back of a slow ass electric four-wheeler with a horde of zombies biting their ass. We need the truck."

"They've gotta be here somewhere," Lazlo insisted. "We'll find them."

"Help!" Someone screamed at the door, pounding on it, but they couldn't get the latch to open.

Castor ran over and opened the door, and a screaming woman covered in blood came racing in. One of her arms was missing and spraying blood everywhere, and a zombie charged right after her. She hardly even made it a step inside before it tackled her to the ground and tore into the back of her neck.

Samara went at it with a shovel, bashing it over the head with a few wet thwocks before the zombie finally stopped moving. Castor tried to close the door, but another zombie pushed its way in. It knocked him back, leapt over the corpse of the other zombie and the armless woman, and it dove right at Jovie.

My sledgehammer was still in my hand, and I ran to help her. The zombie tore into Jovie's face before I had a chance to even raise my weapon.

Behind me, Boden and Nova were at the door, pushing it shut against the wave of zombies that crashed into it. Harlow was holding Sage, who was crying, and Stella was holding her daughter, so I yelled at Max to help me push a heavy toolbox in front of the door.

Once the door was secure, I went over to where Jovie was laying on the gravel floor. Her mouth was opening and closing, and her hands were trying to press the skin flaps of her face back on. Blood was pouring all around her fingers. She wouldn't survive. The virus would get her if the blood loss didn't, so I brought the hammer down on her head and put her out of her misery.

"What the fuck, Remy?" Samara shrieked.

"Don't open anymore doors until we find the keys and we need to open the garage door to leave," I said, referring to the rollup doors that were large enough for a vehicle to pass through.

"We're gonna leave here?" Stella asked in dismay. "What about Ripley?"

"We can't leave the wolves behind," Nova added.

"And Minnie. I can't feed Fae without the goat," Stella said .

The building we were in looked about as old as the church, so it had likely been a carriage house and stable before it became a garage. There was an old hayloft above us, and I could see a glimpse of the harvest moon through the second story windows.

"You find the keys, and I will go out and get the animals," I said. "I'll leave out the upstairs window so no one will have to open doors again."

"I'll go with you so I can get my own animals," Nova volunteered.

"Nova, I should go," Lazlo said, plaintive.

"I'm faster than you, Lazlo," Nova insisted. An injury from years ago left him with a bad knee and pronounced limp. "I'll get the wolfdogs and set the others loose so they can run from the fire and the carnage."

I grabbed the sledgehammer and headed toward the ladder up to the loft and the window. Boden didn't try to talk me out of it, because he knew I couldn't be talked out of it. I was the only one that made sense to go because I was immune to the virus.

"I am going with you," Max announced.

"Don't be stupid. I can handle it," I said.

"Remy," Max said firmly, and his eyes were hard. "My daughter could starve to death without that goat. I'm making sure that Minnie makes it here."

In his eyes, I recognized the same determination that I had in myself, and nothing could ever keep me from him. So I nodded. No time for arguments.

Max climbed the ladder first, and I paused to tell Boden, "Find the keys and get the truck running so we can get the hell out of here as soon as we get back."

"I will," he promised. "Hurry and come back to me alive."