The Devil of Harmony
Chapter Two: I'm A Savior
After my incident with the SEAD, I went home, ate some lunch, tended to my wounds, and gladly rested on my nice, soft bed. The day went by quickly, and I had slept all the way until 2 maybe 3 in the morning.
There I was on my bed listening to the faint and muffled eerie moans of the distant walkers. Occasionally I'd hear a screech which would grab me by surprise, making my heart stop for just a split second.
I continued to lie there, giving up on making myself sleep. Hands behind my head, I counted the number of screeches and moans I could hear. 2 maybe 3 minutes passed, and I counted over 50.
That wasn't right. I felt like I had to do something about it, but it was in the middle of the damn night. Going out hunting at night was very stupid – especially alone.
Another couple of minutes passed and I counted over 70. That was not right at all. I looked at the alarm clock and started counting yet again when the second's hand stroked the 30 second mark. 2 more minutes and then I realized something really, really wrong was going on. There were over 80 moans and screeches.
In a matter of nearly 10 minutes, the moans and screeches had built up from 50 to 80. Seconds later, I distinctively heard multiple gunshots and the faint rumble of an engine – I knew what thatmeant. Shit. Survivors were here.
I grunted and contemplated what to do. I could stay here and let them get eaten alive, but in return have virtually no risk to me… or I could simply get up, get my weapons, and save these fools. I thought about it again and decided to let them be. I slacked myself; adjusted to a more comfortable position.
But then a few seconds later, I heard it. I heard a human scream, and I knew I couldn't just sit there and let them die, however dangerous it was out there. And I guessed some company after a few years would do me some good. I had myself out of my covers instantly.
Even though in my pajamas, I grabbed my USP .45 right by my alarm clock and quickly ran out my room to slide down the ladder to the 1st floor. I hastily put on my shoes, even though lacking socks, and unlocked the front door like there was a walker a few feet behind me. I threw the ladder against the wall and raced upwards and on top of the wall. I picked up the ladder and quickly threw it over the wall, not caring if it landed loudly or not. I heard more gunshots.
"HELP!" a female voice screamed distantly.
Oh, this was definitely gonna be good. I grabbed my bike leant against the wall that I had put after the SEAD incident and pedaled as fast as I could, gun in hand. The source of all the commotion was definitely on the main street.
As I pedaled faster, the gun shots could be heard louder. I couldn't wait to get involved in the action. Before I realized, I was on the main street and I could see the headlights of a vehicle not 20 feet away. The problem was I could only barely see the walkers in front of me, surrounding the vehicle. I jumped off my bike and aimed what little of an outline I could see of one of the walkers. My instincts proved successful as it dropped dead.
The gunshots coming from their end continued to go on. I carefully aimed at another one as the zombies started realizing they had more company; more dinner in their case.
God damn it. I wish I brought my laser tactical, I thought.
Not a hundred percent sure I'd get the kill, I still shot the walker I had aimed at. It did drop, which surprised me – but only in the slightest bit.
"Come on! Follow me!" I bellowed to the survivors I could barely see.
Several shotgun blasts went off and multiple walkers went down. The survivors jogged their way to me, covering their backs by taking down a couple behind them. I could hear their exhaustion as they were nearing in and I could see them more clearly by each step they took. There were six of them; one female by the looks of it. All ragged, dirty, and exhausted. All of them were wielding a gun or two while sporting a large backpack – their supplies – over their shoulders.
"Where to?!" One of them exasperated.
"Just follow me," I bellowed over the moans.
I turned around and noticed a couple of walkers standing in our way. It wasn't a second before I took 'em both out. I started jogging my way back towards my home, ignoring my bike. I would get that later.
"We're almost there, keep up with me!" I shouted in encouragement.
I ignored the loud huffs and gun shots coming from behind me. We were just a minute of running away to the house. I saw a runner approaching at fast speeds; I dipped a few rounds into its chest as I had no time to aim for the head. It fell on its back from the force of the bullets but it would be up quick.
Fearing for the safety of the group and me, I ran up to the rising runner I just downed, planted my left foot onto its chest and pumped a round into its head without looking. I had no time to check whether it had really been terminated but I continued to run from then on.
I took a quick turn to the left on the street then continued to run to take another quick right which was the street of my house. We were seconds from the concrete wall before I told them to climb over the ladder. I stopped in my position as they did what they were being told. Huffing immensely, I tried to calm down and scan the area for walkers. There were maybe 17 of them that followed us and they were walking quicker than normal. They sure were hungry.
"Come on," I said in between my huffs. "Come on; bring it on you all!"
One came in shooting distance and I pulled the trigger, listening to the sound of its skull being penetrated. My lips curled in satisfaction. Everyone had climbed over and now it was my turn. I hopped onto the ladder eagerly and climbed my up faster than normal. When I got to the top, there were 5 or 6 getting dangerously close to the ladder so I hastily pulled the ladder over to the safe side.
Forgetting about how I needed the ladder to climb down, I thought, fuck it and made my 15-foot plunge, bending my knees to make the landing. I stood and set my eyes upon the obviously tired group that I had just saved.
"Looked like you guys were having a hard time," I mentioned.
One of the guys, presumably the leader, walked up to me and held out his hand for a shake.
"Thanks. You saved our assess back there."
I shrugged and shook his hand while looking at the group, more specifically… a girl. A very beautiful one.
"Don't mention it. There aren't too many people that pass through my town of Burlington. You attracted quite a horde there, though. Let's go in." I said, wiping my forehead from sweat.
The sounds of the moans and groans behind us seemed to keep them nervous and paranoid, but I was very calm.
They all started to enter, a couple of them looking back to the concrete wall just to make sure it would hold.
After I'd closed the door and locked the many bolts on it, I turned to the group placing all their weapons onto the carpet in the empty living room. MP30s, Glocks, Colt 45s, an M4 Carbine, a Mossberg shotgun, Springfield M190, an MP5, couple of combat knives, and even grenades. Though they didn't lay down every single weapon they had. A couple of men kept their hands closely to their side-arms. I could understand, though, that they couldn't quite yet trust the security of my "fortress".
"Jesus," I chuckled, looking in amazement at the piles of weapons. "Now I know who not to mess with."
"Yeah, well. The livin' dead ain't the only thing we're fightin' off." A man with a deep groggy voice spoke, who looked to be in his mid-forties with a shabby grey beard. "Damn Canucks…" He mumbled. "Anyways, I'm Michael Kerrigan," he held out his hand for a shake, "and we're from Maine."
I shook his hand and half-assed a smile for him and the group. "Pleased to meet you, Michael. I'm Clovis Videl." I noticed Michael cursing the Canadians just now and made note to ask him about it later. "So… Maine, huh? Interesting…. What's you guys' business here?"
One person stood up, a tall man who looked fit, had sandy white hair (probably dyed) and sharp green eyes. "Excuse me, sir, my name's Jonathan. Do you by any chance happen to have some water? We're out and I'm dying of a dry throat here." His strong British accent surprised me.
"Sure," I replied. "There's some in the kitchen cabinets." I pointed to the door to the left of the living room.
"Thanks, mate." He leapt over the weapons on the living room floor and into the kitchen.
"We came to Vermont because we're fleeing," another man said who was lying on the living room carpet floor. "I'm Danny, if you care. And this is my twin bro Manny." He pointed at his brother sitting next to him. Manny held out his water bottle in a curtly salute.
Michael followed after Jonathan for water I assumed.
"Fleeing? From what, besides the undead obviously?"
Danny sat up straight and looked at me. "You didn't know? The Canadians are taking over the Northeast. They've already got most of Maine and soon enough they're gonna come here. "
I frowned in disbelief. "What about that military base in New Hampshire I heard about?"
He laughed and shook his head. "You fucking serious man? That base was overrun 8 years ago."
The frown continued to grow. "I must be horribly out of touch, then. Funny… the radio never mentioned any of this."
"That's because the radio station you're listening to probably doesn't give a shit. I'm telling you, man, the United States is no longer what it used to be. You know I even heard that Texas had combined with New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas into their own nation. Rumored to be named 'The Southern Republic'.
Their leaders are definitely tough. Not only do they have to deal with the mass population of zombies in the Houston area, they have to deal with those Mexicans trying to take over, and the United States Federal Alliance trying to take over their land."
Jonathan and Michael came out of the kitchen with a couple of bottle waters in hand. They threw them around to their group, each of which gulped it down like no tomorrow.
"About that, Danny." Manny said after downing his water bottle. "That's complete bullshit and you know it. I see it with my own eyes or it never happened. Those Southerners are too fuckin' dumb to be able to handle all that."
Being born in Kansas, I felt a little offended. I scoffed without thinking.
"Alright, that's enough. We'll have no more of these discussions. We gotta get up early so let's get some sleep." Michael interjected.
I frowned. So they were just gonna use me and dispose of me when I was not needed? Were they not grateful for not saving all their asses?
"Tomorrow morning? Leaving so early?" I asked.
Michael sighed, "'Fraid so. I reckon the Canadians'll get here in a week's time. We have to get as far away as possible from north."
I thought for a bit. "You do know that if you head into New York…"
Michael nodded grudgingly. "I know. But it's a risk we're all willing to take."
A few of the survivors looked down to the ground in slight nervousness. They were hesitant, I could tell.
"You know the population of this town before the infection started was about 630,000. Around there. About 95% of the people fled north or elsewhere before the infection would hit Burlington, leaving about 31,500 people left in town. Then the infection hit.
Almost all of those people died; reanimated. I heard it took 15-20 years for the survivors before me to kill 31,000 zombies. But after those 31 were killed, there were still thousands of zombies left in town. It was like they came out of nowhere. It turned out that the constant amount of zombies flowing into town was coming from New York. The point of my story is to lay out to you all the gravity of the situation you're about to get yourself into. Once you cross that border the shit will hit the fan. And don't even get me started on when and if you get to Manhattan."
"You think we don't know that!" Michael flared. "You think we haven't already thought about that?! And besides, a lot of those undead could have come from Quebec. Ever thought of that?!"
I laughed mockingly at him. "All these years you've never known? Quebec was firebombed 30 years ago!"
A couple survivors looked at Michael in embarrassment; like he wasn't much a leader.
"Stay here," I prodded. "Stay here where it's safe."
"Safe?!" Michael scoffed. "You fool. You won't be saying that when they put a gun to your head and start fucking her inside out!" He pointed to the only female survivor in the room.
That's when I knew things were going too far.
"You make the Canadians sound like Nazis. In this world, there's a shit-load of rebel groups that will roam all around. It just so happens that this rebel group is from Canadian. I don't think they speak for the entire country. You know I'd rather handle 100 rebels single-handedly than 8 million zombies."
Both Danny and Manny stood up. "He's right you know," Danny said. Manny nodded, "I say we stop running. We're only going to endure worse things. Like Clovis said, '8 million zombies'. FUCK that! I say we make those rebels pay for what they've done."
"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP! You're not the leader, I have the final say!"
Manny, with a horrid face, was about to retort but the girl interrupted him.
"ENOUGH!" The girl stood up. "I think we should just drop this right now and discuss this another time." She looked at me and asked, "May we get some rest, if that's alright?"
I nodded.
"Come, then. I'll show you guys' room." All but one (who was cleaning his Glock) stood up. They looked eager and like they haven't enjoyed a good night's rest in a long time, but at the same time a little shaky from the argument they just witnessed. I eyed the girl really quick and made eye contact. She immediately looked away in slight annoyance.
After I climbed up, I leaned on the wall and waited. One-by-one they came up.
"Here," I showed them their way to the first guest bedroom I had. Michael went past me into his room with an emotionless face, acting as if I wasn't there.
There were only 2 beds in each room, and I had 5 rooms. That enough for them all. Some of them nodded in thanks as they passed by me and set their stuff in their room.
I looked down to see the last guy who was cleaning his Glock come up the ladder. I showed him to his room but before he would drop into bed like the rest, he gave me a random hug which I awkwardly returned.
"Thanks for saving my life, bro. I literally pissed my pants. I, uh… is the water running?"
I raised my eyebrows in awkwardness trying not to check his pants to see.
"Yeah, man. No problem. Oh, and down the hall to the left. Don't ask how I got the water running, though. That's a story for another day." I chuckled slightly in my reminiscing.
He beamed a bright smile at me and shook my hand. "My name's Alex by the way. So very glad to meet you, Clovis. Oh, and don't mind Michael. He can get pretty… rough sometimes."
I returned the smile. "Same here, Alex. If you need any extra pants I've got more than enough. And I understand. I knew someone like that back in the day…."
He nodded and turned towards the bathroom. His huge backpack swung dangerously past me right after I cautiously took a step back.
A couple seconds later I looked into his room where I was surprised to see the beautiful that I just made eye contact with. She was sitting at the edge of her side of the bed, looking out the window. "Alex, your friend, is very, very… kind?" I chuckled a bit.
She looked to me and ran a hand through her short, muddy-blonde hair
She sighed, "Well maybe that's why he's my boyfriend. Unlike the others, he actually withholds decency."
I smirked back at her indirect 'back-off' she just gave me. Like a lie detector could detect lies, she must've had a 'horny' detector.
"I wonder," I leaned against the door frame and dug fingers into my pockets, "why you are the only female in this escape?"
Her eyes turned sad. "The 'rebels' took all the women for reasons I don't want to talk about."
My heart sank in a little anger and depression. I hated those kinds of people. "Is there no more civility left in this world?" I sighed.
She shook her head in disappointment. "Unfortunately, not any that I know of." She made a strong effort to cheer up. "Anyways, my name is Vanessa Cunningham, and I'm pretty glad, Clovis, that you made the effort to save us. I know that half these guys don't seem as grateful as they should be but they're… a little shallow, to say the least. I'll leave it at that."
My lips curled. I could already tell that I liked her. She was beautiful, a little witty, and more intelligent than almost all the survivors I've encountered the past decade.
"Well, Vanessa. It was nice talking to you but I'm a little sleepy. I hope you've enjoyed my hospitality."
She nodded but before I left, but stopped me with a shocking question. "Listen, uh, you won't attempt to rape me in my sleep, right?" My face kind of went, like, WHAT-THE-FUCK! The atmosphere turned awkward in split-second.
"Hell no. What the…?!"
"OK, good. Just making sure." She gave me a fake smile and I knew that she probably didn't have too good experience in the past. "And, uh, I was just making stuff up when I said he was my boyfriend. You would be surprised how well that technique works, though."
I smirked and stood up straight.
"But don't think that just because I'm single, you can come up in here at 3 in the morning and try to fuck me," She pulled out her Colt 45 and smiled innocently, "I will blow your dick off."
I just completely busted out laughing. Laughing so hard that my abdominals were in pain.
"What?! What's so funny?" Her face full of confusion.
"Nothing… nothing," I managed as I finally finished laughing. I rubbed my abs and smiled at her. "I look forward to that," I said sarcastically. However, I didn't mean it sarcastically. I made an evil-smile, told her good night with a small chuckle and treaded towards my bedroom down to the end of the hall.
"'Night!" She returned. "Don't let the undead bite."
As I was lying in my bed in full-body comfort, when everyone was almost asleep, I thought about the rescue I did, tried to imagine it all in my head again. Thought about the argument I so quickly engaged in with Michael. He was a being a bit of an asshole and a control-freak, to be honest. And then I thought about the conversation I just had with Vanessa. Some way, somehow… I had to find a way to convince her to stay. I hadn't been feeling this affectionate for someone in over 10 years.
I petted my USP .45 slowly and drifted into sleep.
