VI - Trick or Treat
-Day 883-
Pages flipped in a calendar. A mouse looked at the small blonde child as it ate its cracker. The glowing chemicals in the flasks were bubbling.
"It is indeed October 31st, 2018," said Lisa. "I can also confirm that today marks the 883rd day since the necrosis flu went global."
"Big number," said Lily. "Halloween!"
"How did you know?" asked Lincoln.
"Lana told her," said Lisa. "I warned her not to remind Lily of such ludicrous ideas from the past. Halloween contains aspects that we simply do not have the luxury for in the current state of the world. As such, it can't be celebrated."
"So no free candy?" asked Lily. "I not remember tastin' candy. Lana tells me she loved it."
"Halloween was not just about free candy," said Lincoln. "It was the scariest day of the year. People would wear costumes, decorate their houses, and try to scare the living daylights out of people out in the streets or through haunted houses or… haunted mazes."
Lincoln looked down.
"Like corn mazes."
Lincoln looked back at Lily.
"Halloween was Lucy's favorite time of the year. Three years ago, in the… pre-GIE world, Lucy made a haunted corn maze. It was really fun. We scared two bullies–who by the way ate the candy that you and some of your sisters got– and it felt good. All the horror that went along with the day, it was all in fun."
"People delighted in being frightened," said Lisa. "I would do anything to return to that world. To only be frightened for one day out of a whole year, instead of your whole life."
"So no candy?" asked Lily.
"Actually, we can still loot some candy from the stores," said Lincoln.
"They would taste stale," said Lisa.
"Not if you batch up some artificial flavoring. Most candies have it anyways, so it's not like it's anything different from real sugar. And then we can even get other ingredients and stuff to make some actual candy!"
Lisa grabbed a notepad and pencil.
"It's possible," she said. "But you have to know what you're looking for. I am currently listing essential candy-making ingredients for you to use while out there. I heard Lori is going out on a supply-run today?"
"Yeah," said Lincoln. "I don't think she picked anyone to go with her yet. But I gotta let her know about this! Oh boy, Lily! We're not going to be walking around knocking on doors but we're still getting candy regardless!"
"Yay!" exclaimed Lily. "Candy!"
A few hours passed. The sun was high in the air, though it was not radiating warm air. The brisk air and the falling warm leaves made it more comfortable for the supply-run group to wear more clothing, such as Lori, who wore a denim bomber jacket. Lincoln, wearing an orange hoodie, carried a map of the capital and a bag of the ingredients that he gathered from the stores he looted. Behind him and Lori were Bobby, Luan, Benny, Lynn, Clyde, and Lana, each carrying a backpack.
"Remind me again why the hell do we need a map for?" asked Lynn. "Big white monument over there. We can't get lost."
"We need to know what stores we hit," said Lori. "I don't wanna repeat the mistake we made back in Maine when we would hit the same places again and again. It wastes time. It wastes energy."
"That's smart. Wasn't your idea, right?"
"So irritating," whispered Lori.
"Uh huh, it was my idea," said Lincoln.
The group walked inside a tiny corner store. They grabbed canned food, water bottles, batteries, anything useful they could get their hands on.
"So… are you two planning to have a child?" asked Clyde.
"You noticed it too, right?" remarked Luan.
"Noticed what?" nervously chuckled Lori.
"You're looking for formula milk, diapers, pacifiers, cribs, small clothes, all that baby stuff," said Benny.
"She is?" said Bobby, turning towards Lori. "You are?"
"Well…" sighed Lori.
"Oh my god, you're pregnant!" said Luan.
"You are?" asked Bobby. "Babe, this is–!"
"Woah, woah, woah!" said Lori. "I'm not pregnant! I'm just– it doesn't hurt to prepare, alright? Besides, Bobby and I aren't planning to have a kid anytime soon. World doesn't seem safe enough. Maybe it'll be safer when the cure works."
"But what if… you accidentally have a child?" asked Lynn.
"Lynn…" groaned Lincoln.
"What? I'm just asking the real questions around here."
"Then I'd raise it," said Lori. "What, you think I can just give it up for adoption?"
"No, but there's gotta be some abortion pills lyin' 'round here."
"Lynn!" exclaimed Lincoln.
"What? I'd do it. Baby's gonna die out here, so might as well prevent its suffering."
"People used to argue about that all the time," said Lori.
"So what if it's a touchy subject?" groaned Lynn. "We watched people get torn apart and die. No sensitive people left in this world."
"I know we live in the White House," said Lori, "but I refuse to get political."
"I'm not tryna' start a debate for no reason," said Lynn, walking towards the exit of the store. "I'm legit curious."
"If you're genuinely curious about pregnancy, then we can discuss it, but later. Not in front of an eight-year-old."
Lana shrieked. Lori pulled out her revolver and ran towards the corner of the store, finding Lana in the floor, crawling away from a closet where a corpse laid against the wall. Flies buzzed around the corpse as a Walther PPK/S pistol lied in its hands. Lori closed her nose as Lynn leaned close to the corpse, grabbing the pistol. Lynn slid the chamber back and pulled out the magazine.
"Guess it's mine now," said Lynn.
Lincoln helped Lana to her feet. Lori closed the closet and motioned the group to leave the store. The bells rung with each survivor opening and closing the door.
"So we're still going to go ahead and loot, right?" asked Clyde.
"Yeah," said Lincoln, squinting ahead across the intersection. "Hey, look over there. There's something at the stop sign."
The group walked over to the stop sign, which was next to a white semi-truck with black tinted windows that had an arrow painted on the trailer, pointing ahead in the road. Below the stop sign was a map of D.C. tied to it. The White House was circled with letters imprinted on it. 'WATCH OUT FOR THE SERVICE. GOVERNMENT ARE KILLERS.' Then, there were arrows leading to the Washington Circle Park, about six blocks from the White House, and only two blocks from where the group was at. There were more words imprinted on the map. 'ENEMIES OF THE ENEMIES. FRIENDS OF YOURS. NO GOVERNMENT. SAFE HAVEN.'
"I suppose they're not talking about cell phone service, right?" said Luan.
"I guess the enemies of our enemies are our friends," said Bobby. "Looks like these people hated the Service."
"If only they knew they weren't real government agents," said Clyde.
"Should we check it out?" asked Lincoln.
"I say we should," said Benny. "These people deserve to know about us working on a cure."
"Hell yeah," said Lynn. "The more people we tell, the more people we save."
Lori shrugged.
"Let's just check it out for now," she said, taking out her walkie-talkie. "Hey, George. If we don't come back in two hours, check around Washington Circle Park."
"Got it."
The group headed for the Washington Circle Park, leaving the map on the stop sign behind. The arrows on the map led to an intersection. An intersection with roads that ran diagonal. It created an X where the intersection was formed.
The hand continued ticking on the clock. Crows landed on top of the hospital. The wood planks clacked against each other as a man carried them towards the center of the park, tossing them in a large bonfire. Another man then grabbed a large trash can and tossed it into the fire, with cloth covering their mouth and nose.
"Calvin. We got newcomers at the southeast road."
One of the men uncovered the cloth around their lower face. He grabbed his walkie-talkie.
"All right," said Calvin, placing his walkie-talkie away. "Moose, keep burning the trash."
Lori, Bobby, Luan, Benny, Lynn, Lincoln, Clyde, and Lana arrived outside of a fence gate. They saw the smoke coming from the park in the center of the protected area. A woman wearing a pencil skirt chewing meat on a stick approached the fence gate. She smiled while she grabbed a napkin.
"New survivors!" she exclaimed. "Sorry. I didn't expect new people to arrive during my lunch break."
The woman wrapped her lunch with a napkin and placed it in her pocket. She rubbed her hands on her jeans and took out a notepad and a pen.
"Hi. My name's Nora. I assume you guys are here for refuge in our safe haven?"
"We're here to check it out," said Lori. "I don't really see anyone though."
"Oh, that's because our shelter is that hospital over there. George Washington University Hospital. People don't really like to go outside all that much. You understand."
"Yeah. I do."
"I can't let you guys in yet, but… I can ask you guys a few questions. If you don't mind."
"What are you doing out here alone?" asked Lori. "You're exposing yourself to a sniper shot."
"Oh, I'm not alone," said Nora. "It could be the other way around."
Calvin and a couple men came out from behind the parking lot building. They walked towards the southeast road, approaching the fences separating the group and Nora. The armed men opened the fence gates.
"Kinda risky," said Calvin. "You're exposing yourself out here to a sniper shot."
"That's what I tried telling them," giggled Nora.
"Well, they have nothing to worry about now," said Calvin. "I'm Calvin. There hasn't been a Serviceman spotted in months."
"My name's Lori. How do you guys know about The Service?"
"We have some people that came from the White House," said Calvin. "Dissenters. It must've been the first year, post-GIE. Then, we started coming across them in the streets."
"Let me tell you, they're territorial as hell," said Nora.
"Indeed," said Calvin. "You're bewilderment of the fact that I mentioned them means you have encountered them yourself. Am I correct?"
"Yeah," said Lori. "We killed some of them."
"I'm glad to hear that," said Calvin. "So is this it? This is everyone in the group?"
Lori nodded. Calvin cleared his throat. His men approached the group members, though some of them flinched back.
"Relax, we just need to see your weapons," said Calvin.
Some of the men patted the survivors. Then, they whispered into Calvin's ears.
"All right, come with us," said Calvin. "I hope you're planning on staying here because I'm going to give you a tour of the place."
"So, who's the leader of this group?" asked Nora.
"I am," said Lori.
"Of course. Are any of you vegan?"
"No, it's impossible to live on a vegan lifestyle nowadays."
"Of course. Umm, how long have you been out in the road?"
"Quite a while," commented Lori.
Lori's group followed Calvin and his people. They walked down the road, before taking a right turn. The buildings shielded the south road from sunlight. Small trees grew on the sidewalks. There were X's marked on them.
"It's a surprise you people managed to last this long out there," said Calvin. "We usually don't get newcomers like this. Heh, that's why we're kinda at a lost at words."
"It's alright. Place looks nice."
"Agreed," said Calvin. "You know, this place used to hold soldiers during the invasion of…"
Lori looked around. There was a survivor whose face looked burnt. There was another one with an X scar across his face. She looked as Calvin and his men began to walk closer to the building. There was a parking garage in the side of the building, the entrance blocked by a simple traffic gate. Faint screams could be heard upstairs.
"This building is where we get our clothing," added Calvin. "People usually park in this parking lot…"
Lori continued to look around. She saw the X marked over the parking lot sign.
"What's this place called?" asked Lori.
"A… parking garage," said Calvin.
"I mean the whole place. Does it have a name or…?"
"Yeah. We call it the D.C. X-Zone. It's marked by diagonal roads. And also, X marks the spot! Everyone's heard of that phrase…"
Lori's heart began to beat faster. She stopped in her tracks. One of the men was ready to open the metallic doors.
"Wait," she said. "Can we leave? We took an RV here. My group and I need to think about everything we're seeing. You know, we gotta think it over in the RV. Just before… I get overwhelmed."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Nora.
"Well…" said Calvin. "You could try to leave."
Calvin and his men walked away from the driveway leading to the parking lot. Lori discretedly reached for her revolver as she looked around.
"Lori?" whimpered Lana.
Lori turned towards Lana, noticing a red dot moving around her chest. She looked at the rest of her group, finding multiple red dots moving across their bodies. Moving her hand over her chest, she found the red dot moving around it.
The lights to the parking garage turned on. There were armed men and women, each holding a rifle or SMG. They aimed it at Lori as she looked at Calvin.
"You don't have to raise your arms," said Calvin. "You'll just toss your guns on the floor. That's all."
Lori took a deep breath. Her pupils began contracting as her breath became shaky. Her heart was racing so fast, she felt it was going to jump out of her chest.
The overcast skies covered the entire capital. It was silent. It was relaxing. Birds could be heard chirping. And time appeared to be moving slowly.
Two survivors were on the roof of the White House. A trainer and a trainee.
Luna took a few almonds and placed them in her mouth, chewing them softly. Jace reached into the bowl of almonds and took one, placing it in his mouth, and softly chewed it.
"I don't like it," said Jace.
"Nuts aren't for everyone," said Luna. "Remember that prone pose I taught ya?"
"Yeah," said Jace, going on his knees.
"Nah, bro, hold up. We're gonna be crouching a bit for now."
"Oh, okay," said Jace. "So what are we working on now?"
"Just some more target practice," said Luna. "This time, I want you to be more comfortable with zooming in with your scope. There. Front green car."
Jace tapped the scope of his suppressed MSR-10, and looked at his surroundings. There were warm-colored trees around the White House, in both lawns. He looked past the trees and at the surrounding buildings. Some of the windows were missing. And inside one of the buildings, more than a hundred meters away, he saw a silhouette moving around a cracked window. It was limping around slowly before moving away from the cracked window and behind another window.
Jace gulped as he moved his sniper rifle downwards at an abandoned green car. He fired the rifle and saw the bullet fly forward then downwards. A small hole then appeared on a green car. Another green car a couple dozen meters back.
"Damn," said Jace.
"Mmm, that's okay," said Luna, stuffing another almond nut between her teeth. "Just fix your aim."
"How?"
"Here, look."
Luna grabbed Jace's arms and lowered the barrel of the sniper rifle so that it pointed slightly downwards, not even an inch lower. Luna then gripped Jace's left hand and placed it under the barrel.
"Zoom's comfortable, right?" asked Luna.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Mhmm. Take a shot at it now."
Jace nodded and looked into his scope before pulling the trigger. The bullet hit another car, though it was closer to the green car.
"Nice," said Luna.
"What do you mean nice?" scoffed Jace. "I completely missed it!"
"But you're getting closer. Just keep practicing. No worries, dude. Sooner than later, you're gonna be safer and more comfortable shooting the dead. No need to fear them from a distance."
"It's been two hours," said George through the walkie-talkie on Luna's belt. "No sign of them yet?"
With worried eyes and a developing frown, Luna looked at the long road that stretched out to Washington Circle Park. She reluctantly clicked her walkie-talkie.
"No. Nothing," she replied.
"Alright. It's rescue time. Come down, Luna."
Luna and Jace headed back inside.
Guns clacked against each other. Switches were slid. Magazines were inserted. Hammers were cocked. Bags of ammunition were distributed.
Luna and Jace arrived downstairs at the entrance hall. Sam, holding her AR-15 and a Glock 42 on her holster, handed Luna her M110 as well as an M9. George cocked his shotgun and walked over to David.
"Your leg still feel bad?" asked George.
"It's good enough for me to come with you," replied David.
"We can't take the risk. Think you can go up on the roof, watch this place?"
David nodded. He walked to the stairs.
"Follow me, Jace," he said. "Let's put that sniper training of yours to use."
The search party walked out of the White House. It consisted of George, Sam, Luna, Hana, Becky, Bobby, and Preston. They walked along Pennsylvania Ave NW, inspecting their surroundings. They looked at every building, every store, behind every car, intersection, windows.
"Anyone want to outdo Lincoln and create a plan?" asked Bobby.
"For now, we just keep looking around this avenue," said George.
Looking around, Preston stumbled upon a stop sign with a map from a couple meters away. He walked up to it, glancing at the white semi truck with the painted arrow.
"Hey, guys! Look!" he called out.
The search party all gathered up in front of the map, except Hana. She stayed back and walked inside a corner store.
"They must've read this," said George. "It claims safe haven."
"But what is it, really?" asked Bobby.
Becky reached her hand out. She moved her fingers along the diagonal roads that met at the circled park.
"It makes an X," said Preston.
"It's a trap," said Becky. "How did Lori not see it?"
The black tinted window of the truck rolled down completely. The group quickly pointed their guns at the open window, finding a curly-haired Latino survivor in the driver's seat.
"I thought Lori didn't have anyone else in her group," said the survivor. "She fuckin' lied to us. Man, that shit makes me feel kinda good though."
"Who the fuck are you and where the hell is she?" asked George.
"They call me Guillermo. Worried about where she is? You're gonna see her soon. We're holding her. Keeping her breathing. Also, before you shoot me, just look at yourselves."
The search party looked at each member, finding lasers pointed at their chests. Then, they looked up at the roofs. There were other survivors, many of them holding G36's.
Guillermo opened the door, exiting the truck.
"The government ruined us, but they also left behind many things. Laser sights. Pretty damn cool."
Guillermo then grabbed a shovel from his truck.
"Are you going to kill us?" asked Bobby.
"Yeah," said Guillermo. "We're feeling hungry."
Two survivors hopped out from inside the trailer, holding the door up. Guillermo walked over to the stop sign and looked at the map, shaking his head while smiling.
"You guys are part of the X," said Luna, shivering softly.
"We created the X," said Guillermo. "Drop your weapons. Walk to the truck. Now."
"You know, we killed your people back in Baltimore," said George.
"Shut up, man. Just listen and go inside the fucking truck."
"We'll kill all of–"
"Hey, man, shut your mouth!"
"–you. We'll do it! You'll all die! You'll all–!"
Guillermo lifted his shovel and aimed it behind George's head. With one fell swoop, he hit him.
And he blacked out.
.
.
.
End Credit Song
The Star Spangled Banner - José Feliciano
Don't forget to leave a review if you have any thoughts to share! Follow and/or favorite the story if you enjoyed!
P.S. this is now officially the longest chapter I ever wrote so far. And thank you for the awesome review, Brizillaking1!