Z-Day: Nothing Is As It Seems ~ Chapter 3.5 (Finale)

Word Count: 3014

A massive pile of bags sat by the trucks that were filled to the brim with medicine and food. “Well done everyone,” the general cried. “This haul should last us the rest of the month. Let's head back.”

Jerry and Roy dropped their gear and spoils into the truck before they felt a hand tapping them on the shoulder. Carl stood there looking about nervously and waving them over to a secluded spot. “Guys, I just saw something weird,” Carl said.

“What's up?” Roy asked.

“I just saw a small group of people loading up crazies into the back of an armored truck.”

“Why the hell would they need a group of crazies?” Jerry asked.

“Maybe they're doing research on them,” Roy said. “All I know is that these crazies are sounding more like zombies every minute. That vaccine thing sounds like something straight out of Resident Evil, man.”

“Vaccine?” Carl asked.

“We'll tell you on the way back.” Roy headed back to the truck and pulled himself in to help Jerry and Carl. Jerry pulled out that papers that explained the new vaccine and their belief that it may have been the cause for their current situation.

“I think I'm gonna be sick,” Carl said quietly.

“We felt the same way,” Roy said patting his back. “We're all feeling it.”

“So they really are zombies. But that doesn't explain the truck. If they were wanting to catch them for research, then why are they being so secretive about it?”

“It does seem rather suspicious,” Roy said, “but it isn't enough for us to go accusing them of something. I will try talking to the general.” Pulling into the compound the trio jumped out and left their bags with the pile to be sorted and sent to different parts of the camp. The rest of the day was spent lazing about, and that night they celebrated the successful raid and surviving another day.

Carl, however, was not satisfied with leaving things to rest. He wanted to know what was going on. Sneaking away from the celebration, he searched the small town for the armored truck. He searched the entire compound and couldn't find it anywhere. He sighed as he leaned against a tarp covered wall. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Maybe everything was just as legit as it see....

He jumped away from the wall when he heard something heavy slam up against the other side of it. The wind picked up a little and fluttered the edges of the tarp revealing wheels. Before he could do anything else, Carl heard voices headed toward him. Pulling the tarp up he shuffled under the truck to avoid being seen. “Can you believe we got three of these zombie bitches?” one man said.

“I know,” said another, “I bet these sluts are even more horny now than when they were alive.” The group laughed as the pulled the tarp away and started to unlock the doors to the back of the truck. “Alright David, open it.” The doors opened, and that God awful shriek sounded until a loud zap silenced it. “I can't believe these tazers work. Make sure to bind their arms and legs really good.” One by one Carl watched them drag twitching bodies out of the truck and into the building next to it.

Carl crawled out from under the truck when they were all gone and snuck around to one of the dust covered windows. Peeking in he could see several of the men having tied one of the zombie women down and violating them for their own twisted pleasure. “These zombie bitches aren't good as the real ones. They don't fuck back,” one man said.

“Yeah,” another agreed. “But you gonna try to pry one of them from squad one?”

“Are you fucking nuts?! The last guy that tried that was shot in the leg and left in the middle of zombie territory!”

Carl shook his head at the disgusting sight in front of him and moved on to the next window. The scene in the next room was even more disturbing than the first. Four women dressed up in slightly torn and blood stained dresses struggled like animals to free themselves from the chairs they were bound to. Make-up had been put on in a hasty fashion that it smeared all over their faces. Blood drooled from their mouths from the meal they were being fed - from the general. “I know that you're hungry my pretties, but if you eat too fast you'll ruin your make-up,” he said. “I'm so glad that we could all find the time to sit down to a family dinner. So Jean, how is your school?”

The teenage girl that he was talking to only screamed and thrashed about. “I'm glad to see that your math is getting better,” the general remarked as if he were having a conversation.  The woman next to him thrashed about enough that her arm came free. She lunged out for him with desperate fingers to grab hold of the flesh in front of her. She fell to the floor thrashing about once again as the general's face changed from warm patriarch to villainous hate. Grabbing a machete resting by his chair, he cleaved the woman's head in two. Rolling her body over he took his knife and slowly started to cut away at the lids of her right eye. Pushing his fingers into the socket, he popped out her eye, with a horribly wet squelch, and tore it from its optic nerve. Placing a jar on the table he unscrewed the lid and dropped the eye in letting it float down to join the collection of eyes that had already been inside.

Carl covered his mouth and felt his stomach heave. Sitting down by the wall he swallowed the taste of bile in the back of this throat and made a run for truck that he came in on. Skidding to a stop at the entrance to the back, the small group that had been getting ready to head to bed turned and stared at him. “You're never going to believe what I just saw,” Carl gasped.

_______________________________________________________________________

“He what?” Beth asked in an urgent tone.

“He cut out her eye and put it in a jar filled with other eyes,” Carl repeated. “We have got to get out of here. The general is insane!”

“Let's not jump to conclusions,” Roy said gently.

“Guys fucking zombie girls. General having a tea party with a zombie family. Just what conclusions are we not supposed to be making here?” Dave retorted.

“We'll leave. Tonight,” Jerry said quickly. “I don't think that this is going to stay quiet, and the way he looks at this truck makes me think that he's planning on getting rid of us.”

Roy nodded. “Alright, everyone get your things ready,” Roy said.

Jerry sighed and stood up. “Where you going?” Roy asked.

“I'm gonna get an explanation as to what's going on here,” Jerry said heading for the medical tent. Stepping through the fabric door he quickly spied Trisha giving water to a man that had a bandage covering both of his eyes. “Trisha, can I have a word with you?”

Trisha seemed to jump a little but nodded and told the man she was helping that she would be back. Leading her to a little more private spot he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of sight. “Do whatever you want, just do it quickly,” she said looking away from him.

“What are you talking about?” Jerry asked. He had been ready to start the whole 'tell me what I want to know or I'll kill you' speech, but her reaction had stopped him in his tracks.

“You're just like all of them. You see a woman you wanna fuck and you just bend her over and take advantage of it.”

“I'm not here to have sex with you. I need to know what the fuck is going on around here,” he said letting go of her arm. Trisha looked at him confused that he wasn't going to do anything to her. “One of my group saw the soldiers capturing zombies during the raid. He did some digging and saw the men tying them down, having sex with them, and to top it all off, he sees the general having dinner with four of them that were dressed up and covered in make-up.”

Trisha's shoulders dropped and she let out a long sigh. “Alright. The general orders his men to capture a few of the female zombies when the ones that were captured previously have been all 'used up'. He chooses a few and keeps them as his family until he gets tired of or one of them breaks the fantasy and kills them. He has me put make-up on them and dress them up so that they don't seem so zombie-like.”

“What else is going on around here? You can't tell me that the zombie thing is the only thing strange going on.”

“I'm one of only three women in the camp. Every week the three squads compete to see who owns us for that week. He says that for us to be allowed to stay that we have to assist the soldiers with their 'frustrations' whenever called. If we don't then we'll be turned out and left to die on the outside. But it doesn't matter. Even if we say we'll take our chances outside they just tie us up and violate us anyway.”

Jerry felt his heart breaking for this woman. She had already been through enough and this was just kicking while she was down. “We're leaving tonight. I only ask that you don't tell anyone about this.”

“You can't. The general won't let anyone leave. He's too paranoid to allow it.”

“I think we have enough fire power to take care of it.”

Jerry turned and started out of the tent when he felt Trisha grab his arm. “Take me with you!” She said in a hushed voice, desperately gripping his shirt. “Please... Please take me with you. I can't live like this anymore.”

Jerry chewed his cheek not sure if taking on another person was really a good idea; but seeing her face and the distress that was painted on it he couldn't tell her no. “Gather your things and meet us by the truck.”

“I don't have anything worth getting.”

“What about the other women?”

“They would rather stay here as sex slaves than live with dignity. They won't leave.” Jerry took her hand and rushed her toward the truck.

Roy already had everyone armed and ready for a dog fight when Jerry made it back to the truck with Trisha. “What's this?” Roy asked seeing Trisha.

“She wants to leave with us. There's more going on, but I don't have time to explain,” Jerry said quickly. Roy nodded, completely trusting his judgement.

“The guards will be switching out in about fifteen minutes. That's when we should make a break for it,” Trisha said.

“Alright. Jerry you drive the truck through the gate. I'll get it open for you to pass through,” Roy said as he watched the guards in the towers above the gate. The minutes that ticked by seemed to last for hours. When the guards in the towers began the climb down the rickety ladder to the ground, the small group held their breath hoping that they wouldn't be spotted by them. Once out of sight, Jerry started up the truck and Roy ran to the gate. Throwing his shoulder against it, Roy began to slowly push the gate open. Jerry pulled through the gate and smiled as they seemed to have gotten away with it. When the spotlight was shot right into his eyes, Jerry slammed on the breaks and saw a small platoon of soldiers waiting for them to make a break for it. Several trucks and cars created a sort of blockade from leaving on the main road. Men with rifles sat behind their vehicles with their firearms aimed to fire on the truck and anyone inside.

“I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in you people,” the general said stepping in front of the spot light. “I open up my compound to you and you feel that you have to sneak out.”

“We don't want any trouble,” Roy said.

“Neither do we, and we won't have one. Just leave your truck and everything in it here and you can be on your way.”

“We earned this truck and all the supplies in it. We risked our lives to get it and we aren't going to give up for anyone.”

“What about the survival of my soldiers? What about the people that are looking to me to protect them? No. If I let you go, you'll just bring more of your scheming cockroaches to take what's ours. We can't let you leave without putting ourselves in danger. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but an attack will come because you want what we have. You want our food, our medicine, our women! Well you can't have them! You can have the bullets from our guns and you can have our...”

His speech was suddenly cut short in a hail of gunfire. Without anyone noticing, Trisha had made her way up onto the fifty cal. and sent the first twenty rounds through the general's chest before turning the flurry of flying lead onto the rest of the army. Carl and Dave pointed rifles out the side of the truck and riddled the nearby cars with bullets until the rifles were empty. Handing them off to the people in the back they took the freshly loaded weapons and fired away. Roy jumped onto the side of the truck screaming, “Go! Go! Go!” Jerry floored the gas and battered his way through the small blockade that had been set up. They left behind them a trail of bodies and bullet riddle vehicles. Jerry wondered for a bit if the town would even survive now that its tyrant had been dethroned. Jerry could only vaguely hear Roy talking to him. “Jerry! Pull over!” Roy cried. Jerry complied and stepped out of the truck, prying his hands from the steering wheel.

“That was one hell of a ride,” Sue-Anne said pulling her pick-up beside the truck. “Runnin' with you fellers has been one exciting moment after another.” The rest of the group slowly made their way out of the truck with the others.

“I'd prefer to keep the excitement to a minimum if possible,” Roy commented. “Alright, let's get the basics out of the way. Anyone hurt?” Everyone shook their heads. “We were very lucky to get out of there without a scratch. The truck is still in one piece and we have enough supplies to last all of us for a few months. I say we continue on to Sue-Anne's relative's as it's the only thing we have to go on right now.”

The small group nodded in agreement before filing into the back of the truck once again. Jerry sat in the back, feeding a bottle to Marian. He prayed that she wouldn't remember any of these horrible times. Trisha sat down in the corner, rubbing her arms, and tried to work passed everything that she had gone through to survive while at the compound. “Every night they would take turns using us and there were never just one at a time. They came in groups. All demanding that their 'frustrations' be dealt with. Every last one of them deserved to die for what they did to us.”

“You don't have to worry about that from us,” Dave said taking her hand. “We aren't like that. If anything we make sure to respect one another. Roy and Jerry here make sure that everyone is taken care of.” As much as Trisha wanted that to make her feel better, it didn't. The only thing that actually allowed her to relax enough to fall asleep was Beth putting her arm around her shoulder.

The hum of the engine became a droning noise that slowly put the rest of the group to sleep. Beth sat, watching Marian and Jerry. “Ya'know it's funny. I wanted to be a counsellor. I read every book you could think of to try to get ready for it. My dad used to say that I already knew everything there was to know about counseling. I shouldn't need to go to college for it. Ever since I was a little girl all I wanted to do was help people. Turns out that it's something that I can use.”

“I think that it's great. Maybe when we find a place to stop we can find you a little fainting couch so that people can tell you about their problems,” Jerry said laughing. Beth tried her best to hold her laugh in so that she didn't wake up Trisha. “Seriously though, I think everyone here would benefit from a little counselling. Did you read anything on trauma or disaster?”

“I'm afraid not. Most of what I read was on family counseling and divorce. Maybe we should raid a book store.”

“Maybe we should.” The two of them smiled.

“Do you really think that this is place is going to work?” Beth looked to him searching for some kind of hope.

“I think that we won't know until we get there. Then again, sometimes you just need something to go for. Something to believe is real to keep you going.”

“I think so too. Even if it's a long shot.” Beth smiled and shifted a little, getting comfortable against the large crates behind her.