Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02 (7 page)

"Come on, man. I've been in the Marines. I've seen those nose-in-the-air Special Ops guys more than I care to count. Or even wanted, for that matter." Donovan pushed himself up from the floor and crossed the room to face Alex. "You've at least been trained by Special Ops. Whether you've seen actual combat or not is different, but you've got that swagger about you..."

"I was in the Army," Alex interrupted. "Staff Sergeant, two overseas tours. Got out a few years ago." Alex did not like the direction that this conversation was going and tried to walk away before it continued.

"Bullshit," Donovan chuckled. "There's not an ounce of Army on you. It's Marines, man...I know. But why are you so secret about it?"

"Lots of reasons, and it was the Army," Alex answered, his tone becoming defensive and argumentative. "Lay off."

"Now wait a minute," Marshal joined in. "I'm a little curious about all of this now," he said as he too crossed the room to join the other two men. "After you put two bullets in John this afternoon, I think you owe everyone an explanation for lots of things. Just why are we following you? And what's so damn important that you won't own up to your military service? What's the matter, you frag an officer or something?"

Alex lashed out against the man, shoving him hard enough that Marshal fell back, sprawling to the floor. He was on his feet again, angry, but not daring to come at Alex. "Liam kept asking you to fess up to something. Just what did you do, huh? What do you need to come clean about, and why should we take your orders? You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place..."

"Hill got you into this mess," Alex snapped. "Hill is the one who put a gun to your families heads and made you come, not me. Don't you dare try to push the blame off of that bastard!" Liam and Shawn were rushing into the room now drawn to the sounds of the commotion. The three men on station craned their heads in the various doorways trying to figure out what was happening. Alex bit at Liam. "What did you say? What did you say about me, huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Liam asked, his hands raised in front of him in surrender. "What do you mean, 'what did I say?'"

"About my time in the military, what did you say?" Alex demanded.

"Calm down, man, I didn't say anything to anyone!" Liam's face was lined with confusion as he tried to figure out what was going on.
 

"But you told us," Marshal jumped in, "you said in the car, earlier today, that he needed to fess up. That he needed to just tell us the truth. The truth about what?"

All eyes locked onto Alex as he fumed, but remained silent. This was not what he had expected or wanted. The truth of his past was hard enough to reveal to his wife, the woman that he shared his life with. But not these people, some of them almost complete strangers, were demanding to know his secrets.

"Tell them," Liam said in a low voice. "Tell them, and tell me. What in God's name are you hiding? What could you have done that was so bad..."

"I didn't do anything," Alex said. "I didn't do anything that was wrong, I just had to fix a problem...had to take care of a problem."

"What kind of problem," Dr. Cahn asked in his soothing voice. His years of medical practice, especially dealing with young kids, had taught him well how to calm a tense situation. Alex's eyes turned on the doctor and softened. One person in the room had relived his last two months to the doctor already tonight. Alex figured that maybe it was his turn. He looked from the doctor back to Liam and let out a defeated sigh.

"What do you all know about China?" he said.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Secrets Revealed

"I don't believe this," Marshal exclaimed. "This is the biggest load of bullshit I think I've ever heard."

"Really," Liam cut in. "You think that's a bigger load than the dead outside that we're hiding from?" Liam's gaze was piercing and Marshal shrunk under Liam's stare.

"What happened to the girl?" Dr. Cahn asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer but compelled to ask.

"What do you think?" Alex replied. "The lieutenant killed her, viciously. Literally skinned her alive, simply because she refused to marry some twisted old fuck with two other wives." Alex shook his head and chuckled softly. "The lieutenant begged for them to let him do it. In fact he pushed the whole thing to the head of the village."

"He was sick," Dr. Cahn said.

Alex quickly cut back at the doctor. "No, doc. He wasn't sick. What he did to that girl was sick, but he was evil. Pure, unadulterated evil, and he got exactly what was coming to him." The smile that had graced Alex's face only a moment before was now gone, replaced by a sadness and hate for what he had experienced.

"What happened to him? What happened to the lieutenant?" Dr. Cahn asked. Alex still wasn't sure that the doctor really wanted to hear everything that he had to say, but the doctor kept asking, knowing that Alex needed to speak, to explain everything to them.

Alex shook his head again, clearing the cobwebs from his memory of that day. Taking a deep breath, Alex looked up at the doctor and smirked. "I killed him," he said as a matter of fact. "Killed him like the pig he was, and killed the sick fuck who accused her. I cut them, I hurt them and I made them bleed. I wanted them to know exactly how that girl felt as the lieutenant was cutting the skin away from her." The smile was gone, now replaced by tears that ran down his face freely. Alex's voice quavered almost imperceptibly as he continued.
 

"I skinned the bastards, skinned them alive just like they did to that girl. They screamed and pleaded; they begged me to stop, but I wouldn't. And when the shock set in, and they started to not feel the pain anymore, I slide my knife across their throats and watched their life drain away." Alex's voice was shaking so much by now that he was almost unintelligible. He fought to keep back the great racking sobs that threatened to over take him. Everyone in the room remained silent, both out of shock and respect for the dead. Once Alex had gained control of himself again, he spoke again in whispering tones. "They got what they deserved."

Silence hung over the group as everyone waited for Alex to regain his composure. When someone finally spoke, it was his friend Liam.

"And no one did anything? Either to stop you, shit or even help you? You're damn right they got what they deserved."

"Are you condoning what he did?" Alex wasn't sure if the shock in Marshal's voice was genuine or put on. "He killed those two in cold blood..."

"They got what they deserved," Liam interrupted. "You cut someone apart like that, you torture a young girl because she wouldn't give it up? Damn right they got what they deserved."

The look of disgust on Marshal's face was almost too much for Liam to keep a straight face. "What happened after they found out what you did?" Marshal asked. "Not much apparently.

"Actually," Alex said, "they didn't do anything."

"What?" Again, the shock in Marshal's voice seem more of a put on than anything real.

"Nothing. The government couldn't just admit that they were in China, illegally mind you. They certainly couldn't afford for it to get out just WHY we were they, now could they?" Alex spoke directly to Marshal. "There's a lot to be said for secrets. Sometimes they need to stay that way."

An awkward silence spread through the group as no one knew what to ask next. Alex's story seemed almost too impossible to believe, but given the fact that they were now fighting their way through hordes of walking dead, no one could really find the nerve to question the validity.

"So it's true," Donovan spoke from the outside of the group. He was leaning against a wall, arms crossed with a furrowed brow as if in deep thought. "Everything is true." He pushed off the wall and strode slowly to rejoin the group around Alex. "We had always heard rumors about it. Rumors about where Lieutenant Elliot wound up." He laughed softly and looked Alex in the eyes. "Actually, the rumors were a bit more hard to believe if that's even possible." Donovan held out his hand to Alex. There was a pause before Alex took the proffered hand and shook once. "The man was a butcher," Donovan said softly. "The horror stories that were told about serving under him...there is not a man living or dead that he commanded that would not believe you a hero."

A smile crept across Alex's face before Marshal spoke up. "What?!" he said. "Are you serious? He killed the man in cold blood..."

Donovan whirled on the man, bearing down on him and forcing him move back. "You have no clue what this man was like. You couldn't possibly understand," Donovan said, still forcing Marshal back until he slammed against the wall behind him. "The man was a butcher, a psychopath of the nth degree. Scores of men and women were hurt, even killed because of this man."

"In times of war, people are going to die..." Marshal spat.

"And how about
 
in training, huh? How many are supposed to die then?" Donovan stared Marshal down, face to face and nose to nose. "Countless men and women were hurt, maimed and even killed because of this man and his quote unquote, leadership skills. My best friend died in one of his training exercises after he order some of the soldiers to use live ammunition. Tell me again he didn't deserve EVERYTHING he got." Donovan's voice was raising to the point of hysteria and Alex stepped in.

"Bring it down, Donovan," he said. "You're pissed, but if you keep up the way you're going, we are going to have every deader in a six block radius come calling."
 

Donovan stayed where he was, his eyes locked on Marshal's. It was Marshal who finally gave in. "Fine," he nearly whimpered. "Okay, I understand. The man had it coming." His eyes darted in Alex's direction. "You did what was right, okay? Call him off."

A smile spread across Alex's face again and he whispered softly and patted his thigh. "Come on boy. Heel." Liam laughed behind Alex, and the laughter quickly spread to the other men in the room. Even Donovan cracked a smile before easing off the man he had pinned to the wall.

"Glad you understand," Donovan quipped and turned back to the group. "Sorry about that. Ghosts in my past and all," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"No harm, no foul," Liam said.

Donovan crossed the open floor to Alex and put an arm around his shoulder. "I'll follow you," he said. "Let me know what you need from me."

"Same here," Liam chimed in. Agreements came in rapid succession from the others in the room, including a timid reply from the far corner. Rod was sitting up now, his arms wrapped around his knees. He had apparently been watching the whole thing.

"Thanks, kid," Liam said. "But I don't think this is really the right thing for you."

"And just what am I supposed to do?" he snapped. "Sit here, alone, and wait for the things out there to get me? I've already done that for too long. You don't know what it's like..."

"No, we don't," Alex interrupted Rod. "We never could. And you're right, we can't just leave you here to die, which is what would happen." Alex looked to each of the men in the room. "You're coming with us, Rod. Get some sleep...you're going to need it."

Relief spread across the boy's face. "Thank you. Thank you..."

"Don't thank me yet," Alex said. "When God wants to punish man, he answers their prayers." Puzzled looks were thrown in Alex's direction. "Get into a bed, Rod. You need the rest." The boy quickly did as he was told and headed off into the adjoining room.

The puzzled looks continued until Donovan finally spoke up. "So," he started with a chipper tone in his voice, "just what were these plans of yours that you came up with? You know, the ones that were supposed to be used in the event of a, on I don't know, zombie outbreak?" The man was playing with Alex, but didn't really know what he was asking for.

"You don't want to know, seriously. The designs for dealing with this kind of thing are barbaric and arcane; drastic and horrifying." Alex had already relived enough of his past, and he truly did not wish to go over the details of the plan he had designed to deal with this.
 

"Come on, man," Donovan pushed. "Just how bad could it be?"

"How bad? Really? It's the end of the world, worst case scenario any way you look at it. There is not one single decision that could be made that would make anyone content. Everyone losses when armageddon rains down." Alex's voice was verging on angry, but he knew that once they smelled blood, no one was going to let him off the hook.

"Spill it, Alex. How bad could it really be?" Donovan had no idea.

-----

"Okay," Alex agreed and glanced towards Marshal, "but you all are going to set Marshal off again."

"Why do you say that?" Liam asked.

"Because, at what point in any real world scenario, do any of you think that everyone could be saved?" Alex said.

"I'm not sure I follow," Dr. Cahn said.

Alex turned to face the man. "What I'm saying is that there is no conceivable way to save everyone. There have to be sacrifices. And sacrifices on a large scale." Alex crossed his arms and looked towards the ground before continuing. "Initial estimates, on the good side, would put the casualty rate at
 
upwards of sixty percent. Looking at what we've seen so far," Alex shrugged his shoulders, "we would have to revise those numbers to seventy, seventy-five percent?"

The was a collective gasp amongst the group. "You can't be serious," Marshal demanded. "Really? Seventy-five percent?"

Alex looked to the man, a grim expression on his face. "I don't think you quite understand," Alex said. "This is no ordinary problem you are dealing with. This is the first time in human history that we are dealing with a one hundred percent mortality rate. One hundred percent, gentlemen." Alex emphasized. "There is no recovery if you are wounded by one of these creatures. You will die...horribly in most cases."

"But I still don't understand something," Dr. Cahn asked. "Even with that high a mortality rate, seventy-five percent seems obscenely high."

"And you'd be right," Alex conceded, "if all we were talking about was mortality by zombie attack only. Give it about fifty percent then. But your whole infrastructure, everything that our economy has been built on is now gone. No more delivery trucks, no more grocery stores. Now how do you think those people are going to get food and water?"