Hell Happened (8 page)

“Can’t tell, boss.
It looks like our guys. They’re not moving and we’re still too far away.
Maybe if we creep closer to that road there?”

There was a narrow strip of black top between their billboard and the food mart which Eddie motioned to.

“
Wait,
first let’s go tell Terrill what we’ve seen. He might have a better idea and we can tell the base what we’re going to do.”

Eddie, still looking through the binoculars, said “Okay, boss. But they haven’t moved and I don’t see anything moving in the store.” Jerry led the way, keeping low and moving slowly. Weeds had flourished since the fall of the world and they made concealment easier.

It took almost 15 minutes of crouch walking to reach where Terrill had parked the truck. They’d actually snuck past him, them not seeing the truck and Terrill not seeing them. It wasn’t until Jerry realized they’d gone too far because he’d run out of trees, that they’d backtracked and found the truck. Terrill had missed seeing them because nature had called him at the right time to miss them sneaking by.

Jerry, on a spot he’d cleared on the ground, drew a
layout  and
explained to Terrill what they’d seen. They talked about plans until they came up with the one they were going to use. Eddie said he hadn’t seen anyone in the store and Terrill suggested making sure the other buildings with a view to the parking lot were checked out as well. Eddie hadn’t thought to check the building to the east of the store or the one across the road that hadn’t been burned completely to the ground.

Jerry called the farm and Randy answered.

Jerry outlined the situation and told him what they were going to do. All Randy said was “Roger, dad. Good luck and try to keep Eddie from shooting himself in his own ass.” Jerry didn’t think this was a time for levity, but his son was always ready to lighten the mood. Eddie was listening and when he smiled at
his friend’s remark, Jerry figured a little humor might help ease the stress of what Eddie had seen through his binoculars.

~     
~
     
~

Jerry never understood how or why his son and Eddie, a rail-thin, carrot-top with geeky black-rimmed glasses became friends. Eddie had been a snappy dresser for being from a poor family, where Randy dressed in his farm clothes for everything but when he attended church. While they both liked playing video games, Eddie was more into games like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare while Randy played more of the first-person adventure games.

For whatever common ground they had found, one day Randy had brought Eddie home for dinner when the boy’s mom had gone off somewhere. The boy became a part of the family and helped out for a few extra bucks Jerry could offer him. He worked hard and paid attention to what he was doing and didn’t hurt himself. He was a good influence on his son, and Jerry just started treating him like a second son.

~     
~
     
~

The three men took a five minute break, drank some water and relieved themselves. They made sure they had everything they were going to need to go check on the men in the parking lot and with a nod to Terrill, who’d gotten back into the driver’s seat of the truck. Jerry and Eddie went back to the billboard sign to wait.

They heard the truck start up and leave, heading back the other way down the two lane highway away from town. Jerry and Eddie moved up beside the road separating them from the food mart’s parking lot. This time, as close as they were, Eddie could tell the men, at least one of them, was alive.

Leaning close to Jerry he whispered “Tony, on the left has moved his legs. He’s not the way I saw him sitting last time. That must be Jeff on the right, but he
ain’t
moved.”

“Good. Maybe they’re both still alive and Jeff is just sleeping. Now we wait for Terrill.”

Terrill had taken the truck away from town as quietly as the big diesel truck could. A mile down the road he slowed and watched his rear view mirror to make sure he wasn’t being followed. After 10 minutes, he turned the truck around and accelerated to better than 70 miles per hour.

There was a long straight road going into town, and they agreed that they’d need the truck if they were going to rescue the two men, so Terrill drove into town with the engine off, coasting the truck the last quarter mile, past the white wood fence he’d seen headed out of town, and into a parking lot across the street from the food market that Jerry had described. The truck rolled quietly to a stop and Jerry and Eddie both had their rifles up, ready to defend Terrill.

Everyone waited.

The minutes passed and no one moved.

Sweat dripped from Jerry face. He hoped whoever had left Jeff and Tony tied up had left the area until evening, or better yet, for good, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Jerry and Eddie scanned the food mart and the building to the east.

He saw Terrill slip out from the truck and look through the big binoculars while staying mostly hidden. Terrill also scanned the area before giving the hand signal which told the two men laying in the weeds the coast appeared clear.

Jerry looked over at Eddie. “Okay, I’m going to cover you as you cross the road and hide in that ditch,” he said pointing at the corner of the parking lot nearest the highway. “When you’re there and ready, you’ll cover me as I go see how those guys are tied up.

“If I can cut ‘
em
loose,  I will and you’ll give Terrill the signal to get the truck over here pronto and you’ll cover the both of us as we load both the men up.

“If I can’t get them loose, we’ll get back across the road and come up with another plan.”

“Got it, boss,” was all Eddie said. They’d gone over this plan already and he knew what had to be done. Playing video games all his life, he’d killed thousands of video graphic people and zombies. He kept telling himself, that’s what Jerry was asking him to do now, but in this case, they really would probably shoot back at him and like Jerry said, there is only one life in this game.

“Good boy. Go when you’re ready.”

With one last good look through his binoculars, Eddie rose to his knees, slung the binoculars behind him, grabbed his rifle with both hands and dashed across the road. Jerry watched the front of the store while Terrill watched the other buildings. He missed seeing what would have been a perfect slide into second base, had Eddie played baseball.

Nothing moved in the store and Jerry waited a good two minutes after Eddie gave him the signal that he hadn’t seen anything either. Swallowing, his throat was dry and he wished for a drink of water, but knowing he’d left his canteen belt with the truck, Jerry knew he had to go now.

He admitted to himself he was scared. Someone had tied those men up and he had no idea where they were at. He did know they weren’t zombies. He knew there were humans, probably watching them, ready to shoot and use him and Eddie as bait for the zombies.

“Damn,” he said quietly,
then
just as sincerely asked God to watch over him as he carried out his own stupid idea. He wasn’t as fast as Eddie had been, but he knew both Eddie and Terrill were watching his back and covering him.

He moved down the ditch before crossing the road so he would be on the side of the store where there were no windows. He looked toward the parking lot and could see Eddie was scanning left to right and not watching him. That was just what he’d asked the kid to do.

Jerry got to the corner of the store and was only about 15 feet from the men. He slung his rifle over his back and unsheathed the eight-inch hunting knife. This was his signal to Eddie that he was ready to approach the men in the parking lot. Eddie nodded and gave Terrill the signal that Jerry was about to approach the men in the open.

Eddie scanned two more times before giving the go ahead and Jerry crouched as he ran to the men.

Tony raised his head as Jerry approached and tried to say something, but Jerry shushed him. They were trussed up with speaker wire and Jerry’s knife had trouble cutting through.

“They’re over there,” Tony rasped through dry lips. “We’re
bait
for the
zom
…
gren
…on…
eff
” was all he got out before the first shot was fired. The shot hit the pavement a foot from where Jerry was kneeling.

“Oh shit,” was all Jerry could say as he struggled with all the wiring that bound the men to the pole.

He heard Eddie’s rifle fire and a window shatter in the building on the left side of the store. He didn’t look up because he was afraid of cutting the guys’ wrists he was trying to free. Another shot from Eddie broke the silence and two more shots came from the building. This time they were aiming at Eddie and not Jerry, which was both good and bad.

He heard his truck start up and knew it’d be here in less than 15 seconds.

Three more shots came from the building and Eddie returned each shot with one of his own as Terrill screeched into the parking lot as fast as the big truck could maneuver. He slid the truck between Jerry and
the building from where the shots were coming, slamming on the brakes as he was shifting it into park before jumping out to help Jerry load the two men.

The unmoving Jeff was freed first so Terrill could grab him while Jerry worked on freeing Tony.

“Oh, Christ,” Terrill exclaimed as he pulled Jeff’s jacket. He immediately let go, instead grabbed at the fragmentation grenade that fell out of Jeff’s shirt. Jerry didn’t see it and didn’t look up. He was focused on cutting through the last wire holding Tony to the post.

Jerry never saw the grenade or the last act of heroism by the former soldier.

~     
~
     
~

Terrill’s life ended six seconds after the pin popped off the grenade inside of Jeff’s jacket, but it stretched out long enough for Terrill to feel like he was redeeming himself for the life he’d lived.

In those six seconds, Terrill’s life did flash before him.

He’d been a coward in elementary school, beaten up and picked on by others because he was small, weak and passive. In high school he had few friends and played no sports because he had always been afraid of losing or getting hurt. When he joined the Army after high school, he hoped they’d teach him to get over his fears and help instill in him the courage he never had.

He became a communications specialist and found he was not like a lot of other soldiers who were a little afraid, but ready to fight. It was what they were trained to do and he heard others talk about how they were ready to be deployed and see some action.

Terrill joined their bravado talk even though inside he knew he was a lot afraid.

His first tour as a private, he was assigned to a signal company and spent most of his time fixing radios. It was boring, but not life threatening. After 12 months he was rotated back stateside. Six months later he was scheduled to be deployed again with his battalion.

He was assigned to a transportation unit and worked for the unit’s commander, Lt. (P) Luther Morgan, as radio operator. Where ever Lt. Morgan went in the field, Terrill was there with the radio.

Lt. Morgan was a West Point graduate on the fast track for promotions and was currently on his third tour in Afghanistan. He’d already served as a platoon leader for an infantry unit twice, and was waiting for his captain’s bars to be awarded. The IED which killed him exploded and the HUMVEE flipped 270 degrees landing on the passenger side. The lieutenant, outside whose door the device exploded, was dead before the truck landed. His upper body landed in Terrill’s lap.

Morgan’s captain’s bars were awarded posthumously.

The specialist driving the HUMVEE died hours later from shrapnel wounds.

Terrill was stunned, but never lost consciousness. He felt a lot of pain in his right leg when it was crushed, and he knew he was partially deaf. He couldn’t move because of the equipment crushing him and he cried and prayed and screamed for help as soldiers from his unit struggled to cut him and the others out of the HUMVEE, all while taking fire from insurgents. The fire from the explosion burned his right side with an intense pain like none Terrill had ever felt before.

He cried in the hospital and refused the medal offered him by the officer who visited him at Walter Reed. He just wanted to hide from the fear he always felt.

He started drinking after he left the hospital. He couldn’t hold the most menial job because he was drowning in the bottle. His family tried to help, they tried to get him to seek professional help, offered him money and a place to stay, but Terrill just wanted to be away from everyone. He was arrested several times for public intoxication and once for defecating in public.

Then the real end of the world came.

The coward in Terrill hoped he would die soon, but the man in Terrill lived on while those around him died. In the days and weeks after the fall, he saw others who died at the hands of vigilantes or the not-
deads
, but Terrill kept on living.

When Mike stopped on the highway, Terrill made the choice then that he was not ready to die. For some reason, he believed, God kept him alive for some purpose. He still drank, and he kept to himself all the horrors he’d seen, but Jerry was a nice guy, never pried into his past, offered him respite from the hell with which he lived and made him feel like he was part of something greater.