Jason Sanchez - When They Come

“Well, no, there were other things, like, rock climbing! That was dangerous”, Dave quickly said.

“Dude, we never went rock climbing”, Jason replied.

“Well, she didn’t know that!”

Margie laughed.

“If that was funny, this whole thing, really, really must have gotten you down”, Dave said.

“Well, yeah…”, Margie said.

An awkward silence filled the air.

“So, what did you do before this, Margie”, Jason asked.

“I volunteered at church. My dad was the pastor there. It wasn’t much, and sometimes I hated it, but, I’d give anything to go back to it now”, she said.

“I was a bank teller. It’s amazing how much of themselves people reveal when you handle their money”, Jason said.

“Oh, anything good? I always had a feeling that there was good in people, even after seeing all…”, Margie was interrupted.

“No, they were bastard covered bastards with bastard filling”, Jason quickly said back. “I always wondered how the world would be like if there weren’t any people around at all, just for a day. Well, be careful what you wish for, I suppose.”

“Look.” Margie pointed to a dimly lit construction sign that read.

“EVAC ONE MI – “

Most of the light bulbs that make up the sign, it’s orange paint was scratched heavily, and it was moved around.

“Oh damn, look at this”, Dave said. He was pointing the sign’s tethering chain, which was snagged on a truck that had driven off the nearby highway.

The group investigated the truck, but saw only a badly decayed body snapping it’s jaws sitting in the driver’s seat.

Jason snickered a bit at the hat it wore. It read, “Keep on Truckin’” .

Margie and Dave looked at him with their eyes wide open.

“What?! It’s delicious irony, ‘cause you know, he can’t truck…any…more. You guys suck, come on!”, Jason snapped.

“Dave, what did you do before all of this?”, Margie asked.

“Well, I used to work with animals. I loved those things, but, I don’t want to think how they’re doing back at the environmental center without me”, Dave said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Come to think of it, I’ve barely seen any animals since this whole mess started”, Jason said

“Well, animals are smart, whenever there is a crazy natural disaster, they sense it first and leave. Who knows, this is probably nature thinning out an overpopulating world”, Dave replied.

“Or, God.” Margie said.

“Yes, or God”, Dave sheepishly replied.

“Look. There it is”, Jason said loudly.

“It’s the base! There’s a lot of dust coming out of the ground! That must be one of the helicopters. Come on!”, Dave yelled!

The group ran to the base as fast as they could go. The gates were wide open, almost welcoming them inside.

Margie caught a glimpse of a beautiful white dove flying overhead holding what looked like an olive branch in it’s beak. The sight filled her with hope and dread all at the same time.

“Margie! Come on! They’re gonna leave without us!”, she heard one of the friends yell.

She ran after them.

The End of All Things

The group arrived to their base, and was headed to the path of a helicopter awaiting take off. Inside, they saw many people, some bleeding and looking outside at the group suspiciously. The men in uniform told them to stop and pointed their guns at them.

“GET BACK! WE’RE FULL!”, the soldier yelled. He was slowly boarding the helicopter as he had his gun fixed on Jason and then Dave.

“It’s only the three of us. We came all this way!”, Jason yelled.

“We’re NOT infected!”, Dave yelled.

“You must have room for a few more”, Margie said to him.

“GET OUT, NOW! WE’LL SEND SOMEONE BACK FOR YOU!”, the man yelled, as he strapped himself in. He got on his radio. “Alpha, this is Saving Grace, prepare evac for possible carriers. Over.”

No one responded.

“THEY’LL COME FOR YOU!” His voice was barely audible over the engines at this point. The aircraft began to lift off the ground.

Dave fell to his knees. “No.”

“Oh, no, no”, Margie said.

“Jason looked back and saw that they had stumbled on to a minefield of bodies. There was a huge battle here. Bodies of men, women, and children littered the entire base. The corpses of army men still in their combat fatigues were all among them. Dave quickly got up when he noticed the corpse that lay next to him.

“Let us on!”, Margie yelled.

At this point, the helicopter was already over their heads. The group shielded their face from the dust and debris that lifted from the blades.

“No one’s coming for us”, Jason said, all hope gone from his voice.

“Jay…these bodies. Only a few of them were infected. They are covered in bullet holes.” Dave said with much fear in his voice.

Margie kept her eyes on the helicopter. She saw a commotion going on inside. Picking up a soldier’s gun and peering through the scope, she was able to get a better look.

There were infected aboard the aircraft. They were turning and attacking the survivors inside.

“Oh, God”, Margie was able to mutter. “They’re dead, they’re all... oh, God.”

“What’s happening?!”, Jason yelled. He looked at the helicopter flying erratically. It began to veer in different directions and then drop. It lifted a little bit.

Margie was able to see the soldier who they were just talking to get his neck bitten into by a young blonde girl wearing pajamas. She almost seemed to look directly at Margie as she bit into the soldier, his blood covering her little mouth.

“It’s going down. Oh shit, it’s coming down!”, Dave yelled.

The aircraft tried to make a clumsy landing and Margie was able to see a few people fall out of the helicopter. It came in towards their direction before pulling up one more time.

“Margie, what do you see?”, Dave asked.

She stood silent, fixated on watching the battle through her scope. She considered trying to shoot at the machine, but thought it would make no difference.

“The pilot is dead”, She coldly replied to him.

A zombie covered one of the pilots’ face with it’s hands before biting into him, she just saw the blood pouring out of him.

The machine began to spin. More people spilled out and landed nearby with horrible thuds.

“Oh shit”, Dave whispered.

The helicopter crashed into the ground with a loud, earth-shattering explosion. It was less than 100 feet away from the group. Dust and rocks hit the friends.

“This is it, isn’t it?”, Jason said.

The group watched, they froze as they saw several, dozens, then hundreds of the slaughtered corpses rise. The explosion gave them that final push to get up and seek out new food. The undead rose all around the group and began to make their way over to their meal.

Margie held Dave’s hand.

Jason pulled out one of the guns he had taken from the shop in the mall.

“I always knew it’d end this way”, he said.

“Ass”, Dave said quietly, but with a smile.

Dave pulled out his shotgun and cocked it.

Margie let go of Dave’s hand. He noticed tears pouring down her cheek as she shakily pulled out her father’s gun.

The three looked all around them. They were utterly surrounded and the gap between them and the dead was getting smaller and smaller.

“Well, this is great and all, but is anyone going to shoot?” Dave said.

Jason took aim and fired at the closest zombie. It was a man with a Bluetooth headset strapped to his ear still.

“I fucking hated those things”, he said as he fired another shot to put him down for good.

“Remember, like it matters, but shots to the head bring them down, for good!”, Dave yelled.