Part IV: Pulp Fiction Stories
Jim walked down the shoulder of the vacant entry side of the highway being sure to keep low and not draw any unnecessary attention. He was making his way out of the city towards the old farm that his father had grown up on. He hoped it would be remote enough that he could shack up there for a while until the authorities got things under control. He figured, what could it take maybe a month to get those people under control? Two months?
Jim watched in the sky ahead of him a big bomber style aircraft which was flanked by a fighter jet following the highway towards the city. He looked straight up and followed the planed as they effortlessly cut their way through the air towards the city. He noticed how blue the sky was today and thought to himself that it was a real shame that such a nice day turned out to be a bloodbath in the city.
He stopped following the planes when they passed overhead, and he kept walking being sure to stay as hidden as he could. He already nearly got ambushed by one of those things when him and another guy were walking together. Jim was lucky the other guy was the target. Jim ended up having to use a tire iron his friend had been carrying to burst through the skull of the assailant as he stood there mashing the thing with full strength swings.
It was too late though as his friend had his throat torn out within the first 2 seconds and he laid there gurgling blood desperately clasping at his neck trying to stop the blood. By the time Jim got the assailant dispatched his friend had already died. For good measure Jim bashed his friends head in to make sure he wasn’t going to be ambushed later. He’d learned already that you need to be cold with these things after one bite you and you die.
A giant impact sound sent a shock wave that nearly knocked Jim forwards onto his face. He turned around after regaining his footing where he saw an enormous mushroom cloud forming on top of the city. ‘Jesus’, he said to himself ‘they just dropped a nuke.’ He picked up his pace and started looking at the trees for a sign of which way the wind was blowing. Lucky day, the wind was blowing the opposite way he was travelling.
At least the radioactive fallout shouldn’t poison him he thought, still — he wanted to buy some iodine as soon as he could just in case. He wasn’t sure how it worked but he had heard when he was a kid that iodine binds to the radioactive particles and then allows you to urinate it out. He didn’t know if it was true, but he figured it was worth a try just in case.
Jim could hear the sound of machine gun fire ahead. At first, he wasn’t sure but as he walked closer and closer towards the sound, he became absolutely certain as the clank of the metal and the bap bap bap bap bap of the gun became more distinct. This made Jim hesitate. What exactly were there firing at constantly for 5 minutes? It must be practice or something. He hadn’t heard of any crime waves, rioters or looting the last he heard the newscast on.
He very slowly made his way towards the sound. As he reached the top of the hill, he was climbing he got down on to his stomach and pulled himself up the ditch very slowly so he could look over top of the pavement.
He could see another hill about 300 yards up which had a military post stationed there. The post was a makeshift outpost, and it faced a critical highway juncture for the interstate on the other side of it. Jim was technically on the reverse side of the outpost and the machine gunner was firing down wards towards the big dip or valley in the road which was between Jim’s hill and the gunner’s hill. Jim still couldn’t see what the gunner was shooting at but whatever it was — the gunner was determined to fire enough led at it that it would was not happy.
Jim wiggled his way further up the embankment to see if he could see the valley below. He peered over the ridge and this time he could see the bottom of the dip and what appeared to be a couple hundred dead bodies. Jim was shocked. These people looked like civilians. The machine gun kept snapping off rounds into the pile of people, but it had slowed dramatically to a couple shots per minute.
Jim nearly soiled his pants when he went to slide down the embankment, he found rifles pointed at him from two marines that had managed to sneak right up behind him. A 3rd Marine was literally almost on top of him just winding up on the back swing with a large mace type weapon.
‘Woe woe woe! Don’t shoot!’ Jim said excitedly
‘Keep it down sit’ said the 3rd marine as he lowered the mace and was no longer in that menacing pose. ‘Sorry, we thought you were one of them creepers. I’ve found it’s much better to use a mace than a rifle because the rifle tends to attract more. We try to be as quiet as we can.’
‘What’s going on?’ asked Jim ‘Where can we find some safety?’
‘Sir, we don’t know. We were ordered to hold this sector until reinforcements arrived, that is all we know.’ Said the 2nd Marine. ‘You can come with us back to the outpost, we have some water and rations you can take. It’ll help you on your way.’
‘Can’t I stay with you guys?’ asked Jim ‘It seems a whole lot safer than roaming around out here.’
‘Sir, You seen that atomic bomb that went off a few hours ago, right? You need to get as far away from the city as you can. Stay away from large urban centers and find some place to hole up until we get control of this. You don’t want to be here if that wind shifts. We have no choice, but you do.’ said the First Marine.
‘You mean this happened other places too?’ Jim asked
The 1st marine motioned to the 3rd marine giving him the ‘go ahead’ to tell Jim.
“Sir” said the 3rd Marine
“Jim” Jim replied
“Jim, we’ve had attacks like this across the entire country. When we last got sit rep, they were thinking it was some type of biological warfare unleashed. They thought it was some type of mind control that shuts down your consciousness and activates the most primitive part of your brain. In essence, it turns you into an aggressive predator that seems to only enjoy killing and spreading the virus.” said 3rd Marine.
‘So, are they dead or are they alive?’ asked Jim
“Both” said the 2nd Marine “The transition happens right as your brain slips into unconsciousness. For all intent and purposes, you’re mostly brain dead. That’s why they can’t be reasoned with and why they have no language or ability to do simple things like turn a complicated door lock.”
“They are dead Jim’ said the first marine ‘there is a little bit of electrical activity in the core of their brain that can operate their body and handle some basic functions, but the rest of their body is dying. Once their body dies then they are fully dead and that can take a long time depending on how much damage they sustain or how hard they push themselves. We found out though that they can still operate their body until the Riga Mortis starts to set in and then they eventually freeze in this dead state wherever they are. ‘
‘Jesus’ said Jim
‘No, Jesus didn’t make it down for this one. God is dead.’
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