Chapter 7: Tough Times and Rough Memories

So, I'm back! After that huge hiatus... Anyways, this chapter goes into Dallas and his past. A pretty cool chapter, I think. I hope y'all like it!

Chapter 7: Tough Times and Rough Memories

            Everything was hazy, fuzzy, nothing looked right. The voices that were heard echoed and reverberated in his mind.

            “Dallas… Please be okay…” a familiar voice begged.

            “He’ll be fine, he just needs rest”, said one voice. It sounded oddly familiar, but foreign as well. It continued, “We need to leave, let him be by himself.”

            “No. Can I… I just want to be here to make sure nothing else happens to him”, the first voice pleaded.

            “Me too!” peeped a high-pitched, younger voice. A small bark followed in agreement.

            “Well he made some loyal friends, I can say that. He was always good at befriending the right people.” The second voice had a hint of sadness to it. “I’m sure he’ll be fine, but if you want you can stay here. I have to attend to some work. Delilah, we’ll talk later.”

            “Of course, and thank you, Grant.”

            ‘Delilah, Grant… They made it’, he thought. ‘We’re here, we’re safe…’ Once this thought passed through his head, Dallas returned to his wakeless coma.

            The day was sunny and the sky was clear. There was a desert directly outside the car and mountains capped with snow could be seen in the background. To the west of those mountains, storms could be seen forming; which caused snow to fall on the mountains, but rain to fall in desert, if luck had its way. Although, luck never really went the way Dallas usually wanted it to go nowadays, but for once it was starting to turn.

            He turned his attention away from the window and looked forward, seeing the massive expanse of concrete road they still had to travel. “We’re about… an hour away?” His friend next to him questioned, mainly to himself. The figure next to him was clothed in a black dress shirt with a nice pair of blue jeans. He had dark curly hair and glasses on his face, with a goatee/mustache combo to top it all off. Grant really cared about his outward appearance, so he always made sure to look his best, especially with his clothes. He turned to Dallas, “So, daydreaming, again? Man, what’s with you and your head?” A laughed accompanied this.

            “Heh, well I just like to think, what can I say?” A smile made its way onto Dallas’ face. “Call me a philosopher, you know? I have to ask those important questions of ‘What do women really want?’ or ‘Did the chicken really come before the egg?’” Laughs echoed throughout the car at Dallas’ “witty” remarks.

            “Do you always act like such a smart a*s?”

            “Truth?” Grant nodded. “Hell yes.”

            Again, they both laughed at his comment and it wasn’t much longer before Dallas began to feel a little drowsy, so he laid his seat down and took nap. After another week of classes and work, he needed the rest for the weekend. He could handle school, or even work, alone, but put the two together and he was having a rough first year of college. This weekend was going to give him and Grant some time away from the school, giving them a chance to relax outside of the school grounds. Once he closed his eyes, Dallas quickly fell asleep. An hour passed before he was woken up by Grant, but it felt like he had fallen asleep only seconds ago.

            “Hey! Wake up, we’re here!” Grant said as he shook Dallas awake. He woke up just in time to see them turning off the road onto a dirt path covered by a forest. It was a short drive through the woods before they reached a clearing. Once they were through the clearing, they saw a valley at the foot of a mountain, dotted with several houses. In the center of the town, which Grant pointed out, was a mansion bigger than any of the other houses in the area. That was Grant’s house. They drove along the dirt paths straight to this house, pulling up to the driveway and stretching as they exited the car.

            “Well, welcome to chez la Grant. Big, huh?” Obviously, he didn’t need to question this.

            “Yeah! You could fit another family in this house!” Dallas agreed as he looked in awe at Grant’s abode. Grant’s car was the only one on the stretching driveway. In fact, his was the only car that Dallas had seen on the way into the gathering of houses. “You know, I haven’t seen a single car here. Everyone on vacation?” Dallas questioned as he looked at his watch. It read 3:30 PM.

            “Well, everyone’s probably at work or school. Now come on! I’m sure my parents left us something to eat!” Both Dallas’ and Grant’s eagerness caused them to not even give the fact that no one else was here a second thought, satisfied with the answer Grant had given.

            They took their bags out of the car and rushed to the front door, quickly opening it with Grant’s house key. The entry way was huge. It had two staircases on either side of the room that both led to the second story of the house. A giant chandler hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Paintings and portraits decorated the walls of the entryway. Some depicted magnificent environments, while others were of people in suits, dresses, and other such attire, clearly Grant’s ancestors and family. Flowers also dotted the entryway, being placed on different tables or stands located along the marble tiled floor. On the opposite side of the doorway was an arch that led to other parts of the first floor, including the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Obviously, the two hungry college students decided to venture into the kitchen first.

            The kitchen was as glorious in design as the entryway. It also had white marble tile making up the floor. In the middle of the kitchen was an individual marble countertop, which the both of them put their bags on. The walls of the kitchen were lined with more counter tops, some of them having electronic appliances on top of them, but no food. The same could be said of the numerous wooden shelves and the wooden pantry that were all open. As well, the fridge was no different, missing almost every piece of food or container of liquid that should have been held in there. A small, clear CD case was on top of the island with a sticky note on it saying “WATCH!!!”

            Grant grabbed his laptop out of its carrying bag and opened it on the counter. He opened the disk tray and laid the CD down in it. It loaded up the video that was on it, showing instantly that something wasn’t right. The camera was shaking around slightly and the setting of the film was in the same kitchen that the two were standing in. Eventually, the camera came to a woman with long, curly, black hair and a few age lines that showed she was older than Dallas or Grant. “Mom”, escaped from Grant’s lips.

            She finally spoke. “Grant! Listen to me, okay?! Listen to what I have to say!” What came out of her mouth was spoken very fast and frantically. “We’re leaving! There’s been an incident and your father is being called away! He’s taking us to a military facility to keep us safe in Colorado Springs! We’d wait for you, but we don’t have time. We need you and your friend to come to the air force base in Colorado Springs and we’ll meet you there, okay? Mommy loves you, honey. Stay safe… Please, dear god, stay safe...” It sounded more like she was begging someone to keep him safe rather than telling him.

            “Mom… What the hell is going on?” He turned from his computer screen to face Dallas, thoughts racing through his head at what could possibly be happening. “We need to get to Colorado Springs. Something’s going on and we’re not gonna figure out what it is unless we go there.”

            “Alright, let’s hurry!” Dallas agreed. They grabbed their bags and threw them into the back of the car. Grant sped out of the driveway and back onto the highway, not worrying about getting in trouble or hitting anything. It was easy to tell Grant was worried about his mother’s message and Dallas tried to calm him down. “Look, man. Maybe it’s a false alarm. I bet they’re okay, so don’t worry, alright?”

            “Don’t worry? Don’t worry?! How can I not worry?! Did you watch that same video? Something is wrong, she was on the verge of tears and I have never seen her that shaky or worried before. We need to get to Colorado Springs. Now!” All of this came out in an angered tone that Grant was using to mask his worriedness. He was sure something was going on and he wanted to make sure it didn’t harm his family. Colorado Springs was about forty-five minutes away from the small town. Thirty minutes into the drive, they saw something troubling.

            A long line of cars on the opposite side of the interstate began to appear, accompanied by hundreds of people walking and not wanting to wait for the traffic to clear up. While the opposite side of the interstate was full of cars, the side Dallas and Grant were on wasn’t. Military vehicles could be seen mixed in with the civilian vehicles and military-grade helicopters were flying overhead, away from Colorado Springs. “What the hell…” was all that came out of the duos’ mouths. A man in a military uniform ran from the other side and stopped their car. The car came to a screeching halt as Grant rolled down his window to speak with the soldier.

            “Are you two crazy?! Why are you heading towards the city?” The soldier asked in a serious tone.

            “We’re going to find my parents. What’s going on here?!” Grant asked worriedly. 

            “Well son, where were your parents?”

            “At the air force base in Colorado Springs.”

            The soldier’s face suddenly went rigid and fear could be seen in his eyes. “The air force base…? Son, I’m sorry to say… If they were at the air force base, then they are most likely dead, or- ”

            “Dead?!” Grant interrupted him, obviously not believing what he said. “What do you mean dead, what’s going on?!”

            “They… Overran the base, no survivors have been reported. Now the city is on full evac and no one is allowed to enter the city.”

            Grant’s face turned into one of disbelief. His face fell to the steering wheel in front of him and his hands grabbed onto his head. “My family… Dead? It can’t be…” Dallas put his hand on Grant’s shoulder as a few tears began to fall from his eyes. Grant turned his head to Dallas. “They’re dead? No, it-it just can’t...” He was still in disbelief at this fact as he turned his head back to the stare at the steering wheel.

            Dallas looked towards the soldier. “What do you mean it was overran? By who?”

            The soldier looked at Dallas. “What do you mean who? It’s more like what overran the base.” This caused Dallas to have a confused look cover his face. “Wait a minute…” Realization finally dawned on the soldier. “You guys don’t know, do you?”

            “Don’t know what?” Dallas questioned.

            The soldier let out a heavy, tired sigh. “It’s been happening since yesterday. We had localized reports in Denver of some weird, beast-like creatures attacking and killing people.” Fear took hold of his voice. “They moved too fast for us to stop them there, but we… We tried to quarantine this area to begin a counter attack. You can see how that went.” The soldier turned his head to face the refugees walking along the interstate. “The only advantage we have against them is that they can’t stand the light, something about UV rays burning their skin. I don’t know. But that doesn’t help us enough, since they just hide in buildings during the day and that’s a death sentence compared to facing them at night. What’s worse is that even if someone escapes an attack from these… These “lurkers” with just a scratch, they’ll begin to turn into one of them within an hour.”

            Dallas had a mixture of fear and shock on his face, one that was mirrored by Grant who decided to listen to what was happening, as well. “Did you see them overrun the base?”

            “Well, no, son. But they swarmed downtown in a matter of hours. I don’t see what’s stopping them from-” Before the soldier could finish his sentence, Grant already put the car into gear.

            “Grant! What are you doing?!” Dallas questioned, knowing full well what was going through his friend’s mind.

            “He didn’t see them attack the base! Maybe they’re okay, maybe they weren’t attacked, maybe… Maybe they held out!”

            “Grant! Listen to me!” Dallas yelled as he reached to turn the car off. “They swarmed downtown Colorado Springs within hours. HOURS! I’m sorry, but there’s no way that the air force base could have held out.”

            “They could still be alive! They could have ran away!”

            “Then they would be with this group. If you don’t see them, then- ”

            “They aren’t dead! They’re alive, I just know it… And we’re going to find them! Now give me the keys, Dallas!” Grant scrambled and clawed for the keys, grasping for any hope that his family might be alive. He was pushed away by Dallas and held back by the soldier.

            “Grant! Get a hold of yourself. Do you think they want you to throw your life away? Do you think they could’ve made it out of there? I’m sorry, but they’re gone.” Dallas began to calm down after saying this.

            “You don’t know that, Dallas! God d****t! You don’t know that! You don’t… You don’t know…” Grant broke down and began to shed tears openly. His head hung low. “Oh god, they’re dead aren’t they, Dallas?” His voice was shaking, as was his whole body.

            “Yes, Grant. I think so. I’m sorry.”

            His friend started to sob and the shaking in his voice and body became more violent. The soldier let go of him. “Listen, son, I’m sorry, we’ve all lost someone to these damned creatures. And I know it’s hard, but we need to survive. If there’s anywhere safe that you know of, you should head there. And,” he turned to the scared and hurt people behind him “take some of them with you. There’s a refugee area close by, but I don’t think it’ll be there by time we arrive.”

            “Right.” Dallas turned his attention back to his friend. “Hey, Grant? You’re in no shape to drive and we need to get back to your mansion. Here, switch seats with me and I’ll get us back there, okay?”

            “Alright…” The young, crying man still hadn’t gotten a hold of himself, but was able to get into the passenger’s seat while Dallas took the driver’s.

            “It’ll be okay, man. We’ll mourn when we get back.” He patted his friend’s shoulder, then gave directions to the soldier on where the valley of houses was. A few vehicles were still functional, so they would take the elderly, children, and injured who weren’t infected to the valley. Everyone else could walk that distance in about a day or less. Once that was settled, the pair of college students made their way back to the mansion and began to set up what would become the Fortress.

            That’s how it all started. Some freak medical experiment gone wrong, some disease passed on through food or an infection, something like that, but it didn’t matter now. It started that day, and, a year later, it looked like there was no end to it, not yet.

         Dallas began to weave in and out of consciousness, again. His eyes flickered open slightly and saw that the room was completely dark. Night. Something moved at the foot of his bed, and he saw Dodge sleeping and running while he dreamt, like he always did. On the side of his bed, he felt something move up and down. He turned his head to find Delilah laying her head on her arms next to his bed side. In her lap was Kael’s head. Both of them were asleep.

            ‘So it wasn’t a dream’, he thought. A small smile came to his face as he closed his eyes again. ‘Good. Then I can rest a little easier now.’ With that, he returned to his dreams and his memories. Recounting the events that had happened over the past year in his mind like a movie.

 

            The day was clear and the sun was just beginning to set. Birds were chirping all throughout the woods one last time before night bid them to sleep. Animals began to scurry through the leaves and twigs on the forest floor to return to their homes. It seemed like a normal twilight moment: serene, peaceful, perfect. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

            Accompanying the animals and birds was the fear of not being able to see tomorrow, that a lurker would come and kill them, then devour their corpse. It was a fear that was felt by every living being, even humans. Even though lurkers didn’t tend to live in the woods and chose to hideout in manmade structures instead, a stray lurker was still a threat from time to time. This was what kept Dallas and his friend alert and on their toes.

            His friend, the soldier who he met on the interstate about two months ago, was Sgt. James Pepper. He was a slightly older man, about twenty years older than Dallas, and had tanned skin with black hair. A scar came across his left eye, permanently keeping it shut. The blame for that could be pinned on his earlier service in the military. James served as a sniper in his younger days with the army. But after having his eye cut open by an escaping convict in a military police camp, he decided to return home and join the National Guard. That didn’t prove to be any safer than when he was in the army.

            After they returned to Grant’s mansion, refugees and evacuees started piling in, taking shelter in the many houses around the valley. About a day later, the rest of them made it, a couple of soldiers coming along with them, including Sgt. Pepper. He reported that there was about a hundred people with him, children, women, and elderly included. The rest of the group decided to stick with a bigger division of the soldiers who would escort them to the nearby military refugee camp. They never heard from them again, so everyone assumed what happened to the group. Luckily for the Fortress, they were still there, two months later.

            They walked cautiously through the forest, completing their scouting trip for the day and heading back to the Fortress for some rest. Their guard was down slightly due to not seeing any signs of lurkers hiding in the woods. With such a day like this, the two passed the time by asking each other “would you rather” questions.

            “Alright, alright.” Dallas began after laughing at James’ last comment. “Would you rather… Watch porn of your parents, or watch porn with your parents?”

            The sergeant gave a hearty laugh. “Well, son, I got to ask: are you choking the chicken in both of these?”

            “Of course! Wouldn’t make it a hard decision otherwise!”

            “Alright, fair enough. Hm… I’d have to say… With.”

            They both laughed at the sergeant’s answer. “Yeah, I’ll agreed with you there. It’d be weird if you were doing that while watching your parents.” This gave both man shivers as Dallas said this. “Yeah. Let’s not think any harder on this one, huh?”

            “Yup. I can agree with ya on that!” They looked towards the sky. The sun was barely visible, they had to hurry back to the Fortress. “Alright, son. Double time, let’s move!” The sergeant said in an audible whisper. They went from walking to a light jog, making more noise as they moved, but allowing them to reach safe haven faster.

            The scout team reached the opening where you could see the Fortress from the forest. About a mile more and they’d be home free. As they went back to traversing the forest, they began to hear something follow them. Their pace became faster and faster, then they took a sharp right turn into some dense brush to try and escape what was pursuing them. It was only a matter of seconds before the thing that was chasing came into clear view. Even in the dim twilight, Dallas could see the lurker that was sticking into the shadows and avoiding whatever specks of light remained.

            The lurker began to sniff around the area and Dallas and Sgt. Pepper watched as they held their breath. Every now and then, the beast would scream in pain as a stray bit of light softly touched its bare skin. It almost looked like it was about to give up, then it turned and looked directly at the brush the men were hiding in. Its eyes seemed to focus on them and an unsettling feeling grew inside both of them. They knew that it had found them. As it looked at them, it stood there, waiting for the fear of its glare to force them to leave their “sanctuary”.

            “Listen, son.” Sgt. Pepper whispered. “Just remember what I’ve taught you over the past few months and we’ll make it out of this.” He examined the area around the clearing and spotted the trees on the other side of the forest. “Aim for that tree across from us. Use a rock. That should distract it long enough for me to get a clear shot at its head.” The only response he received from the young scout was a simple nod.

            Dallas picked up a stone, crept out of the brush just enough to get a clear shot at a tree across from them, drew his bow back, and fired. Once the stone hit the bark of the tree, the lurker’s head shot up and he stood on his hind legs, looking towards the sound. Sgt. Pepper shot up from the brush and took aim at the monster. Its head turned to face the man looking to kill it. Then, he fired. The bullet reached the monster, but only grazed its head. Only one thing happened, and it wasn’t what the scouts were hoping for. A wail, an enraged, death threatening wail, rang throughout the forest as the lurker charged Sgt. Pepper.

            In panic, the experienced sniper fearfully fired a few more rounds before the lurker jumped on him and pinned him to the ground. Quickly, Dallas took the bowie knife on his belt and stuck it in the spine of the nightmarish creature. A cry of pain rang out from its lungs. It swept behind it blindly to hit whatever had attacked it. Dallas rolled out of the way and into the clearing, arrow knocked in his bow and ready to fire. Before he could however, the monster charged him with fury in his eyes, forcing him to roll out of the way again. He didn’t have time to fully draw his bow and fire it at the creature. He examined the situation and saw Sgt. Pepper’s rifle on the forest floor next to him. If he could make one clear shot at its head, the monster would fall.

            He waited for the lurker to charge him. It drug itself up from its last attempt and, with the form of bull, readied itself to charge at its prey. For a few seconds, they stared each other down. Dallas cocked his gun. As the empty shell from the rifle hit the leaf covered floor, the beast charged. Time slowed and Dallas’ heartbeat dropped. He needed to wait until the lurker was close enough for him to make a crystal clear shot. It felt like an eternity before it was in range, but soon enough, its head became a bulls-eye. Dallas, using the last bit of lighting in the area, took aim, put his finger on the trigger, and fired. The bullet stayed true to its aim and reached the skull of the deformed creature, ripping through the bits of brain and bone that allowed it to live. It fell hard onto the ground and sled to the feet of its killer, who only stared down it for a moment and then turned his attention to his friend who was hidden by the brush.

            He rushed through the foliage to see Sgt. Peppers leaning back against a tree with his hand on his right arm. Once he looked at the sergeant’s arm, Dallas could see a dark, red liquid flowing from in between his friend’s fingers. That could only mean one thing: the lurker had infected him. The deep scratch wasn’t near any arteries or organs, which means he would live, but the poison would change him into the creature that now laid dead behind them. There was no way the sergeant would come out of this as himself.

            “No. No, it can’t be. You can’t… This isn’t happening…” Dallas repeated his statement several times over in disbelief as the injured Sgt. Pepper turned towards him.

            “Heh. He got me good, didn’t he, son?” His worried partner ran over to him. “Guess that’s what I get for not taking my time to aim.” Though he was joking about his injury, the sergeant knew he was in a grim situation.

            “Hey, hey! We’ll fix this. Maybe… Maybe it was just a scratch from the tree! Yeah, maybe…” Dallas’ reassurance fell on deaf ears, even to himself.

            “Yeah? Well, I don’t think a tree could do this to you.” The veteran sniper lifted his hand up from the scratch that he was hiding. When Dallas saw it, he knew there was no way that wasn’t a lurker scratch. There were three bloody, red streaks on the flesh of Sgt. Peppers arm. The cuts themselves almost ran the width of the arm, nearly severing it from his body. Worse yet, was how deep each individual cut went. Each one cut through muscle and tissue enough to be able to show bits of bone at the deepest point. “So, you think a tree could do that?”

            “I… No.”

            Sgt. Pepper looked at his friend for a moment before saying, “Okay, son. I don’t want to lay this on you, but… I’m not coming back as one of them and I’m not the kind of man to commit suicide. So, I need you to do the honor.” As he finished, he handed Dallas the pistol he carried at his side. “Please.”

            “No!” Dallas said in disbelief. “No, you can’t ask me to do this! I can’t kill you! I just… I can’t!”

            “Look at me, son! Look at me!” Dallas reluctantly turned his head to the infected sergeant. “I can’t turn into one of them. That’ll only help those… Things. So please, I’m begging you. Don’t let me be one of them, that’s no way to live.” At this point tears began to form in both men’s eyes. The sergeant was scared, scared of turning into one of those horrid creatures. The only way out of this was death. Although he didn’t want to do it, Dallas knew that killing him would be merciful.

            So, he took the gun out of the sergeant’s trembling hand. He cocked the bolt back, loading a bullet into the chamber. With his hand shaking, he aimed the gun at his mentor, who he had learned everything about survival in this world from. “I’m sorry…” Dallas let out weakly.

            The sergeant gave a weary smile. “Don’t be.” With that, Dallas let his finger pull the trigger, which caused a loud bang to echo throughout the forest.

           

            Dallas jolted up from his sleep and quickly regretted it. The sudden movement caused a dull, throbbing soreness in his shoulder. This brought him back to reality as he remembered what had happened. “It was… It was only a dream. More like a nightmare, but… It felt so real…” He turned his head to look out the window to his room, seeing that it was daytime, probably late morning. At that moment, Delilah and Kael opened the door with a few bowls of cereal and a bowl of dog food for Dodge, who was following right behind them, in their hands. “Hey, guys. How’s it going?” The injured man greeted them nonchalantly. All of them faced Dallas at the same time. Once they saw that Dallas was awake, they all rushed to his bed, dropping the bowls of dry food in the process.

            Dodge climbed up onto the bed and began licking Dallas as he pet him. “Nice to see you too, you mangy mongrel.” His canine companion barked with glee at hearing this.

            As he was still petting Dodge, Kael came up onto the bed as well. “Hey! You’re okay! I was worried, well… I mean, my sister was really worried, but I kept reassuring her everything would be okay!” The boy covered up the fact that he was worried very hurriedly. He wanted Dallas to think that he was still looking out for his sister and not vice versa. Although, nothing could be further from the truth.

            Finally, Delilah came up to his bedside. She was giving Dallas a weary smile, showing the exhaustion from the amount of time she spent making sure he was okay. “I’m glad you’re awake, Dallas. When you collapsed after we went through the forest, we were scared that you… That you…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t need to. Dallas held her hand to know he was okay and that he understood. He only held it for a few seconds, but it helped Delilah calm down more than he would know. Tears began to form in her eyes. “I was so scared, Dallas.” She enveloped him in her arms, happy to see her savior and friend still alive.

            Dallas returned the hug and began to comfort her. “Shh. It’s okay. I’m here, I’m alive. It’s alright.” When she ended the hug, she had a smile on her face.

“Thanks.” She sniffed once so the tears in her eyes stayed there. Once she felt better, she continued the conversation. “So, besides the shoulder, how are you feeling, now?”

            Dallas got back into a seated position on his bed. “Well, besides that, I’m feeling a lot better, but I could definitely use some food.”

            This caused Delilah to giggle. “I should’ve guessed. Well, we were bringing you something, but…” They both looked at the spilt breakfast on the floor near the door to the room. “Well, Grant wanted to see you when you woke up, anyways. So, we can go get some food before we head over his house to see him.”

            “Sounds good to me, let me get dressed and we’ll head over there.”

            “Alright. Your clothes are in the chest at the foot of your bed. We’ll be waiting outside.” With that, Delilah, Kael, and Dodge made their exit, while Dallas reclaimed his belongings from where they were stored.

            ‘Right when I wake up’, Dallas thought. ‘He probably wants to know what I found in Colorado Springs. He’ll be disappointed when I tell him I couldn’t explore the base.’ This brought back the memories of the dreams he had while he was out. He cringed as he remembered the pistol in his hand. He swore he could feel its weight, it almost felt like it was real. It almost felt like the first human he ever killed, his mentor and friend, was right in front of him, begging Dallas to end his life. The memory was too painful to relive while he was awake. ‘I guess what they say is true: the past is the most painful when remembered, and the most real when relived.’

Author's Note

All reviews, critiques, and comments welcomed, good and bad please!