Hunters of the Shadows vol. 2 by Cutting Envy

Hunters of the Shadows
A series of short stories.
Vol. 2- Hunters of the Shadows
Jared Jozsa

I
It was nearing 2:30 in the A.M. The air was cold, the kind of cold that whipped you in the face and left a sting. Jackie Thompson, who had been sitting on the roof of the abandoned base all day, hadn’t even noticed, his face was numb in the cool dark air. The night was calm, despite the unusual circumstances... The moon was playing hide and seek with the clouds, peeking in and out, shedding bits of light every now and then.
Jackie had lit his fourth cigarette in a row. He never remembered smoking this much at one time, not even when he was stationed in Iraq for three months. It was obvious, Jackie was scared...
He forced his mind to think of happy times, times when his only worries were either surfing the net for porn, or playing video games all day. These thoughts, however soothing, made him sad. He knew those days were gone forever. His already watering eyes had begun dripping.
A loud, harsh moaning in the distance yanked him back to reality. He put his cigarette in his mouth and leveled his eye to the scope on his rifle. He sat in silence, waiting, feeling the smoke from the cigarette sting his pupil. He felt like he was playing a jacked-up version of that gopher game, the one where you had to smack the little bastard’s head, before it was too late, before more of them came out of their hiding places and there were too many to deal with. Although he figured he was pretty safe up there on the roof, he was still scared shitless nonetheless, of the lifeless bodies that were staggering up and down the old dirt road that lead up to the base. He watched them, studied them in the distance. His mind couldn’t begin to comprehend what was going on, or why. He noticed that he had seen hundreds of them so far, in the night as opposed to the few that wandered during the day. He compared the zombies to hunters, in search of somthing, their next big game maybe- he pictured a zombie household, and the big showoff piece was his head on a plaque, hanging on the wall...
Another loud moaning brought him back to Earth. He ashed his cigarette and looked out into the field. His mouth hung open, his eyes wide and glued to one thing...
“Oh shit...”

2
Back in the medical room, Johnny and Blackman had been playing catching up...
“...So you just woke up in that cabin? No recollection of how you got there or any memory of your past?”
Johnny smiled, as if he was showing off...
“That’s right. Didn’t even know who the fuck I was.” Johnny stopped.
“I did remember one thing though...” He smiled.
Blackman’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, what?”
Johnny hesitated...
“It’s stupid...but I remembered an old episode of the twilight zone...”
Blackman look puzzled, then broke out in an uneasy laughter. Johnny joined him after a couple of awkward seconds, then jumped out of the bed, putting on his jacket. The uneven pain throbbing in the right side of his chest caught him off guard, forcing him to slow down.
“Careful there son, you take it easy.” Blackman snapped.
“Yeah...take it easy huh...” Johnny’s voice trailed off then came right back to him,
“You got any food man? I’m fuckin’ starved.”
Blackman smiled.
“Oh yeah, we got the finest in military rations, follow me.” His mouth curved into a grin.
Johnny’s excitement dropped.
“...Yay, rations...”

3
Blackman led him out of the room and down a long, dim hallway. He was barking on about some movie he had seen that this reminded him of, but Johnny wasn’t paying much, if any, attention. Johnny’s eyes were focused on the corroded ceiling, chipped drywall and the broken fluorescent tubes hanging from just about every other light fixture.
Johnny’s eyes fixated on a photograph that had been framed and hung in the hall, the only thing that hadn’t been broken just yet. His memory fluttered, and in a dreamlike sequence he saw a man receiving an award of some kind, just like the photo had shown. His memory fluttered once again, this time it was taking place inside of what he guessed was a laboratory, the light was dimmed down and that same man was being held at gunpoint by three people wearing ski masks... His mind snapped back to reality.
Blackman had stopped and retraced his own steps, until he was next to Johnny.
“You all right?” He looked concerned.
“Huh...Oh, yeah. I’m fine...” Johnny hesitated.
“Just looking, that’s all...”

4
Kimberly had just arrived to Julie Truman’s holding cell. She was uneasy, to say the least... Julie was sleeping on the little cot that they had put in her cell just three days before.
“Julie, you awake...?” Kim stuttered.
Julie’s head hung low.
“Julie...” A single tear ran down Kim’s cheek and retired to the floor. She began walking towards Julie’s cell...slowly...cautiously.
“Julie...are you-” Kim was abruptly cut off by Julie’s sudden motions...Julie had snapped up and jumped at the cage, letting out a sharp, hideous shriek. Kim jumped back and fell to the floor.
“Jesus Christ...” Kim held her chest in disbelief. She helped herself up and stood away from the cell, learning her lesson for the time being. Taking one look at Julie was all she could handle, seeing that dead face...and those eyes...those hideous yellow eyes that would haunt Kim’s dreams for weeks to come sent chills down her spine. She was filled with a strange kind of guilt.
There was an odd sadness to Julie’s face, like she knew. This raised Kim’s hopes, praying that perhaps Julie wasn’t completely gone just yet, that maybe she was in there somewhere, hidden beneath that face...that old, dead face. Holding back her tears, Kim slowly made her way back towards the cell, this time she was prepared for anything. Julie’s eyes locked with hers. They stared for what seemed to Kim like an eternity.
“...Julie...”
She raised her hand to the cage and rested it on one of the rusty bars that separated her from what she guessed would be a slow, painful death...or at least a slow painful something... Julie shrieked again, this time Kim saw it coming and couldn’t help it, she started crying. As the shrieking and moaning continued, Kim just put her hands to her face and slowly backed off, making her way to the corner.

II
How the gods kill

Kim sat in the corner, burying her face deep into her hands.
“This is how the gods kill the sinners...” She thought out loud.
“Why...why god...”
Kim was breaking down. She remembered holidays with her family, saying goodbye to her boyfriend when she got on the bus and headed for boot camp. She remembered graduation, her father with the video camera, waving. This thought made her laugh underneath all her tears. Then she remembered that day on base...and she knew...she knew that those days were long gone, her family was long gone. Once again, her face was glued to her hands, sobbing away...

2
Blackman and Johnny were arriving at the mess hall, Blackman was rehashing about the ‘good ‘ol days’ when he first joined the marines, about how all him and his buddies did was drink drink drink. Johnny was still shaken by what he had seen in his head the ten minutes preceding this. What did it mean? Who were those people? He tried forgetting about that, tried focusing on how hungry he was......didn’t work.
“So we got grape jelly, some rock hard substance that used to be bread I think,” Blackman was digging through cupboards and throwing stuff behind his head while doing so. It reminded Johnny of Tom the cat, looking for that bastard Jerry. This brought an unlikely smile to his face.
“...And we got some orange powder drink mix.” Blackman held up a little pouch with black writing, containing the ever-so popular words, “Orange-base drink mix.” Johnny nodded, he thought a drink sounded good.
“Well actually...we don’t have any water.” Blackman said, with a half smile, half frown.
“No water?” Johnny scolded, “Did you guys ACTUALLY plan on surviving here?”
Sensing the sarcasm dripping off his sentence, Blackman replied.
“Well, that was the plan, yeah.”

3
Johnny put his palm to his forehead.
“Wow-” He was cut off by a frightened Jackie, running down a flight of stairs, screaming his head off. Blackman caught him by the shoulders and stopped him.
“Jackie, what’s going on?!” He shook him up a little bit.
Jackie’s breath finally caught up with him...for the most part.
“The zombies (gasp) sir,” his breathing still heavy... “Millions (gasp) can’t (gasp) kill.”
Blackman looked back at johnny, then ran up the stairs to the roof, followed by Jackie. Blackman hollered for Kim to come too. Johnny guessed that they wouldn’t mind if he tagged along, so he followed as well.

III
S.N.A.F.U

Johnny was the last to arrive on the roof, he staggered up the last two stairs, gasping for air. he saw the backs of the others standing perfectly still.
“What’s going-” Johnny stopped himself. He didn’t need his question answered...he could see. As he conquered those last steps, he saw what they saw. The field, once baron from near extinction, came into view. Johnny couldn’t see any grass.
“Holy shit...” He whispered.
“God save us.” Blackman requested.
What they had seen was nothing short of a miracle...not the good kind. The field, no longer baron, was covered with walking corpses, unholy living dead- as far as the eye could see. The fence wasn’t going to last much longer, hundreds of zombies were pushing on it, not even phased by the razor wire mounted to the top of the fence, which now stood a meager two feet off the ground.
The group watched helplessly from the roof as zombies started pouring inside their base.
“Sir, I think they heard the gunshots, I think that’s why they’re all here...They’re looking for their next meal!” Jackie spit in a panicked rage.
“What do we do?”
Blackman took a deep breath...
“We run.”
He pointed at the fire escape.
“We wait ‘til the majority of them are in...” Blackman swallowed and continued,
“Then we run.”