Page 17 of Apricity (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse)

Jax

“Jax! Hawk! Cole! Can you hear me? Are you ok?”

The distant feminine yells echo around the dark room as I cough dust out of my lungs and groan as my back cracks back into place.

“Ohhhh, I’m getting too old for this shit…,” Cole groans from my right side. I reach my arm out for him and touch his chest. His hands find mine, clasping, letting me know he’s ok. But where’re Aly and Hawk?

“ Guys… shut the fuck up,” I barely hear him as Hawk whispers his warning. His voice came from behind me, which means he must have rolled off of us and further into the room when we fell. Aly doesn’t hear him, however, and continues calling for us .

“Guys! Answer me! Please!” Her cries spur me on to answer, even though I know I probably shouldn’t. If Hawk is calling out for everyone to be quiet, there’s a damn good reason for it. But Aly didn’t hear him, which means I need to get her to stop.

“Aly, baby, we’re alright. Gotta be quiet though, ok? Gotta get—”

“Grrrrrrraaeeaaegggggggguuuua”

“Fuck...”

"Grrraaaarrrrggg"

"GRRRAAAARGGH"

"RAARRGGGGHH"

The loud groaning echoes from all around us, emphasizing the fact that not only are we not alone, but we're surrounded.

“Oh my gah—!”

“RUN!”

“Where asshole? We’re in the fucking basement and it’s fucking locked!”

I guess we know why it was locked now, don’t we?

“Aly! Aly! Where are you baby?! Call out to me!”

Silence.

“Aly!” Cole calls out.

Nothing.

“Sweetheart, answer us!” Hawk pleads, about to lose his shit if she doesn’t start responding. But why isn’t she, though? She just answered a second ago. What the hell happen—

No. We’re not doing this again. I’m not about to lose her. Not happening. Not like this .

It’s pitch black down here. No windows. No doors.

Nothing apart from the light casting down from the upstairs bedroom windows, which isn’t much ‘cause it’s been cloudy as hell for weeks and today isn’t an exception.

Fed up with not being able to see my own hand in front of my face, I lift my wrist and flick the switch on my watch, lighting up the room.

“Oh shit,” Cole says next to me, poised and ready with his gun. I follow his line of sight and freeze as I see Hawk, in front of all of us, face to face with five of the infected. We pull up our balaclavas and take a collective step back.

Deep shit… that’s where we are. We have no idea where Aly is. If we did, these bastards would already be dust but we can’t take the risk. You don’t shoot when you’re not sure what’s behind your target, but if we don’t, none of us are getting out of here alive.

“ Aly…,” I whisper, trying to get her to call out to us again but there’s nothing. Just silence. Fuck, why isn’t she answering any of us?

Two of the infected turn and step in our direction, their steps quick in the tiny room, leaving us with no choice. We’re just gonna have to risk it.

Looking to Cole and Hawk, I lift my own weapon and make a decision. “Take ‘em out. Let’s go!”

I shine my light in the zombies’ direction just in time to see Hawk and Cole’s bullets tear through their skulls.

Blood, bone and brain matter splatter the walls and floor as, one by one, they come tumbling down.

When the fifth falls, I keep my weapon raised and start walking around the room looking for Aly and any others that might be hiding.

Casting my watch light in front of me, I find three more huddled in a corner and take them out before--

“AAAAAAAAH!” she screams. It’s the worst blood curdling sound ever, forcing Hawk, Cole and myself to turn towards its direction.

I find her a second later, my light illuminating where she’s trapped under the fallen totes, one of the infected crawling on top of her, drooling and growling over her quivering frame.

Without second guessing or waiting for direction, Hawk calls for cover before running over to Aly.

He grasps the walking corpse around its neck and pulls it off of her, throwing it in front of the firing squad.

When it’s far enough away from our girl, all three of us unload on the bastard, watching as the bullets carve its body apart into bits, pieces and various flying fleshy limbs.

It's gross to say the least, but fucking gratifying, nonetheless.

Once the area is clear and I’m positive there are no more of them hidden anywhere else in the basement, I join Hawk and Cole on the floor where they’re looking over her.

“Cole, talk to me,” I demand as I close the distance, trying to get to her and reassure myself that I didn’t just lose her. That we didn’t just lose her.

“She’s breathing. She’s ok,” Cole says after I kneel down at her side, relieved that she's alive but panicking at the fact that she’s not moving. Those stupid fucking totes are scattered all over, many of which are on top of her, the heavy weight of them pinning her down.

“Here, watch out.” Hawk reaches around me and begins lifting the boxes off of her, setting them to the side.

When she’s finally uncovered, she still makes no move; her body, frozen on the concrete ground.

Cole continues prodding her but my patience is spent.

Even if she can’t move, she needs to speak to me.

“Aly, say something, baby. What hurts? What can we do?” I lift her hand, rubbing it encouragingly. A second later, she grasps my shirt, pulling me down. “What is it, baby? Are you ok?”

She doesn’t speak, she just looks pleadingly in my eyes before taking Cole’s shirt in the same fashion, pulling him down as she continues to gasp for air.

“We need to get her out of here. I don’t think she broke anything in the fall, and I don’t see any lacerations or bites from the zombie, but she might be spiraling into an anxiety attack, possibly progressing into a full-blown panic attack.

It can cause disorientation, increased heart rate, a whole number of symptoms. She’s still coherent, and she’s moving now, so if we move fast, we can help get her out of it just as quickly,” Cole says as he looks around for a way out.

We need to get out of this godforsaken basement but how the hell do we do that if the fucking door is locked from the outside? A box falls to my right, giving me an idea.

“Guys, help me build a staircase with these totes. There’s a shit ton of them. If we pile them on top of one another we can use them to climb out of this hell hole.”

We line up and start placing tote after tote until we create a fucked-up version of a staircase. Lifting Aly, we carefully make our way up and out of the basement and out to the backyard where the lawnmower I found earlier is waiting .

I kneel down with Aly in my arms as Cole settles next to us, drawing her attention.

"Come on, beautiful. Breathe. In and out.

Think of the lake. Remember? The ducks flying overhead?

The coolness of the water as the waves touched your toes?

The warmth of the sand? Picture it, Aly.

Breathe it in and let it out. Big breaths. You can do it."

Hawk joins in with his own attempt to pull her out of her nightmare, rubbing her hands, trying to loosen them out of the tight fists that stubbornly won't release.

He keeps trying nonetheless, just as stubborn and determined.

"Come on, sweetheart. Come back to us. We're right here. You're safe. Come back.

I’m about to set her down in the back of the trailer, but stop as I take in her trembling form in my arms. Her teeth are chattering hard and her hands are fisted tightly against her chest. I get that what happened down there scared the hell out of her.

Hell, it scared the shit out of me. It’s a normal response to have in a situation like that.

But it’s been almost twenty minutes and her shaking doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Even Cole’s attempts to calm her down with the breathing techniques they’ve been practicing don’t seem to have any effect.

“It’ll be ok, baby. We’re gonna take it all away.” I tell her as I kiss her forehead softly before nuzzling her nose. “We’re gonna take it all away.”

Cole’s head pops up just before he points determinedly at me. “Jax…” He grabs and kisses my cheek hard. “You fucking genius. That might actually work. Get her back as fast as you can, I need to go get the supplies ready.” Then, without another word, he turns and runs ahead of us towards the cabin.