I’ve Got You

CHAPTER 8

Sunlight broke through the clouds as Grimm exited the facility for the first time in weeks. He inhaled deeply, expecting fresh air to invigorate his senses. Instead, his nose burned, quickly filling with the scent of rot and decay. Gagging he turned to Sasha, the only officer within their group of four to have already been scouting on one other occasion. “What the f**k is that?!” She shrugged nonchalantly as she hoisted herself into the back of the jeep and began checking her service weapon. “It’s them... The contaminated. If they get too close to the facility while a scout team is exiting or entering we dispose of them. Burn them for good measure. Fuckers are hard to put down.” Grimm looked in the direction of the heavy sliding gates to the facility and sure enough he saw two pillars of smoke rising up over the gate. Grimm shuddered. “Smells like s**t” he grumbled, jumping into the back of the jeep besides Sasha. He was the last of their small group to get into the jeep, and no sooner had he sat down, the engine roared to life. The driver -an officer whom Grimm did not recognize called out “We’ve picked clean the closest stores for food! Our objective today is pharmacies and hygiene essentials! Be warned, the Lieutenant General has advised that most of these places may have already been turned over by smaller groups of survivors and were a hotbed for the contaminated in the first days of the outbreak! Don’t expect much, but grab what you can!”. Sasha sneered “what we had at the facility would have gone a lot further if we weren’t babysitting a whole bunch of civilians”. Grimm ignored her. The officer to her right, however glared at her . “Babe, In case you missed the memo when you signed up for the army, our job revolves around protecting our country! Civilians included.”

“Oh f**k off Jared. When I signed up for the army I didn’t think we’d have to deal with an outbreak like this”.

“Neither did I. But that’s our job. Deal with it”. Sasha stared daggers in to the back of Jared’s head, but said nothing as the jeep lurched forward. Grimm took several deep breaths, mentally preparing himself for what he might see when he left the safety of the facility.

The image of the large twin piles of charred and smoldering carcasses waiting for them as they left the facility gates was something that would forever be burned into Grimm’s mind. The smell was overwhelming, the ground around them was littered with bullet casings and splattered with pools of congealed blood. Grimm couldn’t tear his gaze away from the leftmost pile. Mostly men and women, but towards the bottom of the pile Grimm was almost certain he spotted a small, scorched hand. The hand of a child, sticking out of the mess of other bodies and curled up towards the sun. Frozen in the struggle of their last moments. Jared, noticing where Grimm’s gaze was fixed, gave his shoulder a firm pat. “There’s no helping it, mate”. Grimm nodded, knowing that it had to be done, but on the inside, he forced himself to consider if -when it came down to it- he would be able to point his gun at a child and shoot. Contaminated or not. His thoughts flashed to Dorian. His boyish smile and his innocence and he shook his head. No. Even if it really came down to it, he made the change from combat to medical. He didn’t have the stomach for hurting others. Much less children.

He even considered for a moment that he simply did not have what it would take to survive in a world like this. But then Eris’s smiling face and wide green eyes replaced the image of Dorian in his mind. “You’re really the only friend I have” she had said. Grimm mentally kicked himself for being so weak stomached. He was going to survive in a world like this, even if he had to sell his soul to do it. He wouldn’t allow himself to leave Eris and Dorian behind. Because, truthfully, aside from Lieutenant General Yarran, she was the only other friend he had. An ear-splitting shriek shook Grimm from his thoughts. “Incoming! On the left!” the driver yelled over the sound of the engine. Sasha cursed and aimed her gun. Grimm followed her gaze, and sure enough, approaching the moving jeep was a woman. Her skin was waxy and pale, painted with black veins. Her eyes were rimmed red and dead looking. Her sun dress had all but torn off completely, exposing her swollen belly and gashed legs. She was foaming at the mouth. “Is she pregnant?” Jared said, swallowing a thick lump in his throat. Grimm nodded, his mouth hanging open at the sheer horror of the state of the contaminated woman lurching and stumbling rapidly towards them. There was a loud bang that left Grimm’s ears ringing. And the pregnant woman stopped. Her eyes were wide, she stood still for a moment, then a cascade of blood ran from the bullet wound in her throat. She gurgled and sputtered before dropping to her knees and falling behind the still speeding jeep and out of sight. “Jesus Christ” Grimm breathed. He stared at Sasha, who was still frozen, gun still pointed. For a moment it seemed almost as if it was just another day at the office for her. Then Grimm noticed the whiteness of her knuckles and the severe shaking of her hands.”Sasha?”

Sasha sucked in a ragged breath. A single dry sob as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands clutching her midsection. Grimm reached out to put a hand on her shoulder but she pushed at his arm, keeping him at a distance. “Get the f**k off me” she spat. Grimm clenched his teeth, but did as she wished, resuming his seat and sharing a look with Jared, who looked like he’d never seen anything quite so gruesome in his entire life. Sasha turned away from them. Not saying a word, barely even moving as the jeep made its way towards the nearest shopping district.

Stores lined the narrow street on both sides. Grimm estimated that they were only about 20 minutes drive from the facility and frowned. “We didn’t come far. I assumed we’d be going further out” he addressed the driver as they got out of the jeep and readied their service weapons. “We are further out. Not by much but there are three chemists on this street alone. As medicines and hygiene products are our main focus today we have more chance here than at the next main shopping center over.”

“What are our chances of us actually scoring big here?” Jared said as he unsheathed a small blade from his belt. The driver, who’s name Grimm still hadn’t managed to catch pressed his lips into a thin line. “Unlikely. But with a group this small it’s our best and safest bet. Stick together. Move quietly. Have each others backs.” Grimm, Jared, and Sasha nodded and began walking at a slow and cautious pace. Scanning the street and store fronts around them, straining to hear or see anything out of the ordinary. The place was quiet, too quiet. And Grimm couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes watching his every move.

“Does anyone else find it weird how there’s no noise? Not even a bird, or some crickets?” Jared whispered as they crept warily towards the nearest chemist. Grimm nodded, Sasha just stared at her feet. No doubt still thinking about the contaminated pregnant woman she had to gun down on the way there. “I don’t know what I expected” Grimm whispered back “but I know I wasn’t expecting it to be a ghost town”.

“It’s not a ghost town” Sasha hissed, speaking for the first time since the incident. “They’re here...They just haven’t noticed us yet. Let’s keep it that way, yeah?”. The glass door of the first chemist stood open and shattered. Jared moved to test the lights, the driver put his hand over his and shook his head. “No lights” he whispered, barely audible. “We don’t know where they could be hiding”. Jared nodded

“Right, sorry”

Moving silently and slowly through the aisles of the chemist, doing their best to step over the debris that littered the carpeted floor, the team of four squinted into the darkness around them. “Riley, backpack. I’ve got band-aids and bandages” Sasha whispered. The driver -Riley- handed her a backpack and she stuffed it full. Grimm left them behind, jumping the counter to the dispensary and tried his beast to read the names on the trays of medication. Most of them were empty. “f*****g reeks back here” he mumbled to himself, gagging. The smell was oddly reminiscent of when his mother’s dog used to gift him rats by leaving them at the back door for him to find. After some searching his eyes finally landed on the top shelf of the dispensary line, upon which sat a full tray of what looked like Amoxycillin. “Anti-biotics over here” he whispered. “Lots of ‘em”. He stepped toward the box, but stopped short when his boot hit something hard. He couldn’t see much in the dark, so he hunkered down to get a better look at the object obstructing his path. He was met with the ghastly sight of an elderly man in a white coat, his skin was greying and in an advanced stage of decomposition. His jaw appeared broken and hung slack, with his pale, white tongue lulling out of the side of his gaping mouth. Rigor mortis had long since set in. And the maggots that filled his open mouth squirmed and writhed, some falling to the floor in clumps. His throat looked as if it had been torn out by gnashing teeth. Some of his fingers were missing. Grimm stumbled back, attempting to swallow the burning bile that rose in his throat. But there was no stopping it. He emptied the contents of his stomach and gasped for air. Riley was the first to respond, leaping over the counter and stopping dead in his tracks. He pulled his shirt up to cover his nose and groaned. Jared was the next to join them, announcing his presence by muttering “what the f**k?”.

“Anti-biotics” Grimm forced the words out, wiping the vomit from his chin. “Top shelf... I can’t-” he heaved again, although this time there was nothing for his stomach to expel. He shook his head. “I can’t see a step ladder” he continued, swallowing and trying at all costs to ignore the sight and smell at his feet.

“You can’t reach that? You’re the tallest one here” Riley stated.

“Yeah, but I’m not Andre the giant. I need a boost”

Jared held his hands up “I’m not getting any closer to that thing than I am now” he gestured towards the rotting corpse before them. Riley rolled his eyes and helped Grimm to his feet “I can’t lift you. I’m like, half your size. You boost me up and I’ll grab it”. Grimm nodded, his leg and arms felt like jelly as he cupped his hands together to hold Riley’s foot and boost him upwards. Cutting open cadavers in medical school was nothing compared to what he had just seen. Grimm had thought he would be prepared for just about anything coming out here. But he was sorely mistaken.

They scoured the first chemist some minutes after retrieving the anti-biotics. Each of them taking great care to avoid venturing behind the counter again before deciding to move on to the next chemist down. On the way, Grimm spotted a small novelty gift shop with a large display of pocket sized games in the window. He immediately thought of Dorian and smiled to himself. “Hey, you guys mind me taking a quick look in there?” He nodded towards the shop. Sasha scowled at him “Yes we mind. We aren’t running personal errands out here, Grimm. We have an objective, stick to it”. Her voice was low, but she was seething.

“Oh for Christs sake Sasha, lighten up.” Jared moaned

“Lighten up? I’m sorry, did you not see that f*****g corpse back there? Or the pregnant chick I had to-” Sasha caught herself and shook her head. “We need to stick to the objective” Grimm looked at Riley, who sighed “we will wait out here. Whatever you pick up isn’t going in the bag. You carry it. Be quiet and be quick”. Grimm smirked at Sasha, who at that moment reminded Grimm of an angry cartoon villain with steam billowing out of her ears. He entered the shop, doing a quick sweep for any signs of contaminated hosts and headed straight for the pocket games.

He picked up a small, palm sized pin ball game for Dorian, slipping it into his breast pocket. He looked around the store hastily trying to find something -anything- to take back to Eris. Within seconds, his eyes landed on an open glass display case, filled with small snow globes. Within one of these snow globes was a black moth. Frozen in time within the glass. Grimm’s mind conjured up the image of Eris’s bare thighs, as it had done countless times since the night he had visited her room for a welfare check. His mouth ran dry as it always did when the sight of her invaded his mind and he found himself in sudden need of a drink of water. He was reminded of the moth tattooed on her right thigh and grinned to himself. Pocketing the small snow globe, he crept out of the shop to rejoin his group. Sasha still looked furious. He couldn’t have cared less.