American Apocalypse Part Two

The man who had found our house, led the way through the woods, as all the Coalition followed. Trucks were left behind for now, we were all on foot, although they didn’t bind my hands, I knew there was no running. They’d shoot me before I got too far. I couldn’t imagine them hurting my family, my parents, my siblings, or my nieces or nephews, I couldn’t and didn’t want to imagine that. But we came upon the house, we were about ¾ of a mile away, I didn’t know what to do, I screamed out “RUN! RUN!” the leader striking me in the back of the head with my own gun. I fell in pain, blood bleeding from the back of my head. “You little fucker!” he yelled and kicked me in the ribs. I saw nobody run from the house though, I don’t think they even heard me. We all came up to the house now, they surrounded it, and the leader yelled out “We got one of yer own out here! So you fire at us and he’s dead”. A moment later the door opened and out stepped my dad, my brother, my mom, and the rest of the family. All except the kids, thank god they at least didn’t see this. They all looked terrified and I didn’t want to bear witness to this. He grabbed me by the back of the hair on my head and made me look at them, “This them!? This yer family?” he beckoned, but quite pleased with himself. Nobody said anything until my dad spoke up “Please, we cause nobody any trouble, just let us leave in peace, we won’t bother anyone, we…” he started to say but the man then let go of me, and went over to him punching him in the face knocking him down, my dad’s lip busted open. “YOU DON’T SPEAK UNLESS SPOKEN TO!” he yelled furious. “ALL OF YOU ON YOUR KNEES NOW!”. As each one of them including me dropped to our knees, my mom started crying now, looking at me, seeing the burn mark and scrapes I endured. I had all I could do to hold it together to look at her and say it’d be alright.  “Shut the fuck up” he said to her, she put her head down and tried her hardest not to cry, but couldn’t stop. He grabbed her cheeks and smacked her. “Shut it!” My dad getting furious now, but when he tried to get up, two men held him down. This was how our government operated now, cold blooded killers taking down the very people who made this country go around. As the cold-blooded killing queen was probably somewhere sipping martinis, not caring at all about our well-being. “Oh you are a rowdy group here!” he yelled but happy now. “We can have some fun with you folks, oh boy we can” he said to excited for my comfort.  “Alright let’s play a game called who the family wants to put up to die first!”. All of us looking at each other horrified. He took his gun and pointed it at all of us, he whacked my brother-in-law in the face with the butt of his gun, knocking his glasses off, bloodying his mouth. He then hit my brother with it too, busting his nose open. Each one of us suffering through this nightmare, scared for our lives, we would die a family on this day, and I only prayed we’d be together once more whatever lies next. He then grabbed my sister and said “We’ll keep her” and grabbed her by the back of the head and threw her towards the other guys. My brother-in-law got up and punched the leader in the face knocking him down “Fuck you” he said, him being bigger than I he had a slighter advantage physically against this man. All the men raising their guns, the leader waved his hand for them to stop. “Oh looky here boys, tough guy”, he said his lip bleeding now. He wiped it away and then tackled my brother-in-law to the floor still having much more weight than he, then punched him repeatedly in the face, his face becoming a bloody mess. My sister screaming out for them to stop. All of us doing the same now, as he kept going, until he wasn’t moving any longer. We didn’t know if he was dead, or just knocked out. I’m not sure the leader knew either, as he wiped the blood from his hands on his clothes. I don’t know if these men or the clowns were the real monsters.

            We all sat quivering in fear again, He then grabbed his gun and pointed it towards my sister in law, “You over there with her” he said motioning towards my sister, my brother immediately wanting to take action. We couldn’t let them take them away like this like cattle, who knows what their fate was. “Wait” I said, the leader looking angry I spoke out of term and came marching right up to me grabbing me by the collar, “How many times I gotta tell you boy” he said and I said “Sorry but please, hear me out”. “What da fuck you want?”. “Just take me, leave them, and take me please. I can be of help. Isn’t this what you guys want? More soldiers, I’m a solider” I said. He laughed for a second, “Look kid I get paid to take you ants out. You mean nothin’ to me”. My heart sank knowing this was my last idea. “But hold on I can see ya got spunk kid, ya got guts. I’ll give ya that, tell ya what, we’ll leave ur damn women, but I gotta kill these guys”. “No please!” I yelled as the men were putting guns to the men in my family’s heads. “It’s okay son” said my dad bravely facing death. “Aw well looky here, dads lil boy. Ya’ll gonna make me cry” said the leader and dropped me to the floor once more. “Look you piss ants!” he said addressing my family. He then kicked my dad in the face. And smashed my brother again with the gun. “I’m takin this new recruit, we could always use a new bitch on the team. If I ever, and I mean ever see your ugly ass faces again. I will not only kill you, but I will kill him too”, my mom screaming out, “Please don’t take my boy!”, my sister holding her back, so she wouldn’t get hurt again. The leader looked annoyed but ignored her and said “let’s move out!” and we started heading back towards the trucks. I looked at each one of their faces, for probably the last time, each one sad to see me go. I only hoped they would all be okay, my sister and mom holding each other, as two men dragged me off.

           

They dragged me off back to the truck where they threw me in one of the truck beds. I scooted up to the back wall, and sat holding my knees. Thinking about the days of old, how my regular job was just to clean banks at night. That’s all I was, a janitor in pre-apocalyptic America, who was going to school online. Now turned into a soldier, a killer, and now a hostage.  I thought of how much I’d say I hate my job, and my life at those times, not realizing just how great that was. I could’ve done that my whole life after this, and I wouldn’t have ever complained again. But back to reality as that day they drove me into town. They scoured through the beaten down little town, for supplies, taking all for themselves, even though they didn’t need it. They also looked for survivors, I was hoping they’d find none, but as that thought was passing, I heard screams from a nearby apartment building. Men from the Coalition came busting out of the front doors with two people in hand, a young man and a woman. They threw them on the ground near where I was standing. The leader came over as well, “Well who we got here?” he said as if they were fresh meat. “Please take whatever you want, just don’t hurt my wife” said the man on his knees pleading, not looking much older than I. “Shut it!” said the leader in his ever “kindly” fashion as per norm. “Damn boys look at her, I think we gonna keep her” he said looking the young woman up and down, and grabbing her and throwing her towards a group of men. The man pleaded and started praying, the leader just chuckling, and then looked at me. Which I immediately knew meant trouble. He grabbed me and put me in front of the man, and handed me a revolver. “Shoot him” he said. “What?” I said stunned, did he really just ask me that? I couldn’t kill a poor innocent man in cold blood like this. “Shoot him now. This is yer first task to becoming a real solider”. “A real solider? You wouldn’t know what that is” I said back angrily at him. He looked upset with that and replied, “Do it, or I know exactly where to go to kill yer family”. This wasn’t fair, kill this innocent man to save my own family, or don’t and they die. I had to make the choice, I raised the gun at him, he quivered on his knees, and started praying faster to god holding his cross necklace. I slowly pulled back on the trigger, not knowing if I could really go through with this, but then I thought of my nieces and nephew’s little faces, I couldn’t let them die not for anyone. I pulled the trigger and the shot rang out, a bullet going through his skull, and his body laying lifeless. His blood splattering my clothes, and in my face, as my face turned to pure shock, what had I done? The woman not far off screaming an earth-shattering scream, as one man held her back and another knocked her out by hitting her in the back of the head. They then bound her legs and hands with rope and tossed her into the other bed of the truck opposite I was in. “Good boy” said the leader smiling and patting my shoulder. “Let’s go” he said as he took the gun from me. I couldn’t believe what I had done, I was officially a murderer. No better than these men. I knew what they’d do with that poor woman, what they always did to women, after they had their use with her, they’d probably kill her or dump her somewhere.  And this time I helped make that happen.

            A few hours later, we arrived at a small but still large camp of the Coalition. They had some big tents set up, more men were here already. I couldn’t imagine how many of these fucks there were in America altogether. We passed by a smaller darker tent, and I saw one of the men take that woman in there, as I passed I saw one of the tent door flaps open a little and saw what looked like ten women, hands bound to the floor, and legs bound as well, with bandanas covering their eyes. That woman looked at me though, she looked at her husband’s killer, tears in her eyes. As the man started to put her up for assembly, like she was some kind of animal. I wanted to cry at this site, but the men led me to a food tent, more food than I have seen in a long time. “Go eat boy” said the leader, “And clean yourself up” he said referring to my bloody clothes. Then he finally left me alone for a second, as I sank to my knees on a side wall, where no one was paying attention. I looked to the blue sky, leaves blowing in the wind, thinking how much I missed my family and my girlfriend. I had a memory of where we all went on my dad and brother’s pontoon boat, big enough for us all. My girlfriend and I huddled up fishing in one corner, my brother and his wife playing in the water. My sister and her husband sitting up top, pregnant with their child. My parents looking over us all, so happy with the family they had made. I made a small prayer to god just then, hoping to forgive me of these sins I committed, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself though. After a few hours went by, I sat tied to a post in the ground, near that awful tent of women. It was getting dark now, I then saw a man come out of that tent dragging a woman by her legs. Half-naked and dirty and looking starved. I then noticed she wasn’t breathing, and that’s why he was dragging her out. Another man saw, “Nother’ one bites the dust huh?” he said smiling. The man dragging her shook his head “Yep, I liked this bitch too”. He then hauled her lifeless body into the back of a truck, and shut the bed door. “Git rid of her tomorrow” he said, as if she was just trash now. The horrors I was seeing were worse than I could imagine. I knew I’d never be like this, I couldn’t. Who were these men before all this? Were they neighbors, coworkers, or even parents, how did they get to this point?

            I sat trying to sleep sitting up, but then I heard a small “Pst” from a bush nearby. I looked over startled and saw my dad with his finger over his mouth, looking at me, alongside him was my brother. I couldn’t contain my huge smile, I thought I’d never see them again, but here they were two feet from me. But my smile quickly faded as I realized they could be killed easily right now. Not looking right at them I whispered, “What are you doing here? Are you crazy? You could be killed”. “It’s okay, we need to go now though, we have a five-minute window, before the dead perimeter man is found” my dad said back confident. “Dad we can’t leave without saving those poor women in that tent” I said looking at it. “We can’t, I’m sorry, but we’ll die if we do” he replied. He cut the rope tying my hands free very carefully, nobody paying attention to me off to the side. I started to sneak into the bushes slowly with them but just as I did, I looked over to the women’s tent and saw that very woman, whose husband I killed. She somehow had her blindfold off, but was still bound hands and legs. She made direct eye contact with me, looking furious. She screamed “ESCAPE! HE’S ESCAPING!” I shook my head no at her, she just didn’t understand. But my dad grabbed my shoulder and yanked me in, “LETS GO!” he said as an alarm was going off in the camp now. Men running over to her to see what she was talking about, and now looking where I was once bound. We took off through the forest, the three of us, my dad handed me a shotgun. And a pack full of extra bullets, as we ran. We could see men behind us now. “We’ll never make it!” yelled my brother alongside me. My dad stopped and turned around and fired a few shots to send them away for a moment. We saw a few of the perimeter men closing in ahead of us. My brother and I both raised weapons and shot the four men down, our aim shaky as we were moving fast still. It felt good to at least take a few of them out. My dad then yelled “Get down!”. We jumped over a small hill, and put out backs against it, as a sea of bullets flew our way. The men were to close and had an advantage now. The three of us looked at each other, “I’m gonna hold them off, you guys go, get out of here, and get back home. Tell your mom I love her” my dad said. “Dad no” I said back, but with no time to think as our time gap was closing, he got up and started firing. My brother looked at me with sad eyes, but knew we could only move forward. We both got up and ran for it, as my dad was holding off a small army with a few guns. We heard the shots for a few minutes as we kept going, until nothing was heard anymore. As we ran my brother and I exchanged glances, we knew what had become of our father.

            We had to keep going we knew they wouldn’t rest, especially that leader, until I was found and killed. But to our dismay a whole lot more of the Coalition was ahead waiting for us, they had this stuff down to a science. But before they saw us, we crouched behind some weeds, if we stayed the ones coming from behind would push us out, if we went ahead, the ones ahead would kill us. “Listen I want you to go around, I’m going to distract them” my brother said.  “What? No” I said back, “You have a family, kids. I can’t lose you and dad on the same day”. “It’s going to be okay brother” he said back, slight tears in his eyes. “We will meet again” and before I could stop him, he shot and started firing running in the opposite direction. I couldn’t hold back the tears as I scurried away the other way. I got around them without them seeing me and kept moving forward. I finally was away from them all, far enough away, where I could sit down for a second and process what just happened. I was free for now, but in their attempt to rescue me, they had to sacrifice their own lives. I wasn’t worth that. I knew I had to muster the strength to go home and fight for the remaining family I had. I pressed on through the dark woods. Until very early morning, I made it home.

            I got inside the home, and my mom hugged me immediately. “Where’s dad and your brother?” she said teary eyed. I just stood hugging her, because she already knew the answer. We wept on each other’s shoulders. I hugged my sister and sister-in-law, and all my nieces and nephews, as they asked where grandpa was and their father or uncle was. I didn’t know how to answer, I saw my brother-in-law laying on the couch, he was badly fucked up, but he was alive and that was a relief. I went over and kneeled next to him. “You okay man?” he said, one of his eyes not even being able to see out of. As the rest of the family wept on the other side of the room. I shook my head slowly, “We have to get everyone out of here” I said softly as to not worry the kids. “Are you mobile?” I said to him. He got up slowly, “I’ll make due” and stood up limping. “Alright guys we need to pack what’s important fast and leave” he said taking charge. Everyone in so much pain, the kids confused, but everyone began grabbing items of importance. We were all ready to go and just about to leave the family home, when the door busted open and there the leader of the Coalition was standing, gun in hand. “Surprise, new daddy’s home!” he said and the kids screamed, as all of us adults stood in front of them to shield them. He looked at my brother-in-law, “Damn you still alive?” he said and shot him in the chest, he fell backwards. All of us screaming in rage and sadness. The kids then fleeing to the safe place my dad had once showed them in case of danger. “I told you boy!” he yelled in my face again. “Play time’s over” he grabbed me and threw me outside, I fell to the dirt. The three girls also being led outside. We were right back where we started. I saw the men all back outside once more awaiting us, guns ready. I knew this time was actually the end. “I warned you, but daddy and big brother couldn’t stay away” he said circling me, I was still on the ground. I knew I was going to die, so with all my rage, I shot up and went to punch him in the face. But he blocked it, expecting it. And punched me in the ribs, taking my breath away. I fell back down, “WHEN YOU GONNA QUIT!?” he screamed in fury, hitting me again with his knee, cracking my jaw. “It’s over, done, you are all history. Don’t worry though” he got down on one knee and in my face, “I’ll make good recruits outta them lil ones” he finished smiling. The thought of those poor kids in his hands was too much for me. I spit blood from my mouth in his face, which probably wasn’t a good idea. He wiped it off, his eyes getting wide, and gritting his teeth in anger. “You son of a bitch” he said and punched my face again. My mom screamed out, “STOP!” in sobs, watching her family get dismantled. He walked over to her, I couldn’t watch my mother get hurt anymore, but I could do nothing, I could barely see with all of the blood in my eyes.  He grabbed her by the throat, and picked her up. “Yer too old for the tent” he said “but a few rounds might not hurt ya.” She gasped for air, my sister and sister-in-law crying now as well. This was all our worst fear. But just then a man from behind us all, fell, a giant knife in his back.

            The leader dropped my mom to the dirt for a second, and turned around, all was silent for a second, but then clowns of all sorts came running out of the woods, overrunning the Coalition. The men totally unprepared for this. They started raising their guns and shooting, our yard had become a warzone. The clowns back for revenge, the only ones crazy enough to attack them like this. They all started fighting, mind you nobody was there to save us from death. The leader still standing by my mom, my mom looking furious up at him, I’d never seen that look from her before. She grabbed his pants, he turned around to face her, she punched him in the balls. He went down on his knees, as much pain as I was in, I knew this was my moment. I got up and walked over to him, clowns flying all around me, men falling and fighting, dying and killing, bullets whizzing by, but almost in slow motion, as I had one thing on my mind, to kill this son of a bitch who had brought misery upon us all. I kneed him the face, and broke his nose open, he started to get up so I punched him three times in the mouth, his lip bleeding now. He looked furious at me and pushed me back hard, sending me flying backwards. I got back up and screamed in rage, and ran towards him, spearing him in the gut, he fell backwards now. My sister then grabbed a nearby pot that had a plant in it and struck his back with it. He screamed out in pain, “Ima’ kill every one of you!” he said and shot my sister in the leg with his hand gun, she screamed out and fell down. I ran over before he could use his gun again, and kicked it out of his hand. I then grabbed a shotgun nearby and hit him in the face with the butt of it. He got up still, and I pointed the gun at him, “You ain’t got the guts, yer a lil’ bitch” he said bleeding all over the place. But without hesitation I fired the gun and it went piecing through his stomach, but he still was coming at me, I fired again, and this time through the chest, but still he was coming. I went to fire again, but the gun was out of bullets. He smiled still despite his wounds, and was about to strike me again, when three bullets when into his back and he finally fell, bleeding from all around, dying the way he should. I saw behind him was a new army standing there, in front was Lieutenant Bruce Woods, holding a gun, that he just fired. Next to him I saw my girlfriend standing there, and my brother was on the other side. Behind them a sea of a huge new army, what looked like was made up of remaining freedom marchers, and what I believe was the British army. Finally help had arrived, my girlfriend ran over to me, and I fell in her arms, my strength almost giving out, but it felt great to be together once more.

“What happened?” I asked, “I was searching for you, and I came across them” She pointed to the army, “And then your brother randomly showed up”. My brother then came over, “I told ya I’d see you again” he smiled and grabbed my other arm to pull me up. Bruce came over now and grabbed my limp hand and shook it, “Heard a lot about you” he said looking at them. “You helped take down who we’ve wanted to take down for years” he said looking at that sack of shit man on the ground. He then noticed all the fighting still going on. “Okay guys, get them out of here” he said looking back at his army. Then the men and women in the army then all raised their weapons and took out Coalition and clowns alike, and the ones they didn’t get, took off into the woods. After all was calm, we were fed and given new supplies by the new army. They took care of us, apparently, Bruce Woods finally got through to the British army and convinced them to help us, he was what this nation needed. My nieces and nephews all ran out of the house now, holding their parents. My dad and brother-in-law didn’t survive this, but their lives wouldn’t be lost in vein, as my whole family huddled together, with much love. I stood apart from them and grabbed a weapon nearby, and stood next to Lieutenant Bruce Woods, and the Colonel of the British army. I shook their hands, my girlfriend and I were going with them, this war was far from over. They had assured me the family would be safe, if they traveled a few miles east. There was a base set up for survivors, and they’d be taken care of. I looked at my nieces and nephews, they were the future of this once great nation, they still had a chance at redemption. I wouldn’t let them go on like this, with the new help we could take back America, as we set off towards California, to end this American apocalypse.