Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (15 page)

Aaron cringed, Tom’s body at his feet.

The world had been so cruel to him, yet he was so young. Four years old…four years old…did he deserve any of this?

When the man came to take him, Aaron thought he was nice. He was playing ball with Tom in the front yard of his big house when the man pulled up in his big car and told them to come in. He said he had cookies and was trying to find his dog that he lost and would they help him?

Tom and Aaron were too young to see the signs or to understand what was happening to them. Instead, they looked at one another, smiled, and hopped into the man’s van. Even when the man drove off much faster than they thought, and even when he saw his parents run out into the yard and start yelling, Aaron still thought they were safe.

In fact, the man had treated them really nicely. He got them drive-thru food from McDonalds and talked to them about their parents and where they lived. He was interested in where they went to school, and got them ice cream a little later. He described his dog and told them to keep out a sharp eye, even though it was obvious to everyone but the boys that he didn’t much care about the dog.

The man had blankets in the back for them to cuddle in, because it was a little chilly out that day. The covered up with their blankets, rolled the windows down, and looked around. The man turned on kids music and even sang along with them.

To Aaron, he had made a new friend, and it had been a great day. He couldn’t wait to tell his parents about this man, and maybe they’d have him over for dinner sometime. They had a big dining room and kitchen, and he figured Mommy wouldn’t mind.

Then he started to think about how his mom might be mad at him for getting in the car with the man and not asking her first. This made him a little scared, but when he told the man about it, he said he knew his parents. He said that they were old friends and that they wouldn’t mind at all that the boys had gone with him. Then he turned the music up more and let the boys look out the window for a while for the dog, even though they had no idea where the car was really taking them. They had been driving for a really long time, and the McDonalds was finally done digesting in them.

It wasn’t until Tom asked if they could stop to go to the bathroom to empty their bladders, after looking out the window and searching frantically for the missing dog for hours and hours, that they began to feel something wasn’t right. The man didn’t respond. So Tom asked again.

Still, the man didn’t respond, and didn’t offer to stop the car. What was going on? They were helping him…weren’t they? That made them good helpers…right? And you were supposed to be nice to good helpers.

So, this time. Aaron asked if the man could stop because they had to go to the bathroom. The man did as he asked, pulling over into an empty parking lot. Even the two boys were smart enough to know that there wasn’t a bathroom here.

The man made his way into the back of the van, where the boys were finally realizing what was happening to them. When they saw the look on the old man’s face, it was enough to scare them into trying to run. Aaron opened his door, pushed Tom out, and then hopped out himself. They both ran as fast as they could, the old man hopping out and following close at their heels.

Aaron liked to believe that they put up a good fight. When the man got Tom by the scruff of the neck, Aaron turned back and bit him really hard on the arm. The old man smacked him across the face, and he fell onto the pavement with a loud ‘slap’.

But Aaron still fought. He stood up and ran at the man again, trying to push him to the ground so he could get Tom back, who was fighting hard to breathe.

“Let him go!” Aaron yelled. But the man simply grabbed Aaron by the shirt and dragged him back to the van, throwing him inside. Aaron hit his head on the side of one of the chairs, and was knocked cold. Tommy didn’t last much longer.

When they woke up…they were in a basement chained to the wall by the ankles.

For days they had been trapped, and the man had kept muttering about a ‘ran-some’. But…other things had happened to them too. Aaron shook when he thought about it, and he tried as hard as he possibly could to block out the encounters altogether.

Tommy hadn’t been quite so lucky. While Aaron had succumbed and accepted their fate, Tom fought back. The last time the man had paid them a visit, Tom bit so hard into his left that he tore off flesh. Aaron wasn’t sure what his overall plan had been, but they were just kids…what else were they supposed to do?

The man hadn’t been happy, to say the least. He instinctively kicked Tom into the wall, which he smacked into head first. Aaron began crying and screaming, but the old man was on a rampage. He grabbed Tom by the shoulders  and beat him repeatedly into the wall. Aaron’s stomach cringed as he heard his friend scream.

“STOP IT!”
He yelled desperately.
“Please!”

But the man did not stop. Finally, Tom went limp and fell to the ground, broken and bloodied. When the man shot a look over at Aaron, he cowered against the wall, no longer vocal about his feelings. He didn’t want to risk getting himself so hurt that he couldn’t help Tom.

The old man trekked back up the stairs, holding the wound on his leg.

But Aaron couldn’t be sure that the man wasn’t going to come back to kill him next.

“Tom…?” He said, his own voice scaring him. “Tommy, please wake up…”

The little boy dragged himself forward in his dirty, ragged clothes, but the chains around his ankles that attached him to the wall didn’t allow him to touch his best friend.

“…Tom…” Aaron’s voice broke, and he began to cry.

His only friend…Tom had been there for him when the old man came. And he had been there for Tom. Tom was a little older than him…five or six. Tom was his best friend.

The man would be back for him soon. The man would collect the ‘ran-soom’ from his parents and then be back…

And what would happen to him then?

Aaron cried, terrified, trying to cover up the parts of him that the man had violated. Trying to make himself feel safe again, but no safe thoughts came. He was going to die…just like Tommy.

He wasn’t ready to die yet. Aaron wasn’t ready to die yet.

“Mommy!”
He screamed at the top of his little lungs.
“Mommy! Daddy! Help me!”

But no one was coming for him, and Aaron knew it. No one cared about poor, little Aaron.

The door to the basement creaked open, and Aaron scuttled back to the wall, pushed himself against it, imagining that it would allow him to disappear within it.

But the hurried breathing and the way the old man closed the door behind him this time caught Aaron off-guard. Why did he look so scared? Did the guys in blue find him? Were they here for Aaron? Would they save him?

The door flew open yet again, but it wasn’t officers who came down. It was a hulking figure, even more terrifying than the old man himself. The figure’s face was falling off, or at least, that’s what it looked like to Aaron. It looked like it was a dead man standing.

It clomped down the stairs, and Aaron began to scream.

So did the old man, cowering in the corner.

The thing didn’t go for Aaron, but it went for what had more meat.

There are some things four-year olds should never have to watch, and men being torn apart and eaten alive by a zombie-like being is one of them.

Aaron tried to close his eyes and ignore the screaming, but he couldn’t drown it out no matter how hard he tried. He screamed louder than he’d ever screamed before.

But no one came for him. Even the thing, after having its meal, went up the stairs and left him alone in the darkness once more.

“…Mommy…”

Eric slept outside his bedroom door, keeping watch in case any of those things came back. It was Donna who held the baby close to her and slept.

It was Donna who was there when her daughter turned on her like a wild beast.

And it was Donna who was killed when she couldn’t bring herself to harm her own daughter.

When Eric burst into the room at the sound of his wife’s screams, he wanted so badly to help her, to save her. But even he wasn’t strong enough. Even he didn’t know what else he could possibly do. Was he to kill his own little girl? The one he’d read bedtime stories to for all those years?

Happily ever after…that’s what the stories had said…

This wasn’t happily ever after. This was hell.

But Eric had to push through if he wanted his life back. So he did. Eric ran to the bed, grabbed the gun, and pushed his daughter away from his wife. He pulled Donna off the bed, but it was too late for her. Her face was long gone, her eyes practically gouged out of their sockets. Donna was dying a slow and horrible death.

Eric couldn’t watch as he cocked the gun and shot his wife in the head.

The room was silent, but Eric knew she was still watching. Sitting on the bed, watching.

“Daddy…” She said quietly. But it didn’t matter how convincing she tried to be. The blood that covered her lips and the stains on her teeth were enough proof for him…she was long past gone. There was some kind of infection…some kind of thing hurting her…and she was going to have to die. He couldn’t leave his little girl like this.

But he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. He just couldn’t.

“Do it, Eric…” He pushed himself. “Do it before she kills someone else…”

Eric took a deep breath and aimed his gun…

Hannah and Owen sat in a bale of hay, sleeping the night away. They had been hiding out in the barn for two weeks straight, and neither had any intention of leaving anytime soon. They were idiots and cowards, and they wanted nothing more than to die where they were.

It was Hannah who woke up first, with the gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach that something was horribly wrong. Then she remembered…it was her life.

Then she remembered how badly they’d messed up.

Owen stirred next to her, and she felt a pounding in her head. Or maybe it was in her soul. Either way, something had changed within her. She was ready to get out of this barn. She was tired of waking up, sneaking food, and then hiding again. Eventually, they’d have to face what they’d done.

“Owen, wake up.”

“Hmmm.” Owen grunted, turning over.

“Owen,
wake up.”

“Wha-what?” Owen snapped awake, thinking something bad was happening in the barn. “What’s wrong?”

“Owen, what are we doing here? We can’t do this anymore. We have to go back.”

“…what?” Owen squinted in the brilliant sunlight seeping into the barn and rubbed his eyes. “Sweetheart, you know we can’t go back.”

“We just ran away from…Owen, my family. Your family. We can’t just keep living like this is normal I mean…Owen, I’m sixteen.”

“And I’m seventeen. Listen, babe, I know you don’t like it. But we can’t ever go back there. If they ever knew what…what…”

“Owen, I want my father to
give
me away. I don’t want to
run away.
”

Owen slipped an arm around his girlfriend and tightened his grip around her. He let her lay her head on his shoulder, and pulled her closely to him. She began to cry, as he had expected, and he did his best to comfort her.

But he felt guilt too. He knew they’d have to go back. They had to do
something
besides sit here and feel bad about their actions. But…but they couldn’t go home. They couldn’t risk it. Hannah’s parents would convince her to stay with them…and she would die there. She would die if she wasn’t with him, he knew it. He knew they had to let that part of their lives go.

“Hannah…sweetheart, we have to move on from that…you know what’ll happen if we go back.”

“And so what?” She said, her voice tear-stained. “So what if we stay? What’s so wrong with that?”

“That town is the first to go, Hannah, and we both know it. They’re not going to leave. They’re not going to believe us.”

“I can’t just sit here anymore, Owen…”

“Then let’s leave.”

“And go where?” Hannah let her head fall into her hands. “And go where?”

“…Hannah, we’re never going to survive with just the two of us. We need a group of people. We need a…I don’t know a…a clan. A tribe!”

“A tribe? Owen, what are you talking about? Then let’s just get our family, what better tribe is there than that?”

Owen sighed.

“Hannah, we need people who know that we’re telling the truth. People who can be of use to us, who are willing to believe what we say because…well, because we’re right.”

Hannah’s tears fell onto their straw bed, and Owen realized he had never felt so terrible in his life. He had never felt like a worse human being than when he took away Hannah’s hope for one big, happy family. But what else could he do?

He was running low on options. The town they had left was doomed as the beginning of what Owen was calling the Zero-Hour. But there were other towns around them. Other towns with people who were attacked by night. Other towns with people who needed help. Who maybe even needed
their
help? After all, no one could be any better at it than they could.

Who better to lead a colony in the midst of the Zero-Hour than the ones who started the whole thing in the first place?

“So we’re just going to pick up and go?” Hannah asked softly, but not menacingly. She seemed to be considering it. “Go find other people like us?”

“Hannah, think about it,” Owen was getting excited now. “Maybe there’s something we can do, you know? Maybe there’s something we can do so we stop feeling…feeling like…”

“It wasn’t our fault, Owen.” Hannah said, even if she didn’t entirely believe it. “We didn’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Owen let his girlfriend go, stood up, and reached his arm out to help her do the same. “Now we’re going to make things right.”

And that’s how Owen and Hannah left their safety net, and began the long journey toward their future.