An Apocolypse Story

The ax ripped into the wood again and again as I chopped at the trees that were beginning to make up our palisade wall. My arms were beginning to burn as I continued to chop at the thick trunk before me. I could see the tree beginning to waver, so I put all I had into the last stroke and was rewarded with a loud crack as the tree began to fall.

I quickly sidestepped the falling tree and tripped over the pile of lumber I had recently cut. Pain exploded through my hamstring as I fell on a sharpened branch sticking out of the log beneath me. I screamed out as the pain in my leg grew to a near unbearable level. Benjamin and Brandon came running from the other side of the woods to see what was wrong. I tried to hold back the tears as my blood rushed from the wound in my leg.

Benjamin knelt and examined my leg as I lay there breathing through my teeth.

"We have to get him to Daddy" said Benjamin as he and Brandon prepared to lift me off of the wooden stake.

Brandon grabbed under my arms as Benjamin stabilized my leg to keep it from ripping the wound wider. I screamed as Brandon lifted my body up and Benjamin lifted my leg. Blood rushed from the wound and I felt myself drifting into the darkness as the pain overwhelmed me. Blackness began to cloud my vision as I felt my brothers lift me and begin to carry me toward the house.

I awoke to the sound of my dad singing as he watched Mama as she finished wrapping my leg.

He was singing some of his favorite Randy Travis songs again. They always seemed to put him in a better mood.

"I stitched it up, but we are gonna have to get some antibiotics otherwise you are gonna get an infection," Said Daddy as he picked up what small amount of medical supplies we have. "Haven't I told you to pay attention to your surroundings?" He pretended to be angry as he smiled at me.

Mama smiled at me and began to rub my hair as I began to drift off to sleep again.

It was two days after I had my accident, and even though Mama was changing out my dressings with clean bandages often, I was beginning to feel sick. Daddy told me that my leg was beginning to get infected, and that if we didn't get any medicine soon that I would either lose my leg or my life.

My leg felt as though it was on fire, and I began to feel fluish as the days went by.

Daddy walked into the living room and sat next to Mama in order to talk to the others as I lay in my bed. "We are going to have to find some medicine soon or Barrett might not make it..."

Fear gripped me as I heard him say this.

"We are going to Hartselle. We need to get to a pharmacy and get all the medical supplies we can bring back with us. We will be gone for a few days. I want Brandon to stay here with Barrett till we get back... We will be leaving tomorrow,"

---

The creature ripped at my throat with its sharp teeth. I tried to fight it, but I was too weak. I heard it scream as it drank greedily from my life blood pouring from the wound in my neck.

---

I awoke to find Brandon dabbing at my neck with a cool rag as I had tossed and turned with my hallucinations. Benjamin and Brad stood in the background looking solemn and haggard.

"Where are the others?" I croaked as I tried to sit up in my bed. I looked to Benjamin and saw tears running down his cheek as he sat against the wall in my room.

"They didn't make it," replied Brandon as he began to cry.

Sadness tore at my heart as I was told the story of how my family was ambushed by a number of the rabid while on the way back from the drug store.

"Daddy killed about ten of them before he was overwhelmed," Benjamin stated as he got choked up again "We couldn't keep them from the girls!" mumbled Benjamin as he began to cry again.

I noticed the pain in my leg had eased up since the last time I was awake and realized that Brad and Benjamin had still got back to give me the necessary medication. But at what price?

I felt a horrible pain in my chest, and I lowered my head as I began to cry with what was left of my family.

______________________________________________________________________________________

March 15, 2023

It was dark. It was always dark those days. I woke up early again. It
must have been about five. I crawled out from under my thick covers and
went to the living room. The metal shades over the windows were closed, so I opened them up to try to let some light in. The land I saw as I opened the shades looked nothing like I remembered it. Acres of burnt grass and trees made up the once beautifully forested land daddy used to own. I decided I would go outside and check on Brandon and Benjamin. I really felt sorry for the two of them. The night watch was the worst guard time, especially during those cold winter nights.

I strapped on my sword, grabbed my bow from the wall, and picked out a quiver of arrows. I threw on my thick coat and leather boots and unlocked the steel atrium door. Daddy had replaced the glass door we used to have after the first attack. The steel plated door worked well
along with our other defenses we had put up over the years. I slung my
bow over my shoulder and stepped out in to the frigid winter air. I
shut the door and left it unlocked for the time being. If there were
anything wrong, Brandon or Benjamin would have raised the alarm.

I walked to the edge of our defensive perimeter and looked up at the
palisades that loomed before me and stretched off in the left and right
directions. It took us about a year to build the wall around a 45-acre
section of the land daddy used to own, and it has been very useful
against the attacks since its completion. As I walked along the wall, I
continuously looked for either Brandon or Benjamin. I walked the entire
length of the wall seeing no signs of my brothers. I turned to head
back to the house and came face to face with both of my two brothers.

"Man! Y'all have got good at that," I stated as my nerves slowly calmed
themselves down.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Brandon with an edge of anger in his voice.

"I couldn't sleep, and I just felt like coming out and finishing the watch with y'all..." I mumbled.

Brandon grunted at my response as he began to walk in the direction I
had just come from. I followed Benjamin as he walked the opposite
direction of Brandon.

"Why does he have to be like that?" I asked Benjamin as we walked along
the outer walls.

After a long pause Benjamin responded in his fatherly tone, "You know
how he is... It's just one of his bad days,"

I stopped talking. When Benjamin got into his father mode, I began to
miss daddy too much, so I just wanted to avoid any conversation. We
continued to walk along the palisades when we heard the wall directly
behind us shutter under a huge impact. We quickly turned and saw the
area of the wall nearly cave in with another blow. Benjamin drew his
sword and ran to the side of the damaged wall. I quickly drew an arrow
and knocked it as I prepared for the worst.

The wall exploded inward in a shower of sharp wooden splinters. Before
the dust settled, the creatures rushed through the hole and sprinted
directly at me. Benjamin rushed from the side of the wall and beheaded
the first of the creatures. He quickly recovered and turned to face
another attacker to his left. The creature leapt at him with its jaws
agape and claws extended. Benjamin stabbed through the creature's
throat as he was knocked off balance by the monster.

I quickly released my arrow into the chest of another of the creatures
as it ran at Benjamin from his right. I ran to his side as he was
picking himself up off the ground, and met the onrush of the attackers
as he regained his balance. I stopped and emptied the rest of my quiver
into the group of oncoming attackers. As I was drawing my sword, I was
knocked off my feet by a monster that had rushed around behind Benjamin
and I.

The creature tore at my back with its extended claws, and I nearly
passed out with the pain as the long claws tore through my coat and
ripped into my flesh. I leapt forward twisting my hips to grab my knife
and falling on my back. The creature was in mid leap as I landed and
extended the knife towards its chest. Warm blood flowed over my arm as
the creature impaled itself upon my blade. I hopped to my feet and
looked to see Benjamin covered in many wounds surrounded by the bodies
of many dead attackers.

I picked up my sword and rushed to his side.

"We can't hold them much longer!" I exclaimed as I ducked a viscous
slash from a set of sharp claws.

"Go get the others! I'll hold them off!" He screamed as he decapitated
another of the creatures.

I thought about arguing, but realized the futility of it as I saw more
of the creatures rushing through the hole in the palisade wall. I
finished off the monster in front of me and turned to see one of the
creatures leap on Benjamin's back and tear into his shoulder with sharp
fangs.

Benjamin head butted the creature on his back and slashed at another
attacker in front of him, disemboweling the creature. "Go!" he screamed
as he continued to slash and hack at the oncoming creatures.

I turned and ran as Benjamin fought to hold the attackers back. I
reached the house and saw the door was knocked off its hinges and there
was blood on the door step. I drew my sword and rushed into the house
to find Brad in the dining room wielding his giant blacksmith hammer
against six of the attacking creatures. I saw another six of the
creatures in the living room with crushed heads or chests. I snuck up
behind one of the creatures and stabbed it through the neck and kicked
it forward as I slashed an overhead chop at another of the creatures,
nearly chopping it in half.

Brad rushed at the creatures to his left and smashed his hammer into the
face of his nearest attacker and quickly regained his stance to crush
his weapon into the chest of another of the creatures. He came to my
side just in time to stop a set of claws from reaching my neck. He
swung his hammer and shattered the body of the creature before me, and
moved in front of me as the last attacker came on. The creature grabbed
Brad's hammer before he could regain his stance and ripped it from his
hands. Brad rushed the creature and grabbed it around the throat with
his huge hands. He screamed as the creature tore at his arms with razor
sharp claws. The muscles in Brad's arms rippled as he squeezed his
hands and lifted the creature from the ground. The monster's eyes
bulged as Brad flexed his muscles and tore the throat from the creature.
He threw the body to the ground and turned to pick up his weapon.

"They've broken through..." I said as Brad wiped the gore from his
weapon and turned to walk to the living room.

Brandon ran into the living room as Brad and I were putting on our
leather armor. "They've taken Benjamin," Brandon blurted as he caught
his breath.

Pain lanced into my heart as I remembered leaving Benjamin to the
merciless creatures. I finished strapping on my bracers as Brad and
Brandon grabbed their bows and arrows and stepped outside. I put the
rest of the arrows in my quiver and followed my brothers out the door.

As soon as I stepped outside I knew our time was up. We looked to the
burnt forest and saw hundreds of the creatures rushing toward us. We
turned and ran to the house. We came in the front door, latched the
bolts, and waited....