Chapter Two-Killadelphia

"Welcome to Killadelphia." Chess announced.

"Filthadelphia. Birthplace of our fine nation." Julia mumbled as she looked out the window as the urban sprawl lit up beneath street lamps. She'd been anxious since Chess had pulled onto Roosevelt Boulevard. "How far in are we going, Chess?"

"North Philly." He answered, looking over his shoulder. He pulled his pack of cigarettes as Julia climbed from the rear seat into the front seat between him and Tavin. Tavin had nodded off as they pulled onto the turnpike and was out ever since. Jay had knocked out around Valley Forge. Chess had been up as long as they or longer, but he had a monster energy drink open in his right hand.

"Can't truly appreciate the squalor in the dark." She noted as she tugged at the can and mumbled, "Some." He left it go and she took a couple swallows, then handed the can back. "Thanks." She lit a cigarette and he cracked the driver's side window to let the smoke out. She leaned forward, anxiously looking out the windshield as they wound closer to Kensington. She felt her stomach flop as he stopped at a red light. When the light turned green, Chess didn't move. The lights and sirens were heading their way, bright red and blue flashing lights whizzing past at a high rate of speed. Sirens, sounding a waling shriek from police, ambulance and fire. "We gonna be able to get in?"

"Local response. I'd say the odds are in our favor."

"Great place to start this mess. A place no one fucking cares about full of people no one fucking cares about. People like-" She muted on that, before she uttered people like me...people that were just a scab on the flesh of the earth. Chess and Jody were picking the scab off.

"Like what?"

"Junkies and dealers." She answered.

On a good day these people were zombies. On a good day they milled about half dead and looked the part. The scabs on their skin and the missing teeth and the dirt and grime from street living was not make up on a TV show, it was real. Their odd gaits and their slurred speech and their jerky and shaky movements were all symptoms of a larger problem no one talked about or cared about. Till kids like Zoe Flannigan wound up there in an expensive car from the suburbs looking to buy and getting caught up in a lifestyle that would kill her. She had survived it and overcome it, but those victors were few and far between.

"Don't like it here during the day let alone at night." She mentioned as he turned the truck and followed the road to Cambria. The graffiti and the broken out windows and doors became more and more visible as were the people, majority of whom were alive and well and out of the dead zone that was looming a few blocks over. From their vantage point on Cambria, a fiery glow could be seen and smoke billowed into the night sky. "Wanna wake them up?"

"Up to you." He answered, flicking the cigarette out of his open window. He slowed to a stop before turning onto Somerset and he was approached by one of those street dealers who'd gathered on the corner. Business needed to be done despite the city street in flames. "What's going on up there?" He asked and the kid answered about gun shots and car fires under the El. They had shut down the El till the fire was out. "Can I get to Ruth Street?" He asked.

"Nah, don't. All blocked off."

Chess continued down Cambria and opted not to turn into the madness. He wanted away from it with the vehicle, but close enough to it to see what Julia meant. He'd seen incidents, a lot of incidents.

Zoms followed noise, because noise indicated food, and the noisiest part of Kensington and Somerset was traffic and the El. The Market-Frankford line ran above the intersection on steel rails. The clatter of cars, horns, sirens, and rail traffic lured the zoms from the abandoned building on Ruth Street the short distance to the living who were unsuspecting. The thing about Killadelphia, though, the people in this neighborhood were hardy and tough. A neighborhood that was full of people who carried weapons of all sorts. A strong and heavily armed area who normally handled their shit on their own. Could they handle this? The kids at the corner were clueless, still selling drugs, but being human, the first instinct when there was fire or an accident or trouble was to stop and watch. The closer they got to Ruth Street, the louder it got. Smoke rose up and flames were clearly visible from their vantage point. Of all things, Chess worried about his truck being stolen not the dead who roamed the streets around them.

"Remember where the car is, kids." He said in a voice that would mimic a parent's.

"What on earth?" Jay asked, arousing from his nap that he'd taken for the last 45 minutes. He took a good look around him from the inside of the truck and then once outside it became glaringly clear that they may not be in the safest of neighborhoods. "Where are we?"

"Not South Street, obviously." Julia answered seriously as she tucked her gun against her back and then handed him his. Jay loaded and tucked his similarly against his back. She handed him his knife and he tucked that once he was standing up. She pulled her back pack over her shoulders and tightened the straps secure against her body. "You stay with me." She mentioned to Jay. He nodded in agreement and Chess opened the middle section of his seat to reveal a small cache of weapons and knives. Well, prepared, as usual, he handed Tavin a gun and a knife. He handed off an extra clip. "Only got so much ammo." He noted. "We are not going to war, so-"

"Knife first, gun last and don't bring any attention to us." Julia finished his statement.

"Attention." Tavin snickered, still waking up. "You two have to be the whitest people living, all pale and shit. I think me and Jay will blend in just fine."

"We're going down there." Jay said with a grim look on his face. He nervously tried to run hands through his hair, which was braided.

"Yes." She replied, pulling a bandanna from the side pocket on her bag. She wrapped her head and tied it tight, hoping it would stay in place and not get pulled off. They walked along Ruth toward the corner. She pointed out the building, looming, dark, tall, and that would be their landmark should they separate.

"Jo's here?"

"No." Chess answered. "He's long gone." 

Jody Mayers had seen a handful of incidents crop up in the city during his time in Philly, especially over the last few months. He'd been a spectator to most of them, watching as the teams moved in and cordoned off areas. He and many others had witnessed the turn and then the killing of those who had turned and then the disposal of those who had turned. There were always those who got away, the stragglers who were involved in the initial incident who were injured, bit, scratched and then a couple would slip away only to turn a short time later or hours later, depending upon the individual. They were the ones he'd looked for and followed.

Those who worked the teams didn't realize it and when they were asked if they were injured or harmed, one or more would answer no only to cause another incident down the road or around the corner or in an entire different county or section of the city. Jody followed certain individuals and he claimed them as his own. He watched and he waited for the person to turn, then he'd enter, isolate, subdue and remove that turned individual and place him or her in that abandoned building on Ruth Street. Jody played spectator at all these incidents that were reported and then captured the dead and transported them to this building. By the time the day had arrived he had quite a gaggle of salivating and hungry dead. Not one person heard them because of the constant trains running and the sounds of the city right outside the doors. He had hidden them and his disabled enemy deep within the confines of this building. No one was the wiser.

He waited till incidents were calmed in the city and the teams rolled out. Patience, Chess said, was a virtue. Chess had guided him along the lines of patience as Jody's frustration mounted. To Jody, it didn't matter when he took out Kevin as long as he did it. Whether there were teams in the city or incidents in progress was a nonissue to him. When the time was right, Kevin would meet his maker and he would be able to take all the retribution he desired, but he had to be patient and he had to wait.

"What brought him down here in the first place? Kev never went out on his own and Kev never did business on his own. Terrence stays at his side. Where'd he go without T?" Julia asked.

Hayley had been kept in the dark, an unknowing and unwilling participant. Having a secretive affair with T for some time, she wanted away from Kevin and then to start something with T. They could never begin to do that without causing problems between the friends, mucking up a business that both played in and both had ties to other regions in the city and other states like New Jersey and New York. When T went home for the night and left Hayley and Kev in his apartment, an intruder entered and took Kevin at gun point. He had made enemies and any one of them could have taken him. Hayley was bound and then left alone in the apartment while Kevin was abducted and taken to Ruth Street. He was placed in a chair in that abandoned building and then bound and gagged until Jody got a call from Chess.

Jody unleashed the zoms on Kev and then left the doors wide open when he left. He left the dead walk into the streets of north Philly and then the one who crawled. "That is where we are going." Chess said as he and his team walked calmly and patiently into the lot on Ruth Street. "How far do you think that cripple fuck made it, Julia? I doubt he made the crawl outside and down the block and into traffic."

Chess led them with their flashlights in hand. The fires that had erupted outside also lit the floors up in spots, depending on where they stood inside the abandoned shell of a building.

"Ya never know. What if they ate him all up?" Jay asked as he held Julia through a belt loop on her jeans. He could barely see and the smoke drifting in from the outside was stinging his eyes. How it didn't bother anyone else was beyond him. As they walked deeper and further into the broken space, stepping over and around debris, they heard him first then saw him. He was stuck. His black skin had turned a bluish gray and he had managed to drag his body some distance. His legs dangled behind him, motionless. Spinal injuries didn't heal upon the rebirth into the undead. He'd left a bloody trail behind him from the seat on which Jody placed him. His mouth opened and bit at them as they approached. He was immobile, his clothing had caught on a bent piece of metal and until he pulled hard enough to tear the material, he would remain there. Once he broke free, he'd only get caught on another piece of the broken building in the debris field on the way to the madness unfolding outside.

"See. I told you." Chess motioned toward him and the four looked down at the floor at this helpless and wounded soul. Chunks of flesh were ripped off him, exposing the bone and muscle beneath. Julia pulled her knife from her hip. "No." Chess cautioned her.

"Well, what are we gonna do with him, Chester?" She asked, shining her flashlight over empty eyes that glistened a milky white. His mouth opened and closed toward the beam of the flashlight, teeth clacking together with each snap of his jaw. "Personally, I had no problem with Kev. He was a means to an end, Chess. Short term, long term. Either way, it's over."

"So what do you wanna do, stomp him like a bug?" Jay asked. "He's already dead."

Julia pulled her knife and jammed it through the top of his head. Kev's spark of life that remained had left and he lay dead for a second time that night. She pulled the knife and wiped it on his shirt and then tucked it back in her pouch. She led them around the building and to a stairwell that led them upward, as high as they could get so they could see clearly. Thanks to the fire that blazed in front of them from cars on Kensington and Somerset beneath the El and then the store fronts that had caught along with it, they had a bright view from their standpoint. Kind of hard to put out a fire when the city street is eating you through your gear. First responders, medics and police and fire crews were all mauled and left to die and turn on that corner. The fire would need to burn itself out. That fire burned right below them and around them and the smoke funneled inside heavily. She took the bandana from her head and she put it over her mouth to avoid inhaling it. They wound out to the street and through a throng of dead they had to stab their way toward the truck. Dead fanned out toward light and noise as more sirens could be heard screeching toward the scene as the entire block caught fire. As they made it to the truck, an explosion rocked them and a fire ball went into the night sky.

Julia had no issues with the living or the dead, but explosions and fire were another story entirely. They got into the truck and the four drove further out, away from the fire as the dead walked and limped, missing body parts and burned flesh melting off their skeletons. Exposed fractures and bones jutted through arms and faces and the dead moved on, hungry and aimless, looking for unsuspecting living souls with beating hearts. They watched as people were taken down in the streets and they watched as they were eaten and joined a herd. Most of these people had already had the hardest of lives and faced the direst of circumstances only to be consumed by the mother of all addictions, human flesh. Similar to a drug they would continue to cause havoc on the streets of Killadelphia until their deaths. Then another group of lost and hungry souls would replace them in a vicious and bloody cycle till they were all stamped out and eradicated.

"Are we leaving?" Tavin asked as Chess drove.

"Must we leave? You ain't seen nothing yet." Julia reminded him. But he wanted this on a national and international spotlight, on every TV and tech device across the country and around the globe. It would take hours, as Chess had said, to mobilize from the Midwest and arrive. First responders were dwindling. A large scale incident was underway, one of human making. She understood what he was trying to do, but would it be too late? Were there enough teams out there to stop this? The perimeter would be the entire city by day break. "I know what to do. We need to set up a perimeter. We need to mobilize the people in these neighborhoods and then we need to stand side by side and kill every last one of them until they are all dead." She said, leaning back in the seat of the truck, lighting a cigarette. "We should do it while there's time or a year from now."

"Are you crazy? We cannot get involved in this." Chess reminded her. They had signed a contract. They would be jailed or worse.

"Not trying to be a hero or get in trouble." She answered. "Just saying, boss. If we turn back, we can handle what's going down. More will fall in alongside of us. More will step up, take back their streets. No one handles business for them. They handle it themselves. They only need guidance and a clue."

"It's too far gone."

"No, it's not." She laughed. "You people have no clue what too far gone means." She inhaled deeply off her cigarette. "We clear the streets. Have none of you cleared a street before? We start outside where it is clear-"

"And we work our way in."

"One street at a time."

"Clean up the fucking mess." Julia smiled, taking another drag off her cigarette.

"There's only 4 of us." Tavin pointed out.

"We have people." Chess mumbled, tossing Julia the cell phone.

"Once it starts, it is a movement. People will get on board with this. Once the dead walk down your street, dammit, you fight back. You do not hide in fear and wait for those who are trained, because we have trained and they have trained all their damn lives." She flicked the cigarette out her window and she leaned over the front seat of the truck. She snatched Chess's monster energy drink and she took it from him. "Or we could go home and crawl into our beds and fuck and then in a few days run off to our fortress and hide behind our fence. We could wait till they've become a million and a half strong and we have to lead them over the bridges into New Jersey and lose countless good men and women in the process. Totally up to you." She smiled. She held up the cell phone and she looked through the contacts. She dialed Jody and she ran this scenario past him to see what he'd say. She put him on speaker.

"So we would not have to go to New Jersey, Morgan?"

"Um, I'll make a few calls and we'll meet up where?"

"Wherever the fucking dead people are. No specific point. Do you remember my plan, Mayers? Do you know the plan or not?"

He thought a moment. "Kill, shrink, shelter, repeat. Yes, Morgan. I'll make some calls."

Julia disconnected from him and looked over the seat at Chess. "Turn around." She said softly as she scrolled through the contact list on his phone. She dialed Alex's phone number. "Hey, bud, it's me. Can you do what we talked about 6 months ago during my ten sober minutes?" She said to him. "Philadelphia, Kensington." She answered.

"For real, for real."

"For real." She agreed. "Thanks."

"Is that where you are? Why wasn't I invited? I am watching it on TV."

"Cause you matter and you're a kid." She answered as simple as that. "Your day's coming. I love you, you know, just in case."

"Love you too." He said back and hung up.

Julia was out of the truck before the engine had been turned off. She went looking for people who had caught on to the threat that head their way. 6 men and 2 females who were splattered in blood and remnants of the insides of freshly turned monsters. She spoke when spoken to and she helped the people exterminate a threat that walked on city streets at night. As she spotted the freshly turned monsters, she jabbed her knife into hard to shatter skulls. Around them, the streets devolved into chaos. There were those who resorted to looting and it was viewed as a free for all, but their work was not in vain. They worked around looters and were left to their work by the looters.

As they moved street by street, Julia suggested firmly to leave people behind. Once the street was secure, they needed to remain that way. Two volunteers stayed behind and the rest of them moved on, around corners and through yards, working their way deeper into hell, toward the fires that blazed along the main road through the ghetto. The dead walked the streets, familiar with the layout, streets they'd been walking for a long time and for some of them their entire lives.

As they fought the dead, the people speculated that this had been a purposeful act on the part of the U.S. government or the city to eradicate a people and rid the city streets of a problem. Viral warfare, a kid had said, getting rid of people of color, getting rid of people that didn't matter. It became evident after hours on the streets of Killadelphia that all lives mattered and the people who lived and worked in the neighborhood would step up and protect their neighborhood. Across the streets of one neighborhood, word spread. More people came out of their homes instead of hiding inside of them. Their people who would not or could not fight were secured inside homes, even the homes of strangers. Church doors were opened, albeit forcibly, and sheltered those who sought refuge. The streets turned into a war zone and the spirit of those who actually cared hinted at the spirit of neighborhood pride, human pride. Killadelphia turned into the city of brotherly love as the people came together to fight against a vile and inhuman enemy. A couple hundred strong, an armed army of individuals rallied in the streets and slaughtered a threat. They moved side by side for hours. As the sun rose in the sky, giving light to the destruction and the chaos. Their purpose all night was to hasten the change of more and to put to rest the dead. People worked together and accomplished that until they converged around smoldering buildings. The people made it possible to get the fire crews and the medics inside the area to assist those who had been injured.

The city police response formed a perimeter around the area, but didn't push in, leaving nature to take its course on a blighted people as they had for decades during the drug war. What unfurled after the mass killing of the dead, the fighters had little control over. Humanity at its finest morphed into humanity at its most basic and greedy. What was left of shops and stores was being looted and robbed of goods. The good people of the city were face to face with the living and it was business as usual. They were left to their own accord, the police got involved and people who were looking for free goods to later sell and free food to later eat were arrested or beaten or subdued as the area faced a full scale riot.

"I don't do riots." Julia commented. And they have nothing I want...except for water...Julia thought as she and her teammates wound up inside a methadone clinic that had water bottles available.

The four arrived looking like the dead had exploded on them, blood and gore covering their bodies from head to toe. Dirty with soot and wet from the spray of fire hoses that were dousing the smoldering buildings. 12 hours had passed and she hadn't fired a single bullet. Her arms ached, her head was pounding with a headache unlike she had ever experienced.

Hundreds of dead littered the city streets in the surrounding ghetto neighborhood, bodies riddled with bullet holes and stab wounds. A massive clean up would unfurl and a massive disinfection and quarantine. The homes and shooting galleries and all the nooks and crannies in the area had yet to be searched for living and dead. The one night in Philly would unfold into months worth of clean up. The national and international spotlight focused on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All the area's problems were on the main stage. The extent of human suffering and the socio economic issues were also in the spotlight. Drug addiction and lack of rehabilitation services, crumbling infrastructure and poor education system, the lack of employment and the lack of programs to solve these social issues would be the subject of debate among the most educated and most qualified.

Pictures were posted and videos of the actions taken that night by the people in the neighborhood, both good and bad, were played and replayed on national news, you tube, face book and all other established websites. What happens when the camera crews leave and the mess is cleaned up, the blood and the body parts are washed away, once the city's blight is no longer a focus and the dead are at rest? Life resumes to business as usual. Would the area be rebuilt or would it face further hardship? Could the problems get any worse? Indeed, they could.

"The people need to be involved. The people need to know what is going on, the truth. No spin to the story and no more lies." Julia told Shelby, the newest liaison, as she stood across from her in a methadone clinic. "It was the people of this neighborhood that took these streets back. Not a trained team of marines. You do not need marines. You need a militia. Wanna end all of this? Put these people on your pay roll. Get them on the streets patrolling the area. Get them out of their houses and off the street corners. Give them an honest day's work and income. This virus isn't going away. It will affect us all the days of our lives."

"It isn't that easy."

"Why isn't it?" Julia yelled.

"Calm down, Julia." Chess said.

"Do not tell me to calm down. Turn around and look outside. What do you see? We're in more danger now in the middle of a riot than we were killing the dead. Can't you people see that? Once one problem is solved, all the other problems reinvent themselves. What is wrong with you people?"

"What are you doing here?" Shelby asked calmly, having heard about the Morgans and the Kellers, but never having come face to face with them. This liaison was a sharp contrast to the original. 5'8, physically fit, dressed in a uniform similar to those on the teams and strapped up with two side arms and a knife. Her attitude was all business and no play as Julia thought this liaison would be a little more difficult to take down. This one read full confidence and odds were she was capable of doing more than spinning a story. Julia stood just as firm with her and matched the attitude.

"My fucking job." She answered defiantly. "Our fucking job." She amended that and then remained silent.

The people in that neighborhood continued to maintain a patrol and stay visibly armed in the midst of the rioting. They secured the path for the fire crews and the medics to enter. The people of Killadelphia had taken this virus outbreak in their impoverished neighborhood personally. Everyone armed and involved would be interviewed. In the coming weeks they would comb the neighborhood street by street and attempt to get a true picture of what had happened and the steps they had taken as residents to solve it. True to their street personas, no one would say a damn word. Havoc had just taken place and no one knew anything. No one was a snitch and no one was willing to say exactly what happened when. Until they learned that killing the dead that threatened them was not a crime, then the stories came out. Person by person to every news camera and reporter that was willing to walk the streets and meet with people, the story unfolded gradually and it was then documented in pictures and sound bites and self taken pictures and videos uploaded on social media.

Julia, Jayson, Chess and Tavin all took the stance of the people on the street. They didn't know anything either. The military puppets interviewed them all individually and together and when they were asked what they were doing there, in a notorious drug area that had become overrun with the living dead, Julia answered simple and easy. "I wanted drugs obviously." She looked over the man in charge of this ordeal, the same man in charge of the incident at the rehab in Delaware county. "That's where you saw me last, remember? Rehab." That was the story she would give to him and she stuck with it. "Coincidence, I know."

"Jayson Keller, Tavin Keller, Chester Morgan."

"Ask them what they're doing here. I assume they were looking for their favorite junkie, Sir."

He doubted the veracity of her story telling. Believe the lie you can't talk about...rang through her brain at that moment. It was all lies.

"How many kills?"

"Not enough."

"Why do you say that?"

"You're still alive." She answered and then remained silent till they decided what to do with her. Did they have time to investigate whether she spoke the truth? Did they care to press an issue based on a signed contract? Did they wish to pursue legal action, place her in custody along with her family and then transport her elsewhere and incarcerate them all? Whether yes or no, she didn't care as she and her boys walked out of the methadone clinic, bottles of water with them into August heat. She felt sticky with congealed blood on her, in her hair, in places she didn't know were possible. She smelled like blood and guts and urine. She'd peed on herself twice over the course of 12 hours time. 16 hours in, she was tiring of the questioning and the story telling.

"We leaving?" Chess asked.

"They have no right to detain me or any of us. They do not dismiss me, Morgan. They know where we all live."

Water...they walked the streets back to the truck, stopping at an open hydrant and she was first into the cold water as it doused her and cleansed her, leaving her dripping wet on the pavement. She rinsed layers of muck and grime from her clothes and body as Jayson held onto her back pack and her weapons. She took her belongings back and then pushed him into the water next. He squealed at its temperature despite the August heat and sun. Tavin went after him, then Chess. The cold water waking him and reviving his tired bones and aching muscles. The truck was just as dirty and had multiple bullet holes in it. Obviously a few shots taken at the dead missed as he inspected the body of his truck.

"Insurance cover this, you think?" He asked as he leaned on the truck frame and rested his head on his folded arms.

"You alright, Chess?"

"I'm tired." He admitted, popping his head up and moving off the back of the truck. He shook his limbs, which felt like jelly and he was hungry, but he was more tired than hungry. Julia saw it in his eyes, the depth of his exhaustion. Long night, on his feet for the last 16 hours, awake since 4am the previous day. Chess was spent.

"Keys," Jay said as he held out his hand.

Chess tossed his keys to his cousin and crawled into the back seat of his truck and passed out. He would never have been able to start the truck let alone drive them home. Traffic out of the city was stacked for miles. People who were curious, people who wanted to help, people who lived and worked in the city all backed up and stagnated on the roads into philly as well. Jay wound through the streets of the ghetto. He could follow directions as Julia pointed out where to turn and when. Jay was unfamiliar with the area and needed guidance. The phone lines were down, the cell towers were jammed up from so many incoming and out going calls. She never did find Jody, but she felt he was ok. Hoped he was ok, because like Chess said, he was a grown man.

"If you want me to drive, let me know." Julia offered.

"I'm ok." He said, putting and arm around her as the boulevard led them to the turnpike. After some time it was open road for them. Those leaving the city it seemed emptied in packed cars and campers. They drove the long ride down the turnpike toward home, only stopping once at a rest stop for drinks and food. They left Chess sleeping in the rear seat while they head inside and ate like they hadn't eaten in weeks. They looked a mess and smelled the part, looking like something out of a horror movie. They got looks and stares and people pulled themselves and their little ones away from them, which was just fine, because they didn't feel like mingling or lingering. Once they made their purchases, got back in the truck, the ride home was more tolerable, listening to the radio and no one really paying attention.

"It gets worse than that?" Tavin asked.

"Yeah," She replied. "Fewer explosions. Fewer living and more dead. No clearing that city once it happens. We were going to lead the dead over the bridges. That much I knew. I was in the process of figuring out how to clear the nests when the timelines overlapped." The closer they got to home, the cell started working again. The area in which they lived, the cell towers were not jammed and neither were the phone lines. Messages and calls and notifications and voice mails all popped up simultaneously on their dying cells. Chess's started ringing and Julia answered it only because it was Jess wanting to make sure he and everyone else was among the living.

"Everyone is fine." Julia answered her panicked voice. She had woken up to Philly in chaos and when she called any of them and got was voicemail or a busy signal, Jess worried. When she called home and got Alex and he told her what was going on she'd been upset ever since.

"I thought-I thought we were leaving and all. I thought it was time and I got scared and no one answered."

"Leaving? Nah, someone would have got you. What is the plan?"

"Go to Chess's house."

"Did ya go?" Julia asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah."

"Well, good. Go back home. We're almost home anyway. The fire is out." She told her.

"But what about the zoms outside?" She asked with a healthy fear in her voice.

"What zoms outside, babe?" Julia asked curiously.

"The ones on the street. I mean, I know if I stay calm and quiet, then they won't bother me, but-"

"Shit, shit, shit." Julia moaned. "Stay there. Keep doing what you're doing." She instructed her. "Got a gun? You gotta have one there somewhere in Sandy's house."

"Ray's here. We're dark. We have been trying to call you all morning."

"Ok, ok. Keep calm and stay dark."

"Where's Chess?"

"Asleep, Jess. He's right here. We're on our way."

"You're lying. He's hurt isn't he? He's dead isn't he?"

"No, Jess. I-he's right here."

Julia turned on her seat and leaned over to the back. She smacked Chess hard and he groaned and woke up a minute. "What, Julia?" He asked loud enough for Jess to have heard him before his eyes closed and he fell back to sleep. Julia spun back around and sat down.

"How many?" She asked.

"Huh? How many what? Zoms?"

"Put Ray on the phone." She demanded. She heard Jess moving through Sandy's house, past his mom and into the living room. "Hey, head count. How many?"

"Like ten." He answered quietly.

"Know how to use that gun, Ray?"

"Sure I do." He answered annoyed with the question.

"Then open the fucking door and shoot every last one of them until their heads are blown all over the street."

"That ain't the plan."

"It is now. Open the door-"

"I don't know about that." He muttered. "I'm not-should we call somebody?"

"You are somebody. Take some fucking initiative before shit gets out of hand."

"Well, Ok. Damn it, Julia, you're bitchy today."

"Don't wait for your brother to do what you can do." She sighed, listening as he handed the phone back to Jess. "Now, you stand there behind that closed door and calm the fuck down. He's got this."

Julia smacked Jay's arm. "Can you drive faster at all?"

"I'm going as fast as I can, Julia." He whined. "Once we get off the highway, it'll take even longer."

Julia put the phone on speaker as Tavin asked whether sending Men in Black to fight the dead was a great idea. "It's the only idea I got right now, Tav. The risk is greater doing nothing and there are people all around them that could get hurt." She heard gun shots, knowing that zoms don't shoot, and felt assured that Ray was taking care of the threat outside the front door. "We spent the night doing exactly what Ray's doing. We don't hide. We don't start the problem, but we finish it."

Tavin looked worn out and beat as he didn't answer, looking at the cell screen and waiting for an answer as to whether Men in Black was successful. Listening as Jesslyn cried was the hardest part and then they heard her opening the door. The difference between outside and inside as Jess stood in the August summer heat on the Morgan's front porch.

"Oh, my God." She said.

Julia sensed her looking around the street as Ray's voice was clearly heard telling her to 'get back in the fuckin house'. He sounded so much like his brother in that moment, Julia had to do a double take over the seat to make sure she had Chess with her.

"It's done." He said, taking the phone off Jess. 

"Ray, stay outside on the porch and watch for more. Anymore head your way, take them out."

"Ok, Julia. Should I like call the police or something?"

"Um, I don't know." She answered, thinking the bodies should be dragged to a pile and burned.

She didn't know. This was a new world and new ways formed before their very eyes. New ways included people stepping outside and taking care of the problems in their own street.