Resurrection by Kevin Collins Page A

he regained consciousness he realized the figure was a man, he wore black mask and a helmet with a light attached to it.
         “Hey, you ok man?” he asked as he shook Charlie by the shoulder again.
         The light hurt Charlie’s eyes but it brought him out of his shock.
         “You want to get that light out of my face?” Charlie asked bluntly.
         He sat up and leaned back against the wall still stunned, the man turned the light off.
         “There, that better Charlie, I had forgotten about your eyes, can you still see me?”
         “Yeah, I can see you, who the hell are you?” Charlie said. He was looking directly into the man’s eyes; there was something about them and his voice that seemed familiar.    
         The man took his mask off and Charlie immediately recognized him.
         “Jim, what are you doing here?” Charlie sat dumbfounded staring into a face from his past.
         “Been following you for days, Charlie, you took me by surprise though when I heard you outside, I figured you would avoid civilization.” 
         Charlie was silent for a moment, while he gathered his thoughts.
         “Following me, why have you been following me Jim? I haven’t seen you in years.”
         Just then there was a sound of breaking glass and a scream from the bedroom.
    “The girl!” Charlie jumped up, grabbed his machete and shotgun and ran for the bedroom.
         Throwing open the door, he saw a Waster and it had the girl by the hair. Charlie took a step toward the creature and in a split second the freak bit down on the girl’s neck and she screamed in terror and pain.
         Charlie swung the machete and the demon’s head went spinning to the floor. The headless torso, still clinging to the girl began to stumble about the room.
          He again swung the machete and lopped off its arm it dropped her to the floor. She fell next to the severed head of the Waster, its jaws still chomping as it tried to get at her again; the eyes wild with hunger.
         Charlie pulled his shotgun, and without hesitation he blew of the legs off of the stumbling corpse, it fell against the wall but still it attempted to get back up.
         Charlie ran to the girl and knelt beside her and put his arm under her head and lifted her to his chest. He brushed her hair from out of her eyes, the waster had ripped her throat out and she was already gone.
         “Damn, Damn, I should not have left her alone, God; I never even knew her name.”
         He shook his head and put a gloved hand to her face and caressed it and then closed her eyes. He carefully let her back down to the floor, then, he pointed his shotgun at Jim.    
         “Now, I’m gonna ask you again what the hell are you doing here, why have you been following me?”    
         Jim hesitated, “Charlie, I was sent by the government, the two you killed in the firefight at the house were from the government.”
         “There is no government,” Charlie said half laughing. “What’s the real reason?”   
         “You haven’t heard?” Jim looked down at the shotgun Charlie had trained on him. “No I guess you wouldn’t have. The government has begun to reestablish itself, Washington is coming back.”
         “Washington,” Charlie said with a sneer, “What has that to do with me?”
         Jim studied Charlie for a second,” mind if I smoke?” he pulled a pack of Chesterfields from his jacket.
         “Be my guest,” Charlie said.
         Jim lit his cigarette then offered the pack to Charlie, he waved his hand and Jim put the pack back in his jacket.
         “You see Charlie,” Jim started. “The initial infection has run its course, and now it’s only being spread by the Wasters. The government has begun a project to destroy them, to kill them all.
       “Kill them? You can’t kill them,” Charlie said pointing the rifle at the head