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his body go loose. He could hear his mother’s voice, “Count to ten, Jesse. Don’t get so upset.”
    “This is bullshit,” he said.
    He squatted down on his heels and flipped open the metal lid of their supply chest. He pulled out two cans of food: kidney beans, and peaches bathed in syrup. He jammed spoonfuls of the horrid combination into his mouth. His eyes locked onto the top of a larch tree in the narrow green belt that bordered the parking lot. A slow wind ran through its branches: spiny leaves dancing with each soft swell. Jesse slipped into a trance.
    …
    He was in a field bordered by tall pines. Atop each tree was a crow: their dark eyes fixed on him. From the forest came the sound of drums beating in unison. The pine needles shook with each deep blast of the drums.
    The drums stopped.
    He heard faint, distant footfalls: a slow march.
    “Do you hear them, Jesse?”
    “Yes,” he said. He turned in a circle and tried to find the source of the voice. He was alone.
    “Who are you?” Jesse asked.
    “Are you the one I seek?” the voice asked.
    “I don’t know. What are you looking for?”
    “Come to this place and do what you were born to do.”
    “Why?”
    “Come to this place or death will find you behind your coward’s walls.”
    “Who the fuck ar e you?” he asked. His voice echoed. It bounced around the field and dissolved. Out of the trees came a hundred versions of Jesse: five-year-old Jesse wearing a superhero t-shirt, fourteen-year-old Jesse in his junior varsity wrestling uniform, and a myriad of iterations of himself that could never be. He locked eyes with a thirty-something image of himself, with a striped purple button-up shirt and a tie beside a wife and two children. Jesse shook his head, trying to dispel the apparitions. He closed his eyes and hoped they would disappear. As his eyes opened, he saw only one man standing in front of him. Scars textured his face and shorn scalp. A coarse, braided beard dominated his face. Around his neck was a pendant hanging on a hemp necklace: a bull with jade eyes. Green fire emanated from the bull's stone eyes. The man wore ancient armor and held a giant bronze double-headed axe in his right hand. He slammed the pole of the axe into the ground and deep sound reverberated without end.
    Jesse's vision eroded into pure white nothingness.
    …
    Jesse snapped out of his trance. He heard Adam co ming down the ladder. Adam made his way onto the platform and sat next to Jesse. He patted Jesse on the shoulder.
    “Your turn,” said Adam.
    “Which way did they go?” asked Jesse. Adam pointed southwest.
    “To the riverside?” asked Jesse.
    “That direction definitely, but I think the sound came from the hills.”
    “How do you know?” asked Jesse.
    “Well, it sounded really far away, but it was still loud. I’m guessing it came from someplace higher up.”
    Jesse took in a long breath.
    “Maybe there's a type of them that screams,” he said.
    “Fuck, I hope not, but I don’t know what else could have made that sound,” said Adam.
    “The ones we see don’t make any noise, but maybe we haven’t seen everything yet.”
    “Man, I hope we’ve seen it all,” said Adam. He rubbed his face with both hands.
    “I don’t know how much more of this shit I can handle. My nine-mil has been looking mighty sexy these past few days,” said Adam.
    “Hey, we’ve been surviving this shit for months,” Je sse said. He set a hand on Adam’s shoulder, “Whatever comes our way we are going to handle it. There’s a reason it’s just you and me left in this town.”
    “Because everyone with half a brain blew theirs out when the going got tough .”
    “Bullshit, most people tried to run, hide, or fight and they didn’t make it. We did. There’s something to that.”
    “We just haven’t gotten ours yet.”
    “Fuck that . I’ve got to kill at least a few thousand more before I go down.”
    “It doesn’t matter, man . You could kill fifty million and