Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide

by Merritt, R. S.

  Randy naturally turned the van down the street in the direction with less Zombies. He flipped on the high beams and they took off that way. He found his adrenaline starting to fade a little bit as his injuries sapped at his strength. He wished he could switch places with Kelly but there wasn’t enough time. He drove around a couple of barrels that were lying in the road and almost ran into a big extended cab pickup truck that came flying out of the alley behind the warehouse.

  The driver of the pickup turned the truck to follow them. Randy watched in his rearview mirror as the big truck easily ate up the distance between itself and the van. There was no way in his current physical state and driving the big clunky van they were going to be able to lose the way more powerful truck.

  “Shoot the truck!” He yelled loudly.

  Kelly looked at him then looked at the truck. She grabbed Caitlyn and they both moved to the back of the van. They took careful aim and shot out the vans back window as they started shooting at the truck pursuing them. The truck had on its bright lights, so it was hard to make out if they were hitting anything. After a couple of minutes of them shooting at it the truck suddenly veered off to the right and hit the side of a building before coming to a stop. Kelly was about to cheer and give Caitlyn a high five when they saw muzzle flashes coming from where the truck was sitting. Instead of high fiving they both dove down to lay low on the floor. Kelly screaming for the other kids to get down.

  A couple of loud pings and a sound like an angry hornet and then they were out of range. Kelly fearfully yelling for everyone to say they were ok.

  “Hey babe!” Randy yelled once he’d heard everyone was doing ok.

  “What’s up?” She yelled back.

  “Come take my place before I pass out!” Randy said back loudly. He was seeing black spots in front of him and having a really hard time keeping his eyes open. His whole body was still way too weak for all of this. Now that the immediate danger was past, he figured it was a good time to swap Kelly into the driver’s seat before the apocalypse threw anything else at them.

  He stopped in the middle of the road to switch seats with her. Kelly got in his seat and put the van in drive. Almost immediately they saw another big truck coming at them. The bright lights on the front of it blinding them. This one even had the LED lights along the roof that the truly well-off red necks always seemed to add.

  Kelly turned down a side street.

  “I think I saw another one coming up behind us mom!” Myriah yelled from the back of the van. That could either be a new one or those people they’d shot off the road may have just got their trucks moving again.

  In the headlights in front of the van Kelly saw a string of Zombies running for them down the narrow street. There was nowhere for her to turn and if they slowed down, they were going to get caught. She kept the speed steady while Caitlyn and Randy moved to the back of the van and got setup to shoot at the trucks chasing them once they got close enough. The van shuddered as they collided with the first Zombie. Then shuddered harder with each successive Zombie hit after that.

  The front tire blew out when the rib bone from a Zombie who was doing flips in the wheel well pierced the tire. Kelly fought to keep the van upright as they skidded into another group of Zombies. In a desperate attempt to get away from the Zombies coming for them and the men in the trucks behind them she yanked the wheel towards another side street and stomped on the accelerator. The van hit a curb sideways going way too fast. Being a top-heavy vehicle with a blown tire it didn’t take a lot to make it flip.

  The big van went over on its side and skidded across the sidewalk until it collided with the side of a concrete building selling fountains and fountain supplies. Kelly got punched out by another airbag. Everyone not in seatbelts in the back were thrown around like leaves in a windstorm. The little kids were mostly belted in so didn’t get any injuries that weren’t due to their dad whacking into them as he was tossed around the van.

  The Zombies were on the van before it even completely stopped. They stormed up the sides screeching in excitement and anticipation of the bloody feast within. Before the Zombies could slide in through the shattered side windows the trucks that’d been pursing them screeched to a halt and disgorged several hard-looking men. The men stepped forward surgically sniping the Zombies off the sides of the van before they could get at the occupants. The men moved fast to neutralize the threats on the street.

  Kelly felt herself being dragged out the front window. She struggled feebly until she heard Zoey screaming bloody murder. That’s when she came alive. Kicking out hard at the man pulling her out through the window she reached down to her waist searching for her pistol. Before she could pull it out of the holster the man who’d been pulling her out of the van stepped up and hit her hard in the head with the butt of his rifle.

  In the confusion and chaos, the children were all taken from the van. Randy was completely comatose and easily pulled out. The men efficiently zip tied all their hands behind their backs and loaded them into the back of one of the pickup trucks. Once they were in the truck their feet were zip tied together as well. Randy was out for the whole process.

  The trucks had started moving as soon as they had the prisoners in the truck bed. Two soldiers sat in the back with the prisoners. They took turns searching each of them for weapons. By the time they’d finished they’d accumulated an impressive pile of pistols, hatchets, knives, ammunition, and random other weapons. They funneled all the loose weapons up to the men in the front seats through the slider window.

  With Kelly and Randy both unconscious the kids were freaking out. The little ones were crying and trying to snuggle up to Caitlyn and Myriah, but the guards wouldn’t let them get close to one another. They weren’t gentle about it either. One of the men reached down and ripped Zoey away from Caitlyn by the hair then screamed in her face for her to stay where he put her. Caitlyn figured their attitude may be directly related to the trail of dead Brotherhood soldiers they’d left in their wake.

  One of the men was comparing each of them to pictures he took out of a large envelope. He pushed two pictures in front of Caitlyn and asked which one Randy was. When she hesitated, he backhanded her across the face and told her he’d do worse to the little kids if she didn’t talk. She pointed at the picture of Randy then pointed at her dad.

  “Where’s this other guy? Tony?” The soldier asked her. He was reading information that’d been typed on the back of the picture. Caitlyn recognized the picture as the one from the identification badges they’d all been given back at the Brotherhood base.

  “He died. A swarm of Zombies got him back on I-4.” She said.

  The soldier punched Myriah in the stomach. Then he asked Caitlyn again where Tony was.

  “He’s dead!” She yelled.

  “Tell me now or I’ll rip your little sisters ears off her head! You hear me!” The soldier yelled in her face. Bits of spit were flying out of his mouth and hitting her. She recoiled in horror. She didn’t know what to do. All she could think of was how much she wished she had her hands free and a weapon within reach. She wanted to bash this guy’s face in. He hit her again. She kept repeating that Tony was dead. Frustrated tears were rolling down her cheeks. The soldier went down the line shoving the picture in all their faces and demanding to know where he was.

  Kelly must’ve woken up at some point and seen how her kids were being treated. She waited until the man was straight across from her to arch her body and throw both her feet hard into the man’s back. It wasn’t a super powerful kick but in the back of a pickup truck bouncing down the road at a high rate of speed it was enough to trip him up. The guy tried to spin around to get at her and she did it again. This time he got his foot stuck on Myriah’s leg and stumbled towards the side of the truck. The truck hit a bump at that exact time and suddenly the man was airborne.

  The other soldier slammed his hand into the back window a couple of times then talked rapidly through the window once they opened it. The truck stop
ped and he jumped out reappearing a minute later by himself. Another soldier got out of the front and joined them all in the back. They kept driving into the darkness. No more questions were asked while they drove. Kelly was flipped over on to her stomach and they used a couple more zip ties to hog tie her so that she couldn’t try her kicking trick again.

  Chapter 29: Convoy

  Kyler leafed through the pictures of the family they were supposed to be going to apprehend. Krantz had passed out the bundle of information at the meeting earlier. They’d been told they’d be going down to Florida to escort the criminals to Atlanta once they were apprehended. They were also supposed to head down the gulf coast side of Florida to make sure the outlaws didn’t try to escape up that side of the state. Once Krantz had given the mission brief they’d all been told to go outside and get ready to roll.

  “Treason, desertion, murder of a leader of the people, murder of soldiers of the people, stealing from the people and etc. I wonder what the etc.… was?” Kyler asked.

  “I doubt it was the etc.… They must’ve killed somebody important or the Senator wouldn’t be trying so hard to make an example out of them. We catch deserters every once in a while, but no one’s ever really been important enough for us to go specially looking for them. We definitely don’t spend a month going to some other state and back to try and deliver them up to the freaking senator for judgement. These poor bastards must’ve really pissed off the wrong people.”

  “What’s he going to do to them? I mean the kids. Assuming the parents and that other guy are pretty much screwed.”

  “Beats me. May tell us to pen them up or may have something more public in store for them. We won’t get the kids or the woman, but those two guys have earned a date with a pen for sure. The kids he’ll probably just throw in different camps. Marry them off to low ranking soldiers depending on how pretty they are. Who knows? The options are endless when there aren’t any rules anymore.”

  Kyler set aside the dossiers on the family causing so many issues when he heard the other trucks start rolling out. The messengers truck had been full of extra ammunition, gas and food which showed just how much the powers that be wanted the ‘enemies of the people’ captured. They definitely weren’t sparing any expenses on capturing them. Kyler had gotten the pleasure of loading their share of supplies into the truck. Rodriguez was enjoying milking the ‘massive life-threatening injury’ he’d sustained to his hind quarters.

  They’d waited until nighttime to move thinking it’d be easier to roll down the interstate at night than during the day from a Zombie attracting perspective. The problem as Kyler understood it was that no one had ever tried driving as far as they were going down the interstate with a whole convoy of trucks. They’d consolidated the number of trucks by doubling up the men in a few of them, so they ended up with just five trucks. The trucks were all big four-wheel drive rigs though. Not a single quiet one among them. The one Kyler and Rodriguez were driving was actually the smallest and lightest of them all. That meant they got the dubious honor of leading the convoy down the road.

  They talked as Kyler drove towards Atlanta. Kyler cringing internally as Rodriguez expressed his thoughts around what would probably happen to the family once they were dragged back for punishment.

  “You know. I think they normally try to keep from sending people back and forth on the main freeways too much anyway. All the traffic attracts more Zombies, so they want to reserve them for when they’re really needed. Just another thing that tells me these guys are going to get a whole lot of hurt when we bring them back.”

  “Assuming we bring them back. Sounds like they’ve been on the run and killing everybody who tries to capture them. You really want to go up against an armed family trying to protect their kids? They’ve got to know what happens once they’re caught. They’re not going down without a fight.”

  Rodriguez paused to consider that for a while. Going against the random deserter or a group of Zombies was one thing. Going up against armed men and women actively shooting back at you was something different. Kyler kept them moving down the interstate while Rodriguez mulled over the fact that they were probably going to get shot at by a group that sounded like they were pretty good at it.

  “Well. Hopefully someone else takes them before we get there. Or, we may never see them anyway if they head up the Atlantic side of Florida. We’ll miss them by a whole state.” Rodriguez seemed to find solitude in those ideas.

  The interstate had been cleared of cars. That was one of the things that the Senator had ordered be done throughout the state for the major roads. He knew that wars and trade both depended on being able to transport goods quickly from one end of the state to the other. In addition to the roads being cleared they were working on blocking off the roads coming from the north. They were doing their best to kill as many of the Zombies roaming the state as they could, but that job was immense. They were trying to limit how many more might pour in once they got the Zombies thinned out in Georgia and Florida. It’d be a long effort but worth it in the end.

  They passed by more and more guard posts the closer they got to Atlanta. The guard posts weren’t visible to them as they drove past in the darkness. Their radio would suddenly come to life and they’d be asked to identify themselves. As the lead truck Kyler and Rodriguez had been given the latest passwords by the messenger. The passwords were all that was needed for the most part. A few of the posts demanded additional info which Kyler gave them no questions asked. It was amazing how forthcoming you could be when you knew hesitating would probably end up with some machine gunner feeding a belt of armor piercing rounds through a large gun aimed directly at you.

  “What happens if you drive through here with no radio?” Kyler asked curiously.

  “They shoot you.” Rodriguez answered. He’d taken some more medicine and was falling back asleep. Kyler wished he had a book on tape or something. Other than the constant fear of death from a variety of sources it was pretty boring driving through the night.

  There were Zombies who came out after them. Kyler would dodge them as well as he could. The truck they were driving couldn’t take too many more Zombie impacts. Luckily most of the Zombies seemed to run at them from the side of the road. If thy ran straight at the headlights it got more complicated trying to dodge them. Especially if there was more than one of them. Kyler began to feel pretty good about their chances of actually making it down to Florida alive. His radio crackled to life.

  Kyler answered the challenge question and listened carefully as the radio operator informed him a herd was moving down the road. The radio operator told them they should pull the truck over and go hide in the woods until the herd passed. He knew the guard posts were all linked together via wired radios that were run over cable on the side of the interstate. He didn’t know from how far away they could get information but assumed they had a pretty widespread network built up. It was amazing how quickly being able to talk on a party line kludged together radio system had become state of the art.

  Kyler relayed the info back to Krantz and the rest of the team before finding a spot to pull over and wait for them. He nudged Rodriguez awake and the two of them got out of the truck and waited for everyone else to show up. Once they were all there, they went into the woods about a hundred yards. Rodriguez volunteered Kyler to climb a tree and let them know what was going on. Choosing not to say what he thought of the idea Kyler got some of the guys to boost him up into a likely looking tree.

  He climbed high enough to have a clear view of the road but not so high he couldn’t get himself out of the tree in under a minute if needed. Worse case he thought he was probably low enough to avoid a broken leg if he had to jump for it. He found a decent branch to sit on and then put on the night vision Krantz had handed him. He got the walkie talkie ready to click and sat in the tree waiting.

  Thirty minutes later he was still waiting. The guy on the radio had made it sound like their death was imminent if they didn’t pull over. He�
�d expected them to give them some cushion to get off the road, but this seemed pretty substantial. His walkie had already let out short bursts of static twice that he’d responded to with single short bursts. He was shifting around now trying to get comfortable on the branch he was sitting on while staring through the night vision at a green tinted world.

  A figure running unbelievably fast sprinted down the middle of the road and came to a stop. Kyler watched while the adrenalized Zombie stood in the middle of the road by where the trucks were parked sniffing at the air. Three more of the super-fast Zombies appeared next to him as if by magic. It occurred to Kyler that these Zombies were actively moving down the road in the middle of the night. Had they been able to hear the trucks from miles away? If they had developed the ability to sprint like roided up Russian Olympians, then maybe they’d accumulated some other more subtle gifts. If they could hear over greater distances now that didn’t bode well for the humans trying to survive.

  These Zombies out on the road weren’t acting like the typical Zombies in more ways than one. If the trucks had been running, then Kyler would’ve expected the Zombies to meander over and investigate them. If they didn’t see anything human shaped inside the trucks, he’d have expected them to take off. These Zombies didn’t do that. The four of them padded around the trucks quietly sniffing and touching them.