He held out the flask to Whitaker, who gladly poured a shot into her mug as well.
The Sergeant crossed his arms. “So, what’s the plan, Leon?” he asked.
“Honestly, I was kinda hoping you guys had some ideas,” Leon admitted. “Trying to figure out ways to keep the Cartel happy has taken most of my attention.”
Hammond nodded, pursing his lips. “Well, let’s see what we can come up with.” He motioned to the screen. “Can you give me a full view of the town?”
Leon clacked on the keyboard and pulled it up, zooming out to show the whole town. The soldiers leaned over his shoulders to get a good look.
“What about this canal looking thing to the south?” Whitaker asked, pointing at the screen. “Can we lure them down there and contain them? Maybe have them swept away?”
Leon shook his head. “It’s way too shallow,” he said. “It may slow some of them down, but that’s about it.”
“What about just pulling them out into the desert to the east?” Landry asked. “Couldn’t be that hard to get ‘em moving as a herd and circle back to town.”
“We considered that, and put it in the last resort pile,” Rogers admitted. “It’s way too close to the interstate, which is our only lifeline to areas that were formerly civilization. If taking out the Cartel head doesn’t work, we still need to get out to those areas, and going through packs of zombies would make that more difficult.”
Landry raised an eyebrow. “So, no Road Warrior stuff, then?”
“Another few weeks of dealing with the Cartel and that might be a better alternative,” Trenton put in dryly.
Leon took a deep breath. “And… not wanting to put a damper on things, but we are really going to have to watch it when it comes to popping off shots.”
“We know, because ammo is tight,” Landry replied with a nod.
Leon grimaced. “Yes, that… but also, we haven’t cleared much of the town at all. So if you start trying to take out the horde, you could potentially find yourself surrounded if you aren’t careful.”
Landry ran a hand through his hair. “This keeps getting better and better.”
“Do you care about the buildings?” Hammond piped up.
Rogers and Leon glanced at each other, and shrugged.
The Detective spoke first. “I mean, we’d like to keep the school buildings standing if possible, just in case we need a fallback defensive position in the future,” he said. “Other than that, we don’t really care.”
“I think we can arrange that,” the Sergeant replied.
Landry’s eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. “We gonna blow some shit up, Sarge?”
“Not quite, Landry,” Hammond said, shaking his head. “Leon, is there a toy store in town? A Super Center, anything like that?”
Reed laughed. “In this town?” he asked. “I think it’s lucky there’s even a gas station.”
“Pardon my friend, he’s an idiot,” Trenton said, no trace of humor in his voice. “What are you looking for?”
Reed pouted but didn’t argue.
“Water guns,” Hammond replied. “The bigger the better.”
The group all glanced around at each other, struggling to think of anywhere that would be available.
“Hey, Ethel?” Leon called.
She looked up from her desk. “Need a refill, hon?”
He looked down into his empty mug. “Well, that too,” he admitted. “But can we borrow you for a minute?”
She grabbed the carafe and strolled over. “What can I do for you?” she asked as she refilled everyone’s cups.
“Ma’am,” Hammond began, inclining his head to her, “do you know anywhere in town where we can find water guns?”
She put a finger to her chin for a moment. “There’s a little mom and pop grocery store on First Street, but I forget the cross street,” she said thoughtfully. “If you go down First, you can’t miss it on the corner, there. They had a pretty big toy section if I remember correctly.”
As she filled his mug, he nodded and smiled. “Thank you so much, ma’am,” he said. “This helps a lot.”
“If y’all need anything else, just holler,” Ethel said, and headed off back to her desk.
Clara raised her hand. “Okay, I’ll be the one to ask. What in the world are you going to do with water guns?”
“Well, since there is a gas station here in town,” the Sergeant replied, “I figured we could fill those bad boys up with some kerosene and create us a makeshift flamethrower.”
There was a moment of stunned silence, and then a grin broke out on Leon’s face. He rummaged through his desk to find a wad of paper, tape, and a pencil. He crumpled the paper and stuck it on the end of the pencil, lighting it on fire with his lighter.
The rest of the group nodded.
“That… looks like a lot of fun,” Clara admitted.
Hammond grinned. “Well, consider yourself drafted, then,” he declared. “We’ll get us a truck and I’ll chauffeur you around to barbecue these fuckers.”
“I’m in!” she exclaimed.
Leon nodded. “That’ll be good, you two can peel some of the main group off and set them on fire when you get away from the schools,” he said. “If they wander into a house or two, it’s not a big deal.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Whitaker cut in, “but I don’t want to rely solely on fire to take these things out. They can be resilient if the flames don’t completely engulf them.”
The Detective cocked his head at her. “You ever play softball?”
“I was more of a basketball girl,” she replied with a shrug. “It allowed me to bang into people more. But I can swing a bag with the best of them.”
Rogers turned to the screen. “Leon, pull up the elementary school.”
He did so, to the east of the middle school, just across the street. There were almost no zombies by the elementary school.
“That’s the play,” Rogers declared. “We can get into the elementary school and hit the equipment room. Should be some bats in there.”
Whitaker furrowed her brow. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to hit the middle school? They’ll have full-sized bats.”
“Little league bats are the way to go,” the Detective replied. “They’re shorter, so we can use them effectively in tight quarters. But they’re still aluminum so they’ll hit just as hard as the others.”
She nodded. “I like it,” she agreed. “Count me in.”
“Looks like we’ve got two teams,” Leon replied. “So, what do you guys want to do in this little escapade?”
Landry raised his hand. “I just want to fucking shoot shit.”
“What about you, Mathis?” Leon asked.
The sniper leaned in. “Can you please move it over to the middle school?” he asked.
Leon did so, and the younger man pointed to a small batch of zombies on the east side of the school.
“I want to shoot shit as well,” Mathis said. “Only from the top of the school, there.”
Leon shook his head. “I appreciate the enthusiasm young man, but if we’re going to have fire teams, we need them on the ground so they can pull batches of those things off of the main horde.”
“Leon’s right,” Hammond agreed, “we need shooters on the ground, not up high.”
Mathis shook his head. “With all due respect Sarge, Leon is wrong, and so are you.”
The Sergeant blinked at him, and then his gaze darkened a bit at the challenging tone.
“All right Mathis,” Rogers cut in, holding up his hands. “State your case.”
“I’m the best shot in this room,” the sniper declared, and cocked his head when Leon snorted. “You coming out there with us?” Mathis asked.
Leon wrinkled his nose. “No,” he admitted. “The good Detective there won’t let me.”
“Then I’m the best shot that’s going out there,” Mathis continued. “I get on that roof, and it’s one shot, one kill. Two if I can get those fuckers to
line up just right. Not only can I make every bullet count, I can direct traffic from up there as well.”
Hammond scratched his chin for a moment and then let out a deep breath. “He is the best shot on the team.”
“Yeah, but how the hell are you gonna get up there?” Landry asked.
Mathis motioned to his teammates. “I’ll go to the elementary school with Rogers and Whitaker,” he said. “Once your team starts opening fire, it should break them up enough for me to get over there. It’s only a one story building, so it won’t be a big deal to get on top.”
“How many shots you got?” Rogers asked.
The sniper shrugged. “About a hundred, give or take.”
“I got a few hundred more I can throw your way, too,” Leon added.
The Detective nodded. “Looks like we got ourselves a sniper.”
“Well boys,” Landry said, turning to Trenton and Reed. “I guess that means we’re on ground duty. Hope y’all like runnin’ and gunnin’.”
“Running?” Reed shook his head. “No. Gunning? Still a no, but I like it better than the first part.”
Landry barked a laugh and smacked his shoulder. “That’s the spirit, boy!”
Leon pulled up the man around the high school, and highlighted a housing complex across the street. “You three should start here,” he said. “Try to pick off as many as you can. When they get close, fall back to the next street and repeat.”
“We’ll be monitoring things, so when you get a group, we’ll do a flamethrower drive-by,” Hammond added.
Landry held up a finger. “Just don’t set me on fire again.”
“Again?” Trenton raised an eyebrow.
The Sergeant sighed. “I said I was sorry.”
Trenton and Reed shared a concerned glance, until Landry and Hammond began laughing.
“Relax, boys, you’ll be fine,” the Sergeant said, waving his hand.
The Detective motioned for the door and set down his empty mug. “All right, let’s get geared up,” he said. “This is gonna be a long day.”
After they congregated at the barricade on the edge of town, geared up to the tits, Leon handed out copies of town maps, crudely drawn on printer paper.
Rogers chuckled as he looked at his. “Guessing they didn’t teach fine art in Basic?” he teased.
“Granted, I can’t draw for shit,” Leon replied. “But I can paint the walls with someone’s brains from five hundred yards.”
Hammond grinned. “Given our current situation, I’d say that’s a much more useful skill.”
“No argument here,” Rogers replied.
Leon knocked on the side of the car in the middle of the barricade to get everyone’s attention. “All right, let’s settle down, now,” he said. “If you’ll refer to the wonderfully drawn maps in front of you, you’ll see every team’s starting position. Hammond and Clara have the shortest distance to go, so they’re on their own timetable. Rogers, Whitaker, and Mathis, you guys are making the long haul. You tell me, how long do you need to get into position?”
The trio leaned over their map, conversing quietly as they plotted their course.
Rogers finally turned back. “Give us twenty minutes?”
“Twenty minutes it is.” Leon nodded. “We’ll synchronize our watches before heading out. Which means Landry, you and the boys will have plenty of time to get into firing position. When those twenty minutes are up, you go hot.”
Landry raised a fist. “We’ll make it happen.”
“Now if you’ll notice, there are three areas circled on the map,” Leon continued. “One to each the north, west, and south. These are rally points, so if shit starts going bad, we have a meeting point.”
Clara raised her hand nonchalantly.
“Uh,” Leon said, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, Clara?”
She pointed to her map. “What’s the star to the west of our destination?”
“That’s the extra mission I need you to do,” he explained. “Ethel said that’s the school district’s garage. We need to know if the buses are still in there.”
The Sergeant nodded. “We can do a drive by, not a problem.”
“All right, if there’s nothing else…” Leon looked around, but nobody spoke up. “So, do you guys want to do a whooooa team or something?” He put his hand out, palm down, and not a single person joined him. A laugh rippled through the group. “Yeah, didn’t think so. All right, everybody be safe and vicious. Now let’s get those watches set in… three… two… one.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Landry, Trenton, and Reed crept quietly into the backyard of a house about eighty yards away from the massive zombie horde. They’d taken the long way around town in order to avoid detection. The street around the house was empty—it seemed any zombie in the area had made its way to the main group with all its groaning and shambling.
Reed tugged on the back patio door, but shook his head. Landry motioned for him to get out of the way, and knelt down in front of the lock, pulling out his lock picking tools. Reed and Trenton stood with their backs to him, keeping an eye on the area.
After a few moments, the deadbolt clicked open, and Landry readied his knife. He nodded at his partners before opening the door and rushing in. He gave the house a quick sweep, a spread-out open concept floor plan, single story. It was devoid of life.
“We’re clear,” he said as Reed and Trenton joined him inside, sliding the patio door shut as quietly as possible.
They headed to the front of the house, clustering around a large window that overlooked the field between the two schools. Thousands of creatures shambled around each other, a writhing mass of rotted flesh.
“Do you think they even know why they are there?” Reed asked as he stared at the horde with awe.
Trenton shook his head. “Probably the same mentality that led to eighties hair,” he said. “One person started doing it, and before you know it, there was a hole in the ozone from all the Aquanet being sprayed due to everyone following that first dumbass.”
“Or maybe they’re just mindless creatures who heard a noise and can’t let it go,” Landry cut in. “Or, now stay with me on this one, it doesn’t fucking matter why. They’re over there, and we have to start killing ‘em. That’s the only thing that matters. Now stay focused and get ready to shoot.”
The boys blinked at him, and then nodded, mouths shut. He opened up the front door, quietly slipping out onto the lawn. They took up a flanking position behind him inside the house, opening up the windows on either side of the door to get into a firing position.
Landry stood, basking in the warm sun for a moment, enjoying the last moment of peace he would get for the day. He glanced down at his watch, noting there was about ten seconds before the twenty minutes was up.
“Fuck me,” he muttered to himself with a sigh. “Really should have volunteered to join Mathis on that rooftop.”
He stared out at the horde, less than a football field away. The zombies were almost one with each other, just a sea of moaning gunk. He zoned out for a moment, almost hypnotized, and then snapped out of it.
He took a deep breath and then yelled, “Come and eat me, you rotted motherfuckers!”
He raised his rifle and fired several shots, one after the other. The zombie mass was so thick that he couldn’t even see if he landed any shots, but they did their job. About a hundred creatures turned their attention towards the screaming soldier and lumbered his way.
“Yeah, come get some!” he bellowed, and then glanced over his shoulder at the two boys in the house, who simply stared at him. “Well, what the fuck are you two waiting for, an invitation? Start shooting!”
They finally clicked into gear, aiming their own guns and firing at a deliberate pace. The group of zombies that had broken away from the horde grew to a few hundred as they moved closer. A gap opened between them and the main horde, and Landry singled to stop shooting.
“Whoa, whoa, we’re good,” he said. “Just gotta wait for them to
get here.”
Reed lunged for the window frame. “Landry look out!” he cried.
The soldier quickly whipped around and saw half a dozen zombies pouring out from around the house. He rapidly raised his weapon and fired several well placed shots, dropping bodies with headshots. But the bodies were quickly trampled by twice as many.
“Shit.” He abandoned his position and rushed inside, slamming the door and clicking the deadbolt shut. “Where in the holy fuck did they come from?”
Reed shook his head as he shut his window. “I don’t know, but there’s a ton of them.”
Trenton slammed his window shut and then rushed down the hallway to the side bedroom. He opened the curtains to see easily eighty to a hundred zombies pouring out of a nearby apartment complex. Most of them moved to the front of the house, a dozen or so worked their way to the back.
He barreled back to the front. “We gotta go, now!” he huffed. “They’re coming in from the apartment complex next door!”
“How many?” Landry demanded.
Trenton shook his head. “Too fucking many.”
“Good enough count for me,” the soldier replied, and led the boys through the house back to the patio door. There were three zombies pressed up against the glass, gnawing and moaning at it.
Landry stopped just short of the door, raised his rifle, and fired right into the glass. He shattered it, but placed three headshots, dropping the enemy.
“Let’s move!” he barked.
They burst through the broken door frame and into the backyard, ten or so creatures headed their way. He kicked a nearby straggler in the torso, sending it flying off of the back deck. The trio tore towards the next target house, about a block away.
Landry took aim and fired a few more times behind them, knocking down a few more zombies. He backpedalled slowly, keeping a close eye on the house they just abandoned.
“Come on, take the bait,” he muttered. “Come on.”
He stayed in his position even as zombies closed in on him. He stayed focused on the side of the house, waiting for the breakaway group from the horde to follow them. One zombie got within a few feet of him and he blew its head apart at point blank range.
Dead America The Third Week Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-6 ] Page 2
