Once in position, Dave signal Kelly and Simon. Kelly drops back and covers the foyer while Simon moves around the opposite direction of the perimeter and covers the target. He waits for the clear sign from his brother before moving forward.
Dave whistles softly and waits for a response, but the bodies still don’t move. He whistles again, this time a little louder and in a higher pitch and the bodies twitch, and everyone freezes, not knowing if these things are human or not.
The anticipation is unbearable, and just before Dave starts to move toward the bodies, one of them lifts its head, showing its teeth and growling once it realizes what it’s looking at.
Dusty ferociously barks at the intruders.
Not a second after it gets to all fours, Dave fires a shot straight through its head, painting the wall with it’s brains. He moves forward with his rifle pointed just as the other two incipients raise their heads and display the same behavior. This time multiple shots from every direction instantly kill them, everyone obviously on the same page.
The sound of someone stomping down the stairs draws everyone’s attention toward the foyer and they move toward Kelly, who’s already backing up.
A body comes stumbling down the stairs and smashes into the wall at the bottom of the stairs sending pictures crashing to the ground. Kelly fires three shots into the creature and plasters it to the wall. Yet, no one else fires as it slides down the wall and slumps to the ground, almost like they could tell it was dead.
Dusty stops barking.
Dave and Jason move as a pair past Kelly and into the foyer; Dave’s rifle is pointed toward the stairs once they turn the corner, and after Jason clears the foyer he joins his brother. They get back into formation as they slowly move up the stairs, anticipating an incipient with every creak of the staircase.
As they get closer to the top of the stairs, they hear a growl coming from the master bedroom, which slows their pace. Dave halts at the top of the stairs and puts up three finger pointing toward the bedroom. Dave, Jason, and Peter enter the room while Kelly and Simon cover the hallway.
They are greeted with a female incipient surrounded by blankets and other nesting insolation growling at the intruders, and showing her teeth to defend her territory.
Dusty runs into the room and stops short of the infected and again barks at it while slowly backing up.
Dave gets taken by surprise at the sight, thinking how he couldn’t remember the last time he was unsure what to do in a situation, but this is one of those times.
“Is she—is she fuckin’ pregnant?!”
Jason lowers his rifle to get a better look and confirms his brothers suspicion. “Holy shit, Simon you need to get in here.”
Simon turns the corner and lowers his gun upon entrance. “Oh my god, they’re breeding.”
“Okay, Simon, Kelly, you guys cover her while Jason, Pete, and I clear the rest of the house.” Dave moves back toward the door still pointing his rifle at the pregnant infected still growling at them.
Kelly joins Simon in covering the girl, while Dave, Jason, and Peter move down the hall and clear the rest of the rooms. They soon get back to the bedroom with things looking the same as before.
Dave moves back across the room and gets right next to Simon. “What should we do, should we put her down?”
Simon stands there for a minute, continuing to study the girl. His fascination with the thought of them breeding and multiplying is quickly overtaken by the horror of the same thought. . . them multiplying.
“I have no idea, I was hoping you knew what to do.”
“This is more in the realm of your expertise, I’m afraid I’m no help here.”
“Alright, let’s see if we can get close enough to restrain her.”
Dave lowers his rifle and looks at Simon, his jaw almost hitting the ground. “You want to what—restrain her—are you nuts!”
“You gotta better idea?”
Dave weighs his options and soon comes to the same conclusion Simon must have come to, knowing they just can’t kill a pregnant anything. They discuss what they plan to do before Dave and Jason shoulder their rifles and pull out their knives and start to slowly move toward the girl who intensifies her growling and her aggressive yet defensive stance.
But once they get too close, the girl leaps at them, and they are forced to fire, killing the girl before she gets within a few feet of Dave or Jason.
Simon lowers his rifle and drops his head. “Well not only are they breeding, but they’re hibernating as well, built themselves a nest near the heat vent.”
“What does that mean?” Peter asks while attempting to calm Dusty down.
“Means their primal survival instincts are intact and they are learning how to survive.”
Kelly puts her hand to her mouth and gasps. “Oh my god, they can multiply, survive, and learn?”
Simon bobs his head in reluctant agreement at the thought, knowing the reality of the possibility and its ramifications. “Alright we need to secure the house and patch the broken window. Dave, Jason, there’s some sheets of plywood and other lumber in the garage, you guys need to patch that hole ASAP. We don’t need anymore of those things getting in. Kelly you go with them for protection. Peter you’re with me, we need to grab some garbage bags and tape, and wrap up these bodies until we figure out what to do with them.”
They all nod in agreement and run off to get started, not wasting anytime.
Chapter 7
John, Sasha, and Adam walk into the engineering department looking for Evgeni. They ask some of the workers but no one knows exactly where he is, joking that it seems like he’s everywhere. They continue walking around the massive manufacturing plant and eventually make their way down to the prototype testing level, and finally find Evgeni.
They walk up behind him screaming into a microphone connected to a control panel. Not one team member that surround him even flinch, obviously used to it.
“Lets go, lets go! Get this show on road!” Evgeni impatiently waits for a response in his headphones. “Copy that. Initiating Havoc armor test number one two zero on my count . . . three—two—one—initiate.” He presses a button on the control panel and looks up and out the window.
John and the others quietly sneak up behind everyone, not wanting to disturb Evgeni’s work. He is quick to put a finger to his lips when someone finally notices their presence.
Once the simulation sequence starts, everyone is either focused on the close up camera feeds displayed on the monitors, or out the window at the overall picture. The Havoc comes into camera view; plowing into a berm—spraying sand into the air. It roars through the dune with such power and torque that it doesn’t even slow it down.
Artillery fire erupts from all sides, deflecting off the Havoc’s steel shell, and not even appearing to effect the solar panels. While the heavy weapons fire continues, multiple explosions detonate on and around the Havoc, but not doing much more than testing the suspension system as it slightly bounces and sways from the impact.
Next comes the flame throwers torching the sides and doing nothing more then rolling off the roof and combining overhead. An announcement in the room confirms green levels on all system status, raising the energy in the room, along with the moral.
Evgeni’s excitement escalates with every test the Havoc passes, clearly surpassing it’s prior goals and abilities. The final status update at the end of the testing confirms a successful outing, and the room erupts in elation.
Evgeni throws up his arms and slaps as many of the hands that are up in the air as he can. He dances around the room for a while before realizing other people were present and he abruptly stops.
His smile grows even larger when he recognizes the dark figures once they step out from the shadows. “Oh hello, everyone, nice to see you! What a pleasant surprise for us. Everyone please welcome our guests.” He raises his arms in their direction and everyone says hello and welcomes them.
John waves to everyone and then walks c
loser to shake Evgeni’s hand, acknowledging an obvious achievement, even though he knows it’s probably just a fragment.
“It looks like congrats are in order, I suspect.”
“Oh, yes, yes, very successful test run. Passed with flying colors!”
“That’s great! So where we at in the whole process?” John looks around the room at multiple monitors.
“Ah, yes, we are coming along quite nicely. Havoc passed all drivetrain testing. And now it’s past structural and hull defense tests. All that’s left is weapons testing, and then testing outside in the snow.”
“That’s great news, Evgeni, great news! Well we don’t want to take up too much of your time, I know you’re busy. Just keep us updated and we’ll go from there.”
After they all shake hands, the three of them leave the room and eventually make it back the way they came.
Chapter 8
Maggie struggles to keep her eyes open as she lays her head on her arm and again presses the microphone button. “Mayday—mayday, this is the Boulder base, does anyone copy this transmission? Over.” She gingerly moves her legs and feet and tries her best to rev the pedal generator they’ve been using to conserve what’s left of the house’s battery reserves, before repeating the same words she’s been repeating for days and plans on continuing to do so just so no one has an excuse to go outside.
Kristie lifts her head up and presses the frequency scan button for what probably seems like the millionth time. The radio scans through the channels and returns to the same frequency, forcing her to drop her head and let out a loud sigh. “Mags, this is hopeless, there’s no one out there, everyone’s dead or a fucking zombie; lets just give up.”
Maggie lifts her head but quickly drops it on her hand to prop it up and repeats the message, and then looks straight at Kristie. “If we give up we give the guys a reason to go outside and risk our lives, I don’t want that to happen.”
Eric and Nate walk up behind them and catch the last part of what they said. Eric clears his throat to announce his presence. “Well we wouldn’t be risking all of our lives, technically it would just be Nate and my life at risk. And since the zombies are frozen, the risk is minimal at best.”
Maggie rolls her head on her hand and turns to look at Eric. “It’s not just the zombies I’m worried about, but all the non-infected out there who have survived, just like us, who want to harm us.”
They continue to argue the same argument they’ve had for weeks, and Maggie’s just too tired to put up a fight anymore. Her words get weaker with every breath and she decides to give up. “Enough! I’m done arguing this!”
“Well, alright then. And just to be clear, it would be only myself and Nate venturing out there, there’s no need for all of us to go. But it would be nice if you could cover us from an upstairs window, but that would mean unlocking the whole house.”
Maggie sighs loudly and drops her head back down on her arm. “Not necessarily.”
Eric looks at Nate, confused. “What do you mean not necessarily?”
“I mean—that there’s a way to separate each level, there’s a switch on the panel.”
Eric doesn’t hesitate and goes straight for the control panel to look for the switch. He and Nate search up and down the panel but without luck. “I don’t see it, where’s the switch?”
Maggie stands up and then walks across the room toward the bunker door. “Tomorrow, I’ll show you tomorrow. After we all get some sleep and discuss a plan.”
“But!”
“No buts. If you want to go out there, we go tomorrow, end of discussion.”
She walks upstairs and climbs into bed and sleeps the rest of the day and into the next.
The next day, Maggie awakes to a quiet house and just the dim glow of the hallway emergency lights. She walks downstairs to find Eric and Nate at the kitchen table discussing something. They quickly stop talking upon her arrival. She walks past them barely saying good morning, and goes straight for her refrigerator. She drops her head when she realizes she’s out of Matcha tea, and she slams the door.
She drags her feet as she walks over to the guys with her arms crossed. “So what’s the plan, boys? Looks like you’ve already got it all figured out.”
They cautiously and carefully attempt to explain the plan so they can remember to cover any possible questions or hang-ups that may arise. Kristie, Jen, and Sam soon join them at the table and they spend the next hour discussing the plan.
After they eat breakfast and wake up more, they prepare to go outside. Eric and Nate squeeze into women’s size snow gear that fits very snug, along with being very short. They try not to let the girls see their limited mobility in such small clothes and do a good job not revealing that. The girls help them finish getting ready by compensating for the short sleeves and pants with various articles of clothing and duct tape.
Once satisfied with their protection from the cold, the girls hand them their guns and they move into position at the back door. Maggie and Kristie both make their way upstairs while Jen and Sam go into the bunker.
Once Maggie and Kristie get into position, they call out over the radio that they are set. After a few seconds, the sound of metal scraping is heard and the steel plates begin to slide up and open. They look out the window and try to see something other than white, but have no success. Maggie looks at Kristie and grinds her teeth as she unlocks the window and slowly opens it. The wind gust is almost unbearable and blows snow into the gap that forces her to close the window.
She spits snow out of her mouth, wipes it from her face and eyes, and grabs the radio. “We need to rethink our plan, we have zero visibility and we’re unable to open the window. Its like a blizzard out there!” She holds the radio out and waits for Eric’s response.
Eric drops his head and looks at Nate who shrugs his shoulders and offers nothing more. “Maggie, we’re fine. We don’t need your help; we’re going ahead with the plan, over.”
“Eric, wait, this isn’t smart. We can do it another day.”
“We’re going, prepare to lock the lower level in twenty seconds.” Eric stuffs the radio in his pocket and waits for the steel reinforce plates to open. He gives a heads up to Nate, unlocks the door, and opens it to snow blowing in their face that almost instantly covers their goggles. They wipe the snow off and move out the door and into a complete whiteout, immediately met with a few frozen zombies blocking their way.
After kicking the frozen corpses over, they close the door behind them and wait for the steel plates to engage before moving along the back of the house and getting to a good spot before venturing out into the open backyard.
Eric pulls down his Gator and shouts; having to compete with the whipping wind. “This is fuckin’ crazy, dude. I’ve never seen snow like this, holy shit!”
Nate shouts back through his Gator. “I know, right. But fuck it, we’re doin’ this!”
“Oh, I ain’t bitchin’ out, I’m just sayin’, this is fuckin’ crazy!”
They attempt to wipe some snow from their rifles but it’s no use, they just get covered with snow only seconds later. After a quick nod, they leave the back of the house and push their way through the numerous frozen bodies as they trudge across the almost waist-high snow and to the back fence near the gate. Nate shoulders is rifle and tries to unlock the gate, having a hard time opening the frozen lock with the bulky gloves. He eventually slides it open but then struggles to pull the door back but because the snow is so high it barely budges.
Eric attempts to help with one arm and after rocking it back and forth they eventually manage to open it just enough to squeeze through. They slide through the gate and encounter a five foot snow drift blocking their way. Nate turns and stops Eric from walking into him.
“Dude, fuck this! Change of plans, we’re climbing the fence.”
Eric hesitates. “Fine, follow me.”
They turn and move back through the gate and make their way to the adjoining fence, climb over, and drop into the s
now on the other side. They swim out of the snow and lumber their way to the back porch and then stop to rest. The bitter cold, torturous wind, and deep snow filled with frozen corpses took its toll soon after jumping the fence, and they were spent.
It doesn’t take long for them to get into position at the back door, they know they have to get inside, and soon. The muffled radio calls that are ignored prompt them to get moving. Nate reaches up for the storm door handle but it’s locked, so he crouches back down with Eric.
“Shit’s locked, bro, we gotta find another way in.”
Eric drops his head but instantly picks it up. “You think he’s in there? Think it’s possible?”
Nate jerks his head back and cocks his head. “I didn’t even think about that, I just assumed he was dead.”
“What the hell’s his name? Brian, or Brett, or something?”
Nate points to his chest. “Radio, ask the girls.”
“Good Idea.” Eric unzips his jacket and pulls the radio out, fumbling to press the button. “Maggie, Kristie, what’s your neighbor’s name?”
After a few seconds of silence they hear, “Brock, his name is Brock. Do you copy?”
“Copy.”
“Is he—”
Eric slips the radio back in his jacket and zips it back up. They bang on the door while yelling his name and wait for a response. They can hear some rusting around inside and they start to get anxious. The sound of a shotgun sliding back is followed by a voice.
“I got a shotgun, so get the fuck off my property!”
“Brock, yo, it’s Nate and Eric, let us in!”
“From next door?”
“Yeah, man, now let us the fuck in. It’s freezing out here!”
They both stand up just as the sound of locks stop and the door swings open. Brock quickly unlocks the storm door and opens it. “Holy crap, dudes! It’s so good to see you guys!” They hurry inside and Brock quickly closes the door behind them and locks it.
Eric and Nate pull off their hat and goggles, and Eric smiles. “Damn, it’s good to see you as well, wasn’t sure if you made it.”
The Ark Series (Book 2): The Ark of Attrition Page 4
