Children of the Apocalypse (Mace of the Apocalypse #3)

by Daniel J. Williams

  Children of the Apocalypse

  By

  Daniel J Williams

  J ELLINGTON ASHTON PRESS

  Copyright 2011 Daniel J Williams

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidences are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Did you see the G-string on the big dude I took down?” Angela was walking sentry with Shawn inside the front perimeter fence of their compound. It was two miles in circumference. The fence was made of chain link with razor wire running across the top.

  “What?” Shawn chuckled. “No, sorry, I was a little preoccupied trying not to get dead.” They’d started their shift on an ATV dusk patrol, running into a small pack of infected. Angela had taken out the big one with a crossbow to the head, while Shawn had bashed in the skulls of the other three with an aluminum baseball bat. They’d both been heavily armed but chosen to take them out quietly to avoid drawing others.

  “Pussy,” she teased, giving him a little push. “After he went down I could see the panties sticking out. They were pink.” It was a little after midnight on a chilly March night, and the Kansas sky was a mixture of clouds and stars.

  As Shawn chuckled harder, she blew into her gloved hands to drum up some warmth. Her breath swirled around before dissipating. Shawn thought she looked sexy in her puffy beige ski jacket but wasn’t about to tell her.

  “Leave it to you to be checking out some dead freak’s shorts.”

  “Funny, I thought I saw you wearing the same ones. Something you want to tell me?”

  “Shit,” Shawn laughed. “I’ll drop my drawers right now and prove you wrong. I'm a boxer man. The one’s I’ve got on right now have manly little wrenches on them.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’d love to flash me your underwear, you pervert. I think I’ll pass. You’d just freeze off what little you’ve got. Besides, you probably just sleep in the pink lacy stuff.”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said, shooting her a wink.

  A thin sliver of moon cast a faint but ominous glow above them. Darkness slowly expanded as clouds floated across, covering it from view. The banter was about to continue when Shawn stiffened up. “Check it out,” he said, nodding ahead of them. On the other side of the fence ten feet ahead an infected stood a few inches away from the fence, staring blankly in. “Something tells me he’s been zapped a few times.” The entire fence was electrified throughout, running 10,000 volts powered by car batteries.

  “Yeah, he looks like he got the point.” While the infected were technically dead, alien proteins ran throughout their system. The only place where nerve endings were still functioning and sensitive was in their optic nerves, making them extremely sensitive to light. Any contact with the fence shocked the nerve endings. “You want to get him or you want to see a professional handle it?”

  Shawn chuckled again. “Go ahead, Rambo. Let’s see what you got.”

  Angela pulled a long icepick from a strap on her belt. “Watch and learn.” She moved silently forward until she was just to the right of the infected. It hadn’t spotted her yet. With the ice pick in her left hand, she moved it across her body before swinging it hard at its head. It pierced its eyeball right before her arm touched the fence. Sparks shot out and she jumped as she let go of the icepick.

  “Damn it!” she cried out, clutching her arm. “That hurts!”

  Shawn couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Thanks for the lesson,” he said. “It was illuminating.”

  “Shut up,” she said sheepishly. “He’s still dead, isn’t he?” The infected lay on his back on the other side of the fence, the ice pick still protruding from his eye socket.

  All of a sudden they heard the crackle of a gunshot, stopping them dead in their tracks. Turning towards Angela, Shawn whispered with some alarm, “That came from outside the compound. I’m positive of it.”

  Shawn lifted his M-16 rifle to peer down the night-vision scope. Feeling bulky in his thick wool jacket, he couldn’t see any activity outside the fence as he scanned the perimeter.

  Angela wasn’t convinced. “It could have come from the tower. Ray could have just took out a dead guy. How can you be sure?”

  “That was a 30-06. Ray’s got an M-16. They don’t sound the same.” Ray was in the guard tower at the front of the perimeter gate. Shawn and Angela were at the edge of the front perimeter, approximately a quarter mile from the tower. The compound was the only safe zone in Overland Park, Kansas, and one of the few resurrected in the country. It was zombie Armageddon. Society was all but lost.

  A second shot rang out and Shawn lifted the Walkie-Talkie off his belt. “Guard tower one, we’ve got a disturbance outside the front perimeter, you got your ears on? Over.”

  The radio stayed silent so he repeated the transmission a few seconds later. “Guard tower one, we’ve got a disturbance outside the front perimeter. Ray, you got your ears on? You copy? Over.”

  Nothing followed, causing Shawn to grow instantly more concerned. “Could we get a radio check on all guards, what’s your 20? Sound off. Over.”

  One by one the other tower guards reported in, followed by walking sentries by zone until all were accounted for. The only post that remained silent was guard tower one.

  Shawn started running along the fence line towards the guard tower, continually lifting the M-16 to peer through the night scope. He lifted the Walkie Talkie, “We’ve got a possible May Day, my position is approximately a quarter mile from guard tower one. Any foot sentries in the vicinity meet me there ASAP to determine cause. Be advised, heard gunshots and believe they came from outside the perimeter. Repeat, use caution and keep airwaves clear unless necessary. Let’s initiate caution protocol. Over and out.”

  “Roger that. I’m on my way. I’m less than a klick. Over and out.” It was Pete, covering ground sentry on the 2nd perimeter. The radio clicked on a second later from the 2nd tower guard. “Caution protocol initiated. Over.”

  Caution protocol alerted all off-duty guards that a possible disturbance was under way. Each tower had an electrical signal device
that set off a beeper for all the guards in the compound.

  Once Shawn reached within 200 yards, the scope picked up activity directly outside the gate. There were a number of armed men pulling up to it in a large 4x4. The fact that no spotlight shone from the tower let Shawn know something had happened to Ray.

  A large electrical spark shot out as one of the men touched the fence, and Shawn immediately sprayed the M-16 in their direction as he sprinted towards the tower. Angela, who was trailing, jumped on the radio. “May Day! May Day! We have armed hostiles at the front gate!”

  The man who had grabbed the chain link was knocked backwards, slipping to the ground as those around him dove for cover. Getting back to his feet, three bullet holes suddenly pockmarked the front of his shirt as Pete came upon the scene. The man tumbled back over, his eyes wide and unbelieving as he gasped his last breath.

  The return fire was instant and Shawn and Angela dove behind a thick wooden barrier. Wood splintered all around them. The 10 foot barrier was designed for cover and had several grooves cut into it to fire through. More wood splintered as a small army of assailants fired at the barrier, and Pete, who was parallel to them a hundred feet away, dove behind a similar one. The wooden barriers were spaced every 100 feet, 50 feet from the perimeter fence, around the entire complex.

  Backup was already on the way as the compound flew into combat mode. They had survived a zombie attack three month’s earlier and had enhanced all their security precautions to avoid another compound breach.

  ~~~

  Inside the camp, everyone was on high alert. Several flamethrowers were being gathered, having proven highly successful at pushing back the previous zombie assault. Like a well-oiled machine, weapons were being distributed with people moving towards pre-designed roles and assignments.

  Bo Thompson, the sanctuary commander, was already at their town hall, the gathering place in case of a breach or attack situation. “Get all the spotlights up,” he ordered a small group of men. “Let’s get the outside lit up and see what we’re facing.”

  As they left, Sarah, Bo’s wife, appeared fully armed and pacing. After the last encounter, she was anxious and ready for anything. A new species of infected had initiated the last attack, and she was the only surviving member to get a good look at it. She’d had a vision of a second assault, but the details had remained fuzzy. It had, however, kept the entire compound on high alert, and Bo had ordered her to stay put. Her new-found gift was too valuable to place her at risk in battle.

  “I’m going to check on Jade,” she said. “I can’t just stand around here. I’ll make sure she and the baby are safe.”

  Jade was part of a small group of survivors who had joined them a few months earlier. She had recently given birth to a healthy baby boy. It was believed the child was fully immune to the zombie virus.

  “They’re safe,” said Mace as he came up behind her, slapping a cartridge into an M-16. “She’s down in the cellar. If you could stay with her that would be great. I know she’s dying to get involved.” Mace was Jade’s fiance and father of her baby.

  “Sure thing.” Sarah looked at both of them. “You just keep us all safe. I keep seeing a hint of what’s out there, and it’s not good. I still see mutants.”

  “Mutants don’t fire guns,” replied Bo, “but I’d be a fool to second-guess what goes through your head.” Sarah had been having visions for months. Psychic tendencies ran in her family. She thought the abilities had skipped her. It took a zombie apocalypse to bring them out.

  “That thing was big, Bo. And strong. And fast! It jumped on the roof like it was nothing. If there are more out there we need to take them out, because if we don’t we’re all just as good as dead.”

  Bo raised a hand up to waist length in an attempt to bring her down a notch. “I know, honey. We’re prepared. I got a glimpse of that thing at the fence line. It’s not going to happen again.”

  “What’s the situation so far?” asked Mace, as he stuffed spare cartridges in his pockets.

  “Your man Shawn called it in from the front perimeter. It looks like guard tower one may be compromised. There were shots fired outside the front gate. They’re engaged now.”

  “I’m gonna head out there, then.”

  “All right, but be careful. We’ve got a trained crew out there. I’d follow their lead.”

  Mace nodded, then watched as people continued to scramble in and out in an orderly fashion, grabbing weapons, ammo, and checking on assignments.

  “It looks like you’ve got it all under control,” he remarked, impressed by the organized movement under the circumstances.

  “You never met Travis. He put great detail into a possible breach situation. We just fine-tuned it after the last attack.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t meet him.”

  “Me too. He was a different kind of character.”

  ~~~

  A few miles away inside an industrial complex, seventeen fully-transformed infected had evolved to share a collective consciousness. They were all victims of a black-market toxin. Originally created by Fidel Castro, it had been injected with alien proteins and released by an Islamic fundamentalist group. Those exposed to the toxin died almost instantly, but the alien proteins reacted with the body’s nervous systems, firing neurons through the temporal lobe and reanimating the dead. Extremely unstable and violent, the reanimated corpses spread the virus through bodily fluids. More recently it had become airborne. The antidote they had acquired stopped the airborne infection as well.

  The infected that were inside the industrial complex were monstrous in appearance and ability. After coming into contact with a reactive liquid full of synthetic growth hormones, they had gone through a complex metamorphosis. Falling into a large open vat inside one of the buildings, the alien proteins triggered a pathological degenerative change in their system, and after a short incubation period they grew freakishly large. With strong muscular bodies and abnormally thick necks, craniums and jaws, the increased muscularity put so much pressure behind their eyes that they bulged out of their sockets.

  The mutant infected were now moving swiftly towards the compound. A single picture spread from one mind to the next: The gate. There is a gate. They were drawn to the gate of the complex. Something inside of them knew that life existed within.

  ~~~

  Sarah was about to leave when she thought of something and turned back towards Bo. “If the mutants are back, we need to kill every last one. We can’t let any escape, or this will never end.”

  “If it’s them then it's payback time,” said Bo in all seriousness. “We’ll hunt them down. Trust me.”

  ~~~

  Shawn stuck the barrel of his rifle through the cut-out cross in the wood and fired repeatedly, trying to create as wide a pattern as possible. A 4x4 suddenly barreled backwards towards them from inside the complex, and as if on cue, Angela and Pete jumped out and started firing at the same time.

  The truck ground to a halt next to the barrier and a large spotlight situated in the back lit up the entire area. The driver jumped out and ran next to Shawn, placing his back against the safety of the barrier as he checked his automatic weapon and prepared to return fire.

  As the battle raged, Shawn got his first glimpse of a mutant infected as it leapt onto the back of one of the gunmen. All he saw was a huge blur flying out of the darkness followed by agonizing screams. The screams turned to something guttural and dark within seconds.

  Shawn yelled into the Walkie Talkie. “Infected! Code red! We need more lights and ammo ASAP!”

  The gunfire that had been firing in their direction suddenly ceased as the rebel army outside the gate turned their weapons towards the attacking mutants. Shawn ran to the truck, jumping in the driver’s side and backing it at breakneck speed towards the compound gate. The truck skidded to a stop at the fence line, the tires kicking up dirt that appeared like freshly falling snow through the glowing lens of the spotlight.

  Jumping back out of the
truck, his jaw dropped as he took in the sheer number of assailants and infected. It was a small army that had attempted to breach the compound. He could see at least 40 men spread out and a number of vehicles with added armor for protection. They were all turned, focused and firing on the new threat.

  The mutant infected were huge and extremely fast. Watching in disbelief, he couldn’t believe it as one leapt ten feet towards a gunman at the far edge of the light, bullets slicing through its chest as it came down, digging its teeth into the gunman’s face and remaining clamped on as it took him down.

  Shawn jumped as one came flying out of nowhere, landing hard on the fence in front of him, roaring at his presence and the brightness of the light. Its eyes were bulging out of its head, and its whole being was shaking with fury. The fence started to buckle in from the weight but bounced back as the creature started swiftly scaling towards the top.

  “Cover me!” Shawn yelled as he lifted his M-16 and moved backwards quickly, firing at the infected as it maneuvered with unnatural speed up the fence. A volley of shots erupted behind him as Mace came running up from the rear. The creature had reached the top and was about to leap off the razor wire when it gripped its head and fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. Its head was riddled with bullets.

  “I’m going to get up on the tower,” Mace shouted as he pulled next to Shawn. “Cover me and shoot anything that moves.”

  As Shawn sprayed bullets in a wide arc, Angela and Pete came rushing up from behind the barriers. Mace climbed the ladder as quickly as possible, his shoulder stiff and burning from an old gunshot wound.

  Blood leaked from the entrance to the platform and Mace carefully maneuvered around Ray’s body. The spotlight had been blown out and was in pieces. He laid the M-16 over the tower railing and scanned the outside perimeter.

  The spotlight in the back of the 4x4 lit up the area nicely, and Mace was shocked by the number of assailants and mutants engaged in battle. The mutants were viciously attacking everywhere, and men were running and firing as they tried to take cover. There were skirmishes happening all over the place with machine gun fire, small arms fire, and hand to hand combat.