Zommunist Invasion | Book 2 | Snipers

by Picott, Camille

  b) If her time on earth was limited, she wanted to make the best of every second she had left.

  c) She’d fought in battles and killed enemy soldiers, but was still a virgin.

  d) There were lots of way to lose one’s virginity. She suspected some of those dead girls back in the Bohemian Grove had been virgins.

  e) Sometime in the last two hours, Cassie had decided she did not want to be a virgin anymore. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t figured this out sooner. There were plenty of things to cling to in war. Hope. Friendships. Memories. Virginity didn’t make the list, not by a long shot.

  f) She wanted Leo.

  Her mind raced as she tried to find the right way to broach the topic with him. She wasn’t like Jennifer. She didn’t have guys falling at her feet. Hell, she wouldn’t even be with Leo now if he hadn’t made his feelings clear. She might be a whiz on a chessboard, but she had zero strategy when it came to guys. On top of that, Leo was wounded. Was it even right to ask this of him when he had a knife wound?

  “What’s wrong, Cassie?” Leo cupped her face in his hands, thumbs stroking her cheekbones. “I know something’s bothering you. It’s more than just being scared. Tell me what it is.” A wry chuckle shook his chest. “I’m not sure I can fix whatever is wrong, but I want to try.”

  She decided just to say it. “I don’t want to die a virgin.”

  “Wh—what?” He couldn’t have looked more shocked if she’d slapped him.

  Her heart beat erratically in her chest, but she was too far in to stop now. “I don’t want to die—”

  “You’re not going to die.”

  “You don’t know that. We could all die tonight.”

  “We could all survive and make it home,” he countered, frowning at her. “I don’t want you to sleep with me just because you’re afraid you’re going to die.”

  It had all come out wrong. She tried again. Her heart was beating so fast it was hard to breathe. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean ...” Cassie struggled to find the words. “I want to take advantage of every moment I have left. That might be eight hours. It might be eight years, or eighty years. I have no idea. That’s the point, Leo. I want to live every moment of my life to the fullest. To me, that means being with you right now.”

  His eyes intensified as she spoke. She felt him harden against her hip. He kept his hands locked around her face, thumbs still tracing the lines of her cheekbones.

  “I want you, too,” he said. “But ... do you really want your first time to be out here in the woods? It should be some place nice. You know, with a bed. And privacy.”

  “It’s beautiful out here,” she countered. “It’s not the beach, but it’s pretty darn close. At least we can hear the ocean.” She was running out of ammunition, but she wasn’t giving up. “Also, we both swam in the river. When is the next time we’ll be this clean?” She frowned at him. She was starting to feel like an idiot. “Are you really going to make me beg? I didn’t think it wasn’t supposed to be this hard to get a guy to take a girl’s clothes off.”

  He chuckled, crushing her against him. “I’m not trying to make you beg, Cas. I just want to make sure it’s what you really want. You can’t take back this sort of thing. I don’t want you to look back and regret it.”

  She wrinkled her brow at him. “How could I ever regret being with you?”

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “I feel the same way about you.”

  “What about your knife wound?” She ran a hand gently over his side. “Will it be okay—”

  “It will be fine.” He kissed her so hard she couldn’t breathe. It felt so good to lose herself in his arms.

  She finally came up for breath as he shifted his attention away from her mouth and down to her neck. Something Jennifer had said rattled loose in her brain. “Do you have protection?”

  “I do.” His attention strayed to her ear. She closed her eyes as he bit down on her lobe. “Dad always told us to keep a few in our wallets at all times.” She felt him smile against her neck. “He stashed a box in the barn for me, Anton, and Dal. He refilled it, no questions asked. Dad made us swear never to tell Mom.”

  “You have your wallet?” For some reason, this surprised her.

  “I’ve had on the same jeans since the invasion began.” He voice was wry. “I never thought to take it out.”

  “Well, that’s good.” Her voice hitched as he sucked again on her neck. “Jennifer would kill me if I got pregnant.”

  “Not before she killed me. Can we stop talking about your sister?”

  That was fine by her. She was tired of talking altogether. It was a hard thing to do when she could barely get oxygen into her lungs. The way he kissed her neck made her weak.

  She didn’t want to be the only weak-kneed. She wanted to touch him as much as she wanted to be touched. Her hand closed around the front of his jeans and squeezed.

  He groaned softly into her ear and pressed himself into her grip. This time, when his hands went under her clothes, they didn’t stop at her stomach.

  Chapter 43

  Infected

  WHEN LEO AND CASSIE went back to the jeep a while later, Leo did his best to play it cool. When the others looked up at their return, he knew he’d failed. Big time.

  Jennifer, Bruce, and Spill were sitting on the hood of the jeep, watching the sunset. At the sight of Leo and Cassie, Spill cocked an amused eyebrow and smothered a laugh. Bruce actually pumped his fist in the air a few times. Jennifer’s smile was smug as she and Cassie exchanged knowing looks.

  Leo held Cassie tightly to his side and ignored them all, focusing instead on pulling food out from one of the packs. He dropped open the back of the jeep and sat with Cassie. They ate bread and jerky in silence, leaning against one another.

  He decided to take a page out of Cassie’s book and enjoy this moment to its fullest. He was with the girl of his dreams, at the coast, having dinner. Just because they were preparing for a mission against Soviets didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy this time with her. He let himself dwell on the tenderness they shared under the trees, of the feel of her skin against his.

  When it was dusk, he mentally shifted gears. It was time to return to war. He gave Cassie one last kiss before sliding to the ground. He met the rest of the group at the front end of the jeep.

  “Time to get into position. Jennifer and Spill, when you get close to the bridge, find a place to stay out of sight. At 1am, sneak around the soldiers and onto the bridge. The rest of us will cover you from the overlook.”

  Jennifer and Cassie hugged one another goodbye. Leo saw the worry in Cassie’s eyes. He hoped this goddamn war would be over soon, if only so he would not have to see fear etched in every line of her body.

  Jennifer and Spill headed out, both armed with Soviet machine guns. Spill carried the pack of C-4 bombs with the remote detonator.

  “See you soon,” Jennifer called, just as she and Spill disappeared into the trees.

  Leo, Bruce, and Cassie climbed back up to the overlook. They waited until it was full dark before taking up position on the ridge line. As soon as they were in place, Leo took out the binoculars.

  “How do the soldiers look?” Cassie whispered.

  “They’re definitely still sick.” It was too dark for Leo to get a good look at their skin, but two of them were leaning up against a jeep. Another was flat in the back of a jeep, tossing on and turning.

  “Do you think they’ll radio for replacements?” Bruce asked.

  “No way to know for sure,” Leo said. “But I think if replacements were coming, they would have been here before dark.”

  “Their forces might be stretched too thin to send replacements,” Cassie said.

  “They also know the American military has their hands full with the zombies,” Leo replied. “They’re not really expecting an attack on Luma Bridge.”

  In the grand scope of things, Luma Bridge wasn’t even a part of any major strategy—at least, not in terms of the w
elfare of their country. But it was a strategic place for the survivors in West County. Disabling the bridge was the single best thing they could do to protect their home.

  Leo kept an eye on the Soviets while they waited for Spill and Jennifer. He glanced at his watch. They still had hours.

  “You two should try and get a little sleep,” he said. “I’ll wake you when it’s time.” He couldn’t sleep even if he tried.

  Bruce and Cassie didn’t argue. Bruce leaned up against a rock and closed his eyes. Cassie curled up on her side, her back against Leo’s ribcage.

  It was a long, cold wait. It was always chilly near the ocean. He was grateful for Griggs’s shirt, though he wouldn’t have minded his down hunting jacket.

  To occupy himself, he watched the Soviets through the binoculars. The bastards appeared to be getting sicker. Several of them made trips to the bushes to throw up. He hoped Jennifer and Spill gave them a wide berth. The last thing they needed was to crawl into pile of Soviet vomit and get infected from it.

  He glanced at his watch. It was barely eleven o’clock. With a soft sigh, he resumed his watch.

  IT WAS JUST PAST ONE in the morning when he finally spotted Jennifer and Spill. They had made it past the Soviets to the slope below the bridge. Jennifer jumped, grabbed the side of the bridge, and climbed up under the railing. Spill was right behind her.

  “Cassie.” Leo nudged her.

  She sat up immediately, flipping around onto her stomach. “Did they make it to the bridge? What time is it?”

  “They’re on the bridge. It’s one-oh-seven. Wake Bruce up, will you?”

  The three of them lined up on the ridge. Cassie and Bruce had their machine guns propped on the ground, but Leo had his hunting rifle. This was the gun he’d grown up with. He knew it like the back of his hand. If he had to make a shot, he wanted the gun he trusted most.

  Cassie raised the binos to her eyes. “The Russians look even worse than they did earlier. Two of them passed out on the hood of the jeeps.”

  “That’s good for us,” Bruce said. “Maybe they’ll just die and make this easy for us.”

  They could use a stroke of luck like that, but Leo wasn’t going to count on it.

  Spill and Jennifer had disappeared down the bridge. Long minutes passed before Leo saw a dark shape inching up one of the trusses. Jennifer. Seeing her suspended far above the ocean made him uneasy. He reminded himself she’d been great on the parallel bars. She didn’t mind heights and she was nimble. If anyone could make the climb, it was Jennifer. He was glad it wasn’t too windy tonight.

  “First bomb is in place.” Cassie lowered the binoculars just long enough to give Leo a triumphant grin. “She did it.”

  “Maybe we should just kill those guys and get it over with for them,” Bruce said. “They look like they’re suffering. We’d be doing them a favor.”

  “Since when do we do favors for Russians?” Cassie asked, right as Leo said, “They can’t know about the explosives. It’s the only way to hold out until the busses arrive.”

  Bruce grumbled. Leo didn’t blame him for wanting to kill the Russians. They would be easy to pick off in their current state, especially from their vantage point.

  “One truss down,” Cassie reported. “She attached a bomb in three different places to make sure the whole arm goes down. She and Spill are going to the second location now.”

  There was a commotion below them among the soldiers. One of the men started shouting.

  “I need to see.” Leo pulled the binoculars back from Cassie. Below them, two of the Russians were brawling. That was the only word for it. They grappled with one another, yelling and trading punches.

  “What’s that sound?” Bruce hissed.

  “I heard it, too,” Cassie said. “It sounded like growling.”

  Leo had also heard it. There was only one thing that made a sound like that: a zombie.

  He scanned the land on the far side of the road, searching for infected. If a pack had made its way to the bridge, that could be trouble for Jennifer and Spill. They were doubly fucked it if was mutants, which was most likely the case. Leo didn’t think there were many regular zombies left in this area.

  He scoured the pale grass growing all along the highway. Nothing. Not a thing moved, except for the ripple of the wind through the grass.

  The growl sounded again, followed by a shout from one of the Russians. He jerked the binoculars back to the soldiers.

  The brawling soldiers were on the ground. The one on the bottom was yelling, wildly trying to fend off the one on top. The rest of the soldiers were too sick to get involved. Another one was throwing up again. Leo’s uneasiness ratcheted up several notches. What the hell was happening down there?

  There was no denying it anymore. The growling was coming from one of the brawling soldiers. He was growling just like a zombie and, as far as Leo could tell, was hell-bent on killing his comrade.

  But other than the growling, there was no other outward sign to signify the transformation into a zombie. There were no black veins like they saw on regular zombies. There weren’t distended muscles like they saw on mutant zombies, either.

  He sucked in a breath as the attacking soldier seized the other man’s head between his hands and started to slam it repeatedly against the pavement. The other man wailed, begging for his friend to stop.

  Then came the sound he’d heard before. He’d heard it first in Hillsberg when Jim had died. He’d heard it near the Airstream when he and Jennifer had rescued Spill. And he’d heard it most recently in the Bohemian Grove when the mutants attacked the Soviets.

  It was the dull cracking sound of a head being split open. As Leo looked on in horror, the growling Soviet cracked open his friend’s head on the pavement. Blood gushed out. The attacking man let up a growl of triumph before digging his hands into the skull and pulling up a handful of brains. Leo almost gagged as the man shoved them into his mouth.

  “What’s happening?” Bruce grabbed the binoculars. “Oh, shit, man. That guy is a zombie.”

  “How can he be a zombie?” Cassie said. “He doesn’t look like a zombie.”

  “But the guy is eating his friend’s brain. That’s a zombie thing. Oh, shit,” Bruce said. “Some of the other guys are heading over now, too.”

  Leo couldn’t see details without the binoculars, but he saw several of the sick soldiers stagger to their feet. They converged on the dead man, all of them grunting and growling. Within seconds, four of them were feasting on brains.

  “They’re something new,” Cassie whispered.

  “Another kind of zombie?” Bruce said.

  “The vaccine.” Cassie’s eyes were huge. “Leo, the vaccine. The one that makes them immune to zombies. Technically, a vaccine is made from a virus. That means ...”

  “That means those fuckers down there all want brains, just like the mutants,” Leo said. “We have a third type of zombie on our hands.” Fucking shit. Could they ever get a break?

  “But what does that mean?” Bruce said. “Are they smart and strong like mutants? Or are they just mindless monsters who want to eat?”

  “There’s nothing mindless about those things down there,” Cassie said. “One of them systematically stalked and killed his friend. That’s evidence of intelligence.”

  Leo felt sick. There was a disaster happening right before their eyes.

  And Jennifer and Spill were out there on the bridge, blind to the danger.

  Chapter 44

  Change of Plan

  CASSIE COULD HARDLY believe what was happening. How could there be a third type of zombie? Not only did they have invaders, regular zombies, and mutant zombies, but now they had their hands full of another type of monster. Even worse, there was no way to know how smart or skilled they were. Already she saw evidence of intelligence, but how far did that extend?

  Lights flashed from the opposite end of the bridge. The soldiers on the southern end must have heard the screaming. They were flashing the headlights
of a jeep.

  To Cassie’s horror, one of the soldiers rose from his brain feast. He licked his fingertips as he strolled to a vehicle. He leaned inside and flicked the headlights on and off a few times.

  “Morse code,” Bruce said.

  “I guess that answers our question about intelligence.” Cassie felt weak.

  This was bad. Very, very bad. The infected Soviets appeared to have retained their human intelligence. What else could they do?

  Jennifer and Spill were now making their way back to the north end of the bridge. They were two black lumps, only visible if you knew where to look.

  They were going to walk right into the zombies. Granted, Jennifer and Spill wouldn’t actually walk into the Russians. They would climb back down to the ground and go the long way around. Would that be enough to keep them safe?

  Two of the other Soviets rose from the jeep where they’d been passed out. They swayed a little on their feet, talking to one another. They glanced at their friends, not seeming at all disturbed by the fact that they were eating one of their comrades.

  The two of them approached the last man, who was sprawled in the back of the second jeep. Cassie winced as they systematically dragged him and slammed his head against the ground. The sick guy cried out once before his head was also cracked open.

  There were now six confirmed zombies down there, all of them currently feasting on brains. A few of the ones gathered around the first fallen solider abandoned the body and gathered around the fresh kill.

  “Hurry up, Jen,” Cassie murmured. Maybe Spill and her sister could slip past while the zombies were enjoying their fresh meal.

  “Bruce.” Leo had his eye pressed to the scope of his rifle. “We don’t know what these new zombies are capable of. Be prepared to shoot. Don’t fire unless I do. We need to give Jennifer and Spill a chance to make it. Cassie, you’re on binocular duty. Let me know where Jennifer and Spill are at all times.”