by David Bourne
“Smash his legs, Mike!” Petersen yelled.
“What do you think I am trying to AAAAH...!” Private Miller screamed.
The monster had jumped onto the rear of the vehicle. The Humvee groaned under the beast’s massive weight, but Mike kept on firing, undeterred. Then the vehicle’s rear bounced upwards. Tsui saw in the side mirror that the undead creature had slipped off the vehicle and was now lying in the road. “He fell off! Well done, Mike!”
Jubilantly, Chad Petersen turned around to Private Miller, but the position behind the machine gun—where he had been just a few seconds ago—was now vacant. The zombie had ripped him from the Humvee, together with the machine gun, and he held both triumphantly over his head, like a championship belt as he stood in the road.
“He’s got Mike! Han, we have to turn around!” Tsui looked at his superior as if he had lost his mind and just shook his head.
Petersen climbed into the rear and looked out the roof. He fired a burst, but the monster hardly took notice of the bullets. Now Petersen aimed again and shot. This time, he aimed at Mike. If he couldn’t save him, he could at least prevent him from turning into one of these godforsaken undead bastards. All it took was a single shot, followed by a bright bust of red. A hit.
The undead now seemed angry about losing his prey, and uttered another bloodcurdling roar. Petersen could only watch helplessly as the creature stretched his arms and tore Miller’s body in two. Pale as a sheet, he sank back into the Humvee.
Ride of the Valkyrie
...the valkyrie is coming...
This passage still echoed though Jonah’s mind. What was it supposed to mean? They had been told the evacuation was going to begin tonight. A helicopter would appear and create a diversion before flying to the removal point. Jonah was told to place his little gift by the outer wall near the main gate, to add to the chaos. Now he was sitting in a tent in the refugee area at Fort Weeks, pretending to read a book and waiting for things to come. A side cargo pocket of his pants held the remote ignition device.
A vague song was going through his head, and the wind was also carrying the same faint tune across the treetops. When he heard it more clearly, he immediately recognized it and couldn’t suppress a smile. A dull thud was accompanying the tune and became louder as it approached. A helicopter rotor. Some of the soldiers at the gate now also noticed the noise. At first, they just looked around in amazement. Then it happened.
For a few seconds, the helicopter appeared over the last trees outside the large clearing around Fort Weeks. It flew at a low altitude over the road and quickly approached the base. This was accompanied by a loudspeaker below the helicopter blaring Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.
So far, no one seemed to understand the true threat posed by this musical visit. Some soldiers even laughed, as the helicopter performed a daring 360-degree turn and lifted its nose, before it hovered in place. In the meantime, Jonah left his tent and was walking toward the main gate. He enjoyed this spectacle. If they only knew what’s going to happen next.
“What’s this dumbfuck doing? That shit’s too loud and will attract all the zombies nearby!” A young sergeant, who apparently was in charge of the guards stationed at the main gate, recognized the potential danger and shot at the helicopter. But, the bullets from his assault rifle bounced off without much effect and only left a few dents in the armor of the helicopter.
Time for Act Two, to keep the boy from hitting the rotor. Jonah slowly walked back toward his tent. When he got there, he reached into his pocket and activated the ignition device. The outer wall of the base exploded with an ear-splitting noise, so that the relentless thud from the hovering helicopter could even now be heard from the tents. A moment later, widespread panic and confusion erupted at Fort Weeks. People were screaming and rushing about. Nobody knew what was happening—neither the soldiers nor the civilians.
As chaos spread throughout the base, the helicopter pilot understood the signals. Jonah observed the loudspeaker being released and falling to the ground, and the music abruptly stopped. Then the helicopter turned back to the woods and disappeared quickly. All over the base soldiers were running around frantically, trying to reestablish order.
The hole in the wall will be the last of the problems for Fort Weeks, Jonah thought. He grinned, turned around and calmly fetched his stuff from the tent, while still softly whistling that tune. It was time to go.
Invasion
“PFC Petersen to Fort Weeks. We encountered strong resistance. There is a giant undead creature here, like I’ve never seen before. The patrol was overrun, and we lost Miller.”
“Fort Weeks, roger. This is Pelletier. Peterson, what the fuck’s going on out there? You were supposed to secure the main gate!”
“I know, sir, but we couldn’t just let the others bite the dust out here.”
“I understand, private. Come back now. We will...” the Master Sergeant stopped. Did he hear music playing outside?
“Sir?” Petersen’s voice sounded nervous.
“There is something wrong here, Petersen. I have to go out and check. Wait for...”
Once again interrupted, William Pelletier couldn’t finish his sentence, as an enormous explosion instantaneously shook the army base. The Master Sergeant rushed outside.
Mayhem broke out in Fort Weeks. Pelletier ran to the main gate and looked up at the guard tower. He did not know what had attacked them, but that wasn’t important now. He would have to find out later what that explosion was all about because now, every minute counted. The hole in the wall was roughly the size of a soccer goal. William Pelletier tried to get the situation under control as quickly as possible. Orders were issued, soldiers ran around, and gradually, a defensive perimeter had been established. The hole blown in the outer wall was secured with additional forces.
After a few minutes, the status of the situation became clearer. The civilians in the refugee camp were also calming down and waiting in front of their tents to see what would happen next—but nothing happened. It was silent again, and the air seemed to crackle with tension. Meanwhile, clouds had covered the moon. Then a private came to report to the Master Sergeant.
“Sir, we have contact. The watchtower is reporting an unusually large number of movements in the dark. It looks like this helicopter startled a whole city with its music and led them all here. Then the explosion attracted all the undead that were not already on the way here. That is quite a lot. Due to the bad light, it is hard to get an exact estimate. We need more light, sir.”
The Master Sergeant looked around. “Morgan, illumination shells!”
A moment later, bright red lights rose into the night sky and cast a spectral reddish glow over the thousand-yard wide clearing in front of Fort Weeks. What became visible then made the soldiers’ blood run cold.
About a thousand silhouettes of undead were streaming out of the forest. They lurched between the trees toward the base, making smacking sounds.
Epilogue
“Mom, I can’t go on.”
“Just a little bit further, Sam. You know the plan,” Jane Gerber said.
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
The path had a slight but steady upward incline. Most of the members of the group would have liked to take a break, but nobody dared to ask. The broad-shouldered man at the front set a relentless pace, determined to arrive this evening. For too long, he and the other survivors had moved from one shelter to the next. All too often they had exchanged one temporary solution for the next. As a result, many people had died during this phase, and he wanted to put an end to that. According to his estimates, they should be there in less than two hours.
About twenty yards ahead, an undead creature stumbled toward him and the other survivors. The man took his rifle off his shoulder and gripped the barrel with both hands. Almost casually he smashed the zombie’s skull with the rifle butt while walking past it. When the creature fell into the dirt, he briefly smiled. Nothing would stop him and his
group so close to their goal—and Duke Powell had had only one goal in mind since he first heard of it: Sanctuary.
Thank-you
Dear Reader,
I am very happy to see that you decided to read the second part of my Evolution Z series. Thank you once again! I am grateful that you invested your time and your money in this book. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would like to ask you again for a small favor:
If you think others should read my books, tell your friends and family members about them. Of course, what I would like most of all, is for you to leave a positive review on Amazon if you liked the book. I am an independent author, not connected to a large publishing house, and therefore I do not have other ways of advertising.
There is also another reason why your feedback is important to me: It is only through your comments that I will get an idea where I can improve and how I can develop as an author.
In particular, I would also like to thank my advance copy readers who followed my call and made my work much easier through their great feedback!
I always take your criticism to heart and try to incorporate your suggestions into my writing. Please write me at:
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Sincerely,
David Bourne
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