by Allen Gamboa
"Nothing?" Wu whispered.
"I heard something," Brooks said, barely audible to the sergeant. There was the snap of a branch. They both jumped a fraction of an inch. Wu raised his rifle again; Brooks followed with hers. More branches snapped, followed by the smell of death and the sound of shuffling feet.
"Oh," Wu covered his nose with his t-shirt and whispered. "Deaders."
"Shit," the captain said under her breath. "Just what we need." She set her mini-14 down on the ground besides her and pulled out a small, tactical machete. "Nice and quiet, Wu."
"Gotcha," the sergeant whispered. Wu remembered being a young boy and hiding up in his family's attic while deaders tore apart his neighborhood. He could recall his mother telling him to be quiet as their friends were ripped apart below them. The screams and pleas for help were horrible, but the moans of the undead were far worse. Three days of non-stop horror passed, and all through it, he was quiet. Even when his older brother ventured downstairs to see if it was safe and was eaten by the deaders, Wu stayed quiet.
Three deaders stumbled towards where the two were hidden. Neither knew for sure if it was a sense of smell or sound that drew them. No one had figured out how they tracked living beings. Brooks signaled to Wu to move forward but then quickly motioned him to halt. The sergeant immediately lay flat again. He glanced over at the captain, who was lying a foot away. Coolly, she switched back to her mini-14. Wu did the same. Clearly something else was up.
Two of the three deaders appeared to be well-fed males. The third was a teenager. Neither soldier could make heads or tails of its sex. Their clothes were hanging off them and covered in dried blood. The deaders moved slowly and aimlessly towards their position. Wu thought they would be easy to take out, but the captain had heard something else. What the hell was it?
Then Wu saw it; two figures clad in gray fatigues approached the undead from behind. One looked like a huge power lifter with a buzz cut. The other was thin and short, his uniform draped over his waifish frame. The Russians. The bigger mercenary raised a rifle up and brought the stock down on top of one of the deader’s heads, obliterating its skull. The re-animated corpse collapsed like a rag doll. The smaller bad guy stuck a bayonet through the back of the teenage deader’s head. It made a gurgling sound then flopped to the jungle floor. The third walking dead was smashed in the jaw with Buzz Cut's rifle butt and knocked to the ground. Buzz Cut then stomped its head into jelly. Brutal.
Both Brooks and Wu looked at each other. The captain signaled for the NCO to hold still. The sergeant slowly nodded and scoped the two Russians. The big one wiped a bloody boot on the corpse’s back while the smaller one searched the bodies for anything valuable. Robbing the dead always pissed Brooks off. Even though they were deaders, they deserved a modicum of respect. Wu believed it was bad luck.
"Wound them." Brooks gritted her teeth. "I want to question them."
Wu half nodded. The big one appeared to be right-handed. The sergeant aimed and fired. Before the Russian dropped, he sighted the scrawny one’s right shoulder and pulled. Both Russians dropped, screaming. Brooks motioned for them to go, and both soldiers were up and running towards the downed Russians.
"Mother fuck!" Iosif screamed as he writhed in pain on the jungle floor. He tried to grab his damaged shoulder with his left hand. Blood gushed from his fresh wound. "Alona! Alona!" he yelled.
"Shut up!" Alona said in Russian. She cradled the ruins of her right hand. She shook her head, wincing at the pain. The Russian was more pissed about being caught off-guard than that she was wounded. Alona tried to reach for her AK, but the pain was too much.
"Don't fucking move!" Brooks shouted as she aimed her assault rifle at Iosif. Wu covered Alona.
"Funny!" Iosif said, almost crying, snot running from his nose. "You don't have a fucking hole in you!"
"Shut up!" Alona said in Russian. She angrily stared past Wu and right at Brooks. "Say nothing!" she growled at Iosif.
Wu was surprised that the bigger mercenary was a female. She was huge, probably bigger than anyone on his team. She looked like a female Dolph Lundgren. The sergeant was glad they had the upper hand on this one. She looked like she could beat the shit out of both of them without breaking a sweat.
"Cuff them!" Brooks said, not taking her eyes off Alona. Wu pulled a couple of flex cuffs from a pants pocket and slung his rifle. Cautiously, he approached the female Russian. The big mercenary eyed him like a caged animal. "You move, and I'll blow your ass back to the Black Sea," the captain said evenly.
"Sit up!" Wu ordered. Alona cursed a stream of Russian obscenities and slowly sat up. The sergeant could only imagine what she was thinking. On guard, he pulled her thick arms behind her and drew the flex cuffs tight. Alona grunted in pain but said nothing else. Wu was glad Brooks had the mini-14 aimed at her face because the Russian’s arms were bigger than his legs. Wu cuffed the smaller Russian without a problem then unslung his rifle and stepped back to where the captain was.
"Okay, now that we're all calmed down and shit, I have a few questions for you two." Brooks smiled. "Answer them, and we'll all get along. Don't," she nodded towards the remains of the deaders. "Got it?"
Iosif looked over at Alona. The giant slowly shook her head. In Russian, she repeated that he say nothing. Brooks’ smiled faded, and she walked over to Alona. The mercenary looked up at the captain and spit on her pant leg.
"I thought we could be friends." Brooks smashed the butt of the mini-14 down on the Russian’s head. Alona groaned then fell over sideways. Wu could see that the big mercenary was out cold. Brooks turned to Iosif. The smaller Russian started to shiver and babble in his native tongue.
"Easy, Ivan," Brooks smiled. "I know you speak English, so knock off the mother Russian bullshit. Okay?" Iosif nodded, wide-eyed. "Good. Answer my questions, and you'll live, okay?"
"Yes! Yes!" He looked over at Alona's giant, limp form. "Ask! Ask!"
"Alright." She glanced over at Wu. The sergeant was watching their surrounding area for movement. "Any more on your patrol?"
"No, just us two. We were checking on our boat," he groaned.
"It's gone, Ivan. Boom! Just like the IEDs you guys planted." Iosif shook his head and looked down at the grass between his legs. Brooks noticed the radio in his right leg pocket. She grabbed it out and looked it over. Satisfied, she whistled and tossed it to Wu.
"Captain?" Wu said, catching the walkie talkie.
"Can you fix that?"
"Why, ‘cause I'm Asian?"
"No, because you used to be a radioman, dumbass."
Wu laughed and gave the radio a once-over. "No, it's pretty fucked up. This guy must have smashed it with his knee when he went down." Wu threw the radio back to Brooks, who just tossed it behind her.
"Damn, Ivan!"
"Iosif." He corrected. "Iosif."
"Okay, Iosif. How many of you are on this island?"
"There were twenty of us. Now fifteen. Two were bitten."
"That's a real shame. Who do you work for?"
"Eurosec," Iosif said. "Private contractors like you."
"Heard of them," Brooks told Wu. "Bad guys. So, what's the mission?"
"I-I can't." Iosif fidgeted in his restraints.
"Now, now, Iosif." Brooks knelt down in front of him. "You've been doing good so far. Don't fuck it up now."
"Okay, okay." He swallowed. "We are here for the zombie virus."
"For whom?"
"Eurosec."
"No, who is the client?"
"That I do not know. I just answer to Eurosec. You know how it is."
"Sounds about right. What kind of weapons does your team possess?"
"AK-74s, a few grenade launchers, and handguns."
"Good." Brooks stood up. "Is there an alternate way for your team off this island?"
"No." Iosif winced in pain. "Commander Arkady was going to have us take your plane if our boat was gone."
"That's what I would do. Sergeant Wu, zip tie their feet."
"Thank you for your help," Brooks grinned.
"Wait!" Iosif panicked.
"I am not going to kill you, but we can't take you along, can we?" She handed Wu two more pairs of zip ties. "When we are finished, someone will be back to set you free."
"No! No!" Iosif cried. "The zombies!"
"You'll be fine." Wu pulled off the Russian's boots and slipped the ties around his ankles. "Be quiet, and hopefully you'll be okay." Iosif started to say something but realized the sergeant was right. "Don't move around a lot either." The Russian wanted to cry, but he just lay hopelessly back in the tall grass.
"Let's get to the bikes and let Hale know what we are dealing with." She grabbed up the Russians’ weapons and handed an AK-74 to Wu. "Sarge."
"Thanks, Captain." He glanced back at the two mercenaries and was thankful it wasn't the other way around.
CHAPTER 29: THE TRAIL TO HELL
"How far have we gone?" Cord asked, sweat dripping, breathing heavily.
"Couple miles, kiddo," Newman said. He wiped his forehead with a shemagh and adjusting his boonie hat. "Hell, Cord, I used to walk farther 'n this 'ta 'git me mail back 'ome."
"Yeah, yeah." Cord wiped some sweat with a bandana. "I get it, Alby, you're Australian."
"Naw, jus' tough." He smiled as they fast-walked up the trail. "Australian is jus' icin' on the cake."
Amante walked point ahead of the team, followed by Lieutenant Wickham, Sergeant Diamond, West, Clarke, and Major Hale. Newman, Cord, Winger, and Gonzo followed them. Mac, Gibson, Jayne, and Lucas trailed behind them while Jefferson and Washington brought up the rear. It was a miserably hot hike for all of them.
"Major," Diamond turned and stopped next to Hale. He held the small radio pack’s handset up to him. "It's the captain."
"Thanks." Hale signaled the line to halt. "Captain?" he said into the handset.
"Been a long time since I've been on one of these," Jayne said, squatting down and grabbing a water bottle out of his pack.
"Miss it?" Lucas asked as he sipped from his own bottle.
"Nope." Jayne shook his sweaty head. "Not one bit."
"Too many marches," Mac said. "I wouldn’t care if I never had to walk anywhere again." He popped open a water bottle. "Think I might put one of those conveyor belts in my house."
"Like at the airports?" Gibson asked.
"Yeah." Mac squeezed the sweat out of his boonie hat. "Like at the airports."
"That is lazy, Mac." Jayne took another swallow of water. "Lazy."
"Jayne, I bet if we had one now, you wouldn’t complain."
"Nope. I wouldn’t." He smiled.
"Alby would." Gibson laughed. "He'd say we were cheating."
"Yep." Mac chuckled. "Can't figure you Aussies out."
"I heard that," Newman said from the trail above.
"Man has bat ears," Lucas said shoving his bottle back into his pack.
"Yep." Mac took another swig from his water. "Aussies."
***
Washington and Jefferson were on the trail a few hundred feet behind the others. Washington had caught the major’s signal to halt, so he and Jefferson quickly complied. They both knelt down in the tall grass, watching the rear of the group as they drank from their water bottles. Washington, the bigger of the two, capped his bottle and adjusted his sunglasses.
"Long haul, Jeff."
"Easy, brother," Jefferson said. He wrung the sweat from his boonie cap and replaced it on his bald head. Jaunts like this were merely workouts to him. "In the Corps, we would have double timed it up."
"Can't figure out you jar heads." Washington lifted his Calgary Jets ball cap and ran a hand through his close-cropped hair.
"It's a Marine thing, brother." Jefferson smiled. "Gotta be a Marine to get it."
"I guess, Jeff." He slapped him on his pack. "Got to be an easier way."
"I'm sure there is. Obviously, this ain’t it."
"Shit. Looks like we might even be shooting it out with some Ivans."
"Yeah." Jefferson nodded. "Kinda weird, bro. All that old Cold War shit, and here we are fighting Russians on this beautiful tropical island."
"And we can't tell anyone. Ain't that a bitch." Washington wiped some sweat from his cheeks with the green shemagh that he wore around his neck.
"Don't forget the deaders."
"Oh, yeah. I almos' forgot the deaders." He laughed to himself then grabbed Jefferson by the pack and gingerly shook him. "Hey, check this out, Jeff. Would you ever fuck a deader?"
"What?" Jefferson looked back at him as if he had three heads. "What the fuck are you talking about, Wash?"
"Just lissen'." Washington moved closer so no one else could hear him. "Jus' lissen, Jeff. What if she was beautiful, man? You know, a real knockout." Jefferson frowned and shook his head. "What if she had big ole titties?"
"She's still a deader, Wash."
"I know, I know. Let's say she's fresh dead, bro. Not too bloody or messed up.”
“Man,” Jefferson moved away a few feet, “you are sick.”
“Come on bro. Let’s say only you would know.”
“Wash, you are a nasty motherfucker.”
“Come on, man. You could do whatever you wanted.”
“Wash, she’d bite your dick off!” He chuckled. “I think you need to run over behind those bushes and give yourself a combat jack. Quit talking about screwin’ deaders, man!” A whistle signaled they were moving out. Thankful to be moving away from this uncomfortable conversation, Jefferson stood up and started back up the trail.
“I was jus’ kiddin’ bro,” Washington laughed. “Besides, I thought you Marines would fuck anything with a hole.”
“Wash, I never knew you were so twisted.”
“I was jus’ playin’, Jeff.”
“Sure, Wash, sure you were.”
***
"So," Lieutenant Wickham walked up next to Hale as they continued towards the top of the trail. "Captain Brooks said there were twenty Russian mercs?"
"Fifteen if that Russian was telling the truth."
"Great," Zoe West said from behind them. Her thighs were starting to ache from her prosthetics. "I was hopin' fer five or less."
"Zero would have been perfect," Hale said. "We have the better operators, so we'll be okay."
"Right," Wickham agreed. "We just need to get there 'fore they do."
"Let's pick up the pace then," Hale said, moving faster. "Brooks and Wu are headed this way. I thought we could use the firepower."
"Bikes will make it up this trail," Zoe said.
"Too bad they can't carry us all," Clarke finally spoke. He was drenched in sweat and red-faced. They could all smell the alcohol seeping out of him. "I could use an ice cold Fosters 'bout now. Big ole' frosty one!"
"We get out of this okay, Clarke, I'll buy you a case of Fosters, and you can bathe in it," Hale told him.
"Don't think I won't, mate. Don't think I won't!"
CHAPTER 30: BAD GUYS ALWAYS FINISH FIRST
Hidden in the tall grass, Arkady watched the lab compound from behind a pair of binoculars as old as the Cold War. The Russian could see at least two hundred zombies trying to break into any of the lab’s openings. Two snipers on the roof of the building were busy trying to thin the ravenous herd below. Several dozen newly re-dead bodies lay strewn underfoot of the other undead. Arkady put down the binoculars and looked at Yuri.
"Zombies surround the lab," he said quietly. "I count at least two hundred." There were several loud pops from the sniper rifles.
"Less now," Yuri said.
"Da, but more will be coming. They have to be getting tired up there. I would like to wait them out, but we don't have the time."
"What is plan then, Arkady?"
"Dimitry, when I give word, take your grenade launcher and take out the men on the roof." Dimitry nodded. "Kata, see the gasoline pumps by the garage? Take your launcher and blow them up. That will hopefully draw the zombies ove
r to the other side of the building." The Russian mercenaries were all flat in the tall grass along the fence line. "The rest of us blow the back door, grab everything we need, and get out. Those four Jeeps parked in back will be our way out. Ivan, Alexi, you hot wire them, no?" Both men nodded. "Good. Once we are out, we head to the boat."
"Iosif and Alona haven't checked in," Alexi said. "What about them and the boat?"
"I don't know." He scratched his day’s growth of stubble. "We worry about that after we get what we came for. We may have to commandeer the Americans’ airplane. Valentin can fly us out if the Americans won’t or can’t.”
"Da," Valentin said quietly.
"Bogdan, Grigory, cut us a hole in the fence line so we can get in." The two Russians crawled forward and obeyed.
"Listen," Kata said, gripping the multi-round grenade launcher to her chest. "They've stopped firing."
Arkady nodded. "I guess then it's almost time to go, comrades." He looked over at Nico, who seemed to be lost in thoughts of mass destruction. "No raping on this one," he said, reading Nico's mind.
"Arkady," Nico protested.
"We won't have time. Grab a hostage to go if you like, but we don't have time to fuck around on this."
"Never let me have fun, Commander," Nico said, popping a few OxyContin in his mouth. "Remember Chechnya? That was a lot of fun."
"Why don't you just grab up a fucking zombie and rape it?" Arkady growled, annoyed.
"Tried that, Arkady. I couldn’t get hard." Nico nearly drooled.
"The wind makes you hard, Nico," Kata grinned.
"That's not it. Pain." Nico looked around at the others and smiled like an evil skeleton. "They don't feel pain."
"Enough," Arkady growled. "We get what we came for, then you can fuck and kill anything you want."
"Yes, Arkady," Nico smiled evilly.
"Problem?"
"No problem."
CHAPTER 31: LAB RATS 1
"Got it!" Doctor Orlac rushed out of his lab and into the busy hallway. Zagers was hammering another piece of wood against the rapidly failing window barricade. He gave the hammer to one of the techs that was helping him and turned to Orlac. Wiping his sweaty hands on his khakis, he smiled, feeling a little relieved.
