Kyler looked over to see if Krantz was joking. He didn’t look like he was joking. Great. This was going to be a really long car ride.
Chapter 5: Improvise, Overcome, Adapt
Gonzalez snapped his Colt up in the air off the carpet from beside his head where it’d been laying. He couldn’t see anything in the dark of the restaurant. He trusted his instincts to wake him up though.
“Hey Gunny. It’s just me.” Miller said. “Zombies seem to have cleared out. I was going to hit the roof and take a look with the NVGs.” Miller began breathing normally again once Gonzalez lowered his hand cannon back to the floor by his side.
“Thanks Miller. I’ll go up with you. Give me five to take a piss and grab some water.”
Miller went to the back area of the restaurant to wait for him. Gonzalez stood up letting a wave of dizziness wash over him. He was guessing that was due to the half empty fifth of Tequila sitting on the bar. He did need to slam some water as soon as possible. He went to the bathroom and took care of his urgent bladder issue first. That task completed he drank all the water in his canteen on his way back to the bar. At the bar he drained a large plastic water bottle he’d left sitting behind the bar specifically for the purpose of rehydrating after his intended overindulgence.
He opened a bottle of Tylenol and popped a handful of those on his way to meet up with Miller. Miller was standing by a door in the kitchen waiting patiently for Gonzalez to show up. Gonzalez nodded at Miller who slowly opened the door letting Gonzalez pass through it first. Once Gonzalez was outside Miller used a piece of wood to wedge the door partially open before following Gonzalez over to the ladder that provided roof access. The ladder was in a locked cage that they climbed over so they could climb the rest of the way up.
At the top of the ladder they stepped onto the roof by the large HVAC units. Gonzalez took off his pack and dug through it coming up with a pair of night vision goggles in a hard case. They took turns wearing the goggles and staring out into the parking lot and surrounding area. Neither of them caught a glimpse of any Zombies wandering around. That was a good sign. Zombies were like roaches. If you saw one there was probably a hundred around that you weren’t seeing. Zero was the acceptable number of Zombies for Gonzalez to conclude that it was safe to try and get word back to command that they’d acquired the targets.
“Hey Miller.” Gonzalez whispered motioning for Miller to stand closer so he could tell him something. “Across the street somewhere is the Kissimmee airport. Me and you are gonna go over there and let command know the situation and see what they want us to do. Do me a favor and run downstairs and let everybody know we’re taking a walk but should be back before morning.”
Miller went down the ladder to let everyone know what him and Gonzalez were up to. Gonzalez walked over to the edge of the roof facing the direction the airport was in and stared down into the street. If there was a bunch of Zombies wandering around down there, he’d much rather see them while standing on top of the roof than once he was standing on the road. Satisfied that nothing was moving he turned and went down the ladder after Miller.
On the ground he waited until Miller came back out the door from the kitchen. Miller was carrying a large crowbar. Gonzalez had one of the long-handled throwing axes he preferred. He’d stocked up on them in the back of one of those bars that let people throw axes at blocks of wood for fun. Evidently, they were all the rage for corporate events based on the flyers he’d found lying around the place. He was still having a hard time understanding how anyone thought getting the accounting department together to get drunk and throw axes was a good idea but whatever.
Gonzalez led the way across the street with Miller following in his footsteps. For scout missions like this the two-man team worked well when you were worried there may be a large number of Zombies somewhere in the vicinity. Gonzalez picked out their path and was responsible for looking for threats in front of them. Miller was responsible for making sure nothing was going to clip them from the sides or behind. Since there was just the two of them it was easier to stay quiet and move quickly.
Ten minutes later they were standing outside the locked door of the control tower for the Kissimmee airport. Gonzalez had Miller keep a look out while he unlocked the combination lock the air traffic control tower door was secured with. The Brotherhood had made it a requirement for every region to make sure all airfields had combination locks on the control tower and working radios in the control towers. The combination was the same for all of them based on some variables depending on the state you were in. Anybody with a bolt cutter could still get in pretty easily but it kept out the Zombies and random riff raff. It also made it easy to tell if the space had been entered by someone who didn’t know the code.
This one opened easily and minutes later Gonzalez and Miller were squatting at the top of the tower trying to work out how to use the radio that’d been placed up there. It was plugged into an UPS that turned out not to have its battery hooked up. Once they had the battery hooked up the radio came to life immediately. With the technical issues resolved Gonzalez told Miller to wait outside while he called command.
As soon as Miller was out of listening distance Gonzalez reached out to command on a fairly secure frequency following the instructions he’d been given. He was pretty sure he had the encryption piece turned on correctly. He gave a brief update on their status and was told not to proceed with transporting the prisoners up the coast to Atlanta. He was told to move the prisoners from the Red Lobster over to the airport and then turn the prisoners over to the pilot who’d be landing there the following night to transport them. Gonzalez acknowledged the order then signed off. He took a few minutes to disengage the battery and put everything back the way they’d found it before going downstairs to get Miller.
Halfway down the stairs he heard screeching followed by gunshots. Hefting his axes, he ran down the stairs in time to see Miller getting ripped into by a couple of teenage sized Zombies. Another Zombie lie bloody and broken on the floor in front of the door thrashing around. The front door to the control tower was on the other side of them. It was wide open. A series of loud screeches was echoing in from outside as Zombies rushed to see what the commotion was in the tower.
Gonzalez buried an ax in the back of each of the teens heads then ran to slam the door shut. It was a heavy door that opened outwards. He engaged the lock on it and leaned back hoping for the best. A few seconds later it sounded like the Jolly Green Giant was knocking on the door. Gonzalez pictured the scene outside where Zombies must be throwing themselves at the door trying to get in.
“Help me.”
Gonzalez spun around. He’d completely forgotten about Miller. He’d written him off as dead when he saw how deep the Zombies had ripped into him. You could see the actual muscle on his chest where the Zombies had ripped his clothes and skin off. The poor bastard was also missing an ear and a decent sized chunk of his neck. He’d sat himself up on the stairs and was pressing one hand into his neck to try and stop the bleeding. Most alarming of all was the fact that he was pointing his pistol directly at Gonzalez with his other hand.
“Sure man. What do you need?” Gonzalez asked. He realized he had no weapons in his hands. He’d left the axes embedded in the Zombies skulls so he could get the door shut. He held his hands up to show he meant no harm.
“I’m not going to get infected. I’m bleeding too much. It’ll wash the infection away. I just need you to bandage me up, so I don’t bleed out.” Miller said. His eyes were starting to glaze over as he slipped into shock.
“Cool man. Just let me grab my first aid kit out of my bag. I can shoot you up with antibiotics and everything. I have a ton of ace bandages in there I can use too.”
“Don’t screw with me! I swear I’ll kill you!” Miller screamed before the arm holding the pistol started to dip down.
Gonzalez had been watching carefully. At the first sign of Miller’s head dipping and the gun lowering he made his move. He swung a powerful
haymaker into the side of Miller’s head. He grabbed Miller’s pistol off the stairs where it’d fallen when he hit Miller and shoved it in his backpack. Then he grabbed one of his axes and proceeded to demolish Miller’s head. He did it partially to honor the pact that none of them would let any of the rest of them get infected. Mostly, he was pissed that Miller had had the gall to aim a pistol at him like it was somehow his fault.
When his rage subsided Gonzalez kicked the bodies off the stairs and proceeded back up to the top of the tower. From the top of the tower he could see just how screwed he actually was. The ground around the tower appeared to be undulating in the darkness. Knowing he was going to regret it he put on the NVGs and stared down to confirm that the whole damned tower was now surrounded by a herd of Zombies.
Sitting down he connected the radio to the UPS and fired it back up. Once he was talking, he explained briefly what the situation was. He was told to standby. A long couple of minutes passed before the radio crackled back to life and he was told the plan hadn’t changed. He was to have the prisoners in the tower by the next night for pickup. He confirmed he understood the orders then disconnected the radio and kicked it to the side.
He sat there wishing he’d brought the tequila bottle with him. It was useless to try and argue against the orders he’d just received. Someone important had decided he was tired of waiting for the prisoners to be delivered. They wouldn’t care what it’d cost the soldiers in the field to get them there. It was left unspoken that not completing this mission successfully would have serious consequences for his wife and little girls.
He rummaged through his pack again pulling out the handheld that he used to communicate with his team. In the field they only turned them on when they needed them. You didn’t want to be trying to sneak past a group of Zombies and some loud ass voice comes across the radio asking you what your twenty was. He clicked the power button on and pressed the send key.
“Z-Killers One this is Z-Killer Actual, over.” Gonzalez transmitted and waited nervously for a response. Miller had told them they were leaving to check out the tower, so they should’ve turned on a radio to monitor in case they were needed but who knew if they’d done it or not. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the radio crackle with a response.
“Z-Killer Actual, this is Z-Killer One. What’s your status? Over.” The reply came back loud and clear. Gonzalez paused for a second gathering his thoughts.
“Miller is KIA. Tower is surrounded by a herd. We need to transfer the cargo to the tower ASAP. We’ll need a distraction to pull the Z’s away. Over.” Gonzalez released the transmit key and sat down in a leather chair in front of the complicated looking panel full of dead electronics. They needed mortars or fireworks or something. That was how they cleared most of the towns for looting. They setup and shot off something big and loud down the road to get the Zombies to all leave. There’d be some that didn’t follow the booms, but it was way easier to quietly take out a dozen than to try and go toe to toe with a herd.
The acknowledgement to his transmission came in after a noticeable pause. The rest of the team in the restaurant needing a few seconds to take in Miller being dead. They were also trying to figure out what they could do to get a few hundred Zombies to go hang out somewhere else by morning. Gonzalez signed off but kept the radio on telling them to update him if they came up with any ideas. All he could think of was getting a couple of them to hike a half mile down the road and see if they could find something to set on fire. Something really big that would hopefully make a lot of noise. A guns and ammo store would be nice. Or maybe they could figure out where Disney stored all their fireworks.
“Z-Killer Actual this is Z-Killer one. Over.” The sudden broadcast startled Gonzalez so much he almost fell out of his chair. Chastising himself for being an idiot he pressed transmit on the walkie.
“Z-Killer One this is Z-Killer Actual. I read you loud and clear. Over.”
“Z-Killer Actual there’s a couple of gas station around here. We may be able to blow those up. We’ve got maybe three hours before dawn. Over.”
Gonzalez thought that sounded like a fine idea. Typically, they thought of gas as a scarce resource they needed to safeguard. This wasn’t a typical situation. He didn’t think they were going to magically come up with any better ideas in the next hour or so. He really missed Google. There was probably a massive firework store right by them that would’ve been perfect, but they’d never know. He decided to go with a half-ass plan well executed being better than an awesome plan that you didn’t have the time to execute. It wasn’t like they had much of a choice.
“Roger that Z-Killer One. Send them. We need these Z’s as far from the airport before daylight as we can get them. Make the call. Over.”
“Acknowledged Z-Killer Actual. Sending team to make a boom. Z-Killer One out.”
With nothing to do but sit and wait Gonzalez impatiently paced around the control tower. He knew the team that went out would’ve cut their radio off until they got someplace that they felt talking was safe, so it was pointless asking for an update. There’d either be a giant fireball accompanied by a loud boom or there wouldn’t be. Gonzalez had almost given up on anything happening. Sunlight was starting to peek over the horizon. He had a great view of it from the control tower. He sat and stared knowing it may be the last sunrise he ever saw.
A loud whooshing noise made him spin and look out a window on the other side of the control tower. A building about a mile away was shooting flames up in the air. He looked down at the Zombies who’d been crowded around the bottom of the control tower and saw them start streaking across the parking lot towards the flames. He smiled to himself. It looked like this might work out after all.
Chapter 6: Cruise Control
Rodriguez stopped the sleek Audi at the on-ramp and turned around to look at Kyler in the backseat. He was squished up against the window looking out for Zombies.
“Hey Kyler, we need to hang some clothes out the window. You got extra pants in your bag or anything?”
“I stopped carrying extra pants. I just grab new ones and change whenever we pass a department store.”
“Ok. Going to need you to take yours off and hang them out the window then.”
Kyler thought about arguing or asking someone else to do it. Rodriguez rolled the window down enough for Kyler to be able to fit his arm through. Krantz pointed out a Zombie that was running down the road towards them. Understanding the urgency and not wanting to have to worry about being shot at on the road Kyler nodded. He tugged his pants off over his boots and stuck them out the window.
“Thirty-seven on the cruise control right sir?” Rodriguez asked Krantz who nodded distractedly.
Rodriguez pulled them out on the interstate and started driving south towards Atlanta. Kyler kept one hand on his pants to keep them from flying out the window. Two exits up he heard a radio crackle to life. Krantz pulled his walkie up out of his lap and answered with the pass phrase. Rodriguez pulled them off the exit and they followed the directions given to them over the radio to a fire station on a side road. The garage opened up and they rolled in quickly to avoid the parade of Zombies that’d started following them through the streets.
The garage closed behind them and a couple of guys in camouflage walked towards the sedan. Kyler and everyone else started piling out of the car.
“Why aren’t you wearing your pants? You piss yourself or something?” One of the men from the fire station asked staring at Kyler with a confused expression on his face.
“Because the code for them…”. Kyler shut up as his face turned beet red. It hadn’t occurred to him to question Krantz. If Rodriguez had been the one to originally say it then Kyler would’ve probably called BS. As it was, he was standing in his boxers in front of a bunch of grown men who were laughing their asses off.
Even Krantz was cracking up. Rodriguez was physically unable to get himself off the floor he was laughing so hard. He’d occasionally look up and see Kyler st
anding there in boots and boxers and lose it all over again. Kyler tried to get his pants back on over his boots and managed to get them stuck about hallway up. Rodriguez had tears pouring out of his eyes he was laughing so hard at that point.
Kyler finally got himself back together again and left to find water. One of the men from the fire station went with him.
“They got you good man.” The older man said. He was chuckling under his breath a little bit still.
“I guess we could all use a laugh after the last few days.” Kyler said. He was filling up his canteen from the cistern the men at the fire station were using to gather rainwater. He paused to guzzle down all the water he’d put in the canteen then fill it again. The two of them walked back to where everyone had gathered around a bunch of chairs that’d been setup on the main floor of the large garage. Kyler took a seat behind Rodriguez and leaned forward to ask him where Krantz was.
“I still can’t believe you actually took your pants off.” Rodriguez looked like he might go into another laughing fit for a second. He managed to hold himself together though. “Krantz went with the local dude to call into command and report in. He should be back in a few minutes with what our next set of orders is going to be.”
Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man Page 4
