Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man

by Merritt, R. S.

  A disproportionate number of those survivors were in the military. CDC headquarters was also in Atlanta which was helpful for getting the word out and enacting protocols to limit the spread of the virus. The state had more people trained in handling this type of situation than any of the other states. The Senator had made sure to snag those valuable resources and protect them as soon as he’d secured control of the military. Except for the death of his sister everything had gone more or less the way the Senator had planned since the day the virus had been unleashed. It was almost like he’d been expecting it.

  Randy and Kelly stood by the sliders in a state of indecision. It was Myriah who broke the silence with a plan that sounded good on the surface but may be harder to execute than it sounded at first.

  “What if we just hide upstairs until they leave.” She said into the silence.

  “They may search all these houses honey. They’d find us hiding upstairs.” Kelly said.

  “What if we put Zombies downstairs?” Myriah answered back. “When they looked in and saw Zombies wouldn’t they just move on to the next house?”

  Kelly started to say the idea was silly. Then she thought about it and started to like it. All except the part about trying to capture a few Zombies to let loose in the living room.

  “The Zombies would just try to follow us upstairs and attack us. They’d trigger the soldiers to look here first by screeching their heads off and pounding on the doors trying to get in.” Randy said matter of factly. Seeing the expression that crossed Myriah’s face he hurried to reassure her. “It’s good thinking we just need to figure out a way to make it work or see if we can come up with something else. It’s a great idea though.”

  “We could find a house that already has Zombies in it then just climb up to the top floor.” Zoey said.

  “From the mouths of babes.” Kelly said bending over and kissing Zoey on the head.

  “Ok. Mull those ideas over and see what else we can come up with. Your mom and I are going to checkout the house next door. Maybe by then we’ll have a plan in place. You guys keep coming up with the awesome ideas and we’ll keep trying to make them work.” Randy kissed each of the girls on the head and moved over to the door ready to leave.

  “If you hear a helicopter or see anyone besides us coming, I want you upstairs in the loft under the pool table. Caitlyn and Myriah you know what to do if something happens and we can’t get back over here right?” Myriah and Caitlyn both nodded. “Ok. Zoey. Ali. Doreen. Caitlyn and Myriah are in charge ok. If they say do something you need to do it right away. Love you.” Kelly handed out kisses and hugs that seemed to be much more welcomed than Randy’s then she joined him by the door.

  “Why do they love you more?” Randy asked bringing back a running gag that’d been in the family since Caitlyn had been born.

  “Cause I’m better. Let’s go.” Kelly moved past Randy and led the way to the side gate so they could leave and check out the next house. Her mind was split between what they were doing now and what they should do next. She forced herself to focus completely on the now. Planning was great but not if you got eaten by a Zombie because you were distracted. She figured there’d be plenty of time later for planning when they inevitably got stuck hiding somewhere for days on end.

  In between the running and fighting for their lives there were stretches where the apocalypse could get pretty boring. She lived for those times.

  Chapter 18: Ready or Not

  Kyler and Krantz grabbed their packs from the branch they’d left them hanging on. They slipped them on and hiked through the forest until they thought they were about even with where they’d parked the truck. They turned towards the interstate and popped out of the woods almost right on top of where the truck was parked. Rodriguez was driving the other truck around somewhere with a trail of Zombies following him. That left Krantz and Kyler to take the remaining truck and head on up to Ball Ground.

  Kyler drove while Krantz fiddled with the radio. After confirming Rodriguez was doing fine and just looking for a spot to ditch his parade of psychos Krantz reached out for Warrant Officer Roberts to see where they should meet up with him at. Roberts told them to park on the side of the road by the first exit they came to. They were to ditch the truck and move in on foot to try and avoid stirring up the Zombies around town. They were trying to get the Zombies to settle back down after landing the helicopter in the middle of a parking lot.

  “I wonder if the people we’re hunting have a radio. They could’ve been listening to us the whole time.” Kyler said.

  “Very possible.” Krantz answered. “It’s not like we’re using secure channels or anything. They could rip the CB radio out of any big rig. They’d just have to figure out how to power it up. I doubt they’ve had time to rig up something like that in between escaping the plane they somehow forced to crash and running for their lives to hide before we got here though.”

  Kyler nodded his head acknowledging those were excellent points. He was starting to think there wasn’t much this family wasn’t capable of. It wouldn’t have surprised him at all to learn that they’d managed to rig up a radio to listen in on them. It seemed like the kind of thing they’d do to stay a few steps ahead of the Brotherhood. They parked the truck beside the exit they’d been instructed to use and got out.

  They grabbed their gear out of the back of the truck and went to setup in the woods to wait for Rodriguez to show up. They couldn’t stay in the truck since there’d probably be a few Zombie visitors over the next ten minutes. You could drive a truck all day long and not have too many issues. Once you stopped is when all your problems eventually caught up with you. Kyler felt like there was a life lesson in there somewhere. Or, at least the chorus to a country song.

  Rodriguez skidded onto the grass next to their truck and jumped out the driver’s side door. He reached in and grabbed his pack and his rifle. Kyler ran out to get him and make sure no Zombies swooped in from behind and grabbed him. They’d had a few show up and look at the truck, sniff around a little bit, then lope off into the town or down the road. One they hadn’t noticed came charging out of the woods on the other side of the road screeching at the sight of Kyler and Rodriguez.

  Kyler pointed Rodriguez towards the stand of trees Krantz was in and went to take care of the threat running at them. He needed to shut up the Zombie as soon as possible to keep the screeches from attracting too many of its friends. He raised his machete and got ready to sidestep and put this one on the ground. It was a maneuver he’d performed plenty of times in the past. He’d practiced it with Rodriguez and other guys on the team so many times he felt like he could do it in his sleep. Rodriguez called it the Zombie two step.

  He waited for the Zombie to get close then stepped straight for it, counted to one and stepped to the side spinning the machete and his leg to trip up the Zombie and knock it to the ground. The Zombie skipped right over his foot and shrugged off the impact of the machete on its denim jacket clothed back. It spun around and leapt straight for Kyler. Kyler was completely off balance from missing the Zombie with his leg sweep then barely connecting with the machete. He found himself channeling his high school wrestling moves. He grabbed the Zombie in midair and slammed it into the ground.

  Those moves were designed to get an opponent down to the ground then flip them over on their back so you could pin them. Kyler’s muscle memory and quick reflexes almost earned him a Zombie bite to the face as the infected denim wearing demons teeth snapped together right in front of his nose. Kyler pulled both his knees up onto the Zombies chest to try and hold it still so he could finish it off with a strong downward chop from his machete. That move ended up with the Zombie throwing Kyler off him and then trying to jump on Kyler’s back. Kyler jumped to his feet and sprinted away from the Zombie. He sprinted right towards where he knew Krantz and Rodriguez should be waiting for him.

  Krantz stepped out of the shadows with a large hatchet in his hand. He smashed the blade into the Zombies head as it made a
leap for Kyler. The hatchet twisted around in his hand and flew out of his grip as the Zombie knocked Kyler to the ground. A flap of skin hung off its forehead dripping blood everywhere, but the Zombie was still in action. Rodriguez came out of nowhere and slid on his knees to where the Zombie looked like it was doing a pushup on Kyler’s back. Before it could get its teeth into the back of Kyler’s neck Rodriguez used his momentum to slam his kabar into the Zombies head through its ear.

  The Zombie turned and tried to get at Rodriguez with the knife sticking out of the side of its head before it finally collapsed on top of Kyler. The prolonged battle had attracted a lot of attention from the local Zombie population. The quantity and volume of screeches they had stirred up was in direct contradiction to their orders to sneak quietly into town. The volume rising steadily as the Zombies moved in on their location.

  “Back in the trucks.” Krantz ordered. He was holding his wrist. It felt like he’d sprained it when the Zombies skull had knocked the hatchet out of his hand. He looked around on the ground until he found the weapon. He picked it up and carried it with him to the truck.

  Rodriguez helped Kyler up off the ground and they ran around to get in the other truck. Seeing a mess of Zombies streaming towards them they gave up on getting in the other truck and piled into the truck Krantz had already started up instead. Driving one handed thanks to the pain in his wrist Krantz fishtailed them out of the grass and onto the highway. He dodged a couple of the Zombies but one managed to scramble across the hood and wind up in the back of the truck. It was back there slamming itself into the back window trying to get into the cab while Krantz slalomed down the road through a rash of incoming Zombies.

  “I’m sick of ending up covered in blood every day.” Kyler said trying to figure out a way to get the skinny, tall sore covered infected out of the back of the truck.

  “You might as well get used to it. These things don’t seem to be in any hurry to die.” Krantz answered while slowing down and then speeding up to try and dodge a small group of the slow Zombies. The slow Zombies were a remnant of a larger group that’d been walking for hours trying to catch up with the sound of the helicopter coming in for a landing that morning.

  “Bastards seem to be getting smarter.” Rodriguez commented. It was something they’d all noticed and a major fear they all had. Dumb Zombies mindlessly moving around in big mobs were one thing. Fast moving infected acting more like beasts of prey than the extras from Night of the Living Dead was a reality they wanted no part of.

  Krantz drove a half mile past the on-ramp to the 575 before finally pulling over and parking the truck. Kyler opened his door and jumped out then jumped back in as soon as the Zombie in the back jumped to the ground. Krantz hit the accelerator and they left the unwanted hitchhiker eating their dust as they drove away. Another half mile down the road Krantz stopped again and this time they all got out for real. Knowing they may only have a couple of minutes to get into the woods before the Zombies chasing them showed up, they grabbed their gear and weapons and ran down the weed covered slope into the dense trees beside the highway.

  They’d let Roberts know they were on the way and he’d let them know where to meet him and the others. They weren’t planning on really doing any searching during the day anyway. He’d sent out a couple of men to watch the highways and they were keeping an eye on the main road through the tiny town. Ten minutes into their walk to meet up with Roberts it started to rain.

  “Because today didn’t suck enough already…” Rodriguez broke the silence then coughed and kept on walking.

  Kyler completely agreed with the sentiment. At least they were here searching for the family of ninjas versus flying into a pitched battle in Chattanooga. He wasn’t scared to fight but he was a little worried he’d be on the wrong side in any fight where he bore arms on behalf of the Brotherhood. Being this close to the border he was considering yet another change of plans if he could pull it off. Why not just take off one night when he was on sentry duty and go report back in up north like the plan had been all along? He even had the kind of intel they’d sent him to gather in the first place. He was really just worried with the Brotherhood brand that they might never trust him again. Even worse they may ask him to go back and keep on spying.

  Roberts had set up his operating base in a factory in the middle of town. The helicopter was sitting out in the parking lot surrounded by a handful of Zombies who’d come over to see what the big thing making all the noise was. The hope was the Zombies would get bored and leave soon. If not, they’d just kill them when it was time to leave. Since they’d be starting up a helicopter to get out of town it wasn’t like they’d be super worried about the noise that firing their weapons would make.

  Roberts was the pilot and the crew chief for the sleek looking helicopter out on the parking lot. He’d been an army pilot before retiring and joining the national guard. He’d been one of the first men to recognize the need to put together camps to protect their families while they tried taking care of the Zombies. The Senator himself had put Roberts in charge of setting up the first camps and getting them operational. All while he’d still been leading attacks against the Zombies and carving up the herds before they swamped the defenses they’d been putting up around the small towns. He was a hardcore Brotherhood leader who was well liked by the Senator and his men. His official title may still be warrant officer, but he was more like a hybrid warrant officer general. He led his helicopter squadrons into battle while also helping design and architect their overall strategy for securing Georgia and Florida and expanding into the neighboring states.

  The main strategist behind the Brotherhoods command and conquer strategy was playing cards with another two guys in the back of the factory when they were escorted over to meet him. Roberts stood up and shook each of their hands introducing himself as Chief Warrant Officer Roberts and listening intently as they each gave their titles and what they’d done so far in the Brotherhood. He’d asked them to each tell him a little something about the action they’d seen so far and they’d each obliged. He’d seemed especially keen to understand more about the journey Kyler had taken from the north on his way join up with the Brotherhood.

  Krantz busted out the digital camera they’d used to take pictures of the inside of the airplane and they shared the images with Roberts. He nodded and said he wasn’t surprised the cockroaches had managed to survive.

  “The family joined up with us down in Florida. We allowed the men into the people’s army. They were fed, given weapons and their kids were being taught in one of our schools. The first Zombie swarm that came through the men deserted their posts and shot their way out of the school to take the family back on the road. They left big holes in the defenses that led to kids getting ripped apart by the infected. They even killed the governess who was the principal of the school. The governess was the Senator’s sister. He gave a simple order to capture this family and bring them back to him for punishment. You wouldn’t believe the pain in the ass it’s been to do that. Anyway, we’ll get it done here in this oddly named little nowhere town. I’m planning to just send the Senator a video of them all getting executed. Otherwise we’ll get hit by a damned tornado or something trying to get them back to him.”

  “What about putting the kids in bride school?” Kyler asked.

  “That option was when we were still showing mercy. Now I think the better story is that the whole family of traitors was put to death. If we need girls for bride school, I can walk into any of the camps and buy peoples daughters for a box full of canned pasta.” Roberts responded.

  Kyler bit down his response about murdering little girls. The hard-faced man in front of him didn’t look like he held a lot of compassion for people he considered traitors. He must show some love to his own men or they wouldn’t follow him like they did. It was obvious the rest of the world could go screw itself though as far as this guy was concerned.

  “What’s the plan then sir?” Krantz asked.

  “
It’s dark and rainy. We throw on some NVGs and sweep different sectors to see if we can flush out the traitors tonight. If that doesn’t work, we’ll fly around tomorrow morning looking for them. If that doesn’t work, we have an outpost where the highway goes into the mountains that we already have looking out for them. We’ll send some men in the woods to search as well. I’ve got trucks full of men on the way to each major town on this highway to clear them out. Every man in the clearing party is being told if he finds the traitors, he gets a month off to be with his family back in the camps. His family will also get bumped to a higher status at the camp because whoever finds them gets an instant field promotion. That promotion goes for any of you if you find them too.”

  “When are we headed out?” Rodriguez asked.

  “No time like the present. Let’s get you guys linked up and back in the field.”