Gabriel had tried his best to stay quiet as of late but he had had enough and knew that Greg and Jason had as well. With his sudden outburst he had stunned his fellow soldiers, especially the silent Mikael behind his mask.
“That’s exactly why we can’t go back Gabe,” Wolf said in the calmest voice he could manage, “he saved us. He’d want us to go on and survive, not go back for a dead man for no reason.”
Jason stepped in between the two men and pushed them down into their seats, “That ‘dead man’, is a hero, and I think the majority here know that. I agree with Greg.” He glared at the Kate and Wolf who had sat down, “And clearly my authority doesn’t mean jack, so let’s put it to a vote. Who wants to go back and save our friend, and who wants to run away?”
Three Person Perspective
66,638 Minutes Post First Contact
The Harry Part
It had been about two and a half hours and the night had really gotten on before Harry decided it was time to check in on John, a decision that he immediately regretted. “Jesus Christ John…” Were the only words that he could mutter as he looked at the trembling, swollen, blood soaked and overall broken body of the still twitching S. The tent was filled with blood splatters and smelled absolutely ripe with violence.
“Just John is fine Har. What’s up?” John said while wiping blood on his already mostly red white shirt like it was flour.
“What’s up?! You’ve been in here working S over for hours. Now it looks like you’ve been beating a dead body for at least half of that!”
John looked taken aback, “What are you talking about? He’s not dead. Not yet anyway.”
Harry’s shuddering disgust instantly turned to curiosity, “Wait… Really?” He asked while approaching John’s victim.
John nodded, “Of course! Hey S, say something for Har here.”
S opened his bloodied wet lips and heaved out a breath that left a mist of blood in the air for a moment, “You know…” he choked and a clot rolled off his tongue and onto his tie, “H-he’s really quite alr-al-alright at this.”
It was like watching a zed speak for Harry, but far more disturbing. “I reiterate John, Jesus Christ. You need to take a break.” He said while straightening up and stepping back.
“I disagree, I think this is just a healthy part of the grieving process.”
Harry looked his slightly deranged friend in the eyes and shook his head, “No mate, there’s nothing healthy about what’s going on here.”
John shrugged and broke the eye-contact by walking over to a corner and cutting up some bread, “Regardless, it’s because of him that Steve is not only dead but also trying to rip everything apart, successfully. I need to do this.”
As if to respond S slumped forward, as best he could, and stopped breathing.
“I’m pretty sure he just died.”
“What?” John said while spinning back around, half a slice of bread in his mouth, “He bloody well better not have.” He strode over, grabbed a handful of S’ hair and pulled him up so he could look at him, “Oi! I’m not done ye-”
The thunderous roar of Gregorvich calling out interrupted John’s furthering decent into darkness, “John! Get out here now!”
The Wolfgang Part
Dusk was crawling its way over the camp while Kate and Wolfgang continued to argue with their guns dangling by their sides, “What are we going to tell John? Hmm? You told me that you saw him die Kate.”
“I know.” Kate said bluntly, refusing to look at Wolfgang and instead looking through the bandits that they’d rounded up and forced to sit cross-legged on the wet grass inside a patrolled circle.
“You told us that you were positive.”
“I know.”
“You promised.”
“I know!” The fed up Kate snapped and then instantly softened, “I know. I’m sorry, I was sure of it, I swear, the last thing I saw was him smashing through that window.”
Wolfgang clearly wanted more but had nothing left to say, no matter how much Kate pleaded with her watering eyes, “I don’t know what you want me to say Wolf. Maybe this isn’t a conversation we should have with present company anyway.”
One of the bandits scoffed, “Oh no, don’t mind us.”
Wolfgang found the speaker in the source of faces and stared him down, “Shut it, no one asked for your opinion.” He faced Kate again and furrowed his brow, “So when are we going to have this conversation, huh? The next time you tell me that someone dies?”
She looked like she was on the verge of tears, “That’s not fai-!”
Wolfgang threw his hands into the air, “Not fair? Well, I’m sorry princess, I’m sorry that the world isn’t fair enough for you. I’m sorry that it’s so inconvenient for you that John’s alive.” Every single word he said was wrapped in anger and judgement.
Kate was no longer on the verge of tears as they poured down her cheeks along with the rain, “I don’t deserve this.”
“You don’t deserve this? Really? That’s how you want to look at it? Tell me, what am I- No. What are we meant to do now?” He said while spreading his arms around in an arc.
The bandit raised his hand like a child in school, “I’d like to know that as well. What’s the plan here?”
“That’s for John to decide. Now shut up!” Wolfgang barked.
“So, what? He’s like your leader?”
Wolf rubbed his head and squinted as if the words caused him physical pain, “Yes, something like that.”
“Do you think he’ll let us go?”
“Oh my God! I don’t know. Maybe. Shut up!”
It was all quiet for a moment and Wolfgang and Kate relaxed and went to start speaking again.
“Well, you see, we’re not all bad you know? We were just following the orders of a dangerous madman, we had no choic-” Wolfgang had had enough with the interruptions and strode over to the chatty bandit and grabbed him by the collar. He dragged him to the front of the group and stuck his gun to the bandit’s short brown hair covered head.
“Wolf! Don’t!” Wolfgang prevented Kate from physically stopping him by keeping his back to her.
“Just following orders huh!? I remember when I was like that, just following orders. That’s your safety and it will be ‘til the day you die. ‘We had no choice, he was too powerful, what was I supposed to do?’ It’s all bullshit!”
The bandit didn’t seem to care, he just sat there on his hands and knees and waited, “Come on then, shoot me, end it. See if I give a rat’s ass.”
Wolfgang wanted to, badly, he felt like if he just did it everything that Kate lied to him about would just go away and he’d stop feeling so betrayed.
He tightened his finger around the trigger, Kate had given up on trying to stop him and was instead aiming at the restless bandits.
Then they heard Gregorvich calling, “John! Get out here now!”
The bandit looked up at the worried Wolfgang and smiled, “Now that sounds urgent.”
Kate ignored the goading bandit, “What do we do? Should we go?”
“It sounds like you guys could use all the help you can get.”
Wolfgang poked him in the back of the head with his gun, “I told you already, shut. Up!”
“He’s right Wolf.”
Wolfgang spun on his feet, “What?”
“He’s right, we need every hand, what if it’s those aliens or a horde?”
Wolfgang was conflicted, “What if they turn on us?”
“If it means anything, I promise not to do that.”
“It really doesn’t.”
“Well, you guys are vampires aren’t you? Aren’t bullets like pebbles to you guys?”
Wolfgang had tuned out his almost example.
He had no idea what to do, that was until he heard the gunshot and then an indecipherable scream.
The Gregorvich Part
Gregorvich didn’t like the position he’d found himself in. He knew that Kate and Wolfgang would defend each othe
r and their story, but what would he do? Lying meant keeping Kate and Wolf while doing the right thing and telling the truth could mean that he’d lose everyone.
He didn’t know if he could handle that again.
‘Gabriel would’ve liked it here.’ He thought to himself while hugging his silenced rifle to his chest, trying to block out the internal struggle.
The team’s old sniper probably would’ve. It was a wooden platform in an old tree with a green mesh covering that blended in perfectly with the leaves, it was a brilliant bird’s nest.
Possibly the best feature of that particular nest was the fact that the truck turned gate, was only accessible from one two-lane road. Sure there were other streets that ran through that one every one hundred metres or so, but beyond that it was one long kill-box.
Unfortunately thinking of his old team member led back to the accident which, in turn, led to what the three vampires had done after it.
The lonely giant decided that in order to avoid those painful thoughts it was best to just stick with perimeter watch which, other than the two zombies he’d taken out, was proving to be quiet.
At first he was grateful for it, he didn’t feel like killing, but then it started to feel ominous. The city used to be absolutely swarming with the aimless undead and it seemed that overnight there were next to none.
He scanned the dim street through his scope and mumbled “Where are you…” to himself. According to the few people that they’d decided to trust in the camp it was the same story from all points of entry.
Then Gregorvich heard something.
It was like a tank squadron rolling down a road, getting louder and louder with each passing second. He looked down and saw the woman from the truck sitting, reading a book with a torch from the bag beside her.
Gregorvich called out to her, “Excuse me, reading woman!” despite him trying to hide as much of his gruffness as possible the woman still looked around with shock.
“In the tree!”
She looked up at the nest almost directly above her head, “Woah, how long have you been up there?”
Already Gregorvich was losing faith in her situational awareness, “Does not matter, can you hear that?”
She turned her ear to the sky and started to shake her head then stopped, “Wait… it’s like… a parade? A really big parade?”
Gregorvich nodded, “But I see nothing from here. Do you mind going and checking it out?”
She mulled it over for a moment before shrugging and standing up, “Sure, can I have a gun though? Not all that comfortable with the idea of being out there by myself unarmed.”
“No problem.” Gregorvich said while pulled his sidearm out from its holster and tossed it down to her.
She barely caught the pistol, fumbling with it before firmly catching it with it aiming directly at her face. “Please tell me it has the safety on.” She said before shoving it in her pocket.
“Da.” Gregorvich lied, “Now you head out there and tell me if you see anything, I will keep you covered.”
She laughed a bit before squeezing past the truck and walking out onto the long road, “You barely know me, perv.” Gregorvich didn’t understand the joke and decided to keep her in his sights and keep his mouth shut. He laid down on the damp wood and kept himself steady.
She got to the first intersection and looked down both sides and moved on. The process repeated twice more before she practically suction cupped herself to a wall and started shifting back to the camp, terror painting her face.
It took a few seconds but eventually Gregorvich saw what startled her, a singular zombie chomping along and staring at the sky. He figured that it was clear that she hadn’t had much experience with the walking dead. With a quick pull of the trigger Gregorvich had painted the street red.
He smiled and pulled back the bolt and let the round fling out and another to slide into the chamber. The smile vanished the second he looked through the scope and saw the woman jumping around and shaking her head.
‘Does she like them or something?’
She did not.
A fact that only became clear to him when he saw what was dragging its way around the corner, dozens of them. Gregorvich got ready to start taking shots as the woman started running toward him, “John! Get out here now!”
He managed to pick off a few and then he saw that it wasn’t dozens, it was hundreds, then thousands. The woman had pulled the pistol from her pocket and fired back at the massive horde, “You said the safety was on!” She screamed.
“Yeah, well be glad that I lied and keep shooting!” Gregorvich said as he began to stand in order to get a better view. He smiled as he took another shot, “There you are…”
S.F.
After what I’ve blocked out all I remember is when I stuck my head out of the tent and started looking around, “What the bloody Hell is Greg yapping about?”
Harry pushed past me and tried to drag me with him, “I dunno, come on.”
I held my ground and shook my head, “I’m not done with him yet, you saw him, he’s not far from clocking out.”
Harry was less than happy with that response, “No, Greg called for us and we’re going, plus, S isn’t leaving any time soon.”
I went to argue but then there was a gun shot and someone screaming something. I looked to the tent and back out again a few times before finally conceding, “Fine, get me a gun and meet me at Greg’s post with the others.”
Harry had just run off to find Kate and Wolf right as a bandit passed me and shoved an M4 into my arms, “Don’t bother, see you there.” He said before continuing on his course.
“Ah… thank… um… right then.” Was all I could get out before running through the mud and toward the truck-gate.
Dozens of people armed to the teeth that I’d deemed bandits were pushing past me to get to the truck to try and help. By the time I got to the truck they’d taken up positions on top of the truck, in the bird’s nest and basically anywhere else where they could get a clear shot.
At first I thought that it was the Gralari in some kind of vehicle, based on how much our side was shooting, but then I climbed up the tree and saw.
It was the single largest horde I’d seen, thousands upon thousands of zeds making their way down the long stretch of road with no sign of slowing down. They were barely seven hundred metres away and advancing in a shuffling mass, occasionally a runner would sprint toward us before being promptly shot down.
“Greg! What are they doing!? Why aren’t they running!?” I shouted down to him over the gunfire while taking aim and picking off a few zeds in the frontline.
The bear of a vampire had swapped out his sniper for a heavy automatic weapon and was mowing down lines of zeds at a time, “I am unsure sir! I think they’re waiting!”
‘Waiting?’ It didn’t seem like something they’d do. Unless…
“Have you seen any in white armour!?”
Greg must have heard the fear in my voice as he stopped firing his RPK and looked up to me, “Da, a few, but they were zeds. Harder to kill but definitely not living!” with that he returned to shooting.
It was hard to connect the dots while picking out targets but eventually it hit me, ‘Steven.’
I had no idea how he was doing it, but it was clear that somehow these zeds were being controlled and I was betting that it was him.
The scariest part of that realisation for me though was that not only was he smart, but he was hunting us.
As if a zombie vampire with incredible strength commanding an army of the undead wasn’t scary enough, the idea that he could be actually strategising was even worse.
Normally I’d have turned to Wolf, Kate, Harry or Mark for some kind of guidance, but they were nowhere to be seen. I felt alone even with Greg and despite being surrounded by more people that I had been in over a month.
It was in that moment of strange loneliness that I heard a low ‘thump’ from behind me and watched as something whistled past our l
ines and into the zeds. It sat for a full second before exploding just behind the first few lines of the horde, sending limbs, organs and broken bodies through the air.
I turned to see the source was Harry with a grenade-launcher, “Get back to shooting Prince!” He ordered as he shot another grenade into the zeds ranks.
Without hesitation I followed his orders.
The slow moving horde had reached the four hundred metre mark and it looked like they were preparing for something.
They stopped shuffling and had partially bent over, as if they were getting ready charge
“Greg! Get to the truck!” I called out as I started my hurried descent.
He’d heard me and met me next to it as I was yelling at the people on the roof of it, “Get off! Get off!” I dropped my gun and started tugging on their legs until they jumped off onto our side.
Greg and I crouched down and gripped the base of the truck and, with a loud groan, flipped it on its side and pushed it into place, completely blocking the hole in the wall.
I grabbed my gun and climbed up onto the truck’s side with a few of the others. After a few seconds of guaranteeing my footing I resumed firing right as the few thousand zeds left reached three hundred metres and started their charge.
It was clear to everyone there in that moment that what we were doing wasn’t going to last forever.
We’d already lost the camp.
They just hadn’t taken it yet.
Insurmountable Odds
Harry had joined us on the truck while the others had run off to other positions the second a few zombies had managed to start climbing up.
Chicken-shits, am I right?
Har seemed intent on focussing his fire on the ones a hundred or so metres away with his launcher while Greg and I were more focussed on the immediate threats, which were climbing the walls and the faux-gate. “Where’re the others!?” I shouted to my friend who was less than two feet from me.
The Mulligan Planet 2 (The Mulligan Planet Trilogy) Page 4
