by Damon Hunter
“You killed my dad,” Chase said.
“You’d rather I let you do it?”
“I’d rather no one do it.”
“Wasn’t an option,” Ana said as she dropped the Jeep into gear and stomped on the gas.
The Jeep bounced as they crushed the amblers who fell under the wheels. Ana kept the pedal pinned until they were back on the road to the freeway. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw another horde pouring into the stadium. They should have figured an area with as dense a population as Anaheim would have enough infected for multiple large hordes.
She picked up the radio and tried to contact Vance. She hoped they had already gotten out before the horde started pouring in.
“Vance come in, tell me what’s going on?” she said.
Vance did not reply.
“They’re trapped in there,” Ana said.
“What can we do about it?” Chase Jr. asked, “We can’t fight through and we already distracted as many as I think we could have.”
“I have no idea,” replied as she kept driving towards the freeway.
Chapter 21 - Angels Stadium - Anaheim, CA
Vance heard Ana’s call, but wasn’t sure how to answer yet. His instinct was to tell her to stay away, but telling her not to try and help them would probably bring her charging in faster than if he begged her to come to the rescue.
Neither Vance nor Clay had been to Angels Stadium before. They had both been to baseball games though and knew there was usually a gate somewhere in the outfield where the riding lawn mowers and carts for moving an injured player off the field were stored. Since they doubted the vehicles were assembled behind the outfield wall this meant they were driven in. This meant they should be able to drive out. The problem was they did not make the gate obvious. It just looked like the outfield wall. They found themselves driving along the outfield wall looking for it while amblers dropped from the bleachers onto the roof of the Hummer.
The fall and impact did enough damage that they did not have to worry much about these infected. Anyone who survived intact met their demise under the Hummer’s wheels. The problem was it made finding the hidden gate more difficult. They covered the entire outfield wall without finding it. On the second pass, however, they found it in the right field corner.
“Do you think we can go drive through?” Clay asked.
“I have no idea,” Fan said, “The pad covering it makes it hard to tell what we are talking about. If we get hung up on a steel gate we’re screwed.”
“So somebody has to get out and check?” Clay asked.
“Yes,” Fan repled.
Clay handed Vance a rifle from the back and said, “Cover me.”
Vance handed the rifle to Fan, “Cover the stands and I’ll take the field.”
Fan nodded while Clay handed Vance another rifle.
The two soldiers burst out of the Hummer. Fan opened his door and stood with one foot on the running bar and the other on the seat while he used the open door to balance his gun. Vance limped around the back and took a position where he could see most of the field.
Clay drew his sidearm as he moved to the gate. He stopped as Fan’s rifle barked and an ambler tumbled out of the stands and nearly landed on him.
“Sorry,” Fan said as he squeezed the trigger and another ambler fell.
Clay reached the gap in the wall where the gate was. He could feel it was metal and was glad they had not tried to power through it. He could see where it was locked. He put a bullet where the bolt should be and gave the gate a pull. It did not want to move as there was still a little bit of bolt left but he gave it a hard yank and it came open. Clay was turning to get back into the hummer when a vampire rotter leaped from the shadows of the tunnel and drove him to the ground. For the second time in the last fifteen minutes Clay found himself under an angry vampire rotter
With Vance on the other side of the Hummer Fan put down the rifle and jumped down. He drew his pistol and put it on the side of the rotter’s head as it tried to tear through Clay’s TMRT issued body armor. The vampire rotter snapped its head up just as Fan pulled the trigger. Instead of blowing its infected brains out the back of its skull he succeeded only in shaving off its ear.
Fan tried to readjust his aim but the rotter shot out an arm and slammed Fan across the the head with the back of its hand. The force of the blow knocked Fan back against the Hummer. He bounced off and landed face first in the outfield grass. The impact of hitting the side of the SUV jarred the pistol loose from his hand. He rolled to his back as the vampire rotter let go of Clay and came for him.
Fan kicked it in the chest, buying his some time to get to his feet. It was on him immediately but he managed to get a handful of the rotters hair and keep it from sinking two rows of jagged teeth into his flesh.
Fan jabbed his thumb into one of the rotters bulging eyes, pushing until he felt it pop, and kicked it as hard as he could in the groin. Had it been a man without the rot it would have been enough to stop it, but the vampire rotter kept coming forward, pushing until Fan lost his balance and hit the ground once more. He was holding the snapping jaws at bay with both hands, one buried in the rotters eye, as it pinned him on the ground. Fan could feel himself losing ground as the rotter kept pushing forward looking for some part of Fan to put its teeth into. Fan was sure he was about to lose this test of will and strength when rotter blood fell on his face and the desire to fight went out of it.
Clay came up behind the vampire rotter and stabbed it in the back of the head with his combat knife and pulled the vampire rotter off the foreign agent from an unnamed land. He didn’t help him to his feet, instead he turned and raised his rifle and took out a trio of amblers who had dropped down onto the field.
Fan scooped up his pistol and put a bullet through the head of an ambler who had dropped down onto the hood before climbing inside the Hummer. He looked at Clay and saw that a chunk of his armor and good sized piece of the synthetic nylon which the TMRT suits were made of were missing. He wondered if the soldier had been bitten.
He showed no signs of the rot and after taking out a couple more amblers in the vicinity he yelled back to Vance, “Get in.” Before climbing in himself.
Vance backpedaled awkwardly firing his weapon in short bursts, the bad leg he said was getting better was breaking down on him. He had the side with the most infected and the horde was closing in on them. Clay opened the door nearest Vance and reached out to help him inside. They slammed the door shut as amblers began pound on the back window.
Fan turned on the lights and drove into the tunnel.
Vance saw the tear in Clay’s suit and asked, “Are you bit?”
“Nah, he only got material,” Clay said as he stuck his hand through the hole in his suit.
Vance nodded as Fan steered through the tunnel. There were more infected inside, but they were no match for the Hummer’s bumper as Fan kept moving.
Clay was confident the TMRT armor had held up, but when he removed his hand from the hole his fingers were covered with blood.
Chapter 22 - Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook. CA
Before anyone could ask who or what just said that, the kid still manning the glorified deer blind nearest the gate yelled, “It’s one of them vampire rotters.”
This was followed by a long stream of automatic gunfire. When the rapid popping sounds of the modified AR-15 stopped the kid yelled, “Damn they’re fast.”
“Stupid son of a bitch,” Ben said, “After I told him what happens when you shoot off guns he unloads an entire magazine. I should shoot him myself.”
“Give him a break,” Jennifer said. “If Tanner is out there it wouldn’t matter. He can call the horde down on us whether anyone shoots or not.”
“The voice we heard was this Tanner guy?” Ben asked
“Yes.”
“Wait,” one of the militia said, “This Tanner guys is infected?”
“Yes,” a voice from behind them said. They turned to see Donna ha
d come outside to investigate the gunfire.
“Since when do the infected talk?” one of the militiamen asked.
“Since yesterday as far as I can tell,” Donna replied.
“So, you are saying both dogs can get infected and the rotters can talk now?” the teenager who had come to the front gate to let in the dog asked.
“Yes,” Donna told him.
“How?”
“I’m no scientist, but I would say the rot evolved. Viruses change all the time and it seems the rot can change too.”
“Who gives a shit why,” Ben interrupted, “The horde is coming, we need to get ready.”
“He’s right,” one the militia said. He pointed at the kid who had gone to the gate and said, “Get everybody up and on the wall. I don’t give a shit if they had late duty or not.”
“Should I tell Dolan?” he asked.
“If you see him. Make getting people and weapons up on the wall your first priority.”
The kid started running to summon the remaining army of the Sacred Sons of America’s True Patriots into action.
He looked at Donna, “I take it you’ve had experience with a horde?”
“More than once.”
“We have twenty men and guns for all of them. Is that going to be enough?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe how? Like it’s going to take some effort maybe, or coin flip maybe?”
“Coin flip.”
He looked the other militia man and said, “Better tell Carson to gas up those choppers.”
“You have choppers?” Donna asked.
“Be a waste to gas them up if they didn’t exist,” the man told Donna.
“Where?”
He pointed at the top of Carson’s massive house and said, “Third floor is fake. The walls are just hiding the two helipads he has up there.”
With the transponder a helicopter could get them to Oregon where Vance’s friend in the TMRT brass apparently had set up a way out. The biggest problem was three of their group was still out in the field. Donna figured there had to be a way to contact them. Even it they came back there was no way they could get to the compound through the horde. First, however, they had to hold the oncoming infected off long enough for the Choppers to get ready to go.
Donna looked at her daughter, before she could say anything Katelin said, “Don’t even tell me go inside.”
“I was going to ask if you wanted the Bushmaster or the AK? You should save those pistols and the Mac tens for close range.”
“AK,” she said.
Donna went to go get the weapons stored in her room. Jennifer and Bo, both not being very familiar with firearms followed, figuring they could be useful hauling some of the gear.
The kid in blind started firing again. After he emptied another magazine he yelled, “Hey there is a shit load of them coming this way.”
The militia man who remained pointed to the platform and said, “We can use you up there.”
Kate and Ben followed him. They climbed to the top of empty platform on a shaky rope ladder. The militia man was reaching for his binoculars when he realized he did not need them. There were plenty of rotters to see without them.
The road leading to the gate was already thick with amblers and he could see things moving in the trees. The speed at which they were moving made him think they were the vampire type.
Ben saw what he was viewing and motioned for binoculars anyway. Even with the aid of the magnified lenses he could not see the end of the line of infected coming at them from the road.
“How many people can your chopper hold?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I hope it is a lot, because that whole coin flip of a chance is looking like a very generous assessment of what is going on here.”
The militia man nodded as his people began firing from the other shooting platforms. Plenty of infected fell, but not enough as the horde kept moving forward closer and closer to them.
Chapter 23 - Interstate 5 - Anaheim, CA
The major without a name waved his pistol and said, “I’m going to need you both to go into the cockpit while I do this.” He stopped pointing the pistol in their general direction and aimed directly at Novak, “I need you to leave your sidearm behind.”
Novak did not move.
“We’re all dead,” the major said, “I’d like to give you both as much life as you have left. I owe you that but if you try to stop me I will kill you both.”
Novak took out his gun and set it at his feet.
“You need to think about this,” Dr.Talbot said as he stood.
“I already thought about it. I thought long and hard about it before I agreed to go. I know being a college type and a doctor and all that this may be hard to understand, but the thinking part of this mission ended before it began. Now get in the cockpit or die here.”
“Things have changed. What you thought about before is irrelevant. Hear me out, what difference does it make if you wait a few minutes to think it through?”
“Tell you what, the work station with the computer is upside down. If Novak will detach the portable and bring it to me I’ll listen while he gets it.”
“You can set off the nuke with the computer?” Novak asked.
“If one has the decryption codes it is as easy as sending an email.”
Novak considered saying no, but he had been in enough life or death situations during his military career to recognize when someone threatening death meant it. He moved carefully through the upended transport to the communication and computer desk set up in the corner nearest the cockpit.
“Remember I can set off the device online. If you are thinking destroying the computer I can do it from my phone. It’s just easier on the laptop. As you might guess the decryption code is long and I’m not that good with my fat thumbs” the major said to Novak.
Novak silently began working to free the laptop which was fastened to the upside down desk.
“Say what you have to say,” the major said to Talbot.
“We can start with the fact I was making serious progress on a vaccine.”
“You’re a smart man, but not the only one. I assume you did something to preserve your findings?”
“I sent most of it on, but the meat of my findings in back at the checkpoint. We left in a rush and my laptop as well as all the samples we collected are back in there.”
“The checkpoint is gone. No matter what we do that is out of the picture. I am confident if a vaccine is possible one of the many brilliant men in TMRT research division will find it. You can die knowing you contributed.”
“What about the fact things have changed since this mission was conceived? You said it yourself, the Southeastern checkpoint is gone. With the Eastern end of the quarantine broken there is little chance they can hold the South. If it makes it into Mexico we may be looking at closing off every border state.”
“You seem to be making my case. Something drastic needs to be done.”
“No, not drastic. Effective. All we would be doing is sacrificing ourselves to destroy Anaheim. In terms of stopping the rot we will have accomplished almost nothing.”
“A thermonuclear blast is hardly what I would call almost nothing.”
“No, but you said I could die knowing I contributed. In terms of solving the problem posed to humanity by the rot setting off these bombs will not be a contribution. You will be dying for nothing.”
“That all you got?”
“I could point out you might be insane, but telling a man pointing a gun at me he may be crazy seems like a bad idea.”
“For such a smart man you are missing the big picture. This is just the first step. Our bombs will set off a chain reaction. The rot will die in a fiery nuclear holocaust because of what we are going to do today.”
Before Talbot could respond Novak appeared behind him with the laptop.
“Just set it on the floor, or should I say ceiling, by your feet,” the major told him
.
Novak knelt down and did as he said. He rose up and asked, “You sure you don’t want to think this over? Your chain reaction will still happen if you wait two hours, or even twelve.”
“I don’t see anything changing,” the major said. He pointed to the monitor where the wall of infected was pounding on the hull. There was no part of the overturned TMRT transport without an ambler on top of it, “We’re trapped. We will still be trapped in two hours, or twelve or two weeks. There is no reason to wait.”
Novak nodded, put his hand on Talbot’s shoulder and said, “I guess we should go.”
Talbot turned to face Novak, “You just want to give up?”
Novak reached out and took the pistol Talbot had holstered under his arm. Both Talbot and the major had forgotten he had it. With Talbot standing there in between them, the major could not see Novak grab the gun.
“Not exactly,” Novak said as he put his foot on the laptop and pushed it so it slid towards the major.
The major looked down for just a second to stop the laptop from sliding past him. It was all the time Novak needed to push Talbot aside, raise the gun and pull the trigger. The major without a name looked up just in time to take a forty caliber slug between the eyes.
With the major without a name down for good Novak handed Talbot back his pistol, saying, “I already have one.”
Talbot put the pistol back in his holster and took a second to admire Novak’s shot.
“Remind me not to make you angry,” Talbot said as Novak retrieved his own gun.
“I’ve got bad news. You already have.”
“Well, I apologize for whatever I did. I’d also like to thank you for stopping this asshole from blowing us up.”
“Your welcome. I’m not sure what I accomplished other than not giving that asshole the satisfaction. I doubt he was lying when he said this was off the books, meaning even if they aren’t too busy dealing with the loss of the Southeastern checkpoint no one’s coming. We’re still trapped in here.”
