by Damon Hunter
Novak raised his rifle, but before he could pull the trigger the flaming vampire rotters head exploded.
Novak stepped out of the transport to see about five foot two and a hundred pounds of twenty year old girl firing an assault rifle at rotters he couldn’t see.
She lowered the weapon and said, “Come with us if you want to live.”
Noval stepped out further and saw an older Asian man firing his own weapon. After he dropped his target he looked at Novak and said, “Bring the nuke.”
Novak was curious to know how he knew about the bomb, but figured this was question for later. He motioned to Talbot to grab an end of the chrome box.
Talbot balanced the transponder on top of the nukes container and grabbed his end. With Novak on the other side they crab walked the bomb out of the transport. A jeep with an open trunk was waiting for them. They slid the bomb inside.
Novak noticed a man in a TMRT uniform by a black Hummer he was holding his weapon looking for targets. The man looked familiar. It took Novak a second but he remembered who it was.
“Vance?” he said.
Vance climbed into the driver’s seat of the Hummer while the other man got in the other side, before looking at Novak and asking, “You coming or not?”
Talbot was moving to get into the Jeep when the girl with the gun grabbed his arm and spun him so he faced her.
“Didn’t you try to feed me to a vampire rotter?” she asked.
He recognized her immediately and said, “Would it help if I apologized?”
Ana did not answer.
“Team human,” Chase Jr. shouted from the driver’s seat.
“You don’t know what he did…” Ana began.
“Kill him later then, if we don’t get gone now we’re all screwed,” Chase told her.
Ana climbed into the front seat and Dr. Talbot took a seat next Cletus.
The horde from the stadium was making their way onto the interstate. Both vehicles drove right for them hoping to ram their way through before the infected became too thick.
Vance led the way in the Hummer. He did not slow as he hit the victims of the rot gathering on the road. At around eighty miles an hour his three ton vehicle cut a path through the infected sending some flying through the air and crushing others underneath the wheels.
A few miles down the road with the infected left behind Vance stopped the Hummer. Ana did the same with the Jeep. She watched Vance limp to the side of the Jeep open Talbot’s door and pull the scientist out.
“I’m…” Talbot began but Vance’s fist hitting his face shut him up.
“People I care about are dead because of you,” Vance said as he held the Doctor against the side of the truck, “I should kill you.”
“Perhaps you should,” Talbot said.
“That your best defense for trying to kill my daughter?” Vance asked as he drew his pistol and put it up against Talbot’s head.”
Talbot almost told him he tried to kill the ex-wife as well but instead said, “I did what I thought I had to do.”
“What you thought you had to do cost people their lives.”
“Yes.”
“Was it worth it?”
“Almost.”
“Almost?”
“The key to a vaccine, possibly a cure is back at the over run Southeastern check point.”
“Overrun?”
“Unfortunately. How do you think I ended up on this suicide mission?”
From the backseat Cletus asked, “Are you serious about a cure?”
“No guarantees, but yes I’m serious. Unfortunately, it looks like someone will have to start over,” Talbot said. He looked at Vance, “I’m sorry for what I did. I know that is not enough and considering you have a gun to my head not very convincing.”
“Maybe if he can find a cure you shouldn’t shoot him,” Chase said.
“You don’t know what he did,” Vance told him.
“No, but maybe you should kill him after he finds a cure,” Cletus added.
Ana stepped out of the Jeep and stood next to Vance, “As much as I would like to see him dead, or even better kill him myself Chase and Cletus have a point. He is still team human after all.”
“Just barely,” Vance said as he put away his gun and let Talbot go.
“If it helps I have a transponder, we can get past the drones,” Talbot told them.
“That doesn’t hurt.”
While Vance was considering killing Talbot Fan had gotten out of the SUV and with Novak assisting him had disarmed the nuke in the back of the Hummer. They were moving to the Jeep so he could do the same to the bomb in there.
“You change your mind about killing him?” Fan asked.
“For now.”
“You should probably call your wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Either way, let your people know we have completed our mission and are on our way back. She can tell the rest.”
Vance called and Donna picked up.
“I’m glad you called,” she said before he could say anything, “You can say goodbye to your daughter.”
“What?” Vance asked.
Before either Katelin or Donna could answer he heard gunfire and the connection was broken.
Chapter 30- Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook, CA
Jennifer went to get the kid while Bo grabbed the transponder. She called to him as she approached Gavin’s open door, but he did not reply. She expected to find him with headphones on, sitting on his bed oblivious to chaos all around him.
What she found was an empty room.
Her calls for him became louder.
Bo came out of the room Donna and Vance shared, holding the football sized transponder and on of the broadswords the nearly all deceased South Western Apocalypse Response Crew had brought.
“He’s not in his room.” Jennifer told him.
“Well, he is ten. Ten year old boys aren’t good about staying put.”
Jennifer nodded, before he fell victim to the rot she had a little brother of her own and she could picture him getting restless and exploring as well, “Yeah, makes sense, doesn’t help us much.”
Bo thought about it for second, “He could have gone anywhere, but first place I would guess was the kitchen. Ten year old boys like to eat.”
“Makes sense,” Jennifer said, “Just a second.”
She hustled into the room she had shared with Katelin and grabbed the pair of hatchets Katelin had given her when they were fighting for their lives the day before. Like Bo she had no experience with firearms, but had taken to swinging the small axes when she had to.
The kitchen was not far. They slowed when they saw a size thirteen dress shoe sticking out the doorway.
“This can’t be good,” Jennifer said.
Before Bo could answer the leg attached to the shoe pulled it back into the kitchen. The rotter version of Carson’s bodyguard filled the doorway.
Bo dropped the transponder so he could swing the big sword with both hands. He was going for the infected bodyguard’s head, but the bodyguard stumbled forward and he put the blade through the big amblers shoulder instead.
He was trying to pull the sword loose when a thick meaty paw of a hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat. The infected seemed to sense he was immune to their bites. The infected bodyguard was not trying to pass on the rot but choke the life out of him.
Bo let go of the medieval weapon and used both hands to try and loosen the vice like grip crushing his throat, but the ambler held tight. He kicked out, putting the top of his foot into the infected bodyguards groin with a good amount of force. The ambler did not seem to notice.
Jennifer moved to help him, but with the big man’s arm extended and Bo in her way she could not reach him. Bo noticed her trying to get around him in the narrow hallway to do some damage and quit trying to pry the fingers off his neck.
Jennifer saw his open palm reaching back to her and put one of her hatchets in it. Bo was barely able to re
ach but he had just enough arm to put the blade between the infected bodyguards eyes. The bodyguard must have had a thick skull because even with an axe stuck in his forehead he was still squeezing. Bo pulled the hatchet loose and swung again. Hitting the open wound a second time. The blow sprayed blood into Bo’s face but this time he went deep enough to hit something vital and the ambler began to stumble. Bo freed the axe and swung again. The infected body guard let him drop before keeling over backwards and falling to the same spot he had been when they came upon him.
Bo handed Jennifer back her hatchet as he freed the sword, saying, “You’re right. That was bad.”
“Do you think he got Gavin?”
“We don’t even know if he went to the kitchen.”
They moved into the kitchen. The bodyguard was too big to go around so the had to walk over him.
Bo pointed at the open pantry, “Someone came in to get a snack.”
Jennifer nodded, and motioned to the door on the other side, “Something doesn’t know how to operate a door knob.”
Bo looked and saw she was right. He didn’t like the implication. Vampire rotters preferred to bust through doors rather than open them. He could see Jennifer’s concern and told her, “We still don’t know Gavin came this way.”
She was about to agree when she looked down at the white tile floor. By the bodyguards shoulder was a lot of blood. Someone had tracked that blood across the room. The tracks looked the right size for a ten year old foot.
“Shit,” Bo said.
“Is it Gavin’s blood?”
“I’m guessing it was the big guys. That still puts Gavin in the room with a possible vampire rotter.”
Before she could answer him they heard, “Jennifer. Come to me.” They both looked up as vampire rotter Tanner bound into the room.
Bo stepped forward and swung the sword but vampire rotter Tanner jumped to the side and Bo did all the damage to the floor. One of Tanner’s long arms shot out and knocked Bo across the room into a commercial size stainless steel stove top. He hit his chin on the corner and the lights went out.
Jennifer tried to put a hatchet in Tanner’s forehead but he grabbed her arm. He was about to twist it in way it wasn’t supposed to go when she chopped into the arm holding her with the other axe. Instead of breaking her arm Tanner let go and struck her in the face. The blow spun her one hundred and eighty degrees and sent her face first into the wall next to the doorway.
Vampire rotter Tanner was on her immediately sinking tow rows of teeth into her shoulder. He pulled back with her blood running down his chin. Vampire rotter Tanner stood there without moving for a second as Jennifer fell on the downed bodyguard. He could taste she was immune to the rot. He knew she would never join him as one of the infected.
When he said, “Jennifer,” again he sounded disappointed.
Vampire rotter Tanner moved in to bite her again, this time though he was biting to kill.
Chapter 31 - Cam Carson’s Helipad - Fallbrook, CA
Donna was handing the phone to Katelin. She hoped her Katelin could go out on some kind of good terms with her father. Katelin however wheeled and fired her guns as Donna was trying to hand her the phone knocking it out of Donna’s hand.
Donna saw the vampire rotter coming over the roof she was firing at and could not blame her for not wanting the phone at this moment. As her daughter took down the vampire rotter Donna saw an ambler come through the door Ben had kicked in. She raised her gun and took it down along with the one who was coming in behind it. She moved closer as Ben and Katelin gunned down another vampire rotter coming over the wall. Donna could see the stairway was filling up with the infected.
Instead of using more of her dwindling supply of bullets she picked up the LAWS rocket launcher. She moved to the far side of the helipad and put a rocket into the stairwell.
“How will Gavin, Bo and Jennifer get up here?” Katelin asked.
“They weren’t coming that way with all those amblers in the way,,” Donna told her.
Ben pointed at another door on this side of the roof. “Maybe they can come through there..”
“Maybe,” Donna said. She was about to ask what difference it made if they died in the house or on the roof, but decided all that would do was make things worse. She still wanted Katelin to have a chance to talk to Vance, so she ran back and picked up the phone.
As she was bringing it back, both Ben and Katelin raised their guns and pointed them at the other door.
“Sounds like something is trying to get through,” Ben said.
Donna held up the rocket launcher, “Save your bullets. I have another rocket.”
Chapter 32 - Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook, CA
Gavin rolled over with the knife in front of him. He was planning on getting up and running but the long arm of vampire rotter Tanner had slapped him down as he tried to stand. He figured he was doomed, even the big combat knife would not be enough to stop a vampire rotter like Tanner. He planned to go down fighting, however.
Vampire rotter Tanner was right above him. Gavin could smell his hot rancid breath coming from his oversized mouth. Gavin was waiting for him to pounce, hoping maybe he could get lucky and impale the vampire rotter face and his black blade.
Only the vampire rotter did not pounce. Gavin saw him stand up straight and sniff the air.
Vampire rotter Tanner said, “Jennifer.”
Gavin could not believe his luck when the infected teenager turned and started walking towards the kitchen. Gavin quickly sprung to his feet and started running. He looked back as he reached the door and saw the vampire rotter was not following. Apparently whatever was in the kitchen took priority over biting Gavin.
Gavin was happy about this as he started to run again, until he realized what, or rather who, must be in the kitchen. The talking vampire rotter did seem to make biting some people more important than others. The person on the top of vampire rotter Tanner’s list was the name he spoke.
Jennifer must have been nearby. Gavin wondered if she was looking for him. It made sense, he could hear the gunfire. Something serious was going on outside. He was not sure what he could do, but given how the people in the group had saved him from the rot more than once it did not feel right to run away when one of them was in trouble.
When Gavin made it back to the kitchen he could see Bo on the floor not moving. He also saw vampire rotter Tanner reaching for a fallen Jennifer. Vampire rotter Tanner did not look Gavin’s way as he entered the kitchen. All his attention was on Jennifer.
Gavin ran at him. He jumped as he brought the knife down as hard as he could. He hoped to jump up and stick the black blade through the vampire rotters neck. He knew they were tough to kill but felt if he could get it in the neck it might be enough. He did not jump as high as he thought he could and put the thick blade in between Tanner’s shoulder blades instead.
The vampire rotter noticed him now, but even with its extended arms could not reach the ten year holding onto the knife in his back. Gavin had not made any plans beyond the initial stabbing, all he could think to do now was hang on.
Gavin had both hands on the hilt and was squeezing the leather wrapped handle as hard as he could as the vampire rotter jumped and twisted violently back and forth. Despite his best efforts to hang on the vampire rotter was able to shake him off. When Gavin lost his grip he flew across the room bouncing off the pantry door and finding himself on the floor.
The blade remained in Tanner’s back. He made a few attempts to remove it but resigned himself to having eight inches of tempered steel in his back.
Gavin was having trouble catching his breath as the impact of the pantry on his back had knocked the air out of him. He was trying to get to his feet but his arms and legs were not responding to his brain’s commands. He was down and helpless to stop the vampire rotter from harming him. Just like the last time, vampire rotter Tanner decided he could take care of Gavin later and turned his attention back to Jennifer.
Jenn
ifer sat up and turned around to face her former classmate with Carson’s bodyguard’s gun in her hands. She may not have known much about firearms, but the bodyguard had already turned off the safety and chambered a round. All she had to do was aim and pull the trigger.
She did not really aim, just pointed the weapon in his general direction. At this range it would be hard to miss him, and she didn’t.
Even holding the weapon with two hands the guns recoil almost had her dropping it after putting a bullet through the vampire rotter’s stomach. She steadied the gun and pulled the trigger again as he took a step toward her. This bullet caught him in the shoulder and the lead hitting the bone spun him around so he was facing the other way. Jennifer pulled the trigger again and put a round next to Gavin’s knife.
Her next shot missed as vampire rotter Tanner leapt to the side. He landed in a crouch and sprang up as she fired, avoiding another bullet. The next time he landed he did not wait for her to take a shot, instead he left the kitchen, heading into the dining room. Jennifer leveled the pistol and tried to hit him again as he made his escape but missed once more.
She made it to her feet still pointing the gun at the entrance to the dining room.
Without looking his way she said to Gavin, “You okay.”
“I think so,” Gavin said as he worked his way to his feet.
“I think I might be good too,” Bo said from the other side of the room as he began to regain consciousness, “What did I miss?”
“I might have killed Tanner,” Jennifer told him.
“Might have?”
“I shot him like three times. Hopefully he ran off to die.”
“On the off chance he retreated so he can attack us again maybe we should get to the roof.”
“What’s on the roof?” Gavin asked.
“Helicopters.”
“Are we going to get to ride them?”
“I hope so.”
Bo picked up the sword and Jennifer kept the gun. She found her hatchets and gave one to Gavin.
