Zombie Theorem (Book 4): Aces Mortis

by James Wallace

  “Noise discipline, Master Chief,” Chun admonished.

  Butch took a moment and rested his control back, little giggles breaking free for a second. “Sorry, Lt. Hey sun will be up soon,” he had raised his own night vision glasses onto his forehead and he was noticing he could see the outline of Chun. “When do you want me to wake the boys, kick the tires, and light the fires, big daddy?”

  Chun picked up the small Independence Day quote and shook his head. “Just a little anxious to get up there and whoop those dead rotting corpses, huh?”

  “You suck at movie lines, boss,” Butch laughed.

  “Sorry, I was busy learning to shoot and blow shit up with my pops. No time for petty movies, now stop being jealous. I’m going to make a circuit around the property,” he walked away before Butch could make a quip back.

  Chun stopped at the back of the building and watched as a sliver of light started breaking over the mountains in the distance. He enjoyed reveling in sunrises somehow, they recharged his batteries. They served as a reminder that he had made it yet another day. He looked out to the fields and could make out the cows munching on grass silently. The scene was idyllic, but one he knew would not last long. He took his time checking shadows and on the defenses, they had set up to protect the residents of the little compound. When he returned to the front, he took note of his men working on loading their vehicles and checking their supplies one more time. He was proud to be leading these men. At that moment, he knew that no one could stop them. They would make it to their Seal brothers, and then they would exterminate every dead fuck in their country.

  Tina and the rest of the women and children came out to see their saviors off. The men allowed themselves to be hugged and in most cases initiated the hugs. They climbed aboard their assigned vehicles and prepared for their trip. Chun was the last to board. He took Tina’s hand and gave her a smile. “I’ll be back, keep them all safe.”

  “Wow, you almost sounded like Arnie the Terminator,” she joked with him. She pushed herself onto her tiptoes and kissed his lips tenderly, her hand rested on his cheek. “You better be back quickly, Lt.”

  “I promise,” he pulled away and climbed in behind the wheel of his SUV. They locked eyes one more time before he put the machine into drive and pulled out through the gate.

  The Seals watched the women and children shrink into the distance as they pulled away. Ten hours of driving brought them to the outskirts of San Diego, and a scene straight out of a horror movie. The trip there had been uneventful, they had come across a couple of dead stumbling creatures. But nothing they couldn’t handle. Most times one of them would disembark and use their hand weapon to dispatch of the filthy dead creatures. Now they found themselves looking down on a large undulating horde and the city on fire in the distance.

  Chapter 3

  “What the fuck do you think happened here, boss?” Hootie enquired for the second time.

  “Still no fucking idea, Hootie. But at this point it doesn’t matter. We got to make our way through that shit if we want to get back to our brothers,” Butch answered.

  “Well how would you suggest we do that?” Lupo asked from his position on top of his SUV. He had his rifle up to his shoulder and looking down the sights.

  “Don’t you think if we knew that, we would be doing that right now, Lupo?” Hootie barked out.

  “Shut up, mutt,” Dio smacked Hootie in the back of his head playfully.

  “Enough grab assing. Set up a perimeter while the adults work out a plan,” Butch barked out.

  The team jumped at the order and moved out twenty yards in order, to protect the Master Chief and Lt as they prepared a battle plan for their objective. Butch and Chun took a knee and passed field glasses back and forth as they noted free avenues of movement and marked down where the bigger hordes were. The more they noted, the less encouraged they felt.

  “I just don’t see a clear way, Master Chief. What about you?”

  “Well Lt, we need to stop thinking conventional and start thinking unconventional. For instance, if air and land routes are blocked what do we do?” Butch asked with a playful smile on his lips.

  Chun cocked his head like a dog listening to a far-off sound. He snapped his fingers and came to the conclusion Butch had been leading him to. “We go the sea route, can’t believe I didn’t think of that first. Shit, sea is in the first part of our name. SEa Air and Land,” he smacked his forehead with his open hand. He turned his sight from the city itself and down towards the freeway in the distance and the ocean beyond.

  Butch had already come up with an idea, but was waiting until his officer asked for his opinion. Chun studied the scene in front of him and chewed on his lip. “Okay Chief, I have known you long enough. You have a plan devised in that big head of yours, so spit it out.”

  Butch chuckled under his long beard and stroked the length with his ungloved hand. “Well Lt, the only way I can see is to backtrack a little and cross under the freeway by Del Mar, and board one of those little sailboats anchored out there in the water. Then we sail that bad boy to Coronado and check on our brothers,” he handed over the notes he had made considering the made-up plan.

  Chun read over the notes and looked down to the city of Del Mar and tried to take apart or improve on Butch’s plans. After five quiet minutes, he put down the glasses and leaned against the hood of his SUV. “Okay, you take lead, Master Chief. Once on the beach, pick a boat and we will follow in the take down,” he waved in the direction of the ocean.

  Butch whistled to get the men’s attention. “Plan has been agreed on boys. We are going to head down to Del Mar, enter the water and take one of those sailboats out to Coronado. Any suggestions or complaints? I kept it detail free, didn’t want to overwhelm Hootie too much,” he dead panned the last part.

  Hashkeh was the first to speak. “Sounds like a good plan, Master Chief. Only problem I see is once we enter the water, we leave behind our transport and supplies,” he scratched his smooth chin. The man grew no hair on his face thanks to his Navajo roots.

  “Can’t be avoided, Hashkeh. This is a one-way trip. When we make land in Coronado we have to get lucky for supplies, or hope and pray our brothers are there,” answered Chun.

  The big Navajo considered his words for a moment. “Understood Lt, let us move out then. No need to sit around here any longer. Hootie will go stir crazy and do something stupid.”

  “Hey, I resemble that remark,” Hootie laughed out.

  “Did your parents ever have a kid who wasn’t a moron?” Lupo joked.

  “Well, they have my sister. She is in college studying to be a psychologist. She wrote a paper on me and got an A,” Hootie explained.

  The team rolled their eyes at the old joke. “Alright boys, load up. No time like present to move out,” Butch growled.

  The SUVs bounced over the uneven and unpaved roads down the mountain they had planned from and into the foothills. They had rolled past many stumbling, shambling corpses but didn’t waste their time or valuable ammunition to deal with them. It had long ago been decided by all that if they didn’t have to kill the creatures then they would let them be. After hours of dead reckoning, they crossed under Interstate 5 and rolled through a quiet neighborhood of expensive houses. They had to detour numerous times due to small hordes blocking their way to the beach.

  When their wheels touched sand, the men shook off the boredom of sitting in a vehicle with nothing to do and prepared for the ocean water that sat in front of them. The swim in front of them would be daunting for any normal man, but these guys were baptized not by fire but by water. Each one of them could swim for hours and felt more comfortable in the water than they did on land. They disembarked the SUVs and lined up at the surf. Lupo and Dio had climbed up on the top of the Mercedes’ and raised their M-4s scanning the beach for movement. Each man on the beach stretched and worked out the kinks from being on constant edge of being on alert of their surroundings. They had no dive gear or wet suits, but they had d
one longer swims with less. The only thing Butch was worried about, was if the M-4s could handle the salty water of the ocean, and be able to work when called upon. These guns were nowhere near the standards of their military issued weapons, but it was what they had and they would have to hope for the best.

  Hashkeh stripped to his bare chest and removed his boots, putting them in his pack and securing it to his shoulders. They entered as one and swam out ten yards before Dio and Lupo abandoned their posts, following in their brother’s wake. They linked up as a team and then paired off into swim buddies, before moving towards the larger of the sailboats rocking in the gentle waves. The sun was slowly sinking into the ocean, casting oranges and reds into the sky. Hashkeh and Lupo, were the first to reach the sailboat and circled it, listening and looking for movement within.

  Finding none, they moved to the diving platform in the stern of the boat. They pulled themselves onto it and brought their handguns up sweeping their fields of fire, as the rest of the team came up behind them waiting to board the platform next. Finding no resistance, Hashkeh and Lupo moved slowly forward, taking positions port and starboard to protect the rest of the team boarding astern. As each man came aboard, they moved forward and squeezed the shoulder of the man in front of them. Allowing that team to move forward and secure more of the boat. Hashkeh and Lupo moved forward slowly until the whole team was aboard and covering every square inch of the decks above. Everything was going well, nothing was moving except for the team. They came to the boat’s entryway to below decks and found it closed and secured. Hashkeh stepped back, allowing the smaller two members of the team, Dio and Rascal, to make entry first.

  Dio counted down on his fingers to one and Rascal popped the latch and opened the small door wide and stepped aside as Dio made entry first, his 1911 up and ready. The barrel moving with his eyes as he swept the entryway for danger. As Rascal entered, he stopped next to Dio and they both listened for any movement or noise. After a moment, the men felt assured enough to move forward, as they did, Dio and Rascal cleared the small dining area and galley moving to the stern. They checked the small closets and head, finding them all clear. They came to a door at the end of the small space and prepared for the worse. This, of course, was where a horrific scene awaited them. Dio opened the door and stepped back, allowing Rascal to make entryway first. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. Dio moved in close beside him and let out an audible gasp at the horrific scene in front of them. A young-looking woman with two small children laid together on the small bed, all had small neat holes in the middle of their foreheads. Before Dio could think, he was knocked into Rascal and they collided with the little wood table bolted to the floor next to the bed. A man threw himself onto the men, snapping his teeth mere inches from Dio’s nose. He dropped his gun and moved his right forearm up and jammed it under the man’s jaw, he pushed as hard as he could to force the man back. But the man was so strong and fought back. Dio couldn’t get a proper angle to gain control of the man with his body tangled up with Rascal’s.

  Dio watched the man snapping his jaws so hard that his teeth were slamming together and cracking. Bits and pieces of a chipped tooth flew out and down into Rascal’s face as he was stuck and unable to move his head away. Dio was not about to give up and kicked out with his free leg, colliding with the man’s knee and bending it sideways. If the man felt it, he never showed it. The man pressed his attack, pushing his weight down on Dio and Rascal bending and straining his neck forward to try and bite into Dio’s unprotected face. Dio tried to free his other hand but it was pinned beneath him. Suddenly, a gun went off in three quick shots. All three .45 caliber slugs hit the man in his stomach and groin, quickly passing through and out his back, gushing blood and pieces of flesh and organs through the new holes, created by the tumbling rounds. But the man seemed again not to notice the damage inflicted on him. Rascal had freed his gun hand and had triggered the ineffectual shots.

  Dio felt his strength giving out on him as he continued to hold the man’s jaws away from him. Suddenly a blade appeared at the side of the man’s head, exploding from his temple. Finally, he had stopped moving and fighting. The man was lifted from Dio, allowing Rascal and him to free themselves from each other. A big rough hand appeared and Dio took it, allowing it to lift him from the floor and onto his feet. As he moved back, Rascal made it to his feet and they turned to find Hashkeh’s cramped form in the doorway, holding in one hand the man who had just moments ago been ready to tear Dio’s face off with his cracked and broken teeth. Hashkeh nodded at them and walked away, dragging the corpse behind him. Rascal stopped at the bedroom door and looked one last time at the three still forms on the bed. He sighed deeply and picked up a comforter off the floor and covered the bodies. He said a little prayer under his breath and then left the room, securing the door behind him.

  The team met on the upper decks. Hashkeh had just finished tying some weights to the man’s body and throwing it overboard. Dio watched as it sank from view. Chun looked over the boat's console and then up to the empty mast and stowed sails.

  “Alright then, Chief have the sails raised and set pull anchor and let’s get going,” he pointed up to the empty mast.

  “How about we see if there is any gas and if the engine will start first,” answered Hashkeh.

  “Would love to if we had keys,” answered Chun.

  Hashkeh gave him a rare smile and then threw a shiny bundle of little objects at Chun, who caught them and stared in disbelief. “Where did you find these?”

  Hashkeh pointed to the water. “In that things pockets.” The big Navajo sat down and stretched his back, tilting his face to the sun and closed his eyes.

  Chun rolled his eyes and inserted the keys into the boat's ignition. He turned the key to the first stage and watched as the lights of the gauges came alive. The gas meter’s needle swung part way and stopped showing three quarters of fuel left in the tank. He shook his head in disbelief and then turned the key again until he heard and felt the powerful engines below him come to life. Butch pushed a button on a small panel near the bow and watched as a cable wound up on a spool, pulling the small boat anchor up off the ocean floor and settling in the Hauser, on the bow.

  The men relaxed where they could and got to work clearing the barrels of their weapons, drying off important moving parts and oiling them. Preparing them for when they would need them the most. Chun guided the boat down the coast towards San Diego and around the rocks and other boats at anchor. Once in a while, they would watch as a figure would move on another boat deck, but once they got close they would find one of those creatures, but never a living soul. This really affected them. Even though they knew there was not much they could do for survivors right now, they still felt sorrow.

  Chun guided the boat down and around Coronado island as they looked for a safe place to tie up and go on shore. Butch perched on the bow, sweeping the shore with his glasses, checking every dock and open area, looking for movement. “I got nothing, let’s move around to the north side and check the airfield. There is a small dock over there we can tie up to and go ashore,” he suggested.

  “We are running on fumes now, I think we can make it. I know the spot you’re talking about.” Chun spun the wheel and brought the big boat around, pointing the bow towards the identified point.

  Ten minutes passed as they motored around the island. They could now see parts of the downtown area of San Diego and smell the smoke coming off of it. Dio and Lupo laid on the top of the cabin, their M-4s snugged to their cheeks and shoulders, sweeping their barrels around the nearby water and land looking for threats. Chun spun the wheel as he saw the dock up ahead. The dock was surrounded by a chain link fence that continued down to just under the surface of the water, creating a temporary issue for the men.

  Hashkeh dug into his pack, coming out with a set of wire snips. He dove off the boat and into the cool water of the inlet. Swimming with a purpose using long, strong strokes. Reaching the fence he
got to work snipping the links and pulling the fence apart. As he worked, Hootie swam up next to him. He grabbed part of the fence and worked on rolling it back on his side as Hashkeh did the same on his. After a couple of minutes and use of some zip ties, they secured the rolled fence to posts, leaving a big enough gap for the boat to motor in and come up to the small dock. Butch jumped over the side and landed flat footed on the dock, he grabbed the mooring lines from the boat and tied her up to cleats attached to the dock. Dio and Chun worked their way down the dock, guns raised and barrels tracking, covering the rest of the team as they disembarked the boat with their gear and retrieved Hashkeh and Hootie from the drink. In a dance, they had practiced and used in real life, they secured the dock and moved as a team covering their fields of fire. They came up an embankment and took knees, orientating to the airfield and their position on it.

  The airfield was strangely empty, except for a couple of Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawks scattered on the tarmac and parked near a large hangar. Chun stood in the front of his men and used his field glasses to scan the hangar and nearby aircraft. Not finding any movement, he motioned for his men to continue west and onto the fighter and other aircraft tarmac. They moved silently like ghosts, always moving and scanning for danger or any sign of life. As they came around a maintenance hangar they arrived to a spot where they could see a sight they never thought they would. The airfield was covered in aircraft of all types. The problem with it was, that at the far end of the runway, the wreckage of a large transport C-17 could be seen tipped over onto its side and scorched from fire. Other aircraft nearby were destroyed and strewn about as the big aircraft crashed into their ranks.

  The men took in the scene and filed it away to be examined later. They had one objective in mind, and wouldn’t waste another minute standing around gawking at things that, at the moment, were not important to their mission. Butch took lead, forcing Chun to concede and move to the center of the group. He led them off the airfield and between buildings, stopping at corners and checking their path ahead before exposing them to possible danger. They passed Humvees and cars abandoned haphazardly. This did not bode well at all. Hashkeh moved to the front of the group and hunched down with Butch. “Master Chief, I am bewildered. The base seems empty yet, there are no signs of battle or bloodshed. Could this mean the base was abandoned?” he enquired.