Zombie Theorem (Book 4): Aces Mortis

by James Wallace

  “Wilson, let’s have a quick smoke before we meet back up with them. Hell, the guys on the base ain’t going anywhere. And any way I hate dealing with those damn tweakers.”

  “We won’t be missed for at least ten minutes. Heath is busy with command anyway,” Chun heard the lighter strike and saw the light emitted from it. He signaled to Thor what he wanted to do and moved to the end of the counter on his side, as Thor did the same on his. Thor counted down on his fingers from three, as the last finger fell, the two moved in quick decisive movements. Chun moved to behind his target and stood, wrapping a hand around the man’s mouth and kicking him in the back of his knee, forcing him to the ground. The other man moved to lift his gun on its sling, but Thor moved like an avenging Angel as he brought his ham hock size fist around, landing a punch against the man’s temple that could’ve caved the man’s head in if he hadn’t pulled it at the last second. The weapon fell from unresponsive hands as the man was immediately knocked unconscious. Chun had ignored the entire fight with Thor and his target, having trust the big man could take care of his own. Chun had secured the Ridder soldier’s hands behind his back with a dress he had yanked off a rack. He had pulled a pair of woman’s underwear off the counter and shoved it into the man’s mouth, stifling any comments or shouts of warnings he had on his lips. The convoy had moved on and was still moving down the street when Chun dragged the man to a dressing room in the rear. He sat the man down on the little stool inside and closed the curtain.

  “I am sure you realize the shit you are in right now. Your life rests in my hands. I am going to ask you some questions and I expect answers, if I don’t like what you say I am going to hurt you in ways you never thought possible. And before you can think it, I don’t care about you, I have your buddy out there. So, if you don’t feel like answering me I will drag him in here and make him watch as I peel parts of you off. Nod your head if you understand,” Chun spoke in a calm, cold voice.

  The man’s blouse had the name Wilson stitched onto a patch sewn onto his chest. He nodded quickly up and down. Chun gave him a genuine smile before removing the panties from the man’s mouth. The man opened his mouth and tried to yell, but Chun was expecting it. He took out his small folding knife and flicked it out. He brought it down hard and fast into the empty space above the man’s collarbone embedding it three inches, and shoved the panties into the man’s open mouth as he switched from words to a scream. Chun opened the curtain slightly for the other guard, to witness what was happening. Chun was relieved to see that Thor had brought the other man around and using a vial of ammonia exhalant, woken him from his unconscious state. The man’s eyes were wide with shock and fear at the sight of his friend Wilson with a knife sticking out of his shoulder. Chun threw a wink at the man and slid the curtain closed. He aimed his attention back to his captive Wilson.

  “That was unpleasant, huh? I suggest you understand that I have been trained to torture a man for hours and take him to new thresholds of pain. What I have done to you hurts, I know. But see a buddy of mine from my first couple of years in the Seals named John ‘Iron Man’ Kuppers, schooled me in the art of collecting information from men much harder than you. I need you to know, you will not make it out of this shop alive, neither will your friend there. But, you need to understand I can offer you two ways to die. One is easy, a bullet to the head. The other entails me hurting you really bad, and then taking you out back and nailing you to a wall for some wandering zombie to come by and dine on your nether regions. Seriously, if I was you I would take the bullet,” Chun yanked his knife free of the man, and cleaned the blade on Wilson’s blouse. He waited for a moment before pulling the panty gag from the man’s mouth.

  “So far so good, you are not begging or screaming for help that will never come. I take it you have made your decision,” Chun gave the man a warm smile.

  Wilson had tears pouring from his eyes and looked broken. He nodded his head and sniffled. “What do you want to know?”

  “Well, I want to have a chat with this Heath guy. But I am getting ahead of myself. First, I want to know why you joined in with these fuckers?” Chun asked.

  “I was recruited out of the Army, two years ago. They paid good and I figured why not, better than working at fucking Walmart, you know? When all this shit went down, they called me in to help with unrest. I just follow orders, man.”

  Chun frowned at the answer. “Do you know your little group is the one who created and spread the shit that caused all this?”

  The man shook his head. “No way man, we were told a ship arrived with a bunch of terrorists carrying the plague and spread it across the cities. Where did you get your information, man?” Wilson looked serious with his answer.

  “Ridder’s own documents, man,” Chun leaned on the word man to be sarcastic. “We intercepted a shit ton of records and found that Ridder works for another group who hired them to do this. Surprise! You work for the assholes who killed millions of Americans,” Chun informed the young man still leaning on his sarcastic side.

  Wilson looked down to his lap for a moment. “Fuck,” he whispered. He raised his head. “If that is the truth, oh man they killed my whole family,” he shook his head in realization that everything he had been told was a lie that he had accepted and swallowed without question.

  “Yeah, stew on that tidbit and take you on a trip. But you can help now by telling me everything I want to know.”

  “I don’t know much, but I’ll tell you what I know. No reason to torture me,” the man looked directly into Chun’s eyes. “But when you are done, kill me.”

  Chun looked at him like a dog trying to figure out a loud distant noise. “Why would you want me to kill you?”

  A solitary tear broke from the man’s eye and rolled down his cheek. “First, if you do not succeed and Heath figures out I told you anything he will kill me anyway. And he tends to feed you whole to the infected. Secondly, the group I worked for killed my entire family with this damn virus. Finally, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  Chun considered the man’s request, coming to a decision he nodded his head in agreement. “I get it. I would check out too in your shoes. Who is this Heath guy in Ridder?”

  “He is just a Captain, he answers to a man named Joseph out of Las Vegas. That guy I think is the top guru of Ridder in the US. He is the one who has ordered us to round up all the infected and put them in pits. They are to be used as cannon fodder to fight pockets of resistance,” he squinted his eyes as if trying to remember something. “Oh yeah, they think that the tweakers at Miramar shot down a helicopter so they are headed to the base to check on it. They have some jet jockeys with them and plan on getting them up in some of those F-18s parked at the base. They know you guys, or someone, is taking equipment out of Coronado and transporting them somewhere. And that is all I know,” he looked expectantly at Chun. “I hope you put that bullet in my head now.”

  Chun pulled his suppressed sidearm and delivered a bullet into Wilsons head. Hitting him right between the eyes, making his death quick and painless. He got on the radio and called Butch. “Master Chief, looks like Ridder doesn’t know you are there, but they are planning on getting some of those fighters in the air and take out our little ferrying operation. Are you guy’s dug in and have the ambush ready? Over.”

  “Damn, yeah Lt. We have our little surprise set up. We found some LAWs. Over” A LAW is a disposable Light Anti-armor Weapon, kind of a one shot and done weapon.

  “Outstanding, Master Chief. I want a standard ambush. Take out the first and last Humvees, effectively sealing in the enemy. I want this Heath guy alive. I believe he is in the third Humvee, official looking asshole. Over,” Chun smiled over his new plan. Now they had some issues to deal with and needed to move fast.

  “Roger all, Lt. Lupo is ranging out. He says the convoy has slowed down, ETA ten minutes if he had to guess. Maybe they are reassessing the threat level. Over.”

  “Thor and I will be moving in your direction ricky tic
k. Over.”

  Two clicks answered him on the radio. He figured Butch was too busy to answer in voice. Chun strode out of the dressing room and shot Thor a hand signal. Thor wasted no time and put a bullet into his Ridder prisoner’s head. Chun continued around the counter and retrieved Rattler. He slapped him a bit, bringing him around. Rattler’s eyes bulged from his eyes when he came to and realized where he was and who was with him.

  “This is going to suck, huh?” he asked.

  Chun pushed Rattler to the counter and stepped back. In one motion, he gripped his Dadao, pulled it from its scabbard and swung. Rattler’s brain hadn’t had time to register the motions. His head fell off his neck, off his shoulders and rolled across the floor. Chun cleaned the Dadao’s blade on a nearby dress and slid it back in its scabbard. Chun stalked out from behind the counter and headed for the door with the unquestioning Thor in tow. They moved down the street, being careful to hide in shadows and doorways as they creeped closer to the Ridder convoy. They found the column stopped in the middle of the street just minutes from the base. Chun and Thor hunkered down by the opening to a two-story law office.

  Chun and Thor waited patiently to see what was about to happen. Suddenly something bright hit Chun’s eyes and drew his attention to the cause of it. He made out Lupo, hidden behind a half wall near the Ridder force. He hand signaled to Chun, informing him that they had moved the ambush to this location and they were hitting it in five minutes. Chun flashed him the ok sign and relayed the message to Thor. They moved back and into the law office, securing the door behind them. They moved through the antique furnishings and towards the stairs when they came upon their first body. Two bodies to be honest, one on top of the other like in a lover’s embrace. Chun looked a little closer and noticed the head of the one on top had a decent size hole in it, as the body on the bottom had most of its face ripped off and Chun assumed consumed. He removed his Dadao, and poked the bottom body. It moved slightly and Chun pushed the tip of his sword into the things eye. Giving it a little wiggle to stir and destroy the brain within. With that little job out of the way, the men ascended the stairs and found themselves in a conference room that took up most of the floor. A door at the end of the room held a small empty bathroom.

  Thor lifted and dragged the old cherry stained oak table towards the windows facing the convoy. Chun agreed with the man’s idea. They climbed on top of the table and laid down. With their battle rifles in their hands, they nuzzled up to the stocks and worked on controlling their breathing as they picked out their targets. Chun’s internal clock told him that the five minutes was up. Just when he thought about it, a rocket flew through the air, trailing smoke and slammed into the first Humvee right behind the front tires on the passenger side. The Humvee rocked back and onto its two tires. The explosion ripped metal and turned it into flying shrapnel maiming two men standing nearby. Another rocket flew through the air from the opposite side of the street and slammed into the rear Humvee near the driver’s door. It penetrated and exploded inside turning everyone inside into bloody paste and mush. The windows shattered out along with metal fragments flying into the air and nicking some of the men standing to the rear of the Humvee, injuring them but taking them out of the fight. Chun and Thor worked quickly, letting half their breath out and squeezing their rifle’s triggers until they rocked in their arms, sending their deadly rounds out. Finding their targets and dropping them to the ground with perfectly placed head shots.

  Chun and Thor cycled through targets, firing as soon as they had a bead on them. Chun took the far side of the convoy as Thor stayed to the near side, giving them clear lanes of fire and not wasting ammo on same targets. Chun’s radio came to life one minute after the first rocket reached out and brought hot fiery doom to its target.

  Butch’s voice came through clear and concise. “Cease fire over watch Lupo, Dio, and Hashkeh are stepping out to mop up and take prisoners. Over.”

  “Roger, Master Chief. Thor and I will provide support if needed. Over.” Chun answered.

  Thor kept his eyes sharp, watching the convoy and any movement. His voice came over the radio, just before he fired a round. “Target moving taking shot, down. Over,” a man was climbing to his feet that had been knocked down from the blast of the second Humvee. He was bringing his rifle to his shoulder, but stopped as a hole appeared in his chest. The red mist puffing out the hole made by the round looked like something you would see in the movies. But the blood, tissue, and heart muscle being ejected from behind the man looked like nothing any movie director could think of. “Clear. Over” Thor called out after checking the street again.

  Chun was impressed with the man and decided he would be staying with his Team as they moved on with future missions. Chun observed Lupo and Hashkeh move cautiously up to the Humvee indicated by Chun as the one holding Heath. They shouted something and retreated, back a couple of steps as the door opened. A man wearing a clean pressed pair of BDUs, stepped out and Hashkeh slugged the man across the face and caught his limp body as it fell towards him. A trio of shots echoed as Dio and Lupo shot the surviving men in the next Humvee. This may seem heartless, but the men only had enough resources and time to take one prisoner, they didn’t have the facilities to house anyone. Releasing them would not be a good move since they would go back and report to whatever leadership they had left what happened. Execution was all they had left at their disposal.

  “All clear, Lt. You and the Viking God can come out of your little hiding hole. Over.” Butch called out.

  Chun and Thor policed their nest and gathered their gear. It was so ingrained in them to gather their brass after a sniping job like the one they had just finished. They appeared at the front door and stepped out into the quickly darkening sky. The sun was sinking into the ocean to their west, bringing with it the uncertainties of the night. Chun collected his men and followed them back into the base and into a secured hangar the Seals had commandeered.

  Chun pulled Butch away from the Team as they settled down to clean their weapons and try to choke down some food, from their MREs, or better known as Meals Ready to Eat. The food tasted like ass but had all the calories a growing, fighting, soldier needed. “Master Chief, how is the ferry going?” Chun yawned. He had just noticed how tired he was, his day started flying a helicopter to a sub, and ended with sniping a Ridder column. His day was not normal but not really abnormal if he was to be honest.

  “They are doing well, Lt. All the equipment has been dropped at the rally point. Nunzio has elected to get them moving, said we could catch up in our little helicopter. General Richard’s sent orders through Commander Langham for those Marines from the USS Zumwalt to take over carrier security, freeing the rest of our Seal brothers for Operation Blanket Head.”

  Chun stopped Butch’s report. “I am sorry I must be more tired than I thought. Did you just say Operation Blanket Head?”

  Butch chuckled into his big bushy beard. “Commander Langham named it. Said that big army was useless without swabbies saving their asses. The General is also sending a C-17 in to deliver a shit load of pilots he scared up to take as many fighters, Ospreys, and Seahawks out of here. He wants the air wing on the Reagan reconstituted and stood up ASAP. He has somehow scrounged up a deck crew to handle flight ops. Oh, and one last thing, he needs us to finish the Army save and head into Northern Nevada ASAP. That Dan Welko guy needs support, and something about a possible cure.”

  Chun fought to keep his eyes open. “Okay, first things first. Have Hashkeh interrogate that Ridder nut job Heath. I am going to sack out for a couple of winks,” he turned to walk away and stopped in mid step. “Tell Hashkeh not to be kind, I do not want this guy alive when I wake up,” he said over his shoulder and continued to a table he had laid his equipment on. He cleared it except his pack and climbed up, rested his head on the pack and passed out.

  Chun thought he had heard screams during his slumber but chose to ignore it and continue regaining his strength. He was awoken three hours later by the
smell of something hot and bitter. He shot his eyes open and stared at a hand holding a paper cup with steam rising out of it. “If that is coffee I will happily not gut you and leave you for Zombie snacks.”

  “If you want to call this shit coffee then so be it. I just know it has caffeine in it and didn’t cause me to shit out my stomach,” Chun sat up to see the hand belonged to Thor.

  Chun took the cup and took a tentative sip. Thor was right it tasted like battery acid, but it had caffeine so Chun would choke it down. “You are forgiven, Thor. How long did I sleep for?” he tried looking at his watch but his eyes hadn’t cleared from the blurriness from sleep.

  “Three hours, Lt. Hashkeh finished with the Heath character. Says the man didn’t have much more information than what you got from Wilson. He was a much smaller fish than we thought. Turns out though he knew about the virus and that Ridder had released it. Says he knows the guy’s name and says he rules his kingdom out of some hotel. Oh, the guy’s name is Joseph P. Hedley, and was, or is the sole owner and CEO of H&M pharmaceuticals. He believes that guy is the mastermind behind the virus.”

  “Hmm, did that information make it out to the General yet?” Chun asked, choking more of the hot coffee down.

  “Yeah, Lt. Butch said it seemed the General already had that information. He reiterated how important it was we started heading north.”

  Chun scratched the top of his head, lost in thought. He looked around, found his cover and placed it back on his head. “No reason to keep the General waiting. Let’s refuel the Dragonhawk and get the rotors turning. Looks like we are going to be very busy soon.”

  “It has already been refueled, Hootie and Dio have found some replacement ammo for the gun and replaced the missing Hellfires. They have pronounced it ready and fit to go. Oh, and during the time you were out, those Apaches and F model, Ospreys landed. They are still here and the pilots are gaining some much needed downtime.”