Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos

by Simpson, David A.

  “Interesting.” Gunny said. “But kind of useless now. We don’t have any more stable satellites.”

  “Doesn’t need one.” Forhees said. “It can be mounted on a tripod and if you have a good extension cord to power it up, it can be aimed directly at the target. Imagine a laser beam slicing through a horde of undead as easily as a hot knife through butter. It never runs out of ammo as long as you have electricity.”

  Gunny and Griz both were suitably impressed now.

  “The biggest drawback is you have to be careful where you aim it.” Forhees continued. “It’ll destroy the target and everything behind it. If you don’t mount it high and aim it down, the beam will blast everything in its path.”

  “Good call saving this.” Griz said and finger combed his beard. “I bet we could rig up a rail system on top of the wall and have it anywhere we needed in just a few minutes. No more worries about a big horde from Dallas finding us.”

  “How much power does it use?” Gunny asked.

  “It takes about fifty thousand watts to make it deadly to people and zombies.” He replied. “A hundred thousand to destroy solid objects like buildings and walls.”

  “It’ll blow up buildings?” Griz asked, eyebrows raised.

  “It doesn’t really blow things up, not like you Marines are accustomed to.” Forhees said. “It’s not an explosive device like you’re thinking. Basically, it shoots a beam of accelerated particles that have a high kinetic energy. It instantaneously super heats whatever it hits and alters its molecular structure. If it hit your container walls they would basically fly apart. If it hits people, it’s instant death. The zom’s, well just hold the trigger down and rake back and forth. It’ll slice them to pieces. If you raked it back and forth aimed at a town it could level every building in a few minutes.”

  “I’ve delivered 100,000-kilowatt diesel powered generators to hospitals.” Griz said. “They fit on the back of a truck. This could be mobile.”

  “This could be the most powerful weapon left on the planet.” Gunny said.

  “It can be anything you want it to be.” Forhees said. “It belongs to the United States and we wanted you to have it back, Mr. Meadows. It seemed a shame to send it to the bottom of the sea.”

  “Well, let’s keep it under wraps till we get home.” Gunny said. “We’re not traveling through enemy territory but they’re none too friendly. Speaking of which, I had to promise them your guns for safe passage.”

  At the navy men’s frowns Gunny assured them they had plenty more in Lakota.

  “But it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if your boys emptied their mags taking out the undead. The train won’t get them all and I don’t want to leave a huge horde at their wall.”

  “Or leave them with a bunch of bullets.” Griz added. “I don’t trust ‘em. They might decide to get wise and start demanding more stuff.”

  The captain nodded. “Understood. Consider it done. Do you have a place to store the laser?”

  “Under your bunk is fine.” Gunny said.

  “Yes sir.” The Captain said and motioned for his men to crate it back up.

  Gunny went back to the lead locomotive and Xavier was sitting in the engineers’ seat, driving the train. Bridget was still pointing out different controls and what they did. She seemed to be hovering a little closer than was strictly necessary, leaning over him to explain various readouts instead of simply pointing. They were both smiling and Gunny noticed her shirt wasn’t buttoned all the way up. A little cleavage was pushing against the black denim and she’d repositioned the goggles on her head so her hair covered the missing ear. Even with the scar on her cheek, she was still the prettiest girl the boy had ever seen.

  “How’s it going, Xavier?” Gunny asked, voice raised to be heard over the dull roar of the motor. “You getting the hang of it?”

  “Oh yeah!” he said, the grin wide on his face.

  “Hollywood needed you for something.” Gunny said “Go on, I’ll show him the rest!”

  “Thanks.” He said quietly as she passed. “You’re acting skills are still good. You haven’t lost it.”

  “Wasn’t all acting.” She replied with an impish smile. “A girl likes to be appreciated once in a while. And not just for how good she can kill zombies.”

  Gunny watched the boy as he checked the controls, kept an eye out for any danger on the tracks and piloted the locomotive down the rails. He was a good kid and had lost his bike, risked his life and saved a lot of sailors in the process.

  They talked, passed the time and Gunny learned a little more about the Utopia Simon was building.

  Xavier said Simon wasn’t one of the tech guys. He was kind of a guru guy at the resort. He was one of those expensive counselors that taught them how to get in touch with their inner selves.

  “You know, be calm in your soul so you can be better at business and things like that.” Xavier said.

  “A motivational speaker?” Gunny asked.

  “I guess.” Xavier said. “Everybody likes him. He pulled us together in the beginning, got everyone organized to build defenses. We didn’t have an election or anything, Simon was the leader and we did what he asked because it made sense. He kept everyone alive.”

  “Who’s that big guy with the bad attitude.” He asked. “His bodyguard?”

  “William?” Xavier asked. “Nah, not really. He drifted in a few months after we’d barricaded the resort. He was really good at killing the undead. He helped us clear the town and get more food.”

  “And he sent you as a guard, to keep an eye on us?”

  “I volunteered.” Xavier said proudly. “When I heard you were coming, I wanted to help. We knew all about you guys, we have radios you know. Bastille named everybody that was coming, the same people I’ve heard stories about for a year. And when he said Bridget was on the train…”

  He cut himself off abruptly and looked embarrassed. “I wanted to meet you guys, that’s all.” He finished.

  Gunny learned that their weapon of choice, the microwave blasters, were fine for up close work. Anything over a few dozen yards and they weren’t effective. The batteries didn’t last very long, either. If you held the trigger down, they would be drained in less than a minute.

  “Why don’t you have guns?” Gunny asked

  “They’re hard to find.” Xavier replied. “The stores don’t have them and not very many people in California owned guns. We have some but not very many and ammunition is hard to find, too. Lance knew how to make microwave guns and there are plenty of those, every house has at least one microwave oven.”

  Gunny was getting a clearer picture now. Simon was the titular head of a large group of Silicon Valley techs, a group of women celebrating five years sobriety, a handful of local survivors and others that wandered in. William was the muscle who kept them safe and supplied. It was understandable he’d want something better than the microwave guns. As clever and effective as they were, they weren’t as good as a rifle.

  When they neared the gate at the border crossing Gunny slammed the brakes as soon as he saw the first sign. It was a sheet of plywood mounted on the tracks that said rails have been removed in one mile.

  He smashed through it at forty miles an hour as the wheels locked, sparks flew, metal screeched and sailors tumbled over each other with the sudden harsh braking. He crashed through the next three signs spaced every quarter mile until he finally brought the train to a halt. A few hundred yards ahead the tracks had been moved and set a few inches aside. They were resting on the cross ties, ready to be reinstalled or left where they were. The wall between the countries was only a half mile away. William, the big man with the bad attitude approached the train and shouted up to the open engineer’s window.

  “You have our guns?” he asked without preamble.

  “Yeah, we got them.” Gunny said, pissed they had chanced derailing the train. If he hadn’t already been slowing, preparing to do a reverse run to wipe out a few thousand followers, he would have been go
ing too fast to get stopped.

  “What’s with trashing the tracks?”

  “Bring them out and we’ll replace the rails. That’s our guarantee you don’t just keep on going and decide to keep them for yourself.”

  “Your guarantee is I told you we’d give them to you.” Gunny called down to him from the window, anger in his voice.

  “No.” William shouted back. “Our guarantee is we get them in our hands before we open the gate.”

  “Piss off.” Gunny said. “I’m going to throw this thing in reverse. I’m going to go kill a few thousand undead and when I get back, those rails better be fixed.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” William said. “Give us our guns. That was the deal.”

  “Safe passage was the deal.” Gunny yelled over the rumble of the locomotive. “I’ll be back in a half hour. I’ll be going eighty miles an hour, holding the throttle wide open and I guarandamntee I’ll plow though those walls if they’re still closed and the tracks are still missing.”

  Gunny threw the train into reverse and started picking up speed. The man ran alongside and shouted up at the window.

  “I’m not authorized to make that decision!” he shouted. “Simon is the only one who can negotiate!”

  “Half hour.” Gunny said. “We’ll be coming in hot. It’s up to you whether you’ll still have a border wall.”

  The man fell away as the train picked up speed, running back into Mexico to lay waste to the followers.

  It took nearly an hour for Gunny to run them down, get past the crawlers and come back in for another round of killing for the ones he’d missed the first time. The sailors lined up and took out as many as they could that were stumbling along the scrub beside the tracks. He and Griz opened the throttles wide on both engines and came roaring back to the border, train whistles blowing as they came barreling at the wall. Gunny knew they would move the rails back into place and spike them back down. They wouldn’t risk losing their southern wall. He hoped they wouldn’t, anyway. He was betting a lot on it. He breathed a sigh of relief as they blasted through the town and saw the gates standing wide open, the rails back in place.

  He hit the brakes as they neared and slid to a halt a half mile inside the wall then, the gates shutting behind them. The ramps dropped and the Sailors started bringing out their rifles and carbines, leaning them into stacks. Simon and his followers came riding up a few minutes later in their modified Tesla’s and they didn’t look very happy. He had a score of men hop out of the electric cars, their robes flowing and the big bracelets prominent.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Simon demanded when Gunny slid down the ladder and approached, Xavier at his side. “Your behavior is reckless and completely uncalled for.”

  “This is no way to establish trust.” Gunny said, glaring at both men. “When a man makes a deal, when he shakes on it, he expects that deal to be upheld.”

  “We fully intended to uphold our end of the bargain.” Simon blustered, we needed reassurances. We don’t know you.”

  “Yes, you do.” Gunny said. “You know us very well. You know who I am, what we’ve done and why we did it. Lakota is an open book. All are welcome and none are turned away. You choose to hide and not be part of the rebuilding, that’s fine. It’s a free country. But Lakota does what it says and if we’re going to do business in the future then you need to get that straight.”

  “We don’t need anything from you.” William spat, still furious.

  “Maybe not.” Gunny said and held his stare. “Maybe so. We have the ammo for all those guns. They’re just expensive clubs without it.”

  William’s face reddened. He hadn’t considered there might not be bullets.

  “Maybe we’ll just come take whatever we need.” He said coldly.

  “Those are dangerous words.” Gunny said, his eyes boring into the big mans and his hand loose near his gun. “Be careful which bridges you burn.”

  “At least we don’t blow them up and get people killed!” William said, his fist clenched.

  “Don’t.” Xavier said and raised his arm, aimed his microwave blaster at Williams head.

  Fast hands dipped and the Lakota crew standing on the platforms between cars had weapons aimed in an eye blink, all trained on the big man with the bad attitude.

  He froze, rage on his face as his thumb hovered over the trigger button on his blaster. Simon looked over and saw it too. The safety was off, it was ready to be engaged, to cut a swath of energized death across Gunny’s body.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, surprise and horror on his own face. He didn’t want to start a war, they didn’t stand a chance.

  “Nothing.” William said defensively, the moment of unhinged fury passing. “I wasn’t doing anything. Get that thing out of my face, Xavier. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

  “Your safety has been disengaged.” Xavier said, holding his arm straight and true. “You said it should never be off unless you’re ready to kill.”

  William looked down, acted surprised and flipped the locking mechanism back in place. “Happy? Get that thing out of my face.”

  The sailors were finished, ready to go and started raising the ramps. Thousands of guns were neatly arrayed in a series of teepee stacks.

  “You know how to find us if you want to be part of the rebuilding.” Gunny told Simon as the ramps closed and his crew waited for him to board.

  He stepped over to William, looked up into his angry face, his gunfighter eyes cold and penetrating.

  “I’m sorry about your family.” He said quietly. “I really am but I did what I did to save thousands. You can stay pissed at me for as long as you want but it would be best if I never got pissed at you.”

  He turned to climb the short ladder back up to the idling engine and noted with satisfaction that Hollywood, Bridget and Griz all held their guns at the ready. Just in case.

  Xavier climbed up behind him and asked “Did you mean it when you said all are welcome?”

  “Yes, we don’t turn people away.”

  “Can I come?”

  “Of course, you can.” Gunny said. “In fact, why don’t you take the engineers seat and get us out of here, you know the tracks better than me.”

  19

  Jessie

  A few weeks at the lighthouse on Lake Superior became a few months and he grew tan, lost the paleness of being indoors for years and adjusted to earth foods again. He found a small sailboat in dry storage, some how-to books at the library and spent days on the water teaching himself a new skill. He sailed up the coastline and when he was comfortable with the little boat, he found a bigger one with on onboard shower, a queen-sized bed and a full galley. Bob liked it a lot better and took advantage of the swimming platform to lounge around all day. He went slow, camped in coves and spent a little time hunting when the mood struck him. Fishing was good but sometimes he craved fresh meat. They sailed all the way up to Thunder Bay and would have traveled farther but the wind off the lake was starting to get downright cold. The leaves had turned and fallen, winter was coming and he knew he had to stop procrastinating, he had to get moving. He had to do something with his life. His planet hopping space adventures were over.

  No one he knew from that time had even been born and wouldn’t be for another few thousand years. Except Maddy. She was out there floating in the black emptiness of space waiting for him to arrive sometime in the future. Except he already had. He was here and she was there, trillions of miles and thousands of years apart. The Queen of the Outer Reaches might be alive, she was ancient and ageless. Some said she was a survivor on a doomed colony ship. They said some went mad and lived off the frozen corpses of their shipmates for a thousand years. They would grow up, grow old then reset themselves to nine years old again. They said they’d done it over and over until the ship reached its destination and deployed the jump gate. They came back to a destroyed galaxy and they had the finest and fastest ships. They took over, fought for power and controlled th
e known systems for centuries until she grew tired of politics, killed her fellow colony ship survivors and retreated to her private system.

  They also said she was the daughter of a king, the last survivor of an ancient race and that she wasn’t even real, an urban legend that never existed. Jessie didn’t give it much thought. He’d never see her again and he knew Maddy would teach his young and dumb self to steer clear of her.

  The long months of solitude had been what he needed and he felt better than he had in years. He wasn’t sure what day it was but he thought it was getting close to November. Somehow, he had bummed around the whole summer. Nobody had tried to kill him and he hadn’t had to kill anyone. Even the zombie encounters had been few and far between. He wanted to be back in Lakota before the snows started and maybe he’d vote in the election. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed, you had to be eighteen before the fall and his driver’s license, if he still had one, would show him being seventeen.

  He turned the boat south and brought his thoughts and worries back to this world. He didn’t know what the future held, he’d seen a couple of different ones and there was no way of knowing what caused each. He was fine with that.

  He spent a final night in the lighthouse in the lantern room and watched the stars for hours. The other him was out there, Scarlet was out there and Maddy would take care of them both. He was at peace and with Bob snoring at his side, he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  When Jessie started packing the car the next morning, the Shepherd jumped in and waited patiently in his seat. He was ready to get moving again, too. The Mercury thundered down the winding roads, sending animals scurrying away in fright. Many of them had never seen a human or heard human noises. He cut across the middle of the country and passed a convoy of trucks running supplies. The chatter on the CB was upbeat and light hearted, most of the truckers still laughing about how Gunny had tricked his wife into becoming the next president. Neither Radio Lakota or Tower Broadcasting had any news other than local happenings. Bastille went on a long-winded rant about the dangers of letting in outsiders during his news hour. There had been a few incidents of drunk and disorderly conduct from some of the traveling nomads and some of the high school kids had been in a fight with the zoo kids and there had been some serious injuries. He blustered on about letting people unfit for civil society inside the walls. He kept alluding to an incident where a mother and her newborn had been attacked by some scurrilous men who had gotten through the gates without any sort of background check. It was hard to make sense of a lot of it, Jessie had been away for so long and he still had a hard time separating true memories from those that didn’t apply anymore. They were all true but some hadn’t happened. As he listened to Bastille blather on for an hour, he gleaned that the feral children he’d met had made the trip and the two with the polar bears had survived. He was glad, at least something he’d done in all the time traveling had turned out good. The other big story was his mom was president. He didn’t remember that ever happening but he hadn’t stuck around when he’d jumped back and forth into different times. Just long enough to determine where and when he was, if he was too late or too early.