by Brad Knight
“Good. We’ll be leaving in a couple of minutes.”
“Sir, if I may, might I ask what our mission is. We weren’t briefed before coming down here. All I know is that we were instructed to come fully armed and ready for a fight.” Tyson asked questions. Ted didn’t like that. But he thought it rude not to answer.
“There are some, well I guess the best term for them, is that they are rebels. We need to track them down and exterminate them. Is that a problem?” If Tyson answered wrong or took too long to answer, Ted would have no qualms about having him killed right there on the spot.
“None at all, sir. I’ll load my men up on the helo.” Tyson answered correctly and quickly.
“Great! Let’s get started.”
Ted went over to his helicopter with his small escort team from the Los Angeles facility. Once in the air, the CEO’s transport lifted up the black metal crates by tow cables. The assault on LA was officially underway.
Sebastian watched as the helicopters flew off towards the nearby city. He was happy. There was little doubt in his mind that Ted wouldn’t come back again. The company was as good as his. All he had to do was wait.
What a view. The enhancements bestowed upon Ted from the nanites in his body allowed him to look out on Los Angeles with perfect clarity. And he liked what he saw. It was desolate and quiet and void of life. Perfect.
Compared to the other men and women in the helicopters, Ted was lightly armed. He had a couple of pistols and that was it. His real weapons were hanging below, carried by cables. Once he broke those out, any fight they might encounter would be over.
The co-pilot of Ted’s helicopter turned around. “Sir, we have gunshots to the east, on the highway. Should we engage?”
Ted moved over and looked out the other side of the helicopter. There were indeed gunshots. But from what he could tell, there were only two people down there shooting at meat puppets. “No, stay on mission.”
“Twenty seconds!” yelled the pilot of Ted’s helicopter.
“Remember, level the place first, then you’ll drop us off. Is that clear?” Ted made sure that his pilot knew the deal. He didn’t want anything to go wrong. By the time the sun set he wanted the survivors and his missing scientist dead.
“Target in range,” the pilot’s voice over the radio was like music to Ted’s ears.
With a Cheshire grin plastered across his face, Ted gave the order. “Open fire!”
“Roger that,” Ted could hear the voices of the other two pilots in his headset. They responded almost in unison.
Rockets flew from all three helicopters. They bombarded the New Babylon Apartment building. It would have only taken a couple to bring the structure down, but Ted was always one for overkill. He ordered them to keep pelting it.
“You think that was enough? Maybe you need to fire off a few more. You know, just to be safe.” Thomas chimed in sarcastically. Ted shrugged his father’s ghost off. There was killing to be done. Nothing would distract him from that.
“Okay, set us down,” Ted pointed at the street in front of the burning and crumbling apartment building.
“Sir, that’s too dangerous. There are some rooftops nearby. That would probably be a better option. A safer one,” suggested Ted’s pilot.
When we get back you’re fired. “I don’t care about what’s safer! Set us down in front of the fucking building. Now!”
“Dial it back, boy. You don’t want them knowing you’re a psycho, do you? That could be bad for you.” No matter how hard Ted tried to ignore his father’s ghost, it wouldn’t go away. At least that time it gave him sound advice.
The helicopter pilot did what he was told. He descended towards the street outside the New Babylon Apartment building. Wind from the rotors sent burning embers spinning. First he detached the steel tow cables that carried the mysterious black crates. Once that cargo was unloaded, he set the bird down.
Ted was the first out of the chopper. As soon as his boots hit the asphalt he could smell the devastation. It was like perfume to him.
The other helicopters set down as Ted’s lifted back off, having already unloaded its passengers. Isaac and Tyson’s teams joined their CEO outside the burning apartment building. That was the only thing that stopped Ted from admiring his handiwork for the rest of the night.
“Sir, our next move?” asked Isaac.
A man came stumbling out of the wreckage of the New Babylon Apartments. He was badly burnt. His clothes barely hung on to his body. Either the fire took his eyesight or he was concussed. The man didn’t seem to notice the hostile heavily armed men before him.
Ted took out one of his pistols and shot the burnt man several times in his chest. “Check for any survivors. Kill any that you find. Then spread out through the area. If anyone comes back, I want someone here to meet them. We’ll all regroup back here at the designated time. Simple huh?”
“Sir, yes sir,” answered Isaac.
“Good, let’s do it.”
“C’mon boys,” ordered Isaac as he led his men around the rubble. Tyson’s team spread out throughout the block. Ted had other plans.
Calmly, Ted approached the black metal crates. There were two of them. He opened the first one. Two meat puppet black bears came storming out. Their eyes glowed an intense blue.
Calm down. Come to my side. Ted used his mind and the nanites in his blood to control the two intimidating beasts. They did as commanded and sat next to the mad CEO like obedient dogs.
Ted moved on to the second crate. He opened it up. Four infected chimps came out. Like the bears they had glowing blue eyes and were made to heel to his commands. What purpose they were going to serve was known only to himself.
Isaac and his team patrolled the perimeter of the New Babylon Apartments property. There was no going inside to check for survivors. The structure still crumbled and burned.
Since they couldn’t go into the rubble, Isaac ordered all of his men to throw in one of their fragmentation grenades. Ten of the baseball sized explosives landed in the wreckage. Seconds before they exploded, the team took cover.
The ten small explosions only served to hasten the collapse of the New Babylon Apartment building. They were the last nails in the structure’s coffin. No one could have survived. At least no one in the main building.
Isaac’s team heard the sound of car engines. He looked around to see where it was coming from, and spotted headlights inside the parking garage next door.
“The garage!” yelled Isaac as he raised his rifle and pointed it at the headlights. He followed them all the way down till the exit. “When they come out, fire at will!”
The garage gate slowly opened. A sedan came roaring out. Whoever was behind the wheel looked to push the car to it limits. But they never really got their chance.
Isaac’s and his team lit the sedan up with gun fire. They could see blood splatter on the windows from the inside. The sedan careened out of control and crashed into a telephone pole.
“They didn’t get very far,” laughed Isaac. He approached the bullet and blood ridden sedan. Before he could open the door and check out the damage, another car came roaring out of the parking garage.
With tires screeching, the second car sped out into the street and turned the opposite direction from Isaac and his team. It started to go down the street, then the driver slammed on the breaks. Then it turned around.
“Looks like someone wants to play,” said Isaac with a smile. He aimed his rifle.
The second car went full speed at Isaac, who walked out to the middle of the street to meet it. It was clear the driver meant to run him over. That wasn’t going to happen.
Isaac emptied his clip into the windshield of the oncoming car. Like the sedan before it, the second vehicle started to go out of control. But then it corrected itself. The cocky security team leader was so confident he killed whoever was inside that he wasn’t able to move in time. With a thud he was struck and rolled up onto the windshield.
The rest of
Isaac’s team tore the renegade car to shreds. With that many bullets, they ensured that anyone inside was well and truly dead. It slowly came to a stop.
“Fuck,” mumbled Isaac as he got up off the street. A laceration on his forehead dripped blood into his eye. Getting hit by the car resulted in him suffering a fracture in his arm. But he only needed one to hold a gun.
“Sir?” One of Isaac’s men watched his leader struggle to get up and rejoin the team. “Are you…?” A shotgun shell burst through the back of the man’s neck and almost took his head off.
Out of the second car emerged Lincoln. He was covered in blood. The leader of New Babylon had several gunshot wounds but didn’t fall. Instead he lifted up a double barrel shotgun and unloaded on Isaac’s team. Two were hit, one died.
Lincoln didn’t make it very far. Isaac blew the back of his head off. The former leader of the New Babylon survivors fell dead face first in the street.
Isaac groaned and stretched his neck. “What the fuck was that about? Why the hell didn’t he just leave? We wouldn’t have been able to catch him.”
“Over here, sir,” said one of Isaac’s men.
Isaac walked over to the first car whose engine was still smoking, wrapped around a telephone pole. His man who beckoned him over stood next to the open driver’s side passenger door. The Salt Lake City team leader took a look inside.
“Oh, now I get it,” said Isaac as he looked into the car. There were dead women and children in every seat. Their blood splattered every surface. Bullet holes had made Swiss cheese out of their bodies. “Guess this is why that guy was so pissed.”
***
Tyson’s group meticulously checked every building within a couple of blocks of the New Babylon remains. They were looking for any of the survivors that weren’t in the building when the helicopters attacked. After checking every single one, they found nothing.
“The area is all clear, sir. We’re the only ones here,” reported one of Tyson’s men.
“Shhh, quiet.” Tyson’s group were ready to extend their search when they heard the distinctive high pitch screech of meat puppets. And from the sound of it, there were a lot of them.
“All right, we saw this coming. Blowing up that building made a hell of a lot of noise. It was only a matter of time till those things showed up.” Tyson proceeded to order his men to take up defensive positions. In his time up in Washington state, he knew that there was no running from the meat puppets. You either avoid them completely or be prepared to stand and fight.
Red eyes came out of every alleyway and building. They all ran straight for Tyson and his team who were positioned behind empty cars in the street. As soon as the creatures were in range, the order was given to start fighting.
It didn’t matter how many bullets Tyson’s team had. The number that really counted, man power, wasn’t enough to overcome the waves of ravenous undead that descended upon them. Those that escaped the hail of gunfire either ran past them or tried to kill them.
Tyson found himself shooting meat puppets seconds before they reached and either infected or killed him. Each one got closer. In an extremely brief break in the action he spotted two strange looking creatures. They were very fast, and very fat.
Not one to test his luck, Tyson fired on the two fat and fast monsters. He hit them, but he didn’t slow them down. Instead each impact brought a cloud of nanites. But they were too far away for him to notice.
With an empty magazine, Tyson prepared to load another. That’s when he felt a sharp pain across his back. The Washington team leader was so focused on downing the fast and fat meat puppets that he didn’t see the one behind him.
Tyson felt the blood drip down his back, but the pain quickly dissipated. He had no time to worry about it. Before he knew it, he was in a wrestling match with an undead monstrosity. The puppet that took some flesh from his back jumped on top of him.
It took all that Tyson had to keep the meat puppet from biting him in the face. He still had his sidearm but no free hand to reach for it. As strong as he was, he couldn’t wrestle for as long as the meat puppet could. If he didn’t figure out something fast, he was done for.
Every attempt at leverage only resulted in the fat puppet getting closer to Tyson's face. The Washington team leader could smell the creature’s breath. It smelled of sour milk and rotten meat. All he could think was: Is this the last thing I’m going to see and smell? I would’ve been better off being killed during the outbreak.
Moments before Tyson ran out of strength and the meat puppet took a bite out of his face, something jumped on the creature’s back. It ripped the monster right off of him. What saved his life? He had no idea.
Tyson got up and looked around in shock. All of his men were either dead or dying. The meat puppets turned them into something resembling ground mince. Almost as upsetting were the blue eyed meat puppet chimps that were running rough shot all around him. It was one of them that saved him. And it was all of them who were dispatching the other infected that wiped out his team.
“You okay?” Tyson heard someone ask him. He turned to see who it was. Standing there as calm as could be was Ted. His boss, the CEO, just smiled at him.
“I think so. I got scratched but that’s it.” Tyson picked up his gun.
“Glad to hear it. We need good men like you.” As soon as he was done complimenting Tyson, he shot him in the head. “That is, we would need men like you if you weren’t infected.”
Fall in my pretties. Ted gave the mental command and the chimps obeyed. They promptly stopped savaging the other meat puppets and fell in beside him. That’s when he spotted the fat and fast meat puppets who weren’t deterred by the arrival of the vicious apes.
Those are new. I don’t believe we made those. Interesting. “Take them down, and bring their bodies to me,” ordered Ted, even though he didn’t have to say so out loud.
The infected chimps screeched their version of a war cry and charged the fat and fast meat puppets. Ted watched as his little super soldiers took down their targets. He wanted to believe the monsters took joy in it. In reality he knew that they had no choice. And if he wasn’t the one in control, they’d turn on him in a second. So he had to make sure he didn’t take any strong blows to his head or he might become one of their victims.
While dragging the bloated corpses of the two fat and fast meat puppets, the chimps returned to the side of their master. They followed Ted back to the rubble of the New Babylon Apartment buildings, where Isaac and his team were waiting.
“There’s no survivors on site, Mr. Gorman,” reported Isaac, who looked a bit banged up.
“Tyson and his team are gone. I need yours to take over their assignment. Survey the area. Make sure none of these little roaches are hiding in any of these buildings.”
“What about you, sir?”
Ted mentally commanded his meat puppet bears to follow him. “Me? I’m going hunting for a doctor.”
Chapter 11
: The Docks
“Do you even know how to drive a boat?” asked Amber as she and Mack walked along the beach. She was closer to the water, and let the incoming tide wash over her bare feet. The shoelaces were tied together allowing her to carry her boots around her neck.
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried,” answered Mack, who was right beside her.
“Do you think there’ll still be any left? I mean, wouldn’t someone have already taken them and tried to get out of here?”
I sure hope not. Because I’m all out of options. “I’m sure there’s something left. Remember what they said back in Vegas? Any boat that tried to sail out of here was sunk. That probably made a lot of people think twice about escaping by sea.”
“Ocean.”
“What?”
“You said by sea. Seas are smaller than oceans and are usually where the water and land meet.”
Mack grinned. “That so?”
“Yup. It’s one of the few things I remember from Oceanography class. One of the fe
w things I remember from school, period.” Amber looked down. She saw a rather alluring looking shell in receding wet sand. Not able to resist, she bent over and picked it up.
“Can I ask you something?” asked Mack.
“Yeah.” Amber admired her newly acquired sea shell.
“Why’d you tell those marines that I’m your dad?”
Amber didn’t answer for about a half a minute. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t know. Call it curiosity.”
Amber didn’t look up from her sea shell or the sand. “My real dad, as you know, was an asshole. Since I met you, you’ve been more of a father to me than he ever was. You took care of me. You looked after me. I don't know... I feel like we're family.”
Throwing his tough guy exterior away, Mack pulled in Amber with one arm and hugged her. She was a little embarrassed, even though there was no one around. It was a sweet little moment in the bitter world they lived in.
They continued walking down the beach. It stretched on and on, until finally the masts of boats appeared in the distance. Seeing their goal within reach, Mack hurried up. The night was still a few hours away. Ideally they wanted to be on the water by the time the sun went down. And hopefully the docks ahead were meat puppet free.
There wasn’t much security around the dock area. Mack didn't see any fences topped with razor wire. The only thing that resembled a protective measure was what looked like a guard kiosk. That caught his eye.
Mack kept low as he and Amber speed walked towards the lone kiosk. When they reached it, they smelled human decay. The nearby ocean covered up the scent until they were right on top of it. What was left of the guard was slumped in a corner on the floor of the little structure. More important than the corpse were the rows of glistening keys hanging on one of the walls.
“Guess we need to choose one. C’mon, let’s check these boats out.” Mack led Amber down one of the eight rows of boardwalk.
