Zombie D.O.A. (The Complete Series)

by JJ Zep

  “That’s good enough,” Joe said. “I’m figuring we roll into Pendleton in those monster trucks at first light tomorrow, catch them with their pants down. We go in convoy to here. Chris, you peal off to your right here and secure the airfield. Sam, you and me keep going to the t-junction then I go left and take the hospital, you go right and lock down the HQ.”

  “You make it sound like we can just breeze in and have our way with the place,” Sam said. “What kind of resistance can we expect?”

  “Minimal. Like I said, they’re not expecting an attack. You have to understand that the base itself covers a huge area. At its peak it had a strength of 100 000 marines and support staff. Now you got 400 men, scattered around the place with vast tracts of open land in between. By the time they get their boots on it will all be over.”

  “Where’s Ruby being held?” I asked.

  “That would be at the hospital. And that’s also where Rolly has his little chemistry lab, constructed at great expense, so his team of lunatics can cook up their concoctions.”

  “I want that one,” I said.

  “Sorry Chris, I can’t let that happen. We have no idea how Ruby will react when she sees you.”

  “How will she even know me?”

  “She’ll know you, compadre, trust me on this. And if her reaction is…shall we say, unfriendly, you’ll want to be in the next county when it goes down.”

  “Why would her reaction be unfriendly?”

  “Not saying it will be. But I don’t know that she’ll welcome you with open arms either.”

  Perhaps seeing the expression on my face, Joe said, “This is for the best, Chris. Don’t worry, I’ll get her and Dr Gish and the other kids out, load them into a couple ambulances and meet up with you. You’ll get to see Ruby soon enough, but any face to face will have to be in a controlled environment. Besides I need you at the airfield.”

  I knew Joe was right, but I’d always imagined that I’d be the one to rescue Ruby. I felt a pang that was part envy, part frustration, and part regret and I consoled myself with the fact that I’d soon see my daughter again.

  “Gaining control of the airfield,” Joe continued, “is vital to the success of this operation. They get their choppers in the air, and they’ll cut us to pieces. Some of the pilots may actually come down on our side, like we saw yesterday Chris, but some won’t, so it’s essential that those helicopters never leave the ground.”

  “What’s their strength likely to be at the airfield?”

  “There’ll be sentries for sure, so expect some resistance. But most of them see those dump trucks rolling in, they’ll shit their pants and drop their weapons.”

  “Where will this, Roland Pendragon, be?” Sam asked.

  “Ah yes, Rolly,” Joe said. “He’ll be in your quadrant Sam.” He indicated a small cluster of buildings on the map. “This here is the Pendleton Hilton, this is the HQ, and this is where the Corporation brass, including Rolly, have their digs.”

  “So what do you want me to do with Pendragon?” Sam asked.

  “Nothing. My plan is to give Rolly Pendragon a swift exit from this world. But I need to be clear on this, gents, I get to do the honors. Understood?”

  twenty nine

  We rolled out of Yorba Linda in three of Sam Suchet’s dump trucks after midnight. By daybreak, we’d made the turn from Interstate 5 towards the camp. I was riding shotgun with Beau Stewart in the lead truck and he now floored her and we went hurtling along the blacktop. The palm trees along the road became a blur as we crashed through the booms at the main gate without slowing. There was no gunfire from the sentries. In fact, the checkpoint didn’t seem to be manned at all.

  The road now cut through an open plain. A few miles further on, it made a wide arc then looped back on itself and as it did the hangar buildings and control tower came into view. I half expected to see helicopters lifting off, but the airfield remained dark and silent. We turned right and crashed through a flimsy chain link gate, then raced along a short access road that took us onto the airfield. Up ahead I could make out the silhouettes of about twenty helicopters, parked neatly on the runway, their rotors reflecting gold from the rising sun. If there were pilots on the base they hadn’t bothered scrambling.

  The airfield was surrounded by hangars and other buildings on three sides, with the fourth side opening out into a couple of runways. Beyond that was open ground as far as the eye could see.

  I posted guards at the choppers, then sent patrols out to search and secure the buildings. They returned dragging four sleepy chopper pilots, in boxer shorts and t-shirts.

  “What’s going on?” one of them yawned.

  “We’re taking over the base.”

  “About fucking time,” the man said. “You with Joe Thursday?”

  “We are.”

  “Good, now at least we can start doing things properly around here.”

  “Where are the sentries?” I asked.

  “Probably crashing in the guardhouse. We’re not used to visitors.”

  We rounded up the sentries and placed them and the pilots under guard and then we waited.

  The sun crept its way over the horizon and still the base remained as silent as slumber. It was as though the place had been deserted.

  But that just didn’t feel right to me. The Corporation had time and money invested here, Rolly had the Pendleton Hilton and his chemistry lab. Yet we’d just walked in and taken the place without firing a single shot. The more I thought about it, the more it felt to me like we’d walked into a trap.

  I was just wondering what the hell was keeping Joe so long at the hospital, when I heard the sound of one of the dump trucks throttling up. I walked around the barracks building and looked back down the access road. In that moment the truck came hurtling around the corner and went into a slide before correcting and heading towards me at speed. A field ambulance followed in its wake.

  Even before the truck stopped, Joe came hurtling from the cab, “Saddle up compadre, we’ve got to get out of here!”

  “Where’s Ruby?”

  “Right behind us in the ambulance, listen we gotta move!”

  “Why? What’s happened?”

  “Pendragon suckered us!”

  “What?”

  “Son of a bitch suckered us.”

  Just then, I heard the sound of a 50-mil opening up. “That’s Sam,” Joe said, “Shit!”

  “What the fuck’s going on, Joe?”

  “No time now amigo, I need you to escort that ambulance outa here. I’m going back for Sam.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “No you’re not! Your priority is to get Ruby out. Go now!”

  Behind us, the report of the 50-mil was now a constant clatter, and there were other sounds too, small arms fire and rockets and muted explosions.

  Joe was already in the cab of the truck as it did a loop on the concrete. As it did, the ambulance pulled forward and the truck rounded it and sped off.

  I looked at that ambulance, knowing that my daughter was inside, just a few feet away and even with the sounds of the battle raging, it took all the willpower I could muster not to run towards it, throw open the doors and embrace her.

  A rocket suddenly came sailing out over the buildings behind us and exploded at the edge of the runway, and that got me moving.

  “Mount up!” I shouted and ran for the truck. I vaulted up onto the running board and stood there watching the men clamber aboard. As I did another rocket cleared the buildings this time landing among the helicopters. One of them exploded immediately and then triggered a chain reaction as the entire row went up like a string of firecrackers.

  From my position high up on the truck, I looked north and between the buildings I could see thousands of figures out in the field, advancing quickly. Joe was right, Rolly Pendragon had suckered us. He’d made us believe he only had 400 men at Pendleton, but there had to be at least a battalion out there.

  Getting out by the main access road w
as no longer an option, and I had a much more urgent problem, getting off the airfield before one of those rockets hit the truck, or worse still, the ambulance.

  “Move it!” I shouted to Beau Stewart and as he pulled the truck forward, I jumped into the bed and indicated to the driver of the ambulance to follow. We rounded the barracks block and headed down the access road. Before we reached the corner I banged on the roof of the cab and the truck came to stop. I got on the 50-mil, and told Beau to pull forward. As we left the cover of the building I opened up, firing straight back down the road. It was a fool thing to do exposing our flank like that, but my main concern was to protect the ambulance, which now slipped behind us and headed for the t-junction.

  Beau followed and I swung the 50-mil around and kept firing, feeling the recoil jangling in my damaged wrist but not caring. The men on the back of the truck were firing too, taking a heavy toll on the infantry running towards us. I could see now that my estimate of a battalion was way off the mark. It looked like they had an entire army coming down the road towards us.

  The ambulance had now stopped at the t-junction, not sure which way to turn, so I told Beau to round it and we led the way, using the buildings to the left as cover.

  We stopped behind the HQ building and I dismounted and skirted around. I could see one of the dump trucks blazing fiercely and beyond that, across the plain, the rest of Pendragon’s troops. They’d stopped their advance, but the field was black with their number.

  “I thought I told you to get the fuck out of here,” a voice said. For a moment I couldn’t see Joe and then he moved and I saw him crouching behind a low wall to my right.

  “Unfortunately, that’s not an option. They got the north side covered too.”

  “Fuck!” Joe said. “Son of a bitch Pendragon played us.”

  “How the hell did he get so many men in the field so quickly, I thought you said he only had four hundred?”

  “ You haven’t figured that out yet?”

  “Figured what out?”

  “Listen,” Joe said simply.

  I did and at first all I could hear was the sound of wind whistling between the buildings and the occasional burst of gunfire. And then it came to me, almost imperceptible at first, but impossible to ignore once you picked up its frequency. The low, steady hum of Zs en masse.

  thirty

  “We could fall back to the hospital,” Sam said, “Buy ourselves some time while we figure something out.”

  “It won’t work,” Joe said, “Whether we hole up in the HQ, the hospital or the prison, Rolly can just keep sending in wave after wave of Zs. How long do you think our ammo will last? And once it’s used up, how long do you think we’ll last?

  “Why’s he waiting anyway?” I asked, “Why doesn’t he just send them in to finish us?”

  “Same reason he keeps his little prison and torture house, same reason a cat toys with a mouse. It’s a power trip. Right now he has the power of life or death over us. Guys like Rolly Pendragon get off on that.”

  “So what are you saying? We just lie down and die without putting up a fight?”

  “Not saying that compadre, not even close. In fact we have the means right here to finish Rolly and his Z army once and for all.”

  “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking, Joe.”

  “I wouldn’t be, if there was any other way out, but…”

  “No,” I said emphatically.

  “Might not be your call entirely, Chris.”

  “Really, Joe? You think I’m going to stand by and let you use my daughter like she’s a nuclear weapon?”

  “So what’s the alternative, Rolly sends in his Zs and they kill all of us, including Ruby. Or he kills us and captures Ruby and she spends the rest of her life as his lab rat.”

  “And what if she unleashes herself on them and spends the rest of her life comatose, like Fiona? What then, Joe? Who lives with that?”

  “This is not just about you, Chris. There are some good men here, with families at home. Sam and his men didn’t have to be here.”

  “Well they chose to be. No-one held a gun to their heads. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.” I looked across at Sam and he shrugged.

  “Besides Joe,” I said, “this is your gig, your command. We’re in the shit because of your lack of foresight.”

  “Oh yeah, Mr. fucking twenty-twenty, so glad you raised all your concerns about my lack of foresight at the strategy meeting yesterday!”

  “Strategy,” I snorted, “I’ve seen more strategy on…”

  “Gentlemen?” a woman’s voice said and I turned to see Dr. Gish approaching. “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. Joe, I’m afraid I must agree with Mr. Collins on this. It won’t work. You know yourself that Ruby’s responses are unpredictable, even if she were to activate, we might be in as much danger from her as they are.”

  “Okay,” Joe said. “That’s it. I give in. Sam get your men together. Looks like it’s Butch and Sundance time.”

  Sam turned to shout out a command to his men, but I only heard the first part of it. I was looking back towards the ambulance, where a dark-haired little girl had appeared. She was wearing a blue and green tartan dress with a ruffled white collar. One of her hands rested against the side of the ambulance and the other was held shyly to her mouth. Even at this distance, I could see that she had her mother’s dark eyes.

  thirty one

  “Ruby!” Dr. Gish said, running towards the girl. “How did you get out?” Come, let’s get back inside. Come now.” She took Ruby’s hand and tried to lead her towards the back of the ambulance, but Ruby wouldn’t budge. She continued staring directly at me.

  It is difficult to describe to you how I felt in that moment. The world around me seemed to come to a standstill. There were no sounds, no movement. Everything other than the perfect little girl in front of me became a blur. I was overcome by an emotion that was deeper than love, higher than elation. I wanted to run towards Ruby and scoop her up in my arms and just keep running until we were far from this place and everyone who wanted to keep us apart.

  I felt tears welling in my eyes, spilling over, running down my cheeks. I saw that Dr. Gish was crouching down now, and whispering something in Ruby’s ear and that Ruby was nodding vigorously in the emphatic way that kids do when they want to make a point.

  And then I saw Dr. Gish rise and take Ruby’s hand and they started walking towards me. The thirty feet they had to cover seemed to take forever and as they approaching I got down on one knee so that I could be face-to-face with my daughter.

  “Ruby?” Dr. Gish said, “Do you know who this is?”

  Ruby nodded and looked at her shoes, “My daddy,” she said.

  “You remember your daddy?”

  Again Ruby nodded, “My daddy carried me on his back in the dark, when the bad man was watching.”

  For a moment I was confused, but then I remembered, me and Joe working our way through the sewers, running from Bronson Chavez. But how could she have remembered that, she’d only been two days old?

  As though reading my thoughts, Ruby said, “The bad man looked at me,” and I recalled that too, the expression on Chavez’s face as we’d descended into the manhole.

  I looked at my daughter and was overcome by the perfection of her, by the resemblance she had to her mother. The tears flowed again and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.

  I suddenly had an overwhelming need to hold her and I tried to draw her to me, but she resisted. Ruby was now looking past me to the field beyond, and her eyes carried a hint of the insanity I’d seen in Rosie, just before she’d died.

  “We got movement out there,” I heard Joe say and I could hear the sound of Humvee’s being revved. I got to my feet and looked across the field and as I did, I felt Ruby slip her little hand into mine. If Pendragon’s men had shot me right then, I’d have died a happy man.

  thirty two

  Back in New York three and a bit years
ago I’d challenged a giant Z named Iakopo to a boxing match, knowing I had no chance of winning but hoping somehow for a miracle. The miracle on that occasion had been Joe Thursday and his sniper’s rifle, but I didn’t think Joe was going to save me now.

  Still as I looked out across the field with the Humvees approaching and thousands of Zs running behind them, I felt strangely at peace, as though this is how it was meant to be, this is how it was meant to end. You may wonder why I wasn’t concerned for Ruby, standing by my side with her hand in mine. I’ve wondered that myself, many times, over the years, and what I’ve come up with is this. Crazy as it sounds, I believe that Ruby was transmitting to me, telling me not to worry, that everything would be okay.

  The Humvees had stopped now, drawing themselves into a line about 500 feet from us, and the Zs too had stopped, although their insane humming soon reached my ears. Three Humvees at the center pulled forward and I recognized the man standing up in one of them as Roland Pendragon.

  Rolly lifted something to his mouth and his voice suddenly boomed across the battlefield.

  “Joe? Joe Thursday?” he sniggered, “Is that really you? Are you really that stupid? Did you really think you could take me on with some earth moving equipment and a few of your drinking buddies?”

  He obviously expected a response, and when he didn’t get one he said, “What’s the matter Joe? Z got your tongue? That must have struck him as especially funny, because he chuckled to himself before continuing. “As you can see gents, the trigger has well and truly been pulled. Look around you and see the future of the world. An army that never tires, knows no fear and never has to be fed. That’s because they eat their enemies, in case you were wondering.” He giggled again.

  “Now, this goes out to you other gentlemen, the one’s that Hey Joe managed to sweet talk into this suicide mission. I’m a reasonable man. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. I got no beef with you, so here’s what I’m going to do. This is a one time offer, mind, and it’s only good for the next five minutes.”