Zombie Theorem: Dark Times Book Five

by James Wallace

  I twisted as fast as my feet would let me, catching the zombie in a head lock. Cause you know, holding a zombie’s head in your arms against your body is always a great idea. I grabbed onto the blood encrusted blonde hair and swung in a circle lifting the body off the ground. As I reached my arc I let go and the zombie flew away from me and onto the ground sliding face first in the dirt and grass.

  “Move!” a female voice yelled in my head. I heeded its command and dove to my side. Two more zombies had come from the trees and were about to attack me.

  I moved over toward Eugene to give myself room to work. I lifted my hands ready to fight again, when a thought dawned on me. What a dunce, I was wearing my sidearm. I reached down to pull it out when I felt a tug and then heard a loud bang. I examined the space around me and found Eugene with my sidearm firing into the crowd of zombies. Every shot was a kill. More zombies poured out of the trees around us. I reached around and brought my SCAR to my front. I lifted it and took aim firing into the zombies as they came forward. More and more appeared, and then in the distance I could hear loud booms and heavy fire. My convoy had been targeted and were fighting for their lives, if those sounds meant anything.

  I blew through my first magazine, switched it out and then dug into my vest and pulled out loaded magazines for the Glock that Eugene was busily firing, dropping them to the ground. We fired and reloaded and fired and reloaded. More and more zombies came out of the trees and all around our small clearing. I was blasting through all the ammo on me, soon we would be dry and then the fight would be hand to hand again.

  I felt like all was lost, that I had found Eugene just to lose him and let down Dan. Then a baby’s cry broke through the firing. I turned my attention to the small package Eugene was valiantly trying to protect. It was a child, a newborn baby girl, wrapped in blankets and shoved into a backpack. Angel’s prophetic words hit me. There are three, soon there will be two, and then one. I lost focus only for a moment, allowing the faster zombies to get closer. I quickly blew through another magazine clearing out a bigger circle around us. I switched to my last magazine and prepared to go down fighting hand to hand when it was empty. I would not let down my best friend’s father or allow a baby die. I would take every single zombie to hell with me if I had to. I blew through six rounds and heard Eugene’s pistol click empty. I risked a moment looking down to Eugene.

  “I will make you a path, and follow you, keeping them off of you.”

  “Never going to happen Brian, I was bitten and don’t trust myself with this precious one. Give me your SCAR, I will make a hole for you,” Eugene smiled up at me.

  So close, so close, only to end in defeat. I removed my SCAR and handed it to Eugene as he handed me the backpack. I looked into the baby’s face as it opened its eyes and looked up to me. The eyes were a golden hue I had never seen before. I tucked the bag into the crook of my arm like a football and got ready to run, when a wall of rounds zipped through the bushes and cut the zombies down like a reaper with his scythe. I dropped to the ground and wrapped my free arm and body around Eugene.

  I prayed that if I died that Angel herself would see me to that island in the bay. I held the baby against my chest and prepared for the bite or bullet to end it all. When nothing happened and the air around me was silent, I slowly rose from the ground and began to move. I saw the greatest sight ever, Athena breaking free from the trees with her golden hair a mess. An intense look on her face, she limped toward me all the while scanning the trees for more danger. As she came to my side, she collapsed to the ground next to me, breathing in gasps. I was breathing hard too, as if I had run miles with a full pack. I dropped back to the ground, Athena rested her head on my shoulder breathing, just as hard.

  “You run off like that again and I am going to shoot you in the ass,” she spoke through heavy breaths.

  “Can’t promise anything,” I tilted my head and kissed her on the lips softly. “Are you bitten or wounded?”

  “Not bitten, but someone in the trees shot me in the thigh, through and through. Not sure where it came from. When I last saw Doc and Mike, they were firing in that direction to the right of where we came, as I kept moving to find you. You okay?”

  “No, I am not okay,” I moved enough for Athena to see Eugene and the baby. “Athena, this here is Eugene Welko, the President’s father. I have no idea who the baby girl is.”

  “Nice to meet you Mister Welko,” Athena turned her attention to the baby.

  “My dear, it is my honor to meet you. Brian, what do you mean, President?”

  “Long story sir, but your son was selected as America’s new President. He is the one who sent me after you.”

  “That explains the dream with that little girl from my house,” Eugene moved away from me. “Brian listen up. I don’t have much time left. Julie is dead. That so called General in Seattle tortured her even as she gave birth to this beautiful little thing. That bastard forced me to watch as he hurt my son’s wife. After the baby was born, the General had plans to use her as a bargaining chip. I wasn’t about to let that happen,” tears rolled down the man’s rugged face as he relived the events again. I took his hand and let him grip it tight.

  “I broke free of my bonds and took down the nearest guard. Using his weapon, I killed the other two guards and wounded the doctor and two nurses. The General and I fought, he got me pretty good with his blade,” he turned so I could see the badly stitched up wound on his side. “I beat him pretty good. I spoke to Julie briefly as she begged me to get the baby to Dan. She was beyond my help, her vitals were all over the place. I was going to save them both, I swear I was,” he tried to catch the sob before it could break. Tears broke free of his eyes and I slid an arm around the man’s shoulders, giving him my energy. “But that woman was stubborn, she forced me to take the baby and run. I have been on the run literally for a week, the baby needs more than I can give. I had stolen formula from the medical supplies but ran out yesterday. My granddaughter is malnourished, I had nothing left when we were attacked by these damn dead ass hats. I was bitten this morning,” he showed his forearm where a chunk had been ripped free. “I had a dream last night about that little blonde curly headed girl you brought to my house months ago. She said I had to have hope and that she was sending a Sasquatch to help. I thought I was having a bad dream, but hell, here you are.”

  My eyes started to burn as I held back my tears. Athena opened up with her M4 as more zombies started coming from the forest. We didn’t have much time, but I was not going to leave without hearing the rest of what Eugene had to say.

  “You did great Eugene, I will take over, and I promise you that I will not fail you or dishonor the final sacrifices that you and Julie have made” I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore and let them flow freely and unabashedly down my face, staining my beard.

  “Since the day I met you son, I knew you would never let my boy down. You are a one and far between friend who is loyal to the end. Tell Dan I tried, tell him I said that when he thinks he is at his end, to hold on tightly to the people who love him. Tell him this baby is the start to a new world, one he needs to secure for all of you who make it to the end. Tell him I love him, that I have never been prouder of him then I am right now,” Eugene’s breathing became more labored and his body felt like it was going to burn itself up. “You better take her now and finish me off son.”

  I took the pack from Eugene and looked into the baby’s face, I could make out a mixture of Dan and Julie. I had never really held a newborn or had the chance to take care of one, but this little one seemed way to alert for being so new. I bonded with her immediately, she had my heart and soul if she wanted it. I had to tear my eyes off her when Athena stopped firing. I surveyed the area around us and found Heaven standing in the clearing like an avenging angel reaping souls from the undead with a wicked looking sword. I had never saw him carry that thing and had no idea where he had found it, but he was single handedly keeping us alive. Heaven moved like a ballet dancer, spi
nning fluidly, his sword finding the mark every single time. His face was one full of serenity and peace. He was sure of himself, as if he was doing what he was meant to do.

  I turned back to find Eugene trembling and shaking. He was about to turn, I slipped the baby to my other arm and picked up a rock the size of a toaster with my free hand. I brought it down over and over again, bashing in Eugene’s head. I was not going to let that man turn into one of these things and try to destroy everything he had fought so hard to protect.

  I made it shakily to my feet and held the baby in the crook of my left arm. With my right I helped Athena to her feet. We had to lean on each other for support. Without Heaven, we would both be done for and rambling around the countryside, hunting for warm human prey. Heaven finished dispatching the last zombie and came to our side. He looked Athena and me over for bites and then stopped when he saw the baby. He reached into his shirt and took out one of his three necklaces. A simple silver chain with a small cross on it. He pressed it between his hands and said some soft words with his eyes closed. When he opened them they were wet, he slid the chain into the baby’s pack and kissed her forehead.

  “Heaven, how the hell did you know where we were and that we needed you?” I asked Heaven as we moved into the trees on our way back to the convoy. It was right then I noticed the intense sounds of a battle had ended. Everything was quiet.

  “Our little Angel spoke to me directing me to you. She said that you had the one thing that would save us all, and that I was needed as a man of faith. She directed me right to you.”

  No more words were spoken as we made our way back to the convoy. As we got closer, Mike and Doc came from the bushes. An upset tired look on Doc’s face. I could smell burning oil and see black clouds of smoke curling up into the sky.

  The following is what I had learned from the battle that had erupted as I made my way to Eugene. I am going to write it third person, as that is the way it was given to me.

  It’s in the top five

  The team assembled around the vehicles as Brian left with his personal team of protectors. Apache took over as team lead. She had a feeling that they looked like a big fat target to any Ridder forces in the area.

  “Okay, we need to be prepared for anything. We are well within Ridder’s defensive zone, and we stick out like a dick in a pair of pantyhose. Hase you and your boy’s get up on the firehouse’s roof and provide watch. Nunzio, you and your people take Johnson and set up a watch from the other side of that house across the street. Gillian, Tess, and you flight people are with me. Cupcake, you take the Mini gun, I am going to move the Humvee to a better position to allow you an unobstructed fire lane. We don’t have many heavy weapons, and if they bring a tank we are fucked, but we will deal with that when we have to.”

  The teams broke up and moved off to their assigned positions. Moonie was the only one left standing in the open. Apache looked him over trying to figure out how this old bastard could help.

  “Before you hurt that pretty little head of yours trying to come up for things for me to do, I will be in the firehouse checking out those big beautiful bastard tankers,” he stuck his cigar in his mouth and limped along disappearing into the firehouse.

  “Yeah you do that. You, old cantankerous ass,” Apache shouted after him. The guy seemed useless to her until he wasn’t, like when he fixed the Humvees or fixed a tow truck to clean off lanes for them to travel. Maybe he wasn’t so useless after all. She was beginning to appreciate him a little more for his own special talents.

  Apache had just finished moving the Humvee, ass first against the mighty doors of the firehouse doors when everything begin to fall apart. Engine noises and the sound of helicopter rotors broke the stillness of the day.

  Coming down the road in front of them rolled a ten-vehicle convoy of six Humvees and four canvas sided trucks. Apache breathed a sigh when she was done counting the vehicles, at least she hadn’t spied a tank or heavily armored vehicle. Before she could utter the word to attack, Nunzio and his people started firing on the rear of the convoy, concentrating on the cabs to take out the drivers first. Hase, Hunter, and Howser up high on the firehouse roof opened up with precisely aimed shots on the vehicle’s soft points. Apache, Gillian, Tess, and Stacie stood by on the far side of her Humvee with an assortment of weapons. Their guns were not needed at the moment in the fight.

  Hase on top of the firehouse, could see the entire battle without his scope. He stopped firing as he swept his eyes up and down the convoy. All of the men bailed from the vehicles, some of them were injured and took cover on the other side of the street. It looked like they had everything under control. He wished all fights with Ridder were this easy. He knew he had just fucked all his people with that one stupid thought. It was as if Mister Motherfucking Murphy heard the direct challenge and delivered his answer in spades. Two Blackhawk helicopters and an Apache popped up from behind them.

  The crews on the Blackhawks started firing down from the opened doors of the helicopter on Hase’s unprepared team. Delta moved supernaturally quick trying to get off the roof and away from the murderous fire raining down on them. Howser took hits to his legs but opened up with his SCAR-L putting rounds into the door gunner, silencing his gun. That would’ve been great, but there was another gunner on the other side of the helicopter, as the pilot swung to that side. Hase dragged Howser to the other side of the firehouse and tossed him over. Hase jumped down after him. On the other side of the roof, Hunter was hit twice in his chest, he felt, as if a horse had kicked him, but his armor gave him time to fire back hitting the cockpit windows and punching holes into them. He watched the helicopter swing away and retreat back into the trees. He rolled to his stomach and couldn’t find Hase or Howser. He was having problems breathing and couldn’t get to his feet or knees. He reached out and dragged himself forward toward the other side of the firehouse. He felt like his chest was going to explode from the effort. His eyesight grew dimmer with each foot he gained on the roof.

  Down on the ground, the other helicopter was not just armed with door gunners. This one had Hydra 70mm rocket pods underneath it’s modified stubby wings. The rockets fired into the house across the street sheltering Nunzio and his people. Cupcake witnessed the whole thing. He swiveled his minigun over, tracking the helicopter. He pulled the triggers and the gun’s barrels rotated and spat 7.62 rounds out at a speed of five thousand rounds per minute. He had to remember not to hold the triggers down and wasting all his rounds in one shot. He squeezed checked his firing and squeezed again. His rounds hit the copter on its tail rotor and turned it into deadly shrapnel in seconds. The helicopter spun to its right slowly and then faster as the main rotors turned the helicopter into a gyroscope without the stabilizing tail. Cupcake fired again for extra damage into the fuselage of the helicopter as it continued to spin and moved toward the Ridder convoy. It lost its fight with gravity, slammed into the two middle trucks of the convoy and flipped over, rolling into the house it had fired on. Cupcake screamed obscenities at the helicopter.

  Apache pushed away from the Humvee and tried to hobble toward the house, when her sister Tess pulled her aside and dragged her back to the firehouse building’s corner. “You stay here! Cover us!” she then waved for the other women to follow her.

  Apache was proud of her sister and her valor, but she felt like it was her responsibility to check on her people. She could see the women’s progress and Cupcake in the cupola but could not see the convoy nor the existing Ridder forces from her position. She rolled onto her stomach and begun to belly crawl forward, when the Humvee Cupcake had been in, exploded into a fireball of superheated gases. The force of the blast rolled her across the ground and into the dirt on the far side of the driveway. She screamed as loud as she could at the lost, of her friend. A black shape appeared over the far trees. The gun slung under the cockpit erupted in flame as it swept over the wreckage of what had been Cupcake and the Humvee. The gun pivoted right, and its rounds chewed up the concrete and road pa
vement as it moved toward Tess and the women following her.

  Apache screamed again in frustration and anger as she brought her gun to her shoulder. She took aim on the Apache’s cockpit and started taking shots. She knew her rounds would be not much more than an annoyance to the armored helicopter nicknamed the same as her. Her annoyance though, caused the pilot to traverse his gun back toward her. She tensed, ready for her body to fly apart from the impact of the 30mm rounds. It was then a whooping sound of a siren exploded over the battle. A red firetruck crashed through the front doors of the firehouse and headed toward the Apache. A man on top of the engine raised a hose and activated the nozzle. A stream of water exploded from the nozzle and hit the helicopter in the cockpit and worked its way into the rotors above. The water at a high PSI was enough to crack the cockpit and push the helicopter back and up. The Apache’s tail smacked into the ground and the man on the firetruck adjusted the aim of the water into the bottom of the Apache, pushing it further up and back. The tail boom of the helicopter cracked free of the helicopter from the weight of the entire helicopter pushing down on it. The water pressure continued to do its work as it pushed the cockpit further back, the rotors hit trees and exploded out into deadly composite splinters showering the Ridder forces hiding in the ditch. Finally, the cockpit rolled completely over and back into the trees. A spark somehow reached the fuel and the what remained of the helicopter exploded, throwing more shrapnel toward the remaining Ridder forces.