One of their companions did it for him, turning to look at Joshua in his seat as if he were crazy.
“We can’t go back. They’re all probably infected by now,” he shouted back at them.
Joshua punched the back of the seat in front of him, and the gunfire started up on the outside again and then it stopped within moments, each man traveling in silence because they had no idea what to say after what they had just seen. Not even all the training they had received or their time in the Dead Zone seemed preparation enough every time another human life fell to the monsters that had taken over their world.
Mark turned and looked at Joshua, who was sitting with his elbows on his knees and head in his hands, shaking with obvious trauma as well as terror and grief for the human life that their world continued to take with it. He reached out and touched Joshua on the shoulder. “Hey, man,” he almost whispered.
Joshua turned his face up to stare at him, and his eyes were rimmed with unshed tears he refused to let fall, keeping his eyes as wide as he could to staunch the flow. Mark swallowed the sorrow down as best he could. Sometimes, in the world post-apocalypse, letting these emotions rule you and affect you got you killed. They had both learned quickly to hold them in, to bottle them and use them in the fight for humanity’s survival. It had worked for them so far, but Mark began to wonder how much longer his best friend could continue to do it.
“What?” Joshua asked as he continued to scan Mark’s face and movements.
Mark sighed and clapped his friend on the b shoulder. “It’s all right, man. It’ll be all right. We all knew it was possible not all of us would make it back. Or make it there.”
Joshua hung his head low. “I know.” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe his reaction to what had just happened to them. “I know. I just don’t know how much more I can take.”
The driver, whose name neither one of them had caught, turned back and glanced at the both of them.
“I don’t think any of us can, dude. But it’s inevitable. Unless you want to become one of those Rev or Barbarian freaks. Only they seem to be able to live in this world for longer than a few years.”
“Yeah,” Joshua replied as he looked up at the guy. “No thanks.”
As they spoke, they crossed into the forest, pine trees as well as many other types whizzing past them. Branches whipped at the sides of the Humvees as they drove, moving up the slight incline with ease as they made their way up the mountain the Government of Defense had told them was the correct one within the Smoky Mountain range. Within moments of entering the forest, an ATV zipped between the two vehicles, disappearing amongst the greens and browns of the environment that enveloped them once they crossed the tree line. Mark saw it zip by, knowing that the others had noticed when their heads whipped to the side. They didn’t say a word. Then Zeta Squad deviated from the path, veering off to the right in the direction they had been instructed to go as part of the plan. Joshua reached down to a small case on the floor containing their communications equipment, removing the earpieces and handing them to the rest of the Beta Squad in the event they got separated for any reason and lost the vehicle.
Mark could barely make out the first transmission, but Joshua seemed to have heard it just fine.
“Roger that. Zeta Squad went to our far right. So far they haven’t seen any disturbances. We are going to continue on our path. They’ve ordered us not to stop until we completely clear the Shadows,” he relayed to the rest of the team.
“Roger that,” the driver said.
Mark turned to Joshua and looked at him as radio chatter squawked in his right ear.
“This fairy tale better be real, man, is all I have to say,” Joshua stated. “Better have a happy ending. I’m tired of running.”
“I know what you mean,” Mark replied. “We’ll get the Head Hunter and save Jenny. Not sure what’ll happen to Misty, but maybe we can figure something out. If they haven’t killed her already.”
That caused Mark to pull deep inside of himself as he thought about the possibilities of what could be happening or had already happened to her. He didn’t want to believe they would do that to her, but G.O.D. could be cruel. They had shown on more than one occasion that mercy wasn’t something they valued and it wasn’t about to change. He could feel it.
***
Joshua watched as Crankers and Shadows moved behind their Humvee, the radio chatter coming in again in his earpiece. The CB radio didn’t seem to carry a signal once it hit the tree line for some reason, which he didn’t understand at all. But he guessed that was why they were given the earpieces, to begin with. CB radio was outdated even in the time after apocalypse when they had had to advance quickly to be able to survive longer than six months in the world they lived in when the meteorites crashed to the Earth.
“Well, not to freak anyone out, but we haven’t only lost Beta Squad. Zeta Squad is now quiet.”
“Not that I’m surprised. We’re surrounded by the infected here, and there’s no telling what they could’ve hit. It’s getting darker outside. This guy better have something we can use in this situation too,” Mark responded. The two up front hadn’t spoken much, but Joshua felt that the communication in his and Mark’s relationship was important and had attributed to their persistence since the beginning.
***
Great Smoky Mountains
July 2027
Just Outside Area 51 Underground Bunker
Caesar pulled up to the log cabin that sat on the snow-crested mountain. He had outfitted it with an extremely tall fence topped with barbed wire to keep the Cranker and Shadows out. Scattered around the next acre of the property the cabin sat on, he had set up security cameras as well as traps and concertina wire to ensure the cabin’s security. He did not have Genesis inside of the cabin, so the precautions were necessary. It even had a two-car garage which he parked the ATV in once he had closed the gate behind him He put the ATV in park and turned off the engine, swinging one leg over to launch himself off the vehicle and onto the cement floor beneath it. It had started snowing again, and he shook off the flakes of ice, shivering the cold away. Ever since the meteorite bombardment, the entire environment had changed, turning the mountains into an unpredictable thing and the Dead Zone below it into a desert covered in rust-colored dirt that was normal for the southern United States to begin, with except for the fact that plant life was sparse. He had been able to find a collection of camouflage nets in the underground bunker within the mountains, and he had spread them out around the cabin and on the grounds. He wasn’t certain if they were helpful, but they made him feel better about using anything outside of the secured bunkers for any purpose.
Solar panels lined the roof, the sun peeking through the trees enough to keep it going when he wasn’t using the massive generator in the back of the house.
Caesar walked into the cabin; the back room was filled with not only four smaller generators but cables running out of windows and down the stairs to the basement. The interior of the cabin was elaborately decorated, but it had fallen into a state of semi-squalor over the last seven years because keeping a completely clean house wasn’t exactly the most important thing to him. The bunker remained that way because of Genesis, and the computer didn’t seem to mind taking care of business. Not just because she was programmed to do so but because he was always busy.
Following the cables, he walked along the hardwood floors and toward the basement whose entrance was situated toward the back of the house and the kitchen. The door was heavy and solid, the wood easy enough to push since it had shrunken due to the cold outside. Each door inside was made from solid oak, which he loved. The walls were also covered in wooden paneling that hinted at the house having originally been built in the fifties or sixties. It had some upgrades, but not enough to change it to more of a modern feel altogether. He had also laid electrical traps along the windows to keep anything that had gotten through the rest of his safeguards from making it into the house. But his most pr
ized possessions were in the basement beyond the solid wood door.
When he turned the metal door knob it gave a quiet groan, the light behind him filtering downstairs and consuming the darkness of the stairway he had created to keep everything downstairs safe from destruction—as well as himself if something undesirable was to take place. Taking the stairs two at a time, he came to a thick metal door much like that of a bank vault that which locked with a special combination that he entered on a backlit digital keypad. One, nine, three, and five were the numbers he pressed, each one meaning nothing to him besides the fact that they were the code to enter the basement. When talking about information security within Area 51, it was always advised not to use any dates or information special to you to create a key code of password, and he had taken that information to heart. Even now that mostly everyone was gone. Metal slides moved within the door and wall surrounding it, unlocking it so only he could enter. In the event of Crankers or Shadows, he would be safe. As far as Revs and Barbarians he wasn’t entirely certain, but he hadn’t run into that type of situation as of yet.
Once he moved through the door, the glow of the LED lights within computer and television screens illuminated his path. Unknown to anyone still breathing, this door led straight into the bunkers through an underground tunnel. Genesis’s circuit didn’t begin until halfway through it when the solid wood turned into white paint and linoleum flooring. Not only did the basement contain computers and televisions that were hooked up to the security cameras as well as the system, but more cameras to record everything were situated within its confines along with tools, computer parts, gadgets, and rolled up spare wire to keep him going in case of failure somewhere.
There was one other door off to the side where another room was located, filled to the brim with weapons that Caesar had taken from the original state office of Area 51 he had fought his way out of when everything began. Not only that, but some food supplies for the moments he felt he needed to be there, scanning the surroundings of the cabin and the landscape of the mountain in general so that he could assess the state of infection. Not a lot of Crankers or Shadows came to the crest of the mountain because of the temperature, but the Barbarians and Revenants didn’t seem to mind it at all. He made his way down the hallway that led to the bunker, moving into the same common room he had broken down in when it came to coffee grounds. The tunnel was at least a mile or two long, stairs helping so he could move down the mountain just enough to get out of the coldness of the crest of the mountain. Off to the left of the door he entered, there was a full luxury apartment complete with every single advanced appliance that had been available before the end of the world. Not only that but a steam shower. The water heater was kept going by the generators that ran off the solar panels on the roof of the cabin.
Caesar walked into the bathroom and indulged in a quick shower, coming out with a towel wrapped around his hips and another hanging over his shoulders. In the living room within the apartment was a laptop computer that he used when he got tired of the stuffy computer room in the bunker.
“Genesis, are you online?” he called out to the computer system as he came to stand in front of the couch.
Scrubbing the towel over his short-clipped wet hair, he sat down in front of the laptop and pressed the space bar. It sprang to life in a matter of milliseconds.
“Roger that, Commander. I mean, sir,” Genesis replied.
Caesar shook his head and rubbed his face with the towel in frustration.
“Genesis, please. Don’t play games with me. You know how I feel about you calling me that.”
“My apologies, Caesar. Would you like an update for the last twelve hours?” Genesis asked, her robotic voice low and professional as he thought her question over.
Surveillance programs popped up on the large screen as well as programming software among so many other things he used to make certain that nothing came through.
“First, I would like a playback on the message received from Station Three to Metro Base,” he answered.
“Copy that, Comm . . . Sorry. Right away, Caesar.”
An audio player popped up on the laptop screen. Caesar gave Genesis remote access to the entire computer system within the bunker so he could receive files on demand instead of hunting for them. The message began to play and he listened intently, placing the towel he had used on his hair on the couch next to him. The woman’s voice was high and shrill as it rang out over the speakers, causing him to wince at the sound between the two over the transmission.
“Teacher McNevan of Station Four, to Metro Base. Station Four has been attacked by the Revenants. They have killed many of our soldiers, infected a student, and kidnapped another. Please advise.”
“Are we hearing this correctly, McNevan? Revenants?”
“Roger that,” she replied to the question.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, one hundred percent.”
“Are there any more of the infected at Station Four?”
“No, but they did have a demand. And if they do not receive what they are asking for, they stated they would be on their way back to kill or infect the remainder of us.”
“What is the demand?”
There was a pause, and Caesar strained to hear through the silence on the one end of the line, nothing floating through the speakers for him to hear until the man from Metro Base spoke again.
“McNevan, what is their demand?”
“They are demanding that we find, capture, and bring them the Head Hunter,” she answered.
Caesar’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He knew that the Revs were led by only one person who would be looking for him that was still alive. Well, in a manner of speaking. He hadn’t thought of Colonel Jenkins in years. Caesar was well aware that the Revenant had been created when Jenkins turned as a result of the small amount of the ‘Faith’ serum that he had injected into him all those years ago. Thankfully he hadn’t turned into one of those creatures, becoming something else entirely since enough of the serum moved through his veins to change his entire body chemistry on levels that the Rev infection could not. Not only that, but the Revs were also suffering from the Syc infection that ran rampant since the meteorite shower. He knew there hadn’t been any in the serum, so he felt that the Syc must have been the result of some fluke or compromised immune system as well as exposure to the parasite itself—or the crimson fog that seemed to carry it on a highly infectious level.
“The Head Hunter? You mean the urban legend?” the man from Metro Station asked.
The shock was apparent in his voice as Caesar continued to listen.
“Yes and, obviously, he’s no legend. The Revenants don’t make threats over stories. According to not only them but to G.O.D. Officer of Conduct Xavier Jackson, the student they abducted just happens to be his daughter.”
“Yes, her name is Jennifer Meldano, the daughter of Caesar Meldano. At one time he was one of the top three most intelligent people on the planet. He was also a member of the Special Forces unit of Area 51,” Rogers explained.
“We will report this to the Metro Council. I don’t know if they’ll believe a word of this.” The man sighed and continued. “What has been done to attempt to retrieve Miss Meldano?”
“We have dispatched three retrieval teams to the Dead Zone. Their objective is to head over the high rise of the Smoky Mountains where the Head Hunter is rumored to reside. Unfortunately, we have confirmed that one team has fallen to the creatures of the Dead Zone after we lost communication with them. We have had no visual contact with squads Alpha and Zeta, but we are certain they are almost to the checkpoint.”
Caesar reached forward and paused the transmission, staring at the screen. According to those working for the Government of Defense, his daughter was still alive. He couldn’t believe that he had thought her dead all this time and, furthermore, he wondered how she had even survived the meteorite that slammed into the SUV on that day with her and her mother inside. A part of him
said that he shouldn’t trust what he just heard between Station Four and those at the Metro Base. Metro Base was where those high officials within the Government of Defense lived, breathed, and studied in an attempt to save the world. Or so they let everyone believe. No one knew, except for him and those in their ranks, what they did within those walls.
This could very well just be a trap for him, G.O.D.’s way to get him out of hiding so they could use him for whatever else they wanted to play God with. The fact of the matter was that he didn’t care. If his daughter was alive and the Revs truly did have her in their possession, he wanted to know for certain. And he would go to her no matter what it took to get there.
Without hesitation, he stood up from the couch and walked out of the luxury apartment portion of the underground bunker, only one thing on his mind. The closet within the apartment held all his clothes that he could wear just within the confines of the bunker. His tactical gear and clothing were stored with his weaponry and ammunition. He moved through the common room and made a right at the head of the hallway, moving through another door that took his fingerprint identification to open. The lights turned on automatically when he crossed the threshold, and he blinked past the brightness of it. Just inside the drawer was a makeshift closet where he kept his camouflage clothing. Olive green shirts hung up next to camo pants with tan military grade hiking boots resting on the floor below them, undergarments folded and kept to the left of the rest.
He quickly got dressed and moved to the shelves in the room that held his weapons. He armed himself with an ammo belt, sawed off pump action shotgun, machete, two small caliber handguns he strapped to one ankle, a sidearm on his hip, and a survival knife on his other ankle stuffed into his boot. After he had all his weaponry strapped to his body in preparation for a full assault, he grabbed a black jacket made from a special Kevlar material produced by the Government of Defense that would save him from not only gunfire and stabs, but bites from any score of creature outside the bunker doors.
Zombified (Book 1): The Head Hunter Page 22
