Gearing Up

by Daniel Schinhofen

  The body came to a sprawling halt at Shawn’s feet, where his flashlight illuminated the decomposing features of a zombie dressed up like a clown. “They can run now?”

  “Becky, a little help,” Alvin called out as he started seeing more shapes moving toward them. “Everyone, some help would be good.”

  The sound of vehicle doors opening could be heard in the still night air. Becky was ready as she left the car, her MP5 up, the flashlight showing more undead running at the convoy. “I see it’s a clown party,” Becky laughed as she began squeezing her trigger in quick bursts.

  More gunfire joined hers as everyone started firing at the shapes moving toward them. By the time the last person had to reload, they couldn’t see anything else moving in the darkness. A long moment passed as everyone waited to see if any of the undead were going to get back up.

  “We should loot them,” Alvin said.

  “Yeah,” Shawn said, not moving. “You first.”

  Alvin snickered as he advanced toward the nearest group. “Fine. You get the one missing its brains two feet to your right.” He had to suppress a shudder as he realized that every zombie they’d killed was made up as a clown.

  Becky joined Alvin in looting the bodies, making it go faster. One zombie had a single rune as its loot, and Alvin used the dim light to slip it into his fanny pack unnoticed. Becky frowned, then smirked at him when she realized what he’d done. They handed the rest of the loot to Shawn.

  “Not much, some vials of bone powder and a book of tailoring. I’m thinking the book will be useful for people wanting to start in on the crafting side of things.”

  Shawn nodded. “We’ll put this in with the rest of the loot when we get to Hawthorne. You can keep them until then, or I’ll throw them into the Scout.”

  Alvin handed it over. “Feel free. I doubt I’ll want the book or the powder.”

  “What do you think the powder is for?” George asked.

  “No idea,” Alvin shrugged, “Let's get back on the road again.” Turning away, he called back over his shoulder, “Next time, don’t stop for the zombies, they might have guns.”

  “I didn’t know it was a zombie,” Shawn muttered.

  Back in the Mustang, Alvin fished the rune out of his pack and dropped it in Becky’s lap, then got Ruffian moving again. “What do we have?”

  Becky looked at it and chuckled, “Impervious rune. It stops an item from getting dirty and lets it ignore weather and environmental effects.”

  “So basically, what our clothing currently does,” Alvin nodded. “What quality is it?”

  “It doesn’t have a quality,” Becky said as she put it into her bag. “Jarvis, is that supposed to be a rune without a quality?”

  “Indeed,” Jarvis said. “It was decided that it would only have a single quality, as they wanted it to be a bargain compared to other runes.”

  “It is a bargain, if you ask me,” Becky replied. “Our clothing protected us from the heat of salamander fire.”

  “These won’t. You would need a Fire Resistance rune for that,” Jarvis replied.

  “Ahh, then I can see why it only has a single quality,” Becky snorted.

  “Jarvis, the zombies we just killed were moving at full speed. Is that a new thing?”

  “Undead will now be just as fast as a regular human, but their intelligence will vary based on how advanced they are.”

  “They were smart enough to have knives,” Alvin said, dodging around cars in the road.

  “Glad they didn’t have guns, or some of the others might have been in trouble,” Becky said.

  Alvin nodded as they passed a hotel dedicated to clowns. Giving the sign a long look, he shook his head. “No wonder this town was doomed.”

  Becky started laughing as Alvin accelerated out of town. Nothing else surprised them as they continued north. The next most likely spot for an attack, Miller’s rest area, was passed with only a glance at the empty lot as they went by.

  After miles of empty road, Alvin let the Mustang slow a little as he started to see buildings ahead on the left. When they got closer, he shook his head in exasperation, finally able to make out the burnt out husks.

  “Coledale,” Becky murmured as the sign went by.

  Silence filled the car as Alvin drove. He wanted to turn on some music, but decided against it so he could listen for horns. Miles flew by as the road stretched north, and Alvin blinked as he saw lights ahead in the distance.

  “Something has power,” Alvin said.

  Becky frowned, “It looks isolated.”

  Alvin waffled for a moment as the lights drew closer. Figuring there must be people there, Alvin put on the blinker as a turn off became visible. In the rear view, he could see the other vehicles slowing and turning their blinkers on as well.

  “Must be a spring around here,” Becky said, peering at a veritable forest of trees barely visible in the dim light from the crescent moon.

  The lights turned out to be from a single building just off the highway. Pulling into the parking lot, Alvin snickered. The Wild Kitty Brothel seemed to be open for business, even if the cars in the lot wouldn’t run now.

  Parking, Alvin got out of the car and waved at the others to wait. Before he could get to the doors they burst open, and a handful of silicone enhanced women poured out. His gun came instantly to his hand at the sudden rush of beings, who came to a skidding halt at the sight of the gun.

  “Hold up there,” Alvin said, “are you all alive?”

  The five women froze, before one in back came around, her eyes devoid of emotion. “Of course we are. Are you stupid?”

  “You must be the reason the others are alive,” Alvin chuckled as the gun vanished back into his glove. “We’re on our way to Hawthorne, then we’ll be heading back to Beatty. If you would like to leave this place, we can get you on the way back. You could go with us now, but we’ll likely be in a few firefights, which means that you’d be in danger of dying.”

  “How do we know you’ll come back?” one of the other women asked.

  “You don’t, besides us saying so,” Shawn said, walking up beside Alvin. “The Settlement in Beatty is being run by my family. If you don’t mind working, we can find a place for you.”

  “What do you mean, ‘a settlement run by your family?’ Beatty is a town,” one of the others said.

  “You don’t know how the world works now, do you?” Alvin said, reminded that they were clueless to the nature of the world.

  “What does that mean?” the woman with cold eyes demanded.

  “Your call, Shawn. I’m going back to my car before this one shivs me,” Alvin said, hooking a thumb at the one with the cold eyes.

  “Useless fucking men,” the whore quietly spat.

  Becky arched a brow at Alvin when he slid into the car. “One of them was eye fucking you all the way back to the car. What happened?”

  “I think she’s the reason the others survived, and I’m pretty sure she’s more broken than you are.”

  “Five foot even, maybe eighty pounds soaking wet, but with d-cups…” Becky appraised the prostitute still glaring at the Mustang. “She might be fun, if she isn’t the raging bitch she looks like.” Tapping her lips, Becky chuckled, “Odds she dies in the next fight?”

  “Not high,” Alvin said. “I think she’s looking forward to killing people.”

  “Oh. Psycho, not socio,” Becky nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  “Good idea,” Alvin agreed as the five women went back inside the cathouse. “Be right back,” he said, getting out again. “Shawn, what’s the word?”

  “They’re going to come with,” Shawn said. “I’m letting them grab some clothes before we get back on the road.”

  “Keep an eye on the short one, she might shiv anyone who annoys her,” Alvin warned him.

  “I’m going to have her riding with me and George,” Shawn said. “Going to have each passenger they’re with explain what happened to the world while we drive.”r />
  “That isn’t a horrible idea. Just be careful,” Alvin said as he got back in the Mustang.

  Alvin had Jarvis play a few songs while they waited, and shortly after, the women came back out of the whorehouse with a suitcase each. Once they were all loaded up, Shawn honked his horn and Alvin got Ruffian moving.

  It only took a few minutes to reach what was left of Mina. Driving along the highway through town, the devastation was obvious. More homes had been burned than remained standing, not that the town had many homes to begin with.

  “Guess they went north,” Alvin muttered, “‘cause they obviously didn’t go check on the cathouse.”

  “If I recall the map right, there’s one more small town before Hawthorne. It’s even smaller than this place.” Becky murmured, looking at the remains of the town.

  “Correct, miss. The town of Luning is between here and there,” Jarvis informed her.

  “I wonder if anyone is there,” Alvin muttered.

  Luning turned out to be much like Mina—mostly burned out buildings in a town maybe half the size of Mina. “Maybe they all went to Hawthorne?” Becky suggested.

  “Yeah,” Alvin agreed, “but is that good or bad for us?”

  “Good point,” Becky sighed. “Guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The road was open and quiet as they rolled through Luning. Driving along, Alvin realized how easy the trip had been so far. A deep frown began forming as he wondered what that possibly meant for Hawthorne.

  Miles rolled along under Ruffian’s wheels. The hills to the left slowly sloped down to ground level. The road curved to the west when the hills finally petered out. In the distance, Alvin caught sight of odd distortions in the sky. Letting the Mustang slow slightly as bunkers began to appear on either side of the road, Alvin ignored them and tried to figure out what the problem ahead of them was.

  “Fire,” Becky said, sitting forward.

  She was right—ahead of them, where Hawthorne should have been, a conflagration blazed. The flames were barely visible among the thick plumes of smoke pouring up into the night sky. Alvin let the Mustang slow more, not sure what Shawn was going to want to do now.

  Alvin pulled to one side of the road and rolled down his window, motioning for Shawn to come alongside. “What do you want to do about that?”

  “We can’t save the town,” Shawn said. “Good news is, the bunkers seem to be away from it, so we can do what we came here to do.”

  “Okay. I’ll look for the first turn. Which side are we going to?”

  “Left. The south bunkers are the ones we’re most interested in,” Shawn replied. “Just don’t get too close to the hills, Millhouse’s journal says there’s some bad shit buried up there.”

  “Okay. I’ll be going a little slower looking for the way in,” Alvin said as he got Ruffian rolling again.

  A mile or so closer to town, a gate blocked a side road toward the bunkers just past a railroad track. The gate was closed, so Alvin drove up to it and Becky jumped out to check it. After looking it over, she fired a slug from the shotgun and blew the lock off, opening the gate. Once she was back in the car, Alvin drove into the munitions depot, followed by the rest of the convoy.

  Alvin let the car creep past a rail depot leading from the southside to the northside. No lights were on and he didn’t see anything moving, so he went on past. Taking the first side road, which turned back toward the highway, there were four rows of five bunkers. He drove to the end of the lane, parked and got out. All down the line of vehicles, people jumped out, most of them holding weapons at the ready. They stared at the fire raging in the nearby town.

  “What’s the plan?” Alvin asked as he summoned his rifle.

  “Okay, everyone,” Shawn said, pulling attention from the fire in the distance to him. “We need to go bunker to bunker and check the doors. What we know is that the bunkers on this side are munitions. We don’t think any of these bunkers will explode, but be careful just in case. The doors are probably locked, but each team has a shotgun with slugs to get the doors off. Just be mindful of your fire.”

  “What about us?” the shortest of the hookers asked.

  “Stay with the vehicles if you want, or you can join in. The faster we load up the trucks, the sooner we leave.” He went back to addressing the groups. “Three trucks are going to load up with grenades, and any other anti-personnel explosives we can find. The other two will be going to the base north of town to see if we can raid their motor pool. We can use most of the tools, along with a lot of other things the base might have.”

  “Are the first three trucks going back first?” one of the truck drivers asked.

  “Yes,” Shawn said. “Han will be leading you three back, along with at least two more guard vehicles. The women will go with as well.”

  “What if we want to stay?” the short, feisty woman asked.

  “Then you can stay, but you need to be able to pull your weight,” Shawn replied. “All right. We have a couple of hours until sunrise and I’d like to be well along by then, so spread out and start searching. Once we clear this set of bunkers, we’ll go to the next set, rinse and repeat. Any other questions?” When no one spoke up, Shawn clapped his hands. “Then let’s go to work.”

  Alvin pulled out a penlight and his lockpicks and went to the nearest bunker. The door was directly across from a blast wall, which made Alvin a little more cautious about playing with the lock. Becky took up position behind him with her MP5, the flashlight on to give better illumination. The lock was more complex than he’d anticipated, so it took him a few minutes to pick. The sound of gunshots echoed in the night as others blasted their doors open.

  Once he had the door unlocked, Becky eased the door open and let her light illuminate the inside of the bunker, which was a good fifty feet in length. Keeping out the picks he had used, Alvin stuffed the rest of the roll of tools back into his bag. What they could see was lined with racks filled with large bomb cases, each looking to be about four feet in length.

  Becky took a quick walk inside, and was back in just a few minutes. “Just the cases, fins, tops, and insides, but no chemicals or anything.”

  Disappointed, Alvin and Becky went back out to where the vehicles were parked. Alvin could see flashlights moving around other bunkers, and Shawn came out of the next nearest bunker, shaking his head. Soon everyone had returned to the vehicles, and it was clear no one had found what they were looking for.

  Alvin led the convoy to the next set of bunkers, and this time, the vehicles all split up to go down the small side roads next to each row of bunkers.

  Time went by slowly and the fire at Hawthorne continued to burn without much noticeable change. The convoy moved from one set of bunkers to the next as dawn started coloring the sky. So far, after checking six sets of bunkers, the only things they’d found were dismantled bombs and ammunition for guns. They skipped the ammo, since guns could be so easily modified to reload themselves.

  The seventh set of bunkers finally gave them part of what they were looking for. “Found it!” Karee’s voice echoed in the mostly-still morning air.

  People gathered at the bunker she was at, as Han carried out a crate. Setting it down, he opened it up and revealed twenty-five short tubes. Pulling one out, he got the end opened and showed them the fragmentation grenade.

  “Okay folks, we’re going to unload this entire bunker into a truck,” Shawn said. “Who wants to be inside the truck? We need four people there, with the rest humping crates.”

  Karee, Han, Milo, and the short psycho hooker, who turned out to be called Lotus, volunteered to be inside the truck, which Milo pulled up next to the bunker. The group formed a chain to get the crates out easier—it only took eighteen of them to begin getting the truck loaded.

  “Shawn? While you guys handle this, I’m going to pick more locks and check more bunkers,” Alvin said.

  “Okay. Let us know if you find anything.”

  Fol
lowing Alvin, Becky glanced over at the town, which was still merrily burning away. Luckily, a light breeze was blowing the smoke to the west. “This is going to take all day, isn’t it?” Becky asked.

  “Yeah, and the drive back will be brutal,” Alvin said. “All that empty road, after being up and doing manual labor for a day or more…”

  The couple checked and cleared another set of bunkers by the time the first truck was loaded. Coming back to the rest of the group, Alvin pointed south. “We’ll hit that set next.”