Bravo Two Zombie
Book Three
The Final Solution
Michael A. Walton
Copyright 2017 by Michael A. Walton
Book One Re-Cap
“Bravo Two Zombie Squad”
“Zombie Holy Grail”
The land stretching from Cornwall to the south of England and running all the way to the Orkney Islands lying to the north of Scotland, belonged mainly to the Tainted. They roamed free, hunting down the remaining humans following a three year feeding frenzy that had spread the contamination throughout the population of 61,000,000 people of Britain. Ireland was almost completely lost to the Walking Dead as was much of Europe.
All continents, the Americas, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Antarctica had fallen. Bands of survivors throughout the planet had formed strongholds, creating modern day Fortresses. Behind those high walls, they lived an existence in constant fear that the Tainted would find a way in and devour them.
In London, the old capital before the plague, walls of sheer steel over five metres high contained an area bordered by the Thames on one side, running from the famous Tower Bridge. It then extended up to the A1211, turned east as far as the A1, along to the A503, north on the A10 to the A406. Follow that all the way down to the Thames at North Woolwich, and it created a zone within which were crammed over a million souls, the Pure. They co-existed, spending each day doing just that, existing. Numerous other smaller groups had dug in and created less sophisticated strongholds throughout the city and also further afield, across the south of England. Craig Anderson, the ex-SAS Captain and now the head of security at Fort London, had offered those people sanctuary at the capital’s stronghold whenever he came across such a group. Some had accepted and others for reason of religion, stubbornness or idealistic views had chosen not to take refuge there.
Anderson had even come across a group of Hell’s Angels in Peckham who had named themselves The Zombie Chapter. They had turned a large warehouse into a Fortress run by a man called Hog, after the distinctive Harley Davidson motorbike he rode as he led his followers out on gathering forays throughout the outer-lands on their powerful choppers.
Craig Anderson, the ex-SAS Captain, had played a major part in setting up the London Fortress and during the last year, had led a snatch squad made up of mostly SAS trained troops into what they now called the outer land. He led this squad on countless forays to scavenge and also to gather up and bring in the stragglers of the Pure who were still playing hide and seek with the roaming hordes of WDs. This however had all but stopped now. There were so few roamers left, the risk could not be justified and his main duty now was to maintain order and security within Fort London, a mini country. He patrolled and kept the route open with Fort Warwick, a much bigger Fortress a hundred miles to the north, run by a former drug baron, Karl Bruger, a man Craig despised but a man he had little choice but to deal with, for Bruger controlled the new currency, food, not only over Fort London, but over most of the smaller strongholds to the north. This gave him power over those who were forced to make perilous trips to Fort Warwick. To the south, he controlled through Fort London as many of the strongholds that would turn to the larger Fort to trade for food supplies bartered from Bruger.
Within the steel and concrete walls of Fort Warwick almost two million Pure lived, all working under Bruger´s control through his army of thugs. Many of them were ex-service men and even a number of ex SAS troops. Anderson swore one day he would take him down, take him down and feed him to the Tainted. Anderson knew in his heart that time would come.
However, as much as Anderson yearned for that day to come, he had to set that mission aside, for in the gloom and despair of what had become everyday life, came a beacon, a child who carried immunity to the plague. Suddenly there was a thin light at the end of the endless Zombie tunnel and suddenly, the prospect of a future free of the Tainted, the living dead, was a possibility. A messiah had come forward, a Zombie messiah.
However, not everyone wanted change, not everyone wanted the old world order back and one of those was Karl Bruger. He was king of all he surveyed and he wanted it to stay that way. Bruger and Anderson were set on a collision course and the messiah was the Holy Grail of their chosen futures; one wished to drink from it, one wanted to crush it. Therein follows a running battle through the outer-lands where many of the smaller strongholds, including the Zombie Chapter, are caught up in the war for the messiah. Inevitably, there would be a winner, and a loser. For in all battles there could be only one.
Book two: Re-Cap
“Bravo Two Zombie Squad”
“Zombie Mutation”
Craig Anderson had won the battle for the messiah, the child dubbed by the populace of Fort London as the modern day equivalent of the Holy Grail. The blood that coursed through her veins carried an antibody, which allowed the scientists within Fort London to pursue a vaccine that they hoped would protect anyone injected with it from the plague if bitten by one of the Tainted. Eventually, they hoped to be able to save those already infected, and bring the plague under complete control.
Good news? Not to Karl Bruger. He had fought to destroy the child, Hope, before she destroyed the world he had created at Fort Warwick, a world where he ruled, where he was a King, where he was a God. The battle had been bloody and cost both Forts dearly. Within the vortex of the conflict, dubbed by many as the "War of the messiah", many of the smaller strongholds have been completely destroyed as they made allegiance to each of the Forts. But even as the benefits of the antibody were being sought at camp London, Bruger was having a change of heart. Now he no longer wanted to kill the child, now he wanted what she possessed. Her blood, her antibody, for he realised that it could be the new world crack cocaine, the modern day hero and he wanted to control it. He could rule the Forts of the world if he could capture the child, then he would truly, truly be God. He recognised that she was the key to absolute power, absolute dominance, he wanted both. However, until that time he had to use his twisted mind to constantly devise ways to feed the lust and the needs of the populace, his subjects. They had a thirst for excitement; he also needed to give them a direction to focus their anger towards at the devastation caused by the plague. Bruger came up with the idea of gladiatorial contests with Zombies, contests that were a throwback to the days of the Romans as combatants went head to head with droves of flesh devouring Walking Dead with only weapons used during the days of the great Roman Empire.
The populace of Fort Warwick immersed themselves in the frenzy of violence that followed; it was a salve for the suffering they had endured at the loss of so many loved ones to the Zombies. Now the tables were turned, now the cold dish of revenge was the most popular item on the entertainment menu at Fort Warwick. During one of these contests, Bruger’s random suggestion to Blade, his enforcer, to feed White Lightning to the Zombies brings a dramatic discovery, a discovery that is wrong on every level.
Craig Anderson rights wrongs, but on this occasion, even he wondered if he had met his nemeses when he ends up standing at the gates of Bruger´s Fort.
He had no choice but to enter for he had sworn to take back the child that Bruger had eventually captured in a daring raid, he had also sworn to destroy once and for all the ex-drug baron but couldn’t deny the chill of doubts dark shadow as it fell across him when he was thrown into Bruger´s gladiatorial arena to face his army of warriors and finally Bruger himself.
Hell has opened its gates and beckoned Anderson in.
The invitation proves to be a mistake.
Anderson is worse than the devil.
Book Three.
“Bravo 2 Zombie Squad”
“The Final Solution”
"Prologue"
For a short period following the battle at Fort Warwick, a fragile peace followed as each of the Forts licked their wounds, each adapting to life without the other. For London it meant finding other sources of food, for Warwick it meant developing a crude refinery for their fuel. Less than a month later, Bruger began a series of attacks on FL using mercenaries who would do anything to get the white lightning he produced and peddled.
At London, the scientists pushed on with seeking the cure that would wipe out the plague but also kept an eye on the road and the skies north, for one day Bruger would come in force. Anderson knew his hatred for him would be festering and all the while the crazed ex-drug baron would be building his army of Mutants.
The danger in the outer-lands around Fort London became greater due to the expanded numbers when the Fort lost nearly three hundred thousand of their numbers to the plague, many of whom had been infected by Mutants corrupted by White Lightning, ones that moved with tremendous speed and even showed signs of rationality. All of these frightening manifestations were passed on by a single bite creating ever more Mutants.
Craig Anderson and Hope became inseparable, the bond between them unbreakable, during this period. Anderson grew to understand the strength of the love a father has for a child, grew to understand why a parent would do anything to protect them. Guerrilla tactics developed with each of the independent strongholds in the surrounding areas making allegiances depending on who they believed could win the inevitable war that was coming, the final war.
Bruger, the ex-drugs baron, who ruled Fort Warwick, continued building his army of Zombie Mutants with his tame scientist, Jeremy Boardman, but once Boardman had run out of the blood he had taken from Hope, the child who carried an immunity to the plague, Bruger’s expansion plans faltered. That would change however when Boardman made a discovery that would fulfil all of Bruger's crazed desires.
The conflict when it came would be bloody and without glory, spiralling to an inevitable end. However an unexpected option surfaced when Anderson's team received a radio transmission from across the Atlantic Ocean, a transmission that would eventually lead to an answer but it was an answer that came with nightmares, terrible, terrible nightmares and a pact with the Devil. It was the solution, the final solution.
Chapter 1
“Vengeance Will Be Mine”
Craig Anderson leaned back to counter the 38kg weight of the L1A1 12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun that bucked and kicked in his powerful hands. Its 12.7mm shells could reach 2,000 metres if required but this sunny afternoon they were stitching a devastating slash across the side of the white van just 60 metres away from the containment wall on which the head of security of Fort London stood, his feet planted wide, his features reflecting the rage that burned within as yet another attack was in full flow against his beloved Fort London. Normally the lethal weapon sat on a tripod however the surplus to requirement one at Anderson’s feet restricted the angle needed to lay down fire onto the van below so Anderson had flexed his muscles and hefted it up in frustration, barking an order to his second in command, Tom Parfitt, to squat at his left and ensure the belt fed in smoothly. The space to his right was quickly covered with the hot ejected shell casings that sang a tinkling song of death as they bounced along the concrete.
"Grenade!" shouted Bull, the giant Black SAS soldier who had served with both Anderson and Tom Parfitt within the SAS regiment prior to the plague sweeping the planet.
Tom Parfitt never heard the call and Anderson was locked into the world of the red mist, his total focus on the white van that he knew was aiming to bury itself into the base of the containment wall. It was how Bruger, the leader of Fort Warwick operated, getting his troops to crash a van full of explosives into the five metre high wall, before scampering away, that kept the Tainted out of Fort London and the populace safe. When the inevitable breach was blasted through it, the plague carriers would pour through to run riot amongst the Pure within. Five times before it had happened, five in the last six weeks and each time Anderson and his team had lost people to the Tainted. To add to the misery, three further sectors had been lost to the Tainted to add to the ten lost in the months earlier, thirteen sectors and hundreds of thousands of souls lost to the plague.
Bull sprinted the eight metres to his right, his eyes locked onto the L2A2 anti personal grenade cutting a lazy arc across the diamond blue sky, praying it was fitted with the L25A6 fuse that he knew would give him 4.4 seconds from the time he saw it leave the attackers hand until the moment its high explosive cargo sent them all to hell.
"Grenade!" he yelled again, as he pulled free the baseball bat from the plastic sheaf that always hung at his side. It was his preferred choice of weapon when engaged in close quarter fighting with the Tainted, a lethal weapon when it was hefted in the huge hands of the 300 pound giant. The 47oz Hickory bat at 36 inches long was one of the heaviest ever used when the game was watched and enjoyed by millions around the world, now its main purpose was to cave in skulls of those taken by the plague. Today however might be its last task as Bull counted in his head, one second from the time the grenade had left the attackers hand and he had shouted the first warning, two as he jumped to his feet, shouted again and sprinted towards his two oblivious comrades, three as he swung the bat making a full clean contact with the orb of death sending it spinning away back out into the outer-lands, the area outside of the Fort where the Tainted roamed, four as he threw himself down behind the low parapet wall that ran along the top of the containment wall and a heartbeat and a half of time until the mighty explosion that boomed out and finally caught the attention of Anderson and Tom.
"Did you say something?" rasped Anderson, breathing heavily as he turned to look down at Bull after the white van he had decimated with the L1A1 exploded in a ball of orange fire, seconds before smashing through a huge pane of glass that made up the frontage of what used to be a car showroom.
"Yeah, and what are you doing lying down when we have fox at the door big fella?" added Tom grinning.
"No need to thank me guys," snapped Bull, using his baseball bat as a prop to help himself up.
Before either could think about doing any such thing, the walls beneath their feet shook as a massive explosion tore open a section of wall fifty metres to their right, immediately the Fort’s security team went into a practiced routine. A group of Anderson’s men on the ground inside the Fort had been on standby, as was their instruction during an attack, and even before the dust had settled from the explosion were racing towards the jagged opening created by the blast. One of those men drove an MMV, an all-terrain forklift that had a nine metre reach and could lift five tonnes to a height of thirteen metres. On the end of the forks had been welded a section of steel plate measuring three metres wide by four metres high, around its edge had been welded sections of box steel creating a floating section of wall that was ready to be rammed home to close a breach. In total, Fort London had five such mobile plugs, the hydraulic tilting action allowing the plate to be manoeuvred to give a snug fit that would hold back the Tainted. Ten other troops armed with a variety of weapons ranging from a couple of Sig Saur P226's, a Koch MP5, three MP7's and four Israeli made Uzi's formed an arc at the back of the massive fork lift and decimated the dozen or so Tainted who managed to lumber through the opening and the thick dust. Six more were crushed as they attempted to enter, pinned against the jagged edges of the opening created in the Fort wall by the temporary metal plate on the MMV. Despite the injuries the steel plate inflicted on the Tainted such as losing limbs and clearly a couple with smashed spines, they continued to bare their teeth as the scent of untainted flesh drove them to the Zombie frenzy the team had witnessed all too often. The mixed arsenal of the arc of men brought a swift and merciful end to their struggles to gain entry and gave them freedom from their living hell.
Anderson, Tom and Bull raced down from the upper parapet to inspect the closure. “Report!" snapp
ed the head of security to Spider, leader of the closure team.
"Hole plugged as you can see Cap," confirmed the seasoned SAS man.
"That makes six attacks Craig, six hit and run strikes that have cost Bruger men, transport and equipment. What the hell is the son of a bitch playing at?" hissed Tom.
Anderson stood facing the plugged breach, seeming to have missed Tom's question but he hadn't, it echoed the same thoughts running through his own mind. Bruger was throwing men and resources at Fort London in lightning sting attacks with no real effort to take advantage and storm the breaches he was blasting through the walls.
"He's testing us," whispered Anderson, more to himself than in answer to Tom.
"Why would he do that?” frowned Tom, thinking Anderson’s thoughts were aimed at him.
Anderson snapped out of his inner thoughts and turned to his second in command, "That’s what worries me Tom. I know he's planning something, question is.... what?”
"Remainder of Bruger’s men are pulling back," came a voice in the security squad’s ear pieces. Spider was the team’s eyes and also their guardian angel on countless skirmishes both before the plague within the regiment and now as part of Craig Anderson’s security force at FL. He would find, whenever possible, a vantage point high up above any action, taking along with him, as always, his M24 Snipers Rifle. An unusual choice for someone in the SAS since the weapon was American but a weapon he had grown to rely on. Spider would tell you the story behind it if you asked him, but it amused him to change the tale each time making it more outrageous with each telling. In either case, the 43 inch long bolt action rifle with the 10×42 Leopold Ultra M3A telescope sight had saved many of his squad.
"We got any Tainted need rounding up?” asked Anderson.
Bravo Two Zombie (Book 3): The Final Solution Page 1
