The Red X_Complete Edition

by Robert P. Sullivan

  Dale was panicked, he glanced at the control to the truck and then down to the men in the ring. “Hang on!” Dale stopped the door to his truck. “What was the name of the man who saved you?”

  “It was Burt.” Mark replied a bit confused.

  “Burt what?”

  “Burt Madison…”

  Dale’s face glazed over with resolve. “That was my father… Fuck this Barry!” Dale pushed the button to close the door on his truck. “We don’t have to take orders from you.”

  “What was that? Betrayal if I heard correctly.” Barry stood up and readied his pistol. “Are you saying that you’re going to take their side?”

  “You’re damn right Barry, these men did nothing to us but try to help, and the only thing that you’re crazy ass Dad ever did for us was nearly get us killed.” Dale started to look around where he was sitting, and was getting steadily more frantic and confused as the seconds passed.

  “Well then you better be ready to fight for them!” Barry yelled raising his weapon.

  Dale stopped looking around and his eyes met Barry’s. “Where is my gun?”

  “Well lucky me! This is going to be an easy fight.” Barry pulled the trigger, and Dale collapsed on the catwalk.

  Chapter 37

  The men were frightened that Barry just shot one of their comrades, but their look of shock quickly faded. “Um, Barry?”

  “What? You want to side with them too?” he sneered back at them. “Besides, hold your tongue, the show is just about to get good.” Barry settled into his chair. The lurkers came pouring out of the trucks slowly. Jake and Mark were preparing their minds for their worst nightmare come to life… being eaten alive.

  “No, Barry!” he interceded again.

  “What!” Barry yelled back, with rage in his eyes.

  “We just…” he tried to find the words. “Our guns are missing too.”

  The words took their time to sink into Barry, but when they did, his reaction was fierce. “We’re not alone! Where the fuck is the bastard?” He started to look around frantically, only to catch a glimpse of the young man behind him, but it was enough time to deflect the barrel of the gun Dustin was holding. Barry’s foot got caught on his chair as he tried to turn around, and Dustin slammed his shoulder into Barry’s side, sending him tumbling straight into the pit.

  Dustin regained his balance. “Catch!” he yelled to Jake and he threw them the guns he had lifted off the men.

  Jake caught his gun, but Mark just barely missed. It fell to the floor and tumbled, though he picked it up easily. “Hot damn.” Mark said. “We’ve got a chance.”

  “Don’t get too excited” Jake said back.

  “I know keep calm.” Mark responded, and checked his rifle. He thumbed back the slide to make sure that it was loaded and ready, and Jake did the same. They began to fire into the zombies as they came out, making sure to get only headshots.

  Dustin stood on the wall and began to open fire on the two men that were up there with him. The first shots missed, but forced the man he fired at to jump off the backside of the wall. He focused his attention on the second man who was charging him. Dustin went to fire, but the gun jammed. He quickly tried to fix the problem, but to no avail. When he looked up the man was on him, and tackled him to the catwalk.

  Mark and Jake continued to fell the lurkers as they slowly poured into the makeshift arena. The sound of gunfire rang in Barry’s ears and when he realized where he was he sat up as fast as he could. He grabbed a hold of his pistol.

  The man that Dustin had forced to jump off, climbed back up the wall and walked over to the spot where Dustin was being held down. When they realized that he wasn’t doing anything more that laying there trying to regain his composure they turned their attention to the pit.

  Barry looked at the lurkers coming out of the truck and frantically called to his men. “Hey, quit fucking around and get me out of here!”

  They looked at each other. “Yeah… I don’t fucking think so.” The one on top of Dustin said to the other.

  “Damn straight, I’m not risking my ass to save you. Maybe Dale was wrong about sparing these guys, but we don’t have to take orders from you.”

  Rage burned in Barry’s eyes. “You’re all fucking traitors!”

  “See why you can’t lead by fear Barry?” Jake said in a knowing, yet spiteful tone.

  Barry looked over at Jake and Mark and raised his gun. His arm was shaking with rage. “I wouldn’t do that Barry.” Mark interrupted.

  “I don’t think between the three of us we have enough bullets to take them all down.” Jake said and gestured the tip of his rifle toward the lurkers, and let out another shot, sinking another one to the ground.

  Barry moved his attention to the zombies, and let loose a few rounds, until he realized that it wasn’t going to get him anywhere. “Then how the hell do we get out of here?” Barry yelled.

  Mark fired again, dropping another, but they were getting closer each second. “The only way I can see any of us getting out of here alive is if Jake’s grandson up there manages to defeat your men.”

  Barry hesitated, and shot his gaze between the men in the pit, and the men on the wall. When the reality set in he knew that Mark was right, and there was only one thing to do. Barry raised his gun toward his old comrades and began to fire. The first few shots sunk into the man standing off to the side of Dustin. Barry took a second to adjust his aim on the man pinning Dustin to the ground.

  He felt the teeth sink in to his forearm. Barry screamed in pain, and shoved the lurker off of him. He put a bullet in its head. “You fucker!” Barry grasped his arm, hoping it would stop the pain; it didn’t. It took a moment for what had happened to seem real. “No.” Barry said to himself. Still shaking he took his hand off the wound to reveal the teeth marks, blood came gushing from the wound. “NO!” Barry screamed. “It can’t end like this, not like fucking this!”

  “Barry keep you’re shit together, we have to fight to get out of here.” Jake said, as neither him, or Mark had been paying him attention.

  “It’s over you shits! I got fucking bit!” Barry’s trembling began to subside, and his fear turned to vengeance. He looked at the pistol in his hand, then back up to Jake and Mark. Jake glanced over to see Barry raising his gun with an evil grin on his face. “At least I get to kill you!”

  “Get down!” Jake said, and shoved Mark to the floor. Barry fired twice, the second shot hit the wall of the arena, but the first dug into Jake’s gut, and he fell to the ground.

  Barry started to move over to where Mark was lying on the ground behind Jake. He was just about upon him when he was side swiped by a lurker. “Get off me!” He tried to free its grasp, but another one grabbed him and bit his leg. He took his pistol and shot the first one that had grabbed him, but yet another one forced him to the ground. He knew it was over, but that did nothing to stop the pain of being eaten alive. He took the gun in his hand, and put it to his head. “Click!” was the most terrifying sound he had ever heard.

  Chapter 38

  Mark got to his knees and began to fire on the lurkers again. “Shit! Jake are you ok?” He could only hear moaning in response. “This isn’t good.” he said to himself trying to keep it together.

  “Too bad you can’t help them out eh kid?” The man that was pinning Dustin said. Dusting tried to break free, but he just wasn’t strong enough to wrest himself from the man’s grasp. Then suddenly, he felt the weight of his opponent get lifted off of him. “What the fuck?” he asked as he was flung from the wall.

  The man fell down, not quite into the pit, but rather into the jagged side, getting shredded and impaled. “Did you forget about me?” said Dale holding his bullet wound. “Come on kid get up, we have to get them out of there.”

  Mark fired again, but his rifle let out its final shot. He threw it to the ground and grabbed the one that Jake was using. “What’s going on?” he asked taking a quick peek up at the wall.

  “Just hold tig
ht, I’m going to help!” Dustin yelled. He grabbed the rifle that he had, cleared the jam, and took a few of the lurkers down.

  “There’s too many of them, we have to get them out!” interrupted Dale.

  “How are we going to do that?” Dustin said while continuing to fire.

  “I’ll move the truck I drove here in, then when they make it out of the gate you close it behind them!”

  “Ok! Mark! Try and drag Grandpa to the truck that isn’t open!” Dustin took the rifle and threw it to Mark.

  “That’s a tall order.” Mark said to himself under his breath. “I’ll try!” He started to pull Jake backwards, while trying to keep the lurkers from overtaking him. Every inch was a struggle, but he kept firing. Jakes rifle surrendered its last round, and Mark threw it at one of the zombies that was approaching him. He switched to the rifle that Dustin had tossed him. It was easier to move Jake without trying to keep hold of both rifles, but the numbers of the horde were overwhelming. They just kept getting closer and closer, but the sound of the truck moving behind him prompted Mark to take a look. There was a way out.

  “Come on Jake get up! We only have to make it fifteen feet!” Mark yelled in frustration. He pulled him another foot, and stopped to take another shot. “Of all the times to give up. Come on you stubborn old bastard, are you really going to die here?” He reached down to drag him again, but this time he felt Jakes hand on his.

  “Leave me.” was all Jake managed to say.

  “Oh fuck that! Get up let’s move we can make it!” Mark pulled him anyway, and then stopped to take another shot.

  “I can’t make it.” Jake said back.

  “I’ve saved your ass too many times for me to let you die here.”

  Jake spoke a bit more forcefully trying to persuade him. “But… I left you to die at that creek.”

  “You left a stranger to die at that creek! But I’m staying with a friend, even if it is to the bitter end!” Mark took hold of him again, inching them closer to the exit. He let out the last few bullets in the rifle, and took a hold of Jake under both arms to move him.

  Jake opened his eyes and watched as the lurkers drew in. He was being pulled backward from them, but they were coming faster than he was moving away. They were upon him, just a foot away, when the jeep came veering around his side and smashed into the horde. It came to a halt and Dustin yelled out. “Get in!”

  Chapter 39

  “Mr. Williams.” the nurse said. Mark stirred from his all too brief and horribly uncomfortable nap. He popped his neck and looked up at the woman. “It’s visiting hours, you can see Mr. Madison now.”

  “Thanks.” Mark said and got up from the chair. He stopped about half way up, and curled his face in pain, clenching his back.

  “Are you ok?” the nurse asked.

  Mark rubbed his back trying to relieve the pain. “Yeah, I just pulled a muscle trying to pull something heavy out of the fire a couple days ago.” He stood up straight and tried to walk without showing his pain. He entered the room where Dale Madison was resting. “So, how are you doing?”

  Dale looked up at Mark who was standing over his bed. “Well it hurts, especially when I breathe.”

  Mark smiled. “Well I would recommend you stop doing that, but the nurse would get mad at me.”

  The both of them barely laughed.“Don’t make me laugh.” Madison grabbed his side. “I know I don’t have much right to ask, but how is Jake doing?”

  Mark took his time to collect his thoughts. “We’re not really sure yet. Your wound was pretty minor, relatively speaking. They said the bullet went clean through, and only barely nicked your liver.” Mark took a deep breath. “The bullet that hit Jake fragmented. It tore his colon up. The honest truth is, it could still go either way. I’ve seen it kill some men, while others have to shit in a bag the rest of their life… but still, some live, more or less no worse for the wear.”

  There was silence as the men tried to think of what to say. “I have a question.” Dale spoke out.

  “Shoot.”

  “If you were friends with my dad, you know Burt? Then why didn’t I ever see you around?”

  Mark rolled his eyes when he heard the question. “It’s more appropriate to say that I tried to be friends with your dad. No offense, but he was kind of an asshole.” Mark said in a jesting tone of voice.

  Dale laughed a little but stopped quickly. “I told you not to make me laugh.” Dale took a second to calm back down. “Yeah, he wasn’t the best guy from what I heard… So, did you stop the rest of the ‘X’s?”

  “Yup! With your help, and the map that you had, we were able to round up all the trucks that were full of lurkers. Since Barry never gave the signal to release them, all we had to do was sneak up on the drivers. Of course now we have twenty something trucks full of zombies out back of the police department, that no one knows what to do with.”

  Dale closed his eyes. “That’s good.” He looked out his window, and let out a long sigh. “I guess I’ll be having a trial soon, maybe put to death for helping out Barry.”

  “That’s true…” Mark held back his speech for effect. “If that’s what happened.” He started to saunter around the bed, before realizing that it hurt his back too much to walk that way, and reverted back to his normal walk. “The way I hear it, you followed one of your stolen trucks out into the forest, and stepped in the line of danger to save some innocent folk.”

  Dale looked to Mark. “You can’t tell me that I’m not going to get in trouble for this?”

  “I can, and I will, you see… do you always look a gift horse in the mouth?” Mark was a little flustered. “Never mind, look it’s taking every string I got left in the police department, but it looks like we can get you into witness protection. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut and move out of town… Some of the boys in blue may not like it, but if it weren’t for you things could have gone a lot worse. As for Jake and Dustin, they’ll let it go.” Mark made his way over to the door.

  “I… I don’t know what to say.”

  “I already told you… Don’t say anything.” Mark left the room with a smile on his face, but it quickly changed back to a frustrated grimace when he walked past the room where they had taken Jake, and moved on to the waiting room. “Any word?” he asked Jake’s family.

  “Nothing yet.” Dustin replied, sitting on the edge of his seat. It was dead silent in the room as everyone waited to hear any news that would come.

  A few minutes passed before a doctor left the room that Jake was in. “One moment please.” he said and walked over to hand some paper work over to a nurse behind the desk. “Ok.” he said and got ready for the question.

  “So how is he?” Jake’s daughter asked.

  The Doctor grinned slightly. “Well I have good news, he’s out of surgery, and into recovery. He was tore up pretty bad when he came in, but it looks like we managed to sew him back together right. We’ve stopped the internal bleeding, and it looks like the surgery went well. But, the real problem is that he has an infection.” The room stood on end, fearing the news. “But it’s nothing that some antibiotics won’t take care of.”

  Author Notes:

  Thanks for reading my book, I really appreciate it. As you know with any author I would like to be able to write full-time. So I encourage you, if you liked the book, then please review it, tell a friend, talk about it on facebook, whatever you can do. I would be extremely grateful, thank you! You guys are awesome!

  By the way, you might enjoy a second read of this book… Chances are you missed a lot.

 

 

 
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