Valerie, Kevin, and Tom zipped their jackets, straightened their helmets, and double-checked their weapons as the chopper landed. Once they were down, their pilot, Greta, did the same. She wasn’t pleased about having to leave the helicopter, but the leaders of the fort had insisted that everyone come inside.
As Kevin had expected, the sound and sight of the aircraft attracted the dead, who came staggering and crawling toward the helicopter. As the machine’s rotors slowed, Kevin thought briefly of the original Dawn of the Dead, where a zombie had the top of his head whacked off by helicopter blades.
“I got four on this side,” Tom reported.
“I got nine,” Valerie said.
“Just sit tight. They should be out here with a vehicle in a few,” Kevin promised them.
Unexpectedly, the zombies began to collapse, plumes of bone and brain exploding out of their heads.
“Snipers?” Valerie looked shocked.
Greta whipped her head around to stare at Kevin. “Think they got military here?”
“Maybe. That sniper is a dead-on shot,” Kevin answered, impressed.
Another zombie tumbled to the ground even as more appeared from the side streets.
“We’re drawing a crowd,” Valerie said, her voice tense.
Abruptly jets of flame erupted out of the street. The zombies retreated, scrambling, some of them on fire.
“Fire traps,” Tom said in awe.
“They have a formidable setup. Better than we realized,” Kevin said.
“These people are not going to want to turn over their fort to us,” Valerie said somberly.
“No, they’re not,” Kevin agreed.
A civilian Hummer raced around the corner at top speed, running over a few crawling zombies as it roared up to the helicopter.
“Out,” Kevin ordered.
They slid the doors open, leaped to the ground, and ran for the SUV as the sharpshooter continued to pick off the zombies. Piling into the Hummer, they were surprised to hear country music coming from the car’s speakers.
“Hi,” said the driver, a woman with bright red hair. “Hold on.” She floored the gas pedal and the Hummer smashed into a few more zombies before spinning around and heading back in the direction it had come from.
“My name’s Katarina,” the redhead said, aiming the vehicle at a lurching zombie. The impact flung the creature’s broken body into a tree.
“First Lieutenant Kevin Reynolds,” Kevin said, gripping the dashboard for stability.
The Hummer swerved sharply and slid through an opening in the wall. Turning around in his seat, Kevin saw a set of heavy metal gates closing behind them. A few zombies attempted to follow, but more jets of flame sent them fleeing. There was a second set of closed gates in front of the Hummer. Kevin realized the fort’s entrance was some kind of lock system.
Once the gates had closed behind the vehicle, a man and a woman who were standing on the walls on either side of the Hummer used long poles with mirrors mounted on their ends to inspect the car’s undercarriage. Satisfied that all was clear, the guards signaled and the second gate opened.
“Are you all civilians?” Kevin asked, marveling at the efficiency of the fort’s operation. It felt like a military op, but no one was in uniform.
“Yes, except for Nerit,” Katarina answered. “She was a sniper for the Israeli army.” She hit the gas and drove into a large courtyard, coming to a stop near an open set of garage doors.
Waiting there were a tall, handsome man, a blond woman who was visibly pregnant, and an older woman. Studying the welcoming committee, Kevin pegged the woman with the silvery yellow hair as the former Israeli sniper. Her keen gaze reminded him of a hawk.
Katarina got out of the SUV first, but Kevin quickly followed. His crew climbed out behind him, falling into formation.
The tall man walked over to Kevin and held out his hand. “I’m Travis. This is my wife, Katie.” He smiled at the pregnant woman. “And this is Nerit, our head of security. Welcome to our home.”
Trying not to stare at their surroundings, Kevin gave the man’s hand a brief shake. “I’m First Lieutenant Kevin Reynolds. I’ve been serving at the Madison Mall Rescue Center since the first day.” He introduced the rest of his team.
“So, how can we help you?” Travis asked.
“I was sent by my superiors to ask you to surrender the fort.” Travis’s face grew solemn and Katie’s eyes narrowed. Nerit looked calm and deadly. Kevin continued quickly, “But I’m really here on behalf of the people at the Madison Mall and the men under my command. We want permission to relocate here and join you. My superiors can go to hell.”
Travis was clearly surprised. “Sounds like we got a lot to talk about.”
Kevin nodded solemnly. “You have no idea.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1.
The Bridging of Worlds
This world was far different from the one he knew.
Glancing over the cars and trucks in the fort’s garage before Travis led the group away, Kevin could not help but think of the vehicles in the mall’s parking lot. His troops turned on the engines once a week to make sure their batteries didn’t die, but no one drove anywhere, since the lot’s gates were blocked by the wailing dead. In contrast, this fleet of vehicles seemed ready to go at a moment’s notice.
The fort people escorted the newcomers up a staircase that led over the wall that separated the parking area from the rest of the fort. Levers at the top and bottom of the staircase made it clear the stairs could be collapsed at a moment’s notice. As they climbed, Kevin noted that armed guards scrutinized his every move.
“Is this the only way in or out?” Valerie asked as they followed Travis and the two women.
“When the garage doors are down, yes,” Nerit answered in an Israeli accent. “And those are reinforced.”
Reaching the top of the stairs, Kevin froze, mesmerized by the sight of the reclaimed downtown of the small town. Tears sprang into his eyes and he fought them back. Children played in the streets, shouting and laughing. Old people sat in a gazebo, chatting. Young people walked down the sidewalk outside an old movie theater, talking and sipping sodas. The theater’s marquee read, TUESDAY FAMILY NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE. MONSTERS INC. AND SHREK. A pack of dogs ran around. A cat sat calmly in the sun near the gazebo, cleaning a paw.
Some of the people in the street began to notice the soldiers. Some waved; others just stared. An older man, arms covered with navy tattoos, saluted. Kevin saluted back, smiling.
“Are you going to kill all the zombies, mister?” called out a boy who was playing with toy soldiers in the dirt.
“We’re working on it,” Kevin answered.
Travis led the group to the hotel. While most people they passed seemed happy or surprised to see the newcomers, Kevin saw one woman, who was holding a little boy’s hand, eyeing them suspiciously. Inside the hotel, a large chalkboard mounted on an easel in the hallway announced, LUNCH: EGG SANDWICHES, HOME-STYLE FRIES, AND CHOCOLATE MILK SHAKES.
“Eggs,” Tom gasped.
Kevin could barely swallow past the lump in his throat. He’d never imagined the fort would be anything like this. Not after the mall. The world he’d known for months was one of near-starvation, mindless tasks to keep people busy, people dying from the flu, and zombies moaning endlessly outside. Life was all about power struggles. Life was hell.
As they walked through the lobby of the hotel, Kevin was startled to hear applause. He looked around and saw a group of people clapping. Focusing on them, Kevin realized that they were surrounded by luggage.
“What the hell is this?” Valerie muttered behind him.
In his peripheral vision, Kevin saw Travis sigh and rub his brow. A middle-aged man rushed over to their group.
“It’s so good to see you! We’re all ready to go!” the man said as he pumped Kevin’s hand.
“Go where?” Kevin asked, confused.
“To your base, of course. Away from here!”
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Tom, Greta, and Valerie laughed, and Kevin patted the man’s shoulder. “Trust me. You don’t want to go to where I came from.”
The gathered people whispered among themselves, confused.
An older black woman stepped forward and said, “We want to go where it’s safer!”
“Ma’am, this is about as safe as you are going to get.” Kevin glanced at Travis and Katie and saw the amused expressions on their faces. He opened his hands and said, “Trust me, they don’t want to go there.”
Travis nodded like he wasn’t surprised and led the group from the lobby to a large office. The woman who had given Kevin a suspicious look entered the room and sat down, still obviously uneasy. As Travis introduced the woman as Peggy, Kevin wondered where the little boy had gone. Travis perched on the edge of the desk; Katie sat on the desk as well, next to her husband. Nerit took the chair closest to the door, crossing her legs as she observed Kevin and his people.
There were several unoccupied chairs set in a semicircle facing the desk. Feeling nervous, not to mention awkward in his helmet and body armor, Kevin lowered himself into a creaky leather chair and took off his helmet. His companions followed his example.
Arms folded across his chest, Travis said, “So, what can we do for you folks?”
“Like I said, we were ordered to come here and demand that you surrender the fort. But we don’t want to do that,” Kevin said earnestly.
“Why are we supposed to believe you?” Katie arched an eyebrow.
Kevin pulled a letter from his jacket pocket. “This is from Police Chief Bruce Kiel. Recon photos revealed that his daughter is here. If she reads this, she’ll be able to vouch for me.”
The blond woman’s face paled and her hand shook as she reached for the letter. “Give that to me.”
Travis laid a hand on her shoulder as Kevin passed Katie the folded bit of paper. “You’re Katie Kiel?”
“Yes,” she answered. She let out a gasp as the familiar handwriting came into view. Covering her mouth with one trembling hand, she read quickly. Then, with tears shimmering in her eyes, she took a deep breath. More composed, she read aloud,
Katie-girl, it’s Dad. I’m alive and safe in the Madison Mall. Safe for now, at least.
Senator Brightman wants your fort. Don’t let her have it. The way she treats people is despicable. Listen to Kevin. He’s a good guy and what he says is the truth.
Love you, baby.
Your Dad.
Katie sniffled, but kept her tears in check. Kevin respected her composure.
Nerit smiled at her warmly. “It is good to know that ones we love survived.”
Kevin lowered his gaze. He knew in his heart that none of his loved ones had made it. That was part of why he wanted to give the people at the mall a chance.
“So what do you have to tell us?” Travis asked.
“I guess I should start at the beginning,” Kevin said as images of the first day unfolded in his mind.
2.
Kevin’s Story
The phone woke him. His unit was being mobilized to deal with civic unrest and he had to report immediately.
He’d just returned from overseas, and he and his wife had been hoping to live a normal life for a while. They’d planned to see his son play basketball that evening, followed by dinner at their favorite barbecue dive. Kevin remembered but didn’t speak of the look of sadness in his wife’s eyes when she heard he was being deployed again.
Kevin was still glad that he’d taken the time to step into the bedrooms of his three children. He knew he would never forget how their skin and hair felt, how sweet they smelled as he kissed them good-bye while they slept. He promised his wife that he would contact her as soon as he could, not knowing that he would never speak to her again.
The briefing at the base was quick. A riot had broken out at a truck stop near a small town. The local police and sheriff had responded and been overwhelmed. The military was being sent in to quell the violence. There were rumors of more riots breaking out all over the country.
A convoy of trucks departed the base, headlights sluicing through the darkness. When they arrived at the truck stop, which was like a small city unto itself, they found a scene out of hell. Vehicles were smashed into one another, a truck had been overturned, and fire was spreading inside the restaurant. As soon as the convoy came into view, it was rushed.
The next minutes were a blur: weapons firing; bloody, mutilated people grabbing at the soldiers; and a horrible chorus of screams, growls, and chewing. He’d had to stop more than once to wipe blood from his face mask. Somehow, the soldiers managed to tear a swath of destruction through the horde of crazed rioters. Kevin saw an armless man running toward him and a woman with an empty chest cavity ripping the eyes out of a soldier. In that moment, Kevin realized what they were fighting: zombies. Then someone had shouted to aim for their heads.
The soldiers swept through the truck stop, bullets ripping through undead skulls, blood and gore splashing the pavement and the sides of trucks like gruesome graffiti. Some of his troops fell to the zombies, but eventually the survivors stood wearily triumphant among the truly dead.
Horror swept over Kevin when the wounded suddenly attacked the living. He unleashed four bullets into the face of one of his best friends to save himself. Clearly, a bite was lethal.
Reporting in, Kevin tried to make his disbelieving superiors understand what was happening. As the sun rose over the hills, he was ordered to help the National Guard in a nearby city.
The world was already dead, but no one knew it.
They had taken the back roads to the city, occasionally stopping to eliminate zombies or infected people. He hadn’t known at the time that he was fighting a losing battle, that the number of undead probably already outnumbered the living.
As he recalled that nightmarish journey, Kevin recognized Katie as the other woman he had seen with Jenni and the German shepherd. They had looked so shell-shocked, yet determined to survive. He remembered petting the dog and thinking of his family.
Entering the city had been like driving into hell—snarled traffic, abandoned vehicles, makeshift barricades, and rampaging zombies. They had reached the police station just as it was overrun. The police chief and some of his surviving officers had leaped from the roof of the station onto one of the army trucks. It was terrifying to see how few people survived. The soldiers found what remained of the National Guard and headed out of the city to save their own lives. Nearly half their vehicles and people had been lost to the waves of zombies that filled the roads.
Shattered, overwhelmed, and near panic, a few men and women went AWOL, trying to rescue their families. Kevin understood the temptation, but knew that they would fail. The world was dead. Their families were dead.
His own family would have taken refuge in the hospital where his wife worked. He’d seen enough to know the hospitals were deathtraps. There was no hope for them, but he could try to save others.
He had let those soldiers go. The world was ending, and every man and woman deserved to make a choice as to their own fate.
Most of the troops followed him into the hills and made their way to Madison. They’d found the Rescue Center, and Kevin had almost immediately decided to move everyone to the mall. It seemed like a secure location, thanks to the high wall around the parking lot.
For a week, he had run the mall as best he could, using his troops, plus the National Guard and the police to secure the place and keep the zombie population down. National Guard helicopters began arriving on the second day, bringing in supplies and ammunition until their base was overrun. More survivors showed up and sometimes made it to safety, but more often than not, they were torn apart trying to scale the walls.
Working hard and keeping focused on what needed to be done kept him from thinking about his family. But he always felt as though he was about to lose his mind, and when he was alone, he would sometimes weep until he thought he would die.
Then Senator P
aige Brightman and Major General Gordon Knox arrived. The major general carried orders from the president putting him in charge of the rescue centers, so Kevin had stepped aside. Now he wished he had never relinquished authority.
“I just want to do what’s right,” Kevin finished. “I want to give those people a good home. I failed them once. I don’t want to fail them again.”
“You won’t,” Travis said, standing. “Let’s bring your people home.”
3.
A Terrible Thing
Katie listened to Kevin, her fingers slowly tracing the edges of the letter from her father. The first lieutenant looked tired, discouraged, and worn; his shoulders were stooped as if the burden of protecting those people in the mall weighed them down. Travis looked like that at times, too; Katie knew that Kevin, like her husband, took his responsibilities seriously.
“I appreciate this more than you know. We are getting low on ammunition, and the gates won’t hold forever against the zombies,” the soldier said.
“The crowd gets a little bigger every day,” Valerie added.
“Have you considered trying to get the people out before?” Nerit asked.
“Yes. Every time we went out in the helicopters, we’d try to find a safe place to go, but nothing was really viable. And the major general and the senator were more interested in staying put and keeping the zombies out than in relocating.”
“We sent out scavenging parties. We lost people when we went east, so we started coming west. We found one group making a meth lab in the back of a grocery store. Their leader told us about your fort. He said his group had tried to join yours and that you had attacked them instead of helping them.”
“The bandits,” Curtis hissed.
“We could tell his story was fishy, but the minute the senator heard about the fort, she got very excited.”
“Why?” Katie asked. “What does she want with us?”
Kevin drew a deep breath. “The truth of the situation is this: No one knows what happened to the rest of the world, and nothing remains of the United States government except Vice President Ramón Castellanos and a few other members of Congress. Castellanos is calling himself the president these days.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 81
