Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  Krantz gave him the names of the logistics people who were in charge of the helicopters and assigned two troops worth of men to get the base started. The men were a mix of soldiers and clearers with a couple of low-level Brotherhood officers mixed in for leadership. Orders given and acknowledged Krantz walked out of the cabin and gazed out across the lake. The place he was currently leading the troops from was a cabin at the end of a dock on a lake by Santee, SC. Their helicopters were sitting on the cracked asphalt of the local discount outlet stores shopping center.

  They were there to accept the formal surrender of the Orangeburg county militia. The leader there had watched a couple helicopters fly over and reviewed the leaflets dropped out of them. They’d sent their notice to surrender the next day. The county Sherriff had sent an envoy to the Brotherhood saying they were ready to be absorbed. Krantz kept wanting to say assimilated but knew that was just the Trekkie in him.

  The Sherriff’s request had caught Krantz and Roberts flat footed. They’d been so focused on getting people to surrender that they didn’t have a clear process in place for when people actually surrendered. Roberts had decided that flying over and explaining the process that didn’t exist yet to the Sherriff of a county he’d never heard of should be delegated straight to Krantz. Krantz had immediately started digging through the propaganda printouts they’d been dumping all over South Carolina. He hadn’t realized until then exactly how vague the damned things were.

  The lake was peaceful. It’s surface like a giant mirror with barely a ripple disturbing it. The odd stillness to the air made his spine tingle in anticipation of something. He wasn’t sure what that something was, but he felt like this was the calm before the storm. The Sherriff and his people were supposed to come here by boat sometime in the next few hours. Once they got here Krantz was going to sit them down and explain what being a part of the Brotherhood really meant. If they didn’t like it then they wouldn’t walk out of the meeting alive.

  Krantz hoped they liked it. It made everything so much easier if they could just get the local leadership to go along with the plan. They really needed to take over South Carolina in nice big chunks. None of them wanted to try and hunt down groups of ten to twenty people spread out all over the place. It was so much more efficient to bring them on board in nice big groups like the one he’d be meeting with. It was depressing seeing how few had survived in some of these counties. They may have self-quarantined almost immediately, but it obviously hadn’t worked as well as they’d hoped for everyone.

  A lump laying on the path leading to the dock caught Krantz’s eye. He walked a little bit closer until he could make it out. The bloated body of a naked sore covered dead infected man with arrows sticking out of him slowly coming into focus. Krantz was always on the lookout for men with talent. One of his favorite things to look for in his personal bodyguard were men who could use a bow well. He had three of them patrolling the woods leading to the cabin right now. Any Zombies that wandered up would get quietly taken out just like the one currently lying dead in the mud.

  They needed the bows and any other silent weapons they could get considering everywhere they went in a helicopter became a Zombie mecca as soon as they landed. They typically sealed the helicopters up and took off running as soon as they landed. His new job was turning out to be excellent for cardio. When you’re looking for something motivating try imagining a swarm of Zombies chasing you across a parking lot. Now stop imagining and live as Krantz for a day and you’d see why he was in the best aerobic shape of his life. It doesn’t matter how intense the spin class you attend is nothing is going to work better than spending an hour a day running in sheer terror of being eaten alive.

  Krantz turned and walked back towards the cabin. The Seabee and two others walked past him heading for their helicopter. The Seabee stopping briefly to tell Krantz he’d get to work as soon as he landed. It may have been his imagination but Krantz thought the man had actually started to sound excited about the project now that he’d realized he was really going to get the resources needed to pull it off. It was going to be awesome if they could manage to actually build it. Despite the confidence he’d spoken with Krantz gave it maybe a twenty percent chance of actually working out.

  Normally he wouldn’t risk the resources they were going to dump into this on something that he thought only had a twenty percent chance of success but the upside if they managed to pull it off was pretty huge. As long as they maintained air superiority and the Zombies in the city kept people away from the buildings it gave them an impregnable forward operating base right in the middle of the state they were looking to occupy and control. It could be a real game changer. If it didn’t work out, then they could always cut their losses and just keep doing everything the same as they always had.

  He was sitting on the deck thinking through the benefits of building out the same city in the clouds kind of concept for places like Atlanta and Jacksonville when he saw three boats coming across the lake towards them. As the small boats got closer, he could just make out the whine of the electric powered motors pushing them across the water. Each boat looked like it could hold a maximum of four people before getting too crowded. The men standing in the boats were all well-armed and serious looking. Krantz watched as the first boat pulled up to the dock and the men secured it before climbing out onto the dock.

  He waited until the men had tied everything up and gotten out before he walked towards the small crowd of uniformed men. Each of them was wearing a variation of a paramilitary SWAT unit type getup. Camouflage and dark mirrored sunglasses were very prevalent. A grizzled looking man saw him coming and stepped forward to shake his hand. Krantz put out his hand and they exchanged a brief warriors handshake.

  “I’m Sherriff Waylon. I’m the man in charge of keeping this county together. Looking forward to meeting up with your representative and learning more about how we work together. I believe I was going to be meeting the man in charge of all your ground forces. Commander Krantz?” The man said.

  “Excellent. Good to meet you Sherriff. I’m Commander Krantz. We’ve got refreshments for your men in that cabin over there. If you want to walk with me, we have another cabin setup for you and me to talk.”

  “Sounds good. Lead the way.” Waylon said waving to his men towards the cabin Krantz indicated had been setup for them.

  Krantz led the way into the cabin where he had whiskey and ice sitting out as well as a collection of snacks. He also had copies of the pamphlets that’d been dropped. The ice would be seen by most as a luxury although if Waylon had electric motors working then he probably had mastered refrigeration as well.

  “Pretty trusting of you to show up out here without a ton of men guarding your back. We could’ve just asked to join up to get you out here and take you out or make you a hostage.” Waylon opened up the conversation.

  “I’m replaceable. You here to kill me?” Krantz asked handing Waylon a generous pour of whiskey over ice.

  “Honestly I hadn’t even considered the risk you were taking until now. I’ve mostly been focused on what it looks like for us to become part of this New America. That really the best name you guys could come up with?” Waylon asked sipping at the whiskey.

  “Our marketing department was eaten by Zombies, so you get a bunch of military minds sitting around thinking up slogans and doing the branding. We’ll work out a catchier name later. What do you think of the information on the pamphlets? Tell me what you think joining us gets you?” Krantz sat down in a large recliner and took a long pull from his glass while he waited to see what Waylon would say to that. He was genuinely curious to see what the thinking behind the quick capitulation had been. Maybe they could duplicate it.

  “Well. We know the Georgia National Guard fared better than most. We know your Senator has them all under his control and honestly, we don’t want to be in the cross hairs. We want to be part of something big again. We need someone we can call for help when we need it. We definitely don’t want some
one like you as an enemy. I’m assuming if we didn’t surrender now then the next time that we saw you would be from the ground as you were launching rockets into our houses?” Waylon asked.

  “The Senator and all of us just want to bring everyone together and start rebuilding society. There has to be law and order to do that.” Krantz answered simply. He didn’t see any need to make threats to a man who’d already agreed that surrender was the best course for him and his people.

  “That sounds good to me. I guess my big question is what do you get out of this and what do you need us to do?” Waylon asked.

  “For now. Not much. There’ll be some men along to work with you to get an accurate inventory of your current supplies. They’ll also conduct a mini census to see how many people you have here and what their skill sets look like. Once we have that info your people will be offered different roles to fill to help build out the New America. You’ll stay in charge of your area reporting to a centralized command structure. How’s that sound?”

  “Sounds about like what we gathered from the brochures. I assume my family and the people around me I need to run the place would be allowed to stay?” Waylon asked.

  Krantz nodded affirmatively at that.

  “Would the people who get assigned job duties have the right to refuse them?” Waylon asked.

  “We’re working on building out a new society in the middle of a Zombie apocalypse, so we expect everyone to do their part. There’ll be some hard concessions in the beginning, but it’ll all be worth it when we’re able to walk the streets safely again. This is all about getting back to living our lives instead of just trying to survive.” Krantz said.

  “Alright. So, they wouldn’t have a choice is what I’m hearing. I also understand that realistically we don’t have a choice either. Thanks for the drink. We’ll be on the lookout for your men so we can get everything setup.” Waylon stood up and extended his hand. A little bit taken aback by the sudden ending to the meeting Krantz stood up and shook the proffered hand before walking with Waylon back down to the dock.

  Watching the men cruise away in their efficient little electric boats Krantz wondered if he intended on keeping his word. It’d go a lot better for them if they did. It’d go a lot better for everybody if they just fell in line. The Brotherhood was going to roll right over South Carolina and anything that stuck it’s head up to stop them was going to get it lopped right off.

  Chapter 7: No Easy Day

  A total of five Zombies beat their way into the little clearing beneath the trees where the remains of the trailer had smashed into the ground. Randy hugged the large tree trunk tightly. He was scared to look down lest he accidentally make eye contact with one of the Zombies. Above him he could barely make out the sound of the kids occasionally moving around to maintain their balance on the tree branches.

  The Zombies weren’t screeching any more at least. They’d settled into walking around and grunting while they searched through the weeds in the area trying to find the non-infected humans their fever wracked brains associated with pretty much any unnatural noise. It was a good sign they were quieting down. Typically, the screeching only happened when the Zombies thought they were onto something. If they were just grunting, then they’d eventually wander off or lay down in the bushes to sleep. Worse case they may have to stay in the tree until darkness fell then quietly climb down and sneak away. It’d mean some gross bathroom type choices, but they were all pretty much past worrying about that at this point.

  The one who noticed him didn’t screech though. It sprinted about ten steps without making a sound then leapt impossibly high in the air before slamming into Randy’s back. The impact knocked the breath out of Randy. The Zombie tried to grab him but just ended up ripping out some of his hair before it fell to the ground below the tree. Randy felt the Zombie bounce off him and did his best to hold onto the slippery tree trunk. His best wasn’t good enough. He ripped out three of his fingernails but still found himself falling towards where the Zombie was already starting to get back to its feet.

  He landed a few feet away from where the Zombie was quickly recovering from the fall. He rolled to the left and just kept rolling. He expected to feel teeth ripping into him any second. He just prayed the Zombies didn’t notice the rest of his family up in the tree. As long as they didn’t do anything to draw attention to themselves, they could still escape.

  Bullets from Caitlyn’s rifle blew apart the Zombies head. Kyler and Kelly landed on the ground close to Randy a second later. Kyler stood up and started shooting at the Zombies coming for them while Kelly helped Randy to his feet.

  “What the hell are you doing? Every Zombie within fifty miles will be here in a minute now!” Randy yelled.

  “Then let’s not be here anymore! You’re welcome by the way!” Kelly yelled back at him. Kyler ignored them both and kept putting bullets through the Zombies as they got close enough for him to get a clear shot.

  “That was the last one. If we’re making a run for it, we need to go now. Otherwise we need to get back in the tree. Your call but hand weapons need to come out if we’re running for it.” Kyler said. He still had his rifle up to his shoulder. He was spinning in a circle looking to see if there were any more targets while he waited for the married folks to make up their mind. It didn’t take long since the kids all started climbing down out of the tree.

  “We’re making a run for it right?” Myriah asked when she saw her mom and dad staring at her.

  Caitlyn was dangling Doreen down for someone to grab. Randy reached up and grabbed her.

  “Anybody know which way north is?” He asked.

  Kyler felt around in his pockets until he found the compass that they’d been using. He threw the rope necklace attached to it around his neck and told everybody to follow him. He put away his rifle and walked up to Randy who handed him Doreen. He checked the compass again then headed off north. Everyone else followed once they situated who was carrying kids and who was running with sharp objects in their hands.

  High pitched screams echoing through the woods all around them they launched into a fast jog after Kyler. Kyler was trying to head north while still picking a path that was navigable by people who all had their hands very full. From experience he knew they needed to get a good mile or two away from where they’d fired their rifles to be somewhere that they could stop to rest. If they got bogged down by fighting along the way, then their chances of survival went way down.

  Kyler shifted Doreen around on his shoulder and kept on running through the wet woods in the direction the luminescent compass needle pointed. The nice thing about running due north was that navigation was pretty easy. All he had to do was wait for the needle to settle and then follow it. He was running for about fifty yards then stopping to check the compass and reorient. Otherwise he knew that it was easy to find yourself running in a circle in this kind of situation. That would be the death of them for sure if that happened.

  He didn’t put much thought into the fact that he was running without a flashlight. At some point while they were climbing down the tree the storm had moved away and the sun had started to come over the horizon. If they’d been trying to pull this off in the pitch black in the middle of that storm it would’ve been a whole different ballgame. They hadn’t seen a Zombie in their first few minutes of running from the area they’d killed the other Zombies in. As Kyler dropped the compass and started running after one of his stops to verify that they were going north a short Zombie stepped out from behind a tree right into his path.

  Kyler had Doreen draped across one shoulder and his rifle strapped to the other one. He had left his machete in his belt since he kept checking the compass. He realized when he saw the Zombie that he may die because he’d been too lazy to take the time to get the machete back out. The Zombie had long hair and the remains of a Pink Floyd t-shirt on. It hissed and jumped for him as soon as it realized it’d actually come across a non-infected human.

  Without thinking Kyler kicked t
he freak right in its sore covered face as hard as he could. He lost his footing in the wet pine straw and toppled to the ground with Doreen landing on his face. Kyler sat up in time to see Randy beating the skinny Zombie to the ground with a hammer then leaning over to finish it by smashing in its head. Kyler climbed back to his feet as Randy tried to wipe off the gunk stuck to his hammer with a piece of bark. Kyler nodded at him and kept on moving after taking a second to check the compass. This time he had Doreen in one arm and the machete held tightly in his other hand.

  Randy finished up wiping off the hammer and jogged back to the end of the group. He snagged Zoey from Kelly before turning to run along with everyone else. Kelly was now running with hatchets in both hands. They kept switching off like that to stay fresh and have at least two people ready to fight at any time without having to drop kids on the ground to do it. Kelly sprinted up to the front of the line when she saw Kyler stop running and put Doreen on the ground.

  Kyler was staring into the bushes in front of him. Kelly stopped beside him and listened. Over the sound of her own ragged breathing she could hear something grunting in the trees in front of them. She checked her grip on her hatchets and got ready to fight. Kyler started to lead them around the grunting noise. He started moving too slowly though as the weeds in front of them shifted around. A massive wild boar popped out right in front of them. Randy and Caitlyn had joined them with weapons out. They all stared at the enormous beast that was staring back at them. The gigantic and fierce beast rocking back and forth grunted loudly opening its mouth and showing off its tusks. The red eyes glowed evilly as it regarded them.