Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  Everyone was miserable before the sun had even completely set. They were all soaked to the bone. The thin wool blankets weren’t doing a whole lot to keep them warm. Randy heard teeth starting to chatter and decided to try and build a fire. Ten minutes later after almost picking up a big water moccasin he thought was a log he gave up. Everything was still soaking wet anyway and he doubted he had the survival skills to get a fire going unless he could find a can of gasoline somewhere. His fire-starting skills were pretty much limited to squirting lighter fluid on the grill or fire pit. If the wood didn’t catch fire the first time you tried, then you just kept adding lighter fluid until it did.

  He stood in the darkness listening to his wife, kids and Kyler all freezing. He remembered the building they’d seen from the creek before the sun went down. There was a good chance it was abandoned and would at least have blankets in it. Dry clothes would be a huge plus as well. From a looters perspective those were both low hanging fruit kind of items. He walked over and told Kelly his idea.

  “Your idea is to leave us here in the dark freezing to death while you wander off to see if the building that we thought we saw might have extra blankets in it?” Kelly asked. She was freezing. The kids were all trying to snuggle as close to her as possible for warmth. She was freaking out Kyler might die during the night because she’d given him the wrong dose of pain killers. He was moaning in pain in while his teeth chattered loudly. Kelly was afraid to give him any more pills until she felt like the first round was out of his system. She figured it was better for him to be in a bit of pain than die from an overdose.

  “I’ll only be gone for about thirty minutes. If it isn’t easy or anything looks weird, I’ll just turn around and come back.” Randy whispered back to her.

  “This plan keeps getting better. If you run into anything weird, you’re going to just turn around and lead it back here? How about you just stay here, and we figure this out in the morning?” Kelly said. She was really not in the mood to deal with this level of stupidity at the moment. Randy muttered that sounded like it would work.

  Kelly and the kids eventually fell asleep. The teeth chattering continued as Randy patrolled around the boat. He was dead tired but in no hurry to lie on the hard ground and freeze alongside everyone else. Plus, he was hoping Kelly may be in a better mood if he let her sleep for a while. He sat on the ground and put his back against a stump knowing he was too cold and miserable to fall asleep.

  He woke up with his back still against the stump. Light from the rising sun was just beginning to filter down through the trees. He could just make out the miserable looking pile of humanity that was his wife and children. He stood up and stretched. He was mortified he’d fallen asleep on watch. Evidently when your body got to a certain point it just shut down on you whether you wanted it to or not.

  He did a quick spin around the camp verifying everything looked like it was still in the same place. In the light of dawn, he could see they were on a nice little white sand break sticking out into the creek. A trail ran down to the edge of the site from somewhere. It was overgrown but a quick look confirmed it was lined with wood. It had also been mulched at some point in the distant past. He was looking at the trail and trying to see where it led when he heard Kelly cough behind him.

  “You fall asleep?” She asked.

  “Yes.” He said. He’d been raised to think that excuses were lame. You went with whatever was the truth and that’s the way it was.

  “Not surprising. I can’t believe the rest of us slept. We were all pretty much wrecked after yesterday.” Kelly gave him a quick kiss to show she wasn’t mad and asked him what he was looking at.

  “I found this trail. I’m thinking it leads up to that big house we saw yesterday. We need supplies. I’m honestly thinking this may be the best place to find them. I want to go check it out.” Randy answered her. Kelly looked like she was fixing to recite the list of reasons why he shouldn’t just wander off by himself to check out an old house. Then she visibly considered the state of their nonexistent food supplies. You could see most of the kids ribs at this point. They were going to be looking like a Sally Struthers infomercial pretty soon if they didn’t find some food.

  “Ok. Take Cait to watch your back. Help me get the boat ready to shove in the water if we have to get out of here quick. If we get separated, I’ll wait a mile up the creek for you to come back to us. I love you. Go get us some food.” Kelly said.

  “Food and blankets and hopefully a fresh set of underwear.” Randy said smiling.

  “Oh, that’d be heaven. Now help me move this boat. You need to hurry up and grab Cait and get the hell out of here before we have time to think about how stupid this idea is.”

  Randy and Cait left Kyler bundled up in the boat. They pushed the bow of the boat out into the creek, so it was halfway ready to launch. If they came tearing back into the clearing with Zombies on their ass all they’d have to do was give the boat a shove and hop in. Kelly would know something was up because she’d hear them shooting their way back down the trail.

  They walked up the old trail towards what was hopefully an abandoned house once they’d taken care of prepping the boat for a quick launch. Caitlyn walked behind Randy ready to rock with her rifle. Randy was holding a hatchet and a machete with his rifle slung over his shoulder as he moved as quietly as possible up the old trail. They’d emptied out the rest of their packs into the boat to make room for whatever supplies they may be able to find. Other than spare ammunition they hadn’t bothered to bring much else with them.

  The overgrown path dumped them out into a large clearing. They had to open a gate to get into an area that was surrounded by an electric fence. The electric fence being one thing they didn’t have to worry too much about at least. They could see a large mansion over the top of the tall weeds they were walking though. The weeds eventually gave way to shorter brush giving them an unimpeded view of a very distinguished looking homestead.

  “Somebody was rich.” Caitlyn whispered.

  Randy nodded. He was thinking the same thing. He’d been on the verge of saying it himself so couldn’t chide her for breaking operational silence. They walked up to the first shed they got to on the back of the property. There was a chain and lock holding the door closed. The chain was wrapped around a pretty rough looking wooden piece that actually held the door shut. A couple of hard whacks from the hatchet he was carrying, and they were in.

  The shed was full of everything they needed. Clothes, blankets and canned goods lined the shelves on every side. A stack of camping supplies in the corner caught Randy’s attention. He headed over to start seeing how many sleeping bags he could fasten to himself.

  “Dad. What if whoever’s stuff this is comes to check on it?” Caitlyn whispered.

  “Take as much as you can and let’s get out of here.” Randy responded. The stash they’d stumbled across was obviously where someone had been hiding the stuff they looted from other homes. Randy doubted the supplies they’d be able to carry out on their backs would even be noticeable to whoever owned all of this. The owner would notice the broken lock though and know someone had been in here stealing their stuff. Randy hoped to be way up the creek by the time that happened.

  Randy filled his pack up with canned food then worked on tying off a couple of sleeping bags and a tent. Caitlyn had found a stash of cold medicine she shoved in her bag along with food and a couple of blankets. She turned around to let her dad tie on a bag of clothes he’d gathered that included sealed packs of boxers and panties. He was going to be the hero of the world when he showed those bad boys off.

  “Whoever’s in there I need you to put your weapons down and crawl out or I’m going to fill you full of lead.” A loud voice interrupted their pillaging. “You’re robbing the stores of Anderson County.”

  Caitlyn looked at her dad. He motioned for her to get down low on the ground. He dropped the camping supplies he had in his hand but left the food in his pack and the items he’d tied on. He
clicked off the safety on his rifle and boldly stepped out the front door.

  He found himself face to face with an overweight white guy with a huge bushy white beard. The man had an old shotgun pointed at him. Randy had never before realized how large the barrels of a shot gun were. It was like he was looking down two tunnels. The man hadn’t shot him yet though so that was promising. Randy looked around without taking his eyes off the man and saw that there wasn’t anyone else around.

  “Put your rifle down and lay on the ground right now or I’m going to shoot you!” The man roared.

  “Calm down man. We didn’t know anybody lived here or we would’ve stayed away. If you’ll let us walk away now, we’ll be on our way. No harm no foul. If you shoot me my daughter is going to put a few rounds through you right after you pull the trigger. If you point that gun at my daughter, I’ll shoot you in the face.” Randy said. He was amazed at how calm and cool his voice sounded considering he was quaking with fear on the inside. He hoped the old guy would do the right thing and just let them walk. No need for people to die over some panties and a couple of sleeping bags.

  A burst of flame and a loud banging noise. Randy was blown backwards into the wall of the shed. He slid down the shed wall and sat on the ground holding his rifle in one arm while his other arm burned with pain from the bird shot that’d hit him. He shot one handed at the Santa Claus looking bastard with his AK. Caitlyn put a couple of rounds in the overzealous shed guard herself. She jumped up before the man had even fallen to the ground to check on her dad.

  The shot had caught him in a tight pattern in his left shoulder. His skin there looked like a pack of hamburger meat mixed with fragments of his coat. She was trying to figure out how to clean the wound and get bandages on it when she realized all of that stuff was back at the camp with her mom. She also realized the fat shed guard with the itchy trigger finger might not be the only one guarding this big house.

  “We’ve got to go.” She told her dad forcing him up to his feet. His eyes were blinking as he tried to focus through the pain.

  “Grab the supplies.” He muttered trying to walk past her and get back in the shed. Off in the distance Caitlyn heard doors opening and closing. Voices were floating their way on the wind. She realized her dad was in shock.

  “We’ve got what we’ve got in our packs. Turn around now and let’s get back to the boat before the rest of the mall cops show up. I don’t want to have to kill any more grandpas today.” Caitlyn said sadly looking over at the bloody corpse of the old man who’d just been protecting what was his from a couple of thieves.

  Realizing Caitlyn was right and sensing the danger they were in Randy turned and hobbled quickly back through the field towards the path that would take them down to the creek. He chided himself for running slow since it’d been his arm that got hit and not his legs. He picked up speed with Caitlyn running right behind him. They made it through the gate in the fence before hearing shouts from behind them. It sounded like the body had been discovered and people were rightfully pissed. They doubled their speed and got down to the creek where Kelly had all the kids loaded up and ready to go.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Caitlyn yelled prodding Randy along.

  “What happened to him? That’s not a bite is it?” Kelly asked pausing what she was doing to stare at Randy with concern.

  “No, he just got shot by some crazy old guy.” Caitlyn answered.

  “Oh good.” Kelly said looking relieved. It was funny how much they’d all changed. A shotgun blast to the shoulder was all in a day’s work. Randy collapsed painfully into the boat.

  They heard yelling as people came running down the path. Kelly and Caitlyn shoved the boat out into the creek. Caitlyn had her rifle up to her arm ready to shoot if she saw someone appear. Kelly and Myriah had paddles in hand navigating them through a tricky part in the creek as fast as they could. Right as they went around a bend a couple of men walked into the clearing waving around rifles. Caitlyn was on the verge of taking a couple of shots at them when they made it around the bend and the men disappeared from sight. She put her rifle down and grabbed the paddle from her mom so Kelly could take a better look at the new holes in her husband.

  Back at the sand bank they’d just left a small group of men and women armed with hunting rifles and shotguns gathered around looking at the marks on the ground. It was obvious to them that someone had spent the night here. The fresh furrows in the sand showed where they’d left quickly in a boat with the supplies they’d stolen. The supplies weren’t half as important as the fact that the thieves had left their Sherriff lying dead on the ground without a second thought.

  There was some talk about grabbing some canoes and going after the killers. That talk died off as the screeches of the devils started getting louder. All the people on the beach started trembling in fear. They’d managed to live most of the apocalypse out in this remote corner of the world without hardly ever having to deal with more than a few Zombies at once. It sounded like a whole army of the demons were on the way. Cursing the thieves for bringing this plague down on them they hurried back up the trail to hide in the cellars until this passed. Most of them made it before the adrenalized Zombies got there and tore into the slower ones.

  Chapter 9: An Example

  Krantz met with his men a good fifty miles outside of the city of Goose Creek. The city was one of the few places to have weathered the massive outbreak of the virus that’d rolled through this area. It wasn’t the city that’d survived so much as the people of the city who’d grouped up under a number of different military and law enforcement officers. The military groups that’d joined up with them had included of a few special operations forces that’d been stationed in the area for training. These men knew where to find things like surface to air missiles.

  When they’d seen attack helicopters coming in low and fast, they hadn’t hesitated to use the missiles the second the helicopters had opened up with their machine guns. A few houses had been blown away with the families inside them before the first round of missiles slammed into the sides of the attack choppers. The remaining helicopters had turned to confront this new threat. They launched a round of missiles into the area the SEALs had been standing in minutes before. On the other side of the city a couple of marines sighted in and let loose with another salvo. More choppers took hits and at least one fell to the ground in flames.

  The dozen or so choppers left turned tail and ran after unleashing some more random missiles. The missiles weren’t aimed at anything in particular nor did they have to be. They accomplished the goal of getting the Zombies to come back to Goose Creek. The brave men charged with the defense of the city ran and fought as hard as they could but weren’t able to control the flood of infected invading the city. The people had been briefed on what to do if rockets started flying though. They’d run drills under the watchful eyes of the military.

  There was a large manufacturing facility in the middle of town that they’d cleared out and kept provisioned. The walls were reinforced, and they had tons of weapons inside. The original idea behind it had been as a place to seek refuge when the inevitable Zombie herd passed through. They were using it for that now with the twist that on top of a hundred thousand Zombies rampaging towards them they were also going to need to deal with a bunch of invaders in attack helicopters.

  The man in charge of the Goose Creek base was Captain Milton. He was a naval officer who’d assumed command of all the military and law enforcement units that’d ended up making up the militia for Goose Creek. They had an election every year for who was going to be in charge of the civilian and military forces in Goose Creek. In times of emergency though the power all went back to Milton. It was a system they’d come to through trial and error. It’d served them so well so far that they had almost a thousand men, women, and children crammed into the large manufacturing facility. Looking around he imagined it should probably be termed an evacuation center instead of a manufacturing facility at this point. It’s not like th
ey were manufacturing anything anymore.

  His command staff and the admin staff from the current mayors administration followed him as he headed for the stairs leading up to the roof. He wanted to get a good look around with his own eyes to help him work out a solid strategy. He knew they’d have drones up in the air pretty soon to keep an eye on the situation. He jogged up the staircase until he got to the door labeled roof access. He pushed it open and walked out to join the group of men bunched up on the north side of the roof. There was at least one man on each side of the building with easy access to a rocket launcher. They’d all been trained how to use the weapons although live fire exercises had been kept to a very minimum. It wasn’t like they could order more rockets when they ran out.