I looked at Brian. “Is he trying to sound like he’s in the movie Tombstone?” Brian shrugged back at me. “Well then I guess that makes me Wyatt Earp. You can be Morgan Earp. Cupcake, you can be Virgil Earp.” I grabbed my shotgun off the dash and checked to make sure that I had a round chambered. I opened my door and raised the Benelli and sighted out, looking for targets.
Brian appeared beside me holding his M-4 up to his shoulder. “Cupcake stay by the driver’s door. We may need to boogie fast,” I yelled back.
“Got it, szef.” I looked back at him for a sec with a ‘what the fuck did you just say’ look. I know now you want to know what that look looks like. Go look in the mirror. Good, now you know. “Sorry, my Polish seems to be showing. It means, ‘Boss’.”
I shook my head and turned back to the scene unfolding in front of us. Just then, Doc and Brian started engaging targets. Sunlight started to peak up over the mountains , I could see at least a hundred of these stink bags pounding on vehicles. I looked down by the second vehicle behind us and saw a guard on the ground already being devoured. Must’ve been his scream I’d heard. “Hey fucktards!” The horde stopped and looked in our direction.
“Hey, Boss, I don’t think you needed to get their attention.”
“Well, Brian, if we want the others to be able to get out of their vehicles and help us, then yes, I did. Now start killing these things.” I raised my shotgun and blew the legs off a zombie coming quicker than usual at us. He fell flat faced into the ground. I pumped the gun and chambered another round. I’d dropped to a knee, ignoring the pain in my stomach and ribs and started firing into the horde at leg level, trying to slow them down. I saw bones and blood blow out into the air. In seconds, I’d used up all the rounds in the gun and turned it sideways to make sure I had rounds in the side holster. “Reloading!” I yelled, then laughed to myself. I vaguely remembered a video game that used to yell that when you were out of ammo.
Brian and Doc took slow measure shots making sure to kill a zombie with each shot. I finally chambered a round and came back up to fire. At that point the air around us became louder as twenty more weapons joined the fight, now that the rest of the soldiers were able to move freely. I still fired into the crowd, taking more zombies down and getting lucky by taking out a few children. Side note here, I had problems with firing on zombie children before because I’d feel crushing guilt, but now, I see them as nothing more than smaller monsters. I emptied the shotgun and dropped it onto the ground, swinging my MP-5 around to my shoulder and started to take aimed shots. I missed more then I hit, but I was breathing hard and hurting more and more with each round leaving the barrel.
Brian and Doc kept firing, covering each other as they reloaded. Cupcake fired a couple of times from his position, at least I think he did, my ears were ringing from the thunderous noise. I had fallen asleep with my ear plugs in and one must’ve fallen out, that could be why I’d heard the scream that woke me. Oh well, one ear is better than none. I burned through two fifteen-round magazines in seconds. But that was ok since the horde had been widdled down quickly. Now, we just had to deal with the crawlers. I dropped the MP-5 on its sling, pulled my sidearm, and rose.
“Let’s take out the crawlers and the ones who are just paralyzed.” I knew I was yelling, but the guys said nothing as they moved out into the body piles. I walked around, methodically putting rounds into rotten heads. I tried not to look too closely at the bodies. Sometimes, I thought I recognized someone and that never ended well for my psyche.
Kuppers came up next to me. “Well that was one hell of a wakeup call.”
“Yeah, I would like though to shoot the fucking guard who forgot to tell us this was coming.”
“My thoughts exactly. Let’s go find out how things fell apart so fast.” We walked down the line of vehicles together as the soldiers, being urged on by the SWAT team, started stacking bodies in a pile away from the vehicles. We came to the last truck in line and found a female soldier on the ground. Her uniform had been torn open exposing her ebony skin, ripped to pieces, intestines spilled about her body, breasts missing, presumed eaten. And to top it off, her throat had been ripped out. Her gun sat propped up against the rear of the vehicle. We stood there, staring at her body in silence. I could read the scene and knew Kuppers was seeing the same thing.
“That is what happens when you sleep on your shift. It kills your fellow soldiers.” Kuppers said through gritted teeth. He turned and roared out, “Vic, get your ass over here now!”
In a few moments a winded, gore-covered Vic appeared. He looked to us, then down to the dead soldier. “I see. I’ll take responsibility, she said she was good to go for guard duty.” He snapped his fingers and two other soldiers came up. He pointed at the dead guard. They picked her up by the legs and torso, or what was left of it, and carried her away.
“Hey guys, you might want to blow a hole in her head, before she comes back and bites one of you idiots.” I ordered.
They dropped her and moved back quickly, just as her eyes opened and she sat up. Kuppers and I pulled out side-arms at the same time and placed two holes in her head. His was center of her forehead, mine was closer to her nose. I guess, I’m still not that great of a shot. One of the soldiers reached down and took her legs, and dragged her toward the pile while the other stood there, shocked. Vic walked over to him and said some words and escorted him away.
“We need to get moving. All the noise from that shoot out is going to bring more in our direction. We can travel for a while, and stop and eat later. I want to get far away from this mess.” I offered.
“Yeah, good idea,” Kuppers answered.
We walked back down the line, checking around vehicles and making sure that we were secured. By the time we reached the lead vehicles, Vic met back up with us. “We have four KIAs.” He looked at me. “Oh, sorry, Dan, that means killed in action.”
I gave him a wink. “Yup, knew that one already. But thank you.”
I picked up my Benelli and using more rounds from inside the Humvee, reloaded it and filled the side saddle back up. I put the gun on the dash again, and replaced the magazines in my MP-5 and sidearm. It was quiet as I did this. No one spoke, they just stood there, watching me. I stopped after putting the safety on the 1911 and putting it in its holster, and looked up at everyone. “Problem?”
Doc spoke up from the cupola which he had stayed in, keeping watch on our area. “Just amazed with how far you’ve come Dan. From weenie to a real honest action star.”
I flipped him off and cracked my back. “We ready to roll out?”
Kuppers studied me for a couple of seconds and then turned to Vic. “You heard the Major.”
Vic rolled his eyes then snapped to attention, throwing a salute sharply to his cap. “Sir, yes sir!”
“Oh, screw all of you. I’ll be in the Humvee, if you need me.” I sighed and climbed inside, slamming the door hard to get my point across.
The team looked down at me and waved and smiled. “Bunch of idiots.” I whispered to myself. Brian came around and climbed into the driver’s seat. The rest of the team broke up and moved off to their assigned squads, or teams, or whatever they were calling them. I was grumpy, and my chest and stomach were hurting. I was getting irritated with always being sore and feeling like a target all the time.
Brian started the engine and moved in behind the APC as it took the lead again. I was happy to let them. They were more armored then we were and sported a really big .50 caliber gun mounted on top. I sat back and read through my notes. We drove for three hours south on Highway 51, when a light appeared off the side of the road, flashing at us. The APC came to stop and we made sure to stop, but fifty yards behind and slightly to the left, so we could cover that direction. I climbed into the rear and popped the hatch on the cupola, pulling my MP-5 up on to my shoulder and I made sure to cover our area.
After sitting up there for a good five minutes, a figure came out of the dark and I turned quickly, bringing my MP-5 up
and putting the iron sights on it. I started squeezing the trigger slowly adding pressure to it. Then, a voice came out of the dark. “Major, its Delta, sir,” came Hunter’s voice.
I took my finger off the trigger and slung it to my side. Letting out the breath I had been holding in a rush. “Everything ok up there, Hunter?”
“We have a horde in front of us in the pass.”
“Is it a very large one?”
“Large enough, sir,” he said.
I slid down into the Humvee and dogged the hatch closed. I snuck out my door and made my way up front to Kuppers and Hase as they stood huddled together, speaking in quiet tones. “So, am I being left out of the fun stuff, guys?” I walked over and leaned against the APC, folding my arms across my chest.
Hase looked over first as Kuppers just shook his head and chuckled. “Sir.”
“Screw this ‘sir’ shit already. So, Hunter tells me that we have a little horde in front of us.”
Kuppers spoke up. “I think he may have downplayed it a bit. Looks like we could have a couple hundred plugging up the pass. Plus, twice that number in vehicles.”
“Has anyone scouted another direction?”
Hase pursed his lips and looked down. “Yes, s ..” He almost said Sir, I was waiting for it, but he corrected quickly. “Yes, Dan, Heaven and Howser are doing that very thing, right now. We believe we can cut off road, head west and then swing south, but we may have to do some minor rock climbing.”
“Can all the vehicles do that?” I asked, showing my ill preparedness and ignorance when it came to military vehicles and procedures.
“The big trucks might have problems getting through narrow areas but they have the ground clearance and power to make it up through the rocks,” Hase informed me.
“So, how long till we move?”
“I am waiting on word from the forward team,” Hase answered.
I turned around and saw Apache, Doc, and Cupcake standing there. They had heard the entire conversation. Well, that was nice. At least, we didn’t have to repeat ourselves. Hase put his hand to his ear and cocked his head as though listening to something only he could hear. “That was them. We are good to go. Delta will take lead, the rest of you, follow at one hundred yard intervals. No lights, just follow the IR beacon on the rear of the vehicle in front of you. Let’s get going.”
The little meeting broke up as we made it back to our Humvee. Brian cut the wheel to the right and we followed west at a good distance. In the dark, we could barely make out the vehicle, but Brian had donned his night vision gear, so he could see the APC leading the way. We crawled across the barren rocky landscape for close to an hour before turning south again. After another slow hour, we came across a small mountain pass. We stopped and circled the wagons, as the pioneers had done back in the settlers’ days. I climbed out and made my way over to the lead APC, Heaven met me there with a small smile on his lips.
“Good to see you brother,” He said in that small quiet voice he uses. He sounds and looks a lot like a younger, Lance Henriksen, or as you may know him, “Bishop” from the movie Aliens.
“Heaven, nice to see you again. Any idea why we are stopping?”
He took my hand and shook it covering it with his free hand. “We are going to rest up and wait for daylight. The pass is very rocky and steep. It will not be easy.”
He let go of my hand and escorted me to where Hase and Kuppers were waiting for me. Brian followed in our tracks once he’d caught up. I stood in front of them and waited.
“Dan, the pass should be big enough for the trucks to get through, but we need some natural light before we attempt it.” Kuppers informed me.
“Heaven has already briefed me. How are we going to handle security this time? I am sure you agree that we do not want a repeat of earlier.”
“You are right Dan. I want Delta to stand down though. If they can get some sleep tonight they should be able to range out tomorrow for us again. What do you think?” Kuppers responded.
I looked at the Delta operators and saw a little droop in their posture. That was the only indication I could find showing their operational status. What the hell am I saying? My thoughts are starting to sound like Kuppers. I nodded my head in agreement.
“Yes, I agree, Let’s have them rack out ASAP. We need to start resting our night guards during the day. I seriously don’t want to lose anyone else.”
“Good thought.” He scratched his chin and then yelled, “Doc, Apache, move it!”
Heaven patted my shoulder and then disappeared with the rest of Delta to go pass out and recharge. Brian tapped my shoulder and I turned to meet his eyes. I know I have stood next to this man a thousand times and yet, I am always surprised at how big he really is. So here I was, staring, at his chest. I stepped back and craned my head up.
“What’s up, Sasquatch?”
“I would be happy to set the watch tonight. I got to know a lot of these guys and gals.”
I looked at Kuppers and shrugged my shoulders, he shrugged his back with a ‘whatever’ look on his face. I turned back to Brian.
“Ok, it is all yours. But you will still need to drive tomorrow, I am in too much pain to drive that damn Humvee. They need to start putting leather Recaro racing seats in them. My ass and back hurt.”
A hand appeared between Brian and I. I looked down and found three little white pills in a smaller, thinner, more delicate hand. I turned and smiled at Apache, taking the pills and dry swallowing them back. She gave me a little hug, and appraised me up and down.
“I want to take a look at you in a bit. Want to make sure you are healing good. These last couple of months have been hard on your soft girly like body.” She punched me in the shoulder lightly, but still enough for me to hiss with pain.
“Hey, be careful of the merchandise, I am a soft little flower and demand to be treated like one!” Brian picked this time to laugh at me. I looked back up at him. “Hey Sasquatch, don’t you have something you should be doing?”
He snapped into attention and threw me a crisp salute. “Sir, Yes Sir!” He pivoted on his feet and took off.
“Stop that shit or I am going to take away your extra portion of gruel!” I shouted out to his retreating form. He stuck his hand back at me, showing me his middle finger, giving me the bird as it is. “God, that man!” I muttered.
Apache started laughing and I gave her a cold dead stare. “You know Dan, when I first met you I said I liked you. I was wrong. I think I love who you are becoming. Now, take your shirt off and let me check your doughy physique.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Kuppers for support. He was trying to hide a smile and doing a terrible job at it.
“Again, I can’t get no respect!” I tried my best Rodney Dangerfield imitation again.
“Just go with the pretty lady and do as she says. No one here wants to hear you try your standup routine,” Doc drawled out from behind me.
Apache took my hand as my shoulders slumped as she led me away. She took me inside the lead APC and had me take my blouse and undershirt off. She removed some of the bandages that the doctor had put over some of the worse wounds. She clucked her tongue and shook her head.
“You really need to find time to rest and heal Dan.” She pushed down on the pink scar on my abdomen and I just about fell to the ground in pain. “Sorry about that. I guess the pills have not kicked in yet. The good thing is there is no infection, everything seems to be scarring up nicely. If we were in a safe facility, I’d be starting you on physical therapy. But since we are out in the field you will just have to figure out when you are pushing yourself too much. You will be weak for a while, till we can get you some serious rest. But I think you will be fine just grit through the pain and let me know when it gets to be too much and I will give you some more of these beauties.” She shook a pill bottle full of those little white pills at me.
“Okay, I am putting my shirt back on before I can gross out any other women.”
I snagged my undershi
rt and pulled it on over my head. I retreated out of the APC to the laughter of Apache. Once back at the Humvee, my stomach decided to grumble. It hadn’t been long since I’d eaten last, but I had learned from Brian and the rest of the team, to eat when you can, you never know when you will have time again. I rooted in the back of the Humvee and found a box of MREs. What I wouldn’t do for a steak, fresh veggies, and a cup of my coffee. God, I miss my coffee. Seriously, I would choke the hell out of a goat for some good coffee. I found a flavor I thought would be nice and sat back to heat it up. It said ‘roast beef’ but ended up tasting like a greasy eel instead. I dumped the entire little bottle of hot sauce and the salt and pepper in it but it still tasted bad. I sucked it up and ate it anyway, I needed the calories. I made sure to eat the cookie in the pack immediately after swallowing my last bite of roast beef. I wanted to get its taste out of my mouth. Unfortunately for me though the cookie ended up taking on the taste of the so called meat. I drained my canteen and considered throwing up. But that wouldn’t do, so I just sat there, trying to keep the meal down. I must have fallen asleep sitting there with my back against the rear tire, cause the next thing I knew, someone was tapping my arm.
“Boss, it’s time to roll. Get your ass up.”
I opened my eyes and found that I could see the hills in front of us. I watched the retreating form of the APC as it climbed slowly up a rocky pass, that looked like I would have had problems climbing on foot. I grabbed the offered hand from Brian and pulled myself up. I patted his shoulder and looked around our little convoy as engines started and people rushed around preparing for the day.
“How long was I asleep for?” I was grossed out over the lingering taste of my meal from the night before. “By the way sorry for the sewer pipe smell, known as my breath. I ate an MRE last night that announced it was roast beef, but it lied. I am sure I ate moldy rat in grease.”
Zombie Theorem (Book 3): The End Game Page 12
