Slow Burn Box Set: The Complete Post Apocalyptic Series (Books 1-9)

by Bobby Adair

One of the guys helping the injured woman said, “Ready.”

  Fritz gave us all a glance and said, “Follow me.”

  The woman with my M4 looked at me and said, “You go. I’ll take the rear.”

  A dozen more dead Whites, a couple of empty magazines, and five minutes later, we were all squeezed into the Black Hawk with all of the weapons and ammunition we’d brought along. Martin was bitching about the load, but we rose into the air above the building anyway.

  I took the unused copilot helmet and passed it to Fritz so that we could speak over the noise of the rotors using the intercom. I asked, “What’s the story?”

  “Now that we know you’re okay,” said Murphy as he put on an enthusiastic face to make a joke of it, “what he wants to know is what happened to Jazz and Grace. Did they make it?”

  Chapter 17

  Fritz looked at me, then back at Murphy. “Like I said inside, they came last night. Thousands of them. We got complacent. We weren’t ready. We didn’t expect it.”

  I leaned in close, though the intercom didn’t get any louder or softer. “Are you saying you’re the only survivors?”

  Fritz pointed down at the building we’d just rescued him from. It slowly shrank below as the helicopter rose. “From where we were in the pharmacy school, in the infirmary we set up there, we didn’t have the best view of things. The veterinary school was northwest across the street, but we were only able to see part of it. That’s where all the uninfected doctors and professors were working on the vaccine. We had our people in the structures all around the veterinary buildings, like guard towers, to watch the perimeter and keep the infected off the defenses from the outside.”

  Murphy stuck his head out the window and took a long look. “That’s a lot to defend.”

  “We did alright for a long time.” Fritz leaned against a bulkhead, feeling the weight of everything sink in. He’d just lost his friends, possibly all of them. “We were spread too thin to defend against so many at once. When it started, everyone in the infirmary who could handle a weapon went out to help. Some of us went up on the roof to shoot at infected down in the street. Others went downstairs to defend our building. The pharmacy school was our base of operations. We lived there.”

  “The outposts fell pretty quickly.” Fritz seemed pained as he worked through his fresh memories. “As soon as the shooters opened up, the horde focused on where the sound was coming from and just washed over them. They found the weak spots in the buildings’ defenses.” Fritz shook his head slowly. “It happened so fast you wouldn’t believe.” He looked at me, pleading almost. “I mean, we’ve held up just fine for months now, and none of the infected even came close to getting through until now. There were too many. They were too smart.”

  “It was the naked horde that attacked you,” I said, “and just a small part of it. They’re not like the other infected.”

  “No, they’re not,” Fritz agreed.

  “Did any of your people in the other outposts survive?” Murphy asked.

  “I don’t know,” answered Fritz. “We stopped hearing concentrated gunfire just after sunrise. Then just sporadic shots. To tell you the truth, we got so caught up in trying to protect our own building, then our own floor, then just the infirmary, that we weren’t paying much attention. Just trying to stay alive, you know.”

  I nodded. We’d all been there. “Where were Grace and Jazz when it started?”

  Fritz shrugged. He pointed at the woman in the back with my M4. “Eve, one of our doctors—I guess our only doctor now—kept me in the infirmary. Grace and Jazz got acclimated and introduced around when they arrived, but I don’t know where they were assigned.”

  “What about your scientists in the veterinary building?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Fritz. “I think the infected got in.”

  Murphy asked, “Their work, their vaccine?”

  Fritz slumped down on the floor. “We were doing something here. We were trying to give humanity a chance.”

  I turned away. It was hard watching optimistic Fritz lose his hope.

  Chapter 18

  We flew high above the veterinary science and surrounding buildings for twenty or thirty minutes looking for signs that more survivors might be down there, but we saw only Whites slowly moving across campus. The noise of the Black Hawk was drawing them in.

  Martin finally asked, “What’s the plan, boss. Head back to Fort Hood?”

  I looked at Murphy. He frowned and looked out the window. He was feeling the same guilt I was. It had been Grace’s choice to follow Fritz to College Station, but I’d brought Fritz and her together. And what of Jazz, a young girl, tagging along, looking for meaning like anybody her age—my age—does. The whole situation was another bucket of shit in a sewer pit world.

  My hate flared and coaxed my murderous desires to the surface. Killing things helped when my moods turned dark.

  I clenched my jaw and fixed my eyes on a nowhere spot out across the horizon. Emotions and rationalizations spun through my brain until flecks of clarity coalesced into something that wasn’t a plan—more a guideline—to support a rash choice. I loosed my tactical vest and slid it off my shoulders.

  Surprised by my sudden animation, Murphy asked, “What are you doing?”

  I looked at Murphy. “I can’t fly away without knowing.”

  Martin cut in. “We need to get back and refuel. We can come back tomorrow.”

  “How much longer can we stay?” I asked.

  Martin heaved a big sigh.

  “Without pushing our luck,” I said. “What’s the safe amount of time we’ve got?”

  “Maybe another fifteen minutes.”

  “Okay.” I looked out the window as I peeled off my shirt.

  “Oh shit,” mused Murphy. “Naked Null Spot.”

  I pointed out the window. “That field over there. Left of the stadium a bit. Do you see it?”

  “I see it,” Martin confirmed.

  Fritz jumped up to look out the window. “The drill field.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I went to work on my boots. People in the back started to look at me like I was crazy.

  “What’s going on in that cue ball head?” Murphy asked. “Because I’m thinking it’s the usual.”

  I untied my second boot and glanced up. “The usual?”

  “Stupid.” A wicked smile found its way onto Murphy’s face.

  “Martin,” I said over the intercom. “I want you to drop me in that field. Then I want you to hover at like twenty or thirty feet and just stay there.”

  “Why?”

  I looked at Murphy and then at Fritz as I reached out and patted Murphy’s machine gun. “You guys get on these. When the Whites start to come, slaughter them.”

  “Just like that?” Fritz asked.

  I nodded. “They’ll come in droves. With the noise of the helicopter and the noise of the shooting, they’ll come. From all over campus, but from over by the veterinary school, too.”

  “And that’s where you’re planning to go?” Murphy asked. He knew.

  I dropped my pants, leaving myself naked and then sat down to put my boots back on my feet.

  “I’m going to scout things out.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” said Martin. “You’ll barely have time to walk over there. Where am I supposed to pick you up?”

  “You’ll pick me up tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll signal you somehow. I’ll try to make it to the roof of the pharmacy school where you dropped me today.”

  Murphy shook his head. “Dammit, Zed.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Murphy drilled me with a hard stare, slowly shaking his head. He stopped. “I’m going with.”

  “You can’t,” I told him.

  “Why?”

  I looked down at my bare skin. “You know why.”

  Murphy took off his vest. “You’re not the only one who can run around naked as a hillbilly at a swimmin’ hole.”

  “No rifle,” I
told him.

  Murphy slipped his hatchet out of his belt and brandished it. He pulled his knife.

  “You sure?” I asked. “Things can get fucked up. Besides, you know you’ve bailed me out more than once by showing up with your gun at the right time.”

  Murphy slipped his vest off. “Seems like every damned day to me.”

  I laughed grimly. “Maybe so.” I turned to Fritz. “Can one of your people operate the other machine gun?”

  Fritz nodded.

  “Martin,” I said, “Fritz is a good guy. I know him from Austin. We were in some shit together. And besides, he owes me. He’ll treat you right. Take them back to Fort Hood. Fuel up and stay safe. We’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

  “What time?” Martin asked.

  “I don’t have a watch.” I showed him my bare wrist. “Besides, whatever we plan, the Whites will screw it up anyway. Let’s shoot for mid-morning. I’ll be here sun up to noon if I can. If you don’t find me, come back the next day.”

  Martin said, “You’re the boss.”

  My first thought was, “Steph’s the boss.” I’d sarcastically said it so many times it was ingrained. “Get us over to the drill field.” I gave Murphy a glance to see how he was coming along. “By the time we get there, Murphy and me will be ready to jump out.”

  Chapter 19

  Martin brought the helicopter so close to the grass near the northwest corner of the field I thought he’d landed. I hopped to the ground and ran. Murphy came out after me. The helicopter’s rotors blasted dirt and debris at us as Martin powered the engines to regain his altitude and angle toward the center of the drill field.

  With no Whites anywhere near us, Murphy stopped and turned to watch the helicopter.

  I looked around behind us—several dozen trees stood off to one side with a building behind. Another building bordered the drill field on the other side. I watched the doors and windows for anything that might move. And I saw it. Whites inside were looking through the glass. More Whites were coming out from behind cars and around the corners of buildings, near and far. As expected, the noise of the helicopter was drawing them in. My hope was that any Whites who had seen us get out of the Black Hawk had already lost the connection between us and the noisy machine.

  “You alright?” I asked.

  Murphy nodded. “First time going undercover. Wishing I’d kept my rifle.”

  “You remember how it worked that time at Camp Mabry, right?”

  Murphy didn’t move, didn’t say anything.

  “The naked Whites spotted the rifle and came after us. They damn near caught us.”

  “That was some shit.” Murphy smiled widely and nodded. “I thought we were dead that day.”

  “If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll feel the same way about this little thing in about twenty minutes.”

  Murphy took his eyes off the helicopter. “I hope not. I think I’m getting tired.”

  “What?” I looked around again. More Whites were coming onto the field, more were howling in the distance. “Maybe we can talk about this on the way. I think things are going to get pretty hairy here, pretty quick.”

  “Yeah.” Murphy turned.

  I stepped into a comfortable run down the long edge of the field, looking back to make sure Murphy was right behind me. He took a few long strides and pulled up beside me as we passed a tall, thin clock tower.

  I wanted to scold him for not staying in line, literally. That’s the way the Whites liked to run, at least when they weren’t crazy for fresh blood.

  “This the right way?” He asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Good. I kinda lost my bearings.”

  “It’s cool. I know where we are.” We ran among dozens of cars scattered in a parking lot, and I pointed ahead. “See between those buildings over there, you can see the corner of that sand-colored one? That one’s attached by a walkway to the Pharmacy building we got Fritz from.”

  “They’re all sand-colored,” said Murphy.

  “Just follow me.”

  We crossed a road and ran into a field as hundreds and hundreds of Whites poured out from between the widely spaced buildings in front of us. They were the ones who’d been lingering around the veterinary science building and the outposts. I veered toward a collection of maintenance buildings so we wouldn’t find ourselves running right through them. I didn’t want their follow-the-leader wiring to make them turn around and follow us. They needed to keep running to their deaths, toward the helicopter’s waiting machine guns.

  We came to a stop against a wall near the corner of a building with a view into the maintenance yard. Along one side stood a rusty, tin hangar-like building with covered bays along one side and open doors facing the yard. Mounds of dirt, tractors, cars, and other such things seemed spread in no organized way.

  The machine guns started to blaze, ripping through hundreds of rounds as the sound of White screams rolled over us.

  I pointed catty-corner across the yard. “If we cut through there, we’ll come out across the street from one of the outposts.”

  “And you just want to walk right up to the place looking like the naked Whites who attacked them?”

  “I doubt they’ll shoot.”

  “Really Sherlock?” Murphy stepped along the wall and took a peek around the corner of the building. “What makes you think that?”

  “All the shooters are dead. Any smart enough to stay quiet are still alive.”

  “Or they’re all just dead,” Murphy argued.

  “Which side of this debate do you want? You can’t just be contrary to whatever I say.”

  “I think I can.” Murphy glanced at me. “You ready?”

  I nodded.

  He ran to a corner of the rusty tin building and looked down the length of the far wall.

  Coming up close behind him, I asked, “Anything?”

  “Nothing near.”

  Murphy jogged across the yard, looking left and looking right. We passed through a narrow gap between two maintenance buildings sitting perpendicular to one another. I followed Murphy through a thick stand of oaks and we came to a stop by a tree trunk thick enough to keep us both hidden from view. An intersection lay in front of us. Across the intersection and surrounding parking lots stood the veterinary science buildings. The first floor of one was fortified with boarded windows and doors, and plenty of two-by-four bracing. In several places Whites were climbing in and out past boards they’d ripped away from the walls.

  “You seeing this?” asked Murphy.

  “The Whites in the veterinary science building?”

  “Yeah.” Murphy looked around, as did I. “I don’t have much hope for the vaccination those guys were working on.”

  “Maybe they barricaded inside somewhere. Like a safe room or something.”

  Murphy turned and looked at me. “Optimism? From you?”

  I don’t know why, but Murphy’s snarky remark felt like an attack. So, I deflected. “At least, I’m not ‘tired.’“

  “What?”

  “Back there, after we got out of the helicopter. You said you were tired.”

  Murphy went back to scanning the street. “Still lots of Whites out there. We should wait before we cross.”

  “What did you mean?”

  “I should have kept my underwear.” Murphy leaned against the tree to rest. “My balls are cold.”

  “They’ll go numb.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “I’m sure you can massage them back to health.” I took a few steps to conceal myself behind another tree and get a view of the area past the building on our left. “What did you mean about the tired remark? All the craziness wearing you down?”

  Murphy didn’t answer.

  I gave him a long while before I pursued it. “Is it this life? All this? Running, chasing, killing? Living from one crisis to the next and barely stopping to take a breath? Is that what you’re tired of?”

  Murphy shrugged. “When I�
�m in the shit, I dig it. You know that.”

  “No doubt.” I examined the building directly across the street from us. It was a one-story structure with a long greenhouse attached to the rear. If I’d understood Fritz’s description correctly, it was one of the outposts. Judging by the number of fresh, naked corpses in the grass around it, I was sure.

  “Jumping out of the helicopter today,” said Murphy, “and watching it fly off, knowing we were stepping in it again, knowing I had a choice, it felt like a weight coming down on me.”

  “You afraid you’re going to die?”

  Murphy shook his head. “It’s not that simple. I mean, there’s that risk, you know. But I don’t think about it that way. I think I’m too stupid to know I’m not immortal.” He laughed.

  “I think I’ve got that same disease.”

  “I know you’ve got it.” Murphy laughed again. “Hell, you’ve got it so bad, I probably caught it from you.”

  “I think you’ve always had it.”

  “Yeah,” Murphy answered, absently.

  “What is it then?” I asked. “For real. What’s bothering you?”

  “I think it’s the killing. I think it’s finally starting to get to me.”

  “Killing is living,” I told him. “It’s the way things are now.”

  Chapter 20

  The helicopter’s guns fell silent, and the sound of the rotors changed.

  Murphy looked back in the direction we’d come. “They’re leaving.”

  I peeked out at the intersection in front of us. Whites were still in the street, still running in the direction of the mayhem, but not as many as there had been. I pointed to the one-story outpost across the street. “I’m thinking we cross over and check that place first. I mean, it’s right there.”

  Murphy nodded without a word.

  I cocked my head at the veterinary science building. “Then we head over there and see what’s up unless you want to check all the outposts first.”

  “Don’t care.” Murphy examined the veterinary science building. “I don’t have high hopes. But maybe we’ll find some survivors. The Whites couldn’t have killed everybody, right?”