Military Against Zombies (The Against Zombies Series Book 2)

by Alathia Paris Morgan

  “Uh…yeah. Sure.” I managed to get out. “We can take it as slow as you want.”

  I guess my face must have reflected my disappointment because she started laughing at me. “I only meant a few hours, but you should’ve seen the look on your face.”

  She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and jumped up. “I think we should continue this conversation later tonight, after my kids have gone to bed. I don’t want to get caught with my pants down.”

  Shaking my head at her, I found myself smiling the rest of the afternoon as I worked on securing the farm against the zombies. We would certainly do some talking, but hopefully it would come with some physical benefits as well.

  My mom came out the front door ready to be driven back to her home in town. I wasn’t too thrilled that she had decided to stay there, but I knew that she valued her independence now that dad was gone. I’d kept up with her over the years I’d been overseas, but being on her own for a while now, she didn’t really like it when I tried to protect her.

  “You’re going to follow me back home?” She paused with her hand on the truck’s door.

  Not quite sure if she was asking me or demanding, I answered respectfully. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll be right behind you. The truck should protect you in case we run into trouble.”

  “I think you’re going overboard about this zombie thing, but just in case, you be careful. That widow maker isn’t much protection against those killers.” Mom pointed to my crotch rocket parked next to the barn.

  “Mom,” I sighed. No matter how many times I’d tried to tell her my motorcycle was perfectly safe, she continued to give it that horrible nickname. “I can move around things easier on it than I can in a truck.”

  “You could go around,” she called through the window. “Or you could just plow through them with a truck.”

  Ignoring her parting remark, I rolled the bike from the side of the barn and headed down the drive to open the gate.

  The ten-mile ride to town was quiet, since most people in the area were staying home, hoping that the sickness didn’t spread to their family. If we could avoid illness in our town, it would be a lot easier to keep the zombies from growing.

  I zipped past Mom and enjoyed the freedom of the peaceful farmland passing by.

  As we approached town, I noticed a road block at the main highway entrance to town so I slowed down, having met most of the police force over the past few months since moving to the area. Only it wasn’t members of the force that were blocking the road, it was the group most given to hysterics that were in charge at this stop.

  There wasn’t much else I could do but stop and see if they would let us drive through.

  “Hey, Linc. Whatcha doing?” Peter, the owner of the local gas station, called out to me.

  Carefully taking my helmet off, I kept my hands in sight, seeing that the men had guns and were a little jumpy.

  “Just escorting my mom back from the farm. Didn’t want her to run into trouble. Are we expecting trouble?” I quickly counted five men with rifles hidden behind a couple of traffic barricades that didn’t give them any protection if someone really wanted through the gate.

  “No trouble, and we won’t have a problem as long as neither one of you looks sick or bit. You’ll have to step closer so that we can see you better,” Peter explained in a reasonable tone, but the grim determination didn’t leave his face.

  “Let me tell Mom.” I motioned to the truck that had pulled up behind me.

  I walked slowly up to the truck and explained to Mom what the problem was.

  “Mom, they want to check us for bites. Don’t say anything to make them not let you back into town. I think we’re going to need you to keep us informed about what’s happening in town every day.” I leaned through the open window so that I didn’t have to raise my voice.

  “Okay, if you’re sure.” Mom started to unbuckle her seat belt.

  “Don’t mention your gun under the seat. I’m hoping they only search us and not our vehicles.”

  “Peter’s sweet on me, so I think we’ll be okay. I’m hoping that will help convince the others with him.” Mom grinned at me, knowing it bothered me that so many of the older men were trying to win her over.

  I shook my head as I opened the door to let her out, and accompanied her to the men nervously pacing behind the barricade.

  “That’s close enough,” Peter called out when we were about ten feet from the barricade. “Now turn around slowly.”

  “No bites,” I reassured as I turned around and faced them again.

  Peter glanced at the others before giving the okay. “You can come on through, Mavis, Linc.”

  I waited for Mom to drive through the barricade that they’d opened for her, and then wheeled my bike through.

  “Mom, I’ll meet you there in a minute.” I waved her away from the group of men.

  “Peter, where’s the police force? Why are you guys doing this instead of them?”

  “The Mayor, Chris, fired them,” Peter answered quietly as the barricade closed behind me.

  “Why would he do that?” I asked incredulously.

  “They wouldn’t promise to arrest anyone that was sick. The police chief said, “Even sick people have rights.” So Chris fired him. When the others heard that, they followed their chief.”

  “So all the sick people have been arrested?”

  “Not arrested,” Jim, who was a known troublemaker, answered. “Just detained at the clinic and under guard. If they don’t have any fever for two days, then they can go home.”

  “Hmm…sounds like everyone’s taking good precautions so this doesn’t spread. I’m glad that you all were thinking ahead.” I watched as Peter visibly relaxed, and Jim’s hand left his side where his gun was holstered.

  “I’ll just go make sure that my mama’s all settled and head back out to the farm if that’s all right with you, Peter?”

  “Ah, yeah. No problem. If you’re not sick then you can leave. Right, gentlemen?” Peter looked nervously at the other men in the group for approval.

  “You know, Peter, you have my number if you need me to help take a shift and stand guard.”

  “Oh, that won’t be necessary. We got plenty of volunteers. Just know that if you come back, we’ll have to search you each time, just in case.”

  “Sure, that’s completely understandable. Anything can happen even in a short time frame.” I swung a leg over the bike and fired her up. “Laters,” I called cheerfully.

  Minutes later, I pulled up to Mom’s two-bedroom house. It was just perfect for her, with a front porch and small yard so that she didn’t have much upkeep.

  She opened the door even before I could turn the engine off.

  “Well, how bad is it?” she asked, searching my face.

  “It’s not good. They’ve taken everyone to the clinic and have it under guard. The police force doesn’t exist, and Jim Danvers is running things at the checkpoint. Next time, I won’t be coming to town from the main road.” I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. “You could always make things easy on me and stay at the cabin with me,” I offered.

  “Now, we’ve been over this. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not sick, and I won’t let the likes of Jim Danvers run me out of my house. I did bring the shotgun in from the truck. I also have your dad’s pistol and enough ammo to stay safe until you could get here.”

  I stood on the porch, knowing that everyone in the neighborhood was watching our exchange.

  “Mom, just promise me that you’ll be careful with who you trust? Men like Jim like power, and now that he’s got a taste of it, he’ll do anything to stay in charge.” I lowered my voice. “I’ll come back tomorrow night after dark, but if you think things aren’t going well before that, call me.”

  When she nodded, I knew she understood my unspoken meaning. This town was a powder keg, and I just hoped that it didn’t explode, killing innocent people in the process.

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nbsp; “You just go back out there to the farm and leave the worrying up to me. I’ll be fine.” She surprised me by pulling me into a hug.

  “Love you, Mom.” I squeezed her back and turned to go back to my bike. “I’ll check in on you.”

  I could only protect her if she wanted it, but it went against everything I’d ever trained for to leave her standing on that porch, knowing it was a bad idea.

  The helmet helped cover my disdain as I drove back through the barricade.

  Jim gave me a smirk as he waved the barricade back in place. We’d never gotten along before the zombie apocalypse happened, and now was a bad time for him to hold a grudge.

  Ignoring the voice screaming at me, I sped up, taking myself away from Jim before I did something I knew I shouldn’t, because that could put Jessica and the kids in danger.

  It was time to bring the other men guarding the farm up-to-date on what was happening and prepare them for a visit from the townie crew.

  Patti Jackson

  I’d been in some horrible fubar kind of situations before, but the zombie things were a totally different story.

  The sound of gunfire rang out next to me, making me wish that I’d requested another pair of earplugs.

  Marvin had started focusing on the zombies that were moving around the front of the fenced off zone. The spray of bullets made a slight dent in the group growing at the fence, but it wouldn’t be long before we were out of bullets.

  Ever since my boots had landed on the ground in Charlottesville, we’d been running from something that never stopped chasing us.

  I waved my hand to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s move over a few blocks. This fence isn’t going to hold for much longer.” I hoped that they could hear me over the bursts of gunfire.

  I started to stand when the exact thing I’d feared happened.

  The fence started to collapse a little farther down from us, and the infected people began to amble over, pushing the fence all of the way to the ground.

  “Run!” I yelled. Following my own advice, I took off around the corner, hoping the Humvee was where we’d left it.

  The door slammed shut behind me and I aimed my gun through the window, praying that my guys were right behind me.

  They appeared from the side of the building, firing as they ran. “Hurry up! I’ll cover you!”

  A few of the zombies lumbered after the guys, but thankfully, the dead couldn’t run as fast as the living.

  “Thanks for having our backs out there, ma’am,” Marvin said, trying to catch his breath.

  Those things hit the back of the military Humvee with such force, it startled me because I’d been paying attention to the ones that I could see.

  Stepping on the gas, I peeled out and went to join the other units that were gathering on the outskirts of town. If this was a taste of what it was like all across the country, then things were even worse than the army had told us.

  They’d sent us to help out an overrun area of Charlottesville, but we hadn’t gotten there in time. All that was left were the infected souls on the wrong side of the fence.

  Our commander had ordered us to look around and see if there were any living that we could save, but so far, the only thing we’d met were the dead.

  Now, having made it back to our Humvee by only a small miracle, we were to backup those that were still alive over in Nashville. The only problem was making it over there in one piece.

  They hadn’t given us extra ammo, or even instructions on how to deal with the walking dead things.

  The highways were littered with traffic leaving town in all directions. There were wrecks that had been caused by the sick who were now roaming aimlessly across the roads.

  We’d met up with more of our extended unit as they’d been brought in from overseas and reassigned.

  A couple of the ground crews had been moving slowly before the group, pushing vehicles out of way so that the roads would be free to travel in the coming days.

  I’d switched places with one of the men since they didn’t like for officers to be the drivers when there were lower-ranking members available.

  The slow pace was normal for army maneuvers, but after spending hours under intense fire and active combat situations, the snails crawl was pure torture.

  While many of the men had families or mothers to worry about, I hadn’t met a man that could handle the fact that I could run better, shoot better, and naturally took charge in any situation. It led to lonely nights, but I’d known a home and a family weren’t exactly on the agenda for me when I left Jackson Mountain.

  Growing up with brothers and cousins, being a tomboy had been normal for me, but it hadn’t brought all the boys to the yard for my milkshake. In fact, it was even worse when I had to go into the city, where women were worried about their nails and if their shoes matched their purses. It just hadn’t been for me, but now that the States were being overrun by the dead, I felt a little worried that maybe I should have tried to find love somewhere out there.

  The slowly passing countryside was spotted with infected, but it wasn’t anything that the crews on the ground couldn’t take care of without assistance.

  As we approached a small town, the commander called for a halt and to circle up the wagons like they used to do back in the Wild West.

  “Everybody out,” a voice crackled over the radio attached to the Humvee.

  “I want a search and sweep through of all the buildings, just like we do in the villages overseas for insurgents, only this time, it might be someone you knew before they turned into whatever these things are. Shoot to kill, no matter the age or gender. If it’s not living then it’s already dead, so let’s make sure it stays that way. Fall out.”

  “All right, guys, you heard the Commander. Let’s stay in units of three and have one group sweep inside while the others do an outside sweep.” I checked over my gun and ammo, opting to take the southwest corner of the town.

  If there had been people living here before today, they certainly weren’t at the moment. The entire town had an eerie ghost like quality to it. As if the town had died and their ghosts were watching over their homes against invaders like us.

  Even overseas, I hadn’t felt the need to keep my head on a swivel to this extent. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, and at this point I was pretty certain that it was just going to get worse the farther we went.

  The first three houses were empty with the doors unlocked, inviting us inside. Small pockets of gunfire rang out through the tiny town as our group did their jobs containing these things.

  In the fourth house, alarm bells went off when we found the doors locked.

  A quick whistle bought the three on the backside to the space in-between houses. I motioned for caution as we approached. Tom, Rick, and I walked up to the front door, but there was no visible movement. They waited for my order to kick the door in, but I knocked like I was making a house call instead.

  “What the hell?” Tom whispered.

  “The door’s locked. We don’t want to bust in the door if there are live people inside. This way, we let them have a chance before we invade their space. We’re back in the States, and people do have rights.” I grinned, enjoying the moment.

  Something scratched against the door, making Rick trip over his feet as he tried to move backward from crouching low by the door.

  “Ready, Tom?” I didn’t spare a glance at Rick, knowing he would be back in position before Tom could knock in the door.

  “Go.” I held my gun up as I gave the order, not knowing what was about to come through the entryway.

  I was so wrong. It was a ten-year-old boy who had been infected.

  The shot rang out as Rick hurried to redeem himself by taking out the boy, but what he missed was the dog by the boy’s feet that lunged for his leg.

  My knife was in my hand and swinging in an arc toward the dog’s head as he sank his teeth into Rick.

>   “Tom, close the screen and help me get this dog off of Rick!” I motioned to the now completely dead dog, thankful that I had gloves on to protect me from its teeth.

  We both pulled on the dog, but even in death, it wasn’t about to let go of its victim. Instead, Rick flew backward as his boot yanked free. The dog’s grip loosened as the leg filling the boot left an empty hole.

  “Did it break the skin?” Tom asked, still holding the dog with the boot between its teeth.

  “Nope, but you’d better get that boot taped up or next time could be a different story,” I admonished him as I walked over and yanked the boot out of the dog’s mouth. “We have to assume that everything—adults, animals, kids, and even babies—can become infected. Always expect the unexpected.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Rick pulled his boot back on, barely lacing it up.

  “Rick, you’re in first.” I held the screen door open as I scanned the room for any more surprises.

  The rest of the house was clear, but it looked like the little boy had been home with his dog when he got sick, and his parents never made it home to him.

  The outside team was beating the bushes while I hurried our team along to catch up. The next few houses were empty, and reports came back from all of the teams with only one casualty.

  While there wasn’t any real protection in a tent from these things, the houses that we’d just cleared still had electricity and walls, so we were sleeping in style tonight. Instead of the MREs that everyone was so fond of, my team decided that we were going to cook a real dinner while we could. Thankfully, Steve could cook, so he got started while I made sure that our accommodations were secure.

  Tom had backed our Humvee up to the garage and closed the door to keep any unwanted friends away. Rick and Joe were moving furniture in front of the windows, while Len and I walked the house to make sure we had everything covered.