“Holy fuck, Z,” I said kneeling down and flipping the big man onto his back. I shrugged off my pack and grabbed my med kit. Pulling out a wad of gauze I applied pressure to a nasty looking stomach wound. Z groaned in pain, “Sorry man. What happened? Who shot you?”
“Long story,” he coughed, blood accompanied the spit that flew from his mouth.
“I got nothing to do, and it doesn’t look like you’re going anywhere. Tell me what happened.”
His weak laugh turned into a bloody cough and then a groan of pain, “After you left…” He trailed off as another painful cough racked his body.
“Justin, keep pressure on this.”
“What are you doing,” asked Justin as he took my place.
“Getting him something for the pain. He can’t talk like this, and we need to know who did it.”
“My money’s on the bastard, Adam.”
Z’s eyes widened as he shook his head and tried to speak but I stopped him, “Don’t try to talk yet,” I said as I injected him with thirty milligrams of morphine. “Let the drug take effect first.” We waited in relative silence as I waited for Z’s breathing to slow, signaling that his pain was lessening. “Ok Z, tell us what happened.”
“You…you need to get help, get your people and make sure they have guns, lots of guns.”
“Ok Z. Justin, take the truck, get back to the others, get them here now get someone to take Michelle back. Got it?”
“Sure thing James.”
“Hurry.”
After Justin left, Z took a shuddering breath and began his story, “After you left, after you did what you did to Adam, he changed. It wasn’t like he was a different person, just like he cared about someone other than himself. He started to get his gang to help more, shit he even helped make bread. But some of the guys in his group didn’t like the change, and they let everyone know it. Adam couldn’t stop them, couldn’t control them,” Z started to cough again, and I helped him drink a little water, “So the ones that didn’t like the change split. They didn’t leave they just didn’t follow Adam, and they barely listened to Luke. They started making trouble, taking food, guns and any other supplies they could get their hands on. Then tonight, after a particularly bad argument between Adam and George.”
“Wait,” I interrupted, “George is leading the rogue group?”
“Yeah, he didn’t like the fact that Adam bent to you so easily. It probably didn’t help that you put a knife in him and embarrassed him in front of everyone.”
“Point taken. Continue.” Z’s voice was beginning to slur, and I knew he wouldn’t be awake for much longer, probably wouldn’t be alive for much longer.
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, after the argument, George just kinda snapped. Started shooting, killed a bunch of people who were really loyal to Luke. He got me in the gut while I was helping Luke get to safety.”
“Is he still alive, is Luke still alive?”
“He was when I left to get you for help. You gotta stop him, James.”
“Don’t worry Z. I’ll put a bullet in him myself.”
“What, not going to tie him to a tree?” he said with a weak laugh that quickly transitioned into another wet cough.
“Not this time.”
“Good. I’d help you, but I think I need to take a quick nap first,” he said closing his eyes
“You do that Z. Don’t worry about Luke or George, I’ll take care of ’em.”
“You’re a good man James,” he said as the air left his lungs for the last time.
I ran my bloody hand through my hair, not caring or even noticing the crimson streaks that highlighted my dark hair. “No Z,” I whispered, “You were a good man. I’m just the man who’s supposed to protect the good men” I waited until Justin and the rest of the gang showed up. All in all, it took them almost thirty minutes to get back. “About time. Where’s Michelle?”
“Christina took her home.”
“Good. Everyone got a gun?” Sarah handed me one of the Carbines, “I didn’t pack these,” I said.
“No, I did.”
That’s my girl, I thought. “Good planning,” I told her. “Thomas, you have your baby?”
“Damn right,” he said turning around so I could see the rifle slung across his back.
“Good. Make sure you have a regular rifle with a night scope. It’s going to be hard to distinguish targets.”
“Gotcha.”
“Alright, here’s the situation people. A small group of men have gone rogue inside Luke’s place. They’ve killed a bunch of people loyal to Luke, including Z. As far as we know, Luke is still alive, and Adam is still in support of his dad. We need to go in and eliminate George and the rogue group he leads. This is going to be extremely dangerous. It isn’t going to be like killing Walkers. These bastards will be shooting back. I’ll completely understand if someone doesn’t want to go. We’re not trained for this, so I’m not expecting you to volunteer. I’m going because Luke and his people need my help. If you don’t want to go, you can take Z’s truck and head home.” No one moved. “Are you sure?” Silence. “Alright, let’s go.” We climbed into our two trucks and quickly drove out of the parking lot.
“Hey, James?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah?”
“How are we going to do this exactly?”
I was silent for a moment, trying to decide what answer I should give. I settled on telling her the truth “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Oh, ok.”
“Really? That’s your reaction?”
“Of course, I trust you.”
“Well, that’s a first,” I mumbled as we sped through the dark, heading for the most dangerous thing we had ever done. Little did I know the fight at Luke’s would change my life in a very big way.
Chapter 7
Turning off the highway and driving down the short road to the front gate we found it abandoned. Instead of stopping to open it ourselves I pressed down on the accelerator and tore through the closed gate. I didn’t slow down until we reached what Luke had been using as an office. We jumped out of the trucks and gathered in a quick formation, making sure that each avenue of attack was covered. I heard gunshots in the distance, but we couldn’t just rush in, guns blazing. We had to find Luke or at least Adam and make a plan. I wasn’t sure how many George had following him or even how to recognize them from the other survivors so we were going to need intel before we could do anything at all. We moved in our tight formation into the protective cover of the building and headed down the hall to Luke’s office. I knocked on the door with three quick raps of my knuckles, and when I received no answer, I took a step back and kicked the door open. I quickly swept the room with my pistol and, finding it empty, ushered the group inside.
“You hear those shots?” asked Justin, “We need to go help.”
“We will, just not yet.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Help who? Do you know what George and his people look like? Do you have a list of their names that I don’t know about? Maybe you have their official picture ID’s?”
“Well no, but…”
“Then who are you going to shoot? We have to figure out who’s friend and who’s foe.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Liz.
“I don’t know,” I said sitting down at Luke’s desk. I scooted the chair in and kicked something soft under the desk, and it let out a squeak of pain. “What the?” I looked under the desk and pulled a small boy out by his arms. “You’re William aren’t you?” The boy looked like he was scared to death and I saw he was clutching a small pocket knife in a white-knuckled death grip. He nodded shakily and glanced at everyone else in the room. They must have looked a little imposing because he flexed the muscles in his arm as he redoubled the grip on the knife “Do you remember me, William?”
He nodded, “Y…y…you’re James,” he stammered.
“That’s right. Do you remember I was here to meet with Luke?” He nodded. �
��Good. Well, I’m here to help Luke. You know there are people out there trying to hurt him?” He nodded his head, wide-eyed. “Do you know where he is?” He didn’t. Damn it, I thought. “Do you think you could help me, William? I have a really important job, and I need someone really brave and fast. Think you can help me?”
“I’m not brave,” he said hanging his head.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I’m too scared to leave Luke’s office. I was hiding under the desk.”
“You can be scared and still be brave.” He frowned like he didn’t believe me. “What do you think it means to be brave?”
“Not being scared of anything.”
“That’s not what it means to be brave William.”
“Call me Will.”
I smiled, “Ok, Will. Do you want to know what it means to be brave?” I asked kneeling down to be on his level, similar to what I did with Michelle. “Being brave isn’t about not being scared. Being brave means being scared, scared to death, and still doing something you have to do. Do you want to know a secret?” He nodded, and I leaned in close so only he could hear me “I’m scared a lot, I’m scared now, but you know what. I’m still going to stop George and everyone who’s trying to hurt Luke and everyone else here.”
“Were you scared when you fought George?”
“You saw that?” He nodded. “Yeah, I was scared but did I run away?”
“No.”
“That’s because I had to stop him from hurting me and now I have to stop him from hurting others, but I need your help.”
Will set his face with a look of firm determination, “What do you need me to do?”
“You were a runner, all I need you to do is run. I need you to find Adam or Luke, tell them we’re here and that we need to make a plan.”
“We still have a problem,” said Carrie, “We still don’t know who the enemy is.”
I thought for a minute, “We just need an indicator.” I reached into my pack and pulled out some white gauze from my med kit. “We need everyone who we don’t want to shoot to wrap some gauze around their left arm.” I ripped a strip off and wrapped some around Will’s arm. “Go on, start tying.” They helped each other to wrap biceps, and I had Will wrap mine, “Ok Will, I need you to find Luke and pass on the message to mark each other ok?”
“Ok,” he said taking the roll of gauze.
“Will, you need something better than that,” I gestured to the small pocket knife he still clutched in his hand. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a folding Buck knife. “My dad gave this to me when I was twelve. Hold on to it for me ok?”
“Sure, no problem,” he said pocketing the useless knife and taking the Buck from me.
“Good man. Now go find Luke.”
“You got it, James,” he said taking a deep breath before opening the office door, taking a quick look down the hall and, after seeing it was clear, bolted out the door.
“Alright,” I said closing the door. “First priority is to find George. Cut off the head of the sneak, and the body dies.” I briefly explained what George looked like, “There’s ten of us, and I don’t know how many of them. I also don’t know if there are many of Luke’s people left to fight with us. So we need to make every bullet count, and we need to show them no mercy. Now, Thomas, I want you to take two people with you and head to the observation tower by the obstacle course. Post there with your rifle and take out anyone who looks aggressive.”
“Where’s that?” he asked.
“Shit,” I said glancing around the room. My eyes settled on a map on the wall, and I walked over to it. “Here,” I said pointing it out on the map.
“You got it.”
“Good. Once you’re settled, I want the other two to get back here on the double. We’ll break up into three-person teams and move through the compound. Sarah, Liz, you’re with me. Jason, Carrie, and Jessica, you’re the second team. Matt, Justin, and Hannah, you’re group C. Alright?” They nodded, “Good, now who’s going to escort Thomas to the tower?”
“I will,” volunteered Matt.
“So will I,” said Liz.
“Alright. Get going and Matt, remember squeeze, don’t pull.” He nodded solemnly and left with the other two. We waited the almost ten minutes for them to get back, time I spent working out a loose plan. When the other two got back, I handed Sarah my Carbine, “Use this. I don’t want you to have to reload.”
“But what about you?”
“I can use my pistols.”
She glared at me, “This isn’t time to be a hero James.”
I smiled, “Actually, it’s the perfect time for that. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She didn’t like my answer but took the superior weapon. Sarah, Jason, Matt, and Justin had the high-powered rifles, leaving the rest of us with our conventional weapons. “Ok Jason, I want your group to stick around the obstacle course. You can split up and keep people off of Thomas when he starts shooting.” As if on cue I heard the powerful crack of the sniper rifle rip through the air. “Which is right now. Get out there you three and stay safe.” They nodded and vanished into the growing night. “Alright, you three,” I said pointing to Jason’s group, “I want you down near the fire pit and kitchen. Check for survivors and stay safe. If you find anyone alive, try and discern where their loyalties lie. If they’re with Luke, then mark ‘em and try to get them to safety. Remember, your safety comes first. Got it?” They nodded, “Good, now go.”
“Where are we going James?” asked Sarah as the other three departed.
“We’re going to the dorms. If there are survivors, then that’s probably where they’ll be.”
“Why didn’t you tell Will that?” asked Liz.
“Because if that’s where the survivors are then, that’s where George is likely to be.”
“And you didn’t want to send him into that?”
“Of course not. Ok, you two ready?” They both gave me confident nods, and I saw Liz pull an arrow from her quiver, and Sarah check to see that a round was in the chamber. I poked my head out into the hallway, and we headed towards the dorms. The generator must have been either turned off on purpose or disabled by George’s men, either way, all the lights were out, and it was getting darker. Since I didn’t want to give away our position, I was forced to navigate by the waning light and sketchy memory. I saw the outline of the large buildings that were the barracks in the distance, but even more importantly I saw the flash of muzzle fire and heard the crack of bullets. As we got closer I saw that it wasn’t as a one-sided fight, there was a small group of people on the roof of the barracks, and another group huddled behind some makeshift barricades. “Hand me the night vision binoculars,” I whispered to Sarah. She passed me the glasses, and I pointed them towards the roof. I could see three people on the roof, all dressed in black, including black ski masks. Panning down I saw another seven individuals taking cover. Though the binoculars painted everything in a dull shade of green I could tell one thing, George was among the group on the ground. That’s all I needed to know, and I directed girls to drop to the ground. “I see George, hand me the rifle, I’m going to try and take him out.” Sarah handed me the Carbine and, after fixing Georges position in my mind using the binoculars, I took aim and started squeezing the trigger over and over. I let off several shots, heard a yell of pain and hoped that I had at least wounded him enough to force him to give up. Handing Sarah back the rifle and quickly snatching up the binoculars I checked to see if I had scored the game-winning shot. One lay dead and another bleeding from a serious gut shot, but neither of which was George. “Fuck, I missed him,” I said as I watched them aim blindly towards us. “Move, move,” I whispered urgently to the girls. They jumped up and sprinted to our left, I quickly followed. I heard bullets strike the dirt near where we had been lying and I thanked God for the dark. Having George shoot at us served as a fortunate distraction, and it allowed the three people on the roof to take shots at the five remaining mobile men. I watched as
one of them stayed out in the open a bit too long and took a round in the forehead. As one of the two remaining guys on the roof saw his companion fall, he stood and fired four shots in quick succession, hitting another one of George’s men, killing him. His dwindling numbers must have weakened George’s confidence because he and his three goons abandoned their injured comrade and fled off into the dark. “Don’t shoot,” I called out and walked towards the barracks, arms raised high.
“Who are you?” called out a voice that seemed familiar.
“We’re friends of Luke. We’ve come to help. Z sent us.”
“Where is Z?” the voice asked.
“He’s dead. He died of a gunshot to the stomach. I couldn’t save him, I’m sorry.”
“Fine.”
“Do you have people inside?”
“Yeah, one or two but I don’t know if they’re alive.”
“Fine, stay here. I’m going after that son of a bitch.”
“Let’s go,” said Sarah.
“No, you two check the dorms for survivors. Treat them if you can. Stay here with the guys on the roof.”
“James,” Sarah said in a warning voice.
“Yes?”
I thought she was going to give me some speech about how I shouldn’t be a hero and how she didn’t need me to protect her, but she didn’t. She kissed me warmly and said, “Come back ok?”
“I promise.”
“Pinky?”
“Pinky,” I said, and we shook. “Watch each other’s backs,” I said and ran off in the direction of George.
I held one pistol in my hand as I tore through the darkness. I didn’t know where George was headed, but I heard gunfire in front of me, and I picked up my pace. I came upon a small building that was marked as the infirmary and saw the gang I was chasing firing into the windows of the building. I could see shadows moving inside the infirmary, and I took aim. I quickly realized that I was too far away to use my pistol and that I would have to get closer. I started to move slowly closer and just before I could take advantage of the element of surprise one of the guys glanced behind himself and saw me. “Fuck,” I said as I opened fire while running for cover.
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 8