“Some of them are wearing some weird looking uniforms,” a team member known as Dax said over the radio. “It might be those Chinese soldiers.”
Another voice came over the radio. “They’ve stacked on the fence line and are climbing over,” he said, meaning the zeds had piled their bodies along the fence and continued to stack, allowing other zeds to climb over them and clear the fence.
Zach thought of something and keyed his mike. “Has anyone heard any gunfire?”
There were a chorus of negatives in response. Zach found it odd. There were several people at Mount Weather who were seasoned zed killers. The lack of gunfire emanating from the compound was concerning.
“All units watch your sectors and begin firing. Follow my lead,” Zach ordered and turned to Radar. “Take us slowly toward the main gate.”
“Roger that, sir,” Radar replied.
As the Amazon inched forward, Zach flipped the safety on the turret’s M60 and began firing in short, methodical bursts. He handled the machine gun with practiced ease, and he hit everything he aimed at.
There was a time when Zach took great joy in killing zeds. Somewhere along the way, that joy had diminished. He thought about that as he killed a group of three charging at his vehicle. It had to be the three female zeds that Fred had found in the barn. They were practically harmless. Fred cared for them for a couple of months before ultimately killing them. Putting them out of their misery, he said.
And then he met Patient Eve. No idea what her real name was. Even though she was infected, she still had a certain degree of attractiveness. With a nice figure, blonde hair, and blue eyes, Zach thought she could’ve been a college cheerleader or a swimsuit model back when she was a regular human.
He had some sort of mental connection with her that he could not explain. He wasn’t ready to call it telepathy, but it was something. She had a higher degree of sentience than any other zed he’d ever encountered, except for one particular zed he called Big Bastard. He guessed it was Eve that finally made him start to question killing zeds.
But not right now. These zeds were engaging in an offensive action against humans, and that was unacceptable. He took aim at a couple of them climbing over the fence and put two three-round bursts into them.
He continued firing as they moved. The main gate came into view in less than a minute. It was closed, but as they approached, the motors on the gate activated and the heavy double gates began opening.
They drove in slowly. The inner area of the Mount Weather compound was full of zeds. There were also many bodies lying on the ground. Zach wondered how many of them were humans.
They fired in unison and soon there were dead zeds everywhere. Zach, with his unique counting ability, numbered the zeds at slightly over a thousand. He’d not seen these many zeds massed together in some time. Even at Fort Detrick, there were only about five hundred.
The body count increased, and soon there were no zeds left to shoot at. They circled back and stopped at the main gate. The guard shack, a heavily fortified building, had stacks of dead zeds in front of the firing ports. When they parked, Slim and Priss emerged. Zach ordered Radar to park and exited the armored vehicle. He approached them and looked them over. They appeared fatigued but he didn’t see any visible injuries.
“Are you two alright?” he asked.
“No worse for wear,” Priss answered.
“We’ve been stuck in there for a while,” Slim said. “We sure are glad you came back.”
“What the hell happened?” Zach asked.
Slim rubbed his face. “First the power went out. The backup batteries worked, but we didn’t have much light.”
“I tried to call it in to the TOC, but the phone line was dead,” Priss said. “I jogged over to the TOC to see what was up. The president was in there talking with Trucker Troy. He said not to worry about it and get back to my post.”
“Then, Becky over in post five started shooting. Before I knew it, we were being swarmed,” Slim said. “Now here’s where things became weird, Zach. First, the alarm never went off. I hit the big red button, but it was deader than Grandpa’s silver hammer.”
“When was the last time it was tested?” Zach asked.
“Yesterday,” Priss said. “I watched the First Sergeant and Joker check them. No problems.”
“Okay, what else?” Zach asked.
“The spare ammo,” Slim said. “I personally went to each guard post and did a spot inventory of all the ammo cans two days ago. All of them were good-to-go. So, when the zeds attacked and we’d burned through a couple of magazines, I opened the ammo cans to get more and they were empty. So, we’ve been dead in the water here. The guard posts are the same.”
“Who are in the other guard posts?” Zach asked.
“Well, like I said, Becky is in post five, Flash is in post two. Charlie Mac is post three, and Kate is post four. Post six was empty. It was supposed to be D-Day, but he never showed up.”
“Alright, I have some suggestions, but I need you two on my side if we’re going to do this,” Zach said.
“Fire away, Zach,” Slim said.
“Alright, I want you to load up with Radar and take him to Fred and Rachel’s place. Make sure they’re okay. And make sure he sees you. He’ll recognize you and won’t start shooting.”
“Roger that,” Slim said and trotted over to the armored vehicle. Zach focused on Priss.
“You and I need to head to the TOC.”
The doors were secured and Priss’ security card would not work. She cursed in frustration and pointed. “Alright, there’s the security card lock, and there’s a key lock below it. Where are the master keys at, Zach?”
“Two people have a master key. The president, the officer in charge of the TOC, and, well, the rest are here and there.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“I’ll show you.”
Although it was dark and Priss had a scarf wrapped around her, Zach could see her frowning. A dead zed was lying on the spot of ground he needed to get to. He dragged it to the side before pulling out his pocket knife and squatted.
“A few years ago, Parvis and I rigged up some small containers out of PVC and buried keys and stuff around the compound. Grace and Garret know about them. Stark knew about them, although he probably doesn’t remember now, and me of course. Now, I believe it’s time for somebody else to know about them.”
Zach began digging at the frozen ground with his knife. It wasn’t easy, but after a few minutes he dug up a six-inch-long piece of PVC pipe that had a threaded cap on one end. Standing, he wrenched the cap off. A couple of brass keys dropped into Zach’s outstretched hand.
“On the left side of each main entry door you will find one of these buried in the dirt. The main gate has a bigger pipe with some other stuff in it.” Zach faced her. “You and I got off to a bad start back when we first met, but over the years I’ve grown to both respect and trust you.”
Priss stared solemnly. “Thank you, Zach.”
Zach stared a moment and a small smirk crept over his face. “So, it’s time you learn about things like this. It goes without saying if you betray that trust I’m going to have to spank that ass again.”
Priss huffed and gave Zach a punch in the chest but could not hold back a giggle.
The lock was cold and stiff, but Zach worked the key and finally the tumblers broke free and the lock opened. They opened the door and entered with handguns drawn. Trucker Troy was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Surprisingly, he was still breathing, although it sounded raspy and haggard. Priss squatted down by him and assessed his injury while Zach checked for any possible threat behind the desk and inside the room’s single closet. Finishing, he walked over and squatted beside Priss.
“It looks like two gunshot wounds to the chest. I can’t believe he’s still alive,” she said.
When she spoke, Troy reached out and weakly grabbed her arm. His skin was clammy. “The sonofabitch shot me,” he
said.
“Who?” Priss asked.
Troy coughed, emitting a frothy spray of blood. Zach knew from experience one of those bullets had penetrated a lung.
“The President,” he croaked out and managed to point toward the rear of the TOC. “We were talking and all of a sudden he pulled out his gun and shot me. Last time I saw him, he’d walked in there and shut the door.”
The armory was in the back, secured by a heavy steel door. Zach walked to it and gently tried the doorknob. It was locked. He walked back to Priss and Troy. Troy appeared to have lost consciousness. Priss had been in the process of wrapping a compression bandage around his chest but had stopped. She looked up and slowly shook her head.
Zach frowned. Sudden movement at the outer door caused him to turn and aim his handgun. Flash raised his hands quickly.
“It’s just me,” he exclaimed.
Zach lowered his weapon and motioned for him to come in.
“Good to see you’re alive.”
“Thanks man, you too,” Flash said. He glanced down at Troy. “Is he dead?”
Priss nodded. “The president shot him.”
“Really? Holy shit, the man has gone plumb crazy,” he said.
“We’re going in after him,” Zach said. “More specifically, I need you two to go in after him.” He saw the puzzled expressions and explained. “There are still people who think I killed Rochelle. If I go in and it gets ugly and I kill him, well, imagine what people would think then.”
“Not a problem,” Priss said and checked her handgun before holding her hand out for the master key.
Zach had faith in their abilities. He also felt the best thing to do was stay out of it and wait outside, which he did. He heard the door being unlocked and opened. A minute later, Priss walked outside.
“He shot himself. I’d say he did it a couple of hours ago. At least we won’t have to worry about giving him a trial,” she huffed.
“Good,” Zach muttered. “Don’t anybody move him. I want everyone to see what happened so there won’t be any wild conspiracy theories.”
“Yeah, you got it,” Priss said.
“You know this means your father is now the acting president,” Zach said.
Priss scoffed. “Lord help us.”
“What’re we going to do now?” Flash asked.
“Everyone else has to be down in the bunker,” Priss said. “When the attack first came, I expected people to come pouring outside to help, but there wasn’t anyone. Something has happened.”
“Let’s go check on them,” Zach said and turned to Flash. “Get with my team and distribute ammo to the guard posts. Also, see if you can get comms restored.”
“Roger that, boss,” Flash said.
“And talk to them. Reassure them,” Zach said.
“I’ll let them know you’re on top of it, Zach.”
Zach nodded and headed off with Priss. Two minutes later they were standing in front of the entrance to the lower floors. The blast door was closed, along with the guillotine gate in front of it. Zach had lived at Mount Weather for a few years, and during that time neither door nor gate had ever been closed.
“Something tells me we’re going to need more than a key,” Priss quipped.
Zach grunted in agreement. The gate was composed of thick steel bars and the blast door alone weighed over thirty tons.
“Obviously, the power is out,” he said. “The power room is down there, along with two generators. I sincerely doubt anyone down there is twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. So, that means it has probably been disabled. I wonder if he set off a charge or something before locking them in.”
“Does he know how to do that?” Priss asked.
“I don’t think so, but D-Day certainly does,” Zach said. “Let’s go check the status of the power room up top.”
Zach led Priss to a plain square concrete structure on the west end of the compound. He explained.
“The power lines from Philpott Dam come to here. Then they go underground into the bunker.”
He walked up to the thick steel door and used his flashlight to inspect the two heavy padlocks. One of them had a key broken off in it.
“That’s going to slow us down a little,” he grumbled.
“But you have a plan, right?” Priss asked.
“Don’t know if it’s a good plan, but I can’t think of anything else.”
He led her to the motor pool and ten minutes later they were back with a battery-operated cutting tool with extra blades. The lock was of high quality and it took him almost thirty minutes to cut it off. Once inside, they discovered the high-voltage circuit breakers had been disengaged. When they reset them, the lights immediately came to life.
When they returned to the blast door, it was already moving. Not fast, a thirty-ton door does not move fast, but it eventually opened. William Rhinehart was the first one to emerge. He stared at Zach a second before focusing on his daughter.
“What’s been going on here?” he demanded.
Priss began explaining as more people emerged from the bunker. When Priss got to the part about Gil VanAllen killing himself, William ordered her to take him to the body. Priss complied and almost everyone followed. There were some surprised gasps when they went outside and saw all the zed corpses. Priss gave a running commentary to the group as they walked toward the TOC.
Zach stayed out of it and stuck with his team.
“We aren’t driving all the way back tonight, are we?” Dax asked. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m worn out.”
“Nope. There are some dorm rooms down below where everyone can shower and bed down for the night.”
“I think, under the circumstances, I’d rather not go down into that bunker tonight,” Dax lamented.
This got a few chuckles. An armored vehicle approached the main gate and drove in. Slim got out, along with Fred, Rachel, and Nikki. Zach walked up and hugged Rachel.
“Glad y’all are okay,” he said.
“We didn’t have any trouble at all,” Fred said. “I’ll check my trail cameras in the morning, but I thought I’d keep Rachel here tonight.”
By now, everyone had gathered up around Zach and Fred. Zach did not hesitate.
“Alright, listen up. As you all know by now, Gilbert VanAllen did a little sabotaging, which trapped most of you in the bunker, and he killed Trucker Troy before killing himself. I saw D-Day among the dead out here with all the zeds, but I don’t know who else is missing. Lydia?”
“Right here, Zach,” Lydia said from within the crowd.
“Get a roll call of everyone and let’s see who is missing and unaccounted for. We also need to double the manpower to the guard posts, and we are going to have a roving patrol for the rest of the night. Volunteers would be wonderful, but if we can’t fill the positions, some of you will be voluntold. In case you are wondering, Vice President Rhinehart is the acting president pending him formally being sworn in. He is going to have his hands full, so in the meantime, let’s help him out as much as we can.”
“What are you going to do, Zach?” William asked.
“If you like, I’ll do my old job and direct operations.”
“I would be grateful,” he said.
“Alright, does anyone have any questions?” Zach asked.
There were a few, which Zach answered. In the end, mothers took the kids back down in the bunker to calm them and get them back to sleep. The rest of the Mount Weather members stayed awake and helped with the guard duties and getting everything else back to normal.
Chapter 57 – Ruby
Ruby was found hiding in the closet of the president’s office by the O’Malley brothers. She was brought into the cafeteria where several people immediately expressed their anger toward her, and a food fight broke out with her being the primary target. She dropped to the floor into a fetal position amid the jeers and pieces of food hitting her. Realizing their mistake, the brothers hurriedly took her out and took her to one of the
lock-up rooms where she was kept under guard.
Zach was helping with the removal of zed corpses when Priss found him.
“Dad wants you and Fred to interrogate Ruby,” she said.
Zach stared. The implication was clear. Get the truth out of her by any means necessary. He found Fred in the barn working on a horse’s hoof that had developed an abscess. Sammy and Nikki were watching.
“We’re being asked to interrogate Ruby,” he said.
Zombie Rules | Book 8 | Who The Hell Is That? Page 32