The Ashleigh Rhodes Chronicles (Book 1): Dark Rhodes

by Michael Canon

  “It’s called non-Newtonian Ballistic Body Armor. It’s experimental, guess our scientists were working on it with their Polish counterparts for a while. It’s got a thin liquid core that is as flexible as a regular shirt, but becomes harder than steel when something hits it at high velocity. Still friggin’ hurts like Hell, though. Nate gave me a set just before the undead made it here.”

  Tony explained, “I shot him as part of my cover. My older brother was one of Chet’s crew. Darius wanted me to spy for Chet. He was always a fool, looking for the easy score, the fast money. I told Ethan that Darius tried to recruit me. We fed them false information, but we always knew there was another mole. Marie and Tracy saved my Dad’s life after a bad car accident. Ethan and Marie took Dad and me in after we lost our house until dad was well enough to work again.”

  His face looked grim as he continued, “Chet’s son, Arthur, shot Dad in the stomach when he wouldn’t join them. Darius just stood there like the fucking loser he was as our father bled out. After that, Ethan and Marie became my only family. Sometimes family is more than blood.”

  Looking at me, he said, “You’re different than them. Your blood is different, and I’ve seen Mike in action, you’re a lot faster and stronger.”

  I replied, “Yes, but I have no idea why I’m different. Dave can explain it a little better than I can.”

  Changing the subject, I said, “I don’t get it, Diane’s letter was specific. In the barn, the third stall on the left, look for the rusty nail on the wall.”

  Ethan smiled, “Diane was hiding the information in plain sight. Look at the front of the barn.”

  We all looked over to see a large white carved sign painted with black and gold letters that said: “Horse Hotel” with 5 gold stars below it.

  Ethan explained, “Nate and Diane never had kids, they took care of all their animals, including the horses, like children. They never referred to this barn as a “barn.” When the letter said barn, I knew it meant the big maintenance barn about a mile further down the drive. I figured whoever was left of Chet’s crew would make their play here, just never expected Chet to be like you three. Tony, you and Mike get Hector into my truck and you take him back to Charlie. We’ll go check out the other building. You know to keep quiet about Mike’s and the others conditions. Mike bring the last Deuce down as soon as you’re done helping Tony.”

  Both men nodded and headed back towards the house.

  We jumped in our Deuce and followed Ethan down the horse fence lined drive. The dirt road curved to the right, splitting a large copse of trees in half. Rounding the corner, we came upon the barn Ethan described. It was definitely not as pretty as the other one. It stood in a clearing on the left, with multiple pieces of farm equipment in neat rows on either side. Another smaller barn filled in the far right corner of the clearing.

  We parked our trucks and headed for the bigger barn’s person door. The inside of the building was clean but smelled of metal and machine oil mixed with the odors of nature associated with a ranch. The sealed concrete floor in the middle of the barn was spotless and gleamed dully in the soft light. The right side of the structure was composed of multiple workbenches intermingled with large metal storage shelves. The left wall was dotted with horse stalls and open areas.

  I walked down to the third stall and inspected the wall. It was decorated with a mismatched multitude of old horseshoes nailed chaotic rows. It took me a moment to find the bare nail. It was mixed into the left side of the second row of horseshoes and easily missed.

  I pushed up on the nail and was rewarded with a soft beep and a hidden panel door opening on the right side of the stall.

  Dave laughed, “Ooooh, how James Bond of them.” with an added eye roll.

  We moved to the right side of the stall to see a small touch-screen terminal set into the wall. A flashing bar across the top of the screen stated we had 90 seconds to enter the proper password. I quickly entered the password, and we all jumped as the floor of stall started to descend beneath us.

  When the stall/elevator bottomed out, we saw four giant polished metal cylinders spaced out equally across a ten to twelve-inch deep rectangular depression in the floor that had to be the length of the entire barn.

  Ethan whistled then spoke, “Wow! The whole center floor of the barn is an elevator too. You could drive a semi right in, and lower the floor!”

  The elevator spoke in a pleasant female voice, “The lift will return to the barn in 30 seconds, please exit.”

  We stepped off the elevator platform and crossed the floor around the cylinders. Dave walked to our left, to a bank of light switches illuminated by a small light and turned them on. As the lights came on, we were greeted by a room three to four times the size of the barn. Just to the left of the light switches sat a group of forklifts, pallet jacks, dollies, and other equipment moving items.

  Moving deeper into the room, we saw the walls of the room were lined with weapons racks. A significant portion of the right corner of the large room contained free-standing versions of the walled weapons racks and multiple rows of large pallets. A dozen large dirt bikes with multiple equipment hard points and camouflage paint schemes stood next to the pallets.

  The rest of the warehouse was empty, but marks on the floor told us bigger vehicles had been here in the past. We moved towards the weapons ranks to see them loaded with everything from 9mm pistols, to shotguns, to M16s and M4s, to AR15s and AR10s, to SAWs, and .50 caliber sniper rifles. Pallets contained what had to be millions of rounds for the racked weapons, as well as cases of various types of grenades, and explosives. Other boxes contained night vision goggles, body armor, and other equipment.

  Giving the bikes a closer inspection Dave asked, “Ash, do you know how to ride a dirt bike?”

  I nodded, “Yep, been riding with my dad and brother for years. Nothing this big, though.”

  He smiled and nodded before turning, “Ethan, if I were you, I’d move enough to keep you guys well-armed, then leave the rest here for safe keeping. This is a lot of hardware, you’re asking for trouble if you move it all back home.”

  Ethan said, “Yeah, I think your right. A few dozen of each gun and two or three pallets of ammo and accessories should be enough of a show to make people think we have it all. Nobody is ever going to think there was this much hardware down here. Then we can slip more in as we need it. Let’s pull a Deuce into the barn and try to figure how to bring the vehicle lift down. Take whichever bikes you want, you’ve earned them 10 times over. Oh, and you two and ‘ole Mikey are gonna need to clean yourselves up!”

  67

  Dave and I were sitting on the front porch of our borrowed bungalow, waiting for Ethan, Marie, and Tony to join us. Across the compound, a celebratory picnic dinner was in full swing for our successful return. Most of the residents had new rifles and everyone that wanted a new pistol got one, with plenty of ammo for each. We had left three of the military dirt bikes at the Depot. Mike wanted a bike for himself. Ethan planned to talk to the council about making the Depot operational, with a regular staff of personnel.

  Mike came out of the house to join us, sitting on the porch steps.

  Mike asked us, “You two are leaving soon, aren’t you?”

  Dave said, “Yeah, we were thinking in two, maybe three days.”

  Mike replied, “Do you mind if I join you? I think I need a change of scenery, and it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out my secret.”

  I asked, “Tony seems to be okay with you, are you sure the others won’t be?”

  He nodded, “Yeah, he’s okay, and the others might be, but there’s a lot of folks here that lost their families to the zombies. I’m concerned I’ll end up like Frankenstein’s monster. Plus, what you two did here got to me. I’d like to use what happened to me to help others.”

  Looking at both men, I said, “Well, I’d be glad to have you join us. As much as I want to know what happened to my family, I want to keep helping people like we’ve done here
. It will make the trip longer, and more dangerous, but I think it will be worth it. Just feels like the right thing to do. Maybe if we find more like us, we can use our strengths to fight back.”

  Dave agreed, “I’ve lived with this condition as a curse for a very long time, I’d like to start thinking of it as a gift.”

  Mike and I looked confused but were interrupted from replying when the others arrived. Once everyone was settled, we got Marie caught up with everything that happened at the MacGregor’s place.

  She said, “So that wiry old bastard was an Enhanced too? Damn, that explains a lot.”

  Dave brightened up, and said, “An Enhanced? I kinda like the sound of that over some of the other things I’ve been called.”

  Marie grinned and nodded, “Just my name for it. Mike is family, not like I can call him a ghoul, zombie, or vampire. And he isn’t hairy enough to be a werewolf.”

  Mike shook his head, smiled, and said, “Love you too, Sis.”

  He continued, “I got bit while we were out at the hospital looking for Tracy. I was gonna eat a bullet, but I couldn’t do it. So I crawled into a basement and locked the door. I figured if I was locked up I couldn’t hurt anyone else. I woke up to a couple of Chet’s assholes breaking down the door to the basement. It wasn’t a good day for them.”

  Looking at Ethan and Marie, he continued, “I’ve asked Ash and Dave if I can join them when they leave.”

  He raised a hand to stop their dissension and then continued, “I know you don’t want me to, but I feel like I need to do this. There are lots of folks out there that could use our help. Hell, look what the two of them did by themselves! Marie, you’re here because enhanced or not, they cared enough about a complete stranger to risk everything to help. I want to be part of something like that.”

  Marie nodded but didn’t look happy.

  Ethan said, “You need to do what you think is right little bro; I don’t have to like it, but I understand it.”

  After a few moments of contemplation of Mike joining us, Tony spoke up, “Okay you two, out with it. Mike spilled the beans, now it’s your turns.”

  I looked at Dave, and he waved for me to go first. Just as I did with Martin and Swede, I told them everything. It felt good to let it all out, like I was shedding an old skin. My story was met with looks of sadness, horror, and empathy. Even Dave was shocked, as he interrupted me more than once.

  Dave asked, “You have all their knowledge, skills and memories?”

  “Everything. It’s been a lot to deal with. I’ve never fired anything more than an old .22 before February 5th. You guys don’t pick up memories?” I asked.

  Mike and Dave both said no, and Dave continued. “Things that confused me about you make much more sense now. You fight like someone who’s had advanced training and been in combat. But sometimes your execution is… off, like your body isn’t used to doing what you’re doing.”

  He took a few moments to explain to the others that the changes in my DNA were genetic, vs. introduced.

  Mike said, “I was shot back in 2010. I was in bad shape right for a while. I had multiple blood transfusions over the course of the first week. Probably why I’m like you, Dave.” To which Dave nodded in agreement.

  Tony asked, “You need to feed on zombies too? Man that sounds terrible!”

  I nodded, “I do, and it is. But it’s only on the fast ones I call Hunters, and I only feed on their blood. My guess is the virus, or some part of it gets used up if I exert myself, or get hurt. The first time I did it, it was more instinctual than a conscious decision.”

  I elbowed Dave’s arm, and said, “Okay, your turn, Mister!”

  We all waited for Dave, I knew some of his story, but I was eager for more. He looked skyward and sighed loudly before he started talking.

  “As I explained to Ash, the Charon Z-virus reared its ugly head many, many years ago, during World War II. It wasn’t nearly as potent as it is now. Ash, Mike, I saw your looks of confusion when I mentioned I’d lived with this condition as a curse for a long time. You see, I wasn’t turned in February like the rest of you, I’ve actually been like this for much, much longer.”

  He paused again like he had to push himself to talk.

  “My name isn’t David Walker. My real name is Davis Robert Rhodes, I was born on June 3rd, 1923, just outside of Detroit, Michigan. I was turned on May 26th, 1945.”

  COMING SOON!!

  RHODES OF HISTORY

  A David Walker Story

  Want to know more about the mysterious David Walker?

  This novella will answer many of Ashleigh’s questions about the enigmatic David Walker.

  Due out in the summer of 2018!

  BOOK 2

  Ashleigh Rhodes will return in:

  DANGEROUS RHODES

  Book 2 of the Ashleigh Rhodes Chronicles

  Due out in late 2018