-----
As we made the trip across the countryside, it was easy to see where the infected had taken over and which areas still had people. In a few of the larger cities, crowds of people were gathered, with more joining them every minute.
“Those are the dead?” Secretary Stream asked, looking over my shoulder.
“Yes, they’re drawn to noise. By tomorrow, all the dead in that city will be in that area. I wish there was a way to warn those who were alive, and then send a blaze into that one area.”
“You can’t blame yourself. We’ll figure out some way to save the living from the dead.”
At that moment, the engine started to seize up and cough.
With a worried glance at the pilot, I knew without a doubt that we’d been sabotaged because someone had already tried to kill me once before.
“We’re going to have to put the chopper down. I’d rather do it now than when we’re unable to land it. There’s a large empty area up ahead. Pack all the ammo you can and give them both a weapon,” Robbins ordered, giving me a slight shake of his head, confirming that someone had in fact done something to this chopper to get us out of the way.
“Have you ever shot one of these before?” The Marine closest to me held out an M72.
“We used the M4 back in my day, but I think I’ve got the hang of it.” I smiled as the familiar adrenaline rush began to creep over me. “I’ll manage to take a few of these things out before they get me.”
“He’s going to land us close enough that we can hopefully make a run back once the chopper is quiet.” Corporal Pena scanned the rapidly approaching ground.
Stream took the weapon handed to her, looking a little worried.
“You’ve never shot one before, have you?”
“No, but I should have to get an idea of what all our troops go through.” She grimaced as the reality of what we were about to do set in.
“It’ll change your outlook, that’s for sure.” I slung on the assault pack and prepared to jump out.
“This will draw the ZITs toward us, so make sure you’re ready to move. We can’t get caught out here in the open. Here.” PFC Klein held out a couple of knives in their sheaths for us to strap on as added protection.
“We won’t have to use those, will we?” Stream seemed skittish.
“If it’s a choice of using those and dying, then you might find it comes in handy.” Pena grinned. “Let’s do this. Oorah!”
Knowing that Stream was our weakest link, they boxed her and I in the center as the pilot joined us.
“Spread out and watch your six. These things are going to be running at us. Do not hesitate to take them out,” Pena advised quietly.
The pilot had managed to get us down at the edge of town, in what looked like a bank’s parking lot. It was clear around where we’d landed, but that also meant we were out in the open as well.
Pena began to head toward a row of houses.
He was the highest ranking—other than me—but I hadn’t led a group into a battle like this situation before, and now wasn’t the time to start. I had a special place in the government because my position at ZURT gave me control all of the separate departments of the military.
A neighborhood could be both good and bad, depending on how overrun it was, but we might have a chance.
It was eerily quiet in a world that had once never been silent. Having been at Camp David for the past few days, underground in the tunnels, it hadn’t really set in that things were truly different.
We were going to have to be careful, because someone didn’t want the Secretary of Defense and I to make it out of this trip alive.
------
It turned out the neighborhood that we were headed toward was a gated community. We had to move down the brick wall until we made it to the gate, which was closed. Klein motioned to two of the other guys who boosted him over the wall.
What seemed like seconds later, the gate began to roll open. Not about to discount a blessing, I went through and watched him press a couple of buttons to make it shut. Hopefully, he hadn’t just locked us into our graves.
------
Somewhere safe from ZIT’s
“Is it done?” a deep voice questioned at the first ring of the sat phone.
“Yes. The chopper went down and the tracker is off. I doubt they’re dead yet, but it won’t be long. They’ll run out of ammo. Since the Marine unit went with them, Cooper has a better chance of survival. I made sure that it was close enough to the city that the sound of the chopper going down will attract plenty of those ZITs to kill them,” I answered with a chirp in my voice.
“Let’s hope you’re right. We’ve come so far, and the president played right into our hands. If Cooper pops up again, we won’t be able to convince him that this wasn’t a hit. He’s going to know, and will do everything he can to stop us. We can’t let happen.”
“I’ll take care of it personally if he so much as makes a peep. I have as much stake in this as you do.” In fact, I had more, but he didn’t know that, and wouldn’t until everything was perfectly set in place.
“Don’t call back unless they’re about to walk in my door. Understood?”
I didn’t bother to reply, but simply hung up on him. It was time to let him wonder if I was going to follow his instructions.
This was going to be the best way to get revenge on everyone.
------
Chapter 9
Cooper
We’d left Camp David so early in the morning that it wasn’t even noon when we had to crash land. If I had to guess, we were in Charleston, West Virginia.
By car, it was about six, maybe eight hours from where I’d left my family on a farm.
Pena had picked the fifth house down with a view of the gate and side streets for us to hang out in to figure out our next move.
“Brewer, take Hanson and Ortega around to find out if the houses on each side are clear, then report back. Don’t use your guns unless you have to. The less noise to draw anyone, the better,” Pena ordered, keeping an eye on the empty street.
“Cross, you show the secretary how to use her weapon and her knife, while Agent Walsh here explains what’s going on.”
He nodded toward the kitchen area that was separated by a wall so we couldn’t be overheard.
“Now that we’re alone, can you tell me what’s going on?”
I shook my head. “Look, I think someone wanted me out of the way so they can keep things in chaos a little longer. I didn’t ever want to be in charge, but somehow, all the others either retired or moved on to other ventures while I stuck with it. I just need to know that you’re not part of the group trying to kill me.”
With narrowed eyes, he gave me the once-over. “My men are good, as are the others in our co-unit, all completely trustworthy. The pilot turned off the tracker when we first started having trouble. If someone wants to find us, they’re going to have to look just a little harder,” he reassured me.
“We’re Marines, and it’s going to take a lot more than a faulty chopper to kill us. They planned this well. If we went down over a city full of ZITs, then we’d run out of ammo. And even if some of us made it, there would be a high probability that you wouldn’t have. They don’t know you’re a former Marine, do they?”
A lightbulb went off in my head. “No, I don’t think they did. They wiped my records clean when I was moved over. The time I spent in CIA training was even taken off the books and I was given a codename. Since I was going to be working on American soil, they didn’t want it traced back to them. Once I became the top person on the ZURT board, I believe they buried my file.”
“Someone wants you dead and out of the way. They certainly don’t know much about how Marines operate. We’re not allowed to let the people we’re escorting somewhere to die, much less someone that might be able to get us back to a normal status.” Pena gave the backyard a sweeping glance to make sure we were still okay.
“Do you have a plan here?
What would they expect you do to do if you weren’t as well trained?”
“Hmm…” I had to stop and think about what I would have done if I was just a father on a disaster board. “I’d make my way home. This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to take me out. The first pilot, who was taking me to Camp David tried to kill me. I took care of it, but I’m not comfortable with the fact that he was close to my home area.”
“Do we head to your home and make sure that your family is safe, or is there another option?” He crossed his arms, waiting for my direction.
“Our trip was to make sure that all the areas are coordinating to wipe out the ZITs and rescue as many people as possible. Does the code word Operation Patchwork mean anything to you?”
Pena’s focus snapped to attention; not that he hadn’t been focused before. “Yes, it means to ignore anything up high that doesn’t come from someone using the code word and a color after it. That means not only is our country in trouble, but we can’t trust our commanders or our commander in chief.”
“From here on out, you can’t call me by my name. I can’t have anyone think that I’m still alive. We’re going to have to split up and let a few of you go with Stream. I don’t think they want her dead, but if she’s certain that I’m dead, it’ll lend credence to the fact, and they’ll move forward with their plan.”
I walked around the corner to look in on the secretary. “It’s going to need to look good. Can the chopper be fixed? A miraculous escape?”
“Have to check with Robbins, but we might be able to get a signal out and see what an SOS brings toward us. I’d hate to use the secretary as bait, but we might have to see if she’s rescued, or if they send another crew in to kill her as well,” Pena suggested, calculating the risks of how to make it work.
“We’d need to find a place to hole up in and watch. The only thing I’m afraid of is that the president is going to send a few bombs to take out the ZITs that killed us.” I thought about it for just a few minutes more. “Any chance you’ve got a map on you?”
Pena just smiled and opened his pack with a laminated map of the U.S. inside.
“If we’re here, then how long would it take, assuming we could find a vehicle and gas without being mauled?” I pointed to Nashville on the map.
“Is there something special there that you need to get to?” He cocked an eye at me as he tried to read anything I was holding back.
“Yes. The network for just this sort of thing. We sent in a larger concentration of troops there, and my buddy is there as well. He’s not listed in my file, and we can work with the situation from there.” I shrugged, knowing that he deserved as much of the truth as I could give him, considering he was the only thing standing between me and death.
“Sounds good enough to me. Instead of trying to make a stronghold here, we need to get back to the chopper and clear it out. Find out what went wrong and send the message while the rest of us go the other way.”
“Got it.” Pena knocked on the window and crooked a finger to someone outside. “I’m going to tell the guys what’s up. I don’t want them walking into a situation and having no idea what’s going on. You check with the pilot and see if he thinks it can be fixed.”
“Yes, sir.” I gave him a smart salute. “I’ve gone soft over the years, but I’ll try not to slow you down.”
How on earth had I missed the fact that he’d had a guy outside the window? I was going to have to sleep with one eye open for the next little while.
------
Eating a few things from cans left over in the empty house, we headed out toward the chopper.
“You guys keep those things off of me, and I’ll figure out what went wrong with the chopper.” Robbins looked eager to stick his head ‘under the hood,’ so to speak.
He’d managed to sit it down in the one place that seemed to be void of ZITs. Still, it didn’t hurt to be on guard against a possible attack.
Pena’s other guys, Hanson, Brewer, and Klein took the other side of the street on the way back, and gave him a thumbs up as we got closer to the chopper.
It was all set, then.
We approached and took up positions around the chopper.
Robbins grabbed a toolbox out from under the seat and got to work. He seemed pretty confident with the engine, and was afraid that Pena wasn’t the only who had been lied to on this trip. I just hoped he hadn’t given the men all the details in case there were more of them on his team that wanted my head on a platter.
We could hear them coming way before we ever saw them round the corner of the building. It was time to put things into motion.
“If you can get this thing going, don’t wait around. Start it up and we’ll make a run for it.” I shoved Stream toward the chopper as I took off in the direction of the ZITs.
One of the other teams was with us as we rounded the corner. Each of us took aim, and those closest to us went down first. The sound drew a few more, and then they were flocking toward us.
The chopper blades began to whirl. It was go time.
“Start falling back!” Pena motioned as he continued to fire. None of us did as he asked, except the guy from the other team, who did as he was told.
“Now!” he directed, and Hanson threw a grenade down the street.
I didn’t have anything else that would work well, but I’d grabbed some ketchup packets that I thought might come in handy. I slammed them up against my shirt, and since I didn’t have the protective vests the others did, it formed a large, dark spot on my chest. Then I held it up to my neck and stumbled around the corner before falling to the ground.
Pena gave me a thumbs up as he passed by, waving at the chopper.
“Get her to safety! I’ll make sure you get away!” he yelled, not expecting to be heard over the chopper’s blades, giving the signal to go as he fired randomly at nothing.
I lay there on the ground as still as possible, hoping I didn’t have to protect myself from the ZITs on the other side of the street. The other three guys were underneath the bank’s awning, out of sight.
As our main way to get out of this situation lifted farther into the sky, I hoped this wasn’t the way I really died. If our ruse worked, then we might have enough time to get things back on track without anyone back at Camp David Headquarters finding out.
Chapter 10
Cooper
Things had changed so much from when I’d fought to make my way out to the farm. Businesses were closed. Trash had piled up, and was just left floating along the roads.
Pena and his team had raced back to the parked cars we’d passed, and within minutes, they had a truck started.
“Not sure how far we’ll get, but we can always hunt for another abandoned vehicle for the next part of our journey.”
I wasn’t about to complain. “Thanks for doing this, guys.”
“We’ve been dying to get out here where the action is happening, so you’re really doing us a favor.” Klein climbed into the truck bed.
While a lot of the city streets were clear, the roads out of town were littered with people roaming around or stuck in the ditches.
Unsure if we were going to take out any ZITs we came in contact with, I relaxed a little as we passed by, leaving them to continue their walks. We only had enough ammo to survive a few skirmishes, and it seemed like the better option was to not engage the dead.
The dead simply looked our way as the sound of the engine reached their muddled brains, but most had barely done more than turn toward us when we passed them.
I still wasn’t completely certain that all these men were trustworthy, but at this point, I’d thrown in my lot with them, and needed to continue until we reached our destination.
Hanson was driving, while Pena directed him from the map onto the backroads, taking 119 West toward Nashville.
Given a few minutes to mull over the predicament I was in, I found my thoughts returning to my family. I wanted to get a message to Linc, but if I did that, it would tip of
f the others that want me dead. They were safer without me at the moment.
We’d driven into the more rural area of the state, and were about to cross into Kentucky when a small town appeared in the distance.
Pena opened the small window.
“We’re going to stop up here and collect any gas that we can. There may not be opportunities farther up the road, and we don’t want to have to return to the city if we don’t have to,” he asserted.
The truck pulled into the one small service station. We hopped out of the truck with our M72s at the ready for anything that moved. A quick scan revealed there weren’t any people living or dead near the gas pumps.
“Look for any extra gas cans so we won’t have to stop as often,” I instructed, but they were already doing that on their own.
The pumps weren’t going to work without electricity, but we lifted the lid on where the gas was pumped in and started the process of syphoning it up and into the containers that wouldn’t dissolve with the gas in it.
Klein had gone through the garage’s open doors, and was carting out the jugs of water that hadn’t been opened. “Corporal, I left the few guns and food alone in case someone else comes along and needs it,” he announced as we finished filling the fifth container with gas.
“Copy that. It’s better to leave something here for those in the area that might not be able to make it where we’re going.” Pena looked around at the deserted station.
It might not have sheltered someone for very long, but maybe it would keep someone alive for a few more days. If we could get the military to start using my plan, then they would be able to make it.
“Ready?” Hanson started toward the front of the truck.
As the words left his mouth, a small group of about ten ZITs made their way toward us.
“Do we go ahead and take them out?” Pena questioned, looking to me for the answer.
“If we can spare the ammo, then yes. It’s that many more that won’t turn someone else.” I lifted my gun like an old familiar friend and aimed for the one just coming out of the forest.
Against Zombies Series | Book 6 | Governments Against Zombies Page 7