As Miller sat down to ponder his next move, he looked at the shortwave radio sitting on the top shelf in his closet. He thought carefully about what he would say to get Aldrick back, and without tipping his hat that he knew what he remembered in case someone else picked up their conversation.
He finally got up and walked over to the radio and turned it on. He found the predetermined channel and hit the microphone. “Hey, anybody have their ears on out there?” He waited for a response, and almost a minute went by before a reply came back.
“Yeah, I’m glad to hear another voice still alive out there.”
Miller recognized the voice right away and breathed a sigh of relief, even though he knew Aldrick would be safe out there, if anyone would be. “Hey, there are monsters in my neighborhood. Is there any way you can lend a hand helping me get rid of them, if you’re anywhere close to me?”
“I’m almost in Alaska,” Aldrick answered. “If you’re near me, then yes, I can lend a hand.”
“Nope. I’m in Florida. I don’t think we could be any farther apart than that. I must say, I always thought the government would have a secret plan in place to deal with these monsters, but I guess that isn’t the case after all. I mean, you hear that they have a response ready for everything, like an alien invasion. I would really think they would have a plan for monsters like the ones I am surrounded with, here at my home,” Miller said, knowing Aldrick would understand the message in a way that only he could.
“Even if I had access to a plane, it would take me almost twenty hours to get to you. However, I just don’t think that’s possible. We have our own problems up here to deal with.”
“Well, I wish I could tell you to drop everything and come, but I know that would be impossible, so I’m going to keep searching and see if I can find anyone closer to help out. I will check back in with you on this channel, if I survive long enough. You stay safe up there.” Miller quickly turned off the radio and hid it back in the closet, again hoping that his message was clear. He now knew who he was up against, but he didn’t have a clear idea yet of how to deal with it.
Chapter 20
Trip started to lunge at his captors until he realized he was staring down the barrels of four. The young man had been joined by an older gent, a woman, and three younger boys. They kept their rifles pointed at Trip until he dropped the knife. The older man kicked the knife away from Trip before he spoke.
“We aren’t going to hurt you. We just have to make sure you couldn’t hurt us first.”
“Then why are we locked up in here? I need to get to a first aid kit and help my friends.” Trip pointed to the trio lying on the floor.
“My wife will take care of them while we have a talk,” the man said as he waved Trip to follow him.
“I’m not leaving my friends here alone,” Trip said, knowing that Hunter was playing possum and would want to hear what the man had to say.
“My name was Adam, and I know you have no reason to trust me; but my wife was a nurse before the shit hit the fan. She will take care of them, and I want to get back to a window to keep watch while we talk. There are things coming that I don’t want to be caught off guard from. Now, either you follow me, or I close this door and we leave you here for them.”
Trip reluctantly followed the man out of the room as his wife pulled out a medical bag from her backpack and started to check out the girls. The younger boy stayed behind with the woman, and the older one who rescued Trip from the plane followed behind, keeping a little distance between them. They walked over to one of the classrooms where all the windows had been boarded up, and Trip watched as the man looked out of a couple of strategically placed viewing holes and surveyed the area in front of the school.
Looking at the classroom and the old-style architecture told Trip the school had been around for a very long time. The concrete walls were built to withstand anything Mother Nature could throw at it, considering they were still within the boundaries of tornado alley. The musty stench also gave away the age of the building, as decades of buildup had a distinct way of smelling.
“Okay, it looks clear so far,” the man said as he motioned for the younger boy to come over and take up his spot as lookout. “So where did you come from, and how did you get a plane? I haven’t seen a plane in the air since all this happened.”
“We were escaping from Florida on our way to the Rockies,” Trip answered. “My friend in there is a pilot, so we found one and here we are.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying that. It’s not that simple. I saw the weapons you had in there, and the modifications on that plane are not normal. So tell me again where you’re heading.”
“The Rockies. We know of a cabin that’s buried in the middle of nowhere that should give us the ability to hide from this craziness. As for the weapons, we salvaged those from an overrun Army platoon. That’s the truth, man,” Trip answered in the surest voice possible, hoping to convince the skeptical stranger.
“Well, we have a problem then,” the man bluntly stated as his younger companion kept a steady eye on Trip. “We need those weapons and can use the extra manpower for our base here. I need to know if you will join up with us or if we are going to send you out unarmed to fend for yourselves.”
“That’s not just my decision to make. I need to talk to my friends and let them know the situation,” Trip answered back.
“Let my wife finish up with them, and then you can talk, but I need you to make your decision soon. There are others who will be on the way to investigate your crash, and they don’t have the best intentions for us in here. We’ve been at war with them for a while, and they don’t take prisoners from what we recently learned.”
The woman finished putting a bandage around Morgan’s head where she had a small cut before she leaned over and started checking Hope’s vital signs. As she placed her fingers on Hope’s wrist to check her pulse, she was startled by a sudden movement from Hope. Before the woman could react, Hope grabbed the woman’s wrist and twisted it around, putting her in an armlock behind her back. The young man standing guard froze at the sudden attack, and before he could think about doing something about it, was knocked to the ground by Hunter kicking the rifle out of his hand.
As Hunter reached down to pick up the gun, another guard ordered him to stop and lie down on the floor. Hunter was aware he didn’t have much of a chance at the moment and decided to comply. They then turned their guns on Hope, telling her to do the same. Hope surveyed the situation and decided it was better to obey, even though she had already figured out three different ways to disarm them using the woman as a shield.
As Hope released her grip, the woman slid her hand into Hope’s and placed a small piece of paper into it. Hope quickly laid down on the floor and kept the note hidden from view.
The two new guards picked up their fallen friend and whisked him out of the room before they returned to stand guard. One of them spoke and gave away a younger voice than what either Hope or Hunter was expecting. “Let her do her job and nobody will get hurt.”
The woman picked up her supplies and continued her examination of Hope. “Well, I can tell by your actions, you must be feeling better.” She shined a small light into Hope’s eyes. “How’s your vision? Are you seeing clearly? Is your head hurting?”
“I’m fine. Almost like nothing happened,” Hope answered as she tried looking into the woman’s eyes for a clue as to what was on the piece of paper balled up in her hand.
The woman kept a calm demeanor as she continued the examination until she wiped the blood away from Hope’s forehead and found no wound underneath producing the blood.
Hope realized the woman’s surprise and said quickly, “I think it’s from him,” she said as she pointed over to Hunter. “I checked on him before I passed out.”
“Oh, okay. Well, everything looks good on you then. Let me know if you experience any issues.” She glanced down at Hope’s hand concealing the note before she moved over to check on Hunter.
&nb
sp; Hunter pushed the woman away as she neared him. “I’m okay. Don’t waste your time.”
The guard with the young voice spoke up at that outburst. “Let her do her thing,” he said, as he pointed the gun at Hunter.
Hunter reluctantly allowed the woman to check him out and put a small bandage on the cut on his forehead. He glared at the guards the whole time until she finished and looked up at them.
“I think they will be fine, but I want to keep an eye on the blonde one until she wakes up,” the woman said as she heard a noise coming out of Morgan from behind her.
Morgan slowly opened her eyes and found herself in a very strange location. She looked around and the first people she saw were the three guards pointing guns at her. Dazed but aware, she jumped up and immediately moved to attack the strangers when she was grabbed from behind by Hope. “What the hell is going on?” Morgan asked as she spun around to see Hope’s face.
“It’s all good. Just relax and everything will be okay,” Hope said as she sat Morgan back down and waved the nurse back over to look at her.
After a couple of minutes of questions and a thorough examination, the nurse stood up and told the guards, “I think they’re all okay. You might want to let Jeremy know.”
One of the guards immediately left, presumably to let Jeremy in on the situation, while the other two escorted the woman out of the room and locked the door behind them. As they were leaving, though, the woman turned and waved to Hope, allowing her sleeve to pull up on her arm. Hope saw red marks on the woman’s wrist, indicating she had recently been handcuffed or tied up.
With the three of them alone, at last, Hunter was the first to talk. “What have we gotten into here? Who are these people, and where did their leader take Trip to?”
Hope looked up after quickly reading the note in her hand. “Guys, I think we have misread the situation. We may not be seeing things as clearly as they are here.”
Chapter 21
Due to the detour to drop Zach off at an isolated family cabin in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it took Hutch longer than expected to get to the next spot on his map. He tried to convince the young man to stay with him a little longer, but Zach insisted he wanted to be left alone for a while.
Hutch got the boy situated with enough supplies to keep him safe, and even left him with a satellite phone and a small solar panel to keep it charged, in case he got into trouble or just wanted to talk.
For the last three days, though, while camping on the infield grass of the infamous Churchill Downs, it had felt like he was on vacation. Except for a few isolated encounters, he’d had almost zero slab encounters since he’d arrived. The downtime enabled him to fully explore and revel in the history of the famous landmark.
That was soon to change.
While exploring the grounds, he also made preparations for his latest eradication project, and was just about ready to enact his plan. Before he started, he took one last stroll around the grounds, memorizing every last detail. As he arrived in the upper luxury suites, he pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked out into the distance towards the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and saw that the fireworks he’d found in the warehouse adjacent to the racetrack had done a good job of attracting attention from the local slab population.
As he turned to leave to make his way back down to the track, his eyes caught something in the corner of the room. He walked over and found what at first looked like a mini-fridge, but, instead, turned out to be a cigar humidor. Holding his breath, he opened its door as he quietly prayed. “Bingo!” he yelled as he found a fully-stocked box still humming from a backup battery. He reached in and fumbled through the only slightly dried-out stock until he found a large—and still-wrapped—corona that caught his eye. He removed the cigar from its protective cellophane sleeve and took a long whiff before biting off the end and chomping down on it in his mouth. He then slung the sack draped over his shoulder onto the ground and proceeded to completely empty the box into it before exiting the suite.
As he made his way back down to his van with his full sack of loot, he stopped one last time on the clay racetrack and pulled out a single mason jar. He leaned down and scooped a handful of dirt into the jar before he sealed it back up and deposited it along with his bag into the rear of the van. He took a long look around before he jumped into the driver’s seat and pulled his van over to his getaway spot. Satisfied all was in place, he got out and walked over to the main starting gate on the racetrack and entered into a specially modified vehicle he had waiting for him there.
It took almost an hour of downtime before the first slabs started to show their faces on the track. He had finished two cigars and was just about to light a third when he saw their arrival. Confident they wouldn’t be alone, he lit his cigar and placed it in the corner of his mouth before he cranked up his vehicle. The engine on the Jeep came to life, and the rumble it produced with the muffler removed announced his location to anything within a mile radius. He looked out the side window and eyed the welding work on the two long blades he had attached to each side of the vehicle. Eager to see them in action, he put the Jeep into gear and punched the gas.
The initial groups of slabs to show up were already making their way down the main straightaway on the track towards the loud noise being produced by Hutch’s vehicle. Before they could make it all the way to him, they found the vehicle speeding straight for them.
Hutch accelerated to a little over fifty miles per hour, and as he swung by the first group of slabs, he watched as the two almost four-foot long blades sliced right through them as if they were made of whipped cream. The lower blade took them out just above the knees, and the top blade was just high enough to sever the first group right at the neckline. He finished his lap and came around to a stop back at the starting gate to gear up for another run, happy that the plan had worked as well as it did. As he sat and waited for more slabs to come onto the track, he took a quick headcount from the first run and wrote it in marker on his pant leg.
It had been over an hour, and Hutch had made eight runs so far. With the body count at well over two hundred, he had an unforeseen problem. With the track slowly filling up with decapitated bodies, he was increasingly having trouble maneuvering the Jeep around the track. He remembered seeing a bulldozer in the maintenance shed, but couldn’t remember if it had a cage on it that would protect him. He decided to make a go for it, anyway, and took off in the Jeep to check it out.
The maintenance shed was near the entrance he’d created buttressed with concrete Jersey barriers to funnel the slabs onto the field, which was getting thicker with every arriving slab. Determined to continue on with his plan, Hutch moved the Jeep into a position to partially block the incoming flow of slabs, slowing them down enough to give him a chance to check out the bulldozer.
Sliding out of the passenger door and sprinting over to the shed, he found the bulldozer and was elated to see that a sturdy metal cage, indeed, protected the driver’s seat. He climbed into position and yanked a set of wires out from under the dash to hotwire, never even checking to see that the keys were still in the ignition. Regardless, his efforts were for naught, as the battery was completely dead.
He beat on the cage with his fist, cussing out the dead machine before deciding not to waste any more time. He climbed back out and found a couple of slabs had followed him into the shed. They were quickly dispatched with his sidearm before he looked out the large bay door at a completely swarmed Jeep, now that the bulk of the approaching herd of slabs had arrived.
Not deterred, he made for his van, jumped inside, and flipped the lid on one of the large steel boxes in the back and pulled out a mini Gatling gun procured from a Navy National Guard base on his way through Kentucky. He snapped it into place in a specially drilled hole on the floor before loading the ammo belt into the feed tray. He then grabbed a pair of noise-cancelling ear muffs before looking out the back window.
A large group of slabs were approaching the rear of the v
an, having followed his scent. He paused for a second, looking at the rate of decay each of them were showing, and was shocked to see that these were in better shape than ones he was putting down months ago. Some even had fresh blood splatter on them, indicating they had recently fed. He wondered for a moment on what. They weren’t moving fast enough to be catching wild prey, so he had to consider that today wasn’t just another day at the grind culling uglies, but was also a turn at some payback for some unlucky humans.
Regardless, he had a task to do.
He pulled the handle down on the doors and kicked them open, catching one of the slabs with the door, and knocking it backwards into its companions while he slipped back behind the gun, gripped the handle and squeezed the trigger. The barrel started to spin and a hail of bullets flew with blinding speed and deadly accuracy. In seconds, he turned the ones at his back door into ground beef before he turned the gun towards the overrun Jeep. He chomped down harder on the cigar in the corner of his mouth, afraid that the vibration from the gun might cause him to drop it as he fired continuously into the oncoming slabs. Firing at over three thousand rounds a minute, it took him almost no time to clear the oncoming horde away from the Jeep.
Feeling he had enough time to get back to it, he jumped out of the van while quickly closing the doors behind him and sprinted back to the Jeep. As he made his way back across the body-strewn field, he looked down the driveway leading into the area and saw hundreds of the undead making their way towards him. He quickly leapt into the Jeep and slammed the stick shift into reverse. After a quick three-point turn in the tight space, he looked into the rearview mirror to find that his presence had sped up the approaching visitors. Satisfied the plan was still in effect, he slowly drove forward, back towards the large racetrack, leading the slabs the whole way.
Humanity's Hope (Book 2): Juggernaut Page 10