Survive (Book 1): Salvation

by Veronica Smith

  Edd and JJ were the farthest from the Z.E.D. camp so they shared the only pair of binoculars they brought with them. They were behind an outcropping of rocks that stretched at least thirty feet. It gave them room to walk around unseen by the camp but it was short. The tallest rock was only four and a half feet tall, so they had to bend over or squat the entire time. Right now, Edd was seated between two rocks, propping his elbows in the crook to hold the binoculars up. JJ claimed to be better at drawing so he was sketching out what he saw on his first observation then Edd would tell him what to add. The only sentries they could see from their vantage point were the two at the main entrance. Their worst fear was that a vehicle would show up to the encampment during the scouting. If that happened, then Edd and JJ would be seen from this side of the rocks. In addition, if they moved around then they’d be seen from the camp; they’d be screwed either way.

  “I have an idea,” JJ said, putting down the pencil and paper.

  He pulled a foldout shovel from his bag and began digging a couple of shallow holes big enough for them to lie in.

  “Don’t you think they need to be deeper?” Edd asked him.

  “Nope,” JJ replied. “That’s why I left this pile of dirt and rocks next to it. If we have to, we lie down and spread it over us. Trust me, from a distance, we’ll look like part of the landscape. Just make sure we throw that pile of dirt on top of the bag too.”

  “Good idea,” Edd said. “You know, I don’t think the front here is the way to go in; there’s no way to sneak up in a vehicle without being seen.”

  “That’s for Chuck and Antonio to figure out.” JJ chuckled, “I’m just the artist.”

  He held up his drawing.

  “You suck man,” Edd said with a laugh.

  JJ gave him the finger and laughed back. Suddenly they both froze when they heard a gargled moan. They turned around to see a zombie staggering towards them. Green pus oozed out of its mouth freely. There was nothing to hold it in, as its jaw had been torn completely away.

  “Oh, that’s just gross,” JJ whispered.

  Edd got up, crouching and pulled out his machete, “I got this. You keep watch.”

  JJ took his place at the rock crook but kept an eye on Edd in case he needed help.

  “Come here you ugly piece of shit,” Edd muttered, drawing it away from JJ but still staying behind the wall of rocks.

  Once they were far enough, Edd dropped completely to the ground and lay flat, holding his arms out over his head. Quickly he rolled into the zombie’s ankles, knocking it completely off its feet. It fell face first and struggled to right itself. Edd curled up and got to one knee, swinging his machete. The zombie moved and he missed his target of the zombie’s neck. He was still happy with the result. The machete went thru the zombie’s skull about halfway down its face, right between the mouth and nose. It was not a pretty sight. The mouth moved only for a moment then went still. Out of morbid curiosity, he took a closer look at the top half of the skull, wobbling on the dirty matted hair.

  The skull was cut cleanly since Edd kept his machete sharp, at all times. Part of the brain was sitting in the skull like some macabre dessert in a bone bowl. The brain would have been whitish-pink in a normal human. This one, however, was a sick shade of green and the inside of it was darker with threads of black woven through. It sat in a puddle of green pus. Edd decided he’d seen enough. He took a handful of dirt and threw it on top. He felt a bit nauseous.

  “Don’t do that again,” he told himself aloud.

  “Do what?” JJ asked.

  Edd was green as he drew closer to the rocks, “You really don’t want to know.”

  Edd and JJ were the first to arrive back at the small cave. They knew it would take the others more time to get back so they went through the supplies and got some dried food and water out, ready for the others’ return.

  Chuck and Susan arrived next and gratefully accepted the water. They had just run out about an hour ago.

  “Where are the kids?” she asked.

  “Haven’t seen them, yet,” JJ replied, “but they had the hardest area to get to.”

  Chuck nodded, “They’ll get here when they get here.”

  Two hours later Tamar and Zach arrived. They were covered in dirt and very thirsty.

  “You drank it all too?” Chuck asked.

  “I wish,” Zach said, after taking a swig. “We dropped the water bottles.”

  “What? What if the Z.E.D.s find them?” Chuck almost yelled, keeping it down just in time.

  “Trust me, no one will find them,” Tamar spoke up while Zach drank more water, “At least no one who will live.”

  The others were puzzled until Tamar declared, “We found another damn pit mutant and we’re lucky the only thing we lost was the water.”

  “How did you find it?” Chuck asked as they all sat in the small cave. Edd was on guard duty but was close enough to hear the conversation.

  “And how did you escape?” JJ added.

  Zach looked at Tamar who nodded, “I got a pebble in my boot and was leaning up against a boulder to shake it out. Tamar accidently kicked some rocks and a damn tentacle came out of nowhere and slammed down on them. We didn’t even see the damn pit behind those boulders. If we hadn’t stopped we’d have walked right into it.”

  “Once it knew we were there, the tentacles were just everywhere,” Tamar continued. “If we tried to run, we’d have never made it. One of them kept slapping the rock we were behind, trying to draw us out. So, we took all the water bottles and threw them in opposite directions, then ran like hell.”

  “Shit, I hate those things,” Susan said.

  Chuck smiled. “But you’re going to love this one.”

  They all looked at him puzzled.

  “We’re going to use that pit mutant to help take out the Z.E.D.s,” he replied grinning. “That and the zombies that are caged up inside. Susan, be sure to make one large map combining all three maps so we have an overall.”

  Zach handed her his map and she looked down at it then back up at him.

  “Good job,” was all she said with a wink.

  He turned back to Tamar with a “Ha!”

  “We have enough information,” Chuck said, settling down to sleep. “We leave at dawn.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “You mean we’re going to trap live non-zombie animals and use them as bait for zombies? And take captured zombies from here to the Z.E.D. camp?” Tracy asked after Chuck and Antonio outlined the tentative plan.

  “We have to,” Tamar interjected. “We have to make the zombies go in a certain general direction. If we try to get one of the roaming zombies out there, the Z.E.D.s will see us.”

  “They won’t think twice about an animal running around. In fact, they may even go after them for fresh meat,” added Edd.

  “I know,” Tracy said, frowning, “it just seems wrong. We hunt animals to eat, but this is like serving them up to the zombies.”

  Antonio smiled, “Most animals can outrun a human zombie. We aren’t using any animal zombies; they’d catch the live bait too easily. We’re giving the animals a bigger chance.”

  She nodded but didn’t feel better about it.

  “So what kind of animals are we going to use?” Em asked.

  She felt similar misgivings but knew they had to do this.

  “Whatever we can get,” Rodrigo chimed in. “I’m making live traps right now. We don’t want anything too small. Rats or mice are too small; they’d be useless. Rabbit would be good size. Dog would be even better.”

  “So, here it is in a nutshell,” Chuck said. “We trap some live animals. And we trap a zombie; two or three would be better but I don’t know if we can handle that many safely. We take them all to the rocky area where Susan and I were. Let the animals loose and somehow hope the zombie will follow them out into the view of the sentries in the front. They should ignore the animals but they won’t ignore the zombie. Not if it gets that close to them.”

&n
bsp; He paused as Antonio took up, “And this is why I think two or three would be better. Just one zombie may not threaten them. But two or three would give them cause to kill them or get others to come help. That’ll be the first distraction.”

  Chuck continued with the next part, “The second distraction will be Tamar and her team going around the back and releasing the zombies in the cages. There should be enough of them that they create havoc throughout the entire camp. We’ll have others slip in between tents in small numbers and hide. Someone will need to breach the main lodge. That’s where the commander will be.”

  “I’ll do it. After we open the cages, I can be there quickly,” Tamar said without hesitation.

  “Now wait a minute,” Antonio argued. “We all have a reason for wanting him dead. This is personal to me.”

  “And me as well; especially for me. He used to be my commanding officer,” Chuck interrupted. Antonio looked as though he’d just forgotten that fact.

  “We’d all have to go to the Commander if we go for that reason alone. But we have to think of the big picture here. It doesn’t matter who kills him. We are Sabaton. All of us. A kill by one of us is a kill by all of us. Personally, I would love to be the one to kill him but I’m pushing my feelings aside right now. I’ll be in the truck that Richie is driving. JJ, Antonio, and Tamar will be driving the other three. I’m going to capture the commander. Not kill him, at least not at first. We’ll decide that after we take the camp.”

  Richie’s jaw dropped, “Me? But I’m not a warrior. I can defend our home fine here but I can’t do that. Why would you pick me?”

  “Because we may finally use the few guns and ammo we have stockpiled. Those in the trucks will get them,” Chuck replied. “You and JJ both shoot guns well, and you’re both left handed. I want you to be able to shoot with your left while driving. We’ll need everything we have against them. They may have a lot of weapons; I’m not going to lie to you. But they think like soldiers, not survivors. We are survivors; we don’t train for walking in formation or saluting and saying yes sir, no sir. We train to fight; any way we can. According to the map, this camp has one tank. It’s not guarded and they may not even keep it armed all the time. It will make a great weapon if it’s in our control. Rodrigo will take over the tank.” Lori, holding to Rodrigo’s arm, suddenly squeezed harder and buried her face in his chest. Rodrigo nodded to Chuck and patted her back, holding her tight.

  “I’d like to add something to this mission but I won’t sacrifice anyone for it,” Chuck added. “We saw a dog there that was nursing puppies. I couldn’t see how many pups there were, but it looked like at least four or five. The mother won’t give them up without a fight and we probably can’t take her. She’d turn on us; they train them to attack on command.”

  “If at least one of them is male…” Tracy trailed off as the realization hit her.

  “We can have puppies? Holly and Gracie can become mothers?” Em asked, getting excited, “If two of them were male, that’d be even better!”

  “But like I said,” Chuck interjected, “I won’t jeopardize this mission—or anyone on this mission—just for the puppies. Once the camp is secured, then we get them. Not before.”

  “I want to go, too,” Jim said, glancing at Tamar. “I’m a better tracker than a warrior but I can still fight.”

  “I’m with him,” his brother Paul added.

  Joe and Sheila nodded their heads reluctantly. They knew their sons would volunteer for this.

  “We’ll stay here and keep Salvation defended,” Joe offered.

  Chuck nodded, gratified. He wanted to make sure there was still plenty of protection here but didn’t want to force anyone to stay, and honestly didn’t think he could spare anyone.

  “I’ll stay too if you need,” Tracy spoke up, looking at Chuck who surprisingly refused her.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, but she thought she would be needed here, and surmised Mason Henry would agree; or so she thought.

  “I already talked to Mason Henry,” Chuck said to her directly. “He’s staying since he is a great defender and has the best eyes in this part of the world. He insisted that you go on the mission, if I need you… and, I need you.”

  Thinking of that stubborn man that she loved brought a smile to her face and she nodded.

  Shirley stood up and asked, “What about the families? Or anyone that surrenders?”

  The room went quiet. No one had thought about the families living there as well. As Chuck knew from experience, some of the soldiers stayed only to keep their family safe; they didn’t always agree on the tactics used, but they had to survive.

  “Do not attack any non-combatants,” he replied, after thinking for a moment. “If someone surrenders, don’t harm them. If you’re attacked, protect yourself, but if you go inside a tent and find a woman with a baby and she runs at you with a knife, she may just be defensive because of her child. Try to calm them down and explain. I’ll bet there are a lot of them there that don’t really want to be there but feel they have no other choice.”

  “I knew a lot like that,” Antonio agreed. “Most of them even agreed to give up their daughters to marry and breed, just to stay alive and keep them alive. They didn’t think they could live and protect them out in the wastelands.”

  “And they’d be right,” Chuck said, nodding solemnly. “I didn’t think about that when we ran. But I would still do it again. I had discussed it with Samantha and Jeri. They both wanted to leave.”

  “What will we do with them,” Susan asked, “put those surrendering in one big tent or something?”

  Chuck turned to the map and pointed, “Here’s what I was thinking...”

  An hour later, everyone knew Chuck’s entire plan.

  “We do have a backup plan, too,” Antonio spoke up, “if things don’t go as planned. And when the hell do our plans ever go right?”

  There were some strained laughs around the room.

  “We lead them from the camp to this area, here,” he pointed up at the map, specifically to a circle with teeth drawn in it.

  “Another freaking pit monster!” Richie moaned.

  He didn’t see the last one and had no desire to see this one.

  “We’ll treat it just like the last one,” Antonio said calmly. “We’ll mark a safety line. Maybe we’ll drive the Z.E.D.s straight to it. Once it’s taken care of them, we’ll kill it with another N5P bomb. Now let’s start hashing out the finer details.”

  The next day they set the traps for live animals.

  While waiting, they put together N5P bombs and some Napalm bottles with the gasoline. They didn't want to use the Napalm if they didn't have to. They’d be right in the middle of the camp and they didn’t need to fight fire as well. They took all the guns and ammo they had in storage, not very much compared to a Z.E.D. encampment, but it would have to do. Chuck and Antonio had showed the many volunteers how to take apart and clean all the guns. Other volunteers sharpened all the blades, used on the mission. Izik sat in a corner and made more arrows to go with his bow. He was the best archer in Salvation and would be the one to take out the front sentries when they went after the bait.

  After checking the empty traps for two days, they were finally having some luck. Over the next week they managed to trap some live animals—eight rabbits, a stick thin coyote, and a wild cat. They kept the coyote and cat in cages and set up pit traps for zombies using the rabbits as bait. This time they didn’t have to wait as long.

  They checked the zombie traps the day after baiting them. They found two zombies in the bottom of the pit. Both were female and one of them lost an arm in the fall, it lay trampled in the dirt. The other one must have landed on its head. Not hard enough to kill it but enough that there was a huge dent on the top. The only thing that remained of the rabbits was some bloody tufts of fur and, somehow, a single foot.

  “Now how the hell do we get them out?” Edd asked, looking down at them.

  Chuck, Antonio, T
amar, JJ, and Rodrigo also stood around the hole.

  “I was thinking we might put bags over their heads and tie up their hands but I don’t want to touch them,” Antonio said, shuddering.

  Green pus oozed out of every orifice and the smell coming from the pit was horrible.

  “We can’t take them back to Salvation. They’d stink up the place,” Tamar said, with her hand over her nose.

  “That’s why we finish our plans and leave them in here until we’re on our way,” Chuck suggested, “I mean they aren’t going anywhere. It’s the perfect place to keep them. We’ll just have to figure a way to get them out before we get them.”

  Edd pointed to one of the female zombies with a grin, “I think that one used to work at the Outland Bar. Haha. I think she was a stripper.”

  Tamar shook her head in disgust and turned away.

  “I haven’t been to that bar in at least five years. My ex went to work there after I kicked her out when I caught her cheating on me. I think the other worked there too. Before my ex did,” JJ said, “I heard it got overrun by zombies.”

  They were both wearing the tattered remains of some slinky outfits, one blue, and one black. There was stitched lettering on their clothes but they were too small to read from above.

  “Bet they were hot when they were alive,” Edd added.

  Tamar coughed, “You guys are disgusting.”

  The men all laughed and they drove back to Salvation to finalize their plans.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The night before the mission, the team was nervous, more nervous than they’d ever been. The rest of Salvation brought them presents and handmade lucky objects. They kept every one of them, some attaching them to the clothes to be worn on the mission for luck. Others packed them away in their bags or in their pockets. All weapons were checked and stowed in the vehicles. The napalm and N5P bombs were carefully packed so they wouldn't pop or leak.