by Damon Hunter
Chapter 24 - Angels Stadium - Anaheim, CA
Clay saw the blood and realized he had been bitten after all. He turned to tell Vance but something caught in his throat and he could not get the words out. He felt something growing in his windpipe. He thought he was about to choke to death, but the pressure stopped and he coughed up a mouthful of thick green pus.
It occurred to Clay one of the sores the infected get had just grown and popped in his throat. With the airway now clear he wanted to tell Vance what was going on. Neither Vance nor Fan had noticed Clay’s infection. Both were looking down the dark tunnel hoping it would get them out of the stadium. Before Clay could get the words out to warn them, his priorities shifted. All he wanted to do, more than he had ever wanted to do anything in his life, was taste the flesh of the two men in the vehicle with him.
Vance turned and saw the sore on Clay’s face just before the former TMRT soldier lunged forward from his spot in the backseat behind Fan. Vance caught him and pulled him back just as Clay reached over the seat and grabbed Fan by the shoulder.
As Vance pulled him back Clay kept a grip on Fans shoulder, pulling the arm holding onto the steering wheel sharply to the right. Vance was drawing his knife when the Hummer sideswiped the side of tunnel.
The impact loosened Clay’s grip enough that Fan was able to pull free and right the Hummer. The impact also threw Vance forward into the infected former TMRT soldier and knocked the knife from his grip.
Clay bit down on Vance’s forearm but the TMRT body armor he was wearing was up to the task. The infected version off Clay seemed to recognize Vance was immune, instead of trying to tear through the armor on his arm and give him the rot he went for Vance’s throat.
Vance was able to roll enough the bite meant for his jugular vein went into the armor on his shoulder. He rotated enough to drive an elbow into Clay’s temple and pin the infect soldier to against the door.
Vance threw another elbow but as with all the infected, what should be painful did not deter them in the least. Only death stopped them. Unless he planned to kill Clay with elbows to the temple he knew he was wasting time and energy.
He kept Clay pinned as he tried to find the knife. It was still dark as they drove through tunnels so he could not see. He was sure if he let go, even with one hand Clay would get loose and Vance would be scrambling to keep himself alive. He had his pistol at his side, but did not want to use it in the vehicle. A bullet through Clay’s head would also go through the window behind him. The tunnel was full of rotters and more were pouring in behind them. The windows may end up the only thing between them and a hungry horde, so Vance wanted to keep them intact if he could.
Vance looked at Clay and saw his jaw begin to elongate. As Clay opened his new bigger mouth Vance could see the second row of teeth pushing through his gums. When Clay attacked Fan he was still in the process of turning. Vance thought he was dealing with an ambler, but instead he was wrestling with a vampire rotter.
This was a match he couldn’t win. He was able to overpower Clay during the turning process but once he went full vampire rotter Clay would be the stronger of two of them. Vance was considering letting go to reach for his pistol when he saw the door handle was not covered by the body leaning against the door.
He let go with one hand to pull the handle while he pushed as hard as he could with the other. The door flew open and Clay tumbled out. At the last second though, a new longer arm shot up and grabbed Vance’s wrist.
Only hooking his good leg on the passenger seat headrest kept Vance from joining Clay on the cement floor of the tunnel. Vance could feel his leg slipping as Clay began to pull himself back into the Hummer. It seemed either Clay was coming in or Vance was going out. Vance found the seat belt and gripped it keeping him from going out, but there was not much he could do to keep Clay from coming in with both hands occupied
Sparks flew as the armor on Clay’s leg scraped along the pavement. Like everything else that did not cause death or serious dismemberment this did not deter him at all from his task of taking out Vance and spreading the rot inside to as many as he could.
Fan swerved back into the wall of the tunnel, this time intentionally. The door slammed hard into vampire rotter Clay’s torso and Vance was able to pull his arm free. Being crushed by the door stunned the vampire rotter and turned his insides to mush but did nothing to dim his determination to get back inside. Nothing below his shoulders was working but the arms made strong by the rot were able to hang on. Clay began using those arms to pull himself up and into the Hummer.
With his hand free and the threat of being pulled out of the vehicle gone Vance drew his pistol. Clay was pulling his mangled body up onto the seat when Vance put a bullet in his temple. Vance shot him twice more to be sure, when it came to vampire rotters triple tap was the way to go, before he shoved him out the open door.
Vance was pulling the damaged door shut when Fan said, “Hang on. I see the exit.”
Vance holstered his gun and held on the seat in front of him. If this were an iron gate like the one onto the field Vance felt they were in trouble. He considered saying something but they were too close and going too fast.
Thankfully the gate leading onto the concourse was not as stout as the one leading out to the field. They burst out onto the concourse and plowed through a chain link fence surrounding the perimeter of the stadium and found themselves back in the parking lot.
Fan braked hard and then swung the Hummer so they stayed on the sidewalk instead of veering into the crowded and possibly blocked parking lot. The damaged door flew open when he braked but shut when he turned hard to the right. Vance could see it would not latch right in its current condition, but seemed to stay shut if it was left alone as they sped along the sidewalk.
Vance looked back to see the infected pouring out of the tunnel they had just left.
“Sorry Clay,” he said to himself as Fan found the path carved by the TMRT transport leading back to the freeway and took it.
The TMRT transport had only cleared one ramp. They took the same one onto the freeway that they took to get off. Fan was about halfway up when he slammed on the brakes. Thankfully Ana driving the Jeep back towards the stadium did the same thing.
Chapter 25 - Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook, CA
Carson needed one of his steroid enhanced personal guards to help him up to the shooting platform.
Donna, Bo, and Jennifer had returned with all the guns and ammunition they could carry, seeing the size of the oncoming horde Donna said, “Maybe we should save our ammunition for a time it will do us some good.”
“And when would that be young lady?” a winded Carson asked as he picked up one of the rifles Donna had brought and chambered a round.
“We’ll know it when we see it,” she replied.
Before he could answer Katelin raised her rifle and shot a vampire rotter who had climbed a nearby tree and seemed to eyeing jumping from the tree to the wall.
“Sorry,” she said. “That one looked like he may be coming in.”
“No need to apologize,” Carson said, “And nice shot.”
“Thanks.”
Carson turned back to Donna, “I didn’t build this fortress or bring in these patriots to run away at the first sign of trouble. Look at them,” he said as he pointed down at the horde, “they’re slow and dumber than bricks. We can hold them off.”
“They aren’t all dumb and all it takes is one getting in and spreading the infection,” Donna told him, “This situation calls for a tactical retreat.”
“I am not abandoning this fortress.”
“Fine, stay. We’re leaving.”
“Not in my helicopters you’re not. I already ordered them grounded. I offered you a sanctuary and I suggest you defend it.”
Again the conversation was interrupted by gunfire as Kate and Ben fired on an approaching vampire rotters.
Katelin looked at the two militiamen on the platform with them and said, “You see any runn
ing on all four like an animal shoot them. My mom is right, but if one of them gets in we’re fucked.”
“Language,” Donna told her daughter before turning to Carson. “It’s going to be hard to do your radio show brain dead and drooling, which is how this is going to end.”
“What if I told you I have something better than bullets to aid in our defense?”
“How about you show me.”
Carson pointed to the shooting platform on the far east corner of the wall, “They are working their way here.”
He then pulled the two way radio off his belt and said, “Fire away.”
There was a flash from the platform and then an explosion in the middle of the horde.
“RPG?” Donna asked.
“LAWS rockets. Our military may have moved on from them, but they still pack a punch.”
Another rocket went into the horde, cutting a big hole in the group. Those not turned to red mist or a pile of separated body parts near the blast caught fire. The hole filled as more infected kept coming but the infected on fire kept moving forward.
A second platform received their rocket launchers and huge chunks of the horde were turned to smoldering hunks of flesh as the second platform fired away.
“How many of those do you have?” Ben asked.
“Enough for each shooting platform in the front of the compound to have a pair.”
“How many rockets?”
“How many can one fit in a ten by twelve room?”
On of the militiaman nodded, “It sounds like we may have enough.”
As one more platform gained a couple rocket launchers the mass of infected began to shrink significantly as rockets began to pour into their ranks. Flaming arms, legs, torsos, and heads pinwheeled through the air with each explosion, but the ones who did not get obliterated kept coming. The ones still with two working legs kept walking, the ones without crawled.
“Should we give some to the men covering the back?” Donna asked as two pickup trucks approached the platform. Each had boxes of rockets filling the bed. The launchers themselves were stacked in the front seat where the passengers would have sat.
“Back?” Carson said as he motioned for one of the men to hand him up a rocket launcher. His body guard went to reach down and grab it.
“Yeah, the back,” Donna replied.
Carson took the launcher from his bodyguard and checked it to make sure it was armed and loaded. Satisfied he waved his hand at the approaching horde, “Looks to me like the enemy is in front of us.”
Donna waited until he fired a rocket into the horde before asking, “You don’t have anyone watching the back of the compound?”
“A few, but I sent everyone but a couple of kids to repel the frontal assault. It’s not like they are smart enough to flank us.”
“The hell the aren’t,” Donna told him She looked at Ben and Katelin and said, “We need to cover the back.”
“Can we take a rocket launcher?” Ben asked, “I was kind of looking forward to firing one.”
“Hell yeah we can,” Donna said as she started climbing down.
“The hell you can,” Carson said as the two militia men used a rope to pull up a box of rockets while the bodyguard reached down to bring up a second launcher, “we need them here, where the battle is.”
Katelin emptied her magazine, at a pair of vampire rotters. One looked like Tanner. She knew she at least winged one but felt like Tanner was still running around in the trees looking for an opening. She slapped in a fresh magazine and went to follow her mother, saying to Carson, “One of them gets in and it won’t matter how many rockets you have.”
“She’s right,” the militia man said. He turned to the men unloading the truck, who were all Sacred Sons and told them, “Give them what they need.”
“You will do no such thing,” Carson yelled down at them, “This is my fortress. I give the orders.”
“These men are under my command,” the militiaman told him.
“And you are under mine.”
“Bullshit.”
Carson looked at his bodyguard, who had picked up one of the rifles Donna had brought, and gave the big man a nod.
The bodyguard nodded back, looked down at the men unloading the rockets and said, “Give them whatever they need.”
“What the hell?” Carson said.
“You pay me to keep you alive. The kid is right, if one of the predator types comes in the back we are all fucked.”
The militiaman at the truck looked at Donna and asked, “What do you need?”
Donna held out her hand, “One box of rockets, a couple of launchers and one of the trucks.”
For a second he looked like he might protest, but instead he told her, “Keys are inside. Give me second to grab the other rockets and then it’s yours.”
With Bo, Ben, Jennifer, Katelin, and Donna helping they offloaded the truck of all the boxes and launchers except one box of rockets and a launcher quickly. Ben took the launcher and hopped into the truck bed. Katelin joined him while Donna get behind the wheel.
“What do you want us to do?” Jennifer asked.
“Get the transponder out of my room first. Then Find Gavin and get to the helicopters,” Donna told her, “If things go bad I don’t want to be looking for him.”
“He should be in his room playing with his tablet.”
“Have him play inside a helicopter,” Donna said before she hit the gas and headed for the back of the compound.
Jennifer and Bo ran inside to get Gavin and the transponder.
Chapter 26 - Interstate 5 - Anaheim, CA
Vance stayed in the Hummer as Fan got out to see why the Jeep was heading back into the mess by the stadium when they should be waiting for them on the interstate.
With Chase Junior attending to his concussed brother Ana got out of the Jeep.
“Chase Sr.?” Fan asked.
“He didn’t make it,” Ana told him, “Everyone okay on your end?”
Fan shook his head before saying, “The younger one.”
“Clay?”
“Yes.”
“Damn.”
“Chase Sr. was an asshole,” Fan said.
“Clay wasn’t.”
“I know but we can mourn him later. Why are you not on the freeway?”
“Something is going on.”
“Describe this something.”
“Another horde, but they weren’t there for us. The were heading North and even though they were passing us by it felt to creepy parked in their path.”
“Can we get through them?”
“I doubt it.”
Fan nodded, and went to retrieve his phone. What they did next depended on how far ahead they TMRT was with the second bomb. He was surprised to see they were stopped about a mile away.
“I think I know who the horde is for,” Fan said as he went back to the hummer to retrieve the binoculars.
“Who?” Ana asked as Fan climbed up on top of the Hummer.
“I think they may be after the same thing we are.”
From the top of the Hummer Fan was able to see a good distance down the freeway. He found the overpass and with all the infected around to was hard to tell what happened, but there was definitely some kind of wreck right in front of the overpass. He lowered the binoculars and checked the GPS tracker.
“Our last bomb is under the horde…”
“So can we go back to the compound?”
Fan climbed down from the the Hummer and said, “No. No matter what happened to the crew we cannot leave a nuclear weapon sitting on the freeway.”
Vance limped out to join them.
Ana pointed to the freeway and told him, “Looks like our quarry is trapped by the horde.”
“I’m guessing just leaving them to their fate is out of the question.”
“Apparently so,” Ana told him.
Fan handed Vance the binoculars. “The view is better from the roof but you may be able to get an idea from here.”
/> Vance looked down the road. He lowered the binoculars and said, “I think we’ve proven the whole distract them thing is failure and we don’t have near the firepower to take fight our way in.”
“Could we just come back later?” Ana asked, “The infected won’t bother the bomb.”
“Unless we deactivate them they can detonate them remotely. We need to get it,” Fan told her.
“So we are riding around with a thermonuclear device some TMRT asshole could detonate at any time?” Vance asked.
Fan shrugged as he said, “Yeah.”
Vance smiled, “You know those transports are built to take a lot of punishment.”
“How does that help us?” Fan asked.
Vance pointed at Ana, “I heard a story about clearing out the infected with molotov cocktails when you were in Oceanside.”
“You want to take out the Horde with molotov cocktails?”
“In a way. Though I was thinking more than just bottles of gasoline and more like a fuel tank, one big fuel tank specifically,” Vance said as he handed the binoculars back to Fan. Once Fan had them Vance said, “It’s hard to see with all the amblers around it, but check out what is under the pile.”
Fan looked and saw the fuel tanker. It was easier to see it from this angle than when he was on top of the Hummer.
“That could work,” Fan said. “Assuming it isn’t empty.”
“Only one way to find out.”
“On bullet to pierce the tank and another to light the fuel?” Fan asked.
“Yep.”
“If it is empty all we will be doing is drawing the horde to us from both sides.”
“I’m open to other suggestions,” Vance said.
Neither Fan, nor Ana had one.
Vance limped around and went to the back of Jeep. He had seen Chase Sr. Put in the perfect weapon for the job. He retrieved the long sniper rifle, much like the ones he had Ashley used when they were trapped in San Francisco. He set up on the hood of the Jeep.