Duncan shrugged. “It’s what we do, and we’re all in this together, one way or the other. Besides, anyone going to the trouble you did to make this city look unappealing and looted has to have a really good reason to want our help.”
Everyone at the table sat back and stared at the medium-framed, unassuming young fighter from the north. Before anyone could speak, he drew his pistol and held it loosely at his side.
“And before anyone says something they might not live to regret, I want to know who it was who gave the order to release two small hordes of zombies our way? The only reason I haven’t killed one of you for that is none of us died in dealing with that little welcoming party.”
The men with Tommy and Duncan adjusted their rifles, and the resulting noise was loud in the shocked silence that followed Duncan’s outburst.
Susan Bass recovered first. “Please accept my apologies for that error, Mr. Fries. If you will allow me to explain our reasons for that mistake, you might understand our precautions.”
The explanation took little over a half an hour to deliver, and at the end of the discussion, Tommy, Duncan, and their men walked out of a small exit at the base of the building, across a bridge that spanned a maze of cars turned on their sides, and back to their vehicles. The men who were waiting had a lot of questions, so the men who went into the building had to split up and tell them what they saw.
Duncan immediately got on the radio. “All commanders. Rendezvous on the east mountain in one hour. Repeat. All personnel on the rendezvous in one hour. Over.”
“What are you thinking?” Tommy asked.
“I am seriously thinking about that community in Missouri that played us for damn fools, that’s what I’m thinking.”
“Well, let’s talk it over with the commanders, get a feel for what they are telling us, and we can scout it out. No one is telling us that we have to take care of this problem,” Tommy said.
“But we will, won’t we?” Duncan asked.
“Probably.”
The group of scouts drove out to the rendezvous point and saw that the rest of the groups were waiting there for them. After a quick meeting, the commanders sat down with Tommy and Duncan and got the story straight.
“So here’s what we learned. This group of people were already in the hotel when the Upheaval hit and decided to stay there and make it their home. In a very weird twist, the people of Albuquerque actually made an effective evacuation, scattering to the hills and beyond. The people of the hotel didn’t know that until later. But they had already made their life in the building and it was a safe place. The zombies that wandered into the area were rounded up and kept in the best place they could think of which was garages. No windows, sturdy doors, not a bad idea really,” Duncan said.
Several nods around the group confirmed the assumption. Tommy continued with the story. “Up the road, along Interstate 25, things in those cities were bad and got worse. The zombie threat was always high, but a group of people banded together and started pushing back. No big deal in our world, but they were pushing back on everyone. A number of representatives from the hotel people went to see about joining up, and only one man made it back alive. He told them what had happened to the others, and that got them thinking about defense. They didn’t really have a line of defense, hoping secrecy was going to keep them safe, but they decided to try and make the city look like it had been devastated to keep anyone from being interested. They scoured the homes and businesses, stockpiled their food and supplies, and made it look like there had been a zombie battle.”
“How’d you guys figure out they had done that?” one commander wanted to know.
“Duncan figured it out. Everywhere you looked there was destruction, but they forgot one thing,” Tommy said.
“What’s that?”
“There wasn’t a drop of blood anywhere.”
The group let out a collective “Ahhh” before Tommy continued. “So, as all secrets come to light, the people in the hotel were found out by this rather nasty group, and it’s just a matter of time before they come storming in. The zombies in the garages is a defense, and they thought we were the bad guys when they turned them loose on us. They have dozens of homes with zombies in the garages, but as we proved, skilled fighters can take them out pretty quickly.”
“So what’s the play?” another commander asked.
“We go see for ourselves what kind of group this is. If they’re noisy but not a real threat, we leave them alone and tell them to leave the hotel people alone. If they’re something else, we deal with it,” Duncan said.
“We killing live people?”
“Only if we have to. I know we try to leave as many alive as we can, but sometimes, and you know this as much as I do, there are some people that just need killing,” Tommy said.
The collected nods around the group attested to the things all of these men and women had seen since the upheaval hit, and the depths to which some people slipped once the bonds of society and civilization slipped away.
“Where are we going?”
“The last parlay took place at San Felipe Casino right off the road here, but they may have moved on. We don’t know for sure,” Duncan said.
“What if we can’t find them?” someone asked.
“Tommy thought of that. We’re only going to look for a day, then we move on. If we can’t find them, we’re pushing on north and leaving this place for another day,” Duncan said.
“We’ll move out in the morning. See to your gear; check your supplies. We’re cutting it very close to get to Denver,” Tommy said, dismissing the group.
The commanders drifted off, and Tommy spoke in a low voice to Duncan.
“Think we’ll find them?” he asked.
“If they don’t find us,” Duncan replied. “Either way, we gotta move out.”
“Roger that. What’s the ammo supply?” Tommy asked.
Duncan smiled. “We are lousy with ammo. There were two Air Force bases in Albuquerque—an Air National Guard and an Army Reserve support. We also have a few other goodies as well, but I’ll look after those.”
“Oh, hell. I think I’d rather not know,” Tommy said.
“You’re right, you wouldn’t.”
In the morning, the whole convoy of vehicles headed north on I-25. They stopped at the casino only to find it abandoned. It looked like it had been occupied for some time and only recently vacated, but there was no indication that anyone had been there for at least a week or more. They travelled a bit further north and passed by the city of Santa Fe. The devastation around this area was much more extensive, and it was very real, as shown by the blood and bones all over the place, and the abandoned cars along the highway. The group had to get off the road and find a way past the devastation which meant a side trip along the southern edge of the city and into a place called Eldorado at Santa Fe.
This was a huge community full of traditional-style adobe buildings, and Tommy and Duncan got separated from the rest of the group as they made their way through the maze of streets. The streets were nothing more than dirt roads, and small trees and cacti hid the buildings until they were right on top of them.
“Jesus Christ, what a maze! What happened to the rest of the army?” Duncan asked, looking behind the truck.
“They didn’t have you as a navigator,” Tommy said irritably.
“You’re funny. I think you should… Watch it!” Duncan yelled.
Tommy slammed on the brakes, and the truck skidded a few feet before coming to a rest in the center of the road. Ahead of them, a small boy was standing in the middle of the street. When the truck stopped, he ran over to a nearby home and disappeared into a side door.
“Good God!” Tommy said. “Where the hell did he come from?”
Duncan looked around. “I don’t know, but I got a bad feeling about this.” He got on the radio, and quickly called out to the rest of the group, warning them to be alert. “We may have found what we’re looking for whether we wanted to
or not.”
Tommy nodded and got out of the truck. The street signs showed them at the junction of Mariana Road and Cuestra Road. There was a house directly across the street from where the boy had gone. To the left and right were a couple more houses, and behind them on both sides of the street were two more low-built homes. Off in the distance were the mountains on three sides, and Duncan knew from studying the map which way he wanted to go. He just had to get there.
Tommy pulled his rifle out of the truck bed, and Duncan followed suit. In a minute, there were dust clouds in the air, and the sound of many engines headed their way. Tommy used the small time they had before their visitors arrived to send out another call to the group, giving them a general description of where they were, and what might be happening. Tommy then put his rifle back and motioned for Duncan to do the same.
“Keep the heavier firepower out of sight, but keep it handy. These may not be the people we’re looking for,” Tommy said.
Duncan saw the logic in that, although he didn’t like it. He watched as the dust clouds turned themselves into trucks of various shapes moving quickly towards them. When the trucks were about a hundred yards away, they skidded to a stop and disgorged four men each, all of whom were carrying various rifles. It was particularly disconcerting when the rifles were being pointed at him. There were two trucks per road, which made for twenty-four rifles being pointed at the two men.
Tommy held his hands up around his shoulders, and Duncan did the same. Anyone not familiar with Tommy would think he was surrendering outright, but Duncan knew his friend better than that. Tommy could whip his hand down, draw his weapon, and fire a point-aimed shot in under a second.
None of the men said anything, and Duncan used that time to assess the character of their captors. The men looked slovenly and unkempt, and more than one had the unmistakable ruddy look of someone who abused alcohol on a regular basis.
“Well, this is interesting,” Duncan said.
“Just keep cool,” Tommy said. He had his eye on the sky and was looking for something specific.
Just then a lone car pulled up, swerving around the trucks that were parked on the road. It was a white Cadillac with darkly tinted windows. The vehicle was in immaculate condition, like it was wiped off every day before being put to bed in a very clean garage.
The car came to a stop in front of their truck, blocking the road in front of them. Two men got out—the driver, and the passenger from the back. The driver was nothing special; just a guy who looked capable like most of the people who survived the upheaval. The man from the back, however, did not look like he should have survived a zombie apocalypse. He was about six feet tall, and he likely would have been a muscular man had he not sheathed his frame in layers of fat. His gut preceded him by at least a foot and a half, and his arms were large hunks of flesh that couldn’t even hang flat at his sides. His legs were pushing the boundaries of the black sweat pants he wore, and the large gold chain around his neck must have been used as some sort of status symbol.
He waddled over to stand in front of Duncan and Tommy and spent a short minute looking them over. He must have hit a cautionary note in his mind because his opening question wasn’t as belligerent as it could have been given the circumstances.
“You gentlemen must be lost?” he asked. His voice was wheezy and high pitched; not at all what either man expected to hear.
“Pretty much,” Tommy said. “We were looking for a way through Santa Fe and wound up getting stuck in this area.”
The man nodded, as if that was a common occurrence. “Are you all by yourselves?”
Tommy decided not to play coy. “No, there’s about five hundred of us in the area. We just got separated as we entered this maze.” He put his hands down as he watched the man digest that piece of information.
The man nodded. “I heard there was a bunch moving through here. Where did you come from?”
“Just left Albuquerque.”
The man nodded again. “Did you see the hotel people?”
Tommy nodded slowly. “Yes, we did.”
“Did they tell you about the bad people who were going to come and get them if you didn’t help?” the man asked, this time with a small smile on his face.
Tommy nodded again. “Yesss…” Tommy was starting to suspect something about the hotel people.
“Well, they got rid of you, too,” the man said. “That’s their game. They don’t want help; they just want to be left alone. So they play helpless and get people to chase ghosts trying to be helpful.”
Tommy looked back at Duncan who was shaking his head.
“Fucking Missouri,” Duncan said.
“What’s that?” the man asked, scowling.
Duncan gave a brief account of what happened in Missouri, punctuated by a good deal of cursing. The man listened patiently then burst out laughing.
“So you have seen the other side of human nature. Very good. Well, I’m not the boogie man, and my people are just trying to survive,” he said.
“Fair enough. We’ll get out of your way after you tell me one thing,” Tommy said.
“What’s that?”
“How the hell do we get out of here?”
The man laughed again, and this time Duncan and Tommy joined him.
An hour later, the whole five hundred were moving out, travelling up 285 towards I-25.
Duncan was quiet until they reached the interstate.
“How many more people are out there who are going to just lie and lie to us? I mean that whole group had an entire city rigged to lie,” he asked.
Tommy nodded. “People survive in different ways. Some people wear deception like a coat. Can’t take it off even if they wanted to. Besides, at least we’re on the right road to Denver.”
“Think John got the rest of our army out?”
“No idea. Probably. He’s been gone long enough. Him and Charlie both.” Tommy reached down and gave Tucker a scratch on the head. Tucker looked up and yawned. The cat stretched and climbed up onto the dashboard where he stretched out again, watching the highway as it rolled by.
Duncan watched the cat and then looked out the window. He marveled at the hills and trees he saw. He always figured New Mexico was a just a place of desert and cliffs. These plains looked like the same ones he saw in a bunch of other states.
Tucker suddenly perked up and looked off to the east. Duncan looked and then rolled down the window.
“You hear that?” Duncan asked.
“I do. What do you think it is?”
“Let’s find out.” Duncan radioed the rest of the group to stay put while they scouted this new issue. They drove down 104 with Duncan sticking his head out the window. They drove around a bend, and Tommy suddenly dragged Duncan back into the truck
“Fuck! Get in here!” Tommy said. “Get down! Grab that cat!”
That last part was unnecessary since Tucker had already leapt to the floor and was under the truck seat.
They had rounded the corner and suddenly found themselves facing a huge horde of zombies. The ghouls were walking towards a large fenced in area, and as Tommy watched, several fell away from sight.
The noise started again, and the dead walked over to the cliff, and fell out of sight. The noise was like a coyote caller making a sound like an animal in distress which attracted zombies like an ice cream truck did to little kids back in the day.
Duncan pointed to a small sign by the fence. It read “Sante Fe Mining Company.” “Looks like someone had a genius idea,” Duncan said.
Tommy nodded. “I’d love to see how many they trapped, but I’d probably fall in. Let’s get out of here, and keep this as an idea to use later.”
“Right. We have to get north,” he said.
“John’s going to love this one.”
“Any idea to kill lots of zombies is a good one, no doubt. Wish we had thought of this about two years ago with that quarry on I-80,” Duncan said.
“No kidding.”
“On to Denver?”
“No point in waiting.”
Denver
“Casey, where the hell are your scouts?”
“Sir, they’re deployed, sir.”
“And have they reported any activity?”
“None so far, sir.”
“No kidding. Are their radios on at all, by any chance?”
“I’m sure they are, sir.”
“Did any of them happen to go through the southwest quadrant of the city?”
“Not sure, sir.”
“Is there anything you could tell me for certain, Casey?”
“Sir?”
“Casey, right now I’m surrounded by about three hundred zombies that I would have liked a heads up on, understand?”
“Are you serious, sir?”
“You, and whoever was supposed to scout this area, arein serious trouble if I live through this.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Talon out.”
Charlie looked at me with a cocked eyebrow. “Three hundred?”
I looked out the window. “All right, fifty or so. But there will be more in a while.”
“But you are right; a little scouting goes a long way. Any word from Tommy or Duncan?” Charlie leaned out the window and emptied a magazine, killing about twenty-five of the ghouls.
“Not yet. They should be rolling up this way any time now. Do you think we made a mistake entering the city with only the force we had?” It was my turn to lean out the window, and I racked up another twenty-four kills.
“Maybe,” Charlie said. “This little horde is the worst we’ve seen in this city, and they didn’t even chase us inside the building.”
“I think there’s more downtown; we just haven’t gotten there yet,” I said, replacing my spent mag with a full one.
“I think we might want to pull out and wait for reinforcements. We can’t take this city with just the crew we have,” Charlie said, releasing the bolt on a new magazine.
“Yeah, we’ll do that. All right. Let’s get out of here and find a safer spot to call Casey’s scouts back. What did we do with the rest of them?” I asked, heading for the stairs.
White Flag of the Dead (Book 9): The Zombie Wars (We All Fall Down) Page 12