Battlefield Z Series 2 (Book 1): Flyover Zombie

by Chris Lowry

“I didn’t make it.”

  “You would have added a beep though, right? So, people would know that it worked.”

  “Probably.”

  “Alright. What’s next?”

  “We wait for an answer.”

  “How long?”

  “I don’t know. How long will it take for them to make a decision?”

  Javi didn’t know, and Sharp wasn’t around to ask.

  Whoever got the message would have to go up the chain and that might take some time.

  He moved to the front of the enclosure and started past the growling zombies that blocked most of the view and wished Sharp was here so they could talk it out.

  18

  She watched them come and go, the people of this town, passing her by with a wave and a smile.

  There were more of them than she had suspected.

  The ones at the town hall meeting, if that’s what it could be called were less than half, if the numbers she counted in her head as they passed were true.

  Every now and then she would see a familiar face, a hint of recognition that was rewarded with a smile or a nod. They must have seen her in the auditorium, and her subconscious mind must have made note of them.

  It was like tiny flashes of déjà vu registering across her mind, lightening in a summer storm.

  She wondered how they came to be here and knew there were a thousand stories that led to this moment, a thousand tragedies that forced them all together behind the steel walls.

  She saw it time and again in NYC, and heard about it from her father.

  He built the walls, he created the safe zones, and then once the doors were shut no one else was let in.

  It was safer that way, no chance of bringing in someone hiding the Z plague.

  She wondered if it was like that here at some point. Did they turn people away?

  And she wondered how many other places like this were out here, trapped in the wastelands, struggling to survive.

  “I would offer a penny for your thoughts,” the white-haired man she had first seen in the hospital wing moved across the brown grass and sat next to her.

  “But I’m afraid hard currency no longer has any value here.”

  She gave him a light smile.

  “Your money is no good here.”

  “Literally,” he studied her for a moment and she held his gaze.

  “What’s your name?”

  “I didn’t introduce myself in the hospital wing?”

  “One of my co-passengers was trying to eat my face at the time.”

  “Silas.”

  “Hi Silas, I’m Pam.”

  She held out her hand and he took it in his long fingers with a strong firm grip. His skin was soft, no calluses.

  “My thoughts were about this place,” she told him. “How you got here, what’s the story.”

  She said it like she didn’t expect and answer, and if she did, he wasn’t going to give her one.

  “I don’t dwell on history. I prefer to focus on the present, with an eye to the future.”

  She indicated the street with the tip of her chin.

  “What do you see in the future here?”

  He sighed and clasped his hands in front of him like he was about to pray and watched as a couple strolled by shoulder to shoulder.

  “When you leave, we die.”

  That surprised her.

  “How?”

  “Not immediately. But the soldiers are here to get you. Just you. A rescue mission, if I’m correct. Not a refugee collection mission. And once you’re gone, we starve. Or we die out, a few at a time. Either way, it’s the future.”

  She wanted to argue with him, but he was right. The soldiers were here just for her. No one else was going back from this rescue.

  She thought she could convince her father to mount a refugee mission to retrieve the members of this community.

  But it would take time, and he might argue against it. If he took a stand against the effort, she might as well talk to the wall he built.

  How many would die while they waited?

  “Can you change that future,” she asked.

  Silas looked up from his hands.

  “I think we’re trying.”

  “Then you can prevent it.”

  “No, we can just delay it.”

  There was a sadness in his voice, but she couldn’t narrow it down any further to specifics.

  She felt like he was holding something back, holding on to something that he was afraid to share.

  Before she could ask him more, he stood up and dusted off the bottom of his pants.

  “We could make a plan,” she said, but he held up a hand to stop her.

  “Plans don’t always work out the way you want them to,” he held out his hand to shake hers again.

  “It was nice to meet you Pam. We’ll miss you when you’re gone.”

  She watched him walk away and almost called out to stop him, to ask him more questions, but she didn’t.

  She bit her lip and thought. He was wrong about plans. She just needed the right one.

  19

  Combine and Sharp ran around the corner back toward the fenced in enclosure.

  Even from the distance, Javi could see Combine laughing.

  They pulled out their knives and came up behind the Z at the fence, working through them in a quick, efficient fashion.

  Bear and Javi pulled their knives and joined them, and the squad made fast work of the remaining Z.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You should have seen Cap,” said Combine. He wiped the gore off his blade onto the crusty shirt of one of the fallen zombies, not that it did much good.

  “We needed the herd to keep on moving, but we couldn’t figure out how. Then he saw a riding lawn mower in a garage. He just started it up, killed a Z for its belt, and tied the steering wheel so it would go in a straight line. Sent it off down the road like a motorized pied piper pulling the zombies right along with it.”

  Javi nodded his head in appreciation.

  “Good thinking, Cap.”

  Sharp glanced inside the black box.

  “Sit rep?”

  “We sent the message, now we’re waiting for the answer.”

  “It’s not in real time?”

  “Can’t,” said Chip. “Not anymore. We don’t have satellites to bounce the signal off of, or if we do, it would take too much time for me to find it and adjust the configuration. I moderated this into a radio signal, so it’s going to reach them bouncing off other towers and receivers.”

  “Will it work?”

  The older man shrugged.

  “If they’re listening.”

  Sharp knew they were listening. Even though he hadn’t seen the communications center first hand, there were rumors enough about it.

  Monitored 24/7/365 to stay in contact with the East Coast and other survivors.

  “What are we doing Cap?”

  “Waiting,” he answered. “How will we know when they respond?”

  “It doesn’t ping,” Javi explained.

  “No ping?”

  “No ding, no ping, no bell,” said Chip.

  “What about a whistle?”

  “None of that either.”

  “How can you guys joke at a time like this?” Einstein shouted.

  “Keep quiet,” Sharp ordered. “You’ll bring them back around.”

  Einstein hunkered down against the fence and pouted.

  “We’re stuck out here waiting to hear from who knows what and you guys are making jokes.”

  “Relax man,” said Bear. “Javi, get your guy.”

  “He’s not my guy. You,” he pointed at Jess. “Take care of him.”

  Jess sighed and pulled a machete from the belt at her waist. She stood up and lunged at Einstein.

  He made a sound that was a cross between a cry and a whine as he ducked down, but she stopped before she got too close.

  “You said take care of him,” she joked with th
em.

  Sharp let them have a quiet laugh, and then felt bad it was at the expense of the other man.

  “Bear, Combine,” he pointed them to police the perimeter. “Eyes out.”

  Then they waited.

  20

  Del stared at the board of lights and waited.

  He’d done it. He’d asked her out for coffee and she said yes.

  Now he just needed his shift to end and they could go. He was practicing being charming in his head when a hand fell on his shoulder.

  He almost didn’t jump.

  “Startled you?” the General stood behind him and smiled.

  Del gave a grin in return.

  “I was concentrating on the board,” he said. “Lost in my own little world.”

  The General studied the display with calculating eyes.

  He knew the basics of how it worked, what they monitored, but this wasn’t his domain.

  Normally.

  One of the red lights blinked green.

  “What’s that?”

  He drew Del’s attention to the monitor.

  The Tech’s fingers worked the keyboard and pulled up the signal.

  “Radio contact,” he said. “It’s the extraction team.”

  “They’re alive?”

  “Yes Sir,” said Del.

  He reviewed protocol in his head, trying to decide who to contact next.

  The first would be the Chairman, of course.

  He would want to know the soldiers sent after his daughter were still alive and on mission.

  The next message would be to Army command, but the head of that department was standing right behind him.

  “Sir,” Del explained. “SOP is send a message to you and the Chairman to inform you of the contact.”

  “We can deviate from that,” the General patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll save you a message.”

  “What about the Chairman?”

  The General put his hand on his chin and stroked the lines next to his mouth.

  “Set an extraction for the backup LZ,” he instructed the Tech. “I’ll inform the Chairman myself.”

  Del keyed the response in and sent the signal.

  He didn’t need to wait for an affirmation, those codes should have been keyed in the military’s pre-communication briefing.

  He glanced over his shoulder to the woman who watched him from several seats down, and gave her a victory smile.

  The General was smiling too.

  He planned to scramble the transport to pick up the Chairman’s daughter and his team, then share the information with Ballantine so he could get the credit and accolades for it.

  The man had embarrassed him before, but he now he had the chance to earn some favor back.

  And in this new world, favors meant everything.

  He slapped Del on the back again.

  “Keep up the good work.”

  Del watched the General take his leave and caught her smiling at him again.

  Did her grin hold just a little more promise than before she saw the highest-ranking member of the surviving military congratulate him?

  He hoped so.

  Del stared at the red lights on the communications array and thought a million thoughts about how the night might go.

  21

  “It’s getting dark,” Javi glanced at the sky. “How long do we wait?

  “There’s something coming in,” Chip went to the box and scanned the tiny screen that showed the message.

  “Backup LZ. 2200.”

  “They got it,” crowed Bear.

  “What’s LZ?” Einstein pushed himself off the fence.

  “Landing Zone at 11:00,” Javi explained. “We’re meeting them for a pick up.”

  “Good news?” Jess asked.

  “Good news,” Sharp confirmed.

  He glanced at the sky and studied the descending twilight. They could make it back before it was full dark, and still reach the LZ in time.

  “We gonna make it?” Javi checked in.

  Sharp nodded and made a circling motion with his finger.

  “We’re going to move back fast and tight for the compound. Stay on your escort,” he instructed the civilians.

  “Keep them locked in and moving.”

  Combine opened the gate and led the squad through while Sharp brought up the rear and closed it behind them.

  He was sure they would never come back once they made the plane, but it might come in handy for someone else, or in case Jacob needed to use it.

  They ran in a tight group back toward the compound.

  Combine rounded a corner and smashed headfirst into a row of Zombies crowded across the darkening street.

  He didn’t panic, and didn’t scream, but squeezed off three rounds into the heads of two Z that were crawling up his legs.

  The shots turned the rest of the Z.

  Javi raced to Combine and hauled him to his feet, shooting short bursts into the lumbering dead.

  Sharp grabbed Einstein and herded the rest of the civilians away from the threat, searching for another route.

  “Get us back!”

  Einstein was hyperventilating and the Captain screaming in his face didn’t help.

  “You said you were the map, get us back! Now!”

  A zombie lurched out of the growing darkness grasping for their shoulders. Sharp twisted around and sent a bullet through its gaping mouth.

  Einstein screamed. His eyes flitted around like a trapped animal and he bolted.

  Sharp made a grab for him and missed.

  “Bear!”

  Bear lunged after him, the big man moving fast on his feet.

  But he wasn’t scared out of his wits, his brain dumping adrenaline into his system.

  Einstein sprinted up the street back toward the enclosure, anywhere that was away from where the zombies were.

  But it was too late.

  They were surrounded.

  He saw the shadowy forms in the growing darkness and tried to stop, but his feet slid out from under him.

  Einstein bowled over two zombies who bit into his arm and shoulder.

  Sharp raised his rifle to try and get off a shot, at least to put the man out of misery, but a Z head moved in the way and blocked his sight.

  “Damn it!” he screamed.

  His squad rallied around him.

  “This way!” Chip screamed and pointed.

  At least he was smart enough to stay in the middle of the armed men.

  Maybe smart wasn’t the right word, Sharp thought as he used single shot to clear a path.

  Just more in control.

  They moved in a tight formation up the street, each soldier covering a quadrant and shooting a path through the zombies.

  The group reached the road to the gate and it was clear.

  The soldiers pulled a line behind the civilians and sent them running for the gate.

  The squad backed up in step, keeping up steady and controlled fire bursts to beat back the growing wave of growling Z.

  They made it through the gates and watched in exhausted relief as it closed behind them.

  “Get four men on the wall,” Sharp ordered Javi. “Find us a distraction to draw them off so we have a clear path to the plane.”

  “Yes sir,” Javi snapped and grabbed two of the newbies they had left behind to defend the compound.

  “Bear, with me,” Sharp grunted and went to find Pam as the big man fell in step behind him.

  22

  He found her with Jacob on the porch in front of the auditorium.

  “Did you get through?” she asked.