Outbreak (Book 1): Emerald City

by Jay K. Anthony

  “This Officer Park, he a smoker?” Luke asked.

  Matt grinned wide. “Why yes. Yes, he was,” he said.

  Best news I have heard all day, Luke thought and took off his backpack to set it on the floor. He held his shotgun with both hands. “Let’s see what there is to see,” he said and led the way down a short flight of concrete stairs. Matt followed him down into the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs was another door, still intact, with a pane of reinforced safety glass. In the bad light it was impossible to see through the little window to what was on the other side. “Use your lighter,” Matt said, so Luke dug into his pocket and pulled out his lighter. He held it up to the glass and rolled the flint wheel. It caught and the flame cast enough light to see the half eaten face of a zombie behind the glass.

  “Jesus Christ!” Luke said and dropped the lighter. The zombie went ballistic and they could hear it start slamming its face against the glass.

  “Son of a bitch,” Matt laughed. “That’s Officer Park!”

  TASHA

  Tasha stood outside the Communications tent and looked up at Tanner sitting on top of the Humvee. It was a big jeep looking vehicle painted a desert tan, with four armored doors, large black tires, and a rotating gun turret mounted on the top. Tasha walked over and saw Tanner had two different guns set up in the turret. “Two guns?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” he replied. “A .50 caliber machine gun, pretty much standard on the Humvees, and this, my favorite.” He lifted a smaller machine gun and held it in front of him. “The M249 SAW machine gun,” he said. “Faster fire rate and easier to control. Plus it uses the same ammunition as our M4s.” Tasha was not sure what everything he had said really meant, but she did notice Tanner sounded nervous, which in turn made her nervous. If these guys, with all of their guns and fortifications are scared, then whatever is coming must be really bad. Why the hell did I come up here again? she asked herself and regretted ever coming to the mountaintop. At least the weather had cleared. The rain had stopped and the wind had died down as fast as it had come on. Tasha thought of an old joke in the Pacific Northwest. If you don’t like the weather, give it a minute.

  She looked at the sky and saw more black clouds forming out on the distant horizon. They made her uncomfortable and Tasha was afraid they were just experiencing the calm before the storm. She hoped that talking with Tanner might help calm her nerves. “How you holding up?” she asked.

  Tanner did not look down at her, but instead stood behind the big gun and scanned the perimeter. “The vegetables will come up the road in waves,” Tanner said, not answering her question. “The ones that were following the helicopter will come first. They come sprinting, like demons that never get tired. Then, once the fighting starts, the noise we make with our machine guns will bring in another wave.”

  Tasha felt a little sick. “How long will they keep coming?” she asked.

  “Well, that depends,” Tanner said. “Until there’s no more vegetables within hearing distance, we get evacuated from the mountaintop, or we are overran and eaten.” Tasha could not see Tanner’s face very well, but she did not think he was making a joke. “What sucks,” he continued. “Is that the only way to really stop them is to cut them down. I’ve seen it. Those damn things will attack anything and it doesn’t matter if the ones in front get blown to shit. It’s like the vegetables have no instinct left for self-preservation. All they want to do is eat. I swear they don’t feel pain. I think the only thing they have left is hunger.”

  “It must be horrible,” Tasha said. “Being reduced to that, you know?”

  Tanner nodded. “I think so too,” he replied.

  “Two minutes,” Williams's voice suddenly said over their radios. “Get your masks on.”

  “Shit,” Tanner said and pulled his gas mask out of the pouch which hung on his hip.

  “Why do we need these?” Tasha asked, mirroring the same action as Tanner.

  Tanner took off his helmet and put the mask over his head. “The virus spreads through bodily fluids, including saliva,” he said. “If one of the vegetables bites you, gets blood in your eyes or mouth, hell, if it even coughs on you, you can become infected. We got these gas masks to protect us from chemical warfare, but now we just use the masks to keep the blood and stuff off of our faces.” Tanner pulled the mask down over his face, tightened the straps in the back, and put his helmet back on.

  “How do I look?” he asked, sounding muffled.

  Suddenly the machine gun in the sandbag bunker began to fire. Tasha jumped as the shots were surprisingly loud and she dropped her mask and helmet in the mud. “Oh, God!” she cried and scrambled to pick them up. The mask had landed on the bottom and was full of grime and dirt. She had no time to clean it out, so she put on the helmet and tossed the mask into the back seat of the Humvee. The machine gun in the bunker kept firing off long bursts and Tasha looked over and saw the creepers as they charged hard up the road. There were a lot more creepers than Tasha had expected, but they ran blind, tripping and stumbling over the concertina wire and roadblocks set up in the road. Tasha guessed it was Ortiz in the bunker who was ripping off long bursts with the M60 machine gun. As many as she was cutting down, there were still more which came running out of the darkness.

  Suddenly, Tanner fired his SAW machine gun at a cluster of creepers which had gotten caught up in the wire. Tasha ducked at the sound and watched as the bullets ripped the monsters to shreds and they collapsed over each other. Unfortunately, another mob of creepers was right behind the first and they rushed past the obstacle. Tasha turned back to Tanner to yell an alarm when she saw him line up and pull the trigger again. “Yeah!” he yelled. “Fire it up!” The spent shell casings were pelting Tasha where she stood next to the Humvee, so she sloshed through the mud and went toward the Communications tent. Suddenly Cleveland stormed out of the tent and pushed past her. He was dressed for combat with his mask on and his rifle up.

  “Heads up,” he said and pointed his gun past Tasha and Tanner. “Tanner!” he shouted. “Watch your back!”

  Tasha turned to look. Two creepers had come up from behind the bunkers and were sprinting hell bent straight toward Tanner and the Humvee. They were filthy and disgusting, covered in blood and wore rags for clothes. Cleveland opened fire at them. “Tanner!” he screamed. Cleveland was firing full automatic, the stream of bullets flew from the end of his rifle with a gout of flame. Tasha thought he was too slow because she saw his bullets were hitting the mud behind the creepers as they ran. At the last second, Tanner looked behind him and saw the danger.

  “Son of a bitch,” he shouted and quickly lifted the SAW out of the turret and turned around on top of the Humvee with the machine gun on his hip. He took a moment to aim before he opened fire at the first of the creepers charging at him. Tasha watched wide-eyed as the burst of bullets caught the creeper in the chest and knocked it backward, off of its feet, and sprawling into the mud. Tanner pivoted to his right to fire on the second attacker, but was too late. The creeper leapt like an Olympic long jumper and landed hard on the back of the Humvee. “Look out!” Tasha screamed as the monster scrambled after Tanner. Tanner held the SAW between himself and the creeper, but the weapon was too long to aim and fight the creeper off at the same time. The monster hissed at Tanner, its rotten teeth barred.

  “Get this ugly damn zombie off me!” Tanner shouted. Cleveland shot a short burst of bullets which caught the creeper in the side, but it held fast onto Tanner’s rifle and kept pulling itself up, trying to attack Tanner’s face.

  “I need to reload!” Cleveland yelled at Tasha. “Shoot it!” he screamed as he ejected the magazine from his rifle. Tasha raised her rifle and aimed at the creeper. It was scrambling all over, fighting with Tanner to get past the machine gun between them. At first she aimed for the creeper’s head, but she worried she would hit Tanner, so she adjusted her aim to try to hit it in the shoulder. She squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened. What the hell? she thought. She aimed a
gain, pulled the trigger, and again nothing happened.

  “There is something wrong with my gun!” she yelled to Cleveland.

  “What?” Cleveland asked.

  “My gun,” she said. “It won’t shoot!”

  She looked up and saw Tanner still holding the rifle between him and the creeper. He was trying to slide backward and down into the Humvee through the hole for the turret, but the creeper had both of its hands on him and was sliding down after him. “Goddammit!” Tanner screamed. “Do something! He’s going to eat me!”

  “Tasha!” Cleveland shouted. “Two more incoming!”

  She looked and saw two more creepers were charging at him and Tasha. “I’ve got these two,” Cleveland said as he took a knee and started firing at them. “Help Tanner!”

  Tasha wanted to help Tanner, but she did not know what to do. She could not get her damn gun to work. She looked at Tanner. The thing was on top of him, gnashing its teeth and snarling. It kept getting its hands on his mask, so Tanner kept having to shake them off. He was pinned and could not do anything but curse at the monster.

  Tasha had to do something and not knowing what else to do, she dropped the worthless rifle in the mud, walked over to the Humvee, took out her pistol and put the gun to the creeper’s head. “Hold on,” she said to Tanner. She felt surprisingly calm. Cleveland had given her a full load of bullets for her six-shooter when he issued her gear. He had looked at her like she was crazy for still wanting to carry it, but Tasha had insisted. It had saved her life before and she was damn glad she had it now. She pulled the trigger and the far side of the creeper’s head blew away.

  “Nice shot,” Tanner said and pushed the body off of him. He was covered in blood and bits of brain. “Goddamned disgusting!”

  Tasha stepped back from the Humvee and realized the fighting had stopped. She looked over at Cleveland as he kicked at the two creepers he had gunned down. “These two ain’t getting back up,” he said.

  Tasha looked over at the sandbag bunker and saw Ortiz and Williams jogging toward them. Williams took off his mask and helmet. “Everyone all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Tanner replied, taking off his own mask. “I’m okay.”

  “All good here,” Cleveland said.

  “Tasha?” Williams asked. “Where is your mask? Whatever. You okay?” Tasha nodded. “Excellent,” Williams said. “Ortiz, grab a couple cans of ammo and head back to the bunker. Keep an eye on the road and make sure that we don’t have any more vegetables coming up. If you see any, you know what to do. Cleveland, get on the radio. We just made one hell of a racket. Get hold of Command. That Goddamned helicopter better be here soon because I’m betting we just called half the vegetables left in the city.”

  “You got it, Sergeant,” Cleveland said and ran off for the tent.

  Williams looked at Tasha again. “So seriously, how you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m okay,” she replied and picked up her rifle out of the mud. “I can’t get this thing to work though.”

  “Well, dropping it in the mud won’t help anything,” Williams said, looking at the rifle. “You have the safety on,” he said. Tasha felt like an idiot. Checking the safety was one of the first things that Cleveland had shown her.

  “Sorry,” she said. “That’s my fault. I didn’t know--“

  “Don’t sweat it. It’s hard to think straight in combat,” Williams said. “Just don’t make the same mistake twice. Got it?”

  “Yes, Sergeant,” she said.

  “Good. And keep it out of the mud.”

  “Sergeant Williams!” Cleveland called from the door flap of the radio tent. “I’ve got news.”

  “If it’s bad news, keep it to yourself.”

  “Sergeant? Uh ...”

  “Jesus, Private, I was joking,” Williams said. “What is it?”

  “We got a serious problem!”

  “I figured that much,” Williams said. “What is it?”

  “The helicopter never made it back to Command,” Cleveland said. “It sounds like they went down over the city.”

  “Bullshit,” Williams said. “You sure?”

  “That’s what they told me.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Tanner said.

  “Yeah,” Williams agreed. “There goes our evac.”

  “What does that mean?” Tasha asked.

  “It means we just called up half the vegetables in the city and we don’t have a ride out of here,” Williams said.

  “There’s more, Sergeant,” Cleveland said.

  “Seriously?” Williams asked. “What?”

  “Command finally seems to get it that Tasha is B negative. They want her back there pronto.”

  Williams shook his head and stomped around in a circle for a second. He stopped and glared at Cleveland. “And how do they expect us to do that?”

  Cleveland swallowed hard and shrugged. “They didn’t specify, Sergeant.”

  Just then Ortiz’s voice came over their radios. “Sergeant,” she said. “Looks like about a million vegetables are making their way through the city. They are heading straight for us. Is the chopper on the way back yet? Over.”

  “Not exactly,” Williams said into his handset. “Chopper went down in the city. Over.”

  “Oh, shit,” Ortiz replied. “Are they sending another one?”

  Williams looked at Cleveland who only shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it,” Williams replied.

  “We’re screwed,” Ortiz said through the radio. “Time to hole up in the garage again? Over.”

  “Not an option,” Williams said into his radio. “Ortiz. Get over here. Double time. Over.”

  A minute later Ortiz came running through the mud. “What’s the plan?” she asked.

  Everyone looked at Williams who held his helmet under one arm. He rubbed his short cropped hair. “Okay,” he said. “This is what we’re going to do. Command, in their infinite wisdom, wants us to get Tasha to their location on our own. Aside from that, even if we disobeyed orders, we don’t know how long it would take them to get us an evac and, quite frankly, I’m not dying in that damn garage. So, let's haul ass and get the Humvee rolling. Ortiz, I need you to grab the medical kit. Cleveland, you get us enough water for two days on the road. I’ll get the radio. Tanner, you’re on ammo and don’t forget the sniper rifle. Tasha get us a couple days worth of MREs. Everything goes in the Humvee. Okay? Good. Move people!”

  LUKE

  Luke sat with Matt on the last step at the bottom of the concrete stairs and smoked a cigarette. They watched as at least half a dozen zombies crushed their mutilated faces up against the window in the door to Officer Park’s basement apartment. “I’m pretty sure I recognize every one of those guys in there,” Matt said. “We all worked different jobs together. They must have come here to hole up thinking they would outlast the apocalypse.”

  Just takes one being infected, Luke thought. Locked in together like that, it would have probably been a matter of hours. He figured they must have all gotten sick at the same time and woke up one morning as zombies. “How does it make you feel that your parole officer didn’t call and invite you to the party?” Luke asked. “That he left you out here to die.”

  Matt paused for a second. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s kind of messed up, isn’t it.” He spit on the floor. “Guess it worked out in my favor though.”

  Luke nodded. “They stink,” he said. There was a small gap under the door and he could smell the zombies rotting flesh.

  “Yeah, they do. Whole city’s starting to smell like that,” Matt said.

  "All the more reason to get the hell out of town,” Luke said. “So, how are we going to get them out so we can get in?"

  “Hell if I know,” Matt said. “That door opens inward.”

  Luke held up his shotgun. “We could just start shooting,” he suggested.

  “I don’t know,” Matt said. “That’s a reinforced door.” He rubbed his temples like he was thinking hard and it hurt his h
ead. “Plus it would make an awful lot of noise. Maybe we could rig a trap so when they came up the stairs, they set off an explosive and blow themselves to shit.”

  “Sounds like something Ted would like,” Luke said.

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing,” Luke continued. “There might be a few problems with that plan. That doesn’t help us get the door open, we don’t have any explosives, and the noise would just bring more zombies.”

  “Shit. That’s true.” They paused in thought for a minute and watched the zombies through the glass. The zombies smeared blood and filth as they pawed and slapped the glass trying to get at the two of them. It gave Luke a sick feeling in his stomach. “Nasty,” he said.

  “Yes they are.”

  “How long before they get bored and walk away from the door?” Luke asked.

  Matt looked over at Luke. “Do I look like some kind of zombie scientist?” he asked. “How the hell would I know. Probably forever.”

  Luke shook his head. Guy’s temper can turn on a dime, he thought. They needed to do something to get the keys the zombified Officer Park most likely had in his pocket, but Luke was at a loss. “Is there a back door?” he asked.

  “No,” Matt said and paused, thinking. “Not even basement windows. I wish we had a couple grenades or something.”

  Luke thought about pointing out that grenades would make more noise than the shotgun, but Matt’s mood was already sour, so Luke didn’t want to push it. He lit a new cigarette, sucked in a breath and then exhaled. He watched the plumb of smoke in the air and had an idea. “How about we smoke them out?” he suggested.

  “What? Like the wild west? They look like Indians in there to you?”

  “Hey, I’m just thinking out loud,” Luke said.

  “Shit,” Matt said. “Ok. Talk to me. What are you thinking?”

  Luke decided that was about as much of an apology as Matt gave. “I don’t know. Light a fire, make a smoke screen.”