Just a few blocks away.
Let’s get these bastards.
Chapter 30
- Attack
Attack
Thirty minutes into their rush to attack the Neighbors, they began to regret not taking a few extra minutes to prepare. The route was indirect and seemingly blocked the entire journey. After retracing their steps back out the false bottom of the box truck, the only clear road was the first. As soon as the group of six turned the first corner, they were delayed. That cross street had a city bus overturned from sidewalk to sidewalk. Overgrown grass crept up either end of the crumpled bus and there was no room to squeeze past the old brick buildings to continue.
Jesse, fire still burning, ordered the team to climb. It was not an easy time trying to ascend the flat roof to the top of the sideways vehicle. Ricky was a problem. He had been pushed too hard without rest and didn’t really understand the urgency of the trip. First, he sat on the street and refused to move. Then, he said his feet hurt. Wiggs and Lars worked together to motivate the big guy to allow himself to be pulled over the bus by Jesse and Kahn. They carefully brought the whole team up and over, dodging the broken side windows and lowering themselves carefully by the undercarriage. By the time they had gotten to the far side, the late summer sun was down and the roads were plunged into moonless night. It was almost 9 o’clock.
Ricky sat down on the road again, sobbing now that he was thirsty and tired.
Kahn and Deb nervously watched the dark alleyways between buildings while the others tried to get Ricky to move. Lars had a partially full bottle of water in a cargo pocket, so they used it to bribe Ricky and get him moving.
The next turn had them staring at a traffic jam to the crest of a hill farther than they could see under the pitch black sky. The sidewalks had disappeared and cars packed four-wide on the two lane road, blocking the thruway completely. It was just before 10 o’clock at night. They rested for a few minutes, hungry and tired.
Kahn took the map and unfolded it, looking for a legend. When he found it and measured, he told the group that the few blocks they assumed at first glance was accurate, ten blocks, but each block averaged a half mile long in this area south of downtown.
Jesse got impatient and yelled at them to get moving. He darted between the cars in the lead and the rest followed. A painful, zigzagging route between the cars slowed them further and by the time they crested the hill another hour had passed. They cut through a small park and found the flat grass waterlogged and muddy. When Kahn announced they were at the halfway point he was met with silence. It was just past midnight.
The buildings spaced out at this point and the group was able to keep pace cutting through parking lots and sometimes going around the backside of a structure when the front was blocked. They found a corner gas station that had been smashed to pieces and looted of inventory. Lars found and shared two bottles of iced tea. No food.
The squad moved on more quickly now. Only once did they see any of the dead. It was a group of about a dozen staggering generally together down a cross street. Instead of engaging, Jesse’s group hid and waited until they had passed by. Someone whispered they should have seen more creatures and Jesse shushed them. It was 2 o’clock in the morning when they moved on.
Their attack was poorly planned and sloppy. When the group finally arrived at the circled gift on the map, they realized the building was a fenced-in mechanic’s shop. The shop was shaped like a large L and had several closed garage doors. There was no light or sound, but a pile of twisted bodies had fallen and been left along the south fence. Two trucks were parked inside the closed gate.
“We’re headed over the fence on the far side,” Jesse whispered. “Follow me, I’ll go first. Then Lars, Ricky, Wiggs, Deb. Kahn in the rear. Don’t make a sound and we’ll hide behind the big blue pickup until everybody is over. Then we enter by the office and follow the L. Got it?” They all agreed, trying to hide the fear they felt. “Let’s go.”
The whole thing reminded Kahn too much of his plan to sneak into the Neighbors’ factory and steal back the supplies in his Escape. The plan that got Ash killed and Kahn almost killed. Got Kimble captured and led the Neighbors right to his home. He pushed the memories of the flames aside.
Jesse led them across the road and silently through the gravel to the fence. He nimbly scaled the fence with only a slight jangling of the metal, no louder than the wind. Lars followed and they each took a knee at either side of the pickup.
The two brothers were not as quiet. As soon as Wiggs helped Ricky to the top of the eight-foot barrier, the height made the latter freeze. Wiggs tried to quietly urge him over but the stress was too much and Ricky began to cry.
Sweat sprung to the surface of Kahn’s body despite the cool night air, and he suddenly felt exposed on the other side of a chain-link with no concealment. He knelt next to Deb and they both gripped their carbines and prepared for the worst.
No response. There were no lights or shouts from the L-shaped structure. Wiggs climbed quickly to the top of the fence and calmed his brother in hushed tones. They all watched nervously as he convinced Ricky to swing one, and then the other leg to the other side. The big guy was visibly more relaxed as he slowly made his way down. He hit the ground gently and sat on his rear in the dirt behind the truck. Wiggs flashed a smile and a thumbs up to Jesse before confidently throwing his own legs over the fence.
Gunfire exploded into the night and the squad members on the ground flinched and hugged the earth. Lars lay behind the rear wheel of the pickup and scrambled to get his rifle out from underneath his body. On the opposite end of the truck, Jesse skidded through the dirt and huddled next to Ricky. Lars fired a few rounds wildly toward the building, but was at a bad angle to engage with whoever was shooting.
Tom Wiggins’ lifeless body hit the dirt in front of his brother and his squad leader. Jesse gaped as a crimson flower bloomed in the center of Wiggs’ chest and rapidly soaked his clothing. Ricky was screaming and grabbing at his brother’s body, uncontrollably smearing the dead man’s blood all over himself.
Their attack was split, Kahn and Deb were trapped on the far side of the enclosure. The truck blocked any rounds from hitting near them, and they both watched as two dark figures darted from the building to the other side of the courtyard where several vehicles were parked. Steady fire still roared from where the office entrance was located. They were trying to flank Lars, the only one of the invaders returning fire.
“Let’s go, now!” Deb shouted, grabbing Kahn’s collar. He chased her around the fence to the north, coming to the back corner of the L. She stopped and looked before rushing to the pile of dead bodies lining the chain-link.
Kahn peered at her and moved steadily with his rifle up. This side of the building was quiet. The outside of the fence was a few yards from a dense copse of trees. He could hear more than a couple weapons firing now. Jesse, he hoped, and Lars fighting against however many of the Neighbors were left at this outpost. A noise in the trees made him stop and face that direction. Deb yelled at him to hurry, but he waited and watched.
A silhouette emerged against the dark sky and moaned. Kahn shouted, watch out! Deb turned and tried to unsling the carbine she had placed over her head as Kahn fired the first rounds. The small rifle spit the supersonic ammunition with a piercing crack after each pull of the trigger. Ten seconds later, the figure was down in the grass and Kahn was reloading.
They waited in agony for more dead figures to join the first. Sweat drenched both the fighters as they listened to the gun fight occuring on the far side of the courtyard.
Another body appeared and both opened fire. When it fell, they saw another shadow lurching toward them. Then another, and another. Deb and Kahn fired and reloaded in tandem, working together to take down the shambling biters.
Finally, with six or eight of the creatures dispatched, no more appeared from the trees. Deb threw the hot barrel of her rifle back over her shoulder and stepped back to the fence. Th
e gunfire in the courtyard hadn’t slowed, although she knew Jesse and Lars would be running low on ammunition. They both paused over the fallen bodies. They were clearly dead, dead twice, from the huge metal spikes stuck through each torso and hooked into the fence. The rotten smell made Kahn gag as he pushed through and stepped onto one of the corpses to grip the fence. They climbed together quickly and flew over the top.
“This way,” Deb gestured to the far side of the lot, where the abandoned cars sat and the two fighters ran. Kahn crept behind her as they rounded the corner behind the farthest car, a broken-down sedan, and waited for some indicator of their enemy’s position. It didn’t take long for one to pop up and fire. He was close and both of them jumped, thinking they had been spotted. When Deb peeked around the trunk, she saw a man in camouflage cargo pants and a tight t-shirt shooting a rifle through the back window of another broken vehicle. He was using the trunk as a firing position and dumping rounds into the blue truck across the way.
Deb aimed and fired six rounds wildly at the shooter before her carbine snapped open on an empty magazine. He was struck on his side and cried out, dropping the rifle. As Deb struggled to reload, Kahn stood and shot another half-dozen times until the man was still.
Return gunfire shattered the back window of the sedan from across the yard and Kahn hit the deck cursing. The original shooter from the building entry was firing across toward the flanking squad members. Hot air zipped past him as he heard the rounds moving and ricocheting around them. Deb pressed herself under the bumper and scooted to the passenger-rear wheel. Taking an awkward firing position she aimed and began to return fire.
In those moments, Lars and Jesse both fired on another vehicle farther down the line. There’s the other one, he thought as broken glass fell around him. He rolled and came to the came to the tire opposite Deb. After a deep breath, he shot forward into an exposed prone position and took aim at the shop. There was a small bay window that was miraculously still intact. In slow motion, he saw a round from Deb’s rifle hit the concrete and spit broken rock toward the Neighbor firing at them. The man stepped back with multiple cuts on his face. When he did, Kahn saw his body like a target practice dummy through the dark window. He fired, once, and the body disappeared.
“Quick, one more!” Deb yanked at Kahn’s collar, making an awful ripping sound, and dragged him to his feet. She kicked at him and ran with him into the oncoming friendly rounds, jumping over the dead Neighbor and making a beeline for the second.
He was pinned down and curled into a ball, holding his hands over his face. His rifle had taken a round and was lying useless on the ground behind him. Lars and Jesse must have seen their allies pop up over the car so the fire stopped. Deb quickly reached down and confiscated a pistol tucked into the man’s belt, pointing it at him. Kahn also covered him with the carbine.
“Up,” she ordered. The man uncovered and held his hands up defensively. “Are there any more of you?” He shook his head and slowly rose to his feet. Deb grabbed his collar and pushed him around the side of the car. As they walked slowly into the center of the courtyard, Jesse rushed. He grabbed the hot barrel of his carbine, not feeling the pain, and swung the rifle like a club. Before the man could react, he was on the ground being pummeled. Jesse sat across his chest and slammed his fists into the man’s face over and over and over until he was exhausted.
SMACK… SMACK… SMACK…
Watching Jesse decimate the soldier didn’t phase any of them. Deb, Lars, and Kahn just watched as he beat the man to submission. What bothered them was Ricky’s constant wailing just out of their sight behind the truck. As the crest of dawn began to peek over the horizon, several of the dead started to rattle the fence. We’ve got to get out of here, before we’re trapped, Kahn thought. From the nervous looks the other two were making they would probably agree.
Jesse yelled, “where the fuck is she,” a couple of times before breaking the man’s finger and forcing an answer. He pointed to the third, furthest garage door. Jesse jumped up. Blood dripped from his hands and he wiped them front and back onto his pants, leaving streaky crimson stains. Deb and Lars followed but Kahn knelt next to the broken man.
“Where are the rest of the Neighbors?” he asked. The man gasped a few times and gurgled an answer through swollen lips and broken teeth.
“Who... are... the Neighbors?”
He passed out. Kahn was reeling. Not Neighbors? Not them? Who? Who are these guys? He snapped out of it when he heard the garage door noisily roll up and Jesse scream in agony.
Kahn left the unconscious man and ran to them. Deb and Lars were holding Jesse back so Kahn moved around the front of the three and looked in shock at the last bay of the shop.
There was a hydraulic lift here, raised to its full height, previously used to work on the underside of vehicles. Now, it created a gruesome torture frame for what Kahn assumed were prisoners of these men. Three women were splayed out and chained by hands and feet to the hydraulic rack and the heavy floor drain. All three were stripped naked. Each body showed evidence of torture. Burns and bruises covered their legs and torsos. The three faces were beaten and swollen, making their features look bloated and inhuman. The one in the middle hung limp, but the two on either end were wild and thrashing against the restraints. Handcuffs connected their limbs to the rest of the structure, and as they pulled Kahn could see the metal edges digging into bloody ankles and wrists. Dark blood flowed down each of their bodies. As he watched, the leftmost figure wrenched her foot in an attempt to escape her bonds. The ankle broke with a loud snap.
Kahn turned and covered his mouth, pinching his eyes closed and trying to forget the sight.
“Oh god,” Jesse howled. “Is one of them Mel? Oh god, oh god.” He sat in a blubbering heap in the dirt and Deb moved forward with her confiscated pistol. Lars dropped away, leaving the other three with the captured women.
POP!
POP!
The shots rang in Kahn’s ears in the enclosed building. The two dead women dropped against their chains as Deb inspected the limp figure in the middle. She felt the damaged woman’s neck with two fingers before lifting her chin into the air.
“Jesse,” Deb said, almost in a whisper. “It’s Mel.”
The figure moved with a groan, making the chains clatter against themselves like a chime. Kahn turned to watch. The woman twitched, still hanging by the handcuffs, and Deb took a step back. They all watched as Mel’s eyelids fluttered, and as her muscles pulled against the bonds.
She opened her eyes and looked directly at her husband, snapping her jaws and exhaling a long, hungry growl.
Hal Kahn thought of his own wife and child as he dragged Jesse away from the living corpse of his spouse. Jesse screamed and sobbed as Kahn accepted help from Lars to get him into the passenger seat of the damaged blue truck. Ricky was already in the cramped backseat, covered in the drying blood of his brother and crying softly. As Kahn closed the door, he heard Deb’s merciful act to save Mel from a second life as a monster. The image of the three bound women burned in his mind.
POP!
PART 3
Chapter 31
- Collusion
Collusion
Dimitri Luca cursed and put a bullet in the head of George ‘G’ Rice, one of the original mercenaries that had been hired and on the job even before the undead ate their way across the nation. That job didn’t matter anymore, and now Rice was dead. Only survival mattered, and Luca’s best chance for that was working with the dominant force in the area. Ideally, a morally ambiguous force. The Neighbors had been perfect.
But this? This was too close. This wasn’t how Luca operated. In Little Rock he remained in the shadows, using the group that called themselves “The Rock” until they no longer served his purpose. Tulsa was the same story, different group. Now, San Antonio and the Neighbors brought some previous conflict into his backyard. He had returned the favors given and more, and met death in return.
“Who did this to you, G?�
�� he asked the dead body. From the state of his corpse, G had been beaten to death in the middle of the courtyard. Luca peered over the fence at the helicopter crew checking the aerial vehicle in the adjacent field. A detachment of guards stood around them, waiting for trouble to stumble into view. The pair of soldiers that accompanied the colonel into the courtyard were moving the other bodies.
King. Shot and left to reanimate in the pathetic lot of broken cars. Luca found him growling through the fence and shot him in the head.
Joe. The cook who barely knew how to shoot a gun before meeting Luca. He had run a restaurant in Tulsa and begged for his life. He was killed while defending the building. Thankfully, he was hit in the forehead and the round splattered most of his brains onto the out-of-date calendar covering the far wall.
And the girls. His gift from the Neighbors. All dead. All shot in the head.
Why?
The effort to capture young women was the return gesture to prove the Neighbors controlled this city. The girls kept Luca’s men entertained. Dead or not, nobody seemed to care which, they were useful for satisfying the carnal urges of his men. Not dead like this, though. Whoever did this ruined the balance he had maintained so carefully since the beginning. And he stupidly returned the favor, even now just dropping off a load of docile lambs ready for slaughter.
“Why!” he cried out in rage, firing his pistol into George’s body. It jerked and danced as each bullet punched through the corpse until the pistol slide caught. Luca absentmindedly replaced the empty magazine with a fresh one and put the pistol back in its holster.
His soldiers knew better than to look at the colonel when he was angry. And G was one of the original soldiers from New York, from the OG OP. The pair inside the fence quietly carried Joe’s body out the gate and to the growing burn pile near the helicopter. They would conveniently disappear after this task, in case Luca decided shooting dead bodies was no longer satisfying his malice.
Nation Undead (Book 2): Collusion Page 22