The communications officer coordinating the activity watched to make sure all the Zombies had run around the building. Satisfied the path to the ladder was clear he radioed Forrest to tell him that he was clear to proceed. He added that the team should try to get to the helicopter quickly since more of the infected were running towards the area thanks to the noise from the flash bang. The team of eight fighting men and one pilot sprinted towards the garage. Two of the men immediately putting their backs to the building to provide cover while the others climbed up the ladder. Krantz nodded his head silently in mute approval of the pilot being the first one on the ladder. If he didn’t make it the whole operation was pointless. Pilots were becoming a valuable asset that needed to be protected at all costs. There was no excuse for any of them to die on the ground.
A Zombie noticed the last man going up. It started screeching and throwing itself against the ladder. A couple of others joined it when the helicopter rotors started to turn. The chopper hovered for about thirty seconds above the garage before rotating due north and flying away. The crazed crowd of infected were throwing themselves all over the place trying to somehow levitate up to the contraption they intuited must have regular humans aboard it. When the helicopter flew north the Zombies followed along behind it in a howling mass. The helicopter flew away leading a conga line of the infected like some kind of airborne pied piper.
“That was pretty wild.” Tom said. Krantz nodded his head in agreement. Watching the engagement on the video monitors had definitely been a different experience. It was ridiculous how a little bit of technology could help them get around the infected. It went to show how badly everyone had screwed up the opportunities in the beginning to stop the spread of the virus. Entire cities were covered with CCTV systems like this one, but no one had used them to seize the advantage over the braindead diseased cannibals. The Zombies couldn’t figure out how to operate a doorknob, yet they’d decimated a society armed with smart phones and machine guns. It was unbelievable how bad the world had screwed the pooch on containing the virus.
“You ready to give me a download?” Krantz asked.
“Yes sir. You want to do it here or grab a conference room?” Tom asked. He had his hands poised to pick up his laptop.
They went to a nearby conference room after raiding the break area for coffee. Krantz bemused by the normalcy of the base. It must have something to do with the way the military mind worked. It probably hadn’t even occurred to Jenkins that it was weird that they still had a coffee break area in the middle of an apocalypse. They were in the middle of a modern civil war while infected cannibals ran around in herds all over the country. Tom had still been able to pick from three different kinds of sweeteners for his coffee.
In the conference room Tom began going through all the action reports from the last two days that Krantz hadn’t been briefed on yet. The idea was to give Krantz a different perspective than the official meeting he was going to have with the rest of the team in about an hour. Tom had basically been snooping on every conversation and picking out the information he thought may be useful to Krantz. Having a couple of extra data points also made sure he wasn’t missing anything important in the main briefings.
One of the tidbits Tom brought up was that one of the convoys towing tanks had been stopped on the interstate by a herd. Krantz zeroed in on that incident. He was trying to understand if the herd was really an accident or if the enemy was manipulating the herds to ambush the convoys. It wouldn’t be the easiest trick in the book to get a herd to slam into a convoy, but it wouldn’t be impossible either. He looked over the map in front of him at the area the report had come from. It was right by a red circle indicating an area that intelligence had designated as the possible location of an enemy base. The base could be anything from a resupply post to a full-on base. There was no way to tell without more intelligence. Krantz found it very interesting the convoy had been hit when they’d been right on the edge of that red circle though.
Tom continued to relay different communications for the next few minutes before letting Krantz know that was all he had.
“That’s just what I was looking for. Let’s grab another cup of coffee and head for the war room.” Krantz directed.
The war room was a large conference room with multiple monitors mounted on the wall and a larger than normal conference table. The video displays were all currently dark. The focus points of the room were the maps on the walls where troop movement was being drawn with markers. There were five large maps on the wall showing sections of North Carolina and Virginia across them. The maps had plexiglass over them so the troop movements could be erased and updated as new information came in.
Krantz walked to each map studying where the bulk of his forces were. The majority were still showing in the southern half of North Carolina as of the last time they’d reported in. Those reports weren’t highly reliable since over half of their patrols had no way of actually reporting in. They would report in when they met up with their platoon leaders who were being provided with ways to communicate back to base. Due to the communication issues most of the troops shown on the map were probably preparing to assault settlement camps that were no longer there. The news that the settlement troops had pulled out was something they needed to relay out to the troops as quickly as possible. The men out in the field would also appreciate being informed that the north was very possibly preparing to bomb the hell out of them.
“We’ve started getting reports of incoming sir.” Jenkins walked in the room for the meeting. He’d been outside talking with one of the communications officers. The man responsible for the map showing the coastal sections of North Carolina started putting red marks on the boards to indicate where they’d received reports of their forces being attacked. There was a lot of red shading on the map after just a few minutes.
“Is it just on the coastal side?” Krantz asked.
“For now, sir. Those are all the reports we’ve gotten so far.” Jenkins said. They both watched as the man in charge of the board checked his notes against the board. Satisfied that he’d written down everything he had so far, he left to go gather more intel to put up on the board.
“Any word from Forrest yet?” Krantz asked.
“Just that he’s still in route sir. He reported there was a lot of infected activity on the ground but that’s to be expected with all the noise from the fighting.” Krantz nodded thoughtfully at Jenkins response.
Once Forrest arrived the men should start forming up into battalions near the Virginia border. They’d keep the battalions separated so that an airstrike wouldn’t take out too many of them. Forrest was responsible for rallying the troops that made it through North Carolina and leading them into Virginia. Once in Virginia they had the battle plans ready as to which units would attack which settlements. The main objective being to assault the carrier. Going toe to toe with an aircraft carrier in normal times would’ve been considered suicidal. Krantz thought it was still pretty suicidal but maybe they could pull it off. There was really only one way to find out.
Now they just had to wait and hope enough of their force made it across the killing field to drive the enemy out to sea sooner rather than later.
Chapter 13: Fool Me Once
The next time Kyler opened his eyes he could see the ground around him a lot better. The darkness was yielding gracefully to a rising sun. The first trappings of dawn battling through the overhanging pine needle laden branches. Someone’s arm was lying loosely on his back. Believing it to be Ritz he started working through a mental list of all the crap he could give the guy later on for spooning him like that. It wasn’t even all that cold out.
By the dim light filtering through the pine needles and broken branches Kyler realized the shape lying in the darkness a few feet in front of him was Ritz. Fighting back the suddenly overwhelming desire to jump up and run Kyler slowly moved his hand down to the utility belt he was wearing around his waist. Sleeping with all that junk dangling off of him
wasn’t comfortable but neither was being eaten alive by Zombies. The click of the snap on his knife sheath was deafening. Fingernails on a chalkboard in the dead stillness of the predawn hour.
The arm resting on his back shifted slightly. The fingers dragging across the top of his back before coming to a stop. The ragged breathing of whoever or whatever was lying behind him starting up again. Kyler was wide awake now. He was thinking through his options. His mind moving a mile a minute. While they’d been sleeping an infected must’ve sensed their body heat and joined them for the night. Zombies nested together all the time. Kyler had just never considered the possibility of himself being invited to a slumber party with them.
He slowly pulled the knife out of the sheath. He was at the wrong angle to be doing any of this. Pulling the knife out without disturbing his unwelcome companion was requiring him to twist his already wounded shoulder around painfully. Knife in hand he lay there considering his next move.
He needed to act fast. The clock was ticking on when the Zombies internal alarm clock was going to go off. As soon as it woke up and sensed Kyler wasn’t an infected, he’d become breakfast in bed. Even if the Zombie didn’t get its teeth into him it’d let out some kind of screech alerting the zillions of Zombies in the area that there was an uninfected human hanging out under the downed pine tree. Either way he had to get to the Zombie before it woke up or he was dead.
If he screwed this up Ritz was dead too. He considered trying to wake Ritz up without disturbing the Zombie lying behind him. He couldn’t think of a way that would work so gave up. He needed to do something now. His best plan consisted of sitting up casually then plunging the knife as deep as he could into the Zombies throat. If he sat up casually then maybe the sleeping beauty behind him would just roll off and keep snoozing. His shoulder was too screwed up for trying any sort of crazy ninja knife moves. His knowledge of knife fighting pretty much limited to sticking them straight into the person you wanted to have die and wiggling them around until said person was dead. Wipe off the blood and repeat as needed.
Determined not to overthink it he went with sitting up casually then going Jack the Ripper on whoever it was violating his personal space. Fighting down the urge to plan out the best way to sit up casually he shut down his brain and just went for it. Heart beating so hard he was worried the pounding sound may wake up his unwelcome snuggle buddy he felt the hand slide off his back as he sat up. The Zombie rolled slightly but didn’t wake up. Kyler took the time to put the knife tip right where he wanted it on the side of the long-haired Zombies neck. He breathed in deeply while leaning forward and smoothly putting all his weight into sinking the knife into the sleeping Zombies throat.
The Zombies eyes shot open but barely a moan escaped its lips before its voice box and throat were ripped apart by the large serrated blade. A burst of hot blood drenched Kyler’s legs and hands. He kept sawing on the throat until he’d almost decapitated the monster. The blood pouring out of the gashed neck soaked his pants. The blood pooled up underneath the nearly headless corpse in the pine straw. Lying directly behind the one he’d just killed another Zombie started to sit up. The violence done directly beside it having disturbed its sleep.
The rising Zombie looked almost comical. Under the oozing sores was the face of a teenage girl. Her long hair separated to show a slightly bewildered sleepy expression on her face. She looked for all the world like a normal teen grumpily responding to the alarm clock knowing there wasn’t time to hit the snooze button again. A lot of people would’ve hesitated. That’s why a lot of people hadn’t survived this far into the apocalypse. Kyler immediately flipped the knife around in his hand and lunged at the new threat. The knife sinking deep into her pale dirt covered throat. He rode the girl back down to the ground twisting the blade as deep as he could get it. The point ended up stuck on the tip of her spine he was pressing so hard.
That kill made a little more noise than the first one. It’d still been carried out remarkably quietly though. He lay on top of the dead girl covered in a mix of her blood and the blood of the other one he’d slaughtered. He controlled his breathing. His heartbeat was out of control. His body shaking violently with cold waves of fear and adrenaline. It felt like ice had been mixed into his blood. Moans were coming from all around him. Branches started jostling around as the herd began to awaken. A hand pressed down gently on his bad shoulder from behind.
Firmly in the grip of fear and panic Kyler immediately rolled over to stab the hell out of this new threat. The only thing that saved Ritz from being shish kebabbed was that yanking his knife out of the spinal column of the dead teen slowed Kyler down. Ritz had anticipated some sort of reaction from Kyler, but the sheer ferocity of the attack surprised the hell out of him. That surprise almost causing him to miss grabbing Kyler’s wrist to keep the knife a safe distance from his own body. Holding onto Kyler’s wrist Ritz stared at Kyler until he calmed down.
Calmed down being a relative phrase since the whole area around them was turning into Zombie central. It sounded like most of a herd had camped out under the tree with them. All around them they heard the sounds of Zombies waking up for the day. The Zombies sleeping next to Kyler in the dark may have been oblivious to them but with thousands wandering around there was no way they weren’t being discovered before the day was out. Ritz pointed at the bodies then at the tree trunk. Kyler grimaced but understood immediately.
They grabbed the bodies of the two Zombies that Kyler had killed. With Ritz doing most of the heavy lifting they maneuvered themselves as close to the tree trunk as possible. They then positioned the corpses on the other side of them. With both of them now covered in Zombie blood and guts they weren’t as worried about the Zombies sensing they were there. They were hoping they just looked like a pile of dead bodies lying next to a tree trunk. Nothing to see here. Move along.
The unspoken plan was for them to stay in that position as quietly as possible until nightfall. Kyler was already in so much pain that tears were dripping out of his eyes. They’d pulled their packs over towards them after they’d moved the dead bodies over. Ritz had the pack with the pills in it. Kyler poked him and got Ritz to share out a couple of the pain pills. Ritz also made sure to include a handful of antibiotics. Considering they were festering under a tree snuggled up to a couple of decaying infected corpses he may need a bucket of antibiotics. Instead of bottled water he should be washing down the pills with shots of liquefied hand sanitizer.
Having survived the early morning attack Kyler let himself ride the sweet wave of Oxy to snooze town. The Oxy was strong enough that he barely even felt the bugs crawling all over him as the day progressed. All around them Zombies rushed this way and that. Occasionally one would think it sensed something and get a little louder than usual. As soon as that happened every Zombie who noticed would run in that direction. The Zombies who didn’t hear the noise but saw the other Zombies running refused to be left out. They followed along as well.
The undulating waves of the massive Zombie mob occasionally led to Zombies literally traipsing right over the top of Kyler and Ritz. They hugged the corpses of the ones Kyler had killed earlier using them as meat shields to ward off the stomping feet of the insane mob above them. The day was a psychotic nightmare. An acid trip at a haunted house. It was looking in your rearview mirror while you’re driving down a dark road and seeing something in the backseat with red evil eyes staring back at you.
It was also falling down in the mosh pit at a heavy metal show or rolling down a rocky mountain in a barrel. The day was constant pain and fear and Kyler felt like it lasted a year. He slipped in and out of an uneasy sleep throughout the day thanks to the Oxy. He’d seen Ritz pop a few as well and hadn’t blamed him one bit. If nothing else, it was a good precaution against the very real possibility of being eaten alive at some point during the day. If you’re going to be ripped apart by a blood thirsty mob hell bent on sinking their teeth into your flesh, there’s really no recommended daily dosage for that.
Ritz was special forces. Those guys were trained hard to force out the quitters. There was no quit in him either. The day they were having no one would’ve blamed either of them for taking the easy way out. Where Kyler was daydreaming about Caitlyn and a picnic lunch by a crystal blue Italian stream Ritz just wanted a hot shower and a pizza. Along with the pizza he planned to drink enough beer to fill up a kiddie pool. He spent the miserable daylight hours trying to rank the ten best beers he’d ever had in his life. By the end of the day he realized it hadn’t been the beer so much as who he’d been drinking it with that weighed heaviest in his top ten list.
Zombies! (Book 7): Still Standing Page 11