“Alright. How do we do it?” Kyler asked.
They talked for a few minutes about the best way to take out the remaining squads. They’d stripped the weapons off the dead from squad five, so they were good to go ammo and bullet wise at least. Not that they had a chance of surviving a prolonged fire fight against forty men. They shouldn’t have to though. Not if their idea panned out.
Bent over from the weight of all the weapons they were lugging around they made their way back into the woods. Ritz led the way aiming for where squad two should be holed up. It was still dark so finding the squad was going to be a matter of luck more than anything else. Luck built on top of mad skills and tons of experience. Kyler just hoped no one in squad two was luckier than they were.
Ritz slowed his pace down after about a mile. They went from running to literally inching their way through the forest. He stopped every couple of minutes to listen. In the distance there were the sounds of the infected screeching. Kyler thought that sounded like it was coming from the direction of the train tracks. They must still be feasting on the men who’d hurt themselves jumping from the train earlier. For the large number of Zombies that’d shown up the crippled men would’ve barely counted as an appetizer. The plan was for Ritz and himself to provide the rest of the squads as the main course while trying to avoid getting on the menu themselves.
Standing quietly beside a tree during one of their frequent pauses Kyler overheard a hushed conversation. It’d sounded like it was coming from a small copse of trees about twenty feet from where they were standing. He poked Ritz in the back and pointed at the trees. Ritz nodded. He’d heard it too. They needed to be sure though. Kyler took the lead as they walked slowly towards the clump of tall pine trees.
Barrels horizontal to the ground they flipped their weapons to full auto. They might not have time to reload right away so both of them were carrying extra weapons that were already fully loaded. They looked like hobos from a distance. They had t-shirts and ropes hanging off of them in every direction. They’d done a quick job of attaching weapons and tying them down to make sure they didn’t make any clinking noises when they were walking through the woods.
Halfway to the clump of trees they heard the voice again. Up close it was easily recognizable as the squad leader for squad three. The man had a very distinguishable Bostonian accent. Despite the arrogant attitude the man projected he was actually an all right guy. Kyler was sure he’d probably have liked him if they met under different circumstances. Hell, he liked him now. That didn’t change the fact that he was five seconds away from shooting him in the face.
All of this killing was extracting its toll on both of them. Despite being natural born warriors neither of them was a cold-blooded murderer. There was a huge difference between fighting to protect those you loved and slaughtering people who’d trusted you to lead them. Killing the infected was one of those things they both accepted as needing to be done. Killing the Brotherhood when the Brotherhood was actively attacking them was also pretty easy to justify. It was a ‘them or us’ kind of scenario.
Sneaking up on people you knew and killing them though. Kyler flashed back to watching Ritz break the woman’s face open earlier. The woman who’d been trying to check on her husband. He thought back to the bodies shifting under him as he crawled from one to the other bashing their heads in. The feel of the warm blood as he stabbed helpless men bound to the ground. Men who’d done nothing wrong except to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The one couple that they’d killed had three children who were now orphans because of them. He’d never wash all that blood off his soul.
“…platoon leader did what?” They caught a snippet of the squad leaders conversation. Kyler moved to his left until he could see through the trees. In the dim light cast by the moon beams angling down through the tangle of branches above he saw the squad resting around the leader. A couple were sitting up listening, but the majority of them looked like they were taking advantage of the down time to catch a nap. If they had a sentry walking the perimeter then neither Ritz nor Kyler had seen him yet.
Stepping into the fight with the same look on his face as someone stepping into a freezing cold pool Kyler strode forward pulling the trigger on his rifle in measured bursts. A surprised Ritz recovered quickly and walked up beside Kyler to help mow down the unsuspecting squad. To keep the firing angles advantageous, they walked in different directions around the circle of soldiers. They fired until completely out of ammunition then switched rifles and continued to fire while walking back towards one another. They were both very careful not to enter each other’s field of fire.
They stopped shooting and mechanically reloaded their weapons. They shoved in fresh magazines while the moans of the men they’d just shot drifted to them from the trees. Kyler wasn’t sure but he didn’t think anyone had actually shot back at them. Listening intently, he heard the final element of their plan rushing towards them. The screeches could be heard all around them as every Zombie within earshot rushed to investigate the loud noises.
Ritz started jogging through the trees in the direction where the second squad should be in position. They’d be alert and moving now. The hope was they’d be more worried about the scores of infected coming towards them than soldiers attacking them. There was also a really good chance they’d be sticking to the blades and clubs rule to avoid attracting even more of the flesh eaters. That hope was blown away when Ritz was forced to take cover behind a fallen tree when someone started blasting away at him. Someone with horrible aim.
Ritz stayed flat on his back behind the fallen tree while Kyler worked his way to a position where he could spot the shooter. The shooter was already gone so Kyler jogged back over to Ritz and urged him to keep moving. Ritz cautiously peeked over the log for a second before standing up and following Kyler into the cold darkness of the night. Whoever had shot at him must’ve turned and ran away immediately afterwards. He’d put even money on it having been the rearguard for squad two. The guard had probably thought Ritz was a Zombie. When he’d fallen to the ground the guard must have assumed that he’d scored a lucky hit with one of his ill aimed shots and moved on. The man would soon learn the true meaning of the word ‘assume’.
They continued jogging through the forest. The screams of the infected getting closer. Busting through some low hanging branches they ran into squad three busily hacking away at a small group of infected. Thinking more Zombies had just come for them two of the men turned with machetes in their hand and ran at them. They flew backwards a second later riddled with bullet holes. Caught off guard the other men in the squad dropped their clubs and reached for their guns. It was too late for them though. Standing behind the bunched-up men with both of their rifles already pointed and set on fully automatic it didn’t take much time for them to turn the group into a stack of bloody swiss cheese.
Ignoring the cries for help they kept on jogging hoping to run into squad four. The night sky was beginning to glow as the sun lazily worked its way up to the horizon. Someone shot at them. Kyler turned to tell Ritz to hurry up. Ritz was laying on the ground with a bloody hole in the side of his head. Kyler put his own head down and ran for his life. A few more bullets zinged by him into the forest. He managed to make it out of the danger zone without being hit. Zombie screeches were danger close at this point.
Short on ideas he grabbed a low hanging limb and swung himself up on it. With the heavy backpack pulling him down he climbed the tree as far as he could go. He did it with the grace of a drunk monkey carrying another monkey piggyback, but he made it high enough up the tree that he was safe from casual observers. He was feeling pretty good about deciding to climb up the tree when a group of Zombies came running by beneath him a few minutes later. All of them screaming for blood.
He still had two more squads to check off the list. He owed it to Ritz to finish the plan. Ritz had known what he was risking when he came back with Kyler to take on armed groups of men in a forest filled with the infected. Kyler
crouched uncomfortably on a tree branch trying to focus on what to do next. He needed to decide on a goal and work towards it. He needed to keep moving and doing things. He needed to get his mind off Ritz lying in the pine straw with a bloody hole in his head. He didn’t want to keep seeing Ritz smashing the woman’s face open. When those gruesome images kept rising up unbidden in his head, he made sure his rifle had a fresh magazine in it and began climbing cautiously out of the tree.
Straddling a limb about ten feet above the forest floor he leaned back against the trunk of the tree and listened intently to the noises around him. His arm was throbbing painfully from all of the exertion. Zombie screeches echoed through the woods. Off to his right he heard someone firing an automatic weapon. It sounded like one of the remaining squads was in an all-out battle with the infected. He saw a steady stream of the infected sprinting through the forest in the direction of the gunfire.
He waited for a break in the hellish marathon beneath him to climb all the way down. His next step was to go check on the other settlements. There was no way he was finding the other squads at this point. Even if the other squads somehow survived the rising tide of Zombies sweeping through the forest, they probably weren’t going to be super intent on trying to go attack the designated settlements. Just based on the volume of noise the screeching Zombies were making Kyler wasn’t too worried about being shot at by anyone else from the squads. If he didn’t get down soon though he was going to end up stuck in the tree for the rest of the day. He wouldn’t be able to climb down once the Zombies started wandering around randomly like they always did when the excitement died down.
Taking a chance, he dropped to the ground in between the waves of Zombies rushing towards the sounds of the gunfire. He ran quickly in the opposite direction with his rifle hanging down within easy reach and a machete gripped loosely in his hand. Ducking around a tree he ran right into a large Zombie. Before it could start screeching or try to bite him, he smashed the machete into the side if its head. The blade sank in a couple of inches and became stuck. Ignoring the chunk of ear that fell to the ground Kyler pulled out his knife and jammed it in the Zombies throat. He did everything so fast the Zombie was dead before it’d even figured out a normal human had run right into it.
He put his foot on the gruesome remainder of a head and pried the machete out of the dead man’s skull. Once he had his weapon back, he continued running. He had a general idea of where he was in relation to the settlements. The closest one would force him to backtrack, so he set a course for a distant one instead. He knew he was most likely wasting his time. The settlements were more than likely abandoned already. Everyone should’ve been ordered to evacuate when the Brotherhood started moving north to attack them.
Even if the settlements weren’t abandoned Kyler was pretty sure any survivors from his former platoon would more than likely start slinking home instead of trying to continue the mission. That’s assuming any of them survived the Zombies stampeding towards them. The Zombies that’d probably defiled Ritz’s corpse along with the remains of the squad members they’d killed already. He felt duty bound to verify the settlements were good though. He’d physically check each one unless he figured out a different way to verify that they were all deserted. He was kind of hoping the next settlement might actually have the phone hooked up. How convenient would that be?
Jogging through the woods struggling with the heavy load he had strapped to his back he tried to get his mind off the bad and focus on the good. He pictured himself standing on the deck of the carrier out on the open sea barreling through a nice sized swell. The salty water spraying into the air would fill his lungs. Most importantly Caitlyn would be there to hold his hand. She’d be there to hold his hand and tell him that everything he’d done to survive was ok. It was a crazy fantasy, but it got him through the first couple of miles. After running for long enough he was so exhausted he couldn’t think of anything but taking the next step. He continued into the night thankful to have found a way to bury the gruesome images lodged in his subconscious.
Chapter 29: Hiding in Plain Sight
Brotherhood troops kept passing by them. The social security subsidized diesel guzzling house on wheels they were driving in wasn’t super maneuverable. The interstate was cleared of the usual apocalyptic roadblocks for the most part. It looked like the settlements folk had been hard at work. All of the traffic noise was attracting scores of the infected though. Gomez had worked as a long-haul trucker for a few years so was the best choice for driving the RV. Especially since they were being forced to constantly slalom around the Zombies darting towards them.
Kelly needed to find some Dramamine. Gomez was constantly slowing down or speeding up in between swerving all over the road. He’d stopped bothering with his shouted warnings to his passengers. Kelly appreciated that he was focused on the task at hand but at the same time she wanted to hit him in the face with a frying pan. It actually helped her stomach feel slightly less queasy to imagine Gomez in pain.
“What do we do when we run out of gas?” Randy asked Bryan when he came to sit down and talk to them. He’d stayed away until Kelly got less emotional. Even in the middle of an apocalypse men were still deathly afraid of conversations involving feelings.
“Get more gas.” Bryan deadpanned. If he was hoping for a laugh he’d come to the wrong table.
“Where do we get this gas at? Just pull over at the next exit. Maybe grab gas and slushies for the kids?” Kelly asked with a little more venom than she’d really intended. Her stomach and head were killing her. She’d never been car sick before but something about the way the RV rode was killing her. Looking slightly embarrassed at the way his wife was acting Randy spoke up.
“She’s not feeling good. Don’t suppose you have any motion sickness pills on you?” He asked Bryan.
“No. Sorry. I can check in the glove box though. I see how this ride could make you queasy.” Bryan said. He stopped talking as Gomez suddenly accelerated. A moment later they all heard a loud thump as something bounced off the front of the RV.
“We’re super lucky we haven’t run into a herd yet.” Kelly said. If it was nighttime, they wouldn’t have to worry about it so much. Driving in the middle of the day when there was a lot of traffic on the road almost guaranteed they were eventually going to get bogged down by a herd though. As far as she knew none of them really had a plan for how they were going to deal with that when it inevitably happened.
“At least the Brotherhood guys aren’t giving us any issues.” Randy said hoping to take the tone of the conversation up a notch.
“Why is that? How do they not have some sort of password or sign or something, so they know who’s on who’s side?” Kelly asked. That’d been bugging her since the first biker gang had roared past them.
“Normally there’d be radio call signs and code words for something like this that we’d need to worry about. If we happened to be walking when the Brotherhood guys passed us, and they pulled over they might have a passcode we’re supposed to know. Just something generic or whatever. It wouldn’t be super-secret or anything, but it’d help them easily pick out people who weren’t supposed to be there. I guess they just never worked out one for communications between vehicles that didn’t have radios.” Bryan explained.
“So, we just can’t ever stop?” Kelly asked.
“We can.” Randy said. “We’ll just need to be ready to fight when we do. A lot of them carry ID cards. They have ways of identifying themselves. We don’t have any of that but we’re going to have to get gas to keep going. We’re going to need to pull in at a truck stop. At least those big diesel tanks should be easy to siphon out of. Maybe we can grab a slushy machine and get it working in the RV.” Randy finished with a smile. He was trying to lighten the mood. Kelly started sobbing again.
A few minutes later a completely confused Randy found himself sitting up front by Phil and Bryan after Caitlyn had brought over all the littles to help cheer up Kelly. He’d been unceremoniousl
y kicked out of his seat at the small table. He’d been in situations like this before and knew the girls would do a better job dragging their mom out of her funk than he would.
The gas gauge told them they had about sixty miles to go before they’d need to pull in somewhere for more gas. They were also keeping their eyes peeled for tractor trailers on the side of the interstate. It’d make life so much easier if they could just siphon it out here on the side of the road. The RV had all kinds of tubing and junk they could cut to use for the siphoning piece. A fancy camper like this needed all those fancy hoses to support all the cool features when the owners took it for a weekend of glamping. It’s not like the jacuzzi tub that automatically extended out over the side was going to heat itself.
“That’ll get us right around I-85. I say we try and get some diesel then turn north.” Phil said from the front passenger seat. He’d seen Bryan and Randy checking out the gas gauge.
“That works. That means we don’t have to worry about driving through Raleigh. It’s going to be crawling with tons of those infected freaks with all this traffic.” Bryan said.
“What about side roads?” Randy volunteered. He was thinking they could stay out of everyone’s sight better on smaller roads.
Zombies! (Book 7): Still Standing Page 24