Deadrise 2: Deadwar

by Steven R. Gardner

  With a final deep breath Matt turned and headed inside to see why David had summoned him…

  “Zack wants a meet.” Matt said, surveying the faces of the assembled Council members seated around the conference room table; Aside from himself and David, there was Susan, Jenkins, Patty, Doc Reilly, Sheriff Busley and Lucas Casey. The only two missing were Guy Hammonds, away in Mountain View, and McReedy, overseeing a salvage operation in Rock Springs.

  “When did he make contact?” Jenkins asked.

  “Less than thirty minutes ago.” David said.

  “Why wasn’t I informed immediately?” Jenkins snapped at David, clearly angered.

  “We didn’t want to cause a stir, so I decided to inform all of you personally.” Matt said.

  “When and where does this meet take place?” Lucas asked.

  “Down in Kittewa at ten PM tonight.”

  “Why does he want to meet?” Patty asked. Her voice was filled with anxiety.

  “It’s been nine months since we’ve spoken. He has information to give us.” David said.

  “It will be nice to see him.” Matt mused with a smile.

  “Will it?” Jenkins asked, not so sure. “We don’t know how much more he’s mutated since we last saw him, and his hunger with it.”

  “Are you saying he can’t come?” Matt asked. He could see Jenkins was still angry and wondered if he was flexing his authority?

  “No. I’m eager to hear all he has to say about the outside world, but he is a blood drinking, brain-eating monster. I’m not going to let my guard down around him and neither should you.”

  “I trust Zack.” Matt said coldly.

  “I don’t.” Jenkins snapped back, just as coldly. “David, I want the missile defense system hot as soon as this meeting is adjourned. I’m also placing the entire lake under martial law until tomorrow morning.” Jenkins said.

  Without much more discussion the impromptu Council meeting broke up, with each of the Council members setting out to finish up their responsibilities for the day so that they could focus all of their attention on Zack’s arrival this evening…

  The Council assembled at an abandon farmhouse at the southern edge of Kittewa, none of them had opted to stay behind; Matt, Susan and David were eager to see their old friend, while Patty, Doc, Lucas and Sheriff Busley simply wanted to meet him for the first time. Jenkins was only interested in the information Zack had to provide. Besides the Council, Jenkins had brought along Alpha One and Two for back up. As an extra precaution, unknown to anyone, Major Farrell was hidden two hundred yards away with a night vision equipped sniper rifle. He had been instructed to blow Zack’s head off at the pre-arranged signal of Jenkins lighting up a cigarette.

  At almost ten PM sharp, a low, pulsing hum began to fill their ears and they moved out back of the farmhouse to an open field. Within a few seconds Zack’s sleek, multi-faceted attack craft passed overhead, spinning about to hover fifty feet above the ground, its engines pulsing through their entire bodies before slowly lowering to the ground. The pulse and hum of the engine faded and the craft grew completely silent. Nearly a minute later, the exit ramp lowered and Zack slowly walked down to greet them.

  The first thing that came to Matt’s mind upon seeing his friend was that he looked like some kind of lizardman. His slime-covered skin was rough and mottled greenish black, his eyes a luminescent blood red, with black, vertical-slit pupils. His body lean and supple. As he drew near, the sour, reptilian stench of his body odor reached their nostrils.

  “It’s been awhile.” Matt said nervously.

  “Yes it has.” Zack’s voice had the same deep, gravely rumble that Matt had remembered. Introductions to the members of the Council were made.

  “What information do you bring about the outside world?” Jenkins asked, cutting straight to the point. Zack sized him up and down before locking his glowing red eyes with Jenkins bloodshot ones.

  “Very well…” Zack told them of all he had seen in his travels the past months. The thousands of tiny pockets of humanity across the globe got them chattering excitedly.

  “What do you know of Mordecai?” Jenkins asked.

  “I have found no trace of him or his people. But the planet is vast, and although I have traveled it extensively, I have explored very little.” But he left little doubt in anyones mind that global civilization had collapsed. The earth had been plunged into a dark age with humanity on the verge of extinction, surviving in small, isolated communities whose longevity was not assured.

  “But you have done well here at Rainbow Lake. You are safe, secure, well supplied and able to defend yourselves…Truly a Haven for humanity.”

  “A lot of good people have died along the way.” Patty said.

  “I of all people know the sacrifices that were made.”

  “Of course you do.” Patty replied meekly.

  “The Krylok are still weak, but their forces are growing. They continue to create Sentinels, and undoubtedly will proceed with the Hybrid program.”

  “And create more half breeds like you?” Doc Reilly asked.

  “Eventually they will perfect the process, and their Hybrid will be indistinguishable from a human being. But that is not all. Emerging memories have revealed to me that a hybrid-monster can be created by infecting any carnivorous creature with a slug.”

  “ANY carnivorous creature?” Jenkins responded.

  “Yes General, any carnivorous creature. Only sentient life forms may be converted to Sentinels but any meat-eating creature will work for a hybrid. Most will simply die terrible, painful deaths but those few that survive will be mutated into horrible, twisted monsters that live only to spread death and misery…”

  “Have you seen any successful hybrid creatures?” Lucas asked.

  “None other than myself. But I also avoid the Krylok as much as possible. I have considered making an attack run on the crashed Mothership on the dark side of the moon. Perhaps if I could get close enough, I could deploy my two remaining warheads and destroy the remains of the Mothership as well as the Overlord…But more likely than not it would be a suicide mission.

  “One more thing about the Krylok, I suspect they are divided internally. The current Overlord on the moon has a tenuous grip on power at best, and the subordinate creatures will continually be looking to exploit any weakness and assume the role of Overlord for themselves.”

  “They don’t sound that different from humans.” Patty said with a sneer.

  “Humans nurture one another and protect their sick and weak. They know love and kindness and compassion. A Krylok knows none of those things. They seek only to sew death and misery. No Councilwoman, Humans and Krylok are nothing alike.” Zack’s glowing eyes held her own for only a few seconds until she looked away, rebuked.

  “What will you do when you leave here?” Matt asked.

  “I will continue to travel about the earth, gathering intelligence and reporting it back to you. I swore my allegiance to the human race…to this community. I am a monster… Of that there is no doubt. But I am still a human being. I am still Zack Thomas.” He looked into Matt’s eyes first, before looking to each of them in turn. “I have tamed the beast inside. I must still feed, that is a biological necessity for all living creatures, but I can subsist on animals and I am no longer a slave to the hunger. It is a bodily function and nothing more. My mind is my own, and my psychic abilities have increased greatly.”

  “What psychic abilities?” Lucas asked skeptically.

  Do not challenge me Councilman Casey!

  Lucas jumped when Zack’s voice sounded softly in his head. Lucas felt Zack leave his mind as quickly as he had entered it.

  “How the hell did you do that?” Lucas gasped, reaching one hand to his head.

  “You asked for a demonstration.” Zack replied.

  “I didn’t think you were going to read my mind.”

  “I didn’t read you mind Councilman Casey. I spoke to you using telepathy.”

  “Don�
��t do it again.” Lucas was still rubbing his temple, glaring angrily at Zack.

  “As you wish, Councilman…” Zack turned to Jenkins, who had taken his pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

  I sense your agitation General, but do not be alarmed. I assure you I will do nothing to force your sniper to try and kill me. He gave Jenkins a wide smile filled with sharp, pointed fangs.

  “Thank you.” Jenkins said flatly.

  “Besides, I must be leaving now…”

  “One of these days you’re going to have to take me up in that thing. Show me how to fly it.” Jenkins said, gazing at the spacecraft with boyish awe.

  “One of these days…” Zack nodded to them one at a time. “Until we meet again…”

  He turned his gaze to Matt last.

  The predator in me can sense the sickness in you… Smell it in your scent… Hear it in your hearts faulty beat… Your health fails you…

  I know. He replied back with a thought. Zack smiled and nodded his head before turning to leave. He boarded the craft and the exit ramp closed behind him. Moments later, the pulsing hum of the engine began, very low at first, building until it throbbed through their bodies once again. The gem shaped craft slowly lifted off the ground, rising straight up two hundred feet before speeding away to the south. Matt stood staring after it into the darkness, a deep melancholy settling into him.

  “Hey baby? Is everything ok?” Susan wrapped her arms around him, startling him.

  “Ya…” Matt gasped, feeling a small twinge of pain in his chest.

  “You sure?” she wasn’t convinced.

  “Yes.” He smiled at her, hugging her close and rubbing his hand across the curve of her belly. “Lets go home.” He breathed deeply and the pain subsided. Perhaps he would go see Doc Reilly in the morning, have him run a few tests to make sure everything was ok.

  He gave Susan one last hug before taking her hand and heading for home…

  CHAPTER 26

  Wednesday, March 13, 2002

  Salt Lake City, UT

  7:45 AM

  The instant Jenkins touched the chopper down on the rooftop helipad of the Salt Lake City Police headquarters, Major Farrell’s team exited with weapons drawn, ready for action. Besides the Major there was Lt. Carville and Privates Belasko & Sanders. All five were garbed in black body suits and web gear and sported AK-47’s with attached hi-power lights. The roof was empty, but they went through the motion of securing a perimeter just to impress the General before converging on the single rooftop door located near the southern edge of the building.

  “So far so good.” Major Farrell said and gave the nod to proceed. Pvt. Carville opened the door and Pvt. Belasko took the lead, charging down the steps ready to shoot any zombie he encountered. The door at the bottom of the stairwell was open, giving way to a floor of office cubicles and bullpens. The only light was the morning sunlight streaming in through the dozens of windows that encircled the entire building. As they swept through the area they encountered a handful of deadfucks and quickly disposed of them with a single shot through the head as they moved past. They quickly and efficiently cleared two more floors and a dozen more deadfucks before they came to a halt near the stairwell in a marbled foyer.

  “Administration levels secured, General.” Major Farrell reported back to Jenkins.

  “Good work Major. Proceed.”

  The Team entered the stairwell and quickly descended to the garage level. Arial recon from the chopper had revealed the garage security gates were down and they were betting on it being relatively free of zombies. There were no zombies to greet them, just the cold dark emptiness of the garage. They moved with a purpose, flashlights probing the darkness for zombies, finding instead half a dozen police cruisers parked neatly in a row against the far wall. But they didn’t come here for patrol cars. They moved deeper into the garage until they came to the SWAT division where they found a large Armored Personnel Carrier parked near a small loading dock. Several bodies clad in SWAT uniforms were strewn about, killed long ago. Farrell & Carville kept watch while Belasko and Sanders searched the vehicle, whooping with delight when they found it fully gassed and partially loaded with weapons, ammunition, body armor, explosives and other tools of the trade. Major Farrell quickly radioed the good news to the General…

  Jenkins held the chopper one hundred feet above the rooftop, watching the crowd of deadfucks slowly gather around the building. But what amazed Jenkins the most was how few zombies there actually were in the area. On the trip here, he had noticed much of downtown Salt Lake City zombie population had thinned out. He knew from Intel provided by Hill AFB that superzombies were herding tens of thousands of zombies north to keep the pressure on the Base, and south to Camp Williams, another US Army base located near Provo that had repelled the dead and was now a tiny bastion of humanity struggling to survive the onslaught. There were still zombies in the city, but Jenkins could count their numbers in hundreds rather than thousands.

  This city is ripe for the plucking.

  A smile spread across Jenkins face. This raid to the SWAT HQ for weapons and ammo was a test run for their eventual Salt Lake City blitz. Evanston and Green River had been sweet salvage but SLC was going to be the mother load. It literally made Jenkins head reel when he thought about the amount of resources that were simply waiting to be salvaged. All of the food, weapons, ammunition, medicine, clothing, vehicles and gasoline they would need for one hundred years! And with the superzombies leeching away the cities zombie hordes their numbers were beginning to look manageable for his Militia. The news from the SpecOps team raiding the building only bolstered his confidence.

  Things had been working out as well as could be expected for some time now. The Militia was strong, loyal and well seasoned, the community safe, secure and its coffers stuffed full. There had been minimal clashes with the Council, which also meant things were going well with Patty at home. Jenkins had quickly learned the two were inextricably intertwined as their domestic problems usually arose from heated discussions over policy differences. But that was the nature of their relationship.

  Odd movement from the visible zombies in the area caught his attention. They had all been slowly but surely advancing towards the noise and movement of the chopper, but now their attention suddenly became more focused, a visible wave of excitement pulsing out like a wave as they zeroed in on the building. It instantly got Jenkins nerves jangling. It was how deadfucks behaved when there was a superzombie in the area telepathically directing them.

  “What’s your status Major?” he said into the mic.

  “Just finishing up with the loading.” Farrell’s voice was full of exuberance.

  “Wrap it up and get the hell out of there. And keep sharp! I think a superzombie is in the area.”

  “Sir?” Exuberance had become alarm.

  “Get the hell out of there! I’m going to circle about and see if I can see anything.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Jenkins arced out over the building, circling several time’s, eyes peered for any sign of the superzombie. Suddenly bullets tore into the starboard fuselage of the chopper, one smashing into the co-pilots video console. Jenkins cursed aloud and swung the bird hard to port and climbed…

  “General?” Major Farrell said into his mic. The rest of the team had stopped what they were doing and looking at him.

  “I’m under fire! Evacuate to the rally point!”

  “Yes sir!” Instantly the team snapped into action, grabbing up the last of the weapons and armor they had hauled from the storage locker at the rear of the loading dock and loading it into the APC while the Major kept watch, sweeping his light back and forth into the nether regions of the garage.

  “Fucking superzombies!” Lt. Carville cursed aloud, trying to ease the tension. If anything, it only exacerbated it.

  Somewhere in the deep darkness of the garage, they heard the door to the stairwell open, its bang echoing in receding waves.

  “In the APC! Now!” M
ajor Farrell hissed. Sanders slipped behind the wheel and turned the keys; they had been found among the dead SWAT members out in the garage. Sanders flipped on the headlights, twin beams slicing through the dark. Then they were moving forward, Private Belasko letting out a nervous chuckle behind him. Sanders turned a corner, then another, heading toward the garage gate. As they rounded another corner, two figures appeared in the headlights…Superzombies! They wore the remnants of body armor battered to rags and clutching assault rifles which were aimed right at the windshield of the lead APC! Sanders ducked low just before both opened fire, the bullets turned aside by the bulletproof glass, but not before cracking and starring in several places. Both superzombies dove aside and the APC roared past. Sanders sat up straight and accelerated toward the gate blocking the main entrance, which was now visible in the headlights.

  “Brace yourself!”

  The APC crashed through the gate, steamrolling a trio of zombies as it plowed into the street. Sanders brought the vehicle under control, turning north onto the street. The crowd of deadfucks around the building wasn’t too dense, and Sanders had an easy time pushing through them at a steady 15 mph. Major Farrell Stood next to him looking out the window.

  “Can you see the chopper?” Sanders asked.

  “No” The Major said with annoyance.

  Sanders turned east at the next intersection, mentally plotting a course for the rally point. Although they were in the heart of Salt Lake City, its location along the foothill of the mountains provided access to half a dozen heavily forested canyons less than five miles away. The rally point was Dell Lake, a small manmade fishing lake located a few miles up Emigration Canyon. Now all Sanders had to do was get there, which was easier said than done.

  The road ahead was free of abandoned vehicles, and fewer than a dozen deadfucks staggered in the road ahead. Sanders accelerated the APC up to 30 mph, weaving around the widespread zombies.