Deadrise 2: Deadwar

by Steven R. Gardner

  Can I continue to bear it now?

  He deployed the men to their assigned positions, informing them all of what was coming up the canyon. His position was the center of the firing platform that ran along the backside of the wall. Like the other checkpoint, the gate for checkpoint One was a bus, heavily armor plated on the outer side.

  “We must hold the wall! Reinforcements are on the way. Five minutes tops!” He called aloud.

  And then the battle began. The attack came from the south side of the highway as the superzombie’s opened fire. Private Evans manned the south machine gun nest. Bullets chewed up the sandbagged emplacement, but remarkably Evans went unscathed. He immediately opened up with the .60 caliber box fed machine gun.

  Privates Sanchez and Callahan took aim and fired their rifle mounted M-203 grenade launchers into the forest on the south side. Both were loaded with HE rounds and a fifty-foot in diameter area of the forest was blasted to the ground.

  Incoming gunfire ceased.

  As the ringing from the gunfire and explosions faded from Larsen’s ears a new sound took its place. Engines. He looked back over the wall and in the glare of the spotlights he saw a pair of bulldozer’s side by side, plows raised straight ahead, coming up the canyon. Behind them he could see at least one more vehicle.

  Those wily dead motherfuckers!

  Private Evans opened fire again, and Larsen turned to see that the hellhound had pounced from the forest and was charging Evans’ position along the top of the wall. His bullets traced across the creatures chest and the impact sent it tumbling off the wall, into the perimeter. Larsen pointed his rifle at the creature as it climbed to its feet and fired his M-203. His round was also HE and it skipped off the ground two feet in front of the hellhound and exploded. The beast’s body was blown into three pieces, flaming hunks of hybrid flesh that writhed and pulsed at it melted under the flame.

  Larsen looked up to Private Evans, who stared back at the flaming remains, eyes full of fear. Bullets riddled the machine gun nest, one catching Evans in the back of the head and blowing his face off in a spray of blood and bone and brains. As Larsen watched the Privates body fall, a trio of superzombies leapt out of the south forest and charged into the perimeter…

  I wish I’d saved a bullet for myself. He thought as his mind returned the present. Larsen wasn’t afraid to die. But he was afraid of becoming one of the walking dead. Not only would he never see Tina and Stan Jr. again, he would most likely assist in killing them.

  But it was not meant to be. For even as the superzombie stepped closer, raising the machete to hack him, the deep rumble of a large vehicle approaching filled the air. From up the canyon, one of the Rhinos came into view.

  The Rhinos had once been oversized quarry dump trucks but were now converted into heavily armed war machines. The top of the bed had been covered over and the inside turned into seating and storage for up to a dozen armed soldiers. The windows had been covered with armor plating with viewports and firing slits had been cut into them while armor plating and heavy chain mesh protected the ten-foot tall tires. The front end of the Rhinos had been fitted with a giant wedge, similar to a cow-plow on the front of a train, only three times as large. Gunners aboard the Rhino opened fire with heavy machine guns, and the superzombie approaching Larsen was cut to pieces.

  Filled with renewed vigor, Lt. Larsen let loose a whooping battle cry as the reinforcements saved the day…

  CHAPTER 37

  Tuesday, March 19, 2002

  Rainbow Lake, UT

  7:47 PM

  It had been thirty-six hours since Matt had last slept and his mind was still reeling from the attack. How had they been caught so unaware? So unprepared? The attack had shattered the sense of safety and security that the citizens of Rainbow Lake had foolishly come to feel the past year. Up until the attack yesterday Jenkins had done a superb job of protecting the community; so superb that it had induced that false sense of security. After he’d proven himself time and again in battle after battle, plunder after plunder that filled the coffers of Rainbow Lake to overflowing, everyone on the Council quit questioning his tactics and motives. But now, in the aftermath of the attack, Matt could see that Jenkins had spread his forces too thin. There had been a couple hundred men in the militia, but they were spread across a border fifty miles long. There were gaps of several miles in between security checkpoints.

  And the recon mission into Salt Lake City had been a mistake and a disaster. Matt had supported it but Patty had tried her best to change Jenkins mind. But he had been adamant. There had been a determination in him eyes that just couldn’t be deterred. Of course it had been a disaster; Major Farrell had lost most of his squad and stirred up the Krylok at the same time… They should have listened to Patty.

  Since the attack Matt had been doing as Jenkins had asked of him and the Council; mingle amongst the citizens, organize, assess and report. And the first order of business had been accounting for all civilian members of the community. While he considered all in the community friends, he had developed strong personal relationships with many in particular. Some of those were now counted among the dead including Dr. Reilly who had been killed in the Hospital. He tried to make sense out of the chaos but everywhere he turned, he was confronted with frightened, confused people, asking him how it happened? Why it happened? Would it happen again? He did his best to comfort them, but he had no answers. He had been asking himself the same questions.

  Sometime after the sun had set, his wife found him. Her long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she looked tired, frustrated and pregnant. It wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have been out canvassing the community with the other Council members. She should have been in bed and she knew it, he knew it and Jenkins knew it.

  “You look ready to collapse.” She said and her face broke into a smile.

  “I am, Lady.” He smiled back. It was one of the saddest, most pathetic things Susan had ever seen.

  “Let’s get you to bed. There’s nothing more either of us can do tonight.” Matt was too tired to reply. He simply nodded his head in agreement. The exhaustion and stress has finally caught up to me. Some sleep and a hot meal in the morning and I’ll be fine.

  They were both too tired to shower and simply fell onto their bed. Matt snuggled next to his wife, enjoying her warmth and the curve of her belly. Their child would be born in a couple months. In seconds he was asleep. In the depth of his sleep, his heart failed and he suffered a massive heart attack. Its onset was so swift that he didn’t even have time to open his eyes or gasp for one final breath. He merely died quietly, his mind at peace…

  Susan awoke suddenly… She was laying in darkness. Her eyes darted over to the bedside clock, 3:16 AM. Her stomach churned with anxiety, and she became restless. She didn’t want to wake Matt, so she decided to get out of bed. Before she could Matt stirred, rolling towards her under the sheets.

  “I’m sorry baby.” Susan cooed, trying to ease him back to sleep. She reached out to stroke him just as his hand touched her thigh, his fingers cool and clammy. “Matt?” she asked, becoming alarmed, but his only answer was to dig his fingers into her bare thigh and roll over, his eyes a pale, dead glaze, a low moan escaping his lips.

  “Matt!” Susan screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to push him away, but he grabbed her arm and sunk his teeth into her flesh. She screamed at the top of her lungs as her tore a chunk from her forearm, chomping on the meat like a starving man, trying to get it all down his throat. Susan’s screams were now agonized wails but she began to fight like a caged lioness. She managed to throw Matt aside and roll off the bed. The zombie that had been her husband struggled awkwardly to the edge of the bed and tried to rise. Susan climbed to her feet and scrambled toward the door. The zombie was halfway to its feet and lunged at Susan as she ran past, missed, and sprawled face first on the floor.

  The bedroom door flew open and David stood there in his boxers, his eyes swollen with sleep, holding a pistol in his h
and.

  “David!” Susan ran to him, trying to force him from the room. On the floor the zombie crawled toward them.

  “What the hell?” David could see that the zombie was Matt, but his mind was having difficulty processing it.

  “Get out of here!” Susan screamed, pulling him towards the door.

  “We have to kill it!” David exclaimed, pulling himself free. Susan wanted to argue, but the words would not come. They had all talked about this many times, and all of them had sworn to the others that they would not let them become one of the walking dead. Matt had become one of the walking dead, so now it was up to them to kill it. Pain and anguish overwhelmed her and fell to the floor in the far corner.

  The zombie turned and began to crawl towards Susan, its moans becoming louder at the anticipation of prey. Susan looked into its dead eyes, searching for any spark of Matt, any trace of his humanity, his soul… And for a fraction of a second she would have sworn that she saw it, saw Him, staring back at her…desperate…trapped…afraid… But then it was gone, clouded over by the zombie’s dead gaze.

  David stepped up behind the crawling zombie, aiming his 9mm at the back of its skull. Tears were streaming down his face, his heart was wrenched with grief, but his hand was steady. He knew what needed doing. Matt had done the same thing for his father and now David would return the favor. He said a quick prayer for Matt’s soul, asking for the forgiveness of both Matt and his father, then without further hesitation put three bullets into the zombie head…

  “Well, she’s finally sleeping.” Dr. Norris told the assembled Council in the Main House conference room. Only Mac was absent.

  “Why didn’t you amputate her arm?” David barked angrily.

  “Amputation of the infected limb does not stop the infection. Once bitten, it is in the blood.”

  “She’s going to turn into a zombie.” Jenkins muttered sourly. Nobody said a word because it was what all of them had all been thinking. “I’ve seen it a hundred times… She will get sick as the infection spreads. She will be crying in constant pain, delirious with fever.”

  “Shut up!” David snapped.

  “Two, maybe three days at most before her system finally shuts down and she dies.”

  “Shut the fuck up Jenkins!” David screamed at the top of his lungs, bursting into tears.

  “David, the General is right.” Sheriff Busley said, putting a hand on the boys shoulder. “None of us want that for your sister. The humane thin to do is end it for her right now while she’s sleeping. Quick, clean. She won’t suffer at all.”

  “Nobody is going to end anything for her! I will kill anybody who tries!” David turned to face them, madness in his eyes.

  “Nobody is going to do anything… Yet.” Jenkins said. “When Susan wakes up she can make the decision for herself.” David faced him, ready to pounce, but Jenkins squared up, giving David his coldest stare.

  “You better not let them kill her!” David blurted before withering to tears. Before anyone could say a word David fled. The Council sat there silently, lost for words.

  It was Jenkins who broke the silence. “As I said, nobody is going to do anything until she wakes up and decides for herself.” He glanced around the conference table, but nobody spoke. Most were still in shock to what had happened and how it had happened. Which is exactly where the conversation led next.

  “Why did Matt die in the middle of the night?” Lucas Casey asked. Doc Norris and The General looked at one another before the Doc spoke.

  “Matt had a bad heart. He was being treated for it with medication, diet and exercise. My guess would be heart attack.”

  “I knew about it.” Jenkins said. “But he was being treated…he had been feeling fine, no symptoms. Why was I to suspect?”

  “Why was it kept secret from the Council?” Patty asked.

  “Because he asked for it to be that way. Susan had just told him she was pregnant, and she had just lost her father. He didn’t want to worry her.” Jenkins could feel his anger rising. He didn’t like having to explain himself.

  “We should have been told.” Sheriff Busley said scornfully, looking back and forth between Jenkins and Doc Norris.

  “I-I-“ The Doc began blurting.

  “Back the fuck off!” Jenkins snapped angrily. “It was Matt’s business. Do we want the Doc to make all of the Councils health records available for all to see?”

  “I have nothing to hide.” The Sheriff said.

  “You’re a drunk!” Jenkins barked, stepping close to the old man. The Sheriff took a half step back, as if he expected Jenkins to attack.

  “Blake!” Patty pleaded, stepping toward him. Jenkins stopped and looked at her, his face full of anger. “Blake, please? We can’t fall apart.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?”

  “We should have been told.” She said.

  “Bullshit! Matt was ok. He was treating his condition. With all that’s happened the last year it’s a wonder more of us haven’t died from heart failure.” Patty was about to respond when Jenkins cut her off. “We all have issues Patty. Each and every one of us.” He turned to look at them all. “The Sheriff is a drunk. So am I… So are you.”

  The look in her eye told him that had hurt.

  “Matt and Susan were potheads. Lucas is a pain pill addict. So is David. Half the militia is using something or another, as are most of the civilians. All of us are fucked up.” He fell silent, waiting for any of them to speak.

  But none did…

  CHAPTER 38

  Wednesday, March 20, 2002

  Rainbow Lake, UT

  8:17 AM

  When word of Matt’s death and Susan’s infection spread the community had come to life like an ant hive. By 1:00 AM the remaining citizens of Rainbow Lake had begun gathering at the Main House, milling about inside the kitchen, living room and out on the back deck; drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and speculating like mad over what had happened.

  There were those in the community who wanted to kill Susan now, before she turned into a deadfuck and possibly bit somebody else. The Council had forbid it of course. David had openly proclaimed that he would shoot and kill ANYONE who tried to kill his sister before she expired naturally. He then took up watch in her room, allowing nobody but the Doc, his mother and Jenkins inside.

  Jenkins sat in his office, alone, still stunned by the death of Matt and the infection of Susan. He had grown very fond of both of them. Matt had been a cocky punk and Susan a smart-ass bitch when they’d first met, and he took an instant dislike to both of them. But after everything they had been through together the past nine months, they had become his family, his brother and sister.

  But he knew he had to pull himself together, contain his anguish and do his job. Rainbow Lake had been hit hard, and the people needed him to be strong and decisive. They were balanced on the razors edge. One more catastrophe and everything would crumble apart. It was time to pull back and lock the lake up tight as a prison. But that wasn’t going to be easy with almost half his Militia killed in the attack.

  Aside from re-establishing a strong security perimeter, Matt, Susan and Dr. Reilly’s vacant Council seats would have to be replaced. Despite his misgivings with the whole Council thing, Jenkins had to grudgingly admit that it had its uses. It kept the people focused and gave them a sense of being in control. He needed that now…the entire community needed that now. But the election of new council members could prove problematic for him. The death of Matt and Susan shifted much of the power structure of the lake away from Jenkins and into the hands of the Council. Matt and Susan had firmly backed every decision and play he made, David and Mac as well. That had given him at least 5 of the 10 council votes. But with Matt and Susan dead, and Mac becoming more erratic and unstable as the weeks went by, that left Jenkins with only David firmly in his corner. He and Patty loved one another, and he felt he could count on her vote for most things, but she was an independent woman who had radically different political v
iews than Jenkins. There would be some choices she simply would not support him on.

  Sure Jenkins and the Militia still had all of the guns, but most of the Militiamen had families among the civilian population, and of course their loyalties ultimately lay with their families; whether the Council knew it or not, they now wielded as much power over the Militia as Jenkins, possibly more. He needed to shore up his support in Council and get people he could count on in those seats. David’s wife, Samantha, was being groomed for leadership by Susan & Patty, so he would lobby strongly for her election to the seat. Since Dr. Reilly was also dead, Norris would be the next logical candidate to fill his seat. Norris had undergone INTENSE apprenticeship with Dr. Reilly the past 8 months, and combined with what he had already learned as a trained EMT, he was a Dr. in every way except having the degree to prove it.

  There was also the matter of replacing the lost Militiamen. He was simply going to conscript them. He didn’t like the idea of doing so, but the burdens of security demanded it. He would try to be fair: Single men at first, then, if need be, teenaged boys of appropriate age. The Council wouldn’t like it, and neither would the civilians. And if they challenged his authority? Refused to be drafted? Would he enforce his will?

  Goddamned straight he would.

  But he would wait until Susan died and the Council convened to address these issues…

  CHAPTER 39

  Thursday, March 21, 2002

  Rainbow Lake, UT

  9:22 PM

  The infection had ravaged its way through Susan’s body, and it was in the last few hours of her life, just as her vital signs began to fade that her water broke and she slipped into labor. After three intense hours, with David, their mother, Jenkins and Patty present, the child was delivered. Susan slumped back into the bed, unconscious, a smile on her face.