Z-Strain (Book 3): Fallout

by Morris, S. J.

  “Lynn! Grab my hand!” I yelled as I approach her crumpled form in the grass. Thankfully, her arm slowly reached out, and just before I passed her, I slammed on the brakes, grabbed her forearm and pulled with every ounce of strength I could muster, tossing her wounded body behind me. She appeared dazed, but okay as she shouted into my ear, “Go! Go! Go!”

  I hit the gas, and the sound of the ATV’s engine mixed with Lynn’s coughing and the cries of the necrotic abominations only feet from us roaring loudly. Lynn wrapped one of her arms around me tightly. I felt her other arm cradled up underneath her chest, pressing against my back. She must have injured her arm enough to not be able to use it without pain.

  I felt her sweat-drenched forehead press against the back of my neck as her long dark hair blew in the wind around my face. My chest ached at the thought of losing this wonderful woman before I even got a chance to know her, but she clenched me tightly with at least one arm. I hoped we could make it to safety without being attacked again and get Lynn the medical attention she desperately needed.

  My prayers seemed to be answered as I saw the road ahead of us was clear of any debris or stranded vehicles. We had to be getting closer to the Wawayanda compound. I remembered Dr. Nasser telling us previously that her group had cleared all of the roads near them so they could move around quickly in their ambulances.

  I pushed the accelerator as hard as I could, and Kamil did the same. The noises from the pursuing ghouls faded as we sped away faster. We traveled as quickly as possible until we came to another bend in the road. We had to slow down, or we would all be having accidents.

  The turn in the street led us to a bridge with a sign over it that read, Hales Hill Covered Bridge.

  Lynn coughed as she lifted her head from my back. “This is it. Take this straight to the Wawayanda gates,” she wheezed.

  I slowed to a stop, checked behind us, and when I saw nothing pursuing us, I gently held Lynn up as I jumped off the ATV. Lynn looked small and helpless, like a vagrant woman begging for help. Her face was swollen, and her hair was a mess, all tangled in her ponytail half pulled out and dried blood caked over her ear. Her left arm was dangling at an odd angle as she looked up at me with pain in her eyes.

  “What can I do to help you right now?” I asked, not knowing what to do for her.

  “Just get me to the camp. They’ll know what to do. My arm is dislocated, and I think I bruised a few ribs. I’ll be okay. Just get me there,” she managed to get out through labored breaths.

  “I can pop your shoulder back in. I’ve done it before. I was a wrestler in high school, and one of my buddies used to pop his shoulder out all the time. Let me help you. This rickety bridge isn’t going to be fun to drive over with your shoulder like that. I’m surprised you lasted this long as bumpy as the ride’s been so far.”

  “Fine but make it quick. There’s no telling how far behind the ghouls are, and I don’t think they’re the kind that just give up and wander away.”

  “I second that,” Kamil said, anxiously looking behind us clutching his own wound tightly.

  “I’m not going to lie, Lynn... this is going to hurt a lot before it feels better.”

  “I know. Just get it over with, please, so we can get the hell out of here.”

  Lynn winced as I grabbed her left wrist. “Shrug your shoulders up,” I instructed as I pulled her arm forward and straight out in front of her. Her eyes popped open wide and her teeth ground together in pain, but she refused to scream. I slowly and gently guided the ball of her arm bone back into the shoulder socket. It popped slightly, and Lynn let out the breath she had been holding as she flexed her arm tenderly.

  “Thank you, Jimmy. Now let’s get going. We don’t need the ghouls chasing us all the way to the gates. Those are not guests I want coming with us,” Lynn joked.

  It was good to see her smile, even if she did look like a homeless person that just fell off of a train.

  Chapter 13

  Jimmy Smith

  The remaining sunlight bled from the darkening sky as we finally pulled up to the entrance of a giant fence with a sign above it welcoming us to the Wawayanda State Park of Sussex County. The darkness turned every tree around us into a nightmarish shape. My imagination was running wild as we waited for someone to come and open the gate. Lynn said there was always someone on patrol around the front entrance to open it, so we just had to wait for them to come down.

  We sat there for what felt like forever when a single gunshot fragmented the seemingly calm evening.

  Lynn jumped up. “What the hell was that?”

  “That was definitely a gunshot, and it came from inside the fences,” Kamil replied, looking around frantically.

  “We have to get inside now. Jimmy, shoot out the lock,” Lynn demanded.

  Without question, I pulled my pistol from its holster at my hip, checked my clip, aimed, and fired at the silver lock barring us from entering the park. Lynn quickly pulled the chain from the fence with her good arm and waved her hand at me to get back on the ATV and drive it through.

  Kamil and I both jumped on our vehicles and started them up again. Kamil pulled through the open gate, and I followed slowly so I could hop off and help Lynn close the gate behind us.

  As we were wrapping the chain around the large metal gate posts, a soft moan escaped the trees. I pulled my flashlight and gun from my holster, scanning the area. A group of dark silhouettes caught my eye as they stumbled through the thick underbrush. I lined my torch with the muzzle of my weapon and took aim as the figures lurched into the beam of light.

  I walked right up to the chain-link, pointed the muzzle through the crisscrossing metal, aimed, and fired. I rotated my aim and fired again. Both were headshots.

  The remaining creatures tripped over their fallen brethren and were slow to get up. It’s sad when seeing the leisurely, dumb, kind of zombies filled me with joy. I watched as the infected floundered like turtles flipped on the rounds of their shells. I again took aim carefully, and with four more shots, there were four more finally dead rotten bodies on the ground.

  Lynn grabbed my shoulder gently, so she didn’t startle me. “Now that they’re taken care of, can we please head up to the Visitors Center and find out what the shooting was all about?” she said as she took a seat on the back of my ATV.

  I changed the clip in my weapon and jumped on with her, started the vehicle, and headed up the path toward where we had heard the shot.

  We rode up the path slowly as the Visitors Center came into view. Floodlights illuminated the railing of the exterior decking that surrounded the center like a wrap-around porch. There were men armed with M16 rifles stationed at each of the two corners I could see from our vantage point.

  We were far enough away that the men couldn’t see us through the trees yet, but I assumed they heard our vehicles or my gunshots as they appeared to be on high alert.

  “Kam... shut the engine down,” I said as quietly as I could but loud enough for Kamil to hear me. “Lynn, are those guys up there people you know?” I asked, leaning forward so she could get a better look over my head.

  Lynn grumbled, “I don’t know who those assholes are, but it looks like they’ve taken over the camp.”

  “I think they heard us coming, so maybe we should hide the ATV’s as best we can and go in on foot from here. There might be more guys on the ground looking for us,” I whispered.

  Kamil and I put the quads in neutral and pushed them as quietly as possible into some bushes. We tried to cover them with branches as much as we could without creating too much of a commotion.

  I heard a thumping sound, and something cut the air between Kamil and I jutting into the dirt at our feet. The three of us instinctively dropped to the ground for cover.

  Lynn’s face scrunched up in pain as she grabbed her shoulder. The jolt of hitting the ground to save herself from being shot must have tweaked her arm again.

  “Keep your heads down and get behind these bushes,” I whispered. Bo
th Kamil and Lynn stayed flat on the ground sliding their bodies against the grass and the dead leaves as they planted themselves practically inside the brush. “The shot came from up there on the deck. One of those guys has a silenced sniper rifle, so until we know where he is, don’t move from this position. I’m going to go around this way and try to distract them,” I said as I crawled slowly away.

  The look in Lynn’s eyes told me she was worried, but I gave her a wink to let her know I’d be right back. At least I hoped I would.

  I grabbed a handful of rocks from the base of a nearby tree and threw them in the direction we originally came from. I was rewarded by two more slugs hitting the trees where I threw the stones.

  With the sniper expectedly looking that way, I quickly crawled to another set of trees in the opposite direction. Two more bullets blasted the same area where I had previously thrown the rocks, so I took the chance to move closer to the raised building.

  My plan was to flank the men on the deck of the Visitors Center and take the shooter by surprise. The building was built like a treehouse with a central set of stairs leading up to the wrap-around decking. If I could get underneath the deck, I might be able to take out the sniper and the other two shooters. That would even the odds against us a little.

  “Come on out! We’ve got you surrounded. There’s nowhere for you to go, dumbass. You’re outgunned and outnumbered so you might as well make this easy on yourself!” a raspy voice from above me yelled out.

  “Shut up, you idiot. You’re giving away our position,” another voice whispered harshly.

  The floodlights casted shadows through the decking showing me exactly where each of the men was standing above me. There was one about fifty feet to my right, one about sixty feet to my left and two standing almost right above me. The two above me had to be the sniper and his spotter. These two had to be my first targets if my friends had any chance of survival.

  Breathing deeply, I focused on the targets above me. I found the best position possible for the shots with my back pressed against the stone wall. I tightened my grip on my Barretta, my palms were sweaty from the adrenaline rush. Killing the infected is easy. Taking out the living because they’re trying to kill you is a whole other ballgame. In the age-old war of good versus evil, good has to win, though, right? Even if it does mean having to kill the living.

  I felt a chill go through my body as I took aim at the figures above me. Just because I had to kill these men didn’t mean I had to like it. That’s the difference between them and me. Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I fired two rounds into the shapes above me.

  My shots had the desired effect as both men cursed and fell to the floor above me. I fired two more rounds, and their yelling stopped. The other figures on either side of me both rush toward the stairs leading down to me, so I ran for them.

  I made it to the steps before my pursuers did, and I hid behind them. I saw the black barrel of an M16 peek over the railing. I positioned myself just underneath it, and when the shadow of the man holding the rifle appeared before me, I took aim at his head and fired again.

  My bullet hit its target dead-on, and the now lifeless body of a soldier I once knew from Brigantine’s compound tumbled like a ragdoll down the remainder of the stairs. Three down, one to go... that I know of anyway.

  The fourth man appeared to have stopped before coming down the stairs and knew I was underneath the structure. He must be standing flush with the building above me because his outline has disappeared from my sight. Either that or he went inside to get reinforcements. If that was the case, I was screwed. I was now down to my last four bullets in my fifteen-round clip, so I didn’t have enough ammunition to last in a firefight.

  ‘Please God, if you’re out there, don’t let this dickwad be getting more guys,’ I pleaded silently in my head.

  I decide to move back to where I was previously when I shot the sniper and his spotter. It’s the place I would least expect me to go, so I hoped the soldier thought that too.

  I almost shit my pants as a hand slid around my face, covering my mouth, and Lynn whispered into my ear, “Shh, it’s just us. There’s still one guy up there, though.”

  Kamil lifted his head past Lynn’s body. He gave me a quick wave and a smile before he sunk back into the wall behind us.

  Lynn released her hand from my lips, and I immediately missed the absence of her warm breath in my ear, and the delicate touch of her soft skin on my face as my heart beat faster. I was struck dumb by the intoxicating smell of Lynn’s hair, and the heat from her body pressed tightly against mine. I had to force myself to focus on the task at hand. “Where is he?” I whispered back to her, remembering we were in deep shit at the moment.

  Lynn looked me over slowly like she realized the effect she had on me and smiled cunningly. “He ran to the other side of the porch. He’s hiding behind the corner of the building over there to the left.”

  “Do you think I can get the M16 from the guy that fell down the stairs? Or do you think he’ll see me?” I asked, wanting to be better armed for the possible firefight to come.

  “It’s a gamble, but if you want, give me your gun, and I’ll lay some cover fire for you to quickly grab it.”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot you were in the Air Force,” I said, feeling like an idiot for treating her like she was some delicate flower instead of the trained killing machine she was. She was amazing with her sword, but I could imagine she was just as deadly with a gun. I’m sure her Air Force training made sure of that.

  “Yeah, and I outrank you, Private First-Class Smith, so don’t forget it again. On three. Ready? One... Two... Three,” she whispered as she ran forward under the cover of the decking while firing at the far corner’s floorboards.

  I darted out quickly, unclipped the M16 from the lifeless body tangled at the bottom of the stairs, grabbed the extra clips from his belt, and raced back to the wall.

  Lynn continued to creep around the wall towards the far end where the soldier had been hiding, the 9mm raised. I only heard three shots from the gun while Lynn was covering me, leaving her with one round remaining.

  I slapped the wall with my hand, trying subtly to get Lynn’s attention. She pulled her gaze from above her to me angrily. I motioned to her with my hands that she only had one round left in the chamber, and she shook her head as if to say, ‘Tell me something I don’t already know.’

  There I go again, not treating her like she knew what she was doing. I suck at this trying to gain favor with women thing.

  Lynn disappeared from view, followed by a loud bang. I rushed to where she was standing last, and we bumped into one another rounding the corner.

  “Oh, shit! What the hell are you doing, Jimmy?” Lynn murmured.

  “I heard the shot, and I wanted to make sure you didn’t need backup,” I replied, taking in the sweet smell of her hair even though it was matted with dirt and blood.

  “I’m fine. The moron peeked over the railing, and I took the shot. He’s down, and I didn’t see any other men. We should still take it slow up the stairs though, we don’t know what the situation is inside the Center, and the gunfire could attract more soldiers to our position,” Lynn said, readjusting herself between me and the wall, and then sliding the empty 9mm back into my holster. “My, my, Jimmy. Is that your gun… or are you just happy to see me?” she giggled as she slowly hugged the wall back towards where Kamil was still waiting.

  Ugh, this woman was going to drive me mad. The worst part was she was enjoying every second of it, and I didn’t even know if she really liked me or if she was just flirting to be nice. ’Priorities, Jimmy!’ I chastised myself. ’Men with guns taking over the Visitors Center - Remember!’ I reprimanded my inner self.

  Kamil looked over at me as I returned to the group and closed his eyes like he was concentrating on something.

  “I asked him, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

  “Shh!” he responded quickly, closing his eyes tighter. “Do you guys h
ear that? It sounds like... a helicopter!” he yelled, running over to the stairs but still using them as cover.

  Lynn and I were right behind him as the sounds became crystal clear. There was a helicopter heading our way.

  Lynn gulped, “I haven’t seen a helicopter since this whole mess started. What the hell is one doing here?”

  “I don’t know, but we better go find out. Armed men taking over the Visitor’s Center while Troy and Dr. Dodges are supposed to be working together on how to fix this plague is shitty enough. Now we throw a helicopter into the mix, and this has bad news written all over it. Can you guys tell where it’s landing? I can’t see anything through these trees, but it sounds like it’s over on the other side.”

  Lynn crouched down and began sliding against the wall back towards where she shot the last guard. “I can’t tell either, but we need to find out what the hell is going on. Let’s move, boys,” she ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am!” I responded.

  Chapter 14

  Jimmy Smith

  We rounded the corner of the building just in time to see a Black Hawk helicopter landing in the clearing behind the property. Heavily armed men jumped out and began scanning the area. I ducked down behind some bushes and motioned for Lynn and Kamil to do the same.

  The last thing we needed was to get into a gunfight with a helicopter full of heavily armed mercenaries.

  We watched on as at least a half a dozen men outfitted to the gills in tactical gear surrounded two hooded figures and shoved their captives toward the waiting helicopter.

  “I’ll give you two guesses as to who’s under those hoods,” I said, shaking my head, wishing we could do something to help.

  Lynn let out a heavy sigh. “I’ll bet the rest of my people are either dead or tied up in the bunker in the basement of the Visitors Center if that’s Troy and Dr. Dodges being loaded onto that helicopter.”

  “Shit!” Kamil muttered.