I tapped my radio for Miriam.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked.
“I’m not sure what to think. That bite doesn’t seem to be showing any of the normal symptoms that a zombie bite typically shows. I need to do some research on this. I will let you know when I have something. In the meantime, do the evacuation as soon as possible…and get that woman on the chopper. I want to talk to this person. That is, if she’s still alive by nightfall.”
“Gotcha, as soon as the sun goes down we’re outta here.”
Adam wanted to know what was going on. I didn’t blame him a bit. I just didn’t exactly know what to tell him. How do you explain to someone that the so called experts are actually stumped? At that point, I was really wishing that Jaxon was with us. Then again, Jaxon isn’t exactly the emotional type and I can’t really even picture him being in my situation. He’d probably just tell the guy to go talk to Kingsley.
I was a mess. I had no idea what to say to him.
“Dudley, do you realize that you’ve become somewhat popular around the world?”
I may have heard that once or twice. Are you gonna hit me up for my autograph?
After a polite chuckle, I answered him. It somewhat crosses the line with unbiased journalism, but I’m pretty sure that most people would agree that I crossed that line during the first set of interviews.
“I’m actually not going to ask you for an autograph. I’m going to pass on a little secret that you haven’t seemed to grasp just yet.”
Really, what’s that?
“You among the other Regulators (excluding the General) have become popular…because you are so very human.”
After seeing his look of confusion, I went ahead and elaborated.
“The General is a walking legend, he goes out and does these very brave things, but he seems somewhat distant and cold. Don’t get me wrong, Jaxon is a hero; he saves the day, but he isn’t personal. You however, are affected by the things you see. You feel bad for people; you care.”
“It’s just something that I’ve noticed. Obviously, a lot of other people have noticed your humanity as well, or I don’t think you would be quite so popular in those internet chat rooms.”
Uh huh…are you trying to say that I’m a crybaby?
That time, I did laugh.
“Not at all, I’m just saying that your emotions are what set you apart. That’s a good thing.”
So not knowing what to do is a good thing according to you?
“Being a human being is a good thing, because in spite of how things affect you, you still go out there and try to help people. So what did you tell Adam?”
He paused and looked at me for a bit, shrugged his shoulders and continued.
I think I’d rather just be a badass know it all, but regardless of that, I just told Adam the truth. I told him that his wife’s bite mark was confusing us and that unless she took a turn for the worse, we were going to evacuate her at nightfall.
This of course gave both of them a dangerous thing; it gave them hope. I tried to explain that getting their hopes up might not be such a good idea, but I had lost total control of the situation and just kept my thoughts to myself as I wondered how badly they would hate me when things turned ugly.
Turns out, things didn’t turn ugly. Michelle just kept on eating and drinking. Her cheeks were flushed with the joy of leaving. Shortly after the sun had finally set, we were on our way.
Hardin was back in the control room at this time so I was able to talk to him.
“We’re moving out,” I said after tapping my earpiece.
“We have a new extraction point; the previous one has too much activity at the moment. The chopper will be there within the next thirty minutes.”
I was the first out the door. I was followed by Georgie, then Adam and Michelle. Kingsley and Javie made up the rear. There were bodies all over the street. This was just a bit shocking, I knew our gunfire had brought down a bunch of shamblers before Jaxon charged them, but from inside the house I wasn’t able to see all the bodies that Jaxon must have dropped as he led them away.
Once again, I was somewhat amazed by my uncle’s ability to bring forth so much destruction. I was glad he was on our side.
That’s when something caught my eye.
I motioned everyone to the Jeep and went forward to investigate. As quietly as possible, I ran up the road and investigated the object that had caught my interest. It was Jaxon’s earpiece. He must have lost it when he attacked the horde. I would have grabbed it for him, but it looked like it had been stepped on about a dozen times if not more.
Further up the road, I noticed something else. It was Jaxon’s vest and mp7. Why he would ditch his neck protection and weapon I had no idea, but I picked it up for him anyway.
Within seconds I was back in the Jeep. It was a tight fit cramming everyone inside one Jeep, but I wanted to leave the other one for Jaxon. I figured he would make his way back to this location with hopes that we had left a radio for him to make contact. I didn’t want to disappoint him.
Georgie was driving, Javie was riding shotgun, Adam and Michelle had the backseat and Kingsley and I were on either side holding onto the roll bar for dear life, and that’s not an understatement with the way Georgie drives.
Javie had already called up our extraction point on the dash mounted computer. It showed a little map of the West side with a red dot on our destination. It looked like we were headed to the top of the Coronado Tower, which was located on Mesa.
“What’s the Coronado tower?”
Oh yeah, you don’t live in El Paso. It’s just a tall building on Mesa. It might actually be the tallest building on the West side, but don’t quote me on that. At the moment however, I can’t seem to think of anything taller. It also has a nice restaurant on the top floor. I heard it’s pretty delectable, but I’ve never actually eaten there.
Also, just in case you didn’t know, Mesa is one of the main streets on the West side of El Paso.
“I actually remembered that. Please continue.”
Well apparently, the zombies that Jaxon had led away from out location were all in the process of returning. It was evident the minute we hit Mesa and random corpses starting charging the car and belting out those nasty screams.
It was almost a game between Kingsley and me as we tried to pop off headshots before they could scream. It wasn’t an easy game by any means. There were too many deserted cars and blocked routes on the street and the shamblers were coming from all directions.
I really don’t know how to accurately describe something running out at you from behind an abandoned car. Their decaying yellowish faces, their slimy bone-like hands. It’s nightmare material. Some of them were limping, others just bolted towards us at a sudden dead run.
Still, we did a decent job. We kept all of them from approaching the Jeep. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep all of them from screaming. More and more of them were attracted by the screams and headed our way. My main concern was that they were going to mass around the Coronado Tower once we made our way inside.
“Hardin, there’s too many shamblers out here,” I said after I gave my earpiece a tap.
“I think you’re okay, Dudley,” Hardin replied. “The dead are pretty spread out in your area. Just to be safe, instead of doing the extraction at the top of the tower, let’s pull this off in the large parking lot behind the building.”
“That’ll work,” I replied.
It was a relief to all of us. Nobody wanted to go to the top of that building. We had no idea what we would encounter and didn’t want to get stuck if the exits got surrounded.
The parking lot behind the Coronado Tower also was a bit of a challenge. It was an open area with pretty much zero cover. According to the plans that Jaxon and Hardin came up with, we weren’t supposed to hang around when a chopper came to pick up survivors, because a landing chopper is pretty much a dinner bell for the undead. The idea was for us to leave the survivors in a s
afe place, while we retreated to a decent cover where we could provide protection in case the survivors needed it.
There was no safe place for us to place Adam and Michelle for extraction. We would need to be right next to them in order to provide security, and that pretty much left us fucked when it came time to remove ourselves after the extraction.
I wanted to explain this to Hardin, but I didn’t want to look like a pussy. Man-pride won out in the end. I said nothing.
When we reached the location, I had already figured out a plan. We parked the Jeep on one of the adjoining streets and left Georgie with the Jeep. Then we pretty much covered the compass by using Coronado Towers as south. Javie took north in an area where some construction was going on. Kingsley and Georgie made up east and west. Georgie had the Jeep for cover, but Kingsley found a group of cars in which to hide himself fairly well.
Everything was far from ideal, but we made do. There were a few zombies in the area. I popped off some shots to bring them down as I walked Adam and Michelle to the center of the parking lot. Both of them were terrified, but Michelle seemed to have more energy. She was walking without any aid from Adam, only holding his hand.
As soon as we hit the center, I tapped my earpiece for Hardin.
“We’re in position and the position sucks, so get that chopper here now.”
I felt a little uncomfortable barking orders at him like that; the guy was pretty hardcore. I’ve seen Jaxon bark at him a bunch of times, but Jaxon barks at everybody when he’s in a mood. Fortunately for me, Hardin didn’t get all emotional, and he ignored my tone. It would have sucked if he decided to tell me off over the radio or, even worse, delay the chopper, but the man’s a professional.
The helicopter arrived within moments.
So did the dead.
It was an immediate firefight as soon as the chopper started to descend. Everyone was firing to keep us from getting overwhelmed. That is, everyone except for Kingsley. There were no shots coming from his direction. I had to cover myself and anything moving towards us from the area he was supposed to have been taking care of.
My nerves got the best of me. I started to miss my targets. When that happened, I started to fire more shots. It was a losing situation. We would soon be overwhelmed. Things got real bad when I fumbled my mag change.
I had some serious shakes when I was finally ready to start firing again; the zombies were just a few feet away. I sprayed that damn weapon like a fire hose and fortunately dropped all the shamblers that got past Javie and Georgie. I even had a moment of fear go lancing through my head about Kingsley. Why wasn’t he shooting?
Suddenly, the chopper pilot was speaking in my ear.
“Sir, I can’t land here. There’s too many of them.”
“No shit,” I replied. “Do it anyway.”
The pilot started crying about this and that and how he was going to get himself killed if he brought her down any farther. I don’t blame him. How many sane people do you know that would place themselves in that kind of danger? I just didn’t care. I needed to get Adam and Michelle on that helicopter yesterday, and I needed to get the team outta the damn area.
“The pilot refused to land?”
Yeah, he took one look at the situation and panicked. Even Hardin was yelling at him to land. There was just no reaching the guy. With all the bricks he was shitting, I could have built a house. Finally, after hovering over us for way too long, he started gaining altitude. At this point, I was barely going to be able to get myself out of the area. There was no way I was going to be able to pull Adam and Michelle out as well.
Luckily for everyone, Ivana was in the helicopter. She really shouldn’t have been. Jaxon kept her well away from any danger, and if he found out that she was joy riding over El Paso, he was going to have a fit, but it was fortunate for all concerned that she tends to ignore my uncle. She didn’t like the situation one bit. I could hear her screaming at the pilot, and the chopper began to hesitate. Suddenly, a rescue line and harness were thrown down. I immediately dropped my weapon to hang around my chest and prayed that Georgie and Javie could keep me from getting eaten for just a few moments.
I hurriedly stuffed Michelle into the harness and told Adam to hold on tight as the helicopter began to ascend once more. Georgie and Javie succeeded in keeping the zombies off of me for a few moments, but those few moments were over.
I waved a goodbye to Ivana and focused my attention back on my surroundings. About fifteen or twenty rancid corpses charged in my direction. I pulled out my machete while random pictures of Jaxon charging headlong into masses of zombies fired around in my brain.
I glared at my oncoming attackers. For just a brief moment I pictured the battle that was about to go down. Then I mumbled, ‘fuck it’ and ran like hell.
I could hear the muffled thumps as Georgie and Javie fired on my pursuers. I was worried that I was going to end up taking a bullet due to Georgie’s shitty aim. Luckily it didn’t happen, but I was still worried.
My escape route was planned from the beginning. As soon as Georgie saw me retreat, he would fire up the Jeep, pick up Javie and then come around to pick up Kingsley and me. The only problem was that Kingsley might have been hurt, or worse. Regardless, if he had been able, he would have cleared me a path. My retreat was now lacking a safe exit, so I was hacking every shambler that got in my way. I think I brought down at least five of them. I just remember goo dripping down my blade and onto my gloved hands. I squeezed the handle as tight as possible to keep from losing the weapon.
When I finally reached Kingsley’s hiding place, I couldn’t even find him. I did a real quick search under and between the cars and was about to give up due to my pursuers, when the door of one of the vehicles opened and he stepped out.
His eyes were giant orbs of fear as he looked over my shoulder.
“You led them right to us,” he managed to stammer.
I turned and followed his gaze. The parking lot was worse than I had realized. It was flooded with the undead, and all of those zombies were headed right for us.
“Move,” I shouted out.
I grabbed Kingsley by his weapon strap and began to run. At first I had no idea where I was going to go, but then my brain began functioning once again and I headed us towards Javie’s direction in the hopes that after Georgie picked him up, we would be able to catch him on the way to our appointed spot.
Of course, if I was wrong and they were somehow delayed, we would probably be swamped and eaten. Not a great thought.
Behind us, the situation was pretty grave. The mass of undead were rapidly gaining on us. Kingsley just wasn’t a fast runner. I could hear him huffing and puffing behind me as I dragged him along.
I could have ditched him, but that’s not my style. I’m a Regulator. If my fellow Regulator goes down, I’m going down with him, and I’m going to fight until the bitter end. I could feel my mp7 bouncing about on my chest. I wondered briefly if I should drop the machete and grab the rifle. I had just enough time to consider how much ammo was left in the weapon when I saw the lights of the Jeep turn a corner and head our way.
I poured on the speed.
“Let go of me,” Kingsley growled as he slapped my hand away from him.
I dove into the back of the Jeep as Georgie came to a screeching halt. Kingsley was suddenly on top of me. I felt the air leave my lungs as his weight slammed against me. Kingsley is a big, big boy. My face was buried in the fabric of the backseat and I had to fight to lift my head.
I wasn’t happy with the view.
Standing there in the glare of the headlights were the snarling and decaying faces of a couple hundred zombies.
Georgie and Javie looked like they were about to piss themselves. Kingsley and I already had. We knew this situation from before. They might be temporarily confused, but it wasn’t going to last long and then they were going to charge.
“Kingsley,” I said. “Get your legs inside the Jeep. Georgie hit the top.”
Ge
orgie was frozen solid. I can’t blame the guy. He wasn’t exactly an old hat at this game. Especially since his candy ass never left the Safe Zone.
I had only a few moments to act.
Slowly, just as slowly as possible, I leaned forward to reach the lever on the floor of the Jeep next to the four wheel drive stick.
I couldn’t reach.
I shifted my legs just a little bit in order to get a better angle. I was using Kingsley’s shoulder to hold myself steady. I ended up over-reaching and my mp7 clattered on the floor of the Jeep just as I lowered myself beneath the dash.
The sound was rather loud.
I heard the scream, but I wasn’t sure if it was coming from Georgie or one of the shamblers. All I knew was that I needed to hit that lever or we were all going to end up a bowel movement from an undead stomach.
“Lovely.”
Not really.
I heard the first of them slam into the hood of the Jeep. I couldn’t resist, I raised my head above the dashboard. Through the glass of the windshield, I was face to face with a member of the undead club.
It’s actually a pretty horrible sight when you’re that close to one of those things. Its eyes had gone a milky white. It was missing most of its nose and part of its lips. The teeth were a scum colored brown and its hair was a mass of dirt and tangles.
I hit the lever just as its hand smashed into the windshield.
I shouldn’t have hesitated.
The face in the windshield wasn’t the only zombie that charged us. It was just the only one I noticed in that brief second. It turns out that all of them did and if I had been a second later on hitting that lever, well, it would have been a pretty crappy evening.
I was able to hit the lever in time though, and believe me, it was just in time. The armored top of the vehicle shot up through a bunch of different slots at what seemed like warp speed. The pieces clicked, snapped, and slammed together so fast it actually took the head off of one of the shamblers just as it leaned forward to take a chomp out of Kingsley.
The Regulators - 02 Page 4