by TW Gallier
The Deathdealers recovered and came after us. They remained on the service road, passengers firing at us. They zigzagged, changing speed, anything they could to keep from being shot, but we were still getting more than a few of them thanks to the crew-served weapons on the jeep and pickups.
"Look up on top of the bridge," Olivia shouted over the wind.
There was a single RTV in the middle of the bridge. A man and woman were sitting there. The woman was driving, and he was talking into a hand mike. Was he their leader? Was he directing their attacks?
"Ralph, start shooting zombies!" I called.
We were almost to the bridge, and we'd have to slow down if he couldn't thin them out quite a bit. He swung the M60 around and opened up on them. I could see where he was shooting thanks to the tracers. Zombies were dropping in scores.
I turned my attention to the Deathdealer's leader. The jeep didn't have the smoothest ride, and that section of I-50 could use some work, but I lit them up. They ducked at any rate. Then they jumped on the RTV and took off eastward, going to our right. I was willing to let him go, but Olivia growled and veered right.
"Oh shit!" I cried, as we left the road, bumped across the bare earth, and hit the service road. "What the hell?"
"Cut off the head!" she said. "Kill the snake!"
Glancing back at the convoy, I saw Jake lead them under the bridge. Then we went off the black top again, and Olivia took us up the embankment to the county road. A second later we flew into the air, only to slam back to the ground right in front of the RTV.
"Aaaiiee!" she screamed, as did the woman driving the RTV.
They slammed into us, spinning us around and killing the engine. Ralph and I were left sprawled, and Ralph was hanging half out of the jeep. The Deathdealers both lifted Uzis, fury in their faces.
"No!" Olivia cried, lifted her pistol, and shot the woman in the face.
Ralph regained his feet and opened up on both of them, ripping them to pieces. It was horrific to see what a M60 did to the human body up close and personal. Bile rose in my throat, just before we were surrounded by more RTVs and motorcycles.
"Get out of here!" I screamed.
It was too late. A big blonde guy grabbed Olivia and yanked her out of the driver's seat. She flew a good ten feet, and her helmet came off upon impact with the ground. Three others jumped on her as I aimed my AR15, but I was grabbed and pulled out before I could get a shot off. Others piled into the jeep, dragging Ralph down even as he sprayed the area with M60 fire.
Men kicked and punched me, until I stopped struggling. I was barely conscious. Then they dragged me to my knees, and another guy kicked me in the gut. I puked.
They dumped Ralph next to me a moment later, and then Olivia was dragged by her hair to my other side. We were all battered and bloody, and I knew we were dead meat. Our captors looked upon us with hate and fury.
"You killed Nate and Sammy Jo, motherfuckers!" a big, long-haired guy shouted, all red-faced and fists clenched. "I'm going to beat you to death!"
"Aeeeiiiieee!" a few screamed to the north of us.
Everyone turned to see zombies bearing down on us. A few of the Deathdealers were already going down. I reacted without thought. Reaching down, I pulled my pistol, aimed at the big guy who wanted to beat us to death, and shot him in the head. I guess Ralph and Olivia remembered they had pistols, because they started shooting, too.
"Watch out for the walkers!" I called. "To the jeep!"
The Deathdealers, to their credit, didn't run away from the zombies. They turned and attacked. They forgot about us in doing so, since the zombies were even scarier than us. I didn't mind being second in the scary department. Still, a few of them turned on us.
We shot them.
Zombies were already at the jeep. I pistol whipped the first to reach for me, before shooting the one behind him. Then I thrust-kicked another in the chest to send him falling back into the others. That gave me just enough time to jump into the jeep. Olivia was in back, next to the M60 and struggling with a zombie holding her left wrist and trying to drag her back out of the jeep.
I shot him in the face and he let go. She plopped into the driver's seat, paused to shoot another zombie, and then started the jeep. She put it into gear.
"Wait for Ralph!" I screamed. "Ralph!"
Two zombies had him, pulling him away from us. I scrambled into the back of the jeep, emptied my pistol into the zombies around him, and reached for him. Ralph grabbed my hand.
"Go, Olivia, go!"
The jeep surged forward, plowing through more zombies. That movement pulled Ralph out of the hands of the remaining zombies. I heaved with all my might, and together we barely got him back inside. Then Olivia cut sharply, sending us to the floor, me on bottom.
"Almost there!" Olivia cried. The jeep shuddered with every impact with a zombie. They were all around us, reaching for us as we drove by. "Shit! Shit! Shit! I hate zombies!"
I couldn't get out from under Ralph, who was battering me as he struggled to get to his feet in that crazy, bouncing jeep. Olivia was driving and firing her pistol.
"We're on the road!" she shouted. "Hurry, get in your seats."
We were still surrounded by zombies. The jeep was jolted every time she plowed into one of the walkers. Ralph finally gained his feet, manned the M60, and started clearing out a path before us. I scrambled into the passenger seat, picked up an AR15 sitting on the floorboards, and started shooting as well.
After my second magazine, we broke free of the zombie horde.
Jake's Trailblazer and Mike's pickup were waiting for us, mowing down zombies to clear a path for us. At first I was grateful and so thankful they'd come back to help us. Then I realized if they hadn't, then we would've been free to go off on our own.
"Well, that was fun," I gasped out, looking all around, feeling a little giddy. "Not!"
Chapter 9
It was dark when we finally reached Carson's city limits. Jake stopped us atop a rise with a great view of the city. I studied the city through a pair of binoculars, though it wasn't easy in the dark. The sky was cloudy, threatening rain again, which just made it darker.
"What does it look like?" Olivia asked.
It was surreal looking at a city that I always knew as well-lit. I could see abandoned vehicles on the roads, burnt out neighborhoods. A downtown high rise was billowing smoke, but I couldn't see any flames. Indeed, there were more than a dozen columns of smoke rising up from the dead city.
"Dark," I said. "But I see a quite a few fires. It looks like Dante's Inferno in some places." I lowered the binoculars to look at Olivia, grinning, "No, I've never read Dante."
"Ha ha, you guys are hilarious," Ralph said. "Any sign of life?"
"Yes," I said. "I see burning vehicles in three places."
So there were people fighting each other down there. Zombies didn't start fires. I wasn't sure they were mentally able to start a fire.
"Can you see the armory?" Olivia asked. "It's on the other side of downtown."
I knew about where it was located. Downtown was shrouded in smoke, so I couldn't see past it. Yet, there were no indications anything was burning on the other side of Carson's small downtown. Small by New York and Chicago standards, that is. I thought it was huge.
A highway ran north-south just east of downtown, intersecting another highway running east-west along the southside. Both of those highways were filled with abandoned cars and trucks. We might be able to get through that mess in the jeep, but the bigger trucks probably wouldn't make it. The quick and easy way out wasn't available.
We were on a different highway that passed through the northern part of the city at a north-west – southeast angle. Within the city, it also became cluttered with wrecks and abandoned vehicles. So I studied the highway that circled around the city, which was locally called, The Loop.
"Here comes our glorious leader," Ralph whispered.
I noticed Olivia slanted a hostile look back at Jake. Mike trott
ed up to join him. No one had advised us, but I suspected Mike was second in command. He obviously thought he was, and probably thought he should be in command.
"What does it look like?" Jake asked. "Can you see the armory from here?"
"No," I said. "It's on the other side of downtown," I said. "I'm trying to figure out our best route, but with the darkness and smoke, it's a problem."
Both Jake and Mike had binoculars, and we stood in front of the jeep looking the city over. I pointed out a few trouble spots, and some possible obstacles.
"Olivia, I think we'll have to take the Loop around to Cartwright," I said.
She nodded, "I figured as much."
Olivia was munching on a C-Ration, while wearing my helmet liner. I didn't really like wearing a hat, much less a helmet. She seemed adverse to a bare head. And, she looked cute in the fiberglass helmet liner. When a few crumbs fell from her mouth and went down into her cleavage, she pulled her shirt out and looked down.
"Pigs," she muttered, noticing all of the guys watching her.
I quickly looked away, face heating up. Embarrassing, but I wasn't sure why. I just didn't want her thinking badly of me.
"Is that gunfire?" Ralph asked, perking up. "I can barely hear it."
He was right. Someone was shooting between us and the city. I suspected a survivor shooting at zombies, since it sounded like a single weapon.
"How's your ammo holding out?" Mike asked.
"We've used about half," Ralph said, sounding just a little uncertain.
"Have you been changing out your barrel?" Mike continued. "Are any of them burnt up and unusable?"
"All three of mine are good."
Mike turned to Jake. "They're the only ones who didn't ruin at least one barrel. Phil and Carl burned up all three of theirs."
"Mother fuckers! I told them to change the barrels out," Jake growled, eyes narrowing. "I swear, I'm surrounded by idiots."
They took our two spares for Phil and Carl. Ralph and I both protested taking both. Leave us at least one spare. Others had a spare, and I suspected Mike's vehicle had two spares. He would at least ensure his M60 gunner changed barrels. Jake's vehicle had a .50 Cal mounted on it. I knew they wouldn't admit it, but I suspected they took both of our spares because we were the outsiders and didn't care if we died.
"Don't worry," Mike said as he left with both spares. "You can have as many spares as you want from the armory."
They also took inventory of our remaining ammo. Jake and Mike checked all of the vehicles, and redistributed ammo as needed. We lost three boxes of M60 and all but one box of the AR15 ammo. The passenger side floorboard was covered with full 30-round magazines I'd been loading while on the road. No one gave them a second look, so didn't take any. All they seemed concerned about was boxes of ammo.
"Win," Olivia whispered, glancing at the magazines before wagging her brows at me.
I just grinned.
"I'm surprised they didn’t take all of our food," Ralph grumbled. "I have some spare underwear. Do they want that too?"
"You scored undies?" Olivia asked. "How? Where? The Army Surplus store?"
I saw the underwear, but I grabbed socks first and totally forgot about snagging a change of shorts. So I felt more than a little foolish knowing I had a clean t-shirt and socks, but dirty underwear. At least I wasn't the only one to fuck up like that.
"Hey, our priorities were different. You got a watch, I stuffed my pockets with underwear," Ralph said.
Olivia turned and knelt facing him in her seat. She looked eager. Excited.
"Give me a couple pairs."
"No."
That surprised me. I'd have given her anything she wanted. Underwear seemed like such a trivial thing, too. Did Ralph have some weird thing about his shorts? I kind of hoped he did, so I had something to make fun of him about.
"One pair," she pleaded. "I'll give you my watch."
Ralph leered at her, "The watch isn't what I want."
Olivia gawked at him a second, before shaking her head and facing forward in her seat.
"Guys are so disgusting," she grumbled.
"At least I'm not wearing ten day old panties," Ralph returned.
"Neither am I," she said, slanting a bemused take that look at him.
"Hush, here comes Jake," I said. Really, I didn't want to think about Olivia being commando. I was wearing the same shorts I'd awakened in on day one of the zombie apocalypse. That wasn't something I wanted to think about, either. "How much fuel do we have?"
"Half a tank," she said.
That was more than enough to reach the armory, but not enough for a return trip to Emory. My mind was already going beyond that, to how we were going to part company with Jake and company. I'd like to have a full tank when that happened. I glanced at the dark, smoky city. There were possibilities of escape down there, too. Heck, maybe we could even return to our apartments and grab some extra clothes and underwear.
"Hey, man," I said before Jake could speak. "We need to think about refueling before heading back. On top of that our jerry can was shot full of holes."
"I know," he said. "I want to stop at the first gas station we find anyway and get some city maps."
Military guys and their maps. I knew the streets well enough to get us there. Olivia and Ralph knew them just as well. We all worked about a mile for the armory, though I rarely drove past it. The Army Reserve armory was on a large street between downtown and Uptown. Of course, if they had maps they might not need us.
"Sure thing," I said, and forgot all about it when I looked past him and southward down the highway. "Shit. Are those the Deathdealers?"
Jake followed my eyes and grunted. Olivia jumped out of the jeep to see, and Ralph started cussing. My heart raced as I looked upon two columns of motorcycles and RTVs topping the next hill back. They had their headlights on, while we were driving without lights. Again, some sort of military thing. It really slowed us down.
"Probably," Jake said. "Hard to tell from this distance, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't them."
"We've kicked their asses twice," Ralph said. "What the hell do they want?"
I wasn't so sure our second battle with them resulted in their asses getting kicked. I was still battered and bruised, and ached all over, from that fight. My ass was definitely kicked. Yet, we did escape and killed a lot more of them than they killed of us.
Jake headed back to his truck, telling us to mount up. A moment later he ordered us to head out over the walkie-talkie.
"I hate the Deathdealers," Olivia said, putting it in gear and starting forward. "I think they broke my nose."
Her nose didn't look broken to me. Maybe it was a little swollen, but what did I know? Ralph's nose kind of looked flattened it was swollen so much. She did have a busted lip and a black eye. I could only imagine what I looked like. My face ached, but not as much as my left shoulder and right ribs.
Ralph changed the ammo in the M60, mounting a full ammo can and racking the charging hand. "Let's party like Green Berets!"
The road was remarkable easy to see without lights. Of course, we didn't have headlights glaring in our eyes. Clouds blocked the moon, but Olivia didn't have any trouble staying on the road. I found it a little amusing that she remained within her lane, despite no other traffic or police to give her a ticket.
Old habits.
The highway we were driving down went above the Loop. So we slowed, allowing the convoy to close up ranks, before taking the off ramp to the eight-lane Loop around Carson. Ralph and I were on alert, since it was a place we were forced to slow down and there were lots of places for ambushers to hide.
"Try to stay off the brakes," Jake's voice came over the radio. "The Deathdealers can probably see our brake lights."
"Damn, this place stinks," Ralph said.
Mostly, I smelled smoke, but there was an underlying rancid stench. The stench of death and the end of the world. I didn't even want to think about it.
"Olivia, can we pic
k up the speed on the Loop?" I asked. "Maybe we can get the convoy out of sight before the Deathdealers get here."
"You don't think they can see us turning?"
It was dark and I never looked back to see if they'd reached the last hill. Turning off the highway without them noticing was the best case scenario. But I wasn't feeling lucky.
"Not sure, but it's worth a try."
She got it up to 50 MPH pretty fast. I half expected Jake to call and say slow down. The jeep was the slowest vehicle, so they weren't having an issue keeping up. I had Ralph watch the rear to see if the Deathdealers turned onto the Loop. We passed out of sight before he noticed them arrive.
There was the occasional lone zombie, and a few small groups of them, but we just drove around them and kept going. They were no threat to us so we didn't have to waste any ammo. I did hear one of the trucks behind us shoot up a group of about twenty walkers, which got Jake on the radio cussing them out.
Jake was more concerned about alerting other hostile forces of our arrival. I hadn't really considered that, since I was too worried about the known enemy shadowing us. Always good to have more to worry about.
"Here comes our turn off," I radioed. "Cartwright. We should be at the armory in ten to fifteen minutes."
"I think you're supposed to say our ETA is ten minutes," Ralph corrected me. "To keep in the military theme and all."
"And you forgot to say 'over and out' too. Dork," Olivia said under her breath. She glanced at me and giggled.
"That's commander dork to you, private," I replied.
There were dark piles of cloth along the road that she had to swerve to miss. It took me a moment to realize they were corpses. I had Olivia slow down to check one out, and discovered it was mostly eaten.
"Ugh! I think I'm going to throw up," Olivia said, hitting the gas. "So sick."
For once I was glad it was dark so I didn't have to see the details of the others. Unfortunately, after looking at one I couldn't get that image out of my mind. Also, the stench of rotting flesh filled my nostrils. It was there before, but now I knew what it was.