“AHHH!” Leia’s high-pitched scream caught my attention.
“Go, I’ve got these two,” said DeAndre as he pumped a shotgun load at the zombie in front. It fell back, half its head gone.
Nodding, I ran over to where Leia was crouched. She’d run behind a nearby tree when Dad had begun fighting two zombies at once. She was halfway up, about seven feet off the ground. Five zombies were at the base, two already crawling up the trunk.
“Hold still, Leia,” I swung my knife and decapitated two with one blow, then brought my shotgun up and blew the head off a third. Two more faced me, and I dispatched them quickly with my knife. Turning around, I blasted another off its feet and back ten yards. Pausing to reload, I called up to Leia.
“Stay up there, Leia; you’re safer in the tree. In fact, get up higher!”
She nodded and began to climb. I felt a hard thump at my feet and looked down to see a zombie grabbing at my lower legs as it died, its middle blown out by Zach. I looked up to see him grin and give a thumbs-up sign. I leapt after him, and we both jumped into the main fight, knives swinging and shotguns blasting.
BAM!!!
Bub-BAMMM!!!!!
Shotgun blasts sounded over and over as we fought the monsters. Dad and DeAndre fought back to back, and Zach and Jonathan too. This is how we’d been trained to fight when faced with overwhelming odds, and as I looked out and saw how big this horde of zombies was, I began to worry we might not be able to win. There weren’t hundreds, there were at least a thousand. The call of their king had brought them, and even though we’d killed it, enough had heard that call and had responded. They were coming from all around.
I looked back at the SUV and saw Risa running from it. She limped as she ran, but as she hobbled along, still gravely injured from the attacked at Thunder Bay, she held two backpacks in her arms. I saw a third on her back. Reaching into the bag, she grabbed something and lifted it to her mouth as she ran, then threw it.
BADABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DeAndre’s percussion grenades.
Risa ran up to me and handed me one of the backpacks, and I swiftly grabbed two out and dropped the pack at my feet. Pulling the pins, I threw the things as far as I could.
BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!
BA-BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They were designed by DeAndre himself, to shock the monsters, to catch them by surprise and disorient them. Our scientists had found that much of their navigation depended on sound, and with such loud blasts so close together, a huge wave of them fell to the ground, holding their heads.
“LOOK OUT!!!”
We were rushed from behind by a group of them, and Risa and I swiftly turned and began blasting away with our shotguns. They had us badly outnumbered, though. Grabbing my pack, I motioned to Risa and we ran to the tree Leia had scampered up.
“Leia!” She looked down at me, and I tossed up my backpack. “Toss a few of these into the zombies, and be sure to keep ‘em far from us, okay?”
She nodded and began to dig in the bag. Within 20 seconds I heard the first blast.
BA-BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I swung my knife and lopped off three more heads. Looking up, I caught sight of Leia as she threw another grenade. This girl would do fine. Lowering my face again, I saw three zombies jump onto Risa, and she fell to the ground.
Holstering my knife, I grabbed at two zombies and flung them away from us, then twirled around and blasted them both in the head. They dropped instantly.
“You shouldn’t be out here fighting, Sis.”
“Like I’m gonna just sit back while you guys have all the fun?” She kicked the third one off and brought her shotgun up: BOOM!!!!! Bye-bye zombie.
I held my hand out to her, and she grabbed it with her good hand and jumped up to her feet.
“Jonathan pumped me full of painkillers right before he got out, so I’m good for this fight.” As she spoke, however, one of her legs gave way and she swayed to the left.
“Whoa,” I said, grabbing her and tucking my shoulder under her arm.
BOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leia was having a field day. Those grenades made everything easier; they stunned a good portion of the zombies so we could tackle them piecemeal. We must have killed several hundred or more of those things, fighting hard, fighting fast, the Sanctuary way.
BBBOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Luke, cover me!” I swung around as Dad reloaded, taking down ten more in a few moments.
“Jonathan, throw me that sack!” Risa had dropped her backpack and had been fighting near her husband, but the action moved fast, and now she was a dozen feet away, fighting with DeAndre.
Jonathan swung the pack over to me, and I grabbed it out of the air and ran up to Leia’s tree.
“Here!” She reached down and grabbed the sack and dug into it, then climbed up higher and began throwing them far into the north edge of the park.
BOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!
BABOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!
“LUKE!”
Zach was going down. I ran toward him, but Dad was faster. Shooting his way through three zombies, he grabbed one that had Zach almost onto the ground and, holding it up and away from them, put the business end of his shotgun to the thing’s head and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!!!
Black muck sprayed on the two as the things head came apart.
“Ugh,” Dad said.
“Thanks,” Zach smiled up at him. Dad reached down and helped him onto his feet.
“Luke’d kill me if anything happened to you, son.”
I smiled.
Zach smiled broader and hugged Dad, and I joined them.
“How’s it looking, Dad,” I asked, scanning the area. The fog, grenades, and shotgun blasts had combined to create a thick haze over the scene, and it was difficult to see very far.
DeAndre and Jonathan were fighting a group of zombies, there looked to be about 10 of them. Risa soon joined them, and then Dad, Zach and I ran over. Pretty soon we were all fighting in a circle, facing outward, as the zombies just kept coming.
BA-BOOMMMMM!!!!!!
BADABOOOOOOOOMMM!
Leia was still at it with the grenades, thank god. It really helped.
“They just keep coming,” Zach panted.
“They do that sometimes,” I said beside him. “Just don’t let your guard down.”
“If you get tired, son, get behind us a bit, so we can cover you.”
I swung at two more zombies that jumped at me together. One’s head came off cleanly, but then my knife stuck in the other’s skull. I reached down to pull it out, placing my boot on the thing’s shoulder. It grabbed at me feebly as I wrenched out my blade. I pointed my shotgun’s muzzle at it and finished the job I’d started. It lay still.
Looking up, I could see fifteen more rushing toward me. I leveled my gun and began blasting. They flew back several at a time. I loved the high-caliber shots. They plowed through and really knocked them down. Swinging my big knife, I cut down the last three, kicking at one at the last minute and chopping its head off as it fell.
Suddenly, I noticed Leia’s grenades had stopped sounding. Oh, no.
“I’m all out!” She called from fifteen feet up her tree.
“Uh oh.”
“Let’s pack together under the tree.”
“Should we try to get to the vehicle?”
I looked back at it but saw a flood of zombies come rushing around it.
“Look out!”
There must have been at least fifty zombies coming around the two vehicles, like water around two boulders.
“Luke!”
I swung to the left and saw another hundred coming from that side.
“Oh, god, this is not good.”
“Luke, get up this tree,” Dad was frantic.
“They’d just climb it anyway.”
“I don’t care, get the hell up the tree, Son.”
DeAndre grabbed me and boosted me bodily ten feet up.
I grabbed a branch and hauled myself up to sit beside Leia.
“I hate this.”
Blasts and yells sounded from below as the Sanctuary team fought without me.
“I can’t do this.” I leaned out and began shooting, my blasts too high to be very effectual. “Dammit.” I began to climb down.
As I dropped to the ground again, I swung my knife wide and caught a zombie that had been about to grab Risa as she crouched down by the trunk of the big tree.
“My stupid leg …” I looked down and saw her leg had begun to bleed again. It was useless. Risa looked into my face and grimaced. “Painkillers wearing off …” Her face contorted in pain as she crumpled to the ground.
“Stay still, Sis,” I cut down three more zombies that had made it to the base of the tree.
“Jake!” DeAndre had gone down in a rush of at least twenty zombies.
Zach and Jonathan were fighting to get to DeAndre. Dad got there first and began chipping away at the monsters, but three more jumped onto him, and he turned to fight those.
“AHHH!!!!!!”
“I got this! I GOT THIS… OH GOD!!!”
“AIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“GET OFF ME!!! AAAHHHH!!!”
We weren’t going to win this one. They just kept coming. They stream of zombies seemed endless. I kept chopping at them, and blasting at them until my ammo ran out. Zombie bodies fell at my feet and began to pile up. I kicked them off, but more replaced them. After a few minutes, I didn’t hear DeAndre or Dad’s voices anymore.
“DAD!!!” Nothing…
Silence. Except for…
“LUKE!!!” Zach cried out, from farther away. His voice cut off in a scream.
I choked back a sob. My family was dying. My mother Alyssa would die. We would not succeed in saving her. And we were so close …
I blinked back tears. No. NO. It couldn’t end this way. I would not accept this. Two more zombies came out of the fog, and I swung my knife and they fell at my feet. A third followed them out of the swirling mist. Swinging my knife, I stumbled a little as I lopped the zombie’s head off. Gotta be more careful, I thought, regaining my footing. Two more came at us, and I chopped at them. I kept chopping, until …
I felt a hand on my leg as I fought, and looking down, I saw Risa looking up at me.
“Luke.”
I swung and cut down three more zombies.
“Luke, I think…”
I handed her my shotgun. “Reload both of ours, Risa.”
She began to fill the clips with shells. Handing one back to me, I swung it around and let loose three blasts in quick succession.
The air was filled with smoke, separating us from the others. For a few seconds, time seemed to stand still in the thick haze, and I could hear Risa breathing roughly.
“Luke, this may be the end…”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“But, Luke …”
“LUKE!!! RISA!!!” Leia screamed from the top of the tree where she was still perched. “LOOK!!!”
I looked up at her and saw that she was pointing off to the south.
All of a sudden I heard a huge blast come out of the fog.
BABOOOM!!!!!
“What the…?”
That had sounded like a canon. And then I saw them and I nearly wept for joy.
Looking down at Risa, I smiled with tears in my eyes. “I think we’re going to be okay, Sis.”
“What?”
“The cavalry’s arrived.”
It was the modern day cavalry, at least. Pouring over the edge of the clearing, from across the road, came a company of Marines, at least 200 of them. Highly trained, each carrying an assault rifle, they plowed through the zombies that were left like a hot knife through butter. I heard a roaring off to the east and saw two huge tanks plow over the barricade like it was nothing.
We’d been saved by the United States Marine Corps.
TWENTY FIVE
It took about fifteen minutes in all. They had corpsmen with them who helped DeAndre and Dad, Zach and Jonathan. They’d been wounded but not bitten, so they’d be okay. A medic helped Risa onto a stretcher: she’d finally passed out.
I was helping Leia out of the tree when a Marine approached me.
“Sir, I am Captain Anderson of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marines.” I shook hands with the man, deep relief making my chest constrict.
“We are very, very glad to see you, Captain Anderson.” I lowered Leia to the ground. “Have all the zombies been dispatched?”
Just then another Marine stepped forward. Captain Anderson turned to him.
“Captain, the area is secure.”
“Excellent, First Sergeant, excellent.” He turned to me again.
“Sir, are you Luke Hill?”
I hesitated. Dad hadn’t wanted to single me out, worried they’d take me and leave the rest behind. Looking again into Captain Anderson’s face, blue eyes looking steadily at me, I felt complete confidence in him. And I think he already knew who I was; he was just asking as a courtesy.
“Yes, Captain. I’m Luke Hill.” I turned to gesture toward Risa, off to the side on her stretcher. “And that’s my sister Risa Hill. And the rest of my family is nearby. My father Jacob Hill, my uncle DeAndre, and Jonathan, and Zach.” I looked up again at the Marine. “We are a family, a team. A fighting team.” I cleared my throat.
“Sir, we know all about the Sanctuary fighting team. You’re out of Winnipeg and have traveled here to Boston to help Dr. Carroway with his serum. You have an infected team member back in Winnipeg and you are also traveling with a vehicle full of compromised individuals.”
I stared at him open mouthed. How did they know?
He continued.
“We’ve been tracking you, sir. We are here to provide aid to you.” He gestured behind him at another Marine, then turned back to me.
“Sir, if you will come with us, we already have your party secured in your vehicle.”
Leia and I followed him as we made our way back to the street. We passed hundreds of zombie corpses, and saw the Marines with a flamethrower, burning piles of them on the far edge of the park. Dawn was just pinking the east as we got to the SUV. It looked none the worse for wear and had actually come through intact, tires and everything. Amazing, considering the amount of firepower unleashed in the last hour. The Hummer was already started behind us, and idled in the early morning light. Tim waved at me from the driver’s seat. I waved back, still in a daze at what we’d just avoided.
We all got in, me in the driver’s seat, and the rest in the back. Risa had been bundled in a nearby Medvac vehicle, DeAndre and Dad were packed in behind me with Jonathan, Leia and Zach. At the last minute, Captain Anderson got into the front passenger seat. I turned to him as he snapped his seatbelt on.
“Sir, I have strict orders not to leave your side until you have been delivered to Dr. Carroway.” He gestured to the Marine Corps vehicles nearby. “If you will just follow the First Sergeant in the vehicle there, we will be providing you with a full escort to the facility just ahead.”
His tone invited no argument. I nodded, and obeyed the man.
Our destination turned out to be just three blocks away from the park, and with the Marine escort, we got there in less than ten minutes. Large bulldozers were just finishing clearing the barricade a block south of the park, and we drove right over the grass and back onto the road in short time. Tanks travel slowly, and we were now more than a dozen vehicles long in our convoy. Before I could begin to worry, the lead vehicles were trundling into an underground facility, and Marines secured a large metal door behind us.
We were immediately taken down five floors, flanked by a dozen Marines, in a huge cargo elevator that could have held one of the tanks. Risa was there; she gave me a weak smile and a thumbs-up, making me smile back.
After a few minutes, we arrived at a huge network of laboratories, each scrubbed white and sterile as any operating room. We all filed into a roo
m and were seated, and then we waited.
Before long, the door opened and several Marines filed into the room, and then a tall, older man with wild hair. He was nearly as tall as Dad, and was wearing a rumpled lab coat. His kind, dark brown face was covered with a day’s growth of whiskers, and there were bags under his eyes. Dr. Carroway. Finally.
He saw us and walked up to us and began shaking hands with all of us. Dad came forward and introduced us all, and when he finally turned to me, before Dad could introduce me, Dr. Carroway spoke.
“This must be Luke.” He studied my face, noting the incongruity of my suntanned cheeks against the greying color of my temples and neck. “Fascinating.”
I cleared my throat. “Pleased to meet you, Doctor.” I looked at Dad, and he nodded. This was my ballgame. “Doctor,” I looked into his dark brown, intelligent eyes. “My mother is infected. She’s dying. Please, what can we do to save her?”
“Well, first let’s get started in the lab.” He led me by the arm out the door, one hand still clasped in mine, the other holding me at my elbow. “Luke, you are a very valuable person. The most valuable person on the planet right now.” He spoke as he talked.
“Doc, I know. But I don’t want to be dissected or anything, I want to help my mom.” I swallowed deeply past the lump in my throat. “My mother, Alyssa. She has to be one of the first helped. But I’m not a lab rat. I want to save her life.”
“Don’t worry, Luke. We have no intention of harming you.”
We walked down a hallway and the doctor kept talking. I glanced behind me and saw everyone was following: Dad, DeAndre, Risa, Leia, Zach, even Tim, Claude, Vee and the other lady were there.
“Luke,” Dr. Carroway said. “You don’t grasp what is happening here. This is historic.” He kept walking rapidly down the hallway, turning right then left, deeper into the laboratory’s maze of corridors. “I know you want to save your mother.” He turned to me, and looked deeply into my eyes. “I know. She is your mother. And we will save her, if it can be done. I feel very confident we can.” He glanced around at Dad and the others. “She is your wife, your sister, your family.” He turned back to me. “You want to save her life, yes. In fact, the bravery and exploits of Alyssa Gonzalez are known even to us. Sanctuary’s team has made incredible progress in this fight.”
Mad World (Book 3): Desperation Page 15