“You’re one ugly fuck, know that?” I said.
“Join usssss,” it answered.
I shot him in the face. The bullet split his cheek and exited the side of his head. He flew back and flopped across the cab.
I hauled myself out and, with shaking hands, got to my feet. Jesus. I was beat.
I tried to roll to the side so I could find a graceful way off the hood, but I ended up sprawling off the side and smacking the road hard. My right hip took most of the brunt and screamed in pain.
The hipster shuffler dove out of a shadow, and hit me. It might have been from watching Erik fight. I took weight of her body and turned so she flew past me. As she rolled across the ground and came to her feet, a shot rang out.
Half of her head disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Thanks, Joel.
A Shit Sandwich
Joel had stayed behind, of course.
There was a small part of me that was assured I wouldn’t ever fall to a Z because Joel always had my back, and I always had his, and that was stupid.
We had survived this long due to teamwork, plain and simple. But what if one of us did ever join the crawlers? In my case, I’d probably last a few days without my buddy being around. If I bit it, he’d probably be okay.
“You’re supposed to be hauling ass to the bridge,” I said as I limped to meet him.
Not a minute too soon either. While I had plugged up one hole, there were still plenty more Zs behind us. The burned-out truck that had acted as a barrier must have been pushed aside because the horde spilled into the main drag and came roaring after us.
“I got halfway there and figured you were going to do something that might get you killed,” he said.
He brisk-walked as I came up beside him, and we made for the rendezvous location. Erik and his crew had already started raising hell judging by all the gunshots.
I wished I had thought to move the Smart car closer. It was a block away, and it was now swarming with Zs, and shufflers. It would have made our journey a lot more enjoyable.
Something thundered from the direction of the city. Joel and I picked up speed as we made for the bridge, but I was seriously winded. My sides hurt from being reborn via a Toyota pickup windshield, and I had bruises and abrasions on nearly every inch of exposed skin. Falling on my side had only added to the pain. Each time my right foot made contact with the road, my joint screamed in agony. After a thirty second brisk run, I had to slow down.
“Don’t give me any ‘go ahead without me’ shit,” Joel said.
“Wouldn’t think of it, but I am in a lot of pain. I fell and landed on my hip,” I said.
“Just keep moving,” Joel urged. “It’s not that much farther. Come on, Squid, I’ll find you some painkillers as soon as we’re safe.”
“Now we’re talking. What kind of painkillers? I took Oxy a couple of times, post-surgery, not as an addict.”
“You want Oxy, I’ll get you Oxy. Joel Kelly’s girls get the best.”
“That’s the kind of shit that’s going to get you smacked upside the head, my man.”
“Oh lord, don’t want one of my girls mad. What else can I get you?” Joel shot me a smirk.
“I know you’re trying to distract me. Appreciate the effort,” I said.
“You know it,” Joel replied.
Behind us, the horde grew by the second despite my best efforts to prevent it. There were so many, and there was no telling where they were all spilling out of. We had seen a few cross streets blocked off but there were dozens more.
They filled every part of the street, but at least they were at least fifty yards away. That would change when we tried to get across the bridge. They would have us trapped, and then it would come down to who had the most. Us with bullets, or them with teeth, and claws?
Anna had waited for us at the entryway to the bridge. She waved us on but kept her gun at the ready. Footsteps from behind, but I didn’t dare look.
“We gonna make it?” I asked.
“Time to turn on the jets. Whatever you have left, now’s the time to use it,” Joel said between breaths. “The vehicles can act as cover.”
My hip screamed in pain with each step. I gasped for breath, but Joel was right. We had no other choice except diving into the river.
“I see you’re still alive. Nice limp,” Anna said as we joined her.
Erik’s group had pulled ahead and were in the process of maneuvering around abandoned cars. Ahead lay a mass of Zs, but it was small compared to what pursued us, but we were still going to be shit sandwiched in.
We hustled onto the bridge, stepping around a motorcycle that had crashed into the back of a minivan. No point in checking on any of those means of transport. Even if one worked, there was no way in hell we could maneuver around all the abandoned cars. Not only that, but a long line of military vehicles waited ahead as a host of Zs prowled around a half mile from them.
I had this insane hope that we could somehow break free of the mass, then make it to the green trucks. They were probably stuffed with weapons and bodies. The way our day was going, we’d get there just in time and find it filled with Zs.
Erik and his pals didn’t stop moving. We followed in their path and made okay time considering I was in full limp mode.
I’d heard thundering from the city a few minutes ago, and now it picked up. Something rose a few miles to the east, no, several somethings. I pulled up short and leaned over and put my hands on the side of a car. The horde behind us was an inexorable tide that we wouldn’t escape. Shufflers played hell with my imagination as they wove in and out of the mass.
“Creed. You need to suck it up,” Anna said.
She had stopped with me and aimed her gun back at our six. I nodded at her and wished I had the energy. I just needed a few seconds to catch my breath. Every inch of my body ached, and my legs were on fire. My hip had gone almost completely numb, and there was no way I was going to get a hot soak in a tub anytime soon.
Erik’s group shot into a horde that closed on them. There were at least a hundred, maybe more, but I didn’t see any shufflers. Thank God for small favors.
“Sucking it up. Aye,” I said to Anna who wavered before me.
I stood up and nearly fell over because I was so lightheaded. My leg had grown numb all the way to my foot, and when I stopped moving, it locked up. I moaned in agony and saw stars.
“Just lean on me. We’ll make it,” Anna said and took my arm under her shoulder.
I nodded, and together we went to join the fight. But the fight was really far away, and it looked like I would never find it’s end. So, the end reached up and found me.
Something scratched my leg. I glanced down and found Frosty. The dog whimpered and looked at me with big brown eyes.
“Hey, girl. Where did you come from?”
Something wasn’t right. Gunshots echoed up ahead. Bodies flopped to the hard pavement and didn’t move again. The haze of gunfire smoke rose, and I thought I was seeing things. This was all wrong. I was back at home, in bed. Fortress was still on one piece, and Anna was next to me. Nice lazy morning. Sunshine and water.
Then the smell hit me. It wasn’t fresh morning air, it was smoke and spent rounds. Blood, and guts. It was the rotted remains of the dead walking around in their Sunday worst.
Something else hit me. Hard.
I shook my head and touched my cheek.
“Creed! Get the fuck up!” Anna yelled from far away.
“Ow,” I said.
“If you don’t get up you’re going to feel even worse pretty soon,” Anna said.
I opened my eyes, and that’s when I realized I was on the ground. Frosty was indeed there. She stood over me guarding my position. Christy was also there, and so were Erik and Scott.
They had formed a defensive circle around my body and fired at shapes nearby.
I rolled over and a wave of nausea made my stomach churn.
Swallowing hard, I wished I had a gallon of water.
Joel must have read my mind. He handed me a bottle that must have been salvaged from back at Fortress. I spun the top off and drained the entire thing in five or six long swallows.
“On your feet, squid. Ain’t got time for this shit,” Joel ordered.
I took his offered hand, and he helped me up.
Tim Feely moved around our perimeter, shooting bursts of rounds from the M249 that shredded Zs with a sickening quickness.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“Not long. Doesn’t matter. Just start shooting. We’re making a break for those military trucks,” Joel pointed.
“That’s a long damn way off,” I said.
“No shit, Professor Obvious. Now let’s move out,” Joel said.
We moved as a group and turtled up so guns protected all sides. Shufflers moved along the perimeter of the main mass and taunted us. I found my Glock and ejected the magazine. Shit, four rounds left. I dug out a handful of bullets from my pocket and loaded as I moved.
Anna covered me, picked out targets, and only fired when she had a clean kill. When I was cocked and locked, I put my hand on her shoulder, and she moved behind me.
We had so far to go, and there were so many threats to prevent us from reaching the end of the bridge. Fuck metaphors, this was real life.
Once again, the sound of thunder from the city pulled my attention. I risked a glance that way and could not believe what I was seeing.
“Am I still out of it?” I said.
“What?” Anna replied.
“Look to your eleven o’clock,” I told her.
Anna glanced that way, and then stopped in her tracks. Joel Kelly let out a low whistle as he also took in the sight.
Helicopters. Five of them all flying low, rotors thumping, and all equipped for one thing.
War.
They swept in over the block we had just fled from and three of them peeled away. A gunner hung out of one, his hands on a huge machinegun. A second helicopter took point, with its nose pointing toward us.
“Oh shit, they’re going to take us out!” Tim Feely yelled and swung the gun around.
Erik was grabbed the man’s arm and forced the barrel down. “Just wait!”
The shufflers took notice and faded back into the horde. The mass of zombies stretched as far as I could see into the outskirts of the city we had just fled.
One of the choppers moved in on us, rotors spinning, noise deafening, until it was right over our location. A man in full military garb including a tactical vest, BDU’s and a headset, leaned over and waved. Christy waved back. He pointed toward the military vehicles and gestured that way. Then he moved his hand faster.
“Is he telling us to go jerk off?” I said.
“He’s telling us to hurry the fuck up,” Joel replied.
The helicopter did a hundred and eighty-degree vertical turn so a gun pointed outward. The gunner gave us the thumbs up, and then pointed toward the end of the bridge where it met with Portland proper.
We made a run for it and not a second too soon. The machinegun opened up and sprayed a line of lead at the advancing horde. Zs and shufflers blew apart where they stood. The front line disintegrated as limbs and heads got lopped off.
The second helicopter swung around and took up station directly overhead. A gunner went to work and cleared a path. Abandoned cars and trucks took the brunt of the blasts. Glass shattered, and metal screamed as it was punctured by high speed rounds. The Zs were no match and went down as they were blown apart.
After that, it was just a matter of stepping over corpses and body parts. We limped our way towards the line of trucks, and that’s then the second surprise met us.
Men and women dressed in military and civilian clothing dropped from the back of trucks I had assumed had been abandoned. Some of them pointed weapons at us while others gestured for us to lower ours. A man dropped to the ground and said something to two others. He wore an olive green jacket over a khaki shirt. He also bore an impressive number of ribbons on his left breast.
The older guy had a closely trimmed white beard and piercing blue eyes.
“Goddamn,” Joel whispered next to me.
“You know him?” I asked.
“No, but look at those stars on his shoulders.”
“Are we supposed to salute?” I asked.
The man closed on us flanked by two hard faced men bearing automatic rifles.
“Easy, ladies and gentlemen. Easy,” he said.
“Are you the welcoming party, uh, sir,” I asked.
“I guess that about sums it up. You all just about spoiled our surprise. Got about hundred and fifty folks here waiting to mow down that horde. Gave us a hell of a scare when you started drawing even more on our location,.” He had a stern and gravelly voice.
“Didn’t know you had an ambush set up,” Joel offered.
“Good thing for you we did. I’d say you all had about a minute before you were zombie chow. I’m not saying you’re a bunch of slackers, it’s more about numbers and you didn’t have them.”
“Lower your weapons,” the man on the right said.
“Sure. Mind telling us who you are?” Erik joined us and asked the men.
“We’re out of Voodoo North, and we’ve been planning this offensive for a few days. Didn’t know we were going to end up on a rescue mission. But it’s time for you all to put the guns down and join us. If that’s not to your liking, you’re free to go. Just don’t start any shit, and we won’t throw any back in your face,” the man said. “I’m General Arthur Vanderbilt, by the way.”
Joel lowered his gun and let it swing loose on his two-point sling.
Erik slung his over his shoulder.
“Offensive?” Erik said.
“That’s right. We’re here to clean out this part of the city. We’ve been blocking streets off so we could funnel them all into a kill zone. Well, shit being shit, the plan became just that. Those green-eyed creepers jumped the gun and made the first move,” Vanderbilt said. “But I’d like to take out as many as we can before they can escape.”
“I’m sorry but what in the blue knuckle fuck is going on here. You’re tossing around words like offensive and blowing bridges. Just how organized are you all?” I said.
“Oh, we’re organized, and we’re a force to be reckoned with. But we need more men and women like you. All the bodies we can find, as a matter of fact,” Vanderbilt said. “The living breathing kind, not the crap out there.”
“Hey, man,” a guy broke away from the group of military folks.
“Hi,” I said. “Oh, snap.”
“Yeah. Alex. Glad you guys made it,” Alex said.
It was one of the men we had run into in the woods a few days ago. He’d given us some MREs and told us to come to the city. Hell, I still had the pamphlet in my pocket.
“I know I’m going to sound like a dick. Really. But we’ve been fucked over by more than one group claiming to have our best interest in mind,” I said.
“I’m hurt, brother. I gave you my favorite MRE by accident,” Alex said. “I meant to hand you the beef enchilada.”
“You had beef enchilada? See, now I’m not sure we can be friends,” I said with a lopsided grin.
“I’ll make it up to you. We have cases of the stuff.”
“No shit? I guess we’re gonna be friends after all,” I said.
Overhead, the choppers moved closer to the end of the bridge. One of them had rockets hanging from launchers, and they put them to use. Explosions shook the ground, and I ducked for cover. General Vanderbilt wasn’t even phased.
“Easy, son. Just a few explosives to even the odds. Got another big group of survivors heading this way and we need to clear a path,” Vanderbilt said.
Joel laughed as he turned to watch the fireworks.
“The hell is so funny, Joel?” I asked.
“This whole thing. We’ve been on the run for six months, and now we’re suddenly in the middle of something huge.”
“
Yeah. Big explosions. I get it,” I said.
“No, man. War. This is what we’ve been looking for. A way to take the fight to the rotters and the shufflers. We’re finally here,” Joel said.
Jesus. Was that a tear in his eye?
“Guess that gives you Marine wood, yeah?” I quipped.
“Since Roz, it’s about the only thing that does.”
Joel lowered his rifle and placed it on the ground. He stood at full attention, and then snapped a picture perfect salute for General Vanderbilt.
“Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly reporting for ass-kicking, sir,” Joel bellowed.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, and then I collapsed in laughter.
“The hell is so funny?” Anna squatted next to me.
“Joel. What an asshole. Show him a bunch of guns and he’s suddenly a Marine again,” I said.
“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” the two men flanking the general echoed.
I laughed until tears ran down my eyes. Frosty must have enjoyed my deranged moment because she put her head in my lap and thumped her tail against the pavement. I rubbed her head and wondered if we had actually found a permanent home.
I guess we were about to find out. Joel was in, and when Joel was in, I was in.
Anna choked back a laugh, and then turned a serious eye on me.
“If you’re losing it, you should tell me now,” she said.
“I got lost a long time ago. Thank God I have you and Joel to keep me sane,” I said.
“Sometimes you say the sweetest things, and sometimes you say the dumbest things.”
“Which one was that?”
She pulled a cloth out of her pocket and wiped blood off my chin and lips. Then she leaned over and planted a kiss on my lips.
“What do you think?”
“Can’t think right now. I’m dazed.”
“Get a room, you two,” Joel said.
It took both of them to get me to my feet. A couple of guys dressed in BDUs with medical arm bands came out to meet us.
Z-Risen (Book 5): Barriers Page 15