Surviving Death
The Struggle
By Ethan Holmes
"To my loving wife, Stephanie, who inspired many parts of this novel. I love you more than any story could tell.”
Chapter 1
Chaos
“Everyone hold positions! Keep them back! The plane hasn’t taken off yet,” an Army Colonel ordered. The soldiers from Fort Riley protected an evacuation flight from a horde of zombies. Having lost many soldiers already, their lines were stretched dangerously thin. These fallen soldiers only made the zombie numbers stronger. Many could be seen stumbling toward the defensive line in bloodied camouflage uniforms, most of which were missing limbs.
One sergeant noticed the soldiers being taken down near the center of the line, their bodies torn apart by the zombies that attacked in mass. The zombies bit and clawed at the unlucky soldiers, pulling out bits of flesh and entrails, stuffing the contents into their bile covered mouths. Blood and bodies riddled the tarmac.
“Sir! The line is collapsing! We’re being overrun! We need to fall back! We’re losing men left and right,” Sergeant Frank Yarborough yelled, trying to get a colonels attention.
“You hold, God damn it!”
One of the zombies, dubbed ‘Biters’ by the media, stumbled up behind the colonel.
“Sir! Behind you,” Frank screamed.
The colonel turned just in time to see firsthand what was happening to his men. The Biter wrapped its hands around the colonel’s head, bit into his neck, ripped a chunk of meat out of his throat, and spewed blood all over its face. The colonel shrieked in pain, grabbing at his throat. Other biters joined and drug the colonel to the ground.
Frank heard the jet engines over the screams and gunfire. He looked around to see if any officers were left to take command. None were left alive that he could see. He spotted his Commander and First Sergeant, who were currently gorging themselves on the body of a young soldier. It was up to him.
“Fall back! Everyone! Fall back! 179th, on me,” Frank yelled over the sounds of screams, gun fire, and the jet engines. He back stepped while still firing on the Biters. Many of the soldiers turned to run but were tackled by the Biters in mass and eaten alive. The Biters tore through their uniforms and into their flesh.
Frank looked around, desperate to find his team members. Finally, he found them. A young, dark skinned woman and a very large, broad shouldered man were back to back, surrounded by several Biters. The man had a Biter in his arms, which he threw into the horde, trying to knock them back. The woman was prying her knife from a Biter’s skull with one hand, while firing on others with her pistol with the other.
Frank rushed toward the cornered pair, firing on the Biters, trying to cut a hole for their escape. He fired as quickly as he could.
“Anna,” he screamed.
The two saw him, and understood. They began firing into the area that Frank was. Soon they had their opening.
“Tommy! Go,” Anna yelled.
The two sprinted toward Frank. He let them catch up then they jogged to a safer area.
“Have you seen anyone else!? The Captain or First Sergeant,” Anna asked in scared desperation.
“They’re dead, Anna! We’re all that’s left of our unit! The plane is ready to go! We need to get out of here! How are we doing on ammo!?”
“Not much left, Frank,” Tommy uttered.
“Same here.”
“How many grenades you got, Tommy,” Frank asked.
“Two!”
Frank checked the area. He was looking, hoping to be able to get back to a vehicle. There was an army of Biters, mixed with civilian and military bodies, between them and all of the military vehicles. There was no chance to make it. He looked around for any other survivors. There were none. There was only one option left.
“We have to make a run for it! Let’s head to town and get a vehicle,” Frank ordered.
They ran from the horror scene. Even over the sound of the plane taking off in the distance, they could still hear the screams of the soldiers, who they had to abandon. Their last moments spent in agonizing pain.
As they approached the edge of town, Biters revealed themselves along the road from stalled and overturned cars. They massed into a new horde behind them as the group ran. Tommy slowed in hopes to buy the rest of them time. He threw a grenade toward the center of the horde. The grenade blew, sending a dozen bodies into the air. He threw another toward their right flank.
“Hurry the hell up, Tommy,” Frank yelled at his subordinate as they ran from the horde on the outskirts of town. As soon as it left his lips, a fairly heavy set Biter jumped from the top of an overturned bus onto him, dragging him to the ground. The Biter grabbed his uniform, trying to force his teeth closer to Frank’s flesh.
“Anna! Shoot him,” he screamed as he pushed the Biter back.
He heard the crack of a gunshot and the top of the man’s head disappeared. The Biter slumped backward. Anna held out her hand to help him up when Tommy finally caught up with them.
“Thank you…” Frank said as he got to his feet.
“I bought us a few minutes but that was my last grenade and I’ve got no ammo,” Tommy said through the huffing and heaving. Being a man from Brooklyn, it was hard to understand him normally.
“And that was my last round, Frank… What do we do now,” Anna asked in her thick Israeli accent, as she rechecked her body armor for a loose round.
“We need to get out of sight. There is a pharmacy around the corner, we can stock up on food, get a car and head back to get your families. Let’s hurry and hope Natalie thought to lock herself in the storm room.” Frank said as he started to run down the street.
Frank had them bring their families to his house because his storm room was bigger and he could give Tommy’s wife, Natalie, a pistol while she was watching over Anna’s daughter.
Frank Yarborough was the first team leader for 179th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company (EOD) at FT. Riley, KS since their reactivation. He was five foot eleven, muscular and dark haired. Being former Special Forces, getting into the pharmacy was easy, all he had to do was pick the lock. Having a gun pointed in his face was not part of the plan.
As soon as he saw the muzzle, he grabbed the arm that was attached to it and forced the man face-first into the floor. He quickly took the gun out of his hand and scanned the room to find six people and a kid about sixteen years old with a varmint rifle pointed shakily at him.
Frank moved over to make some room so the others can come through the door. Anna closed the door behind her.
“We’re not here to hurt anyone and we’re not infected. Put the gun down, kid,” Frank ordered.
“Let him go first,” he yelled with tears in his eyes.
“Sure kid. He just spooked me is all.” He let go of the man’s arm. “You got guts kid, not everyone can handle themselves like that while they have a gun pointed at them.”
He helped the older man up and handed him his Beretta. ”Sorry about that, sir. Here is your pistol back. No hard feelings?”
“No hard feelings, but this is going to fucking hurt later though. Who the hell are you guys, anyway,” the man asked as he rubbed his nose tenderly.
“We’re EOD techs from Ft. Riley. I’m Frank, the brunette at the window is Sergeant Anna Abendana, and the big guy in the corner is Specialist Tommy Curtis,” Frank said as he looked the place over for another exit just in case the front door gave way.
“What the hell is EOD,” another older man asked.
“Explosive ordnance disposal… Bomb squad,” Frank answered.
The kid joined the olde
r man. He wrapped his arm around the kid.
“I’m Steve and this is my son Will. I pulled all these people in here when the shit initially hit the fan. We’ve been in here for about two days now. What are you guys doing here? Shouldn’t you be on the front lines?”
The team’s eyes immediately hit the floor in sadness.
“We’re all that’s left of the front line…” Frank uttered.
Everyone’s jaw dropped.
“What do you mean,” Steve asked.
“We were over-run about two hours ago by the airport while trying to protect an EVAC plane. Just before the plane left, the line fell in the middle and it all went downhill after that… They’re all dead,” Tommy said while trying to hold back the tears.
Steve looked like he was about to faint. “How the fuck did this happen? You see this in horror movies but I didn’t think it could really fucking happen…”
“In any case, we won’t be able to stay here for long. We need to get back on post,” Frank said.
One of the men interjected. “Why on post? That place is probably over-run, too!”
Tommy, worried about his wife, jumped up and was about to scream something when Frank put up his hand and motioned for him to sit back down.
“We’re going back on post because there are still armored transports in our motor pool. Tommy’s wife is at my house with Anna’s daughter right outside the gates. I’ve also got a stash of weapons there. Any more outbursts so those things outside can hear us?”
The man remained silent.
“How do you plan on getting there? It’s a ten mile hike from here,” Steve asked.
“Are there any working cars around here?”
The man that interrupted before stood up. “I have a truck around back, but you’re not taking it without me.”
“Shut the hell up, Dean, if you’re not going to be helpful,” Steve yelled.
A soft spoken older woman approached Frank and handed him keys. “I’ll give you my car on one condition… You come back for us.”
“You got a deal. What was your name sweet heart,” he asked, with a bit of honey in his voice.
The woman smiled. “The name is Karen, young man. It’s the red minivan out front.”
“Well thanks, Karen. Do you know if the owner of this place is still alive?”
Steve stepped up from consoling his son. “I own it. What do you need?”
“Does this place have roof access? I want to make sure that we’re not walking out into a horde when we leave.”
“Yeah. It’s in the back corner. Just take down that back ceiling tile and you will see the ladder that goes up there. Here are the keys. You guys be careful though and don’t let any of those freaks in.”
Steve fumbled nervously with his keys to find the right one. “There is a pad lock on the inside of the hatch. This key goes to it.”
“Thanks Steve. Anna, come here for a second.”
Anna, who was watching the streets through blinds on the windows, walked calmly over to Frank. She had already guessed what he needed. “Distraction?”
“You read my mind. Go and whip us up something. Nothing too volatile, just something that will get their attention. Get one of these people to help if you need it, and be quick about it.”
“I’m on it, Frank.”
She pointed to a random man and said sternly, “You, in the blue shirt, come here.”
The man scurried over.
“Listen carefully. I’m going to make a list of stuff that I need you to get and bring into this back room, ok. I know you’re scared, but you have to stay calm if you want to get out of here.”
He nodded his head. She wrote everything down on her notepad and tore the page out for him. He took the page and scurried off again.
She turned back to Frank. “While he is doing that, I’ll go and make some kind of initiator for it. Mr. Steve, do you have any two way radios or a toy section?”
Steve looked puzzled. “Radios? What do you need those for?”
Anna replied stone-faced, “I need anything with electronics so I can set the distraction off at a distance. Basically anything that can give me a spark remotely.”
Steve’s face paled. “Umm….I...I have a few walkie-talkies that you can have.”
Steve looked at Anna as if she were as dangerous as one of the Biters.
“Don’t worry Steve. She wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless the fly got in her way,” Frank snickered.
Frank admired Anna. She was part of Israel’s defense force before moving to America. She was a five-foot seven, cute, slim brunette, but she was a hardened soldier, which is why Frank specifically requested her to train for a team leader position. He originally came across her sitting behind a desk at an infantry battalion, so he talked to her and she told him her story. He pulled in a favor from a friend there to get her file to verify her story. As soon as he saw her background, he asked her about EOD. Within a month, with Frank’s sponsorship, she was in EOD School and in seven months graduated at the top of her class. She has been on Frank’s team for about a year. She was supposed to take his place as team leader when he was promoted to sergeant first class.
“Ok. I’m going to the roof. Anyone want to join me,” Said Frank.
Steve stepped forward. “Sure, what the hell. Let’s go.”
“Anna, Tommy. See if you can find yourselves something to eat before we go. Get that body armor off. It’s only going to slow you down,” Frank ordered as he headed to the back of the pharmacy.
“All we have is nutrition and energy bars with a couple of cases of water in the back room,” Steve says while pointing to the door.
“That should do just fine, Steve. Thank you very much. I’ll grab some and give Anna a hand with those initiators,” Tommy stated.
“Ok…just don’t blow up my damn store, please,” Steve said, trying to hide a smile.
“I can’t make you any promises,” Tommy snickered as he left the room.
Tommy was a broad shouldered, six foot tall, 260 pound power house just out of high school. As soon as he graduate he married his high school sweetheart, Natalie, and joined the Army. In school, Tommy played every sport he could get himself into. He was no stranger of hitting people which made him a great asset in the Army and to Frank.
Frank got to the roof access and striped off his body armor. He searched his ammo pockets to make sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind. He felt something in his grenade pocket. When he grasped it he knew exactly what it was. He pulled out a 9mm round. He immediately loaded the round in his Beretta.
“Wish I had that about twenty minutes ago. Ok Steve, I’ll go and have a look. You stay here and wait till I give the all-clear.”
When he got to the roof hatch he eased the key into the lock, trying to not make any noise, just in case a Biter was on the roof. He got the lock off with no problems, but he then tried to open the hatch but it was stuck. He put some force on it and it finally opened with a loud thud. He waited a moment while hanging onto the handle just in case one of them heard it and tried to force it open. After a moment passed, he pulled out his field knife, ready to bury it in a Biter skull. He cracked the hatch just enough to look around the roof, he didn’t see anything there.
He called down to Steve, who was waiting at the bottom of the ladder, “looks like its clear. I’m going up.”
Steve called back. “Ok. Be careful. Do you want me to come up with you?”
“Give me a second to check it out and I will come back to get you,” Frank opened the hatch and jumped out as quickly as he could, the entire roof was clear. He went back to the hatch and let Steve know it was safe to come up.
When Steve stumbled out of the hatch, Frank motioned him to stay low and out of sight of the street. They made it to the side of the street that Karen’s car was on, they peeked over the side and was amazed at what they saw. A large Biter horde was between them and the car. The entire street was full of Biters. They did see that there was an access ladder
that went straight to ground level.
They went back down to the pharmacy and told everyone what they were up against. Everyone started to argue, mostly at Frank.
He finally got tired of it and yelled, “Quiet everyone! We’ve already planned for this. These things are attracted to lights and sounds, so if we put a little display together at the end of the block on either side then that’s where they will go. Anna, how are we doing on those?”
“We have one down, the other will be done in about five minutes,” she replied.
“Perfect. Its six o-clock now. We leave at eight. Do we have any other weapons here?”
Steve replied, “I have a bat behind the register. I also have some 9mm rounds left in my office that you can have.”
Frank got excited. “Really!? Man, you are way too nice. I appreciate it.”
Steve growled, letting his stress show. “It’s fine. I’ll go get the damn things.”
Steve returned with the bat and ammo. Frank handed the bat to Tommy. “You’re a lot bigger than me, Tommy. Here you go.”
Tommy took the bat from Frank and swung it then used it to stretch out his shoulder muscles. He looked as if he were readying himself to go up to bat at a baseball game.
“This should do nicely,” Tommy said.
There was just enough ammo left to fill one clip, so now Frank’s Beretta was fully loaded. “Go get some sleep, guys.”
“Like that’s actually going to happen,” Anna said, depressingly.
Chapter 2
The Rescue
The two hours passed on slowly and the sun was just disappearing over the horizon, threatening to fall out of sight. It was 5 minutes until eight, and the team had just positioned the distraction at the end of the block. It was easy since all the stores were connected like a strip mall and with the help of some lengths of coax cable found on the building next door. Frank leaned over the ledge to observe the biters.
“You two ready?”
Anna and Tommy nodded uneasily. Frank gave the signal and the street lit up like the fourth of July. Beautiful shades of red, orange and green flames billowed from the buckets that contained the different solvents that Anna combined. As soon as the pyro went off, the team scurried back across to the access ladder and waited for the Biters to clear out. The Biters turned toward the display, mouths open, snarling, hoping to find a meal. They slowly began walking, stumbling to the source of the lights and noise. It took a painstaking amount of time for them to clear from around the car enough for them to maneuver through. Finally they made it. Frank started the minivan and took off down the street.
Life In Death (Book 1): Surviving Death (The Struggle) Page 1