After breakfast and after Tripod and Ashley left the closet fully dressed without being noticed by Ethan or Jenna, everyone began getting things together. Jamison and Chaz pushed the barricade away from the door. They opened the door with ease and walked into the cool morning air. Jamison took to the left, and Chaz took the right. They both motioned the “all clear” as everyone began to load back into the vehicles. Redbeard took whatever spirits were left from the bar. The Wesson’s and Erica loaded up the canned food and whatever they could take from the kitchen. Walker made sure every weapon had ammunition before they started driving.
THE GROUND QUAKETH
CHAPTER 79
SATURDAY 1037 CST
ELIZABETHTOWN
They made it to the other side of Elizabethtown. The dump truck led by Tripod was still carrying an army of rednecks. They were out front. The vehicles were becoming cramped spaces as the new survivors joined. Isaac even had people in the back of the ambulance with him and the fat nurse. “We’re getting closer,” William’s voice came over the radio.
“Been here before, huh?” Devin’s voice called him out over the radio.
“Yeah, spent a few Christmases here. Phoenix has a good setup. Don’t let the underground stuff bother you. He has a farm and his own water-filtration system,” he explained.
“What’s he talking about?” Erica asked Devin from inside the van.
“Long story short. This guy, Phoenix. He’s got a hidden base under the old abandoned movie theater. The underground part is under the drive-in theater. He grows pot. Hence all the kids had pot at the bar last night. Apparently, they’re dealers. This guy runs the show. The tall kid, William, said that Phoenix is a cool guy, and he welcomes everyone. He sounds like a hippie. William has been in contact with him as well. Hence the burn phones like ours. He told Phoenix that we are all cool people and that he should bring us in to help secure the place.”
Erica looked at him with wide eyes. “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever fucking heard,” escaped her puzzled mouth. The others in the van were also intrigued.
“You mean to tell me that we’re going to hang out with a bunch of drug users and shitheads?” Phil asked from the back of the van.
“Yeah, it looks that way. Stay sharp. We’re not out of this yet,” he said to them. “So, William, should we expect any resistance around the destination? Over.” The dump truck slammed on its breaks. “Herd ahead. Full speed!” He heard from afar as William was holding the talk button of the CB in Tripod’s truck. Suddenly, there was a violent shake on the ground beneath their wheels. Everyone watched as the shifting earth got closer.
THE CHURCH
CHAPTER 80
SATURDAY 0800 CST
MISSISSIPPI
Earlier, Richard and Raven had successfully landed the helicopter and made their way inside the dilapidated church. Their helicopter had caught the attention of the recently turned townsfolk not too far away. The moving corpses of the small Mississippi town began to converge toward the church. Richard and Raven both picked up a church pew and pressed it against the French-style doors of the one-chamber church.
The reverend came out of a small office. His once black skin had turned a pasty gray color. “Fuck!” Raven said as he fired a round into the reverend’s head. “Jimmy!” Richard called out as he saw the man in the reverend outfit. Three more came out of the same room. Richard took out his .45 and floored all three of them as Raven picked up a new pew. “What’s your plan, old man?” Raven said as he finished the pew against the door. Richard knelt at the man in the reverend outfit. “He was one of ours from the beginning.” This was replied with a “What?” from Raven as he moved things across the old wooden floors causing a scrapping noise.
“Watch my back.” The old man said as he went to the podium and pushed it aside with the power of his leg. Raven kept next to the old man as he went to work. Raven took a duffel bag off back. He unzipped it and began bringing weapons out and laying them in a circle around him. Under the podium was a basement of sorts for the church. Old useless crap and figurines had been stored down there since the church was erected. Richard went to the back of the basement and waved his flashlight and found a broken floor piece. “Hello there!” He went to the missing floor tile and moved one down, and there was a new spot missing and then one from the left to cover that hole. Richard hurried as he heard Raven popping off rounds from above. Three more movements later, a loud creak was heard as the final tile popped up. It was an illuminated keypad. “Just as we left it.”
Richard pressed a series of buttons. He cursed the CIA for always having ridiculous codes to remember. After a series of beeps and whirls, an entire wall of garden tools began to move with a hiss of air coming from the inside. Richard jumped through the broken wall to find what looked like an emergency hatch on a submarine. He spun the wheel and climbed the ladder down. The air was frigidly cold down there. They kept the temperature down so the machines wouldn’t overheat since no one had been down there since the 1970s.
Raven had fired entire magazines of pop shots. He pulled a submachine gun by the strap and unloaded the full magazine at the door. He went to load a new magazine when the whole front door was ripped off its frame abruptly. “Fuck this shit!” Raven said as he went into the basement and closed the podium lid behind him. He was looking for the old man. All he could see was a light coming from the floor and another one coming from the wall. “Colonel?” Raven said into the darkness. No response. The podium above him began to rip from side to side. The sunlight began to show in small beams with every twist. “Hurry it up!” he shouted down the tunnel hatch. Raven released another magazine of continuous lead at the ceiling of the basement and reloaded.
Richard went to a console. He pulled out a set of notebooks with pages in page protectors. He flipped through them as he turned knobs and banged on monitors. He went through a series of doors. By this time, Raven had made it down the ladder and into the control room where he saw open manuals and antique computers from the 1970s. He shut the hatch and closed the bar down. He walked around the surprisingly clean white room.
After checking his weapons, Raven heard slapping thud noises from the other side of the door. They’re falling down the ladder, he thought. Richard came in the room with a screwdriver in his mouth and both arms around a metallic cylinder. “What the hell are you doing here?” Richard said to him as he set the cylinder down.
“They’re on the other side of the door! What the hell are you doing?”
“Saving our fucking asses and everyone else within five hundred miles!” he said as he went back to his console.
“What the fuck are you doing, man?” Raven asked.
“Something that needs to be done.”
“What is that thing? What’s in the cylinder? Why are you putting that in pool of shit?” Raven rambled on.
“Shut up. This could kill everyone. The vat is a gel we created so this doesn’t ignite. We’re here to finish our mission.”
He kept his sentences short as he began typing on the old keyboard. The hatch began to bang. Steadily the banging quickened. “Here they come! What’s in the next room?” Raven said as he made his way there. “No!” Richard exclaimed, pulling him back. The two men wrestled, and finally Richard got the upper hand. He held Raven in a sleeper hold until the young man went limp. “You young bastards always have to do things the hard way!” Richard said as he went back to his console.
After a few minutes of typing, Richard was ready. He helped Raven back to his feet. He handed Raven back his weapons. “We got three options, kid. We wait for what’s in the next room, we wait for these things to take us out, or we shoot ourselves now. What’s your vote?” Raven went to the window of the next room. It was dark. Richard pressed a large red button. Raven’s eyes went up as sunlight began to appear from above. Loose dirt, grass, and tombstones began to fall straight down. The fake tombstones shattered easily against something that wasn’t too far from Raven’s window. More ligh
t poured in as a cone-shaped object was beginning to take shape. “You crazy old bastard! We’re all going to die!” Raven exclaimed as he turned. Raven pointed his weapon at Richard. “Shut it down now!” Raven commanded. Richard simply didn’t listen. A bolt from the door bounced off the glass next to Raven. “Get back at it, we’ll discuss this later,” Richard said as Raven went to the door. He pointed his barrel through the hole in the door. The hot barrel began to boil white and red blood as it continued to release lead into screeching bodies on the other side. Raven didn’t know if it was doing any good, but it made him feel better about being in a dead end with that in the other room. Raven stood back from the door to reload.
The hatch broke open. Luckily for Richard, he had already set a countdown. Raven sprayed a complete magazine aiming at the door. Richard extended his middle finger to the creatures coming through the door while the other hand was firing .45 caliber rounds at them. He began to chuckle as the object in the next room began to move. The ground began to shake violently as the object came toward the window. The dome of the massive object slowly climbed the tube, long enough for Raven to read “U.S.A.F.” on the side of the object. The door clamped shut. The tube closed shutting out the sunlight. Red flames lit from the bottom of the tube. Raven held the submachine gun as a baton in his left hand and fired his handgun with his right. The room filled with light as Richard continued to give the middle finger and laugh maniacally as creatures swarmed him. Raven watched as the old colonel was devoured by the creatures, and there was a bright light behind him. He blinked and when he opened his eyes, he failed to exist anymore.
THE SILENCE
CHAPTER 81
SATURDAY 1038 CST
ELIZABETHTOWN
The convoy watched as the shockwave sprayed dirt and rock on the vehicles. Windows shattered. Buildings fell. The ground shook violently. One of the hunters in the back of the dump truck took a piece of brick to the head. “Look!” William said as he pointed forward. Tripod got out of the truck and made sure everyone else was OK. William tried his cell phone. It wouldn’t turn on. Tara tried to start her engine again. It wouldn’t crank. She tried the dome light in the cab. It wouldn’t turn on either. Upon seeing Tripod get out of the truck, Devin and the Vikings got out as well. “My sight shut off,” Jamison said as he looked down his scope. He looked at the herd that was once coming toward them. They were lying motionless on the ground. “On me!” he shouted as the group dismounted to find Jamison on one knee aiming down his iron sights.
Everyone else saw the group of thirty or so zombies lying motionless on the broken street in front of them. “Fire a round. See if they move,” Ethan said. Jamison figured ‘why the hell not?’ and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gun barrel echoed of the buildings and filled the quiet air for a microsecond. “Engines won’t start. Ground shook. Dead zombies. What the fuck is this?” Phil said thinking out loud. Reynolds looked at Ethan. Suddenly the light clicked in Ethan’s mind. “That crazy motherfucker!” Ethan exclaimed excitedly. “He actually did it!” he said. The rest of them looked puzzled.
He looked at Jenna. “Remember at Mud Island. The cowboy, junior and his dad? His dad kept talking about setting off an EMP?” Jenna didn’t follow, but Ashley’s eyes got bigger.
“Wait, the only way to set off an EMP is to either build a device or detonate a nuclear weapon,” Tara said.
“Yeah, he kept talking about some Cold War stuff with the CIA and Russia and this or that. But he did it! And it worked!”Ethan got excited. Again someone interjected.
“Yeah, but if he detonated a nuclear weapon, we’d probably get melted by the radiation.”
“Nah, Richard was too smart for that. He must have removed the plutonium or whatever. Look, I’m not a goddamn rocket scientist! He was! And it worked!” Ethan went to the zombie pile. He took out a pocketknife and slit his pinky. “Get ready!” he said as he moved the bleeding finger over the dead zombies. The rest of the group positioned their weapons ready for anything. Nothing happened. “See! The blast fried the NanoBots!” Ethan said.
He kicked a zombie in the leg. “Nothing, not a goddamn thing! They are stone-cold corpses now! How’s that feel, asshole!” Ethan shouted at the motionless body at his feet. Razor came next to him and brought a bat down on its skull. “Just to be sure.” He shrugged as he went about smashing the rest of the motionless skulls. Devin grabbed Erica in his arms. “It’s over. It’s finally over.”
“Not to be the Negative Nancy here, but we’re still fucked,” Chaz began. “We’re still alone in the middle of nowhere without running vehicles. How do we know these things are done? Are they taking a nap? Maybe a little siesta before they all turn into Alphas and rip us to shreds on the open road?” he started to hyperventilate as Redbeard handed him a bottle he took from a bag. “Take it easy, man,” Redbeard said.
“He’s right, we’re still exposed,” Reynolds said in a demanding tone.
“Look, we’re almost to the hideout. I say we go there, spend the night. Let these things rot as we all chill out at Phoenix’s,” William said.
“Aye, I’m with him,” Ferret said.
“Just because they have a hideout doesn’t mean there’s a welcoming party waiting for us. Now, let’s empty the vehicles. Clint, take some of the others, and go to that hardware store over there. I want you to grab shopping carts and wheelbarrows. Shit like that,” Devin said.
“Who the fuck put you in charge?” Ethan said.
“No fucking one! Calm your goddamn ass down. We’re on the street! Stinky over there raised a good point, what if they get back up? Do you want to make camp in this bar again? Want to wait for the rest of the military to show up? Oh wait, their vehicles don’t work, so they’re going to have to walk!” Devin explained.
“Easy there, honcho, I was just asking,” Ethan spoke as he extended his fist out of respect. Devin gave him a fist bump.
Everyone emptied the vehicles into a new convoy of wheelbarrows, shopping carts, and handcarts. Most of those from the back of the dump truck didn’t know about Phoenix. They decided to stay in Elizabethtown. Ironically, they went back into Louie’s and decided to make it their own. Phil placed Paul in a wagon and some other supplies. He knew his son couldn’t walk the whole way there. The Vikings took most of the weight. They continued to wear their armor, although all of them had taken off their helmets and replaced them with sunglasses they looted from a store. Redbeard felt fashionable in his Elvis-style sunglasses.
When the dump truck was unloaded, a couple of the hunters in camouflage were wearing matching black-leather duffel bags. No one thought anything about them until they were slung over the shoulder of two men. “What’s in the bags, man? Ammo? You don’t have to hide, man. We’re all packing,” Reynolds asked.
“Nah, man, nuthin’ you need to concern yo’self with” came out of one of the hillbillies’ mouths. Jamison and Walker noticed the confrontation as well, thinking they were stealing gear. They stepped on both sides of Reynolds in his tactical black uniform. “What’s in the bag? Don’t make me ask again,” Jamison said. The other hillbilly began to shift eyes back and forth.
“You’re making us nervous, man. Just leave us be, and be on your way,” he said.
“No. We’re together because we trust each other. I don’t trust you and your friend here. So let’s see what’s in the bag.” Redbeard and Razor heard the voices, and they appeared behind the two men.
Razor made a sound as he was tapping the knife against the chain mail of his wrist. “You’re not taking it from us! We earned it!” the shifty man said. Guns were drawn on both sides. Razor took his knife and held it against the shifty man’s neck. “I don’t want to kill you, but he’s right. You’re freaking us the fuck out about this shit,” Razor said. Redbeard came forward and threw the bag off the shoulder. He grabbed one of the duffel bags and unzipped it.
“Well I’ll be a goose chasing winter!” Redbeard said as she showed the contents of the bags to rest of the men.
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“Aw, man. Now why do you have to gone’ n’ do that!” the first hillbilly said.
“Money? You were afraid to show us…money?” Reynolds said. Everyone lowered their weapons.
“Yeeeh. We thought you were gonna kill us because we stole it from a bank,” the dumb one said.
“You fucking idiot. I don’t care. I think we should all make a profit on this little adventure.” Reynolds began with a smile. “But I don’t think that bag of paper fire starter is going to be worth anything after this little campaign,” he said as he turned away. “I’d much rather invest in guns and friends with guns,” Reynolds said as he patted Jamison on the shoulder.
“Move out!” Redbeard shouted from behind his sunglasses.
THE TOWN
CHAPTER 82
SATURDAY 1445 CST
GLASGOW
An hour drive turned into a four-hour walk. It seemed like four when they came across a new individual on the road. He was wearing a pack and carrying a walking stick. The nonmotorized caravan came upon the man walking toward them. “Good morning!” he said in a cheerful accent.
“Is Elizabethtown that way?” he pointed at their previous direction.
“Yes.”
“Well done! Happy day to you folks!” the man briskily made his way down the highway before anyone could tell him different. Everyone had a puzzled look.
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