I started noticing trends in the black swirling mist left behind when they teleported. Trina always went in the same pattern. She moved too quickly for me to react to her decision making, shadows would appear, but solidify before I could do anything. My only hope was to get my gun into place in front of me, get my back on the ground and hope I could squeeze a round off before she killed me.
Before that happened, Trina appeared next to me, put her hand on my head and teleported me. I found myself at least a hundred feet up off the ground and falling quickly. Leo screamed and teleported above me. She misjudged how quickly I was moving and was unable to reach me as I fell. Trina was standing on the ground looking up at me from a few feet north of where I was going to land. I watched John turning around in slow motion, raising his gun. Marshall’s shotgun was pressed tightly against his shoulder.
“Trina!” I yelled, trying to keep her attention. “I’m going to kill you now.” She arched an eyebrow at me as John raised his gun, firing a shot from less than eight feet away. He was so fast. Marshall was only a second behind him, firing the shotgun. Trina disappeared, avoiding John’s bullet and reappeared a foot to the left. Her body was immediately spun around and knocked to the ground. There was a large hole in her chest from Marshall’s shotgun blast.
Leo saw an opportunity. She disappeared from above me, leaving me falling. From my perspective, the ground was rushing upwards very fast. Marshall was running towards where I was going to splatter but he wasn’t going to make it. I braced myself for how badly this was going to hurt. Even if Marshall caught me I was going to break my back.
The blonde zombie was squirming down on the ground, writhing in pain, leaking bodily fluids all over the road. Leo appeared at her head, driving her kukri’s into the bitch’s skull. She twisted them as the fattest part of the blade penetrated through Trina’s forehead and face. The squirming stopped; Leo appeared right beside me. She kissed me. The second our lips touched, we reappeared on the ground.
I took a minute to make sure my drawers were still clean and to holster my pistol before grabbing her. I pulled her tightly against me and pressed my lips against hers. “Thanks, Leo. That landing hurt much less than I had anticipated.”
I searched Trina’s corpse, the only thing worth keeping was a single key, not on a key ring. It wasn’t a car key; it might have been her house key. I figured if she had a key, maybe it would unlock something I needed. It was likely she could have come from the Department of Defense and maybe this key was to something there. It seemed worth holding on to for a little while anyways. It was just odd enough to pique my interest.
“Let’s head out. We have some humans to save; we’ve delayed here long enough. Keep your eyes peeled for Bookbinder. If he’s moving, assume he’s a zombie. He knows everything about us and now no doubt they do. I’m giving us two hours to get the prisoners out of the DOD and then we’re going home.” I said.
“Assuming Bookbinder will go straight to whoever is in charge in the area, I’m mildly hopeful we’ll find him at the DoD building. Maybe we’ll get lucky enough to find him before he’s fully turned; maybe we’ll be lucky enough that we can rescue him or end him before that happens.” Marshall said sadly.
“Charlie was my friend.” I said. ”I can’t leave him a zombie. At this point, that’s why we’re going there, screw Frye’s mission. If we can accomplish both, all the better, but Bookbinder is our number one priority right now.”
We loaded up in our trucks and headed the last two blocks to the Greyhound station. Behind the station in the yard we found four Greyhound buses. We all searched for nearly twenty minutes to find the keys and another thirty minutes to get them started and fueled up. We got ourselves ready for the next phase while they were warming up, belching plumes of black diesel smoke into the air.
“From here out, follow the plan. Park the buses in the first lot you come to. Turn the lights off and leave the motors idling; I don’t want to risk one of them not starting again. Leave fifteen minutes after us. We’re leaving in five. Check your weapons and refill your magazines. Once you’ve parked your bus, get out and find cover. Do not wait in the bus, they’re going to be the first target attacked.”
“We got it sir. You can count on us.” replied Dalton Reineer. ”We’ll be there when you need us.”
Marshall, Leo and I left in two of the SUV’s, leaving Reineer, Hostetler, Garrett and Johnson sitting in buses with idling motors and ten minute timers.
Twenty five minutes later, when the four buses arrived in the parking lot, they found our trucks smashed. One of them was fifteen feet off the ground up in the limbs of a tree. The rear wheels were still slowly spinning. The other truck was completely destroyed, leaning on its passenger side, with an arm sticking out from under it. Other than the owner of the arm, there was no one to be found. The members of M1 threw their buses into park and bailed out into the parking garage in the lot next door, looking to find a better observation position.
Chapter 12
Max
“We’re coming down. Stand aside,” yelled a voice from the top of the stairs.
Baker and Leuty stood on the left at the entrance to the dining room, Gallard and Grieco across the reception room to the right in the entrance to the living room.
A huge man in military fatigues with a long black assault rifle slung across his back stepped into the room holding Max against his chest. Max’s head rolled to one side, his eyes closed, he looked unconscious.
“Fuck, what did you mother fuckers do to lil Maxie?” asked Baker.
“We gave him a mild sedative; it was dosed by our base doctor based on his age and size estimate. He’ll sleep for a couple of hours and by then we’ll have had time to examine him. Maybe they’ll even let him come back. He won’t feel a thing,” replied the soldier.
The second soldier followed the first across the room and stepped in front to open the door. Max opened his eyes and tried to wink, scrunching his whole face up, closing both eyes and then opening them.
The remaining members of M5 heard Max speak in their heads. “Tell my Dad almost all my bugs are asleep. I can’t talk to him right now, he’s too far away, but I’ll be fine when they wake up. They said to say they took the medicine the bad man gave me, so I wouldn’t get hurt, but they had to go to sleep for a while until it was all gone. Don’t kill any more bad men tonight.”
Baker almost broke into tears as he nodded to Max. “I’ll come get you lil Maxie. I’ll fu… get these fu… Badguys,” he said. He didn’t know of Max could hear him or not, but it made him feel better.
When the soldiers were gone, he said “Leuty. Grab a car, something fuckin’ quiet. Follow them fucks but don’t let them see you. Try ta at least get a fuckin’ idea of what direction they going.”
Max bumped along as the soldier had transferred him to his back laying over his shoulder in a fireman carry. He was running while carrying the small boy. When the two soldiers walked out the front door they immediately started jogging towards the field at the rear of the house. They ran at a fast jog down the hill and splashed through the cold stream that bisected the back field. They’d covered about two miles when Max felt around in his head, looking for the familiar connection to his bugs. “I’m scared,” he thought. “I don’t know what to do and these badguys are mean; they’re going to hurt me.”
There was no response from the companions in his head. “This badguy has hard shoulders. I don’t like this. I’m scared.” Max started to cry, trying his best to stay quiet; trying not give away that he was awake. The bugs had told him to pretend to be asleep. He laid quietly as tears streamed down his cheeks, face down over the hard, scratchy backpack the soldier was wearing. Every time the soldier’s foot hit the ground, a tear bounced off his cheek and soaked into the man’s uniform.
“We’ve been running for one hundred minutes,” thought Max. Really they’d run about three miles, when they caught up with the other group of soldiers. Once Max and his captors rejoined the rest
of their team, the pace slowed a little bit. “At least they haven’t hurt me yet,” thought Max.
“They will hurt you, Max. We will help you; we will get through this together. We’re not strong enough to talk to anyone else yet, but we’re starting to wake up.” Max heard. “When we’re all awake, we’ll help you make a plan and get you back to Daddy.”
The men continued jogging at the slower pace until they reached a big road. They ran down embankment on the side of the road and then followed the road to some big brown trucks. Most of them took off their packs and got inside their vehicles, but the soldier carrying Max laid him in the cargo area of the truck, where Max continued to pretend to be asleep.
“I don’t have any buckles. This isn’t safe,” thought Max.
“We are almost ready. Max, there are three humans we control over in the woods. We need you to call for them to come here.”
“Daddy calls those Zombies. He says to run if I ever see one.” Max thought.
“Max, you can control them, like we did for you a long time ago at that place by the bridge with your Daddy. Do you remember when they came for you in the truck and we made them stand still?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“You can do that too Max, with our help. Call out to them with your mind and tell them to come here. When the soldiers shoot them, you run. Run into the woods and keep running until we tell you. No matter what you hear or see, you keep running. Watch where you put your feet, the way will be rough. Be careful not to trip. Keep your eyes looking at your feet and run as fast as you can.”
Max replied, “Ok, I will run so fast. Call them now?”
“Yes, now. Then run when we say.”
Max looked with his mind for the zombies. When he found them, three of them travelling in a group, he thought to them “Hi guys. My bugs say you are nice. They say you’ll help me. I need you to come here and distract these badguys. Come now.”
“We come. Eat.” They replied.
“NO! NO eating. Just come.”
“We come. We eat.” they replied again.
Max looked a little deeper. He searched their minds for anything, something to latch on to. There was nothing. Just eat and follow instructions, the only two things they knew. Max took those two thoughts, which were floating evenly and put “eat” under “follow instructions.” trying to hide it. “Maybe if I put it underneath this one, they won’t see that and they’ll just listen.”
“Come. Do not eat.” thought Max.
“We come,” they replied.
Max couldn’t see them with his eyes, but he could look through the first zombie’s eyes. He saw them stumble out of the woods. They’d made it up to the first soldier and bumped into him when he turned around and jumped back.
“Contact!” the soldier shouted, drawing his pistol. He fired once, killing the lead zombie.
Max watched that zombie’s vision black out and then he was looking out of his own eyes.
“Run Max!”
Max rolled out of the big truck, scraping his arm on the pavement as he fell. He got to his feet as quickly as he could and started running. All of the soldiers thought he was still asleep, were facing the other way looking for more zombies. It was rare to see just three and the fact that they didn’t attempt to eat the soldiers was odd. They walked up to the truck and stopped. It only took them a few seconds to kill all three zombies. Then they spent another thirty seconds looking for more and another minute making sure no one was bitten. Per protocol, each soldier checked two others for bites or scratches.
“All clear, Sir.”
“Odd. Why didn’t they bite? They had Fellowes dead to rights. It’s your lucky night Fellowes,” replied Colonel Frye.
“Yes Sir!” Fellowes replied.
“Sir! The boy, he’s gone!” Yelled a soldier from the back of the truck.
By that time, Max was out of hearing range, running as fast as his tiny feet would take him. He watched his feet as the bugs had instructed him and only fell three times as he ran. He ran as fast as he could through the woods.
“I’m going fast!”
“Yes, you’re doing great Max. Now it gets hard, we have to stay away from the soldiers. Our abilities are coming back slower than we expected. There must have been something other than a sedative in that shot. We will be Ok, Max. But we’re on our own for a while.”
Running as fast as he could, Max tripped over a stick. When he fell, he slid forward, hands splayed out in front of him. He cut his hand on a large rock and blood started flowing out of his tiny palm. Max started to cry again, between the fear and the pain and being alone in the woods, it was too much for him.
“Max, we’ll make your hand stop hurting, but we have to find a place to hide to fix the cut. Wipe your hand on the ground, then put your hand on your shirt and press it against your chest. Use your foot to kick some leaves over the blood on the ground.”
Max did as he was told, trying to hide the drops of blood and using his shirt to absorb the blood running out of his hand.
“We need you to turn left just past this tree.”
Max ran past a huge gnarly oak tree and turned to the right.
“Max, left is the other way.”
“Oh, I know that,” replied Max turning around. “This way?”
“Yes, good. Run faster, Max.”
“My feet hurt really bad. I think they’re bleedy too.”
Max was wearing his PJ’s; he’d been asleep when they stuck the needle in his arm. The bugs woke him when they sensed the needle entering his arm but by then it was too late for him to run. They’d just had time to tell him to pretend to be asleep before the sedative and whatever else was in that needle began to work. They worked furiously to draw the chemicals out of his cells and into their own, knowing they’d need Max awake. They did not know that the other chemical was the closest thing the CDC had come to an inoculation for the infection before they were overrun.
“Right here, Max. Follow this path, keep running.”
“My feet hurt really bad,” replied Max. “And my side hurts. I can’t run anymore.”
“You have to keep going friend. You can’t stop, or they will catch you.”
Max kept running. His little lungs were on fire and he had a huge stitch in his side. He’d run as fast as he could for almost ten minutes now and was well over a mile from where he rolled out of the truck.
“Just ahead, there is a small house. Its dark in there, but we’ll help you. In the back of the shack, there is a clean bed. You’ll be safe there.”
Max saw the shed and kept running. He climbed the two stairs up to the door and reached for the knob, which was almost as high as he could reach. The knob wouldn’t turn at in his hand.
“It’s locked. I can’t get in.”
“You know what the edge of a door looks like. Think about the little piece of metal that sticks out the side of the door. That piece of metal goes into the wall, that piece is what holds the door closed. Use your mind Max. Concentrate; think very hard about that little piece of metal going back into the door.”
“Ok.”
The door knob shook a little bit and with very little noise, the door latch slid into the door, allowing Max to push the door open.
“I did it!” Said Max, who was clearly pleased with himself.”
“Now close the door and imagine the piece of metal going back into the wall, where it was.”
The latch slid back into place with a soft click, locking the door behind him. Max looked around the tiny house. It was a strange place, the smallest house he’d ever seen. One end of it was just big enough to hold a bed, in the middle was a kitchen and at the end with the door were two closets. Max was standing in the short hallway between the two closets. Just past the kitchen there was a ladder that led up to a small loft.
“Climb up the ladder Max. Up there you’ll find a clean bed. We need you to go to sleep. We need your body to relax so we can repair you, we will be safe here. We will hide here un
til we are strong again and then we will get back to your Daddy. When we get back, he will make sure that the bad guys don’t ever try to hurt you again. Do you know why Max?”
“Why?“
“Because he loves you. He loves you more than anything in this entire world. And love is what makes you humans so strong. Love is what binds you together. Our kind can act in perfect unison. And we are not bound together as strongly as you and your Daddy.”
“I miss my Daddy,” thought Max. He started to cry, thinking about how much he missed Mommy and Daddy. He focused on finding his Dad, but his senses were dull. He concentrated as much as he could and thought “Dad. Help.”
What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists Page 10