ROT Series (Book 4): The Savior

by Hunter, Damon

  Before he put his eye up to the scope he said, “Be ready to go, Once I fire this shot we are going to be popular.”

  Ana and Fan both got in their vehicles and got behind the wheel.

  Vance took aim and fired. After the recoil he went back to the scope and saw liquid was running out of the tanker. He aimed again. This time looking to hit the pavement in front of the truck and maybe even bounce the slug up into the tanker to create a spark.

  He fired but nothing happened. He wondered if instead of a fuel tanker he had punched a hole in a water tanker. He decided to fire another shot, just to be sure. This time the spark he created found the fuel.

  A fire grew at the feet of the growing horde but more importantly the flames spread to the inside of the tanker. Soon the entire thing went up in giant fireball.

  Vance looked back toward the stadium. While his plan to clear the horde from the TMRT transport seemed to be working, the horde from the stadium was now coming their way.

  Chapter 27 - Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook, CA

  Gavin watched them come back to their quarters and grab up all the weapons they could carry.

  He asked Jennifer what was going on even though he had a good idea what it was. He was not surprised when she told him a horde was coming. He also was not surprised when she told him to stay in his room.

  Had his room had a toilet he may have gladly obeyed her. As much as he hated being treated like he could not do anything just because of his size and age, he was tired of running and fighting for his life. If they could take care of the problem without him he was glad to let them. His bladder, however had other desperate plans.

  He made sure to take the combat knife he had found during the first night with Bo. He was still amazed they let him keep it. He was smart enough to know in many ways this was not a good thing. People don’t let ten year olds carry deadly weapons unless things have really gotten bad.

  He could hear the gunfire as he headed down the hallway. He hoped they could stay safe behind the walls. It looked like they had not made it one day before trouble found them.

  He finished peeing and washed his hands. He realized he was the only one on this floor and maybe the only person in the building. It was tempting to go exploring. He had never been in a house this big. Yesterday when they went to the kitchen he was thinking the kitchen might be bigger than the apartment he had lived in with his mom and dad above the store they owned. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside. Thinking about the apartment, his parents, and the store brought an unbearable sadness to him. He felt he was being literally crushed every time they entered his head. The only way he could handle it was to not think about them at all.

  For the most part they had been so busy trying to stay alive and rot free there wasn’t time to think about that kind of stuff. Now though alone in this big house he could not help but think about them. He needed a distraction.

  Gavin decided he would be fine running to the kitchen and getting a snack. It was on the ground floor like his room and there was plenty to eat in there. He wondered for a second if the don’t run with scissors rule applied to combat knives, but decided he didn’t care if it did or not, he wasn’t wasting any time with possible infected around.

  He managed to make it to the kitchen without tripping and impaling himself. Gavin was checking the pantry when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Gavin,” it said, “come to me.”

  He new better than to do what the voice said. The kitchen had two entrances, and he was sure the voice came from over by the one he did not take. He grabbed a bag of Doritos and started running back the way he came.

  He reached the doorway when three hundred pounds of human being in a nice suit stepped in his way. Gavin bounced off the leg of the second of Cam Carson’s body guards and fell on his butt.

  “Where you going in such a hurry little man?” the bodyguard asked.

  Gavin scrambled to his feet and told him, “Tanner.”

  “Tanner?” the bodyguard said as Gavin looked for a way around him.

  Gavin realized while he found the name Tanner frightening the big man blocking his way did not. Gavin was about to try to explain Tanner to the big man when Tanner appeared behind the bodyguard. Gavin had miscalculated the direction Tanner’s voice badly. Instead of trying to explain he pointed.

  The bodyguard wheeled around quickly, keeping himself between Gavin and vampire rotter Tanner as he drew his a pistol from the shoulder rig under his jacket. Vampire rotter Tanner was on him before he could fire a shot. He drove the big man to the floor biting through the body guards jacket and ripping out a chunk of the bodyguards shoulder as he took him down.

  Even with his shoulder a bloody mess the bodyguard tried to raise his gun. Vampire rotter Tanner caught his arm and the bodyguard put a round in the ceiling. The infected teenager twisted the bigger man’s arm and the crack of his wrist breaking was nearly as loud as the gunshot.

  Gavin did wait around to see if the bodyguard could defeat Tanner. He ran as hard as he could across the kitchen and went out the other door. He shut it behind him, finding himself in a large dining room.

  He had no idea how to get back to his room, but he did know he could not stay where he was. Gavin was starting to run when vampire rotter Tanner burst through the door. Gavin looked back and while he was watching Tanner he tripped on a chair someone had not pushed all the way into the table and fell on his face.

  Chapter 28 - Cam Carson’s Compound - Fallbrook, CA

  Donna took the first corner and slammed on the brakes. In the middle of the concourse surrounding the Carson’s mansion stood a man in camouflage. If he noticed the truck coming at him he gave no indication. When he looked up with a face full of popping sores Donna saw she should not have bothered stopping. She hit the gas and saved everyone a bullet by running him over with the truck. If this one was infected she feared what else she may find. One of the shooting platforms looked to be manned. She drove next to and saw in addition to a couple militiamen suffering a case of the rot it was manned by a crouching vampire rotter. It leaped for the back of the truck but Katelin and Ben were quicker than its previous victims. It landed in the bed nearly in two pieces as both lit it up.

  “I think we’ve lost the back,” Ben said.

  Donna did not answer. Instead she drove to the next platform and saw it’s lone sentry had been infected. With the rot his ability to climb down was lost. He had fallen and broken his leg. He drug a left leg with the bone sticking out as he moved their way.

  “Save your bullets,” Donna yelled back as she ran him down with the truck as well.

  Ben leaned out around the bed next to her window as the drove to the next platform and said, “I guess we have a chance if those are the only ones.”

  “Do you think they were?” Donna asked as they reached the final platform and found it unmanned.

  “No,” he told her.

  “Me neither,” Donna said, “I was thinking we would come back here and help keep them out, but I think we’re too late.”

  Katlein pointed to busted in door that led into Carson’s mansion and said, “Looks like they are in the house.”

  “Looks like helicopter time to me,” Ben said.

  “I’m sure they got Gavin to the roof,” Katelin added, sensing her mother’s fear for the members of their group inside, “We should join them.”

  Donna nodded, but said, “We need to warn the others,” before stomping on the gas and taking them back around to the front of the house.

  As they drove she was pretty sure she saw Dolan walking by the house. He turned and went in an open door before they reached him.

  Donna stopped the truck and leaned out the window, “Go get him. He will be able to get on his radio and tell his men what’s going on.”

  Ben hopped down and followed Dolan.

  “Hey,” he called but Dolan did not turn around.

  He reached him and put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. Ben pulled his h
and back as he found it covered in thick green pus.

  An infected Dolan turned and lunged at Ben with an open mouth. Ben raised the rifle so all Dolan got was a mouthful of the barrel. He shoved the afflicted militia leader away and flipped the rifle back so his finger was on the trigger. He put a three round burst in Dolan’s face and the militia man turned ambler fell to the ground. Ben grabbed the radio off his belt and hustle back to the pick up.

  As he climbed in he noticed what looked like Carson’s kitchen staff wander out of the house. They way they were walking he figured their cooking days were over.

  As Donna drove off Ben press the button talked into the microphone, “I’m going to keep this simple. We’re fucked and it’s time to get the hell out of here.”

  Cam Carson’s voice came over the radio, “Whoever is spreading this negative bullshit needs to stop. From where I’m standing we’re winning.”

  “They already compromised the back,” Ben told him.

  “Bullshit,” Carson said.

  They turned the corner and could see Carson in the middle shooting platform. He put down the radio and picked up his rocket launcher. While he was setting up his shot a vampire rotter dressed like one the kitchen staff came out of the second floor window. The vampire rotter with a white chefs hat hit the ground and immediately scrambled up the platform. Katelin and Ben took shots at it but missed.

  It put the first bite into the militiaman getting ready to fire a rocket. He spun trying to get the thing tearing into his back off of him and tumbled off the platform. He hit the ground and fired his rocket, punching a hole in the wall as he took out the platform on the other side of the gate. The rotter tossed him aside as the men on the platform fired. They succeeded in taking out their bitten comrade but the rotter bounded away back towards the house.

  A burst from Kate’s rifle knocked it down before it could get back inside and Ben finished it with a bullet to the head.

  The first of the amblers started through the hole in the fence. They were cut down quickly, but more were coming. With the hole in the fence and the backside having been breached they were no longer defending a position. They were in an open battlefield.

  The current head of the militia decided the chances of winning had dipped below the kind of odds he wanted to bet on. They heard him telling everybody, “Retreat to the choppers,” over the radio.

  “I say we take his advice,” Katelin said as she hopped out of the truck.

  Donna and Ben followed her inside as Carson’s voice came over the two way radio saying, “No one leaves. The choppers aren’t leaving without me and I ain’t leaving.”

  The next thing he said was, “Get it off of me,” followed by a scream of terror and pain. He did not let go of the talk button the whole time he was attacked.

  He kept his finger on it as he said, “Don’t point that at me. I pay you to protect me. I may be immune anyway.”

  The next thing they heard was a gunshot.

  The bodyguard’s voice came over the line, “Don’t leave without me.”

  “Then hurry the fuck up,” Donna said as they ran toward the stairway.

  They ran to the third floor and found the door was locked.

  Ben told Donna to move and kicked the door just below the lock. The door split and they could see pieces of the lock mechanism hanging loose. He put his shoulder into it and they found themselves on the roof.

  A man in an olive uniform approached them saying, “You are not authorized to be in this floor.”

  Katelin stepped forward with one of her pistols raised and said, “Consider this our authorization.”

  The man raised his hands and backed up giving them a good view of the third floor. It was just as the militia man had told them. There were unfinished walls and windows but the roof was just a tarp designed to look like forest to anyone looking from above. Another pilot came around the corner.

  “They’re authorized,” the first pilot told him.

  In case he did not get it Ben swung his rifle his way.

  Donna looked around, the two pilots seemed to be the only ones on the faux third floor.

  “Did two people with a little kid come up here?” She asked the pilot.

  “No, like I said only Carson is supposed to come up here.”

  “Carson’s dead,” Ben told him, “Are these things gassed up and ready to go?”

  “Yes but…”

  “This is a fake floor but those windows are real,” Donna told him as she pointed to the windows facing the front of the compound, “Maybe you should take a look.”

  “I have, things were under control.”

  “Look again,” Katelin told him.

  Both pilots went to look. They did not like what they saw. No one was firing from the platforms and the gate was blown wide open. The infected, some still on fire, were pouring into the compound.

  They both turned and the first one said, “Get in a chopper. We’re leaving.”

  “We can’t go yet,” Donna said, “We have people coming.”

  “Not if they were outside you don’t.” the pilot said. He looked at Katelin, “Go ahead and shoot us, unless one of you can fly a helicopter you’ll be killing yourselfs too. The choppers are leaving. The only question is rather or not you’ll be aboard.”

  Before anyone could argue with him a vampire rotter dressed in the militia’s camouflage came over the wall and jumped down on top of the first pilot sinking his teeth into the top of the pilot’s head as they both went to the floor.

  The second pilot was right next to him. He grabbed the vampire rotter and tried to pull it off his fellow pilot. The vampire rotter wheeled and knocked him into the wall with a swing of his arm. The pilot went down at the vampire rotters feet.

  Before the rotter could pounce Donna, Katelin and Ben all put two bullets in him. The vampire rotter dropped dead in front of the first pilot, blocking their view of the man who had been bitten.

  The second pilot was sitting up and saying, “Thank you,” when the first pilot lunged forward and bit him on the ankle.

  Again the trio took aim and shredded the upper body of the infected pilot.

  The second pilot raised him hand in surrender. “Don’t shoot,” he told them, “Maybe I’m immune. I’ve heard it happens.”

  “It does,” Katelin told him as she aimed one of her Mac-Tens his way, “Just not very often.”

  “Any of you know how fly one of these birds?” He asked.

  All three said no.

  “Then you’d better hope I beat the odds,” he said as he lowered his hands and leaned over to look at the bite on his ankle.

  As he leaned down they all saw the sore rapidly growing on top of his head.

  “Shit,” Ben said as the sore popped and another sprang up.

  “Damn it,” Donna said as she shook her head.

  “Fuck,” Katelin said before she put a bullet through the top of the pilot’s head. She looked to her mom expecting for her to say ‘Language.’ Donna said nothing.

  “What now?” Ben asked.

  Donna checked the bullets in her magazine before saying, “I’m open to suggestions.”

  She noticed her phone ringing in her pocket and decided to answer it.

  Chapter 29 - Interstate 5 - Anaheim, CA

  Novak had heard the shot. He looked to the fuzzy monitors and got to see what it is like to be inside an explosion.

  “Kind of beautiful,” he said to Dr. Talbot.

  “I guess, though I don’t really want to be cooked in here. Slowly burning to death will make me regret not getting nuked.”

  “The transport is supposed to be built to take this kind of thing.”

  “Doesn’t mean it will,” Talbot replied, “I’m guessing whatever tests they did were not done after dropping a truck on the transport and flipping it upside down.”

  “Speaking of which, unless they were damaged in the crash the fire retardant should automatically deploy.”

  Talbot was about to tell him
it must have been damaged when the flames on the monitors were replaced with a blue foam.

  “Since we are safe for the moment from burning to death what should we do now?” Talbot asked, “Are we back to waiting to die?”

  “The fire should have done some major damage to the horde,” Novak said as starting gathering his gear.

  “You going outside?”

  “Might be our best chance to get out of this thing.”

  “Then what? We die out there? Or get the rot?”

  “Probably. Kind of beats starving to death. Maybe we can salvage a vehicle. We have a transponder we could drive out of the QZ.”

  “Sounds like a long shot.”

  “I don’t think waiting around is going to get us better odds.”

  Talbot nodded and said, “I’ll get the transponder. What should we do with the nuke?”

  Novak looked at the chrome box containing a nuclear bomb. It was tilted upside down on the ceiling turned floor, “I don’t know,” he said, “Doesn’t seem the kind of thing you leave behind.”

  With his gear on and all his guns loaded Novak checked the box with the bomb, flipping it back upright carefully. He knew if it survived the crash his flipping it over should not set it off, but given the destructive power he did not want to take any chances. He checked the weight. He and the major with no name had both carried out the first one but Novak thought he could move one by himself if he had too.

  The fireball should have cleared out the infected, but Noval knew better than to assume they weren’t some survivors waiting for them. He needed both hands for his weapons. The nuke would have to stay until he found a vehicle.

  Talbot returned with the transponder.

  “Are you ready?” Novak asked as he put his palm lightly on the button which opened the back of the transport.

  “No, but what difference does that make?”

  Novak opened the door. He was immediately confronted with a vampire rotter. What wasn’t on fire was burned to a crispy black, but as it crouched to attack it did not look bothered by the burns.