“You’re mad.” I said. “Do you even have enough explosives for all of this? And even after you blow the safe zone, you probably won’t get anywhere near all the zombies.”
“Yes, we have more than enough explosives. We probably won’t get all the zombies, but we’re only after the large groups you see? If we haven’t done enough damage after blowing up the safe zone, we’ll round up more survivors and repeat the procedure in different area’s until we eliminate the threat. And maybe I am somewhat mad, but my methods will work.”
“At what cost?” I asked.
“The cost of many lives, lives that are sooner or later going to end anyway, because the government will never render aid and they will never let them out of this city. Play your cards right kid and you might even be remembered as a hero. I doubt it though, not after I’ve reclaimed the city. Stand in my way or try to escape and you won’t even be a footnote in the annals of the history that is now in the making.”
It was evident that the man was an asshole. I just didn’t exactly know what my next move should be. Dudley and Kingsley weren’t saying a word. So, for the time being I had no better option than nodding my head in acceptance of Martins rule and that’s exactly what I did.
“Didn’t you want to argue with him? All those people were about to be killed. Shouldn’t you have fought for them?”
You can’t argue with people like Martin. I’ve learned that a long time ago. It’s best to just let them believe whatever it is they want to believe. Challenge their authority and you might end up with a bullet in your head for your efforts.
“So you were biding your time?”
Of course, I couldn’t exactly do much of anything except get shot at the moment. There were too many guns in the room. I had to wait for a good time. I was just hoping that a good time would present itself before he blew up all of Downtown.
Martin left Gerald in charge of keeping an eye on us, while he went out with the remainder of his men to set the explosives in key buildings around the Downtown area.
Gerald didn’t seem very comfortable around me.
“I want you to know something Mr. General.” He said. It only took him about ten minutes after everyone had left to strike up a conversation with me. “I don’t much like the plan either, but I have to follow my orders.”
I just stared at him.
“So…if you’re thinking about killing all of us, try and remember that when it comes to me.”
“What do you think you know about me?” I asked.
“There was an outbreak back in Nam. I was in the Special Forces back then, Green Berets. One of my friends, his name was Max, he began to change…”
“What kind of outbreak?” I asked.
“Same as here,” answered Gerald. “The dead began to walk. Max began to fight. All of us were trained soldiers, but what Max could do…it was amazing. It was like he was born to kill those things.”
“Did he heal fast?” I asked.
“Not on his own. He’d stand out in the rain or jump in a lake whenever he got hurt.”
“That sounds a lot like you.”
It sure as hell did. I was chomping at the bit.
“I can imagine.”
“So what happened to Max?” I asked.
“The outbreak only lasted a month. We were left out in the jungle until it was cleared. Max did most of the work. We just followed his lead. When it was over, men came and took him away. I overheard one of them call him a Guardian.”
“A guardian?”
“That’s what I heard. I can remember it even today. I can remember everything about that hell I went through.”
“Who were the men that took him?”
“I really couldn’t say. It wasn’t like I was in the loop and I never saw him again either, so I couldn’t even tell you where they took him.”
“So what can you tell me?” I asked.
“Not much at all. It’s just that from what I read on EPUA, you seem to be following in his footsteps.”
Well, it wasn’t much, but at least it was something. He didn’t have a lot of the answers, but there seemed to have been a guy back in Vietnam that was able to deal with these things just like I was trying to deal with them now.
“And an outbreak of zombies made him change.”
Yeah, without knowing a whole lot, Gerald actually knew a whole lot. Still, it was time to move forward. I had to stop these guys.
“Well Gerald, since you seem to know something about me, why don’t you put down the gun and let us out of here?”
“If I did that, you would go straight after Martin.”
“How do you know that?” I asked. He was right of course. I wasn’t about to let Martin kill everyone in the Downtown area, I just wasn’t going to admit it to Gerald.
“Because that’s what Max would have done back in Nam.” He answered with a knowing smile. “He felt the need to save everyone, just like you apparently do.”
This was going nowhere. The guy was highly trained and armed with an assault rifle. All I had was a freakin pocket knife. What the hell was I going to do?
The radio against the wall squeaked to life. It was Martin calling in his position.
“Tomcat…come in Tomcat.”
“Tomcat here,” answered Gerald to the receiver. “What’s happening out there?”
“We’ve divided into three groups…Alpha, Beta and Gamma.”
“I read that Boss. Which group are you?”
“Alpha…”
The sounds of gunfire cut off whatever he was about to say.
“Alpha, do you read me?” asked Gerald. I could tell that he was becoming a little nervous. In fact he seemed on edge before Martin even radioed in.
“Maybe it was you?”
That could be true, but it seemed to go a little deeper than that. I think he maybe didn’t like being stuck in an area full of hostile zombies. I can’t say I blame him either.
“So let me get this straight…during our last interview, I believe I heard that radios were not working during a conversation you had with Georgie. Yet these mercenaries are using a radio for communication?”
Right, the household and auto radios were not getting any signals. These military radios that were used for communication between two parties were working just fine.
“I get it now. Thanks.”
No worries.
“Did Martin ever radio back?”
Yeah, but it took him about 30 minutes. .
“We lost position Tomcat. I repeat…Alpha team has lost position.” Martin gasped into the radio.
“What’s going on out there?” asked Gerald.
“There’s…”
More gunfire interrupted the transmission.
“There’s more of the hostile’s than we expected,” said Martin. “A lot more.”
“Were you able to set the explosives?” asked Gerald.
No answer.
“It’s bad out there Gerald. They may not make it back.” I said.
“Shut the hell up. I’m not getting left out here. There are two other teams,” screamed Gerald as he rounded on me.
“Have you heard from those two other teams?” I asked.
“Shut the hell up,” repeated Gerald.
“I’m your only hope Gerald.” I said calmly. “Let me know if you want to live.”
After that, I leaned back in my chair and pretended to fall asleep.
“Why?”
Why not.
“Well, that just seems like an odd tactic.”
Yeah, I agree. Yet, you need to remember, I was trying to deal with an ex Green Beret who was starting to lose it big time. If I made a move before the time was right, he’d blow a big hole in my chest for the effort. I’m not too keen on getting shot. So, I waited it out.
In the next hour, Beta team and Gamma team both radioed in. Gerald seemed to calm down just a bit. It didn’t last long. Both teams were attacked almost immediately. We could hear the two guys in Beta scream
as they were eaten.
Gamma survived their initial attack, but the two guys on the team were on the run.
“What happened to Alpha team? Isn’t that the team with Martin?”
Yeah, that was Martins team. They initially had three teammates, but they lost one during the last transmission. It was about an hour before they were able to radio back in.
Martin wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I could hear him yelling and screaming over the radio. He wanted the Gamma team to regroup with wherever Beta team fell and pick up their explosives.
“How much was this guy getting paid? By my count, he’s lost three of his men and with only four left, he wants to continue his mission?”
Yep. I was hoping he’d get eaten out there. It would make things a lot easier. No such luck. Meanwhile, Gerald was having a shit fit. He was trying to isolate exactly where Beta team fell and his back was finally towards us.
I looked over to Dudley and Kingsley. They looked shocked. I don’t blame them; we were in the midst of idiots.
I gave Dudley a smile.
He gave me an ‘oh shit’ look.
I stood up with all the speed and power in my possession. As I did that, I seized the table and rushed Gerald.
Before the man could even turn around, I had him smashed against the wall with the table. I hit him so hard the table broke in two.
He was unconscious and Dudley and Kingsley still had that shocked expression on their faces.
“I was wondering when this asshole would give me his back.” I laughed.
“His friends are going to come after us,” said Kingsley.
“No they’re not.” I replied.
“The hell they aren’t. We need to get out of the area.”
“No they aren’t, because we’re going after them.” I said.
“Fuck Jax!” He shouted. “Those are trained soldiers. We can’t fight them.”
“Fine, we won’t fight them, but we do need to disarm those explosives.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” asked Dudley.
“We’ll get my buddy Gerald do it.” I answered. “Now let’s grab our gear and get the hell out of here.”
“So now you’ve escaped. You’re on a new mission and that’s to stop four mercenaries from blowing up the Downtown area. What about everyone back in the safe zone? Were they worried at how long you’d been gone?”
To be completely honest…I never even thought about it. We were having a bit of a situation. It would have made things easier if there was a radio in the safe zone so that we could communicate, but there wasn’t. I also didn’t have a laptop on hand to give them an update. They’d just have to wait it out.
“So what did you do after you grabbed your gear?”
We then grabbed some maps, a radio and Gerald and headed back to where we left the Jeep. Luck was with us, the way was clear and none of the mercenaries thought to disable the vehicle.
Dudley was driving again. I was in the back with Merrick and Gerald. Luckily, I found some handcuffs back at the leather store and I was able to handcuff Gerald to the side of the Jeeps roll bar before he woke up. Because, when he woke up, he threw an epic shit fit.
He screamed so damn loud I thought my ears were gonna pop. He also began to thrash around so much that he ended up kicking Merrick right in the face. She retaliated by promptly biting him in the leg and holding on for dear life as he screamed even louder and thrashed even harder.
The little episode caught Dudley by surprise and he almost ran into a street sign. We were starting to attract attention as well. We now had three zombies running after us.
I finally pulled Merrick off of Gerald’s leg and then punched him in the face when he didn’t stop struggling.
I pulled my knife.
“Look behind us asshole.” I snarled at him. “You’re attracting attention. Keep it up and I’ll cut your Achilles and toss you out the back.”
“Would you have really done that?”
I wouldn’t have cut him, but I would have tossed him. He was endangering all of us. Not a good thing to do, especially when you’ve been aiming a gun at my face in the not so distant past.
Regardless, the threat worked. Gerald shut the hell up. Dudley was able to lose the runners in just a short while. Good thing to. I didn’t want to shoot them down and attract even more attention.
“Find us another alley Dudley.” I said. “Gerald and I are going to have a little chat.”
It took a while, but soon enough Dudley found a nice quiet alley. As soon as we had safely parked a zombie ran for us. It came from behind a dumpster. This one didn’t scream, its throat was missing. It was a young boy of about fifteen. Its clothes were spattered with some sort of grey slime. Its skin was yellow and slowly peeling away from its face. The sickest thing about it was its fingers. They were rotting away from the bone and the look was as if it were wearing shredded gloves.
It ran straight for Gerald. Before it could bite down on his arm, I punched my knife straight into its forehead. It dropped dead and Gerald stared at me with wide eyes.
“You are like Max.” He said. “That was too quick, too fluid…too easy.”
“Whatever.” I answered. “Here’s the deal. Four of your buddies are out there dropping some serious explosives. I’m going to stop them. Your job is to lead me to them. If you do that, you live. Fuck with me in any way…you die, any questions?”
Gerald shook his head no.
“Radio both teams and find out if they’ve set up any of the explosives yet.”
It took him only a short amount of time before he raised Martin on the radio. Martin had set three of his six sets of explosives. He was having trouble reaching the rest of the predetermined locations due to all the zombies.
“He couldn’t place them in other locations?”
I guess not. These bombs were huge. They also had a plan to lay waste to the entire Downtown area. I think they needed to be put in the proper locations for the maximum amount of damage. If the explosions didn’t cover the entire area, they’d be pretty useless.
Gamma team had only just recovered the explosives from the fallen Beta team and had just enough time to set one of their twelve charges (an extra six came from Beta). Needless to say, Martin wasn’t happy about how far behind schedule Gamma team had fallen and both teams were pissed at Gerald for his radio silence right when Gamma needed help pinpointing Betas location. Gerald made his excuses. Radio problems seemed to be acceptable and both teams went back to work.
“Alright Gerald,” I said. “Point out on the map where these four charges have been set.”
I scratched at the map with the tip of my knife to mark the spots. Kingsley then took a look at the locations. He really came into play here; both Dudley and I suck at reading maps. Kingsley didn’t know the area greatly, but he knew it a lot better than the both of us.
The first charge we went after was naturally the closest one to us. It also happened to be in a McDonalds, which in turn made me kinda hungry. The double cheeseburgers with no onions are to die for.
Anyway, we got as close as we could to the McDonalds, there was a group of about twenty or so zombies milling around the entrance. They were probably leftovers from when the team left the explosives. However, if we tried to shoot our way through, we’d end up attracting thousands.
“What’s that building behind our target area?” asked Dudley. He sounded so military.
“I’m guessing it’s an old hotel,” answered Kingsley.
“Well, the rear of its right next to the McDonalds and there aren’t any zombies around its entrance, which is around the corner.”
“I get what you’re saying.” I said. “Park the Jeep in front of the hotel, go through the hotel and out the back exit. From there, I should be able to sneak into the back of the McDonalds.”
“Sounds about right,” said Dudley.
“What separates the hotel from the McDonalds?” asked Kingsley.
“I can’t really tell
,” I answered. “But it looks like a narrow alleyway.”
We quietly backed up the Jeep and went the long way around a couple of blocks until we were able to make our way to the front of the hotel.
“Let’s make this simple.” I said. “Dudley, you stay in the Jeep and keep a lookout for anything behind you. Kingsley, go to the corner of the street and make sure the zombies in front of the McDonalds stay in front of the McDonalds. Gerald, Merrick and I will go disarm the explosives.”
“You think that it’s a good idea being alone with him?” asked Kingsley.
“Yeah Jax,” said Dudley. “What if he gets away?”
I unlatched the handcuffs from the roll bar and locked them onto my left arm.
“He’s not going anywhere.” I said. “And you better know how to disarm those charges.” I added to Gerald.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I know how to disarm them. It’s pretty easy, I could show you and you wouldn’t have to take me with you.”
“Good luck with that idea.” I sneered at him. I wasn’t about to leave an ex Green Beret out of my sight.
The sky overhead grumbled what sounded like a warning as we left the Jeep. I hadn’t even noticed the rising humidity until just now. I was surprised to find that I along with everyone else was covered in sweat. It hadn’t rained since…hell, I couldn’t even remember, but it was about to make up for it. I could see the lighting streak across the nighttime sky with the next grumble. I was thankful for the rain; maybe it would mask our scent.
I waited for the next rumble and broke down the front door to the hotel when it sounded off. We were inside and moving at a quick trot. Gerald was keeping up with me just fine, yet having him handcuffed to my left arm was annoying.
I handed Gerald a flashlight and he shined the beam in the direction that we needed to go. He wasn’t armed, so he wasn’t about to lead us into any danger. It was in his best interest to keep us both safe. In my right hand, I held my tomahawk.
We were heading down a long carpeted hallway when the sky above us opened up and let the rain fall. It was a hard angry rain and once again I was happy about it. If I could hear it pattering off the walls of the hotel, then hopefully all the noise would cover any banging and crashing sounds made by me. After all, I may have a couple more doors that need breaking down.
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