Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02

by Rescue

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Fate Shows Itself

  Dawn broke over the horizon early the next morning. Alex stood on balcony overlooking the front yard, running through the events of the last few days and the plans for today. Liam came to meet him and quietly stood by his side.

  "Things are going to get ugly, aren't they?" Liam asked. Alex nodded slowly, still staring off into space.

  "We'll make it," Liam continued, his reassuring tone not quite ringing true. "You've gotten us this far, Alex. I have faith that you'll get us back, somehow." Alex cracked a smile and looked at his friend.

  "Well, geez. Thanks for the confidence," he said sarcastically.

  Liam just shrugged. "Hey, man. I just call them like I see them. This shit is crazy, and I don't know how you are going to pull it off, but I have faith in you. The good Lord shall provide." He finished with a mock bow to the heavens, his arms open wide in thanks.

  "So, just who do you think is getting us out of here? The good Lord, or me?" Alex crossed his arms in front of him and feigned hurt feelings.

  "Both," Liam said excitedly. "I have faith that the good Lord will provide you with enough sense not to get us killed. Well, at least not get me killed." He clapped his friend on the shoulder and laughed. Alex joined in.

  "Come on, Liam," Alex said. "We better get moving." The two men shook hands and headed inside.

  -----

  "I'm not sure I really like this plan," Shawn said as he jogged next to the car. Dr. Cahn was still too weak to make the journey under his own power, so the team had elected to transport the injured man in one of the cars located at the Hill's house. Theresa and Amy Hill would accompany the doctor in the car, and Luke would be the driver. Every other man would follow on foot, surrounding the car and providing the occupants with protection.

  "Duly noted," Alex said to Shawn. "Now shut up and run." The team had no sooner left the perimeter of the Hill's house, when they ran into their first obstacle. A knot of zombies, quiet up until they had seen Alex and his men, were wandering around the outside of the fence. Two men of the Hill's security team, trigger happy or scared, immediately opened fire. The reports from their rifles rang through the streets and neighborhood surrounding the house, and soon the strangled moans of dozens of walking dead reached their ears. Now the team was running.

  "Two miles," Liam yelled back to the rest. "Shouldn't be too much longer. Just please, for the love of god, don't advertise our whereabouts anymore, unless absolutely necessary." The two men who had opened fire earlier, Andre Gamble and Ronald Cox, flushed red more from the jibe than the exertion.

  The team was forced to keep to streets instead of alleys and backyards, unfortunately making them easier targets for any zombies wandering the neighborhoods. Turning a corner around a large building, Liam nearly collided with a group of three zombies coming from the other direction. "Fuck!" he yelled and fell backwards onto the pavement. "Absolutely necessary. Absolutely necessary!"

  Carbines and rifles popped and cracked, dropping the zombies approaching Liam. Their brief moans echoed off the walls of the high rise buildings and down the street. The team was greeted my more moans in response. "Sorry," Liam apologized.

  Alex reached a hand down to help his friend to his feet. "No need to apologize. We'll just bill you later." The moans were starting to draw closer, but they still could not see the deaders responsible. "Better find us a different way." Liam looked down at the road map of Austin he had torn out of the back of a phone book. Turning it over in his hands he looked around to get his bearings, then pointed.

  "This way," he said.

  The team followed Liam through a dizzying path of twists and turns, all the while praying that Liam knew where he was going. An eternity seemed to pass, and just as the team was about to protest Liam's navigation abilities, the train yard came into view. The sight before them made their blood run cold and their hearts sink.

  "We have to get in there?" Nathan Simpson asked. Liam and Alex stood on opposite sides of the man and just looked at one another with horror.

  No one could be sure what events had transpired at the rail yard during the initial outbreak, but they speculated it was a nightmare. Zombies, dozens, maybe even hundreds, shuffled back and forth within the high fences that surrounded the rail station. Looking at the scene before him, Alex guessed that there had been a desperate attempt to leave the city by any means necessary, and hundreds of people had gathered at the train station looking for passage out. It would only take a few infected in order to cause the virus to spread to every individual locked within the gates. Everyone inside was dead.

  "What's your next plan?" Nathan asked, but Alex just shook his head.

  "There is no other plan. This is it." Alex's voice was low and pensive. There was no way for them to get in.

  "There has to be," Nathan argued. "Are you saying that you drug us out here with no backup plan? With no other way to get out if this didn't work? You sorry son-of-a..."

  The gentle push of a carbine barrel into Nathan's ribs quieted him quickly. "Remember," Liam said calmly. "You agreed to this. You didn't ask for a backup plan, nor did you offer one. This is it."

  "There is no other way," Alex said. "We don't have the resources or the transportation to make it out of the city."

  "How did you get out the first time? You said that you had done this before?" Nathan's voice sounded almost panicked as he sought a way out of this hell.

  "We did get out once before, but we were also a lot closer to the city limits. Less congestion of cars and farther away from the center of the outbreak. We are at ground zero, Nathan. The place where the infection first took hold. The highways and streets are blocked and there is no other way to get out, unless you care to walk." Alex's suggestion was not taken in good humor.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Nathan yelled. "You want us to walk out of here? That's suicide..."

  "So is every other option," Alex interrupted. "We walk, or we find a way to get on those trains."

  A scream from behind the group made everyone jump. Turning around Alex saw a zombie laying on the ground, its back half dragging behind. The zombie was nearly ripped in half and it left a sickening trail of gore in its wake. The creatures jaws tore at Shawn's calf, its throat ripped out. The zombie couldn't make a sound, and they had never heard it coming.

  Two shots from Shawn's carbine ripped the back of the zombies head off. It fell still and Shawn had to reach down to remove his leg from the creatures maw. Everyone began to move away from him.

  "Fuck," Shawn said, tears beginning to fall down his face. "Fuck." Alex began to move to his friend, but was stopped by a hand and raised rifle by Shawn. "Don't come near me, Alex. Everyone stay back!" he yelled, panic beginning to overtake him. Alex raised his carbine towards the man.

  "Wait," he said. "Wait. I know how to get you in. I can get you all in to the train yard. I can give you a chance." All eyes were on the doomed man as he pleaded for more time. Alex did not lower his carbine.

  "I can get you in," Shawn said frantically. "Let me take the car. I'll do what we did in Taylor...remember? I'll drive in there, blare the horn, and draw them off. If you all hide for a minute where they won't be able to see you, I'll draw them off until you can get in. It'll give you a chance. Let me give you a chance."

  Alex lowered his rifle and nodded his head. "Okay, Shawn. But I'll need your rifle. We are going to need it." Shawn shook his head frantically.

  "Sure, sure, Alex. But I need one thing," he said softly. "I need a gun. One gun, one bullet." Shawn looked to Alex tears pouring down his face. "I don't want them to get me, Alex. I don't want to become one of them."

  Alex nodded again. "Agreed. Take the gun you've got. Chamber a round and leave us the clip..."

  "How evil can you be," Nathan snapped at Alex.

  "He's not evil," Shawn said to Nathan. "I'm a dead man. Alex...Alex is just letting me end things my way, on my terms. I can give you all a chance."

  -----


  The car sped off in the direction of the rail station, its horn blaring at top volume. Shawn had jammed a knife into the steering column, lodging the horn to continue no matter what happened to the driver. Dead eyes turned to see the meal coming their direction. The moans of the zombies reached the Corsairs and chilled their blood.

  The car slammed into the fence surrounding the rail yard, obliterating the obstacle and any zombies that were directly behind it. Zombies were flung in every direction as the car barreled through the gathered crowd, shattering already rotting bodies and leaving severed and destroyed body parts in its wake. Shawn steered the car out of sight of the others, leading the zombies on a chase away from everyone else.

  "How long do you think he'll last?" Liam asked Alex. Alex simply shook his head.

  "Not sure. The doc said the tourniquet would stem the bleeding, but not for long. If those things don't get him, fifteen or twenty minutes at most."

  "What's the plan, Alex?" Nathan spat. "This was your idea, so what do we do now?"

  Alex turned on the man with murder in his eyes. "That man just sacrificed himself so that you can have a chance at surviving. He was my friend, so give me a damn minute." Nathan threw up his hands in either exasperation or resignation, Alex wasn't sure which. Nor did he care. Two minutes passed after Shawn had driven off, giving him plenty of time to draw off as many of the zombies as possible. Alex turned to the group and quickly gave out instructions.

  "Okay, we're moving. Head for the nearest train, but try to find one with as many doors open on the cars as possible."

  "Open doors?" Nathan snipped. "Isn't that going to let those things in."

  Alex snapped back at the interruption. "It will have let the infected out, you dumbass. If the doors were closed when the infected turned, then they are still in there. Open doors mean that they could have wandered out. It'll be easier to see the dead and clear them out." Nathan again threw up his hands, this time clearly begging off any more reprimands.

  "Liam and Luke will head for the engine to get it going. The first open and clear car we come to, Theresa, Amy and Dr. Cahn get placed and secured. Ron, Martin, and Philip, you are in charge of them. Nothing gets in." The three security guards nodded their understanding. "The rest are with me, clearing the back cars and providing cover for those in front. We only need a couple of cars, so Jack and Randy are in charge of unhitching the rest." Alex looked around the assembled crowd. "Everyone ready?" Nods and grunts of acknowledgment greeted Alex's instructions. "Okay, let's go."

  The team headed out from their hiding place and headed straight for the hole in the fence made by Shawn. "Watch your feet," Alex called back. "Shawn didn't kill all of them with that car. Make sure they don't grab your feet." At that moment, one of the broken dead that Shawn had demolished with his car, crawled into view through the opening made in the fence. "Suppressors only!" Alex yelled back and pulled the trigger of his carbine twice putting two bullets into the skull of the corpse. "Suppressors except in emergencies."

  The team ran through the opening, Alex and the Corsairs watching the ground around them as the Hill's security force plunged headlong into the carnage. "Watch your feet!" Donovan yelled to one of the security guards a moment too late. The corpse was already reaching up for its victim, tripping the man in mid-stride. He fell hard to the ground, his rifle clattering away. He screamed as broken teeth sank into his ankle.

  Suppressors popped and the zombie fell, its teeth still firmly wrapped around the mans ankle, the man still screaming in pain.

  "Shoot him," Alex commanded Nathan. "Shoot him, Nathan, he's a dead man already." Nathan stared in horror as his team member, David Patel, struggled to free himself from the monsters grip. David pulled at the creature, freeing his ravaged ankle from its jaws and started to pull himself across the open ground towards his rifle. More zombies, drawn by the smell of fresh blood, inched closer to the man. "Shoot him before they get him!" Alex yelled, but Nathan continued to shake his head. Alex swung his carbine around, quickly taking aim at the man and pulled the trigger.

  David Patel's head snapped forward as the .45 caliber bullet ripped through the back of his head. A wet cloud of blood and bone hung in the air for just a moment before the body fell limp to the ground. His body, now still, became easy prey for the battered corpses and they descended upon the feast like the animals they were. Nathan vomited on his feet.

  "Come on, dammit!" Alex yelled at the man and pulled him by the arm. Nathan hesitated a moment before the reality of where he was and what was happening caught up to him. In a blind panic, the man ran forward towards the nearest train, outdistancing all others that were headed there. He screamed a desperate scream and, reaching one of the closed train cars threw open the door and climbed in. Alex watched in disbelief as the man struggled to close the door behind him, the sight of the zombies standing behind him a nightmare that he would not soon forget.

  Nathan screamed a terrified, hysteria-filled scream. The man had trapped himself in a panic, and now the undead contained within were eating him alive. His rifle cracked loudly, the shots coming as fast as the man could pull the trigger. The door of the boxcar shuddered and started to open and Nathan's terrified face shown for only a moment before he was pulled back inside. The sight of the man's ravaged, blood covered face made Alex nauseous.

  "Fuck," Alex said under his breath, unable to comprehend the fear that had caused the man to blindly climb to his death. Alex rushed passed the zombies that were feasting on David's lifeless body and grabbed the man's dropped rifle. One of the zombies turned to face Alex, but a bullet from Alex's carbine shattered the monsters face. He ran for his life.

  "Liam. Liam!" Alex yelled. "Get the train going." Alex paused in his run to put down another zombie shuffling towards him. "Liam!" Gunfire had erupted all around the train yard. Shawn's diversion had taken the majority of the walking dead with him, but there were many more that still threatened the group.

  Alex looked towards the engine trying to see where his friend had gotten to. Liam and Luke stood back from the train engine, both firing desperately into the opening of the engine. Bodies fell from the open door, one after the other only to be shot a second time for good measure. When their carbines fell silent, each man quickly replaced the spent magazines. Liam looked in Alex's direction, shaking his head that this train would not be the one.

  Alex waived his hands and yelled for the others who were in a desperate struggle to clear the train. "No good! Leave it and hit the second." Shoulders dropped as the men suddenly realized that their fight to take this train was now useless. Struggling against their desire to flee, everyone passed the useless train and moved to the next.

  Alex could hear Donovan screaming and struggled to hear what was happening. "Go around! Go around!" he yelled and punctuated his words with a pop pop of his carbine. Another man screamed out in pain. Looking around Donovan he could see another of the Hill's security force being dragged to the ground, a zombie tearing at his throat. The man's screams ended in a wet gurgling when the zombie shook his head and tore the security guard's throat out. Blood sprayed to the ground and across the side of the train car. Donovan squeezed off three expert shots, two taking the zombie in the head, the third silencing the man's screams by ripping out the back of the security guards' head.

  "Don't go under!" Donovan screamed to the others clearing the rail cars. "Go around. Keep your kill zones clear!" The Hill's security force was struggling with the task at hand, never having dealt with the demands of fighting the walking dead in the open. The tactics that they had been trained on were useless. Their movements were sluggish as each of them had to force themselves to target the creatures heads instead of their center mass. Many shots were useless as the bullets passed harmlessly through the creatures' bodies. Another of the security team's men fell victim to the zombies when he failed to remember this vital piece of information.

  "Another down," Donovan called back to Alex. "What's our status?" Donovan aimed his carbine a
nd again ended the zombie and wounded man with expert shots.

  "Fucked," Alex called back. Donovan looked to Alex with a panicked looked. "Down five. We've got to get on one of the fucking trains. Now. Hayden!" Alex yelled to his brother-in-law. "Get us to a safe place!"

  Hayden nodded sharply. He dropped the angle of his carbine and ran headlong towards the next train in the series. Many of the rail cars were closed and Hayden made the quick decision to move on. "No good," he yelled down to Liam and Luke who were beginning to look at the viability of the train engine. Crouching low, Hayden quickly assessed the safety of ducking underneath the rail car. Deciding to take the risk he rolled under the edge of the car, forcing himself up and over the rails to the opposite side.

  "No!" Alex yelled to Hayden when he saw what he was doing. Alex could hear the quick pop pop of Hayden's carbine from the other side of the rail car, followed quickly by the crack of his side arm. Alex, realizing that Hayden was in trouble, jumped to the top of the coupling between two cars, grabbing the side of the car and swinging around. At least a dozen zombies were converging on Hayden as he struggle to replace the empty clip in his carbine.

  Alex pulled the trigger of his carbine three time in quick succession before it clicked empty. Two zombies had crumpled to the ground near Hayden, and Alex slid the Glock 45 from its holster on his thigh. The crack of a pistol rang out before Alex could take raise his own, dropping the three walking corpses closest to Hayden. Hayden, now backed up completely against the rail car, raised his carbine and emptied the fresh clip into the oncoming horde. The crack of Alex's Glock helped to quickly finish the encroaching dead.

  Only after the last of the attacking horde had fallen did Alex turn to see who the mysterious shooter was. Donovan stood behind Alex, smoke issuing from the end of his Glock 45. He nodded to Alex as if to reassure him that he was there for support, having seen what Alex had. Hayden, shaking visibly, threw his head back in a quick show of appreciation. The emotions of what had nearly happened overcame him, and Hayden turned his head to throw up on the ground behind him. Wiping the back of his hand across his face, Hayden the men off and set about his task of finding a suitable place to take shelter.