Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 03
Page 4
More people offered up their agreements to trust the information and person behind the cryptic message. Alex was the last to offer his opinion.
“The I guess we trust in the stranger,” he said, “and pray we don’t regret it later.” Alex pushed back from his desk and stood. “I suggest we all get some rest. We’ve got a lot of planning to do.” He smiled. “Guess we’re going to be teachers.”
–—
Alex sat behind his desk, head in hand, absently flipping through a coverless and worn book. Liam stuck his head in the front of the tent and quietly cleared his throat.
“May I come in?”
Without looking up, Alex waived him in and returned to absently flipping through the book.
“Doing some late night reading?” Liam asked. He reached for the book and flipped through to the title page. “The Zombie Survival Guide?” he asked, confused. “Are you serious?”
Alex looked up. Exhaustion was painted across his face. “I told you a long time ago, I got these ideas from a book.”
“You’ve got to be kidding?” Liam said in horror. Alex shook his head.
“I’m not sure where he got his information,” Alex said pointing to the worn book, “but most of the ideas he has are almost spot on with the tips and techniques we were developing in the military.”
“Seriously?!” Liam couldn’t bring himself to quite believe his friend. “And you’re trolling for ideas?”
“Something like that,” Alex said. “Just looking through to see if there was anything else we could use.”
“I think we’ve been doing pretty good so far, Alex. Survival rates for Stryker teams and civilians have both gone up since we started.” Liam tossed the book back on Alex’s desk. “So what’s really bothering you?”
Alex shook his head and handed a letter to Liam. After quickly reading it, Liam handed it back.
“More information from our anonymous source, huh? Troop movements?”
Alex nodded. “Troop movements before the initial outbreak.”
“And why is that important?” Liam asked.
“Not sure,” Alex replied. “But look at them.” Alex turned the papers around so that Liam could get a better look. “These don’t make sense. Why are they moving people here?” Alex began pointing at specific places throughout the report.
Liam frowned and shrugged. “Sorry, Alex. They are just numbers to me.”
“Okay,” Alex said and cleared the desk down to a map of the United States. “Look here.” Alex quickly placed anything available on various places across the map. “Now look. See where the troops are concentrated? Why in these places? There’s no strategic value in any of these. Most are not near population centers, military strongholds, nothing. Why?”
“Don’t know,” Liam said. “Training?”
“At the same time? Not likely.”
Both men stared at the map, lost in their own thoughts. “Alex, I’m stumped. Why did our informant send this?”
“Probably because it doesn’t make sense to him either,” Alex said shrugging. “Hopefully our mole will give us a little more info to make sense of it all.”
“When do you think he’ll send us more?”
“Don’t know, but it’s not what we need to think about right now,” Alex said, starting to clean up the desk in front of him. “We got orders today. We’re heading into the field tomorrow. Alpha team.”
“Alpha?” Liam asked surprised. “When was the last time we ran Alpha?”
“It’s been a while,” Alex sighed. “Guess we better dust off the cobwebs. Train leaves in two days.”
Liam chuckled. “Sounds fun. We’ll start getting up to speed tomorrow morning. Everyone going?”
Alex shook his head emphatically. “Oh no,” he said quickly. “I only want the vets in on this one. No time to train the freshmeat. Reassign them to camp maintenance. They won’t like it, but it’ll keep them out of trouble till we can retrain them.”
“Yes sir,” Liam smiled. “I’ll get the orders in tomorrow.” Liam turned to exit the tent.
“Hey, Liam?” Alex said, stopping Liam from leaving. “Don’t talk about any of this to the team yet. We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet, and I want their heads on the Stryker assignment.”
“Yes sir,” Liam said and hurried out of the tent.
CHAPTER FOUR
Alpha Team
The helicopters thundered as they sped across the deserted landscape. Ahead of them, Alex could see the city growing in size. Independence, Kansas. The irony of the name was not lost on anyone. Independence was a smaller community, somewhere close to ten thousand residence, but reports had been coming in that there could be a sizable survivor population there.
Flying low into the city, Alex could pick out some of the larger target zones. Independence had a number of schools, a community college and a hospital all located near the city center. Each Alpha team would be assigned to one of these buildings, as well as a few of the taller structures. Each would be tasked with collecting reconnaissance on possible survivor locations within the city, as well as zombie concentrations. Once the Beta teams arrived, the Alpha teams would relay those coordinates.
Alex’s team would be dropped off atop the Kansas Foodbank Warehouse on the north side of town. From there they would secure the building and remain until the Beta teams had cleared out.
“Two minutes,” came the call through Alex’s earpiece. Looking forward, he gave the pilot a thumbs up to confirm. Alex turned back to his team and relayed the information.
Luke Berryman clung to his seat, white knuckled and green faced. Alex laughed to himself at the sight. Luke had been the co-owner of a gun store, playing civilian soldier and strutting around with a pistol strapped to his hip. The picture he presented now was the complete opposite of that former life. Alex quickly realized that almost everyone here were acting as complete opposites of their former selves as well. The circumstances in which they now lived forced it.
The two minutes passed in the span of a heartbeat, and the copilot was all too quickly yelling orders through the headset. “We’re coming in for drop off. Hook up zip lines and get ready to drop.”
In unison, the Stryker team stood and presented their safety hooks to the copilot, who snapped them on the line in order. Luke nearly pushed everyone out of the helicopter in hopes of being the first out the door.
The chopper slowed and hovered only feet above the warehouse rooftop. A red light above the door flashed to green, and the copilot ordered everyone out.
Luke was out the door almost before the copilot finished. He slipped quickly down the line, and misjudged the landing. His legs buckled under him and he crumpled to the rooftop. The copilot placed a hand on Alex’s chest to keep him from stepping out the door.
The rest of the team watched as Luke struggled to his feet. Behind Alex, someone yelled “Contact!” Immediately everyone began scanning the rooftop for the threat. A zombie slowly shuffled towards the struggling Luke, its terrible moans drowned out by the thumping of rotor blades.
Donovan pushed through to the helicopter door, leveling his rifle at the creature. The weapon erupted, spraying sparks across the rooftop all around the zombie. “Nice shooting, Tex,” Alex joked. Donovan scowled at Alex and squeezed the trigger again.
A fresh set of sparks flew up around the zombie, but this time one found its mark. The zombie’s head snapped back and the creature fell back to the rooftop. “Bout time, Scooter,” Alex dug again.
“Shut up,” Donovan snipped and fell back in line.
The copilot checked the landing zone to make sure it was clear before slapping Alex on the shoulder. “Go!”
Alex stepped out of the open door, sliding quickly down the zip line. He bent his knees and rolled to absorb the shock. He was on his feet instantly and moving out of the drop zone. Kneeling down next to Luke, the two men scanned the perimeter looking for threats.
“You okay?” Alex asked Luke without looking at him.
In rapid succession, the remainder of the Stryker team exited the helicopter and took their positions in the every growing circle on the roof. Once everyone was safely down, the helicopter pulled up and headed back towards Tulsa. As the sound of the rotors faded into the distance, Alex began issuing commands to his team.
“Liam, Dr. Cahn, on me. Camp team. Everyone else on Donovan clearing the building. Remember to barricade all entrances and report back if this is a defendable location.”
Without a word, every man jumped to their task, dropping their camp supplies in a pile as they headed for the rooftop access.
“Dr. Cahn,” Alex called after the others had cleared the area. “We need to get rid of that body. Liam, finish clearing the rooftop. Make sure there aren’t any others.”
Muffled sounds of sporadic gunfire could be heard from below. The timing between the brief spurts of gunfire led Alex to conclude that there were some undead inside, but no more than could be safely handled.
Putting on the barest of safety equipment, Dr. Cahn and Alex carefully moved the dead body to the edge of the building, then over. The corpse seemed to float through the air as it fell towards the sidewalk below before impacting with a sickening wet crunch. A trail of black-red ooze showed the path across the rooftop that the body had been carried. A bright withe powder would be liberally spread over this gore, both to soak up the mess and as a warning to stay away from it. No man would ever come near it.
“Rooftop is clear,” Liam said, rejoining Alex and the doctor.
“Good,” Alex said, throwing the last handful of powder at the gore. “Lets get the shelters up.” Each man tore at the pile of backpacks stacked on the roof. Canvas tents were unrolled and quickly raised into place. The tent supports were specially modified to allow them to be secured to the rooftop, anchoring the stakes into the hard material. Smaller shades and blinds were erected around the edge of the roof to provide shooter teams with some relief from the blazing sun above.
The access door to the roof swung open and the remainder of the Stryker team strode through. “Cleared and secured,” Donovan reported.
“Good. How many?”
“Eight. Looked like they had been there a while too. Skin had already started sloughing off most of them” Donovan shuddered. “It was pretty bad.”
“So is everything secure? We going to be able to stay?”
Donovan nodded his head. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem. With the heat things might start to stink in a day or two, but the building is secure enough.”
“Okay,” Alex agreed. “Good work. You and the others get some rest. Liam, the Doc and I will take first watch.”
Donovan and the others wasted no time unslinging their gear and finding shade and refreshments. Everyone knew they might be thrown into action at any moment.
–—
“Contact! Multiple targets inbound!” Calls were coming in from all sides of the warehouse. The horns of the trains rang through the streets, calling the undead to their demise. Targets were tracked and counted, but no shots would be fired unless the Stryker team’s position was in danger of being compromised.
“Good god,” Hayden exclaimed. “There are so many.”
The dead were everywhere. Thousands upon thousands streamed through the streets of Independence, shuffling towards the sirens and their awaiting annihilation.
“We have to warn them,” Dr. Cahn urged. “They have no idea what’s coming their way.”
Alex didn’t hesitate. “Hayden, Liam, get on the radio. Let the base camp know what’s coming. Theresa,” the lone woman of the Stryker team started, “how much ammunition do we have?”
Theresa did a quick calculation in her head. “About a thousand rounds per person.”
“Set back one hundred for each and pass out the rest. We are going to do our best to thin this crowd a bit.”
The Stryker team dispersed around the rooftop, taking up positions that would give them the best vantage point to attack the oncoming dead. “Make sure every shot counts,” Alex called out. “Happy hunting!”
Gunfire erupted across the rooftop, dropping zombies with each crack of the rifles. Every time one zombie fell, a dozen more rushed to fill its space. The gunfire drowned out the moans of the zombie horde below, but despite their attempts, no amount of gunfire seemed to make a difference.
“Fast mover!” came the call from behind Alex. He and Dr. Cahn turned to see Jenero Croft running across the rooftop yelling. “Fast movers,” he called repeatedly until everyone had given him their attention. Fast movers was the code for someone alive and running from a zombie. They were relatively easy to spot since the runners were typically moving significantly faster than the shambling dead chasing them.
Everyone broke off their attack and followed Jenero. Looking over the edge they could see a break in the mass of corpses making their way to the trains. In their place were three people, a man, woman and young boy. The woman pulled the boy through the streets, and the man followed close behind, manically looking about him, trying to fend off any danger approaching. The man never saw the zombie coming.
When running through a heavily infested area, most people know to look for the obvious threats. Zombies around a blind corner, the zombie that is stuck behind a bus stop or large stand of trees. What almost everyone forgets are the zombies that have been damaged or have decayed beyond the point of being able to walk or stand. Everyone forgets to look down.
The zombie, or more correctly the remaining pieces of the zombie, reached out and grabbed at the man’s ankle. He fought to keep his balance, but the delay was more than enough time for the zombie to attack.
The man screamed, his cries of pain carrying even over the gunfire and deader moans. The broken teeth of the creature tore into the man’s flesh and blood poured from the wound.
The zombies head exploded as a bullet tore through the creature’s skull just above its left eye. The shot was not well placed, and its trajectory continued through and shattered the man’s ankle. He crumpled to the ground.
The woman and young boy turned when they heard the scream behind them. Hurrying back, the two reached for the injured man to help him, but his head snapped back. Blood and brain matter spattered the concrete behind him.
“This way! This way!” someone on the roof began yelling. Their cries were joined by the others as they urged the woman and boy to find safety. “The warehouse,” Theresa called over the cracks of rifle fire. She stood, waiving her arms to get the attention of the two survivors. As if in a daze, the woman grabbed the child and pulled him in the direction of the warehouse.
“Martin! Ronald! Phillip!” Alex yelled. “Get downstairs and find a way to get them in here!” The three men jumped to their task, controlled desperation evident in their motions.
The gunfire picked up as the Stryker team cut a safe passage through the zombies that stood between the woman and the warehouse. Theresa continued her shouts of encouragement. The two reached the walls of the warehouse and were none too gently pulled inside.
“Ceasefire!” Alex called and the guns of the Stryker team immediately fell silent. “Donovan, deploy the team to cover the warehouse perimeter. Hold fire unless there is a danger of a break in.” Donovan nodded and quickly barked out orders.
Moments later the rooftop was once again secure and Alex made his way towards the rooftop access.
The door slammed open as Alex reached it and a screaming woman flew at Alex, fists seeking purchase on anyone around her. “You bastard! You killed my husband!” The storm of fists and vulgarity caught Alex by surprise and he stumbled backwards trying to avoid both. The trio of men who had pulled the woman to safety stood back, making no attempt to come to Alex’s aid. They had apparently met the same ferocity below.
Dr. Cahn stepped between the woman and Alex, hands up and pleading. “Please, miss. Please calm…” The cra
ck of her fist connecting with Dr. Cahn’s jaw made the trio wince. Dr. Cahn dropped like a rag doll.
The woman resumed her attack on the man now standing before her. Alex had regained his composure and looked to be ready to end this fight when Theresa Hill stepped between.
“Listen!” she screamed. “Listen to me! You’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to take care of your boy!”
The woman continued her attack, but Theresa reached forward, grabbing one of the woman’s wrists and yanking her around. As the woman spun, Theresa wrapped herself around the woman, pinning her arms to her sides.
“Look!” Theresa yelled in her ear. “Look at him! You’re all he’s got left! You have to take care of him!”
The young boy stood next to Martin Howard, leaning against the tall man’s thigh. Martin had an arm around the boy, holding him close for support. Seeing her son caused the woman to stop struggling and she deflated in Theresa’s arms as great racking sobs overcame her. Theresa still held the woman tightly, but now in support and sympathy rather than defense.
After a moment the woman pulled away from Theresa, reaching out for her son. She drew him into her arms and hugged him. The two cried in each others arms.
“Thanks,” Alex said. “I thought for sure she was going to get me.”
“Shut up,” Theresa snapped. “I didn’t do anything for you. I did it for her.”
Alex stepped back, stunned. “Okay,” he said timidly. “Thanks anyway. “Alex caught eyes with Martin who only shrugged.
“Phillip,” Alex called motioning the other closer. “Get on the radio. Call in for an emergency evac.”
“Evac?” Phillip questioned. “They’ll never come get us until after the Beta teams have been through.”
“Tell them our position has been compromised. Tell them we’ve got survivors in need of medical attention.”
“But we’ve got Dr. Cahn here,” Phillip said. Both men looked down at the doctor who was slowly being helped to his feet. Phillip snorted. “I’ll get on the radio.”