The Hungry (Book 6): The Rule of Three (The Sheriff Penny Miller Zombie Series)

by Booth, Steven W.

  The Land Shark bounced heavily through some potholes and went into an area drenched in bright white light. With her back turned, Miller almost stumbled. She made it as far as the minigun station before Neil shouted, “Watch out!”

  Miller spun around just in time to see a uniformed man standing directly in front of the gigantic road scoop welded to the nose of the super truck. He didn’t even try to move out of the way. The poor man was picked up by the scoop and thrown over the roof of the Land Shark. Miller could hear his body thud heavily, slide off the roof, bounce, and roll down to the asphalt below with a dull thump. He never so much as cried out.

  “What the fuck was that?” Miller said. “Did we just pull a hit and run?”

  Judy turned back to acknowledge Miller for the first time. “Don’t worry your head about it, Sheriff. It was just a zombie.” To make her point, she yanked the wheel to the right and ran down another one of the undead, a tall woman in a flowered blue dress who was promptly squashed under the front wheels. She popped like a bag of entrails. “Looks like you were right.”

  “Christ, they are all over the base,” Neil said. “I’ve never seen one before.”

  “Well, there’s your answer to why the gate was open,” Miller said. “Someone let the zombies out to play.”

  “Christ,” Neil said. He looked ill.

  “Keep your shit wired tight,” Miller said. “Once we stop Williams from whatever she’s up to, there’s going to have to be one hell of a cleanup operation or this area will explode in the government’s face.”

  “I guess I didn’t really believe those fucking things were real.” Neil looked back in horror. The control lights painted his ruggedly handsome face green and white. “What do we do now? Maybe everyone else is already dead.”

  “I thought Walter briefed you, Neil.” Christa had to shout from her station at the back of the trailer section.

  “He did brief me, Christa. Guess I was in denial. I get it now, believe me.”

  Miller watched through a side portal as they moved deeper into the darkened base. She spotted a fire here and there. An unlucky soldier cornered by a Triad fought for his life with an empty weapon, but was too far away for them to intervene. He only lasted a few seconds. They drove on. Dead bodies and pools of blood and guts festooned the pavement. Zombies wandered around everywhere, mostly in small albino groups, but some had gone solo and others hurriedly formed Triads. Miller had no idea of how they’d gotten loose, but she could hazard a guess. This event seemed to be motivated by nothing but wanton destruction. Miller figured Dr. Charlotte Williams had needed a diversion of some kind in order to carry out the final part of her plan, whatever that actually was. Something was going on tonight, just not exactly what they’d been told by Crespi, who appeared to have his own agenda. Miller knew the assignment. They needed to uncover the truth and stop Williams before things got worse.

  The Land Shark rolled between two parked trucks, squashing the sides of both with a wailing screech of dented metal. The vehicle barely slowed down. It was one hell of a battle station. Judy drove it expertly, weaving her way around corners and deeper into the base. They ran over every animate zombie they could, and tried to avoid hitting the stray humans who might still alive. They’d discussed these possibilities before starting the assault. They couldn’t stop and open the hatch to help every stray human they came across, not and still get the job done. They also had no way of knowing who’d been bitten and was just about to turn. In the end, there were only a few survivors in evidence. A lot had happened here in a very short period of time.

  The light overhead flickered out and came on again. Miller caught sight of a landmark, the auditorium she’d seen on the map.

  “Turn left here,” Miller said. “The Triad’s building is…”

  “I know where I am, Sheriff.” Judy had rediscovered her inner bitch. She hung a left and managed to run over the upper half of a nude male zombie that was crawling slowly across the road. There was a soft crunching sound under the front tires, but nothing else, barely a bump. Miller did not look to see what came out the other end. She could imagine but tried hard not to think about crushed grapes.

  “Penny, come look at this.”

  Miller finished moving from fore to aft. The Land Shark reminded her of her father’s Chris Craft Corsair, a boat they had driven around Lake Tahoe when she was seven years old. That old rickety old boat had seemed about as complicated to her then as this thing did now. Seconds later she stood behind Sheppard’s chair, and Christa and the other woman, Sally, gave her some room to see the small monitor. Christa and Sally were wearing headsets with microphones, and they were chatting quietly. They seemed perfectly calm, or perhaps just felt safe inside the heavily-armed tank. Whatever the reason, for all any observer would have guessed, they were exchanging recipes for thermite pie.

  “Whoever Papa Shark was,” Sheppard said, “he was pretty damned clever. Sally and I just found this satellite map of the entire base. Our position is that little red moving dot.” The technology was top notch, and Sheppard suitably impressed. “We can see everything we’re passing.”

  “So what, Karl? I thought even little mobile phones could do shit like that nowadays.”

  “That’s not what’s so interesting, Penny.” Sheppard flipped a switch, and the map zoomed in and showed a street in detail. “This map is from an over-flight late this afternoon. Look closely and you can make everything out. There’s Judy’s delivery truck, parked by the abandoned building, just like you said it would be. And there are your cargo planes across the way.”

  “Is this going somewhere?” Part of Miller wanted to let him play with his toys, but the shit was hitting the fan outside. She was becoming impatient.

  Sheppard scrolled the map a bit south, closer to the runway. “Yes, it’s going somewhere all right. Check this out.”

  Miller looked but couldn’t quite focus. The Land Shark slowed and sped up again, forcing her to reach for the overhead grab-bars again.

  Sheppard said, “Look. Those aren’t supposed to be there.”

  Miller leaned forward. “Christ, more airplanes.” She turned Sheppard’s chair so that he would face her. “Please cut to the chase, Karl. I have a hunch, but you tell me. What’s so Goddamned special about more airplanes at an Air Force base?”

  “Two things.” Sheppard seemed to be enjoying being a soldier again, despite the desperate circumstances. His grin reminded her a little of Terrill Lee, and a lot of Scratch. The three men had definitely rubbed off one each other. “Those planes are air tankers, and if you study the photo, they’re being filled with something.” He turned and pointed at the screen. “See these pump trucks?”

  Miller stood and said nothing. Inside she was thinking, Men and their fucking toys. Just get to the point. “Karl, we have a war going on outside.”

  Sheppard’s smile dropped a bit. “This isn’t a tanker base, Penny, so one major question arises. What are they filling those air tankers with?”

  “I don’t know, Karl. Are you sure it’s not just fuel?”

  “No, it’s got to be something else.” Sheppard looked at Sally and Christa, and they both nodded. Miller felt a cold spot in her stomach. She realized she hadn’t wanted to see it. The truth, as usual, was pretty damn upsetting.

  “He’s right, Sheriff.” Sally had a young girl’s voice, pretty and melodic. She was petite, with long dark hair. Her presence seemed incongruous in the big armored vehicle. How the hell she had gotten mixed up in all this shit, Miller would never know, but she seemed comfortable enough.

  They were all looking at her. Miller silently counted to ten. “Don’t make me speculate, please. You said there were two things, Karl.”

  This time Christa moved. She was at the INCO station. She punched some buttons in a seemingly random pattern. Her screen suddenly showed a view of the outside. Four large aircraft that looked like green, retired airliners were parked right by the flight line. “Here is a decent close-up. Those are the same
planes, Sheriff.”

  “And the point is that they are loading them up with zombies?” Miller was getting ready to go back and talk to Judy. At least she wouldn’t waste Miller’s time. “I’d like to get to the end of this conversation before morning.”

  This time Sally spoke. Christ, the three of them were like a vaudeville routine. “The point is, Sheriff, that we just heard Ground Control give those tankers permission to start their engines and taxi into position for takeoff. There can be no other logical explanation. We have our targets in view.”

  Miller looked more closely at the monitor. Indeed, the beacons on the four airplanes were blinking red on top and bottom, and four terrified and armed airmen with little flashlight sticks were already guiding them onto the taxiway. Miller watched as one of the ground crew, a slender man on the far right, was attacked by a zombie just as he backed up to direct his aircraft to the west. The enormous aircraft taxied passed the struggling pair. The two forms became locked in a death embrace.

  “We have to stop those planes,” said Miller, stating the obvious.

  “You took the words right out of my mouth, Penny. If we can take out the first one it should trap the rest on the runway for a time and give us room for our next move.” Sheppard seemed supremely pleased and shared a high-five with Christa and Sally. None of them seemed to realize the gravity of the situation. Perhaps they were too busy playing with their new toy.

  “You know something, Karl?” Miller said as she resumed her seat at the weapons station. “You could have just said, ‘Hey, we need to blow up those planes!’ I probably would have believed you from the get go.”

  “We weren’t absolutely certain until just a minute ago,” Sheppard said, deflating a bit. “I’ll try to be more direct next time.”

  “Good idea.” Miller shouted up to the front. “Judy, hang a left and head out towards those air tankers. We’ll need to get a clear shot before they take off. Let’s go!”

  “Get your headphones on, Sheriff. Sally just told me the same thing.” Miller heard her clearly as she snarked, “Some fucking people.” Judy was on Miller’s permanent shit list anyway, so the remarks didn’t much matter. The woman had too much yardage between her fucking goal posts. Miller hoped they both survived the night so she could rearrange Judy’s features a bit.

  “Let’s do this.” Miller sat at her station and buckled herself in. She found a headset with a pair of headphones. She slid them down over her head. Then she turned her attention to the switchboard. She had become more familiar with the control system for the weapons station after one quick lesson from Neil, given just before they’d left the safe house. Fortunately, there was a battery of Stinger missiles on the roof, and she was determined to use one of them to shoot at the first air tanker. Miller had no idea if they would fully destroy the gigantic planes, but a direct hit sure certainly would keep them grounded. She prayed Scratch and the others weren’t passengers on those aircraft, but knew she had only one choice either way. They could not be allowed to take off.

  “Any intel on what happened to those C-17s with the zombies on board, the ones that we originally went to blow up?” Miller, hands flying, was trying to find the control for the targeting system on the Stingers. “We’d best get them too.”

  Sally unbuckled herself and stepped across the aisle. She threw some switches and a view of those aircraft abruptly appeared on her monitor. The weapons targeting system was overlaid on the image. Everything was already lined up and in perfect working order. Seeing that, Miller felt frustrated and a tad embarrassed.

  “Shit, Sally. How the hell do you know how to use all these systems?”

  Sally didn’t bother to smile. Her little girl voice disguised a very sharp mind. “I spent five hours bringing this piece of junk online earlier today, Sheriff. It’s not that complicated, though a bit of familiarity with the technology does help.”

  “You didn’t go down in the basement, did you?” Miller asked, suddenly worried. She flashed back to the undead they’d encountered there, back when the Land Shark was first discovered.

  “No, why?” Sally looked at Miller blankly.

  “Whew.” Miller sagged in relief. “I’ll explain later, assuming we live through this.”

  Miller figured things out. She found a joystick that would allow her to aim the Stingers, and was about to swing them around to point at the tankers when she hesitated. “What hell are we going to do about those damn cargo planes, Karl? Like I said, those matter too.”

  Sally answered for Sheppard. “If we take out those tankers, Sheriff, there will be so much debris on the tarmac that the cargo planes won’t be able to take off either. We’ve got one chance. Let’s do some damage!”

  Christa spun her chair. “And you’d better hurry up, Sheriff. Departure control just gave those tankers permission to taxi directly onto the runway. They are about to take off.” She looked worried now. The reality was sinking in for everyone.

  The smile left Sheppard’s face. “Now would be a good time to fire a couple of those missiles.”

  Miller knew a good idea when she heard one. She swung the targeting system around to aim at the lead tanker. It was still quite a distance away, and with the truck rolling along the camera’s view was bouncing up and down. Fortunately the heat signature on the third engine on the tail of the plane was bright and clear, and according to the controls the lock on was solid. Miller nodded. She once again prayed to a God she wasn’t friendly with that Scratch and the others were somewhere safe. She lifted her head.

  “Buckle up, everyone. Things are about to get bumpy.”

  Miller focused on the system. The lead plane turned hard to the left, and was only moments from aligning with the runway. The system flashed red. It was still locked on.

  Miller’s headset buzzed. The firing signal sounded like a large electronic insect buzzing in her ears. She ignored it. Her heart was slamming open and shut like a barn door in a rain storm. She held the trigger loosely, waiting for the best possible angle.

  “Fire, damn it,” said Christa, her voice now crackling with panic. “You’re going to lose them.”

  Miller squeezed the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  Miller waited and squeezed again.

  Still nothing.

  “I guess we’re fucked,” Sheppard said, quietly. “What was Plan B? Get out and do it ourselves on foot with grenades? It’s a little too late for that.”

  “Let me guess,” Miller said bitterly, under her breath. “This thing was built by the lowest bidder.”

  The lead plane throttled up with a mighty roar and sped down the runway. Miller tracked it with her camera, not knowing what else to do. She could not believe they had gotten this close only to fail at the last second. She looked out the front window. A mid-sized horde of zombies started shambling their way, in search of food. Miller had never felt so frustrated and defeated in her life.

  Miller snapped out of it. That buzzing in her ears. It was still going strong. The sound had to mean something. Then the racket became very loud and even higher pitched. The equipment was operating by computer control, and had chosen the optimum moment. A pubic hair later, the first Stinger launched with a whoosh, chasing after the first air tanker just as its huge nose lifted off the runway.

  Miller whooped, and the others jumped up. They were all startled by the missile’s sudden departure. Miller held her breath as it followed the heat signature to its target. Just as the tanker was clearing the runway, the missile hit it dead on and together they exploded into a very satisfying ball of flame, smoke, and crumpled metal… most of which fell clear of the runway.

  “Shoot the other ones, Sheriff!” Sally was shouting into her headset. “We can’t let them take off.”

  Miller brought the targeting system around to aim it at the other tankers. The buzzing increased as she played the reticle over the heat signatures. She finally caught on. That’s what she was missing. The buzzing noise was just the target-lock sound. She c
ould only fire after it locked. She brought the missiles in line with the engines and waited for the lock and then fired one. She spread out her aim to the left and right and released three more Stingers, one right after the other.

  They all cheered as the world turned to fire. That part of the base became a literal Hell on Earth.

  Within seconds, the runway became a debris field as buildings and aircraft exploded. The night was bright as day and flames raced along the tarmac to also incinerate the newly approaching horde of zombies. That leg of the runway was destroyed and any exit by air from that direction blocked for a long, long time. They were already halfway home. Just make sure they can’t find some other way to take off and we’re done here, Miller thought. Williams can’t be allowed to get away.

  Her heart beat faster. “Let’s do that again.” Miller locked down at the upper left quadrant of her monitor. The red, steadily blinking message read zero. “Christ on a crutch. No. Am I out of ammunition already?”

  Sheppard sighed. “It sure looks that way.”

  Miller moved the camera around to track the remaining cargo planes, the few that hadn’t exploded. They had turned tail and were now creeping toward the opposite end of the runway. With no other traffic, they could take off from the other direction, providing they could pull up in time and clear the wreckage. There was also one other, shorter runway left unscathed. And few of the planes were undamaged. They’d have to be stopped too.

  “What the fuck are we waiting for?” Miller didn’t wait for a response. She stood and went to the minigun station behind the driver’s seat. “Can’t you get us any closer?”

  Judy waved her hand at the right side of the cab and said, “Believe it or not, now we have some bigger problems.”

  Miller popped open the minigun hatch on the roof and looked outside. The fire ahead was dying down but she could still see clearly. They had attracted too much attention. A horseshoe of writhing figures now surrounded them. A good-sized horde of gaping mouths going unhh unhhh hunhhh…