Z-Risen (Book 3): Poisoned Earth

by Long, Timothy W.

  “Come on, Jackson,” Roz said, moving into the kitchen.

  She drew her gun and double-checked the magazine. Roz was armed with one of the 9mms--the Sig, if I wasn’t wrong.

  I unholstered my Springfield XDM and followed her.

  We dropped next to windows facing the backyard and peered outside.

  “Hey man, I don’t mean any harm,” a man’s voice called from outside. “Can you spare some food? Just a little bit, I got a wife and three kids. Please. We’re all starving.”

  Joel didn’t answer.

  “I know you see me and I know you’re there. There’s at least four of you. I swear I don’t want any trouble, just a little food. Anything you can spare. I’ve even got a few things I can share.”

  “Does he look dangerous?” I called from the kitchen.

  “He looks like he’s scared, but he also looks like he’s wearing something under his shirt. My guess would be some kind of body armor. I can’t see any weapons, but he hasn’t turned either. Could be he’s packing,” Joel called back, just loud enough for us to hear him.

  “Be careful,” Roz said.

  “Go away, man. I’m sorry to hear about your family but we don’t have any extra food,” Joel yelled.

  “Please, just a few bites. We haven’t had anything in days.”

  “We’re well-armed, so just fuck off, okay? Go to town and raid just like the rest of us been doing,” Joel tried to reason—like a Marine.

  “You see anything?” I asked Roz.

  “Nothing, but stay frosty.”

  The mutt heard her name and wandered over to see what we were up to. Frosty’s wet nose on the back of my neck almost scared me out of my own skin.

  I reached around and pulled her close. Frosty took a seat next to me and panted. The dog must have sensed our tension, because she cocked her head and stared in the direction of the door.

  “What?” I asked her, like she could answer.

  Frosty’s ears perked up.

  “Just give us a little bit and we’ll leave you alone,” the guy outside the house called.

  “We? I thought it was just you,” Joel called back.

  “Shit,” Roz said. “This guy’s full of it.”

  Frosty stood and moved to the door. She bared her teeth growled deep in her throat.

  “Make this easy on yourself, man. You’re going to give up some food one way or another.”

  “He’s moving,” Joel called. “I’m going to drop him.”

  Joel’s AR spoke in the house. Glass tinkled as he fired a couple of rounds.

  Frosty got spooked by the gunfire and prowled around the living room before she went to Christy and sat next to her.

  “You get him?” I called.

  “He’s behind a car. As soon as he shows his skull I’m putting one in it.”

  “I don’t like this, Joel.”

  “Keep it together, Jackson,” Roz said.

  “Movement, there.” I pointed toward the East. Someone was fucking around by some shrubs.

  I caught a glimpse of something dark, but then it was gone.

  “I didn’t see it,” Roz said. “Wait, I see something but it’s at three o’clock.”

  “Someone’s trying to flank us,” I called to Joel.

  “Then put them the fuck down,” he said.

  I pushed the window up and it gave without a screech--thank goodness for the new house. All I needed was for it to give us away.

  I lifted my pistol and aimed where I’d seen the shadow, but it didn’t reappear.

  “I got the other side, Jackson. You start shooting and be sure to call out targets. I’ll do the same,” Roz said.

  Over the weeks we’d come under fire from a variety of bad guys. One thing I’d learned early on was that I’d rather face a horde of ravenous Zs than a bunch of dudes with guns. The mercenaries we’d been holed up with had shown me just how fast you could go down if someone had you in their sights. Now I felt like that again, like I was in the crosshairs.

  A gun rang out and something struck the door. I dropped to all fours.

  “Dumbass can’t hit the side of a barn,” Roz said.

  She raised her head high enough to peek over the windowsill, then lowered herself back down.

  Joel fired from the front of the house.

  Frosty was smart and moved away from the door. She ran into the living room, hopefully to sit with Christy in a quiet corner. If someone got us and came through the door, they’d be in for a surprise when the dog took them down and Christy opened fire.

  I took a quick look and saw a person moving across the line of shrubs near the woods. I poked my gun out the window and aimed, leading the target as it moved. I exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The gun bucked in my hand and the figure dropped to the ground, so I followed up with a couple more shots.

  “I think I got him,” I turned and said to Roz.

  A bullet burst through the window overhead and made me kiss the floor.

  “I don’t think you got him,” Roz said.

  She lifted herself off the ground and aimed. She took a couple of seconds to zero in and fired a pair of rounds.

  “I saw three of them back there but they don’t look well-armed. Handguns, most likely,” Roz said. “Hope one of them isn’t toting a shotgun. I’d kill to have my Remington again.”

  I took a look, but no one moved back there.

  “I’ll cover from upstairs,” Anna said, then she pounded up the stairs.

  “Watch the backyard, Sails. I think a couple got around the house. I got this asshole,” Joel said.

  “Aye,” she called.

  Something rattled on the side of the house. I strained to see over the windowsill, but there was no way to spot them without opening the back door.

  “I think they’re trying to get into the camper,” Roz said.

  “Goddamn it. I’m going out there,” Joel said.

  “Joel, wait. We don’t know how many there are. You might be walking into a trap,” I said.

  “That’s why you’re going to come up here and cover me. Roz, you got the back, Sails has the high ground, Jackson will cover me,” he said.

  I shook my head and moved into the living room. Christy was huddled up with Frosty, but she looked very determined. She held her revolver in a shaky hand, but I was pretty sure the kid would drop anyone who came through the door.

  “Creed, lay down a few rounds near that burned-up Mustang. I got him bottled up. If he peeks out, pop him. Stay in the doorway, behind the wall, and make sure he doesn’t shoot me in the back,” Joel said, and put his hand on the doorknob.

  “Dude, I don’t know if I can do this,” I said.

  “Piece of cake, brother, just aim and shoot. That guy’s probably more scared than you since I’ve been putting some heavy ammo on him. In a few minutes, all of these assholes are going to wish they’d stayed the hell away,” Joel said.

  I nodded and sucked in a few breaths. I took station at the bay window and sighted the car. No shape had presented itself yet.

  Joel opened the door and dropped to his knees. His gun swept up to the ready as he studied the battlefield.

  “When I move, pop two rounds at the car. I think he’s behind the hood. Just spook him until I’m out of sight.”

  A gun spoke from upstairs--Anna’s big .357, if I wasn’t mistaken.

  Joel moved, so I did as he’d instructed. I fired a round, and then another one. Both struck the top of the car.

  The figure that had been hiding dove from cover and sprinted toward a house. I aimed, exhaled, and dropped him with a single round. His arms flew up and he fell face first into the unfinished lawn across the street. He didn’t move again.

  Joel was already gone, so I moved to the door to cover his exit.

  ###

  08:35 hours Approximate

  Location: Just outside of Oceanside

  Anna’s gun boomed again from upstairs. Then Roz opened fire. I held my handgun nice and high, ready to shoot an
ything else that twitched. I tried hard not to think about the man I’d just killed.

  Jesus, but it had been him or us, and he hadn’t exactly wanted to sit around and sing campfire songs. This guy could have been a Reaver and wanted to kill us and take our supplies. Worse, what if he'd got ahold of Christy? I didn’t want to contemplate what crazy men might have done to her.

  Joel fired a half dozen times. I ignored his advice and moved out onto the porch so I could see what he was firing at, but his form had disappeared. I backed up and kept myself in the little bit of shadow the roof provided.

  Anna fired again.

  “One down,” she called.

  I studied the street, gun raised, looking for targets. The only thing that stood out was the body of the bad guy I’d taken out. I drifted to the other side of the unfinished porch and kept a lookout.

  I glanced over my shoulder repeatedly as I waited for one of the attackers to come back.

  Joel’s gun sounded a few more times.

  “Another one down. Anyone left back there, just throw your gun out and run,” Joel said.

  Someone returned fire.

  Roz shot back and there was a scream.

  I decided that I’d had enough sitting there, and hopped down off the porch. Then I hit the fucking ground as something exploded near my head and took a chunk of wood out of where I’d just been crouching. Had I not moved, I’d probably be dead.

  A shape ran from the back yard. I managed to lift my gun and fire once. The man spun to the side and dropped his gun. It clattered across the sidewalk.

  More shots from outside, and rounds kicked up dirt near the fleeing man. He tucked his head and ran toward me, but hugged the side of the house.

  I dropped to my belly hard enough to knock the wind out of me. The shot I’d gotten off had been nothing but luck. As the man came alongside me, ten feet away, I managed to struggle to my knees. He froze in place and lifted his hands in the air. One of them dripped blood from where I’d hit him.

  “Please, man. I didn’t even want to go, but they told me I had to or they’d kick me out,” he said.

  The man turned out to be a kid, no more than eighteen or nineteen. He had a scraggly beard that looked more like a bunch of pubes. Tears streamed down his face as he moved past me.

  “Clear up,” Anna called.

  “Clear down,” Joel said from the other side of the house.

  “Please, just let me go. I swear you’ll never see me again,” the kid said. “It’s bad out there and we didn’t have a choice. You’d do the same thing, right?”

  “Wrong,” I said and shot him.

  He looked surprised for a split second as a red hole appeared above his eyes. He fell back in a heap and didn’t move.

  I exhaled and put my back against the wall. The shakes kicked in, and that was how Joel found me.

  ###

  08:35 hours Approximate

  Location: Just outside of Oceanside

  “Do I even need to say it?” Joel asked me later.

  We’d dragged the bodies from the back of the house and placed them side by side in the front yard.

  “I know, it was them or us.”

  “You did the right thing. For all we know the kid might have gone back for reinforcements and then burned us out.”

  “What makes you think there aren’t more of them waiting to move on us?”

  “I don’t know, but we’re entrenched now. I thought we could stay here a few days, but I think we need to get the fuck out of here in a few hours. We should rest up after we move the bodies,” Joel said.

  “Why move the bodies? There are enough corpses around as it is.”

  “Don’t want someone seeing fresh dead and wondering what went down here,” Joel said.

  “Yeah, no sense in telling more raiders to keep away.”

  “I was thinking of shufflers,” Joel said. “We don’t want them to wonder if this is a house ripe for the picking.”

  “You make a lot of sense. Let’s get them into another house,” I said.

  We tossed their backpacks into the middle of the yard. Joel and I went through pockets, but there wasn’t much to find. A pocketknife, some coins; one guy had a wallet with a few dollars inside. He even had pictures of a family, but he wasn’t in any of them. For all we knew, he might have lifted the wallet from someone else.

  We came up with a few guns, including a .45 without any ammo. The man I’d shot across the street hadn’t returned fire because he was out of rounds. The kid had even less on him, but we found two fifty-round boxes of 9mm in a backpack. Christy took the ammo and added it to our stash.

  Roz and Anna kept watch while we took the bodies and dragged them into the house. Joel had torn off part of the tarp that was used to cover the truck. We rolled each body onto the heavy plastic, dragged them up the stairs, and tossed them in the living room. The house was much like ours: unfinished, with rolls of carpet, siding, and paint left in neat rows along the walls.

  Once we had put the five in a row, Joel and I did the dirty work and put a knife through each skull except for the kid I’d shot. The bullet hole above his eyes stared back at me rudely.

  They were dead, but was it possible they’d rise if they'd been bitten by Zs? None of us wanted to find out.

  “Remember that TV show about zombies?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I never saw it,” Joel said.

  “It was all drama and zombie killing. I guess they got that part right.”

  “I never cared for all that shit. Give me a good Bruce Willis or Danny Glover action flick over some weekly drama about emotions and monsters of the week. I like it when bullets are flying,” Joel replied.

  “I’m getting too old for this shit,” I said, and planted the knife in a dead guy’s eyeball. It stuck, and I had to hold his face to pull the blade out. I half-expected the dude to open his good eye, unhinge his mouth, and bite off part of my hand, but he was well and truly dead.

  Joel snorted. “Welcome to the party, pal.”

  His blade went in and out of a head a lot easier than mine.

  “There’s going to be a lot more of this, isn’t there?”

  “As supplies dwindle and the Zs increase, yeah, there’s always going to be a bad guy looking to take what’s ours. We need to always be vigilant.”

  “Goddamn shame. The death of humanity bringing out the worst in people. Wonder how long until someone gets the drop on us?” I thought out loud.

  “Ain’t no one taking us out unless we let 'em,” Joel said.

  “Right, because we’re badass action heroes,” I said.

  “No, because I’m a Marine and we’re a fighting unit. Look at these assholes. Five of them and none of us got hit. I like those odds.”

  “I guess I did alright,” I said.

  “Yeah you did, you dumb squid, but don’t get cocky,” Joel said.

  “Sure, Han Solo. I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

  Joel chuckled.

  We slit the plastic covering and ripped it off a roll of carpet. Joel and I rolled it out and used it to cover the dead. As far as burials went it wasn’t the best, but at least these guys were going to hell covered in light blue carpeting.

  The rest of the evening was less eventful. We ate, played cards, and tried not to talk about the battle. I wanted to run for the hills, but Joel argued that we’d be better off after a night of sleep. I didn’t draw first watch, and for a wonder, I was asleep in five minutes.

  ###

  03:35 hours Approximate

  Location: Just outside of Oceanside

  “Creed,” a shuffler whispered in my ear.

  I shot up and reached for my wrench with one hand; my other reached out to grab anything else I could get ahold of. I’d been dreaming of mountains of chocolate and ice cream, in that order. Then a Z rose out of the mess and I was stumbling back, and that was how I came awake.

  Joel grabbed my wrist before I could swing my fist into his face. He was wiry but strong, I’ll give hi
m that. My heart pounded in my chest as I fought back panic.

  “The fuck, man?” I said.

  “Keep it down. We got company,” Joel said, sounding like he was in an action movie.

  “Like dinner company, or fucking Zs?”

  “Dinner. They want to eat us.”

  I shook my head to clear away the fog, and wished I had about a gallon of coffee to slug back.

  “Shit. Where?”

  “Movement all around out there. It’s goddamn eerie, man,” Joel whispered.

  Anna was on her feet and checking her weapons. Christy held onto Frosty and alternated between stroking her head and holding her mouth to show her that we needed silence. Roz sat next to a window and peered into the darkness. She’d moved the corner of our improvised carpet-curtain up so she had a viewport.

  “Zs are eerie.”

  “They are, but these guys are being quiet. It’s like they know we’re here. I haven’t seen anything like it before,” Joel said.

  Anna moved next to us and dropped to a crouch. “I count five or six near the back and another dozen at the front. They’re standing around staring at the house.”

  “We’re trapped,” Joel said.

  “Hold the fuck up,” I said, finally shaking sleepiness from my head. “Are you saying they’re out there waiting for us? Like they planned this?”

  “Pretty much,” Roz said as she joined us.

  “We need to get the fuck out of this place and fast. Frontal assault. We go out shooting, get in the truck, and haul ass.”

  “There’s more in the back. I saw them hanging around the outskirts of the yard,” Roz said. “It’s murky, so I couldn’t see them very well.”

  Joel dug around in his backpack and came up with his old NVGs. He unwrapped them and pushed buttons, and slid them over his head.

  “Batteries low. I’ll do a fast sweep from inside. Stay here,” he said and slipped the goggles over his head.

  Joel left the kitchen and moved out. He stopped at a window facing into the backyard and stared.

  We’d left most of our weapons out, having done an ammo check earlier. We'd depleted the majority of our rounds escaping the last few encounters. The few boxes I’d picked up from the old woman in town helped, but mainly Joel, since they were for his assault rifle.