by Mark Clodi
Heath smiled, “Me and Lewis, we volunteered for escorting you to the target. You wanna guess how much they told us about their mission?”
“Nothing.”
“The zombies can't get it out of us if we don't know it in the first place. You know how they took over the anti-aircraft and missile battery?”
Randy and Katie shook their heads, but Randy ventured, “Torture?”
“No, not at all. They killed some military guys, then brought them back, then made them smart again, then sent them after the battery.”
“What? How?”
“We don't know, but if they bring you back they can control you. Like those zeds back at the car lot, the slow stupid ones were being used to draw our fire so the smarter ones could get into place. If a zombie eats enough other people, it gets smarter, they went over it before we left, showed us a video of a captured one they fed blood to, a lot of blood, it got smart. There were other videos with other captured ones, pairs or groups of them, it worked the same way for all of them. The intel guys got some of them to talk and demonstrate some things, so this isn't conjecture. Here we are.” Heath pulled the SUV over to one side of the street and parked it. Taking the keys out he paused, then turned and put them back into the ignition. “For luck.” he said to Katie with a shrug, “You never know if someone else will need the ride.”
Randy said, “That way, right Heath?”
“Yeah.”
“Good then we will go through the buildings so we aren't exposed so much.”
“I like that plan. Zombies with guns give me the creeps.”
“As opposed to normal zombies?” Katie asked as Randy broke into a large office building in front of the car.
“Normal zeds are okay by me.”
“Hey you left the turn signal on.” Katie said, noticing the lights blinking on the car.
“Yeah, I'm stupid like that. Forget it. Let's get moving.”
Chapter 40
“Did you see that?” asked Harry.
“I saw it.” Aubrey replied.
“What does it mean?”
“I don't know. Maybe one of our own is working with them.”
“No, we could sense that.” Harry said. They were both tracking the living humans and the mob of zombies in the city. This was difficult at times because the buildings did get in the way, so they only caught glimpses of the living. Their fellow dead were not so hard to track. What piqued their interest was that when they sent their zombies around to the north side of union station, the humans had very clearly backed away from them, before they were in sight.
“How many do you count? I have ten.”
“I think you are right, ten guys, moving pretty slow too. The slow zombies won't catch them, but they aren't moving that quick. Harry, let's bring them in alive. I want to figure out what they have, maybe some sort of long range motion detector or something.”
“Okay, we should find out, I agree. We'll get as many as we can. Want to try setting up an ambush for them?”
“Sure. How?”
“Let's get zombies in position all around in front of them, then have them stop moving. If it is a motion sensor the living won't be able to see them.”
“Pretty good. Let's keep the pressure on them from behind and to the north. If they are distracted they might not notice what we are doing in front of them. I am going to move more troops around behind our frozen ones too, just in case. You concentrate on moving some of the faster ones around to the south so we can cut them off. Whose idea was it to concentrate our troops by the shoreline?” Aubrey asked, displeased.
“No one's really, it is just where they ended up. We should have moved them to both sides of the track when we saw the train coming.”
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Fuck it. Let's make the best of this. I do want to talk to one of them, I don't care if they kill ninety percent of the zeds out there.”
Harry smiled, “Okay I will tell them, to go for the throat if those ten guys somehow manage to kill ninety thousand of us.”
Both of them concentrated on moving their troops around, the humans stopped a couple of times, but always moved again when the zombies came too close, then they paused and didn't move forward again.
“They stopped.”
“Yeah, looks like they can sense our frozen zombies too. Lets hold them here as long as possible, work more troops around them so we can capture them for sure.”
“Okay.”
Ella came into the building and strode up to Harry quickly, casting a sidelong glance at Aubrey. “One of your zombies tried to kill me.”
“Sorry, we are a bit busy trying to deal with the people who rode in on the train.”
“Oh. Well don't be so concerned, I took it out. It was not nearly so satisfying as the soldier, but it was still good.” Ella said, almost purring.
'Good God', thought Aubrey, 'she wants sex again!' She was interested to see how Harry would handle this.
“I am glad you were not hurt, but I am very busy. These guys are proving, interesting.”
Ella crossed her arms and took a step back from Harry, “Well fine. How much longer do you think it will be?”
“I don't know, twenty minutes? We are going to capture them and that means we have to keep a close watch on our subordinates.”
“Twenty minutes?” Ella's voice came out as a half wail, half enthusiastic. “Can I have one of them?”
“Sure.” Harry said, then caught Aubrey's sharp glance, “After we are done interrogating them, but sure.”
Chapter 41
“So where is our zombie king?” asked Ruben.
Max concentrated and then pointed towards the north west. “That way, less than half a mile, there are some people around too, the living kind.”
Stewart's eyebrows rose and she asked, “You sure?”
“Yeah, I got one not too far from baddest zombie out there and more further north, I am pretty sure there must be a channel or something over that way, it is a ribbon of unoccupied turf anyway. I think I am getting better at this.”
“Good, anywhere there aren't zombies?” asked Stewart.
“Well, not really, there are less to the east and south, and none straight north, that is the lake though so unless we took a boat...”
“We'll keep that in mind, we might have to, does anyone know how to sail?”
A round of 'no's came from the squad of men around them. Stewart shrugged and said, “Well we could get row boats or maybe something with a small engine. What is our plan Max?”
“Walk up to the guy and blow his head off?”
“Didn't Draper say we would be meeting someone here? Some sniper or something?”
“Yeah he said, but I don't know if the 'we' was 'us' or 'him' now.”
“Use the radio Bill, call out and see if anyone is still in range.” suggested Stewart.
Bill fumbled for the radio, putting it to his lips he asked, “Can anybody hear me?”
Static was the only sound they heard, Bill tried again, “This is Bill Carson, we are going after some zombies here in town and we want to know if anyone is here to support us. Uh, over.”
A series of beeps came through the radio, Ruben paused in his walking and said, “They say yes. That's Morse code for you young guys.”
“Why would they send it like that?”
“It is an open radio, meant for keeping in touch with your squad and your commanding officer, not secure at all. Anyone with a military radio can pick that up and hear you in the clear.”
Bill flushed and said, “Oh. So what do I do?”
“Give it here.” said Ruben holding out his hand.
Handing it over Bill watched intently while Ruben pressed the talk buttons on and off for several minutes, then he held it down and said, “Okay, we understand, we will head east. Over.”
“Roger that.” came a dry voice from the other end.
Ruben looked at the radio, then at Bill and then pointedly tucked it into the front pocket of his fa
tigues. “They say they think the leader is in the Architech building on the edge of the park, a few blocks up from here. With luck no one clued into the Morse and they won't know we are coming.”
“What else did they say?”
“One of the special forces guys is with them, they ran into a tassel of zombies in the building they went into and are running low on ammunition, but they will be set up to help us if they can. They would like us to create a diversion in the park if we can, to maybe draw out the leader to take a shot at him.”
“That all?” asked Bill.
“Pretty much.”
“Pretty much?”
“They wished us luck. I wished them luck too.”
Bill laughed, then turned to Max and Stewart who were still walking beside him. “What do you think?”
Max shook his head, “The zombies are closing in, we need to hide, but I don't think we can, or we need to pick a direction and go fast.”
“East?” asked Stewart.
Stewart, Bill and Ruben all studied Max's face as he glanced up into the clear blue sk and then shrugged, “No, let's just get this done.”
The others nodded and started to walk a little faster. Max cleared his throat, took a drink of water and said, “Bill have your guys hold up on the corner, see if they can get into that store there.” Max was pointing at a pulled down security gate that partially hid a convenience store from sight.
“Hey Javier and Caleb! See if you can get into that store, quick, everybody else pull in close and watch the streets around us.”
Breaking into the store was easier than they expected; Javier and Caleb each grabbed a hold of the bottom of the fencing and pulled sharply upwards, the two locks didn't break, but the clasps they were attached to pulled out of the building with ease. Caleb smashed in the window of the door and pulled the fire safety lock down to open it. Bill hustled the men inside, leaving Ruben and Dan at the door to keep a lookout; he kept everyone near the door so they could all hear Max speak.
“Okay here is what we are going to do. The zombies are cutting us off and we are not going to get away by running, the train was our last best chance of that. There is a special forces team in the area that has a chance at taking out the guy leading the zombies in Chicago. Our mission is to draw the leader outside so their sniper can get a shot at him. We are going to run right up outside where the head zombie is and light his place up in a drive by shooting style, then take off through the parks to the shoreline, where we will get ourselves into boats and head for the middle of the lake. Any questions?”
“Yeah, I got one.” came a raspy voice belonging to Kirk, another older man from Ruben's generation, “What good is killing this zombie going to do?”
“It will stop him from making the zombies attack Iowa. He is controlling that whole mob from here, pressing them forward.”
“Won't another one just do it, the second in command?”
“They have limits, the second in command might not be strong enough to keep up the attack.”
“How do you know?”
“I don't. Not for certain. I spoke to a zombie who was sent to Denver, he told me some of how this works, but he was not too sure himself.”
“So we could all die doing this?”
“Yes.”
“Why should we do it then?”
“Look I could say it is to protect the people who are still living, to give them a chance, but how about I give you guys an alternative plan that gives us the best chance of getting out of here alive?”
“Okay, hit us with that one.” Javier said and the other men nodded with approval.
“The 'run away' plan, with the best chance of success, based on what I can see of the zombies right now is this: We run right by where the head zombie is, which is on the way to the shoreline, and get ourselves into boats and head for the middle of the lake. Any questions?”
“That is just like the first plan, only without any shooting!” said Dan.
“Yeah, feel free to shoot at the building I point out as you go by. If you don't want to I won't hold it against you.”
Bill cleared his throat and asked, “Max are you sure we can't break out by heading east? Or back the way we came? The zombies seemed a little light to the south west.”
“I can see them Bill. There are a lot less zombies here than I thought there would be, but there are still...thousands. Maybe we could have gone a different direction when we took off, if we had not let that group get behind us we would have more options now.” Max shook his head, “But right now? Not a chance. To the east the population is a little more dispersed, but I have no doubt the guy controlling the zombies knows we are here now, the group following us is acting too logically, they spread out a little and are busy hemming us in, if we head any direction except north there are too many zombies they could move in around us. The coast is our best bet.”
“This is a lot to take on just faith mister.” said Dan.
“I know.” Max said then moved his eyes on the rest of them one by one, “This isn't going to be easy, we all have loved ones back in Iowa. It is not our job to die to save them, it is our job to wipe out the zombies to save them. I have been looking for the best way to do both. Unlike Draper I have laid my cards on the table, you guys have to decide what you want to do, I know what I am going to do.”
“We aren't going to make it are we?” asked a smaller soldier who Max thought was named Chen.
Max looked at the man and said, “What kind of talk is that? Haven't you heard what I've been saying?”
The man shook his head, not understanding, “I heard, but you talk like we can make it to the boats, and kill everyone. Then you also say there are too many of them. I don't know what to believe.”
“There are too many of them around us, we have to go where there are not that many of them, out into the lake.”
“What do we do then?” asked Dan.
“Fuck if I know.” the men laughed uneasily, “Really, we will play that by ear when we get there. If we get a good boat we might sail up to the north west, get back on land and make our way down south again. Is that enough of a plan for now?”
The men nodded, but more than a few mumbled quietly to each other until Bill spoke up, “Jesus Christ people! Are we soldiers or children? We are here to do a job first and foremost and that is to remove the leaders of this big band of zombies. Does anyone doubt that we'd all be dead right now if we had stayed with the train?” The men nodded agreement and Bill continued, “So the last ten minutes of life might not have been that great but we owe it to Max. We've put our trust in him and anyone who wants to back out now can feel free to head back to the train! Otherwise quit your bitching and soldier on!”
An uneasy silence fell on the group, punctuated by gunfire from the west. Max raised an eyebrow to Ruben, who was glancing in at them from the doorway. The older man shrugged his shoulders and said, “I got nothing on the radio from them.”
“So..Max, do we wait here for awhile or grow a pair and head out now?” Stewart asked.
“We wait until the special forces guys are in position.” Max said, then he paused and cocked his head sideways for a moment, “Yeah, we can stay a few minutes at least.”
The radio in Ruben's pocket started beeping rapidly. Ruben took it out and started slowly translating as the code came through, “Ran into zeds inside the building across from the target. Low on ammo. Camo suits seem effective. We only have two for three of us. Will try to cross to target building in four minutes. Appears to be empty. We will head to top for best shot. Over.”
Ruben looked at Bill, “What should I tell him?”
“Tell him; understood, how soon should be move to draw out the target?”
“Ten minutes.”
Chapter 42
“Don't worry about me, us special forces guys eat this shit up.” Despite the brave words Katie and Randy could see the worry on Heath's face.
“You don't have to do this.” Randy said, “We can find s
ome way around.”
Looking out onto the street all three of them saw the mob milling about, there were several super zombies controlling their less thinking buddies. Slowly Heath shook his head. “No. There are two flaws with that plan.” He glanced at his watch, “First I don't have the suits you guys have. Second, we don't have time. Either way I can't make it, but if I double back towards the park I can distract them away from here and give you a shot at getting to the top of that building. Then you will have a chance to finish our mission.”
Randy nodded once, curtly, then Katie said, “No! There has...”
“Don't make me pull rank on you. Please. Katie, you know we aren't getting out of this, none of us. So.” Heath shrugged his broad shoulders, dropping his pack on the floor behind him, “It is time to choose how to die. Randy you get those coordinates for the artillery strike written down?”
“Yes.”
“Written down? Why? Won't you be there to call them in?” Katie turned worriedly towards Randy.
“Just in case I am not.” he said, pressing a listing of numbers into her hand. “There is the field, the stadium area, this is the art center, and use this last one only when the shit really hits the fan.”
Katie looked at the paper, then at the building across the street, she frowned, then nodded. “Fuck.”
“No time now, but I will remember your offer for the rest of my life.” Heath quipped.
“In your fucking dreams.”
“I don't think I will be dreaming much more. I promise you; you will have time to reach the other side.” Heath fished around in his pack and produced a small square of plastic.
“Explosives? It is awful small.” Randy ventured.
“Explosives? No, I don't think one man could pack enough explosives to make much of a dent in this crowd. It's my mp3 player. Are you ready to rock?” gathering his pistol, rifle and taking a large kukri style knife from his pack he stood up. He tucked the large knife into his belt at his back and after checking the pistol he held out his hand to first Katie and then Randy. While shaking his hand he said, “Good luck. Wait until they leave then make your move. Don't fuck this up. I know you are low on ammo, but if you can and if you see me later, well...dead, put one through my brain, would you? If you can afford the shot.”