by WR Peden
“Who are these people, friends of yours?” I ask. The man has a smug look on his face and then begins to speak.
“Relax young man. Just relax, if I were you I would lower that gun look around you are out gunned.” The man says. I lower my weapon but keeping my finger straight on the trigger guard ready to fire at a moment's notice. Just as I begin to lower the weapon all the approaching vehicles screech to a halt and people from all directions hop out pointing their gun at DJ and me.
“Put your hands in the air!” demands one of the men as he points his weapon at DJ. DJ acknowledges by putting his hands in the air while the rifle lays on his lap but making sure that his hands are nowhere near the rifle. The man in front of me starts walking to me and begins to speak.
“So what brings you and that boy out here? Don't worry you can relax, we won't shoot you or the kid as long as he doesn't reach for that gun.” the man in front of me asks.
The group surrounding us slowly closes the circle around us. One of the men reaching into the passenger window of my truck taking the rifle off DJ's lap and slinging it over his back.
“Get out.” He orders DJ.
DJ with his hands raised uses one hand, sticks it out the window and opens the door from the outside. He then hops out of the truck and starts walking toward me with the group's weapons drawn on him. I look back quickly and see the entire group and finally accepting we are outgunned, I reluctantly put my gun away.
“What do you guys want?” I ask as DJ makes his way next to me. I look around and see close to twenty people surrounding us.
“Lower your weapons guys, Mr. Banks here has been kind enough to lower his let's show him some courtesy.” the smug man instructs his crew.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” I ask.
“My name is Levi, I am Mr. Godfrey's Sergeant In Arms in the Silent Soldiers,” Levi responds.
Shit, I think to myself. We left the group including Constantine earlier in the attack and got away but somehow I have run into these guys again.
“I can tell by the look on your face that you remember our little group,” Levi says.
“Yes, we are not looking for any trouble, we are just headed to the base. I was invited to join up with the Soldiers of Z.E.D and trying to get through.” I respond. Just as I finish a gunshot rings past mine and DJ's head striking a zombie just ahead on the overpass causing him to fall off and splatter decaying flesh and guts all over the interstate.
“Watch where your rounds are going! Shit, I'm going to be deaf before we get out of here.” I yell at the guy who just shot.
“So what's it going to be? Do y’all just want to rob us or can we get out of here?” I inquire as I step closer to Levi causing some of the group to raise their weapons a little but still having them down.
“Easy boy, you are outmatched. I know you're capable but do you really want to go down like this?” asks Levi.
I quickly reach out, grab Levi spin him around and fire three rounds into a zombie crawling out from underneath a nearby car. I turn around to see the entire group with guns drawn on me. Levi orders them to lower their weapons. Much to their dislike they do as ordered just as the familiar sound of groans, moans, and grunts start coming from all directions. As I look around zombies are starting to come out from every which way including out from underneath the multiple vehicles on the interstate. The Silent Soldiers open fire into the oncoming horde as I run to grab DJ and crouch down behind a nearby car taking cover. Only having the pistol with limited ammunition left, I look around and take off toward the truck, motioning for DJ to stay put. I make it back to the truck and remember that my rifle is not inside as one of the other men have it. I quickly hop into the driver's seat with the truck still turned on, reach into the backseat and grab a new clip out of the backpack for the pistol as it is our only weapon now but then get an idea. I hop out and open the back door looking under the back seat and find a tire iron and throw it up into the passenger seat and upon further rummaging, I find a car jack handle and toss it up on the passenger seat as well. Just as I toss the handle up I hear a groan just in time to turn around and have a zombie fall into me trying to bite me. I struggle around as these things are a lot tougher and heftier than I imagined. I struggle to reach into my waistband but as I do so I remember the gun is in on the center console of the truck. I manage to shove the zombie away as he slams into the side of truck bed stumbling back and falling down. Without hesitation I quickly hop into the driver's seat of the truck, grab the pistol putting it next to me throw the truck into drive, peeling out along the way just as the zombie I was struggling with started to get up. As I pull away the back of the truck clips him knocking him down and crushing his arm. I swing the truck up next to DJ, stopping to let him jump in. DJ and a few of the other soldiers look at me but continue to take on the oncoming horde. DJ jumps in and grabs the tire iron and puts the jack handle in his floorboard.
“Make sure you have a good grasp on that handle and hold it against the door. I am going to blast through that horde to help these guys out and help us get away at the same time.” I tell DJ.
I make sure that the Soldiers are out of the way and then gas it. DJ, puts the tire iron out the window with a good grasp on it. I take off barreling through the horde encroaching on all of us sending bodies and limbs all over the place. As I barrel through the crowd DJ reaches out and starts cracking zombies in the head with the tire iron. I glance over to make sure DJ isn't struggling and see him with a smile that I swear was ear to ear as he started to swing with the motion of the truck as we slam into zombie after zombie. We make it through the horde and DJ slides back into his seat and begins to speak
“That was awesome. I haven't felt that great in a while.” Where has this side been I think to myself. We slow down continuing down the interstate towards base. I happen to glance up at the rear view mirror and see the zombie horde not dying down. Something hits me inside and I slam on the brakes, turn the truck around and beeline back to the group.
“You ready?” I ask DJ. He nods with a big joker like grin on his face and leans back out the window. We reach the horde again this time blasting into several more zombies, but the truck gets slammed with a few bullets.
“You ok?” I cautiously ask DJ.
“Yea I'm fine,” he responds.
The bullets stop as we make an opening between the soldiers and the zombies. I whip the truck around and start mimicking the guy we saw behind the gas station and start doing donuts. As I start going in circles, DJ pulls himself back into the truck and buckles up. Arms, legs, heads, torsos and lots of guts start flinging and flying all around. After a couple of minutes, a few dozen donuts, tire smoke and the smell of burnt rubber in the air I finally come to a stop. Without hesitation, DJ hops out of the truck, tire iron in hand ready to start bashing the skull of the undead. I put the truck in park, turn it off and hop out. I look around seeing only two or three zombies anywhere near us but the scene on the interstate looks like the world war zombie out here.
Levi walks up to us and begins to ask “Y'all were out of here, what made you come back?”
“Honestly, I don't know. Although I'm headed toward the base, I couldn't let you all be out here and get over ran.” I respond. Levi extends his hand out for a handshake. I respond by reaching out and shaking his hand.
“It's about to get dark out, y'all are welcome to come up to our camp. Constantine and the others are at one of our outposts so you won't have to worry about those guys, and besides, I’m sure with what y'all did for us I know Constantine won't have an issue.” Levi asks us.
I look around, look at the sky and see the sun getting ready to set. I see a road sign showing the base is only twenty or so minutes up the road by car I know we can make it, but seeing as we just spent the last couple of hours only going thirty minutes up the road I know that anything can happen and we could be stuck out here in the dark. These zombies seem to be a lot stronger than most humans and o
bviously no control of their brain or actions.
“Sure,” I tell Levi.
Levi instructs his crew to round up and head back to camp. We climb into the truck, turn it on and get in line behind a couple of the Silent Soldiers putting us in the middle of the pack. We drive up the ramp and over the overpass towards the town of Richland. I start to think of the speeds we are going and glance down at the speedometer and look down to see it read ninety miles per hour.
“At least the roads should be clear.” I chuckle as I say out loud pointing out the speedometer to DJ.
DJ chuckles and is showing a side I have never seen but seems to be his relaxed and normal self. As we approach a set of bridges we pull off the road and head through a field that has a few zombies randomly walking through. DJ looks at me, smiles and leans out the window. Knowing what he is thinking I swerve towards them allowing for DJ to play tee ball with the undead. As we get towards the end of the field all the vehicles slow down and make their way onto the riverbank below and come to a stop in a wall-like formation. I place our truck in line with the others. We get out and look around to see a pretty sophisticated camp with tents, huts, and modified commercial storage containers that have been converted to little homes.
“We are The Silent Soldiers, we provide for our own and have built a self-sustaining little town here. The river has helped us a lot but don't drink directly from it. We can't guarantee it's clean because of all these flesh eating creatures upstream.” Levi explains.
“We have our own little store over there that takes cash and barters for various wares. If you need a weapon, ammo or just anything weaponry head over there and see Bob he will hook ya up where he can. And here is my place, not much but it works, y'all are welcome to stay on the floor here if ya want, me casa es su casa.” he continues. All three of us head into his storage container that actually looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the out. Inside the container it is only about forty feet long by twenty feet wide but seems to have four decent sized rooms in it. As I enter the door I look at a couch on the left and straight into the small kitchen in the back. Off to the right separated by sheets is what I assume the bedrooms.
We all sat down in little area he used as his living room and started chatting about this entire apocalypse. The more Levi told us about what he knew the more things started to become clear. Levi started to tell us about this virus called “Tripton-Z” that a doctor named Zachery David had invented as a cure of for a flesh eating disease that people were getting from a bad batch of flu shots.
“This flesh eating disease started at the injection site and started spreading in all directions causing the affected areas to start to decay and fall off the muscle and bone. Eventually affecting the blood stream causing limited flow to the brain creating a brain dead effect but not stopping the movement of the individual. Dr. David was able to study the disease and narrow down the affected cells and isolate them. He created a virus which was named Tripton-Z that would attack the cells affected by the disease killing it and stopping it in its tracks whereas all you would have to do is remove the affected areas and the person could remain alive and normal if it hadn't spread to the brain.” Levi explains.
Levi continued explaining what happened and why it wasn't being used. “Dr. David had been utilizing the virus on test rats and tried to get approval for human testing. He was shut down by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) out of Atlanta, Georgia because he wanted to proceed with human testing and the government didn't feel it was safe enough, Dr. David was said to have gone crazy.” Levi goes on to explain “we don't know what happened to Dr. David or the virus but as of recent we started to hear the name Tripton-Z again and we are all on edge. We do know that the government put out a bounty on Dr. David because he is said to have stolen all the research and vials of Tripton-Z that was created then just disappeared. So as long as these flu infested disease heads are out there we are going to strive to rebuild and live as much of a normal life as possible.”
I look over and see that DJ has passed out, so I decide to leave him alone but look over to Levi and curiously ask “So why aren't you all up at the base with the Soldiers of Z.E.D?” Levi looks around and thinks for a second then begins to speak.
“Well, Constantine used to be high-ranking enlisted members of the US Army stationed at Fort Leonard Wood back before this apocalypse took over. In the middle of the countrywide manhunt for Dr. David, the military was spread thin along with an impending world war that was about to start, fortunately it ceased as the other countries decided they didn’t want to take the chance of infecting their own. Constantine took over a temporary commander of the Fort when we started to get overrun by these things. I don't know what caused it but almost overnight the town outside the fort seem to turn into these zombie creatures but not just normal ones, some of them were extremely fast as well as climbers which were odd but has now have become rare. Well, Constantine enlisted my help to create a group of Silent Soldiers that would work on an escape plan to get as many of the people out of the base as possible that were not infected yet. During what we felt to be the last days for us a group of paramilitary vigilantes of sort came in and started to just viciously destroy all of the infected and gathering up all those that were not showing signs. Constantine and I came out with our Soldiers and approached them to thank them for the help and offer them a place to stay. We were introduced to this group calling themselves the Soldiers of Z.E.D. They ran the organization like a special operations unit but we never got to meet this Z.E.D they said was their commander. One day they gathered up all the townspeople and essentially gave them no other option than to die or help them build a community and in exchange, they would provide security. Constantine was not a fan of this and decided to approach them demanding to speak to Z.E.D. The next thing I know Constantine was taken to the Generals building where they had taken over and made headquarters. I continued on with my own mission until Constantine came back. He told me that he had relinquished control of the fort to Z.E.D and that he had his head on straight and we were now Soldiers of Z.E.D and would run daily patrols outside of base. This went on for a few months until one day on patrol I was back at base and Constantine had gone out to assist another unit when he came back he wasn't the same, he went straight to the Generals building breaking all protocol. The next thing I know is a giant meeting was called at the base theater and we were told to choose a side, Constantine or Z.E.D. I being loyal chose to stay with Constantine, as did about ten others. Everyone else including the local community chose to stay with Z.E.D and we were ousted. From that day forward, Constantine has not told me what happened that day nor have I really asked. But he will not support the Soldiers of Z.E.D nor talk about them anymore.” Levi explains.
“Nah, there has to be more to it. Soldiers of Z.E.D are well organized, they have actual homes, what are y'all not telling these people?” I inquisitively ask.
“Hey, don't take our kindness for weakness, you don't have to stay here.” Levi barks.
“Sorry, no disrespect. I appreciate all you have done, but I and DJ will be leaving in the morning as I think we will have a better fit with the Soldiers of Z.E.D.” I state. Levi shrugs but acknowledges out of respect, then gets up and goes to lay down in his bed. I lay back and start to think about what Levi has told us but also thinking about my interactions with Sgt. Meeks earlier this week as I doze off.
Chapter 5
The next morning I get up and notice I'm the first awake, I check on DJ to make sure he is ok and then stand up and walk outside to stretch and check out the sunrise. I look around and see a few children running around, women washing clothes using the river water and patrols around the outskirts of the manufactured village taking out zombies that have gotten close overnight. I walk back inside, pick up my pistol that I had set down in between DJ and myself when we sat down last night, put it in my waistband and head back outside. I begin to walk around a little heading over to the trading post to see what
they have. I notice they a vast variety of anything and everything you would need. I walk over to the truck, pull out a stack of cash out of our backpack, lock the truck doors and head back over to the trader.
“How much for that nail spiked baseball bat and the bag,” I ask.
“What do you have?” the trader responds.
“I will give you twenty-five US dollars.” I offer.
“Forty” the trader counters.
“Thirty and that's my top.” I counter for the final time. The trader accepts and I count out thirty dollars and hand it to the trader who hands me a backpack and the spiked baseball bat. I walk over to Bob the armorer and notice my rifle behind the counter but not up on the rack for sale.
“Hey, that's my rifle, can I get that back,” I ask Bob.
“I have to get clearance from Levi, but if he agrees then yes, but I did fix it for you,” Bob responds. I look at him puzzled,
“Fixed it? What was wrong?” I ask.
“Yes, the sites were all distorted I would be amazed if you hit anything at all using the sites. I bet you had to just wing it on aiming, these sites were bent to hell and not sited in. I also cleaned and lubed it for ya so it should fire like a champion assault rifle.” Bob Explains.
“Thanks, Can you check this pistol out and fix it up and maybe upgrade it some?” I ask taking the pistol out of my waistband and putting it on the table top. Bob shakes his head, picks it up and goes to work.