by P. S. Power
Jake took Cisco by the hand, dragging her out to Ken who had a large pile of things growing in the field already. At least he had a weapon with him, a rifle slung over his left shoulder.
"Ken, Cisco, meet your new buddy. You don't have to sleep together, but stay close and make sure that no one else is left alone either, will you?"
That got the dark skinned boy to give him a funny look.
"Do we need that anymore? I thought that was over now, since the zombies were gone. From here at least."
Jake let his mouth work like a fish. Ken wasn't stupid, not as a rule, but it was ridiculous.
"Zombies didn't shoot you! That was regular humans and there are other things out there now, more dangerous than those were by far. No, we all need a buddy and to be practicing our shooting skills and teamwork. You two have to take care of that from now on. Get with Tipper on it and make sure it happens daily. This isn't over yet. Not at all." He kept explaining, about the things he and Cam had seen, about how they'd been in cleaned zones, so weren't some new kind of zombie, but were just something else.
At least these two believed him.
Cisco looked scared, which was good. As long as it didn't make her stop thinking.
"So, you want us to get ready for these... things? In case they're the cannibals Heather used to talk about?"
"Right. I'm going to be gone most of the time for a while. Nate's a great guy, but he won't do what's needed to make this happen. Get with the Cleaners and set it up. After we get this bio-material moved in I mean." He smiled then, which got one in return from Cisco. Ken just nodded.
It took a while to arrange, meaning that he was there for dinner along with everyone else. The food was better and they got to eat in the first shift, but that meant that Vicki, Tipper and Colleen crowded around him at the table he was at. Colleen got Tipper to scoot over, so that she could sit by him, but it didn't really make sense. Not that he cared overly. He was fine with all of them.
Vicki leaned into him, whispering though.
"Hey, now what's this I hear about you throwing me over for Carley?" She didn't sound angry, but wasn't playing either.
He sighed.
"Well, it's not like we've ever... you know, so I figured that you were just trying to keep morale up. I can't make you do that. It wouldn't be fair." It made sense to him, but apparently he was the only one. They didn't talk about it at the meal though, but the second it was over, he found himself being dragged out back by the arm.
The Valkyrie wasn't hurting him, but wasn't exactly gentle about it either.
"OK... now what the fuck? I'm not dating you to make you feel better, we're going out because I like you. Ok, so it hasn't exactly been a physical relationship yet, but that has a lot to do with the circumstances and all the people, not you. I didn't know it meant that much to you. I mean, you've had a dozen different chances to get me alone and didn't take them. It doesn't have to be at night, we can just lock ourselves in a room, if you can ever find an hour when you aren't running around trying to save the world." She softened a little then.
"Not that you shouldn't be doing that. Just, really, don't get rid of me over a few timing issues. That's something to fix, not worry over. We can get Cam to take us to Valhalla for a night maybe? Not tonight, I have late watch, but soon?"
Leaning in she kissed him, still warm from being inside, even though it was about twenty degrees out. She wrapped him up for a bit, touching his lips with hers. It was nice, and about the most prolonged contact he'd ever had with a woman. At least in any way that wasn't accidental or just him having to fight against his natural desires. He stiffened in response, but it was dark enough that no one noticed anything, or even came out to see who was there. People tended to stay in at night. The only people he saw were wearing white and walking with flashlights in the distance. The guards, checking to make certain no one was getting through to them.
For just a second Jake felt like things might actually be changing, his girlfriend being willing to sleep with him and actually touching him at the moment, the world around him safe from zombies, if not other things and having a full stomach, having eaten some food that he wouldn't have believed would have happened a month back. It was nearly perfect.
Or at least as much as things could be at the end of the world.
Until he looked up to see something that blocked out the stars above them. It was quiet, nearly hidden in the sound of the soft breeze, but it was right there, hovering over them, maybe a thousand feet up. The thing was huge and black against the night sky. It looked like...
A blimp.
At first his mind couldn't make sense of what was happening, there was a sense of movement in the black, and then things falling in the field in front of them. It wasn't until the moaning started that he got it.
"Seriously?" He sighed and started to feel a little scared. He caught on before Vicki did though, drawing his side arm.
"What? I'm not sure..." She sounded baffled, but it made sense, after a bizarre fashion.
"Someone is bombing us. With zombies." He tucked his head inside and called for everyone to get weapons. It was so absurd that no one believed him at first. Who'd do that? If they were going to bomb... why not use explosives? That answer was clear enough though.
The technologists, even the bad ones, were personal pacifists. By using zombies it didn't really count as them doing the killing. Not to them. To Jake it did, so he tried to put a few holes in the thing overhead, hoping it was filled with hydrogen. Either it wasn't, or he just missed the whole thing, because nothing at all happened.
"Well, OK. This is a cleaned zone, so in about three hours all these things are going to be dead. We just need to hold out until then. We should take them down though, because there are a lot of them. We don't know if this is the only drop coming either."
Jake didn't panic though. It was a lot of zombies, that was clear, maybe even hundreds of them, but they could do it, as long as they held together and worked as a team. The big problem was all the new people. The Vals and T'srith were fine, at first, until they started trying to insist that he go inside and hide with the children in the lower section. It wasn't just the rudeness of it that got to him, even though no one meant it that way, but the fact that he had a pocket of nano compound. Actually on him. Because Jake was prepared for zombies, unlike some people. He just made a face and released three of the things on the porch, firing after that, not letting anything get too near. It would, ideally cut the time they had to fight down by a lot.
For a while, about half an hour he wondered if the bad guys had figured out how to get around the new technology or something, because that would just figure, but the undead started to slow down in the fields around then, the low and constant moaning growing softer, until about an hour into the fight, there was nothing left.
Almost nothing. One lone form crawled toward them, slowly and without stopping. It didn't look right though, it had legs, but was crawling with them trailing behind. Wearing a police uniform. Not a local one either.
Crud.
"Don't shoot him." Jake walked into the field, paranoid on a dozen different levels, ready to hit the thing in the head if he had to, tempted to try even if he didn't need too, after what the Westwood force had become. Looking around he saw that half a dozen others were with him too, so he reminded them not to shoot until they had too. If only to save ammo.
The man didn't look good at all, he had a dozen bites on him and was missing three fingers, chewed off but not bleeding for some reason.
"Um, hi." Jake spoke softly, not wanting to scare the man. "Could you use some help?" He almost asked if the man could use a hand, but stopped himself. That would have been cruel given everything.
"Eh? Who're you?" He sounded almost drunk, but that could be anything, so Jake just broke a capsule over his head, in case he was infected.
"I'm Jake, and this is the House. We've got you. This is a safe place, zombie air drops aside. That was a new thing, though. Why
don't we get you inside and checked out?" It sounded polite enough, but the man probably shouldn't have lasted the flight if he'd been in the hold with the undead, so having Nate read him might also be a great idea.
Both the man's legs were broken, but even though the field was littered with bodies, none of them moved. They brought out a stretcher to carry him in, an actual first aid team doing the work. Mainly people he didn't know. That was almost everyone anymore.
The man mumbled his story by candlelight, head resting on a fairly soft pillow that was being smudged with black gore from where things had bled on him. Jake kind of wanted to execute the man, but that was old thinking. They didn't have to now. He might still die, of course, from blood loss or regular infection, but he wouldn't go Z.
"I'm Tony Zeffario. I was caught up with a group of dead people, got tossed in with the corpses. Just scooped up. Used to draw the things into the hold. I managed to find a place to hide, between the wall and a counter of some kind. I don't know what it was. There were no lights. It didn't protect me totally, but mostly. When the bottom fell out I got dumped. Legs snapped in that field. That's mainly where I got bitten. I... You have to kill me. No way am I not turning now."
"Heh, right you are, or you were. We have a way to keep people from doing that now, I treated you outside already. It's how we stopped most of the rest of them." Jake looked up at Nate, who was straining it seemed, trying to read the fellow's mind. That could be hard to do after all, with trauma victims.
He didn't say anything, until the man asked a single question. It sounded innocent enough to Jake, but Nate went wide eyed instantly, before the words were spoken.
"Say... you said this was the House? The place the military said to come to?" Before he could answer Nate was pulling him away, screaming something.
"Run!"
They did, even though Jake didn't know what was going on. Not everyone managed it though, being to slow on the uptake or trying to figure out what was happening. They didn't get out as the man exploded. It was a wet thing, and he was behind Nate using his body to shield the man as he was pushed into the kitchen. Shards of bone flew like shrapnel, no one being protected from it. The force of the blast, which wasn't a fiery thing at all, knocked them through the door, Vicki ending on top of him.
She stood first, her back riddled with two inch long irregularly shape spears of bone. They were white and pink, little spots of red on her white clothes. Jake felt like he'd been hit nearly as much, including one that had skipped off his skull, thankfully, and several in his back. They weren't that deep, as long as no arteries of veins were hit. Nate had one in his shoulder and was groaning like the world had ended.
"Vicki, secure the scene, get others to do it. We need to get cleaned up and to tend the wounded. That..." Jake shook his head bitterly. "Shouldn't have happened. From now on we don't let anyone in, no matter how hurt they are, without being checked first."
He turned and started pulling bone shards from his girlfriend's back and neck, Since she'd heal fast and close the wounds faster than that, sealing them off somehow... almost instantly. He'd need bandages though. It wasn't going to be fun. First they needed to see to everyone else, there hadn't been a lot of people in the room, not close to the man, thank god. People were shy around strangers now. It had saved a lot of lives. Still, three were dead and they had six injured. Three of those were Vals, who just needed someone to help them pull the things out of their flesh for the most part, the other three included him, Nate, who was being a giant baby about it and Colleen, who had only one bit of bone in her, sticking out of her leg. It was bigger than most of the rest of them had, but looked nicely lodged into the muscle, which had to hurt, but wasn't life threatening yet.
They'd need antibiotics though. Otherwise they were probably going to die.
That was for later though. Jake moved to his friend, smiling a little, trying not to let his back move too much. He started to get a cloth from across the room when a man he didn't know ran over and told him to sit down.
"I have this. Get this man some pain killer." He practically screamed the words, but it didn't hurt that much.
Jake knew that, because real pain made you pass out. It was a moot point because they didn't have anything all that strong anyway. Colleen bled a bit, once the bone was taken out of her leg, the man carefully removing her jeans with a pair of scissors to get at the wound, then taking a good bit of time to get all the fibers out before actually stitching her up. That was something new. Someone that actually knew how to close wounds.
Then he moved back to Jake, asking if he'd gotten that medication at all. He smiled and shook his head.
"It's all right. Just a few flesh wounds."
"Right..." The man didn't ask if he was going to change his mind, just pulling them out one at a time, then digging in the wounds for fibers of his own shirt. He didn't yell or wince in pain, though he did pant a bit. Quietly. Screaming was controllable. It was a choice you made. Maybe not in the first seconds, but even then, if you were prepared, you could decide not to do it. The only one that made noise, other than some hissing, was Nate.
It wasn't fair to tease the man though. He was kind of a homebody and hadn't seen a lot of injury yet. Maybe, if they were lucky, he wouldn't later either.
"Freaking exploding people. I thought suicide bombers were bad, Back Before. Oh, the death toll was higher, but this... They could be anyone."
Worse, the new tactics had been layered. It was like they had fail-safes in place, counting on the first thing not working. If that was so, they needed to get ready for the next one too. Vicki already had some people out there on it, but they really needed to get a head count and to have people ready to fight. Jake had no clue if they could actually manage it, or if it would make sense or not, but they could ask for volunteers.
He sent one of the Vals for it. She clearly didn't think that anyone would really help, just being Humans, but a good thirty people crowded into the mess that was the dining room, looking around not more than fifteen minutes later. Ok, so half of them looked to be boys and girls hardly big enough to hold a weapon, but they were being led by a girl that looked about seven, so it kind of fit.
Darla.
The Vampire. She was pushing eighty though, appearance aside, and didn't seem to have normal emotions. Most of the House didn't know that though, since she fit her role perfectly. Jake didn't know if it was true, but she was probably a lot stronger and faster than she looked.
He waved at her, regretting the movement seconds later. The guy treating his wounds had decided he didn't need stitches, but was busy pouring alcohol into his flesh. It burned a bit, but Jake didn't let it show.
"Darla, get with Vicki and Matilde. Set these folks up in the upper windows and in strategic locations outside. We need to watch the sky tonight. Also, if someone can come up with a way to take down a blimp, that might be a good idea. I shot at it, but nothing happened."
Darla pointed at the people around her, half of them at least, mainly the older ones.
"Get weapons from down in the armory. Rifles and extra ammunition. Then find some warm clothing. We're headed outside for the night. If we can find the engine compartment of the craft we can make it pretty hard to fly. It should be on the bottom. Keep your eyes sharp." She said it like it was real, but as far as Jake knew she hadn't been outside or even at a window while it was overhead.
As soon as he could, Jake slipped his shirt back on and moved outside himself. He was injured, which would slow him down, so he did it with his nine already drawn. Not pointed though. It was a risk, but chances were better that someone he knew would startle him than that some super-Z would come bounding out of the dark now. If they started dropping those though, they were in a lot of trouble. The things were fast, strong and hard to kill once frozen. Same with some of the other races if they got turned. It had happened a few times and while they'd gotten through it, the situations had been close. The undead were bad enough, the new types had just about push
ed him too far.
He mainly walked around for hours, trying to stay warm, and failing, for the most part, but not wanting to go in when anyone else had to stay on duty. Nothing was happening now, though they couldn't move the bodies until they had light. Not most of them. They were actually dead though, or at least hiding any other status pretty darned well, not making any noise. Things went still at about four in the morning, with only the occasional crunch of boots on snow to keep him alert.
At first light they all went in, being relieved by the next shift, mainly made up of Cleaning crews. Carl was in charge of that, along with one of the other members of the hunting crew, an older guy that was a war vet. Barry. Cam had managed to get some sleep though, so even though he was about to drop himself, Jake figured that he could make some rounds with her.
Not the traveling to the military base like they'd intended, because he wasn't sharp enough for that, but checking out the distribution centers and whatnot. It took most of the day, but he scored some coffee off of Morris when they went there to visit, the man nearly having a fit when he saw the state of Jake's clothing. It was what he'd been wearing the night before, some of the stuff Willa had collected for him. After half a minute of yelling in whatever language it was that they used, Teleporter or what have you, several people flooded into the tent he used as an office.
Tansy was the first one in, holding a knife. Poorly, but it looked like she was ready to cut someone at least. Morris came in after her though, right fist clenched, with a few others he didn't recognize crowding the doorway.
For her part Cam yawned and poured Jake's cup for him, like she lived there.
"Relax everyone. It wasn't a good thing, but the Ba-Dehist is fine. After a fashion. Another of those exploding people. We did have zombies dropped on us first, from a big balloon thing, a bimp." She said it casually, as if she knew all about it.