But that grisly image encouraged him that he wasn’t asking his men and women to commit suicide.
In a few minutes, he had his fighting force. A dozen volunteers jumped on each of the tanks, spears and guns at the ready. The Humvees collectively had about a thousand rounds of ammo left, but they could also run over stragglers if need be. A few brave souls got in those trucks to help the drivers.
The remainder of his men were given the task of guarding their piece of the park. At the very least he needed some free space so his troopers could evacuate their tanks and jump in the water. Some of the civilians were already knee-deep at the water's edge.
It didn’t take long to get back into the town. A few humans ran for their lives, always to the south. In just a couple blocks they found the zombies. Not every zombie had waited to see what was inside the juicy homes—they kept moving after the prey they saw on foot.
“Don’t waste ammo. Fire only if the zombies are a threat. Alpha-1 and -2 run over what you can.”
Given their license to kill, the tank drivers made every effort to hit the zombies in the streets. It resulted in horrific smears on the pavement, which he dutifully avoided, but it had to be done. Chloe, sitting in the passenger seat next to him, made a fake retching sound.
“It’s just awful,” she said to herself.
“This whole thing is awful.” He looked over to her while he drove. “I’ll never be able to thank you for what you did to help the defenses here. Your spears kept us in the game for almost twelve full hours through the dead of night. Probably saved a lot of lives in the evacuation, too. Can you imagine all this happening in the dark?”
“No problem, sir. I heard how you used car headlights up there. That saved lives, too,” she insisted. “My dad was Army. Only a Colonel, mind you, but I guess I felt if I could do right by a general, I could do right by him.”
He looked back at the road. The two tanks were aggressively running down zombies, though the road was thick with them as they progressed into the main part of town. “I guarantee you he would be proud of you.”
“Yeah, I guess. We’re not going to make it, are we?”
“Here? I’m not planning on getting us killed—”
“No. I mean anywhere. These zombies are...endless.”
“If we can get somewhere with high walls, and with no crazy bitch administrator running it, we might have a chance.”
“I thought this place was it, you know? We had a good plan.”
“I did, too, Chloe. But there will be other opportunities. That’s what this little trip is all about. I want to put a stop to the person who brought us down. Then we’ll be on our way.”
“If you point me to the person who did all this, I’ll kill them myself,” she said coldly.
He turned to her again, just for a second. The tone of her voice made him consider whether her father would be proud of what she'd become, after all. His own revenge was one thing—a known quantity—but he had second thoughts about involving other people in his final quest. If he got this young woman killed while engaged in something that he didn’t really need to do…
I need to do this. For her, and for me.
Whatever else happened, he needed to stop Elsa. Chloe’s dad would agree. That woman had turned out to be a bigger threat to their personal safety than the zombies. She was one person. If he couldn’t stop the endless rain of zombies, he could at least remove that one threat so she couldn’t do this all again somewhere else.
He would be doing the world a great service, even if it cost Chloe her life. Or his own.
This has to happen.
3
John drove around a corner and saw the big bird had landed in one of the large empty lots of the neighborhood where he’d recently found Marty.
“What are the odds of that?” he asked rhetorically.
Chloe answered. “What’s that, sir?”
“Oh, there’s more going on than I can explain right now. This can’t be coincidence Elsa would come to this street. She once tried to kill a good friend of mine who lived nearby.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK. She’s alive and safe. But this plane has to be here because she wanted to finish the job.”
The Osprey’s back ramp was down. The big props were locked in the hover position, and the rotors continued to spin, but it was unquestionably waiting—not taking off. A few Marines fanned out on the ramp, and they picked off zombies as they got close. He wondered if they knew what was trickling down through the town to the north of them.
“Hold here!” John shouted into his radio. He didn’t know how to contact the Marines. He was outside his own chain of command at the moment.
“I’ll flag them down, sir.”
Before he could say anything, she hopped out of the armored truck and ran toward the Osprey with her arms up. Twice on the march in she had to use her spear to put down zombies. One was a huge man dressed as a firefighter. Her first strike was ineffective, but she kept her cool and got in a second killing strike before it could harm her.
“Your dad truly would be proud of you,” he said to the windshield.
In sixty seconds she’d established contact, and waved his group in.
“Chloe, I’m going to make a special medal for you,” he said when he ran up the ramp to meet her. He saluted the Marines.
They didn’t salute him.
You're dressed like a bum!
He’d forgotten what he must look like. His white T-shirt in no way designated him as a leader. Since he’d been pulled out of the ditch, he’d gotten his white shirt completely filthy with mud, sweat, and blood—some of it his own, he was sorry to admit, from where he injured himself on that fall. He’d have to have that looked at if he lived long enough.
“I’m Major General John Jasper,” he shouted in the man's ear. “Though I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not really with the U.S. Army anymore.”
The Marines gave no ground.
“It’s true. We follow this man because he kept us alive. You had to have seen the zombies on our north wall when you came in? He helped us hold them out there overnight. Now we’re trying to evac the town.”
John willed her to ask about Elsa, but she didn’t bring it up.
“Isn’t that why you’re here,” John added.
One of the Marines made a decision to talk. He pulled them off the ramp, away from the noisy rotors. The two others kept watch from the ramp, though now they had help from two tanks and four Humvees. If they relaxed, John couldn’t tell.
“We report to Lt. Col. Brandyweis, U.S.M.C. We are based here in Cairo, under a Major General Jasper.” He looked at him like he was a bum. “But we’re here to collect a person of interest. Our rescue mission is for her.”
“You mean Elsa Cantwell?”
“No, sir. I’m under orders, sir, so I won’t give out her name.” The Marine was annoyed. John had known enough of them to know when they felt they’d let themselves down. He managed to coax a critical piece of information from him, and he knew it.
“Son, this is important. Elsa Cantwell is responsible for blowing this town to Hell. I’m going to arrest her. If you know where she is, you’d be the hero, here.”
Though it was a reasonable request, the Marine didn’t bite.
He tried a different line of questioning.
“We’re also looking for a Ms. Marty Peters. She was reported living on this street.”
The Marine looked at him stiffly, evidently uncomfortable dealing with a man who could be his boss, but who looked like a store clerk. John saw a glint of recognition in his eyes.
He nodded, then walked away with Chloe in tow.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but they came for a woman who lives on this street. In fact, I saw her come out of that house, right over there.”
He guided her as he walked.
Three Marines and his own men watched as he approached the house.
The crack of gunfire from one of
the Marines reminded him his time was running out.
Danger close.
Zombies were everywhere on the streets to the north.
Chapter 17: Debbie's Double Barrel
“You aren’t going to believe this, but you got a call on my secure phone.” Colonel Brandyweis handed him a smartphone.
“Who is it?” Liam asked with awe.
“They won’t say. But they know everything about where we are, who I am, and who you are. They were very persuasive.” He laughed.
“Here, you’ll need this.” He handed Liam a headset that was plugged into his phone. “So you can hear her over the prop noise.”
They were talking loudly inside the Osprey, but he agreed that having headphones and a mic would make a phone call much more practical. And private.
The phone displayed “unknown caller” on the screen.
“Uh, hello?”
“Hello, Liam. Thanks for taking my call.”
“I didn’t have much choice. Who is this?” The voice was feminine but filtered to hide her identity. It was the same distorted voice he'd heard days earlier in the quarry.
“I’m a friend. Listen. I know where you’re going. You have to get them to turn around. You can’t go to...that town. It's overrun.”
He felt it in the pit of his stomach. The Polar Bears had hinted that Cairo was in imminent danger, but he wouldn’t believe it until he saw it. It felt childish to say it that way, but he certainly wasn’t going to turn around because some voice on the phone asked him not to.
“I can tell you’re thinking if I’m telling the truth. I assure you, I’m watching a video feed of more zombies than I can count going over the line of water north of town. The zombies are breaking through.”
“Why are you calling me? What difference would it make if I went there? If the zombies have the town, we’ll just go somewhere else. I have to get my Grandma.”
“And it has nothing to do with your girlfriend?”
“How do you know about her? Who the hell is this?” His inner child came out for some odd reason. “I’ll hang up this phone if you don’t tell me!”
“I...I can’t tell you. This call is secure, or so I’m told, but I can’t risk my whole operation...”
“Well, we’re in trouble then. I’m not listening to you just because you said so.”
The line was silent for a long time. So long that he had to ask if anyone was still there.
He was answered by a series of clicks, then the sound of a ringing phone on the other end.
A woman answered.
“Who is this?” was the first thing out of her mouth. Liam recognized the voice immediately.
“Mom?”
“Liam? Is it you?”
“Yeah, Mom. It’s me. How did you call me? I’m not even—”
“Call you? No, you called me.”
“Mom, I knew it was you. You don’t have to pretend.”
Lana seemed to recover her wits. Her voice also gathered strength and speed.
“Liam, where are you? I’ve been worried sick since you’ve left. I've, uh, gone looking for you. I'm parked outside H's house, but it's on fire. Do you know about this?”
He began to doubt it was his mom earlier. She was very convincing that she was as surprised as he was at their fortuitous connection.
“I ran from downtown to Forest Park, but I didn’t find Victoria. I, um, saw that fire, too. Not long ago. I’m on a plane heading back to where I left Grandma. I think Victoria is there.”
He didn’t want to give away where he was going. The conspiracy-minded Polar Bears had at least done that for him.
“No! You can’t go there. It’s falling apart down there.”
“That’s what she said. Before you came on the line. I’m going down there, Mom. Don’t try to stop me. I have to know if they're OK. After that...I don’t care.”
“Dammit, Liam, why do you keep running away from me? Give me some time, maybe I can get some help to you.”
“If it's as bad as you say, I can’t wait. We're already on our way. I’m in good hands.”
“Liam please—” his mom pleaded. She was cut off, mid-sentence.
“Hi Liam, this is Grandma Rose.”
He sat in stunned silence.
“Are you there?”
Lana heard her mother-in-law. “Rose. What are you doing?” She sounded more incredulous than happy to hear her.
“Lana, if I remained silent while my own grandson threw his life away you would never forgive me.”
“Yes, but—”
“Don’t worry about that. So they’ll know where I am.”
“Grandma. Is it really you? What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you. You have to get away from Cairo. A very bad woman made sure every zombie from Chicago and Indianapolis found their way to that tiny town—and they are there at this moment. There’ll be hell to pay.”
“I...I know. But Grandma Marty is there. My girlfriend is there.”
“Liam, listen to your Grandma. Marty wouldn’t want you to risk your life for her.”
“Victoria wouldn’t either. We all say that to protect each other from harm. That’s why I have to get them.”
“Liam, hang on a second,” Rose requested. A series of clicks and chirps took over the line.
After a few moments, he called out, “Hello?”
No response.
“Hello?” he called louder, as if that would help.
Another click and he heard his mom’s voice at the very end of a word like she’d been talking on another line.
Rose spoke to him. “Liam, listen. This is very important. I have an agent in Cairo that has eyes on Marty. She’s going to get out. Do you hear me? She's going to get out. You don’t have to go there. Your mother and I agree on this. We need you to stay clear.”
“What about Victoria? The Marines said she has a chip in her. A tracking chip. She’s down there. I’m not going to leave her to die.”
Lana responded. “Liam, I love Victoria. She can take care of herself. I need to protect you from going into a horde of zombies. You know that, right? It’s already too late.”
“I know that, Mom. But I’m going. Call me in a few hours and I’ll tell you if I survived.”
He hung up the phone. The inner child screamed for him to do it, but he mostly did it because he didn’t want to be talked out of it. There would never be enough of a threat to get him to avoid rescuing the girl he loved.
It was nice to know Grandma would be safe.
2
The Osprey came in over the town low enough he could see the disaster unfolding everywhere on the ditch line. The dead had already crossed using the bodies of those stacked in the water as they were cut down by the defenders. When he last saw the ditch, he could imagine such a thing happening, but it seemed beyond the realm of possibility. Now, having seen it done, it looked pretty simple.
The plane swung wide around the town, looped up north over the interstate, then made another tight loop over the center of town, giving he and Brandyweis time to study the situation.
“The buildings look intact. The zombies are just now getting over that levee.” He pointed down to the defenders of the town. A line of citizens stood at the top of the big levee, and jousted with the advanced line of zombies as they came up the hill. But there were huge gaps in the defensive line, and some of the zombies were already on the backside of the levee.
“Where's your Grandma’s house?”
Liam looked down like he was looking at a map. He identified the central building he and Victoria had visited on the day he woke up and walked the few blocks back to where he thought he remembered the house. He pointed to a large field.
“I think if you land there I can walk you in. It’s on that street; I’m pretty sure.” Being above the trees made it difficult to see all the homes nestled under the leaves, but it was his best guess.
Brandyweis ordered the pilot to fly the Osprey south over the Missouri bridge,
declaring he wanted to sweep the southern tip of the peninsula. A couple of Abrams tanks sat on a parking lot near the meeting point of the two rivers. Lots of people and a few other vehicles were close by, but he didn’t see any zombies.
"Looks like they've got an evacuation plan. That's good," Brandyweis said. “Take your seat. We’ll touchdown where you said. We know what we're dealing with. We have to be quick.”
Liam nodded. He was grateful the man had trusted him enough to travel all this way on the word of a kid. That’s what he felt, anyway. Somehow he was lucky enough to get rescued by Marines, then airlifted by Marines, all to rescue his family. Not many people would have the same backup.
As soon as he felt the plane touch down, he was out of his seat. Brandyweis beat him to the back door. By the time it was down, they were both on the run.
“It’s there. That’s it!”
The yard where he playfully rolled with Victoria was just ahead. The yard, however, had been destroyed. He’d spent enough time with tanks to recognize the destruction one of them could do to the landscape. It had ripped through the backyard—flattening several of the small trees he’d searched for spears—and turned so it could go into the next yard and cross the street. Another swath of destruction began a few houses down, where it went back into the grass.
They ran up to the walkway, but the Marine halted him.
“Liam, we don’t know what’s inside. Let me make sure it’s clear before you go in? OK?”
He immediately felt naked. He was unarmed.
“Can I have a weapon?”
He handed him a big knife. “This is all I have, besides Mike-Sixteen here.” He nodded down to his rifle.
“Thanks.” It wasn't a shiny rifle, but at least it wouldn't cost as much when he inevitably lost it.
When they reached the door, Brandyweis turned to him. “For what it’s worth, I respect what you’re doing. Saving your Grandma is very noble.”
“I’m here for two people,” he answered. He was proud the military man thought so highly of him, but he’d had plenty of time to think things through on the plane. His mom and Grandma Rose both warned him against showing up here, though they were wrong—the town hadn’t yet fallen. But they were right, he was ashamed to admit, that it wasn’t really a smart play to come all this way for Grandma. Not if they knew she was safe already. Instead, his real reason for risking his life was Victoria. And, if he knew Victoria at all, the reason she was back in Cairo without him had to be because she was here for Grandma, as well.
Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 Page 26