Zombie Uprising Series (Book 3): The Citadel

by Robbins, M. A.

Jen leaned against the wall, the vibrations helping her keep track of the zombies' tempo. It seemed to her it had slowed a bit.

  She stood, and Mark and Zeke looked at her, Mark with his trademark one eyebrow raised, and Zeke with his smirk and curious eyes.

  Jen crept to the window and peeked through the blinds. A number of the zombies had made it outside, where some continued to run as if they chased something, and others had slowed and wandered.

  She went back to the table. "It's slowing," she whispered. "It reminds me of when you disturb a wasp's nest. They'll go batshit for a while, then calm down."

  She leaned against the wall. The vibrations had died to where she could make out individual footsteps. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Another one dropped out. And another.

  Five minutes later, one set of footsteps was all that remained.

  "It's pretty much done," she whispered.

  Mark kept his voice low. "That's all well and good, but how many are just standing around in the hallway, ready to sound the alarm?"

  Zeke stood. "With no window on the door, there's only one way to tell."

  Jen snuck to the window and scanned the road and parking lot. Damn. "All the ones that were out here a while ago are gone."

  Mark joined her. "If your analogy of the wasp's nest is right, then they're all back in here." He sighed. "This building won't work. Too many."

  Jen raised the blinds and pointed across the road to a smaller one-story building. "How about that?"

  "Easier to clear and control," Mark said.

  Zeke opened the window and hopped onto the grass beneath it. He crouched, his hand on the katana's handle, and scanned the area. "All clear."

  Jen crawled through the window and walked with him to the smaller building's door. A plaque next to it read "Auxiliary Supply."

  She turned the knob and pulled the door open, rearing the axe over her shoulder.

  Mark rushed in and shined his flashlight beam to the left, while Zeke pointed his to the right.

  Boxes and office furniture lined the walls. "Guess this is their equivalent to a junk drawer," Jen said. She walked past Zeke and pointed her beam at a closed wooden door painted institutional green.

  "Might as well start here." She turned the knob and cracked the door open, shining the light through the slit opening.

  "More damn furniture." The beam caught a desk with a cushy faux leather chair behind it. Nothing moved, so she pushed the door wider and played the beam over the room. A couple of desks, computers, and phones gathered dust, while stacks of paper flowed from inboxes and a sorry-looking coffee maker sat on a counter next to a sink. "That's got to be one of the dreariest things I've ever seen," Jen said.

  Zeke pushed past her. "I swore I'd never have a nine-to-five desk job. Now you know why."

  Mark sat in the plushy chair, leaned back, and rested his feet on the desk. "I don't know. Doesn't feel too bad to me."

  Jen and Zeke laughed. Nice to see Mark let his hair down for once.

  A bump came from the far wall. All the light beams shined on it. Nothing but a short bookcase.

  The bump sounded again. "Guess we have a wasp's nest here, too," Mark said.

  "Can't be as many," Zeke said. "This place wouldn't hold them."

  Jen had her ear pressed to the wall. "More than one. They're in the next room."

  She crept into the hallway and to the next door down. The damn things bumped against the door, rattling it in its frame.

  Mark appeared next to her. "If we're quiet, they shouldn't get too stirred up."

  Jen studied the furniture crowding the hallway. "I've got a better idea. Help me out."

  She grabbed a chair and placed it next to another just outside the door where the zombies stumbled around. "Keep the path wide at this end, then make it more narrow further down the corridor."

  Mark placed a desk next to the chair. He smiled. "Brilliant."

  Zeke pitched in, and soon Jen stood back and studied their work. The piles of furniture against the wall were stacked five feet high and created a funnel with the wide end next to the door and the narrow end twenty feet down the hall. "I think we're ready," Jen said.

  She pulled her axe from her belt and approached the door. She nodded at Zeke and Mark at the other end of the funnel. "Get ready. I'll be running my ass off."

  Mark stood on one side of the hallway with his mace and Zeke took the other, his katana at the ready. Jen grasped the doorknob. Something bumped it and she pulled the door open.

  A zombie in a lab coat with a tie glared at her, his yellow eyes piercing. She caught a glance of multiple pairs of yellow eyes in the darkness of the room before she sprinted down the hall.

  The lab coat zombie dashed after her. He nearly grabbed the back of her shirt just as she reached Zeke and Mark. "Duck," Mark yelled.

  Jen dove for the floor behind Mark, who swung his mace upward and connected with the zombie's jaw, shattering it. It stumbled, giving Zeke enough time to cleanly behead it.

  The undead poured out of the room and raced for the humans, but jammed up at the funnel's end. With only room for one at a time, they couldn't overwhelm their prey.

  Jen, Mark, and Zeke got into a rhythm. Jen would crack a skull open with her axe, then drag it forward as Mark caved in another's head. As it fell, Zeke stepped in and separated the next zombie from its head. When the last one stumbled forward, Zeke raised his katana. "Me and Betty have this one." He waited until the zombie was within range and sliced, but only got the blade halfway through its neck. It stumbled back, its head tilted to the side.

  Zeke raised his sword and paused. "What the hell?"

  The blade had snapped in half. "Betty!"

  The zombie lunged for him, and Mark pulled him back. "Keep your head in the game."

  Jen planted her blade in the zombie's scalp and it dropped to the floor with a thud. "Damn, Zeke. You've got to pay attention."

  "Looked like about fifty of them," Mark said.

  Zeke picked up the broken-off blade and held it and the katana up. "I knew it wouldn't last." He looked at Jen. "It wasn't a real katana, you know."

  No shit. Jen put her hand up. "Listen."

  Mark tilted his head, then smiled. "Nothing."

  "Let's check this place out." Jen stepped over a body and strode down the hall.

  Twenty minutes later they had cleared the building, finding only one more zombie, a janitor stuck in his closet.

  "I think the break room's a good place to set up," Mark said. "Two doors, easily defensible, plus it has water and food."

  Jen nodded. "We should get those backpacks in here and plan our next move."

  "You get those," Mark said. "I'm going to check all the phones."

  Ten minutes later Mark lumbered into the break room. "Any luck?" Zeke asked.

  Mark collapsed in a chair. "No, I checked every damn phone." He looked at a wall phone situated next to a silent refrigerator. "Except that one."

  Jen picked it up and shook her head. "Sorry."

  Zeke pushed past her and grabbed the refrigerator handle. "Wonder what's in here?"

  Jen put a hand across his chest. "Don't you dare. Whatever's in there is guaranteed to knock us over with its stench."

  Mark dumped one of the backpacks onto a table. He picked up two walkie-talkies. "Jen, Zeke."

  They walked over and he tossed one to each of them. "Why do we need these?" Zeke asked. "I thought we were going to stick together."

  Mark emptied the other backpack and fished another radio out of the pile. "You never know if we'll get separated." He turned his radio on and adjusted the channel until voices came from the speaker. "Besides, we can listen in on Butler."

  "Hotel One to Command One. No sign of targets in sector twelve."

  Butler's voice came over the airwaves, the noise of a helicopter's interior in the background. "Roger, Hotel One. Proceed to sector twenty-one."

  "Roger."

  "Command One to all units. This mission will continue unti
l the targets are located and neutralized. If this has not been done by nightfall, we'll pick right back up in the morning."

  A series of "Rogers" followed.

  "Hotel Four to Command One. Request permission to deviate and recon for Zulus in the west."

  "Negative, Hotel Four. You have your orders."

  Zeke found a bag of chips in the cupboard, tore it open, and stuffed a few in his mouth.

  Mark turned off the radio. "Butler's taking a risk not sending out his recon. If a huge horde from Seattle or Portland heads this way, he may not have much warning."

  "Wish I had a map with the sectors identified," Jen said. "Then I'd know where his men were." She kicked the wall. "But it wouldn't matter. How can we lure him in without his entire army coming along?"

  "Mmff-crir." Bits of potato chips fell out of Zeke's mouth.

  "Wait," Jen said. "I think the great Oracle is about to grace us with his wisdom."

  Zeke swallowed, making exaggerated expressions. "I said, you just need to have something he wants and doesn't want to lose."

  "What the hell would that be?" Mark asked. "He wants us, but he'd be just as happy if we killed ourselves."

  Jen snapped her fingers. "You're a genius, Zeke. I know exactly what he'd want."

  "I know I'm going to regret asking this," Mark said, "but what would that be?"

  "Dr. Morgan. We're going to kidnap him tonight."

  25

  Clouds slid in front of the quarter moon as Jen parked the black minivan between the last two houses at the end of the road.

  "This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard," Mark said. "Break into the base we just escaped from."

  "That's why it's perfect," Jen said. "Who would expect someone to be dumb enough to try it?"

  Zeke slid the side door open and jumped out. "I love using my ninja skills. This'll be a blast."

  Mark sighed and opened his door. "If they make me a zombie, I'm going to eat your face off."

  "Deal," Jen said.

  Zeke was harder to spot in the shadows than normal. In addition to his black ninja costume, Mark had applied some camo face paint around Zeke's eyes that he'd found in one of the packs.

  Jen raised a pair of binoculars and scanned the wall. Two guards stood on the other side of the fence. Lights on the outside of the wall lit up the area twenty yards out from the fence.

  She handed the binoculars to Mark. "Just as I'd hoped." She pointed to the gap. "Look there."

  Mark adjusted the focus, then gave a low whistle. "Butler's pulled all the combat engineers from finishing the wall. Bet he's got them out looking for us, too. But only two guards? What if a horde attacks?"

  "Who knows what that crazy ass is thinking?" Jen said. "Maybe they're just there to raise the alarm. The fence could hold back a decent horde long enough for reinforcements." Jen stretched her arms and shook them out. "Either way, if we make a straight line to it from here, there's a narrow dark strip where we can get almost all the way to the wall."

  "And if we're caught out there in the open," Mark said, "we're screwed."

  Jen pulled the rifle off her shoulder. "Let's go. In and out."

  "What if he's not at his quarters?" Mark asked. "What if he's in Area 51?"

  Jen shrugged. "Then we think up a plan B." She crouched and crept onto the field, the dead grass crunching under her feet. Mark caught up with her and she glanced back to find Zeke, but he'd disappeared. Freaking ninja.

  Halfway across the field, Mark's arm shot out across her chest. "Get down," he whispered.

  Jen dropped prone on the ground and had her rifle to her shoulder. She scanned the field in front of her through the rifle's iron sights, but nothing moved.

  "Why are we lying here?" she whispered.

  "Listen," Mark said. "Ahead and to the right."

  Irregular footsteps crunching the grass came from that direction, and they headed their way. Zombie.

  She pulled her axe from her belt. "You got your mace?"

  "Yup," Mark whispered. "You ready to go?"

  "Always."

  "On three," Mark said. "One, two, three."

  Jen hopped to her feet and dashed into the shadows, staying low. If she ran into the zombie in the dark, it would be harder for it to bite her if it had to bend over to do it.

  A thud and an oof that reminded Jen of a football player making a tackle came from her right.

  "Go high," Mark said.

  A solid shadow stood in front of her. Jen wound her arm back and rushed it, swinging toward the top of the shadow as she passed.

  The axe bit into bone. After all the zombies she'd sent to hell, she could tell what she hit just by the feel of it.

  The zombie fell, taking her axe with it.

  "Mark," she said. "Where are you?"

  His voice came from beside her. "I ran into the damn thing. Thanks for taking it out."

  "No problem." She felt around on the ground until she found the zombie. She held her breath and fumbled for the axe handle, then yanked it out.

  Jen rose away from the dead creature and started breathing again. "Hope there aren't any more."

  She peered toward the wall opening. The two guards walked their post, making no indication they'd heard the scuffle. "Where the hell is Zeke?" she asked.

  Mark cleared his throat. "Hard to see shit out here. Better stay close."

  "Those guards are easy to see," Jen said. Something moved in the shadows a few yards from the guard shack. What the hell?

  The guards huddled and one lit a match, pressing it to the end of a cigarette in the other guard's mouth. A shadow broke away from the gloom just outside the light's reach and crept to the edge of the fence. The guards took no notice as one of them laughed while the other talked.

  Jen squinted. Is that…? "Zeke?"

  Mark groaned. "What the hell is he doing?"

  Jen jogged toward the gap, well out of the light's range. Ninja or no, Zeke was pushing it.

  Zeke picked something up from the ground and climbed halfway up the fence. Only several yards away, the guards were so involved in conversation, neither had noticed the ninja.

  When Zeke reached the top of the fence, he tossed an object toward the other end of the fence. The laughter stopped and both guards raised their weapons, pointing them into the gloom and away from Zeke.

  Jen slowed, and Mark caught up to her. "We're getting too close to the light," she said.

  Zeke jumped from the top of the fence and landed like a cat. The soldiers still had their backs to him. One of them said something to the other, who shook his head.

  Zeke removed the scabbard from his back as he approached the guards like a leopard ready to leap on its prey.

  "Come on. Come on," Mark said.

  One of the guards turned halfway toward Zeke.

  Shit. They see him and he'll be gunned down in the open. Jen lit out toward the light.

  Mark let out a soft "What the hell?"

  Jen yelled, "Hey, Asshole. I'm over here."

  Awash in the bright lights, she shielded her eyes with her hand.

  "Stop," one of the guards yelled. "Hands up."

  Jen slowed, but kept walking. Got to give Zeke time.

  A distinct click click of chambers being loaded made her heart skip a beat.

  "One more step and we shoot."

  26

  Jen threw her hands in the air and froze in place, her breath coming in shallow gasps.

  "Come forward slowly," a soldier said.

  Jen took a step, paused, then took another. She squinted. Best as she could see, the guards' attention was fully on her. Good.

  Ten yards away, a shadow raced toward the soldiers. One of them glanced over his shoulder and yelled. Zeke had the katana's handle in both hands and swung it, scabbard and all, slamming it into the first guard's temple. He collapsed. As the other soldier swung his gun around, Zeke slid in low, taking the guard out at his knees. The soldier fell, losing his grip on the rifle, and it clattered to the ground. Zeke sw
ept it up and pounded the fallen guard in the forehead with the butt.

  Jen broke into a run, and Mark raced past her seconds later. Zeke opened a gate in the fence and stood there as calm as could be, waiting for the others to catch up.

  Mark grabbed Zeke as he passed through the gate and dragged him into the shadows.

  Jen closed the gate behind her and joined them. "What the hell was that?"

  "Mark said we shouldn't kill any of the soldiers if we don't have to, right? But we had to get in here, didn't we? I just took care of it."

  "Dammit, Zeke," Mark said. "You can't—"

  "Wait," Jen said. "Why be surprised? This is who Zeke is, and he did get us in without having to seriously hurt anyone."

  Mark grunted. "Still, we need to work as a team."

  "Zeke," Jen said, "promise us you won't pull this bullshit again."

  Zeke sighed. "OK."

  "Good enough," Jen said. "We don't have time to sit here and talk about it. Let's go around the flight line."

  "I'm lead." Mark hustled off.

  Zeke tapped her on the shoulder. "I've got it back here."

  Catching up with Mark, Jen stayed a few feet behind him. Zeke didn't make a sound, and she had to glance back every couple of minutes to make sure he was still there.

  The flight line had minimal lights, which made it easy to skirt around without being seen.

  Mark stopped on the side of a dark maintenance hangar. "Should we get transportation now?" He pointed at a Humvee parked across the access road.

  "Perfect." Jen climbed into the driver's side. "And thanks to Butler, the keys are in it." Mark and Zeke hopped in. Jen started the engine and put the truck in gear, pulling out. "Anyone know where the chapel is?"

  "Take your second left," Zeke said.

  Mark glanced at him. "How do you know where it is?"

  "I've gone out every night and scouted the whole base."

  Mark looked at Jen and raised an eyebrow. Zeke never fails to surprise.

  Jen made the turn. "Go two more blocks and take a right," Zeke said. "Morgan's place will be two blocks past that on the left."

  The truck turned onto a street with single-family houses. All were dark, except one up on the left. A single guard stood watch out front. "Were there any guards before?" Jen asked.