Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  She ducked back inside and thought about the situation briefly. Coming to a decision she waved to Caitlyn to follow her out onto the porch. She pointed out the ripped portion of the screen. Caitlyn and her mom got into positions on either side of the gash and waited for the Zombie to come through. The Zombie’s screeches rising to the pitch of a banshee at the sight of the two humans standing there.

  Caitlyn pointed behind Kelly who turned her attention away from the hole in the screen to see what the Zombie was up to. The stupid thing was stuck on the other side of the screen. It was trying to come straight at them instead of running around to come in through the ripped section. With an exasperated sigh Kelly walked over to where the middle aged, thin as a rail, sore covered monster was pressing it’s face hard to the screen and gnashing its teeth. It was screeching like a giant parrot repeating what it’d heard on a scary noise of Halloween soundtrack. It kept trying to press its face through the screen instead of running around and coming in through the gigantic rip on the other side of the patio.

  Kelly took a couple of practice swings then buried her hatchet in the Zombie’s face right through the screen. It shrieked and blindly scrambled to get through the screen at her. A final burst of energy and it ripped the screen enough for its body to come tumbling through at Kelly’s feet. Kelly jumped back as it swiped out at her. Caitlyn stepped in and slammed the heavy ax into the upper back of the Zombie. Kelly stepped back in and chopped at the Zombies skull before it had a chance to get moving again. They jumped back out of reach as the monster squirmed around in its final death throes.

  “Nice job guys.” Kyler said from behind them. He was leaning against the doorframe with his pistol in his hand. He’d been standing there covering them the whole time.

  Kelly started to respond when an answering screech drifted to them on the wind.

  “Oh, good lord.” Kelly fumed. She was tired. They were all tired. They should be going to sleep now. That damn screeching noise mean they were going to be up and battling to stay alive for who knew how long.

  “Hey babe.” Randy said to her when she walked in. He was sitting in one of the kitchen chairs. She’d seen him behind her when she was fighting. He’d been ready to jump in if needed. He hadn’t taken his pistol out as he’d been scared that he was still too disoriented to shoot it without risking hitting one of them. Exactly what good he could’ve done was up for debate, but she appreciated him being there anyway. He looked like he was holding onto the chair to keep from falling off it. She walked over and kissed him.

  “We’re a sorry looking excuse for a group of hardcore survivors.” Kelly announced earning a few chuckles.

  Kyler slid the slider shut and pulled the verticals closed. He pulled a chair over so he could sit and watch to see if any more zombies showed up. Based on the screeches they’d heard it was just a matter of time. Kyler caught Kelly looking over at him.

  “Nothing yet. It’s still nighttime so maybe they won’t show up for a while. They’ll be here by morning though. Hopefully not too many of them.” He said. They all nodded thoughtfully at the assessment. It was pretty much what each of them had been thinking.

  “Then let’s get the hell out of here. Let’s load up the kids and the supplies in the car and get headed north again. We needed to get moving soon anyway.” Kelly said.

  “What about Kyler and dad resting up and getting better first?” Caitlyn asked.

  “They can sit in the back with the kids and rest up. It’s not like we’re getting a ton of rest and relaxation here.” Kelly answered. She left it unsaid that for all they knew a herd was already on the way. There was no way they weren’t going to get some more unwanted visitors after all the noise the Zombie currently dead on the back porch had made.

  “I’ll get the kids and everybody ready. You grab the car and drive it over here. We’ll be ready to be in it in less than five minutes. Let’s move.” Randy ordered the group. It would’ve been more impressive if he hadn’t almost fallen over when he stood up to get everyone moving. Kelly pushed Randy back down in his chair and told Kyler to get Myriah to get the kids and all their gear and wait by the front door with Randy. They needed to be ready to jump in and go when she pulled up with the car.

  Caitlyn and Kelly grabbed their gear and set it by the front door then went to get the car. It was in the garage of the house they’d initially been staying at. They had to go through the front door and into the garage to get to the car. Caitlyn noticed the damage in the bedroom as they went by and stuck her head in for a better look. There was blood and dead Zombies scattered all over the demolished room. Her mom and dad were pretty bad ass. She smiled to herself at that thought knowing she’d never tell them that. Still grinning she hurried out to catch up with her mom before her mom noticed she was missing.

  Caitlyn almost got knocked over by her mom rushing down the hall past her in the other direction. Caitlyn immediately and energetically followed the first rule of the apocalypse. When you see someone running you join them and do your best to beat them. It turned out Kelly had remembered they’d pulled Kyler out of his room in a hurry leaving behind some of his gear. She pulled the ammunition and extra weapons out of the box lying on the floor and shoved everything she could find into her pockets. Caitlyn helped since Kyler owned way too many knives. She was sure he’d be happy to get them back. He probably felt naked without them.

  That chore set them back a few minutes so now Kelly really rushed to get to the garage and get the car started. Once that was done, they hoisted up the garage door and backed out to drive the short distance to the other house. When they pulled up in front of the house Kelly spotted a Zombie running towards them from the entrance to the subdivision. She saw Randy and the kids coming out of the house and making their way towards the car. She handed Caitlyn the nine-millimeter she’d pulled out of the other house.

  “Cover them. I’ll keep the car running. Shoot that one coming at us first.” She told Caitlyn. She was looking around wildly hoping there weren’t any more Zombies coming that she couldn’t see.

  Caitlyn got out and sighted in on the Zombie running towards them. She shot it in the chest. It may not kill it instantly, but it should put it on the ground and out of the fight for long enough for them to drive out of there. If she’d tried shooting it in the head it’d probably have just been a waste of ammunition. She’d had it drilled in her head that head shots on moving targets were hard. She’d have lowered her aim after missing and the end result would’ve been the same. First target down she spun in a circle looking to acquire more targets.

  Loud screeching erupted from several directions after she’d pulled the trigger. She waved for her dad to hurry up. For the first time she realized how tightly they were going to be packed into the economy sized sedan. Not that being packed tightly into a car was something any of them were going to consider a major hardship compared to their daily lives. Seeing all the gear and supplies they were carrying she wished she’d thought of opening the trunk. She couldn’t afford to take her eyes off her surroundings right now to ask her mom to pop the trunk though. She continued revolving in a circle while the rest of the family piled into the backseat of what she was now thinking of as the clown car.

  Seeing the last person get in she dropped into the passenger seat and slammed her door shut. Looking into the back seat revealed how seriously crammed together everyone was between their gear, kids, weapons and all the other junk they had with them. She was extremely grateful to be riding shotgun. Especially when Zombies started emerging from in between all the houses on the left side of the street and sprinting for the car. There must’ve really been a decent sized herd nearby. There was at least a hundred Zombies cutting through the yards to come at them. More than enough to have overwhelmed their defenses back in the house if they hadn’t left when they had.

  Feeling beyond thankful that they’d dodged that bullet by leaving when they did Kelly accelerated a little faster to get them past the smiling goopher sign at the front
of the subdivision. She slowed down then to try and figure out which way to turn before just randomly turning in the direction away from where all the Zombies had come from. When in doubt drive away from the large group of Zombies were words she could live by. She’d have that phrase translated into Latin and written across her back in tattoo form if they made it out of there ok.

  From the backseat Randy did his Braveheart impersonation yelling ‘Freedom!’ Kelly smiled thinking that just maybe everything might end up working out after all.

  Chapter 18: Field Promotion

  Tom got up from the computer where he’d been entering inventory data for the last few hours. He hated that he had to go back to the same computer every day to enter the data. It all seemed so stone aged to him. He kept telling himself as soon as he had some time, he was going to bring a couple of switches online and build out some shared drives or something. That way he could at least access his files from any floor on the building. It’d also be nice to have a backup in case something went wrong.

  He hopped over the desk being used to block off the stairwell on this side of the building. This was the side that wasn’t welded shut so demanded extra precautions. They had installed bars and a gigantic metal gate with a combination lock holding it closed. A guard stood in the stairwell all day every day. In any Zombie movie ever, this is the place where the gate would get left open and the Zombies would come pouring in. The boss refused to let them die from a cheap horror movie cliché.

  Tom didn’t have a military background strictly speaking. He’d been able to fake it well enough to avoid becoming a looter for the New American forces. He’d been a civilian contractor connected to the military for most of his adult life. He’d worked in IT and logistics for most of that time. He’d never become a manager because he thought most people were stupid and couldn’t stand the thought of being responsible for them. He nodded at the guard as he headed up the stairs to the command levels. He needed to report in, and he wanted to see if they were cool with him messing with the network switches in the closets. He really wanted to get everything talking again.

  He walked into a room featuring way more frantic activity than normal. A couple of men were standing around the communications station. The officer manning the station had a radio as well as a few landlines run to various locations inside and outside of the hotel. Tom stood off to the side waiting to see if someone was going to tell him what was going on. He didn’t want to get in the way of whatever it is they were trying to handle. He was pretty sure the status of how many chairs and computers had been put in storage wasn’t a huge concern to anyone in the room at the moment. Now that he thought about it, he wondered exactly why he’d been asked to put all that information into the computer anyway.

  “Tom, you have a second?” The communications officer yelled the question across the room. Tom walked quickly over to see what the officer wanted.

  “Yes sir?” Tom asked once he was standing in front of the officers station.

  “Can you go get Commander Krantz and escort him here. He should be in his room. The phone isn’t working in there when I try calling it. Double time it if you don’t mind. Shit’s kind of hitting the fan.” The officer said before picking up the headset on his desk and pushing it back over his ears.

  “What do I tell him?” Tom asked. He’d just seen two soldiers carrying a crate of missiles to the door leading up to the roof. Not something you want to see in the middle of an apocalypse where you’ve also picked a fight with a well-armed adversary in possession of an aircraft carrier.

  “Tell him we have reports Roberts is dead. Orders came in that Commander Krantz is in charge now.” The officer said after pausing for a second to consider if he should tell Tom or not. Old habits die hard. The officer had been in the military for long enough before the apocalypse to have the standard distrust all military men had for civilian contractors. Tom’s general harmlessness was pretty evident though.

  Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any more information than that Tom turned and ran back down the stairs he’d just come up. He went one floor down before entering the hallway designated as officers’ quarters. Each of the rooms along the hallway had been labeled with the name and rank of the person who currently resided there. They had way more rooms than they had people so far, so all of the officers got an upgraded room with a window for now. The room at the end of the hallway had the name Krantz scrolled on a piece of paper pinned to the wall. Sam started knocking on the door before he’d even caught his breath.

  The door opened so fast Tom wondered if he’d caught the commander on the way to the head or something. He hadn’t even had the opportunity to catch his breath yet. He found himself in the awkward position of struggling to draw a breath to give this very important man some very important news.

  “Take your time. Unless we’re fixing to be killed. Then just blink twice so I can get the hell out of here.” Krantz said while fighting back a yawn. He waited patiently for the nerdy looking guy he recognized as the data entry man they’d walked past earlier to catch his breath.

  “Yes sir. You need to get to the comms room sir. Commander Roberts may be dead.” Tom finally got the information out. He saw the stoic face of the man in front of him crumble in disbelief for a second before Krantz regained control and his expression went stoic again.

  “Let me grab the rest of my gear. Wait here.” Krantz said letting the door to his room swing shut as he went to grab his bag and the rest of his weapons. He’d been holding a revolver in his hand the entire conversation with Tom that he now shoved in a shoulder holster. He’d been sound asleep when Tom knocked on the door. He remembered thinking it better be important since he’d just fallen asleep. After living rough in the field for months the bed had been heaven. The clean sheets and gentle breeze from the ceiling fan like something out of a dream.

  Looking longingly at the thick white comforter and oversized pillows he grabbed his bag and headed for the door to the room. He doubted he’d be coming back any time soon. Hearing that Roberts had died had shaken him to his core. He definitely hadn’t been expecting to hear that. Roberts had been a bigger than life super soldier with scary strategic and tactical skills. If he could be taken off the board then Krantz didn’t like his own chances.

  He walked quickly behind the man who’d been sent to collect him. In the comms room everyone came to attention when he walked in the room. It was a far cry from the initial greeting he’d gotten. The men falling back on their familiar military traditions in the face of this new threat. The Seabee in charge of the base was in the room next to the officer handling the communication station.

  “At ease.” Krantz announced walking towards the communications officer. Tom tagged along behind him. Once he was at the communication officers desk, he asked the man for a status.

  “Yes sir. We received a radio call in code asking if you were here. A secure call followed that. Commander Roberts and the other helicopters in his raiders group were reportedly shot down by a group of harriers. The assumption is the harriers came from the forces to the north. This is the first time we’ve heard of them striking us unprovoked sir. They told us to relay to you that you are now in tactical command of all New American forces. You’re to hold South Carolina and continue to prep to take North Carolina.” The officer glanced down at his notepad before continuing. “You’re to get a handle on the situation then contact the Senator in three days to give him a report and get further orders.”

  Krantz thanked the man and walked out of the comms room. He ignored the looks he was getting from everyone. This was way more responsibility than he’d expected to have thrust on him. He’d been ok with being in charge of the forces in South Carolina since he still had Roberts feeding him his orders. He wasn’t sure if he was ok with being in charge of everything. The Senator was a man who expected results.

  Krantz latched onto that thought. Results he could do. If the Senator wanted him to hold South Carolina he could do that. If he wanted him to ta
ke North Carolina he could do that too. As long as he had someone to feed him objectives, he felt like he’d be fine. He just didn’t want to be the one deciding they should get a bunch of people killed by invading other states. He recognized that it was a very thin moral shield he was throwing up to try and justify his actions. He’d just have to keep telling himself the crap the Senator spouted out about building a New America out of the ashes of the old. Maybe he could make himself believe it wasn’t just a naked grab for power.

  He walked out of the comms room and up the stairs to the roof. On the roof he headed for the low concrete wall that fenced in the area. He walked until he was looking down at the throngs of infected mobbing the streets below. Their numbers had thinned some since they’d first landed on the roof. The volume of the screeching was much lower as well. He guessed they’d been super loud before because of all the activity on the roof. Between the helicopter delivering a giant ladder and the Black Hawk hovering above the flesh loving freaks below must’ve been about to lose their minds.