Z14 (Zombie Rules)

by Achord, David

  Andie looked strong, at first. Then, when the brevity of the situation sunk in, her lower lip started quivering. I set my rifle down, walked over to her, and hugged her tightly. A sob escaped her lips.

  “I’m scared, Zach. I don’t know if I can.” She admitted weakly.

  “It’s okay.” I said quietly. “It’s okay.” We stood there a moment while Andie fought through the tears. She finally spoke.

  “I’m sorry.” She said meekly. I held her at arm’s length.

  “It’s okay, really.” I said. “So, a minor change of plans.” Andie looked up at me. “I’m going to take care of this, once and for all. If you get into trouble, or if you get a bad vibe and you don’t think I’m going to come back, you hightail it out of here and go back to the Allen’s.”

  “But what if you need help?” She asked.

  “Don’t worry about me. You take care of yourself.” I looked at my watch.

  “I better get going. Point me in the right direction.” Andie led me to the front of the barn and pointed to a bend in the road about a hundred yards away.

  “This is Rocky Glade Road. Just around that bend is Ward Road. The compound is at the dead end, about another hundred yards.” She bit her lip before continuing. “The Captain’s living quarters is on the second floor of the main house. There is a trailer behind the house that some of the guys share.” I nodded, remembering the drawing she made. As we peered out of a crack in the wall of the barn, the bus drove by. We quickly ducked out of sight.

  “Damn. There goes plan A.” I said and furrowed my brow in concentration.

  “Okay, I’ve got something else in mind.” We sat on the bare dirt floor of the barn and ate a snack of old protein bars while I went over my plan with Andie.

  “What time do they usually go to bed?” I asked.

  “Usually around twenty-two hundred hours. We rotate guard duty, but it’s become a little bit of an inside joke. Whoever has duty just sleeps in the guard shack.” Andie said.

  “Alright, I’m going to head out at midnight. It would be best if we tried to get a little shuteye, I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.” I said. Andie looked at me somberly, and retrieved a blanket out of her jeep.

  Chapter 37 – Payback

  I awoke with a start and quickly checked my watch. It showed a few minutes after midnight. I was shivering. It had grown even colder after the sun went down. I woke Andie, who was sleeping by my side.

  “It’s time.” I said simply. She nodded and stood while I stretched, worked the kinks out of my stiff muscles, and put on my Ghillie suit.

  Andie watched me, and then stood. “I’ll show you the way, it’s the least I can do.” I looked at her a moment, nodded and told her to put on the other Ghillie suit.

  Getting my things together, Andie led me down Ward Road, stepping behind a tree when we were within site of the house. I peered around the tree and checked it out.

  It was a full moon with a clear sky tonight, so I could see fairly well. The front entrance was gated and there was a guard shack made of wood with concertina wire wrapped around it. It wasn’t very impressive. I would have thought at the very least it would have been fortified with sandbags.

  The house was an old two-story structure with white wood siding and a wraparound front porch. I couldn’t see the trailer from my angle, but the lack of any backlighting indicated everyone was asleep.

  I saw no movement, heard no noise. Either I was going to pull this off, or I was walking into a trap.

  “Okay girl.” I whispered. “Sneak back to the barn and wait. If I don’t show up after all of the shooting stops, you get the hell out of here. Got it?” Andie looked at me in the dark. I saw her nod her head, but could not see any facial expression. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me, and then disappeared in the darkness.

  After she was safely away, I low crawled my way closer to the front entrance, keeping an eye on both the guard shack and the house. There was no movement. I made it to the gate undetected, crouched beside one of the support posts, and listened. Turning my head so my good ear was turned toward the little guard shack, I heard nothing. Now came the hard part.

  The gate was a typical galvanized steel cattle gate you could buy at the farmer’s co-op. There was concertina wire carelessly draped all over it, otherwise, there appeared to be nothing special about it. The rest of the perimeter was protected with a four strand barbed wire fence and concertina also strung across the top. I suspected there may be booby traps here and there. I carefully laid my rifle down and slowly, gently, caressed the entire gate with my hands. I found no wires, monofilament lines, or containers filled with burning surprises. The slide latch was located in the inside of the gate. It had a spot to put a padlock, but surprisingly, there wasn’t one. I reached through and slowly, painstakingly, slid the latch. The soft scraping noise seemed to scream out, and I was certain at any moment I was going to be discovered. The resistance of the latch suddenly lessened. I had it open. I opened the gate a fraction and again checked for any tripwires. There were none. Grabbing my knapsack, I eased through.

  I made a quick peek through the small slit in the front of the shack I assumed was supposed to be a firing port. All I could see was a dark blob of a figure inside. I took a longer peek this time and watched for a few seconds. I could hear deep breathing through the slit, but the person did not move. I worked my way around and located the entry door in the back. I tried the knob carefully, found it unlocked, and opened the door. The heady odor of marijuana immediately assaulted my nostrils. No wonder he never knew of my presence, he was stoned senseless. His back was to me, his feet were propped up, and he had a couple of blankets wrapped around him. His breathing was heavy and rhythmic.

  The only new sound he made was a gurgling noise when I slit his throat. He may or may not have been a good guy who didn’t deserve to die like he did, but it was not my concern. He chose the wrong group to throw his lot in with. I wiped my knife on his blanket and shut the door quietly.

  I caressed my two milk jug bombs, I guess to subconsciously insure they were still with me. The detonators were homemade and were stuck into the tops of each milk jug. I set one of them up at the front door of the house and rigged them with a monofilament tripwire. I did the same with the second one at the door to the trailer in back. I kept looking around as I was setting them up, wondering when hear the crack of a gunshot immediately followed by mortal pain.

  It didn’t happen. Lady luck was on my side. Free of the extra weight, I made it quickly over to the parked bus. I tried to quietly open the door, but it started to make a horrible squeaking noise when I only got it open a fraction of an inch. I stopped and ducked around to the far side of the bus, out of sight from the house. Peeking out, I still saw no movement or stirrings. Looking up at the two machine guns mounted in this beast, I realized there was no way I could allow them to have this death-mobile in their arsenal.

  I pulled out a lighter and lit all four of the Molotov cocktails. I tossed the first one through one of the open turret bays on the bus. The sound of the breaking glass was quickly followed by the distinctive sound of gas igniting. Next, I ran toward the house and slung the remaining three. Two of them definitely broke, but I was uncertain of the third one. No matter, it was time to flee. I ran through the partially open gate, pausing only long enough to grab my rifle. I was twenty yards shy of the big hickory tree when I heard muffled yelling, followed by the door opening. I ducked behind the tree a fraction of a second before the bomb was detonated. Fighting to control my breathing, I raised the rifle and looked through the scope. There was a body lying on the ground. A second later an older man, long beard and wild hair, wearing nothing but boxers and combat boots ran out of the door. He was armed with an assault rifle and fired wildly. I took aim as he started making his way toward the bus. The round took him in the right shoulder. He fell and started crawling. I shot him again. It was then I heard the second explosion, followed by an agonizing scream. Presumably, this
was the bomb I had set up on the door of the trailer.

  A woman in a nightgown ran outside. She had something wrapped in a blanket and I was chastened when I realized she was carrying a baby. I had forgotten all about the child when I planned this out. She ran toward the back of the house and disappeared from sight. Lady luck was still with me. I’m not sure how I would live with myself if I had killed a child.

  I waited for the Captain to make an appearance. In the meantime, two other men ran out from the back of the house. They were armed with assault rifles. They looked around for a target, and finding none, they tried valiantly to put out the fire. I scored a headshot with each.

  I waited another ten minutes for him, my nemesis, to appear. All I needed for him to do was show his face, even for a moment, and I’d send him to hell. The old wood house was now fully engulfed, but he was nowhere to be seen. I came to the conclusion he was currently burning to death, or perhaps, he had escaped out of the back, which I could not cover. I watched the house burn.

  I had no idea if I’d gotten him, but I knew I had hurt him. Badly. By my count, ten of his men had been sent to hell, and, I just burned his house down.

  It felt good, but not good enough. The not knowing if he was dead was going to be bothersome. Nevertheless, my gut instinct told me to get the hell out of there. I slipped out of sight into the darkness and headed back to the barn.

  “It’s me.” I whispered as I opened the barn door. Even though it was getting light outside, it was still dark inside the dusty old barn. I made out Andie, standing at the far wall, unmoving. I sensed something was wrong, but I did not react fast enough.

  The first punch caught me on the side of the head. I partially avoided the blow, but it still struck me with enough of an impact to knock me to the ground. I was on the verge of losing consciousness, but I was still awake enough to feel the sharp impact of a steel-toed boot in my abdomen. It knocked the breath out of me. The only thing I could do was bring my knees up in time to block a kick to my groin, but not the follow-up kick to my head. Fireworks went off in my head.

  While I was dazed, the Captain rolled me over on my stomach, and I felt a pair of handcuffs being snapped around my wrists. He cinched them down tight before rolling me over again. He grabbed my Kimber out of the holster and tossed it over to where my rifle was lying. He then stood over me with a sadistic grin on his face.

  “When my soldiers didn’t come home last night, I knew you’d be coming to pay me a visit.” He kicked me again, in the side this time.

  “Zach, Zach, Zach. It is time for you to pay for your betrayal.” He lamented. He looked around the barn.

  “It’s you who betrayed me, you cocksucker.” I croaked out. He laughed and kicked me again.

  “Did you know this is Andie’s favorite spot?” He nodded with a wicked grin. “It sure is. She would meet the neighborhood boys here in this barn after school and suck their cocks. Did she tell you that?” He asked.

  I didn’t answer, but I glanced at Andie. She was crying, and I noticed for the first time she was battered and bloody. Both eyes were swollen, and it looked like her nose was broken.

  “Oh, yeah. They’d bring the dope, she’d bring her mouth. I caught her one day and threatened to tell her mother. Do you know what she did? She offered to suck my cock if I’d keep her secret.” He laughed without mirth.

  “So, Andie, what happened yesterday?” The Captain asked.

  “They’re all dead.” She answered with a weak attempt at defiance.

  The Captain grimaced, and slowly nodded. “Yeah, I figured as much. I told them not to underestimate young Mister Gunderson, but they didn’t listen of course.” He canted his head. “What about George?” He asked.

  “I killed him. I killed them all.” I said. Andie stared at me with despair.

  The Captain laughed again and kicked me in the thigh. I had an instant painful charley horse to go along with all of my other aches. He waved a hand at Andie.

  “You see, when I arrived home yesterday, I was chagrined. My work was not completed because your stinking ass was still alive. Yes, Zach. I knew you were a threat to me from the very moment I met you.” He kicked me again in the same thigh. I grunted with pain and my whole leg became paralyzed with pain.

  “When my crew did not arrive home last night, I knew you would be coming. I didn’t know how, but I knew you were going to bring the fight to me. You were going to try something, but I didn’t know what. I pondered over it all evening and well into the night. Finally, at about four, I suddenly awakened. An epiphany came to me in a dream.”

  He smiled and pointed at Andie. “I figured the little slut would probably help you. I dreamt of this old barn and Andie on her knees pleasing all the boys, so I snuck out the back door and made my way over here. What do you know? My instincts were right on the money.” He looked down at me with a contemptuous sneer.

  “But I erred in my logic. I told my soldiers to be extra vigilant, for you were coming. How did you get past the guard?

  “If you mean the dumbass in the guard shack, he was asleep.” I smiled up at the Captain. “I slit his throat.”

  The Captain smiled back at me, knelt down and dropped his knee on my chest, putting his weight into it. I thought my sternum was going to crack and fought to breathe.

  “Where are your friends at Zach? Are they around here somewhere, waiting for you to meet up with them?” I glared at him while gasping for breath and didn’t answer. He clucked his tongue.

  “Refusing to answer? No matter, I’ll get it out of you, and then you know what I’m going to do?” His sneer was replaced with a lascivious grin.

  “I’m going to pay Julie a special visit. I’m going to kill them all, but I’ll save Julie for last.” He brought his face even closer. “Yeah, I’m going to have a good time with her. But first, I’m going to have a little fun with you.” He pulled a knife out of a sheath on his belt and locked the blade open.

  “I think I’ll start with your face and work my way down. Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know I brought a camera along. I’m going to take pictures to show Julie.” He brought the knife closer and stuck the point in my cheek. Blood spurted out. He then pulled a small digital camera out of his pocket.

  “Smile!” He said, and took a picture.

  I grunted, but managed to keep from screaming out in pain. It was going to happen though. I knew at some point I was going to scream out in agony, and once I did, I wouldn’t stop. But, there was no way I’d ever tell him where my friends were. At least, that was what I kept telling myself.

  It was a hell of a way to die. Lady luck had left me, and I was now paying the price. The Captain dragged the point of the knife along my cheek, cutting deeply. It was a searing pain. I gritted my teeth. He chuckled at me.

  “You’re a tough one, huh Zach?” He chuckled some more. “Not tough enough though. You’ll be begging me to stop soon enough, and maybe I will. Maybe I’ll work on you a little while, and then work on Andie a little bit. What do you say Andie? How about you telling me where Zach’s friends are and I’ll be nice to you. Hell, you can even come back and live with me.” He chuckled as he turned to face her. He suddenly froze. I looked over at Andie. She had retrieved her snub-nosed revolver from wherever she had been hiding it, and was now pointing it at the Captain.

  “Get off of him.” She said. She was glaring at him, but her voice betrayed her fear. The Captain smiled at her.

  “Andie, be a good girl now and put that gun down.” He continued smiling but I could feel him tensing up. He was about to spring on her, and the big bastard could do it.

  “Watch out Andie!” I shouted. The Captain turned back to me and twisted the knife blade. I gasped in pain.

  “Shut the fuck up.” He growled.

  “Uncle Charlie?” Andie’s voice was cracking. The Captain looked back at her. “I loved you once.” She said and then pulled the trigger.

  The Captain’s head flew back as the bullet struck him in the cheek. Andie ste
pped closer and fired again. The second projectile struck him in the right eye. He fell on top of me, which gave me a close-up of his lifeless face. What was left of his eye began to ooze out. I wiggled free and attempted to stand, but was too weak.

  Andie knelt down beside me and stared, as if she didn’t know what to do.

  “I’m sorry, Zach.” She stuttered. She was breathing hard, and looked like she was on the edge of panic.

  “Andie, I need you to focus. Go through his pockets and find the key to these handcuffs.” I said. She complied dumbly, like she was in a fog. She fumbled through her uncle’s pockets, came up with some keys, and slowly went through them, one at a time.

  “Focus, Andie.” I said, and gestured with my head at one of the keys. “I believe it’s that one. Stay with me sweetheart.” I said, trying to calm her. She separated one and looked at me expectantly. I nodded and turned my back to her. She made several attempts before finally unlocking one side. I turned and took the keys from her. Getting my other hand unencumbered by the cuffs, I dropped them on the floor and unsteadily got to my feet. Andie instinctively grabbed my arm and put it around her shoulders.

  “Help me get in the jeep.” I said. She walked me to the passenger side and helped me get in. I was in a lot of pain and blood was gushing down my face.

  “Do you have a first aid kit?” I asked. Andie looked at me blankly. “I need to staunch this bleeding. Do you have anything at all?” She responded with a look of confusion, but after a couple of seconds, she opened the glove box and came out with a tampon. It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it’d have to do. I tore the wrapper off, took the cotton material, and held it to the gash in my cheek.

  “How bad are you hurt, are you able to move?” I asked. She nodded nervously. “Okay, gather up all of our stuff and let’s get the hell out of here.” I said to her. She complied, but it looked like she was moving in a fog. When she finished, she got into the driver’s seat and looked straight ahead. She was in a daze. I had to do something.