The screams intensified in volume as the zombies focused on the noise Abby made. Zeroing in on their prey, they were soon breaking down the front and back doors and some of the windows, much quicker than Abby had expected. She turned and dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time as several zombies were already following her.
“Coming up!” she yelled. The guys would be jittery, this being their first encounter with zombies, and she didn’t want to escape the zombies only to catch a burst of machine gun fire in the chest.
Abby hit the top of the first flight of stairs, reaching a short landing where around a corner were the last four steps up to the second floor. But before making that turn she glanced behind her, whirled around, and brought the tomahawk down, practically splitting in two the head of a zombie. She kicked the zombie down the stairs, her tomahawk stuck in its skull as it toppled over some of the others, giving her just a little more room.
Leaping up the last four steps from the landing to the second floor, Abby dashed forward just as the zombies were rounding the corner of the stairs, their screams echoing throughout the empty house. In two steps she reached the main hallway that ran perpendicular to the stairway and across the length of the house. The bathroom was directly in front of her and she dove through the open door.
She landed on her side on the blue-tiled floor and rolled to her back, her eyes wide with fear. The zombies were practically on top of her by now. She raised her handgun and fired at the one in front, dropping it with two rounds, but at least a dozen more were right behind it.
Thinking of nothing but tearing the flesh from Abby’s bones, the creatures charged into the hallway…
…and that’s when the carnage began.
Abby was momentarily stunned by the sudden roar of automatic gunfire and the intense flashes of light that mixed with the flashlights and lasers that swung left and right across the hall. Loud snaps like hundreds of firecrackers being lit at once inside of a bank vault reverberated throughout the upper floor of the house.
Jax was at the end of the hallway, firing the M240B medium machine gun from the hip at the cyclic rate, not letting go of the trigger until the belt feeding into the gun was spent. The other Raiders took up positions with their rifles, some laying at awkward angles inside the rooms with their weapons poking out while others kneeled or stood above them, concentrating as much firepower down the hallway as they could.
In a matter of seconds, hundreds of rounds of 5.56mm and 7.62mm match-grade ammunition had been expended, and the zombie bodies began to pile up. Undaunted, they continued to shove their way up the hallway, over the growing hump of eviscerated, bullet-torn bodies, and towards the Raiders, but none came within ten feet of the team.
Refusing to lay helpless, Abby stayed in the gunfight as well, firing her handgun at the horde until the slide of her pistol locked back. Releasing the empty magazine, replacing it with a full one, and sending the slide forward was the work of exactly 1.2 seconds and Abby continued to fire. Even as the zombies continued up the stairs, she remained in her somewhat vulnerable position on the floor, afraid that if she stood up an errant bullet from her comrades would make its home inside her skull.
“Cease fire, cease fire!”
“Abby!”
Abby barely heard Jax and then Hiamovi shout over the ringing in her ears. The horses outside were still going crazy, but no one could hear any more cries from the undead.
“Here! I’m good!” she shouted, though she did not mean to be so loud. She pushed herself to her feet but did not step into the hallway yet. Her path was blocked by a wall of decaying flesh, and she wanted to make sure they were all dead before getting too close.
“See any movement?” one of the Raiders shouted.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Neither do we.”
Abby gingerly stepped out into the hallway, pressing her butt and back against the doorway so as to give herself every inch of space between herself and the pile of undead that she could.
“I think we got ‘em all,” Chad said, his voice breaking.
“I think so too,” Abby replied. “But we should probably get the hell out of here.”
“Fucking seconded,” said Jax. “Everyone pack your shit, and get mine and Todd’s. Todd, you and I are gonna check on the horses and get them ready.”
“What about Kurtis?” Hiamovi asked.
An oppressive silence fell over the occupants of the dimly lit hallway, now littered with brass shells and reeking of death.
“Do a quick search outside,” Jax finally said. “But we’ll have to leave him here for the main elements to pick up and take care of. Mission accomplishment comes first.”
“I don’t think a search is necessary,” Abby said. She pointed towards the pile of bodies, at a booted foot with camouflage trousers over the top.
“Jesus,” muttered Hiamovi. Miguel crossed himself as all the other Raiders bowed their heads or turned their eyes to the roof.
“Well…alright,” said Jax. He kneeled next to the boot and drew his knife. In one, swift motion he cut the laces of the boot and pulled free the dog tag there.
“Always faithful, always forward,” whispered Jax, repeating the motto of the Marine Raiders. He kissed the tag and slid it into his shoulder pocket before turning around to face his men.
“I gave orders, didn’t I? Y’all want to wait around for more of these?” he said. This seemed to snap them all out of a trance and they moved quickly to carry out Jax’s instructions.
“You sure you’re good?” Hiamovi whispered to Abby as they stuffed their things into their rucks.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Abby replied. “What about you? How you doing?”
“Well, I may have soiled my pants,” Hiamovi joked.
“Join the club.”
In short order the Raiders were ready to move. Thankfully the horses had been passed over by the zombies and none of them escaped the barn, leading Abby to believe that zombies didn’t care for horse flesh as much as human flesh. It took a minute to calm them down, but with the screaming stopped the horses managed to find their nerve again. Todd made radio contact with one of the forward command vehicles ahead of the main force and told them what happened, including the death of Kurtis. The soldier on the other end of the radio assured them that the body would be retrieved in the morning and transported to Arlington.
***
“Abby, come here please,” Jax said. The team had been riding in silence for nearly an hour, guided across the Kansas plain by the light of a full moon.
“Yes?” Abby asked as she brought Reese alongside Jax and his horse.
“I want to apologize,” Jax said.
“For what?”
“Discarding your opinion on the extra ammo at the resupply point. There was what, twenty-ish of those things at the house? And we expended damn near every bullet we brought from Utah. You were right, and I was wrong.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Abby insisted. “We’ll just make sure to take all the ammo next time we get a chance to resupply.”
“But there’s no next time for Kurtis,” Jax said.
Abby nodded her head in silence, unsure if there was anything proper for her to say in that moment. She had unfortunately not been around long enough to get close to Kurtis. He seemed like a decent guy, and was obviously loved by those around him. It was too dark to see if anyone had wept since leaving that house behind, but she had heard more than the occasional sniffle.
“Meanwhile,” Jax said after a long pause, “let’s pray we don’t face another attack like that. I’ve seen some shit in my time, but that…nothing prepared me for what we just saw.”
“I wish I could say it gets easier. For what it’s worth, y’all did well.”
“That’s worth a lot coming from you. Thank you.”
Abby nodded once and reined in Reese, returning to her position in the patrol next to Hiamovi.
“What’d Gunny want?” he asked.
&nbs
p; “He just told me he wished he’d listened to me about the extra ammo.”
“I’m not surprised. He’s not afraid to own up to his mistakes.”
“He’s a good man,” Abby replied. She paused, then said, “I should probably ask again if you’re doing okay.”
Hiamovi sighed. “As fine as I can be, I suppose. Not exactly the first time I’ve lost someone I cared about.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll be okay. We’ll all be okay. Thanks to you, our losses weren’t any worse than they were.”
“Thanks to me?”
“You took charge of the situation, then used yourself as bait. That’s ballsy as hell.”
“Hiamovi, you of all people should know I’m not equipped to be ‘ballsy’,” Abby quipped, gently kicking Hiamovi’s foot. She hoped to lighten his mood a bit with a bad joke.
Hiamovi humored her with a grin. “You know what I mean. Seriously, you are one of the bravest, strongest people I know. And I’m honored to know you.”
Grateful for the darkness that concealed her reddened cheeks, Abby replied, “I’m flattered you think that way of me.”
“I do, and I love you. We’re facing death at every turn out here, so I feel like I ought to tell you every minute of the day. I just love you so much.”
“I love you too,” said Abby. “And even though we can’t really do anything about it out here, maybe we should consider ourselves…together? You know, try it on and see how it fits?”
Hiamovi smiled and said, “Okay.”
“Okay,” said Abby, and she smiled back. Maybe it was silly to take that kind of step, given their current situation. But Hiamovi was right, and Abby remembered what she’d learned years ago: there’s only one law in the Wild, and that is that you’re never safe for more than a moment at a time.
Chapter Ten
About halfway across Kansas, the team reached the second resupply point. True to his word, Jax ordered the men to take all of the ammo on the pallet, especially now that Kurtis’ horse had become another pack horse. Without him, the group was down to Abby, Hiamovi, Chad, Chris, Mike, Max, Vic, and Alex, the snipers Nate and Yuri, Todd the radio operator, Miguel the Corpman, and Jax.
No one complained about the weight of the extra ammo. Abby’s advice and expertise were as good as gold now in their eyes, and no one held even the tiniest shred of doubt about her capabilities and worthiness.
They may need that ammo and more, Abby was telling them as they left, for they’d soon be approaching another settlement, if it was still there.
“I didn’t leave these folks on the best of terms,” Abby said to the group.
“What happened?” asked Jax.
“Well, a friend and I stayed the night with these people, ate breakfast with the leader and his brother, then watched as the brother murdered the leader and pinned it on us.”
“Jesus!” said Todd.
“Oh yeah, and then they all shot at us with M16’s and mortar rounds as we tried to escape.”
“Mortars? They’ve got fuckin’ mortars?” Chad said.
“They did then. Maybe not anymore, but we should probably keep planning for the worst.”
“Are they military?” Miguel asked as he ran his hand through his horse’s dusty black mane.
“The guy who murdered his brother was in the Army, that’s where he got the mortar tube.”
“Do you think he’ll recognize you? Wouldn’t that put us in a bad situation?” asked Hiamovi. He alone had heard this story from Abby before, but it still burned him up inside all the same.
Abby hesitated, as she hadn’t considered this possibility. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “It was years ago and he only got a good look at me over breakfast.”
“I’d never forget your face,” Hiamovi replied. A chorus of sarcastic awwww’s sounded all around him in response. “Hey, I’m just saying! You’re beautiful, that’s all. And your eyes, I mean come on. It’s hard to forget a girl with grey eyes.”
Abby smiled, eliciting more good-natured taunting from the guys around them. “Maybe you’re right,” she said as the Raiders quieted down. “Maybe I’ll hang near the back. Anyone got a hat I can borrow? That could help obscure my face, at least.”
Nate tossed Abby a plain black ballcap and she stuck it on her head, pulling the bill low over her eyes.
***
The group approached the community of survivors from the north, just as Abby had done years ago. Once again Jax sent Nate and Yuri off to provide covering fire for the team, if necessary. The tension rose as they crossed the open fields leading to the cluster of houses by the river. They listened in silence for the sound of a mortar tube firing, but no such noise came. Neither could their eyes detect any movement at all in or around the houses, even though it was the middle of the day.
“See anything?” Jax said into his radio handset.
“Negative,” came the reply from Yuri. “Looks abandoned, if you ask me.”
Sure enough, they met not a single soul in any of the houses when they finally reached the old structures. After looking around, they found a small graveyard in the back, near some trees, but with not nearly enough headstones to account for everyone. No other clues as to where the rest of the community that once lived here had gone could be found.
Abby stood next to Reese and scanned the makeshift tombstones while the others looked around. A bunch of names that meant nothing to her were carved into wooden boards, pieces of drywall, or anything that could serve as a grave marker. Two names only, side by side and closest to the houses, stood out to her: Donny and Dale.
She remembered the look on Donny’s face the moment before she pulled the trigger of her gun and sent a .45 caliber round bursting through his skull. Technically, she had acted in self-defense. After all, Donny and four others had been ready to kill her themselves. But only because she let them catch up to her. She could have fled, gotten far away from those people and left them alone.
But she had wanted revenge for Emma’s death. She demanded blood, and that was exactly what she took from the young teenage boy.
“I’m sorry, kid,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
Abby stood there a moment longer, torn between a desire to leave some kind of token of her regret at Donny’s grave and the guilt that commanded her to leave the poor boy in peace. What would his soul want with some trinket from his murderer, anyway?
“And you’re sure this is the right place?” Hiamovi asked Abby.
Abby snapped her head up, unaware that someone had been talking to her. “Absolutely,” she replied, after taking a moment to process Hiamovi’s question.
“If that’s the case, those folks must have left a while back,” Jax said. “Well, let’s not waste more time than we have to. Lead us to the river, Abby. We’ll water the horses and be on our way.”
Abby guided the team as they walked alongside their horses through the sparsely wooded area between the houses and the river, her breathing becoming more labored with each step. She stared straight ahead, unable to stop the memories of this place replaying in her mind: sprinting with Emma, her only friend in the entire world at the time, while dodging gunfire and explosions.
She remembered the icy sweat trickling down her back, the smell of singed pine needles intermingled with gunpowder. Away to her right, Abby noticed a sizeable crater in the ground, probably the remnant of one of those mortar rounds. She stared into the bowl-shaped dip, drawn into it by some force.
“Get down!”
Boom!
“Abby?”
“FU— ”, Abby shrieked, jumping and bumping her head into Reese’s snout. The whole group came to a sudden halt as weapons were raised. Hiamovi had noticed Abby’s changed demeanor and went to talk to her, but in so doing had scared the hell out of her.
“Sorry. I…I’m good,” she said sheepishly to the group. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
Jax nodded to her and motioned for the team to keep moving w
ith Abby still at the lead. Hiamovi approached again, though this time he did not come nearly so close, nor did he say anything until he was well in her field of vision.
“Hey. Sorry,” he whispered.
“Don’t be, you’re fine,” she replied, though she did not look at him. “I just didn’t have a great experience the last time I was here.”
“You sure you’re good?”
Abby paused, then said, “Yes. I needed to be here again. This was why I came with y’all, remember? I have to confront these things.”
“Okay.”
Already they could hear the babble of rolling water, and after another minute they reached the grassy banks of the river. Here they watered their horses while a few of the Raiders refilled canteens, dropping iodine tablets into the newly filled containers to purify the water.
Abby remained in a trancelike state while at the river, though the emotions she felt were not what she had expected. There was a pinch of guilt, and a certain malaise, too. But there was no sense of closure. Back in the trees she’d felt again the anxiety of being under attack, but here in the place where Emma died, she almost felt bored. Like this was the hundredth time she’d returned to this spot. She’d felt the same thing at Adam’s house, too.
What was wrong with her? She was supposed to be getting closure, or at least come to terms with the terrible things that happened to her out in the Wild. Shouldn’t she be feeling different by now, like a changed woman? She sighed, returning her attention to Reese.
“Would have been nice to have you out here last time,” she whispered to the horse as she patted his dark mane. He lifted his head to look at Abby for a moment, then went back to drinking from the river.
Abby heard footsteps approaching. She turned and saw Jax walking towards her with his map. “So at this point, we’re going to be heading more east-northeast to get to Chicago,” he said.
“Right,” Abby replied.
His Name Was Zach | Book 3 | Their Names Were Many Page 8