by Joe Kelly
Seth rubbed a hand over his ripped abs and suddenly grinned. “ just hit me that it took the end of the world to get into the best shape of my life” he said.
Jared laughed with him.
“I’ve heard a few of the women call it the apocalypse diet plan, where you either lose weight or die” Jared said after a moment.
“well the wife likes the change, says I no longer look like a hairless ewok” Seth said with a chuckle. “ I just wanted to ask you, if it would be okay if we went with you when you leave. Me and Keith and our family’s” he looked embarrassed at asking.
Jared looked at him for a long moment. Long enough that Seth began to worry he was going to say no. Finally, Jared nodded “your more than welcome to ride with us.” He said “but what about the others”
Seth shrugged, “Donald and the others are pretty convinced that they should strike out on their own. They think that such a large groups is dangerous.” He said.
“I can see how they would think that” Jared replied, then rose and for a moment felt like a giant as he looked down on the really short, muscled man. “ its about Dinner time” he said waving at Seth to follow him to the Lodge.
✽ ✽ ✽
it was 0115 hours Jared noted as he sat up and slipped out of bed hearing the steady knocking on the door. He grabbed his pistol and moved confidently thru the darkness without flipping on a light. “Jared, you got to hurry up” it sounded like Gary Jared decided as he opened the door. “there had better be a zombie army in camp” He snapped.
“No but you’re going to love it, now come on before you miss it” Gary said totally oblivious to the pistol in Jared’s hand or his state of undress.
“Catch” Logan called out sleepily from the fold out bed, tossing Jared a towel. “ go, so I can go back to sleep.” Jared caught the towel as he leveled a glare at Gary that should have blasted him to small cinders. But so far the world hadn’t changed that much.
“let me get on some pants” Jared said. “forget that no time, Jared its the radio” Gary said excitedly. Knotting the towel around his waist, Jared stepped out of the RV. “ Lead on, if this isn’t worth my getting out of bed, I’m letting Jill deal with you” Jared said as he followed Gary to His RV, called the com shack by everyone in the group.
Following Gary inside, Jared noted Roger sitting in front of the Ham unit. “ well” Jared asked ready to walk back to his RV. “ Remember those intermittent Military transmissions we picked up last fall” Gary said. well we picked up…” he was cut off as static suddenly erupted from the speaker.
“This is BlackKnight one zero, we have visual confirmation.” static drowned out the rest of the transmission. Then it came thru strong again. “ … another survivor, looks like she needs fuel. But there’s people……” Jared cursed as static swallowed the transmission once more.
“It’s a flight out looking for people, the base has answered a couple of times, and it’s patchy due to static but sounds navy to me. But I can only go by what I’ve heard on movies and stuff.” Gary said excitedly.
“a flight looking for people in the dark.” Jared said doubtfully. there is thermal optics, He reminded himself. “all right, record it and I’ll listen to it in the morning”
“but it’s happening now” Gary protested pointing at the Com gear.
“and I have one incredible, sexy woman waiting in bed for me. Unless of course this aircraft is circling over head or you can get a position fix for me, it can wait till the suns up.” Jared said, as Gary seemed to register that Jared wore only a towel and had a pistol in his hand. “Um, sure I’ll play it for you in the morning” Gary replied as Roger smothered a laugh as Jared left the RV he heard Roger say. “God you are a nerd.” And laughed again.
Chapter 20
The sun rose behind a wall of clouds, beams of light spilling out thru the rents in the cloud cover that slowly swallowed the bright light. The teams ate breakfast talking quietly each man and woman alone with their thoughts of the impending raid. There were a few changes in the lineup today, Ori was moving over to Team four, with Jason as his guard.
Jeff, and Warren were assigned to Team one in their place.
Team three had a dual purpose, in the initial assault they would support teams one and two, but their primary mission was after they secured the first warehouse.
They would be the ones securing and loading the Semi trucks. Priority was on food and water, after that any camping gear they could find, then hardware, rope, chains and tools.
At 0800hrs, they assembled and loaded up in the Deuces. By 0805 they were rolling out of the campground. Jared sat back on the bench his feet propped on a duffel bag and drifted off to sleep.
Warren could only stare at him for a moment wishing he could do the same thing. Steve laughed and pulled his own Boony hat down over his eyes and appeared to go to sleep too.
They rolled past the wrecks and the wandering knots of undead, on the highway, then turned down a side road into a wooded area. the road was wider than normal to support the semi-trucks that had routinely used it to reach the Center. The distribution center had no sign on the main road, maybe it had been an attempt to keep thieves that drove by from realizing it was even there.
They turned down the short-wooded entrance road and came to a stop at the gate. “ got a problem” Jeff said over the radio.
“What is it?” Jared asked and sounded suspiciously like he had just woken up.
“Zombies are at the gate, if I open it, they are going to swarm me before I get it open more than a few feet.” Jeff said.
Jared sat up on the bench “time to earn the pay we aren’t getting.” He said as he checked his rifle one last time then led team one out the back.
It only took a minute to clear the zombies off the fence, and cover Jeff as he opened the gate. As soon as the last truck entered, Jared led his team thru the gate and shut it behind them. Zombies were already heading their way across the Centers parking lot.
Team one trotted back to the waiting Deuce and climbed back on board. With a lurch, the trucks took off heading for the first warehouse.
The deuce’s roared up to the building running down any zombies in its path, then turned and backed up to the loading dock. Beast one was next to a semi on its passenger side, with two spaces between it and Beast two. The package truck pulled up, blocking off the steps to the loading dock with its cab.
The teams spilled out of the Deuces and cleared the few zombies on the loading dock quickly. Logan pulled a twenty five foot chain out of the back of Beast one, he ran across the dock and passed the free end of the chain, through a gap in the side of the canvas that covered the bed of the Second Deuce. Steve pulled the chain inside the bed and clipped it to the lead line that was tied off on the cleat welded to the body. With that done each deuce was now connected by the slightly sagging chain and ready to roll.
Ori and Jason leaped out of the Package van using the passenger door. Jason knelt and let Ori step up onto his shoulders then stood allowing Ori to scramble onto the top of the Truck, he reached down and helped Jason climb up.
“in position” Ori said as he flipped down the bipod and readied himself.
Jared looked to make sure Team two had secured the loading doors and that none of the doors stood open then unzipped the duffle bag and pulled out a boom box. “Ready or not” Jarred said as he pushed play. As the music started, Jared tossed a glare at the boom box as Muse’s, victorious boomed out. Every zombie on the property was now totally aware of the presence of the living and headed towards the warehouse where the offending music blared.
“Never let Rob burn another music CD” Jared said as Steve snickered, then he saw Chris tapping his foot in time to the song and shook his head sadly at his friends taste.
Muse faded into nine inch nails which was fine by Jared. “Sniper free” he said watching the large crowd of zombies pour across the yard straight at them. There were a lot more than he had originally suspected.
“H
old your fire until they are right at the edge of the dock, make it easy.” Jared said. Finally, the zombies poured between the Deuces and between Beast two and the package truck. The smell of the undead was almost overwhelming in such a confined space and it seemed like thousands of hands were trying to reach across the dock and snatch the humans off. many of the undead were pawing at the idling Deuce’s. “Lite em up” Jared said began to fire slow single shots into the crowd. He started smiling as the music segued into Turbo lover by Judas priest.
As soon as they ran low and had to change mags, Team one stepped back and team two stepped forward into their place and began to fire into the mass of undead. the moment Team two ran dry, team three stepped up to the line while Two fell back to reload. Ori was firing steadily, his rifle punching out round after round. “The crowds a bit bigger than we thought” Steve said. “Shelley, Henry. Your turn” Jared said over the Radio.
The Deuces revved, and pulled forward dragging the chain. Zombies stumbled and fell but the real damage came as they left the ramp and spread out enough to keep the chain from dragging the ground.
The trucks drove forward pulling the chain, the nails shoved in every other chain link punctured flesh and dragged undead in many cases bones snapped and splintered creating crawlers that would be easier to put down. The Deuces advanced almost to the loading ramp of the warehouse directly across from the one the teams were on and then backed up slowly. Closing ranks and then backing back into position at the docks.
Between the cattle catcher, the knee cappers, and the chain, the Deuces left a trail of bloody wreckage. The undead and dead carpeted the ground, some struggled to get back to their feet. Others simply crawled forward. Jared looked out at the scene and almost lost his breakfast. By then Team three ran dry and stepped back off the line. Jared led team one back into position and the firing continued.
Then suddenly it was over, nothing moved out on the lot, at least where they could see it. 280 zombies, at a guesstimate, were scattered unmoving around the dock. Jared turned off Rush’s Veteran of a Psychic war and silence fell, well almost silence. More than one thing was pushing against three of the roll up loading bay doors from the inside. Quickly they reloaded spent magazines while they had the chance.
Jared took point, Logan beside him. Chad plastered himself to the left of door Four, where nothing was hitting the door. Hooking the handle with a pole he pulled up, the door slid up two feet and stopped, he couldn’t open it any further using the pole the angle was all wrong. He looked under the door and saw no legs, and made a quick decision to rush forward grasp the handle and heave the door open. As it rattled upwards he leaped out of the way so as not to block team ones fire.
Some one hit the play button the cd player and thanks to Random play, Hells bells was first up.
The teams waited for maybe three minutes then six zombies wandered into the door way and were blown back into the warehouse. Then two more zombies appeared and were dropped instantly. Jared was just about to start into the door, when a lone zombie appeared moving at a slow jog into the doorway, it only made it two steps before its head vaporized as every single member of team one fired. There was silence for a moment then Ronny said. “Imagine that we all aimed for the same guy.” There was a ripple of nervous laughter from those on the dock.
Jared led them into the warehouse, trying not to stare at the row open row of shelves that ran back into the darkness, and went almost to the ceiling. Box upon box, case after case, of goods just waiting to be taken. Nothing moved in their area. so Jared led them further down the main aisle that ran in front of the Loading bay doors. Team two entered and went to the right, where the warehouse offices, breakroom and bathrooms lay.
It took them almost an hour to search the building before Jared was satisfied that the warehouse was clear. During their search they also made sure any exterior doors they found were fixed so they remained closed.
Outside, Ori’s rifle cracked as he spotted a target. But nothing came over the radio so the threat must be a small one Jared decided. They went down the rows with flashlights, checking labels, or cutting open boxes where the label wasn’t clear about the contents.
When they found items they needed, they hauled the boxes or pallets, to the loading bay doors and stacked for transport. Team three was busy opening the trailers of the four semis parked at the docks, sorting thru anything still on the trailers.
Once they removed what wasn’t needed from the trailers, team three began to load up the pile of supplies already place by the bay door.
“I cant help but think of how much stuff is in the other warehouses” Jared said looking across to the warehouse across the way.
“We couldn’t take it all even if we wanted to” Steve said moving out of the way so a pallet of Canned Roast beef could be loaded.
“True, it’s the greedy part of me speaking.” Jared said his eyes still locked on the other building.
It took two hours to load all the pasta, sauces, Cans of vegetables, canned meats, Tuna, beans, soups, condiments, bags of rice, and a ton of other items.
Towards the back of the warehouse, They had discovered back packs, sleeping bags, magnesium fire starters, lanterns, dehydrated foods, and every other outdoors item sold at Sam’s or wally world.
Steve sorted thru the boxes of DVDs, computer games and programs, and then added another Gaming system, and games for it and the PS3 in his RV, he loaded them personally on the Deuce
Jared checked the time and they were four hours into the mission, and the number of undead outside the fence were growing steadily. There might be a hundred out there now, but in another hour, it might double, two hours it might triple. But that wasn’t what had his nerves singing. It was an ill-defined sense that something was about to happen. He glanced at the supplies still being stacked by the door. and made his decision. “ lets wrap it up people, load up what we already have out here in thirty minutes or less and then we are out of here”
“Are you sure?” Steve asked looking at the number of shelves that were still full.
“We need to get the hell out of here. Don’t ask, just a gut feeling” Jared replied as he looked into the semi-trailer and saw that it was almost full. “this should be enough, and if we need more we can hit another distribution center along the way.”
Steve looked at him then went over and lifted a case of Toilet paper and carried it to the waiting trailer.
✽ ✽ ✽
Candlelight flickered, bathing the bedroom in golden light. A dozen roses sat in a glittering crystal vase. Sharon levered herself up on the bed and saw Mark standing in the doorway, smiling softly at her. he was wearing his favorite pair of boxers, the ones with Marvin the Martian on them. One hand went automatically to her swollen belly as if to show him their baby. “you look so beautiful” he said walking in and sitting down on the bed and placing a hand on her stomach. She could feel the callus’s, the heat of his touch. His smell filled her nose.
“I miss you so much baby” he said running his hand over her belly. “ wish I could be there when he is born”
She felt tears coursing down her cheeks, from joy and loss. “I’m sorry Mark, I wish…” she stopped talking as he placed a finger to her lips.
“No need to feel sorry, no need to worry about how I feel about your life now. I only want you happy.” Mark said softly, smiling at her.
The candles flickered suddenly, and the room cooled slightly. Mark looked towards the dark doorway, and then turned back to her. “Listen Sharon, there’s people coming, bad people, total shit heads. So, you need to wake up and get people ready. I wish we had a bit more time. But we don’t. I’m sorry hunny.” Mark said gently.
Sharon felt as her head was spinning, but she reached out and took Marks hand.
It felt solid, warm, real, she thought. She knew this was a dream but it was more than that.
“I love you” she said. “I…”
“I know, but its okay to love them too.” Mark said softly. Be
hind him, she saw something in the doorway, a man, a shadow of man really. he stood there dark as pitch, legs bowed out, shoulders hunched forward an odd hat on his head.
She couldn’t make out details, but she felt the room grow cold as something touched her mind and laughed. Mark was on his feet, dressed now in his Army ACU’s.
“Wake up Sharon, wake the hell up right now” Mark said as he rounded on the door way. “you don’t get to play with her you prick!” he bellowed at the shape in the doorway. Sharon snapped awake, the fear flowing off her like water. She knew that it hadn’t been a dream, not in the way people normally dreamed.
“Bridget” she called out starting to panic. “Bridget” she said louder.
“up from your nap?” Bridget said stepping from the bathroom.
“People coming, danger. Get them ready” She said knowing she wasn’t making any sense. She levered herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.