Bullets ripped through the Zombie on top of Eric sending it sliding lifelessly into the swampy water beside him. More shots rang out in the small clearing. The shots were answered by the screams of the damned all around them. Eric struggled to his feet alternating between fighting off the blackout that kept trying to pull him back to the ground and the massive pain from his wrist that kept rearing up to bite him. He finally got to a standing position and saw that Myriah was helping the little kids down from a large tree while Caitlyn was standing in the middle of the clearing turning in a circle holding the M-16. The ground was littered with the bodies of the Zombie’s she’d killed. The problem was that within minutes there were probably going to be hundreds of Zombies storming through the woods hunting for the source of the gunfire. Any Zombie within earshot would be headed this way. Any Zombie within earshot of a Zombie that was within earshot and decided to screech out loud would head this way as well.
Completely disoriented Eric limped over to Caitlyn. She went to hand the gun back to him and he shook his head. He handed her the extra magazine he had in his pocket.
“You hang on to that. My wrist is all messed up. We need to get the hell out of here right now and no more talking. You remember the way we need to go to get to the lake? Take us that way but deviate if you need to. I’ll bring up the rear and watch the little kids. Now go. We’ve got zero time to screw around.”
Caitlyn nodded at him then took a second to check the number of bullets left in the magazine. Satisfied with that she turned and led them through the hole in the briars Eric had made when he’d barreled into the clearing. Eric watched her proudly as he helped Myriah shepherd the younger girls along behind Caitlyn. He loved how naturally Caitlyn had checked the ammunition left in the weapon before moving into the woods. He’d tried drilling that into his young charges every chance he got but it was nice seeing it had actually sunk in. Even with all the pressure she was under she’d remembered that small but critical lesson.
Myriah had to do most of the work with Doreen, Ali and Zoey to get them moving in the correct direction. Eric was pretty busy just trying to stay upright. With the adrenaline starting to fade the blood loss and water soaking his clothes were taking their toll on him. Normally he’d have picked up Doreen and carried her but now that was left to Myriah. Ali, his niece, and Zoey were picking their way carefully along the trail Myriah and Caitlyn were breaking for them. All around them they could hear the cries of the Zombies as they converged on the clearing they’d just vacated. Caitlyn had the rifle in her hands and knew how to use it. She also knew pulling the trigger would make all the Zombies currently heading towards the spot behind them adjust and head straight towards them again.
Muddy and miserable the six of them tried to move as quickly and quietly as they could through the woods. It was a race now to see if they’d stumble on a random Zombie before they were able to get far enough away from the scene of the shooting to be safe. A nearby screech encouraged Eric to summon the strength to force himself to take a more active role. He took Doreen from Myriah and put the tired, terrified little girl over his shoulder. This let Myriah focus more on helping the other two little girls move through the woods.
Ready to drop Doreen to the ground and attempt to pull a knife to attack any Zombies who decided to pop out of the woods Eric gamely continued stumbling forward. At this point it had turned into nothing more than a test of will power. How long could each of them continue to put one foot in front of the other. How long could a couple of pre-tweens, a toddler, a couple of teens and a beat to hell middle aged man evade a horde of Zombies in the middle of a swamp? Eric knew they were at lottery winning odds to still be alive as it was. If they survived the night, they’d definitely hit the power ball.
Hoping they’d be able to make it into the woods and find the lake without running into any additional threats Eric kept them moving. He was stepping over a stump and trying to brush a bunch of spider webs off a squirming Doreen when a Zombie stepped out of the weeds right in front of him. The Zombie stared at him for a second like it was just as surprised as he was. Eric let go of Doreen who clawed at his body the entire way to the ground. Ignoring all that Eric fumbled his knife out of the sheath he had on his shoulder and punched the knife forward as hard as he could. No skill or aim or much of anything other than just a tired man putting everything he had into killing the damned thing that’d gotten in his way.
His bladed haymaker ripped about half the Zombies neck off. It toppled over gurgling with blood shooting out the side of its neck like a plastic bottle of catsup getting stepped on by an elephant. Scooping up Doreen after he’d shoved the bloody knife back into its sheath Eric continued on the night time march through hell. He was determined to do his best to keep them all alive. No matter what it took from him. If Brenda was looking down and watching them from above, he felt like she’d approve.
Chapter 2: Long is the Road and Short is the Life
Kyler stared over at Chief Presley. He was anxiously waiting for the command to run for their lives. No way they’d be able to stay here. Zombies were everywhere and the man in the ditch beside him was missing the top half of his head. Kyler could see the man’s brains. This was the same man he’d been trading your momma jokes with less than eight hours ago. Like Zombies weren’t bad enough someone was taking shots at them with a high-powered rifle. Someone who was a good shot and had a damn nice rifle. Looking at the bugs walking across the exposed brains of his comrade in arms Kyler idly wondered if there was a way to get issued a helmet. Hell, he decided he’d go ahead and find himself a military surplus store and get one if he made it out of there alive. He leaned back as the ground exploded around him and the screeching of the Zombies grew closer.
Flashing back twenty-four hours they’d been notified that they were needed to go investigate a mayday call at a settlement about twenty miles from the one they’d been resting at. Chief Presley had woken them up and given them ten minutes to assemble and be ready to ride. Still mostly asleep they’d ridden mountain bikes a few miles up the road to a staged vehicle. This one was an old station wagon so at least it had plenty of room in it. They’d put it in neutral to push it up the ditch while the chief went to find the concealed battery and red jug of gas they’d need. Kyler remembered sitting in the backseat of that station wagon as the calm before the storm.
Prior to that it’d been a couple of weeks of settlement hopping. He’d been given booklets to study to learn more about the roving patrol roles and responsibilities as well as regular sit-down sessions with the chief. One thing he had going for him was most of the other guys were newly recruited as well. So, at least he wasn’t the new guy on the block like he’d been when they enlisted him in the salvaging crew back at the settlement. On the other hand, it was kind of scary that they were all learning on the fly. As the chief explained it, they were the men responsible for providing a safety net to the settlements. The men who were thrown at danger wherever it popped up.
The core values of the patrols were military. Military doctrine was heavy in the training, but no one was prepared for this. You figured maybe five percent of the military had actually seen action in the last few years before all of this started. The special operations teams from the various branches of the military would be familiar with sneaking around surrounded by the enemy. They were even experienced at keeping different villages supplied with weapons, but did that experience really translate directly into surviving an America overrun with Zombies? The skills they had as far as survival and fighting absolutely translated well in this new world. As far as building out a successful post-apocalyptic community everyone was playing it by ear. A very few had specific training in that sort of thing, but even that training was suspect as it was based on a lot on theory and brainstorming by military think tanks. None of whom had really been considering an actual Zombie Apocalypse.
The training had been pretty rudimentary up to this point. The chief assured them once they did a circuit and make it back to
headquarters, they’d have more time for formal training. A lot of that training was around why they did things the way they were doing them with an emphasis on making suggestions if you saw a better way. The chief was tight-lipped with details around the location of headquarters. About all they’d gotten out of him so far was to confirm it existed and that it was called central command by most of the patrols. The chief had also kept silent about how everyone else in his patrol had died and he’d managed to survive.
None of this really mattered right now to Kyler. Other than to retrace his steps to how he’d managed to end up pinned down in a ditch next to his headless companion with a bunch of over-excited Zombies headed his way. It’s not like he had much else to do other than focus on not lifting his head above the edge of the ditch where the sniper would blow it off. He had no desire to sport the same haircut as his dead ditch buddy. Trying not piss himself as bullets slammed into the ground around him and the screeching of the Zombies kept getting closer Kyler kept his eyes glued to the chief. The chief was evidently waiting for some sign from above that it was time to haul ass out of there.
Chief Presley finally waved his hand in a circle and stood up and started firing towards the enemy. The rest of them all got up and hauled ass for the tree line on the other side of the road. Kyler ran for all that he was worth even as the man a step or two in front of him stumbled and fell forward. Kyler had seen the puff of red coming out of the back of the guy’s jacket before he had even heard the sound of the shot. The sniper must be hanging out a long way from them if there was that much distance between the shot hitting and the sound of the shot hitting. Kyler poured everything he had into running as fast as he could. He tried to snap his head from side to side as he ran to make himself a harder target. He knew he was only alive because the sniper had randomly decided to shoot the guy next to him instead of him.
He hit the wood line. The bark of the tree directly beside his head exploded showering him with splinters and pieces of bark. He dove forward into the woods trying to get as deep into the cover provided as possible. A few more bullets pierced the woods leaving trails of destroyed branches. Then the shots stopped and all they had to fear was the Zombies sprinting into the woods to try to kill them. The chief was nowhere in sight. Kyler moved towards the one guy he’d seen make it into the woods. He’d recognized him as one of the men in the patrol he’d connected with on the long hikes between the settlements. Guy’s name was Sean and he’d done some time in the USMC. He hadn’t been Force Recon or anything like that, but he’d done basic training and he knew how to march and shoot.
That training was showing now as Kyler’s reward for going to check on him was getting a rifle barrel shoved in his face until Sean recognized him. Kyler had his hands in the air wondering if Sean was going to shoot him when Sean suddenly shoved his rifle barrel up onto Kyler’s shoulder. Sean rested the rifle on Kyler’s shoulder and blasted away at a group of Zombies who’d gotten into the woods behind them.
“Let’s go!” Sean yelled after possibly causing permanent hearing damage to Kyler’s right ear. Not able to hear a damn thing but getting the gist of the communication Kyler fell in behind Sean. They started tearing through the woods and weeds towards the rendezvous point.
One thing the training and common sense dictated in this brave new world was to always have a fallback spot. Operations went south so often that the chief was fond of saying every time something worked out the way it was supposed to, he was completely surprised. In this case they’d been ordered to go check out a settlement that’d sent in a cryptic mayday saying Zombies were surging on them and they were taking incoming fire. If ever a statement sounded like it required a fallback site that was it.
They’d made it into the settlement easily enough. Moving slowly and stealthily through the night they’d gone under the wires and made their way in to see what was going on. As quickly and easily as they’d gotten in, they’d turned around to leave. Zombies had been everywhere. Some of them still chewing on what was left of the people of the settlement. Some of the Zombies wandering around had that fresh new look of a recently turned human. Dead bodies were scattered around. Some of the ones they’d been able to check out before being forced to leave had been killed by bullets versus the teeth of the Zombies.
What’d forced them to eventually leave had been the sniper fire they’d started taking. It’d riled up all the Zombies who’d nested in the area. It’d also led to them having to carry two of their teammates out. That had required dragging them through mud to get them under the barbed wire. The guy Kyler had helped drag left a good bit of his skin on that barbed wire. That sacrifice had been nothing compared to the big chunk of skull and brain he’d lost in the ditch later that night. The recruits in the patrol with no military experience had been extremely freaked out. They were the lucky ones. The ones with military experience knew that for snipers to be making those kinds of shots they were well armed, and they had this site dialed in. Infrared and night vision had to have been in play as well since the light from the moon was basically non-existent.
In the end Kyler and Sean made it back to the rendezvous point and didn’t see anyone else for almost two hours. They’d just about given up on anyone else showing and been making plans of where to go the next day when Presley limped up to the house. After helping him inside and getting him settled on the couch with a warm bottle of tequila and a full can of cheese whiz they found in the cupboard they asked him what they should do now.
“We keep fighting. I know I haven’t told you guys a lot about central command or what we’re trying to do but basically, it’s just that. We’re just a bunch of good guys who are trying to keep the fight going. We’re trying to fight for people to live. We want to drive out all the infected and get the land ready for everyone to live again. That’s it on our side but there’s a lot of other groups out there trying to take control. People who see this as a message from God that their ideology is right. I can only imagine how crazy it is in some of the middle eastern and third world countries but even here in the US it’s gotten nuts.”
“What do you mean by nuts?” Sean asked. Kyler listening intently as well despite his muffled yawns. They hadn’t slept in over a day now.
“You guys were recruited to be in the patrols that go between the settlements. There’re other patrols that get sent out to see what the rest of the world is doing and to gather supplies from strategic locations or whatever. A lot of that stuff is ‘need to know’ and we don’t necessarily need to know it. What you do need to know is that the crazies have come out in force. Down south there’s a bunch of guys trying to start a modified third Reich or just a new confederate states of America depending on who you ask. Out west there’s groups who’ve gone back to the Indian days. There’re groups running around who look like they just escaped from the Renaissance Faire. Which makes sense when you think about having your body covered in armor and not making a lot of noise by shooting guns. Just all kinds of crazy all over the place.”
“So, what do we do?” Kyler asked the question again.
“The same thing. We keep fighting. We keep putting one foot in front of the other and we keep fighting for what we think is right. I can tell you right now there’s a ton of people who’ve got your back. Worse case we hold the territory we have. Best case we’re able to expand before these people with the weird ideologies take over too much land and infect it with their crazy. It sucks that with actual Zombies roaming the earth we have to worry about fighting one another but there it is.”
“How often do settlements get shot up like that?” Sean asked.
“Not that much. We tell people the rule that you can only have forty people per settlement is to keep the noise levels down, but I think another part of it is so that we only lose forty people at a time to these attacks. As far as I know we don’t even know who’s doing the attacking. Just that they seem to move in the same way each time. Snipers and Zombies and it’s over before we can get protection to the settl
ement.”
With that the chief volunteered Kyler for the first watch and him and Sean racked out. Kyler stood up for the watch since he was sure he’d fall asleep if he sat down. He walked the house waiting for his turn to sleep. His mind haunted by the faces of the newly turned he’d seen earlier that night. The vision of the guy’s head beside him exploding in the ditch kept playing in a loop too. Kyler decided he’d make a difference. He dedicated himself to serving something larger than himself that night. Not because he felt like it but because if he didn’t focus on something besides himself, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold it together much longer.
Chapter 3: It’s Electric!
“Accuracy is going to be on you guys, but I think you know enough to be dangerous.” Randy said after the third day of instructing the old rich people how to shoot and loot. He was getting really tired of references to clay pigeons and cousins who’d graduated from West Point. If only one of these geezers had graduated from West Point maybe they could’ve just handed over half the guns and been on their way to the airport.
Kelly was fuming at the delay. She figured the training should’ve taken about twenty minutes and then they should have been on their way. Randy hadn’t been that optimistic but even to him three days seemed pretty excessive. Tony had a decent amount of knowledge but none of them were gun experts. These people just kept asking questions. They wanted to know what the world was like outside their fence. They wanted to know every detail about how him and Kelly and Tony had managed to survive for this long.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 2