Cedric decided to take a chance on something. He cupped his hands again and shouted, “What do you want?”
Cedric regretted his decision the moment he’d gotten his answer. At that moment, he lost all hope for a cure.
The remaining infected began to chant again, but they did not chant the word ‘off’ this time. As plain as day, the group of infected chanted, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Ground Team Charlie was on the water for a total of three hours. Their pontoon was at just above a half tank of fuel when they made landfall. This was a good omen since it meant they had enough fuel for their return to the Hummers.
Once they were on land however, Cedric felt his insides go cold. He knew he was safe in the water. For some reason, the infected would not cross deep water. Cedric assumed it was a primal fear they retained, despite the other mind-altering effects of the infection.
“Pearson,” Cedric said. “One thing that worries me about this next part…” he stopped, thinking how to phrase the next sentence.
“What is it,” Pearson said stepping off the boat ladder into the stiff grass.
“You said it was what, four kilometers?” Cedric asked.
“Correct,” Pearson said.
“If I can still do my conversions, that’s just over two miles,” Cedric said, trying not to state the obvious.
“Congrats,” Pearson said. “You’d be correct.”
“You stalled out after a mile and a half the other morning,” Cedric said.
“We’re not running,” Pearson said. “We need to maintain stealth.”
Cedric snarled his nose up. “We need to move fast,” he argued.
“You don’t know war,” Pearson said.
Cedric cocked his head to the side. “You said you’d follow my lead,” he retorted.
Pearson raised his rifle to point in the direction of the road as he said, “Tough. Let’s move.”
Cedric bit back his argument. He knew they needed to move, but he was fearful. He knew everyone else here could make the run. He knew Pearson was the reason they were walking. He knew that in this situation, speed was better than stealth.
They stayed in a double file line, Pearson and Davis at the front, Cedric and Steph in the rear checking their six. Blitzstark, ever faithful, remained directly on Cedric’s heels.
The crew kept low in a ditch since they had no cover. There were open fields on either side of the road. Cedric felt exposed as they continued. There was no other way to describe it, they were left in the open and they were going way too slow for Cedric’s liking.
After nearly an hour, Cedric could see a curve in the road ahead. The curve was the marker that they were nearly at their destination. Had they run, like Cedric wanted to, they would have been there by now.
As they passed the last section of industrial worksites, it happened. The soldier who was inexperienced with how to handle the infected was in the lead. A white van was parked haphazardly in the road. As they were about to walk past it, an infected woman shot out from behind it and ran for the group.
Without thinking through the implications, Pearson fired.
This was directly next to ground zero for the infection. This is where the oldest infected would be unless they’d cleared out. Cedric knew what would happen next. He quickly grabbed Karli’s arm and said, “Move!”
Cedric led the entire group to the van. The rear door was hanging wide open. The entire cargo space was clear. He loaded everyone inside as Pearson jumped in the drivers’ seat.
“Does it start?” Cedric shouted.
“Won’t even turn over,” Pearson said. “Get out!”
“No,” Cedric said. “Stay covered! Hide!”
Pearson climbed from the front seat to the back. Cedric grabbed Karli’s hand for a brief moment of time. Their eyes locked and a silent message passed between them.
Cedric turned to Steph, “Keep her safe.”
Before anyone could stop him, he slammed the back door shut and began to run.
Cedric could hear a distant commotion. He knew that the infected were responding to Pearson’s shot. Adrenaline pumped through his veins.
When Cedric reached the spot where he was supposed to turn left to go to the lab, he kept going straight. He could see a small group of deep green infected coming directly at him. Within moments, Cedric was at a small strip mall. He turned into the parking lot and kept running. He could hear the small patter of Blitzstark’s paws on the pavement. He silently wished he’d thrown the dog in the van too. He didn’t see a way out of this scenario alive.
Cedric stopped and picked the dog up. He set him in the bed of a truck and climbed to the roof of it right afterward. Once he was on top, Cedric opened fire with his rifle.
Part of his brain counted the number of dark green infected. He knew there were nine. Cedric emptied his entire magazine.
Unfortunately, Cedric was a horrible shot. Despite his twenty-eight rounds, only four of the infected fell for good.
“What do you think, Blitz?” Cedric asked.
The dog barked once. When it did, the infected stopped, looking for the cause of the sound. Cedric squinted in confusion. They’re scared of dogs, he thought. His bark’s echoing in the bed.
“Speak boy,” Cedric said mildly.
Blitzstark howled.
The remaining five infected backed up.
Cedric pulled his handguns out. Stay still, he thought. He opened fire as quick as he could. After the magazine was emptied, he quickly switched to his left hand and fired three more shots.
“Too many shots, boy,” Cedric said. “But they’re down, thanks to you.”
Cedric climbed to the bed of the truck and looked around. Then, he swore. While he’d been distracted by the green infected, a small hoard of newly infected had crept up from across the street.
“We can handle these kind,” Cedric said.
He jumped out of the bed of the truck and ran at the hoard. Blitzstark jumped out behind him and followed in silent pursuit. When he reached them, Cedric began to swing his pipes. He counted as they went down. After thirteen infected humans, the area was clear.
Cedric was about to turn to go back but saw, to his horror, a mob running directly at him. While they were mostly their original skin tones, with a few slightly green-hued, there had to be at least four or five dozen of them. He was already sore and sleep deprived, but he was not dead yet.
Cedric turned and ran shouting, “C’mon boy!”
He ran as fast as he could. He took turn after turn trying to lose the hoard of infected humans. This, however, turned out to be the biggest mistake possible.
Cedric turned down a road and saw a small hoard of infected at the far end. There were buildings blocking both sides. He had nowhere to go except to run into the small alley to his left.
When he did, he saw the brick wall blocking off the end of the road. Cedric turned to face the entrance to the alley and stared, waiting for the infected to come for him.
Cedric looked into the broken mirror leaning up on a trashcan nearby. At first, he barely recognized himself. For the first time, he realized how much older he looked. His hair had grown out, his jaw was more defined. He even had something that, a year ago, he never thought he would have; visibly defined muscle tone.
Cedric smirked as he shook his head. He looked down at his growling dog.
“Well, this is one way to spend my eighteenth birthday, Blitzstark,” the boy said to his dog.
Blitzstark remained growling with his occasional high-pitched bark ringing in the morning.
Cedric knew that less than a minute had passed since he was backed into the corner. It was not part of his plan, but he hadn’t planned on a dead-end alley being in his way.
He drew a short steel pipe in each hand from leather sheathes on his belt. The sheaths were tucked behind empty gun holsters.
When the infected humans were less than five feet away, Cedric lurched forward. The moment he did, Blitzstark followed his master i
nto battle.
Cedric swung his pipes like a whirlwind. He felt his forearms rattle with each strike. Despite the discomfort from his exhaustion, he continued to strike.
To his left, just inside his peripheral vision, he could see his dog grab an infected human by the neck and pull it to the ground. Before he could fully comprehend his dog’s actions, Blitzstark was already gone. Cedric followed through with fluid-like grace and bashed the skull of the man the dog had taken down.
Spit flew from his mouth as he shrieked in pain. Cedric’s knuckles had caught an unseen piece of metal rebar protruding from the concrete. Blood splattered the street as he swung his pipes again and again. The spatter drove the infected insane with hunger. Cedric used this tactic to his advantage.
He turned and jumped onto the metal trash bin. It was only four feet tall, and completely unstable, but it had just enough height to give him a small advantage.
Cedric jumped with all of his might. He felt the trash can tip over with the force of his leap as he sailed over top of the infected. However, he miscalculated because the trashcan was unsteady. He landed exactly where most people would find themselves in a nightmare: directly in the center of a pack of infected humans.
Pearson waited five minutes before checking outside. “Coast is clear,” he said. “No more gunshots either.”
Karli immediately tumbled from the back of the van and started to look around for any sign of her boyfriend. “We’ve got to go after him,” she said taking a step toward the direction of the gunfire.
Steph grabbed Karli’s wrist. “That’s not what he wants us to do,” she said. “Ced’s always got a plan, you know that.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Ross asked.
“Finish our mission,” Davis said. “I don’t know Cedric as well as you, but I bet that’s what he would want.”
“Stick to protocol,” Steph agreed. She turned and nodded to Pearson for him to lead the way.
After Cedric had cleared the path of all the nearby infected, the remainder of the walk was easy, no infected in sight.
Within minutes, the group turned onto a new street.
“Broadlawn Drive,” Steph read aloud from a street sign. “Almost there, right?”
“A hundred yards or so,” Pearson commented.
“Hurry,” Steph said.
She picked up her pace in hopes the others would too. They responded by speeding up, even Pearson.
Within five minutes, Pearson held up his right hand and said, “Take defensive positions. We’ve been out of communication for a few days.”
Steph turned to Karli and said, “Stay behind me.”
Karli nodded and raised her rifle as everyone else took up positions in the street.
Pearson slowly approached a house at the corner of an intersection on Broadlawn. As he neared the home, he heard a whirring noise. Had the city been up and running, he never would have heard the small electric motor. But, in the dead silence of the new world, every noise mattered.
Pearson turned to the sound and saw a camera the size of a soda can tab affixed to a tree branch. He knew the tech. He’d used this very camera model before.
“We’re at the right place,” he said aloud to the others.
Pearson approached the door and knocked. There was no reply. He knew he was on camera, so he began to speak aloud, “This is Master Gunnery Sergeant William Pearson of the United States Marine Corps. Clearance code Zulu, Zulu, Foxtrot, Niner. I am the lead escort of the package from Air Team Alfa. We need to be granted entrance and safety.”
He waited. After a brief moment, the door clicked and opened a few inches. “We’re in,” he said.
The three Marines and Davis began to move toward the door. Karli, Steph, and Ross stayed in the street.
“Come on,” Stewart said. “It’s safe in here.”
“We’ll be back,” Ross said. Then he turned to Karli, “You should stay.”
Karli slung her rifle over her shoulder and pulled her bat free from the small sling she’d made for it. “No, I’m going.”
Without any further argument, they all three turned to the direction the gunfire had come from earlier. In her mind, Karli just kept praying that Cedric was fine.
Cedric landed hard on the pavement. His armor pushed into a nerve in his hip and made his leg spasm. He tried to push himself up quickly, but his feet gave out under him.
None of these infected were the thinking kind. They were the mindless kind. They had yet to register Cedric landing in their midst. Instead, they were focused on the drops of blood he’d left when he jumped.
When he rolled over, Cedric saw the face of an infected woman descending toward his own face. He slung his fist as hard as he could and caught her under the chin, slamming her jaws closed. He quickly shoved the woman off of him and managed to get to his feet.
He reached for a weapon, but he couldn’t find one on him. Cedric saw his machete on the ground, being trampled under the feet of the infected mob. All he had now was his hands. He didn’t have any time to put his cut proof gloves on and regretted that immediately.
Cedric began to swing punch after punch. After his fifth punch, he felt the two main knuckles in his left-hand break. Cedric clenched his jaw as tight as he could. He wanted to scream, but he tried to hold it in. Instead, a low, intense growl pushed through his teeth.
Cedric could see the empty street now, though. This gave him hope. He knew if he could reach the road, he could run. He knew Blitzstark could easily skirt around the infected and reach him.
Cedric yelled, “Blitz!”
It felt like Cedric had just yelled for his dog when he appeared at his side. Cedric continued to throw punches relying on Blitzstark to help keep the infected off his back. He pushed, shoved, and kicked.
But, no matter how hard he fought, Cedric could not gain any ground. It was all he could do to keep them off his skin. He was tiring. They were not.
In a last-ditch effort, Cedric yelled, “Blitz! Run!”
The dog ignored the command and continued to rip at the limbs and throats of the infected. It slowed them down but did not kill any of them.
Cedric felt as though he were moving in slow motion. Without any weapons, his strength was leaving quicker than normal. He knew he was dead.
As Cedric pushed at an infected man, trying to knock others over behind him, he felt pressure on his ankle. He looked down and saw a set of jaws wrapped around his leg.
Cedric yanked his leg up. The jaws couldn’t keep their grip on the plastic coating of the ATV pants. Cedric slammed his foot back down, cracking the man’s head onto the concrete.
Before he could react to anything else, he had another set of jaws and nails tearing at the armor on his left arm. Cedric began to punch, but his body had gotten too weak with fatigue.
Cedric looked back at the road with what he thought would be his final glance. When he did, he could see Karli’s face. I must be dead, he thought.
But then he heard Steph’s voice. At first, it didn’t register. Then, he saw four rifles pointing at him and he followed Steph’s command to hit the ground.
Overtop of his head, Cedric heard the rounds going off. It sounded like a rapid set of fireworks on the Fourth of July as the shots reverberated off of the block walls.
It felt like he’d been on the ground for the briefest of seconds. Then, when he looked up, he saw only one infected left alive. It was the one who had tried to eat Cedric’s left arm. Karli swung her black bat down on woman’s head and she collapsed.
Cedric tried to stand but stumbled. He hadn’t realized it when it happened, but he’d broken his ankle when he’d stomped the infected man’s head. Steph and Davis quickly ran over and took a shoulder each. They hoisted Cedric up.
“None of you should have come,” Cedric coughed out.
“Well,” Ross said. “We’re family. Except dude here,” he added pointing at Davis.
“I’m under orders,” Davis said.
“Are y
ou serious right now?” Steph asked. “After all this, you only saved Cedric because of your orders?”
Davis chuckled and then explained. “The colonel said that if I, and I quote, ‘keep his dumb ass alive,’ I get to ask his daughter to marry me.” He quickly pulled a necklace out from his shirt with his thumb to show a small diamond ring tied to a leather cord.
Cedric chuckled. “I can understand that,” he agreed.
“Be sure to invite me to the wedding,” Ross teased from the end of the alley at the road. “I may even have a date if things go well with Aggie.”
As Davis and Steph helped Cedric maneuver around the bodies, they quickly explained that the packages were safe at the laboratory site.
Before Cedric and the others made it back to the alley, Ross swore violently and jerked his rifle up as fast as he could.
Cedric couldn’t see what was approaching, but Ross never got a shot off.
The dark green woman moved so fast that she was there before Ross could fully react. His gun was knocked to the ground and her teeth pulled a solid chunk of neck meat from his body.
Cedric yelled as he tried to jump forward. He could see the life leave Ross.
From his right, he heard two shots go off from a rifle. Then Davis cursed under his breath. He quickly ejected the magazine from his rifle and tried to clear the chamber.
It didn’t matter. Before he could resolve the jam in his rifle, he was dead. The infected woman dropped Ross and screamed, “Mine!” as she ran at Davis.
Blitzstark lunged forward but was too far away to make a difference. This older one didn’t seem afraid of dog barks anyway.
Cedric was knocked to the ground as she grabbed Davis by the head and shook violently. Cedric heard his neck snap.
Steph had the barrel of her rifle at the woman’s head before the infected woman even realized what the gun was. She pulled the trigger and the green skinned woman fell to the ground.
Karli began to sob. Steph grabbed Cedric’s hand and helped him to his feet. As he stood up, he knew his heart had stayed on the concrete.
The Living Saga (Book 2): Enduring Page 20