The sound of car engines filled the air, mingling with the barks and howls of the zombies. Russians were on their way.
Leo forced himself to keep his cool, reminding himself this was all part of the plan. They would give Dal and Lena the full five minutes. They were counting on them.
Luckily, the Russians and zombies weren’t the only things making noise. Echoing through the campus was the sound of bombs and gunshots: Anton, Bruce, Jim, and Tate were busy. His team was making a spectacle, as planned. They took out infected up and down the narrow street.
“Over there!” Jennifer pointed.
Leo followed the line of her finger to the northern end of the road. The first of the Russians had arrived. They drove right into the kill box, oblivious to the trap that had been laid.
There were four open-top jeeps speeding down the street. They knocked aside any nezhit in the way. Russians were packed inside, many of them perched on the roll bar with their machine guns.
Their attention was on the street as they scanned for the source of the attack. They hadn’t yet realized the attack came from above.
The four jeeps drove straight past the cafeteria, unaware of Jim and Tate lying in wait. As soon as the Soviets were within range, a dozen bombs sailed over the edge of the building.
His friends might not be quarterbacks, but they both knew how to throw a ball. Their aim was true. Leo let up a shout of triumph as Nonna’s sachet bombs landed in the back of the jeeps.
The explosions were nothing short of spectacular. Bodies were ejected out of the vehicles. Machine guns exploded. The bottom blasted out of one jeep, spewing the tires every which way.
“Take that, fuckers.” Jennifer readied another round of bombs as the next group of vehicles poured onto the street.
This time, there were six jeeps. It looked like the Russians had raided a car lot. Every last one of them was in a shiny new jeep.
“Get the hell out of there, guys,” Leo murmured. Jim and Tate were supposed to fall back as soon as they gave up their location. This next wave of Soviets would fall to Anton to Bruce.
Sure enough, the Russians stopped and opened fire on the cafeteria. While their attention was on the western building, Anton and Bruce attacked from the east.
The bleachers were at least twenty-five yards south of the Russians, Anton was up to the challenge. Watching through the binoculars, Leo saw Bruce light fuses and pass bombs to Anton. From the top of the bleachers, his little brother lobbed bomb after bomb at the Russians. The sparking sachets lit the night like tiny fireworks.
They began to explode. The back of a jeep was torn off. More bodies were ejected out of vehicles. A rocket launcher went off, sending a missile straight into the air. It detonated over the school like a firework, lighting up the campus.
Leo looked at his watch. Sixty seconds. Time for Anton and Bruce to retreat. The next group of Russians belonged to him and Jennifer.
Shouting drew Leo’s attention. A group of five Soviets on foot burst into view, running out from between the buildings and onto the street. They beelined straight for the bleachers, heedless of the nezhit that still prowled the street. To them, the infected were harmless. They opened fire on Anton and Bruce.
“Shit.” Leo dropped to one knee and sighted down his rifle. “Jennifer, keep an eye out for more Russians.” He didn’t like revealing his location, but with any luck, he’d get rid of these assholes before the next fleet of vehicles arrived.
Leo fired. The first Russian dropped, a clean shot to the back. Leo racked his weapon and fired a second time, dropping a second Russian.
Two down. Three to go. And now he had their attention. Good. It would give Anton and Bruce time to regroup.
Leo sighted on the third Russian. The idiot looked around wildly, trying to discern where the shot had come from. Leo shot him in the chest and racked his gun.
Two left. They raced around a car parked on the road and took shelter in a circle of nezhit, using the infected for cover. Assholes. The infected barely noticed them, their attention still on the bleachers.
Leo inhaled slowly, waiting for an opening. Distantly, he noted the sound of cars—a whole bunch of them—getting close. Really, really close.
“Leo,” Jennifer hissed, “they’re here!”
Leo tuned her out. His sole focus was Anton and Bruce. Hell if he was going to let anything happen to them.
Shots cracked out from the bleachers. Anton and Bruce returned fire at the Russians. One of the Soviets yelped, momentarily slipping out from behind a zombie. Leo took him out with a shot to the head.
One more. He racked the gun, never taking his eyes from the crowd massed at the base of the bleachers. Get out of there, Anton!
“Leo!”
He could just make out the last Soviet. He was using a knot of three nezhit as a shield.
“Screw this,” Jennifer muttered. “We don’t have time for this shit.”
Before Leo could stop her, she lobbed a bomb. It sailed straight for the knot of nezhit.
Chapter 43
Touchdown
“WHAT THE FUCK?” LEO shouted, never taking his eyes from the street below. “You just gave up our location!”
“I gave up our location?” Jennifer screamed. “The Russians are here!”
Her bomb exploded. The explosion sent a ripple through the mass of zombies. The Soviet was exposed for no more than a few seconds.
It was long enough for Leo to drop the man with two shots to the chest. “Get out of there, Anton!” he bellowed.
Shots ripped through the air, zipping over his head and thudding into the side of the auditorium. Leo threw himself down flat against the roof. Jennifer shrieked and dropped to the rooftop beside him. More bullets flew over them.
“Fuck!” Leo pounded his fist on the tar and gravel beneath him.
He’d fucked up. He knew it. He’d deviated from the plan. But it was either that or let his little brother get pinned down by those communist bastards.
He’d made his choice. Now he had to live with it.
Fuck it. He was ready to die to save the ones he loved. It was a good way to go out. He grabbed a Zippo and two bombs.
“Get out of here,” he said to Jennifer. “Take the ladder. I’ll catch up when I can.”
He touched the Zippo to the fuses. As soon as they began to spark, he jumped up.
In a split second, he took in the mayhem on the street below him. There were wrecked cars and bodies everywhere.
Another ten jeeps had arrived. They weaved through the destruction, their sights set on the theater. The foremost of them was almost upon them. Even in the dark, Leo could see the rocket launcher aimed in their direction.
He threw both bombs and dropped, scuttling back from the edge—and ran smack into Jennifer.
“What the hell?” He grabbed the back of her jean jacket and dragged her backward. “I told you get out of here.”
“Fuck you,” she shouted back. “I’m not leaving your crazy ass up here to die!”
The rocket hit the top edge of the roof where Leo had been standing and exploded. The shockwave sent them both rolling across the rooftop. Gravel tore at his exposed skin and bit through his jeans. Seconds later, more explosions went off—this time from below them.
Leo scrambled back to his feet. There was a gaping hole in a huge section of the roof. At least half of it was gone. Shit. If he went anywhere near there, the whole thing could collapse under his weight.
“Get out of here, Jen. I mean it!” Crouching low, he ran to the north side of the building, giving the hole a wide berth.
Jennifer followed him, pulling more bombs out of the backpack. “I already told you, I’m not leaving your ass to die up here.” She lit a bomb and shoved it at him.
Gritting his teeth, Leo took a few running steps and threw. The bomb sailed through the air, heading for the next closest jeep.
His bomb wasn’t the only one. Popping up from behind the bleachers, Anton lobbed several bombs of hi
s own.
“Touchdown,” Anton bellowed as one of his bombs took out the side of a jeep. “Take that, fuckers!”
Leo ducked back down as the Russians returned fire. God dammit. Why wasn’t anyone listening to him? Why weren’t they falling back and getting the hell out of here? It was clear from the look on Jennifer’s face that she wasn’t going to budge.
He chanced a look back out at the street. Three jeeps were down, but there were still seven to go. Due to the wreckage and debris cluttering the road, they were forced to slow and weave their way up the street. The closest of them was fifty yards away. Leo could make a fifty yard throw with his eyes closed.
Another rocket was fired, this one at the bleachers. It struck the northern side, spewing shrapnel in every direction.
“Anton!” Leo cried.
Jennifer shoved another sparking bomb into his hand. Leo made his next throw.
Jennifer kept lighting. He kept throwing.
The bleachers listed to one side. Leo could hardly believe his eyes when Anton popped up on the far end and lobbed another bomb. He joined Leo in the assault, lobbing bomb after bomb.
Fifty yards. Fifty-five yards. Sixty. The two brothers lit up the night. Their arms were strong and their aim was true.
Bullets pierced the air around them. Leo and Anton began ducking down between throws, doing their best to avoid enemy fire. Soon, only two jeeps remained.
But the Soviets had wisened up. They drew to a halt when they were seventy-five yards, maybe even eighty yards away. He saw them readying their rocket launchers.
Leo knew he could throw the ball at least seventy yards. He’d done it many times. It was one of the reasons he’d been so heavily recruited senior year.
If he hoped to survive the next sixty seconds, he was going to have to throw farther than that.
Once again, Jennifer shoved a lit bomb into his hands. “Give them hell, Leo.”
Everything leapt into focus around him, just as it always had on the football field. Jennifer beside him. Anton and Bruce nearby. The enemy three-quarters of the way down the field.
His entire life was all about this moment. Leo knew it as sure as he knew the color of his own eyes. Everything boiled down to right now. He would either live or die.
He sure as fuck didn’t plan on dying.
He ran several steps forward and threw. The sparking bomb zipped through the air in a perfect arc.
It was a damn good throw. Damn good. Seventy-five yards at least.
It bounced onto the hood of the first jeep.
Then something happened. The bomb went off, but it wasn’t a regular explosion. Nonna’s bombs, while effective, were modest in their blast radius. They were just enough to fuck shit up. They weren’t enough to blow shit to the moon.
The explosion that went off in front of Leo was like something out of a Hollywood movie. A huge fireball filled the street. It blasted the jeep straight into the air. It caught several other jeeps in the blast.
He realized the Russians were carrying large munitions, things more powerful than the rocket launchers they’d encountered so far. Missiles or grenades or who-the-hell-knew-what. And Leo had hit the vehicle carrying them.
The heat of the blast seared over Leo’s skin. Shrapnel spewed down the street. He covered his face and hunched down as debris hurtled through the air. A wheel hit the rooftop no more than five feet to his left.
Off to either side, he heard Jennifer and the others yelling his name. He distantly realized they were cheering for him. His own personal crowd in the biggest game of his life.
“Cal Berkley is eating shit right now!” Jennifer cried.
“Time’s up,” Leo replied. “We’re out of here.”
Jennifer didn’t argue with him. She beelined for the ladder. Leo was right behind her. They raced through the campus. Leo kept his rifle up and shot anything that moved.
They met up with Bruce and Anton at the edge of the school. The younger boys were covered in soot and grime. Their eyes were hard, their jaws set. Leo realized that in a few short minutes, they’d transformed from boys into soldiers.
He grabbed Anton in a rough hug. “Nice throws.”
Anton thumped Leo on the back. “You too, brother.”
“Time to get the hell out of here,” Leo said. The Russians were in disarray, but that wouldn’t last long. He hoped Jim and Tate were safe.
“Wait.” Anton pulled a bottle of orange spray paint out of his jacket.
Time was short, but Leo didn’t stop him. He wanted the Soviets to know who had fucked up their day.
He and the others kept watch while Anton quickly sprayed the word Snipers in giant orange letters on the pavement.
“Take that, assholes,” Anton said. “We’re not going down without a fight.”
“Damn straight,” Leo said. “Now come on. Let’s get out of here.
Chapter 44
Antenna
“TIME’S UP.” DAL YANKED the plug out of the back of the transmitter. “Did I miss anything?” he asked Lena.
“Not a thing.” She beamed at him and lowered the antenna to the ground.
Dal lashed the transmitter to the backpack. Even though it was heavy, he didn’t want to leave it behind. There was no telling if they might need it again in the future.
“Leo is giving them hell.” Lena looked in the direction of the high school. A series of explosions echoed through the town. “Nonna might be able to hear it all the way back at the cabin.”
They hurried back to the hatch that led down into the superstore. Thinking about all the nezhit inside made Dal’s throat dry. How the hell were they going to escape?
Dal swung his machine gun around. “You open the hatch. I’ll shoot anything that tries to come through.”
Lena nodded, positioning herself to one side of the opening. “Ready?”
Dal aimed, finger resting on the trigger. He sighted down the barrel, ready to shoot the first zombie that came into sight. “Ready.”
She yanked it open.
Nothing happened.
A wrinkle appeared on Lena’s brow. She peered through the hatch. “Um, Dal? I think they’re all gone.”
He wasn’t sure he hadn’t heard her right. “They’re all gone?” he repeated dumbly.
Lena opened the hatch all the way, letting it thud softly against the gravel rooftop. Nothing but silence echoed up from the superstore.
They crouched over the opening, peering inside. The boxes that had been neatly stacked on the mezzanine were in disarray. Many of them had torn open, spilling televisions and other equipment onto the floor.
But there wasn’t a nezhit in sight.
“Leo drew them away,” Lena said.
It was the only explanation that made any sense. “That’s impressive.”
Lena flashed him a grin. “My brother is an impressive guy.”
Dal went first into the hatch. Without the boxes, it was a fifteen foot drop to the ground. Good thing he was tall. He dangled by his hands, angling his body so he’d miss the broken remains of a big screen TV when he landed.
Debris crunched under his Converse when he hit the floor. Lena came through after him, dangling from the top. Dal caught her around the waist as she dropped. He ignored how good she felt in his arms, reminding himself he wasn’t good enough for her.
They crept through the ruin of the mezzanine, picking their way through televisions, VCRs, speakers, and smashed boxes. The store remained eerily quiet, the silence was punctuated by the battle taking place over at the high school.
“Do you think they’re okay?” Lena asked.
“Yes.” Dal wouldn’t let himself believe anything less. “Leo knows how to kick ass.”
They were nearly to the stairs when Lena stopped. “Look at this.” Using her foot, she pushed a dented piece of black plastic aside. Beneath it was a wide, flat box about six feet long.
“Is that a TV antenna?” she asked.
Dal knelt down to read the box. “Yeah. I
t’s not as big as the one we just used, but it is an antenna.”
“You know, there might be other messages people need to hear in the future.” Lena studied the antenna box. “You still have the transmitter. If we take the antenna, we’ll be able to broadcast.”
“It will be risky,” Dal said. “If we aren’t careful, the Russians will be able to track us.”
“So we’ll be careful. Come on, help me.” Lena pried at the box with her hands.
Dal helped her tear it open and pull out the antenna. Out of the box, it didn’t weight more than fifteen or twenty pounds. Lena was so lean that she was able to fit between the rods. The antenna balanced easily on either side of her.
“I should be able to balance it on the bike like this,” Lena said. “We should take it.”
She was right. It was good to have the antenna. Who knew what other important information they might come across? They needed to do whatever they could to help win this war.
“We should take it,” Dal agreed. He gathered up the cables that came out of the box, dropping them into his backpack.
They crept down the stairs and through the ruined superstore. Oddly enough, their bikes were still just outside the entryway. The street beyond was quiet. There was no sign of zombies or Russians anywhere.
Dal helped Lena arrange the antenna across her bike. With her being able to slip between the middle rods, it was fairly well balanced.
“If we have to make a run for it, drop it,” Dal said. “It’s not worth dying over.”
“Agreed.”
A huge boom went up from the high school. Dal and Lena turned reflexively toward the sound. It wasn’t anything like the explosions they’d heard up until this point. Something big had just gone off.
“Think they’re okay?” Lena whispered.
Dal squeezed her hand. “Yes. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here.” He wasn’t about to waste the opportunity Leo and the others were giving them to escape.
Side by side, he and Lena rode out of town.
Zommunist Invasion | Book 1 | Red Virus Page 23