by C M Hoffmann
Chief, “QRFs, Veterans crowd is at the wall, be ready to bring the cavalry.”
Defender, “W. Metairie, same traffic, steve is knocking on the door.”
Fred, “Demo crews, start the volleys.”
Requisitioned M203s, grenade launching under barrel attachments, and the corresponding forty millimeter grenades begin to fire. Within seconds, two dozen explosions resound through the city.
Chief, “Staging areas, concentrate fire on those within one hundred. Splitters, give us some room to work.”
Fitz, “Roger that. All Splitter operators, we’re moving to the north, do not deviate, and stay straight. At the end of the block, turn around for the next trip. Staging areas watch your fire. On my go. Three, two, one, go!”
Soon the south side of the four main roadways are alive with the sounds of big rig trucks, military trucks, and dually civilian trucks. They accelerate and crash through the crowds of steves between four hundred meters and out passed the six hundred mark. A chorus of cheers goes unheard from the distance shooters and staging areas, the only ones in any position to view the carnage.
Chief, “Splitters report.”
Fitz, “All Veterans Splitters ready for next pass.”
Splitter 1, “W. Napoleon we’re ready.”
Splitter 2, “W. Metairie, same here.”
Splitter 3, “I ten, we’re good, not much action up here.”
Chief, “Distance shooters, what’s it look like in the distance?”
Trey, “Bad news, Chief, there’s a few dozen thousand more out there on Vets alone. We’re not even making a dent.”
Wyatt, “Front line, front line! We need QRF to Vets, there’s too many!”
QRF 1, “We’re en route to you, got some boom-booms for you to clear ‘em out.”
As the first volley of grenades launch over the wall into the crowd, Cane yells, “NEGATIVE! DANGER CLOSE!” but forgets to key the radio. The six grenades explode sending shrapnel deep into defending territory.
Wyatt sprints the hundred yards to his best friend, he keys up, “Man down! Man down! Cane’s down! Get us a fucking med truck!”
Cane, “Fuck!” He keys the radio quickly, “Negative! I’m good. Just a scratch.”
As Wyatt slides in next to Cane, blood pours freely from his left shoulder, “You aight?”
Cane winces as he moves his arm, “I said...” but his words are cut short as a ravager clears the trunk of the car and hones in on Wyatt’s back. Cane reaches up through the pain with his left hand and pulls Wyatt down on top of him. Cane hoists the shotgun single-handedly and levels it at the ravager and fires. With the forceful recoil, the shotgun jumps out of Cane’s hand and skids across the ground. The ravager lies motionless ten feet away with a large deep cavern exposed in its chest.
Wyatt, “I knew I was your best friend, but can you at least wait ‘til after the fight to cuddle?”
Cane, “Fuck you, get my gun, and watch your fucking six!”
Wyatt laughs and recovers the shotgun, racks in a fresh cartridge and hands it back to Cane, “Try to hold onto it this time.”
Cane, “Next time, I’ll let him kill you.” Cane spins and takes the head off of a lurker growling on the other side of the car hood. “Get back in position.”
Wyatt, “Word.” And he runs to rejoin his crew near the front line.
Scarlet, “BREACH! BREACH! DISTANCE ONE, OUR BUILDING HAS BEEN BREACHED. STEVE’S IN THE STAIRWELL.”
Cane’s heart skips and he fights the urge to sprint to the nearby distance position, Trey’s. ‘She was supposed to be safe there.’
Gavin, “Distance one, Pops and I are en route, can you hold?”
Scarlett, “YES JUST GET HERE! BRENDAN AND TREY ARE HURT!”
Gavin and Pops pile into a Mustang as Pops calls over the radio from the passenger seat, “Get a med truck to Distance One. Staging areas, is the wall breached?”
Staging 1, “Yes they pushed a car up, we can’t move it back! They’re funneling in!”
Gavin looks at Pops, “Put your seat belt on, I’ll get the car back.” He stomps the accelerator swerving around a med truck. He moves the car as far away from the breach as possible and floors it. The mustang slams into four steves inside the line and crushes them against the wall car. The force of the collision pushes the car almost perfectly back into position. The airbags deploy upon impact and Gavin is left unconscious. A QRF team and med truck come sliding in and dispatch the remaining steves inside the wall.
Pops, “Driver seat, get him out! QRF with me!” He sprints for the door of Distance One, firing all the way. As they quickly clear the stairs and as much of the building as possible, muffled shots are heard on the roof. Pops delivers of a front kick to the back of the last steve in the stairwell sending it sprawling onto the rooftop. He follows with a double tap to the head and crumples backwards as a stray defender shot catches him in the center of his chest. He gasps for air and manages to make it to his knees quickly assessing inside his vest to verify he doesn’t have a new hole. He pushes off a QRF member offering aid and kneels up with his sidearm in hand staring into the faces of four hunters. He levels the gun and fires wildly but effectively. Shots ring out around him and he sees Scarlett standing over two bodies with orange Spartan helmets on the vests.
Blood pours from her leg as she screams a hellish battle cry while ventilating the last ravager. When it falls and the shooting stops, she spins and begins to pull medical supplies out of a nearby range bag. Wade and Trey both come to simultaneously and they are forced back down by the QRF members.
Wade, bleeding from his right bicep and legs, grudgingly pushes them away, “Get the fuck off!”
Trey, bleeding from his head again, also pushes the helpful defender away, “Just a little shock from blood loss. Nothing to worry about. We’re good.”
Pops, “Time to move boys and girls. Scarlett, you’re done, get to the med truck and get that leg tied off.”
Scarlett starts to pale, “I’ll shake it off.”
Trey, “No, go get cleaned up, that was a nasty ravager that snagged you. You can come back when you’re patched.”
Chief, “Splitters! Go for another run! Demo, when they clear set off the secondary charges, then let ‘em have half of your handhelds! Save the remainder for the shit hitting the fan.”
Cane chuckles as he fires into the faces of the steves pinned against the wall, “Like it hasn’t hit the fan already.” The sounds of gunfire start to slack as the defenders reload, slack but never stop.
♦ ♦ ♦
Fred, “Shea, Monty, Graff, Romano and Savoie, come with me. I’ve got a plan and we’re going to keep it quiet.”
Shea finishes reloading his rifle, “Pretty busy at the moment, don’t ya think?”
Fred, “It’s my ‘Plan B’. We’re going to collapse a building on steve.”
Monty, “Are you serious, bro?”
Graff, “How the fuck are we supposed to get to it, we’re literally surrounded.”
Fred, “That’s why I’m picking you four, Shea, Graff, Monty and Romano. Use the neighbors, rooftops, alleys, whatever it takes. Get to that thin six story building. Savoie and I will provide as much superior firepower and cover as we can.” He passes them each a backpack loaded to capacity, “Take these. Obviously be gentle, and place them in all four interior corners, about twenty feet off the walls. That’s a whole lot of boomers, make ‘em count.”
Romano, “Fucking thing is heavy, how do you even know it’ll work?”
“I had Beau and Fitz, our wonderful engineers, figure out if it was possible and what we would need. So I kept these for the worst. And this is the worst. In case you haven’t noticed, the wall isn’t as straight as it started. A few thousand steves are pushing it in.”
Shea, “Chief just gave the order for the secondary demo charges. We going after?”
“As soon as they stop echoing.”
♦ ♦ ♦
The sounds of more explosions going off
give hope to the defenders. Only the individuals high up can see the little effect they actually have. They decide to keep silent their doubts, reloading and firing in a melancholy air.
Fifteen minutes after the explosions, an earth shattering boom forces all the defenders to duck for cover. When they look up they see a six story building, one thousand meters out, shudder and eventually collapse spewing glass, rock, metal, and all sorts of deadly debris into Veterans Boulevard. The resulting dust cloud blocks the view of the steves further out and gives a jolt of happiness and hope to the defenders. The jolt lasts only as long as the cloud. As it dissipates, steves are clambering over the wreckage in a never ending whirlwind of corpses.
The fight drags on and on. Tens of thousands of rounds are expended and the incoming hostiles never slow. The little slice of paradise known as Kenner is a full scale war zone. Sweat and blood drips from every defender’s face. Exhaustion hits hard as adrenaline begins to wear off. The end of the horde nowhere in sight and some defenders lose their will to fight. Some collapse and sob. Others just stare blankly into the air. Others have now taken to melee weapons or even their empty firearms. A primal rage sets in, a fury and desire for survival. Some a pure bloodlust to kill and kill and kill any unnatural form of life.
A familiar sound displaces all the echoes of gunfire. Many recognize the sound of a jet, high overhead. Many stop firing to try to locate the source, but they can’t spot it above the clouds, smoke, and dust. In the east on the horizon, four small blobs seem to be growing in size.
Cane squints at the objects after eviscerating another steve brain, “The fuck is that?” As they grow larger and larger a smile breaks across his face, “No fucking way!” He keys his radio, “POPS! LOOK EAST! I THINK THE CAVALRY JUST SHOWED UP!”
Pops looks away into the distance, four Apache helicopters come screaming in with their thirty millimeter chain guns decimating the steve ocean. They tear up Veterans Boulevard and bank hard just before the wall, coming around to make another pass. The two on the wings open up again with the M230 chain guns and the two center helicopters let loose their Hydra 70 rocket pods sending body parts and debris vaulting through the air. The defenders whoop and cheer as the helicopter war machines bank again to make a third run. More helicopters can be seen flying around the perimeter of the city frequently shooting down to the ground.
Chief stands atop a fire truck with heavy duty binoculars staring through the falling debris. A large convoy stretching across both sides of the road approaches. He keys the radio, “Defenders, clear up what you got. Two-Six meet me at Gateway.”
Within minutes and two more passes of the AH-64 Apaches the roadway is almost free of the walking dead. All eighteen of Two-Six stands together on the roofs of Gateway. Watching the convoy as it draws nearer. As the lead Humvee comes to a stop, multiple armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) fire into the remaining steves, cutting them down.
A soldier in ACU camouflage steps out of the Humvee and looks at the ground splattered with gore beneath him. A steve cut to pieces reaches out with its sole remaining arm and the soldier stomps the steve’s face. He looks up as the gunfire behind him stops. Two-Six climbs down to the now relatively safe ground and stands behind the chief as he curiously stares at the soldier.
Soldier, “My name is Colonel Samuel Abscomb, United States Army. Who’s in charge here?”
Chief, “Well, until you showed up, I was. I’m the chief of police here.”
Col. Abscomb eyeballs the eighteen members of Two-Six standing behind the chief. Blood, gore, dirt, bandages, and firearms cover their bodies. The Colonel notices the orange emblem even through the grime and obstructions, “They your personal bodyguard?”
Chief smiles, “Guess you could more accurately say, they’re my version of a Special Forces Unit: Task Force Two-Six.”
Col. Abscomb, “Hm. Interesting.” He nods in acknowledgment, “Gentlemen, ladies.”
An unsettling silence follows as Colonel Abscomb and the chief stare at each other. The colonel’s team stands clean and well-fed behind him, sizing up the members of Two-Six.
After what seems like an eternity of silence, Cane helps Scarlett walk to the front of the group and the colonel meets his eyes, “Sooo... Are you guys here to help or what?”
♦ ♦ ♦
THE END
EPILOGUE
Carla Pattons, “This is Carla Pattons with the news,” her red face is streaked with tears ruining the otherwise professional makeup. “I’ve just been informed that our own Rick Moinas has succumbed to the MRF Virus. Is there nowhere safe to go? Is there anyone even watching anymore? If anyone is out there, we are trapped. They have surrounded the building. Many of our team members have perished, we cannot contain them much longer. They seem to be getting stronger. Please help us.” Glass shatters in the background and her head whips around to locate the source. “Please hurry! We may not have much time!” The camera abruptly falls over and a loud growl is heard followed shortly by the sounds of running feet and a female scream. “NO!”
Colonel Abscomb turns the television off, “What’s the word?”
Private Cutridge, “Total loss, sir. However, we should probably pay more attention to the people in Kenner. We don’t know how much they are aware of the situation. They seemed rather leery of us after we saved their asses.” He clears his throat quickly, “In my opinion of course, sir.”
Colonel Abscomb waves the comment away, “Then I think we should bring them up to speed.”
Character List
Carla Pattons - News Anchor
Rick Moinas - Weatherman
Steve - Name given to the undead by Cane Hollann in lieu of ‘zombie’
Hunter - First stage in steve progression
Lurker - Second stage in steve progression
Ravager - Third stage in steve progression
Pops - Father of Hollann Family, Police Sergeant, Task Force Two-Six member, Legacy One
Mom - Mother of Hollann Family
Gavin - Eldest Hollann brother, ex-Police Officer, Task Force Two-Six member, Legacy Two
Trey - Middle Hollann brother, Police Officer, Task Force Two-Six member, Basher One
Cane - Youngest Hollann brother, Police Officer, Task Force Two-Six member, Spartan One
Wade - Unofficially adopted brother of Hollann Family, Task Force Two-Six member, Basher Two
Scarlett - Cane’s wife, Task Force Two-Six dispatcher
Lynn - Trey’s wife
Emma - Trey’s daughter
Skyy - Cane’s white German Shepherd
Meeko - Cane’s mutt
Mia - Cane’s mutt
Goose - Pops’ German Shepherd
Wyatt - Friend of Hollann Family, also unofficially adopted, Task Force Two-Six member, Spartan Two
Marie - Wyatt’s girlfriend
Mallory - Refugee picked up by Hollann family on Causeway Bridge
Justin - Mallory’s son
Ronson - Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Deputy, Task Force Two-Six member, Addition Three, Later Addition Two
Denise - Ronson’s wife
Abbey - Ronson’s Daughter
Beau - Friend of Hollann Family, Task Force Two-Six member, Addition Two, Late Addition One
Rapp - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Two-Six member, Ninja One
Tina - Rapp’s wife
Fitz - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Two-Six member, Ninja Two
Raquel - Fitz’s wife
Fred - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Two-Six member, Ninja Three, Later Guard One
Lillian - Fred’s wife
Troops - Fred’s four children
Coll - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Two-Six member, Addition One, Later Guard Two
Chief - Police Chief of Kenner Police Department
Fire Commander - Leader of Kenner Fire Department
Dr. Wilcox - Primary doctor at the Kenner Hospital facility running experiments on the dead
; Extras
Patriarch - Leader of the family living on the outside of the hunting lease
Santos - Police Officer before the turn
Couturie - Police Officer before the turn
Legaux - Police Officer before the turn
Schoen - Police Officer before the turn
Bondio - Police Officer before the turn
Gagliano - Police Officer before the turn
Monty - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Recovery member
Shea - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Recovery member
Graff - Police Officer before the turn, Task Force Recovery member
Savoie - Police Officer before the turn
Mack - Police Sergeant before the turn
Romano - Police Officer before the turn
Frum - Police Officer before the turn
Jack - Lone survivor of first ravager attack
Young Deputy - Deputy trying to confiscate the running Hollann vehicles, Deceased
Old Deputy - Deputy aggressively trying to confiscate the running Hollann vehicles, Deceased
Church of the New Age Resurrection - Church started after the Turn that worship the dead and believe prayer with reverse their condition
Preacher - Leader of the Church of the New Age Resurrection
Joshua - Preacher’s right hand man
Dexter - Joshua’s helper
Free Defectors - group of escaped convicts roaming the New Orleans Metropolitan area
Big Head - Leader of the Free Defectors
Little Willie - Big Head’s right hand man