If we were attacked by either people or infected, it wouldn’t take long for our stockpile to run out. Thankfully, they’d also picked up a few BB guns. While it wouldn’t stop a human, much less one of these infected things, it would give the oldest children a chance to practice so that when things went to hell, they might be able to hit something.
Until now, we hadn’t really had lookouts overnight because I’d gotten some cool surveillance equipment from Cooper. Now that things were looking more serious and could get messy very fast, I would have to setup some extra measures after the little visit from Jim in the morning.
Josh and Ray had been out all day with me, so I told them to get some sleep. Tyler and Sam were going to setup some spot to watch from inside the fence.
I was worried that we would start seeing infected more often, and while it was only barbed wire fencing, I hoped it would stop them long enough for us to take them out.
Instead of pacing the cabin, I went to take a walk so that the others might be able to sleep. Not really planning to walk up to the house, I started in the other direction and managed to end up standing next to the barn, watching the lights go out all over the house as everyone settled down.
The kids had been excited with our plan and couldn’t wait to make Jim Danvers’ life hell.
A figure emerged from the shadows of the house, and I felt my body go on alert. There wasn’t really any moonlight, and even though I’d been in many situations in the military, I still didn’t have impeccable eyesight.
The shape moved liked it was alive, and it stopped at the edge of the house before creeping toward the barn.
I slid back to hide in the shadows, waiting to see what the person was doing.
The barn door creaked open and the light hit Jessica’s face.
Now that there wasn’t a threat, I decided to have some fun with her.
I snuck up behind her and grabbed her around the waist.
She kicked down on my instep so fast, I dropped my arms quickly. I was so distracted by her reaction that I almost missed it when she threw up her elbow, headed for my nose.
“Jessica, it’s me.”
My voice made it through the fog around her and she stopped her attack.
“Linc, I was looking for you. I just didn’t expect you to sneak up behind me. Did I hurt you?”
“No, steel toed reinforced boots. If you’d connected to my nose, it would’ve been a different story.”
“That would have drastically changed the idea I had for a make-out session.”
Jessica walked around me and shut the door so that the light didn’t escape, giving those outside an unintentional show.
Her fingers gently caressed my arm, and then she pulled me over to the stack of hay bales. As she leaned in to brush a stray piece of hay from my forehead, I met her lips, taking control of the situation.
As her body seemed to melt under my touch, a voice spoke from the door next to us.
“Hey, Linc. I think you’d better get out here, and bring your gun.”
“Crap, we can’t ever catch a break,” Jessica muttered as she rolled off of me. Reaching over to the guns we’d hidden earlier, she picked up a Beretta M950.
“Oh, no. You’re not going out.”
The protest had barely left my mouth when she shushed me.
“Did you hear that?”
She took off running for the light switch by the door and flipped it off, cracking the barn door slightly.
“There. What’s that noise?”
I strained to bring my focus back to a reality where I wasn’t about to get laid. Then I heard the moans of the dead coming from the direction of the main road.
There was no way to use the radio now because it would just alert those things to Tyler and Sam’s presence.
“Come with me, but stay behind me. And don’t shoot unless you absolutely have to, agreed?”
She nodded yes, looking very nervous.
No time like the present to pop her battle cherry, I thought regretfully as I buckled my pistol belt and unlocked the snap over my gun.
The open space between the house and barn weren’t ideal, and it was something I would need to worry about later.
We followed the sounds out to the place Sam had hidden in so he could keep watch in two directions at once.
My eyes had adjusted a little to the darkness surrounding us, but I hadn’t expected to see a group of about twenty infected things pushing up against the fence, trying to reach the cows that had been roaming nearby.
“I think they can smell fresh meat.” Sam’s voice spoke from just above us, making Jessica jump, but she didn’t move the pistol’s aim from the ground in front of her.
“When the first cow, well, mooed, those things hadn’t really noticed them. They were walking down the middle of the road, and then they shambled after the first one toward the fence and the cows. It only made the cows worse because they sensed those zombie things wanted to eat them.”
“Well,” Sam drawled out quietly, “there was only one cow out that way, and they passed it heading directly toward the ten that were hanging out here in the corner. They didn’t just want a steak for dinner, they wanted a few a piece.”
“They need to be taken out.” Tyler spoke directly behind me, but I’d heard him approaching so I wasn’t shocked like Jessica was.
Me and the guys were going to give her and her sister a heart attack if this stealthy stuff kept up.
“We can’t just start shooting them. It could bring more to us than we can handle at a time.”
“She’s right, you know,” Sam agreed from his perch in the tree. “I can take down a few to see how they react since I’ve got the quietest gun at the moment.”
“Staying out here, hoping for the best isn’t the solution, and the children can’t see any of this until they absolutely have to become involved. Light ’em up, Sam.”
I stood there with them as the infected began to drop, as the slight pop of Sam’s gun did its job.
Slowly, a pile collected at the corner of the farm where the cows had been only a few minutes before. The moans faded away, and the silence suddenly seemed threatening.
“Boss, what are we going to do with the bodies out there? If we’re protecting the kids, shouldn’t we get rid of the evidence?”
“That should wait for daylight because we don’t know how many more might be straggling behind it. I’ll have Josh and Ray use the tractor to make a hole in the empty field over there. I just hope to get it done before our guest arrives.”
Frustration had me running a hand through my hair, when what I really wanted to was scream instead. Solutions weren’t going to get easier and would be harder to come by very soon, but we couldn’t just leave bodies out in the open or take a chance that this virus could be transferred to the rest of us on the farm.
“We’ll bury them this time, but in the future, we may just have to pile them up and hope for the best. Let’s get through tomorrow and see what kind of situation we’re dealing with. And if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.”
“Not much we can do in the dark, but I do think we should keep the cows in the back pasture, away from the road for a while. We could also reinforce the fencing up there by the main road so if more do come through here, we can keep them moving on, straight down the road and into town.” Tyler agreed walking closer to the fence to take a look at the dead.
“They’re going to keep coming, aren’t they?” Jessica slipped her left arm around mine.
“I’m afraid so. I wish I had something else I could tell you, but this may be the world we live in now.”
“It was horrible out there today. Those things were eating people like it was a delicacy. I had to shoot humans.”
Her body gave a shudder as she inched closer to me.
“Don’t even get me started on the man in the gun shop who thought he could take advantage of us because we were women with an unlim
ited credit card.”
“You haven’t acted impulsively, even when the guys here just snuck up on you. How are you managing to keep so cool?”
I wanted to keep the pride I felt to myself, but so far, Jessica was doing better than many privates that showed up at basic.
“Really? I’m a mom. If I panicked at every sound or freaked out because something is out of the norm, I’d be in hysterics all the time. Although, I have to say these zombie humans are not normal.”
“Can you two lovebirds take it somewhere else? I’m trying to focus all my non-mom energy on keeping us safe and you’re distracting me.”
“Ignore him, Jessica. He’s just pissed that you chose this fine male specimen that thinks mom radar is better than someone who’s just a know-it-all.”
“He’s right. I should head back to the house in case the kids or Tracy heard anything and decide to investigate.”
Lips brushed against my cheek, and then she was gone.
“Sorry, boss. Didn’t mean to cockblock you.” Sam’s voice held not one drop of sincerity.
Tyler returned before we could trade more insults.
“The ones out there aren’t moving anymore, so they won’t attract others.”
“Of course they’re not moving. I shot’em.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Tyler countered. “They were dead before you shot them, and yet they were still walking around and moaning as if their lives depended on it.”
I could sense this was going to be a new contest between equally qualified military guys, so I excused myself.
“Listen, whatever you two have to tell yourselves to be able to sleep tomorrow, but I’ve been up all day. Since my one moment of relaxation has been taken away, I’m out.”
Leaving them behind, I made sure to walk away from the house, even though the urge to just go knock on the door and see if anyone had been disturbed was very strong.
My bed was calling my name. One more night alone in it was going to be sheer torture, but I could do it. An exit plan was going to be very difficult depending on how things went with Jim. We were going to need to check in with my mom and make sure that there was a way into town that didn’t involve going through the main entrance.
Solutions to a myriad of problems flashed through my mind as I finally drifted off into a restless sleep.
Patti
One week. That’s how long I’d been clearing out the stupid dead rich people. I’d never had to shoot so many targets wearing only a bikini.
They were dead no matter how rich, famous, or good looking they had once been. Even some of the zombies were good looking, and I couldn’t begin to imagine how hot they’d been before they became infected.
An entire area of people who were trying to tell us, the ones with the guns, how to protect them from these things.
Now, it was time for our unit to find a way to clear out two bridges so that we could get to the hospital just across the way. The best way to take out that many infected was to use a rocket launcher or flamethrower, but it might only set these guys on fire.
Making it to the hospitals had become an urgent situation last night when Len had seen lights on the upper two floors of the hospital that hadn’t been there the day before.
It didn’t make any sense unless there were survivors holding out against the sick who had become infected.
“Corporal, how are we going to clear out that group and make it inside? There must be over 1000 dead wandering outside, and probably that many more just waiting for us to let them out.”
“Steve, you’re pretty good with a rifle. Do you think that you can take out those infected from this distance?”
It looked to be at least a mile, but that was just a guess.
“With a scope, sure thing. If we can take out a chunk of them without going over there, I can get on top of one of those trucks they’ve used as a barricade to take out more, closer to the hospital.”
Steve walked over to the supply vehicle and pulled out three sniper rifles, and handed two over to Len and Tom.
“Here, let’s see if we can take these guys out, but you other guys will have to keep us covered because we won’t be able to hear while we’re lighting these ZITs up.”
The boys had fun until the barrels of their rifles got too hot to continue shooting. The noise had stirred the horde up, but they hadn’t made it across the river yet.
From the looks of things, the National Guard had put a fence up to keep people, or the infected, from the edge of the water so that we didn’t suddenly have a river full of floating undead.
The only thing my team had managed to accomplish was a huge pile of dead bodies that now made it impossible to hit anything behind it.
“Hey, Corporal. I’m not having any trouble hitting the infected, but those of us that died over there are a bit more difficult because they have a lot of armor on, and the helmets aren’t helping us with the head shots. We should cross the bridge and see if we can get some higher ground with an advantage to help clear a path.”
I shook my head at Tom’s words. “No, it’s too close to dark now. We’ll go back to where we’ve setup camp and come back in the daylight. I don’t think we’ll be able to leave our position if we’re on top of those vehicles. It may even cause the horde to work together and push the vehicles to this side. Right now, they can’t smell or hear us except for a general direction of sounds, so we have the upper hand.”
“Can we burn them up? Those that are already dead-dead?” Len asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
“That might take care of the bodies, but the light will draw others when it’s dark. Come first light, you can fire up as many extras that are drawn to the flames before we head in closer. It should also keep them distracted while we do.” I sighed as the possibilities continued to pile up. The people in the hospital might not have time for us to find safe options to rescue them.
“Sleep. We need to be rested or we’ll make stupid mistakes that’ll get us dead. I really want to save people, but not at the risk of my team dying. We’ve already learned that from the zombie dog.”
Although I heard a few grumbles from the boys on my team, because they liked action, they packed up the rifles. There was no way to police our shells, and under normal circumstances, I’d have been all over them for leaving that amount of brass, but there were more important things at the moment.
The sun was almost hidden behind the ridge. “Move it, guys. We don’t want to get caught out here.”
I took off at a slow run toward the supply vehicle so we could head to the house we had been staying at that was surrounded by huge iron fences.
The gate was closed, but the other guys were watching for us and manually opened the gate as we approached.
I got out to check in with those on watch, while Tom drove the truck up next to the house for quick access in case things got sticky overnight.
“How did things go while we were gone?”
“Um, we took out a few walking zombies, but nothing else for the past several hours.”
“Good, I’ll take one of the first shifts. Draw names and let me know who else gets the short draw.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rick saluted sloppily, leaving me in peace for a few precious moments.
That was the thing I hated most about this zombie apocalypse thing, the lack of privacy. I hadn’t had any personal time in weeks, and normally the team had a little down time from the constant adrenaline rush that came from being on guard all the time.
If this continued, there were going to be shorter tempers, and I just might be stuck with five guys I had no interest in repopulating the world with, no matter how dire things got.
I could’ve slept all day, but killing ZITs with fire had all of us excited. I mean, I hadn’t joined the military to lead a boring life, so playing with fire was a big to-do on my list.
A few energy bars later and all of us were geared up and ready to leave
, as a light pink tinted the sky, bringing in a new day.
Instead of the guys closing the gate after the truck, they came through and closed it, making sure that only living things would find a way inside.
“How do things look?” I asked through the flap between the back and the driver’s seat.
“The ZITs have pressed against all the bodies from yesterday, so when we send a flare over, it should take a few extras with all the fire.”
“Or we could have fiery ZITs running around, catching more things on fire. The blind leading the blind, and they might set more things on fire than we want since there isn’t a way to put out extra fires from here.” Joe painted a humorous, if not untrue situation.
“Steve, are you in position to fire?”
“Corp, you’re going to let him have all the fun? That’s no fair,” Len whined as he took out a rifle with a scope attached.
“Len, I don’t think you have to worry about not having fun. There’ll be plenty of chances to use the rocket launcher.”
“Let’s burn some shit up.” Steve braced his feet and propped the launcher on his shoulder.
“Clear?” Steve called out, checking the proximity of people around the back blast area.
“All good,” I replied as everyone stood to the side.
Earplugs had cut down on some of the noise but it was still loud, and after three shots, my ears were beginning to ring.
Steve lowered the smoking launcher while the others started taking out the ZITs drawn to the now severed, burning flesh of the dead.
I looked around to make sure that our little fire show hadn’t brought any unwanted attention to us. While we were the military assigned here, that didn’t mean that there weren’t others with guns who would like to relieve us of our weapons.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for a few extra ZITs that were moving in behind us.
I pulled my pistol out, and four rounds later, we were in the clear again.
“Do you think we can make it over to the trucks and finish clearing a path to the hospital?” Tom passed the binoculars to me for a look at what we’d accomplished.
Military Against Zombies (The Against Zombies Series Book 2) Page 6