Still Standing
Author: R.S. Merritt
Date: 2020-07-18 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Horror
Description: The finale to the Zombies! series brings all the players together for one epic final battle. It's a fast paced slug fest to see if a new world will be born out of the ashes of the old or if the old ways will finally destroy mankind for good. A messy, bloody, dirty battle that has to be fought. Kyler struggles through the final stages of a second mission where his leadership once again seeks to leverage his survivor instincts as well as the brand seared into the flesh on his back. Randy and Kelly roll the dice to see if they can win their daughters a new life in a new world. Krantz sinks furthe

Zombies!

Book 7

“Still Standing”

R S Merritt

Text Copyright © 2020 Randall Scott Merritt

All Rights Reserved

This series is dedicated to my beautiful wife and family.  My reasons for waking up in the morning and not wanting to go to sleep at night.

Cover Design By:

Harry Lamb

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:  There and Back Again

Chapter 2:  Iron Man

Chapter 3:  The South Will Rise Again

Chapter 4:  Suicide Mission

Chapter 5:  Island Life

Chapter 6:  The Hub

Chapter 7:  Secrets Within Secrets

Chapter 8:  In Hindsight I’d Have Put All My Chips on Red

Chapter 9:  Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

Chapter 10:  Capture the Flag or Die

Chapter 11:  Back to Reality

Chapter 12:  The Kill Zone

Chapter 13:  Fool Me Once

Chapter 14:  Back on Solid Ground

Chapter 15:  Dead Serious Small Talk

Chapter 16:  Squirrel Kabob

Chapter 17:  Willy Wonka’s Wild Ride

Chapter 18:  Bits and Bytes

Chapter 19:  All Aboard

Chapter 20:  Scars, Walking and Whiskey

Chapter 21:  The Front Lines

Chapter 22:  Loco Locomotive

Chapter 23:  Second Wind

Chapter 24:  Tightening the Noose

Chapter 25:  Fish in a Barrel

Chapter 26:  A Short Time to Get there

Chapter 27:  A Vicious Cycle

Chapter 28:  Isn’t It Ironic

Chapter 29:  Hiding in Plain Sight

Chapter 30:  Theirs but to Do and Die

Chapter 31:  The Last Mile

Chapter 32:  On the Road Again

Chapter 33:  Attacking the Armpit of Virginia

Chapter 34:  Made it Back, Again…

Chapter 35:  When You’re Going Through Hell

Chapter 36:  We Attack at Dusk

Epilogue:  Haze Grey and Underway

Author’s Note

Other Series by R S Merritt

Chapter 1:  There and Back Again

“How long do you think we’ll have to sit here?”  Kyler asked.

“You sick of the air conditioning and great food already?  Looking forward to getting back out on the road eating dented cans of botulism beans while trying not to be eaten by the infected?”  Chief Presly answered.  He was enjoying his third large glass of wine.  Kyler assumed that whoever originally set the table had intended for each of them to have a glass with their meal.  The chief had decided otherwise and laid claim to the whole bottle once it was obvious that they weren’t going to be having a sit-down lunch with Commander Hartfield anytime soon.

“I really miss the smell of mold and decay.  Plus, we’ll just get fat eating all this non-diarrhea inducing food.  Especially since without anything chasing us, we won’t even be getting any exercise.  I wish I could get my hands on a fit bit because I’m pretty sure I’ve got an unbelievable number of steps racked up by now.”  Kyler threw in the last part about the Fitbit thinking of his mom.  She’d been adamant about counting her steps every day.  Kyler wondered if she was wandering around for eternity now with the fit bit still dangling off her bra strap.  He smiled thinking she’d really want to know how many steps she racked up as a mindless Zombie.

“I’m going to get some exercise hunting down some more booze if no one shows up soon.”  Presly said noting that Kyler had faded out for a second.  People suddenly going vacant was a pretty common occurrence in this new normal.  Pretty much everyone had lost loved ones in horrific situations.  You could be talking to someone or hanging out doing whatever and they’d just disappear for a minute.  It was normally pretty easy to tell something had reminded them of a lost loved one from the dying times.  The time when no one knew what was going on.  The time when a loving mother might suddenly have had something click in her feverish brain making her viciously rip her teeth into her own baby.

Things like that were never really forgotten.  It drove weak people completely crazy.  It mentally crippled even those who were better equipped to handle it.  The only ones who didn’t have major cases of PTSD were people who’d been born sociopathic.  People who’d been loners to begin with also seemed to do ok.  Kyler fit into that latter category.  He’d kept his distance from most people after the death of his father years before the apocalypse happened.  He’d still had people in his life he’d cared about though.  Losing them had left deep scars on his soul that matched up with the physical scars covering his body.

Kyler snapped out of his random Fitbit induced mini breakdown when someone knocked on the door to the conference room turned dining area that they were in.  The door opened seconds after the loud knocking and a small group of hard looking men entered the room.  Kyler and Chief Presly both scrambled to their feet to stand at attention as the commander of the armies of the settlements walked into the room.  Technically the settlements still just considered themselves part of the United States but since their enemy to the south had adopted the name of New America it’d made figuring out what to call themselves super awkward.

“At ease.  I see we have some food left but it looks like the wine evaporated.”  Commander Hartfield said with a tired grin.  The commander was wearing a slightly rumpled khaki uniform.  Kyler did a quick doubletake looking at the officers insignia and noticing the extra stripe.

“Congratulations on your promotion sir.”  Kyler said.

“Thank you.  They wanted to make me an admiral, but I didn’t see the need to fly that far in the face of tradition.  Especially since as far as I know there aren’t any admirals alive anyway.  If no one outranks you then getting promoted really just means having to sew new patches on your uniforms.  Who needs all that work right?”  Captain Hartfield replied moving towards Kyler with his hand out.  His response sounded a bit canned and the joke a little tired, but his obvious passion shone through.  This was a man you wanted on your side.

Kyler reached out and grasped Hartfield’s extended hand.  It hadn’t been that long ago that the captain had sent him off on a mission that had life or death consequences for Kyler.  Now Kyler found himself wrapping up the handshake and wondering to himself if the trip had even been worth the effort.  He personally had no regrets because he’d saved Randy and his family from the Brotherhood.  As far as the big picture went though, he doubted that was going to be something Hartfield cared about.  Would anything he’d learned actually help them prepare to defend against the onslaught coming their way from the south?

“It’s good to be back sir.”  Kyler said as Hartfield pumped his hand a few times before letting go.  The captain indicated everyone should sit down.  He introduced the men he was with as his advisors and personal guards then after picking a few French fries off a plate asked Kyler to tell them his story.  Kyler asked how long he should take, and the captain told him he wanted to hear every bit of it if it took all night.

“Sir.  There’s no need to humor me.  I’m happy to have gone on the mission you sent me out on.  I just don’t know how much valuable intel you’re going to get out of my story, and I don’t want to waste your time.”  Kyler said. He felt good about having put it out there.  He sat down uncomfortably waiting to see what Hartfield had to say to that.

“I appreciate that.  If you could humor me though and just start talking, I think there’s a lot we can learn about the people down south from the interactions you had with them.  For instance, did you ever get close to the Senator?”  Hartfield asked.

“I saw him once when we flew in to support the surrender of that warlord in Tennessee, but I didn’t talk to him or anything.  We were just there with Krantz to support Roberts.”  Kyler said.  Hartfield grinned and shook his head. The rest of the men around the table stared incredulously at Kyler.  The chief was looking at Kyler with his mouth hanging open in complete shock.  They hadn’t really talked in specific about what Kyle had accomplished on the spying mission he’d been sent on.

“You were in on the expansion of the Senators forces to Tennessee.  You were riding around with Commander Krantz who’s most likely the person now in charge of all the New American militia.  If my sources are right, you also helped the family escape who was responsible for killing the Senators sister.  Not to mention you got yourself initiated into their Brotherhood club somehow.”  The captain paused to shake his head admonishingly while looking Kyler in the eyes for a couple of seconds before wrapping up.  “I’m actually going to have you hold off for a minute.  I want some more people in the room for what I’m sure is going to be a remarkable and extremely insightful debriefing.  You are in no way wasting our time.  Now have a couple of those onion rings.  The chef grows the onions himself and they’re delicious.”

Kyler dutifully munched on the fried onion rings while the captain sent for a few more people to come to sit in on the debriefing.  Kyler hadn’t realized how much information he’d actually collected until the professionals in the room began questioning him to extract every last drop of data.  He’d been thinking of his spy mission and data collection like it was a James Bond movie.  He felt bad that he hadn’t stolen a flash drive wristwatch from somewhere to bring back the plans for some new type of weapon or something.  He began to understand that the intel he’d gathered around how the Brotherhood functioned and how supplies were hidden was huge.  The intel around weapons and capabilities and tactics they’d used to take land away from the infected and uninfected alike.

It was extremely late when Kyler finished his story and the captain called it a day.  He thanked Kyler again before telling him he’d more than earned any reward he might want to ask for.  On hearing Kyler just wanted to reclaim his former billet with the rovers he said that shouldn’t be an issue.  He said it but Kyler sensed there was an objection there.  The party broke up with everyone getting up from the table and walking out of the conference room.  Each man taking the time to thank Kyler and welcome him back.  Chief Presly sighed once everyone had left.  He’d been looking sadly at the empty wine bottle for the latter half of Kyler’s story.

“You did good.  I kind of thought you’d either end up getting killed or come back with a bunch of useless trivia.  You somehow managed to nail that mission though.”  The chief said standing up and dumping his trash in the can at the end of the room.

“You think they’ll assign me back to you or a different team?”  Kyler asked.

“I think you’ll probably get rewarded for your hard work by being given even harder work.  You’ve violated one of the number one rules in the military which is to never volunteer for anything.  Now that you’ve not only volunteered but managed to somehow do an unbelievably great job at it, you’re probably going to be given something either extremely dangerous or extremely boring to do.”  The chief answered.

The chief headed to his barracks to crash for the night after agreeing to meet back up with Kyler the next day if he heard anything.  Kyler ate a few more of the cold, greasy, delicious onion rings then tossed his trash in the bin and stood up to leave as well.  The table had been cleared off pretty well by the men who’d sat around it.  Hartfield didn’t bother having people come in to clean up after him.  He threw away his own garbage and had even wiped down the top of the table where he’d been sitting before leaving.  In a way Hartfield reminded Kyler a lot of Krantz.  He wondered if Hartfield would be leading the New American forces now if he’d been in the position Krantz was in at the beginning of all of this.  Accidents of geography accompanied the impact of gradually slipping into the depravity that was the nation being constructed by the Senator.

The enlisted quarters Kyler had been put up in weren’t as spacious as the chiefs and officers’ quarters, but they were still luxurious compared to life out on the road.  He had a small room he shared with one of the base cooks.  Being in that line of work the man was basically working all day everyday which meant Kyler had the room to himself most of the time.  When he walked in this time the cook was just getting into bed.

“How’d you like the onion rings?”  The man asked.

“They were freakin’ awesome.”  Kyler answered.

“Excellent man.  Doing my part to bring back some of the good in the world.  Keep the partying down to a minimum if you don’t mind.  I’ve got to wake up in a few hours and get back to work.  We really need some more cooks around here.  Let me know if you’re interested in peeling potatoes all day.  I know people who know people.”

Kyler assured the cook he’d keep the offer in mind then sat on his own bunk to think.  Having spent a couple of days not running or fighting for his life he wasn’t as physically exhausted as normal.  His mind was spinning way too fast for him to easily fall asleep.  He lay down regardless and found himself seriously considering the cooks offer.  Compared to the dangerous work a lot of men did today the idea of living in an air-conditioned room and peeling potatoes all the time sounded pretty awesome.  Overthinking it he realized that there probably weren’t even a ton of potatoes to peel. Where would they get them from?

He lay in the small room listening to the cook softly snoring while he considered his options.  He was worried that Chief Presly was right and the captain may have other plans in mind for him.  What he wanted to do was go back to the roving patrols. It was a miserable, thankless existence but he liked being out in the woods doing good.  If he didn’t get assigned to the patrol, he didn’t know what he’d do.  He didn’t see himself hanging out here peeling potatoes or painting the sub or doing whatever the people stationed here did all day.  Knowing what he knew his big worry was that he was going to be put in the front lines of the assault on the Brotherhood.

He wasn’t scared of fighting.  He just didn’t like the idea of killing people who were just doing what they’d been ordered to do.  In a lot of cases the soldiers they’d be killing were only attacking them because if they didn’t their families would be punished.  They really didn’t have a choice in the matter.  Kyler knew that if their positions were reversed and they had his mom locked up in a camp he’d do what he was told to do as well.  He’d actually already done it as part of the invasion force into Tennessee.  The soldiers in the army coming at them didn’t deserve to die.  They were going to if they kept pressing the attack though.

Lost in his thoughts he gradually drifted into a restless sleep.  He woke up shaking from a dream about his infected mom hanging onto the truck door as he drove away before she could bite him.  That’s the last memory he had of her.  The cook had already left for the day to pick onions or do whatever he did that resulted in the highly addictive onion rings.  Yawning Kyler sat up and pulled on his boots.  He didn’t need to sleep fully dressed here since they were in a fairly secure base.  Fort Monroe was across the bay from Norfolk, Va. which was the main US Naval base for the east coast.  It was on a spit sticking into the bay where the bridges and beaches in and out had been heavily walled off to keep out the infected.

Boots pulled on he realized he had nowhere to go.  With no better destination he could think of he wandered down to the mess hall.  He was still having issues processing the fact that the people here were used to eating three hot meals every day.  That seemed insanely gluttonous to him since he was used to a daily helping of whatever random, long expired canned food he could find.  Arriving at the mess hall he grabbed a tray and helped himself to some coffee and a tray of eggs with a small stack of pancakes.  He sat down at an empty table and began eating.

“You Kyler?”  A uniformed man asked.

“That’s me.”  Kyler answered.

“Ok.  I’m here to take you over to the town hall building when you’ve finished your breakfast.  The captain wants to talk to you.”

Kyler scarfed down the food while the soldier stood behind him impatiently waiting.  Kyler would’ve just dumped his tray and left immediately but the thought of wasting good food made him cringe.  He assumed once the soldier dropped him off at the town hall he’d just be waiting around anyway.  He didn’t want to regret not eating if he was stuck there waiting for as long as he’d been stuck the day before waiting on the captain to show up.  When he’d finished the soldier walked him across the base towards the large building that served as the administrative center for operations for the settlements.

“Any idea what he wants to see me about?”  He asked the soldier.

“He didn’t consult with me about it.  He just told me to go find you.”  The soldier said before opening the door to the large building and walking Kyler inside.  They walked past a large reception area then continued almost all the way to the back of the building before Kyler was finally dumped into a chair in a nicely appointed hallway to wait.  Before he’d even had a chance to get bored the door was thrown open and a pissed off looking Chief Presly burst out.  He looked down at Kyler sitting there and his expression lightened up slightly.

“Get up.  Captain wants to see you.”  The chief said loudly jerking his hand to indicate Kyler should follow him back through the door.

Kyler got up and followed the chief into the room.  They both saluted when the captain stood up.  The captain returned the salute and motioned for them to sit down.  Once they were all sitting down Hartfield turned his attention to Kyler.

“I had a hard time sleeping last night after the debriefing.  You gave us a lot to chew on.  I think the biggest thing that came out of it was that there’s a tidal wave of uninfected men marching this way to fight us who don’t really have a choice in the matter.  The people controlling them by holding their families for ransom are the evil behind that march.  Do we agree on that?”  The captain asked Kyler.  The chief looked like he was about to say something, but Hartfield held up his hand to silence him.

“Yes sir.”  Kyler said.  He didn’t add that he’d also stayed up half the night thinking about the same thing.  He was curious where this was headed.

“The conversation with you last night confirmed that that’s what’s going on.  You’re the first one to really be able to lay out how the power structure that’s formed in the south has institutionalized kidnapping as leverage.  It’s just evil.”  The captain took a deep breath while he organized his thoughts.  “We’ve been bombing the hell out of their bases to get them to leave us alone.  All it seems to have accomplished is speeding up their attack on us.  I don’t want to give the order to mow down the troops they’re sending at us but pretty soon I won’t have a choice.  The only thing I can think of to stop them is taking out the Senator.  We’ve been bombing every command location of theirs we can find out about but we’re not getting him.  We need to know where he is.  We’re planning on sending in a team to try and find out where the Senator is so we can take him out.  The goal is to get to him before we have to kill thousands of men for no good reason.  You want in?”

“Don’t answer that Kyler.”  The chief spoke up.  “You’ve already risked too much.  We have plenty of men who can take this on.  Men who have way more years of experience than you do.  This is a suicide mission.  You’d have to be an idiot to volunteer to go back there again.”

“The chief’s not wrong.”  The captain interrupted.  “This is a hail Mary.  It’s totally up to you.  You’ve already proven you’re a natural at this sort of work.  If they catch you though then you’re going to be in a world of hurt.  They’ll consider you a traitor to that brand on your back.  You’ll be made an example out of.”

“Yes sir.  It’s not what I was hoping to do but I think you’re right about it being the only way.  I’m in.”  Kyler said after taking a moment to mull it over.  He knew he couldn’t in good conscience walk away from this mission.  He didn’t think he’d make it back a second time, but he didn’t see himself staying here and pulling the trigger on the poor slobs attacking them knowing that he could’ve possibly saved them.

“Thank you.  We’ve been working in the background on a plan to do this so there’s a small team pretty much ready to go.  You just happened to make it back in time to join up with them.”  The captain said getting up to once again shake Kyler’s hand.

“Thank you, sir.  Who do I report to for this?”  Kyler asked after Captain Hartfield released his hand.

“That should be a short walk for you.  The chief here will be leading the mission.”  Captain Hartfield said with a grin.

Chapter 2:  Iron Man

Randy hadn’t been a big athlete before the world went to hell.  He’d gone for occasional walks with Kelly and enjoyed jumping into the occasional pickup basketball game.  He had a gym membership he got for free through his work health insurance.  Once a year he had to lie on a form and say he actually went to the gym to keep getting it for free.  Otherwise he wouldn’t continue getting the extra money on his paycheck to cover the gold level membership he promised himself he was eventually going to use.

The end of the world had done wonders for his stamina and physique.  Constantly living on the edge of starvation, frequent bouts of diarrhea and running for his life most days while carrying small children had done wonders for his core.  He no longer had the spare tire he’d built up sitting at his desk for a large part of the day every week back before this new normal went into effect.  If he could pull up some old pictures of himself out of the ‘cloud’ somehow, he’d love to see some before and after’s.  No one else might care but he thought it’d be neat.

He was putting all of that newly gained physical stamina to good use now as he ran like his pants were on fire towards the lake.  He was wearing his pack and his rifle was banging painfully off his neck and chest as he ran.  The warehouse he’d run out of was spewing a long line of the demonic infected. The living demons had been maliciously summoned by the last vengeful shot from a suicidal guard. Randy knew it’d been his fault the guy had ended up infected and had to shoot himself.  He didn’t see where that gave the guy the right to be a jerk about it though.  He could’ve easily given Randy a little more lead time before eating a bullet from his own gun.

The lake was pretty close to the warehouse.  The problem was that he’d gone out the back of the warehouse which didn’t directly face the lake. He was going to have to jump off a concrete retaining wall, roll through a wooded area full of bushes, and then hit the water on the other side of the narrow beach as fast as he could.  The infected were doing their best to motivate him by screeching in lust for his flesh from all around him.  Randy made it to the ledge without being taken down.  Thinking to himself he might actually make it as long as he kept his head in the game, he leapt off the ledge.  It was only a couple of feet off the ground on that side of the warehouse.  He hit the ground hard and kept on running.

More accurately the top half of his body and one of his legs kept running while the remainder of his body stayed anchored to the root his other boot had gotten snagged on.  Feeling his leg pulling him painfully backwards he tripped and fell to the ground.  The first couple of adrenalized Zombies chasing him jumped completely over him.  One of them comically realizing its mistake in midair tried to spin around and ended up knocking itself out on a tree trunk.

Randy didn’t have time to enjoy the antics of the acrobatic jumpers since he was trying to get his foot out from underneath the root and get into the water before he was eaten alive.  A Zombie grabbed ahold of his rifle and began pulling him backwards while he was trying to stand up.  He let the rifle slide off his shoulder into the Zombie’s grasp.  He put his head down and pumped his legs to keep moving towards the lake.  He stiff armed the first Zombie who reached out for him and kept on running.  He bounced off a tree and got bogged down in the brush and briars. The Zombies chasing him seized every advantage to close the gap.  He pulled out his pistol in anticipation of having to shoot through a few Zombies to make it to the water.

He muscled his way through the briars with a complete disregard for his exposed skin.  Feeling like he needed to get some breathing room he spun on his heel with the pistol up and ready.  A Zombie was practically on top of him.  The barrel of his pistol tapped the Zombie in the forehead before he pulled the trigger and blew the miserable monsters brain out the back of its skull.  The momentum of the Zombie carried it forward and almost knocked Randy off his feet again.

Another Zombie was right behind that one.  Randy snapped off eight quick shots. He dropped five Zombies before turning to continue his desperate sprint for the safety of the deep water.  There were more Zombies beating their way through the brush than he had any hope of stopping.  He kept his gun in his hand in case he needed it to finish himself off.  One of the fast ones leapt at him grabbing his leg and trying to bite him through his pants.  Randy put the pistol barrel on its head and yanked the trigger twice.  He realized that he hadn’t remembered to make sure he wasn’t pointing the gun at any of his own body parts when he killed the Zombie. He had to get his brain back in the game or he wasn’t going to make it.

The second time he’d pulled the trigger nothing had happened.  He let the useless pistol fall into the shallow water as he rushed to get as deep as possible before diving in to swim for it.  The indescribable roar of the demons behind him told him it was futile for him to keep trying.  He did anyway.  He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t being pulled backwards by the herd chasing him.  It occurred to him that some of the background noise he was hearing was the sound of rifle shots.  That explained the little plumes of water that were popping up around him as he waded deeper into the lake.

He still wasn’t going to make it.  There’d been a lot of Zombie’s coming after him the last time he looked.  Quite a few of them being the beefed-up adrenalized ones who could leap tall buildings in a single bound.  Unless the shooters covering him were able to surgically take those out then the cover fire wasn’t going to be enough.  He finally got deep enough in the water to dive in and swim for it.  When his lungs forced him to come up for air, he saw the two pontoon boats steaming in his direction.  That explained the cover fire.  It also motivated him to swim like he was trying out for the Olympics.  Michael Phelps would’ve been hard pressed to swim as fast fully clothed with a pack strapped to his back.

His elation at seeing the pontoon boats was short lived.  He was forced under the water a second later when a large Zombie jumped on his back pulling them both under.  Feeling the creatures hands wrapped around him he shoved his head as far forward as he could. He let himself sink into the chilly water with his unwelcome passenger.  He was able to shake himself loose when the Zombie loosened its grip to slide up his body to get its mouth closer to his neck.  The bulky pack he was wearing had saved him from being bitten already.  He pulled a knife and opened his eyes in the cloudy water to attempt to spear the Zombie before it latched back on to him.

He recoiled in fear realizing the thing floating in the water directly in front of him was the bearded face of one of the infected.  It’s mouth was wide open as it tried to breathe and bite him all at the same time.  Zombies had serious issues dealing with deep water which is why they avoided it most of the time.  This one reached out and grabbed his shoulder to pull its face closer.  Randy punched it in the throat with his knife blade a couple of times.  Bloody bubbles poured out if its throat as it died still trying to get its teeth into him.

All around him more Zombies were thrashing around.  Some were in the process of drowning while others were managing to move through the water towards him.  Randy kicked off the bottom of the lake and swam as hard as he could in the direction that he thought would take him deeper.  He bounced off a couple of Zombies who didn’t realize their prey was the thing bumping into their legs. He swam until he felt like his lungs were going to burst and he was seeing black spots in front of his eyes.  When he couldn’t take it anymore, he kicked off the bottom and emerged out of the water.

The waist deep water.  He’d gotten turned around and swam right past his pursuers only to pop up closer to the beach.  He could hear the people on the pontoon boat yelling and screaming at him to get back under the water and swim for it.  He gasped for breath as the screeches of the infected drowned out the cries from the boats.  The water around him turning white as the Zombies rushed through it on their way to him.  He dove back under trying to hide his whole body under the water.  He felt hands grabbing his legs and realized his butt must be showing on the surface.  He kicked hard and slipped out of their grasp.  This time he knew which direction he should be swimming.

He swam underwater in the correct direction until he could no longer breathe.  When he got to the point of almost blacking out again, he kicked for the surface.  His head broke the surface and he bobbed in the water unable to touch the bottom.  The corpses of a couple of Zombies were floating in the water around him.  Not bothering to count the number of drowned Zombies floating in the water around him he turned and stroked as quietly as he could in the direction of the pontoon boats.  People were shooting off the deck at the infected who were still trying to get to him.  One of the boats cruised over to meet him.  Hands reached down to help him aboard.

Climbing onto the boat he was ecstatic to see Myriah and Zoey and everyone else.  They were all standing there beaming at him except for his wife.  Kelly was busy ripping at his clothes to make sure he hadn’t been bitten.  He kissed her when her face got close enough to his.  She finished checking him for bites and sat down on the deck beside him.  The rest of the family gathered around as well.  Everyone else on the boat went back to what they’d been doing before all the extra excitement.

“Miss me?”  Randy asked.  He had to speak loudly to be heard over the roar from the infected on the beach behind them.

“Sounds like the Zombies miss you dad.”  Myriah said.

They all turned to look back at the beach.  The entire surface of the beach out into the shallow water was packed tightly with the screaming infected.  There were hundreds of them stretched out along the murky shoreline.  That wasn’t even counting the ones who were floating around the perimeter of the mob in the deeper water.  The ones who’d either been shot or gotten in over their heads and drowned.

“I guess we’re headed for the moldy tent island then?”  Randy asked.

“Yes.”  Kelly snapped.  She looked at him with fire in her eyes for a moment before punching him hard in the chest.  “You idiot.  Never do that again!”

Randy bit back a sharp retort.  Should he never go look for their lost kids again?  He wanted to say something like that, but he didn’t.  His reserve was rewarded seconds later when Kelly threw her arms around him in a tearful hug.  She was more fearful of losing him than pissed at him.  He supposed he’d feel the same if the situation was reversed.  Come to think of it he had felt the same several times over the last couple of years when the situation had been reversed.  They didn’t live in a safe reasonable world anymore.  This wasn’t a world where you could sue McDonalds if hot coffee was spilled in your lap.  This was a world where you risked having the skin ripped off your body every time you stopped the car because someone had to pee.  A world where greasy little men in white vans with lost puppies and bags of cheap candy were no longer what parents feared most whenever their children were out of sight.

Randy held Kelly until the kids joined into the hug.  Doreen happily announcing to the world at large that it was a group hug and smiling like a little psycho.  The enthusiasm for the hug eventually waned and they wandered to the bow of the boat to watch as a small tree covered island drew steadily closer. They took in the sight of where they were going to be spending the next week or so living.  The counselor lady, Janet, hadn’t been lying when she’d told them it wasn’t the most pleasant of places to pass the time.  Randy imagined he could hear the buzz of giant mosquitoes from all the way out here.  The lack of infected looked pretty good though from where he stood in the bow of the boat with the breeze blowing his hair around.

Moldy tents and cold rations or not, he was looking forward to sleeping somewhere that Zombies didn’t have a chance of showing up.  When the boat pulled up to the dock, they lined up with everyone else to step onto the small, creaky dock and walk down to the beach.  The only real building on the island was a small shop that had rented inflatables and sold beer to the tourists during the summer.  The rest of the island had never been used for much of anything until the people in charge of the warehouse decided to use it as their fallback base.

Tents had been erected after an area full of brush and trees had been cleared out of the way.  The tents were the large national guard ones.  Each tent could hold ten people with all their gear. They came complete with cots for each of those ten people to sleep on.  There were sleeping bags and other camping gear stored in each of the tents.  The whole thing looked like someone had robbed an army surplus store to set it up.  Probably because they’d looted the contents of an entire army surplus store and used that to set it up.

“That was quite the exit.”  Janet said walking up to Randy and shaking his hand before taking the time to give Kelly and each of the kids a hug.

“He should’ve left when the warning lights went on.  Marco would still be alive.”  A stocky bearded solider with a shaved head said.  The man moved aggressively in front of Randy.  A couple of other pissed off looking guys were backing him up.  They’d been on the boat that hadn’t transported Randy and his family across the lake.  Probably a good thing.

“He would probably still be alive.  He died because he helped me look for my kids.  I thought they were missing.  He must’ve been a good man.”  Randy said.  He didn’t back down a single inch when the bearded man took a step forward to get directly in his face.  One of the men behind him was smiling excitedly while the other one was starting to look nervous.

“He was a good man.  Ten times the man your dumb ass is.”  The bearded soldier shoved Randy hard knocking him backwards.  Randy tripped and landed on his butt in the sand with the man towering over him.  The guy had pulled out a wicked looking machete.

It didn’t look quite as wicked as the barrel of Kelly’s M-16 pressed against his neck.  Myriah and Caitlyn had also drawn their weapons and were pointing them at the man.  Neither of the men standing in the background had done anything.  Janet had disappeared.  A small crowd gathered around observing the tense confrontation.  Randy hoped with all the people gathered around someone in charge would step in and end this before it got any worse.  Then it got worse.

The man knocked Kelly’s M-16 aside and swung his fist into the side of her face.  He must’ve thought Caitlyn and Myriah would freeze up.  Instead of freezing up they both took a shot at the man attacking their mom.  The bleeding soldier fell to his knees from the two close range shots to his torso before curling up on his side crying out in pain.  One of the men who’d been backing up the man who attacked them put his hands in the air to show he wasn’t going to try anything.  The other one pulled a pistol to shoot back.

A soldier who’d been standing around watching cracked a baseball bat over the vengeance seekers head before he could pull the trigger.  The man dropped to his knees. His gun fell out of his hand and landed on the ground beside him.  Kelly recognized the man who’d swung the bat as one of the men who’d been with them when they originally made the trip to the warehouse.  She nodded in thanks to him. He smiled and gave her a cheerful wave before stepping forward and kicking the guy in the stomach to make sure he stayed down.

Janet showed back up at that point with the base commander. He was a skinny man named Frank who’d been a logistics officer in the army.  He was used to dealing with getting supplies from point A to point B and not at all sure about how to deal with the mess he walked into on the beach.  Janet was busy filling him in on all the details.  He spoke briefly to a few of the men who’d witnessed everything.  He glanced disgustedly down at the man bleeding out on the beach.  A couple of men were working on bandaging him up, but he didn’t look like he was going to make it.  The other guy was busy vomiting from the hard kick he’d just taken to the stomach.  The concussion from being hit in the head with a baseball bat probably wasn’t helping his nausea either.

“Is it your fault Marco died?”  Frank asked Randy.

“Yes sir.  He tried to help me find my girls.  I thought they were lost in the warehouse.  He got bitten after we decided they weren’t in there and we should make a run for the boats.  He shot himself to avoid turning.”  Randy answered simply.

“Ok.  So not really your fault.  Just the way this craptastic world of today works.  These your daughters who shot this man?”  Frank asked looking at the tight knit little family. Both Myriah and Caitlyn still held pistols in their hands.  They were leaving them politely pointed at the ground, but they weren’t putting them away yet.  Kelly was sporting a bloody nose and a swelling eye.  She also had her rifle in her hands.  She was holding it casually but that could change in a heartbeat.  They were all standing protectively in front of the little girls.

“Yes, they are.  They defended me against a man who struck my wife and was getting ready to kill me in front of them.”  Randy answered.  Frank nodded in a preoccupied way.  He seemed annoyed by the man lying on the beach groaning in pain.  The man who’d vomited up hit guts was sitting up now.  Someone had taken all his weapons away from him.  Frank went around and had some quick conversations with the different men in the circle.

He must’ve made up his mind because the men who’d assaulted them were all dragged away.  The man the girls had shot left a trail of blood in the sand behind him.  He’d stopped moaning and moving around.  He wasn’t dead yet, but a proactive mortician would go ahead and start getting the formaldehyde and toe tag ready.

“You guys can take that tent over there.  Sorry about the mess and those morons.  You don’t need to worry about them anymore.  I’ll make sure they don’t mess with you again.  We’ll probably be here a week or so depending on how many Zombies show up after all that gunfire.  You may actually leave sooner.  It just depends when the next patrol comes through.  You’re planning on staying in the settlements, right?”  Frank asked.  Kelly assumed Janet had told him that they were debating if they wanted to stay or not.  She looked at Randy hoping this incident hadn’t soured him on staying.

“I think we’re definitely interested in learning all about it.”  Randy said politically.

“Excellent!  I’ll give you guys the rest of the day to get settled in then swing by in the morning to pick up where we left off.”  Janet said with a bit too much enthusiasm.

Chapter 3:  The South Will Rise Again

“Our casualties weren’t as bad this time around.  We‘ve been moving men away from the camps to get them positioned to attack the settlements.  We should have ground forces in position by the end of the week to start that attack with air support from the drones.  The biggest holdup is the armor since it’s harder to transport.  We’ve also lost some ground in South Carolina and have to rebuild our supply lines as we go.”  Krantz wrapped up his summation.  He was in a small room surrounded by wires and cables.  He was standing in the middle of the room staring at a large monitor with a web cam on the top of it. The Senator and Sam were both staring back at him from the monitor.  The two of them were sitting in space age looking chairs at an expensive conference room table with a pitcher of lemonade sitting in front of them.

In theory the Senator was still at the underground bunker Krantz had met them at. Knowing how squirrely the Senator was though they could be anywhere.  In this post-apocalyptic world complacency killed way more people than heart disease.  If you stayed in one place too long the Zombies would eventually come knocking.  The senator had to worry about assassins as well as the infected.  If the north knew where he was, they’d come knocking with a bunker busting missile.  The Senator’s high level of paranoia was completely justifiable.

“What challenges do you see around us taking North Carolina and Virginia rapidly?”  The Senator asked.  The sociopathic leader of the New American people didn’t seem to care that they were fighting their way through an ocean of the infected to try and kill other survivors for a bunch of land they had no real use for.  On the other hand, Krantz was fully invested in defeating the enemy because the enemy had decided to start bombing the hell out of them.  Krantz was the consummate survivor.  Cock roaches could learn a lot from him.

Krantz considered the question posed by the Senator.  He’d almost laughed out loud when he’d heard it.  There were so many things that could go wrong with this plan. He honestly didn’t even know where to begin.  He decided to give a high-level assessment and try to avoid getting into the weeds too much.  If he didn’t strike the right note of optimism, he’d be looking for a new job before the meeting was over.  The Senator needed someone with a can-do kind of attitude.  Doing his best to sound enthusiastic Krantz let his lips start flapping.

“There are a lot of variables in play. We’re moving a large number of men by foot, motorcycle, and air through a territory with massive herds of the infected.  We’re up against an enemy with an unknown quantity of military assets.  An enemy who’s already shown they have no problem striking out at us when threatened.  We do have more men moving into their territory than they’ll be able to repel if they stick to their current tactics.  They think they have a serious aerial fighting advantage, but we have a fleet of drones they don’t know about yet.  We’ve got the right game plan to get this done we just need to execute on it.  There’ll be setbacks and challenges but at the end of the day we’ll come out on top.”  Krantz finished up.  He felt like a used car salesman glossing over the fact that the car was missing a tire. He also avoided mentioning that he’d just finished winding the odometer back a hundred thousand miles.

The Senator seemed satisfied with his answer.  He directed Krantz to carry on and let him know if he needed anything to make it happen.  They planned a time to communicate again the following week.  Krantz was told to check in with Sam daily and give her a full download of what was going on.  Before signing off Sam asked Krantz to stand by for another call with her in about an hour.

Krantz waited outside for Sam to reach back out.  He stood inside a fenced in area surrounding a telecommunications fiber relay building.  The technicians they’d used to set this site up as an alternative communications center had gone the extra mile and enabled video conferencing over the fiber.  Most of the equipment in the small building had been powered down.  Power was reserved for the gear needed for the specific things they needed the communications hub to do.  Those electronics were all supported by solar cells and batteries that’d been retrofitted for the site.  There was a set of directions written out by the engineers who’d set the place up as to how to power everything on and use it.  The directions might as well have been written in Greek as far as Krantz was concerned.  He’d happily handed the paper with the cryptic symbols scrawled on it over to the networking nerd on his team.  Tom had immediately set to work flipping switches and typing in strings of numbers.

Tom was inside now waiting for Sam to call back so that he could get the call setup.  Once everything was working, he’d exit the building to give Krantz the privacy he needed to maintain operational security.  None of the men had an issue with not being trusted to be in the same room during these calls.  They all knew if the Senator or any of his informants thought a group of people may have a spy among them that they’d wipe out the whole group.  It was a lot healthier to make sure you didn’t know anything you didn’t absolutely need to know.

The communications hub was on the side of a hill near the border of South Carolina and Georgia.  The small building was surrounded by trees.  A gravel road ran up to the gate in the fence surrounding the weed covered area around the hub.  It was a great place for them to drop in and reach out to the Senator then leave.  They’d set the helicopter down about five miles away in a national park.  Most of the people who’d made it out of the Iron Eagle outpost were soldiers.  Krantz was considering sending them up to take on some special missions for him in Virginia.  He needed solid people up there that he could trust.  He knew that their leader, Forrest, was capable of thinking for himself.  The only reason he hadn’t already sent them was that this detour to talk to the Senator was deemed a higher priority.

“Sam’s on the line sir.”  Tom said holding open the door and waving to get his attention.  Krantz walked briskly back into the small building.  Sam wasn’t the kind of person you made wait around.  Tom escorted him back over to the video unit and made sure the connection was good before leaving.  Krantz waited for Tom to shut the door before leaning back against a rack full of equipment and waiting for Sam to ask whatever was on her mind.

“You want to tell me what you think our actual chances of taking North Carolina and Virginia are?”  She asked.

“We’ve got more men than they do but they have an aircraft carrier.  They also have a substantial number of well-trained soldiers.  I’d say we’ve got a pretty good chance overall.  Especially if they really are loading up the carrier and leaving.  If they have an escape route, I say we press them to use it.”  Krantz answered.

“So, your path to victory depends on them shipping out in the very near future?  What if they decide to stay?”  Sam asked shrewdly.

“If they decide to stay then this is going to get very bloody very fast.  They’ll have the home field advantage which is going to help them substantially.  All they have to do is dig in and make a bunch of noise and we’ll be swamped by the infected.  They can win the war by setting off some noisemakers.  If the battle goes on too long, we’re screwed.  We have to hit hard and fast.  Unfortunately, Roberts managed to get most of our helicopter pilots blown up so we’re down to trying to hit hard and fast with men on foot.  Not ideal.”  Krantz stopped talking.  He was hoping he hadn’t accidently revealed too much.  If he wasn’t careful, he might reveal how he really felt about the whole situation.

The truth was they were going to be fighting an uphill battle.  A battle they’d probably lose unless the settlements did get most of their people evacuated via the carrier.  They needed to make it more dangerous for the people living in the settlements to stay than it was for them to hurry up and leave.  If that didn’t happen then this was going to quickly become a war of attrition.  At some point the soldiers fighting for the Brotherhood might figure out how pointless it all was and rebel.

“So how do we do better?  What do you need?”  Sam asked.  Krantz squirmed as he walked the tight rope of answering Sam honestly without sticking his head in a noose by over sharing.  He needed to come up with some ways to hedge his bets.

“I need more intel on what they’re planning to do with their carrier.  I need more intel on when they’re planning to leave and where they’re planning to go.  More air support would help if you happen to have a fighter squadron or two hidden up your sleeve.  If we were to give the settlements enough time, they really might just leave on their own.”  Krantz answered.

“I’ll see what we can do about additional air support and get you all the intel we have.  I’d recommend you press hard to show some wins soon though.  The Senator’s not a patient man.  He believes that if we don’t keep expanding, we’ll lose our momentum.”  Sam signed off soon after that leaving Krantz to mull over her words and consider his options.

As a commander he knew the best way to accomplish what the Senator wanted given all the variables was to slow everything down.  Rushing their troops north to blindly attack the settlements was a huge gamble.  Krantz had rolled the dice and set that all in motion already so he was covered as far as showing the Senator progress.  The problems were going to come in about a week if they got bogged down in a long drawn out engagement.  There wasn’t much Krantz could do about that though.  If he tried to slow the assault down the Senator would just replace him with someone else.  With no good options in front of him he found himself running with scissors down the path of least resistance.

He walked out of the communications building with a heavy heart.  The weight of the decisions he was making causing him to pause and reflect on where he’d ended up.  His orders were going to result in thousands of people on both sides dying.  They’d be dying for no discernible reason other than the ego of a man hiding six stories underground in a bunker far removed from any of the actual fighting.  The man in the bunker had a long reach though.  It wouldn’t surprise Krantz at all to find out one of his men was reporting directly to Sam. A mole who’d shoot him in the back without hesitation if given the order.  Krantz sighed inwardly at his own newly discovered paranoia.  Unfortunately, he felt his paranoia was also completely justified.

Tom secured the communications building after powering down all the equipment and they began the trek back to the helicopter landing area.  Krantz was planning on moving his base of operations further north into South Carolina.  He hoped the techs had managed to get the communications gear setup there and it hadn’t been blown up during the recent raids.  He mostly wanted to get to the base and see if he could drink away some of the self-loathing that was creeping up on him.

Chapter 4:  Suicide Mission

“I thought you said this was a suicide mission.”  Kyler said. He was walking with the chief back across the courtyard after their meeting with the captain.

“Getting out of bed in today’s world is a freaking suicide mission.  Glad you decided to come along.  We’re going to need every bit of that luck you seem to have.  Your understanding of how the Brotherhood works should help a lot too.”  The chief answered.

“If you’re counting on my knowledge to get us anywhere, you’re going to be disappointed.  They’re a lot like us.  They move around constantly in small groups.  They’re about fifty times more secretive than we are up here.  If you’re not involved in an operation, then they don’t tell you about it.  They compartmentalize everything. They’re all beyond paranoid about someone being around their top people then defecting.”  Kyler stopped talking suddenly when he realized he’d just described his own situation.  The chief grinned wryly over at him.

“I’m thinking that big ass brand on your back is going to be our greatest asset.  The rest of us are just a band of looters that’s been ordered to gather ammunition and bring it back to the front.  You’re there to make sure we get it done.  If you hadn’t showed up, we were going to have to hold down some other poor slob and brand him.”

“As long as we don’t run into anybody who knows me then we should be good to go.  They probably handed out my picture to tons of people when they were trying to track me down.”  Kyler said.  The chief looked thoughtful at that.

“I really doubt anyone cares too much about anything that doesn’t directly impact them.  By now your last week’s news buried under a pile of new crap with some other dudes picture smiling up at them.  Besides I don’t think they’d have wanted to advertise that a high-level Brotherhood soldier defected.  It may give others the same idea.  Especially others who don’t necessarily have family being held hostage.”

“I wasn’t high level.  Just another grunt.”  Kyler said.

“Another grunt who was rolling around the country with the guy next in line to lead their military.  Plus, as far as I know they don’t just put that brand on anybody.  It’s a big deal.  Anyway, enjoy the mess hall and your air-conditioned barracks for the rest of the morning.  You have training starting at sixteen hundred out on the parade field.  You can meet the rest of the team then.  Bring your gear with you. We’ll be heading out directly after the training.”  The chief said before turning to walk towards the NCO quarters.

Kyler walked back to his room to pack.  He didn’t have any inclination to sit in the room now that he was awake, so he spent a few minutes making sure his gear was ready to go then headed towards the mess hall. He got there right as lunch was starting to be served.  He grabbed a plate of pasta with marinara sauce spooned on top of it and headed for a table by the door.  He was early so there wasn’t anyone to sit with to pass the time, so he ate quietly by himself instead.  He wasn’t even really all that hungry considering the breakfast he’d stuffed down his throat before the morning meeting with the captain.  Out in the field he was used to going a day or two in between meals.  If he spent too much time here, he was going to turn into quite the spoiled little princess.

Dumping his tray into the spot reserved for getting them cleaned he went out the door after glancing at the clock on the wall.  He still had a couple of hours to kill so decided to walk around the base and check it out.  The area the bulk of the people were quartered in currently was actually a moated area in the middle of a peninsula.  The moated area had a few roads leading into it.  All the bridges except one had been destroyed to keep them from being crossed by the infected if a herd managed to get that far.  The one bridge left was wired to explode at the push of a button.

The bulk of the activity for the base was conducted outside the moated part.  For instance, the mess hall was situated right off the road where the one remaining bridge still crossed over the moat.  Walking straight out from the mess hall, or galley as the sailors liked to call it, brought him to the bay.  To his right was a long stretch of sand and rocks that eventually led back to the mainland.  The mainland was far enough away that the infected never really had a reason to come tearing down the beach to get to the settlement.  If they did decide to venture up the peninsula then there were covered pits, tall walls, trip wires and all kinds of deadly obstacle course fun for them.  The whole area was covered and closely monitored on a CCTV system. That system was the primary source of security for the entire base.  Kyler understood that they could see most of Norfolk and the Naval Base from the monitors as well.

The military hated to see soldiers just sitting around in the barracks relaxing so there were also armed sentries who patrolled the perimeter on a randomized schedule.  To his left was a road leading to a large bridge that went over to the mainland.  The bridge had been left intact with metal fencing welded across the middle of it to keep out the infected.  The bridge was rigged to explode but they hoped to eventually be able to use it to supply the base so hadn’t blown it up yet.  The bridge was much closer to the base so there were typically a handful of Zombies on the other side of the barricade trying to get in.

Kyler walked past an armed soldier who was walking away from a shift of sentry duty up on the bridge.  The sentry gave Kyler a quick once over then nodded and kept walking.  Kyler walked the perimeter of the base checking out the defenses and taking in the view.  On the sheltered side of the base there were rows upon row of docks with a variety of boats tied up at them.  Everything from USCG vessels, yachts, small sailboats and your everyday pleasure craft.  Easy enough to evacuate the base quickly by water if needed.  The ocean side of the base hummed with the crashing of the waves and loud squawks of the gulls.  Kyler stopped walking when he came across the first pile of seagulls feasting on a Zombie that’d washed up on the beach.  The gulls and vultures hadn’t gone hungry during the apocalypse.

Snapped back to reality by the grisly scene on the beach he checked his watch.  It was past time for him to head back to the parade ground for the training.  It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea what the training was for.  Assuming it was going to be something about working as a team with the new people he’d be meeting he broke into a fast jog to try to make it there on time.  The parade ground was in the middle of the moated area in the middle of the base.  The beach he’d ended up on was the furthest possible point from the bridge that crossed the moat to where the parade ground was.

He was halfway to the parade ground when he remembered he was supposed to bring his gear with him.  Cursing under his breath he turned in the direction of the barracks.  He was already late when he busted into his room and began collecting the gear he’d assembled earlier.  His roommate chose that exact time to return home and get chatty.  Kyler shut him up by telling him he was late for training and had to leave right away. The cook knew all about having to be on time so rushed him out the door with the advice to run like crazy.

Being on time’s a big deal in the military.  If you show up late for muster you’re called out as being UA or AWOL.  Either of those things can see you standing in front of your commanding officer and explaining why.  Punishments range in severity from a verbal reprimand to a dishonorable discharge depending on the circumstances.  Timeliness is slightly more important than godliness in the military.  One of the reasons ex-military hires have always been so popular is due to the fact that even if they sucked at their job you could at least count on them to show up on time.

Kyler was well aware of the deep-seated aversion to tardiness that pervaded the military.  It made sense.  You couldn’t exactly base your attack plans on everyone showing up to confront the enemy force sometime around noon.  He jogged onto the parade ground with his pack hanging loosely off his shoulders and his personal arsenal of weapons dangling off him in every direction.  Maybe Chief Presly wasn’t a stickler for the whole being on time thing.

“Look who decided to show up.  Drop your gear and get in line.  You look like some kind of GI Joe Christmas tree.”  Chief Presly said in reference to the weapons dangling off of him like soldier of fortune Christmas tree ornaments.  Kyler tossed his pack and extraneous weapons down by the bleachers.  He did that as fast as he could then ran over to get in line.  There were five other men in the line plus the chief.  They’d intentionally kept the team small to be as stealthy as possible.  The chief waited until Kyler was standing in the line next to the others before addressing them.

“Patrol meet Kyler.  Kyler meet the patrol.  Everyone here’s a volunteer.  If we get caught, we’ll all be killed.  Probably in a humiliating and extremely painful manner.  Let’s try not to get caught.  If Kyler’s ready, then maybe we can talk through the plan now.  Kyler do you need to take a leak or anything?  We can wait a little bit longer for you.  It’s just a mission to save thousands of lives.”  The chief said sarcastically.

“I’m good sir.”  Kyler answered red faced.  It turned out the chief was one of those men who took timeliness very seriously.  It made it even worse that Kyler himself was pretty much never late to anything.  It’d been drilled into him that showing up late was a form of disrespect.  He was the guy who was always ten minutes early to everything.

“Outstanding.  We were waiting on you to begin because I think everyone else here has jumped out of an airplane before.  Right?”  The chief eyed the group to see if anyone was going to step forward.  It was a group of seasoned operators, so he very much doubted any of them weren’t well trained.  The only person in the line without at least a decade of field experience was Kyler.

“I haven’t sir.”  Kyler stated emphatically.  He wanted to make sure that point was well understood before he found himself with a parachute strapped to his back and an open door in front of him.  It suddenly made a lot more sense to him why Hartfield and Presly assumed they could find the Senators hide away so quickly.  He’d been wondering how they were supposed to get to Georgia through all the enemy troops being sent up from there.  Especially if they were supposed to find the Senator in time for assassinating him to actually do any good.

“Thank you, Kyler.  We assumed that was probably the case.  You’ll be tandem diving with Ritz.  He’s got the most experience at HALO jumps.”

“I’ve done it twice chief.”  Ritz reminded the chief.

“That’s two more times than the rest of us.”  Presly said quickly.  “No worries.  We’ve got about two hours before we leave.  That should be plenty of time for you to give us a lesson.”

“You sure we just shouldn’t do a regular jump chief?  Might make more sense to do something we’re all familiar with.”  A stocky looking guy with a huge beard asked.

“Sorry. You’re going to have to shave that raccoon off your face.  You need a good seal for the oxygen mask.”  Ritz said glancing over at the man.  From the comfortable way he insulted the guy Kyler could tell they must know one another.  Of course, with men like this camaraderie was easy since they all came from a similar military background.  The number of elite operators in the world was small enough that it was very possible they did already know one another.

For the next hour Ritz covered the theory and techniques they’d need to survive a HALO jump.  It turned out there were multiple ways one could die making this kind of jump. Kyler was kind of relieved all he really had to do was hug Ritz and not forget to breathe.  Then when he hit the ground, he was supposed to try not to break his legs.  His fear was partially averted by the calm professionalism of the men around him.  They all radiated a quiet competence once you got past the dark humor and juvenile attempts at creative insults.

Kyler found himself boarding a plane way too soon.  They’d taken a boat across the bay to a landing area where they’d hiked another mile to a hole in a fence around an airstrip.  One of the reasons for them waiting to leave at night was that the Zombies were less likely to walk onto the airstrip at night.  Infrared cameras hooked up around the field would let the guards know if any infected did happen to show up.  Once the guards spotted any infected, they would take them out as quietly as possible to avoid attracting others.

They were flying at night to avoid being spotted when they jumped.  They’d be flying high to avoid being spotted on radar and then parachuting down into a deserted forest.  Kyler was busy trying to wrap his head around the need to breathe pure oxygen ahead of time to avoid getting the bends.  Ritz had used the word ‘hypoxia’ like twelve times when he’d been conducting the training.  Kyler still wasn’t sure what hypoxia was, but he was positive he didn’t want it.

In no time at all the cargo hatch at the back of the plane was being lowered.  Kyler found himself strapped to a strange man he’d just met on the verge of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  If the chief had seriously been trying to talk him out of this mission, he should’ve brought up the whole death jump thing earlier.  Kyler felt his body stiffening up.  Fear paralyzed him.  Ritz must’ve sensed the fear.

“Hey man!”  Ritz shouted over the sound of the rushing wind.  “Loosen up!  You only have to be brave for like five seconds.  Once we’re out that door the rest is easy.  I guarantee we’ll get to the ground one way or another!  It’s pretty much impossible to miss!”

Kyler didn’t draw a lot of comfort from those words.  He tried to focus on his breathing to prep for Ritz dragging him out the open door into the freezing night air.  He had no idea how they were going to find the Senator once they hit the ground.  One thing at a time though.  First, he needed to survive the jump.  Once he was safely on the ground, he could worry about what to do next on this really bad version of mission impossible.

Chapter 5:  Island Life

Frank walked over to where they were eating lunch at.  He stood at the end of the table politely holding a bottled water and a paper plate with a couple of sandwiches on it until Randy asked if he’d like to sit with them.  Frank sat down and washed down a bite of his sandwich with water before saying anything.

“Janet let me know you guys are definitely going to be joining us.  We’re lucky to have you aboard.  Just so you know it may be a little longer than normal before you can be shipped off to a settlement. We have to wait out the Zombie Spring Break on our local beaches.”  Frank said smiling.

“What about the Brotherhood pushing up this way?”  Randy asked.

“Yeah.  That’s definitely not a good thing.  We’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place if they decide to show up while we’re sitting on an island surrounded by the infected.  We don’t have any comms here, so we’re pretty much cutoff from the world until we either get the warehouse back or head over to the fallback base.  I’m not prepared to abandon this warehouse quite yet.”  Frank answered.

They ate in an uncomfortable silence after that.  Randy and Kelly had plenty more questions, but they weren’t suitable to ask in front of the children.  They’d already learned the man who’d attacked Randy had died from the gunshot wounds.  He’d been the older brother of the man who’d stayed with Randy on the island to try and track down the kids.  The two men who’d had his back were both friends of the man.  The one who hadn’t done anything was free.  The one who’d pulled his gun on them was lying face down in a pit with his hands and legs tie wrapped behind him while Frank decided what to do with him.  He’d promised Randy they wouldn’t be letting the man free until Randy and his family had left the island at the earliest.  There was a very real chance Frank may just have him tossed in the lake with his hands and feet tie wrapped together.  No one appreciated a man pulling a weapon on a couple of teenaged girls who were defending their parents.

Janet had shown up to meet with them as promised. The discussion had been much less of a time sales pitch and more of an education on recent history in the area.  She’d told them all about how the settlements had come into being following the collapse of society from the pandemic.  She’d explained how the initial efforts of the military to gather everyone together and protect them had backfired.  They all felt a collective shiver at the thought of being in a single place with thousands of other people around you.  They all knew what happened in that kind of situation.  It’d happened repetitively in the beginning.  Caitlyn and Myriah both had flashbacks to a church in Oviedo where they’d taken their first steps on the journey into this madness.

The civilian population had been gathered into large fortified sections of the towns and cities.  Armed guards had patrolled the walls shooting any infected who got close.  That approach had failed horribly.  Tens of thousands of people who’d survived the first few weeks of the dying times had been ripped apart once they made it to one of these bases.  The Zombies had always come.  They came in numbers too great to be stopped by soldiers with automatic weapons.  Ammunition stockpiles that’d seemed unlimited ran out as wave after wave of screaming Zombies ran headfirst into the grinder of fully automatic weapons fire to get at the humans. Every base had eventually been overwhelmed. Only a few people out of the thousands who’d huddled together for safety actually surviving the onslaughts.

The ones who survived the early days learned from those mistakes.  They formed the settlements. The settlements were a loose network of small nomadic villages consisting of no more than forty people per site.  The number forty had been arrived at by trial and error.  It was the largest gathering of people that didn’t seem like it immediately attracted the infected.  They coupled the small groups of survivors with a rigid lifestyle to ensure the best chances for survival.  Fencing, extreme rules around making noise, and specific roles for each of the forty people helped make them self-sufficient while still linking them to something bigger.

The settlements were spread out around Virginia and North Carolina.  They typically tried to setup each settlement with its own towns to loot and enough room to establish new camps as needed.  The groups had to be mobile to survive.  They moved to different camps at different times of the year to keep from being in one place for too long.  Being in one place for too long was a sure way to attract the infected.

This way of living had grown to hundreds of settlements that were protected by roving bands of warriors known as rovers.  The rovers were armed patrols circulating around the settlements and providing for trade and assistance as needed.  The rovers reported back to a mysterious place known as the command center or HQ depending on who you talked to.  The men in charge of all of this were the ones who’d cobbled it altogether to begin with.  A mix of civilian and military leaders who periodically issued new rules after getting them approved by a representative vote from the settlements.

Everything had been moving along like clockwork until the attacks began.  Snipers and bands of vigilantes from the south had started showing up and taking out entire settlements.  A single sniper would setup and shoot a few people then disappear.  The noise from the rifle shots would summon an army of the infected to instigate a massacre.  Additional groups of specialized rovers had been added into the rotation to combat this threat to the settlements.  Janet assured them that the mayors of the settlements were working with the roving patrols to come up with new ways to combat these threats.  Randy remembered Kyler telling him these attacks had been the reason they’d sent him south in the first place.

Kelly had asked Janet if one of those ideas was for them all to sail away on an aircraft carrier to a land that wasn’t plagued by the infected.  Glancing around nervously Janet had just answered that Kelly was very well informed but that wasn’t something they were really discussing out loud quite yet.  At least not out here so close to the people advancing from the south.  She did tell them with a couple of winks that the settlement they’d be sent to was very close to a large naval base. On top of that she mentioned that the number of settlements in North Carolina may have very recently been significantly reduced.

With a plan in place that held an actual future they could look forward to they were all feeling a little bit better about life.  They left the mess hall to go sit by the lake and let the kids splash around in the water.  Sitting beside the lake in a couple of chairs that’d been dragged down from the rental shop Randy felt like everything was finally working itself out.  He’d always tried to stay optimistic for the kids.  They were the reason he drove himself so hard.

“Penny for your thoughts?”  Kelly asked him.  She was nursing a red solo cup filled to the brim with warm red Kool-Aid.  Not the most exciting tropical drink but way better than sipping lake water and hoping it didn’t kill you.

“I was thinking the pink lemonade was much better than the strawberry punch. Especially if you have to drink it warm.”  Randy said.

“Thank you for that.  I meant did you have any thoughts around what we talked to Janet and Frank about today?”  Kelly said with an accompanying eye roll.

“It sounds good.  I love that we have a plan that doesn’t involve trying to find some place so miserable that not even Zombies or bandits would want to live there.”  Randy answered truthfully.  They’d originally been thinking about heading west until they found somewhere that they could raise the kids without worrying about crazy Senators, warlords or Zombies.  If such a place existed.

“Why do you think they won’t talk about the aircraft carrier?”  Kelly asked.  She was pinning a lot of her hopes on being able to cruise to some tropical paradise where they could all start a new life in hammocks suspended between palm trees.  A cruise on a big ship with lots and lots of weapons sounded like a great way to get there.

“I don’t know.  Maybe they’re worried about the Brotherhood attacking earlier if they knew?  I have no idea what the plan would be there.  Is there some island they’ve decided to move everybody to?  Are they giving up on North America?  I guess we’ll find out once we get to the settlement.  She said it’d be on the coast near the ports so we could be getting queued up to take a trip.  I’d love to be able to go live on some Zombie free island where they’re rebuilding society.  I’m just worried that if something sounds too good to be true…”

“There’s also the not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”  Chided Kelly.  She was in an unusually good mood and determined not to let reality mess it up.  They were going to be stuck on this island until it was safe to go back ashore so she’d decided to just spend the time dreaming about what could be.  She’d let the crushing doubt of a post-apocalyptic reality weigh her down once they were back out on the road.  For now, she was just going to chill out, sip on her warm Kool-Aid and watch the kids play around in the lake as if they were a normal family in a world not inhabited by mass hordes of insane cannibals.  A normal family on a normal holiday back before any of them had ever used a hatchet to split someone’s head open.

Life was idyllic over the next few days.  They got into a nice routine of eating regularly, playing on the beach and enjoying each other’s company.  It was a far cry from desperately searching for food in between running from either the infected or the Brotherhood.  The island was far enough from the shore that they could even talk in normal voices without attracting additional Zombies to the beach.  They still kept their conversations toned down in case any of the infected within earshot had developed that enhanced hearing some of them had.  They had some interesting conversations with the other people they were sharing the island with as well. They couldn’t get any of them to spill the beans on the carrier though.

Despite their very rocky start and Janet’s admonition that the place was going to be miserable Kelly found herself loving the little island.  She’d take sweating and swatting at mosquitoes any day over worrying about whether they’d have enough to eat.  She didn’t miss the constant fear of a Zombie coming out of nowhere and attacking one of the girls.  The island lifted that giant burden off her shoulders.  She was wondering if maybe they could just stay there for a few months while lying on her cot one morning when someone made knocking noises on their tent flap.  Frank, the commanding officer, waited politely for Randy to invite him in before unzipping the flap and stepping inside.

“Kyler’s made it to the command center to debrief.  Only one of the men who escorted him up there made it back.  He’s going to rest up then put a patrol together to take you to your settlement.  This whole area is going to start getting real dangerous real soon so the sooner you guys can take off the better.”  Frank told them.  He looked nervous.  He was a logistics officer at heart.  He didn’t love that his warehouse was going to be on the front lines of a shooting war.  Fighting the infected was a known horror at this point.  The prospect of having to fight people who’d be shooting back was a whole different ballgame.

“Did Bryan make it back?”  Kelly asked.  Bryan was the petty officer who’d originally rescued them on a bridge on their path to cross from South Carolina into North Carolina.  The man had ordered his men to rush towards a massive herd of Zombies crossing a bridge rigged to explode to rescue them.  She didn’t like that any of the men she’d known had been killed transporting Kyler, but she really hoped the man who’d risked so much for her family had made it back alive.

“Yes.  Petty Officer Briggins made it back early this morning.  I don’t think he’s slept since he left.  He gave me a quick update before I had him find himself a bunk to get some rest.  I don’t plan on letting anyone bother him for a few hours at least.  When he does wake up, I’ll have him come see you so he can let you know when you can to expect to leave.  Sound good?”  Frank asked.  Once they agreed, Frank spun around and went back out through the open tent flap.  Randy went over and zipped the flap closed again to keep the bugs out.

“How close do you think the Brotherhood are?”  Kelly asked.

“They’re all around us already would be my guess.  That’d explain why Bryan was the only one to make it back.  Those guys were pretty squared away.  I doubt Zombies could’ve taken them out that easily.”  Randy answered.

“Zombies disabling a couple of them before they even made it to the cars is why we’re stuck on this island right now.”  Caitlyn reminded them.  Randy kept forgetting the children had minds of their own.

“Not much to do about it now.  Let’s go grab some food and enjoy one of our last afternoons on Mosquito Island.  Once Bryan wakes up it sounds like we may be casting off.”  Randy said.

“Can we go swimming?”  Zoey asked.

“Absolutely.”  Kelly said with a sad smile.  She tried to hide it, but she was really going to miss this little miserable mosquito infested island.  They’d been happy here. She’d loved that they’d been able to forget about the outside world for a while.  She dreaded going from the giggles and laughter of her daughters splashing around in the water to the operational silence and dread she knew the outside world was going to bring.

She set all that aside for now determined to enjoy every second they had left.  She held Zoey and Ali’s hands as they skipped together towards the mess hall for the traditional PB&J and warm Kool-Aid lunch before hitting the beach.

Chapter 6:  The Hub

The city in the clouds they’d attempted to build on the top of the buildings in Columbia, SC was officially destroyed.  They’d received the reports that the north had blown the base to smithereens, but the extent of the destruction had been far beyond what they’d expected from reading the reports.  The bulk of the people on board the helicopter had recently visited the city when Krantz had flown there to check on the progress. They’d been at the base when they first found out Roberts had been killed.  They’d left as soon as they found out Krantz had been named acting commander.  It hadn’t been fast enough to protect the newly constructed base though.  Reports had caught up to them the next day that the city had been destroyed almost immediately after they’d left.

There was nothing left.  The men who’d attacked the downtown area of Columbia hadn’t been messing around.  Where twenty story buildings had soared into the sky now there were massive holes in the ground.  Piles of debris littered what had been the downtown area.  Here and there fires still burned where reservoirs of natural gas or other flammables were still flaming up after all this time.  The pilot looped them slowly around the downtown area a few times so they could take in the complete devastation.  It was awe inspiring.

Tom had been assigned to the city until he’d been recruited to travel with Krantz as his IT guy.  He was the only one of them who’d really known the men living in the city.  Knowing his friends had been killed was sobering.  Thinking of what it would’ve been like if he’d still been stationed there when the missiles started striking and the building started collapsing made his knees shiver and his blood run cold.  He felt an unfamiliar sensation welling up and realized it was anger.  His blood was boiling.  He was surprised to discover his reaction to this was an impulse to join in the fight rather than to run the other way. He wanted to strike back at the people who’d done this with everything he had.  Not that the righteous anger of a slightly overweight IT guy who’d just learned to shoot a rifle would necessarily cause the enemy up north to instantaneously run up a white flag.

Once he’d seen enough Krantz directed the pilot to continue on to Fort Jackson.  It was a military base to the north of Columbia.  It’d been the main communications hub for all the activity in South Carolina.  The city in the clouds had been directly patched into it.  Krantz had asked Tom reach out to them the day before to confirm they were still up and operational.  A few of the buildings on the base had been blown up in the attack. They hadn’t taken any casualties though.  Krantz took that to mean the settlements had known that there was something going on at the fort but hadn’t known enough to target the right buildings.  To his knowledge that was the first time the people to the north had missed.  He liked that they were capable of missing after all.

The helicopter landed deep in the woods to let them out.  Once they were all clear the pilot lifted off and flew slightly further into the woods before landing the craft on top of a concrete structure with a ladder attached to it.  Krantz and his team walked quickly through the woods down a marked trail to an artificial hill with an entrance on the side of it.  It looked an awful lot like the house a Hobbit would live in.  One of the soldiers with him approached the door and rapped on it loudly with his knuckles.  Codewords were exchanged in a whispered conversation via a hidden intercom before the door was opened for them to enter.  The pilot came walking in last.  He’d sprinted down the trail to catch up with them to avoid being stuck outside when the infected started showing up.

Inside the bunker the walls were covered in rows of LED monitors displaying different parts of the base.  Large sections of the monitors were powered down.  Krantz assumed the ones turned off were the ones that’d been connected to cameras or feeds that relied on the internet or weren’t connected to solar power.  Two of the monitors were currently showing their helicopter sitting out on top of the building the pilot had left it parked on.  Other monitors showed Zombies running down paths through the woods.  They’d been stirred up by the noise of the helicopter landing.

Krantz was admiring all the monitors when a short man in an army uniform saluted him and introduced himself as the base commandant.  Krantz returned the salute and introduced himself using his new title.  That led to a quick conversation about the revised chain of command now that Roberts was dead.  Once that was out of the way the base commandant, a man who went by Jenkins, got down to business.

“What do you need from us to support the effort sir?”  Jenkins asked.

“I need a forward operating base that isn’t so forward I’m being constantly shot at. It needs to be close enough to the action for me to be able to easily direct the campaign from it.  I need to know if this base can support that or if we need to look elsewhere.  I also need to know if there actually is an elsewhere or if this is basically it as far as options go.  Everything is going to start moving very fast very soon so I need a no bullshit kind of response.”  Krantz said.  Jenkins paused to consider the best way to answer the questions before speaking.

“As far as I know there isn’t an ‘elsewhere’ that’s as wired as we are sir.  This base was built out during the cold war as a hub for communications on the east coast in case of a nuclear attack.  We’re basically at the center of a spiderweb of copper and fiber running all over the place.  I don’t think you’ll find anywhere else that’s up and running and has the kind of capabilities we do sir.”  Jenkins said.

“Sounds good so far.  Where’s the ‘but’?”  Krantz asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“We recently got bombed.  We lost some admin type buildings.  It didn’t impact our communications capabilities though.  It did impact some of our living quarters and we lost the supplies we had cached up in the main buildings.  It means the north has an idea we’re here though sir.  If they figure out this place is actually important then they may come back and hit us a lot harder.  The one important thing they did knock out when they came through was our radar. We’re blind now as far as detecting inbound aircraft.”

“The loss of that radar’s painful.  What else can you tell me?”  Krantz asked.

“We have the gear to communicate to other sites up and down the coast. We have the infrastructure to reach across the whole country pretty much.  Assuming the person on the other end has the ability to turn on their equipment and communicate back to us.  We also need for any relays or switches along the path to be up and working.  Everything was pretty much going to satellite for secure communications before the world went to hell sir.  We’ve been busy brushing off antique technology and getting it up and running.”  Jenkins finished.

“Ok.  So, I need a list of where you’re currently setup to talk to and where you could be setup to talk to with minimal effort.  Try to think about how we’re going to get intel from the front lines to come up with tactics in real time.  That’s the kind of visibility I need.  I need to know what you can come up with and I need to know it in the next hour or two.  Understood?”  Krantz asked.  He had a lot on his plate and needed to get moving.  He was hoping technology may solve some of his issues.  If that didn’t pan out, he could always get in a helicopter and lead the war the old-fashioned way.  The way that’d seen his predecessor blown to pieces.

“Understood sir.”  Jenkins said.  He saluted then grabbed a couple of his men and disappeared with them into a conference room to get to work on the list.

“Hanging out in a base that already got bombed once seems like we’re tempting fate.”  Forrest said walking up to him.  He’d kept a courteous distance while Krantz had been talking to Jenkins.

“We tempt fate by waking up every morning.  What do you think of the capabilities here?”  Krantz asked.  He was genuinely curious what the old leatherneck thought of this situation.  Forrest didn’t even pretend like he hadn’t been eavesdropping on the conversation Krantz and Jenkins had just had.

“Communications is the lifeblood of winning any war sir.  I like that they’ve wheeled out all the satellite feed junk in here and gone back to the basics with the wired communications.  Like the man said though it doesn’t matter how many wires they have leaving here if the phone on the other side isn’t connected. Even if it’s connected how do we make sure someone is there to answer it when you need intel.”  Forrest glanced over at the screen showing the small garage their helicopter was perched on top of.  There were a handful of snarling Zombies wandering around it looking for the humans they were convinced must be hiding nearby.  Krantz followed Forrest’s eyes over to the monitor.

“I guess we’re not hopping back in the chopper any time soon.  Kind of creepy watching them walk around like that.”  Krantz said.  He was talking to Forrest, but it was more of a random comment.  It was weird watching the Zombies over the large screens.  Normally the only way you got to observe the infected without being in mortal danger was if you were standing on a roof staring down at them while they screamed their heads off staring back up at you.

“I still catch myself thinking there’s no way this is real.”  Forrest muttered.  “Watching those unlucky bastards walking around out there like that.  It looks more like a scene from a Zombie movie than something out of real life.  Not even a good Zombie movie.”

“Agreed.  Those things are disgusting.  No way Brad Pitt would ever be in a scene with them.”  Krantz said.  The snarling infected by the helicopter were mostly nude.  All of their exposed skin was covered in bruises, oozing sores, nasty looking rashes and dirt.

“What do you want us to start working on sir?”  Forrest asked in an obvious attempt to steer the conversation to something more constructive.

“You know how you mentioned we need people on the other end to answer the phone when we call?”  Krantz asked.

“Yes sir.”  Forrest answered.  The look in his eyes and complete lack of enthusiasm in his response told Krantz that Forrest had already figured out what his assignment was going to be.

“I need you to work on how you and your team are going to make it up to North Carolina to lead the action on the ground.  I need you to work on how you’re going to communicate back to me to keep everything moving.  You’ll be in charge of all the ground forces invading North Carolina.  Congratulations on the promotion commander.”  Krantz said.  He wasn’t a hundred percent sure how promotions actually worked, but he could figure that out later.  He needed someone he could trust in North Carolina.  Forrest was the perfect fit for the position.  Not only did he trust him, he also happened to be an experienced combat leader with a distinguished history as an officer in the Marine Crops.

“Alright sir.  Thank you, sir.  I’ll go get started on that planning.  Can’t wait to start getting all that commander pay direct deposited into my account.”  Forrest said sarcastically before gathering his men and heading off to find a place for a planning session.  Krantz glanced around to see who all was left.  A few of his guards were standing around as well as Tom.  He walked over to where Tom was leaning against a concrete wall staring at the rows of computer terminals blanketing the room.

“How’s your aim?”  Krantz asked indicating the rifle Tom had hanging off of his shoulder.  When Tom had been pulled into flying around as part of the command team, he hadn’t been carrying a weapon.  Krantz had ordered Tom to get himself some weapons and learn how to use them.  Getting the training was the tricky part since ammunition didn’t grow on trees and firing guns made a lot of noise.  The noise of course being something that would attract Zombies from miles around.  Target practice was typically frowned upon.

“Virtually it’s pretty good.  I haven’t gotten too many chances to actually pull the trigger yet.  Commander Forrest was nice enough to take the time to give me some lessons.  I can basically look through the sight picture and control my breathing. I’m hoping if I do it just like he showed me that I’ll hit whatever’s trying to kill me.”  Tom answered.  It seemed Tom had also mastered the art of eavesdropping since he’d casually dropped the new title in front of Forrest’s name.  That was fine with Krantz.  He wanted to be surrounded by smart people who knew enough to keep their ears open and their mouths shut.

“You got lessons from a marine on how to shoot a rifle so you should be good to go.  Now I need you to circulate and learn how all of this communication gear’s setup.  Figure out who the smartest people here are.  You’re going to be in charge of them.  I need this place to become a hub for all the information flowing through this part of the country.  That includes south of us for logistics and north of us for the assault.  Make sense?”  Krantz was already moving before Tom had even had a chance to agree.  It wasn’t like the poor guy had a choice.

With everything in motion Krantz needed somewhere to sit down and think for a few minutes.  Somewhere away from people expecting him to look competent.  Somewhere no one was going to judge him when he poured a little something extra in his coffee cup.  With that in mind he looked over at one of the base personnel who’d been hanging back waiting to see if he needed anything.  It was the same soldier who’d brought him his coffee earlier.  Krantz waved him over.

“Do you know if quarters are available for myself and my men?”  He asked.

“Yes sir.  We have quarters for you downstairs.  I can take you down there now if you’d like?”  The man asked uncertainly.  Krantz nodded and asked him to lead the way.

They went to the end of the rows of monitors to a door that opened into a small stairwell.  The soldier explained there was an elevator as well, but they only used it when they needed to move large items or if they got a really large batch of supplies from the looters.  As far as supplies went there was a platoon of looters nearby who worked with a few of the camps in this territory.  One of their key functions was to keep the hub supplied with food, weapons, and any electronic parts that were requested.  They typically came by once a month to drop off supplies.  Trial and error had shown that was a long enough time between deliveries to avoid getting the Zombies used to them showing up.

Krantz sat down on the rough wool blanket covering the twin sized bed in the officers’ quarters he’d been given.  The room wasn’t fantastic but when he flipped the light switch on it worked and the air was nice and cool.  There wasn’t any running water, but the large five-gallon jugs were filled up and ready to wash away his grime.  He dismissed the soldier who’d escorted him down the stairs. He asked the two men from his security team who’d come down with him to wait by the door so he could send messages.

“There’s also a working phone on the desk if you need to get in touch with anyone.”  The soldier who’d escorted them down the stairs said when he overheard Krantz telling his guards he needed them to run messages for him.  How quickly one forgot how convenient technology makes things.

Krantz finally got everyone out of the room and the door shut.  His coffee had gotten cold by that point, but the whiskey warmed it right back up.  He sat down at the chair by the desk and idly played with the phone while sipping away at the whiskey flavored mixture he’d concocted.  He envisioned the way he was hoping everything would play out.  Forrest would head up to the FOB in North Carolina and sync up with the different groups already deployed up there.  He’d be responsible for making the battlefield decisions that’d need to be made on the spot.  Krantz would make sure Forrest was present at the battles and raids that were the most important to their overall strategy.

He finished his cup of cowboy coffee and dispatched one of his guards to go get him another cup.  The guard looked like he might be about to say something then thought better of it and left to look for the galley.  Krantz sent the other guard to ask the base commandant to come down and meet with him.  He wanted a less formal place to talk so that he could ask questions without the whole world listening in.  The communications infrastructure was a big mystery to him. He needed a crash course in how it all worked.  To that end he asked the guard to also ask Tom to come down.

He had a video call with Sam he had to be ready for in a couple of hours, so he wanted to make sure he was fully prepped for it.  If all went well, he’d be able to explain to her how he was going to remotely run the battle from the hub with Forrest acting as his boots on the ground.  He knew a lot of their forces were already close to being within striking distance of their objectives.  He planned on having Forrest and his team flying towards the first planned engagement immediately after he talked to Jenkins.  He needed to know how to get in touch with Forrest once he landed.  Things were getting really complicated really fast.

He thought of all the men he’d dispatched to fight these battles.  The settlements that’d be hit.  Most of the settlements were just regular people trying to survive.  Part of the plan was to treat North Carolina just like South Carolina and make an example of some of them.  It was a tactic that’d worked well for them so far.  The memory of dead children stacked on top of one another like a stack of firewood tugged at his consciousness.  Not bothering to wait for the cup of coffee to make its way back to him he took a big swig of whiskey straight out of his flask.

Chapter 7:  Secrets Within Secrets

Kyler tightened the laces wrapped around his combat boot.  His ankle was throbbing painfully.  Every step he took sent a little jolt of pain through his whole body.  The entire time they’d spent plummeting towards the ground he’d wondered how Ritz would know where to safely land.  The ground beneath them was too dark to make out any details.  Kyler assumed Ritz had the coordinates for an open field programmed into his watch or a special military parachuting technique he was relying on to get them safely to the ground.  They had some NVGs in their packs, but no one was wearing them yet.  They were pretty valuable devices, and no one wanted to risk breaking a pair of them on impact.

That advice may have changed if Ritz had bothered to mention he’d never actually done a HALO jump at night.  They’d slammed into a tree going about a million miles per hour.  It’d felt like bungee jumping through a briar patch while an angry major leaguer beat them with a baseball bat.  Kyler had been very thankful for the thick clothes they’d worn to provide some protection from the cold at the high altitude they’d been jumping from.  He’d also been lucky enough to have ended up on top of Ritz for most of the so-called landing.  He’d basically ridden Ritz like a sled through the branches. He’d felt the jarring impact of hitting the ground transmitted to him through the poor guys body.

“Good thing you spent so much time showing me how to land correctly.”  Kyler whispered jokingly to Ritz.  He was trying to lighten the mood, but he was also worried about Ritz.  The guy had taken a serious beating on the way to the ground.

“I didn’t think you were paying attention, so I just decided to let you land on me instead.  Now shut up before you get us both eaten alive.”  Answered a pissed off and hurting Ritz.  He’d taken about ten times the abuse from the landing that Kyler had.  The only part he actually remembered was wrapping his body around a tree branch.  The tree branch had snapped in half when Kyler plowed into him from behind.  It hadn’t been a small branch either.  Judging by the pain in his chest the cracking sound he distinctly remembered hearing had been a combination of the branch and his ribs.

Ritz knelt down to check a small map displayed faintly on a fancy special forces navigational tablet.  It contained some sort of technological wizardry that didn’t require constant connectivity to the GPS.  It could utilize the compass built into it when the GPS was not available.  It wasn’t a common device.  No one on their team had ever actually heard of it before they were each handed one by Chief Presly.  It was a sign of how important this mission was to the men in charge.  The tablets had some serious value now that all of the satellites were starting to slowly fall out of the sky.  GPS still worked depending on the time of day and the device you were using but it was nowhere near as reliable or pervasive as it’d been before the apocalypse.

Kyler watched quietly as Ritz fussed around with the device.  Kyler hadn’t been issued one since he was going to be tied to Ritz.  It was a ruggedized device, but the fall had managed to smash the glass anyway.  Ritz turned it in a couple of different directions then seemed to find an angle that worked.  He pressed hard on the touchscreen with his thumb and parts of the glass shattered even more.  He gave up and started walking in what appeared to be a random direction.  Kyler rushed to catch up.

Ignoring the pain in his ankle he got close enough to whisper to Ritz.

“You sure this is the right way?”

“I wouldn’t call it sure so much as an educated guess.  Right before we smashed into that tree, I think I saw the mountains over in this direction.  If we walk this way a while and don’t run into anybody then we’ll flip on our comms to see if we can figure out where the hell everybody is.  They should all be around here somewhere.  With that kind of jump you tend to all end up in the same area.”  Ritz explained.  Kyler remembered that from the training Ritz had facilitated.  It made sense.  If you opened your chute when you were at a high altitude, then you could steer yourself up to about sixty miles from where you jumped.  Since they’d been doing a low opening the whole team should’ve landed in a fairly small area.

A few minutes later a low-pitched hooting sound alerted them that someone on their team was nearby.  Unless it just happened to be an owl with laryngitis in a limb nearby.  The hooting was horribly off-key.  Chief Presley stepped out from behind a tree with his rifle pointed at the ground.  He was wearing his night vision goggles.

“Good.  You made it.  I was worried about the tandem piece of that jump.  Has anyone ever done that before?”  The chief asked idly.

“Not that I know of chief.  I pulled my chute a lot higher than you guys to make up for the extra weight, but we still hit way too hard.  I think I busted a rib and Skippy here’s been limping since we landed.”  Ritz replied.

Kyler listened to the exchange with his mouth hanging wide open.  What the hell were they talking about?  No one had ever tried that before!  Not trusting himself to open his mouth he settled for a hateful glare. The glare was completely lost to his companions since they were all wearing the bulky goggles.

“Got it.  Let’s go silent for now.  Keep an eye out for the other guys and follow me.”  The chief said.  Ritz had shown him their busted tablet before shoving it deep in his pack.  It was pretty much garbage now, but they couldn’t leave anything lying around in case anyone reported seeing the parachutists.  Any soldier finding high tech navigational gear discarded in the woods while investigating reports of people parachuting would be able to connect the dots pretty quickly.  Plus, it wasn’t like they could order another one of these tablets off Amazon.  If they could possibly fix it then they should keep it.

They’d only been moving a minute or two through the woods when the sound of someone screaming in pain brought them to a halt.  Presly motioned for them to keep following him and quickly moved in the direction of the screaming.  He stopped short when screeches began to be heard in the distance.  He only paused for a moment though before resuming the trek through the woods towards the sounds of someone in extreme distress.  He stopped again a few seconds later and pulled out a machete that’d been tightly strapped to his side.  Kyler stepped around him to see what was going on.  The chief held up a hand and signaled for him to stay.  Feeling a bit like a dog being bossed around by its master Kyler stayed.

Up ahead of them a figure was hunched over in the bushes.  Chief Presly moved confidently towards the figure with the machete gripped tightly in his hand.  Despite the order to stay in place Kyler and Ritz moved around until they could both see what was going on.  Through the green tint of the NVGs they could make out one of their teammates lying on the ground.  A small infected boy was squatted beside him methodically taking bites out of the man’s leg.

Chief Presly moved in quietly behind the small Zombie and killed it with a single downward chop of his machete.  The chief then knelt down beside the wounded man and appeared to be praying with him.  All around them the cries of the infected on the hunt were shattering the quiet of the night.  The chief walked back towards them looking shaken.  He gruffly ordered them to follow him.  Knowing the chief had just killed the wounded man to prevent him from turning they jogged along behind him with heavy hearts.  Each of them knowing how easily it could’ve been them lying broken on the ground getting munched on by a little monster.

Kyler struggled to control his breathing as they ran through the woods.  He was imagining what it must’ve been like to hit the ground hard enough to get knocked out only to be woken up by the pain and terror of your flesh being ripped off.  Soldiers who fought the infected on a regular basis knew that a bite was a death sentence.  It was a common enough occurrence that a lot of them carried powerful drugs to kill themselves if needed.  The chief had jabbed a large dose of morphine into the man on the ground as soon as he’d bent down to talk to him.  Instead of going out in pain and terror the infected soldier had floated to his reward on a warm wave of sedatives.

A glimpse of movement to his left was followed by additional sightings of Zombies tearing through the woods in the direction the screaming had come from.  The screeching had tapered off once the screaming man had been silenced.  Now it was just the occasional screech or grunt as the infected tried to figure out where the source of the noise had disappeared to.  From past experience Kyler knew the Zombies would start meandering all over the place pretty soon.  They’d eventually go into stasis or lie down for the night.  If this’d happened on a routine patrol, they’d all hide and go silent for a couple of hours before continuing with the mission.

This wasn’t a routine patrol.  They’d all risked their lives to get here. There was a reason they’d made that insane jump out of the plane.  That hadn’t been done for convenience.  They’d done it since it was the fastest possible way to insert themselves unseen in proximity to where their intelligence pointed at the Senator maintaining his lair.  They were in the middle of a gigantic state wildlife preserve in upstate Georgia.  There should be a security bunker in the park somewhere.  It had all the hallmarks of being one of the principal bunkers high level federal officials would’ve been expected to hunker down in if a major terrorist strike happened.  In the event of a major world conflict it would’ve served the purpose of keeping the government alive as well.

The bunkers location wasn’t general knowledge for obvious reasons.  Chief Presly was the only one who knew this whole engagement was based around the recollections of a marine who’d been stationed to guard the entrance to the path leading to the bunker.  Even the marine hadn’t had more than a foggy recollection of where the bunker sat in relation to the rest of the forest.  He’d described it as a cabin with an elevator that took you down to a bunch of barracks and offices outfitted with all kinds of supplies and high-tech gear.  It sounded like a preppers dreamhouse.

It would be the perfect place for someone like the Senator to be holed up.  The marine not knowing the exact position of the base was a standard security precaution.  No matter how much you swore them to secrecy marines still liked to drink and impress girls.  More valuable intel was routinely obtained by attractive young women than by all the hackers in the world combined.  Tequila was a much more effective espionage tool than those little spy cameras you see in the spy movies.

The marine hadn’t known the exact position, but he did know there was a parking lot about three miles away from the cabin.  He was able to trace out the exact shape of the parking lot and provide some details like which way the mountains were in relation to the parking lot.  The marine had walked patrols to the parking lot when the sun was coming up and going down.  Given all that information along with an old topographical map of the area they’d been able to take a SWAG at where the bunker was probably located.

A guess wasn’t good enough to start dropping precision bunker busting missiles though.  Given the huge amount of tax dollars that would’ve been funneled into building something like the bunker it’d be a very well-constructed structure intended to take a pounding.  Nothing short of a direct hit was going to have a chance of destroying it.  They couldn’t hope to score a direct hit off the vague memories of a marine who hadn’t been to the area in almost six years.  If they missed the Senator would abandon the building and never come back.  This could very well be their one and only opportunity at taking him out.

Chief Presly’s team was responsible for pinpointing the exact location of the base and  guiding in a precision missile strike.  A secondary objective if they could figure out how to do it was to verify that the Senator was actually at the base before calling in the strike.  Finally, if they got the opportunity to take the Senator out themselves, they were requested to do so.  It was understood they probably wouldn’t make it home if they were able to pull off assassinating the man themselves.  Kyler personally was ok with that.  He liked to think if he’d been put in a position to snipe Hitler, he’d have pulled the trigger with a smile.

Kyler understood immediately when Chief Presly had him squat down and put his ear close to him why he’d been lied to about the details around the plan to find and kill the Senator.  Being brought into the mission late in the game with a Brotherhood brand on his back there were bound to be some trust issues.  Kyler had assumed the original plan he’d been told was misinformation from the very beginning.  It’d made zero sense that they’d be able to parachute in behind enemy lines and then somehow locate and kill the Senator quickly enough to make a difference.  He was surprised to find out only two of the men who’d jumped had actually known the real plan.  If Presly and Ritz had both died in the jump, then the rest of them would’ve been standing around staring at each other wondering why they’d been dropped off in the middle of such a massive forest.

The real plan called for them to be dropped in a couple of miles south of the parking lot.  They weren’t sure what kind of security there was surrounding the bunker but assumed the worst.  Life was made a little easier since the bunker was so high tech it very reasonably could’ve been utilizing satellite technology for a lot of its perimeter surveillance.  The place had been built to survive a nuclear war though so old tech would still be incorporated.  The kind of tech that’d survive an EMP.  All the systems would have the capability to be fully redundant, standalone and survivable.  It would’ve been planned and constructed with the same meticulous detail as was given to spacecraft and nuclear submarines.  The budget wouldn’t have been limited at all since the ones approving the funding would’ve been the ones who would be depending on the bunkers to save them and their families lives if it ever did really hit the fan.

Two more of the men who’d made the jump joined them at the rendezvous point.  Presly reviewed the plan with all of them.  No one was surprised to find out the operational details were very different from what they’d originally been told.  The chief also dropped a few more nuggets of information.  A bomber would be taking off soon to strike the bunker.  They only had a few hours to try and tag the location.  If they weren’t able to do it then the bomber would just pick a couple of likely targets and let fly.  In that case there’d be a good chance the bombs would fall on them instead of on the bunker.  Presly handed out the devices that the bomber would use to pinpoint where to aim the bombs. He spent a few minutes showing them how to engage the devices.  They needed to be placed and activated as close to the target as possible.

Presly then let them in on how they were going to find the bunker.  Kyler had been hoping to hear about heat shielding coveralls or something that would allow them to sneak past infrared cameras.  Instead they were going to assume the enemy was going to be able to see them coming.  There were no heat shielding coveralls.  The idea of pretending to be a Zombie and wandering in had been shot down since their heat signature would still get them shot in the head.  Instead they were going to get as close as they could to where they thought the bunker might be then wait for the bomber to be in the air.  Once the bomber was in the air, they’d have about an hour to find and tag the base.

Each of them was assigned a sector to search.  They’d move forward communicating over secure comms and try to tag the base and break away as quickly as possible.  If they were too close when the missile went off, they’d die in the massive blast that was going to follow.  The bomb was designed to go deep before exploding so as long as they got to a minimum safe distance they might not die.  No one seemed to be quite sure what that minimum safe distance was.  When a concerned Kyler asked for more detail the chief said to assume it was as far as he could run in whatever time was left before the bomb hit.  If it turned out that wasn’t far enough then he’d be too dead to care anyway.

The team stared at the chief after he was finished.  Each of them hoping this was yet another coverup to the real plan.  A much better plan that didn’t involve them becoming targets for very large bombs.  When the chief asked if there were any questions, they realized he was serious and got their game faces on.  They moved out as a group towards the target area.  The small force of deadly men readied themselves for a high stakes game of capture the flag.

Chapter 8:  In Hindsight I’d Have Put All My Chips on Red

“The girls seem to be loving this place.”  Bryan said walking over to where they were lounging by the lake basking in the glow of the setting sun.  Kelly took her eyes off Zoey and Ali long enough to look up at Bryan.  His sunken eyes showed the depths of his exhaustion.  There was an aura of seriousness around him that hadn’t been there before. He was obviously taking the loss of his men very hard.

“We’re sorry to hear about your team.  Frank told us you were the only one who made it back.”  Randy said.  Bryan nodded absently then stared over at the girls playing at the edge of the water.  Ali and Zoey were digging a hole while Doreen worked on a long trench to pour water into the hole Ali and Zoey were digging.  They’d been doing that for about two hours now.  It didn’t look like they were going to get tired of it anytime soon.

“You look like you could use some more rest.  Do you want to meet up in the morning?”  Kelly asked with concern.  The man looked like hell.  The bags under his puffy eyes were so big his face look deformed.

“No.  I’m worried if we don’t leave tonight, we might not get a chance to make it off this island.  If we get caught, we’re screwed.”  Bryan said.

“How close are they?”  Randy asked.

“They’re already here.  We got hit by one of their advance squads.  They got the whole team except for Kyler and me.  We got lucky.  If we don’t move soon the main roads are going to be impossible.  I talked to Frank already. We’re all leaving tonight.  We’ll stop to grab supplies from the backup site then load it into the trucks up on I-40.  It’s a straight run from there if we can get ahead of the Brotherhood.  I’m hoping we can ride that wave all the way to the beach.”  Bryan said.

“Ok.  What time are we leaving?”  Kelly asked after she worked out the meaning of Bryans surfing analogy.  She was putting a list together in her head of what they needed to pack.  Their gear had exploded all over the tent.  Given a safe place they weren’t concerned about having to be able to leave at a moment’s notice they’d gotten a little sloppy.  She needed to get the girls dried off and cleaned up before they left.  It was amazing how much sand they were able to accumulate on their small bodies.

Bryan let them know the details were still being worked out, but it’d be in a few hours at most.  They had a long cruise to get to the vehicles stashed by I-40.  They needed to get there while it was still dark outside.  Bryan told them to be ready then left to get everyone else moving.

They collected the girls and got them cleaned up back at the tent.  Once the bulk of the sand had been scrubbed off them, they put them in clean clothes and started shoving all their gear back in their bags.  Randy looked over at Kelly. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She kept aggressively wiping them off.  He handed her a bottled water and a towel then pulled her in close for a hug.

“Sorry.  It’s stupid.  I just loved being here and feeling safe for the first time in forever.  I don’t want to leave.  I know we have to but it’s scary as hell that we have to take our girls back out there again.”  She whispered in Randy’s ear.  He couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound lame, so he just held her until she pushed him away to keep cleaning up.  She looked resigned now rather than depressed.  That was a step in the right direction at least.  They needed to get their game faces on to challenge the real world again.

Caitlyn and Myriah ignored the whole exchange.  Zoey and Doreen were so busy trying to find all of their stuff that they hadn’t even really noticed.  Ali was staring at Randy with accusing eyes while she tried to figure out if mommy was sad or not.  All the girls were depressed.  They’d all loved being on the island.  It’d been a vacation from the terror of monsters and evil men.  The little girls were balancing the sadness of leaving with the fact that they were going to get to go on a nighttime boat ride.  That was exciting for them at least.

They were checking under all the cots to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything when one of Bryans men swung by to collect them.  They marched down to the beach and boarded one of the large pontoon boats.  The loud engines coughed into life making them all cringe.  The one thing uniting everyone in this new normal was the fear of making too much noise and attracting the infected.  They cast off and began cruising north through the large lake towards the warehouse they’d fled from what seemed like a lifetime ago.  As the island slipped into the darkness Randy reflected that in the old days the island would’ve been a source of nightmares for them.  They’d been viciously attacked on the beach.  His daughters had killed a man there.  It was messed up how differently everything was perceived now.

The friend of the man they’d killed was on the other boat.  Frank had decided the man wasn’t a risk.  He’d just gotten caught up in the moment.  Randy and Kelly both suspected Frank was just concerned about the shortage of men he had available to him.  He’d had his weapons taken away from him and was serving as labor for now.  He was forbidden to be around any of the girls or Kelly.  Frank had informed him loudly in front of everyone that if he was seen near the girls, he was to be considered target practice.  It wasn’t an idle threat.  Most of the men there were still extremely embarrassed that a man from their own team had threatened the lives of a woman and her children.  That he’d backed up a man who’d actually struck Kelly was pretty much unforgivable in their eyes.  Chivalry being a key component of the esprit de corps of the majority of the military.

The sounds of the motors didn’t go unnoticed.  Isolated screams of fury broke out from around the lake.  Those random screeches were nothing compared to the mad wailing that started up after Frank walked to the bow and pressed the button on the remote detonator he was holding.  The humongous warehouse exploded in a blinding flash of light before crumpling in on itself to slowly be devoured by massive orange flames spreading all over it.

“I’m guessing that’s to keep the Brotherhood from getting their hands on the supplies.”  Randy said to Kelly.  One of the soldiers had walked over right before Frank triggered the explosion and told them it was coming.  Frank had wanted to make sure the kids weren’t scared by it.  Instead of being scared they’d sat around and watched it like it was the 4th of July fireworks at the city park.

“Hopefully it attracts all the Zombies from upriver.  If they all go running towards the fire there’ll be less for us to deal with when we land.”  Kelly answered considering the repercussions of the gigantic fireball.

“If there’s any Brotherhood patrols around here a big wave of Zombies running through the woods will hopefully ruin their night.  We’re going to have to get the kids some popcorn.  It’s like they’ve never seen a fire before.”  Randy observed.

“It’s not like we have cable anymore.”  Caitlyn said immediately.  She was working on making that her catch phrase.

“I’d rather watch the fire on YouTube.”  Myriah said joining in on the fun.  No matter how deep into death and despair they all sank there was always time to make wisecracks directed at their dad.

Frank didn’t order the boats stopped to enjoy the fireworks.  He actually had them moving dangerously fast considering there wasn’t anyone making sure the lake was safe for boaters anymore.  It became apparent very quickly why Frank had given the order to go full ahead into the orange hued darkness.  The warehouse hadn’t been rigged to explode to keep the massive wall of canned foods from being used by the Brotherhood to resupply.  The main purpose was to keep the stockpiled weapons and ammunition out of their hands.

When you throw a bullet into a fire it creates a very hazardous and potentially deadly situation for anyone sitting close to the fire.  When you set a building on fire with thousands of rounds of ammunition inside of it the result is even more hazardous to your health.  If that building also has explosive charges, grenades, and hundreds of gallons worth of gasoline inside of it the result can be pretty spectacular.  It was spectacular enough that everyone on board both vessels were soon lying on the deck with their hands over their heads praying they’d make it through.

They made it past the exploding warehouse without any major casualties.  There were a few minor injuries caused by the flying shrapnel from the explosions.  Mostly where hot metal flew across the lake to land on someone’s exposed skin.  One of the men who’d been lying on the deck right beside Randy got hit the hardest.  Randy watched in shock as the man jumped up and started dancing around the boat. He jumped and yelped for a couple of seconds before dropping back to the deck and rolling on his back.  Then he started trying to rip his pants off over his boots.  A chunk of glowing red metal had fallen out of the sky and burnt its way through his pants.  When he’d jumped up to knock it off of himself the red-hot piece of metal had fallen down the back of his pants leg.

That guy and a couple of others were getting cold water poured over them courtesy of the on-board refrigerators.  The boats hadn’t been turned on long enough yet to make ice, but the cold water was very welcome.  Gauze was being wrapped around the man’s leg while they tried to figure out how to bandage the nasty looking burn on his butt cheek.  The piece of metal had burnt so deeply into his skin that no one was even making any jokes about it yet.

Kelly and Randy felt sorry for the man who’d gotten burnt but ridiculously relieved that none of the wounded were their own children. They were able to relax as they steadily moved further out of range of the bullet spewing volcanic warehouse.  The roar from the explosions was replaced by the screeching from the tidal wave of awakened flesh eaters.  Heedless of the flying molten red metal filling the air the men turned monsters sprinted towards the sounds of explosions.  Wave after wave of the Zombies slamming into the unbearable heat and succumbing to the ring of death surrounding the explosive site.

Since the warehouse was located at the end of a large spit that jutted out into the lake the explosion was visible from multiple directions.  The open air above the lake made for almost zero blockage of the sound waves. That allowed the noise to travel a great distance from the actual source of the explosion.  This caused several herds to surge through the night to converge on the nexus of the noise.

One large herd swept across I-77 at the same time as a large Brotherhood convoy traveling up the interstate.  The herd pivoted on the road seeing the line of hummers and moving trucks.  Two green tanks were being towed by a massive big rig.  The lead hummer tried to power through and was soon bogged down by the mass of Zombies in front of it.  With too many Zombies to fight and no way to run the order was given for everyone to play dead.  It was standard doctrine that in this exact circumstance the only way to survive was to put yourself in park and hope the Zombies couldn’t beat their way into your vehicle.  You were betting they got distracted by something else and wandered off before they discovered any sort of chink in your vehicle’s armor.

The convoy would be stuck on that stretch of road for the next two days before loud explosions to the east would send the bulk of the Zombies running in that direction.  Once the Zombies left the convoy got moving again.  Thanks to their Mad Max welding efforts most of the occupants of the vehicles would survive the intense onslaught.  They’d all be a little more psychologically scarred.  Their nightmares may also be marginally more horrifying, but they’d live to continue on their mission to bring the fight to the settlements.  A fight most of them didn’t have a dog in.

The pontoon boats steadily cut through the dark water navigating the lake to get to the river that fed it.  The night was alive with the screams of the damned as they continued to race towards the exploding warehouse.  It seemed like another round of ammunition went off every minute or two.  None of that bothered them as long as they were cruising down the middle of the waterway insulated on both sides from the sharp teeth and grasping hands of the infected surging along the banks.

Frank knew they were going to have to make a pitstop and risk the bank fairly soon though.  He hadn’t counted on the tremendous impact the warehouse exploding was going to have on the entire area.  He’d fully expected some localized increase in the number of Zombies, but he hadn’t expected the activity to extend out so far.  They were miles from the destroyed warehouse at this point and there still hadn’t been a visible decrease in the number of Zombies stirred up on the banks.  This was going to be an issue for them if it stayed the same for another few miles.

The secondary warehouse they needed to stop at to stock up on weapons and supplies was set back a half mile off the lake down an overgrown service road.  If that area was too crowded with Zombies, they may have to anchor and wait it out.  If the following night afforded them the chance to get what they needed, then killing a day was going to be worth it.  He didn’t like the idea of camping out on a couple of pontoon boats visible to the whole world with minimal weapons and ammunition on them, but it was what it was.  In hindsight they really should’ve stocked up the island with enough ammunition to get them out of any scrapes they wound up in.  Of course, in hindsight they should’ve just killed everybody who came down with flu like symptoms the year of the dying and they wouldn’t be in this mess.

When they reached the buoys that told Frank they were at the docking area for the secondary warehouse the fierce cries of the Zombies could be plainly heard drifting across the water.  The bulk of the cries were coming from the landing area they’d need to be at to collect the supplies they needed.  Frank had a secondary detonator sitting on the dash of the pontoon boat steering area.  It was in a little box so that no one would accidently hit the transmit button.  He planned on hitting the button once they gathered what they could carry from the warehouse.  In this case the number of weapons and ammunition being stored was much lower so the repercussions of pressing the button should be a lot less dramatic.

He directed the driver to steer the boat over to the dock.  They tied off with a long line off the bow.  The other pontoon boat came in beside them and did the same.  The current from the river pushed them backwards about twenty yards from the dock.  That should be plenty of space to keep the adrenalized ones from being able to jump into either of the boats.  They’d have a guard awake and alert at all times anyway just to be safe.  Once they were good to go everyone got settled in to sleep for what was left of the night.  Silence was going to be the theme of the day as they reclined on the deck. They’d be covered by tarps that were being rigged up to keep the blazing sun off of them as well as keeping them hidden from the prying eyes of the infected.

If all went well any Zombies wandering by on the beach in the morning wouldn’t look twice at the floating, tarp covered boats tied up to the dock.  Assuming their luck held once it got to be dark, they’d spend a few cycles retrieving everything they thought they’d need for their strategic retreat back to the first outpost on I-40.  Frank assumed they’d need lots of ammunition to blast their way through any Brotherhood patrols or roadblocks.  Logistics officer or not Frank felt his warrior blood flowing.  If the Brotherhood wanted a fight, he was ready to bring it.

Chapter 9:  Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

The meeting with Sam had gone remarkably smooth.  She’d been keeping the Senator in the loop on the daily status reports Krantz had been providing.  They were both enthusiastic about the progress he’d been making.  Sam endorsed the selection of Forrest to lead their troops on the ground in North Carolina. She’d made a note to legitimize the field promotion Krantz had granted to the grizzled old marine.  She’d also provided Krantz with some new intel that was going to significantly impact the campaign.

It appeared the settlements were pulling out of North Carolina and establishing strong defensive fortifications in Virginia.  The reasoning behind this move wasn’t clear yet.  Sam theorized they were doing it because the leadership in the settlements understood they couldn’t hope to keep the Brotherhood out of both North Carolina and Virginia. They’d probably determined that their forces were spread too thin to protect both states.  Instead it appeared that they were consolidating their forces in Virginia.  None of the Brotherhood forces had even engaged in North Carolina and they’d just managed to claim that territory.  Although they’d still have to split it with a few million screaming infected cannibals.

Krantz picked up the phone on his desk and dialed the extension for the duty officer.  The officer sent a man to track down Forrest and let him know Krantz wanted to meet with him.  Krantz took a warming slug of whiskey from his over-sized flask while he waited for Forrest to show up.  He’d gone out of his way to find the novelty flask to carry his personal liquor around in.  He was well aware of what that said about him.  He still felt better about it than he had when he’d been carrying two flasks.  A large flask was masculine and implied you were a social drinker while carrying two flasks just screamed that you were a raging alcoholic.

“You sent for me sir?”  Forrest said.  The guard had let him in after a quick knock on the door to let Krantz know he was there.

“Settlement spies already found out that I put you in charge of the forces to take North Carolina.”  Krantz stated coldly while staring at Forrest to see his reaction.

“How’d that happen sir?”  Forrest said looking confused.  There were only a few people who knew about the promotion so far and none of them were likely traitors. Even if they were traitors how’d they get the information to the north so quickly?

“I’m screwing with you.  I just got off the phone with Sam.  The settlements are pulling out of North Carolina to fortify Virginia.  Congratulation on your successful campaign to conquer the great state of North Carolina.  Now I need you to do the same thing to Virginia.  Hopefully you inspire the same kind of fear and they run away from us there before we have to fight anybody.”  Krantz said.  He watched Forrest process the new intel.  It was a lot to process.  Forrest absorbed the information, mulled it over and had a couple of questions ready to lob back at Krantz all within a few seconds.  A good sign that they‘d picked the right man for the job.

“What kind of intel do we have on Virginia?  When do I leave?”  He asked.

“I asked you down here so we could work out the details.  We already had some loose ideas on how we were going to tackle Virginia. A lot of that was based on how well the campaign in North Carolina went.”  Krantz said.

“What if this is a trap sir?  What if they’re pulling back to clear the area so they can bomb the living crap out of us when we advance?”  Forrest asked.

“That’s possible.  It’s going to be something they’ve probably considered.  I brought up the same thing to Sam.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to lure herds of the infected towards us as well.  How do you propose we counter these threats?”  Krantz asked.  He had some ideas of his own but wanted to see what Forrest could come up with on the spur of the moment.

“We break our forces up into smaller fighting units.  We avoid main roads as much as possible.  We move as fast as we possibly can to get across the killing field as quickly as possible.  They have superior air power, so they have the advantage until we close ranks with them.  They’ve also had plenty of time to wire up roads and bridges.  I’d suspect we’re going to hit a fair number of ambushes and booby traps.  We have to go with a distributed, fast moving attack sir.”  Forrest answered.

Krantz was impressed.  Forrest had come up with basically the same strategy that him and Sam had cobbled together.  It’d taken Forrest only moments to come up with it.  Sam and Krantz had spent half of an hour running scenarios and brainstorming the best way to adjust to this new circumstance.  Sam had gotten the intel a day prior to when she’d told Krantz, so she’d had even more time to think through a strategy.  Forrest’s ability to come up with a solid strategy on the fly had just reaffirmed the decision to promote him.

“That lines up with what Sam and I were thinking as well.  As you know good work is typically rewarded with more work.  You’re now in charge of the ground forces in North Carolina and the ones in Virginia.  You’re still reporting directly to me.  Just so you know Sam has validated your promotion so if I get eaten by a Zombie or something, you’re still stuck in a command position.”  Krantz joked.

“Thank you, sir.  Try not to get eaten sir.  I’d prefer not being promoted any higher.  If that’s all then I need to get some orders issued around how the units should start breaking up into smaller units.  We’re going to start taking hits very soon and I want to minimize the casualties.  We can slow down long enough to get that done and still be well ahead of our timetable.”  Forrest said.

“Just don’t slow them down too much.  We still need to slam into Virginia before they have a chance to get their defenses organized.  I’ll see if we can’t get some intel on where the weakest parts of that line exist.  Dismissed.  Call me with any questions. Make sure you send me a copy of the final troop disposition when you’re done with the calls.”  Krantz said.  He waited for Forrest to salute.  He returned the salute then picked up the phone to make his next call as Forrest walked quickly out the door to disappear down the hallway.

A few minutes later Jenkins was seated in the office with Krantz.  He’d ordered food for them so they could have a working meal.  They made small talk while they waited for a man who showed up with a computer cart that had two trays of food balanced precariously on it.  The star of the trays were two small bowls filled with fresh lettuce and tomatoes.  There were even some green onions mixed in with it.  Small venison steaks and what looked like instant potatoes made up the rest of the meal.

“You guys are eating like kings out here!”  Krantz said drooling at the spread.

“Don’t forget your beverage.”  Jenkins said pulling up a box from the bottom of the tray.  He opened it to reveal four bottled beers in a plastic bag with some ice packs keeping them chilled.

The working meal turned out to be a quiet affair.  Krantz focused on the delicious salad and the juicy steak.  Washing it all down with a cold beer was heaven.  The only discussion was around how the local looters had reestablished some local greenhouses to grow vegetables in.  They delivered the fresh vegetables every month when they dropped off the other supplies.  Deer were plentiful in the ruins which explained the delicious steaks.  Wild turkey and other animals were making a major comeback also.  Anything fast enough to outrun a Zombie was breeding like crazy.  Krantz was happy to hear it.  He had no desire to spend the rest of his life playing Russian roulette with expired cans of creamed corn.

Meal finished they nursed their second beers.  Jenkins gave Krantz the run down on the communications systems they’d be able to use.  Basically, the patrols were going to have to send people to specific locations to communicate back to them.  That was if they wanted to have secure communications.  For real time wireless communications, they had long range radios that’d work well enough.  They’d just need to speak in code.  All of the encrypted gear available at the base was satellite phone focused.  They could issue a few of those out to Forrest to pass out to his leaders in the field.  The trouble with those was that they were unreliable.  They’d be very secure when they worked though.

Krantz updated Jenkins on what was going on with the settlement troops withdrawing from North Carolina.  Krantz told Jenkins as much of the plan as he thought was appropriate then ordered Jenkins to prep a war room that they could use to track everything around the campaign.  Work completed for the day Krantz dismissed Jenkins and proceeded to kill the rest of the whiskey from his oversized flask while trying to focus on happy memories.  It was a new technique he was attempting to avoid the nightmares plaguing his sleep.

Neither the whiskey nor the happy thoughts were enough to calm his inner demons.  He spent yet another night stuck in a hell of his own manufacture.

Chapter 10:  Capture the Flag or Die

The planning for this operation left a lot to be desired.  Kyler understood that time had been extremely limited and the people doing the planning were working with outdated and unreliable intel.  He still thought they should’ve been able to come up with something better than this suicidal capture the flag style assault.  They’d approached the parking lot in the middle of the national forest cautiously.  They hadn’t detected any sort of cameras or security systems in the woods surrounding the lot, so they’d circled around it until they discovered a small single lane road cutting into the woods.

Road was a pretty glamorous description for the small path disappearing into the dense pine forest.  It looked like the biggest vehicles it supported on a regular basis were four wheelers.  The chief had them move to their search sectors at that point. They proceeded as a team into the woods.  All of them moving in the same general direction as the small road.  They moved slowly through the tall pine trees until the first signs of a security system put the operation on pause.

Kyler and Ritz had been paired up to move down opposite sides of the small road.  They kept a good amount of distance between themselves and the well-worn ATV path.  Their additional responsibility was to capture anyone they spotted on the trail once the order to proceed was given.  It was the chiefs attempt at performing the impossible task of somehow verifying the Senator was actually in the bunker.  If they could capture and subdue a guard, they could question him later to determine if the Senator had actually been there or not.  Unless the Senator liked to fly a flag with his face on it when he was in residence there was no other way to know for sure.  It wasn’t like any of them were going to take an elevator ride to try and locate the guy while precision bunker busting bombs were in flight.  Screw that.  The target was there, or he wasn’t.

If they managed to step in a patch of five leaf clovers and the Senator rode by on a segue right as they showed up, then they’d kill him.  Otherwise they’d just have to hope he was at home when they blew his house down.  Movement around the base would be limited normally since the Brotherhood guards wouldn’t want to attract too many of the infected.  The parking lot in the woods had no road actually leading to it.  The helicopters that landed there periodically were the reason there were Zombies wandering around the wooded area in the middle of nowhere.  Kyler took the opportunity to wonder again who the genius was who’d built a secret base with a large parking lot nearby with no roads leading to it.

When the order came to move it was pretty anticlimactic for the first hundred yards.  They just kept running into the forest like they’d been doing.  It wasn’t until they’d ran about a half of a mile that people started shooting at them.  They’d managed to trip some sort of alarm so now they got to fight their way forward though a barrage of machine gun fire.  In the breaks between the noisy gunfire the screeching of the infected began echoing through the forest.  With sweat streaming down his body Kyler once again contemplated what a truly horrible plan this was.

They now needed to continue moving forward to find a cabin in the woods that should be hiding a bunker.  They had to fight their way forward through armed men guarding the cabin.  The men guarding the cabin were well equipped with automatic rifles and apparently an unlimited supply of ammunition.  On top of the people shooting at them the woods would soon be crawling with the infected thanks to the noise from the intense gunfight.  If that wasn’t enough there was the added pressure of a bomber that was going to be dropping some very serious ordinance on their heads if they weren’t far away in the next thirty minutes.

Kyler clicked on his comms.  Operational security was out the of the bag at this point.  If they didn’t coordinate their attacks, they were going to end up dead.  His earpiece boomed with the chief’s commands to keep moving.  Following the order, he moved out from behind the tree he’d taken cover behind when the bullets started ripping through the forest. Summoning his courage, he charged towards the men shooting at them.

Bullets whipped through the forest all around him.  He darted from tree to tree until the bullets got to be too many and he found himself pinned down again.  This time he was stuck behind a large moss-covered rock.  A hyperventilating Ritz joined him behind the rock.  The other two men in their assault team either hadn’t turned on their comms or were dead.  Most likely they were dead.  Kyler didn’t understand how he was still standing after running through all those bullets.  Chief Presly came across the comms and told them to get ready to move.  He was going to draw the guards fire on the count of three.

On the count Kyler and Ritz both bounced up and sprinted in the direction of the path to the cabin.  Explosions up ahead indicating the chief had let some of his grenades fly for the promised distraction.  The path ended in a clearing with a rustic looking cabin on one side of it.  There was a machine gun turret poking out from between two trees.  The machine gun had been silenced by the grenades the chief had launched at it.  The gunners had managed to silence the chief as well though.  A massive punch to his arm spun Kyler around and sat him down on the ground.

He reached his hand up to his shoulder and it came back covered in blood.  A man was walking towards him pointing a large pistol at his face and yelling something.  Kyler stared at the man waiting for him to pull the trigger and end everything.  He heard a loud booming sound and winced.  When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the man who’d been coming at him was the one who’d been shot.  Ritz was yelling at Kyler to stand up and get in the fight.

He wasn’t able to move his right arm without crying out in pain, but he forced himself back to his feet regardless.  He fought through the shock and pain to follow Ritz to the cabin.  They tried the front door, but it was locked.  A few bullets showed them it was also solid steel.  They tried the windows.  Those turned out to be fake with steel reinforcements behind them as well.  Deciding it didn’t really matter they took their transponders and placed one on each side of the cabin.  Just as they finished placing them the front door to the cabin opened and men rushed outside.

Those men ran straight into the shrapnel from a couple of grenades Ritz tossed at them. Making sure the enemy was well and truly out of the fight Ritz and Kyler emptied the remaining bullets in their magazines into the men moaning and rolling around on the ground.  Tossing a few more grenades through the front door that was now propped open by the corpse of one of the defenders they turned and ran.  Glancing down at his watch Kyler noted they had about twenty minutes to reach the much-vaunted minimum safe distance.  He felt bad leaving the chief and the other two men back there to rot.  They didn’t have much choice in the matter though.  Everything back there was going to be vaporized shortly anyway.

Shouts and more gunfire behind them told Ritz and Kyler more troops had made it to the surface.  Of more pressing concern at the moment were the dark shapes streaking towards them from out of the woods.  Knowing they only had minutes left to put as much distance between themselves and the doomed bunker as possible they put their heads down and ran as hard as they could.  Channeling their inner fullbacks, they stiff armed anything that got near them.  A snarling sore covered mostly nude infected teenager hurled his gross self directly at Ritz.  Without missing a step Ritz snagged the blood thirsty freak in midair by his greasy long hair.  He spun in a circle smashing the Zombies face into a tree before continuing to sprint for the magical minimum safe distance.

Kyler and Ritz were running side by side through the forest when the bombs hit.  The flight had been held up as the pilot tried to raise the chief on the radio.  Unable to successfully raise the chief the pilot made the call to lock onto the transponders and let fly.  Saying a quick prayer, he flipped the toggle switches and watched as the massive bombs began their descent.  He slowed to be able to verify the bombs actually detonated.

The navigational computer in the bombs latched onto the transponders guiding the massive ordinance to the target. Once there the bombs buried themselves deep in the earth above the bunker.  Once they’d settled, they exploded with a deep and resonating bass.  High in the air the pilot could’ve sworn he saw the air shift invisibly as the sound wave traveled through it.  Close behind the sound wave came the wave of debris flung into the sky by the energy released from the two bunker busters.  The elevator shaft leading from the cabin down into the bunker was immediately crushed.  The soldiers in the elevator were crushed before they even had time to notice anything was wrong.

Deep underground the bunker cracked.  Dirt and water poured in.  Explosive shock waves ripped through the earth shattering everything they slammed into.  All of the cabling and piping that supported life in the bunkers was destroyed.  The secondary tunnel leading to the surface for emergencies collapsed in on itself.  A few people survived the initial explosion.  They lived off the mountains of supplies in the parts of the bunker they could still access.  They breathed bad air in the darkness until they finally succumbed.  The pilot banked and flew north radioing ahead to confirm the strikes looked good but that he’d been unable to raise the ground forces to confirm the target had been in the structure.

Kyler and Ritz dug themselves out of the tree that’d fallen on top of them.  All around them trees were lying on the ground.  The earth itself had reared up and sent waves into the forest surrounding the site of the explosion.  Like a rock dropped into a pond the ripples had gone out concentrically heaving trees and rocks into the air.  Zombies had been tossed off their feet as well.  Kyler looked out through the pine needles lining the branches he’d just crawled out from under.  Ritz crawled up beside him to look out as well.

Judging by how horrible Ritz looked Kyler figured he must look like death warmed over.  The tree limbs around them began to sway as Zombies rose to their feet and began jostling around.  They were trying to locate the prey their hazy memories were telling them was somewhere nearby.  Zombies who’d been closer to the blast site started showing up with their eyes and ears bleeding.  A few had their eyeballs literally hanging out of the empty sockets.  Kyler couldn’t hear anything beyond a distant ringing in his ears.  If his ears had been working, he’d have noted the massive roar of Zombies running though the forest towards the source of the massively powerful explosion.

Seeing there was nowhere for them to go Kyler sat down on the ground beside Ritz.  They sat with their backs to the rough trunk of the tree that’d narrowly missed killing both of them.  The pine needle covered branches formed a shelter over the top of them keeping the Zombies at bay for now.  Kyler suddenly found himself feeling extremely dizzy.  His arm was soaking wet.  He put his head down on his chest and passed out.

He woke up when Ritz tried to feed him a couple of pills.  His pack was lying open on the ground.  His right shoulder and arm were throbbing painfully.  He wasn’t wearing a shirt at all.  His clothes had been shoved in a pile down by the bottom of the little pine straw shelter they were huddled in.  Ritz had been doing some sort of surgery on his arm.  He swallowed the pills Ritz was trying to get him to take then washed them down with a big swallow from the canteen Ritz held up to his lips.

He still couldn’t hear much more than a high-pitched ringing noise in his ears.  Some other sounds were slowly starting to filter through.  Ritz must’ve given him the good stuff.  The pain in his arm seemed to melt away.  He put his head back against the tree trunk to sleep some more.  It wasn’t like there was anything they could do until it got dark.  Considering his physical state there may not even be anything they could do once it got dark unless Ritz decided to leave him there.  Kyler fell back asleep thinking that no matter how much his arm hurt at least he wasn’t dead.

The next time he woke up it was dark.  It was so dark he panicked at first thinking he may have lost his sight along with his hearing.  Getting himself under control he marveled for a moment that he could hear again.  Even though the only sounds he heard out in the darkness were horrifying it was still gratifying to be able to hear them.  He assumed Ritz was sleeping.  It wasn’t like they could’ve whipped out a game of monopoly to pass away the time.  There wasn’t even much use in one of them standing guard.  If a Zombie found them and screeched, then they were dead.  The only thing they could really do was cower behind the thin wall of pine needles and hope none of the infected chose to crawl in to try and spend the night in the same small space they were currently occupying.

He was in plenty of pain, but he was hesitant to take any more pills.  He had no desire to overdose and make everything even more complicated.  On the other hand, he’d much rather sleep through the healing process than endure the pain.  He tried moving all the fingers on the impacted hand.  He was relieved to determine each of his fingers seemed to be working the way they should.  He thought about waking Ritz until he realized there was no safe way for them to communicate.  They couldn’t even type messages out on tablets to show each other for fear of the light being seen through the pine needles. Hopefully they’d be able to work out a good way to communicate in the morning so that they could come up with a plan.

He really needed to know how messed up his arm was. That was going to impact how soon they could reasonably make a run for it.  Operationally they were in no hurry.  The rest of their team was dead.  There was no extraction point for them to get back too.  There was nowhere for a plane to land in this forest and they were too far away to risk a helicopter extraction.  They’d all known it was a one-way ticket when they’d boarded the plane.  The idea was that if they survived the attack on the bunker, they’d murder their way back to rejoin the settlements.

The whole team together could’ve wreaked some serious havoc on supply lines and such while proceeding northwards.  As it was now Kyler and Ritz would be stuck hiding in the fallen pine tree wreckage until at least the next night.  It’d take that long for the local Zombies to calm down enough for them to have a chance at being able to sneak past them.  This was all assuming Kyler didn’t contract some kind of weird arm infection.  Hopefully the massive doses of antibiotics Ritz had given him while he was out of it would kill any infections off.  He must have a fairly strong constitution considering how many times he’d suffered life threatening wounds in completely unsanitary conditions and managed to walk away.

Kyler sat in the darkness cringing every time he heard a noise.  He sat there until the pain and tiredness finally got to him.  He tried to sleep but he couldn’t get comfortable leaning against the tree trunk with his arm all messed up.  He just about wet himself when a pair of hands suddenly clamped down on his shoulder.  When the hands weren’t followed by a set of teeth biting into him, he relaxed.  Ritz gave him another round of pills then wrapped him up in a blanket to try and get him more comfortable.  He shoved a bunch of pine straw over for Kyler to be able to recline on.

Once that was done there was absolutely nothing else either of them could accomplish in the darkness.  Knowing they needed to rest in order to be more alert during the day when the Zombies may be more actively poking into the tree branches Ritz went back to sleep.  Kyler didn’t think he’d be able to fall asleep, but the medicine eventually worked its magic.  His last conscious thought being that he hoped he didn’t wake up with a Zombie munching on him.  That was going to become a recurring nightmare after seeing the way his teammate had gone out.

Chapter 11:  Back to Reality

Being stuck under a tarp on the hard deck of a boat trying to keep kids quiet all day sucks.  Kelly even tried handing out Benadryl like it was skittles, but nothing seemed to do the trick.  The kids just couldn’t sleep for that long.  Especially not when there were screaming monsters running by them constantly.  The warehouse fire was miles away, but enough ammunition was still exploding periodically to make it sound like the Alamo after Santa Ana had decided to stop screwing around.

So far all of the Zombies had been fixated on running up the bank towards the sounds coming from the warehouse.  None of them had stopped to try and figure out why a couple of pontoon boats with tarps covering them occasionally emitted human like sounds.  The occasional groan of pain from the guy who’d lost half his butt cheek to the flying molten metal, a quickly stifled sneeze, snoring, and the occasional noises made by children being asked to contain their childishness for way too long.  It was almost impossible for a large group of people to remain completely silent for a long period of time.

If there hadn’t been a giant, exploding warehouse right up the road Kelly would’ve been a lot more concerned.  As it was, she just wanted the sun to hurry up and dip behind the horizon.  She wanted the warehouse to run out of noise makers.  After the island paradise they’d been on this return to reality was a hard slap in the face.  Keeping the kids quiet was made even harder by the fact that they’d gotten out of practice back on the island.  Noise discipline was a learned trait requiring constant practice.  She was paying now for that lapse.

The screaming Zombies were an excellent reminder of why it was important to maintain that noise discipline.  As the day wore on the faint staccato pops from the overheated ammunition exploding at the distant warehouse finally ground to a halt.  Once that’d stopped the steady stream of Zombies wound down as well.  By the time the air started to cool down and the sun dropped lower in the sky there weren’t any infected visible from the boats.

They’d established a couple of places around the boats where it was possible to peek out to see what was going on.  These spots were normally taken up by the guards but when they weren’t there anyone could look out.  Looking out now you could see that the Zombies weren’t visible anymore.  That was one of those good news, bad news kind of observations.  The good news was there weren’t so many Zombies outside the boat anymore.  The bad news was that given the sheer volume of Zombies that’d tromped by it was highly doubtful there wasn’t a pile of Zombies holed up somewhere between them and the supplies they needed to get to.

Frank had been a busy beaver during the daylight downtime.  He’d whipped out his handy dandy notebook and written out instructions for everyone.  He’d also provided an overall agenda for the next few days.  Kelly thought about writing something along the lines of “man plans, god laughs” on the top of it and handing it back to him.  He seemed like the kind of guy who needed to have a plan though.  She guessed it beat the normal approach of running really fast until a bunch of Zombies showed up and you had to hide for a while. Which was what most plans boiled down to these days.

The plan wasn’t overly detailed on what they would do once they made it to the vehicles.  At that point it just turned into the standard drive and shoot and hope you didn’t die before you make it to the settlement kind of scenario.  The plan for once the sun went down today though was meticulous and well thought out.  It had a timeline as to when they’d send people to collect the supplies from the warehouse and a roster of who’d be going.  It listed in order the items to be taken from the warehouse.

Truck batteries and keys were at the top of the list.  Kelly assumed that meant the batteries and keys for the vehicles that were hidden over by the interstate.  They must’ve disabled those and hidden the components here.  That explained why Frank had been so adamant about them needing to raid the supplies at this secondary warehouse before continuing.  Gas containers and weapons were next on the list.  Medical supplies came before food and water.  It was almost guaranteed they were going to run into trouble on the way out of there.  Food and water shouldn’t be a big deal if they were able to make good time.  If they got swarmed by a herd and had to hide in the vehicles for a day or two though then not having water would rapidly become an issue.

Overall, she was fine with the list of supplies they were supposed to get.  It was who was supposed to get them that had her raising her eyebrows.  Randy had been added to the second phase of runners to carry back the supplies. Kelly understood they all needed to pitch in and help to make the operation successful, but she thought it was pretty presumptuous of Frank to assume he could just include them in the plan without even asking.  She was getting herself all worked up over Randy being sent out when she questioned herself on why it bothered her so much.  Mulling that over she came to the uncomfortable conclusion that it was more about Randy than Frank.

Randy hadn’t been having the best luck lately in the field.  The last couple of times she’d let him out of her sight he’d almost gotten himself killed each time.  It didn’t help that Randy hadn’t seemed bothered at all when she showed him the piece of paper with his name on it.  He’d been more concerned with how much stuff he was going to have to carry.  She’d reminded him there’d be plenty of things out there trying to kill him while he was pushing a dolly full of batteries down the road.  He’d just kissed her and closed his eyes to try and squeeze in one more nap before having to get to work.

A comprehensive plan well executed is a beautiful thing.  The problem is that plans tended to unravel quickly in the apocalypse.  It wasn’t like their enemy was rational.  The Zombies temperaments ranged from the burn outs who just stood there staring at you to the wildly insane adrenalized ones that came at you going a million miles per hours out of nowhere.  In the midst of all that chaos there were a lot of random variables that tended to hose up even the most well-conceived operations.  Randy really hoped this mission would prove to be the exception to the rule.  All they had to do was go about a quarter of a mile up a service road, grab a bunch of stuff out of a warehouse and then load it back on the boat.  How hard could it be?

Once Frank deemed it dark enough to get started the tarps were pulled back and carefully stowed away.  A man stood at the bow of each boat pulling on the rope to slowly bring the boats up to the docks.  Once beside the dock the boats were secured in a way that’d make them easy to untie for a quick getaway if needed.  Kelly was shown how to untie the knot so that she could do it quickly if needed.  It wasn’t the biggest role in the operation, but she was determined not to mess it up.  If the men came back with Zombies tearing after them then how fast she got it untied could mean the difference between life or death.

The man with the burnt bum was in charge of the rope on the other boat.  Everyone else geared up and vanished quietly into the night.  Randy gave each of the girls a quick kiss before leaving.  Kelly hated watching him leave.  She was trying to be optimistic he might be able to pull this off without almost getting himself killed.

In an attempt to avoid attracting any unwanted attention the men split into different groups at the end of the dock.  Randy was in the second group that’d be traveling up to the warehouse.  The first group was responsible for recon and getting the warehouse opened up for the subsequent teams.  They’d post up at the warehouse and guard the area as everyone was loading up.  Once the other groups all left, they’d grab whatever was left from the list and carry it back to the boats.  Bryan was leading that group.  His team noticeably smaller since the ill-fated trip to get Kyler up to headquarters to report in.

Randy and the other men in his group waited nervously at the end of the dock while the first group headed up the small blacktop road leading into the woods.  Randy held his new rifle in his hand.  There’d been a weapons cache on the island that he’d been allowed to raid during their stay.  He’d talked Frank into letting them take enough to be able to properly defend themselves.  Frank had initially acted like Randy had asked him to hand over his first born but eventually relented.

Randy nervously checked to make sure the safety was turned off.  In the darkness he couldn’t tell if it was set correctly or not.  The new rifle he was carrying felt odd in his hands.  He hoped he didn’t have any reason to use it on this mission.  He’d acted like this was no big deal in front of Kelly, but his heart had been thumping like crazy ever since he found out he was going to be one of the ones making the supply run.  It wasn’t like his wife was the only one who’d noticed his recent run of horrible luck.  Randy was acutely aware that he hadn’t been making the best decisions lately.  He needed to get back into the survival warrior groove and he needed to do it soon.

The timer in Franks head counted down to where he needed it to be.  Without any indication to the rest of the team he started walking up the road.  Randy and the others hurried to fall in behind him.  Eyes scanning all around them in the darkness they moved as a group up the road towards the warehouse.  The lack of any noise from in front of them was reassuring.  If the advance team had run into something, they’d have more than likely made some noise taking care of it.  The silence was golden.

Clouds obscured the mostly full moon.  That was nice since a general apocalyptic rule of thumb was if you couldn’t see the Zombies then they probably couldn’t see you either.  Sight wasn’t the sense any of them were currently worried about though.  Sound carried way too far in this new normal.  The Zombies didn’t need to see you to know there was a human around.  Any unnatural noise triggered their predatorial brains to look for prey. If the Zombies heard something, they’d be screaming their way over in no time.  With as many people as they had headed up to the warehouse it was inevitable that there was going to be some sort of run in with Zombies at some point.

You were never safe in this world.  Randy kept that in mind as they double timed it up the narrow road to the secondary warehouse.  The secondary warehouse turned out to be an adult toy storage center.  Row upon row of aluminum door covered storage areas surrounded by a large fence with barbed wire on top of it.  The fenced in area included a parking section filled with grime coated boats, jet skis, RVs and other adult toys.  Weeds and bushes had grown up and into the filth covered vehicles in the back.  Frank led them thorough the wide-open front gate into the labyrinth of storage sheds.

Two right turns later Randy saw that several of the storage room doors on the row they were approaching had been opened up.  There was way more stuff in them than they’d be able to carry back to the boats.  The storage space stockpile had been intended to supply a roving patrol plus a hundred civilians and the warehouse crew.  They were down to the warehouse crew and a roving patrol if you counted Randy and his family as part of the rovers.  Randy absolutely counted himself as part of the patrol. Otherwise why would he be marching his way down a pebble strewn sidewalk to help carry gear back down a road with who knew how many nesting Zombies lurking in the surrounding brush.

Bryan and his team had kept busy by pulling the gear out of the sheds that was on the list.  They’d also pulled out the dollies that‘d been shoved into the sheds to make it easier to get the supplies out.  The first things to go were the jugs of gas and stacks of car batteries.  Without those items the vehicles waiting for them were pretty much useless.  Randy grabbed the closest loaded dolly and spun it around to pull along the sidewalk back towards the open gate.  He slowed down to let Frank take back the lead.

Frank was the only person on team two not responsible for lugging along a dolly for the first run.  He’d get his chance on the second run.  At least one of them needed their hands free to respond quickly and quietly if a Zombie showed up.  Trying to set a dolly down quietly then fumble around to grab a machete wasn’t going to be the best approach to getting the team back to the boat alive.  In deference to that Frank was carrying a machete in one hand and a hatchet in the other.  If it hadn’t been so dark the team would’ve seen how pale his face was.  He was a logistics officer after all.  Smashing open skulls wasn’t at the top of his resume.

Randy still had issues putting a lot of stress on the right side of his body courtesy of an aging sheriff who’d hit him with a shotgun blast at close range.  He was trying to put most of the weight from the dolly on his left arm.  The damned thing was heavy thanks to the stack of car batteries he’d grabbed.  If it hadn’t been so dark, he’d have tried to find the dolly loaded down with marshmallows or pillows instead.  That weakness was why he’d been worried when he first perused the plan and realized he’d be dragging a dolly full of batteries around.  He’d made light of it so Kelly wouldn’t be concerned.

He was tugging the dolly along over a patch of loose rocks when he heard Frank suck in his breath and charge towards the open gate.  Randy gently set the dolly down and spun to see what the issue was.  He half expected to see a herd of Zombies charging silently towards them.  The only reason he hadn’t just dropped the dolly on the floor and spun around ready to shoot was that he hadn’t actually heard anything except for Frank taking off at a dead run.

Thanks to some clouds shifting around in the night sky visibility had improved slightly.  Randy could see well enough to make out Frank sprinting towards a small figure standing in the middle of the road staring at them.  The burnt out infected didn’t make any indication he even noticed Frank charging at him.  A second or two before Frank brought the machete down on the diminutive Zombie it twisted its head up to look at him.  Frank’s blade hit the boy’s face at an angle lopping off part of an ear and a thin filet of the cheek.  Still the boy didn’t scream.

It took Frank a few more chops to lay the boy out on the ground.  By then the rest of the team had gathered around Randy to watch their leader chop the poor kid into hamburger.  It was eerie and sad.  The survivor in him was just glad their fearless leader hadn’t attempted to take out a regular Zombie.  Considering the trouble that a small quiet one had caused him.  Frank stared down at the pathetic corpse for a moment then turned and continued to lead them back to the dock.

Grunting slightly with the effort of pulling the dolly Randy followed Frank through the gate and down the road.  He glanced briefly at what was left of the dead boy as they walked past the pathetically small bloody mess.  In theory the kid hadn’t had to die.  No one had ever seen one of the quiet ones attack anybody.  They didn’t make any noise so weren’t going to attract other Zombies.  No one walking down this trail in the middle of the night was willing to bet their lives on that theory though.  Having a Zombie kid staring at them the whole time wasn’t an option.

Randy was concerned.  They needed someone like himself or Bryan leading them down the road.  They needed a soulless mass murderer who’d hacked their way through the apocalypse leaving a mountain of virus riddled cadavers in their wake.  Randy wouldn’t be surprised if he found out Frank had never actually killed a Zombie before tonight.  His attack had been that clumsy.  That awkward clumsiness stemmed from an aversion to crossing the line that was what separated your everyday person from a killer.  Visiting raw violence on another person was hard.  The majority of the people living prior to the apocalypse had never even punched another person in the face hard enough to knock them to the ground.

The apocalypse had flipped that equation around.  Most of the people living today were the ones able to flip that switch when it mattered.  The father who beat his infected son to death with a frying pan when the kid turned.  The teenage boy who’d been handed a gun by his mom to kill her if the bite she’d gotten made her turn.  The man fighting his way out of a hospital filled with the infected.  They’d all been able to channel the inner animal that’s driven mankind’s survival through the ages.  There must be another apocalypse coming later because the meek weren’t inheriting the earth any time soon.

A large portion of the people who’d survived were the ones who slept with guns beside their beds.  The ones who’d call 911 after they killed the burglar so that the cops could come collect the body.  The team Randy was running with right now were made up of those kinds of men.  Randy was deeply appreciative of that when a Zombie stumbled out of the brush beside the road without any warning.  The Zombie had been lying on the edge of a group of about twenty Zombies who’d gathered together to nest in the bushes for the night when the noises from the exploding warehouse had stopped.

The expression on the Zombies face was so normal that Randy’s first thought was that it might just be a scabbed over survivor who’d forgotten how to bathe and liked wearing his hair long.  The fully nude Zombie had stumbled out of the bushes due to some sixth sense that’d pulled him out of a fitful slumber to check the road for prey.  Zombies heard noises all the time that they thought were sounds coming from uninfected humans.  Half the time it turned out to be a car alarm going off because another Zombie had banged into it or a woodpecker beating on the side of a house.  Zombies spent most of their days chasing down false alarms.  Like a dog that tears off across the field to look for the ball you only pretended to throw. They just can’t help themselves.

This Zombie must’ve had just enough intelligence left in its fever wracked brain to understand that leaving the warmth and comfort of the nesting group to painfully crawl through a bunch of briars to a road that’d turn out to have nothing on it was yet another exercise in futility.  Thus, it stood in the moonlight with its eyes wide open in surprise when it realized there was actual prey stomping past it.  Standing tall it started to let out a screech of challenge before lunging at the closest human.  It never got the chance since the man standing between Randy and Frank dropped his dolly and bore the Zombie down to the ground in a headlock.  Lying on the ground the man sawed the Zombies throat open killing any chance of the Zombie making a peep.

The Zombies sleeping less than twenty feet away didn’t need the signal of their brethren to know something was going on though.  The sound of the dolly striking the road was enough to pitch them into a violent group awakening.  The screeching started immediately.  Without hesitation the entire group began beating their way towards the road hell bent on sinking their teeth into uninfected flesh.

The man who’d dropped the dolly knew immediately he’d made a huge mistake.  He pushed the bloody corpse off himself and was halfway to his feet when the fastest of the Zombies hit him from behind.  He knew he was dead before he even hit the ground.  He felt the sharp prick of pressure in his neck where the Zombie was already taking a bite.  No longer concerned with anything but vengeance the man hit the ground and rolled to the side.  The Zombie rolled with him wrapping its arms around him in a final embrace as it chewed into the bloody raw flesh of the man’s upper back.  The Zombie’s saliva was flowing into the man’s bloodstream.  The virus working its way through the man’s body.  Once the virus reached the brain it really went to work.

The hellish embrace of the Zombie and their former teammate was stopped when the pair were riddled with bullets from the smoking barrel of Franks M-16.  For someone who didn’t appear to have done a whole lot of killing Frank was catching up quickly.

“Weapons!  Go live!”  Frank yelled.  It was the right call.  Judging by the volume of the screaming and the shaking of the bushes they were about to be facing way more Zombies than they wanted to try to hatchet chop their way through.

The tall weeds on the side of the road began rapidly birthing Zombie after screaming Zombie.  Randy aimed his rifle and pulled the trigger.  When nothing happened, he stepped back from the firing line and screwed around with the safety until it clicked.  He raised his rifle again and shot a Zombie that was covered head to foot in white hair.  The blossoms of blood from the close-range rifle shots contrasted sharply with the white hair.  The fact that he could see the crimson stains on the pale body meant the clouds must’ve parted for the moon again.  Randy dragged his eyes off the surreal sight to point the barrel of his M-16 at the next Zombie popping out of the bushes.

The man at the end of the line screamed and collapsed to the ground when a Zombie jumped into him from the side.  They’d all been focused on the Zombies pouring out of the brush.  No one was watching their flanks.  That thought crossed Randy’s mind as another man in the line went down from a Zombie who attacked from behind them.  With just Randy, Frank and two other men still on their feet they were on the verge of being overrun.  Randy ejected a spent magazine and shoved another one in.  He racked a bullet into the chamber and kept shooting.  The four men slowly collapsing to stand back to back in a tight circle taking on the shadows darting at them with open mouths and fiery eyes.

Gunfire from the direction of the boats began to ring out.  Muzzle flashes also started lighting up the darkness in the other direction.  They had lost another man when Bryan and his guys slid into the picture after a couple of shouted warnings to not shoot them.  The Zombies stopped coming long enough for them to grab their dollies and continue to scramble in the direction of the boats.  Bryan was flashing a mag lite off and on above his head to let the men guarding the boat know that they were coming.  Randy was tugging the heavy batteries along as sweat dripped down his body.

Another knot of Zombies was in the process of being shot to pieces at the foot of the dock.  A few stray bullets went whizzing by them as they ran into what was left of groups three and four.  Randy handed the dolly off to the men who’d been designated as loaders.  At that point Randy was supposed to stand by to return to the storage area.  It didn’t look like that was going to happen.  He stood at the end of the dock waiting to see if Frank had orders.  One of the other loaders ran by him headed for the boats.  Randy noticed the guy stopped to slip a dead soldiers pistol into his jacket pocket.

“Back to the boats!”  Frank yelled.

“By the numbers!”  Bryan added.  More Zombies were running at them from every direction.  If they all turned and ran, then they’d be overrun from behind.  Instead they fell back by the numbers with Bryan’s team shooting first then Randy and Frank stepping forward to empty their magazines into the approaching horde.  Randy turned at that point and ran back to the boat.  Kelly had loosened the rope and was standing by to cast off.   She smiled with relief when she him pounding down the dock towards her.

“You think I wouldn’t make it?”  Randy asked before giving her a quick kiss as he climbed aboard.

“I was banking on the insurance payout.”  Kelly joked.

“Hopefully they pay out in canned goods.  Cash is sadly no longer king.”  Randy replied sitting down on the deck next to Caitlyn.  Caitlyn was covering her mom as she took care of her rope duty.  Myriah was sitting at the stern of the boat with the little kids.  They were all huddled together with their eyes wide open in fear.  Zoey had clapped a few times when Randy had made it back onboard.

Randy searched the other boat until he saw the man who’d pulled a gun on them back on the beach at the island.  The man who’d been told he could live but wasn’t allowed to have a weapon.  The man he’d just seen shove a dead soldiers pistol in his pocket.  At the moment there were other things more important to worry about, but he wasn’t going to let that slip.  He reloaded his rifle and helped pick off the Zombies streaming towards them.  Frank jumped in the boat and fired up the motor.

They filled the air with bullets to keep the Zombies from surging up the dock.  So many Zombies were running for the dock now that Randy was getting worried about being able to hold them off. Even with all of them firing on full auto and reloading as fast as they could the Zombies were still making headway.  A massive mound of dead and dying Zombies formed a barricade the Zombies struggled to climb over in time to reach the boats before they pulled out deeper into the river.

They were able to get ahead of the Zombies this time.  Both boats pulling out from the docks and going full throttle to reach a safe distance from any adrenalized jumpers who may decide to show up.  Randy looked at the pile of batteries that’d been flung into the boat.  He knew there were some boxes of ammunition and other supplies that’d been thrown into the other boat.  Frank and Bryan both had keys for the escape vehicles on them.  None of that seemed worth the price they’d paid.  It came out to about two men’s lives per dolly.

Lives that’d been traded to get enough ammunition to basically replace what they’d just used fighting the Zombies to get the supplies.  They’d needed the keys and the car batteries to get the vehicles up ahead started but they could always have walked or looked for some different vehicles.  They weren’t that hard to find.  In the end it just didn’t seem to have been worth it.  Randy hugged his family close and let the nighttime breeze blow his hair around.  A few feet away Frank turned the bow of the big boat to point up the river once more and they continued on.

Chapter 12:  The Kill Zone

“Send out orders for all squads to advance through North Carolina as fast as possible maintaining the small unit formations.  Have them reform in their battalions in Virginia ASAP.”  Krantz ordered Tom.

“Yes sir.”  Tom said.  He seemed to hesitate when he said it though.  Like he had an opinion on the matter.

“In medieval times the knight was the most powerful weapon on the battlefield.  Until some anarchist came up with the long bow.  It changed warfare as everyone back then knew it.  Knights were still the armored division and extremely effective at close range, but they had to survive a few volleys of arrows to get into that close-range combat.  They deployed a technique way back then that we still make use of today.  Once you get in range of the archers, ride as hard as you can until you’re close enough to kill them.  The longer you spend in that kill zone the more casualties you’re going to suck up.  Make sense?”  Krantz asked.

“Yes sir.  We need to get our men through the kill zone as fast as we can.  That kill zone being an entire state in this case since the archers are stealth bombers and harpoon missiles.”  Tom answered.  Krantz nodded and patted Tom on the shoulder absently.  He’d make a soldier of the IT guy yet.  He turned his attention back to the monitors showing Forrest and his team headed for the helicopter.

There were pockets of Zombies hanging out all around the base. Thanks to the CCTV system Forrest and his team were able to dodge most of them to get to the helicopter.  There were a handful who’d decided to camp out by the ladder they needed to climb to get to the top of the garage though.  That’d been the only tricky part to consider when Forrest had decided it was important for him and his team to be wheels up before lunchtime.  He wanted to get to Virginia and get setup before all the troops started to arrive.

Krantz watched on the monitors while Forrest and his team moved stealthily to the edge of the open area surrounding the garage.  One of the men on the team aimed a launcher in the air and let a flash bang fly.  The explosive device flew through the air and landed in the woods on the other side of the garage.  Nothing happened for a long second then the device went off.  Designed to stun the enemy before a team entered the room the device was intended to be super loud.  When it went off the Zombies were all jerked to their feet like puppets yanked up on a string.  Without hesitation every single one of them charged towards the area the flash bang had went off in.

The communications officer coordinating the activity watched to make sure all the Zombies had run around the building.  Satisfied the path to the ladder was clear he radioed Forrest to tell him that he was clear to proceed.  He added that the team should try to get to the helicopter quickly since more of the infected were running towards the area thanks to the noise from the flash bang.  The team of eight fighting men and one pilot sprinted towards the garage.  Two of the men immediately putting their backs to the building to provide cover while the others climbed up the ladder.  Krantz nodded his head silently in mute approval of the pilot being the first one on the ladder.  If he didn’t make it the whole operation was pointless.  Pilots were becoming a valuable asset that needed to be protected at all costs.  There was no excuse for any of them to die on the ground.

A Zombie noticed the last man going up.  It started screeching and throwing itself against the ladder.  A couple of others joined it when the helicopter rotors started to turn.  The chopper hovered for about thirty seconds above the garage before rotating due north and flying away.  The crazed crowd of infected were throwing themselves all over the place trying to somehow levitate up to the contraption they intuited must have regular humans aboard it.  When the helicopter flew north the Zombies followed along behind it in a howling mass.  The helicopter flew away leading a conga line of the infected like some kind of airborne pied piper.

“That was pretty wild.”  Tom said.  Krantz nodded his head in agreement.  Watching the engagement on the video monitors had definitely been a different experience.  It was ridiculous how a little bit of technology could help them get around the infected.  It went to show how badly everyone had screwed up the opportunities in the beginning to stop the spread of the virus.  Entire cities were covered with CCTV systems like this one, but no one had used them to seize the advantage over the braindead diseased cannibals.  The Zombies couldn’t figure out how to operate a doorknob, yet they’d decimated a society armed with smart phones and machine guns.  It was unbelievable how bad the world had screwed the pooch on containing the virus.

“You ready to give me a download?”  Krantz asked.

“Yes sir.  You want to do it here or grab a conference room?”  Tom asked.  He had his hands poised to pick up his laptop.

They went to a nearby conference room after raiding the break area for coffee.  Krantz bemused by the normalcy of the base.  It must have something to do with the way the military mind worked.  It probably hadn’t even occurred to Jenkins that it was weird that they still had a coffee break area in the middle of an apocalypse.  They were in the middle of a modern civil war while infected cannibals ran around in herds all over the country.  Tom had still been able to pick from three different kinds of sweeteners for his coffee.

In the conference room Tom began going through all the action reports from the last two days that Krantz hadn’t been briefed on yet.  The idea was to give Krantz a different perspective than the official meeting he was going to have with the rest of the team in about an hour.  Tom had basically been snooping on every conversation and picking out the information he thought may be useful to Krantz.  Having a couple of extra data points also made sure he wasn’t missing anything important in the main briefings.

One of the tidbits Tom brought up was that one of the convoys towing tanks had been stopped on the interstate by a herd.  Krantz zeroed in on that incident.  He was trying to understand if the herd was really an accident or if the enemy was manipulating the herds to ambush the convoys.  It wouldn’t be the easiest trick in the book to get a herd to slam into a convoy, but it wouldn’t be impossible either.  He looked over the map in front of him at the area the report had come from.  It was right by a red circle indicating an area that intelligence had designated as the possible location of an enemy base.  The base could be anything from a resupply post to a full-on base.  There was no way to tell without more intelligence.  Krantz found it very interesting the convoy had been hit when they’d been right on the edge of that red circle though.

Tom continued to relay different communications for the next few minutes before letting Krantz know that was all he had.

“That’s just what I was looking for.  Let’s grab another cup of coffee and head for the war room.”  Krantz directed.

The war room was a large conference room with multiple monitors mounted on the wall and a larger than normal conference table.  The video displays were all currently dark.  The focus points of the room were the maps on the walls where troop movement was being drawn with markers.  There were five large maps on the wall showing sections of North Carolina and Virginia across them.  The maps had plexiglass over them so the troop movements could be erased and updated as new information came in.

Krantz walked to each map studying where the bulk of his forces were.  The majority were still showing in the southern half of North Carolina as of the last time they’d reported in.  Those reports weren’t highly reliable since over half of their patrols had no way of actually reporting in. They would report in when they met up with their platoon leaders who were being provided with ways to communicate back to base.  Due to the communication issues most of the troops shown on the map were probably preparing to assault settlement camps that were no longer there.  The news that the settlement troops had pulled out was something they needed to relay out to the troops as quickly as possible.  The men out in the field would also appreciate being informed that the north was very possibly preparing to bomb the hell out of them.

“We’ve started getting reports of incoming sir.”  Jenkins walked in the room for the meeting.  He’d been outside talking with one of the communications officers.  The man responsible for the map showing the coastal sections of North Carolina started putting red marks on the boards to indicate where they’d received reports of their forces being attacked.  There was a lot of red shading on the map after just a few minutes.

“Is it just on the coastal side?”  Krantz asked.

“For now, sir.  Those are all the reports we’ve gotten so far.”  Jenkins said.  They both watched as the man in charge of the board checked his notes against the board.  Satisfied that he’d written down everything he had so far, he left to go gather more intel to put up on the board.

“Any word from Forrest yet?”  Krantz asked.

“Just that he’s still in route sir.  He reported there was a lot of infected activity on the ground but that’s to be expected with all the noise from the fighting.”  Krantz nodded thoughtfully at Jenkins response.

Once Forrest arrived the men should start forming up into battalions near the Virginia border.  They’d keep the battalions separated so that an airstrike wouldn’t take out too many of them.  Forrest was responsible for rallying the troops that made it through North Carolina and leading them into Virginia.  Once in Virginia they had the battle plans ready as to which units would attack which settlements.  The main objective being to assault the carrier.  Going toe to toe with an aircraft carrier in normal times would’ve been considered suicidal.  Krantz thought it was still pretty suicidal but maybe they could pull it off.  There was really only one way to find out.

Now they just had to wait and hope enough of their force made it across the killing field to drive the enemy out to sea sooner rather than later.

Chapter 13:  Fool Me Once

The next time Kyler opened his eyes he could see the ground around him a lot better.  The darkness was yielding gracefully to a rising sun.  The first trappings of dawn battling through the overhanging pine needle laden branches.  Someone’s arm was lying loosely on his back.  Believing it to be Ritz he started working through a mental list of all the crap he could give the guy later on for spooning him like that.  It wasn’t even all that cold out.

By the dim light filtering through the pine needles and broken branches Kyler realized the shape lying in the darkness a few feet in front of him was Ritz.  Fighting back the suddenly overwhelming desire to jump up and run Kyler slowly moved his hand down to the utility belt he was wearing around his waist.  Sleeping with all that junk dangling off of him wasn’t comfortable but neither was being eaten alive by Zombies.  The click of the snap on his knife sheath was deafening.  Fingernails on a chalkboard in the dead stillness of the predawn hour.

The arm resting on his back shifted slightly.  The fingers dragging across the top of his back before coming to a stop.  The ragged breathing of whoever or whatever was lying behind him starting up again.  Kyler was wide awake now. He was thinking through his options. His mind moving a mile a minute.  While they’d been sleeping an infected must’ve sensed their body heat and joined them for the night.  Zombies nested together all the time.  Kyler had just never considered the possibility of himself being invited to a slumber party with them.

He slowly pulled the knife out of the sheath.  He was at the wrong angle to be doing any of this.  Pulling the knife out without disturbing his unwelcome companion was requiring him to twist his already wounded shoulder around painfully.  Knife in hand he lay there considering his next move.

He needed to act fast.  The clock was ticking on when the Zombies internal alarm clock was going to go off.  As soon as it woke up and sensed Kyler wasn’t an infected, he’d become breakfast in bed.  Even if the Zombie didn’t get its teeth into him it’d let out some kind of screech alerting the zillions of Zombies in the area that there was an uninfected human hanging out under the downed pine tree.  Either way he had to get to the Zombie before it woke up or he was dead.

If he screwed this up Ritz was dead too.  He considered trying to wake Ritz up without disturbing the Zombie lying behind him.  He couldn’t think of a way that would work so gave up.  He needed to do something now.  His best plan consisted of sitting up casually then plunging the knife as deep as he could into the Zombies throat.  If he sat up casually then maybe the sleeping beauty behind him would just roll off and keep snoozing.  His shoulder was too screwed up for trying any sort of crazy ninja knife moves.  His knowledge of knife fighting pretty much limited to sticking them straight into the person you wanted to have die and wiggling them around until said person was dead.  Wipe off the blood and repeat as needed.

Determined not to overthink it he went with sitting up casually then going Jack the Ripper on whoever it was violating his personal space.  Fighting down the urge to plan out the best way to sit up casually he shut down his brain and just went for it.  Heart beating so hard he was worried the pounding sound may wake up his unwelcome snuggle buddy he felt the hand slide off his back as he sat up.  The Zombie rolled slightly but didn’t wake up.  Kyler took the time to put the knife tip right where he wanted it on the side of the long-haired Zombies neck.  He breathed in deeply while leaning forward and smoothly putting all his weight into sinking the knife into the sleeping Zombies throat.

The Zombies eyes shot open but barely a moan escaped its lips before its voice box and throat were ripped apart by the large serrated blade.  A burst of hot blood drenched Kyler’s legs and hands.  He kept sawing on the throat until he’d almost decapitated the monster.  The blood pouring out of the gashed neck soaked his pants.  The blood pooled up underneath the nearly headless corpse in the pine straw.  Lying directly behind the one he’d just killed another Zombie started to sit up.  The violence done directly beside it having disturbed its sleep.

The rising Zombie looked almost comical.  Under the oozing sores was the face of a teenage girl.  Her long hair separated to show a slightly bewildered sleepy expression on her face.  She looked for all the world like a normal teen grumpily responding to the alarm clock knowing there wasn’t time to hit the snooze button again.  A lot of people would’ve hesitated.  That’s why a lot of people hadn’t survived this far into the apocalypse.  Kyler immediately flipped the knife around in his hand and lunged at the new threat.  The knife sinking deep into her pale dirt covered throat.  He rode the girl back down to the ground twisting the blade as deep as he could get it.  The point ended up stuck on the tip of her spine he was pressing so hard.

That kill made a little more noise than the first one. It’d still been carried out remarkably quietly though.  He lay on top of the dead girl covered in a mix of her blood and the blood of the other one he’d slaughtered.  He controlled his breathing.  His heartbeat was out of control.  His body shaking violently with cold waves of fear and adrenaline.  It felt like ice had been mixed into his blood.  Moans were coming from all around him.  Branches started jostling around as the herd began to awaken.  A hand pressed down gently on his bad shoulder from behind.

Firmly in the grip of fear and panic Kyler immediately rolled over to stab the hell out of this new threat.  The only thing that saved Ritz from being shish kebabbed was that yanking his knife out of the spinal column of the dead teen slowed Kyler down.  Ritz had anticipated some sort of reaction from Kyler, but the sheer ferocity of the attack surprised the hell out of him.  That surprise almost causing him to miss grabbing Kyler’s wrist to keep the knife a safe distance from his own body.  Holding onto Kyler’s wrist Ritz stared at Kyler until he calmed down.

Calmed down being a relative phrase since the whole area around them was turning into Zombie central.  It sounded like most of a herd had camped out under the tree with them.  All around them they heard the sounds of Zombies waking up for the day.  The Zombies sleeping next to Kyler in the dark may have been oblivious to them but with thousands wandering around there was no way they weren’t being discovered before the day was out.  Ritz pointed at the bodies then at the tree trunk.  Kyler grimaced but understood immediately.

They grabbed the bodies of the two Zombies that Kyler had killed.  With Ritz doing most of the heavy lifting they maneuvered themselves as close to the tree trunk as possible.  They then positioned the corpses on the other side of them.  With both of them now covered in Zombie blood and guts they weren’t as worried about the Zombies sensing they were there.  They were hoping they just looked like a pile of dead bodies lying next to a tree trunk.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.

The unspoken plan was for them to stay in that position as quietly as possible until nightfall.  Kyler was already in so much pain that tears were dripping out of his eyes.  They’d pulled their packs over towards them after they’d moved the dead bodies over.  Ritz had the pack with the pills in it.  Kyler poked him and got Ritz to share out a couple of the pain pills.  Ritz also made sure to include a handful of antibiotics.  Considering they were festering under a tree snuggled up to a couple of decaying infected corpses he may need a bucket of antibiotics.  Instead of bottled water he should be washing down the pills with shots of liquefied hand sanitizer.

Having survived the early morning attack Kyler let himself ride the sweet wave of Oxy to snooze town.  The Oxy was strong enough that he barely even felt the bugs crawling all over him as the day progressed.  All around them Zombies rushed this way and that.  Occasionally one would think it sensed something and get a little louder than usual.  As soon as that happened every Zombie who noticed would run in that direction.  The Zombies who didn’t hear the noise but saw the other Zombies running refused to be left out.  They followed along as well.

The undulating waves of the massive Zombie mob occasionally led to Zombies literally traipsing right over the top of Kyler and Ritz.  They hugged the corpses of the ones Kyler had killed earlier using them as meat shields to ward off the stomping feet of the insane mob above them.  The day was a psychotic nightmare.  An acid trip at a haunted house.  It was looking in your rearview mirror while you’re driving down a dark road and seeing something in the backseat with red evil eyes staring back at you.

It was also falling down in the mosh pit at a heavy metal show or rolling down a rocky mountain in a barrel.  The day was constant pain and fear and Kyler felt like it lasted a year.  He slipped in and out of an uneasy sleep throughout the day thanks to the Oxy.  He’d seen Ritz pop a few as well and hadn’t blamed him one bit. If nothing else, it was a good precaution against the very real possibility of being eaten alive at some point during the day.  If you’re going to be ripped apart by a blood thirsty mob hell bent on sinking their teeth into your flesh, there’s really no recommended daily dosage for that.

At some point the howling diminished.  A pounding headache was keeping Kyler awake.  He shut his eyes in an attempt to look as dead as the corpse he’d spent the day snuggling up to.  He lay there thinking of the things he was going to do if by some weird quirk of the universe he happened to make it out of Georgia alive again.  Finding Caitlyn and seeing if there was anything behind that one sweet goodbye kiss was top of the list.  No matter how bad his body hurt or how scared he was he never thought of giving up.  He’d keep swinging until he couldn’t swing anymore.  Then he’d head butt anybody that was still in his way.  That attitude had kept him going so far and he didn’t intend to change now.

Ritz was special forces.  Those guys were trained hard to force out the quitters.  There was no quit in him either.  The day they were having no one would’ve blamed either of them for taking the easy way out.  Where Kyler was daydreaming about Caitlyn and a picnic lunch by a crystal blue Italian stream Ritz just wanted a hot shower and a pizza.  Along with the pizza he planned to drink enough beer to fill up a kiddie pool.  He spent the miserable daylight hours trying to rank the ten best beers he’d ever had in his life.  By the end of the day he realized it hadn’t been the beer so much as who he’d been drinking it with that weighed heaviest in his top ten list.

Beat down, bloody and buzzed half out of his mind from all the opiates circulating in his system Kyler still felt like standing up and applauding the sun as it made its exit from the sky.  He contained himself and stayed still for another hour after the sun went down.  He was so out of it that when the hunk of rotting meat he’d been hugging all day was pushed away from him he barely even flinched.  He was hoping the shadowy form in front of him was Ritz.  He had his knife in his hand just in case it wasn’t.  His arm was asleep, so the knife wasn’t going to do him a ton of good.  His other arm was pretty much useless from the gunshot wound but he was prepared to at least attempt to kill the Zombie as it ate him.

Luckily for both his pride and his life it was Ritz.  He reached down and helped Kyler to his feet.  Ritz was wearing both of their packs.  An excellent idea since the thought of putting a backpack on over his aching shoulder made Kyler feel like vomiting.  He had his rifle and his weapons on his belt.  His clothes were sticking to him.  He was covered in blood and gore.  He smelled like the dumpster behind a bait shop on a hot day.  His headache was out of control.  It was like it was competing with his shoulder to win a which part of his body hurt the most contest.

The best tactic for them survival wise would be to find a nearby hiding place to spend the next day.  They could even consider staying right where they’d spent the day already.  They had enough food, medicine and water to make it a few more days.  Moving out meant risking wandering into the nesting herd scattered all around them.  More danger or not there was no way they were going to spend another day getting stepped on by Zombies while cowering beneath the stinking leaky bodies of halfway decapitated infected.  It just wasn’t an option.

The area around them grew eerily quiet as darkness descended.  They cautiously walked out of the wreckage of the fallen tree they’d spent the day hiding in.  After the Zombie mobs had stampeded through a few times knocking aside the branches they’d actually been pretty visible.  The dead bodies and gore had been good enough camouflage to get them through the day alive.  Knowing they could be surrounded by a thousand Zombies sleeping in the pine needles of the fallen forest they started walking north.  It was as good a direction as any.  It’d also mean if they did happen to make it out alive, they’d have that much less distance to walk the next day.

They walked until they’d transitioned out of the blast zone.  The anticipated screeches followed by a mass mauling never happened.  Kyler didn’t know if this could be attributed to the Zombies having migrated out of the area, the Zombies all being sound asleep or the fact that they looked like a couple of Zombies themselves.  Covered in blood and beaten black and blue both of them were walking funny.  Ritz’s silhouette looked like an obese hunchback of Notre Dame with the double packs he was carrying.  Kyler had affected a weird looking rolling gait to try and keep his shoulder from moving around too much.  Every time he did have to step over a log or do something that made him move his shoulder, he suppressed a small gasp of pain.  If it was particularly painful his body went into a jerking motion.  He could see how they could be mistaken at a distance for a couple of the infected out for a stroll.

Covered in gunk they also smelled like a couple of well-seasoned Zombies.  Kyler was on the same wavelength as Ritz as to being willing to fight to the death for access to a shower.  Even a working water hose would be heaven.  Every part of him was sticky, itchy and disgusting.  He wanted to burn his clothes and scrub his body with a wire brush dipped in bleach.  He knew at some point he was going to need another Oxy, but he was trying to hold off on that.  He’d seen way too many of the gaunt eyed addicts when he was with the Brotherhood.  He had no desire to end up a junkie in this broken world.  If for no other reason than it wasn’t like the Oxy factory was still churning out pills by the millions like in the good old opioid crisis days.

Once they made it to the edge of the blast zone the trees masked the effects of the bomb from their view.  They traveled northwards keeping an eye out for any of the things that may want to kill them.  Stepping on a sleeping Zombie could ruin your whole night.  They stopped to rest after only walking for a few hours.  Both of them collapsed to the ground completely exhausted.  It was true they’d been laying down for the last day, but it’d been a stressful day with few opportunities to do things like take a drink of water.  Bathroom breaks had been taken without moving.  It wasn’t like those fluids were any grosser than what was leaking out of the bodies they were using as cover.

Ritz dug through both of the packs he’d been carrying.  He grabbed each of them a fresh shirt, a change of underwear and clean pants.  He stripped down and gave himself a quick sponge bath before pulling on the fresh set of clothes.  He then helped Kyler to do the same making sure to take extra care around the gunshot wound.  He cleaned it and rubbed a generous portion of antibiotic cream into the wound before passing Kyler a handful of pills to take.

“What are these?”  Kyler asked.  He’d put his head close to Ritz and was whispering.

“Anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.”  Ritz said staring down at the bottles to make sure he’d given Kyler the right things.

“No painkillers?”  Kyler asked curiously.

“Not unless you think you need them.  We have some left, but we need to put a lot of distance between us and this place before the sun comes up.”

“No worries.  I was thinking earlier about how I wanted to avoid getting hooked on those things anyway.”  Kyler whispered back.  He guzzled another bottle of warm water to wash down the pills.

“You ok to double time it for a bit?  I don’t want to be caught out in the middle of these woods when the sun comes up.  At least not anywhere near where all those Zombies are going to start wandering around.”  Ritz whispered.  He was already strapping the two packs back on.

“Let’s do it.”  Kyler said.  He levered himself up using a nearby tree for support.  Now all he had to do was make it a few hundred miles north through a war zone to rejoin the army that kept sending him on ridiculously dangerous missions.  If he actually made it there was no way they were talking him into doing it a third time.

Chapter 14:  Back on Solid Ground

Two hours after shoving off they were within sight of the I-40 overpass.  That wasn’t bad timing considering they’d been cruising as slowly as possible to minimize the noise the engines made.  It wouldn’t have done them much good to make it to the overpass only to discover every Zombie for miles standing on the beach waiting for them.  They’d hugged the opposite bank and gone slow with everyone keeping their mouths shut but they were still the loudest thing for miles.  Sound tended to carry further these days.

The woods on both banks were thick.  That should help shield them from being spotted as they drifted in for a landing.  It might even help mask the sounds of the engines.  The thick woods also meant that no matter how hard Kelly stared there was no real way to tell what awaited them.  There could be a thousand Zombies cutting through those woods right now attracted by the muffled sound of their passage.  Like most life or death decisions in the apocalypse it was going to end up being a toss of the dice.  She was sick and tired of gambling with her family’s life.

Frank continued upriver until they were halfway under the overpass.  He pointed the bow at the other bank and cut the engines down to almost nothing.  The other boat echoed his maneuvers and they both drifted backwards with the current.  On this course they were gradually headed for the far bank.  There was no real dock this time.  Only a concrete divider with a few cleats on it that would be barely wide enough for them to walk down single file.  Frank and the man piloting the other boat brought them in so they could tie off. Once tied off they repeated the strategy of the day before.  They sat quietly in the boat waiting to see what would happen.

They were just getting settled in to wait when Zombies began to emerge from the woods.  They skittered out like roaches onto a cheap hotel comforter when the lights get turned off.  One or two at first then dozens appearing.  Barely visible in the dim light cast by the moon the Zombies shuffled forward.  They’d been chasing the muffled sounds of the boats and were thrown off when the noise abruptly stopped.  Snuffling and grunting they continued in the direction they’d been running.  They’d eventually lose interest and just hang out wherever they happened to end up at until some other stimuli sent them scrambling in pursuit of uninfected flesh.  Frank had hoped to inspire the infected to keep moving up the bank past where they’d docked.  That was the reason he’d cruised up under the overpass before letting the river push them backwards to where they really needed to go ashore.

Most of the Zombies kept right on jogging up the beach.  The ones that kept going disappeared into the woods up ahead.  They’d either scoot along underneath the bridge or pass over I-40 to keep up the chase.  A handful of them seemed to think stopping right by the pontoon boats was the better option.  Whether those Zombies were lazy or if they sensed there may be humans on the boat was anybody’s guess.  Kelly doubted the Zombies had any idea why they’d stopped.

They had a few hours to kill before the sun came up, so Frank had them sit motionless for one of those hours hoping the Zombies might just go away.  There was still a small group of them standing around the edge of the river.  Most of them hadn’t moved much in the last thirty minutes and probably wouldn’t move again until they lay down to sleep.  In which case they’d turn the weedy bank into a fleshy mine field.

Frank passed around a note with the plan on it.  They’d give it another few hours then power their way ashore.  Once the time was right, they’d send out an advance party to quietly clear a path through the Zombie mine field.  At the end of the concrete wall they were moored to there was a trail that’d lead them to a small clearing the vehicles were parked in.  They’d need to put the batteries in the vehicles and top off the gas before they could go anywhere.

The trucks parked in the clearing had been modified with fences welded across the windshields for added protection.  If they had to stop and sit in the vehicles for an extended period of time to wait out a Zombie herd swarming them those modifications would be life savers.

The batteries and gas and ammunition were heavy.  The trail wasn’t great.  It was meant to be hidden so hadn’t been widened or smoothed out.  They’d be lugging heavy ass batteries and jugs of gas while trying to quietly slip through an area infested with Zombies.  At the end of the trail they’d have to pop open hoods and hook up batteries in the dark.  All of this while hoping no Zombies decided to come along to see what was going on.  In hindsight keeping the batteries at the storage units may not have been such a clever idea after all.

They weren’t planning on making a second trip to pick up more supplies out of the boats.  They were going to be stuck using whatever they could carry on the first trip.  It was too risky to have people going up and down the trail gathering more supplies.  If all went well, they’d be in a settlement by lunch time and all of this would just be yet another bad memory.  Knowing full well that was extremely optimistic thinking she let herself indulge in it for a minute anyway.

A light rain fell.  The drizzle morphed quickly into a substantial rainstorm.  Miserable as that made all of them it was also an opportunity they couldn’t afford to pass up.  The rain would muffle the sounds of their movement and further impede visibility for the Zombies.  Seizing on the hope these advantages might actually help them survive the night Frank ordered the advance squad to hit the beach.

Bryan and five other men including Randy slipped into the cold water and swam over to the bank.  Crawling slowly out of the water they used hammers, machetes and hatchets to take out every Zombie they could find.  Most of the infected died without a peep with an edged weapon buried in their heads or necks.  It was hard depressing work.  Stomping around in the rain looking for the curled-up bodies of the sleeping infected.  In the dark with the rain pouring down the sleeping infected didn’t look like any kind of threat at all.  A couple of the men on the advanced party openly wept while they hacked apart sleeping women and children.  The rain washed their tears away leaving only their hollow reddened eyes to show their sadness.

Thirty minutes after hitting the beach Bryan conferred quickly with the rest of the advance group.  They all agreed they were good to get started up the path.  Bryan took one man with him to scout the trail and make sure there were no surprises.  He sent the rest of them back to help hump the gear from the boats to the trucks.  He was acutely aware it wasn’t just a team of soldiers he was protecting.  There were also young women and children. He needed to make sure everyone stayed safe.  The only one he wasn’t too concerned about was Kelly.  He knew she could take care of herself.

Randy walked through the brush over to the concrete wall that ran out to where the boats were tied up.  He’d been one of the men whose tears had been washed away by the rain.  He’d killed a young girl he’d found half buried in a pile of dead pine needles.  He’d have walked right past her if he hadn’t noticed her toes sticking up from behind a decaying log.  He’d hacked hard into the back of her neck.  He’d struck home on the first try even though the girl was barely visible.  Pulling his machete out of her spine made her head flop around revealing her face.  The pockmarked sore covered face of a girl who easily could’ve easily been Myriah or Zoey or any of the girls.

Kelly instantly saw something was off when Randy hopped down into the boat and hugged her.

“You ok?”  She whispered in his ear.

He nodded and kissed her again then went to grab his share of supplies to cart up the path. He had no idea how they expected to move all this stuff without using the dollies they’d taken from the storage units.  They’d been deemed too loud by Frank to try and sneak gear down the path.  Randy walked over to where Frank was holding up one of the batteries.

“Area’s clear.  How far up the path do we have to go before we get to the vehicles?”  Randy asked quietly.  He’d pitched his voice just high enough to be heard over the rain.  He had very little concern the sound would carry.  The storm that’d started as a miserable drizzle was turning into a newsworthy monsoon.

“We’ll be using the dollies.”  Frank said answering the real question Randy was asking.  Which was how the hell they were going to lug enough supplies to be useful through the woods carrying everything without using the dollies.  With the rain pouring down now they should be able to get escorted by a marching band without anyone hearing them.

They pulled the dollies out and up onto the narrow concrete wall.  Very carefully they set the heavy batteries on them.  One of the men disappeared down the walkway into the rain pulling the loaded dolly along.  Randy ended up with a handful of boxed of ammunition and a ten-gallon jug of gas when it came to his turn.  Kelly and Caitlyn also got stuck carrying jugs of gasoline.  Myriah was left with her hands free to help the little kids.

Walking single file down the concrete pathway hoping that none of the kids managed to fall into the river they left the relative safety of the boat to begin the dangerous journey to a settlement.  A settlement that was probably already under attack.  Kelly was torn between actually leaving the boat or hopping back in with her family and heading up the river.  She liked their chances on their own better than with all these soldiers.  Especially since at least two of the soldiers with them had already stood behind a man who’d tried to kill Randy.  Despite Frank’s assurances Randy had told her that guy was walking around with a pistol tucked in his pocket now.  If it hadn’t been for her confidence in Bryan, she really may have just shanghaied the rest of the supplies and taken off up the river with Randy and the girls.

Stepping off of the concrete walkway onto the riverbank felt like they’d crossed a line of no return.  The solid ground filled her with misgivings.  They were soaked and miserable.  Randy had Kelly and the girls follow behind one of the other men disappearing up the trail ahead of them.  Randy wanted to bring up the rear so he could be on the lookout for any threats popping out of the woods. If he was able to see, then he could get to them before they could get to the girls.  It didn’t take him long to realize the dolly really wasn’t built for rolling through the woods fast enough to keep up with anyone.  At least not while dragging a bunch of heavy stuff along with you.

He was struggling to get one of his wheels unstuck without tipping the whole dolly over when a Zombie stepped out of the woods.  Striking with no fanfare the Zombie bit deeply into the side of the man’s face directly behind Randy.  It ripped off a long piece of skin exposing the bloody tissue and muscle of the man’s cheek and forehead.  Randy left his dolly stuck to the root and pulled out his machete.  The Zombie stood in the path casually chewing the hunk of face it’d bitten off.  It had both arms wrapped around the man. The random victim was screaming and panting and otherwise going into shock.  Randy cracked the Zombies skull open then did the same for the man with half a face.  One of the men playing rearguard stepped forward and grabbed the discarded dolly.  Without a second glance at the bodies lying in the mud they continued along the path towards where Randy’s dolly was still stuck to a root.

The soaked soldier helped Randy free his dolly then they both kept trudging up the muddy path.  Frank had told everyone the trail was only a few hundred yards long.  When he’d said it like that it sounded like a pretty short distance.  When you were dragging a few hundred pounds of batteries and gas in a dolly over roots in the rain it seemed a hell of a lot farther.  Random dead bodies kicked to the side of the trail did little to ease anyone’s mind.  On the plus side most of the bodies were naked meaning they were probably infected.  Unless the advanced team had slaughtered a secret hidden nudist colony with a recent smallpox epidemic.

Approximately three thousand years later the trail widened out into an open field with a bunch of vehicles scattered around it.  There were quite a few large SUVs with aftermarket updates like fences welded around their windows.  It was a pretty rough looking job but with no working YouTube around to teach welding it was the best they’d been able to do.  Considering it was the apocalypse though and roughly welded fences were a desirable feature the resale values might have actually gone up.

The SUV Kelly and the kids were directed towards was a white Chevy Suburban.  The interior was loaded with all of the latest features.  It had chrome and leather everywhere.  Kelly sat in the middle row helping get the kids settled in.  She was wondering if this model had the fancy camera system that would let them watch Zombies get squished as they ran over them.  Talking about a creative use of the parking assistant.

Randy was outside with the rest of the men helping get the batteries hooked up.  It was always fun messing around with electricity in the middle of a raging cyclone.  Looking out her window Kelly watched as the hoods were slammed shut one by one.  Bryan climbed in the driver’s seat of the one they were in and started it up.

“You guys all good?”  He asked turning around and smiling at Kelly and the kids.  All the girls smiled back at him.

“We’re good.  Everything going good out there?”  Kelly asked.

“Yes ma’am.  Your husband will be joining you momentarily.  One of my men will be jumping in to drive you guys.  Just a couple of things to take care of really quick and we’ll be out of here.”  Bryan said before hopping out of the truck.

Caitlyn had been digging through all of the seats searching for something.  Smiling triumphantly, she held up a leather case filled with DVDs.  Still grinning she asked her mom to figure out how to get the overhead video unit to work so they could watch a movie.

While Kelly was doing that, she kept an eye on Randy.  He was talking to Frank over by another one of the SUVs that’d been cranked up and was ready to go.  Both of them glanced over to where she was in their SUV. She waved at them before pretending to stop paying attention.  She watched out of the corner of her eye as Randy walked over to the man that he’d seen pick up the pistol.  The man who’d pointed a weapon at his family and struck his wife.  The man Frank had forbidden to carry a weapon on pain of death.

Randy got right up in the tall guys face as Frank asked him a question.  Looking agitated the man held up one of his hands and took a few steps back arguing with them.  Kelly watched as the man she’d known for years as a mild-mannered computer programmer stared down the macho soldier.  The soldier swung a big fist at Randy who ducked the poorly aimed haymaker then rammed the butt of his rifle into the man’s stomach.  The guy sank to the ground reaching into his pocket for the pistol.  He had it halfway out when Bryan shot him in the face.

Bryan bent down and retrieved the pistol off the ground and tucked it into his own waistband after verifying there was a bullet in the chamber.  The group casually dispersed to the three different SUVs they’d cranked up to get going.  It was only then that Kelly realized the execution hadn’t taken place at a random time.  Frank must’ve held off until they were in a position to safely shoot the man without having to worry about attracting the mob of infected around them.  He’d also been useful in dragging a dolly up the flooded trail.

“What are you guys watching?”  Randy asked leaning back and trying to see the video screen from the passenger seat.

“World War Z part three.”  Caitlyn joked.  It was a running gag between them.  The end of the world had halted production on a lot of movies they’d been looking forward to watching together.  That one of course being particularly ironic.

“I love you.”  Kelly whispered leaning forward to kiss Randy.  He’d done what needed to be done and she’d acknowledged it. The kiss was a thank you and forgiveness all wrapped in one.  She leaned back into her seat to see if she liked the remake of the Willy Wonka movie as much as she’d loved the original.

Chapter 15:  Dead Serious Small Talk

Krantz was camped out in the war room.  He sat at the conference table with a laptop and a notepad in front of him.  He’d been there for about fifteen hours straight when Forrest finally reported in.  Tom looked up from his laptop when the video screen on the wall started flashing that they had an incoming call.  He reached over to the sleek looking tablet in the middle of the table and pressed the green answer icon that appeared.

Forrest stared at them from the inside of a communication closet outside the Franklin Municipal airport in Virginia.  He looked comically surprised that the video call had actually worked.

“Commander Forrest reporting in as ordered sir.”  Forrest stuttered out allowing his training to carry him through the awkwardness.

“Good to see you made it.  Any issues?”  Krantz asked.  He looked like he barely believed the video conference was working either.  Tom was the only one there not stationed at the hub who actually understood the technology. He really knew this was quite a feat for it to be working.  Jenkins was virtually beaming since the bulk of the planning to make sure the communications systems would work had been up to him and his team.  It helped that they were in a special hub designed to allow for communications up and down the east coast in the event of a nuclear war.  Billions in taxpayer dollars had been spent over the years laying down the infrastructure to enable communications in case of a cataclysmic event.  No one had specifically been worried about Zombies being that event. The fear of a worldwide pandemic had been very real though.

“The airport had a small group defending it.  We took them out, but they were probably able to get a message out before we did.  They were connected into a hard-wired phone system.  The airport’s nice and clean.  I’d love to be able to use it as our forward rally point but now that it’s been compromised, we may need to fall back to option two.  We have a couple of days to figure that out before our forces start showing up anyway.”  Forrest reported.

“Outstanding work.  Any casualties?”  Krantz asked.

“No sir.  Everyone’s still standing.  One of my guys is missing a finger now but that’s it.”  Forrest answered.

“Hope it wasn’t his trigger finger.”  Krantz joked dryly.  “Just to let you know we’re taking a lot of hits along the coast but not much activity inland as of now.  We’re wondering if they’ve pulled all their people back to the Naval base at this point.  Any intel you can provide around that will be very useful.  Stay safe and let us know once you’re built up enough to strike.”

“Yes sir.  Will do sir.”  Forrest responded before killing the connection.

“We have anybody else reaching out today?”  Krantz asked Tom.

“Nothing until the call with Sam.”  Tom said glancing down quickly at the itinerary on his laptop to confirm.

Krantz left to go hit the base gym and grab a nap before that call.  It felt so weird to be doing ordinary things like going to the gym for a workout and scheduling conference calls.  For the last couple of years his workouts had literally been running for his life.  He’d been dropped into plenty of hot zones where him and his guards had to immediately start running after exiting the aircraft or risk getting eaten by howling infected.

He’d just gotten started on the treadmill when the phone on the wall rang.  He got off the treadmill and grabbed the handset.  He listened to Jenkins on the other end for a minute then sighed and went to put his uniform back on.  Sam had moved the time of their call up to now and was waiting for him on video back in the conference room.

“Hey Sam.”  Krantz said walking briskly into the room.  Once he was seated and everything was good Tom left the room and sat down at a desk outside the closed door in case he was needed.  His other job was to tell everyone the boss was in a confidential meeting and not to be disturbed.

“Good evening field commander.  I needed to get an update from you a little sooner.  I hope that’s ok.”  Sam said.  Krantz noticed she looked a little frazzled.

“Absolutely ma’am.  We actually just got off a call with Forrest. He’s gotten setup in Virginia near the main base.  We’re waiting for him to collect enough of a force to start making moves.  He’s either going to secure the airport or look for somewhere else nearby.  Otherwise, not much more to report.  We’re being hit hard near the coast but inland we’re doing ok.  A lot of infected moving around which is slowing us down but we’re getting it done.”

“Excellent.  All the feedback we’re getting here is that the troops moving through North Carolina are getting slowed down by the infected. They’re also starting to hit some of the roadblocks the settlement people left for them.  You may want to send out a general warning to check for trip wires and only send small parties over a bridge at a time.  Might be best to just avoid bridges honestly.  They’re pretty much all wired.  Snipers are moving in as well.  The settlement people are sending in guerilla warfare types to slow us down.”  Sam informed him.

“I’ll get that information out to the field right away.”  Krantz said busily taking notes.  “Knowing that’s going to save some lives.”

“You prepped for the meeting with the Senator on Thursday?”  Sam asked.

“Yes ma’am.  Is there anything in particular I should be ready to answer for him?”   Krantz asked.

“No.  Just making sure you remembered.  There’s a lot going on.”  Sam said then signed off.

Feeling like something had been off with the last bit of that call Krantz waved Tom back into the room.  He wasn’t able to shake the feeling that something had been off.  Sam had never ended a call so abruptly and she’d never called unannounced like that before either.  She’d also never bothered to remind him about upcoming calls with the Senator unless there was something different about them.

“Are you able to see where the video call comes in from when Sam calls?”  He asked Tom.

“No sir.  I can see what IP address the call’s coming from but we’re not using DNS or anything still.  Not enough endpoints.”  Tom answered.

“Ok nerd.  What are you able to tell me that actually makes sense to normal people?”

“I think the IP address that came in this time was different from the other times we’ve talked to them.”  Tom fussed around with the console in the middle of the table then showed a list of numbers with decimal points in weird places to Krantz.

“That’s wonderful.  What does it mean?”  Krantz asked.  He fought down the urge to hurt Tom.  Tom experiencing a little bit of pain right now would definitely make him happy.  Not a lot of pain.  Something like hitting him in the finger with a hammer.

“The numbers aren’t the same.  Think of them like phone numbers.  Except they’re the numbers you use for calling from video devices.  Does that make sense?”  Tom asked.

Krantz nodded as he absently spun the fancy little tablet around to look at it himself.  Now that he was thinking of the numbers as if they were phone numbers the obvious discrepancy stood out immediately.  Every call with Sam had come from one phone number or address in the past while this newest one was a new phone number. Scrolling upwards he didn’t see where the new number had ever appeared before.

“Is it easy to tell where the addresses go back to?  Like an actual address to match up to the computer address?”  Krantz asked.

“No sir.  Not unless you have some documentation or something it’s not really easy.  I can check and see?”  Tom said questioningly.

“Don’t do anything that’d be noticed.  If you’re able to find something that could be useful though.  It’s more of a curiosity thing really.”  Krantz said dismissively.  He got up to head back to the gym.  Tom headed over towards his computer terminal.  He did enjoy a challenge.

Chapter 16:  Squirrel Kabob

Kyler really wished waking up in a pile of insect infested pine straw in mind shattering pain wasn’t such a common occurrence for him.  It felt like a dragon had a talon in his shoulder and was wiggling his shoulder bone around.  It hurt.  Based on the position of the sun it appeared to be early afternoon.  Of course, he couldn’t really see the sun through the trees and pine straw so who the hell really knew?  If his arm didn’t hurt so bad, he could whip out his phone and actually see what time it was.  He’d snagged himself a really nice Rolex from a looted jewelry store but couldn’t figure out how to take out the links on the band, so it was basically garbage.  He needed to grab a cheap one the next time they walked past a gas station.

He missed Siri.  Without any connectivity to the ‘cloud’ Siri had died.  He’d always thought she lived inside his phone, but it turned out she was more of a cloud girl.  It’d taken mankind centuries to dig itself out of the dirt and only a few years for them to burrow right back into it.  Siri’s demise was just one small effect the apocalypse had on the things that everyone had taken for granted for so long.  Eventually the cars would all rust, the pills would all be gone, and the buildings would all collapse.  They’d be riding around on horses shooting at each other with bows and arrows.  Assuming the Zombies didn’t eat all the horses.

Thanks to Americans love for guns and the politicians love for pork it was going to take a while to run out of modern weapons and ammunition.  The more advanced weaponry would go away first.  It was scary knowing that there were nuclear weapons sitting in silos all over the world ready to launch.  Hopefully the guy who carried the Presidents briefcase with the launch codes around was able to find a nice safe place to die.  If he was wandering around as a Zombie and someone got their hands on that briefcase that could add a whole new level of suck to the apocalypse.

Speaking of things that suck.  Peeking through the pine needles Ritz had shoveled on top of him Kyler watched as an infected woman trounced into view.  She didn’t seem particularly interested in looking around.  She trudged right past their location without even glancing over at the oddly shaped piles of pine needles.  She was wearing the remains of a red and black striped sweater.  With her face hideously deformed by the virus she could easily have passed for Freddy Krueger. She just needed to find herself one of those brown hats.  She’d also need to invest in some pants.

Two more Zombies traipsed by their hiding spot while Kyler was awake.  With all the activity it wasn’t like he felt safe closing his eyes and taking a nap.  He couldn’t see Ritz but assumed the consummate soldier was doing what all good soldiers did when given an opportunity to sleep.  He was taking it.  The area around the exploded bunker must’ve finally bored the Zombies enough that when one of them started walking north the rest decided to tag along.  As long as none of them were actually on the hunt they should be fine.  The ones walking by looked like they were just walking to be walking.

Protected from a painful death by less than an inch of pine straw that’d been kicked over him in the dark by an exhausted Ritz he watched as the parade of the insane continued.  If a single Zombie happened to stumble over one of them, they were dead.  It was the night before all over again except this time he didn’t have a dead body to hide behind.  Afraid to move he lay in pain as the group passing by gradually thinned out.  When no more passed them for about thirty minutes, he risked moving his head to look around.  Not seeing any more of them anywhere he grabbed a couple of pills out of his upper pocket and slammed them into his mouth.

He quickly swallowed the pills hoping they didn’t choke him since he had nothing to wash them down with.  Once that was done, he pulled some more pine straw over his body to cover back up.  Then he sat there waiting for the magical pills to kick in.  He thought he’d taken one antibiotic and one pain killer, but he really wasn’t sure now which pocket he’d put which pills in.  If he ever got a chance to write a survival book about the apocalypse, he knew what he’d put in it.  The first chapter would basically be about drugging yourself and sitting in discomfort for days on end.  That seemed to be the most important skill.  It’d gotten him through a lot more scrapes than his weapons had.

“It’s dark enough.  Let’s go.”

Kyler almost jumped out of his skin hearing the voice in his ear and feeling the hands on his shoulders.  Ritz was careful to make sure he stood back a good distance from Kyler in case he started swinging cutlery around again.  Consciously controlling his breathing Kyler hoisted himself out of the pine straw.  His shoulder was pulsating with pain, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t walk.  They bore slightly to the northwest since the Zombies they’d been watching all day had been veering more easterly.

They walked until they couldn’t walk anymore then built themselves another pine straw penthouse.  This time if there were any Zombies walking by during the day Kyler had no clue. He slept the entire day away.  He didn’t realize it, but his fever soared during the day before gradually dropping back down to normal.  The strong antibiotics doing the trick of gradually getting him well again.

Two more days of walking and they were both beginning to wonder how big this forest really was.  They weren’t making great time with Kyler wounded and Ritz loaded down with all their gear, but it was starting to feel a lot like the Groundhog Day movie every time they woke up.  The sight of a steep incline up ahead got them both excited.  As a general rule of thumb anything different was bad in an apocalypse.  However, after staring at pinecones and squirrels for the last few days Kyler and Ritz were ready for a change.

The steep incline ran up to a railroad track.  Close to being out of water and all their food already gone they opted to follow the tracks and see where they went.  If nothing else, it was better than staring at squirrels for another day.  If they didn’t find some food soon the squirrels were going to be in serious danger.  They’d held off on hunting them for now because shooting a squirrel wasn’t the worth the risk of attracting Zombies.  If it came down to dying from starvation or shooting some squirrels though then they’d just have to run that risk.  They’d also seen a few deer running around.  A venison steak sounded a lot better than a burnt squirrel on a stick.

“You think they’re still running trains?”  Ritz asked.  He was watching Kyler carefully to make sure he didn’t pitch over headfirst or anything.  The heavily scarred young man looked like holy hell.  Ritz was super impressed the kid was still standing after all the abuse he’d taken.  When he’d helped Kyler get dressed, he’d noticed all of the other scars from former battles.  This was a tough kid.

“Wouldn’t surprise me.  When you think about it a train is pretty Zombie proof as long as you don’t use the cars with the windows in them.  If a bunch of Zombies show up just sit there until they leave.  Probably not something you could use a lot.  The noise would eventually just have too many of the infected hanging out around the tracks.  You could use them to move a lot of troops and armor though. That’d be pretty slick.”  Kyler answered.

That was the other thing that kept surprising Ritz about Kyler.  Not only was the kid tough he was smart too.  He was always thinking about everything from a bunch of different angles.  He’d have fit right in with any of the special forces teams Ritz had ever been a part of.

Four hours of limping along the trail later they were caught.  A patrol on horseback came up out of nowhere and demanded their identification.  Kyler calmly stripped off his shirt and turned around to show them the Brotherhood brand.  He gave them the name of one of the Brotherhood he’d known when he first joined.  He knew better than to use his real name. They were going to check him against the database at some point. The official database probably contained some very uncomplimentary notes about him at this point.

“What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”  One of the men asked.

“We were guarding a secret base.  Now it’s a secret crater.  It got bombed a few days ago.  We barely made it out alive.”  Kyler answered.  He knew he was taking a risk talking about the secret base.  People in the New America were typically a lot more protective of revealing secrets.

“Ok.  Let’s have a look at you.  You look like hell.  Secret base?”  The man on horseback responded.  That guy and the others hopped down to give Ritz and Kyler food and water while checking Kyler’s bandages.

“We could tell you but then we’d have to kill you.  Based on the bombing and everything I’d say it’s safe to assume it’s no longer a secret.  If the enemy knows about it not a lot in harm in letting you guys know.”  Ritz said sarcastically.

“How the hell are you still alive?”  One of the men wondered aloud staring at the myriad of battle scars carved into Kyler’s flesh.  Luckily, they hadn’t had to remove his pants to check out the wound.  The giant pig bite scar on his leg was always a fun topic of conversation.  People tended to shoot people who had large bite mark scars on their bodies.  You could never be too careful.

“Just another day in the apocalypse.”  Kyler answered.  The men laughed and nodded along with him.  It was easy to vilify the people in the south.  The military men fighting for the New America weren’t all psychopaths though.  Once you got to know them you realized they were just victims of geography.  Everyone was trying desperately to grasp onto something that was real.  Something that had a future and the New American militia had that going for it.  It was definitely better than being one of the lower ranking classes serving the New American armies.

“How far are we from your base?”  Ritz asked.

“We’re not assigned to a regular base.”  The patrol leader answered.  “We’re part of a patrol trying to make sure the tracks are cleared so the train doesn’t have to stop.  A train you’ll most likely be riding.  Doesn’t sound like you’re needed to guard that crater you mentioned any longer.  Commands making a big push up north. They need everyone they can get is what I‘m hearing.”

“Sounds about right.”  Kyler said.

“Hopefully it’ll give us a ride right up to the enemy’s door.  As long as there aren’t a bunch of Zombies standing around on the tracks, we should be good to go.  You guys happen to know horses?”  The patrol leader asked.

Kyler shook his head no while Ritz nodded that he could.  They sat Kyler up on one of their extra mounts and had Ritz lead it.  They were headed south to continue sweeping the track until they ran into the train. Once they made contact with the train, they were going to board it horses and all.  Kyler asked when they expected to catch up with the train and they let him know they’d actually already expected to see it today.  The fact that they hadn’t had them worried something might’ve happened.  In which case they were stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with orders to keep on riding south until they found it.

An hour later as they were riding around a particularly curvy portion of the track, they saw the train engine sitting up ahead.  As they drew closer, they noticed a couple of figures moving around the front of the engine.  They took the horses into the woods and tied them up to proceed on foot.  The patrol leader left Kyler and Ritz behind to watch the horses. Once he’d made sure they were good with the horses he rolled out with the rest of the men to see if they could figure out what was going on with the train.

“Now would be a good time to take off if that’s the plan.”  Ritz brought up.  He gestured at the horses with saddlebags stuffed with supplies.

“I’m not really liking the horse-riding thing.  I think it may be more fun getting home on the train.”  Kyler said.

“True.  Nothing like a nice long train ride. Hopefully we can make a bunch of new friends. Just remember that we’ll need to kill them all before our stop.”  Ritz said.

Kyler had been about to respond when one of the men came jogging back.

“It’s all good.  Some trees fell over the tracks and they had to stop to clear off the track.  Zombies caught up to them while they were stopped so they had their bow guys killing them from the top of the cars.”

“Sounds good.  Let’s go get our tickets punched.”  Ritz answered with a friendly smile.

Chapter 17:  Willy Wonka’s Wild Ride

Zombies started slamming into the sides of the suburban before they even made it onto I-40.  The service road at the edge of the muddy field angled up the side of an incline that dropped them off on the side of the interstate.  The big trucks were all the four-wheel drive models, or they wouldn’t have ever made it out of the field.  As it was there were plenty of heart pounding moments when they thought they were screwed.  The guy Bryan had sent to drive them was world class.  It made sense now why he hadn’t just let them drive themselves out.

The new driver introduced himself as Phil.  Randy had to ask him to repeat his introduction since he had a hard time listening with Zombies climbing up the front of the truck.  An unwelcome side effect of the chain link fencing welded around the windows was that it gave the Zombies something to hold on to once they got close.  Kyler had been the one who told them about the trucks the Brotherhood used that had web cameras attached to them so the driver could see out of the windows even when they were covered in Zombies.  The settlements hadn’t received the memo yet for that particular apocalypse hack.

Phil agreed it sounded like a great idea.  He smirked as he said it. Staring at a monitor that clearly showed the road in front of them would obviously be better than trying to peek through the crotch of the infected man currently spread-eagled on the windshield.  They were bouncing up the road at a speed Randy considered very unsafe.  It seemed especially risky considering the hazardous road conditions were only made worse by the visibility issues. It was hard driving when you could barely see due to a pair of extremely soiled boxers hanging off of an infected freak clinging to the windshield.

Somehow Phil managed to get them on the main road without flipping the top-heavy beast they were riding in.  They’d been told the road all the way to the settlements was kept cleared.  Or, it had been until recently.  There was no telling what was going on now that the Brotherhood was invading them.  Bridges were probably going to be blown up. They’d be lucky if they weren’t killed in a friendly fire ambush.  They had radios mounted in each of the trucks but there was no telling if any of the outposts were manned or not.  Randy flipped through the channels as they drove hoping to catch any random transmissions that may provide them with very much needed intel.

Kelly kept the kids focused on the movie.  They’d found a whole bunch of headsets in the back.  A couple of tries on the radio presets had gotten those working.  That meant everyone in the back could focus on Willy Wonka and his factory versus the sore covered mostly nude cannibals climbing the fencing all over the truck they were riding in.  Phil had tried a couple of sharp turns to fling the creepy crawlers off the truck, but they weren’t letting go for anything.  He gave up when it became obvious that they’d hang on until their parts fell off.

They lined up into a three-vehicle convoy tearing up the interstate.  Frank was in the lead truck with a few of his men while Bryan was in the third truck with everyone else.  They’d have looked pretty bad ass if the secret service sized SUVs had all been black.  The two white and one silver ones they’d ended up with were rocking right along though.  Not that the Zombies cared one way or the other.  All the Zombies knew was that any moving vehicle was basically a lunch box they needed to catch and rip open.

The interstate was as cleared as promised in the brochures.  If the stubborn Zombies would just finally fall off the fencing, then they’d be good to go.  Randy and Phil were amusing themselves coming up with creative ways to try and get them to let go.  Phil was starting to sound like he was ready to try out some of the less crazy ideas.  Staring at a pair of boil covered legs leading up to a piss stained pair of boxers half covered by loose folds of fat was starting to get to him.  Randy had been quick to point out that it’d be even worse if the boxers weren’t there.  That conversation had gone downhill fast enough that Kelly had been happy all the girls were wearing headsets with the volume turned up to watch the movie.

Signs on the side of the interstate indicated they were coming up on the intersection with I-77.  Randy and Phil quieted down so they could pay attention to what was going on up ahead.  Randy turned the radio to the channel they’d opted to use for communicating between the cars.  Radio silence was the word of the day unless these was an emergency.  The enemy would be trying to pick up signals the same way Randy had been earlier.  Although they probably wouldn’t get bored and give up after only doing it for a few minutes.

The lead truck brake lights flashed on up ahead of them.  Phil cussed under his breath as  he applied the brakes and swerved to the side to miss crashing into them.  He’d barely seen the brake lights thanks to the Zombie trying to chew through the chain link fence on the windshield.  He pulled up parallel to the lead truck to see what was going on. The truck driven by Bryan slowed to a stop on the other side of them.  The window on the lead truck went down.

“We just wanted to help get those Zombies off for you.”  Frank yelled waving his arm around outside his window.

That had the desired effect of getting the Zombies attention.  All of them jumped off the trucks they were trying to get into and charged at Franks truck which was already accelerating rapidly away.  Phil put the pedal down on their truck as soon as the last Zombie had jumped off.  He ran over one of the infected that wasn’t able to get around them fast enough.

“It’s so much nicer driving without having to stare at Zombie crotch.”  Phil exclaimed happily.  He was even smiling now. He’d had a prominent scowl the last half hour of driving since they’d collected their infected hitchhikers.

“How’s the movie?”  Randy asked loudly enough to be heard over the headsets he thought.

When no one responded Phil said it must be pretty good and they both laughed like it was the funniest joke ever.  Getting those infected off the truck had been a huge morale booster.  Randy was still chuckling when they got to the intersection with I-77.  They were weary of the intersections being booby trapped or setup to use as ambush spots.  Either the settlements or the Brotherhood may have them rigged to explode.  It’d make more sense for the settlements to have done it but who needs sense when you have explosives.  They’d be just as dead from explosives set by their own side as from the enemy shooting them.

Frank was cautious by nature. That caution showed as he slowed to about twenty miles per hour to pass through the intersection.  Randy was wondering what kind of snacks they had when he saw Franks truck suddenly accelerate away from them.  Phil didn’t need a written invitation to put the hammer down.  Randy was pushed back in his seat by the sudden acceleration.  He looked to his right and saw a whole freakin’ convoy rolling up I-77 towards them.  That explained the need for speed.

In no time flat all three of their trucks were rocketing down the road at their top speeds.  It appeared that they’d taken off fast enough to avoid the convoy spotting them.  Kyler was feeling like they should be safe as long as they were able to keep up this crazy speed without crashing.  Then the lead truck with Frank in it exploded.

Phil dodged the burning pile of metal in the road ahead of them.  He slammed on the brakes and drove the skidding truck up onto the weed covered side of the interstate.

“Everyone out!”  He yelled.

Randy flung open his door and ran around to the back of the truck pulling kids out as fast as he could.  He grabbed bags of their gear and flung them on the ground.  Phil was telling them all to run for the woods.

“We’ve got to go man!  Screw that shit!”  Bryan yelled running up behind him.  He grabbed Randy and shoved him towards the woods.  Randy started running with the two big canvas bags he’d grabbed and his personal go bag.  The kids were already disappearing into the tree line.

The SUV they’d just been in exploded.  Randy was pitched forward.  His feet flew over his head.  He landed painfully with a long piece of metal stuck completely through his hand.  All around him everyone was getting up and running for the tree line.  Bryan grabbed him and pulled him to his feet.

“Run!”  Kelly was standing in the tree line screaming.

Half running and half being carried by Bryan he made it to the tree line.  Bryan pointed at his hand.

“That sucks.  Stand still.”  Bryan reached over and grabbed Randy by the wrist.  Before he knew what was happening Bryan had yanked the piece of metal clean through his hand.  In shock Randy watched as Bryan wrapped gauze around the bloody hole.

“You ok?”  Kelly asked running up to him.

Randy was still trying to catch up.  Less than five minutes ago his biggest issue had been trying to figure out where Kelly had hidden the best snacks.  Now he had a bloody hole in his hand he could easily stick a pencil through.  Everything had gone to hell in a remarkably short period of time.

“We’ve got to go now.  The Zombies will be swarming this area in a few minutes after all that noise.  Plus, that damned convoy will be swinging by any time now.  You good to make a run for it?  We’ll have to carry the kids.”  Bryan said taking control of the situation.  Randy was happy for that since he was still completely out of it.  He needed to get his head in the game for his family’s sake.

“Yeah.  Let’s go.”  He said with way more enthusiasm than he actually felt.

Phil grabbed Doreen, Bryan picked up Zoey and Caitlyn grabbed Ali.  Kelly was keeping a close eye on Randy who’d obviously added another concussion to his medical history.  The sounds of screeching were becoming more prominent.  The good thing about the Zombies coming was that the enemy convoy wouldn’t be able to stop and send out soldiers to hunt them down.  Of course, they wouldn’t need to since the Zombies would be hunting them.

They ran.  Randy ran through the pain of his newest medical trauma.  He puked as he ran getting it all over the front of his shirt.  A thoroughly grossed out Kelly nodding to herself at the confirmation that her husband was once again suffering from a concussion.  They ran for about thirty minutes before Randy collapsed to the ground weakly waving at them to all keep going.

“I’ll catch up.”  He said when Kelly squatted down next to him and tried to tug him to his feet.  He picked his head up, smiled at her and puked for about a minute straight.  He puked until there was nothing left in his stomach for him to get rid of.  After that he dry heaved a little bit before collapsing to the forest floor and closing his eyes.  He definitely didn’t look like he was planning on getting up and running again any time soon.

“We need to get moving.”  Bryan said walking back to see what the holdup was.

“Why can’t we rest here for a few minutes while he pulls himself together?  We’ve got to be a solid mile from the road now.  We should be pretty safe from the convoy soldiers or any Zombies who went to check out the explosions.”  Kelly said.  Caitlyn stood behind her mom nodding along with everything she was saying.

“Drones.”  Bryan replied.

“You think they’re going to send out drones to look for us?  I don’t think that convoy’s planning on stopping to do all that.”  Kelly said. She wasn’t sure what Bryan was talking about, but she was happy to argue.  The more time they spent arguing the more time Randy had to pull himself together.

“It was drones that blew up the two trucks.  I’m talking about the big military drones.  Not the ones people use to spy on their neighbors.  They must have drones flying air support for the convoys.  If they have drones over the roads, they could have them over the woods to look for snipers and guerillas.”  Bryan said.  A second later he barked out an involuntary chuckle. Kelly and the girls were all staring fearfully up into the sky.

“You won’t see them before they see you.  They fly too high to make them out.  They’re small and some of them are loaded down with tech to see heat signatures and track people.”  He explained.

Randy had sat up at some point during the exchange and was listening to the conversation.  His face clearly showing how sick he must feel.  Kelly knelt down and forced him to drink some water.  He made himself choke the water down.  Everyone held their breath when the water started to come right back up a minute later.  Randy fought down the waterspout threatening to erupt from his mouth and worked himself back to his feet.

“Let’s get away from here before we find out they have freakin’ dragons and werewolves working for them too.”  He gasped out trying to be funny.  No one laughed so he shrugged and took off running.

“Wrong way honey!”  Kelly said loudly enough for him to hear.  He turned around grinning sheepishly at all of them.  Bryan and Kelly both looked at him with concern then slowly started moving out again.

They were moving as quickly as they could through the woods when loud explosions sounded from the direction of the interstate.  Bright flashes of light popped off in the sky.  Fighter jets dipped and swooped out of the clouds before disappearing to the south.  Bryan let out a whoop before he could stop himself.

“Hell yeah.  That’ll teach them to blow up my ride.”  He said.  Kelly smiled sadly remembering that Frank had been in that first truck that’d been blown up.  Blown up because an evil man was preying on the survivors of a mass extinction event to seize control of what was left of the eastern United States.  So much pointless death at a time when they should’ve all been pulling together to keep humanity moving forward.  Instead they were regressing right back to the old ways.

“You think those flashes in the sky were the drones getting shot up?”  Caitlyn asked.

“No real way to tell but I hope so.”  Phil answered shifting Doreen around on his shoulders.  She appeared to be a little sick of the novelty of riding the large man like a two-legged horse.  Probably from being bumped around all over the place and constantly getting smacked in the face by branches.  She was still wearing the headsets from the truck.  For some reason that made Kelly tear up.  She had to turn her head away to brush off the tears that appeared on her cheeks.

“After those explosions, we need to keep going.  There’s going to be Zombies running this way from all over now.”  Bryan said to a chorus of groans as everyone loaded back up following the brief victory break.

Chapter 18:  Bits and Bytes

“I can’t ping the IP address they were calling us from before.”  Tom enunciated slowly.  Krantz was staring at him like he was speaking Greek.  He supposed in this case it was more like he was speaking geek.

“What.  Does.  That.  Mean.”  Krantz said.  His patience was eroding quickly.  His frustration rising up to block the explanations Tom was desperately tossing at him.  They were both speaking English but there was a definite jargon issue.

“It means the video unit they were calling from isn’t there anymore.  We’re just basically doing H.323 calls so if you can’t ping the IP address then that unit must be shut down for some reason.”  Tom said.  He was using the tone of voice you’d normally reserve to explain to a toddler why they shouldn’t stick a fork into an electric outlet.

Evidently all the toddlers Tom knew had a working knowledge of standard networking protocols.  Krantz ignored the pinging and the weird combination of letters and numbers Tom had been spouting off about.  If he understood correctly then the unit the Senator and Sam had been using had been shut down for some reason.  That didn’t make a ton of sense.  Even if the Senator had moved to a new base why bother shutting down the unit at the old base?

“Thank you.  I think I finally get it.  I was already technologically illiterate before this all happened.  Never in a million years did I think I’d need to brush up on my IT skills to survive the end of the world.  Anything else going on?”  Krantz asked.

Tom had called him in his room right as he was about to take a nap.  Krantz had agreed to the quick meeting leading to all the computer nerd talk.  Tom’s answers had really just raised more questions.  Questions Krantz was hoping wouldn’t keep him awake since he badly needed to get some sleep.  Especially now that all their troops were beginning to move into position. He didn’t want to have to yawn his way through the opening moves of the life and death chess game they’d be playing soon.

“The convoy you ordered the drones sent out to protect got hit pretty hard.  The carrier’s launching strikes farther inland now.”  Tom said.

“How many strikes?”  Krantz asked.

“Just the convoy and a couple of other targets of opportunity.  They took out a bridge with some of our guys on it and a couple other big rigs hauling tanks.  They might be targeting our armor, or it could be that those are just the easiest things for them to find to attack.”  Tom said.  There weren’t a ton of ways to transport the massive tanks they were hoping to deploy.  At this rate they’d be lucky if any of them made it close enough to the enemy to fire a round or two.  Luckily, they’d counted on that in their planning.  If any of them did make it through it’d really just be a bonus.

Krantz dismissed Tom and pulled a bottle of whiskey out from under his bed.  He poured a generous portion into a glass with some half-melted ice cubes in it.  He was getting spoiled living at the base.  Here he was sitting on a soft bed in an air-conditioned room in a safe and secure bunker with a full stomach from his three meals a day and he was feeling upset because the ice cubes in his glass were starting to melt. The majority of people left alive in the country were wondering if the mud hole they were drinking water out of was going to kill them or not.  Deciding he’d probably survive the horror of the diminutive ice cubes he dumped a generous portion of whiskey into the glass and swished it around.

They’d made the call to start deploying the drones.  Considering two of them had just been shot down over North Carolina it was safe to assume those were no longer a secret.  The people in the settlements would be readying countermeasures now. That was going to make them need to rethink how they were planning to use the drones in the attack.

That didn’t concern Krantz too much since they’d never planned on using the drones to take out the carrier anyway.  The air defense systems on board the carrier would shred the drones to pieces.  They needed to force the people from the settlements to retreat to the shelter of the big ship.  Hopefully they’d get everyone aboard and depart on a nice long cruise to wherever.  The goal was for the Brotherhood to take over the land.  Krantz hoped they could accomplish that without having to go head to head with a floating fortress that could deploy fighter planes like candy popping out of a Pez dispenser

Of greater concern to Krantz was the news that the fighter missions were starting to range deeper inland.  Unbeknownst to pretty much everyone not directly involved in the project a lot of work had gone into repairing the railway system.  A lot of manual work like clearing off fallen trees and other debris from the tracks.  Multiple looting groups had been repurposed to carry out the cleanup projects.

Personnel who had experience working on trains had been sought out from the survivors.  One of the great strengths of the Brotherhood was the Senator’s compulsive need to catalogue everything.  Out of that desire had been born the clerical corps who were responsible for data gathering.  They went around with laptops interviewing survivors to get their former occupations.  The information they collected was transmitted via the rudimentary networks they’d setup where available. In most cases the info was just dumped onto a flash drive and sent to a command location to be manually added.  They’d gone back to the days before AOL dial-up from a networking perspective at this point and it sucked.

These databases allowed them to find experts in solar power, electricians, skilled soldiers and the other skilled manpower that helped the Brotherhood grow and thrive.  There’d been a whole crop of people who’d popped up when they began the search for people with experience working on trains.  That was a popular pre-apocalypse profession in the south it seemed.  Or for some reason the people with that particular background had just out survived people involved in other occupations.  It’d be interesting to sort by profession and see which ones tended to survive the apocalypse better.

You’d think that professions like soldiers and the police would have the greatest chance of surviving an apocalypse.  The problem was those were the people who ran towards the danger to fight it.  First responders took a massive hit to their life expectancy when the danger they were running towards was also running at them full speed with hunger radiating out of merciless red eyes.

Whatever the reason Krantz was just thankful they’d been able to locate so many people who had a background working around trains.  It’d enabled them to get the trains online and ensure they had all the fuel required to do what they planned to do with them.  The original plan had been to have one train coming up the tracks on the coast and the other coming up from the mountains.  They’d decided not to use the one on the coast because of the danger posed by the carrier.  It’d validated that was the right approach when Krantz had seen all the attacks lighting up their men on the coast.

Now that he was hearing the planes were flying farther inland it worried him that they may see the train.  The Brotherhood had a lot of their eggs in the train basket.  One missile aimed at the tracks and they were pretty much screwed.  The only way the train idea worked is if it didn’t occur to the settlement folks that a train was even an option.  If they suspected the Brotherhood might be moving supplies via train it was a quick combat flight to knock out the tracks or the bridges they needed.  They could even follow the tracks until they got to the actual train and blow it to hell.

Compartmentalizing the plan to use the trains had been deemed vital.  Krantz hoped everyone’s fear of being called out as a spy would help keep their mouths shut. The Senator had succeeded in making everyone paranoid.  Everyone knew that if anyone in their group was found out to be a spy then they’d all be considered spies.  They’d all be executed without a second thought.  This led to several incidents of groups self-policing suspected spies in their midst.  Self-policing being a euphemism for stabbing suspected spies in the back and leaving them to bleed out in the woods.

Krantz sat up in bed.  He’d just realized he needed a distraction.  He needed the enemy to focus on the coast and turn a blind eye to what may be happening on the other side of the state.  They’d been shifting their troops away from the coast since that’s where most of the attacks had been coming from.  He got out of bed and grabbed the bottle of mouthwash by his sink.  He swished it around as he pulled on his rumpled uniform.  Spitting out the minty mixture he hoped would help conceal his raging alcoholism he purposefully walked out of his room.

Upstairs he had the communications officer jot down some notes so that the next time Forrest made contact they’d have a message for him.  He needed Forrest to make some noise on the coast and start pressing the carrier sooner than planned.  That should hopefully get the settlements to focus on what was happening close to them and quit having fighter jets waste fuel flying all over the damned state blowing up his tanks.

That order given he asked the communications officer to get Sam online in the conference room.  He needed to let her know they needed to get moving on the train.  All communications concerning the train funneled through her to help maintain secrecy.  Outside of Sam and Krantz no one else was supposed to be in the loop on the train.  Krantz assumed the Senator was in on it as well. The Senator hadn’t made their last meeting though, so he wasn’t sure.  He went and sat down in the secure conference room and waited for the screen to light up.  One of the benefits of the expensive phone system was that they’d made it simple enough for a general officer to figure out.

A cup of coffee later the screen lit up and the touch panel displayed a large green icon with answer me written on it.  Krantz pressed the button and Sam’s face appeared on the screen.  Her make-up and general appearance were as perfect as always.  There was the hint of puffiness around her eyes though that made her look like she needed some more sleep.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of being dragged out of bed?”  Sam stated by way of greeting.

“We need to move up operation choo.”  Krantz said.  The code name for the operation was a present from the last field commander.  Krantz assumed it was short for ‘choo choo’ since it revolved around trains.  He hadn’t been about to try and change the operations name though.

“Move it up to when?”  Sam asked.

“Immediately would be good.”  Krantz responded.  He knew the logistical hurdles with moving up the schedule. He also knew the whole track hadn’t been inspected yet.  He also didn’t care.  If the train didn’t leave now, they might as well not even have it as an option.  The idea was to be able to insert a large force complete with armor faster than anyone on the other side of the no man’s zone expected.  It should give them the path to victory they needed to avoid a slug fest.  There was only about a million things that could go wrong with the train plan.

“Stand by.”  Sam said.  Her camera went dark.

Krantz went and got another coffee to fight the exhaustion starting to settle in around his neck like a cheap tie.  He looked up when the camera flickered back to life revealing Sam sitting back down at the conference table on her side.  He noticed she had a Diet Mountain Dew can in her hand.  She must’ve needed to grab some caffeine as well.

“It’s done.  Anything else?”  Sam asked.

“They’re sending their fighters farther inland now.”  Krantz said.  “I’m going to start hitting them harder closer to the coast.”

Secure room or not he didn’t like explaining any more than he had to in case someone was listening in.  Tom had told him it was possible but highly unlikely someone could be snooping on his calls.  That answer had not given him the warm fuzzies.  Sam was smart.  She got it and a minute later Krantz was heading back down to his room.  He was going to need some more whiskey to counter all the caffeine he’d just consumed.  He knew what it said about him that he didn’t go to sleep anymore so much as pass out drunk in bed every night.

Chapter 19:  All Aboard

The last Zombie in sight fell over with the shaft of an arrow sticking out of its eye socket.  The patrol Kyler and Ritz were riding with walked out into the open with weapons held up in the air as nonthreateningly as possible.  They wanted to avoid looking like either Zombies or a group of raiders.  Dying from friendly fire was an all too common occurrence in a world where paranoia was a dominant survival trait.  The patrol leader and a man standing on the top of the train exchanged a few sentences with the pass phrases in them.  An officer stepped out of a door on the side of the train and walked over. The officer talked briefly to the patrol leader before sending that group towards the back of the train where the livestock cars were located.

Kyler and Ritz started to follow the rest of the patrol to the designated train.  The officer asked them to stop before they’d walked more than a few feet.  Glancing nervously at one another Ritz helped Kyler get down off the horse.  One of the patrol members grabbed the lead to their horse and took it away.  The officer had Kyler and Ritz follow him aboard one of the cars closer to the front of the train.  Once on the train the officer took them to a sleeping car that’d been transformed into an office.  He got them both a glass of water from a small fridge in the corner then invited them to sit down while he typed his password into a laptop.

“What happened to your arm?”  The officer asked.  He sounded genuinely curious.

“We were assigned to guard a base near here that came under attack.  I took a round to the shoulder while we were fighting off raiders.”  Kyler said.

“I didn’t know there was a base near here.  Not that I necessarily would know if there was.  There’s a lot of secrets floating around.  The name of the game seems to be compartmentalization.  Did you two know about this train?”  The officer asked.

“No clue sir.  The first we heard about it was when that patrol rode up on horseback and told us we’d be meeting up with a train.  I guess they couldn’t think of anything else to say since they were guarding train tracks at the time.”  Kyler answered.  Ritz was keeping quiet. Amongst the Brotherhood Ritz was very much the low man on the totem pole.  Kyler was Brotherhood and there was about a ninety percent chance the officer on the other side of the desk had an identical brand on his back.

“I can see how that’d be a difficult one to tap dance around.  No matter.  You mind giving me your names?”  The officer asked.  He had his hands hovering expectantly above the keyboard.

“I’m Paul Jameson and this is Richard Mulligan sir.”  Kyler lied.  He’d known Paul for a short time when he first got his brand.  The Mulligan name was one he remembered off a roll call sheet.  He hoped Ritz heard him and was working up his cover.  They really should’ve talked more about this before being captured.

“Hmm.  Paul Jameson from Smithfield?”  The officer asked.  “Do you have your identification on you?”

“That’s me sir.  My identification’s in a box under my rack in the bottom of a bunker that’s probably still on fire.  I grabbed my guns when the alarm went off and that was it.  Thought it was a false alarm at first.  We got plenty of those.”  Kyler answered.

“Would you mind showing me your brand and telling me who gave it to you?”  The officer asked.

Kyler pulled up his shirt and rattled off the names of the men who’d branded him.  He threw in the name of the officer who’d been in charge of that outpost for good measure.  He knew Paul had also been branded there.  He just wasn’t sure if it’d been by the same people.  He’d had no idea that was something anyone kept track of.  The slightly worried look on the officers face melted away.  That answer must’ve done the trick.

“I guess I can change your status from missing and presumed dead to alive and assigned to the train battalion.  I’m assuming you don’t have other orders as far as where you need to be?”

“No sir.  We were assigned to guard a base that’s been turned into a big hole in the ground.  My entire chain of command was blown to hell.  I’m good to roll up north and get some payback.”  Kyler said.  Ritz nodded agreeably when they both looked over at him.

About thirty minutes later Kyler found himself in charge of a car full of heavily armed men and women who’d been pressed into fighting for the Brotherhood.  The officer left him and Ritz there after introducing them to the man who’d been in charge before Kyler showed up.  The man who’d just been demoted was about ten years Kyler’s senior, but Kyler’s Brotherhood brand instantly placed him higher in the pecking order.  Even though a platoon leader position should theoretically only be held by an officer.  There was shortage of officers in the train battalion, so they were lowering the requirements to fit reality.

The train car held a fifty-person group the Brotherhood referred to as a platoon.  The platoon was separated into five different squads of about ten men each.  Each squad had a squad leader.  The man Kyler replaced as platoon leader became a squad leader on his demotion.  Kyler had him gather the rest of the squad leaders together and meet with him at the bench seats in the front of the car.  He had to act like he was interested in leading this platoon into battle when he’d really just be looking for a way to get them all killed.  All of them except for himself and Ritz of course.

They gathered around the table and took their seats. Kyler verified by looking around the table that he was definitely the youngest person there.  A couple of the men had that look about them that indicated they’d been in the military back when the world was still semi-sane.  Kyler had them all introduce themselves.  He asked them to tell him where they were from and what their military experience was.  When they were done with introductions, he asked them to fill him in on what the makeup of their patrols was like.  He put himself into the role of being the commander taking these men to war trying to understand who he’d be leading into battle.

The answers were about what he expected.  The squad leaders all had some sort of military experience.  The troops themselves were a mix of people with some military experience and a bunch who just had hunting experience or similar.  The bulk of them were from Tennessee with a handful from Alabama.  The ones from Tennessee had marched down to join the battalion after being forcefully split apart from their families.  They’d been told their families would be taken care of while they were gone as long as they performed well in service to the Brotherhood.

They may not all have military experience but they mostly all knew how to shoot a gun.  You didn’t survive this long without having some sort of survival skills.  Kyler wasn’t super clear on what the Brotherhood expected to accomplish with a battalion full of amateurs rushing at an aircraft carrier with guns blazing.  He hoped there was more to the plan than that.  Otherwise it was just a waste of these people’s lives.  These people had survived the apocalypse only to become cannon fodder for an assault on the settlements.  That explained why they didn’t have an officer leading this group.  They didn’t want to send one of their own on a suicide run.

The more he listened to the squad leaders the more sickened Kyler became.  It reinforced his decision to fight the Brotherhood.  It even made him feel a lot better about blowing up the Senator’s bunker.  What it didn’t do was justify the fact that he was going to need to get all these people murdered before they were able to kill any of the people in the settlements.  He found himself in the position of needing to figure out how to kill a bunch of innocent people to save a bunch of innocent people.

The soldiers under his command had no choice.  They’d have to follow orders to march off the train and kill every man, woman and child in a settlement.  A few of them may balk at it.  They might shoot into the trees or let the women and children escape into the woods.  The majority of them would do what they were told though.  They’d fear that to do otherwise would lead to the torture or deaths of their own family back home.  The children they’d been forced to leave at the reeducation camps the Brotherhood had setup in Tennessee.  There were married couples in his platoon who’d been told to fight hard if they ever wanted to see their children again.

Kyler wanted to order his platoon to turn their weapons on the men driving this train.  He saw the resentment in their eyes when they looked at him.  They’d probably mutiny if they thought they had a chance at saving their families.  He’d gladly lead them into battle against the monsters holding their children back at the training camps.  He didn’t see a way to make that work though.  Instead he sat there thinking that him and Ritz needed to figure out a way to sabotage this train. Otherwise they were going to have to lead a bunch of innocent people to their deaths.  He’d be personally responsible for a lot of children on both sides of the conflict becoming orphans.

The conversation at the table was mostly about the squads and squad leaders capabilities.  They hadn’t been given any objectives yet.  They weren’t sure if that was to keep everything under wraps or just because the plans hadn’t been solidified yet.  The former platoon leader told Kyler to expect to be called up to the planning car when it was time to be given their orders.  Considering they were steaming their way towards the settlements the call should be coming fairly soon.  Kyler sent the leaders back to their squads and sat on the bench with Ritz.  They waited impatiently for someone to show up and tell them Kyler was needed in the officers car.

“I see the big need for secrecy.  I mean if someone were to tell the people up north that a big ass death train was on the way they’d stop it pretty easily with a couple of bombing runs.”  Ritz said quietly.

“All it’d really take is a couple of guys with dynamite.  This is a big beast but being bound to tracks can’t be good for it.”  Kyler answered.

“It sounds like if someone took out the officers then the rest of these troops might just go back home with no one to lead them.  Back where their families are being held in the camps.”  Ritz said.  Based on the way he said the word ‘camps’ he had the same level of contempt towards the concept as Kyler did.

Kyler nodded and leaned his head back to think.  He’d love to be able to hash this out in plain language but the kinds of things they were saying were treasonous in the extreme.  He was already worried that they might be able to pull up a picture of him in that database of theirs.  Being a traitor to the Brotherhood must’ve made him pretty infamous in some parts of the country.  He was lucky the officer hadn’t reviewed pictures of traitors and outlaws lately.  The Brotherhoods penchant for keeping everything secret may be the only thing keeping him safe right now.

Kyler was considering a few different options.  They could try to hop off the train and disappear into the woods without being shot.  If they made it then they could get ahead of the train and try to dismantle the tracks.  Another solid idea would be to haul butt for the settlements and get them to launch an aerial attack.  They could split up with one of them sabotaging the tracks and the other making a run for the settlements to increase their odds of stopping the train.  The hard part with that was going to be making it off the train without getting shot.  Considering the level of secrecy wrapped around the train they’d more than likely be pursued if they ran.  A patrol on horseback chasing them through the woods could keep them from being able to complete either plan even if they somehow managed to survive the chase.

He could just blow up the car with all of the officers in it during the meeting he was supposed to get summoned to.  He’d just need to somehow get a bunch of explosives and make sure he took out everybody without killing himself.  He wasn’t ready to die for the cause quite yet.  Even if he was it didn’t really matter since he didn’t have a whole bunch of explosives.  He supposed he could toss a couple of grenades and then start shooting before making a run for it.  There were only about a million things that could go wrong with that idea.  He looked over at Ritz who’d been leaning backwards against the bulkhead with his eyes closed.  He looked like he’d been asleep, but Kyler assumed he’d been scheming as well.

“I’ve got nothin’.”  Ritz said shrugging when he noticed Kyler looking at him.

“Yeah nothing that’d have a good shot at working and not end up with both of us dead.”  Kyler said.

“Let’s stick with plans where at least one of us walks away.  Preferably me.”  Ritz said with a smile.  His smile faded and he got serious again.  “We don’t have a ton of time to figure something out.”

“Sir?”  A man was standing at the end of the bench staring at him and Ritz.  Feeling like they’d compromised themselves Kyler tried his best to look like they’d just been in a casual conversation.  He glanced over at the man who’d interrupted them.

“Yes.”  Kyler said acknowledging the man.

“Your presence is requested in the planning car sir.  If you’re available now I can take you.”  The man said.

Kyler stood up and automatically rearranged his weapons.  He grabbed his go bag and rifle then waited for the man to lead the way.

“You can leave your gear here if you’d like sir.  This is just a meeting.  You’ll be coming back here afterwards.”  The man offered.

“You’re kidding right?  I don’t get up to take a piss without making sure I have one in the chamber and my go bag close enough to grab.”  Kyler answered standing there patiently waiting to be guided to the planning car.

Without another word the man opened the door leading to the next train and began leading Kyler through the different cars.  As they passed between cars Kyler looked at the ground speeding by and ruled out jumping for it.  With his screwed-up arm, he’d probably just end up killing himself if he tried that.  Even if they didn’t stop the train and shoot him while he lay there rolling around on the ground in pain.

They were still traveling through dense forest.  He was happy they’d been found by the patrol.  Otherwise they’d have spent the next few weeks wandering through endless trees experimenting with different squirrel recipes.  By the time they made it out of the woods the war would’ve been over.  At least now they had a chance to get back in the fight.  They’d also be eating a lot better.

One of the cars they walked through was full of men putting together trays of food to be sent to the other cars.  Judging by the bloody butcher tables they were much better at hunting than Kyler and Ritz were.  It probably had something to do with them having all the guys who were good with bows hanging out at the top of the train every time it came to a stop.  The hunger pang inducing aroma of cooking venison filled the car.  Kyler felt his mouth watering up as he walked through the thick smoke.

“You eat yet sir?”  The man escorting him asked politely.  Kyler wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand wondering if he was drooling on himself or something.

“I’m good.  I’ll grab something later.”  Kyler said.  The man ignored him and talked to one of the men putting together trays.  He turned back around holding a paper plate with two gigantic burritos stuffed with meat.  There were even scallions sticking out of the end of the burrito.  Kyler realized his knees had gone weak at the smell of the freshly prepared food.

“We have time sir.  It’s not like they’re expecting people at specific times.  They’re rolling all the platoon commanders through and assigning them tasks.  The tasks are already written up and everything.  A few minutes for you to scarf this down isn’t going to matter.  Plus, these are way better warm.”

Kyler took the plate and they headed to an unused counter at the opposite end of the car.  He bit into the stuffed burrito and then fought back the compulsion to find the cook responsible for this and kiss him.  It was stupid good.  If it was true that an army fought on its stomach, then the train battalion was going to be an unstoppable force of nature.  His escort had disappeared again while he was eating.  He showed back up a minute later with a couple of glasses full of sweet tea and a handful of napkins.

The napkins turned out to be a necessity when eating the greasy goodness that he’d been provided.  Even while Kyler was using them, he realized what an extravagance they were.  It was the end of times and here he was using paper napkins to wipe off the grease from a delicious meal.

“You guys eat like this all the time?”  Kyler asked his escort.

“I wish sir.  This all came together maybe a week ago.  We’ve eaten alright.  Especially those of us around the officers.  These Bambi burrito things are ridiculous though, right?”  The man said smiling.

“Yeah but you know what they say about getting a great meal.”  Kyler responded. He was referring to the fact that soldiers were historically fed well the night before a major battle.  Kind of like serving the condemned man a last meal.

“I do but this one’s good enough where it almost makes me wish we were going to be charging the enemies machine gun nests every day.  You good to go?”  The man asked as Kyler finished up his second burrito and wiped the grease off his face.  Kyler looked at his empty plate sadly before pushing it aside to see where he needed to go next.

“I’m good.  How much farther up is the planning car?”  He asked.  It turned out the planning car was only another couple of cars up.  They had to go through the officers berthing area then it was the next one.

Walking through the officers berthing area Kyler kept his eyes open for any familiar faces.  The last thing he needed right now was to run into someone he knew.  He’d spent so much time traveling around with Krantz that he’d been seen by senior Brotherhood members throughout the entire southeast.  One of them recognizing him would be pretty awkward.  They made it through officer country into the car used for planning without incident.  Kyler wondered if he was expected to sleep in officer country or back in the car with his men.  He wasn’t technically an officer, but he was filling in for one.  He wasn’t sure if that meant he rated an upscale bunk or not.

His escort introduced him to the commander in charge of the train battalion and then left.  The stressed out looking overweight commander was sitting at a table covered in paper maps.  He had a laptop sitting on top of all the maps.  Five men and a woman were sitting around the table with him.  The air was heavy with cigarette smoke.  Plates of food and pots of coffee littered nearby tables where a couple of men were busy cleaning everything up.

“You’re the new platoon leader then.  Have much experience leading men in combat?”  The white-haired battalion commander asked Kyler without preamble.

“A little sir.  Honestly I’m still not quite sure why I was put in the position over the man who used to be the platoon leader sir.”  Kyler answered honestly.  What he was really wondering about was if he could shoot everyone in the car and then somehow make a quick escape.  He just wasn’t sure if shooting everyone in this car would be enough to stop the battalion.  He’d have to go back and murder everyone in the officers’ quarters as well.  Noticing how a lot of the men wore their weapons with great familiarity he opted against going all action hero quite yet.

“We have a lot of new men on the train who aren’t fully indoctrinated yet.  We don’t want any of them thinking they can boss around Brotherhood.  That’d give the wrong impression.  The standard advice still applies though.  Listen to your squad leaders.  They’ll be the reason you end up accomplishing your mission.  Failing to accomplish your mission means you’ll probably be dead.”  The commander said dramatically.  He paused to let his words sink in.  Kyler did his best to look like he cared what the fat Nazi had to say.  He wished he’d been able to bring Ritz up here with him.  The two of them together might’ve been able to take on the car full of officers.  Surprise was one of the great force multipliers.

“Yes sir.  I agree sir.”  Kyler said.

“Good meeting you son.  Put your men through the paces.  They’ll fight like crazy knowing their children’s lives depend on it.  We’ve also got a bunch of coke if any of them need a little extra motivation.”  The commander said.

“Thank you, sir.  I’ll keep that in mind.  What’s the mission sir?  The man who brought me up here mentioned I’d be briefed on what my platoon was expected to accomplish?”  Kyler asked.  The commander started shuffling papers around until he found the one that he was looking for.  He handed the paper to Kyler.  It was a map with some locations marked on it.

“We’ll be dropping you off here.  You’ll make your way over to these settlements.  You’ll destroy each settlement as you come to it.  We expect you to keep going through these settlements until either all the settlements have been destroyed or you run out of volunteers.”  The commander said referencing the fact that the platoon was made up mostly of groups from the Tennessee volunteers.

“Yes sir.  Kill everyone sir?  Women and children?  No prisoners?”  Kyler asked.  He was fantasizing about stabbing this Jabba the Hutt looking dirtbag in the throat and shooting his way to the door.  He’d probably survive the jump. The train couldn’t be going much more than forty miles per hour.  It’d be too risky for them to be going much faster than that.  He could wave to Ritz from outside the train to let him know to go ahead and jump off to.

“That’s right son.  We’re going to pull a reverse Sherman on this scum and force them to pick up and run.  You understand what you’re supposed to do?”  The commander asked.  His second chin jiggling as he stared coldly at Kyler.

“Yes sir.”

“Excellent.  We’ll send a man with details on the time for you to disembark once we have a better idea on when we’ll get there.  Hopefully we don’t have to waste too much more time cleaning off the tracks ahead of us.  If you’re good to go, then you’re dismissed.”  The commander held Kyler’s eyes for a second then completely disregarded him after half-ass returning the salute Kyler gave him.

Kyler walked back towards the car his platoon was in with his mind in overdrive.  The commander had just confirmed that this train was a spear aimed at the heart of the civilians in the settlements.  No way Kyler was going to let that spear strike home.

Chapter 20:  Scars, Walking and Whiskey

“I’m glad this happened.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to limp my way through the woods with a concussion.”  Randy joked.  He was making light of the situation, but he looked like he was wearing the makeup to try out for the lead role in Interview with a Vampire.  Only he wasn’t quite rocking the pale, dead look quite as well as Tom Cruise had.

“You keep racking up scars it’s going to look like you’re trying to compete with Kyler.”  Kelly said.  A shirtless Kyler looked like he’d been dragged by a horse through a bonfire raging on a spiked chain-link fence.  The poor kid had scars everywhere.  His scars were scarred.

“Caitlyn thinks Kyler’s scars are hot!”  Myriah chimed in.  Caitlyn kicked out at her slightly younger sister almost dropping Doreen in the process.

“You guys do realize we’re walking through the woods near a couple of major explosions with probably like a zillion Zombies running this way and you’re being pretty loud right?”  Bryan asked rhetorically.  He had Zoey perched on his shoulder like a giant parrot.  At the speed they were going they could’ve had Zoey and Ali walking.  Bryan and Phil weren’t complaining about carrying them and the girls didn’t seem to want to get down, so Kelly hadn’t said anything.  She was too distracted worrying if her husband was on the verge of dying or not to stress too much over who was carrying who.

Properly chastised they stopped goofing around.  They’d heard some Zombies off in the distance earlier but for the last few hours it’d been smooth sailing.  They were really focused on putting distance between themselves and the site where the convoy had been attacked.  They’d seen driveways and houses off in the distance but decided to stay on foot for now rather than try and find a vehicle.  The memory of Franks truck exploding in front of them was fresh in all their minds.  None of them felt comfortable getting back in a vehicle yet.  Not while invisible drones were swooping through the air waiting to blow them up.

In addition to Bryan and Phil there were a couple of other guys from the warehouse tagging along who’d been in the truck with Bryan.  They were warehouse guards who were clearly outclassed by Bryan and Phil.  They were the type of guys who might’ve been mall cops back before the apocalypse.  They probably had less time in the field than Randy and Kelly.  Not that many people could claim the range of experience that Randy and Kelly had managed to accumulate.  The couple had fought their way up and down the entire east coast to find and save their children.

They slept under the stars that night.  Which is the romantic way of saying they walked until they got too tired to take another step then lay down in the dirt to go to sleep.  Kelly found herself at the bottom of a pile of children.  Randy started out next to her but was gradually edged out until he was on the periphery of the love pile.  Shivering he wished he’d grabbed the bag with all the blankets in it before the drone blew up their truck.  They had a few but those had gone to the children and Kelly.  He was welcome to as much pine straw as he could scoop on himself.  He considered bringing up the concussion and the bloody hole in his hand to try and get a sympathy blanket but didn’t feel like doing all that just to be turned down.

Phil squatted down beside him and asked him how the hand was doing.

“Pulsating with pain every time I breathe.  That’s actually a good thing though since Kelly told me the number one thing to worry about for concussion victims is letting them fall asleep.  The excruciating pain is doing a good job of keeping me awake.  Well, the hand pain and the cold.  The overall miserableness of the situation is helping a lot too.  How are you doing?”  Randy answered quietly falling easily into the gallows humor soldiers use when talking to one another.

“Here.  You may need these last few sips more than me.  I’m hoping it’ll shut you up.  Otherwise, your whining’s gonna attract a bunch of the infected.”  Phil said handing Randy a pint bottle of Southern Comfort that still had a decent amount left in it.  He was acting tough, but Phil was genuinely concerned about Randy.  He had mad respect for the man that’d managed to get his family through all the crap Randy had.  He’d only heard bits and pieces of their story, but it’d been enough to impress the hell out of him.

Randy took a big sip of the smooth amber colored liquid fire.  He let the heat run through his body.  Nodding his thanks, he tried to hand Phil the bottle back, but Phil shook his head and pushed the bottle back towards Randy.

“I’ve got guard duty later and am way too tempted to down the rest of that bottle right now.  You’ll be doing me a big favor by finishing it off before I get to it.  Besides, it’ll help you sleep, and you need some serious rest to deal with all the crap you’ve put your body through.”  Phil said quietly before standing back up and walking over to where Bryan was working on setting up the guard posts.

Randy waited a minute to see if Phil changed his mind and came back for another hit of the whiskey.  He also used the time to make sure Kelly wasn’t looking in his direction.  He assumed she’d frown on him self-medicating with the rest of the booze considering she’d already handed him a pain pill along with his antibiotics for the night.  He lifted the bottle noting there really wasn’t all that much left in it.  He sipped at it until it was gone.  Between the half pint of booze and the codeine, he was passed out on the pile of bug-ridden pine straw in no time.  He didn’t even wake up when Phil came by in the early morning hours to make sure the bottle was thrown away before Kelly saw it.  He had no desire to be known as the guy who gave the concussed guy half a bottle of whiskey.

Following that train of thought he made sure Randy was breathing regularly before continuing on his rounds.  He was relieved that his selfless gesture hadn’t killed the guy he was trying to help.  He spent the last few hours before dawn alternating between cleaning his weapons and walking the perimeter of their little camp making sure nothing was sneaking up on them.  When the sun finally came up, he was busy wishing he had coffee.  He could almost smell a Bojangles biscuit.

Forcing the image of the biscuit out of his head he snagged a can of green beans out of his pack.  Kelly waved and told him good morning.  Phil grumbled that a good morning didn’t start with half a can of green beans then sat down to scoop the beans into this mouth.  He watched as the rest of the family awoke.  One of the little ones had to go pee so she started waking up everyone to go with her.

The only one left in the dirt was Randy who was snoring with his mouth wide open.  He’d fallen asleep in an extremely awkward and uncomfortable looking position.  Phil watched as Kelly walked back from the early morning group pee session to check on Randy.  She was picking through her pockets trying to find the medication when Phil saw her eyes suddenly light up.  She bent down beside Randy and pulled something off of him.  Phil wasn’t sure but it looked like the label from a bottle of Southern Comfort.  Randy wasn’t going to enjoy his wake-up call.  Phil immediately broke eye contact and disappeared back into the woods to ‘stand guard.’  Randy was going to have to handle that one on his own.

Randy woke up and saw Kelly squatting beside him.  She was hitting him on the shoulder to wake him up.  He looked at her blearily as she handed him an antibiotic.  She made a big deal out of theatrically putting away the other pill she’d been holding in her hand.  Then she got up and left without saying a word.  Despite the hangover boiling up in his head and stomach he was happy he seemed to have escaped the expected matrimonial wrath. If Kelly had seen an empty bottle anywhere around him, he was sure she’d have had a lot to say about it.  He was curious why she hadn’t given him his pain pill.  He held his water bottle up to wash down the antibiotic.  Feeling the label slipping off it he looked down and immediately felt his stomach sink.  The water bottle had the Southern Comfort label wrapped around it.  He’d totally been busted.

He drank the water and walked over to where Phil was studiously looking the other way.  Kelly was glaring at them both from over by the girls.

“Dude.  Why’d you come straight to me?”  Phil asked.

“Misery loves company and I don’t see Bryan anywhere.”  Randy answered.

“Yeah he’s scouting up ahead.  He left a couple of hours ago with the two other guys and left me here to guard you.  Is your wife going to keep looking at us like that?  You’re the moron who drank the whiskey.  I’m just the guy who offered it up for medicinal purposes.  You smell like a hobo by the way.”  Phil said.

“Great.  I need mouthwash and aspirin if you happen to have any.  I hurt everywhere.  I’m not sure what’s wound related and what’s just hangover at this point.”  Randy said.

“I’ve been there.”  Phil said.  “Like twice this week.  Once we get rid of all the Walking Dead and the drones stop trying to blow us up, I may need to go to one of those meetings.”

“I’ll go with you.  I’d kill for some coffee and donuts.”  Randy said.  Expecting to see Phil laugh or at least grin at that comment he watched as instead Phil got a nervous look on his face before turning and disappearing into the woods.  Fearing the worst Randy slowly turned around.

“Have a nice time last night?”  Kelly asked with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.  Randy braced himself for the onslaught.

“No, I feel like hell and now I can’t even tell if it’s a hangover or the fact that I almost got blown up yesterday.  I also have a hole that goes all the way through my hand which is kind of neat, but it hurts like hell.”  Randy said defiantly.

“It’s fine.  Don’t worry about the whiskey.  I get it.  It just scares me so much babe.  Everything that’s going on.  If we’re not always on guard who the hell knows what could happen.  I love you.”  Kelly said.  Randy stood there confused. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t being chewed out.

“I love you too.”  He managed to stammer.

“Good.  Let’s go get the kids ready to get out of here.  Let me know when you need a pain pill.  No more drinking.  It screws up the healing process.  Where’s Bryan at?”  Kelly asked.

Randy explained that Phil had told him Bryan took a couple of guys to scout ahead.  They took their time getting the kids up since until Bryan came back there wasn’t a lot of reason for anyone to be moving around anyway.  The kids had all gone back to the pine straw pile to try and fall back asleep.  Randy felt the familiar sensation of pure love rise up and wash over him looking down at his girls.  He’d do anything to keep them alive.  He happened to catch the identical look in Kelly’s eyes at almost the same exact time.  Her fierce love shone out palpably.  He pitied the enemy who got between her and those girls.

Kelly looked up from the girls in time to see the branches on the other side of the small clearing part.  She expected to see either Bryan or one of the warehouse guards walk out.  Instead a Zombie walked into the clearing staring straight at her.  The Zombie was a woman of about Kelly’s age.  Her dark hair was long and tangled.  The bottom of the tangled mess still dyed the platinum blond it’d been back before the world went insane.  The Zombie was on the far side of the clearing.  The kids were between the Zombie and Kelly.  The Zombie advanced as Kelly and Randy both immediately reacted with startled curses while reaching for weapons.

Caitlyn looked up with bleary eyes and lazily turned her head to look around.  She saw the Zombie coming and almost levitated out of the middle of her sleeping sisters.  Kelly came around the tree to get between the girls and the Zombie.  Randy had pulled out his pistol and had the Zombies head in his sights.  The only reason he hadn’t pulled the trigger was the noise would attract more Zombies.  It’d be better if they could kill it quietly.  The girls were all scrambling to get behind him.  Kelly was standing ready with a hatchet in one hand and a long stick in the other.

The sore covered woman stopped and stared at Kelly.  The Zombies skin hung from her like an ill-fitting flesh colored pant suit.  Eyes so covered in broken blood vessels and crust they looked like red orbs.  She was pant less like most of the infected.  A stained and tattered shirt that might’ve been green at one point hung off her shoulders.  She didn’t screech.  She didn’t run towards Kelly with her mouth hanging open.  She just stared and occasionally sniffed at the air.  Her head moving around in small circles on her long neck.

Kelly was at a loss.  Pretty much all of their Zombie killing techniques were based on the beasts running straight at them.  With the sawed-off broom stick she had in her hand it was easy enough to step to the side and trip up your average Zombie.  She stood in her fighting stance waiting for the infected woman to charge.  Instead it just looked at her like it was trying to remember how to say hello.  Maintaining that eye contact Kelly moved forward thinking she could put the Zombie on the ground until they could figure out what to do with it.  It seemed cold blooded to just whack her down where she stood.

Out of nowhere Phil charged in and whacked the Zombie down where she stood.  The tire iron he liked to use for Zombie bashing smashed into the skull of the burnt-out infected woman like it was an over ripe watermelon.  Blood and brain matter splattered all over Phil and Kelly both.  The corpse of the woman fell to the ground with a severely deformed skull.  Phil looked over at Kelly expecting a thank you.  She gave him an exasperated look and spun around to check on the girls.

“What?”  Phil asked clearly confused as to why everyone was acting so odd.  He’d been doing his rounds when he’d seen a Zombie walking towards Kelly and the girls.  A quick look had showed him Randy had the Zombie covered if a gun was needed.  Phil’s only thought had been that if he could hit the Zombie from the angle that he was at then Kelly wouldn’t be in any danger at all.  He also wanted to make sure Randy didn’t have to pull the trigger making a bunch of noise.  It’d happened so fast he’d mostly been focused on swinging the tire iron hard enough to do the job in one swing while simultaneously hoping Randy didn’t accidentally shoot him.

“It was one of those burnt out Zombies.”  Randy said walking past him to help the girls get their junk together.

“Ok.”  Phil said.  He was still at a loss as to why anyone cared about him bashing in the burnt-out woman’s head.  He’d already gathered his stuff together and was just wondering where Bryan was at.  They had an alternate rally point they could head to if needed but it hadn’t been that long yet.

Kelly was starting to think they should plan on leaving without Bryan when the scouting party finally returned.  They stepped out of the trees doing their best not to look like Zombies.  That was a good thing since there were five rifles aimed at them the second that they emerged from the trees.  Everyone was on edge after the Zombie burnout randomly appearing in the middle of the camp.  That’d worked out ok but if it’d been a group of regular Zombies then it could’ve gone a whole different direction.  There were zero acceptable losses when the victims would be their children.

“Where’ve you guys been?”  Randy asked.  He kept his voice low. It evidently wasn’t low enough though.  Bryan instantly shushed him and made motions with his hand for everyone to keep the noise down.

Bryan looked over at the pile of pine straw they’d raked over the dead Zombie.  In a world covered in corpses Kelly didn’t see any reason to expose her girls to any more death than absolutely necessary.  She was proud of how Myriah and Caitlyn stepped up when needed but she really wanted to get back to a world where they weren’t needed so much.  Bryan motioned for the adults to all gather around.

He took out a notebook and started scribbling in it.  He handed it around when he was done writing.  Kelly read the page and looked up at Bryan disbelievingly.  Even by apocalypse standards he’d had a busy morning.  Almost as soon as they’d left that morning, they’d been forced to hide in some trees from a group of infected who’d appeared out of nowhere. Right after the infected finally wandered off they’d almost gotten caught out by a group of Brotherhood soldiers slinking through the woods.  When they’d finally climbed down out of the trees they’d headed towards the interstate. Standing in the trees out of sight of the road they’d watched as about a hundred Brotherhood soldiers on motorcycles rode by.

Randy was still confused why it’d taken them so long to get back until Bryan handed them another page to read.  When they’d turned to head back, they’d run into a pack of Zombies that’d chased them out towards the bikers.  They’d run across the road in between the bikers with Zombies in pursuit like some kind of real-life apocalyptic version of Frogger.  The bikers had taken out the pursuing Zombies then tried to track them down.  They’d spent an hour lying in a drainpipe with rats eating dead things at both end of the pipe.  Not a pleasant hour.  Once they’d felt safe enough to leave the pipe they’d managed to get mixed up in the woods. It’d taken them a while to actually find their way back.

Kelly wanted very badly to ask them why they hadn’t stopped and asked for directions.  The men always seemed to be trying to one up one another with corny jokes and she felt like she had a really good one.  Bryan was indicating there were Zombies all around them though and that they needed to immediately engage in a life or death version of the quiet game.  Deciding it’d lose all its funny if she wrote it down, she stored up the tasty one liner for another time and considered the problem at hand.

Randy hadn’t thought of any good jokes so was a few cycles ahead of Kelly on working through the issues presented by Bryans little essay.  They were falling further behind enemy lines every hour.  They were in an area with a heightened level of Zombie activity.  It sounded like both the Brotherhood and the Zombies suspected they were in the woods.  Hopefully the bikers thought Bryan and the two warehouse guys had just been random survivors running across the road. If they suspected that they may be from the settlements, that could mean the difference between drones hunting them down or being ignored.

Randy really hoped they weren’t considered important enough to divert resources to look for.  If the Brotherhood soldiers were riding dirt bikes through the woods, then at least they’d be the ones chased by the infected.  Dirt bikes were loud.  They were going to have to be careful of getting between the Zombies and the bikers.  How they managed to avoid doing that when they were surrounded by bands of both was a problem that he hoped one of the others in their group had the solution to.  Looking at everyone’s worried faces he had a bad feeling that they were all thinking along the same lines as him.

Kelly grabbed a pencil and scribbled out a quick note.  Looking at it Randy found himself nodding.  It was the safe bet.  She wanted them to find a farmhouse or something and just lay low for the next two weeks.  The war should be over by then and it’d be safe for them to come out.  Or at least it would be if the Brotherhood wasn’t too thick in this part of the Carolinas afterwards.  They’d possibly be behind enemy lines by then depending on who actually won the war.  Not a good place for them to be.  Especially since they were on the short list to be executed slowly and painfully.  If only they’d just wounded the Senator’s sister instead of killing her.

They passed the notebook around a few more times.  Bryan was adamant about trying to make it to the settlements.  Kelly was on the other end of the spectrum pushing for them to stay in one place and lick their wounds.  She was perfectly fine with letting the world carry on without them.  The final consensus was they’d keep heading towards the settlements until such time as they were forced to stop.  No one thought it was a great plan.  There wasn’t a great plan for the situation they were in.

They checked their weapons and got moving.

Chapter 21:  The Front Lines

Forrest tugged off his boot to check out his blood drenched sock.  They’d driven into an ambush right at the main entrance to the airport.  He’d ridden to the front gates with a hundred special forces troops.  They’d been rolling out to do some damage following the new orders they’d received.  He’d thought leaving in the middle of the night would be all the protection they needed.  He’d lost at least ten men to that assumption.

On top of the KIA a good number of the men who’d escaped the ambush were nursing some sort of wound.  There’d been a lot of lead in the air.  These were all hard men so there wasn’t a lot of complaining.  They were all about the mission.  Even when faced with severe pain and the very real prospect of death they kept their mouths shut.  They maintained their focus on the mission.  It was just how they were wired.

The force he’d put together at the airport consisted of special forces type from the different branches.  They’d all survived the years of constant fighting.  They’d fought for the Senator against Zombies as well as the other regions that’d resisted being absorbed into the New America.  Being special forces might have been the reason they’d made the rookie mistakes that a regular infantry soldier would’ve avoided.  None of these guys were used to working in large groups.  They were used to being carefully inserted in small packs to carry out very specific objectives.  That was the excuse Forrest was letting himself believe anyway.

Getting lit up by men hidden in the bushes on the other side of the front gates had been devastating.  The fact they’d only lost ten men in those intense few minutes of fighting was a miracle in and of itself.  His men had scattered like they were trained to do.  Forrest had put his head low over the handlebars of his motorcycle and retreated back up the road they’d just come down. Him and about thirty men had fallen back to the rally point at the back of the airport.  The others had broken through the ambush and continued on their missions.  Small teams had been tasked with different sectors to hit.  Command wanted them to put on a show close to the coast so that’s what they were going to do.  Brief bursts of coded radio communications had confirmed that most of the teams were now in route.

Forrest wrapped a clean strip of gauze around the bridge of his foot. He was happy to note there was both an entry and an exit wound.  The last thing he needed was a bullet rattling around inside his foot.  Gangrene would mean amputation.  Amputation wouldn’t get him a fancy new prosthetic in today’s world.  Amputation would just end up getting him dead.  If you couldn’t run, you weren’t going to live very long.  The ADA wasn’t applicable to the apocalypse.  He finished giving himself first aid then carefully pulled his boot back on and laced it up.  He downed a couple of antibiotics and a Percocet before walking around to check on the rest of the men.

The building by the airport they’d spent the night in exploded.  Pieces and parts of the building rained down on them.  They took cover under the trees or used their motorcycles to try and shield themselves.  The sentries they’d posted came running back towards them.  The one who’d been down near the end of the road made it almost all the way to them before being gunned down.  Zombies were pouring out of the woods.  It was only a matter of time before they got overwhelmed.  It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.  A complete FUBAR type situation.

Forrest hopped on his bike and gingerly kick started it.  Of course, they’d shot him right in the kickstarting foot.  They’d only been waiting at the rally point for a few minutes.  He’d hoped a few more men may have survived to rejoin him.  That wasn’t happening.

“Let’s go!”  Forrest yelled leading the way down the small asphalt service road leading out the back of the airport.  He was riding without lights since he was wearing a pair of NVGs.  That’s how he saw the group of Zombies up ahead ripping into a small group of men who’d been hidden in the marshy weeds on the side of the road.  He rode a little closer before stopping and waiting for a few more men to back him up.

When there were enough of them Forrest opened fire on the Zombies in the road up ahead.  He appreciated that the Zombies had taken out the ambush that’d been waiting for them. All they had to do now was shoot the Zombies since there was no way for them to safely ride around the infected on the narrow road.  Once they killed this pocket of them, they’d ride fast and hard for the beta base.

He’d code named the airport the alpha base.  Most of his men probably assuming because airport started with the letter ‘a’.  In reality it was because that was where he’d ordered all the spec ops guys to meet him.  They were the alphas in the military.  The beta base was an empty field set off the main highway that he’d ordered a battalion worth of men to make their way to.  They had multiple battalions moving into position around eastern Virginia.  They were made up of the small squads who’d traveled across North and South Carolina in a trickle.  If that worked as planned, they should be at full strength fairly soon.  Once at full strength they’d begin to really engage the settlements militia.

They’d gunned down most of the Zombies up ahead when the enemy slammed into them from behind raking the last row of bikers with automatic weapons fire.  With bullets flying all around them the rest of the men followed Forrest down the road riding stupid fast.  They dodged road debris and Zombies at full throttle down the narrow road.  Behind them the powerful engines of the military style hummers screamed as they tried to keep up with the more maneuverable bikes.

Forrest saw one of his men zooming past him spin out when a bullet from the mounted fifty caliber on one of the hummers chasing them caught him in the neck.  The man on the gun probably couldn’t see a damned thing and was just shooting blindly in their general direction. A lucky shot killed just as dead as a well-aimed one though.  Especially if that lucky shot was a fifty-caliber bullet.  The corpse was probably a thin shred of skin from being fully decapitated.

Forrest dropped his head even lower over his handlebars trying to squeeze a little more speed from his bike.  He was riding on the edge of losing control.  If a snail happened to be crossing the road at the wrong time he was screwed.  His whole world became the NVG view of the road in front of him.  Tunnel vision sank in.  The roar of the howling wind covering up the sounds of the screeching Zombies. He was darting back and forth like an Olympic skier headed down the world’s most dangerous slalom course. One where the flags on the course would rip your head off and feast on your guts if you made the slightest mistake.

Only a few of his men were able to keep up.  The rest succumbed to either the bullets of the enemy or the dangers inherent in riding a motorbike through a mass of stirred up Zombies in the middle of the night at a high rate of speed.  Most of the ones who made it were sporting the NVGs.  This was the special alpha crew, so the extremely valuable night vision goggles were a lot more prevalent than they would’ve been with the soldiers from a regular battalion.  They still weren’t provided for everyone.  There was only a certain number of the devices and once they were gone it wasn’t like they could bid for refurbished pairs on E-bay or trade beer money to get them off some jarhead.

Each soldier that fell took with him priceless armaments that mankind may never reach the technological level to produce again.  It was true there were stockpiles all over the place but the warehouses containing all that gear weren’t listed out on any map Forrest was aware of.  Even if they were, the warehouses were probably in Kanas or Nebraska or one of those states in the middle with all the corn and wheat and whatnot.  They might as well be on the other side of the moon.

A sharp turn coming up ahead was making Forrest sweat.  It’d be suicide trying to make that turn at the speed he was going.  The fast approaching intersection was only a few miles from where he had the beta group gathering.  He’d actually planned on heading there tonight after kicking off the alpha attacks.  He guessed his plans hadn’t really changed.  He was just bringing a little extra company with him.  Assuming he could make it there.  Smart money was on him dead in a ditch within the next few minutes.

He didn’t dare take a hand off his handlebars to try to communicate which way to turn to his team.  There probably wasn’t enough of them left to worry about anyway.  Any of them that went the wrong way would be screwed since they’d have no idea where to go once Forrest was gone.  That was by design.  If they knew where the battalions were gathering, then they could be tortured into telling the enemy.  If they didn’t know anything then it didn’t matter how much the enemy tortured them. It’d be like trying to squeeze lemonade out of a pinecone.  If Forrest was captured, then that was going to suck for the battalions gathering now.  Even though there was bound to be stuff Krantz was keeping from him as well.

Forrest considered his options briefly.  He could slow down and get shot in the back or maintain his current speed and crash into the woods trying to make the turn.  Neither option was super appealing.  He’d been riding ridiculously fast though so hoped that’d earned him enough of a buffer to slow down some to make the turn.  Getting shot was probably cleaner than the alternative of sliding into the woods and breaking something then being tortured until he gave up everything he knew.  At which point he’d be killed anyway.  He was way too old for this junk.  Hopefully the Brotherhood had a nice retirement package.

He prayed his time riding dirt bikes as a kid combined with his love of Harleys as an adult would carry him through the turn.  Putting it all in the hands of lady luck he let up on the throttle and applied the brake to swing to the left.  His back tire swung wide into the rough gravel on the opposite side of the road, but he pulled it out.  His bike was pretty much parallel to the road the entire time.  A massive case of road rash was in his immediate future.  Behind him two bikes smashed into the woods and another went up in flames as bullets found the gas tank.

The lead hummer came squealing around the turn and crashed into the woods.  Another hummer skidded hard into that one.  Forrest pulled the bike halfway up thinking he might actually make it.  He completely missed seeing the adrenalized jumper that leapt out of the darkness stretching out its clawed hands to grab him.  The Zombie, the bike and Forrest all went into a sideways skid.  The Zombie leaving a trail of skin and blood on the road since it was completely nude.  Forrest thinking that if he survived, he was going to go ahead and make leather chaps a mandatory part of their uniforms and just deal with the inevitable jokes.

The sliding stopped when they ran into the side of an overturned RV that was blocking the road.  Forrest tried to standup and discovered his leg was stuck under the bike.  He desperately tugged at his leg trying to free it while the blood covered Zombie got to its feet.  The Zombie saw him moving around and jumped on top of him.  The Zombies mouth snapped shut on the NVGs and ripped them from side to side.  A single pistol shot, and the Zombie rolled off of him.

Forrest wiped off the goggles with the back of his hand and started working on freeing his leg again.  The soldier who’d shot the Zombie helped him get his leg free and the bike back up.  Once they got the bike up, they pushed it around the RV.  Forrest was in bad shape. One of his legs was a bloody mess from being dragged along the rough concrete and he had a bullet hole in his foot.  He could feel the boot with his wounded foot filling up with blood.  The way his foot was squishing around in the boot wasn’t good.  The soldier who’d rescued him wasn’t in much better shape after wrecking his bike.  They both spun around at the sudden flood of light from behind them.

“Hurry.”  Forrest hissed.  The soldier was already hurrying but he still took a second to give Forrest a look.  Forrest realized how dumb the order had been.  He wondered if the man had been thinking about saying something rude or had just been checking to see if Forrest had hit his head when he wrecked.  Either reaction was completely understandable.

They got the bike around the RV right as more hummers pulled into the intersection behind them.  The sounds of gunshots filled the air.  Forrest would’ve recommended pushing the bike farther down the road if they had time. That way the settlement guys may not hear it when they started it up.  As it was, he said screw it and told the soldier with him to go ahead and get the bike started. He was trying hard, but he couldn’t remember the guy’s name.  He recognized him as one of the men who’d fought back immediately when they’d been ambushed earlier.

The bike started after a few kicks.  The loud noise was easily audible on the other side of the RV.  Bullets started pinging into the side of the RV.  Men were running around it to get at them.  Forrest got on the bike behind the soldier and wrapped his arms around the man so he wouldn’t fall off when they hit the level of acceleration he was anticipating.

“Long time at sea sailor?”  The soldier joked. He gassed the throttle and whipped them into the darkness.  Bullets and Zombies all around them and the soldier had still taken the time to make a bad joke.  Forrest decided he liked the guy.  If they happened to survive this cluster, he’d buy him a beer.

Behind them the settlement soldiers worked on winching the RV out of the way while shooting the Zombies who were starting to show up.  Within a few minutes the settlement soldiers in the hummers were accelerating through the night in pursuit of the bike they’d heard take off.

“Not good.”  The soldier Forrest was currently holding onto for dear life said when the high beams from the hummer hit them.  It seemed like a bit of an understatement to Forrest.  They’d had to go slow over a bunch of brush that’d blown into the road.  The hummers barreled right over it without even slowing down.

“Keep going.  Get ready to turn right at the next road then drive about a hundred yards and there should be a dirt road on the right.  Take it.”  Forrest shouted over the road noise.  Between the wind, the bullets, the screeching Zombies and the whine of the motorcycle engine he had no clue if the guy actually heard him or not.

The soldier steering the bike zig zagged them down the road on the poorly balanced motorcycle like a pro.  Forrest decided he should just call him Evil Knievel.  The dude definitely knew how to ride the hell out of a bike.  Especially considering there was a fat old wounded jarhead riding bitch.

They wiped out in the loose dirt of the side road they needed to go down to reach the field the battalion should be gathered in.  Forrest was hoping they were close enough.  He pushed himself painfully to his feet and jogged into the cover of the woods as fast as he could.  He looked back at the road as the headlights of the hummers illuminated the crashed motorcycle.  Evil Knievel had made his final jump.  He was laying with his neck at an unnatural angle staring sightlessly at the bright stars in the dark sky.

The hummers skidded to a stop in the loose dirt. Spotlights were turned on to search the bushes around them.  Forrest moved deep into the woods to avoid being spotted.  He’d turned and was limping painfully in parallel with the dirt road towards where he hoped to find a few hundred soldiers sitting around waiting for something to kill.  The problem being it was probably a good half mile to the first guard post, and he wasn’t in the best condition to be running around in the woods.

Best shape or not there was no quit in him.  He may have ridden a desk a good portion of his military career, but he was still a marine.  The same spirit that’d made a seventeen-year-old kid straight out of high school sign up to wear the uniform carried him on aching legs to a cluster of trees where men in ghillie suits met him with a whispered command to halt.  The men had been hunched down planning what to do about the headlights coming up the road towards them.

Forrest would’ve been shot in the head if he hadn’t started hissing the pass phrase as soon as he saw the bushes move.  He fell to his knees holding out his identification to the camouflaged men who surrounded him.  He was keenly aware of the guns pointed at various parts of his body.

“Sorry sir.  You looked like a Zombie the way you were walking.”  The man who’d taken his identification said.  He quickly let the other men there know that the guy with the blood covered legs on the ground in front of them was their commanding officers boss.

“We’ve got company.  Those hummers coming up the road are looking for me.  There’s five of them.  Up armored with mounted fifty cals.  You guys have rockets?”  Forrest asked.

“Guess that answers whether they’re friendly or not.”  A man with a phone handset in his hand said.  It was one of the sound powered phones they’d roll out the wire for to talk between posts.  Very low tech and very reliable.  Two traits any real soldier admired in his combat systems.  The lower the level of tech the less likely it didn’t work when you really needed it.  Nobody wants to have to wait for their weapon to reboot when the enemy is charging straight at them.

The man talked on the phone briefly then made some hand motions indicating they should all sink into the ground and take cover.  They watched from their hiding spots as the hummers crawled past shining their lights into the woods on both sides.  Soldiers stood in the gun turrets of each of the hummers.  The last hummer had just passed them by when the first hummer exploded.  Knowing that was just the beginning Forrest and the guards kept their heads down and waited.

Multiple rockets shot out of the woods on both sides of the road ahead lighting up each of the hummers.  As fast as it started the rockets stopped.  That was there signal.  Moving smoothly, they waded into the battle.  Forrest really wanted a prisoner.  One thing they hadn’t gotten a ton of lately was accurate intel.  For example, they’d had no clue a bunch of men in hummers were riding around looking for them.

The hummer in front of them was blackened.  The soldier up in the gun turret was a crispy critter.  His blackened skin sliding slowly off his bones.  Ignoring that grossness Forrest kicked the back door.  It opened and a uniformed man stumbled out white faced and coughing.  He was fearfully staring at the barrels pointed at him.  He had a pistol in his hand that he tossed on the ground as soon as he got the door open.  He was pulled out of the back seat roughly and thrown to the ground.  A couple of zip ties later he was considered secured.

Up and down the line of smoking cars mixed in with the orange glow of fires men were either dragged out of hummers as prisoners or overwhelmed and killed when they tried to resist.  Most of the enemy combatants had been killed in the rocket attack. They ended up with ten prisoners total including the officer Forrest had helped capture.  All the men who’d surrendered would more than likely be tortured to death.  There was the possibility some of the grunts may be allowed to live. The officer would definitely be shot in the head after they extracted every last drop of information out of him.

If they’d been close to the reeducation camps, they may have tried taking them there. Given the situation though they weren’t going to have the manpower to have people sitting around guarding prisoners.  Forrest put that issue out of his mind for the moment.  He had bigger fish to fry.  They’d just made enough noise to attract every Zombie for miles.  If they didn’t move fast, then all of them were going to end up being a late-night snack for the infected.  So much for having time to check in with Krantz.  A big reason for picking this spot for the beta camp had been that the cell tower relay station on the property was tied into the network that went back to the hub.

He wondered how he was going to explain the last hour of his life to Krantz when it was time for the status call.

Chapter 22:  Loco Locomotive

The train shuddered to a noisy stop.  Kyler and Ritz looked out the window curiously.  They saw dirt and trees just like every other time they looked out the window.  Kyler would never have guessed there was this much forest in the United States.  That may be because he’d never taken a train anywhere before.  Up in New England where he was from there was tons of forest, but it always ended.  There was always a town or a city or something to break the monotony of tree after tree.

They’d passed through a couple of deserted towns but nothing major so far.  Even the small towns had a few Zombies who’d come running at the sound of the training chugging along.  Kyler had watched as one of the adrenalized ones hurled itself at the train, bounced off the side, got up and jumped right into the wheels.  He hadn’t been able to see what happened next but assumed in a contest of naked flesh versus train the train won.

The train rolling to a stop could be seen as an opportunity.  Unless there was a gassed-up car sitting outside with a couple of rocket launchers in the trunk ready to go they wouldn’t accomplish a lot by getting off.  Ritz and Kyler had been talking it over in hushed whispers and scribbles on napkins ever since Kyler came back from the meeting in the planning car.  On hearing that they were expected to lead a group of the militia to mass murder civilians a look of loathing had washed over Ritz’s face.  He’d actually reached for his pistol and started to stand up.  Kyler wasn’t sure what exactly Ritz thought he was going to accomplish. Kyler thoroughly appreciated the response even as he worked to get him to sit back down.

They still hadn’t come up with any ideas they deemed workable.  They were bouncing back and forth between getting off the train to try and stop it or staying on board and trying to stop it.  The problem with doing anything on board the train was that every car was stuffed with armed men who’d respond to any threat with bullets.  They may take out a dozen men before the bullets started coming back at them, but they wouldn’t survive long after that.  In the grand scheme of things killing a dozen men wasn’t going to make any kind of substantial difference.

If they got off the train Kyler pictured their efforts being just as futile.  They’d be able to do as much damage as the Zombie he’d watched throwing itself at the iron beast.  Stepping through what they could do after jumping off the train they couldn’t come up with a realistic scenario that made the effort worth the risk.  If they were able to get their hands on a few RPGs from the locked car carrying them then they might be able to make a difference.  Even asking where the RPGs were stored would send up all kinds of red flags though.  They weren’t going to accomplish much with their personal weapons.  Other than getting themselves killed.

Kyler had one idea in the back of his mind that he thought may work. It was too repulsive to discuss with Ritz quite yet though.  If they got to the point where they had to disembark the train and attack the settlements, then once the train pulled away, he’d make sure they were in the back of the group.  He was hoping with a few well-placed grenades they’d be able to kill most of the men in their platoon.

He’d informed all the platoon leaders of their mission earlier.  They hadn’t said anything out loud, but he’d seen the disgust in their eyes.  It mirrored his own feelings for being ordered to slaughter towns full of civilians.  The urge to rebel against the order had been tempered by the understanding their own families would suffer if they didn’t carry out the orders.  Most of them couldn’t meet his eyes after hearing the orders.  A lot of them wouldn’t be able to look at themselves in the mirror for a long time after carrying out their mission.  The ones who didn’t end up killing themselves out of guilt and shame would be so warped they’d avoid ever going back to their families anyway.

The squad leaders had gone back wearily resigned to let their squads know what was expected of them.  Here and there Kyler heard voices raised in anger and indignation.  The voices were quickly quelled with nervous glances cast towards him and Ritz.  The Brotherhood brand on his back made him their leader but it didn’t mean they liked or respected him.  The emotion felt towards him and everything that he represented was more in the loathe category.  If only they knew the truth.

The train was sitting still on the track a few minutes later when Zombies showed up outside the windows and started banging on the sides.  The intercom system kicked in telling everyone to go silent and wait for additional orders.  Considering there was enough Zombies running around that they’d stopped the train it probably wouldn’t be an opportune time for him and Ritz to make a run for it.  Especially since they’d already determined there wasn’t much that they could accomplish by getting off the train anyway.

“Do you think I should report back to command and let them know what happened with the base?”  Ritz asked quietly.  It was an idea.  It gave them an excuse to get Ritz off the train.  Once he was off, he could either try and sabotage the tracks ahead of them or make a run for the settlements.  It’d help their planning to let them know a train full of men, supplies and god knows what were headed their way.  There was even a car with armed horsemen somewhere on this death machine.  He might not end up accomplishing anything, but it’d be just as useful as the nothing he was accomplishing sitting on the train.

“They won’t go for it.  We need complete operational security around the train.  I’ll see if I can get a message out when we sync up at one of the comm stops.”  Kyler answered him.  Their conversation was quiet but still phrased such that if someone was listening in it’d sound legitimate.

They sat in silence after that.  Each of them lost in their own thoughts.  Kyler and everyone else on the train wondering what was going on up ahead that was making them have to sit still for so long.  There was a bunch of the infected outside the train now.  All of them smacking their fists again the side.  It sounded like they were riding the train through a hailstorm.  The occasional adrenalized Zombie leapt up on the roof then back to the ground.  The intercom blared back to life informing everyone to return to their seats since they’d be moving again soon.  With no additional notifications the train suddenly lurched forward and began picking up speed.

Staring out the window Kyler saw cows start appearing as well as Zombies.  It looked like a herd of cattle and a herd of Zombies had been running around together when the train showed up.  Kyler nodded to himself.  It made sense the Zombies would run with and devour the cows.  They’d only kill the ones they wanted to eat.  It wasn’t like the virus made them hate cows.  They built up steam as they watched the wide-eyed cows moving this way and that while the crazed Zombies tried to beat their way through the solid metal walls of the train.

Kyler’s eyebrows went up when they rode through a fiery patch that smelled like a giant barbecue pit.  He shot the squad leader in the seat behind him a questioning look pointing down at the charcoaled remains they were passing through.

“They have barrels of napalm hooked up to hoses running to the front of the train.  They can basically burn their way through Zombie herds.  I guess it also works pretty well on cows.”  The man answered the unspoken question.

“A fire throwing battle train.  Nice.  Any more surprises?”  Kyler casually asked the man.  He noticed Ritz had his ears perked up as well.

“I only know about the fire throwing part because they had us hooking up the hoses and loading the barrels of napalm.  There’s also tanks and antiaircraft towards the back I think.”  The man belatedly remembered he wasn’t supposed to be talking about any of this and clammed up.  Kyler poked him some to show he wasn’t trying to get the guy in trouble.

“Yeah the patrol we met up with were on horseback and those guys all got loaded onto the train.  Pretty wild that we have a car on the train filled with horses.”  Kyler said.

“Unless that’s what was in those tacos.”  The man sitting next to the squad leader said quietly.

“Those horses were way too well trained to have ended up in a taco shell.  They’ll be the future.  Before too long the cars are all going to rust away, and the gas is all going to bad.  We’ll all be riding horses and shooting bows.”  Ritz said joining in the conversation.

“If there’s anybody left to ride horses when we’re done.”  The man next to the squad leader said.  His remark fell on dead silence.  The squad leader nudged him hard and the man turned to face the front.

“He’s a bottle half empty kind of guy.”  The squad leader said glossing over his man’s attitude.

“Yeah sorry.  How long until we get to go kill the children?  Do we get extra points if we kill the moms too?”  The man said too loudly to be ignored.

Kyler found himself the center of attention as everyone stared over to see how he was going to handle this challenge to his leadership.  The man’s statement was borderline treason.  That level of insubordination generally ended in a bullet to the head in the New American army.

“Squad leader.  Get your man under control or I will.”  Kyler said.  He was hoping that would take care of the situation.  It didn’t.  The man stood up and turned to face Kyler.  His red face revealing he’d snuck on some booze.  Before the man could open his mouth and seal his fate his squad leader punched him hard in the gut.  The man bent over with a loud grunt.  The squad leader proceeded to beat the living crap out of the guy.  When the man was no longer moving two men were ordered forward to drag him into one of the sleeping cabins in the car to sober up.

Kyler considered making a speech.  It’d basically come down to sometimes you had to follow orders you didn’t believe in.  That’s what good soldiers did.  They trusted their leaders not to waste their lives for no reasons.  They had to trust in the honor of their leaders.  He skipped that speech knowing it wouldn’t do any good.  Everyone in the room pretty much hated the New American leadership. None of them were under the false impression that the Brotherhood gave a crap if they lived or died.

The train had picked up plenty of steam again at this point.  The men in the car looked away from where the confrontation had happened.  None of them wanted to attract the attention of their leader.  If he really did have to lead these men into battle Kyler knew that acting like he was doing right now would lose all of them.  Realizing he may have to order these men to stand in in a line so him and Ritz could kill them all he needed to make sure he had their respect.  Otherwise they’d purposefully misunderstand an order to stand in a big group making it impossible for him and Ritz to get them all.  It was going to be pretty much impossible to kill a whole platoon on their own as it was.

He slid out of the bench and stood in the middle of the pathway between the rows of seats.  He stood there until he felt everyone’s eyes on him.

“You’ve all heard our mission by now.  It’s going to be dirty and dangerous.  If we survive there’s going to be memories that’ll haunt us for the rest of our lives.  Just remember we’re doing this to unify America.  We’re doing this so that the country can recover.  We can’t stand divided.  It may not seem like it today but a hundred years from now they’re going to read about this war and understand it was necessary to bring peace and unity back to this country.  You don’t have to believe that today.  What you have to do today is follow orders and do what you’re told.  Remember what’s at stake for you personally.  We’ll get through it together.  Eat, drink, and sleep as much as you can now.  Once we put our boots back on the dirt it may be awhile before we get to do any of those things again.”

Kyler sat back down beside Ritz who was giving him a golf clap accompanied by a prolonged eye roll.  He escaped getting punched by taking the advice Kyler had just given and tilting his head back to go to sleep before Kyler was in punching distance.  They stopped one more time that day.  The train engineers were flying drones a mile ahead of the train to check the tracks for dangers.  The engineer monitoring the drone video noticed a large gathering of Zombies headed towards them.  A second drone was launched off the back of the train.  It flew past the herd of Zombies and dropped an assortment of flashbangs and smoke grenades in the woods to lure them away from the tracks. The majority of the Zombies ran in the direction of the noise makers leaving an easily dealt with group of stragglers standing on the tracks when the train arrived.

They passed through the major cities along the route at night.  Men had been sent ahead to set fires and otherwise lure the Zombies away from the tracks to make for safe passage.  They made good time through North Carolina.  After a night spent sleeping sitting up in the uncomfortable passenger seat the intercom in their cabin came on letting them know  that they were approaching the Virginia border.  Cracking his neck and stretching his kinked-up back Kyler hoped the married couple he’d let have his sleeper cabin earlier appreciated his sacrifice.  The intercom notification that they were approaching their destination was their warning to start gearing up.  Kyler thought of it as the time to start getting their game faces on.

At the rate they were moving they’d be at the drop off point for his platoon sometime in the early afternoon.  Kyler was hoping they’d be let out in the woods so they could immediately move towards the first target settlement.  If they were dropped off somewhere with a house large enough for him to fit everyone in that gave him some options for killing them all.  Now that the moment was getting closer, he wondered if he’d really be able to kill these people in cold blood.  How do you murder a bunch of men and women who’ve done nothing wrong and are following your orders?

He was already trying to figure out ways he could get around killing them all.  They didn’t deserve to die.  He was wondering if they could disarm them somehow and send them on their way.  He was trying hard to figure out a way not to kill fifty people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Fifty people following orders because otherwise their loved ones back home would be murdered.

Not able to come up with a plan that made sense he decided to wait and wing it.  It was the apocalypse so there was bound to be some sort of horrible option that presented itself.  Worse case if he made a bunch of noise, he could attract a bunch of Zombies and send the members of the platoon running in all directions.

Chapter 23:  Second Wind

“Letting the tweens set the pace isn’t going to cut it.”  Bryan said sitting down on the ground beside Randy and Phil.

“What’s the rush man?  Afraid we’ll get there too late for the kids to get to shoot anybody?  I’m good with walking into a victory party.  It’s not like we haven’t done our part.”  Phil said.

“The ship may leave before we get there.”  Bryan answered quietly.

“The carrier you mean.  Where the hell’s it going to go?”  Phil asked.

“They’ve got to have figured something out by now.  My guess is they’re just waiting to gather enough supplies to start over on whatever island they’ve decided to take over.  A nuclear carrier has enough reactors on it to power a small island for a couple of years.  If we don’t get there in time, it’s not like they’re going to wait for us.”  Bryan answered.

“That’s why you’ve been pushing for us to hurry?”  Randy asked.  He was keeping his voice low.  Kelly was a few yards away with the kids helping them divide up a bag of mostly melted gummy bears.  It was basically a big rainbow blob that Zoey had found and been begging to eat for a few days now.  Kelly was finally relenting against her better judgement.  Randy didn’t see the problem.  No way anybody was going to die from eating a melted giant gummy blob.  The universe wasn’t that cruel.

“Yeah.  I didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up but that’s the reason.  At this rate I don’t think we’ll make it.  If the ship hasn’t sailed already then it will soon.  Especially with the entire New American army coming at them.”  Bryan paused for a second then continued in an even lower voice.  “I’m really worried we may get there after the ship’s sailed and it’s just a big Brotherhood party.  They’ll be rounding everybody up to throw them in camps.”

The three of them sat there letting that sink in.  All of them coming to the same conclusion.  They needed a faster way to get to the naval base in Norfolk.  Someone also needed to explain to Kelly why they couldn’t just chill in an abandoned cabin making smores for the next few weeks while everything blew over.  Randy took it on himself to do that.  Phil and Bryan both listening intently when Randy sat down to try and explain the situation to Kelly.

“Then we need to turn around and march our way over the mountains to California or somewhere.  Even if the ship hasn’t left yet it’s going to be surrounded by men shooting at it.  The ships going to be shooting back and launching planes that are going to be lobbing missiles all over the place.  The bad guys have drones that can blow up cars.  I say we cross this idea off the list and head the other way as fast as we can go.”  Kelly whisper yelled at Randy.  She wasn’t trying to be loud but everyone in the little clearing could hear everything she said.  Bryan and Phil found themselves nodding along with her points.  She wasn’t wrong.

Kelly finished and sat there staring daggers at her husband until she realized the real culprits were the morons sitting on the other side of the clearing.  She proceeded to walk past the two warehouse guards and over to Bryan.  She stood over him staring down angrily.  He returned her stare with one of his own albeit with a slight deer in the headlights look .  She looked pretty pissed off.  He supposed he would be too if someone was looking to drag his kids into a war zone versus grabbing a car and heading towards bunny rabbits and bon fires.

“We can turn and go west.”  Bryan said quietly.  “I’ve thought about it too.  It’s not like I’d be able to live with myself if I was the one responsible for anything happening to your girls.”

“Then why push towards the carrier?”  Kelly asked.  She’d been ready to argue with Bryan and was thrown off when he seemed to be agreeing with her.  She knew there must be a ‘but’ coming along.

“I’ve been doing the roving patrols all the way to the mountains for the last couple of years now.  It’s not getting better out there.  It’s getting worse.  The Brotherhood is going to own the east coast before too long and start pushing west.  They’re already in Tennessee and Alabama.  For all we know there are even worse people on the other coast coming this way.  We make it to the carrier those girls have a shot at a real life.  From what I understand you guys aren’t super popular with the Brotherhood so getting rounded up wouldn’t end well.”  Bryan finished his pitch and waited to see what Kelly had to say to that.

Randy waited for Kelly to process everything so she could tell him what his opinion should be.  He liked the idea of getting on the carrier.  He thought it was an unrealistic pipe dream, but he did like the idea.  He also liked the idea of heading west looking for someplace everyone else had forgotten about.  Kelly still hadn’t responded to what Bryan had said.

“I say we go for it.”  Caitlyn whispered.  Myriah nodded behind her.

“Go for what?”  Kelly asked her.

“Go for the ship.  If it gets too hard, we turn around and run the other way.  It leaves us with options.  Plus, do we really want to scrape by alone in the desert somewhere or sail away to help rebuild the world?”  Caitlyn said.

“Did they mail you a pamphlet or something?  What do you think babe?”  Kelly asked Randy.

“I think we should go for it.  It’s not like any where’s really safe.  If we’re going to risk our lives regardless why not go for the biggest reward?”  Randy said.  He waited to see how Kelly took his response.  She looked thoughtful instead of irritated which was a good sign.

“How do we get there in time without the drones blowing us up or the Brotherhood catching us?”  She asked Bryan.  Evidently, she’d decided to go with the group on this one but was holding back her verbal approval in case she wanted to change her mind later.  They all looked at Bryan expectantly.  All of them glad they had someone with military experience there to guide them through this next stage.

“I honestly have no idea.  I was hoping we’d be there already.  Phil, you have any ideas?”  Bryan asked.  Kelly rolled her eyes and sat back down.

“Planes, trains , cars, hot air balloons, subways, rocket ships, helicopters, walking…”  Randy said.  He stopped talking when he saw everyone staring at him like he was crazy.

“We have none of those things.”  Phil said.

“Just brainstorming.  Question for you guys.  You said Zombies chased you across the road earlier right through a Brotherhood motorcycle rally.  Did they get any of the guys on the bikes?”  Randy asked.  The brainstorming had jarred loose an idea.

“No clue.  We were too busy hiding in a hole filled with poop.”  Bryan said having spotted Zoey and Ali eavesdropping.  Zoey giggled and poked Ali who started giggling also.  Kelly smiled at the two little girls then held up her finger in a shushing gesture.

“So, backtrack and check for bikes?”  Phil asked.

“Why bikes?  Why not a car or a truck?”  Bryan asked.  “Driving the girls around on bikes is going to be hard.  Do any of you even know how to ride a motorcycle?  Hell, I haven’t ridden one in forever.  Instead of backtracking to possibly find a couple of bikes with their fuel tanks emptied out on the side of the road I say we look for vehicles in garages somewhere.  Four wheelers or a pickup truck would be perfect.”

No one responded.  They were all trying to think of the best way forward.  The decisions they were making tonight would impact the rest of their lives.  The wrong choice could also impact how long the rest of their lives turned out to be.  If they weren’t careful, they’d be frozen into inaction by the weight of it all.  They were all familiar with the concept of paralysis by analysis.  One of the big reasons they were still alive is that they always kept moving.

“Moonlights wasting.  Let’s go hotwire something.”  Randy said standing up.  Bryan and Phil stood up as well.  Randy stuck his hand down to help Kelly up.

“You really know how to hotwire a car?”  Phil asked Randy.  That’d make the next part of the plan so much easier.  Poking around musty old garages and rifling through dead people’s pockets were the two ways he was used to finding the keys to get a car running.  The only technical piece he was any good at was swapping out the batteries since that was a pretty common chore to get a car going.

“No clue.  I normally look around in the garage for one of those little hook things people hang keys on.”  Randy answered a disappointed looking Phil.

Chapter 24:  Tightening the Noose

Forrest and his team broke into a secure telephone office on the outskirts of a small town.  Lugging batteries and laptops and connectors the men rushed inside the concrete building with the AT&T logo emblazoned on it and slammed the door shut behind them.  Forrest helped brace the door with a couple of long pieces of wood they’d brought with them.  The portable drill was used to quickly secure the broken door to keep out the infected who were following them.  Once they’d locked themselves into the windowless building, they started looking for the equipment they were supposed to connect their gear to.

Forrest was taking a very active role in the operation since half the team was made up of networking IT types.  They were having enough problems trying to lug the heavy batteries and other equipment.  These weren’t men who’d been bred for the apocalypse.  These were the type who really missed twitter and seven-dollar coffees.  How most of them had survived this long was a mystery to Forrest.  The powers that be in the New American government must have decided they’d need people with networking skills to help with the expansion into other regions.

The nerds started connecting things and powering stuff on.  Lights flashed and a small ruggedized laptop was turned on and connected.  In less than an hour the men signaled for Forrest to join them.  Forrest walked away from the door that was shaking from at least three Zombies on the outside of the building busily banging away on it.  The loud screeches of the infected raking over his ears like nails on a chalkboard.  If he died in the vault of this nerd bunker giving Krantz a freakin’ status update he was going to be pissed.

The technician waited for Forrest to walk over then handed him a pair of headsets to put on.  Once Forrest had those on the man started to explain what to type to start the call.  Forrest stared at him with one of his eyebrows arched.  The man gulped and typed in the command needed to make the call.  He pressed enter and waited for the other side to answer.  Once he saw Commander Krantz pop up he walked over to the other side of the bunker.  The tech kept his eyes on Forrest to see if he needed any additional help.  The techie was in awe of the people who’d setup the secret communications hub.  The money and manpower and secrecy needed to build the network they were leveraging was beyond impressive.

“How’s it going up there?”  Krantz asked as soon as Forrest finished putting the headset on over his ears.

“The party’s definitely getting started sir.  We’ve got Zombies and settlement soldiers all over us.”  Forrest began.  He reported everything that’d happened since their last call including the soldiers in the hummers attacking the alpha base and chasing him to the beta base.

“You got the spec ops guys out to press the attack from the alpha base, right?”  Krantz asked.  He wanted to make sure that part of the plan was in motion.  Those guys were trained to do serious damage to enemy infrastructure.  Forrest assured him the majority of those guys seemed to have made it out.  He hadn’t heard anything other than the brief transmission during the ambush for sure though.

“Any intel for us sir?  We’ve started interrogating those men we captured.  It sounds like the settlements are pushing out to try and slow us down.  To keep us from tightening the noose on them.  They know they’re getting surrounded.  From everything we’ve heard so far the carrier’s still docked.”  Forrest stated.

“No.  We just need to keep pushing.  The Senator’s already looking past the settlements to how we’ll take the next few states before pushing westwards.  I’m hoping the carrier just takes off with our problems aboard it.”  Krantz said.  He was sipping on coffee in a clean uniform in a nice-looking conference room Forrest noticed.  Good for him.

Krantz took in Forrest’s disheveled appearance.  His commanding officer for the field was looking pretty beat up.  His face was covered in scratches.  The bit of green t-shirt peeking out though his BDUs was stained with what looked like blood.  He kept shifting around with a pained expression on his face like something was wrong with his feet.  He’d said he was fine though so Krantz hadn’t pressed the point.  He wanted to get Forrest off the phone as soon as possible.  He could hear the Zombies in the background trying to break into the communications vault.  He was all too aware of the extreme comfort he was in while his men were literally dying out in the field.  Maybe he should switch these meetings to audio calls.

“Sounds good sir.  I’ll keep the men engaged to keep tightening the noose.  What do we do if they don’t sail away sir?”  Forrest asked.

“Let’s just go with them sailing away.  The alternative’s pretty messy.  I’ll look forward to the call tomorrow.  Take care of yourself commander.”  Krantz said.

Krantz clicked the disconnect button on the shiny tablet in the middle of the conference room table.  He took another sip of his coffee.  He’d fortified it with a generous amount of Crown Royal.  At this point he’d stopped even pretending he was anything more than a functional alcoholic.  He avoided the inevitable hangover by staying drunk all the time.  It helped keep his mind off things like the question Forrest had just asked him.  What would they do if the carrier didn’t sail away?  Per the Senator they’d kill every single one of the settlers if they didn’t get the hell out of the country.

Killing women and children didn’t seem to bother the man.  The fact that he was relentlessly stripping the honor from his men by asking them to commit those kinds of atrocities didn’t faze him in the least.  Lately he was leaving handing out those orders to Krantz.  Krantz could’ve delegated that duty as well but he felt like he owed it to the men he was commanding to give the order himself.  He tried to stay active since in his downtime he spent way too much time fantasizing about eating his service revolver.

His call the day before with the Senator had been a really strange one.  He’d learned that the bunker up in Georgia the Senator spent a good deal of time at had been destroyed.  Destroyed by bombs dropped by a plane launched from the settlements was what all the evidence pointed at.  That explained why the Senator was so adamant about taking them out.  Where Krantz would be happy if the settlement people cruised away the Senator wanted them all dead.  The Senator hadn’t come right out and said it but the reason for the radio silence from him had been to see if Krantz had anything to do with the attempt on his life.

Tom had been observed trying to ping the video equipment in the blown-up base in Georgia.  Krantz had to explain why he’d had him do that to keep the Senator from ordering Tom killed.  The call had lasted way too long.  Krantz hung up thinking the Senator had gotten even crazier.  Sam must be feeding his paranoia as evidenced by the Senator knowing Tom even existed.  It confirmed to Krantz that the base was crawling with spies.  That made sense considering the strategic importance of the hub.  No way Sam would allow it to be compromised.

The only fantasy that scared him more than putting a gun in his own mouth was the recurring one he had about putting a hole through the Senator’s head.  He wanted to end the senseless killing.  He hated that he played such an important role in it.  The only way he slept at night was by occasionally giving commands that spared civilian lives.  Every once in a while, he was able to twist and distort the orders he received from Sam to accomplish that.  He hated himself for his own cowardice.  He knew he should just disobey the orders he was being given and shoot anybody that insisted he follow them.

Another thing that made him smile was daydreaming about shooting Sam right in her smug face.  He imagined her lying on the floor with her hair matted down from blood afterwards.  He wanted to wipe that smirk off her face that popped up at such inopportune times.  Like when she ordered the mass murder of children in the settlements.  She’d give the command like she was reading off items from a grocery list.  She was an automaton.  A beautiful woman with no soul.  A golem.  A demonic life-sized Barbie.

It should all be over soon.  Krantz stood walked over to the board to look at the troop disposition.  Blue circles represented battalions of men forming in Virginia.  Six of the battalions were approaching full strength with three other reserve battalions forming farther out from the front lines.  That didn’t even count the battalion on the way via train.  The train battalion was bringing all kinds of cool toys with it.  From tanks to tons of ammunition along with a resupply of weapons.  The train would also be playing an important role in sweeping through the remaining settlements in Virginia and cleaning them out.  A role Krantz was unable to do anything about since all the orders to the train battalion went through Sam.

They’d lost hundreds of men in North and South Carolina to the massive herds of Zombies flooding the state.  Hundreds was lower than their original estimate of a thousand men lost running that gauntlet.  Thanks to that they now had more men available than they’d planned on having to attack the settlements.  Krantz hadn’t emphasized that in the last call with the Senator but he knew Sam had noted it.  He just hoped that extra fire power didn’t encourage the Senator to order him to attack the carrier head on.

Krantz walked out of the conference room.  He walked past the banks of monitors showing the activity in the outside area of the hub.  The helicopter that’d dropped Krantz off was back at the base sitting on top of the garage.  There was once again a group of Zombies gathered around it.  Krantz thought about proactively sending crews out at night with bows and spears to quietly kill as many Zombies as they could.  If nothing else, it’d make it a little safer for the looters who dropped off their supplies every month.

The weight of the world settled down on his shoulders as he walked down the stairs to his room.  He was tired.  He knew once they won this battle that there’d be an endless campaign following it.  A campaign that’d roll across North America on the piled up broken bones of the children he’d be ordered to slaughter.  All to stroke the ego of a single man.  A man Krantz didn’t even respect.  With no target to strike out at Krantz sat down and poured himself a shot of tequila.  He slammed the warm shot of amber liquor and struggled for a second to keep his gorge down.  It wasn’t like him to waste valuable alcohol by vomiting.

Once he was sure he wasn’t going to puke he took another shot.  Then another.  Then he punched the wall a few times before sitting on the floor and taking a big swig straight out of the bottle.  At some point in the next few hours the alcohol overwhelmed his stomach’s defenses and he vomited all over himself.  That’s how Tom found him when he came down to check why he wasn’t answering the phone.

Swinging open the door after no one responded to the knocking Tom went in the room expecting the worst.  He knew there were demons waging war inside his boss.  He knew the stress the man was under.  He’d guessed at the reasons for being ordered to ping the Senators video equipment.  He’d known it wasn’t safe for him to do it.  He hadn’t slept well since the day he’d done it.  Especially not since he’d noticed one of the airmen staring at him from behind his desk while he’d done it.  The man had ducked away quickly when Tom spotted him.

Tom helped a very intoxicated Krantz to stand up and get undressed.  Clad only in his boxers Tom sat him down in the shower and poured cold water over his boss until most of the grossness had been washed down the drain.  He toweled Krantz off and put him in bed.  Krantz coming back from his drunken stupor long enough to thank him for helping out and apologizing for being such a mess.

Tom waved off the thanks.  As far as he was concerned any man who didn’t get torn apart carrying out the Senators orders would be a monster.  He respected Krantz. He just hoped he’d either come up with a way to reconcile the actions he was forced to take with his conscience or come up with a way to fight back.  Either way Tom knew that he was happy to be on Team Krantz.  He didn’t know what good he’d be in the conflicts that were coming but he was determined to come out of them with as clean a conscience as possible.  A clean conscience being close to impossible to maintain in the new normal.

He remembered a quote he’d seen somewhere.  It popped up in his head frequently lately.  ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’  He promised himself that when the time came, he’d be willing to stand up and do something.

Chapter 25:  Fish in a Barrel

“We’ll be at your insertion point in about an hour.  Be ready to move once we state to slow down.  Any questions?”  The man who’d escorted Kyler to the planning car earlier asked.  He’d been sent back to let them know it was almost time to rock.

“No.  I’ve got the maps and plans.  I’ve shared them with the squad leaders. We’re good to go.”  Kyler informed the man.  Ritz didn’t even look in his direction when he sat back down.  He was staring vacantly out the window.  Not that he could see anything. The sun had gone down hours before.

“It about time for us to earn our horse tacos?”  Ritz asked.  The seriousness of his voice belying his attempt at a lighthearted joke.  Without any sort of in-depth discussion of what they needed to do he’d intuited Kyler’s plan.  He didn’t have the internal conflicts about it that Kyler was struggling with.  The way he saw it every single person in this car had a duty to stand up and say they weren’t going to slaughter a bunch of innocent civilians.  The fact that all of them hadn’t rebelled against the command justified killing them all in Ritz’s book.  The sooner the better.  He definitely wasn’t going to let any of them get near the settlements.  He’d sleep like a baby after killing every single one of them.  Except maybe for horse taco guy.  Maybe they’d let him live.

“Yeah it is.  Go tell the squad leaders to make sure everyone’s up. They need to be ready to hit the ground running.  We’ll need a place to regroup once we’re off the train so we can get coordinated.  I wish we could do it on the train, but I don’t know where they’re planning on dropping us off yet.  Let’s do squads one and two through the front door and three and four out the back door.  Send squad five back a car and have them exit that way.  Wherever we end up at we meet up half a click due east.  Radio silence.  Blades and clubs only against the infected.”  Kyler finished giving Ritz the orders he wanted relayed to the squads.

He watched silently as Ritz went down the aisle giving the squad leaders their orders.  A wave of activity followed in his wake.  The next couple of hours was going to be tricky.  Standard procedure for moving through the woods was to split up the platoon.  Fifty people moving through the woods together made a lot more noise than five groups of ten sneaking through the woods.  If he was really trying to take out the settlements, he’d have the squad leaders converge from different angles on the first target settlement. He’d wait for them all to get in position then send a signal for them to attack all at once.

He needed to figure out a valid reason to have them stick together as a group for longer than they normally would.  Otherwise he risked losing control of them on the way to the first target.  If that happened, then the next chance they got to have them all together might be while they were standing around a big pile of dead children.  That wasn’t an acceptable outcome.  He had to figure something out or there was going to be a grave filled with innocents with his name carved on the headstone.  He rubbed his face hard over his scraggly beard with both hands trying to coax out a solution.

Another man came through the door and told him it was go time in fifteen minutes.  Kyler had Ritz relay the timing to the squad leaders then rejoin him.  They’d be going out the door with squads one and two.  The man checked his watch when Ritz came back and gave them there five-minute warning.  He pointed out on the map where they were going to be dropped off at.  Then he handed Kyler a large Ziploc bag full of pills.  Kyler handed the pills to Ritz to hang on to.

“Don’t feel weird about the pills.  They help with the work you’ll be doing.  Takes the edge off.”  The guy said with a smirk.  Kyler wanted to shoot the freak in the face right there for implying it was ok to get a bit of a buzz before you bayoneted a bunch of kids.  He held back from dropping the guy on the floor and killing him right there though.  That’d definitely blow their cover.  Looking more closely at the man who’d handed them the pills he noticed the glassy eyes and enlarged pupils.

“I see you already got started.”  Kyler said emotionlessly to the man.  The guy looked uncomfortable for a second then turned and left without responding.

Ritz started to say something to Kyler but the train slowing down interrupted him. Ritz held back whatever he’d been about to say as three quick beeps sounded over the intercom system.  A minute later two more beeps sounded as the train continued to slow down.  When the final beep sounded Kyler counted down ten seconds in his head then told the squad to go.  The train wasn’t going to come to a complete stop.  They’d have a few minutes where it was rolling pretty slowly.  They needed to get all five squads out in that window of time.

The squad leaders would be pushing their men out the doors.  Hissing at them to jump and roll.  Any that didn’t jump would get a friendly shove to help them on their way.  There wasn’t time to screw around.  The squad leaders had to jump last. They didn’t want to have to jump after the train started accelerating.  By the time the doorway was clear for Kyler and Ritz the train had started picking up speed again.

Ritz being the parachuting expert he insisted Kyler jump first.  With no time to argue Kyler took a flying leap out of the door.  In the darkness there was no telling what he was jumping into.  Turning on the trains exterior running lights would’ve made them visible to any drones or planes the settlements might be flying overhead.  Not to mention attracting the interest of any Zombies in the neighborhood.  The noise of the large train chugging along was attracting plenty of attention already.  No one saw any need to add floodlights to guide the Zombies along their way.

In mid-jump Kyler thought they probably should’ve turned the lights on for the part where they were jumping out of the train.  The doors they were jumping out of were intended to allow passengers to disembark onto train platforms.  They were easily six feet off the ground.  Jumping off a stationary platform in the darkness six feet in the air in full battle rattle wasn’t exactly easy.  Jumping out of a train rolling down tracks covered in rocks with a steep grassy incline on either side was asking for a twisted ankle if you were lucky.

He hung in the air for what felt like an eternity.  He’d been paranoid about some random train part snagging him in the air, so he’d really launched himself out the door.  It was dark so he’d had no way of knowing that there was a pretty steep drop-off on the other side of the tracks.  When he finally hit the ground, it came as an abrupt and welcome surprise.  His paranoia was screaming at him that they’d jumped over a bridge by accident.  He fought back the fear of a long fall to a painful death and braced himself to hit the ground soon.  As painful as the landing ended up being, he still wanted to kiss the ground in relief.

He rose unsteadily to his feet happy to note that he hadn’t broken anything important.  His body was in the appropriate amount of pain for the stupid stunt he’d just pulled.  They should’ve passed out the happy pills before that jump.  Might have helped everyone loosen up and prevent any broken necks.  Maybe the problem about what to do to cripple this platoon would be taken care of for him by the stupidity of that disembarkation process.  Doubting they’d get that lucky he jogged carefully into the tree line.

It wasn’t actually the train he was trying to get out of sight of.  A parade of Zombies followed the train like a long tail hanging off a kite.  Most of them would be miles behind the train and take forever to reach this part of the tracks. If any of the adrenalized ones happened to have started chasing the noise of the train recently then they’d be on top of them almost immediately.  A screech followed by the sounds of someone screaming out in pain signaled to Kyler that the adrenalized ones were indeed already here and hunting.

Ritz showed up a few seconds later while Kyler was trying to figure out which way was east.  All around them men were moving stealthily through the trees.  They should slowly be forming back into squads.  By the time they all got a half click east they should be semi-organized back into a platoon.  Ritz held up a hand for Kyler to wait up.  Kyler listened intently as Ritz leaned close to whisper to him.

“When we meet up with everybody have squad five come with us to scout out the first settlement site.  We’ll take care of them nice and quiet then have first squad come up to get into position.  Rinse and repeat.”  Ritz whispered.

“You actually think that’ll work?”  Kyler asked.  His mind skirting around how they’d ‘take care of them’.

“Maybe.  We keep them running with blades and clubs we should be able to get the drop on them.  We can pass out some of these pills too.  That should help get them nice and placid.”  Ritz said.

Kyler nodded.  His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness.  He could see well enough now. He assumed Ritz would be able to see him nodding.  Another sign this platoon wasn’t expected to accomplish great things was that they hadn’t been issued NVGs.  It wouldn’t surprise him to find out his platoon was here primarily just to get them out of Tennessee.  If the Senator kept everyone moving around, then they’d have a hard time forming up and rebelling.  The more he thought about it the more diabolical the Brotherhood really was.

Ritz led the way eastwards.  They joined a group of men who’d located a clearing in the woods that was roughly positioned in the middle of where everyone had jumped.  They sat in silence listening to the screams of the poor bastards who hadn’t made the jump successfully.  Kyler shuddered picturing what it’d be like to be laying by the track with a broken leg waiting to be mercilessly ripped apart.  None of them wanted to hang out this close to the tracks. They gave it a good ten minutes for as many people as possible to catch up with them.

When no one had limped into the circle for a full count of five minutes Kyler called it.  He had everyone move another click deeper into the woods.  He wanted to get far enough from the track to have a quick planning session without risking being overheard by ony of the ones with the super hearing ability.  They’d already clubbed a few infected to death that’d ventured over too close to the group.  The people who made up the platoon may not all be professional soldiers but none of them were shy about beating the brains out of a Zombie.

Once they reached a place that was far enough away that Kyler felt it was appropriate to risk a quick and quiet conversation, he gathered the squad leaders together to update the plan.  He was really hoping one of them would suggest something similar to what Ritz had said to do.  It’d look a lot more natural coming from one of the squad leaders.  Then he could just adjust it to fit into something that’d work for him and Ritz.

“Casualties?”  Kyler asked once they were all gathered together in a tight little huddle.

“Five MIA and one verified KIA.”  Ritz responded immediately.  He’d been going around gathering that info from the squad leaders.

“Any chance the ones missing could be saved?”  Kyler asked.

“Not likely sir.  Unless any of you know different?”  Ritz said looking around at the squad leaders.  One of them spit out a long stream of tobacco.  Copenhagen had aged much better than cigarettes had.

“That number sounds about right.  Why the hell did they drop us off somewhere like that in the middle of the dark for?  We’re down ten percent of our men already and we haven’t even got close to the damned enemy.  It would’ve killed them to stop the train for a minute so we could get off without killing ourselves?”  The impassioned squad leader asked.  He was staring hard at Kyler the entire time he talked.  Another clear challenge to Kyler’s leadership.

Kyler pulled out the map he’d been given and marked off where they’d started jumping.  He ran his finger east of the drop off point to roughly where they should be now.  The first red circle on the map was a good ten miles away through the woods.  There were five circles in all.  If he was actually planning to complete this mission, five settlements would be a pretty ambitious undertaking.  The settlements had men and women in them who’d fight tooth and nail to protect their families.  More importantly they had hard wired communication systems they’d use to call for help and alert nearby settlements that there was a threat.  There was always the chance that a roving patrol might be spending the night at one of the settlements as well.  Those patrols were made up of hard men who wouldn’t shy away from a fight.

“I want squads one through four to fan out and settle in right about here.”  Kyler said pointing to a spot on the map a mile away from the first target settlement.  “I’ll take squad five to scout out the first settlement.  Once we scout it out, we’ll send a runner back with your orders.  We hit hard and fast.  No prisoners.  Understood?”

“When are you going to hand out the drugs sir?”  One of the squad leaders asked.  Kyler looked at the man carefully.  Did he detect a hint of desperation in his tone?

“We’ll do that before we attack.  That should help any of your men who haven’t been involved in one of these operations before.  Frankly it’ll help the ones of us who have been involved in these operations before.  What we’re about to do isn’t going to be pretty.”  Kyler said to a round of nods from the assembled men.  He was disappointed that none of them challenged him on actually carrying out the mission.  Then again, each of these men was focused on the fact that a bad report from Kyler could get their family back home executed.  There was no way for them to win.  Kyler supposed if their positions were reversed, he’d choose his own family over strangers as well.

They set out with squad five while the other squads were getting themselves organized.  The orders for no radio comms and no guns was in effect for the length of the mission.  The squad moved through the woods single file with melee weapons gripped in their hands.  Machetes and hammers were popular with this group.  The squad leader was carrying a spear in his hand and had a couple more of the long weapons strapped to his backpack.  Those may have worked well for him back home but here in the swampy land they were traversing the spears kept getting tangled in the brush and vines.

A fine mist sprang up making visibility suck even more.  Kyler and Ritz stayed in the back of the line.  The squad leader was up near the front with another man running point.  Running point was one of the more dangerous positions to be in.  Zombies could stand still as the trees and easily be mistaken for part of the landscape until you were right on top of them.  At which point they went from being a weird looking shrub to becoming a ferocious monster trying to rip your throat out.  By being in the back of the pack for the bulk of the hike to the first target settlement they hoped to get the squad used to him and Ritz bringing up the rear.

The married couple he’d let use his cabin the night before were part of squad five.  They’d already awkwardly thanked him for giving them that much needed privacy.  He’d even more awkwardly accepted their thanks.  They seemed like a great couple.  They’d told him they had three kids back home.  He couldn’t think of any way around killing them.  It was making him feel sick.

A half mile from the target settlement the man on point sank to the ground in a small open space between some trees and waited for everyone to gather around.  Kyler had told them to stop so they could discuss the final approach.  Ritz cast a glance over at Kyler as they moved towards the group in the small opening.  Butterflies started doing laps around Kyler’s stomach.  He suddenly felt nauseous.  He loosened the strap to his rifle in preparation for pulling it off his shoulder.

There were multiple things that had to go right for this to work.  They had to get the comm unit away from the squad leader first and foremost.  If he got a message out, then it was all over.  They had to figure out how to secure the man behind them.  The man in the last position had always covered the squads flank.  There hadn’t been a legitimate reason for Ritz and Kyler to take it away from him.  They needed to get everyone on the ground on their stomachs with their hands secured behind them.  Ritz had a bag of tie wraps he’d brought to bind everyone.  Once bound they’d all be executed.  They needed to pull it all off quietly enough to avoid attracting any Zombies or alert the nearby settlement.

Instead of trying to take out the man in the rear position Kyler stepped to the side and let Ritz and the rear guard move into the opening ahead of him.  He entered the space watching carefully as Ritz casually walked around the perimeter of the little circle.  The squad leader glanced up as Ritz was walking past him and shot Ritz a quick nod.  Ritz nodded back, took two more steps then brought his hatchet down right in the center of the squad leader’s head.  He left the hatchet in the man’s skull and pulled his rifle up to cover the shocked group.

Kyler was as shocked as everyone else by the sudden violence.  He’d been thinking Ritz would yank off the man’s headset and knock him to the ground.  Evidently Ritz didn’t play that way.

“On your stomachs.  All of you.  Hands behind your backs.”  Ritz commanded.  Two people started to obey the command, a couple went for their weapons and the rest just stared at Ritz like he was a Sasquatch or something.  Ritz stepped forward and threw a man on the ground who’d been trying to get his pistol into play.

“On your stomachs!”  Kyler shouted too loudly.  He was waving his rifle around from the other side of the circle.  The men going for their weapons now understood that they were surrounded.  One of them jumped to his feet and ran into the woods before Kyler or Ritz could stop him.  Kyler started to chase the man and another guy started to stand back up.  The soldiers on the side by the bushes started to edge away as well.  Ritz walked around the circle kicking them and shoving the barrel of his rifle into their faces to get them back in the circle.  Kyler did the same.  One man refused to be moved back and Kyler ended up slamming the hard-wooden stock of his rifle into the guy’s head.

“That guy who ran will get to the others soon.”  Ritz said.  He was going from person to person using the zip ties to secure their arms behind their backs.  One of the men was openly crying.  Ritz handed Kyler some of the zip ties to help out.  They both worked on securing the prisoners for the next couple of minutes.

“Are you going to kill us?”  The woman who’d shyly thanked Kyler for letting her and her husband use his cabin asked.

“Were you going to kill a bunch of innocent little kids in the settlement up ahead?”  Ritz asked her viciously.  He was working his way up to the heinous acts he needed to commit.

“I’m sorry what were we sup –“  The woman’s husband started to answer back.  Ritz smashed the side of the man’s face with a claw hammer.  The man yelped in pain.  Another blow from the hammer shut him up permanently.

His wife rolled over to try and help him.  Seeing his bleeding face, she started to scream.  Before Kyler could say anything, Ritz bashed her face in.  The man on the ground right in front of Kyler propelled himself to his feet without using his hands and charged directly at Kyler.  Kyler stepped to the side and used the stock of his rifle to knock the man to the ground.  He swung the stock hard into the back of the man’s skull.  He felt the crunch that told him the guy wouldn’t be getting back up.  He’d felt that same crunch plenty of times finishing off Zombies.

Another one of their prisoners was madly inch worming his way away from them.  Kyler calmly walked over with a knife in his hand and stabbed the man in the side until he stopped moving.  He turned and watched as Ritz beat in the heads of two more men lying bound on the ground.  Both of them were yelling at the top of their lungs for help.  Kyler stabbed a man who’d managed to get into a bush to try to hide from them.  The man was blubbering like a baby.  He kept trying to tell Kyler he was sorry, and he’d be good.  He’d fight for the kids in the settlement.  He was sorry.  He had kids too.  Kyler was sobbing himself by the time that man wasn’t moving anymore.

A few more minutes and it was all over.  Squad five had been massacred except for the one man who’d run away.  Kyler and Ritz were both fine physically.  Mentally Kyler doubted he’d ever be the same again.

“What now?”  Ritz asked.

“We warn the settlement.”  Kyler said emotionlessly.  If they took the time to try and find the man who’d run away, then the other squads may decide to send someone to see what was going on.  If the man was able to backtrack and reach the squads then the settlement would be in immediate danger.  The remaining squads would be looking for them.

There was also the fact that Kyler just couldn’t stomach the idea of any more killing right now.  He’d had more than enough killing for the day.  He looked over at the loose long hair framing the broken face of the bride who’d thanked him for letting them borrow his room.  Such a small kindness to have granted.

Ritz grabbed Kyler by the shoulder and shook him.

“Snap out of it man.  Let’s roll.  We just made a ton of noise.  Going to be Zombies galore any second now.”  Ritz may be trying to sound like he was in control, but Kyler had seen him pop a couple of the pills out of that hefty bag of pharmaceuticals he was carrying around.  He was thinking he may need to down a couple himself.

Chapter 26:  A Short Time to Get there

Phil sat down at the dust covered kitchen table.  He cracked open the bottle of tequila he’d found and eyed the cans of SpaghettiOs lined up in front of him. He’d pulled them out of the bottom of the roach-infested pantry then compulsively cleaned the cans using an entire roll of Bounty.  The cans had been covered in rat excrement and dead roaches.  Just thinking about it made him want to rub the cans again.  He dealt with a lot of grossness in this world on a daily basis but for some reason seeing all of that gunk on the tops of the cans of mass-produced pasta had given him a serious case of the willies.  He assumed it was more about knowing the little girls were going to be eating it than anything else.

Higgins and Gomez, the two security guards from the warehouse, walked in through the laundry room that connected the kitchen to the garage.  Higgins stared at Phil polishing the top of the can of pasta with a slightly psychotic look on his face.  Gomez started going through all the drawers looking for anything useful.  Of extreme usefulness would be the keys to the space age looking minivan sitting out in the garage.  They’d struck out at the first three houses they’d tried.  They needed to hurry since the sun would be coming up soon putting an end to casual ransacking.

Given the rush if they couldn’t get the minivan running the plan was for Higgins and Phil to head out and continue to search for a vehicle in one direction while Bryan and Gomez went the other way.  Randy and Kelly would stay in the house eating the pasta that came in fun little shapes until someone found a working vehicle.  Phil was going to spend the day hoping the girls never found out what the cans of pasta he’d found for them had originally been covered in.  Then again, they were tough little girls.  They’d probably handle it better than he had.

“Bryan’s ready to give up on this house.  He’s digging around in the garage but wants to head out in the next five minutes if the keys don’t magically appear.”  Higgins told Phil.  Phil just nodded and kept wiping the tops of the cans.  He could hear the kids walking around upstairs.  They were busy raiding the rooms up there for clean clothes.  Phil and Randy had cleared the upstairs when they first got there.  Randy’s eyes lighting up when he saw the house had a couple of rooms that’d obviously belonged to young girls.  He knew his girls would love to snag some toys and new clothes.

Phil put down the can he was holding and took a deep breath.  It was time to go to work.  He stood up and checked his weapons.  Satisfied his weapons were good he walked through the musty smelling living room then bounded up the stairs.  He needed to let Randy and Kelly know the rest of them were heading out.  That’d mean everyone needed to come downstairs and be ready to run out of the house and jump in whatever vehicle eventually pulled up.  It was going to be early morning by the time they found one which meant there were going to be infected wandering around.  There wasn’t time to wait until the next night to continue the search.  They were all feeling the rush now to make it to the carrier.

Randy and Kelly brought the kids down the stairs and set up shop in the middle of the living room.  They were happy the house didn’t have dead bodies lying all over it for once.  Sharing a living room with a blanket covered corpse was creepy no matter how many times you’ve done it.  Against all commonsense Randy had carried a giant doll house down the stairs.  The girls had seen it and instantly fallen in love.  It was a pretty cool doll house.  Someone had spent some serious money on it.  The whole thing was made of real wood with each piece of furniture carved out of real wood too.

The authentic real wood look meant it weighed approximately a million pounds.  Some sort of weird science had doubled that weight with each step Randy took.  The entire time he was carrying it down the stairs he was freaking out about the noise it’d make if he dropped it.  He cussed under his breath with each backward step. He’d been in too much of a hurry to get everyone downstairs to bother removing the furniture and dolls from it. He couldn’t even shift the doll house around to get a better grip or one of the toys may spill out of it and make noise.  With his luck the house had an authentic alarm system he was going to accidentally set off.

The girls and Kelly all stood at the bottom staring up at him as he descended one stair at a time.  The older girls and Kelly were freaking out about the noise it’d make if he dropped it while the little girls were just worried it’d break if he dropped it.  Through some miracle he made it the whole way down with zero mishaps.  The girls gathered around and helped him place the big house quietly down on the floor.  The girls wasted no time diving in to play with it.  They knew they couldn’t take it with them so wanted to make sure they got the full usage out of it.

Randy collapsed on the dusty couch while Kelly and Caitlyn went to whip up the cans of pasta Phil had told them was sitting on the table.  The way he’d wrinkled his nose when he said it made Randy think the cans might be dented or something.  He’d asked Kelly to make sure it didn’t look, or smell spoiled before feeding it to anyone.  He watched the girls quietly moving furniture around and playing.  He loved seeing them doing something normal.  Even if some of the ways they arranged the house were more ‘new normal’ than the way kids would’ve played before the apocalypse.

Zoey was stacking furniture against the front door while Ali was making sure all the window blinds in the house were closed tight.  Doreen was busy trying to figure out how to get the doors to lock.  Randy was loving that the toy house had storm shutters on it that could actually be pulled down and closed.  He’d love to find a real house for them to hide out in that had that feature.  Windows were always the weak spot.  He was down on his knees helping Doreen secure the shutters when Kelly and Caitlyn walked in with trays loaded down with bowls of the room temperature pasta.

“Having fun?”  Kelly asked Randy playfully.

“Absolutely.  This doll house has cooler features than our real house did.  Check out these storm shutters.”  He replied moving his finger to make the tiny shutters open and close.

Kelly handed him the tray of food and sat down beside him.  Caitlyn set her tray on the couch and sat down between the kids to play and eat with them.  Myriah was busy reading a magazine she’d found in the teen girls room upstairs.  Not that the latest fashions and heart throbs were relevant anymore. If it made her feel like a normal teen for even a few minutes, then Randy was all about her reading it anyway.  Myriah noticed something moving outside the front window and got up to look.

“I think it’s time to go.”  She said a few seconds later.  Her tone sounded off.  Randy stood up and peeked out the window instantly recognizing where that odd tone was coming from.

“An RV?”  He questioned out loud to the room at large.  He looked over at Kelly who was busy putting all the bowls back on the tray so she could take them along.  Phil jogged into the room.  He stopped and took in the bowls of pasta.  He wrinkled his nose up at those before noticing the huge doll house in the center of the floor.  He’d seen it upstairs earlier when he went up to tell them he was leaving.

“You carried that thing down?”  Phil asked smirking at Randy who nodded.

“Can we take it with us?”  Ali asked.  Her eyes shining with hope.  Phil crushed that hope immediately.

“Sorry.  No can-do princess.  We need to get in the RV like right now.  Let’s move.  We’ll go through the garage then down the sidewalk to get to it.  The other guys are out there right now beating down the infected who’ve shown up so far.  Leave the food.  You’ll want weapons in your hands.”  Phil said.

Looking like she may argue Kelly’s face registered a myriad of emotions before settling on annoyed resignation.  She set the food to the side and shrugged into her pack while getting the girls lined up in the kitchen.  In less than a minute from when Myriah had first noticed the giant beast of a motorhome pulling up in front of the house they were ready to leave.

Out the garage they walked in single file past the sleek minivan that’d eluded their ability to locate the keys.  Walking purposefully out the open garage door they moved fast with weapons raised and ready.  Phil was in the lead with a machete while Randy, Kelly, Caitlyn and Myriah all carried various other bladed and blunt weapons to protect themselves and the littles.  A sidewalk took them through the front yard and straight to the open door of the RV.  Higgins and Gomez were guarding the door.  Bryan stood inside the door with a rifle up to his shoulder covering everyone.  They’d avoid shooting any guns as long as it didn’t look like they were going to die.  If the situation got out of hand Bryan would open up with the rifle and they’d deal with the repercussions later.  None of them were willing to risk one of the littles getting hurt.

Kelly ushered the children into the RV.  Randy stayed outside backing up Higgins who’d run out to fend off a young infected who showed up.  Randy was glad Higgins had noticed the sore covered boy first.  He’d rather go up against a two-hundred-pound adrenalized Zombie than have to beat another infected child to death.  Higgins had a bat in one hand and a machete in the other.  He poked the crazed boy in the chest as it ran towards him with his mouth wide open.  The boy spun to the side to get around the baseball bat and caught the machete Higgins swung right in its face.  Higgins ripped his machete out of the boy’s head and turned to run back to the RV.

Randy thought he saw something right behind Higgins.  He moved to the side and looked again but couldn’t see anything.  In a sudden flash of movement an arm launched out from under the RV. A gnarly clawed hand latched onto Higgins leg.  Before Higgins or Randy could react, an infected man pulled himself out from under the RV and started gnawing on Higgins pant covered leg.  Higgins bounced backwards away from the RV and grabbed the Zombie by the hair.  He was tugging on the long greasy hair to keep the infected man’s teeth far enough away to avoid being bitten.  The Zombie had a solid grip on his leg and was wrapping itself around him like a human anaconda.

Randy sprinted over to help Higgins out.  Screeches from under the RV made him glance that way.  Multiple infected were pulling themselves out from under the RV while screaming out their mad desire to rip into his skin with their teeth.  Looking towards the door he saw all the kids were in the RV except for Caitlyn.  She was standing on the bottom step next to Bryan waiting for him.  Bryan was trying to line up a shot on the Zombie wrapped around Higgins.  Randy’s blood ran cold when he saw a Zombie crawling out from under the RV beneath an unsuspecting Bryan and Caitlyn.

Randy made it to Higgins right as the man lost his balance and fell on the ground.  Randy shoved the end of the crowbar he was carrying into the Zombies head as hard as he could.  He felt the bar smash through the skull and into the grass.  He ripped the crowbar up out of the man’s head to swing at the infected woman who’d appeared out of nowhere.  The woman leapt on top of Higgins screaming with blood lust.  Randy stepped in and swung the crowbar into her gut.  Her body fell to the side, but her face was still buried in Higgin’s stomach.  She was busy feasting on his gut.  Another Zombie crawled out from under the RV and joined her at the intestinal buffet.

Randy turned and ran for the door to the RV.  There was nothing more he could do there.  The Zombies were sucking and pulling on Higgins guts like piglets nursing at their moms teats.  Bryan sighted in on the Zombies ripping into Higgins and started shooting.  At least one of those bullets would be destined to end Higgins.

Pushing Caitlyn up the stairs Randy flung himself on the nice leather couch in the main area of the expensive looking motorhome.  The interior smelled a little musty but otherwise looked great.  Whoever had bought it had splurged on all the bells and whistles.  Not that the huge flat screen was going to do them a ton of good unless it was hooked up to a DVD player.  Bryan slammed the door shut and sprang up the stairs yelling for Gomez to get them the hell out of there.

Randy looked up in the front of the RV and saw Phil had claimed the passenger seat.  Gomez was sitting in the driver’s seat turning the steering wheel and getting them moving.  Randy turned and looked out the big picture window beside him.  The beast of a machine rode high enough that the Zombies smacking on the side of the RV were barely able to hit the actual windows.  There was very little risk that the loud smacking on the hard metal sides of the RV was going to do any real damage.

Even with the infected flooding the streets they found themselves rolling out onto the interstate in no time flat.  Kelly was digging around in the stainless-steel kitchenette trying to find something for everyone to eat.  Randy was flashing back to the bowls of pasta everyone had been like five seconds from enjoying.  Kelly sat down at the small kitchen table and buried her face in her crossed arms.  Randy went to check on her.  Sitting down beside her he rubbed her back.

“There’s no food on this thing.”  Kelly announced.

“I know.  I was just thinking if we’d had another five minutes then we’d all be full now.”  Randy said.  He wasn’t overly concerned since they had food in their packs if needed.  It was always nice to eat what you could find before pulling out your backup stores, but it was what it was.

“You mean if I hadn’t taken so long trying to make it look nice.  You carried that doll house down and everyone was having so much fun.  It all felt so normal.  I didn’t want to ruin it by handing everyone a can with a spoon sticking out of it.  So stupid.”  Kelly mumbled burying her head deeper in her arms.

Randy kept his mouth shut and continued rubbing her back.  The kids were shooting him accusing looks.  Probably wondering what he’d done to make mommy sad this time.  He ignored them for now while thinking that he absolutely would’ve just shoved some spoons in the cans and called it a day.  It wouldn’t have been as pretty but none of them would be hungry right now.  He understood her fascination with the fantasy that they could return to something like the way life used to be.  He just didn’t know how they were going to get there.  They were currently rolling the dice big time in the belly of this traveling behemoth on a major pipe dream.

“We’re going to make it.  We’re going to get on that ship and end up somewhere that we can build ourselves a normal life.”  Randy said.  He sounded fake to his own ears, but he hoped it would help cheer Kelly up.  Pipe dream or not they’d made the decision to go for it and were determined to see it through.

“What’s going to stop a drone from blowing up this RV before we even get there?”  Kelly asked.

That was a very valid concern that Randy didn’t have a good answer for.  Which explained why he was actually momentarily relieved to look out the window and see that a paramilitary motorcycle gang was riding past them.  Phil and Gomez both had their windows down and their arms hanging out.  They occasionally flashed a peace sign or nod to the men riding by.  The leader of the ten men riding the motorcycles gave them one final wave before gunning his engine to leave them in the dust.  The rest of the men on motorcycles did the same.

“I can’t believe that worked.”  Bryan said starting to sit down with Randy and Kelly at the table.  He noticed she looked like she’d been crying so awkwardly walked in the other direction.

“What’d you do?”  Kelly asked sitting up straight and wiping her eyes off.

“Phil and Gomez just acted like they were some random Brotherhood soldiers driving an RV to the battle.  For some reason those guys didn’t get suspicious and shoot us.  I’m calling it a big win.”  Bryan said smiling.

“What about drones blowing us up like they did Frank?”  Kelly asked.

“If they think we’re road tripping to wage war in our overpriced Winnebago on the Brotherhood side then we shouldn’t have any issues.  If we were driving the other way, they may take a shot at us, but I think we’re good for now.  The settlement planes may be the biggest thing we have to worry about now.  They’ll be cruising over all the main highways looking for things like troop transports to drop bombs on.”  Bryan said thoughtfully.  He closed his mouth when he saw that Kelly had put her face back in her arms again effectively shutting him out.

“You couldn’t have just stopped at the part where the drones probably wouldn’t bother with us?”  Randy said sarcastically as he worked on trying to bring Kelly back out of her shell yet again.

Chapter 27:  A Vicious Cycle

Krantz applied pressure in small circles on his temples with his index fingers.  He was absorbing the fact that they’d lost at least two battalions worth of men to a glaringly obvious flaw in the plan.  The plan as provided to him by Sam had been to infiltrate their troops to Virginia by having them move in small groups.  The squad sized groups had easily traversed the state for the most part.  Small groups were able to climb trees or hide in basements or do whatever it took to evade any obstacles they ran into.  Small groups also didn’t warrant the expenditure of limited resources like harpoon missiles by the enemy.

Battalions were not small groups of men slipping through the forest.  Battalions were made up of around five hundred fighting men plus auxiliary troops.  Battalions were loud and impossible to conceal for very long from the infected.  The men had instantly spotted the issues with everyone gathering together but had been ordered to join up anyway.  Fearful their families would suffer if they didn’t do as they were instructed, they’d come in and pitched their tents.  They’d all known how it was going to end.

The squad leaders brought up the issue to the platoon leaders who raised it with the battalion executive officer who brought it up to the battalion commander.  By the time the complaint filtered up the entire chain of command it was already too late for one of the battalions.  A herd ripped into them.  They fought off the first wave but the noise from that fight attracted several more herds.  The infected kept coming until the battalion was obliterated.  The only survivors were those who’d known it was going to happen and planned accordingly. They’d taken off running at the first signs of the incoming infected.

The other battalion that was obliterated almost made it.  The commanding officer was teetering on whether or not to disperse the troops out to the field.  It was late in the day, so he decided to put the decision off until morning.  Against the strong objections of his executive officer he ordered an early muster and went to his tent to sleep for a few hours.  The commanding officer’s thinking was that they may receive the order overnight to advance on the settlements in the morning.  If they didn’t receive that order, then they could disperse in the morning in an orderly fashion to await the order to attack.  He assumed they’d be safe for the night since that’s when the Zombies nested.  He let the executive officer know to be ready to move everyone out at first light.

Zombies don’t go to sleep when a group of five hundred men is camped out near them.  They started coming against the sentries in ones and twos.  At first, they were killed by clubs and blades as was the normal procedure.  When the trickle changed to more of a steady flow, men started getting tired and sloppy.  Reserves were called in to assist with repelling the infected moving on them.  Groggy with sleep they walked the perimeter beating infected to the ground and then bashing in their heads.  The eerie screeches of the invader washing over the whole battalion.

The commander heard the growing volume of screeches and immediately realized his mistake.  There was obviously not enough time to wait until first light like he’d wanted to.  He opened the flap of his tent to look for his orderly.  No one was standing directly outside so he whisper-yelled to see if he was close by.  This was an order that couldn’t wait.  His hushed summons attracted the attention of someone on the trail leading to his tent.  The commanders first thought was that his orderly had decided to get drunk.  That thought flitted around in his head for a second before the drunken looking figure screeched out loud and sprinted straight for him.

The commander jumped backwards into his tent and tugged the zipper down.  The oversized zipper went about halfway down before getting caught on the canvas.  He tugged harder on the zipper and ripped it completely off the tent in his panic.  He fell over on the floor of the tent still holding the broken zipper in his hand.  Before he could get up the Zombie was in the tent smashing it’s face into his exposed midsection.  The monster embraced him like a long-lost lover lustfully ripping into his flesh.  When the orderly finally opened the tent flap there wasn’t much left of his boss.  With no one to give the order to disperse the battalion quickly descended into complete bedlam.

The other battalions fared much better.  Most of the commanders recognized the flaw in the plan before they commenced gathering the incoming squads together.  The commanders staged different areas around their allotted regions for the men to assemble in much smaller groups.  This decentralized way of forming the battalions worked a lot better.  It was what Forrest had ordered the battalion commander of the battalion he’d met up with to do almost immediately.

Krantz continued to massage his temples.  He was trying to recall whose brilliant idea this had all been to begin with.  Realizing the plan had originally been thought up by the same former commander who’d thought it’d be smart to lead helicopter raids into enemy territory he pressed even harder with his fingers.  It didn’t really matter who’d come up with the original plan.  Krantz was the one who should’ve recognized the issue and made the necessary adjustments.  Now well over a thousand men were dead because he’d been an idiot.  The mistake had cost them that numerical advantage they’d achieved by getting the men to Virginia so efficiently.  Without those overwhelming numbers it might look like a fair fight to the settlement militia.  A fair fight would mean a major loss of life on both sides.  An unfair fight would send the enemy sailing away as fast as their nuclear-powered carrier could make steam.

Forrest waited patiently for his orders.  He’d said his piece and left it that.  They both knew whose fault it was the plan had been so botched.  Forrest went on to explain that now with all the men more evenly dispersed they were no longer such easy targets for air raids either.  There’d already been some bombing runs and strafing type attacks. The settlement militia had sought to take advantage of their air superiority almost immediately.  Unless the New American armies bunched up together in one place again though it rendered that advantage moot.

“Having everyone bunched up for the final assaults on the settlements was the original plan.  That’s why we had everyone come together in Virginia to form battalions to begin with.”  Krantz said.  He watched as Forrest stoically maintained a poker face on his end of the video conference.

“That’s right sir.  That’s another great reason to abandon the battalion concept and just do this at the squad level.  It’ll just take additional coordination.”  Forrest responded.

Wondering how much of his headache was stress and frustration and how much was due to overindulging the night before Krantz signed off.  His final order to Forrest was to take the day to reorganize the battalions by squads. They needed to begin moving them into position to be ready to attack the main settlement base.  It’d become painfully obvious they needed to get this battle over with and pull the troops out of there as quickly as possible.

Forrest pulled off his headsets and handed them to the techie standing in the small building beside him.  What Krantz had just ordered him to do was going to cost them a lot of lives without being a certain path to victory.  The really advanced weaponry was all at the Naval base with the settlement troops.  With their air superiority and access to advanced weaponry they could hold off the Brotherhood troops for weeks.  All the settlement militias had to do was keep them at bay until they were ripped apart by the infected hordes converging on this side of the state.

Forrest sat down at a table and wrote out the orders to be delivered.  He was giving each battalion commander their orders on what region of the city they’d be attacking and when they needed to be there.  He was ordering them to move under cover of darkness and to make sure they utilized small tactical units instead of trying to advance as a battalion.  He didn’t think he necessarily needed to tell them that at this point, but he wanted to be certain they didn’t keep repeating the same mistakes.

It physically hurt his heart to hand the pile of notes to the communications guy he had with him.  All they really needed to do was give the settlements enough time to get their carrier supplied and they’d sail away on their own.  There was no need for this upcoming battle.  The settlements had attacked them, but it’d always been more to try and secure their own borders than out of vindictiveness.  It was the Brotherhood that was expanding and moving in on everyone.  He really hoped there was a reason for this he just didn’t know about.  He hated to think they were throwing away the lives of all these men and women just because the Senator wanted to get vengeance for his sister.

Not that it mattered too much to Forrest at this point anyway.  He was pretty sure he’d be lying dead on a battlefield somewhere within the next few days.  He wasn’t ordering his men to go in and be slaughtered while he hung out safely in the rear with the gear.  He was planning on being the tip of the spear.  Or if he didn’t move fast enough, he’d at least try to be one of the feathers towards the pointy end of the spear.

He found himself wondering what exactly they were supposed to do if they actually made it to the carrier before it left?

Chapter 28:  Isn’t It Ironic

“There hasn’t been anyone here for a few days based on how it looks.”  Ritz said quietly walking out of one of the cabins in the first settlement they’d been sent to destroy.

“Is the phone line hooked up?”  Kyler asked.  If it was than they could warn everyone that way.  Not only did the settlements that they’d planned on attacking need to know what was going on, but HQ should be notified as well.

They dug through the remaining cabins but couldn’t locate the phone or the phone line.  The cabin they looked in last was the mayors residence.  It should’ve been the one with the phone line hooked up, but they couldn’t find any sign of it.  Not super surprising since the lines were normally pulled out and buried when the settlers migrated to a new site.  Staying in one place for too long was never a good idea.  Burying the phone line would’ve definitely been taken care of considering they were on a wartime footing when they left.

“Ok.  So, we make a run for the next settlement to make sure they’re warned then tell the others.”  Kyler said.

“There’s no telling which settlement the squads might decide to attack once they know what we did.  Even if we split up, we might pick the wrong ones.”  Ritz said staring down at the ground.  There was only one way to be sure the other settlements weren’t attacked.  Only one way to be sure they weren’t hunted down themselves for what they’d done.

“Alright.  How do we do it?”  Kyler asked.

They talked for a few minutes about the best way to take out the remaining squads.  They’d stripped the weapons off the dead from squad five, so they were good to go ammo and bullet wise at least.  Not that they had a chance of surviving a prolonged fire fight against forty men.  They shouldn’t have to though.  Not if their idea panned out.

Bent over from the weight of all the weapons they were lugging around they made their way back into the woods. Ritz led the way aiming for where squad two should be holed up.  It was still dark so finding the squad was going to be a matter of luck more than anything else.  Luck built on top of mad skills and tons of experience.  Kyler just hoped no one in squad two was luckier than they were.

Ritz slowed his pace down after about a mile.  They went from running to literally inching their way through the forest.  He stopped every couple of minutes to listen.  In the distance there were the sounds of the infected screeching.  Kyler thought that sounded like it was coming from the direction of the train tracks.  They must still be feasting on the men who’d hurt themselves jumping from the train earlier.  For the large number of Zombies that’d shown up the crippled men would’ve barely counted as an appetizer.  The plan was for Ritz and himself to provide the rest of the squads as the main course while trying to avoid getting on the menu themselves.

Standing quietly beside a tree during one of their frequent pauses Kyler overheard a hushed conversation.  It’d sounded like it was coming from a small copse of trees about twenty feet from where they were standing.  He poked Ritz in the back and pointed at the trees.  Ritz nodded.  He’d heard it too.  They needed to be sure though.  Kyler took the lead as they walked slowly towards the clump of tall pine trees.

Barrels horizontal to the ground they flipped their weapons to full auto.  They might not have time to reload right away so both of them were carrying extra weapons that were already fully loaded.  They looked like hobos from a distance.  They had t-shirts and ropes hanging off of them in every direction.  They’d done a quick job of attaching weapons and tying them down to make sure they didn’t make any clinking noises when they were walking through the woods.

Halfway to the clump of trees they heard the voice again.  Up close it was easily recognizable as the squad leader for squad three.  The man had a very distinguishable Bostonian accent.  Despite the arrogant attitude the man projected he was actually an all right guy.  Kyler was sure he’d probably have liked him if they met under different circumstances.  Hell, he liked him now.  That didn’t change the fact that he was five seconds away from shooting him in the face.

All of this killing was extracting its toll on both of them.  Despite being natural born warriors neither of them was a cold-blooded murderer.  There was a huge difference between fighting to protect those you loved and slaughtering people who’d trusted you to lead them.  Killing the infected was one of those things they both accepted as needing to be done.  Killing the Brotherhood when the Brotherhood was actively attacking them was also pretty easy to justify.  It was a ‘them or us’ kind of scenario.

Sneaking up on people you knew and killing them though.  Kyler flashed back to watching Ritz break the woman’s face open earlier.  The woman who’d been trying to check on her husband.  He thought back to the bodies shifting under him as he crawled from one to the other bashing their heads in.  The feel of the warm blood as he stabbed helpless men bound to the ground.  Men who’d done nothing wrong except to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The one couple that they’d killed had three children who were now orphans because of them.  He’d never wash all that blood off his soul.

“…platoon leader did what?” They caught a snippet of the squad leaders conversation.  Kyler moved to his left until he could see through the trees.  In the dim light cast by the moon beams angling down through the tangle of branches above he saw the squad resting around the leader.  A couple were sitting up listening, but the majority of them looked like they were taking advantage of the down time to catch a nap.  If they had a sentry walking the perimeter then neither Ritz nor Kyler had seen him yet.

Stepping into the fight with the same look on his face as someone stepping into a freezing cold pool Kyler strode forward pulling the trigger on his rifle in measured bursts.  A surprised Ritz recovered quickly and walked up beside Kyler to help mow down the unsuspecting squad.  To keep the firing angles advantageous, they walked in different directions around the circle of soldiers.  They fired until completely out of ammunition then switched rifles and continued to fire while walking back towards one another.  They were both very careful not to enter each other’s field of fire.

They stopped shooting and mechanically reloaded their weapons.  They shoved in fresh magazines while the moans of the men they’d just shot drifted to them from the trees.  Kyler wasn’t sure but he didn’t think anyone had actually shot back at them.  Listening intently, he heard the final element of their plan rushing towards them.  The screeches could be heard all around them as every Zombie within earshot rushed to investigate the loud noises.

Ritz started jogging through the trees in the direction where the second squad should be in position.  They’d be alert and moving now. The hope was they’d be more worried about the scores of infected coming towards them than soldiers attacking them.  There was also a really good chance they’d be sticking to the blades and clubs rule to avoid attracting even more of the flesh eaters. That hope was blown away when Ritz was forced to take cover behind a fallen tree when someone started blasting away at him.  Someone with horrible aim.

Ritz stayed flat on his back behind the fallen tree while Kyler worked his way to a position where he could spot the shooter.  The shooter was already gone so Kyler jogged back over to Ritz and urged him to keep moving.  Ritz cautiously peeked over the log for a second before standing up and following Kyler into the cold darkness of the night.  Whoever had shot at him must’ve turned and ran away immediately afterwards.  He’d put even money on it having been the rearguard for squad two.  The guard had probably thought Ritz was a Zombie.  When he’d fallen to the ground the guard must have assumed that he’d scored a lucky hit with one of his ill aimed shots and moved on.  The man would soon learn the true meaning of the word ‘assume’.

They continued jogging through the forest.  The screams of the infected getting closer.  Busting through some low hanging branches they ran into squad three busily hacking away at a small group of infected.  Thinking more Zombies had just come for them two of the men turned with machetes in their hand and ran at them.  They flew backwards a second later riddled with bullet holes.  Caught off guard the other men in the squad dropped their clubs and reached for their guns.  It was too late for them though.  Standing behind the bunched-up men with both of their rifles already pointed and set on fully automatic it didn’t take much time for them to turn the group into a stack of bloody swiss cheese.

Ignoring the cries for help they kept on jogging hoping to run into squad four.  The night sky was beginning to glow as the sun lazily worked its way up to the horizon.  Someone shot at them.  Kyler turned to tell Ritz to hurry up.  Ritz was laying on the ground with a bloody hole in the side of his head.  Kyler put his own head down and ran for his life.  A few more bullets zinged by him into the forest.  He managed to make it out of the danger zone without being hit.  Zombie screeches were danger close at this point.

Short on ideas he grabbed a low hanging limb and swung himself up on it.  With the heavy backpack pulling him down he climbed the tree as far as he could go.  He did it with the grace of a drunk monkey carrying another monkey piggyback, but he made it high enough up the tree that he was safe from casual observers.  He was feeling pretty good about deciding to climb up the tree when a group of Zombies came running by beneath him a few minutes later.  All of them screaming for blood.

He still had two more squads to check off the list.  He owed it to Ritz to finish the plan.  Ritz had known what he was risking when he came back with Kyler to take on armed groups of men in a forest filled with the infected.  Kyler crouched uncomfortably on a tree branch trying to focus on what to do next.  He needed to decide on a goal and work towards it.  He needed to keep moving and doing things. He needed to get his mind off Ritz lying in the pine straw with a bloody hole in his head.  He didn’t want to keep seeing Ritz smashing the woman’s face open.  When those gruesome images kept rising up unbidden in his head, he made sure his rifle had a fresh magazine in it and began climbing cautiously out of the tree.

Straddling a limb about ten feet above the forest floor he leaned back against the trunk of the tree and listened intently to the noises around him.  His arm was throbbing painfully from all of the exertion.  Zombie screeches echoed through the woods.  Off to his right he heard someone firing an automatic weapon.  It sounded like one of the remaining squads was in an all-out battle with the infected.  He saw a steady stream of the infected sprinting through the forest in the direction of the gunfire.

He waited for a break in the hellish marathon beneath him to climb all the way down. His next step was to go check on the other settlements.  There was no way he was finding the other squads at this point.  Even if the other squads somehow survived the rising tide of Zombies sweeping through the forest, they probably weren’t going to be super intent on trying to go attack the designated settlements.  Just based on the volume of noise the screeching Zombies were making Kyler wasn’t too worried about being shot at by anyone else from the squads.  If he didn’t get down soon though he was going to end up stuck in the tree for the rest of the day.  He wouldn’t be able to climb down once the Zombies started wandering around randomly like they always did when the excitement died down.

Taking a chance, he dropped to the ground in between the waves of Zombies rushing towards the sounds of the gunfire.  He ran quickly in the opposite direction with his rifle hanging down within easy reach and a machete gripped loosely in his hand.  Ducking around a tree he ran right into a large Zombie.  Before it could start screeching or try to bite him, he smashed the machete into the side if its head.  The blade sank in a couple of inches and became stuck.  Ignoring the chunk of ear that fell to the ground Kyler pulled out his knife and jammed it in the Zombies throat.  He did everything so fast the Zombie was dead before it’d even figured out a normal human had run right into it.

He put his foot on the gruesome remainder of a head and pried the machete out of the dead man’s skull. Once he had his weapon back, he continued running.  He had a general idea of where he was in relation to the settlements.  The closest one would force him to backtrack, so he set a course for a distant one instead.  He knew he was most likely wasting his time.  The settlements were more than likely abandoned already.  Everyone should’ve been ordered to evacuate when the Brotherhood started moving north to attack them.

Even if the settlements weren’t abandoned Kyler was pretty sure any survivors from his former platoon would more than likely start slinking home instead of trying to continue the mission.  That’s assuming any of them survived the Zombies stampeding towards them.  The Zombies that’d probably defiled Ritz’s corpse along with the remains of the squad members they’d killed already.  He felt duty bound to verify the settlements were good though.  He’d physically check each one unless he figured out a different way to verify that they were all deserted.  He was kind of hoping the next settlement might actually have the phone hooked up.  How convenient would that be?

Jogging through the woods struggling with the heavy load he had strapped to his back he tried to get his mind off the bad and focus on the good.  He pictured himself standing on the deck of the carrier out on the open sea barreling through a nice sized swell.  The salty water spraying into the air would fill his lungs. Most importantly Caitlyn would be there to hold his hand.  She’d be there to hold his hand and tell him that everything he’d done to survive was ok.  It was a crazy fantasy, but it got him through the first couple of miles.  After running for long enough he was so exhausted he couldn’t think of anything but taking the next step.  He continued into the night thankful to have found a way to bury the gruesome images lodged in his subconscious.

Chapter 29:  Hiding in Plain Sight

Brotherhood troops kept passing by them.  The social security subsidized diesel guzzling house on wheels they were driving in wasn’t super maneuverable.  The interstate was cleared of the usual apocalyptic roadblocks for the most part.  It looked like the settlements folk had been hard at work.  All of the traffic noise was attracting scores of the infected though.  Gomez had worked as a long-haul trucker for a few years so was the best choice for driving the RV.  Especially since they were being forced to constantly slalom around the Zombies darting towards them.

Kelly needed to find some Dramamine.  Gomez was constantly slowing down or speeding up in between swerving all over the road.  He’d stopped bothering with his shouted warnings to his passengers.  Kelly appreciated that he was focused on the task at hand but at the same time she wanted to hit him in the face with a frying pan.  It actually helped her stomach feel slightly less queasy to imagine Gomez in pain.

“What do we do when we run out of gas?”  Randy asked Bryan when he came to sit down and talk to them.  He’d stayed away until Kelly got less emotional.  Even in the middle of an apocalypse men were still deathly afraid of conversations involving feelings.

“Get more gas.”  Bryan deadpanned.  If he was hoping for a laugh he’d come to the wrong table.

“Where do we get this gas at?  Just pull over at the next exit.  Maybe grab gas and slushies for the kids?”  Kelly asked with a little more venom than she’d really intended.  Her stomach and head were killing her.  She’d never been car sick before but something about the way the RV rode was killing her.  Looking slightly embarrassed at the way his wife was acting Randy spoke up.

“She’s not feeling good.  Don’t suppose you have any motion sickness pills on you?”  He asked Bryan.

“No.  Sorry.  I can check in the glove box though.  I see how this ride could make you queasy.”  Bryan said.  He stopped talking as Gomez suddenly accelerated. A moment later they all heard a loud thump as something bounced off the front of the RV.

“We’re super lucky we haven’t run into a herd yet.”  Kelly said.  If it was nighttime, they wouldn’t have to worry about it so much.  Driving in the middle of the day when there was a lot of traffic on the road almost guaranteed they were eventually going to get bogged down by a herd though.  As far as she knew none of them really had a plan for how they were going to deal with that when it inevitably happened.

“At least the Brotherhood guys aren’t giving us any issues.”  Randy said hoping to take the tone of the conversation up a notch.

“Why is that?  How do they not have some sort of password or sign or something, so they know who’s on who’s side?”  Kelly asked.  That’d been bugging her since the first biker gang had roared past them.

“Normally there’d be radio call signs and code words for something like this that we’d need to worry about.  If we happened to be walking when the Brotherhood guys passed us, and they pulled over they might have a passcode we’re supposed to know.  Just something generic or whatever.  It wouldn’t be super-secret or anything, but it’d help them easily pick out people who weren’t supposed to be there.  I guess they just never worked out one for communications between vehicles that didn’t have radios.”  Bryan explained.

“So, we just can’t ever stop?”  Kelly asked.

“We can.”  Randy said.  “We’ll just need to be ready to fight when we do.  A lot of them carry ID cards.  They have ways of identifying themselves.  We don’t have any of that but we’re going to have to get gas to keep going.  We’re going to need to pull in at a truck stop.  At least those big diesel tanks should be easy to siphon out of.  Maybe we can grab a slushy machine and get it working in the RV.”  Randy finished with a smile.  He was trying to lighten the mood.  Kelly started sobbing again.

A few minutes later a completely confused Randy found himself sitting up front by Phil and Bryan after Caitlyn had brought over all the littles to help cheer up Kelly.  He’d been unceremoniously kicked out of his seat at the small table.  He’d been in situations like this before and knew the girls would do a better job dragging their mom out of her funk than he would.

The gas gauge told them they had about sixty miles to go before they’d need to pull in somewhere for more gas.  They were also keeping their eyes peeled for tractor trailers on the side of the interstate.  It’d make life so much easier if they could just siphon it out here on the side of the road.  The RV had all kinds of tubing and junk they could cut to use for the siphoning piece.  A fancy camper like this needed all those fancy hoses to support all the cool features when the owners took it for a weekend of glamping.  It’s not like the jacuzzi tub that automatically extended out over the side was going to heat itself.

“That’ll get us right around I-85.  I say we try and get some diesel then turn north.”  Phil said from the front passenger seat.  He’d seen Bryan and Randy checking out the gas gauge.

“That works.  That means we don’t have to worry about driving through Raleigh.  It’s going to be crawling with tons of those infected freaks with all this traffic.”  Bryan said.

“What about side roads?”  Randy volunteered.  He was thinking they could stay out of everyone’s sight better on smaller roads.

“I vote we stick with hiding in plain sight.  If an enemy patrol sees us on some tiny road in this big ass Winnebago, then there’s a really good chance that they’ll stop us to see who we are.  If we just keep barreling up the interstate waving like a bunch of idiots at all of them then I think that might just get us there.  Or, at least get us close enough to sneak the rest of the way.”  Bryan said.  He’d been putting a lot of thought into it.  There were a lot of pieces of the plan that were going to require acting on gut instinct.  That part scared Randy.  He didn’t like the idea that they’d be making life or death decisions on the spur of the moment based on hunches.  He definitely wasn’t going to go sit down beside Kelly and try to tell her that’s what the plan was.  He borrowed the map from Phil and stared at it for a few minutes.

“Ok.  So, we try to find a truck stop to fuel up somewhere around the intersection with I-85.  We take I-85 up to Highway 58 then just take that all the way to Norfolk.  How do we handle figuring out when to stop driving and start walking?  If we push it too far, we’re going to run into someone who wants to know who we are and where we’re going.”  Randy said pushing for a more solid plan.  Flying by the seats of their pants had worked out so far but this seemed like something that required a bit more prep.  Bryan and Phil exchanged knowing looks that told Randy he was about to get an annoying lecture about how the world worked.  He steeled himself to try and look interested.

“We’re heading into unknown conditions with absolutely zero intel about what anything looks like north of us.  We know there’s a large number of enemies ahead of us.  Hell, we’ve waved at a bunch of them while they drove by us.  I see what you’re trying to do as far as nailing down a plan and I understand why you’d want to do that.  I want to do that too.  There’re just too many variables that we don’t know.  On top of all that we don’t even know our timeline.  We may have already missed the boat. It could be leaving tomorrow.  Right now, if we don’t stop for anything but gas, we can make it there by morning.  Will we need to ditch the RV and walk in at some point?  I’m thinking yes but who knows.  We may end up turning around and trying to beat our way out of Virginia if the ship’s already sailed.  We just don’t know what we don’t know.  You know?”  Bryan explained it to Randy like he was a ten-year-old asking if his dog was going to come back from the vet after getting hit by a car.

“Got it.  Understood.  What I’m looking for here is just a rough outline.  I say we go ahead and come up with what we’re going to do in certain situations so when we get in them, we don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking about it.”  Randy said.

“I got the first one for you to consider.”  Phil said.  Randy and Bryan both looked up at where Phil was pointing to a sign on the side of the road.  The sign indicated a truck stop coming up in less than five miles.

“Alright.  Let’s wargame this one.  We’re going to pull off the exit and head towards the truck stop.  We go around to the back where the trucks should be parked and try to find one that hasn’t already been drained.  We use the tubes from the back to get the gas from the truck into our tank.  Sound good?”  Bryan said.

“What if there’s other people there getting the gas already?”  Randy asked.  He was picturing them driving off the interstate into a truck stop with Brotherhood men walking around dressed like extras from a Mad Max movie.

“Since we don’t have time to scout out anything, we’ll just have to roll with it.  It’s not like we can race away from them in this thing so we just cruise right on in like we belong and get our gas and leave.”  Bryan answered.

They drove in silence for a few minutes watching the mile markers tick down the distance to the suddenly ominous truck stop.  When they reached the exit, they drove off the interstate and up onto a county road that looped them back over the interstate.  On the other side they could see the truck stop spread out before them.  It wasn’t until they pulled into the lot that they noticed the rows of big red jugs lined up in the front of the parking lot by the gas pumps.  Gomez slowed down so they could see what the jugs were meant for right as two men casually walked out of the truck stop and headed towards them.

“Hide the kids then get back up here.”  Bryan ordered Randy.  They wanted to look like a troop transport.  That wouldn’t really work if the guys here saw a bunch of little kids running around.  Randy disappeared into the back to let Kelly know what was up.  She’d already figured out what was going on. Her and the kids were sitting in the back bedroom with the blinds all drawn.  A quick kiss followed by a promise to be careful and Randy was back in the front next to Bryan.  They all worked on doing their best to look like they had every right to be pulling in and getting some diesel.

Gomez stopped the RV and opened his door to get out.  The two men from the truck stop were laughing at some joke Phil had told them.  Randy had missed the joke.  He got back in time to see that Phil had one arm casually hanging out the window while he was gripping a Glock in the other.  The gun was hidden by the door, but he was ready to turn it up if needed.  Everyone was hoping it wasn’t going to be needed.  Especially since both of the truck stop guards had automatic rifles hanging comfortably off their shoulders in a way that showed they knew how to use them.

Gomez walked around to where the guards were holding up a clipboard for him to fill out information to get the diesel.  They joked back and forth a little bit about not letting refugees or people from the settlements get their hands on it.  It turned out the two guys had been here for over a month. They’d spent the first few weeks scavenging all the red jugs to fill up.  They’d siphoned the diesel out of every truck in the parking lot and managed to get a hose and pump to work to pump diesel out of the holding tanks.  Gomez was having some trouble with the clipboard they’d handed him.  He stared down at it nervously with a big fake grin plastered on his face.  One of the truck stop guards made a joke about getting him the Spanish language version if he needed it.

The guards laughed at the joke, but their eyes showed they’d gone from joking around to suspecting something was up.  Randy watched as Gomez walked over to the door of their RV.

“You have our identification numbers in there?”  Gomez asked Phil.  Behind Gomez both of the truck guards now had their assault rifles aimed in the general direction of the RV and their fingers on the triggers.

“You need our personal ID numbers, or the squad number?” Randy called out from in the back.

“Squad number.  What unit are you guys with?”  One of the guards asked.  Randy noticed the guards slowly separating from one another and backing away from the RV.  After a long pause Phil took a guess.

“Lima Squad out of Alabama.”  He said. “We’re supposed to regroup up north.”

“Oh cool.  Let me go get your boxes of supplies.  How many men with you?”  The guard asked.

“Just the four of us.  We grabbed this big thing out of a yard. It runs good so we figured – “  Whatever story Phil had concocted to try and talk their way out of the mess they were in was over when both guards suddenly picked their weapons up and aimed them right at the front of the RV.

“What’s going on?  You trying to rob us?”  Bryan asked loudly.

“Just need to check out your story.  Open the doors.  Put your guns on the –“  A loud shot rang out accompanied by the sound of glass breaking.  It was immediately followed by more shots.  Gomez dropped flat to the ground as the front of the RV caught some bullets from the two bloody guards as they went down trying to shoot and run away at the same time.  Gomez ran around the front of the RV to get back in as gunfire erupted from the truck stop.  The windshield spider webbed in a few places and Gomez disappeared from sight in front of the RV.

“Cover me!”  Phil yelled.  He didn’t wait for an answer. He jumped out the passenger door and ran around the front of the RV where Gomez had gone down.  Phil was emptying a magazine at the front of the store as were Randy and Bryan.  Kelly and Caitlyn were lighting up the storefront with fully automatic fire as well.

Phil popped his head up and shook it negatively.  Gomez hadn’t made it.  Phil ran around the side and jumped in the driver’s seat.  He started spinning the wheel to get them out of there.

“We can’t go yet!”  Bryan yelled.  “We’ve got to kill the other guy in the store.  Drive us over there fast.  We’ve got to get him before he can use the radio.  Keep shooting!”

Not liking the order at all Phil put the accelerator to the floor and the big beast surged towards the main part of the station.  Kelly and Caitlyn kept up a steady stream of fire out the back windows.  Myriah was making sure the littles stayed on the floor.  The windows back there were shattered from where Kelly and Caitlyn had opened up on the two guards in the first place.

Bryan pitched a grenade through the broken window in the front of the truck stop then opened his door and stepped out.  He stopped when he got inside and saw the dead body of a teenage boy in hunting clothes sticking out from under a shelf that’d fallen over.  He was too young to be in the regular militia so was probably one of the two guards sons.  Bryan looked up in time to see Phil and Randy come busting in.  The three of them stood still staring sadly at the dead kid in camouflage laying in a pool of his own blood.

“Ok.  Grab any supplies you see and try to find the radio.  If it’s portable, we can listen in.”  Bryan ordered breaking through everyone’s fugue.

“Look out.  There could be more guards in here.”  Phil reminded them all.  Bryan and Randy looked at him like he was an idiot.  Like anywhere in their world was safe.

They searched the store quickly and located a radio.  They actually found about twenty radios since it was a truck stop after all.  They grabbed the one that was turned on in the break room next to a pile of discarded food wrappers and water bottles.  Bryan dug through the adapters for sale in the electronics aisle until he found an adapter that should work for them.  They dragged that gear back to the RV then dragged the two guards bodies back to the station.  They emptied a few of the cans marked ‘unleaded’ into the store on top of the bodies and threw in a match.  The store burned fiercely while they tossed in jugs of diesel to the RV.

They stopped at the onramp and filled up with the diesel before getting moving again.  A couple hours later they were moving up I-85 when Phil saw a spot he liked.  He pulled the RV over and they pulled Gomez out in the comforter they’d wrapped his body up in.  They carried him down a steep incline to the stream Phil had seen from the window as he was driving.  They lay him out on the rocks by the stream and soaked his comforter wrapped body with gas.  Not having time to say more than a few words they all wished him god speed and thanked him for his sacrifice.  Randy teared up thinking of all the men who’d sacrificed themselves for the girls.

They left the burning body of Gomez next to the swiftly flowing stream and continued on their way.  Each of them wondering if it’d be them laid out on the ground being set on fire next.

Chapter 30:  Theirs but to Do and Die

“Tanks and a unit of men on horseback ma’am?”  Forrest asked.  He stared at the small video display showing Sam and Krantz in a split screen format.  He was unsuccessfully trying to hide his incredulity at receiving this information so late in the game.

“Yes.  There’s also mobile artillery, drones, SAMs, and a battalion worth of men who can support everything.”  Sam said smugly.  She obviously thought that this news would get them all excited.

“All of this stuff is on a train, right?  A train over by Lynchburg ma’am?”  Forrest asked.  He hated that they’d kept this information from him.  He could’ve used it when he was working up the movements of all the squads.  Now it looked like they’d need to delay another day to wait for the armor to get into place.  Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the whole area was crawling with Zombies.  All of the gunfire and men moving around had them really worked up.  The men couldn’t even hide in a safe place and just wait for the Zombies to move on. They all had to be ready to move out to their assigned attack quadrants when ordered.  What a cluster.

“Are they throwing a lot of air strikes your way?”  Sam asked.

“No ma’am.  There were a few at first but nothing lately.”  Forrest answered.  The screen flickered and he saw images appear that he recognized as drone photos of the region.

“How current are these pictures ma’am?”  He asked excitedly.  He could make out a few massive herds of Zombies.  There were also multiple pictures of abandoned settlement camps.  There were even a few pictures showing the shipyards and another base across the bay from the shipyard.  The images confirming what he’d already intuited.

“The people from the settlements have all been evacuated and are standing by to board the carrier.  It’ll be loaded down but should be able to carry them all.  They have a couple of dredgers and a handful of scows. They’ve been working overtime to get the channel cleared out enough for the carrier to make it out.  That’s pretty recent so we’re guessing they had problems bringing it in this last time.”  Sam said

Forrest caught himself right before he was going to correct Sam and let her know that a ship wasn’t referred to as an it.  The correct nautical term would of course be to call the ship ‘her’.  He didn’t see much value in arguing about the nuances of nautical pronouns at the moment though.

“What are the rules of engagement ma’am?”  Forrest asked instead.

“What do you mean?”  Sam responded.

“When we get to the carrier should we open fire on it?  What about the civilian population?  What’s our goal ma’am.  How do I know we’ve completed the mission successfully?”  Forrest asked.  He saw Krantz nodding along to his questions.  They both wanted to know what the endgame here was.

“The end goal is to kill enough of them that they leave and never come back.  If they choose not to leave, then we’re looking for their unconditional surrender.  If they do not surrender, then kill them all.  Does that answer the question?  The Senator wants them removed from the board.”  Sam answered curtly.

“Thank you, ma’am.”  Forrest said.  He wondered briefly if he should object to the orders.  He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt he personally wasn’t going to be killing a bunch of women and children.  He hoped his troops wouldn’t either.  His plan was to make sure the squads knew to engage the enemy militia only. He’d order them to capture any groups of civilians to process into the camps.  If he resigned his post, then he wouldn’t be in a position to give those orders.  Whoever they put in his place may just go with killing them all and letting god sort them out.  Especially now that they were being sent a battalion of men with tanks and artillery.  What good a tank would do against an aircraft carrier would soon be seen.

Questions answered Forrest left to get orders out to the battalion commanders so they could relay the orders to their platoon leaders and so on.  He needed to make sure the orders were crystal clear so that no one could claim later to have misunderstood the directives.  He didn’t want innocent blood on his hands if he could help it.  At least not any more than he already had.

Chapter 31:  The Last Mile

Kyler sat down in the mayors cabin of the last settlement he needed to check off the target list.  He’d spent most of the day evading Zombies and running around in the woods.  He wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he’d actually checked all the right sites, but he was pretty sure the intel the Brotherhood had was old anyway.  He’d found a moped outside the first settlement that’d helped him get around faster.  It hadn’t been a super safe option, but it’d beat the hell out of running a hundred-mile circuit to check all the target sites.

Gazing at the cot setup along the side of the small cabin he decided on a nap before setting off for Norfolk.  He wasn’t certain he should be heading that way right now, but he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.  With the chief gone the number of people who could vouch for him was down to one.  Unless you counted the cook that he’d briefly shared a room with Captain Hartfield was the only one alive who knew why the Brotherhood brand on his back actually proved his loyalty to the settlements.  Any other officer would have him tortured for intel then killed if they spotted the hated brand seared into his back.

Knowing he risked being shot, tortured or spending some time in chains before getting an audience with Captain Hartfield he decided to make the trip anyway.  Despite the unpleasantness he’d be faced with when he first got there, he liked the possibility of sailing away somewhere better.  Even more than that he felt like the settlements was where he belonged.  He liked the way they were working at rebuilding society.  Plus, he knew Caitlyn and her family would be heading in the same direction.  If he couldn’t find her there than he’d probably never see her again.

His moped was in a ditch a mile away.  He judged the sun would be completely down in less than an hour.  He was too tired to try and go now.  If he gave himself three hours of sleep, he’d have a better chance of surviving the journey than if he set off exhausted.  That should leave him plenty of darkness to make it to Norfolk.  The armpit of Virginia as his father had affectionately referred to it.  Realizing he hadn’t even thought about his dad in weeks depressed him as he lay down on the bare cot and rested his head on his backpack.  Depressed or not he barely got the alarm on the cheap digital watch he’d snagged from a looted 7-11 set for three hours before he’d passed out.

A bird was chirping somewhere in the darkness.  Kyler emerged from a dream within a dream to awaken in the middle of his real-world nightmare.  Swimming up out of the deep sea of an exhausted slumber it took him a minute to figure out how to turn off the alarm.  He sat up wearily and got his bearings.  Walking out of the cool cabin he answered the call of nature after a careful search to make sure no Zombies were going to jump out at him.  He discovered some extra-large spiders in the outhouse but other than that all was quiet.  The screeching had even died down.

Hoisting his pack up on his back he took a long pull from his canteen then began the hike up to the road.  Once he got to the road, he needed to walk along the side of it until he got to his moped.  His plan after that wasn’t great.  It basically consisted of riding the moped to Norfolk.  If he got stopped by Brotherhood soldiers, he’d show them his brand and try to talk his way through whatever roadblock he ran into.  If he got stopped by settlement soldiers, he’d tell them he was a spy for Captain Hartfield and hope they believed him enough not to execute him on the spot.  Life or death pivoted around the scarred flesh on his back in both cases.  On one side of the battlefield it was a get out of jail free card while on the other side it meant a bullet to the head if he couldn’t talk fast enough.

He’d only been walking along the side of the road for about a minute when headlights up ahead had him hustling into the trees to get out of sight.  It wouldn’t be good to be seen walking away from where the battle was supposed to be.  He didn’t want to end up getting an awkward ride from someone.  He greatly preferred the idea of cruising along on the moped by himself to sitting in a troop transport full of soldiers who’d shoot him in the back if he tried to sneak off.  The headlights turned out to belong to an electric car that made almost zero noise as it cruised by.

Kyler continued walking along the road cloaked in darkness thinking of the brilliance of what he’d just seen.  How come he’d never thought about snagging a Tesla to zip around the apocalypse in?  Sure, it’d suck trying to find a charging station but plenty of houses had solar hook ups.  The ability to get around quietly was huge. Anything to avoid a parade of Zombies marching along after you was worth whatever inconvenience figuring out the charging part would incur.  Plus, the world was going to run out of gas at some point, but the sun wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

His moped was laying right where he’d left it.  He’d been careful to throw some pine straw over it and loosen up a couple of wires in case someone happened to find it. He tightened the wires back up and pushed the moped up onto the road.  He was about to hop on it when he noticed more headlights coming his way.  He quickly walked the moped back into the woods to let whoever it was pass him by as well.

It wasn’t another Tesla.  He could hear a low roar as the lights got closer.  A string of big rigs hauling large trailers with the names of train companies written on them.  A few of the trailers they were hauling were camouflage in color.  A couple of them were open to the world as they were carrying oversized loads.  Kyler shrank back deeper into the woods as he started making out the shapes of tanks and large artillery weapons.  Suddenly the Brotherhood going up against an aircraft carrier didn’t seem so crazy.

The convoy was still roaring past him when the first Zombies started showing up.  They stumbled out of the woods like you’d expect a mass of crazed cannibals to come out.  The infected screamed and launched themselves straight at the big rigs roaring by.  These were hardened drivers steering the rigs though.  They didn’t even swerve when the infected ran and jumped for their windshields.  Most of the rigs didn’t have the chain link welded around the windows so they couldn’t stop even if they wanted to.  If they did, they’d be swarmed and killed once the Zombies broke through the windows.

Kyler wasn’t currently attracting any attention but there was a large number of infected beginning to show up all around him.  He didn’t see any convenient trees to climb either.  When a handful of Zombies came out of the woods almost directly behind him, he was spotted.  He didn’t even attempt to take that many of them out quietly.  He mowed them down with his rifle then pushed the moped up the steep incline.  Hoping the truck drivers would just roll with it he started the moped and accelerated up to its governor controlled top speed of thirty-five miles per hour.

He kept the moped in the emergency lane as the trucks roared past him.  None of them swerved away from him or otherwise indicated they cared one way or the other that he was fighting for his life in the breakdown lane.  The wind from their passing buffeted him around on the narrow piece of asphalt he was being allowed.  The trucks smashed into Zombies right beside him slinging Zombie gunk all over him.  That got especially dangerous when the gunk included body parts that threatened to knock him off the moped.  He was constantly fighting the wheels spinning out in puddles of Zombie gore leaking into his lane.

He was trying his best to dodge random crap in the breakdown lane in front of him when an adrenalized jumper knocked him completely out of his seat.  The jumper and Kyler went rolling into the middle of the road directly in the path of an oncoming truck.  The driver didn’t slow down, but he did at least have the courtesy to honk his horn.  In case Kyler hadn’t noticed he was about to be creamed by the chromed-out bumper of the speeding Kenworth bearing down on him.

Kyler ignored the snarling jumper and kicked both of his feet down hard on the asphalt to propel himself across the road.  He was kicking before his body had even completely hit the road.  Doing it a second time propelled him clear of the trucks enormous chrome covered fender by a few inches.  The Zombie had held on to him for the ride.  It’s feet got tangled in the truck somehow and it got tossed about thirty feet up into the trees on the opposite side of the road.  Kyler caught some of that momentum and did a backwards series of somersaults into the ditch.

He hopped to his feet dizzy as hell struggling to get his bearings.  The truck was down the road now slowing to a stop with sparks shooting up in the air beside it.  It took Kyler a second to guess the moped must’ve gotten stuck in the wheel well.  Standing in the mud on the side of the road in a state of shock he watched as the truck driver swerved around trying to get the moped to come loose.

The driver swerved too hard and the front tires slipped off the road.  He tried to accommodate for the tires sliding and the trailer jackknifed around behind him ripping the whole truck off the road.  The momentum of the truck took it sideways into the forest where it came to rest on its side.  The back door to the trailer popped open and armed men began pouring out.  Kyler didn’t see them until they topped the incline and could be seen in the high beams of the trucks that kept roaring past them.

The men began shooting at the infected that were running towards them.  The sound of the weapons just attracted more of the infected.  Kyler didn’t need to skip to the end of the chapter to see how that situation was going to end.  There was going to be a desperate last stand followed by most of the soldiers being ripped apart.  They’d go down in a pile of their own brass at least.  There was something to be said for that.  The ones Kyler really felt sorry for were the ones laid out in the back of the trailer with injuries from the crash keeping them from escaping.  The ones too injured to get out of the trailer and fight.  The infected would pour in and eat them alive.

Shivering Kyler turned and ran off into the woods.  He needed to get away before he was spotted and ended up starring in his own last stand scene.  He stumbled through the woods trying to put distance between himself and the road.  The convoy was attracting Zombies like moths to a bright light.  He’d acquired some new aches and pains thanks to his recent eighteen-wheeler enabled Cirque De Soleil acrobatics he’d performed crossing the road with his ghoulish partner.  The more distance he put between himself and the road the more his shock at actually having survived wore off and the more he hurt.

His neck, back and shoulders were all openly rebelling against him.  He picked up speed regardless and ran straight through the woods ignoring the sounds around him. He was having issues turning his neck to look anyway.  He ran face first into a massive spider web and felt something crawling in his hair.  Picturing some huge evil looking spider about to bite his ear he realized his arms were too sore to swat his own head.  Freaking out the spider would crawl down on his face or go down the back of his shirt he ran over to a tree and smacked his head into it a few times.  In his rush to kill the spider he managed to hurt himself even more.

He ran another fifty yards into the woods before calling it safe enough to sit down and self-medicate.  He had a nice sized collection of the happy pills he’d been given to feed his platoon.  Ritz had handed Kyler a Ziploc with half of the pills in it.  Even if Kyler didn’t want to take them the pills were great currency in the post-apocalyptic world.  Addicts would trade you pretty much anything for a bag with that many pills in it.  He wasn’t sure what the hell the pills were.  He decided it really didn’t matter.  If they were good enough to make people feel ok about shooting up a village filled with women and children, then they should be more than capable of helping him run through the woods without freaking out about spiders.

He took two then added a third for good measure.  He washed them down with water and waited for the pain in his neck and arm to go away.  It suddenly occurred to him a lot of these pills tended to make him fall asleep.  That wasn’t something he could afford to do right now.  Hoping he’d taken the ones that were more like speed he stiffly got to his feet and began doggedly moving east.  Every step seemed to be easier as the drugs kicked in.  He was back to running through the forest in no time at all.  It didn’t occur to him to watch out for the infected or even check on which way he was running.  His mind was just locked on the fact that he was moving, and his neck didn’t hurt.

He alternately walked and ran for a few hours.  At some point he emerged onto a small two-lane road winding through the woods.  By then he was coated in sweat and suffering from serious medicine head.  His mouth was dry, and the pain was seeping back into his body.  He reached into the baggie and swallowed another pill.  He started jogging down the two-lane road.  A jeep Cherokee pulled up next to him with three Brotherhood soldiers in it.  They were on their way to scout out where they’d be situated for the battle.  They noticed Kyler walking on the side of the road.  His arms were jerking back and forth like he was running.

The men slowed the jeep down and asked him who he was.  One look in his eyes and they could tell he was stoned out of his gourd.  Kyler tried to answer them, but nothing came out.  The act of turning around to speak to them was too much.  His stomach decided it wasn’t happy with all the medicine and before anyone could say anything else, he was on his knees puking out his guts.  One of the men jumped out of the truck and started pulling Kyler’s pack off.  He had no intention of putting the puking druggie in the jeep with them, but he was good with jacking the guys supplies and leaving him there to die.

Once he had Kyler’s pack off, he threw it in the back of the jeep.  He was about to get in when one of the other men in the jeep told him to check Kyler’s back.  Not expecting to find anything the man pulled Kyler’s shirt up and sighed.  The Brotherhood brand burnt into Kyler’s back meant they couldn’t just leave him on the side of the road to die.  No matter how much more convenient that’d be.  The man patiently waited for Kyler to quit puking then helped him get in the jeep.

He handed Kyler a bag and told him to puke in the bag if he had to puke anymore.  Looking in Kyler’s glazed eyes he knew he’d have just as much luck politely asking one of the infected not to bite him.  While he was still looking at Kyler the glaze melted away partially and Kyler took the bag and held it in his lap.  He was still staring straight ahead but he didn’t look like he was going to puke anymore for the time being.  The man handed him a full canteen of water and slid into the seat next to him.  Even in his drugged state Kyler noticed the man attempting to put as much distance between himself and Kyler as possible just in case the water didn’t stay down.

Kyler passed out for most of the drive.  He missed the roadblocks where they all had to present their identification and answer questions.  He missed seeing the long line of big rigs parked next to a small airport.  The men driving the jeep he was in were all Brotherhood branded.  They assumed Kyler would be useful to them if he ever came down from all the drugs.  The brand on his back meant he was a skilled fighter.  If he didn’t want to come down, they’d just drop him off with one of the groups they were passing.

Their mission was to get close to Norfolk and scout out the best observation posts.  They were looking for tall buildings near the port that they could climb and observe everything via high powered scopes.  They had radio equipment to help coordinate the attacks and assist in calling in the artillery fire.  To be effective they weren’t going to be able to take the jeep much farther.  At some point they were going to have to proceed on foot.

Knowing the New American troops that they were still occasionally passing might be some of the last troops they got close to for a while they talked about what to do with Kyler. If he wasn’t up to walking, they could hardly continue to carry him along with them.

“I’m good to go.  I just overdid the pain pills.”  Kyler announced from the backseat.  He still felt groggy but the rest he’d gotten on the drive had him feeling human again.  His neck hurt so bad he barely even noticed the massive pain in his arm.

“You’ve got enough pills here to kill your average junkie.  You need another one?”  The man in the front passenger seat asked holding up the Ziploc baggie of pills.

“Not unless you know what they are.  I hate feeling drugged out.  I think I took the wrong stuff.”  Kyler answered.  He felt like it was the right answer since the man started picking through the pills for him.

“Good.  I was hoping you weren’t just an addict.  Where we’re headed is no place for somebody who isn’t firing on all cylinders.  You good coming with us or do you have somewhere else to be?”  The man asked.

“Good to go.  I was in charge of a platoon of volunteers which is where I got the bag of pills from.  We ran into a herd and got scattered all over the damned place.  I ended up helicoptering a moped last night.  Hence my need for some muscle relaxers.  All those pills look the same in the dark though.”  Kyler said hoping his cover story would work.  People didn’t generally dig too deep in the New American forces.

“Cool.  We’re headed towards Norfolk now so get ready to fight.  I’m not big on walking myself but we need to jettison the jeep before too much longer.  Makes us a pretty obvious target.  You good to hump your stuff in with us?  Sounds like you just became our fourth.  Hope you’re good with a rifle and enjoy sitting on the tops of buildings for days on end while everything is exploding around you.”

“I call that Tuesday.”  Kyler joked.  He swallowed the muscle relaxer pill the man in the front seat handed him.

They rode along in silence speeding towards Norfolk.  The carrier should actually be docked up at the Naval station, but it made sense that Norfolk would be defended.  They’d need to take the city of Norfolk and use that as a beachhead to assault the Naval Air station.  There were waterways and rivers all over the place up here as well.  If the bridges were still there, they’d have a straight path to the base.  More than likely if the bridges were still standing, they were wired to explode and would do so at the most inopportune moment possible for the invaders.

The driver stopped the jeep again so the soldier in the front seat could unload a small civilian drone.  He took out an expensive looking tablet and guided the drone to search the blocks around them.  All the men stuck their heads close to the screen to see what the drone was showing them.  There was a settlement checkpoint up ahead.  The men manning the checkpoint were heavily armed. They had a few vehicles parked behind them for a quick getaway if needed.  None of them looked up in the direction of the nearly silent drone hovering far above them.  The scout team in the jeep moved the drone around looking for the best vantage point to climb to snipe the enemy at the checkpoint.

Kyler casually pulled his pistol and shot them all in the heads as they were huddled around the tablet.  The soldiers were highly trained and conditioned to react quickly even to casual violence, but Kyler’s betrayal caught them completely off-guard.  After firing a second shot into each of them to make sure they stayed dead Kyler got in the driver’s seat.  Instead of throwing the driver on the ground he shoved him on top of the other dead body in the passenger seat.  He put the jeep in drive and headed for the checkpoint with his gruesome load of Brotherhood corpses.

He drove up to the checkpoint very slowly.  He stopped the jeep in front of the men aiming weapons at him and got out of the jeep with both hands held high in the air.

“Who are you?”  One of them called out.

“I’m a spy.  Please get in contact with Captain Hartfield and let him know Kyler made it back.  I’ve got urgent news for him.”  Kyler said.

“How do we know you’re on our side?”  The guard asked.

“I just killed three Brotherhood soldiers who were watching you on drone footage and arguing about the best place to snipe you from.  Their bodies are still warm if you don’t believe me.”  Kyler said.

Five minutes later he was cuffed and sitting in the back of a transport waiting for the checkpoint guards to get relieved so he could get moved to the back.  The guards had already radioed back the information he’d given them to relay to Captain Hartfield.  The handcuffs weren’t helping his upper body pain at all.  He nodded off in the back wondering if he should invest in his own handcuffs to carry around with him.  Maybe some fuzzy ones that wouldn’t hurt his wrists so bad.  If he was going to spend so much time in cuffs, he should at least look to see about getting some comfortable ones for himself.

Chapter 32:  On the Road Again

“Well that’s not good.”  Phil said looking at the twisted metal and concrete that used to be a bridge going over a large lake.

“Virginia’s already turning into a pain in the ass.”  Bryan said.  Randy was busy looking at the map.

“This explains those signs we saw for Roanoke Rapids.”  Randy said pointing at the map.  Phil and Bryan both leaned in and looked at the spot on the map Randy was pointing at.  They’d seen signs at each of the main intersections for the last thirty miles that read ‘Roanoke Rapids’ in handwritten letters.  Phil held the map up right in front of his face squinting at the tiny writing.

“Great.”  He announced after putting the map back down.  “Let’s drive to the super narrow river crossing our mortal enemy’s holding for us.  Hopefully they’re not checking identification again.  I don’t see what could possibly go wrong with this plan.  You guys sure you don’t want to just find a boat?  We can always find a car on the other side.  Maybe something a little more inconspicuous.  I mean a bullet riddled luxury RV isn’t the most subtle thing to try to sneak across enemy lines in.  Maybe we could find one of those wiener mobiles somewhere.”

“It’d take too long to find a boat.  I think the RV is fine for now.  Especially since we have plenty of diesel.”  Kelly chimed in from a few feet behind them where she’d been listening to the whole conversation.  After the whole gas station fiasco, she wasn’t up for letting them come up with plans on their own anymore.  They couldn’t be trusted to operate without adult supervision.

Roanoke Rapids it was.  They topped off the tank with one of the jugs of diesel and backtracked to the last intersection they’d passed.  They wound up driving along a smaller highway headed east parallel to the lake.  They were trucking along dodging the occasional Zombie when a group of six armed men emerged from the forest and waved at them to pull over.  Phil slowed down and started to pull to the side.

“What the hell are you doing?”  Randy asked loudly.

“Picking these guys up so they don’t just shoot us as we drive by.”  Phil answered tensely.

“Tell the girls to stay in the back room and have them lock the door.”  Bryan ordered.  He was eyeballing the guys on the side of the road.  A couple of them had that indefinable swagger that revealed they were ex-military.  The rest of the small group looked like your average idiots playing dress up in soldier suits.  Opening the door and shooting them probably wasn’t going to work.  They were going to have to take the hiding in plain sight plan to a whole new level.

Kelly and the girls disappeared into the master suite in the back of the big RV.  Randy heard the lock click shut as they coasted to a stop.  Bryan opened the door and greeted the men standing there.  None of them made any move to approach the RV.  The squad leader had returned Bryans greeting with a simple nod of the head.  None of the squad were acting aggressively towards them.  They just weren’t acting super friendly either.  Randy got worried they were expecting some sort of secret handshake or something.

“You guys need a ride?”  Bryan asked after a long awkward silence.

“Where you headed?”  The squad leader asked.

“Up to Roanoke Rapids then across the river.  I can’t really tell you much more than that.”  Bryan answered.

“Sounds good.  Mount up boys.”  The squad leader ordered his men.  The order served to break the ice. The next few minutes were spent shaking hands and passing out drinks and snacks.  When they had the new crew settled in Phil sat back down and continued to drive them east.

One of the men had gotten up to check out the RV.  He was stymied by the locked door in the back.  Randy had been watching him the whole time praying the locked door didn’t pop open.  It wasn’t like it was the door to a bank vault.  More like the cheap lock you’d expect on the interior door of an RV.

“That’s the part we can’t talk about.”  Bryan said loudly staring back at the man by the locked door.  “Do me a favor and stay up towards the front of this thing if you don’t mind.”

Randy waited for the men in the squad to start questioning what was going on.  Instead the squad leader gave his own man a pissed off look.  The look easily conveying the message that they were guests on the RV. They all needed to sit down and respect the men who’d picked them up to give them a ride.  Otherwise they’d have been spending the next two days hiking through the forests of North Carolina trying to find a car that still ran.

The dodgy way Bryan had implied they had some other mission going on did wonders for keeping the conversation away from that topic.  The men from the squad had varying guesses as to what was going on.  Most of them thought the men on the RV were transporting either concubines or actual family members to the battalion leadership.  The family members to be used to reward good behavior or punish bad behavior.  There was also a good chance the back room of the RV was filled to the brim with drugs.  They’d all noted the fact that the windows on the back room in the RV had been shot out.  That just led to more creative thinking as to what or who might be hidden back there.  Not that any of them thought it was a good idea to actually find out.  Curiosity killed cats left and right in the Senator’s militia.

They drove on in silence following the tense exchange.  No one wanting to risk saying anything that may set off any of the strong personalities in the RV.  Being a group of men with shared experiences and similar backgrounds though the silence didn’t last too long.  Before they reached the turn off to Roanoke Rapids the conversation had picked back up again.  The bulk of the talk revolving around what each of them had done before the apocalypse.  Bryan wasn’t surprised at all by the men who talked about having been in various positions in the armed services.  They were the ones he’d already pegged as operators. They were the ones he’d shoot first if something went wrong with this plan.

Bryan was cautiously optimistic that they may actually pull this off.  They drove through a town consisting of mostly burnt down buildings.  The road gradually leading to a series of bridges passing over a swampy swath of land.  Parts of the road and bridge network up ahead had been destroyed. The Brotherhood had sent in construction crews to repair the bridges.  Those had been destroyed a week later.  That’d been anticipated so the materials to rebuild the bridges up to five times had been shipped up to the site.  They’d only had to do it twice.  Which was good since those materials had come in handy at other places farther north.  The settlements had gone on a bender blowing up bridges to slow the advance of the Brotherhood.

The men in the RV had no clue about all of that.  They were just happy the bridges were there.  When they finally made it across the temporary crossings that’d been put in place Bryan considered asking Phil to pull over so he could kiss the ground.  A few of the temporary bridges had shifted around in a way that had not inspired confidence as they crossed them.  One of the newcomers to the RV shut them all up with a simple statement he blurted out with no thought whatsoever.

“Sweet.  I thought it was going to take us forever to get to the place where the people would be trying to kill us.”

“Way to bring down the party bro.”  One of his fellow squad members said.  He punched the man in the arm to show he was joking around.  It did put a more serious spin on everything though.

It put Randy and Bryan a step closer to having to somehow eject the hitchhiking squad from the RV. On top of that they had to figure out how to get themselves through enemy lines, cross the no man’s zone and avoid getting killed by friendly fire while trying to rejoin the side they were actually on.  They had to get that done while under a massive time crunch to get to the Naval base as soon as possible.  If they arrived there too late this whole trip was pointless.  On top of being pointless it’d also leave them in the unpleasant predicament of having to fight their way back through all this mess or end up stuck in the Brotherhood camps after all this work to escape them.

After the bridge crossing it was smooth sailing.  Other than the occasional Zombie and some wild horses they didn’t see anything on the road for the next hundred miles.  The wild horses grazing by the road had been an interesting sight.  Not something you expected to see after driving through a forest that was gradually eating the road you were on for an hour.  Surrealness was becoming an everyday occurrence though.  It reminded Randy of the time he’d seen a massive alligator crawling out the broken doors of a dilapidated Wendy’s back in Florida.  With skin too rough for Zombie’s to easily bite through and a penchant for dragging their prey into the water to drown it the alligator was clearly hovering around the top of the food chain in this new normal.

A brief halt to pick parts of a Zombie out of the wheel well and beat the bumper back into place saw them finally getting on HWY-58 well after it’d turned dark outside.  HWY-58 was a straight shot to Norfolk.  With nothing between them but the dismal swamp and a few thousand enemy combatants Bryan was feeling pretty good about their chances.  Randy was way more focused on the men sharing the RV with them than he was on the threats in the outside world.

Where Randy saw the men in the RV as a threat Bryan saw them as extra camouflage.  The three of them driving the big RV didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Now anyone looking in would see the passenger area filled with soldiers.  The squad sharing the space with them knew the right passwords to use and they had their identification on them as well.  They’d make it a million times easier to get through any checkpoint that may be coming up.  Considering they were on one of the main roads leading to the current objective for the entire Brotherhood army there should be check points coming up soon.

The squad leader let them know that because of how late they were they’d like to be dropped off at the Hampton Roads Executive Airport.  That was the staging area for the second phase of the assault.  From there they’d pick up their new orders.  Bryan had made a big deal of checking the map before telling the squad leader that worked out fine since they were pressing on even farther to their objective.  No more questions had been asked.  They’d ridden along in silence with most of the men taking advantage of the dark air-conditioned interior of the RV to catch a nap.

It was late when Phil slowed down at the sight of brake lights up ahead.  Phil was so tired at this point that the brake lights appeared blurry to him.  He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t just seeing things.  He’d taken a couple of hours off from driving earlier to rest. It hadn’t been long before he’d ended up right back in the driver’s seat when it became obvious no one else really had his touch when it came to dodging Zombies in the big RV.  The decision to put him back up there had coincided directly with the incident that’d led to them beating the bumper back into place and peeling the bio hazard out of the wheel well.

The brake lights turned out to belong to one of many big rigs hauling large trailers.  A long line of them were pulling onto the highway.  There was a break in the convoy that Phil took advantage of to get themselves planted firmly in between two of the big trucks.  In the glow of the headlights they could see the truck ahead of them was hauling an open-air load that looked an awful lot like a massive tank covered by a whole lot of tarps.  Phil sped up a smidge and they verified it was a big tank covered by a bunch of tarps.

“Bringing in the big guns!”  Bryan said aloud.  He forced himself to inject some enthusiasm in his voice.  Unfortunately, he knew he’d be one of the people those tanks may be shooting at.  He hated to think what might be on the backs of all the other trucks around them.  It kept his level of excitement ratcheted down considerably.  The squad leader opened his eyes at the mention of tanks. He was way more excited about it.

“Hell yeah!  That’s what I’m talking about.  Let’s get some armor in there and waste those scumbags.  The infected can crawl all over those things and they’ll just keep shooting.”  The man said with a big grin.

“You really don’t like those settlement guys?”  Randy asked tiredly.  He’d been dozing off here and there while trying to stay awake in case anything happened.  He hoped Kelly and the girls were sleeping soundly in the back.  They may need someone who could think clearly.  He knew Kelly was probably wide awake with her ear to the door trying to snoop though.  He wanted nothing more than to go back in the back and talk to her.  He was sure she’d have lots of things to say about the fact that they were now driving along in the middle of an enemy convoy loaded down with tanks and who knew what else.

The convoy passed into the dismal swamp.  All the vehicles still trucking along at a steady fifty miles per hour.  There was no dodging Zombies at that speed.  Assuming the rules of being in the convoy included no slowing down they took each Zombie that showed up right on the chin.  Luckily the number that ran out in front of them was relatively small.  The first few trucks in the convoy must be outfitted with massive metal grills to take the abuse they were getting though.

In the headlights they started catching glimpses of occasional fencing that’d been put up on the sides of the road.  The gates had been thrown open to allow the convoy to pass through.  Once the convoy passed by then the men hiding in the swamp would run out and secure the gates.  The idea being to limit the number of infected that made it to the rally point up the road. One of the reasons the airport had been chosen was that it was in the middle of nowhere.  The Zombies would eventually get there, but the hope was they could keep them away long enough to use the area to organize all the squads trickling in and get the final assault launched.

There was no checkpoint of any sort until they arrived at the turnoff for the small executive airport.  A couple of hummers sporting very large guns were sitting on the side of the road behind a large fence.  Soldiers in body armor walked around with swords and bats patrolling for any infected that made it this far.  A harried looked officer in combat gear waited impatiently for Phil to pull up.

“What the hell are you all driving this thing for?”  The officer asked.

“We found it sir.  We pulled into the middle of this convoy back in Suffolk sir.”  Phil answered.

“Ok.  What are your orders?”  The officer asked.

“We’re dropping this squad off at the airport then continuing to Chesapeake to rendezvous with our platoon sir.”  Phil answered.  Bryan had coached him on that response earlier and it came out perfect.  The officer looked like he might ask for paperwork or identification or something but there was a long line of big trucks waiting to get in.  The gate was open and with all the noise the Zombies wouldn’t be far behind.  Stepping back the officer waved them through.

Randy reminded himself not to celebrate making it past the check point.  That’d definitely strike their guests as odd.  The trucks in the convoy were all pulling into the airport, so Phil followed suit.  Up ahead one of the trucks disgorged what looked like an entire platoon of armed men.  The men immediately started forming up into squads. A small group of men walked out to meet up with the platoon commander to give him his orders.  The squad leader reached up and tapped Phil on the shoulder.

“Thanks for the ride.  You can drop us off here.  Stay frosty.”  The squad gathered it’s gear together as Phil pulled off to the side to let them out.  When they’d all left Randy immediately leaned back in his chair and let a loud sigh.  Bryan looked over at him with a grin.

“Agreed.  That whole experience rated very high on the pucker factor scale.”

“What now?”  Phil asked.  He was turning the RV to get it back on the road.

“Let’s keep pushing our luck.  Roll with the whole secret mission to drop some people off and see if it gets us all the way to no man’s land.”  Bryan said.

“How will we know we’ve made it?”  Randy asked.

“Both sides will start shooting at us.”  Bryan answered with a grin.

“Is there a plan that doesn’t end up with all of us dead?”  Kelly asked.  She’d emerged from the backroom to join in on the planning session.  In the dim light cast by the LED lighting embedded around the inside of the RV she looked exhausted.  She had bags under her sleep deprived slightly reddened eyes.  So much for having at least one person who could think straight.

Phil took the turn that said it’d lead them to W Military Hwy.  Up ahead there was a check point like the one they’d passed through to get on the base.  A small group of soldiers were engaged in beating down a shadowy figure that’d walked out of the swamp.  The officer in charge of the checkpoint walked towards them.  He held his hand up for them to stop while simultaneously trying to keep an eye on the woods to see if any more surprises were forthcoming.  Phil stopped and rolled down his window.

“Nice wheels.”  The officer said looking at their banged-up Winnebago.  “Where are you headed?”

“We’re on the way to Chesapeake sir.”  Phil answered.

“Orders?”  The officer asked looking at Phil expectantly.

“No sir.  This isn’t the kind of mission where they give you written orders sir.”  Phil replied.

“I can’t let you leave without some sort of authorization.  Who gave you your orders?”  The officer asked.  Randy decided to take a gamble on this one.

“Commander Krantz.”  Randy said from the backseat.  He was careful to keep his face in the shadows and very deliberately left off the formal ‘sir’ salutation.  He knew Krantz had reported to some other guy, but he couldn’t remember what that other guy’s name had been.  Kyler had told them the name of the officer chasing him and it had stuck in Randy’s head.  Mostly because he’d tried to link Krantz to a joke about Kraft Mac and Cheese chasing them.  None of the pasta related jokes he’d thought of had met even his low threshold for being funny though.

“Commander Krantz huh.  Ok.  Go ahead and pull off to the side and turn off your engine.  I have to check out your story.  I’ll also need to search your vehicle.”  The officer said.  The Krantz name dropping hadn’t worked the magic Randy had hoped for.  This guy was way too into his job.

A line of trucks from the convoy started lining up behind them.  The officer ran over to check their orders and let them through.  The noise of their passage was attracting more Zombies out of the swamp.  The gate was left open while the soldiers went to deal with the infected coming out of the woods.  The trucks from the convoy were slowing down to flash their papers then heading out the gate and turning towards Norfolk.

“Just go.”  Bryan told Phil.  Phil didn’t need to be ordered twice.  He started up the engine and pulled back onto the main road.  The officer looked over at them with an annoyed expression on his face.  He waved for them to stop.  Phil shook his head no and kept going.

“We’ve got our orders we’ve got to go sir!”  Phil shouted over to the officer as he drove past him and out the gate.  The officer stared at them with his hand resting on his pistol, but he didn’t pull it out of the holster.  Yet another truck was arriving at the gate and Zombies were now stepping out of the woods one after the other.  Instead of shooting the RV and attracting more Zombies the officer said screw it and focused on letting the rest of the convoy out before the base ended up getting overrun.

The road outside the airport led right into a series of overpasses to get on the interstate that went around the Norfolk-Chesapeake region.  Phil kept them on the path that dropped them off on the smaller highway headed straight for Norfolk.  A single truck from the convoy was on the road ahead of them.  They followed those taillights towards what they hoped would be their salvation.  Kelly now up in the front with the rest of them staring out the cracked windshield and muttering prayers under her breath.

Chapter 33:  Attacking the Armpit of Virginia

Thousands of their men were filtering through the swamps, cities and forests towards Norfolk.  Over at the air station the enemy had access to all kinds of high-tech weaponry.  Harpoon missiles, air defense systems, and fighter jets that could target his forces in a number of ways.  The settlement army didn’t just have the weaponry in Norfolk at their disposal.  The men in charge of the settlements had commandeered the gear at every major military installation within their territory.

Forrest kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.  If the enemy could make it rain fire why weren’t they?  So far, the infected had done way more damage to them than the settlements militia had.  He wondered if they were running low on munitions.  If so, that would explain why they were waiting for the New American forces to get closer before they started dropping bombs. Why launch harpoons at random squads of infantry when you could launch them at an entire battalion?

He was about to give them some really juicy targets.  Once they began deploying the tanks and artillery from the train it wouldn’t take long for those to become the primary targets for any smart missiles the enemy had left.  The new artillery on the way from the trains were advanced mobile long-range fire systems.  These self-propelled Paladins would be able to launch rockets at the carrier once they got within twenty miles of her.  They also had conventional tanks he planned on rolling right through the city.  They’d precede the bulk of the infantry to clear out snipers and traps.  They’d take the brunt of the bombs and missiles the carrier had available to sling at them.  As far as the air defenses and fighters went, they had some battle drones and surface to air defense systems Forrest planned to deploy.

Forrest had ordered the setup of the forward command center in the executive airport on the edge of the dismal swamp.  They were occupying one of the hangars that up until very recently had been in use by settlement troops.  The first of the Brotherhood squads to roll onto the base had engaged in a firefight with the settlement soldiers as they were rolling out.  It’d been a brief exchange that’d led to the first casualty of the attack on the armpit of Virginia as Forrest was calling this battle in his head.  He’d let the history book writers come up with a better name.

The soldier had been one of the men in the squad the Brotherhood had sent to secure the base.  Reading between the lines on the report the man who’d been shot was more used to fighting infected than fighting people who actually shot back.  The idiot had walked directly out into the open and taken his time aiming at the enemy.  He must’ve forgotten that not all enemies were limited to teeth as their primary weapon.

Shaking his head at the insanity of it all Forrest reclined in the plush leather chair in the well-appointed executive lounge.  This hangar had been specifically chosen as it was the one with fiber optic cables that cross connected directly back to the hub.  Looking out the small window on the side of the waiting room Forrest could see the swamp was working to reclaim the airstrip outside.  Seeing the dense woods, he wondered if an enemy sniper was sitting out there right now with his crosshairs resting on the window Forrest was staring out of.  It wouldn’t surprise him.  It may surprise the imagined sniper to know that if he pulled the trigger, he’d be killing the only man on the side of the Brotherhood actively working on coming up with a plan not to slaughter them all.

“It’s setup sir.”  The tech announced walking into the room.  Forrest nodded but didn’t stand up yet.  According to his watch he still had three more minutes.  He needed to make sure he had his game face on.  He wasn’t used to misleading his superiors.  He supposed what he was doing wasn’t really lying.  He would absolutely carry out the orders to attack the carrier.  He was just going to do so with extra regard for any civilians on the ship or in the immediate area.  His orders were to attack with everything they had. He was planning on pulling his punches a little bit.  He assumed they’d notice at some point and relieve him of his command.  Probably via a bullet to the back of his head.  So be it.

“Ok.  Let’s get connected.”  Forrest told the tech when he walked into the conference space.  He sat down at the mahogany table and drank one of the fancy Perrier waters he’d found sitting in a cabinet out in the waiting area.  It’d made a pleasant hissing noise when he opened it. That was normally a good sign you weren’t going to end up fighting diarrhea for the next day or two.  Which was a good thing since he was supposed to be leading an army into battle.  It’d be awkward trying to do that from a bathroom stall.

The video display showed connecting and then the conference room in the hub appeared.  Tom and Krantz were sitting together waiting for the call.  Once the call was connected Tom disappeared out the side door.

“How’s it going up there?”  Krantz asked pleasantly.  He seemed to be in a good mood.  Forrest assumed that meant he was half a bottle into the day.  Not that it seemed to matter.  Drunk or sober Krantz was too smart for his own good.  The man also seemed to have a big heart.  Pieces of it must be chipping off every day working for the Senator.

“Good sir.  The reinforcements from the train should be arriving soon.  I’ve directed them all to head here.  Once they’re here we plan to envelop the enemy.  I’m deploying field teams and spotters now.  We’ll roll the tanks right up the middle to take out snipers and draw most of their fire.  We’re leaving the route to the sea open to them.”  Forrest reported.  That last bit was his saving grace.  He interpreted that part of the command to mean they were having mercy.  Even though he knew it was just to try and save their own resources for the next battle.

“Sounds good.  Everything seems to be running smoother now that everyone isn’t bunched up.  How are you doing Forrest?  How’s the men’s morale in in general?”

“Outstanding sir.  The men are ready to engage and kick the enemy off the coast.  They’re ready to see their families again.  The ones of them who still have families anyway sir.  Most of the military men are used to being in the field.  Afghanistan and Iraq got them used to long tours of duty so they just kind of accept this as natural.  The civilians look up to them, so they grumble but they’re along for the ride.  Can’t expect much from an accountant you hand a gun and try to call a soldier sir.”  Forrest answered.  This was a topic he’d given a lot of consideration to.

“Anyone alive today’s a fighter.  If we can get them to take orders, then they count as soldiers.  Even if they’re not great ones.”  Krantz said.  They sat in silence lost in their own thoughts after that waiting for Sam to join the call.  She was typically never late to anything, so this was odd.  Not that the trains really ran on time anymore.

“Good morning gentlemen.”  Sam started the conversation once she’d finally joined the meeting.  Krantz and Forrest both politely responded with the expected meaningless pleasantries.  Forrest repeated the information he’d already provided to Forrest.  Sam listened intently then asked some additional questions.  She confirmed there’d be some drones and drone pilots coming to assist with some of the forward observation work. That meant it wouldn’t all be left to special forces type guys trying to crawl up on top of buildings.  She also had a few updates to give them based on the intelligence they were receiving.

“There are less civilians at the base than expected. Maybe a few thousand at the most onboard the carrier.  There’s some kind of dredging issue they’re still trying to clear up before sailing away.  They’re pulling back and forming a protective wall that no one’s getting in or out of while they figure it out.  Your orders are to shoot over that perimeter as well as busting through it.  Once you’re in position you will attack with everything you have and keep pressing until they’re either all dead, prisoners, or sailed away.  There will be no quarter given.  Understood?”  Sam asked.

“Yes ma’am.”  Krantz and Forrest both acknowledged the order somberly over the video.

“Excellent.  Remember we’re trying to run them off but if they don’t want to leave then we’ll crush them.  As soon as we have Norfolk on lock down, we’ll continue to move our forces north to seize more territory.  We’ll be sending a battalion of looters up to hold the area after you secure it.  You’ll be expected to move up the coast once the battalion arrives to secure the area.  Attack when ready.”  Sam said.  She waited for them to once again acknowledge the order then signed off.

“Well.  You’ve got your orders.  We’ll be standing by up here if you run into any issues.  I’ll be expecting an update on the hour every hour.  Go get some marine.  Hit them so hard they don’t even try to defend themselves.  I want them haze grey and underway by lunchtime.”  Krantz said before signing off.

Forrest looked at the blank display and considered his options.  It was four in the morning and he was tired.  He called for his aide and told him to relay the order that all battalion commanders were to radio in for their assignments.  He knew what Krantz was getting at.  Ironically enough the way to save the most lives at this point was for them to act with undeniable ferocity.  Escalating immediately to extreme violence.  Anyone who’s ever been in a bar fight knows that the longer one lasts the more seriously people get hurt.  It’s better to just knock the guy off his stool, kick him a few times in the face and walk right out the door.  Half the time you can even walk away without paying your tab.  Hence the reason sailors love bar fights.

He reviewed the assignments one more time with his staff then gave the orders for them to get everyone into position.  The sound of trucks pulling into the parking lot distracted him. He peeked out the window and saw that the promised train convoy had finally arrived.  He watched as truck after truck rolled onto the base.  He noticed one vehicle set in the middle of the convoy that looked odd.

“Is that an RV?”  He asked one of his aides who’d also been checking out the parade rolling onto the base.

“I think so sir.  Great way to travel the apocalypse I suppose.” The man answered standing beside Forrest to look out the window.  At a second glance from Forrest he suddenly remembered he was supposed to be busy getting the battalions coordinated. He left the room with his folder stuffed full of orders to issue all the way down to the individual squad level.  Those would have to be flexible orders as they still didn’t have a full count of all the squads that were actually still alive.  Additional squads were showing up every hour.  Most of them with stories of being holed up in attics while hordes of the infected surrounded whatever home they’d hidden in to avoid being eaten.  A lot of the squads just never reported in. They were presumed to have been killed trying to make it to their assigned rendezvous point.

Continuing to watch out the window he saw the RV pull over and disgorge a handful of men. The men immediately formed up and disappeared into the base.  Forrest assumed they were one of those squads who’d gotten delayed and were now trying to figure out where their battalion was.  He turned his attention away from the window as an officer came hurrying in to let him know there was a lot of Zombie activity picking up by the gates.

“That’s to be expected.  They’ll overrun us at some point.  When they do this hangar goes into lockdown.  Everyone not at this hangar falls forward to the next forward operating base.  Go ahead and send squads to FOB three, four and five to secure them.  They’ll make good spotter posts anyway.  Once secure start dispatching the designated squads out to them.  HQ will stay here.  Lock this building down.  No one in our out until I give the order.  Make sure we have enough supplies in here for a week then shutter up the windows.  Let me know once secure.”  Forrest ordered.

He went back to looking out the window until someone shoved a large metal plate over it.  The sounds of drilling followed by the sparks from a welder ended his window gazing.  If there was one thing that they’d figured out at this point it was how to properly secure a building against the infected.  Forrest sat back down in the oversized leather chair and took the extra-large cup of instant coffee someone handed him.  He sipped at it thinking he was going to need to pace himself.  It was going to be a very long day.

Chapter 34:  Made it Back, Again…

“Step out of the car.”  The soldier ordered Kyler.

“You’re not going to shoot me and leave my body in the street as a warning to others, are you?”  Kyler asked him.  When the man neither confirmed, denied nor looked amused at that question Kyler climbed down out of the backseat.  He thought about just sitting back there.  No one likes shooting people in their own cars.  It’s messy and the smell pretty much stays there forever.  That defense wouldn’t last him too long though.  He climbed out onto the street and stood there staring at the soldier.

“Turn around.”  The soldier said impatiently holding a small object up in the air.  Considering it was the key used to unlock handcuffs and not a gun used to execute people in the middle of the street Kyler happily complied.

The soldier unlocked the handcuffs and told Kyler to get back in the car and wait.

“You heard back from Hartfield?” Kyler asked.

“We didn’t take your cuffs off because we like you.  Now get back in the car.  We’ll be rolling out of here in a few minutes.  We’ve got orders to get you back to HQ.  We’ve just got to rig the street first.”  The soldier said.

The soldiers were already unloading mines from the back of the jeep and setting them in place under debris they were pulling out of dumpsters.  A couple of mines were hidden under bodies.  The officer in charge of the group was notating the location of each mine in case they had to come back through here later.

“You know it’s going to be mostly the infected that step on the mines, right?”  Kyler asked when they’d finished setting out the mines and were climbing back in the jeep.  It seemed like it’d been kind of a waste of time to him.

“Yep.  They’ll step on the mines, the mines will go boom, more Zombies will show up, step on more mines and pretty soon we’ll have a nice sized herd blocking the streets.  If the Zombies don’t show up, then the people attacking us are welcome to step on them instead.  It’s kind of a win win kind of thing.  Plus, we found a warehouse with enough mines to pave the whole damned city.  Some defense contractor got rich.”

“Especially since we supposedly don’t even deploy mines anymore.  Too many pictures of little kids with no legs.”  Another soldier said from the back.

“You watch too many Sally Struthers infomercials.”  The original soldier said.

“Not anymore.  I’m thinking a lack of food isn’t the biggest issue most people are facing now.  Being considered food by the infected probably tops the list.”

The banter continued as they cruised through the city.  In some places the sidewalks were hidden by large drifts of the decaying dead.  Someone had come through with a bulldozer after some other team had come through with machine guns and a mountain of ammunition.  Kyler now understood why the team he was with all had baklavas on they could pull over their mouths and noses.  It also made sense why the air was on internal only and maxed out.  The smell outside the car must be horrific.

They drove quickly through the dilapidated debris strewn city streets.  The dead were stacked up everywhere.  The occasional Zombie still leapt out at them, but the driver dodged them using many of the tricks Kyler himself was well versed in.

“Is the city cleared out?”  Kyler asked.  The huge drifts of bodies and the way they were able to drive around in daylight seemed to imply this city may actually be fairly safe.

“It’s not cleared out completely.  We did a lot of clearing operations early on trying to make it habitable.  We fenced off incoming roads and led herds out of here with fireworks.  We actually did even more over in Norfolk.  You can’t keep these things out though.  They’re like roaches.  Now that we’ve stopped sending out clearing crews every day, they’re starting to creep back in.”  The officer in the front seat answered.

They drove over some high roads and rolled up to a fenced off area with a guard shack beside it.  The guard came out of the shack and walked over to check the identification card the officer in the front passenger seat was holding out.  Without saying another word, the guard rolled the gate manually out of their way.  They took the road into a tunnel to go under the bay.  Behind them the guard hurriedly closed the gate back up.  He was intently listening for the broadcast that’d tell him to lock the gate and fall back to the carrier.

“All the bridges blown up?”  Kyler asked nervously.  Being in a tunnel he knew was wired to be blown up at the press of a button was freaking him out.  He didn’t really like tunnels on the best of days.  This one didn’t even have lights on inside it.

“We didn’t bother yet.  They’re all wired.  The enemy knows they’re all wired.  It seemed like a waste to blow them up before we had to you know.  We’ve got fences across them to keep the infected out.  Kind of like the gate we just came through.  The tunnel is the fastest way across though.  Once your name percolated up, we got a call to bring you in right away.  I probably shouldn’t have taken the time to lay out the mines, but I really don’t like driving around with those things in the trunk.”  The officer answered.

“Agreed.  I’m not a fan of being blown up either.  Been there done that.”  Kyler said.  He ignored the weird looks he got from saying he’d been blown up.

“You do look like you’ve been through the wringer a few times.”  One of the men said.  He was only half joking.  Kyler’s history with violence was clearly visible in the topographical map of scar tissue covering his body.

They emerged from the tunnel and headed up the incline to the top where another gate was closed against them.  This one had more guards surrounding it.  These guards spent a few more minutes staring at their identification guards and validating who they were before wheeling open the gate and letting them through.  Kyler noted the motorcycles standing in a neat row behind the guards.  He also noticed how nervous they looked.  He made sure to lean back in his seat so there was no way they could see his back.

After the tunnel they drove down another long road to yet another bridge.  This one had guards stationed at it as well.  These guards had concrete barriers and machine guns.  They also had a laptop that clearly showed them how many people had left in the patrol this morning.  Not seeing anything in the computer about an extra person the marines standing guard had Kyler get out of the jeep and stand with his hands against the wall.  The officer from Kyler’s group was telling them who to contact to get the authorization to let Kyler in when the marine patting Kyler down saw the Brotherhood brand.

It went from a bureaucratic mix-up to a whole other level of tense in a matter of seconds.  Kyler found himself face down on the concrete with a boot firmly placed on his back.  He could sense the rifle aimed at the back of his head.  The other members of the patrol had been pulled out of the jeep and thrown on the ground as well.  None of them had tried to resist.  If they had then all of them would probably have been shot.  The officer was still yelling out who to contact for authorization.  Kyler felt his hands being pulled back behind him to be put into a set of cuffs.  This would be a golden moment to be able to tell them he had a set of fuzzy cuffs they could use on him instead.

Kyler lay on the ground wondering if he was going to be shot in the back of the head while the situation was cleared up.  The marine in charge of the guard station walked away from the group when Captain Hartfield actually came across the radio waves ripping him a new one.  A few minutes later they were on their way again.

“So, how many more checkpoints?”  Kyler asked from the back.  He was still picking pieces of dirt out of his hair.  His lip was puffed up and bleeding too.  Marines didn’t get the same kind of politically correct prisoner taking training that the police force got.  They had more of the mentality they could treat you as roughly as they wanted since the only other alternative was for them to shoot you.  Therefore, you should be happy to have your face bounced off the concrete a few times when they put you on the ground.

“I think three more until we get you to HQ.  We were supposed to be cleared all the way through but obviously those last guys didn’t get the memo.  Hopefully the rest of them did.  I don’t feel like getting stomped on by any more freakin’ marines today.”

They drove down a long road with tall buildings blocking their view of the bay.  Here and there they’d pass an alley and see the sparkling blue of the Atlantic.  The next checkpoint they got to the guards let them through almost as soon as they saw the officers identification card.  It was another heavily armed checkpoint with tall concrete barriers all around it.  Massive fences had been installed everywhere as well.  Kyler could see the drifts of burnt corpses heaped up on the other side of the fence.

The next checkpoint was in front of the HQ building.  This time the officer who’d escorted him this far didn’t get to go in.  He was told to go back to his post.  The officer wished Kyler good luck and left.  Kyler found himself with a new escort who walked him down the hall to a nicely appointed waiting room where he was told to wait.  He’d only been sitting there for a few minutes when a soldier walked in balancing a tray with some pancakes, coffee and what seemed a lot like real scrambled eggs with butter.

“Breakfast all day around here lately.  Not that I’m complaining.”  The man said as he sat the tray down on the small table in front of Kyler.  Without another word other than to tell Kyler to enjoy the man left.

Never one to ignore a plate full of pancakes Kyler didn’t need a written invitation to dig in.  By the time Hartfield showed up ten minutes later Kyler was already wondering how to request seconds.  His first thought on seeing Hartfield was actually that if anybody could authorize seconds…

“I see you still have a good appetite.”  Hartfield said by way of greeting.  Kyler belatedly realized the man who could authorize a free breakfast was about as officer on deck as you could possibly get.  He hopped to his feet quickly to stand at attention.

“Yes sir.”  He said enthusiastically.  He wasn’t sure if this was a situation where he should shout out there was an officer on the deck.  The men walking in behind Hartfield looked at him in amusement at his butchery of military tradition.

“At ease Kyler.  I heard you came back alone.  Were you separated or have we lost the others?”  Hartfield asked.

“They’re lost sir.  We completed the mission but at the end it all just went to hell sir.”  Kyler answered.  All thoughts of food or anything else washed away by the memories of that desperate firefight.  Seeing the bullet riddled body of the chief after he’d charged that machine gun nest.  Waking up afterwards with Ritz underneath the trees that’d been blasted down.  The infected everywhere.  Spending the day hiding underneath the corpses to survive.  Seeing the sadness in Kyler’s eyes Hartfield sat down in one of the big chairs in the room.

“I want to hear it all.  Tell me what happened.”  One of his aides moved forward to remind him he had a tight schedule.  The captain waved him away and told him to move everything around.

Kyler told them everything.  One of the men behind the commander coughed into his hand and clearly called ‘bullshit’ when Kyler told them about the horse patrol finding them.  With fire in his eyes Kyler stood up to address the man, but the commander beat him to it.

“The man giving us this intel is about thirty times the man you’ll ever be.  I just decided to promote him to lieutenant which coincides with the exact same time I decided to demote you to whatever the lowest enlisted rank is that we end up coming up with.  Get out of my sight.”  The captain said without ever breaking eye contact with Kyler.  “I’m sorry, please continue.”

Kyler watched the newly demoted man slink out of the room.  He fought back the urge to give him the finger.  Once the man had left, he continued his story all the way up to the point where he’d killed the Brotherhood soldiers and let himself be captured by the city guard at the checkpoint.

“That looks fresh.”  The commander said pointing at Kyler’s puffed up lip.  Not wanting to get anyone else in trouble Kyler let that one slide.

“It’s nothing sir.  This doesn’t even count as an injury in my book.  Just gives me an excuse not to floss.”  Even as Kyler joked a thought did occur to him though.  If it’d been that hard for him to get here how were settlers able to make it now?

“Ok.  I’m going to have more work for you Kyler.  You’re too good a resource to let sit idle.  However, I’m going to give you some time to do just that.  The intel about the train answers a lot of questions.  It also raises a ton of concerns.  We don’t have the missiles left to take them all out.  I’d honestly been hoping to just leave before they got here.  We’re still stuck dredging our way out though.  I want to save as much as we can for defending ourselves where we’re going.  If they get too close with that ordinance though I guess we won’t have a choice.  This room is yours until you get setup with one on the ship.  Somebody will be by soon to get that taken care of.  Congratulations on your promotion lieutenant.”  The captain said standing up.

Kyler quickly stood up and took the hand that was extended to him to shake.  He’d finally got up the courage to ask the question that was burning in his mind.

“Sir, I spent a lot of time with a group of people who’ve become registered settlers.  Where can I check to see if they’ve made it here or not?  If they’re not here yet are you still letting settlers through?”  Kyler asked.

“I assume you’re talking about the family that shot the Senator’s wife.  If they’re not here already we’ll get them put in the computers to allow them in if they show up.  Write down their information and I’ll have someone check on them and let you know whatever we know immediately.  I’ll have them upgraded in the system so they’re a priority group.”  The captain promised.

Kyler scribbled down every bit of information he could think of and gave the paper to the man Hartfield pointed out.  Less than half an hour later there was a knock on his door.  Heart pounding in his chest Kyler rushed to the door and pulled it open.  His smile faded as the man at the door let him know that the family had been checked in at a processing center in North Carolina but that was the last records they had of them.  The processing center itself had been lost in the first wave of the Brotherhood crossing the North Carolina border.

The man patted Kyler awkwardly on the shoulder and left.  A stone-faced Kyler sat back down in the large chair and considered what to do.  He knew they couldn’t be dead.  That was a family of survivors.  If there was any way possible to make it then they’d show up.  If they didn’t show up, then he wouldn’t get on the boat either.  He wasn’t leaving without her.

He wasn’t going to do them any good sitting in his room.  He left and found the man who’d told him the family hadn’t checked in yet.  Using his new officer status Kyler got himself walked down to the operations center.  In the center they had banks of monitors showing views from drones and CCTV from all over the city.  Kyler set down in the back of the room and busied himself studying each of the monitors looking for any sign of Caitlyn and her family.

Chapter 35:  When You’re Going Through Hell

“Turn down a side street.  We need to lose that truck we’re behind before it stops and spews out a platoons worth of men or something.”  Bryan ordered Phil.

Phil turned off the highway at the next off ramp leading into the city proper.  Driving past piles of the dead Bryan began to regret his decision.  The windows in the RV had taken a lot of abuse.  Most of them were cracked if they were even still there.  The smell of the rotting flesh coming from the piles of the dead was overwhelming.  Phil sped up to try and get past it.

A Zombie that’d been eating the leathery flesh off one of the cadavers saw the RV coming and immediately sprinted straight for them.  Phil slowed down in the hopes that the sprinter would choose to go around the RV and attack from one of the sides.  This one turned out to be one of the adrenalized ones who had more of a dive right in approach to hunting.  The sprinter put on a burst of speed and leapt headfirst into the windshield directly in front of Phil.  The weakened windshield gave way and the Zombie tumbled into Phil’s lap.

Phil wasn’t having any of that.  He jumped to the side and out of the driver’s seat.  Bryan had already pulled out a knife and was standing up to strike the Zombie.  The Zombie tried to jump for Phil but was stuck on the steering wheel.  The Zombies foot pressed down hard on the accelerator. The RV sped up before crashing into the corpse covered wall of a CVS.  They all felt the way the RV tried to climb the drift of the dead before losing the battle with momentum and gravity.  The RV fell over settling on its side.

Randy and Kelly weren’t impacted too badly by the fall.  They were sitting at a table on the side of the RV that fell to the ground.  They smashed into the ground but didn’t get knocked out or anything.  Up in front of them they heard screeching followed by a death rattle.  Bryan had stayed focused through the accident and taken care of the infected that’d caused it.  Randy followed Kelly towards the back to check on the girls.  They’d stayed hidden in the back bedroom to avoid anyone wondering why kids were running around in the RV.

Kelly and Randy kicked the crawling into high gear when they heard some quickly stifled screaming coming from the back.  Climbing through the door into the sideways back bedroom they instantly saw what the screaming was about.  The kids had all ended up on the side of the RV that the windows had been shot out of.  The side lying in the big pile of dead people the RV had rolled over on.  The girls were wading in a putrid pool of partially decomposed body parts.  The smell in the room was enough to make Randy dry heave a few times.  He could only imagine what it was like for Zoey and the rest of the girls to be wading in that muck.

Without hesitation he dove straight down to join them.  Completely grossed out he started handing the terrified girls up one at a time to Kelly who was handing them back to Bryan and Phil. They were using the towels from the bathroom to wipe the most disgusting bits and pieces off of the girls.  All the noise would of course attract more Zombies.  They knew they had to hurry, or they risked the RV becoming their tomb.  Randy boosted Caitlyn and Myriah out then stretched to pull himself up into the hallway.  In the main area of the RV Kelly had taken over cleaning off the girls.

Phil waved for Randy and Bryan to come up to the front where he was looking out the busted windshield at a small group of the infected sniffing around.  For them to take the infected out they’d need to hop over the seat and crawl through all the broken safety glass to even get in the fight.  By the time they made all that noise the infected would be all over them.  They could just shoot them but that’d only attract more which would ensure they never got out of there.  Stumped over the logistics of trying to get to the enemy it was Randy who came up with the solution.

He pulled Phil and Bryan down behind the seat to tell them his plan.  With them staring at him he quickly mimed dropping something in the front seat to make some noise then killing the infected from behind the safety of the seat when they came to investigate.  Each of them pulled out the longest bladed weapon they had and waited for Randy to start tossing junk in the front seat.  Bryan was still stuck in a daydream of just shooting the infected from a safe distance with a crossbow when Randy tossed a throw pillow up front.

The pillow bounced off the remaining glass in the windshield and fell to the ground.  The remaining glass in the window vibrated momentarily then crashed to the ground.  The resulting cacophony of breaking glass sounded like an avalanche tearing through a cymbal factory to the men used to moving in absolute silence.  Randy had pantomimed the infected walking over curiously until close enough for them to strike.  He’d pictured striking them as the infected were looking the other way after curiously staring at the throw pillow for a moment.

In reality the five Zombies outside reacted to the glass breaking by instantly throwing themselves through the missing windshield and trying to claw their way deeper into the RV.  Randy grabbed the tall lithe infected woman whose hand had grabbed his face and threw her on the ground.  She began wriggling her way backwards towards where the children were.  He jumped on her back riding her like a tourist in Jamaica on the back of a reluctant dolphin.  She squirmed this way and that trying to get at him while he tried his best to beat her to death with his elbow since he’d dropped his machete when she touched his face.

Caitlyn appeared out of nowhere with a hatchet.  Randy locked the dolphin like infected woman into  a tight headlock and leaned back to give Caitlyn a target.  Caitlyn swung the hatchet resolutely striking the woman in the head.  She swung a few times and the woman stopped her squirming.  Randy grabbed the hatchet from Caitlyn and turned to help on the front line.

It was bedlam in the front of the RV.  Phil and Bryan were whacking away at the screaming infected trying to clamber over the seats to get at them.  They were doing a lot of damage and had put several of the infected out of commission, but it looked like more may have shown up.  Body parts and blood.  Screeching and war cries.  Randy waded into the mess to stand with his friends who were risking their lives for him and his children.

It was like using hedge clippers to try and chip away at a hedge made of really thick branches that were waving in the wind and trying to grab you.  Randy swung at every infected he could reach with the hatchet.  He pulled his arm back each time praying none of the infected had been able to get their teeth into him.  They held the line fighting like that for what felt like forever.  Then there was quiet.

They ducked back behind the seat breathing hard.  Covered in blood.  Hearts pounding in their chests.  Each of them taking the time to check their arms and hands to make sure they didn’t have any suspicions looking cuts.  Kelly came up and poured peroxide all over them.  They had no idea if that helped or not, but it probably wouldn’t hurt.  Weightlifting gloves and long sleeve shirts had become all the rage among the survivors who constantly found themselves battling the infected in close quarters.

Bryan slowly stood up to look out the front window to see if the path was clear now.  They’d obscured the view with a layer of the bloody dead, so he had to stand up on his tiptoes to get a good look.  He stayed up for a few seconds then squatted back down.  They all looked towards him hopefully preparing to leave.

Bryan held up his finger in a shushing gesture then held up both hands with all his fingers held up twice.  It was their silent communication signal for a buttload of Zombies.  Randy sat down on the body of the dead girl.  Looking back behind him he signaled to Kelly to keep everyone extremely quiet.  She took that signal to mean they were surrounded, and the slightest noise could get them all killed.  She picked up Doreen and sat with her in her lap stroking her hair.

Tears of frustration did their best to escape his eyes.  Randy wanted nothing more than to jump over the seat and mow down every Zombie in their path.  They didn’t have time for this.  After everything they’d been through, he wasn’t going to let them die this close to the finish line.  He could see the desperation in Bryan and Phil as well.  Phil looked at them then crawled carefully back to where his pack was.  He pulled out a layer of clothes and junk before pulling out a plastic grocery bag.  He crawled back over and handed the bag to Bryan.

Bryan opened up the bag and his eyes got a little bigger.  He turned the bag so Randy could see it.  Kelly was looking over curiously, but Randy grabbed the bag before she could see what was in it.  He pretended he hadn’t noticed her looking.  What the men in the front of the RV were now thinking was not a plan that Kelly would endorse in a million years.  It was a desperate last attempt to survive.  It was going to be loud and bloody and completely stupid.  It was the Tim the Tool Man Taylor Zombie escape plan.

They were surrounded.  They had a bag full of grenades.  They’d toss them and see what happened.  The quiet takedown hadn’t worked so now they were going to go in the complete opposite direction.  Kelly saw all three of them pulling grenades out and getting ready to throw them.  Randy turned and shrugged his shoulders.

“I love you all.”  Randy said loudly and clearly.

He pulled the pin and tossed the first grenade as far out as he could.  Phil and Bryan followed suit.  The infected had rushed the RV on hearing Randy speak out loud.  That added layers of Zombie flesh to the protection they were already getting from the seats in the front of the RV.  It was an unintended consequence of what Randy had done but love literally protected them in this case.

The grenades exploded sending metal fragments into the tightly packed flesh in front of the RV.  Knowing this would attract the other infected to the front of the RV they paused for a few seconds after the first round of grenades exploded then repeated the exercise.  The muffled thumps of the grenades going off told them the plan may actually be working.  They still had enough grenades left for one more round.  They counted to three and did it again.  They were all deaf at this point anyway so why not.  They were going to have to make a run for it and the grenades were heavy.

The final salvo of grenades went off.  The three men jumped over the corpse covered front seats and slithered through the mountain of dead and wounded.  They shot anything they saw that was still moving to avoid getting bitten and established a perimeter quickly.  Guns were out.  Noise didn’t matter anymore.  Violence and motion were going to get them out of this.  They’d been humping pounds of ammunition around the country for forever.  Now was the time to use every ounce of it.

Kelly and the girls climbed out behind them.  Bryan and Phil were shooting the infected that were continuing to show up to investigate all the noise.

“We’ve got to go!”  Bryan yelled.  He may have meant to just say it loudly, but it came out a scream since he was pretty much deaf at this point.

Randy saw Caitlyn looking at the men shooting their rifles and nodded at her.  They weren’t trying to be quiet any more.  It was time to rock.  Weapons out they blasted their way down the street.  Single shots were taken as much as possible.  Center of mass was the rule of the day.  The infected may still be alive and snapping at them but they were doing it from the ground where they could easily be avoided.  The ones that kept coming got rewarded with extra metal to the head.

Doreen was riding Kelly’s arm with her eyes buried in her mom’s shoulder.  Kelly had her pistol in her other hand and a ferocious look in her eyes.  A Valkyrie protecting her young. Myriah, Zoey, Caitlyn and Ali were moving along together.  Alternatively holding hands with the littles in between blasting away at any infected that got too close.  It was getting to be too much.  The noise they were making was attracting a lot of infected.  If there hadn’t already been a concerted effort to clear the city out, they would’ve been overwhelmed and devoured before they’d made it a single city block.

They broke out of the street they’d been running down and into the parking lot of a shopping center.  They ran across the lot towards the broken windows in the front of a large clothes store.  Randy and Caitlyn scooping up Zoey and Ali to allow everyone to run flat out.  The crowd of infected chasing them was now well over a hundred strong.  Without skipping a step, they all made the leap through the broken store front and sprinted for the back of the store.

Running through the back they went out the door leading to the loading dock and ran straight into the ditch on the other side of the concrete.  They ran up the ditch on the other side fighting their way through weeds and briars and mud.  Behind them a Zombie got lucky and opened the door by running straight into the push bar.  That one fell down but a string of other infected rushed out the door catching sight of them fleeing into the ditch.  The screeches picked up and were answered from all around.

Randy led them across the road and underneath a yellow barrier blocking the access to a road into a park with overgrown baseball fields in it.  They ran up the narrow road as fast as they could all move.  In the rear Bryan and Phil thought about switching to blades and bats but hesitated on seeing there were still a good fifty Zombies in pursuit.  They turned and began firing at the leaders of the group.  They were jogging backwards protecting the rest of the group from being overrun.

A small maintenance building up ahead had a carport with golf carts chained to it.  Randy ran that way hoping they’d be able to free the carts and use those to outrun their pursuers.  Behind them he heard the team go full auto on their pursuers.  That wasn’t a good sign.  He set Zoey down and started banging away on the chains trying to free the carts.  A minute later Bryan joined him.  Phil was standing at the edge of the concrete pad slinging a steady stream of high-powered lead at their pursuers.

“These don’t work!”  Bryan yelled.  He’d hopped in the golf cart to see if the thing would even run.  He didn’t want to die trying to unchain them if they didn’t even work.

Randy stopped chopping at the chain and stood up lost as to what to do.

A white pickup truck sporting the logo of the local parks and recreation crew came around the corner with Kelly at the wheel.  Ali, Doreen and Myriah were sitting up front on the bench seat with her.  Everyone else immediately ran to jump in the back.  Bryan and Phil stayed back to cover them while Randy helped Caitlyn and Zoey get in.

Zombies were encroaching from every direction when Randy banged on the roof and yelled for Kelly to drive.  Phil was still only hallway in the bed of the truck with Phil and Caitlyn holding on to him to keep him from flying out as Kelly floored the accelerator to get them away from the infected coming at them from every direction.  The pickup flew off the concrete drive and tore through the overgrown baseball field as Kelly navigated away from the Zombies.  Driving dangerously fast through the weeds without being able to see if they may be about to hit something, she aimed for the dirt service road on the other side of the field.

Phil had just gotten tugged into the bed of the truck when Kelly jumped a ditch completely obscured by weeds.  Hitting the hidden ditch rocketed the truck across the small service road in a completely uncontrolled skid that ended with them slammed up sideways against a huge oak tree.  Phil was thrown out of the truck.  Everyone else had managed to hang on although they all got banged up.

Phil hopped to his feet and ran for the pickup truck.  Bryan and Randy were up and shooting anything that looked vaguely Zombie like in the general area to cover him.  Due to the crash their accuracy was seriously suspect, but Phil made it back into the truck bed without being bitten or shot which was the ultimate goal.  He jumped in and Randy beat on the roof again.  Kelly pressed down on the accelerator, but they didn’t move.  The engine revved up loudly and the wheels spun like crazy.

Phil and Bryan jumped out and began pushing the truck.  Randy joined them after handing Caitlyn his rifle.  Caitlyn stood in the back shooting at anything she saw running towards them.  The three men pushed hard enough to get the truck levered off the massive root it’d been stuck on.  Caitlyn lost her footing and fell off the back of the truck.  She fell while still firing at the infected she’d seen coming through the field behind them.  One of her stray bullets smashed into Phil’s shoulder as he pushed the truck.

Phil went down on the ground holding his shoulder.  Randy and Bryan danced around trying to catch Caitlyn without also eating a bullet from the rifle she was still firing as she fell.  They caught her and threw her back in the truck.  Once they had her taken care of, they bent down and helped Phil get his wounded butt up in the truck.  He was clutching his shoulder and giving Caitlyn an annoyed look.  At least he was until he turned to sit down and saw the six freshly dead infected Caitlyn must’ve shot while falling off the back of the truck.

Kelly drove down the service road swerving to avoid the infected until it shot them out on a paved road once again.  Infected were everywhere.  Kelly floored it to take them through a gas station parking lot onto another street to escape the herd closing in around them.  The truck died.  She desperately tried to restart it, but it was dead.  They rolled into the side of the gas station and came to a stop.  Bryan yelled for everyone to get out.  He ran over to the front door of the gas station expecting it to be locked.  Turning the handle on a whim the door opened up for him.

Bryan flung open the door and turned to shoot the infected coming at them while everyone else ducked inside the gas station.  Bryan heard shots from behind him that told him the gas station had some infected in it already.  Looking up he saw a metal screen that could be pulled down to cover the front door.  He pulled it down.  A second after he pulled it down the infected started slamming into it from the other side.  Randy and Phil joined him to try to figure out how to secure the damned thing.  It was supposed to be locked down from the outside.  The three of them squatted down to hold it in place manually.  The infected screamed and slammed into the metal covering inches in front of their faces.

Inside the store Kelly stepped over the dead bodies of the three they’d killed to secure the store.  She found some novelty flashlights near the counter and handed them out to the girls so they could see.  She went to check on the men and saw the predicament they were in.  They were going to have to sit there holding the metal screen to keep it from being forced up.  It was a battle they’d eventually lose to the massive mob outside.

She sat down behind Randy and put her arms around him. Kissing him softly on the neck she told him she loved him.  They’d made a good run for it, but it seemed like this was going to be how their story ended.  The pounding on the metal screen was starting to bend it.  Hands were being shoved in the space on the bottom from the other side.  Kelly took a knife and sawed the fingers off the hands being shoved under, but it was a losing battle.  Caitlyn and Myriah joined her in trying to slow the infected down enough for a miracle to happen.

The metal screen rocked backwards with the force of a massive explosion.  Another blast followed shortly afterwards.  The sound of a large caliber machine gun firing filled the air.  Kelly threw her body across the girls.  The metal screen warped enough that a foot worth of space was now open.  The men in the front fought against the sudden incursion of the infected trying to crawl in and get at them.  The incursion slowed then stopped as the sounds of weapons and yelling in the parking lot heated up.

“Don’t shoot me!  We’re here to rescue you!”  Someone yelled from the outside.  They kept yelling it until Bryan acknowledged they wouldn’t shoot them.

A tunnel was cleared through the Zombie corpses and a set of hands appeared under the metal screen.  The yell of please don’t shoot me was heard again then a man in full battle rattle yanked up the screen.

“About time you guys got here.”  The badly scarred man said before he was charged by Caitlyn who gave him a giant hug and kiss. They fell to the ground into a small pile of chopped off fingers submerged in a puddle of blood.

Laughing and smiling Kyler stood up holding Caitlyn’s hand and led them out under the bent metal security shutter to the parking lot where a team of men with some serious weaponry were keeping an entire herd at bay.  They piled into the helicopter and were quickly airborne.  The helicopter bathed in the orangish glow of the setting sun as they flew in the direction of the waiting carrier.

Chapter 36:  We Attack at Dusk

The apocalypse had turned the laws of warfare upside down.  Luckily for the Brotherhood Forrest was a marine.  That meant he was trained to overcome, improvise and adapt.  Minutes after promising Krantz they’d have the carrier making steam for the open ocean by lunchtime he’d realized that wasn’t going to be the optimal approach. Not if one of their objectives was to save as many of their troops and gear as possible for future assaults to expand into other regions.  He realized he had a valid excuse to delay the fighting for at least a day.

On the first status update call he let Krantz know he was delaying going live until dusk.  In case they were being monitored neither of them brought up the fact that this would give the settlements more time to get the carrier out to sea.  Instead they focused on devising tactics that would destroy the settlement army while preserving as much of their own army as possible.  Forrest already suspected Krantz was in silent collusion with him on trying to protect the settlement civilians.  The way he danced around the planning session with Forrest pretty much confirmed it.

All that meant was if something went wrong Sam would have them both executed.  It did make it slightly easier for Forrest thinking he may have some high-level backup for what he was trying to do.  Not that he really knew what he was going to be able to accomplish.  He was walking a tightrope over a pool full of crocodiles.  He knew now that at least he had a safety line, but it was fragile and the man holding it was probably drunk.  Best case he was able to delay everything long enough for the settlements to get their act together and sail away.  No muss no fuss.

It didn’t appear that was going to be happening though.  At this point it was pretty much down to a countdown.  When the sun set all bets would be off.  The day would be spent planning and getting the artillery and other gear into the positions it needed to be in when it was time to attack.  He’d already issued the orders to that effect.  Each major position had access to a radio.  The commands wouldn’t be secure, but it wasn’t like the settlements would have a team of code breakers either.  If they happened to break the simple code being used all they’d be able to use the information for was figuring out that the men surrounding their position were going to keep firing at them and moving forward.

The airport was overrun by the infected around noon.   A few men who hadn’t left soon enough were caught out in the open and killed.  Inside the command hangar everything continued on like normal.  Forrest spent the day monitoring the movement of his troops and reviewing the feeds of live video from the drones they had over the city and port.  The large drones capable of firing weapons were shot down if they ventured too close to the carrier but the smaller drones were left alone.  This told Forrest the carrier was reserving it’s defense systems for serious threats.

There was frantic activity on board the dredging scows.  The ocean for miles around them was cloudy from all the sand being blown up as they worked on cutting a channel that would guarantee the carrier wouldn’t get stuck.  To all appearances it looked like the settlement folk were really trying to get the hell out of dodge.  They just needed more time.

That suspicion was confirmed when a message was hurriedly delivered to Forrest.  He scanned it then read the transcript out loud to Krantz.  Starting in the afternoon they’d stopped bothering to disconnect the video conference sessions between updates.  The crux of it was that the commander of the settlement forces, a captain named Hartfield, was letting them know he didn’t want to fight them.  They were preparing to weigh anchor as soon as the channel was dredged enough for them to get out.  He’d happily cede them the territories the settlement had claimed in exchange for them giving him another few hours to sail away. The message also informed them that there were thousands of innocent civilians on board.

Krantz had immediately reached out to Sam and been told that both Sam and the Senator were currently unavailable.  Considering that news they had nothing they could do but wait.  Forrest was refilling his coffee cup for the umpteenth time that day while Krantz was reading through some reports when Jenkins burst in the room to let Krantz know the Senators helicopter was requesting permission to land.  Idly wondering if he was about to be executed Krantz asked how come Jenkins hadn’t already given the Senator permission to land.  It wasn’t like the man actually needed their blessing.

Jenkins turned and jogged out of the room.  Krantz sat there looking worried and amused at the same time.  Forrest watched over the video feed as Krantz dumped a shot of whiskey into his coffee then took one directly out of the flask before tucking it back into his jacket.  The Senator walked into the room with two of his personal guard taking up positions on either side of the door.  Sam walked in behind him and took a seat at the end of the table immediately opening up her laptop and getting to work.  After a quick round of handshaking and an introduction of Forrest over video to the Senator everyone else sat down as well.

The Senator asked what the current status was and Krantz filled him in with some questions being passed along to Forrest to answer.  When they were done the Senator leaned back in his chair considering it all.  With his made for TV face and artfully tousled salt and pepper hair the man looked like a movie star auditioning for the part of a billionaire who sailed yachts around the world as a hobby.

“We have them surrounded with heavy artillery and are just waiting for the sun to go down to attack.  Correct?”  The Senator asked.

“Yes sir.  They just reached out with a message to us that they fully intend to sail away as soon as the channel dredging is complete.”  Krantz reminded the Senator.  The Senator seemed annoyed to be reminded of that fact.

“How much longer until the sun sets?”  He asked.  Forrest consulted his notes.  They’d actually planned on giving the command to open fire about two minutes ago.  He’d been able to delay more thanks to the Senators sudden appearance and the communique from Hartfield.

“The sun’s set sir.  We’re waiting to see if the carrier is able to move out yet or not sir.”  Forrest answered.

“Why are you waiting commander?  Our orders were to attack when ready and it appears that everything is ready now, correct?”  The Senator asked.

“Yes sir.”  Forrest said gulping.  Here it came.

“Sound the attack then commander.  We won’t let the enemy dictate our tactics to us.”  The Senator said smugly.  Sam leaned forward in her chair attentively.  She was excited to see the fruition of her work to get all the artillery and everything in place.

Forrest hesitated and glanced at Krantz.

“Is there a problem commander?”  Sam asked loudly.  “The Senator just ordered you to sound the attack.”

Behind Forrest multiple men waited to issue the orders that would initiate the attack.  One of them shifted around in his seat to make sure he had easy access to his pistol in case Sam gave him the assassination command.  He could see now why she’d been uncomfortable trusting that the man hand selected by Krantz would be an order taker.  The man sat there listening for the code phrase that’d put the assassination into play.  It was too bad really since he kind of liked the grumpy old marine.

Krantz shot Sam.  The room erupted into pandemonium at the loud sound of the gunshot.  The two guards by the door immediately pulled up the barrels of their Uzis and sent a hailstorm of bullets at Krantz.  Krantz was already under the conference room table though.  From there he shot the Senator multiple times in the legs and crotch until he fell to the floor.  Krantz and the Senator made eye contact.  Krantz put a hole right in the handsome face that’d caused so much misery.

He rolled backwards away from the conference room table and popped up to engage the guards by the door.  They were both already lying motionless on the ground by the door in slowly spreading pools of blood.  Looking around the room he saw Tom with his pistol still clutched in his hand in the corner with blood soaking the sleeve of his shirt.  The man had come through for him big time.  Hoping Tom lived Krantz rushed into the hall doing his best to look completely mental and yelled out there’d been an attempt on the Senator’s life.  The rest of the bodyguards had already stacked up along the door.  They started to rush in when Krantz started shooting them.  It was convenient how they’d lined up so nicely for him.

Krantz ordered Jenkins to get the mess cleaned up and get Tom taken care of.  When asked what to do with the Senators body he told them to feed it to the infected.  The Senator had ruled through coercion and threats.  He wasn’t loved.  He was feared.  Krantz began reaching out to the ones he knew were loyal to him.  The ones he’d seen roll their eyes at the madness the Senator ordered.  He had to make this coup happen fast if it was going to happen smoothly.

Back in the conference room he looked at a very confused group of men.  Forrest and all the operators behind him were staring at the live video feed where they’d just watched Krantz and Tom take out the Senator and Sam.

“I’m in command now.  I’m declaring martial law in all Brotherhood territories.”  Krantz stated to the shocked room.  Forrest recovered quickly.

“Orders sir?”  He asked.

“First, relay to Captain Hartfield my compliments and inform him he has twenty-four hours to finish dredging and leave.  He’d never believe us if we said he could just stay.  Next, start packing up.  I want one battalion left there to secure the air station once the carrier sails away.  Otherwise return to our territories.  We have some camps to liberate and a few battalions worth of men will come in handy if some of these commanders don’t want to get on board with the regime change.”  Forrest answered.

“Sounds good sir.  Thank you, sir!”  Forrest said with a heartfelt salute.

Krantz disconnected the call having full faith Forrest would execute his orders.  He was also certain enough of Forrest’s loyalty that he knew the man would execute anyone who tried to get in the way.  He was going to need more men like Forrest.  Men who were compassionate warriors.  Men who’d do their best to do the right thing even in the middle of the whole world falling apart around them.  He’d take those men and they’d glue this messed up world back together one piece at a time.

He took the flask out of his pocket and tossed it into the closest trash can.  There was plenty of stress coming his way but for the first time in a long time he felt good about what he was doing.  He’d let hope be his new addiction.

He walked out of the conference room drunk with hope.  He wondered if it’d kill him faster than the booze would’ve.

Epilogue:  Haze Grey and Underway

Less than a week later Caitlyn and Kyler stood together on the bow of the massive aircraft carrier.  Randy scowled and Kelly smiled as they watched the pair sweetly holding hands as they cruised to the anchorage off the coast of the Virgin Islands.  The infrastructure on the islands should enable them to hook up the aircraft carrier reactors to the electrical infrastructure to turn the lights back on island wide.  The remote islands seeded like the perfect place to begin rebuilding.  The entire population had been killed off by the infection so they had a lot of clearing to do before they could actually move onto the island.  There was a lot of work to be done but it felt good to have an end goal in sight that wasn’t just survival.

Up on the bridge Captain Hartfield signed off the conversation he’d been having with Commander Krantz.  The two agreed they should work together to build a better world.  Krantz had agreed that Hartfield controlled the Caribbean and could even venture down to Central America if the mood struck him.  From all accounts the infection had cut through the population there with no mercy.  The only survivors being the fiefdoms that’d sprung up under the control of ruthless drug traffickers.  Looking the bay around him at the other aircraft carrier, the two huge cruise ships, the small group of submarines and the sail powered USCG Eagle the Captain wasn’t overly worried about some third world drug runners.

Krantz had let Hartfield know that while the adrenalized infected seemed to be becoming more common the quiet ones were starting to become very prevalent.  It was a good indicator the virus was finally burning out it’s hosts.

Looking down at the young couple holding hands on the bow Hartfield felt a surge of emotion.  He was excited for the future.  He was committed to rolling up his sleeves and building out a new kind of civilization.  He wasn’t exactly sure what that looked like yet, but he knew that the Phoenix that rose out of these ashes needed to do better this time or it might not rise again.  He reached up and flipped on the ships intercom.

“All hands to stations.  Prepare to drop anchor.  I’d like to be the first to welcome you all to the rest of your lives.  Let’s make them count.”

Author’s Note

One month and counting until a new Merritt will be entering the world.  A world that’s turned the evening news into the first few minutes of most Zombie movies.  A world where a pandemic ranges seemingly unchecked, racial tensions are flaring up and a huge economic crisis is looming.  It’s like the world is trying to force itself over the precipice if you believe the nightly newscasters.  I choose instead to believe in the unfailing greatness of the human spirit.  I choose to believe the world is a beautiful place full of mystery and love.  A place we’re all blessed to be living in no matter the challenges.  While there’s life there’s hope.

Otherwise not a lot going on here.  Same as everyone else stuck at home.  It’s a major adventure going out to eat dinner.  I especially enjoy the dirty looks when my five-year-old decides that masks suck!

I hope all of you are holding up well in this weird and wacky world.  Thank you so much for reading these books!  If you have some free time and are in a giving mood, please go back and hook me up with some stars and let me know what you thought of the different books.  This is the end of this adventure but a new one has already been begging to get out of my head and be put on paper for the last few months.  I’m excited to jump in and get it on paper for us all to experience!

Other Series by R S Merritt

Need more Zombies?  Check out the Zournal series:

The Zournal Series

Looking for something a little different?  Try the Son of the Keeper Series.

Son of the Keeper

Table of Contents

- Zombies!
- Chapter 1: There and Back Again
- Chapter 2: Iron Man
- Chapter 3: The South Will Rise Again
- Chapter 4: Suicide Mission
- Chapter 5: Island Life
- Chapter 6: The Hub
- Chapter 7: Secrets Within Secrets

- Chapter 8: In Hindsight I’d Have Put All My Chips on Red

- Chapter 9: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
- Chapter 10: Capture the Flag or Die
- Chapter 11: Back to Reality
- Chapter 12: The Kill Zone
- Chapter 13: Fool Me Once
- Chapter 14: Back on Solid Ground
- Chapter 15: Dead Serious Small Talk
- Chapter 16: Squirrel Kabob
- Chapter 17: Willy Wonka’s Wild Ride
- Chapter 18: Bits and Bytes
- Chapter 19: All Aboard
- Chapter 20: Scars, Walking and Whiskey
- Chapter 21: The Front Lines
- Chapter 22: Loco Locomotive
- Chapter 23: Second Wind
- Chapter 24: Tightening the Noose
- Chapter 25: Fish in a Barrel
- Chapter 26: A Short Time to Get there
- Chapter 27: A Vicious Cycle
- Chapter 28: Isn’t It Ironic
- Chapter 29: Hiding in Plain Sight
- Chapter 30: Theirs but to Do and Die
- Chapter 31: The Last Mile
- Chapter 32: On the Road Again

- Chapter 33: Attacking the Armpit of Virginia

- Chapter 34: Made it Back, Again…
- Chapter 35: When You’re Going Through Hell
- Chapter 36: We Attack at Dusk
- Epilogue: Haze Grey and Underway
- Author’s Note
- Other Series by R S Merritt