Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family (6 page)

BOOK: Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family
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If the dead had come to kill the woman, then they had come to stop that.

*****

Back at the MC-130 and the nearby hangars Kate’s loadmaster Logan was working with Dale, the flight engineer on getting a fuel truck they found started. The two men found it tucked just inside the open hangar door, and if their guess was right, it had enough fuel to get them to the group’s next destination, the Azores.

Dale was under the dash of the aging truck, twisting wires together in an unsuccessful attempt to get the truck started. “Goddamn it man. I am not from fucking Detroit. I don’t know how to hotwire a fucking truck.”

“Make it happen dude,” Logan said from the inside of the hangar, a few feet away. The crewman stood, hefting the weight of his M4, watching diligently for any signs of movement in the growing light of dawn. Logan turned slightly, looking deep into the back of the hangar, and caught a sign of movement in the shadows. He lifted the barrel of his rifle up and thumbed the button on the fore grip, turning on the powerful light attached to one of the weapon's rails. Immediately he wished he hadn’t. Coming out of the door of an office in the back of the hangar, less than a hundred feet away was a small stream of undead. He didn’t count them, but he knew there were over a dozen. They fanned out, forming a frightening line of danger.

Logan quickly dropped into a crouch, and lined the red dot of his AimPoint up and hollered out to Dale, “Contact Dale, step the fuck up brother!” As soon as he finished his warning, he began to fire.
 

*****

Kevin held on tight to the roll bars in the back of the Toyota as the sun rose behind him. It seemed like the sun was screaming its way up into the sky. Only seconds ago it seemed like they were in the darkness and now he could see the danger they were in quite well. Combat was like that though. Time moves strangely when you feel like you’re about to die.
 

The veteran operator looked out over the massive gathering of undead that was strangely ignoring the two vehicles he and his men were speeding past them in. They’d finally rounded the front edge of the teeming mass and were ripping down the terrain to get past them to the woman. It would be a tight race. The difference in whether or not they made it to the woman would be in parts of a second.
 

Kevin could see her now. She was tall, with golden, tanned skin and hair to match. She was dirty, and wore clothing that had seen much better days. Her sand colored shirt was nearly the color of mud from the earth that had collected on it over an unknown amount of time. Despite how filthy she was, Kevin was struck by her strong posture, and her beauty in the face of incredible danger.

The woman stood with her legs rooted in place, shoulder width apart. Her eyes were closed, and her hands balled up into fists at her side. She had elegant features, and Kevin watched, completely fascinated as her mouth moved rhythmically, chanting or praying.
She doesn't look to be the religious type, Kevin
thought, but what did he know about that anyway?
 

Kevin tore his eyes away from her and thumbed his safety reflexively from full auto to semi. He wanted accurate fire for this. After he did that, he keyed his throat mic, and talked to the rest of the men in the vehicles. “We put the trucks in between her and the dead people. All guns on that side open up to drop the front line of those fuckers as fast as possible. She gets in, or we knock her the fuck out and put her in. I’ll deal with her. Roger that?”

All the men responded in the affirmative, and the trucks dove sideways as they rounded the corner of the leading edge of the undead. The truck tires skidded powerfully in the loose terrain as the special operations men struggled to keep the vehicles on track. The ass end of the rear vehicle, Kevin’s truck, came out, and they nearly did a complete 180, but Ethan’s superior driving skills won the moment, and the truck righted itself, losing only a few feet on the lead truck.

When the Toyota slowed for that moment, Kevin used the relative calm to snap off a few shots at the tip of the undead spear near the woman. He managed to drop a few of the walking dead, simultaneously bringing the woman back to reality. Her head spun in the direction of the twin trucks, and Kevin caught a wild eyed smile cross her face. In that instant, he knew she was expecting them all along. Kevin couldn’t help but smile as well. He felt vindicated.

The two trucks crossed the front line of the undead in just moments and came to a rough stop directly between her and the mob. Jaden opened the door of his truck and immediately rested the barrel of his rifle on the window frame. Within a heartbeat, he was sending round after round into the faces and heads of the Moroccan dead. People who didn't duck were easy to shoot. Their bodies tumbled to the ground like bloody dominos. In the front of Kevin’s truck Roger, another of Jaden’s men, did the same. In the time it took to wipe your nose they had dropped twenty of the zombies and weren't stopping there. Kevin’s heart soared. They had a chance.

The white capped warrior leapt off the side of the truck and landed directly next to one of the three fires that he had seen from the air what seemed like forever ago. They looked tiny up close in the dawn light. The blonde woman stood in the center of the three fires, smiling at him. She looked half lost in disbelief, and half in shock.

Kevin pointed at the back of the truck and yelled at her. This was no time to be vague. “GO! GET IN THE TRUCK!” he yelled, pointing at the Toyota's bed.

The blonde woman nodded emphatically and ran past Kevin, climbing over the side of the truck with surprising strength and agility. Kevin was dimly aware that the lady carried the scent of a flower with her as she went by. In the chaos, that comforted him. Immediately after registering the scent, he leapt over the same side of the truck, lifted his rifle and opened up into the crowd. Once he’d dropped the reaching and grasping front line of undead less than ten feet away, he thumbed his mic once more, “MOVE! WE GOT HER!”

Jaden and Roger slammed the doors of their trucks and the drivers threw them into gear, tossing dirt everywhere as the old clutches engaged. The two pickups roared off, undead scratching the paint as they reached out with hungry, skeletal fingers. The trucks picked up speed rapidly, cresting the leading edge once more of the enormous pack of undead. The lead truck, Jaden’s truck, took the corner fast and wide, and something went terribly wrong.

Kevin didn’t see what precisely triggered it, but when the truck took the turn it must’ve hit something buried just under the surface. The back tires of the pickup were swinging wide, and judging by how the truck rolled, they might’ve caught a rock. The tough as nails old Toyota began tumbling in a barrel roll, counterclockwise. In abject horror Kevin watched as his friend Jaden was ejected forcefully out the window and up in the air, high enough to twist end over end before coming down directly in the path of the violently tumbling vehicle.

“NOOOoooOO!!!” Kevin screamed from the depth of his soul as the truck rolled directly over the prone form of the team leader. Ethan immediately stopped turning their truck, and blasted straight forward the seventy feet to the now upside down truck. Directly in front of the wreckage lay Jaden, hyperventilating, staring into the sky and clutching at the ruined mess of his left leg. Mercifully the truck had only smashed the limb and not his entire body. Kevin saw shards of bone protruding in several places through bright red blood, fat and muscle.

Kevin launched out of the truck as the two men in the front emptied out. Ethan took over immediately, and began to give instructions, “Kevin suppress. Roger assist me.”
 

Without thinking Kevin obeyed the medic's command and dropped to a knee. He started to light up the oncoming zombies before he realized what he was doing. He squeezed the trigger until he felt the bolt lock back, then changed his magazine in the blink of an eye and did it again. He did this for what felt like forever, but it might've only been thirty seconds. At some point in the fight he realized the woman in the truck was screaming. He stopped and looked at her for a moment, and realized she was absorbing the horror of combat for the first time. Kevin wondered how badly it would scar her. He’d have to figure it out later. He turned back to his biggest problem, and continued to fire.

Less than a minute later he heard Jaden scream lowly, in a brutal and guttural tone that made Kevin’s stomach wobble. He stole a glance over his shoulder and saw the two PJs had managed to immobilize the mangled mess of his leg, and had got an IV into him. The two airmen had gotten him up onto his one good foot and were dragging him to the back of the truck as Jaden fired over Ethan’s shoulder. Kevin noticed in the back of his mind that the shots Jaden were letting fly were still accurate despite his ruined leg and the pain he must've been in. He couldn’t believe how superhuman these men were.

The two operators got their hurt leader into the back of the truck as the fourth man in their team fired over the hood of the Toyota, assisting Kevin in keeping the mass of rotting, marching flesh at bay. His name was Joel, and Kevin saw he had a gash across his face that exposed his cheekbone and teeth. The man paid no attention to his own wounds, and was fixated on laying down fire for his brothers. In the flashes of gunfire Kevin could see Joel’s weapon was covered in his own blood. Kevin felt his eyes water as his emotions ran raw.

Ethan barked as he got back into the driver’s seat of the one remaining upright Toyota, “We are mobile!” Joel got into the front of the truck with his ruined face and bloody rifle as Roger leapt into the back to continue rendering aid to the fallen warrior. Kevin scrambled back into the truck next to the woman and two airmen. As soon as they were half secure, Ethan threw the truck in gear and they were gone. The blonde watched the whole of it, screaming through the hand she held over her mouth.

As they sped back towards the safety of the huge bird that brought them there, all Kevin could hear was Roger repeating the same words over and over to his grievously injured boss, “I can fix this. I can fix this. I can fix this.”

“I can fix this.”

But Kevin knew he couldn’t.

The heat of the Moroccan sun was growing in intensity.

*****

Logan swapped the magazine on his rifle and continued to fire into the office doorway as the undead poured out. It was like the little Dutch boy had yanked his thumb back and the dam was leaking out undead. He took a moment and spoke into the microphone on his headset, “Hey out there, we need a hand in the hangar, there’s a shitload of the bastards coming out of the woodwork in here and Dale can’t get the fucking fuel truck started.”

“FUCK YOU LOGAN!” Dale yelled from the truck’s interior.

Kyle came back over the radio immediately, “Enroute. Eta thirty seconds.”

Logan breathed a sigh of relief and went back to firing. He looked over at Dale, still under the dash of the old truck, still trying to cross wires in a vain attempt to get it started. He could hear Dale cursing at full volume, even over his deafening gunfire in the huge airplane bay. Just as he smiled at the ridiculousness of their plight, he heard a second gun come into play from behind him. Over his shoulder Kyle was firing now, and with the increased rate of fire for even just a few seconds, the river of dead bodies came to a screeching halt.

“What the fuck is going on in here? Why isn’t this pig started?” Kyle asked as he dipped the barrel of his rifle, taking a moment to ask the question.

“Don’t ask me, ask the asshole ripping the wiring in the truck apart.” Logan leaned his head towards Dale and went back to firing. More undead were appearing. Kyle snapped off another shot in the growing light coming through the massive tiled windows of the structure, and slid the rifle to his hip. He walked over to the diminutive Dale and grabbed him by the belt, yanking him out of the truck.

“Help your friend, buy me a fucking minute,” Kyle said to him. Dale looked pissed, but Kyle caught a flash of relief to be done with the piece of shit African truck. Dale drew his sidearm, and walked to the front of the truck, assisting Logan by popping off a few rounds.

Within seconds Kyle discovered that Dale had hotwired the radio to the blinkers. He laughed quickly, and freed his Leatherman from its pouch, and snipped the few wires that actually would start the vehicle. Thirty seconds later the diesel truck angrily belched a cloud of black exhaust, and started. The two airmen cheered Kyle, and Kyle grinned, pulling the truck out of the hangar, and towards the hungry plane that desperately needed a meal.

*****

Kate left the cockpit to assist her crew in getting the bird fueled. She was distracted by the constant snapping of gunfire nearby. Harold had grabbed one of the PJ’s sniper rifles and was picking off the leading undead that had turned around and were coming back at them. She was thankful for the fire support, but goddamn that rifle was loud. Each booming shot made her permanently deafer. She did her best to ignore it and hoped the eardrums were tougher than she thought.

As she and the crew got the fuel moving from the truck into her baby, she saw a single truck pull up, filled to the brim with her people. One had failed to return. Kate noticed the leggy golden haired blonde immediately, and her heart skipped a beat.
A pretty girl here in Morocco? This might turn out to be a good day after all.

Her heart sank when she saw poor Jaden carried from the back of the Hilux, fighting a scream the whole way. His left leg was a ruined mess of twisted bone and bloody raw flesh. It looked as if it had been pinned against a wall and one of the trucks had smeared it doing sixty miles an hour. The leg was history. Jaden’s face was a wrinkled mess of agony as his two men carried him into the back of her plane to a cot where they could give him some serious medical care. One of the men helping him, Joel, had his own face slashed open, and was acting as if nothing was wrong. She was thankful for the excessive amount of medical training the PJs got. Each of them was practically a doctor.

BOOK: Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family
4.62Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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