Aliens Versus Zombies (11 page)

After a month of searching for other survivors, Chick Daniels was frustrated.

Since the initial two that Chrissy and Moose recruited, they had found only six others, and three refused to join them. Emphatically. At gunpoint.

Daniels understood the fear and uncertainty. After well over a year of running and hiding from zombies, marauding humans, and now aliens, it was easy to be paranoid of everyone and everything. That didn’t help him in his quest to save as many people as possible.

He stopped and peered around the edge of the building. After a few seconds of watching, he decided that it was clear. He waved Jesse forward.

Just as the two rounded the building, something large and fast appeared on the other side of the structure. It was an alien vehicle whizzing by.

He held out an arm to stop Jesse. The two ducked back around the corner of the building and held their breaths. The aliens fired their sort-of-flamethrower at something ahead, out of the humans’ view. A second vehicle raced past them, just behind the first.

Daniels’ eyes were wide and his chest heaved. Veins pounded in his temples, fueled by adrenaline. That was close. Too close. Had they stepped out from the building a second or two earlier, they would have been toast—literally. Daniels needed to be more careful. It would take only one mistake to get them both killed.

The aliens’ strange vehicles were nearly silent, except for a soft humming that was only audible when they were near, and the whoosh of air caused by their passage. There was no warning that they were in the area—except, occasionally, for the screams of the Zoms they roasted.

Daniels’ people were seeing more and more alien patrols, and they fired at anything that moved. His team had nearly been spotted several times as the aliens suddenly rounded a corner.

They waited another minute to be sure there wasn’t anyone else coming. Then they ran as fast as possible to the warehouse on other side of the street.

The large door sported a padlock. They worked their way around to the side, checking the windows as they went along. The windows were all protected by chain-link fencing welded to a steel frame over the glass. There were no doors on the side, and all the windows were likewise protected.

The back of the building contained eight loading docks. Each dock had a large roll-down door for deliveries, as well as a normal door. The two men took turns trying the doors while the other stood with his gun at the ready. The first six pairs of doors were locked and offered no easy access. The only windows were high up and unreachable.

When Jesse tried the seventh “people door,” the knob turned, but the door didn’t open; it rattled. It wasn’t locked, like the other ones. It felt more like it was secured from the inside with something loose-fitting. Daniels turned the doorknob and pulled the door as much as he could. That created a small crack that he could peer through.

Much of the interior was in shadow; still, there was enough light to make out large equipment: forklifts, tractors, and other things Daniels couldn’t identify. Focusing on the door itself, he made out a 2x4 across the door. “Looks like there’s a board holding it closed.”

He yanked on the door, and again. It rattled, but didn’t give an inch. He stepped back and took a larger view.

There was no way for both men to pull on the door at once. The knob was the only grip point.

“So, how do we get in, Sarge?” Jesse stood there with an expectant look on his face.

“Beats me. Let’s check the last bay before we worry about this one. Maybe the last door’s unlocked.”

It wasn’t.

The two men returned to Bay 7.

“Is it really worth a lot of bother?”

Daniels shrugged. “
Somebody
locked it from the inside. I suppose they could all be dead, but maybe not.”

“True.”

They took another look at the door. Short of taking a power saw to the door, or the hinges,there was no way to force the door open.

Daniels pounded on the door and hollered, “Anyone in there? We just want to talk.” He waited a few seconds. “
Hello-o
, anyone there?”

He waited a bit longer. “Okay, we’re coming in. Don’t shoot. We’re just here to talk.”

Daniels pursed his lips. “I only see one way to get in. You’re not gonna like it.”

“What’s that?”

“Blast our way in—and hope there aren’t any aliens in the area. Of course, if there’s someone inside, he might not be happy to hear us firing weapons. But I don’t see an alternative. Do you?”

Jesse shook his head.

“Okay. This is a metal door, so we don’t want to just start firing at it. There might be ricochets. If I pull the door open as much as possible, there should be just enough room for you to slip the barrel of your rifle into the crack and shoot at the board. It might take a few shots, but it should work.”

“Okay.”

Daniels grabbed onto the knob and pulled with all his strength as Jesse put the tip of the barrel up against the crack.

“Be
really
careful. If that gun slips and you hit the outside of the door, the bullet could go anywhere.”

Jesse nodded. “Yes,
mom
. I understand. Okay, here goes.” He took a deep breath and held it. He steadied the rifle and pulled the trigger.

The door held, but there was an odd sound effect. Outside, the gun made a loud pop. Inside the warehouse, a thunderous echo reverberated.

Daniels pursed his lips. “If there’s anyone inside, that sure got their attention. Did we accomplish anything?”

Jesse peered through the crack as Daniels continued to pull on the knob, pressing one foot against the wall beside the door for leverage. He blew away the smoke that had gathered there. “Yeah, there’s a definite splintering; not a lot, though. I think the edge of the door slowed the bullet down a lot.”

“Okay, try a couple more shots, slightly above and below the first.”

“You got it.”

He aligned the gun again and took a shot, then adjusted the angle, lined it up again and took another shot.

Daniels yanked. Nothing happened. He let go and stepped back, flexing his hands. “Whew, it’s hard work pulling like that. Why don’t you give it a try?”

Jesse nodded and gripped the knob in both hands. He pulled, and was greeted with the sound of splintering. The door moved an inch. Jesse gave Daniels a wry grin.

“Yeah, yeah. I loosened it for you.”

Jesse laughed. “Keep tellin’ yourself that.”

“Again.”

Jesse yanked a second time. The door opened three more inches. There was enough room for Daniels to slip the butt of his rifle through. He pulled it back, ejected the round in the chamber, and slid the stock back through. Holding the barrel, he slammed it down on the board, and again. Then he nodded to Jesse.

This time when Jesse pulled, the door opened with a screech. He closed it again.

Daniels rechambered the round. “I’m left, you’re right. Look for cover. Don’t shoot unless you have to.”

“Right.”

Daniels held up three fingers, then two, then one. Jesse yanked open the door and Daniels ducked through. Jesse followed.

A shot clanged off the inside of the roll-down door behind Chick’s head. The sound of two other ricochets came from Jesse’s direction.

Daniels dove behind a tractor. A bullet hit the cowling above the huge tire he was hiding behind.

“Cease fire, cease fire! We’re just here to talk!” he shouted.

A deep voice came from fifty yards or so ahead, behind a bulldozer blade. There’d be no getting to him through that. “You sure have a funny way of showing it.”

“Hey, we knocked and called out. You didn’t answer. We had no way of knowing if there was even anyone in here. The gunfire was simply to get in the door. If you promise not to shoot, I’ll come out, unarmed, so you can see me.”

“No promises, but you can come out, slowly, with your hands up.”

“Okay.” Daniels leaned his gun against the tire and removed the pistol and knife from the holster on his hip and the thigh sheath. He laid them on the floor and stood up. He removed his backpack and dropped it. Then he raised his hands and stepped out from behind the tractor, feeling naked and exposed.

The others could cut him in half in an instant and there was nothing he could do about it, except trust them.

“Okay, step forward ten paces,” the voice called out.

He did so. It brought him close enough that they could speak without having to shout. It also meant he couldn’t dive for cover, or reach his weapons if they started shooting.

“That’s far enough. Whaddaya wanna talk about?” A rifle barrel peeked out from around the bulldozer blade.

Daniels tried to swallow a suddenly dry throat. “There’s a bunch of us, more than two dozen, living in a secure facility, not more than an hour’s walk from here. We have food, beds, running water, all the comforts of home. We’d like you to join us.”

The other’s voice was tinged with suspicion. “Yeah, and why would you want to do that? What’s in it for you?”

“Just mutual protection. There are Zoms everywhere, and aliens. A few people here and there can’t hold out indefinitely. Maybe if we can find enough people we can defend ourselves.”

The man was silent. Then a female voice whispered, “Tim, he said food. Food! Talk to him!”

The man called out, “Maybe we’re interested. Just maybe. Whadda we gotta do? Drop our weapons and come out with our hands up?” Again, the voice showed suspicion.

“Hell, no! Keep your weapons. We need all the weapons we can get. Just don’t shoot, okay?”

“Okay…we’re coming out. Don’t make any fast moves. We’re armed and we’ll shoot if we see anything suspicious. Have your other man put down his weapons and step out into the open.”

It was a question of trust. Did Daniels trust that the others weren’t simply waiting for both men to come into view before cutting them both down?

He came to a decision and nodded. “Okay.” In a louder voice, he called out over his shoulder. “Jesse, did you hear that?”

From surprisingly close, Jesse’s voice said. “I heard.” He’d managed to work his way closer, out of sight of the others.

He stepped out from behind a truck to Daniels’ right, hands empty.

Daniels spoke again. “Okay, that’s all of us. Your turn.”

“Okay, we’re coming.”

From behind the bulldozer, a man stepped into view, holding his rifle with the barrel pointing at the ceiling. Behind him walked a woman, holding a baby.

“I’m Tim Vickers, and this is my wife Andi, and our daughter Abby.

“A pleasure, Tim. I’m Byron Daniels, and this is Jesse Jefferson.”

Jesse nodded and smiled in greeting.

“A baby, huh? That must have been rough.”

Both Tim and Andi nodded.

Out from behind different machines stepped another couple, three men, a woman with two young boys, and finally two men and a woman. Three had guns, one had a baseball bat and another a pitchfork; the rest had nothing but the torn clothing on their backs.

All were emaciated.

Andi spoke in a tremulous voice. “You-you said you had food?”

She sounded so hopeful that Daniels’ heart went out to her. “Tons of it. Mostly canned and bottled goods. We also have some flour and yeast that hasn’t gone bad yet, so at least we have some fresh-baked bread. And we found some vegetables growing in a garden not too far away from us.”

The woman looked up at her man and said, “Did you hear that, Tim? Vegetables, and fresh bread!”

The man nodded. “Please, sir, do you have any of that food with you? We haven’t eaten in days, and there wasn’t much before that. We’ve been too afraid to go outside, with all those gold-skinned freaks drivin’ back and forth, and the zombies… The kids are really hungry.”

Daniels nodded. “Of course. We didn’t bring a lot with us. We weren’t expecting to be gone more than a day at most. But you’re welcome to what we have.”

With those words, the fourteen people rushed forward, some of them dropping their weapons in their haste.

Daniels led them back to where he’d left his backpack, and Jesse retrieved his.

There was nowhere near enough food for fourteen starving people. Still, the sandwiches, carrots, and crackers they’d brought were infinitely better than nothing.

“Everyone take a bite and then pass it along to the next person,” Tim ordered.

After much rustling and shoving and gobbling, the food was gone.

“Okay,” Daniels said when they were done, “Everyone grab your stuff. We’re going on foot, so just take what you can carry easily. Weapons, clothing, nothing more. We’re leaving in five minutes. Chop-chop.”

The group ran to wherever they’d been sleeping and gathered up their things. It was pitifully little, and everyone was back in three minutes. For the first time since Daniels had met them, they didn’t look as if they’d given up on life.

“Okay, this is a big group. We can’t go out there like a parade. We’ll have to cross the streets in twos and threes to minimize our exposure. When I say stop, everyone freeze. If I say drop, that means fall flat on your faces and play dead. If I say run, it means run like your lives depend on it—because they will. Everyone got that?” He looked everyone in the eye, one by one, until he saw a nod of agreement. “And no talking. There’s no telling how good the aliens’ hearing is. Okay, then. If you all do what I say,
when
I say it, we should be okay. One screw up could kill us all. Do you understand that?”