Apex Predator (17 page)

“I got a problem,” reported Willie.  “I’m outa bullets.”

“Jen, you wanna give Mr. White his mother’s rifle back?”  She did.  “Ok, everyone reload before we go. Maria, how are you on bullets?”

“I only have a few more.”  She ejected the magazine.  “Six.  I have six left.”

“Ok,” he thought for a second.  “Mike, can Maria use your .40 for a while?”  Mike shook his yes.  He handed the big pistol and an extra magazine to the tiny woman.  She held it in her hand, looking at it.  She could hardly get her fingers around the grip of the large framed pistol.  Willie saw her dilemma.  He handed her the small .22 cal rifle, and relieved her of the large pistol.  He gave SSgt Brown a thumbs up.

“Ok Jackson, move out.”

Willie opened the gate, and Jackson moved through it, rifle to his shoulder.  He made a bee-line to the corner of the house.  In front of him he saw another street with houses on the other side of it.  Shit, we’re still in the neighborhood.  He turned to Willie.

“How many more streets do we need to cross to get outa this neighborhood?”

“We got two more streets, then a big open field and some trees.”

Jackson scanned the street.  It appeared uninhabited.  The houses on this street were newer than Mr. White’s.  They were mostly brick, one story, and they all seemed to have these huge bay windows in the front.  Wow what a security nightmare for these folks, he thought.

Several of the houses had broken windows or open doors.  Poor bastards, he thought.  Only a handful of the houses had fences, and most of those fences were chain link

He picked a house about 3 houses to the west.  It had a chain link fence, and the front door and front windows seemed to be secure.  He hoped that would mean no zombies.  Or, at least no zombies would walk out the door as they got in the yard.

He ran across the road to the closest corner of the house, followed closely by Mr. White.  Jackson noticed that Willie turned around and covered the opposite corner as soon as they got to the house, effectively covering Jackson’s back.

Jackson peered around the corner.  It was empty.  He turned and waved the others on with his left hand.  The followed his directions.  As the other’s approached, Jackson had to ask.

“Mr. White, where’d you learn to cover the point like that?”

“I did a little time in the middle east.  But, that was a little before your time.”  The rest of the group caught up.  Jackson and Willie rounded the corner and took turns hopping the chain link fence. Jackson followed the side of the house to the back corner.  The back yard was empty.  He waved the rest on.

The back yard was large, and totally empty.  Mike couldn’t help but notice that the back yard needed to be mowed.  Behind them was another house with a large un-fenced yard.  The back door was opened.  There were several dead bodies lying in the yard.

Jackson crossed the yard and jumped the fence, followed by Willie and the rest of the group.  He noticed the bodies but didn’t seem to pay them any mind.  He passed about five feet from one of them.  As he did so, he looked down at it.  He almost tripped over his own feet when he realized the pale blue eyes were not only open but looking directly at him.

The thing reached out for him.  Its left hand only had one finger, the right hand was missing.  It tried to propel itself forward with only one leg.  Its face was devoid of a lower jaw.  Jackson thought it was the most grotesque thing he’d seen since this whole thing started.  He stopped.

The thing continued to try to move.  It kicked and reached.  It reached and kicked.  And it made absolutely no progress in its quest to bite Pvt. Jackson.  Wilcox walked up and jammed his combat boot into the back of the crippled zombie’s head. He pinned it to the ground, its single arm and leg flailed reaching with it’s one finger for the unseen assailant.  He shoved his foot harder onto the zombie, putting more weight on its skull.  The groups stood there.  No one could move.  No one knew what to do.  Finally the creature’s skull gave way with a wet, sickening crunch

“Fuck, ya’ll,” Wilcox said.  “It’s out of its fuckin’ misery.  Now let’s get out of its fuckin’ yard.”  Jackson turned and ran to the end corner of the house.  This time Theresa and Mike both covered the open back door as the rest of the group passed.  Nothing came out.  The group continued across the street and out of the neighborhood without further incident.  At the back of the last house, Jackson stopped.

The field in front of them appeared to be someone’s cow pasture.  It was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.  There were even some cows and a bull in the field.  About 400 meters away was a stand of trees.  Jackson looked at SSgt Brown and shrugged his shoulder.  SSgt Brown shrugged and then moved up beside Willie.

“Ok, Mr. White, what’s up ahead?”

“You see the field.  From the road, it looks like those trees go from here to close to the highway.  I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think there’s anyone around here.”

Mike heard the conversation.  “Well, the cows belong to someone.  This fence didn’t grow here.”

“But, there should be less people here than in that damned neighborhood,” replied SSgt Brown.

“And, that fence should at least help secure this area,” added Jackson.

“I’m just sayin’ let’s not drop our guard,” Mike answered.

“Ok, I say we head into the woods and try to make the highway,” SSgt Brown said.  “Anyone got a better idea?  Mike, Mr. White what say you?”

“I think that’s a good start,” replied the bald old soldier.  “I got nothing better to do today,” Mike added.

“Ok Jackson, through the field and into the woods.  Keep us moving north.  Slow and quiet once we hit the tree line.  I don’t want any surprises.”

Jackson hopped over the barbed wire fence, and walked quickly across the field.  The cows didn’t seem to care that the group was there.  Jackson could hear birds chirping up ahead of them.  Good, he thought.  If there are birds up there, then Zed must be somewhere else.

They made the tree line in about five minutes.  Jackson slowed down when they did.  Willie closed the distance between him and Jackson. SSgt Brown had the rest of the group spread out left and right in two columns.  He and Maria were on the left, and Theresa, Wilcox, and Jen were on the right.  Mike brought up the rear.

It took the better part of an hour to get through the woods.  The group didn’t run into anyone or anything while in the woods.  They ran into a barbed wire fence as they exited the woods.  Jackson figured it must be the rest of the one they crossed earlier.  His stomach growled.  He looked at his watch: 12:00.  He stopped at the fence.

SSgt Brown kneeled next to him.  “What’s wrong?”

“Just gettin’ hungry,” the trooper replied.  “I figured this was as good a spot as anywhere for a break.”

“Yeah, we’ll stay in the trees.  I’m hungry too.”  He looked at the rest of the survivors.  “Ok, if you got food, this is the time to eat.  We’ll take an hour break.  Let’s try to keep the noise down though.”

Mike had just thrown his pack to the ground when he heard the first explosion.  They all turned.  It came from the south.  CRUMP!  CRUMP!  CRUMP!  CRUMP!  It continued without stopping

“That sounds like mortars,” Jackson blurted.

“Eighty-one’s,” replied Mr. White.

“What are eighty-one’s?” asked Theresa.

“Eighty-one millimeter mortars,” Mr. White replied.  “A mortar is a cannon that shoots a bomb real high into the air but they don’t have a lot of range.”

“I’m betting it’s the only artillery that the 101
st
guys brought with them,” added SSgt Brown.

“You think they’re trying to come out and rescue civilians,” asked Jen.  Everyone perked up at that.

SSgt Brown highly doubted it.  Even if they were making a rescue attempt, no one knew where they were.  Na, he guessed it was a breakout attempt.  But, he didn’t want to dash anyone’s hopes.  “It might be.”

If so,” interjected Mr. White, “they’re probably going to use the road.  Let’s move back west and keep the main road in sight.  We can flag them down if they come this way.”

SSgt Brown knew the group needed to have hope.  He didn’t buy it, but he knew it couldn’t hurt.  “Ok Jackson, follow this tree line west until we can find a spot to observe the road.  We’ll resume our lunch break there.”

Jackson led them west, just inside the tree line.  They could see several zombies shuffling north of them, but none were close and none saw them.  They found a good spot to over watch the road.  They were maybe 100 meters from the road.  They could also see the overpass over the interstate in the distance north of them.  Jackson guessed it was maybe 600 meters away.  That’d be a lot of ground to cover in the open.  He said a little prayer that the Screamin’ Eagles would indeed find them.

Ten or fifteen minutes after they reached their over watch position, they mortar fire stopped.  The group heard small arms fire, and a lot of it.  To Mike, it sounded like a war movie.  The heavy volume of fire continued for about an hour.  It was hard to tell if the shooting was moving at all.  Then it began to slow down considerably.  It was still steady, but the military guys could tell that something was wrong.

CRUMP! CRUMP! CRUMP!  The mortars started shooting again.  This time they landed farther away from where the group sat.

“They’re landing east of where they were before,” reported Mr. White.

“You think that maybe they found some survivors in east Bossier or maybe Haughton?” asked Jen hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe that’s it,” replied SSgt Brown.

“That’s not it,” Jackson said.  “It’s a breakout attempt.  Think about it.  All the bombers left, then the cargo planes.  Now the grunts is moving east.  No.  They’re getting the hell out of dodge.  And, from the sound of it, Zed is fuckin’ them up.  You hear the way them mortars started bangin’ when the shooting slowed down.  That was someone getting overrun.”

“Shut up Jackson,” barked SSgt Brown.

“But Sergeant Brown…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Mr. White growled as he grabbed Jackson by the collar.  But it was too late.  The damage had been done.  SSgt Brown could see the looks.  He could see it in their faces.  The hope had drained away.

“Look,” he started.  “This doesn’t change anything.  When we woke up this morning, we weren’t heading towards the airbase.  We weren’t heading towards those troopers and we weren’t planning on being rescued anytime soon.  Now, we’re not trying to get onto that base.  We’re not trying to get to those troopers.  And, we still don’t know anything about a rescue.  So, we’re in the exact same place we were two hours ago.”

He could see he was getting through.  All eyes were on him.  Shit, he wasn’t a great speaker.  He was good at telling people what to do.  He continued.

“We wait here until nightfall.  It’s a quarter moon period, so we should have some good cover crossing this field.  We get to the interstate and find some transport.  The 101
st
was heading east so that’s where we go.  So, get something to eat and get some rest.  We move out at sunset.”

He did his best parade field about face, and marched back to his backpack.  He wanted to look back and see their response.  But, he knew it would ruin the effect.  He sat down and pulled out a Slim Jim.  Mr. White sat down next to him as he peeled the wrapper back.

“That was a nice speech.  You believe any of that shit you said?”

“It’s true.  At least the first part is.  We really aren’t in any different shape than we were when we left your place this morning.  As for what’s next, your guess is as good as mine.  But, it makes sense to go north or east.  Biggest population centers around here are Dallas, here, New Orleans, Little Rock, and Atlanta.  Once you get past Monroe, it’s pretty sparse ‘till the Mississippi River.  We get there, we can use water borne travel.  We can go north as far as Canada if we wanted.”

“Well, you got one thing wrong,” the older man replied.

“Oh?”

“We aren’t in the same shape.  We’re down a hundred rounds or so after that little skirmish in the ditch.  One or two more of those and we’re gonna have to start throwing rocks at those things.”

“You got a solution to our problem?” the NCO asked.

“Yup.  We hit the highway; we make a detour about a mile west.  There’s a big sporting goods store there.  It’s right off the highway.  We restock on ammo.  Maybe we get some better guns and survival gear.”  He pointed towards his feet.  SSgt Brown hadn’t even noticed Willie had been wearing house slippers.

“Ok, I get the idea.  Let’s get some rest.”  The NCO leaned back against his rucksack.  He wished he could fall asleep, but his mind was racing.  He rehearsed the move across the field a hundred times.  What if there’s contact front, or left?  What if it’s only a couple, or what if it’s a bunch?  His training didn’t fully prepare him for this.  He had to think out all contingencies.  Shit!  Why me? Why couldn’t an officer have made it out with us?  Then he could be responsible.

Sometime that afternoon Jen walked over to SSgt Brown.  She sat down on the ground next to the NCO.

“So, you got a plan Sergeant Brown?”

“I think so.  Of course as you’ve noticed, plans seem to change a lot these days.”  The sound of small arms fire was still audible to the south and east of them.