Books of the Dead (Book 3): Dead Man's Land (20 page)

He filled me in, letting me know that they were just over a small ridge of hills to the southwest of The Manor. He thought there were at least three vehicles and maybe another one, but he wasn’t sure.

“I need you to check out those vehicles and shoot anyone out there.  Get your team.”

He cut me off, “It’s only me now. The others were taken out by a mortar.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. It was a horribly inadequate response, but the best I could muster under the circumstances.

“We’ll mourn those guys later, when we have time,” I said. “Check out those vehicles, and do what you can to take anyone out.  I wanted to be more explicit, but I wasn’t sure our attackers weren’t listening.

All during our exchange, Aaron and Brother Ed laid down a serious rain of fire on the zombies, alternating between tossing down grenades and ripping off bursts from their rifles.  I wasn’t counting the explosions, but I knew we had a very limited supply of grenades. They were making a dent in the zombie horde marching our way, but that’s all it was, a dent. While the frontline zombies died in droves in the blasts and bullets, their undead brethren just forged ahead, undaunted and uncaring about their fallen comrades. It was their way. 

“I’m coming out,” I said.

“How are you doing that?” Jo said as she targeted out a window. She clicked off two quick shots and then moved her aim to something else.

“Do you have any grenades?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, “but only three or four in that backpack.”

“Do you know if we still have the ATV?” I asked as I retrieved the grenades.

She fired off two more shots, and I saw a zombie fall face forward about twenty feet away from the building.  “Yeah, it’s around the back, in the storage shed, but going out there is suicide.  What crazy shit have you thought of now?”

“I’m going out to shoot some horses,” I said.

Chapter 27

Against All Odds

Anthony felt the slightest tinge of remorse over engineering Rex’s death, but that’s all it was -- just a tinge. Any insubordination or resistance from within the ranks of his subjects could not be tolerated.  It would set a bad example for the entire crew.
Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile
, he thought.  Better to cut it off clean.

Still, he hated losing such a competent and effectively cruel right hand man. He started to contemplate a successor, but he knew he had business at hand to take care of and checked his monitors for progress on the battlefield.  He was down to two of his soldiers with cameras still in operation. It really didn’t matter though. The writing was on the wall, and those people were history. They might not know it, but it was only a matter of time.

The people inside the complex were putting up a ferocious fight, much harder than he expected. Anthony knew he’d lose a lot of his soldiers when he went into this battle, but he also knew that he had a formidable number of undead, more than enough for the task.

“Ryan, keep moving your soldiers around to the back of the complex,” Anthony spoke into his headset microphone.  “We don’t want anyolne to escape out that way.”

“Yes, sir,” was Ryan’s crisp reply. 

Anthony continued with his orders, “Roy, move your soldiers in, and use your mortars at your discretion, but try to avoid shooting any of our soldiers.”

“Can do,” Roy replied.

“Maggie, are your soldiers in position on the north side?”

“They’re just about ready,” she said.

“Commence your attack when they are,” Anthony said. Felix and his soldiers were fully engaged in the full frontal assault, but he was holding Norman’s meager supply of soldiers in reserve around the vehicles, just in case these people had any surprises.

The end was coming for the people inside the complex.  Anthony was pulling the knot tightly and was getting ready to strangle the life out of them. It was time for all of them to pay for what they had done to him, and payback was a cruel son of a bitch.

I sprinted through the complex as fast I could, carrying the RPG and the pack full of warheads, plus some grenades. Second doubts swirled in my head about leaving Jo and the others on the frontline.

How could I leave and let them take that kind of risk?
I asked myself.  But another voice spoke up and said
, You’re getting ready to do something that is certifiably insane.

That voice was the one that Greg had heard and seen in all my “out-of-the-box” actions and why he had selected me to be his replacement. At least that’s the juicy rationalization I told myself as I kept running, the sound of gunfire and explosions ringing out behind me.

I made it to the back of the complex, at a loading dock where I saw our people packed into a large mob, all trying to get into vehicles. Kara shouldered her way out of the crowd with Naveen and Madison in tow. Jason followed them, looking fragile as he nudged his way through all of the people. When Naveen saw me, she broke free from Kara’s hand and rushed toward me, dodging in and out of the crowd. 

She slammed into me at a full run and nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Joel, I’m so scared,” she said, her face pressed against my chest.  “I thought I would never see you again.”

The shouting from the mob was nearly loud enough to suppress the sound of the battle going on at the front of the complex. Kara broke through the people and pulled Madison along as they came up to me.  “Everyone’s panicking and trying to just make a run for it.”

I had been afraid of this. Panic was overriding any of their logic and regard for others.  It was every-man-for-himself mentality reigning over every other instinct. Some fool had to put a stop to it or else a lot of people were going to die. That fool would have to be me.

I pulled my pistol and fired two shots into the air, and the commotion came to a dead halt as all eyes turned to me.

“Listen up, folks,” I shouted, “there’s just enough room on the vehicles for people and weapons, but nothing else.”

While their intellects knew this, their fears didn’t want to accept it. I watched the people as they sized up the person standing next to them, wondering if it came down to it, if they could take them. This could become a free-for-all in an instant if panic started flowing again.

“I don’t have time to commence an organizing committee for who and what gets to ride out of here and how fast,” I said. “We’ve made it this far by cooperating, and that’s what we’re going to do now, right?” I nodded my head and looked at as many people in the eye as I could. While the fear was still there, something else was going to work on them, and I could only give credit to their conscience and the Big Guy upstairs.

“Every truck will have one warrior,” I said as I searched the crowd for the best fighters we had. I saw Russell and said, “Russell, you take a truck.” I surveyed the crowd and found Larry standing in among the people. He was a nervous one, but he would do. “Larry, you’ll take a truck, too, and our older folks, along with the kids, will get on with him.”  My eyes fell on an older guy named Danny.  “Danny, you take the next truck.” By now, Russell and Larry were in action, ushering people toward one of trucks.  “Yeah, you see how this works.  When we run out of room on the trucks, then those people will have to walk, but you’re the strongest and the healthiest.”

A few hard stares came my way, but I met them measure-for-measure.  “Sorry,” I said, “this isn’t fair; it’s just the way it is.”

Something with a long hard edge pushed into my back, and I turned around to see Jason holding out his dry erase board. I looked down and read it: “I can stay and fight,” it read.

I slowly shook my head.  “Sorry, big guy, but you’re too important.  You have to go.”

He erased the board with his sleeve and wrote furiously.  “What if I won’t?”

“Then I’ll konk you in the side of the head with this,” I said, holding up my pistol, “and we’ll drag you to the truck.” I tried to soften that message with a smile, but it was hard to force one of those when the world was coming down around us. “You know you have to go. Please don’t fight me on this.”

He stared long and hard into my eyes, and I watched as he slowly surrendered. He nodded his head and then stuck out a hand for a handshake. I grabbed his hand and pulled him into me for a hug. I whispered in his ear, “You’re the key, and you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”

He pulled back and then pointed at me and mouthed the words, “No, you are.”  Then, he wrote on the board again and held it up.  It said, “Or the craziest.”

I turned to Kara and said, “You’ll take one of the trucks with these guys, plus whoever else you can fit.”

“I want to stay,” she said.

“There’s no time to fight me on this,” I said. “They need you,” I said pointing to Jason and the girls. I leaned in close to her and whispered, “Our baby needs you.”

Her eyes held strong for a couple seconds and then faltered as she fell into me for an embrace. I hugged her for all I was worth, and then our faces met. It could be our final kiss, and we went for it. I wanted it to last forever, but a crashing explosion sounded overhead, and a section of the roof buckled down with a gout of flame.

We broke the kiss, and I pushed her toward the closest truck. “These good-byes are really killing me. You’ve got to go this time. Like now.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’ve always got some crazy scheme.”

“When don’t you,” she said, but it was more of a statement than a question.

“I’ve got to go,” I said.

There was something else she wanted to say, but I cut her off.  “You’ve already said it, so you don’t have to say it again. Just get going.”

I ended the discussion by turning and bolting off towards a shed, just off the back of the dock where we kept the ATV. We could have said goodbye a thousand different times in a thousand different ways, but it wasn’t going to get any easier, and the longer we drew it out, the better the chance the goodbye would be permanent.

I didn’t turn around for a second glance because if I did, I would have had to go back to her and the girls, and I would never leave their side. I knew that wouldn’t work because the man Russell called the Lord of the Dead would hunt us down. I just knew that.  So we had one narrow chance to survive this, and I had to take it.

The ATV was in the shed, as it has always been -- ready and waiting. We only used it sparingly because of our limited gas supply, which made me wonder when the last time the thing had been started. I said a quick prayer and turned the key, and it choked and sputtered for a few seconds, but then roared to life. 

I punched the accelerator and tore out of the shed, riding along the back of the building and away from the people I loved the most in the world and I dreaded turning the corner.  The problem was that I had a destination, but I didn’t have a clear travel route because nearly every avenue would be blocked by a horde of the undead.

Earlier, I had seen the way the horde was working its way to encircle the complex, looking for a way to cover us on all sides. Thankfully, their normally slow pace was even slower due to their armored augmentation, so those escaping out the back looked to have a clear way, at least, for now. But that window of escape was quickly closing. I, on the other hand, would be driving right into the lot of them. 

My mind raced as I ran through all the possibilities. I could try a direct path and attempt to stay close to the building’s perimeter, hoping that Lord of the Dead hadn’t started to tighten his grip on us, but I knew that as soon as I got out front, I’d most likely be caught up in a mob of the undead. Even if I made it around them, I’d still be out in the open and a ready target. I traced along some other routes and finally decided to try a path through the woods on the north side of the complex.  It was a narrow one that might accommodate the width of the ATV, but that was yet to be seen. 

I was quickly running out of the comfort of the wall of the back of the complex.  As soon as that occurred, I’d be out in open territory, ready to be mauled by the undead or taken out by any fool with a gun. Hoping to reduce my exposure as a target, I hunkered down over the handlebars and roared past the edge of the building. 

As soon as I got past the edge, I tilted my head and looked to the west. It wasn’t a reassuring sight, because a mob of zombies shuffled along around the north side of the complex, but I did have some leeway. It would be close though, since the entryway to the path I was targeting was closer to the front of the complex than it was to the back. 

I had the ATV wide open and was tearing ass across the field at warp speed, hoping that would give me enough clearance. I just knew it was going to be tight, very tight.

The wind whipped around my face, cooling down my overheated body as I felt my heart beating furiously in my chest. The ATV bucked on the uneven ground, and it was a fight to keep it on course and upright.  The zombies were getting closer by the second. Just like before, they looked twice as fearsome in their armored form as they did normally. This whole effect was accentuated by the fact that I was rocketing into their midst at a rapid pace.

The gap was down to fifty feet, then forty, and then thirty.  Locking on to me, a small group of zombies broke from the crowd and started on an intercept path, cutting my narrow window to the path down to a sliver. The ATV had no more to give, but I simply willed it to go faster, hoping that would work somehow.

  The zombies were coming at me like a bad 3-D movie.  They were so close. I lay across the handlebars, almost becoming one with the ATV in those final seconds. The collision course was set. At the last possible moment and at that speed, I turned the handlebars, hoping to keep the whole thing from toppling over and crumpling me like a wad of paper.  I saw a flash of movement as a zombie shot out a clawed hand, and I felt something tear into my shoulder and down my triceps, but I was past them in an instant. A terrible burning pain seared down my shoulder, and something hot and wet trickled down my arm.

The path was just ahead, and it looked smaller than I remembered, but it didn’t matter because I was committed now.

The ATV bounced over an exposed tree root when I entered the cave-like entrance into the woods, and my head popped up just in time to connect with a low hanging limb. I saw stars for a couple seconds, but kept both my hands on the handlebars, which was a good thing.  It was quite dark under the canopy of trees, and after only a few seconds on the path, I saw someone standing dead center on the trail. It could have been one of the deaders, but they usually didn’t stand in a posture of indecision.  They were the full-steam-ahead types, so I guessed it was one of the living and not one of ours. The upper part of his body leaned toward one side of the trail, while his legs seemed to want to be on the other.

There were trees on either side of the trail, so I had nowhere to go, but that instinct within me, that told me not to run over people kicked in, and I slammed on the brakes. 

The tires tried to find some traction on the muddy path, but the betting odds for me to get the thing under control were way against me.  I think the odds in Vegas said it was more likely that a zombie apocalypse would happen.  Wait a second....