Cassie (Adrian's Undead Diary Book 8) (32 page)

“Ready as I can be. You put your bib away for this? Got your pacifier? You didn't forget your binkie again didya?” Adrian joked with her. Abby was like his little sister, and he treated her that way. He watched her smile, watched the way Hal smiled when she did it. It’s the little things, Adrian thought as he pulled the seatbelt in the driver’s seat across his chest.

Michelle climbed into the rescue truck through the passenger door, brushing her hip against Adrian’s shoulder as she passed. Adrian caught himself making the same smile as Hal. He shook his head in amusement at himself. Michelle sat in the center of the ambulance on the edge of the stretcher. She had no weapons or shooting skills. Michelle’s presence was largely for moral support, and as Adrian imagined, she would be far more important than any of the actual shooters realized. Before this day was over, Adrian suspected she might be the most important person here.
 

Kevin pulled himself up into the truck through the same entrance and shut the steel plated door. Martin, their resident welder and handy man extraordinaire, had secured steel plating to the sides of the truck in an attempt to divert small arms fire. They’d been shot at enough by other groups of survivors to know every advantage mattered. Kevin rolled the window down and rested his M4 on the door. The two men exchanged looks and nods, and the tall man with the Mohawk in the driver’s seat got the heavy diesel engine stirred to life. The massive motor grumbled powerfully under the large hood, right behind the steel snow plow affixed to the bumper. The plow was designed to smash the bodies of undead to the side, not remove snow. Adrian rolled down his window and leaned out, addressing the small handful of Spring Meadows residents who’d gathered to see them off.

“Thanks again.”

Agnes, the tall platinum blonde wife of and co-leader of the community smiled up at Adrian, “It’s our pleasure. We’re all cheering for you. Be safe.”

Adrian grinned. “If I wanted to be safe, we wouldn’t be going. I’ll be smart instead.”

Anders, Agnes’ husband, put his arm around his wife and they both nodded with a smile. They knew this very well could be the last time any of them saw each other alive. But every goodbye was the same now. Such was the way of the world.
 

Adrian put the truck in gear and moved it slowly towards the gate. Two of the residents pulled one side of the gate open for them as two more provided basic security with hunting rifles. Luckily the fires and car alarms at the parking garages had wicked away the small number of undead that were normally near the gate. He'd heard the faint electronic bleating of the alarms when it was dead in the night, but now the batteries of the vehicles were dead, and the city was silent, save for the noise they were making. Adrian hoped it would be a safer drive into the city as a result of all their ground work.

When the gate was fully open, Adrian gassed the truck and it and its human contents slid out into the wilds of the open world. No walls to protect them, no gate to hide behind to keep out the madness.

When the gates fully closed behind them in unison Hal, Abby, and Kevin each charged the bolts on their rifles, and thumbed the safeties to semi. Kevin reached over and flicked the safety on Adrian’s weapon at his side for him.
 

No one said anything.

*****

“Half a mile, no more. We’re using old shit here Adrian,” Quan said over the walkie, miles away. Quan was part of the second team moving into the city from the west, moving towards the second parking garage they intended to blow.

His accent has gotten a lot better. “Alright then. We’ve got a few miles of road to go. Anything else you wanna share with us? Other than what we went over in the briefing?” Adrian let go of the transmit button on the heavy police walkie and put both hands on the wheel. The rescue truck shuddered as Adrian drove it straight into a pair of undead standing in the street. The undead never tried to get out of the way.
 

Michelle winced in the back as the vehicle shook ever so slightly as the bodies tumbled round and round against the plow blade, eventually skipping to the side and around the squat vehicle. Each collision with a body was a resounding thump that shook her. Michelle had seen more than her fair share of nightmare, but this was different. Almost every time when she was in danger, they were running FROM it, not TOWARDS it.

Quan responded to Adrian with good news, “Nothing big guy. We’re two miles out staged and ready. We can be in range in less than five minutes. Population is pretty clear too.”

Kevin leaned in slightly, never taking his eyes off his section of the road for danger. He spoke to Adrian, “We’re maybe five minutes out as well. They can probably move.”

Adrian nodded, steering the truck over and into another shambling dead body. The dead woman wearing a barista's smock bounced off the plow blade with a metallic bang. “Alright, if you want to move now, go for it. Kevin says we’re about five minutes from detonator range as well. Barring traffic of course.”

“Ha. Copy that. We’re moving.”

Adrian clipped the walkie on his belt and returned his hand to the steering wheel. “We won’t be in walkie range when we reach detonator range on the hospital garage. We’ll have to relay messages through Spring Meadow. Even then it’ll be dicey.”

Kevin smirked. “This plan is
awesome
. Remind me again why I’m doing this.”

“You have a crush on me.”

“Oh yeah. Totally forgot about how much I am fixated on your dick. Just can’t imagine a life without it.” Kevin’s delivery was monotone.

“You two are something else,” Michelle said from slightly behind them. She was laughing, as were Hal and Abby further back in the ambulance.

Adrian agreed with her, “We are indeed Ms. Lewis. We are indeed.”

*****

The sound of the parking garage exploding on the other side of the city was incredibly loud, even though they were miles away. It echoed and rumbled the chest. No radio warning forecasted the demise of the massive concrete structure, so when the series of explosions rocked the sky and sent the birds soaring from their perches, all that Adrian could mumble was, “Holy shit.”
 

Kevin leaned down and looked to the left across Adrian and saw the plume of smoke and dust jetting into the sky several miles away. From the size of the cloud of debris issuing upwards, Kevin judged that the entire structure had succumbed to Quan’s careful placement of explosives. “Well, I’d say 'operation blow that shit up over there' went down successfully. Hopefully everyone made it okay.”

Adrian scooped up the walkie off his belt and transmitted, “Quan? Ethan? Can you guys get this?” There was no response. Adrian tried a different tactic, “Agnes? Can you read this?”

A few seconds later Agnes came back over the walkie. Her delivery was awkward, like she hadn't used one before, “Yes— Adrian.”

“Can you try to get Quan or Ethan on the walkie and see how they’re doing? We’re further out than you from them. Need you to act as our pony express.” Adrian tilted his chin towards a few undead shuffling across the street fifty yards ahead of them. The three zombies moved with intent across the street, heading towards the very distant explosion, ignoring the lumbering rescue truck. It was working.

“That’s a great fucking sign,” Kevin said quietly. Adrian nodded, waiting for Agnes to respond. A few moments later she did.

“Adrian, Ethan just radioed and said they were on their way back to the Factory, and that everything went well. He said there were a lot of zombies in the building.”

“Fantastic thank you. Tell them I said thank you please,” Adrian put the walkie away on his belt.

“We’re about there, man. We can hit the detonator.” Kevin looked over as he reached down to a small backpack where he’d stored the small explosives detonator. He pulled it out quickly and looked it over, confirming how to operate the device.

Adrian down shifted the truck and brought it to a rest in the center of an intersection. Hal and Abby leaned over the sights of their weapons, looking out the back door windows, preparing for the stop. They were always in greater danger when the vehicle wasn’t moving. Adrian lifted his carbine from the floor and rested it on his own door after rolling the window down. He scanned for targets as Kevin put the batteries into the detonator, and prepared to hit the switch.

“Grab your britches kids,” Kevin said softly, and he hit the switch.

Nothing happened.
 

Kevin hit the switch again, and the same as last time, nothing happened.
 

“What the fuck?” Adrian asked, looking back to Kevin quickly. Kevin looked up to make sure nothing was approaching the vehicle, then back down to the detonator. He checked the batteries to make sure they were in the device, and then tried the switch again.

Suddenly a thump hit the passenger door of the truck. Kevin leaned into the vehicle as a hand covered in dried blood and bile reached high to drag nasty fingers along the edge of the window frame. A zombie had approached in their dead spot.

“Fuck,” Kevin said, drawing his sidearm. He postured up, getting a good look down at the corpse trying to claw and climb its way into the ambulance. He thumbed his Beretta’s safety off and popped off a round into the face leering up at him. Inside the truck the snap of the gun going off was incredibly loud. Michelle covered her ears as a reflex. The body crumpled to the pavement, fully dead. Kevin slipped the pistol back into the holster on his thigh, and triggered the detonator again. Nothing happened.

“What do we do?” Michelle asked, sensing the sudden change of events. She watched the spent shell casing from Kevin’s shot spin like a top on the floor of the ambulance.

“We should abort. I don’t think the single building collapse is enough of a distraction. I think we need both,” Kevin said, searching the outside for more undead sneaking up on them. He didn’t look to Adrian for his opinion. He already made up his mind.

Adrian looked at Michelle. She had a mixture of fear and dejection on her face. Somewhere deep inside her Adrian could sense a huge amount of disappointment over having to cancel the trip into the city. She wanted Adrian to find closure almost as much as Adrian wanted it for himself. Both of their hearts were on the line, stupid as it may sound in his head.

Adrian already knew what was next. “We go forward. The first explosion is more than enough. The second location has already drawn in enough for us to make it downtown. The explosions were always overkill anyway.”

Kevin slowly rotated his head to his friend. The slow speed of the motion and Kevin’s upraised eyebrows told Adrian everything he needed to know.
 

“You don’t have to go. No one else has to go. It’s okay.”

Kevin guffawed, “Yeah fuck you, like that’s an option. I’ll go.”

“We were in this today no matter what Adrian,” Abby said quickly.

“Aye mate. Sink or swim,” Hal said, fully in league with his woman as well as Adrian.

Adrian looked to Michelle, already knowing what she’d say, “Adrian I’ll be going wherever you and Kevin go today.”

“So be it. Thank you.” Adrian rested his carbine next to his thigh, put the truck back into drive, and gave it the gas.
 

*****

“Contact left, five,” Kevin said loudly right before he shouldered his M4 and snapped off a rapid series of shots, dropping two of the zombies he’d just called out. He would've hit more, but shooting while driving was harder in real life than it was in the movies.

“Contact rear right, three in an alley,” Abby said equally as loud, and with just as much confidence. She brought her AR up to her own tinier shoulder, and fired a handful of shots, almost as accurately as Kevin. Michelle sat in her centered spot, her hands over her ears again, trying to protect her hearing from the incredibly loud gunfire, made that much worse by the tight confines in the vehicle.

Adrian didn’t respond as Hal called out contact in his sector as well. Adrian looked to his left and saw a handful of the walking dead shuffling out of the storefronts and alleys they drove past. The sweat on his eyebrow stung as it dripped into his eye. He wiped it away and felt the plow’s blade impact more of the shamblers in the street. They were surrounded, and the further they drove, the worse it got. Looking ahead he could see dozens of undead scattered in the street, closing in on them like piranha at a feeding frenzy. Soon there would be too many to simply drive through.
 

“Fuck this. We need to find a better route in. Get 'em on our heels,” Adrian barked out, aiming the heavy ambulance towards the next street he could turn on. The easiest, most clear route was east, towards the hospital garage where the explosives had failed. This would be an uncharted route for the group.

"GO GO GO!” Kevin nearly screamed, rattling off the remainder of his magazine at the thick front line of the army of the damned, amazingly hitting almost a half dozen zombies in the head. Adrian was peripherally aware of the amazing shooting display and felt a rush. He heard Abby and Hal’s guns barking constantly as they made the turn towards the hospital. Adrian wished the area near the parking garage was clearer than the area here. Hopefully the noise and fires created a void of undead they could slip through.

Adrian gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles lost all their color.

*****

“He comes for you.”
 

Cassie’s body jerked to life in the silent, pitch black elevator. Her sluggish, mostly dead mind struggled to wrap itself around the idea of the man she loved coming for her. Like water and oil her thoughts circled and clashed. The corrupted, rotten portion of what was left of Cassie wanted blood, hot flesh torn from the bone. It wanted vengeance. The underlying sweetness and purity of Cassie was both excited to see the man she loved, and fearful of how little control she had over herself. That part of Cassie knew with certainty the other part would try to hurt him. The Voice would see to it, and there was precious little she could do about it. She could fight, but it would a war.