Dawn of the Apocalypse: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel (19 page)

            "Do you know them?" Vince whispered.

            "Yes.  That's Sean, Fred, Bill, Larry, Travis, Randy, and Brett."

            Sean was standing in the middle of the meadow looking around with a concerned face.  He was holding his AR15 at the ready.  The Mahans eyed it covetously.

            "That's just one of many M16s, boys," I whispered.

            Vince seized the hair at the back of my head, and then forced me forward toward the treeline.  I clenched my fists, fighting the need to reach back and pry his hand out of my hair.  Jack was to my right, with Tanner and Nolan to the left.

            "Tell them to drop their guns," Vince commanded.

            "Sean!  Over here!"  Everyone whirled around.  Weapons came up when they spotted the Mahans.  "They want you to drop your weapons."

            Most of the men looked uncertain.  Sean looked grim as he shook his head.  I knew he wouldn’t disarm.  I didn't blame him.  The Mahans would probably kill them once they got what they wanted.

            "No can do, Jenny," Sean said.  "They'll just kill all of us.  I'm sorry."

            "If this goes wrong," I shouted.  "Take care of my boys."

            "Shut up, girl," Vince growled.  Then to the others, "You're little Jenny Boo here said you'd trade M16s for her.  We want four of them."

            "And lots of ammo," Tanner called.

            "And if we don't?" Sean asked.  I was so happy he didn't admit to not having any.  "What then?"

            "Then we will do very bad things to Jenny Boo before we kill her."

            Sean looked at Bill.  And then they looked at the other men.  Weapons came up.

            All hell broke loose.  Jack and Tanner were killed outright.  Nolan screamed like a schoolgirl when he was hit.  I expected Vince to shoot me in the head first thing, so twisted around as I dropped to the ground.  My right foot connected with his balls.  He gasped and growled, and then punched me in the face, putting my lights out.

Chapter 28

            We saw our chance.  The boat was drifting toward a bend in the river.  There was a small river or creek flowing into the Mississippi.  The zombies were stopped by that flowing water, so had to turn and go around.  The other side was as free of zombies as we could hope.  Plus, the river was giving us some momentum to capitalize on.

            "Put your backs into it!" I cried, paddling with all my might.  "Come on, Mike, put your back into it."

            The current wanted to take us downriver.  We were lucky enough to be on the eastern side, so didn't have to cross the entire width of the Mississippi River.  Mike and I were on the right side of the boat, on the downriver side.  Charlie was on the other side paddling like crazy.  When it looked like the current might win, he moved over to our side.

            That was just enough to break free of the current and turn the boat toward shore.

            My arms, back, and hands ached, but we made it to shore.  The moment the bow touched those muddy banks, I threw the paddle aside.  I was already fully clothed, with my WEB gear on.  I plopped the helmet on my head, grabbed my rifle, and shouldered the red pack.  Mike grabbed the blue pack, and Charlie had the M-249 SAW, plus his M-4.

            The packs held little more than the little ammo we had left.  Even with my constant warnings around wasting ammo, we'd burned up half of it.  Worse still, we'd lost most of our spare magazines.  I couldn't say much, because I was probably the worst for just dropping empty magazines and leaving them.

            We'd scavenge for food along the way, but we had little hope of finding more ammo for our military weapons.  Mike, being more optimistic, thought we'd find ammo due to the popularity of AR15s.  I let him keep his little dream.

            We jumped off that boat like we were storming the beach.  Weapons at the ready, we made for the cover of the forest.  My ears were alert to any sound out of the ordinary as I led them forth.  A quick glance back showed the boat drifting away.

            "We're committed," I said.

            I headed east, following the path of least resistance through the woods.  Rustling could be heard to the north.  We weren't following the creek, so wouldn't know when it was narrow enough to let zombies across.  I assumed the worst, and moved steadily away from it.

            "Shh," I said, stopping and dropping to a knee.

            Mike and Charlie moved up to either side of me.  We listened to movement to our right, left, and front.  Not as much as I was worried about, but we were basically surrounded by those mindless monsters.

            "Remember, take aim before firing.  Ammo conservation is paramount," I whispered.  Mike gave me an
oh really
look, while Charlie just frowned.  "Follow me and do what I do."

            We moved with as much stealth as possible.  The recent rains ensure the forest floor was wetter and quieter than usual.  The zombies put no effort into stealth, so most of the sounds we made were drowned out.

            A one lane blacktop suddenly appeared before us.  I paused to study it.  There were zombies following it.  I signaled for everyone to lay down when a small horde of a few dozen came down the road.  I watched them intently as they shambled past, barely looking left or right.  The zombies all seemed fixated on a point ahead.

            When they vanished around the bend, I led the way across that road and back into the woods.  If the zombies wanted the roads, they could have them.  I'd stick to the deep woods.

            "Listen," Mike whispered.

            I stopped and took off my helmet.  There was banging off in the middle distance.  It sounded like someone pounding on a door.  After a few minutes it stopped.

            "I bet there's a house over there," Mike said.  "We might find food or shelter."

            "Too early for that," I said.

            "It might be a hunter's house, with weapons and ammo," he said.

            After a moment's thought, I shook my head.  "Too early.  Too dangerous."

            Continuing onward, we were forced to veer more to the south by the terrain.  Soon after that, we came upon a highway.  There were a butt ton of zombies on that road.  I led us back deeper into the woods, and straight south.

            "If we are going in the same direction as them, it is less likely we'll stumble upon any of them," I said.  At least that's how I justified it.  "But we need to keep looking for a place to break through to the east."

            It was rough country.  There was enough forest to keep us concealed most of the time, but we were forced to cross roads and open fields more often than we liked.  Every couple of hours we shifted our loads.  Everyone took their turn carrying a pack, and also the SAW.  Whoever had to carry the SAW was relieved of a pack.  Mike carried the SAW after Charlie, and then it was my turn.

            Oddly enough, it was the M-249 SAW that was the pain in the ass to carry.  It was bulky and heavy, and you had your personal weapon across your back at the same time.  And honestly, I'd rather use my M-4 Carbine than the SAW if it came to a fight with zombies.

            "House," Mike whispered, dropping to a knee.  He was in the lead.  I was carrying the SAW between them in line.  "Y'all want to check it out?"

            I could barely see it through the trees.   The underbrush became thicker near the clearing around the house.  The forest was beginning to grow darker.  The sky above still looked bright.  My legs, back and shoulders believed it was near the end of day.

            "If it's empty, it might be a good place to spend the night," I whispered.

            Moving closer, we studied it as we walked.  About halfway to it, Mike stepped on a branch.  That snap echoed through the woods.

            Zombies came running out of the house.  It looked like a family of five, including children from early teens to grade school.  I gasped, gawking at the youngest boy.  He looked so much like my son Harlan.

            Mike, then Charlie opened fire.  I just stood there and watched that little boy's head all but explode when high-powered rounds struck it.  The look of childish rage never left his face.  My friends slaughtered them in nothing flat.

            "That went well," Mike said.  He looked at me just standing there.  "Are you alright, man?"

            "Shit," Charlie cried, spinning around.  "Here come some more!"

            "They're attracted to gunfire," I said as I turned.  The new zombies gave me something to concentrate on beside that poor little boy.  The newcomers were a bunch of late teen white boys in cutoffs, no shirts, and barefoot.  My first thought was they died at the swimming hole.  "Die!"

            Bringing the SAW to my shoulder, I did my best to aim and fire short bursts.  It was damned hard to keep it under a dozen rounds every time I pulled the trigger.  My training taught me that only the first couple of rounds hit the target, the rest were wasted.

            The zombies reached us before we could kill them all.  I stepped into the first one to close with me, and thrust the SAW's butt into his face with all my strength.  He went down.  I ducked under the next one's attempt to tackle me, stopped to pump a few rounds into him and the first zombie.  Mike shot the next zombie to threaten me in the head, and I returned the favor when two more charged him.  Charlie killed three during our short melee.

            "Fuck it, man," Mike cried.  "Fuck it.  That was close."

            "I hear more coming," Charlie said.

            "Follow me," I whispered, taking off at a slow jog away from the house.

            I swear, I could hear the zombies turned towards us.  From the noise they made stomping through the woods, there had to be a hundred or more.  A million leapt into my mind.

            "Five at three o'clock!" Mike called.

            I looked right and spotted them.  They were on an intercept course.

            "Keep going," I called, stopped and aimed.  As Mike and Charlie went past me, I opened up at head level.  All five dropped.  Two of them got back up.  When I tried to fire them up, I got nothing.  I was out of ammo.  "Son of a bitch."

            I pulled off my M-4, while slinging the SAW.  By that time a dozen zombies were almost on top of me.  I'd never run so fast in my life.  I caught up with my friends, passed them, and called back for them to follow me.

            The ground was rising all day, but shortly started to angled down.  I soon heard the sound of water.  Moments later we came upon a rain swollen creek.

            "Get across!"

            Charlie waded across first.  The water rose up to his waist.  I held my breath because the flow was pretty fast.  Mike followed, and was helped out by Charlie.  I popped off a few rounds into charging zombies, and followed them.

            "Damn, that's cold," I gasped.  The water really pushed me hard. I had to lean into the current, but slowly waded across.  Mike and Charlie each grabbed an arm to drag me out of the creek.  "Let's see if they come across."

            We hurried up the hill, but not so fast.  We held back just a bit to see if the zombies really would give up the chase rather than wade across running water.  And they turned upstream.  Not a one of them even looked like he wanted to try and wade across.

            "That's weird," Mike said.

            "Thank God is the proper response," I said.

            We continued until well past sunset.  After crossing a cow pasture, we came upon a burned down farmhouse.  The fire looked recent.  There was a rather decrepit looking barn, with faded and flaking red paint.  It was empty, but there was moldy hay in the loft.  We had to find a ladder to access it.

            After ensuring we had more than one way out of that loft, we pulled up the ladder and dropped our loads.

            "Mike, you take the first guard shift.  Wake me in two hours," I said.  By me taking the second shift, the other two could get four hours of uninterrupted sleep.  "Charlie, you take the last shift.  After that, we'll hit the road again."

Chapter 29

            "Wake up, bitch!" Vince screamed, kicking me in the ribs.

            I've been rudely awakened before, but that was the worse.  For a second I couldn't remember where I was or what was happening.  Rolling away from the attack, I managed to scramble up on one knee and look around.

            I was in the woods, on the side of a mountain.  Two men loomed over me.  The younger was bloody, but the older man looked a lot scarier.  He had murder in his eyes.

            "You lied to us," Nolan screamed.  "You set us up."

            "You got my boys killed, bitch," Vince snarled.  He had my 30-30 in hand.  "I warned you.  Now you are going to pay."  He made a motion with the rifle.  "Stand up and strip."

            "We going to teach you a lesson in respect, bitch," Nolan said, eyes narrow and filled with fury.  "And then we're gonna kill your ass."

            I rose to my feet, hands outward.  Backing up, I shook my head and tried to think of anything to delay their retribution.  My friends had to be looking for me.  I just needed time.

            "I didn't lie," I said.  "You know I don't have any control over what they do.  I was just as shocked as you when they refused to trade for me."

            "They killed my boys," Vince said, soft and menacingly.  "I'm going to take it out of your ass, Jenny Boo."

            "You know, I don't really like that name," I said.  They were going to kill me anyway.  "We can still work something out between us."

            I took another step back.  They advanced two steps.  Nolan was unarmed, so he'd been hurt so badly that he lost his weapon.  I noticed his right arm was hanging limp, and it was drenched in blood.  Vince only had my rifle left, so lost his own as well.  Sean and the others must have really overwhelmed the Mahans.