Deadrise 2: Deadwar (35 page)

Patty’s face suddenly came to mind, and his chuckle turned to a grimace as he blinked away tears before they could form.

You bitch…

You fucking bitch…

I loved you…

CHAPTER 54

Monday, July 8, 2002

Kittewa, UT

12:51 AM

Gabriel stood in the main intersection of Kittewa, under the moon, looking up at the stars.

Events had unfolded rapidly these past few weeks. They had ferreted out a small human encampment on the outskirts of Provo and his Sentinels now numbered fifty. He had sent half of them to gather thousands of drones and herd them up in the center of the city and the other half he tasked with acquiring large transport vehicles that could carry dozens of drones at a time. The perfect solution had been busses, which were abundantly available throughout Provo city and its suburbs. Ripping all of the seats out of a standard city bus made it possible to cram over one hundred drones into a single vehicle. One Sentinel to drive and another to control the drones, and with just twenty five busses he could transport nearly three thousand zombies!

Gabriel knew that Rainbow Lake was shaken, defensively huddled in on themselves. Two nights ago he had transported his army of drones past the barren, ash filled wasteland of what had once been Park City, to within five miles of Kittewa. Gabriel doubted that the humans had sent any more men or farmers down into the town; he would have only been sending them to their deaths. But he found it best not to underestimate the humans and dispatched a squad of five Sentinels to be certain. For the past two days they had scoured the town and all of the surrounding farmland. No humans to be found. There were plenty of cattle, sheep and other wildlife, but no humans.

Even better news was the two checkpoints on the road between the town and the lake were still abandoned. The five scouts had advanced all the way up the canyon and were less than a mile outside Rainbow Lake, awaiting his command.

The humans were shaken and defensively huddled indeed. The child was practically in his grasp! He would crush her skull in his bare hands and feed her remains to his drones. And when her life expired, so to would humanities only hope of survival.

Gabriel turned away from the moon and surveyed the convoy of twenty-five city busses that stretched single file down the main street out Kittewa to the outskirt of town: nearly three thousand drones and fifty fully armed Sentinels. The road to Rainbow Lake was clear. The humans wouldn’t know what was happening until his forces were right on top of them.

He boarded the lead bus. A Sentinel sat behind the wheel, another stood beside it, keeping the zombies aboard calm and docile.

‘ATTACK!’ Gabriel sent the mental command the five scouts near the lake. They would serve as a diversion while he advanced his army up the canyon.

‘ATTACK!’ he sent the command to all of the drivers, and at once the convoy of zombies got under way, passing through Kittewa and heading up the canyon towards Rainbow Lake…

To be concluded in DEADRISE 3: DEADEND

Coming in 2012...