Floyd & Mikki (Book 2): Zombie Slayers (Dawn of the Living) (8 page)

Without having to worry about anything killing them in their sleep, Floyd and Mikki traveled by day and slept at night. They would have been locked in a passionate embrace every night as well, but it wasn’t the right time of the month for Mikki. Instead, they laid out their sleeping bags so they could sleep together on the floor. It was good to get out of their battle armor for the night and wash themselves a little with the bottled water.

Floyd held Mikki tightly as she tucked herself into his strong arms and buried her head in his chest. She loved the profile of his face when she looked up at him. He loved the cute little smile on her face when she slept. In the morning, they dressed and trained for another two hours in the early morning light before hitting the road again.

It was almost too easy. They drove up Harbor Boulevard to the 91 freeway, which took them east back to the 15 north. They easily pushed aside or rolled over everything in their way, clearing a path for the Happy Campers to make it back this way from Emerald Valley. Mikki sat next to Floyd, zooming in and toggling around the various cameras to scan for trouble.

Whenever she saw a car with creepers in it, she pointed it out to Floyd who drove over it and crushed it flat. They wanted to eliminate as many threats as possible for the return trip, since they would have a couple dozen campers to protect, including women and several children. They were determined not to lose a single person on the way back to NCH.

“Of course!” Floyd mumbled, pointing out the collapsed section of the freeway ahead. “It’s always some damn thing.”

“Well, cleanup crew ain’t been around for a while. You wouldn’t want our lives to get boring, now would you?”

“I’d settle for boring once in a while.”

“Yeah, right! That’s why you didn’t stay at NCH.”

“Boring is one thing. Trapped is another.”

“Whatever, where are we, Floyd?”

His face buried in a map, Floyd answered, “Looks like Norco. That should be Second Street up ahead. Oh shit!”

“What?”

“Well, there’s a little college nearby, an Old Folks Home, a rehabilitation center, and guess what else? A Naval Surface Warfare Division.”

“Oh crap! More Super Z’s!”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Floyd confirmed.

“What the hell is the navy doin’ in the middle of freakin’ nowhere on land?”

“Cheap real estate?” They both chuckled a bit, then Floyd continued. “There’s a big lake, but it’s too small for a submarine or a battleship.”

“Whatever! Let’s check it out, blow it up, and move on.”

“Same shit, different day!”

With the road ahead blocked, Floyd had no choice but to exit the freeway and take surface streets. The navy guys had probably blown up the freeway to protect the area. There were a number of bodies that had long since rotted away lying around. Nothing left but bones and tattered clothing. That didn’t mean there weren’t undead bodies walking around somewhere nearby.

Floyd drove slowly down to the lake as Mikki scanned the area with the camera controls. Sure enough, there were a number of Super Z’s around. Some outside on guard duty in full battle armor. All of them carried wicked-looking machine guns of one sort or another, but based on their past battle, Floyd and Mikki realized the Supers might not have any ammo. A number of decayed human remains littered the area, some in civilian clothing, many in uniform.

Keeping at least several hundred feet away, Behemoth had not yet attracted their attention. Looking at the monitors, Mikki warned Floyd to watch where he was going. As he continued on his way, she warned him again. Then she urgently told him to turn, but he just smiled and kept on going. Nice and easy, Floyd drove right into the lake.

“You didn’t finish reading my part of the manual, did you?” Floyd asked.

Realizing that Behemoth was still moving and no water was coming in, she punched Floyd in the arm – hard. “You son of a bitch!” she cried.

Floyd just laughed and hit a button. Apparently, a camera popped up somewhere because one of the monitors showed the area around them on the surface. “Up periscope,” Floyd snickered.

“Periscope up yer ass!” Mikki retorted. “So what’s the plan? We ain’t got no SCUBA gear and I don’t know how to use it anyway. So unless you wanna go skinny dipping, we cain’t hang around down here forever.”

“No, but we can scout the area and not have to worry about getting ambushed. These things don’t have a clue that we’re here, and I want to keep it that way. For now, anyway. They don’t seem to be moving much.”

Mikki agreed. The Super Z’s weren’t exactly motionless. They each seemed to be scanning the area around them, ever alert, ever looking for an enemy. On the other hand, they weren’t walking around much either. A couple were marching back and forth like they were on eternal guard duty. Others walked around in tight circles. Most just stayed put and scanned the area by turning their heads back and forth. They were spread out over a couple of wide parking lots, apparently avoiding the overgrown grassy areas for some reason.

“I count 23,” Mikki said, eventually. Looks like 8 in full battle armor. Probably more in and around that set of buildings.”

“I reckon we oughta take the armored guys out first,” Floyd suggested. “But they aren’t all together. They’re too spread out.”

“Hey, Floyd! Check this out!”

Mikki zoomed in with the periscope on one of the buildings. It was barricaded from the inside! On the other side of the shattered double glass doors, the two could clearly see several large metal desks and other office debris piled up. Although the doors were pretty beat up, it didn’t appear the entrance had been breached. On the ground in front of the doors were several bodies in military uniforms or battle armor that hadn’t been able to penetrate the defenses.

“You think anyone’s still alive in there?”

“Hard to say. Who knows if the brain-eaters found another way in from the back, or through a tunnel, or if whoever built those barricades turned zombie after they were locked inside? I reckon there’s only one way to find out. The question is, how do we get in there?”

“You could just drive this thing right through the wall.”

‘Yeah, but not until we take care of these guys outside first. Problem is, as soon as we hit one of ‘em, the others are gonna come running.”

“Maybe not. This lake cain’t be too deep. If you can drive us over to that island there, let’s get high enough up to open the turret. We can take ‘em out with our sniper rifles from far enough away that maybe they won’t notice us. Then I can blow those doors away with a cannon shell. That’ll let whoever’s inside know we’re comin’.”

“Whoever or whatever,” Floyd cautioned.

“Either way, we gotta deal with it.”

Floyd dropped the periscope camera and hit the lights. He couldn’t see too far ahead through the water, but he saw enough to know where he was going. He set a course on an angle toward a little island somewhat near the edge of the lake and kept heading straight. Sure enough, they eventually started coming up.

When the turret broke the surface, he stopped and surveyed the area with the periscope again. No sign of trouble. Grabbing their rifles, Floyd slowly and silently propped open the hatch and Mikki joined him on the ladder.

“You ever go duck hunting, Mikki?”

“You gotta be shittin’ me, Floyd! We’re sneakin’ through the middle of Super Zombie hell and you wanna talk about duck huntin’?”

“Just answer the question, please. Have you ever been duck hunting?”

Exasperated, Mikki said, “No, I ain’t never been duck huntin’. Why? Is that part o’ yer dynasty or somethin’?”

Floyd made a V with his hands as he explained. “Ducks fly in a V formation. Now, if you were out duck hunting, which duck would you shoot first?”

“The one at the front, duh!”

“Wrong! You hit the one in the front and all the rest scatter. But if you pick them off from the back…”

“Ah! You get ‘em all! I get it! OK, two more brain points for you, Floyd. Except these guys ain’t in a V formation.”

“No, but you get the idea, try to pick of the ones farthest away from the others. And if you can, fire when the others aren’t looking at your target.”

“This is gonna take a while, ain’t it?”

“If we do it right, yeah.”

“Alright. Let’s get to it. I’ll take the ones on our right and you take the ones on our left. We’ll see who gets to the last one in the middle first.”

“This isn’t a race, Mikki! Take your time and do this right!”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Man, sir!”

“God, I hate when you say that!”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I keep sayin’ it!”

It took more than an hour to pick off the nine armored Super Z’s. It wasn’t easy dropping one of them when the others weren’t aware, and when one dropped, the others would usually perk up for a bit before settling back down. Even in a passive state, they weren’t nearly as oblivious to their surroundings as their more brain-dead cousins. Once the nine were down, they continued working on the remaining 32 zombies.

Floyd and Mikki took their time. Unfortunately, every time they thought they were almost done, one or two more would wander into the area. Some were dressed in black battle armor with full helmets that looked like shiny black eggs. There was no visible face mask, and there seemed be no openings of any kind. Mikki had sent a couple of bullets bouncing harmlessly off the helmets before she learned not to aim for them. She had tried loading anti-armor rounds into Bonnie, but at that range, even they were ineffective.

It was actually pretty comical to see the reaction when a copper-jacketed 30-06 round slammed into a helmet and bounced away. It did no damage, but it got the brain-eater’s attention. The thing would jerk its head around, looking all over, trying to figure out what had just happened, like a confused border collie. Floyd discovered the trick was to aim just below the helmets at the base of the neck from behind, but you had to wait for them to turn away from you to get just the right angle for that to work. And then your aim had to be dead on. Patience is a virtue.

“I tell you what, Floyd,” Mikki commented. “When this is all over, I want me one o’ them helmets!”

“Oh crap!” Floyd muttered, as four more armored Super Z’s came into view. “When is the tea party ever gonna end!”

“I didn’t invite these guests, but I can make them leave,” Mikki replied, shooting one in the back of the neck as it faced away from her.

Unfortunately, one of the other three turned just in time to see its buddy drop to the ground. It let out a howl and they all started scanning the area, looking all around. Floyd and Mikki weren’t worried. They knew they were well out of the range of their vision. Floyd lined up a good shot and dropped another one when it was facing away.

Then something surprising happened. Not good, but surprising. The two remaining Super Z’s turned and seemed to stare right in their direction. The two Zombie Hunters kept staring through their scopes, waiting for another shot, but their targets did not cooperate. At the same time, the two Supers started running straight in Floyd and Mikki’s direction and jumped high into the air. Both landed in the water and floundered around a bit before sinking below the surface.

Floyd and Mikki looked at each other and Floyd said, “What the hell was that?” Then they both started laughing.

“Well, there’s two we won’t have to worry about,” Mikki joked.

The pair continued to survey the area through their scopes. Nothing. No other creepers of any kind wandered into the area. It looked like they had finally finished the job.

Twin geysers erupted out of the water, splashing Floyd and Mikki in the face. Before either one could say, “What the hell?” their sniper rifles were gone. The two supers had jumped out of the water with a huge splash and landed right on Behemoth. One grabbed Floyd’s rifle and snapped it in half. The other grabbed Mikki’s and threw it behind them, landing somewhere on the little island.

Thinking quickly, Mikki snatched Bonnie from where she had set it down beside her, just as one Super Z reached down and pulled Floyd up and out of the hatch with one hand. She had a great angle and shot an antipersonnel round straight up under the creature’s jawbone and up into its skull. At close range, the anti-armor rounds were effective. A fountain of green goo and grey brain matter erupted from the top of the thing’s helmet as the bullet exited. Floyd dropped hard onto the turret with a thud.

Mikki fired another round that blew through the remaining Super Z’s chest, knocking him back, but it only hesitated a moment before lunging for her. She dropped down into the hatch just in time. Floyd jumped off the back of Behemoth into the shallow water on the island shore, hoping to find Mikki’s sniper rifle somewhere in the brush. They hadn’t expected this kind of encounter so he wasn’t wearing his other weapons and hadn’t even put on his helmet. When the damn thing took a flying leap and landed just ahead of Floyd, he was genuinely terrified.

The thing threw a lightning fast punch at Floyd’s head but he managed to dodge it just in time. Another rapid series of punches followed. Floyd managed to duck, dodge, or block every one, but it was like trying to block a crowbar. Even with his Kevlar-reinforced, padded motocross jacket, Floyd knew he’d have some serious bruises on his arms. If he lived long enough to bruise.

Finally, the Super Z tried to fly-kick Floyd into oblivion. Floyd more stumbled than ducked but it had the same effect. His attacker sailed harmlessly over him and landed on the back of Behemoth, where Mikki was waiting for him with her katana. It looked up at her just in time to see the blade swinging at its neck, but too late to do anything about it. A moment later, the thing’s head was rolling around in the dirt next to Floyd, still in its helmet.

“Not bad for an old man, Floyd,” Mikki remarked, holding out a hand to help him up.

“Thanks, I think. Glad we took a couple days to practice our moves. We’re gonna need a lot more practice, though.”

“No shit, Sherlock. They almost had us that time,” Mikki agreed, grimly. “And from now on, we’re suitin’ up fully loaded, no matter what!”

“No argument from me.”

“Now let’s see what we got here.”

Mikki bent over and scooped up the helmet. She had somehow managed to completely miss the chin strap, which was intact. She unclicked the buckle and shook it until the head popped out, then put the helmet on.

“Oooh! That’s nasty!” Floyd cringed.

“Holy shit! Floyd, you gotta see this!” She took it off and tried handing it to him, but he refused.

“What are you, nuts? I’m not putting that thing on my head!”

“Oh, so now you’re squeamish all of a sudden?”

“No, it just kind of…creeps me out. That things head we in there!”

“What? You think it had lice? We live on a planet full of undead everything and you’re creeped out by a freakin’ helmet? Just put the damn thing on, Floyd!”

The way she put it, it did seem like he was being pretty silly, so he grabbed the helmet from her hands and put it on. “Holy shit!” he echoed.

This wasn’t just a helmet, it was one helluva piece of high technology. He took it off and scrutinized the solid black exterior. He couldn’t see any opening for a camera or any other sensor. The helmet appeared to be one solid piece without any seam or other pieces of any kind. And yet, when he put it on, a screen lit up in front of him, showing him the world around him in enhanced, high definition color. Even more amazing, internal sensors somehow recognized his eye movement, and when he looked at a particular part of the screen, it automatically zoomed in! No wonder these Super Zombies could see from so far away!

“I call dibs!” Mikki cried, snatching the helmet back.

“You can’t call dibs like that!” Floyd insisted.

“I can, and I did!”

“Dammit, Mikki! That’s the second time you’ve done that to me!”

“Then you obviously didn’t learn the first time! Come, on. There’s plenty more lyin’ on the ground over there. If you’re not too creeped out!”

“Not any more, let’s go!”