Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (46 page)

I stood up and stepped around the back of the Humvee.
I had my M-16 in my hand, but it was aimed at the ground. Although I was wearing Army body armor, my silver badge was gleaming in the middle of my chest. I didn’t know if they would think I was one of the good guys or not.

The woman looked to be in her late thirties or early forties.
I could see a wedding ring on her left hand and her clothes were once expensive. Now they were dirty and torn in places. They all looked like they could use a meal and a good night’s sleep. They were scared, but still ready to fight for their lives. I could respect that. When they were within ten feet of me, the woman looked me right in the eye and gave me a stern look. She kept her eyes locked on mine for what seemed like a full minute, and then lowered her gun.

“You’d bette
r not be lying to us,” she said, softly.

“I’m not.
You guys can ride with me. The girls will have to ride on your laps, though.”

“Isn’t that against the law?” asked the teenager, snidely.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “But I won’t tell if you won’t.”

Spec-4 reached into the back and unlocked the door.
The teenager got in on the driver’s side and took one of the girls with him. The woman followed me around to the passenger side and got in with the other girl. Then I climbed in and shut the door.

“Lock your doors,” I said, locking my own.

They both did as I asked and kept their eyes on me.

“I’m Wylie Grant,” I said.
“This is Chrissy Wilder. We’re with the Sheriff’s Office.”

“You said that, already,” said the kid, sarcastically.

I hadn’t known the kid for all that long, but I was already getting tired of his attitude. The woman just looked at him and shook her head.

“I’m Heat
her Page,” she said. “The smart-aleck is my son, Jayce. The girls are Emily and Ericka.”

“Nice to meet you all,” I said.
“Are you hungry?”

“We’re freakin’ starving,” said the boy
, excited for the first time.

“We don’t have much with us, but there’s plenty to eat once we get back to the jail.”

“The jail?” asked the kid, surprised.

“Yeah, it’s safe.
We can hold it.”

I reached into the console and handed each of them an MRE and a couple bottles of water.
Heather pulled out a knife from a sheath on her hip and slit open the bags for the girls, then her own. Jayce pulled out his own knife and cut his open.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I said, “where were you going?”

“My husband was planning on taking us to our cabin in Arkansas,” replied Heather. “After the zombies got him, I just wanted to get out of town.”

“I told her to go to the
Evac Center,” the kid said. “But she wouldn’t listen.”

“Your father told me not to trust the Army.”

Her tone indicating that they’d had this argument before.

“Your father was right,” I said.
“The Army killed everyone at the Evac Center.”

“Why would they do that?” demanded Jayce.

“They called it
Containment
,” I replied.

“I hate to break this up,” said Spec-4, “but shouldn’t we get moving.”

“Yeah, take this road south and turn right at the first road you come to. That should take us out right behind the shopping center next to the Golden Corral.”

“Got it,” she said, putting the Humvee into gear.

“What’s the hold up?” asked Sanders via the SINCGARS.

I grabbed the mic and keyed up.
“Just getting to know our new passengers, Cal. We’re moving out, now.”

“Copy that,” replied Sanders.

Spec-4 pulled away and continued on south. She had to drive around several abandoned cars before we made it to the next street. Then she turned right and headed up the long hill. Thankfully, it was clear of traffic except for the occasional car in the ditch. There weren’t all that many zombies, either. People that lived on the edge of town had a much better chance of getting out when the shit hit the fan than the people who lived in the middle of town.

We drove in silence for a few minutes while they ate and I watched the road.
As we reached the top of the hill, there was a fire station and you could see the back of the shopping center. It had a big chain pet store and a big electronics place. Most of the other stores were food or clothes. As we approached the back of the shopping center, I turned to Spec-4.

“Ok,” I said. “Slow down and let’s have a look at the front.
Just creep up to the parking lot. If it’s crawling with zombies then we’re gonna have to abort.”

“You mean run,” said the kid.

I’d heard about enough out of that kid for one day, and my temper flared. I whirled around and looked the kid right in the eye.
“Listen to me, kid,” I snapped. “We’ve been going out in this for days, pulling people out of places surrounded with zombies. We’ve all nearly died numerous times. I won’t risk the lives of everyone on my team to try and pull out the survivors. I’m no good to my family if I’m a zombie.”

The kid looked like I’d slapped him in the face.
His eyes were wide open and he leaned back into the seat.

“You don’t know me, kid,” I said, my temper easing up a little.
“Don’t call me a coward, and watch your mouth from here on out.”

“You’re not my…” the kid started to say.

“Yeah,” I interrupted. “I’m not your father. What I
AM,
is
in charge.
Don’t make me regret rescuing
YOU
.”

“Look,” said Heather.
“I’m sorry about Jayce. His mouth gets him into trouble all the time. We’re grateful for everything you’ve done.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” I said.
“You can thank me when we’re back at the jail. Right now, I’ve got to try to rescue more officers and get us all back safely. It won’t be easy.”

I turned back around and nodded at Spec-4.
She started slowly pulling forward. As I reached for the SINCGARS, I could hear Heather whispering to Jayce. I couldn’t make out the words, but the tone was scolding. I couldn’t help but smile as I keyed up the mic.

“Listen up, guys,” I said.
“We’re going to creep forward and have a look at the front of the shopping center. If it looks good, we’ll call you up. If I say run, bug out and meet us at the park back down the hill. Got it?”

“Copy that,” said Sanders.

“Got it,” said Wells.

Slowly, we moved down the road until we were far enough forward that I could see into the parking lot of the shopping center.
There were lots of cars, but very few zombies. We crept farther forward until I could see the fronts of the stores. There were zombies around, but not in any large numbers.

“I think we can risk it,” I said. “Let’s do it, boys.”

“Outstanding,” said Sanders.

“Right behind you, Wylie,” said Wells.

“Get on the SAW’s,” I said. “Keep them manned and ready. Cover us when we move in.”

Instead of a response, I could see Sanders pop out of the hatch on his Humvee.
A few seconds later, one of the Fair Grove guys popped out of his. It looked like Griffith. Spec-4 gave it a little more gas and headed for the parking lot of the Golden Corral. The other two Humvees caught up to us right as we were turning into the parking lot. It was mostly empty, but we could see one of our county cruisers in front. The windshield was broken out and there was blood all over the hood. There was an arm stuck in the ram-guard on the front bumper.

“Looks like they hit a zombie pretty hard,” said Spec-4.

“Yeah, it does,” I agreed. “They still fared better than the Highway Patrol.”

I pointed towards the ditch in front of the restaurant.
There was a Highway Patrol cruiser on its top. It looked like it had been on fire.

“Get us close,” I said to Spec-4.

She just nodded and drove right up to the front door of the restaurant. The other two Humvees took up position on either side of us. The SAW gunners swung out and pointed away from us. Down the road from us, I could see the top of the Mall. I couldn’t see the parking lot, but I knew it would be crawling with zombies. I popped open my door and got out. Spec-4 climbed out and immediately brought her weapon up into firing position.

“You all stay here,” I said to Heather and her kids.

Once I was out the door, I could see the others getting out joining us. Southard was out and came over to me first. Wells and Weaver came trotting over with their weapons in hand.

“What’s the plan, Grant?” asked Weaver.

“There are four officers inside the cooler and zombies inside the building.”

“So we go in and shoot them all,” said Southard.

“Not so fast, Chuck,” I said. “Let’s do this by the numbers. No surprises. We stick together and sweep the place. Cut the pie.”

“Sweet,” said Wells.

The others just nodded.

“Alright, turn the handsets back on and do a radio check,” I instructed. “My set’s dead, but I’ll stick close to Spec-4.”

Everyone checked in and nodded that they were ready. We all checked our weapons and headed towards the door. I was taking the point position with two of them on each side. I had Spec-4 and Southard on my left, Wells and Weaver on my right. We all shouldered our weapons and advanced towards the front door, looking for movement. I was expecting zombies, not an ambush.

The first gunshot took me by complete surprise.
I felt the impact with my chest armor before I heard the shot. I was immediately knocked over backwards and everyone else dove for cover. Weaver wasn’t fast enough and took a round to the head. He landed beside me with the back of his skull missing.

Spec-4 returned fire first.
She just raised the weapon and burned the magazine into the front of the restaurant. Wells grabbed Weaver and started dragging him behind my Humvee. Southard rolled to his left and low crawled right up to the front wall. The lower half of the wall was brick, so he was safe for the moment.

Spec-4 rolled over and slid behind one of the pillars on the front porch.
I was stuck in the open and still trying desperately to draw breath. My M-16 was about ten feet away and under the front of the Humvee. I could see Wells was screaming something, but my ears didn’t seem to be working at the moment. Spec-4 was looking right at me and screaming something else that I couldn’t hear.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
I could see Sanders spinning his turret around when the first bullets struck him in the chest. I couldn’t tell if they penetrated his armor or not, but the hits struck him like a jackhammer. It pressed him hard up against the back of the turret and he slumped forward when the hits stopped. I didn’t know how bad he was hurt, but he looked out of it.

To my right I could hear the SAW that
Griffith was on come to life. He started raking the front of the restaurant, screaming silently. He was still screaming when the first bullet stuck him in the face, followed by two more. He fell back against the turret, but his finger stayed tight on the trigger. In seconds, the belt emptied and the SAW fell silent. Griffith slid back inside the Humvee and disappeared from view.

Bullets started chipping away at the pillar that Spec-4 was hiding behind.
Southard rolled over on his back and pitched a grenade in through the shattered window. I felt the
CRUMP
of the explosion and saw the windows explode outward, but I still couldn’t hear anything but ringing. The firing seemed to stop then. Southard waited a few seconds, then climbed to a kneeling position and started to peek over the edge of the window.

I could see the bullet dig a path down his cheek and take of
f a chunk of his ear. Southard fell back down to the ground, screaming in silence.

“No, Goddammit,” I screamed.

My hearing was starting to come back, and I could barely hear myself.

“
NO
!” I screamed, and stood up.

Spec-4 looked at me and silently screamed, “Get down!”

I wasn’t listening. My rage was beyond controlling, now. I could no more stop myself than I could stop the sunset. Time slowed down and I felt disconnected from what was happening around me. It was more like watching it on TV. I walked right into the restaurant. The front doors were completely smashed, so I didn’t even slow down. I could feel the glass crunch under my feet as I entered the lobby.

The darkness inside was blinding for a few seconds as my eyes adjusted, but I didn’t break stride.
I was almost to the cash register when I saw the first of them. He was standing behind the salad bar. Everything still seemed to be in slow motion as he raised his rifle to fire at me. It was a military grade assault rifle. It looked like an M-16. All of this registered in my brain in the split second that I saw it all. Then I was reacting.