The Regulators - 02 (2 page)

I think about his
words. For a brief moment, I actually wonder if I want to know the truth. Maybe
it would be easier to live my life in ignorance of the dark and scary things
that go bump in the night, but then I looked over at Jaxon. He was smiling. It
was a slight smile, but it was there nonetheless. I realized in that moment
that I shouldn’t worry, because the man sitting across from me had but one
purpose in life and one purpose only.

He killed those dark
and scary things, and he was very good at his job
.

“
Take me back to when
you first re-entered El Paso
.”

We went in the same way we got out, Country Club Road and
the border between El Paso and New Mexico. Those locations were part of the
Westside if you remember correctly. I chose the Westside for my team just
because that was the side of town I knew the best. I also chose to take it
without any kind of backup, so it was just the Regulators.

“
Can you give me the
names of your teammates just to make sure I’m on the same page
?”

It was the same team that went in to rescue Skie. It
consisted of Dudley, Kingsley, Javie, Georgie and I.

At that moment, there
was a scratching on the door to our room. Jaxon turned his head towards the
sound and began to chuckle. When the noise level increased to the point in
which I thought the door would break apart, Jaxon went over and opened it up.
The large black pit bull gave a snort of irritation and strutted into the room
.

I shouldn’t have left out Merrick; she gets a little
irritated when I do that, but of course she was with us.

The dog was
intimidating to be sure, but as soon as she came over and placed her head on my
lap, I realized that she remembered me from our last set of interviews. I
patted her head and scratched her behind the ears before she turned her back
towards me and settled herself by Jaxon’s feet
.

“
Your bodyguard
?”

Got that right.

“
Okay, I’m confused…I
thought that you guys blew up the bridge on Country Club Road when you left the
city the first time
?”

Oh yeah, Kingsley took that thing out big time. However, a
military construction crew had erected a drawbridge kinda thing by the time we
got there. They lowered it for us to cross and as soon as we were back in the
city, they raised it back up.

We were driving two matte black Jeeps that had been armored
up and customized for battle. Georgie was driving the second Jeep with Javie
riding shotgun and Kingsley in the back with his weapon. I was in the lead Jeep
with Dudley driving, Merrick riding shotgun and me in the back with an HK mp7.

Let me tell you about this gun, because it’s an excellent
weapon. It’s small and lightweight; it has a collapsible stock and it even comes
with a holographic sighting mechanism that puts a dot on the target while still
in the optical. It eliminates the red laser, which is something that might give
away our position. Georgie and I picked them out for everyone; we just headed
out to a range and tried a ton of guns till we found the ones we liked. We also
had silencers put on all of them, because a gun is worthless around zombies if
every shot you crack off brings a mountain of corpses down on you.

“
Can I interrupt very
quickly before you get too far ahead
?”

Sure.

When we interviewed
before you made sure to tell me about the weapons you used. In fact, you were
very descriptive about them. Did you still use any of the same weapons or had
they all been replaced by the mp7
?”

Well, I still had the Cold Steel Ti-lite in my pocket. It
worked so well in my last fight I wasn’t about to part with it. I also added a
Cold Steel Recon 1 folder with a tanto style blade. It was just a monster of a
knife and I couldn’t pass up a chance to try it out.

“
Were you still using
the bite suits
?”

Yes, all of us had bite suits. They look just like normal
fatigues, except they feel a little rougher to the touch, and the zombies can’t
bite through them. All of us were also using tactical vests with built in back
packs and high bite proof collars to protect our necks. Georgie was still the
only one of us that wore a helmet.

“
Any other weapons
?”

I traded in my Glock for a Sig Sauer P226 with a silencer.
No real reason, they are both great guns, but the Sig has a hammer release that
I thought was kinda cool and it fits really well in my hand. The other guys had
various firearms. Dudley was once again using the .45 he ‘liberated’ from
Georgie.

“
I’m actually
wondering about a certain weapon that you used quite often in your earlier
battles
.”

Ah, my tomahawk. Yeah, that I didn’t change at all. It was
resting in the small of my back on my utility belt. I had some special loops
added so that I could fit it in there sideways and draw it out quickly. Now
that you mention it, all the Regulators carry some sort of chopping weapon as a
backup. It just pays to be prepared; we learned that from the last time.
Bullets run out, but a good knife or tomahawk never lets you down.

“
Excellent, just what
I wanted to know. Now, did you enter the city during the day time or at night
?”

We entered well after midnight. Our plan was to lay low
while the sun was up and work our asses off after it had gone down.

“
Was it safer to work
at night
?”

Yes and no. We would be able to sneak around a lot easier,
but the shamblers would be harder to spot as well.

“
Shamblers
?”

Ask Dudley, it’s his new word for zombies.

So there we were, cruising at around thirty miles per hour.
It was weird driving past the line of cars we had used to make our escape. We
had a moment of silence as we remembered all that we went through.

“Looks different in the dark,” Dudley said. “Never realized
what a scary road this is with all those trees.”

“Maybe you’re just a pussy now,” I replied. You probably
just lost your nerve after we rescued Skie.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“Well, it could be. Maybe you just need to take a deep, long
look at yourself. You might just be able to see your inner pussy trying to
shine its way to the surface.”

“Speaking of being a pussy, have you spoken to Kingsley
today?”

“I haven’t,” I answered. “Why do you ask?”

“It just seemed like he was having a bad case of nerves.
He’s been a grumpy bastard these last couple of days.”

“I don’t blame him if he is having a problem with his
nerves. We gotta be crazy to be coming back here.”

“You’re the moron that announced to a room full of reporters
that we were coming back to save everyone,” Dudley said very calmly and
clearly.

“Well I’m regretting it now,” I answered in an equally calm
voice. “Next time, tell me to shut up.”

All joking aside, he was right. It was kinda scary. For
whatever reason, there aren’t many street lights in the Upper Valley area.
Everything was dark and quiet. There were shadows everywhere. Every now and
then, from somewhere off in the distance, we could hear glass breaking or other
random and unknown sounds.

El Paso had become a nightmare town and we had no idea what
was around the corner. We didn’t go down Mesa (a main street on the Westside).
Instead, we turned immediately down the side streets and the winding roads of
all the neighborhoods.

We were hoping to avoid any battles our first night back, we
just wanted to get somewhere safe and get our bearings before things kicked off
the next evening. Now, we had no reason to believe that these neighborhoods and
side streets were any safer than Mesa. We were just hoping that if we picked up
a large group of shamblers, we’d be able to lose them in the maze.

To be honest, I was beginning to wonder why we hadn’t yet
run into any trouble. I knew we hadn’t blasted away enough zombies from the
helicopters to make too much of a difference when we were on the ground.

Not that I was complaining. I just don’t like the
anticipation. Halfway to our destination, I heard Hardin’s voice in my earpiece
radio.

“What’s up?” I asked to let him know I was listening.

“We just got an SOS from a house in your immediate area,”
Hardin said.

“What’s the address?”

“They don’t know the address, but the street is Oveja,”
Hardin said. “They heard the sound of your engines as you passed them by.”

“I’m on it.”

The entire team heard the conversation; we all had the same
ear piece radios. Kingsley wasn’t happy about it.

“I thought we were gonna start this shit tomorrow night?”
Kingsley said in his radio.

“What do you suggest,” I asked. “Leave them here until we’re
ready?”

His only answer was a heavy sigh and a small bit of
grumbling. All of which had a somewhat negative tone. I could tell that even
through my earpiece. He was right of course; we were supposed to begin the next
evening. I just couldn’t leave them behind.

I gave my radio another tap.

“What’s up?” asked Hardin.

“Did they mention if there were any undead in the area?”

“I was just about to let you know. We lost contact with
them. We don’t know the amount of survivors in that location and we don’t know
if they are in any immediate danger.”

I heard Kingsley curse in my ear. We were idling in the
middle of the road as everyone awaited my decision. It wasn’t exactly the
safest place in the world to be. There were a few streetlamps around, but they
only gave off a teeny bit of light and ended up casting everything in an eerie
yellowish glow.

From the passenger seat, Merrick let out a soft whine.

I strained my ears listening for any sounds of the undead. I
couldn’t hear anything. Everyone was staring at me.

I honestly didn’t know what to do.

Oveja is a decently sized street. There were houses on both
sides. I had no idea where to even begin looking for any survivors.

The night air was rather cool. There wasn’t even the
slightest bit of wind. I still couldn’t hear anything.

Merrick let out another whine.

I was just about to leave when someone threw a small rock
onto the street in front of us.

“What the hell?” Dudley grumbled as he jumped about a mile
in his seat.

I was out of the Jeep immediately and scanning the houses
from where I thought the rock had been thrown.

Merrick was right behind me and suddenly so was Georgie.

“Georgie,” I whispered. “It’s not exactly brilliant when the
driver leaves the vehicle. What if we need to get out of here quick?”

With that suggestion, Georgie tapped his ear and asked Javie
to take his place as driver.

“Use your head, dumbass,” I said.

“Bite me,” Georgie replied. “Did you see where it came
from?”

I motioned quickly with my weapon at my best guess.

“I’m thinking it was from one of these houses, but I can’t
be sure.”

“So what do we do?”

“Hell if I know,” I answered. “I know what I don’t want to
do. I don’t want to have to search five or six houses looking for a survivor,
but I think that might be our only option.”

I could hear Kingsley let out another exasperated sigh all
the way over to where we were standing. In return, I shot him as nasty a look
as I could manage. Maybe Dudley was right. Maybe he was having a problem with
his nerves. Regardless, I didn’t want any noise; even the soft engine rumble
coming from the two Jeeps was beginning to make me feel uneasy.

I trotted over to Dudley and told him to kill the engine and
keep a look out. I told Javie the same thing at his Jeep and informed Kingsley
he would need to come with Georgie and me. He didn’t like that at all.

“Why don’t I stay?” Kingsley said. “I banged my leg on the
drive over; I’m not sure how fast I can move.”

“Because you drive like an old lady. The zombies can crawl
faster than you can motor.”

He was pissed, but he got out of the Jeep. Then he started
limping around like a little girl with a thorn in her foot. I could hear Dudley
laughing quietly from the other Jeep, and when I saw the look of anguish on
Kingsley’s face, I couldn’t help but snicker right along with my nephew.

“Just go back to the Jeep,” I said before heading back
towards Georgie.

The situation sucked. We could have used another guy to help
us search the houses. I had no idea what was going on with him.

“
I remember from
before that Kingsley was a big help when you went on previous missions. Were
there problems that you didn’t mention during those interviews
?”

Not really. I mean, he drank a lot. He was prone to panic
during some of the meetings, but he was always ready to go. His behavior was a
bit of a shock. At that moment, though, I just didn’t have the time to give it
a lot of thought.

Georgie gave a weird look towards Kingsley and rolled his
eyes.

“So where do we start?” Georgie asked.

“Let’s take it like a book and go from left to right,” I
answered.

If Kingsley had joined us, I would have teamed him up with
Georgie and searched one end of the houses while they searched the other, but
this was the first time Georgie had ever really been in the thick of things. I
didn’t want him to panic if something came running out at him. So, we were
sticking together.

“
Wasn’t it Georgie
that ran to help you after the bridge blew up and you made your escape out of
El Paso
?”

Yeah, it was, but a one-time moment of bravery only makes a
temporary hero. I had no idea what he’d do if the shit hit the fan and I wasn’t
going to risk his or my life finding out.

We carefully and quietly made our way to the first house. We
avoided walking over the rock and gravel yard and instead stuck to the paved
driveway and walkway that led to the front door.