Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 2): Fighting the Hordes (12 page)

            Sad or not, they would kill and eat us if they could.  I directed her to veer to the left.  They were mostly to the right side of the road, as we saw it.  Also, that path cut down the chance one of them grabbing my driver and making us crash.

            "Fire them up?" Ralph asked eagerly.

            "No.  That'll just attract attention to us," I replied, hoping the others in the convoy followed our lead.

            And we were on them.

           
THUMP!  Thump.  Thump.

            "Whoa!" I cried.

            One of the zombie bridesmaids lurched to the side, getting right in front of us.  The cowcatcher hit her dead center, causing a hard jolt through the jeep.  We caught two others with glancing blows.  The first girl was still on the cowcatcher, though, and trying to climb over it to get to us.

            "I'll get her," I said, when Ralph aimed the M60 at her.  "That's a little on the overkill side."  I patted Olivia on the right thigh.  Really, I could've tapped her arm, but…  You know.  "I'm going to butt-stroke her in the head when she reaches the windshield.  I want you to turn right sharply at the same time.  That'll send her over the side."

            She looked at my hand, and then at me, and nodded without a word.

            "The others are driving through without shooting," Ralph announced.  I could hear the zombies being hit by the bigger trucks, and couldn't imagine them surviving that.  It had to crush most of their bones.  "I think they took out almost all of them."

            The zombie made it to the hood.  She showed no sign she cared what happened to her friends, or even herself.  The young blonde was intent on us, eyes filled with wild rage.  Half her lower lip was missing, oozing blood, and her whole face was black and blue.  At least one leg was broken below the knee by the impact, so she was pretty unsteady.

            "She was very pretty once," Olivia said with the saddest voice.  "And so young."

            The zombie girl finally grabbed the top of the windshield, pulling herself up.  I rose up and smashed the butt of my AR15 into the side of her head.  The jeep swerved violently to the right at the same time.  The zombie went flying away, and I barely kept myself from slamming into Olivia.

            "We'll be at the armory in a few minutes," Olivia said.  "Ask Jake if he wants to stop short and send in someone to scout it out."

            "Damn, maybe you would make a good soldier," I said, wishing I'd thought of that.

            She smiled so sweetly, looking so pleased.  "I try."

            "Get a room," Ralph said, and laughed.

            "Dork," she muttered, tightening her hold on the steering wheel.

            I just started looking around for the walkie-talkie.  It wasn't where I kept it, and the jeep was dark.  Ralph handed it to me a moment later.

            "Jake," I said.  "We're almost to the armory.  Do you want to scout it out first?"

            "Over and out," Ralph said.

            "Over," I said quickly.

            Jake didn't answer.  I found that odd.  Just silence.  Then Mike came over the radio, saying Jake's walkie-talkie might not be working.  He ordered us to stop a few blocks away, preferably in a dark, defensible position.

            "What qualifies as a defensible position?" Ralph asked.

            "Damn if I know," Olivia replied.

            They looked at me.

            "Beats the shit out of me," I said, and we all shrugged.  "What I consider defensible and what a real soldier thinks is defensible might not be the same."

            Honestly, I doubted there was any place easy to defend in that area.  It was mostly flat in that part of the city.  Mostly zoned commercial and office space.  Just past the street the armory was on was Uptown, an exclusive residential district of older homes.  In my mind, a defensive position was a hilltop.  High ground.  There was no high ground to be found.

            "Parking lot," I called, pointing.  It was a paved lot between two liquor stores.  There was a high fence along the back, so it was protected on three sides.  "That's as protected as we'll find."

            "The armory is five blocks away," Olivia said.

            "Close enough."

            Olivia turned into the parking lot, and everyone followed.  She drove a loop around the lot, stopping up close to the liquor store wall and right off of the street.  Jake pulled up behind us, and everyone formed a long line around the perimeter of the lot.  I climbed out and met Jake halfway.

            "Why did you stop here?" he asked.

            "We're almost to the armory," I said.  "Mike said to stop so we can scout it out."

            "Mike did?"

            "Yeah, your walkie-talkie isn't working," Mike said as he joined us.

            Jake just stared at us a second, and then went to check it.  He rummaged around and finally sighed gustily.

            "It's not in there.  Do any of the other captured trucks have a walkie-talkie?" Jake said.

            After they did a quick check and determined only the pickups and jeep had walkie-talkies, Jake took one from a pickup.  Then we made plans to scout the armory.  Olivia was added to the scout team since she was the only one to have ever been there.  I almost wasn't allowed to go.  Jake wanted me to stay behind, to keep two people with the jeep.  Mike insisted I go with them.  Mike, of course, was leading the scouts.  Billy and Travis came with us.

            "Kyle can't drive a standard," Mike said to Jake.  "So you can be the jeep driver until we return."

            Ralph wasn't pleased that he was the only one of us left behind.  Honestly, I'd rather have him than Billy or Travis.  I wasn't in charge.

            "Let's go.  You lead, Olivia," Mike said.

            Olivia and I both wore helmet liners.  Since I gave her mine, I took Ralph's.  The steel pots that went over them were just too heavy for us.  Really, how did soldiers deal with that weight all day and night?  I found it extremely annoying and unwieldy at best.

            Before I knew it we were on the move.  Olivia was in the lead, with Mike behind her.  I came next, with Billy and Travis bringing up the rear.  We all had AR15s and extra magazines.

            Olivia must've been really tired of sitting in that jeep all day.  She moved quickly down the street, using the shadows to hide us as much as possible.  With the cloud cover, there wasn't much light to cast shadows, but every little bit helped to make me feel better.

            We only saw one zombie, about halfway to the armory.  We just waited for her to wander away.  When Olivia hesitated to continue, Mike laid his hand on her butt and pushed her forward.  She just took off trotting, while I cringed and heat flushed through me.  He had no right!

            "Calm down, little geek," Billy whispered behind me, sounding way too amused.  "She's got a nice ass.  Everyone wants a handful."

            So embarrassing.  Was I that obvious?  Did Olivia know?

            Unable to speak, I just followed Mike across the street.  Per Mike's instructions, we moved across open areas like streets and parking lots spread out about twenty feet apart.  When Olivia stopped we tended to come together, before taking off again.  Thankfully, Mike kept his hands to himself the rest of the way.

            I heard the armory before we reached it.  The fact others were already there looting it was demoralizing.  Mike kept us moving forward, though he did slow us down.  About a block from the armory Mike redirected us across the street to approach from a different direction.

            There was a 7-Eleven convenience store directly across from the armory.  Olivia guided us into the alley behind it.  Mike took a ladder off a service van and led us atop the store.  We crawled to the front and lay down in line.  I broke formation to lie on the other side of Olivia.  Mike gave me an annoyed look, but didn't say anything.

            "Where are all of these people coming from?" Olivia asked.  "There are way more survivors than I thought."

            My thoughts exactly.  Maybe the world wasn’t as bad off as I originally thought.  Then it occurred to me we'd encountered maybe two hundred living people between Emory and the armory.  Out of a million people before the shit hit the fan, we found a few hundred survivors.  Not counting the people of Emory.

            Maybe it was far worse than I thought.

            "How many do you think are in there?" Mike whispered as he looked at the armory through binoculars.

            I didn't see anyone directly, but I could see movement through the windows.  They had lights.  After a few minutes I realized they had gas lanterns, what I'd always called Coleman lanterns.

            "A dozen," Billy said.  "No more than that."

            "There could be more coming," I said.  "Or posted on guard."

            Mike had the only binoculars, and he didn't share.  So I only had my naked eyes.  After a while he looked off into space a long moment.

            "Okay, guys, do any of you know what Army scouts do?"

            That had to be a trick question.  I thought we were doing what Army scouts did.  Was there more?

            "Scout?" I asked, getting an amused snort from Olivia.

            "You're a funny man," Mike said.  "Scouts don't just find the enemy, they attack them just enough to make the enemy shoot back."

            "Why?" Billy said.  "Sounds crazy."

            "That's how they find out what the enemy has in terms of weapons and manpower," Mike said.  He lifted the walkie-talkie.  "They then radio back what the enemy has, so the men behind them will be ready."

            Olivia and I shared a not so amused look, and shook our heads.  We knew where that was going.  Not what I was expecting.

            "What if there are hundreds of them?" Travis said.  "We'll be slaughtered."

            I was so glad he asked that question.  Mike would probably think less of his friend than he would of me if I asked it.  Damn good question, though.  Everyone was nodding, including Mike.

            "It's a chance we have to take," Mike said.  "So two of us will stay up here to engage them, while the rest of you move about a block back towards the convoy.  Just in case we are killed."

            "And just who do you want to stay with you?" Olivia asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice.  None of us wanted to be the shooters and take all of the return fire.  "I'd like to volunteer anyone but me."

            Everyone grinned but Mike.  "Just me and Kyle."

            Oh hell yes.  The bastard was trying to get me killed so he could have Olivia.  I knew it.  At least that's where my head went.

            "Don't you think you had him do enough already today?" she said in my defense.

            "Yes," Mike admitted.  "But I like the way he handles himself."

            Well, I couldn't refuse after that.  Maybe Mike wasn't such a bad guy after all.  That was high praise from a veteran.  Suddenly, I didn't want to disappoint him.

            "It's settled.  Billy, take command of Travis and Olivia, and lead them over to the next intersection over," Mike said.  As they left, he lay back down and took aim at the armory.  I glanced at Olivia, who was hurrying away.  "Kyle, I'm going to shoot into the windows to the left of the front doors, and I want you shooting into the ones on the right.  Then we'll see what they shot back at us with."

Chapter 14

            I mimicked how Mike sprawled out, feet wide and rifle to his shoulder.  Preparing to fire on the other survivors made me feel like a real Army sniper.  For a second.  When I realized I'd be shooting at men who'd never threatened us, my enthusiasm faded.

           
Pap-pap-pap!
Mike squeezed off into one window, and then repeated on the next in line.

            He didn't seem to be aiming at anyone, so I didn't have to kill either.  Unless absolutely necessary.  Yeah, I wasn't feeling like such a good soldier.

            The other three could be heard behind us running away.  They probably thought Mike would give them plenty of time to reach the spot he wanted them to wait.  As their footsteps faded, I took aim at the first window and squeezed off three shots.  Then I swung the AR15 to the next window, and the next, and the next.  We put three to five rounds through every front window.

            The other group returned fire.  Bullets zipped overhead, sounding way too close.  A few hit the façade and roof in front of us.  We were on the same hill as the armory, but they had a few feet in elevation on us.  I started feeling very exposed and vulnerable.

            Mike returned fire, so I followed his lead.

            "Shoot into the shrubbery on your side of the building," Mike said.  "See if anyone returns fire."

            "Aaiiee!" I cried when a shot ricocheted off my helmet.  The fiberglass was just enough with the angle to defect the bullet.  I might've peed myself again.  "Shit."

            No one returned fire from the shrubs on either side.  I counted three men shooting at us, from three different windows.  After we shot into all of the windows again, Mike pulled the walkie-talkie out of his back pocket and turned it on.

            "Jake, I think there are only a handful of men in the armory.  We can take them easily enough, over," Mike said.

            "We can?" I whispered.

            They were behind brick walls.  We'd be out in the open.

            "Weapons, over?" Jake asked.

            "Small arms only," he said. "Nothing military grade, over."

            That meant the others hadn't broken into the arms room.  They only had what they brought with them.  I wasn't even sure why they were bothering with the armory, but then if it offered better weapons and lots of ammo, why not?