Zombie Anthology (9 page)

    
Geoff's eyes narrowed. “Okay,” he nodded, “We'll play it your way, Jeremy. We might as well go out fighting.” Geoff stumbled over to him and threw an arm around Jeremy's shoulders. “I just hope to God you or Wade can come up with a way to make a stand up here. I'm shit out of ideas."

    
Outside the fence, three new infected knelt, gnawing on the charred remains of their less fortunate brethren.

    
Nathanial Richards was not a man given to worry. Born to the C.E.O. of one of America's leading pharmaceutical corporations and mother who's life revolved around him due to the often absence of his father from their home, he considered himself blessed.

Nathanial never wanted for anything. Even in college, when the police raided his dorm room finding his stash of narcotics his father swept in and made it all go away. What was a petty possession charge to a man who carried bought and paid for senators in his pocket? He owed his parents for all that he was never doubting for a moment that they would be there to save him. Like most of the rest of the world, he knew they were dead now. Political power and money meant nothing these days. They were things of the past.

The only true friends outside his family Nathanial had ever known were computers. From the time his fingers could type, they were a part of him and his life. They gave him his own power and feeling of control but the wave had taken even them from him. Oh sure, there were computers all over Def Con but the web and cyberspace no longer existed.

He'd lost everything. Nathanial was alone and death was coming for him. The transmission from the Freedom II fired his hopes of the old world returning only to crush them flat. He knew deep in his heart whoever was passing, as the Freedom's crew was evil incarnate and he wasn't going to let them take his soul too.

    
Nathanial sat alone in the control room. He looked at his watch. It was two hours until the next message from the Freedom was due. It was far more than enough time for what he had in mind. His fingers danced over the keys of his computer and the complex was his. Weeks ago, he had been forced to disable the base's self-destruct system to save his own life and all those trapped with him. The codes were easy to break for someone like him then and easier to manipulate now. Def Con itself would be his shield when the darkness came, a shield of fire and retribution.

    
Wade finished covering over the last mine yet another one of the infected emerged from the trees. He didn't waste the time or the ammo to dispose of it. Instead, he broke into a run for the gates. As he passed through, Troy and Jeremy slammed them shut behind him. The infected threw itself against the barbed wire, clawing at the fence with pink foam bubbling from its wailing mouth and rage in its eyes.

    
"That does it,” Wade collapsed to the earth out of breath. “We're as ready as we're going to be."

    
Troy, Jeremy, and himself had spent the last few hours littering the area outside of the fence and closest part of the gravel road which led up to it with mines and barricading up the doors of the garage as Geoff drank cup after of cup of black coffee trying to sober up and watching on as their advisor. “As long as those things out there don't trip all the mines before our company shows, we should at least have a chance,” Geoff agreed.

    
"Don't worry,” Troy said patting the.30-.06 he carried with a sniper scope mounted on it, “My friend here and I won't let them."

    
"Guess all we can do is wait,” Jeremy commented as Troy left the group and began to climb to his position on top of the garage. “It's almost time for the Freedom II to make contact again."

    
"You go on and be there with the rest of them when it happens,” Geoff urged, “Us three pretty much got things covered up here."

    
Jeremy nodded and headed for the shed and the outer seal that led into the complex. **** Toni was the first to join Nathanial in the control room. He looked haggard and as if he'd never left his station since the Freedom's transmission. Jeremy and Sheena came in minutes later. No one asked where Ian was and Jeremy was thankful for it. He still hadn't decided what to do about the former C.I.A. agent and didn't see any reason at this point to add the worry of his condition to the rest of the Def Con staff's collective woes. “Everything ready?” he asked.

    
"We're set up to trace them the second they make contact,” Nathanial assured him. They all watched the communications console as the figures on the digital time display flashed and change to the appointed hour.

    
"Come in Def Con. This is Freedom II. Do you copy us? Over."

    
"Go!” Jeremy shouted at Nathanial and the computer engineer began the trace. Toni hesitantly opened a response channel. “This is Def Con. We copy you Freedom II."

    
Seconds ticked by in silence. No reply came. Nathanial indicated he'd managed to get a fix on the transmissions origins. All the color had bled from his face as he said, “The transmission is coming from a point just two miles south of here and closing slowly… “Sweet Jesus,” he muttered. “They really are coming for us."

    
Troy saw the convoy first from his spot atop the garage. A mixed line of pick-ups, four wheel drives, and jeeps bounced their way up the winding gravel growing ever closer. Troy counted thirteen vehicles in all and numerous men and women on foot jogged along at their sides. The thing that bothered him though was the lack of interest by the infected. He knew for a fact that were packs of the creatures still out there in the woods but for whatever reason, they were not attacking the convoy. It could only mean one of two things. Either these people knew a way to control or ward off the creatures or they themselves were so poisoned by the radiation in the atmosphere that the infected didn't recognize them as human.

    
Troy signed what he saw to Geoff and Wade who were concealed in the remaining bushes just inside the fence then said a prayer for them all as he checked the chamber of his rifle to make sure it was ready.

    
"Come in, Freedom II. Come in.” Toni called again over the open frequency.

    
"Give it up,” Nathanial suggested. “They got what they wanted, a definitive fix on our exact position. They're done talking now."

    
Toni's shoulders sagged with defeat. Her fears were confirmed, in that moment, and she knew she was the one who had called down this new terror upon them. She turned to look for Jeremy but he was already gone from the control room.

    
It was one of the joggers rather than the vehicles who stumbled onto the most out laying mine. The noise of the explosion and the rain of pulpy and charred flesh, which followed, brought the convoy to a halt. People began to pour out of the vehicles and leave them behind. Troy swore under his breath. Whoever was leading the mob knew what they were doing. The working trucks were likely too valuable to chance losing and by approaching the base on foot it would cut down the damage the mines could do the mob before they reached the complex. The.30-.06 propped against his shoulder had a good range. He sighted one of the joggers and took aim as the moving mass of attackers began to pick up their pace. Troy put a round through his target's throat just as the mob reached the main section of the minefield. Explosion after explosion tossed dirt and body parts into the air but the people just kept coming, pressing forward, without even pausing to tend to their wounded.

    
Wade took a deep breath and made his peace with God. The fastest of the joggers were already at the fence. He saw one of them toss something at the barbed wire and then his world went white.

    
Troy watched in horror as a large section of the fence blew apart near where Wade had been hiding. The attackers flowed through like ants. He fired off a last shot with rifle dropping another of their number then tossed the weapon aside, trying to scurry down from the garage's roof.

    
Geoff remained hidden the whole time. He waited in the bushes as the attackers ran passed his position on both sides. They moved like men but they weren't really human anymore. Their battles cries were more the snarls of madden dogs and their skin was tinted yellow with sickness. He caught a glimpse of one's eyes. There were no whites left in them just a sickeningly red, bloodshot mass. Finally, Geoff made his move. He stood up spraying the backs of the fifteen or so that had made it by him with his AK-47 on full auto. They crumpled like weeds before a scythe. A rifle cracked and bullet ripped through the back of Geoff's shoulder. He whirled around and met the mob head on in a charge his rifle blazing and spitting emptied shell casings. He made it a few steps before his bullet ridden corpse toppled to the ground rolling from its momentum.

    
Troy met Jeremy as the young man was opening the seal to come outside and shoved him back below it. “Lock it!” Troy yelled.

    
"But Geoff…"

    
"He's dead. Wade too.” Troy pushed him aside and typed the code himself. No sooner had the seal shut than something thumped hard against its top. A gun chattered and bullets pinged off the seal's metal. Both Jeremy and Troy ducked instinctively despite the foolishness of the gesture. “Shit,” Troy grabbed Jeremy and tugged him along after him. “If they've got the gear with them to cut through, between the outer seal and the inner lock, we've got an hour, maybe two tops."

    
"How many are up there?” Jeremy asked. The look on Troy's face told him all he needed to know.

    
Deep in the bowels of Def Con, Ian threw down the book he was reading and screamed. Spit flew from his open mouth as his head shook uncontrollably in a kind of spasm. He leapt up from his chair and ran at the armory's door. His shoe snagged a nearly invisible trip wire he'd sat in place the day before and the armory's lights turned red as its huge door slammed shut in front of him. The thing that was once Ian pounded its fists against it until the bones of its hands were shattered and it started to use its head instead.

    
Troy and Jeremy burst into the control room nearly scaring Toni to death. “What the Hell?” Nathanial bellowed.

    
"They're cutting through the outer seal. The others are dead,” Jeremy panted, out of breath.

    
"Nat, are any of the exterior cameras still working?” Troy demanded as he closed on the engineer.

    
"A few… not the one in the shed."

    
"Bring ‘em on-line. I have a bad feeling our friends up there aren't just going to be sitting on their asses in the time it takes them to cut their way in here."

    
"Okay, I've got two cameras reporting operational. Both of them are a good bit away from the gates though."

    
"Put the closest onscreen."

    
The huge wall display flashed to life. An image of a small group of the attackers who appeared to be reloading their weapons filled the screen. Other attackers in the background behind them stood watching something beyond the camera's field of vision.

    
"Can you pan around and see what those others are so interested in?"

    
"I can try,” Nathanial worked at his keyboard. The image flickered and bounced as the camera slowly turned. Three of the attackers stood outside the fence in the middle of a pack of infected. The creatures appeared docile, cowering around them like pets before their masters.

    
Troy rubbed at his forehead. “I don't believe it. Damn those fuckers are smart."

    
"Huh?” Nathanial inquired. “I don't get it."

    
"They're rounding up the infected in the woods. When they cut through the seal, they're not just going to rush in here. There's no sense in them risking their lives. They'll let the mindless ones in first hoping they'll either overrun us or at least weaken our defenses."

    
"Aren't they all infected?” Toni asked.

    
Nathanial answered before Troy had a chance to. “Yes but they're not the same. These new ones aren't at all like the ones we've had to deal with in the past. They're much more advanced obviously seem to be evolving back into something much closer to what we are, just not as nice and certainly not above using their lesser brethren as weapons or cannon fodder, whatever you want to call it."

    
"Somebody should get Ian. We're going to need all the help we can get,” Sheena said.

    
"No,” Jeremy warned, “Ian's fine where he's at."

    
"We should at least warn him,” Toni added.

    
"Ian's fine,” Jeremy moved to take hold of Toni, “Trust me. He's where he wants to be."

    
"Jeremy,” Troy motioned him over to a table in the control room. Troy ripped a map off the wall and spread it across the tabletop. “You don't have to die here. None of us do. There's a back way out."

    
"That's impossible!” Sheena snapped, “If there was another entrance I would know about it."

    
Troy ignored her and continued. “There's a tunnel inside the ventilation system here,” he pointed at a spot on the map, “Wade found it a few days ago. It's sealed up with an iron grate but I think you can get through it. It opens into the back of the garage."