Zombie Theorem (Book 2): The Siege (30 page)

Vic appeared to my side, he had the radio to his ear. “Dan, those explosions were direct hits on the enemy. We have only Petunia left with any weapons. She is going to hold back ‘till we absolutely need her. More good news, the security force flown in to secure Fairchild has boarded vehicles and are racing in our direction. The general is also going to send more flights in to help us out. The ones protecting the KC-135s are configured for only air to air. We have no ETA on when those guys will get here. We are on our own for a bit.”

Two figures came running from the trees. It was Helmut and Howser, and they were running like hell was hot on their heels. They slid in by the .50 and spoke to Hase. Hase listened, then pointed at me and yelled something. He smacked himself on the forehead and called on the radio, “Helmut and Howser say the zombies are close, Ridder is further back driving them in our direction. How do you want to handle this? Over.”

I climbed onto the hood of the Humvee and looked at the tree line, “Take one of the Humvees and move it twenty yards down the driveway so we can hit them in two places. I don’t want them funneling into the house. Over.”

“I agree, I’ll put these two and Cupcake over there. I sent Doc and Senshi around the back to protect us from that direction. All the rest of us will concentrate on the threat coming from the trees. Over,” Hase answered back.

“Sounds good. Who is tagged to back up Doc and Senshi? Over,” I asked.

Kuppers broke into the radio at that point, “Vic and I will back them up. Over.”

“Awesome. Over.”

I dropped off the hood back next to Julie. Brian was in the cupola with his M4 and ready to fire. The zombies started showing up in ones and twos. “I got them. Save your ammo, and remember your lanes of fire. I don’t want to waste our limited ammo on shooting the same zombies a multitude of times,” radioed Hase.

He lifted his big rifle and fired six quick shots, taking down the zombies who had appeared from the tree line. I turned on my red dot scope and pressed my cheek against the stock. Julie and I had worked out our lanes with Brian. We had our own little areas we could fire into. A zombie came into view. It was a woman once a upon a time. Most of her hair was missing, along with most of the left side of her face. The dress she was wearing was encrusted with some brown material. I figured it was blood from the wound on her face. She had lost her shoes or died without any. I placed the red dot just above her brow, took a breath in, released half, and squeezed the trigger. I was surprised when the gun bucked in my arms. The back of the woman’s head exploded out in a black mist with bits of skin and bone. I breathed again and watched my area.

Julie’s gun fired next to me, then Brian’s started barking as they both took targets down. My eardrums felt like they were going to blow. I opened my mouth and moved my jaw around, trying to get them to stop ringing. Julie looked at me and shook her head. She then reached into a pocket and produced little yellow earplugs and handed them to me. I took at them happily, squished them down, and pushed them into my ears. I worked my jaw around again until they felt comfortable. I looked back through my scope and found two men coming into my lane. I took one down with one shot, but missed the other, hitting him in the shoulder. As he walked, his body would jerk and his head and shoulders would dip or rise. I looked down at his legs and saw that he was missing a foot and was staggering on the stump. I adjusted, timing his movements, and fired again. This time, I was successful. By the time he went down, five more came into my lane. One was a little boy wearing footie pajamas and missing his left arm. I almost threw up and had to close my eyes for a second. I settled the red dot just above his head and fired. He fell and didn’t get back up. I worked on taking down the rest in my area and had to change magazines. I quickly changed it out and started feeling in a groove. Wish I would’ve had this gun and skill when I was in the tower. Maybe Maggie would still be alive.

I shook that thought out of my head and concentrated on what was in front of me. I looked over at Julie, and she was transfixed on her weapon and killing the zombies. Brian looked comfortable and was shooting pretty steadily, destroying zombies one shot at a time. This isn’t too bad, I thought to myself. Then I got mad and cussed myself out.

Great, you just jinxed us, you fucking moron!

I had been dealing with the flow of zombies into my lane, but instead of one or five zombies at a time, it looked like a wall of rotten and diseased meat coming out of the trees. The firing, which had been at a slow, measured pace, picked up as the zombies just kept coming. I was on my third magazine, so I had to have killed at least forty. I was not hitting the head every single time. I just didn’t have enough practice with the weapon. The bodies were starting to pile up, slowing the rate of advance of the zombies in the rear. An idea came to me. I ran from my position and made for the .50 cal. I slid up beside Hase and had to yell over the firing to be heard, “Can the .50 knock down the trees in front of the zombies and to the sides?”

Hase threw me a thumbs up as he figured out my plan. I patted his shoulder and ran back to my firing position. I watched as he climbed into the cupola and charged the .50. he started firing into the trees and the mass of zombies. He felled the trees in front and beside of the horde. He had created a roadblock, efficiently slowing down the mass, as they could not control their limbs well enough to climb over their dead brethren or trees.

Our firing slowed and gave us time to quickly refill our magazines and prepare for Ridder and another wave of zombies. Vic appeared next to me again with the radio. “We’ve got a big problem, we just lost the drone. It dropped its last load of bombs when someone in that convoy fired a SAM and destroyed it.” I looked at him, I didn’t know what a SAM was. “I keep forgetting you aren’t military. SAM means Surface to Air Missile. Babs and Petunia say it is getting harder for them to stay up there. Their fuel is getting low, and they want to stay away from the SAMs.”

“Tell Petunia to drop her load on the southern group and get the C-130 out of here. Hopefully, our back up will be here and more air support arrives to help us out.”

Vic nodded his agreement and relayed my words to the escorts. He threw me a thumbs up and ran back to his position by Kuppers. I finished loading the MP5 and filling my vest pouches with reloaded magazines. I felt ready for whatever came our way. Again, I am an idiot to tempt fate. As I was thinking this, the ground rocked again. This time, I fell onto my butt, and Julie had to help me get back on my feet. Then the whole sky in front of us lit up as Ridder started firing on us. Julie and I dropped to the ground behind the tire, trying to make ourselves as small as possible. Explosions rocked the ground, and rounds passed over our heads. I heard the .50 start up and continuously fire. I peeked my head around the tire and watched as men who had come close were knocked down. Some became zombie chow as they came too close to the trapped zombies.

I grabbed a couple of grenades and handed one to Julie. I pulled the pin, dropped the spoon, and threw it underhand toward the forest line. I yelled, “Frag out!” and watched as Hase dropped from the .50 cal and into the Humvee. The explosions were magnificent, but not as large as I was hoping for. Julie and I dropped back behind the tire and put our heads down. After the explosions, I stood up and started firing at anything that moved in my lane. Julie appeared next to me and followed suit. The .50 started back up and fired in short bursts into the trees again.

I could then hear explosions from behind the house. I looked over at Kuppers and Vic who left their positions and moved around the house. I dropped to the ground behind the tire, pulled out one of the earplugs, and screwed my radio’s earpiece in. I clicked on the radio and called out, “What’s going on behind the house? Over.” I had to yell just to hear myself. I reached down to the radio and turned the volume up to high.

“We have the south convoy coming across the field. They are in Humvees, also, but don’t look like they have mounted weapons. Doc is trying to slow them down with the MK-19. They have a pretty good amount of riflemen trying to move in behind the Humvees. Senshi climbed onto the top of the house and is sniping them the best he can. Over,” Vic explained.

“Let us know if you need help. Over.” I left the radio earpiece in and placed the earplug into my pocket. I picked back up my rifle and returned to the fight. Ridder seemed to be pulling back. We slowed our rate of fire again. Hase climbed out of the cupola of the .50.

He ran over to me with Heaven and Hunter in tow. They took position with us behind our Humvee, when suddenly the Humvee with the .50 went up in a white hot explosion. I saw the flash from the woods out of the corner of my eye and concentrated my fire in that direction. Heaven joined me, and we devastated that area. “Glad I got out of that thing when I did!” Hase yelled.

I kept firing into the trees at any movement I saw in my lane. The firing coming from the trees again died down almost to a stop. I couldn’t understand why Ridder had shown up here. Did they know we were coming here? My thoughts started to wander as my eyes and hands went on automatic firing at anything that moved. What was Ridder up to? I heard over the radio Vic calling my name. I dropped to the ground again and put my hand over my earpiece and listened intently.

“Dan, Babs was just shot down over Seattle. She went ahead to clear the area for Phillips and Petunia. She called saying that Seattle was crawling with Ridder and that they had her locked on radar. She tried to get out of there but was hit. She had also seen a Navy carrier in the sound with two other large ships. I think the Initiative is making their move. They cleared out this region and moved everyone to Seattle, so they could control them better. This must be their end game. They are laying siege to the larger cities and controlling the populations. Hold on, I’m getting a call from Richards himself. Over.”

I sat there trying to put together what Vic had just reported. Ridder used their cure or virus to kill the zombies and then removed the surviving population into a major city. But, how would that help them? The firing had almost completely died down. I wish I knew what they were planning next for us.

Vic’s voice broke onto the radio again, “More terrible news. The General says that across the country, Ridder is laying siege to major cities and corralling the survivors. Word of giant hordes being directed to major bases and refugee camps are rampant. And on top of that news, the General says he knows why Ridder is hitting us here. Someone on the General’s staff was a Ridder plant and told the Initiative you are the reason so many people made it through the culling. That person provided them with where you were going. I guess he figured you must’ve been something special since your name was on a ton of paperwork. You have been made the number one target on their list. Over.”

“Oh, that makes me feel special. How are things going over on your side of the house? Over.”

“Not getting better, but not getting worse at this point. If we don’t see air support soon, though, we are going to be at a tipping point. Running low on ammo for the MK-19. How’s your side? Over.” I heard gunfire over the radio as Vic held down the transmit button a little longer.

I came to a kneeling position and peeked around the hood of the Humvee. Small arms fire would come out of the trees every couple of seconds. I had a feeling they were trying to keep our heads down as they moved in more firepower and told Vic.

“Alright Dan, when you can, send another shooter our way. Over.”

“Roger. Over.” I looked around at who was hanging nearby. I tapped Hase’s thigh and he gave me a questioning look. “Vic needs another shooter on his side.”

He nodded his understanding and tapped Hunter’s shoulder. He shouted in his ear, and Hunter ducked down and ran around the house. “I think we are about to get hit again. These Humvees make great targets. I looked around the front yard and driveway trying to find another spot we could move to.

“I have an idea, sit tight.” I pounded on the roof of the Humvee and got Brian’s attention, “Come with me Sasquatch, I’m going to need your help.” He flashed me a grin and slid out of the cupola. We took off at a dead run to the equipment barn at the far side of the massive yard. I bent over and threw a zig zag in every couple of seconds, like I saw soldiers do on those old war movies. Brian stayed a step behind me. Hase and the rest opened up on the tree line, giving us some cover. We made it to the door and were stopped dead cold. Dad had installed a key lock on the door since last time I was here.

Brian pushed me out of the way and booted the door with all of his might. The door didn’t just pop open. It was blown off its hinges and dropped to the ground. We stepped over it and entered a dark cavernous space. I ran to one side of the wall that held a set of keys. I snagged them and climbed onto a beast of a machine. I hadn’t driven one of these in a long time and took a moment to familiarize myself with the controls. I pulled the key I needed and handed the others to Brian. He got my idea and climbed onto another machine behind me. I fired up the machine and revved the engine. I then noticed the barn doors were closed. “I hope Dad can forgive me for this,” I mumbled out loud. 

I disengaged the brakes and pushed the accelerator forward. At the same time, I raised the front blade an inch off the ground and burst through the wooden doors. I turned left and looked back, watching Brian following me in a large D9 Caterpillar bulldozer. My dad bought it from an old farmer fifteen years ago. He lovingly restored it and used it to help his neighbors to clear overburden and snow. I was sitting in his newer D10, which was bigger and had a new blade on it. I raced forward toward the Humvees.