Zombie Theorem (Book 2): The Siege (31 page)

Hase and Julie’s eyes grew three times their size when they saw us come tearing across the yard. I clicked on my radio, “Brian, put your toy between the tree line and our guys. I’m going to lift my blade and try and push back some of the trees. It might show we mean business. Over.”

“Julie wants me to tell you not to be an, and these are her exact words, ignoramus knuckle dragging dickless fool. Over,” Hase said over the radio.

I clicked on the radio and laughed out loud, “Tell her I said she knows I’m not dickless. She likes it a lot. Over.”

I know if Hase just told her what I said she was probably blushing hard and wanting to punch me. I hit the front trees and pushed them down and in about ten feet. The front blade on this thing was a touch over twelve feet wide and almost nine feet tall, so this kind of work was no problem for it. I raised it slightly so any rounds would hopefully be deflected by the blade and not enter my soft supple skin. I backed up and then moved over and continued this tactic until we had some more breathing room. I was just glad no one had shot me with a rocket or something.

I moved the dozer back to our shooting position and dropped the blade against the ground hard. I bailed out and came face to face with Julie. Her face was a mask of anger. If we get out of this alive, I am going to be sleeping by myself for a while, was one of the thoughts that flooded through my brain. She surprised me, though, and kissed me long and hard. She then stepped back and punched me in the left shoulder hard. Then she screamed into my face, “Don’t ever do that again! Who do you think you are, fucking Rambo?”

I shrunk under her words, “Baby, I have to do what I have to do to keep you and these guys alive and safe. I will always come back to you, I promise.” I kissed her and took her hand, guiding her to our new shooting lanes.

She continued to keep looking at me through her peripheral vision. I was going to pay for this later, I thought. A heavy silence came out of the woods. Then the sound of firing came on heavy from behind the house. An explosion hit the top of the house and tore off part of the roof. I pointed to Hase and Heaven. They took off at a dead run around the house. “Cupcake, Brian, and Apache hold this line. I need to check on the rear.” I kissed Julie’s forehead. “Stay here with Sharla, and help her keep it together. Be right back, I promise I won’t do anything stupid.”

She gave me the “Yeah right, nothing stupid? Sure” look. I turned and took off around the house. What greeted me turned my blood cold. The original force had peeled off and joined up with the southern group and was making fast progress. They were almost on top of the house. I slid in next to Kuppers, who was lying on the ground firing off shots into the advancing troops. The field was covered in wrecked and smoking vehicles. “This doesn’t look good, Kuppers.” I fired off the rest of my magazine and switched to the limited supply of hollow point magazines I had left.

“We lost Senshi in that big explosion. Vic has been hit, but it’s not serious. He’s still in the fight. We are not going to last long out here.” He looked over at me with fear in his eyes.

“Don’t give up yet. We need to continue fighting, buy time ‘till reinforcements can get here.”

“No speeches needed. I won’t give up till I’m dead, and neither will any of these men. Senshi and Little Jonny proved that.” He changed his magazine and put his eye back to his scope.

I joined him, and we took carefully measured shots, trying to keep the enemies progress as slow as possible. Someone was shouting in my ear. It took me a minute to realize it was Vic over the radio. “Dan, Petunia just called in. She said she handed the C-130 over to the escorts at the base and is coming back to give us a couple of passes from her gun. The General also confirms a flight of A-10s are coming in and should be here in twenty minutes. The ground troops are fifteen out. Over.”

“I don’t think we have fifteen minutes. Think we should fall back into the house? Over.” 

“No way. They would just burn the house down around us. We stay here and fight! Over!” Vic yelled through the radio.

I turned to Kuppers, “We have any grenades left?”

He stared at me for a minute, then reached down into his bag and handed me two, keeping two for himself. “Vic, any of you guys have any grenades? Over.” I called over the radio.

“Yeah, we have about ten between us. Let us know when you want to throw them out. Over.”

A plan came to me then. “What do you guys think about going quiet for a second? Maybe we can sucker them in a little more? Over.” 

“Roger all. Over.” We stopped firing and pushed our heads down into the dirt, hoping to not get a bullet in our brain. I peeked out and witnessed the enemy making ground on us. I clicked on the radio, “Fifteen more seconds and then let them have it. Over.”

Vic reported back his agreement. I counted off in my head and then pulled the pin on one of the grenades. I held down on the spoon as I hurried to my knees and then threw it as hard as I could into the oncoming troops. Once it left my hand, I dropped back onto my face and spread my arms and legs out like Kuppers taught me. The multiple explosions rippled through the advancing line and shredded them. I waited for a second and then went back to my knees again. Kuppers read what I was doing and followed my lead. I pulled the pin from my second grenade and threw this one like I was Orel Hershiser of the 1989 L.A. Dodgers during the World Series. I made it over the front line and into the men behind them. I barely had a chance to get back on my face before the grenade went off with devastating effects. All along the line, the enemy was shredded from shrapnel from our grenades.

I raised my MP5 and started firing above the fallen line and into the rear groups. Our line exploded in automatic fire as we tried to force the soldiers back. I was soon out of magazines for the MP5, rendering the gun useless. I had left my shotgun back at the front and had nothing but my handgun, and I was not that great of a shot. I started looking around and saw the M-14 Senshi usually carried around on the ground by the house. I unslung and disconnected my MP5 and left in on the ground while I crawled to reach the other gun. My hand finally came to rest on the metal. I pulled it over and looked it over. Next to it happened to be three loaded magazines that must have fallen with it. I snatched them up and crawled back to Kuppers. I pulled back the charging handle, unfolded the tripod in the front, and rested it on the ground. I put the stock against my shoulder and sighted down the scope. I slid my finger into the trigger guard and slowly squeezed back. The gun hammered me in the shoulder, and I saw my target’s head almost disappear into a pink mist as his helmet blew off and back into the man behind him.

My shoulder was hurting, but I ignored it and found my next target. I had no idea how many rounds I had left, or the caliber, but I kept squeezing that trigger and getting blasted into the shoulder by the stock. The bolt locked back. I turned the gun to the side and removed the magazine, replacing it with one of the others I found. I pulled back on the charging handle and resettled behind it again. Soon I was back in the fight. I was pushed into the ground hard and almost blacked out when a giant explosion rocked the ground. I turned to Kuppers, and he gave me a worried look. That explosion was at the front of the house. I left the gun I was manning and took off running for the front.

I pulled the 1911 from my thigh holster and came around the corner so fast I clipped the side of my already bruised shoulder. The D9 was on fire, and pieces of it lay on the ground around it, along with a couple of bodies. Cold ice ran through my veins, pushing out my emotions, and taking control of me. I ran for the bodies, needing to see who was hurt. I was in the zone. I hadn’t even noticed my ribs on my left side were burning. I scanned the forest line and saw men coming out from it, firing into the bulldozers and into the house and, more importantly, at me. I fired into their ranks, hitting men in legs arms and torsos. I fell to the ground, changed out my magazine, and looked over the bodies. I didn’t recognize anyone, and was relieved to find they were enemy soldiers. I saw my shotgun and dove for it on my knees. I gripped it tight, pumped it once, and came up firing into the men running in my direction. When I fired my last shot, I dropped behind the Humvee and reloaded from the side mount saddle.  

I reached up and pulled the loose ammo I had left on the hood down and into my vest pouches. I reached out and picked up one of the M4s the enemy must have dropped. I wasn’t a very good shot with this gun, but I had fired one so I knew how to use it. I stood back up, seeing that the men coming out of the tree line had slowed down a bit, wary of the new threat. I looked through the scope and started firing into them. After five shots, the gun clicked empty. I dragged a body closer and rifled through his pockets, pulling out magazines. I slipped them into my pouches and loaded one into the gun. I knew the enemy had come closer and would be on me in any second. I stood and fired again. I felt a burning sensation rip into my left bicep and twirl me in a tight circle. I fell to the ground face first, but flipped over as fast as I could and started firing into the encroaching men. One of the men lying by the D9 sat up, shook his massive head, and raised his gun. He fired into the men from their side. It was Brian, and he was hurt but still fighting. He changed out magazines fast and kept pouring his rounds into them. Other bodies lying next to him shakily stood and gathered their weapons and added their firepower to the immediate danger.

My heart sang out with joy when I noticed one of those now firing was Julie. They must’ve been blown back and knocked out by the blast from the D 9. I looked around and saw bodies on the stairs and near the door of the house. The door was open. I dropped the M4, picked up the shotgun, and ran toward the house. My ribs and arm really hurt, but I was not going to let that stop me. I entered the house and sidestepped to my left. A round blew past my head and into the doorframe. I fired back and threw myself into the staircase. I heard a thump on the ground and risked a look around the banister down the hallway. I had hit the man standing by the basement door, throwing him against the frame of the door. He had slid to the ground, leaving a red glistening smear on the gleaming white paint. I moved down the hallway slowly, carefully looking around. I stood by the basement stairs and looked down.

“Dad, you okay?” I stage whispered down the stairs.

“I’m okay, son. I got this handled, go back outside and finish this up,” my old man answered me.

“The guy at the top of the stairs is dead, but I am leaving you his weapon. He has some magazines left on his vest. Love you, old man!”

“I love you too, kiddo, get going.”

I ran to the back door and looked out. We had bloodied the attackers, but they were still coming, just much slower than before. I was hoping that the fifteen minutes was almost up and that our reinforcements would be arriving soon. I ran back out the front door and into a more peaceful scene. “Brian, head around back. They need help. I’ll take over here.”

He threw me a thumbs up, grabbed a case of ammo, and took off for the battle raging on out back. I came up to Julie and looked her in the eyes, “You okay, babe?”

“A bit fuzzy from the little enforced nap, but am able to still shoot. You do know you’re bleeding, right?” I looked down and checked my armor. It had stopped the round there, but felt bruised. “Your arm, babe.” I looked at my left arm and found the sleeve encrusted in dried blood.

“I think I was grazed again. I’m starting to think I have a bullseye on that fucking arm.” I kissed her lips and pulled away. I had a job to do.

I went around and checked on Sharla, Cupcake, and Apache. They seemed ok, if not a little shook up. I pulled Cupcake and Apache aside and informed them about what happened to Senshi. They both took it solemnly, but didn’t let it affect them since they had a job to do. We moved our meager supplies and ammo behind the D-10 and prepared for a new attack. The tree line was covered in dead bodies and mutilated zombies. If we were going to stay here, we would have one hell of a clean up to do.            

The gunfire out back intensified, then a ripping sound shattered the air. I looked up and saw Petunia’s plane rocket by, and then it turned and more of the ripping sound could be heard. I felt some of that fear start to subside. A spark of hope came roaring in. We continued to watch the tree line, but nothing appeared or shot at us. I clicked on the radio, “Vic, how we doing back there? Over.”

His reply came back quickly, “The reinforcements have arrived. They are mopping up in the rear. I think we are good. The air support will be over us soon. Over.”

“That’s great to hear. We are vigilant up here, but it’s been quiet. Over.” I looked around again and felt like we had come out of the fire singed but stronger.

The front door opened, and my dad came outside. He had a lit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth and the M-4 from the dead soldier inside resting on his shoulder. He looked tired, a little stressed, but no worse for wear. He waved at me and made his way over. “Figured you guys could use me. I told the Kellens and Angel to stay in the basement. How are we doing out here?”

“The fight out back is almost over, and it’s been quiet up here,” I answered.

He pointed at his bulldozers. “What the hell happened to my D-9, boy?”

“Sorry, Dad, we needed better cover than the Humvees. Looks like the other guys didn’t appreciate the D-9, though. They hit it with two rockets. Saved everybody up here, though. At least the D-10 is fine,” I said meekly.

“As long as it served a purpose. How did you get past the locked door on the barn?” He leaned past me, and his eyes went wide when he saw the shape I left the barn in.