The Regulators - 02 (21 page)

“Nick set off another booby trap. We’re in a bit of a jam.”

“What about the extraction?” I asked.

Jaxon looked at me questioningly. I knew he was wondering
why my earpiece was suddenly working again.

“The extraction has already been completed. Now how soon can
you get here?” Dudley asked.

“Very soon,” Jaxon answered.

I hit the gas, and we moved.

I made it to the long road that leads up to the church in
just a few minutes. In the middle of the road was the other Jeep. Fortunately
it was empty, because there were about fifty zombies passing by it as we pulled
up.

“Kill the engine,” Jaxon said.

As soon as I killed the engine, we could hear the zombie
screams and muffled shots coming from further up the hill. They were already in
the middle of a fight. The zombies running up the hill were just going to be
the topping on the cake.

“Get to the top of the hill and stop,” Jaxon ordered.

I started the engine once again and floored the gas. We hit
the top of the hill and the entrance to the churches parking lot mere moments
after the group of zombies. Dudley, Javie, and Nick were across the parking lot
at the entrance to the church. Nick and Javie were shooting at the zombies
coming out of the church while Dudley was firing on the zombies we followed up
the hill.

Jaxon was already out of the Jeep and charging into battle.
He moved so quickly it was almost frightening. The tomahawk and knife were in
his hands. Jaxon was screaming for all he was worth. He was trying to get the
zombies to focus on him. If they actually reached Dudley and the others, they
would be smack dab in the middle of a small horde and that could only be fatal.

I started screaming as well. It wasn’t working, the zombies
were still charging towards Dudley even as Jaxon reached the rear of the pack
and started chopping them down. I started blaring the Jeep’s horn. It was way
louder than I could scream. It actually worked. The zombies slowed their pace
immediately and turned around to see Jaxon in their midst.

The group began to separate. Some of them went after Jax and
the rest continued towards Dudley and the others. The next thing I knew, Nick
turned around and joined Dudley in firing into the advancing zombies.

Meanwhile, Jaxon was a demon. I don’t know how else to
describe it. I could hear the bones breaking and skulls crunching from all the
way across the parking lot. Obviously I had seen him in action before, but it
was something that I had a difficult time getting used to.

I shook off the shock and jumped out of the Jeep. I told
Merrick to stay put, and I started firing on the zombies that were outside
Jaxon’s slaughtering circle. Then I noticed that Dudley was yelling something
at Nick, and Javie was yelling something at Dudley. At that point, I ran around
the parking lot and away from the violence. My goal was to reach Javie, because
I had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

I was being followed.

A few of the zombies had broken off from the main group and
chased after me as I had passed them. I stopped, slowed my breathing and
caressed the trigger. One, two, three. I nailed all of them.

Jaxon was still in the middle of the group and fighting for
his life when I finally reached Dudley. I was correct in my assumption. Nick
had abandoned Javie to go help Dudley and Jaxon with the advancing group of
zombies. The only problem was that Javie wasn’t enough to keep back all the
zombies trying to exit the church.

The situation had become critical by the time I joined him
at the doorway. The zombies were literally right on top of him. I fired and
fired as fast as I could. It only took a few moments, but the surge towards the
door had been stopped.

“
You got them all
?”

Not yet, but we managed to keep them from escaping the
church in a great big wave. Then I heard Dudley screaming at Nick once again. I
turned slightly to see what the next problem was going to be and saw Dudley
reaching out for Nick just as Nick pulled out his fire axe and charged into the
group of zombies.

“
He jumped in to help
Jaxon
?”

I guess so, but Jaxon doesn’t really need help. Even if
Jaxon takes a bite, he’ll be okay if we can get him healed. Nick, however, is a
regular guy. We didn’t even know for sure if he could recover from a bite. If
Kingsley was still alive somewhere, then Nick may not have been touched by the
Guardian’s power. There are only supposed to be five of us, but none of us
really knew if that was a hard rule.

“Javie, can you handle this?” I asked.

“I got it,” Javie answered.

I turned around immediately and joined Dudley.

Jaxon looked like a scene out of a comic book. Every move he
made caused damage. Every blow he struck was on target and devastating. Nick on
the other hand looked clumsy. He would swing his large axe and miss. He would
get swarmed and end up running backwards to avoid getting bitten.

All in all, he caused a lot more harm than help. He was
actually breaking up the crowd and spreading them out. This made it a lot
harder for Dudley and me to get a good shot, because targets are a lot easier
to hit when they are closer together.

In the end, Jaxon actually had to save Nick from being
overwhelmed. He didn’t do it kindly; he sort of shoved Nick out of the way and
finished off the five zombies that were trying to eat him.

Again, he made it look so easy. He ducked the first attacker
and slashed his kneecap before swinging his tomahawk sideways into the temple
of the next zombie that came for him. As the third charged, Jaxon brought up
his knife at the last second and the zombie actually impaled his own head on
the weapon. The fourth met another swing of the tomahawk. The weapon buried
itself in its face. The fifth actually managed to grab Jaxon by the waist in a
tackle, but before he could accomplish anything the knife was slammed into the
top of the zombies head.

Nick was stunned from what had just happened. Seeing Jaxon
work seems to have that effect on people, but he recovered enough to chop the
head off of Jaxon’s kneecap victim. He then smiled a shit eating grin and
raised his hand up high for a high five. Jaxon ignored him and instead walked
over to Dudley.

“What happened?” Jaxon asked.

“We came in and checked out the perimeter,” said Dudley.
“Everything looked good so we situated Katie and Jason in the parking lot while
we backed off further down the road. I figured it would be the best place to
provide any needed backup and still give us an escape route after the chopper
left. It was a good plan. I mean, there’s only one road up here. Any
approaching zombies would need to get by us.

“It was a good plan,” Jaxon agreed. “So what happened?”

“Nick thought it was taking too long. He left the Jeep and
went back to the parking lot. After that, I don’t know what happened.”

“Nick?” the General asked.

At this point, Nick was helping himself to a serious piece
of humble pie. His entire attitude seemed to have changed the second Jaxon
refused the high five.

“Just like he said Jax, I was worried about them, so I went
back up. When I got there, Jason said he was thirsty so I tried to open the
front door of the church. I figured there was probably something to drink in
there that he would like.”

“Let me guess,” Jaxon said. “You opened the door and found
out that the church was filled with zombies.”

“That’s right,” Nick said. “I screwed up. I should have
listened to Dudley when he told me to stay in position. I did my best to close
the door. I even held back the zombies until the rest of the team could help me
out.”

“It was close, Jax,” Dudley said. “We got there right before
the chopper landed. If we’d have been just a little bit later, they’d all be
dead. If you hadn’t of shown up when you did, we’d be all be dead. I don’t want
him here anymore. He doesn’t listen to orders. He’s a liability that’s going to
get people killed.”

“Like I said,” Nick said. “I screwed up. It’s not a mistake
I’m going to make again. I think, I think I really screwed up.”

With that, Nick held up his hand for everyone to see. The
bite mark was small, but it was still there. Nick had been infected.

“Shit,” Jax said. “When did that happen?”

“I don’t even know,” Nick answered. “I only realized it was
there when I tried to high five you. How bad is it?”

I personally couldn’t tell how bad it was. It didn’t seem
very deep, but it was difficult to tell because the wound was bleeding somewhat
steadily. Nick was trying very hard not to panic. His skin had gone chalk white
and his hand was beginning to tremble. I didn’t blame him a bit. I would have
been crying like a baby.

“We need to wash it out and clean it up,” Jaxon said.

Dudley and Jax both grabbed Nick by the arms and dragged him
into the church. Fortunately, the bathrooms were close to the front door so
after wading through a bunch of corpses, they managed to get Nick to the sink.
Javie and I kept watch at the bathroom door as Dudley began to wash out the
wound with water from the sink and soap from the dispenser. Nick sort of
collapsed into a wooden chair by the sink. Dudley wasn’t being gentle with the
scrubbing and there was a look of pain on Nick’s face as Dudley worked. Jaxon
quietly watched all this from a distance. It seemed as if he were waiting for
the inevitable bad news.

“Jaxon,” Dudley said. “You need to see this.”

Jaxon let out a big sigh and approached the sink. Nick
didn’t even bother looking up at him as he came near. Instead, he kept his eyes
focused on the floor. Jax stared at the wound for a long time and finally let
out another sigh.

“Is it okay?” Nick asked.

“No,” Jax said. “It’s not okay.”

“Oh fuck,” Nick mumbled. “What am I gonna do?”

“You’re not going to do anything,” Dudley said in a sad
tone. “It’s too late.”

“I’ll do it,” Jaxon said as he pulled out and snapped open
his folding knife.

Nick’s eyes went wide with fear.

“No,” Dudley said as he pulled out his machete. “He’s closer
to you than he is to me. I should be the one that does it.”

“I don’t want you to have to carry that burden for me,”
Jaxon said. “I can make it quick. He’ll barely feel a thing.”

Nick apparently couldn’t take any more. He jumped out of his
chair in a frightful panic and started backing away from Jaxon and Dudley.

“FUCK YOU GUYS!” Nick shouted. “NOBODY IS STABBING ME! THIS
IS BULLSHIT! I DON’T WANT TO GO OUT LIKE THAT! IT’S NOT FAIR!”

Jaxon and Dudley just looked at him in a sad way.

“He’s right,” Dudley said as he pulled out the pistol he
stole from me. “He deserves better than that.”

“Maybe,” Jaxon said. “But, what if your hand shakes and you
only wound him? I still think I should be the one to do it.”

“Why would my hand shake?” Dudley asked.

“Because you like the guy,” Jaxon said. “You might freak out
when it comes time to pull the trigger.”

“I don’t like him that much,” Dudley said.

“YOU ASSHOLES AREN’T LISTENING!” Nick yelled. “NOBODY IS
GOING TO KILL ME! WHY AREN’T YOU LISTENING?”

“Well, you like him more than I do,” Jaxon said. “I had
enough of him in college.”

“I do not,” Dudley said. “I barely like him at all.”

“Bullshit,” Jaxon said.

“It’s not bullshit,” Dudley said. “I’ll prove it right now.”

With that, Dudley aimed his gun right at Nick’s face.
Naturally, Nick went into a full on panic. He backed up past Javie and I and
screamed out a slew of obscenities while Jaxon and Dudley just stared at him.

Outside the bathroom and in the hallway, Nick found a plush
recliner and picked it right up into the air and held it before his chest as if
it were a shield that could stop a bullet. He carried his recliner shield all
the way out into the parking lot and he never once heard the snickers and
eventually full on laughter of Dudley and Jaxon.

“
Wait, what
?”

Nick was fine. The water had healed up his hand. He wasn’t
infected.

“
So Dudley and Jaxon
were just messing with him
?”

Correct.

“
That’s mean. That’s
so mean. I can’t believe they did that
.”

I was completely
shocked. I was laughing, but I was shocked. I guess it was one of those things
that are funny when it happens to someone else, but it wouldn’t be funny at all
if it happened to you. It was a really mean thing to do
.

Yeah, it was a pretty rotten thing to do, but then again
Nick did just endanger everybody’s life.

“
Were you and Javie in
on the joke
?”

Not at all. We didn’t have a clue. Even when they started
laughing, it still took us a moment to figure it out.

“
How did they tell
Nick that they were just messing with him
?”

That was even funnier. They both walked to the door and just
watched him shouting obscenities from the middle of the parking lot. Nick was
so freaked out that he didn’t even realize that they were laughing at him. Then
Jax gave out a shrill whistle, and Merrick bounded out of the Jeep, ran up
behind Nick, and bit him in the ass.

At this point, I was
laughing heartily. In fact, I was laughing so hard I was actually crying and
having problems catching my breath
.

She didn’t bite him hard, mind you. She just gave him a
nasty little nip. Nick freaked out even more and dropped the recliner on his
foot. Now all of us were laughing hysterically at the poor guy. It was just too
funny, and, to be honest, Nick sorta deserved it.

He finally noticed that we were laughing at him. He didn’t
know how to react. Finally, he looked at the clean wound on his hand and then
he got pissed.

“Oh, you guys are funny,” Nick said. “That’s just a riot!”