The Regulators - 02 (3 page)

I tried the knob. No luck, the door was locked. I gave it a
soft tap with my knuckles and waited to see if anyone would answer. No luck
again.

“You want to go inside?” Georgie asked.

“No, I don’t.”

The other homes gave us the same results. The doors were all
locked and nobody was answering. Merrick gave another whine and I left the
front porch of the final house and sniffed the air. I could smell rot. It
didn’t smell too close, and I didn’t know if it was there before or not.

I didn’t like the situation. In fact, the situation was
pissing me off. It didn’t make any sense, somebody chunks a rock at us and then
they hide while we are trying to save them. We aren’t back in the city for
thirty minutes and strange happenings were already afoot.

“Fuck this.” I said.

I walked off back towards the Jeeps. Georgie was right
behind me, just as confused as I was. I hated leaving, but now wasn’t the time
to go kicking in the doors. I didn’t know what was around, and I didn’t want to
find out. I figured that the best bet would be to wait until they made contact
again.

We were ten feet from the Jeeps when the guy screamed out.

“Don’t leave us! Don’t leave us! We need help!”

Everyone turned and looked at the same time. Georgie reacted
to the noise the quickest. He started motioning for the guy to shut up. In
fact, he was motioning like a madman for the guy to be quiet, but of course, it
was too late.

We heard the first zombie scream come from inside one of the
houses across the street. It was soon followed by others. The dead were in the
houses. I wasn’t sure how many, but from the noise level it seemed like there
were a lot of them.

“Here we go,” I muttered as I flicked off the safety on my
mp7.

Dudley, Javie and Kingsley tumbled out of the vehicles as a
wave of zombies exited the houses and rushed towards them. I began to fire into
the horde as my teammates regrouped behind me. I didn’t panic. I aimed and
fired calmly, but rapidly. I did not miss. I dropped shambler after shambler.

One of them actually got to within three feet before I
brought it down with a shot between the eyes. I had to stop its tumbling body
with my combat boot or it would have slid right into me.

Georgie finally began to fire as well. Dudley and Javie were
right behind him. Kingsley had set his mp7 down as Georgie and I walked back
towards the Jeep. He didn’t have time to grab it again before he bailed out of
the Jeep with the others. He pulled out a Glock and started shooting rapidly.
The problem was he forgot to put the silencer on the damn thing.

“Shut the fuck up,” I growled in his direction. “Fall back
and kick the damn doors open on that house.”

Because our weapons were silenced, we were able to hear one
another despite the growls, snarls and screams of the zombies moving in on us.

“Back up towards the house,” I ordered everyone else.

We began to back up immediately, but the wall of lead we
were dishing out to keep the zombies at bay wasn’t going to buy us enough time
to get secured inside the house.

So, I did what I had to do to save my buddies. I waited till
I heard the crunch of a door being broken down and I ran straight for the
shamblers. I let go of my rifle in mid-run and yanked my tomahawk out of my
belt.

I heard Dudley shouting my name, but it would have been too
late for me to turn around even if I had wanted to. The zombies were just too
close.

My actions had the desired effect. Our attackers stopped
charging immediately. They didn’t know quite what to make of my attack. Before
they could figure it out, I was on top of them and hacking my way through.

“
How many zombies were
coming towards your team
?”

I didn’t exactly have time to count, but I’m guessing that
there were more than a hundred. They were literally pouring out from all the
houses across the street. We just had the misfortune to stumble upon a
seriously nasty nest of vipers.

Kinda typical for us if you really stop and think about it.

Dudley

I waited for Dudley in
the same conference room I met the General in. He arrived twenty minutes late
with a salad in one hand and a protein shake in the other. He was still wearing
the tight t-shirts, but he seemed to be a lot more muscular.

He didn’t say a word
when he walked in the room; he was too busy setting down his meal and answering
a text on his phone, both at the same time. When all was finished, he pushed
his Elvis style sunglasses up on top of his head and smiled at me
.

Your hair is different little lady.

“
Do you like it
?”

Pretty nice.

“
Did Jaxon tell you
why I was here
?”

He said you’re fishing, but I’m thinking that what you are
really interested in is a spin off story all about me. I’m sure everybody would
love to hear tales of me wrestling with gorillas and slaying dragons and stuff.

I had to laugh at
this. Dudley didn’t really join in, so I cut it off quickly. He was more
interested in stirring his protein shake
.

“
Well, why don’t we
just start off like we did the last time. Jaxon was telling me about how you
were all attacked on a street named Oveja shortly after your arrival
.”

Yeah, that was a fucking blast. I knew something was wrong
from the get-go. What kind of asshole throws a rock to get our attention and
then hides? It was bogus, but there you have it. We tend to meet some seriously
deranged individuals in our line of work, but back then…we had no idea how
badly fear can jack somebody up.

“
Is that what happened
?
Was the man afraid
?”

He was terrified. He saw movement in the windows earlier in
the day, that’s why he dragged his family to the roof. He wanted to be out of
the way in case they came over to pay him a visit.

We didn’t know that at the time of course. All we knew was
that we were under attack and the enemy was just flowing towards us like a
giant wave from hell. I could smell the barest hint of rot in the air when we
stopped, but it was nothing like the smell that assaulted our nostrils when
they all came running out at us.

We were firing like hell to keep them back, but those things
know no fear. They just kept coming. I was afraid we were gonna run out of
ammo, and the shamblers just kept getting closer and closer as they climbed
over the dead and down.

“
That reminds me,
where did you get the name shambler
?”

If you look at them, they’re a freaking mess. They are
literally in shambles…but for whatever reason, the decay doesn’t seem to slow
them down any.

“
Okay, I get it…Please
continue
.”

Muffled shots were popping off, and zombie screams were
sounding out. It wasn’t a very long moment, probably less than a couple
minutes. Jaxon was quick to act. He probably saw the outcome of that situation
way before the rest of us.

The next thing I knew, he was barking out orders and I heard
a door break from behind me. This all happened from somewhere far away. All my
attention was concentrated on the mass of undead rapidly approaching.

Jaxon charged right into them.

He gave no warning, he just attacked. I saw the tomahawk
come out. I saw dark blood and skull fragments flying in the air as he carved
his way right through the center of them.

And then he was gone.

They closed in around him. I called out his name. In shock,
I took a step forward and then another. I felt arms close around me. They were
pulling me backwards towards the house. I tried to explain. They must not have
seen what happened. We had to get to my uncle. My uncle was in the middle of
that shit storm.

Next thing I knew, I was inside the house.

Kingsley had slammed the door shut. I don’t know why he
bothered. The mass lost interest in chasing us as soon as Jaxon charged them.
We were safe. Javie was peering through the curtains. It was the only source of
light in the room.

Georgie was still holding me. I could have pulled away. I’m
a lot stronger than Georgie. Instead, I collapsed. I was exhausted, or maybe it
was shock. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I had just lost my uncle.

“Jaxon’s running,” Javie said.

“What?” Georgie asked.

“He made it through. He’s leading them away from us. Merrick
is with him.”

I tapped my ear piece.

“Jax,” I said. “Are you there?”

No answer.

“Give him time to lead them away,” Georgie said. “That’s
what he’s doing: he’s leading them away from us.”

I began to calm down. My breathing became more regular. It
was then that it finally dawned on me that we were in a dark house and we had
no idea if it was safe or not.

“Get ready,” I ordered.

Everybody jumped and brought their weapons up. I was on my
feet and reaching in my backpack for a flashlight.

“We have no idea what’s in this house,” I said. “So don’t
drop your guard.”

It took a bit, but I finally found my light. I attached it
to the front of my weapon and waited for the rest of the team to follow my
example.

“Room by room then,” Georgie said.

“Georgie and I in front,” I added. “Kingsley and Javie will
cover the rear.”

Nobody said anything, they just moved into position and we
searched the house as quietly as possible. We quickly realized that the back
door was wide open, but other than that there were no threats. The only sound I
heard was Kingsley’s labored breathing.

Do you smoke, little lady?

“
Not since college
.”

Good, it’s a bad habit and if the downstairs wasn’t empty,
you could be sure that his dirty mouth air would have alerted whatever was
lurking in the dark to our presence.

If it wasn’t for my uncle’s idiot move of charging a horde
of the living dead, I would have laughed a lot sooner than I did. I held it in
for a long time, but when we all paused at the foot of the stairs…I let out a
little chuckle.

“
You let out a chuckle
?”

Yeah, I couldn’t help it. I think it was all the tension.
Everything was quiet except for Kingsley’s Darth Vader breathing. I kind of
lost it…so did Georgie…so did Javie.

Kingsley was pissed.

I was about to apologize, but suddenly there was a figure at
the foot of the stairs. It was what appeared to be a teenage girl in a summer
dress. One minute there was nothing and in the next minute…she was just there.

I slowly moved my light up her body to her face. She charged
us when my light got about halfway.

I reacted on pure instinct and fired randomly. My weapon was
on auto fire, but of course I missed. Georgie fired as well, but Georgie always
misses so that’s not a big shocker.

She jumped the last few stairs and screamed that undead
scream.

I caught her in the air. She smelled horrible. I rolled her
to the side and kinda flipped her off of me. She barely weighed anything, so
she flew across the room. As soon as she came to a stop though, she snapped
back up and charged again.

I didn’t miss on her second charge. I dropped her just a few
steps into it. I never got a clear look at her face. I’m kinda glad about that.

“Heads up,” Georgie said in a panic.

The upstairs had suddenly come to life. About fifteen
members of the undead club poured down the stairwell after us. The smell of
decay was horrendous, I’m not sure how I didn’t notice it until they were
rushing us, but we handled it as quickly and quietly as we could. The only
scare came when Javie suffered a bite on the arm. It didn’t go through the bite
suit, but it was a sobering experience.

Things were looking pretty bleak. I almost got chomped on by
a teenybopper zombie and we shot up half the freakin house taking care of only
fifteen attackers. I was the ipso defacto leader if Jax wasn’t around, and I
was not handling things very well. My arrogant ass uncle made this shit look
easy.

“
Ipso facto
.”

Beg your pardon?

“
You said ipso
defacto. What you meant to say was ipso facto
.”

I think you probably heard me wrong.

“
That must have been
it. Please, continue with your story
.”

I didn’t hear him
wrong; it’s just well known not to argue with Dudley. If he thinks the sky is
purple, then even a blue sky over his head isn’t going to change his mind
.

Good idea. Where was I?

“
I believe you were
getting to the part where you were now in charge and not handling it well
.”

I don’t like it when you say it. It sounds so much worse.

I have to laugh at
this and this time he actually joins in with me. It’s very hard to tell when
he’s joking, because he has such a dry sense of humor. It’s very different from
Jaxon’s, because Jaxon seems only concerned with humoring himself, so he’s
quick to laugh even when nobody else gets the joke
.

I was saying that he can make the crazy decisions and throw
himself in front of the bus a lot easier than I can, because he heals so fast.
He doesn’t have to worry so much about getting killed. If zombies charged down
the stairs at him, he would have charged right back.

“
From what I hear, the
entire group has some pretty amazing recuperative abilities. Wasn’t it you that
recovered from a bite
?”

Oh yeah, we do, but it’s not on his level. He’s the
Guardian, we just help out. He was born to lead, and he doesn’t give a rat’s
ass whether or not people get pissed at his decisions or the way he talks. It
works for him. The rest of us aren’t so lucky.

Anyway, I realized I was doing a piss poor job. So I decided
to sack up and act like a man. I was the first one up the stairs. The boys were
right behind me, but I was determined to bring our bad luck around.