APOCALYCIOUS: Satire of the Dead (28 page)

             
“And Phelps…”

             
The captain spun back to face his General. “…make sure you find those three and kill them. We don’t need anyone finding out about them.”

             
“Yes Sir.”

             
The captain left the room and shut the door behind him. Walters turned back to the window, lost in thought. He really didn’t care about Tyson, Barnes or Walker but he couldn’t risk them starting a rebellion of some sort, it could make things more difficult than they had to be.

After a hot shower and a full breakfast General Walters descended from his tower that overlooked the base and entered the nerve center of the base. The command post was state of the art due to the secrets it held beneath their feet. As he entered a tech sergeant roared. “Atten-TION!” Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood tall, straight backed and squared away

              “At ease, gentlemen.”

             
The Officer of the Day walked briskly up to Walters looking nervous.

             
“Report,” ordered the General.

             
“Sir, there seems to be an odd occurrence in various sections of the base perimeter.”

             
“Define odd, Sergeant.”

             
“A large group of Zulus have gathered at the perimeter fences surrounding the farm as well as the skilled slave quarters.”

             
The general brushed past the Officer of the Day and walked to where the surveillance officer sat before a battery of closed circuit, television monitors. “Bring up cameras twelve and twenty-two, lieutenant,” Walters ordered. The lieutenant complied and the general saw the groups of zombies, or Zulus as they were known on base.

             
“This is interesting.  They just seem to be standing there. Why haven’t our guards fired on them?”

             
The Officer of the Day spoke up. “Sir, they have. But more of the dead keep showing up.”

             
“When did this start?”

             
“Approximately 0300 hours, Sir.”

             
“Well, while they are just standing there, engage our artillery and put a few rounds of Willy-Pete down range. We might as well fry them before they start tearing down the fences.”

             
The Officer of the Day grabbed a phone from its cradle. “Alert battery number one and stand by for orders.”

             
Walters shook his head. Zombies never ceased to amaze him. They defied reason by walking and eating people even though their bodies were mostly rotted and their brains were as dry and withered as a bowl of raisin bran, but still they survived.

             
“I will be down in Section three. Inform me when the Zulus have been thoroughly cooked,” he said and walked to the elevator.

             
“It will be taken care of, Sir,” said the Tech Sergeant.

The General shook his head.
What else could go wrong today?

             
                                
Chapter 30 – Greenbrier is the place for me

             
“Hey, 47.”

             
Bodie groaned from the passenger seat, his back felt as it were tied in one huge knot. “Are we there?”

             
“No, we’re just past Chillicothe. Something weird is going on, man,” Daniel answered.

             
Bodie straightened up in his seat. “Quit calling me 47, we’re not in the joint anymore.”

             
“Sorry, man.” Daniel pointed out the windshield to his right. “Check that out,” he said in a whisper.

Bodies’ eyes followed and saw hundreds of zombies lumbering west. “Yeah, so…it’s a bunch of zombies. In case you’ve been locked up too long, we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.”

              Normally Daniel would shoot back a biting retort, but this time he was just quiet. This fact made Bodie uncomfortable, so he looked again. Behind this group of undead another group was slowly coming up behind them, and behind that one in the darkening distance he saw more, all heading west. “Well, if nothing else, we are definitely heading in the right direction.”

             
“Did you happen to notice that there were several that were fresh? They weren’t even that dirty and they didn’t walk as disjointed as the older dead.” 

             
“C’mon, brother, I just woke up.” Bodie stretched and adjusted the rifle that leaned against the dashboard. “But now that you mention it, yeah. I see them now. So do you think we can get driving again, it’s freakin’ me out.”

             
Daniel nodded and started up the car, but didn’t turn on the headlights as he began to drive toward Covington.

             
“No lights?” asked Bodie.

             
“I saw headlights coming down the interstate a few times and had to pull over and shut off the engine and hunker down. Luckily with you snoring with your mouth hanging wide open, the zombies must have assumed you were freshly dead,” Daniel said managing a small grin.

             
“Ha, ha, you’re a regular comedian; now let’s get to that hotel before it gets light.”

             
“Go back to sleep, you lummox.”

              Daniel drove throughout the night and after several stops to avoid military vehicles and walking troops of the undead, they arrived at the ornate iron entrance gates of the Greenbrier.

             
Bodie was already awake as Daniel drove slowly up the paved drive. Dawn was beginning to illuminate the overgrown grounds; the Hotel was huge and must have been luxurious in its heyday.

             
“I don’t like it, brother,” said Bodie. “It’s too quiet”

             
Daniel laughed nervously. “You are really starting to sound like a B- horror movie actress Bodie.”

             
“I don’t care, man, it’s true.”

             
“Yeah.”

             
They pulled the car to a stop in front of the main lobby. “You sure about this?”

             
Daniel shrugged. “It’s either this or hole up somewhere else. Wherever we go it’s going to be the same shit.”

             
“Well, let’s get moving then,” said Bodie as he grabbed the barrel of the rifle and opened the car door. Daniel did the same. “I think I’m gonna go with the shotgun,” said Bodie, exchanging the rifle.

             
“Might as well,” said Daniel. The two large men cautiously crept up to the opened front doors and through to the main lobby.

             
The place was a crypt, decaying corpses and body parts were strewn everywhere and the stench was intense. The Greenbrier completed the vision of a tomb with its dark and silent foreboding. Bodie threw open the drapes to the lobby and let the weak morning light filter through the room; blood streaked the floors and spattered on the walls like a cheap abstract painting. Empty brass casings littered the black and white tile floor. They also saw various small arms lying about. Bodie stepped over the mangled remains of a soldier and picked up a CAR-15, the bolt was to the rear having spent its final round. He released the thirty round banana magazine and found that it was empty. “It’d probably be a good idea to gather up all the weapons and ammo we can find,” he said to Daniel.

             
“Dude, I don’t even know how to load one of those things, let alone shoot one.”

             
“You didn’t cap any zombies before we got sent to prison?” Bodie asked with a raised eyebrow.

             
“Yeah, with a lamp; I like to keep things simple, but you’re not exactly Rambo either, bud.” Daniel remembered the little girl at the funeral home that he’d used like a baseball bat and shivered.

             
Bodie laughed. “Easy, kitten, put away the claws. Don’t sweat it, I’ll show you how to use it.”

             
“Try to find me a revolver, OK?”

             
They laid all the weapons, magazines and ordinance on a counter. “There must have been a boat load of soldiers here. There are twenty-six M-16’s here,” said Daniel.

             
“Not much ammo left though. Looks like about enough to fill eight mags. That’s two hundred and forty rounds.” Bodie started pushing cartridges into the magazines.

             
“Yeah, but where are the soldiers? They wouldn’t have just left their gear.”

             
“Dead, I suppose; dead and walking around somewhere,” Bodie said not looking up.

             
“There aren’t really that many zombies lying around. I counted about twenty-five, but that’s about it,” Daniel said.

Bodie stopped what he was doing and looked up at his friend. “Yeah, you’re right. Those soldiers would have had to have killed more of them than that, and they weren’t just any soldiers either if they were carrying these instead of M-16s. These boys were pretty well-trained.”

              “I seriously doubt that the zombies are worried about dragging away the dead, hell they’re all dead,” Daniel said. “Dude, I don’t want to check out the rest of the hotel. There is a back entrance to the bunker itself; I’ll know it when I see it because it has a huge High Voltage sign on the side of it.”

             
“Let’s check it out then,” said Bodie tossing Daniel a loaded M16, “but let’s put the rest of these rifles in the car first.”

             
After loading the car they drove around the side of the hotel and parked the car in back. There were already a couple of cars parked and both were black Cadillac Escalades with government tags. They had obviously not been there long, as there wasn’t much dust on the black paint, Daniel pointed out to Barnes. “That means there is a good chance that some government agent dude is still in there.” 

Bodie shrugged and replied, “Well
, let’s get this over with then.”

             
“Before we leave we are getting one of these babies.” said Daniel as he ran a hand lovingly over the dust covered hood. Daniel opened the driver’s door, shook his head with a smile and pulled the keys from the ignition.

             
“What? And leave behind the Taurus?” mocked Bodie, then added looking around, “I don’t see any High Voltage signs.”

             
“I’ve seen pictures of it. It will be on the side of a hill with a drive leading up to it.” Daniel said putting the car in reverse; they drove around the grounds until they finally found it. He and Bodie lifted the latch and pulled open the heavy steel grated door. “By all accounts that door should have been locked if anyone was inside,” Daniel remarked.

They turned on their flashlights and shined them down the long concrete hallway. More bodies, blood and brain matter was splattered in various spots here as well.  About fifteen more corpses lay still and quiet in this area, Bodie kept picking up magazines when he saw them, and left the rifles where they lay. “We can use all the ammo we can get,” he said breaking the silence that made Daniel jump.

              “It looks to me like all that ammo didn’t help these poor bastards now did it?”

             
“Why do you have to be a buzz-kill?” Bodie asked, as they neared the twenty-five ton blast door. It was also open. From there they entered the decontamination chamber and through the main corridor to the actual bunker. There was a lot of dried blood here too, and as they were making their way through the labyrinth they walked past a small room and stopped suddenly in their tracks.

             
A shriek made their blood run cold and they swung their lights down the hall from where they had come.

             
“Dude, did you just hear…?”

             
Bodie held up one beefy hand, “Shhh….”

             
They were quiet, and in the darkness that fell beyond the beams of their lights they heard shuffling footsteps, faster and faster the footfalls came. Bodie checked the magazine and seated it in the bottom of his M16, slapped the bolt catch and the bolt slammed forward chambering a 5.56 round. The sound of the bolt echoed through the long hallway and they heard a chorus of inhuman wails. Daniel watched Bodie and did the same to his rifle.

             
A dead soldier clamored toward them and they saw that he had one arm clawing toward them, his other arm was a shredded piece of meat and bone peeked through the tattered flesh as it hung low against his thigh. The sleeve of his fatigues was torn away and they could see that the shoulder hung from the socket by nothing more than a single stretched tendon.

             
Daniel pulled the trigger and emptied half the magazine in one long arcing burst that harmlessly peppered the wall to the right of the dead man and the ceiling. He laughed nervously; it had been the first time he’d ever shot a fully automatic rifle and it had startled him.

Bodie looked at him strangely. “That thing shouldn’t have done that. It should only have a three round burst, not balls out auto.” He pointed to the side of his rifle. “Flick that switch to semi.”

              Daniel did as Bodie advised and watched as his friend ripped out three rounds that peppered the dead man’s chest. The dead man kept coming for them.

             
“Shoot ‘em in the head, you dipshit!” Daniel cried, and fired, sending the soldier reeling backward with a shot that blew the back of his head onto the floor. The dead man regained his balance for an instant, righting itself, then jerked violently and stomped his right foot once before face planting with a sickeningly hollow sound.

             
Bodie looked at him surprised “Nice shot.” His head whipped forward again as he heard more screams coming from the darkness.

             
Daniel started firing blindly into the shadows.

             
“Easy, cowboy…” Bodie hollered over his shoulder. “You might wanna reload that thing.”

Daniel mimicked his friend as he ejected the magazine and replaced it with a fresh one. Bodie had flipped his selector switch to semi and began to fire, startling Daniel. He raised his rifle, took aim and fired.

              They dropped four more dead soldiers and stopped firing, their ears ringing.

             
“Do you hear that?” Daniel said, screwing a fingertip into his ear.