Dawn of the Apocalypse: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel (16 page)

           
Ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat!  Ratta-tat-tat-tat!

            I could see the tracers coming from Charlie's SAW.  The rest of his team opened up a second later.  Gang members dropped like flies.  A second later more fire came in from the south.  Mike was attacking.  The gang members started returning fire.

            "Let's go!" I cried.

            I took off running toward the front entrance.  The two women squawked and ran away.  It sounded like I was charging into a major battle.  I hadn't heard a firefight that intense since leaving the Army.  Indeed, that might've been more intense than anything I was ever involved in during combat.

            Gang members started shooting at us before we were halfway to the building.  Two of my men fell.  I didn't stop, but noticed another man stop to check on them.  I reached the door first, but it wouldn't open.

            "Locked!" I cried, and moved aside.

            Four men with the black steel battering ram rushed up.  They hit it once, twice, three times before it broke open.  Every strike boomed ominously.  Bullets ripped through the doors as they began to move back.  All four men dropped dead at my feet.

            I turned my weapon on the door and opened up.  Everyone else did as well.  After I expended an entire 30-round magazine, I replaced it with a full one and signaled a ceasefire.  I kicked the door open all of the way, and no one fired from inside.  So I rushed through, weapon held at the ready.  There was a tall, skinny black guy sprawled atop of a growing pool of blood.  One of my team took his Uzi.

            It was an old lobby, complete with a built-in receptionist desk to one side of the stairs.  There was a long, dark hallway on the other side of the stairs, and open doors to the adjacent rooms.

            More gang bangers rushed in from the hallway with guns blazing.  We all dropped to a knee and opened up on them.  There was an intense firefight.  I wasn't sure if we killed any of them, but they killed one of us, and wounded two more.  I was down to ten guys now, just half the men I started with.

            Mike's team must've hit them again, because the gunfire outside intensified.  The gang bangers threatening us vanished.  I didn't wait for them to come back, and rushed toward the stairs.  Kevin was staying beside me, despite his age.  We advanced up those stairs in a mad rush.

            Gang bangers and their women fought us all the way.  We had to stop to clear the second floor.  It was all open, with cots and old chests scattered around.  The only real cover were the thick concrete pillars.  There were only five people on that floor, but they were all armed and ready to fight.  Two of them were women, who fought just as hard as the men.

            Some of my men had continued up the stairs.  I heard their fight above.  Kevin and I charged up the stairs, finding one of our men dead on the stairs, and another mortally wounded at the top.  The third floor only had one guy, but he was behind a thick pillar with an AK-47.

           
Boom!
echoed through the building.

            Mike was finally firing 40mm grenades.

           
Boom!

            "Hit him with a grenade!" I shouted.

            My ploy worked.  The gang banger panicked and stepped into the open with a cry of rage as he emptied his weapon at us.  We returned fire, maybe hitting him a hundred times.

            "You have grenades?" Kevin asked.

            "No."

           
Boom!

            "Could've fooled me," he muttered.

            I charged up the stairs.  Two women and a man stood at the top of the stairs firing down at us.  I emptied a magazine into them, and then stopped to reload while Kevin and the others rushed past me on either side.  Gunfire erupted above me, and then Kevin came tumbling back down.

            "Kevin!  Are you alright?"

            "No," he gasped.

            It was a shoulder wound.  From its position, I figured he had some shattered bones, but nothing vital was hit.  I told him to keep pressure on it.

            "Don't go anywhere," I said.

            He barked a laugh.

            My team was taking some intense fire up on the fourth floor.  I quickly joined them, scanning the situation.  It was open like the other floors, but no cots or chests.  No signs of habitation at all.

           
Boom!
echoed through the building again.

            Spotting a dropped pistol on the floor, I snatched it up and threw it.  That heavy steel pistol clattered loudly across the hardwood floors.

            "Grenade!  Get down!" I shouted.

            Even my team fell to the floor.  I dropped to one knee, elbow on a knee to help steady my aim.  The gang bangers dropped to the floor, which exposed them.  I started shooting.  Three of five were dead or wounded before anyone figured out I lied.

            I rushed the last two, with my team following.  They stepped out of cover to engage us.  It was pretty intense, but within seconds one of my men was dead, and both of them.  The wounded guy was shot in the head by one of my team.

            "What the fuck, man?" I cried.  "We're the good guys.  We don't murder prisoners."

            "They don't take old women or men prisoner, and they don't leave anyone behind," he said.  "I gave him back what he gave us."

            That took me aback.  No one had mentioned anything like that before.  The gang bangers were killing anyone they couldn't sell?

            "It doesn't matter if they are cold-blooded savages," I said through clenched teeth.  "We cannot allow ourselves to drop to that level."

            Someone started shooting at us.  We dropped to the floor.  Everyone in my team was immediately returning fire.  I couldn't have been more proud of them.  The gang bangers trying to escape the top floor were mowed down.  One managed to get past us.  I heard a single shot below and thought of Kevin.

            "Shit!" I cried, racing over to the stairs.  The gang banger was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs.  Kevin slanted a look up to me, lifting a pistol.  "Dayum."

            My team was already heading up the last flight of stairs.  We found the lost women huddled in the corner.  No guards.

            "Hurry up," I said.

            We cut their wrists free and led them down the stairs.  What few men I had left flanked them.  I stopped next to Kevin on the way down.

            "Just like the Army, always saving you jarheads' butts," I said.  "Do I have to carry you?"

            "Crap.  When this is over, I want you to come over to my house," Kevin said as I helped him stand.  With one arm around him, we followed the rescued women down.  "I'll give you a big steak dinner for helping us, and then I'm going to kick your ass for that lie about saving Marines."

            "First we have to get out of here alive."

Chapter 23

            "Quick!  More of them are coming!" a young man called when we excited the front entrance.

            I heard gunfire on the other side of Team Mike.  Looking up, I saw Charlie's team was shooting in that direction.  The newcomers must be a greater threat than the home team.

            Kevin shook me off.  "I'm fine."

            "You don't look fine."

            "That's because you're not a Marine," he said.  "I fought in the gulf war.  Two Purple Hearts.  In the Marines this is considered a scratch."

            "Okay, you win," I said, shaking my head.  "Take a couple aspirins and start a recruiting station in the morning."

            "Shame you're a stinking soldier," he said.  "You might've made a halfway decent Marine."

            "My father, uncle, and cousins are all jarheads," I said.  "I get seasick, so joined the Army.  Airborne!"

            "Mmm," he said, looking me over again.  "I have a twenty-two year old single daughter."

            "I have a wife and two sons."

            "If you two are finished flirting," another middle-aged man said.

            Everyone was crouched over and running for the nearest alley.  It led back to our vehicles.  The women and children were already out of sight.

            Kevin looked at the other guy, then at me and shrugged.  "He was a squid."

            "Ah."

            I joined the few men left in my team still unharmed.  We provided cover for the others.  By the time I reached the alley, I spotted Mike's team starting to bug out.  Halfway down the alley, Charlie's team stopped firing.  We were in full get the hell out of Dodge mode.

            By the time we reached the parking lot, some vehicles were pulling away.  They were packed to the max with children.  I nodded approval to see Kevin making sure the youngest escaped first.

            I joined Charlie, Mike, and a dozen other men.  There were gang bangers on foot down that street.  I saw two of their pickups get shot up and crash.  Most of them seemed to have automatic weapons.

            First thing, I reminded everyone we had limited ammo.

            "Roger, we need to have a long talk about your ammo fetish," Mike said.

            I made sure someone was always shooting down the street.  It didn't take much to keep your enemy's head down, especially if he wasn't a trained soldier.  When the gang bangers tried to come at us from other streets and alleys, I spread my dwindling force to cover those avenues of approach.

            "Hurry it up, Kevin!  They're starting to surround us!"

            He was loading women into cars and pickups as fast as he could.  Some of the women drove, and sometimes he pulled one of my men away to drive.  It didn't take too long to empty that parking lot.  There were three vehicles left after all of the rescued women were gone, including our pickup.

            "You guys get out.  We'll hold them here a little longer," I shouted.  "Good luck!"

            "Good luck and God Bless," Kevin said.  "Don't forget to look me up once all this zombie crap gets sorted out.  I owe you a steak and an ass whooping."

            "Can't wait."

            Their remaining men rushed back to the two pickups, and tore out of there.  It was the first time I truly felt like I made a difference since the shit hit the fan.

            "Ass whooping?" Mike asked.

            "I taunted him for being a Marine."

            "Oh, man, they never forget," he said, chuckling.  "You're fucked."

            We didn't stay long.  As soon as I heard engines turning over on the next block, I headed for the pickup.

            "I'll drive.  Light them up!"

            I drove away in the opposite direction than Kevin and the others went.  The gang bangers followed us.  I counted three pickups and four sedans.  All of them were at least as old as our Chevy.

            Mike and Charlie jumped into the truck bed and shot over the tailgate.  Full auto didn't have to be all that accurate in city streets.  They had almost no wiggle room, so two sedans and a pickup pulled away with smoking engines before we reached the highway.

            I turned south toward St. Louis.

            It was full dark, so I turned off the headlights.  That was scary with all of the abandoned cars and trucks on the road.  The moonlight gave me enough light to drive.  I took the third exit off the highway.

            "What are you doing?" Charlie cried.

            "Trying to shake them."

            "It didn't work," Mike said, and opened fire.

            I turned on the lights and floored it.  I came close to flipping it when I went around the next corner.  Instead of going back up on the highway, where it would be easy to follow us, I was determined to lose them in the streets.  I quickly learned that they were a lot better at street chases than me.  They started gaining.

            "Brilliant move, Einstein!" Mike shouted.

            A hail of bullets rippled across the windshield, pounding into the tailgate, fenders, and roof.  What was left of the back window shattered away, and so many bullets hit the windshield it became a spider web of cracks.

            "Ugh!" I cried in surprise when a shot hit the back of my helmet.

            The blow slammed my face into the steering wheel.  Exquisite pain ripped through me from nose to back of my head, and down my neck.  A second later our pickup slammed into an abandoned car.

            "God-dammit," Mike screamed.  "Are you trying to kill us?"

            "You're banned from driving," Charlie said.

            The engine was still running, so I put it in reverse and hit the gas.  A second later we slammed into a pursuing sedan, which was skidding to a stop.

            "Fire them up!" I cried.

            Mike and Charlie opened up full auto.  Other gang banger vehicles came skidding up as well.  One flipped over and tumbled down the street past us.  I put it in first and took off, running over a gang member crawling out of the overturned car.

            "Two are still following us," Charlie said.

            The engine was smoking.  I could tell it was losing power.  I turned left at the next street, then right into an alley.  I crossed the next street and drove into that alley.  After a few more turns, I suddenly came out of built up land.  The Mississippi River was before us.

            "Shit."

            That road went down to the shore, and a boat ramp.  There were a few boats on trailers attached to abandoned vehicles.  One of them was a big red fire and rescue boat.  I parked between it and a trailered bass boat.

            "See if one of them starts."

            Mike jumped into the twenty-seven foot, flat-bottom fire and rescue boat.  Charlie checked the bass boat.  They both had big ass Mercury outboards.  The fire rescue boat actually turned over.