Dead Life Book 5 (3 page)

              “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind?”

              “I can hear you out here,” John shouted, from behind the opened hood. “I hope you’re looking at the map while you’re trash talking in there.”

              “We are,” I answered. “Get the map out.”

              “Don’t need to. There’s a town two miles north of here.”

              The hood to the truck slammed shut and John walked over to the driver’s side. “I’ll drive.”

              “That’s okay John. The next town is only a few miles from here. I’ll be fine.”

              He turned away and walked over to the other side of the truck. I wasn’t sure but it sounded like he was mumbling something about letting the two of us get in the back. After that I couldn’t really tell what he was saying but I’m sure it wasn’t anything favorable. I thought to myself that it would be nice to find him some older sex starved lady to come along with us. Kind of even things out. I almost laughed out loud at the thought of the whole thing. “John meet Mildred. She’s alone, horny, and looking for a crabby old bastard to sleep with. Mildred meet John, the crabby old bastard you’ve been searching for. Have fun you two.”

              John climbed into the truck and I looked at him in the rearview mirror, a big smile on my face.

              “What’s so funny? Did I miss something?”

              “No, you didn’t miss anything. Just glad everybody’s okay, looking forward to a good night’s sleep. All that kind of stuff.”

              “Yeah, whatever. Let’s go.”

              Lily was looking at me kind of funny. I guess, like John, she was wondering what I was smiling about. I just looked over at her, shook my head, and mouthed “I’ll tell you later.”

              This drew an even more confused look from her. “I don’t read lips.”

              “I’ll tell you later.”

              “Tell her what?” John asked.”

              “Just tell me now,” Lilly said.

              “Let it go.” Lily started to say something. “That’s an order.”

              “And that pulling rank crap is bullshit,” she said, turning to look out the side window.

              Every once in a while pulling rank still came in handy.

              Finding a house to stay the night in turned out to be fairly easy. The first likely candidate turned out to be clear with a fully stocked kitchen and a new SUV in the garage. The keys to which were hanging on a peg by the door. After the way things had been going the past few days I felt we were entitled to a little good luck. John obviously didn’t feel the same as I did. He kept looking for something to go wrong. After we got settled in he finally loosened up a bit and was able to relax. Just as we were about to start dinner the sat phone rang.

              “I thought you took the battery out of that thing,” John said.

              “I did but I put it back in a few minutes ago.”

              Lily was closest to the phone and picked it up and brought it over to me. “I think it’s your dad,” she said.

              I looked at the display on the caller ID. “Yeah it’s him.” I sat the phone down and it stopped ringing.

              “Why didn’t you answer?” Lily asked.

              “Because he knows General Simmons will be listening in,” John said.

              “Really? You think so?”

              “Yeah Lily I do. He’s had plenty of time to set up shop. With almost every other form of communication down he’ll have nothing better to do than monitor satellite calls. Besides he knows this number and the number of the phone I sent my dad. I’m sure he’s looking for us. He’ll want to know what happened with Dr. Parks.”

              The phone started to ring again.

              “Just answer it,” John said. “What’s the worse he can do?”

              “Triangulate our position and send a chopper to round us up.”

              “Why would he do that?”

              “I’ll tell you why. Because he’s a prick but mostly just because he can.”

              “It doesn’t make sense,” John said. “He has nothing to gain from us. It would be a waste of resources.”

              “He wanted us to bring him the good doctor. We failed. He’ll want to know what happened and want us to try again.”

              “I don’t believe that. If he wants Parks he’s got plenty of other options. Hell they’re sitting off shore on that battleship. If he wants him that bad he can send a Seal unit out after him.”

              “Where would they start looking?” I asked. “We blew up the missile silo, he won’t be there. I guess they could search the woods, but there’s an awful lot of woods to search out there.”

              “That’s exactly my point. The whole thing would be useless. Dr. Parks is in the wind. He could be anywhere.”

              Just then the phone rang again. The caller ID told me it was my dad. If he was still trying to get ahold of me there was probably a good reason. I answered the phone. We only talked for a few seconds. I was actually surprised that he called. He really didn’t have much to say other than they were still headed to Fort Leonard Wood. The only useful information I got was that Simmons was looking for me. The bastard had called my dad’s phone trying to track me down. That left him only one other option. I was taking the back off the phone to remove the battery when it rang again. This time it was a blocked number. I was sure it was General Simmons.

              “Is that your dad again already?” Lily asked.

              “No it’s a blocked number.”

              “You know who it is,” John said. “You should answer it.”

              “To hell with that. I’m done being his errand boy.”

              “We should at least hear what he has to say,” Lily said. “That way we’ll know what to expect.”

              “Do you agree with her?” I asked John.

              ”Yeah, I think so. Find out what he wants. Maybe he’ll give away what he knows about us, if you piss him off enough.”

              Suddenly the prospect of talking to the General didn’t sound so bad. I held the phone out, looked at it for a second, took a deep breath, and pressed the accept button.

              “Madame Wong’s carry-out,” I said in my best Chinese accent. “Today’s special, cream of some young guy. If you no want that we get you an order of who flung poo.”

              Silence from my mystery caller. Lily looked at me with the strangest look on her face. John just shook his head and smiled.

              “What you want? I no have time to play game with you. Many zombies waiting at door. You make up mind, call back.” Then I hung up.

              “What the hell was all that?” John asked.

              “That’s what I call a reverse prank phone call. When I was a kid we used to do that shit all the time to telemarketers.”

              “Reverse prank phone call?”

              “I got busted a few times making prank phone calls. Caller ID took all the fun out of being a kid.”

              The phone started ringing again. I answered right away this time. “You make up mind?” A moment’s hesitation was all it took. “I told you. Call back when ready.” I could hear the General shouting as I hung up the phone.

              I resumed my story. “So anyway, whenever a telemarketer would call the house I would turn the tables on them. You know since they couldn’t really do anything about it just give them a rash of shit then tell them not to call this number anymore. Had a great time doing that. Then my mom got on the no call list. That was the end of my career as a prank phone caller.”

              “I used to love doing prank phone calls when I was a kid,” John said. “Has anyone seen Mike Hunt? Is your refrigerator running? Those were the classics.”

              “Him it doesn’t surprise me,” Lily said, referring to me. “You though Sarge, I’m shocked. A couple of juvenile delinquents, the both of you.”

              The phone rang again. “You are going to have to stop calling this number,” I said, dropping the Chinese accent. “We don’t want any Chinese food. Besides, this is a military frequency. I need to keep this line clear.”

              “Captain Downs, is that you?”

              “Yes sir General. Sorry sir. We have been getting calls from some crack pot trying to get us to order some guy cream or something like that.”

              “Let’s cut the crap Captain.”

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.”

              “I don’t believe that for a second Captain.”

              “Honestly sir.”

              “That’s enough Captain. In a few seconds a helicopter will be flying over your location. On board is a highly trained Special Forces unit. Whether or not they land and round the three of you up depends entirely on how this call goes from this point forward. Do I make myself clear?”

              I could hear the chopper in the distance. “Yes sir.”

              “For starters I want the full story on what happened with Dr. Parks.”

              “Dr. Parks is dead. Well I think he’s dead. When we got there he had already been infected with the virus. Except he was different from the rest. He was still kind of alive.”

              “What do you mean? If he was infected then he’s dead and of no use to me.”

              “From what he told us.”

              “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he interrupted. “Are you telling me that we now have talking zombies?”

“Just the doctor, sir. He had one of his assistants keep him alive somehow through the transformation.”

“So he’s not a zombie then.”

“He’s a zombie alright. The only difference is he can still talk and think. Other than that he’s just like the rest of them.”

“Tell me Captain. When you left the missile silo was your whole team together?”

“Yes sir we did all escape together, but our helicopter crashed the next day. Our pilot died in the crash.”

“Yes we found the wreckage. Was there anyone else with Dr. Parks when you arrived at the facility?”

“No just him. He’d already killed everyone else.”

“Then I’d say it’s safe to assume he’s somewhere in your vicinity.”

“He’s what?”

“Yesterday we found one of the jeeps from the medical facility about fifty miles west of your current location.”

“How do you know Dr. Parks is the one that took the vehicle? It could have been someone else.”

“From everything you told me it all fits together. The interior of the jeep was covered with blood and my men reported there were body parts littered throughout the vehicle.”

This was insane. We barely escaped Parks just a few days ago and now here he was, hot on our trail. That is if General Simmons was to be trusted. Why was he accepting my story so easily? At best the scenario was something out of a low budget B horror film. It was hard enough wrapping your mind around the whole zombies taking over the world thing. Now we were throwing in talking, thinking zombies on top of everything else. If I was the General I wouldn’t have believed my story for a minute.

“Sir if you don’t mind me asking; what do you want from us?”

“I like that soldier. Straight to the point. I want you to do your duty man. I sent you on a mission and I want it completed.”

“General you didn’t send me on any mission. I just tagged along with the pilot. In all honesty my plan was to kill Parks when we got there. As it was we were lucky to get out of there alive.”

“Captain the team I sent to find out what was going on with the jeep that’s been following your group didn’t return to base. The chopper is still on the ground. The area is swarming with the undead. The Special Forces unit I sent to check on them couldn’t land. I want you and your people to see if you can find Parks. I want him back here. Now more than ever.”

“Why would you want him? I’m telling you General the son of a bitch is worse than the regular zombies. That’s why we left him there.” Lily was signaling me trying to get my attention. The chopper that General Simmons had sent after us was now right over our location. “General can you hang on just one second?” I could hear him screaming at me as I took the phone away from my ear.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ve got company.”

“I can hear the chopper.”

“I’m sure you can,” Lily said, pointing out the window. “That’s not the problem.”

Hundreds of zombies were in the street outside of the house we were holed up in. Most of them were looking up at the chopper that was circling overhead.

“Where’s John?”

“I’m right here,” he said. “I was checking out back. We’re surrounded.”

Chapter 3

              I woke with a start. Something was banging on the door of the truck. I grabbed my pistol and looked out the window. Al and Cindy were standing outside the door. I rolled down the window and shook Gina to wake her.

              “I’m not ready,” she said.

              “I know you didn’t sleep good last night but Al and Cindy are up. We need to get an early start this morning.”

              “I slept fine last night.”

              “You don’t remember waking up in the middle of the night screaming?”

              “You must have been dreaming. I slept through the night.”

              “He’s right little girl,” Al said. “You woke Cindy and me up around two o’clock. I thought for sure you guys were being swarmed over here.”

              “I’m sorry. I must have been out of it. I don’t remember a thing.”

              “You woke up twice. You talked to me both times. You don’t remember any of that?”

              “No. I guess that explains why I feel like shit this morning. What did we talk about?”

              “Nothing really. You were having bad dreams.”

              “Did I tell you about them?”

              I decided it was best not to go into too much detail. “Just your basic zombie attack bullshit.”

              “Isn’t it bad enough we have to live with them while we’re awake,” Cindy said. “I have nightmares every night about them. I’m getting chased most of the time. You know, the fast ones. They’re behind me in an open field most of the time, it seems like I’m running forever and I can’t seem to get away from them.”

              “As long as they don’t catch you baby, that’s all that matters,” Al said, turning around and grabbing Cindy around the waist.

              “I don’t think they’re trying to grab my ass.”

              “Well I am!”

              “How about you guys get breakfast going? Gina and I will clean up.”

              “You got a deal,” Al said. “Powdered eggs it is.”

              I could hear Cindy complaining as they walked away. Not about making breakfast but about the powdered eggs. They were filling but tasted like shit. Gina and I climbed into the back of the truck and put our sleeping gear away. After breakfast we stowed the mess in the back of the U-Haul and drove down to the creek to clean the dishes. There was no reason to waste our large but limited supply of bottled water on cleaning dishes if we didn’t have to. Even though it was starting to get cold out we also took the opportunity to wash our dirty clothes in the creek. Due to our group decision for a fair distribution of all duties Al and I were saddle with laundry detail while the girls took guard duty. Al bitched the entire time; it was all for show. One thing you could always count on from Al, lots of complaints about doing ‘women’s work’, even though ‘fair distribution of labor’ had been his idea in the first place.

              The first shot rang out when we were about halfway done washing the clothes. Al and I dropped what we were doing and ran to our rifles. We both knew it had to be bad if the girls were using their rifles instead of their swords. Gina and Cindy were in front of the trucks firing up the road. Coming at them were dozens of zombies.

              “Get in the truck,” Al shouted.

              Cindy listened but kept firing up the road as she made her way to the passenger door of the Ford. Gina held her ground and continued firing into the horde. What originally appeared to be dozens of zombies quickly turned into hundreds. Al climbed back out of the truck and ran forward in an effort to help Gina. I worked my way toward Cindy on the passenger side of the Ford. She now had the door open but was still firing into the horde.

              I placed a hand on Cindy’s back and shouted. “Get in and slide across. Get it started. There are too many of them. We need to get the hell out of here.”

              Cindy didn’t hesitate. She threw her rifle in and slid across the seat. Al glanced back as the engine roared to life. I stood at the open door firing to the front. Cindy rolled down her window and started yelling for Al to get in the truck. He was trying to get Gina to break off but she was having none of it. I worked my way to the front of the truck and pushed the barrel of Gina’s rifle down.

              “Get to the U-Haul. Al go with her,” I shouted. “They’re going to overrun us. I’ll hold them off.” Al kept firing ahead while looking over at me. “I’ll go with Cindy.”

              Al grabbed Gina by the arm and drug her along with him. “Don’t wait too long,” he shouted back over his shoulder.

              I continued firing into the horde. There was so many of them what little damage I was doing didn’t slow their progress at all. Runners were breaking away from the main group and would be on me any second. I stopped firing and turned to run back to the truck. The U-Haul was gone. At least Gina and Al had gotten away. I jumped in the truck and slammed the door just as the first of the runners jumped onto the hood.

              Cindy threw the truck in reverse and started backing up. “Al backed across the creek and up the hill,” Cindy said.

              The runners stayed close but we were able to out distance them. By the time we crossed the creek we were free of them. I grabbed the radio, “What’s your plan?”

              “Al says we need the downhill momentum if we’re going to be able to break through,” Gina replied.

              “Alright baby. I’ll see you on the other side.”

              Cindy was having trouble keeping the Ford on the road backing up the hill and had to slow down. I couldn’t see the horde any longer but I knew they were getting closer. Still I couldn’t fault her. The road was tight and I probably wouldn’t have been able to do any better. How in the hell had Al been able to back that big ass U-Haul up the road so fast? By the time I had gotten in the truck he was already out of sight. Was there anything that old man couldn’t do better than the rest of us?

              There was no telling how big this horde was. I knew the Ford could get back the way we’d come. The ground clearance was higher and we had four wheel drive. The U-Haul was a different story. It sat too low and would probably get hung up on the dead bodies that littered the gravel road back where we had first tried to stop the horde.

              I got back on the radio, “Gina I want you and Al to get in with us when we catch up to you.”

              “Will do,” she replied. “We’re sitting here waiting for you. Just a minute.”

              “I’m not leaving all this equipment behind,” I heard Al shouting. “We’ll make it.”

              “All that shit in the back of the truck doesn’t mean anything if you get hung up and don’t make it through,” I said. “Just listen to me for once.”

              “When you get here I’ll send Gina up.”

              “No you won’t,” I heard her yell at him. “Either we both go or we both stay.”

              “Both of you come with us. I see you in my mirror. We’re almost there.”

              The argument between Al and Gina raged on. I heard bits and pieces of it over the radio as we drew closer. Then I saw movement off to my side. I looked into the trees and saw that the woods were full of zombies. We were surrounded on both sides. Looking out the front window I could see the road in front of us filling with the undead. Then I felt the first of them hit the back of the truck. Cindy slammed on the brakes. I could still hear the two of them arguing over the radio. One of them had the call button pressed down and it would do me no good to try and get through using the radio. I reached over and pushed on the horn. It took a few seconds but they finally both looked up. The sounds of their arguing stopped coming over the radio.

              “You win again Al. Try to stay close,” I said, hoping that whoever had been holding the button of the radio down had finally let it go.

              Hands hit the side of the truck. Something crashed into the window beside me and a face drew back from the window. Black blood and gore smeared across the window as the face crashed back down into the window over and over. The creature’s teeth broke when its face hit and more of its gore spread out in front of my face.

              “What do I do?” Cindy screamed, pulling my attention away from what was going on inches from my face.

              I checked to make sure the truck was in four wheel drive. “Run them down!” I shouted. “Go as fast as you have to. We don’t want to get stuck but we don’t get too far ahead of Al.”

              “Can’t you drive?”

              “It’s too late for that. We’ll be trapped if we don’t go now.”

              The truck lurched forward over the zombies that were in front of us. I watched the U-Haul in my mirror as it too started forward. Al had been right to back up the hill. The only way the U-Haul was going to make it through this many bodies on the gravel road was going downhill. I could see right away Al was having trouble getting the truck over the bodies that we had already run over. Most just bounced off of our wooden bumper and were cast to the side but too many were being thrown out in front of us only to be crushed under the wheels of the high riding four wheeler as we passed over them.

              “How are they doing back there?” Cindy asked.

              “Not too good. They’re making it but just barely.”

              I got on the radio. “Are you okay?”

              The first thing I heard was Al shouting in the background. “Hell no.”

              “That fucking truck sits up too high,” Gina said. “Is there any way you could try and swerve around a few of them?”

              “Is she serious?” Cindy asked.

              “I don’t think so.” I answered. “Do you have any other ideas?” I said into the radio.

              “Al says just keep going. We’ll be fine.”

              If things were this bad for them now when we got to the main horde it was only going to get worse. Just then a runner leaped at the truck, slid across the hood, and crashed into the windshield. His head splattered right in front of Cindy putting a crack all the way across the top of the window. A few more of those and they would be in the cab with us. I was worried about Cindy. She had driven through zombies before but never this many, none of us had. The only other time we had faced this many at once we had been able to lure them away from the U-Haul. Now we had no choice but to keep going.

              “I can’t see!” Cindy shouted.

              I reached over and turned on the windshield washer for her. After a few seconds most of the blood cleared off enough that she could see. Once the windshield cleared enough for her to see I turned the wipers off. I couldn’t believe how many zombies there were out here in this backwoods hell-hole. The road in front of us was packed solid. With no letup in sight.

              “Can you do this?”

              “I don’t think I have a choice.” she snapped back.

              Gina’s voice came over the radio. “What’s going on up there?”

              “Not much,” I replied. “Same old shit. Why do you ask?”

              “We saw that one bounce off the windshield,” Gina said. “Hang on, Al wants to talk to Cindy.”

              “He needs to keep both hands on the wheel,” I said.

              “I’m holding the radio for him. You do the same for Cindy.”

              “You’re doing great baby,” Al said. “When we cross the creek you’re going to come to all those bodies we shot up before. You’re going to need to speed up a little. I’m going to need to pick up a little steam when we get there. Otherwise I won’t be able to get over them. Can you do that for me?”

              “I’ll try,” she said. “Hey Al, you know how I was complaining before about not getting to drive enough?”

              “Yeah, I remember.”

              “Well you can forget that shit. After today I don’t think I’ll be wanting to be driving for a while.”

              “That may be a problem. Because after today I don’t think I’ll be wanting to drive either.”

              “Al, we’re coming to the creek,” Cindy said.

              “Steve, I need to talk to you,” Al said.

              “What is it?”

              “If we get bogged down you two have to keep going.”

              “We’re not leaving you!” Cindy and I shouted at the same time.

              “Hell no you’re not leaving us. You need to break through and get turned around. Then you come back down and help us shoot our way out of here.”

              “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said. “We’re crossing the creek now.”

              “I can see the goddamn creek,” Al said.

              I didn’t think it was possible but there were even more zombies than before in front of us. Cindy hit the creek and for a second I didn’t think we were going to make it through. Our tires lost traction, blood from the bodies that were caught beneath our wheels flew twenty feet into the air. Then our tires caught and we burst through to the other side. Cindy pushed down on the accelerator. The crushed bodies of the undead flew away from us in all directions. Some ended up in front of us only to be crushed under our tires. Most were thrown to the sides of the truck. We should have been going this fast the whole time. Even though we would have out distanced Gina and Al at least we might have done a better job of clearing a path for them.