Deadrise 2: Deadwar (24 page)

And then it turned its attention to the front door. Its head was a bizarre mixture of canine and reptilian, drenched in blood and flecked with bits of flesh and intestine. Its pupils were narrow vertical slits set in a bile yellow orb. The slits grew even narrower as it spotted Larsen and it crouched to attack. There was no doubt in his mind that the beast would smash through the Plexiglas door as if it were made of matchsticks. Larsen raised his AK-47 to fire just as the creature lunged. Its first attempt merely shattered the Plexiglas and caused the framework to indent, but it was all the time Larsen needed. He opened fire on full automatic, watching the bullets tear into the hellhounds neck and chest. It reared back, bellowing out a cry that was part bark, part snarl and part hiss and one hundred percent straight out of hell evil! Larsen’s clip ran empty as the creature moved out of the shattered doorway and out of sight.

Time to move!
Larsen spun on his heels and took of running at full speed towards the narrow stairwell that led upstairs. Ahead he could see Privates DeBirk and Corbett descending the stairs, half dressed, half awake and AK-47’s in hand.

“Back up stairs! Back up stairs!” Larsen shouted as he approached. They gave him a confused look, exchanged glances then turned and hurried back up the stairs. Larsen was hot on their tail. As he reached the landing for the second floor he pulled his radio from his hip.

“Base do you copy? This is Larsen! I have a code red!” Corbett and DeBirk stared at him, waiting to be told what to do. “Keep moving. Get to the library. And cover that goddamned stairwell!” The trio moved down the hall towards the employee break room, where they could access the library wing of the building.

“Where’s Law?” Corbett asked.

“He’s dead! That thing down there killed him. Keep you guns trained on that stairwell and kill anything that comes up.”

“What’s down there?” DeBirk asked. Before Larsen could respond his radio crackled.

“This is Base. What’s the situation?”

“We were attacked… Corporal Law was killed. We need immediate backup!”

“What attacked you?”

“I…I think it was a Hellhound. It fit the description. It tore Law to pieces and devoured him…”

“Hold fast Lieutenant. Reinforcements are on the way!”

“Copy Base. Larsen out.” He put the radio away just as they entered the break room. A few folding tables and plastic chairs, a small couch, a refrigerator and sink and a pair of vending machines comprised the break room. A window against the back wall gave access to a small platform and the fire escape ladder.

Larsen closed the door and reloaded his weapon.

“Ok, the door won’t hold that thing for long.”

“A Hellhound? Like what attacked Major Farrell’s squad? There’s a hellhound out there?” Pvt. DeBirk asked.

“That’s my guess.”

“What are we going to do?” Corbett asked.

“Get to the library, go down stairs, get in the Hummer and drive the fuck away from here.” Larsen said.

Without another word they moved to the door on the far side of the break room. Corbett grabbed the handle and opened the door… He saw a flash down the dark hallway, but he never heard the crack of the rifle because the bullet punched the center of his chest, drilling through his body and exiting his back. Corbett was thrown to the ground where he flopped about in pain, gurgling for breath.

“What the fuck?” DeBirk screamed, stumbling back away from the door.

Larsen quickly kicked the door shut. Several more bullets blasted through it sending splinters of wood flying. “There is a superzombie out there! It’s controlling the hellhound.”

“Oh fuck! Fuck!” DeBirk was coming unraveled. Larsen knew he would have to act quickly if they were going to make it out of this alive. He looked over at the window on the back wall. It accessed the building’s emergency fire escape.

The far door gave a splintering crash as the Hellhound began to smash through.

“Were getting out of here DeBirk!” Larsen ran over to the window and opened it. The cool night air helped clear his head. The fire escape was on the back of the building. Down below were the loading docks and garbage dumpster. Larsen pulled his body through the window onto the small landing. He looked back inside just in time to see the hellhound crash through the splintered remnants of the door and slide into the room. He scrambled for the ladder and stepped out onto the rung. Larsen began to descend the ladder as fast as he could, fighting the rising panic in his brain that told him to jump to the ground.

DeBirk was close behind, practically diving through the window onto the narrow escape landing. He rolled to his knees on the platform and crawled for the ladder, but even as he did the Hellhound reached the window and lunged out. Its shoulders were too broad to fit through the window so only its head emerged, blood and saliva flying as it snapped at DeBirk. In a blind panic he dove for the ladder but the Hellhounds jaws clamped on his left foot just as his fingers locked onto the rung. There was a brief tug of war between DeBirk and the creature before DeBirk lost his grip on the ladder and the Hellhound pulled him screaming back through the window to be eaten.

As Larsen descended he could hear DeBirk’s agonized screams, which were mercifully cut short. Then he was on the ground and running with all the speed he could muster for the Humvee parked in front of the building...

CHAPTER 28

Monday, March 18, 2002

Rainbow Lake, UT

4:04 AM

General Blake Jenkins strode into the Command Center like a tiger on the prowl. On duty was Captain Jordan.

“What the hell is going on, Captain?”

“Alpha Two has come under attack sir! Lieutenant Larsen says it was a Hellhound.”

“Any casualties?”

“Corporal Law for sure. Lieutenant Larsen hasn’t reported in again.”

“What about the farms?”

“No response from them either…” The Captain’s words hung in the air.

“David?” Jenkins said aloud.

“Right here, General.” David’s voice came over the overhead intercom. He was upstairs at his private console, right where Jenkins knew he would be. He knew his job. While Captain Jordan relayed Jenkins commands to the men in the field David would devote all of his attention to surveillance. There were dozens of battery operated, live feed cameras placed about Rainbow Lake and Kittewa.

“I want the entire community on full alert. Wake everybody up Jordan, we are going into a total security lockdown.” While Captain Jordan went about rousing the command structure of Rainbow Lake and putting the Militia on full alert the General pondered his options. It was time to reassess the whole approach. Jenkins was almost looking forward to it.

There were one hundred and twenty five fighting men and women in the Rainbow Lake Militia. Five of them were stationed in Summittown at all times while twenty were stationed down in Kittewa; five at the town HQ and another fifteen spread out across the farms and main road checkpoints. Another twenty were scattered in a wide perimeter around Rainbow Lake in small, well-stocked checkpoints. That left sixty-five soldiers in reserve here at the Lake who even now would be scrambling to assigned defensive positions.

For all intents and purposes he had to assume that the twenty men down in Kittewa were lost. Capt. Jordan had gotten no response from any of the farm squads and Lt. Larsen had confirmed the loss of one of his men and was probably dead himself.

And it was Jenkins fault. He had gotten greedy and careless, extending his forces too far while trying to grasp too much, and now the enemy had been alerted to their presence and responded with quick, decisive action. Patty had warned him against the Salt Lake City probe, urging him to reconsider. They needed to hunker down she had said. Consolidate and reinforce everything they had already achieved. But he hadn’t listened. He had been drunk with conquest and plunder and so had the rest of the Militia. She had said as much once and it had angered him so badly that he slept in his office for nearly a week. He should have listened to her.

“General!” Captain Jordan snapped him from his melancholy. “Lt. Larsen just radioed in!”

“Put him on speaker!” Jenkins barked.

“On speaker, General.”

“Larsen? Do you copy?”

“I copy General. My whole squad is dead. Every fucking one of them.”

“Was it a Hellhound?”

“Affirmative. And it was being controlled by at least one Sentinel. The bastard used the Hound to herd us upstairs where it ambushed us and took out Corbett. I wouldn’t doubt that it put a slug in him… transformed him into a Sentinel. As for the rest of my squad… that fucking Hellhound tore them apart.” Even the radio couldn’t disguise the horror in Larsen’s voice.

“How did you get out?”

“By the skin of my ass. I was able to get to the Hummer and drive away before the Sentinel or the Hound made it back outside.”

“Where are you now?”

“Approaching Checkpoint Number Two.”

“When you arrive take command and hold your position. I’m sending Bravo Two to reinforce you.

“Copy, General.”

“David? What do you see out at the farms?”

“No movement, General.”

“Are the squad vehicles visible?”

“No, General. They are nowhere to be seen. I’m scanning the security recording since nightfall right now, but it will take… Wait a minute. I’ve got something.”

Jenkins walked over to Captain Jordan’s station and peered at the screen. The video was from the security camera at the main farm, which also served as the Militia checkpoint for the farms. The camera was high, overlooking the entire front of the house and front yard. A Humvee was parked out front of the large, two-story house, and a pair of soldiers stood out front smoking and talking. Their weapons were shouldered, and neither one was fully alert and on guard. Jenkins ground his teeth at the lack of discipline. But his anger was cut short when both soldiers suddenly dropped, one after another, shot in the head by sniper fire. Several seconds later, a trio of Sentinels moved into view of the camera and closed on the house and entering.

“Those sneaky motherfuckers.” Jenkins muttered bitterly. But he wasn’t surprised. He remembered how they had weaseled in through the sewer systems of Fort Douglas and launched a sneak attack inside the base. They were devious, cunning monsters that existed only to spread death.

The video scanned forward until movement at the front of the house brought it to normal speed. It showed six Sentinels walk out and climb into the hummer.

“They converted Joe Morgan and his family.” Captain Jordan said.

“Where are they David?” Jenkins barked as he watched the hummer drive out of the camera.

“I’m looking for them now. When I spot them you will be the second one to know.”

Jenkins shook his head at David’s comment but said nothing. He would never let any of his Militiamen speak to him like that, but David…was David...

CHAPTER 29

Monday, March 18, 2002

Checkpoint Two, Kittewa UT

4:10 AM

The soldiers at Checkpoint Two were waiting for Lt. Larsen as he drove up but still made him halt several yards back while they verified his identity. As a pair of guards walked out to the hummer, Larsen swept his eyes over the structure that was checkpoint number two. It was constructed from abandoned cars stacked atop one another fifteen feet high and reinforced with logs, steel spikes, tires, steel plating and barbed wire. Both lanes of the roadway were completely blocked off with the exception of a gate, one vehicle wide, right in the center of the barricade. The gate was blocked by a bus, laden with heavy plate armor and packed with logs, barrels of water and other dense material to ward off any attempt to ram through. Atop the wall, on either side of the gate was a fixed heavy machine gun nest.

After verifying his identity, the bus rolled aside and allowed him to drive through the gate. Behind the wall was a trio of large military tents, which served as the command center of checkpoint number two. Stationed here was Bravo Company, 3rd Platoon under the command of Sergeant Jason Buffett.

“Lieutenant…” Sgt. Buffett said awkwardly. He had been a good friend of Corporal Law and Private DeBirk.

“We all know the risks.” Larsen said. He was horrified by what had happened, by what he had seen. He doubted he would ever again be able to close his eyes without seeing Corporal Law being torn apart, or that last look of pleading, mind numbing terror that Private DeBirk had given him just before the hellhound had pulled him back through the window. But now was not the time for weakness.