Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (31 page)

“Let’s take this one,” I said.
“Grab anything you can and we’ll load it up. Don’t fill the backseat. We need to have room for the Sergeant and the others.”

“Got it,” she said, and started sweeping the area.

We spent the next few minutes scavenging. That’s when I started noticing blood on the ground next to abandoned weapons and empty shell casings. The hair on the back of my neck started to stand up. We rounded up several weapons and tossed them into the back of the Humvee. In one of the deuce and a half’s, we found ammo crates. We took those too. It was mostly 5.56mm and 7.62mm belted. There were a few cases of 9mm for the Berettas. We took all of that. We also snagged a couple crates of fragmentation grenades. I was happy that we were acquiring plenty of weapons. Now all we needed was enough people to actually use them.

I took the opportunity to reload with ammo for my M-16 and switched back to it.
Not that the AK-47 is a bad weapon, but I’ve trained with the M-16 and can field strip one in the dark, if I have to. I wanted to stick with a weapon I knew well. Not to mention the fact that the 5.56mm rounds are lighter and I could carry more of them with less weight. Spec-4 followed suit and switched back to hers, as well. Still, I’d keep the AK in mind as a suitable replacement, especially if I could figure out how to mount the M-203 on it.

I made my way to the first of the two Blackhawks.
I checked under the pilot’s seat and found what I was looking for; a pilot’s survival kit, complete with an HK-PDW
[15]
in 9mm. Also inside was an emergency radio and basic survival gear. I took the co-pilot’s kit, as well. Then I repeated the process on the other Blackhawk.

“How did you know those were there?” asked Spec-4.

“A friend of mine was a Blackhawk pilot in Desert Storm,” I replied. “He told me about them. They’re there in case the pilot gets shot down in occupied territory.”

“Good to know,” she replied.
“Did you notice something about these vehicles?”

“Not really,” I said. “Why?”

“They aren’t ours,” she said. “They aren’t National Guard. These are Regular Army.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what the implications of that were, but Spec-4 seemed concerned by it.
We finished grabbing all the gear we could lay our hands on, including the fuel cans from the all of the Humvees. Then I started pulling the M-249 off the roof of another Humvee. That’s when I saw the bodies.

“By the Gods!” I said, pointing to the field behind the church.

There were hundreds of them, all laying in rows. Even from here, I could see that they were different than the others. They all looked like they’d been shot
before
they turned. None of them had the horrific wounds or blood covered torsos. Many of them just looked like they had been preparing to leave. Then I saw the piles of luggage and personal effects.

“No,” I whispered.

“What?!” exclaimed Spec-4.

“I think these are the people from the Evac-center,” I almost whispered.

“No way,” she said. “Why would they do that?”

“I’ll tell you why,” said a voice from behind us.

I spun around quickly, and leveled my M-16 at a lone figure approaching. He had apparently exited the door of the church. He was wearing ACU’s like Spec-4, but I could see he wasn’t National Guard. As he walked, I caught a glimpse of his unit patch. It looked like a Griffon with a key grasped in its talons. His rank insignia showed he was a full bird colonel. He also had an MP-5 pointed at us.

“Hold it, right there,” I said.

Spec-4 looked confused, but kept her weapon trained on him. I was worried about that for a second.

“Keep your distance, Colonel,” I told him.

The colonel stopped and looked at me, quizzically.

“Do I know you?”

“No, sir,” I replied. “I’m ex-army. I recognized the eagle on your uniform.”

“Oh, I see,” he replied.
“Have you been made aware of the recall ordered by the President? You’re to consider yourself back on active duty, son.”

“All things considered,” I said. “I’ll stay with the job I have, for the time being.
I’m the acting Sheriff of this county.”

“Well then,” he said. “Sheriff, you have no infra-structure left.
Your county government no longer exists.”

“That very well may be, sir,” I replied.
“But I still have a duty to any survivors that I can find and rescue.”

“And how many do you
really think that will be, son?” he asked, calmly.

I noted that the MP-5 never waivered.

“So far, over fifty,” I said.

That caught his attention.

“Really?” he asked, surprised. “Where are they?”

“From the look of that field behind us,” I said.
“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. Those are the people from the Evac-Center, aren’t they?”

“Not bad, Sheriff,” he said, mockingly.
“How’d you figure that out?”

“Zombies
don’t carry luggage,” I replied, gesturing to the pile.

“Nicely done,” he said. “You really should consider returning to active duty.”

“No thank you, sir,” I said. “What happened here?”

“There is a reason they call this the Springfield
Containment
Zone,” he said. “No one goes in, no one goes out.”

“Does that include you?” asked Spec-4.

“No,” replied the colonel.

I noticed that there wasn’t a name tag on his uniform.

“You executed all of these people, didn’t you?” she demanded.

“We’re containing the spread of the virus, Corporal Wilder,” he replied
, frowning. “You should know that being in that uniform automatically puts you under my command.”

“Too late, sir,” I said.
“She’s one of my deputies, now.”

“I don’t think that the authority of some hick sheriff from Podunk
Missouri can over-ride the authority of the United States Army,” he replied, contemptuously.

“Well, maybe not.
But the fact that we have you out-gunned just might do the trick.”

“For now, Sheriff,” he said.
“My extraction team will be here, shortly. I’ll have you both taken into custody, then.”

“Really?
Is that a fact?” I asked, adjusting my grip on my weapon.

“U
nless you think you can kill me before I kill you,” he replied, gesturing at his MP-5 with a nod.

“Not me, sir.
But he might.”

I nodded in the direction we had come from.
Then I released my weapon with my left hand and made two quick gestures at the Colonel, pointing with my first two fingers.

“I won’t fall for that old trick,” he said.
“You really are just a stupid hick, aren’t you?”

The gunshot took him by surprise.
He had a confused look on his face as the red stain started to appear on his chest. Southard had shot him, not me. The un-named colonel managed to squeeze off a shot before he fell, but I was already moving. The shot went wide, and I kicked the gun out of his hand when he hit the ground. Spec-4 snatched it up and nodded at me.

“We’ve got to get the hell out of here,” I said.

Spec-4 just nodded and we both turned and ran for the Humvee. We could see a crowd of zombies coming our way from near the grocery store, but they weren’t going to get to us for a few more minutes. We dove into the Humvee and Southard jumped back into the Bronco. We were going to be leaving behind a hell of a lot of equipment, but if we stayed to collect it we’d be killed by the extraction team.

Spec-4 opened the gate and we drove both vehicles out onto the street.
Then she pulled the gate shut behind us and ran for the passenger door of the Humvee. I was moving before she had her door shut. Then Spec-4 leaned across the divider and crawled into my lap, head first.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked, surprised.

“Get us out of here,” she replied. “I’m going after the Blue Force Tracker.”

“What the hell is that?”

“It must have been after your time. It’s a GPS tracking module in all military vehicles. If there is a clean-up team coming in, they’ll be able to track us if I don’t kill it.”

I gunned the engine and locked the doors.
Spec-4 kept digging around under the dash. I didn’t want to drive with her down there, but I didn’t want to hang around waiting for a Military Intelligence extraction team, either. I opted for the lesser of the two and kept the Humvee moving.

I
turned and headed south with Southard right behind me. As we moved farther away from the church, I kept one eye on the skies around us. I was half expecting a gunship to show up at any moment and blow us away. I swear I could almost hear the rotors of approaching helicopters.

“Got it,” said Spec-4.

She came up with a hand-full of wires.

“I cut power to the Blue Force.
So long as they don’t see us, we should be in the clear.”

“Do you think he was bluffing?”

“I hope so,” she replied.

We both jumped when the SINCGARS set crackled to life.

“Snakebite, this is Jackal. Do you read, over?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Snakebite, this is Jackal. Do you copy?”

“Snakebite, be advised we are fifteen, say again, one-five minutes from your location.
We are in-bound weapons hot and ready to extract. Do you copy, over?”

“We have fifteen minutes to be clear of this area,” I said, switching off the SINCGARS set.

I glanced back towards the church, half convinced I could already hear the approaching thump of rotors. In my mind, I could already see the faceless soldiers in protective suits as they closed in around us, weapons at the ready. I knew we had to get out of here or they’d be tossing our bodies on the pile with the others back at the abandoned base-camp. I couldn’t let that happen. Not for my friends…not for my family. We were out of options. Our choices were now limited to run or die. We had to survive, no matter the cost.

“Praise not the day until evening has come; a woman until she is burnt; a sword until it istried; a maiden until she is married; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has beendrunk.”

-
        
Viking Proverb

Fortunately, the road was clear enough that we made good time all the way the four-way stop. I think that it was Weaver Road. From there, we turned back to the east. This would take us out damned close to the library and well clear of the freeway. We would have to backtrack to get to the library, but we shouldn’t have any major population centers to clear this way.

This road was narrower than the last one, so navigation was a little bit trickier.
There were plenty of abandoned cars, but they were spaced out enough to get around them. There was no shortage of zombies, either. But at least they weren’t in groups. We saw a lot of zombies in ones and twos. I made sure to run over any I thought might be a threat to the Bronco.

“How much time before they arrive?” asked Spec-4.

“About ten minutes, I think.”

“Do you think we’re far enough away?”

“We should be,” I said. “I doubt they can see us from that distance. But when it gets closer to time for them to arrive, I think I’ll find a place to park. Nothing shows up better than movement.”

“True,” she said.
“If they’re looking for movement, they’ll definitely see the only two moving vehicles on the road.”

“I’m pretty confident that this thing can withstand zombies and small arms fire,” I said.
“But I really don’t want to test it against a missile.”

“We’d be dead,” she said
, matter-of-factly. “I’ve seen Up-armored Humvees taken out by an RPG
[16]
. Anti-vehicular missiles pack way more punch than that. If they send Apaches, they’re armed to take out tanks. We won’t even slow them down.”

“Good to know,” I said,
more than a little worried.

As we made it closer to the intersection that I was looking for, I could see an apartment complex on the right-hand side.
Based on previous encounters, I was pretty sure that it would be crawling with zombies. When we topped the last hill before the apartment complex, I could see the traffic jam of abandoned cars ahead of us. Unfortunately, I was right about the zombies. They were everywhere. There was no way we were getting through. I hit the brakes and started slowing down. Southard pulled up next to us and waved his hands in the air.

“What the fuck?” I co
uld see him saying.

I just pointed ahead of us and then motioned for him to go back the way we came.
He nodded understanding and I started backing up first. The area of road we were on was mercifully clear, so I had no problems backing up to the last side-road we’d passed. It went back north, which would bring us behind the library. I knew there weren’t any connecting roads, so if we were going to get through this way it would have to be over-land.

It was worth a shot.
I turned, heading up the side-road with Southard right on my heels. We drove through a very nice residential area of expensive homes. I didn’t see many zombies in this area. Most of the people who lived here could afford to go somewhere else when things got bad. They probably had houses in other states or vacation homes. I was lucky that my wife’s sister owned a home at the lake. The only vacation home I could afford on my salary is a tent.

The few zombies I did see looked like stragglers from the apartment complex.
None of them were dressed nice enough to own a home like one of these. The entire neighborhood was one big horseshoe. When I reached the back of it, I looked for the most likely spot to find a way through to the library. The houses were all surrounded with privacy fences and well-manicured lawns. A few of them looked like they spent more on landscaping than I earned a year.

I chose a big two story brick house with a brick driveway.
I turned down the driveway and drove down past the garage. I could see a very nice Lexus SUV in the driveway. They were pretty vehicles and they really did have four-wheel drive, but it wouldn’t last five minutes in actual off-road conditions. I had no need for luxury vehicles. I was in the business of survival. Surviving wasn’t about what was pretty. It was about what worked.

Southard stayed about a car-length behind me as I rounded the house and began driving through a well-manicured back lawn.
I steered well clear of the in-ground pool, and crossed the big backyard avoiding lawn furniture and decorations as I went. There was a wooden privacy fence around the back of the property line. I slowed down and nosed the vehicle up against the fence. I wasn’t particularly eager to go cashing through.

“Why not just smash through it?” asked Spec-4.

“What if there’s a ditch on the other side?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think of that.”

“Hang on,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

Before she could say anything, I hopped out of the Humvee and went to the fence.
Then I grabbed the top and jumped up to look over it. The other side was brush and wild grass. There were trees as well, but they were spaced well apart. Mostly, it was just over-grown fields, so I jumped down from the fence and climbed back into the vehicle. I glanced back towards Southard and saw a face appear in the back window of the house. It was only there for a second, but I knew I saw it.

“Whoa,” I said, surprised. “There’s someone in that house.”

“Are they stupid?” asked Spec-4. “They need to get the hell out of there before they become a zombie snack.”

“I’m gonna find out,” I said
, reaching for the door handle. “Cover me.”

Spec-4 popped the turret hatch and slid behind the M-249.
Then she worked the bolt on the weapon. I hopped back out the door and headed towards the house. Southard rolled down his window and looked at me.

“What the hell
?” he asked, confused.

“Thought I saw someone look out the window of the house,” I replied
, pointing.

“You sure it wasn’t a zombie?” asked the red-head.

I’d already forgotten her name. I had mentally begun referring to them as Big Red and Double-D. I wasn’t really planning on learning them, either.

“No,” I said
, shaking my head. “If it was a zombie, it probably would have tried to break out the window to get to us.”

“Maybe it was a smart zombie,” said Double-
D, vapidly.

Yeah, there was a reason I forgot their names.
Big Red wasn’t as bad, but the blonde was positively stupid. Becoming a zombie might actually improve her IQ. I considered a smart-assed reply, but I didn’t want to have to explain it to her. I settled for giving Southard a meaningful look followed by rolling my eyes. He just smiled and shrugged. Yeah, Chuck didn’t care how stupid she was. He wasn’t planning on discussing literature with her. She probably wouldn’t understand anything beyond Doctor Seuss, anyway.

I walked to the back door, a set of French Doors with lace curtains drawn closed.
Gingerly, I reached out and tried the handle. They were locked. From what I could see through the window, they were tied together with a thick cord, preventing it from being forced open. What the hell, I thought. Just for grins, I knocked. I wasn’t really expecting any kind of an answer.

“Go away, zombies,” said a voice from inside the house.

It sounded like an older woman.

“I’m not a zombie, ma’am,” I replied.
“I’m with the Sheriff’s Department.”

“Show me your badge,” was the
cautious reply.

I hooked my thumb under the badge and wiggled it at the window.
I wasn’t sure if she could see me or not, but what else could I do? I felt kind of like an idiot, but it must have worked. I saw the curtains move and the face of a woman that looked to be in her early sixties appeared. She looked healthy and fit, but more than a little tired.

“How am I supposed to know that you didn’t steal that off a dead body?”

Technically, she wasn’t far from wrong. I did get it from a dead man, but I didn’t steal it. He gave it to me
before
he died. It was a technicality, but I was sticking with it. Plus, there was the fact that I
really
was with the Sheriff’s Department.

“How about this,” I said, and took out my wallet.

I held up my department ID card to the glass. She squinted through the glass and then smiled at me.

“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place,” she said, smiling brightly and opened the door.
“How can I help you, Deputy? Grant, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied
, remembering my manners. “Wylie Grant.”

“I’m Madeline Chambers, but you can call me Maddie.”

“Ma’am, are you alone in the house?”

“Yes, I am.
My late husband has been dead for five years, now.”

“Ma’am, aren’t you worried about the zombies?”

“Well, young man,” she said, “of course I am. But I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Would you like to come with us?”

“To where?” she asked, smiling. “I don’t think the Evac-center’s still there.”

“It isn’t,” I assured her.

“Then where are you going?”

“We’ve been taking the survivors to the jail,” I said.
“We’ve got the place pretty well fortified and defensible. Besides, your windows aren’t even boarded up. If the zombies come, you won’t be able to stop them.”

“The glass is tempered,” she said, smiling. “It was my late husband’s idea. You can beat it with a baseball bat and it won’t break.”

“Nice,” I said. “But you still don’t have power or running water. We do.”

“I still have water,” she said.
“But the lights have been off since last night.”

“Ma’am, I can’t stay here much longer.
It won’t be long before a zombie comes back here and I’ll have to shoot it. That’ll attract even more. There are a few hundred of them just down the road from here.”

“Oh my,” she said. “Let me get my jacket.”

A tense moment later, she came back to the door and unlocked it. She was wearing a warm jacket and carrying an umbrella.

“I’m ready.”

More out of reflex than anything else, I held out my arm. She took it with a smile.

“Well, I’ll be
,” she said, smiling broadly. “I see you’re a real gentleman. And I thought the last of them died with my Harold.”

I can’t explain why I did it.
She just reminded me of my grandmother. She was a real lady, in every sense of the word. I was going to show her respect and I’d be damned if I let anyone say otherwise. She strolled towards the Humvee with me, like we were going out for tea. She wasn’t in any hurry and didn’t seem like the type of person who could be rushed.

“Ma’am,” I said. “We need to hurry.”

“Non-sense, there’s no reason whatsoever to have bad manners. If I’m going with you, it’ll be with my dignity intact.”

There was no point in arguing with her.
I walked her to the back door on the driver’s side and opened it for her. She held onto my forearm as I helped her into the car. Then I shut the door. I looked back at Southard, who was laughing so hard he was holding his sides.

He leaned out his window and said, “Don’t drive too fast, now.
Miss Daisy doesn’t like that.”

I flipped him off, where she couldn’t see me of course, and got back into the Humvee.
I could still see Southard cracking up in the mirror. I had the distinct feeling that I’d be hearing about this one for quite some time. I’m sure everyone at the jail would know before nightfall.

“Ma’am,” I said.
“This might get a little bumpy. We’re going off-road for a bit. I have to get to the library.”

“
This is kind of a bad time to check out a book, isn’t it?” she asked, scowling.

“Yes, ma’am, it is,” I replied, smiling.
“But the road is blocked and I have officers trapped inside it. I’m also going to have to drive through your fence.”

“You just do whatever you need to do, dear.
I’ll be just fine, back here.”

Spec-4 climbed back inside and sealed the hatch.
She gave Maddie a smile and crawled back into the front seat.

“Where are my manners,” I said.
“This is Chrissy Wilder. She’s with the National Guard, but she’s working with us at the moment.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” said Spec-4, smiling.

“You can call me Maddie, young lady.”

“The guy behind us is Deputy Charles Southard.
The two young ladies are….”

I thought better of using the nick-names I’d given them.

“Well, we just rescued them a little while ago,” I said. “I can’t remember their names.”