Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (34 page)

“He’s not in too bad of shape,” she replied. “He’ll mend. He’s going to hurt for a while, but nothing is broken and he hasn’t been bitten. At least not in any place I’ve seen.”

“Not in any place you haven’t seen, either,
” said Sergeant Daniels, defensively.

“That’s good, sir.
We need you up and mobile.”

“I hear that able bodied people are in pretty short supply,” he replied.

“Yeah,” said Spec-4. “We have more guns than hands to use them.”

“Well, at least we’re well armed,” he said.

“We’ve got food, ammo and guns,” I said. “But most of the people at the jail either can’t fight or don’t know how.”

“Who’s in charge?” asked Sergeant Daniels.

“That would be Wylie,” said Spec-4.

“Wylie?” asked Daniels, incredulously.
“You’re the highest rank we have? I guess that means it’s me, now.”

“Well, about that, sir,” I said.
“I kind of out-rank you, now.”

“How’s that?
” he asked, suddenly serious. “Did you promote yourself?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, avoiding the question.

“He’s the Sheriff, now,” said Spec-4, flashing me a wicked grin.

“What?” said Daniels.

“Well,” I stammered, glaring at Spec-4. “We found Sheriff Hawkins. He was dying. He gave me the badge and told me to keep it going. I tried to give it to Lieutenant Murdock, but he told me to keep it. He told me that I should keep leading people, since I’d been doing it since this all started. I’m not sure why.”

Daniels sat and digested this while I drove in silence.
We made it to the intersection of the outer road where it met Plainview. The intersection was completely blocked. There was an empty lot on my right that had once been a convenience store, so I turned into it. I wanted to go west on Plainview, but it was blocked for almost a hundred yards leading into the intersection.

I crossed the empty lot and
slid into the parking lot of the business behind it. I had to drive through the grass, but it was better than driving on the road. I bounced though the parking lot of a fraternal lodge and into the grass on the other side. Then I hopped a curb into a parking lot of an apartment building. That was nearly my undoing.

What I didn’t see was that there was a crowd of almost fifty zombies just past one of the apartment buildings.
I was almost on top of them before I even saw them. Fortunately, we were past the majority of the traffic. Southard saw it before I did and swerved out and into the road. He skidded around a parked lumber truck and continued west.

I slammed full on into the crowd of zombies.
It was almost like hitting a brick wall. Only the fact that I never took my foot off of the accelerator saved us. If I had, we would’ve ground to a halt, and they would have swarmed us. I managed to mangle about ten of them, before I knocked back a significant number of the others. I turned hard to the left and mashed the pedal to the floor.

There was a crunch and a metallic shriek as I broadsided a parked small pick-up.
I thought that I had done major damage to the Humvee, but it just kept going. The pick-up, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. I knocked it sideways and into a tree, almost flipping it over. Then it slowly rolled back the other way. It fell on the group of zombies that were attempting to recover and swarm the back of the fleeing Humvee.

Once again, blind luck had saved us.
If it had rolled sooner, we would have gotten stuck and swarmed with zombies. A hard bounce through the ditch and we were on Plainview, pulling in a few car lengths behind Southard. He slowed down and let us pass him as we climbed a hill. I waved at him as we went past him and he mouthed to me.

“Are you fucking crazy?”

“Yes, he is,” replied Spec-4, nodding emphatically.

As we topped the hill, I could see the gate to one of those “gated” communities on our left.
The gates were closed and I could see twenty or so well dressed zombies on the inside trying to force the gate open. I remember passing this place many times before, and the gates open inward. They weren’t going to be getting out any time soon. Beyond the gated community was a grade school. I silently prayed that it had been empty when the zombies came. I don’t think I could handle seeing a large crowd of small zombie children.

My plan was to
go back north once we cleared the elementary school. I could take the back roads most of the way across town, so long as I avoided the Catholic Church. I didn’t want to risk running into any teams left behind by the helicopters. Then I realized that I was almost where my in-laws lived, and I had promised my wife that I would check on them. I started re-drawing the map in my head.

It would be possible to continue on west through the little town of
Battlefield. Once through Battlefield, I could take back roads all the way around the western edge of town and avoid the majority the heavily infested areas. I could follow that almost to the jail, and I would be keeping a promise to my wife. Ok, new plan.

“We’re going to take
Plainview all the way to Battlefield,” I said.

“Why?” asked Spec-4.

“So we’ll completely avoid that church and the worst of the intersections,” I said, “and to fulfill a promise.”

“What’s that?” asked Daniels.

“I promised my wife that I’d check on her parents. I forgot all about it until I realized we were almost there. It’s on this road, just a little ways down. We’re going to drive right past it.”

“Are you stopping?” asked Spec-4.

“Only if it looks like they’re still there. My wife tried to get them to go with her to the lake and they refused to go. If they’re still there, it’s probably too late to save them. If the place looks barricaded, we might have a rescue to do. Are you up for a little firefight, Sarge?”

“You went out of your way, and risked your lives to come for us,” he replied.
“The least I can do is help you do the same for others.”

“You lead, I follow,” said Spec-4.

“Well, fiddlesticks,” said Maddie. “I’m not planning on getting out and walking, so I guess I’m in, too. Maybe you’d better give me a gun.”

“Do yo
u know how to use one?” I asked, glancing at her in surprise.

“Well, I’m sure that I’m a little rusty
,” she replied. “It’s been a while since my Harold and I went hunting together. We’ve hunted big game on four continents. I’ve shot moose in Canada, bear in Russia, wild hogs in Brazil and cape buffalo in Africa. I think I can handle a few zombies.”

“Maddie,” I said.
“You amaze me.”

“Nothing to it, Wylie,” she said.
“I was never a sit at home kind of girl. I don’t want something with a big kick to it. I’m not as sturdy as I used to be.”

“How are you with a pistol?” asked Spec-4.

“Good enough for government work,” said Maddie.

“Give her one of the Berettas,” I said. “Plus a few magazines of ammo.”

Maddie took the pistol and worked the slide. Then she checked the magazines, like a pro.

“Well, it’s heavier than my Walther was,” she said.
“But I think I can shoot it.”

“Where’s your Walther?” I asked, impressed.

“The bottom of the Amazon,” she replied. “Our boat almost sank and I lost it trying to shoot an anaconda.”

Sergeant Daniels was looking at Maddie with awe on his face.
This was a woman that had truly lived her life to the fullest. She was a wealth of knowledge and information. She was going to make a fantastic addition to our little group of survivors.

“Have you ever gone skydiving?” asked Daniels.

“Yes, once in Australia,” she replied. “I didn’t particularly care for the experience.”

We were approaching
Plainview and Scenic, at this point. Up ahead was a subdivision that I knew held quite a few houses. My wife and I had nearly bought a house there, a few years back. Suddenly, I was glad we hadn’t. It looked like a war zone. There were over-turned cars, burning houses, bodies laying everywhere and zombies in abundance.

Getting through was going to be tough.
I avoided the worst of the wreckage by driving up onto the sidewalk. But I had to drive over numerous bodies to do it, both animated and inanimate. Southard followed right behind me, and I could see the bodies bouncing as we passed over them. I felt bad for the ones that hadn’t been zombies, but not bad enough to risk getting stuck and eaten. I could see up ahead that there was a large crowd of zombies blocking the intersection. It was going to be tough busting through that.

“Can you cut me a hole in that horde with the 249?” I asked Spec-4.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she replied, grinning.

Spec-4 was up and into the turret in a flash.
She was becoming an expert in opening and closing that turret hatch. Seconds later, she was up and readying the M-249. I was closing within fifty yards when I heard the SAW began to chatter. She worked the weapon from side to side, cutting through them like a scythe.

While she didn’t get them all, she did weaken the line to the point that I could punch through without any problems.
Southard followed us right into the path she’d created. I felt the wheels slide a bit as I crunched over the wriggling corpses, but we kept traction and shot through. Once clear of the subdivision, it was a straight shot into the town of Battlefield. Just past the intersection, I saw a crowd of zombies gathered around a patrol cruiser. It was from the Battlefield Police Department. I could see that the window had been busted out and the group was feasting on the remains of the officer inside.

“Officer down,” I whispered, as we drove past it.

Only a couple of the zombies even looked up as we passed, but they went right back to their meal. I found that to be very disturbing. It reminded me of Discovery Channel documentaries that I liked to watch on wild animals. How lions would ignore other prey if they were eating, unless threatened. It just struck me as a perfect example of how there was nothing human left. It was all primitive instinct in the minds of the zombies. No higher thought. That was good for us, because it meant they were incapable of forming a plan. The thought of smart zombies scared the crap out of me.

I dodged another parked cruiser, this time a
county Charger. No officers were anywhere to be seen, and all four doors on the cruiser were open. I slowed down, almost to a stop. The gears in my head were spinning and I wanted to take a closer look before we continued on. Something about it just made my instincts scream.

“Why are you slowing down?” asked Spec-4.

“Notice anything odd about that Charger?”

“Not really, no,” she replied.

“Notice that all of the doors are open?”

“Yeah,” she said.
“So?”

“The car’s been stripped and there’s no blood or dropped weapons around the vehicle.”

“It was abandoned on purpose, not overran by zombies,” said Maddie.

“Correct,” I said, smiling. “I wonder if they’re still in the area.”

“How can we find out?” asked Sergeant Daniels.

“Well, I don’t want to hit the horn,” I said.
“It might get attention that we don’t want.”

“Try the radio,” suggested Spec-4.

“Good call,” I said.

Grabbing my mic, I keyed up.
“829 to any unit, do you copy? Over.”

There was nothing but static. I switched frequencies and tried again, with the same results.
I was about to repeat the process when Spec-4 hit me on the shoulder and pointed out the window.

“Look!” she said.

Just south of us was a house on the west side of the road. Close to twenty zombies were crowded around the front of the house. You could see that the house had been hastily barricaded. I could see wood covering the windows and the word “HELP” was painted on the roof in big white letters.

“Think that might be it?” asked Spec-4.

“Seems like as good a place as any to begin,” I said.

I
turned to the left and headed that direction. It was still a little ways away when Spec-4 cut in with the SAW. I noted that she was careful not to hit the front of the house. Still, it was damned effective against the ones that were at the back of the crowd and served to get the attention of the others.

“Watch the house!” I called out.

“Got it!” she yelled back. “I need another belt!”

Sergeant Daniels yanked open a can of 5.56mm ammo and handed her a fresh belt.
I heard her changing out the belt and realized that if we didn’t suppress the zombies quickly, we’d be overrun. I slammed on the brakes and screeched to a stop. Then I threw it into reverse and started to back away. I had to slam on the brakes immediately, to avoid hitting Southard.

Southard saw what I was trying to and tried to quickly back up.
He let the clutch out too fast and killed the engine. I was trapped. If I went forward, the lead zombies would climb the hood and reach Spec-4 while she was still changing the belt. If I stayed where I was, they would still be on us…only just a few seconds later. I had to make a decision right then, and make it work. Spec-4’s life depended on it.