The Week of the Dead (34 page)

“There’s a huge pack up there. We tried to go around them, but there’s too many of them.” Devin clicked on a flashlight and placed it in his mouth. He went to the back of the SWAT van. He came back and handed Jamison, Ferret, Redbeard, Gavin, and Clint a tube-looking device.

“For those of you who don’t know what these are, it’s a goddamn grenade launcher. This is a grenade. You place it in the tube like this. You shoulder it to aim accurately. You have to arch it. The rest of you, I want with rifles to our six. Those fucks might come from the camp. Heard?” Devin commanded as he stood in line. There were seven humans armed against a battalion of snarling hungry creatures, including Jack and the woman who was crawling with her arms. They had seen the headlights and were coming for the rest of the party.

“Kill them all!” Erica said as she finally figured out how to close her action on the rifle in the dark.

“Fire!” Devin shouted. Those with launchers fired military and police single-shot M79 launchers. The rounds Devin found were a mix of incendiary rounds or tear gas. He didn’t read the label on the side before firing. After the first few grenades made quite an impact on the imposing force, Walker went to the back of the truck. He lifted up the tarp to find Raine who had her dagger ready to strike. “Hey! Cut that shit out! Hand me that big one, the one with the short barrel.” She did so.

Walker took the weapon to the rest of the men who were popping heads with single shot from rifles. Even Redbeard, in his fit of rage, was using a rifle. Walker clicked the safety off his weapon. Walker took the M32 grenade launcher and fired all the six rounds of the cylinder. The rest of them stopped firing and looked at Walker, who shrugged his shoulders and smiled. His yellow unbrushed teeth showed in the predawn morning.

After the smoke and gas had cleared, there were only fractions of what once remained. There was a noise of heat and air rushing from the campsite with a minimal booming that followed then another and another. The group then turned to the entrance of the camping ground. “Whatever comes our way is not friendly. Understand?” Devin said to those next to him.

“What was that?” someone asked. Jamison backed the truck up to face the campsite entrance. From the beam of the overhead lights, aimed by Raine, they saw bodies coming toward them.

First were the originally turned, who were faster. Then there were the freshly turned, including some of the civilians who weren’t lucky enough to escape the carnage from the children. Their skin had begun to turn gray, and their eyes were turning red. They were quickly taken down. After they hit the ground, there came two figures in Viking armor. Their armor made noise before they were noticed. Their eyes were illuminating red, and their body language was that of death on two legs. “Shit!” Erica said. She raised her weapon again.

“Hold,” Redbeard said as he placed his hand on Erica’s hot barrel. “They were good men. They deserve a good death, a Viking death.” Redbeard, Ferret, and Razor took up their shields and weapons. They recited in unison something to their adversaries coming toward them. The three men spoke the same words and ended with “May we find you in Valhalla!” The three Vikings stood and began clanging their weapons against their shields. The reanimated corpses of Tank and Malik trudged forward looking to feast on their still-living motorcycle group members.

“
Draugr
,” they called it, a Viking who had died and returned stronger and more powerful than when it was alive. Ferret and Razor took turns attacking the slow and groggy Tank while Redbeard eliminated Malik with one single blow to the top of the head. Redbeard continued clanging on his shield as Tank still remained. Razor distracted the reanimated Tank while Ferret took his shield and charged Tank’s massive body. Ferret was on top of Tank with the shield pinning him to the ground face down. With Tank immobilized with Ferret’s weight on top, Razor came alongside and connected Tank’s batons to his snarling head. Ferret held his eyes and mouth shut as Tank’s blood flew into the air. Ferret stood after the initial blunt-force trauma to Tank’s skull. Razor continued to beat Tank’s shattered cerebrum until there was nothing left. He let out a whimper as he fell to his knees.

A shot rang out as a small child fell motionless to Razor’s side. It was Faith. She held the smoking barrel. Clint came to her side. “If the option is still on the table, we’d like to go with you.” Devin nodded silently.

“Let us grab our things,” Clint said quietly.

“How many people can you fit inside your vehicle?” Devin asked. Clint simply let out a smirk. “What is it?” Devin asked as the little man ran to the woods.

Logs, branches, and leaves were thrown on top of the motionless bodies of Tank and Malik. Their armor was taken; weapons were recovered and placed in their hands. The bodies were carefully placed on their shields. Redbeard folded Malik’s glasses and placed them within his shirt pocket. Clint and his family were in the distance packing their things and loading it into a vehicle in the distance.

The remaining Vikings stood around the bodies under the pile of timber and leaves. “I started this group…,” Redbeard began. “As a symbol of morality in the world. A world full of depression and pain. We’ve all lost someone to extenuating circumstances.” He said as he squeezed Tara’s hand. “I only wanted good men to defend good people against the darkness that grows in this world.” He started to tear up.” I have good men, we have lost some, but we remain strong and vigilant.” His tone changed to reinforce his strength. “But we
shall
endure! With that, I send these two of my finest warriors to fight in Valhalla! Until the days of Ragnarok, we will fight the eternal battle!” The rest of the Vikings repeated “The eternal battle!” They raised jars of a liquid and toasted their dead companions. They moved the broken bodies of the wrecked motorcycles and put them next to the bodies. They stabbed the gas tanks of the useless motorcycle and flooded gasoline onto the pile.

Clint and his family had loaded up their belongings into their vehicle. When the engine came to life, the gutted mobile home came from behind the tree line. It was painted Cardinal Red with a giant pig face on the hood and a white “A” painted in cursive. The state of Arkansas was outlined in matching white along the side. The tail was a smoke pipe that was decorated like a pig’s tail. “What the ever-loving shit?” Devin asked. Faith was walking back to the road and passed by them. “My husband is a chef, what can I say? The fridge and the electronics work. I wanted to take my truck, but this was the long-term vehicle,” Faith said.

“What was your vehicle?” Erica asked. “We had an off-road vehicle with a tow winch and extra fuel tank and other nifty shit my husband bought. But we left it and made due,” Faith said as she guided her husband out of the camp with hand signals.

“Why didn’t you just sleep in that?” Erica asked.

“Wasn’t safe. Trees have better advantage,” Faith said simply.

They walked over the rest of the bodies. All the children were dead, again. There were shrapnel wounds in the trees and bodies lying on the ground. “That’s what those noises were. Tank must’ve set off some of the bombs before he died,” Jamison said. As they were looking over the bodies, they noticed the children were wearing matching shirts. “Must have been a field trip.” Jamison continued as he crushed one of their skulls with his boot. They looked over the bodies and severed heads to those who didn’t look dead. They also grabbed the weapons from those who had turned. They lost the old man who had the bolt action, the young pregnant girl, one of the nurses from the hospital, and a few more that Devin didn’t recognize. After everything was loaded back on the vehicles, Devin went back to Redbeard and Razor. “There’s no trace of that Billy guy. Guess he turned tail and ran,” Ferret said aloud.

“No body?” Walker asked.

“Nope, just the bush he was lying, and drag marks where his armor scrapped the ground. Guess he got scared. No blood trail,” Ferret responded.

“Billy! Get your ass back here!” Jamison shouted out in the open.

“Shut your shit!” Faith shouted. “We don’t want to attract any more attention!” she said in her quietest voice possible.

“Too bad about Billy. He gave us those weapons. Hope he’s OK,” Faith said.

“Ever seen any other humans around here?” Erica asked carrying the armload of weapons.

“A couple of vehicles, and then there were a couple of meth-head people. Couldn’t stop twitching or talking all weird. We figured they were high on something they found. Two of them turned and ate the third one. They were operating out of this camp, so we took care of them,” she said and then strolled away to meet her husband at the road. Clint came to the highway and left the mobile home running. Jamison handed him a radio and a box of shells.

Back at the pile of wood, Redbeard struck a match and ignited the wood. “Sorry guys, this is the best I could do,” Redbeard said as he set the flaming book of matches on the pyre. “We need to go.” The rest gasoline was siphoned out of the motorcycle tanks, and the vehicles rolled over what creatures remained on the road.

Sneaky Bastards

Chapter 70

Friday 0930 CST

Elizabethtown

P
hil drove the bus into Elizabethtown city limits. It looked the same as the other towns and colonies they had visited: destroyed and broken. Phil breathed a sigh of relief when he saw familiar vehicles. They were some of the ones that fled from the fort. “Hey, get up here!” Phil shouted over his shoulder.

Reynolds came rushing up followed by everyone else in the bus. They crowded around the driver seat looking at the gathering of cars and trucks. Phil rolled to a stop. Reynolds grabbed his radio. “This is Reynolds. Who’s in Elizabethtown? Over.” He stood in awe as there was no response from the speaker. Reynolds changed frequencies and tried again. No response to the first four channels. When he raised the radio again, he felt the vehicle lift off the ground and shift to the right with force as the wall of the bus came crashing in.

Reynolds found himself on his side. Staring through broken glass, he saw grass and trees at an awkward angle. He came to realize the bus was lying on its side. He looked around to find the other occupants scrambling to their feet. “Did we hit something?” Reynolds called out.

“More like something hit us,” Ethan said as he found his footing. He pulled Jenna up. He peered out of the emergency hatch that was facing the direction of whatever pushed them off the side of the road. The bus from the second seat to the fifth on the driver side had been smashed inward. The shattered glass littered the other side, which they were standing upon.

“The fuckers set a trap!” Ethan said as he pulled a weapon from the ground. He tossed it to Reynolds who checked the action of the weapon.

“What about the other cars?” Harrison said as he sat up. The grunting noise and screams from outside the bus were enough to answer his question. Through the back door, they watched as two Alphas tore through the automobiles with monstrous force. Reynolds picked up the radio. “This is Lieutenant Reynolds! We are in Elizabethtown! We are under attack! Repeat! Under attack! Our vehicle is compromised. We need assistance! Is anyone out there?” A bloody hand appeared through the emergency hatch. Ethan took this opportunity to fire a shotgun through the hatch.

Reynolds heard voices over the receiver. “Uh. Hello?” a voice said followed by military tone shouting into the radio. “This is Staff Sergeant Jamison! We almost to Elizabethtown! Two miles out! Coming to your aid! What is the situation?” He heard over the radio. “Hot damn! It’s good to hear from you! Sitrep, SNAFU! I repeat SNAFU! There are at least two Alphas, maybe more. We are holding up inside the bus. They knocked us into a ditch on the side of 65! Friendly numbers are sinking by the second. Small arms fire. Civilian weaponry. Over!” Jamison slammed on the brakes and looked at Walker who already had his vest packed with fresh magazines. “Let’s get to it!” Walker said, checking his rifle. Jamison got back on the radio using the same channel he just heard from Reynolds as it was also the radio channel his caravan was using. “Weapon readjustment. Everyone meet up at the truck. Caboose, meet me up here!” Jamison shouted on the radio.

CB Radio

Chapter 71

Friday 0925 CST

Elizabethtown

D
evin was chatting over the radio to his new companions. They reminisced about those who they had just lost at the campground. “Wesson family, Wesson family, your call sign is ‘Rolling Pig.’” That was Clint’s vehicle name.

“What did you do before the shit hit the fan?” Walker asked over the radio.

“I was a chef, a sushi chef. My wife was a teacher,” he responded quickly.

“What about you, Caboose?” he asked Devin.

“We worked in a junkyard. When it went down, we ran,” Devin said trying not to remind Erica about her dad and the rest of the crew they lost at the junkyard.

“So how do we know this guy is for real? How do we know he’s not some fucking weirdo in his mother’s basement?” Clint asked over the comm.

“We don’t, but it’s a lot better than your tree house hangout that’s burning down behind us,” Tara chimed in.

She was still upset about losing her brother and Malik. “That wasn’t our fault. We didn’t scout the whole fucking park. Besides, how do we know you didn’t lead them there?” Faith spoke instead of her husband.

“Kids, kids, can we all play nice until we get to the playground?” Walker said sharply, trying to keep the bullshit to a minimum.

“Heard,” Clint said.

“Got it,” Tara spoke.

“I just got word from the guy. He says it’s totally not his mother’s basement. And that we will be impressed with his setup. He said we can stay as long as we’re all cool and willing to work together for the betterment of mankind,” Erica said as she read off the cell phone.

“That sounds cheesy as shit!” Walker called.

“Under attack…vehicle…-mpromised! Assistance…- out there?” broke through the radio. Everyone listened as they heard this new voice from the radio.

“Uh…hello?” Clint asked.

Richard’s Plan