The Zombie Wars: The Enemy Within (White Flag Of The Dead Book 8) (2 page)

I kissed Sarah and placed a gentle hand on Aaron’s head. His eyes never opened as he continued with his bottle, his little mouth working to get as much in his belly as possible.

“Hey, you,” Sarah said.  “How did you meeting with Charlie go?”

I stretched and rolled my head back.  “Badly.”

“Oh, dear.  How many?”

“Forty-three,” I said quietly.

“Oh my God.  What happened?” Sarah shifted, and Aaron answered with a small burp, then he kept going.

“Ambushed from behind by a crowd of middle-schoolers. Nothing anyone could have done,” I said.  “We’ll be into Cedar Rapids tomorrow.”

Sarah nodded.  Then she turned her very green eyes on me.  “John, is this worth it?  I mean, I know you’re in this to make sure Jake and Aaron and all the other kids can grow up without looking over their shoulder all the time, but my god, if we take more losses like that, we won’t have an army.  And I don’t mean from death by zombie.”

I thought about it.  “It has to be, Sarah.  We have to be the ones to do it.  There’s no one else.  No one I know about, anyway. Besides, what happened today shouldn’t happen again.  We have a plan, and we’ll get it done.”

“How long will we be on the road?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, honestly.  “If I had another twenty thousand fighters, I would guess a year.  But with what we have now?  Maybe two, possibly three.” I looked carefully at Sarah.  “Are you wanting to head home?  If you are, just say so, and I’ll get a driver and an escort tomorrow to get you and the boys back to Starved Rock.”

“I didn’t say that,” Sarah said quickly. “My place is with you.  But I worry about bringing Jake and Aaron into the war.”

“Me, too.  But they are as safe here as anywhere, and I’d rather you were with me than at home.  There’s no one I’d rather have my back than you,” I said.

Sarah smiled. She shifted Aaron and held him to her shoulder.  A few small pats, and a very satisfied burp came from him.  I was always amazed that such a large sound could come from such a small person.  She rocked him gently, and I could see his eyes close and his body relax against his mother.

“I’ll put this guy to bed if you want to put the other one to bed as well,” Sarah said, moving to the front of the trailer to put Aaron in his crib.

“On my way.” I got up and walked back to the rear of the trailer where Jake had his bed.  There was room for a queen-sized bed back there, but since we didn’t need all that room, we put in a couple of storage units, and Jake slept on a bunk on the far wall.  His bed was attached to the top of two dressers, one that held his clothes, and the other his toys.  He was in the middle of the room playing with his cars when I came in.

“Bedtime, shorty,” I said, gathering up some of his toys.

“I’m not tired,” Jake said automatically.

“Don’t have to be; you just have to go to bed,” I said, just as automatically.

“Mmmm,” Jake grumbled as he climbed the little ladder to his bed. He tumbled into the bedding, covering himself with his blankets.  He curled into a ball and turned away from me, another way he expressed his displeasure with going to bed early. I leaned over, and kissed his head anyway for no other reason than to irritate him a little further. He hunched even deeper under the covers, and I left his room with a smile.

I put the rest of my gear away and made my way to the master bedroom.  It was a big room, even for a trailer, but it wasn’t the biggest I could have chosen.  There were trailers in our midst that had two floors for sleeping quarters—they were that big. I had no use for anything of that size, and by the time the boys were big enough to argue over separate rooms, I hoped to be living back at the lodge where they could have dozens of rooms to choose from.

I took off most of my clothing and settled into the bed next to Sarah.  I put my arms around her, and she slipped back into me, molding her body next to mine.  We lay like that for a long time, and I listened to her breathing become slow and more regular.  I was drifting off to sleep myself when I heard something quiet but insistent.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

I sighed.  Jake could be a big pain in the ass when it came to going to sleep.  Sometimes he played these games.  I was tempted to ignore him and let him figure it out when he did it again.

“Daddy!” It was a little louder, and he squeaked a little.  That was different.  I was fully awake now, and I could sense Sarah was as well.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah could likely feel the tension in me as I listened to the darkness.

“I don’t know. Watch Aaron.” I slipped out of bed and quickly put my jeans on.  I had no trouble facing danger without a shirt, but it was weird without pants of some sort. I tucked my Glock into the back pocket, grip inward for a quicker draw.  Some people liked reverse appendix carry, but I never was comfortable sweeping myself with my own gun.

I moved quietly down the trailer and into Jake’s room.  Jake was huddled into a ball under his covers, and I could tell he was nervous because he jumped when I touched him.

“Daddy?” the little mound whispered again.

“I’m here, Jake.  Daddy’s here.  Daddy’s got you.  What’s wrong?” I looked around and didn’t see anything that could have spooked him.

“I saw a man outside,” Jake said, pointing a little hand towards the windows at the rear of the trailer.  From Jake’s vantage point, he could see out the windows that he normally couldn’t when he was on the floor.

“Probably just a guard, Jake; they’re supposed to be there.  They keep us safe.”

“No! I seen his eyes!”

“His eyes, Jake? How could you see his eyes in the dark?” I asked.

“Shining eyes!” Jake said.

Aw, hell.  We had a zombie in the perimeter.  I scooped up Jake and brought him to the front of the trailer.

Sarah was waiting for us, and Jake slipped into her arms.  I answered the question in her eyes.

“Outside.  I’ll be a minute.  May have an unwanted guest,” I said.

“Please be careful,” Sarah said. She ran a hand over Jake’s hair while her other hand checked the proximity of her gun.  She liked the Glock 19 for fieldwork since we could swap mags and ammo, but for home defense she had her baby which was a stainless SIG X-5.  The gun fit her hand like a glove and had a sweet trigger. Sarah could hit a two-inch target all day long at forty yards with that gun.

I put my coat back on and put my Glock in the cabinet.  I couldn’t risk firing a gun with all the trailers that were around me, so I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.  I took out my pick and my bowie, hoping I’d not need either, but I had a feeling it was going to come to that.  I put on a long sleeve shirt and my vest, giving myself some protection against the cold. Boots and gloves came next, and then I was out the door.

I stepped away from the vehicle and circled wide to the rear, trying to figure out which way the zombie might have gone that Jake saw.  I didn’t doubt he saw something, and he had seen enough of the real thing to know it when he saw it.  I was grateful he had enough sense not to start screaming and draw the thing right to us.  As much as I hated hunting Z’s in the dark, this was preferable to having one of the stupid things bang on your trailer trying to get in.

The sky was overcast, and it was dark as hell.  Out in the wild, without any ground lights, it got very black. Things were quiet in the camp which explained why the zombie was just wandering through.  As far as he was concerned, I was sure, this was just a weird forest of metal that happened to be in his way.

I moved quietly around the trailer and looked at the area where Jake had seen his monster.  I didn’t bother checking for any tracks since hundreds of feet had passed this way. I thought about making some kind of noise, but I figured that would make me the subject of the hunt, not the zombie. I thought about where it might have gone when I heard someone laughing about a hundred feet from where I was.  Bingo.  If I heard it, the ghoul heard it, and he would go in that direction.  I moved quietly, keeping away from the trucks, trailers, and campers that covered the landscape.  I didn’t want to be surprised by a ghoul that suddenly came out from underneath a trailer or something.

Walked quietly, checking behind me, and searching for glowing eyes.  That was the only thing that made hunting zombies at night palatable.  Fun part was, not all of their eyes glowed.  Most of them, but not all.  Truth was, it was creepy as hell.

I listened carefully and thought I heard a sound further down the lane.  It sounded like a soft scrape on asphalt, and it was not repeated, like someone was trying to be quiet. I hoped to God they weren’t evolving enough to try sneaking up on people.  That would be just plain unfair.

I moved quietly, and ducking around a trailer, I got a glimpse of a dark shape moving silently through the encampment.  It moved slowly, glancing from side to side. I heard the laughter again, but this time it was behind me.  The zombie in front of me should have turned around, but he didn’t.

That wasn’t normal.  As I watched, the shape moved quietly towards a trailer and looked inside a window before moving on.  That wasn’t right either.  All evidence I was seeing was telling me this wasn’t a zombie, but a live person. 

I was about to challenge whoever they were when they suddenly turned around to check their back. I was between two trailers, so I just stepped back out of sight.  But I managed to see the man’s eyes, and that explained what Jake had seen.  The man was wearing some sort of goggles, and they glowed pale green in the night. 

Not something any of our men used. We’d tried night vision goggles before, but they were limited in what they could be used for, and the men preferred flashlights, anyway.

I moved around the other side of the trailer and up front as quickly as I could, trying to get in front of the man.  I wanted to stop him without killing him, since he was clearly not from our camp.  When I reached the point I wanted, I turned into the lane, and looked for the man to approach.   A quick glance, showed me…nothing.

Shit, he moved.  He didn’t come out my side, so he had to have gone out the other side.  I moved across the lane and through the line of RV’s on the other side. As I crossed to the other side, I ducked suddenly and rolled forward as a stabbing blade skimmed over my back. I jumped forward and spun around, facing the man with the glowing green eyes.  He was holding a long bladed knife and held it like he knew what to do with it. 

I shifted my bowie to my left hand while I lengthened the hold on my pick.  That gave me another ten inches of reach, and the move wasn’t lost on the intruder.  He stepped back and then jumped forward, his left hand reaching for my pick while his knife stabbed towards my throat. 

I wasn’t going to give up that easily.  I flipped my pick under his grasping hand and held it straight out, holding tight as he ran into the metal end with his mouth.  His knife never got closer than eight inches as he fell back holding his teeth. I swung low for his knee, and as he stepped back out of the way, I stopped the pick and jabbed it upwards again, connecting with the goggles on his face.  His head jerked back, and he ripped the eyepieces off, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

“Who are you?” I asked, waving my bowie back and forth.  My pick I kept between us, using it as a barrier against his attacks.

“We’re not here to hurt you; we’re here to clear the zombies away. Who are you?” I repeated.  The man stepped back and bumped against a trailer.

Suddenly, the man cut down viciously, and I easily blocked the attack with my handle.  The sharp blade cut deep, and stuck in the wood. I twisted the handle away, taking his weapon with it, and brought my knife to bear, but the man had already let go and was running away into the night.

“What the hell?” I asked out loud to nobody. I gave chase, but the man zigzagged through the encampment and out to the prairie. I let him go since I had no idea if he was alone, and I was loathe to raise a general alarm.  I started the long walk back to my trailer, and back by the first encounter, I knocked something with my feet.  Reaching down, I found it was the goggles the man had worn.  Apparently he had dropped them in his hurry to get away.

I went back to my trailer and stashed the items safely, figuring out what I wanted to do with them in the morning. I took Jake back to his bed, telling him he was a good boy for getting me, and yes, I did get the monster-guy. Sort of.

Sarah was relieved I was back safe and sound, and I told her I would talk to her about it in the morning. I tried to get some sleep, but it was a long time coming.

The next day, I took my pick with the knife still stuck on it and went over to Charlie’s trailer.  After the usual morning greetings, I showed Charlie my items and told him what had happened last night.  He was mad for a few reasons, not the least of which at me for not coming to see him last night.  The other thing he was mad about was the fact that our security was bad enough that a man had gotten through without so much as a challenge from anyone before he was wandering around the camp.  I didn’t bother to add that had it been a zombie we’d be in a world of crap right now with newly infected people to put down.

“Let’s deal with a few things first.  Get the burial crew going, and we’ll have our service this morning.  After that, let’s get the people in charge of security here, and we’ll talk to them as well. We have a city to retake, and this can wait till later,” I said.