Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 2): Fighting the Hordes (8 page)

            "Jake!" I screamed.  "They are all going to blow up!"

            A dozen men started cussing furiously.  The Deathdealers were pulling away, again to lick their wounds.  They couldn't do many of those attacks.  That tactic might work with most groups they encountered, but we were too well armed.

            "Abandon the burning trucks!" Jake called.  "Form up the convoy, staggered.  We're going to make a run for it!"

            Olivia jumped behind the wheel and started her up. I handed the M60 up to Ralph, who secured it on the mount while I reloaded all of the ammo cans, including the empties.  We pulled out of the laager first, moving up to the bottom of the northbound on ramp.  Jake quickly pulled up behind us.  The remaining pickups were quick to respond, but the cargo trucks not so much.  One of them wouldn't start, so they abandoned it.

            "Hurry up!" he screamed.  Then to us, "Go!"

            We moved up the ramp slowly, holding back until everyone was in the formation.

            "What did he mean by staggered?" Olivia asked.

            "I haven't the foggiest," I said.  "No one tells us anything."

            The convoy formed up faster than I thought it could.  Soon we were barreling down the highway at 45 MPH and straight at a horde of excited zombies.  Our little battle got them all riled up.  They weren't running yet, but they were walking with extreme haste.  At least they were still on the other side of the bridge.

            The Deathdealers recovered and came after us.  They remained on the service road, passengers firing at us.  They zigzagged, changing speed, anything they could to keep from being shot, but we were still getting more than a few of them thanks to the crew-served weapons on the jeep and pickups.

            "Look up on top of the bridge," Olivia shouted over the wind.

            There was a single RTV in the middle of the bridge.  A man and woman were sitting there.  The woman was driving, and he was talking into a hand mike.  Was he their leader?  Was he directing their attacks?

            "Ralph, start shooting zombies!" I called.

            We were almost to the bridge, and we'd have to slow down if he couldn't thin them out quite a bit.  He swung the M60 around and opened up on them.  I could see where he was shooting thanks to the tracers.  Zombies were dropping in scores.

            I turned my attention to the Deathdealer's leader.  The jeep didn't have the smoothest ride, and that section of I-50 could use some work, but I lit them up.  They ducked at any rate.  Then they jumped on the RTV and took off eastward, going to our right.  I was willing to let him go, but Olivia growled and veered right.

            "Oh shit!" I cried, as we left the road, bumped across the bare earth, and hit the service road.  "What the hell?"

            "Cut off the head!" she said.  "Kill the snake!"

            Glancing back at the convoy, I saw Jake lead them under the bridge.  Then we went off the black top again, and Olivia took us up the embankment to the county road.  A second later we flew into the air, only to slam back to the ground right in front of the RTV.

            "Aaaiiee!" she screamed, as did the woman driving the RTV.

            They slammed into us, spinning us around and killing the engine.  Ralph and I were left sprawled, and Ralph was hanging half out of the jeep.  The Deathdealers both lifted Uzis, fury in their faces.

            "No!" Olivia cried, lifted her pistol, and shot the woman in the face.

            Ralph regained his feet and opened up on both of them, ripping them to pieces.  It was horrific to see what a M60 did to the human body up close and personal.  Bile rose in my throat, just before we were surrounded by more RTVs and motorcycles.

            "Get out of here!" I screamed.

            It was too late.  A big blonde guy grabbed Olivia and yanked her out of the driver's seat.  She flew a good ten feet, and her helmet came off upon impact with the ground.  Three others jumped on her as I aimed my AR15, but I was grabbed and pulled out before I could get a shot off.  Others piled into the jeep, dragging Ralph down even as he sprayed the area with M60 fire.

            Men kicked and punched me, until I stopped struggling.  I was barely conscious.  Then they dragged me to my knees, and another guy kicked me in the gut.  I puked.

            They dumped Ralph next to me a moment later, and then Olivia was dragged by her hair to my other side.  We were all battered and bloody, and I knew we were dead meat.  Our captors looked upon us with hate and fury.

            "You killed Nate and Sammy Jo, motherfuckers!" a big, long-haired guy shouted, all red-faced and fists clenched.  "I'm going to beat you to death!"

            "Aeeeiiiieee!" a few screamed to the north of us.

            Everyone turned to see zombies bearing down on us.  A few of the Deathdealers were already going down.  I reacted without thought.  Reaching down, I pulled my pistol, aimed at the big guy who wanted to beat us to death, and shot him in the head.  I guess Ralph and Olivia remembered they had pistols, because they started shooting, too.

            "Watch out for the walkers!" I called.  "To the jeep!"

            The Deathdealers, to their credit, didn't run away from the zombies.  They turned and attacked.  They forgot about us in doing so, since the zombies were even scarier than us.  I didn't mind being second in the scary department.  Still, a few of them turned on us.

            We shot them.

            Zombies were already at the jeep.  I pistol whipped the first to reach for me, before shooting the one behind him.  Then I thrust-kicked another in the chest to send him falling back into the others.  That gave me just enough time to jump into the jeep.  Olivia was in back, next to the M60 and struggling with a zombie holding her left wrist and trying to drag her back out of the jeep.

            I shot him in the face and he let go.  She plopped into the driver's seat, paused to shoot another zombie, and then started the jeep.  She put it into gear.

            "Wait for Ralph!" I screamed.  "Ralph!"

            Two zombies had him, pulling him away from us.  I scrambled into the back of the jeep, emptied my pistol into the zombies around him, and reached for him.  Ralph grabbed my hand.

            "Go, Olivia, go!"

            The jeep surged forward, plowing through more zombies.  That movement pulled Ralph out of the hands of the remaining zombies.  I heaved with all my might, and together we barely got him back inside.  Then Olivia cut sharply, sending us to the floor, me on bottom.

            "Almost there!" Olivia cried.  The jeep shuddered with every impact with a zombie.  They were all around us, reaching for us as we drove by.  "Shit!  Shit!  Shit!  I hate zombies!"

            I couldn't get out from under Ralph, who was battering me as he struggled to get to his feet in that crazy, bouncing jeep.  Olivia was driving and firing her pistol.

            "We're on the road!" she shouted.  "Hurry, get in your seats."

            We were still surrounded by zombies.  The jeep was jolted every time she plowed into one of the walkers.  Ralph finally gained his feet, manned the M60, and started clearing out a path before us.  I scrambled into the passenger seat, picked up an AR15 sitting on the floorboards, and started shooting as well.

            After my second magazine, we broke free of the zombie horde.

            Jake's Trailblazer and Mike's pickup were waiting for us, mowing down zombies to clear a path for us.  At first I was grateful and so thankful they'd come back to help us.  Then I realized if they hadn't, then we would've been free to go off on our own.

            "Well, that was fun," I gasped out, looking all around, feeling a little giddy.  "Not!"

Chapter 9

            It was dark when we finally reached Carson's city limits.  Jake stopped us atop a rise with a great view of the city.  I studied the city through a pair of binoculars, though it wasn't easy in the dark.  The sky was cloudy, threatening rain again, which just made it darker.

            "What does it look like?" Olivia asked.

            It was surreal looking at a city that I always knew as well-lit.  I could see abandoned vehicles on the roads, burnt out neighborhoods.  A downtown high rise was billowing smoke, but I couldn't see any flames.  Indeed, there were more than a dozen columns of smoke rising up from the dead city.

            "Dark," I said.  "But I see a quite a few fires.  It looks like Dante's Inferno in some places."  I lowered the binoculars to look at Olivia, grinning, "No, I've never read Dante."

            "Ha ha, you guys are hilarious," Ralph said.  "Any sign of life?"

            "Yes," I said.  "I see burning vehicles in three places."

            So there were people fighting each other down there.  Zombies didn't start fires.  I wasn't sure they were mentally able to start a fire.

            "Can you see the armory?" Olivia asked.  "It's on the other side of downtown."

            I knew about where it was located.  Downtown was shrouded in smoke, so I couldn't see past it.  Yet, there were no indications anything was burning on the other side of Carson's small downtown.  Small by New York and Chicago standards, that is.  I thought it was huge.

            A highway ran north-south just east of downtown, intersecting another highway running east-west along the southside.  Both of those highways were filled with abandoned cars and trucks.  We might be able to get through that mess in the jeep, but the bigger trucks probably wouldn't make it.  The quick and easy way out wasn't available.

            We were on a different highway that passed through the northern part of the city at a north-west – southeast angle.  Within the city, it also became cluttered with wrecks and abandoned vehicles.  So I studied the highway that circled around the city, which was locally called, The Loop.

            "Here comes our glorious leader," Ralph whispered.

            I noticed Olivia slanted a hostile look back at Jake.  Mike trotted up to join him.  No one had advised us, but I suspected Mike was second in command.  He obviously thought he was, and probably thought he should be in command.

            "What does it look like?" Jake asked.  "Can you see the armory from here?"

            "No," I said.  "It's on the other side of downtown," I said.  "I'm trying to figure out our best route, but with the darkness and smoke, it's a problem."

            Both Jake and Mike had binoculars, and we stood in front of the jeep looking the city over.  I pointed out a few trouble spots, and some possible obstacles.

            "Olivia, I think we'll have to take the Loop around to Cartwright," I said.

            She nodded, "I figured as much."

            Olivia was munching on a C-Ration, while wearing my helmet liner.  I didn't really like wearing a hat, much less a helmet.  She seemed adverse to a bare head.  And, she looked cute in the fiberglass helmet liner.  When a few crumbs fell from her mouth and went down into her cleavage, she pulled her shirt out and looked down.

            "Pigs," she muttered, noticing all of the guys watching her.

            I quickly looked away, face heating up.  Embarrassing, but I wasn't sure why.  I just didn't want her thinking badly of me.

            "Is that gunfire?" Ralph asked, perking up.  "I can barely hear it."

            He was right.  Someone was shooting between us and the city.  I suspected a survivor shooting at zombies, since it sounded like a single weapon.

            "How's your ammo holding out?" Mike asked.

            "We've used about half," Ralph said, sounding just a little uncertain.

            "Have you been changing out your barrel?" Mike continued.  "Are any of them burnt up and unusable?"

            "All three of mine are good."

            Mike turned to Jake.  "They're the only ones who didn't ruin at least one barrel.  Phil and Carl burned up all three of theirs."

            "Mother fuckers!  I told them to change the barrels out," Jake growled, eyes narrowing.  "I swear, I'm surrounded by idiots."

            They took our two spares for Phil and Carl.  Ralph and I both protested taking both.  Leave us at least one spare.  Others had a spare, and I suspected Mike's vehicle had two spares.  He would at least ensure his M60 gunner changed barrels.  Jake's vehicle had a .50 Cal mounted on it.  I knew they wouldn't admit it, but I suspected they took both of our spares because we were the outsiders and didn't care if we died.

            "Don't worry," Mike said as he left with both spares.  "You can have as many spares as you want from the armory."

            They also took inventory of our remaining ammo.  Jake and Mike checked all of the vehicles, and redistributed ammo as needed.  We lost three boxes of M60 and all but one box of the AR15 ammo.  The passenger side floorboard was covered with full 30-round magazines I'd been loading while on the road.  No one gave them a second look, so didn't take any.  All they seemed concerned about was boxes of ammo.

            "Win," Olivia whispered, glancing at the magazines before wagging her brows at me.

            I just grinned.

            "I'm surprised they didn’t take all of our food," Ralph grumbled.  "I have some spare underwear.  Do they want that too?"

            "You scored undies?" Olivia asked.  "How?  Where?  The Army Surplus store?"

            I saw the underwear, but I grabbed socks first and totally forgot about snagging a change of shorts.  So I felt more than a little foolish knowing I had a clean t-shirt and socks, but dirty underwear.  At least I wasn't the only one to fuck up like that.

            "Hey, our priorities were different.  You got a watch, I stuffed my pockets with underwear," Ralph said.