What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (22 page)

John jumped up on the things back, pulled out his pearl handled revolver and unloaded all six shots into the back of its skull. The first bullet nicked the skin. The second bullet impacted the first, driving it into its skull. The third bullet drove it further in, hammering the original bullet through the bone at the base of his head. The fourth and fifth bullets continued this process.

John fired the final shot as the creature lunged upwards, throwing him off its back and onto the old 1970
′
s veneered desk. The final bullet from the revolver pushed the first one through the base of the skull. The shattered remnants of the first bullet shredded t
he man’s brain. He fell to the ground, dead.

We all picked ourselves up and moved to the window. It was firmly set in the surrounding stone, and it was at least an inch thick.

“
No way we’re getting through that,” said Leo.

We started searching the place for a control room or some way to unlock the door. We didn’t see a single undead throughout the rest of the building; the giant super had put them all in the auditorium. Eventually we found a control room. It looked like something out of the old NASA tv footage days. Huge rows of computer work stations, gigantic screens along the front wall. One set of workstations was powered up, the cursor blinking at a command prompt.

I had a vague working knowledge of UNIX from ten years ago. When I first started with my company we had a couple of UNIX servers at work. I sat down at the prompt.

“
You guys look for a button or a control bank that might open the door. I’ll poke through here, unless one of you is a UNIX pro, we could be in trouble.”

The three of them spread out looking for any type of door control; I tried to remember the few commands I used to use.

[21:58:33][root@mountpony:~]$ PS1="[\$(date +%H%M)][\u@\h:\w]\$ "

[2159][root@mountpony:~]$_

The cursor blinked, I sat there dumbly, staring.

I typed ‘ls’ in on the antiquated keyboard.

[2159][root@mountpony:~]$ ls

accessctrl evironctrl bin mail

[2200][root@mountpony:~]$_

“
Maybe,” I thought. ”Maybe this could work.”

[2200][root@mountpony:~]$ cd accessctrl

[2201][root@mountpony:~]$ ls

exterior interior windows

“
Hey mates, found it!” yelled John from the room behind us. ”Door should be open.”

“
Thank God,” I thought to myself. ”Even if I found the controls; I still wasn’t sure how I’d figure out how to activate them.”

I’d exhausted the total of my UNIX knowledge and got up with a big grin on my face. We walked outside into the darkness and loaded up into the Jeeps.

“
Vic, we need to go home and get some sleep,” said Marshall, knowing I wanted to go straight after Frye.

“
It’s not far out of the way. I can drop you off on my way to Madison Wood Preservers,” I said. ”I’ve at least got to go check it out. They have my son. I can’t leave him there.”

“
Victor, you’re battered and exhausted. You can’t fight well in this shape. You’re going to need all your strength if you’re going to fight Frye.”

“
I’ll just go see if he’s there and what I can find out.” I replied. I was going, I don’t’ care if I was dead; nothing would keep me from my boy. “They’ve had him for two nights now, who knows what they could have done to him in that time. I at least have to find him.” I replied.

“
I’ll go, if it’s just a recon mission. We’re going to need backup if we take on Frye,” said John.

“
I’m in,” added Leo.

“
Alright, if tonight is recon only. I know you Vic. You always get what you want,” said Marshall.

“
That’s because I always know what to do big brother,” I grinned.

We all chuckled. This team, the four of us, could do anything. We fought and lived and loved like family. These relationships, the fact that every one of us trusts the other three with everything we are; the fact that we all know each other and we’ve been battle tested and battle proven, are what life is about. If there was a weak link in the team, I knew it was me.

We parked our Jeeps about half a mile from the lumberyard and got out to walk the last bit. We walked quietly, moving as a team. Marshall pulled up short and we all stopped moving. A few hundred yards ahead of us in the woods we heard voices. We stopped to listen to the voices. We heard several distinct people.

“
Do you really think he’d do that to us?” asked the first voice.

“
Remember Manning? Frye looked at him sideways and he keeled over dead.” said the second.

“
Guess we’re in the right place,” I whispered.

“
Bull shit, not even Tookes can do that,” said the original.

“
I heard Leo can turn invisible now. She can kill you without you ever seeing her.” Piped in a third voice.

“
Leo’s one thing, but John, last time I pulled watch on the farm I watched him drop a zed from a thousand yards with a twenty-two pistol.” a fourth voice said.

“
Bullshit Hampton, a twenty-two bullet won’t even go a thousand yards. That’s over half a mile,” said the first voice.

So, number four’s name was Hampton. He had a mid tone voice and virtually no accent to speak of, which meant he’d moved around a lot.

Hampton, sounding heated said, “I saw what I freakin’ saw.”

“
How do you know what caliber it was? Did you fish the bullet out of the zed?” Voice number two asked.

“
Doc, why the fuck do you gotta bust my balls?”

“
Number two is Doc. Number four is Hampton” I whispered.

“
None of them are as badass as Marshall,” a fifth voice said. I looked around. Marshall was gone.

“
Who is that?” asked voice number one.

“
Marshall, Tookes, Leo and John,” said Marshall stepping into their light. ”Leo is invisible behind you. Tookes is sitting behind a tree staring at all of you and John is three miles away with a fifty caliber rifle aimed at each of you.”

All five men stood up at once, dropped their weapons and put their hands on their heads. Leo and I walked a little ways into the camp, weapons drawn.

“
You boys made the right decision. Now we’re gonna have a little chat. Remember that John has all of you covered. Don’t move a muscle.” I said.

I chirped my radio “John, any of them breathe too deeply, you drill ‘em.”

“
Righto mate,” his response crackled.

“
Now, I know you’re Doc and you’re Hampton. What’s your name, son?”

“
John Rogers, Sir.”

“
And yours?” I asked, pointing at the third.

“
Frank Edwards.”

“
Alright. Now that we’re introduced we’re gonna have a little chat. When we’re done, we’re going to leave you fellows alive and you’re not going to tell Frye we had this conversation. If you do I’ll be forced to come back here and do really ugly things to you. Or maybe I’ll send John to kill you from a mile away. Do you know what a fifty caliber bullet does to your head from a mile and a half away? It explodes like a melon at a Gallagher show. You know that guy who hits fruit with that gigantic wooden sledgehammer? We can kill you from anywhere. We can kill you at any time. But we don’t have to do that; we might just wound you and let the zombies get you. I can come up with lots of really nasty things to do, and I’m motivated to do them.”

I paused for a minute to allow that to sink in.

“
Do you know why I’m motivated to do that? Do you know what would push me, a normally peaceful guy, to visit such extreme violence on you, or anyone who stands in my way?”

“
No, sir. Why?”

“
Because you have my fucking son!” I yelled.

“
No sir. We don’t have your son. He got away.”

“
When? Which way did he go?” I asked.

“
He went north. The night we took him, he escaped from our truck at Route 29. He ran north. We think he killed Greenwood. We lost coms with Greenwood and Valentine this afternoon. They were on a scouting mission north of where we lost him. They disappeared somewhere just south of that settlement at Reva.”

“
There’s a settlement in Reva?” I asked.

“
Yea, about thirty people. Well fortified, leader is an old woman named Goddell. She’s like you. She knows when people are lying. We think he’s in there, we’re getting ready to hit the place in the morning.” Edwards volunteered. “Frye really wants your boy. The zombies will do anything to get their hands on Max.”

“
What’s the fastest way to get there?” I asked.

“
29 to 663. Then hang a left on Reva Rd. Their settlement is just south of the town, you can’t miss it. Huge wood wall, maybe thirty feet tall, made of standing tree trunks.” He replied.

I keyed up my radio “John, cover these guys for ten more minutes. If they move, kill them. In ten minutes, catch up to us on 29 on the way to Reva. Can you still fly?”

“
Uhh, yea, mate. I can still uhh, fly.”

“
Marshall, Can you jump all the way to Reva carrying Leo and I?”

Marshall, standing behind the men, winked at me. ”Sure, but we gotta get out of these trees for takeoff.”

“
Alright, you guys stay here. Don’t move. John has you well covered. We’re going to go get my son. Then I’m coming back to kill Frye, and I’m gonna kill anything left here. Once your ten minutes are up, I suggest you fellas go awol and find yourselves a nice place to hide. I wouldn’t want to be in my way the next time I come here, if I were you.”

The four of us walked out of the woods and back to the Jeep. When we’d loaded up Leo looked at me. “What’s this about John flying? And what’s with Marshall jumping for miles while carrying us?”

“
I was just adding to the legend.” I replied with a chuckle.

Chapter 20
Goddell

Mrs. Goddell staggered back from Max’s intrusion into her head. She had been angry, she could remember that but she couldn’t remember why. All she could remember was this overwhelming feeling that Max was something to be protected at all costs. He was an amazing, beautiful, nice little boy and it was her job to take care of him and keep him safe.

She picked him up, holding him close to her breast and put her hand on the back of his head, rocking him gently.

“
It’s Ok, little Max. I’ll keep you safe here. Let’s get you into bed. You can have my room.”

“
Thank you, Mrs. Goddell,” Max said.

She carried him to the upstairs of the house and laid him down on the bed. ”You just sleep here Max, this is my bed, you can have it.”

Max rolled over in the bed, with his shoes still on, wondering what he’d done. He thought about it for less than a minute before falling fast asleep.

She left the room, shutting the door and setting the deadbolt. Goddell then trotted downstairs thinking about what a wonderful new gift had been delivered to her. She imagined Max growing up, teaching him about life and cooking and healing and all the knowledge she’d gained in her sixty-seven years on this earth. As she walked by each person in her mini society, she laid her hand on their shoulder and instructed them “
Protect Max at all costs.
”

The men were all used to this. She’d been controlling them this way since the morning after she was bitten. All they knew was that she walked by; put her hand on their shoulder and they were surrounded by a sense of calm and purpose. Their purpose had always previously been to protect the homestead and by extension, Mrs. Goddell.

She after she’d touched each soldier, she moved on to the civilians, the women and children. Each of them was instructed to take care of Max. ”Do not let harm come to him, do not let him out of the compound.”