Deadrise (22 page)

"Most of the military doctors were killed by the superzombies." Ron said, scratching his throat.

"What about the campus doctors?" Matt asked.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Jenkins didn't quite bark. "The deadfucks have pushed them back to the parking lot. As of right now the base and the campus are cut off from one another."

"We got word some F-16's are on their way from Hill Air Force Base with some napalm." Mac said. "They should be here any minute."

"We're getting the hell out of here." Matt said. "Right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jenkins asked. "You might as well stay another night. Rest up."

"No way. This whole place could be overrun any minute. We're not staying a second longer than necessary."

"The base is locked down. They won't let you out."

"We'll take the back way. City creek canyon road." Ron said. "You should come with us. We could use you."

"I don't know what the hell I should do." The turmoil was visible in Jenkins eyes. His loyalty to the base/hospital weighed against a chance to escape the zombie-infested city. His squad was dead. He had felt some attachment to them. But so many of his men had been killed since the plague first broke in Utah, so many new faces had rolled through that he purposely kept an emotional distance from them. But Ron and his family were another story altogether. He and Ron had been raiding partners since the beginning. Rick almost as long. Jenkins had no wife or children. But he cared for Ron and his family like his own.

"It's not a hard decision to make Jenkins." Matt said. "Look around." He motioned to the dead bodies lying in the street, killed earlier by a superzombie. "Listen to what's going on out there. This is your chance to get out. You may never get another one. Come with us."

Jenkins looked from Matt, to Ron, the main gate, and back to Matt.

"I'm in." he said softly.

"That’s my partner." Ron said with a laugh.

Ron took the wheel of the rig and Jenkins rode shotgun. Everyone else piled into the bus. Just as Matt was starting the bus the faint roar of a jet engine far in the distance could be heard.

"Here comes the cavalry." Rick said with glee…

Chapter 17

Saturday June 23 2001

Salt Lake City UT

3:40 PM

The two F-16 fighter-bombers out of Hill Air Force Base came in at an altitude of 3000 feet and airspeed of Mach 2. The pilot of Eagle -1 grinned at the sea of zombies pictured on his Heads Up Display. Just like a turkey shoot. The pilot of Eagle-1 was a veteran of Desert Storm and The Kosovo Conflict, so he knew a turkey shoot when he saw one. At 3 miles out he locked his targeting laser on the center of the zombie army.

"Targeting laser locked." he said into his mic.

"Copy Eagle-1. I have a fix. Over." Eagle-2 crackled back in his earpiece.

"Fire!" Eagle-1 gave the command at five miles out. A single laser guided Napalm Missile streaked away from both warplanes, leaving a thin exhaust trail. They followed the targeting laser precisely, exploding right in the center of the zombie horde. Hundreds were engulfed as the napalm cloud mushroomed out in a growing wall of liquid fire. Seconds later the jets roared overhead, banking hard right at two miles out to come around for another pass.

They were just coming out of the turn when the pilot of Eagle-1 saw a bright green beam of light flash beneath him, another one hundred yards to his starboard side. Eagle-2 exploded into a ball of fire.

Where the hell had that come from?

Eagle-1 scanned his Radar HUD…Blank. Suddenly another green beam flashed past not 20 feet to port. Another at fifteen feet! Another at ten! Eagle-1 swore under his breath and took his F-16 into a twisting defensive maneuver. But he was not fast enough and the next green beam clipped the tail end of Eagle-1. The pilot reached for the ejection lever but the tail end of the fighter exploded into a ball of flame, engulfing the entire jet.

At the front line, the cheering troops suddenly fell silent. As the fireballs faded into nothing the broken waves of zombies suddenly stiffened up and pressed the attack! As the tanks began to aim their cannon's a strange black aircraft passed overhead; it was smaller than most fighters, shaped like a flattened teardrop, smooth and polished with no visible source of propulsion. It banked around in a bootleg reverse and came to a hovering halt with its tip pointed right at Ft. Douglas’ main gate. The standoff lasted only a few seconds before a thick green ball of electric energy fired from the nose of the craft, striking the center tank at the gate. It exploded, taking with it two Humvees and twenty-five soldiers in the near vicinity. Before the remainder of the gate defenders could react the craft fired another energy beam from its tip, taking out the flamethrower tank and a dozen soldiers scrambling for cover. The ship turned north and rocketed away with a blur…

Chapter 18

Saturday June 23, 2001

Fort Douglas

Salt Lake City, UT

3:49 PM

"The gate has fallen! Zombies are breaching the perimeter! Repeat! The gate has fallen! Zombies have breached th..."
The radio went to static.

They were one hundred yards from the back gate that accessed City Creek Canyon Road when that last transmission crackled over the radio.

Up ahead, the gate was barred, blocked by a single M1A1 Abrams tanks with a Humvee and half a dozen troops for support. A guard stepped out from behind the tank and motioned for them to stop. He was clad in standard armor and armed with an M-16. Matt brought the bus to a halt and opened the door to admit the soldier.

"Sgt. Turner." Jenkins nodded to the soldier; a tall, square shouldered, weary eyed, middle-aged man with tousled blond hair and a craggy face.

"Sgt. Jenkins." the soldier saluted. "You've heard the news, haven't you?"

"If you mean the gate falling then yes."

"Then why are you leaving?" the Sergeant asked.

"You said it yourself Turner. The gate has fallen. Superzombies have already infiltrated the base and are wreaking havoc as we speak. The hospital is all but lost. I know when I am defeated. I'm getting out while the getting is good. You and your unit would be wise to do the same."

"You’re deserting?" the soldier seemed momentarily stunned.

"Is it really desertion when your only other option is suicide?" Matt asked. The soldier looked at Matt sharply but held his tongue.

"He's right." Jenkins said. "You can't win that fight back there. If you try, you'll all be killed."

"But this is all we've got." Sgt. Turner said. "Once its gone we're lost." he was already defeated. He had seen too much.

"Then stay and die!" Jenkins’s snapped. "But I'm not that stupid. We are leaving. Are you going to try and stop us?"

"No." Turner answered. "I'm not going to stop you. If I had any brains in my head I'd be going with you."

"Well if you change your mind we'll be at Rainbow Lake, near Kittewa."

"Got it." Turner said. He turned to leave the bus.

"You watch your ass out there Turner." Jenkins’s said.

"Same to you." Turner said. They gave each other a quick handshake and Turner left the bus. "Let 'em through!" he hollered, waving to the tank. It rolled to the side of the road and another soldier unlocked the steel gate, allowing them to pass.

"This road connects with Emigration canyon a few miles up." Jenkins said. "Then we backtrack down the canyon where it accesses Highway 186. A couple of miles south and we hit I-80 into Park City."

"Can we get a doctor for Zack in Park City?" Susan asked.

"I don't think that will be a problem. We've got plenty of loot to pay for one."

"What's it like up there?" Matt asked.

"I haven’t been there personally, but we had envoys down from Park City to assess the situation. They liked to talk about how good they had it. Because of their isolation and smaller summer population they were able to easily contain the outbreak. Their militia was well-armed and determined and better yet, most raiders were offered a home and the safety of the community in return for service."

"Why did the military stay up there?" Matt asked. "How come they weren't ordered down to help defend Douglas and the U?"

"They were ordered down." Jenkins said bitterly. "They ignored their orders. They knew things had finally fallen to shit. They had a good thing going right where they were. After just a few weeks the Park City leaders realized they were facing a refugee problem. They closed Kimball Junction and all other roads and highway's leading into Park City. Unless travelers had either good's or skill's to barter they were turned away. And within just a few weeks Park City became a stable, self supporting community while the rest of the world fell to shit."

"I can't believe the Governor just let them secede from the state like that."

"What could he do really? The Governor had enough on his hands keeping the state borders closed and containing the plague. Both of which proved impossible. But Park City’s civilian government handled the crisis relatively well, keeping panic to a minimum and organizing effective civilian work teams. They transported supplies, cleared wreckage, did construction, rounded up and burned dead zombies as well as dozens of other tasks that kept the community running smoothly. With a low spring population there were plenty of resources on hand for immediate survival. The surrounding valley has several farms, which are under the protection of the Park City military. They have well organized hunting and fishing parties as well as what they bring in from raiding."

"How do you know so much about them?"

"I told you, they had envoys down to Douglas and the U. They liked to talk about rebuilding civilization. That kind of talk gets around."

After a few mile's they came to the Emigration canyon junction and turned west, down the canyon. There were plenty of abandoned vehicles cluttering the road, but not nearly as congested as in the city, and they made their way down the canyon with relative ease. Along the way they came upon as man pedaling a mountain bike, a large black dog jogging alongside him.

Matt brought the bus to a halt and pulled the lever to open the doors. The man slowly drew his bike up to the door. He was a bald, wiry man, with leathered skin, sharp blue eyes and a nervous, but friendly smile. Zack pegged him anywhere from thirty-five to fifty. He was clad in work boots, blue jeans and a gray pullover shirt. The dog was a black Labrador.

"Name's Scott. Scott Bowen. This here's my dog Zeke." He spoke with a slight hint of the south. "Say hi Zeke." The dog gave a deep bark.

"Where you headed Scott?"

"Nowhere in particular. Just trying to get out of the city. Too many of those dead things."

"You’re more than welcome to come along with us." Matt offered. "We're headed for Park City and from there to a lake higher up."

"That's pretty far out of the city." Scott said and they both laughed. Matt decided right there that he liked the guy.

Zeke began barking furiously. They turned to see what had caught the dog's attention. He was expecting zombies, so when he saw the lion emerging from the tall grass of what used to be a public park he was a bit startled.

A Lion!

That was about the last thing he had expected. Two more of the big cats emerged from the grass behind the first, spread out over twenty feet. All three lacked manes, marking them as female, but no less dangerous as each of them stood three and a half feet tall and weighed over two hundred pounds.

"Get on the bus!" Matt snapped, waving him aboard.

Scott grabbed his bike and began up the entrance stairs. "Come on Zeke!" He called. The dog ceased barking and followed him onto the bus. Matt pulled the lever and the doors swung closed.

"The zoo isn't far. They must have escaped, or been set free." Jenkins said. He looked back at Scott. "I think they meant to have you for dinner."

"They weren't on me that long. Zeke just barely started barking." Zeke had hurried to a window on the bus where he gazed out at the trio of lion's, whining softly. Matt put the bus in gear and continued on.

"There's going to be a lot of stuff like that." David said. He turned away from the window and looked at Jenkins. "This ain't the only zoo in the country. All kinds of wild dangerous animals are going to be roaming free."

"You just touched the tip of the iceberg." Jenkins’s said. "Society has collapsed. And I'm not just talking here in Utah I'm talking globally. Utah was one of the last to get hit and we fell in less than two months. Try and imagine places like New York and Los Angeles or any big city around the world that's been overrun since the beginning..."

Silence fell over them and the small convoy continued down the canyon until it merged with the expressway that would in turn junction with Interstate-80 East. The expressway was scattered with abandoned vehicles and zombies. The going was slow, never more than 10 mph. Zombies bounced off the front of the bus or were ground beneath the wheels. They often had to push cars aside with the bus so the rig with its precious cargo could make it through undamaged. It was well into the evening by the time they reached the I-80 eastbound junction; it would be dark in less than an hour.