Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (45 page)

“Son of a bitch!” I shouted, kicking a clump of entrails off the roof.

Spec-4 didn’t say anything. She knew exactly why I was upset. I reached for the glove case at the small of my back, on my equipment belt. I took out a pair of latex gloves and put them on. Then I checked the action on the SAW. Just as I had feared, it was stuck. It was designed to take some pretty serious punishment, but I doubt the designers had falling zombies in mind when they built it. I couldn’t tell if it was bent or just jammed. All I knew right then was that it wasn’t working.

I took off my gloves and tossed them to the ground.
Then I climbed back down and headed for the driver’s door without another word. Spec-4 got back inside, but didn’t say anything. I slammed my fist onto the steering wheel a few times, and then started the engine.

“Wylie,” said Spec-4, her tone very subdued.
“I’m sorry I shot it. Please don’t be angry at me.”

Right about then, I felt like a complete ass.
I wasn’t mad at her. I’d just made her feel bad for no reason.

“I’m not mad at you.
You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I shot it and blew its brains all over the place.”

“Well, that wasn’t the problem,” I said, smiling. “The damage was done by the impact. There was already guts and blood all over the place. You didn’t do any of that.”

“I thought you were mad because I shot it,” she said, her voice still low.

“I probably would have shot it, myself.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Ok,” she said.

“Let’s get the Hel out of here,” I said, and pulled the locking lever on the door.

“Shouldn’t we let one of the others take point since we don’t have a turret?”

“Probably,” I said, “but I want to be the one who picks the route. I’ve had pretty good luck finding a way through and I’d feel better if I was trail blazing.”

“Yeah, the
Fair Grove guys haven’t done this before and Southard’s crazy,” she said, smiling.

“That’s true,” I agreed, “but I’m crazier.
I’ll get us through.”

I put the Humvee in gear and headed across the lot.
The other two fell into line right behind me. Sanders stayed up on the roof until we were back out on the street. I was glad to see he went back in on his own. He’d learned his lesson when the meth-heads shot him in the back. He was still pretty pissed off about that, too.

We had no way of knowing if we might run into an ambush at any point.
I knew there’d be other survivors out here, but we had no idea where they were or if they were friendly. I won’t refuse to help someone in need, but I’d walk over the corpse of anyone who tried to stop me from getting to my family. Even if I had to be the one that made them a corpse in the first place.

I headed across the railroad tracks and continued on south.
There were a few cars scattered along the road, but nothing I couldn’t go around. The part I was worried about was the grade school up ahead. I didn’t want to see a bunch of zombie children. They were once someone’s kids, no different than mine. I
really
didn’t want to shoot a kid, even if it was a zombie.

As we rolled up to the intersection, I did see a few kid zombies on the playground.
Thankfully, they were inside the chain-link fence and couldn’t get to us. I did my best not to even look at them and gripped the steering wheel like it was going to jump off the column and fly out the window. It must have shown on my face, because Spec-4 reached over and put her hand on mine.

“It’s ok.
Your kids are fine, remember? We’ll go get them and keep them safe. Let’s just finish this one and we’ll plan it out together.”

I couldn’t speak.
I was too choked up. The best I could do was nod in agreement and keep driving. We continued south a few blocks until we reached a four way stop sign. The road was mostly clear and there were only scattered zombies in the area. South looked to be my best option, so we continued.

I had to slow down as we approached a set of railroad tracks.
I remembered this particular crossing. They were rough. If you hit them too fast, you’d go airborne. In fact, there were drag marks on the asphalt on both sides of the tracks where people had done just that. No need to play
Zombie-Dukes of Hazzard
. It was better to play it safe. As it turned out, I was glad I did.

Just on the other side of the tracks hidden behind the hill, sat an overturned mini-truck.
It was one of those trucks that idiots lowered so far they nearly dragged the ground, even on level pavement. The kind that had no suspension left at all and could high-center on a pebble. From the looks of it, they’d been going too fast. They were probably running from zombies and topped the hill to find a guy on a motorcycle coming right at them. The wreckage was pretty bad.

The guy on the motorcycle was probably killed instantly.
There wasn’t much left of the bike or the rider. Anyone that survived from the truck had most likely been eaten. I could see a couple well chewed corpses lying to the side. They had mostly been stripped of flesh, leaving little more than a meaty skeleton with hair. It was disgusting to see.

“I’d rather eat a bullet than go through that,” I said.

“Me, too,” said Spec-4. “Promise me you’ll put a bullet in me if I get taken down.”

“I will if you will.”

“Deal,” she said. “Let’s just hope it never comes to that.”

We continued on in silence as I negotiated my way around the wreck.
I could see the back of the Kraft Plant and that the gates to their security fence were closed. There were even a few cars in the employee parking lot. The guard shack at the gate was empty, though. Something about the place just struck me as not quite right. I hit the brakes and started slowing down. I was almost even with the guard shack when I came to a complete stop.

“What’s up?” asked Spec-4.

“Just following my gut.”

I took a quick look around and didn’t see any zombies close enough to be a problem.
I was just about to get out when my radio came to life.

“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over,” said Southard.

“Cover me, Chuckles. I wanna check something out.”

“On it,” came the reply.

I stepped out my door and Spec-4 followed suit. We both brought up our weapons and kept them ready. The area was eerily silent. No movement, no sound, no anything. Nothing was jumping out at me, but I definitely felt like something wasn’t right.

“I don’t see anything,” said Spec-4.

I didn’t reply. I just kept looking around. I walked over to the gates to take a look. They were padlocked from the inside and the guard shacks were empty. Not even any signs of fighting. There were about a dozen vehicles of various models in the parking lot. No military vehicles, just civilian cars. I was just about to give up and head back to the Humvee when something caught my eye. The security light above the entrance was on.

“They still have power,” I said, pointing at the light.

“Do you think the grid came back online?”

“I doubt it.
I’m sure they have a generator.”

“Then there might be people inside,” she said.

“Maybe, but what I was thinking is that the coolers are still on and the food inside would be still good.”

“Should we check it out?”

I thought about it for a few seconds before I replied.

“No,” I said, finally.
“We have officers to rescue. If there’s anyone alive inside there, they’re in pretty good shape. We can afford to wait.”

I turned and headed back to the Humvee and my radio chirped.

“My battery’s dying. Can you grab me another one?”

“I didn’t bring any extras,” she replied.

“I’ll check my bag.”

We climbed back inside and locked the doors.
I grabbed my pack and pulled open the flap. It didn’t take me long to discover that I didn’t have another battery either.

“Damn it,” I grumbled.
“I can’t believe we didn’t bring extra batteries.”

Spec-4 keyed up her radio.

“Southard,” she said. “Do any of you guys have any extra radio batteries?”

“Wait one,” was the reply.

A few seconds passed before he transmitted again.

“Negative,” he said.
“I didn’t think to grab any and Sanders didn’t either.”

“Damn it!” I snapped, slamming my fist down on the steering wheel.

“We’ll just use my radio.”

“Let’s not.
Let me see your mic.”

She unclipped the mic from her vest and handed it to me.

“Listen up, guys,” I said. “We’re going to have to save our batteries. Let’s switch on the SINCGARS and get everyone on the same freq.”

“Copy that,” replied Sanders.

“What’s a SINCGARS?” asked Wells from the rear Humvee.

“It’s the radio built into the Humvee.
I’ll have Spec-4 talk everyone through power up and setting the frequency.”

I handed the mic back to Spec-4 and nodded to her.
I was planning on paying attention to her, as well. SINCGARS was new to me, too. We used the old AN/PRC
[18]
series systems when I was in the army. We called them Pricks because the “portable” part of the name was laughable. The damned things weighed a ton.

While Spec-4 went through the procedures for firing up and synching up our SINCGARS sets, I got moving again.
I didn’t want to sit still for too long, or we’d end up attracting every zombie in the area. I caught the gist of it as she explained in detail to the others. I might not be good at it, but I could do it in an emergency.

I looked left and checked the road.
It wasn’t going to be easy for us. There was a massive wreck at the railroad tracks just east of us. We weren’t going to get through that way. I knew I could go right instead, but that would take us back out to the main roads near a major intersection. Going that way would be a complete waste of time. So, I did what I really didn’t want to do. I turned into the parking lot to my left and turned around. I was going to have to backtrack and find another way through. I was already running through the map of Springfield that I had drawn in my head. We had some options, but not many. Right about then, Spec-4 handed me the mic to the SINCGARS.

“It’s working, Sarge,” she said, smiling.

“Good, just in time.”

I keyed up and transmitted.

“Can everyone hear me?”

“Good copy, here,” said Sanders.

“Yeah, we hear you,” said Wells.

“Excellent.
Turn off your handsets and save the batteries. We may need them later if we have to get out and search on foot.”

“Clear,” said Sanders.

“Done,” said Wells.

“Ok, folks,” I said.
“We’re gonna have to do a little backtracking. Our path is blocked so I’m going to find another way through.”

“Right behind you, Wylie,” said Wells.

“You lead, we’ll follow,” said Sanders.

“Stay on my six and try and keep up,” I said, chuckling.

“Make no mistake; it’s not revenge he's after. It's a reckoning.”

- Doc Holliday (Tombstone)

I skirted the mini-truck wreckage again and crossed the railroad tracks. Immediately on the other side of the tracks was a side street. It wasn’t a major through street, but I knew that it would take us to another north-south road that connected to Sunshine. I decided to try it. Even if it didn’t get us all the way to our goal, it was at least heading in the right direction.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered, making the turn.

It was a residential area without a lot of traffic. It was mostly clear and easy to navigate. It turned out to be a good choice because we made it to the next street without incident. It was a little more crowded, though. There were two churches right near the intersection. One was right next to us and the other about half a block down on the opposite side of the road. Both were crawling with zombies.

“Looks like a lot of people tried to find refuge in churches,” said Spec-4.

“Yeah, but it looks like God’s sitting this one out,” I replied.

I headed south, right into the heart of the zombie crowds.
I mashed the accelerator to the floor and stayed in the center of the road with the other vehicles right behind me. The bulk of the zombies were still in the church parking lots with a few milling around in the road. That would work to our advantage. By the time they made it out to the road with enough numbers to stop us, we would be well past them. At least, that was the plan.

I kept the wheel straight as I cut a bloody swath through the middle.
I blasted clear of the first group, but the second group was a little faster than I expected. I started hitting heavy resistance about fifty yards short of the intersection. I was starting to lose forward momentum from all of the impacts. I knew we weren’t going to make it and we were going to get mobbed.

Just as I was about to lose hope and grind to a halt, I heard the SAW on one of the vehicles behind me come to life.
It started spitting death into the crowd and cutting a swath through them. I glanced back long enough to see Sanders working his SAW with a big feral grin on his face. He was firing over the roof of our Humvee and the results were like watching a weed-eater take down tall grass.

He didn’t take them all down, but he did put down enough that I was able to force my way through the crowd.
As the last of them rolled off my bumper, I shot clear and into open road beyond the intersection. I glanced back and saw that both Humvees had made it through. Sanders was wasting no time and disappeared back inside.

“Thanks,
Cal,” I said into my mic.

“No prob,” he replied.
“I just thought you might need a hand.”

“It’s appreciated,” I said.

I continued on south until we were in sight of Sunshine. I could see a lot of vehicles in the road ahead. Since this was one of the busiest roads in town, I knew that it was going to be almost impassible. I didn’t need to go very far though. I was hoping that I could force an opening just big enough to let us through to the next side street.

“Alright, folks,” I said into the mic. “Let’s slow it down a bit.
Sunshine is bad and it looks like things are about to get interesting.”

“Copy,” said Sanders.

“On it,” said Wells.

I started slowing down as we got closer.
There was a multiple car collision in the intersection, but the parking lot of the pizza delivery place to my right was mostly empty. I slowed down and turned into the parking lot of the pizza place. The other entrance to the parking lot was on Sunshine and it just barely cleared the wreck. I wouldn’t be able to drive down Sunshine in either direction, but I should be able to get across into the parking lot of the bank across the street. Between us and the bank was a set of railroad tracks that crossed the road. Next to the bank was a McDonalds.

I could see about a dozen zombies in the McDonalds parking lot, but they were the least of my problems.
A crowd of at least a couple hundred zombies was moving our way from the west. The timing was going to be tricky, too. The leaders of the crowd were already at the road beside McDonalds, and that was the road I needed to take.

“This is gonna get ugly,” I said as I started across Sunshine.

Spec-4 didn’t reply, she just started getting her weapons ready.

“Holy Crap!” said Sanders.
“Look at all those damned zombies.”

I was about to reach for the mic to give him a smart-assed reply when inspiration struck me.
Instead of heading into the bank parking lot, I turned sharply and followed the railroad tracks.

“What the heck are you doing?” asked Spec-4.

“Avoiding zombies.”

We bounced onto the tracks and I used our wide wheelbase to our advantage.
I straddled the tracks and followed them. There weren’t any cars or zombies on the tracks. We could follow the tracks as long as we needed to, so long as we didn’t run into a train. It made the ride pretty rough, but we were clear. I kept the speed at about twenty five miles per hour, so I didn’t rattle the fillings out of my teeth.

“Well, I’ve never driven down this way before,” I said to Spec-4.

“I should hope not. If we run into a train, we’re toast.”

“Well, even if the zombies weren’t an issue this way would be pretty safe.
This is a spur and you very seldom see a train on this track. Now the track out on the end of Chestnut is a different story. I wouldn’t try this even now. I don’t think zombies can stop a train.”

“Probably not, but I’m willing to bet that it would do a number on a Humvee.”

“Safe bet. Let’s not find out.”

We crossed a couple small side streets and saw the backs of a lot of nice older houses.
If the ride hadn’t been so rough, it would have been a pleasant trip. As we got closer to Battlefield Road, I started getting nervous. This would be the moment of truth.

“We’re getting close to Battlefield and a lot of businesses,” I said.
“If we’re going to run into a horde, it’ll be soon.”

“Got it,” she replied.

We rode in silence for a few more minutes, until we could actually see the road up ahead. It was massively choked with cars and there were zombies everywhere, but the train tracks went
under
it. They might come after us, but we’d be clear before they got to us.

I pushed the accelerator a little harder, trying my damnedest to clear that bridge before they swarmed us.
I could see the other two vehicles behind me start to match my speed. It was going to be close. The first few zombies were just reaching the trail that ran parallel to the tracks when I made it to the bridge. A few overzealous zombies took the direct path off the side of the bridge, but their aim wasn’t as good as the last batch.

All three vehicles cleared the bridge without any zombies landing on us.
That was good news, since I didn’t want to lose any more of the SAW’s to raining corpses. If we were going to pull this off, we’d need the firepower. I didn’t slow down until we emerged from the trees and were approaching the next intersection. My plan was to stay on the tracks until we hit the parking lot at the old park.

The road that ran parallel to us on our right was mostly clear of cars, but there were still small groups of zombies here and there.
I was rapidly approaching the last road that crossed the tracks before the park when Murphy’s Law reared its ugly head. Dead ahead of us was a blockage of vehicles. I turned the wheels hard to the right, but we kept going straight. The wheel was sliding on the rail.

“Shit!” I hissed, cranking harder on the wheel.

With a dip and a big bounce, we caught traction and shot off of the rails and into the ditch. Behind me, the other vehicles were slowing down and following me. I was almost to the road when I heard gunshots and could hear them impacting with the door and the window right next to me.

“Son of a bitch,” I snarled. “Someone’s shooting at us!”

As I slid into the road, I turned hard to the left. Then I hit the brakes and screeched to a stop in the middle of the road. I turned and looked closer at the blockage in the road to my left. The cars weren’t crashed together. They’d been deliberately placed that way. It was a barricade and there were armed people behind it.

“Where’s
Henderson with his bullhorn when you need him?” mumbled Spec-4.

I couldn’t help but laugh.
I was trying to spot the shooters, but they were well concealed inside the barricade.

“Take the wheel,” I said to Spec-4, diving into the back seat.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” she replied, sliding into the driver’s seat.

“Who?
Me?” I asked, innocently. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Then I popped open the back door and slid out, keeping my head well below the top of the Humvee.
I glanced around quickly, but there weren’t any zombies within the immediate area. Sliding to my right and keeping my back to the vehicle, I positioned myself in front of the rear wheel. I didn’t know how good of a shot these guys might be, but I didn’t want to get shot in the foot.

“You know that’s exactly the kind of thing I meant when I said don’t do anything stupid,” she said.

Spec-4 was giving me a look like she wanted to shoot me, herself. I just flashed a smile and turned to peer over the edge of the roof. I was expecting a shot to ring out, but nothing happened. That was good, since I didn’t want to take a bullet to the face. Come to think of it, I didn’t want to take a bullet anywhere else either.

“We’re not here to fight you,” I yelled over the edge of the vehicle.

“Yeah, we’ve heard that one before,” answered a female sounding voice.

“Look, lady,” I called, “we weren’t even planning on stopping until you shot at us.”

“Then leave,” she responded.

“That’s fine,” I replied.
“Do you need anything before we go?”

“What?” answered the voice, surprise in the tone.

“What?” said Spec-4.

“Listen,” I said. “I don’t have time to sit here and chat.
We’re trying to rescue some of our officers.”

“Are you guys the Army?” yelled the voice.

“No ma’am,” I replied. “Sheriff’s Office.”

“Cops?
I thought you guys were all gone.”

“For the most part, we are,” I said.
“We’re trying to rescue survivors.”

I could hear more than one voice talking from behind the barricade, but I couldn’t make them out.
They seemed to be arguing. Finally, a second voice called out. This one sounded male, but younger.

“Bullshit,” he said.
“You just want us to come out so you can shoot us.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, kid.
You’re pretty low on my list of priorities.”

“Yeah, well screw you too,” the kid replied.

“How many of you are there?” I asked.

“Like we’re gonna tell you that,” said the kid.

“Listen, kid. Why don’t you let the adults talk right now? I’m trying to help you.”

“Why should we trust you?” asked the female voice.

“Well for one thing, if we wanted you dead we have the firepower to blast right through those cars. All three of these Humvees have heavy machine-guns on the roof.”

“Just try to get to them,” said the kid.
“I’ll bust a cap in the head of the first person who pops their head up.”

I turned my head and saw a knot of about ten zombies approaching from the north.
They were mostly
Shamblers
and not making much progress. They weren’t a threat to us yet, but I decided to use them to prove my point. Taking aim with my M-16, I let fly with a round from my M-203. The fragmentation grenade landed right where I aimed it and turned the crowd of
Shamblers
into flying pieces.

“Jesus Christ!” yelled the kid.

“Still think we couldn’t get you if we wanted to?”

“Well, that certainly got our attention,” answered the woman.

“Yeah, and the attention of every zombie within two miles. If you want to come with us, tell me how many of you there are.”

“There are four of us,” said the woman.
“We were heading out of town when we ran out of gas. We pushed a few cars together and tried to hold out.”

“Come on out and get in our Humvee.
We need to get moving. I wasn’t kidding when we said we were going to rescue some officers.”

“Mom,” said the boy.
“What if this is a trap?”

“Look kid,” I yelled.
“Either way, you guys will have to get the hell out of here. There are a few hundred zombies just up the road from here.”

“We’re coming out,” said the woman.

I watched as the woman emerged first, holding a lever action rifle at the ready. She had two small girls right behind her. They looked to be twins and no older than five or six. Behind her, a teenaged boy about fifteen came out holding a bolt action rifle at the ready. They started walking towards us, cautiously. All of them were wearing backpacks.