Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (8 page)

“Those are bullet holes,” I explained. “She was shot numerous times in the chest and stomach. If my guess is correct, I would say that she was a victim of the firing squad.”

“Then how did she turn?” asked Elliott. “I thought she had to be bitten.”

“This wound on her arm looks like it might be a bite,” I said, pointing at a blackened hole in her right forearm. “She must have been bitten and whoever was doing the shooting put her against the wall and shot her. They must not have known that anyone that gets bit will turn.”

“What the hell kind of zombie was that, anyway?” asked Southard, still sweeping the interior with his weapon up.

“This…,” I said, shaking my head. “This is something new.”

“He
…he was just going to the bathroom,” said the voice of Becca behind me. “There was no warning. They waited until he came into the darkness and attacked him. They waited for him to come to them.”

“Since when do they do that?” asked Spec-4.

“They never have before,” said Southard.

“They ambushed him,” said Elliott, a touch of fear in his voice.

“These fucking things are getting smarter,” said Southard.

“That’s what I’m afraid of, too,” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s hope this is an isolated case and there aren’t more of these things around here.”

“Do you really thing that’s likely?” asked Southard.

“No,” I replied, softly. “I don’t.”

“So, what do we call these things?” asked Spec-4.

“
Stalkers
,” I replied, after a moment's thought. “We’ll call them
Stalkers
.”

“Let’s find those weapons and g
et out of here,” said Southard, glancing around nervously.

With that, we all headed back to our vehicles. The water from the spring was nearly up to the road but we had
a clear line of sight all the way to the bridge. It was intact, but looked like it had vehicles blocking it off. I took the opportunity to scan the area with the ACOG, but still didn’t see any other movement. I knew that the visitor’s center and store were on the other side of the bridge, as was the entrance to the POMCUS cache.

“We’ve got to find a way across that bridge,” I said, gesturing. “It’s blocked, but I think we can clear it.”

“Well, then,” said Southard. “Let’s get it done and get this show on the road.”

Once we were all safely inside
our vehicles, I took the lead and headed for the bridge. There were sawhorse style barricades on both ends of the bridge and two Park Ranger SUV’s parked nose-to-nose blocking the way. So long as there was no damage to the bridge, we wouldn’t have much trouble clearing it.

“Let another's wounds be your warning.”

-
                    
Njal's Saga

We made short work of the roadblock on the bridge. It was merely a matter of breaking out the windows on the SUV’s, then taking them out of gear. After that, it was easy to shove them out of the road. I had Spec-4 and Southard cover me while I walked across the bridge. I didn’t want any surprises when we were halfway across. With the swollen spring beneath the bridge, falling into it would be deadly.

Once I verified that there were no tripwires or traps on the bridge, the Humvees came across behind me. It was still unnerving to see nothing moving in the park. The Visitor’s Center and General Store looked to be intact, but there were no cars in the parking lot. In fact, there didn’t seem to be many vehicles in the park at all. They must have forced everyone to leave when they closed the park. That suited me just fine because it meant fewer
of the undead would be around.

Taking
the map out of my cargo pocket, I spread it out on the hood of my Humvee. Spec-4, Southard and Elliott joined me. Becca wouldn’t get out of the vehicle after what had happened to Jensen. I felt bad for Jensen, I really did…but he never should have gone wandering around by himself. I don’t care how bad he had to use the bathroom; he should have cleared it first. His own carelessness had gotten him killed, plain and simple.

Now granted, I was still going to miss
him. We would miss his firepower if the zombies come for us in any kind of numbers. Not that it looked like there were large numbers of zombies in the area, but the new ones had me worried. Either the
Stalkers
stayed hidden all the time, or they didn’t like the light. I hoped that they stayed hidden, because the thought of a large number of them coming out when the sun went down was something I really didn’t want to consider. There weren’t any structures in the area that we could defend. We had to get inside the POMCUS Cache, plain and simple.

There was too much glass in the Visitor’s Center/General Store and the bathrooms didn’t have doors. That
only left some apartments that the park employees used and the Fish Hatchery. Neither building could withstand a siege of the undead. Our only hope was in finding the POMCUS. If we could seal it from the inside, we could weather the night and fight our way clear in the morning. If not, then we were going to have to leave the area before dark.

After studying the map, we decided that the most likely place to start was a rather nondescript building that sat on the south side of the road between the Visitor’s Center and the Hatchery. It was a plain building about thirty feet square, made of limestone bricks and mortar. Someone had once told
me that the Government used it for Federal Prisoners to have short visits to the park.

I had never doubted the story, although I’d never seen the building in use, either. The
y kept the building well maintained, despite never having seen it occupied. I assumed that the park maintenance people kept it up, but I’d never really put much thought into it. It was just a plain little building that everyone ignored, which made it the perfect choice to hide something like a POMCUS Cache.

I realized that the cache had to be under the building, since it wasn’t big enough to house such a vast trove of weapons, vehicles and gear
. Folding the map up and slipping it back into my pocket, I consulted the little green notebook that held the access instructions. They began with an access code or combination to open a lock. We were going to have to get inside to find it.

We headed across the road, leaving Becca locked inside a Humvee. She refused to come out
, so we left her a radio and told her to watch for any signs of movement. Locked inside an up-armored Humvee, she was probably safer than we were. Even the
Stalkers
couldn’t rip through that kind of armor. At least, I hoped that they couldn’t. If they could, then we were in bigger trouble than I thought.

They had painted the
door to the little building brown to look like the wooden doors on all of the other buildings. However once you were close to it, you could clearly see that this was a reinforced steel door not wood. The glass in the windows was thicker than the glass we used in the jail. All in all, I couldn’t see any way that we were going to be breaking in without explosives. Even the windows around the building were of the same thick glass. Obviously, someone didn’t want uninvited guests inside.

The lock was heavy-duty and I held no illusions that any weapon I had on me would do more than damage it. I wasn’t going to break it with my knife and I didn’t have any armor piercing rounds that could punch through it. Bashing it down with a Humvee might work, but it would do a lot of damage to the vehicle. I wasn’t willing to take the chance on disabling one of our rides to get inside.

The only good thing was if we couldn’t get inside, then the dead couldn’t either. If we could gain access without taking out a wall, we had our place to shelter for the night. The clock was ticking and I was running low on ideas. We only had a few hours left until sundown. In less than an hour, I wanted to be either inside or clearing the area.

There was a rigid steel plate covering the actual locking mechanism, so the old credit
-card trick wouldn’t work. The lock was probably too stiff, anyway. The plate also kept me from using my knife. I didn’t have a set of lock picks and even if I did, I didn’t know how to use them. My options were quickly dwindling away.

“Well, if all else fails,” I said, “look for a key.”

We searched the area around the door for hidden keys in rocks, wood, bricks and everything else we could think of. If there was a hidden key, we couldn’t find it. I was seriously considering the Humvee option when an idea struck me like a bolt from the blue.

“We need some tools,” I said, smiling. “Everyone look around for anything that looks like a maintenance or tool shed. There’s bound to be one somewhere.”

It didn’t take long to identify a building near the Visitor’s Center. It was a plain brown building with a garage door. The sign in front that said “Maintenance” was a good indicator, as well. It had windows on one side and they appeared intact. If there hadn’t been anyone inside when the shit hit the fan, then there wouldn’t be any reason for the dead to be inside, either.

We fanned out in a line and headed for the building. I didn’t want any of us to be too close together. It would interfere with our ability to shoot effectively if we
ran into trouble. I kept Elliott close to me on my left with Spec-4 on my right. Southard was on the left end of the formation, covering Elliott’s other side. By unspoken agreement, we all kept an eye on him.

Fortunately, the locks on the maintenance building were nowhere near as
formidable as the ones on the cache. I used my hammer to smash the padlock on the side door and kicked it open. There was scattered light inside from two small windows, but mostly it was shadows and darkness.

I lit up my tactical light and
started scanning the interior. There was plenty of landscaping tools and a few toolboxes, but no sign of
Stalkers
or any other kind of dead. What I did see made me smile like a kid in a candy store. Against one wall was a set of tanks for a cutting torch. If they weren’t empty, I could cut my way into the building.

I inspected the dials and found the tanks to
be about half full. Grabbing a mask, a striker and the handle to the trolley that the tanks sat on, we headed back to the cache building. The sun was getting dangerously low in the sky, so I knew that time was of the essence.

Slipping the mask over my face, I adjusted the
airflow until I could hear the gas escaping. With a click of the striker, there was a loud pop and the torch lit up with a bright yellow flame that trailed curls of black smoke. Then I adjusted the feed until I had a concentrated flame that was a bright blue and hissed with a life of its own.

The azure flame made short work of the covering plate,
and then I concentrated on the locking mechanism. The lock had to have been made of a heavy alloy, because it took longer to cut through than I had expected. It could resist all it wanted, though. There was no stopping the intense heat of the cutting torch. Seconds later, the lock melted away and the door popped loose in the frame.

I could see the metal of the lock and frame were s
till glowing red hot, but the door was open. I swung the door outward and stepped back to let Spec-4 and Southard sweep it. There was no sign of movement from inside. While they went inside to sweep the interior of the small building, I shut down the torch and removed the mask.

“All clear,” called Spec-4.

“Clear,” echoed Southard.

After pushing the tanks aside, Elliott and I went into the building to have a look. There was a small office to the right of the door
. A short hallway led to four small bedrooms. Each room had two beds without sheets or blankets. There was also a small bathroom. Each bedroom had a small window that had no curtains. There were no windows in the bathroom. A sign on a locked steel door at the end of the hallway read, “Danger! Keep Out. Authorized Personnel Only.”

“Let’s get our gear inside and secure that door,” I said. “We don’t have much daylight left.”

We quickly headed out to the Humvees and brought in our gear. With some coaxing, we convinced Becca to come inside with us. Once we had all of our gear inside, I pulled the door shut and looked for a way to secure it. There was a knob and the turning mechanism for the deadbolt on the inside. Both were useless since I had cut through them to get us in.

There was
just enough light from the little windows to see by. We worked quickly and attached a rope to the door handle, and tied it off to the doorframe of the little office. With that pulled as tightly as we could make it, I pushed on the door with my shoulder. It gave more than I wanted so I thought I’d better add more to it. Southard and I put our heads together and came up with a better idea.

Opening the door, we looped rope around both corners and pulled it shut. This time, with rope tied around the corners and around the
handle, we were able to pull it tight enough that it wouldn’t budge. The door held firm against the combined weight of both of us. I hoped that it would be enough to keep out
Stalkers
or anything else that tried to get inside with us.

Spec-4 and Elliott had been busy, covering the windows. Becca was scared half to death and stayed in the little office, clutching her rifle. As they covered windows, the light began to ebb inside the hallway. More out of reflex than anything, I reached over and flipped the light switch. To our surprise, the soft fluorescent bulbs flickered and came to life.

“What the hell?” asked Southard, surprised. “The lights work.”

“Does the park still have power?” asked Elliott, hopefully.

“I doubt it,” I replied. “It’s more likely that the POMCUS has its own internal power supply. Probably from solar cells up on the edge of the valley.”

Elliott went to the small bathroom next to the bedrooms and turned on the water. We all looked up as we heard the sound of water gushing into the sink. We were all thrilled at the possibility of running water. A few moments later, Elliott leaned out from the door and smiled triumphantly.

“It’s hot!” he exclaimed.

“Is there a shower?” demanded Southard, grinning like a kid.

“Yes, there is,” replied Elliott.

“I’ve got first dibs!” shouted Southard.

“We’ll all get a turn in there,” I added. “But I say we let the ladies go first.”

“Fine,” muttered Southard, with mock sadness.

We’d been lucky to have running water in the Underground. It was great to be able to use a bathroom or wash yourself. However, we had to ration the hot water. Here, we could take a long hot shower for the first time since the zombies attacked. Even I couldn’t help but smile in anticipation of a long soak in a hot shower.

“I think we’ll rest in here tonight,” I said, smilin
g. “We can try to get into the cache in the morning.”

We covered all the windows with black plastic trash bags that we found in the little office and sealed it tight with duct tape. I wanted to be certain that no light escaped so we wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention. I only wished that there had been a place to park the Humvees out of the line of sight. If the
Stalkers
came sniffing around, then the Humvees shouldn’t hold their attention. If there was anyone living around, then the Humvees would stand out like a beacon.