Reavers (Z-Risen Series Book 4) (4 page)

Another pair of Zs left the building, and I couldn’t help but feel for our new friends, because this pair were dressed in newer looking street clothes, just like our new companions.

“Down!” I yelled at Steve.

He backed up a step and ducked, ripping the woman’s hand free of his shirt. He turned to find me advancing on them both.

The pipe wrench--an extension of my arm--swung around and caught the Z across the neck. Bones cracked and the rotter slipped to the ground in a heap. I leaned over and smashed her skull to pulp. Blood flew, and pink matter splattered the ground like puke.

Steve lifted his gun and shot at one of the two new Zs that moved on us, but shifted his aim at the last second.

“
Dude
,” I said.

“I know them,” Steve replied.

“
Knew
them,” I said.

“Fuck me, that’s Marquitz and the other one is Kenny. I liked Kenny,” he trailed off. “Maquitz was kind of a loud mouth.”

The first one went down with a crack to his skull. The gun boomed behind me a couple of times, but I was focused on my targets, and trusted these guys were at least good enough not to shoot me in the back.

That’s what adrenaline does to you: makes you forget that you’re in the line of fire. Or as Joel Kelly would have called it, a bone-headed move.

Steve found his guts and backed me up by advancing and shooting his former teammate. It was a beauty of a shot that snapped the Z’s head back and took him off his feet. Kenny and Marquitz were now just another pair of bodies.

When I turned to find out how Douglas was doing, I found Diane standing over a twice-dead corpse, smoking gun in hand. She pointed at me. I shrugged, ‘what’?

She pointed again, and I turned to find that all of the noise had attracted some unwanted attention. A bunch of shamblers left homes near the church and moved on our location. I took up my wrench to go to war but Diane called me back.

“This place is blown so we need to move on,” she called.

I nodded.

I reached out and helped Douglas off the ground. He felt over his limbs, face and neck. “Christ, thought I was a dead man.”

“You had ‘em,” I said, trying to sound encouraging.

Christy banged on the window and pointed at the opening opposite us. Two Zs had found us, and were already on the car. One of them moved fast. It went for the side of the SUV and then scrambled on top. Another fast-moving Z backed him up by moving around the rear of the vehicle.

“Oh fuck me running,” I said.  We were about to fight a pair of shufflers.

###

14:15 hours approximate

Location: Somewhere near Vista, CA

Shufflers aren’t your garden-variety Z, not by a long shot. They are smart, fast, and a total fucking anomaly. Bad enough the new world order was slow-moving dead people with an appetite for flesh. Shufflers--as I’d taken to calling them during one of our first engagements, due to their ability to skitter around like freaky crabs--knew how to work in groups, organize hordes and lead them into battle.

Joel and I had chased a fresh and young shuffler out of a camper only to have the bastard call for help. Stood in the middle of a damn water reservoir and shouted for his green-eyed pals to come save him.

It didn’t sound human; more like something an ape would scream if it could talk. Since then we’d run into few shufflers--just a few pissed-off ones who probably wondered if we tasted delicious.

“Kiiiiill,” the shuffler on top of the Escalade hissed.

Shufflers eyes didn’t exactly glow like light bulbs. More of a dull gleam, but they were always easy to pick out. This one’s were no different; his eyes were like something malevolent. The bastard leapt farther than a human could. I backed up a few feet to get room; also to get out of its path. The spritely Z hybrid landed on all fours and sprang for me.

I was already swinging when it leapt, but it got an arm up and took the impact. I hadn’t had a lot of time to get in a good blow, but it cracked smartly and the shuffler howled in pain, or rage.

I kicked out, but the shuffler batted my foot aside and did a damn good job of delivering a tackle.

In the months after the zombie fucking apocalypse, I’d become adept all all kinds of fighting. You couldn’t always count on a weapon, and Joel Kelly had taught me a thing or two. One of the first rules was not to get stuck under a Z.

I grabbed the shuffler’s sleeve, and then did a decent Judo flip by lifting my leg and using the shuffler’s momentum to send him sailing. He landed hard enough to crack bones, judging by the sound.

The second shuffler darted around the Escalade. Diane shot at him. A pair of rapid rounds stuck ground. Steve took a shot and caught the shuffler in the hip. It spun and fell in a heap, but was back on its feet in no time.

I rolled to my side and struggled to my feet. For the last few days I’d been running on very little sleep and way too much anxiety. Now it was like my body was shooting me the middle finger, because it refused to obey all of my commands. I was weak, that much was apparent. I hadn’t had enough to eat for days and now, what little energy I had was rapidly disappearing.

Diane shot at the shuffler, but it darted to the side and then flashed in toward me.

I lowered my chest and got an arm up, fist near my ear, to take the tackle. To the shuffler I must not have looked like much of a threat. Unfortunately for him, I once again used his momentum, and took the blow on the meaty part of my upper arm. Bones cracked in his collarbone and he hissed at me for a second time.

I threw a punch, but it went wide. The shuffler ducked and reached for me, grabbing at my shirt. It was probably a good thing I didn’t make contact. Punching a shuffler full force might have broken every bone in my hand.

I danced back, and lashed out a foot to catch him in the shoulder.

Diane shot again and rounds--probably hollow-point judging by the damage--punched into the shuffler’s chest, blowing chunks of flesh out of its back.

Douglas and Steve fought off the second shuffler, but it looked like it was too late. While these two jerkoffs had been keeping us busy, a small army of dead moved on us from the east and the west.

“In the car, we don’t have any time to waste,” Douglas called.

I slammed my wrench into the shuffler’s body, then kicked him as hard as I could. His ribcage crunched under my boot and he was on the ground.

Douglas and Steve pushed the shuffler away while Diane shot at him. Steve managed to get a blast in, but I wasn’t sure where the round went.

Douglas hustled to the driver’s seat while Diane grabbed my shirt and pulled. I turned and ran the few feet to the car, and then around the hood. Douglas hopped inside and managed to get the big SUV cranked over before I was to the door.

Steve provided backup while Diane slid into the back seat. I was close behind her, but guarded her entry.

Then, Steve did a stupid thing: he gave the shuffler he’d shot a quick salute with his middle finger as he backed into the cab and climbed into the passenger side. The car’s wheels were already spinning as it backed up.

The shuffler rolled to all fours and leapt. It grabbed Steve as he tried to close the door, and pulled him out. The second shuffler fell on him, and Steve screamed.

I lashed the wrench around and hit one in the side of the head, but there wasn’t a lot to my swing. The shuffler rolled to the side and hissed at me like a pissed-off cat.

Then a sight sent me scrambling after Diane into the back of the SUV. I slammed the door shut and felt like I was about to pass out. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought it was going to burst. Panic set in, but there was also a sense of doing something wrong. We couldn’t leave our guy behind.

Frosty wasn’t taking all of this very well. The dog practically leaped into my lap and growled at the window. Her paws scratched at the opening. Her body was completely tense, like she wanted to go out there and rip the shufflers a new one.

A horde of the dead, at least fifty strong, had arrived.

Diane howled in frustration while Steve screamed in pain. Blood arced into the air and chunks of flesh flew. Steve shot until he was empty, forcing us to back away, because he wasn’t aiming at any one thing in particular.

I reached for the door, because I wasn’t about to leave Steve behind, even though I knew he was already a dead man. Fucking monsters! I was going to take each one, give it a name, and then smash curb stomp them into the grave. Frosty would have my back.

Diane reached for me and pulled my shirtsleeve.

“We can’t do anything!” she yelled.

I shook her hand off, but Christy called for me as well, and her voice broke through my fog of rage.

There wasn’t really anything I could do and I knew it. That would be just the way to go: fighting off Zs, taking two shufflers to the ground, and me shot in the head by a man who was being devoured.

“We can’t leave him,” I said.

“Oh, fucking hell, it’s too late. He’s already bleeding out,” Diane said.

I grabbed Frosty around the collar and pulled her back, pushing her to the floor. The dog looked at me like she wanted to go out there and have the last word… that word being a few ripped out throats.

Steve fired one more time. Then his legs stopped scrabbling at the ground as the round punched into his head.

Douglas didn’t wait around to give a eulogy, and instead spun the Escalade hard to the left as he backed up. Gravel and dirt flew as he hit the gas. I held on, but kept my eyes glued to the shufflers who feasted on our companion.

At least he didn’t feel it. Steve was gone, along with half of his head. The gun still smoked where the barrel lay next to his temple.

###

34 – Bait and Switch

17:00 hours approximate

Location: Somewhere near Vista, CA

“What the hell just happened
?!” I practically yelled.

The SUV was quiet with the exception of Frosty’s soft growls as Douglas drove us across the dead town.

Diane stared outside, one hand on the window and the other on her sidearm.

Christy held my shaking hand. Frosty panted between us, so Christy put a hand on the dog’s head and tried to reassure her, but our mutt wasn’t interested in quiet time. She wanted to go back and kick some ass. I felt the same way, but I knew better.

A pair of shufflers, a checkpoint overrun. A full army of Zs. As far as days starting out, this was not a good one.

“They came out of nowhere,” Diane whispered.

“I thought you all were
good
at this shit. There were no tactics just now. You went in like they were expecting a church service. No over-watch, no respect for the dead’s need to rip us to shreds…” I trailed off.

Diane turned to answer, but choked back tears instead. Douglas put a hand on Diane’s shoulder. She shrugged it off and moved a half step away.

“That’s never happened before. We have these forward bases setup for a reason. Guys stay and keep watch while we make our runs. We leave them scattered but safe. How the zombies found them is weird,” Douglas said like he was reciting a report.

“Weird? Shufflers and Zs are the new order. You
never
get comfortable, you
never
let your guard down. That was a goddamn massacre, and I’m surprised any of us got out alive.”

I was fuming. Who were these fucking amateur hour rejects? I hadn’t seen such a cluster in a long time, and didn’t ever want to see another one. Maybe Christy and I would be safer on our own.

“Thank you, man, for saving us. I’m glad you held onto your wrench. Hell of a weapon,” Douglas said.

He roared through a dead stoplight, and then slowed a block later to hang a left. Cars had been pushed off the road, except for a huge multi-trailer fuel truck that was jackknifed and sitting over the median and sidewalk. Tubes ran out of holes punched in the top.

I caught sight of a couple of scavengers who ducked into a building when the Escalade passed. One guy wore a hoodie and carried an assault rifle; the other lifted a handgun and didn’t exactly aim it at us--it was more of a warning. Douglas sped on and soon we were past them.

“Not stopping for everyone, I see?” I asked.

“No time, and look at them. They’re well-armed, and probably not interested in our little pitch. I gotta be honest, if not for Diane coming across you both I would have just left you alone. Now I’m glad I didn’t, because you have some decent skills out there, my friend,” Douglas said.

“Steve’s fucking dead, and all you can talk about is shoulda coulda woulda. Christ, Douglas, we just lost a checkpoint and several men, including Steve,” Diane said.

I didn’t say a word, but couldn’t help but nod.

“The next checkpoint will be good, promise. We just left it yesterday. The boys at three delta had been alone for too long,” Douglas said, like he was reading from a script.

Was this fucking guy
on
something? If one of my friends had just been killed I would have been livid. I would have been looking for stuff to punch or shoot. When we lost the mercenaries at the hotel a month ago, I’d fought harder than I’d
ever
fought. I’d managed to toss a grenade at a truck and blow that thing and McQuinn’s army a new one.

But here we were, in a Cadillac Escalade, the pinnacle of modern excess, talking about how checkpoints would be okay. These guys didn’t get it. They had no damn clue.

“What’s the plan if the next checkpoint is also overrun? Why don’t you give me back my gun and some 9mm rounds if you have them? I’m not a great shot, but I can hold my own,” I said. “Christy too, she’s a crack shot.”

“You two just chill until we get to the base,” Douglas said.

I sighed in frustration. The thing was, I could get my pack from the back of the SUV
and there wasn’t much they could do about it, except wave guns around the already loaded vehicle.

“Know what’s really on my mind? That damn mushroom cloud. How long until the ash blows over us?”

Diane sat up and grabbed a small bag. She dug around and came up with something I hadn’t seen in a while: a functioning tablet. The tiny screen flickered to life as she paged through a number of notes.

“Here’s what happened,” she began. “That was a very small tactical nuke. They were designed for warfare, not for wiping out cities. What Bright Star has done is to begin gathering up the zombies with large noisemakers. They get them into one location and then they blow it up.

"Collateral damage for anything in the vicinity is bad. Get twenty miles out and with the wind blowing in the right direction, you wouldn’t even know a nuke had been set off. In this case, the bomb went off at a time when the winds were projected to be blowing west. That means that most fallout will float out over the ocean.”

“Fuckers,” I said.

“No, it’s actually not that bad. From what we’ve gathered, the type of weapons are airburst, so the amount of dust and debris is minimal, relatively speaking. It’s enough to cause some problems, but not enough to radiate all of California. As long as that debris is carried to sea we’ll be fine.”

“Where did you learn all of this?”

“We have communications gear and pick up Bright Star's signals.”

“Really? Aren’t those things encrypted?” I asked.

“Yes, but we have similar gear and simply tune into their channels. Enough gets out to tell us what happened.”

Sounded like a bunch of bullshit to me. Anyone hacking military encryption was a goddamn genius.

“What about the fish?” Christy asked.

“Where’d you get the iPad?” I asked.

A functioning tablet? Fuck the nuke, I wanted one of
those
.

“There will be some exposure to radiation for sea life, but the long-term effects can only be guessed at. Contrary to popular belief, when the Fukushima plant leaked radioactive material into the oceans, it wasn’t as bad as some speculated. But none of that matters now, does it?

"We are in the middle of the apocalypse. Eaten by zombies is a much more present fate than succumbing to radiation,” Diane concluded her little speech, in a monotone that just about bored me to sleep. The weird thing was that she rarely made eye contact, and often shifted her gaze if I tried to catch it.

She flicked through some kind of encyclopedia on the little screen, and handed the device to Christy.

“The tablet?” I asked.

“One of many. We have a large supply, as well as generators to keep things charged.”

“Tried to call anyone on a cell phone lately?” I asked, thinking of my parents.

“The cell networks have been completely disrupted. We have people working on it,” Diane said.

I practically snatched the tablet from Christy when she reached to hand it back to Diane. I hadn’t seen working technology like this in months. I spent a little time marveling at the display and the icons on the front page. I even started a game of Angry Birds out of nostalgia.

“Please don’t waste the battery,” Diane said.

I handed the tablet back with a grunt after I finished another level. “I need to get me one of those.”

“Maybe we can work something out,” she said.

“Fuck yeah. I’ll teach you all how to fight, how’s that sound?” I joked.

“We
know
how to fight, but we can always learn more,” Douglas said. “We’re almost there.”

The SUV took a right and pulled up a boulevard. It was getting dark out, so it was hard to make out the signs, but Douglas wisely didn’t turn on the headlights.

When we came in sight of an apartment complex with a huge closed gate, I wondered if we’d arrived at their base.

###