Redemption of the Dead (31 page)

The squad leader checked in with all units through the
comm. link then said, “
Move
out. Cut down anything that moves. Try to keep civilians casualties
to a minimum. According to B-8, there is at least one survivor.
Hopefully they are indoors. If transformation occurs,
fire.
”

Billie
smiled at the mention of Joe. The poor guy had been left alone this
whole time.

“Copy that,”
she said and set the mech in motion. Bastian was on her side at
ground level, M-16 harness strapped over him, which enabled him to
carry the equivalent of four machine guns at once along with
streams of ammo to last all four plenty. Sven pulled out in front
of her in the Jetlier. She couldn’t see him because of the canopy
over the vehicle, but she was proud to envision him ready to go to
battle and help reclaim the Earth.

The other
squads moved out as well. Billie headed toward Portage Avenue. From
down here on the street, she saw how enormous the undead giants
truly were for the first time, around fifteen stories. They’d been
ordered to leave the giants alone as much as possible and focus on
clearing out the small ones. Two of the planes were going to come
in and try to shoot them down with a barrage of missiles. This
would wait, however, until most of the regular-sized dead were
destroyed so the units could move out of the attack zone and
minimize the risk of injury or fatality to the squads.

Crowds of the dead were gathered. Some
turned and looked at her with blank stares; others remained facing
the other way as if in some kind of trance.

“Now we send
you back to Hell,” Billie said and opened fire. The DK-14-P2-X—or
DK-14 as she called it for short—raised its arms. Alongside each
was a Gatling gun. She mashed down on the triggers and the guns
opened fire. A barrage of bullets went straight into the horde of
the dead in front of her. She tried aiming for their heads, but it
was easier said than done from inside the mech. The undead fell
down in waves before her, their bodies jerking and twitching at
rapid speed as they were riddled with bullets. Heads were blown off
some, simple shots, even ricochets hitting others in the skull.
Billie released the triggers and set the mech in motion to get
closer. The DK-14 rocked as it stepped on the bodies of the undead,
its shocks and balancing mechanisms kicking in to keep it from
tipping.

The vast
horde of the dead in front of her started moving toward them.
Bastian had opened fire beside her. Sven was shooting from inside
the Jetlier in complete rapid fire. Billie got to work and started
up the Gatlings again. The power of the DK-14 was unbridled. If
only they had something like this a year ago then maybe victory
would’ve been theirs and all the pain and torment wouldn’t have
happened.

Bullets
flew. Zombies were torn apart in shreds of flesh, bone,
brain—payback.

* * * *

The nonstop
cracks of gunfire sent everyone in the billiard room to the door
again. Joe couldn’t believe the sound. It was a cacophony of
gunshots, grenades, shouts and screams.

“It’s a warzone,” Tracy
said.

“Maybe it’s
a rescue mission,” he said, “or a liberation mission. I thought the
army was totally down.”

“They’re supposed to be,” Tracy
said.

Judging by
the immense amount of heavy gunfire and how, by the way the ground
started to shake, the giant zombies had gotten mobile again, he
worried the battle would come to their front door.

“Ears open at all times,” Dean
said.

“Agreed,”
Tracy replied.

“Just let me out and I’ll join them,”
Rob said and smacked his fist into his palm.

“No,” Joe
said, “we lay low as planned. We have to. You go out there, you’re
a dead man. Are you listening to this? I have to raise my voice
just so you can hear me. We stay here and if or when we have to
move, we stay together. We’ve lost enough people today
already.”

* * * *

30

Getting Out

B
illie’s squad
had
been the first dropped
off. Others were coming in, but due to space issues, they had to
land further away.

The Gatling
guns rattled the DK-14 as she fired. Every so often she’d stop,
take the mech over near a larger group of the dead and open fire
again.

The ground
shook as the giants started moving. One threw a fit and brought its
hands into the side of a building, wailing on it and bringing it
down, creating a whirlwind storm of dust and debris. One of the
others had stormed over to a line of ATVs that had been packed full
of guns and cannons, not caring if it stepped on its small
counterparts. It brought its foot down on an ATV and squashed it in
a violent smash of metal and explosion of flame. The giant’s foot
caught ablaze. As it stomped on the other ATVs, the vehicles
exploded, taking out men and zombie alike.

“We got to
keep on the move unless we meet the same fate,” Billie said into
the comm. “What’s the ETA on the bombers?”

“
Fourteen
minutes,
” came the squad
leader.

“Roger.”
Love
it.
She blasted away at the
dead, dismantling them bullet by bullet, skull by skull.

Peeking off to the side, she saw Sven
take the Jetlier up on a sidewalk and bulldoze a couple of rotters
before opening fire on a rank of them. When they started to swarm
his vehicle, her heart picked up pace, but he managed to turn it
around and get away.

One of the other platoons must’ve arrived because she saw a
crowd of them blasting machine
guns and hurling grenades while other mechs fought the
dead.

Bastian seemed to be having a heyday
beside her. She didn’t think he had stopped pulling the trigger
since he first opened fire.

Billie progressed forward then
suddenly tipped to the side when the ground shook the same time the
DK-14 stepped on a fallen body. The balancing systems prevented her
from falling over, thank goodness.

Signaling to
Bastian and Sven: “B-6, B-7, we’re going to back it up, go left,
then come in from the side. Copy?”

“
Yah.
”

“
Yah.
”

Billie turned the mech around and proceeded as
planned. A sudden boom rocked the
DK-14 and the entire unit pitched forward, sending her DK to the
ground face first.

Over the
comm., Bastian screamed then went into radio silence.

“
Bastian!
” It was
Sven.

Oh no,
Billie thought.
“Sven!”

“
Big
trouble
,” came his voice.
“
Bastian is . .
.
” His voice broke at the
end.

“Don’t get
out of the Jetlier, Sven. You can’t or—” The mech lifted off the
ground and Billie was suddenly airborne inside the cockpit, the
sudden change in inertia lifting her backside from the cushion;
even her hands and feet rose from where they were supposed to be.
Through the window, the brown and gray of the sky was changing
places with the pavement and—dark yellow of dead grass raced up to
meet her.

A
giant. Hate those,
she
thought.

Once again face first, she settled
herself back where she was supposed to be inside the
cockpit.

“Sven, do you copy?”

“
Use proper name
protocol, B-8,
” came the squad
leader.

A few
panicked screams came through the comm. right after.

“Bastian’s down,” she said, tears
welling in her eyes.

“
I
said
—”

“Shut up! Who cares about stupid
protocol? Someone just . . . died.”

“
We’re in a war, B-8.
Get used to it.
”

How could
anyone be so cold? Furious, Billie got to work manipulating the
controls so the mech could right itself and get moving again, all
the while checking in with “B-6” —Sven.

Finally he came through after she got the DK-14 upright.
“
Sorry, fräulein. I’m okay on
outside, but not inside.
”

“Oh Sv—
B-6
—I’m so sorry.” She
desperately wanted to give him a hug and take care of him so he
could grieve, but as she looked out the mech’s window, she couldn’t
see him. “Where are you, B-6?” No answer. More chatter came through
the comm. Another soldier was being eaten alive in front of her.
“B-6? B-6!”

Sven remained quiet.

* * * *

The entire
place was beginning to rattle. Joe and the others were gathered
around the pool table, each re-arming themselves. They were
well-stocked, no doubt about it. Everyone’s weapons were arranged
in their own square on the table. Joe had his .9mm and a belt full
of clips. Tracy the same. Dean had his glock, with a series of
magazines, but not in the same volume as Joe and Tracy. He stuffed
his pockets with them. Rob had a rifle, two boxes of bullets, and a
simple handgun, one he’d been carrying since all this began.
Unfortunately, he ran out of bullets for it a long time ago and
only hung onto it for sentimental reasons. Jessica didn’t have
anything, and so two of the pool cues were refashioned for her,
each having been broken in the middle, creating jagged points and
carved to be sharp and useable thanks to the knives at the
bar.

A loud, deep
boom made everyone pause for a moment before they finished loading
up.

Outside, the sounds of war increased
even more.

A loud explosion followed by a
thundering crash made everyone hold onto the edge of the pool
table. The ground shook and rumbled so bad that Jessica lost her
footing and fell; Rob slipped, too, but managed to retain his
balance.

More crashes
and booms until a violent crack echoed through the room. The
concrete wall by the door split, a giant jagged gash running from
floor to ceiling. Joe also noticed the boards against the door had
gone partly loose, some of them cracked as well.

Something
hit the building and crashed through the window upstairs, creating
a series of smacks and bangs as whatever came through bulldozed
everything in its path.

“Under the
pool table,” Rob said and went beneath it.

Joe figured might as well. If the
place came down, they’d be squished, but if only part of the
structure gave way, then having something above them to break the
impact could mean the difference between life and death.

* * * *

Outside, a
violent storm of dust erupted into the air several streets over
from where Billie shot the dead. The bombers had flown their first
pass and had taken two of the giants out, their enormous heads
exploding in a ghastly rain of bones, black blood, and gushes of
sloppy gray brain matter. Even from Billie’s distance, some of the
gore had landed on her mech. It didn’t stop the undead though.
Billie released the trigger and checked the ammo read-out on the
console. She was down by a quarter and she must’ve fired off
thousands of shots by now.

She turned
the DK-14 and caught sight of a pack of zombies in the lower corner
of her viewing window. Clunks and swats hit the mech as the undead
tried to climb up it, bite it, grab it. Billie pressed down on the
pedal and the mech started to move. Like a car, the harder she
pressed the faster it went. Her legs were in it like a pair of
stirrups that “rode” with the mech’s movement. Her readout said she
was doing about thirty. Most of the undead had let go. A couple
held on. One was on the Gatling gun. Billie raised the right arm
and opened fire, shredding the creature’s legs that hung over the
barrel. With the other arm, she wiped the half-torso off. The other
zombie she managed to shake after running the mech a block. She
backed up, stepped on its head, killing it.

She turned the DK-14 around and opened
fire, marching on, back into battle.

* * * *

When an
enormous crash from upstairs sent a chunk of the ceiling down and
just missing the pool table, Tracy was glad at Rob’s suggestion of
hiding out under here. She peeked out from beneath the side of the
table and, with a chunk of the ceiling missing, was able to see
into the restaurant above. Part of the front wall had come down
along with one of the support beams by the main door. Already a
thick cloud of dust had wafted into the restaurant and was sinking
into the billiard room. If it got too dense, she and the others
wouldn’t be able to breathe.

Dean already had his hand over his
mouth, using it as a filter.

The chalky taste of dust settled on Tracy’s tongue.
That was quick.

“We’re getting a move on,” Joe said.
“There’s a back door upstairs. I’m going to quickly check and if
there are no creatures, we climb and go, get some distance so we
can breathe. We won’t last long down here.”