What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (2 page)

“
Colonel Frye,” I said, ice running through my voice. “You have not been honest with me. You have tried to play me from the minute you found out there were survivors here. You have acted magnanimous. You acted like you wanted to help, but you with held vital intelligence until it suited your own purpose. I will not allow you to continue to be a threat to me or my family.”

“
Victor, I did not…” He started. The red slashes in his aura already indicating that he was going to lie to me.

“
Frye. I don’t know what you’re about to say, but it’s a lie. I strongly advise you against testing me. You will lose that test, I promise you that.”

“
Mr. Tookes, We did…”

“
Josh.” I said as I pulled the hammer back on my pistol. It was an unnecessary step in a double action pistol, but significant in its message. “Josh, this is your last chance. If John sees my finger even quiver on this trigger, all of your men will die and we will gain several nice rifles, some functional body armor and six well outfitted Humvees. There really is no drawback to this for me.”

Frye stood up straight. “This conversation is over.” He said flatly as he started walking back to his truck.

“
That’s the first honest thing you’ve ever said to me, Frye. To all you men,” I said gesturing to the men in the trucks. “You are following a man who has lied to me, who has endangered my family and the lives of everyone living here. You are not welcome on my property as long as you follow him.” I added a pause, letting the idea of not following him sink in.

“
If you continue to work towards the Colonel’s interests, you are not welcome to within one mile of my property line. I claim the full area within six miles of where we stand. If I catch you within seven miles of this house neither I nor my men will not hesitate.”

Frye was the only one who spoke. “Tookes, you do not have domain, or the right to claim that much land.”

“
Frye, you keep operating under the assumption that the United States Government still exists, or that you have some authority because you’re wearing a uniform. I can claim that land because I can defend that land. I can claim it because that’s the amount of land required to feed the number of people in my care and I can claim it because there’s nothing you and your twelve soldiers can do about it.”

With that, Frye got in his truck and they all drove off, bouncing and hopping over the piles of rotten zombie corpses lying in the road. Each time a tire crossed a new zombie; they burst open like over-full bags of meat, exploding gore and bits of rotten flesh all over the trucks. The popping sound was enough to turn my stomach and the smell of fetid corpse was overwhelming. We needed to get this mess cleaned up quickly.

“
Holy shit Tookes!” said John. “You really pissed him off this time. What was all that cock swinging about?”

“
Every word he’s ever said to me was a lie or a manipulation. I’m not afraid of him, but I’m tired of playing the game by his rules. I thought I’d try my hand at changing the game.”

“
We need to have a staff meeting,” I said, “We’re low on supplies. We need ammunition, fuel and food and I have some ideas.”

Chapter 2
Fuel

Bookbinder met us coming down the drive way when we were halfway up the hill. We filled him in on the encounter with Frye while we walked up to the house.

“
Sir, may I speak freely?”

“
Of course you can, you can always speak freely around me Charlie,” I said.

“
I’m not sure that was a good idea, he represents a significant asset to us, if we are allies.” It was odd for Charlie to question me. I liked that he was feeling free to do so, but it was very out of character for him.

“
Charlie. He has to have known about that horde for days. We know he’s been watching this place. I know he’s been studying us. Hell, he watched me at the high school, listened to our radio conversation and didn’t lift a finger to help.”

I pulled a notebook and pen out of my shirt pocket and jotted down some ideas as I filled the others in on what we needed.

“
We’re low on every type of fuel. In Culpeper there’s a propane distribution plant. It’s the priority, we need propane today. We just used up the last of our diesel, but we don’t technically need diesel for a couple of days. Least important of the top priorities, we’re going to need some gasoline,” I said.

“
That doesn’t seem impossible,” said Charlie.

“
Oh, there’s always more,” I said. “After we fill up all the fuel tanks, then we head across town.”

Charlie started writing notes on his own pad as I continued, “On the north side of Culpeper there is a tractor trailer repair facility. It must be a hundred thousand square feet, you can’t miss it. It’s a gigantic steel building with somewhere around fifteen repair bays. That building is going to be full of tools and supplies. I know for a fact they have a tow truck with tools to do roadside repairs on big rigs. Then, if they can’t fix them on the road they can tow them back to the shop. I’m pretty sure there we can find supplies to fix the tires of the plow rig down on the highway. It’s got at least four blown tires.”

“
Do we really want to fix that one? We could just get a new one,” said Marshall.

“
It seems easier to strip the wheels off another truck and I like that one. I’d like to beef it up a little, build some protection for the tires and driver, but that truck is already halfway there. Seems silly to start over and have to source a new plow and new frame.”

“
Got it. Vic likes the old beat up truck that almost got him killed,” Marshall said.

Ignoring that last barb, I continued, “The third objective is to secure any medical equipment and supplies we can find. I’m not ready to go to the hospital yet, but there is a plastic surgery center in town and several drug stores. We’re going to need antibiotics and pain meds, but we’re also going to need cough syrup, aspirin, band aids, splints and casts. I want to clean one of those places out too.”

“
We’re gonna have a lot of competition for places like that from groups of survivors, mate,” said John. “Do we know if there are any other groups, besides Frye?”

“
I don’t know about any other groups, but I’d assume there are. Maybe at some point we leave a message somewhere with how to contact us,” said Leo.

“
That’s a good idea Leo. Maybe we could leave a radio and a note behind or something. If you need medical attention, go to the top of Cedar Mountain and broadcast at noon on channel twelve,” or something like that.”

“
I think it’s something to consider,” she replied.

“
Charlie,” I continued. “Regarding the medical equipment I’d like you to take charge of delegating to fire teams as you see fit. I’d like you to personally oversee the big rig repair facility, while the four of us go after the propane. The propane facility is half a mile from a minimum security prison; I’m worried about the number of zombies that could be in that facility. Without power holding the doors shut, it wouldn’t be too hard to get out of there. Plus securing that propane facility means we’ll be able to maintain ourselves throughout the winter, while we refit the property with wood stoves and repair the fireplaces. Two hundred years of progress since this house was built and we’re going back to the beginning.”

Charlie delegated M3; Leon Scott, Adam Jacobsen, Scott Humphries, Mark Shoenfeld and Gary Burbank to the CVS and M5; Shannon Johnson, Gordon Baker andrew Gallard, John Grieco, Kenneth Leuty to the plastic surgery center. M5 was to take the f350 crew cab dually and M3 was assigned a pair of Ford Explorers.

“
Charlie, tell me about Leon Scott and the two guys leading M5” I asked, wanting to get to know the men a little bit.

“
Leon is average height, about 5’10”. He’s strong and in good physical shape. He has five years active military and two years in the reserves. He’s been training his team pretty hard, they’re really coming together. I need them to get some field experience. The CVS should be relatively free of undead and there are several ways in and out of the parking lot.”

“
Good call there, Charlie. That’s why you’re a great leader,” I said.

“
Shannon Johnson is young; he was almost finished at the academy to be a state trooper when all this went down. He knows his way around a weapon and is a good, smart kid. I put Gordon Baker with him because Baker has 32 years experience as a law enforcement officer. He was a sergeant in the state police, when he retired. Anyone with that much time in law enforcement that’s only a sergeant either did something crooked or got in some sort of trouble.”

“
Can we trust baker? Do we trust someone with a crooked past?” I asked.

“
He’s a good man, but I think Shannon is the one to be making quick decisions. Baker is there to offer guidance and temper him. They also need some operational experience. Baker is in good shape and can still outrun half the people here, so he’s got some discipline.”

“
How long until the fire teams are ready to roll?” Marshall asked.

“
They’re gearing up now. They were on rotation to go out house clearing today. If we didn’t have any other orders, we were going by standing orders, secure useful items, keep food coming in, keep training.”

“
Ok, how about your team? We’re going to be spread out throughout the town. I have a special assignment for your team.”

“
We can be ready in five minutes, Sir, anytime, anywhere. What are your orders?”

“
I want you and your men to check out the State Police Barracks. This is a recon mission only, do not engage any hostiles, enter only if the area is clear and secure. I want their armory, I want their communications equipment, the FM transmitter on their roof plus all the radios in their cars, I want vests and automatic weapons and I want their SWAT truck. Your secondary mission is to provide backup to m3 or m5 as quickly as possible.” I said

“
As I see it,” I continued, changing the topic. “We have at least two major players in the area. I’m not certain about Frye; he could be up to anything, so I’m looking for any information on him, what he’s doing, where he’s going and how many people he has.”

Bookbinder asked “Do you think he’d attack us?”

“
I’m not sure. I’m not sure we have anything he needs and I don’t think he’s bloodthirsty, just slightly underhanded. I’m pretty certain I pissed him off though.”

“
You have a knack for that, ya dink,” said John with a grin.

“
Secondly, I believe a smart zombie had to have organized that huge horde of walkers we killed. If there is, he’s going to be pissed,” I said.

“
Once again,” started John.

I cut him off, before he could call me a ‘dink’ or a ‘drongo’ again. I think a ‘drongo’ is worse than a ‘dink,’ but I still haven’t quite nailed it down. “It’s now 9:30, the four of us will be ready to roll in an hour. I’d like for you, M1, M3 and M5 to roll before 10:00, so in case any of you need backup we can swing by on our way in,” I said to a nodding Charlie. “Stay in radio contact and try to conserve ammo. We’re getting low again unless you score something pretty major at the state police barracks, we need to stay fast and stay quiet, escaping attention.”

Charlie and I stood up and the rest of the table followed. We shook hands and Charlie left quickly with the mission notes we’d scribbled. He was a good man, I’m not sure I could handle all the details that he deals with.

The four of us left to go gather our gear. Bookbinder had his teams on constant alert. We were slightly more lax up here in the main house, something we should probably learn from him. It took me five minutes just to find clean socks. Soon after that I was geared up and ready. It took just over fifteen minutes. I rationalized that by telling myself if life depended on speed, I could wear dirty socks.

Since I had a few minutes, I used a few to play with Max, it was likely that I wouldn’t see him until after bedtime and I cherished my Max time. Today we worked on a puzzle with characters from the movie Cars and then played with his Buzz Lightyear and Woody action figures.

“
Daddy, I love you. If you see the army man again today, you shouldn’t talk to him. He’s very mad. Why’s he so mad?”

“
Well, he wasn’t honest with me, he lied. I believe he tried to hurt me, so I punched him in the nose,” I said plainly.

“
Daddy, we don’t hit friends, even mean friends,” scolded Max, his face very serious.

“
I know buddy. I made a bad decision; it wasn’t the right thing to do.” I said. “I have to go to work now and get some propane so Gramma can cook supper. I’ll be back tonight, but it won’t be until after your bedtime.