What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (9 page)

“
Frye, condition two of my agreement. If I see any of your men, I am going to shoot them.”

“
Tookes, you’re going to need help. Even with your abilities, you can’t take on this many.”

“
If I need help, it’ll come from my own men.”

“
Ok, but I think you’re making a mistake. I’ll order my men to stand down.”

“
We’ll leave tonight Colonel. I’ll have your men back to you within 48 hours,” I said.

“
Let’s go get ready,” I said to my own team. “It appears we’re not going to get the day off.”

Chapter 7
Renee

The mood was somber sitting around the dining room table. Questions were flying and I had no answers.

John asked, “Tookes, why are we doing this?”

“
I don’t know. It’s the right thing to do.”

Marshall was next to ask, “Vic, how are we going to get them back to Culpeper?”

“
I’m thinking Buses.”

Leo chimed in, “Victor, how are we going to pull this off? Ten supers, four of us.”

“
Leo, I don’t know. Teamwork I suppose. Together we are more than we are apart. Guys, I don’t know how this is going to work. I know I have to do it.” I don’t know why I was afraid to tell them it was because Max told me so.

“
Charlie, we’re going to need your team.”

“
Sir, we’ll be there.”

Charlie had a look in his eyes like he thought I’d finally lost it. I knew the odds as well as he did. A well entrenched enemy playing defense can withstand an invading force at greater than ten to one odds. Look at Thermopylae. Seven thousand Spartans fought off 300,000 invaders. We were nine people, attempting to invade a secure top secret clearance level US government facility, being held by ten super human creatures and two hundred blood thirsty ghouls.

“
We have a few advantages. They don’t know we’re coming. We’re fast, strong, accurate and decisive. We are fighting for the survival of our species. They may be dug into that building, but this is our planet and this scientist may have the best chance of making us all immune to the bugs. Imagine what we could do if we were all immune.”

With that, I began to lay out our plan of attack. We spent the next four hours hashing out the details, much of which we spent bemoaning the lack of Google maps. Life was so much easier before all of this. It was the little things I missed, like being able to instantly pull up a satellite view of almost any place in the world.

With our plan in place, we broke from the table about 10:30 in the morning and headed off to try and sleep. It was going to be a long night; we were rolling out at 8pm.

I went down to the settler’s area at the old barn to check on Max. There were a handful of children here. One of the settlers, Nancy Frederickson had set up the old barn office as a school house. The kids were all playing in the riding ring. They were climbing on the horse jumps and using it like an obstacle course. Kids could have fun anywhere.

“
Ms. Frederickson, good morning.” I said as I walked up to where she was leaning against the fence.

“
Good morning Mr. Tookes. Max is such a delight!”

“
Please, just Tookes, or Victor.” I said.

“
Thank you. Thank you for what you’ve done here, thank you for making the children here have a sense of normalcy. That’s a huge contribution and one I’d like to support you in as fully as I can. In all honesty, we’re focused primarily on getting us through this winter and the early spring right now, but once we have enough food and energy stored to make it through a long winter, I want you to know that your school is very high on my list. Anything you need, I’ll do my very best to find. If we have anything here that you need to appropriate, feel free. I assume you’ve been through my mother’s library, but if there are specific topics you need books or materials for, I’ll do my best to find them for you.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Tookes. For everything you’re doing. I don’t know much about farming, so anything you can find that relates to a more agrarian lifestyle. Things like growing crops, canning, preserving food, horsemanship, we can use anything like that. My goal is to have these kids ready to help by spring planting time, even if it’s in small ways, every hand will help and there’s no learning like hands on learning. Even if that guy you’re going to save tonight can make us all immune, the population of the world has been decimated. It will be several generations before we’re able to return to a life like we had in the 1950's, let alone 2011.”

“
Nancy, I believe you’re absolutely right. I’m not sure that we as a people want to go back to where we were in 2011; maybe the next generations can do it better than we did. Maybe this is our chance to reset the planet. With all of the abandoned solar panels out there now and wind mills and hydro-electric power generation capabilities, maybe once we’ve destroyed these parasites, we can advance in harmony with the Earth, not trying to harness it. These kids are going to need a lot of knowledge. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”

We sat there in silence for a long time while I watched Max play. His baby blue aura made him stand out easily to me, even when he was hiding from the other kids in a game of hide and seek.

“
Hi Max. I’m proud of you.”
I said to him with my thoughts.

“
I’m proud of you too daddy,
” he replied.

“
Max, can you talk to anyone this way? Or is it just to me?
”

“
I like to talk with my mouth like everyone else.”

“
I do too, but this is nice if we are far apart. Do you know how far apart we can be and still talk?
”

“
I talked to Mr. John’s brother this morning. He was silly; he said it was night time there. He talks just like Mr. John.”

“
You did what? Where is John’s brother?” I asked.

“
He’s at Mr. John’s house with Mr. John’s kids and their mommy. It isn’t safe for them there, so I told them to go somewhere else. Mr. John is very worried about his family. Would it be OK if I told Mr. Sean to come here, Daddy?”

“
Max, it’s a long way. Remember when we got on an airplane to go see Papa at the beach? Mr. John’s family would have to be on a plane for a whole day. If you tell them to come here, it would be very dangerous for them. It might be better if we get them to some place safe where they are.”

“
OK Dad, I’ll tell them to go somewhere where it’s safe.” Max replied.

“
Max, do you know what we’re going to do tonight?”

“
I think so. I heard you talking to Miss Nancy, you’re going to go find a man who can make everyone like us?”

I briefly pondered how Max could have heard that. And what else he might have overheard, if his hearing is that good.

“
I’m going to try, yes. Do you know anything about this man? Or where were going?”

“
No. Only that the army man is sending you and he didn’t tell you everything.” Replied Max. ”He never tells everything.”

“
But you don’t know what he didn’t tell?”

“
No. He is hard to understand. He doesn’t see things like everyone else, he’s very mad all the time.”

“
Why is he so mad, Max?” I asked.

“
I don’t know, he just is. I think he’s always mad.”

“
Anything else I should know about tonight?”

“
I love you Daddy.”

“
I’ll always love you Maxmonster! You’re my favorite little boy.”

“
Dad, who’s Vern?”

“
Vern? I don’t know, where did you hear that name?”

“
Baby Haley’s mommy told me I should say “Hi Vern!” to you.

“
You talked to Aunt Renee? How is she? Where is she? What has she been doing?” I asked, particularly quickly before I remembered that Max was really just three and a half years old and didn’t know how huge that was.

“
She is good. They got in a car crash on the way here with some bad guys. Uncle Eddie got turned into a badguy when he went to help them. Aunt Renee killed him. Baby Haley and Maria are Ok, they had their buckles on. Aunt Renee has been trying to get them here, but there are too many bad guys between us.”

Holy shit! I thought. Renee and the kids were alive? They were stuck somewhere between here and Atlanta? I have to go get them. I need her here. Mom needs her, Marshall needs her, we all need her.

“
Max, you have to tell me if anyone else ever talks to you. When did you talk to Aunt Renee?”

“
Just last night Daddy, while I was asleep. I forgot to tell you at breakfast, sorry. I haven’t talked to anyone else.”

“
Ok son. I love you one million and nine. I’ll see you tomorrow OK? Be good for Gramma and brush your teeth tonight Ok? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“
OK, I will.”

I walked back up the hill a little ways, more confused than ever. He talked to John’s brother in Australia? How is that possible? Why does that seem less possible than the fact that I just had a whole conversation with him? How can he have a conversation with me in his mind and a conversation with someone else with his mouth at the same time? He was able to run and jump while we talked, but I had to stand there with my eyes closed and hold on to the fence. He is an amazing kid, I thought to myself as I walked up to my room to try and get a few hours sleep before we left.

After we got back from this particular run, Marshall and I would go get Renee. If Max could talk to her, I’d be able to find her. I’d never seen her aura, but if I got close I’m sure I could pick it out. Renee was my baby sister.

Chapter 8
Sporting Goods

At 8am, the four of us and M1 loaded up into four SUV’s. I caught myself oddly wishing that we could find matching uniforms and trucks. Of all the things I had to worry about, I was thinking about finding matching vehicles. Marshall had been out earlier to top them all off with gasoline out of our cans. This trip was going to cost us a fair amount of fuel and that was a limited resource. We needed to start acquiring diesel vehicles.

“
Get your head in the game, Tookes.” I said to myself out loud.

“
You OK, Vic?” asked Marshall

“
Yea; I had a conversation with Max this morning, he doesn’t think Frye told us everything, but neither of us knows what he left out. I could tell Frye didn’t lie to me at all, which means he’s left something out, but I specifically asked him if he told me everything and he didn’t lie when he said he did.” I replied.

We drove through an eerily quiet Culpeper. We were driving about forty miles per hour, saving fuel and trying to make as little noise as possible. It’s astounding how much noise we’re used to, four months later it’s still odd not to hear it. I wondered it Max would ever remember the hustle and bustle of everyday life before zombies. I kind of hoped not. There were a lot of things I missed, but I was looking forward to this life when this all settled down.

Building the wall was an exciting idea. I’d been mulling it over in the back of my mind; I used the first part of the trip tonight working it out in my head. It kept me from dwelling too much on what we were going to do and kept my nerves in check. The trick to me was to build in phases. If we could mine and transport 16 cubic foot blocks, 48 inches square, I think they’d weigh about a ton each. That’s about the lifting limit of our equipment and more than enough to stop anything the zeds could throw against it. Renee would know what kind of footers we’d need. She’d know how to mix the concrete we’d need, how to transport all of this. She is the key to building this wall.

I hadn’t told Marshall that she was still alive; I didn’t want him to be as distracted as I was. For this mission, we had four key objectives. First, we needed ammunition and magazines. In Warrenton, there was a huge sportsman’s store. That was our first objective tonight; breach the store, clear and load out. Our shopping list was pretty simple. Camouflage clothes and backpacks and hunting vests. Radios, if we can find throat or shoulder microphones, all the better, but we only had six radios and there were nine of us. I was looking for an upgrade to Sammie, although I was unlikely to find a better scope, I was looking for a night vision version. In fact, I wanted everyone to have something night vision, either goggles or a scope. And John wanted a telescope for some reason. Lastly, we needed bullets. We need lots and lots of bullets.