Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (33 page)

Kelly found me in the barn with Sammy and Josue, working on Floyd’s Toyota.

“They’re back,” she exclaimed breathlessly. “They just called us on the radio.”

With assurances from Janet that she’d watch the kids, we jumped in one of the trucks and hurried over. I was grinning when I saw everyone was present and accounted for, but my grin faded when I saw him. I pulled up close, jammed on the brakes and jumped out.

“It’s been a while, Private True,” I said hoarsely as I walked up. Before he could answer, I pulled out my Kimber handgun and aimed it at his head. Kelly gasped and Justin stood quickly.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?” he demanded and started to walk toward me.

“Step back, Justin,” I ordered. Justin froze in place.

“What’s going on, Zach?” Others had started to gather around.

“Remember my story about getting shot?” I gestured at True with the business end of the Kimber. “It was his group. His buddies.” Private True stared at me quietly, steadily.

“If you really believe I shot you, you need to go ahead and put a bullet in me.” He continued staring. “Go on now, put me out of my damn misery.”

I stared long and hard at him and realized I was actually putting pressure on the trigger. I forced myself to take a deep breath and lowered the gun.

“Alright, listen up everyone. Back about March, a couple of years ago, we came upon some members of the National Guard. Private True was with them. A few months later, we ran into them again. The one running the show was a particularly disgusting turd by the name of Corporal Leon Hart. I was shot.” I pointed at the horizontal scar along the side of my head.

“You really think I was buddies with Hart and his asshole friends?” True asked. He shook his head slowly. “This is the first I’m hearing about you being shot. I left right after he and his boys killed my lieutenant.” I stared at him a minute and then turned to Kelly.

“Go get Janet and bring her back here. She’ll know if he’s lying or not.”

“Okay,” she said and then whispered in my ear. “We’re going to have to bring the kids with us. Please be on your best behavior.” She kissed me on the cheek and ran to the truck.

It was a long twenty minutes until they came back. I waited impatiently, sitting on the tailgate of my truck while True sat on his rucksack a few yards away from me, staring at the horizon. As soon as they parked, I motioned Janet over.

“Do you remember him?” I asked her. She looked him over.

“Yeah,” she said. “He was the lieutenant’s friend. I thought he got killed too.”

“So, he wasn’t friends with Corporal Hart?”

“Oh, hell no,” she responded. I nodded.

“Alright, it looks like I owe you an apology then, Private True.”

“Just call me True. I ain’t been a Private in a long time.” He looked down at the ground.

“What’s your first name?” Kelly asked. He looked almost embarrassed now.

“It’s Nimrod, but nobody calls me that now, just call me True.”

“So, tell me what happened at Houston Barracks,” I asked, but before he could answer, I explained to Justin and the others.

“Houston Barracks is the National Guard facility on Sidco Drive. It was where we’d first met him and his fellow Guard members.” I didn’t bother mentioning that Janet and her son lived with them at one time. True waited for me to finish before speaking.

“Long story short, Hart got some of the other soldiers to side with him and they turned against Lieutenant Ward. They shot him and a couple of others and took over the place. I hid until it got dark and took off.” He stared pointedly at me. “I ain’t no coward, but they had me outnumbered. Wasn’t nothing else I could do.”

“Understandable,” Justin said.

“Where’d you go?” I asked. True shrugged.

“Around. I tried going back to Manchester, that’s where I grew up.” His face darkened. “It didn’t work out. I took off and that’s when you men found me.” He looked around at everyone staring at him. “If I’m not welcome here just say the word and I’m out.” There were a lot of looks passed back and forth, many of those looks were directed toward me. I was about to respond when Justin stepped forward.

“No need for that,” he said. “If there isn’t any room at the school, you’re welcome to stay with Ruth and me.” Justin gave him a wry grin. “That is, if you can stand being in the same house with a military officer.” True actually smiled, somewhat. It was more like he stretched his lips a little. I cleared my throat.

“It’s settled then,” I said. “But, at some point I’d like to talk to you about what you've seen and been through.” True nodded amicably. “But it can wait. For now, I want to hear about Atlanta.” I looked at each of them and their expressions were grim.

“Was it that bad?”

“We were lucky,” Justin replied and began talking. The others joined in the conversation.

“There must have been thousands,” Cutter joined in.

“For some stupid reason, I thought perhaps all of the zombies had died or moved on,” Grant said with a shake of his head. “I can’t imagine why they’re staying in there. There can’t be any food source.” He shook his head again. “There’s something else going on with them.”

Well, no shit, I thought. I’d been trying to tell them for a while now how those things were changing.

“So, what’s next, doctor?” I asked. He gave a small, hopeful smile.

“I still have all of the data on my laptop, but I need a lab. I think we need to pay a visit to Vanderbilt.” Cutter scoffed. Shooter had walked up during the conversation and added his own derisive snort.

“That place is full of infected. We tried to get in there a while back, and then we tried Saint Thomas,” He shook his head with a scowl. “Same thing. Crammed packed.”

“What do you think, Zach?” Grant asked. Cutter and Shooter were looking at me as if they were being challenged.

“I believe the brothers have a valid point,” I said. “When people started getting sick, many of them flocked to the hospitals. I’m sure a lot of them are still trapped inside.” I thought a moment.

“By the way, did you guys ever try the prisons?” I asked the brothers.

“Oh, yeah,” Cutter answered. "It was the same thing. If you saw something wearing orange, they were infected, and trust me, there were a lot of those things wandering around wearing orange.” I’d thought as much.

“Well, we’ll have to find another way,” Grant mused.

“I always knew he was bad news,” True said, referring to the late Leon Hart. He, Justin and I were sitting at one of the picnic tables. Everyone else was inside, probably in bed. Kelly had gone back home with Janet and the kids.

“When I got in trouble, I got transferred to Houston Barracks. Nobody knew about it, but the lieutenant was from Manchester too. His family and my family were friends. He pulled some strings, said he wanted to make sure I didn’t get into any more trouble.”

“He seemed pretty squared away,” I surmised.

“He was. You didn’t know him before he hurt his back. He was fit as a fiddle. He could run all day and then knock out a hundred push-ups. He took care of me, made sure I didn’t get shit on.

“Anyway, I’d heard the talk and told him about that damned Hart and what he was planning. He told me not to worry about it, he’d handle it.” He paused a moment and rubbed his face. “Hart shot him in the back of the head in the chow hall. All of his buddies was laughing and high-fiving each other like it was something special. I was unarmed, so I couldn’t do much about it. I waited until it got dark and left.”

“And you went back home?” I asked. He nodded.

“Yeah, I found a car over at that mall nearby with the keys still in it and drove home, but Manchester had changed. Everything was FUBAR. I never found any of my family.” He paused and sighed.

“So, I hooked up with some people for a while. They needed someone who could handle guns.” He stared into the quiet darkness.

“I did things I’m not proud of, but don’t bother asking, because I ain’t gonna say what those things are. Anyway, I decided to leave.”

“So, what’s next for Nimrod True?” Justin asked.

“I would be obliged if y’all would let me stay here for a little while, let me get my shit together, then I’ll be on my way.” I looked at Justin who gave me a small nod.

“Welcome aboard,” I said.

The school cafeteria had become the de facto location whenever we met. All of us were there now.

“Alright, let’s get a head count and confirm who’s going,” Justin said. Cutter, who was currently dressed like Rambo, complete with a large knife strapped to his thigh, looked at Kelly in surprise when she raised her hand.

“You’re going too?” he asked. She nodded. “I don’t know, girl, this is going to be dangerous work.” Kelly glanced at him in annoyance.

“Then maybe
you
shouldn’t go,” Sarah retorted. There were a few guffaws of laughter from the others. He raised his eyebrows.

“Do you mean me?” he asked. Sarah nodded.

“He’s right,” Shooter added, who was also dressed in a similar fashion. “No offense, but this is too dangerous a mission for a little girl to be going on.” Before Kelly or I could respond, Sarah jumped in.

“You’re an idiot,” she proclaimed. Shooter rolled his eyes at her.

“Nobody asked your opinion.”

“I always value her opinion,” I said as I stared at him like he was an annoying fly. Shooter responded with that stupid half-smile.

“Well, I hope the rain lets up for y’all’s sake. Your makeup will run,” Shooter said mockingly and then smiled again. “Oh, wait. I forgot, dykes don’t wear makeup.” I started to stand up. Justin quickly got between us.

“That’s enough,” he said gruffly to Shooter. Shooter leaned back in his chair and continued smiling. I slowly sat back down as Sarah and I stared at him balefully.

“Alright, enough bullshit,” Justin exclaimed. “You all know what the mission is, so now I’m going to tell you how we’re going to do it.” He glanced briefly at his notepad and then made direct eye contact with all of us.

“Team one will be myself, Ruth, True, Cutter, and Shooter. Team two will be Grant, Zach, Jorge, Blake, and Sarah. Kelly will be driving the Volvo, Josue will be driving the bus. They’ll be team three and will be pulling security with the vehicles while we’re inside.

“Now, there are only one hundred rounds of ammo for each of us, so no wild shooting.” Actually, I had the semi stocked full of ammo, around five hundred additional rounds, but they didn’t need to know that. Kelly and I had spent a lot of hours doing the reloading and there was no way I was going to let anyone piss it all away.

“Zach and Kelly will be leading the way with their semi. We’ve decided on Southern Hills since it’s the closest hospital.

“Once we get there, we’ll make a threat assessment and decide if it’s feasible to make entry. If it is, the two teams will make entry together. Major Parsons’ list will be the priority, but if we see anything else of value we won’t hesitate to grab it.” Justin looked over at Grant, who took the cue and stood.

“I took a page from Zach, figuratively speaking, and printed out photographs of the items we need.” He held up several sheets of paper and passed around packets to each of us. I looked it over and wondered where he had found all of the printing paper. Justin continued with the mission briefing, covering the route, passwords, communications and contingency plans until he had covered everything.

“Any questions?” He looked around, and seeing none, nodded at me. I stood.

“Okay, Lieutenant Smithson has given you the basic mission. I’m going to go over some other items.” I opened a cardboard box and pulled out five items. “Sharpies,” I said. “Big fat ones, they’re called magnums.”

“What are those for?” Cutter asked.

“I’m glad you asked. This is the first time all of us as a group have attempted to go into a large, multi-floor building with numerous rooms and hallways. It’ll be easy to get lost.” Shooter snorted.

“Is something wrong, dumbass?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t know what buildings you’ve been in, but every modern building I’ve been in have exit signs mounted everywhere.”

“You’re correct, Simon, but those exit signs won’t tell you which exit you’re going out of. It’s the middle of July and raining like hell. It’s going to be hot and stuffy inside, the flies and mosquitos are going to be buzzing around your head, and if there’re no windows nearby, there will be areas that are totally dark. Let’s say you turn a corner and bam, there’s a couple of dozen hungry zombies coming after you. You’ll start running and instinctively follow those signs. You could go out the correct exit, or you could go running out of the wrong exit and find yourself on the other side of the hospital, surrounded by zombies and cut off from your back up.” I could see by the look on his face he wanted to argue.

“He’s right,” Cutter conceded, although rather reluctantly. “That happened to me back when we tried to go through that office building in Bellevue.” He looked plainly at his brother and handed him one of the sharpies.

“Don’t call me Simon,” he finally muttered. Jorge chuckled.

“Alright, let’s get back on track. Every time you turn a corner, someone in your team needs take one of these and make a big arrow on the wall, pointing it in the direction from where you just came from. This will help you get back to the proper exit point. Also, put your team number beside it and any other information you believe is pertinent.” I paused to make sure what I was saying was sinking in.

“Now, if you go down a hallway and see a bunch of infected stuck in a room, put this symbol on the door.” I then showed them the FEMA symbol and how to fill in the data.

“As you can see, once it’s explained, it’s easy to understand. But, if there is any additional info you think is important, feel free to write it on the nearest wall. We may schedule multiple visits in the future so keep that in mind.” Everyone seemed to understand. I looked pointedly at the brothers, who nodded, albeit reluctantly. Justin stood.

“Okay then, let’s load up and move out.”

Southern Hills was a mid-sized hospital located in south Nashville a couple of blocks off of Nolensville Pike. Fred and Julie had checked it out once, back when I’d been shot, and they advised it was full of infected and part of it had burned.

“Turn right on Wallace Road,” I directed and we soon came to the main drive. I directed us to stop. We could see the hospital from here. I gave it a quick scan.

“It looks like only part of it burned,” I said. “I bet the sprinkler system was still working, but that means there’s going to be significant water damage.” Kelly pointed at a logjam of cars and ambulances blocking the entrance.

“I can hop the curb and ride through the grass,” she suggested.

“I don’t know. It’s been raining pretty hard, we might get stuck.” I grabbed the microphone.

“The entrance is blocked and the ground may be too muddy. We better walk from here.

“Roger that,” Justin replied. “Everyone but team three dismount and form up.”

Once formed up, I led team one up the left sidewalk as team two took the opposite side. There were also a lot of skeletal remains lying around and more than a few black eyes watching us with the zombie equivalent of anticipation.

“They’re all staring at us,” Ruth commented in a whisper with a little bit of tenseness. I pointed at the entrance to the emergency room.

“Look at that shit.” The circular drive was stacked full of ambulances. The crews either abandoned them or became infected themselves. Justin gave the hand signal for the teams to stop as Grant whispered to him. After a moment, he jogged across the street.

“The major says those ambulances could be full of stuff we can use.”

“Alright, we can search them afterward; let’s see if we can get inside the ER.”

It didn’t take long to encounter a group of them. There were about a dozen, aimlessly milling about the entrance. I motioned for everyone to halt and take up positions, and then used my Marlin with the subsonic rounds to systematically pick them off. The heavy rainfall muffled what little noise the rifle made and they never knew what hit them. Jorge stood beside me and watched, handing me a fresh magazine when I needed to reload.

“Good shooting, man,” he encouraged. “Keep it up.”

“They’re moving slow, not like some I’ve seen lately.”

After ten minutes or so, I had them all neatly dispatched. Grant jogged along the ambulances and made quick peeks in the windows of each one.

“Lots of ransacking,” he reported. “But the larger equipment is still there. So far, so good.”

I grunted and was about to respond when something caught my eye. “I keep seeing those,” I said, pointing at some strange graffiti.

“Shit, man,” Jorge said. “Those are gang signs.”

“Let’s hope we don’t run into any of them,” I said. “I’d hate to waste ammo.”

We had company awaiting us as soon as we made entry through the broken glass doors. They were everywhere. Rotting, smelling, hungry. It was disgusting. The time for being quiet and sneaky was over. We took cover behind the overturned furniture and started firing. They were coming at us steadily. The ER was full of them, but it was also full of scattered medical equipment. There were even gurneys with zombified patients still strapped to them. It created a bottleneck which worked to our advantage. After a couple of minutes, I stopped shooting, opting to save my ammo and watched the others. Everyone fired with discipline and precision, except for the two brothers. Their shots were rushed and they frequently missed their mark. I caught Sarah glancing at me in between shots.

After finishing the last one, Justin called a cease fire while I made a quick count.

“Thirty-one,” I said. “Maybe ten wasted shots, so forty rounds fired.”

“I’d hate to think what’s waiting for us in the rest of the hospital,” Ruth said loudly. I looked and noted she was one of the only ones who took my advice and was using earplugs. I took one of mine out before speaking.

“I’m betting it’ll be about the same, maybe worse,” I said. “What do you think, Major?”

“It’s very possible the place is full of them, but I really need a water bath and a centrifuge.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Shooter said with a derisive snort. “Are you into water sports or something?” Cutter chuckled as well while the rest of us gave him a withering stare. I pointed at a set of double doors down the corridor. We moved forward, stepping over the corpses as we proceeded forward. When we went past the double doors, the corridor dead ended and branched off on either side. I looked at Justin, who shrugged. I shrugged as well, pulled out my Sharpie and drew some arrows on the wall.

We never made it past the first floor.