“It’s nothing personal, man. We’re full up,” one of the men said.
Daniel looked me over then glanced at the other guys. Upon closer examination, I noticed one of the ‘guys’ was actually a woman. She turned, and with her short hair I thought it was Katherine at first. But she was younger, her face fairer. She was dressed from head to toes in full cammo gear. She popped a magazine into a large handgun, jacked the hammer back, and slammed it into a holster.
“Yep. No offense.” She smirked.
“Come on. Thomas said he was okay. It wouldn’t hurt to have another set of eyes, would it?” Daniel said.
One of the men shrugged, but the girl looked away from me.
An older man with a shaved head regarded me. His forehead had a nasty burn scar on it. Hair would never grow there again. I didn’t blame him for shaving the stubble off. He had a pair of pistols under his arms and a snub nose automatic machine gun under one arm.
“I’m O’Connell. I don’t care if you join us. Just do what I say, when I say, and we will all get along fine. Ain’t that right?” He looked among the squad. They all nodded assent, but the woman did not. She looked me over like I was a cockroach.
“Sure. I can do that.” I said. Taking orders wouldn’t be hard. I was just happy to be useful to these guys.
“What’s your poison?” Daniel opened up the top of a storage bin strapped down to the back of the truck. I glanced in and saw a few older guns. A hunting rifle was pushed against one end. The barrel was strapped to the side. I pulled the weapon out and set it aside to assemble on the way. Then I tugged a .45 ACP out. Daniel nodded at my choice and handed me a box of shells from another bin. I dug out a magazine that looked like it fit the handgun. After a bit of testing, I tucked it in my pocket to load later.
We piled into the back of the truck. They sat in a group that I wasn’t invited too. I tried to make small talk with Daniel, but he turned his attention back to one of the guys who was telling a story about facing off against a pair of zombies in an old apartment complex.
We left the safety of the compound. A couple of men came out and moved the gate aside. This involved shifting massive concrete barriers with a heavy lifter. After we drove away, they put them back into place.
“If we run into zombies, what’s the count?” One of the guys yelled over the hiss of air rushing past the truck bed.
“I’m good for five or six.” The girl smiled. She checked her pistols for what seemed the tenth time.
“What’s the bet for?” I asked.
“Just bragging rights. And someday, when we find a warehouse full of beer, a bunch of those” she said.
“Yeah man, Liz here owes me forty-seven cold ones.” One of the men grinned.
“That’s all she’s got, cold ones,” another guy said. The group cracked up until she drew, jacked a round into the chamber, and fingered the safety off in one smooth motion that ended with a gun leveled at the last guy. His eyes went wide.
“Cold enough for you?”
“Cool it,” Daniel said. “We have trouble up ahead.”
We had left the sight of the store and were speeding down a side road. There were a few cars pushed out of the way, with a few corpses that were little more than bones and skin inside them.
We were moving into a residential neighborhood, but it looked like a war zone. Houses were burned out, broken into. Shrubs grew out of control. Rhododendrons, the unofficial flower of the Pacific Northwest, covered entire home entryways. Discarded items and looted possessions were tossed all over yards.
“There!” Daniel stood up in the back of the truck and pointed at a pair of cars that were intact. They were station wagons, and they looked to be full of boxes.
I stood up, holding the hunting rifle to my shoulder as I tried to keep my focus everywhere at once. The driver slowed our vehicle, and I leaned forward to absorb the momentum. I caught sight of a familiar car tucked between two houses, but I wasn’t sure why it rang a bell. It was a newer make, and a deep shiny blue, like someone was taking care of it.
Birds called out to us as we passed. An entire murder of crows took off when Liz waved her gun in their directions.
“Good eating, crow,” she said without any expression in her voice.
“Help us!” A man called from one of the houses. A pair of our men jumped over the side of the truck as it came to a stop in the front yard. Two more went over the other side and spread around the truck, their backs to us so all angles were covered. I was impressed by their cohesiveness.
I jumped down and followed Liz, who seemed determined to lead the way. The two others fell in behind her. One was O’Connell. With four on guard duty and us advancing, I felt confident in my comrade’s ability to react to a threat. They were good.
“Remind me why we are baby sitting the neighborhood? Could just mean more mouths to feed,” the guy on her left said.
“Because they’re people, and we need more if we’re going to win this fight.” O’Connell kept pace with them and looked at the guy.
Another scream from inside made our group pick up the pace. I glanced around to check the position of our back up one more time. The driver of the truck was on the radio. He was probably assuring the compound that we were safe and sound.
I turned my attention back to the house. It was a huge three story that was probably built in the 70s. A grown over gutter draped the building. Vines had snaked their way up the side and given the place a genuinely creepy feel.
Windows were darkened from closed blinds or curtains. I thought I saw one slip aside ever so slightly, but when I studied it the material held firm.
“Help us!” a voice called. It sounded like a woman.
I moved over tall grass, crunching over some unidentified objects as I went. I didn’t want to think about those.
We reached the house, and Liz was the first through. One of the guys went with her, while Daniel and I set up a perimeter. They had some basic hand gesture down pat, so I played along like I understood what they were saying to each other.
There was a commotion from the inside, but no shots. We remained vigilant, but didn’t follow. After a few seconds, Liz called out.
“We found them.”
Daniel lowered his guard and weapon. The others nodded at each other and filed into the open door. I was the last in and the last to curse.
The room was a mess of overturned furniture and ruined floor. Someone had burned a hole in the hardwood and built a fire pit in the center of the room. A pile of burned wood lay around the sides, and empty cans of food were tossed in the corners. The walls were covered in spray painted words, but they looked like they were done by an illiterate hand. I couldn’t make them out to save my life.
The others were lowering their weapons to the ground. As my eyes adjusted to the room, I became aware of other figures. A couple huddled behind a sofa, and someone poked around a corner with a machine gun of some sort.
Ah hell!
We were surrounded. Someone had set a trap, and we had fallen right into it. I glanced up at the foyer, finding another guard hanging over the side of the railing on the second floor. He had a gun trained on us as well.
Dejected, I lowered my rifle. A few days back in the world of the living and I was already being subjected to the worst of human kind. Bad enough all those creatures trying to kill us, now we had rival humans after us as well.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Liz asked when we were all in the room.
Someone had a pistol pointed at her head. He was standing close to her, but with the sunlight pouring in from the window behind him, I couldn’t make out any features.
“The meaning of this? Oh. You fell for our pretty little trap. Ain’t that a bitch?” That voice was familiar.