If I were lucky I’d have time to marvel at the construction later. For now I had to actually make it.
We ran our asses off.
If we were in good shape, fresh off the rack, it might have been a cake walk to sprint to the finish line. Not today. I was running on empty. Joel was in bad shape and he had Sails to carry. Roz looked like someone had just punched her in the stomach. The only one that seemed capable of moving was the asshole and he was carrying Christy over his shoulder. I had the urge to sprint and bash in the fuckers head and leave him for the Z’s but my ankle barely left me room to stagger at a half sprint.
We might not make it anyway. None of us.
The first of the dead were on us.
Joel slung Sails to the side and fired her gun. He hit a Z right in the chest, dropping him for now. The guy carrying Christy turned and fired a couple of shots dropping a zombie that snarled in our wake.
Roz paused but I motioned her on. There was no point in here trying to be a hero with no weapon.
A shuffler jumped.
I ripped the wrench up in an arc that terminated with the bastards head. He went down, but it was a temporary respite. There were dozens of dead on our heels.
More gun shots and I used what little energy I had left to sprint forward until I reached Roz. I touched her shoulder.
“Just like last night, eh?”
“Fuck this!” she said in reply.
It wouldn’t be long now and I didn’t even have a gun to finish me and Roz off before they got us. The horde was going to rip us apart.
Gunshots from ahead and several Z’s fell. More shots and more bodies dropped.
Holy shit! The cavalry had arrived.
A full contingent of military advanced on our position. Beautiful men and women in full combat gear and packing enough heat to start a war in some third world country.
I did the smart thing and dropped to my knees, dragging Roz down with me.
It was over in seconds. They must have fired five or six hundred rounds but they stopped the horde in its tracks. Even a shuffler, so frightening to us before, was taken down with at least half a dozen bullets.
The trek to the base wasn’t as hectic now that help had arrived.
The guy that had rescued us and killed Craig talked to someone that looked like they were in charge. He pointed at us and at the helicopter. A group broke away and headed toward the transport no doubt to see if it was worth trying to fix before being overrun with dead.
The grass here was trampled flat. There was a road running near the base but it was packed with military transports either coming or going. Engines rumbled around us and it felt good to not only be alive but to be back near something resembling civilization with living people moving around.
The guy met us as we stumbled to the bases entrance and he didn’t look happy. He’d handed over Christy to one of the men at the gate. He spoke to the man for a few seconds then shrugged the listless body off his shoulder. Another soldier joined them and helped carry Christy into the base.
The man spun on us.
“Listen to me and listen well. This ain’t fucking lala land. You know that if you been in the city for any amount of time. There is a shit storm of hate just waiting to suck us all in and we can’t take any chances. Got that? No chances. On any other day I’d leave all of you to the dead. That stunt almost cost us all our lives. You do some shit like that again and I’ll put a bullet in your head myself.”
“You didn’t have to do it!” I yelled back. This guy could have been a fucking admiral for all I cared. All I wanted to do was kick his ass.
“This base is secure. No one with a hint of the virus gets in but they get out. In pieces.”
“Fucking asshole,” I said.
Joel touched my shoulder to pull me back but I wasn’t having it. This guy was tall and he looked commanding but I was still a hell of a lot bigger than him. I hefted the wrench but Joel pushed my hand down. I looked at him and he shook his head.
“I am that, but I’m also one alive fucking asshole. Now do yourself a favor and stay alive too. We need every able body we can find. Don’t forget. I’m the one who rescued you.”
“Oh I won’t forget everything you’ve done. What’s your name, anyway?” I gritted my teeth.
He turned to leave, snake skin boots kicking up dirt as he strolled away. He looked over his shoulder and fixed me with his eyes.
“Names Lee and that’s all you need to know for now. Good luck, soldier,” he said and strolled into a gate that opened for him.
“I’m gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch,” I muttered.
“Get in line,” Joel said.
Together with Roz, the injured gunner named Sails, and Joel, we limped into the base before the sliding chain link fence rattled closed.
This is Machinist Mate First Class Jackson Creed and I am still alive.
New Friends
10:30 hours approximate
Location: Undead Central, San Diego CA — San Diego US Naval Hospital
Supplies:
Food: warm and enough to fill our guts
Weapons: plenty to go around
Attitude: I want to punch stuff
All through our lousy time on Roz’s garage roof, I thought we were going to die. I thought we were going to slowly starve to death or the Z’s would figure out a way to get at us. Instead we were rescued. The dead were doing their best to batter down the house and even succeeded, once the chopper arrived. I don’t know if it was all the noise or us being visible. They went into a frenzy and smashed down the damn walls as we flew away.
The entry to the base was so heavily fortified that we had to be escorted in. Every couple of feet there was a pole covered in razor wire and a lot of that wire was covered in flesh, blood splatters, and strips of clothing. It was the perfect trap. If some of the shamblers made it as far as the base, a lot of them would get hung up, then shot by the heavily armed guards patrolling the massive chain-link gate.
The entrance had fortifications and machine guns. Big fuckers with barrels large enough to take down any target on foot. Men and women stood at guard or knelt and stared down barrels. A few shot us dirty looks. Not my fault! I wanted to protest but it seemed prudent to get my smelly ass into the base and blend in, then figure out how to introduce Lee to my eight pounds of wrench.
As we approached the entrance a squad met us. They had an apparatus similar to the one Lee had used. They didn’t point guns at us but they looked ready to draw and shoot at the slightest hint of trouble.
After getting the eye treatment we were escorted to a table where a woman took our name and a drop of blood.
“Does the blood tell you if we got it?”
“Maybe,” she replied. She looked tired under a mess of black hair.
“That’s reassuring,” I said.
“I wish we knew more but we don’t. We just look for certain anti-bodies. It’s easier to see with the magnifying glass. The disease sets up shop and causes clots. Clots show up as red spots. The clots die and the eyes turn white.”
“Thanks for the lesson, Doc.” Joel said.
“Oh, I’m no doctor.” She attempted to smile and then went back to writing notes on a pad of paper.
They tagged us with some numbers and sent us on our way in the general direction of food and water. I limped behind Joel on my screaming ankle.
By the gates were a huge pile of fence sections and a couple of pieces of heavy equipment, including a huge bulldozer and a crane.
Our rescue had been messy, but that’s been life since we arrived in Undeadville, USA. At the time I was actually hopeful that when we set foot on the chopper, our would-be rescuer, Lee, would take us to safety. All of us, not just some of us. Then that fucker threw Craig out of the chopper like he was a bag of trash.