Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 4): Resolution (56 page)

Carter was surprised that any community
planners would allow this to be the first thing that visitors to
their end of the road would encounter. If he looked at the property
in a certain way, it reminded him of pictures he had seen of
frontier cabins during the homestead era. He suspected that those
homes likely looked and functioned very similarly.

All Carter saw was the chaos of the yard and
its surroundings. When a furious ghoul sprinted from a dense stand
of thin trees and assaulted Carter’s truck, everyone in his vehicle
gasped. The monster’s face was partially burned, the grotesque
wounds crusty, its chest peppered with gunshots and possibly
buckshot.

Carter slammed on his brakes and sent the
creature sprawling awkwardly into the trees and out of sight for a
moment. He and his passengers leapt out of their truck and took up
firing positions as the other vehicles in their convoy arrived.

Sensing that the middle-aged man was not
going to be able to stop the skin before it crossed the small yard,
Carter pulled his revolver from its holster and quickly pulled the
trigger. The creature spun around, the bullet pounding violently
into and through its chest. He hadn’t killed the thing, but he had
stopped it long enough that someone else was able to bring it down
with a shot to the back of its head.

Carter said calmly, “Nice shot.” There was
no response other than quiet.

The four of them stared at one another for a
second, wondering what else they should suspect to find in Shotgun
Cove. Apparently it was no more free of the undead than was
Whittier, and the ones in Shotgun Cove were still able to run.

The question about how many more they might
encounter was partially answered in the next few seconds when
another of the beasts emerged from the trees nearest the passenger
side of Carter’s truck. Before any of them could react, the thing
had sprinted across the yard and was upon the middle-aged man,
shrieking with both fear and pain when its hands wrapped around him
from behind.

The female fiend used all of her weight and
her preternatural strength to force the man down to the ground and
plunge her teeth into his neck at the same time. She ground her
teeth together back and forth until she was able to pull away a
large section of the man’s flesh, splashing both her and his face
with jets of warm, very red blood.

The man standing next to the two struggling
on the ground fired his pistol, striking the still living man
instead of his awful assailant. The woman barely took notice as she
chewed off another morsel from the man’s already violated
throat.

The other man was stunned still, incapable
of doing anything more. He was still pointing the gun down at the
creature as it feasted upon the now dead man. He watched the
hellish banquet but his mouth, opening and closing slowly, was
silent. He raised his pistol and fired its few remaining bullets
into the demon but not a single one hit its mark. He backed away
slowly, hoping someone would do something before she pounced.

Ready to move on to her next victim, the
zombie jumped up to her feet and was ready launch herself at him.
The man, Nelson Dewey, felt suddenly faint and weak in the knees.
He wanted to run but couldn’t find the will to take the first
step.

Carter pointed his pistol at the woman and
fired without a moment’s hesitation. Her head bucked from right to
left sharply as the top of her scalp and much of the left side of
her head hurtled away, following the bullet that had just scrambled
her brains and killed the infection fueling her rage and her
hunger. The monster fell over without so much as a whimper.

Nelson stepped back nearer to the doors on
his side of the truck. He looked down at the carcass at his feet
and then over at Carter. “Thanks. I don’t know what I would
have—”

The hungry teeth of the man attacked and
bitten by the woman cut off his words. The new attacker snapped his
maw down onto Nelson’s neck, including his dangling earlobe. The
devil pulled back its teeth still gripping firmly to Nelson’s skin
as it was pulled away from the tissue and bone beneath. His severed
veins and arteries became raging fountains of red and his eyes
rolled back into his head.

Carter pulled his trigger once, the bullet
going through both skulls, one right after the other. The two men
collapsed into a single heap of knotted, lifeless limbs. He looked
around to verify that there weren’t any others coming at him before
saying to Colonel Bear, “And that was only the first house.”

Unimpressed, the Colonel said, “We need to
keep moving. We need to find them.”

“Are you sure, sir?”

“Are you questioning me, son?”

Carter hated it when he called him son and
the Colonel knew it. His adrenaline still boiling in his blood,
Carter’s first instinct was to shoot the Colonel but he controlled
his rage and waited a second before answering.

“No, sir. Just want to verify our unit’s
readiness, sir. Maybe you should just send me in. A clandestine
op.”

“No,” the Colonel stated. “This is about
justice, and justice can’t sneak up on those needing to face its
code. Justice should be direct. It should be bloody and violent if
necessary, but it must be blunt and unwavering.”

“Sir.”

“And, Carter? Stay sharp. We only lost two
because we’ve gotten complacent. We can’t expect the skins to be
slow like they were back in Soldotna. These there are fresh. We
need to stay vigilant and not take any chances. Understood?”

Carter nodded but wanted to add that maybe
seeking revenge in Hell wasn’t wise. He knew he the Colonel would
ignore him, and perhaps think that Carter was getting soft, so he
held his comments and his doubts to himself. The Colonel had, after
all, proven time and time again that his judgment was sound.

“How much more can we safely fit on the
boat?” asked Jerry as he hefted another box of food and other
sundries onto
Serenity
. Jess and Danielle,
the only two in their group having any maritime experience to speak
of, shrugged their shoulders.

Jess shrugged. “I don’t know. I just hope we
don’t run into any really bad weather.”

Rolling his eyes up at the ceiling, Jerry
lamented with a little humor in his voice, “In the winter? In
Alaska? In Whittier? We’re fu—”

“Try to keep it positive,” Danielle said.
“We can do this. The weather is clearing.
Serenity
is a good boat. William trusted her and I
think we should. He would have wanted that.”

“Sorry. You’re right. I just...”

“What?”

“I don’t much care for being out on the
water.”

Wrinkling her forehead, Jess asked, “Weren’t
you raised in Alaska?”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. “So what?”

Taking the box from Jerry and carrying it
the balance of the way into the galley below, Jess said “Some
Alaskan.”

Acting wounded, Jerry said, “Really? After
all that I’ve done...?”

Danielle tried to soothe Jerry’s playfully
hurt pride with, “Now you know how much we appreciate all that
you’ve done for us up to now. I don’t think you’re any less of a
man even if others might have their doubts.”

“I don’t think you’re helping.”

Grabbing another box and carrying it down to
Jess, Danielle said over her shoulder, “Sorry, ‘cause that’s as
good as it’s gonna get.”

Jerry’s smile vanished and he looked around
the sheltering cove. “Can you guys hear that?” he called to
Danielle and Jess.

Danielle appeared at the foot of the short
staircase leading into the belly of the boat. “Hear what?”

“It sounds like a motor.”

“A motor?” asked Jess, whose face was
suddenly next to Danielle’s.

“Yeah. Like a motor on a boat or
something?”

“You sure?” Danielle wondered as she
ascended the stairs.

She heard it too, then nodded and looked
down at Jess. “He’s right. It does sound like a boat motor and it’s
getting closer.”

Her face white as a ghost, Jess pleaded “Oh
Jesus. What should we do?”

Abdul, Mia, and Danny were marching back
through the woods along a well-worn path to William’s lodge to get
another load of supplies to pile onto the sled they were pulling.
They hadn’t seen any signs of zombies in the two runs they had
already made, but they could not afford to become complacent. Mia
pulled the sled while Abdul and Danny continually scanned the trees
all around them for any threats.

Danny was by far the most prepared to deal
with any of those threats and both Abdul and Mia knew it. Under
different circumstances, such a realization might be considered a
threat by an adult, but Abdul and Mia respected Danny’s experience,
especially his recent target practice with Jerry.

Their first passage through the forest,
though accompanied by the trio now out on the boat, had been the
most harrowing. Every little hint of movement and every single
noise in the forest had made all of them jump. They moved slowly,
cringing at the cacophony the sled made as it traveled over the
snow and frozen foliage.

They unloaded the sled quickly, piling the
material into the boat, which had been pulled up from the water and
onto the shore.
Serenity
, like a floating
treasure, bobbed gently on the sheltered cove’s peaceful waters and
beckoned to them.

The discussion about who would take the boat
out to
Serenity
and who would transport the
supplies from the lodge to the shore had already been had, but it
didn’t make Abdul, Mia, and Danny feel any better watching the
other three row away. They knew the journey through the woods was a
quick one, but the woods harbored an ever-changing unknown, which
could pounce on them at any moment.

When they cleared the trees into the lodge’s
yard, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Seeing Neil up on
the top of the structure looking down on all of them was just that
last little bit of security they all needed to settle their minds.
He waved to them and shouted down to Jules to open the door.

Neil was waiting with the little girl when
the three of them got into the house. “Okay,” he announced. “This
time, I’m going.”

Mia shook her head and pointed at the
bandage wrapped around his shoulder. “You’re in no shape. Besides,
Emma was going to spell me so we don’t need you.”

Abdul looked over at the younger woman and
shared an uncomfortable smile. He didn’t think that was what to say
or how to say it to Neil and wondered how it would be received.
Neil went back upstairs, taking two steps at a time. He came down
just as fast, pulling his fleece shirt over his head and buckling
his belt holding the holster.

It was obvious to all of them that he was
going no matter what they said. Emma appeared from the kitchen,
eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which was spilling from
around its seam and onto her hand.

Neil asked, “Jules make you lunch?”

Licking her hand hungrily, Emma nodded.
“Yep. Just the way I like ‘em.” She winked over at Jules, doing her
best to wink back but instead only accomplished blinking both eyes
in an infinite gesture of cuteness.

As if they had planned it all along, Emma
cocked her eyebrows and asked Neil, “You ready then?”

Mia looked at Emma and then back at Neil,
shaking her head in disbelief. Their little act seemed almost
rehearsed. “So what’s the plan then?” she asked. “You two obviously
have it all figured out for the rest of us.”

Neil let spread a smile that none of them
had seen in quite some time and said, “Not quite yet, but we’re
getting there.”

Jules smiled back up at Neil, who touched
her softly on her head. She said, “We have been here for a very
long time.”

Nodding, Neil agreed, “Yes we have.”

Much of Shotgun Cove yielded the same
experiences for the militia and their determined leader, Colonel
Bear. There was death and killing at every stop and around every
corner. At one point, the Colonel deemed it wiser to burn the
lodges as they came to them, making an offhand reference to the
total war tactics employed by Sherman on his march to Atlanta.

Through all of the day’s activities and the
gruesome scenes that erupted time after time, the Colonel never
removed his posterior from his seat in the Hummer. Carter’s
irritation had diminished quite drastically from before but he
could still feel a rise in his pulse when he looked over at the
large man. The Colonel was barking orders to others but rarely did
he do more than use his oversized vehicle as a weapon.

When they came to a lodge that dwarfed all
others, the Colonel changed his tune. “This looks like a good place
to make camp. Let’s run a sweep and then set up a perimeter.
Carter, you take charge. We’ll be right behind you.”

“Figures,” hissed Carter.

The Colonel heard Carter’s comment but
elected to say nothing. He thought he had noticed a divide widening
between the two of them recently and attributed that, like
everything else that had gone wrong lately, to the loss of
Sullivan. Interestingly, Carter’s changing opinion of and attitude
toward the Colonel was one of the few things that could be clearly
connected to the Colonel’s original lieutenant’s untimely
death.

It was Sullivan who had trained and
controlled Carter, making the younger man a protégée of sorts. In
so doing, Carter developed a profound respect for Sullivan and,
because Sullivan was so loyal and deferential to the man, for
Colonel Bear as well. With Sullivan’s sudden departure, Carter
spent more time directly with the Colonel, which meant that both
men got to know the other much better. That, unfortunately for the
nature of their relationship, was not working to either man’s
benefit.