Dead Life (Book 3) (9 page)

              “You're probably right sir. We'll see how it goes with the first horde. Then I'll decide what to do from there.”

              “Sounds like a plan,” the Colonel said. “I'd like to ask a favor from you Captain.”

              “Yes sir.” I knew what he wanted.

              “I don't want to turn into one of those things and I don't think I can kill myself.”

              “I understand sir.”

              I took my service revolver from the holster and pointed it at the Colonel. He stood looking me in the eye, a bold look of determination on his face. I couldn't do it.

              “Would you please turn around sir?”

              “Of course.” The Colonel said as he turned to face away from me. “You know I have a wife. She was in Atlanta when all this happened. I lost contact with her the first day. I'm assuming...”

              I pulled the trigger. The Colonel slumped to his knees and fell forward onto his face. I walked back to my unit. The men were all staring at me with shocked looks on their faces.

              “He asked me to do that. The Colonel was infected. He'd been bitten. I would expect any one of you to do the same for me. I promise you I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for any of you that might become infected.”

              “We're going up to the barracks. First, we'll clear out the infected. Then we're going to bring back supplies. Adams, send someone to get a truck. Have them bring it up to the barracks. We'll need something to bring supplies back in. We don't have much time. Let's move out.”

              I left the guards at the gate with orders not to let anyone pass until checking them for bites and scratches. The men and I started our jog up to the barracks. When we got to the gate for the barracks, the guards normally on the inside of the gate where on the outside. On the other side of the fence were dozens of zombies trying to get at them. Most were civilians but some were military. They all needed to die.

              “I want you men to spread out along the fence. We need to draw the zombies away from the gate. On my command begin firing. Choose your targets and remember single shots to the head. We don't want a bunch of holes in this fence. The idea is to keep them in there.”

              “Sir are we going to kill those people?” One of the guards was addressing me.

              “Yes we are. Then we're going in.”

              “Sir, the General left orders that under no circumstances were these gates to be opened.”

              “Did you see that helicopter take off a few minutes ago?”

              “Yes sir.”

              “That was the General. He's gone. The Colonel is dead. That leaves me in charge of this mess. Questions?”
              The guards looked at each other then looked to me. “No sir.”

              “Then move away from the gate and help get rid of these zombies.”

              The two guards went to one side of the gate and I went to the other. The press of zombies that had been at the gate started to spread out along the fence. The zombies were tugging and pushing at the fence trying to get at the men. The constant moaning increased as they struggled against one another for position.

              “Alright men, remember, those things are already dead. Those aren't your comrades anymore. They're the undead and we're doing them a favor. Aim for the head. Ready, take aim. OPEN FIRE!”

              The sound of the gunfire was deafening as we all started shooting at once. The first line of zombies went down as the ones behind tried to take their places at the fence, only to be shot down before they were able to climb over the fallen. It was a gruesome sight of the zombies stepping up to the fence covered in the blood and brains from the zombies in front of them. The shooting seemed to go on forever. In reality we'd been firing on the zombies for less than two minutes. I called for a cease fire.

              “Let's not tear this fence up anymore than we already have. Put the barrel of you rifle through the fencing. All that noise will bring the rest of them in. Remember men; single shots and aim for the head.”

              It didn't take long for more zombies to show their ugly faces. We ended up at the fence for about fifteen minutes. It took that long for the steady stream of zombies coming to the fence to slow to a trickle. No one was sure how many soldiers and civilians were in the compound, but we'd killed over two hundred at the fence.

             
“Looks like it's time to go Sergeant.
Get the men in the truck and let's go. Tell them to stay alert. There's going to be more of them in there.”

              As if to confirm that, a zombie stumbled from behind a building. The sergeant pulled his revolver and calmly shot it.

              “We're going for the cafeteria Sergeant. All we want from here is food and water. In and out.”

              I climbed into the cab of the truck and was greeted by an attractive little redheaded Corporal. I looked into her eyes as I turned to get situated in the seat.

              “Sir you might want to close that.”

              My mouth snapped shut and I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment.

             
“The door sir. Close the door.”

              “What's your name soldier?” I needed to get back on task.

              “Corporal Lily Flowers sir.”

              “Head for the cafeteria.” I said with a smile on my face. “If anyone steps in front of this vehicle, run them down. I'm not expecting to be finding any survivors in here.”

              No sooner had I said that than someone stepped in front of the truck. It was definitely a zombie. The Corporal steered the truck a little to the right and ran it down. I looked in my side view mirror and saw the crushed body roll out from behind us. Then the truck swerved hard to the left. I looked up and the Corporal was going for a zombie that had come out into the street on our left.

              “Flowers, take it easy. You're going to throw everyone out of the back.”

              “Sorry sir.”

              She wasn't able to run the zombie down but sent it spinning off the side of the truck. This brought a series of cat calls and shouts from the back of the truck. We pulled up in front of the cafeteria and Flowers brought the truck to a stop.

              “Flowers, I want you to stay with the truck.” I said as I climbed down. “Turn around and back the truck to the doors.” She put the truck in gear and started to pull away. “Let the men get out first, Corporal.”

              Her face turned red as she said, “Yes sir. Sorry sir.”

              “No need to be sorry. Men, fall out.”

              The men began jumping down from the truck and gathered in front of the cafeteria.

              “Sergeant, I've never been in this building before so I'll let you lead the men in.”

              “Thank you sir. The main hall leads back to the dining area. From there we'll get to the kitchen and food storage rooms. If you take half the men, we can clear the hall and the rooms adjoining it. I'll take one side and you can take the other.”

              “Sounds good.” I led the Sergeant away from the other men.”Let me be honest with you, Sergeant.  I don't have much field experience and am a little out of my element.”

              “Sir, you've done fine so far. Just follow my lead. You'll get the hang of it. Men, line up two by two.” The Sergeant said. “We're going in. Men on the left with me. Right side, follow the Captain. Last man in each line stay outside and guard the entry point. Let's move out.”

              The Sergeant looked to me and I nodded. We went in at the same time. I moved slowly down the hall. There were three doorways on each side of the hall. The Sergeant went past the first door. I did the same. The man behind him opened the door. The next two men went in to clear the room. The men following me did the same thing. I was relieved that they knew what to do because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Fortunately, the hall and the six rooms were clear.

              We gathered outside of the dining room. The Sergeant and I opened the double doors and we started in. The Sergeant held up his hand. The men stopped. There were two zombies crouched over a body on the floor. The were busy eating it and hadn't noticed us entering the room. The Sergeant looked back at the men and pointed to his eyes then held up two fingers. He motioned for the men to stay. The Sergeant started in and waved me in with him.

              Sergeant Adams switched his rifle to his left hand and pulled his knife from it's sheath. I followed his lead and did the same. The zombies were still preoccupied with eating the body and hadn't looked up. The man that they were so busy eating was someone from the base. He looked to have been wearing military attire. The two zombies were female and were obviously civilians. We positioned ourselves behind the zombies and Sergeant Adams looked at me and said “now.” We plunged our knives into the zombies heads. They both fell onto the body of the soldier they'd been eating. I lost hold of the knife I was using but the Sergeant was able to keep hold of his. It came out with a squishing sound. He pushed his knife into the eye of the dead soldier and waved our men into the room.

              The men formed a circle around us. They were looking at their fallen comrade. His face was gone but his name tag identified him as Hopkins. I wondered if anyone knew him. “Let's get going men. We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

              Sergeant Adams pushed through the door into the kitchen and the men and I followed. There was a dead man lying on the floor right inside the door. Bloody foot prints surrounded the body and lead off  to one of the storage rooms.

              Adams looked to one of the men. “You're with me.”

              They stepped over the dead body and followed the bloody trail to the closed door. The Private pushed the door opened and Sergeant Adams went in. I heard a clanging noise followed by a muffled thud. “Son of a bitch Fryman.” I heard the Sergeant shout.

              I rushed through the door followed by the rest of the unit. On the ground Sergeant Adams sat rubbing his shoulder. Over him stood a large bald headed man holding a frying pan.

              “I'm sorry Sarge. I thought you was one of them.”

              “How many zombies have you seen carrying a rifle, God dammit?”

              “Only seen the one and I crushed his skull with the same fry pan I hit you with. You're right though, he wasn't carrying no rifle.”

              “Is everyone okay here?” I asked.

              “Yeah I'm fine. Just a little sore.”

              The men were amused. I could see it on their faces. Their bad ass Sergeant taken down by the company cook.

              “Good thing you already lost your stripes Fryman. Otherwise the Sarge would bust you down to Private.” One of the men said.

              “How did you lose those stripes anyway?” One of the other Privates said. “Oh, that's right you told Lieutenant Bingham to get fucked.” The rest of the men were laughing by now.

              “That's right. My names Fryman not Fry boy. Asshole shouldn't have played that shit on me.”

              “Alright men that's enough. We need to take what supplies we can and get back to the airfield. Private Fryman can show the men where the canned goods are stored. We need to load up and get out of here.”

              “Sure thing Captain. The names Friar, John Friar. The men just call me Fryman.”

              “Thank you Private Friar. Men, go with the Private. Grab as much as you can carry and let's get back to the truck.”

              Everyone followed the cook back to the storage room. I'd never been in the kitchen on an Army base before and was surprised to see the extent of supplies kept on hand.

              “Captain, maybe it would be better if we pulled the truck around back and loaded it from here. There's a lot of canned goods back here and I think we're going to be able to use all of it.” Sergeant Adams said.

              “You're right Sergeant. I'll go tell Corporal Flowers to pull the truck to the back of the mess.”

              “You should probably take a few of the men with you sir.”

              I looked at the two men closest to me. “You men come with me.”

              We started back to the entrance of the building. Before we got out of the dining room, I heard gunshots from outside. I ran as fast as I could and burst from the doors to the mess. Zombies were coming at the truck from all sides. The two men I'd left outside guarding the entrance were firing on the approaching undead. Corporal Flowers was out of the truck shooting at the zombies that were rapidly surrounding her. There were too many and I could see she would be overwhelmed soon. The three of us that had just arrived opened fire. They were getting too close to her for us to continue firing on them. A stray shot could hit the Corporal at any second.

              I dropped my rifle and pulled my sidearm. Running to the Corporal I leaped from the steps and opened fire. “Get back in the truck,” I shouted.