Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Siren Songs (36 page)

Liam spun around. “I know the feeling. Do
what you have to, and I'll do what I know is right.”

Hayes began walking away, as Liam found the
comfort of family and friends.

6

Liam imagined Hayes was walking out of his life
for good, and that everything would turn out OK. He allowed himself
to come off high alert. Back into simple exhaustion. He was standing
around with family and new friends. Hayes had limped almost all the
way down the street when Liam's complicated masquerade finally came
unraveled.

A bicycle and trailer turned the corner, and
practically ran into Hayes.

Things moved in slow motion. Liam's entire
existence was focused on the end of his block. He could see each
action as it happened, though he could hear nothing from such
distance. He couldn't change the outcome from so far away.

A friendly wave from Hayes to the rider.

A smile in return. Hayes may have said something
like, “So pleased to see you made it, Grandma!” Drew
would have no idea he was a bad man.

The bicycle stopped. A short chat.

Then a vicious punch. The rider fell.

“NO! NO! NO!” Liam was yelling, angry
at his own impotence. Angry at how slow he was moving.

Hayes struggled to mount the bike, turned it
around, and cranked away. Injuries and all.

Everyone in the yard snapped awake.

Liam was the first to start running. He ran for
his own tipped bicycle.

Everyone else was on foot, but heading in the same
direction. Soon he had control of his bicycle and overtook them all.
He flew by Drew, who was sitting up and getting his bearings. His
target was up ahead, but couldn't be far. The helicopter was loudly
chopping air nearby.

Liam pedaled like a maniac, but he only had to go
a couple of hundred yards. The helicopter was in the middle of a
grocery store parking lot, as he imagined. It was on the ground but
its rotors were spinning hard, like it wanted to take off. He risked
a look back and could see his group running furiously, some faster
than others. Victoria near the front. He kept pedaling.

Hayes was having issues. His leg injuries were
slowing him down, but he managed to keep turning the pedals and he
kept steering more or less in the right direction. Liam was closing
the distance.

Liam saw his opportunity as he caught up with the
struggling man. He whipped his bike to his left and in front of the
other, intending to cause a wreck. Hayes made no effort to correct
his path as they collided.

Liam tumbled hard to his right while Hayes just
crumpled with his bike as it impacted. His speed wasn't that great,
so Liam ended up getting the worst of it. Even so, he was on his feet
quickly, road rash be damned.

Hayes was straddling his bike's top tube, talking
into his headset. His eyes firmly on Liam.

A shot rang out.

Liam turned around to see a civilian man with a
high-powered rifle in the back of the helicopter. It was now pointed
at him.

“You lose, Liam! I'm taking Marty and we're
getting on this bird. I'm cutting you a break just like you cut me
one back there at your house. Details you see. But we're even now.
I'm a little injured. This is what you're going to do. You're going
to get Grandma out of her trailer—the real trailer, you sneaky
bastard—and help her board. Then I'm going to fly away with her
and you will never look for her. Do you understand?”

He understood. He looked back to see several
people arriving behind him.

“I'll agree to your terms if you also agree
not to harm any of the others.”

“Fine. Just get her in, quick!”

Liam made a motion for everyone to halt well
behind him. Only Victoria disobeyed and continued to run up to him
with a hug. She then helped Liam get Grandma out of the trailer as
requested.

Grandma came out with a smile. “Oh,
Victoria! I'm so glad to see you're alive. Such a happy day for
Liam.”

“Grandma, they're going to take you away. To
a medical facility again. I'm really sorry, but I couldn't save you.
They were going to kill us all to get you.”

Liam could feel the tears welling in his eyes. He
found a free spot on his tongue and bit hard.

“Liam, you made the right decision. You have
to see that. Don't you worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm old you see.
I've got my Rosary at the ready.”

Victoria seemed to take a cue from seeing the
religious object.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the
travel Bible Liam had given to her. She showed it to Liam, opened it
wide, and held it up to her eye. It had a bullet hole near the top
left corner, though it didn't go all the way through.

“This Bible saved my life. I had it tucked
in Liam's belt because it wouldn't fit in my pants pockets. The
bullet hit this and sent me flying. I had a bloody bruise on my hip,
and I hit my head, but was otherwise unharmed. It was a miracle. I
want you to have it so you can have a miracle, too, Grandma.”

“Oh, child, thank you. Seeing you alive is
my miracle. I'll take it for now, but I'll give it back when we meet
again. Deal?”

Victoria was unable to do more than nod. She was
crying openly.

“Oh, and please do return that pillow to the
Boy Scouts if you can.” Liam couldn't tell if she was joking
until she gave both of them her trademark wink.

Liam took his opportunity to give Grandma a big
bear hug. He held her for a very long time. Finally he spoke.

“Grandma, I'll find you. I have a whole
group here to help me. Together we can get to you wherever they take
you.”

“Liam, don't you go fretting about me. I
don't want anyone else to be put in harm's way because of me. Just
live a good life with Victoria and your folks, and remember me from
the time we've shared on our adventures. I'm happy to have gotten to
know you better and I'm proud of the man you're becoming. But maybe
you could pray for me once in a while?” She flashed him a huge
smile as she said it.

“I love you, Grandma. I'm going to miss you
while you're gone.”

“I love you too, Liam. Tell your dad I love
him, will you? Your mom too!”

She gave her son and daughter-in-law a wave and
together she and Liam moved into the wash of the spinning blades.
Hayes had struggled his way into a back seat, though he was still
yelling into his microphone.

With the assistance of one of the crew, Liam was
able to help Grandma up and into the helicopter. She was put in a
seat across from Hayes. Liam waved once more to her and then ran out
of the wash from the rotors. He was watching with Victoria by his
side.

From inside the helicopter he could see Hayes was
now wearing a larger pair of headphones and had a boom mic across his
face. A loudspeaker on the bottom of the copter kicked on.

“I have one last gift for you, Liam.”

Liam looked around, looked at the helicopter,
looked at the man with the gun riding in the back. He had become
hypersensitive to traps. He found himself taking a step in front of
Victoria—shielding her. But from what?

“Consider this your air raid warning.”

Maybe he did it to imitate Grandma, but he winked
at Liam as the door slid shut.

With that, the helicopter pushed up, then tilted
forward and escaped the area in a hurry.

Escape.

“Everyone run!”

Another race.

As the helicopter rotor noise faded, a different
roar got louder by the second.

An ugly-looking plane came in low and slow over
the trees in front of them. Liam knew it was an A-10, nicknamed the
Warthog. He'd seen them days earlier, at the Arch. It was a
squat-looking plane with twin-turbofan engines hugging tightly
against the rear fuselage, in front of its dual vertical stabilizers.
It was best known for its deadly accurate rotating 30mm Gatling gun.
There was nothing like it.

Liam and his companions were running away from
Liam's street, but they were on the same axis. The planes were coming
in directly in front of them, heading lengthwise directly above his
street. They heard the chain gun rounds smashing into the
neighborhood an instant before the sound of the gun itself reached
their ears from above. The first jet screamed overhead, passed the
street, then peeled away, direction unknown. Liam knew the Gatling on
the MRAP was a toy compared to the power of the lethal aircraft.

Two more were coming in similarly low and slow.
Lining up the houses behind them and then letting rip with multiple
rapid strings of gunfire.

“Keep running!”

The small group of his friends and family were
running across the open parking lot toward more trees and a drainage
ditch. A stray Gatling round or one well-placed bomb could have
eliminated them all forever.

Forever.

That word continued to scare him.

His mind was trying to crack the code as to why.

So much going on.

He found himself running hard, though Victoria was
staying just in front of him. She was fast.

Wow. She's beautiful, like an angel. Why can't
I catch her?

Seeing her spurred a desire to pray. He recalled
the first time they met, and the comfort he took from the cross
hanging from the chain around her neck. He recalled openly praying on
the corral back at the Elk Meadow facility. He wanted to tell
Victoria all about his burgeoning faith. He realized he never told
Grandma about it either. She would have been so proud.

Am I about to learn what happens after death?
Will I learn about “forever” or will I simply wink out of
existence? Never know that I existed at all?

He expected to die. So much left unsaid. Undone.

More planes were screeching above him. His mind
was racing as fast as his feet. The stress was causing havoc on his
thought process. The important mingled with the irrelevant. The
eternal chased the ephemeral. He couldn't control it.

He resolved to ask Victoria out on a date if they
survived. That seemed very important to him as he trailed her. What
would dating look like when there were no restaurants or movie
theaters? What did they do back in the old days? And there would have
to be introductions with his parents. That scared him almost as much
as the barking guns above.

I need to apologize to my parents. I'm sorry I
was such an ass.

Behind and above, a sound was growing. If he
didn't know any better he would say it was the stereotypical sound of
a bomb falling from high in the sky, like a cartoon. Or his mind was
playing tricks. Fear could do that.

It couldn't end like this. He wasn't ready.

He wanted to tell everyone about the experiments
he'd seen. Reveal the different types of zombies wandering America.
Share news about the safety of Camp Hope. Warn them of the presence
of more government camps, including a big one downtown. He'd just
escaped the city and had no desire to go back—maybe he'd save
telling them about it.

And what of Grandma? He tried to imagine where the
helicopter would take her. To another camp out in the woods? Would
she soon be tied to a gurney inside some dank tent? Would Hayes be
there rubbing his hands in glee, after finally bagging the old woman
he'd been chasing? She wasn't as old as Bart, but there had to be
something special about her to demand so much attention. He needed to
solve that mystery.

If he lived. He sprinted until his heart nearly
gave out. He even caught Victoria. They were in it together.

His mental gymnastics were finally shut off when
he was knocked into the muddy ditch by the massive explosion behind
him.

Did I win the race?

###

Thank you for reading
Siren Songs
. I hope you'll consider
taking a few seconds to
review
my book on Amazon
as it really helps me improve future versions
of this story as well as guide future readers into my zombie
universe. Once I capture them, they can never escape the walking
plague! I appreciate every review as long as it's honest.

Below you will find the first two chapters of book 3 in the
trilogy,
Stop the Sirens.
It picks up exactly where book 2
leaves off. The family is reunited as the quest to find Grandma kicks
into gear. The mystery of her location, and the source of the plague,
will be answered in book 3.

Thank you so much for your time.

E.E. Isherwood

Marty woke up in a clean bed, in a well-lit room. She was on her
back, and for the first time in a long time, felt rested.

She managed to sit up and was surprised to look out the window and
see she was high up in a skyscraper. It was probably a hospital, but
she couldn't be sure. She wasn't even sure what city was outside. The
'North Star' of her hometown of St. Louis was the Gateway Arch. If
you could see it, you were home.

Now she only saw the upper portions of other buildings and lots of
smoke in the air below her. The sun was setting in the west, directly
out her window. Whatever clues she could find outside might help her
identify her location. She spent twenty minutes looking around, but
saw absolutely nothing which gave her the all-important answer.

Where am I?

She sat in a little chair next to her bed and happened to look
down at her bed's foundation. On it was stamped “Riverside
Hotel and Casino.” That made it much easier. Not a hospital
after all.

She laughed despite her fear.

So I'm still in St. Louis.

She had no idea what day it was. How long she'd been there. If any
tests had been done. The last thing she remembered was getting on the
helicopter after Liam said goodbye, waving to him, and then—

—nothing.

I'm old. I must have zoned out.