The Regulators - 02 (16 page)

Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we had a lot of time to test out
the armor. I really didn’t know what kind of force could rip it open or shatter
the windows. I was surprised when the evil bitch started denting it all up.
Then again, from the looks of things, she probably hit like a freight train.

So, yeah, I was safe for the moment. It didn’t look like the
zombies could pound through the armor. I was still worried about their numbers
though. More and more of them were approaching and attacking the vehicle. I had
no idea if they could break in if enough of them banged on it.

My other worry was that my stalker would come back. She
healed herself pretty rapidly when I shot her. I was pretty sure she could tear
through the armor easily enough.

Merrick was going insane beside me. The screaming and
pounding were getting her all riled up. Hell, there were even a few zombies on
the hood and roof.

Then they started rocking the vehicle.

“
On purpose
?”

No, it was simpler than that. Zombies don’t have enough
brains to come up with any kind of plan. Sure, they can sometimes manage to
turn a doorknob, but that’s about it. This was more like zombies on one side of
the Jeep pushing and the other side zombies responding by pushing back.
Regardless, the Jeep was rocking. It only lasted for a brief moment, but I
heard a grinding noise shudder through the metal of the vehicle.

I tried to reverse once again. It didn’t work. I was still
attached to the abandoned car. I tried to rock the Jeep from the inside in
order to get them started once again, but it didn’t work. Merrick thought I was
a lunatic though. She actually stopped her furious barking just long enough to
give me that look that dogs often give people. The one that makes you feel like
a complete idiot.

“
I’ve seen it before.
I adopted a pit bull after our first interview
.”

Best dogs ever aren’t they?

“
I agree, but tell me
what happened next
?”

Well, I was stuck. I think I was there for about a half an
hour, maybe more. I wasn’t exactly looking at the time. I also didn’t bother to
call for help. There were too many zombies to pull me out safely, and I was
also a little embarrassed to be stuck in that situation.

Then, my evil bitch stalker made another appearance.

She was on the roof of a nearby school. I only saw her
briefly; there were just too many zombies blocking the driver’s side window for
me to get a good look. I didn’t think she could see me at all through the
corpses, but if she could have, I would definitely have given her the finger
again.

“
Have you ever read a
Spiderman comic
?”

Yeah.

“
Well, Spiderman
constantly taunts his foes in an effort to make them frustrated because if they
get all crazy mad at him, they will make mistakes he can capitalize on. I only
bring it up because you seem to go out of your way to annoy your adversary.
Were you doing this in an effort to frustrate her into making a mistake
?”

No, I was doing it because I was pissed.

I laughed at this,
actually we both did. It was amusing that someone like the General can be
irritated enough to retaliate in such a way
.

The funny thing was there were too many zombies surrounding
the Jeep for her to get close. She couldn’t do anything but watch. A few times,
she vanished and large sections of shamblers broke away from the Jeep and
charged off down the road. I figured she was trying to lead them away so that
she could get to me, but too many of them stayed behind. I guess most of them
were just too close to a meal to give up and chase after her. Plus, they were
really driving each other into a frantic sort of craziness with all the
pounding, screaming and moaning.

It was a bad situation for everyone if you really look at
it. The zombies couldn’t get to me because of the armored Jeep. My stalker
couldn’t get to me because of all the zombies. I couldn’t get away from any of
them because my Jeep was stuck to an abandoned car.

A group of them began to push against the front of the
vehicle. I’m not sure why they did it. I guess they were just so excited that
they were pushing against anything they could push against. I felt the shudder
of grinding metal. I started honking the horn in an effort to encourage them.
Maybe it worked and maybe it didn’t. All I know is some of them climbed onto
the hood, and others kept on pushing against the front of the Jeep.

The sudden lurch from the right side of the vehicle meant
that the zombies on the right side started to push as well. They must have been
concentrating their efforts on the rear of the Jeep, because the Jeep began to
rotate on the street. I guess they were just responding to movement like they
did earlier with the rocking, or maybe they thought they could somehow crush
the armor that was holding them back. I really have no clue.

The nasty screech of metal against metal could be heard over
their screams. It was the sweetest sound that I had ever before heard.

I punched the gas.

The Jeep shook and shuddered, but I was still stuck. I
slapped it into four wheel drive and tried it again. This time the shuddering
was even more violent. I could smell the burning rubber over the scent of decay
as the tires sought a purchase on the road.

Then I was free.

I violently slapped through a bunch of decaying bodies as I
gunned the Jeep in reverse. When I had room, I slammed the stick into first
gear and bull dozed right through any of them that got in my way.

It was a rough-ass ride for about fifty yards or so, but the
Jeep made it through easily enough. If I ever harbored any doubts about what
type of vehicle I’d prefer in a hostile situation, I sure as hell didn’t have
them anymore.

All the windows were slimed over with zombie residue. I
could barely see out of them. The front windshield wasn’t much of a problem. I
just sprayed the water and hit the wipers, but the rest of the windows were
beyond nasty. As soon as I was free and clear, I hit the lever and collapsed
the armored top.

It was good to be able to breathe clean air again. The
interior of the Jeep reeked of whatever that black blood gunk was that came out
of my stalkers neck.

“
Speaking of your
stalker, what happened to her
?”

That was another reason I wanted the filthy windows out of
the way. I wanted to see her coming. I scanned everywhere I could while also
driving as fast as I could go. I didn’t see her anywhere, but I knew that she
hadn’t given up.

The attack came hard on the right side of the Jeep.

I barely even caught a glimpse of her as she darted into the
road and charged me. Fortunately, a glimpse is all I needed to prepare for the
impact. I was still moving forward.

There were a few assaults after that. One time I even braked
hard when I caught her sneaking up on the rear. She slammed into the Jeep. It knocked
her on her ass, and I tried to back over her, but she rolled out of the way
just in time.

The situation was so tense I didn’t even breathe a sigh of
relief when I reached Georgie’s neighborhood. I lost sight of her once again
when I turned onto his street.

I could barely make out the outlines of my team in the
watchtowers as I rushed towards the fence, but I knew they were there. That was
the important thing. I now had more than a pistol, a tomahawk, and a knife to
defend myself with. I finally had some backup.

I hit the brakes and spun the wheel at the very last moment.
The Jeep came to a sideways rest in the middle of the road right next to the
gate. I jumped out of the Jeep with my newly loaded weapon drawn. There were
some streetlights on the road, but I could still find no target.

I scanned the road. I scanned the yards. I was just
beginning a scan on the right hand side rooftops when I heard a loud voice
warning me not to shoot at some chick. I didn’t recognize the voice, but it did
sound disappointingly familiar.

I immediately spun to my left and saw her jump from the roof
of a nearby house. I started firing at her before she even left the rooftop. I
was still firing on her when she landed on the road and raced towards me in a
hectic manner. I was actually shooting at her right up until the point she
slugged me off my feet and into the Jeep.

The punch was bad. The collision with the Jeep wasn’t as bad
as the punch, but it still managed to crack some ribs. I needed to get on my
feet and I needed to do it fast, but I had lost my gun.

I heard the muffled thumps of a machine gun at just about
the same time that I saw a mass of bullets punch through her chest as she
advanced towards me. The impact of the bullets nailed her pretty hard. She
actually backed up.

The roar that came out of her sounded like a mix between a
lion and a movie dinosaur. It was loud, and it was eerie as hell. I gave up
looking for my gun and climbed to my feet with my tomahawk in my hand instead.

I have to give credit where credit was due. The woman was
fast. She actually managed to block my swing. Instead of crunching down on her
head, the blade of my tomahawk buried itself into her arm. Underneath the sound
of breaking bone, I actually heard her whimper.

I was shocked that my weapon didn’t go right through her arm
and still find her head. Her body was somehow denser than that of a normal
human being. I yanked the tomahawk free in order to take another swing, but as
soon as the blade was removed she took off.

There was a moment of quiet stillness.

I took stock of my injuries. Things weren’t too bad, nothing
that wouldn’t heal right up. The most shocking part was that she somehow
managed to rip off a sleeve of my bite proof shirt and tear through the same
material around my chest and stomach. Without the suit, she probably would have
eviscerated me.

Georgie was babbling about something in the high voice he
gets when too excited. Then, I heard the new voice answer him in an angry tone.
I didn’t pay much attention to them. I was more concerned with finding my
pistol.

“Jaxon!” Dudley shouted. “Are you alright?”

“Barely,” I answered as I picked up my pistol. “What the
hell took you dumbasses so long to shoot?”

“She looked like a normal woman,” Dudley answered.

“A dirty, nasty woman,” the unknown voice answered.

“Shut up numb nuts. You were the asshole screaming for Jaxon
not to shoot her.”

“No I didn’t,” the voice answered.

Suddenly, I had a mental picture to go along with the person
talking. I dismissed it immediately. There was no way that my luck was that
bad. It had to be someone else. It had to be.

The screams began to echo around the neighborhood and for a
brief moment, all of us froze.

“Open the gate,” I shouted as I dove back into the Jeep.

“
Damn
.”

I didn’t actually mean
to say anything. The word just sort of popped out of my mouth. Jaxon just
smiled and laughed at my reaction
.

Yeah, those were pretty much my thoughts exactly. When it
rains it pours, I guess.

Well, they got the gate open for me as rapidly as possible,
and I drove my somewhat battered Jeep over to Georgie’s driveway and parked it
just as they were closing the gate behind me.

We were all safely inside of Georgie’s house just as the
dead began to run up the street. Thankfully, they didn’t see any of us. That
meant that they weren’t likely to hang around very long. If they had seen us,
they would have torn at the fence until we put them all down or they got in and
ate us.

I went into Georgie’s kitchen and began to ransack the
shelves immediately until I found some crackers. Merrick deserved a treat for
being a good girl and staying in the vehicle like I had told her. I caught a
glimpse of Nick just as we were all entering the house. I actually tried to
pretend I didn’t see him in the vain hope that he would vanish if ignored.

“So you glad to see me or what fucker?” Nick asked.

“Or what,” I replied.

“Jax,” Dudley interrupted. “What was that thing? It looked
like a girl, but that was no girl.”

“Ask Hardin,” I answered while stuffing my mouth full of
crackers.

Dudley gave his earpiece a tap. I motioned for Kingsley to
hand over his earpiece and stuck it on my ear just as Hardin answered.

“We think we know what you boys are up against. Miriam had
her suspicions ever since she took a look at the bite mark on Michelle. The
fight I just watched through everyone’s earpiece confirms things for us. It’s
time to get you boys out of the area.”

“Why the hell would we leave the area?” I asked.

“Because, for whatever reason this thing is hunting you,
Jaxon. In the past, whenever we came near a creature as dangerous as this one,
we made an immediate retreat. There are some things out there that are just
plain foolish to play around with, and this thing is one of them.”

“Well, you told me what you wanted to do, but you didn’t
tell me what we are dealing with.”

“The fact is, we really don’t know very much about these
things. They are just too deadly to study. There are stories of course. Way
before my time, but most of the Guardians that went up against these things
were killed. It became a sort of policy to just retreat if we thought one was
in the area.”

“Hardin,” I grumbled. “What the hell is it?”

“You’re dealing with a vampire, Jax.”

Georgie

My first meeting with
Georgie was probably the funniest interview of my entire career. There was just
something hilarious about the man. He wasn’t overtly funny, cracking jokes or
making witty comments. That wasn’t it at all. I think it was the way he tried
to be so serious and professional. I should just tell what happened when he
entered the room. That should kick things off in the correct direction.