Beyond the Barriers (Novella): Ghouls (28 page)

I looked around and spotted Roz and Christy. She’d abandoned the little handgun in favor of a machine gun. It has huge in her hands as she moved away.

Our pace was brisk and soon we ran into others that were fleeing. We had to slow, but at least we were moving toward safety.

Then I heard a sound to my left. The horde had swung around or broken off and had reached the fenced in there. Reinforced by long metal bars the chain-link still wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact. A pair of shufflers launched themselves at the top of the wall and one managed to reach the razor wire. He got hung up. I took a lot of joy in pausing for a minute to shoot it three or four times. No headshot but he slumped after the last bullet ripped through his upper body.

“The fence isn’t going to hold. Move!” A soldier said and then broke into a run.

The crane swung its arm back and forth but the driver must have seen the futility of his action and decided it was time to make his getaway. The crane backed up and all those tons of metal began a slow crawl through the dead. None rose from where it passed.

“Come on, you big idiot.” Roz grabbed my arm and pulled.

I joined our motley group of five even though I was sure we were about to be over run. Thousands of them behind, and thousands to on our flank. We weren’t going to last much longer unless we found a transport.

A pair of HUMVEEs pulled into the street to my right and then opened up with machine guns. The guys on the guns swept back and forth as they shredded the front ranks.

A rending crash behind. I didn’t have to look around to know that the fence was gone.

We ran with me in the lead because I was the biggest. We hit the mass of other survivors looking for a way out and I wasn’t shy about pushing through them.

The line of trucks and cars took on as many as they could. It was a full blown panic as people fought to get on anything that moved. Women and children were pushed aside. Anger boiled but this was no time to crack some heads and teach manners.

Some ran. They just bolted in every direction, barreling into anyone blocking their way.

Explosions behind. I looked over my shoulder and found a group of soldiers tossing more grenades at the mass of Z’s. Bodies and parts of bodies flew.

We were brought to a halt by a couple of guys trying to sort the evacuees.

“Civilians that way.” One of them pointed at a scrambling mass.

A second line fed to huge military transports that was at least somewhat organized. Men and women in uniform jumped onto transports, some as they roared off.

“We’re enlisted, man.”

“Right. Move your ass or we’ll drop you right where you stand.”

A couple of people picked that minute to try and break through the line and run toward the military trucks. They were met with the butt of rifles. Another civilian got wind of the action and screamed.

“They aren’t letting us out!”

Joel and I exchanged glances just before the first shot rang.

A civilian in ragged jeans and a white t-shirt covered in holes pulled a pistol and pointed it at one of the guys in green. He pointed back and shouting broke out. The guard looked at us and lowered his gun as well.

“It’s cool, man. We’ll just find another ride,” Joel said.

Didn’t these guys have a secret military code or something? Joel was dressed in the remains of his combat gear and if there was a man with more military bearing, he wasn’t here.

I backed up a step, taking Roz with me. Then a figure pushed between us.

“Lower that gun, soldier,” she said.

Anna Sails to the rescue.

“They can’t join us, ma’am,” he replied.

“These guys are with me and they’re enlisted. Just make a hole,” she said and pushed forward.

The two looked at us in confusion. Then it evaporated as shots broke out near us.

“Oh, fuck this shit,” Joel said and grabbed Roz’s hand.

The two sides got tired of shouting at each other and someone fired. I couldn’t tell which let the first bullet fly but it was a massacre after that.

I backed up and then grabbed Christy’s hand and tugged her after Joel.

Anna Sails followed and together we ran back toward the horde.

Chaos behind. Chaos to the sides.

It was either risk a bullet or run.

We ran.

The fence on the east side of the little base went down. I fired a few rounds as we ran but it was like trying to stop a wave with a BB gun.

Shots continued to ring out as we hauled ass. The pair of HUMVEEs we’d seen earlier backed up as they fired. I smacked Joel’s arm to get his attention. He veered toward the transports.

Joel waved his hands to stop the trucks. They slowed as they fired.

I turned and shot a Z in the neck as it came at us. There was another behind him and when I fired a burst, the bolt slapped open with a clang as I ran dry. I reached for a mag, but realized too late that I was totally out.

Fuck that. I swung the gun around, burned the shit out of my hands on the barrel, ignored it to turn the gun into a bat, and hit the Z so hard it did a mid-air summersault and landed in a splatter of crushed head and leaking brain matter.

Five or six more were right behind.

“Nice shot,” Anna said beside me. She turned to her side, raised a huge hand gun and fired. Seriously, it was like something Dirty Harry would carry.

A shuffler leapt out of the mass and was on Sails before I could fire. They tumbled to the ground and the bastard went at her. Sails was good, fast; she got her gun in the way and smacked the Shuffler across the mouth. He howled and dove in for her neck.

I grabbed him by the back of his ratty-ass clothes, and lifted him straight off the ground making my ankle want to screech in pain. He was covered in open sores and bled some kind of mucus from multiple wounds but I didn’t give a shit.

Sails might be a pain in the ass but none of us were going down under a shuffler. I’d put a bullet in her skull first.

She pulled herself across the ground, looked up, and blew the head off one of the dead that was headed straight for me.

The shuffler fought like a man with twice his strength. He got me good across the gut and most of the air left my lungs. Then his elbow connected with my head and I saw stars.

I lifted him above my head with both arms and then flung him down on the back of the HUMVEE so hard his head split like a fucking melon. Sails had to pull me away from kicking his twice-dead ass.

“I’m Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly. Got room for us?” Joel stood near the front of the transport.

“Pretty fucking full, Sarge. We got…” I couldn’t hear the rest because the machine gunner blasted a line of lead across the approaching dead.

There were so many of them that we didn’t stand a chance. The walls were down and we were being overrun.

Joel grabbed Roz and Christy and stuffed them into the back of the Humvee. I scooped up Sails and dragged her to the other side of the truck and banged on the door. It opened and the face of a young soldier poked out.

Anna was having difficulty breathing and gasped when I picked her up.

“I’m staying with you guys,” Sails said.

I ignored her.

“Put her on your lap. You’re welcome,” I said and pushed her toward the door.

“Idiot! I don’t need saving! Just let me stand and fight with you guys.”

“Get in or I’ll put you in,” I said as I towered over her.

The machine gunner opened up again and dropped at least a half dozen.

“I’m staying!” She pushed against my damaged chest.

“Anna, please. Get in. We’re all getting out of here,” I said.

She looked me up and down and then nodded and crawled in.

“Better than being tossed to the dead,” I said. Thoughts of Anna backing up Lee made me second-guess my actions. Maybe I should have tossed her to the horde.

The back was stuffed and there was no way for me and Joel to squeeze in. Joel winked at me through the opening and then slammed the door shut. He came around the side of the transport firing.

I closed the door and joined him.

“Hold on, gents!” The machine gunner roared and pointed at the back of the HUMVEE.

A whole world of hurt ran at us. The dead were here and we were screwed.

Joel was the first to make the leap. He got on the back of the transport and shimmied up the angled back until the gunner helped him. Then he hung onto the plates on the side of the gun.

The HUMVEE lurched into motion with me standing in the middle of the zombie fucking apocalypse holding my dick.

“Wait for me!” I yelled and leapt.

I missed.

The first Z came at me so I clothes-lined the asshole. A shot and something buzzed past my neck. I looked over my shoulder and there was Joel Kelly, holding onto the back of a giant machine gun while he somehow pulled his side arm and shot a dead fuck through the head.

This guy should be in a video game.

I hauled ass, jumped for the back and started to slide back off. Joel dropped his gun, grabbed the machine gun mount with both hands and stuck his boot right next to my face. I grabbed hold and tried to haul myself up but a Z got my leg.

I kicked back a few times and got him in the face. Bone crunched as his nose was crushed but I didn’t have time to gloat because the truck lurched into motion and I had to hold onto Joel Kelly’s leg for dear life.

I crawled up the back of the HUMVEE until I was able to reach the gunner. Him and Joel reached out and pulled me the rest of the way then I was clutching the back of the gun mount.

“Haul ass!” The gunner pounded the top of the truck.

We broke across a parking lot, ran over a tent, hit the side of the building and that almost knocked me clear but I had a death grip.

Then we were past the little base and behind the line of trucks.

“Next stop, L A.” The gunner grinned.

“Great. I need some new underwear,” I said over the roaring wind.

The gunner smiled again and patted my shoulder. He ducked back into the vehicle for a minute.

“Joel, man. I owe you.”

“Yeah you do. Dumb squid.”

“Words hurt,” I said. “Especially from a dumb jarhead.”

“Don’t get all mushy on me. Christ. I’ve had enough of this day and if you start bawling I’m going to have the gunner shoot me in the fucking head.”

“Okay man, I won’t, but I want to tell you something.”

“I ain’t marrying you.”

“Thank the fuck Christ.” We hit a bump and I came down on my sore chest again. After an epic swearing session I got my breath back.

“Gonna make it?”

“As long as you got my back I think I’ll be okay. You’re like a brother, Joel. Nah. You are my brother.” I said it and meant it. We’d seen a lot of shit over the last few weeks but one thing hadn’t changed. One thing had been there to help me survive and cope with this new world and that was Marine Sergeant Joel “Cruze” Kelly.

“Know something?” Joel asked.

We bounced up the road, slowed at a cross street, and then maneuvered around a wreck.

“Huh?” I asked, expecting some kind of brotherhood of war speech.

“I’m glad we’re moving. I just farted and it’s a reeker. Sorry about that.” He looked at me with a smirk. “Brother.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

“Can you guys drive faster? Something died back here!” I roared at the driver.

“Sure, man.” The driver called back.

“I can’t hang on that long.”

“Hitchhikers take what they can get.” He laughed from inside.

“I hope he’s kidding.” I said to the gunner.

He didn’t answer, just looked up.

Overhead, a helicopter roared away from the base and headed north. If Lee was on it I wished him well, because when I found him again he’d answer questions with my size fourteen boot up his ass.

This is machinist mate Jackson Creed and I am still alive

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Watch for Z-RISEN: BARRIERS which will continue the adventures of Jackson Creed, Joel Kelly, and Erik Tragger, in 2016.

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