Deadrise (17 page)

"How long is it going to take you to get that son of a bitch started?" Jenkins said into his talk box.

"The keys are still in the ignition." came Ron’s answer.

The yellow school bus took the lead with the black rig close behind. Matt bowled through the zombies in the parking lot and exited onto the main street heading east, back to Fort Douglas once again…

Chapter 12

Saturday June 23, 2001

Fort Douglas

Salt Lake City, UT

1:29 PM

David spent most of the morning sitting outside the barracks watching the base activity go on around him and feeling both ashamed and sorry for himself. He had not wanted his father to die. The very thought of it was an aching, gaping wound in his chest. Yet somehow his sister managed to make him feel as if it were his fault their father was dead. He couldn't talk to her. His gut only churned and his words mixed up and his mind filled with humiliated rage. No, he could not talk to her. And he couldn't talk to his mother either. She was an emotional wreck. One minute sobbing with her face buried, the next minute talking to him as if she expected his father to come in any second. He found no comfort there either. At noon a jeep from the mess hall arrived with their food. David had always heard that army food tasted like shit but he thought it was delicious. Aside from the dinner he had last night it was the first decent meal he had eaten in days. His mother picked at hers. After David finished lunch he wandered back out into the hall. The guard sat behind a desk just inside the main entrance. David walked over to him.

"Do you think it would be all right if I walked over to the hospital and visited my friend?" he asked the officer.

"Not right now." the guard said. He was a muscular, bearded man with hard gray eyes. Corporal McReedy was the name on his tag.

"Why not? The hospital is just across the courtyard." David pointed outside.

"My orders." Cpl. McReedy said. "You need an escort if you leave the barracks."

"Can't somebody escort me?" David's voice was cocky.

"Everyone is busy." McReedy said gruffly. David's shoulder sagged and he turned towards the door. "But I'll tell you what," McReedy added. "Once I'm relieved I'll take you over there to see him."

"How long will that be?" David asked.

"Another couple hours. So just sit tight kid. All right?" A smile creased David’s face.

He spent the next couple hours trying to identify all of the military vehicles he saw passing through the base: M1A1 Abrams tanks, Humvees and standard Army jeeps, and large transport trucks full of soldiers were constantly coming and going. Huey and Apache helicopters flew overhead. He saw a vehicle that had the front end of a transport truck and the back end of a tank. Some of the jeeps and trucks going by were towing large artillery Howitzers. Others drove by under their own power. But finally McReedy's shift was over and he stepped outside the barracks to find David.

"There sure is a lot of people coming and going." David said.

"There's a war going on." McReedy said.

"It’s a war that we can't win." David replied softly. He saw McReedy give him a strange look. "Humans I mean. In a war where dead people walk how can we win?"

"Even the dead can be killed again." McReedy said.

"Ya, but eventually everybody is going to die. So in the end we lose anyway."

"Let's go see your friend." McReedy said, changing the subject. Mac led him across they courtyard and down a sidewalk between two large yellow buildings. The hospital was fifty yards ahead. As soon as they entered the hospital the smell of antiseptic hit David's nose. The lobby was featureless white walls, white tiled floor with a large gray administration desk just inside the entrance. An elderly woman in nurses white sat behind the desk. She smiled at them as they walked up to the desk.

"Good afternoon Corporal. What can I do for you?"

"My friend was brought here yesterday. I want to see him." David spoke before Mac could open his mouth. The Nurse gave him a cold stare before turning back to the Cpl.

"And what is the patients name Corporal?"

"Zack Thomas." David blurted again. She ignored him and kept her eyes on Mac. Mac smiled and nodded in agreement. She typed some buttons on her computer.

"213 west." she said.

"Thank you." David said, heading for the elevators across the lobby.

"I don't think she liked me very much." He said once they were in the elevator. The door opened onto the second floor. A nurse's station was just ahead of them as they stepped into the hallway. White clad nurses bustled back and forth up the hallway, passing from room to room as they made their rounds. Patients in white gowns milled up and down the hallway, some pushing IV bags on metal stands. David spotted a sign on the wall with an arrow pointing towards Zack’s room. They walked down the hall until they came to the door marked W213. It was closed but David opened it up and walked in. There were four beds in the room. All of them occupied with seriously wounded men. Zack was in the far bed near the window. He wore a white patient’s gown and had an IV in his left hand. He sat upright in his bed looking gloomily out the window. When he saw David his face brightened.

"I was wondering when somebody was going to come and visit me." Zack said with a smile. David leaned over and gave him a hug, careful not to touch his injured side.

"How are you feeling? David asked.

"A lot better than I did yesterday. The doctor was in here earlier and he said the infection is clearing up and the wound is healing well. Another couple days and I'll be back on my feet. Another week and I'll almost be as good as new."

"Good thing you were unconscious over at the U. Those conditions were medieval."

"Oh I was awake." Zack said. "Who's your friend?"

"Corporal Josh McReedy. But everybody calls me Mac." he offered his hand.

"Thanks for bringing Davey over to see."

"My pleasure…Now if you two will excuse me, I'm going to go get some coffee." He looked at David. "I'll be back in a little while to fetch you."

"Thanks again McReedy... Mac." David said.

"No problem. No problem at all." The Cpl. turned and left the room.

"So where are Matt and Susan?" Zack asked. David quickly filled him in on what was happening, including the events of Matt’s patrol yesterday. The only thing he neglected to tell Zack was about the argument just before they left.

"Those crazy bastards." Zack said. "What the fuck was Matt thinking? Especially after fighting superzombies?"

"I don't know. Mom tried to talk them out of it, but Matt’s mind was made up. He insisted that we would need some supplies to take with us to Rainbow Lake."

"I suppose he's right." Zack said grudgingly. "We are going to need some things to help us get by up there." Zack fell silent for a moment, taking David's hand in his own. "About your dad…I'm really sorry. I -"

"It's not your fault." David said avoiding Zack’s eyes. "It's nobody's fault except the fucker's that killed him."

The silence stretched.

"Hey did you see that red headed nurse out there?" Zack asked, breaking the tension. "What a babe." They chatted about nothing in particular for several minutes making wise cracks and jokes. Their conversation was interrupted by an alarm that suddenly began blaring outside. They peered out the window to see that the pace of the base had suddenly become hectic.

"I wonder what's going on?" Zack said. The door to his room burst open and Mac stepped in.

"I've got to get you back to the barracks." he told David.

"Why, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure. But we've got to get back so I can report in."

"But I don't want to leave." David said.

"I know you don't but you haven't got any choice." Mac said firmly. "Now move your ass."

"Go with him." Zack told David.

"But what about you?" David asked.

"I'll be fine." Zack said.

"We haven't got time for this." Mac said, grabbing David's arm. "You can come back later but right now we have to leave." He pulled David to his feet and headed for the door.

"I can walk myself!" David said pulling his arm free.

"Then move!" Mac half shouted. As they moved towards the elevator David could see the nurses rushing the patients back to their rooms. They crowded into the elevator with half a dozen other people, all of them off duty soldiers.

"This isn't good," one of them said. "No good at all."

"You don't think the deadfucks broke through the perimeter defenses do you?" asked another.

"I don't know," answered the first. "I sure as hell hope not."

The elevator doors opened onto the ground floor and they all filed out. Mac half walked half ran out the lobby looking to make sure David was still with him. As they ran up the sidewalk towards the barracks several transport trucks were heading out in single file, loaded full of combat ready troops. The alarm continued to blare its nerve grating call. A wing of three Apache gun ships passed overhead, swinging north towards the University campus.

They reached their barracks. The guard that relieved Mac was nowhere to be seen. Mac hurried behind the desk and picked up the phone and dialed three numbers.

"Corporal McReedy. Barracks seven sir." he spoke into the phone. David watched Mac’s eyes relay several emotions: surprise and shock, fear and determination. "Yes sir. Orders acknowledged and understood sir." Mac put the phone on the receiver and stood there silently a moment.

"What’s going on?" David asked.

"We are under attack." Mac unshouldered his M-16. "Thousands of zombies are swarming along all perimeters." David's throat went desert dry. That was just down the hill from here. Less than one mile! In the distance continuous M-16 fire was a constant background noise. Two tanks firing their main guns drowned the chatter for a moment followed a second later the explosion of the weapons impact. David's heart was a jackrabbit in his chest. He looked to Mac with wide, fear filled eyes.

"Relax David. Relax." Mac walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Take some deep breaths. It’s all right."

"What are we going to do?" David felt his nerves coming back under his control.

"I have to report to the main entrance for assignment. You are to stay here."

"What?" There was no way he was just going to sit her and do nothing. His sister and Matt were out there in the city!

"I want you to go inside and grab you gun." Mac said. He could see David about to argue. "THAT’S AN ORDER!" he barked at the top of his lungs. David fell silent as a whipped dog. "Grab your gun and stay inside with your family until somebody comes for you." He turned to leave.

"What about Zack?" he asked. A greasy ball of fear had knotted into David's belly.

"He's safe at the hospital. Now do what I told you." He turned and ran off. What about my sister and Matt? His stomach churning, David hurried into the barracks…

Chapter 13

Saturday June 23, 2001

Fort Douglas/University of Utah Campus

Salt Lake City, UT

2:07 PM

Back at the University campus thousands of zombies were pouring from the suburbs and advancing along the perimeter. The soldiers at the perimeter defenses were mowing them down as fast as they could but there were simply too many zombies. The legion of dead slowly pressed foreword. Apache gun ships flew back and forth overhead, unleashing death from their Vulcan machineguns, blowing zombies into rotting chunks. But for every one they destroyed two more took its place. When they were one hundred yard from the Northwestern perimeter the M1A1Abrams tanks opened up with their main guns, blowing swarms of them to pieces. The apaches began unloading their rockets into the rear ranks of the advancing zombies. But they still kept coming.

One apache was circling around for another pass with its rockets when the fiery smoke trail of a Surface to Air Missile shot into the sky from somewhere in the suburbs. It hit the Apache in the jet engine and the entire helicopter exploded into a ball of flame and crashed down into one of the neighborhoods. As if on cue nearly one hundred superzombies charged from cover along the entire University Campus perimeter. They were in full battle gear complete with M-16 and mounted grenade launcher. Several of them stopped and fired their grenade launchers, blowing holes in the perimeter defenses.

The army of zombies was now only fifty yards from the NW perimeter trenches.

The convoy of troop transport trucks heading north from Ft. Douglas on the perimeter road ran smack into the sea of zombies near the main entrance to the hospital. The trucks were large but there were thousands of zombies swarming them. Sheer numbers overwhelmed them. For the soldiers within it became a living hell as rabid, slavering zombies came at them from every direction. The men were pulled kicking and screaming from the trucks where they were torn apart and eaten alive! The transport trucks at the rear of the convoy came to halt, fanning out to block the road. The soldiers leapt from the back of the trucks to engage the hordes of zombies that were swarming around the barricade. Within seconds it was every man for them self as zombies converged from all sides.