Deadrise (49 page)

'A dozen Sentinels are leading an army of drones, over ten thousand strong, up the canyon as we speak. They have a pair of battle tanks and plenty of heavy firepower under their control. We also have our shuttlecraft. It is equipped with particle beam cannons and missile launchers. The attacks over the past twenty-four hours have been nothing more than probes to analyze their defenses. Tonight, Park City will fall.'

The Overlord sounded supremely confidant. Mordecai was certain of it as well, for his agents in the city would also act as suicide bombers during the height of the invasion, blowing up key communication and support locations, but he was hoping the city would put up a good fight and weakened the Overlords forces before being overrun.

It would make it that much easier for Mordecai to Kill the Overlord and steal his spaceship.

Any delusions he had about the Krylok benevolence towards himself as well as any loyalty he had held toward them had quickly disappeared after what had transpired on that small, uncharted island in the South Pacific in June of 1964. The Krylok revealed their true intentions and motivation, which was nothing short of hybrid supplication for Mordecai and the complete and total annihilation of the human race via feeding or conversion to Sentinels for use in conquest of other worlds.

The hybrid conversion required a rare genetic anomaly which made the host compatible with an embryo slug. Approximately one in every million humans was compatible. The Sentinel conversion was much simpler. Any human implanted with a Krylok slug not genetically compatible for hybrid conversion was transformed into a Sentinel. A freshly dead body could also converted into a Sentinel so long as the slug was implanted before drone reanimation.

The basic, stumbling zombie drone was a side effect of the virus that became active once the corpse cooled to a certain temperature, causing reanimation. This was also a great tool for softening indigenous planetary populations. Just seed the atmosphere and wait for the zombie plague to spread havoc across the globe. If the Krylok that commanded the scouting expedition in ’64 was to be believed, the aliens had used this method to successfully invade and conquer more than one hundred habited worlds across the universe over the past seventy five thousand years.

"You talk as if it is already done."

'Park City is of little concern, a nuisance at best. Our real problem is the Air Force Base thirty miles northwest of here.'
He was of course talking about Hill Air Force Base.

"What of it?" Mordecai feigned ignorance. He had spies in the Air Force base and knew the situation. The Overlord turned his narrow red eyes to his subordinate Krylok, deigning the telling of bad news to him.

"Their defense has been better that expected. The remnants of the local ground forces have retreated there and fortified the position against ground attack and their surface to air missile defense system combined with their aircraft capabilities has kept our air attack at bay."

Mordecai smiled to himself, enjoying how the alien downplayed the events at Hill AFB. The fact of the matter was the Patriot Missile System had destroyed two of the Krylok attack craft and the horde of zombies being thrown at the base were no match for the pulverizing firepower brought to bear by the combined forces of the United States Army and Air Force. And there were nearly ten thousand refugees, a good percentage armed and ready to fight zombies, clustered inside the walls of the base. Sanitation, food and housing would eventually become a problem, but Mordecai knew the base had vast storages of MRE’s and old C-Rations, literally thousands of tons of them. The base was also strategically located, surrounded by small cities. There would be plenty there for the base defenders to plunder and salvage. The truth was the Krylok had lost the northern stretch of the Wasatch front.

"Why haven’t you ordered the base bombarded from orbit?" Mordecai’s contacts in NASA and the CIA had tipped him to this answer as well, but he wanted to see how much the Krylok would tell him.

'Orbital bombardment of all know military bases and centers was the initial plan, but there were…complications in the opening phase of deployment, which caused a complete change in strategy. But once the consequences of those complications are rectified the bombardment shall continue as planned.'

Mordecai could barely keep himself from laughing at the Overlords response. Those complications he had mentioned were in fact disastrous for the Krylok invasion plan. Upon dropping out of hyperspace the Krylok mothership had proceeded to crash onto the dark side of the moon instead of taking up orbit around it. Space station and satellite surveillance had shown the large, bulky craft broken into several pieces, apparently damaged beyond repair. It had also detected massive amounts of radiation, either from the ships nuclear arsenal or its main drive reactor core. They had destroyed the satellite and attacked the space station with some of their shuttlecraft not long after it spotted them and no further images had been available. He still had access to the Pentagons electronic database as well as several other classified information sources via satellite Internet uplink, but nothing new had been added in months.

Why the mothership had crashed Mordecai had no idea, although it was a burning question in the back of his mind. He contemplated scratching the itch and asking the Overlord the question. It would reveal just how much Mordecai knew, but the Overlords reaction would have been worth it, but prudence won out in the end. Despite the fact that he hated these vile, disgusting creatures, he needed them to fulfill his own plans and would not become overly insulting.

"And how long until things are…rectified."

'When they are rectified.'
The Overlords telepathic response was cold and icy.
'When shall your Templar’s lead the assault upon the intruders?'

"It shall coincide with the fall of Park City. Let the wretched souls who would dare invade my realm dwell on what they have seen today. Let the
horror
work its poison into their minds, seep into their belly like a rotting cancer, sapping them of their will. Then, when darkness comes, so shall their judgment." Mordecai let out a small, evil chuckle as his eyes gazed into nothingness, imagining their cries for mercy before their screams of pain, like so many cattle led to the slaughter…

Chapter 50

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Rainbow Lake, UT

4:25 PM

"We have to get out of here!" Rick exclaimed for at least the fourth time.

"Where the hell would we go?" Mac asked him for at least just as many.

"We could go back down to Park City. We could just pile into the bus and head back down."

"What about all of our stuff?" Susan asked him.

"It's not worth dying over."

"Your brother died for it." Mac's words cut like a knife, and anger flared in Rick’s eyes, quickly replaced by a profound sadness. He lowered his head and his wife Jennifer, who stood nearby wrapped a comforting arm across his shoulders.

"My father died for it." Susan said solemnly.

They were gathered in the living room, adults and children alike, all save for David who was monitoring the security station in the den, but he was listening on the intercom and could respond at anytime.

"You saw the same things I did." Rick said without raising his head. "Tell me how we are going to fight that?" That drew silence from all of them. When the four had returned from their excursion across the lake they had quickly gathered everyone together and told them exactly what had transpired and all of the horrors they had seen.

"We have grenades," Matt said after nearly a minute of silence. "Those we save for the superzombies. We can make Molotov cocktails for the deadfucks and we have plenty of ammunition." Susan had done a good job on the cut above his eye and there was only a small bandage to show for it, but it somehow added to the grim determination in his eyes. "I’m tired. Tired of deadfucks, tired of losing my friends, and tired of running. This is my home now. This is where I make my stand. My
last
stand if need be."

"What about those bastards in white robes? What about Zack?" Rick looked and sounded like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"We don’t have to worry about Zack." Matt replied. "Regardless of what he’s become, he is on
our
side."

"And we have guns to deal with those robed freaks." Susan said.

"What do the rest of you think?" Rick asked, clearly desperate for someone to see things his way.

"I say we fight." David’s voice was sharp and crisp over the intercom.

"Fight." Samantha said from the end of the table, little baby Tyler in her arms.

"Sis, you can’t be serious?" Jennifer blurted.

"Tyler and I are staying with David." Samantha said defiantly to her older sister.

"What about you Scotty?" Mac asked.

Scotty looked at each of them in turn, his thin, weathered face set firm, before adjusting his cap and said with wholehearted sincerity "Well, I’ve only been with you people for a couple of days, but you're all more of a family, and this place is more of a home, than I’ve had since I left Missoura." Old Scotty sure did have a way with words.

"Mom?" Susan asked.

"Your father died protecting us. It seems foolish to me to stay here and die for something so silly as this house, especially when Park City is safe and secure."

"This place is a death trap." Rick said. "There are hundreds of deadfucks over there. They will swarm the house and trap us all inside."

"We’ll all go upstairs." Matt said. "We can pick them off from the balconies and if any manage to get inside we can hold them at the stairs. Once they start piling up it will block the stairwell and prevent anymore from coming up. All we really have to worry about is superzombies and those robed freaks."

"Oh, that’s all?" Rick said with defeated sarcasm.

Mac's frustration with Rick was simmering into anger. "Nobody is stopping you from leaving Rick. There is an SUV in the garage. It’s yours to take if you want to go."

"I’m not running out on you guys." Rick said.

"No one said you were." Matt interjected before things got too heated. "We don’t even know if an attack will come."

"Who are you trying to fool? Yourself? " Rick asked. Matt felt hot anger flare in him at Rick’s belligerence, but he kept it under control.

"I’m not going to argue with you Rick. My mind is made up. If you want to leave, take the SUV and go."

"I’m not running out on you guys." Rick repeated himself miserably. "I’m not."

"Then shut the fuck up about it! We have more important things to deal with!" Mac’s voice had risen to a shout.

"David, any luck getting Jenkins on the radio?" Matt asked, trying to steer the conversation down a more productive course.

"Nope." David replied. "But I can contact the Park City militia directly if need be."

"No, not yet. We want as little to do with them as possible. This place is our home. If they come messing around up here some of the raiders might think about making it theirs. Jenkins is probably just-"

The barking of the dogs silenced him in a heartbeat; indeed it silenced everyone. The barking grew in intensity over the next several seconds, until all four dogs wails blended into a cacophony of noise.

"Out front!" exclaimed David over the intercom. "There’s something coming up the drive."

"What is it?" Susan asked.

Mac had already grabbed up his rifle and was headed for the front door.

"Holy shit!" David exclaimed awed by whatever he saw on the security monitor. "Uh, guy’s, we might have a little trouble."

Mac would second that statement as he opened the front door, stepped out onto the porch with his rifle held ready and saw the M1A1 Abrams tank rolling up the drive way. It rolled into the parking circle and came to a halt just before the statue of dolphins. It was dented and scratched, burns and small craters from enemy fire scarred it hull, and its treads and underside were stained with blood and smears of rotting gore from the countless zombies ground beneath it treads. The turret was pointed menacingly at the front of the house and its powerful engine growled like a hulking prehistoric beast of prey. It was truly an intimidating sight. Behind it came a Humvee with a closed shell. It steered around the tank and came to a halt. By that time everyone but Jennifer and Samantha had crowded out onto the porch. The passenger door of the Humvee opened and out stepped a soldier in fatigues. There was something familiar about his blond hair, square shoulders, haggard face and weary, bloodshot eyes…

"Sgt. Turner." Mac said with a smile and started down the stairs.

"McReedy." A smile cracked the Sergeant’s own weathered, unshaven mug.

Matt remembered him now. He and his squad had been guarding the rear entrance of Ft. Douglas. He had looked and sounded like a lost soul then, and judging by his appearance now, not much had changed. They had extended the offer to come with, but he had refused, choosing instead to go fight the horde of zombies that were pouring into the base.

"I thought we’d seen the last of you." Mac said, shaking the Sgt’s hand.