Pandora 2: Death is not an Option (26 page)

“Listen,” he said, “we’re getting picked up here and taken back to the base. We are stationed out of MacDill. We’ve been doing this up and down the west coast here, and we’ve been pretty successful. We just didn’t expect this many zombies to be on the east coast. Bad fucking intel, as usual,” he said, looking at the other soldiers. “Anyway, the bird is going to be a little late. Apparently, they lost the truck up in West Palm Beach. So all we have to do is hang tight here, and they’ll pick us up.”

“Where will they land?” asked Ana.

“They won’t, ma’am,” Kevin continued. “They’re sending in a Chinook…uh, a really big helicopter. We hook the Stryker up to it, and they carry us away, vehicle and all.”

Kevin smiled as he saw the reality of the operation dawn on the woman.

Tommy suddenly stood up atop the roof of the large armored vehicle and looked out to the west, using his hand to shield his eyes. It was late afternoon, and the sun was in the western sky. Reaching into his kit, he pulled out his folding binoculars and gazed out at the highway.

“Uh, exactly how late are they going to be?”

18

T
he sound-truck strategy was turning out to be a successful idea. Not as easily executed as in Australia, but it still was working out to be a good idea. It was in dense, heavily populated urban areas that the tactic proved to be a little more problematic. Getting hordes of undead to follow a blaring sound truck was not difficult at all. Sometimes, it was too easy. Once you had them all together following you, there needed to be an open space to lead them to—the larger, the better. The problem was that because of urban sprawl, there often wasn’t a large vacant area to take them. Often the only place was either a warehouse district, a large, relatively undeveloped area (as if the urban United States still had any of those), a large shopping mall, or (as no one in government would ever admit to) a poor, depressed area. The idea was not to let the whole city burn down to the ground. If the incendiary missiles could be contained to one zone, then that area could eventually be rebuilt. So obviously, they picked either places that could be rebuilt easily and cheaply with a minimum loss of valuable property and real estate or places that wouldn’t be missed. The rationale was that with fewer people, you need less housing anyway.

The other problem they found in big cities was lack of a feasible exit strategy. With streets and highways winding in and around each
other so frequently, the sound trucks sometimes wound up getting set upon from all directions at once. For the undead, there were no lanes and right of ways, no one-way streets, and no controlled traffic flow. They would just walk right in and converge from all directions at once. That was what happened in West Palm Beach. The truck was supposed to move through the city and out to the west. Unfortunately, it drew so many zombies from so many directions at once that it found itself surrounded and overwhelmed. The Chinook moved in and dropped the anchoring hooks to attach onto the vehicle’s body, but the men inside couldn’t get out of the hatch to secure them. After waiting past its time, the decision was made to turn around and leave the Stryker. Minutes later, the Harriers came in to turn the entire area into hell on earth. That was why the Chinook was late to pick up the sound truck in the Miami area, which was now waiting in Alligator Alley for rescue.

19

“W
hat do you see?” Kevin asked Tommy.

Tommy handed the glasses over to the other sergeant and said, “Take a look. There is another mass of zombies heading toward us from the west.”

“Zombies on two sides of us,” remarked Max, “and the Everglades and alligators on the other two. We are officially surrounded. What now, General Custer?”

“We wait,” said Kevin O’Rourke with finality. “What else can we do?”

“Let’s get the weapons out of the SUV and put them and all the ammo up on top of the Stryker,” Tommy instructed.

When the preparation was done, they sat down and watched anxiously as the undead from both ends of the highway slowly made their way forward. “Do you think we could turn that damn music off now?” asked Sean. “It’s bad enough waiting around here to be eaten without having to be subjected to that.”

O’Rourke chuckled, went inside, and turned the CD player off.

“Thank God,” sighed Ana.

“I wonder if we could escape into the swamp,” mused Luke.

Thinking of the two zombies he had seen in the water earlier, Sean stated, “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Carol started to sniff, so Jack sat next to her and put his arm around her.

Everyone was quiet, lost in his or her own private thoughts. Without the loud heavy-metal music blaring, it was actually quiet. The crickets and night frogs were starting up. Occasionally, a bird would call out, maybe an owl. If it weren’t for the constant droning sound of the moans from the zombies drawing nearer, it would have been quite peaceful.

Leaning back, Mike look up at the setting sun. He smiled to himself and said aloud, “I wonder if Jake made it to Antigua.”

“Hmmm. Yeah.” Sean nodded. “Yeah, he probably did.”

“They’re probably sitting around right now,” Malik said, “drinking piña coladas and sipping native rum.”

“What a life.” Jack smirked. Several chuckled at that, and then they got all quiet again.

As the south Florida sun sank slowly in the western sky, the peach-colored clouds turned a vibrant pink and then a rich purple as the fiery-orange sun lit up the brilliant horizon.

It really is a beautiful sunset
, Mike thought as a tear rolled down his cheek.
I wish Sue was here to see it
.

After five minutes, Dill stood and walked to both sides of the highway. Walking back to the group, he said softly, “I think we should all start getting on top of the Stryker now. They’re almost here.”

As they mounted the armored vehicle, Kevin said, “We could fit about seven people inside. It’s tight quarters, but the fewer outside, the better it’ll be for defense.”

There was a small, short argument about who would enter the vehicle for safety, but it was decided that Max, Linda, Ana, Luke, Regina, Malik, and Carol would go inside. Malik, Carol, and Regina were furious as they didn’t want to abandon the rest. However, it was already decided.

The others checked their weapons and stuck ammo into their pockets. Kevin mounted the .50 cal. machine gun. They were as ready as they could ever be in this dire situation.

The hatch opened again, and Ana stuck her head out, panicked.

“I can’t do this,” she said in a terrified voice. “I’m claustrophobic. I can’t stay down there. Please!”

“Okay,” said Sean, pulling her up.

“I’m sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I…I just can’t.”

“Put your weapons’ selectors to single shot. Aim for the head only. We can’t afford to go wasting ammo,” lectured Rube.

Sean watched as the first zombies came up. These were some of the more newly turned. They were much faster, and some were almost running. Sean focused on a young girl in front of the pack. She had on jean shorts and a blue Lynn University T-shirt. Her left arm had most of the flesh peeled off it from midforearm on down. The white bone showed through, and only two fingers remained. He lifted the M15 and took careful aim. Slowly, he pulled the trigger until the rifle fired, and her head exploded in a corona of fine, red mist. All of the faster zombies were taken out by head shots before they got near the Stryker.

At last, the main body of zombies closed in from both sides. Sensing a meal, they were more animated, reaching out and grasping the air, snarling and groaning. When they neared the vehicle, Kevin opened up on them from the turret. From this close, the fire was devastating. The ghouls were literally torn apart. Bodies and body parts piled up in heaps. Still, the undead pressed on.

Steve, realizing he was a horrible shot even at this range, gave his rifle to Tommy and reached for a crowbar he had found in one of the many abandoned cars. Kneeling down for stability, he started smashing the heads of any creatures that grabbed onto the sides to pull themselves up. This seemed to go on forever. Finally, the unmistakable sound of helicopter rotors was heard in the distance.

“They’re coming!” Kyle yelled joyfully.

Kevin dropped back inside to get on the radio, and Kyle stepped into the turret to take his place. The noise of rifle and side arm fire mixed with the horrible din of the thousands of zombies. It was deafening. A male zombie with a long, bushy beard matted with dried blood climbed up onto the hood of the Stryker. He somehow found the footholds to stand. Kyle swung the .50 cal. around and fired point-blank. The zombie all but disappeared from the waist
up. Wobbling back and forth, the two legs fell back into the crowd. An unusually tall zombie that looked a lot like Chris Bosh grasped the rail of the turret and started to pull himself up. Steve saw this and swung the crowbar hard onto the top of his skull. The zombie stiffened and then fell back. As he did, he yanked the crowbar out of Steve’s hand.

Rube ran out of ammo for his rifle. Dropping it down on the roof, he drew his side arm and continued shooting, switching his aim from one head to another.

The Chinook finally hovered overhead. The backwash from the blades made it difficult to stand normally. As they hastily lowered the tethering hooks down, Ana, looking up, stepped to the edge of the roof. Without warning, a rotting hand thrust forward and grasped her ankle. As she spun her head around fearfully, the zombie gave her leg a tug. With a short scream, she fell into the mass of hungry zombies and was covered by their bodies.

The large helicopter, trying to make up for lost time, was a little too low, and when the tethering hooks lowered all the way, some dropped down almost to the ground.

“Hook them up to the four U-bolts on the edges of the roof,” yelled Kyle. “Quickly.”

They succeeded in dragging all the hooks up to the roof except for one. That one had caught on something in the undercarriage and was stuck.

Manny yanked and yanked but to no avail. It wouldn’t budge.

“Cover me,” he yelled. “I’m gonna drop down and free the cable.”

Tommy, Sean, and Dill turned their fire to Manny’s side and started spraying concentrated fire at the zombies on the ground in front of his position. They managed to cut a swath in the crowd of undead, enough for him to jump down. Manny hit the ground and immediately crouched down and reached for the hook. The three shooters on the Stryker’s roof picked off any zombie that stepped forward to reach for Manny.

“I’m out,” yelled Sean.

Jack turned and took his position.

Steve was grasping the turret and, while seated on the roof, was kicking any zombie trying to climb on. One grabbed his left leg and began to drag him off, but he kicked at its face with his right leg until it let go.

Manny finally managed to unsnag the cable and was pulling the hook free when a hand reached out from underneath the vehicle and grabbed his wrist. A zombie that was lying on the ground pulled his hand to his mouth and bit it. Manny swore and pulled away. He quickly stood, kicked the ghoul in the face, and then climbed back onto the armored vehicle.

At last, all four cables were tethered to the Stryker. Kyle yelled down to Kevin, “Sarge. We’re hooked up. Tell them to haul us up out of this.”

Kevin relayed the message to the hovering Chinook.

Tommy noticed Manny’s hand when he attached the last cable. “Manny,” he cried, “You’re bitten.”

“I know,” he said softly. “There was one fucker under the truck waiting for me.”

“No,” said Tommy. “There’s got to be something we can do.”

Manny looked at his sergeant and his best friend. “No, mano. But there’s something I can do.” He reached down and took his side arm out.

Kyle DeVries was listening to this exchange, and he quickly yelled out, “No, wait!”

Manny and Tommy turned to him.

“Wait,” Kyle continued rapidly, “don’t do it.
There is a cure
. I swear, there is a cure now.”

Everyone turned at the same time and almost in unison said, “What?”

Just then, the vehicle jerked, and Dill called out, “Hang onto anything. We’re going up.”

Everyone quickly grasped the nearest stable thing that they could hold onto. As the big Stryker started to rise, Mike, who was hanging onto the rear cable for dear life, looked over the edge of the roof. What he saw made his eyes go wide and the blood drain from his face.

“Nooo,” he screamed.

Holding onto the rear hatch handles was a dark-haired zombie. He was swinging back and forth with the movement of the vehicle. Looking up at Mike, he bared his teeth and hissed at him. As he did, he reached up and tried to find another, higher handhold.

No, no, no, no, no
, kept going through Mike’s mind.

Almost as if in a dream, he took the rifle off his shoulder with one hand and aimed it down at the malevolent face of the zombie.

Mike, raging now, sneered at the undead creature. “You fucking piece of shit,” he said. Aiming down, he pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through the zombie’s left eye and blew the back of his black, curly-haired head wide open. The zombie let go and fell back. As his now lifeless body tumbled back down to the ground, the camera bag hanging around his shoulder slipped off, and they both landed atop the mass of undead below.

As the Chinook flew toward the northwest, a formation of Harriers flew above them heading southeast.

A few minutes later, the dusk sky was lit up by a series of brilliant orange explosions that, like a chain of fire, lit up the expanse of Alligator Alley.

20

S
ean and Mike were sitting together outside of their Quonset hut in the civilian annex of MacDill Air Force Base. Both were sipping bottles of water. The civilian annex was a series of enclosed Quonset huts attached to the base. It was used to house any civilian survivors who were found or who had wandered in. More and more were coming every day. In the zombie-free zones that the army was establishing, condo and apartment buildings were starting to be used to house everyone. These were easier to control. New rules were enacted by the government and enforced by the military. Some were rather draconian, but all were meant to protect the civilian population. Military-age survivors who were found were quickly trained and set to work filling in the depleted ranks of the armed forces. Most were just supporting troops, used for the maintenance of the bases and supplying frontline troops. Some of the survivors who were recovered had shown great aptitude in survival skills and zombie extermination. These were put in the actual combat units that had been reduced by the attrition of zombie eradication. Any law-enforcement people were put in MP-type units and used to oversee the residents and personnel.