Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (39 page)

“Ahh,” said Spec-4.

“Hey, Wylie,” said Southard, on the radio. “Looks like the Mo-Ho got hit, too.”

“Yeah, we were just saying that,” I said.
“Don’t let them swarm us. I think we can get through.”

“Can’t we
go farther north?” asked Southard.

“There are only two options that go all the way through,” I said.
“Dale Street and Kearney. We already saw what Kearney looks like.”

“Yeah, screw
Kearney,” said Southard. “What about Dale?”

“It runs right behind the dorms from the
Bible College.”

“Oh yeah, that place will be crawling with zombies, too.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I don’t want to risk it unless we have to.”

I could see that we were already getting a lot of zombie attention.
It was decision time. I looked at Spec-4 and nodded. We needed to be ready to clear a path, if they headed into the road en masse. There were enough of them to do us considerable damage.

“Get on the SAW,” I said.
“Get ready to punch us a hole.”

She smiled, and slid back into the turret.
In seconds, she was back behind the SAW and ready to fire.

“Say the word!” she yelled.

I hit the accelerator and headed down the middle of the road. It was mostly clear of vehicles, but there were quite a few zombies. Southard got right in line behind me and matched my speed. We were doing close to fifty miles per hour as we approached the front of the Mo-Ho. Spec-4 stayed on the gun, but held her fire.

Zombies were bouncing off of the bumper and the fenders.
I kept the wheel straight, and gripped it like a vice. Then, inspiration hit me. I saw a train parked in the train-yard to my left. It was loaded with cars, pick-ups and mini-vans. If we timed it right, that would make one hell of a distraction.

“Wilder,” I shouted.
“Light up that train.”

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

She shook her head, but swung the SAW around and engaged the train.
Not to be outdone, I could see Sanders behind us. He lit up the train, too. In seconds, the cars started to catch fire and explode. It was going to be one hell of a fire. I kept the pedal to the floor and seconds later, we were shooting past the worst of the zombies and heading into clear streets.

“Cease fire,” I yelled into the radio.

Instantly, the firing stopped.

“Back inside and button down,” I said.

“Copy,” said Sanders.

Spec-4 dropped back inside and sealed the hatch.
Climbing back into the front seat, she looked at me and smiled.

“Ok, was there a reason we shot up that train?
Or do you just hate mini-vans?”

“Actually, yes I do hate mini-vans.
But that’s not why I had you shoot them. If you make enough noise, you’ll draw away zombies from the hospital.”

“Great plan.
Now we’ll have even more zombies down here to deal with.”

“That’s not it.
If we draw enough of them away, we might have a shot at rescuing the officers trapped on the roof.”

“Oh, God,” she said.
“There are people trapped on the roof?”

“There are two that we know of, for sure.
I didn’t think that there’d be any way to get to them. There still may not be.”

“We could roll up with one vehicle and open fire,” she said.
“Then, once we have their attention, we drive away slow enough that they can follow us.”

“You want us to be a zombie Pied Piper?”

“Once enough of them follow us away, we could take off and circle around. Maybe get close enough to get them out.”

“That’s crazy,” I said.
“Absolutely crazy. But it just might work.”

She grinned at me, and pulled a long lock of blonde hair away from her face and tucked it behind her left ear.
I couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“That just might work,” I said.
“But we should use two teams. The first team can draw them away and keep their attention. The other will be the extraction team.”

“How are they going to get down?
I mean, I know we won’t get all of the zombies out of the hospital. There are probably hundreds of them inside.”

“The fire stairs,” I said.
“There shouldn’t be many in the stairwells. With any luck at all, they should be able to come down the stairs with minimal contact.”

We continued on east until we reached the next intersection.
The
Spud
cruiser that we’d looted on the first day was still there. Its lights were no longer flashing and there were only a few zombies milling around the area.

“Hey,” said Spec-4. “Didn’t we come through here the other day?”

“We sure did,” I said. “That’s where EMT grabbed the med bags.”

I pointed at the Ambulance sub-station on the corner.

“Hey, Wylie,” said Southard, from the radio. “There’s a liquor store to our left. It looks abandoned. Want to grab some supplies?”

“Negatory, Ghostrider,” I responded. “As much as we both like to have a drink, we have more important things to do.”

“I meant to make Molotov Cocktails,” he replied.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “But, maybe later.
We have grenades, anyway.”

“But they don’t catch shit on fire,” he said.

“True,” I replied. “But I think we’ll pass, for now.”

“Keep it in mind,” he said.
“And I could grab some SoCo while we were at it.”

“Why on earth would you want that crap when we have Bushmills at the jail?”

“You might be a Mick,” he said. “But my family’s a bunch of hillbillies. I’ll take my Southern Comfort any day.”

“Suit yourself, you heathen,” I said.

“No, that would be you,” he countered.

“Touché,” I replied, grinning.

“Where exactly are we going?” asked Spec-4.

“Once we hit Glenstone,” I said. “We turn left.
About a block down on the right is a hardware store. I want to hit it and try to find a manual pump and some hose.”

“Why?”

“With the power out, it’s the only way we’re going to get gas out of the ground tanks at the gas station.”

“Good point,” she said.

We were closing in on Glenstone, and I could see the cars blocking the intersection. I started slowing down when we were less than a hundred yards out. There was a pizza place on the left hand side and it was crawling with zombies. There was a tour bus in the parking lot and most of the zombies looked like an elderly tour group. Needless to say there weren’t many
Sprinters
in this crowd. It didn’t take long before they noticed us. One old lady in a red hat turned towards us and started shrieking. Spec-4 looked at me, expectantly.

“Go for it,” I said.

In a flash, she was back up into the turret. In the mirror, I could see Sanders doing the same thing. Spec-4 was a little quicker, and she started firing first. Sanders was only a couple seconds behind her, though. They started cutting down the geriatric ghouls, systematically sweeping back and forth with their fire. I grabbed another belt of ammo and held it up. I had timed it well, because right after that the SAW fell silent. Spec-4 looked down and started to say something, then grabbed the belt and started reloading.

“Thanks!” she yelled.

“No problem,” I replied.

I sat two more boxes of ammo within easy reach for her and started looking for a way through the traffic.
If I could make it to the parking lot of the fitness center across the road, I could go through parking lots all the way to the hardware store. I looked to my left and saw an opening near the far side of the pizza place’s parking lot.

“Make me a hole in that crowd, but don’t catch anything on fire,” I yelled.

“On it,” said Spec-4.

She started firing again, as Sanders’ SAW fell silent.
She swept a line of fire through the center of the largest knot of moldy oldies. Then I saw my opening. I turned the wheels to the left and hit the gas. I hoped that Southard would follow me and I smiled when he did. I should have known he’d stay on my six.

I slammed into the remaining zombies and scattered them like bowling pins.
Then I bounced over an overturned scooter and swerved around the front of the building. Once I was clear of the zombie crowd, I angled towards the gap I’d seen. Only one vehicle stood in my way. Beyond it was a clear shot into the parking lot of the fitness center. Once we cleared the fitness center, it was smooth sailing into the parking lot of the hardware store.

There was a
Grabber
zombie still stuck in the seatbelt of a little blue Toyota Prius. I hit the front end of the Prius at an angle and spun it around and away from me. It slid beneath a flat-bed lumber truck and sheared the roof off of it. It also sheared the head off of the zombie. I couldn’t have aimed that shot any better if I tried.

“Bonus points,” I muttered.

“Nice hit, Wylie,” yelled Southard, from the radio.

I didn’t bother to reply.
I was busy navigating over the curb and into the parking lot of the fitness center. I had to plow over the top of two female zombies in workout tights. I could see dozens more inside the glass doors of the fitness center. Before I could say anything, the glass erupted as Spec-4 unleashed the full fury of the SAW on the fitness center zombies.

“You see,” said Southard.
“That’s why I never got a membership there. Too many people. I mean, who the fuck goes for a workout when zombies are attacking the goddamn city?”

I
spun to the left and rubber squealed in protest as I made the turn. Next to the fitness center was another liquor store. Spec-4 stopped shooting as we passed it, but still managed to put a short burst into the front of it. I’m not sure what she hit, but I saw fire erupt as we passed by. From the rate it was spreading, I could tell it was going to be one hell of a fire.

“Aw, crap,” said Southard.
“There goes all that wonderful alcohol.”

I bounced through the parking lot and into the parking lot of the strip mall.
I headed for the front entrance of the hardware store, crunching two more zombies under my wheels on the way. The parking lot was mostly empty and in seconds we were pulling in front of the store.

“Listen up, folks,” I said into the radio.
“When we stop, I want Wilder and Sanders to stay on the SAW’s and cover us. Southard and I will go inside and find the parts we need.”

“Got it,” said Southard.

“Both of you reload before we go in,” I said to Spec-4 and Sanders.

“Copy,” said Sanders.

Spec-4’s only response was to reach down and grab a box of ammo and pull it up. Southard pulled to a stop, right next to me. I scanned the area, quickly, and didn’t see any zombies that were close enough to be an immediate threat to us.

“Ready?” I asked over the radio.

“No, but let’s do it anyway,” said Southard.

I opened my door and stepped out, M-16 at the ready.
After a quick sweep of the area, I grabbed my Mossberg and slung it over my shoulder by the strap. I patted my right cargo pocket to confirm the contents. There were four extra magazines for the M-16. The other pocket held rounds for the shotgun. In holsters attached to my Interceptor vest, I had two Beretta 9mm’s. Extra mags for them were on my duty belt.

The fire in the liquor store was getting bigger.
Between the flames and the exploding liquor bottles, all of the zombies in the area seemed to be focusing their attention on it. That was good for us. So long as we didn’t make a lot of noise, we might just make it through this without an extended firefight. The bigger that fire got the more attention it would attract. We would definitely use that to our advantage.

I nodded at Southard and started walking towards the front door of the hardware store, weapon at the ready.
Southard stayed just to my left and kept his weapon up and sweeping the area. I tried the door and it was unlocked. That wasn’t good news. Sure, it meant we didn’t have to break in, but it also meant that there was a good possibility that there would be zombies inside.

Slowly, I pulled the door open with my left hand, keeping the M-16 ready in
my right. I was careful not to jangle the metal bell that was attached to the door. No sense attracting unnecessary attention. I slipped inside, and Southard came in right behind me. He gently shut the door as I pulled out my Stinger flashlight from my duty belt.

The light was like a beacon in the darkened interior of the store.
I motioned for Southard to sweep to the left and I went right. I didn’t see anything in the fist two aisles, but Southard waved at me and got my attention. He saw something in the fourth aisle. I started moving slowly in his direction. When I leaned around the corner, I saw two zombies eating the remains of a body on the ground. They hadn’t noticed us, yet.