Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (40 page)

“We want those supplies,” snapped Armstrong.

“Newsflash,” I said, my hand tightening on my pistol grip. “You’re not getting shit from me. Who the fuck do you think you are, demanding we turn everything over to you? My group is ten times the size of yours. I don’t give a shit who you think you are. Your badge doesn’t mean a goddamned thing to me. Stay here in your damned hole. We fought for everything we have, and I’ll fight to my last breath to keep you from taking it.”

“Alright, Grant,” said Rosewood. “You’re free to go. We won’t stop you.”

I nodded and started moving towards the door. I didn’t take my eyes off of any of them. Switching my hand from my Colt to the handle of the Beowulf, I clicked off the safety and grabbed it with both hands. I glanced out into the hallway, but there wasn’t anyone out there.

“
You won’t get far,” hissed Armstrong, her face a mask of hate.

“We’ll see,” I replied, blowing her a mocking kiss.

Backing out into the hallway, I glanced both directions. Down at the far end of the hallway towards the back of the building, I could see Ms. Copeland, the EMT, peeking around the corner. She lifted her finger to her lips to indicate for me not to say anything. Then she motioned for me to follow her. Not having any better options, I headed down the hallway after her. When I rounded the corner, she was waiting for me looking very apprehensive.

“Are you leaving?” she asked, almost in a whisper.

“That was the plan,” I replied.

“I can show you the way out,” she said, still keeping her voice low. “Will you take me with you?”

“It’s dangerous out there,” I said, pointing towards the wall.

“I know,” she said. “I don’t wa
nt to stay here. I don’t like how they treat me.”

“Alright,” I agreed, “but you have to listen to what I say. Let’s get out of here. Do you have anything you need to take with you?”

“I don’t have anything to grab,” she said, shaking her head. “I only had my medic kit when I got here. Most of that is already gone.”

“Won’t they notice you’re gone?” I asked
, glancing around the corner.

“Not if we move fast,” she said
, nervously. “But we need to hurry.”

I followed her towards the back of the building
. I was expecting a connecting walkway that led from the jail to the courthouse. That’s the way we had it at Nathanael County. Then I remembered that Lacland County was much smaller. There was nothing like that in this building. In fact, the jail was actually connected to the courthouse. This was going to be more difficult than I thought.

We turned a corner and headed towards a barricaded set of double doors. Just as we were about to reach them, a figure stepped out of a side-door and blocked our passage. It was the fireman, Randall. Somehow, he'd guessed which way I was going and
knew exactly where to cut us off. I resisted the urge to just shoot him and move on. In retrospect, it was the right decision. It probably saved our lives.

"Going somewhere?" he asked,
folding his arms across his chest.

"I…uh…I…we…," stammered Copeland.

"
WE
were leaving," I said, tightening my grip on my weapon.

"Hey," he said, holding out his hands. "Don't shoot. I'm not
trying to stop you."

"Then I'd kindly ask you to step aside," I said, not
quite
pointing my weapon at him.

"Look," he said, taking a step back, "Rosewood's an idiot. I don't want to stay here. We'll either starve, or he'll get us all killed. He's a moron for not accepting your offer to join your group. We can't last here, much longer."

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked, eyeing him skeptically.

"Because you need the help to get out of here," he replied. "I know this town better than just about anyone. Besides that, if we don't get moving soon they'll be coming for you. You seriously don't think they're going to just let you walk out of here, do you?"

"I really didn't think they would," I replied. "I wondered why they agreed to give me my weapons back."

"I don't know, either," he said. "Unless they planned on
making their move before you could reload. I guess you forced their hand."

A thought struck me
so I slipped my weapon on safe, and then looked into the end of the barrel. Sure enough, there was a shell shoved into it, blocking it off completely. If I had fired it, it would have killed me.

"Fuck!" I snapped. "They sabotaged my gear!"

"Follow me," he said. "I know a place we can hide while you fix your guns."

We took the stairs at the end of the hallway and headed towards the doors that separated the jail from the courthouse. They were locked, but not barricaded. We quickly removed the locking bar and peeked through the small window into the hallway beyond.

"The courthouse should be clear," he said. "We sealed it off and shut the doors to it. We don't use it because it's mostly just offices and courtrooms."

"Let's go," I said, heading through first.

Since I couldn't trust any of my guns until I had a chance to check them all, I pulled out my hammer. There was nothing they could do to jam it. It didn't require reloading and never misfired. Once I was sure that the hallway was clear, I motioned them both through. Then we shut the doors and I put a set of handcuffs on the door-handles to keep them from opening.

"Let's move," said Randall.

"You might want to let me go first," I said. "I'm the only one that's got a weapon."

"I wouldn't say that," he said, pulling a pistol out of his cargo pocket.

It wasn't silenced, but it was more than I expected him to have. It would do, for now. We headed down the hallway and down the main stairs. I could see where the front doors in the lobby had been barricaded and there was dried blood on the floor. We ducked into an office and I shrugged out of my pack.

Randall covered the door while I dug out my cleaning kit. It took some doing, but I managed to remove the blockages from all of my weapons. They even blocked the PMR-30's. Both of them had a round in the end of the barrel and the silencer screwed back into place. After clearing
the obstructions, I quickly reloaded and readied them. Shouldering my pack, I nodded at my two new traveling companions.

"Ready," I said. "They did a number on my gear, but it's all working now."

"Alright," said Randall. "Let's get moving."

He headed for the front door to clear the barricade. Something in my gut told me not to go that way.

"Hang on," I said. "I don't think we should go that way."

"Why not?" asked Copeland, surprised.

"I'm not sure," I explained. "I just think we'd be better off going a different way."

"This is the fastest way," replied Randall, looking at me over his shoulder.

"That's what worries me," I said, shaking my head. "If Rosewood and his people are waiting for us, that's the way they'll expect us to go."

"How could they know which way we went?" said Copeland.

"Cameras," I said, pointing. "They cut the power to this end of the building. I'm guessing that includes the cameras, too. But they would have seen us easily in the other part of the building."

"
Then why wouldn't they have stopped us before now?" asked Randall, turning around to face me.

"Maybe they're planning to ambush us when we leave the building," I said, frowning. "I'm not sure, but I think we'd be better off taking a less obvious direction."

"Alright," said Randall. "What do you suggest?"

"Well," I said, thinking, "
We could either go out the back way, which they're probably watching, as well. Or, we could go out a window."

"
How are they going to ambush us?" asked Copeland. "They can't go outside without the dead finding them."

"The roof," I said, pointing up. "If they put a couple of people up there with rifles, they could just pick us off. Then they could retrieve the gear later."

"Won't they just move when they realize we went out another way?" asked Randall.

"I'm sure they will," I answered. "But once we're outside, I can shoot back. I'm pretty sure they're not going to like Beowulf."

"What's Beowulf?" said Copeland.

"My rifle," I explained. "That's it's name. It's called a Beowulf."

"You name your weapons?" she asked, incredulous.

"It's a manufacturer's name," said Randall. "I've heard of them."

"Like I said," I added, "they won't like it when I shoot at them. This thing really packs a punch. Now, let's find a window to crawl out of."

We headed into a different office and found a window that was large enough for us to crawl
through. I peered out into the street and only saw zombies stumbling along in the distance. They were blocks away and not an immediate threat. I decided that it was worth the risk. I unlocked the window and slid it open. It was still about an eight foot drop to the ground, so once we jumped there was no turning back.

I went out first and landed in a crouch. I quickly brought up the Beowulf and scanned around me. Once I was sure that it was clear, I moved out of the way and motioned for the next person to come out. Copeland came out next, with Randall helping lower her to the ground. She didn't have to jump very far and landed without any trouble. Randall waited just long enough for her to step aside and dropped to the ground.

Once we were all down, I decided to head south. Bennett Springs was west of town, but I didn't want to head directly towards our destination. If they were watching us, they might be able to guess where we were going by the direction we went. Besides that, it would take Spec-4 and the others a while to get to us. We might as well head towards the other group of survivors in the Mega-mart.

"This way," I said, pointing south.

Randall nodded and headed across the street. Copeland started after him when I saw movement above us. I glanced up to see someone leaning out from the edge of the roof with a rifle. Drawing one of my silenced PMR-30's, I took aim and fired off two quick shots. I heard the grunt and the person disappeared from view. Randall glanced back and saw what had happened, and dove for cover behind a parked SUV.

I darted out into the street behind Copeland, keeping my weapon trained on the roof. When I saw movement, I took a shot. I was moving backwards and aiming while on the run. I would be surprised if I actually hit anything. While I would have preferred kill-shots, I'd settle for keeping their heads down long enough for us to get to cover.

"Hey Grant!" I heard the voice of Armstrong shout from the roof.

I declined to answer, not wanting to give away our position.

"I've got something for you AND the two traitors that went with you!" she shouted.

I readied my rifle, just in case I had to take a shot. I really didn't want the loud noise, but I refused to sit here while they lobbed a Molotov cocktail or a grenade at us. I wasn't expecting what happened next. From the roof, I heard the soft high-pitched beginnings of a siren. It was the old hand-cranked type that they used to use to call storm warnings or air raids during World War Two. The more she cranked, the louder it got.

In seconds, you could hear the whirring scream of the siren echoing away in every direction. Then, from almost every direction at once, it was answered. The chaotic sound of dozens of
Shriekers
screaming all at once made my blood run cold. They were bringing every zombie within range of that siren down on us. We were in major trouble.

"Run!" I shouted, and pushed them away from the SUV. "Run or we're all dead!"

"Where!" screamed Copeland.

"I know a place!" shouted Randall. "Follow me!"

I just looked at Copeland and shouted, "GO!"

Wherever he was taking us, I hoped it was close. This entire area was going to be crawling with undead in a very short
amount of time. Our only hope lay in finding a place to hide before they saw us. Armstrong had done her worst. If I survived it, I was going to kill that woman. Fair is far, after all.