Soldier On: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse
Read Soldier On: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Online
Authors: Shawn Chesser
Contents
Soldier On:
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse
By
Shawn Chesser
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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Soldier On:
Surviving the Zombie
Apocalypse
Copyright 2011
Shawn Chesser
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real persons, events or places are purely coincidental; any references to actual places, people or brands are fictitious. All rights reserved.
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Acknowledgements
For Mo, Raven, Caden and Penny who is now flying up in cat heaven. Thanks for putting up with me clacking away at all hours. Mom, thanks for reading…although it is not your genre. Dad, aka Mountain Man Dan, thanks for your ear and influence. Thanks to all of the men and women in the military, past and present, especially those of you in harms way. Thanks George Romero for introducing me to zombies. All of my friends and fellows, thanks as well. Lastly, thanks to Bill W. and Dr. Bob…you helped make this possible. I am going to sign up for another 24.
Outbreak day 4
Utah State Forest Service Road 334
Wasatch Mountains, Utah
Cade Grayson, father, husband and ex-Delta Force operator watched the trees flash by as he maneuvered the Kawasaki dirt bike along the single lane gravel road in the Utah back country.
He was on a mission to reunite with his young daughter Raven and wife Brook. Although he didn’t know exactly where they were or if they were still alive; nothing was going to deter him from searching.
Cade rode east, away from Camp Williams. The Special Forces garrison was dangerously close to a large population center situated less than twenty miles from Salt Lake City, Utah and even closer to the smaller city of Draper.
Each break in the thick canopy of trees offered Cade a glimpse of the angry looking thunder heads above. The sooty gray clouds stretched up, bumping against the Wasatch mountain range directly in his path.
Cade thought travelling through one of the many canyons dissecting the sharp granite peaks was the best way to avoid the walking dead. So far there had been few of them wandering the road, moaning and reaching for him as he sped by. Still, it was fresh in his mind, it made no difference how many of the monsters he came across, it would only take one bite to ruin his day.
Shadows flashing on the ground had a hypnotic effect on the already road weary traveller. Cade rounded a blind corner; he was riding too fast to avoid the crowd of zombies choking the road. Without hesitating he put his head over the bars and his upper body on the tank, trying to become as small a target as possible.
The first zombie met the motorcycle head on; there was no recognition of pain, fear or surprise as she was ejected out of her purple Crocs and sent airborne. The adolescent girl’s blonde ponytail and blood spattered SeaWorld tee shirt was the only thing Cade perceived before she disappeared over the guardrail and down the embankment.
Adrenaline pumped through Cade’s veins heightening all of his senses and making the action around him appear to slow down. He could feel the bike going sideways under him and everything went quiet. Zombies flew by in his peripheral vision, their cold hands clutching and clawing for a piece of him. Cade momentarily sailed freely, separated from his bike, before gravity reunited him with earth. Pain exploded through his hip and shoulder as the unforgiving road took its toll sending him into a flat spin on his chest. Cade got up on one knee with the Glock in a two handed grip searching for his first target. There was no need to chamber a round, locked and loaded had become the gold standard the day the dead started walking.
Cade picked Joe Dirt; the zombie sported a flowing brown mullet, NASCAR tee shirt, and khaki cargo shorts and was closing on him the fastest. He looked to be early twenties-the younger they were the faster they moved.
Joe let out a dry raspy moan and picked up speed, shredded bare feet slapping the gravel while his milky eyes focused intently on Cade.
The Glock held 17 rounds in the magazine plus one riding in the chamber, more than enough for this group. The first bullet had Joe’s name on it. The 9 mm slug punched through his Neanderthal forehead and exited the back of his head taking a sizable chunk of hair covered skull with it. In between targets Cade checked on the bike, it lay on its side twenty feet uphill from his position.
The next zombie was a walking road map of lacerations oozing puss and blood; it looked like she had been wrestling with barbed wire and lost. The things short Peter Pan hairdo was home to twigs, bugs and the spider webs that caught them. Clothing was an afterthought, save for panties and the remains of a short skirt; her pale tattooed body was bare for all to see.
Cade put the young lady in his sights and squeezed off three rapid-fire shots that walked up from her sternum. The first bullet shattered the breastbone and started the flying lesson; the second and third 9 mm slugs entered under her neck and chin, effectively popping off her skullcap and depositing the scrambled brains in a gory pile on the roadside.
The operator sidestepped while he backpedaled, keeping the remaining four zombies from flanking him. He had seen some instances of cunning behavior displayed, he had no answer for it; but he was glad it was the exception to the norm.
An undead Caucasian male worked Cade’s right, while his African American counterpart, though much younger, tried to move in from the left. The last two were behind them, near the downed Kawasaki and were the slow movers of the posse.
The idea came to Cade from out of the blue; he rushed the clumsy corpses and sprinted between them, resulting in a near face to face collision of the two zombies. Four more shots from the Glock put the two ghouls down with vicious double taps to the back of the head.
Four down, two to go
.
Cade approached the final two threats from the low ground. He shot the elderly zombie between the eyes and watched her hit the ground and skid leaving a black blood trail behind.
The last zombie was having a hard time walking, his final choice of footwear had been a pair of ostrich skin cowboy boots, that were no longer tan. A gash two inches deep near its carotid artery painted everything from the neck down, the black dried blood made his fancy western shirt crackle when he walked. Tex had been having a bad week and it was about to get worse. Cade circled around the Kawasaki and put a mercy bullet behind his ear, being careful to keep the brain shower off of the bike. The entire melee lasted less than a minute; he had been given the nickname
Wyatt
for a reason.
Cade changed out the magazine and then he walked the side of the road searching for the undead little girl; the body was nowhere to be found.