Zombie Dawn II: A Zombie Apocalypse Sequel (8 page)

We never got in the third round,
because all of our firing had drawn a pretty decent pack of wolves.  We had
Marvel, my watcher, watching our asses but he was such an idiot that he was
focused on the game and not watching.  At least he was pulling for me.

Anyway, we had a tense few moments
when the wolves attacked.  We all acquitted ourselves well.  Ian had two
Beretta nine millimeters with 15 round mags and could shoot really well with
both hands.  He was a machine.  No misses, no wasted motion, reloads as fast as
a striking snake. 

I had a Sig .45 but it only held 7
rounds, and I only had two magazines, so I ended up using my trusty katana to
finish up a few.  Thank God Ian was backing me up, though.  I got the blade
stuck in the back of one guy’s skull and the bone must have been thick because
I couldn’t get it out.  I had to stand with one foot on his head and one on his
back and wiggle the goddamn thing back and forth until it came out.  Then it
broke, so I used the remaining shard to drop one,

Fortunately, Marvel had entered the
fray with his auto Mac 9 and sprayed everything, including a few wolves.  He
almost nailed Ian, and Ian almost dropped him but was able to hold the shot. 
Since the zombies were all done, Ian took a moment to bust Marvel’s nose up
with a short left, but had to stop there since we knew more were coming.  We
bugged out and got back to camp as quick as we could.

When Santos found out that he’d
almost lost his two top snipers because they were playing a game, he locked us
up together for a day or so.  No food, no water.  No bucket to shit in.  The
cell was small enough that you couldn’t really stand up, either.   A good
reminder that we were slaves, after all.  But Ian and I became fast friends that
day.  It was either that or he’d have to kill me, because I reminded him about
two hundred times that we were tied.  In fact, I claimed to be the best sniper
in the world, since I’d shot the best single five round clip ever.

Ian snorted, but he had to admit I
had a point!

Chapter 25
Jack’s Journey--Botched

Micah and I finally arrived at the
armory.  Waited outside, hidden under a rolled-over semi.  We could see a
corner of the parking lot, and the main gate.  Heavy zombie traffic, including
a lot of wolves and brains.  A bunch of the intact ones.  We were well hidden,
and we hung there for over a day.

A few times, I saw Mike through my
scope.  He’d grown a bit, seemed to be thriving.  He’d filled in a bit, but his
eyes were hollow. 

He was in and out all the time.  It
appeared that he had some freedom.  He was usually with a ginger redneck and
big soldier. 

Mike’s freedom gave me hope that Kate
was alive, since I could not see Mike doing anything for the zombies if she
were dead.

Later that day, I saw someone attack
Mike while he wasn’t paying attention.  He was just standing there all alone,
checking the area out with binoculars.  The attacker had a slight build, tall,
looked like a female.  She landed a blow with some type of pole, sending Mike
spinning to the ground.  He was laying on his back, looking up at her.  There
was no one else around the help.  The big soldier had left an hour before, and
the redneck was for some reason not with Mike.  This attacker pulled a knife,
moved towards Mike, and made a motion like she was about to slit his throat.  Not
knowing what else to do, I take the shot.  Just as I see Mike laughing and
smiling. 

I think I just killed a friend.  In
addition to blowing any advantage that I might have had to launch a surprise
attack.

Chapter 26:    Mike’s Diary--Crushed

Life in this new world sucks.  Today,
I lost the love of my life for no reason.  I was checking the perimeter with my
binoculars when, as usual, Lita attacked.  As usual, her attack was successful
and I ended up on my back.  Lita pulled her knife, part of our game.  I was
hoping she’d come lay on top of me.  Instead, she faked a strike at my exposed
throat, and I laughed, just as her head exploded, showering me with gore.

I immediately knew she was dead.  No
time to think or react.  A fuzzy buzzing sound in my head my only response.  I
guess that’s what they call being in shock.

I had seen the muzzle flash.  Ian was
on his way back in and came running when he heard the shot.  I pointed to where
the shot had come from, under an old fuel truck across the street.  I think we
may have brought the truck there months ago while we were looting the armory. 
Anyway, the shot had come from there.

Ian lined up a shot and started
covering fire with his AR 15.  I ran to a low concrete wall in the parking lot
and starting pouring some shots in with my .338.  I heard some yelling from
over there, but I could not make out what they were saying.  Nor did I care. 
They’d just shot and killed Lita, whoever they were.  They had to die.

I signaled to Ian to grab a
hand-fired rocket, and he went to get one while I kept them pinned down.  They
weren’t firing back, which was weird.  Maybe we’d hit them, maybe they were out
of ammo.

I felt blind rage.  The only good
thing in my life, Lita, taken from me.  Why?

Ian fired the rocket, which was a
miss.  We carefully approached the shooter, who pinned us down but then stopped
shooting.

Chapter
27:    Jack’s Journey—Payback

Something was wrong.  I’d saved Mike,
with a perfect shot even, but his reaction was all wrong.  Mike was now trying
to kill me.  Firing accurate kill shots and rockets at me.  Now I knew what I’d
done.  Killed someone that Mike cared about, maybe loved.

There are moments in your life when
your priorities become crystal clear.  It’s one thing to have a drunken, or
stoned, conversation about who you would save, your wife or your kids.  Or your
father or your mother.  It’s another to know.  I realized, right then, that if
it came down to Kate or Mike, I’d pick Kate.  I also realized that Mike was
about to kill me, which I think is a mitigating circumstance.  Anyway, I
quickly decided that I would try not to be killed by Mike, not to kill Mike,
but do my best to see Kate again before I died.  A shitty plan, but the best I
could come up with at the time.

When you see a rocket attack in the
movies, it seems to move almost in slow motion.  In real life, it starts slow
and ends fast.  I watched a rocket come right at me, pass right next to my
right side, glance off Micah’s left leg, ricochet off the left, and explode
about fifty feet away when it hit a tree.  Micah didn’t even go down, but I
think it busted his leg.  He started sobbing silently as he dropped in slow
motion to the ground.

I could see Mike and another guy, a
big bastard, coming after us.  I fired a few rounds close to them to slow them
down while I set up Micah on the ground. 

“We only have a few seconds.  When
they get close, keep your hands in the air and don’t fight them.  They might
hurt you but they won’t kill you.  They need to know what you know.  As long as
you don’t tell them, they’ll keep you alive.  I’ll be back for you, but I have
to go now.”

Micah gave me a sad but trusting
look, then passed out.

I ran.

Chapter 28:    Mike’s Journal—Cold
Rage

It took me about two seconds when we
reached the shooter to realize two things.  First, this guy was not the
shooter.  He seemed like a helpless idiot and was clearly not in charge of
anything.  He had a busted leg, femur I think, and was holding a shotgun, which
was not the weapon that took out Lita.  He was sobbing and sniveling
uncontrollably.

Second, I somehow immediately knew
that my father was involved with this.  Perhaps this was the attack I’d been
expecting.  If so, he’d fucked it up beyond repair.  Instead of a surprise
attack or a recon session, he’d blown his cover.  And would soon be killed by
Ian and me.

This was confirmed when the idiot
began to talk to “Jack.”  He was delirious.  “Don’t worry, Jack, I’ll pull your
tooth.  I’ll take care of you, Jack.”

This confirmed it.  My father had
destroyed any hope of rescuing me and mom, and had killed Lita as well.  What a
joke.

I was about to kill the idiot when
Ian stopped me.

“This bloke is harmless, and we might
be able to use him.  He can’t move.  Let’s leave him here and find the
shooter.  Take his weapons.  Move!  Do it now!”

As usual, Ian was right.  We headed out
after the “shooter,” who I knew was my Dad.  I had no idea what to do with him,
or to him, if and when we found him.

It was actually pretty easy.  Jack
ran about two or three blocks and set up an ambush.  But when, in my rage, I
ran right into it, he called out to me instead of shooting. 

“Mike, it’s me.  I’m sorry about that
girl.  I thought she was going to kill you.  I didn’t know.” 

“Fuck you,” I screamed. “I will kill
you, asshole.”

Ian calmed me down.  “Think a bit
here, Mike.  He’s here to rescue your Mom.  Maybe we should hear him out.  We
are on the same side, after all.”

“OK, but I want to hurt him.”

“Maybe later.  First we talk.”

“Dad, come on out.  Let’s talk.”

He walked around the corner, his M4
pointed at the ground, while Ian and I covered him.  We dropped our muzzles as
well.  We all put our guns down.

As my father neared me, my rage only
grew.  A tiny part of me was glad to see him, but I could not get over that
he’d killed Lita.  So, to his surprise, as he went to hug me, I head butted
him, popping his nose wide open.  To his credit, he immediately responded with
a kick to my nuts, which I was able to avoid, catching it on my thigh—which
promptly when numb.

“Stay out of this, Ian.  Do not
shoot,” I called.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,
lad.  No worries.”

I circled my Dad, and he circled me. 
We each pulled our knives, but dropped them.  Somehow we decided to have this
out as a fistfight only, without killing each other.  I knew that he wouldn’t
kill me, anyway, except to save my Mom.  I decided to do the same.

I’d learned a lot from Ian, but Jack
was a pretty good fighter for an old fat guy.  No longer that fat, but hey.  As
I came in, rather than moving side to side he came right in, and gave
me
a head butt.  I kneed him in right in the thigh and I could tell it hurt.  We
were even.

We stood toe to toe and exchanged a
flurry of blows.  Some hit, some missed, but we whaled the tar out of each
other.  I surprised Jack with a leg sweep and brought him down.  He whipped out
this extendable baton and, as I went for a head stomp with my boot, whacked me
in the knee.  I also went down but got on him and started to strangle him.  He
started to strangle me back, then just went limp, looking up into my eyes.  Released
his hands.  He decided to let me make the call.  I did, and it was to kill him,
but Ian choked me out before I could.

When I came to, Ian and Jack were
sitting on a couple of chairs, talking calmly.  Ian helped me up, and helped me
into a chair.  As my head cleared, I could tell they were talking about working
together to storm the Armory and rescue Mom.

I jumped in.  “Why don’t we get Uncle
Jim and some guys to help?  That’s still a pretty big group down there, and
they are dug in.  How can we get in and out alive?”

“You have a point, but I think we
have to go now.  That place is a tinder keg with Mariana’s baby competing with
Joumana’s.  The lid could come off at any time.  They both hate your mother. 
If anything starts, either one could kill her at any time.  We have to go now.”

“Mariana has a baby?  Jesus Christ,
she’s just a kid!” replied Jack.  “And she’s a zombie, I think.  Who the hell
is the father?”

We looked at each other while he
figured it out.

“Jesus.  Santos.  That fucker.  He
must think that the kid is the second coming.  And I assume this other kid is
also his?  All we need is two crazy zombie bitches fighting over succession and
this will be a total cluster fuck.  We have to go right now.”

So that’s what we did.

Chapter 29: 
Santos—Succession Plan

“It is time.  I will father a child
with the bitch Kate, and show it to Jack.  Show him that she has become my
whore.  Jack will live as my slave.  Then I will kill Kate and take my baby,
raise it to kill Jack.”  Santos shouted this to Marianna and Joumana as they
lay with him in his bed.

Santos forced them, and all of the
other Inner Core, to submit to him.  He’d done so since Marianna was twelve. 
He raped Joumana once he knew he could control her through Marianna.  Marianna
would not stop him, and even helped him rape the others, even though she hated
each of her rivals with icy cold hate.  It was impossible for her to deny
Santos anything.

Santos  had fathered Joumana’s baby. 
He had fathered Mariana’s baby.  Now he would rape Kate and have another baby. 
He didn’t care about any of them.  Whichever killed the others would become his
successor.