Zombie Infestation Page 6

  “It was nothing. Now that you have seen the money, get back out there.”

  Len looked disappointed as he said, “The windows are reinforced, it will be fine.”

  Rice responded, “I told you not to come in here. You need to be watching our six.”

  Len turned and stared out at the entrance as he said. “Last time, we buried it, joined the assault force when it arrived, and then came back for it later. There are way too many zombies out there for that to work this time.”

  Grunting to throw one of the last money bags onto the pile, Winslow put his hands on his knees and interrupted. “As usual, you choose to remind us that you are a total fucking hick. This time, we have three times as much. Just go do your job, we have a new plan.”

  Before Rice could comment, the sound of small arms fire captured his attention. From the top of the stairs, Chin fired his rifle into the wall next to Jacques and yelled. “Identify yourself.”

  Jacques didn’t respond.

  So, Chin fired another shot into the wall just inches from his head. “Identify yourself or the next one will be in your eyeball.”

  Rose aimed at Chin as she stepped out of the shadows and shouted, “We are from Blackstone Security, Colonel Harrison hired us to find you and to provide support until the sweep arrives.”

  Each of Rice’s soldiers drew their sidearms and aimed at her.Marcos shouted. “Prove it.”

  Rose lowered her weapon, and put her hands up.

  Still unnoticed and crouching in the shadows in the corner, Ray aimed at Chin.

  Rose shouted to ensure that she was heard.

  “I am going to slowly reach for our papers.”

  Len aimed at her as he walked toward the stairs.

  Before she could retrieve their orders, or any negotiation could take place, the metal door at the rear of the bank flung open. The snarls and grunts of a dozen zombies burst into the room. Firing twice from the opposite side of the room, Ray eliminated two of the zombies with perfect head shots. He aimed at the two of the mini horde charged to the center of the room and took each down with a perfect shot, but let the two others run up the stairs towards Chin and Len.

  Ignoring the zombies, Rose rushed over and slammed the metal door closed. She secured it by jamming a knife between the frame and the door, then leaned into it. Jacques belted one of the zombies with the stock of his weapon, then fired a burst of bullets into its head as it fell backwards. The echo of the confined gun fire sounded like a pipe being dragged across a metal vent.

  Ray waited until the other zombie got close, then poked his pistol into its eye socket and fired twice. What remained of its brains leaked out as it collapsed to the ground. Not far away from Rose, Marcos got mauled by the pair of stray zombies. From inside of the giant vault, Sergeant Rice, and Winslow shot down the invading zombies. However, most of the undead focused on Chin and Len who were both firing at them from the stairs. Unable to shoot down all of the charging zombies, Chin braced for a close quarters attack.

  Not far away, Jacques steadied his aim. His shot entered through one of the zombies on the stairs neck and split its jaw. As it tumbled backwards, his next shot exploded through the other zombies’ eye socket. Before the partially stunned zombie without a jaw could recover, its former accomplice landed on top of it, trapping it. Using this opportunity, Jacques walked over and fired a shot from his silenced 9MM into its head.

  With the room cleared, Rose glanced over at the men in the vault, who still aimed their weapons at her.

  She rolled her eyes and commented as she walked up the stairs, “I am going to give him mercy. Then you need to help me properly secure this door.”

  She looked down at Marcos. A giant chunk of his neck was missing, and both of his eyes were frozen open.

  It was obvious he was dead.

  When Rose drew her side arm, Marco’s quivered, and then his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were now radiant. When the deep red sheet of vomit exploded from his mouth, Rose drew her side arm, and fired a single shot between his eyes. Now authentically deceased, Marcos’ glassy eyed stare was permanently glued onto his twisted face.

  Chapter 22

  After Ray and Jacques secured the door, Rose walked over toward the vault. “As I said before, we are with Blackstone Security. My name is Rose. Your CO, Colonel Harrison hired us to find you and provide support to your unit until they sweep this area. I have the orders in my vest pocket, and am going to reach for those now.”

  As she he retrieved the authorization papers, Ray and Jacques lowered their rifles. When she held those out, Rice and Len moved in closer to inspect the document, but Winslow and Chin both kept their rifles aimed at Rose. Rice reached forward as if he was leaning over an invisible railing and grabbed the crumpled paper from her hand.

  He quickly scanned it and said. “This is definitely from Harrison. They check out.”

  Still maintaining an obvious expression of suspicion, Winslow lowered his rifle. Despite Chin still aiming at her head as he walked down the stairs, Rose remained calm. When he lowered his weapon, she drew her sidearm and shot Len in the forehead. Next to her, Chin stepped in and planted the barrel of his weapon on the side of her neck. Rice and Winslow also responded by aiming at her head.

  To make sure she was heard, she raised her voice. “Did you not see the bite on his leg?”

  Chin pressed his gun barrel into her, which threw her off balance.

  “You probably got the same briefing I did. That is protocol dude, so relax,” she pointed.

  “Check his leg.”

  She grit her teeth as Chin pressed the barrel into her even harder.

  “Seriously, guys use your brain.”

  When Rice glanced down at Len’s corpse he noticed the small blood stain on his left knee. Doubtful, he knelt and lifted Len’s pant leg. A large wound with creamy yellow puss mixed with the blood on his shin was obvious.

  “She’s right.”

  Winslow glared at Chin.

  Rice said, “I hope you guys brought some ammo. Thanks to the damn fireworks, there is definitely going to be a zombie parade headed our way.”

  There was a long awkward pause and no one in the room responded.

  Breaking the tension in the room Rose said, ”We might be held up here for a while, so we need to make sure those windows and doors will hold.”

  The Blackstone team responded by searching for items to create a genuine barricade. Winslow and Rice locked eyes for a moment, then as if there was never any conflict, his soldiers assisted.

  As he carried an item toward the door Chin commented. “We were doing fine here until you assholes showed up.”

  No one responded to his commentary.

  Instead, they worked to pile ornately carved desks and stack metal filing cabinets in front of each door.

  For a moment, Winslow stopped to inspect the barricade.

  “If we are overrun, this won’t stop shit.”

  Stooping behind the security desk in the corner, Jacques stood up and scanned the room and said. “The doors should hold. If not, the barrier will delay them, and we can shoot from high ground. Once everyone is on the rooftop, we pull up the ladder and wait on the for the cavalry to arrive.”

  Rice and his team all looked surprised.

  Rose glanced over and said, “That’s obvious Jacques, now get to work.”

  Once the doors and windows on each side were reinforced. Rose scanned the adjacent room for additional exits.

  Then she said, “My team is heading to the roof.”

  Rice shouted, “The hell you are.”

  When she ran up the stairs, her team followed her.

  As he ran up the stairs, Rice yelled, “I am the CO here. Who the hell do you think you are?”

  Rose and her team ignored him, and climbed the ladder to the roof.

  Chapter 23

  The rooftop was dark, so Jacques and Ray flipped down the night vision gog
gles still affixed to their helmets, and inspected each corner while Rose stared down the rooftop ladder at Rice, who paced the floor below. “For safety, we should establish a perimeter,” said Jacques. Then the team moved to separate corners of the roof.

  When Rice’s team finally climbed the ladder he raised his voice, “Rally up.”

  Without hesitation, everyone huddled around him.

  Jacques pointed and said. “A massive group of undead is gathered on that hill to the North.”

  Then Ray responded. “The zombies Harrison’s carnage is pushing this have nowhere else to go. Very soon, this side of town will be flooded with them.”

  Rose commented. “We have no chance of surviving against that. If we sit tight and wait for Harrison’s forces to arrive we can join in the fight then.”

  Rice spoke up. “I am the CO here, and since your team is only here to provide support, I call the shots here.”

  Rose unbuckled the night vision goggles from her helmet and handed those to Rice. “Scan that hill over there, and then tell me what you see.”

  For a moment, he dragged the night vision goggles from one side of the horizon to the other. “Shit.”

  She nodded as she jerked the goggles back from him. As she fastened those back onto her helmet she said, “Yep, it is pretty much an undead avalanche waiting to happen. This rooftop is our only chance to survive.”

  Rice interjected. “You are not in charge here.”

  Rose responded, “Obviously, you’re in command here, but I strongly recommend we limit our gunfire and hold this position until reinforcements arrive.”

  Nearly everyone in the group stared down at the faded slate gray rooftop and pondered their situation. When a scream came from the alleyway below, they all rushed over and stared over the side of the building. Only Jacques aimed his weapon toward the conflict.

  Rice said, “Absolutely, no shooting. Let’s just wait and see what happens.”

  The woman and three men in the alleyway, battered their way down the alley with metal baseball bats clearing single zombies along the way. Each time one of them cracked a zombies’ skull, blood shot out from its ears. When it collapsed, the group worked together to smash its head until brains trickled through its eyes sockets, which looked like slimy tears.

  The coordinated trio worked in synch, and it was obvious they had been practicing. By the end of the alley, a half dozen zombies had surrounded them. Unbeknownst to them, Jacques, and now Chin followed their every move with their sites.

  “Hold you fire,” said Rice.

  The trio worked with surprising precision as they swung with vigor. With multiple hits, the group bashed all of the zombies down. As the scrappy group proceeded across the street in front of the bank, a legless zombie reached up and grabbed one of the men’s legs. When twisted it, and bit into his Achilles heel, he screamed.

  “Rice is right. It looks like they all have several bites. It is just a matter of time until they turn,” said Jacques.

  Winslow responded, “Soon they will fit into the thousands of other loitering meat bags. Just let that happen how it is supposed to.”

  Without warning, Chin fired three shots, but only took out one of the doomed men. Using night vision, Jacques followed up Chin’s mishap with a perfect head shot and give mercy to the other man. When the woman with them started screaming, Jacques grit his teeth and then silenced her with a single shot. When he glanced over at Ray, they both looked over Rose simultaneously. Her unique hand signal is all they noticed.

  Rice shouted, “No more shooting!”

  Chin pressed his gun barrel into the back of Rose’s head.

  “All of you lay down your weapons or I splatter her right now.”

  Ray looked over at Jacques, and then complied with their request.

  Chin said, “All of your weapons, in a pile now.”

  Jacques expression revealed his frustration.

  Chin pressed Rose forward.

  “You too sweet heart.”

  Chapter 24

  It had been an hour since anyone on the rooftop had spoken. The undead patrolled the newly paved streets below, but there was no real activity, and the area was mostly quiet. Weaponless, Rose, Ray, and Jacques were ordered by gun point to individually post in the three corners of the building. In the remaining corner of the building, Rice and Chin were gathered around Winslow.

  In her corner, Rose fiddled with the bent antenna of a hand held radio. The small transceiver hissed as she tuned it. This thing is functional? When she stopped the dial, a deep voice broadcasted from it.

  “Alpha 60 sweep completed, requesting supply drop at the following coordinates, 10…”

  Louder than expected, she muted the radio and put it back where it was. They didn’t lose their radio. After Rice, Chin and Winslow concluded their private meeting, she watched as they walked over to the corner where Jacques was.

  Winslow cleared his throat before he spoke. “Jacques, right?” Similar to a statue of a Greek God, he had no response, and didn’t even blink his eyes.

  “Can you give us some insight into how much time you think we have before that massive wave of zombies gathered up on the hillside attacks?”

  Indifferent, Jacques looked away as if he was standing there alone.

  “What is your background? You don’t look like the typical poor white trash with limited options who ends up in the military. Also, your physique doesn’t look anything like someone in the special forces. What school did you play ball at? I’m going to guess you were a linebacker?”

  Jacques almost rolled his eyes, but chose to refrain so he could continue to ignore them.

  “Okay, then I guess we will go talk to your colleague Ray,” said Winslow.

  When they approached Ray, he flipped up the night vision goggles affixed to his helmet.

  Rice commented. “What is the area status?”

  Ray scanned the group and then said, “Fair to midlin.”

  Rice’s eyebrows perked up as he inquired, “So, Ray. Where are you from?”

  Ray didn’t respond.

  Rice said, “I grew up in Slo-dessa. My guess is you are from Midland. Am I right?”

  Ray had no visible response.

  Rice said, “Being from West Texas is tougher than a skillet of rattlesnakes. Did you family get to ride the boom?”

  Ray’s expression softened, and then he commented. “Everyone knows that both Midland and Odessa are fixin to get tumped over when the oils gone, but it is what it is.”

  From the other side of the rooftop, Rose could only hear Ray’s responses in the comlink. Angry, she glared at them as she spoke to her team. “Ignore those bitches.”

  Ray glanced over at her, then back at Rice who smirked as he looked over.

  “We have an offer for you,” said Rice.

  “Did you know that bank branches are bound by regulations, and can only keep a set amount of cash around?”

  Ray had no response.

  Winslow and Chin watched Rose and Jacques for a reaction as Rice continued.

  “Anytime they exceed their limit, they get fined by the Fed. We found out this bank acts as a transit bank, which means that to avoid a fine, every bank in the area delivers their excess cash here. Not only that, the old cash they happen to be holding here is scheduled to end up at the Fed for disposal.”

  Ray’s neck muscles tensed up as he responded.

  “So what.”

  Winslow interjected. “The old bills have yet to be reported, and the new ones haven’t gotten into circulation. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk away with millions.”

  Rice added. “Totally free and clear.”

  Ray stared over at Jacques as he inspected the dark horizon. Then he glanced over at Rose who cut through him with her eyes. On the comlink she said, “Shut the hell up. Ignore them.”

  Rice put his hand on Ray’s shoulder as he said, “Shit went kind of sideways, but we
have a backup plan. If you guys help us, and can keep our secret, we will pay each of you $200K per task. Think you can negotiate that with your team?”

  Chin interrupted him. “I can kill all of them right now.”

  Rice held up his hand as if he was stopping traffic.

  Ray licked at his dry lips as he stared at the ground and pondered the offer.

  Rice said, “I will give you a few minutes to think about it. Just be aware that we are doing this with or without you. So, you guys might as well get a cut.”

  Winslow interjected. “We already stashed the money, so don’t even think about trying to take it for yourself.”

  Chin cut him off, “We could have already killed all of you, so remember that.”

  Chapter 25

  Across from them, Rose glanced at the portable radio, then at the dark horizon when she said. “What were they saying to you?”

  Ray hesitated to respond and just stared out at the ruined streets below.

  Then Jacques commented. “Dude, you need to respond. What were they talking to you about?”

  Ray switched off his comlink. As he reflected his gaze locked onto the outline of the stinky smoking buildings in the distance. Annoyed, Rose paced back and forth.

  When Rice approached he said, “So what do you say?”

  Without hesitation Ray responded. “If any one of you betray me, you and all of your families are all dead.”

  Visibly annoyed, he watched Rose as she stormed over like an upset mother.

  Ray said, “Give me a few minutes to discuss this with the team. If they agree, I am in.”

  Anticipating a serious conflict, Jacques jogged over and arrived simultaneously.

  “What the hell man,” said Rose.

  She glared at Winslow, Chin and Rice as they all backed away.

  “Calm down,” said Ray.

  Her expression was as if he had just peed on her boot.