Z-Risen: Outbreak

New Friends

10:30 hours approximate

Location: Undead Central, San Diego CA — San Diego US Naval Hospital

Supplies:

All through our lousy time on Roz’s garage roof, I thought we were going to die. I thought we were going to slowly starve to death or the Z’s would figure out a way to get at us. Instead we were rescued. The dead were doing their best to batter down the house and even succeeded, once the chopper arrived. I don’t know if it was all the noise or us being visible. They went into a frenzy and smashed down the damn walls as we flew away.

The entry to the base was so heavily fortified that we had to be escorted in. Every couple of feet there was a pole covered in razor wire and a lot of that wire was covered in flesh, blood splatters, and strips of clothing. It was the perfect trap. If some of the shamblers made it as far as the base, a lot of them would get hung up, then shot by the heavily armed guards patrolling the massive chain-link gate.

The entrance had fortifications and machine guns. Big fuckers with barrels large enough to take down any target on foot. Men and women stood at guard or knelt and stared down barrels. A few shot us dirty looks. Not my fault! I wanted to protest but it seemed prudent to get my smelly ass into the base and blend in, then figure out how to introduce Lee to my eight pounds of wrench.

As we approached the entrance a squad met us. They had an apparatus similar to the one Lee had used. They didn’t point guns at us but they looked ready to draw and shoot at the slightest hint of trouble.

After getting the eye treatment we were escorted to a table where a woman took our name and a drop of blood.

“Does the blood tell you if we got it?”

“Maybe,” she replied. She looked tired under a mess of black hair.

“That’s reassuring,” I said.

“I wish we knew more but we don’t. We just look for certain anti-bodies. It’s easier to see with the magnifying glass. The disease sets up shop and causes clots. Clots show up as red spots. The clots die and the eyes turn white.”

“Thanks for the lesson, Doc.” Joel said.

“Oh, I’m no doctor.” She attempted to smile and then went back to writing notes on a pad of paper.

They tagged us with some numbers and sent us on our way in the general direction of food and water. I limped behind Joel on my screaming ankle.

By the gates were a huge pile of fence sections and a couple of pieces of heavy equipment, including a huge bulldozer and a crane.

Our rescue had been messy, but that’s been life since we arrived in Undeadville, USA. At the time I was actually hopeful that when we set foot on the chopper, our would-be rescuer, Lee, would take us to safety. All of us, not just some of us. Then that fucker threw Craig out of the chopper like he was a bag of trash.

The question ate away at me, though. Was Craig one of them? If we’d been stuck on that roof for a few more days would he have changed? It’s possible, but he said he was fine, even if he was tired and just plain out of it. Since we’d found the kids they’d been sorta upbeat all things considered.

I didn’t see any bite marks on Craig so how the hell had it happened? Was the disease being spread by some new mechanism? For the last ten days we’d seen men and women bitten, look horrified, and within moments become one of the Z’s. Now there was a new way for victims to carry the virus?

After the chopper crash, they let us in the front gate. From the looks, as we hauled ass toward safety, I had a feeling they wanted to send us a bill and make us haul the remains of the chopper inside the base.

I was happy that the pilot and co-pilot weren’t near us. I was afraid they’d point the finger at us and say it was our fault. The entire battle inside the chopper had taken half a minute. Then we’d struck the ground. I asked Joel Kelly later if he’d ever been in anything like that before.

“A chopper crash? Shit. Been in a few. That one wasn’t bad. I’d call it a shaker, but not quite a bone rattler.”

I grinned back at his grin and wondered if he was bullshitting me. Only a boneshaker? When we hit it felt like someone had picked me up and thrown me against a brick wall.

Roz moved alongside us while Christy fell into step but she kept glancing over her shoulder as we made our way toward the base.

“Don’t think about it,” Roz said.

“What if he’s okay? We weren’t that high; maybe Craig hit something soft.” Christy whined from behind us.

“He didn’t survive.” Roz fell back a step and put a hand around his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

Christy shrugged it off and moved a few feet away.

“Nothing we can do about it now except get that son of a bitch that killed Craig.” I tried to sound reassuring.

“He’s out there. I know it,” she said. “Everyone else in my life is dead. Craig was all I had left.”

She had a point, but I couldn’t think of anything to say so I let her talk.

“We didn’t ask for this. None of this. I shouldn’t even be here. I should be home doing school work or playing video games with my friends. I’m so sick of this. So sick of all of this. I hate this world.”

“Yeah. Me too. But you gotta go on and honor Craig’s memory. If you’re gone who’s going to remember him?” I asked.

When we were all gone, who would remember us?

“You guys lost?”

I turned to find an unexpected face. With her helmet off she wasn’t bad looking, in an “I’ll rip your balls off if you cross me” way that I kinda liked. What I didn’t like was the fact that she’d helped Lee kill a kid. I also didn’t like that she’d hit me hard enough to make me see stars. I guess I could forgive the second one with enough time.

“Well look who it is,” I said and came to my full height.

She looked up at me but wasn’t intimidated. She didn’t look mad or sad. In fact, she had no expression at all.

“Yeah. Look who it is. You guys looking for a shower and chow? Because you need it.”

Roz crossed her arms and stared at Sails. Sails met her gaze and didn’t flinch.

I leaned over and whispered in Joel’s ear, “Girl fight, bro.”

He pushed me off.

“You seen Lee?” I asked Sails.

“No. If you want to thank him I’ll pass along your message. Do yourself a favor and let it go. It sucks, but it was for the best,” she said and moved away.

Joel got in her face.

“It was for the best? He was just a kid. What if it was your kid, huh?”

“It was my kids, but now they’re gone. If you’ll excuse me,” she said and moved away.

Shit.

Joel looked like he wanted to say something but he didn’t. Anna glanced between us and didn’t say a word before moving off into the crowd.

The base of operations was made up of a hospital and a bunch of smaller buildings. People scurried around, most of them armed. I hadn’t seen so many people in one place in a long time and it was comforting.

Hand painted signs hung on hastily constructed signposts indicating in which way lay food and supplies. I spotted one in particular and almost broke into tears.

‘Showers.’

I smacked Joel and pointed. He nodded but couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the departing figure of Anna Sails.

“You like that?”

“I’m not happy, bro.”

“Join the fucking club.”

I pointed at a sign that read “food” and we moved toward it.

“Chow first. Then I’m going to shower so long I turn into a giant prune.”

“Squids and water,” Joel said and then led the way.

They fed us in an overcrowded mess hall filled with a mix of military, military wannabes, and civvies. There were lines drawn, like a prison mess hall. A group of survivalist types complete with “been in the mountains for months” beards sat near a couple of families but the groups didn’t look at each other. The military men and women strutted around with weapons on open display.

“Pass the salt?” a man asked me.

He sat with four kids and a wife who hovered over the little ones while they ate dry cereal and stared around the room with wide eyes.

The kitchen had canned supplies and boxes containing even more boxes of crackers. There were five-gallon jugs of bug juice and sliders that tasted like slimy vegetarian fake meat. I don’t know where they got the stuff but my stomach thanked me. My guts weren’t so happy an hour later but I rode it out and then came back and begged for more. I’m not a little guy and it takes a lot to feed this zombie killing machine.

The rest of the partially formed base was obviously in transition when we arrived. A steady stream of cars and trucks roared into and out of the base. There was a constant unholy racket of helicopters thumping at the sky as they roared in and then back out. Most delivered supplies but a lot of them carried away people. Folks that were dressed in civvies and carried bags or stuffed suit cases. Where was everyone headed? If it was somewhere safe I wanted to go there now.

Like the empty field we’d flown over yesterday this place had tents everywhere. They told us to go to some section that me nor Joel Kelly could make heads or tails of. Might as well have been some Sudoku puzzle for all the sense it made.

I wasn’t complaining. I can’t say how relieved I am that I’m somewhere surrounded by guns and people who know how to use them. The food might not be the best but it was food. I’ve been so hungry over the last ten days I’m sure I’ve lost about fifteen pounds.

We ate and tried to talk but we didn’t get a lot of answers. I turned to the guy that had asked for the salt and asked him what was happening in the world. How far had the virus spread? Were all of the other states affected?

“When the televisions and radio stations died we lost touch with the outside world and just waited. We ran out of food a few days ago and started moving around. A convoy found us and rescued me and the family. Thank god for the military.”

“So you don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world?” I had so many questions but everyone I talked to had a similar answer. Even the military guys didn’t know what was going on.

One thing I learned was that there’d been mass desertion, as the enlisted grew worried about families and just left their posts and stations.

“All I know is I got food and water and a warm place for my family. That’s good enough for me.” He turned away.

I resisted the urge to grab him by the shirt collar and demand answers. Instead I snapped my plastic fork in half. I probably just needed to go find a place to curl up and sleep for the rest of the day. First we needed to spend some time trying to clean off two weeks of blood and filth.

The tent was huge and sectioned off for men and women.

It wasn’t warm and the soap were cakes of white with other people’s hair in them. I didn’t care, and judging by the sounds of others near me (including Roz, who hummed a song in a bad falsetto) no one else did either.

Not much of a shower, but I was left grinning and shivering. Piles of clothing, most of it military, were in a corner. I pawed through it until I found something big enough to fit me. Must have been someone’s shitty idea of a joke because the only pants my size were a pair of old dungarees that were loose in the waist and too short by a few inches, but they were better than my beat to hell overalls. The shirt was digital camo and had enough arm pockets to hold a few odds and ends. I filled one with .45 ammo and another with 9mm.

I strapped my trusty .45 around my waist, then grabbed a huge pea coat and fell into it. Warmth eventually set in while we stood around talking about the wonders of running water. Christy looked dour and when Roz suggested looking for a bed we followed.

“Sleep. I need a week of it,” I said.

“Me too, man. I’m as tired as I’ve been in my whole damn life. Even boot wasn’t this much work.”

Together we went to find a couple of cots.

10:30 hours approximate

Location: Undead Central, San Diego CA — San Diego US Naval Hospital

Roz and Christy found a cot and a sleeping bag right next to each other; no one else had claimed them, so they settled in. Joel and I nodded at Roz and moved on to find a corner of our own.

I settled back on the cot and stared at the ceiling. Someone had left a pile of magazines in a corner but who cared about that shit anymore? Damn world was gone and I was supposed to read celebrity gossip? Hell, most of those chumps were dead anyway if Los Angeles went down like San Diego.

The enclosure was huge and filled with sorry sorts. We walked up and down aisles before deciding that if someone came for this pair of cots they’d have to be bigger and meaner to make us move.

People moved in and out of the area. Kids cried. Babies howled. Mothers shushed, and fathers looked dour.

“When do we tell them we’re enlisted?” I asked Joel quietly.

Joel leaned over close and whispered. “I don’t know if we should. Something weird about this base.”

I had to agree with Joel’s assessment. Since we’d arrived no one had answered our questions. They told us there’d be time for that later. We should settle in, relax and eat. No one would come clean about what was going on.

I’d tried to ask a few people, but they were all tightlipped. Then I found a guy named Edward Bowls. He was in his mid-fifties and coughed all the time. One time I thought I saw his hand come away with blood but he covered it up.

“It’s bad out there,” he’d said when no one else was around. “They try to make it seem like this is isolated but it’s not. The states are falling fast and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to stop the spread of the virus. It doesn’t get everyone but it gets most. Some have managed to setup battle lines and quarantine zones. I heard that Montana is pretty clear but there ain’t shit in that state to begin with, just a bunch of open space. Plus everyone’s got guns.”

“So not everywhere is as bad as San Diego.”

“Yeah but some places are worse. I heard Lee was up north and is heading back up there. Lee’s in charge I guess, cept he ain’t military.” Edward leaned over and coughed until he was out of breath.

“He’s not? He sure seems like it.” I tried to play it cool.

“Some group of mercenaries. That’s what I heard. I guess he was over in Afghanistan spreading freedom with a machine gun before his boys got called back home.”

“Mercenaries.” Joel swore.

“That bad?” I asked but neither one answered.

“I heard stuff and it wasn’t pretty,” Joel said and put his arm over his eyes.

I lay back on the hard cot and tried not to think. That lasted for about fifteen seconds.

“So mercenaries, like Black Water. US has been using them for years, right?”

“I guess, man. I never ran into them when I was over there.”

What if Lee had been right? What if Christy was one of them? What if monkeys flew out of my ass? One thing I’d learned in this new world was to stop dwelling on the what-if’s. All those got you was a big cup of regret and not much else.

But questions swirled around my head. Craig was fine all day and the night before. What was different about the disease when it attacked him? Why was it delayed?

Then it hit me. He’d gone back to Roz’s house and secured some of our gear. What if one of the things had gotten at him and he kept that part of her trip quiet?

Shit.

“Are you sure you didn’t you see any sign of the virus in Craig?” I asked Joel.

“You’ve asked me that a hundred times. I don’t know, man, I was there too and I don’t know.”

“Right? I know he was fine. I know it. Lee had no right to do what he did.”

“Lee’s probably gone now, so what are you gonna do?” Joel asked me.

“Go after him? Wait for him to get back. I don’t care. I just want a chance at his ass.”

“He seems to be in charge or something. Weird that he doesn’t wear any insignia but everyone knows who he is.”

“He’s an asshole,” I said.

“Truer words, brother.”

Joel rolled over and covered his head with his pillow.

Asshole.

We woke to screams.

I sat up in semi-darkness and felt around for my side arm. It was under my pillow, that’s right. Tucked next to a backup mag. Joel was on his feet and checking over his own weapon. We weren’t the only ones. There were so many armed folks you’d think we were at an NRA sleep over.

A guy dressed in fatigues ripped the tent entrance open and shouted over the rows of cots.

“Up. Everyone up. Move quickly to the landing pad. Choppers are arriving. When you get the sign, you keep low and get on board. Got it? You don’t listen and you get left behind.”

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. My head felt like it was full of cotton and my eyes were gummed shut. Joel was already strapping on his gear and appeared to have been up for hours. I wished I had a double dose of energy drink, then a bottle of whiskey to wash that shit back with. Thai whiskey. I’d crush a few heads for some.

The civilians around us rose and packed quickly. Kids were quieted and shuffled out. It didn’t turn into a panic until the guns started to boom outside.

I pushed through the throng with Joel Kelly close behind. Roz was on her feet with a backpack over her shoulder. She tugged out a handgun and held it at her side.

Christy stuck to her side but she was clenching her fists open and shut over and over again. I dropped my pack to the ground and opened it. Moving things around, I found what I was looking for.

“Don’t shoot anyone. You know how these work, right?”

It was the little Sig Sauer 229 I’d found on Monster Ken an eternity ago.

Christy took the gun and looked it over. She racked the slide back to inspect the chamber and then let it slam shut.

“I’ve played a lot of video games.”

“Good,” I said. “Now don’t shoot anyone unless they’re a threat.”

“Yep.”

She lifted her head and nodded at me. Confidence, though a spark at best, showed.

“What now?” Roz yelled over the noise.

I tried to smile at Roz but it came out as a sneer. She thumped me in the chest, then kissed her fingers and smacked me across the cheek, not too hard, kind of a love tap. Then she did the same to Joel Kelly.

“Let’s go kick some ass,” Kelly said.

“Or haul ass,” I said.

Together we navigated the throng and moved to the entrance.

Our quarters weren’t even two hundred feet from the entrance to the base so we got a quick appraisal of the action and it wasn’t good. Not good at all.

Joel must not have believed his eyes because he moved toward the gate. The wrong way. Stupid jarhead.

Civilians streamed past us in a panic, clutching children close. A man lugged a huge suitcase a few feet then looked over his shoulder and gasped. He tossed the bag to the side of the pathway and started to push through the crowd.

Men and women, some in white gowns and others in wheel chairs spewed out of the hospital doors. Other’s watched from windows with huge eyes.

I watched too. I watched and I got scared.

As far as the eye could see they came. The mass was the largest I’d seen yet, even surpassing the horde that we’d spotted moving through the city. They stumbled toward the fence in their greed for human flesh.

It wasn’t an easy task to navigate the traps and bodies left to rot from the previous incursion, but they came at us anyway. They poured over the remains of the crashed chopper we’d arrived in. They came even though gunfire smashed into them from a running squad making their way for the gate.

An enemy with any sense would have ducked and moved as they sought to find firing positions. These had no care in the world for tactics. These monsters just wanted to eat.

The dead numbered in the thousands, or maybe even the tens of thousands.

Guns opened up in force this time. They fired without respite, .50 cals along the outside walls and men positioned over the newly constructed mesh gate. If we thought we were safe, it was an illusion. As soon as they hit the chain link, our safety, that illusion was gone.

Joel dashed to the line and tapped a gunner on the shoulder. The other man didn’t look at him, just kept on shooting. Joel pulled his pistol, took careful aim, and fired.

Joel was like that. If there was a fight he was there. I wasn’t like that. I would fight if I had too but this was too much. The men and women defending us were looking at a painful death.

If I left now I could probably slip into the mass of people and use my size to my advantage to fight my way to the front of the line. If there was a truck or chopper headed away from this mess, I wanted to be on it.

Who was Joel Kelly anyway? Just a guy I’d been stuck with since our boat was overrun. We’d put up with each other for days. We’d argued, fought together, and even come to be friends. I’d saved his life and he’d saved mine.

“Take the kid and go,” I said to Roz. “Just go. I’ll be there soon.”

“Fuck you, sailor boy. I’m getting in this war.”

Christy grinned up at her. Who the hell was I to tell them to run away?

Jesus Christ, was I the only sane one? Now was my chance. I hadn’t asked to be shackled with this bunch. I might be better off on my own.

Who was I kidding?

“Oh, fuck a duck!” I said and went to join Joel.

I wasn’t the only one. A number of civilians did the dumb thing, like me, and moved toward the action. They carried what weapons they could gather, mostly melee, but some had guns. Military guys roared up in jeeps and spun to expose beds laden with huge cases. These were dragged into the center of the action and broken open. Automatic weapons gleamed back at us. Cases of ammo and magazines, some full, were also left out for us.

I grabbed a machine gun of some sort, probably some gun Joel could wax poetically about for days telling me the exact length of the trigger action and round capacity. In another box I found full magazines. I picked up a box of shells and went to find a nice corner to plan my death.

The horde came on and was answered with lead. As the horde closed, and even picked up speed, it became apparent that we had minutes at most. You’d think that twenty or thirty people shooting could handle anything but we were outnumbered. For every body that fell there were five to take its place.

And there were shufflers. A lot of shufflers. They were in the pack but many of them held back as the slow ones went to do their dirty work. I swear those goddamn things still have half a brain.

The fortifications outside of the gate did a lot to help slow the dead. They got hung up on barbed wire and stuck to posts. Some were fired upon while others left to lift their hands and reach for us in vain. Losers.

I ducked and moved toward Joel Kelly. He was outside the gate, on one knee, aiming and firing with grim determination. His position was right next to an overturned truck. I touched his shoulder and he looked back and shot me a wink.

“Glad you could make it, bud.” He aimed and dropped a woman dressed in the remains of a nightgown. She fell without a sound and was quickly trampled beneath the mass behind her.

Next to him was someone I didn’t expect. Anna Sails fired in rapid succession with a gun as long as her legs, and she wielded it like a pro. She fired, shifted, aimed, fired again, and every time her gun boomed one of them dropped.

“Civilians are being moved out in trucks. Buy them time. Fall back when the horde gets close. We got a surprise for them.” A man with a bullhorn shouted at us. I thought it might be Lee and had a hastily constructed plan where he accidentally takes a bullet, but when I looked back it wasn’t him.

It didn’t take long for us to create a wall of bodies but it didn’t do much to deter them. A couple of shufflers leapt off the top and came down near some of our guys. They were quickly shot down, but it was close.

The first line must have gotten some signal. They dropped down low while the line behind them stopped firing. They scurried back and the second line opened up again. We were about fifteen feet from the gate and when they called for us to do the same.

Five or six guys ran out as we retreated. They carried bandoliers covered in metal globes. They stopped, pulled pins, and tossed a wave of grenades at the approaching horde. I was already on the run when the explosions shook the ground and I didn’t look back.

We were cutting it close. The dead were only a few feet away when Anna Sails stowed her weapon on her shoulder and ran after us. I kept an eye on her and even shot a shuffler as it leapt out of the mass. I hit him with three or four bullets but they only ripped into his body. He was blown to the side, but he was a quick one and rolled to his feet. With an Olympian leap he managed to take down one of our guys. The soldier howled in fury but got off a shot and hit the bastard in the head. Brains exploded and one of his buddies stopped to pull him out from under the corpse.

“Everyone in, now!” The guy with the bullhorn roared, so we hauled ass.

As we cleared the gate the heavy machinery we’d seen earlier in the day roared to life. A pair of fences sections had been tied to the bulldozer. It rammed into the horde with a sound that will haunt my nightmares for years to come. It came to a halt after crushing a great many of them, and then backed up with a flash of yellow lights and piercing alarm.

Joel helped Anna in but she shrugged off his hand and went to stand with a group she seemed to know. They set up a new firing line behind the fence while the rest of our guys filed inside. It was all high fives and way to go’s but not everyone was happy. Edward, the man I’d met in the mess hall, looked haunted. He also looked like he needed to find a bucket.

Behind us, civilians moved onto trucks that lurched away. Some didn’t wait and tried to crowd on to full trucks or jump on board before they had stopped moving. When the Z’s hit the fence it was pandemonium.

“We should go, Joel,” I said and grabbed his arm.

He pointed toward the crane we’d seen when we first arrived.

Its arm moved into the air, lifting a huge claw and then it swept own and cleared a path. Not even a hundred Z’s could stand up to the crane’s power as it swept back and forth.

The mass was here, though, and it was a matter of time before this entire base was overrun.

A shuffler hit the fence and tried to climb it, but Anna Sails shot him through the head.

“Yeah, it’s time,” Joel said.

I looked around and spotted Roz and Christy. She’d abandoned the little handgun in favor of a machine gun. It has huge in her hands as she moved away.

Our pace was brisk and soon we ran into others that were fleeing. We had to slow, but at least we were moving toward safety.

Then I heard a sound to my left. The horde had swung around or broken off and had reached the fenced in there. Reinforced by long metal bars the chain-link still wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact. A pair of shufflers launched themselves at the top of the wall and one managed to reach the razor wire. He got hung up. I took a lot of joy in pausing for a minute to shoot it three or four times. No headshot but he slumped after the last bullet ripped through his upper body.

“The fence isn’t going to hold. Move!” A soldier said and then broke into a run.

The crane swung its arm back and forth but the driver must have seen the futility of his action and decided it was time to make his getaway. The crane backed up and all those tons of metal began a slow crawl through the dead. None rose from where it passed.

“Come on, you big idiot.” Roz grabbed my arm and pulled.

I joined our motley group of five even though I was sure we were about to be over run. Thousands of them behind, and thousands to on our flank. We weren’t going to last much longer unless we found a transport.

A pair of HUMVEEs pulled into the street to my right and then opened up with machine guns. The guys on the guns swept back and forth as they shredded the front ranks.

A rending crash behind. I didn’t have to look around to know that the fence was gone.

We ran with me in the lead because I was the biggest. We hit the mass of other survivors looking for a way out and I wasn’t shy about pushing through them.

The line of trucks and cars took on as many as they could. It was a full blown panic as people fought to get on anything that moved. Women and children were pushed aside. Anger boiled but this was no time to crack some heads and teach manners.

Some ran. They just bolted in every direction, barreling into anyone blocking their way.

Explosions behind. I looked over my shoulder and found a group of soldiers tossing more grenades at the mass of Z’s. Bodies and parts of bodies flew.

We were brought to a halt by a couple of guys trying to sort the evacuees.

“Civilians that way.” One of them pointed at a scrambling mass.

A second line fed to huge military transports that was at least somewhat organized. Men and women in uniform jumped onto transports, some as they roared off.

“We’re enlisted, man.”

“Right. Move your ass or we’ll drop you right where you stand.”

A couple of people picked that minute to try and break through the line and run toward the military trucks. They were met with the butt of rifles. Another civilian got wind of the action and screamed.

“They aren’t letting us out!”

Joel and I exchanged glances just before the first shot rang.

A civilian in ragged jeans and a white t-shirt covered in holes pulled a pistol and pointed it at one of the guys in green. He pointed back and shouting broke out. The guard looked at us and lowered his gun as well.

“It’s cool, man. We’ll just find another ride,” Joel said.

Didn’t these guys have a secret military code or something? Joel was dressed in the remains of his combat gear and if there was a man with more military bearing, he wasn’t here.

I backed up a step, taking Roz with me. Then a figure pushed between us.

“Lower that gun, soldier,” she said.

Anna Sails to the rescue.

“They can’t join us, ma’am,” he replied.

“These guys are with me and they’re enlisted. Just make a hole,” she said and pushed forward.

The two looked at us in confusion. Then it evaporated as shots broke out near us.

“Oh, fuck this shit,” Joel said and grabbed Roz’s hand.

The two sides got tired of shouting at each other and someone fired. I couldn’t tell which let the first bullet fly but it was a massacre after that.

I backed up and then grabbed Christy’s hand and tugged her after Joel.

Anna Sails followed and together we ran back toward the horde.

Chaos behind. Chaos to the sides.

It was either risk a bullet or run.

We ran.

The fence on the east side of the little base went down. I fired a few rounds as we ran but it was like trying to stop a wave with a BB gun.

Shots continued to ring out as we hauled ass. The pair of HUMVEEs we’d seen earlier backed up as they fired. I smacked Joel’s arm to get his attention. He veered toward the transports.

Joel waved his hands to stop the trucks. They slowed as they fired.

I turned and shot a Z in the neck as it came at us. There was another behind him and when I fired a burst, the bolt slapped open with a clang as I ran dry. I reached for a mag, but realized too late that I was totally out.

Fuck that. I swung the gun around, burned the shit out of my hands on the barrel, ignored it to turn the gun into a bat, and hit the Z so hard it did a mid-air summersault and landed in a splatter of crushed head and leaking brain matter.

Five or six more were right behind.

“Nice shot,” Anna said beside me. She turned to her side, raised a huge hand gun and fired. Seriously, it was like something Dirty Harry would carry.

A shuffler leapt out of the mass and was on Sails before I could fire. They tumbled to the ground and the bastard went at her. Sails was good, fast; she got her gun in the way and smacked the Shuffler across the mouth. He howled and dove in for her neck.

I grabbed him by the back of his ratty-ass clothes, and lifted him straight off the ground making my ankle want to screech in pain. He was covered in open sores and bled some kind of mucus from multiple wounds but I didn’t give a shit.

Sails might be a pain in the ass but none of us were going down under a shuffler. I’d put a bullet in her skull first.

She pulled herself across the ground, looked up, and blew the head off one of the dead that was headed straight for me.

The shuffler fought like a man with twice his strength. He got me good across the gut and most of the air left my lungs. Then his elbow connected with my head and I saw stars.

I lifted him above my head with both arms and then flung him down on the back of the HUMVEE so hard his head split like a fucking melon. Sails had to pull me away from kicking his twice-dead ass.

“I’m Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly. Got room for us?” Joel stood near the front of the transport.

“Pretty fucking full, Sarge. We got…” I couldn’t hear the rest because the machine gunner blasted a line of lead across the approaching dead.

There were so many of them that we didn’t stand a chance. The walls were down and we were being overrun.

Joel grabbed Roz and Christy and stuffed them into the back of the Humvee. I scooped up Sails and dragged her to the other side of the truck and banged on the door. It opened and the face of a young soldier poked out.

Anna was having difficulty breathing and gasped when I picked her up.

“I’m staying with you guys,” Sails said.

I ignored her.

“Put her on your lap. You’re welcome,” I said and pushed her toward the door.

“Idiot! I don’t need saving! Just let me stand and fight with you guys.”

“Get in or I’ll put you in,” I said as I towered over her.

The machine gunner opened up again and dropped at least a half dozen.

“I’m staying!” She pushed against my damaged chest.

“Anna, please. Get in. We’re all getting out of here,” I said.

She looked me up and down and then nodded and crawled in.

“Better than being tossed to the dead,” I said. Thoughts of Anna backing up Lee made me second-guess my actions. Maybe I should have tossed her to the horde.

The back was stuffed and there was no way for me and Joel to squeeze in. Joel winked at me through the opening and then slammed the door shut. He came around the side of the transport firing.

I closed the door and joined him.

“Hold on, gents!” The machine gunner roared and pointed at the back of the HUMVEE.

A whole world of hurt ran at us. The dead were here and we were screwed.

Joel was the first to make the leap. He got on the back of the transport and shimmied up the angled back until the gunner helped him. Then he hung onto the plates on the side of the gun.

The HUMVEE lurched into motion with me standing in the middle of the zombie fucking apocalypse holding my dick.

“Wait for me!” I yelled and leapt.

I missed.

The first Z came at me so I clothes-lined the asshole. A shot and something buzzed past my neck. I looked over my shoulder and there was Joel Kelly, holding onto the back of a giant machine gun while he somehow pulled his side arm and shot a dead fuck through the head.

This guy should be in a video game.

I hauled ass, jumped for the back and started to slide back off. Joel dropped his gun, grabbed the machine gun mount with both hands and stuck his boot right next to my face. I grabbed hold and tried to haul myself up but a Z got my leg.

I kicked back a few times and got him in the face. Bone crunched as his nose was crushed but I didn’t have time to gloat because the truck lurched into motion and I had to hold onto Joel Kelly’s leg for dear life.

I crawled up the back of the HUMVEE until I was able to reach the gunner. Him and Joel reached out and pulled me the rest of the way then I was clutching the back of the gun mount.

“Haul ass!” The gunner pounded the top of the truck.

We broke across a parking lot, ran over a tent, hit the side of the building and that almost knocked me clear but I had a death grip.

Then we were past the little base and behind the line of trucks.

“Next stop, L A.” The gunner grinned.

“Great. I need some new underwear,” I said over the roaring wind.

The gunner smiled again and patted my shoulder. He ducked back into the vehicle for a minute.

“Joel, man. I owe you.”

“Yeah you do. Dumb squid.”

“Words hurt,” I said. “Especially from a dumb jarhead.”

“Don’t get all mushy on me. Christ. I’ve had enough of this day and if you start bawling I’m going to have the gunner shoot me in the fucking head.”

“Okay man, I won’t, but I want to tell you something.”

“I ain’t marrying you.”

“Thank the fuck Christ.” We hit a bump and I came down on my sore chest again. After an epic swearing session I got my breath back.

“Gonna make it?”

“As long as you got my back I think I’ll be okay. You’re like a brother, Joel. Nah. You are my brother.” I said it and meant it. We’d seen a lot of shit over the last few weeks but one thing hadn’t changed. One thing had been there to help me survive and cope with this new world and that was Marine Sergeant Joel “Cruze” Kelly.

“Know something?” Joel asked.

We bounced up the road, slowed at a cross street, and then maneuvered around a wreck.

“Huh?” I asked, expecting some kind of brotherhood of war speech.

“I’m glad we’re moving. I just farted and it’s a reeker. Sorry about that.” He looked at me with a smirk. “Brother.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

“Can you guys drive faster? Something died back here!” I roared at the driver.

“Sure, man.” The driver called back.

“I can’t hang on that long.”

“Hitchhikers take what they can get.” He laughed from inside.

“I hope he’s kidding.” I said to the gunner.

He didn’t answer, just looked up.

Overhead, a helicopter roared away from the base and headed north. If Lee was on it I wished him well, because when I found him again he’d answer questions with my size fourteen boot up his ass.

This is Machinist Mate First Class Jackson Creed and I am still alive.