Or unlife.
Stumbling through a thicket of diamond willow about thirty meters in front of our carrier was a group of creeps, about twenty of them. They tripped and shuffled through the undergrowth, their hideous faces staring hard at both our carriers.
“Shit.” I whispered. “Creeps.”
Dawson scrambled underneath the turret cage and poked her head up. “How many?”
“A couple of dozen.”
“They from that group we blew past yesterday?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it – they’re too far back. These ones are locals.”
The radio hissed in my ears. “Ark Two – you seeing that?” It was Melanie Dixon, with an edge of panic to her voice.
“Ark One, Roger. Stand by.” I replied.
“Two dozen isn’t a lot of them,” said Dawson. “We could pick them off one by one.”
I shook my head. What concerned me was where this group had come from – and, more importantly, were there any more of them out there? It would be easy enough to stand up in the turret and fire off individual shots; but there was still the issue of noise travelling farther at night, and one thing we’d learned in the six months since Day Zero was that creeps always respond to the sound of gunfire.
Our two vehicles were miles from any built-up areas. The closest farm was a few kilometers away, and, unless it had been a survivors’ outpost that wound up being overrun, there was no way a group that large could have formed. I pulled my map out of my pocket and shone a red light onto it, running my finger along the contour lines of our ridge and looking for any symbols that would show a likely place for zombies to converge.
I tried not to panic, in spite of the fact that the creeps were no fewer than twenty meters away from the carrier. I gazed at the high feature I’d picked and the one Cruze had suggested earlier. I’d read the map wrong, our carriers had gone to ground about five miles away from the city of Airdrie, and that meant creeps. Thousands and thousands of creeps.
“Get Cruze on the radio,” I said into my mouthpiece.
“Roger that,” replied Melanie.
I handed my map to Dawson and pointed to our position. “We’re less than five clicks from Airdrie. We’ve gotta bug out now.”
All the color drained from her face as she stared at the map, and I could have sworn I saw her gulp.
The radio squawked in my headset. “Cruze here … what’s going on?”
I pressed the PTT button. “Creeps. At least two dozen and probably a shit pile more. You were right, Cruze. I should have picked another spot.”
“Stand by,” Cruze replied as I peered out through my periscope. I could see about two hundred meters into the distance and I spotted another throng of creeps heading up through a dried ravine.
The radio hissed again. “Well we’re in the shit now so it doesn’t matter who was right or wrong. We can take down these creeps, no problem, Dave.”
I shook my head. “The sound of our gunfire will bring every monster within earshot, Cruze, we can’t stay here. Get your people up, make sure the hatches are locked tight – we’re leaving in five minutes.”
“Roger that,” said Cruze.
“Wake up Sid and Doug,” I said to Dawson. “We’re getting the hell out of here. There’s another few dozen coming up through a dried-out ravine.”
“Will do,” said Kate. She shook the pair. They were snoring loudly, almost in unison. “Stand to! Stand to! Stand to!”
Sid scrambled for his carbine, elbowing Doug Manybears in the left cheek. “Wha – what?” he said dreamily.
Doug pushed himself upright and wiped the sleep from his eyes. “Is it my shift again … no wait, I already did a sentry.”
“We’ve got company. Check the hatches, get your shit in gear and get this carrier going,” Dawson said firmly. “We’re leaving in five.”
“What’s going on?” Doug yawned.
I climbed down from the turret. “Creeps. A couple of dozen bearing down on us from Airdrie.”
Sid slipped his left foot into his combat boot. “
Airdrie?
We might as well have the words free food painted on the sides of the carriers!”
“Yeah, well, I did a shitty three point resection when I picked this spot,” I said angrily. “Cruze called it right and I should have freaking listened.”
“Fuck me, I gotta take a dump,” Sid grumbled as he climbed into the turret. “Let’s get clear of here – my piss bottle is full and I don’t have another one. I was looking forward to a nice peaceful crap at first light. This blows on an epic scale!”
Doug Manybears scrambled into the driver’s hatch as I checked on Jo. She was huddled in the rear corner of the APC, sound asleep. I didn’t have the heart to wake her up, so I tucked her poncho liner around her shoulders and then crawled over to the crew commander’s hatch. I cursed under my breath at my bonehead move. I probably should have cut myself some slack, given that the only map and compass work I’d ever done was a few patrols on exercise in Wainwright or Suffield, but I wasn’t about to allow myself that luxury. It didn’t matter that I had less than a year of service under my belt, or that I might have been the most organized person in Sergeant Green’s section; we were miles away from safety, a throng of creeps was bearing down on us fast and if I was responsible for getting us into this situation, it was up to me to get us out of it.
I peered through my crew commander’s periscope while Doug primed the engine. The creeps were less than ten meters away and I could easily make out their gaping mouths in spite of the darkness. I grabbed my headset and slipped it over my head, then flipped on my radio set. A blast of white noise shot through my ears as I slammed my left hand on the volume knob to turn it down.
“Ark one, you there?” said Cruze through a haze of static.
“Go ahead.”
“We’re just warming up and can leave in two. I’d offer to plot a new course but I can’t leave the carrier to do it.”
Cruze should have been placed in charge of our escape and her last statement simply proved the fact that our team should have chosen her.
The presence of metal can screw up a compass big time. I was hatches down in our APC when I did the resection and any infantry soldier worth his salt would have stepped onto the ground and walked a few feet away from ten thousand pounds of steel and iron. It was an amateur mistake that could wind up costing our team dearly. I couldn’t shoot a bearing this time, so I followed the contour lines on the map from our existing position and spotted the dried-out ravine where I’d seen that second group of creeps. It headed northwest of Airdrie and according to the map, it looked relatively free of obstacles, so I ran my finger up to a point that looked about five kilometers from our existing position and made a note of the easting and northing for a good spot to rendezvous with Cruze.
“Dammit!” shouted Doug Manybears in a voice that was probably loud enough for the creeps now clawing against our hull to hear.
I slipped my headset off one ear and leaned over his seat. “What’s going on, Doug?”
He primed the choke three more times as he pressed the start button, and the lights inside our carrier dimmed for a short moment. “This piece of shit won’t start!” he snarled. “Fuck!”
“But how? We kept our power use to a bare minimum all night. Are the batteries dead?”
“They’re nearly dead,” he said, pointing to the gauges above his head. “We need a slave, ASAP.”
I could feel the creeps hammering against the hull and I glanced over my shoulder to see Kate Dawson peering out of her viewing port, carbine in hand. Jo, who was now wide awake, was sitting with her knees against her chest in the rear corner of the APC, her hands covering her ears.
“They’re all around us!” shouted Sid. “At least three or four deep! There’s a swarm of them coming in from the east. Why aren’t we leaving yet?”
“We need a boost!” I shouted. “Hang tight and keep an eye on them.”
I grabbed the PTT button and pressed. “Ark Two … we’re dead in the water here. We need a slave to get this pig going!”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
answered Cruze, my headset filling with more and more static. It wouldn’t be long until my radio drained the last life out of the carrier’s batteries. “We can start shooting, Dave, just give us the word.”
“No. We need another diversion – something that will draw every one of these pricks away from us. I need you to get someone on the hull of your carrier. ”
“Okay, that’s freaking nuts!”
Cruze snapped.
I ground my teeth together. We were up shit creek unless the lure of fresh meat could get those creeps away long enough for Doug to slip a slave cable into the receptacle on the carrier’s side. “It’s bait, Cruze. Either you or Mel needs to stand up in the rear hatch. Your carrier has to lead the creeps as far away as you can, then double back. By the time you return, we’ll have the slave cable hooked up for a boost.”
The radio hissed for a few moments and there was dead air. Cruze was probably breaking the news to her team. I was certain that she was cursing the day I was born. “Mel volunteered,” Cruze finally replied. “Make sure Sid has an eye for the creeps because I don’t know how long it will take us to get them away, or even if using Mel as a lure will work. When this is over, you and me are going to have a little chat.”
I grimaced as pressed the handset. “Fine … look, the creeps that don’t follow, we’ll take care of,” I said. My voice was flat and hard. “It’s about the best idea I can think of. Get moving, Cruze.”
The radio squawked. “You fucking owe me, Dave. Ark Two, out.”
I slipped off my headset and bellowed “All eyes on me!”
Sid dropped down from the turret as Kate and Jo scrambled to the edge of the rear compartment.
“What’s the plan?” asked Sid.
“We’re going to get out of this – got it? We need a boost. Cruze is going to buy us some time by getting Mel to go hatches up as a lure and Cruze will get the creeps following her carrier the hell away from us.”
“Jesus,” Doug said. “That’s pretty ballsy.”
“Yeah, well, if anyone has a better idea that doesn’t involve wasting a day’s worth of bullets and alerting every creep between here and Beiseker to our position, I’m all ears.”
Dawson blinked. “W-Who’s going to plug in our slave cable?”
“I will,” I said. “And that means that I need Sid and you, Kate, to provide covering fire with your personal weapons. Single shots and only if necessary. When Cruze’s carrier returns we’ll have less than no time to dick around. Doug, as soon as the engine is going I want you to get everyone the hell away from here. I’ll ride the hull and pull the slave cable back on board.”
Jo gave me a painful glance and I didn’t have time to console her. She understood I was going to be putting myself at risk, but it was my fault we’d gotten into a tight spot and I was determined to be the one to get us out of it.
“Jo,” I said, taking the edge out of my voice. “You stay down below the hatch and keep your eyes on all the viewing ports. If you see anything coming, you be sure to let Kate and Sid know about it. Cool?”
She nodded. “A-Alright. Are you going to be okay?”
I shrugged. “We’re a team here in this boat, kiddo. And we’re only as fast as our slowest person. I’ll be okay if everyone does their jobs, got it?”
She nodded again as I gave everyone the thumbs up. “All right, everyone, my life is in your hands. Sid, you let me know when it’s safe to hop out and plug in the slave cable.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder. “We got your back, Dave. Try not to worry about it.”
I chuckled. “A dead battery. An army of creeps three deep pounding at the hull of our APC. Melanie Dixon is going to be the Pied Piper. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Sid gave me a running play-by-play of Ark Two’s actions. God love Melanie Dixon: she’d armed herself with a baseball bat and was clubbing to death every monster that dared attempt to claw its way up her hull. I made a mental note to worship the ground she walked on if we got through this intact because what she was doing took a huge amount of guts. What I was about to do, on the other hand, would require less in the way of guts and more in the way of dumb luck.
I’d hauled the 20 foot, rubber-coated slave cable out from underneath a floor panel, and cleaned the dirt out of each receptacle. Dawson helped me coil the 50lb monster onto my crew commander seat, and then I nervously gripped the hatch handle, waiting for word from Sid that it was clear to make my move. My throat was dry and my heart was hammering the inside of my chest like a battering ram. I checked the battery gauge on the wall panel. We had barely enough juice left for another radio signal, so I ordered that Sid assemble a mobile radio and hail Cruze’s APC.
“Vehicle radio is dead – I’ve got Cruze on the man-pack!” Sid shouted, in a voice that sounded like he’d just won the lottery.
“Thank fuck! Are there any creeps around our hull?”
“None that I can see,” he said.
I gripped the handle tighter. “Are you sure?”
“For fuck sake, Dave, I don’t know! It’s pitch black out there and I don’t have any infra-red, so my field of view is maybe a hundred feet or so.”
“Everyone listen up!” I bellowed. “I’ll go hatches up first. If the coast is clear, I’ll hammer on the hull of the carrier. Kate and Sid … get your asses topside and provide cover as soon as you hear me!”
“Don’t worry – we’ve got your back!” answered Dawson.
I took a deep breath and said a little prayer as I exhaled heavily and gave the hatch lever a sharp turn to the right. It opened with a loud screech, and I poked my head up to make sure everything was clear.
The first thing that hit me was the sharp stench of diesel in the air. I did a quick look to my left and right, pushed the hatch door wide open and lifted myself topside. In the distance I could make out Cruze’s panel markers, showing the rear of her carrier. She was climbing a sharp incline and there were dozens of creeps hot on her tail. I hammered on the hull with the heel of my boot and in seconds both Sid and Kate Dawson were standing in their respective hatches, carbines in hand.
“Cover me!”
I shouted as I hauled up the slave cable. In the distance I could hear sounds of branches being snapped to pieces as Cruze’s carrier lured the monsters away from us.
I hauled the slave cable to the nose of the carrier, dropped down onto my belly and shone my flashlight on the side of the hull. The red beam offered little illumination, but I spotted the slave receptacle just above the front right tire. I reached down and wrapped my hand around the receptacle cover, giving it a sharp twist to unlock it.
I managed to get the cover free, pulled the male end of the slave cable over the receptacle and plugged it in. A bead of sweat rolled down the center of my back as I gulped another breath of air. We were ready for a boost. All we needed was for Cruze to make it back to our vehicle and it would be a simple job to plug them into the front of our carrier. Doug would get the juice to turn over our engine and we could get the hell away from Airdrie.
I was close to feeling we might actually make it out of our predicament when I caught a flash of movement coming from a copse of bushes no more than thirty feet away. The air filled with the sound of broken branches, and a surge of panic shot straight into my bowels. It was another group of creeps. I scrambled to my feet as I spotted the front panel markers on Cruze’s carrier, heading down the incline eight hundred meters away.
“We’ve got company!”
I barked.
“Both sides, Dave!” shouted Dawson. “Where the hell did
they
come from?”
Sid climbed out of the turret, carbine in hand and helped me to my feet. He cocked his weapon as I scrambled back to my hatch and grabbed my carbine from its rack above the radios.
“Everything okay?” asked Doug.
“Just freaking great! Stand by and stay down. Keep an eye on Jo!”
He gave me a thumbs-up and I pulled my torso out of the hatch. I climbed to the highest point of the carrier and stood back to back with Sid while Kate pulled her carbine to her shoulder and took aim.
“This is going to get freaking ugly!” she shouted.
We watched the group of creeps emerge from the bush line, their arms stretched out toward us. The creatures, smelling fresh meat, immediately quickened their pace as they headed to the carrier.
I cocked my weapon and lined my sights up with the closest monster, a woman dressed in a torn nightgown, still wearing bedroom slippers. Her dead eyes met mine as I took a deep breath and flipped the safety off my carbine with my right thumb.
“Single shots,” I said, trying to control the bile rising in my throat. “One at a time.”
“Roger that,” said Sid. I could feel him shaking against my back.
“Watch and shoot,” I said, as I began to squeeze the trigger.
My carbine kicked in my right shoulder as the bullet tore out of the barrel and into the top of the monster’s head. The creep dropped like a stone. Three more stumbled out from the bushes and I fired off three quick rounds, each bullet thumping into cold, dead flesh.
“That’s four,” I said, lowering my weapon a few inches and scanning the horizon line for Cruze’s carrier. The air filled with loud pops as both Dawson and Sid fired their weapons. Another creep lumbered through the bush line, a small child who was probably Jo’s age when she’d been bitten. I fought the urge to throw up as I squeezed off another round, hitting the monster in the right side of its head and sending it flying back a good three or four feet.
“We’re going to have to get out of here fast, Dave!” shouted Dawson. “The sound of our weapons is going to send every freaking creep in Airdrie our way!”
“Tell me something I don’t know!” I growled as I fired a round at a creep clad only in a pair of torn boxer shorts. It landed on top of the body of the little girl. “How are you doing for ammo?”
“Fifteen rounds or so left,” said Sid. “I’ve got three full mags in my pocket.”
“About the same for me,” said Dawson, squeezing off a shot.
I could hear the rumble of Ark Two’s engine as it approached from the east and lowered my weapon again. I spotted the APC’s panel lights filtering through the bushes no more than 100m away, so I shouldered my weapon, scrambled down to the nose of the carrier and grabbed the other end of the slave cable. I’d just picked it up when I spotted movement in the bush line.
“Shit!” I snarled, as I hauled the cable back up to the turret. “There’s more coming out … this is going to be tight!”
“When isn’t it a tight spot?” Dawson groaned, firing off another shot.
A cloud of dust filled the air as Cruze’s APC barreled through the bushes, smashing into creeps and grinding them underneath the front wheels. I grabbed my flashlight and flicked it on, waving my arm in a circular motion as I directed the APC to the right side of our carrier. Kenny Howard was the best driver in the King’s Own. He deftly maneuvered his APC with the ease of a NASCAR driver and pulled up mere inches from the engine compartment of Ark One. I glanced at Melanie Dixon and noticed the business end of her aluminum baseball bat was smeared with blood and brain matter. She pulled a rag out from her back pocket and wiped the gore off her bat, then slipped it under the camouflage net attached to the turret.
“Next time you can be the bait – let’s get this boat of yours rolling! There‘s a small army of the pricks behind us and they’ll be here in minutes!”
I craned my neck over my shoulder to see that both Sid and Dawson had their weapons trained on the bushes. Pam Cruze popped out of her crew commander’s hatch. She had a shotgun slung across her shoulder and a determined look in her eyes.
“Nice to see you again, Dave. Let’s get you plugged in.”
“Cover me!” I raced across the front of her carrier, slave cable in hand. I knelt down and reached over to unlock the receptacle cap, then slid the slave cable into the slot and gave it a sharp twist. “We’re plugged in! Gun your RPM’S!”
Cruze poked her head in and reappeared five seconds later as Ark Two’s engine raced. I felt a wave of heat rising off the grill as I got back to my feet. Leaping across the hull, I jumped into my own hatch.
“Start her up, Doug!”
I shouted. He pressed the start button. The lights inside our carrier flickered weakly as the engine turned over.
“Come on you piece of shit!”
Doug roared. He fiddled with the neutral start switch for a second, and then pulled the choke out. I glanced at the electrical gauge and saw that it was drawing a full charge from Cruze’s carrier. We had enough juice. Doug pressed the start button again and the engine started turning over. He kept it pressed this time for more than twenty seconds. “Get Cruze to race her engine – we’re not getting enough power!”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “The gauges tell a different story.”
“I’m the fucking driver, Dave, you’re not!
Just do it!”
Doug snapped.
I didn’t have to be told twice. I popped my head out of my hatch and bellowed to Cruze. “Race your engine as high as you can, we’re not getting enough power!”
She gave me a thumbs-up. That’s when I spotted the first wave of creeps no more than 25m away. “Shit!” I barked. “Get this pig going, Doug. We’re about to be swarmed!”
He pressed the start button as I climbed out of my hatch and readied my weapon.
“They’re coming from all directions!” Cruze bellowed in a voice filled with panic and adrenaline.
A huge cloud of blue smoke poured out of our carrier’s exhaust port and floated around both vehicles, obscuring our vision of the creeps bearing down on us.
“Fuck!”
I shrieked as the engine continued turning over, pouring more and more smoke out of our vehicle. The air filled with the sound of weapons firing, dropping monsters on the ground one after the other.
There was a loud
whoosh
from the direction of Cruze’s APC, followed shortly by a
pop
that split the air. Seconds later we were bathed in yellow light as a parachute flare lit up the darkness.
It would have been better if we were still in the dark because the haunting phosphorescent light revealed a wall of monsters at least ten deep, tripping and stumbling through the bramble. Their unblinking eyes fixed on our two vehicles as dozens upon dozens of creeps lumbered through the acrid smoke towards us.
“Doug … get this boat started or we’re all dead!”
I thundered, as I fired off shot after shot. The engine continued turning over and then, miraculously, it coughed, sending a plume of black smoke out of the exhaust port. That was followed by a slow and steady rumble.
“We’re good!” shouted Doug. “Get the slave and let’s get out of here!”
“No freaking time!” I glanced back at Kate and Sid who stood on either side of the turret, firing into the smoke. “Screw the slave cable, Cruze, get your people the hell out of here!”
“
Ya think?”
she barked. “Catch up to us!”
The monsters pounded at the hull. I clubbed one that was crawling up the carrier’s nose with the butt of my rifle. It slid down across the trim vane and onto the ground. “Everyone inside and hatches down!” I shouted, diving into my hatch.
I heard two loud clangs confirm that both Sid and Kate were secure as I dropped down on my crew commander seat and closed the hatch.
“Go! Go! Go!”
I roared.
The carrier snapped into gear and pushed forward into the swarm of creeps, plowing them underneath the hull. My heart was racing wildly as I peered into my periscope. There was enough smoke outside that I could only see a few feet in front of us, so I couldn’t make out any reference points to aim the carrier. We were driving blindly now – we could hit a rut or roll the carrier.
“Keep us below ten kilometers an hour until we’re clear of the creeps,” I shouted.
Doug nodded as we pushed on, hitting bumps every two or three seconds. “Maybe another fifty yards until we’re out of the smoke!’ shouted Doug.
“Keep it steady then,” I replied, patting him on the shoulder. “We just need to clear this area and we’ll be good to go.”
I slipped on my headset just in time to hear the radio squawk followed by Sid’s voice. “I can see over the smoke. Make a hard right and then straighten your wheels, Doug. We’ll be out of this in no time.”
I pressed the PTT button. “Thanks, Sid. You navigate until we’re clear.”
“Will do,” he replied as I slid off my headset and turned in my seat to face the rear of the carrier. My shirt was dripping with sweat and my throat was as dry as sandpaper, but I was alive. All of us were, though from the look on Dawson’s face, it had been too close a call for her liking. I glanced at Jo, who mouthed the words “are you okay?”, so I motioned for her to come up to the front of the APC. She crawled across the jump seats and stood in front of me, her left hand gripping the turret cage to stay upright.
“I’m okay, Jo – are you okay?” I asked, wiping the sweat away from my eyes with the sleeve of my combat shirt.
“You’re bleeding,” she said, her face awash in concern. “Did they … did they bite you? Is that why you’re bleeding?”
I shook my head. “No – that’s what happens when you bump your head after having a lousy dream. Nobody got bitten, Jo. We’re all together and we’re going to make it out of here, okay?”
She let out a huge sigh of relief and then threw her arms around me. She buried her face in my chest and started sobbing. I pulled her close and whispered gently in her ear.
“I know it was insane here for a few minutes, Jo. It was scary for all of us.”
She sniffled loudly and gazed up at me. “I thought you got bitten … I thought you were going to turn into a creeper. I don’t want you to die. Mom died and …”
I kissed the top of her head and squeezed her hard. “I promised you I would never leave you and I meant it. I’ll fight an entire battalion of those monsters to protect you and so will everybody else. We all love you and I’m not going anywhere, got it?”