The Rooster (Erotic Apocalyptic Thriller)

Surviving with Style Series 1

By Richard Peters

Copyright 2014 Richard Allen Peters

ISBN-13: 9781310958380

Smashwords First Edition

Cover Art: Michael Mehrhoff

To be contacted about free promotions and new
releases only, please follow the author at:

Mail Sign Up:
http://go.reachmail.net/f.asp?f=6472

To discover other military and veteran authors,
please visit my free book review blog:

Military and Veteran’s Fiction:
Sound Off!

Thrillers by Richard Peters:

Power Games
(Operation Enduring Unity I)

Shock and Awe
(Operation Enduring Unity
II)

The Surge
(Operation Enduring Unity III)
Available Oct 2014

Science Fiction:

The Unreasonable Man

Non-fiction:

Quit Wasting Time and Sell More Ebooks

Smashwords First Edition, License Notes

The author has provided this e-book to you without
Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can
enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your
personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make
this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy,
reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of
your personal devices.

A
Brave New World

Sanctuary

New World Order

It’s a Wonderful Life

First Assignment

Paradise

Last Stop

“Any other great ideas, hotshot?” I could
still hear my partner’s terrified whisper even over all the
moaning. The crazies weren’t usually too active during the day.
Hell, might as well call them what everyone else does: the zombies
were docile in the daytime. Maybe the sun hurts their engorged
pupils or maybe they’ve become cold-blooded. Don’t know and don’t
care. I’m sure scientists squirreled away in a bunker somewhere are
probing such questions, but that doesn’t do me any good.

I stole another glance over the ledge and
scanned the highway below. We’d only seen a pair of cannibals
meandering about when we slipped through this morning. Now, though,
hundreds of those shuffling, bloodthirsty beasts packed the broad
boulevard. We were both well-armed. In post-apocalyptic southern
Texas, guns and ammo were easy enough to get a hold of. Hell, we
even had a few real machine guns, salvaged from overrun Army units,
stashed at the camp. But those were a last ditch resort. Gunshots
bring these killers running from miles away. For every one you
killed, twenty more howled their way to the party. The best
defense, really the only thing that had kept us alive all these
months, was stealth. That and always staying on the move.

Neither one was a good option here. No
chance in hell of sneaking across that open area and getting back
to camp. Likewise, slinking a mile or so down the road to skirt
this hot spot would leave us in the open after dark. About the
worst thing that could possibly happen to you in this new world.
Beside me, Dixon couldn’t quit whining. “I told you I heard a
fucking truck earlier. We should have extracted then. Not hung
around a second longer.”

He was a good guy to have around most of the
time. As a hobby hunter back in the old world, he was also a damn
fine shot, unlike me. Also unlike me, he had a girl back at base he
was anxious to see again. If the ache to rush through the crowd,
guns blazing, was tempting for me, it must have been torture for
him. With our rucksacks stuffed with goodies, get back to a hero’s
homecoming as quick as possible. I forced down the urge. “Too late
now, man. Look, we just need to bed down here and move out in the
morning. Whoever stirred them up will be gone, one way or the
other, by tomorrow.”

Dixon was more nervous than usual. Waving
his .45 around the whole time, his laughter was a little too
forced. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, John. Those morons won’t last
long. Man, I swear to God, these little scavenger hunts into town
just aren’t worth it anymore.” He scanned the deserted roof for
non-existent threats one more time. “Never thought I’d kill or get
killed fighting over Doritos and expired medicine. I just wish we
could run off north somewhere. Deep in the woods or plains,
whatever. Like those secure compounds you always hear about. Start
over and stop clinging to the past.”

I shrugged off my overloaded rucksack. Maybe
he had a point, but hell if I’d admit it. I didn’t know the first
thing about farming. My city-boy butt wouldn’t be too useful there.
But here, in this world, I was a legend in the group. A big wig.
One of the few foragers that could reliably get you whatever you
wanted from town. What value would I have away from this deadly
goody-box of a metropolis?

“You’ll be part of that history you want to
abandon if we don’t bunker down soon. We’ve got less than an hour
of daylight left. You get the shelter halves up and I’ll barricade
the stairwell door. Maybe we’ll celebrate our haul by cracking open
a box of Pop Tarts for dinner.” Lust ached in my heart and even
Dixon grinned, despite the near panic on his face. Giving up the
old sugar addiction was one of the hardest parts of the end of the
world.

While Dixon got busy I did what I could to
tuck us in. In a chain of events that I preferred not to think
about, but would explain all the dark stains on the roof, someone
once shot the door’s lock off. I looped a length of chain through
the hole and tried to find a hard point to anchor it to… when
something crashed behind me. A split-second later I heard “Shit!”
and, worst of all, a
boom
! I spun around, baseball bat at
the ready, only to see some fat raccoon dash away. Dixon’s face was
paler than a zombie’s.

“It… he… surprised…”

A collective roar from a thousand cannibals
rose up around us. Not all from outside the building.

Clamp, clamp, clamp
rang throughout
the dark stairwell behind me. “Let’s go! Move!”

I ignored my bag five yards away and just
dived straight for the fire escape we used to get up here. Sure
enough, the alleyway was filling up quick. No point in dropping the
ladder. Something howled on the roof just yards away. Without a
glance over my shoulder, I snatched one of our backup ropes, locked
in my D-ring and jumped off. Was it my paranoia or was there really
some hot breath on the back of my neck a millisecond before I went
flying?

A plan C is the secret to survival when the
world hates you. Dixon was going to kiss my ass after the way he
griped when I insisted we toss grabbling hooks onto a secondary
hideout before scaling this building. I finally looked around to
see if he was having as much trouble as me climbing the one-story
difference in height. I wish I hadn’t.

Maybe he hesitated too long; maybe he just
slipped. Could be his luck simply ran out. Either way, he lay down
there in the middle of the alley with a twisted leg. You got to
hand it to the old guy. Dixon went out swinging. He must have
dropped half a dozen of those fucks before saving the last round
for himself. After all the ruckus he made, I don’t think any of the
monsters saw me Spiderman-ing away.

At least, not for a while. In ten minutes, I
creeped a couple blocks further from the hotspot. Quiet as a mouse,
since the last rays of sun were slithering away. I’m positive they
didn’t track me. It must have just been my turn to run out of
luck.

Some little kiosk with a metal rolling
facade seemed a decent place to hole up for the night. The place
was picked clean, but without obvious struggle. Probably scavengers
like me. Shouldn’t be anything lurking around. I swept the small
shop for threats and painstakingly eased the clinking metal cage
down… just as a scream filled the air. My blood curdled, but I
opened my eyes anyway to identify the threat.

Across the street, a nude young woman
sprinted towards me. She was fast, with an even stride. Much faster
than I’d seen any cannibal move before. She also kept screaming
something about “they’re all gone” real loud. Speaking, coherent
movement and, I won’t pretend I didn’t notice, breasts still perky.
She was human! I let my gun dangle to the side and tried to
help.

“Shhh! Be quiet and get in here!” I reached
out to take her hand and yank her inside. Maybe it was the fading
light or the stress of the day, or even the jiggling breasts, but
it wasn’t until then that I noticed that famous snarl and bloodshot
eyes.

I whipped up my pistol and managed a
snapshot to her gut, but just like in the movies, that doesn’t stop
them. Only a head shot will. She knew what the gun was too, and
batted it playfully out of my hand with that superhuman strength of
theirs.

Which was why I nearly pissed myself when
her head exploded. Still would have, if I hadn’t of seen the horde
further down the street rushing my way. No time to lose your shit.
Hurling the corpse off me, I didn’t even have a chance to scoop up
my gun before someone grabbed me.

“Let’s go, dumbass!”

Several soldiers, rifles at the ready,
dragged me into the street and chucked my confused ass into some
car. A hybrid. What the hell? It was packed too. Six of us in a
four-seater. Strange enough, I had someone’s standing crotch in my
face.
Rat-tat-tatting
from above explained that mystery.
These people had cut a hole in the roof and mounted a frigging
machine gun up there. We took a couple of sharp turns before some
authoritative female voice from the front seat halted the wild
shooting. “Check fire! We’re out of the hot zone. Light discipline
everyone. Go to night vision, over.” My mouth hung open, realizing
she was talking into some radio and ordering around other teams.
Holy crap, talk about impressive! I was giddy as could be.

“Thank you so much! I won’t lie; that was
close!”

No one else said a word. They just stared at
me like some kind of animal in a zoo. I ignored it. Everyone’s
social skills are a little warped after Armageddon. I broke the ice
with the wittiest thing I could think of: “So what are you dudes
all about? Some eco-friendly Special Forces outfit?”

The woman next to me laughed. “Well, we got
ourselves a keeper here. One slap genius. Can’t tell five women
from men and can’t tell a zombie from a hooker!”

I suppose I wasn’t in a position to argue.
Still dazed from the rescue. So I kept making small talk. “No
offense, I mean I’m grateful and all for your help, but how much
further do you think we can go before these batteries give out?
Maybe we ought to stop and find a truck or something.”

Their leader turned around and gave me a
look of disgust. Even in the dim red interior light I could tell
she was stunning. I don’t mean “we’re all about to die so why not”
hot, but old-world standards attractive.

“Been here 30 seconds and already trying to
take charge? Typical man. Sugar, we charged these batteries with
our own windmills just this morning. We’ll make it back to the
citadel with plenty of juice to spare, even though it’s still a
good 50 miles northeast. And no, we won’t grab a pickup like those
rednecks that brought a swarm down on you. Mock us all you want,
but this electric scoot-about runs as quiet as a bicycle. Which is
why we’re saving your ass and not the other way around.”

This was not a good sign. Me and my crew had
bumped into other groups since the collapse. Some were dangerous,
most were friendly, but everyone was secretive. All claimed to be
nomadic. Since they pretty much told me where their lair was and
didn’t bother with a blindfold… well, they obviously weren’t
expecting me to leave. Ever.

Had to get off that depressing train of
thought. “How did you know that we were trapped?”

“Come on, you think this is amateur hour?
We’ve been… watching you all day. I am sorry about your partner. If
you two had just kept your shit together for ten more minutes, we
could have had you both.”

I caught a noticeable pause before she said
“watching.” She nearly used a different word. Not too many positive
synonyms there. Time to shut my big mouth for once and just listen.
Whatever they had planned, I wasn’t going to make it any easier by
handing out free information. Maybe I could pick up some if I
actually listened. Unfortunately, unlike most women I met before
the End, these gals didn’t gossip. It was a quiet ride out of town.
They didn’t even ask me any questions. No questions, no orders… no
good signs here.

What a fucking day.