Chapter 7
The only ones uninjured at the small outpost were Jake, Brandon, One, Three, Four, Nine, and Joseph. They stayed hidden behind the van the recruits arrived in while the raiders circled the outnumbered group.
“I’m gonna have a good, long chat with the Senator if we get out of this,” Jake grunted.
“I don’t get it,” Nine started. “They have a bazooka. Why not just blow up the vehicle we’re behind and kill us?!”
“They want us alive,” Brandon answered. “Use us as a bargaining chip, then dispose of us when we aren’t needed.”
“We gotta come up with something quick,” Jake stated. “Or else these guys are gonna get the best of us.”
Joseph peeked around the van, scanning for a way to overcome the enemy forces. He noticed a rifle ten yards right of their position. He just needed to find someone to distract the raiders long enough.
“Marshal; Chief,” Joseph started. “Do one of you have a sidearm?”
“I’m out,” Jake answered. “I think Chief has only one clip left.”
As a raider circled around to the bus, Brandon opened fire. As the intruder fell to the grass below him, Brandon’s gun clicked.
“Not anymore,” Brandon stated. “I’m out too.”
“There’s another rifle at our three o’clock,” Joseph stated. “Not to mention the gun from the guy Chief just killed. If we can give a long enough distraction, I think I can sneak around all the other debris and get to them quick enough.”
Brandon gave out a sarcastic laugh. “What do you expect us to do, Seven? Talk them to death?!”
Joseph paused for a moment and thought of Three.
“Actually, yes,” Joseph answered. “Three, you think you can do that?”
“Hope you know what you’re doing,” Three responded as he shimmied around the others, positioning himself towards the front of the van.
“Don’t get yourself killed, Seven,” Jake ordered. “Swift and quick!”
“Yo,” Three called out. “Ain’t you raiders got somewhere else to be? Like, back in Oakland?”
While Three was attempting to use his peculiar sense of humor to grab the looters’ attention, Joseph backed away from the van to an overturned table, taking cover behind it.
“You know your buddy over here,” Three continued. “He must’ve been religious or something, cuz he’s definitely holier than thou now.”
One abruptly punched Three in the back while Four and Nine socked him in the back of the head.
“Ow!” Three exclaimed. “Hey, what was all that for?!”
“You trying to get us killed?!” Four whispered. “We’re trying to distract them, not piss ‘em off!”
“That and I’m Catholic!” One added.
Joseph saw the looters angrily turn their attention towards the van, giving him enough time to shimmy to the next piece of large debris that was closer to the guns.
“Okay, my bad,” Three continued. “I’ll admit: That was a little morbid.”
“No turning back now,” Nine whispered. “The damage has already been done.”
“What do you guys want? Seriously! I mean, we have some food... er... had some food until Demolition Man over there blew it all up. I don’t know, there might be some of it left; probably overcooked, though.”
“I’m gonna enjoy killing that comedian once we’re done here,” said the looter holding the B-300.
“Hey!” Three shouted. “That’s ‘Stand Up Comedian’ to you!”
“I don’t see you standing up!”
“I’ll admit,” Four chuckled. “
That
was funny.”
“At least we had a good laugh before being killed,” Nine added.
As the commotion was going on, the group noticed some figures appearing out of the bushes. A nose burning odor followed as they popped out into their view. More figures showed themselves from the left and the right as they closed into the battleground.
“Zombies!” one of the raiders shouted.
As the zombies trotted towards the raiders, the raiders fired back. The noise from their weapons attracted the others, giving them an overpowering disadvantage.
“Never thought I’d say this,” Brandon said. “But I’m
glad
to see those things!”
Joseph saw this as a perfect opportunity to make a run for the guns. He swiftly jetted towards the weapons, yanking the rifle out of the dead looter’s hand, and scooping up the other rifle, paying no mind to the severed arm gripping it. He threw a rifle to Brandon and a rifle to Four, whom he believed was the best shot out of the remaining recruits.
“Alright,” Jake began. “While they’re busy, lets grab any weapon we can find and finish them off! Keep in mind: Zombies don’t pick sides!”
One nearly vomited as he saw Brandon pry the stiff fingers from the severed hand off the rifle he was given so suddenly. As the group prepared to charge, a couple of stragglers began running their way, with the scent of fresh meat catching their decaying noses.
“Use your knife on the dead!” Brandon ordered. “Four can use her weapon because of the silencer!”
The group charged, searching for any weapons lying about, while Brandon and Four gave covering fire, shooting any of the distracted looters. With Nine and Joseph leading the way, they came across some of the dead soldiers and their weapons. However, five zombies stood in the way.
“Nine, kick its feet!” Joseph ordered.
Nine then slid, tripping the zombie in front of him. As he did that, he positioned himself on all fours, giving Joseph the perfect opportunity. He leaped over the toppling zombie, using Nine’s back as a booster to push himself in the air. As he did so, he gripped his knife with both hands, jamming the blade between the eyes of the zombie that stood on the other side.
After Joseph took care of the zombie he stabbed, he yanked his knife out of its skull, quickly throwing it at a zombie on his right, puncturing it in the temple. As Joseph’s attention was on those two zombies, Nine hastily pulled out his knife and swung at the zombie he tripped. He then tossed his knife, catching the handle with his left hand, and swung his fists like a hammer, stabbing the fourth zombie in the head and slamming it to the ground.
As Nine and Joseph took care of those four fighting corpses so quickly. Four aimed her rifle at the fifth zombie, who was trotting towards Joseph. She fired, and the bullet passed Joseph, nearly clipping the hair on the back of his neck, and hitting the zombie.
The three recruits fought in unison. Their timing was perfect and flawless, concluding that brief attack against the five zombies in a matter of seconds. They were now free to load themselves up with the weapons that laid before them.
One turned around to see the raider with the bazooka aimed right for him. After he picked up his rifle, he swung it to that man’s position, then quickly pulled the trigger. As the bullet hit the raider in the shoulder, his arms swung around as he leaned back, firing the rocket upward rather than to One and the rest of the group.
The man rolled over and attempted to pick himself up. Before he could get on his feet, he was quickly overwhelmed by the zombies attracted to the sound from his bazooka. He slowly stopped struggling as the small horde devoured him from head to toe.
As the number of looters began to slowly dwindle, the number of zombies doubled in size.
“They’re gonna be on us in a bit,” Jake stated. “We’re gonna have to hold them off for reinforcements to get here. There should be some Spartans on the way.”
“Guess that means we’re gonna see how good that training done us,” Joseph added.
“You’re their squad leader,” Brandon told Joseph. “Lead the way.”
The five recruits then charged to the herd of animals, with Joseph leading the way.
“Four! On the van!” Joseph ordered.
Four sprinted towards the van, nearly flying as she climbed to the roof of the vehicle. She dropped down, spreading her body on the cold metal, then pulled her rifle from around her back.
Pap! Pap! Pap!
As she aimed down her sights, Four constantly flinched, pulling the trigger every time and dropping each zombie she laid her eyes on.
While Four gave covering fire, Joseph ordered One to kill the zombies on his left and Three to kill the zombies on his right. Nine flipped over a table in front of them, giving them a small barrier for everyone to take cover behind. Nine and Joseph rested their rifles on the edge of the makeshift blockade, while One and Three inched inward towards the table.
Brandon and Jake unleashed their fury from behind the van that Four laid upon. The rest showed no mercy as they fired upon the zombies from the table in front of them. It was a skeet shoot, but the undead were flying towards the group rather than away.
As the seven made their stand against the odds, another van sped into the battleground, sliding right in front of the table that Joseph and the others took cover. Ten men, suited up with heavy armor, riot shields, and Desert Eagles at their sides, rushed out of the back of the van, lining up side by side in front of the horde’s path.
“Seven!” Jake called out. “You and the others regroup with us! Let the Spartans take care of the rest of them!”
As Joseph and his group inched back towards the van, the Spartans inched forward towards the impending onslaught. Their shields interlocked, creating a ballistic barrier to defeat the swarm. As the zombies trotted, attempting to break through the wall, the Spartans would act in unison, repelling the horde, then slaying the horde with the silenced sidearm each Spartan possessed.
As the Spartans continued to lay into the swarm, the number of flesh eaters quickly decreased until there was none left. One of the Spartans stepped towards the van Jake and the rest settled behind. He then removed his helmet and uncovered his mouth, revealing a bald white man, with a well built, clean shaven face. The patch on his vest had
General John Demarais
etched in it.
“Marshal,” John started. “Is everyone over here hurt? Are you guys the only ones left.”
“Yes we are, John,” Jake answered. “Raiders attempted to breach, and zombies followed not long after that. Glad you guys came when you did.”
“Yessir. I’m looking around and I notice that there are more zombies lying around than the ones me and my men took out. These young guns do that?”
“Most of it.”
John looked around, eyeballing the dead scattered about, then turned to the pile of zombies in front of the other Spartans.
“Impressive,” John nodded. “Chief; permission to put in a good word for these recruits of yours?”
“No need, Lieutenant,” Brandon responded. “That’s already been done.”
“So you’re saying,” Joseph interrupted. “That we’re in?”
“Yeah,” Jake answered. “I think you earned it.”
Joseph sighed and leaned back against the van. As he slid towards the grass below him, he massaged his neck, then looked around at the bodies laying around.
“What about all of these guys?” Joseph asked, referring to the dead. “Who’s gonna take care of these soldiers?”
“We’ll take care of that,” John responded. “We’ll tend to our own and dispose of the ones that aren’t ours, so that all of you guys can head back to the outpost and rest.”
Chapter 8
Jake abruptly opened his eyes, revealing a deserted town in front of him. There was no grass on the ground; only sand and stone.
Where am I?
Jake thought.
Where is everyone?
The light was bright; so blinding that Jake had to force himself to squint, even while using his arm to add some shade to his view. The heat was beating down upon his head.
Is it raining?
Jake wiped the water from his face. He had mistaken his own pouring sweat for rain.
Why is it so hot?
Jake began moving forward, hoping he would find water to douse his head in and cool off. As he proceeded, the light began to dim, and dark clouds appeared all around him.
Oh no! The outpost!
Jake reached for his sidearm, but could not find it. Had it been misplaced? He reached around his back to grab his rifle, but it was gone as well. Even his knife was nowhere to be seen.
Jake refused to worry about his missing weapons, rushing towards the ruins and the decaying bodies lying around. The rotting odor was much stronger than the zombies that Jake battled against.
Wait a second. These people aren’t the ones at the outpost. These bodies.... Are the ones that died a year ago. Where the hell am I?!
Jake slowly moved forward, until he came across a large pile of wallets. They were neatly stacked, and there were blood stained pictures scattered around the wallets. There was also licenses, dog tags, and other keepsakes. In front of the pile, there was small sign that was hammered into the dirt and dust; a wooden sign that was horrendously recognizable.
“No,” Jake whispered.
There was only three words handwritten in that sign:
Fort Worth Shrine
After gazing in shock, a still small voice was heard.
“Jake... Jake...”
The small whisper began growing louder.
“Jake! Jake! JAKE!”
The voice was now screaming Jake’s name; so loud and deafening that as Jake covered his ears, he felt wet liquid ooze trickling down his arms, showing a crimson color. He began to hyperventilate, and quickly sealed his eyes shut.
“JAKE!!”
Jake opened his eyes again, inhaling a shuttering breath. He was laying down in his tent under his covers. His ears and face were covered in sweat.
“Jake.”
As Jake shot up out of bed, he turned to the open end of the tent, seeing Tyrese standing there.
“HR-Team Alpha is about to head out in about thirty minutes,” Tyrese reported. “Want me to tell them to wait for you?”
“Yeah,” Jake sighed, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his shirt laying on the desk next to him. “Go ahead and let Kyle know. I’ll be up in a minute.”
Once Tyrese left the small tent, Jake slipped on his shirt and body vest. He then equipped himself with his sidearm, knife and rifle. After wrapping his bandanna around his head and his shemagh around his neck, he exited the tent.
I was dreaming,
Jake thought.
That was intense.
Jake met up with Joseph, who was hanging out with the other former recruits at the northern gate, nearby the two helicopters. Each of the recruits, including Joseph, had a new set of dog tags, along with their infantry patch and their name and rank patches. Joseph’s first and last name was on his tags. On One’s tags was the name,
Adam Lee.
On Three’s tags was
Hector Trejo
, on Four’s tags was
Brittany Lowry
, and on Nine’s tags was
James Bass.
“Private Boyer,” Jake called out.
“Marshal,” Joseph responded, as he and the others saluted him.
“You were saying you wanted to try your luck with being a Hostile Rescue soldier?”
“Yes, Marshal.”
“Then get ready. You’re going with HR-Team Alpha under my watch. We’re gonna be doing a mandatory run. Nothing special today. Just learning the ropes.”
Jake’s radio began to beep rapidly.
“Never mind,” Jake corrected. “Let’s get over there. We have an emergency run.”
Joseph hurried behind Jake to meet up with Lieutenant Kyle Williams, who was the squad leader of HR-Team Alpha. Among the squad was a sergeant only known as Grimm, who wore a dark baseball cap in reverse, dark sunglasses, and skull baclava mask, which covered his head from his ears and his entire face under his sunglasses, to the gray shemagh that he wore around his neck.
The other three soldiers that were among HR-Team Alpha were Corporal Rodney Colson, a well built black man with thick facial hair, Corporal Jason Webber, a thin faced white man with a lean, athletic build to him, and Corporal Dike Akiyama, a clean shaven Japanese man.
“Attention,” Kyle ordered, as he and the elite members of HR-Team Alpha saluted Jake.
“At ease,” Jake responded. “What do we have?”
Kyle opened a large atlas, turned to Tallahassee’s map, and set the atlas on the table placed in the middle of the team.
“Here’s the Sit-Rep,” Kyle began. “We got a distress call from a group of survivors. The other end was garbled up, so we don’t know how many. What we do know is that they are at Erick’s Building here.”
Kyle placed his finger at Governor’s Inn, the venue of hotels just north of the state capital building.
“We told them to meet us on the rooftop of the capitol building,” Kyle continued. “But we were informed that they were trapped in that resort, completely surrounded by the undead, so we’re gonna have to land on the building itself and repel down to their room. Any questions?”
“Any of these survivors non ambulatory?” Jason asked.
“We were informed that one of the guys in that group was severely bit in the leg. They never specified where at in the leg or how long ago, so we may have to amputate on sight. So yes, there is a survivor that will be non ambulatory.”
“Any of the other rooms in the hotel that we can enter from to speed up the evac?” Rodney added.
“There would be,” Kyle answered. “But from the information we were given, there have been large swarms of undead in the hallways and the other rooms, so we can’t risk it. Since the window we’ll be going through is narrow, we can only use one rope and get the survivors out one at a time.”
“Keep in mind, Reapers,” Jake added. “Private Joseph Boyer will be attending this rescue mission under mine and Lieutenant Williams’s command. Part of the ‘Trial-by-Fire’ portion of HR-Training.”
Grimm turned his head to Joseph and simply nodded.
“Alright, let’s move out!” Kyle ordered.
“Hooah!”
The men of HR-Team Alpha hurried to the chopper as it was preparing to take off.
“Reapers, Marshal?” Joseph asked.
“That’s our nickname, Trainee,” Rodney answered. “Bravo is called ‘Angels;’ we’re called ‘Reapers.’”
“But why ‘Reapers?’”
Rodney pointed at Grimm, who was loading his modified M4 Carbine.
“Cuz we have Grimm,” Rodney finished. “Like the Grim Reaper. We got the ‘Grimm;’ just needed the ‘Reaper.’”
Jake turned his head to see Kaylee, who stood by and watched as HR-Team Alpha prepared to take off to perform their duties.
“Be careful out there,” Kaylee called out. “All of you.”
“As always, ma’am,” Kyle answered.
Once HR-Team Alpha was settled in their seats, the chopper that carried them picked itself up from the ground, and proceeded to fly towards Tallahassee.
“I thought civilians weren’t allowed near the military borders,” Joseph said.
“Only if they’re not civilian volunteers,” Jake replied. “And that young girl just happens to be one of ‘em.”
“She says she’s just a servant of God,” Rodney clowned. “I wouldn’t really believe a word she says. Red heads are crazy, after all.”
“What are you saying?”
“Think about it,” Rodney laughed. “Do you actually believe that there is some ‘Big Guy’ in the clouds? Not me. Hell no.”
“Well let me ask you something, Corporal,” Kyle interrupted. “Because I actually do believe in God. Do you think that there’s an afterlife?”
“With all due respect, Lieutenant,” Rodney replied. “I think we’re all just gonna be worm food.”
“Well then keep Pascal’s Wager in mind. If you’re right, and we’re just gonna be worm food, then I got nothing to lose; I done my part, and I enjoyed doing it. But if I’m right, and there is, I just hope you’ll be going with me to the good side.”
Rodney simply snickered.
“Ten bucks says I’m right, L.T.” Rodney bet.
“Why bet?” Jason intervened. “Not gonna be around to spend it.”
“Alright Webber. Good point. So what do you believe?”
Jason paused for a moment.
“I don’t know,” Jason answered. “Maybe; maybe not. We’ll have to find out.”
Rodney turned his head to Dike.
“Don’t look at me, dawg,” Dike replied. “You know I don’t like talking about that kind of stuff.”
“Hey, Grimm,” Rodney continued. “What about you?”
Grimm just shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh, so you’re agnostic too, huh?”
Grimm then shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head sideways, then straightened himself up.
“How come Grimm doesn’t talk, Lieutenant?” Joseph asked.
“Don’t know,” Kyle answered. “I’m guessing he’s a mute. Never heard him speak before. Nobody has; not even the marshal. He just communicates with motion and sign language, and we can understand him as if he was talking. He doesn’t talk, and he never shows his face. Found him like that, but with a different outfit.”
With Jake being mentioned, Rodney turned to him.
“What about you, Marshal?” Rodney asked. “What do you believe?”
I’m not gonna answer that question,
Jake thought. “I believe we’re just about there. Let’s look alive, Reapers.”
The chopper flew around the Governor’s Inn venue. The number of zombies completely covered the area, to the point where the squad could barely see pieces of the asphalt and concrete below them.
“Well they weren’t lying about being stuck here,” Jake said.
Everyone on the chopper prepared to leave as it hovered over Erick’s Building. Once it landed, everyone stepped out carrying with their weapons, a rope a medical kit, and pieces to construct a stretcher. They were ready to continue on with their mission.