Z-Minus (Book 4) (14 page)
“We should get out of here,” Eddie said. “It’s pointless dying when we don’t have to.”
“Coward,” John said.
Eddie’s face screwed up.
“You go ahead and die for no reason,” he said. “I’m going to stay alive and do something with my life.”
“Let him go,” Mark said to John. “It’s up to each of us to make our own decision.”
But John clearly didn’t approve.
“Here they come!” Daoud said.
The wall of dead began to shake as the zombies on the other side scaled over it. The first few poked their heads over the top and grinned down at them. They got a bullet from Daoud as he unloaded round after round into their skulls, like a gruesome game of whack-a-mole.
The soldiers on the ground aimed and opened fire. Eddie growled under his breath before cocking his weapon, turning, and running at the undead.
“Made your decision, ay?” John said.
“My life ain’t worth shit anyway,” Eddie said.
“Join the club,” John said.
The zombies’ bodies flopped over the wall and slid down the other side like they were surfing. Then the wall shuddered and teetered forward, leading from the top, and collapsed like a frozen wave. The undead fell with it. The soldiers mowed them down with their bullets. Then they hopped back, the blood clinging to their boots and making them stumble.
“Fall back!” Mark said.
One after the other they filed through a narrow gap in the ruined concrete wall. They dragged a piece of the wreckage over and plugged the gap.
They climbed onto the short wall and aimed again at the horde. They unloaded into them, forming a spray of red mist.
The zombies reached up for the soldiers, but their fingers were just out of reach. The soldiers edged back.
Farther along the wall, the zombies pushed and buffeted against the struts holding the remains of the facility up. The building shook. Daoud got to his knees and began to move away, his limp slowing him down.
There was a loud creaking, like an ancient ship at sea. The fibers in the struts snapped. The building fell forward.
Daoud was still inside it.
“No!” Eddie shouted. “No!”
Daoud sprayed the undead from above as he fell. His bullets had little effect. He crawled back, squeezing into a small empty space. The zombies reached for him, scrabbling for a grip.
“No!” Daoud shouted. “No!”
An undead with a gold ‘Kiss Me’ medallion secured a hold and pulled Daoud’s leg out. The zombies fell upon it, tearing through the fabric and flesh. The zombies pulled Daoud free from his hiding place and gorged on him.
“Daoud…” Eddie said.
John rested his hand on Eddie’s shoulder, keeping him in place, from doing anything stupid. Mark and Jacob reloaded their weapons, preparing for the next assault.
The wall shook under the combined pressure and weight of zombies. The weaker undead at the front were crushed underfoot, giving those behind the extra height they needed to scrabble for the remaining soldiers’ legs.
Mark and his team hopped down onto the other side.
“What I wouldn’t give for an airstrike right now,” John said.
“Or a nice M1 Abrams,” Eddie said.
Fine dust drifted down from a crack in the wall. The momentous weight of the undead became too much and the wall tilted over. A thick wave of dust rose, temporarily hiding the undead from view.
“Jacob,” Mark said. “It’s time.”
“But we’re still holding them back,” Jacob said. “I can’t leave now!”
“It’s time,” Mark said.
Mark’s voice was tired, exhausted, his face pale and drawn. He looked half dead. He probably was.
“When this is all over, find Tabitha and tell her I love her,” Mark said. “Tell her I did everything I could to protect her. Can you do that?”
Jacob nodded, embarrassed by the childish tears that spilled down his face. He wiped his eyes.
“I don’t want to go,” Jacob said. “We’re brothers.”
“You gave your word,” Mark said. “A man always keeps his word.”
John stepped forward.
“Tell Katie… Tell her I’m sorry,” he said. “And tell Joanie I’m sorry I’ll miss all her birthdays.”
John thumbed a tear from his eyes.
“Eddie?” Jacob said.
“If you get the time, check on Gloria at the Titty Twister,” Eddie said. “Thank her for such wonderful memories.”
The drone of the undead began as a solo and grew to a cacophonous roar.
“It’s time,” Mark said.
Jacob’s teammates turned to face the dust cloud that was already beginning to settle.
The undead emerged out of the dust like shadows. His brothers had no chance of keeping them back. The horde would sweep them up and force them back, back, back, until they were incapable of retreating or fighting any longer. But still they fought, their angry fiery expressions illuminated by the flash of their gun muzzles.
Jacob had a powerful impulse to join his brothers in their final hurrah, to help hold back the tide just a moment longer, willfully sacrificing his own life to be amongst his friends in death. But he’d made a promise, and it was one he felt unable to break.
He turned and walked away, building to a trot, the sound of the gunfire and the groaning of the undead army nipping at his heels and his heart, as he knew in no uncertain terms he was abandoning his friends.
Their guns had clicked empty. They were reduced to swinging them as clubs. The soldiers’ movements were slow and drawn, every exertion draining them. Occasionally an explosion boomed from the other side of the wall, but it only served as a reminder of more undead ready to fall upon them. Soon, the undead would overpower them and they would be able to put up little resistance. Mark’s child would grow up with a missing father figure after all, every bit as much as Mark himself had. He hoped the baby would at least grow to understand why he had done what he did.
“It’s been an honor to serve with you lads,” Mark said.
“And with you,” John said, smiling at him.
Mark had never had a big brother, but if he did, John was what he imagined he would be like.
Mark put a bloody hand on Eddie’s shoulder.
“We might not have always gotten on,” he said. “But it was an honor to fight by your side.”
“Leave over, will you?” Eddie said. “Tell me in heaven, if we ever make it that far.”
The soldiers raised their weapons, shared a weak smile, and roared as they ran into the enveloping arms of the putrid horde army.
The gunfire didn’t last long. It began as a loud roar, and then fell silent. Just when he thought it was over, there was a pop, like a single party popper.
And then silence.
Jacob came to a stop, turning to look back the way he had come. He couldn’t see much through the trees and the dense foliage. The least he could do was retrieve their bodies, wrestle them from the zombies before they could claim them as their own, but he knew he would be too late. A shudder wracked his body. He never should have left them. His cowardice would haunt him forever. He should have stopped right then, should have fought the undead, should have let himself fall to their clawed hands…
But for one thing.
But for the promise he’d made to Mark. The red paintball felt heavy in his pocket. It contained the bodies of his fallen comrades.
He would get word to the city, warn them of a terror coming their way. He would help save thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of lives, and it would have all been thanks to his brave friends’ sacrifice. Maybe they’d build a monument to them, or name a day after them. They wouldn’t be forgotten. No, Jacob would make sure of that. They would be remembered.
It was a full thirty minutes before Jacob finally stopped to rest. It was dark and he feared he would trip over and break his leg. But he had to keep going. Even if he slowed down, he had to keep moving. If he stopped, the undead would creep up on him in the night, and the warning he carried would die with him.
He clambered up a tall hillock, feeling his way with his hands. He pulled himself up, and looked over the side.
In the darkness, it took a moment to realize what he was looking at.
An involuntary chuckle rumbled in the back of his throat. He burst out laughing, thumping the earth with his fist. His motions slowed and became softer as his laughter turned to tears. He wept.
Z-MINUS: 0
Jacob opened his eyes to look at the view again, and saw from this vantage-point the city of Charlotte. There was no mistaking it, no mistaking the glimmering lights of the tall buildings, no mistaking the helicopters that streamed beams of light from powerful lamps, no mistaking the giant fires that had consumed half the city, no mistaking the flickering flash of gunfire from a dozen locations.
There was no mistaking the end of the world.
Jacob barked with laughter, with madness, and howled into the night at all the lost lives. All would be forgotten, none would be remembered. There would be no one left to mourn them, for they would all be dead.
You’ll love Z-Minus 5!
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Archie is a state-of-the-art computer system. He can sequence a genome within eight hours. He can upload a virus’s make-up into the cloud for research centers all over the world. By the time a dangerous virus arrives, we will already be inoculated against it. Archie will make pandemics obsolete.
Unfortunately for us, he was developed too late.
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