Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 (34 page)

“I have one more mission, then we’re going to jump in
that water,” he pointed behind him, “and swim to safety.”

That brightened everyone up.

“I need to go back into town. I think the woman who screwed
us all was on that plane. I’d like some payback, wouldn’t
you?”

He got some cheers, but he knew they were being polite. After
fighting all day and all night, no one—not even him—truly
wanted to go back in. The only reason they weren’t fighting
them at that moment was that so many people refused to leave their
homes, even when faced with the black tide, that the zombies were
delayed by those holdouts. If anyone was looking at the scene from
above, they would see rings of zombie surrounding homes. Donuts of
death on a final platter of humanity.

But that grisly image encouraged him that he wasn’t asking
his men and women to commit suicide.

In a few minutes, he had his fighting force. A dozen volunteers
jumped on each of the tanks, spears and guns at the ready. The
Humvees collectively had about a thousand rounds of ammo left, but
they could also run over stragglers if need be. A few brave souls got
in those trucks to help the drivers.

The remainder of his men were given the task of guarding their
piece of the park. At the very least he needed some free space so his
troopers could evacuate their tanks and jump in the water. Some of
the civilians were already knee-deep at the water's edge.

It didn’t take long to get back into the town. A few humans
ran for their lives, always to the south. In just a couple blocks
they found the zombies. Not every zombie had waited to see what was
inside the juicy homes—they kept moving after the prey they saw
on foot.

“Don’t waste ammo. Fire only if the zombies are a
threat. Alpha-1 and -2 run over what you can.”

Given their license to kill, the tank drivers made every effort to
hit the zombies in the streets. It resulted in horrific smears on the
pavement, which he dutifully avoided, but it had to be done. Chloe,
sitting in the passenger seat next to him, made a fake retching
sound.

“It’s just awful,” she said to herself.

“This whole thing is awful.” He looked over to her
while he drove. “I’ll never be able to thank you for what
you did to help the defenses here. Your spears kept us in the game
for almost twelve full hours through the dead of night. Probably
saved a lot of lives in the evacuation, too. Can you imagine all this
happening in the dark?”

“No problem, sir. I heard how you used car headlights up
there. That saved lives, too,” she insisted. “My dad was
Army. Only a Colonel, mind you, but I guess I felt if I could do
right by a general, I could do right by him.”

He looked back at the road. The two tanks were aggressively
running down zombies, though the road was thick with them as they
progressed into the main part of town. “I guarantee you he
would be proud of you.”

“Yeah, I guess. We’re not going to make it, are we?”

“Here? I’m not planning on getting us killed—”

“No. I mean anywhere. These zombies are...endless.”

“If we can get somewhere with high walls, and with no crazy
bitch administrator running it, we might have a chance.”

“I thought this place was it, you know? We had a good plan.”

“I did, too, Chloe. But there will be other opportunities.
That’s what this little trip is all about. I want to put a stop
to the person who brought us down. Then we’ll be on our way.”

“If you point me to the person who did all this, I’ll
kill them myself,” she said coldly.

He turned to her again, just for a second. The tone of her voice
made him consider whether her father would be proud of what she'd
become, after all. His own revenge was one thing—a known
quantity—but he had second thoughts about involving other
people in his final quest. If he got this young woman killed while
engaged in something that he didn’t really need to do…

I need to do this. For her, and for me.

Whatever else happened, he needed to stop Elsa. Chloe’s dad
would agree. That woman had turned out to be a bigger threat to their
personal safety than the zombies. She was one person. If he couldn’t
stop the endless rain of zombies, he could at least remove that one
threat so she couldn’t do this all again somewhere else.

He would be doing the world a great service, even if it cost Chloe
her life. Or his own.

This has to happen.

3

John drove around a corner and saw the big bird had landed in one
of the large empty lots of the neighborhood where he’d recently
found Marty.

“What are the odds of that?” he asked rhetorically.

Chloe answered. “What’s that, sir?”

“Oh, there’s more going on than I can explain right
now. This can’t be coincidence Elsa would come to
this
street. She once tried to kill a good friend of mine who lived
nearby.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK. She’s alive and safe. But this plane
has to be here because she wanted to finish the job.”

The Osprey’s back ramp was down. The big props were locked
in the hover position, and the rotors continued to spin, but it was
unquestionably waiting—not taking off. A few Marines fanned out
on the ramp, and they picked off zombies as they got close. He
wondered if they knew what was trickling down through the town to the
north of them.

“Hold here!” John shouted into his radio. He didn’t
know how to contact the Marines. He was outside his own chain of
command at the moment.

“I’ll flag them down, sir.”

Before he could say anything, she hopped out of the armored truck
and ran toward the Osprey with her arms up. Twice on the march in she
had to use her spear to put down zombies. One was a huge man dressed
as a firefighter. Her first strike was ineffective, but she kept her
cool and got in a second killing strike before it could harm her.

“Your dad truly would be proud of you,” he said to the
windshield.

In sixty seconds she’d established contact, and waved his
group in.

“Chloe, I’m going to make a special medal for you,”
he said when he ran up the ramp to meet her. He saluted the Marines.

They didn’t salute him.

You're dressed like a bum!

He’d forgotten what he must look like. His white T-shirt in
no way designated him as a leader. Since he’d been pulled out
of the ditch, he’d gotten his white shirt completely filthy
with mud, sweat, and blood—some of it his own, he was sorry to
admit, from where he injured himself on that fall. He’d have to
have that looked at if he lived long enough.

“I’m Major General John Jasper,” he shouted in
the man's ear. “Though I’ll be the first to tell you I’m
not really with the U.S. Army anymore.”

The Marines gave no ground.

“It’s true. We follow this man because he kept us
alive. You had to have seen the zombies on our north wall when you
came in? He helped us hold them out there overnight. Now we’re
trying to evac the town.”

John willed her to ask about Elsa, but she didn’t bring it
up.

“Isn’t that why you’re here,” John added.

One of the Marines made a decision to talk. He pulled them off the
ramp, away from the noisy rotors. The two others kept watch from the
ramp, though now they had help from two tanks and four Humvees. If
they relaxed, John couldn’t tell.

“We report to Lt. Col. Brandyweis, U.S.M.C. We are based
here in Cairo, under a Major General Jasper.” He looked at him
like he was a bum. “But we’re here to collect a person of
interest. Our rescue mission is for her.”

“You mean Elsa Cantwell?”

“No, sir. I’m under orders, sir, so I won’t give
out her name.” The Marine was annoyed. John had known enough of
them to know when they felt they’d let themselves down. He
managed to coax a critical piece of information from him, and he knew
it.

“Son, this is important. Elsa Cantwell is responsible for
blowing this town to Hell. I’m going to arrest her. If you know
where she is, you’d be the hero, here.”

Though it was a reasonable request, the Marine didn’t bite.

He tried a different line of questioning.

“We’re also looking for a Ms. Marty Peters. She was
reported living on this street.”

The Marine looked at him stiffly, evidently uncomfortable dealing
with a man who could be his boss, but who looked like a store clerk.
John saw a glint of recognition in his eyes.

He nodded, then walked away with Chloe in tow.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but they came for
a woman who lives on this street. In fact, I saw her come out of that
house, right over there.”

He guided her as he walked.

Three Marines and his own men watched as he approached the house.

The crack of gunfire from one of the Marines reminded him his time
was running out.

Danger close.

Zombies were everywhere on the streets to the north.

“You aren’t going to believe this, but you got a call
on my secure phone.” Colonel Brandyweis handed him a
smartphone.

“Who is it?” Liam asked with awe.

“They won’t say. But they know everything about where
we are, who I am, and who you are. They were very persuasive.”
He laughed.

“Here, you’ll need this.” He handed Liam a
headset that was plugged into his phone. “So you can hear her
over the prop noise.”

They were talking loudly inside the Osprey, but he agreed that
having headphones and a mic would make a phone call much more
practical. And private.

The phone displayed “unknown caller” on the screen.

“Uh, hello?”

“Hello, Liam. Thanks for taking my call.”

“I didn’t have much choice. Who is this?” The
voice was feminine but filtered to hide her identity. It was the same
distorted voice he'd heard days earlier in the quarry.

“I’m a friend. Listen. I know where you’re
going. You have to get them to turn around. You can’t go
to...that town. It's overrun.”

He felt it in the pit of his stomach. The Polar Bears had hinted
that Cairo was in imminent danger, but he wouldn’t believe it
until he saw it. It felt childish to say it that way, but he
certainly wasn’t going to turn around because some voice on the
phone asked him not to.

“I can tell you’re thinking if I’m telling the
truth. I assure you, I’m watching a video feed of more zombies
than I can count going over the line of water north of town. The
zombies are breaking through.”

“Why are you calling me? What difference would it make if I
went there? If the zombies have the town, we’ll just go
somewhere else. I have to get my Grandma.”

“And it has nothing to do with your girlfriend?”

“How do you know about her? Who the hell is this?” His
inner child came out for some odd reason. “I’ll hang up
this phone if you don’t tell me!”

“I...I can’t tell you. This call is secure, or so I’m
told, but I can’t risk my whole operation...”

“Well, we’re in trouble then. I’m not listening
to you just because you said so.”

The line was silent for a long time. So long that he had to ask if
anyone was still there.

He was answered by a series of clicks, then the sound of a ringing
phone on the other end.

A woman answered.

“Who is this?” was the first thing out of her mouth.
Liam recognized the voice immediately.

“Mom?”

“Liam? Is it you?”

“Yeah, Mom. It’s me. How did you call me? I’m
not even—”

“Call you? No, you called me.”

“Mom, I knew it was you. You don’t have to pretend.”

Lana seemed to recover her wits. Her voice also gathered strength
and speed.

“Liam, where are you? I’ve been worried sick since
you’ve left. I've, uh, gone looking for you. I'm parked outside
H's house, but it's on fire. Do you know about this?”

He began to doubt it was his mom earlier. She was very convincing
that she was as surprised as he was at their fortuitous connection.

“I ran from downtown to Forest Park, but I didn’t find
Victoria. I, um, saw that fire, too. Not long ago. I’m on a
plane heading back to where I left Grandma. I think Victoria is
there.”

He didn’t want to give away where he was going. The
conspiracy-minded Polar Bears had at least done that for him.

“No! You can’t go there. It’s falling apart down
there.”

“That’s what
she
said. Before you came on the
line. I’m going down there, Mom. Don’t try to stop me. I
have to know if they're OK. After that...I don’t care.”

“Dammit, Liam, why do you keep running away from me? Give me
some time, maybe I can get some help to you.”

“If it's as bad as you say, I can’t wait. We're
already on our way. I’m in good hands.”

“Liam please—” his mom pleaded. She was cut off,
mid-sentence.

“Hi Liam, this is Grandma Rose.”

He sat in stunned silence.

“Are you there?”

Lana heard her mother-in-law. “Rose. What are you doing?”
She sounded more incredulous than happy to hear her.

“Lana, if I remained silent while my own grandson threw his
life away you would never forgive me.”

“Yes, but—”

“Don’t worry about that. So they’ll know where I
am.”

“Grandma. Is it really you? What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you. You have to get away from Cairo. A
very bad woman made sure every zombie from Chicago and Indianapolis
found their way to that tiny town—and they are there at this
moment. There’ll be hell to pay.”

“I...I know. But Grandma Marty is there. My girlfriend is
there.”

“Liam, listen to your Grandma. Marty wouldn’t want you
to risk your life for her.”

“Victoria wouldn’t either. We all say that to protect
each other from harm. That’s why I have to get them.”

“Liam, hang on a second,” Rose requested. A series of
clicks and chirps took over the line.