Zombies vs Polar Bears: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 5 (30 page)

“Understood. Out.” Lana was all business, perhaps
because she had the same view as Liam.

A climbing zombie managed to get in front of Liam's vision port.

Panic mode made him do silly things. He called out. “Mom,
zombies are on our roof,” but he said it in sing-song, as a
child would do when telling on someone.

Item 519 for things I never dreamed I'd say in real life.

Before Lana could reply, they emerged from between the buildings.
The lone zombie he could see on their deck remained stationary, as if
trying to hold on. Another fifty yards, around a couple turns, and
Jason's Tiger slid to a stop. Lana drove herself up alongside. He was
able to see the other tank, and a few walking zombies, through a side
vision slit. Jason had opened his driver's hatch, used a handgun to
knock down a couple of the closest zombies, and wiped the mess off
his tiny window. He motioned for Lana to continue while he spoke in
his microphone.

“Keep going. You know the way.”

Lana threw it into gear and the tank pulled ahead.

While the tank got to speed, a new sound came from inside. A
beeping noise repeated on the other side of the turret where Annie
had been sitting. It was getting picked up by his own microphone,
causing feedback.

As he leaned over the breech of the main gun, he saw the old tank
had been fitted with a modern video screen. The view was from above.

“The drones!” he said to himself.

“What is that, Liam?”

He was unable to respond right away. The video looked down on the
two tanks from high above. He could see the path they'd just
traversed—it was a bloody nightmare of crushed bodies, ruined
survivors, and a good number of stragglers tripping and sliding in
the wake of the two metal monsters. But the beeping coincided with a
flashing indicator at the bottom of the screen. It said “Airspace
Warning,” though it gave no clues what that might mean.

“I'm trying to figure it out. I see us on this video
monitor. It says airspace warning in big red letters.”

“Oh crap.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means the drones aren't alone up there. Hang on, we have
to get to cover.”

He decided to slide himself over the middle of the compartment so
he could sit in Annie's chair and get a better look at the video
equipment. The acceleration felt good—it meant his mom was true
to her word in getting them closer to cover. If something unfriendly
was above them, he doubted he wanted to know what it was.

The screen was fascinating. It was like watching a video game. The
two tanks lumbered along the old warehouse streets, often running
over clumps of loitering zombies, while trying to head north and west
into downtown. Most of the great traffic jams were further out from
the city center, but there were a fair number of abandoned cars on
the main paved streets. Neither tank tried to crush any of the
cars—though it was something he sincerely hoped they'd do.

“Liam. If you can see us on the monitor, can you tell me
which way is better ahead? This street splits in two directions
coming up.”

The drone wasn't flying high enough to see both options ahead. He
could only see a block or two beyond the intersection. Even that gave
him enough information, however, as the way to the right was pointed
directly at the Gateway Arch. A place he did not want to go…

“Go left. The right is a dead end.”

“Got it.”

The drone hovered above them and moved as they moved. It was like
a trained guard dog.

The beeping continued as they made the left turn, but the camera
suddenly shifted to a different perspective. A second image appeared
on a split-screen. That one was pointed directly at the Arch grounds,
and Liam got a good look at some kind of construction project under
the monument. It seemed to be linked to the nearby river crossing, as
if both were part of a larger effort for the Mississippi River
waterfront there.

But the camera wasn't looking at those things. His attention was
drawn to two tiny shapes moving toward them. They were small and
black. Liam had seen similar flying craft for the past several weeks,
especially in this part of downtown.

Send in the drones.

2

The ballet above them was impressive to watch. As he lurched along
in the stuffy and cramped turret of what he hoped was an invulnerable
tank, the drones danced around each other in the air above. As the
camera angles sat side-by-side, he figured out both drones were up
there, and the drones from Jason's tank had to be up there somewhere,
as well. The two enemy drones had to be from the Arch bridgehead. He
could only guess who was in charge of those.

With a reverent tone, he spoke into the mic. “The drones are
fighting above us.”

Jason's voice responded. “They're programmed to protect us.
One is used for guidance and target acquisition, but the other is
designed to watch the sky and sync up with the reactive armor.”
He cut out for a second, then returned to the channel with some
cursing. “Mike, can you see them yet?”

Jason's assistant responded. “Negative. I'm getting word two
A-10s are scrambling from the Downtown St. Louis Airport just across
the river. They'll be here in minutes.”

“Can we shoot them with our guns?” Liam blurted out on
the radio.

Jason laughed. “Not unless you're incredibly lucky. We could
barely hit that huge stationary crane, and we had help from our
computers.”

Liam often said he was a lucky kid. Maybe this was what he was
supposed to do? Spin the turret, find a target, and blow it out of
the sky.

Sounds like an impossible shot from a stupid movie.

He had no intention of dueling two Warthogs—the most lethal
tank killers in the air.

“We have to split up. Head for the tall buildings up ahead.
We should be able to make it,” Jason said. Liam was stuck on
the use of the “should” word. As in “This
should
have been a quiet drive back to Victoria.”

The computer screen showed the two tanks diverge. Jason turned
north toward some apartment high rises, while their own tank headed
for a large open parking lot.

“Mom. Is that where we want to go?”

The tank's engine screamed. The iconic clinks and clanks of the
treads underneath had become white noise with everything else going
on, but he noticed all of it now as he sensed their vulnerability.
The drone footage showed them crawling—slowly—over the
empty parking lot. Row after row of white parking spaces passed below
them. An odd zombie roamed here or there, but none were in their way.

“No, not at all. I want to get us across this lot and
underneath that highway.”

With the drone it was hard to look ahead, but now he could see the
edges of Busch Stadium—the site of his recent escape from this
very city—and the elevated east-west highway to the south of
it. It would give them excellent cover as long as they stayed below
it. He could see—

A flash of something black. With wings. Right on the camera
itself. The downward-looking drone wobbled dangerously and then went
offline. That side of the screen went to static. At that last moment
he could have sworn he saw...a huge bird's talons.

The other half of the screen was the side-looking drone. It had
been tracking the arrival of the enemy drones, though Liam hardly
paid any attention to it as he was absorbed by their journey to the
safety of the highway.

“Mom, they knocked down one of our drones. We lost our top
view.”

“We're almost there. Hang on.” The tank slowed and
dropped over a small ledge, as best he could tell. Something metallic
rubbed on the outside and then they were moving normally again.

“OK, we're under the raised highway. We can follow this west
for a few blocks, but our goal is to the north.”

He sat for a little while, stewing in questions.

“What happened to getting back to Forest Park
and...Victoria.” Though he mainly wanted to get back to her, he
mentioned the park first so it wouldn't seem like he was girl-crazy,
or something similarly anti-hero in nature.

“I do, too. Trust me. But your idea about getting these
weapons was something we couldn't pass up. I'm mad we didn't cause
more damage, but that isn't your concern.”

“You're talking like this was some kind of attack. We're
just civilians playing soldier. It doesn't make any sense.”

He thought back to his dad's letter. The words on the pages were
burned into his memory, though he still couldn't understand what it
all meant. How his mom fit into it.

“I'm going to tell you everything. I promise. But we have to
get you to safety or else every blown bridge in America isn't going
to be worth losing you.” She laughed. “You probably won't
believe me, but we thought we'd roll up with our tanks and surprise
them. We've heard there have been mass defections of the military
throughout the country, but these guys didn't get that memo.”

“So the Polar Bears
are
fighting the United States
now?”

“Yes and no. I told you, we have to get there and then I can
show you why I did this.”

“Where? Where are we going?”

“Polar Bear HQ. Six blocks north of here.”

Unable to watch the drone footage, and not sure of the shaky
picture being sent back by the side-looking camera, Liam leaned
forward to look out his own vision port. The paved street was shaded
by the bridge above, but he saw sunshine off to the sides. That was
open space. Soon they'd have to expose themselves.

He was certain he saw two shadows zoom across the open ground. It
could only mean the Warthogs were searching for them…

If they haven't found us already.

3

The tank idled under the bridge. Lana had scraped the side of the
center pier, keeping them hidden underneath while they tried to see
where the planes had gone.

“They're drones are going to find us before the planes...”

His mom's voice was oddly comforting in his headphones. Despite
being in a life-or-death situation, she reminded him of better times,
and it bolstered his spirits. The fact she was driving a tank, and he
was watching drone footage up in the skies above him, did nothing to
change his point of view.

“We'll have to run for it. Two blocks to the north we can
get between those buildings and then zig zag through the last few
blocks until we reach the tallest building in St. Louis. That's where
we're going. That's where the Patriot Snowball moved their most
important people.”

“Including you?” His dad's letter said as much.

“We'll see who's there. Then you can decide how important I
am.”

One of the shadows appeared over the parking lot. It moved from
north to south, very fast.

“One of them just passed overhead. I don't know where the
other one went.”

The tank jumped forward. “I'm going for it.”

“Screw it.” Liam popped the hatch and poked his head
out into the cooler, and fresher air. The tank left the shadow of the
bridge just as he got in his position. While getting a better view of
the plane was a priority, he had a different problem to deal with.

He pulled the Glock from his pocket. The zombie he'd seen long ago
on the top of the tank was still there. It required him to crane his
neck over the side of the turret, but he was able to see why the
zombie had remained where it was. It was slurping on a slick patch of
blood coating the front deck of the tank.

Liam aimed the gun at the frumpy woman's head. She wore summer
clothes—shorts and short-sleeved shirt—but the colors
were muted by dried blood. Her long hair was pointed up in the air,
like she'd gone to sleep with wet blood in her hair and then woke up
and kept it that way. His first shot went high, clipping the crusty
hair.

That got her attention. The speed of some zombies was astonishing.
She popped up the instant the shot whizzed by her. However, she
lacked any grace. The zombie slipped on the bloody mess in which
she'd been kneeling, and fell backward. With the forward motion of
the tank she was unable to right herself and she tumbled off the left
edge, bounced off the track guards, and fell out of sight.

The words double tap screamed at him, but the woman was on the
ground. She'd fallen face first and her neck looked even worse than
it did before she fell. A few stumbles were all she could muster in
pursuit, and he judged that shooting her would be a waste of ammo.

She'll be the one that gets me, in the end.

He looked back one more time, wondering if he'd just jinxed
himself. If there weren't predators flying overhead they could do a
loop so he could strike her down. It's the only way to be sure…

They'd cleared half the distance when the A-10 came in low and
slow behind them. He'd been watching that direction because it was
the only way they could be attacked. The buildings ahead provided a
screen. Unless they were in a movie, the planes wouldn't be flying
sideways between buildings to get at them.

The buzzing sound from the plane came after the rounds landed on
the roadway ahead of them. Some of them skipped on the pavement and
shattered many windows in the buildings ahead. As it did each time he
heard it, the sound of the Warthog’s rotating Gatling gun
reminded him of the horns of the Apocalypse. He instinctively dropped
into the turret to shield himself, but his rational mind knew nothing
could save him if the bird had the correct bead on them.

The bridge saved them on the first pass. The hog had to fire over
the top of the highway and that didn't give it enough room to point
its nose downward. Liam watched as the pilot kicked the plane in the
gut and bank it hard right as it screamed eastward. He figured the
pilot could see, the same as him, that the tank would be inside that
kill zone by the time he looped around for a second strike. In
moments the plane was gone, leaving Liam to wonder how much time they
had left.