Undead Rain (Book 3): Lightning (Fighting the Living Dead) (9 page)

“
D
elta Two Five
, this is Charlie Ten. Do you have eyes on the location? Over.” The voice that cut through the darkness in my mind was unfamiliar, so I knew I must have been dreaming it. I tried to ignore it so I could sleep some more.

I heard a crackle of static, then a second voice. “Charlie Ten, this is Delta Two Five. Affirmative. We have a number of tangos inside the perimeter fence. Dealing with the situation now. Over.”

I heard gunshots in the distance. Opening my eyes, I realized it was light outside. The pale morning sunlight cast a flat, cool light over the woods. Mist clung to the ground in sinuous tendrils. I sat up and rubbed my eyes before checking my watch. The countdown timer showed 16:03. Only sixteen hours left to live.

I thought I had dreamed the gunshots, but I heard them again. My walkie-talkie, still clipped to my backpack, crackled. “Tango down.”

I sat up on the sofa. Sam was sprawled out on the floor, covered with a blanket he must have found in the van. Tanya and Jax were in the driver and passenger seats, also under blankets, and Colbert was lying on the rear seat behind them. As I got up from the sofa, they began to stir.

I went to the side window and looked out, pressing my forehead against the cold glass. Last night’s storm had passed. Through the mist and trees, I could just make out the road that led to Alpha Two. Trucks and personnel carriers were rolling along that road, all painted in drab olive green.

I grabbed the walkie-talkie and turned up the volume.

“Delta Two Five, this is Charlie Ten. We are setting up a perimeter around the location. What’s the situation there? Over.”

Sam sat up quickly. “What the fuck is that?’

“The army is here,” I said. “They must have seen the fire.”

“That’s all we need, man, the fucking army. What time is it?”

“Six thirty.”

He got up and stretched, moving over to the window to watch the trucks on the road. Tanya, Jax, and Colbert were also awake, and listening to the conversation coming from the walkie-talkie.

“Charlie Ten, we have a number of tangos around the building. We’re dealing with them now.” When Delta Two Five spoke, he had to shout to be heard over gunfire. A few seconds after his message had ended, the sound of that gunfire reached the camper van.

I heard a chopper overhead, then the message, “Delta Two Five, the bird is on its way to your location.”

“What are they doing here?” Colbert asked.

I shrugged. “The fire must have attracted their attention. They’d probably already known about site Alpha Two but left it alone. Last night, they must have seen the explosion. It lit up the sky for miles around. A fire at a government facility is something that interests them, I suppose.”

“Charlie Ten, copy that. We’ll wait for the breathing equipment before entering the building. We have a visual on the bird, and have marked a landing area within the compound. Tell the pilot to look for the flares located south of the building. Over.”

“Affirmative, Delta Two Five.”

“They’re going inside,” Jax said.

I nodded. “Big mistake. If Vess is still alive, they might as well ring a dinner bell before they go in.”

“He’s alive,” Sam said. “Alex’s stupid stunt might have wiped out most of the building, but Vess is still in there.”

“He was going to kill us,” I said. “I panicked.”

“We’re dead anyway, man.” He stared out of the window at the misty woods.

I cleared my throat. “That’s something we need to discuss. What’s going to happen tonight when we turn? I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t want to become a monster.” I looked at Doctor Colbert. “I’ll give you my gun later. When the time comes, will you do the right thing?”

She nodded grimly.

“Hart should be here tomorrow,” I told her. “Try and get the H1NZ1 to him.”

“Do you think he’s going to land here with the army crawling all over everything?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “but we have to hope he will. He was willing to risk it when he thought the area might be full of zombies.”

“Zombies don’t have guns.”

“I don’t think the army will shoot at a helicopter from Site Alpha One,” Doctor Colbert said. “I’ll make sure he gets the H1NZ1.”

“Thanks,” I said. At least Lucy would be okay. Our mission to Alpha Two hadn’t been totally in vain.

The walkie-talkie crackled. “Charlie One, we’ve unloaded the breathing equipment from the bird. I’m sending a recon team of six men into the building now.”

“Affirmative, Delta Two Five.”

If Vess was still in there, those six soldiers were being sent to their deaths. I remembered how Vess had killed Johnny, tearing out his spine cruelly. I hoped the fire had destroyed Vess but, like Sam, I was sure that he was still alive.

A new voice came over the static. “This is Recon One. We are at the front entrance, standing by.”

Delta Two Five said, “Recon One, standby.” Then, a moment later, “Go.”

I heard a sound like a small explosion come over the airwaves, and then the recon team leader said, “Go, go, go.” It sounded like he had taped down the button on his walkie-talkie to give Delta Two Five a running commentary as they searched the building. I assumed the explosion I had heard was some sort of charge they had detonated to blow the main door.

A voice shouted, “Clear!”

“Reception area clear,” Recon One’s leader said. “Advancing to stairs.”

“Where are they going?” Colbert asked.

“Probably the second floor,” Tanya said. “They probably want to know what caused that explosion.”

“I can tell them that,” Sam said, pointing at me. “He’s right here.”

“Tangos on stairs. Engaging.” Bursts of gunfire and shouts of, “Tango down!” came over the static. The shouts sounded muffled by the breathing equipment the soldiers were wearing. It was about a minute before the firing stopped. A steady voice said, “Stairway clear. Proceeding.”

“It didn’t take them long to deal with those nasties on the stairs,” Sam said.

I nodded. “But now they’ve given away their location with all that noise. If Vess is still alive, he’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

“If he’s still alive,” Sam said, “blowing up the building was fucking pointless.”

“Entering level two,” Recon One’s leader said calmly. “Engaging tangos.” More gunfire erupted. We had seen a lot of zombies by the level two elevators, which was where the recon team would be standing now, but the zombies had probably moved when the fire started and the sprinklers kicked in.

It only took thirty seconds before we heard someone shout, “Clear!”

“Proceeding to east side of building,” the leader said. Then, “Holding position. What was that noise?”

A soldier said something I couldn’t hear.

“Check it out,” the leader said. Then into the walkie-talkie, he reported, “Investigating noise in air vent.”

Shouts and gunfire broke through the static. “Man down!” the leader shouted. “What the fuck was that?”

More shouts, more gunfire. “Fall back to stairs! It’s got Samuels! Oh, my God!” More shots were fired. I heard a man scream.

“It took his spine,” the leader said in disbelief. His breathing sounded loud and close, even over the poor reception of the walkie-talkie. “Fall back!”

Another scream was followed by more shots. “Fuck!” Recon One’s leader breathed.

“It’s too fast,” a soldier shouted before he began screaming.

“Falling back,” the leader whispered. “They’ve all gone. It took my men.” I could hear his labored breathing as he fled down the stairs, then a low growl coming from somewhere close to him.

The last thing the Recon One leader said was, “No! Please!”

Then there was nothing more but the hiss of static.

I looked at the others. Colbert’s face had gone pale, her eyes fixed on the walkie-talkie. Tanya’s eyes held their usual cold look, and I wondered if she was thinking that blowing up the servers had not only killed us, but also these soldiers. They probably wouldn’t be here if not for the explosion. Jax was sitting quietly, her eyes bloodshot. I wondered if she still felt ill.

Sam looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “Well done, dude, you just killed six soldiers without even leaving the comfort of the van.”

“Leave him alone,” Jax said. “Alex did what he thought was best at the time. He couldn’t have known the army was going to come here and go into the building.”

“Thanks, Jax,” I said to her.

“It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. I need some air.” Tanya went to the side door of the van and opened it. She stepped outside.

“I need to stretch my legs,” I said. At that moment, I needed to be as far away from the others as possible. I couldn’t take any more of their accusing glances, especially not today.

The morning was cold and damp, the woods smelling strongly of pine and earth. I walked past Tanya and into the woods, away from the road.

“Be careful, Alex,” she said,

I nodded but said nothing. It didn’t really matter if I was careful or not. My fate was sealed, and so was hers.

I walked aimlessly for a while, listening to the birds singing in the trees, feeling the cool breeze on my face, and wondering how things could have turned out differently if Doctor Marcus Vess hadn’t decided to prove that his serum was harmless by injecting it into himself. The smallest event could trigger a catastrophe. The human race could be brought to its knees by something as simple as a microscopic virus.

I found a fallen, mossy tree stump and sat down for a while, watching the sun come up over the trees and burn off the mist. If this was to be my last day on Earth, at least I was in a beautiful setting. Things could be worse. At least I wasn’t spending my last few hours in a Survivors Camp as so many people had. I closed my eyes and listened to the birdsong.

The serenity of the moment was killed when I heard someone shout, “Get out of the vehicle!”

Moving quickly back the way I had come, I stayed low as I approached the camper van. What I saw made my heart sink.

At least a dozen soldiers surrounded the van, rifles aimed at Sam, Tanya, Jax, and Doctor Colbert. My friends had their hands up and offered no resistance as the soldiers herded them along the track toward the road where a truck waited.

I heard someone say, “What have we got here, then?”

“Survivors,” came a reply. “Fuck knows how they lasted this long.”

My friends climbed into the back of the truck at gunpoint. A soldier closed the tailgate, and the truck drove away toward Site Alpha Two.

I waited a few minutes to make sure the area was clear. It was possible that the soldiers might leave a guard her to watch the camper van, but the more I thought about that, the more unlikely it seemed. It would probably be foolish to leave a couple of men in a wood full of zombies. And why bother guarding an empty vehicle? They were securing this whole area, so they could return to the camper van whenever they wanted. It wasn’t going anywhere.

I crept into the clearing, pausing every couple of seconds to listen for a sound that might tell me my theory about a guard was wrong. By the time I reached the camper van, I was sure I was alone here.

I opened the side door and went into the vehicle. The soldiers had taken the weapons and some of the equipment we had brought with us but they had left a backpack of rations, and the pack that contained the H1NZ1. They had missed it in their hasty search, not understood what it was, or decided to come back later to search the vehicle properly.

I slung the pack onto my back and adjusted the straps so that it fit comfortably. I wasn’t sure why I was taking it with me but I couldn’t abandon the thing we had worked so hard to obtain. There might be some way I could get it to Doctor Colbert, and I was going to try my best to do that.

Besides, Johnny Drake had died for this chemical so I wasn’t going to just leave it here.

I
stayed away
from the road as I crept through the woods toward the facility. I had the Desert Eagle in my hand, but there was no way I was going to get into a shootout with soldiers. I refused to shoot at living human beings. Also, I had hardly ever shot a gun, and I was sure to be killed instantly if I went up against men who were highly trained in the use of firearms.

I had no idea what I was going to do once I found out where they were holding my friends, other than try to liberate them from the army’s clutches.

Luckily, I met no resistance, and soon reached an area at the edge of the woods where I could observe the facility and remain out of sight, staying low and close to the tree trunks and undergrowth.

The military had built a camp within the perimeter fence of Site Alpha Two. Dozens of green tents huddled together in the compound. The parking lot was full of army trucks and Land Rovers. There were soldiers scurrying everywhere. As I watched, a Chinook helicopter descended onto a flat area of grass, the ramp at the rear lowering to allow even more personnel into the camp. After a few moments, the Chinook took off again, presumably to fetch even more personnel. It whirred away over the distant hills and out of sight.

The compound, which had been quiet yesterday when we’d arrived, was buzzing with noise and an atmosphere of expectancy. The fire in the building seemed to have died out. Black soot covered the outer walls above the second floor windows and a foul smell of burnt rubber and plastic hung in the air, but I couldn’t see any flames or smoke.

Teams of soldiers were being shown floor plans of the building on a large screen, the areas of interest pointed out by a large man wearing a maroon beret. I couldn’t believe they were going to send more people in there after what had happened to Recon One.

Somewhere, in one of the tents, Sam, Tanya, Jax, and Doctor Colbert were probably being questioned. Maybe they could warn the soldiers not to go into the building, tell them about Vess. I laughed at that thought. Would the men in charge listen? I already knew the answer to that.

There seemed to be nothing I could do to help my friends. If I tried to get into the compound, I was going to be caught. That wouldn’t help anyone.

I sat back against a tree trunk and checked my watch. Did any of this even matter when we had less than fourteen hours left to live? If Tanya, Sam, and Jax turned while being held in the camp, the soldiers were going to be sorry. I doubted that there would be anyone left alive in there by morning.

Was there anything I could do other than sit here and wait? It felt wrong to spend my last few hours sitting alone in these woods while my friends spent theirs as prisoners of the army.

I studied the compound again. Guards were posted at the gate and in the security-guard station that we had occupied earlier. I wondered if they were using the camera monitors to explore the interior of the building just as we had. How would things be different in there now that most of level 2 had gone up in smoke? The zombies in the stairwell had probably been driven up to higher levels or down to level 1. Probably both.

And where was Vess? Was he still roaming the air vents or had he found refuge elsewhere? One thing was certain; with the army sending more men inside, Vess was going to have plenty of prey to hunt down and tear apart.

The military presence seemed to be concentrated at the front of the building, the grassy area at the rear being deserted. With the amount of men they were flying in, they would probably have to extend the camp to that area too, eventually, but for now it was still empty of soldiers.

If I could get over the fence around the back, I wouldn’t have to worry about the guards at the gate. I’d have a good chance of getting into the compound undiscovered. But what would I do once I was in there? I couldn’t go knocking on every tent, asking if anyone had seen my friends.

I put the Desert Eagle in its holster. I had no ideas left. We had done well to get the H1NZ1 but in the end, a superior force had overwhelmed us. We couldn’t fight against the army.

My journey since the first day of the zombie breakout had been a harrowing one. I’d avoided army patrols, escaped from a zombie-infested lighthouse, been part of a mission to the Survivor Radio studios, and entered a secret government site to extract a chemical that would be used to create an antivirus.

And I’d fallen in love. My biggest regret about ending my journey here, among these trees, was that I wasn’t with Lucy. But I was still thankful that I had at least met Lucy and spent precious time with her, even if I couldn’t be with her at the end.

I looked down at the Desert Eagle in its holster. Should I just blow my brains out now? If I waited until I was about to turn, I might not have the will to do it. I had no idea what signs to look for that would mean I was on the verge of turning. And by the time I recognized them, it might be too late, my brain already under the control of the virus.

The army would probably kill me eventually but how many innocent people would I tear apart before they managed to catch me?

I sat staring at the trees around me, letting my thoughts zone out. When I checked my watch later, the countdown told me that I had been sitting there for over an hour.

I was wasting precious time. If I was going to end this on my own terms, then I needed to get on with it.

A distant sound caught my attention. Standing up to stretch my aching muscles, I saw the Chinook coming over the hills, probably bringing more personnel to the camp.

As I watched the chopper’s approach, a shout went up near the building.

Recon One had blown the main door off its hinges when they had gone inside earlier but no one had thought to seal the doorway afterward, and now dozens of zombies were shambling out into the camp, attracted by the noise and movement.

Shots rang out as soldiers began firing on the creatures. As zombies fell by the doorway, others stepped over their bodies, arms outstretched as they lurched toward the soldiers, their hungry moans filling the air.

Chaos reigned as soldiers and zombies went to war. The soldiers were in possession of enough firepower to take over a small nation, but the zombies were among them, making it difficult for them to shoot without hitting other soldiers. The large number of personnel in the camp was a drawback when it came to fighting at such close quarters.

Some of the soldiers, seeing the futility of fighting a large number of zombies when they were unable to fire for fear of hitting their comrades, ran for the gate. Others tried to use their weapons as clubs. Some must have thought it better to risk shooting a fellow soldier if it meant they had a chance to kill a zombie and they fired their rifles. Soldiers and zombies dropped to the ground as shots rang out in the morning air.

The Chinook had reached the compound. It hovered uncertainly above the fence for a moment before flying to the grassy area at the back of the building, the pilot obviously deciding it was safer to land there. As it descended, I broke cover and ran for the gate, seeing an opportunity to get into the compound. The guards who had been stationed at the gate were running toward the melee in the camp to help their comrades, their posts abandoned.

Sprinting past the security guard station and across the parking lot toward the grounded Chinook, I saw the rear ramp descend to drop off a group of soldiers. They ran around to the front of the building to enter the battle raging there.

I crouched behind a blue Nova while they passed me. Their attention was focused on the chaos in front of them. No one even glanced in my direction.

As the last soldier ran past, I sprinted for the rear of the Chinook, taking the Desert Eagle from its holster. When I got to the top of the ramp, I ran up to the open doorway that separated the cockpit from the rear of the helicopter and leaned through, pressing the muzzle of my gun against the pilot’s helmet.

“Get us in the air,” I said.

The co-pilot looked at me with a look of astonishment.

“Do it,” I said, “or I’ll blow his fucking brains out.”

“Okay, okay.”

They both began to flick switches on the control panel. The rear ramp lifted up and closed.

“Get us up!” I demanded.

They complied, taking the Chinook up until it was above the height of the building.

“Now what?” the pilot asked. “What do you want us to do?”

“I want you to do exactly as I say. We’re going to pick up some precious cargo.”