Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (15 page)

“Sounds like something a spy would say,” Tank retorted.

“We didn't kill anyone,” I explained. “We trusted you and
now two of our friends are dead.”

“Put down your weapons or we will be forced to shoot,” John
demanded again.

“Then shoot,” I hollered back. “All we want is to be on our
way. If you are not going to let us go, then you're going to have to kill us.
We are not going to surrender and have Tank finish us off later when you're not
looking.”

“You heard him,” Tank roared. “They are traitors. Shoot them!”

“Hold your fire,” John said turning to Tank.

“Oh come on!” Tank screamed. “You saw what they did to my
hand! They came here with one purpose and one purpose only, to get information
to take back to the Unity Gang.”

“Then why didn't they cross over when they got to the
border?” John asked. “If they are working for Unity, why would they take the
road that leads away from the biker hideout?”

“You're not serious are you?” Tank puffed out his chest.
“They're just trying to mess with your head. For all we know, this is an ambush
and Unity Gang riders will be all over us any minute now. Think about it!”

I unsheathed my sword and held it out in front of me.

“Lower your weapons,” John said in a calm voice. “I need to
have a word with you before you go. I promise you will leave here unharmed.”
Tank seethed with anger. He turned and punched his huge fist into the side of
John's truck, denting the door.

Cautiously, I inched forward. I kept my blade out but I left
it at my side. Benji got behind me. Armed guards pointed their guns at us. If
they were going to kill us, it wouldn't take much.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Benji said.

“Me too, kid,” I replied.

John walked out and met me between the cars.

“This is a real mess,” he said. “You gotta understand how this
looks from my side.”

“It looks like the neo Nazi you put in charge as your first
command tried to murder me and my friends, from where I'm standing.”

“Tank's a good guy,” he insisted. “You don't know what we've
been through. He's got trust issues. That's all.”

“And now thanks to him, so do I,” I fired back. “Look, this
doesn't have to be complicated. Tell your men to stand down and let us go.
You'll never have to see us again. End of story.”

“I wish it were that simple,” he said, scratching his head.

“It is that simple,” I flatly pointed out.

“Maybe if you left the kid,” John said. “As a sign of good
faith. That might work.” Benji grabbed the back of my shirt and buried his
head. “What's the matter?” John asked, looking down at him. “I thought you
liked it here? You can have all the video games and comic books your little
heart desires.”

“No way,” I said. “It's not gonna happen. Benji is my
responsibility and I am not leaving him behind.”

“There now,” John said with admiration in his eyes, pointing
at me and smiling. “Can you see why I need your help? You are the perfect
balance of warrior and philosopher, loyal to the bitter end. No wonder Tank is
intimidated by you. You stick around and I will make you my second in command.
Tank will have to answer to you!”

I looked over at Tank. A murderous rage was visible in his
face. As tempting as it might be to take John up on his offer, I knew that it
was just a matter of time before that man finished me off.

“That is a tempting offer,” I lied.

“Isn't it?” John flashed us that sly grin as if to say he
knew he'd already won, when he hadn't. “I'll tell you what . . .” his words
trailed off. He cocked his head to the side like he was listening for
something. Then I heard it too. A low growling, like a herd of wild animals
shuffling toward us off in the distance. Only it wasn't livestock we were
hearing. The unmistakable smell came downwind toward us. John and I both
realized it at the same time.

“Zombies,” he said right before one of his men let out a
high pitched scream that tore our attention away.

The next thing I knew, there was wild gunfire going off in
every direction. A zombie horde, just like the one that had taken over
Vandenberg, had come up from the south and taken John's lynch mob completely by
surprise. The men were so focused on our discussion; they hadn't seen the
monsters sneaking up on them. Several unlucky souls were torn apart before they
could even get a shot off.

John wasted no time. He ran as fast as he could past us
toward the Jeep. He climbed in the driver's side and started the engine. I
thought he might use the open topped vehicle to try to save some of his loyal
subjects but instead he quickly turned around and took off back toward New
Lompoc. I watched the red of his taillights disappear in the darkness in
stunned silence.

The coward just ditched his own men!

I turned back to see Tank had a zombie by the throat and was
holding him off the ground. The undead monster snapped and lunged at his face,
but couldn't reach him.

“What do we do?” Benji pleaded. Once again, I didn't know
the answer. The cars behind us were backing away, following John's pitiable
example of retreat. In no time, the zombies would be past the line of cars and
heading toward us.

We need to take one of those cars
, I thought. Plain
and simple.
We can't go back to town now. There is no other way.

“This isn't going to be pretty,” I warned him. “Do you trust
me?”

“You don't sound like you’re planning something truly crazy
when you ask that or anything,” Benji sarcastically replied.

“I am,” I promised. “Let's just hope it's crazy enough to
work.”

I took my gun out and held it in my left hand. I held my
sword up in my right. Benji, who didn't have a weapon, got behind me again —
like a human shield. I took off at a solid run toward Tank. When I got close
enough I aimed the gun at the zombie’s head he was holding. Tank's eyes grew
wide. I think for a minute he thought I was going to shoot him. He turned as if
he was going to throw the snapping zombie at me but before he could, I shot the
creature right between the eyes. Thick, gooey, black decaying blood and dark
brain matter splashed across Tank's face. He dropped the writhing corpse and it
went still. I sprinted past Tank while he screamed hateful curses at me, wiping
the mess from his eyes. A long haired teenage zombie in a Slayer shirt moved up
along the side of John's truck. With one downward motion I cut him in half with
my sword. His mouth and arms kept reaching up for me. The dead thing was so
determined to feast on my flesh that it didn't even notice it had been sliced
in half! Before the top half could topple over I snapped my blade back and
severed the spine from the head. It fell over in three pieces at my feet.

“Nice one,” Benji said encouragingly.

I grabbed the door handle to John's truck and yanked it
open.

“Get in fast!”

Benji scrambled past me and up into the passenger side. By
the time I shut and locked the doors, he was buckling himself in. I turned over
the ignition and without hesitation, the engine purred to life. Benji smiled at
me.

You gotta love Ford trucks
, I thought.

I looked up to see Tank staring at us with fire coming out
of his eyes.

Geez
, I thought.
You'd think the guy would be
happy we just saved his life
.

I glanced in the rear view mirror. There were about a
hundred feet of zombies behind us. Once again, we were between a rock and a
hard place.

“Hang on,” I warned. “This is gonna be one rough ride.”

Tank reached down with his good left hand and brought up a
handgun. He pointed it at us just as I threw the truck in reverse and plowed
down a row of zombies. The gun went off and Benji and I automatically ducked
down. The bullet went into the truck's grill, hitting something metallic but
not stopping us. Another shot went off and punched through the top of the
windshield, spraying us with a fine mist of glass shards.

“Stay down!”

Behind us the loud sound of clanging rang out again and
again as we mowed down one zombie after another. We were surrounded on all
sides now by the walking dead. They beat their slimy hands against the truck,
pressing their bodies against the doors. I could still hear the gun going off,
but the shots weren't reaching us now. They were hitting the dead and being
absorbed. The zombies didn't even seem to notice.

Well
, I thought.
At least we have one less problem
now
.

“We're stuck on something,” Benji shouted.

I knew without looking he was right. We'd run down over a
dozen of the creatures at least. The rags that were once their clothes were
coming off of the zombies and getting twisted up in our axle, preventing us
from backing up further and escaping.

“Hold on,” I said, shifting into drive. “I'm going to try to
dislodge him.”

Loud thumping on the back window of the truck scared both of
us. We hadn't expected them to get into the truck. Usually zombies can't climb.

I must have accidentally popped some of them into the
truck bed when I floored it
, I thought as I drove back through the zombies,
freeing the one trapped under our wheels.

“Look out!” Benji shouted pointing out the front window.

Tank was standing just outside the edge of the zombie horde
pointing his gun directly at us. I was going too fast to stop. It was too late
to duck. He was going to shoot me and I was going to run him down. I saw the
look of fear in his eyes as we came down on him. He pulled the trigger again
and again, but nothing happened.

He's out of bullets! He used them all up when he was
trying to kill us earlier.

The front of the truck slammed into Tank, knocking him over.
It sounded like the grill cracked. Steam poured up from the headlights.

“Aw man,” I groaned. “He is gonna be pissed if he lives
through this.”

“Serves him right,” said Benji.

“Let's try this again,” I said, putting it in reverse and
backing up again. This time we had more of a path. We cleared the zombie horde
with almost no resistance. The last thing I saw was them climbing over each
other to get at Tank.

“They got him,” Benji said.

“Looks like it,” I agreed, turning the truck around to face
south on the highway. “Better him than us.”

We drove off and as we picked up speed, I could hear the
damage we had done. It sounded like metal was grating on metal. Every couple of
minutes the whole truck would shake with a violent tremor and give off a high
pitched squeal. Still it ran. I intended on taking it as far as the thing would
carry us. No way we were going on foot after that last zombie horde.

“That doesn't sound good,” Benji said. “Are we going to be
able to make it all the way to Hueneme in this?”

“We'll be okay,” I assured him, despite thinking pretty much
the same thing. “We’ll see how far this thing can take us, then swap it for
another ride when one becomes available. Just try to relax. The worst is over
for now.”

“The sound is driving me nuts,” Benji complained. “Makes me
think the whole truck is gonna come apart at any minute.”

I remembered John telling me he kept a Metallica tape in the
cassette player of the old truck.

“Let's see what John left us for tunes,” I said, turning on
the switch. Heavy metal music poured out loud and clear. Lightning fast guitar
picks and pounding drums filled up the cabin and blocked out most of the
grating sounds.
And Justice for All
, one of my favorite albums. Benji
and I lost ourselves in the music for over an hour, without either of us
talking. I beat out the rhythms on the steering wheel and he sang all the
lyrics he could remember. It was probably the most fun I'd had since we left
the base.

I was afraid to take the truck up over 45 mph. Every time I
got it going that fast, the whole chassis would shake violently and Benji would
unconsciously dig his nails into the paneling on his side. I knew at this rate
we wouldn't get anywhere near the base until the next afternoon, but I didn't
mind. I was so happy to be away from New Lompoc in one piece that I couldn't
complain.

We saw a couple of drifter zombies in various states of
decay along the way. One of them looked more like a skeleton than a man. Its
skin hung off it like loose sheets in the wind. It was missing part of its left
arm. Its face was sunken in and decayed so badly, with just wisps of what must
have been hair left on its rotted skull, that it was nearly impossible to tell
if it had been a man or a woman when it was alive and human. It wandered into
the middle of the road like a lost ghost looking for the way back to heaven or
hell. It was so close to true death that it didn't even take notice of us as we
came barreling down on it from the higher grade. I took my foot off the gas and
let us drift by, getting a closer look as I swerved around it. As we rolled
past I noticed it didn't have any eyes.

We passed plenty of other cars as well, but not one of them
looked suitable to drive. Even though the pickup was on its last legs and
barely limping along, I wasn't going to chance swapping it for another car that
might strand us out in this no man's land.

Most of the cars were smashed up in some way or completely
burned out. They looked like they had gotten into accidents with thin air. I
wondered to myself if the drivers had hit other cars on the road in their panic
and abandoned the vehicles or if a zombie horde like the one we encountered had
overrun them as they sat in traffic.

When Z-day came, everyone had tried to flee at once. People
up north thought if they could just get down south they would be safe. People
down south tried to flee up north to get away from the zombie outbreak.
Everybody thought they could run to some other place, some magical land that
hadn't been affected yet. They thought they could wait it out. They were wrong.
When we got to Vandenberg, we learned that the outbreak had happened all over
California at almost the same time. No one knew how it had started but there
were rumors. One story said that it came from China, from a sick traveler who
brought it with him when he landed at either LAX or SF. They say he attacked a
stewardess on the airplane who then took it with her to several places around
the world on an international flight.