Death Has Fallen: Freedom Rock Chronicles: Book 1 (15 page)

              The rage that filled me was the same that I felt looking at the two men I shot for taking Jaime and Amanda.  Earl’s face filled with fear as he saw my face changing back into that primal killer.  He was unable to respond afraid of setting me off.  To calm down I walked out of the office and began walking toward my house.  As I got closer I noticed the pile of scrap next door beginning to take shape.

              The rage I was feeling began being replaced with curiosity.  I began walking up to the forming house trying to see who was working.  Joseph walked out of the frame he was constructing.  Seeing me he waved and began walking towards me.

              “Were you able to talk to Earl yet?” He asked enthusiastically.

              “Yea, but it didn’t go well.  He doesn’t want to risk lives on investigating the town. I told him we should go even if it was unsafe.  I tried convincing him the danger of leaving people like that unchecked so close to us would lead to trouble.  Hopefully he will change his mind and let us at least go scout to see if they have kept their prisoners alive.”  Looking at him I could see the disappointment as I relayed how my meeting with Earl went.

              Slowly he turned and headed back to work on his new home.  Suddenly I felt Jaime pulling on the back of my shirt.  When I turned she pointed at both Aaron and Earl walking towards us.  Earl had an angry look on his face while Aaron looked cool and calm as he always did.  I thought over everything I had said to Earl. 

              He approached and seemed to be unable to talk.  Aaron was the first to speak, “Jake.”

              Looking towards him then back at Earl I asked, “What’s wrong?”

              His face was still red, but cooled a bit and he began talking, “After a discussion with Aaron and a few other security officers they seem to agree with you about how to handle Wellston.  I really don’t appreciate the way you handled the situation, but we do need to at least figure out how much of a threat they pose and how many possible prisoners they have.  It will be an extremely dangerous mission and I will not force anyone to go.  I think you would be the perfect person to go convince a team to risk their lives for your cause.”

              “Understood sir.” I said with confidence. 

              “Good glad we understand each other.  Now before we go scout a hostile town let’s first get the remaining supplies from the gas station.  From what Aaron and Jim has told me there is enough food to keep us going for quite some time.  The bikers will probably be scouting the area just in case we come back.  This time I am sending a five man assault squad which will ensure the trucks are safe.  You, Aaron, Jaime, Max, and Tim.”

              “Tim? Are you sure he is ready for a mission I mean he just lost his brother.” I was worried.

              “Tim came to me after his brother was killed and told me to send him on any mission which may deal with this gang and if I didn’t he would seek retribution solo.  He will not only be going with you on this mission, but also go when we scout Wellston.”

              It was apparent from Earl’s expression that he really didn’t agree with letting Tim go, but would in order to keep him with the town.

              “You ready Aaron?”

              A smile came across his face. “You know it.”

              We walked with Earl to the security office and began choosing weapons which suited our abilities.  I laughed as Jaime picked up an assault rifle and asked, “Think you can handle that thing?”

              She looked a bit irritated at the remark.  Aaron walked over to her asking if she needed a quick training on how to load and operate the weapon.  I grabbed my .357 making sure it was fully loaded.  I then grabbed a L96 Sniper with a 10 round clip which we found at the bunker.  Standing around picking through the guns we all began noticing today was quite a bit warmer.  In the security office we all were sweating as we took guns and ammo out to the truck. 

              After Aaron had finished training Jaime he choose a small mp 7 and his 270 hunting rifle.  He looked up noticing me staring at him and when I did I shrugged at the 50 cal lying against a corner.  He just smiled shaking his head, “That gun is not for quick sniping, but rather assaulting.  You better believe if we assault the town I will be hidden with that gun ready to take out anything that moves.”

              I shook my head in agreement.  Even Aaron was beginning to feel the excitement of what we were going to do.  A killer’s look appeared in his eyes as the thought of the war approached.  He had seen death before and it had given him something.  Power over guilt and remorse.  The ability to take life without fear of repercussion or guilt.  I supposed this was exactly how I looked when pulling the trigger on the two who imprisoned Jaime.  Rather than fear the cruelness of his disposition, I emerged myself in it letting the rage take over.  The feeling of power was overwhelming.  Jaime looked at us both with a smile. 

              She put into words what was in our heads.  “You know guys I would have been appalled at this a few months ago.  I have seen the true evil in men and if we kill those that have that evil brimming then good for us.  We just need to make sure not to become what we hate though.”

              Aaron turned to her smiling, “Very well put Jaime.  Kill those who deserve it.”

              I shook my head in agreement as we grabbed the last of the guns we needed and took them up to the trucks.  Aaron told me I would be sniping out of the white Chevy with Max as my close quarter’s gunner.  He was holding a sub machine gun I had not seen before.  It was very small lacking the usual shape of a gun.  As he saw me eyeing his weapon he turned to me smiling, “P90”.  He also had a 9 millimeter for emergency use. 

              The Dozer contained two civilians in the cab who would be driving. With us in the white Chevy was two in the cab and one in back with us.  They all had small arms, but looked terrified of the guns.  The man sitting in back with us was almost shaking.  He had sandy blond hair and a face of a child. 

“How old are you?” I said looking down on him. 

After a few moments he looked up at me, “15”.

              I stood shocked at this.  They were sending children with us.  Max sitting next to us simply hung his head low as though he was used to having young kids on the missions.  It made sense though.  The only job these extras had was getting in and getting the food.  The security was in charge of making sure everyone got out alive.  I noticed Jaime and Aaron in The Dozer alone.  I yelled out asking where Nick was they just pointed across the road.  He was strapping a 12 gage shotgun to his back and then jumped on an old dirt bike. 

              Max handed me the large knife, but looking at him I felt as though it would not be enough.  I had forgotten something on our last mission.  I jumped out running back down the road screaming back to the group not to leave me.  It took a couple minutes even running to reach my house.  Walking in I could see my lucky board leaned up against the corner.  It may be beat up, but it still could drop any undead or live man.  Running back they had already backed up and pulled to the gate.  As I approached with the board in hand they all laughed at the primitive weapon telling me it would make better building material than a zombie killer.

              The only ones ridiculing me were the ones I respected, the guards.  I gave a good chuckle and jumped in the back of the truck.  Yelling at everyone laughing, “Just wait this board will save all your asses!”

              Watching the gate beginning to rise above the wall a feeling of fear and excitement flowed through me once again.  Slowly we pulled out onto the terribly broken road.  Even without loads it was difficult to stay in the trucks.  Looking towards my side I noticed the dirt bike seemed the only vehicle able to transverse such rough terrain with ease.

Chapter 18

              As we pulled onto the road both Max and Jaime each had a pair of binoculars and were scouting the area.  Aaron and I each had our rifles pointed ready for anything.  As we drove the sky was beautiful and the warmth had been something which I missed.  The smell of fall and the beauty of all the leaves changing was hard to ignore.  I tried over and over to stay focused on any possible enemies, but was unable to avoid staring off at the beauty before me. 

              Slightly dazed and not really paying attention the shot fired from Aaron’s 270 nearly caused me to jump out of the moving truck.  Quickly coming to my senses I saw he was popping a few dead who had been coming out to see what the trucks were up to.  Seeing them I instantly took aim at a young lady missing half her face.  Looking at her through the scope I was surprised she was still up and moving.  Some of the skin draped from her jaw line dangling on her shoulder.  I centered the scope and as we came to a halt I pulled the trigger. 

              I found the recoil and accuracy much better than the 300 hunting rifle I had used previously.  The monster fell on her back.  We were all surprised when the undead decided to run taking shelter into the trees.  Unable to kill the rest and focused more on the food we decided to head for the gas station. 

Putting down my gun I turned to Max asking, “You see them run and hide like that before?”

“Yea I have seen them retreat, but never this quickly.  It seems they are beginning to understand unfavorable engagements much quicker than before.”

I nodded then looking towards the Dozer I saw Aaron, Nick, and Jaime all had the same confounded faces as we did.  I watched them shrug to each other somewhat irritated the threat could not be neutralized in that instant.  Not able to see extremely far the dead seemed much more prevalent than our first trip.  They looked as though they were beginning to starve and have been heading south from Denver.  This was a very terrifying proposition since the attacks we had already experienced were small compared to what would come.

As the convoy began getting closer to the gas station we stopped to develop a plan.  We again pulled up next to The Dozer allowing room for the dirt bike in the middle.  It seemed Nick had the same confusion with the dead.  When he pulled up next to us he said, “You guys see how quick the dead ran away?”

Aaron spoke first saying, “Yea it looks like they are getting smarter the longer they live. I fear soon they may reach the point to begin using team work when hunting.”

“God forbid,” Jaime muttered softly.

“How are we going to do this?” I asked Aaron trying to move the conversation to a more productive topic.

“Nick you think you can take a more scenic route towards the station?”

“Hell yea, this bike can go anywhere.” He said this with confidence smiling at the thought of getting to do some serious off-roading. 

“Good, Good, I am going to want you to scout from a distance.  Jaime hand him the binoculars.  We are going to pull up a half mile from the gas station and stop.  I want you to get close enough to see if there are any scouts or dead anywhere near the station.  Once your done come get behind the trucks and we will drive in.”

“Yes sir.”  It was easy to tell that Nick was excited.

We started off towards the Gas station now fearing attacks from both the bikers and the increased dead in the area.  After these thoughts sunk in I found it much easier to pay attention to the task at hand.  No longer looking at the beautiful colors around me I forced myself to notice any and all movement.  The dead seemed to be everywhere sitting right inside the tree line.  They seemed to understand when they step out they get shot.

The highway broke off in the direction of the gas station.  As soon as it was in view the trucks stopped and the bike broke off into the mountains. Aaron and I stayed in the back of the trucks.  Within a minute Nick was out of our sights.  From our position the station looked clear, but we could only see the road out in front.  The dead could not be seen, but we heard them slowly walking in the forest, twenty or thirty yards out.  At each stick broken we all moved our guns in the direction.  I began having a bad feeling about this mission.  There was nearly no activity last time and now we had bikers as well as undead to worry about.

While we waited the dead would only give us glances.  They seemed interested, but extremely cautious. Finally we heard the dirt bike coming through the trees.  Right before entering the clearing where the trucks lay the shotgun fired and we heard the bike crash.  Instantly all the guards ran to help Nick.  We heard that 12 gage blast over and over.  As we reached him the dead were grouped up and attempting to close the distance.  With each shot of the shotgun one of the dead fell.  Jaime and Max ran in closer to help while Aaron and I lowered our snipers taking aim and firing when we had a shot. 

The dead were sprinting towards Nick through the trees forcing us to spend extra time waiting for a shot.  One jumped on him, but took a shot to gut which blasted him off.  The others were beginning to lunge and I saw Max coming up behind firing the P90.  They all began dropping with the amount of bullets being pushed out.  Nick hearing the sound and seeing what he was using quickly dropped to the ground to avoid any friendly fire.  Jaime was right behind Max with the M16 lowered and firing in three round bursts.  Any dead who were still alive after the spray with the P90 now took three bullets from the M16.

Feeling completely useless in this fight Aaron and I strapped the rifles to our back and pulled out our small arms.  We reached the group within a minute and found Nick unable to stand.  He had taken two bullets in the leg from the spraying P90.  Max and Jaime had already began pressing on the wounds attempting to stop any blood loss.  At that second shots were heard from the trucks.  We had left all those who we should have been protecting alone.  Fearing the worst I left Jaime and Max to help Nick, Aaron and I ran back to help the others.