She looked down at the floor, as if thinking about her questions carefully. “Are you here to save us?”
Kuppers took a second to formulate his answer, his eyes watered a little, and he went down to a knee. “We did not know you were here, sweetie, but we are police officers. So we do not leave people behind who need our help.”
Kala surprised Kuppers when she ran forward and hugged him tight. Kala silently sobbed in his arms as the two boys got up and wrapped their arms around her and Kuppers. I stood there thinking about what these poor kids must’ve gone through watching their parents get taken away and to be imprisoned in this building with dwindling supplies. I looked over and saw Tessy standing by herself against the wall, watching the affectionate display. I grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a hug. She stiffened at first but let her guard down and let her emotions finally pour out. I had been watching her out of the corner of my eye. I could see the wall she put up, so she could be their rock and their leader. “You did a great job taking care of them, hun. We are here now, though, and will do our best to help.” She started shaking and sobbing, letting all the tension finally release. Brian came over then and rubbed her back.
Kuppers released the kids, stood, and clicked on his radio. “Bravo, Alpha, come in. Over.”
Apache’s voice came through our earpieces. “Roger, Alpha. Bravo, go ahead. Over.”
Kuppers explained our situation, “We made entrance to the club house, and found four young teenagers alone. We are going to secure their supplies and bring them out soon. Recon parking lot and secure rear door. We still need some vehicles to move out with, over.”
Doc’s voice cut over the radio then. “Cupcake and I are already in the parking lot. Found a large 4x4 truck with a shell over the bed. Cupcake has already checked and said he can hotwire it, but it is going to make a lot of sound. Parking lot is empty, building front entrance has count of close to a hundred, over.”
Kuppers thought for a moment. “Roger all, Doc, wait one. Bravo, is our rear egress free?”
Apache came over the radio breathlessly, “Alpha, Bravo, roger it is for now. What do you want us to do? Advise. We have Angel with us, over”
I cut in over the radio at that point, “Bravo, Dan, I’ll meet you at the back door, and you can release her to me.” I let go of Tessy and made my way out of the room and into the stairway.
I heard Kuppers relaying orders over the radio. “Bravo, once you’ve released Angel to Dan, I want you two to draw those damn zombies out toward the housing complex. Doc and Cupcake, when you see that has succeeded, start the truck and come up to the front doors, and we will load up and go collect Bravo. Over.”
A chorus of rogers came over the radio. I didn’t know the clubhouse well, except for my time following Tessy. So I went slow, checking each corner, room, and doorway before entering. I had pulled my steel baton at some point without realizing it and had it open and ready. I made my way back to the banquet room with no issues. I peeked around the curtain covering the back French doors we had entered through earlier. Angel waved at me, as Senshi and Apache stood protective over her. I unlocked the door, cracked it open, and Angel came through and hugged me tight. “Hey, sweetie, missed you,” I said hugging her back.
Apache threw a smile at me and then left with Senshi to do their jobs. I locked the door and turned around. I was immediately attacked by a male zombie and pushed to the ground. I used one arm to quickly push Angel out of the way. “Get away! Hide!” I yelled at her. She seemed to want to help but thought better and ran from the room. I had one arm pressed under the zombie’s throat trying to push it up and keep its teeth from biting my nose off. I used my free hand to try and find my baton, which I had somehow dropped when Angel hugged me.
I felt something with my fingertips and tried desperately to pull it into my hand, but it kept slipping and rolling further away. I was starting to lose my battle with the zombie as it pressed down harder, causing my hand to slide through the skin on its throat. I could smell the rot and purification on its breath, its cracked and broken teeth just an inch from my nose. My strength was starting to ooze away. I stopped trying to grab the baton and instead latched that hand onto the creature’s forehead, pushing back with all the strength I had left.
I gained another inch of safety. I bunched my shoulders and lifted my hips, twisting to the side. I was able to shift enough of my weight to finally roll over on top of the zombie. I changed tactics and pushed down on the spine that my hand had now grabbed onto since it had sunk through the skin there. With the other hand, I reached back for Doc’s Kabar and was able to pull it from its sheath. My left arm was starting to cramp, and my stitches were pulling hard from holding back the zombie. I knew I had one chance. I pulled my upper body up until I was kneeling on the zombie’s chest. I raised the Kabar and plunged it into the zombie’s eye. I twisted and pushed until I finally felt that popping sensation, and then the blade slid further in. The zombie stopped moving finally, and not a second too soon. My arms felt like Jell-O.
I sat there on the zombie’s chest for a second, trying to pull in as much air as my lungs could handle, when I heard a scream like none other I have heard. I pulled my gun from its leg holster and jumped up off of the zombie and ran. I came to the stairs to find Brian holding Angel in his massive left arm, a female zombie’s neck clasped in his right hand. I pulled my last baton and shoved it into the zombie’s mouth and motioned for Brian to let go. He did so, and I slammed the zombie onto the ground, using the baton in its mouth as leverage.
I put my foot on its chest and held it down, using my baton like a golf club, and swung into its head, cracking and destroying the brain. I looked around for more danger and found none, so I turned my attention on Brian and Angel.
Brian was looking over every inch of Angel. His face wore a mask of fear and concern. Finally, he shook his head and made eye contact with me. He blew out a breath and smiled at me. “What in the blue fuck happened?” he roared at me.
I shrugged as I took a hankie from my pocket and cleaned the baton of the creature’s blood, bone pieces, and black shit. “I don’t know. I opened the door, she came in and hugged me, and something grabbed me and attacked. I yelled at her to run and fought the thing trying to turn my nose into a hamburger from McDonalds. I was able to kill it when I heard a scream and came running.”
Brian nodded his understanding and put Angel on the stairs. “Go upstairs, sweetie. Kuppers is waiting for you with some older children. Tell him we are going to look around. Ok?”
Her face beamed with the news of other kids and turned around. She stopped part way up and turned her head. “Thank you, Brian and Dan. I am sorry for what happened.” She looked sad for a second.
I made a face at her and, she laughed. “You did nothing wrong, sweetie. Now go upstairs while Brian and I go check for more of these stinky heads.” She nodded ok and went up the stairs.
I looked to Brian. “I am worried about that kid. She is too young to be seeing this shit and dealing with almost getting killed on a daily basis. We need to figure something out to shield her.”
“Boss, in this new world, there is no way to shield her. As long as Ridder and the Culling Initiative are out there, then this is the new normal all around the world.” He dropped his shoulders, sighed, and gave me a quick hug. “Let’s do everything we can to keep giving her one more day of life and joy when we can.”
With that, he pulled his M4 to his shoulder and motioned to me to do the same with the MP5. I slipped off the safety, brought it to my shoulder, and followed Brian. We made our way back to the rear door and then cleared each room. When we entered the banquet room, I saw the zombie that had attacked me on the floor. I then remembered the Kabar and walked over to the corpse. I gripped the hilt and pulled, but it was stuck. I put my knee on the corpse’s chest and pulled with both hands. It was stuck, and I was getting pissed. How was I going to tell Doc I left his dad’s Kabar in a corpse’s head? Brian watched me and laughed every time I failed. Finally, he had enough and pushed me out of the way. With just his left hand he reached down, gripped the hilt, and pulled. The head came off the floor with the knife as he pulled. He shook his head, put his foot on the jaw, and pulled again. The knife came free with a crack and audible pop. Brian looked over the tip and shook his head in amazement. “The tip was embedded in the back of the skulll. Good quality these Kabars are.” He cleaned the knife on the left over, tattered remains of clothes on the corpse.
I took the knife and slid it back into its sheath. “I need to find some alcohol or something to clean that thing, along with my batons. Speaking of,” I reached down and retrieved the one I had dropped earlier.
Brian and I moved into the next room, which was the kitchen. Except for the rotten food scraps and putrid smell, the room was empty. We moved through the employee’s break room, bathrooms, coat room, and golf store. Everything was clear. Until we reached the lobby. The front door was cracked open slightly, allowing smaller, thinner zombies to slide through. Currently, two were wedged in tight. I took out my baton and finished them off quickly and silently. Brian looked out the windows and saw that we were zombie free now, thanks presumably to Senshi and Apache.
“Boss, I’ll stay here and secure the door while you help Kuppers with the kids and their stuff.” We fist bumped, and I jogged off to the stairway. Once there, I took some extra time moving the zombie away from the stairs so the kids didn’t have to see it.
The radio clicked, and I heard Doc come over. “Alpha, we have the truck started and are making our way to you. Front of building looks secure, over.”
Kuppers answered, “Roger. Give us a couple of minutes, over.”
I ran up the stairs and met Kuppers at the door. He had the kids dressed and their supplies packed into what looked like normal school backpacks. “Ok kids, follow Dan here. I will be right behind you. Do everything he says just like I explained ok?” The kids all nodded affirmative to him.
I noticed Tessy was in the rear near Kuppers, and Kala was right behind me with the boys in the middle. I picked up Angel, and we made our way down the stairs slowly. I had one hand free to hold the 1911 I had pulled from my leg holster. Before coming off the stairs, I looked left and right sweeping the barrel wherever my eyes went. We came around the corner to find that Brian had forced the front doors open and moved the two corpses. He held his gun out, watching the parking lot. I stepped outside to find Doc standing on the hood with his rifle hoisted up as he scanned the nearby golf course and houses in the distance. I noticed Vic coming around the corner of the clubhouse jogging toward us. I had completely forgotten about him. Cupcake was in the driver’s seat, as usual. I opened the shell, Vic climbed in first, and helped the kids get settled. Tessy was sitting near the back window of the truck with Angel in her lap as the other three cuddled together around them. Vic took guard at the back window of the shell with his gun barrel out. “What’s the plan now, Kuppers?”
He looked out toward the golf course and studied the crowd of zombies out in the distance being led away by Senshi and Apache. He radioed, “Bravo, Alpha, what’s your situation? Over.”
“Alpha, Bravo, we are about to round a house and hopefully start heading back in your direction. Over.”
“Bravo, Alpha, we are going to start heading toward the main road. Alter your trajectory. Over.”
Apache’s breathless voice came over the radio, “Roger, over.”
The truck had wide running boards that went down the side of the mega 4-door cab. I stood on the running board on the passenger side, as Kuppers stood on the one in front. Doc jumped off of the hood and joined Brian on the other side. Cupcake took us slowly through the parking lot and out to the main road. Apache and Senshi came running up off the course and stopped in front of the truck. We stopped, and Kuppers settled everyone in the truck.
Apache and Doc climbed into the rear with the kids,and Vic, as Brian, Senshi, and I took the back seat. Since Senshi was the thinnest, he took the middle seat. Kuppers sat up front with Cupcake and directed him out to the highway and heading north again. We traveled slower than in the Beast. Brian and I had our windows down with our barrels sticking out. Our eyes crawled over every abandoned vehicle, building, tree, and boulder. We were looking for signs of the dead, living, Ridder, pretty much any danger we could find.
After an hour of driving past a couple of neighborhoods, Cupcake pulled the truck over to the shoulder of the highway and stopped. Brian opened his door, got out, and trotted across the road. He took a knee and pulled his weapon to his shoulder, then started sweeping the area around us. I got out and stood just off the shoulder with my MP5 in my hand. Senshi got out and stood near the front of the vehicle, securing his position.
Vic came around from the rear after propping the rear window open for Apache to watch our rear. He leaned on the door and looked at Kuppers. “What’s going on?”
“Cupcake was just letting me know that we are coming up on the Russian River. He is pretty sure it would be a great spot for ambushers.” Kuppers looked over his map, then got out and climbed onto the hood so he could get a better view of our surroundings. “Everyone, back in the truck.” He dropped off the hood and climbed back in as we all followed suit. “Cupcake, go a mile or so ‘till you see a dirt road heading off to the east. Take that, and let’s look for a wooded or hidden area we can camp at.”