AniZombie 3 Read online

“Hello, Bennett,” Big John said as Herb stopped behind the inner gate.

  “I’m afraid you came a long way for bad news,” Herb responded. “The council agreed with me about waiting till spring to take in a group as large as yours.”

  “My people need you to rethink that position,” John said insistently.

  Herb shook his head and was about to reply, but John cut him off when he said, “Now, just hear me out. We had to evacuate our camp last night. There was an army of zombies heading toward us. As it is, we barely managed to get out ahead of them. A truckload of our scouts didn’t make it back to warn us, so I sent another team west on Highway 40 to check on them. They reported about the large group of zombies and we had to break camp in the middle of the night. Now I have 170 people with nowhere safe to go. We need a safe location, even if it’s just a temporary arrangement while the scouts and I seek out another place for a base camp. We brought our own supplies, so we won’t be a burden to your people.”

  “I’m sorry, but we can’t do that,” Herb said.

  “Look, Bennett, I’m trying to be reasonable about all this, but it looks to me like you led a shit storm to our door yesterday, and as I see it, you are obligated to help us out here,” John said persistently.

  “We didn’t lead any zombies to you,” Herb countered. “We only saw a handful yesterday, and all of them were twenty miles or more away from your camp. Besides, if they had followed us, then they would have been travelling away from your camp and not toward it, because we took the same route to come home.”

  John frowned and shook his head. “I’d hoped to be able to persuade you to do the right thing here without things getting unpleasant. The way I see it, we have as much right to sanctuary here as your people do. The government set this up to help people like us, same as you.”

  “Yes they did, but they set most of it up on my land, and they approved our charter rules at the time.” Herb paused before adding, “Do you really expect us to trust you when you have men moving through the woods around our refuge?”

  “Is that what’s bugging you? Bennett, I’ve got my men making sure we don’t lead a swarm of zombies to your gate. That’s all. Come now, man, you know how those things spread out and come at you from all directions. Of course, I’m taking precautions. It would have been nice if you’d paid us the same courtesy yesterday.”

  “Yeah, and I feel the love, man,” Herb said sarcastically. “Oh, and just so you know, those woods contain anizombies.”

  “My men have all been injected, thanks to you,” John said with an evil grin.

  “Good, because by now, half the men you have in the woods will have been infected with the parasites because of the anizombies. They leave their spores all over the place in those trees. We decontaminate after any trips into the forest. I suggest your men do the same, or you run the risk of spreading the parasites to other people you encounter.”

  “I’ll take that under advisement,” John said.

  “Good luck finding a place to set up a new camp,” Herb said, making it clear that he was about to walk away. Herb was turning to leave when the marauder leader made a threat.

  “Bennett, I’m trying to be nice about this, but you’re not leaving me any choice but to take this to the next level,” Big John threatened.

  He stopped and turned to face the man across the intervening distance. “You’re free to go in peace. All we did was try to help you and your people. We can’t take your group in, and I explained why. Leave it alone and just go. You won’t win this one.”

  “We’re pretty much accustomed to having things our way,” John boasted. “I have enough men to take this place. I think you realize that, and that’s the real reason you won’t let us inside the fence.”

  “You people wouldn’t be the first to try it,” Herb stated. “Yet, we’re still here and all of them are buried out in the field to your right.” He paused and frowned, and then he pointed to the woods on his left. “Get your men out of the woods and off my property. If they trigger our defenses, we’re not responsible for what happens to them.”

  “You’re threatening me?” Big John said incredulously.

  “Consider it a friendly warning. I wouldn’t want your people to die because they don’t know what an insane risk they are taking prowling around in the woods,” Herb said, and then he backed away.

  John considered going for his pistol and shooting the man, just as he had shot his Lieutenant when he had left the Army. His hand was drifting toward his holstered pistol when a shot rang out and dirt kicked up on the ground beside his right boot. He turned to face the direction the shooter would have fired from and saw a reflection of light off a piece of equipment atop one of the berms.

  “Draw that pistol and you’re a dead man! You need to leave! Now!” he heard Randy shouting.

  John turned around and headed back for his van. He took his time reaching his vehicle. Both Herb and Randy noticed that he didn’t seem concerned about them shooting him.

  “We’ll give you a few minutes to get your people out of the woods, but it’s going to get real dangerous in there in about ten minutes!” Randy shouted.

  John had the driver turn the van around and head back toward the highway at a slow rate of speed. He was making a point to the defenders that he didn’t fear them. When the van reached the highway, the driver was ordered to turn right and drive a quarter mile, and then he parked the van beside the road.

  When the vehicle came to a stop, John keyed the microphone and said, “Snipers, if you have the shots, take them now.”

  Up in his watchtower, Trevor Williamson was searching the woods with a pair of binoculars when his left elbow bumped into his thermos bottle that contained his daily ration of coffee. The accident knocked it off the tiny table that some industrious guard had hauled up to the tower to provide a handy spot to place ammunition and magazines for his weapons. In an instinctive movement, Trevor leaned to the left as his hand darted toward the falling thermos in an effort to catch it before it struck the hardwood floor of the tower. His reaction to the accident saved his life when a man in the woods chose that instant to fire at him. He heard the bullet whiz past his right ear at about the same moment he heard the rifle fire. The former police officer reverted to his training and threw his body onto the floor. Bullets perforated the wall of the tower to his right, so he rolled to the left and hoped that the shooter wouldn’t continue to spray the tower with weapons fire.

  Down in the compound, Herb gave the order to detonate the charges in the woods while the snipers were still firing at the guards in the south towers. One by one, a series of twelve explosions blasted the cool autumn air and threw debris above the forest canopy.

  Up in his tower, Trevor took advantage of the distraction provided by the explosions. He grabbed his rifle and stood behind a thick wooden horizontal beam that would provide some protection for at least a portion of his body. He braced his rifle against the beam and sought out movement in the woods once more. It didn’t take him long to spot men moving away from the edge of the woods as they sought to put distance between themselves and the bombs that were still exploding. He saw three men running through a small clearing that had been enlarged by one of the explosive devices that had just detonated. He aimed for the upper torso of one of the men and fired two rounds. He had the satisfaction of seeing the man go down hard. He then shifted to the next target and repeated his targeting strategy. The third man that he had seen was almost to the thicker foliage by the time Trevor’s sights came to rest on him. He snapped off one shot and thought that he had connected with it, but then the man fell into the foliage and disappeared from sight.

  A bullet splintered wood from the beam beside him. Trevor felt a stabbing sensation in the left side of his face as several of the splinters struck him. He threw himself backwards and landed on his back as another round struck the beam in the spot he had just vacated. His heart pounded fiercely when he realized he had just narrowly escaped death for the second time in t
he past minute.

  Throughout the brief firefight, explosives had been detonating out in the woods. As he scrambled to his knees, preparing to surge to his feet to return fire at the marauders, Trevor noticed that the explosions had stopped and that no one was shooting at the moment. Then he heard the first cries of the wounded out in the woods. He stayed low as he moved to the short wall of the guard tower to peer over it and try to find another hostile target. He was bringing his rifle to his shoulder to target one of the men he’d just spotted in the woods when his radio crackled to life and he heard Herb order the guards to permit the marauders to withdraw. Trevor hoped it was the right thing to do, but was afraid that Herb was making a mistake.

  Herb instructed the guard tower personnel to check in on the radio. All but one of the guards in the towers complied with his instructions. When it came time for the southwest guard to speak up, he didn’t.

  Herb sent volunteers to check on the man while reinforcements spread out and manned positions on the berms in anticipation of another attack. The non-combatants were gathered and escorted to the siege shelters, where they would remain until it was safe for them to emerge.

  Outside the refuge, smoke rose from numerous places in the woods. The marauders made their way back to the road and assembled at their vehicles where Big John waited for a briefing. He soon learned that several of the men he had sent into the woods wouldn’t be returning. Many had fallen victim to the bombs that had been strategically located in positions that an intelligent attacker would seek to occupy in order to carry out an attack against the people inside. The alert defenders had shot almost as many marauders when they sought to attack the refuge. John was shocked to learn that he had lost seventeen of his best men.

  He sent teams of spotters back into the woods with strict instructions to act as observers only for the moment. They were to contact him if they saw any sign of the people in the compound making an effort to leave it. John then ordered his remaining men to clean their weapons and see to their gear. They would hold off on attacking the refuge for the moment while John worked on a plan that would guarantee success against the people inside the formidable defenses. He laughed when he said, “They aren’t going anywhere. We have them cut off from the outside world, unless they want to try their luck in the swamp. For now, we’ll wait them out and let them stew in their fear.”

  Chapter 12

  Redemption.

  At a rapid pace, Herb walked toward the radio shack in response to an urgent message from the radio operator. He was accompanied by his team because he had been in the midst of a planning session when he had been interrupted. Since time was a critical factor at the moment, he had elected to have the team accompany him so that they could continue making their plans as they walked.

  The team was well aware that they were in a bad situation. The refuge had been challenged by marauders in the past and had survived those encounters, but never on such a scale as they were facing now. This time, their attackers, who seemed to be at least as well armed as the defenders, outnumbered them. Jason had voiced some serious concerns that they could be even better equipped, stating that it wouldn’t take very many mortars or rocket propelled grenades to make their situation almost untenable. Herb had responded that he hoped they didn’t have such weapons with them, reasoning that if that had been the case, they would have employed them at the outset.

  The team was still debating those issues when they reached the radio shack. When they entered the small one room building, Herb saw the radio operator on duty sitting at the radio. He said, “Okay, I’m here. What have you got for me?”

  The radio man turned and faced Herb. His face was pale and Herb could tell that what he had learned had unsettled the young man. “I intercepted several messages being sent out by the leader of the group attacking us,” he responded.

  Herb nodded in understanding and said, “What’s he saying in his messages?”

  “He is giving people our location and telling them that we have tons of supplies. He’s also telling them about the cure for the parasites. He’s offering to share everything we have with any groups that will come help him take the refuge,” the radio man paraphrased the messages he’d heard John sending out.

  “Any takers?” Randy asked.

  “A few, yeah. Some of the others are saying that they don’t believe him, and a couple just refused to respond.”

  “Okay, is he still sending messages?” Herb asked.

  “No, he stopped.”

  “I’d like to hear a couple of the messages he sent. Did you record them?” asked Herb.

  “I did. Give me a moment and I’ll play them for you in the order that they were sent.”

  The team waited as the radio operator manipulated several controls on a communications computer. Soon, they were listening to Big John’s communications.

  “Hey, I know that voice!” Jesse said. “He’s the guy I heard organizing those killers in Newport,” he explained.

  “You’re certain?” Hernando asked. He hadn’t heard the radio communications that his friend was referencing, so he didn’t recognize the speaker.

  “I’m sure it was him.”

  “In that case, we are in trouble. Those people are ruthless,” Hernando said. He then explained, “They slaughtered the survivors in Newport without provocation, just to lure the zombies to one place, and then stripped all of the food supplies in the city while the zombies were feasting on the dead.”

  “I wish we’d known that when they showed up at the gate,” Randy said.

  “So do I, but Jesse and Hernando were out planting the tracking device and didn’t hear him speaking last night, and I was outside the bus when I met with him yesterday,” Herb said.

  “You can’t trust anything that man says!” Jesse said adamantly. “The survivors of Newport made that mistake, and they paid for it with their lives!”

  “Don’t worry. I have no intentions of trusting him,” Herb said.

  “That’s right,” Randy agreed with his friend. “I thought he was going to try to shoot you at the gate.”

  “He probably would have if you hadn’t been watching so closely and threatened to kill him if he grabbed his pistol,” Herb said. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

  “You’d have done the same for me,” Randy said with a shrug.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Jason. “It seems to me that we need to go on the offensive. We need to even the odds more before their reinforcements show up. Who knows what sort of weaponry they will be bringing to this little war.”

  “True, but remember, time is our greatest ally at the moment,” Herb said with confidence.

  “Are you thinking the fighting will pull in zombies that will go after the marauders?” asked Ed.

  “Don’t you? We all know that even a few shots will attract them to us,” Herb stated. “We’ve seen it happen many times, even when we were sure we had eliminated the zombies in the area.”

  “The dang Zs are nomadic,” the radio man stated.

  “Zs? You mean zombies?” Hernando asked for clarification.

  “Yeah, sorry. It’s a term I hear on the radio all the time. My point was the others out there have the same problem. They clear their area of zombies, but a few days later, more show up. Heck, sometimes it even happens the same day.”

  “Let us know if you hear anything else important,” Herb instructed the radio man, and then he led the team back outside.

  “Are we going to go out after them?” Randy asked as the men walked toward the gate where most of the defenders were located.

  “No, at least not at this point. It may be necessary before this is over, but I’m not prepared to take that risk now,” Herb replied.

  “If we wait until their reinforcements arrive, it might be too late for this to work. We have no idea what they may bring to the table,” Jason argued persuasively.

  “I agree, and that’s the reason I am hesitant to commit to such an action now,” Herb replied. “Our
team represents the most experienced fighters at the refuge. If we go out and fail, we leave the defenses weakened to the point that the defenders could be overrun by a determined group of men.”

  “Herb!” the team heard a man shout.

  Herb stopped and looked in the direction of the shout. He saw a man running toward them. As he drew closer, he saw that it was Bernie, who had been out working on the earthen defenses at one of the berms when Big John and his people attacked.

  “I wonder what he wants,” Randy said. “We don’t have time for a bunch of foolish crap.”

  “We’ll soon see,” Herb said.

  Bernie ran as fast as he could toward the team. He stopped in front of them with an excited expression on his face. “Let me help!” he said without preamble, taking Herb and his team by surprise.

  “Help with what?” Herb asked.

  “You need experienced fighters. Let me do this in exchange for my freedom,” Bernie elaborated.

  “No offense, Bernie, but you were a pretty lousy sniper,” Randy said. He was referring to the fact that the man had failed to kill Herb when he had the chance.

  Bernie nodded his head in agreement with Randy’s observation and said, “I missed the kill shot when I shot at Herb, but that was deliberate.”

  “What? You’re claiming you just wounded me on purpose?” Herb asked.

  “Look, I know I screwed up. I made a big fool of myself over that woman, but I wanted her so badly... Look, never mind that. You wouldn’t understand. The thing is, I thought if I wounded you, then she’d accept that as proof that I did my part and she’d warm up to me. I had no intentions of killing anyone to get her. I just wanted to make it look good. It would have worked too if Trevor hadn’t been so good at his job.”

  “Are you willing to go outside and thin them out for us?” Herb asked.

  “You mean as a sniper?” Bernie asked. When Herb nodded, indicating that was what he meant, he said, “Sure.”

  “You can’t be seriously considering this,” Randy said. “He tried to kill you, Herb.”