Yez, do ze have'n n z updatze?

Sorry, guys. Lots of work, etc. lately.

I have most of the next chapter finished and I hope to post it this weekend.

ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Usagi, can you tell we're al anxiously awaiting your next post???

4TH of July update maybe?  Please!!!!!!!

Must have more now please?

I just spent 2 hours at work reading this off and on.  The people need more.  I appreciate that you have other things to do, but if your story wasn't as great as it is I wouldn't be feinding for it.  C'mon, TEOTWAWKI/SHTF...AND zombies...AND a crazy tie-in(nicely done by the way); I need more, I'm starting to get the shakes.  And that's no good when I'm blading at 45 degrees and tactically reloading...at the same time.

moar?

moar ye shall have...


(Sorry folks - on vacation all last week, had no internet access)

Chapter 28

We had been driving for several hours. Mostly, Matt had done the driving, and I was thankful for that. Any time I could get a break from driving these days, I appreciated. Conversation had been moderate. Matt and I exchanged basic information. It seemed as I knew most of his. But he at least acted interested in learning about me and the family back at the ranch.

We had brought a fair amount of his supplies. The rest he had stashed away and secured as best we could. If somebody went snooping around, intending to take things, they could have. However, nothing was easily visible to the casual looter. These days, there would be few casual looters make it very long.

We had just finished a discussion on football when I heard the loudest pop I’d ever heard in my life that was not a gunshot. The vehicle wobbled and I knew immediately that a tire had blown out.

“I didn’t see anything in the road.” I said to Matt.

“Me either. Must have hit something small, or had a nail in it already.” He said dryly.

Matt pulled the truck to the side of the road and we inspected the damage. I did not have a full size spare (and this would be the last time in my life that would be the case). We immediately figured the best thing to do would be to backtrack to the last town and get a vehicle there.

“Bring a gas container, too. We will probably need it.” Matt said as we loaded up the bare essentials to make the ten-mile walk back.

I grabbed the gas can; which held just a gallon of gas, and headed on down the road, jogging at first to catch up with my newfound buddy.

“You have a favorite vehicle you want for this?” I asked.

“I prefer a truck. If we could get something like a UPS truck or a bread truck, that would be a plus.”

As Matt said that, I was reminded of my own travels since these events had unfolded. His idea for transportation was strangely similar to my own. I chalked it up to necessity. Now, we all looked at things first for their usefulness and gave little or no thought to form. Function was king.

“I had a bread truck back home some time ago. It was what we used to move from my place up to Paul’s ranch.” I stated blankly.

“How did that work for you?”

“It was convenient. We could carry everything that we needed or might want. And there was room left over.”

“Just you and Kara?” Matt asked.

“No, we had a couple with us, too. There was more than enough room.”

“What about seating while driving?” Matt asked.

“Easy. We used some fold out chairs from the local sporting goods store.” I replied.

We walked on, and talked on. Both of us scanned to the side frequently, looking for undead predators. There were very few here. Probably because there had not been that many people here to start.


*****

Kara and the other adults were fighting for their lives. Just as the number of zombies had reached a manageable level, the attack had come. There were dozens of men staked out at different places behind the stone wall. They were all Chinese, from what Kara had seen.

Paul, Bill, and Steve had taken shelter behind a stone well several yards from the house and had been trying to keep the invaders from advancing around to the sides of the wall. Defending form one angle was hard enough.


*****


Matt and I had been walking for a couple of hours when we saw the first zombie in our path. It was over 500 yards away. I got to watch, and spot for Matt. He had spotted the zombie first, and in a quiet, hushed voice had pointed and said, “stop moving.”

We both got close to the ground. Matt motioned with his hand to visually scan all around to make sure we would not be taken by surprise from another angle. As I checked, carefully, and taking my time, Matt moved into a prone position and set up with his rifle. He was using 5.56 mm, same as I was. I knew this would be a hard shot at best.

Matt’s AR15 had a 24” barrel and a large, high magnification scope on the top. I had no doubt he could wield it in a tactical situation, as well, but this was just the opportunity for him.

“Wind?” he asked.

I tossed some grass in the air. “3 miles per hour left to right.

Matt did not adjust his targeting crosshairs, as I had expected. He just laid, almost motionless, zooming in on his target.

BANG

The report of the rifle startled me. I think Matt had intended that. The zombie dropped in his tracks. I was fascinated that at this range the head did not do so much exploding as it did at closer ranges. I knew, theoretically, that the bullet lost its force the further it traveled. I just had never made this long of a shot before and watched the success.

Matt verified the kill through his scope, and I scanned in all directions, looking for fresh movement of creatures attracted to the noise of death.

“Anything?” Matt asked.

“No. Not yet.”

“Let’s get moving, then.”

We walked and walked. The minutes seemed like hours and the hours seemed like days. But we finally made it. Even more conversation was had during the long walk. In reality, it took us just about three hours to get back to the town. Then the search began.

We were looking for a truck.

Some two or three miles down the road, we found a truck. It was in the driveway of a house that looked fairly abandoned. Green shutters and doors stood out in a visually pleasing way on the off-white house. Like most places, the grass had not been cut in forever. The red truck sporting silver trim was sitting, facing into the house. At this stage, we figured the gasoline that had been sitting in the fuel tank might have destabilized some at this point, so Matt was reaching into his bag to get the fuel stabilizer out.

Matt leaned up against the truck as he rummaged through the bag. Suddenly, he looked up at me with the most puzzled look on his face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Feel this,” he replied, pointing toward the truck.

I complied. It was warm to the touch on the hood. More so than it should have been for just sitting out in the sun.

“Only one way this happens,” Matt pointed out. Somebody’s been driving this car, recently. Stay low and keep your guard up.”

Matt snapped his rifle to his shoulder and manually inspected his chamber to be sure a round was ready. His fingers on his left hand pulled the bolt back and the forefinger verified the presence of a live round. Slowly, and without sound, he released the bolt back into place and used the forward assist to ensure that it closed.

All the while, Matt and I were scanning the area visually for the presence of another human being. There were the scattered zombie or two off in the distance, wandering aimlessly, but none near enough to be of concern.

“Good chance if there’s somebody else here, they are in the house.” Matt said.

He was right. I figured seeing another survivor would be a blessing.

“Let’s go knock on the door.” I suggested.

Matt pulled me back down low. “We aren’t keeping down because of the zombies. They are too slow to need to move tactically on. The reason we are keeping our guard up is the living. This person may or may not be friendly.”

“How could he not be friendly?” I asked.

The answer hit me as Matt spoke it.

“He could be one of the invaders. Or he could be some type of outlaw. Or it could be a woman, scared out of her mind. Or any other number of things,” Matt said.

“So what’s the plan?”

“When we don’t know what we are dealing with, we scope it out and learn. That’s the first thing to do. Learn about your target.”

“What if the person is friendly?”

“Then it will have only cost us a little time. A small price to pay to be sure,” Matt said.

Slowly, stealthily, we crawled below the top of the grass so as not to be seen. We made our way to a somewhat wooded area about 300 yards away. My four-power scope was nowhere near as clear and magnified as Matt’s fifty-power, but it was certainly better than nothing.

We were there for hours. Toward the end of the day, as the sun was getting pretty low on the horizon behind us, there was movement in the window.

“Did you see that?” I asked Matt, keeping my voice hushed.

“Yeah. He has been really going back and forth a lot, huh?” Matt replied, his eye stuck in the scope.

“What do you mean, I just saw him flash by?” I asked.

At that point, it dawned on Matt that I did not have the clarity of view he did. “Kyle, that guy has been trudging around the house for a couple of hours now. He just made his way to what I think is the living room. He was in and out in a hurry. Then he came back in for a little while. He has some sort of electrical device playing in the room he is staying in most of the time, I can see the light flickering off of the walls.”

“So what is he doing?”

“I have no idea, but I think we can probably get in close. He seems to be alone. At least I’ve not seen him talking to anybody in the last few hours. I think we can risk moving in closer to take a good look before we move. He is a scruffy looking fellow, but I imagine we are not too much better ourselves at this point.”

We moved closer, keeping below the grass line and using the setting sun to our backs as a source of concealment, as well. A piece of machinery made for a good hiding place within fifty yards of the place. Once we were secure in the position, we resumed our watch of the place.

In my ACOG, I could clearly see into the full glass door that opened into what was likely the great room, or living room. I scanned the room, left to right, paying attention to the details of the room, in case we had to forcibly enter. I stopped suddenly when I got to the far left side.

On that side of the room, far back enough such that we could not have seen it from our previous vantage point, was a couch. On that couch was tied a zombie. This particular member of the undead was once, in life, a very attractive young lady. I estimated her to have been about 14 to 16 years of age when she became infected. Certainly not a child, yet certainly not yet a woman, either.

I could tell all this, because the undead in question was in a prone position, bent over one arm of the couch. She was tied down, and wore no clothes that I could see. Matt confirmed that he saw her, too.

As I watched, and scanned more of the house, Bubba (as Matt had dubbed the man) walked into the great room and over to his captured “pet.” Matt nudged me on the shoulder, pointing at the exchange. Bubba was stroking the female zombie, as though he were her lover. He paid careful attention to certain portions of her anatomy. It became very clear at that moment why he kept her hostage.

Bubba moved from stroking his victim to an outright direct sexual assault of the former young woman. The zombie thrashed its arms and legs about as the assault continued. It was over in a moment. Bubba withdrew and walked to the other room. The zombie grew more still as he left.

“Let’s move,” Matt said. “I’ve seen enough.”

I had, too.

Moments later, we were sitting in the great room, having entered without a sound. Matt and I were positioned in places of hiding, on different sides of the room. From this angle, there was almost no way for either of us to sweep the other in crossfire, should we need to shoot.

Other than the zombie, the house was quiet. Matt observed later that he heard no others in the house. As we had entered, and then settled down, the zombie started moaning and getting more excited. I guess she hadn’t eaten in some time. As she grew more agitated, I heard Bubba rummaging in the back room.

“Shut up, bitch! I ain’t got no more food fer ya.” Bubba yelled out.

More commotion as the zombie was eyeing up Matt. She would have come after him, had she been able. The ropes were tied in place very well and were not going to come loose any time soon. Not being able to get to Matt made her all the more frantic.

“I said shut up in there. Before I come back and show you again who’s boss.” Bubba yelled.

Bubba started towards us. I could hear his steps coming our direction down the hall. He was breathing heavily, too. He rounded the corner and came into the room, only to be face-to-face with the muzzle of Matt’s gun.

I heard the report. I knew the gun fired. I remember thinking that the place would be a wreck with all the blood – which I verified to be true a moment later – but the whole of the scene was a bit of an out-of-body-experience for me. I looked on with a sense of detachment, though not quite to the extent Matt did, no doubt.

“Can’t let the human race be filled with his kind any more.” Matt said. Then he walked over to the zombie, put his rifle to her head and pulled the trigger once more.

The place was silent after the pair of gunshots.

Without a word, we went to work, scavenging the house for anything useful and loading it into the truck. The keys to the truck were in Bubba’s pocket. That was a nasty discovery, let me tell ya. In the whole house we found few things of much value. The place was nice to look at from the outside, but had been ravaged inside. Matt and I figured it to be Bubba’s handiwork.

After a while, we got in the truck and headed down the road. It was not long until we found the other vehicle. It was dark by then, and loading the supplies from one truck to the newer one. We siphoned off as much gasoline as possible, as well and transferred it to the new vehicle.

After all the work, it was not long in the vehicle with Matt at the wheel before I passed out. And that was all I knew until I was nudged awake with a start.

Good update!  Let's try to get back to the weekly updates though

Since June is my busiest month, and since last week was vacation, I sense the opportunity to get through the next chunk of this story in short order.

I don't care how hot she is...sex with the undead is one line I will  never cross!

in my mind- zombies = VERY unattractive!

GREAT UPDATE!

zombie babies.....sick.

Hence the reason Matt shot the bastage.  

I wondered when the Hitman tie in would happen.  I like it now that Matt is teamed up Kyle's group.

Looks like more action to follow.

Great update!

Chapter 29

Ahead of us, several hundred yards away, was a massive assembly of military style vehicles and personnel. As I blinked my eyes awake, I began to realize that these were the foreign invaders. There were what looked like about two hundred of them. A small search party was heading our way.

“I turned off the lights as soon as I saw them, but I’m afraid they’ve seen us.” Matt said. “You awake enough yet to be of any use?”

“I’m getting there,” I replied as I bought my carbine up. “You got any ideas?”

“If we move before they get here, we might be able to hide. But I really don’t know what we would do then.”

“Do it. At least it will give us time to think up a better strategy.”

Matt complied, moving the truck off the road. He continued on, behind an upgrowth of shrubs and weeds that hid the truck pretty well. We rolled the windows down and shut off the engine to avoid alerting the passing patrol.

With rifles at the ready, we watched as the enemy passed us by on the road. I counted nine men in two trucks. My heart was thudding in my ears as if it wanted to erupt in anticipation. I tried to calm myself, but as the enemy vehicle moved into plain view, I was pretty much ready for action.

Matt’s firm grip on my arm steadied me. “Keep quiet and calm yourself as much as possible. We’ve got room in case they do spot the truck. We will have time. And nothing says we have to fight, unless they actually start coming our way.”

“If they do, then what?”

“Stay close to me. I can probably take out enough of them to keep the others from advancing too far.”

“That sounds like a stalemate.” I said.

“Yes, and it would be, but will leave while they are taking cover. It will take them twenty minutes or more to realize we aren’t there any more once we move. Their own fear will be our weapon.”

“You’ve got this planned out?”

“To an extent. I was thinking of several options as we put the truck off road back there. This one made the most sense.”

As I waited in nervous anticipation, the enemy did not slow down at the point we had been stopped at on the road, either, but further down by about a hundred yards.

“We can hide here until they double back and realize they went too far. It will be easy for them to see the tracks and flattened grass leading off road.” Matt observed.

“Go on up back to the road and go off on the other side. They will have to pick one or the other and we will at least have a fifty-fifty chance.” I suggested.

“No good. Time is on their side. They will simply search both.”

“What, then?” I was getting frustrated.

“We use the truck as bait.” Matt said. We abandon the truck, in the dark. They will likely approach with caution. When they do, we pick them off, one by one.” Matt said.

“Now I see how you could do this for a profession.” I answered.

I reflected on that statement, and all of the levels it meant, while we got a basic load of supplies together. It was not long before we were a good sixty yards away in a perch next to a tree for some concealment. Matt put together his rifle with the silencer and busied himself with putting his night vision attachment onto his optic. His quick-detach mounts were of a type that allows for interchangeability without losing the zero Matt had established earlier.

Time passed. It seemed much slower than it really was. Matt was motionless the entire time. I tried to be and was successful, for the most part. My ACOG optic was actually picking up things in the area of the truck pretty well as the moon was out, illuminating our view. I was thankful for the higher quality optic I had now. Had we been in a time and place where money was the main thing, I might not have chosen this particular model due to cost. Now that quality and usefulness was everything, it made a lot of sense.

After much time had passed, the patrol came back into view. They were working their way slowly down the road, back toward their base camp we had seen. Unfortunately, this took them right by our position, as well. I was certain they would see the tracks and flattened grass we had caused when we pulled off the road.

“If they spot us, Kyle, we are going to run the plan we talked about earlier.”

“Take out a few and then go silent when they run for cover?” I asked.

“Yep. Should work. We will move over to that tree bunch,” Matt said, pointing to another outcropping to our right about 150 yards. “Keep low – below the grass line if we have to move. If by chance they cut that off, we run straight back, away from the road, to the tree-line back there,” Matt pointed to the tree-line behind us.

“Looks like a creek line to me,” I observed.

“Me too. Only reason we aren’t going there first is I would like to take them all out, not run away. But we will retreat if we must.”

I understood his game plan. It was as solid as if we had three weeks to plan it, given the circumstances. I realized again why he excelled in his chosen profession. I was almost awed by the man. I began at this point not to judge him for his past actions, but question him as to why. Of course, I kept the question to myself, not quite sure that I wanted to agitate a former hit-man.

I watched the patrol inch closer and closer to us. They would surely find the path. I started getting more and more nervous, as I had before. My heart thudded in my ears. I got tunnel vision.

Matt’s hand on my arm steadied me again. “Stay calm.” He reminded me, quietly.

I wondered to myself how he knew I was nervous.

“You keep breathing really hard. I can hear it,” Matt said, as though he were reading my mind.

The lead enemy vehicle went past the spot where we went off road. My heart leapt for joy. They must have missed it, I thought! We would be able to turn around and head back out, no more fighting. No more risk of getting ourselves killed.

Then they stopped and men got out of the truck, pointing back to the tracks.

I sank into my makeshift seat of foliage and shrub. I knew what this meant. Although I felt somewhat safe with Matt around me, it was still entirely possible that we were going to get killed. That would be no fun.

“Don’t fire unless I tell you to. My rifle is silenced and they will not be able to hear it. It will confuse them for a moment why their amigos are dropping left and right. That will give me a chance to shoot more of them in a shorter time.” Matt instructed.

“When will I fire?”

“When I tell you to. Ideally, you won’t fire at all and I will shoot all nine of them. If you have to fire, it means we will be retreating soon after, unless you and I happen to cut them all down at that point – but I doubt that would happen after they hear your rifle.”

The enemy men cautiously followed the tracks until the truck came into their view. At that point, they dropped to the ground and moved in very cautiously.

“I’m going to fire on them as they get really near the truck. They will naturally assume we are in it or nearer to it than we are,” Matt said. “Keep watching our back. Make sure no undead find us.”

I had totally forgotten about the zombies. The foreign invaders had so occupied my thoughts that I had found myself completely distracted. Staying below the line of sight of our enemy, I threat-scanned 360 degrees. No Z’s for as far as I could see without giving our position away.

Matt was zeroed in on one enemy soldier, I could tell by the fact that his rifle moved to follow, very slowly and under control. Suddenly, a snap rang out. It sounded like a .22 LR round.

One enemy soldier dropped. The others did not hear or see him as he was at the back of the party.

Another snap.

Another man down, and they still did not know. But his falling must have alerted someone, because two of the men turned around to their fallen comrade. Matt made the eye-poking motion with two fingers to tell me to scan again. I scanned and no threats were behind us or flanking us.

Matt Snapped two rounds off in fairly quick succession. The two men who had dropped back to help the fallen men went down. I scanned ahead and the three men at the front had no idea. They were still creeping up on our truck from behind the truck. One man was in each of the two vehicles behind the wheel.

Getaway drivers.

“Matt, take out the drivers while the others are still stalking us!” I whispered.

He seemed to just get it at that point, and quickly took aim. The first snap rang out and I could swear the three men approaching our truck would hear it. But they didn’t. Or seemed to not know what it was, at least.

The driver of the rear vehicle was down. Matt switched target to the driver in the front-most vehicle. One snap and he was capped. I was still amazed at how quiet the silencer made the rifle, yet how it was so much louder than I had seen on TV and in the movies.

Matt switched targets again and took aim on one of the three men left. They were almost at thee truck. A snap and the one in the front went down in a heap. The man to the left, from our perspective, knelt to see what was wrong with his friend, and Matt snapped him down, too.

The third man turned and ran. He finally had realized what was going on. He was yelling, presumably to one of the drivers for him to get the vehicles ready to leave. When he rounded the brush and saw the drivers down, he turned to rundown the road…

… And dropped where he stood as I heard the snap of the report of Matt’s rifle.

“Let’s go make sure each shot was true.” Matt said without emotion.

At that point I realized he had just killed nine men in a little over three minutes.

But it had been in combat. And even I had killed in combat. So this was no different. I wondered to myself if it would be appropriate to ask him how many he had killed so far. After a moment, I decided against it.

“Now what?” I asked blandly.

“We circle around the others and get back to your place.” Matt said as we approached the dead men.

We checked, and all had been killed. There were no wounded. Matt had a unique way to check this on fallen men. A swift kick to the groin area on each man confirmed they were dead.

“A kick anywhere else and a tough man can still take it with little or no sound or movement. I’ve seen it. Hit a guy in the nuggets and he will react.” Matt said after ‘checking’ the first man. He must have seen the puzzled look on my face.

We soon were back on the road.

Fixed my itch! Thanks

pretty good chapter, I even forgot about the zombies then...

Me too, great job drawing the reader in!





 

Uuummmm...I think its time for some moar!!!!!

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! U..P..D..A..T..E...UPDAAAATTTEEE!!!

Now that i've got all the gayness out of my system, it's time for an update!!  PLEASE!

Yeah...what he said

Did Usagi get attacked by zombies?

Nope - haven't been attacked by zombies. Been attacked by business.

I'll try to have a post up by next weekend. I'm deciding whether to wind this story down now or to put in another whole unit (10 or so chapters) to end things.

Feedback on preferences? The ending will be the same, what would be different would be build up, and some minor details.

Keep it running

whole unit, please...

whole unit!

Chapter 30

The path was long to get around the group of the invaders we had seen. Fortunately, we had mostly rural areas to travel through during the first part of the rest of the trip home. This was quickly turning into the longest 6-hour drive I’d ever been a part of.

Then Matt let the cat out of the bag.

“We are going to have to cut through the city.”

“You sure? Why can’t we just go around?” I responded.

“We could, but at our current pace it will add another four hours to the trip.”

I thought for a moment. Four more hours would get really long. Especially if there were any more ‘hold – ups’ waiting for us out there. Besides, how bad could the city really be?

“OK. Do it.” I said.

“I will need you to be at the ready. I anticipate more of the zombies.” Matt said.

I readied my carbine and adjusted the magazine pouch across my body. Matt took the nonverbal clue and set himself, too. We headed into our next adventure. I’d known this man less than a day, and it was one adventure after another with him. If I survived the next few hours, I promised myself I would rethink hanging out with him much!

The first few turns were navigable, but there were increasing numbers if the undead here.

The drive was agonizing. I had to lean out the window a few times to shoot zombies. Sometimes it took minutes to clear a road of them so we could pass. Those minutes would seem like hours. The interstates were bad, but the secondary roads were better. We made it through in a reasonable amount of time.

We had just passed the last outcroppings of the city and were back on the interstate in the suburban, then out into the rural areas when the bomb hit. I did not know it at the time. I would learn of it later. We must have been at just a safe enough distance to keep from being instantly killed, because suddenly all I knew was blackness.

Then dreams.

I knew I needed to wake so I could defend myself from zombies. For some reason, I could not wake up. I knew at some point I had been out way too long – longer than I normally even sleep. I was vaguely aware that daylight had come again and night again, too. And the cycle repeated itself a few more times.

Finally, on what I would later figure to be the fourth day, I awoke. It took some time to come to my senses. Possibly even an hour, or more. I looked and Matt was unconscious, next to me in the truck. The truck was at a slight angle in a tree, such that gravity was pulling me gently to Matt’s side of the truck, but my seat belt restraint had kept me in place.

My neck and body were sore. Really sore. Much more than they should have been for me sleeping a couple of days, if it had even really been that long.

Matt was stirring on his side. I figured I’d let him come out of it on his own as I struggled to reclaim my senses. I looked around, assessing the area. It took a while, but I finally realized there were no zombies anywhere. It was morning. The windows of the truck were blown out. There were no noises – not even birds singing in the trees.

I slowly worked feeling and blood back into my arms and legs. Before long, I was ready to hop out of the truck. At this point, Matt was mumbling to himself, but not quite cognizant, yet. I was happy to see my rifle still sling tight to me. I checked it over quickly for signs of damage, and there were none. I made sure it was loaded and safed, and I climbed out of the truck, needing to hop the last little bit as my side of the vehicle was about three feet in the air. The truck had slammed into a tree and the front had become lodged in a gnarl in the trunk of the tree about five feet off the ground.

I walked slowly, rebuilding my steadiness. I scanned about. It was deathly quiet. I heard nothing – no birds, no animals, no zombie moans. You could always hear the zombies moaning. That’s why they could never sneak up on me. But there were no moans now.

I realized the tracks the truck had left when we were slammed off the road were funny. One set of tracks took us off the road. Then there was a second set that led up to the tree. I immediately figured we had been hit by two blasts. Or maybe the second was an aftershock to the initial blast from the bomb? I was sure there had been a bomb because I could faintly remember the blast sound and getting yanked around inside the cab of the truck.

I looked back at the city and saw nothing. It was completely wiped out, as though it never existed. Trees and everything out here was blown in the same direction the truck had been, as though a tidal wave of air had rushed past.

Using my ACOG, I scanned the surrounding areas for signs of life. We were it, from the looks of it. More scanning, to make sure I was not missing anything. I still saw nothing. So I sat.

My clothes were torn to shreds. I had some dried blood here and there.  I examined myself to make sure nothing was hurt too bad. I found nothing more than superficial scratches. There were some bumps and bruises, but those would heal.

When I had scanned around, I’d seen a farm house off in the distance, perhaps a mile away. I looked more in that direction, trying to see signs of life of any sort. Or even signs of the undead. Nothing.

“Hey there!” Matt’s voice scared me to death!

After a start, I regained some semblance of control, “Hey back. You hurt?”

“No, you?”

“Nope.”

“How long have I been out?”

“About five minutes longer than I have been. I don’t really know how long we were out.” I said.

“My watch says it has been three days.” Matt said with a puzzled look on his face. “That must be why I feel like crap!”

At that moment, I realized I did not feel good at all, either. I got up and walked over to a tree to let nature take its course. Man, I felt horrible. Matt was soon to relieve himself, too.

I went to the truck and got some packages of granola bars and some water. Oh, the water was so good! Matt followed suit. As we ate, he started rummaging through his medical packs, looking for some painkillers. We popped them as soon as he found some.

“I wonder if the truck still runs?” Matt asked. I shrugged as we did the obvious and walked around to the front to try it.

Nothing.

“Figures.” He said.

“Maybe there’s a working car at that farm-house.” I said, pointing.

“Well, we gotta try.”

It took us a solid half-hour to walk there. We loaded light, just weapons and a little water. Matt stopped about three hundred yards out and took cover. I realized then that he had walked up on the house without concealing himself (or me) and neither of us had realized it until this point. Maybe he wasn’t perfect, either.

Matt peered at the house for a solid half hour before we moved again. He said it looked clear, but he wanted to take no chances. We approached and Matt slung his long barreled rifle and drew his pistol. I looked for a moment – Smith & Wesson M&P model. He clicked the safety off.

I kept my rifle up. I had a carbine and it was much better suited to this sort of work than long range fights. We cleared room after room, alternating clearing and backup duties. As we made our way around the house, we heard some strange noises in what I guessed was the garage area.

Slowly, we moved toward the sound. It was indistinct. I could not tell if it was some zombies, or some foreign people speaking in hushed tones. Either way, I was not excited about being in the same house.

Finally we found the source - it was the garage. The door was shut. This was not good. In order to check the area, we would have to reveal ourselves first. Matt signaled for me to stay back. I obliged.

He opened the door and backed away instantly in one motion, keeping his pistol aimed through the doorway. I kept my muzzle at the threat as well. We both realized immediately that our threat was undead in nature.

But there was something wrong.

The zombies were not moving around aimlessly, or even toward us as they normally would have been doing. They were just laying on the ground, moving ever so slightly. And they were not moaning. They were trying to, but the moans had no strength to them. They looked almost pitiful.

They were still deadly and we dealt with them appropriately. A few pistol rounds did the job very well.

We scoured the house. There was a car outside and we found the keys inside on the floor among the mess. These folks must have been rummaging in the house for a great deal of time. Of course, we both wondered, aloud and silently, why they had behaved as they had.

The vehicle was a regular sedan. Nothing fancy. We cleaned out all of the daily odds and ends they had in the vehicle and quickly made it back to the truck. We made short work of transferring everything over, though some of it had to be packed cleverly. I realized Matt had actually packed several rifles of varying makes. What he had been carrying had actually been an AR10 in the .308 caliber instead of the 6.8 mm AR15 I had suspected. Or, maybe he had changed rifles.

We went back to the farm house for the evening. It offered shelter and we would rather have some more time to sleep as both of us felt awful. We took up residence in the upstairs portion, each of us taking a different room to have something of a tactical advantage, should one be needed.

The evening and the morning came all too quickly. I was still zapped of strength, despite getting over ten hours sleep and eating fairly well the night before. Matt commented he felt about the same. After about an hour of rummaging through the house one final time, we prepared to go.

I put on a clean change of clothes, opting for the old-fashioned BDU’s in the olive drab green. With the AR, I figured I looked something like the Vietnam-era soldiers. Matt was wearing a tree pattern camouflage that was something out of a hunter’s closet. Made sense to me.

We silently packed our things and loaded them in the car. I left the old clothes behind as they were torn beyond repair and blood-stained. Matt did likewise. We took what canned food we could from the house, and a few other odds and ends that might be useful and we ventured out in the car.  

We spoke some during the remainder of the trip. Often of why the zombies were in the condition we found them. We speculated they may have been injured – but we saw no external injuries. We speculated they might be sick – but zombies never got sick, at least that we had seen. We speculated many things, with no real idea what the answer was. We did agree, however, that we should keep an eye open to that in the future.

Matt also started, at my request, teaching me things I wanted to know about how to shoot better. We drove slowly, keeping an eye open for enemy troops, or zombies. That gave me a chance to practice some rested shooting out the window. I mostly practiced with dry-fire, but occasionally with a live round as we came to a stopping point.

We were still keeping to round-about country roads, not wanting to have direct engagement with enemy troops. We were on the road about five hours.

What we saw when we got back to Paul’s farm soured my stomach…

Thanks for the new chapter



Ron

uh oh, not liking where this is going

 

i hate it when you do that!

actually i love it, keep it coming when you can!

speculation: Nuke??

YOUR BACK YOUR BACK YOUR BACK!

Keep up the good work.  I love the update and can't wait to read more.

Thats enough of a break, get your ass to typing


Another great chapter

Ask and you shall receive.

I have actually had the next chapter ready for several days, just was waiting for somebody to ask!

Chapter 31

I saw Paul first. He’d been shot repeatedly. All of them had been. There were bodies everywhere. I was overcome with emotion. Matt was, however, as calm as usual. He began investigating while I searched for my wife and children.

I ran inside and looked all about. Nothing. I could not find the children. Kara was not to be seen. I searched the secret areas of the house in the attic and in the basement as well. Tears in my eyes kept me form seeing things clearly, so I had to search and blink and blink and blink. It was annoying. I kept my rifle ahead of me and sliced down the segment as I rounded each doorway, unsure of whether any more enemies were around.

The carnage outside was the worrisome part. I feared I would find my wife Kara there chopped to bits. But if that were the case, then where were the kids? I finished searching the house and moved to the outside. Matt was casing the entire property inside the stone fence, leaving no area untouched. He seemed unaffected by the death all around.

Strangely, I thought absently, there were no zombies around. There were ashes in piles outside the stone wall, but none inside and all the dead looked like real dead, not dispatched undead.

I recognized some of our immigrant friends there, who had lost their lives. Apparently, they had been fighting alongside Paul and the others. I offered a silent prayer for them. Matt was scrutinizing everything. I was too busy mourning my dead friends and family.

One by one I found the bodies of Cort, Bill, and Steve. Maggie was not to be found, and I never saw even a trace of Kara, Anna, or Austin.

“I think I’ve figured out what happened.” Matt said.

I realized I’d been startled by his voice and had not been paying attention to him. That meant I hadn’t been paying attention at all.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Tactics tell you how things happened. This was no wandering gang, which was my fist suspicion.” Matt said.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Several things. First, all of the enemy weapons were AK’s, or similar. All the shell casings I found were 7.62x39. Second was tactics. They fought from the front and then flanked your family. All of the kills came from the side – over here from the West side. Third was manpower, there were over a hundred men against the folks here. Roving gangs are not that large or well organized.”

“And they don’t all use the same sort of weapons.”

“Right,” Matt stated. “That was the deal breaker for me. Had it been a gang, they could have made it look like there were a hundred of them. They could have flanked, but that would have been unlikely. But they would not all be using the same weapons. That is too many coincidences.”

“What else do you know?” I asked.

“I want to go look for tracks and other evidence, but it will take me outside the stone wall and I would prefer not to have you tag along in your current state. No offense, just saying the truth.”

“None taken,” I said, and I meant it. I was in no condition to look around and be responsible for watching Matt’s 6.

“I am going to go look around. I’ll be back in a little while. I have my radio with me to call you in case. Will you be OK?”

“Yeah. I’m going to go ‘next door.’ It’s where the immigrants lived. I want to see if there are any of them left. Or anybody else there. It is that way,” I pointed the direction. “About a quarter mile or so. I’ll radio if I need help.”

“OK. It’s a plan. Watch your back, Kyle.”

“You too.”

I walked off to the car and grabbed several more magazines and some other supplies. I kept light, just in case. I made sure the flashlight on my AR was good to go, as I had used a hand-held one in the house, with my pistol.

The walk up over the hill and down into the little valley where the immigrants’ house was nestled seemed to take forever. In all actuality, it took fifteen minutes or so. So many thoughts raced through my head.

I wondered if I would find my sweet Kara, and Austin, and little Anna.

I wondered if I would find some of the immigrants left. If so, it would probably be just the women.

I wondered if I would find the enemy at the house. If so, I wondered if I would fight them or not. I settled on the idea of calling Matt for support, then attacking.

I wondered if I would find Zombies there. I did not see one single zombie on the whole way down to the house.

As I approached, my mind slowed down on the wondering business. I thought about what I’d learned from Matt. I approached with caution and actually walked around, just behind the tree line to a point where I would have the advantage of elevation. I took a concealed position, though it certainly was not cover, and used my four-power ACOG to look at the property and gauge any activity in the area.

From my angle, I could see some movement out of somebody in front of the house. The people were down on the ground, thrashing about slowly. Then I realized they were zombies. They were also in the same condition as the ones from the old farm house.

I could also see people in the house. I knew they were not zombies as they scurried about at a quick pace. Every time some Z would moan out in apparent pain, the people in the house would scurry to the far side.

That was what I needed to know. I moved back farther behind the tree line to keep my movement more concealed and moved around to another side. This side of the house did not have quite the elevation advantage, but from this angle I could see all of what I could not have seen from the previous position.

I checked my time and it had been an hour since Matt and I had parted ways. I scanned the area some more, this time taking particular care to scout out the areas away from the house to see if there were any other snipers out here like me or any sentries from the house. Neither were visible.

After making sure I had a good grasp on the house and the area as a whole, I worked up my courage and made way toward the house. I used the structure itself to shield me from the Z’s, so that they would be less likely to hear or see me. As I neared, an idea popped into my head.

I worked my way up to a window on the far side of the house from the Z’s and waited. Sure enough, after some time, the undead heard the movement inside the house and that sound roused them up. They started moaning. I peeked around the corner and saw that they were still on the ground, incapacitated. Their thrashing increased when they heard the goings-on inside the house.

I went back around to the window and watched the immigrant women pile into that room. I quietly tapped on the window, startling some of them. I motioned them over and one brave older woman came forward and opened the window just a bit.

“I am no monster. I come from Paul’s house over the hill.” I said.

The woman stared blankly at me, and I realized she probably spoke no English. This was frustrating.

Then another young woman, perhaps twenty years of age, came over very sheepishly. “I speak English,” she said. She had no noticeable accent and her voice was very soft and feminine.

“I am going to the front to kill the monsters,” I said. I just didn’t want to scare you all and have you try to shoot me.”

She nodded then turned to the others and spoke in their language to them. There was nodding all around, and some actually hunkered down, covering their ears.

“After I shoot them, I will knock on the door to ask you to let me in.” I said.

“Knock three times, then wait, then knock twice more. This way, I will know it’s you.” The young woman said.

I acknowledged, and went right to work. Carefully rounding the corner, I realized these Z’s could not stand. These rotting undead were not even worth the rifle bullet. I slung mu rifle and unholstered my pistol while threat-scanning all about.

No threats other than the incapacitated ones in front of me.

I blankly wondered why they were all becoming ill or whatever it was. I pulled my trigger thrice and three monsters were sent to their doom.

With a secret knock as we had established, I was soon let inside the house.

“We have one downstairs, too. Will you dispatch it?” The young woman asked.

They pointed towards a closed door and started screeching and yelling in their native tongue. I did not understand the words, but I knew the meaning.

I opened the door slowly, pistol in hand, and stepped back. I was just sure some undead creep was going to spring out and claw at me. But it never came. I heard some moaning, but it was coming from the bottom of the staircase. I went in, portable flashlight drawn and crossed under my right wrist, which was holding my pistol.

I pie’d off each corner carefully and came across the monster. It, too was in a near fetal-position on its side on the floor. I scanned all around as this one was not going to give me much trouble, but another one might. There were no others to be found.

The concrete floor under the Z worried me a bit. I was concerned that a bullet might ricochet off the ground and go back up into and possibly through the floor and strike one of the women upstairs.

So I looked around. In a corner, I saw some gardening equipment, complete with a nice large heavy-duty hoe. It would suffice. I picked up the tool and drove the pointed side into the skull of the monster on the floor, which had nearly stopped moving altogether. After my blow hit home, the creature stirred no more. I dropped the heavy tool and went back upstairs to a mob of thankful ladies. For a moment, I was their hero.

I spoke with the young lady, and found out several things. Her name was Ming. There was a window in the basement that I needed to use to get the Z out of there. And I learned that in their custom, these women wanted to shower me with gifts.

They were aware that their men were not coming home. They’d heard the fighting and had stayed hidden in the house. Fortunately, the enemy had never come. I also learned these women were not from China, as I had suspected, but from Korea. I never asked if it was North Korea or South Korea.

They informed me that after the blasts, the zombies thinned out significantly. As they would die, they would eventually burst into flames and the fire would consume the body. A really nifty fact. A fact that meant I needed to get the one out of the basement fast, and get the three from the front away form the house, pronto.

SO I set to work and eventually put all four dead Z’s in one pile. The ladies brought out a room-temperature soda for me and each of them had a beverage of their choice and we watched as the first spark of the first zombie lit all four corpses.

It took a few minutes, but the fire consumed them all. The women cheered as the fire went out at the end. I can imagine the joy they felt as their former captors were burned to a crisp.

WHERE ARE THE OTHERS!!

excellent update!!

ETA: got it!  now where is his wife! we must know soon!

damn, i liked paul, nice twist!

All of the others Kyle saw were dead, except Kyle did not see Kara, his kids, and Maggie.

Nice work so far.



Ron

Uh....did this story end abruptly and horribly?
What happens next?

Just a bump to keep it in Usagi's mind that there are people out here that need a fix.

Thanks for that, cuz I found it yesterday, now I am caught up and need a fix!

Usagi, I have ignored my responsibilities to read your story, I expect you to do the same to get more posted.  Seriously, your writing is great and we're anxiously awaiting an addition.

CHAPTER 32

Grief filled my heart as I walked back to the farm. I had no more clue now where Kara was than when I set out. The walk back was long. The oriental women had been nice to me and fed me. But I still felt terrible. I was eating myself up from the inside out.

My focus stayed in reality, though, and I kept my guard up. More than once, I thought I saw something off in the distance in the wooded areas, but each time as I settled down to watch some more, it turned out to be nothing. So on I pressed.

The hike back took even longer, and the daylight was starting to wane a bit. Matt had not tried to reach me on the two-way radio, so he must have been OK. I’d never heard gunfire other than my own.

When I reached the house, I was in for a start. When I walked in, Matt was there with Maggie. She had been crying. Then I realized something, these two had not known each other.

“Hey, Maggie,” I said.

“Hi there.” She managed through stifled sobs. “Where have you been?”

“I went ‘next door’ and thought anybody left would have been there. But it wasn’t the case.” I said.

“No… they’re all… gone.” She sniffled.

“Gone? Where?”

“The Red Army took them.”

“When? Where to?”

“I don’t know where. But is just happened right after you left.”

“Maggie has been hiding in the woods around here,” Matt said. He had stepped in as Maggie had begun crying more uncontrollably. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but your wife and children were taken hostage. Maggie says there were about fifty of them left after the firefight. Maggie played dead and then crept away when she got the chance to go hide. The baby, Anna, was crying, and that’s how they found Kara and Austin.”

My heart sank.

Matt’s expression was solemn and for the first time, he had an air of emotion to him – sadness.

“I’ll go get them.” I said.

Matt stopped me. “Not now. But yes, WE will! Now you need your strength, and you need your wits about you.”

“Yeah, wits. Speaking of which, how did you two meet?”

“Huh?” Matt said.

“I mean, Maggie, you were hiding. Why would you introduce yourself to Matt?” I asked.

“He was with you. I saw you two go in different directions. I waited until Matt was closer to let him see me because I didn’t know if any more soldiers were waiting around out here.” She replied.

“Good thinking, really,” Matt said. “If I were a commander, I would do that.”

“But you aren’t and they thought they had won outright.” I said.

“True. And maybe that is the nature of their weakness here. They thought they won. Their guard is likely down. We will use that to our advantage,” Matt responded, “tomorrow.”

As he finished, we both heard something coming out of the wooded area. The windows were open because there was no electricity for the air-conditioning, and so the sound came from the window.

We both jumped up and prepped our rifles, which involved taking them off safe.

“Go out the back door, silently,” Matt said in a hushed voice. “I’ll go out the front and that will give us a bit of a tactical advantage.”

We did just that. I crept out the back door, keeping my rifle at the ready, and crouching close to the ground. Maggie had stayed inside and armed herself, too. I rounded the corner of the house, keeping behind the shrubbery and staying close to silent.

I saw a man, about Paul’s age – or at least about the age Paul would be were he still alive – carrying an old M1A and several magazines. He had an old GI style equipment pack on, complete with canteen, knife, and what appeared to be a 1911 on his hip. The rifle was slung over his shoulder. He did not have a posture that indicated he was a threat.

“Hello there!” Matt called out from wherever he had taken cover.

The man looked all about. He did not see me, and from his reaction, he did not see Matt, either. “Hello the house,” he called.

“Whacha doing in these parts, friend?” Matt called.

The man seemed to get a better bead on Matt’s general location, as he faced toward the front of the house, but I could tell he still could not pinpoint Matt’s location.

“Lookin’ for the man who has been doing all the shootin’ around here.”

“By looking on other folks’ property?” Matt called.

“Hey, even you’ve gotta have noticed – there ain’t many folk left these days. I figured I’d just apologize if I went where I wasn’t welcome. So do accept my ‘pology.” The man said.

“Fair enough.” Matt called. “Whereabouts have you been that folks have been shootin’?”

The man still did not know where Matt was. I didn’t, either.

“Over at the asian folks’ farm. Just around the ridge and down in the valley.”

I realized then and there he meant me. I had been the one shooting down there. He must have been close enough to hear. But I never saw him! That bothered me on several levels.

“That your property, sir?” Matt called out.

“Nope.”

“Then maybe it’s best if you mind your own business.” Matt called back.

To his credit the man had neither unslung his rifle nor drawn his pistol. He kept a somewhat passive posture with his hands exposed in a non-threatening manner.

“Fair ‘nuff. I just wanted to pass on a little warnin’ to whoever’s been shootin’. Them thangs ain’s smart, but they know where sound comes from. If you’re gonna shoot ‘em, do it with a .22 so you don’t draw the others in with ‘em.” The old-timer said.

I had to admit, he did have a good point. “Mister, you live around here?” I called out.

The man jumped a bit, but never took a defensive posture. He remained neutral and passive. He looked around, and in my general direction, but never straight at me.

“I do. I live over the ridge, to the South of the asian folks, if you know where they are.”

“I do. I was the fella that was doin’ the shootin’.” I said. “And yep, there’s more than one of us out here.”

That was a mistake – he targeted me, or at least the general shrubbery, with his eyes, and turned a bit to face my direction. Still, he kept his hands where they could be seen, and did not make a move toward his weaponry.

“Then I’ve come to ask you, mister. I don’t care iffin you do shoot them monsters, just do it with a .22 so they won’t all come this way. Bein’ all alone, it’s hard for me to fight back. That’s all I’m askin’.” He said.

“What’s your name?” Matt called, and the man looked in his direction again, but was still unable to pinpoint his location.

“I’m Jeb. I mean you folk no harm. We people gots to stick together now.”

“I agree. But not everybody does these days,” I said as I walked out of the bushes toward him. “I’m Kyle.”

We shook hands. I kept my angle toward the back of the house so I would not be in the way of a shot by Matt, should there be a need. I really did not think at this point there would be a need.

“Jeb. Nice to meet ya!” He said with a smile. “I don’t blame you for bein’ too careful. Looks like you’ve seen some folks don’t want to be friendly,” Jeb said, motioning to the dead people all about.

“That’s what happened while I was away. Apparently, the Red Army came here and killed my nearest of kin, except for my wife and children – they got taken captive.” I said.

“I’m sorry to hear that. You need a hand gettin’ ‘em back?” Jeb asked.

“I could never ask you to do that.” Was the reply my lips made. My intellect, however, and my heart leapt at the opportunity.

“Son, them bastards sent this damn disease to wipe out ‘Mericans, then wage war on the rest of us. I’ve fought for this country ever since “Nam. I ain’t about to roll over and let these suns-uv-bitches come in here and take her from us!”

Jeb’s enthusiasm was unmistakable. His sincerity was not to be questioned.

“Come on inside, tell us your story and we’ll tell you ours. Tomorrow, I’m going to get my wife back. You are welcome to come along.” I said.

Matt stood from his hiding place on the roof. He had been angled, behind the chimney and was nearly invisible there. Also, the height made his voice more difficult to track. I just wondered how he got up there so quick!

We all three went inside. Maggie had overheard it all. I helped her fix a meal with the supplied we had and in the mean time, and through dinner, and a little into the evening, Jeb told his story.

Wow, I just read this whole story to realize that today was the update!
nice story, but my eyes hurt! This is the most I have ever read off of a laptop in one sitting

Great addition, I can't wait for more!

I am ready for more

All i can say is WOW insane story