Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Where to today Captain.” Zane asked, wiping a stupid grin off his face.
“I take it you had a good night then,” It wasn't a question. Zane and I were close enough that I knew when he had gotten laid. He had the decency to look abashed.
Yeah well...” he trailed off as Richie, Garret, and Ronnie came strolling up. The latter two holding hands and whispering. The former looking green from a hangover.
“Listen up guys, we have a newbie that is asking to join a team, we will be going out with him, to assess his ability, I need everybody,” I paused looking straight at Richie, “To be on their game today. And I want no repeats of yesterday with the disobeying of orders.” Again I looked straight at Richie.
“Aw, c'mon Silly, I said I was sorry.”
“Sorry don't cut it Richie, one more time and you are grounded.”
“That's a fly boy term.”
“The meaning is the same Garret. Now lets go find our new recruit, I already have his quarters and you know how I roll.”
“My team minus the medics all grinned, they most certainly knew how I rolled. I had left JD on the wall only four hours earlier, so lets see how he handled me being me.




With my air horn right in his face I let off a small burst and JD was up with knife in hand before his eyes even adjusted to the light shining in his eyes. “Heard you were looking for me probie, time to get to work. You have sixty seconds to be outside and ready to go.” I stomped and looked into the faces of my smiling team.
Counting down I had just hit ten seconds, when JD came strolling out, fully dressed and ready to go. First time for everything, even I was hard pressed to get moving that fast.
“Nice to meet you Silly,” he said smiling as he held out his hand for a shake.
I looked him up and down, turned on my heel and walked away.
We went straight to the Hum-V which Richie had already pulled around and was waiting for us at the gate. The guard on duty had a feral look in his eyes when he noticed the new guy, and I gave him a small grin before we loaded up.
As we drove through the gate JD spoke up again, “Whats the mission then?”
“Recon,” was all Zane said.
“Actually Zane I am thinking shopping,” I replied.
“With a new guy and no medic, Silly you are nuts.”
“Well we will keep it simple, I have a few isolated places where the zombie count is sure to be low or nonexistent.”
“You're the boss,” was the only reply I got as Garret, and Ronnie started to gear up. I leaned over the seat and tossed the extra gear I had packed for JD at him. I handed the map to Richie, with my preferred destinations circles and popped a tape into the tape deck.
JD was about to open his mouth when 'Dirty Deeds' by AC/DC came over the speakers. To keep him from asking questions I turned the volume up slightly. Richie made the proper turn and off we went down an old highway towards our destination, it was only a fifteen minute drive before we stopped about two hundred yards away from the gas station.
“Alright guys here is the drill, you know what to do, I am point, I want our probie here to back me. Zane you stick with Garret and Ronnie, I will give the all clear.”
“Captain, I don't like it, you should take me or Zane with you. We have no idea what this guy is capable of.” Garret piped in.
“Richie, I don't have to remind you to stay in the truck do I?” I asked the driver, pointedly ignoring Garret's suggestion. “Move, and maintain silence. Hand signals until I give the all clear.” I said, as I opened the back door and grabbed two AK47s, one for me one for JD. Handing it over, he immediately checked ammo and safety. Good on him so far. He slammed his helmet on his head, buckled it on, and looked to me for the go.
I nodded once and we moved out, him flanking my left. We moved, fast and silently, running in a low crouch, looking for anything to blow up.
We got to the gas pumps, and I stopped our progress, motioning for the others to move up to our position. I motioned to JD to move up as point, and followed on his heel off to his left. I needed to know what he could do, and so far I was pretty impressed. Coming on a mission with no warning and no intel on the situation he was handling himself pretty well. Better then any of my team had. I had scouted this place repeatedly before with the team, and figured it was pretty safe, but for such a small job I left it untouched for recruit training. I had a few such places, knowing that people died on missions. Garret and Ronnie were my newest I had added, and I had the suspicion that Ronnie was preggers, which meant I needed to replace her. As we moved up to the door, JD paused looked to me, and I gave a small nod. We moved in fast him to the right, me to the left, and scanned the room. The shelves of the small store were relatively untouched, and nothing moved. We each peeled off in opposite directions and met at the end of the walk in cooler that had not had electricity for some nine months or so. I couldn’t be certain of the time line, however, the electricity lasted longer then the humans. The walk in cooler would reek like rotten food, and be dark. Not the best situation for a rookie, but it needed to be done.
“All clear,” I remarked into the mic the helmets had, “Except the cooler, I want back up for it. Garret, Ronnie, stay outside and watch our back. Zane get in here.”
JD and I waited a few moments for Zane to arrive, while we waited I tossed a army issue duffel bag at JD, and motioned for him to start cleaning off the shelves. I stayed alert and did not turn my back on the cooler doors.
After Zane arrived, JD abandoned the shopping to help us clear the cooler. “Bottled water is the priority, and maybe an energy drink or two, after the cooler and groceries, I want any booze this place has, and maybe a few cartons of cigarettes.”
JD and Zane both smiled at the mention of the last two items, and I returned the grin. I nodded my head, and we all three barged through the closed cooler door. The boys moved ahead of me, and I stopped to prop the door open. Always leave an escape route, after yesterday I added that to the rule list.
The cooler was clear, and Zane JD, and I got to work. We were in and out, cleaning out the store in record time. We were on our way back to the compound when we came upon some bad news. Same road one hour later, we see wrecked cars stacked up on the road.
“This is not good,” I comment, while Richie slowed down to go with caution. We were going through a canyon, and the road was completely blocked.
“Prime location for an ambush,” JD dryly replied.
“Mother fucker, mother fucker, mother fucker...” Richie was chanting under his breath, trying to scout through the wreckage. I am pretty sure he had just decided that ramming into it was going to do the trick, when a figure popped out on top of the pile. And it was not an ally.
“Fuck!” Was said in unison as all six of us, saw the figure at the same time, Richie slammed on the brakes, and flipped it into reverse and peeled out on dilapidated pavement. Flipping a bitch, and slamming it back into first gear, we raced back down the road, towards the gas station.
“What the fuck...” Richie yelled slamming on the brakes again. In front of us there were at least fifty zombies, and yes we would mow them down if need be.
“Gun it.” I commanded, rolling down the window and pointing my assault rifle out the window. I opened fire in a wide spray, to thin the zombie crowds a little. When Richie hit the first zombie, it grabbed onto the side mirror and hung on. Richie hit as many of the fuckers as he could, and I drew my pistol, to get rid of our unwanted passenger. Once through the bulk of the dead bastards, I commented, “We are fucked, gimmie that map. We are so not going to Albuquerque. “Zane switch seats with me,” I crawled over the middle section, and sat down as Zane crawled over me. Garret and Ronnie were in the very back with the back door window rolled down, guns on the ready to kill anything out there. JD and I folded the entire map open to take a look at our exact location.
“Silly we are so screwed, look at this gorge we will be driving along, we have to get off this route.”
“Don't I know it, I pointed to a place on the map just ahead, JD gave a nod, and I told Richie, “Right turn now!” Richie, banked right and up a small hill we went, over the top, and back down, Zombies down below, but not many.
“We need to save ammo, Richie avoid but do not deviate, mow them down if you need to. Stay on this old ranch road.” I looked to JD, he nodded but said nothing. I looked back at the map and traced over the path we had decided upon. Its the end of the world as we know.. Stupid song again. Humming the line over and over, had Zane smiling, Garret holding a hand over his mouth all to stop from laughing out loud. JD looked at all of us like we were crazy and Richie turned the stereo up for more AC/DC. “Ride on, ride on, ride on..” came over the speakers and I laughed.
“JD looked at me, and asked, “Were you just humming R.E.M.?”
I just nodded still smiling at the big stupid song joke, and tossed a mixed tape Zane, and he popped the old out and the new in. I held my hand over the back seat and Ronnie slapped a pack of Camel straights into my hand. I placed them on top of the map, and reached back again, Garret slapped a pint of Jack Daniels into my palm. JD looked to me, I opened the smokes, grabbed a zippo out of the arm rest and sparked one. Taking a long drag of the Camel, I popped the Jack Daniels on my leg, and cracked the lid. Offering JD the First drink, he took it and sipped. The look of ecstasy on his face as he swirled it around then swallowed was fascinating. “I've had worse,” he barked, and passed the bottle back. I threw the pack of smokes at Ronnie, and she passed it to Garret without taking one.
“Ronnie after this assignment you are off duty till after the baby.” I commented without looking and took a drink from the bottle. I then passed it to Richie. I was putting the bottle to his lips, when he mowed down two zombies in one pass and kept right on going. Up over another hill and dropping back down into a valley of pasture lands, I estimated we would be back enroute to the compound in about half an hour. We had not passed a zombie in a few minutes, and I was puzzled as to the why and how the zombies tried to stop us. Its the end of the world as we know it, stupid song, of course it was coming over the speakers and Zane was taking a swig off the bottle. Garret just looked at Ronnie like she had grown another head, and Oops I did it again, rushed through my head.
“You're fucking pregnant?” Garret asked in a low, pissed off voice.
“Later I said,” looking pointedly at Ronnie. Who gave me a weak smile of thanks and returned to staring out the window, gun resting on the window.
Garret held his out hand for the bottle, and took another long drag of his smoke.
,”Zane passed the bottle to JD with a shit eating grin on his, and JD casually handed the bottle over his head without turning to see if Garret would catch it. He did, Garret knew better then to drop a bottle of booze in my company. “Whatever,” he said after taking a drink. He turned around and stared out the window along side his girlfriend.
“Wow,” JD mouthed at me when Richie once again slammed on the brakes.
“What is it?” I asked pinching my fingers on the bridge of my nose trying to relieve a sudden pressure that would build up into a raging headache. ...And I feel fine... “What the fuck?” I asked looking out the windshield and seeing zombies on the other side of the small bridge we would have to cross to get home.
“This is so not good,” JD said as he leaned out the his window. “I should go on foot Silly,” he said looking at me for confirmation.
“You and I, will take point on foot. Zane you got our back, stay focused you guys,” I shouted over my shoulder as I slapped my helmet on my head. “Ammo check guys, we don't have a lot of backup.”
JD and I exited the vehicle, adjusting all our gear for ease of access. I had my two extra clips on my thigh, a fast reload on my rifle, and I adjusted the machete I had strapped to the other leg.
“You want to know something I really miss?” JD asked me as we moved five feet ahead of the Hum-V.
“What would that be?” I replied.
“I miss fucking pinball,” he replied with a grin.
I rolled my eyes, shook my head and flicked my cigarette butt away from me. “Lets do this. Zane up top, I want that machine gun manned. I know, I know, we don't have a lot of ammo, but this is better then nothing.” I said forestalling his complaints. “I want to make sure the bridge isn't booby trapped.”
JD nodded at me, “Thought your voice sounded familiar. You are the only chic I know that talks about booby-trapping.”
I smiled at him and walked forward when my smile turned into a grimace. I stopped at the edge of the bridge, and Richie slowed the truck to inching forward, I dipped over the side to make sure there was nothing down there, then started onto the bridge. JD on the other track right beside me. We stopped half way across and watched the zombies, I knew there were more zombies behind us without looking, it just seemed they were trying to pen us in. I grabbed a grenade off my belt, and pulled the pin, tucking it into my cargo pocket. Keeping the handle where it was I walked further along the bridge, AK in one hand pointed at the bellies of the zombies, and the grenade in the other. As we came to the other side of the bridge, the zombies hadn't once made any move towards us. We got the Hum-V to the other side with no mishaps, except maybe the strange behavior of the zombies. JD and I stepped back to the truck and were preparing to get in, when the zombies parted down the center, and a pregnant woman stood the only one in our path.
Not zombie, but not human, she was something in between. She looked to be ready to give birth at any moment.
“What the fuck is that supposed to be,” Zane asked.
“No idea,” Richie replied.
“”What the fuck are you supposed to be?” I asked the female, and almost shit my pants when she replied.
“We are the Hive. We want our children back. We must propagate. We must survive. We must reproduce.”
“This is bad, bad, bad.” JD whispered.
I nodded, “Yeah, but what do you want with us?”
“We must reproduce, we must---”
“Not with us. Absolutely not.” I replied interrupting her. “We are not interested.”
She looked at us, and I wanted to tell Richie to mow her down. I felt that if I gave the order it would be bad for us.
“Give us back our children. And you may go in peace, as long as you leave us in peace.”
“Which children are you talking about?” I knew what children, but those kids I rescued yesterday were fully human, there was no way I was going to give them up.
She looked at me, and blinked slowly as we moved forward, JD and I standing on the sideboard, the truck inching along.
“Any human children we have in our custody stay there.” I added as she moved out of the way. I could tell by the look on her face, that we had not seen the last of her. We may even have to move away from the compound. It was secure enough against the odd zombie, but if she could direct them as much as she had this day then we could not withstand an army of zombies bombarding our walls.
After we drove past, Richie picked up speed and we were on our way, no worse for the wear.