Against Zombies Box Set, Vol. 1 | Books 1-4 Read online

  Tom and Rick shot those closest, and I took out the one farther away. After several intense minutes, the gate was finally closed and the guys kept shooting, thinning out the herd.

  “Guys, stop and we’ll head back.”

  As I faced Angela and Todd, I wasn’t surprised to find Todd seated on the floor with his hands over his ears.

  Disgusted, I shook my head and headed back down the hall to the ER where more ZITs were waiting to try and kill us.

  They all followed me as I crawled over the beds and watched as the group caught up.

  Tom took the lead, with me right behind him as we entered the already cleared area. Everything looked the same, so I had us regroup at the first door.

  “Angela, I want you to take my gun and hit anything that looks like it’s too close to us. We have flamethrowers, and the guys on the truck out there are going to throw some grenades to distract them away from the door so that we can make a pathway out.” I handed her my rifle.

  “Todd, if you don’t stay right behind Angela and out of Rick and Len’s way, you won’t have to worry about the infected killing you because I’ll do it myself. Are we clear?”

  Todd gave me a nasty look before he answered belligerently, “Yes.”

  “Yes, ma’am to you,” I corrected, wanting to make sure he knew who was in charge.

  He gave me a tight nod.

  I switched the radio on. “Steve, you still out there? We’re ready to come out and need you to distract them. We also have two civilians with us so don’t shoot them. They’re in green scrubs but are looking kind of rough after dealing with these things.”

  “Loud and clear, Corporal. We’re ready for you. Joe, let’s give them something to talk about in hell.” Steve’s words came over the radio, followed by loud explosions.

  “Open the inner doors and grab the flame guns.” This was the kind of order I thoroughly enjoyed. “Everyone inside and ready?”

  I glanced at the six of us, well, five of us, who had looks of determination, ready to take out this new enemy.

  Tom hit the switch and the streams of fire lashed out, pushing the backs of the ZITs away from us.

  Rick closed the outside door and the dent in the infected between us and the truck slowly leveled off enough that we could make a stand while Todd and Angela climbed up to safety.

  A few more grenades exploded behind us, and I turned to make sure that Rick and Len could take care of things.

  Steve and Joe were picking off those that I couldn’t see because of the fire and smoke. When my gun sputtered, it was time to make a getaway. That left three of us on the ground, making a break for it, hoping the guys up top would keep them off us. A hand reached down and I took it, only to find Todd pulling me up as my boots walked up the side of the truck.

  “Thank you,” I gratefully acknowledged his help.

  “Least I could do for the rescue. Please tell me that we don’t have to deal with those things ever again?” Todd looked down the other side of the truck to the empty side of the bridge.

  “For the moment, but I would always be watching your surroundings because the world is only going to get worse.”

  I gazed out at the damage we had managed to accomplish in only a few hours. It wouldn’t save the world, but there were certainly less ZITs running around to kill us then there had been eight hours ago.

  A hot shower, food, and a call to HQ were the extent of my plans for the evening, but I never scheduled anything that couldn’t be changed quickly. I’d learned to live with low expectations over the years. I could only hope that HQ would want our two civilians since they had some medical training, because Todd was going to be a problem if he stayed with us for too long.

  Linc

  Sunrise was such a beautiful concept if it weren’t for the people we were waiting on to show up.

  Sure enough, the sound of a loud truck muffler greeted us at breakfast. I watched from the front porch as Jim Danvers got out his old truck, he added chrome step-ups onto, as well as a set of loud pipes. If all the zombie things weren’t following him already, then they would be shortly.

  His bright orange roof had me so mesmerized, it took the slamming of his door to remind me to put a smile on for our performance.

  Jim adjusted his pants over his large stomach and tried to tidy up as he approached the porch steps.

  I’d been sitting in the corner, hidden mostly by the porch plants, so when he lifted his hand to knock, I called out to him.

  “Morning, Jim.”

  He turned toward me so fast, his hand went to the gun attached to his hip. When he saw it was me, he relaxed slightly.

  “Hey, Linc, didn’t see you sitting there.” While his tone was polite, there was an accusation hidden in his words. “What are you doing out here? You’ve already finished doing all the morning chores?”

  Oh, this was rich. He was acting like I was a kid that he’d caught doing something wrong.

  “Yep. Not that it’s really any of your business. I just stepped out here to enjoy the quiet before all the children get stirred up. Once you let them out of the house, there’s never a quiet moment. Just go on in, Jessica won’t mind, and probably couldn’t hear you knock over all the kids making noise anyway.” I waved him in, knowing that Jessica looked the worst I’d ever seen her as she’d purposely spilled a little pancake batter onto her shirt.

  He frowned as he opened the screen door, and hesitated, looking over at me to make sure. Then he caught himself and grabbed the doorknob so hard, it almost came off in his hand.

  I waited to snicker until he was out of hearing, but the thud followed by a yell-grunt had me on my feet and to the door, leaving my moment of fun behind in the hopes he wasn’t injured.

  Poor dude hadn’t even had a chance to get in before he’d put a foot on the skateboard ‘someone’ had left in the entryway.

  As the entry filled up with kids standing over Jim like he was an exotic beached whale, I was slowly backing away from the screen door out of sight when Jessica walked in.

  “What’s all the commotion?” Jessica finally focused on Jim, who was laying in the middle of the floor. “Oh, my goodness.”

  Jessica was standing there in a stained flannel pj set that was way too big for her, with her hair in curlers and a green scrub mask on her face.

  She held out hand to help him up that was covered in syrupy goodness.

  Once he was standing up, she released his hand.

  “Are you okay?” Jessica looked around at the kids crowding into the entry. “Who left the skateboard out where someone could get hurt?”

  All the children scattered, ignoring her question.

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry, I’ll work out the sore muscles when I get to the gym later.”

  I stood just outside the door listening to his stupid attempts to impress her. Go to the gym. Who does that when there are dead people everywhere?

  “Um, Jessica, was there something on the hand you helped me up with?” Jim’s hesitation was so cute.

  “Oh, crap. I must have had syrup on them. I was refilling the bottles when you fell. You can use the sink to wash up if you’d like.”

  Jim muttered under his breath, “I didn’t fall, I tripped on a stupid skateboard.”

  A chair scraped across the floor as he sat down.

  Trish had been coaching the kids from the other room, and suddenly, all the outside dogs were inside under the table, eating all the ‘crumbs’ we’d left for them last night.

  “Food’s ready!” Trish yelled as she entered the kitchen, and the normal amount of screaming, fighting kids entered the room in a scramble for seats.

  I heard Trevor’s little voice and I could just see him tugging on Jim’s arm. “Mister, you’re in my spot. You gotta let me sit in your lap ’cause you’re in my spot.”

  “What? I think you’re mistaken, little man. I was here first.” Jim proudly defended his rights against a two-year-old.

  The room went dead silent, until Trevor r
ealized that this adult wasn’t going to move or let him sit in his lap.

  A shrieking scream erupted. “Mommy!” Trevor’s face was turning red, and snot started running out of his nose.

  “I’m sorry, sir. He’s going to keep crying until you move. Here, let me get you the spare we keep in the other room.” Trish apologized as Trevor raised the volume of his screams.

  Jessica had been dishing pancakes out to all the other children, completely ‘unaware’ there was a problem.

  Trish wheeled in the computer chair that was on its last leg.

  Jim’s head looked like it was a ping-pong ball as he glanced back and forth between Jessica and Trish, who were both motioning him to get in the chair.

  He moved over just in time for the syrup that had been in Jessica’s hand to be grabbed by Carson and given a good squeeze. The syrup hit Jim squarely in the face and began to run down his chin onto his shirt.

  Trevor had climbed into his seat and onto the table, trying to reach a pancake when he let out a horrible smelling toot.

  This was going better than I could have imagined.

  Trevor sat back on his chubby little legs and giggled. “I tooted!” he shouted as he clutched the hard-fought for pancake in his hand.

  “That’s it!” Jim yelled, startling all of the kids into silence.

  “I can’t marry you, Jessica. You have too much baggage and kids around. I hope the infection takes care of all this.” He gestured at the children seated at the table. “It’ll be doing the world a favor.” He stomped out the door, not even seeing me, and pulled open his truck door.

  Thankfully he’d left the gate open because I’m not sure that he wouldn’t have slammed through it in his present mood.

  I opened the door and walked into the kitchen. “Is everyone okay in here?”

  That seemed to break the spell as the kids resumed saying what a horrible man he was, and the entire time, Trevor was just sitting in the chair, happily munching on his dry pancake.

  Jessica came forward and I wrapped my arms around her, syrup stickiness and all.

  “I hope that keeps him from coming back.” Trish wiped up the trail of syrup from floor due to Jim’s hurried departure.

  “It will until the memory fades and he gets pissed off about something else and takes it out on us. We just need to stay under his radar for a while. At least we saved Jessica from his unwanted attentions.”

  A week later, all was still quiet on the farm. I’d been calling mom every day to check in on her progress.

  She’d been working at the clinic when she could. Having been a nurse, she could keep an eye on things.

  “Linc, any time someone gets really sick, they ‘transport’ them to the hospital. You and I both know that isn’t the case. I asked a few questions but didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Peter came to visit me yesterday and see how I was doing with all of this. He told me that they’re taking them out of town to the cemetery, shooting them, then burying them so that no one knows.”

  “Mom, I know that’s horrible, but at the same time, if even one of these sick people dies, they could kill everyone. It’s not ideal, but the needs of the one for the many is sometimes the better option.” I sighed into the phone. It was a huge responsibility, and while I didn’t like Jim Danvers, it was a smart strategy.

  “It’s just all the need for secrecy. If he didn’t think it was wrong then why is he doing it when no one knows about it? He just makes my gut instinct go crazy.”

  “He’s certainly up to something shady. He hasn’t said anything about last week to anyone?”

  “Nope. I think he was so embarrassed that he doesn’t want it to get out or they might take away his man card.” My mom giggled just a little, which made me slightly suspicious.

  “Mom, did you tell Peter what happened?”

  “Yes, and he thought it was hilarious. He’s going to let me know if Jim says anything about the farm. Right now, he’s trying to work things out so that the locals will start bringing produce into town because the grocery store is starting to run low on supplies.”

  “Yikes. He’s going to be desperate and do something stupid. There haven’t been any deliveries?”

  “We had a few trucks those first couple days when Cooper had that town hall meeting. The mayor had Beth, the owner of the grocery store, place several orders for supplies, but even with that, the town can only last a few months without more deliveries.”

  “The town only has a thousand people. Are they doing food rations?”

  “They’re having everyone go up to the school cafeteria for breakfast and lunch. Then it’s a sack take home dinner for everyone. There’s been lots of grumbling, but most are content to let Jim and Chris run things for now. When they start to get low on food or realize that more people are disappearing than they thought, things are going to get nasty.”

  “Just promise me that you’ll be careful. I don’t want to lose my mother.”

  “You won’t. I’m a tough old broad. I would say that we’re down to about eight hundred people or a few less because some left and went to stay with other family out of town.”

  “Do I need to make a trip to town with some produce? We don’t need everything that we’ve harvested this week, and if someone doesn’t use it, it’s going to go to waste.”

  “I don’t see how you can avoid it, but you’d better bring Jessica with you so that Jim doesn’t do something crazy to you. Even though he said he wasn’t interested in her, he’s still less likely to kill you in front of her.”

  “Mom don’t worry so much. I’ll talk to her and see if we can come in after lunch. Anything else I should consider when we come to town?”

  “Nope. Just leave any weapons in the vehicle and let them know that you have guns in the truck for protection. Otherwise, Jim will take it personally, thinking that you’re trying to overthrow him. They’ll make you check the weapons at the gate and should let you through.”

  “All right, Mom. We’ll see you after we stop at the grocery store. Is that where we take the stuff we have?”

  “They’ll know where to send you at the gate. Don’t let on that you might have more than you need.”

  “Hey, now. I was good at mission operations when I was in the army and I didn’t show all my cards to the enemy, so don’t underestimate me.”

  “One question before you get off, is it serious with Jessica?”

  I looked over to where Jessica and the kids were working to get the last of the field done before lunch.

  “Yeah, I think it is. Only time will tell, but I think she’s a keeper. Gotta go, Mom. Love ya.”

  I hung up and went to give Jessica a kiss as I loaded her full crate onto the truck. We hadn’t decided what to do with the extra beans from the field, but I thought taking them to town would be a wonderful idea. The pantry I’d made for the family was filling up quickly with canned goods. We were in need of a walk-in freezer, but the chances I could build one and keep it functional were slim at the moment.

  “Hey, was that your mom on the phone? Did she say if everything’s okay?” Jessica glanced up when I got closer to her row of green beans.

  “Yeah, she suggested that we take a truck full of produce into town and see what they’ll trade us. We can also run by my mom’s and take her a few things on the down low.” I grinned, thinking of ways to smuggle stuff into town.

  Jessica smiled, as if she knew what I was thinking, and shoved the crate of beans into my hands instead of the embrace I’d been about to give her.

  “We can think about things like that when we get back from town. I also think we should take Ray with us to be a lookout. We can just say he’s someone that wandered onto the farm and wanted to work for food.”

  “That could work so they don’t become suspicious when they see more people out here on the farm. If they ask, it’s Ray and his brother Tyler, and we left him to stay with Trish while we came to town.”

  “What else should we take besides the crates of
beans?” Jessica asked practically.

  “Um, I think that first batch of corn because we’re not ready to do anything with it. Let’s keep enough to feed the animals, but I think a few bushels would help me get those parts I need to put the solar panels together.”

  Keeping in mind that my mom was probably correct, I had Ray get in the back of the truck and ride shotgun just in case. The roads were still amazingly clear of infected dead people, although Ray was having fun with a little target practice with the few that we saw in the distance. It wasn’t often that any of us that were ex-military got to hit targets while moving at 50 mph.

  In the last week, they’d removed the temporary barriers across the road, replacing them with gates covered in metal sheets on rollers to allow people inside. What was completely different was the extra inner gates that were much stronger concrete walls, with just enough space for a single vehicle to fit through.

  I’d thought the lookouts were on stands behind the metal gates, but they were on the top of the wall, hoping to keep the wrong kind of people out of their town. I think they’d taken the speech that Cooper had given before he left a little too seriously.

  The guys on duty weren’t ones that I recognized, but Jessica said they were just dads from town.

  “Hey, you can’t bring those guns in here. You’ll have to leave them at the gate,” the guard on duty called down to us.

  “Ray will stay here while Jessica and I take this…” I trailed off. “Um, where should we take the produce to trade?” I called up to the guy that seemed to be in charge.

  “Trade? We don’t have much that anyone could use. We aren’t letting anyone take any food or medicine out of town.”

  “I need a few parts to keep a machine going. I was hoping those wouldn’t be in high demand.”

  The guy rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “Head over to Beth’s grocery and tell her what you need from the parts store. Denny, who used to run it, died two days ago, so Beth has taken it on since there aren’t any shoppers coming and going all day.”