Reanimates, p.11
Reanimates, page 11
part #1 of Reanimates Series
It was almost comical watching the reanimates on the other side of the breach in the bridge. They had turned at the sound of our approach and many of them kept walking as if the giant hole was not there, falling into the lake or to the rocks that were left behind from the explosion.
The road ahead of us was choked with the undead and it was probably only due to the fact that we were in four wheel drive that we could move forward at all. The interior of the truck started to reek of death as the bodies pressed in against and on top of the truck. I was thankful for the fact that there was no way for any of them to approach us from the sides because at this speed I did not favor the odds of the glass not being broken or a door lock not failing.
We had finally crossed to the safety of the full bridge when there was a sharp metallic twang that came from the hood of the Humvee. I looked at Frank with confusion and he shrugged at me in kind. Again, the sharp twang came from the hood but not before the arm of one of the reanimates exploded.
“Gunfire!” yelled Frank.
Another shot hit the truck and a reanimate fell to the ground. He was right, someone was clearly shooting in our direction. My only question was wether they were trying to hit us or the undead. Luckily for us either the caliber of the gun was small enough or the bodies that the bullets were hitting first were dense enough that we had not taken any damage.
I started to scan the area in front of us for the location of the shooter. We were approaching a pair of houses on the left side of the road just after the bridge ended. They were used as rentals during the summer months for people that wanted to be on the lake. One of them was tucked behind a small growth of trees but the other was closer to the road. It was a single-story building that was sided in grey cedar shakes. It had two small porch-like areas on opposite sides and a metal roof covered those. I saw the flash of muzzle come from the roof over the front proch.
“There,” I said to frank as I pointed. “Either he is a friend or a foe, but he looks like he is definitely in need of a rescue.”
Frank nodded in agreement and as we got closer it became clear that he was shooting at the reanimates and not us. The closer we got the better his aim got, and we were soon free from the reanimates that had climbed on the roof.
“I think we should let him jump on the roof,” said Michelle. “We can then open the hatch and let him in that way. This will keep us from having to stop for long and we won’t have to open any doors.”
“I don’t love it, but I like it,” I said.
“Sounds like we have a plan,” said Frank. He started to steer us toward that side of the road.
We slowly pulled up to the lawn in front of the house and I got a good look at the man that was shooting the reanimates. He looked to be well over six feet tall with a broad build. His dark brown hair was short and run through with gray as was his goatee. He wore glasses and was dressed in camouflage. He smiled down at us and was yelling his appreciation. It was the kind of smile that put you at ease. I locked eyes with him and used my hands to show him that we intended him to jump down on the roof. He nodded his understanding and when we were close enough, we heard the thud of him making contact with the Humvee.
The swarm of reanimates did not give us a break. As soon as we stopped moving, they caught back up with us and resumed trying to rip the truck apart and climbing it again. I could hear the report of the rifle being fired again. Frank had us moving again almost immediately and Julio worked on the latch that held the hatch closed.
The Humvee was back on the road and picking up speed by the time the hatch was opened. Our new addition climbed in. Once he was situated, he looked at each of us and said thanks.
He must have pegged me for the leader because I was the last one that he thanked. “Thank you for coming after my ass”, he said. “By the way, my name is Greg, Greg Wyman.”
Chapter 10
We were on the move again with the road before us mostly clear of both car pileups and the undead. The interior of the car was filled with an uncomfortable silence. We all knew that taking in unknown people was a dangerous proposition, especially when they were armed like Greg. In addition to the hunting rifle that he had been using to snipe the reanimates he had a pair of handguns holstered at each hip, a machete and what looked like throwing knives that were stuck in a bandolier that crossed his chest from left to right. He had an additional bandolier that crossed his chest from right to left that was full of bullets for his rifle. He also carried a pack that I assumed was also full of ammunition, though I did not ask.
Greg looked at each of us, almost sizing us up, but I could not fault him for that. To him we could look like a band of raiders that meant him harm. I knew that trust was something that needed to be built. The simple act of rescuing him from the roof was not enough to immediately earn it.
The way that Karen was looking at him was akin to a predatory animal sizing up its prey. She slid closer to him and reached out with her right hand and rubbed his arm and gave his large biceps a squeeze. Subtle. Greg seemed to like the attention and smiled at her.
“That was some pretty fancy shooting, Greg,” she gushed.
I could tell that he enjoyed the praise and he basked in it when the rest of the group echoed her sentiments. “I was a sniper in the army and have been a hunter my whole life,” he supplied.
This turned the conversation in a different direction as Frank now had someone in the group that had also served. They discussed where each of them had trained and been based and seen action. The tension seemed to melt away and a more jovial atmosphere settled over us all. We all listened with great interest as each of the former military men shared their stories.
I had situated myself so that I was almost sideways in my seat so that I could see most of the group. I watched the faces of everyone and although the conversation was fascinating, and we all seemed safe I could not shake an uneasy feeling that was building in the pit of my stomach.
It looked like Karen had decided to claim Greg as her new man and had gotten over my rebuffing her. It also looked like Greg was okay with that fact. He did not object when she laid her head on his shoulder. I don’t know exactly why but that simple intimate act bothered me. I understood that we were all in a severely traumatic situation and needed comforting, but we had just met him. I averted my gaze and looked out of the back window and movement back there caught my eye.
We rounded a corner and the road behind us vanished behind a stand of trees, but I was certain that I had seen a pickup truck following us. I didn’t say anything though because I did not want to alarm the group. Instead, I kept my eye locked on the road behind us until we made the turn onto Donaldson Road on our way to the gun store. I heard Frank calling my name which snapped my attention back to what was going on inside the Humvee.
“Jim, Greg is talking to you,” he said.
“Sorry, I was lost in thought,” I lied.
“No worries,” said Greg. “I was wondering why we had gone off the main road?’
“Ah, yes. We are heading to the gun store down this way. I figured that even though bullets don’t stop ‘em we might as well arm ourselves,” I supplied.
Greg nodded in approval. “Good thinking, you never know who you can trust out here”, he said. With that he gave me a smile that made my skin crawl. I was certain that I was just being paranoid, but I did not trust him.
Donaldson Road had a state park on our right side and houses lining the road on the left. I kept scanning with my eyes for any signs of survivors but all that I could see was the undead. There was no movement beyond any of the windows in any of the houses, no one else had found their way to the roofs. It appeared as though the entire town had either left or was dead.
“So, do you guys have a destination in mind?” asked Greg.
Karen started to answer him before I jumped in. “Not really,” I lied. “We are just going to supply up and see where the road leads us.”
Karen looked at me confused but thankfully she did not contradict me.
Frank turned left onto East Shore Road and again I thought I saw a vehicle tailing us from far behind. I decided that Frank and I needed to come up with some kind of code in the future. I needed to warn him, and I knew that there was no way to warn him without alarming everyone. I must have been giving away something with my posture because Julio spoke up from the back seat.
“Everything alright Jim?’
“Yeah,” I lied, “it’s just my ribs.”
Frank pulled into the driveway for the store. It looked like the owner had opened the business in their garage. Gone was the overhead door. It had been replaced with a wall and a steel, man-sized door. The building was covered on the outside by barn board which gave it a very rustic feel.
“Alright,” I said. “Stick to the plan. Frank and Julio are making the run. Get in and grab as many guns and boxes of ammunition that you can in five minutes. Remember that this area is infested with reanimates and we just rang the dinner bell by driving through.”
Frank and Julio nodded and left the safety of the truck. I was surprised that Greg did not want to go with them and resupply. He seemed content to sit in the back with Karen fawning over him.
I watched as Frank and Julio kicked in the door to the store and vanished from sight. I started to keep mental track of how much time elapsed. If the need arose, I would go in after them. Michelle was keeping watch on the back half of the Humvee while I kept an eye on the front.
I was turning my head from side to side when I thought I heard the sound of an approaching engine. I was about to turn around to look when I felt the cold metal of a gun barrel touch the nape of my neck. My blood ran cold as I knew that I was right on both fronts.
“I am gonna need you to get out of the truck,” Greg said. His gravelly voice was oddly calm but still let me know that this was not a request that I should deny.
I reached for the door handle and he cracked me across the back of my head with the butt of the gun. “Slowly now!’ he added.
My broken ribs would not allow me to move at any speed other than slow, so my compliance was easy to gain. Wincing in pain I exited the vehicle and turned slowly to face him down. Michelle and Karen were both already out and he had his second pistol trained on them.
The truck that I had seen shadowing us pulled in behind the Humvee. I counted five people in it. There was two in the cockpit and three in the bed. They were all men and all armed except the driver. The driver was in his late teens and looked similar to Greg, he was just lacking the grey hair. I guessed that this was either his son or his little brother. The man in the passenger seat was around the same age as Greg. He looked to be pretty fat with sandy blonde hair and a trucker hat perched atop his head. Two of the three in the bed were black and identical twins. They both looked to be around six feet tall and slim of build, the machine guns that they were holding equalized whatever they were lacking in brawn. The third man in the bed was very short compared to the twins. He was a white man and his snow-white hair and deep wrinkles put him in his late sixties or early seventies. All five were dressed similar to Greg.
They all got out of the truck and I could tell by the way that the twins and the fat guy were all former military by the way they carried themselves. Their faces lit up when they saw where we had ended up.
Greg addressed his group. “Bubba and Timmy watch these three. Jayden and Jaheem, you two come with me inside. We have two men inside we need to get, along with some extra fire power. Jimmy, you just….well shit you just stand around you old fuck.”
Timmy and Bubba looked at Karen and Michelle like two starving men might look at a steak. Timmy leaned into Bubba and said something quietly enough that I could not hear. Whatever was said made Bubba laugh. It was a rough and irritating sound. His laugh quickly turned into a coughing fit.
Jimmy chimed in with, “I done told your dumb ass to quit them cigars Fred.”
My confusion was only short lived as it dawned on me that Fred and Bubba was the same person.
Shut up daddy,” he replied.
I heard the sound of someone’s foot dragging on the gravel that filled the driveway. I turned my head and saw Frank and Julio being shoved out of the front door with guns pointed at their backs.
Another sound caught my attention, the telltale noise made by the reanimates. I turned to look in the direction that I thought it had originated. There was a large group of more than a score of the undead coming from the road and moving at what was their top speed.
One of the twins yelled out, “Hey boss, we got company.” Greg yelled something back, but I missed what he said. The twins shoved Frank and Julio over next to me and trained their guns on the undead. I could not know for sure what the machine guns were, but they looked a lot like an M-16.
As they opened fire on the reanimates, I head Karen or Michelle scream. The twins were aiming first at the legs of their targets and once they were down pummeling them with bullets until there was little left but a pile of mush. It appeared that they had discovered a way to eliminate the reanimates as a threat besides burning the bodies. It was costly in terms of bullets, but it was effective. Every once and a while one of them would score a headshot and that would end the reanimate swiftly. I tried to keep track of how many clips the pair went through to take out this group. It was somewhere around fifteen.
The gunfire had stopped but whichever woman was screaming had not. I turned to look at why and immediately regretted my choice. Bubba had Michelle bent over the hood of the truck with her pants around her ankles. He was thrusting into her while Timmy watched and laughed. Julio had also noticed the rape and became incensed. Before I could stop him, he ran at the truck, his face a mask of pure rage. He hadn’t made it two feet before a single shot rang out from the direction of the store and Julio’s head exploded, his body crumpling to the ground.
“Now, now, now,” said Greg. “We cannot have you guys interrupting my men while they have fun. Jim, you might want to control your men before there is none of you left.”
My mouth was dry, and rage surged through my body but I found it within me to keep control and I placed a hand on Frank’s arm to stop him from trying to take action. He looked at me in shock.
“Now is not the time,” I said.
Bubba finished with Michelle and before he had even pulled out Timmy had his pants down and was positioning himself for a turn. Michelle had grown quiet and didn’t even react as he entered her.
“Welcome to the new order,” said Greg. “Like it or not your group is now my group. Your women are ours to use as we please and you two remaining cowards are going to be our risk takers and our labor. So long as you do as I say, when I say it, and exactly how I say it, then you can live. Hell, I might even feed you.” He laughed at his own joke. “I will not tolerate anyone pulling any bullshit. You step outta line I will put you down, it’s that simple. Look at your man on the ground and let that sink in.”
As Greg finished his speech so too did Timmy finish with Michelle. When he removed his hands from her hips she crumbled to the ground and started to cry. One of the twins started to walk over to Karen with lust in his eyes when Greg stopped him.
“Sorry Jaheem, that one is mine and I don’t share. Listen boys, we will have plenty of time for fun later. Right now, we need to get somewhere to set up camp for the night. That last house was not good enough so let’s go looking for someplace a little more secluded. Boys you take that whore with you,” he said pointing at Michelle. “I’ll ride with my three new buddies and make sure they don’t try and get any ideas.”
Greg walked up to Frank and put the barrel of his gun against Frank’s temple. “Now you are gonna drive or your brains are gonna see daylight.”
Frank did not give a verbal answer but instead raised his hands in the air as an act of submission. Greg smiled and it was an evil kind of smile, one that conveyed the fact that he knew he had won. Truly though, what choice did any of us have? We were unarmed and outnumbered. I knew that I was not giving up. We needed time to regroup and mount some kind of effective counterattack.
“Load up and move out,” yelled Greg.
One of the twins, Jaheem I believe, roughly grabbed Michelle by her arms and pulled her to her feet. He did not even grant her the dignity of covering up. Instead, he chose to rip what remained of her pants and underwear from her body. He shoved her into the front of the truck and climbed in next to her. Everyone else got into their respective vehicles. I lost my position of riding shotgun. It appeared that Greg wanted to keep a close eye on his new driver.
“Head north,” he ordered, and Frank complied. We drove in silence. The only sound inside the Humvee besides the roar of the engine was the quiet sobbing of Karen. Even though I knew it was my place to console her, I could not bring myself to do so.
We had only driven a short distance when Greg told Frank to take a right onto Old Marsh Road. “Then at the Y you bear left,” he added.
Frank did as he was told, and we soon found ourselves next to a garage that was at the end of the road. The area in front of the garage was littered with cars, trucks and boats. None of them looked like they had been operational in quite some time. One of them even had a tree growing up through the engine compartment. The garage itself was quite large but not in the best shape. It had two bay doors and looked like it could hold four or five cars at once. It was sided in vinyl but that had started to fall off and no one had bothered to try and fix it.
