Zombie Rush 4 Read online

  Her team slipped back to the tree line and followed it to the southern corner, where the trees just touched the edge of the compound.

  “Recon,” she commanded Tonka, who moved out as if his actions were predetermined. He sprinted right, tucking in behind some shrubs while keeping his eyes locked on the left side of the road. He raced around the back side of the building only to dash to a house directly across from the double bungalow on the west side of the street that his focus was intent on.

  “Tina, get your rifle focused on that building and keep your eyes peeled for any kind of motion.”

  “I have motion in the upstairs window near the back,” Tina said almost instantly.

  “Huh, that means they’re more concerned about what is on the inside the compound than they are out here in the woods. Kibble, circle wide to the back side and see if there is anything advantageous,” Lisa said. An increased flurry of rifle shots sounded from the direction that Franc had gone. “Hurry, I think we’re running out of time.”

  “Roger that,” Kibble said but hesitated when he heard both their radios flare to life with John’s voice.

  “Franc says he has one man injured and has met up with the backside of the group. Over.”

  “Tell him to shoot back; that’s all that he can do at this point. Have Neil launch a couple of grenades into a car or something and see if that gets their attention,” Lisa said.

  “Franc, have Neil drop a couple of pineapples into a car, then shoot a couple bursts on full auto and see if that wakes them up a bit. Over,’” John relayed the message so all could hear. It was an inexpensive hunting radio set and could probably be picked up on most baby monitors in the area. He never purchased it with stealth in mind.

  Neil did as requested, setting two ablaze before Franc poked his head out and fired three, three-round bursts at a group tucked in behind a building; the battlefield silenced, leaving only the roar of flames from the burning cars.

  *

  Occasional rifle shots sounded as a small stream of zombies kept filtering in, but nothing that had reached horde proportions like it had a couple days ago. The complex had had a lot of Zs within the boundary the night it occurred, but they were cleaned out immediately with the overwhelming amount of gun ownership in the community. Then even the horde outside had disappeared from the streets. They didn’t know why; it only mattered that it had, and it was time to stake territory and establish rules.

  The fighting never even slowed. At one point, they were fighting zombies; the next, they were fighting each other when a large group of tradesmen broke off, dragging their families with them, and fighting all the way.

  Plumbers, electricians, rail workers, carpenters, and other tradesmen seemed to group as one in an organized force, indiscriminately shooting anyone who wasn’t like them. It was as though the parents, soccer moms, and weekend hunters started to kill with their faces masked in hate and resentment of the others for past crimes.

  *

  “I think I know what’s going on here,” said Kills, a Latin King before being forced to join up with Franc’s group after the infestation.

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?” Franc asked sincerely. He knew how volatile Kills was from past business dealings and preferred to tread lightly around him for right now.

  “I might recognize some of them; or at least their logos and shit. These are all bangers and refugees and shit. This just a power struggle to see who’s going to run this place. These boys are finally going to take what’s owed to them from the rich fuckers over there,” Kills finished.

  “Excuse me?” Neil leaned in with his rifle absently pointed in Kill’s direction. “First off, if they live here … they ain’t rich.”

  “They sure do have a lot of stuff for not being rich,” Kills countered, keeping his eye on Neil’s gun barrel.

  “Don’t be an idiot … what’s your name again? Kills, is it? They’re driving stripped-down trucks and mini vans and living in a government-subsidized facility; they ain’t rich. For all we know, the people over there were tired of getting robbed and their daughters being raped while their sons were turned into drug addicts. Hell, if that’s the case, I should just walk away and let it play out.”

  “No need to get hostile, mister. I’m just relaying what I think, okay?” Kills said, getting ready to take an evasive maneuver.

  “Yeah, well …” Neil paused and looked at Kills as if he were making some sort of decision. It was obvious that Sally backed him when she moved away and squared up towards the rest of Franc’s group.

  “Relax. Everybody just calm down,” Franc interjected. “We’re here for different reasons than that. When we get out of Little Rock you can you do what you want, but until then you all agreed to be here as a unit so let’s do this. Talk to them, Kills.”

  “Hey! Hey, pendejos. What are you shooting at, Holmes?” Kills shouted out into the silent arena.

  “Hey, are you the army? Those fuckers over there killed some of our boys and kidnapped the others.

  “Naw, man. It’s me, Kills, from across town.”

  “Kills? What are you doing, bro? Come on in here. It is me … Kwik Stop.

  “Kwik Stop is one of my bro’s dudes. It’s okay,” he whispered to Franc, who restrained him from standing up right away.

  “Get them to drop their guns,” Franc said, acting as though he actually knew what he was doing.

  “Hey, Kwik Stop, how ya doing, man? Look, I got some people with me. They’re from Hot Springs and are a little nervous about your guns. I need you to set them down for a bit so that we can come out.”

  “Springers, huh? We been waiting on them, Kills. We heard on the radio and knew they was coming. Bring them in, they won’t be hurt,” Kwik Stop said.

  Kills looked at Franc who just shook his head no. With everything having been so heated and out of control up to this point, he wasn’t going to trust anybody he didn’t know with guns.

  “Naw, man, you gotta put your guns down for a bit or this guy’s going to launch some more fireworks on ya, okay? Don’t worry; as soon as you get checked out you can pick them up again, a’ite?”

  “A’ite, Kills, they’re down. Come on in now and let me see that it’s really you,” Kwik Stop said, more than a little confused that one of his own would make such a demand. It was just another reality of the new world as old trusts were erased and new loyalties formed.

  “What the hell, Kills? You runnin’ wid Franc now?” Kwik Stop said. He started to bend toward his gun when Sally cut him off by advancing quickly with her rifle focused while Neil did the same around the other side of Kills.

  “It ain’t like that,” Franc and Kills said at the same time.

  “You fools got to stop this shit,” Franc continued. “Those rules don’t apply anymore; there ain’t no gangs or any of that bullshit. There’s only the alive and the dead, and the more live people we got, the better chance we have of staying that way.”

  “Who are they?” Kwik indicated to the white people playing soldier.

  “Like I said, we’re a part of the Hot Springs crew. I wasn’t lying. They need all of the survivors they can get, and you guys killing each other ain’t gonna help. So step away from the rifles until we get this sorted out and call in the rest of your people. I’m serious … this battle is done.”

  “They’re trying to kill us, Holmes. We didn’t even do nothin’ an’ they started shootin’,” Kwik Stop pleaded.

  “I believe you. We’ll get that all sorted out; now call in your people.” Increased rifle fire sounded out from the other side. “We got people dealing with things over there,” Franc finished.

  An armed man walked down the center of the street toward them with a double barrel shotgun resting lazily upon his shoulder and looking as if he was not allowing any negotiations.

  A part of him wanted to play tough cop and demand he drop their weapons while an even larger part wanted them to stand down and discuss it with them, but they didn’t look as if they wante
d to talk.

  “Stand down, amigo. This isn’t about turf anymore.”

  “Oh yeah? Then why are you here? An’ why you wastin’ time talkin’ to Kwik Chump over there? He ain’t in charge.”

  “Ramon, you just gotta chill here, bro,” Kills said. “We not alone, and all you all have to do is hear us out, a’ite?”

  “Yeah, we’re just here to rescue survivors is all,” Franc added, feeling that Ramon had calmed down a bit.

  “What if we don’t want to be rescued?” Ramon said but off loaded his barrel from his shoulder so it was resting across his opposite arm a slight amount.

  “Then we’ll try to secure you some supplies so you can hole up here.”

  “Why would you do that?” His rifle rose again.

  “Hell, either way you’re going to be fighting zombies. We ain’t got a choice in that anymore; none of us do.”

  The rifle went slack and the barrel pointed to the ground. The undeniable truth of their reality had hit him like a thousand pounds of steel. The zombies had killed more of his friends and family than any turf war ever could and he wanted them all dead.

  Chapter 5

  The Fricking Complex

  Tina directed her group around the building and across the street along the same path Tonka had taken. Between the houses, she could see Kibble’s group as they entered quietly through the back door. They waited for a couple of seconds then heard some shouting and one shot before it went quiet.

  Lisa looked down the street toward a large group gathered by a barricade at the end, closer to the clubhouse. Cars were parked angled out from the curb in preparation for using them as barricades and were strategically located at the corners and doorways of buildings.

  Doesn’t look like they planned on fighting zombies, Lisa mused while looking at all the free passage around the barriers. This was designed for run and shoot when someone else was shooting at you. A man burst out of a house halfway down, and Lisa pulled back behind the house as Tonka—who was a full house and a half ahead of them—crouched low. The man wasn’t running and the ten or so with him matched his angry pace. All of them carried rifles and appeared to have heavy pockets on their hunting-style vests.

  John’s voice came over the walkie. “Kibble says that the house is secured. Over.”

  “Tell him to leave one as watch and have the other three advance on my left. Over.”

  “Roger,” John replied.

  *

  “Fucking-A, Billy, they can’t all be shot already?” the man demanded as he approached the far barricade.

  Lisa and her group moved up to the first car, carefully watching the house that the man had come from.

  “No, they stopped shooting at us, Leon. Maybe they want to stop,” Billy said.

  “It don’t matter what they want, Billy. You’re not going to let drug dealers, gangbangers, welfare wenches, and sluts make yer decisions for ya, are ya? Good, now start shooting. Jim!” The man beckoned to a tall, thin man who had a straight stance and long, powerfully muscled arms.

  “Yeah, Leon?” Jim said when he got closer.

  “They’re planning something over there, Jim, I know it. We got the kids back, but they’re not going to help us like we planned so we gotta do something else here. We gotta change plans, you know? Do something they won’t expect,” Leon said as he looked around nervously.

  “What are you thinking, Leon?”

  “Fire … we got to burn them out. Get them pimps running so we can shoot them as they try to escape.”

  “What? Are you fucking kidding me? We can’t just burn the complex, Leon. We’ll burn ourselves up in the process.”

  “We’ll run some garden hoses, that should keep it from jumping the street,” Leon said like he had thought everything through.

  “Smoke would kill anyone manning the hose and the heat would cook them before they could get close enough to do any good. Look, I went along with you because I agree with you. I don’t want any of those drug dealers and whores around me and mine either. Two of mine are tied up over there, an’ one thinks he’s one of their leaders, for Christ’s sake. But I don’t agree with killing for the sake of killing or trying to burn families out of their homes, so just calm down and think of something else.”

  “I thought when you said you were with me, Jim, you meant it.”

  “I did mean it. I’m still with you, Leon, but we are not going to burn down this complex; that’s just a bad call. We just got to keep shooting at them until the zombies come back and then they’ll leave,” Jim said. Leon thought about it for several seconds before giving a nod of his head.

  “Okay, we’ll do it your way for now, but if the zombies don’t come back, we burn them out,” Leon said. Jim shook his head, but agreed to go along with it for the time being.

  “You know we’re not going to be able to stay here forever, Leon,” Jim said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “This place, the complex. It isn’t going to be able to stand against the Zs for long.”

  “Why not? We got guns and piles of ammunition. If we clear those fuckers out, we have a large kill zone, and we have held out this long,” Leon replied.

  “We almost lost it just yesterday fighting with them. Where the zombies went is a mystery, but they will be back.”

  “Fucking Zs knew they didn’t have chance here, Jim; we was blowin’ the fuck out of them.”

  “I don’t think they think like that, Leon. Either way, we ain’t burning them out, all right?”

  “I said all right. Billy, get Sean on the radio and see if they’re trying to flank us.”

  “He doesn’t seem to be answering, Leon,” Billy replied.

  “Hey, is that a fucking dog?” Billy added as he looked down the street behind them and caught the tail end of Tonka ducking behind a house.

  “Fuck, they’re behind us,” Leon said and instantly started shooting up a car that some of Lisa’s group hid behind.

  *

  “They’re on to us, John. We’re taking fire. Tell Kibble to stay low and approach with caution. Over,” Lisa said into her walkie.

  Shots ricocheted on both sides of Skit from under the car. “Get behind Tina, Skit,” Lisa said, seeing that she too was lined up behind the rear axle.

  “I’m going for the house.”

  “No, Skit!” Lisa said, but it was too late and he was already moving. He made it to the yard and was almost behind the house when a shot spun him off his feet and onto the ground. Lisa watched, horrified at seeing her only friend on the ground bleeding. She could see that he was breathing, but he wasn’t moving so she didn’t know if he was okay or not.

  “You ready, Tina?”

  “I guess,” Tina replied, hesitantly.

  “John, tell Kibble we’re moving in, and have Franc send two of his out to support us from the other side. Over.”

  “Roger. Zs are starting to gather out here pretty thick; we might want to hurry it up a bit. Over.”

  “Doing what we can, John. Skitter Pop is down. Over.”

  “Fresh magazine, Tina, and let’s go with covering fire before we move.”

  “Roger,” Tina said and started firing with her rifle set on three-round bursts.

  Lisa kept hers on single and laid down a field of fire, aiming at anything on two legs, which drove the opposition behind cars and bushes. Lisa was out and around the car, her rifle ready to swing in any direction as she advanced. She was vaguely aware that Tina hadn’t moved from her location, obviously preferring to shoot from a safer area. Lisa, however, didn’t have that luxury.

  Shots from Kibble started to take out windows in the houses to her right that she couldn’t cover. She saw ricochets coming from Franc’s location, but there were still too many ahead for her and Tina to keep down. Movement on the left forced her to turn and fire at the houses. Lisa was getting herself deeper into a crossfire, but there was nothing else she could do; zombies were approaching the perimeter and these guys were dug in. A round ski
pped off her shoulder and the impact on her vest spun her to the ground, but she was able to roll behind another car on the opposite side of the street only to be pinned down.

  The men were up and laying heavy fire into the vehicles she and Tina hid behind. Lisa crab-walked to the front end and was up firing, noticing that they were also fighting off the group where Franc was, as well as the sides where Kibble and his group were shooting from. The barrage died for a minute and Lisa decided it was time to end it.

  “John, have Kibble and Franc hold fire. Over.”

  “Roger. We relocated to the southwest corner of the complex. Zs are too thick and coming your way. Over.”

  “Duly noted. Out.” As they stopped firing, so did the complex residents as they searched for targets.

  “Hot Springs Police Department! Lay down your weapons!” Lisa shouted and the rest of the shooting died off.

  “Who?” a disembodied voice shouted back.

  “This is Lieutenant Lisa Reynolds with the Hot Springs PD. Throw down your weapons so we can talk.”

  “Well, Lieutenant Lisa, you seem to be a long way from home. I’ll tell ya what, we’ll give ya five minutes to pack up and go home; how does that sound?”

  “Sounds like a non-starter. Who am I talking to?”

  “Name’s Leon, this is Little Rock … you have no claim here.”

  “Wrong, Leon. We represent the only existing law enforcement in the state. Until another state law enforcement agency arrives, we’re in charge!” Lisa bluffed as she slowly stepped out, leaving her rifle hanging from the sling and her hands held palms out in front of her.

  She winced as even the light weight of the rifle pulled on the plate that was just hit. Sweat ran down the back of her recently shaved head and her ribs felt as if they were on fire. The wound from Web would someday be the death of her if she never took the time to heal and she knew it. The sweat-filled band in her cloth SWAT hat weighed heavily on her brow, but kept the sun from her eyes so that she could see clearly. The crowd behind Leon didn’t seem to be nearly as enthusiastic as Leon was. She recognized the situation to be a syndrome as much as anything else. People were in a panic and Leon spoke up. Once he realized people were listening to him—for maybe the first time in his life—he started to push his own agenda.