“Get up. Captain wants to see you.” The chief said loudly jerking his hand to indicate Kyler should follow him back through the door.

  Kyler got up and followed the chief into the room. They both saluted when the captain stood up. The captain returned the salute and motioned for them to sit down. Once they were all sitting down Hartfield turned his attention to Kyler.

  “I had a hard time sleeping last night after the debriefing. You gave us a lot to chew on. I think the biggest thing that came out of it was that there’s a tidal wave of uninfected men marching this way to fight us who don’t really have a choice in the matter. The people controlling them by holding their families for ransom are the evil behind that march. Do we agree on that?” The captain asked Kyler. The chief looked like he was about to say something, but Hartfield held up his hand to silence him.

  “Yes sir.” Kyler said. He didn’t add that he’d also stayed up half the night thinking about the same thing. He was curious where this was headed.

  “The conversation with you last night confirmed that that’s what’s going on. You’re the first one to really be able to lay out how the power structure that’s formed in the south has institutionalized kidnapping as leverage. It’s just evil.” The captain took a deep breath while he organized his thoughts. “We’ve been bombing the hell out of their bases to get them to leave us alone. All it seems to have accomplished is speeding up their attack on us. I don’t want to give the order to mow down the troops they’re sending at us but pretty soon I won’t have a choice. The only thing I can think of to stop them is taking out the Senator. We’ve been bombing every command location of theirs we can find out about but we’re not getting him. We need to know where he is. We’re planning on sending in a team to try and find out where the Senator is so we can take him out. The goal is to get to him before we have to kill thousands of men for no good reason. You want in?”

  “Don’t answer that Kyler.” The chief spoke up. “You’ve already risked too much. We have plenty of men who can take this on. Men who have way more years of experience than you do. This is a suicide mission. You’d have to be an idiot to volunteer to go back there again.”

  “The chief’s not wrong.” The captain interrupted. “This is a hail Mary. It’s totally up to you. You’ve already proven you’re a natural at this sort of work. If they catch you though then you’re going to be in a world of hurt. They’ll consider you a traitor to that brand on your back. You’ll be made an example out of.”

  “Yes sir. It’s not what I was hoping to do but I think you’re right about it being the only way. I’m in.” Kyler said after taking a moment to mull it over. He knew he couldn’t in good conscience walk away from this mission. He didn’t think he’d make it back a second time, but he didn’t see himself staying here and pulling the trigger on the poor slobs attacking them knowing that he could’ve possibly saved them.

  “Thank you. We’ve been working in the background on a plan to do this so there’s a small team pretty much ready to go. You just happened to make it back in time to join up with them.” The captain said getting up to once again shake Kyler’s hand.

  “Thank you, sir. Who do I report to for this?” Kyler asked after Captain Hartfield released his hand.

  “That should be a short walk for you. The chief here will be leading the mission.” Captain Hartfield said with a grin.

  Chapter 2: Iron Man

  Randy hadn’t been a big athlete before the world went to hell. He’d gone for occasional walks with Kelly and enjoyed jumping into the occasional pickup basketball game. He had a gym membership he got for free through his work health insurance. Once a year he had to lie on a form and say he actually went to the gym to keep getting it for free. Otherwise he wouldn’t continue getting the extra money on his paycheck to cover the gold level membership he promised himself he was eventually going to use.

  The end of the world had done wonders for his stamina and physique. Constantly living on the edge of starvation, frequent bouts of diarrhea and running for his life most days while carrying small children had done wonders for his core. He no longer had the spare tire he’d built up sitting at his desk for a large part of the day every week back before this new normal went into effect. If he could pull up some old pictures of himself out of the ‘cloud’ somehow, he’d love to see some before and after’s. No one else might care but he thought it’d be neat.

  He was putting all of that newly gained physical stamina to good use now as he ran like his pants were on fire towards the lake. He was wearing his pack and his rifle was banging painfully off his neck and chest as he ran. The warehouse he’d run out of was spewing a long line of the demonic infected. The living demons had been maliciously summoned by the last vengeful shot from a suicidal guard. Randy knew it’d been his fault the guy had ended up infected and had to shoot himself. He didn’t see where that gave the guy the right to be a jerk about it though. He could’ve easily given Randy a little more lead time before eating a bullet from his own gun.

  The lake was pretty close to the warehouse. The problem was that he’d gone out the back of the warehouse which didn’t directly face the lake. He was going to have to jump off a concrete retaining wall, roll through a wooded area full of bushes, and then hit the water on the other side of the narrow beach as fast as he could. The infected were doing their best to motivate him by screeching in lust for his flesh from all around him. Randy made it to the ledge without being taken down. Thinking to himself he might actually make it as long as he kept his head in the game, he leapt off the ledge. It was only a couple of feet off the ground on that side of the warehouse. He hit the ground hard and kept on running.

  More accurately the top half of his body and one of his legs kept running while the remainder of his body stayed anchored to the root his other boot had gotten snagged on. Feeling his leg pulling him painfully backwards he tripped and fell to the ground. The first couple of adrenalized Zombies chasing him jumped completely over him. One of them comically realizing its mistake in midair tried to spin around and ended up knocking itself out on a tree trunk.

  Randy didn’t have time to enjoy the antics of the acrobatic jumpers since he was trying to get his foot out from underneath the root and get into the water before he was eaten alive. A Zombie grabbed ahold of his rifle and began pulling him backwards while he was trying to stand up. He let the rifle slide off his shoulder into the Zombie’s grasp. He put his head down and pumped his legs to keep moving towards the lake. He stiff armed the first Zombie who reached out for him and kept on running. He bounced off a tree and got bogged down in the brush and briars. The Zombies chasing him seized every advantage to close the gap. He pulled out his pistol in anticipation of having to shoot through a few Zombies to make it to the water.

  He muscled his way through the briars with a complete disregard for his exposed skin. Feeling like he needed to get some breathing room he spun on his heel with the pistol up and ready. A Zombie was practically on top of him. The barrel of his pistol tapped the Zombie in the forehead before he pulled the trigger and blew the miserable monsters brain out the back of its skull. The momentum of the Zombie carried it forward and almost knocked Randy off his feet again.

  Another Zombie was right behind that one. Randy snapped off eight quick shots. He dropped five Zombies before turning to continue his desperate sprint for the safety of the deep water. There were more Zombies beating their way through the brush than he had any hope of stopping. He kept his gun in his hand in case he needed it to finish himself off. One of the fast ones leapt at him grabbing his leg and trying to bite him through his pants. Randy put the pistol barrel on its head and yanked the trigger twice. He realized that he hadn’t remembered to make sure he wasn’t pointing the gun at any of his own body parts when he killed the Zombie. He had to get his brain back in the game or he wasn’t going to make it.

  The second time he’d pulled the trigger nothing had happened. He let the useless pistol fall into the shallow water as he
rushed to get as deep as possible before diving in to swim for it. The indescribable roar of the demons behind him told him it was futile for him to keep trying. He did anyway. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t being pulled backwards by the herd chasing him. It occurred to him that some of the background noise he was hearing was the sound of rifle shots. That explained the little plumes of water that were popping up around him as he waded deeper into the lake.

  He still wasn’t going to make it. There’d been a lot of Zombie’s coming after him the last time he looked. Quite a few of them being the beefed-up adrenalized ones who could leap tall buildings in a single bound. Unless the shooters covering him were able to surgically take those out then the cover fire wasn’t going to be enough. He finally got deep enough in the water to dive in and swim for it. When his lungs forced him to come up for air, he saw the two pontoon boats steaming in his direction. That explained the cover fire. It also motivated him to swim like he was trying out for the Olympics. Michael Phelps would’ve been hard pressed to swim as fast fully clothed with a pack strapped to his back.

  His elation at seeing the pontoon boats was short lived. He was forced under the water a second later when a large Zombie jumped on his back pulling them both under. Feeling the creatures hands wrapped around him he shoved his head as far forward as he could. He let himself sink into the chilly water with his unwelcome passenger. He was able to shake himself loose when the Zombie loosened its grip to slide up his body to get its mouth closer to his neck. The bulky pack he was wearing had saved him from being bitten already. He pulled a knife and opened his eyes in the cloudy water to attempt to spear the Zombie before it latched back on to him.

  He recoiled in fear realizing the thing floating in the water directly in front of him was the bearded face of one of the infected. It’s mouth was wide open as it tried to breathe and bite him all at the same time. Zombies had serious issues dealing with deep water which is why they avoided it most of the time. This one reached out and grabbed his shoulder to pull its face closer. Randy punched it in the throat with his knife blade a couple of times. Bloody bubbles poured out if its throat as it died still trying to get its teeth into him.

  All around him more Zombies were thrashing around. Some were in the process of drowning while others were managing to move through the water towards him. Randy kicked off the bottom of the lake and swam as hard as he could in the direction that he thought would take him deeper. He bounced off a couple of Zombies who didn’t realize their prey was the thing bumping into their legs. He swam until he felt like his lungs were going to burst and he was seeing black spots in front of his eyes. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he kicked off the bottom and emerged out of the water.

  The waist deep water. He’d gotten turned around and swam right past his pursuers only to pop up closer to the beach. He could hear the people on the pontoon boat yelling and screaming at him to get back under the water and swim for it. He gasped for breath as the screeches of the infected drowned out the cries from the boats. The water around him turning white as the Zombies rushed through it on their way to him. He dove back under trying to hide his whole body under the water. He felt hands grabbing his legs and realized his butt must be showing on the surface. He kicked hard and slipped out of their grasp. This time he knew which direction he should be swimming.

  He swam underwater in the correct direction until he could no longer breathe. When he got to the point of almost blacking out again, he kicked for the surface. His head broke the surface and he bobbed in the water unable to touch the bottom. The corpses of a couple of Zombies were floating in the water around him. Not bothering to count the number of drowned Zombies floating in the water around him he turned and stroked as quietly as he could in the direction of the pontoon boats. People were shooting off the deck at the infected who were still trying to get to him. One of the boats cruised over to meet him. Hands reached down to help him aboard.

  Climbing onto the boat he was ecstatic to see Myriah and Zoey and everyone else. They were all standing there beaming at him except for his wife. Kelly was busy ripping at his clothes to make sure he hadn’t been bitten. He kissed her when her face got close enough to his. She finished checking him for bites and sat down on the deck beside him. The rest of the family gathered around as well. Everyone else on the boat went back to what they’d been doing before all the extra excitement.

  “Miss me?” Randy asked. He had to speak loudly to be heard over the roar from the infected on the beach behind them.

  “Sounds like the Zombies miss you dad.” Myriah said.

  They all turned to look back at the beach. The entire surface of the beach out into the shallow water was packed tightly with the screaming infected. There were hundreds of them stretched out along the murky shoreline. That wasn’t even counting the ones who were floating around the perimeter of the mob in the deeper water. The ones who’d either been shot or gotten in over their heads and drowned.

  “I guess we’re headed for the moldy tent island then?” Randy asked.

  “Yes.” Kelly snapped. She looked at him with fire in her eyes for a moment before punching him hard in the chest. “You idiot. Never do that again!”

  Randy bit back a sharp retort. Should he never go look for their lost kids again? He wanted to say something like that, but he didn’t. His reserve was rewarded seconds later when Kelly threw her arms around him in a tearful hug. She was more fearful of losing him than pissed at him. He supposed he’d feel the same if the situation was reversed. Come to think of it he had felt the same several times over the last couple of years when the situation had been reversed. They didn’t live in a safe reasonable world anymore. This wasn’t a world where you could sue McDonalds if hot coffee was spilled in your lap. This was a world where you risked having the skin ripped off your body every time you stopped the car because someone had to pee. A world where greasy little men in white vans with lost puppies and bags of cheap candy were no longer what parents feared most whenever their children were out of sight.

  Randy held Kelly until the kids joined into the hug. Doreen happily announcing to the world at large that it was a group hug and smiling like a little psycho. The enthusiasm for the hug eventually waned and they wandered to the bow of the boat to watch as a small tree covered island drew steadily closer. They took in the sight of where they were going to be spending the next week or so living. The counselor lady, Janet, hadn’t been lying when she’d told them it wasn’t the most pleasant of places to pass the time. Randy imagined he could hear the buzz of giant mosquitoes from all the way out here. The lack of infected looked pretty good though from where he stood in the bow of the boat with the breeze blowing his hair around.

  Moldy tents and cold rations or not, he was looking forward to sleeping somewhere that Zombies didn’t have a chance of showing up. When the boat pulled up to the dock, they lined up with everyone else to step onto the small, creaky dock and walk down to the beach. The only real building on the island was a small shop that had rented inflatables and sold beer to the tourists during the summer. The rest of the island had never been used for much of anything until the people in charge of the warehouse decided to use it as their fallback base.

  Tents had been erected after an area full of brush and trees had been cleared out of the way. The tents were the large national guard ones. Each tent could hold ten people with all their gear. They came complete with cots for each of those ten people to sleep on. There were sleeping bags and other camping gear stored in each of the tents. The whole thing looked like someone had robbed an army surplus store to set it up. Probably because they’d looted the contents of an entire army surplus store and used that to set it up.

  “That was quite the exit.” Janet said walking up to Randy and shaking his hand before taking the time to give Kelly and each of the kids a hug.

  “He should’ve left when the warning lights went on. Marco would still be alive.” A stocky bearded solider with a shaved head said. The man moved aggress
ively in front of Randy. A couple of other pissed off looking guys were backing him up. They’d been on the boat that hadn’t transported Randy and his family across the lake. Probably a good thing.

  “He would probably still be alive. He died because he helped me look for my kids. I thought they were missing. He must’ve been a good man.” Randy said. He didn’t back down a single inch when the bearded man took a step forward to get directly in his face. One of the men behind him was smiling excitedly while the other one was starting to look nervous.

  “He was a good man. Ten times the man your dumb ass is.” The bearded soldier shoved Randy hard knocking him backwards. Randy tripped and landed on his butt in the sand with the man towering over him. The guy had pulled out a wicked looking machete.

  It didn’t look quite as wicked as the barrel of Kelly’s M-16 pressed against his neck. Myriah and Caitlyn had also drawn their weapons and were pointing them at the man. Neither of the men standing in the background had done anything. Janet had disappeared. A small crowd gathered around observing the tense confrontation. Randy hoped with all the people gathered around someone in charge would step in and end this before it got any worse. Then it got worse.