Zombie Rules (Book 3): ZFINITY Read online

  We had our assault rifles rigged with front slings, combat ready where we could bring them up and start shooting quickly, if needed.

  The two of us exited the building and watched as a GMC Yukon Denali parked near my truck and four people exited. Their body language was tense, unfriendly. Terry instinctively sidestepped to the left of me.

  “Hello,” I said, while looking them over. The youngest one was a boy about my age. Two of them, a man and woman, appeared to be a year or two older, and one was a man in his forties. They were all black, and all were wearing black clothing, complete with berets and mirrored sunglasses. Their jackets were festooned with military ribbons and patches. They all had weapons and weren’t smiling. There was a tense silence before the older one spoke.

  “What were you two doing inside my building?” he asked. His voice was icy, menacing. I guess he thought he was being intimidating. I looked at him with contempt.

  “Your building?” I asked. He nodded slowly, which I assume was supposed to appear menacing.

  “We charge a tax for using our property,” he continued, “you two white boys haven’t paid.”

  “Sure we did, I left it inside for you,” I responded and hooked my thumb toward the door behind me. He looked at me curiously.

  “I took a big, nasty shit right in the middle of the lobby. If you hurry, it’ll still be warm,” I continued evenly. “It’ll be the most nutritious lunch you’ve had in quite a while.” The younger one scowled at me. The older one, I guess he was their leader, smiled without humor.

  I returned his humorless smile. “Oh, I’m sorry, is this supposed to be the part of your fantasy where we piss our pants and beg for your forgiveness?” I asked.

  “You’re going to beg alright,” the younger one said with a sneer.

  “Don’t count on it,” Terry said in a growl.

  “You two have some balls on you, I’ll give you that,” the older one said. His tone had lightened up a little, but not by much. I tried a slightly different tact.

  “We’re not looking for trouble,” I said, “but we’re not anyone’s bitch, and we don’t pay taxes. If you have a problem with it, start shooting.” I finished what I had to say and glared in their direction, waiting for them to make a move.

  Mentally, I was making a threat assessment, as I’m sure Terry was doing as well. The older one had a handgun still in the holster. The one who was my age had an assault rifle that appeared to be an AK-47. It was slung in front like ours, ready for quick use. A very lethal weapon, but he had one problem. The safety lever on an AK is fairly large, and therefore easily visible. I noted it was still in the safe position. So, the first person I was going to shoot was the one in the middle. Knowing how good a shot Julie and Andie were, I wasn’t going to underestimate the woman, she was going to be the secondary target.

  There was a quiet, tense, moment that dragged out for several seconds. Suddenly, the older man started laughing. His bared teeth, the ones he still had, were a dark yellow, almost brown in color.

  “Hakuna Matata my friends, there are no worries. There is no need for any shooting today. We’re brothers-in-arms, after all,” he said.

  “I would probably agree,” I responded, “but your Black Panther get up indicates an obvious disdain toward white people.”

  Terry glanced over at me. I casually gave the hand signal for caution before returning it to the pistol grip of my assault rifle.

  “Where are you two from?” he asked.

  “This is my hometown. My name’s Zach,” I responded.

  “And you?” he asked, looking at Terry.

  “I’m from Fort Campbell,” he replied. “Where are you from?”

  The older one waved his hand around. “The world is my domain,” he said with an egotistical grin. Wonderful, I thought, another little man who thought he was king. I watched him intently as he looked around, grinning with his eight or nine teeth.

  “Ah, well, we have other things to do. We will bid you goodbye then. Kifo na we we,” he said and turned toward their vehicle. As he did so, he nodded slightly at his companions.

  I was almost too late in the translation, but managed to bring my weapon up at the same time as the three minions. I fired a quick double-tap in my primary target and then shot the woman with a double tap to the chest. Terry didn’t hesitate. As soon as I started firing, he shot the youngest man. The woman grunted in pain and started shooting wildly with her AK as she fell to the ground, stitching a line of bullets between us. Terry shot her again as I focused on the older one. He had his revolver out and fired before he aimed. I heard the impact of the bullet against the building several feet above my head, as I put four quick rounds in his chest. He fired again as he fell and I heard Terry grunt. I aimed determinedly and put one more round in his head for good measure.

  “Are you hit?” I asked, as I scanned the other three. None of them was moving.

  “It’s only a scratch,” Terry replied tensely. I hastened a quick glance. There was a crimson circle forming around his thigh. Shit.

  “Cover me,” I said, rushed forward, and got all of the weapons away from our new adversaries. Surprisingly, the female was still alive, even though we’d shot her three times. She looked at me in fright as a froth of blood formed around her mouth. I realized then she was younger than I first believed, closer to my age or even younger, but, I had no sympathy. They had tried to kill us after all.

  Once I had secured all of the weapons, I hurried back to Terry and inspected his wound closer. There was a horizontal trough the size of my little finger across his leg, and bright red blood seeped from it. It wasn’t pulsing out though, which I took as a good sign.

  “It caught the inner part of your thigh. You were lucky it’s only a grazing wound. If it went any deeper, it could have severed your femoral artery,” I looked up at him and grinned. “Any higher and he would have shot your balls off.”

  Terry chuckled nervously, I dropped my knapsack, retrieved a first aid kit, and went to work. I cut a larger hole in his pants, squirted the gash full of Neosporin, and tightly wrapped it with an Army surplus field dressing. I checked my work with satisfaction before standing.

  “It’ll have to do for now.”

  “It burns like hell, but you’re right, I was lucky. Andie would have been devastated if my balls were shot off,” he replied. Now it was my turn to laugh.

  “Our scavenging is done for the day,” I declared, “let’s go home.” Terry clenched his teeth tightly as I helped him back to the truck, determined not to cry out in pain.

  “What did the older one say?” Terry asked. “I saw you tense when he said it.”

  “Kifo na we we. It means something like ‘death to you’ in Swahili,” I said. Terry chortled.

  “Damn, Zach, is there anything you don’t know?” he asked sarcastically. There was plenty, I thought.

  “I had a friend on the track team who was from Kenya,” I explained. “He spoke Swahili and taught me a few phrases.”

  Terry nodded in understanding and I hurriedly checked their SUV for anything we could use. The Yukon was a fairly newer model, but it appeared to be poorly maintained and the interior smelled like B.O. There were some canned food products, a couple of cardboard boxes of ammunition, and four plastic Army surplus canteens. I took the food and ammunition, but left the dirty canteens.

  Before getting in the truck, I took a moment to look them over. The girl was dead now. All of them were lying motionless in pools of blood. I scoffed as I stared at them. They were nothing more than heathens. I guess I should have felt a pang of empathy, but I stopped caring long ago about the morality of killing people such as these. I got in the truck and we left.

  We radioed ahead on the CB and everyone was waiting on us when we arrived. Andie helped me get Terry inside and onto his bed. There were some towels laid out, along with our medical bag. Andie cut off Terry’s pants with a pair of scissors and then carefully removed the field dressing that I had applied.

 
“I’m going to clean it up,” she said to Terry. “It’ll probably sting a little.” Terry nodded, and then she looked up at me. “Should we cauterize it?” she asked.

  “When did you have your last tetanus shot, Terry?” I asked.

  “I got all of my inoculations in basic training, about four years ago.”

  “Good, I don’t believe any cauterization is needed.”

  Julie glanced at me and I knew what she was thinking. A tetanus shot was only good for ten years, and little Frederick was not going to receive one, or any other vaccinations in the foreseeable future. What was going to happen to him if and when he falls down and scrapes his knee, or steps on a rusty nail? What would happen to the rest of us when the tetanus antigen was no longer in our bodies?

  My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a vehicle drive up and car doors slam shut. Looking out of the window, I saw Fred, Joe, and Tommy hurrying in. Right behind them was another car load, driven by Big Mac. Wanda was in the passenger seat, and Rhonda was sitting in back with the three little girls. Soon, we had a house full of people gathered around Terry, looking at him and his wound. Unfortunately for Terry, he was wearing a pair of skimpy, baby blue colored underwear.

  “Those sure are a fancy pair of panties,” Rowdy said offhandedly. We all laughed. Terry’s face reddened.

  “They’re briefs,” Andie retorted and looked warmly at Terry. “I think he looks sexy in them.”

  We all laughed again.

  As Andie cleaned the wound and applied fresh dressings, I quietly eased myself out the back door and walked to my truck. I heard the door softly close and turned to see Fred walking toward me.

  “What do you think, Fred?” I asked when he got close.

  “He’ll be walking with a limp for a while, but I think he’ll be okay if infection doesn’t set in.”

  I agreed, but frowned as I thought of my old friend Rick. He had caught some shrapnel in his leg from a booby trap back in Vietnam. Infection had set in and caused a lot of damage. Afterward, he had limited use of his leg and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. I pointed out the loot.

  “We got three AK-47 copycats, a 357 revolver, some assorted ammunition, and a few cans of food,” I said. Fred picked up one of the AKs and looked it over.

  “These are Maadis, they’re made in Egypt I believe. Very reliable,” he picked up one of the thirty round magazines. “Someone could put a lot of rounds downrange with these.”

  He then motioned at the revolver. I rendered it safe by opening the cylinder and handed it to him. Fred inspected it as if it was a long lost friend.

  “Ah, yes, a Ruger Security Six, a very nice handgun. None of these weapons have been very well maintained. I’ll task the boys with cleaning them,” he handed it back to me. “Tell me about the people you encountered.”

  “There were four of them. They drove up while we were inside the Boy Scout’s Office building. There were two younger men and a girl about my age, and an older dude. He seemed to be the leader. They were all black and decked out like they were in some sort of revolutionary militia or something. They exuded hatred, but I thought I had managed to talk them down. The older one acted like they were going to leave, and then he said a phrase in Swahili. I knew what it meant.”

  Fred arched an eyebrow. I shrugged. “They brought their weapons up, but I was ready. Terry followed my lead. The old man managed to get a couple of rounds off and shot Terry before I killed him.”

  I looked at Fred to try to determine what he was thinking. He nodded in silence, and stared quietly at the scenery for a minute before he spoke.

  “I guess this is the way of the world these days. Too many of our encounters with other survivors have resulted in a fatality, or multiple fatalities. We need to rethink our strategy when coming into contact with strangers,” he finally said.

  “Are you suggesting I’m too quick to kill people?” I asked. Fred looked at me somberly. I felt the blood rushing to my face. Not from embarrassment, but anger.

  “I’m not proud of killing people, Fred. Anyone I killed, I did it to protect either myself, or others. I’ll do whatever it takes to survive and protect the people I love,” I said angrily.

  “I’m not disagreeing, Zach, but still, I’m worried about you,” Fred took his cowboy hat off and scratched his head. I noticed a fresh haircut. He saw me looking.

  “Mac and Rhonda decided my self-haircuts were unacceptable,” he said. I smiled, but his next question made it disappear quickly.

  “How many have you killed now, twelve? Thirteen?” he asked. The truth was, the number was higher, but I only shrugged. “I’m only bringing it up because I’m worried all of this killing may be doing something to you emotionally.”

  “I’m okay,” I said quietly, but I wasn’t sure I believed it.

  “Would you tell me if you weren’t?” he asked. I shrugged. He reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. “I hope you will, and I hope you know you can always count on me.”

  “I know, Fred. I’m okay, really,” I said. Fred continued looking at me a long moment, and then smiled in a fatherly way.

  “I think the two young soldiers need to learn how to properly disassemble and clean these weapons. Let’s take them inside.”

  Chapter 4 – Strange Dogs

  It took us a couple of days before we made it back to the Boy Scout’s office. There were three of us in this endeavor, Fred, Rowdy, and myself. Before heading out, we went by the radio tower to see how they were doing. As we drove in, I saw Kelly and Terry riding an ATV from the creek with one of the blue plastic barrels strapped on the back. I looked in the side view mirror after we drove by and saw something that made me do a double take. Kelly, who was sitting close to Terry, leaned toward him and gave him a quick but probing kiss. I also noticed one of her hands stroke Terry’s crotch. I glanced over at my two companions, but they seemed oblivious.

  “Hi, guys,” I greeted when they drove up, “gathering water, I see.”

  “Yeah,” Terry replied, “I promised them I’d help distill a few gallons,” he looked over at the barrel. “I could use some help with the barrel though, I can’t put very much weight on this leg.”

  “Understandable. I’ll give you a hand,” I walked over to the ATV and looked over at Kelly. “May I ask a favor of you? I forgot to fill my thermos with coffee this morning, could you fill it for me?”

  Kelly glanced at me briefly, but quickly looked away. “Sure, Zach.” She got my thermos out of the truck and walked toward the radio tower’s house.

  Terry hobbled to the rear of the ATV with the aid of a crutch. I waved him off.

  “I’ll get it.”

  “Can you handle it?” he asked. I gestured at the barrel.

  “Y’all put about thirty gallons in it. Water weighs about eight pounds a gallon. I better be able to handle it,” I said and grabbed the barrel in a bear hug. With a grunt, I picked it up and walked toward the still, in quick baby steps.

  “Good job, brother,” Terry said with a grin. I gave him a long look. He noticed it and the grin left his face. “What?” he asked. I looked around to see if anyone was within earshot. Fred was standing in the doorway, but he was still far enough away where he couldn’t hear me. I lowered my voice.

  “There’s something I’m going to say while nobody else is around, and then I won’t say another word.”

  Terry looked evenly at me. “You can’t keep secrets within our group, we’re too close knit and we know each other’s behavior patterns. It’s only a matter of time before everyone figures out what you and Kelly are up to.”

  He stared at me a moment before looking off into the distance. “Is it so obvious then?”

  “My powers of observation may be a little more acute than some of the others, but it’s obvious enough,” I nodded over at Fred. “He probably knows. He won’t say anything, but it won’t matter. Everyone will figure it out eventually.”

  “Shit,” Terry muttered as he leaned against his crutch. “D
o you think Andie knows?”

  What’s that Terry? You’re only now thinking of your girlfriend, Andie, the woman you sleep with every night?

  I shrugged. “She’s not stupid. She’s bound to find out.”

  “Shit,” Terry repeated, “we didn’t mean for it to happen, it just did.”

  Yeah, his cock accidentally fell out of his pants and Kelly fell on it. Right.

  “What the hell should I do?” he asked me.

  “Damn, Terry, how am I supposed to answer that? I only wanted to point out to you this secret little tryst you two are having isn’t very secret. What you do from here on out is up to you.”

  I patted him on the shoulder and walked back to the truck, leaving him to think about the predicament he had so foolishly gotten himself into.

  We scouted the area before driving into the parking lot and found the corpses still lying there.

  “They’ve not been moved,” I told my partners, Fred and Rowdy.

  “The cold weather has kept the decomposition down,” Fred commented, “and the rats haven’t gotten to them yet.”

  I nodded silently in agreement.

  “I don’t think they had any friends,” Rowdy opined, “if they did, they would have taken the Escalade at the minimum.”

  Fred nodded. “Yeah, if they did have friends, they didn’t bother to come looking for them.”

  As I stood there looking at the four of them, it was hard to imagine they were vicious heathens attempting to kill us. They looked – sad, innocent. Well, the two teenagers did. The twenty-something year old was plain looking, a little man dressed up like a tough guy. I had no emotions for him. The old guy looked like a typical dead piece of shit. He had it coming to him. I had no feelings of guilt for killing them, but it still depressed me that it had to come to this.

  Fred must have sensed my mood, he looked around, scanning the area and cleared his throat.