Dark Home Coming

The return home was sullen as we reflected on the friends we had lost. We had gained major inroads in getting a cohesive society again with people in other places. We had gained more friends than we had lost, but it still hurt like hell. All of us who survived came home with wounds either physical or mental. Some of us both. Once we reached the town limits we were given orders to eradicate any of the dead we came across. The streets were eerily empty. Our mood was tired and aching, it would soon be black.

As we pulled through the gates the women left at the Depot were relived to see us. Then we got the news.
Sometime during the night of our first day away, someone left the prisoners loose. Instead of escaping like any sane people would have, they decided on mischief. Odessa and Jill (Found in town a few days back)found them trying to break into the nursery. A trail of carnage followed them there, as they had killed several people and children while they slept with knives. One of the women who were stabbed did not die right away and crawled to another room and alerted the occupants. The woman and her 2 children ran to get Odessa, who grabbed Jill as she was now just across the hall. Armed with shotgun and pistol, the pair found the five people pushing their way into the barricaded nursery. By now the Depot was alerted and more women were gathered behind the first two along with the doctor. They ignored commands to stop and continued to pound on the doors.

‘Stop and turn around, now!’ Odessa shouted, her shotgun raised. Jill had her pistol aimed down the dead end hallway. Odessa then pumped a shell into the chamber. The sound had the desired effect, the five stopped and turned around, their hands bloody, knives dangling.
‘Put down the knives and get down on the floor!’ She yelled at them again. They looked confused, wild eyed. They then started slowly towards them.
‘Stop, I mean it!’ she yelled again. They kept coming. She hesitated and they suddenly started to sprint.
The roar of the shotgun was deafening in the small space, and the hammering of Jill’s 9mm pistol was barely heard. Another roar from the shot gun and the five lay twitching on the floor. The doctor rushed to check them, gloves already on, and knelt down in the gore.
‘They’re done. Good shooting ladies.’ He peeled their eye lids back and used a pocket light. ‘Just as I thought, they have the virus. We need to check the rooms where people were killed, now.’ Woman moved off to check, some only armed with shovels or butcher knives. Odessa and Jill stood there watching as the nursery door opened and J.T.’s wife stuck her head out the door to see if it was clear or not. Odessa left at the point and went to our room. Jill stayed and got the bodies handled and taken out to be burnt in the parking lot.

Odessa never wanted to kill a human being. Zombies were different. This hit her hard. It didn’t matter they were infected and turning, but they still looked human. They still bleed and made noise when they died. The next day women came up to her to thank her and it made it worse on her. We lost 9 women and 6 children, of which 2 women and 3 children were to be waiting on men coming back with me. Once the tale spread through our ranks, the two husbands, Tom D. and Jack H., needless to say took it not so well. The dead were already buried in the lot outside the fences with the graves marked by the time we came home. It was a very sad homecoming indeed. Odessa was distraught and numb. She cried a lot the first day I was back. The Major called for me twice and I ignored him both times. Finally my Dad rolled to the room and looked in on us.
‘The Major needs to talk to you both.’ Dad said quietly, well quietly for him being nearly deaf.
‘He can come to us if he wants us!’ I replied, my patience with the world very strained at the moment.
About that time the Major stuck his head around the corner, ‘I thought you would say that, but we do need to talk, all of us.’
Resignedly Odessa sat on the bed and looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. I looked on with a glare. Dad followed him into the room and shut the door behind him. The room felt very crowded and you could almost see the storm cloud brewing in the air between us. I was pissed for leaving Odessa behind and not having the foresight to see this happening. I was also pissed at the Major for losing so many people. I was just pissed in general. It didn’t have to make sense, I was angry.
‘We got a big problem,’ The Major started, I cut him off.
‘What was your first clue Kevin? The zombies outside? The bandits trying to kill for what little shit we have? Or maybe I missed something? FUCK!’ so I exploded. Odessa watched me with something akin to terror in her eyes. Or was it disbelief?
‘Shut the hell up and listen for Christ’s sake!’ Dad roared. I calmed. Slightly.
‘Yes, sir.’ I said and sat back down on the bed. The major cleared his throat, and then looked at me. Not with anger but with sorrow.
‘We have all been through a lot lately. I am sorry for everyone’s lose, but I cannot change that. I think you are missing the point though.’
‘Such as?’
‘Someone here released the prisoners, they could not have cut the straps on their legs and arms themselves.’
The world got a little darker. I completely missed the fact in the retelling of the tale.
‘I thought the Doc said they were infected, like a fast Z. Couldn’t they have broken loose?’
The Major shook his head sadly, ‘If they did they would have left flesh behind. The straps were cut. The doctor recovered them while they were cleaning. We have at least one traitor in our midst, maybe more.’
The world went completely dark.

After our little pow-wow, we decided only very few would know this information. I also posited the idea that the bandits killed their helper(s). Since no bodies were found in the integration room, we must assume they are still with us. Damn. As if we haven’t got enough shit to deal with. We got back to ‘normal’ over the next few days. We kept watch for anything strange, well stranger than normal anyway.
Odessa’s mood slowly got better and then was almost back to normal when her brother called her. She was waiting for almost five days after I told her. Many times she wanted to take our old truck and go see him. I vetoed it and it almost came to a verbal boxing match. They talked for about a half hour until my crappy Sony Ericson’s battery gave out. I told her he promised to keep in contact and she could call when she had the chance and the phones still worked. Our plans for our Power Plant trip were tabled again and we are now awaiting a good day to do it. During all this I would be remiss in the memorials we had for our fallen. We have started a ‘wall’ made of a piece of stainless steel bolted to the floor in one of the garages. Dad showed a few people how to acid etch the names into the plate. We will now have a reminder of the people who gave it all to keep us safe. This Memorial day will be a sad one at best.

John was by several times with J.T. to see Odessa, and to always thank her for keeping their wife and grandchild safe. She smiled each time, but I knew it was hollow, she hated killing people. I told her it would be okay and went through the motions, but deep down I knew I could not heal for her or heal her myself. Only time and her own mind could do that. For once Zak and the bandits left us alone for almost a solid week. Watson radioed us to say the starter crops were growing great and could soon be used as seed stock and as food soon. The still is producing alcohol at a good rate and we had several barrels sealed and stored. We had converted a few cars over to run on our ‘fuel’ and the test seems pretty good. We will be leaving in a day or two, as the Dix River plant people said the bandits had slackened to the point of being opportunists and a nuisance.

When we leave again, we are leaving Odessa in charge again, against her wishes, but we are only taking about a third of our forces this time. I wanted to stay but the Major said no, he needed me out in the field. More like he needed Odessa to work this out without me hovering over her. It may again be a few days before we I can report back, but hopefully I can get some images with the next report.

Over.

Final Seconds

The man, and I will remember him until I die, could have been the guy who ran the local grocery or even served you a burger in a diner, he had dark hair, bright blue eyes and greasy hair. He showed many scars on his face and arms, and probably was once a auto mechanic. His grin never made it to his eyes as he leveled the Russian automatic rifle on me. His smile grew wide as he thought about what was going to happen to me and was probably thinking of how much he was going to enjoy this, now that laws were passé’. That was the last thought he had. One moment I was searching for a way out of this and nearly shitting myself, the next minute I am covered in hair, skin, bits of brain and I think a few teeth.

I was still standing there thinking I was just fantasizing about that and was already dead when the man’s body thumped to the floor with a wet thud, splashing gore on my pants and boots. This brought me out of my stupor and I nearly brained Jake with my useless rifle when he stuck his head in the door.

‘Damn you look like shit.’ He smiled. I just shook my head, dislodging the gore, which I will not think about, and dropped my rifle on the floor to get my glasses to clean them. The rifle discharged when it hit the floor scaring the shit out of both of us. Yeah, I was stupid for doing that. I just shook my head and slid down the wall, slightly shaking as my adrenaline started to fade.

John was standing over me with my rifle in his hand when I looked back up.

‘What they hell were you doing talking to that asshole?’ I got up and brushed more gore off my left shoulder. (How much crap can come from one human head exploding, anyway?)

‘My AR jammed; I talked to him to buy some time to get out of being killed.’

‘So what did you come up with?’

‘I had nothing.’ I said and walked out taking my rifle. Near death makes you see things strangely.

We gathered again in the hallway, now full of holes and bloody bodies, and figured we might as well head to the stadium. From the gunfire coming from outside, our side and theirs was engaged in battle near the stadium. We raced through the building as fast as we felt safe, back though hallways and some assorted classrooms. We stopped near the back of the building and looked through the broken windows that looked over a parking lot and then the Alumni stadium. Men were gathered near the base of the building behind cards and a few trucks that were left in the lot. Our guys were firing from the edge of Eastern bypass or they hunkered down in the southern parking lot returning fire. One of our trucks burst into flame as an RPG fired from the Alumni building took it in the side.

‘Shit, we can’t take that for long.’ John said as we watched another RPG flash out and thankfully miss an APC. The RPG was answered by the .50 caliber machine gun from the APC, tearing away at the walls and the cars.

‘What now Kemo Sabe?’ John asked as he checked his pockets, finding his last full magazine.

I had only maybe 29 or so rounds left in my rifle. If it worked when I needed it too. Jake was taking aim from this vantage point and taking out stragglers near the Alumni Building. Albert joined in and even the girls started picking off people with their crossbows. They were good, now I knew who was going to teach the new bow class if we get back in one piece.

‘Anyone got any extra mags? I’m empty. John is down to his last one.’ Sam was using an old M16, and had a hunting rifle, so he handed over his last four mags. I gave two to John.

‘No full auto. We need to conserve.’ I joked as he shoved the mags, one in each vest pocket. I did the same. He suddenly knew what I was going to do.

‘I know, I know, you really hate me. Come one, let’s go. Please guys, give us all the cover you can, okay?’

Everyone affirmed. Then John and I carefully entered the back lot. By now the bad guys had figured they were taking fire from the Combs building and started firing back. Unfortunately we were the only idiots exposed.

We made it to a parked car and hid behind it as we listened to bullets rip into it and sometimes rip through it. We were each hiding behind a wheel but knew that would not last long. Suddenly the air above us was filled with lead as Jake and company traded fire. I motioned with my thumb, telling John it was time to find a new hiding place. Between the place we were and the corner of the Alumni building was a water tower and a lot of open ground. Shit.  We leaned over the car and took quick aim at the moving targets hiding at the corner and laying prone on the ground. I know I hit at least two bandits and I think John got three before we were both hit.

Being hit by a bullet, even with a modern Kevlar vest, STILL HURTS LIKE HELL. Luckily we both fell behind the car when we went down.  I took a shot in the stomach area, after the bullet had travelled through the car to hit me. John took one in the left shoulder and was bleeding. I crawled to him and took a quick look at him. The bullet came through the weak area of the vest with just enough force to break the skin, and go in about a quarter inch.

‘Shit this hurts.’ He said holding his probably already numb shoulder. I smiled and laughed in the gunfire, ‘I told you, but nooo, you need to feel it to understand it.’  I looked up toward the Combs building and gave them a thumbs up, so they knew were cool. I recovered John’s rifle and gave it back to him. He tried to hold it and fumbled it out of his hands.

‘You’re done big boy. Here,’ I gave him my 9mm and cocked it, ‘Keep any sneaky assholes from getting the drop on me, okay.’ I then leaned him up against the wheel again. I took his rifle, charged it and went back to my wheel. I had my rifle reloaded and John’s rifle ready if I ran dry and couldn’t change the mags quickly. That’s when all hell broke loose.

From the south behind our guys, the warlord’s forces arrived. I guess the bandits here radioed for help. I could see old trucks and some Humvees coming across the fields bearing down on our guys shooting. I leaned down and flattened along the ground, my stomach complaining. I sighted in and started firing. Our forces were vastly outnumbered. I then realized what I was seeing was maybe just us from the Deport and a few others. What happened is that the Warlord (more on this asshole later) and his forces all in a wedge came down upon our APCs and the few Humvees we had. Thinking we were this small in number they became over confident. Suddenly the rest of our forces in hiding and not firing hit them from the flanks and from behind. It was over in a few minutes. We captured a small group of bandits and the warlord himself. We then started mopping up and going about releasing the prisoners. About this time Zak was once again drawn to the scent of blood and the noise of battle.

We radioed the Blue Grass Ammo Depot and they would have the still standing gates open and would lead us to some place safe.  The trip took about ten minutes. 

 

Blue Grass Armory Depot, access road.

 

We hooked up the BGAD people and we lead back some dirt roads that paralleled some rail road tracks until we came to a fenced in area that was not burnt or blown full of holes. Once inside they shut the gates and all of us dismounted and took a rest. We retrieved our 6X6’s from 52 and got them to the BGAD and started unloading food, feeding the prisoners, treating wounds and then finally relaxing.

The prisoners were very grateful and the Richmond Regulars were reunited with some of their families. 

We figure that with the Warlord with us, and a conservative guess of 90% of his forces gone, the rest would flee or even get eaten. Good. And I hope Zak gets heartburn. We spent the next day helping the sick, injured and imprisoned get better or as best we could. Reports are the dead heads came back with a vengeance and are occupying the stadium and campus en masse, leaving town somewhat empty. The scouts reported seeing ‘normals’ moving about town but were too far away to make contact.  The guys in the Blue Grass Army Depot, no longer fearing bandits or raiders made a ‘pact’ with the Richmond Regulars’ that they would take on people and help out each other out with supplies, food, etc. Basically becoming a much larger armed group that could better protect themselves. We traded our food supplies and other items they needed and replaced them in our trucks with ammo and guns. We also picked up a healthy supply of medicines. We helped get them prepared for any more bandits or a large group of Zak as best we could and then started saying our goodbyes.

Ashley was not coming with me, he and Ben had found a home here and they were going to help. Odessa would not be happy, but told him my cell phone still worked and to call his sister in a day or two after I broke the news to her. He promised me he would and we left it at that.  We finished our loading, and mounted up for our trip back home. Minus some very good people, of them I knew only a handful really well. Katy was lost when the truck blew up in the parking lot of Alumni Stadium. They were using the truck as cover and a mobile hospital. I will miss her greatly; she was a good friend and basically kept me alive during my sickness. We started out with 76 people in our convoy, we were down to 52. All totaled our side lost a combined 146 people.

Here are the people in no particular order; I do not give out last names on purpose, sorry. If you believe you know them contact me through the other channels. Those with stars are related. Some people we only knew by a nickname.

Katy W.

William J.*

James J.*

Richard K.

Benny S.

Owen D.

Mason R.*

Rick R.*

‘Hal’ Gene J.

Greg O.

Luis S.*

Jose S.*

Robert P.

Mitchell L.

‘Skeet’

‘Winchester’

Maryellen G.

Kenny K.

‘Shelly’

Greyson Alexander  N.

Gill V.

Sonny R.

Quintin E.

Karrie D.

With heavy hearts we turn our way west toward home, but we did fill our ranks with some new people.  The four students that saved John and my bacon decided they had had enough of Richmond, came with us. We left the warlord, a despised World History teacher and the ones that surrendered to the not-so-tender mercies of the Richmond Regulars. They were hanging from the barbed wire tops of the fences near the entrance of the Blue Grass Army Depot as we left. We had no hand in that as we were there by invite and we thought the people that suffered the most should decide their fate. Let’s just say I was quite satisfied.  Little did I know my days were going to get longer. 

 

In a word

We came around one of the last houses in the subdivision and there stood Jake, Albert and a few others.

The four we were with came to a quick stop, unsure of the situation. I took this moment to breath, and then spoke ‘Beat us back , huh?’

‘Yeah most of the Zak in this area is down seeing what the alarm was about. I sent Albert ahead and he came back with some reinforcements. We are to go to the north a bit and hit them from the north-west. Stir some shit and then the Major will start down the hill.’

‘You do know most of the damn zombies are between us and the stadium still, right?’ John spat and sat on the grass. I joined him, my legs both ached now. I’ve had too good for too long, too out of shape.

‘Are you going to get the people from the Warlord?’ The tallest and dirtiest girl, maybe 18 but I doubt it, asked. Her bleached blond hair slowly turning brown from lack of treatment, but her eyes were a strange shade of green. The others were looking warily back and forth between us. I forget my manners it seems.

‘Jake and company, meet our rescuers. They cleared the way from the fire station and got us back here. I don’t know who they are but they are all right in my book. ’

‘Yeah, thanks. We appreciate that.’ John muttered grumpily. I smiled at that and Jake laughed.

‘Thanks for the help you guys, what are you doing in town anyway?’ Jake asked as he stood watching them. They were students at EKU when this all started. They heard about it happening in the hospital here before the news from Cincinnati hit. They all were friends, one (James) was a studying horticulture, another(Rick) was going for his R.N. in nursing, he worked at the hospital and being a fellow paranoid got his friends who would listen to prepare for the worst. The not blond was Dana, she was studying to be a paralegal and the last girl, well woman, she was 26, Jill was doing some work to be a paramedic. They kept hiding and stealing so they could survive, between the zombies and the ‘Warlord’ they did okay on their own so far. Jake had us get off our asses and get up, we had a job to do. The four asked if they could come along to help, at first I was going to say no, but hell, they know the place better than we did and besides, everyone had a right to fight for themselves now. So we set off with James in the lead as scout, he would take Jake ahead (or Albert) and get a head of us while we moved as quickly and cautiously as we could. The other four men with us was Gary, Kirk, Jeff, and Sam, all from the Richmond Regulars, they knew the bandits habits enough to know when guards changed, etc.

We took maybe another twenty minutes to get to a vantage point where we could see the admin building and class rooms we could use for cover when we moved. The siren was started to get slower and softer this whole time. I was amazed it lasted this long. We never came upon a dead head the whole time. Kirk got us to stop and pointed on one of the buildings. Two guards were looking north and talking to each other we were to their left side in some shade between two houses. A few buildings lay between us and the stadium, but our objective was to keep the bandits busy, so we stopped and watched the buildings ahead of us. Jake spotted two sentries on the roof tops on the closest buildings, I think they said it was the Combs building. One to our left and one to our right. Neither one was more than a two hundred feet, across four lane road, up about forty feet of lawn then up maybe four stories of building. I almost think I could make that shot, but I didn’t have a big honking silenced rifle either. Albert and Jake got their timing down and with two gentle ‘coughs’ both sentries went down. Further on we could see a very tall, narrow building sticking up above other buildings around it.

‘That’s Common wealth , was a dorm building but they use it for target practice.’ Dana spat the words with disgust. I gave her a questioning look.

‘They shoot people on the street from up there. They are pretty good at it too.’  She explained. Jake said we should get moving and that is what we did. We were on the lawn heading for the building in front of us when Jeff from the Richmond Regulars went down. Half of his head just literally exploded, and then we heard the crack of gun fire. We all ran as fast as possible to get under cover. Once we all crashed into the buildings door and through inside we all skidded to a stop. The inside was trashed and littered with bodies, hopefully none would decide to stir and attack us.

‘Dammit!  I should have gave us cover!’ Jake grumbled to himself.

‘Doesn’t matter. What does matter is can you kill the bastards up there? ‘Kirk said, staring out of the broken windows at the road.

‘If he can hit us, I can hit him twice.’ Jake said and checked the magazine in his rifle.

‘Well we got their attention, by now they know someone is here.’ John mentioned as he found a set of doors leading to a stairwell. The plan was for Kirk, Gary, Sam, Dana and James to hold the ground floor as long as possible, while myself, Jake, Albert, John, Jill and Rick headed to the upper floors to cause some trouble. We got to the last floor, found the unlocked roof access and as soon as Jake tipped the door open slowly from a few steps down, a bullet crashed through the steel fire door and embedded itself in the ceiling.

‘Hate to admit it, they are good. They are waiting for that. Let’s go down one floor and try the corner windows. I may need someone to draw their fire so I can find them and take them out.’ Jake looked at the people around him. I smiled and looked at John, who said, 'You know I really hate you, right?'

We got to the next floor, most of the windows were already broken in the rooms we checked, the corner room was a pig sty, but we could not be sure if it was that way before or after the zombies started attacking everyone. Jake said this would do, and kept low and in the corner. He slipped a dark cap/filter like device on his scope so no flash could be seen from it and waved us on. John and I found a room big enough to move around in and not so dirty we would trip over debris. We slid to the window ledge, keeping near the floor. I looked over the edge and could see the building and where I thought the snipers were. I was not sure my AR could even get that far. We both nodded and stuck our guns out the window and fired several rounds at the building, peppering the upper windows. The wall next to me exploded as bullet crashed through the concrete block. We decided to move after that. We moved to a room two doors down.

‘Keep getting their attention; I think we know where they are at now!’ Jake yelled from down the hall, as we skidded through the trash to another room.  We were just in place near the window when gunfire erupted downstairs. We were getting hemmed in already. Where the hell was everyone else? As that thought crossed my mind a clanging alarm started off in the direction of the stadium. 

It took us about 3 minutes to get the snipers to show themselves and Jake, with Albert’s help eradicated them. We were moving toward the stairs when our guys came pounding up them, ‘Get back! We got company.’ They pushed their way to either side of the hallway as gunfire erupted from the stairs, chewing up the walls and ceiling.

‘How many?!’ I yelled over the gun fire, Gary looked up from across the hall way, ‘Maybe a dozen?!’

F’ing great. Bullets ripped past my face and bits of plaster filled the air. I stuck my rifle around the corner pointed down and let loose a few shots. Someone screamed. No shit I hit someone. Gary and the rest did the same thing. Gun fire came back up the steps again. I motioned for Jake to get the rest to the roof, since he was sure the snipers were gone. I placed a new magazine in my rifle and did the thing I said we shouldn’t do, I switched to auto fire and showed this to John behind me. He nodded and did the same thing. I tilted my head back the hallway and we both moved down the hall. I pointed across the hall and John went into the room across from the one I shuffled into. We both got on the floor and closed the door far enough that we could see out and the rifle barrels did not stick out. I even gathered some trash and placed at the bottom of the door. The gunfire in the hall died down and we could then hear more gunfire outside. Apparently the cavalry had arrived finally. We could hear boots on the stairs and we could see people stick their heads up around the floor level and look around. I was hoping John would let some of them come up the steps before opening fire. I got my wish. Several men dressed in fatigues and carrying AK-74s, AMD65s and all sorts of Russian junk, stomped into the hallway. They swiveled their heads all around as they looked around the hallway, not noticing us thankfully. I counted nine in the hall way when they started to spread out and check rooms. Two of them stayed in the center of the hallway and kept watch. They were the first to die. We used short bursts and took out the two guards and three more of those searching. That left four that made it into adjoining rooms in the hallway. Bullets riddled my door and wall I had sought refuge behind at about 3-5 feet in height. Our saving grace is we did not stand behind the doors like idiots when we opened fire. These guys were good, but not that good. I hoped that John was okay and reloaded a new magazine in my rifle. The gun fire stopped and I could hear trash being moved and people ‘trying’ to be quiet. I saw a the door next to Johns’ creep open and could see a dark shape standing behind the crack in the door. I let loose a burst at about belt level through the door and frame. The steel core ammo hammered home and riddled the door, the shape falling away from the crack. Bullets chewed up the floor near my rifle barrel and tore through my door making me real uncomfortable. When they stopped I scooted back as fast as I could by ‘snaking’ on my belly. I heard John’s AR go off across the hall and heard something heavy fall to the floor in the hallway. I placed my last magazine in my rifle and let the firing pin snap shut in it, making a loud noise in the suddenly quiet floor.  

It was several minutes and no gunfire and very little noise. Did they leave? Time to do something stupid. I moved to the other corner and toed the door open with my boot. As the door swung inward, bullets once again tore through the wood. When the noise died down I could hear faint boot scuffs in the hallway. A large man in fatigues came through the doorway firing his rifle where I*should* have been.

Better Lucky than Smart, that’s me. But, not this time. The man saw me out of the corner of his eye and started to turn towards me. I pulled my trigger.

*CLICK*. 

That is the loudest damn sound in the world. My rifle had jammed or misfed.  I levered the charging handle back again but the bullet was seriously fouled in my gun. Shit. Talk about things happening in slow motion when you think you are going to buy it. I opened my arms wide, holding the rifle in my left hand and smiled at him. What else could I do? My pistol would have taken too long to get out before he gunned me down. So I thought to buy myself a few precious seconds.

‘Hey, it’s me remember?!’ I said as he brought the rifle up. This confused him and he hesitated. He who hesitates, dies. I stood there smiling, he stood there looking puzzled. He suddenly made a decision in his mind and grinned, bringing the rifle up to kill me.

 

Change of Plans

We all had a hasty meeting at the farmhouse. Seems all the reports of people being snatched up and used for slaves and entertainment were true. The group who started in Richmond (The Richmond Regulars as they are calling themselves now) sent scouts into the city to check the Warlord’s base camp, which is EKU (Eastern Kentucky University), to see how it was defended. It was mostly deserted with few guards and a lot of people under lock and key. The problem was, there was also a lot of Zak between us and them. We made radio contact with the BGAD and told them our idea. They said the Warlord’s group had pretty much settled in for a siege affair, and they could hold out for a few days if they had to while we ran our plan.

Here was the idea, quick and dirty; Attack the Warlord’s compound, rescue the prisoners and hopefully stomp out his hold on Richmond. Things always seem easy on paper, huh? That’s what I thought too.

We moved ourselves out as quickly as we could and were within sight of Alumni  stadium within about a half hour. We had stopped on the last hill before going down into the valley, so we would be out of sight. Jake and crew ‘silenced’ the few guards we came across very efficiently. We even captured a few of their radios. Mostly small talk, no discipline what so ever, raised my hopes when I listened to one of them.  We all noticed how few zombies were around in the woods and the small subdivisions we came across on the road here.

 One look through some binoculars or a high powered scope told the tale. The field leading to the stadium literally teamed with the undead, maybe in the thousands, it was hard to see with all the milling around. Jake asked me to follow him up and John tagged along. We came into a wooded area about a mile from the stadium and stood in the shade of the trees.

‘Look at this.’ Jake handed me his rifle. I looked through his scope, the crosshairs were illuminated and it had distances crawling along the sides. But that was not what got my attention. The one side of the stadium had a hole knocked in the wall and barbed wire crisscrossed the hole. Behind the hole I saw people, some completely naked, all dirty, cowering away from the hole. The horde of undead stayed at the hole forever reaching for what was on the other side.

‘Shit.’ I said looking over at Jake. He shook his head, ‘Look over to the right about a hundred yards.’

I did as he said and the world blurred as I moved the rifle quickly to the right. What I saw chilled my blood but burned my brain.

They had ring made up of chain link and barbed wire about forty feet in diameter set up in one of the parking lots. Outside of this ring was another ring with more fencing that had a corridor that lead back to one of the stadium’s doors.  This outer ring at the moment had a few bandits watching the spectacle in the inner ring. A man in torn and dirty clothing was circling a zombie in the ring with him. I could see the guards laughing and pointing to each other and the ring. They were betting on the outcome. Several bodies were already inside the inner ring. I could not tell from here if they were human, zombie or both. The outer ring was surrounded by waves of Zak. The guards did not appear to be worried their backs were to zombie hordes.

‘Bastards.’ I muttered as I handed John the rifle and pointed across the field. Jake nodded  back to me, ‘Good thing is there may be, at best, a hundred bandits there. Seems this warlord idiot took most of his men and equipment with him I guess. I reported this to the Major and wanted you to see this.'

John was now muttering a stream of curses and looking through the scope. We needed to do this more than attack the Warlord to help the BGAD, if only so I could sleep with myself at nights. We packed it in and went back to the convoy.

‘We don’t have the ammo to kill them all and still get to the prisoners with any chance of getting ourselves out again.’ The Major told Kirk, the de-facto leader of the Richmond Regulars. He did not like the news we were laying on him.

‘We have to try. We can’t let those people all be killed, or, worse.’ Kirk gestured at the road behind us.

‘I just don’t know what else to do, short of setting fire to the place and driving Zak off.’ The Major shook his head in disgust. He was now getting a taste of field work and it was a bitter pill to swallow.  Fire. This got me thinking.

‘Does any place in Richmond still have power?’ I asked Kirk, who shook his head, ‘No why?’

‘I had a thought but it needed power, damn.’ I said in disgust. Everyone was staring at me and I kinda smiled sheepishly.

‘Out with it asshole, somehow I know I am not going to like it.’ John said next to me.

‘Well Zak likes shiny things and noisy things, right? I thought about setting fire alarm off at one of the fire stations and getting out before they get there. I figure it would drag a lot away from the dinner they cannot get to go after one they can…’

Kirk cut me off, ‘those alarms are battery operated and *should* still work.’ Emphasis on the Should.

‘Someone get me a map.’ The Major commanded. Men scrambled.

‘I hate you, you know.’ John said quietly to my right as we were hiding in an abandoned clothing store. A large group of Zak was about 200 feet away in the road ahead of us. Behind us Jake stifled a laugh and I could hear Albert actually giggling. There were maybe 60 Zak between us and the fire station. We had ducked into the building when Jake saw people on the roof tops about a block further on, fearing bandits, we hid. Now we were trapped. Kinda.

‘Oh you love me and you know it. No one else had the courage to tell you how ugly that grandchild is…’

‘I thought you said it looked like John?’ Albert asked very deadpan and Jake lost it then and did laugh.

‘Ha. Freaking Ha. You should be a comedian.’ John eyed me over the lingerie rack.

‘Pick out something nice for yourself John, you deserve it.’ Jake whispered to me but John heard him anyway, glaring back at Jake.

‘Okay, okay, enough. Jake, can you see anything on the roof from here?’ I asked, Jake slid up next to me at the window and used his rifle scope.

‘Nope. Either I was seeing things or they are gone.’ He told me readjusting his rifle.

‘Or  they saw us and went into hiding too.’ John said moving through the clothes to stand on the other side of the door. I nodded to him, agreeing with that idea.

‘Albert, how’s the back look?’ I said over my shoulder. He trundled off into the darkness to the back door. He was back minute late, ‘Z’s all over the alley, going the same way we need to. Maybe we should back track and go a few blocks around?’

‘We’re running out of time, we got maybe,’ Jake looked at his watch, ‘another ten minutes before go time.’

‘Great, once we do it we have to travel FURTHER into the city to get away from the dead heads. Maybe running straight into the group from the stadium. I really, really, really hate this plan the more I think about it.’ John said as he watched the street. I had to agree, unfortunately, it sounded better back at the convoy than down here stuck in a woman’s clothing store.

‘Jake, can you and Albert cover us from the roof of this building?’

‘Maybe, if we can get up on the roof. We can cover the roof tops, but probably not the street real well.’

‘Hmm..Okay, since I don’t think I see any ’Sprinters’ (fast zombies) in the group me and John will sneak up the left side of the street doorway to doorway to the fire station. Hopefully we can get the alarm rigged and out of there before all hell breaks loose. You guys should be able to go back the way we came since Zak should all be moving away from you by then.’ Another plan on the fly, I was getting good at this. I hoped.

‘Cutting our force in half doesn’t sound like a good idea…’ Albert started. Jake smiled and thumped him on the back. ‘It’s a beautiful plan, I love it!’ He smiled and hauled Albert with him to the stairwell. John just looked at me, glaring, ‘I really hate you.’

We made it to the firehouse without us firing a shot. Jake or Albert or both, however did. They were knocking down Z’s that either saw us or were hiding ahead of us in the shade of broken store fronts. We got inside and locked the metal door behind us. We breathed easy for a second until we realized the door was standing open when we got there. Shaking our heads in unison we got out our pistols and looked around the engine bay. The sun was pouring in through the windows over the (thankfully) shut garage doors and we had enough light to look around. We found the back door open to a parking lot behind the station. Movement caught my eye, but I could not catch what it was. We shut this door and locked it. One of the Richmond Regulars drew us some crude drawings of what we were looking for and we found the box in an office near the back wall. We followed the wires and lost them in a hanging ceiling. We knocked panels down as we were running out of time, but I thought, if they don’t hear a siren they should wait, right? Unless they thought we were dead, came a voice in my head. Damn. We scrambled for few seconds looking for the correct white and blue wires and noticed they went back out into the main bay. Finally finding the box/panel hidden behind a bench, we overturned the bench to get at it.

Would have been much easier had the guy wanted to come with us, but nooo…

We opened the panel and sure enough was a large car battery looking thing, they said maybe five minutes it would work before dying, if it worked at all. I hunkered down and found the other wires and grabbed a loose screwdriver off the floor along with a roll of duct tape.

‘Ready?’ I looked up at John, who nodded.

I jammed the screwdriver across the two terminals I needed and duck taped the screwdriver in place as the wailing sound of the siren commenced.

‘Let’s get the hell out of here, man!’ John said as the bay doors started to buckle under the Zak weight.

Running for the back door, we opened it expecting to be trapped but a small pile of dead zombies greeted us in the parking lot. Not to mention the four people standing at the edge of the lot with crossbows in hands (yes you read that right, crossbows).  Two were men and two women, they waved at us and yelled ‘Come on!’ They turned and ran, we followed, why not?  I could not keep the pace, my leg burning and already a limper, I was falling behind quickly. The few undead we saw paid no attention to us drawn, almost memorized by the screaming siren. John stopped and waited for my tired ass to catch up, the other four had already disappeared around a corner.

‘Think it’s another trap?’ John asked as I drew near, out of breath (I know, I know, I really need to lose weight).

‘You think our luck is that bad?’ he just rolled his eyes. At that time one of the women (girls?) came back around the corner, ‘Hurry up you two.’  I waved at her and we started after her at a trot. (Hey its Kentucky I can use that word legally)

After what seemed like forever and more turns than I could count, we ended up under I-75.  Due west of our objective. With Zak streaming north and hopefully all the bad guys looking that way, we should have a fairly easy time getting back to the convoy. We didn’t talk at all during the trip, we used hand signals to stop, go, whatever. We neared the road we would have travelled down and we still heard the alarm sounding, but nothing else. Something didn’t seem right.

I'm Baaaack!

Okay, honestly, show of hands, who thought I was not coming back? Seriously? That many? Wow, feel the love. Okay I am tapping this out on a touch screen so any mistakes in spelling are purely the machines. Heh. Where to begin, where to begin? Well I am not home yet, so Odessa, you have to hold the fort a little longer babe.

I will hit some high points while I got time (If you have noticed my writing style has changed, it’s my diet that did it. We found some Jolt cola, pop-rocks, and all sorts of high sugar bad for you things. I feel like Hammy in Over the Hedge) and I will upload some cool action shots, however I did blot out the faces (sorry guys no movie deals for you) so we cannot be picked out of a line up if we do some infiltration work.

The drive to the Richmond area was pretty uneventful. We did see some normal folks moving about on their farms, etc. but as we neared them they hid. Ran into a few packs of Zak nothing major, the most of the hazard was pushing wrecked or empty cars off the road. (again I ask, why leave the car?).

We came in on route 52, which I happen to think is one of the worst roads I have ever been on. Not because it was rough, because of the twists and turns in it. At the edge of town we radioed our new ‘allies’ and we were given directions where to meet them.

Houses along Route 52, bandits, zombies or nature?

Which we promptly had to back track. Apparently the new ‘warlord’ is using the university and the stadium as head quarters and we were damn close to driving up to their front door. Luckily they were busy up north at the BGAD.

Our friends were hiding on a large farm south of some industrial plants including a glass factory. Once we got proper directions, we discovered why they had not been discovered. Talk about off the beaten path!

We pulled into the farm lane and were immediately called to stop by a few guys with assault rifles of all makes. After a few minutes of mistrust by both sides, we realized we were who everyone said they were. The Major went with the 3 men that had lead their own factions,  one group was from Lancaster, who were more than likely the only people still alive to claim that, and the other two groups were from here in Richmond.  I must say we were vastly outnumbered, but we were much better armed, than these people. A lot of women here, makes me almost feel chauvinistic now, helping with the fighting. We were a force of about 500 people. The dead were not much of a problem out here it seems as they seem to like Richmond better. It is also to be noted, that in unlike other places only about 4 or 5 in 10 people died or got the disease. Most all other places it is more like 7 or 8 out of 10 have been afflicted, so a lot of ‘food’ is still loose up that way.

We started unpacking ourselves out of our vehicles as other people came up to greet us. A lot of people here could do with a good meal and a shower. Just from general conversation we found out the power this far west from the dam, nothing worked. Seems the warlord dude has generators and fuel, mostly from taking them from other people. Most of these people were only armed with scatter guns, old hunting rifles and some even had black-powder rifles. I did notice a lot of bows mixed in with everyone. John gave me the look and we went around to the front of the APC where there were no people.

‘Man, and I thought we had it bad…’

‘Goes to show, someone else always got it worse than you do.’ I replied.  We were all just standing around shooting the shit and catching up on news. Seems like the further west and hillier it got, the worse it got. Seems the dead don’t mind the forest and open spaces and since the population density goes down so fast as you move west, we feared for anyone out there alone. One old guy, had to be close to my Dad’s age was sitting at a wooden table some distance off by himself, I pointed my chin at John as he was talking to someone and wandered over there.

His name was Roger. He was 84 years old. He served in WWII. I asked him what the hell was he doing out here?

‘Fighting, what do you think?’ was his reply. His wife long dead, his only son dead in Viet Nam, no other relatives to speak off, he decided to end his time here. He was still clear of eye and quick of wit, but his body was just not there for him anymore.  I tried to get him to come with me on the APC and run the 50 but he declined. He had a few people here he would stick with. I said okay and left him alone with his thoughts. Greatest Generation. Ever.  Word came down we would be moving at dusk, so everyone got their gear ready.

I was moving through the make shift camp when I heard my name being called. I didn’t know the voice but they were insistent.  A guy came up to me and rapped me on the back. It took me a minute to recognize him.

‘Have you forgotten me already?’ he smiled and laughed.

‘Ben? Is that you?’ I said smiling back. He nodded and told me to follow him up to the farm house. Inside was a mess of people and all kinds of electronics. A small generator chugged along just outside the door, spewing fumes into the air. I adjusted to the scarce light in the rooms as I was being dragged from area to area, Ben looking for something. He stopped and pointed over his shoulder. Sitting at a table, working with an old PC hooked to other equipment was Ashley, Odessa’s brother.

‘Damn boy, we thought you were dead!’ I yelled, scaring half the people in the room. Ash looked up and then grinned, and nearly knocked the table over getting out of his chair to come around to us.

‘Is Odessa okay? How about Bruce?’ he asked as we ‘man-hugged’.

‘Odessa is fine, she’s back at the Depot.  I haven’t found Bruce yet. I was more worried about you. I called and left you a message while back.’ He laughed and fished an object off the table. His iPhone. Cracked and broken. Well that explains that. Between him and Ben I got the story. He left Cincinnati a few days before all hell broke loose to visit Ben in Richmond. Ben was a part time bartender and some of the time student. He dropped his phone the day Cincinnati went crazy and broke it. He stayed with Ben and when the virus hit, they kept moving from place to place until they found these guys.

‘Don’t tell me they let you have a gun?’

‘No. I work with the radio equipment, such as it is. Ben here, however, is a pretty mean shot.’

Ben smiled again and grabbed his rifle from the corner. He had an M14. A good long distance rifle. Nothing  fancy but hard hitting. People started moving about with a purpose and we decided it was time to get out. Ash went back to the radio; he would stay here with a few others to keep communications open to us and the BGAD. Ben followed me, shook my hand and went off to find his people.

John was waiting at the APC with Jake and the Major.

‘We are going to spear head the attack on this warlord person. We will wait until dark and Jake and a few others will sneak up and take any sentries out. Seems the attack has stalled. The people in the Blue Grass don’t have enough people to risk an attack, and the bandits are running low on ammo.’ The Major looked around at all of us as he was speaking.

‘From the looks of what we got here to work with Major, I kinda figured we would lead. Half these guys are carrying bows for God sake.’ John looked around and waved his hand at the assembled men in the far field.

‘Yeah, a lot haven’t had a decent meal in weeks either I bet.’ I echoed everyone’s sentiment, ‘so what are we looking at?’

‘About 200 people with fully automatic weapons, maybe more maybe less. They even have some kids in with them about 14 or so all the way up to adults. Apparently they also have some LAW rockets, one or two mortars, but afraid to use them around all that gas.’ The Major replied.

‘That’s more than we got weapon-wise, but we out number them. But 5 to 2 odds, figure in the weapons we come out about even.’ I said doing some quick and dirty combat math. Even is never good, you want the advantage.

‘I place them at better than even, they know the area, are already dug in and will hear us coming. They won’t be afraid to turn the rockets and mortars on us though. I just don’t know how good they are with them, mortars are tricky weapons.’ I didn’t think of that. It is starting to sound like suicide a little voice in my head screamed. I ignored it and listened on.

‘We are going to send Jake and crew on foot the last few miles. They are going to recon the area, I am going to hold everyone else here until I get a report.’

‘Wouldn’t it be smarter to be closer, so Jake can cause a little chaos and while they think they are being attacked from one side we hit them from another?’  I asked, just using some common sense tactics. The Major raised his eyebrows at this thought, like he hadn’t already thought of it. We just starting to have a talk on the best course of action when a man ran up to us out of breath.

‘Our scouts just got back we have a problem…’