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How many of those grey creatures had it taken to wipe out that many undead?Maybe two dozen?Even outnumbered four to one, those creatures had jumped the fence without hesitation.While that group had decimated the undead within minutes, another two dozen had stayed with the woman.A human woman who had called them friends but had looked at that larger one often for direction.
“You going to help or what?”Patrick called as he and Cody hoisted Tommy to the top of the tank.
Roni arched a brow at me.
“We need to move,” I said.“You try waking the others, and I’ll check the guns.”
She went to help Roland lift Kevin, and I started collecting the discarded weapons.Our supplies weren’t limitless.We needed each firearm and every bullet.But that lady’s “friends” had bent the barrel of every single gun aimed at them.
The weight of the sidearm in my cargo pocket reassured me that we weren’t completely defenseless.Between what we’d found in the tank and what we had in our convoy, we’d be fine until we could secure more.I hoped.
Tommy and Jackson came to easily enough and sat up top with Roni and me.We held onto Kevin and Steve while Evan and the rest stowed away inside.The rumble of the tank starting made me internally cringe, and I scanned the nearby houses for movement.
Sound attracted the infected, the undead.So did light.
In the five weeks since the earthquakes released the plague, so much had changed.The dead no longer stayed dead, and the bitten became undead.There were more undead than survivors roaming the United States, and based on the last communication from overseas, it was the same everywhere else.Except for Madagascar and a few other island regions.They were the only true sanctuaries now.
At times, it didn’t feel real that I’d been serving coffee and living peacefully only five weeks ago.The crash course training a large group of us had received at Fort Irwin felt like a dream.Everything did.
At any minute, I’d wake up and realize I was late for work.And all the death I’d witnessed wouldn’t be real.That those creatures with the grey skin, pointed ears, and yellow-green eyes hadn’t been real.
“What in the hell do you think they are?”Roni asked quietly as if reading my mind.
“I wish I knew.”
“They took the woman with them.”
It wasn’t a statement or a question but something in between.
“Yeah.She was looking for her baby.I hope she finds it alive,” I said, thinking back to the harsh truth Patrick had dished out to her.Babies didn’t live long.They made too much noise.What did that say about our future as a race if we couldn’t keep the remaining kids alive?They were our only hope and why my ass was on top of the tank.
“You’re worried about a baby after seeing those things?”Tommy asked.
An undead shambled out from between the buildings and ran toward the fence separating us.
“Looks like they didn’t get them all,” Roni said.
“We’d be better off on foot,” Kevin said.
“Hell no.You saw how they jumped the fence,” Tommy said, no longer talking about the thing on the other side of the fence but about the grey creatures who’d knocked him unconscious.
“We did,” Roni agreed calmly.“And we saw how easily they wrecked our weapons and what they did to the undead.How is it that you managed to knock some of them out and steal their supply truck?”
He gave us all a hard look.
“You don’t think I’m asking myself the same question?Shit’s getting smarter out here.Smart enough to play possum.Obviously, I was tricked.So what?I won’t fall for it next time.”
“You’re lucky there stillisa next time,” Roni said, shaking her head and tracking the undead keeping pace with us.
I did the same and wondered if we would ever know why the fence had been placed here.
At our last stop, a forward operating base just south of Wichita, we’d found a secured control gate and empty facilities.Everything left behind indicated two squads had been sent to Parsons.We’d found trucks with fencing, the tank, and some other armored vehicles, but no personnel.Only their abandoned weapons and a lot of blood.
Whatever they’d been trying to do, they’d obviously failed.Honestly, after everything I’d seen and done over the last three weeks, I’d thought our mission would be a failure too.
The source of the plague, vicious monstrosities that looked like dogs, attacked any living thing.Nothing could stop them.Not bullets.Not explosives.Nothing.And nothing survived…unless coming back as one of the undead counted as surviving.Thankfully, however, the dogs only moved at night.
Unfortunately, they were only one piece of the apocalyptic puzzle.The grey creatures were the other piece.Footage showed two of them leaving the ground zero crater in the States, preceding hundreds of those dogs.
