found an exit. Only got a few food items, sir.” Private Hook paused to take a breath. “They’re changing, sir.”
Thorton tilted his head to the side. “Explain.”
“Sir, we made a lot of noise getting in, but they didn’t come for us until we could be cut off. If it hadn’t been for the extra door in the butcher shop, I’d be dead, sir. We got trapped but good.”
Major Thorton nodded, processing this bit of news. It fit with some other information he had, none of it encouraging. He shook it off and shouted his orders.
“Get their weapons and gear, then mount up. We’re gone!” He strode to his vehicle and climbed aboard, just as his driver started the engine. They pulled out and moved away from the center of town.
As they passed the grocery store, Ken called a halt. Grabbing a Molotov cocktail from the back of the truck, he stalked over to the broken front door. He could see movement in the gloom and was glad he could send a few more of these bastards to hell.
Thorton threw the bomb in through the door, the flames bursting on an aisle of crackers. He could see several zombies milling about and a few actually came over to the flames to become engulfed. As he walked back to the truck, his anger was starting to mount.
He was infuriated because he lost three men to this nothing town and had very little to show for it. He was angry because he knew that what Talon had said would eventually creep through his men, undermining him and forcing him to take measures.
But worst of all, he was frightened by the implication of what had occurred in the town.
The zombies were showing signs of rudimentary intelligence. If it continued, that meant the end of every living thing on the planet.
22
Seven hours later, as the sun was winking its last under a darkening sky, Sergeant Milovich was looking over the preparations for the night. The men had travelled quickly and managed to reach the small town before nightfall. The town had been abandoned long ago and anything useful had since been rendered stolen or useless. The town actually sat in a small depression in the land, surrounded by trees. Off in the distance, Milovich could see the arching concrete arteries which once fed the nation, now just graveyards of cars and people.
He had stationed men up near the ridgeline to keep a watch for Talon. The ambush was going to be simple. As soon as the enemy reached the center of the town, they were going to cut him in half. This was going to be easy work.
Milovich was setting up his quarters in an abandoned house for the duration when Corporal Kazinski came bursting through the door.
“Sarge? Sarge?” he called.
“Right here, corporal. What is it?” Milovich’s exhaustion was evident in his voice.
“Found a couple of survivors, sir, thought you might want to see ‘em,” Kazinski announced. He pushed forward a man of about medium height and build, with a long ponytail hanging down his back. His hands were secured behind his back and his eyes darted over Milovich’s uniform and weapons before settling on the floor.
Milovich dismissed him as irrelevant and turned his attention on the other prisoners. They were two women, one blonde and the other brunette. The blonde was an attractive, buxom young woman of about thirty and the brunette was a leaner specimen, with a hard look about her. Both were bound as well, which seemed to be a good thing, since both were literally festooned with edged weapons. The blonde had a number of what appeared to be scissors attached to a wide belt which wrapped around her waist.
Milovich nodded approval and was about to order the two to be given to the men when an idea formed in his head. He let it marinate a while then smiled at the blonde, who looked back in such defiance that the sergeant nearly put a hand on his gun.
Milovich nodded to his corporal. “Good work,” he said to Kazinski. “Take the man out to the edge of the town and get rid of him.” The man’s eyes turned wide and he opened his mouth to protest, but Kazinski’s fist slammed into his head first, stunning him and bringing him to his knees. Two other soldiers grabbed him by the arms and dragged him away.
Milovich noted that neither of the two women even flinched at the violence. Excellent. He turned to the blonde and tried unsuccessfully from looking too obviously at her chest.
“As you can see, I’m in charge. Whether you live or die depends on how cooperative you both are willing to be. I need you two to be part of an operation that should be taking place in the next few days. Swear to cooperate and I can guarantee that you will leave here unmolested,” the sergeant said.
“And if we don’t?” the blonde spoke before her friend, nearly spitting the words at him.
“Then you will be given to the men to enjoy until they tire of you, which might mean several days, depending on your stamina,” Milovich said, noting the flashes of hatred both women gave him. “What will it be?” he asked.
The two women exchanged glances and covert nods. It was obvious they figured to cooperate in order to avoid being raped to death, but they didn’t know that Milovich had never kept his word in his life.
The blonde spoke. “We’ll do what you want, just don’t hurt us.” She tried to sound defeated, but the sergeant didn’t believe her for a minute. He figured she would stab him as soon as she could find the opportunity.
Sergeant Milovich smiled. This was icing on a cake that already was tasting sweet. Talon was as good as dead.
Joseph Talluto
America the Dead
23
“Question for you.”
“What?” I asked, without trying to fully wake from my rest.
“How come the young Z’s are so damn fast?”
I opened my eyes and stared at the underside of the kitchen table. I had taken to napping on the bench as opposed to climbing up into the secondary sleeping area. I could sleep nearly anywhere, a throwback to my college days when I did pretty much sleep anywhere.
“Dunno,” I replied. I slid my feet to the floor, slowly pushing myself up to a sitting position. “Maybe it has something to do with the different body chemistry,” I said, scratching my head. My hair was starting to get a little shaggy without Sarah around to trim it up. I blinked and looked at Duncan, who was standing by the table.
“What do you mean?” Duncan asked, leaning back on the sink.
I looked at him closely for a second, wondering if he was serious. I glanced around and saw Tommy driving, so I knew he hadn’t sent Duncan on any joke missions. Zeus the cat was up in a storage bin, his pale yellow eyes looked at me as if to say, You’ll probably regret this.
I shrugged. “Keep in mind this is just speculation, but kids have different body chemistries than we do. Youngsters bounce back more quickly from serious illnesses than we could ever hope to. Some say that their immune systems are hyped up because they need the protection to get to adulthood, which results in different wiring. But I couldn’t say for sure, because it makes no real sense. The older kids, teenagers and such, they aren’t much faster than the really old ones. The brain dies and that’s it. That’s what the virus has to work with, just rudimentary responses to stimuli.”
Duncan looked down. “What about what we saw at that apartment?”
“The doorknob turning?”
“Yeah, that.”
I leaned back. “Been giving that some thought. If the zombies are actually starting to learn, then we’ve got to jump start our timetable and get moving to the final phase.”
