moving that quick. Harry, let's bring them in alive. I want to figure out what they have, maybe some sort of long range motion detector or something.”
“Okay, we should find out, I agree. We'll get as many as we can. Want to try setting up an ambush for them?”
“Sure. How?”
“Let's get zombies in position all around in front of them, then have them stop moving. If it is a motion sensor the living won't be able to see them.”
“Pretty good. Let's keep the pressure on them from behind and to the north. If they are distracted they might not notice what we are doing in front of them. I am going to move more troops around behind our frozen ones too, just in case. You concentrate on moving some of the faster ones around to the south so we can cut them off. Whose idea was it to concentrate our troops by the shoreline?” Aubrey asked, displeased.
“No one's really, it is just where they ended up. We should have moved them to both sides of the track when we saw the train coming.”
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Fuck it. Let's make the best of this. I do want to talk to one of them, I don't care if they kill ninety percent of the zeds out there.”
Harry smiled, “Okay I will tell them, to go for the throat if those ten guys somehow manage to kill ninety thousand of us.”
Both of them concentrated on moving their troops around, the humans stopped a couple of times, but always moved again when the zombies came too close, then they paused and didn't move forward again.
“They stopped.”
“Yeah, looks like they can sense our frozen zombies too. Lets hold them here as long as possible, work more troops around them so we can capture them for sure.”
“Okay.”
Ella came into the building and strode up to Harry quickly, casting a sidelong glance at Aubrey. “One of your zombies tried to kill me.”
“Sorry, we are a bit busy trying to deal with the people who rode in on the train.”
“Oh. Well don't be so concerned, I took it out. It was not nearly so satisfying as the soldier, but it was still good.” Ella said, almost purring.
“I am glad you were not hurt, but I am very busy. These guys are proving, interesting.”
Ella crossed her arms and took a step back from Harry, “Well fine. How much longer do you think it will be?”
“I don't know, twenty minutes? We are going to capture them and that means we have to keep a close watch on our subordinates.”
“Twenty minutes?” Ella's voice came out as a half wail, half enthusiastic. “Can I have one of them?”
“Sure.” Harry said, then caught Aubrey's sharp glance, “After we are done interrogating them, but sure.”
Chapter 41
“So where is our zombie king?” asked Ruben.
Max concentrated and then pointed towards the north west. “That way, less than half a mile, there are some people around too, the living kind.”
Stewart's eyebrows rose and she asked, “You sure?”
“Yeah, I got one not too far from baddest zombie out there and more further north, I am pretty sure there must be a channel or something over that way, it is a ribbon of unoccupied turf anyway. I think I am getting better at this.”
“Good, anywhere there aren't zombies?” asked Stewart.
“Well, not really, there are less to the east and south, and none straight north, that is the lake though so unless we took a boat…”
“We'll keep that in mind, we might have to, does anyone know how to sail?”
A round of 'no's came from the squad of men around them. Stewart shrugged and said, “Well we could get row boats or maybe something with a small engine. What is our plan Max?”
“Walk up to the guy and blow his head off?”
“Didn't Draper say we would be meeting someone here? Some sniper or something?”
“Yeah he said, but I don't know if the 'we' was 'us' or 'him' now.”
“Use the radio Bill, call out and see if anyone is still in range.” suggested Stewart.
Bill fumbled for the radio, putting it to his lips he asked, “Can anybody hear me?”
Static was the only sound they heard, Bill tried again, “This is Bill Carson, we are going after some zombies here in town and we want to know if anyone is here to support us. Uh, over.”
A series of beeps came through the radio, Ruben paused in his walking and said, “They say yes. That's Morse code for you young guys.”
“Why would they send it like that?”
“It is an open radio, meant for keeping in touch with your squad and your commanding officer, not secure at all. Anyone with a military radio can pick that up and hear you in the clear.”
Bill flushed and said, “Oh. So what do I do?”
“Give it here.” said Ruben holding out his hand.
Handing it over Bill watched intently while Ruben pressed the talk buttons on and off for several minutes, then he held it down and said, “Okay, we understand, we will head east. Over.”
“Roger that.” came a dry voice from the other end.
Ruben looked at the radio, then at Bill and then pointedly tucked it into the front pocket of his fatigues. “They say they think the leader is in the Architech building on the edge of the park, a few blocks up from here. With luck no one clued into the Morse and they won't know we are coming.”
“What else did they say?”
“One of the special forces guys is with them, they ran into a tassel of zombies in the building they went into and are running low on ammunition, but they will be set up to help us if they can. They would like us to create a diversion in the park if we can, to maybe draw out the leader to take a shot at him.”
“That all?” asked Bill.
“Pretty much.”
“Pretty much?”
“They wished us luck. I wished them luck too.”
Bill laughed, then turned to Max and Stewart who were still walking beside him. “What do you think?”
Max shook his head, “The zombies are closing in, we need to hide, but I don't think we can, or we need to pick a direction and go fast.”
“East?” asked Stewart.
Stewart, Bill and Ruben all studied Max's face as he glanced up into the clear blue sk and then shrugged, “No, let's just get this done.”
The others nodded and started to walk a little faster. Max cleared his throat, took a drink of water and said, “Bill have your guys hold up on the corner, see if they can get into that store there.” Max was pointing at a pulled down security gate that partially hid a convenience store from sight.
“Hey Javier and Caleb! See if you can get into that store, quick, everybody else pull in close and watch the streets around us.”
Breaking into the store was easier than they expected; Javier and Caleb each grabbed a hold of the bottom of the fencing and pulled sharply upwards, the two locks didn't break, but the clasps they were attached to pulled
