Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 2): A Rising Tide Read online

  A RISING TIDE

  ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SERIES 2

  JEFF DEGORDICK

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Foreword

  1. Night Moves

  2. A Rising Tide

  3. Stories and Secrets

  4. Faith

  5. Zed

  6. Cornered

  7. The Men in Black

  8. Blood, Sweat and Tears

  9. The Hard Truth

  10. Do Not Disturb

  11. Parley

  12. Pillow Talk

  13. Bombing Run

  14. Paranoia

  15. The Man Behind the Mask

  16. Death Squad

  17. Contraband

  18. Wither

  19. Trigger Fingers

  20. Moves and Countermoves

  21. A Hike in the Woods

  22. On the Rocks

  23. Funeral March

  24. Wayfaring

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2016 by Jeff DeGordick

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover images copyright © Shutterstock

  If you would like to receive news about sales, promotions and new releases, please sign up to the mailing list:

  http://eepurl.com/coUQib

  Or visit my website:

  www.jeffdegordick.com

  Say hello on my Facebook and Twitter page:

  www.facebook.com/jeffdegordickauthor

  www.twitter.com/jeffdegordick

  Other books in the Zombie Apocalypse Series:

  The Fall of Man

  Ashes in the Mouth

  In Shadows

  Coming soon:

  Scourge of Evil

  1

  NIGHT MOVES

  Sarah inspected the bomb in her hands, not understanding what it was. It was just a little soft brick wrapped in brown paper with the identifier "C-4" on it.

  "What does 'C-4' mean?" she asked.

  "It means it explodes at a rate of about eight kilometers a second," Wayne said, strapping on his tactical vest.

  She yelped and dropped the brick. She closed her eyes and waited for her death as it bounced around on the floor.

  Wayne leaned his chest back and roared laughter.

  When she realized she was still alive, she shot him a confused and angry look.

  "Don't worry," he said in his Australian accent, walking over and picking it up off the floor, "it's very stable. You could play catch with the stuff. But it's very valuable, so we don't want to go losing it."

  "Where did you get all this stuff?" she asked, looking at the sophisticated military weaponry lining the walls of the small bunker.

  Wayne just winked at her as he stuffed the C-4 and the detonator into a backpack and slung it over his shoulders.

  A gust of cold wind blew down the stairs leading topside and Sarah shivered in her hoodie. Wayne didn't seem bothered by it, even though he only wore a sleeveless shirt and black leather vest underneath his body armor. He had a couple of scars that she could see on his arms and neck, and she knew that he probably never even thought twice about something so insignificant as the cold.

  Footsteps came down the stairs and Kenny appeared. As the year had gotten later and later into the fall, Kenny had started to grow a beard out to match his mustache and keep his face warm. He still had his mullet and that must have been just fine to shield the back of his neck from the chilly November wind, too.

  "Boss is ready to roll," Kenny said.

  "We're good to go," Wayne replied, doing a last check of his gear and picking up an M16 assault rifle.

  Noah came down the stairs wearing body armor and holding an assault rifle as well.

  "We're ready, Noah," Wayne said.

  "Good," he replied. "Are you ready?" he asked Sarah.

  "I think so."

  She had been nervous all day, but now that they were actually about to do this, she felt a sudden surge of anxiety.

  "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," he said.

  "No, I want to... I'm just scared of seeing them again."

  "We're going to make sure they're nowhere near you. You can just watch."

  "Okay," she said. "I can do that."

  "You need to wear a vest, though," he said, grabbing one off a long table.

  "You said I was just watching."

  "You are," he said, strapping the bulletproof vest on her, "but going outside the walls of this place is always dangerous, and we don't want anything happening to you. No one leaves without a vest." He patted her on the shoulders and smiled. "Ready?"

  "Yeah," she said, taking a deep breath.

  The four of them left the bunker and came out into the frigid night above. Noah's Ark was quiet, with just some guards on patrol on the wall and everyone else asleep. It was well past midnight and would be the perfect time to strike.

  They joined the group of fifteen men waiting by the front gates of the camp, all of them in tactical gear with hi-tech assault rifles and extra ammo attached to their belts. Sarah came to find out the population of Noah's Ark was about five hundred, with no shortage of able men to deploy on offensive excursions. But tonight their target was small—just another chink in the collective armor.

  Sarah felt her hands shake as Noah did a headcount and went over the operation with the men. Wayne noticed this and gave her a reassuring clap on the back. When they were all locked and loaded, two guards pulled open the wide metal gates and the squad walked out into the night.

  They headed east from the camp and kept to a small stretch of woods nearby. Kenny and Wayne led the men, lighting their path with a couple of flashlights, while Noah stayed by Sarah in the middle.

  She didn't know anything about the military, but watching the way they crept through the woods in a perfect column two-men wide, if they had said they were all ex-Army, she would have believed them. The men near the middle kept a keen eye on anything that could flank them from the sides, and the ones in the back made sure nothing approached from behind.

  "How far is it?" Sarah asked.

  "Not far," Noah said. "About another mile."

  "Zombie!" one of the men called out.

  Wayne held up a fist and halted the squad.

  It stumbled toward them from the woods, looking almost shocked that it found such a big meal. But before it could react, Wayne had already slipped from the column and snuck up beside it, his knife drawn. As its head started to turn to him, he grabbed it and neatly slid his hunting knife up through its jaw and into its brain.

  The zombie's eyes bulged and Wayne withdrew the knife just as quickly as he had inserted it, already moving back to the front of the men before the zombie hit the ground.

  He gave a quick motion with his hand and they advanced again.

  Sarah was stunned by Wayne's deft work. "I've never seen anything like that," she told Noah.

  "He's my best man," Noah said. "I told you you have nothing to worry about."

  Every step along the cold ground through the woods sent a small shockwave up her legs and jangled her nerves. She was restless all day, knowing that she would be coming on this excursion and having no idea what to expect. Flashes of the horrors she endured on the bridge a
s her and her son made their way to Noah's Ark filled her mind. Every vivid detail of that encounter stayed with her and would visit her nearly every night. But tonight would be something entirely different, and her body didn't know how to react to the anticipation of it. Her heart was beating quickly and even though her body was warm, she trembled.

  "So is this their main headquarters?" she asked nervously.

  "Not exactly," Noah said. "This is just sort of a staging area they have. Our scouts have been watching it for a few weeks, and we think that they use it to plan some of their attacks."

  "Attacks on us?" she asked.

  "Not sure. They could even just be plans for new outposts for themselves, or even locations of their current camps. Any info we can find is good for us."

  Sarah nodded, feeling her throat clench a little.

  "But now you can see the result of all the ground work we've laid out," he continued. "All we have to do is be smart about this and attack them where it hurts, and before long you'll see their whole operation start to fold up on itself."

  After another few minutes of threading their way through the dense trees, Wayne held up his fist and stopped the squad.

  The woods ended in front of them and broke out into a park. There was a road next to them at the edge of the woods, and just a few blocks down on the other side was a row of buildings that stretched down a side street.

  The one at the very end next to the road used to be an old pizza parlor. It looked just as sad and dilapidated as every other building in the row, but its windows were covered with sheets of metal and there was a soft orange glow creeping out between the cracks.

  "This is it," Kenny said to the men behind him.

  He and Wayne led the group to the edge of the woods near the park and stopped. Noah spotted a black pickup truck on the other side of the street parked next to the curb.

  "Come on," he said to Sarah. "You can wait in that truck while we do our business. It's a couple blocks away from the building so you'll be safe. All you have to do is watch."

  The two of them snuck away from the squad and moved across the street, Noah keeping his eyes on the building the whole time. They made it to the truck and he quietly opened the driver-side door and slipped Sarah inside. She shuffled along on the cold leather seat and held her hands in her lap, nervously shivering. The truck was facing away from the pizza place, but she could watch what was happening from the rear-view and side-view mirrors.

  "Just stay right here," he said. "We'll be back before you know it."

  "All right," she said, "I'll be okay."

  He gave her a final assessment then quietly shut the door and snuck across the street back to the squad of men.

  They moved into the park out of the cover of the trees and skirted around until they were directly across the road from the side of the building where there were no windows.

  Wayne trotted across the street and took off the backpack he was carrying. He pulled out the C-4, sliding the blasting cap into the soft brick, and sticking it to the wall of the building.

  Sarah watched everything in the side-view mirror, and after he primed the explosive, she watched him move from one side mirror to the other as he retreated back to where the men waited across the street. She held her breath, waiting for the explosion. She knew it would be loud, but she had no idea.

  The quiet stillness of the night was torn apart as a bright flash of orange ignited the street and disappeared just as suddenly as it was created. A thousand thunderclouds clapped together at once and the sound swept down the street, making Sarah jump in her seat.

  The side wall of the pizza parlor was gone, sent flying in every direction in a cloud of brick and mortar and smoke, and the men ran across the street and disappeared through the hole.

  In the cloud of thick white smoke lingering in the air, wounded and disoriented bandits stumbled around. Some had blood covering their arms, their chests, or their faces. One was holding the side of his head where his ear used to be, and many more lay dead on the floor near where the blast went off.

  Bright muzzle flashes pierced the smoke and loud gunfire rang out inside. Bullets peppered the bodies of the wounded bandits and thin ribbons of blood stretched through the air as each man went down.

  The ones that had been farther away from the explosion still had some cognizance and hid behind furniture or walls, trying to find a gun. They returned fire when they were able, and the men from Noah's Ark spread out and covered the building from every angle.

  Some of the bandits slid across the floor and took cover behind the overturned tables in the front dining area that had been blown away in the explosion. They leaned out from behind cover and fired back, but they were woefully outgunned.

  Kenny and Wayne took the main charge and they were swift and merciless as they tore down each scraggly man one by one.

  Noah stood in the midst of the fray and raised his M16 to fire on a bandit in the kitchen in front of them who was futilely trying to hide behind an open oven door. The bandit staggered backward as the bullets hit him and he crashed into the wall, a pistol flying out of his hand and clattering on the floor.

  Kenny's eyes darted around. He fired bullet after bullet with excellent accuracy until he ran out. He knelt down and pulled a magazine from his belt and reloaded, then stood up and moved down a hallway.

  A bandit jumped out from around the corner and grabbed Kenny's rifle, trying to yank it away from him. Before Kenny could pull away, another bandit jumped on him and tried to wrestle the gun away from him. Another one came from behind the second one and tried to join in, but Kenny was quick on his feet and shoved the first bandit hard into the wall, using the side of the rifle to slam into his sternum.

  The man's face twisted in pain as he started to hunch over, but he still held onto the gun. Kenny spun around and dragged him in front of the other two bandits and charged at them like a runaway freight train. Kenny's enormous mass and strength was no match for the three thin bandits and they staggered backward toward a staircase leading down to the basement. He gave them a hard shove and they tumbled down the steps like limp ragdolls. He fired some shots down the stairs, then stomped down after them to clear the basement.

  Noah knelt down to reload his rifle just as a bandit came from behind one of the overturned tables to attack. The man raised a knife over his head and screamed as he ran at Noah, blood pouring down his face and stinging his eyes.

  Wayne sprung into action and stepped between the two of them. He caught the bandit's arm just above the wrist, stopping the knife, then in one swift motion, he spun the man's arm in a semicircle and swung the butt of his rifle around to break his nose. He stepped forward and hooked his heel behind the bandit's and twisted him over his leg, sending him crashing to the ground. Wayne raised his rifle and put two rounds in his chest.

  Noah looked up at Wayne as he slid the new magazine in and nodded in appreciation.

  As the other men mopped up what was left of the bandits, a door at the end of a hallway swung open and a tall bandit with wiry black hair came out, a shotgun slung in his arms.

  The gun erupted and the buckshot hit the chest and neck of one of the men from Noah's Ark, killing him instantly. The bandit fired again and hit another of their squad in the side of the face. The dead bodies fell to the ground like bricks and the bandit fired a third time at Wayne.

  Wayne tried to move out of the way, but some of the buckshot hit his bulletproof vest over his ribs, breaking them. He stumbled backward with a heavy grunt.

  The bandit raised the shotgun and aimed carefully at Wayne's head.

  Noah shoved Wayne out of the way and crouched against the side of the hallway, aiming his rifle.

  Before the bandit could adjust his aim to Noah, two bullets hit him in the face and he fell back through the doorway, the shotgun going off and blowing apart the ceiling with a final twitch of his finger. A fine mist of plaster sprinkled down onto the bandit's dead body as blood pooled around his head.

  A
ll the men from Noah's Ark filed down the hallways and cleared each room in the back. The dining area in the front had been cleared, with a couple men looking around the wreckage to make sure everyone was dead, and more men followed Kenny down the stairs to clear out the basement.

  In one of the back rooms there were maps spread out over a table with markings on them denoting the bandits' outposts and other circled spots with some scribbled notes about attack plans they had. One of Noah's men called him in and he took a look at them.

  When everyone's attention had been directed elsewhere, a bandit in the dining area of the pizza parlor stirred from what everyone assumed was the sleep of the dead. The scraggly bandit had been knocked out from the blast and had just come to, his ears ringing and his head pounding terribly. He looked around and saw the men in body armor and assault rifles around him, but none of them paid attention to him. He dragged himself across the floor toward the hole in the wall and got to his feet and stumbled outside.

  Sarah's eyes had been glued to the rear-view mirror the entire time. Her heart leapt in her chest with every gunshot, and she started to regret her decision to come here. When the bandit stumbled outside of the hole in the wall, she at first thought that it was one of the men from Noah's Ark, but after seeing his smoke-tinged clothing and his emaciated appearance, her heart gave another leap, and she immediately thought that everyone from Noah's Ark was dead.

  The bandit stumbled out into the middle of the street and looked around. There was panic in his eyes, as if he were searching for somewhere to hide. And then his eyes fell on the black truck where Sarah waited.

  Her body went rigid with fear as he started shuffling down the street toward her. She pressed the lock button for all the doors, but nothing happened. She leaned over and reached for the manual lock in the passenger-side door of the cab just as it was wrenched open.

  The bandit crawled inside the truck next to her and pulled the door shut behind him. He leaned down in the seat, trying to duck his head beneath the dash. He hadn't noticed her at all until she screamed.

  His head jerked up and he let out a cry of surprise. Sarah tried to open the door and escape the truck, but he grabbed a fistful of her long blond hair and yanked her toward him. She screamed again and he shoved open the passenger-side door and dragged her out of the truck. He was unarmed, but he wrapped a hand around her throat, and his fingers felt like thin bars of steel against it.