Escape from the Damned (APEX Predator Book 2) Read online

  Escape from the Damned

  Book II of the APEX Predator series

  By Glyn Gardner

  Copyright 2013

  Acknowledgement

  I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few of the people who have made this book possible.

  First, I have to say thank you to my wife Erin and my kids Nate and Adam. It has been hard juggling family, work and writing for the past few years. I appreciate the sacrifice that you guys have made to allow me to continue telling this story. Nate, one day you’ll even be old enough to read it. Erin, one day your house will really be clean.

  Next, I would like to thank two women who were kind enough to suffer through all of my typos, grammar errors, and all of those misspelled words. Page Gardner and Jen Riggs, thank you so much. I appreciate your pain and suffering more than either of you will ever know.

  I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to Tracy Ward. Tracy is a fellow author I met online while trying to stir up buzz for my first book, APEX Predator. Since then she has been my literary conscience. Not every idea you have to make a horror novel more horrible is really a good one. Thanks Tracy for keeping me on the straight and narrow.

  Sarah, Tam, and Rachael; you guys are the best. Thanks for all your words of encouragement and support. I hope one day to repay the sage advice that you ladies gave an old soldier who really is just telling war stories.

  Glossary of Terms

  ACU: Army Combat Uniform. Camouflaged uniform worn by members of the US Army that has a combination of green, grey and sand colors to provide camouflage in desert, urban, and wooded environments.

  AIT: Advanced Individual Training. Where a soldier learns his/her actual job in the Army.

  Bunker Gear: Fire resistant outer garments worn by fireman.

  CH-47 Chinook: Medium lift U.S. military helicopter. It has duel rotors, and can carry about 40 troops. It flies about 175 mph and has a range of about 450 miles

  Click: Kilometer. 1000 meter.

  HMMWV: Humvee or Hummer. High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle. Replacement for the Jeep.

  IM: Intramuscular. Medication administered into a large muscle. Due to the large blood flow to large muscle, the medication starts working in a relatively short time, and the absorption is relatively predictable. Some medications cannot be given IM as they will damage the muscle prior to being absorbed.

  IV: Intravenous. Medication administered through a needle into one’s veins. The IV route allows for a more predictable absorption of a medication. It is also the fastest way to get a medicine working inside the body

  LMTV: Light Medium Tactical Vehicle. U.S. Army truck manufactured by Oshkosh. It replaced the Army’s 2 ½ ton truck. It has an open bed and a very high center of gravity, enabling it to traverse very rugged terrain.

  M16/M4: US military rifle firing the 5.56 NATO round. M4 is the carbine version with a collapsing stock and shorter barrel.

  MRE: Meal Ready to Eat. The US military’s individual combat ration.

  Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong; a soldier’s first rule in combat.

  NCO: Noncommissioned Officer. Corporals and Sergeants in the Army and Marines, Petty Officers in the Navy, Sergeants in the Air Force

  Pvt: Private. Lowest enlisted rank in the Army and Marines

  SIG: Sig Sauer. German firearms manufacturer.

  SOSUS: an acronym for Sound Surveillance System. A chain of sonar listening stations planted by the US Navy to detect submarines crossing either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

  SPC: Specialist. An E-4 in the US Army, that is equal in rank to a corporal.

  SSgt: Staff Sergeant, an NCO, E-6 in the Army and Marines, E-5 in the Air Force.

  Stacking up: In Close Quarters Battle: stacking refers to the team members lining up beside the chosen entry point in preparation for the breach.

  Introduction

  Eighteen days ago the dead began roaming the earth. Staff Sergeant Brown and Private Jackson soon find themselves the sole survivors of the Louisiana National Guard’s response to the sudden zombie outbreak. As they escape they find other survivors.

  ER nurse Jen and her security guard husband Mike are forced to flee their home as the zombie horde comes crashing through their door. Before they go, they rescue Theresa, a fourteen year-old girl who was traumatized by the deaths of her family at the hands of the growing zombie horde.

  Kerry was a clerk at a sporting goods store. She and another employee suffer abuse after abuse at the hands of the Adams brothers. The group finds and liberates them while trying to scavenge supplies.

  Sergeant Procell and his combat engineers, Privates Williams and Jefferson, are members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division; cut off from their unit as it escaped the growing zombie horde.

  They in turn band together with Mr. LaBlanc, Mr. Love, Mrs. Arrington and several twelve year old students, a middle school science club caught traveling when the dead began rising.

  When last we left our survivors, they had been forced to take refuge in an abandoned veterinarian’s clinic. One of the students had been injured in an accident. Jen, with the help of Theresa and Kerry, was forced to act way outside of her scope of training to save the little girl’s life. Tragedy strikes the group just as the little girl regains consciousness.

  Day 18

  The Vet Clinic

  SSgt Brown stood on top of the veterinarian’s clinic, watching the sun rise in the east. He’d been on watch for the past two hours. In what has become the norm, it had been another quiet night. Only two or three zombies had wandered within sight of the clinic, and none had seemed to notice the tall soldier standing on the roof.

  The last week had been the best he and the group had since the world fell apart. It’s as if they had been granted a timeout by God, and the undead had given them a week long furlough. He thought about the regular army lieutenant, and the priest.

  His thoughts drifted even farther back, to when this all had come about. His unit had deployed to Shreveport in order to help stop what had been reported to be rioting near the Barksdale Air Force Base. When they came in contact with the first “rioters,” his under strength battalion lost over 200 men in about two minutes. He and two of his troops, Privates Anderson and Jackson were able to escape the carnage. But, not before Anderson was bitten by a zombie.

  The trio was able to rescue a teacher and several students from a local elementary school. One of the students had been bitten and later died, as did Pvt Anderson. The student and Anderson both reanimated while the rest of the survivors slept. SSgt Brown and Pvt Jackson woke to the sound of screaming as the two newly reanimated corpses attacked the teacher and children.

  The two soldiers were forced to run, spending the night in the kitchen of a fast food restaurant. They soon heard shooting, and made contact with Mike, Jen, and young Theresa. The trio had escaped Mike and Jen’s house. But, not before Theresa’s family was killed in front of her.

  The military attempted a helicopter rescue of the survivors. The rescue failed, and the crew chief of the crashed helicopter, SPC. Wilcox joined the group as they ran for their lives through neighborhoods populated by the undead. They were taken in by Willie White and his family. The power eventually went out and Willies mother, who was dependent on an oxygen concentrator, killed herself. The group, including Maria and Mr. White were forced to flee.

  They ended up at a local sporting goods store where they rescued Kerry and Simon from the Adams brothers. He shivers at the thought of the Adams brothers. They had kidnapped and abused two fellow survivors.

  The group resupplied and moved again. Simon died when he was atta
cked while taking a piss, causing the rest of the group to scatter. They came back together just in time to find a military convoy that was attacked several nights before. The dead started to reanimate and Willie, Maria, and SPC Wilcox were killed.

  The group continued on and rescued Lt Cruzan and his group of combat engineers who were cut off from their retreating unit. They had also found a traveling middle school science club and a priest. One of the children fell out of the LMTV and was gravely injured. Jen manages to save her life, but was unable to save Father Albright, who had developed a sudden fever. The priest reanimated and attacked Lt Cruzan, infecting him. His soldiers were forced to put him down before he turned. Again the vision of the young Lieutenant lying on the ground, a pool of blood spreading around him, crept into SSgt Brown’s mind. His heart sank just a little.

  It wasn’t that he was especially close to the young officer, or even that he felt responsible for his death. It was more that having an officer around relieved SSgt Brown of some of the responsibility for the safety of these folks. He could focus on the business of soldiering, and not feel as responsible for the civilians. But that reprieve had been washed away in a puddle of blood and brains.

  He closed his eyes. The image of the young officer became more vivid. He could see the look of terror and panic on the Lieutenant’s face. He could see the blood pooling on the floor from the bite wound. He could smell the metallic smell of the blood. He was sure he could still hear the low groan of the monster.

  And, as quick as the memory manifested itself, it disappeared into the recesses of his mind. He knew from experience that it would return. He had been having nightmares almost every night since the lieutenant died. Not all of the nightmares were of the dead officer. The most common memory to invade his dreams was that of Private Anderson.

  When he had found Anderson, he was kneeling over a screaming child. Anderson was biting chunks from the child’s flesh. In his dreams, the child would continue to scream for hours, as the Anderson zombie continually bit him in the same place over and over. Nothing that SSgt Brown could do would stop the attack or relieve the boy’s pain.

  Then, the Anderson zombie would be standing face to face with the now paralyzed SSgt Brown. He could smell rotting flesh mixed with fresh blood. He could feel the tiny drops of bloody spit landing on his face every time the corpse exhaled. Then the creature’s mouth would open, he could see the bloody flesh still stuck in Anderson’s teeth. That was the nightmare that SSgt Dave Brown saw more than any other.

  He forced his thoughts to the present. How are we doing on supplies? How is the little girl? Didn’t Jen say she was able to travel by now? He thought about Jen, her husband Mike, and their 14 year old neighbor, Theresa. What a Godsend those three had been. He was sure that he and Jackson would never have made it this far had it not been for the trio.

  He turned as Mike climbed the last few steps of the ladder that passed through the sky light onto the roof.

  “Morning Sergeant Brown,” the younger man said quietly. He held out a cup of coffee to the NCO.

  “Morning Mike,” he said, taking the coffee. “You sleep ok?”

  “Not too bad,” he replied. “Jen was pretty restless. It’s tough to sleep with her rolling around all night.”

  The NCO thought about his own nightmares, and wondered what demons taunted her at night. After the little girl fell out of the truck, Jen almost gave herself a nervous breakdown trying to save her. Add to that the priest dying for no apparent reason, reanimating, and attacking the lieutenant. SSgt Brown thought she looked as if she’d aged ten years in a few days.

  He’s been forced to order her to pass the torch of senior medical professional to Kerry and Theresa. It really didn’t matter much anyway. There were no casualties that needed tending to, and aside from a few snotty noses, no one was sick.

  “She doing ok?”

  “She’ll be fine,” replied Mike. “She’s still pretty tore up about the lieutenant’s death. She won’t say it, but I think she feels like she should have known the priest was going to reanimate.”

  “No way she could have known that,” replied the NCO.

  “Try telling her that. I think she’s feeling the pressure of being the only person who knows her job.”

  “Tell me about it. After you get some breakfast, send her up here. I think it’s time her and I have a pep talk.”

  Mike turned for the sky light. “I’ll strongly suggest she come up here for some fresh air,” he said with a wink.

  SSgt Brown continued strolling around the top of the building. He couldn’t help think about how beautiful the sunrise really was. It would be a nice day to take a nice stroll along the lake. He thought about the last time his family went on vacation. The lake they went to was absolutely serene. He thought about his wife and kids. There was that churning in his stomach again. He hadn’t been able to contact any of his family since he left for Shreveport. Now, it’s been over two weeks. As far as he can tell, the entire country is suffering from this outbreak, and he’s here protecting a bunch of strangers while his wife and kids fend for themselves.

  He almost envied Jackson. The kid came up here with one person in this world that meant something to him. His family had been killed by a drunk driver while he was in AIT at Ft Knox. His only tie to anyone else had been Pvt Anderson. He’s taken Anderson’s death hard. But, after a few days, he was able to shake it off and has been a model soldier.

  He forced the thoughts of family out of his head and again tried to get back to the business of saving the folks he had with him. Food is running low, maybe two days worth. Water was short. They could use the taps, but he and Jen were concerned about contamination. They still didn’t have a good handle on how this thing was transmitted.

  Ammo was good. They’d blown through a fair amount rescuing the regular army guys and the science club, but hadn’t had to use any since. Gas was the same as before, maybe 300 miles worth of driving.

  Everyone had clothes. The teachers had been complaining for more blankets for the kids. The kids had been complaining about blankets for the dogs to sleep on. The dogs had not been complaining about anything. He was sure their tails had wagged non-stop for a week now.

  His thoughts drifted back to the night of Lieutenant Cruzan’s death. The dogs, what were they doing? Sgt Procell said they were in the corner pissing themselves. Let’s see, that was right before the priest died. All except the big one, Duke. The kids named him Duke. He was barking up a storm. He wondered out loud if the dogs could sense something.

  “I bet they can,” answered a female voice from behind him. He turned to see Jen. She really did look tired. “I hear that dog barking in my nightmares,” she told him. “Every time I dream about that night, I hear barking. It makes it that much worse.” She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. God Damn It!

  SSgt Brown set two MRE boxes up about three feet apart. “Sit down Jen. You’re looking pretty ragged these days.”

  “I’m fine,” she shot back.

  “No,” he replied curtly. “You’re not. Even those kids in there can see it.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, for all our sakes, I hope you’re right.” He could see the anger and despair in her eyes. He struck just the nerve he’d hoped too. “You know, I know how you’re feeling.”

  She looked at him with a mixture of doubt and anger. “Really,” she barked. “You think you know how I feel? So tell me! Can the great Staff Sergeant Brown, please tell poor little ole me how I’m feeling?”

  “You’re scared,” he replied in a soft voice.

  She just stared at him for a minute, her mind racing to answer him. “How do you know that,” she finally asked quietly.

  “Because I am too,” he answered. “I’m scared I’m going to do something that is going to get someone killed.” He stood up, and looked at his feet. “I’m scared I’m going to do something that’s going to get everyone killed.” She watched him pace for a moment.


  “I don’t want the responsibility. I just want to take care of my soldiers, and let someone else make the big decisions. I didn’t think much of Lieutenant Cruzan, but at least with him around it wasn’t my call. Now, I have to be the leader again. Me, I’m the guy who lost 26 troops in about 2 minutes. I’m the guy who let one of his own troops kill and eat the only people he’d managed to rescue. I don’t exactly have the best track record for keeping people alive in this new environment.”

  He sat back down on his MRE box, face in his hands.

  “Are you kidding?” she asked. “You’re the best thing that could have happened to this group. You’ve been the rock we’ve all come to lean on. We didn’t do it because you out ranked us. We did it because you’re the most competent leader we’ve got. Mike called Lieutenant Cruzan a chicken-shit. He was going to get us killed. Do you know why?”

  She waited a second for a response that didn’t come. “He didn’t care about us. We were excess baggage. We were a bunch of civilians who were going to slow him and his troops down. You never looked at us like that. You always treated us like equals.” She leaned back, suddenly feeling better. He was smiling at her.

  “You know,” he began, “you are a valuable member of this team. They need the both of us. They need me to keep them safe. They need you to treat them when I fail. I need you to be my backup.”

  He reached out and grasped her hand, and looked into her eyes. She could see the intensity in his eyes. “I know it’s a big responsibility. But, if I lead these folks, will you doctor them up to the best of your ability? Don’t worry about the past. Let’s both start with a clean slate. New season starts today. The pre-season is over.”

  It was as if a giant weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Nothing had changed. He was still the leader of the group, but he had relieved her of the responsibility for those she hadn’t saved. She gave his hand a squeeze, tears flowing down her cheeks.

  “I do.”