Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"Did you hook your radio up again?", asked Juan.

"No. Not yet, we can do it anytime. We don't want to go back. You mentioned a warehouse club? With other people? We might be able to take them to the base, get you almost there, if Thompson and Sanchez want to go with you, you could leave me with the humvee."

"Alone? We'll see, we should contact the military and see what they say, see if your friends got back okay, find out if they have any information." said Juan.

Jack chimed in, "Ain't nothing we can say to you Ted. We have mostly been pretty lucky so far, we know the world has gone to hell, but our part of it is still alive and we need to protect it. You could stay with us until you decide what to do. Or just stay with us."

"Yeah, it is getting dark now, I won't drive again tonight, even with the night vision gear. We'll stay here tonight and figure out what to do in the morning." said Ted.

"Okay, your machine gun still have bullets?", asked Jack.

"Yeah, over ten thousand rounds give or take. That is quite a lot, enough for any slow zombies that might come crawling around. I think we would do better not to be making a bunch of noise, it seems to attract them."

"Oh yeah. No I was thinking towards the more distant future, not for right now. That gun could be useful."

"Maybe. Look Jack, you are not a military man right?"

"Me? No way brother, liberal military hater all the way."

Raising his right eyebrow questioning Ted said, "Well machine guns, especially the new ones actually require a lot of maintenance, we can clean ours out and keep it firing, but the barrel is usually changed out every three thousand rounds or so. We have already fired four or five times that through it. It will still fire, it is just the accuracy is going to go down on it."

"What? Every three thousand shots? Is that possible? I mean that is like what, three minute of fire?", asked Jack.

"No, more like eight minutes or so, they fire about six hundred rounds per minute, but they use a hundred round cans of ammunition, reloading takes time, so push that to ten minutes overall use, most fire fights are over before that and you have to realize the gun is not going to be fired full out the entire time either. Nothing like what we just went through was envisioned when they designed the gun. Most enemies take cover, they don't stand there and let you mow them down. Our gun is a new E50, basically a field upgrade that makes changing the barrel a twenty to thirty second job and improves a few other aspects of the gun too. The problem is we don't have any other barrels. I know the LAV's had at least one spare each, they changed them out last night, but if we want a new gun barrel we have to head back to the base for it." said Ted.

Nodding Juan spoke again, "No need to worry about that right now. You tell anyone else your story?"

"No, but I didn't tell the others to keep their mouths shut either, so probably everyone knows by now, why did you want us to keep it quiet?"

"I would rather you tell them, so they have a better idea of what we are facing. I am glad you told me what happened, and Ted?" Juan asked.

"Yeah?" replied Ted, who was turning to walk away.

"I am sorry for your loss."

Ted nodded his head once, then turned and headed back down the hall towards where the main group was gathered. Thinking while he walked back to his men that maybe he should have told them the whole story…

Jack turned to Juan and Nanci after Ted had passed through the fire doors at the end of the hall, "Well what do you think?"

Juan spoke first, "About what? He has been through a lot, probably more than most of us here."

"I don't know, something is not right, he seems too…I don't know, together maybe? I mean for a man who just lost his family and seen most of his friends get slaughtered. What is keeping him going now?" asked Nanci.

"Yeah, yeah that is what I mean, Nanci. I don't think he lied about anything, I really don't. It's just…well something does not seem right. Is there any way to check up on him, maybe talk to the other guys?" said Jack.

Juan nodded his head slowly, "Well, si, if you think I should. Look Jack we took dozens of people's stories at face value at the club, heck even here at the hospital, what makes Ted different?"

"He works for the government man! He is one of them, the people who caused this problem. Not one of us."

"Nah, c'mon Jack half the boys on the block served the military, and Ted wasn't even an officer, you know? He didn't cause this."

"Yeah, sure Juan, you think only the officers get dirt on them? Special Forces guys, they ain't officers you know, most of em are just grunts, E-4s or so." said Jack naming a common low military rank.

"E-whats?", shrugging his shoulders Juan said, "So what would he hide, like that he knew where they came from or that maybe he sabotaged the radio station battle somehow? I admit maybe he glossed over a few things, things he was not proud of, but that doesn't mean he outright lied to us."

"Yeah Jack, Juan is right, we can't question everyone who comes in, Ted doesn't even want to go back to the base, you heard him, even if he worked as one of 'them', he wants to be one of us now. So let him be one of us, okay?" said Nanci.

Jack looked at Nanci and Juan and shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, or maybe they just want a spy in among us, to keep tabs on us or something. I will let it go, alright? However I may keep an eye on Ted, just to make sure he isn't up to anything fishy."

"Sure Jack." Juan started humming an old song from the seventies, by the Kinks, something about paranoia and how it could destroy you.

Jack caught up the tune, as they all headed towards the door and looked back over his shoulder at Juan, flashing him a smile he said, "Asshole!" which got a laugh out of both Juan and Nanci.

' Those fuckin' bastards. ' Dave had his ups and downs since joining the winning team, this was definitely a 'down'. First he had his goddamn hand blown off. That was a bitch, oh it healed, everything seemed to heal these days, but there was a lot of something Dave interpreted as 'pain' involved. His feelings were all strange lately, sensitive in some areas, almost dead in others, the shot to his hand had burned like fire and when he healed over he was afraid it was going to dumb him down a bit. Dave's theory was that he only regained his mind after he had consumed maybe a whole living being, or at least their blood, which his eyes now saw as a rainbow of beautiful color. His sentience though, seemed pretty secure he did not notice any loss of memory or reasoning, but strength? Yeah he was definitely weaker than he had been, the bullets had torn through him outside of the gas station and the hail of fire he had come under from the next ambush he had ridden right into had made his condition even worse.

Talking to himself he said, "See Dave, that is the thing, prey on the weak, let others take on the strong, otherwise you get what you have right here: You, weak as a kitten, unable to get stronger. You are a dumbass Dave for wanting revenge, revenge is of the old world, the new world is full of opportunity for those who don't succumb to the old ways."

His tirade against himself finished, Dave shut up and watched intently as a blue minivan approached the street to the Mike's Club, some talking seemed to go on for awhile, then the minivan did a slow u-turn and started to drive away, all the while the men at the car barricade kept under cover and kept their guns trained on the vehicle. The van went around the corner, and Dave moved along the roof top he was on to keep it in view. It stopped about halfway down the long block and sat idling. A plan came up, if only the people would wait for a bit.

Ken and his wife Amber were sitting in the van along the street arguing. The guys at the Mike's Club would not let them in, Amber had been bitten, twice, the kids were silent, only after Ken had yelled at them to quiet down so he and Amber could talk. They were in the middle of their own argument when Ken saw a man come around the corner from the Mike's Club.