by streetpig1690 » Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:49 am
December 12, 2010
Today was a productive day, dangerous but productive. We started out just before sunrise and made our way into town. It was slow going to say the least. There is still a lot of snow and ice on the ground and it is freezing fucking cold. It was hard as hell to crawl out of the rack and leave the warm confines of the RV behind.
We are carrying our rucksacks and they are packed heavy with extra clothing, socks, fire starting material, food and water. I really wish we could have gone in with limited gear but if we were cut off from one another or stuck hiding out, we would need the gear to survive. We were also wearing our new “snow ponchos” for camouflage.
Before we left Sam and Alex took some white bed sheets and using a military poncho as a template, they made what they called snow ponchos. They lined the sheets with a military wool blanket to give some added warmth. They are large enough that even wearing a pack the material hangs down about knee length. Without a pack, it will hang down to the ankles. They added slits for the arms and attached a hood piece that is also lined with wool.
We are all wearing polypro underwear; including the socks hand ski mask, our MultiCams, and our MultiCam gortex top and bottoms underneath the ponchos and it is still freezing. I feel like the fucking Michelin man. We also are wearing gortex-lined boots and I pray they keep our feet dry otherwise; we could have some serious problems.
Sam and I were carrying our melee weapons with our rifles slung and Ju had his silenced 10-22 out. Moving and fighting like this was going to be very cumbersome as we found out just outside of town. The sun was just coming up and I was relieved that we could finally clearly see. Ju was on point and he signaled for Sam and me to advance and take down two zeds just ahead of us. Even though Ju had the silencer on his rifle the cycling of the rifle could be easily heard in the quite early morning hours so he was on over watch and would only shoot if absolutely necessary.
The two zeds were about twenty yards away when we moved in. Sam was moving faster than I was and was about five yards ahead of me. I don’t know what she was thinking moving ahead like that. The two zeds were almost side-by-side and we needed to be moving in tandem. Just as Sam got to the first zed, she raised her hammer and swung.
With all the clothing, the pack and the tactical vest on she was unable to get a really good swing. The hammer struck the zed square in the forehead but failed to penetrate. My heart went into my throat when Sam went down as she stepped on a sheet of ice. Her legs kicked out tripping up the zombie and dropping him on top of her.
The second zed was right behind the first as he too lunged forward and added himself to the pile of flailing arms and legs. Ju couldn’t shoot and I didn’t want to risk a swing with the tomahawk in fear of missing and striking Sam. I surged forward and dove at the two zeds. My body smashed into the two zeds sending them sprawling off Sam.
My legs draping Sam’s body I struggled to my knees and raised the tomahawk. The closest zed was already up and on his knees lunging at me when Sam raised her body pitching me forward as her chest lifted my left foot up. I lucked out and was still able to strike the zombie in the face killing him. The unlucky part of the whole thing was that the tomahawk lodged in the bastard’s forehead and I fell forward on top of him.
I rolled to my right and on my back as my feet dug into the snow and ice trying desperately to get some solid purchase under my feet. I must have looked like a damn turtle on its back kicking. Things went from shitty to shittier when the second zombie had managed to get to its knees and lung at me. I raised my arm to deflect the stinking pile of flesh.
I will honestly admit that I froze up when I felt the zombies teeth clamp down on my forearm. With my forearm in his teeth, he shook his head left and right as he tried to rend the flesh from my arm. I just stared in horror knowing I was a dead man when I saw a blur of steel and then the top of his head crushed in with an outpouring of blood and brain. The zed fell to the ground and pulled my arm with him, his teeth still clamped onto my arm.
Sam was suddenly there on her knees beside me crying and pulling my arm from his mouth as she struggled to move my clothing and see my wound. We were soon both crying Sam lying against me with her arms around my neck. Thank God for looking out for me. The zed’s teeth never punctured the wool lined poncho or all of the garments beneath it.
We were all shook up but we had to get to our destination before we were spotted. So like the apocalyptic warriors that we were we moved on. I was regretting leaving Rommel back at the RV. We had made him a small burrow filled with blankets for him to sleep in and keep warm and left out some food. He would have been very useful in the close up fight with the zombies but I wanted him to stay and guard the RV. Tomorrow he is coming with us. With this snow and ice, he would easily be able to trip up the zeds and put them on their ass.
Two hours later, we stealthily made our way into the small store that was our destination. Then we set up our hide. The large front window of the store was partially broken out and a steady freezing cold breeze blew into the store. Glass and debris littered the floor so we were going to have to keep movement to a minimum so as not to make any noise.
Now I guess you may be wandering why the hell we would set up in a store with a broken front glass where we could possibly be seen from the outside and how the hell do you set up a hide indoors. I will get to the why a store with a broken front glass window later. First, for those of you who don’t know how, I will tell you how to build an indoor hide and be relatively unseen.
Each of us carried pieces of three quarter inch PVC, couplings and elbows strapped to our packs. This was the gray electrical PVC not the white water line type. Taking our pieces, we formed a square frame. From out of our packs, we took a lightweight black material and draped it over the frame.
The front piece facing out towards the window has a slit cut into it, which one can look through and shoot through. From about ten yards and out a person looking directly into the store window will see nothing unless of course the sunlight is bearing straight into the room lighting it up. But the store we chose faces north and there will be no direct light and the back part of the shop is in shadows.
Also, the hide is set up behind a long counter. The occupant of the hide will be sitting on a campstool we brought with us and the rifle will rest on a black squeeze bag that is sitting on the counter top. It should be an excellent position to fire from.
Now to keep warm inside the hide we have brought two small bottles of propane apiece and each have a small heater that attaches to it. These bottles can be run continuously for about eighteen hours with the heater on low. A lot of the heat will be trapped inside the hide and will make for a warm comfortable place to lay in wait for our victims.
We have set up a room to rest in also. Just off to the side of the counter is a door that is open which leads to a large storeroom. Inside the storeroom just to the right is another door, which leads to an office. Inside the office, we have laid out two sleeping mats to lie on, set up a heater and small emergency one hundred hour candle for some lighting. With the door shut this room heated up rather quickly.
Ju was going to take first watch in the hide. Sam and I were both mentally exhausted from our near death struggle with the two zeds. Not to mention we had worked up quite a sweat. So while Ju stood watch Sam and I stripped out of our clothing. We then wiped ourselves down with baby wipes and put on fresh dry clothing and laid down for a nap.
The room had heated up nicely since we had started the heater just before we set up the hide and we hung our clothes out to dry. I should mention that the ponchos not only provide warmth and the white sheets camouflage in the snow but inside the building, we flipped them inside out. The wool material is a dark gray and provides excellent camouflage inside due to its subdued dark color.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the plan sorry about that. Approximately fifty yards from us is one of the corals the thugs use to herd the zombies into. What we plan on doing is that once the zeds are in the coral we will wait for the first vehicle that draws the excess zombies outside the coral away to leave. Then when the second vehicle pulls up and the man in the back jumps out to shut the gate, whoever is on the rifle will kneecap his ass and drop him to the pavement.
Once he is down, we are hoping it will appear to the others that he has just fallen. With a little luck, and from what we have observed some of the zeds in the coral will have turned towards the noise of the truck and be attempting to leave the coral. With the gate, closer down they should make it out and swarm his ass.
Our sniper will then engage the driver and attempt for a head shot to put him out of the game. The third round will go to the cover man who is in the back of the truck and usually is shooting zeds that have just made it out of the coral or were not fast enough to follow the truck. The passenger in the truck will sometimes exit the truck and add his fire to the mix.
Once the cover men open fire this will give the two shooters who do not have the silenced rifle an opportunity to take a shot apiece at the men on the platform. If all goes well it will appear to have been a huge goat fuck and we can slip away unnoticed. The down side is that we are going to have to stay in place until the sun goes down and move at night. I have said it before and will say it again. I hate moving at night with fucking zombies everywhere. They are so fucking quiet.
It was around two in the afternoon and I was on watch when all the activity started. The zed traffic had been fairly heavy on the street out front. A group of anywhere between three and ten zombies would shamble by every ten our fifteen minutes. I don’t know where the hell these things were coming from, and despite the thugs proactive cleansing, they really needed to build some fucking walls or barriers.
I called to Ju and Sam on the radio and told them to make their way from the office to the hide that the games were about to begin. Two men had made their way up onto the platform and had started the loud music as Sam and Ju crawled into the hide with me. It was a bit cramped with the three of us in there but they would move out of the hide and set up with their rifles after the decoy truck left the area.
Thirty minutes later the coral was full and the decoy truck arrived. The driver started blowing his horn and the three passengers fired random shots into the milling crowd outside of the gates. We all just about shit our pants when a round shattered the remainder of the front glass window. For a split second, I had thought we had been spotted. In reality though one of the guys in the truck had shot a zed near the store eviscerating the contents of his skull and the high powered round plowed right through his brain and into the store.
Another five minutes crept by until the decoy truck had made its way out of the area. Then the gate closers showed up. One of the men leapt from the bed of the truck and fired his shotgun point blank into the face of a zed three feet from him. The man still in the bed of the truck opened up with some fairly accurate cover fire clearing a path for his partner. The passenger in the cab exited and also began to give cover fire.
Sam and Ju had already exited the hide and set up with their rifles when I pulled the trigger. Just as my target put his hands on the gate, his kneecap was obliterated by the .22 caliber hollow point round. He collapsed to the ground and began to whither and scream in pain as the first zombies started to crowd around him and drop to their knees for a feast. The man in the bed of the truck started to spray the crowd in an attempt to save his friend. Blood and gore flew and heads exploded as he emptied his rifle at them.
My second shot was very well placed. The driver of the truck had just opened his door, a pistol in his hands when I shot him in the throat. I didn’t go for the head shot because at fifty yards the .22 caliber round may not have pierced his skull. The man dropped to his knees, the pistol falling from his hand as he used both hands to staunch the blood flow from the gaping wound.
The zombies were in a blood-crazed frenzy now as they poured out of the coral ignoring the loud music. I don’t know if zombies can smell but it seems when there is blood in the air they go nuts. The men on the platform started trying to block the coral entrance by shooting down the zeds closest to the gate. That’s when I heard Ju begin to countdown out loud. Just as he said “one” he and Sam simultaneously fired their rifles. Both of them aimed low at the two men on the platform.
Like synchronized divers, the two men both doubled over as a bullet shattered their pelvic bones. The man on the left was a big fat tattooed fucker and his body rammed through the flimsily constructed two by four railing as he fell head first into the coral below. The second man had used one hand to clutch his gut and with the other, he had grabbed hold of the railing. With nothing to now support his weight, he was right behind his fat friend. I could hear their screams over the music and gunfire. Sure did suck to be them.
As our two platform divers fell to their death I switched my sights to the man who had been in the passenger seat of the cab. The man in the bed was screaming over his shoulder for him to get the fuck in and drive. As the man crawled across the front seat from the passenger side, his face lined up perfectly with the scopes crosshairs and I gently squeezed the trigger.
The .22 rifle has little recoil. With a suppressor on the end of the barrel, it has none at all and I was able to watch clearly through the scope as my round pierced the man’s left eye. He just dropped without a whimper or words his right eye rolling up into his head. The zombies dragged the fresh corpse from the truck and began to gorge.
At the same moment, the man in the bed of the truck was being knocked off balance as the zombies rocked the truck as they pounded into the truck in attempt to rend the flesh from his body. The man was in full panic mode at that moment. He slapped a fresh magazine into the M4 he was using and from the hip, he fired full auto into the sea of undead around him.
Just as the magazine went dry both Ju, and Sam opened up with sustained fire. The rounds tore into the man’s chest hammering his body backwards towards the edge of the truck bed. As his body reached the edge of the truck, several rotting hands reached out and snatched him from the truck. It was like the fucker just disappeared. One second he is falling backwards the next he was just gone, screaming at the top of his lungs as zombies ripped him apart.
We watched the dead feast upon their late afternoon snack for several minutes. Then the sound of several trucks roaring towards our position and full automatic gunfire reached our ears. A large dump struck suddenly appeared crashing into the hoard of zombies in front of the gate. The big truck smashed into the small pickup truck sending it spinning away crushing zombies as it went.
The truck had stopped just in front of the coral gate and men suddenly stood up in the back of the bed. They fired what appeared to be S.A.W.s into the crowd of zombies inside the coral. One man even threw a fucking hand grenade. All I could think was oh shit these boys have some fangs.
As the grenade exploded, showering the wooden walls of the coral with blood and sending body parts raining in every direction two pickups entered the area. These two trucks were setup as technical’s. If you don’t know what a technical is, it is basically a truck with a machinegun mounted to a fixed monopod. A person man’s the machinegun while standing in the back. Personally, I have always found this to be a stupid ass idea. When I was in the Marines, I saw quite a few of these vehicles in third world countries with men in the back bouncing all over the place as they tried to fire the machinegun and the truck drove around at high speed.
The three of us had to sprawl out on the floor and take what cover we could as rounds were fired indiscriminately in every direction. We were showered with sheetrock, wood, and glass as the rounds that the men fired plowed through the rotting flesh of the zombies. Several grenades went off shaking the ground beneath us. I don’t know how long this went on. It felt like an eternity, but in reality, it was probably three or four minutes at the most.
When it was over, I raised up and peered over the counter. Men were walking among the undead who were scattered around on the ground chewed up and torn apart like rag dolls. Occasionally one would fire a round into the head of a crippled zed.
I took notice immediately of the man who most certainly was the leader. I didn’t just think he was the leader because he was screaming at every man he saw wanting to know what the fuck had just happened here. It was the way he carried himself. He was not a large man. He was of average height, and weight with a shock of short-cropped white hair. He wore a tactical vest covered in magazine and gear pouches. His OD green BDU pants were bloused over his gore spattered black paratrooper boots. Despite the freezing cold, the guy only had a sleeveless shirt on under the vest. His muscular arms were sleeved in tattoos with a myriad of skulls, demons, and serpents. This guy radiated power, and evil.
Men lowered their heads when he addressed them never meeting his gaze. After several more minutes of screaming, he told the men to get the dead cleaned up and get back to headquarters. The men scurried to obey. A short time later, a small dozer appeared and began to push the bodies into a large pile. It entered the coral and then backed out scraping the blade across the concrete dragging the bodies out as it moved out. Two dump trucks showed up and the men began the process of slinging the dead into the back of the trucks. When they were done, they were covered in gore and exhaustedly mounted up in their trucks and left the area.
We stayed in our positions for another hour until the sun set. Once we were sure, the area was clear we disassembled the hide and swept up our brass bagging it. In the back office, we opened and heated up two MREs apiece. MREs suck balls but they have a shit load of calories and we were going to need as many calories as we could get when we moved out in the freezing cold night air.
After we finished our meals, we packed the trash into our rucksacks. We then packed everything up except the heater, which we left on to keep us toasty. Bellies full and bodies wrapped in our wool ponchos we slept. I know some of you are thinking that we are taking way to many naps for doing nothing but sitting on our asses. But if you have never sat in one position and just observed without moving, I am here to tell you it is a mind numbing mentally draining task. Then you through in an adrenaline-filled firefight and you have the makings of an exhausting day.
We waited until eight pm to leave. By this time, the guards that have been put out on watch will have been on watch for a couple of hours, cold, tired and ready to get warm and slip into a sleeping bag. The others at the compound would probably be bedded down for the night.
I can probably guess that some of you are thinking eight o’clock isn’t that late. I am not sure what kind of world you are living in future reader but if it has returned to something like my not so distant past with electricity, TVs, computers, and movies to keep you up at night, eight o’clock is late. We have returned to the living habits of our pre-industrial ancestors. Rising with the sun and bedding down at sunset. Our days are filled with not only manual labor, but trying to survive day to day.
Our journey back to Buff was pretty much uneventful except for the four zeds Sam and I dropped. This time she didn’t rush forward half cocked. We stayed side by side with about five feet in between us. We dropped our rucks and ponchos before we engaged the undead. We didn’t rush and each step was deliberately taken. None of us wanted a repeat of this morning.
When we were within about thirty yards of Buff, we spread out and took up positions to observe the area before making our approach. Even though we knew where to look Buff was almost invisible, covered in camo netting and tree branches. Rommel damn near gave me a fucking heart attack. I was lying prone with the binos up to face when I felt his cold ass nose on the back of my neck.
At the time I didn’t know it was a nose, I thought it was a gun barrel. As I slowly turned my face to look over my shoulder at what I knew was going to be my killer, my vision was suddenly obscured by a slobber soaked pink tongue. That is one sneaky fucking dog; I never even saw or heard him approach me from behind.
We moved forward to our undisturbed RV, and started up the generator to get the interior warmed up. We speeded up the process by turning on the small heaters each of us had carried with us. An hour later Sam and I were soaking under the spray of a hot shower. We of course had sacrificed the luxury of solitude under the hot water so that Ju would have some hot water left for his shower. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our friends.
The official scoreboard is good guys 10 bad guys 0. They are also down two trucks. In two attacks, the bad guys are down at least twenty percent of their manpower and they still have not gotten a clue that we are around.
We have decided that in the morning we are going to head back to the lodge. We are not short on food, fuel, ammo or weapons. The water tank is still about half full and needs to be replenished. That isn’t the reason we are heading back though. We are going to rest up for a couple of days and let the heat die down a bit. Even though they don’t know, we have been attacking them, the disappearance of their patrol and what they consider big mistakes resulting in the death of their men will have them on edge. Once back at the lodge we will brainstorm with the rest of the group and come up with a plan to end this shit once and for all.
We may even have to bring a couple of more bodies back with us. I know I said we needed to leave more adults behind but we are still looking at fighting twenty or thirty shit bags. A couple of more guns may prove to be what saves us. Okay I have to get back to the bedroom and kick Rommel’s ass out of the bed. For some reason over the past couple of days, he has decided that Sam makes one hell of a sleeping mate. While he is correct, she is my bed buddy and dogs are supposed to sleep in the floor. I should probably lay the law down to Sam for encouraging that shit. She thinks it is great to have that flea bitten mutt all curled up beside her.
Well, off to bed. Good night.
