Zombie Killers: Ice & Fire by John Holmes, Ryan Szimanski Read Free Book Online Page A

showed itself down the other end of the block. A half dozen sets of glowing red eyes showed themselves, then a few more appeared in the distance. The started shambling after us, then broke into a run. We ran for a bit, and then I slowed the team. I didn’t want to run into more zombies coming the other way. 
    “Um, guys, I think maybe we should run or something!” said Brit, jogging past me.  At that moment, a dozen men came around the corner of the house we had just vacated, running at full speed. The two groups crashed into each other with yells and zombie howls. A melee erupted, blood flying darkly in the moonlight, gunfire flashing, shots echoing up and down the street. We stopped to watch.
    “YES! I love it when a plan comes together!”
    Jones limped over to me. “Yeah, well, how about we put some ground between us and this little party? I kinda took an arrow to my knee, yo.”
     

 
    Chapter 14
    The dawn broke with the thunder of rotor blades passing overhead. We had stopped just outside of the town to treat Jonesy’s knee. The arrow had passed just under the skin, and Doc snapped it in half and drew the razor sharp barbed end out, then sewed it shut as we huddled in a barn, out of the cold wind.
    “Hey, Nick, check it out!” Brit had lookout, and she peered out of the slightly open barn door, watching the sky. I was busy trying to raise someone back at the base over the satellite phone. There hadn’t been any retrains stations set up between us and the Seneca Army Depot yet.
    “I’m kinda busy. Just tell me what you see.” I expected maybe a Kiowa on a recon flight, but the rotors sounded too heavy and there was too many of them.
    “Well, there’s, lemme see if I can count that high. Four, five, six, no, seven of those big ass double bladed bus looking thingees. They have a whole bunch of crap slung underneath.”
    “You mean Chinooks” I said, shutting the satellite phone off in frustration and getting up.
    “Yeah, shithooks, or whatever you guys call them. Come see.”
    I stood next to her and looked out the door. In the dawn light, high up so they caught the rays of a sun that hadn’t reached over the mountains yet, seven of the big transport helos thundered across the sky. Underneath was slung a variety of A-22 cargo bags and vehicles, including 155mm howitzers and earth moving equipment. As I watched, they sped overhead, following the river eastward, and settled about ten miles away on top of a bluff overlooking a bend in the river.  
    Just then the satellite phone rang. “Caputos’ Pizza, can I take your order?”
    “Don’t be such a smart ass, Nick. I would kill for a pizza right now.” It was the Operations Sergeant Major from Task Force Liberty.
    “Go back to Seattle, they still have some there, but it isn’t New York Pizza.”
    “Enough with the bullshit, I’ve been up all night trying to get things laid on for the new firebase.”
    “Yeah, the firebase you just so managed to not mention in our latest briefing?” I wasn’t ticked off; I just wanted to pick on him.
    “Hey, we got a lot of shit going on here, and you’re little bunch of peepers ain’t way up on my priority list. Stand by; I got a new tasking for you.”
    “Bend over, here is comes again. BTW, we’re down two. One KIA, and I had to shoot someone for falling asleep on duty.”
    “Crap, the Colonel is not going to like that.” He sighed heavily. 
    “Screw him he doesn’t like me anyway. The kid fell asleep on guard duty, and got another team member kill and forced us to evac our hide site.”
    “Well, we can let JAG deal with it when you get back. Meanwhile, saddle up and get walking. You new orders are to recon St. Johnsville and points east until recalled. You’ll be operating out of Firebase Tillery for resupply.”
    “Is that the monstrosity you guys are building up on that hill? For once, can you just build something someplace where we don’t have to hump all the way up and down?”
    He