The Final Countdown Read online

  Zournal

  Book 6

  “The Final Countdown”

  R S Merritt

  Text Copyright © 2018 Randall Scott Merritt

  All Rights Reserved

  As with all that is my life, this book is dedicated to my family, most especially to my beautiful wife.

  Table of Contents

  Entry 1: Zuber

  Entry 2: The Cavalry

  Entry 3: No Battle Plan Survives First Contact

  Entry 4: If at First You Don’t Succeed

  Entry 5: Running Just as Fast as we Can

  Entry 6: Regroup

  Entry 7: Nights at the Round Table

  Entry 8: Praying for a Zombie to Eat Me

  Entry 9: Impromptu Planning Session

  Entry 10: Strike where the Enemy is Weak

  Entry 11: Into the Breach

  Entry 12: No Rest for the Wicked

  Entry 13: Such Sweet Sorrow

  Entry 14: Bringing a nuke to the Gunfight

  Entry 15: Car Shopping

  Entry 16: Wish I’d Paid Attention in Shop Class

  Entry 17: Hold Your Fire

  Entry 18: Hooked on Korean Phonics

  Entry 19: House of the Rising Sun

  Entry 20: Ridgecrest

  Entry 21: Roll Back Bomb

  Entry 22: Blue Light Bomb

  Entry 23: Let’s Do This

  Entry 24: Anchors Away

  Entry 25: The Deep Blue

  Entry 26: Getting There is Half the Fun

  Entry 27: Just Bobbing Around

  Entry 28: A Three-Hour Tour

  Entry 29: Into the Eye of the Storm

  Entry 30: Burying the Bomb

  Entry 31: Journey up the Coast

  Entry 32: Getting there is Half the Battle

  Entry 33: On the Road Again, Again…

  Entry 34: No Prisoners

  Entry 35: Needle in a Haystack

  Entry 36: Siege Busters

  Entry 37: Reunited and it Feels So Good

  Epilogue:

  Epilogue 2:

  Authors Note

  Entry 1: Zuber

  In the early dawn light, we saw a pickup truck barreling down the road towards us. We’d crawled through a large overgrown field to get to a road that ran in parallel to the one currently covered in Zombies. Reeves, Ann, me and the Seals were all moving low and fast through the weeds to get closer to the oncoming vehicle. The sedatives Ann had given Daisy had knocked her out cold and I was lugging her large furry ass along as well. Like a messed up whack a mole game we could see Zombies starting to pop up out of the weeds. They must have wandered over to sleep in the weeds next to this road overnight. They were fixating on the truck coming towards us.

  We needed to get into that truck and get the hell out of here as quickly as possible. From here, Wilson had promised we would head to Canyon City and secure some forces to help us kill all the local Zombies. I took a glance over at the overturned truck I could barely make out sticking out of the ditch about a mile away. Inside that trailer were about forty women we had rescued from Las Vegas and two suitcase nukes. The trailer had flipped upside down, hopefully the large hole we’d drilled in the roof of it was covered up by the ground it was resting on. There were just too many Zombies for us to lure away and then be able to break into the trailer and rescue the girls. Not to mention, we really needed those nukes and they were not light.

  First of all, the term ‘suitcase nuke’ was a gross oversimplification. The big ass green monstrosity was really the size of a large foot locker. It weighed approximately eight zillion pounds. You’d need to be the Jolly Green giant to casually walk into a target site and leave the package sitting somewhere out of site to explode. The 1950 era suitcase nukes we’d procured were more along the ‘set them off while they rest comfortably in the back of the large vehicle you drove them there in’ variety. We had two of them to deal with so we at least had some redundancy. Who knew if the antique doomsday devices would actually go off after sitting around in that underground bunker for the last sixty years. Rolling them around in the back of a tractor trailer probably wasn’t doing wonders for their shelf life either.

  First things first. We needed to beat the Zombies to our incoming Zuber. No one thought the Zuber term was funny or clever other than myself and Reeves but I’m going to keep using it and hope it catches on. We continued to press through the weeds until we got on the edge of the road where we started jogging towards the oncoming pickup truck. We all had hand weapons out to try and keep the noise from carrying if we had to engage the Zombies before we got in the truck. I was assuming we would have to fight because that’s the way my life goes now.

  The big monster truck looking car the two Seals had picked up was looming close. I was actually wondering how the hell we were supposed to get into the back of the jacked-up hillbilly hot rod. Tires on it seemed taller than Ann. The Zombies started popping out of the underbrush and onto the road as the Seals slowed to a stop next to us. Big diesel engine idling as they motioned for us to all get in the back. Easy for them to say. They weren’t standing on the side of the road holding a forty-pound dog while fumbling around for their machete to try and help fight off the Zombies who were going to be on top of us any second now.

  We ran around to the back of the truck to see if it was any more forgiving. There was a ladder you could pull down to help you climb into the bed. Walker tugged himself up into the truck bed and started working on getting the ladder down to make it easy for the rest of us. The screams of the attacking Zombies were getting loud now. About ten yards in front of me, running hard at me down the middle of the road we were on was a young infected woman. She had on the remains of a sundress and was otherwise covered in dirt and mud. Her hair was a tangled birds nest on the top of her head. Her eyes were crusty and blood red. Her skin was blue from all of the pronounced veins and capillaries.

  Reeves stepped out in front of me and took up his homerun stance. His dented aluminum bat held in both hands. The Zombie switched her focus to charge him instead of me. When she was close enough to him he swung for the fences. The bat made a solid thumping noise as it bounced off the Zombies face. Her feet flew out from under her and she did half a flip before slamming into the ground. Unfazed, she started getting up again right away. Ann stepped in and brought a fire poker down into the top of the Zombies skull. The life went out of the Zombies eyes and she fell backwards onto the cold, dew-covered asphalt. With the demonic fire out of their eyes, they always seemed to regain a portion of their humanity.

  We all switched our focus from the corpse of the woman on the ground to the next Zombie who was getting danger close. Walker had figured out the ladder and I turned around and tossed him Daisy while yelling at Ginny to get up in the truck and get on her twenty-two. It was a small caliber rifle but it was better than throwing rocks. It also wasn’t loud as hell like the rest of our weapons so should minimize the number of additional Zombies we attracted. She started scrambling up the ladder while I swung my arms around to restore the blood flow lost from carrying the dead-weight dog. I pulled out my framing hammer and set my sights on a large, obese Zombie who was lumbering towards us from out of the weeds.

  Rather than wait for him to reach us, I ran towards him and swung the hammer overhand at his head. The guy was seriously hard headed or had a metal bracket in his skull or something because the hammer hit him and glanced off into his meaty shoulder. I was thrown off balance and ended up in a reverse bear hug courtesy of the large, smelly Zombie. I looked up in the truck bed and saw Ginny yelling at me to duck. I picked up both my feet off the ground and willed myself to slip out of the Zombies grasp and fall to the ground. I did not. He was holding onto me too tight. I felt his teeth banging into t
he back of my head so I started wriggling around like a madman. Ginny was trying to get a good angle for a shot but nothing was working out for her.

  Ann came running over and started beating the Zombie in the top of the head with the fire poker. That eventually got his attention. She must have hit him eight times before he dropped me and fell to his knees. The top of his head was flat and oozing blood. There was some exposed metal peeking through as well. I kicked the Zombie in the face and it fell over to the ground. Ann gave me her standard look she gave me when I did something stupid and almost died. I really didn’t feel like I deserved the look this time. I yelled for her to get up the ladder. I saw a Zombie who was trying to get out of the weeds but had managed to get its foot stuck. I ran over and bashed it in the face and head a few times while it was stuck and couldn’t get at me. Why anyone would want to be involved in a fair fight is beyond me. Give me distracted enemies backs any day.

  Wilson, Reeves and I were the only ones still outside the vehicle. The road was starting to get covered in the Zombies as more of them made it out of the field and started towards us. If we were going to get out of here we needed to get out of here now. Wilson ran to the front of the truck. He had to stop and shove a knife into the head of a young Zombie who ran up and grabbed him by the leg and started snapping at his crotch. That attack seemed to unnerve the normally unflappable Seal. I had to empathize though. No one wants a Zombie latched onto their leg and trying to chomp on their genitalia. I noticed Reeves had stopped fighting to stare at that little nightmare scene as well.

  “Get in the truck! Time to go!” I yelled at Reeves and waited for him to vault up the ladder.

  I followed him up the back of the big foot monster truck wanna be while Ginny shot the Zombies I felt breathing down my neck. Before I was all the way in the truck, the Seals had us moving in a three-point turn to get us going back the way they had come from. Ginny kept popping shots off. The giant tires did a good job Zombie grinding. Two minutes after getting in the truck we were leaving the Zombies in our dust. I sent a mental thank you out to the red neck who had insisted on driving a truck around that looked like this and must have cost a fortune in diesel.

  Walker told us it’d be about three hours to get to the hidden base. We settled back into the extremely uncomfortable truck bed to enjoy the bumpy ride. Even when we hit big bumps that would almost bounce us out of the damn truck it was still better than where we had been six hours ago. Now we just needed to get the forces together Wilson was promising and return to save the girls and grab the nukes. Oh, and kill like five thousand Zombies.

  All in a day’s work.

  Entry 2: The Cavalry

  We’d only been driving for about fifty minutes when we pulled off the road into the parking lot of a hardware store. We all sat up and waited as Wilson climbed down out of the monster truck and looked up at us.

  “I was able to get ahold of the base so they’re sending people to meet us here. We don’t have to go all the way there now.”

  That was a good thing. It meant they were ready to get in and get this done and understood the urgency behind it. I’d been fearful of driving for three hours only to be confronted by some officious jack ass who wanted to talk and plan for a few days before doing anything about it. The girls locked in that trailer only had another twenty hours or so. There was some bottle waters and food that we had thrown in the trailer but who knew if they’d been hurt when the truck flipped or if the Zombies were trying to get in through the hole in the bottom somehow. I asked Wilson why they’d agreed to get here so fast. Wilson smiled up at us.

  “I just told the commander of the sixty or so men at the base that a truckload of young women were in peril. I figured if it got out he hadn’t sent anyone to help he would’ve been in a world of hurt. On top of that, the other cargo in the trailer is of the highest priority right now. It’s the only real option we have left to knock the Koreans back on their heels.”

  I started to ask how long we needed to wait before they’d be here when I heard a loud thumping noise that was steadily getting louder. That noise normally sent us scurrying for cover as it had typically been followed by people shooting at us. I instinctually started to order everyone to run for cover but saw that Wilson was just standing there, smiling. If he didn’t see a need to run and hide I guessed it was ok. The noise continued to grow louder and before too long we were watching as two giant green helicopters settled down into the parking lot beside us.

  Men in uniform got out of the helicopters and moved in different directions to secure the area. With all the noise those birds had made if we weren’t out of here in a few hours we were going to be getting all kinds of visitors running up in here. An older man in camouflage got out and Wilson walked over to meet him. I jumped down out of the truck and tagged along. We may be in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse but this guy had still managed to make it to Great Clips. His salt and pepper hair was perfectly groomed. His uniform looked like it had been freshly starched prior to him hopping out of the helicopter. I was suddenly very acutely aware of my general scruffiness. I wanted to climb under a rock when I remembered the day pack I had on was a brightly covered my little pony looking bag. I couldn’t remember if it was bedazzled or not but that wouldn’t shock have surprised me.

  I’ve read the phrase about someone piercing you with their bright steely gaze before but this was the first time I found out it was a real thing. This guy returned Wilsons salute and then turned his steely gaze on me. I held out my hand to shake his. I did my best to hide the backpack. He must have seen it anyway as he broke out in a big grin as he took my hand and shook it in his manly grip. Looking at my backpack he uttered a phrase that all of a sudden humanized him for me.

  “Don’t ask. Don’t tell.”

  I heard Wilson snickering behind me. Whatever.

  “Hey sir. I’m Steve. I’m the head of the group over in the back of the truck over there. We’ve fought our way here from Florida and managed to do some damage to the Koreans along the way. We’ve got Reeves who is ex-army and Ginny who is just plain brilliant. Most importantly, we have Ann who used to be a cop and is currently serving hard time as my girlfriend. Just to clear up any misconceptions based on my current backpack she is an actual girl. We’ve also got a dog. A Golden Doodle named Daisy. I’d like to say once again that Ann is a girl and I kiss her and hold her hand and we are dating.”

  He released my hand from his death grip. I tried hard not to shake my hand to try and get the blood flowing again. He grinned real big.

  “I’m Major Abraham. You’re the famous Steve I’ve heard so much about. Wilson won’t stop talking about you. Even let himself mess up our operation in Las Vegas to save you guys. Although, I guess I got to cut him some slack for rescuing a bunch of women from certain death. Did you guys really slide down the side of the Luxor holding that dog?”

  I confirmed that was us. I showed him the fresh skin graft on my palm as proof. Introductions complete, I decided we needed to get down to business so I asked Abraham what the plan was. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts.

  “We’re going to secure this area. The rest of our ground forces should be here in about an hour. Then we’re going to use the copters to try and get the Zombies to move out into the fields surrounding the trucks. We’re going to shoot as many of them as we can if we can’t find a river or a hole or something to get them to march into. The problem is we’re going to have to figure out how to kill most of them so we can work on flipping the trailer over and getting the girls and the bombs out.”

  I thought about it. Killing that many Zombies didn’t really seem doable. I saw it like trying to dig a hole in wet sand. It was just going to keep filling back in.

  “Can the helicopter lift the trailer?” I asked.

  Captain Abraham looked at me with some new respect.

  “I see why you’ve survived this long. It would be right around the max load to pick up the trailer with one of these. I thought about that on the way
over and was discussing it with the pilots. It’s right around the max load the copter can lift and we don’t have a special harness for it and the trailer doesn’t have hooks or anything secured to it to let us hook onto it. Otherwise, we could just swoop in, fight off the Zombies until we got it hooked up and fly on out of there. If we tried to rig something it would be super risky for the girls and we also can’t risk any more damage to the bombs. They may be ruined already for all we know.”

  Excellent answer. He stared at me for another few seconds then excused himself to go talk to Wilson and some of his other senior guys. I wasn’t invited so I wandered back over to where Ann and the rest of the group were still hanging out up in the back of the monster truck.

  “Did he like your backpack?” Reeves asked from the truck bed.

  I chose to ignore him as I climbed up the ladder and settled in with the rest of them. Walker had wandered off as well and now he came back carrying a box of MREs. He tossed six of them up in the back of the truck and we all started dividing them based on what each of us liked to eat. There is a surprising variety of food to be found in the military issued meals ready to eat packages. It was also surprising how the different items all seem to taste the same.