The Safe Zone (The Dead Zone Book Two)

Chapter 7

As Bryson sat in the armored truck with a fully automatic rifle poised in his lap, he was reminded of the time he'd spent overseas fighting in war. He supposed this was sort of the same, in a way. They were in a war. Only they weren't fighting humans, they were fighting roamers.

There were eight other guys, not including the driver, crammed in the vehicle, each one looking as somber as the rest. Nobody spoke as the truck bounced over terrain, several suspicious thumps leading him to believe they'd struck a roamer or two. Unlike the tiny car he'd been in, this truck was fully equipped to pummel through a crowd of roamers and make it out unscathed.

The car stopped, and they all jumped into action, already having gone over the plan. They were two towns over from Lemuria, only about thirty miles from home. The more of the surrounding towns they cleared, the less they had to worry about roamers migrating toward their home. The plan was to clear the first building, using the roof as a lookout post. From there, they would pick off as many roamers as they could before moving deeper into the city. Unlike the first one, this city was filled with the disgusting monsters.

Jogging up to the first building, he watched in rising anticipation as a horde closed in on them from down the street, coming from both directions. There's so many of them.

Once everyone was inside, they locked the doors, sealing themselves into total darkness. The door probably wouldn't hold for long. Making their way up several flights of stairs, they reached the roof without incident, slamming the thick metal door behind them. One of the men chained the door shut, just like they had the first one. A roamer turned on them, her jaws snapping as she rushed the group. One of the men, Gavin, grabbed her by the neck, careful to avoid her contagious teeth, before flinging her over the side of the building.

"Alright, start picking them off." Travis, another one of the men in their group instructed. They all took up spots on the roof, aiming down at the crowd of roamers gathered below, banging on the doors. It surprised Bryson how many of them there were, and he doubted their ability to put a dent in their numbers before they broke down the doors. If they got inside the building, they'd be trapped on the roof. He bristled at the thought.

Several of the roamers dropped as they all fired, their shots barely making any noise as each of their guns came equipped with silencers. He wished he'd had a silencer on his own gun all this time; it would have saved him from a lot of hand to hand combat. "There's too many of them." Travis breathed, astounded by their numbers. Even from up on the roof, they could hear the hungry moans coming from the horde.

Bryson scanned his brain of everything he knew about roamers. He knew they were attracted to commotion, just like when he'd seen them go towards the burning building. He also knew they were attracted to sound, like at Cedarville. Standing up from his spot, he pulled his scope up to his eye. There, down the street, an abandoned truck sat, a tiny red dot flickering in its windshield. An alarm system.

"Bryson, what the hell are you doing?" Travis shouts, looking at him as if he were an idiot. "Start shooting! We're running out of time!"

Bryson aims at the truck, firing through the windshield. The alarm instantly goes off, a high pitch wailing that catches the attention of the roamers. The majority of the horde rush over to the vehicle, while they pick off the rest that are still focused on the door, leaving a trail of corpses littering the street and sidewalk.

The rest of the men relax, still picking off the roamers, but no longer as urgent. "How'd you know to do that?" Travis asks, tucking his gun at his side. Bryson got the sense that he was one of the authority figures around here.

"I just knew from experience that the roamers are attracted to sound. Whatever catches their attention, they set their sights on it, forgetting everything else."

Travis looks thoughtful. "Well, good work soldier. You kept them from breaking that door down."

"Thanks." Travis grins at him, and Bryson got the sense the two of them were on the fast track to friendship.

"Now lets clear the rest of this city so we can get home."

"How long will this take, exactly?" He asks, stopping Travis as he tried to walk away. He's thoughtful for a moment.

"A few months, maybe? Why, you got a sweetheart waiting for you back home?" Bryson smiles, thinking of Paige. Sweetheart seemed too weak of a word to describe what she meant to him.

"Yeah. My families waiting on me."

"You got kids?" Travis seems surprised, and it's only then that Bryson realized he hadn't seen any children since the outbreak.

"No. Just my brother and Paige."

"Oh. I see. Well they're in good hands back at Lemuria." He hoped Travis was right.