Confused, Reece stared at the three women before him as he waited for Naeva or Ciera to answer Karina’s question.
He found the question troubling but he kept his questions to himself. She was directing the odd question towards Naeva and Ciera. Still, he wondered what kind of feeling was she referring to. Sure, the speech worked miraculously well, but it was just that, a speech.
“Oh yeah, it was amazing,” laughed Ciera. “I had my suspicions before, and this all but confirms them.”
“I’m not entirely sure what you two are talking about, but I did feel something too. I felt drawn to him... as if I needed to believe him,” added Naeva. “It was almost palpable.”
“Exactly,” stated Karina. “So, I think we’ve finally discovered your little secret, you scoundrel. You’ve been holding out on us.”
Reece considered her words before saying anything. He did seem to have a way with people, but he simply had trouble believing that it was anything more than charisma and sound reasoning in his suggestions or other comments and statements that he made. He sighed before trying to make his case to the three ladies before him.
“I’ll admit, I’ve always been good at getting people to see my point of view,” explained Reece. “But there’s nothing more to it. I’m just a regular, run-of-the-mill, standard-issue human. No more, no less.”
“That makes sense...” began Naeva before Karina cut her off
“No...it doesn’t. He’s doing it to you right now, in fact,” retorted Karina before looking back at Reece. “You have some sort of charming effect on those around you. I can’t tell you what it means or what you are, but it’s plain to me if I’m paying attention. It’s no wonder we’re all attracted to you. So, nice try, but sorry. I don’t believe you’re just a typical human.”
Reece started getting uncomfortable with the conversation. He wasn’t entirely sure what this all meant, but the fact that all three felt something was compelling evidence that he had some sort of unnatural ability. Why it hadn’t come up before in his life, he had no idea. That would have to wait, they had more pressing concerns now.
“Fine,” Reece replied in defeat. “Maybe there’s something to what you’re all saying, but I haven’t any idea about it. And for now, we need to get back on mission and finish that first. Sound good?”
The girls nodded in understanding and they all mounted up and took off past the destroyed checkpoint, continuing to Atlanta. They had only gone about five more kilometers before they came upon a second issue. An unbroken line of zombies stretched across the road about an arm’s length apart, just standing there like some sort of rotting barrier of human shields.
Reece and Naeva pulled up short and all four inspected the strange line. It didn’t just cross the road, it stretched as far as they could see in either direction. Reece took off his helmet and looked back at the others.
“Who wants to bet that this wall of zombies goes all the way around the Order’s base here?” asked Reece rhetorically.
“We could easily break through them, but then all the rest will most likely collapse upon us like a net,” explained Karina, just in case the others were considering it.
“Okay, that doesn’t sound so great. So, what’s the plan?” asked Naeva matter-of-factly.
“Well, my guess is that they’ve gathered up all of the zombies in the area to create this barrier. That means that most of the smaller towns and cities may be cleared out of zombies. That’s probably why we didn’t encounter any zombies on the way here, and why the people we sent to rendezvous with Angel will probably be okay too,” explained Reece.
“But wouldn’t the new recruits see them on the way in and panic?” asked Ciera.
“Normally, yeah,” answered Reece, “But since they can control the zombies, they may simply have them move out of the way and play dead or hide. Or...maybe they don’t care what the recruits think, because it’s already too late for them to turn back.”
“That’s harsh,” remarked Ciera.
“Yeah, this Order is a special kind of bad,” replied Reece. “But not too bright, a wall without guards it doomed to fail. We are going to break through. Instead of going forward though, we’re just going to sit there, right in the middle of that wall of zombies.”
“Won’t we be sitting ducks?” asked a skeptical Ciera.
“Not if we have the right vehicle,” explained Reece. “I saw an old semi-trailer a couple of miles back. The tops of those are all high-efficiency solar panels, so the vehicle should have some juice. If it’s not too damaged, we should be able to drive it here and use it as a heavy weapons platform. We can use the railguns from the checkpoint tents and lay waste to this zombie line. I think this will work, but if not, then we can simply retreat and come up with a new plan.”
“Oh my, now that sounds like fun,” squealed Ciera. “Aaand... if this works Reece...well, I’ll have done you a big favor by blasting away half the zombies here. You’ll owe me big, and I aim to collect on that favor sooner rather than later.”
“One thing at a time,” cautioned Reece. “Let’s see if that semi will work, first.”
Naeva and Ciera took the trike back to the semi to try and get it started while Reece and Karina worked on getting the railguns ready to move. Reece vaguely remembered studying the M909 “autonomously operating” railgun, but the ones in the tents were in an entirely different class. Reece found an open manual for the guns and skimmed over it.
Labeled the X6909 and roughly the same size as the M909, these could fire one round every half second. That would be slow for a machine gun, but these were railguns. Their ammunition was designed to stop heavily armored vehicles and the way the projectiles exited the gun with a fast spin, they could cut through flesh like it was nothing more than smoke. The guns were belt-fed and the barrel was liquid helium-cooled so they could continuously fire for minutes before the ammo ran out or the guns overheated.
The motion-sensing and autonomous functions weren’t necessary for their application, so Reece skipped over those parts of the manual. He did find that the tripods could be bolted down and could be adjusted to change the height and angle of the guns as needed. As Reece was learning about the railguns and their use, one of the Order’s short-range radios flashed to life.
“Psshhht...Position three, you missed your check-in. What’s your situation?” came an angry-sounding female voice over the device.
Thinking quickly, Reece lifted the radio from his belt to his mouth and pressed the ‘talk’ button. Speaking in a start-stop tempo, Reece attempted to imitate interference as he pressed and released the button several times. He waited a moment before the woman responded. “Psshhhht, alright position three, we’ll bring out new radios at the next shift change. Over and out.”
“Looks like we dodged a bullet there, Karina...unless they are playing us,” announced Reece. “Either way, we should stick to the plan.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Karina nodded, and the two of them got back to the guns, working double-time. Reece picked the manual back up and resumed carefully skimming it. By the time Reece was done reading up on the railguns and Karina had finished dragging the heavy weapons out of the tents, the semi-truck was barreling down the highway towards them.
Naeva pulled up in the older black vehicle showing a hint of rust under the dirt and grime from months sitting out in the elements. Ciera had been riding shotgun and hopped out of the passenger side the moment Naeva stopped the big rig.
Reece looked past the cab, noting that the light grey trailer was fully enclosed but had foldable walls for easy loading and unloading from the sides. The women had managed to park the trike in the back of the trailer. Reece nodded approvingly.
“These folding sides will work nicely for the plan,” commented Reece as he indicated the trailer.
“Agreed,” added Karina. “We should probably position the guns near the front. That will allow space in the trailer for the trike and the bike behind the guns. Then we can open the rear doors for a quick get-a-way out the back if things go south.”
The trailer was only a little over two meters across. That forced Reece to mount the two guns so that they were offset from each other. It was the only way to provide room for the gunners to lie down. After driving the trike back out, Reece and the girls got to work. He set the height of each barrel to less than a third of a meter above the floor of the trailer to make it more comfortable for the girls to aim.
Ciera and Karina agreed to be the gunners while Naeva volunteered to continue driving the rig. Ciera settled into riding shotgun for the time being. Reece waited in the trailer with Karina, holding onto a couple of the ropes used for securing cargo. He figured they could assist him in staying upright if they happened to get jostled around.
Karina pounded on the trailer’s wall twice. Naeva heard the signal and gave the semi-truck some juice and they began rumbling down the road, heading straight for the wall of zombies.
It didn’t take long for the semi-truck to reach the immense line of zombies. Reece stayed in the back as Naeva slowly approached the unnatural line. He had his Spear rifle and Naeva’s semi-automatic rifle too. Both he and Naeva had extra magazines belted around their waists. As Naeva got within range, Reece could hear single shots ringing out from the cab as Ciera took out all the zombies to the front.
As soon as the truck lurched to a stop, Reece opened the sides of the trailer. Naeva and Ciera both jumped from the cab and rushed back to jump up into the trailer with him and Karina. Ciera took a position at one of the railguns while Reece handed Naeva her gun.
The plan was simple, Ciera and Reece covered one side while Karina and Naeva covered the other. Anything outside of Ciera’s kill box—the area where the angle of her gun would allow her to shoot—would be taken out by Reece with the same setup for the two ladies opposite them.
Reece was in awe as he watched Ciera work. Her first shot took out every zombie for an entire block as the super-accelerated projectile spun itself through head-after-rotting-head. It was as if they were all lined up just for her. The railguns were fairly quiet, so it took the rest of the zombies a moment to notice what had happened and start running towards them. And as one growled and started running, it attracted the one behind it. This pattern continued until every zombie in sight was charging them, jerking and shambling forward with their broken and rotting bodies
Another shot and six more zombies dropped, with most of their heads missing. Suddenly, he heard the much louder discharge of Naeva’s rifle as she started picking off zombies outside of Karina’s kill box on their side. It wasn’t long before the zombies started coming in at bad angles and Ciera couldn’t hit them all either.
Reece waited until they got almost uncomfortably close before shooting them in the head, mainly so he didn’t waste ammo. He was a decent shot, but not like Karina and Naeva...and especially Ciera, who somehow took it to another level entirely. Still, the lilin kept firing but had to shoot at them while they were farther away to keep them in her kill box.
The zombies kept straying as they scrambled over the uneven terrain. From the distance and angle, she was still able to take out two or three at a time. Karina was good too, but she and Naeva were having a bit more trouble on their side.
“Reece, a little help,” yelled Naeva with a touch of panic in her voice.
Reece noted that Ciera had their side well in hand, so he turned around and took up position on the other side of Karina, opposite Naeva. These zombies had even more rugged terrain to cross, which caused them to separate more than on the side that Ciera was covering. Karina kept blasting the middle. Naeva, who was standing to Karina’s right, took out every running zombie on her side while Reece took down the ones to the left.
About the time they had things under control, Reece checked Ciera’s side again and immediately switched back once he saw several zombies running in from off to her left. Reece swapped out his spent magazine and unloaded on the zombies as they came within ten meters of the semi-truck.
He dropped six in rapid succession. It was then that he noticed that no more were coming. At some point, the next zombie in line must have ignored its neighbor running off. Ciera finished off the last few before they could even get within fifty meters.
Checking the other side, Reece found the ladies had things well in hand. Naeva took out a couple as Karina fired another shot, dropping an almost skeletal zombie as it scrambled up a low hill over thirty meters out. Seven more followed it up the hill. Karina took out each one with a headshot. After that, they stopped coming from that side too.
he four had done it. They took out a huge chunk of the enemy’s line and they were clear to continue. A pile of dead bodies was splayed out to either side of the big rig, none of the undead getting within five meters of the truck. Reece breathed a sigh of relief that the plan had worked as well as it had.
“Nice job everyone,” congratulated Reece. “That was just perfect...just amazing.”
“That was exhilarating,” said Ciera as she stood up and smiled before turning to Reece with a gleam in her eye. “Now, I want a little taste of what I’ll be collecting later.”
She stepped into Reece, snaked her arms through his, and planted a wet kiss on his lips. Reece was caught flat-footed for a second before responding in kind. He hadn’t noticed it before, but her warm tongue tasted faintly of nutmeg and sugar as she snaked it into his mouth.
It was perfect for lack of a better word. She kissed him like she was starving, and he was her first meal in days. Finally, she pulled herself away from him and her brown eyes sparkled as she stared into his eyes, glancing from one to the other.
“Wow, that was amazing,” she breathed. “That may be the most energy I’ve ever received from a single kiss. I don’t care what you say, there is definitely something special about you. We better survive this Reece Danielson! I want to experience everything.”
“Okay, okay, calm down,” chuckled Reece nervously. “One thing at a time. We still have an entire base to take out.”
Karina and Naeva were both looking at him strangely, almost suspiciously.
“What?” he asked defensively.
They looked at each other and nodded in agreement about something. Then Naeva approached him as Ciera moved aside.
“This is an experiment, so take it seriously. I want you to kiss me as passionately as you can,” explained Naeva. “We’ve kissed many times before, back on the space station, so I know just how good of a kisser you are. Are you ready?”
Reece simply nodded, not wanting to say or do something that would spoil this opportunity. His heart was already racing and his whole body felt hot as waves of pleasure were pulsing through him. He wasn’t sure if this was an effect of Ciera or something else entirely. Right now, he didn’t really care. He felt the buzz of sexual energy coursing through him, making him feel fantastic. Who was he to argue?
Naeva stepped into the spot that Ciera had just occupied and took his head in her hands as she looked into his eyes, studying him. Her dark beauty still enchanted him as he recalled all their times together in a steamy montage of sultry imagery. She kissed him with the passion of the first time, but her lips and tongue moved about his with the familiarity of a lover.
He looked into her dark brown eyes as he returned her kiss with a desire that came from deep within. His tongue matched hers as they danced around each other, mingling their warmth and wetness. He noticed that she tasted of paprika and cinnamon, spicy--with just a hint of sweetness.
As he was relishing her flavors, she suddenly convulsed back and grunted before dropping to her knees. She sat there, spasming and twitching as she moaned and sighed. Reece dropped down next to her and grabbed her shoulders as he looked her in the eyes. It was then that he realized that she wasn’t in pain, but rather ecstasy. Reece looked up at the two ladies studying them intently for confirmation.
“Yeah, she did,” Ciera answered the unasked question.
Karina whistled in amazement before adding, “That’s new.”
When Reece looked back to Naeva, she had tears streaming from her eyes. As she registered what had happened, her dampened cheeks turned a dark red. The other two women collected their out-of-sorts companion and walked her back to the trike to sit down on something comfortable.
Feeling that they would be better off if he was elsewhere, Reece went back up to the front of the truck after doing a quick check for any incoming stray zombies or otherwise. When he approached the cab, he could hear electronic sounds and what sounded like talking emanating from within.