Zombie Crusade Snapshots: Volume I Page 7

  He kept watch out of the back window as he was driven away from the battle, certain that he saw the lieutenant holding on to a cargo rack on top of a large Hummer as it fled the zombies. When his breathing returned to normal he quietly asked God to bring the brave young man safely home. Then he looked forward with surprise as the driver cracked, “Hey, Uncle, glad some of us youngsters were around to save you back there!”

  “Avy!” Aviel managed to croak, “Should have known you’d be the first to run from any real fighting.”

  Everyone packed into the SUV laughed at the banter, their relief at having escaped the slaughter behind them finding release in humor. The smiles quickly faded, however, as they approached Ein Gedi. The soldiers were worried about their loved ones trying to navigate the confused evacuation during a military retreat. As they drew closer to the town, they could see a long line of vehicles with the drivers anxiously looking their way. Avy observed with a tone of relief, “Most of the people have left already. My guess is that these folks are waiting for their fighters to return.”

  Aviel spoke from the back, “When we get there we’ll have to force everyone to go. Tell them that the lieutenant kept a rear-guard with the best vehicles and they’ll catch up to us on the road.”

  Nobody said anything about the necessary deception, but Aviel knew they’d do as he asked. When they finally pulled up and took their place at the rear of the convoy, everyone scrambled out of the SUV to look for their families and get them moving. Aviel didn’t have far to look since Lina and Sophie were waiting at the back of the line. Unsurprisingly, Mubin was also waiting for him to arrive. Aviel hugged his wife and daughter, then shook Mubin’s hand and ordered, “Drive my wife and daughter to safety now.”

  The three began to protest, but Aviel held up his hand and explained, “I’ll be right behind you. I have to wait for the lieutenant. He’s one of the finest soldiers I’ve ever known, and I just can’t leave him behind. Please, go on!”

  Lina looked at Sophie and Mubin, “I’ll drive the stubborn old man; you two take the trailer. That lieutenant did seem like a nice boy when we met him at the checkpoint.”

  Sophie actually stomped her foot as she shouted, “This is no time for chivalry! I want my family together.”

  Lina hugged Sophie and kissed her cheek. “Your son is waiting at Masada,” she reminded her daughter. “Priorities change when you get older and have your own children, sweetie. You know that.”

  “Imah,” Sophie began, but Lina put a finger to her lips and shook her head.

  Mubin was conducting his own argument with Aviel, who finally asked, “So you believe you owe me something for saving your family on the road down here.”

  “I KNOW that I owe you something for saving them!”

  Aviel held his hands wide in a gesture of acceptance as he said, “I agree, you DO owe me something.”

  Mubin looked shocked for a moment until he realized what was happening. “Oh, no, no, no, you can’t do this.”

  Aviel smiled before turning deadly serious. He jabbed his finger into Mubin’s chest and declared, “I am doing this. You owe me my family’s lives. You will take my daughter to Masada, and you will look after her and Mick until I get there.”

  Mubin hung his head in defeat, then impulsively hugged the old Israeli as he promised, “You can count on me, my friend.”

  Aviel held the Palestinian’s hand for a long moment. “You are my friend,” he pointedly remarked. “From this day forward you are also my family.”

  * * *

  Two minutes after the remaining vehicles of the convoy pulled away, headlights could be seen coming down Highway 90. A large Hummer soon emerged from the darkness, travelling slowly on a flat tire, a horde of zombies shuffling a hundred meters behind. Aviel and Lina checked their clips and reloaded their pistols, both declaring their love for one another as they waited for the huge SUV to roll to a stop. The first soldier to exit the vehicle was the sergeant who had been saved by the lieutenant at the beginning of the battle. He pulled the young officer from the back seat, both of them covered in black blood and gore as they limped toward the older couple pointing guns at the shuffling monsters coming up behind the two soldiers. Aviel rushed forward and tossed the lieutenant’s other arm over his own shoulder, pulling him toward the Jeep they had waiting. “Have either of you been bitten?” he asked the men as they reached the back door.

  “No,” the sergeant breathlessly explained. “He has a couple of broken ribs and something’s wrong with his ankle.”

  They placed the injured officer in the back seat as gently as possible. An instant later they heard Lina’s pistol began to fire, and Aviel told the sergeant to join the lieutenant while he went after his wife. But when Aviel turned and saw what was happening, he realized that they were in trouble. Lina was firing bullet after bullet into the mob of charging zombies, mostly making kill-shots since she had waited until the monsters were close enough that she couldn’t miss. Aviel rushed in like a charging bull, but he was still five meters away when the first zombie bit deeply into his wife’s calf. She screamed in pain even as she immediately pointed her weapon at the top of the monster’s head and blew it away. Another flesh eater latched its teeth onto her forearm just as Aviel reached her side. In a fit of mindless rage he slammed the barrel of his gun into the zombie’s right eye and pulled the trigger.

  Lina was hurting but she wasn’t out of the fight, and now that she realized that she’d been bitten she allowed herself to become even more recklessly brave. She started grabbing the flesh-eaters by the hair and slamming the muzzle of her pistol into the sides of the creature’s heads before firing. Aviel saw that his wife didn’t seem to be concerned with reaching the door of the vehicle; she was too busy killing zombies and shouting wordless battle-cries. Aviel had seen soldiers give up on survival before in fits of battle-madness and he wasn’t about to let his wife fall to this enemy in the grip of a mindless rage. He quickly shot all of the zombies still within arm’s reach, then slung his wife over his shoulder and ran to the vehicle. He tossed her into the passenger side of the Jeep before slamming the door and fighting his way around to the driver’s side. He jumped behind the wheel and threw it into gear.

  Somehow a fairly large number of zombies had managed to get around the deadly couple and were now crowding the road in front of them. Aviel slammed down on the accelerator and began crushing the flesh-eaters in his path. The monsters flew off of the bumper and rolled over the hood, while others fell beneath the grinding wheels of the sturdy four wheel drive vehicle that somehow continued to roll forward and gain speed. When they were finally free of the creatures, Aviel looked over to see how Lina was doing and saw blood pooling on the mat beneath her feet. He shouted for the sergeant to wrap a tourniquet below her knee. She had already torn a piece of flannel from her shirt and was using it to create a pressure-bandage for the bite on her forearm. When she heard her husband order the soldier to tend to her leg she looked down and calmly declared, “Hmmm, that one doesn’t even hurt.”

  The sergeant was already leaning over her, and he explained, “Probably cut the nerves down there. We have to tie that closed or you won’t make it to Masada.”

  Lina gave a knowing smile and quietly said, “I’ll make it to Masada.”

  Aviel understood her meaning, but knew that he was in no way prepared to let her go yet. With a stern voice that couldn’t quite hide his despair, he commanded, “You’ll make it to Masada and see your family at the top of the mountain. Promise me, now.”

  Lina looked down at the tourniquet that had slowed the flow of blood from her calf to a mere trickle. She whispered, “If you think you can carry me up, I promise I’ll stay with you until we reach the top.”

  Aviel fought back tears that he feared might push him over the edge into madness. For days he had simply been observing and reacting to this developing threat to his family, too busy running and fighting to give much thought to the insanity of it all. Now his wife was infected, his
daughter and grandson lost in a torrent of refugees running before an army of monsters whose existence seemed to defy all reason and logic. He thought of everything his parents’ generation had lived through and struggled to achieve in a world that seemed determined to kill them and every other Jew. All was now lost except for a handful of souls in the desert, and their hold on life was quite precarious at the moment. Finally he just gritted his teeth and reverted back to a state of mind that he knew well: the soldier who never surrendered. He would not admit defeat in this life; only when the dark wall of death finally closed over him would he release the burdens of the warrior that he’d carried since his first battle.

  Finally the taillights of the convoy heading south from Ein Gedi became visible in the distance, and Aviel slowed the Jeep until they closed with the column. The caravan of refugees maintained a decent speed until the turn-off from Highway 90 onto the road leading to Masada, but even that transition passed smoothly and within twenty minutes of leaving the settlement the leading vehicles were stopping near the base of the ancient fortress. Aviel expected chaos when he parked and opened the door amid the flood of refugees streaming toward the path leading up the steep slope, but instead he found the concerned faces of Sophie, Mubin, and the rest of the group he’d been working so hard to protect since deciding to leave Jerusalem. All of them were unharmed. He released a deep breath and silently thanked God for keeping them safe. Then he told them about Lina.

  Sophie let out a cry and ran for the passenger door, followed by the rest of the group who were as devastated as she was. They found Lina sitting calmly in the seat, quietly telling everybody that it would be all right, but she needed help making her way up to the fortress. The lieutenant was finally lucid, and he insisted that he walk on his own while the sergeant helped Aviel carry his wife. They were surprised to find that plenty of people had already arrived at the base of Masada, many of them desert Bedouins with their flocks gathered inside the walls of the old Roman encampment that had once held legions of troops tasked with destroying Jewish rebels.

  The fortress itself was holy ground to the Jews, and the Arabs present respected that fact as much as they would if everyone had been gathering in Mecca. The refugees walked to the top of the small mountain, even though the old Roman assault ramp was wide enough to allow small vehicles to drive up. Water hoses had already been lifted to the ancient cisterns Herod had ordered installed near his palace, filling the massive storage containers from on-site tanks and trucks that had come along from Ein Gedi for this very purpose. A huge generator was being used to power a cable car that was transporting food and other supplies to a point just shy of the summit, where the items were then being transferred by a human chain to the top. For a moment Aviel and Sophie considered driving Lina over to the lift, but ultimately they chose to carry her up the path.

  The Merkava tank was parked at the base of the ramp where survivors from the IDF force stationed at the checkpoint had taken over security from the Bedouins who’d been gathering near the ancient fortress for days. The desert nomads assured the soldiers that no infected individuals had been allowed to pass since they’d arrived, and the sergeant in charge of the detail was adamant about denying Lina access to the path until the lieutenant limped up and ordered him to do so. He made it clear to everyone within earshot that when the time came, he would personally ensure that Lina would rest in peace. Aviel started to speak, but the lieutenant interrupted, promising that the family could stay till the end, but that after Lina passed they would have to trust him to make things right alone. A stretcher had been acquired from one of the military vehicles by the sergeant who refused to abandon his rescuers, and he carried the front end all the way to the top while the others took turns carrying the back end and talking to Lina as they ascended the mountain.

  By the time they reached the top of the fortress the sky was showing the first light of the sun approaching from the east, and the sad but determined climbers carried the stretcher over to the edge of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea. From there, Lina would be able to watch the dawn wash away the horror of the night she and her loved ones had just experienced. As the sun finally lifted over the horizon, the people gathered on the mountain plateau could see for miles in every direction. Hues of pink and blue shot out over the crystalline waters of the Dead Sea with a beauty so pure that everyone standing mute beneath the rays of light momentarily forgot why they were there. Sophie looked over to see Lina smiling as she gazed at the sunrise, pale and feverish, but with a countenance of one who has run a race with every ounce of strength and determination. They all knew she would soon die peacefully, surrounded by her family.

  Aviel wordlessly pointed toward the northeast, where a sinuous trail of vehicles reflecting the morning light was being pursued by a walking army of dark beings that could only be zombies. The column stretched beyond the shimmering hills leading back toward Ein Gedi. Everyone in the group looked out at the deadly parade of vehicles filled with terrified refugees being chased by monsters determined to kill every human on earth, wondering what trials this day would bring to the weary fighters who would obviously be called upon again. They all stared in silence for several minutes until the lieutenant quietly uttered a phrase in Hebrew that was slowly repeated by all of the Israelis standing at the edge of their ancient fortress. Even Sophie said the words, which Mick couldn’t understand except for the word, “Metzada.” As soon as silence returned to the group he pulled his mother aside and asked, “The words? What words were all of you saying? Everyone said the same thing.”

  Sophie looked at her son and explained, “I will teach you the words this morning; they are yours now too. It is the oath we all took when we entered the IDF.”

  “Okay.” Mick was curious, but tried not to sound impatient. “What is the oath in English?”

  With steel in her eyes, Sophie gazed at her son and declared, “Masada shall not fall again.”

  Zombie Crusade

  Snapshot: Ontario

  Katie Carboni parked her SUV near the front door of the ice rink. “Looks like it’s our lucky day, kiddo. Front and center . . .”

  The thirteen-year-old girl in the back seat didn’t look up from her phone. “Do I have to go in?”

  Katie sighed. “I thought you would want to say hello to your brother’s teammates; that Connor Schrock is a cutey-pie.”

  “Yeah, he’s alright. Tell him hi for me. And they’re not really teammates—this is just a clinic.”

  “Teammates, fellow hockey players, whatever. Why don’t you get your nose out of your phone and tell him yourself?”

  Finally raising her eyes from the small screen glowing in her hands, the girl glanced at her mother, then scanned the parking lot. “Hey, look—there’s Ms. Easterday. You should go talk to her.”

  “I swear, Tracy, I regret the day we ever got you that phone. Fine. Stay in the car; I’m locking you in. Carolyn can keep me company till the boys are done.” Carolyn Easterday was newly divorced and had recently discovered the adventures of online dating. She always had a hilarious story to share, and, with Tracy in the car, Katie could be treated to an uncensored report from the front lines of the singles’ scene. Not only were Carolyn’s stories occasionally R-rated entertainment, they made Katie blissfully thankful for her own relatively boring life with her quiet and dependable husband.

  Carolyn smiled and waved when she saw Katie retrieving two large containers of homemade molasses cookies from the back of her vehicle. “Hey, KittieKat, need any help?”

  Katie disliked Carolyn’s habit of nicknaming everyone who crossed her path, and she especially hated the nickname, “KittieKat,” but she gritted her teeth and answered cheerfully, “Maybe you could get the door?”

  “No problem, but if you keep baking those damn cookies I may have to stop speaking to you.” Carolyn dramatically swept her hand over her midsection before holding the door open for her friend. “Sixty pounds down, five more to go.”

  “You’ll have to cut som
ething off to get rid of those last five pounds, but I think there’s twice that much in that new bustline of yours. Maybe you can donate some back and get a partial refund.”

  “Jesus, KittieKat, you’re so old fashioned. Who says bustline anymore? I just call them . . .”

  “MOM! Heads up!”

  A hockey puck sailed over the two startled women and bounced off the wall behind them. Katie dropped the plastic containers, and cookies scattered in all directions. Half a dozen boys were off the ice and scrambling for the cookies before Grant could reach his mother’s side. “That was close,” he panted. “I’m really sorry, Mom. And I’m sorry to you too, Mrs. Easterday. I, um, think Alec is in the locker room; I’ll go tell him you’re here. ” The teen was flushed from exertion, embarrassment, and just being in the general proximity of his mother’s shapely friend. As he turned to head off in search of young Alec Easterday, Grant ran smack in to the head coordinator of the summer hockey clinic, a retired star of the minor leagues named Robbie Peterson.

  The middle-aged former forward slapped Grant on his shoulder with one hand while he reached out toward the women with the other. “What’s your hurry, Mr. Carboni? You should be polite and introduce me to these lovely young ladies.”

  “Uh, this is my mom, Katie Carboni. And this is Alec’s mom, Mrs. Easterday.”