"Platoon Sergeant Jenkins. I got the recall order over the radio."

"We were expecting you."

"What the hell is happening?"

"As of now the Base perimeter is secured. But a few superzombies have slipped in through the sewers and raising some hell inside." His voice was as flat and cold as his eyes.

"How many are inside?" Susan asked. As soon as he had spoken all she could think of was her family. God? Please keep them safe. Please?

"We don't know for sure but Intel guesses about half a dozen. They've already killed three of them." He may have been telling them about the weather for all the emotion he showed.

"Guesses?" Jenkins thought aloud casting the Private a sour look.

"Look man, I just work here." In another time, another place, his deadpan could have been humorous. But not now.

"Are we cleared to leave Private?" Jenkins put a little bark in his voice. The Private also had no respect for rank.

"Anytime you want." He nodded to his fellow private and they both exited the bus. Matt looked over to the rig and saw a soldier near the gate motioning for it to go through. Another gave Matt the signal.

"About fucking time." Jenkins muttered, slumping into a seat. He pulled out a joint, stuck it into his mouth and lit it.

Susan headed for the front of the bus and made it about halfway when her head suddenly spun, up was down left was right... She landed on the floor with a tooth-rattling thud.

Jenkins let out a laughing cough, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Girl? You all right?"

Matt looked into the rearview mirror to see Susan on the floor. "Susan!"

She was shot in the firefight! Was his first panicked thought. And Jenkins was laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Matt screamed. The nerve of the bastard. "Go see if she is all right!" But Jenkins just kept chuckling and took another puff off the joint. "What the fuck is your problem Jenkins?" Matt stopped the bus with a jerk. He twisted to get out of his seat.

"Relax Matt, she's ok." Jenkins offered him the joint but he pushed it away and bolted out of his seat for Susan.

"What do you mean ok? She could have been shot!" Matt was livid. If he wasn't so worried about Susan he would have turned back and beat the shit out of Jenkins.

"She wasn't shot." Jenkins scoffed. "Stress overload. I've seen it a thousand times. I had it. You had it the other day out on the perimeter."

As Matt knelt beside her he recalled his mind numbing shock during and after the battle. He had almost fainted himself. Susan slowly sat up, her face pale white, her face a mask of exhaustion. She looked like she had been through hell. They all had.

"Are you ok?"

"Manageable." she said with a tired smile.

The radio crackled and Rick's voice came over the speaker. "Is everything ok in there, over?"

Jenkins grabbed the mic off the desk. "Ten four Rick...The girl just fainted from to much excitement. You know how it is, over?"

"I copy that Jenkins. We'll see you at the barracks. I'm out." The radio went silent and Jenkins took the wheel and drove the bus towards the barracks. On the way they passed three Hunter Killer squads, each comprised of a pair of German Shepherds, a handler, and four soldiers. When they reached the barracks Ron had already parked the rig in the street ahead of them. He and Rick were waiting at the barracks entrance. Susan had pulled herself to her feet and followed Matt to the front of the bus. As soon as Jenkins pulled the lever to open the door she rushed out of the bus and ran to the barrack doors.

They're going to be all right. They have to be all right! Please God let them be all right?

The door opened up and out stepped Cpl. McReedy His rifle was at the ready, but he didn't quite point it at anybody.

"MOM?" Susan called, stepping around Cpl. McReedy and into the barrack. David stood there in the hallway, M-16 in hand. "David!" she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. When she parted there were tears in her eyes.

"Sis I-" David started awkwardly.

"Shut up." she said hugging him again. "Just shut up and hug me." So he did. Matt stepped into the barracks. David broke the hug.

"I rescued Zack from the hospital!" he exclaimed and told them the story as he led them to the others. As soon as Susan saw her mother a fresh wave of tears came over her and there was much hugging and kissing. Rick embraced Jennifer warmly before crouching to hold his daughters.

Matt saw Zack lying on one of the cots and went to kneel beside him. The side of his hospital gown was wet with fresh blood. And every few seconds he stifled a cough and wiped bloody spittle from his mouth with a green rag.

"How are you doing partner?" Matt asked.

"Not so hot. Davey tell you about the hospital?" Matt nodded. "Brave kid."

"We made out like bandits." Matt said. "Food, medicine, cigarettes, candy. We have a rig stuffed full."

"Where the hell did you get a rig?" Zack lifted the rag to his mouth and coughed, wincing in pain.

"Never mind that. We need to get you back to the hospital."

"I'll be alright." Zack said.

"Bullshit. You're bleeding internally again. I'll go talk to Jenkins about getting you a doctor. You just take it easy." Matt clapped him on the shoulder and went back outside.

Jenkins, Ron and Mac stood near the bus. Jenkins was retelling their adventure. The sounds of battle from the main gate perimeter had all but diminished. But the fighting was still sounded fierce at the University Campus Hospital.

"Is the base secured yet?" Matt asked.

"It is." Jenkins said. "But I can't say the same about the campus. The deadfucks have pushed all of the way to the parking lot. But we've managed to secure the perimeter there."

"What about your squad?" Matt asked.

Jenkins jaw clenched and his eyes hardened. "They were overrun in the first wave of the attack. Nobody could have survived that. I just hope they were smart enough to put a bullet through their own heads before those deadfucks tore them apart."

Matt saw the faces of the squad he had rode with the first day at the hospital. All of them were now gone.

"Zack needs a doctor." he said. "His side broke open escaping the hospital."

"Most of the military doctors were killed by the superzombies." Ron said, scratching his throat.

"What about the campus doctors?" Matt asked.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Jenkins didn't quite bark. "The deadfucks have pushed them back to the parking lot. As of right now the base and the campus are cut off from one another."

"We got word some F-16's are on their way from Hill Air Force Base with some napalm." Mac said. "They should be here any minute."

"We're getting the hell out of here." Matt said. "Right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jenkins asked. "You might as well stay another night. Rest up."

"No way. This whole place could be overrun any minute. We're not staying a second longer than necessary."

"The base is locked down. They won't let you out."

"We'll take the back way. City creek canyon road." Ron said. "You should come with us. We could use you."

"I don't know what the hell I should do." The turmoil was visible in Jenkins eyes. His loyalty to the base/hospital weighed against a chance to escape the zombie-infested city. His squad was dead. He had felt some attachment to them. But so many of his men had been killed since the plague first broke in Utah, so many new faces had rolled through that he purposely kept an emotional distance from them. But Ron and his family were another story altogether. He and Ron had been raiding partners since the beginning. Rick almost as long. Jenkins had no wife or children. But he cared for Ron and his family like his own.

"It's not a hard decision to make Jenkins." Matt said. "Look around." He motioned to the dead bodies lying in the street, killed earlier by a superzombie. "Listen to what's going on out there. This is your chance to get out. You may never get another one. Come with us."

Jenkins looked from Matt, to Ron, the main gate, and back to Matt.

"I'm in." he said softly.

"That's my partner." Ron said with a laugh.

Ron took the wheel of the rig and Jenkins rode shotgun. Everyone else piled into the bus. Just as Matt was starting the bus the faint roar of a jet engine far in the distance could be heard.

"Here comes the cavalry." Rick said with glee...

Chapter 17.

Saturday June 23 2001 Salt Lake City UT 3:40 PM.

The two F-16 fighter-bombers out of Hill Air Force Base came in at an altitude of 3000 feet and airspeed of Mach 2. The pilot of Eagle -1 grinned at the sea of zombies pictured on his Heads Up Display. Just like a turkey shoot. The pilot of Eagle-1 was a veteran of Desert Storm and The Kosovo Conflict, so he knew a turkey shoot when he saw one. At 3 miles out he locked his targeting laser on the center of the zombie army.

"Targeting laser locked." he said into his mic.

"Copy Eagle-1. I have a fix. Over." Eagle-2 crackled back in his earpiece.

"Fire!" Eagle-1 gave the command at five miles out. A single laser guided Napalm Missile streaked away from both warplanes, leaving a thin exhaust trail. They followed the targeting laser precisely, exploding right in the center of the zombie horde. Hundreds were engulfed as the napalm cloud mushroomed out in a growing wall of liquid fire. Seconds later the jets roared overhead, banking hard right at two miles out to come around for another pass.

They were just coming out of the turn when the pilot of Eagle-1 saw a bright green beam of light flash beneath him, another one hundred yards to his starboard side. Eagle-2 exploded into a ball of fire.

Where the hell had that come from?

Eagle-1 scanned his Radar HUD...Blank. Suddenly another green beam flashed past not 20 feet to port. Another at fifteen feet! Another at ten! Eagle-1 swore under his breath and took his F-16 into a twisting defensive maneuver. But he was not fast enough and the next green beam clipped the tail end of Eagle-1. The pilot reached for the ejection lever but the tail end of the fighter exploded into a ball of flame, engulfing the entire jet.

At the front line, the cheering troops suddenly fell silent. As the fireballs faded into nothing the broken waves of zombies suddenly stiffened up and pressed the attack! As the tanks began to aim their cannon's a strange black aircraft passed overhead; it was smaller than most fighters, shaped like a flattened teardrop, smooth and polished with no visible source of propulsion. It banked around in a bootleg reverse and came to a hovering halt with its tip pointed right at Ft. Douglas' main gate. The standoff lasted only a few seconds before a thick green ball of electric energy fired from the nose of the craft, striking the center tank at the gate. It exploded, taking with it two Humvees and twenty-five soldiers in the near vicinity. Before the remainder of the gate defenders could react the craft fired another energy beam from its tip, taking out the flamethrower tank and a dozen soldiers scrambling for cover. The ship turned north and rocketed away with a blur...

Chapter 18.

Saturday June 23, 2001 Fort Douglas Salt Lake City, UT 3:49 PM.

"The gate has fallen! Zombies are breaching the perimeter! Repeat! The gate has fallen! Zombies have breached th..." The radio went to static.

They were one hundred yards from the back gate that accessed City Creek Canyon Road when that last transmission crackled over the radio.

Up ahead, the gate was barred, blocked by a single M1A1 Abrams tanks with a Humvee and half a dozen troops for support. A guard stepped out from behind the tank and motioned for them to stop. He was clad in standard armor and armed with an M-16. Matt brought the bus to a halt and opened the door to admit the soldier.

"Sgt. Turner." Jenkins nodded to the soldier; a tall, square shouldered, weary eyed, middle-aged man with tousled blond hair and a craggy face.

"Sgt. Jenkins." the soldier saluted. "You've heard the news, haven't you?"

"If you mean the gate falling then yes."

"Then why are you leaving?" the Sergeant asked.

"You said it yourself Turner. The gate has fallen. Superzombies have already infiltrated the base and are wreaking havoc as we speak. The hospital is all but lost. I know when I am defeated. I'm getting out while the getting is good. You and your unit would be wise to do the same."

"You're deserting?" the soldier seemed momentarily stunned.

"Is it really desertion when your only other option is suicide?" Matt asked. The soldier looked at Matt sharply but held his tongue.

"He's right." Jenkins said. "You can't win that fight back there. If you try, you'll all be killed."

"But this is all we've got." Sgt. Turner said. "Once its gone we're lost." he was already defeated. He had seen too much.

"Then stay and die!" Jenkins's snapped. "But I'm not that stupid. We are leaving. Are you going to try and stop us?"

"No." Turner answered. "I'm not going to stop you. If I had any brains in my head I'd be going with you."

"Well if you change your mind we'll be at Rainbow Lake, near Kittewa."

"Got it." Turner said. He turned to leave the bus.

"You watch your ass out there Turner." Jenkins's said.

"Same to you." Turner said. They gave each other a quick handshake and Turner left the bus. "Let 'em through!" he hollered, waving to the tank. It rolled to the side of the road and another soldier unlocked the steel gate, allowing them to pass.

"This road connects with Emigration canyon a few miles up." Jenkins said. "Then we backtrack down the canyon where it accesses Highway 186. A couple of miles south and we hit I-80 into Park City."

"Can we get a doctor for Zack in Park City?" Susan asked.