Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02 Read Free

resisted the urge to use it. "We'll need Humvee's, sir. Two of them, loaded with food, weapons, and ammunition." The request was more of a command than anything else, the tone of it not lost on the lieutenant.
    "Now those, I really don't know if I can get..."
    "You get them. No questions; no excuses." Alex turned his back on Hill, replacing the magazine in the handgun for a full clip.
    "And when will you be able to leave?" Hill asked.
    Raising the handgun and taking aim, Alex responded. "Tomorrow. We'll leave tomorrow."
    -----
    "What do you mean, 'tomorrow'? Who said we were leaving tomorrow?!" John Tolbert screamed at Alex. The six men who had been coerced into going back to Austin for Hill's family stood in a loose circle around Alex.  
    "We're leaving tomorrow. Everything is ready, so there's no point in delaying the inevitable." Alex's tone was flat, without emotion as he spoke to the men around him.
    "Fuck that," John yelled. "I didn't sign on for a suicide mission..."
    "But you're on it anyway," Liam interrupted. "You can either bitch about it and get us all in the shit, or shut it, follow Alex's lead, and he'll get us through this."
    "Are you insane? This'll never work. There's six of us versus how many thousands of them?"
    "Ten," interjected a voice from behind them. Dr. J.J. Cahn quickly closed the open distance between them. Behind him followed three other men, Shawn Davies, Luke Berryman, and Donovan Murphy. "We'd like to...um...volunteer, for your rescue mission."
    Alex shook his head violently. "No. No way. You aren't going," he protested. "You don't have a stake in this..."
    "We're going," Cahn interrupted. "You are going to need a doctor and a few extra guns." Dr. Cahn smiled wide. "I'm a doctor, and they are the guns," he said, indicating the men behind him.
    Alex continued to shake his head. "No. We don't need a doctor..."
    "Like hell we don't," Tolbert spat.
    Alex turned on the man, forcing himself at John. "And just what good is a doctor going to do us? Huh? You get injured out there and we are putting a bullet in your brain, no hesitation. There is no curing a zombie bite. You are a dead man, and I'll make sure I pull the trigger!" Tolbert cowered under Alex's onslaught. He had just about brought the younger man to tears when Dr. Cahn stepped between them.
    "Knock it off, Alex!" Cahn commanded. "You don't get a say in this one. We are going. You need the help and we have volunteered. That's final." Alex's gaze shifted from Tolbert to the doctor, the anger draining away almost immediately.  
    "Fine," Alex said, defeated. "Get yourselves armed and say your goodbyes to anyone you need to. We leave at sunrise." Alex pushed his way through the circle of men, the anger and frustration visible on his face and in his body carriage. He slipped away into the growing dark.
    -----
    "You can't be leaving? That man couldn't be serious?" Morgan Kemp fought hard not be believe what she knew was true. Only a few days had passed since Lt. Colonel Jonathan Hill had kidnapped Alex's wife Morgan and their five year old daughter, Gemma, in order to force Alex to bring the lieutenant's family out of Austin. Alex simply hung his head, not wishing to look his wife in the eyes.
    "Morgan," Alex said. "You can't believe that Hill holding a gun to your head was just for show. I don't have a choice..."
    "You could just refuse. Refuse to go. What could he do then?" Morgan knew the answer. Alex knew it too.
    "I can't risk losing you and Gemma when I know there is something that I can do about it." Alex raised his head to look in his wife's eyes. They were the color of dark chocolate, and Alex could always remember staring into them, content and happy. "I can't fight him; he's got too many soldiers. I can do this. I can get them out and back here. It will be okay." He paused for a moment, not wishing to utter the next thoughts he had. "If I don't go, he'll kill..."
    "Stop. Just stop!" Morgan cut in. "He can't. There's no reason behind