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Patting his vest Lance looked down, seeing he’d used all six magazines on his vest and only had two of the six on his drop platform on his left thigh. “Glad they showed up,” Lance mumbled, unclipping his single point sling and clipping it to the front of his AR, so it would hang across his body. He really didn’t want the barrel to touch him.
Pulling the Ruger 22/45 from under his left arm, “Dino,” Lance called out, moving to the bodies.
“What are you doing?” Lilly asked.
“I saw four fall down playing dead, so I know there’re more,” Lance answered as Dino stopped growling and a stinker moved, only to get shot.
Walking over, Lilly saw the empty magazine holsters on Lance’s chest and leg. Seeing another stinker move, she snapped up her AR and when the laser met the head, Lilly squeezed the trigger. “Now you don’t have to play dead,” Lilly spat, moving over to Lance.
“What are you doing?” Lance asked, shooting another stinker as it moved.
Pulling magazines from Lance’s dump bag, “Hello? You only have two more mags,” Lilly huffed. “If anyone needs full mags, it’s both of you.”
Hearing suppressed shots behind her, Lilly turned to see Patrick’s sons shooting a few stinkers stumbling out of the trees. Turning back around, Lilly gasped to see Lance and Dino walking on and across the bodies, checking for ‘live’ stinkers.
Jennifer walked up with Ian’s empty magazines, “Let’s reload,” Jennifer sighed, noticing Lilly’s tense body. “Don’t, because they haven’t spun off yet. You know it’s coming.”
Taking Jennifer’s advice, she stepped back to the buggy and tossed the magazines on the hood. Grabbing a can of ammo, Lilly opened it as the others came over to reload.
“There had to be over a thousand down here,” Heath whispered harshly.
Scoffing as she reloaded, “Heath, if there wasn’t two thousand down here, I’ll kiss your ass,” Lilly declared.
Hearing the release of a slingshot, everyone turned and saw a stinker drop behind them. “Can’t be sneakin’ up on me,” Holly chuckled, reloading her slingshot. They watched her pull it back before dropping another stinker over sixty yards away.
When Holly released the slingshot, everyone heard the steel ball bearing hum through the air. “I bet that slingshot is shooting close to nine hundred feet per second,” Dwain said in awe.
“Are they all right?” Heath asked in a low voice.
Lilly turned back and saw Ian and Lance walking over the bodies, shooting ones that moved when they got near. Rhonda, Patrick and David were walking behind them over the bodies, covering them. Jennifer never turned, but shook her head.
“Nope,” Jennifer announced. “All of you are about to witness a tantrum of epic proportions. I’m betting this will be bigger than the tantrum when Ian’s bike was stolen.”
When the area was clear, Lance turned and saw several stinkers on the road stumbling toward them. “I got ‘em,” Rhonda said, lifting her M4 and snapping off shots to drop the group quickly.
Strolling over the bodies, Lance stopped beside the bot and walked around it. Stopping at the back, Lance started growling seeing bullet holes, then moved to the side facing the road and saw a lot more bullet holes. “Aww, motherfucker,” Lance panted, knowing none of those had come from them.
Huffing hard and nearly foaming at the mouth, Lance turned around and saw Ian pulling a trail camera from the lone tree near the field that sat right outside of the playground. Feeling a weight hit his leg, Lance jumped and looked down to see Dino moving back to lean against him.
Reaching down and patting Dino, “I’m going to rip their daddy’s dick off and stab them to death with it,” Lance growled, and walked back over the bodies to the buggies. “FUUUUCK!” Lance bellowed, and it echoed across the field.
“And let the tantrum begin,” Jennifer mumbled, putting the last magazine down.
As Lance stormed over, anyone close darted away. Stopping at his buggy, Lance pulled out his laptop and turned it on as Patrick and David inspected the bot and Rhonda explained what it did. “Robin, will you help Patrick’s sons keep us covered?” Lilly asked, feeling waves of fury radiating off of Lance.
“Yeah,” Robin answered as Lance stabbed the laptop keyboard with his finger.
“Seven were on the road and two came over to the recharging area!” Ian yelled, walking over and looking at the small display screen on the game camera. He came to a sudden stop at the front of the buggy. “You have got to be kidding me!”
“What?” Lance snapped, not looking up from his laptop.
Storming over, Ian held the screen of the game camera in front of Lance. “They were flying a pirate flag,” Ian answered, with his voice dripping in malice.
“Ian? Lance?” Jennifer called out, and everyone moved away from her as Ian and Lance turned to Jennifer. Jennifer didn’t speak to them. With her hand raised, Jennifer pointed across the field to the sign they had put out to warn people to stay away.
Covering the sign was a white posterboard with a black painted skull and crossbones. Ian and Lance turned to each other glaring as Heath glanced over at the body beside the battery. The body was wearing a ski mask and Heath didn’t see any head trauma. “Let me take care of that,” Heath said, moving over.
“It hasn’t turned yet,” Patrick gasped, walking over.
“Who gives a fuck?!” Ian shouted and Patrick froze. “Even if people don’t turn when they die from something other than a stinker, there are still over seven billion stinkers on the planet!”
Spinning around in mid-step, “I’ll let you two take care of that one,” Heath said, moving back to the other side of the buggy.
Stepping away from the recharging station, Dwain noticed the Stirling engine had been shot and there were a dozen bullet holes in the mirror. The large battery had several holes, along with the attached box on top that housed the inverter and computer.
Making a wide circle, Dwain saw Ian and Lance staring at each other, huffing like caged bulls. “Someone is in for a world of shit,” Dwain mumbled.
“We find who did it and we kill their mothers with butter knives,” Ian grumbled. “If any breast fed, we chop her tits off first.”
Trembling with rage, “We make a machine that sucks their eyeballs out of their ass!” Lance shouted.
Leaning back, Ian slowly nodded. “We can build a machine to do that.”
Picking up Ian’s magazines, Jennifer smirked. “Oh, I’m so watching that.” Walking over, Jennifer started shoving Ian’s magazines back in his vest and drop platform. “What’s the damage?”
“The bot is dead!” Lance shouted. “All four motors, two of the three battery banks and CPU, along with the recharging station!”
“So, is it time for a deed?” Jennifer asked.
Putting the game camera down, Ian shook his head. “No, this is way past a deed. An exploit is called for.”
Tossing his laptop in the buggy, Lance reached in and yanked out the sword. Tossing the scabbard away, Lance strolled over to the body beside the battery. Kneeling down, Lance searched the body as Ian reached in the back of the buggy, grabbing a machete. “A deed is to teach a lesson. An exploit is only used to let one know; this is payback. Think of it as coating your dick in honey and covering it in ground up glass before you shove it up their ASS!,” Ian finished in a bellow, gripping the machete tight. “The only lesson this time is: they will die slowly, cursing their mothers for giving birth to them!”
As Ian turned away and headed over to Lance, Lance stood up and hacked the body’s left boot off. When Ian joined, Ian hacked off the right and then they started chopping up each leg, taking a one inch slice off. Dino ran over and latched onto the left arm, growling and shaking the body.
Turning, Lance hacked the arm off at the shoulder and Dino spun around, shaking the arm violently. “Yep, if I was in that group, I’d just pull my pistol and shoot myself in the head,” Dwain stated, and everyone nodded.
Walking to the backseat of her buggy, Lilly pulled out two machetes and strolled over before handing one to Jennifer. They both nodded at each other, and strolled over and started chopping up the body with the boys. “You know, I’ve never been scared of anyone in my life, but those boys absolutely terrify me,” Patrick stated with no shame.
“Why they choppin’ the body up?” Holly asked, holding Dawn. “We need to find those pirate asses.”
“We know where they are,” Patrick said. Heath and Dwain spun to him and Dwain grabbed Patrick’s arm.
“You really know?” Dwain asked cautiously, and Patrick nodded. Dwain turned to tell the boys and stopped, seeing them playing soccer with the head. “Um, Lance? Ian?” Dwain called out, and cringed when they stopped and turned to him. “Patrick knows where they’re at.”
The fact Ian and Lance didn’t run over unnerved everyone. Instead, they calmly walked over, and the low light from the LED bulbs made the grey skulls on their masks seem to pulsate. “Where?” Lance asked in a tense voice.
Clearing his throat nervously, “Ahem, five miles north of here,” Patrick answered. “Got a map?” he grinned nervously.
Pulling out his map from his cargo pocket, Lance spread it over the hood of the buggy. Moving over, Patrick pointed northwest of Woollum at a valley. “They were there three weeks ago,” Patrick said. “They don’t act like that mot-,” he paused, seeing both skulls staring at him, “the Devil Lords or that white supremacist group. To be honest, they act like frat boys. Well-armed and demonic frat boys. They are set up behind a wall of semi-trailers and have about ten acres blocked off.”
“You joining?” Lance asked in a dead voice, and Patrick nodded and forced a grin. Glancing at the map, Lance stabbed his finger down. “Move here to these two houses in this draw. There is a creek and food stockpiled there. Ian and I locked the doors, but the keys are in the mailboxes. Don’t go in the third house because that’s where the food was stored and we didn’t clean up the body parts the little Devil dicks left.”
“Much obliged,” Patrick responded with a dry voice.
Grabbing the map, Lance turned to Ian who only gave a curt nod. “Heath, be ready, so don’t stray far from your house. You’ll have to keep the stinkers in check now until we call,” Lance said, folding the map up.
Swearing he could feel malevolent hatred the boys had for the group permeating the very air around them, “We’ll be waiting,” Heath nodded with a forced grin. “We gonn’a attack ‘em?”
“Hmph,” Ian scoffed, heading for the buggy. “They don’t get off that fucking easy.”
