Chapter 1: New Friends
Rain held the bottle up as my son drank greedily. I stood there loading shells into the Benelli M3 Super shotgun that I got from the town's armory. Being in Resource & Supply had it's bonuses.
But you still had to go out into zombie infested towns to get food.
"Can I please go with you this time?" Rain asked. "When you turn sixteen next week." I said. I found Rain hiding from a group of zombies in a gutter right after I had joined R&S. I saved her life, and Jennifer and I decided to adopt her. She was a big help to Jennifer with Jack, my son. I looked at Rain who was sulking. "Hey, you know the rules, you have to be 16 to join R&S." I said. "Okay, I'm still looking for a good rifle." She said. "Okay, I have to go" I said. "Go for it." She said. I kissed her on the forehead, and did the same thing to Jack. I walked out to the jeep and climbed in. Riley, my second in command, climbed in next to me and I grabbed the CB mike. "All units go, repeat, all units go." I said. Six boats roared away from the docks, four average speedboats with two rigid inflatable Zodiac boats with M2s mounted on them providing escort. We were raiding coastal towns, so boats were a good way to get around. The vehicles that were taking part in the raid pulled up. A Dodge Dakota with a machine-gun mounted on it was used as the scout and the larger and heavier Dodge Ram 3500 with a M2 mounted on it was the firepower of the unit. A large U-Haul truck completed the lineup. "Alright, Move out!" I said into the radio. The ten minute drive to the closet town was uneventful and when we pulled into town, every thing was quite. "Okay team one, drug store, we need anti-biotic. Team two, gas station fill up the gas cans that you brought. team three, meet us at the gun store." Riley said. Riley and I walked into the gun store, dropping the zombie milling around in there. We split up and I set off to find Rain a rifle for her birthday. I took a M-1 Carbine out of the display case and looked at Riley. "Do you think Rain would like this?" I asked. "Yeah, she's a good shot, we could use her out here." He replied. "Yeah, she's joining as soon as she turns 16." I said. I shouldered the carbine and filled two shopping bags with magazines and .30 carbine ammo. Riley and I walked out to the jeep, and the teams reported in. Every one was accounted for, and we had the supplies we needed. I started the jeep and drove off towards town.
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"Do you like it?" I asked Rain, handing her the M-1 Carbine. "I love it! I wanted one of these!" She said. "Well now that you are 16, do you still want in the R&S?" I asked. "Yeah, I still want in." She said. "Okay, bring your pen, there's going to be a lot of paperwork." I said. "Really?" She asked. "Nah, I can cut a couple of corners." I said, grinning. "Okay, lets do it." She said.
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The next morning I woke up early, kissed Jennifer good by, and woke up Rain. She got her equipment together, and I looked over my shoulder at her. She was wearing an Army surplus bandoleer, conveniently for M-1 carbine mags, on her belt she had two Beretta 92s in cross draw positions and a KA- BAR. She was wearing an Army fatigue shirt and uniform pants, tucked into steel-toe combat boots. "You've been planing this, haven't you?" I asked. "Fortune favors the prepared." She said, smiling. "Are we going out for supplies already?" She asked as we walked out to the jeep. "No just some zombies moving around outside of town." I said. We drove to the center of town, where Command & Control was situated at the local police station. I parked the jeep, and we walked in. A man brushed by me, smoking a cigar, and I grabbed his arm. "Where did you get that, Lucas?" I asked. "Last night." He said. "Hey, next time we go out, get something that people can use." I said. "People can this, see." He said, taking a puff of the cigar. "And besides, who died and made you king?" He asked. "Hey, wiseguy. My unit, my rules." I said. It dissolved into a staring match, and Lucas turned away first. "I got stuff to do." He muttered. "Who was that?" Rain asked. "Josh Lucas, he's one of the guys in my unit." I said. We walked down a hallway to the Captain's office. We walked in and Captain James looked over at me. "Sit down, Tom." He said. "I just received a report that there are twenty zombies wandering around outside of town." He said. "And? I'm in R&S, not defense." I told him. "Yes, but defense is out gathering supplies, so you are the best we have." James said. "Gathering supplies? Sir, that's my job." I said. "They are raiding an National Guard base in St. Paul. That is out of your range." James said. "May I ask why we need to raid Army bases?" I asked. "We are upgrading the defenses." He said. "But anyway, you need to remove this threat." He said. "I'm on it." I said, walking out.
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I reached the other side of town in a few minutes, and walked up to the deer stand set up in a tree over-looking the road. It was more like a kids tree fort, made out of wood, and big enough to accommodate two or three people. I climbed up the ladder and looked at the two guys inside. "How's it going Herb?" I asked the grizzled old hunter. "Pretty good," He said, his eyes never leaving the Bushnell scope on his Savage Model 10 Predator hunting rifle. "See anything?" I asked. For a reply, he fired the rifle. "Not anymore." Herb said. He fired again, and than again, and set the rifle down. "I haven't seen this many since we cleaned out the town." Herb said. "I'm supposed to get rid of them." I said. "Lure them back here, Joe and I will help you out." Herb said, nodding at his brother. "Thanks." I said, climbing down the ladder. The Ram pulled up to provide covering fire and I walked up to the gunner. "Watch that thing." I said, looking at the looming barrel. "Only use it if we're being overrun. Otherwise you'll get carried away and start shooting every thing that moves." I said. "Rain, take my left, Riley is on the right." I said. We walked into the fog and I yelled at the zombies to get their attention. The started coming after us as Herb and Joe started firing from the stand. I fired with the M-3, aiming high. Rain stepped up, firing her carbine. "Now! Down!" I yelled. The gunner opened fire, and a few moments later the road was filled with dead and disabled zombies. One crawled up to Rain, who stepped on it with her boots, crushing his head. "Thanks Herb." I said. He fired, and a crawler that was reaching for my ankle dropped. "You're welcome." He said, cycling the bolt. "Whoa! did you have any people out?" Herb asked, looking through his binoculars. "Why?" I asked. "Because I can see the U-Haul." He said. "Oh, James said that he had the troops down in St. Paul raiding an Army base." I said. "Oh, okay." He said. The U-Haul drove up to the gate and Paul jumped out. "I got you a little surprise." Paul said. "Check it out!" He said, handing me a Barret 416. "It's going to be standard issue for R&S." He said. I checked out some of the weapons features, such as the 6.8mm round. The 416 was based of the M-16, and field-stripped the same way. I slung the gun on my shoulder as Paul looked at Rain. "I see you finally joined up." He said. "Yeah." Rain said. "You want one?" Paul asked, holding out a 416. "Sure, rule number one, never say no to a weapon." Rain said, as she grabbed the 416 and started stripping it. "She has a lot of talent." Paul commented. "She sure does." I said. "So, how about a night on the town?" Paul asked. "Oh wait, I forgot, you're married." Paul mocked. "Hey!" I said indignantly. "Just because I'm married doesn't mean I can't have a night on the town, I just have to ask my wife first." I said. Paul laughed at that and we walked off. "Come over to my place for dinner," I said. "What's cooking?" He asked. "Uh, MREs and canned corn." I said. "Sounds great, I was just going to have an MRE." Paul said, chuckling.
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I set the MRE in front of Paul and sat down. He looked at Jennifer. "So where did you two meet?" He asked. "We have been friends since grade school, we started dating when we graduated high school." She said. "We got married when we started college, and Jessica was born soon after." You mean to say you're only 26?" Paul asked. "25," I corrected. "We graduated early." "Cool," Paul said. "I hate to bring up business, but how are things at R&S going?" He asked. "Okay, Lucas is still being a pain in the ass." I said. "Yeah, he's only out for himself." Paul said. "Anyway, I have an idea," Paul said. "And I need your help." "Sure." I said. "When we were in St. Paul, I noticed the need for a large, heavily armed vehicle that can stand up to the beating of a couple hundred zombies." He said. "And how can I help?" I asked. "Have you ever seen Land of the Dead?" Paul asked. "Yeah," I said. "Remember Dead Reckoning?" He asked. "Yeah." I said thoughtfully. "I think we should make something like that. There is a semi dealership in Duluth, we can get a semi and a trailer there." Paul said excitedly. "Okay, so we go to Duluth, then what?" I asked. "We modify it, put armor on it, and put guns on it, we have lots of guns." Paul said. "You are used to driving semi's, you could help with the technical stuff." Paul said. "Okay, let's go." I said, getting up. "Wait," Rain said. "I'm coming with." She said. "Okay, load up in the jeep." I said, grabbing my M-16. "What about the Barret?" Paul asked. "I like the M-16." I said. "Okay, let's go." Paul said.
Chapter 2: Building a Gun truck
We stood in front of the 2008 Volvo 830 with a box trailer hooked up. "Now what?" Rain asked. "We find some kind of metal that will work for armor." Paul said. "Okay," I said to the five soldiers tasked to defend us. "You stay here and protect the semi, and we'll take the jeep and find some metal." I said.
Rain and I walked into a steel mill and I examined some steel plates. We loaded as many as we could fit in the back of the U-Haul. I grabbed several boxes of industrial grade bolts and other fasteners. We drove back to where the semi was parked and I looked at Paul's blueprints. "I have a questions." Paul said. "Yeah?" I asked. "Do you think we should join the trailer to the semi?" He asked. "If we find a smaller trailer so you can make corners." I said. "Okay," Paul said. "As I figure it, two inches of sheet metal over the trailer should be enough to stop the zombies from getting through." Paul said. "The engine is a Cat C15 15.2L Diesel Engine which give you around 625 horsepower, so we can put a lot of weight on it before we have any problems." He said. "We are going to replace the back swing doors with a hydraulic ramp, and cut a door in each side. We also need to think about armament." Paul said. "Two M2s on the front corners of the trailer, and four M-240s set on the sides and back of the trailer, and shuttered firing ports set in to allow people to fire rifles out should do it." I said. "Okay," Paul said. We spent the next few hours welding steel plates over the long box trailer that we had decided to use instead of a joined trailer. The longer trailer gave us a lot of cargo room, which would be useful in R&S. We camped out that night, and got back to work the next day. "We're almost done." Paul said as he handed me a plate to weld. "Yeah, another day and we can go home." I said. "What about the jeep and the U-Haul?" Paul asked. "The jeep we load in the trailer, you will have to drive the U-Haul." I said. We finished the truck around 6:00 that night and decided to camp out one more night. the next day we hit the road and made Tofte around noon.
Chapter 3: Retreat
We drove into town and we knew something was wrong. The town was completely silent, no vehicles running, no kids playing, and the guardposts were empty.
That, and a zombie came out of the store.
I shot him and walked up to look at him. His face was chewed up badly, but it was Lucas.
I ran to my house with Paul and Rain following me. I threw the door open and killed the zombie that was trying to beat down the bedroom door. "Jennifer? Jessica?" I shouted. The door opened and my family ran out. "Is there anyone else alive?" I asked them. "No, we were having a meeting and a bunch of zombies got in, they were like fish in a barrel." Jennifer said. "Alright, everyone in the jeep." I said. "What about the truck?" Paul asked. "We need to leave now, we don't have time to fill up the truck." I said, grabbing ammo from the bedroom. I grabbed the food out of the cupboards and ran out to the jeep. We climbed in and drove off, once again looking for someplace to go.

Authoer's note: This one is done, don't know if i will do another, let me know what you think.