CHAPTER 9

Trapov Village, Edonia

3:41 pm September 19th, 2010

There was an uneasy silence as the firing stopped in the church below. The screams from outside died down and the still quiet made Nick realize that he was heaving breaths. He stood up straight, looking out the window at the street where there had been hundreds of zombies. He couldn't see any until he leaned out the window and looked down the wall of the church.

The undead had surrounded the church completely. Shoulder to shoulder they had tried to pack in and beat their way into the building, with rows upon rows pushing them against the wall from behind. There was blood and gore all over the outside of the church from the creatures beating their arms down to shapeless pulps in their futile struggle against the old stone walls. Now they were all lying on the ground where they fell, lifeless and still the instant Nick had killed Levi.

They were packed in around the front doors of the church and Nick brought his head back inside, following the path the zombies took.

"Holy shit," he whispered, dropping his rifle and leaning back against the corner.

The undead had poured in through the destroyed front doors, nearly filling the first floor of the narthex, some still smoking and smoldering in the aftermath of the devastating 40mm grenade Thom had launched. They were lined up the stairs, dozens of them lying on the stone steps, spread over the landing and up the second set of stairs where they came onto the balcony. The outstretched hand of the zombie closest to him was only a foot behind where he'd been standing when he made the shot. Another fraction of a second and he'd have been overwhelmed.

"Jesus mate," Thom called out from inside the nave of the church, "Could you have cut that a little closer?"

"I seriously doubt that," Nick yelled back as he walked around the front side of the balcony to the other side of the church and through the archway from the narthex to the nave. He saw Thom, Carter, Marcos, and Karina, all standing in the center of the large room, with spent brass all over the floor around them. Lying nearby were the bodies of zombies, arms outstretched, some shot in the head and others without any wounds except what they'd suffered when they were turned. They had poured in through the windows and started to surround the group when the wave of undead had burst in the front doors.

Body parts and chunks of gore were scattered all over the western side of the nave from the grenade Thom had launched. It had blown in the middle of a packed cluster of rushing undead, tearing them apart as more kept coming. In spite of the firepower, lifeless corpses filled the doorway and a tide of them had made their way halfway across the room to where the survivors stood. Almost the entire population of Trapov lay deceased in or around the church.

"Dios mio," Marcos said once more, making the sign of the cross and kissing his fingers.

Carter looked at the smoking barrel of his rifle, with its bolt locked back on an empty magazine, and announced, "Fuckin' hell, I was out."

Marcos ejected his mag and looked at it, "Me too."

Thom whistled, "I ran dry also."

Karina simply removed her empty magazine and stuffed it in her bag on the bloody floor of the church, whispering, "That must be the safety."

"Safety?" Nick asked.

She turned and looked at the men and said, "The files mentioned a genetic safety engineered in the virus, something that would ultimately give Andru Urchenko total control."

"So whoever gets injected with the virus is the head that needs to get cut off," Carter said, "but how does that give the Urchenko the reigns? He'd have to be able to get at the head."

She sighed as she set down her bag and the submachine gun, saying, "The report that detailed the incident in two thousand and three included a theory about a Plagas Master, but there was no real evidence, no trace of it, just the testimony of a victim of Las Plagas."

She took off her gloves and continued, "He said that the cult leader had total control of all those that were infected, that he could manipulate the parasitic organisms. He said that he could even manipulate the parasites to kill the host, without ever touching him."

"And you think Andru has this Master Plaga?" Carter asked.

"I think it's likely, yes," she answered.

Thom gave Karina the last of the ammo for Ibrahim's P90 and went about topping off his own mags from the ammo boxes in his go bag. As the group went about reloading, Nick walked back around to where he'd left his things. On the way he topped off the internal magazine of the M24 and refilled the .308 ammo pouch on his chest. After picking up and putting on his discarded glove he slung his shotgun, shouldered his go bag, and picked up his M24, shutting the scope caps as he picked his way past the bodies lying on the stairs on his way down to meet the others. He stopped when he reached the ground floor and saw all the bodies leading out the double front doors and around the building.

The dead included men and women, the elderly, even children. Zombie-Levi had turned the entire village to get at their group, and in the process killed them all. Nick felt numb as he gazed at the amount of lifeless bodies littered all around the church. The air was smoky and thick with the copper scent of blood as Nick walked out of the church. There was nothing in the village that remained clean, free of the stains of blood, untouched by the virus. Broken glass from shattered windows covered the streets and was ground into the arms and hands of the undead. Smoldering fires still burned in several of the houses around the village.

Nick took off his Peltor Comtac headset as he slowly walked down the street. In the aftermath of the intense firefight he could hear the sobbing and crying of survivors amongst the ruined buildings along with the crackling of structure fires and dogs barking. He was surprised that any of the villagers had managed to remain hidden and escape from the pandemonium of the undead attack. He listened to their wails and just took in all the destruction as he continued walking past the total carnage.

He kept going until he came to the body of Levi, near the town's gate. As he looked out through the gates, he saw nothing but farm fields to the south and trees to the north, with a rough dirt road separating them as it headed generally west back towards the Edonian Royal Trade Highway. The mountains south of the village stretched out to the west for a number of miles before they flattened out near the paved highway. Dark, ominous clouds were filling the sky from the south east over the hazy cloud of smoke that hung over the village.

His eyes fell back on the body of Levi, his torso torn open from the multiple machine gun exit wounds that had killed him the night before. Nick knelt down, setting his sniper rifle on the bipods next to the body. There was nothing left of his skull anymore and Nick tried not to look at the gruesome carnage. He removed Levi's Beretta from the holster at his thigh and dropped the magazine. Nick cleared the weapon's chamber and stuffed the weapon and all three of the extra magazines, still full of 9mm rounds, in his go bag. He then went through the man's pockets, removing any personal effects and shoving them in his cargo pocket before he carefully removed Levi's jacket and used it to cover the mutilated mess that used to be the man's head.

As he gathered his gear and turned to head back to the church, Nick saw the priest's small dwelling completely burnt out. The timbers of the roof and frame of the house were visible through the fire and he watched as one of the beams crumbled down, breaking others as it fell. A shower of sparks rode up on the heat from the fire and disappeared in the air over the church. The flames themselves had moved on to the church and part of the roof was smoking and burning already. There were at least a dozen other homes with smoke and flames rising out of the windows and on the rooftops all over the tiny village.

Thom and the others walked out of the church, leading the handful of survivors that were left inside out past the ring of lifeless corpses. The big man waved Nick over as they stepped into the street, away from all the bodies around the church. Nick quickly strode back towards the church as the team gazed at the ring of undead surrounding the stone walls of the building. As he came up to the group, Thom nodded, then took a breath and spoke.

"We need to find a vehicle in this town that works, so we'll split up and keep in touch on two-ways. Karina, can you set up that sat com system and get in touch with someone?"

She shook her head, "It was set up on the roof of Father Mikhail's house when everything started. I didn't have time to try and get it down."

"Fuck," Thom stated as the entire group glanced at the glowing embers that used to be Father Mikhail's roof.

Carter and Marcos started to walk off and Karina turned and was heading towards the gate when Nick caught her arm and shook his head, saying, "Don't. There is nothing left of the man you knew."

He reached into his cargo pocket and pulled out the effects he had retrieved from Levi's pockets. As he handed them to her, she just stared at them for a moment, blinking back tears. She sniffed and took them, silently stuffing them in her bag.

"Stay with her," Thom told Nick as he walked off to the south to look for a vehicle.

Nick put his headset back on as Karina looked at him and said, "Thank you."

He nodded and said, "I am sorry that I had to…"

"I know," she said, "You did the right thing."

"Come on," he said, "Let's go find a car."

They took a side street off of the main road back towards the north side of the village. They carefully moved around the wreck of an old Renault truck that had crashed into a storefront near the main road. The front of the truck, up to the cab, was buried in rubble from the collapsed store and there was a body pinned underneath one of the rear tires. The windows were all smashed in and blood ran down the outside of the doors. As they passed it Nick thought he saw a body slumped over across the seat in the cab, covered in blood.

A few houses up from the wreck they found another old pickup, but it looked like it had been stripped of most of the essentials and hadn't moved from its parking spot in ages. They continued on, peeking in the broken gates and smashed doors along the side street as they went. They saw a man poke his head out of a second story window near the end of the street. When the man saw the two of them he looked relieved, then a look of concern as he noticed the weapons they were carrying. He ducked back inside quickly and hurriedly spoke to someone else inside the house.

Nick looked over at Karina, who shot him a glance and said, "I couldn't quite hear what he said."

"Try to talk to him, see if he can help us get out of here," Nick suggested, immediately realizing how stupid that sounded given what had just happened in the village. "Forget that, just let him know that it's safe now and we're not here to cause any trouble."

Karina nodded and repeated what Nick had said, speaking Romanian. They slowly moved forward when the man appeared in a doorway a few meters from them, cautiously stepping out holding an axe defensively. The simple wood splitting tool was coated in thick blood with small patches of hair stuck to it near the top of the blade. Nick and Karina kept their weapons lowered and non-threatening as they slowly took a step forward. He started speaking rapidly, obviously terrified, and Karina conversed with the older man while Nick waited.

He was dressed in wool trousers and worn leather boots with a light green shirt under a thick brown jacket. There were blood stains splattered all over his sleeves and shirt front and his bare hands were covered in dark crimson. He had blood drops in his graying black hair, short beard, and all over his cheeks. His eyes were wild and his brow was set, locked in determination.

"He said that his wife and granddaughter are upstairs," Karina translated for Nick, "but his son and daughter in law were killed by his other son, but they didn't stay dead. He had to kill both of his sons and many of his friends."

The man continued talking and Karina nodded, speaking softly, "His wife was attacked and struck by a piece of wood and is hurt, bleeding."

Nick keyed his radio, "Marcos, this is Nick. We found some survivors on the north side of town and they could use a little medical attention."

"Got it man, I'm on my way," Marcos replied, "Just guide me in."

"I'll meet you on Main Street," Nick replied and then said to Karina, "Tell him our medic is on his way and we can help his wife."

She told the old man who lowered his axe, but still didn't drop it or ease up his grip on the wooden handle. Nick started to back away and said to Karina, "I'm going to get Marcos, please be careful."

She smiled at him, just slightly, before he turned and walked to the road to lead Marcos in to where he was needed. She kept talking to the man as Nick passed the Renault and saw Marcos near the church, walking towards him. Nick waved him over and Marcos moved quickly down the cobblestone street, stepping lithely around the scattered debris and bodies.

"What's up bro?" Marcos asked as he reached Nick.

As they walked down the street Nick explained what Karina had said. They joined her and she went back and forth with the man for a few moments before he lead Marcos and Karina inside. Nick continued searching around the neighborhood for a vehicle or more survivors.