Novel Full 338 Omaha roof
“The horde is coming,” Peter shouted as soon as he got on the same stage that Mathew used during his speech just a few hours prior to this moment. “Everyone, code red!”
There were only a few people gathered in the exact spot Peter was at. Contrary to how it was during Mathew’s speech, without a reason announced in advance, there was no real reason for people to loiter around the front-most area of the base.
And yet, the second Peter shouted those few words of his, everyone froze. And in the very next moment, all of those frozen people broke into a rush, as if the devil himself was chasing after them.
“Alert the barracks!” someone shouted while climbing up the nearby stairs to the upper level.
“I will bring out the ammo!” another member of Peter’s fighting force announced, running towards the warehouse located within the backside of the base.
“Not bad, not bad at all,” Leila muttered with a small smirk as she watched all those different people rush into action like bees in a hive. “How did you drill them so hard in the few days you had, I wonder,” she then added while turning to face Peter.
The leader of the base turned his head to give the girl a long look. He then rolled his eyes a little before turning his eyes to the only man that was left on the scene, the same guy that he talked with first thing after arriving at the base.
“This horde will be full of zombies far stronger than the ones we faced so far,” Peter muttered in a low voice as if he wanted to hide this fact from everyone else. Yet, this assumption quickly proved to be incorrect when he followed with, “so make sure everyone is aware of that. I have no need for stupid heroes.”
Leila turned her head and looked at Peter with a glint of even greater respect in her eyes.
Her expression already changed when she saw just how quickly everyone rushed to do their tasks upon the announcement of the approaching horde. And now, hearing how he wasn’t going to hide the fact that the coming fight would be likely far tougher than anything they faced before…
“How long do we have?” Peter asked, focusing on the important stuff rather than enjoying how he managed to raise his status in the girl’s eyes.
“Half an hour if we are lucky,” Leila replied after three seconds of deliberation. “But only five to ten minutes if we are not.”
The last time she learned about the location and the speed of the horde was when everyone left the school’s compound. From there, it was only a matter of deducing the time they took to reach Peter’s base before accounting for the unknown variables.
“I think we should be able to make it in time,” Peter said.
And as if to flex the drill of his people and back up his words, Leila rocked her head to the side, alerted by the noise of several tens of shoes hitting the floor in unison.
“First unit is ready,” a man shouted as soon as he jumped down the last flight of stairs before running a few paces forth more to kill his momentum.
A group of about twenty-five men followed closely behind, all armed with all sorts of military-grade weapons.
“Second unit ready!” Another man shouted, coming from the doors that lead behind the former mechanical shop, to the patio located in the middle of the block.
This time, however, no one followed him.
“That should make up for everyone from the rapid response,” Peter muttered.
“Here, boss,” the same officer from before then approached Peter again, this time with a bolt-action rifle in his hand.
“Thanks,” Peter replied while taking the weapon and turning his eyes to the girl. “Do you want a gun or something?”
Leila smiled before shaking her head. Her hand then moved over to her hip only to rest on the handle of her brand-new weapon.
“I already have everything that I need to fight,” she said with confidence while looking Peter right in the eyes. “And I’m going to take care of the strongest of the zombies that are coming, so just focus on clearing the…”
Leila blinked… and turned perfectly silent. She then closed her eyes and stood frozen in place for a few seconds.
“They are coming. About a minute or two left,” she then announced while opening her eyes.
“How can you…” Peter raised a question right away, only to cut his sentence before he could properly ask. He shook his head and looked away. “Well, it’s not like you are going to tell me anyway,” he added before turning around and facing the stairs. Yet, as soon as he took his first step off the stage, he turned his face to the unit gathered in the cleared-out workshop.
“If my worries are correct, they might actually break inside. So don’t dawdle around and get some damn cover!” Peter urged his men before turning his head back in the direction he was moving towards and actually heading towards the stairs.
“Come with me,” he then added, urging the girl without even turning his head around to make it clear he was talking to her in the first place.
The two of them along with the officer that Peter used to organize everything moved up the stairs. Due to the open nature of the staircase, Leila could see all sorts of barricades barring both the windows of the offices on the second floor but also barriers that blocked the entrance to each of the cubicles. And to top it all off, there was a group of five armed men scattered across the floor with a few more of Peter’s soldiers positioned by the windows.
Leila observed all of that with a single glance, before Peter brought her up one floor higher, to where the previously mentioned second unit was stationed.
“What the…” Leila uttered through her tightened teeth while her eyes turned wide.
She then slowly gulped her saliva down while moving her eyes from one item to another.
There was no third floor for the building, just the flat terrace sitting right on top of it.
Normally, there would be only some railings and benches for the workshop workers to relax at, but Peter’s men saw to transform the entire place into an impregnable fortress.
There were three nests with heavy machine guns spaced evenly along the entire perimeter of the workshop’s roof with two boxes of ammunition sitting right behind the sandbag-based nest of each of the guns.
In the back of the roof, Leila saw a single piece of mortar with two rows of ten projectiles each neatly arranged for use in the near future.
And to top it all off, besides three duets manning each of the heavy machine gun nests and three more men on the standby at mortar’s side, there was a group of three snipers and three soldiers, each of them lying comfortably at the edge of the roof with only the barrels of their guns poking beyond the said edge.
“They are coming, boss,” the officer reported before Leila had the chance to swallow her shock and raise her eyes towards the street.
“Everyone gathered near the workshop,” another report came in right away.
“Just in time,” Peter replied with a sigh before raising his gun to his head and taking a quick look through the scope of his weapon. “And there is quite a few of them too,” he added as he inspected the approaching horde.
“I really want to know just how in all hell did you organize this kind of weaponry,” Leila muttered once she finally overcame her shock and returned to reality.
Yet, while her face was covered in shadow when she spoke out, as soon as she turned her eyes towards the approaching horde, her expression lifted up and a small smile nestled up on her lips.
“But first, let’s deal with the problem at hand. We can save the necessary talk for later!”