Life After the Undead (Book 1 in the Life After the Undead Series)

CHAPTER 24

By the time we made it back to the ranch, the radio had been blaring with obscenities from Liet for fifteen minutes. I chuckled to myself as I sat and picked up the hand mic.

"I'm sorry, Liet, you're not coming in too clear. Can you please repeat that last thing you said?"

"I'll rip your head off the next time I see you. You fu—"

I turned the radio off. "We'll give him a couple hours to calm down."

We went to the living room where Bill, Kyle, and a few others gathered. I sat on the couch, and Quinn stood in front of the fireplace. He placed his hands on his hips.

"We have a mission, and I think it's time we attacked North Platte." He cleared his throat. "The original plan was to have simultaneous attacks in both Nebraska and Florida, but that's impossible to accomplish. There's no way to communicate with Krista's contact down there, and the worker's don't have much time left. If we can take control of the city, we can barter with The Families and eventually topple them. Here's the plan."

***

We were up the next morning before the sun. We traveled in four vehicles, three of which carried four passengers each and headed to North Platte.

The fourth car was occupied by Bill and Kyle, and they were going to Florida to let Tanya know what was happening. We didn't want her to hear about the uprising and think that was the sign for her to attack.

The temporary chain-link fence extended almost seventy miles both north and south from North Platte, and we were going to enter the area on the far end. It was pathetic, really, since crews worked twenty-four hours a day and they hadn't made it past the towns of McCook and Thedford. I suspected since Liet was such a control freak there would be guards at both areas. I was sure he didn't want anyone sneaking into North Platte without him knowing about it. I assumed if anyone was dumb enough to sneak out, they let them go.

Once we got past the wall, though, the real challenge would start. North Platte was surrounded by another chain-link fence, guard towers, and land mines. The majority of the towers were empty because Liet didn't have the soldiers to fill them, and the mine fields were relatively new. After the zombie incident in town and the lack of soldiers to fill the towers, Liet put the fields in. Only he and a few of the workers knew exactly where the mines were. I hadn't even known they'd existed until I'd heard some of the female soldiers talking about it while I was chained up. It made our plan more dangerous, but not impossible.

It took us two hours to make it to Casper. From there, we traveled on I-25 to US 20 and drove to Valentine, which took another five hours. It was a straight shot south from Valentine to Thedford to North Platte, and it only took two hours, but we had to be cautious. We were going to hit the city near mid-afternoon, and that meant we'd be very conspicuous. The plan was to park a few miles outside the city and walk in. A few zombies lurched around on the road, but they'd be easy to take care of. Out of all the obstacles we were going to face on that trip, the roaming zombies were the least of my worries.

We pulled over a few miles outside of Thedford and scanned the area. Through the binoculars, I saw a crew of five workers and two guards. I handed the glasses to Quinn.

"We'll need to get over there quietly," I whispered. "The guards have radios, and we don't need them spoiling our surprise party."

Quinn lowered the binoculars. "One of us should approach head-on while the others sneak around the back. I'm sure they won't call in a lone straggler, and that will keep their attention so the others can get into position."

I nodded. "Okay. Who's going to walk right up to them?"

"Anyone but you."

"You know, it might be a better plan if it is me. I know most of the guards, and they probably know what Liet did to me. It might be enough of a surprise for me to show up that it'll take them off guard."