Free Stone Soldiers 6: Armageddon Z by C. E. Martin Page A

croaked, his voice raspy.
    An ALERT warning flashed across Victor's field of view, and a square panel sprang up in the air, showing the concerned face of Major Campbell in Florida.
    "Phillips and Jacobson are under attack!" the Major snapped. "I've got air support on the way!"
    "Yes, sir," Victor said.
    "Zeus and Jacob are in trouble," Victor said , helping the Colonel.
    Kenslir was already limping toward the stands. Even with his curses working, he looked to be pretty badly injured. The stone of his face hadn't even closed up around his exposed teeth yet.
    "Well, let's go help," Kenslir said. Then he seemed to notice something off to the side.
    Kenslir shook off Victor's help and limped over to a metal canister laying on the ground. It wasn't marred by the blast. It was long, several feet, and made of shiny aluminum. One end was open.
    When the Colonel touched the canister with his hand, a green glow was visible. Stamped on the side of the canister was one word: Gr33ng34r.
    "What is that?" Victor asked.
    Kenslir looked up at the roof of the dome. "I think the blast knocked it loose." He sniffed at the open end of the tube.
    "Spores."
    ***
     
    The undead were concentrating their combined fire on the two stone soldiers with little effect. Even peppered with thousands of high-velocity bullets, the petrified men were unharmed. That was the point of the petrification, after all—to create more durable soldiers.
    Similarly, Phillips and Jacobson found their return fire equally ineffective. Their carefully placed shots split mold-filled heads —sending out sprays of yellow spores into the air. But despite the tops of their heads removed by the precision shots, the reanimated dead continued to return fire, unphased. They didn't need brains or eyes.
    Phillips finally had enough and threw his rifle down. Clearly, these creatures were puppets for someone or something else. And the presence of the Stage Threes here meant their mystery enemy had expected an investigation to lead to the Dome as the source of the infection.
    That had been simple enough to discover. Police and hospital reports of the first reanimated had been inputte d into the CDC computers and links were sought—and found.
    The common threa d linking the victims had been simple—a large percentage of them had used their credit cards to buy concessions at the Sunday football game between the Bears and the Rams.
    Their und ead enemy had expected them to come here. He, or she, had laid a trap—one that might have stopped even the stone soldiers. Their enemy had learned from the attack in Texas. Hiding their undead army in a building had prevented satellite detection. And where one hundred undead confined in a semi trailer had proven ineffective, several hundred, armed undead filling a convention center were far more lethal.
    But their enemy hadn't planned on one thing. Chad Phillips was not just a man made of living stone. Exten ding one hand he spread his fingers wide and unleashed a blue-white streak of lightning.
    The crackling bolt of electricity snapped down the hall —striking one of the undead square in the chest. Even comprised of dry mold, there was still enough moisture in the creature to prove its undoing.
    It exploded violently in all directions as the static bolt of electricity poured into its body.
    "Sprinklers!" Phillips yelled, shifting his aim and unleashing another blast.
    Unlike the bullets harmlessly flattening again st him like leaden rain, his lightning-like discharges were horrifyingly effective. Another undead ceased to exist in a flaming explosion that scattered its pieces all over its companions.
    Isaac Jacobson shifted his aim and fired into the ceiling—aiming fo r a sprinkler head. His second shot found its mark and blew the head apart. Water immediately sprayed down from the ceiling—all along the hallway.
    The zombies hesitated now, many stopping their firing, others standing still, halfway through reloading their captured weapons.