Eschaton (The Scott Pfeiffer Story Book 1)

by Shane Woods

“We need a weapons guy. Tony is already going to have his hands full, we have reloading equipment now, we need to find whomever is left with the talent to at least learn maintenance and be able to put some tricks together.” I continued on before I lost steam, “We’ll get whatever we can find to help you learn. Anarchist Cookbook, military manuals, whatever. Anyone?”

  Rich raised his hand instantly. He looked like he was back in the third grade and had just been asked a question he’d been waiting on.

  “Rich? You?” I asked, not even trying to hide my curiosity.

  “Uhhh yeah, for sure,” he grinned, his gravelly voice showing excitement. “Just think of me as the mad scientist of ordinance. We could be here all night if you wanted to know what I know, just trust me.”

  I raised my hands in resignation and placation, “Nope, I’ll take you at your word. What do you need right off the rip?”

  “I’ll make a list,” He assured. “I’d also like to drain the swimming pool, I’ll be working with some things that I’m sure you don’t want in the living quarters. I can wall it up and roof it in with James’ help and make a bunker out of it to work in.”

  “Okay,” I conceded. “We’ll use the river for our water anyway, with no more pollution going into it, we can test it and determine how to make it safe.”

  Rich, clearly not finished, displayed the attitude of a loyal dog, ready to please. I admired that in him, actually. His eagerness rubbed off on the others.

  “I’ve already got plans drawn up for a still,” he advised.

  “We need clean water, not liquor, so you mean a water still, right?” I asked.

  “Absolutely!” he grinned.

  “Alright then.” I smiled back to him, then, “I mentioned securing for agriculture. I want another wall further out, two or three blocks, I figure we can even raze homes that we’ve cleared in the immediate area and use the materials to build it with. It’ll also add some more security.”

  “Heavy equipment will speed that process up,” James advised. “We can, uh, liberate some from any construction sites we come by.”

  “Maybe even a dry moat around the walls,” Rich began, and was met by sporadic laughter, leaving a scorned expression on his face.

  “No, now you guys shut up, let’s hear him out,” I admonished, and Rich began again, renewed at my giving him support.

  “If we already have equipment, and we’re building a wall, we dig a dry moat,” He suggested. “Eight feet across, and just as deep should stop runners from even reaching the walls, use the dirt we dig up to put behind the walls for support, we could even line it with spikes. The dirt backing the walls would also be a bullet stop if there’s any hostile humans out there, and give us a way to make patrol paths behind the wall itself.”

  “I kind of like that, actually,” I concurred. “Get with James about that, and about your pool bunker thing.”

  Rich agreed, smiled, and visibly relaxed.

  “My final order of business for this evening,” I set off again, gathering the attention of the group, “we almost lost some people today. Good people. I propose drawing these things to us.”

  This was not well received. Gasps, complaints, and about three people telling Parker to shut the fuck up.

  “You all done?” I asked when it had quieted down. “Look, we’ve got walls, we have trucks to elevate people on to shoot over those walls. We make some noise, draw them in, mow them down at the wall like we did earlier. Boom, streets are clearer, scavenging close by is safer, it’s less of a risk then to open and close the gate.”

  I don’t think they had originally considered this. Now that they were beginning to, the group seemed to be more malleable to the idea. Good.

  “Henry, after we adjourn, get a few people, get some trucks, position them around the walls, mostly to the southeast corner,” I ordered. “James, get a crew to double check the walls before dark is here tonight. We start at the break of dawn. Medical team, be up early, be on standby. Carolyn will hide with the kids in the south building. Tomorrow, a quarter hour before dawn, every single person not on medical or childcare get a truck, take a position, and have a gun. Henry, Tony, Dave and I will set this powder keg off, and command via the two-ways they brought back today. All anyone else has to do is shoot to kill. We go until we run out of moving freaks. We’re adjourned. Guys, outside. Tony, command center. Ladies, take stock of your supplies with Bri and let’s get ready.”

  With that, everyone reluctantly departed, led by their new crew leaders. Tony and I made our way down to command and began a plan. We would shoot from the south rooftop. Whatever we saw that wasn’t human. Tony and I both agreed we would use the Mosin Nagant. It was far from accurate, but could reach out to about three-hundred yards without much issue. The draw to using that rifle was a fast, heavy round, and it was loud. Very loud. It would easily gather as much attention as possible.

  Tony left to go set up a shooting position on the south rooftop for the morning, and I stayed in the command center and began fiddling with the radios to make sure they all worked, had a charge, and were keyed to work with each other.

  Satisfied that they were, I went next door to my apartment and pulled out my rifle, pistol, and shotgun, bringing them all to the kitchen table to use the remainder of the daylight to break each of them down, clean, lube, and inspect.

  Before long, I was just finishing up my work, sliding the bolt into the rifle and giving the trigger a squeeze to release it and slide it the rest of the way home.

  About this time, Jennifer walked in, Gwen following along at her heels, though barely. Both girls looked absolutely exhausted. I gave Gwen a hug, and a kiss, and watched as Jennifer led her in to brush her teeth using the basin of water, then took her off to bed.

  I laid out an assortment of ammunition for each gun, then followed Jennifer in. Grabbing the battery powered alarm clock, setting the time, and sliding under the covers. Jennifer had already fallen asleep, so I draped an arm over her and followed suit.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The following morning found myself, Tony, and Dave on the rooftop of the south building. Just as the sun’s rays began to peak over the horizon and shed brilliant light on our surroundings. Dropping the stub of my cigar to the rooftop and squashing it with my foot, I brought the radio up to my mouth. Man, I felt like a badass. I was the rifleman, we had a plan, I was in charge of it, and we were actually doing things. Check it out, we even had walkie talkies!

  “Henry, wait for my mark. Shoot any movement on my shot. Over.” I instructed through the radio. See how fucking cool that was?

  “Okay, my friend,” came Henry’s voice through the box in my hand. Then, I waited. Nothing. He was supposed to say ‘over’. Oh well.

  I went to the other end of the roof and laid on the picnic table that Tony had pre-positioned the evening before. It put the main road about 200 yards away from us. Just a bit down the street, I could see the slow movement of someone, or something, walking right down the middle of the street.

  I called the target to Tony, who kneeled against the low roof wall just a few feet to my left, with binoculars in hand, and Dave leant against the wall just to his left.

  “Yeah, I see them,” he confirmed, and brought his binos to his eyes to put glass on the target.

  As Tony did this, I brought my rifle into position. Stock buried firmly in my shoulder, sling wrapped around my arm and pulled tight to steady the heavy chunk of iron and wood. I scanned through a blurred mess of foliage until the street and what turned out to be a pair of infected came into view. I twisted the focus adjustment on the rifle scope and stopped. Well, that’s odd.

  “What the fuck is this?” I asked Tony, who was already beginning to chuckle.

  “Dude,” he declared. “What a fucking way to go. I almost feel like we should leave them and find another target.”

  “Nah, bro,” I challenged. “She was a cutie at one point. I’d be contented to die like that.”

  “Naked and handcuffed to you
r girl.” Tony sighed, laughing and shaking his head, “and, oh shit dude. Is that what I think it is?”

  I refocused on the unfortunate pair and suppressed a roar of laughter.

  “I think it is!” I said between spasms of laughter, “I’ll be damned if it isn’t. No fucking way, man!”

  Dave, impatient without a set of mechanical eyes of his own, grabbed Tony’s glass and put it on target.

  “Well, that is awkward,” Dave said, grinning and exhaling a puff of smoke as he spoke. “Wait a second, what the hell?”

  Tony and I were no help, already useless with laughter.

  “How does this bitch have a tail? She’s naked!” Dave said, astounded.

  “Dude, think!” Tony said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

  “Just take a moment if you need to, Dave,” I added, clearing away my own laughter.

  “Huh?” Dave questioned, then, “Oh. Oh HELL no. That’s nasty, man. What a little freak!”

  In that instant, mine and Tony’s laugher picked back up, and Dave joined in. Okay, we have to regain the situation here. And, I guess, we were no longer as cool as I thought we’d looked, useless with laughter on the rooftop in the morning sun like a group of high school boys.

  Okay, clear yourself up, Scott. We have a job to do here. Jesus.

  “Okay, Tony, back on target, spot me,” I ordered once our laughter faded to chuckles.

  “I got you, man,” he advised. “Looks like 275, no wind. Easy shot.”

  “Got it,” I replied, tightening my grip once again, ready for the bite of the steel butt plate on the rifle to force its way into my shoulder as I fired.

  I lined up the female’s head in the sighting reticule. The stock felt cool, comfortable and firm against my cheek. I waited for a break in the monster’s pace, where the target would give me just a moment of still to take advantage of.

  WHAM!

  The rifle bucked, shouted its report to the heavens, and sent 7.62mm of supersonic metal downrange.

  Hit.

  The freak’s head snapped forward as the bullet hit dead center in the back of her skull, and exited the face, taking a shower of blood, bone and tissue with it. It painted the pavement with what little thought process it possessed in a large arc. The monstrosity hit the ground face first, stumbling her captive partner as she dropped. And, yeah, the tail fell out. I could have gone a lifetime without seeing that one and been much happier.

  Regaining its balance, her partner zeroed right in on us. He bent his head back to the sky and let out a shriek that chilled my blood and bones together. Then, more shrieks came from much closer to us as the male sex fiend turned fully toward us.

  He began an arduous charge, dragging his still cuffed partner with him as he went, the rough pavement peeling and pulling at bits of her exposed flesh.

  I cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent round, and replacing it with a fresh one as gunfire began to open up below us like a thunderstorm.

  I sent the next round low in my hurry, taking rib meat and lung on a journey it was never meant to go on. The second shot dropped him, but he began getting back up almost immediately after.

  The third round fired poked a very neat hole just below his deformed right eye, blowing a salad bowl sized hole from the back of his skull.

  Before he even finished falling, the three of us were making our way across the roof to where the rest of the action was. I saw movement outside the walls, took a knee, focused my optics on it, and what I saw made me freeze.

  It was a boy of about eight years old. He ran at a good clip despite a chunk of the thigh and his pants on his left leg being removed. I had no choice. Infected is infected.

  No. God, no. I don’t want to do this. I’m a father, for fuck’s sake.

  WHAM!

  He never even saw the round that ended his sickness. I didn’t even stick around to confirm the aftermath, either. As Dave and Tony opened fire from their vantage, I leaned over my arm and vomited right there on the roof. Too much. Too goddamn much.

  Grabbing the radio, I keyed it, realizing Henry was ground level directing people from our spots and reports.

  “Henry!” I shouted into the mic. “Southeast corner, about fifty are coming in one group!”

  “Ok buddy we got it, over!” he replied.

  “Hey Henry,” I added, “No matter what they see, remind them, these things are no longer human. NOT HUMAN! Over.”

  “Uh, solid copy, boss,” Henry said, a touch of confusion in his voice. “Will relay that. Over.”

  The fusillade of gunfire continued. The infected barked and grunted to each other, even as they fell. In no time, the first line began throwing themselves into the fence, struggling for purchase and leaving the people on the pickup trucks firing almost straight down at targets.

  They kept impacting the same section of fence, one after another, as their comrades fell to fire from nearly every common caliber of weapon conceivable. At first, I thought they were trying to break through. Adult after adult, thankfully, but they kept going for the same small point, the bodies piling up right on our boundary.

  Then it hit me. They weren’t trying to break through, these smart fuckers were piling up to make a hill to get over!

  Then, the sight I wanted to see the least approached from around the corner of the house, just as the pile by the fence grew tall enough for them to reach. About a half dozen young infected, appearing to be aged anywhere from five to about twelve. They moved fast. Damn fast and could have easily outpaced the adult counterparts in a foot race.

  A few of our people had the gumption to keep shooting, regardless of what these things looked like. All but one of the young ones fell as our people abandoned the trucks to handle a few adults that made it over the fence.

  My rifle ran dry. I pulled the shotgun up. Then so much happened at once it was hard to track. The sole young girl infected that was left hit the pile of corpses. She climbed, found the top of the fence, and pulled herself over.

  Dave and Tony both had to pull a reload at the same time, Tony swapping a magazine, Dave grabbing an empty mag and fumbling as he forced rounds into it.

  Most of the people inside the wire were preoccupied with the infected that got inside. I still don’t think anyone except for Henry and I saw her, and he froze.

  Her feet hit the ground, and all Henry knew was the young form of a child running at him full bore. Head full of dark hair bouncing with every step, shoe, foot, shoe, foot, and he froze solid, his face twisting into an expression of fear that I don’t even think carries a description.

  I fired once. The light shotgun nearly jumping out of my hands at that angle when it loosed its heavy load. I didn’t miss, but the spread of shot did. The second round went off seemingly without my permission. The little girl did some kind of weird juke or jive, and her feet collapsed under her, followed by the rest as she hit the pavement and slid several feet before finding a cessation to her motion.

  We would later find out that it was one single lucky pellet from a three-inch magnum shell that saved Henry’s life. One, tiny little .32 caliber shotgun pellet that entered the top of her head and drove the message home; You’re not welcome in our castle.

  I glanced at Dave, who looked steadily down at the mess below us. Tony, however, turned his head away and…was that a tear I saw? I wasn’t going to push it, but he looked how I felt at that moment. Despair would have been a vacation. Kids. Child infected. Of all the fucking things in this world, sweet little Suzy wasn’t the little girl down the street any longer. And my people, none of them looked too cheerful after these events. I chose not to let them dwell too much.

  “Clean up here, meet me by the pool with the rest of the people when you’re done,” I instructed Dave and Tony, then added, “Just the shells, save them for reloading if we can.”

  I moved down the stairs to join the rest of our community. Stopping at the bottom, before coming into view, I took as deep a breath as I could, let it out, and strode through the
south building doors and into the courtyard like I had a purpose the whole time.

  Come on, Scott, you’re in control.

  “Everybody by the pool. NOW!” I barked, smiling internally as people snapped into motion like they were kicked. Good, nobody has lost it yet, it seems.

  I thought too soon, Henry began moving, approached my direction, and kept on going.

  “You good, boss?” I asked him.

  “I’m going to my garage,” he muttered, though his gaze seemed to look way beyond all of that.

  “I’ll be down in a bit, man. Try to relax,” I called after him, unsure if the words even found their target. He looked bad and as ghost pale as I’d ever seen a black man before. Not good.

  Turning to the gathering crowd, none of them appeared well, but they were all accounted for, Dave and Tony taking up the rear of the lineup as they exited the building.

  “Alright, people.” I spoke, as loud and clear as I could through the fog my head was swimming through.

  “I’m not going to force anyone. There’s going to be some infected lying out there that nobody should ever have to see, but we have to get this mess cleaned up.” I continued in explanation, “I need Parker, Billy, Rob, Clara, Frank, and Fred to head up to command, I’ll meet you there. I need six more of you on volunteer duty to clean these infected up and put them over the highway overpass.”

  The group that was told to do so departed, heading for the north building. Katie tried following Parker. Nope, not today. She’s going to learn when the bullshit stops.

  “Katie, thank you very much!” I called cheerfully, satisfied at the look of surprise on her face. She tried to start protesting, and I intervened.

  “Katie, thank you very much. I admire your dedication and being the first to volunteer for cleanup!” I commended. Boy was I full of shit, but I was floating on this pleasure. “I need at least five more of you.”

  Rich’s hand went up, then Bri, Jennifer, Shannon, Ashley, and, at Ashley’s not so subtle urging, Zach. Excellent.

  “Rich, take the truck with the trailer. You run cleanup today. Thanks man,” I said directly.