by Shane Woods
“No, they’re chickens. Clearly,” I replied, which earned me a slap across the back of my head. “Seriously though, we all have some catching up to do. I’ve got some big news.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Jennifer replied, trailing off in a way to appear vague.
THIRTY-FOUR
I instructed Tony and Jennifer to get all the department heads they could, save for Carolyn to watch the kids. Rich and Dave were told to go straight up to the Command Center on the ninth floor, and everybody else to join them soon. This meeting couldn’t wait for a post-dinner affair. We officially had neighbors! Hey, you can’t blame me for getting excited about this, it was a big development!
I made my way promptly to the construction project, opting to jump in a nearby Smart Car instead of hoofing it.
I pulled up near where the equipment was working. Henry was doing a fine job leading and directing project operations. Everyone had fallen into a solid swing of things and all seemed to have their own positions and duties. It was truly moving along like a well-oiled machine.
The large excavator was running full bore and surprisingly, Parker was at the controls. It seemed as though the dry moat, as we’d decided to call it, had been deepened and widened. It was now a good ten feet in each dimension.
Another crew was busy tearing down walls and roofs from the nearest houses. These were being repurposed. The side of the dry moat nearest the compound was being lined with a bare stud skeleton just a foot or so away from the moat. At regular intervals, post holes had been dug for supports, and then the remainder of the space in each hole was backfilled with concrete being mixed in a wheelbarrow with river water. This supported skeleton was quickly sandwiched between pieces of scavenged plywood, and then braced with more studs and lengths of rebar against the far bank of the moat.
I was informed by Henry that these braces would only be temporary, just used to keep the wall’s shape until everything had settled. As the excavator dug, it piled its dirt and debris to the inside, and, once another section of wall was completed and braced, the backhoe got busy pushing sloped mounds of dirt behind it to bolster it, and provide a natural guard walk the length of the platform. Finally, at regular intervals, flat platforms jutted out to the inside, providing seating, and a spot to line up sandbags and pressure board to create regular guard posts.
It was, to say the least, impressive. And they had nearly a third of the project finished already. If only we could have gotten road crews to move this well back when.
“You could hit it with a tank, or even run one of your semis into it and the wall won’t move,” Henry finished explaining proudly.
“Nice,” I started, “but I sure as fuck hope it doesn’t come to that.”
We shared a laugh about that thought and I asked, “Any problems with the freaks?”
“Nah brother,” Henry stated. “Few small groups here and there. Our morning dinner bell has been working well. We had a few inside the perimeter, must have stayed hidden in houses. We opened a garage and three of them came running from inside.”
“Nobody got hurt from that?” I inquired.
“No sir,” he assuaged, “we took care of them bad mamma-jammas”
“Not as bad as I’d expected them to be then,” I admitted. “That’s good news. Hey, listen, there’s been a big development, I need you to ride with me to the north building, we’re having a meeting with all heads as soon as I get up there.”
Henry obliged, and we got into the tiny car and made our way back to the north building, parking right out front and making our way up the stairs again.
“One of these days, Henry,” I said, half joking, “you and James are gonna get the elevators running again.”
“That sure would be nice,” he replied, laughing, yet as out of breath as I was.
We both walked into command, and each found a seat. Naturally, mine was at the head of the table there.
Tony, Jennifer, Henry, Rich, Bri, Shannon, Ashley, and Dave were all present.
Most were at the table, in actual seats, while Dave and Rich lounged sidebar on a couple of black leather couches that had been brought in and pushed against one wall.
“Dave, Rich,” I instructed, “keep your seats, but you’re going to have to sit up. It’s meeting time.”
Rich sat up, Dave gave me the finger and continued lying where he was. That’s fine. It’s Dave. That’s my buddy, regardless what level of defiant dickhead he’s capable of being.
“Alright,” I started, “We have neighbors. About ten miles upriver. Good people, leader’s name is Hashman. Mike Hashman. We’ve invited him to come by, via boat, tomorrow morning. Don’t shoot the fuckin’ guy, he’s invited.”
I let everyone in the room that was unaware digest this. It didn’t go down as big as I was expecting.
“Well,” Jennifer began, after exchanging looks with Tony, “at least those neighbors are friendly.”
“Huh?” was all I could say in reply.
“We had another group show up at the front gate yesterday evening,” she explained. “Tony handled them, but we don’t think it’ll be the last we see of these ones.”
“Tony?” I questioned, looking in his direction.
“Yeah, a small group knocked on the main gate yesterday,” he repeated, adding, “Said they were looking for a couple of their guys.”
Tony eyed me carefully, and the two on the couch both perked up.
“A couple of their guys?” I asked, putting on an innocent face for the benefit of the majority here.
“Said they found and collected their dead at a spot a ways west of here,” Tony continued. “There was apparently a fight. They said they followed oil here.”
“I’m sorry,” I began, “followed oil? Were they with the government?”
“No,” Tony said, chuckling. “No, they said whoever hit their guys must have taken damage, there was a puddle of oil there, and a steady trail of drips leading right to our gate and into the compound. I checked after they left, they were right.”
“Yeah, Henry said one of our dump trucks had a gouge in the oil pan that cracked it a bit,” I recalled, “but, we were attacked, we didn’t hit them. And we damn sure haven’t had any new people here.”
“We have, but that’s next to talk about,” Tony said. “They demanded we owned up to it, and wanted payment. Said he’d forget all about it for half of our supplies, and two truckloads of good scavenged things every couple of weeks for six months as restitution. If we don’t pay, they claimed they would attack, or find another means to get back at us.”
“They’re fucking raiders!” I exclaimed. “They tried running a fuckin’ racket on us then, too. Fuck those guys. What did you tell them?”
“I mean, I was there. Me and Dave both got shot,” he paused, so we could all share low laughter at Dave’s expense. “I had half a granola bar I was eating. I threw it at their leader’s feet and told him to consider it a down payment.”
“Nice!” I replied, laughing. “Did he even give a name?”
“Big Tyler,” Tony stated dryly, narrowing his eyes at me.
“Never heard of him,” I stated, keeping my façade. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. Guy basically said we’d be sorry,” Tony elaborated. “Fred was up in the building, in a blind, he placed a rifle shot right at the guys feet when he started moving closer. Dude’s gonna come in real handy, we should run him on more scouting missions.”
“Yeah, he’s been so busy and keeps to himself, I forgot he was even here,” I replied sheepishly.
“Yeah,” Tony said. “Anyway, they said they will be back in 24 hours. That’s this evening. If they don’t have at least one truck filled with supplies waiting outside the front gate, they said we’d pay anyway.”
“Okay,” I began instructing. “Everyone who can hit the side of a semi with a firearm needs to be on guard. Pull in the work crews, everybody incapable, including children, come up to this building’s rooftop. Let’s get people rounded
up and ready an hour before they’re supposed to be here. Soon as this meeting is over.”
“There’s more,” Shannon broke in.
“Yeah, but this is good news,” Bri interjected. “We have new people!”
“New people?” I asked. “I didn’t see anybody…”
“No, you wouldn’t have yet,” Shannon replied. “They all went through intake, and I’ve got them on the medical floor in pairs, waiting a 48-hour quarantine, just in case.”
“Good work!” I congratulated. “Anybody useful?”
“Um, well,” Shannon started. “One guy, some kind of prepper and country boy. And an older woman who can drive trucks. The rest aren’t as much use, three children under twelve, one sixteen-year-old girl, four adults who had no transferable skills, but they’re healthy enough. I figured they could join work crews where needed?”
“The girl, too,” I confirmed. “I think it’s fair to ask that if you can hold a legitimate job before the world went to shit, you can work here, too. I got my first job at fifteen, let’s use that as the age to start working here.”
“Sounds fair,” Shannon agreed. “They should all be coming out of quarantine tomorrow morning, they showed up the afternoon of the day you left.”
“Good,” I stated. “I look forward to meeting them.”
“Hey, since we’re all here,” Jennifer offered, “Why don’t we use each of us here, plus James and Rob, as like the heads of a committee?”
“Not a bad idea,” I concurred. “That would streamline the process of anyone who needs anything and allow us to make large decisions faster. Carolyn holding up alright with the kids?”
“Yeah,” Bri said, bringing up her notebook. “Every scouting run has been good about bringing things she could use, and that they need. They even had cookies for snacks today.”
“Awesome,” I said. “Anyone else, before we call this meeting over?”
“We need supplies,” Bri started. “Well, we always need them, but right now, including the new people here, we’ll last until mid-January. We need bigger scavenging runs, and our medical department has requested to, and I quote, ‘Grab every last band-aid and aspirin’, so there’s that, too.”
“Cute,” I said flatly, eyeing Shannon and Ashley as they grinned broadly, quite pleased with themselves. “Okay, well, any form of public transportation should have a small med kit, and fire extinguishers at the very least. Always empty every medicine cabinet, every time we scavenge, fire and police should have stuff in their vehicles and buildings. Relay that all to James when he gets back tomorrow.”
“On it, boss!” Bri said, as she wrote everything down in her book. “Anything else?”
“Any home with a decent aquarium, especially if there’s more than one,” I kept on, to a now confused looking group. “Several of the antibiotics used in aquarium care are the same, or can be used in place of what we use for people.”
“He’s right,” Dave agreed. “Also any boats or watercraft. Our boat had a nice first aid setup and two fire extinguishers.”
“And to answer Bri’s long term supply question,” I closed, “we have more people, we’re just gonna have to scout more and bigger. Take two trucks, fill them every trip out. We’ll come up with more suitable plans for the winter. Henry can also devise some kind of rudimentary heating for the buildings, too, I’m sure. Once spring is here, we should have enough land, and enough houses torn down to start farming. Raid every garden shed for seeds.”
Bri finished writing everything down and smiled.
“If there’s no further questions, I’ll let everyone get back to what they were doing,” I offered, and everyone began leaving. “I’ll be napping, I’m sure Dave and Rich will, too. Good job everyone.”
THIRTY-FIVE
It was decided that an early dinner was in order, so, after my short nap, I joined everyone in the usual spot, on the rooftop of the north building. We ate with little conversation. Those of us that were to be watching for these assholes ate less, consumed enough to keep us steady, but not lazy.
After the meal was finished, shooters left the rooftop, Carolyn and the kids remained.
Even Frank, despite his recent injuries, was there. His bad arm held in a sling, that side also sporting a crutch he’d had tied into place around his shoulder. In the other hand, he brandished a Colt Python. He even stood idly by with Willy, joking about how he had a few speed-loaders tucked into his sling.
***
We chose Willy to go place our offering outside the gate. He wasn’t willing at first, but Dave made sure to talk some sense into the guy.
He ambled meekly to the front gate, and there, he pushed one single granola bar through. Its shiny wrapper catching the low evening light as it fell through the chain link gate and met the dirt with a soft thud.
Having done his job, Willy walked back to join Tony and me in the doorway to the north building. From here, we could easily see the front gate and a large stretch of the wall, but still afforded ourselves some distance and cover.
A few moments after Willy departed, we got a report on the radio from Henry.
“South tower roof here, over,” he said quietly through the radio lain next to us.
“Go ahead South, over,” I replied, then listened for the response.
“Got one vehicle that left after Willy did his thing,” Henry detailed. “Left quietly and headed south, what next? Over.”
“Now,” I began, “Now we wait. Keep an eye out. Over.”
***
About an hour had passed. The sun had gone down over the horizon, and the light had nearly completely faded from the sky, showing a blanket of brilliant stars that otherwise would never have been seen in this part of town prior to the end.
I could tell everybody was getting restless. Hell, I was getting restless. We’d been standing there watching nothing the whole time.
Just as I was about to call an end to it, the radio on my hip crackled to life. It was Henry.
“We’ve got two vehicles coming from the south that I can see. Over,” he informed.
“Heading this way?” I asked in turn. “What kind? Over.”
“Can’t tell brother,” Henry replied. “Too dark to tell anything. Over.”
A few beats later, the noise of engines reached our position.
“One of them has stopped,” Henry reported, “About half a block away. Over.”
“Okay, keep an eye on it,” I replied, almost forgetting, “Over.”
As I’d ended my words, the first vehicle pulled within view of the front gate, visible from my position.
“I’ve got one dark colored Chevy pickup,” I described into my radio. “See two in the cab. Hold up, other vehicle is approaching. Over.”
As I’d ended my radio call, the nose of a white truck creeped into view. I tightened my grip on the rifle and buried it into the sweet spot in my shoulder. In my periphery, I could sense Tony, and even Willy, doing the same.
In an instant, the area flooded with a pulsing amber light. The rest of the second vehicle came into view. It was a tow truck. What the hell was going on here?
“Everyone keep ready,” I ordered into the radio, “only fire on my mark. Over.”
Three different voices came back to me, all in the affirmative as the tow truck swung around and backed up to the gate. I could make out some kind of large object hanging from the back, I know what it looked like, but it couldn’t be…
“Is that what I think it is?” I said to Tony, who remained stoic and poised with his rifle, not saying a word.
The amber light continued pulsing, coming from the light bar on the vehicle. Before I could distinguish more of the shape on the back of the vehicle, the horn began blaring. Letting out one long, obnoxious, screaming note from its horn, as the driver of the vehicle bailed from his seat, ran, and jumped into the bed of the pickup truck, which then sped off in a roar of engine noise and cloud of tire smoke. This was not good.
“We need to get that horn
shut off!” I shouted into the radio, breaking cover and running toward the gate, just a moment before everyone else left their positions to do the same.
“They’re going to draw every infected fuck in this part of the city with that shit!” Tony yelled as he ran, right on my heels.
Before I could reach the gate, nor anybody else, for that matter, all Hell broke loose.
The scene became something of a frantic horror house shooting gallery.
The wail of the horn, the flash of the amber light bar, the shrieks of infected. Then the sharp crack of gunfire.
Rich met the wall at the same time as the rest of us and began handing out a dozen road flares in pairs to those of us who made it there first. We each started lighting them, and then, everyone following Rich’s lead, began throwing the flares far out, over the wall in long arcs.
The angry red glare of each stick of light floated through the tar black of the night, landing in no particular order, only to light up the spot where each landed with a hellish glow.
The nightmare forms of freaks of every human shape and form nearly immediately began appearing, flitting along the edges of the light, appearing long enough to draw a bead with a gun, and then gone. A few sprinted straight through the flare light. They stayed lit long enough to draw the gunfire. Each demonic form sprinted, lit up in a red otherworldly glow which made them appear to be straight from Hades itself, only to catch small arms fire. Every one that fell twisted and jerked to find its spot on the ground, disappearing in an illuminated cloud of blood and bodily tissue, and was immediately replaced by yet another. They were drawing our fire. I was sure of it.
The remaining forms, the ones that skirted the glow of the flares, soon reached the full brilliance of the amber tow lights. As they were illuminated, they dropped low, and actually began heading right for the tall grass around the wall, the truck itself, and any other obstacle that could even temporarily block them from sight. They were trying to distract us, sure, but they were also trying to seek cover. These fuckers were learning.