by Dana Fredsti
Lil and I glanced at each other. Time to start taking them down in the field.
“Wild cards!” Colonel Paxton’s shout rang out above the gunfire. “Move out!”
Second rank was up and firing, but as soon as we’d spent our rounds, the cards dropped out of rank. The soldier next to me put a hand on my shoulder.
“Good luck out there,” he said. “Kick some zombie ass.”
I squeezed his hand and grinned.
“You, too. Just hang in there and try not to shoot me.” I mean, seriously, not only did we have to worry about getting ripped to pieces and snacked on by zombies, but we ran the very real chance of being hit by friendly fire.
He nodded vigorously, and slapped a fresh clip into his rifle.
“I got it.”
I ejected my spent clip and grabbed a loaded one from Jamie.
“Thanks.”
“You need some for the road?” She held out several more. I had my M-4, my katana, my tanto, and my dart gun. My various pockets, pouches and knapsacks were pretty full.
But hey, there’s always room for Jello.
I checked to make sure the radio transmitter was clipped firmly to my belt. Time to rock and roll. Or possibly tango.
“You ready?” Gabriel joined me, dirt and sweat intermingled on his face. He looked irresistible, but I managed to resist.
The next thing I heard was Simone’s voice, followed by Nathan’s exasperatingly calm response.
“I’m a wild card, damn it!” She glared at him fiercely. Her hair was mussed, her face actually shiny with sweat. She looked like a Valkyrie.
“You’re also an expert marksman,” he pointed out, nonplussed. “And the foremost living expert on this damned plague. You stay here.”
Colonel Paxton stepped down from the barrier.
“Nathan’s right, Professor Fraser,” he said. “We can’t risk your life out there. It’s dangerous enough here. If you die, it’s an irreparable loss.”
“Yet if any of them die—” She gestured toward the rest of us, gathered together next to the ramp. “—it’s an irreparable loss.”
Nathan shook his head.
“Sorry, Simone, but your knowledge is worth all of our lives combined. If we didn’t need every competent marksman here, you’d be inside, away from the action. And if the zombies manage to breach the barriers, I’ll carry you in there myself.”
“That’s an order, professor,” Paxton added.
I could see Simone seething, but she’d run out of arguments.
“Fine.” She turned to our little group. “I expect to see every single one of you safely back here, do you hear me?” Her eyes were bright with determinedly unshed tears. We all nodded silently—even Tony kept his quips zipped. “Good!” Slapping another clip into her M-4 with more force than necessary, she got back into line, a grimly determined look on her face.
Pity the fool zombie who shambles into her sights.
I watched Nathan watch Simone. Judging from his expression, the sex must have been great. He caught me looking at him and frowned.
“You heard the professor,” he growled. “You kids be careful.” I nodded, and turned to Lil.
“I’ve got your back,” I promised.
“No, I’ve got yours this time,” she replied fiercely.
“I’ll take care of both of you.” Kai used his best Lando Calrissian voice.
“Not to break up the love fest,” Gentry said, “but the zombies will take care of all of us if we don’t get our asses out there.” He tapped his wristwatch. “Time to move, ladies and gentlemen.”
We split into two teams again.
“Don’t press your transmitters if the zoms are too close,” Gabriel reminded us. “Stay at least ten yards away from each other, and keep an eye out for each other when you set off the darts.”
Jeez frickin’ Louise. This was going to be fun in the fog.
“Move out!”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
* * *
We took off on either side of the line of fire, running an “obstacle corpse” as soon as we hit the hundred-yard mark. Tony, Kai, and Gentry headed to their left, while Gabriel, Nathan, Lil, and I went stage right.
The crack of rifle fire continued as we ran through the fog, dodging outstretched arms and grasping hands. Every second I expected the impact of a bullet smacking into my back. Honestly, it freaked me out more than the zombies.
We spread out and I took a quick glance to see where the rest of my teammates were. But all three were out of my sight line, lost in a sea of fog and zombies. I heard a gleeful holler—definitely Tony—followed by a rapid succession of little explosions. It sounded like popcorn kernels going off in a kettle.
Half a dozen zombies zeroed in on me, changing their relentless trajectory. I noticed a couple of the little white darts sticking out of the one nearest me, left there by a claymore, and decided to test out the transmitter. It was a little closer than ten feet so I grabbed another zombie, a skinny little thing in a skimpy nightshift, tossed it into the walking pincushion, and flicked the switch.
Pop pop pop! The darts detonated, and several zombies fragmented around me, taking a few undead bystanders with them. The splatter effect was nasty, drenching me in gore, but I’d created a nice little zombie-free zone around me.
For all of about ten seconds.
I whipped the re-jiggered paint ball gun from its makeshift holster, firing a few rounds of darts into random targets while dodging gaping mouths and grasping fingers. Their mottled gray skin seemed to ooze moisture, whether from the fog or the decomposition process I couldn’t tell. Either way they looked nasty.
Another explosion went off somewhere to the front and right of me. Someone yelled—definitely male—either in pain or surprise. My heart immediately froze in my chest. What if one of the guys had blundered into the path of a claymore, and was stuck with darts? They’d positioned the mines up against the tree line to prevent this, but who’s to say Gabriel didn’t lose his way in the heavy fog?
Shit.
I pulled my katana out of its sheathe and took off in the direction of the yell, sliding over the hood of one of the parked cars and into the field. I didn’t stop to kill if I could evade, but a few really asked for it. Like one scrawny male zombie with an underbite and no chin. It lurched into my path and clutched at my head, pulling me toward its open, slack-jawed mouth, yellowed teeth champing in anticipation.
Thank you, nose plugs.
I shoved my left hand against its chin, raised my katana and sliced through the skull with one hard cut. A great kill shot, but the blade stuck in bone when I tried to pull it out. The zombie’s knees buckled as it sank to the ground. I grabbed the hilt with both hands and yanked hard. The katana came out with a lovely sucking sound.
More zombies converged on me. I cleared some space with wide, arcing horizontal slices.
“Gabriel!” I yelled.
“Over here!”
Recognizing his voice, I ran toward it, hoping my sense of direction wasn’t totally screwed up.
Thwack! Off went the head of what used to be a pretty young coed.
Another ten feet or so and I saw him, spraying a bunch of zombies with more darts. He looked like he still had all his limbs.
“You okay?” I asked when I reached him.
“I’m fine.” He grabbed me by one shoulder. “But why are you here?”
“I heard you yell when one of the claymores went off. Couldn’t risk using my transmitter.”
Gabriel snorted.
“One of the mines went off in front of me, but I was on the non-business side of it.”
“Heh. Made ya flinch, though.”
“Heads up!”
Zombies closed in on all sides.
“Fire in the hole!” he yelled. We ducked down to the ground and he hit the button on his transmitter, setting off a veritable Jiffy Pop series of explosions. A gloopy rain of exploded zombie bits spattered us.
We rose to our feet,
goo dripping off our helmets. It’d cleared a substantial area, but already more zombies were filling in the gaps.
He continued to spray them with darts. My sword sliced through countless necks and stomachs as we slowly fought our way out of the thick of the swarm to protect the right flank of our defense. Soon we were slipping and stumbling through the piles of body parts, intestines, and other viscera.
Nathan and Lil must’ve covered this territory.
The swarm thinned out substantially as we cut back over the cars and across the parking lot, angling back up toward the barricades. But there were still enough zombies headed toward the right flank to potentially put us up Shit Creek if they broke through to the firing lines. Tony, Kai, and Gentry probably faced the same situation at the left flank.
“Fire in the hole!”
Nathan’s voice rang out clearly through the chaos. Gabriel and I dropped again as more déjà vu darts went off.
We joined Nathan and Lil at the far side of the parking lot. They were both equally disgusting.
“Isn’t this gross?” Lil practically bounced up and down with excitement, eyes shining with unholy glee.
I raised an eyebrow.
“You’re enjoying this?”
She shrugged.
“I might as well, ’cause if I die in the next ten minutes, I’d rather be having fun, y’know?”
I couldn’t argue with her logic, so I didn’t try.
“What are you going to do for excitement when this is all over?”
“String beads,” she said firmly. “Whoops!” Staring over my shoulder, she raised her M-4 and fired off a few rounds at some zombies that had gotten too close. One bullet found its mark, but the others hit chest level or missed. “I suck at this,” Lil fretted.
“You just need more practice,” Nathan said, sighting and firing. Four shots, and four zombies bit the dust. A claymore went off in the near distance.
“I’ve got this!” Lil dashed off into the fog, and we heard the darts explode a few seconds later, followed by a larger secondary explosion.
Uh oh. That didn’t sound good.
Lil reappeared as quickly as she’d vanished, looking worried.
“That took out a few, but it also took out one of the cars. They’re pouring through the hole.” She shook her head, looking disoriented. “They just keep coming...”
“How many darts do you each have left?” Nathan asked.
I checked my knapsack.
“Maybe ten?”
“I’m out.” Lil pulled out her pickaxe.
Gabriel pulled out a handful.
“This is it.”
Nathan shook his head.
“Use ’em wisely. And let’s hope Gentry is doing damage with his flamethrower.”
As if on cue we heard a war whoop from somewhere to our left, followed by a roar. Even through the fog a bloom of hazy light was visible as the zombie barbecue commenced. Invigorated, the four of us grinned at each other and went back to work.
We spread out in a fan, Gabriel and Nathan using their firearms to deadly effect while Lil and I cut down approaching zoms with blade and pickaxe. Body parts flew, the asphalt of the parking lot becoming a treacherous obstacle course of flesh, innards, and that nasty ass black goo.
Lil fell back beside me, panting heavily from exertion.
“They’re not stopping, Ashley.”
“Sooner or later they have to,” I said firmly.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” she said, voice uncertain.
“Switch to your gun.”
“I suck with my gun.” She sounded near tears.
“Take your time and aim. I’ll cover you so you can give your arm a break, okay?” I didn’t tell her that my cutting arm felt like lead. Each stroke of the sword was harder than the last. But to stop was to die.
Or worse, to let Lil die. I’d take a bucketload of ibuprofen later.
She switched out to her M-4 without further argument. I continued slaughtering the incoming, no longer seeing gender or age. They were all just rotting flesh that shouldn’t be walking around.
I don’t know how long this went on. I sliced, diced, and decapitated on autopilot, a human Cuisinart running on emergency battery power. Zombie corpses piled up in front of us. But more kept coming.
Finally Nathan fell back next to me.
“I’m out of ammo,” he said.
Gabriel joined us.
“I’m close.”
Zombies continued to stagger toward us, undeterred by the bodies in front of them. They’d fall, stagger to their feet or get shoved into the body part stew by more zombies pushing in behind them.
“FALL BACK! FALL BACK!”
The shout from the lines chilled my heart.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
* * *
“Back to the lines!” Gabriel snapped.
The four of us ran back along the barricade until we reached the ramp. Gentry, Tony, and Kai ran in from the left, all as disgustingly goo-splattered as we were.
Colonel Paxton and Simone were already urging defenders back over the barricades to the temporary safety of the campus. Some of the soldiers—maybe fifty—still fired in two lines, but you could see the exhaustion in their faces.
Jamie and a few other civilians continued to hand out clips. There was still a good supply, but there were just too many targets and not enough people.
Zombies surged forward into the front rank of shooters closest to where we stood. Dead hands clasped gun barrels, yanking screaming soldiers toward gaping, hungry mouths. I saw the soldier who’d told me to kick ass taken down by a half dozen zombies, hands and teeth ripping at his clothes and flesh.
Without thinking I leapt forward, katana slashing with deadly precision until I’d cleared a path to the fallen man and killed the ones that were attacking him.
Too late. His throat was a mess of mangled, bloody flesh and his eyes stared blankly towards the sky.
Fuck. A quick sword thrust guaranteed he wouldn’t come back.
Shots fired around me, into the oncoming mass of walking dead. I felt the wind of a bullet as it whizzed past my cheek and hit the forehead of a zombie a few feet away. Not wanting to be hit, I fell back behind the lines, panting for breath.
Nathan ran up to Simone and grabbed her arm.
“Get back inside the barricades,” he said. “Now.”
She pulled away with a total “you’re not the boss of me” glare.
“As soon as everyone else is safely on the other side,” she said, “I’ll go.”
Without another word Nathan scooped her up in his arms, strode up the ramp and vanished down the other side. He reappeared a few seconds later, stopping to talk to Colonel Paxton.
“Make sure she stays there,” he said, and Paxton agreed. Then he jumped back down to rejoin us.
“This is it, kids,” he said. He pointed out over the fields and parking lot where zombies continued to pour in, the ranks of shooters barely holding their lines now.
“Most of the lines are going up on the barricade, where they’ll continue to take out the advancing enemy. We have enough ammunition left to make a dent in the rest of the swarm, but not necessarily enough to stop them.
“The odds are shitty.”
We looked at each other, then back at Nathan.
“We will not go quietly into the night,” Tony said. I actually felt a chill run up my spine as his voice rose in intensity, backed by explosions and gunfire. “We will not vanish without a fight!”
“We’re going to live on,” Kai chimed in.
“We’re going to survive,” Gentry said.
The three of them linked arms and yelled.
“Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”
Nathan grinned.
“Good,” he said. “Drink some water, load up on darts and ammo, and let’s go.”
The soldiers continued to fire, fall back, reload, and fire again while we quickly grabbed as many clips and darts a
s we could stuff into our pouches and pockets. The moans of the living dead were continual, almost white noise by this point.
“Everyone fall back to the barricade!” Paxton’s rich voice rang out over the moans, and the remaining soldiers seized the rest of the gear and hustled up the ramp. The Colonel stared down at us, face solemn.
“We’ll hold the ramp as long as possible.”
“Could you leave a nightlight on?” Tony, of course.
Nathan smacked him on the back of the head.
“Burn the ramp if you need to. We can always get in the back way, if we make it that far.”
Suddenly Simone appeared next to Paxton.
“Nathan, I swear I will haunt you if you don’t bring every one of them back alive!”
He just grinned. Then he waved his arm at us.
“Let’s do this!”
Déjà vu, just like the darts. We dashed back into the fields, spreading out in an arc of controlled mayhem. We sent out more darts into the oncoming zoms, exploded them, cut down stragglers before they could close in on us, and then repeated the process. Gentry used the flamethrower with deadly effect. Heads melted, clothes caught fire, and flaming zombies stumbled like really clumsy stuntmen into other approaching corpses, passing the torch.
We couldn’t keep them from reaching the razor wire. There were just too many of them. At this stage of the game, all we could do was take out as many as possible, stem the tide so that the incoming wave wouldn’t be enough to sweep over Mount Gillette.
I ran out of darts and switched to my M-4. I had to give my arms a rest. I’d lost sight of the other wild cards, but could hear the occasional roar of the flamethrower, and could feel the heat.
The body count was over the top, and still they kept coming. Rotted faces, gaping wounds, staring white pupils in a bloodshot sea of yellow. How could there still be more when I was so tired?
It wasn’t long before the zoms were too close and I had to resort to my katana. Promising my arms and shoulders a massage and icepacks if they stuck with me, I drew from a reserve of strength I didn’t know I had, pulled out my weapons, and had at it.
Three figures came at me at once, one of them getting through my guard to grasp at my left arm even as I hacked the head off its friends. I tried to shake it loose, but the thing’s grip was like steel and I couldn’t dislodge it.