by Dana Fredsti
“Motherfucker, let go of me!” It was too close for me to use my katana; I would just as likely whack my own arm off. I made a split second decision as it moved in, teeth angled toward my neck.
Stabbing my katana blade first into one of the fallen zombies, I released it, grabbed the tanto from my left hand and shoved the point into the zombie’s eye before it could sink its teeth into me. Its grip on my arm loosened as it fell to its knees and collapsed onto the ground. Bracing one foot next to its head, I pulled out the tanto and then retrieved my katana with another quick movement.
I heard a holler to my left and turned in time to see Lil, a few hundred feet away, stumble and go down, her pickaxe flying to one side. A half dozen zoms immediately converged on her before she could get to her feet.
“Lil!” My frantic cry probably carried across campus as I raced across the gore-strewn ground to reach her before the zombies tore her to pieces. I could hear her yelling in anger, but then those yells turned into high-pitched shrieks of pain as the bastards tore into her.
Oh god, please, no...
The space between us was mercifully empty. I leapt over several fallen corpses, covering the remaining distance, and brought my sword down. A head went flying, then an arm. My ears rang and blood filled my vision. Body parts fell as I hacked and slashed, shrieking like a banshee the entire time, ignoring hands and teeth ripping at me, until all of them lay in pieces on or around Lil’s prone body. One of the zombies lay unmoving on top of her, a big, meaty thing that had to weigh twice as much as she did.
Dropping to my knees and, totally uncaring of anything else around me, I muttered an undefined prayer.
Shoving the zombie off to one side, I took in her still face, torn clothes and the bite marks on her arms and legs. They’d managed to get their teeth in-between the armor. She was still breathing, and her limbs were still intact, nothing torn off, but she looked bad.
Nathan appeared next to me and immediately knelt.
“We need to get her back to Big Red.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Other zombies were closing in, but I had to know.
Nathan nodded.
“I think so. But she’s not going to be able to fight, so we have to get her out of here.”
Lil’s eyes fluttered open.
“I can so fight,” she mumbled. “I’m good.”
We both ignored her. Nathan put a hand on my shoulder.
“I can carry her back. You gonna be able to keep this up?”
“Just get Lil out of here,” I responded. “I’ll be fine.”
He didn’t waste any more words or time, just scooped Lil up and ran back toward Big Red like some sort of super hero. Which in my eyes he kind of was.
I got to my feet, trying to summon up more of the fire of righteous fury that had carried me. Zombies still staggered forward, their unholy moans filling the air, no longer white noise but now an almost unbearable din.
After that I moved through a fog, both figurative and literal. I found my swings getting weaker and sloppier with each kill, and knew it was only a matter of time before I collapsed or made a stupid mistake. I had no idea where any of my fellow wild cards were, or if they were even still alive. The world was reduced to a tunnel vision of zombies.
If I wasn’t killing it, it didn’t exist.
Then suddenly I reached my breaking point.
Nothing special preceded or prompted it. I decapitated a zombie and then my arms just refused to do any more. They fell to my sides, blades hanging limp in my hands. I stared blankly at the corpses littering the ground around me, and the fresh ones still moving toward me.
I sank down to my knees, exhausted. I knew I should run, at least try and make it back to the barricades, but I just didn’t care any more.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
* * *
“Ashley!”
I heard someone yell my name, but I was too tired to respond or even look to see who it was, although I was pretty sure it was Gabriel. But I ignored him. He’d just want me to get up and keep fighting anyway.
I closed my eyes and waited for death.
“Ashley!” Gabriel seized me under my arms and hauled me to my feet.
“Just let me lie down,” I protested, eyes still shut. “Okay?”
“Not okay.” He shook me hard. “Snap out of it, Ashley!” He shook me again and my body screamed in outrage.
My eyes snapped open and I glared at him. Then he did something I hadn’t expected.
He laughed.
“Are you laughing at me?” I smacked his shoulder as hard as I could.
“That’s better.” He kissed me then, hard and quick. “We’re falling back. There’s too many of them. Can you make it back to campus?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m just pissed enough to do it.”
“Better than an energy bar,” he said. “All-natural, of course.”
Gabriel slung an arm around my shoulder and we turned toward Big Red, only to find our way blocked by zombies who’d decided that we were easier pickings than the meat behind the barricade. There wasn’t enough space to dodge between them, and I didn’t know if I had another sword cut left in me.
“Do you have any darts left?” Gabriel asked, voice carefully controlled.
“No. Do you?”
He shook his head.
“Nearly out of ammo, too.”
“Any chance of the cavalry coming to get us?”
“Everyone else fell back already,” he said. “I stayed out to find you.”
“So no cavalry.” I wanted to be grateful, but couldn’t manage the effort.
He shook his head again and shouldered his M-4.
“Let’s make every shot count.”
Sticking my blades into a corpse, I followed suit. Zombie after zombie fell to his deadly accuracy, and a good number fell to my marksmanship, as well. But for each one that dropped, another took its place, and they were coming from all directions. I slapped the last clip into my M-4, realizing I wasn’t ready to die, no matter how bone-weary I might be.
When I’d fired my last round, I dropped the M-4 and retrieved my blades. Time to find out if I had another cut in me or not.
Suddenly a low rumble filled the air, drowning out the moans. The rumble became a roar as something approached through the fog from up the road. The roar was joined by the sound of screeching metal as something shoved a Prius out of its way. A huge, yellow, industrial-strength snowplow careened into view, scattering zombies—whole and in pieces—off either side of the angled blades. The plow slowed to a stop a few feet from us. I thought I’d never seen a more beautiful sight.
Until I saw who sat behind the wheel.
Mack waved at us, grinning from ear to ear.
“Want a ride?”
Gabriel and I scrambled up onto the plow and into the cab, out of reach of grasping hands and gnashing teeth. I gave Mack a bone-crushing hug before settling in. He accelerated the engine and started crushing zombies again.
“How did you make it out alive?” I asked over the roar of the engine.
“I managed to make it through the woods to the back of that church we saw. Got in through a second-story window they hadn’t barricaded. Scaled a drainpipe like Spider-Man,” he added proudly.
“They?”
“Yup, a bunch of survivors holed up there. They’re waiting for me to come back and get them. I figured I’d better get some help first.
“Man, I’m glad to see you guys!”
“What about Kaitlyn?” Gabriel asked.
Mack’s smile dimmed as he shook his head.
“She’d lost too much blood.”
I reached over and squeezed his shoulder.
“You tried your best, Mack.” I paused, then added, “I’m just so glad to see you, and Lil is gonna be over the moon.”
The grin reappeared.
“You saved our asses, Mack,” Gabriel said. “But where the hell did you find a snowplow?”
“Saw it p
arked behind the church.” Mack veered to the left to avoid a car. Zombies tried to clutch at the sides of the plow to hoist themselves up, but couldn’t get any purchase.
“But what made you take it instead of a car?” I asked. “I mean, it’s sheer genius!”
“Saw the swarm headed your way and thought it might come in handy,” he said with a self-deprecating shrug. “I guess it did.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder.
“Yeah, I guess it did.”
“And so will this.” Gabriel held up a backpack, dipping inside and pulling out handfuls of full M-4 cartridges and, wonder of wonders, déjà vu darts.
He looked at me.
“You up for it?” I nodded.
“I think I just got my third wind.”
Gabriel turned to Mack.
“How much gas you got left in this thing?”
Mack grinned.
“You just tell me where you want to go.”
We literally plowed through dozens of walking corpses, making broad sweeps up and down the length of the parking lot. Gabriel used his M-4 to lethal effect, his aim unaffected by the movement, while I made the most of the déjà vus, sharing the wealth in as widespread a pattern as possible until the cache was depleted.
Then, while Gabriel kept up his sharpshooting, I used the transmitter to detonate the darts. A few explosions rocked the snowplow, but the cab offered us protection against flying zombie viscera.
We drove along the row of cars at the edge of the lot until we came to the gap where the car had exploded. I peered through the fog at the figures lurching their way across the fields and up the road toward us.
“Is it my imagination or are they thinning out?”
“Déjà vu on your right.” Gabriel pointed toward a zombie staggering in our direction, a dart sticking out of its neck. I hit the transmitter, smiling grimly as the explosion took off its head. The thing took one more step before falling to the ground.
“I don’t think it’s your imagination,” Mack said.
A shout rose up behind us, from Mount Gillette.
“Get us back there,” Gabriel said urgently.
Mack immediately put the plow into reverse and turned back toward the barricades. I strained to see what was happening, but could only make out the glow of the klieg lights, and what looked like the lick of flames.
As we drew closer, I saw that the ramps over the razor wire had been shoved away and set on fire, the smell of burning flesh warring with the sound of crackling fat as zombies got too close.
“Burn, you undead mothers!” Mack yelled. The three of us cheered and hooted like crazies—but our howls of celebration died in our throats a moment later.
“Oh, god...” I breathed. Through the patches of fog we suddenly saw why the horde seemed so much smaller now. Mount Gillette had failed to hold. There were no defenders along the wall.
Worse, there was a breach. The zoms had managed to get over the razor wire, and their numbers had collapsed the coils of jagged metal. Those underneath were being ground into a thick sludge of flesh and bone.
It looked as if an explosion had blown out a segment of the wall about a meter wide, and the horde had done the rest, boiling through the gap like a swarm of ants, eager to get at the food inside.
“What do we do now?” I said. “Run for it?”
Mack shook his head.
“We won’t get far on the gas we have left.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“What do you say, Ash?”
I took a deep breath.
“I say we ram this thing right on top of those fuckers and pound the shit out of every last one of them, until they kill us.”
Gabriel grinned.
“Works for me. Mack?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“All right then,” I said. “Let’s go Thelma and Louise on their sorry undead asses.”
Mack gunned the engine with a lion’s roar, and we drove straight for the breach. Stragglers crunched underneath us, and then our plow carved deep into the thick of their ranks, unstoppable. We held on for dear life as the gore-covered snowplow bounced along, flattening, pulverizing, and cutting through rotting bodies by the dozens, until we ground to a rocky, bone-jarring halt, mired right in the middle of the swarm.
The hungry dead filled the windows of the cabin, scrambling for purchase and hurling themselves at the glass to get at us inside. Cracks began to appear like spider webs under their bloody, unfeeling blows.
“I think it’s Alamo time,” Mack said.
I looked at Gabriel.
“How much ammo do we have left?”
“Not enough, but it will keep us busy for a little longer.”
We divvied up the clips as the rain of pounding fists battered holes in the windshield, each punch spraying us with jigsaw shards of safety glass. The cold, clutching fingers wormed their way in through the jagged holes, and then we opened fire, blasting away zombies and the remains of the windshield.
The thunder of the M-4s was deafening in the cramped cabin that would be our tomb in a few minutes.
No, not a tomb—that was wishful thinking. It would be the zombies’ lunchbox.
A pair of explosions rocked the cabin, and then another. The anguished moaning of the swarm changed its pitch to a sickening wail as before our eyes flames erupted from the wound in Mount Gillette, engulfing the swarm and turning them from hungry monsters into extra crispy treats.
“Are we in hell?” I asked.
“If so, it’s beautiful,” Mack answered.
Another roar, this time from the ramparts of the barrier. The defenders were back, cheering on Gentry as he emerged from the breach, incinerating any hapless zombies caught between him and us. They crackled and blackened, eventually falling to the ground.
“I’ll be damned,” Gabriel muttered. “It wasn’t a breach in the wall, it was a goddamn death trap. They purposely created a gap in the barrier...”
Mack gave a whistle.
“And then they barbequed ’em.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
* * *
“All clear!”
The shout rang out from the front door of the Albertson’s grocery store. One survivor, a cashier, had been found in the manager’s office, having lived on three liters of bottled water and a pound jar of raw almonds.
It’d been two days since we destroyed the swarm, but already things felt as if they were slowly going back to some semblance of normality... if you could ignore the pervading odor of burning corpses.
Mobile crematoriums had been brought in, and were working overtime as crews gathered up the bodies of the fallen zombies and disposed of them. Outside military personnel were entering the quarantine zone for the first time since the outbreak began, and limited outside communications were allowed. I was told that I might even be able to contact my parents in the next day or so.
The wild cards and a select number of the remaining Alpha team went on wide sweeps, starting with the outer perimeter of the quarantine zone, to gather up any zombies that had somehow missed the swarm party at Big Red. There were surprisingly few of them, which made Simone speculate further as to the possibility of a hive mind.
Nathan’s response to that had been a derisive snort.
“They’re just following the dinner bell,” he said.
The wild cards were now placing wagers as to how soon they’d fall into bed, just to work out their mutual frustrations. Bets ranged between an hour and a month. Mine was a week.
After Albertson’s we hit the stone church. The doors were still sealed shut, about twenty or so zombies clawing to get inside. We disposed of them quickly, dragging the corpses out of the way to clear a path for forty plus survivors as they made their way out of the building that had been their sanctuary. All were emaciated and dehydrated, having long ago drained the font of holy water.
Lil stood at the side of the wooden doors as the survivors stumbled out into the daylight. She stared at
each one optimistically, her expression growing more desperately hopeful and then bleaker as the steady stream of people emerging from the building slowed to an end.
“I’m sorry, Lil.” I gave her a one-armed hug as one of the soldiers gave another “all clear” shout.
“She’s probably in another building.” Lil’s voice was eerily calm. Her physical wounds were healing nicely, thanks to her wild card powers. But psychologically? That was another story.
“Oh, Lil...”
“I’ll find her.” She shook my arm off and walked away.
I sighed, my heart aching for her.
“What’s wrong?” Gabriel came up behind me, brushing a hand over my hair.
“Lil still hasn’t found her mother.” I rubbed my head against his hand like a cat. “She’d really banked on her being here at the church.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“She may never know what happened to her mother. She could have been completely devoured, or blown up in the swarm. Lil can’t inspect every body part littering the area. It sucks, I know. But those are the cold, hard facts.”
I nodded.
“At least Mack is back. That’s helped. And at least she has Binkey and Doodle.”
Gabriel surprised me with a hug.
“Thanks to you. You’re out of your mind, Ash, but you’ve got one of the most generous souls I’ve ever met.”
I looked up into those gorgeous eyes of his and pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead.
“You’re not so bad yourself, once you get over the whole self-righteous thing.”
“I really was an ass, wasn’t I?”
I nodded in agreement.
“You really were.”
I wondered if he would continue teaching at Big Red once things returned to normal, or if he and Simone would be off in search of another zombie outbreak. And if so, would the wild cards be called to go with them? But those were questions for another day. I didn’t want to harsh our mellow about now.