by Mark Clodi
Bill and Ruben stumbled into the dust to round up their men. They started first with Jerome and Dan, who had been sleeping next to their feet. Both men were awake and Jerome was sporting a fresh wet spot in the crotch of his trousers. They left him in the care of Dan and headed to the bridge, the other squadmates were all there and unwounded with the exception of Javier who had been hit by a piece of debris from the explosion, it had nicked the side of his head, cutting long, shallow gash just above his ear that was bleeding profusely. His squad buddy, Matt was already getting ready to put a bandage on the wound, Ruben stopped to assist him while Bill made sure the rest of the men were okay. By the time Jerome and Dan came up to the bridge Javier was bandaged and the dust had settled enough to allow them to see the far bank across the river.
“Where are the trees man?” Javier asked.
“No, where are the zombies?” Matt said, with a laugh, “I guess we need a few more runs like that to clear them all out for good.
“Listen.” Ruben said, straining to hear the pop-pop-pop of gunfire. “Sounds like they still have problems across the way.”
“Yeah, the fields over there didn't get hit. But the bridge did, look at it!” said Javier pointing. The squad had been walking forward along the bridge to assess the situation and damage better. Ahead of them the entire right side of the bridge was just gone. The twisted rail on that side had not fallen in, it spanned the hole alone and forlorn.
“Can we still get over it?” Matt asked, looking at the hole where gravel and dirt were still falling into the river far below.
“I think so, if we keep to the left hand side and hug the railing.” Bill answered. “We better go try and help those guys now. Vic, Jerome, Matt and Javier you come with me. Kirk, Larry, Dan and Ruben, you stay here and keep any zombies that lived from coming over the bridge. Lets go grab ammo and one of the spare rifles to take with us. I want to get out of here before the zombies come back.”
Before the men had a chance to recover or protest Bill's orders Ruben yelled, “Let's move people! Do you want to get caught by them when they come back? Now is the chance to get in there and bring our boys back across the river. Go! Vic, you get the rifle and one of those packs I have sitting by the tracks. No! The other side, by the truck. Jerome, take the second pack and it is your lucky day, grab those three grenades. Matt and Javier, you each get packs too.”
“Why isn't Bill carrying an extra pack?” complained Jerome.
“He is an old man you idiot, he wouldn't be going at all except someone with brains has to go along to make sure you don't screw up. Now more moving and less talking. Vic and Jerome you head out in front, like they taught you in training, Matt and Javier you will be in the second rank, stay about fifteen feet behind the others, all of you get to the bridge and look for a way towards the fields, wait there for Bill, he will be along in a minute. Now go!” The men harried along by Ruben didn't have a chance to protest and Bill could only marvel at the older man's handiwork. His smile disappeared when Ruben turned on him and pointed to another pack, this one sitting in the back of the truck.
“I knew I'd have one too.” he sighed.
“Only officers don't work in this army, it is bad for morale if you don't pull your weight.” Bill hefted the pack, it had to weight thirty pounds. “You'll thank me for packing it heavy if our buddies need ammo. Yours has three more grenades in it too.” Bill already had two hand grenades on his belt.
“You packed all this up in a half an hour?”
“Me and Larry yeah, no problem for old hands like us. Each pack also has a canteen of water in it. You better get moving and eat another one of those power bars on the way. You need the food, it will keep you alert.”
“Yes mom!” Bill said with a grin.
“Don't give me that old man! I was retired from fighting before you were even born!”
Bill was able to get around the hole in the bridge with little difficulty, the gravel had fallen away into the water, making it look like a sinkhole more than an old railway bed. Underneath all the gravel was a concrete bridge supporting everything, enough gravel had fallen away to reveal that it was cracked and buckled, but it looked like it would hold for awhile. Reaching his men Bill saw the devastation of the bombs up close for the first time. He let out a long low whistle. There were body parts all over the riverbank where there had formerly been zombies. A few of the things were already creeping back and there were dozens, if not hundreds of slowly squirming zombies moving around on and through the tilled up earth.
“It looks like my dad's garden, just after he got it ready for planting.” Matt said.
Bill nodded, “You ready up ahead?”
“Yeah.” Vic said, smirking when he saw Bill lugging a pack.
“What you think I can't carry my own weight Vic? Watch out for zombie pieces and get us to those fields before any more show up here.”
Bill's words of advice were well heeded as zombies crawled towards them with whatever bits of them were left to move them around. A torso with a head attached, naked, white and dirt streaked, moaned at them as they walked by, all four of the zombie's limbs were gone, severed neatly close to it's body. The thing's flaccid penis was untouched and wiggling like a worm as the zombie flailed around uselessly in a quest to get closer to one of the men and bite him.
Vic led them about two hundred yards up stream before he had to fire at a zombie coming out of the woods towards them. The old woman with bluish white hair was missing part of her jaw and her right arm ended in a bloody stump at the elbow. Her dark skin and black clothing gave Vic quite a start, who thought she resembled a neighbor back in his apartment complex, one quick shot to the head brought her down, but also brought several other zombies running through the brush at them. Bill, Matt and Javier came abreast to Vic and Jerome and began firing as the zombies came at them slowly through the trees.
“We gotta keep moving, lets head to the right and keep pressing forward.” Bill said.
“There are too many, we gotta kill some of them first.” said Vic, firing rapidly.
“No if we stay here we'll get pinned down, our fire is drawing them to us, Jerome, head right, Javier, follow him. Matt you count to fifteen and then you and Vic break off and follow us.” Not waiting to see if the other two would follow or not Bill turned and went after Jerome and Javier. Bill had been playing a hunch that there would be a path by the side of the river. This close to the athletics fields he suspected kids and fishermen would have trampled a path through the trees in their search for fun and fish. Jerome found the path Bill had hoped for and started jogging forward along it, not firing at any zombies for a good three hundred yards. The firing behind them had stopped and when Bill looked back he saw Matt and Vic coming along behind them. The trees didn't let him see much further back than that and he hoped there were no zombies following Vic.
After moving forward another hundred yards Jerome stopped at a wider path that looked like it led up into a cleared area, which would probably be the first of many soccer fields. Bill gestured at him to go up, and whispered, “Stop at the edge of the trees, don't let anything see you.”
They worked their way up the path into the dense brush surrounding the edge of the mowed lawn. Sure enough it was a soccer field and it was empty. From where they were the group could see across four or five fields lengthwise to a mob of zombies that had the concession stand mobbed. Periodically a shot would ring out from the stand and a zombie would fall back to be trampled to the ground. The concession stand had so many bodies around it that the zombies had been able to crawl up onto the roof of the place. Looking at it Bill said, “Okay we have to make sure not to fire at the building, our bullets will go right through those doors and wooden shutters they have over the serving windows.”
“Look, over there Bill, I mean, uh, Sarge.” said Vic pointing beyond the concession stand towards the baseball diamonds, there was a centralized building with glass window about two stories high looking out over three different fields
. In the window facing them was a soldier, frantically waving his arms, in one hand he had a pair of binoculars, in the other was a shirt.
“This means the squad is split in two, maybe more. Let me think a minute here.”
“There are too many of them. We can't kill all of them.” Javier said.
“We aren't leaving them.”
“I didn't say that. But we can't kill them all either. We gotta draw some of them off, they are stupid, like dogs, they come to you if you make a lot of noise.”
“Yeah, true, but we can't lead them here. We need to go around to the other side and lead them away from here. Let's see...” Bill took a small pair of binoculars out of his chest pocket. He scanned the surrounding playing fields and focused in on a building out on the other side of the baseball fields. “See that building way over there?” The younger men nodded, “If we can work our way around to that we could throw a couple of grenades into the crowd from that side, then run back to those other baseball fields, we can climb those little four foot fences, but it will give the zombies a helluva time. If they follow us over there the rest of them could get out. Maybe.”
“We don't need five guys to throw a couple of grenades.” Javier pointed out, “I can go, me and Matt can go. Do like you said, then, after we lead those zombies on a chase we can head straight south and get to the railroad tracks again, and head back to Ruben.”
“Good enough, can you work your way over there without being seen?”
Javier looked at the terrain, then nodded and said, “We will just go up the river bank and come around over at that parking lot there, then keep by the trees until we make it to the building. What will you guys do?”
“We will come with you to the parking lot, we'll have a better position there, but still be well north of where you will be at. If everything works out we'll be able to head straight to the baseball field, then to the concession stand, gathering up all the men and getting to Ruben before you do. Refill all your ammo, take a couple spare clips and the grenades, then give us your packs.”
The men transferred the backpacks to the others and then all five of them made their way back down to the river out of sight from the playing fields. They kept close to the river until Javier felt they were in the right spot and crept up to confirm that they had headed far enough north to be near the edge of the parking lot they had scoped out from the other side of the fields. Bill, Vic and Jerome squatted down in the grass and brush beside the parking lot while Javier and Matt ran along the road in an oblique approach to the building, which looked like some sort of grounds keeping shed. Bill watched while the two men looked into a back window of the large shed, then broke it and crawled into the building.
“What the hell are they doing? They will be trapped in the building!” said Jerome.
“Trust Javier, he has a plan, I think. Give them a few minutes. Get ready though, watch for any smart zombies, you know the kind, the ones that move fast, if any come out of that mob we should try and ambush them, they won't be expecting us to be here.”
Bill's patience was rewarded when inside the shed an engine roared to life, the front door of the shed slid up and a large, industrial sized mower pulled out of the building. It was loud and sped out of the open door at a quick pace, heading straight towards the mob of zombies surrounding the building among the baseball fields. The zombies had already turned towards the sound and when they saw the mower's rider even more went after it.
“Where is Matt?”
Bill answered, “There!” A golf cart came rolling out of the building with Matt driving, he had his rifle braced on the small windscreen and shot towards the mob a few times to draw their attention. Javier stopped the mower about fifteen feet away from the first of the zombie, then stood and tossed hand grenades into the crowd. As the explosions blew violent holes in the mob Bill said, “Jerome, Vic, check that zombie on the bleachers, get a bead on him, I think it is a super. Fire when I say so, if we all fire together we have a better chance at taking him out.”
The zombie Bill was pointing towards was a ragged haired, thin man dressed in a red and black flannel shirt. It was watching Javier on the lawn mower, but not moving towards him. “Alright, fire on three. One, two, three!” Bill and Jerome both fired a single shot out of their rifles, but Vic let loose with a barrage of automatic fire. The zombie stood up and jerked around as the shots hit him, one of Vic's slammed him in the head and toppled him over the top of the stands to the asphalt path that ran behind it.
“Fuck, fuck! Sorry sarge! I didn't mean to!”
“Damn it Vic! Duck down, don't let them see us! You got him so I can't be too mad at you.” The three of them slid down further into the ditch out of sight of the zombies.
“I did it, I blew that motherfuckers head off! Did you see how far that is? I am like a sniper.”
“Yeah our fully automatic sniper. You two stay down here.” Bill slowly crawled up to the top of the ditch to see what was happening. No zombies seemed to be coming their way and he pulled out his binoculars to get a closer look as the undead followed behind the lawn mower and golf cart. “Okay you two we got another one. It is staying on the side of the building away from Javier and Matt, but I can see her from here. Creep up slow, she isn't looking our way, but I would rather kill her without ever being seen. And for God's sake Vic, put your rifle on single shot!”
The three men got into firing position again and counted down, this time two of the three shots hit the woman, however neither was a killing blow. The zombie looked over at them and then was shot again from behind at close range, the top of her pony tailed head flew off, with the blond tail trailing in the wind like a kite string as it rose fifteen feet above the baseball fence.
Jerome laughed, “Did you see that? They got her! Her hair, it just flew off!” Two more gunshots rang out from behind the building unseen from their position.
“Now what?” Vic asked.
“You two hunker down again, we will wait for another five minutes for most of these ones to clear out, then make a try for it. I will keep an eye out for any supers running around. Oh and you guys watch our backs and sides.”
The five minutes dragged by for the men, Javier and Matt were out of sight now, having driven along the road towards the town further west of Bill's position.
A hand tugged on Bill's pant leg, “Sarge!” whispered Vic, “Sarge!”
Bill slid down a little and looked at where the younger man was pointing. He saw three small zombies, children really, darting among the trees and low scrub bushes, working their way towards the three men from behind. Two boys and one girl, the boys were wearing summer clothing, both in shorts and one bare-chested. One was wearing a flip flop on his left foot, the other had a red plastic shoe on his right. The girl was dressed in a heavy winter coat, she had the hood pulled up and tied down, leaving her the barest of holes to see through. She had on a short white dress that lifted up as she ran, underneath she was wearing tighter black shorts. Of the three only she had a complete set of footwear, converse sneakers. The girl was dark skinned and the boys had deeply tanned skin, but were Caucasian with sandy blond hair. All of them were moving fast.
“Get ready for them! Try for the girl first, she looks to me the most together of all of them.” Vic aimed his rifle and fired at the group, hitting the bare-chested boy in the top of his right shoulder, a spray of blood and bone chips radiated out behind him to coat the other boy's shirt and face. The boy with the bloody face licked his lips as they both ducked further back into the brush.
“Damnit Vic! You fired too soon, they were too far. And I said aim for the girl!”
“I was aiming for the girl!”
“Some sniper.” Jerome said.
“Fuck you! At least I've actually killed one of them so far!”
“Stop it you two, we need to move, no sense making things easier for them by staying in one spot. Grab your packs and follow me.”
Bill grabbed the two packs he was carrying and headed up
over the road, making for the shed Javier and Matt had left open. The other two kept pace with him easily and they made it to the shed without any problems. Most of the zombies were gone, but three were wandering aimlessly in front of the shed and there were many stuck inside the baseball fields, unable to get over the low chain linked fences that defined the play areas.
Bill shot two of the zombies as they came around to the front of the shed, Vic shot the other one. There was another mower, another golf cart and various tools in the shed. Bill checked the mower and saw that the key was in the ignition, the same with the golf cart. There was a large wagon in one corner of the shed as well, with a hitch designed to attached to the mower. Bill dropped his packs into the wagon and pulled it out so it the trailer tongue was even with the shed door.
“What are you doing?” asked Vic, nervously eying the zombies trapped behind the fence a dozen yards away.
“They might have people who are hurt, why carry them if we can haul them instead. Watch for the kids with Jerome.” Bill turned back to the lawn mower started and then drove it over to the trailer, where he killed the engine.
Vic started firing at something unseen by Bill, Jerome went down to one knee and took aim before firing a single shot. Looking smug he flashed Bill a smile, “Got one of the boys.”
“The other two are in the ditch where we were. You were right Bill, they went right over there.” said Vic, “You need a hand with that?”
“No I got it, put your packs in the wagon, I will be ready to go in a minute.” Bill looked at the mower, trying to figure out if he could get the grass cutting deck off of it. The riding mower he had at home allowed him to drop the deck off quickly and the machine would go faster if it wasn't carrying the huge metal mowing mechanism. This one looked like it released the in the same quick manner. Looking closer he spotted a couple of cotter pins holding the sides of the thing on in the front, in the rear there were two more substantial bars anchoring it to the bottom of the mower. Grabbing a pair of pliers off the workbench in the shed he pulled the front pins out and lowered the deck down, then got to work on detaching it from the back.