by Dulaney, C.
“Yeah. Not many, but some.”
“Alright. We’ve done the same in Blueville. Can’t help the stragglers. They knew what they were getting themselves into when they didn’t answer the call to come in.”
“Wait, what?”
Rabbit laughed again. “We’re on the same page, Kasey. We’ve already done what you should be doing right now, and I’m headed your way. We’re about three hours out.”
Kasey paused a beat to soak it all in, then said, “Okay. Why are you headed my way again?”
“Well,” Rabbit started, then stopped to mumble something off-phone again. “Well,” he repeated to Kasey, “because we’re gonna burn that CC to the ground. And you need help.” A pause on the line again. “You know me, Kasey,” Rabbit added. “Never could say no to a pretty girl.”
✽✽✽
Of the riders that rode out, only two returned with survivors. Twelve in total, and they only lived because they happened to run faster than their friends. A couple of the other riders came back injured, having tangled with terminators that’d attacked while they were trying to evacuate.
“Were you followed?” Michael asked. He and a young woman who had worked as a veterinarian’s assistant saw to the wounded riders, in the backroom of the old post office.
“Yeah,” answered a rider. “I outrode them, but they’re coming. Seems like they catch a scent and stay on it.”
Michael pulled back the gauze he held to the man’s leg. Blood oozed from the bite, but the flow had slowed down. “Here, keep pressure on this.” He moved the rider’s hand to replace his own over the bandage, and spoke to the vet assistant. “Finish up here, then I want all of you to move to the courthouse, quick as you can.”
She nodded and went back to her work. Michael unclipped the radio from his back pocket and hurried through the post office.
“Caleb, let’s start moving whoever’s not already there into the courthouse. We’re about to have company. Over.” Once he was out the door, he stopped and looked up and down the street. All was quiet.
“Copy that. I’ll get some folks to help. You want anyone on the rooftops? Over.”
“No.” Michael moved off at a jog up the sidewalk and toward the intersection. “Jonah said he has it covered, so just make sure everyone is inside and out of sight. Over.”
Caleb paused so long before replying that Michael almost keyed his radio. Finally, he said, “Alright, if you say so. Caleb, out.”
“Michael, out.” Michael reached the intersection and checked both ways. This road was the main drag that passed by the town, and was the only way into town from either direction. Cars and trucks were situated at both ends to block the way, but it wasn’t perfect. It wouldn’t keep them all out.
The riders had explained earlier that it seemed the terminators were sticking to the roads instead of cutting across country, which seemed to make sense. It was simply easier to travel that way on foot. Problem was, it was another way in which they’d changed. Before, they would have hauled ass through anything. It made Michael nervous. The terminators now showed forethought and caution, and that made them more dangerous.
Jonah stood off to Michael’s right, fifty yards or so down the main road, facing away from town, waiting. Michael jogged over to him.
“One of the riders said he might’ve been followed.” Michael stopped next to Jonah and watched dry leaves blow across the asphalt.
Jonah grunted. “He was.” He laid a hand on his gun holster and resumed his watch of the road.
Michael sighed, patted Jonah on the shoulder, and jogged back the way he came. Once he got close to the courthouse, he caught up to Caleb herding a small group up the stone steps.
“This is everyone,” Caleb said. He jerked his chin toward the main road. “Jonah up there?”
“Yeah. He’s keeping watch.”
Caleb snorted. “He’s gonna end up getting his ass killed.”
Michael straightened and glanced over his shoulder. “I sure as hell hope not.” He turned back and the two men stared at each other for a moment. “Come on. Let’s get inside.”
✽✽✽
Kasey met Jake at the SUV. They loaded up about half of the supplies from the shed, and the back of the vehicle was stuffed to overflowing. Gus chased leaves and gave a couple of sticks the what-for.
Jake wiped his forehead and said to Kasey, “What now?”
Kasey hesitated a moment. “We need to take care of Mia.”
Jake cussed under his breath and started past Kasey, but she caught his arm. “That’s not all. We need to get to Bill’s. He still hadn’t made it to town when we left, and he had plenty of time to get there. We need his people.”
Jake stared at the cabin. “Where do you want to…put her?”
Kasey closed her eyes and took a breath, but before she could speak again, Jake held a hand up and said, “Don’t. Please. We don’t need to have a full fuckin’ discussion on where to plant her. I just wanna get it over with and forget it. So let’s just do it and go.”
“Okay, Jake.” Kasey grabbed a shovel. “Okay.”
✽✽✽
They pulled up to the mouth of the hollow an hour later. Kasey shut off the engine and looked around. Bill’s Fork was deserted.
“Looks like we’re too late,” Jake whispered.
“No,” Kasey mumbled. “There’s no bodies.” She looked around some more and finally said, “Let’s have a look around.”
Jake nodded once, but didn’t say anything.
“Come on,” Kasey whispered, and eased her door open. Gus scrambled around, his tail thumping against the back of the seat. She twisted around and quietly said to him, “No, you sit tight. We’ll be right back.” She rolled her window down enough to give him some fresh air.
Jake got out and made his way around to her side, head on a swivel, pistol in his hand. He couldn’t get Mia out of his head. Pitching dirt down into a hole, covering her blanketed body, stupid birds chirping their stupid heads off...
“Kasey,” he whispered.
She started toward the closest cabin and motioned for him to follow. Halfway there, he whispered again.
“Kasey.”
She motioned for him to be quiet.
The first cabin was clear with no signs of a struggle. She moved on to the next, with Jake on her heel. Cabin after cabin, the same thing: clear. Even Bill’s house, though it did look like a lot of supplies had been taken.
Kasey stopped behind Bill’s and stared up into the woods. “Shit. They’re just gone.”
Jake looked back at the SUV. There was slight movement, but that was just the dog moving around in the front seat.
“We should probably get back to the Suburban,” Jake said.
Kasey wasn’t paying attention. “If I can’t find any tracks, we’ll get Gus and let him find their trail.” She studied the ground behind Bill’s, close to the little creek that ran down off the hill. The leaves were disturbed. Impressions in the mud. Her eyes followed it until it disappeared into the woods.
“They went that way,” she said and pointed.
“I think we should−” Jake began, then he saw Kasey moving along the hillside, tracking the residents of the Fork. “Goddamnit.” His balls felt like they were trying to climb up into his chest cavity. He ran to catch up with Kasey, and when he did, he grabbed her arm.
This time she paid attention.
The words rushed from him. “We need to go.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s too quiet. No birds or nothin’.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I tried!”
She knew Bill had another place up on the ridge. “Let’s go.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him along, running up the hill. “Move faster, Jake.” She let go and he kept up. They ran as fast as they could, considering it was through the woods and over uneven, wet ground.
Behind them, around the last pair of cabins, the hunting growls began.
✽
✽✽
Jonah stepped forward. A pack of terminators, about twenty strong, had squeezed through and climbed over the barricade a few moments before. It’d been so long since the riders had returned that Jonah began to think the terminators weren’t going to show up at all. But when they did, it was a whole wall of them. Most worried themselves over the vehicles in their way, slapping and hitting them. But this little bunch got through.
The pack slowed to a walk but didn’t stop. The ones in the lead glanced around, growled to each other and to the ones behind, and moved forward a few more steps. Their heads darted about and they sniffed the air. The terminators further back in the pack growled louder and pushed themselves forward.
The calm ones in the front turned and slapped the aggressive ones down. They mewled and whimpered, but moved back. The “leaders” turned back toward Jonah and moved past him. He held his breath and let his body be turned around as the entire group stalked by. The leaders separated them, sent pairs and trios to different buildings, using nothing more than head jerks and growls.
One pair slinked up to the front door of an abandoned house and tried the doorknob.
Jonah’s knees weakened, but he stayed upright. He braced his hands against them and breathed slowly through his nose.
“We need more fuckin’ zombies.”
He ran straight for Missus Gump’s back yard to release the dead. They could clean up what terminators had made it past the barricades, then he and Michael would have to come up with a better plan.
✽✽✽
“Move your ass!”
Kasey dodged low-hanging limbs and jumped over downed logs. Every few steps she glanced back at Jake. He was falling behind. She didn’t know how many were in the pack that chased them. It was kind of hard to count while running for her life. And she wasn’t sure how much farther to the top of the hill, but she was sure of one thing: Jake wasn’t going to make it.
“C’mon, Jake! Almost there!”
His panting was almost louder than the hungry sounds that echoed through the woods.
“Just…go!” he yelled back.
“Shit,” she swore to herself, then spun around and ran back to him.
I’m not losing another one.
She grabbed him with one hand, pulled her pistol with the other, and dragged him up the bank. She took potshots at the closest terminators, striking some, downing only two. It slowed them enough. Or what she thought would be enough. She yanked on Jake’s arm, then slid in behind him and gave him a solid shove in the back.
“Run!” she yelled, then turned to the pack. She heard the sound of his feet fade and smiled. For a second she wasn’t sure which to be pissed about: that he left her so easily, or that she was willing to let the damn things chew on her long enough for him to get away.
Kasey set her feet and squared her shoulders. She knew she only had a few rounds left in the magazine, and a full one in her back pocket, but it probably wasn’t going to matter. The terminators were faster than she was, and would be on top of her before she could even run out of ammo.
“Alright, then.” She lined up on the first and squeezed the trigger. It flew back from the impact and tripped the one behind. They rest kept coming. She didn’t bother with strictly headshots, as these were still just people, and center mass would work just fine. So she aimed for the heart and lungs. Knees and hips when she could.
Forty yards. She could smell them now.
The slide of her gun locked back and she ejected the empty magazine. She moved deliberately; didn’t want to get her heart racing, or her aim would be off. She pulled her last magazine from her back pocket, slammed it home, and found her next target.
Twenty yards. Almost on top of her.
A weird noise whipped past her ears, but she was so focused on what she was doing, she didn’t immediately recognize it. She didn’t even realize the terminators in the back of the shrinking pack were falling down. Or she did, and simply didn’t understand what she was seeing.
Aim, fire. Aim, fire.
Then a dog barked so close to her, she reacted in spite of herself. Kasey jumped a foot to her left, a terminator lunging through the spot where she’d stood a second before, and Gus was just…on it. She wouldn’t have described it as a vicious mauling, as he was only a short-legged Beagle, but he did ruin the terminator’s day.
More gunfire, but it wasn’t coming from her gun. The heads of the terminators furthest back exploded outward, pop-pop-pop. Jake stood several feet behind her and fired into the pack. Instinct took back over, and Kasey rejoined the fight. Gus leapt from one fallen terminator to another, biting and ripping throats. Kasey was more afraid for her dog right then than she’d ever been for herself. She almost yelled for him to get away, but it all happened so fast.
Zero yards. She was surrounded.
Jake moved up. He didn’t help her, there was no time, but he moved up and lined up shots. It was difficult; he didn’t want to hit Kasey or Gus.
“Fuck me,” Kasey muttered.
She kicked a terminator away and holstered her gun. Her fist flew out and knocked another down, then she drew her knife. Her brain registered the fact that the gunfire had stopped, but her body kept moving. Gus threw himself against a terminator coming up behind Kasey, and it staggered sideways. He grabbed a mouthful of pantleg and pulled as hard as he could. Kasey stabbed, sliced, kicked, and blocked. For how long, she didn’t know. She just kept moving. Then Jake was there, his own knife in hand.
Gus bayed and fire ripped up Kasey’s back.
She spun and her elbow caught a terminator under the chin. Then her foot shot out and connected with its knee. It went down and she rammed her knife into its skull. Her eyes darted around for Gus; too much movement. He bayed again, the same volume and tenor he had when rabbit hunting.
Thwump-thwump-twhump.
All around her and Jake, the terminators fell to the ground like someone had flipped a switch. Gus stopped barking. Each terminator had arrows sticking out of it. Kasey thought she stood in the middle of a giant pin cushion, then thought what a ridiculous thing that was to be thinking about.
I’m in the fog, that’s all.
Jake had hold of her and was in her face, saying something she couldn’t hear. Others moved into view, men and women dressed in hunting camo. That struck her as funny, and she laughed.
“That’s it. Wake up,” Jake said. He had Kasey by both arms, holding her as still as he could. He’d known her long enough to know what to expect.
“C’mon,” Jake said. “C’mon, Boss. Right here.” He leaned and moved his face into her line of sight. Finally, her eyes focused on him. “There ya are.” He smiled and squeezed her arms.
“My back hurts,” she mumbled.
Kasey took a quick breath. All sound returned to her ears, and she finally heard strangers talking quietly all around her. She nodded to Jake, he let her go, and she understood what had happened.
They stood amongst a group of bowmen, not saying anything, just watching. They were Bill’s people. Jake hadn’t left her; he’d gone for help. Four of them walked around the bodies and thrust their blades into the brains of those still breathing.
She looked beyond them and saw Gus giving a dead terminator a piece of his damn mind. He chewed its arm and shook the hell out of it.
“How’d he get out of the Suburban?” she asked Jake. Her words had a slight slur to them.
“You left the windows down partways,” he said. “You know you can’t just shut a dog up in-”
“Hey!” one of the bowmen shouted. It was Pete. He’d been knelt next to a body, and when he stood, there was a hatchet in his upheld hand. “This damn thing had a weapon!”
The others sprang into action without much discussion. They searched the bodies, and more than half had some kind of melee instrument. One even had a butter knife.
Kasey shrugged her shoulders, arched her back, and tried to reach behind her. “Damn, Jake. Is there something stuck in my back?”
/> The next thing she remembered was Jake trying to pull her to her feet. Gus hopped around her and licked her face. Trees and people she didn’t know spun around her. She blinked a few times and lifted her hands in front of her face. They were covered with blood. She wondered who was making that weird noise, and for a second thought it was crazy for someone to be making that much sound when they didn’t know if all the terminators had been killed. Then she realized it was her.
✽✽✽
Rabbit and his convoy pulled into Gibson around dark. Three Humvees, a tarp-covered truck, a baker’s dozen of soldiers. With the fire- and manpower he brought, they made short work of the terminators piled up against the barricade. Michael, Caleb, and Jonah helped some of the others move cars out of the way so Rabbit could get all his people and equipment inside.
“Michael,” Jonah started. The pair took a break to catch their breath before jumping in and pushing another car into place. “I don’t think this is gonna work for long.”
Michael wiped his forehead and looked around. It really was a piss poor barricade. Just from his vantage point, he could see seven spots where terminators could either crawl under or simply climb across the vehicles.
“I know,” he said. He patted Jonah’s shoulder. “I know. It’s temporary. We’ll think of something.”
Jonah didn’t believe him, but there wasn’t much else to say about it. It was this or run. That was something he was good at. But this time there was nowhere to go.
Rabbit jogged over as Michael and Jonah finished up with the last vehicle.
“Sir.” Rabbit saluted.
Michael swatted his hand down. “Knock that shit off. Tell your people they can bed down in the garage.” Michael pointed down the street at the mechanic’s building. It was a big, open space large enough to fit more than Rabbit needed.
“Yessir.”
Michael pursed his lips, then said, “And I’m glad you’re here.”
“Yessir,” Rabbit said with a grin, and went back to the vehicle he’d ridden in. Michael rolled his eyes skyward but reminded himself they were lucky to have this kind of help.