by Barry Slater
“They seek the Lord,” Father Bryan answered seemingly from another world.
“Then let's send them to Him,” Captain Jack said.
“Kim?” Dwayne asked.
“My God,” Kim shook her head as tears welled up in her eyes. “Will this never end?”
“Kimmy,” Dwayne said looking into Kim's eyes. “If there are fewer of them, it will be safer to move about. We've lost two vehicles already. We have no way to carry food and fuel now except by foot. The fewer zombies we have to deal with, the safer our lives will be. We can't just hide inside and wait for them to go away all on their own.”
“The more of them we kill,” Dwayne continued. “The less of them there will be to infect us with the virus.”
“Where do you want me?”
“That's my girl,” Dwayne smiled. “Stay between me and the house. Use the stone railing around the courtyard in front for cover. If you see something we don't, yell out.”
“OK.”
“Captain Jack, how many do you figure?” Dwayne asked.
“Two to three thousand I'd say, not counting what's coming up the hill. I think it's time for another concert.”
“OK, let's get the generator going. Let's give them a performance they won’t forget.”
A steady snow began to fall as Dwayne turned to the crowd gathering at the gate and pulled his bow across the strings of the Stradivarius.
The shrilling stopped. The herd of corpses shuffled forward. Dwayne stepped on the foot switch and the press came down on the mesmerized mass of zombies. Doc Martin and Captain Jack began pumping rounds into the heads of the dead along the fence line.
Once the open area beside the front gate was full of zombies, Captain Jack triggered the claymore mines on the pole.
“Fire in the hole!” Captain Jack shouted three times.
“Kim! Take cover behind the stonework,” Dwayne shouted as he and Captain Jack dived into the steel bunker. Kim ducked behind the stone fence then screamed at the roar of the explosion.
“Wahoo!” Captain Jack shouted at the decapitated bodies. “That's gotta hurt.”
Dwayne raised the press. A fresh group of zombies trampled over the crushed bodies. The booming of Doc Martin's sniper rifle and Captain Jack's AK47 made a continuous roar.
Dwayne pressed the next group. Each zombie, as Dwayne played his violin, remembered its former life. One man, a single parent, remembered taking his son to soccer practice. A woman remembered skiing on the nearby trails. Images of a first kiss, learning to ride a bicycle and giving birth to their first child raced through infected minds then faded to black as they were crushed beneath the steel plate.
The next group of zombies filled the press. Kim was nauseated by the carnage. Internal organs oozed out of the pile of bodies. Body fluids poured out in a pool then thickened on both sides of the cold cement driveway pad.
The fourth wave of zombies entered the press. The layers of mangled flesh were piled waist high, causing the zombies to crawl across their own dead to be closer to the music.
The hydraulic cylinders struggled to press the fifth layer. Skulls popped open spilling infected brain tissue onto the crushed bodies. Dwayne opened the gate and Captain Jack scraped the bodies clear of the press with the tractor blade. Several zombies clung onto the rear of the tractor but were dispatched by Captain Jack’s 9mm as the wheels spun in the body fluids.
A fresh wave of zombies rushed into the empty press.
“They're filling in as fast as we can press them,” Captain Jack shouted over the tractor engine. “And we're going to run out of ammo soon.”
“We're on a roll,” Dwayne shouted. “Don't stop. Let's keep it going!”
Dwayne pressed three more layers of zombies then raised the steel plate for a fourth layer. In the next group was an unbelievable sight. Colonel Tibbets limped forward on his gout foot into the press, crawling over the other zombies to get closer to the music. Inside his infected mind he remembered the day he was diagnosed with diabetes, and then the day before the apocalypse with prostate cancer and then torturing young Ricky Johnson at Doc Martin's house.
Of all the ironies, incredibly, as if in a death chase, B.J. followed Colonel Tibbets toward the music. The condition of B.J. was grotesque. Fluids were seeping out of his huge, punctured, burned, decaying body. B.J. followed Colonel Tibbets into the press, his mass completely filling the remaining space. Even in death, a living death, they tormented one another, fighting each other to get closer to the music.
Shocked by the epic sight, Dwayne lowered the steel plate onto the fresh group. Because of B.J.'s immense size, the hydraulic pump strained to provide enough pressure to the cylinders.
Colonel Tibbets disappeared beneath B.J.'s bulk. B.J.'s ribs and pelvis was crushed. His abdomen ruptured spilling rotting, half-eaten body parts out of the press. The squirming layers of flesh bulged against the fence.
“They're breaking through the gate,” Captain Jack shouted.
“Push 'em back with the tractor blade,” Dwayne shouted.
Captain Jack buttressed the gate with the scrape blade.
“They're moving down the fence line,” Dwayne shouted. “Use the claymores.”
“Get in the bunker,” Captain Jack shouted as he and Dwayne took cover in the bunker.
“Kim,” Dwayne shouted. “Take cover!”
“Fire in the hole!” Captain Jack shouted.
The claymores in the tree line rippled off their explosions in rapid succession. The roar was deafening as the concussion wave rushed up the hill toward the house.
Decapitated, the crowd along the fence fell to the ground where just a second before they had been shuffling. More zombies moved in against the fence to take their place.
“Everyone stay down,” Captain Jack shouted. “I'm using the napalm!”
Everyone took cover in their respective places.
“Fire in the hole!” Captain Jack shouted.
The air pressure from the exploding bags of gasoline forced the zombies down. The burning Styrofoam and steel wool pads stuck to their bodies and burned holes through their soft tissue. On fire, to the shock of everyone, they got back up and resumed their attempt to breach the fence.
Once the fire burned through the connecting tissue, much to the relief of everyone, the zombies at the fence fell to the ground but continued to try to make their way toward the fence with whatever appendage they had left.
“How we looking up there Doc?” Captain Jack called up to the rooftop balcony.
“They're still coming over the hill.”
“Let's clean out the press,” Dwayne shouted.
Dwayne opened the gate then raised the steel plate. Captain Jack backed the tractor up to the press then pushed against the pile of bodies with the scrape blade.
Halfway through the press, the weight of the bodies bogged the tractor down and the wheels spun in the pool of pressed organs.
“Pull forward and build up some speed.” Dwayne shouted. “Ram 'em with the blade!”
Captain Jack pulled forward then backed into the press ramming the blade full speed against the bodies.
The wheels spun on the slick cement pad sliding the tractor almost against the press frame. Captain Jack dispatched the zombies coming onto the side of the tractor with his 9mm.
“Pull out!” Dwayne shouted.
Captain Jack maneuvered the tractor out of the press as Dwayne closed the gate behind him. The rapidly approaching zombies quickly climbed into the void. Dwayne lowered the plate forcing the zombies down to a three-and-a-half foot level as the rear of the plate rested on the barely moved stack of bodies.
The incoming crowd crawled across the bodies to the top of the plate and began climbing over the gate.
Breaching the gate, several zombies sniffed the air among the falling snowflakes for human body odor as they searched the cold air for the nearest thermal image. Dwayne played keeping the zombies docile while Captain Jack planted 9mm rounds into their heads.
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“We're in trouble,” Captain Jack shouted. Steady streams of the dead were trickling over the top of the gate.
“If I play we attract them,” Dwayne said. “Our thermal images will if I don't.”
“I know,” Captain Jack responded. “How's it looking from there Doc?”
“Not good.” Doc Martin looked out at the crowd coming over the hill. “I'm running out of ammo and they're still coming.”
“We've used up all our heavy ordnance,” Captain Jack explained the situation to Dwayne. “We'll be out of ammo soon, the press is out of commission and they're already getting over the gate.”
“HEY!” Father Bryan made a target of himself by shouting and waving his arms down by the burning bodies. “Down here! Receive your baptism here!”
“What the hell is Father Bryan doing?” Captain Jack shouted.
“He's drawing them back down the fence line, away from the gate,” Dwayne shouted over the music. Dwayne stopped playing and rested his arms. “He's giving us a break.”
Captain Jack walked down the fence line to Father Bryan, firing his 9mm through the wrought iron bars into the heads of the zombies. He offered Father Bryan his AK47 but Father Bryan simply shook his head.
“If they get over that fence,” Captain Jack said. “And you're swinging that sword among that many zombies, shit is going to splatter all over you.”
“This doesn't run out of bullets.” Father Bryan pulled his sword out of the sheath strapped across his back. “Besides, with this many dead we're all going to end up at close range, if that is God's will. Today, we all find our place in this.”
“Suit yourself preacher,” Captain Jack shouted over the shrilling. “Doc! Cover Father Bryan.”
Dwayne resumed playing, keeping the zombies inside the gate hypnotized while Captain Jack fired into the crowd using his last AK47 magazine and saving his last full clip of 9mm rounds.
The crowd gathering at Father Bryan's position trampled over one another then crawled to the top of the pile of burning bodies and began pouring over the fence.
“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Father Bryan said as he began to hack into the zombies.
“Be strong,” Father Bryan preached to the dead. “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you.” The thud of the first zombie's head hitting the ground in Father Bryan's assault followed the ringing of the Sword of God's Wrath passing through its neck.
“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” Father Bryan sliced the next zombie from its neck to its armpit with such force that its head and right arm was separated from its body.
Captain Jack fired into the zombies at the gate with his last 9mm clip, saving the last four rounds for himself, Dwayne, Kim and Father Bryan.
Doc Martin sniped into both areas being breached. Captain Jack wade into the crowd coming over the gate with the Excalibur.
Unexpectedly, the hair on Dwayne's violin bow began to fray.
“I'm out,” Doc Martin shouted from the balcony. “I'm out of ammo!”
The hand of the severed arm and head dragged itself to Father Bryan then grasped around his ankle. The arm pulled its snapping head toward Father Bryan’s leg in an attempt to sink its teeth Father Bryan’s flesh. Father Bryan hacked the arm in two and kicked the head away.
“We give thanks to you Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign,” Father Bryan shouted as he continued to decapitate the zombies pouring over the fence. “'Behold I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. And surely I am with you, even to the end of time.'”
The zombies spread out, filling in the space between Dwayne and Father Bryan. Captain Jack took up a position there and began inventing his own prophesies. “Ask not what you can do for the dead, but what the dead can do for you.”
“Now the dwelling of God is with men, He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Father Bryan sliced through a zombie's neck so cleanly that the head sat on its body momentarily before it fell to the ground. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 'See, I am making everything new.'”
“Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd,” Captain Jack sang as he swung the Excalibur downward splitting a zombie's head in two. “Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team. If they don't win it's a shame for its one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game.”
“The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and He will reign forever and ever,” Father Bryan shouted until he was completely overwhelmed by the crowd of zombies.
“Off with their heads,” Captain Jack shouted as he decapitated two zombies with one swing of the Excalibur. “Ouch, that's gotta hurt! Hey, I have a bone to pick with you,” Captain Jack said as he decapitated another zombie. “Thou shalt not come over this fence!”
The zombies began pouring into the compound. The last strand of hair on Dwayne's bow snapped in two. He gouged the eyes out of several zombies with the end of the bow then beat them back with the Stradivarius.
Captain Jack hacked his way to the tractor. He opened the gate and with one last effort cleared the press with the tractor's blade. Driving the tractor back inside, he closed the gate then began working on a plan of action to push the zombies back across the fence. He ran up the hill to the storage shed and worked the two 55 gallon plastic drums of gasoline to the door then rolled them outside.
Dwayne pushed the end of his violin bow through the eye socket and into the brain of a zombie. The zombie took the bow with it as it fell back. Beating the crowd back with the Stradivarius, Dwayne began fighting his way to the bunker. The neck of the Stradivarius broke, remaining connected to the body only by its strings. Dwayne continued swinging but was tripped by the groping hands of the zombies crawling across the ground.
Kim, watching from behind one of the two birch pylons that made the entrance of the stone fence to the courtyard, was paralyzed with fear.
Breathe Kim, Kim recited to herself. Breathe!
Kicking to keep from being bitten, Dwayne's strength faded. The zombies snapped at his tuxedo jacket. Exhausted, his thoughts drifted as the zombies chewed at his clothing. In a dream-like state, he remembered the day he and Jean first met, their first kiss, and the first time they made love. Forced down by the weight of the clinging zombies, he thought of their wedding day. He closed his eyes and wanted desperately to be in that world.
“Dwayne!” Kim shouted. At the site of Dwayne being overwhelmed by the zombies she had found the strength to unsling the Zombiemaster and chamber a round.
At the sound of her voice, it was Kim he remembered kissing for the first time, and made love to for the first time and wanted desperately to be in that world again, not the world he was in now. It was too unreal to exist.
“Get off him,” Kim shouted as she blew half the head off of a nude female zombie just before its teeth could scrape into Dwayne's flesh. “You zombie bitch!”
Kim placed the “V” shaped front sight on a middle-aged male zombie's head and fired. The ghoul was thrown back by the force of the 12 gauge shot.
The roar of the Zombiemaster brought Dwayne back to reality.
Moving forward, Kim reloaded and fired round after round into the crowd of dead surrounding Dwayne. The zombies could see only traces of heat from Kim's hands and face and the muzzle blasts at the end of the Zombiemaster's barrel.
“Use the .45!” Kim shouted.
With a burst of adrenaline, Dwayne swiped the zombies off his back and stood up. He took the .45 out of his jacket and looked at it.
“Use it, Dwayne. Use it!”
Dwayne aimed then fired, finally letting go of the pain he had held inside, the memory of using the .
45 to end Jean’s suffering, and began pumping .45 caliber slugs into the skulls of the zombies.
The two worked toward each other, inflicting head shots on the crowd. After a moment of heavy fighting, the two made it to each other’s side. Dwayne took Kim by the arm and kissed her then wiped the tears from her eyes.
“I thought I'd lost you,” Kim said sobbing.
“I'm right here sweet pea,” Dwayne said as he stroked her fuzzy red hair. “I'm right here. Let's get you inside.”
Working in tandem, Dwayne shot several of the attacking zombies and Kim fired the Zombiemaster until it was empty as they made their way up to the stonework.
Captain Jack watched Father Bryan falter beneath the crowd of zombies.
“Father Bryan,” Captain Jack shouted. “Get out of there!” Father Bryan tripped over the pile of bodies then was pulled to the ground.
Captain Jack watched in horror as Father Bryan was devoured by the swarming zombies. He aimed the drums at the breach in the fence and took the bung caps out of each of the lids then let the drums roll down the hill one after the other.
The drums hit the crowd breaching the fence. “Fire in the hole,” Captain Jack shouted then lit the trail of gasoline left by the drums. Kim and Dwayne took cover behind the stone work. Doc Martin ducked below his firing position on the rooftop balcony.
“Fire in the hole!”
A brilliant flash illuminated the sky followed by a loud rumble. The explosion lifted the crowd at ground zero up in a massive pressure wave then erupted into an enormous fireball that rolled upwards into a huge mushroom cloud.
Burning bodies rained from the smoke filled sky. The crowd at the fence began burning like a grease fire, popping and sizzling, fueling itself like meat in a barbecue pit. The stand of pine trees caught fire and quickly became a raging inferno. Everything among the trees was scorched by the fire.
Out of the conflagration stumbled zombies totally engulfed in flames. Their eyes melted in their sockets and their brains boiled inside their skulls then poured out through their nostrils.
A huge hole had been burned into the crowd. The breach had been sealed. The wrought iron fence, sagging from the intense heat, remained intact. The remaining zombies were confused by the wall of thermal images surrounding them.