by J. W. Vohs
Even as she felt the satisfying crunch of the metal on skull she twisted from a grip on her shoulder and kicked in the kneecap of the offending creature. With no time to deal with the one on the ground, she again took a vicious and successful swing against a zombie that had popped up in front of her. As that one fell she suddenly crumpled under the overwhelming weight of a huge zombie that hit her in the side as it frantically sought her flesh. Maddy twisted as she fell and managed to avoid most of the weight of the zombie falling on her. Once on the ground, she rolled away before the creature could get a good grip on her and jumped back to her feet. A smaller zombie made a clumsy grab for her and she easily dispatched the creature with an overhand stroke that obliterated its skull in a gray and red spray. Quickly doing a three-sixty she saw that no other zombies were close by so she took the time to destroy the two trying to get back on their feet and staggered over to her original position. She leaned against the nearest truck to catch her breath as she scanned the area for additional threats to her position. Then she saw what was happening to Zach.
Zach had used the pistol first as Jack had ordered him to do. Unfortunately he couldn’t shoot very well. The rugged teen calmly emptied a full magazine at the approaching zombies and only managed to drop one of them. Then he fumbled with the gun as he tried to drop the empty clip and put in a full one. By that time six or seven zombies were only a few paces away, so he dropped the pistol and picked up the sledgehammer he had used so effectively the day before. Even as he lifted the weapon he realized that he had no room to swing, so he took several steps backward and then crushed the first zombie’s skull. He had time to smash one more creature before they were on him, and as with Maddy, Zach was about to learn that he was not the kid he was only days earlier.
Before he could even realize what had happened, Zach was on the ground struggling to breath under the weight of five zombies. He could feel the pain in his left arm and both legs as the creatures began to gnaw on him, but he ignored it and concentrated on moving his right hand down to his weapons belt and pulling free the long dagger that all of the troops carried. He managed to twist slightly to the right which allowed him to plunge the knife upward into the writhing mass of flesh above. Nothing seemed to change as he twisted the blade inside the monster’s body, so he pulled the dagger free and thrust into a different place. This time he got lucky, and the point of the long knife slid straight into a zombie’s mouth and through its spinal cord.
Zach felt a slight easing of the pressure around him but it was enough to pull his left hand free. He pushed upward with the strength that had been used to tackle running backs for the past four years. Zach had once bench pressed three hundred pounds, and with the adrenaline rushing through his body as he fought his attackers, he was able to lift even more weight today. He pushed two of the zombies from his head and upper body, and before they could recover he was able to grab two more of the monsters and toss them from his chest and upper legs. Now he was able to sit up and roll, and then almost before he knew what was happening he was back on his feet.
Zombies were all around him now, but joy rushed through his heart when he realized that he was standing again. He punched his Kevlar glove into the nose of a zombie trying to grab him in a bear-hug, then turned and hit another with an uppercut swing that knocked the creature to the ground. He used the scant space and time he had just earned with his fists to quickly look around for his hammer. Even as he realized that it was nowhere in sight he was instinctively pulling the mace from his belt. Now Zach really went to work on the zombies, finding that he was even more effective with the smaller weapon than with the sledgehammer. He was in a zone of mindless combat, ducking and swinging, kicking and face-butting, leaping over corpses and shouting at the top of his lungs as he fought the ever-increasing mob of zombies trying to pull him down.
Finally Zach realized that he was slowing down. His breathing was ragged and the strength behind his swings was flagging. More than a dozen corpses were on the ground around his position, but even more were still on their feet and mindlessly advancing on the valiant young warrior. His chest heaving as he desperately tried to suck in more oxygen for his depleted muscles, Zach saw the number of zombies coming at him through the sweat pouring into his eyes and knew this was the end. He swung the mace one last time and felt that satisfying “crunch” of a successful blow, then he was being pulled sideways, unable to offer any more resistance.
Seeing his young soldiers in trouble, Jack had run back and shouted for Tina and Bill Haines to follow him. He led the two fighters out the door and down the stairs, but their route to the trucks was blocked by the columns of refugees moving between the lines of soldiers keeping the zombies at bay. Jack knew that with zombies battling his troops just a few feet away from the people evacuating the courthouse, he could easily trigger a panicked stampede if he started shouting and running through the column. He forced himself to walk quickly and use a calm, firm voice to ask the refugees to let him pass. Tina and Bill stayed right behind Jack as he made his way toward the trucks, and all of them could hear the teens shouting unintelligible words behind the convoy.
Finally they reached the tightly parked row of trucks and jumped up on one of the flatbeds to see what was happening with Maddy and Zach. Jack could see that Maddy was leaning against a fender at her end of the convoy. Briefly shaking his head with near-disbelief, he saw more than a dozen corpses near her position. No zombies were currently within twenty yards of the teen, but Jack told Tina to go check on her and provide backup until the loading was complete.
The convoy twisted slightly to the left so Jack couldn’t see Zach’s situation until he trotted over to the cab of the truck and leaned out over the railing. When he saw that the kid was frantically fighting to free himself from a mob of zombies, Jack shouted at Bill, “C’mon!” Then he jumped to the ground and began running to help Zach.
As the fully armed and armored fighters covered the distance to Zach at a slow trot, they watched in hopeful amazement as the powerful teen cut and punched his way free of the mob of zombies in mere seconds. Jack tried to control his breathing while running as fast as he could to reach the threatened young soldier, wondering how Zach was still swinging his hammer after all that he’d been through in the past ten minutes. The kid was surrounded by corpses, but still more zombies were reaching toward him as he backed up against the truck and labored to lift his hammer. Jack finally reached the crowd surrounding Zach and thrust his halberd into the back of the skull of the creature nearest him. He briefly saw Bill moving to the right and watched Zach smash one more zombie before the gore-covered mace slipped from the boy’s grasp and the zombies reached hungrily for the exhausted teen.
Jack reached out and pulled Zach to the ground behind him just as the zombies began clawing at the boy. Bill had dropped several creatures and was advancing on a third as Jack methodically began crushing the heads of the three zombies that had closed in on Zach. Suddenly he saw one of the monsters fall violently backward with a long pole sticking out of its forehead, and Jack looked up to see that one of Barry’s guards was on the bed of the truck with his young family, wasting no time in grabbing one of the pikes left there and joining the fight to save the spent teen. Finding himself with no nearby zombies to fight, Jack turned around and lifted Zach to his feet, pushing the boy up into the waiting arms of the guard who pulled him the rest of the way over the fence onto the platform.
With Zach safe Jack turned to see Bill finish off the last of the zombies that had been threatening the position. Others were working their way through the wire and would become a problem in several minutes, but Jack figured that Bill and the guard on the truck-bed could deal with any new threats. He pulled himself up onto the truck and briefly checked on Zach. He found the boy with his helmet off, gulping down water from a bottle one of the refugees had thrust into his hands. Jack asked the teen if he had been bitten, but Zach shook his head and rasped, “They didn’t get through the armor.”
The guard with the pike glanced back over his shoulder, “You’re one tough kid. You and that girl . . .” he cocked his head toward the opposite side of the truck where a gore-covered Maddy was grinning from ear to ear as she sat cross-legged in the corner. He speared another zombie that was clawing at the truck as he continued, “We heard her battle cry and thought we had Zena the warrior princess come to join our fight—both these kids fought like superheros!”
Jack gently slapped Zach on the shoulder, gave Maddy the thumbs-up, and told both teens to stay put until they got back to The Castle. He took a moment to survey the fighting from his new vantage point. The last of the refugees had exited the courthouse doors, followed by the RRTs who had been ordered to sweep the building before the convoy departed. The soldiers guarding the path to the trucks were holding their lines, but the mounds of corpses in front of their position revealed the intensity of the attack they had been resisting. Figuring that all of the refugees would be on the trucks in just a few minutes, Jack felt a wave of confidence that made his heart swell with pride. These people, his people, would not be defeated in this war. At least not today.
Jack suddenly had an idea as he watched the RRTs help the last of the refugees onto the truck beds, and he shouted over the excited voices of the crowd. “Everyone who can handle a pike needs to pick one up and stand along the railing of the platform.”
When many of the people looked a little hesitant he shouted, “Now!”
As the citizen soldiers grabbed their pikes and lined the edges of the truck beds, Jack pulled Barry aside and explained, “The last truck is basically empty. We’re going to take the convoy as far as possible through the opening, and you and your guards need to keep the zombies off the trucks. I’m going to pull my people from the doors, set up a defense line behind the convoy, and take the rest out to help Rickers and Ross keep the road clear. You tell all the drivers to follow the lead vehicle bumper to bumper when we finally have an escape route open. Got it?”
Jack hopped off the platform and quickly explained the plan to the RRTs, ordering John and Tina to keep their teams behind the convoy to provide the rear-guard. Deputy Miller was still on the back of the last fire truck with his M1A set up on its tripod.
As soon as Jack was satisfied with the rear security and saw the vehicles beginning to move down the narrow path through the wire, he shouted to the remaining RRTs, “Pistols for this job, guys. We’re going back to the courthouse doors and pulling our squads out from front to back. Cover them with the .22s as long as we can, then follow them out to Rickers and Ross at the wire’s opening. Let’s do it!”
Jack led the RRTs at a trot, reaching the front of the guard-lines, slapping the first soldiers on their shoulders and telling them to head out. The RRT fighters began dropping zombies by the score as they fired away with their .22s; many of the creatures were so close that even the worst of marksmen couldn’t miss. The exhausted soldiers steadily disengaged from the zombies as the RRTs took their places. John and Tina had their teams moving slowly backward as the convoy pulled out, and they were grateful for the steady booming of Miller’s M1A as it spit out its deadly .308 rounds.
Jack climbed up onto the back of the last truck and turned to see that Carter was right behind him. Both men reloaded their .22s and added their fire to Miller’s. John and Tina realized they had to make a break for it now if they were to ever escape, so they shouted to their teams to make a run for the truck at the count of three.
John loudly counted out the numbers, and, as ordered, the teams broke for the truck at three. More of the zombies seemed to be the fast-moving type than they had faced the day before, and the RRTs were closely pursued as the fighters ran to the truck and began hauling themselves aboard the platform with Jack and Carter’s help. Miller continued to fire at the closest zombies, helping create just enough space for the RRTs to make their escape.
Everyone on the last truck was exhausted, but they had to help the squads holding the escape corridor open as the last of the vehicles slowly exited the perimeter. John and Tina still had some loaded clips for their .22s, so they added their firepower to the pikes in an effort to keep the hard-charging zombies off of the last of the soldiers as they were pulled aboard the rolling vehicles. After everything that had gone wrong over the past few minutes, this maneuver worked perfectly. The convoy steadily rolled through the lines of soldiers who were pulled free of the fight and into the final truck making its way away from the courthouse. After the last two fighters, Marcus and Bruce, were pulled up onto the truck bed, Jack pushed through to the back of the cab and pounded on the rear window. When the navigator turned around, Jack gave him the thumbs-up he had been waiting for, and the driver turned on the siren to let the lead vehicle know the evacuation was complete and they could pick up speed.
Jack pulled off his helmet and drank deeply from a water bottle someone had given him, then he surveyed the battleground they were leaving behind at the courthouse. Hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, corpses littered the ground that had been fought over for more than thirty-six hours. Hundreds more were moving onto the road and through the nearby city streets, trying to keep pace with the trucks that were now quickly pulling away. Jack could hear their moans and roars, and he hoped it was only his imagination that gave him the feeling that the creatures were expressing frustration over the people’s escape. They hadn’t all made it. Jack could see four mounds of frantically clawing zombies by the wire near the road, but with the cold logic of a general leading a resistance against an overwhelming force, he accepted the fact that they had lost four while gaining over one hundred new people. Jack finally just shook his head and turned away from the scene, wondering again how such a monstrous tragedy had managed to bring down civilization in a matter of days.
CHAPTER 24
Back at The Castle, the convoy was welcomed home with both joyous reunions and exclamations of sadness. Everyone had lost people they knew and loved in the past week, and everyone had others they cared for facing the disaster somewhere in the world outside The Castle. Jack was busy unloading injured soldiers when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Andi smiling broadly with the girls at her side. Despite the horrors of the day, Jack managed a weak grin as Andi exclaimed, “Glad to see you made it through another battle.”
Jack replied, “Did you have any doubts that I would?”
She looked serious for a moment, “No, not this time. I was really worried yesterday though.”
Jack briefly thought about this before explaining, “Things were more dangerous yesterday, if degrees of danger even matter anymore.” He leaned closer and grinned mischievously, “You know, now that I think about it, I did have a strong feeling that I needed to get down to the sheriff’s office that night you killed the two zombies. Maybe we’re developing some sort of psychic connection.”
Andi reached out and placed a hand on one of the few spots on Jack’s chest that wasn’t covered with zombie-gore and said, “That’s the best pick-up line I’ve heard all day. Dinner tonight, in your room. Carter’s mom will keep the girls for a while.”
Jack nodded, “Sounds good. In fact, sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard. Seven-o-clock a good time?”
She eyed him from head to toe and smiled mischievously. “As long as that gives you enough time to pretty yourself up first.”
The Castle wasn’t built for over four hundred people, but working together they found a way to clean and feed everyone, tend to the injured, and find shelter for all. They couldn’t live this crowded together for long, but if Jack’s plan worked as intended they wouldn’t need to. The sun was low in the sky when Jack finally felt confident enough to leave the rest of the resettlement work to others. He went into the arms room in the basement to clean his gear and take an especially thorough shower. He leaned his head against the tiled wall as the warm water washed over his aching body, and he felt the bone-deep weariness that the days of constant combat had left him with. He had done all that he could
do for today, and tonight he would eat and sleep and try not to think about the world outside The Castle’s walls. The beginning of the work that lay ahead in the coming days could wait until tomorrow morning.
Returning to his room he found Andi in the process of laying out dinner on a folding table: fried chicken strips, baked potatoes, canned green beans, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Jack gave her a hug and joked as he took a seat and grabbed one of the chicken strips, “Didn’t I tell you that I’m a vegetarian?”
“No,” she replied, waiting for him to take a large bite before declaring, “but you should have remembered that I am!”
Jack grimaced as he chewed, “Tofu?”
Andi laughed, “Actually it’s a blend of plant proteins.”
Jack swallowed and took a gulp of the soda in front of him “So it’s tofu?”
She shrugged and smiled, “Whatever, tell me that it doesn’t taste pretty good.”
Jack shook his head as he reluctantly agreed, “It’s actually not bad. Tastes pretty much like chicken without the fat. Is that a real potato or some kind of organic, tasteless substitute?”
Andi sighed playfully, “No, sissy, it’s a real potato, with butter and sour cream. The beans aren’t fresh but at least you’re getting a vegetable. And Carter’s mom told me that the cookies are your favorite.”
Jack’s eyes lit up with surprised delight, “Carter’s mom made these?”
“Nope, but she gave me the recipe.”
Jack lowered his head in mock disappointment, “Way to get my hopes up.”
Andi grabbed one and took a bite, “Mmmm, still warm. If you don’t want them I’m sure I could find a way to get rid of them.”