by J. W. Vohs
Jack’s observations were cut short as Andi came around the corner of the barn and shouted for him. “Barry’s on the radio; he wants to talk to you.”
Jack trotted up to her, and together they quickly walked to the command center. Andi had no information about what Barry wanted, but she said he sounded worried when she spoke with him. The carpenter had led a team out that morning to observe the effects of the sirens in Albion and had apparently discovered something that couldn’t wait for his return to The Castle. Jack walked into the room and picked up the waiting radio, “Hey, Barry, what’s going on out there?”
“Jack, we’re in a silo about a mile outside of town using those field glasses you gave me. You wouldn’t believe how many zombies are in the town; heck, too many for the town. They’re in the fields and lots on the outskirts, and more of them are still headed that way. I mean, there’s thousands of them Jack! I think you should take a look for yourself; I really don’t think you want us leading all of these things back to The Castle.”
Jack smiled grimly to himself, “It’s all right, Barry, we know there are over ten thousand of them out there somewhere. You’re actually seeing what that number looks like in the field. Just relax and get you and your team safely out of there. Are the sirens still on in town?”
“They’re still working, but they’ve faded a lot since yesterday. I’ve heard our fire trucks a few times, but I haven’t seen them. You sure you want us to come in now?”
“Yeah, but be careful getting out of there. Everybody still armored up?”
“Soon as we get our helmets on we will be. There’s a few zombies around the vehicle, but nothing we can’t deal with.”
“All right, c’mon back now. We figured that even if the average zombie could only cover one mile an hour all of them within hearing would be there today, so it looks like our plan’s working.”
Barry still sounded worried, “I’m not sure you know what thousands look like, Jack. I’m just saying that you should probably take a look before you have the trucks lure them back to The Castle.”
“You get back here so I can leave this place in good hands and I’ll take John and Carter in to have a look before dark. That good enough for you?”
“That’ll do. See you in a half hour or so.”
“We’ll be waiting for you.”
Andi looked at Jack with concern as he ended the conversation with Barry. “Are you worried that we might be biting off more than we can chew?”
Jack thought for a moment, “Well, I figured that the first time I actually saw thousands gathered in one place it would be a shock, but we all knew the numbers we were dealing with. We’ll have a look tonight and decide if we should go on with the plan, but honestly, Andi, this place was built for a fight like this. Medieval warlords could hold a fort against ridiculous odds, and they were fighting against men experienced in siege warfare. If I didn’t think we could do this I’d come up with a different plan, but since we know we have to fight I’d like to choose the time, place, and conditions.”
Andi nodded in response, “I know you’re right, but I’m still scared.”
He pulled her tight and kissed her hair, “Everybody in the history of warfare has been scared or crazy, and you aren’t crazy. You were scared when you saved those two kids, but you did what you had to do and you did it very well. We’re going to win this thing, I promise.”
She looked up at Jack, her huge blue eyes twinkling as she whispered, “I’m gonna hold you to that.”
The sun was setting amidst gathering clouds to the west as Jack and Carter, along with Barry, observed the town from the silo used as a viewing perch earlier in the day. Albion was literally crawling with moaning zombies, all wandering about the town in a futile search for the sirens that had lured them there. The men whispered to one another as they watched the creatures move around the streets through high powered field glasses.
Jack observed, “You guys notice that when one of them sees or hears a bird or something all of the nearby zombies turn in the same direction a few seconds later?”
Carter replied, “Yep, my guess is that if we were close enough to hear ‘em we’d be able to notice a change in their moans. I’m tellin’ ya, these things are communicatin’ with each other now.”
Barry added, “Not only that, but you notice how many of them are the fast movers now? Looks to me as if they aren’t badly injured they’re capable of near-sprints.”
Jack responded, “I think more of them are fast-movers than not, and you were right about the numbers: there are thousands of them down there.”
Carter asked, “Still want to go ahead with the plan?”
“Now more than ever,” Jack answered. “The virus is mutating or the zombies are changing after infection; something is improving their abilities. I’m positive that they can communicate with each other in some way, even if only about the location of prey, and we didn’t plan for the fast movers when we were preparing for the outbreak. I’m tempted to break out the heavy firearms.”
Carter shook his head, “Still have to hit the brain to stop ‘em, and the catapults will slow plenty of them fast movers. The day may come when we’ll need our guns and ammo against rogue humans, or zombies that continue to develop even more senses and abilities than they have now.”
Barry interjected, “I hope you’re right about them only being able to communicate the location of food. If they’ve got the ability to recognize weak points in our defenses and let the others know, we’ll have to defend the whole perimeter of the wall. We can’t do that against this many.”
Jack considered Barry’s point. “Well, they were finding their way through the wire at the safe houses, but I didn’t notice any of them paying attention to what the others were doing. For every one of the zombies that found paths through the wire, five others got hung up in it. I really don’t think that they can communicate with each other beyond what we’ve already seen and heard. You are right about one thing though, if they attack more than one side of the wall at the same time we’ll have big problems.”
Carter added, “I got an idea about that. How ‘bout we drop trees, park cars and tractors, and place any other obstacles we can find in lines headin’ out from the gate and the backside of the wall. We can string up that razor wire we got stored in the barn. Only take an extra day or two to get somethin’ in place. I know we’ll get a few on the other side that are comin’ toward the sirens from the opposite direction, but the ones we’re seein’ now can be kept to one side of the wall if we do it right.”
Jack looked over at Barry, “See, I know he sounds like a dumb hillbilly and looks like the village idiot but sometimes he has a good idea!”
Barry chuckled and said, “We could make those walls in less than a day with just cars and pickups. It is a good idea.”
Carter put his binoculars back into the case and declared, “I’ve seen enough zombies, and heard enough of yer genius ideas fer now. I’m goin’ back to The Castle for dinner, and even though I’m a moron, I suggest you join me for the ride back unless ya wanna walk!”
Everyone back at The Castle approved of Carter’s plan to extend the walls, and work began at first light the next morning. Tom and Sarah were put in charge of designing and implementing a plan to quickly and safely collect additional vehicles. With all of the refugees about, labor was not a problem, so work on all of the other projects continued as well. By noon Jack was satisfied with the progress being made on the temporary walls, and after conferring with John, Tina, and several of the other squad and team leaders, he ordered the fire trucks to finish their routes into Albion and return to The Castle.
The trucks had been modified again since the evacuations from the safe-houses, this time with what were essentially small forts built on the platforms directly behind the cabs. Four shooters were assigned to each truck, in case any of the vehicles came under attack or experienced mechanical problems. All of the vehicles had radios and were expected to maintain regular contact with t
he command center as they followed pre-selected roadways at the blistering pace of one mile an hour. Upon their return, all of the crews would be given the afternoon and evening to rest before being called back to their vehicles. Then they would head to Albion in the early morning hours and begin luring the zombies back to The Castle. If everything went as planned, they would be back sometime in the afternoon with about ten thousand flesh-eaters on their tails.
After the series of problems that had plagued the evacuations, Jack had expected the worst during the pre-dawn hours as the trucks drove through the dark with their sirens screaming, but as the miles slowly passed none of the vehicles experienced any mechanical issues. Several times they had found roads blocked by zombies but were easily able to clear the roadway with what were essentially small versions of locomotive cattle-catchers that had been attached during the modifications. Shots were being fired when easy targets presented themselves, just in an effort to thin the herd a bit while adding to the noise intended to attract the zombies. Jack and the most of the RRT members weren’t aware of the fact that no serious problems had occurred during the night since they slept while Andi and Deb took turns manning the radios in the command center.
An hour before dawn Andi woke Jack up, then roused Carter, John, and Tina so they could prepare for their scouting mission at first light. After breakfast they divided into pairs and drove two Hummers out to what they hoped were the flanks of the massed zombies. Staying in contact by radio, the teams found cell towers and climbed as high as was needed to get a view of the ground between them. What they saw was breathtakingly terrifying: at least ten thousand zombies were strung out in a mass about three miles long, with the lead creatures attacking the wailing trucks only to be shot down by the fortified marksmen the vehicles carried. Jack glassed the zombie horde from front to back as far as he could see and wondered why no horror movie had ever filmed a scene like the one before him now.
The best analogy Jack would be able to come up with when trying to describe the mass of zombies back at The Castle was that they looked like a documentary he’d once seen on army ants moving to attack a termite mound in Africa. At this distance the zombies looked just like a dark mass of insects crawling over the countryside, parting for trees and other large objects before coming together again on their relentless march to catch the trucks moving slowly before them. He remembered the story of The Pied Piper, and how the strange man led the rats out of town with his music. He decided right then that if he ever got the chance to write down his life story he would call this plan Operation Pied Piper, and he chuckled grimly as he considered the difference between the situation in that story and the one he was taking part in now. They could, perhaps should, have been leading the menace away from them, but instead they were leading over ten thousand monsters who existed only to eat human flesh directly to The Castle.
Finally satisfied that the plan was working, Jack climbed down the tower and asked Carter if he wanted to climb up and take a look. Carter just shook his head as he explained, “If ya don’t know what yer lookin’ at by now I ain’t gonna be able to tell ya!”
They climbed back into the Hummer and called John and Tina, both of whom had finished their reconnaissance of the horde with the same conclusions as Jack and Carter: the plan was working and the trucks would reach The Castle in about six hours. As they drove back Carter called the command center and told Andi to tell all team and squad leaders to finish their work and prepare for lockdown in four hours, then he passed the phone to Jack who asked, “Ever seen ten thousand zombies?”
“Seems like that many in some of the nightmares I’ve had lately,” she half-jokingly replied.
“Well, get ready to see even more than that by this afternoon.”
“So your plan is working, huh?”
“Sure is, though after seeing how well it’s working I’m not sure if that’s a good thing anymore.”
“You could still tell the trucks to turn in another direction.”
“What are the people in The Castle saying?”
“They want to get this fight over with, especially if these things are getting smarter somehow. I guess your arguments have been very persuasive around here, or maybe it’s just your natural charm and good looks.”
Jack laughed, “I think that’s probably it; charm and good looks will go a long way in a zombie apocalypse.”
“Just get back here in less than four hours or you’ll be locked out.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll see you in about ten minutes, and we’ve invited some friends for dinner.”
CHAPTER 26
Everything back at The Castle was controlled chaos when the Hummers pulled through the gates. People were rushing around trying to complete their assigned tasks, but all of the activity seemed to be taking place in good order. Jack tried to estimate the tonnage of fist-sized rocks gathered in huge piles along the eastern wall but finally accepted Carter’s estimate of, “A hell of a lot!”
The wall of vehicles and other large objects now extended at least four hundred yards in each direction, though the southern section disappeared into the state forest. Jack sent out orders that all work was to be focused on the northern wall that stretched over a large, grassy mound covering a former landfill. He didn’t want people to freak out here, but the horde of zombies headed their way was larger than anyone could imagine, and The Castle was going to be in danger of being outflanked no matter how far the walls of junk extended out. He grabbed Drake Ross and Stanley Rickers and told them to take their squads into the state forest and stretch razor wire as far as possible in case any zombies wandered around the impromptu wall and tried to walk through the trees.
Three hours later they could hear the sirens wailing in the distance; Jack ordered everyone into The Castle and began the fortification of the gates. Basically the entire opening was filled with dirt and rocks, and even though the gates were behind the wall of vehicles, they had constructed razor wire was staked down across the entire front to a height of six feet. The only ways in and out of the fortress now were two sets of steps dug into the western side of the berm, but those were only in place for the returning truck crews and possibly any refugees fleeing the zombie horde. The message to the inhabitants of The Castle was clear: no retreat.
As the sirens grew closer a new sound could be heard rumbling toward The Castle. Even Jack felt a tremor of fear when he realized that they were hearing the moans of the zombies from over two miles away. Minutes later the smell followed the sound, and Andi hit the nail on the head when she described the odor as that of rancid meat rotting under a summer sun. Jack sent orders for the guards along the walls to come down from their posts, at which point they began using what were basically large periscopes to observe the approach of the vehicles that were now in sight. The drivers were under orders to speed up to at least forty miles an hour over the last mile, and as Jack looked through his own scope he thought that the vehicles were moving faster than that as they approached.
Finally, the fire trucks pulled into the open area that had been cleared for them about fifty yards away from the walls where the crews lept out of the vehicles and began running around to the back of The Castle. The drivers and shooters scrambled up the steps and climbed down into the yard, but nobody was paying them much attention as the people manning the scopes got their first good look at the size of the approaching zombie host. The last burst of speed that allowed the fire trucks to break free of the zombies had also led to a race amongst the creatures who were chasing the sirens that they hoped would lead to food. The strongest and fastest arrived at the trucks first, actually running to clamber up onto the cabs and beds of the trucks in a frantic search for the humans they had smelled and seen on the vehicles during the chase.
Within minutes hundreds of zombies were beating on the cabs in frustration, some finally breaking through the glass windows and worming their way inside the vehicles even as others struggled to get past them as the smell of humans suddenly intensified with un
fettered access to the interior of the trucks. Thousands more were strung out as far as the eye could see, all of them moving toward The Castle as fast as their condition would allow. Jack noted with dismay that most of the zombies he could see seemed to be in good shape, and the ones that had arrived earlier appeared to be nearly as fast and nimble as they probably were when they were human. He fervently hoped that Carter’s catapults worked as well as advertised.
Everyone inside The Castle wanted a turn at the scopes, but Jack insisted that only the RRT and squad leaders take a look, and then he assigned a specific guard rotation for the contraptions. He realized that he was being a bit strong-handed with this policy, but military consideration always trumped American political sensibility in times of emergency. Jack figured that this situation was about as emergency as anyone could ever imagine. Seeing the size of the gathering mass of zombies took the breath from the most experienced warriors, and he didn’t want some of the civilians spreading the seeds of panic among the inhabitants of his fortress.
As the sun was going down, Jack decided that even though stragglers stretched to the edge of the eastern horizon, the bulk of the zombie army was now on the scene. He was certain that there were more than ten thousand of the creatures gathered around the still wailing fire trucks, but so far none of them had shown any interest in the walls behind which the humans were quietly preparing for battle. Jack walked off to find Carter and asked him if his catapults were ready for action; his buddy assured him that they were. Each one of the machines could hurl over one hundred pounds of stones about eighty yards beyond the walls, and all of the crews knew how to adjust the catapults to drop rocks just over the edge of the berm if necessary.