by TW Brown
Suddenly I was being hoisted from the ground and then just as unceremoniously tossed aside. I only saw enough in that brief second above the snow to catch a glimpse of DeAngelo. This time I landed on my back and found myself staring up at the dark gray sky.
I heard a roar followed by a shrill shriek. When I sat up, DeAngelo was swinging his long sword in huge arcs and cutting down everything that stood. A head flew one way and an arm the other as he used absolutely no discrimination in his attack. He wasn’t taking the zombies down so much as he was taking them apart.
The next thing that I noticed was that there was no sign of Nickie. I knew in my heart that she couldn’t have been bitten and turned that quick so as to have been minced by DeAngelo’s whirling dervish routine. Still, with the way things were going, I couldn’t shake the fear that something very bad had happened to her.
I struggled to my feet as the creeper that I had unwittingly stumbled over was yanked up rather harshly and dispatched with a Bowie knife to the temple and then discarded like a ragdoll. DeAngelo spun and his eyes instantly went to my right leg. I looked down and could see the dark stain that was obviously not just dampness from the snow just below the knee.
“Steve…” he started, but couldn’t say anything more.
“What the hell!” Nickie sputtered as she sat up, appearing as little more than just a head hovering over the surface of the snow.
“Exactly!” DeAngelo spun so that all I saw was his big broad shoulders. However, I could still see Nickie’s face and her expression had changed from outraged to chastised in a heartbeat. “What in God’s name possessed you to run down here like that and leave the berm? You gave up all of your safety and endangered everybody with that damn fool move.”
“I…I…” Sounds stopped coming out, but Nickie’s mouth kept moving like a landed fish.
“We need to finish these bastards and get over to my berm before the dozen or so on that side start making it up towards the cabin,” DeAngelo said and turned to help me to my feet. “Can you go?” he whispered.
I nodded.
“Wait,” Nickie called as she stood up. She waded towards us and came to a halt beside DeAngelo, her eyes glued to my right leg. “Oh, Steve,” her eyes filled with fresh tears, “what have I done?”
“We can deal with this later,” I said. “”Right now we’ve got company, and I don’t have a weapon.”
DeAngelo yanked a long machete from its sheath and handed it to me. Without another word we took down the seven remaining zombies that had come out on this side. As I was putting down the last one, he and Nickie were already headed up to the berm.
Once we got back and climbed up on the other mound—a feat that was not as easy for me as it sounds with my previously injured leg throbbing and my new injury burning—it was just a matter of attracting the zombies’ attention.
I stepped forward just a bit and lifted my bleeding leg. “Come and get it!” I crowed. I tugged at my pants leg and fell over backwards down the back side of the berm and into the Killing Tunnel. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Nickie and DeAngelo both gave me a nervous glance. I could see it in their eyes. They were certain that I was already in the grips of delirium brought on by the infection.
4
Geek Insurgent
Kevin scooted forward on his stomach just as Willa had instructed. She had wriggled under a thick hedge that had probably acted as a natural fence back when such things mattered.
They were on the west side of the country club and had been systematically working their way around the entire complex. What Kevin saw made his blood run cold…even colder than the weather.
“Two more,” Willa whispered. “Both are armed with an assortment of blades. No sign of firepower here either.”
“That makes at least twenty individuals,” Kevin hissed. “What the hell happened?”
“If I had to guess, I would say a band of raiders found your little set up and decided to claim it for themselves. I would also say that they don’t intend to give it up any time soon or without a fight.”
Kevin shot a withering glare. “First, I was being rhetorical. Second, I need to figure out a way to get in there and save my friends.”
“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but your chances are absolutely nil. These people have patrolling guards. We have seen at least twenty separate individuals since we arrived last night. There could be any number inside that we haven’t seen yet. We have no idea what the response might be, but it is safe to assume that if they have not already killed your friends, an attack would likely prompt such a thing.”
“What is wrong with you?” Kevin hissed.
“What do you mean?” Willa didn’t even turn her head in Kevin’s direction as she continued to scan the area.
“Is that your idea of a pep talk?” Kevin snapped.
“No.” Willa finally turned his way and looked him in the eyes. “I am telling you the truth…these are facts.”
“I lost people to goons like this before,” Kevin said with as even a tone as he could muster. “I won’t just abandon them. I waited too long the last time to act and somebody I cared about ended up dying a terrible death. I won’t do something stupid, but I won’t do nothing.”
“You can’t do anything, Kevin,” Willa whispered. “I know that you are—”
“You don’t know!” Kevin snapped. “I can’t fail. That is not an option for me. People are counting on me, and I will not let them down. That girl in there needs the medication that I went through hell to get…that probably one of the last doctors in the freaking world died to get! If this is how I am going to die…then so be it. I don’t give a damn anymore.”
Willa looked back at the two men walking across the rolling hill, apparently down the middle of a tree-lined fairway. They were wearing snowshoes and had some upper end cold weather gear. From everything she could see, these were not just a bunch of thugs. These people were organized and had their act together. Any sort of open assault would end quick and with disastrous results.
“We are going to have to use some insurgency tactics,” Willa finally said.
“Huh?”
“Over in Afghanistan, the locals knew better than to go heads up with us—”
“Wait,” Kevin interrupted. “You were in the war?”
“Did you think I just borrowed these clothes?” Willa quipped.
“No…yeah…” Kevin was at a loss. Yes, he knew that she had been in the US Army, but he had never even once considered that she might have been in combat. “So you like…got into firefights and all that crap?”
“Yeah,” Willa said with a chill in her tone. “I did all that crap.”
Kevin shook his head in a mixture of disbelief and wonder. When he’d first met Willa and her band of female fighters, he was given the impression that some of them were actual soldiers, but that many were simply individuals who had joined the group for a “safety in numbers” sense of security. The last thing that had ever crossed his mind was that he was running side-by-side with an actual combat veteran.
“Hey,” Kevin rolled on his side and faced her, “I’m sorry. I have this problem where I don’t think. I say things that sound one way in my head and come out of my mouth in an entirely different fashion.”
“If we’re gonna do this, we do it my way.” Willa dismissed Kevin’s apology. She’d spent years having to prove herself to her male counterparts. She’d long since decided that she didn’t have to prove a damn thing to anybody other than herself.
Kevin listened intently as Willa laid out the plan. A few times, he had to ask her to explain certain aspects or clarify exactly what she expected from him. The hardest part now was the waiting. One of the first things that she had insisted upon is more reconnaissance of the grounds. Also, she was insistent upon making at least one solo run over the country club wall by herself. When Kevin asked why he couldn’t go, she asked him how many actual covert ops not involving a video game console he had made
in his life. That had ended the discussion.
As nightfall came and more snow began to fall in large, fluffy flakes, Kevin sat in the house he and Willa had chosen as their base of operations. From the second floor window he could see a faint glow in the direction of the country club.
Less than two miles away from his friends…and Valarie. He would not fail them. He would not fail her. He had a chance to redeem himself for failing his sister. He would not be able to undo what had been done, but he could do something for somebody who needed him.
On the street below, a lone zombie stumbled into view. It struggled through the snow. When it reached the tracks made by him and Willa, it paused. Kevin leaned forward. He almost expected the thing to pick up their trail and come to the door. Instead, it continued on its course, struggling to stay on its feet as it moved down the dark street and was eventually swallowed in shadows.
***
Kevin moved down the side of the house. He and Willa had been preparing for Willa’s first run when they heard a series of short, sharp whistles. There was no doubt in either of their minds that some of the individuals who had taken the country club were out in the area.
Willa had pulled Kevin up and told him very clearly, “This changes everything.”
“So what do we do?” he asked.
“We do nothing,” Willa said with a shake of her head. “You will stay put, and I will go out and assess the situation.
That had been a while ago, and he was getting antsy. He told himself that he was just taking a peek. The neighborhood was quiet now. There was no movement, and except for the occasional gust that whipped up some of the surface snow and made little snow devils, all was quiet.
He hadn’t heard a sound since Willa had taken off, leaving him feeling rather useless. The problem was, he wasn’t useless. He had survived this long because he spent his life—or most of it since his teen years—preparing for the most unlikely scenario imaginable.
Not even he had really thought something like this could or would ever happen. Seriously. Zombies? But he, Mike, Cary, and Darrin had been certain that they would endure just such an event. They would find a location far away from the main populations and erect a compound. They would set up a farm and add solar and wind power to their little grid. They would be kings among men and the women would all come and beg to be let in. They would all be beautiful and beholden to their saviors.
“What a load of crap,” he hissed.
Speaking of which…so was staying in the shadows beside this house. He needed to be out there doing something. He wasn’t entirely sure what; but he needed to be acting instead of waiting. He moved to the driveway and crouched by the bumper of the snow-covered car that would eventually rot in that very spot.
Nothing.
Nobody jumped out of the shadows and captured him. Nobody fired off a weapon or hollered out that he’d been spotted.
He crept alongside the vehicle towards the end of the driveway. From the rear bumper he scanned the cul-de-sac. Empty. To his left would be the highway and just across that, the country club. Something dark was sprawled in the snow just to his right. It was definitely a dead body. The question he was unable to answer was if it had been living or dead; was it one of the people who had taken his home, or was it Willa.
He tried to remember exactly what she’d been wearing when they split up and was embarrassed to realize that he hadn’t been paying attention. After all, why would he? This was such a simple thing. How could he have been so careless? He was making stupid mistakes and forgetting obvious things and couldn’t tell if it was the cold, the exhaustion, the hunger, or the combination of all the above.
He considered his possibilities and decided that he would observe from this position for a few minutes. To him, that was even more proof that Willa was overlooking his usefulness. He knew not to rush out into the open.
Almost on cue, three men appeared, coming around from behind the house across the street and two down to the right. It took him a few seconds to realize that he recognized one of the men.
Paul James and his daughter had just joined their little group shortly after they’d found Valarie. Right after that run, Kevin had returned to discover Erin’s baby near death from a respiratory illness or some such malady. He’d turned around and gone right back out to search this very neighborhood for medication and stumbled upon the father and daughter. Initially, he had been cautious, but it just seemed like a dad doing his best to care for his little girl.
Oh my God! Kevin thought, and had to stifle a gasp. This was his fault! He had brought Paul and his daughter back to their home—back to the country club.
He watched the men stop in the middle of the vacant driveway to discuss something. From this far away, it was impossible to hear anything that was being said, but he didn’t need to hear to know that they were arguing. Also, it was obviously two against one and Paul was on the short end.
Kevin tried to press himself as close the wheel of the car he was using for cover as possible. He heard the buzz of angry voices, but could still not decipher anything being said.
And he wasn’t alone.
A pair of zombies came stumbling into view from the direction of the highway. They made slow and steady progress through the snow towards the men. At first, he thought they were not aware, but then Paul pointed and made huge gestures with his arms. The other two men looked, but they simply shrugged and resumed laying into the agitated man.
Kevin took the time to study the approaching undead. Both looked old. They were coated in a layer of frost and the man on the left had a long rip down one side that exposed the ribs underneath. That rip looked like the edges would shatter if struck. Kevin marveled at how the zombies remained mobile. Their food source had undeniably shrunk, yet they remained. A normal human body would have liquefied and rotted away to next to nothing by now. Then there was the cold. They did not generate any warmth. So why were they not frozen?
The three men turned to deal with the approaching threat. Kevin knew what was about to happen. Paul wasn’t paying attention to the other two men. He never saw them as they dropped back. That is why he also did not see them bring their bats up and swing at the backs of his knees.
Even from this far away, Kevin heard the crack. When Paul screamed out, the zombies almost seemed to forget about the other two men. As one, the pair fell on the injured man and began to claw and bite.
Paul tried to crawl, but his legs were ruined. One zombie had found purchase on his back. At first there were the repeated cries of “No!” But it soon turned to pleading, begging, pleas for God…and finally that certain sound made by somebody who is literally being torn open and forced to watch themselves be fed upon.
Kevin had turned away long before that.
Once the screaming stopped, he chanced to take a look. He watched as the two men began to walk away. As they passed, each took a single swing at the zombies still hunched over and feeding. They were actually laughing as they picked up their packs that he had not noticed until now sitting beside a hedge that looked like a car had driven through it at some point.
They were just crossing the highway when the one on the left stopped suddenly. He turned to his friend and his hands came up like he was going to hug the other man. It took Kevin a few seconds to notice the shaft of a crossbow bolt jutting out of the man’s chest. By that time, the second man was staggering back a few steps. He fell to his knees and face planted. Kevin had spotted the bolt sticking out of this one’s head much quicker.
Looking around, he was not surprised to see Willa come out from behind a large conical-shaped pine tree that looked as if it would only take a few more snowflakes to send it toppling to the ground.
“I told you to stay put,” Willa barked, thrusting her weapon against a mailbox post, drawing the string back, and securing it with the lever. She stomped over to the downed men and yanked the one bolt sticking out of the second man’s head after planting her boot on the face; with little apparent effort,
she yanked it free and dropped it into place. Turning, Willa fired from only a few feet away as what was left of Paul sat up. Kevin winced as the bolt struck the forehead and apparently had enough energy left to come out the other side. Still, he had gotten enough of a glimpse to see that the man’s lower lip had been pulled down below the chin, a hairy piece of meat dangled, and Kevin could still see it swaying in his mind’s eye.
“If you want to have any chance of saving your friends…you need to do exactly what I say.” Willa stepped right up to Kevin and thrust her face at his until they were so close you couldn’t slide a credit card between the space separating their noses.
“I just came out to see what was going on,” Kevin insisted.
“No, you were coming out into the open where anybody who knows anything about watching for people could see you.”
“Just because—”
“These people are military!” Willa snapped.
“What? Because they happened to be dressed in fatigues? I dressed as Spiderman one year for Halloween…that didn’t make me him.”
“No, because I know them.” Willa shoved Kevin back. “And you better pray that your friends didn’t give them any crap when they came in and took over. The commander of this outfit is Timothy McVeigh crazy. She was a reservist that was being investigated by the feds before everything went sideways. She is a militant extremist who believes that the New World Order was due and she was the person to make it happen.”
“You have a lot of knowledge on a bunch of people we haven’t even met yet,” Kevin retorted, but his heart wasn’t really into it.
He’d had his fill of the militant types. It had been one such man, Charlton Shaw, who had shot his friend and taken some of his travelling companions. He couldn’t imagine having to—
“Wait…” Kevin ran his hand over his face as if he could wipe it clean of whatever had hampered his ability to hear. “Did you say ‘she’?”
“Yep,” Willa confirmed. “She.”