Today we are going to try a few of them out.
Father Mike gave a brilliant sermon and rallied the whole building behind this crazy plan.
Glad I didn’t toss him to the zombies after all.
Even if my shoulder does still hurt.
Katrin is back in her usual spot on the roof top and will be giving us cover fire if we end up needing it.
I pulled rank and I will be leading the test team out this morning, Matt gave a good argument that it should be him, but I chose to ignore him. I also made an excellent argument to Joyce that she should stay behind.
Yeah, she chose to ignore it.
I am standing next to a guy named Marvin, who is not only the biggest of all of us Narwhals, but probably the biggest man I have ever met. He is six seven and weighs in at about 285 and he has muscles in places that I don’t even have places. He is strong as a bull and basically fearless. Strapped to his back are a couple of huge boom boxes rigged to a control he is holding in one hand.
“Ready big guy?” I ask him with a grin.
“Born ready small fry.” He tells me with a grin and a wink.
In addition to all of the guns and assorted blades and bludgeons we usually carry, the rest of us have little Freon powered air horns that Matt’s team got lucky enough to come across.
“What is our musical selection for this little walk in the park?” Joyce asks him craning her neck to look at him.
“We decided to go all Donny and Marie on their asses. Boom box one is a little bit country with some fine yodeling included and boom box two is a little bit rock and roll with some assorted heavy metal. Played together it should be just about unbearable.” Henry chimes in.
Everyone going out on this errand is wearing earplugs, hopefully this will protect us from Singers, as well as the sheer decibel levels we are going to try to put out. We don’t know the minimum level we need, so we are going for over kill.
The team is aware of the theoretical nature of what we are doing, we are trying to bring the fight to the enemy and if our toys don’t work, we will have to fight our way back the old fashion way. If it comes down to that, we aren’t all coming back. Maybe even not most of us. Hell, truth be told maybe not any of us. We have to know if we can fight them like this or not. Before the pathogen adapts again and we lose this hard won, thin margin advantage.
We are going out in strength, there is a good dozen of us all heavily armed with the usual weapons and the new toys as well. The plan is to bait them in, kill them and move on. The plan is to keep doing that until we have inflicted real damage on their numbers and then come back home and consider what we do next.
Winston will relay our success or our failure to everyone listening on the ham radio network. If I don’t make it back, well Matt gets his turn in the barrel and will be in charge.
If there is anything left for him to be in charge of.
We are committing a dangerous chunk of personnel and weapons to this mission. If we don’t come back, The Narwhals still here will be in a bad way, our supply run the other day has helped, but sooner or later they will have to send out poorly equipped understaffed teams to get more. There will also be less guards at the door with less than optimum weapons to guard it with.
So, no pressure then.
We move out.
Marvin is in the middle and we all spread out to protect him. I take point with Joyce behind me on my left and Cassandra behind me on my right. We make no attempt at stealth this time, we start walking right towards the ring of zombies.
“Come on you fucks! Come and get some! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and here it is!” Cassandra begins to shout.
“Who’s hungry?” I holler at them and underscore the question with a couple of toots of my air horn.
Apparently, all of them are.
They come for us.
“Wait for it.” I tell everyone tersely as the rotting things stumble towards us making the usual hooting and twilling noises. A quick look around and I don’t see any of them swelling, so hopefully none of these are acid blooded Screamers.
That would be inconvenient.
They are gnashing their teeth like they are already tearing into us so we must look tasty enough. My squad is tensed and wide eyed as they come, but they are all disciplined enough to wait for the order.
I wait until they are almost on us.
“Ok Marvin, play that funky music white boy!” I yell as I draw one of several guns I have on me.
The boom boxes explode into a barrage of sound, not as loud as the massive speakers powered by the , but still damn loud. We all add our air horns to the mix.
The ragged line of zombies charging at us stop like they have all slammed into an invisible wall of some kind. They all fall to the ground like marionettes with their strings all cut at once and lie their twitching violently.
But none of them explode.
Which I find personally disappointing.
Henry theorized that the battery powered speakers might not have the power to get the job done and it looks like he was right.
I holster the gun and draw out a wickedly sharp well-worn machete that has always served me well.
“Ok kids, save ammo, use blades and clubs while they are down and helpless.” I have to really shout to be heard over the terrible din but they all seem to get the idea.
In minutes we have killed over twenty zombies, without taking a single causality ourselves. I gesture for Marvin to cut the noise and the sudden quiet is shocking.
We all just stand there looking at each other for a long moment.
Cheers erupt from the building we just left and it goes on for a while until eventually we decide, what the hell and join in on it.
Yeah, I think we can call this a win.
Chapter Seventeen
We use the same tactics over and over.
Can’t begin to say how weird it feels to be walking down the middle of the street, deliberately making noise to draw the zombies to us, after all the time we have spent sneaking around afraid to risk any noise.
Hell, we are blasting air horns as we go now.
“Screamer.” Cassandra says calmly and uses her mini 14 carbine to drop the damn thing from a safe distance. We have killed three Screamers and one Singer so far.
The plan has been working like a charm, we wait until we have a decent amount of zombies following us, find a clear spot, stun them with noise and take them all out. A few zombies come at us from allies and doorways, but those we just drop with head shots. Cassandra and a guy named Will, have rifles and they are constantly looking for the more dangerous variants before they get close enough to do their thing.
We have made it all the way back to the store where we first saw the Screamer and we do a little shopping. Everyone, but Marvin has a full backpack for the return trip. At the store we take the time to load up the boom boxes with some fresh batteries for the trip home. We shop like we have all the time in the world.
Because we do.
Since leaving the building, we have at best guess killed about a hundred zombies.
And not one of us has a damn scratch on us.
Can I get a hallelujah?
No idea what kind of dent we have made in the local zombie population, but we have to be thinning the herd. If we can keep this up, we have a chance of making our little corner of the world, a zombie free zone.
I can’t even wrap my head around what that would be like.
The squad is all smiles, we move with a new purpose and energy. If this is what hope feels like, I will take all we can get. This might be a turning point for us humans, the adult zombies killed off the child zombies and now we are killing off the adult zombies. If we can get other survivors in on this, we might just be able to turn the tide here.
Joyce smiles at me and I smile back, a simple pleasure that has been in pretty damn short supply lately. We are all happy, but happy doesn’t mean careless, because we are survivors and we didn’t last this l
ong by being stupid.
“Company.” Marvin says and we all go on alert and get weapons out as a group of four men walk slowly up to us.
“That’s close enough.” I call out to them in a neutral tone, I am not looking for trouble with other people, but our track record in running into nice people out here, has pretty much sucked.
I look them over, they are dirty and hungry looking, but their weapons are holstered and they aren’t making any threatening moves. A stocky Asian guy with a wispy goatee, is the closest to us and I make him as the leader. Behind him are two white guys and one Hispanic guy covered in colorful tattoos. All of them look to be in their late thirties or so.
“Hey man, we have been watching you all morning. Holy fuck! You guys are zombie killing machines!” The leader calls out to us.
“What do you want?” Cassandra ask bluntly in a less than friendly voice, her Mini 14 isn’t pointed at them, but nobody is likely under any delusions that that can’t change in a heartbeat.
“Shit, we want in, is what we want! Let us help. We are all that is left of our group now. Everyone else is dead.” There are notes of real loss, sadness and anger in his voice and the rest of his crew is busy staring down at the ground.
I make a decision.
“Not this time. But I am extending you an invitation to join our group. Prove yourselves trustworthy and yeah eventually you go on runs. Everybody starts out on the bottom rung though. If you are ok with that walk carefully back the way you saw us come. You will see a big brick building with a fortified front door. There is a sign that says Narwhals, explain that later. You might have to kill a few zombies to get to it. When you get close start yelling “Jake sent me as loud as you can.” Guards will come out, give them your weapons and go with them. They will disarm and isolate you at first, but they will give you food and water. I will come talk to you when I get back.” I tell them laying out the terms in a voice that stands up and shouts, take it or leave it.
The leader turns around and whispers to his friends for a minute and then turns to me again. Everyone seems to be nodding their heads, so I am pretty sure that this will land firmly in the take in column.
“Deal. My name is Brian. I am guessing that you are Jake. Try not to die before you come spring us from isolation.” He tells me with a ragged grin and just a hint of smart ass in his tone.
“Deal. Try not to get eaten on the way there.” I give him a grin and the same tone right back at him.
They back up slowly and then turn around and start making their way back the way we came.
My squad is looking at me and I give them a shrug. Sometimes you have to roll the dice and take a chance. We have lost a lot of people lately and some of our best and brightest have been brought in just like this.
“Finish up folks, we will start back swinging east a little and see how many more of these things we can put down.” I tell them.
My ears are still ringing from all of the noise so I don’t even hear the Singer start their weird song.
“Singer!” Cassandra calls out and before I even turn around, she has shot the thing staggering towards us, from about three blocks away.
“Nice shot.” I tell her.
“Living with a sniper has its perks, she has been giving me pointers.” She tells me with a goofy grin.
“I bet.” I say arching an eyebrow.
“Shut up.” She says and goes back to work.
I would give her more crap, but she just showed me how good she is with a rifle.
Despite public opinion I am not a complete idiot.
We head out and use the same tactics all the way home, bait stun and kill over and over. My arm is actually getting tired from swinging the machete and I have yet to fire a shot. My shoulder aches, but I barely notice through the buzz of this plan working.
The last several blocks go by without seeing a single zombie, either we have killed off most of them around hear or they are learning not to take the bait.
That last thought puts a little dent in my buzz.
Chapter Eighteen
By the time we get home we have killed close to a hundred and fifty zombies and taken no damage ourselves. I send a runner to Winston to get on his ham radio and spread the good news. We dump our full backpacks to the supply people and return our weapons to the armory.
It has been a good day.
Matt finds me to give me his report of what has happened while we have been out thinning the undead horde.
“Good thing you guys brought more supplies, your four new best friends were very hungry.” He tells me flatly.
Uh oh.
“What else?”
“I had Viv look them over to make sure they had no bites or anything and one of them tried to get a little frisky with her.” I can hear enough amusement in his voice to guess how that went over.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes, but he is holding a bag of ice on his junk as we speak. He has apologized profusely, as has the one named Brian. I told him that this wasn’t a great start to his and his crew’s probation. I think he gets it.” He continued.
“All right, I will talk to them later. Let’s keep them in isolation for the next few days. It worked brother, we wiped out every single undead dirt bag we came across.”
We exchange tired high fives and go our separate ways. Both of us still have a lot of things to do.
Father Mike is chatting with a group of women and he comes over and shakes my hand.
“A blessed day Jake, The Lord has provided us with a great victory today.” He tells me as he pumps my arm up and down.
I resist the urge to tell him that the guy he tried to stab and scathingly called a sinner had a little something to do with it.
Sometimes my own maturity amazes me.
My last stop is the roof top. Katrin is giving the next shift her patented ‘fuck up in any way and I will end you’ pep talk. I walk to the ledge and look out over the kill zone in front of the building.
There is a small knot of zombies milling around just behind the zombie sentry line. I pick up the binoculars sitting on a crate next to me and give myself a better look.
As I watch about a dozen zombies fall down and begin to writhe on the ground making a guttural wail and as I watch they begin to change.
“Katrin! Scramble security! All snipers on deck, send runners out now get everyone to the lower floors!” I shout.
I don’t even have to look to see that she is making it all happen.
As I watch the bizarre scene unfold through the binoculars, I kick myself for allowing myself to think that we had come close to ending the threat of the zombies out there.
They are mutating again, God help us all.
The pathogen is twisting these zombies into a new weapon against us, different from the Screamers and Singers. Their heads and upper bodies shrink while their legs extend and begin to fill with large muscles.
The legs look just like frog legs.
What do frogs do boys and girls?
Frogs jump.
“Kill them! Shoot them all now!” I scream as the things lurch themselves upright and sit quivering for a moment gathering their strength.
“Da.” Katrin says calmly as she begins to fire.
With guttural deep shrieks the things leap at the building, aiming for the unprotected third story windows. We long ago boarded up the first and second story windows, but not seeing the need we never went higher than that.
I can hear them smash through the glass and I can immediately hear screaming. Katrin and her crew kill most of them, but a few get past us and now are in the building with us. The sound of gunfire joins the screaming, but the later all but drowns out the former.
Cursing, I pound down the stairs with my gun out and I kill one of the damn things that is feasting on a woman that it has pinned against the wall. She slides down the wall with her throat torn out leaving a long smear of blood.
A moment later she stands up and comes at me.
I shoot her right between the eyes and move down the hallway reloading as I go. Three more things that used to be Narwhals try for me as I go, but I take them down with close range headshots.
A few steps later, Matt is by my side with a pump action shotgun.
“We have been breached, I think there are at least four of those damn things in the building.” He says through clenched teeth.
“I killed one Jumper back there, and the woman it killed turned right away. Killed her too. Plus three more.” I tell him in the same tone.
“Jumper? Yeah that works as a name I guess. We have to kill them all before they turn half the building.” He says grimly.
“Head down brother, I will clear the rest of this floor.” I give the order and he nods and heads down the next stair case.
A wild eyed man runs past me looking like something really fucking bad was chasing him. He drops a small caliber pistol as he goes.
Tells me that I am going in the right damn direction, I suppose.
I slowly edge around a corner and there is a Jumper lying on the floor twitching and keening. It has several gunshot wounds, all in the body. The idiot behind me panicked and forgot about the rule.
Bullets in the head, until the fucker is dead.
I put a whole magazine into the freaks misshapen head splattering the walls with slimy gore.
Two down.
In the distance I hear the heavy thumping of Matt’s twelve gauge, I can only hope that we are containing the threat.
I keep moving.
It is like walking through a slaughter house now, gore is dripping down from the ceiling and paints the walls and floor. I am forced to kill five more, used to be friends as I go. It sucks.
No time to dwell on it now, I can feel like shit later, right now we have to kill all threats.
No matter what they are or who they used to be.
I turn another corner and there is a very dead Jumper on the floor and Henry is leaning against a wall pale and shaking holding a bloody fire axe.
Zombie Extinction Event (Book 2): Hush Page 6