Henry stood from behind the truck. A few of the zeds twitched, a couple still moaned. He slung his rifle, pulled his pistol and began to walk through the fallen and put a final end to their unlife. The gate swung open and several people came out to do the same. They met in the middle of the mess as Henry popped an old woman who tried to bite through his shoe.
“Where you been, Long Tom?” Henry asked. “You could have had this mess cleared up before I got here.”
A tall, skinny man held out his hand. His dark ebony skin shone in the sun. Henry shook the massive paw. “Well heck, Hawk. We know how much you like killin’ zeds, so we saved you some.” They both turned to the girls, then the bus. “Besides, we didn’t know when you be getting’ here and we didn’t want to shoot you up too. So, we waited until we knew you was there.”
“Thanks,” Henry said. “I brought you some people. You said you got room?”
Long Tom looked at them; looked at the bus as people began to straggle out. “Yeah, we have room for some white folks. They look in pretty bad shape, Hawk.”
“They’ve been in Galva for three years living on cat food and whatever they can kill. Their boss said they started with five hundred. What you see is what you get.”
Long Tom grunted. “Not many. Might take ’em awhile to adjust.”
“Yeah, no power, no water, nothin’ much else.”
Long Tom waved them all forward. The people carried their small sacks of belongings with them. Some had nothing more than the clothes they wore and a rifle. As the small group picked their way through the dead, Henry tossed the keys to Dale.
“Thanks for the help,” he said to Jessica. She simply glared at him, then turned her eyes to the sight before her. As they crossed through the gates and introductions were made. The Cock Blockers looked around them, some with tears, some with mouths agape. Yards were mowed. People worked in their gardens. Windows in houses had glass in them.
A dozen people with rifles met them as they gathered in the parking lot of a hotel. A man and several women in hospital scrubs stood with the group. Long Tom nodded and they turned into the lobby of the hotel. It was clean and the power was on. He turned to address the group of newcomers.
“Okay, what we goan do is put you in here for a week. You’ll each have a room, unless you be a family and then you can stay together. The docs here’ll check you out and give you your shots so you can’t get sick from the zed virus. After a week, you can pick out you new homes. Leave your guns though.”
Quiet sobs filled the lobby as people stacked their guns. Cock Blockers clung to one another as they filed down the hall to find a room. A group came through the doors with clothes. Mostly sweats they got from storage until they knew what sizes for the newcomers. The rags they wore would be tossed into an incinerator. It would be a long process of washing, delousing and physicals.
Henry watched as the last two, the girls who helped him, passed into a room and closed the door. They left a trail of filthy clothes behind them, until both were nude as they went inside.
“Your woman’s waitin’ for you, Hawk,” Long Tom said. “We told her you were comin’ in.”
Henry turned and grinned. “I supposed I might as well stay until they get out of quarantine. Danny did put me in charge of them. If you need me, I’ll be at Stacy’s.”
Long Tom grinned. “I figured you would be.”
Chapter 15
A single zed stood in the eastbound lane of Interstate 74 outside of Galesburg. His skull blossomed black and he fell to the pavement in a soggy pile. Another, this one female and relatively fresh, took a bullet to the brain on the overpass she stood on. She dropped forward, splattered onto the concrete and was ground under the wheels of the Humvees as the Raiders rolled into town.
At the Sandburg Mall, the King’s head snapped about twice as he felt his sentries die true death. Those around him shook their head as they felt their kindred leave them. Moans took on a new pitch as that part of their world went black. They no longer could see the roads and fields on the east edge of town in their collective minds. The pain passed. The confusion was gone, they looked to their king.
“I wonder who that is?” the man asked one of his queens. He had been a middle aged lawyer when the outbreak struck. His black hair was shot through with streaks of silver. His soft body had only gained flab as his diet changed with the infection. “The Cock Blockers wouldn’t have the balls to come into town, let alone kill one of my family.”
He shared the sunken look of the rest of the zombie horde around him. Almost shriveled and dehydrated to the point of an Egyptian mummy. The woman who sat to his left had been the French teacher at the Galva High School. She survived his infection as well, but her mind wasn’t quite as solid.
“I do not know, My King. We should have more scouts out to inform us of what they can find.”
“Good idea, Sharon, My Pet. We shall send word.” He turned to one of the zeds next to the raised platform in center court of the mall. The man was an older zombie. Not much flesh left on parts of his body, but his brain still functioned at the reptilian level. He could follow orders as well and the King passed word to find these intruders. The King wanted to know what the intention was: if they passed through town, or stopped in his realm. The horde may well have a fine meal.
Two hours passed and word came back that a group of fleshies stopped at the old army base and were behind the fence. Others in the swarm were already piling against the wire. Many were dying, which the King could feel with each shot. He ordered them to pull back a block away from the depot and wait.
“Sharon, you need to go talk to these people. Invite them to come speak with me.”
“I do not know if they will listen, Freddie.”
“Insist they do. If they do not, tell the rest of the children they may take the fence down and drag them to me.”
Sharon stood. Her swollen belly bulged tight against the dress she wore. “Yes, Freddie. I’ll do as you command.” She gave a slight bow and picked her way down from the platform. From the swarm, several female zeds followed her. These the King had deemed her “Ladies in Waiting.” The small group left the mall and started their hike to the west.
A half hour later, she approached the main group of zombies as they stood silently on the street, in the yards, through the alleys of the town a block from the Military Depot. The front of the base was open to all. People were allowed to come in and talk to the personnel when it was in operation. After the outbreak, it had been locked down and there was no way in or out of the building. It was assumed that those inside had died or killed themselves, as no one ever came out.
Behind the building, a solid, chain-link fence ten feet tall topped with three strands of tight barbed wire kept climbers at bay. The gates were barred and locked tight. No one had been able to get inside for three years.
Now, there was activity behind the wire. People scurried here and there. They loaded boxes into the backs of semi trailers. Fork lifts rushed between a warehouse and the trailers, small yard tractors pulled cannons across the asphalt to be hooked onto the rear of several green HumVees parked in the lot.
Zombies parted in a wave as Queen Sharon approached. None moved forward with her as she walked to the gate. None moved, as with a shout, one of the fleshies raised the alarm and other fleshies grabbed their guns. The queen stopped just outside the gate, behind a pile of corpses that resulted from the initial contact. She raised her hand.
“I bid thee good day,” she said to the people behind the gate. So far, no guns had fired. One of the men, blond and bearded, approached the fence.
“Hello,” he said. “What can I do for you?” The look of puzzlement crossed his face, chased by other thoughts.
Queen Sharon smiled at him with blackened teeth. “My good King Frederick asks that you would accompany me to meet with him at his throne in the mall.”
Dan looked at the woman on the other side of the wire. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea,”
he said. “We’re busy here and when we’re done, we’re going to head back the way we came.”
“I was told to inform you, you have little choice in the matter,” Sharon said.
Dan raised his rifle. Two others stood beside him now. A blond woman with short cut hair and another man carried arms as well. “I think you’re going to have to wait awhile,” Dan said. “We really don’t have any plan to meet your king and I don’t think you can get in here to do much about it.”
“Tell me, Sir Knight, how has the world fared?”
“We’re trying to put things back together. Trying to get life back to some form of normal.” Dan paused. “We’ve got a cure for the virus. You come in by yourself, we can get a dose into you.”
“A true nobleman.” Sharon looked around her. “Sir Knight, I would pray thee end my life. There is no cure for what infects me. The abomination within was conceived of infected seed. Tis not long before it eats its way from its mother. I do not wish to be aware of that process.” She rubbed her hand across her swollen belly. The thing inside thumped against her hand. “It carries a hunger.”
The shot came from the blond woman’s rifle. The bullet shattered Sharon’s skull. As she fell, more bullets ripped her middle apart. What may have been a child, what may have been a demon incarnate, was ripped to shreds. She fell to the ground in a pile of black blood and viscera.
On his throne, the King felt his wife and child die. With a roar, the rest of the zombies surged toward the fence. King Frederick put out a mental command and from across town, more of the walking corpses started to shuffle toward the depot. They would feast on fresh meat for the first time in weeks.
Chapter 16
“I don’t think that was such a good idea,” I told Cindy as we watched thousands of the rotten bastards come at the fence. I looked at her, her face streaked with tears.
“I could feel what she did, Danny. She was scared and she was crazy and she was like I used to be. That thing she was carrying was a parasite. It wasn’t a baby.”
“C’mon.” I wrapped her in one arm and headed back to the group. Bill followed as we directed traffic. The loading had gone smooth so far. I heard a crash, turned and saw the swarm slam into the fence.
“How we doing, Wally?” I shouted over the noise of a green forklift.
“Almost done with what we can get for today. I was hopin’ that we could get more, but they’re about as loaded with as many shells as we can get haul. Guns are hooked up, we stowed a few mortars away too. I don’t feel like standing around to jaw.”
“I don’t either. We got another way out?”
“On foot? Yeah. Trucks, same gate we came in.”
“We’ve got a few folks want to get in that way.”
“So I see. Whose idea was it to shoot the crazy lady?”
“Her own. Cindy obliged her on the trigger work.”
“Great. She could have waited until we rolled out.”
“Hormones. Not thinking straight.”
“Alright. We’ve got to finish and figure how to get out of here.”
We went back to work. Wallace directed the loading and what he needed to take. I jumped up in one of the trucks and helped stack and tie down the freight. Last thing I wanted was for a shell to get loose and roll around the trailer. Didn’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling about that.
Within the next fifteen minutes the trucks were loaded, the cannons all secured behind the HumVees. The fence was rocking and rolling with each slam against it. I was glad the dumb bastards couldn’t climb. I was gladder they couldn’t use guns. We’d have a real mess then. So far, we hadn’t opened up on them. Ammo was a valuable commodity. No sense wasting it when we were secure, no matter how annoying the rotten things were.
“Well, Boss, I’m open to suggestion on how to get out of here,” Bill said as he stood beside me, fists on hips. He spat a wad of tobacco onto the pavement.
“We ready?”
“Yeah. Everything’s stowed.”
I walked back to my rig. “Jinks, you bring the blooper tube?”
She ducked back down her spider hole, came back up with the M-79. The bore on it was huge. Looked like a massive sawed off shotgun.
“Any girl tells you size don’t matter is lying,” she grinned. Her blue eyes sparkled. She was a good kid, but a bit goofy at times.
I couldn’t help myself. I grinned back. “I’ll keep it in mind to ask Pep and Cindy. What kind of feed you have for the thing?”
“All the goodies in the grab bag.”
I laid out the plan. Every gun would be running full out. Trucks were lined up, pointed at the gate. My crew mounted up, except me. I climbed into the giant green forklift; it was a high-lift fork truck with an extendable system. I should be able to get the forks under the gates, lift them out of the way and make an opening for my crew.
The diesel engine fired. Black smoke billowed from the exhaust. I signaled Jinks. From on top of one of the semi trailers, she cut loose on the swarm with her flechette rounds. One shot. Two. Three. Thousands of sharpened nails sliced through the horde. Hundreds went down to be ground under the rotten feet of their mates. She followed those with high explosives. Forty millimeter grenades ripped bodies to pieces. Last rounds to be lobbed into the mess were white phosphorus. Ol’ Willie Peter will burn anything, even under water. It liked rotten meat and old clothes. Several burning corpses staggered into their mates, set them on fire and shuffled on, dripping flame and burning flesh. Jinks scrambled down and jumped into the Humvee.
Directly in front of the gate, the line thinned and I shoved the forks under the frame. I worked the controls. Forks strained against locks and hinges. Metal groaned; the noise drowned out the noise of the zeds. I gave the machine more gas and the gates popped loose. One went up over the cab; one fell forward to crash down on a cluster of zeds that weren’t smart enough to get out of the way. I gave it throttle, drove into the swarm. Forklifts don’t move fast, but the cab was secure. Forks swung back and forth. Rotten bodies fell. I rolled through the swarm.
Over the noise, I heard my crew shouting on the com link. Guns started to fire. They were through the gates. Humvees in the lead, semis between, like we had planned. I swung out of the drive, gave the forklift more throttle and headed down the street. This was the sticking point of the whole plan; I was trapped in the cab of the forklift, the things don’t move real fast and I needed to get back into my Humvee. Half a block up and we were still in the midst of the swarm.
I pulled the forklift onto the side of the street. We kept moving, but it was slow going. We needed to bust ass out of town, but we weren’t going to do it this way. More zeds plastered themselves against the window of the cab. I waggled the truck back and forth and most fell off. I felt like a hamster in a cage with a room full of cats.
“You guys go on and get back to Snareville. I’ll drive as far as I can in this thing and then hoof it home,” I shouted into the com link. More zeds slammed against the glass. I fought the urge to unload my pistols on them. Guns fired next to me. Pistol and rifle both.
“Daniel Matthew Jackson. If you fucking well think Pepper and I are bringing these children into the world without their father, you’ve lost your mind. Stop bein’ noble and get your ass in this Hummer.”
A couple of feet away, my rig rolled to a stop. Cindy stood next to Jinks in the spider hole. Both girls popped zombies with pistol shots. Deaders fell between the vehicles as they waited. More zombies surged forward.
“I’m open to suggestions,” I said into the link.
“There’s a top window on the thing, right?” Cindy shouted. I could hear the pitch of her voice go up. She cranked more rounds into the swarm. It was getting close. I took the hint. The roof of the fork truck was a good seven feet off the ground. I could jump to the Humvee.
As I thought it, I did it. My pistol spat bullets through the glass. Shards sprinkled down on me. Most of it went out. I stood, shoved my elbow against what was left of the glass and pushed. I clim
bed up onto the roof, cut my neck on the way out. Apparently zombies have a good sense of smell, although Cindy never mentioned it, because the moans turned to near screams as I flicked crimson droplets from the slice.
I stood on the metal roof as soggy hands slapped the edge. One of the rotten bastards tried to climb up the arm of the truck. I convinced him otherwise with a .45 slug. But the others had seen him do it. Two more came up the same way and I blasted them down.
“Just jump!” Cindy screamed.
Over the noise, I heard a rifle shot. Blood blossomed on Cindy’s shoulder.
“Murderer!” The word cut through the noise. For a moment, no one spoke. The zombies fell silent. I turned to look down the block. The half-rotten looking guy with the black hair and rifle must be the king. He screamed at us again and raised the rifle. I give my guys credit, every gun swiveled his way and cut loose. A wall of rotted flesh closed in around their king as he dove away.
I jumped onto the roof of my rig, slithered through the spider hole and shouted at Wally to drive. He complied. The Hummer jumped into gear. He mashed the throttle and we blew out of town in a cloud of black smoke. All the rigs followed. We ground deaders in the treads of our tires like so much cow shit.
We blasted through Wataga, on to Oneida. Jinks patched the hole in Cindy’s shoulder as best she could. The bleeding slowed. She lay with her head in my lap, ashen, but not shaking. That was a good sign. Shaky means shock. Shock out here would kill you faster than the bullet.
“It passed through, Boss,” Jinks said. “Small military round, I think. Must have been full metal jacket. It didn’t do a lot of damage. If it’d been one of your varmint rounds, she wouldn’t have a shoulder left.”
I smiled. It was weak, I could feel it, but there was relief in it.
Snareville II: Circles Page 9