Snareville II: Circles

by David Youngquist

  Cindy shot upright with a scream. “Nononono… ” Dan reached out for her, and she turned on him with a snarl, eyes blank. He hesitated, but then pulled her to him, held her tight against his chest. The snarls continued, soon turning to sobs. Pepper flipped on the small lamp beside the bed, turned and rubbed Cindy’s back until the crying subsided.

  Dan eased his wife into her pillows.

  “He was here, Danny,” Cindy said as she tapped her head. “He was up here in my dreams. I couldn’t get him out.”

  “Who, Honey?” Pepper asked.

  “The crazy king. He got in down in Galesburg. He found me, Danny. He wants me. I killed his queen and his baby. He saw me do it. He wants me to take her place. He wants to take our baby, Danny.” She fell into sobs again. Dan wrapped her in his arms as she fell sideways against his chest.

  After an hour, Cindy slept. Dan eased out of the bed with Pepper.

  “This isn’t good, Dan,” Pepper whispered as they stood in the hall. “How can this guy be in her head?”

  “I don’t know.” Dan held the cell phone in his hand. The face read two o’clock in the morning. He flipped the screen open and began to text. “She said she felt him in her mind down in Galesburg.”

  “Who you sending that to?”

  “Gibson. I want to know if Tess is having the same kind of night. Cindy told me they share some kind of odd link. That they used to be able to walk into a swarm of zeds and no one would attack them.” He pushed the button and watched the message disappear into the ether.

  “Dan, she’s been fine for a long time. What if she’s reverting to zed mode?”

  “She never was a zombie, Pep.” Dan looked at the woman he’d been married to longest. He had asked Pepper if they should take Cindy into the family and she’d agreed. “She was a lab rat. An infected innocent.”

  “She never told us if she was in the practice of eating her friends and family.”

  Dan felt his face get hot. “From what we’ve been told, she went from the lab at The Farm, to the CDC in Chicago. She and Tess drank blood, ate raw beef and deer liver. You know that. I don’t think she ever went cannibal.”

  “I hope she’s not now. I love her too, Danny, but we’ve got babies in the house. We’ve got Ella. What happens if she has another one of these dreams and starts looking for a meal?”

  The cell phone chirped. Dan opened it. Gibson confirmed that Tess had just woken up from a nightmare. She said the same thing. The King was coming. The King was in her head. He asked what it meant. Dan sent back the message that they would talk in the morning.

  “What do we do, Danny? Both of them are being affected.”

  “I don’t know. We’ve got to figure something out though.”

  “Some people are going to suggest a bullet.”

  Dan felt his guts harden. “That is not an option.”

  “Yet.”

  “Never will be. There’s got to be a solution.”

  “Kill this King Fred, if that’s who’s doing it.”

  “Might be the only solution,” Dan said. He took Pepper’s hand in his. “But right now, I need more sleep.”

  Pepper hesitated for a moment, then followed. Cindy’s deep breathing assured them she was asleep. They slid into bed with her, snuggled together, Dan with his back against Cindy, Pepper spooned into Dan. It was an hour before Pepper dozed. Dan didn’t know if he slept at all.

  With the sun, Dan met with his brother Tom, Wallace, Gibson and the other officers in town. Wallace laid out the methods he’d suggested for using his weapons. The artillery shells would have to be loaded as aerosols and lobbed either into a target, or upwind of it. O’Shea’s antivirus would have to drift into the swarm and kill them off permanently. It was a matter of getting the fix into the shells and making sure they were on target with the rounds.

  “How effective is this stuff?” Wallace asked.

  “According to O’Shea’s tests, one hundred percent,” Tom answered. “We’ve tried it on fully infected zeds and people like Tess and Cindy. Kills the virus within minutes. Corpse drops over. End of deader.”

  “We should be able to do a lot of damage this way, then,” Wallace said. “All we have to do is get our items together. How much do you have here?”

  “A little,” Dan said. “About five gallons.”

  “That’s enough to fill a few shells. You get it airborne with the aerosol and it’ll spread nicely. We just need to figure out the parts per million to mix it with.”

  The radio crackled in the other room. Cody was on the line. He had gone out on a flight patrol with some of Tom’s troops. They flew a formation of three choppers: two Blackhawk Superbirds and an Apache. Dan walked over to the base. Cody called again.

  “Go ahead, Cody. We’re here,” Dan said into the handset.

  “Boss, we got problems.” Cody’s voice was steady, but the pitch had gone up a few pegs. Adrenaline surge.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’re thirty miles west of base. We’ve got zeds everywhere. Thousands.”

  “Fuck,” Gibson muttered. “Bastard did find us.”

  “We’re going to cover the compass same distance, Boss,” Cody said. “When we finish the loop, we’ll call you back. Cody out.”

  Dan looked around the room. “We need to get those shells ready. Move.”

  Calls were made as the officers piled out the door. Dan took a radio linked to the base station and left behind Wallace. Together they headed to the old railroad depot where they had stashed the artillery rounds. He told Hunter to grab his truck and go get the antivirus from the basement it was stored in, meet them at the depot soonest. Anyone who was artillery trained was called. Downtown buzzed into activity.

  Chapter 20

  I lay in the bed in a light doze. Wasn’t sleeping much. I had troops out there in the dark. They were setting up traps to slow down the zeds. Wally was working around the clock to get the artillery and mortar shells ready. By morning he should have two hundred and fifty rounds ready for the guns. Not much and we were going to have to split our command. Cody had found another group of zombies coming from the south. I didn’t want them to get within ten miles of town. I had troops out with posts at twenty miles.

  I rolled over the other way and put an arm across Pepper. I should be with my troops, not home in bed with my wives. Command is harder than being out on the front. It’s my orders they followed now. I have to trust and delegate with my officers, but it’s still my final decision. I plan on joining the forward observers in the morning to see the artillery do its job. And I want to find that bastard, King Fred, and put a bullet through his head personally.

  Cindy kicked in her sleep. Little whimpers in the night. She was still sleeping propped up on the pillows for her shoulder. The whimpers stopped. She stirred. I heard something drag across the nightstand and the clicks. With a curse, I shoved Pepper off the bed, me across her.

  The pistol shot sounded like a cannon in the enclosed bedroom. I felt the bullet sizzle past us, then Cindy screamed like a soul damned to hell. I peeked over the edge of the mattress, in time to see her put the gun under her chin. Without thinking, I dove on top of her and shoved the gun away. The pistol barked again, threw another shell casing across the floor. We struggled for a moment, as Pepper turned on the lights. Down the hall, babies cried. Footsteps thumped on the stairs as Ella came to see what was going on.

  I got my hand around Cindy’s wrist and forced her hand open. The gun clattered on the floor. She screamed all the more, her eyes totally black. Red tears streamed down her cheeks. I pulled her to me, pinned down her arm as she still struggled. Freddie hadn’t let go of her yet.

  “Call Gibson,” I shouted over my shoulder to Pep. “Make sure he’s okay.”

  She stood frozen, then snatched the cell off the floor and went to check on the babies. I rocked Cindy as she fought me. She tried to pound on my chest with her good arm, but couldn’t get it free. An eon at a time, her snarls became sobs. Body wracking, h
eaving sobs. And then she was limp in my arms. I stroked her hair and whispered to her as she came back under control.

  “Gibson’s okay,” Pepper said from the doorway, Mikey on her hip. Ella snuggled Rachel as she calmed down. “Bullet grazed his side, but he’s a light sleeper too. He’s got Tess cuffed. She asked him to do it. She doesn’t trust herself. The King’s hold is getting stronger, she says.”

  Cindy didn’t say anything, but she nodded into my chest. “We have to do something, Danny,” she whispered. “I can’t keep him out.”

  I picked her up. She seemed so tiny this way. Granted she was little anyway, but as I carried her downstairs, it was if she were no bigger than Ella had been when we found her in that whorehouse.

  “I’m taking you to the hospital.” I turned to Pepper. “Call Gibson back, tell him to come over with Tess. Someone ought to be on duty, they can call Leary.”

  Pepper flipped open the phone. “What you got planned?”

  “I’m wondering if we can put these two to sleep until after we’re done.”

  “Worth a shot.”

  I slung on a pair of pants, buckled a pistol around my hips and took Cindy to the emergency room.

  Heather was on duty when I got there. Gibson rolled in with Tess right behind me. We sat the girls in chairs, explained to Heather what was going on. She got them both some hot tea while she talked to us. A call was put in to Doctor Leary. Tess sipped from her cup with cuffed hands. Cindy sat next to her, miserable. Neither looked up.

  “What you think, Boss?” Gibson asked. His eyes were tired; deep bags underneath. Nothing in the field scared this man, but his voice held a tremble. “She hasn’t been sleeping well since y’all came back from Galesburg.”

  “I know. Cindy either.”

  “I’ve heard some people are grumbling about them going zed. I’ve heard talk about the pit.”

  “No one’s putting a bullet in them. That’s why we’re here.” I walked over, sat next to Cindy and pulled her into me. “For better or worse, sickness and in health.”

  “We might be better off in the pit,” Tess said.

  I wiped red tears from Cindy’s face.

  “Don’t talk like that, Baby.” Gibson said as he wrapped the tree trunks he called arms around his new wife. “We’ll get things fixed up.” He and Catfish Corri had broken up after she lost the baby they were having back in January. Tess left Tom for two reasons: she didn’t get along with Tammi, his first wife and she couldn’t handle working at The Farm with O’Shea all the time. She hooked up with Gibson soon after she got here. Yep, we had our own little soap opera going on right here in town.

  Leary came through the door, Jinks at his heels. He knew what had been going on. We told him when we got back from our run. We’d told him about the nightmares. He led us back to the first room. Both the girls put on robes. Tess was recuffed when she was dressed. We did the same with a spare set for Cindy.

  “We’re going to make them drowsy. We can’t put them fully to sleep. They’re both too far along for that. I don’t want to do anything to hurt either baby. If they weren’t pregnant, I’d put them into a medical coma until this mess was over. That’s not an option.” He turned to Jinks, had her start a drip on them both, then went and got a bottle for each.

  Medicine was a valuable commodity these days. Someone had taken a supply warehouse in Milwaukee and trade was open, but it wasn’t easy to get. Jinks talked softly to the girls as she found veins. It amazed me that this teenage girl could blow apart zombies or hack them to pieces in the field, yet have such a good bedside manner. She gently adjusted the straps on the bed to hold Cindy and Tess in place.

  Leary came back with the bottles. He checked the drip, satisfied at the rate and attached his riders. “They’ll be sleepy and relaxed soon. Dan, Tony, you’re welcome to stay until they drift off, but you boys have to get some sack time before morning. Heather and Jinks’ll be here for them.” He laid a hand on each of our shoulders.

  We sat next to our girls as Leary and Jinks waited. We talked softly. The girls got groggy, at last drifted to sleep. We waited a few more minutes, gave them a kiss goodnight and headed for the front door. Jinks had treated the scuff Tess’ bullet left. Gibson offered a ride. I was getting tired as well by then. I took him up on his offer.

  “You think this’ll work?” he asked as we loaded up.

  “What?”

  Gibson waved his hand. “All of it—the shells, the girls. What happens if it doesn’t work?”

  “It will, Tony. Have faith.” I shut the door behind me. We drove to my place in silence.

  Chapter 21

  Morning came early. Artillery cannons were rolled into position. A dozen guns were stationed with the Raiders. They had full crews on duty for six. Four were pointed west to deal with the oncoming horde from Galesburg. Two were aimed to the south as another swarm trudged up from Peoria. Gibson headed south to be with that forward observer, Dan went west.

  Around town, the people of Snareville prepared. They had been secure behind their walls for almost three years now. A horde this size, however, had never come their way. Women with children found upper floors of homes to lock themselves into. They had supplies of ammo, as well as food and water, if things went wrong. Some of the older children carried guns with as well. Doors locked behind them until the all clear would be given.

  In firing positions from the rooftops downtown, several clusters of people waited. They could see the show the cannons put on and wait for the results. It was hot. Damned hot up on those roofs. Sweat poured down their bodies. On occasion, folks would make the excuse to go downstairs to check the locks on the doors of the buildings, just to get away from the heat.

  Soon, no one in town moved besides the artillery crews.

  Wallace leaned against the trunk of a grandfather oak tree, on the edge of miles of empty corn fields. Zombies didn’t walk well and while live humans could walk or ride a horse through the tall grass, it pushed the zeds onto the asphalt. For more than three miles the rotten march of flesh came at them. A slight breeze blew from the south. He made notes on his steno, punched numbers into his hand held computer and radioed back to the artillery commander. He in turn adjusted the cannons.

  “I hope to hell this works,” Dan said from beside Wallace. “We don’t have enough ammo to back all these bastards down.”

  Wallace glanced up from his notes. “Have some faith, Boss. The field goal kicker finally gets onto the field.” He called some more coordinates into the radio.

  “How far out are we?” Dan asked.

  “Eight miles. No problem. We’ll drop it right into them. I set the shells to burst at five feet, that way they don’t get buried in the ground and we get a better disbursement.”

  “How long?”

  “They should be in target range in…three minutes,” Wallace said as he checked his watch. He looked through his binoculars. “I don’t see this Freddie guy, but in that swarm, it’d be hard to see anyone.”

  Dan watched through his own set of field glasses. “If this juice of O’Shea’s works, he’ll be the last one standing.”

  In the brush around him, sixty of Dan’s troops waited, rifles in hand. They leaned against trees, hunkered under bushes, laid out in the long grass. All night they had killed zeds, now they folded back to watch the big guns do their work. To the south, another fifty troops waited with Gibson and Basil, the forward observer with that unit. On the walls, more troops manned the trenches and machine gun nests built into the perimeter defenses. They were blind at this point. They could neither see the artillery behind them, or the hordes of zombies coming at them. They had to listen to the radio. It was the only way they knew what was going on.

  Dan watched the swarm get closer. Wallace waited. They were in range for sniper shots. He started to sling into his rifle when Wallace spoke into the mike he had attached to his helmet. He gave a list of coordinates, paused and called for fire. In town, crews slammed rounds into the cannons, scramble
d back and fired a controlled salvo. Thunder rose from the ground as the shockwave ripped the air.

  The shells screamed as they raced overhead. There was a sudden explosion a mile down the road. Four shells disbursed their cargo. Shrapnel ripped through the swarm, as gas flowed out over them.

  “Perfect, adjust twenty and walk it down. Four more salvos,” Wallace shouted. He looked at Dan with a wild grin. A smaller echo rang down the valley as two guns fired to the south. Wallace watched through his binoculars. “Look at ’em drop. That shit does work. Hallelujah!”

  Down range, zombies fell into the road. Some paused as the cloud washed over them, glanced around and fell. The corpses didn’t even twitch. They simply piled higher as more shells roared in. These exploded closer to Dan and his group. The effect was the same. Dan didn’t even feel the tears run down his face as he watched.

  Inside the hospital room, Cindy’s eyes popped open. She rolled her head to look into the black pits that had been Tess’s blue eyes. Red tears ran down both their faces.

  “Only King Fredrick’s child is worthy,” Tess muttered.

  “Only King Fredrick’s,” Cindy echoed.

  They began to wriggle in their restraints. The drugs worked only so well. In not having them fully asleep, Fredrick was still able to reach out to them. Cindy freed herself first. She shuffled across the floor, dragging the bottles behind her. After she undid the straps on Tess, they rummaged through drawers until they each found a scalpel. As the thunder roared outside, they paused.

  Cindy clenched her teeth, muscles in her jaws rippled as she fought for control. With a shout, her blue eyes popped open, the scalpel dropped from her hand. She stood, gasping as she swayed on her feet.

  “Only King Fredrick’s child,” Tess growled as she looked at Cindy. With a snarl, she threw herself at her friend. Light flashed on the blade like a miniature wink of lightning.