I could see the panic in his eyes, but to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed. Georgie tends to panic on a somewhat regular basis.
“They’re inside the house,” shrieked out another voice and this one actually caused me some alarm. It was a female voice, and I didn’t recognize it at all.
I threw on the rest of my gear, shoved my Ti-lite folding knife into my pocket, checked that my Recon 1 folding knife was on my belt, threw my blood stained Harley Davidson hat on top of my head and ran out of the room.
Things were bad.
Even the backyard was full of zombies. When the backyard is full of zombies, you can be sure that the entire house has been surrounded. I ran immediately up to the first woman I saw. She was one of the survivors from the pit.
“Where are they?” I asked.
She pointed a shaky finger towards the kitchen and I went running. I didn’t like what I saw when I got there. Merrick had a zombie by the back of the neck and was shaking him around the linoleum floor, but there were two others headed right towards me and even more attempting to climb through the broken window.
I took out one of the zombies with my tomahawk. It was easy enough. The first hit is always pretty easy. The zombies never see it coming. It was an angled cut to the forehead. The blow just barely sliced the brain, but since no momentum was lost upon impact, I was able to swing the tomahawk all the way around in a wide arc and miss my second target.
The bastard had ducked and grabbed me around the waist. It was a pretty much wasted effort. I was too healthy and full of energy. I shattered his nose on my knee and then elbowed his temple to smack him loose. While I was doing that, I ordered Georgie to fire upon the broken window so no more of them got inside the house.
I finished off my second zombie as he was climbing back up to his feet. It was a simple chop to the back of his head. After that, I told Merrick to release her new toy, and I chopped that zombie as well.
Georgie was in full panic mode as he fired aimlessly towards the window. He wasn’t being very effective so I told him to go find some nails and something we could use to board it up and I took his place.
Shooting a hole through every head that popped up into my sites was pretty much the easiest job I’d had since I returned to El Paso. Merrick was even wagging her tail happily as I fired merrily away.
Eventually I realized that I could in fact do two things at once and tapped my earpiece and asked for Dudley.
“What’s up?” Dudley asked.
“Oh, I’m just curious about how long we’ve been under attack?” I asked nonchalantly.
“We had some problems in the morning,” Dudley answered. “But it only started getting really bad about forty minutes or so ago.”
“What happened forty minutes ago?”
“Damned if I know,” Dudley answered. “They just started coming out of the woodwork. We’ve been keeping them out, but more and more are showing up. Maybe we should call for an extraction?”
“We would never make it to the chopper with the house being surrounded,” I answered. “Besides, only pussies call for extractions. How are Nick and Javie holding up?”
“Everyone is holding up pretty well except for Georgie,” Dudley answered. “I could hear him screaming for help all the way on the other side of the house. I was about to go help him when one of the survivors told me you were up and about. How are you feeling by the way?”
“I’m peachy,” I answered. “How much ammo do we have?”
“More than enough,” Dudley answered. “And the survivors are making sure we have fresh magazines when we need them. Maybe you should try and help us figure a way outta this mess?”
“Yeah, let me think on it for a bit.”
At that moment, Georgie had come back into the room with his arms full of what seemed to be a broken table. He hesitated just a second before he went to work on securing the window. It was fun to watch the biggest piece of wood, which he had placed over the hole, buck and tremble as he tried to nail it to the wall. I was tempted to help him more than a few times, but the scene was just too funny.
“Georgie,” I finally said when he had the situation somewhat under control. “Maybe you should find a different line of work. You seem to be a little bit too much of a pansy for this job.”
“I’m no quitter,” Georgie said.
“Yes, you are.”
“Well I’m not quitting this. It’s something I should be doing. I just know it. So fuck off.”
I laughed. Georgie always makes me laugh. I used to call him my best shittiest friend, but I still hung out with him because he always made me laugh.
“What does that mean, best shittiest friend?”
It means that he’s a shitty friend, but out of all my shitty friends he was my favorite. I guess that still doesn’t make much sense, so let’s just say that he wasn’t a great friend, but since he made me laugh I still hung out with him. There are actually some very positive factors with having a best shittiest friend by the way.
“Do tell.”
I can laugh at their expense and never feel bad about it.
It was when Merrick and I started to leave the room that Georgie did the oddest thing.
“Jax,” Georgie said. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
It was odd. So odd that I didn’t bother to respond because I didn’t know what to say, I just gave a nod and went to see for myself how everyone else was doing. Some of the survivors tried to talk to me, but I just sort of ignored them.
“You ignored them?”
I did. I had other things on my mind that were probably more important. I wanted an escape plan. I was starting to get a bit claustrophobic and the only thing bouncing around my head was to take everyone underground into the vampire’s tunnels and wait until the zombies got bored and left.
It was by no means the best plan I had ever come up with, but I just couldn’t find an easy way out. If we made a run for it and pushed through the horde, I’d lose people. That wasn’t going to work for me. I wasn’t about to commit to a plan in which I knew I was going to lose people.
I also didn’t think I would be able to make a run for it by myself in an effort to lead the horde away as I had done in the past. There were just too many of them surrounding the house. They would swarm the door as soon as it opened. Even if I fought my way out, I don’t think the team would have been able to get the door or window sealed up once again.
It was a bad situation all around.
Nick was guarding the front of the house. If an arm came through a boarded up window, he was quick about hacking into it with his fireman’s axe. The look of focus on his face was actually pretty impressive. I couldn’t remember having seen him so focused before.
Javie took the rear of the house. He was mainly using his pistol to keep the dead from gaining entry. He was shooting every face that came into view between the boards at point blank range. He was making quite a mess. It was odd seeing him dishing out so much violence, but he seemed to have everything under control.
Dudley was at the farthest end of the house opposite Georgie. Things were pretty busy for him. He hadn’t managed to board up all the windows when the zombies began to attack. Some of them must have gotten in. The bodies on the floor gave evidence to that.
The screams of the dead were loud on his side of the house. The moaning, the growls and the snarls joined the screams in a cacophony straight from hell. The fists pounding on the outside walls made it difficult for me to think. I didn’t want to begin to imagine how many were out there. Certainly it wasn’t the greatest horde that I’ve ever encountered, but it was probably the largest horde that ever had me trapped.
I pulled my tomahawk and began to hack at the zombies as Dudley completed the job of boarding up the windows. He managed a smile for me as he once again picked up his machete and hacked away at any limb daring enough to come through his barrier.
We weren’t going to be able to keep up this pace forever.
No
t nearly as important was what happened forty minutes ago to cause the entire ruckus. Yet, it was still in the back of my mind. I knew we had company before I passed out, but according to Dudley, the house had been really swarmed only forty minutes ago.
“Duds, how bad were things before the house got swarmed?”
“Not bad at all,” Dudley answered. “I’m not even sure there were any out there. Then suddenly, the house was rushed.”
“What about before that?”
“It was pretty bad right about the time that you passed out, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. That’s why we decided to stick it out and give you some time to heal. We finished off most of them by the afternoon while we boarded up the windows and reinforced the doors. After that, there would be just a few of them on the street every now and then.”
“There has to be something going on outside the house that we aren’t aware of,” I said. “Something must have led the horde here if things had been quiet before the attack.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Dudley said. “But it’s not like I can stick my head out the window and take a look up the street.”
“Alright,” I said. “Keep up what you’re doing and let me know if you need some backup.”
Merrick and I went back to Georgie and watched him panic as he attempted to keep the zombies out of the kitchen. I even helped out when the water got too deep for him. Merrick helped as well. She almost seemed to be making a game out of catching the hands and arms that would reach through the boards.
The battle raged on and on well into the night.
We were under siege and I just couldn’t find an acceptable way out that would benefit everyone. I helped out wherever I was needed, but I could see the fatigue beginning to set in on everyone’s faces.
It was time to make some tough decisions. I tapped my earpiece. I wanted everyone to have a say.
“Alright folks,” I said. “It looks like this crowd isn’t thinning out anytime soon. The only idea floating around in my head involves all of us hiding out in the vampire tunnels until the zombies get bored and go away. What do you guys think?”
“Dudley told us about the tunnels,” Javie said. “If they find us down there and come in after us we’ll all be trapped.”
“We’ll be trapped with a lot of ammo and a more defensible position,” Georgie added. “I don’t think we have many other options.”
“What if we have the choppers open fire on the zombies out there?” Nick asked.
“Those zombies are pressed up against the house,” I answered. Think about what a .50 cal will do to the walls. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What if we go down to the tunnels and then have the choppers come in and thin out the horde?”
“I’m down with that,” Dudley said.
“I’m still concerned about getting trapped,” Javie said.
“I like the idea,” Georgie said.
“We can hold them off until the choppers are in range and then drop into the tunnels,” Nick said. “That way we won’t have to worry about them getting inside the house before the helicopters show up.”
“Alright then,” I said. “We have a plan. Everyone keep doing what you’re doing while I get the survivors into the tunnels.”
“I’m following everything,” Hardin said into my earpiece. “I will have two choppers en route inside of five minutes. You radio in and let me know when you have everyone out of harm’s way.”
“Excellent,” I replied. I still wasn’t used to having Hardin paying attention to our conversations. But, I guess it did save us some time every now and then, and he rarely intruded until we asked him for something.
It didn’t take me very long at all to lead the survivors to the hole in the floor of the basement. I can’t say that they were actually happy to be going down inside of the vampires sleeping quarters, but when I explained what was going to happen within the next ten minutes or so they rapidly got over whatever problems they were having.
I did my best to lower them down. I didn’t want any of them to twist an ankle or break a leg when they landed. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the looks on each of their faces as I took a hold of their arms. They were afraid. They had every right to be, but they were also trusting. I could see it as plain as day in their expressions. They had complete trust in me.
I wasn’t going to fail them.
The dead were still beating on the walls and reaching through the boarded up windows. I hated the sound. I hated feeling trapped. I went to Georgie and helped him reinforce his barrier. I wanted him and everyone else to have a head start when they ditched their area and ran for the hole in the bedroom.
If the zombies were right behind us when we went down the hole, we’d then have a firefight underground and though the odds were in our favor, I’d just assume not have any zombies follow us down there.
After Georgie, I moved on to help Javie. When he was relatively secure I moved on to help Nick. When Nick was good and ready I moved over to the far side of the house to help out Dudley. Merrick was right beside me through all of this. She seemed to sense that something big was about to happen and was wagging her tail excitedly.
The shamblers were still pretty heavy on Dudley’s side of the house, and it took some time to secure things enough to give him a head start when it was time to go, but Merrick seemed to enjoy another chance to play her game of savaging all the hands and arms that tried to reach through the boards.
“You ready to roll out?” I asked.
“Ready when you are,” Dudley answered. “But maybe we should let Georgie go first. I don’t want him to piss his pants being the last man to leave his post.”
“Georgie,” I said after I tapped my earpiece. “Are you still secure over there?”
“I’m doing pretty good,” Georgie said.
“Alright,” I said. “Get your ass down that hole.”
After Georgie radioed back that he was safely underground, I radioed Javie.
“Javie, how are things going?”
“My barrier will hold for about five minutes, I’m guessing.”
“Good, now move your ass down that…”
“Jaxon,” Nick interrupted. “I’ve got movement over here.”
“Of course you have movement over there,” I answered testily. “The house is surrounded by zombies.”
“No, asshole,” Nick said. “Something just barreled into them and took a bunch down.”
“Everyone hold your positions,” I announced through my earpiece. “Georgie, get back into position and cover the kitchen again.”
I sprinted through the house with Merrick at my heels. I found Nick kneeling by one of his windows, gazing out at the darkened street. He wasn’t fighting off any zombies.
“There it is again,” Nick said. “Check it out.”
I dropped to the ground besides him and took a look out one of the many cracks between the boards. The zombies were no longer searching for an entry point on his side of the house. Something had distracted them and they were all sort of wandering around the front yard in search of it.
There were also a lot fewer zombies.
“I don’t see anything,” I said.
“Give it a minute,” Nick said.
“I’ve got something going on in the backyard,” Javie announced through his earpiece.
“What the hell?” I exclaimed to no one in particular.
I ran as quickly as I could to the back of the house where Javie was trying to look through the boards and avoid the grasping undead hands.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“Something dropped down on them and started ripping them apart,” Javie said. “Then it vanished, but almost half of them are gone.”
“Double what the hell?” I exclaimed.
“I’m getting help over here as well,” Dudley said through his earpiece. “Not sure what it is, but it moves pretty fast.”
“Jax,” Nick said through my earpiece. “It’s a dude. It’s a dude in a
gray suit and he’s fucking up the zombies.”
I ran over to Nick and just as I expected, whatever he had seen was no longer there when I looked between the boards. I would have thought that they were all going crazy, but then I noticed that there was no longer any pounding on the sides of the house, and when I looked out the window, I only saw about eight zombies when before there had been maybe a hundred or so on Nick’s side alone.
“I’ve got a woman over here!” Dudley shouted since he was too excited to use his earpiece. “She just took out about ten or fifteen shamblers.”
“What about you Javie?” I asked through my earpiece.
“I think there’s a few of them,” Javie answered. “It’s hard to tell, but the horde is definitely thinning out.”
“Jax,” Nick said. “Take a look.”
I took his advice and finally saw one of our secretive helpers. It was a man dressed in beige pants. He moved so fast I couldn’t really tell where he had come from. He darted in among the zombies smacking them hard on their heads and scooping up their unmoving bodies before they hit the ground. He had gathered up three of them before he moved off quickly and disappeared from view.
“Hardin,” I said after tapping my earpiece. “Keep the helicopters at a distance.”
“Understood,” Hardin answered.
I was just about to turn away from the window when I saw the man in the gray suit that Nick had mentioned earlier. He dropped down from a nearby rooftop and proceeded to pick up where the other man had left off. I realized quickly that the slaps on the head were hard enough to kill the zombies.
“Fuckers are strong,” I pointed out to Nick.
“Got that right,” Nick answered.
I left him at the boarded up windows and went to check on Georgie. I found him at his post looking through the boards. I was just a little surprised that he actually went back to his post. Then again, there were no longer any zombies attacking his area.
“You see anything?” I asked.
“Not a thing,” Georgie answered. “I heard a lot of thumping and crunching sounds before I made it to the windows, but I never saw a thing. You think we should go out there and help these guys?”
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