I stepped over a zombie that was sprawled across the ditch, and climbed the small berm. I hoped to see some activity of the living, but I wasn’t hoping for much. As it was, I was hoping for too much.
“What do you see, John?” Sarah asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“What’s nothing?”
“That’s what I mean. There’s nothing here. The homes are busted into, and I can see some zombie activity further down the way, but I other than that, there’s nothing living here.” I hopped off the berm and crossed back to the group.
“How do you want to play it?” Tommy asked.
“We need to know why this town is suddenly dead, and how is it moving from town to town. Obviously, it’s the virus. But how is it getting here?” My big fear was the virus had become airborne, and that’s just what I was suggesting now.
“Well, we won’t learn anything here. Sarah and Rebecca, you two take the truck and the van and get across to the other side. We’ll take a stroll and meet you on the other side,” I said, bracing myself for the onslaught.
“What! Hey, wait a minute…”
“Are you kidding? John…”
I raised my hands. “No joking. We need coverage from the other side, and you two are the best rifle shots we have. If we need a lane to escape through, I need someone who can put a round where they’re supposed to, and not through someone’s leg.” I didn’t look at Duncan, but I didn’t have to. I knew he was cringing.
The ladies jumped into the vehicles and drove off, mollified, while the rest of us felt ourselves up for weapons and ammo.
I looked over at Charlie, who had decided to arm himself early with his twin tomahawks. “Care to be a distraction today?” I said as I pulled my long knife and trench ‘hawk of my own.
“Love to.” Charlie replied, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck.
“You two, give us ten minutes. The houses are yours. Check as many as you can, don’t bother with locked ones, and see if you can figure out what the hell is going on,” I said to Tommy and Duncan, who both nodded.
I took a deep breath, stepped over to the other side of the ditch, and climbed over the berm. Charlie was right beside me, and with a final stretch of his big arms, he nodded.
“Let’s go.”
We started off at a brisk pace, ignoring the groans and shuffling that came from the homes and side yards. We weren’t there to fight them all. We were just there to herd them along like little lethal pied pipers.
There was a risk to what we were doing. If enough zombies ahead of us heard the ruckus and started closing in, we could find ourselves between two large groups. If that happened, we had to make a break for a house to hole up in until the cavalry arrived. That was a reason not to start shooting.
We also had to make sure we cleared a path for ourselves and make sure Tommy and Duncan weren’t left high and dry. The goal was to herd the zombies along, freeing up the houses for inspection.
The good news was there wasn’t a lot of zombie activity in the street itself. Had there been a good number of the ghouls, we never would have used this method. The bad news was we couldn’t just take a leisurely walk. Tommy and Duncan were going to have to do a hurried search for clues.
Charlie and I walked about a block before the zombies started shuffling our way. We stayed ahead of them through a combination of walking and jogging. Our kills were going to have to be fast, and it sucked not to be able to shoot.
“On your side, fast stepper,” Charlie said.
“Got it. I’ll let him reach the street,” I said, readying my weapons. Part of me wanted to get another tomahawk, but the crew would never let me live it down, after I had extolled the virtues of my pick for so many years.
The zombie had long legs, which gave it speed, and was recently dead, as evidenced by its lack of grey color and abundance of blood all over it. I stepped forward, and when it came within reach, I slammed the spike end of my ‘hawk into the top of its head. A quick jerk got it out, as the Z collapsed, and I waited for Charlie to catch up.
Behind us, there was about thirty zombies, stumbling out of homes and shambling over yards. They were about twenty yards away from us, and over by the berm, I could see two heads popping up, checking to see if it was okay to start looking into homes.
“Let’s lead them on.” I walked backwards for a bit, keeping an eye on our friends, making sure there weren’t any real fast ones needing to be dealt with. For the most part, it was your standard horde, except this one was still relatively new.
On the right, Charlie saw a couple heading our way, and a quick trajectory calculation put them ahead of us at the wrong time. He jogged over to the first, smashing it across the head with his first hit, finishing it with his second. The second zombie, a smaller woman, reached for him and he used his free weapon to crack her in the temple, dropping her on top of her companion.
I had kept walking, and joined him at the street. “So far so good. Duncan and Tommy just split up to check the houses.”
“Don’t think they’re going to find much,” Charlie said, scanning the road ahead.
“Neither do I, but I think we need to keep an eye on what we don’t find as much as what we do,” I said.
“Explain.”
I walked over to a yard first and kicked a zombie teen in the chest, knocking him to the ground. His throat was torn out, and his shirt was drenched in old blood, but his eyes still had that ‘whatever’ look to them. I planted my axe head between those eyes and closed them for good. Stepping back into the street I explained to Charlie what I meant.
“If we look into fifty homes, and see that everything is just fine, but the cabinets are bare, the logical conclusion is the lack of food tells us someone was there before us and took supplies,” I said.
Charlie nodded. “Okay, I see where you’re going. So we need to look at what is not in front of us to have an idea of what might be.” Charlie thought for a second. “Nope, just managed to confuse myself. Try again.”
“Hold on, we have a problem,” I said. In front of us were about fifteen zombies, and they were all in the street. We couldn’t take them all on before the ones behind us would flank our rear. Time to get speedy.
“I’ll run left, you go right. Meet you on the other side of those houses.”
“Got it, go.”
Charlie and I split and headed in opposite directions. I went to the left and ducked between two homes, running through the backyard and up the other side yard. Charlie was running right for me from the other side and as we passed through the front yards, we both yelled to get the Z’s attention that had started to follow us to the back. We needed them in the front, because Tommy and Duncan, who were still sneaking along in the rear, would have had them to deal with if they were hanging out by the barbecues.
Chapter 21
Back in the street, we paused to catch our breath.
“How much further?” Charlie asked, moving south again.
“Not much, I can see the business district from here. According to the map, the girls should be on the other side of Coolidge Street,” I said looking for the nearest street sign.
“Again, how far?” Charlie actually sounded winded.
“Three blocks, if this is 2nd Street.” I looked back and nearly jumped. Four zombies had outpaced the rest and they were about ten feet from us.
“Shit! Back!” I shouted, whipping up my axe. The upstroke caught the zombie under the ear. Unfortunately, it was a larger gentleman who was missing half his face, and the blade lodged in his head at a bad angle, doing little to kill him. I let go of the handle and backpedalled, pulling out my pickaxe and finding some firmer ground to stand on. The second Z, a smaller ghoul whose jaw had been ripped off, stumbled forward and died as I planted my pick in his head. I dodged the clumsy grab of the big guy, and kicked him in the hip as he went past. He tumbled to the ground and as he bent over to get up, I cracked his skull with my weapon. I pulled out the ‘hawk from his throat,
chastising myself for trying for a kill in such a difficult spot.
Looking over at Charlie, I saw him finish off his second and wipe the blades off on the zombie’s bathrobe. The horde behind us was a lot closer, and unless we wanted to get into a serious fight, we’d have to get moving.
“Let’s get some distance, shall we?” I said jogging away from the groaning mass.
“Grand idea, right behind you,” Charlie said, dragging his corpses to the street to try and trip up a few zombies. Mine were already there, so it might give us a few seconds.
We jogged for a block, and then waited. The houses thinned out as the streets gave way to businesses, so the possibility of attacks was smaller. Still, we’d been surprised before, so we waited in the open intersection of Linn and Sharp streets. Across the way, a large building rose up out of the grass, and the sign on the side told me it used to be a YMCA. To the south of us, a block away, was Coolidge Street, and I could see the defensive berm, as it wound its way around the southern portion of the safe zone.
“All righty then. Any sign of the Banana Brothers?” I asked, scanning the area, looking for any signs of activity. The town was pretty intact, for all general purposes, and would make a good place to live, barring whatever had wiped it out.
“Yeah, they just scooted out of the last houses. We’d better distract the masses,” Charlie said. The zombies were about fifty yards away, and were surprisingly quiet. Very few were actually groaning, and part of me wondered if that had anything to do with what we were dealing with here.
I took out my trench ‘hawk and banged the head of it and my pickaxe together. Charlie did the same, and the loud pinging was like a dog whistle to the Z’s. They zeroed in on the sound and I swear they shuffled just a little faster. Several zombies that were drifting off at the edges of the group re-focused and joined the horde.
Around the outer edges of the horde, Tommy and Duncan came streaking past, surprising the zombies and causing them to redouble their efforts to get to us. It was a hopeless cause, since we just turned and ran away. I wasn’t worried about this town being full of zombies, since they had managed to seal themselves in when they had originally sealed the zombies out. I take wins where I find them.
Chapter 22
We crossed the berm and ditch, walking past a plumbing supply warehouse and following Coolidge into the heart of the business district. At Vine Street, we reconnected with the women, and took a moment to burn off the zombie gunk on our weapons.
“Anything?” Sarah asked, looking over the four of us for any wounds or trauma.
“Don’t know yet. Haven’t really sat down to talk yet,” I said, taking a drink out of a canteen.
“Well, tell me you love me,” Sarah said mysteriously.
I looked at her strangely. “All, right. I love you.”
“We may have something on the cause of this mess.” She smiled at Rebecca.
I looked over at Rebecca and she looked at Charlie.
Charlie shrugged. “Okay, I love you, too. What’s going on?”
Sarah pulled out the map. “Rebecca and I found the communications center for this town, and before you ask, yes, it works, and no, we didn’t contact anyone. We figured having no new information was no better than no information, so we waited. Second, we may have an idea as to the source.”
That shook me. “Really? What is it?” I asked.
Sarah shook her head. “We’re guessing, so we need to put together anything you guys found.”
Tommy put his hands up in a surrender gesture. “On my side of the street, I found homes that had been lived in up until recently, and there was a lot of blood in the bedrooms. That was it. Weapons were left in the open, and nothing of use to a survivor was taken.”
Duncan nodded. “It was the same on my side of the street. Lots of blood in bedrooms and on beds, and nothing taken.”
I looked at Charlie. “Notice anything about the ones we faced?”
Charlie thought for a minute. “A lot of them died from torn throats, I didn’t see any defensive wounds, but then I wasn’t looking for them, either.”
I thought about my own kills. “That fits what I saw, too.” I looked back over to Sarah. “What does that add to your theory?”
Sarah smiled. “A lot, actually. If I had to guess, I would say all of these people died the same night, and when they were sleeping. That accounts for the blood in the bedrooms. Next, we have something missing from this place, and something missing from the last town.”
“What’s that?” Duncan asked.
“Kids,” Sarah said. “Where are the kids?”
I was speechless. In a sick way, it made sense. Zombie kids were different from the adults. The kids were faster, a lot more vicious, and in many cases, more intelligent that the average zombie. They were like the special forces of the zombie army.
I spoke up. “If you’re right, then why would they leave? Why aren’t they just hanging around like the adults?”
Rebecca shrugged. “Haven’t figured that one out yet. But it’s the only theory that fits the facts right now.”
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get ourselves to the next town and see if it’s the same. If it is, then at least we know what we’re dealing with here.”
As we climbed back into the vehicles, I looked over at Sarah and smiled. “Good thoughts.”
“But?”
“A zombie kid army scares the shit out of me.” Considering everything we had been through, it was as scary a thought as I had had in a long time.
Chapter 23
We drove east on Route 34, not having any real plan except to go to the next town on the list and see if there was anything to be learned. Given what we had so far, it wasn’t very likely.
Sarah and I drove in relative silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Part of me thought we should have sent a message to Leport, but the other part asked what would we say. Everything we had up to this point was conjecture, and our operating theory was way the hell out there.
“Hey, John?”
“Yeah?”
“Why wouldn’t a group of intelligent zombie kids make sense?”
“I guess I’m just being stubborn, since it flies in the face of everything we’ve seen so far. Maybe I just don’t want to believe it,” I said, looking over at her.
“Could be, but if you start with the dead coming back to life in the first place…” Sarah trailed off and I could see where she was going. We had seen the dead show signs of rudimentary group behavior, and several had shown limited problem solving abilities, including how to open doors and set up crude ambushes.
“You do have a point. I suppose it just scares me, since all the kid zombies we’ve seen so far have been nasty, quick little suckers, and if you throw some form of intelligence on them, then everything changes.” I dodged a crack in the road and watched in the rearview as Charlie hit it head on. The van bounced and I laughed as I imagined the cursing going on in there right now.
“How far to Hastings?” I asked.
Sarah checked the map. “About twelve miles. Are we going to take a look at Malvern? That was on the map as being black, too.”
I shook my head. “The first group to be sent out was weeks ago. They were just checking the first town to go dark. Likely, they found the same things we did, so they moved on. If I had to guess, they bought it at Malvern, which caused the second group to go out. We may find an answer or two at the third or fourth town, which is Hastings.”
The countryside passed by slowly, and here and there, were some farms on the sides with their untended acres slowly reverting to pre-human status. Eventually all of this would be forest, and little to any sign humans had been here at all. Even the grass on the side of the roads was pushing its boundaries. It would be a long, long time before things got back to what we would consider normal.
Sarah saw the camp before I did. “Look over there!” She cried, hitting me on the arm and causing me to swerve slightly.
I slow
ed down and came to stop. A quick check of the map told me where I was and what I was looking at. Outside of Hastings was a decent sized river, and the river oxbowed at this point east of the town. The water was wide and deep enough to form an effective barrier, and the surrounded land had only a half-mile space between riverbanks. Inside the protected area was nothing but forest, creating a very defendable place. It made sense, then, to see three vehicles parked quietly across the river in a small clearing close to the water.
“Let’s go check it out,” I said, moving ahead and crossing the next bridge. I drove into the grass and made my way slowly across the fields and around the water. In the past, this area had been farmed, and the farmer had driven over the same area hundreds of times, creating nearly a road to where I needed to go. I thought it was convenient as hell.
When I reached the edge of the trees, I parked the truck, and the van parked behind me. Jumping out, I grabbed my carbine from the truck, letting everyone know it was time to go to work.
“Saw the vehicles, did you?” Tommy asked, flicking the safety off his rifle.
“Yeah. You, Charlie, and Rebecca take the far side, I’ll take this side with Duncan and Sarah, and we’ll meet on the inside by the trucks. Charlie, what’s up?”
Charlie was squatting over by the grass, looking intently at something on the ground. Pulling his knife, he stabbed whatever it was and picked it up, inspecting it closely.
Stepping over to him, I saw what it was and sighed. “Great. Here we go.”
Sarah looked over and shook her head, and Duncan peered around and got an eyeful when Charlie stuck it out to show everyone.
“Yuck,” said Tommy as the severed finger was displayed. It didn’t even look like a clean bite. It looked more as if the finger had been bitten and then torn off.
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