Dead Surge

by Joseph Talluto

  Charlie pointed to the spot where he had been standing. “Something strange out there. I can see several spots where something sat and bent the grass down, like it had been there for a few hours. Then the trail leads away from the camp. Over there,” Charlie pointed to the south, near the river, “is the same thing, only the trail leads into the camp.”

  “Odd. You think it was living?” I asked.

  “Explain the finger,” Tommy said.

  “Good point.” We hadn’t degenerated as a species yet to resort to cannibalism, although I hadn’t visited the West Coast yet. Who knew what lay beyond the mountains? “All right, same plan. Keep your eyes open, and see if there are any other clues around here.”

  We split up and moved cautiously through the brush. The woods were heavy, but only about a quarter of a mile deep, so we could see fairly well. I thought I detected movement in the darker recesses, but since I wasn’t chasing after it, I figured it would come to me.

  We crossed a small section of brush and walked out in the open. This part of the peninsula had been mowed at one point, giving us tall grass, but no trees, and a gentle slope to the river. I could see the vehicles about six hundred feet ahead of us, so we would get there quickly.

  That was the thought, until three zombies stood up out of the grass, and started working their way over to us. I didn’t waste time with single combat. I fired a round into two of them, dropping them cold, while a shot from beside me took out the third.

  “Nice shot, babe.”

  “Thanks, hon.”

  “No sharing, huh?” Duncan asked, miffed.

  A snapping twig cut off my reply, so I just pointed to the two that came walking out of the trees.

  “Cool. Thanks!” Said Duncan as he brought up his rifle. Three shots later and the Z count rose to five.

  As we walked up to the nearest zombies, Sarah looked down, and then put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, no.”

  Chapter 24

  I looked carefully at the torn face and lacerated throat, and realized I recognized the zombie on the ground. It was Jane Coswell, the leader of one of the groups sent out by Dot.

  “Damn. All right, keep your eyes open. Chances are there’s more,” I said.

  No sooner had I spoken those words than rifle shots sounded on the far side of the woods. First two shots, then a third. My guess was three more zombies just bit the dust.

  We found the vehicles and looked them over very carefully. Four tents were on the ground, and one was still occupied. That poor soul was stuck in his sleeping bag, and glared at us impotently as Sarah shot him between the eyes.

  Charlie and the rest came walking around the edge of the water, and immediately began looking through the other trucks. When he reached where I was, he raised an eyebrow in question.

  “Six with the one in the tent,” I said.

  “Got three on the other side,” Charlie confirmed.

  “This is one of the groups sent by Dot,” I added.

  Charlie looked around. “How can you be sure?”

  “Jane Coswell’s over there. It’s not good.”

  “Damn. She was a fighter.”

  “Any others you could see over on your side?” I asked, doing the math.

  Charlie shook his head. “No, that was…wait. There’s another. Tommy! South! By the trees!”

  Tommy, who was closest, dropped the pack he was inspecting and stood quickly, bringing up his rifle. One shot later and the zombie who was sneaking up on the rear fell to the ground.

  “That makes ten from here,” I said. “We’re missing one.”

  Charlie looked around. “Could be they’re still in the bushes.”

  “Could be they ran.” I pointed to the far side of the river where dried mud and matted grass came out of the water. The trail led up to the road and disappeared.

  “Smart move. Where do you think they went?”

  “No idea, but let’s get this stuff out of here,” I said. “We’re running out of daylight, and I have no desire to stay here tonight.”

  “I heard that,” said Tommy and Duncan in unison.

  We drove the vehicles to the road and took everything we could use out of them. The team that had perished was well provisioned, and we stocked up on a lot of ammo. We took the time to say a small prayer for our comrades, expressing the regret that they had not been able to see the Upheaval to the very end. The empty trucks were a stark reminder to us that whatever was out here, it was extremely dangerous, and we could not take anything for granted.

  We drove into Hastings as the sun was starting its final quarter descent. A fall wind was picking up, stirring the long grasses and saplings along the sides of the roads. A quick right turn and a half-mile later took us to the outskirts of Hastings. It was a small town, barely a mile square. The buildings were run down and abandoned, and the homes were slightly worse. If I had to make a guess, things were bad before the Upheaval.

  We were moving down Indian Avenue, through the center of town when the radio suddenly came to life.

  “Something’s here. I just saw movement,” Charlie said.

  Sarah picked up the radio. “What kind?”

  “Small and fast.”

  Sarah looked over at me. “Animal?” She asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Copy that.” Sarah looked at me, and I nodded.

  “Let’s get a look at our enemy, shall we?” I said, pulling over and stopping the truck.

  I climbed out, and again I shook my head at the willingness of anyone wanting to live here. However, small towns were popular, and this one was no different. Trouble was this one, according to the reports, was just getting started again when they went dark.

  I walked over to Charlie and said, “Where’d you see movement?”

  He took out a tomahawk and pointed with it down the street called Harris.

  “That way. It darted out on the next street up, headed the same way we were.”

  “Tracking us?” I asked.

  “God, I hope not.”

  Charlie was right. If they had gotten to the point where they were tracking us, and not attacking right away, we were in trouble. I didn’t want to think about that jump in intelligence.

  Chapter 25

  We loaded up and started to walk, splitting into three groups and staying to the center of the streets. It was an old practice, and made the most amount of sense, given the unfamiliar terrain. The good news was small towns like this one were generally laid out in a grid pattern, so it was easy to keep your bearings and agree upon a rendezvous point. Sarah and Rebecca were together, and Tommy and Duncan were another group, while Charlie and I made the third. We had worked together like that for so long it would have been strange to suggest any other pairings.

  Charlie and I took the route directly towards where he had seen the movement, so we might get a look at our sneaker. It was possibly a feral kid, one of the thousands of orphans we had found in our travels. Sometimes they willingly came with us, sometimes they didn’t. Once or twice, we left them alone, figuring them too far gone ever to adjust to a community. A few times, we had to put them down, their minds completely reverting to an animal state of insanity, and were a danger to others.

  The walk towards the next street was uneventful, and I noted the litter and debris in the ditches. Charlie saw it, too, and his expression mirrored my own feelings. People in this town stopped caring long before the end of the world.

  At Platte Ave, we moved south, carefully checking the darkening corners and behind fences and porch railings. There were a lot of places to hide in a town, and we didn’t have time to find them all. In fact, we had about an hour before I called it quits and we found a secure place for the night.

  At Hale, we turned east, and it was more of the same. Homes with unkempt yards, dilapidated garages and rusting cars. I guess the people who wanted to settle here had a thing for projects and fixer-uppers. Speaking of people, we hadn’t seen any people at all, living or otherwise. We’d have to
do a house search once we found our little ghost.

  “There!” Charlie whispered, bringing up his rifle. I covered the other side, in case there were surprises. We moved carefully down the street, keeping an eye on the shadows.

  “He’s not moving. He’s just staring at me,” Charlie said. He was looking through his scope, so he could clearly see his adversary.

  “Living or dead?” I wanted to know so we could determine this threat.

  “Living, it looks like. Wait. Nope, he’s dead.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Oh, yeah. He moved back into the darker area and his eyes are glowing.”

  That would do it. “We’re clear on this side, take him out…”

  Suddenly, a burst of gunfire from the east shattered the quiet we were walking in, startling several birds into flight.

  “Jesus!” Charlie cursed, and then he cursed again. “Son of bitch!”

  “What? What happened?” I kept my rifle up, scanning for threats.

  “Little shit disappeared.” Charlie sounded disgusted.

  “Hate to bring more bad news on you man, but that’s really bad,” I said.

  Charlie kept his rifle at the ready, scanning the bushes and corners. “Why?” he asked.

  “When was the last time a little zombie had you in his sights and didn’t attack?”

  “Oh, hell.”

  “Yeah, let’s find out what the others are shooting at. Maybe they got lucky.” I walked away and Charlie held back, adjusting the sling on his rifle. I was about fifty feet away when I turned back and meant to say, ‘You coming?’

  Only what I said was, “Charlie, behind you!” I couldn’t shoot. I could only watch helpless as a little zombie boy, running like a fiend from Hell, burst from his hiding place and raced for Charlie’s unprotected back.

  Had it been anyone else but Charlie, they would have died, myself included. Charlie dropped to one knee, pivoted around. In the same motion, he unslung a tomahawk and had it swinging just in time to smash it into the snarling, hissing face of the little Z. I had never seen Charlie move so fast in the entire time I had known him, and for a second I had to wonder if he hadn’t been taking it easy on me all these years of practice.

  I almost congratulated him, but I choked off the noise when a second zombie raced out of hiding, and launched itself at Charlie. Charlie was stuck trying to remove his ‘hawk from the dead boy’s head, unable to stop the little bastard. His hands shot forward to ward off the Z when suddenly she was hurled back, her head blasted apart by a .45 caliber bullet.

  Charlie looked over at me and nodded. “Nice shot.”

  “Thanks. Good work on the first one,” I said as I holstered my pistol.

  “Thanks. Let’s get the hell away from here, shall we?”

  “My thoughts, exactly.”

  We jogged over to where we thought the shots had come from, and skidded to a halt as four rifles came up to zero in on us before we were recognized. Sarah and Rebecca came over to see the two of us, and Duncan and Tommy were looking over a pair of small forms on the ground.

  “What have we got here? A couple blocks from here, we found two more.” I said.

  Duncan answered. “These little guys were hanging around this building, not sure why. We thought they were living until we got close enough, and Tommy saw they had been bitten on the arms.”

  Sure enough, they were both sporting matching bite marks in their upper arms. I found that to be odd, but this whole situation was turning into one big WTF moment.

  “Wonder why they were hanging around here?” Sarah asked.

  In answer, a door to the building, which was the town hall and community center, slowly opened. Charlie and I stood in front of it, but the rest of the crew spread out to have clear fields of fire.

  Out into the open came a very thin figure, looking extremely haggard, yet very much alive. He still wore his weapons, but he looked like he hadn’t slept in a while, and his last meal was a distant memory. His eyes were clear, which helped, and they locked right onto mine.

  Chapter 26

  “John Talon, I presume?” said the man, stumbling over and standing by the little corpses. He looked down and shook his head. “Hope you got the other two.”

  It took me a minute to recognize the man, given his appearance, but it was still a shock. “I’ll be damned. Richard Loftuss. What the hell is going on out here?”

  Richard shook his head. “Those little fuckers had me bottled up in that building for the last week. I managed to kill three of them, but the rest stayed out of sight, and I didn’t have the ammo to hunt the rest of them. They wouldn’t let me sleep, banging on the doors all night long, and I had no shot at them when they did.” Richard took a deep breath. “Anyone else make it away from the camp?”

  Charlie shook his head. “We killed everyone over there, they had all turned.”

  Richard hung his head for a minute, and then looked up at me. “You can’t blame me for running. They were tearing us apart before I knew what was happening. I had gone to the riverside to piss, and suddenly the place exploded. Screams and shots, and glowing eyes running everywhere.” He shook himself, and took a step back. “I fell into the river and made for the other side, hoping I could at least open up on the bastards from the riverbank. By the time I got to the other side, it was all over. I ran like hell for the town, figuring to rally the people here and make a stand.”

  Duncan spoke up. “What happened to this town?”

  Richard shook his head. “They were gone when I got here. No idea where anyone was. I got chased all the way from the river, and by luck found this place open. Most of the horde moved on, those four stayed to get me.”

  “I was about at the end of things when I heard your shots and figured… Aaahhhh!!!”

  Richard screamed as one of the little corpses suddenly lunged and locked its teeth onto his ankle, tearing at the flesh and spilling blood onto the street. Richard fell back, rolling away from the zombie, while Tommy fired from the hip, hitting the zombie in the head and killing it for good.

  “God damn it!” Richard yelled over and over. “Son of a bitch!” he gripped his ankle, and blood dripped through his fingers.

  I looked over at Duncan, who looked ashen.

  “I shot it in the head! I know I did!” Duncan said.

  “Let it go. Happens sometimes,” I said. I went over to Richard and squatted down by him. He was gripping his ankle and gritting his teeth. He had calmed down, somewhat.

  “Go figure. Hold them off until rescued, then they play dead until someone gets close.” He was breathing heavy, and I knew what was coming.

  “Sorry, Richard. Can you tell us anything about what we’re dealing with here?” I asked.

  Richard smiled sickly and shook his head. “Your man’s screw-up killed me. Go to hell.” He suddenly pulled his gun and pointed it at Duncan. Charlie’s bullet took Richard in the head and he fell back, his life spilling out of a new hole in his head.

  I stood up and looked over at my crew. Duncan was shaking his head, Charlie was frowning, Rebecca and Sarah were looking worried, and Tommy was poking the other zombie with his rifle.

  “Well, we actually have a few more answers than we did, and we know what we’re dealing with for sure. We’ve got to find some place to hole up for the night, if these things are in the area,” I said.

  Duncan spoke up. “John, I’m…”

  I cut him off. “Don’t apologize. He should have known better. For all his help, he should have stayed at his camp and died there.” I was angry at Richard’s selfishness, and angry at the situation. “We need to find a place to spend the night, and we need to talk, but this isn’t the place.”

  I walked away from the scene and Sarah stepped in beside me, with Charlie and Rebecca behind us, and Tommy following. Duncan brought up the rear, after taking another long look at the mess on the ground.

  We piled into the vehicles and drove away from Hastings, leaving behind Richard Loftuss and his
killers. The sun was nearly down, and I wanted to find a place to spend the night safely. I didn’t know where the band of little zombies was, and I wanted to make sure we weren’t on a collision course.

  Sarah wanted to talk when we got into the vehicles, but I shook my head. I was realizing we had made one right move and several wrong ones, but since we knew what we were now dealing with, we had to make the right moves, and we needed to do it as a group.

  Chapter 26

  I drove on Route 34 for about fifteen miles until I found what I was looking for. On the south side of the road was a grain elevator complex, and four huge silos were standing like silent sentries over the plains of Iowa. We were just north of Red Oak and Red Oak’s airport, but I wasn’t interested in the town this evening. I had no idea if Red Oak was alive at all, and I wasn’t going to go exploring in the night. We had about twenty minutes left of daylight and we still had a lot to do.

  I pulled the truck into the complex and around to the silos. I drove the truck right into the middle of the four towers, having barely enough room to pass through the south two of them and parked, giving Charlie enough space to park alongside me. The two vehicles took up most of the space in the courtyard of the silos. Above us, grain chutes crossed each other from tower to tower, forming a large X above our heads. To the north, we could see the road we had just left. To the west were just fields, and to the east and south were the maintenance buildings and control centers. A brick tower on the south reached up to the night sky, nearly as tall as the silos themselves.