Calan nodded. “I can do that. I’ve patrolled around the walls of the entire settlement and I’ve noticed there are quite a few trees that are too close and tall, especially at the back. They shouldn’t have been allowed to grow.”
“Apparently John was told by the people who have land close to the back walls several times over the last couple years about that problem. He told them he’d look into it, but nothing was ever done, which was irresponsible.”
“Very,” Calan said. “Zombies aren’t smart, but all it’d take is one to figure out it can climb a tree to get over the walls and any others nearby watching will do the same thing.”
“That’s what I thought. Tomorrow, after the field workers are done for the day, would you mind going out with some of the men I assign to cut down the trees? Of course, it won’t be done in one shot. It could take a week or more, depending on how many trees have to be removed.”
“I’m fine with that. It has to be done.”
“Yes. And once it is, I’m going to set up a regular schedule for the warmer months to have any new seedlings pulled out. That’s a lot easier than cutting down a full-sized tree.”
The sound of a baby crying reached Jerrica’s ears, coming from the cabin. She smiled. “The newest member of our family has arrived.”
Hunter walked through the cabin’s door, then stepped off the porch to join them. He wore the biggest smile Jerrica had ever seen on his face. “It’s a boy,” he said.
“What’s his name?” Jerrica asked.
“Seth.”
“And Faith? How is she?”
“Fine. She did great. The midwife said that for a first baby, Faith had an easy time of it.”
Her mom opened the door and called their names. “Come inside and see the baby.”
Hunter and her dad went first. As Jerrica and Calan followed behind, she said, “Since you’re my mate and will be my husband, I guess you’re an uncle. You have a family again.”
Calan gave her a surprised look, then smiled. “You’re right. I didn’t think about it.” He pulled Jerrica to a stop just in front of the porch steps and tugged her into his arms. “I missed being part of one. Thanks to you, that’s no longer the case.” He kissed her lightly.
“Knock it off, you two,” Hunter called from the open doorway. “Get in here and meet your nephew.”
Jerrica took Calan’s hand and walked with him up the steps, then inside the cabin. As of today, there were two new family members instead of one. Calan and the baby. As she’d told Calan, she doubted this would be a day any of them would ever forget.
* * * *
It was two days after Jerrica’s father had stepped into his new role as leader of the settlement. Calan noticed everyone who lived there seemed happier. Geoff had taken to the job like a duck to water. As for John and his family, they were rarely seen. They kept to their cabin. Calan still kept an eye on the former leader, just in case he tried to do something in retaliation. He was the type of man who would, especially since John had inherited his former position. Not that he felt sorry for John. The man had gotten what he deserved.
Last evening Calan had gone out with the workers that Geoff had assigned to cut down the trees around the walls. It was going to be a big job. There were far more than he’d first assumed. They’d been left for decades. Some even had thick branches that overhung the top of the walls. Getting rid of those had been the job they’d taken on right away. Cutting the trees down would start later that day.
At that moment, he watched over the workers in the fields. Jerrica was beside him with her ever-present bow and quiver on her back. The work day was almost over, which Calan was thankful for. For almost a week, the temperature had soared, bringing with it high humidity. The only thing that would break it would be rain, but since the sky was cloudless, he doubted that would happen any time soon. The workers spent the majority of the day watering huge fields to keep the crops from drying out.
As if she knew what he was thinking, Jerrica waved a hand in front of her face. “I don’t think I can take too much more of this heat. I don’t know how you can do it wearing fur.”
“I’m used to it. Where I originally come from, we never get winter, so it’s like summer all the time,” Calan replied.
“I don’t know how I’d like that. The zombies are slower moving once the snow flies. If it were summer all year round, there wouldn’t be much of a break from them.”
“People have learned to work around that. Some feel the warmer climate is crucial to their survival.”
“Yeah, winter can be hard on a settlement, especially if the crops don’t do well during the growing season. I’ve been lucky that in my lifetime ours has always had more than enough when harvest time comes in the fall. My grandparents told me stories of how when their parents first made their new life here, it’d been a hard winter on all the settlers. This way of living had been new to them. Most hadn’t ever done without electricity and running water.”
“I bet. Society at the time when the first zombies appeared was very tech-based. We had our Internet, cell phones, tablets, laptops… You name it. Just about everything had a computer in it, even the cars. It was a big cultural shock for a lot of people to basically take a step backward in time.”
“I sometimes forget how old you actually are,” Jerrica said with a smile. “You’re a walking, breathing history book. You remember things that will eventually be lost when the last people who know about them die.”
Calan turned his head and looked at Jerrica. “I’ll always remember. I won’t ever let myself forget. Maybe one day humans will be able to get back all that lost knowledge.”
Jerrica turned her gaze on the fields. “Finally. Mathias is calling it quits for today.” She met Calan’s gaze. “Are you going out with the others to cut down trees right away?”
“Yeah, right after I eat something. We have to get as much work done as we can while it’s still light out. I can see, but the workers can’t. Plus, them being out there once darkness comes will be too much of a risk.”
“Are you hunting after that?”
Calan leaned against Jerrica’s shoulder. “No. I figured I’d spend some time with you then. Even though we’re together all day here, we can’t relax, since we have to be constantly on guard.”
Jerrica reached up and scratched behind his ear. “I’d like that. Come on. Let’s catch up with the others. My mom said she’d have dinner ready as soon as we arrive at the cabin, so you can eat before you go out again.”
Calan had been accepted into Jerrica’s family as if he’d always been a part of it. In some ways, it made him miss his own more than he had in a very long time. But he was more than happy to take a place in Jerrica’s, especially since she was in it.
The need to bite and turn her had grown over the last couple of days since she’d agreed to become his mate and all that went with it. The wait for her to feel ready to take that next step in their relationship was killing him, but he held to his promise not to force her into it before she was.
After they arrived at the cabin, Calan shifted to human form and quickly ate the dinner Jerrica’s mom had made. Then he returned to the gates to meet with the group of men who’d been assigned the task of thinning out the forest close to the walls. Since there were more trees at the back, yesterday they’d decided to start cutting there.
Back in wolf form, Calan led the way through the woods, keeping a watchful eye out for zombies. He sniffed the air every once in a while, but he didn’t detect the scent of the undead.
The men chose their first tree and set to work chopping it down with their axes. It was hard work and time-consuming. It made Calan think that if only they had a gas chainsaw, it’d go so much quicker.
After the first one came down, Calan realized it’d take more than a week to clear the trees they wanted to at the rate they were going. They left the tree where it landed and moved on to the next. Once they had enough cleared to get a horse and wagon through, the wood wou
ld be brought into the settlement and turned into lumber. It wouldn’t go to waste.
The men had been at it for a few hours and were working on the last tree they could fell before it became dark. It was one that was taller than the top of the walls. Its trunk was thick and was probably at least fifty years old. Two of the six-man crew attacked it with their axes, one taking a strike right after the other.
That was when an arrow came sailing over the walls with something attached to it. The arrow embedded itself into the ground close to them. The bundle tied to the shaft broke apart at contact, spraying a red liquid. A second then a third followed in quick session, carrying the same substance.
The smell of the liquid hit Calan’s nose, making him growl. It was blood. Pig’s blood, which had enough human blood mixed in with it to lure zombies to this spot in a matter of minutes. The undead could smell the blood a quarter mile away and would quickly zone in on it. The men were sitting ducks.
Calan threw back his head and howled. Once he had all six of their attentions, he said, “You have to get behind the walls. Now. That’s pig’s blood mixed with human blood. Zombies are going to be headed this way, drawn by it. Run.”
The six men dropped whatever they held and took off running, flanking the walls. At the sound of the zombies’ howls, Calan stood his ground and prepared to take the first of them out while the humans headed for safety.
Chapter Thirteen
Ten zombies ran through the trees at an incredible speed, headed straight for the humans, not paying any attention to Calan. He rushed them, cutting off as many as he could before they got any closer to the six men running for their lives. He bit and clawed, ripping heads off undead bodies.
Four of the zombies managed to get by Calan. He left the carnage behind and chased after the others as more undead howls came through the trees around them. He put on a burst of preternatural speed, making short work of the creatures that were on the heels of the men. Luckily, he was faster and stopped any of them from coming within biting distance of the workers.
More and more eerie screams sounded. Calan wasn’t sure if the men would make it to the gates in time, especially when he saw that more arrows with the same blood packages had been shot along the trail they ran on.
A zombie attacked from ahead of the six men. Calan bunched his back legs under him and jumped over the workers’ heads to land right on top the undead. With his sharp teeth around the zombie’s neck and a hard jerk, its head came free. Then he was running again and taking out more.
As they rounded a corner where the guards up on top the walls could see them coming, the men screamed at them to open the gates. Calan ended the existence of zombie after zombie, losing count of how many. More just kept coming.
The gates opened only enough for the men to slip through, but twenty zombies came rushing around the other end of the walls. Five of them reached the gates as the six workers pushed through it and the zombies followed them inside, while others fought to get in all at the same time, which caused a dam of undead.
Calan had to get inside the settlement. With zombies running within it, it would be devastating. First, he had to clear out enough of them from the open gates to get through and allow the gates to be closed so no more could gain access. He used his teeth and claws to rip and rend. Once he’d accomplished what needed to be done, he squeezed inside as the guards on the walls worked on closing the gates behind him.
* * * *
Jerrica was over at Hunter’s cabin, spending time with her new nephew, when her father came rushing inside. He quickly closed all the windows and locked them before he took the baby from her arms and passed him to his mother.
Her dad pulled her to her feet. “I brought your bow and arrows. Zombies are loose inside the settlement. Calan is fighting to keep more from getting through the gates. We have to protect the settlers until he can get in here to do it.” He looked at Hunter and Faith. “Once we leave, lock the door and don’t open it for anything or anyone until I’ve come back and told you it’s safe. Your mother has done the same.”
Jerrica followed her father outside then grabbed her bow and quiver that were on the porch. It didn’t take her long to weapon up. Her dad carried his as well, with an arrow nocked.
They ran toward the center of the settlement. Screams reached Jerrica’s ears the closer they came. Once they reached it, it looked as if hell had broken loose. People ran everywhere as zombies chased them. It was chaos as some were caught, bitten, then began the process of being turned.
Jerrica pushed down her fear and raised her bow, as did her dad. She took shot after shot, taking out zombies who up until a little while ago had been people she’d known all her life. She couldn’t think about that as she aimed for their heads and her arrows hit their targets.
Once the zombies moved out of range, Jerrica and her dad walked farther into the madness. She vaguely heard the guards on top the walls, yelling that the gates needed to be cleared and to keep hold of the controls. The sound of Calan’s wolf growls filtered through the settlement as he fought the zombies from just in front of large portals, trying to clear the backlog of them so that the walls could be sealed. She caught a flash of black fur through the undead who’d managed to get through the small opening.
Jerrica’s attention snapped to her father’s other side as a zombie’s eerie howl came from that direction. She changed her stance, aimed and fired. Her arrow hit with a sickening thud in its head before the creature had reached her dad.
There were so many zombies that Jerrica didn’t know if she and her dad could hold them at bay for much longer. The bitten turned so quickly, adding to their numbers. For almost every one she took out, another filled its place.
Now finally through the gates, Calan turned and ripped his claws from neck to hip through the zombie that had taken his place at the opening. It dropped, its existence ended. He quickly pulled the body all the way through the gates as they finally closed slowly. One of the undead managed to slip through before they shut completely.
Calan gave chase. He put on a burst of speed, took hold of the zombie by its head with his teeth and flung it away just as it reached one of the fleeing settlers who’d been caught out in the open. He ended the creature by biting through its skull.
He lifted his head and looked around. The sight of Jerrica and her father in the center of the attack, shooting arrows, made Calan’s blood run cold. She was skilled enough to protect herself—and her father was there to make sure it stayed that way—but she was still as vulnerable as the next human.
A shrill scream came from Calan’s left, much closer than Jerrica was to him. He changed direction and saw a woman, who held a small child in her arms, screaming as a man went through the last stages of becoming a zombie. Calan did the only thing he could. He took out the newly turned.
The woman continued to scream. Calan shifted and took hold of her upper arms and gave her a little shake. “Calm down.” His voice seemed to snap her out of it. “You have to get your child to safety. Where’s your cabin?”
“T-there,” she said, as she pointed to the one a short distance away.
Calan quickly walked her to it. “Barricade yourself inside and lock all the windows. Don’t come out until this is over.”
Once she did as he’d instructed, Calan took on his wolf form once more. He turned around to search for Jerrica. She and her father had moved and stood with their backs facing each other as they continued to shoot. A quick glance at their quivers showed they were almost out of arrows.
Austin came running toward them with fresh quivers. He also carried an axe. He reloaded Jerrica’s and her father’s with arrows then took up a stance with the axe, guarding their one side.
Calan slowly worked his way toward them, taking out zombies in his path. He sent body parts flying as he ripped and tore through the undead. The newly turned still bled like the living, their bodies not having had the chance to rot. The volume of the howls of the zombies on the other side of the g
ates rose as they scented the blood in the air.
He turned his attention on Jerrica once more, just in time to see a zombie launch itself at her from her exposed side. She loosed an arrow at the target she’d been aiming for, but there was no way she could nock another before the undead reached her. Her father and Austin were busy holding off two other zombies that had come too close.
Calan ran as fast as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Two seconds before he reached Jerrica, the zombie slammed into her, and she screamed as its teeth sank into the arm she’d lifted to hold it off.
With a growl, Calan viciously ripped off the zombie’s head before it could bite again, then quickly took out the other two that Austin and Geoff tried to fight off. They rushed to Jerrica as Calan tossed the last zombie body part aside.
“No!” Geoff shouted as he cradled Jerrica in his arms.
Austin was in front of father and daughter, his eyes welling as he stared at the bite mark on Jerrica’s arm.
Calan refused to let Jerrica go. There was only one thing he could think of that would save her. He went to where Geoff sat on the ground holding her, and he nudged her collar aside. He opened his mouth, exposing his sharp teeth, prepared to give her the bite that would turn her into a werewolf.
Before he made contact with her skin, Austin shoved his head away. “You can’t kill her. I don’t care that she’ll be a zombie. I won’t let you.”
Calan locked gazes with Austin. “I’m not. I’m going to turn her, make her like me. She’s my mate.”
“Will it work now that she’s been bitten by a zombie?” Geoff asked.
Calan turned his attention on Jerrica’s father. “I don’t know, but there really isn’t anything else. I have to do it now. We’re running out of time.” Jerrica’s eyes were already turning cloudy, like that of a zombie.
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