by Mark Clodi
“No Bubba, they didn't. There's another guy, he is alive, but he hid me in a tree and then led the zombies away from me. They took my sled! I almost shot one, but the guy told me not too, he said there was more than one out there and he was right. Even though I couldn't see anyone else at first there were three other ones. All smart ones and they talked....”
Greg and Steve were each taking up position at two different doors into the warehouse. There was one near the office and another near the huge bay doors. Both men shook their heads 'no' to Jed's questioning glance.
“They talked?” Jed prompted, “What'd they talk about?”
“They talked about someone named Savior and Maggie and Reggie and Harvey and some other girl was there. I didn't see the one they called Maggie, just the other girl and Reggie and Harvey. Reggie wasn't wearing a shirt, only black pants so I knew right away he was a zombie. I saw him first...then the other guy.”
“Whoa-whoa there Hon, slow down, you need to explain to us what happened really slow. First, did they follow you back?” asked Jed.
Hon looked around and shook his head, “No I waited. I waited and waited for a long time until everyone was gone. I came out and looked around real careful, like Bubba taught me, there wasn't anyone around. And my sled was gone.”
“Okay, you weren't followed. Now you took your sled out this morning and what happened?”
“I saw tracks, not my tracks, but other ones. At first I thought they were from a deer, but I checked, and I knew when I got close they weren't from an animal.”
“How?” asked Bubba.
“There were boot tracks, not hooves. But I think they were from the human guy, not the zombie.”
“What makes you think that?” asked Jed.
“Well I went up the path a little bit, the one that goes to the top of the mountain, the tracks went that way and then I heard noise behind me. I left the sled back there, and I went up the path real fast, to where it goes between the two pine trees. Once I could hide I turned around and looked and saw the zombie with no shirt drop out of the trees. Then the human guy was behind me, I didn't hear him at first, but it's like, well, I don't know...I guess I musta heard him. I pointed my gun at him, but he looked alive.”
“Why?”
“He had on coats and stuff, and goggles, I couldn't even see his face, but at first I thought it was Greg. The guy he motioned at me to stay still and I pointed my gun back towards the zombie. But the human guy shook his head 'no', and got me to figure out there was more than one zombie. I didn't think he had a gun, but when he turned a little I saw he had a gun like Bubba's, only shorter.”
“My shotgun?”
“Yeah, with the two barrels side by side.”
Bubba and Jed continued to coax the story out of Hon while the other two kept watch. When they felt that they had gotten everything they could out of him, Jed straightened up and said, “Well gentlemen I think we may have a problem.”
“What are we gonna do Jed?” asked Bubba.
“I think we need to arm the perimeter and keep watch in pair, with Hon staying up a little late to help out, then sleeping and getting up a little early in the morning. Bubba we'll leave Steve and Greg where they are for now, Hon you keep your gun handy and wait while your dad and I get the packages we have all made up for this situation deployed.”
“Geez I dunno Jed, those bombs...”
“Those bombs are what Bubba? Too powerful? You heard the boy, he was hearing four of the tough zombies talk about another one, at least! That is five of the fast ones. I never saw more'n two of them at once, I know my limits. We get the bombs out and then I crawl up on the roof for a look around to see what I can see.”
“They just...I mean it is the dead of winter here, those things could take out the whole place!”
“That's why we got the backup location ready.” Jed was talking about another warehouse, much like this one where there were two more recreational vehicles and a stock of food, in addition to another two pickup trucks and good supply of guns and ammunition. Hon had been told to never go into the warehouse and he never had, despite his curiosity.
“Alright, fine. You're probably talking sense.”
“Let's do this then.”
Within twenty minutes the two men had moved special barricades in place by both doors and had slid the wooden cover off of what Hon had thought was another pile of crates sitting in front of the bay doors.
“What's that stuff?” Hon asked Bubba.
“Hmm? Hillbilly surprise. See we're all in here, the baddies are all out there, we push the rod up against the door there on the side that swings and when the people outside try and open the door, it pushes a trigger and then...” Bubba made an exploding sound with his mouth, while raising his hands and spreading his fingers. “No more door, no more side of the building on the warehouse across the way either.”
“What is the loop for?” Hon was asking about the corded loop that the men had tied to the door handles.
“Well some of these things, they are really strong. So Jed, well he has a mind that is devious and all, he thought they might be able to pull the door off the hinges, so he made a pull trigger too. If they pull the door off...Ka-boom!”
“Wow.”
“Yeah and he has ropes up in the cat walk too, so he can trigger the bombs manually too.”
“What about us? Is it safe?”
“About as safe as we can make it. We'll hide out over there, on the other side of the office. Plus remember those holes in the floor that we kept having you clean out until you just put duct tape over them?” Hon nodded. “Well we slid some pig iron down into them and put up metal plates to kind of channel the blast outwards instead of inwards.”
“So we'll be okay?” Hon's voice had picked up a slight southern twang and it seemed to come through especially when he spoke softly, which he was doing now.
Looking at the boy's face Bubba said, “Don't you be scared Honey boy! We may look and act like country bumpkins, but we know a thing or three. Jed was in the military and he did explosive stuff while there. He could tell you stories about mines and bombs that would make your head spin, so we made this place as safe as we could.”
“Is it true what he said?”
“About what?” asked Bubba, thinking the boy was referring to Jed calling him the boy's father.
“That you've only ever faced two of the smart zombies at once?”
“Well, sure. We saw our share of smarter zombies too, not exactly the strongest, fastest kind, but plenty to give us experience in dealing with them. Why are you worried about that Hon?”
“I thought....well I thought you might have seen more than that. All at once I mean.”
“No sirree and I don't think anyone who has lived to talk about it either. So dealing with five of them will be a challenge, but, like I said, we have a few surprises of our own. How many of these fast ones have you see at once Hon?” asked Bubba, genuinely curious, the boy still hadn't opened up about his past very much.
“Lots. Lots and lots and lots and lots.”
Bubba's smile faltered a little, “Well I know you can count Hon, how many is 'lots'?”
“I wasn't really counting them, I was running away.”
Laughing, Bubba said, “And you did the right thing there buddy. How about you tell me about how you did that when we get through these five?”
Shaking his head and frowning, Hon replied, “How about I don't?”
Chapter 12
The explosion was much larger than the men had planned for, it took out a whole lot more than the door when the dust settled the men could see a gaping twelve foot hole in the wall. The zombies who had pushed their way inside in the brief half second before the bomb blew were not so much blow into pieces as simply obliterated into a fine mist. The ones that had been waiting to come in after them had stayed a respectful distance back, fearing gunfire, not something of this magnitude. Despite being well away from the opening none of them lived throu
gh the blast either. Xavier was watching from his favorite perch in a pine tree that allowed him to peer down the roadway formed by the buildings. It was just after sunset and daylight was quickly fading.
“They took out their own truck too. If they would have moved it, it wouldn't have been caught in the explosion.” said Reggie.
Xavier shook his head, “If they had done that we might have gone through the bay door instead, I don't think they wanted to let us know they were on to us. Tell the others not to go through the office door.”
There was little danger of that, when the first blast happened the zombies standing by the second door had all been thrown to the ground. Although they were up now, none of them looked anxious to try the door in front of them.
Reggie raised the radio to his mouth and spoke briefly into it, then turned to Xavier and said, “They aren't going in.”
“I could have stopped them without the radio.” Creators had the power to exert direct control over weaker zombies within a certain range. Xavier was the father of every zombie who traveled with him and had a greater degree of control over his children than he would have over zombies created by someone else.
“Yes.” answered Reggie, not sure on how to reply, “What do we do now?”
“No side doors, the bay door is out too, I would have it booby trapped if I were them, so we go through the door that just blew. I bet they have guns. Send that asshole Maggie, I hate that bitch.”
“Uh...Xavier...you sent Maggie away, remember?”
“Maggie? I said Jeff, that whiny son of a bitch gets on my nerves, I should have had him open the god-damned door.”
“Okay, I will have Jeff go through first followed by everyone else.”
“Keep the people around the edges too, in case there is a way out that we don't know about. I will take the roof, in case they go out that way.” Earlier in the day Reggie and Xavier had seen one of the men push open a trapdoor in the roof and look out. They had seen it from this very location when they were talking about whether the men inside knew they were being watched and what they should do about it.
In the roadway between buildings Jeff led a group of six zombies towards the gaping hole in the building. He was upset over the loss of his seven brothers and sisters, more so than Xavier could ever be.
He made it across the threshold of the building when he heard someone yell out “Fire! Fire!” and bullets ripped into him and his friends. Four of the zombies dropped with head wounds from the various calibers of ammunition that were being fired, two seemed to have their heads explode while the other two looked mostly intact as they dropped. The shooters didn't waste time or bullets on anyone who went down, but immediately switched targets. Jeff and Melinda took shots that spun them around and dropped them to the ground. Jeff was still functional, he ended up next to an inside office with a door, Melinda was a 'twitcher', she had taken a shot to her jaw that must have passed through and hit her spine, as a result she was just twitching on the ground out of control.
Remembering the bomb on the last door Jeff was not thrilled about trying the office door, but when two bullets hit him in the chest he decided to risk getting blown up before he took a shot to the head. The door was unlocked and he slid inside and hit the floor, the bullets did not stop, they punched through the drywall and raised dust into the air, impeding his vision. After a moment he rolled over to a metal filing cabinet to assess his damage. Raising his right arm to his face he saw that he was down to a thumb, it looked like a bullet had cut at a ninety degree angle across his hand and took his four finger with it. Squinting he could see the severed members laying on the floor in the middle of the room, still connected by a thin strip of flesh that used to be his knuckles.
“I think Jeff made it in.” Reggie said.
“I know. Of all the rotten luck. Fuck this head first approach, time to go with plan 'B', tell Millie it's a go.”
“You ever think about just leaving them? I mean we've already lost twelve people, isn't that enough?”
Xavier turned to stare at Reggie, “Just 'cause you act like me and try to look like me doesn't mean I give a rat's ass about your opinion Reggie. Just be happy you're not down there on the front line yet. I think our little family has gotten too big in the past few months, especially given the amount of food we've been running into.”
“Got it.”
“Not yet, but you will. Tell them. Then me and you are going in.”
Chapter 13
The men were all sitting behind their internal fortifications when the door blew, it didn't come as a surprise to any of them. The zombies hadn't made their move until almost sunset and that had given them time to set up motion detectors in the windows. Jed had wired the detectors to small flashlights, the lights turned on and off as the zombies outside moved into position. They all had time to put on large noise suppressing ear protection and duck down behind the barricades of food and supplies they had made in the center of the warehouse. The noise was still enough to shake them to the bone, like standing in front of a huge speaker at a major rock concert. Their back plate for channeling the explosion forward didn't work quite as intended. One of the pieces of pig iron snapped off at the ground level and the entire plate flew through Greg's trailer leaving a hole a man could walk through. The plate had come to rest against one of the concrete supports that held the roof up. The support cracked, but didn't break.
“Get ready.” Jed said. Hon missed his words until Bubba reached over and pulled off his ear protection.
“Get your gun up. You fire when Jed says and keep firing until you can't see anyone anymore or Jed tells you to stop.”
The row of flashlights started lighting up as more zombies regrouped and moved into position. The lights were set up in a line corresponding roughly to where the zombies were outside the building. The back and sides of the warehouse were not covered very well, due to a lack of windows to set them in, but the front had three large windows and Jed had placed multiple sensors in each window.
“Here they come. Get ready. Fire! Fire!” Jed yelled.
The men's fusillade dropped the zombies that rushed in. Two were only wounded, one was a twitcher that the men quickly finished off, but the other one made it into one of the front offices before they could stop it. Hon fired bullet after bullet into the office, reloading after each shot and not stopping until Jed said, “Hold your fire, no sense wasting ammunition.” Unlike the men, who were using larger rifles with clips, Hon was still using his Contender, although Bubba and Jed had swapped out the smaller barrel for one that used the same ammunition as theirs, a two-twenty-three NATO round. The bullets felt strange to him, more than twice the size of the ones he was used to firing and much heavier too.
Even to Hon's tender ears Jed sounded nervous when he spoke to them.
“Everybody reload and keep your eyes peeled, in case they rush us again.”
“What are we going to do now Jed? We shot six and who knows how many were at the front door. And there are even more out there. And they are all the smart ones!” said Steve.
“I don't know what we are going to do, gimme a second here...” Jed shook his head and thought for a moment, then said, “They got us surrounded, not any place to go. Maybe we shoulda tried to leave this afternoon. No, we wouldn't have made it a mile with this snow. This place is the best chance we have.”
“They do all seem fast and smart Jed.” said Bubba. In the men's experience the faster, smarter zombies all pushed the slower, more stupid ones in first, if they were given time to do so.
“That has me worried. We already killed more smart ones than we've ever seen before. I think we need to go up and out the roof, then when you climb down the back you head over to the backup cache and I will blow the building.”
“Playing the hero?” Bubba asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Hardly, I'll be on the catwalk, not two steps behind you. So keep your head phones or you'll wind up deaf!”
“Greg you get up the ladder firs
t, then Hon, Bubba and Steve, I'll go last. Go out the top as soon as you get there, don't stop for nothing. Once on the roof put on your earphones and wait until you hear the explosion to go down the outside. Everybody got it?”
The men nodded and Greg climbed the twenty feet up to the catwalk. The ladder was embedded into another concrete support beside them and all of them had been up and down it at one time or another. Hon followed immediately after Greg and all five of them were on the ladder before the leading man climbed off and went to the roof access.
The explosives were rigged to a switch next to the roof access, requiring only a downward push to set them off. Jed had not wanted to be up on the catwalk when the zombies came through the door because he was afraid the size of the explosion could shake him off or that a piece of shrapnel would hit him. The explosives had some lead cord and could probably be set off from the roof if they had to be. Greg had the roof access opened and was looking down at Hon and smiling when a bare arm reached through and pulled the man up to the roof. At the same time a car came barreling through the side wall, crashing through the racks of metal shelving the men had holding even more food and supplies. The car made it almost halfway through the warehouse before it careened off of Hon and Bubba's trailer and slammed into the cracked roof support that the blast plate had struck.
Hon screamed as the support was taken out and the catwalk tilted almost ninety degrees, dumping him sideways. The boy was trying to do too many things at once, yell about Greg, hold onto the catwalk and point at the zombies pouring through the doorway. He ended up falling backwards onto the trigger for the bombs, which had caught up against one of the railing supports.
The explosions tore through the building simultaneously and though they were directed outwards as well as Jed could make them the force of the blow was like that of a jackhammer. Hon was flung from the catwalk and tossed onto the pile of pallets at the rear of the building, his fall was broken by the old wood, but one of the shards sliced through his forearm, impaling him. Taking one look at the foot long splinter thrust through his arm he screamed and passed out.