by R. J. Spears
Maggie did as he said and was able to slowly climb up his body, using it like a ladder, until she was back on level ground. She lay there gasping but noticed that Russell wasn’t there with her.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m too spent to pull myself up,” he said, panting and near exhaustion.
“Oh, shit the bed Fred, why didn’t you say something?” she asked, leaning forward and grabbing his ankles. Straining, she pulled him up, hand-over-hand, until he was safely on the other side of the crack. Both of them lay back on the floor, breathing hard as the zombies cried out below.
“The soldiers are going to be pissed that we lost our shovels,” she said.
“Oh well, you can’t please all the people all the time,” he said.
Maggie tittered a couple of times and then broke into full out laughter. A moment later, Russell joined in. This lasted for nearly a minute as they both regained their strength. The zombies did not join into the laughter.
“What should we tell the soldiers?” she asked.
“About the shovels?” he asked.
“No, shit for brains, about the zombies.”
Russell pondered this for a moment, then said, “Nothing. Let’s keep this to ourselves.”
“What are you thinking?” she asked. “What if they get out of there?”
Russell leaned as far forward as he could, trying to get a better assessment of the zombies. His view wasn’t great as he barely saw their hands sticking above the crack. What he couldn’t ignore were their excited moans and expectant grunts.
“I think if they could get out of there, then they would have,” he said. “I’m guessing they’re trapped down there, or else we would have seen them.”
“Why not tell the soldiers?” she asked. “They could come in and clean them out in no time flat.”
Russell looked past her and back into the hole. He asked, “Did you see if any of them had control modules?
“What?” She asked, her face wrinkling up in confusion.
Chapter 10
Avoiding the Crowds
Donovan and his clan must have known these woods because they navigated us back through the tall grass, threading the narrowest of needles, keeping us out of view of the zombie herd heading south. Still, the same dread of facing the undead hung in the air around our small party like a heavy cloud. One false move and they could turn around and come back on us.
During the whole maneuver, I felt like we were at a distinct disadvantage as we didn’t blend into the foliage like Donovan and his men. It made me wonder if we were spotted, whether they just might disappear like ghosts, leaving us standing out like painted and tasty clowns.
As it turned out, they didn’t abandon us, but took us in a wide arc in a flanking maneuver on the zombies. I could spot the undead shambling along through shallow places in the grass, seeming to be single-minded (if they had minds at all) in their own direction, heading south.
The way they gathered together at times made me contemplate how they acted. Were they like animals, herding along for protection, or more like birds, flocking together? These buggers, while about as smart as bricks, had a logic about them. It wasn’t the in-depth logic of famous philosophers and scientists, but it was somewhat predictable. As long as you knew how they thought, you could avoid them, for the most part. Unless they came at you in numbers. Then all bets were off.
Donovan and his men knew their way around zombies. They focused on stealth, not speed. Making any noise could mean our undoing or, at least, would lead to a whole lot of panicked running. Even after our rest in the woods, I wasn’t sure we were up to it.
We were just about out of the grass when I heard a yelp of surprise, followed by a muffled scream. I whirled around to see Naveen dancing frantically around in the grass in a semicircle, making stifled little screams.
“What is it?” I asked.
Donovan pressed by me and hissed out, “Keep her quiet.”
Brother Ed jumped in front of Naveen and slammed the heel of his boot down hard onto something. Some long and thin creature thrashed in the grass, whipping about under the pressure of Brother Ed’s boot.
“It’s a snake,” Kara said grabbing Naveen, pulling her away.
I looked toward the back end of the herd of zombies, and a few had taken notice. They had that look on their face as if they had left something behind and they had better go look for it. We were that thing.
Fortunately, it was just a few and not the whole mass of them.
“Shit,” Donovan said.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Naveen said. “The snake scared me.”
“It’s okay,” Kara said as she patted Naveen’s shoulder.
The main body of the contingent of deaders maintained their forward momentum, but a half dozen headed our way, clumping along through the grass in a decidedly unstealthy manner.
The one called Lou stepped up between Donovan and me and leveled his rifle at the oncoming zombies.
“You don’t want to do that,” I said.
“He’s right, Lou,” Donovan added. “One shot and the whole group of them will be on us.”
“Do we run?” Lou asked.
“We might have to,” Donovan said.
“You don’t have to,” I said. Obviously, these guys didn’t know as much about zombies as I gave them credit for. They probably just shot them or used their stealth to get away.
I looked to Donovan and asked, “Do you guys still have my baseball bat?”
Donovan turned to Lou and asked, “Do we?”
Lou said, “Yeah, Mason has it.”
“What are you thinking?” Donovan asked.
“Give me my bat and you’ll see,” I said, feeling a little bit cocky.
“Are you crazy?” Lou asked.
“It’s either run or take them on quietly, hand-to-hand,” I said. “If you shoot one of them. then we’ll have to run.”
“But you can’t take on six of them with a baseball bat.”
“Yes, I can,” I said. “Street fighting is what we did when we were in the city, taking them on face-to face. We were actually quite good at it.”
What I didn’t mention was that it was usually four of us and one of them. This time it was one of me and six of them.
I liked the odds, though. I’m also a certifiable idiot, too.
Kara said, “I’d prefer it if we ran.”
“No, I’ve got this,” I said, keeping my eyes on the six approaching zombies, cutting ragged paths through the grass on their way to us. “That is, if these gentleman give me my bat.”
I heard Donovan say, “Mason, give him the bat.”
I didn’t even turn around, but just extended my hand from to my side. It was a classic bad-ass move. Five seconds later, I felt the cool metal of my aluminum bat gently slap into my palm, just like an old friend. It imbued me with a confidence that I shouldn’t have had.
“Joel, please don’t do this,” Kara said.
“Trust me, babe, I’ve got this.”
“But they’ve got you outnumbered.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.”
“Don’t you always,” she replied. I didn’t hear much confidence in her tone.
“I’m going to play a little whack a mole, only I’m going to be the mole and I’m doing the whacking. You guys just stay here and keep visible to draw their attention.”
The zombies had cut the gap down to less than forty feet and were making steady progress our way. I watched them for another few seconds and then ducked down low, getting below grass level. I duck walked through the wet blades of grass, cutting off at an oblique angle to the zombie’s approach. The grass was moist and smelled musty, making me think of mowing the lawn as a kid, but I had no time for wistful meanderings down memory lane. I had to stay in the moment, as they say.
My thighs burned from being so bunched up, but I kept up my pace for thirty feet, trying to monitor the zombies as I moved. It was challengi
ng because I was below the top of the grass, but I caught glimpses of them shambling along.
As I closed on one of them on the outside, I slowed to a crawl, and readied myself, gripping the handle of my bat, firmly, but gently. It was just like my coach in high school taught me. Not that it did much good. I barely broke past .200. I was more known as a glove man.
The one I had targeted brushed through the grass, moaning that eager groan they always do when they see meat (humans). I waited, clinching the bat in my hands, until it passed by me on it’s path to the dinner table. It had already made its reservation and was ready to eat.
It was within three feet of me, walking with its arms outstretched, hands opening and closing expectantly, when I popped up out of the grass. I pulled my bat above my head in the same motion like it was a broadsword.
The zombie was so focused on getting to its food source, it never even knew I was there. I brought the bat down with all the force I could muster. On impact, a dull ping sounded and the entire top of the thing’s skull collapsed in on itself with a sickening crunching noise and the zombie fell forward into the grass.
One down, five to go.
The falling of their comrade did not go unnoticed. Two zombies just ten feet away changed course immediately and headed toward me, going for the closest source of food. There logic was simple, the quickest way to a juicy meal was a straight line.
I slid down below grass level and like a human submarine, slipped through the blades, moving away from where I had been standing with as much haste as I could.
The zombies weren’t too smart and made a beeline for where I had been, while I moved in a slow arc around them. Staying that low was a real challenge, but I was able to keep out of view as they zeroed in on where I had been.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the surprise on their faces when they discovered I was no longer there, but knew better. The deaders didn’t show surprise or any other emotions. Sometimes, they looked frustrated or even angry, but who really knew what was going on inside their tiny little shriveled brains.
I could see both of them slowing as they staggered around the place I had been, seeming perplexed. I moved toward them and gradually came out of the grass, bringing my bat into a swinging position.
They never knew what hit them.
I swung for the fences. The head of my bat struck the side of the first one’s head and just kept going, knocking it off its feet and putting it down for the count. The impact with the second one wasn’t as wicked, but it got the job done, cracking the dead thing’s head like an eggshell. It even slid a few feet in the wet grass before coming to a dead stop. (Dead stop, I can even make myself laugh.)
I turned back to Kara and gave her a big thumbs up, she did not seem to admire my showmanship. In fact, she sent me the hairy eyeball.
Feeling slightly underappreciated, I returned to the task at hand.
The last three zombies were fairly dispersed with the closest one being fifteen feet away. It was a large male of a undetermined race as he had been badly burned either before or after he got zombified. His skin was sloughing off in some places, but was red and welted in others. He moved in large uncoordinated steps, as if walking on hot sand.
I slipped below grass level and moved off to my right as a ninety degree angle, then after a few seconds, I took a hard left, went forward for ten feet, then stopped. I listened intently for a few seconds, and heard my fried friend clumping through the grass only a few feet away.
I eased toward the sound and came up like a periscope for just a moment, getting only the top of my head above grass level. He was just a few feet in front of me. I duck walked forward and then shot out of the grass right behind the zombie. He never knew what hit him. My bat caved in the back of his skull and he fell like a dead tree into the grass.
There were only two left, so I felt a little bit cocky and stayed upright, waiting for the last two to come my way. As I waited, I glanced into the distance and watched the herd slip away into a group of trees. I could only see the backs of the stragglers and slow moving ones over a hundred and fifty yards away.
I turned my focus onto the final two zombies. One was a woman in a torn and tattered dress and the other was a young boy about Naveen’s age. Both were in the middle stages of zombification, caught in between just looking dead and starting to break down with splotches and pieces of skin torn off. The one remarkable thing about the woman was that she was missing half her right arm with a badly shattered piece of bone sticking out of the stump.
As they came at me, shambling along, I mused at how I just accepted the fact that a dead woman with half an arm was shuffling toward me, wanting to eat me. A year and a half ago, I was just a slacker waiting for rumors of the next Star Wars movie to leak out and eating too many fast food meals. A dead woman with half and arm coming after me would have given me a heart attack. Now, instead of crapping my pants and running, I was waiting with a baseball bat ready to put her out of her misery (and ours), and I didn’t give it a second thought.
She closed the gap as the boy followed, both of them moaning expectantly. He had both of his arms stretched out, his hands clenching, and she had out her one good arm and the stump. They were down to ten feet and closing ever so slowly.
I grew impatient and decided to get this over with. I stepped forward confidently and that’s when my foot slipped in the wet grass, and I went down to one knee. I shot out my left hand for balance, but it didn’t help, and I fell below grass level, only this time not on purpose.
I heard Kara let out a gasp and someone else joined her.
The zombies were close and knew exactly where I had gone down. I had the choice to go to all fours and scramble away or to make a stand from an awkward position. I chose the latter and made it back to one knee just as the woman was coming in for the kill.
I was too low to make an effective swing on her, so instead, I thrust the bat forward like a spear. The head of the bat hit her in the sternum and knocked her off balance. The bone sticking out of the stump of her arm swished past my face looking jagged and dangerous.
The boy followed up and he seemed fairly nimble for a walking corpse. He bounded toward me with a large swaying motion like a human pendulum. I brought the bat back again and then slammed the head right into his face. I felt teeth and bones break from the impact and the boy flew backward as if someone had yanked him that way with a power winch.
The woman, on the other hand, had regained her balance and was coming back for more. I was about to give her another smack from my bat when I heard something rushing through the grass behind me. Before I could react, Brother Ed swished past me, both of his feet off the ground in a power kick.
His feet smacked directly into the woman’s chest and she went down hard. The grass swallowed her hungrily. Brother Ed landed awkwardly, but was back on his feet before the woman could get to hers. He bounded through the grass and began jumping up and down, grunting while pounding his boots up and down on what I presumed to be the woman’s head. The sound of bones breaking carried back to where I was trying to get back on two feet, but the wet grass and mud was making it challenging.
I heard the rushing feet behind me, and I turned to see Kara, Naveen, and Jason sprinting my way with Donovan and his crew right behind them. They swarmed around me after another two seconds.
Kara hugged me tight and Naveen joined her. Jason put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“You know you could have waited for them to come out of this tall grass,” Kara said.
“But the grass was my advantage,” I said.
“How’d that work out for you, Mister?” Kara challenged.
“Good enough, I guess,” I replied.
“You were just showing off,” she said as she released me from her hug.
I looked over to see Brother Ed pushing his way toward us through the grass, a scowl on his face.
“Thanks for the save there, Brother Ed,” I said.
“You’re darn foolish,
” he said, shaking his head in disgust.
Donovan and his men moved in around us, eyeing us as if we were some sort of new type of predators. Lou surveyed the zombie corpses and then looked to me. It became obvious that they didn’t use such direct combat tactics with the undead.
“Did you take them on hand-to-hand like that in the city?” Lou asked.
“Yes, we did, when we had to keep small groups from becoming large ones,” I replied. “Only we were better than I was today.”
No one said anything for a few minutes, then I asked, “You want my bat back?”
Donovan said, “Lou, grab that.” Lou did, but seemed put off by the zombie goo and blood dripping off the end.
“What’s next?” I asked.
He took a moment, then said, “We take you to our H.Q.”
“Where’s that?” I asked.
“Just a few minutes away.”
Okay, I thought, in for an inch, in for a mile.
That few minutes turned into nearly an hour.
Chapter 11
Field Work
“That so insane, it just might work,” Aaron said to Russell.
“No, it’s just fucking crazy,” Maggie said.
“How many of them are down in the hole?” Jo asked, leaning in toward the others, trying to avoid being overheard by the guards as the group of Manor people were marched down a long corridor toward the back of the building. Two guards flanked the small contingent of people on the front and back, bookending the procession with assault rifles. Jo had strategically placed Russell, Aaron, and Maggie in the middle of the group to hopefully stay out of earshot of the nosy folks.
They were on their way to the fields to see what they could harvest from the trampled and nearly ruined crops. Between the zombie attack and the helicopter attack, they look in sorry shape. Still, there were plenty of hungry people inside and not all of the crops were destroyed. The hope was to salvage some of the damaged produce from the field.
Steve Hampton, just ahead of them, looked over his shoulder at them.