by Ricky Sides
Herb’s team was just getting into position to attack the enemy column when they began to roll out, heading north. “Let them go,” Herb said. “If we fire at them now, they might change their minds and stay to try to finish what they started.”
“I’m content to see them leave,” Randy replied.
“I hope this is the last we see of them,” Hernando said.
“So do I, but just in case, I want to go shopping for toys soon,” Jason said. “That mini truck bomb was one hell of a good idea.”
“Yeah, I hear you on that, brother,” Jesse said.
“I think we need to see about locating some more military hardware,” Ed said. “A few rockets or mortars would have helped us out a lot in this situation.”
“Yes, we need to think about all we’ve learned from this,” Herb agreed. Then he said, “That was the last of them, but we need to verify that. It’s too dangerous tonight. All the fighting is bound to attract zombies. We’ll come back and do a thorough search tomorrow. Let’s get back to the refuge for now.”
***
Dana drove south the short distance to the farm she remembered hearing someone at the refuge mention during her trial. It was the family home of Randy Lions’ wife, Amy. She was heading there because she’d heard that they kept the upstairs room stocked with emergency food and water. Amy had survived there for days when her family succumbed to an attack by zombies. Later, Bill had used the room as a safe room for the night after he and Dana separated during the trip to the refuge.
She parked the stolen truck behind the house and made her way inside. She moved through the house with the aid of a small flashlight she had taken from John’s RV. She carried the pack of supplies she had also taken from him. Dana wasn’t afraid as she entered and examined the home. She knew that no zombies were present because of the absence of their telltale odor. She soon found the note that Bill had once read. It invited the reader to stay in the home and use the supplies until it was safe for them to travel. It also warned thieves not to approach, but invited hard working survivors to join them at the refuge. It also gave them directions to reach the place. Dana snorted in contempt and wadded the handwritten note into a tight ball, which she then threw onto the floor. “What a dipshit,” she said, speaking of Amy.
Dana was following the directions to get into the room upstairs when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her senses were screaming that danger was near. She felt a sense of urgency as she found the trap door that folded down. She made her way up the ladder and then pulled the trap door assembly back up and secured it as she had been warned to do by Amy’s letter.
She sat alone in the silence of the upstairs bedroom. She could see her breath in the air as she breathed hard and fought down a sense of panic. Her head swiveled and looked to see if the windows were blacked out. She saw that they were still covered as the letter had indicated, and then she made her way to one that would face the road. She switched off the flashlight and let her eyes adjust to the gloom, and then she opened the makeshift curtain a bit. She stared out at the road and thought she saw people walking down it.
Dana’s eyes adjusted slowly to the absence of artificial light. The longer she waited, the better she could see the rank upon rank of zombies passing down the road in front of the house. She wondered for a moment if John had left the area. She believed that she would have heard them if they passed by the farm. After all, several of the vehicles had crappy mufflers.
From somewhere in the darkness, a scream shattered the peace of the night. A shudder ran through Dana’s body and a cold chill raced up her spine. “She’s out there at the head of those zombies,” Dana said quietly to herself. She knew then that she had made the right decision when she left.
Dana watched the zombies walk past for a good two minutes before their numbers dwindled. After that, their passage in front of the farm became more sporadic as the stragglers, many of whom seemed to be wounded, filed past. Twice, she thought she had seen the last of them go by, only to discover more a moment later. She shook her head in frustration. She felt the urge to run to the truck and head south for the interstate, but she was afraid that she would run into more of the stragglers. Thirty minutes elapsed before she became convinced that she had seen the last remnants of the zombies go by the farm. By then, she had calmed down. She reasoned that it was too dangerous to attempt to leave in the dark. For all she knew, the female zombie could have already turned her army around and could be heading back toward her.
Dana didn’t know how the zombie was tracking her, but she had become convinced that she was able to do so. There was no other explanation for the fact that she always turned up in her vicinity. She was aware that the zombies had an enhanced sense of smell, but none of them had ever given her reason to believe that their senses were that good.
She was right of course. No other zombie she had ever encountered had a sense of smell developed as highly as Shaunna. Yet, even Shaunna would have long ago lost her scent. The anizombie German Shepherd was the one that kept them on the trail when the Alpha female’s sense of smell failed her, and at that moment, the canine was confused. Once again, it smelled two separate trails. It started to turn in and follow its nose as they came abreast of the farm, but Shaunna thought it was going after game that she smelled in the area, so she restrained it and continued down the road.
Shaunna’s senses had failed her because Dana had bathed and applied perfumes several times in the RV, thus altering her odor significantly. The Shepherd’s higher developed sense of smell detected Dana despite the changes, but Shaunna didn’t.
Nevertheless, the anizombie obeyed its master and led the way toward the refuge.
Chapter 18
Trouble at the gate.
At half past five in the predawn darkness, the guards sounded the alarm in the two south towers. They warned that a mass of zombies was approaching.
Herb and Randy had felt it best for the defenders to man their defensive positions for the remainder of the night because the withdrawal of John’s marauders could have been a ruse, and they hadn’t had the opportunity to clear the woods around their compound. For all they knew, the majority of John’s forces could be hiding in the forest, waiting for the opportunity to attack.
Herb’s team had been the first men to react to the alarm. They spread out and woke the other defenders who were sleeping in place atop the berms. By the time the zombies reached the trench and began to encircle the compound, all of the defenders were awake and struggling to figure out what was happening.
“Crap, this is bad,” Randy said to Herb as he joined his friend atop the berm facing the gate.
“I know. It’s going to take us weeks to clean up this mess,” Herb said.
“If we survive,” Randy interjected.
“We should do just fine, buddy, but we need to alter our setup a bit. I want more men and additional ammo sent up to the four towers. Send three men to each with all the ammo they can carry.”
“I’ll do that,” Randy said, and then he jogged off to see to the arrangements.
Raman Chandler approached with Bernie in tow. “I figured you’d be in the clinic recuperating since the marauders left,” Herb said to the man who had redeemed himself by serving as a sniper.
“I can still fight. Besides, I have an idea,” Bernie said.
“I’m listening, but make it fast,” Herb replied as he stared out into the darkness at the approaching zombies.
“The gate area is our weakest point. Let me take the excavator and throw up a wall of dirt there about twelve feet high.”
Herb shook his head. “That won’t work. For it to be effective, you’d have to take the dirt to the fence, and that would just form a ramp on their side. Not to mention you’d probably tear down the posts on either side of the gate.”
“I know how to do it so that neither of those things becomes an issue, but I need help and I need to get started right now. I’ll also need to use some of the lumber you have
back behind your cabin.”
“You’re sure about this?” Herb asked. By now, he could hear the moans of the approaching zombies.
“Yes, but I have to get started at once.”
“Do it,” Herb said. “Raman, get him the manpower he needs, but don’t weaken our defenses too much to do it.”
“Okay,” Raman responded. He left with Bernie, calling to a man here and another there as he went. He soon had a dozen men following them. He led them to the pile of wood while Bernie started the excavator and went to work.
Herb didn’t have time to watch Bernie working. He had a dozen things to do to prepare the camp for the onslaught of so many zombies. Fighting the undead was quite different from fighting humans. They could take a great deal more damage and keep fighting, unless you targeted their heads. Men also felt fear and they would back off in the face of overwhelming firepower. Zombies didn’t fear anything. They would keep coming no matter how many guns they were facing.
Herb issued instructions for the men to hold their fire until the zombies attacked. He was hoping that waiting to attack them would give Bernie the time he needed to implement his plan. He knew that the moment his people opened fire, the undead would begin their assault on the refuge. Sometimes, zombies would mill around a structure for a while before commencing their attack. In this case, the longer they waited, then the better for the defenders.
He also sent instructions to evacuate the medical clinic staff and patients to one of the shelters as a precaution. They had done that earlier during the standoff with Big John’s men. When it became apparent that they would be able to prevent the men from breaching the defenses of the refuge, he permitted Ezra, Nancy, Erma, and Amy to reopen the clinic to treat their wounded.
Randy soon joined Herb with Ox and Sheba by his side. “They were barking like mad, so I let them out of their kennel,” he explained. “They smell the zombies.”
“What about their pups?” Herb asked.
“Robert met me at the kennel. He heard from the medical staff what was happening, so he came out to get them,” Randy explained. He was referring to the boy they had picked up in Hunter while on their way to Newport. Robert had spent hours daily with the pups, training and protecting them when necessary.
“Good, they’ll be safe then. Did you make certain he got back to the shelter?” Herb asked.
“I did, and listened while they locked it from the inside. They have plenty of food and water, and they know not to open the doors of the shelters, unless they hear one of us speaking to them through the door or the ventilation pipe,” Randy explained.
“Good, then they can hold out in there for weeks if necessary,” Herb pointed out.
“That wouldn’t be comfortable,” Randy observed.
“No, but they’d survive it. That’s what matters at this point.”
“You’ve got that right, buddy,” Randy said. Then he asked, “What are the men doing with that lumber?”
“Bernie has an idea to bolster the front gate,” Herb explained, but before he could get into further detail, the zombies completed their encircling movement and a female zombie stepped forward toward the gate with a German Shepherd by her side.
“What the hell?” Randy said. “Does she have a pet anizombie?”
“Oh, hell, we know her,” Herb said sadly.
“We do?” Randy queried.
“I’m afraid so. You remember the woman we encountered on the road as we drove back from Little Rock?”
“You mean the one that ran out of gas? Yeah, I remember her. She had a Yorkie with her at the time.”
“Yep, and that’s her at the gate.”
“It doesn’t look like her to me. Are you sure?” Randy asked.
“I’m afraid so. Look in her right hand,” Herb said.
“What the hell is that?” Randy said as he studied the mysterious bundle in Shaunna’s hand.
“Use your night vision gear,” Herb prompted. He had slipped on his in order to study the gate area.
Randy did as Herb instructed. “Good God!” he said. “What in the hell did she do to her dog?”
“It looks as if she is carrying its head and part of its hide,” Herb responded.
“Why in the hell would she do that?”
“Who knows how a zombie thinks,” Herb said with a shrug.
“I hope like hell they don’t think at all. If they do, then we’re screwed,” Randy replied.
The zombies had been moaning for several minutes. Shaunna lifted her right hand and a hush fell over the zombies in a ripple that spread from both sides of her position.
“What the hell is up with that?” Randy asked in surprise.
“I don’t know. We’ve never seen this sort of behavior out of zombies before. It’s as if they recognize her as their leader, and that scares the hell out of me,” Herb said.
Shaunna held Lily’s head in her hand facing the gate. Then she placed it on the ground beside her and stood erect once more. The anizombie beside her shifted its feet in anticipation, but remained quiet. Shaunna threw back her head and screamed as loudly as possible. Around her, the zombies surged forward. Those on the narrow spot of land in front of the gate threw themselves at the barrier. The others who were confronted with the obstacle of the trench tried to move forward anyway. They fell into the ditch like dominos all around the refuge. Many were impaled on the sharpened stakes. Others landed on top of them and were spared a similar fate. The survivors tried their best to climb out of the trench, but Bernie had been diligent in removing any roots that would serve as handholds on the refuge side of the ditch. They were more successful at escaping on the woods side of the ditch.
The humans in the refuge opened fire on the zombies in the trenches, riddling their bodies with bullets. They shot several who had almost managed to climb out of it, but many more made good their escape as the men inside the compound sought to exterminate the zombies that were trapped on the stakes before they could free themselves. Although they were a good deterrent, the sharpened pieces of wood were not effective at killing zombies unless they penetrated the skull, and most of the time that didn’t happen.
At the gate, the zombies were making progress on their efforts to tear it down. Despite the withering fusillade of rifle fire being directed at them, they had succeeded in making a section of the gate bow inward.
Then Bernie’s team arrived with their wood. Several men tacked together pieces of wood and pushed the assembly against the bowed section of the fence. Bernie was sitting on the excavator. He had already scraped up enough dirt to put his plan into action. He worked to pour that dirt up against the section of wall that the other men were holding in place with long sections of wood. It was bouncing beneath their efforts as the zombies tried to bash it out of their way. Then Bernie poured the first scoop of dirt into place. Working quickly and with practiced precision, he soon had sufficient dirt piled up to hold the patch in place securely.
Herb could see what Bernie had in mind, but the problem was the zombies weren’t going to give the man the time to carry out his plan. Already, other sections of the gate were showing signs of strain. He ordered Bernie to withdraw with his crew so that the fire teams on the berms could resume shooting at the zombies. Currently, only the teams in the southeast and southwest towers were able to fire at the zombies without fear of hitting the men working near the gate.
Bernie shouted for the men to retreat, and then he drove the excavator out of the way. His plan would have worked. If he’d had just a little more time, he could have braced the entire gate with wood, and then piled up some dirt against it so that the wood rested against the fence. After that, it would have been a simple matter to push additional dirt against the thick wood to buttress the gate and make it impenetrable by zombies. Once the siege was over, it would be easy for Bernie to clear the dirt away from the gate with the excavator so the inhabitants could use the gate again.
Another scream rent the still air of the night. All around the refuge, t
he zombies moved away and headed back toward the gate area. Shaunna had led the zombies with her away from the gate.
“Bernie! Get back here!” Herb shouted.
Bernie was ahead of him. He had already turned the excavator around and was driving it back toward the worksite that he had just vacated. The men of his crew were racing toward the gate. Herb ordered several men from his berm to follow him. They raced toward the gate and formed up to the right of it to provide close in support to the construction team that was working frantically to complete the buttressing of the gate. Randy led another group to the left of the gate and took up a similar position. None of the defenders was firing at the moment. They were all hoping that the zombies would leave. That didn’t happen during normal attacks, but then again, there was nothing normal about this attack.
Shaunna’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the activity at the gate, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had to wait for the rest of the zombies to join her. Shaunna’s parasite ridden brain was evolving. She still had much less cognitive ability than a normal human, but her intuitive understanding of what she needed to do was improving. Unlike a human who would reason through things by using cause and effect principles, her mind didn’t show her what was causing the problem. It just let her know what she needed to do next, and at the moment, she knew she needed to wait for her minions to reform their group around her.
The surviving members of Shaunna’s army made their way around and soon stood near the Alpha female. Shaunna screamed and pointed at the gate that the men had almost finished buttressing. Zombies on her left and right surged toward the gate, moaning in anticipation as they lurched forward.
The two fire teams bracketing the gate opened fire, as did the men in the two southern guard towers. Recognizing Shaunna as a great threat to the safety of the people at the refuge, both Herb and Randy sought to shoot her, but the flood of zombies moving past her position made it impossible to aim at her. Then the zombies reached the fortified position and began to pound on it. Others began to push at the wire to their left and right in order to push it down and get between the inner and outer fences.