* * *
Franklin ripped the sheets off so fast they sailed across the room and landed in the corner. The rippling sound of the explosion was still floating through the air and Franklin was already slipping into a pair of pants and putting on his boots.
"Whatever happens stay in here!" He cried out to Jackie. "I'm not losing you again!" Jackie nodded and loaded a hunting rifle and moved towards the window.
Not bothering to locate his shirt, Franklin hastily placed two handguns in his belt, gripped a 30-30 carbide rifle in both hands, and raced out the bedroom door.
* * *
The small convoy of vehicles raced forward, luring the massive horde to the smoldering opening in the stockade. It didn't take much motivation, however, as the smoldering wreckage and billowing smoke was more than enough draw.
Upon nearing the stockade wall, the vehicles peeled off and made a bee-line for the opposite end of the clearing.
"Remember," Adelaide ordered, over the portable radios, "we let the feeders do the hard work for us."
* * *
Franklin stood in dismay at the flaming, gaping hole twenty feet wide in the stockade wall. A feeling of dread washed over him as he realized the gravity of the situation.
"We need to get that hole plugged up with vehicles before any feeders get in here!" Franklin cried out to three dazed men standing nearby.
"It's too late," one of the men atop the wall shouted. "There's hundreds of them!"
"Bloody hell!" Franklin exclaimed. It's Jesse's doing he thought to himself. He lured them all here.
The approaching mass of rotten flesh stumbled forward, and quickly swarmed through the opening. The intense snarling, moaning, and cries of hunger overwhelmed the sounds of the few screaming women and children as they realized the situation they were in.
"Form a wall!" Franklin ordered as people rushed out to help in the defense of their only home. The individuals fanned out as Franklin reminded them, "Conserve your ammo! I know this is stressful but make your shots count!"
"I guess this would be a bad time to make a joke and say 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes?'" a man named Daniel chuckled as he placed the stock of his AR-15 against his shoulder.
"Just shut up and shoot!" Another man, Josh, retorted.
As Franklin placed the rough wooden stock of his 30-30 against his bare shoulder, he silently cursed himself for not grabbing a shirt. And even though the sun hadn't even been up for an hour yet, sweat was already pouring down his chest and soaking his waist band in anticipation of the fight of his life.
"God help us," Franklin muttered, as he took aim at the nearest feeder, a mere 5 yards away. Then he fired the first shot.
The round penetrated the feeder's skull right below the hairline. Decayed cranial matter erupted out the backside as the bullet continued through and struck another body in the neck.
The feeder fell flat on its mangled face and Franklin whooped, "Give them hell!"
The loud boom of dozens of rifles, shotguns, and handguns overwhelmed the hideous growl produced by the hungry monsters. Hot lead shredded feeders faster than branches through a wood chipper. Rotting corpses began stacking up by the dozens.
Daniel, always the comedian, even in the face of adversity, lined up his sights and let off a three round burst. "Wooey!" He cried. "A two for one special! Hot diggity!" He pivoted to the nearest corpse and gently squeezed the trigger again, dropping it like a hotcake.
Bullets and bodies continued to collide and Franklin and the defenders held their ground. As the heaps of bodies grew taller the feeders were forced to either trip over the mounds, or stumble around the edges.
The vein in Franklin's neck throbbed as adrenaline rushed through his body. The salty burn from his sweat clouded his vision as he continued shooting, desperate to save his family and community. The pouring sweat made it nearly impossible to keep his rifle stock firmly against his bare shoulder, but he shot on, ignoring every painful blow caused by the improper placement.
* * *
"Hurry up, already!" Jesse shouted impatiently. He watched anxiously as two men finished rigging explosives to the stockade wall. The sound of gunfire from the opposite side of the stockade was deafening and drowned out his voice.
"Alright we've got one minute!" One of the men announced as he scurried back into the nearest SUV.
"Okay people double check your weapons! This is it!" Adelaide commanded.
The two remaining vehicles backed a safe distance away from the wall and everyone waited. Thirty seconds later the walls were obliterated.
* * *
Jacob lifted his face from the damp grass and winced in pain as a wave of nausea washed over him. He clutched the sides of his head and wiped the blood away from his ears. The ringing slowly began to subside and his vision became less blurred. As it did he turned his head to the right and was horrified by what he saw.
A gaping, flaming, jagged hole in the stockade wall was now being pummeled by swarms of rotting feeders. The smoldering splinters did little to deter the monsters. They simply caught on fire and continued stumbling onwards toward the sound of gunfire.
Jacob slowly hobbled onto his feet, and the sudden movement on his part drew the attention of numerous stragglers in the herd. They began moving towards him in a hungry menace.
"Where the hell is my gun?" Jacob muttered to himself, desperately searching the wet grass around him. "Come on! Come on!"
The nearest feeder was a mere foot away before Jacob finally gave up searching and stumbled backwards. He tripped and ate a mouthful of Kentucky clay for the second time that morning.
"Dadgummit!" Jacob cried as he spat. In no time at all the feeder was upon him and Jacob thrashed about violently searching for a weapon.
The vile creature latched onto his pant leg with its outstretched arms. Jacob delivered a swift kick to the face with his boot and crawled toward wreckage left from the explosion. He spied a mangled piece of steel leftover from the SUV and quickly clamped his vise like fingers around it. Searing pain filled his senses as the debris was still hot but Jacob hung onto it.
"Get a piece of this you maggot brain!" He cried. As the feeder lunged towards him again Jacob sliced the metal across the jugular vein. A deep purple torrent spewed forth and covered Jacob's shirt. He cursed and delivered another quick stroke to fully dispatch the monster.
Jacob scurried to his feet and took two more feeders out of commission before allowing himself a chance to catch his breath. As he contemplated his next move a second explosion rocked the morning from the rear of the stockade.
"Guess I'm going that way," Jacob decided, setting off at a quick pace along the barrier. "That prick needs to die!"
* * *
Franklin momentarily spun around in time to see a large plume of smoke and debris erupt into the air, over the top of the farmhouse.
"They blew another hole in the wall behind the house!" He cried to no one in particular. "We need to fall back into the farmhouse and regroup! Plan our next move! This situation is getting FUBAR now!"
"Too late for that," Daniel answered as the two black SUV's roared in behind them.
"Bollox!" Josh exclaimed as he drove home a fresh magazine. "We're screwed now!"
* * *
"Everybody out!" Jesse commanded. "Spread out and start shooting! I don't want any lethal shots, though!"
Adelaide gave him a puzzled look.
"I want them to be crippled, suffering, and I want the feeders to finish them off!"
* * *
This can't really be happening Franklin thought. He reached for his waistband and withdrew the last three remaining rounds for his 30-30. He quickly inserted them into the tubular magazine and muttered, "Better make these three shots count."
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Just as Franklin expended his last round a hailstorm of bullets was thrown his way. "I'm out, and I'm taking fire!" He called out. Luckily all the shots missed and Franklin frantically looked
for an exit. On one side a horde of flesh eating monsters, and on the other delusional maniacs with no regard for human life.
"Get to the farmhouse!" Franklin ordered. "It's our only chance! We're surrounded!" He hovered near the ground as bullets continued to whistle overhead.
"I'm hit!" Josh suddenly cried out as he attempted to eliminate the approaching hoard while retreating. A slug tore through his right calf and he hit the ground.
"Josh!" Daniel yelled over the gunfire. "Catch!" He tossed a fully loaded double action .357 revolver to Josh. Just as his fingers left the weapon a round from one of Jesse's goons found its mark in his gut. He too collapsed to the ground in agony.
Josh looked around at the carnage as his fellow neighbors fell under the onslaught of hot lead. It didn't end there, however, as he watched them try to crawl out of harm’s way only to be overtaken by groups of feeders. The maggot ridden corpses descended upon them and ripped their bodies apart, devouring their flesh. It didn't take long for the screams of the living to fill the air and become more unbearable than the noise of combat.
Realizing the end was near he turned and gave Daniel one more look. His friend had managed to sit up as blood gushed from his belly. "I'm going to miss you, friend!"
Daniel managed to usher up one last chuckle. As he clutched his gut with one hand he lifted up his remaining handgun in the other and screamed, "Come on you yellow belly cowards! You're gonna have to work for your meal!"
Josh raised his weapon and took aim at the closest feeder descending upon him. His eyesight focused down the short length of the barrel as he pulled back the hammer.
"Eat led asshole!" He barked as he squeezed the trigger.
The burning gunpowder propelled the hollow point bullet swiftly through the air and demolished the feeder's skull. Bits of brain matter and fluid rained down as the weapon automatically advanced the cylinder. Josh lined up on another and squeezed the trigger. And again. And again. And again.
One round remained. For a brief moment he considered placing the barrel in his mouth and ending it all before he was eaten alive. Instead, he took aim at one last rotter and fired. The skull exploded in a crimson fountain and Josh threw the weapon at the horde.
Daniel, having more rounds, lasted a bit longer. Round after round pummeled the approaching monsters until the last cartridge was ejected from the side of the weapon. He gave one final salute to Josh before accepting the inevitable.
Franklin managed to glance back just in time to see the feeders overwhelm the two men. Their screams joined the chorus rising above the devastated compound as their flesh was torn from their bodies by the ravenous beasts. It was all Franklin could do to stumble onward, desperate to reach safety.
* * *
Jesse couldn't contain the disgusting smile plastered onto his face as he watched his former friends and neighbors get mowed down and then finished off by the feeders. In his mind they were paying for Franklin's sins. How dare he meddle in his operation, kill his men, and steal his property. The setbacks caused by his former friend would cost immense amounts of time and loss of goods.
As far as Franklin's personality and qualities, Jesse harbored nothing against the man. In fact, he would have loved to have him assisting with the logistics of the operation. But the man simply didn't know when to cut his losses. Breaking into the facility in Louisville and stealing his wife back was too far. The man had crossed the Rubicon.
And Katelyn. Dear sweet Katelyn. The poor girl he had fallen in love with at the onset of the pandemic. She was actually the first girl he had ever kissed, let alone slept with. He still internally mourned her loss occasionally, but he knew her death was necessary. Weak individuals like her would continue to hinder the survival of the human race. They simply didn't have the ability to see the order Adelaide had created out of chaos. It all stemmed from a foundation of evolution and survival of the fittest. Inferior human beings had no place in this new world. Thus, they must be exterminated.
Adelaide finally snapped Jesse back to reality. "Look! Up in the window of the house!"
Jesse looked upwards just in time to see the flutter of a curtain, but nothing else. "Somebody is up there?" He asked.
"Not just somebody," Adelaide mused. "A woman."
"Franklin's wife!"
"Perfect. I will go get..."
"No!" Adelaide commanded. "I will take care of this. You stay out here and finish cleaning up. She shouted for three men to follow her and they raced into the farmhouse.
Jesse, meanwhile, picked up a scoped rifle and peered across the clearing. He caught glimpses of a few survivors still hanging on, fighting the wave of undead. But the one thing that finally erased the smug grin from his face was the sight of Franklin, somehow still alive, struggling onward almost to the safety of the farmhouse.
He calculated for Franklin's movement, took careful aim, and fired.
* * *
Franklin cried out in pain and fell to the ground as a bullet flew by, slicing a shallow channel through his left forearm.
"Dammit!" He cursed. "Just come out here and fight me like a man you son of a bitch! I've had it! Why can't you just leave us alone!"
His rant was soon interrupted, however, as a feeder fell upon him and tried to bite his injured arm. Franklin wearily punched it in the nose using his elbow, knocking it over to one side. He gripped the barrel of his remaining sidearm and used the butt as a battering bam. He bashed the weapon against the feeder's face over and over again. Franklin was doused in rotting juices as he broke bone and the monster's movements ceased.
He sat there in a furious stupor until he heard an unmistakable feminine scream emanate from the upper window in the farmhouse.
"Jackie!"
* * *
The snarls of the feeders behind him had ceased, and Jacob stopped to catch his breath. He feared the worst as the sounds of gunfire grew less and less. He surmised the worst, that most everyone was either dead or captured. It was up to him now.
He peered around the still smoldering opening blasted through the stockade wall and took in the scene. He saw about a dozen men scattered about ten yards away. They were taking pot shots at the advancing zombies. The vehicles were parked just inside the opening. The men were clearly were not watching their rear.
He carefully crept up to the closest SUV and peered in the back window. His jaw dropped in astonishment at the armory inside. Various military grade weapons, explosives, and tools littered the carpeted floor.
Jacob checked behind him one last time, and then gently opened the back door. His eyes gravitated to an A11 assault rifle, half a dozen full magazines, and some M26 grenades. After collecting his loot he carefully surveyed the scene before him one last time and then formulated his plan.
He knew it was only a matter of time until somebody became aware of his presence, so he had to act while he still had the element of surprise. Jacob carefully positioned himself so that he was still partially shielded by one of the SUV's, and still had plenty of clearance for combat when he stood up.
Jacob placed three grenades on the grass in front of him and took a deep breath. It was now or never. In rapid succession he pulled a pin, squeezed the lever, and hurled the grenade toward the unsuspecting shooters. Pull, squeeze, throw, repeat. He exhausted his three grenades and plastered himself to the ground, covering his ears.
They went off in rapid succession, devastating Jesse's men. Grass, dirt, shrapnel, body parts, and even chunks of siding from the house went flying in all directions. Without wasting a single precious second Jacob stepped out and laid down a withering barrage of fire at everyone still left alive. Jacob showed no mercy as he pummeled those unfortunate to still be breathing.
After a full minute of deafening destruction Jacob stepped back behind the front of the SUV, reloaded, and waited for anyone to appear. He didn't have to wait long. In a flash, a man whom he recognized as Jesse, sprung from around the corner of the farmhouse and sent a fiery string of lead Jacob's way, missing his he
ad by mere inches.
* * *
Franklin heard the deafening explosions outside the farmhouse, followed by the chaotic gunfire. He wondered who was still alive, but his priority was Jackie.
He scurried his way into the kitchen but was suddenly stopped by a round of bullets. One of Adelaide's men stood in the doorway opposite of him. Bits of plastic and chips of wood rained down on Franklin as the submachine gun chewed its way through the antique counter top that Franklin now desperately dove behind.
Not having any ammunition, Franklin was desperate for a weapon. Directly above him, he finally spied a set of culinary knives. He took a deep breath and bolted upward, using his momentum to knock the entire set of knives to the ground.
The sudden move caused the man to send more hot lead Franklin's way, although poorly aimed. Franklin winced as more wooden shrapnel embedded itself into his exposed arms. But he waited patiently for his moment.
The instant Franklin recognized the audible sound of the spent magazine being ejected, and a fresh one being placed in he sprung into action. He clutched a large six inch steak knife and rushed the man.
As Franklin barreled towards him he didn't have a fast enough reaction time to bring his weapon to bear. The intense momentum Franklin was carrying easily drove the blade deep into the esophagus, and protruded out the backside.
"Nobody messes with my wife or family!" Franklin spewed as his eyes clouded over with intense rage. "Nobody!" He gave the knife a forceful tug upwards, spraying more blood and cutting more flesh.
The man attempted to gurgle a response as he crumpled to the floor, but was unable.
Franklin turned to bolt upstairs but was suddenly hit by the force of a two hundred pound man. It knocked the wind out of him as his assailant carried him into the dining room table.
"Ahhhhhh!" Franklin cried as he furiously beat his fists against his attacker. "You picked the wrong man to mess with!"
Franklin wrestled with the man, trying to gain the upper hand while enduring blow after blow to his face. The assault was brutal, but Franklin kept hanging on. Finally, however, he managed to maneuver his arm around and get enough force to land a punch on the man's nose.
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