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Zombie Dawn

Page 15

by J. A. Crowley


  “How many times are you going to remind us that Zs can live underwater?”

  This was after a long story in which killer Zs battled killer whales.

  Or, “We know that some of them are fast and smart. We’re always careful!”

  This was after a story in which a few Zs dragged down a rider on a galloping horse. I had patterned this one after the raptors in “Jurassic Park.”

  Speaking of movies, everyone knows that the greatest movie in the history of the world is “The Godfather.” Some people believe that “The Godfather II” is better, and although I’m able to understand those people, I disagree. Part I is a simple, brilliant, mob movie with a brilliant conclusion. Guys with leather patches on their sport coats pick II. Enough said.

  But the best war movie of all time, or at the least the best war movie with application to our present situation, is “Zulu.” Not “Zulu Dawn,” a prequel made 15 years later focused on the massive defeat of the British at Islandlwana, but “Zulu,” where a force of 125 Brits held off 4,000 Zulus at Rorke’s Drift for days while under constant attack.

  Our situation was not that similar to Rorke’s Drift, since “our” Z’s were brainless and slow, while the actual Zulus were smart, brave and fierce. Nor were we short on ammo—we hoped. But what I did take away from “Zulu” was the importance of location and the availability of successive fallback positions. Plus a final “redoubt.”

  A redoubt is a fort inside another fort. It is smaller, easier to defend, and more heavily fortified than the main wall. It’s used as a last resort. We decided that our fort and its redoubt would be useful against almost all of the various groups that might attack us, so we designed ours very carefully.

  Chapter Twenty Four: The Fort

  We started with a group of three small, rocky hills in the middle of a series of large, cleared fields belonging to several farms. The peaks were about fifty feet above the surrounding area, and formed an irregular triangle. A small stream meandered through the hills.

  Bobbie, Tyler, Sean and Cody had discovered a cave in the side of one of the hills while they were searching for a missing goat. It led down into a large network of caverns beneath the island. It was dangerous down there, so we told the kids to stay out. I asked Julie and Christina to explore it bit by bit. They would carefully examine each small section, then mark it off with ropes and leave lanterns down there so we could use it in the future. Mike and Jake stored some weapons and ammo down there, too.

  We decided that Darnell and Cleve would be in charge of fort construction, since the rest of us were working on farming, ranching, security, and general survival. We really couldn’t farm, since winter was coming, but we were busy nonetheless. Danny and Dave thought we were nuts when we told them about the fort, but they agreed to come there in the event of a large concentrated attack.

  Darnell was a talented, if not formally trained, engineer and draftsman. He prepared a plan showing the height of the hills and the areas in between them and calculated that he could build a “moat” around the base of the three hills. The moat would be at least 20 feet deep and at least 20 feet wide. We figured we’d get groundwater at the bottom of it. It would be supported by large pine trees driven into the ground on each side of it to retain the earthen walls.

  The earthen wall would be the same, 20 feet high and 20 feet thick. The ground between the hills was littered with huge boulders, which would be used to reinforce the various walls. The outside wall would be about 1200 feet long in total. It seemed like a pretty huge construction project, but Darnell said he could handle it in less than a year if we let him have Cleve, Mike, and Susan as helpers.

  Darnell calculated that he could knock the top fifteen feet off of the three hills and use that earth to level a plateau between the hills. That level area would be about 35 feet above the surrounding fields and fifteen feet higher than the walls. The high area would be about the same shape as the wall, but would be separated from the wall by a fifty foot wide open area. Darnell called this the “Kill Zone.”

  The Kill Zone would be a nasty area filled with sharpened stakes and courses of barbed wire. If enemies breached the outside wall, they’d have to get through the Kill Zone to reach the plateau. We hoped to mine that area as well, although we didn’t have any mines yet.

  Cleve sketched out how he’d build wooden fighting platforms on the inside of the wall to provide fighting positions. We’d use these platforms if we were fighting an enemy that could shoot back. If we were fighting zombies, we could simply stand on top of the wall and fire down on them.

  The fighting platforms would be connected to the plateau with three wooden walkways. The walkways were designed to come down if the wall were breached. Darnell wanted to be able to blow the wall up if enemies occupied it and we added explosives to our wish list.

  Chapter Twenty Five: Caterpillar

  Darnell and Cleve needed heavy equipment, so a group of us (Darnell, Cleve, Stan, Jake, Mike and I) took a road trip to get them some. Darnell had located several small pieces of equipment around the island. His favorite was a mid-sized excavator with a post hole attachment on it. He showed us how quickly this piece could be used to build walls and fences. But he needed larger equipment to build the “Fort.”

  We hoped to return with new vehicles (tractors pulling trailers loaded with equipment) so we brought the old “horse trailer” pickup. We figured we’d end up dumping it. Darnell fortified it with front and rear I-beam push bars, a .30 cal machine gun in the rear, and a chain link enclosure over the rear and the windows. We all loaded up with M4s and .45s. Mike also brought the M-107. Food and water was loaded in the back. The cab was too tight for all six of us, so Mike and I rode in back, Mike with the M-107 trained over the front, and me with the .30 cal covering the rear. We set up a couple of comfortable chairs back there and set off.

  Just east of Burlington was a large Cat dealer. We took Route 2 down to Route 7; the dealer was right on Route 7. We took care to make sure that the road was cleared enough for wide loads on the way back. It took us awhile to push some cars off of the road. We freed and ended all of the zombies trapped in the cars; we did not want them joining a horde and showing up on our doorstep some day. (End review May 15)

  We needed a big excavator, a bulldozer, track loader, and a dump truck, plus as much diesel fuel as we could get. Stan, Darnell, and Cleve were excellent truck drivers but Jake and I were a bit worried about driving one of those wide loads on the way back. No way was I letting Mike drive one!

  We almost lost Jake and Mike that morning. We were clearing the lot and the building before we chose our equipment. Jake was working between lines of new equipment, covered by Mike. The equipment was very tall, and Jake was directing his attention higher up when something grabbed him. We all wore heavy motorcycle boots so it did not rip through; it just held him. Mike rushed forward to help, when he was grabbed and held by a second one. They pulled their .45s and radioed for help.

  As everyone headed over to help, we saw three Brains and a dozen Wolves running over the top of the heavy equipment towards Mike and Jake. This was a coordinated attack, and it seemed like they were trying to capture them rather than kill them. I’d never seen anything like this in the past.

  Mike and Jake had their upper bodies clear so they were able to move. Mike pulled his katana and cut the arm off of the Wolf holding him. Jake shot his through the elbow and broke free, with the hand and forearm still attached. They went back to back and each dropped a Wolf. The rest quickly disappeared. One minute they were there; the next they were gone. We found a hole in the fence a few rows over; they must have used that for their entry and their escape. I quickly wired the hole in the fence but noticed that it had been cut open neatly. I wondered who had done that.

  Earlier, Stan and I had ended four Zs in the building and another six in the garage; most of them wore the Cat overalls and were dealership employees. They were all slow and easy. We had located the rack of keys in the manager’s office
and brought it out back.

  We decided to stay together and provide cover for Darnell and Cleve while they cleared all of the trucks in the lot. We’d decided to completely clear the lot and all of its vehicles to avoid future problems, and we needed to keep a close eye on the pack that had escaped. From the top of a huge dump truck, I covered Darnell and Cleve with my M4. Mike and Stan were on the roof scanning the entire lot. Jake was on the .30 cal in the pickup.

  Darnell opened each door, and Cleve covered him while he checked the cab for occupants. The Cat place did not sell trucks, and these trucks belonged to various excavators who’d brought their machines in for repair. There were at least a dozen. No zombies, but a few desiccated corpses. A few guys had decided to die of dehydration rather than risk leaving their trucks.

  Despite the danger, Darnell and Cleve were like kids on Christmas morning. They selected and lined up the four best tractors and four large trailers. I thought they’d go for the machines, but they started immediately loading tools, spare parts, and equipment into the cab of each truck. What good were the machines if we couldn’t fix them? They grabbed a box truck and started loading it with a forklift. Crates, pallets, diagnostic machines—they loaded it all. I did the math and it looked like Mike would be driving a truck, too.

  They discussed which equipment they wanted, then selected the largest equipment that could fit on a single trailer. They selected a huge dump truck, which Darnell would drive home since it could not fit onto a trailer. Cleve, Stan, and I would drive the trailers, Mike would drive the box truck, and Jake would drive a trailer truck full of fuel.

  The dealer had a huge on-site tank and a fuel tanker must have been making a delivery just before the Incident. Cleve checked it out and it was empty, so he set up a pump and pumped the diesel back out of the underground tank into the tanker. He also topped off all of the truck and equipment tanks.

  Stan gave Mike a quick lesson in driving the box truck. It was an automatic shift, so it wasn’t too bad. Mike was a pretty good driver for a 15 year old and picked it up really quickly. The kid could already swear like a sailor, too.

  The convoy out was massive. The dump truck, followed by Mike in the box truck, the fuel trailer, and then the three tractors with the equipment. Stan took the rear. We carefully secured the building and fence before leaving, since we intended to return for more equipment and supplies. We locked the pickup in the garage. It was fitted up pretty well and we decided to come back and get it when we had a chance.

  We decided to roll home as fast as we could. No stops, no delays. The return trip went quickly and we travelled back over the south bridge. Darnell and Cleve had designated a huge barn about a half mile from the hills as their headquarters and immediately started to review their plans. They ignored the rest of us completely.

  Chapter Twenty Six: Canadians

  Kate had been in charge while we were gone and gave me an update that night. She was clearly delighted with her news.

  “We heard from some survivors on the shortwave today!”

  “Awesome. Where are they?”

  “Four Canadian coastguardsmen, in a Canadian Coast Guard ship.”

  “Wow. Where are they?”

  “On the lake.”

  Finally, I got the whole story out of her. Sean had picked up a radio call from these guys a day or so ago and had, per our instructions, listened carefully. They were not careful, and he figured out who they were, as well as their approximate location. They were the only survivors from their station and had gotten out on the water just in time.

  Kate had contacted them and asked what their plans were. “They are desperate to see other people. It sounds like they’re just kids. But they have a sixty foot boat and they’re out there driving around. They don’t know what to do.”

  I called them on the radio and they agreed to come in. They were two women, Sharon and Jackie, and two guys, Cam and Mickey. They were all nineteen years old. We decided to send them up to reinforce Dave and Danny, who gratefully took them. Sharon and Cam went with the Lynches and Mickey and Jackie went to the Spillers. We provided them with 9mm carbines, pistols, and ammos and drove them up.

  Dave had found another three survivors, two older guys and a young woman. They had swum across from North Hero. They had all stayed with the Spillers. Danny had found a few survivors as well, hiding under a burned out barn. They were a family of four, the Fischers, and they stayed with the Lynches. We agreed to send up more weapons for them, and in turn we’d get two dairy cows and some instruction in how to use them.

  We did that the next day. Julie agreed to become our milkmaid and she was good at it. We had plenty of fresh milk and cream and she started working on yogurt and cheese as well.

  While Darnell and Cleve worked on the fort, we detailed George and Sumner to clear and fence a huge perimeter it. The goal was to create both a huge paddock for our animals and an initial line of defense completely encircling the fort and between 200 and 400 yards out depending on the terrain. This was a huge task but they jumped right on it.

  They worked from the inside out. They cleared every tree and structure within a hundred yards of the fort and marked the line with wooden stakes painted bright orange. Everyone could use the stakes to judge distance and zero in on enemies.

  There were three buildings inside the line, including two houses and a barn. The houses had good strong stone foundations, which we left in place for future use as bunkers and for animal shelters.

  We decided that we’d let our goats roam inside the inside perimeter. They’d keep the undergrowth down. To confine them, we built a low fieldstone wall, topped by three strands of barbed wire, around the entire area. A human could get over it easily but it would delay regular Zs and give us a bit more time to shoot.

  The stream ran generally from east, where it began in a swampy area, to west, where it emptied into the lake. It ran pretty much through the middle of everything, including the fort. The streambed was naturally lower than the surrounding area and we realized that it could be a weak point in our defenses. George and Sumner cleared the banks to improve visibility and dug a narrow channel in the bottom of the stream to concentrate the flow and create more of a barrier. We left some pools for the animals and built metal gates in the streambed at the 100 yard line as part of the wall. The gates would prevent the goats from escaping and would delay anyone trying to sneak in through the stream.

  The first area took about two weeks. During that time, Darnell and Cleve had dug about half of the trench. Some of it was slow going and it was an incredible amount of dirt to move and stabilize. They’d dig a trench, drive logs into the ground on either side to stabilize it, and keep going. Fortunately, we’d located some big tree cutting equipment and they had a pile driver so they had no problem getting or placing logs. There were plenty of trees.

  They needed explosives to get through some areas of solid rock. Jake and Stan scrounged some dynamite from the farm supply store and that helped speed things up a bit. Cleve had done a bit of blasting in his time and became the blasting supervisor.

  When they’d completed about half of the trench, we decided to route the stream through it as a true moat. It filled up to about five feet deep and had sheer sides of vertical logs. The stream entered the moat on the east side, wrapped around half of the fort in the moat, and exited on the west. Anything trapped in the moat would have a tough time getting out, so we built another goat fence on the outside to protect our livestock.

  Meanwhile, George and Sumner had completed clearing out to the 200 yard mark. They were all exhausted, and winter was coming, so we decided to resume fence and fort building in the spring. We finished up a temporary fence, again stone and wire, around the second circle and called it quits for the year.

  Chapter Twenty Seven: Winter Preparations

  While those four had been working on the fort, the rest of us had been preparing for winter. We decided to stay together for the first winter in the main house, which had enough room f
or all of us. Stan hooked up two generators to power the furnace, lights, well and refrigerator so we were pretty comfortable. The toilets flushed and we even had hot water. The house had three woodstoves and plenty of wood so we could stay warm even if the generators shut down. We had a manual pump for the well, too.

  Mike, Kate and I had cleared everything out for about seventy five yards around the house. It was sad to cut the beautiful, mature trees and shrubs but we had to have a good kill zone all the way around the house. Darnell dug a deep trench around the property and we built sturdy barbed wire fences around both side of the trench. We kept two driveways clear; one in the front and one in the back. Each had a heavy gate and was also blocked with one of our Hummers.

  Stan and I built heavy shutters that covered the windows on the first floor. They could still be opened from the inside to let in light and air but could be shut and barred if we were under attack. We built a crow’s nest on top of the roof, which could be accessed from the attic by a ladder. It gave a great view of the surrounding area and we stored the Barrett .50 and the M24 with ammunition in the attic. Mike and Christina were our designated snipers and were assigned to the crow’s nest in the event of attack.

  Marj and Christina had carefully calculated how much food and water we’d need and had packed the basement with MREs, water, and canned goods. We all looked forward to having fresh food the next year, but we had plenty for the winter, not to mention fresh beef, pork, and goat.

  Sean and Bobbie had become quite the fishermen, as well, so we often had fresh fish to supplement our diet. Bobbie and Tyler had started to breed and raise rabbits, and Sean and Cody were working on chickens. Sumner volunteered to act as our butcher.

  The winters up here are cold, to say the least. It gets really cold by Christmas and stays cold until at least mid-April. Lots of snow, lots of wind. It’s a very good time to stay indoors.

 

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