Zombie Dawn

by J. A. Crowley

  “Got it, Jack, but I can’t tell how far back they go.”

  “Fire away.”

  Cleve called back. “I don’t think there is a back edge to this thing. It’s massive.”

  “Okay, blow the shore in two minutes.”

  We had lined the shore with barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline wired with C4 plastic explosive. We’d also placed some along various roads leading to the shore and on some docks and piers. It was all wired to go up in one shot.

  I called Jim to let him know the shot was coming. “Okay, we’re ready up here, Jack. I checked in with Dave after his guys got here; things are quiet up north and nothing from the west.”

  The explosion was massive. It went off like a string of firecrackers, from north to south. There were secondary explosions everywhere. Jim had done a great job of mixing diesel and gasoline barrels and we had solid black smoke interspersed with blazing fire all along the shore.

  The blast shattered the mass of zombies. Those not blown up were burned. As always, they burned well and completely. The fire melted parts of the ice, which broke up and dumped zombies into the water. Others were forced over the edge of the ice into the water, where they disappeared.

  A few minutes later, Cleve reported that the entire mass of zombies had disappeared from the eastern shore.

  Chapter Forty Four: Attack From the North

  Just then, Dave Spiller sent out a call for help.

  “SOS. We’re getting overrun up here. They came back with motorboats and jet skis and a hundred of them have landed already. There’s about a thousand boats out there.”

  Jim replied. “Okay, Dave. We’re on our way. Jack, I’m heading up there with a dozen reinforcements. Stay put.”

  “Got it, Jim. Will do.”

  Jim loaded up two armored Hummers with six people each and raced to the north. Dave was doing a hell of a job fighting from his positions but there were simply too many targets and the motorboats and jet skis were too fast to target with grenade launchers. One of Dave’s crew was hit and killed by a lucky shot from the shoreline.

  Jim set up his people in a line and ordered them to fire at will. “Fire at the boats, not the people on shore. Remember, we have a line of mines and booby traps along the shore. Let’s limit the number that land, then we can deal with any who get ashore.”

  Jim set up with his .50 cal Barret in a tall tree and sighted across the water to the north. There he saw a group of Leaders and Brains. With them were two humans in military clothing. One was speaking into a radio.

  “Jack, I’ve got some human military up here directing this thing.”

  “Fuck. Can you take them out?”

  “Let me put it together and I’ll get it done.”

  Jim radioed Dave. “Dave, do you have a .50?”

  “Yup.”

  “Get up in a tree and look across the water to the left of the bridge abutment. See that group?”

  A moment later. “I see them.”

  “Okay, Dave. On my mark, shoot the human with the radio. Then the Leader to the left. Then fire at will.”

  “Got it.”

  “Mark.”

  Jim and Dave nailed the two military men and the Leaders but the Brains scattered. The attack began to weaken. Without firm command, the rats returned en masse to the beach, where they could be killed with grenade fire by Jim’s group. Dave’s people, with the help of the mines and booby traps, were able to pick off those who had landed.

  It was 6:30 a.m.

  Chapter Forty Five: Sneak Attack

  Things were quiet for a bit. We were limited to communications on our wired telephones, because we assumed the enemy could monitor our radio communications. I called back to Jim. “Hey, see if Sean can monitor their channels.”

  “Will do.”

  Sean had an array of scanners and receivers set up in the cave and quickly picked up some chatter on the enemy net. Jim relayed it to me.

  “Jack, Sean picked it up. They’re going to attack from the west with some of those jet skis and some type of aircraft. They know that we’re weak over there. They’ll run some feints to the north, south and east as well.”

  “Okay, Jim. Give Sean a Twinkie and keep him on it. I’m going to head west with Tito and keep an eye out. Send a Hummer over with six guys. Bring some of those Stinger missiles and some At-4 anti-tank rockets. Tito, meet me at the western bunker. Also, Jim, send Sumner and Courtney down here to the bunker to help Christina cover the south.”

  “Roger that, good buddy.”

  “Roger this, douche.”

  Tito quickly arrived at the bunker and we packed up the two sniper rifles and ammo. Jim sent the Hummer out to drop off Sumner and Courtney and we hitched a ride over to the west side.

  We set up a defensive line of eight along the western shore. I dropped Tito with two Stingers and two AT-4s towards the north and kept the rest with me in the Hummer. Everyone had a sniper rifle.

  The attack came quickly. I had feared that they would somehow have military aircraft, thus the Stingers. To my surprise, they had ultra light aircraft, each carrying two men. They had about a dozen of them and they attacked all at once from different directions.

  I tried a Stinger, but it was too much missile for the job. The ultra lights didn’t have enough of a heat signature and my shot missed. Brittany was at the next station with a .308 sniper rifle, and she was able to hit the pilot but not before he dropped some type of satchel charge. The charge landed next to the Hummer and I barely had time to get behind a tree before it blew up, leaving me with only a .50 Barrett and some rounds and my .45. The craft crashed and exploded on impact.

  I radioed Tito that the Stingers didn’t work but received no response. Jim heard the call and responded. “Jack, I think Tito is down and I think most of the aircraft got through.”

  “Use the .50s to snipe them. They carry two men and they have explosives. They’re Kamikazes.”

  “Got it. We’ll take them as far out as we can. Watch for the next wave.”

  I could hear scattered explosions as Jim signed off.

  The next wave came in quickly. Motorboats, jet skis, and, somehow, a military amphibious vehicle. It pulled up onto a boat ramp to the north of me and human military poured out of it. Brittany pinned them down with sniper fire and they hid in and under the vehicle. The rest of my fire team concentrated on the boats and jet skis with deadly accuracy but some were getting through.

  I remembered Tito’s rockets, and sprinted to his position. Tito was dead, and I could only find one of his rockets. I quickly checked it and it seemed okay. I circled around into position and fired. The shot blew a track off of the vehicle but the soldiers began to maneuver. Brittany sniped three before she was killed by a grenade. I nailed another one but our line was being overrun so I called for a retreat beyond our first line of defense.

  Tom had set up a mine belt about two hundred yards in from the west side of the island. The line was also booby trapped with Claymores. We quickly regrouped to one of our bunkers. Only four of the eight made it and I assigned each of one of the bunkers in the area. Their orders were to shoot the human soldiers first.

  The bunkers had excellent fields of fire and we were able to pin down the attacking soldiers and rats that’d landed. The soldiers heartlessly forced the rats into the mines and Claymores, and executed any who refused to advance. We picked off those who advanced beyond the line but reached a stalemate. I ordered my group to remain in place and guard the line and returned to my bunker.

  I reached Jim on the phone. “Jack, those planes came in all over the place. They blew the boat and the house. A couple landed inside the Fort but no one was hurt. I haven’t heard from Dave up north. Cleve and his people are okay but they’ve lost most of their detonators in the explosion. Christina reports that all is quiet down south but that they’re massing.”

  “Jim, send a Hummer to the north and one to the west to regroup. Let everyone know that they landed an amphibious vehicle with huma
n soldiers. Who knows what else they have?”

  “Okay, Jack, will do. But we’re getting pretty thin and we’ll need to get everyone back to the Fort pretty soon.”

  “We’ll see. Let’s see how it goes.”

  I called over to Cleve. “Cleve, you can nail the ultra lights with your .50. Take any other shots that you can but only in range. Can you get those detonators back up?”

  “Mickey is already on it. He’s crazy; says he doesn’t care anymore as long as he takes a million to hell with him.”

  “Hey Mickey, just get the detonators squared away and get back to the bunker. But don’t blow it until I give the order.”

  “Gotcha, boss.”

  “Cleve, if it’s quiet enough, sneak Cam and Jackie and their mortar down south a bit and start firing into that center.”

  “Got it, they’re on their way.”

  I yelled over to Sumner and Courtney. “Take your mortars and start hammering away at the mass. Cam and Jackie will be firing from the east side, too. I’m going down to snipe with Christina.”

  “Got it, Jack. We’re at the edge of our range here but we’ll give it a shot.”

  I loaded up on .50 ammo and headed down to Christina’s spot.

  Christina was our best shot and she was in an ideal location. We’d built her a nice two person spider hole and she had a Kawasaki 150 dirt bike as her escape vehicle. She was about 300 yards from the shoreline. She preferred the .308 because of the kick and she was deadly out to 600 yards. She had three rifles, 100 magazines, and some extra ammo in crates. So far she hadn’t taken a shot but had simply observed.

  She gave me her report. “Jack, this is completely fucked up. I think they have a fake command center next to that tanker truck.” I checked it with a spotting scope.

  “Why is it a fake?”

  “Because you would never put command next to a tanker truck. Also, it’s staffed by only Brains and Wolves, no Leaders or soldiers.”

  “Okay, where’s the real post?”

  “I knew you’d ask! See that pile of scrap metal about 100 yards beyond the tanker? Check out the activity over there. Constant runners, lots of antennae, camouflage. And there’s a tank over there. That’s where I’d put it.”

  “Good work, Christina. How about I spot and you shoot the .50? I’d like to interrupt their planning a bit.”

  “I don’t have direct line of sight, but we can definitely scatter them a bit if you want. Maybe we should try a few shots with a grenade launcher first?”

  “Nope, let’s try a Stinger.”

  I called Tom. “Tom, does a tank have enough heat signature for a Stinger to lock on?”

  “Hell yes, I’ll be right over.”

  “Okay, bring a grenade launcher and some ammo, too.”

  Tom arrived in about ten minutes with Jonathan in tow. They were pulling the munitions in a little red wagon to avoid making noise or drawing attention. Christina and I howled as they approached. I’d never seen Tom blush before, but there it was.

  We brought the Stinger over to a thick clump of bushes and started setting up the shot. Christina lined it up through her scope. She called me over. “Jack, take a look at this. This is different. Take a look at the two furthest to the right.”

  I took a moment to focus the scope. I was shocked to see faces that I recognized: Mariana and Santos. Santos was alive! He must have been immune to the virus, because I’d personally seen him chewed up by the zombie horde. For that matter, I’d actually seen Mariana “turn,” but she was amazingly intact. As I watched, it became clear that they were in charge and actively issuing orders to other Leaders.

  “Holy shit! This makes sense. Santos hates me because I threw him to the zombies back home. I guess he followed me here for revenge. How the hell did he become the leader? I wonder why Mariana is still with him? She’d still be fine if it wasn’t for him.”

  I called it in to Jim. No one else really knew about Santos and Mariana, except through my stories of the initial horde attack. Tom knew a bit about him just from living in the same town. He thought Santos was just a scumbag and a creep, as I had. I guess we’d underestimated him. He was the fucking King of the Zombies.

  But how did he get control?

  Chapter Forty Six: Headshot

  Christina and I carefully set up the shot. Due to the range, she needed to use the .50. I’d be her spotter. “Santos first, then Mariana. Make sure you splatter him no matter what. Take your time.”

  “Will do, Jack. I have 625 meters.”

  “Me too. Fire on my mark. Mariana will move pretty quickly and her instinct will be to go to Santos; he’ll be on the ground.”

  “Right, I agree. Let’s do it.

  We set Tom up with the Stinger twenty yards to the east. He was to fire one second after Christina fired. He had a strong position behind a stack of concrete Jersey barriers, but I told him to bail out after his shot and head north to Cam and Jackie and continue their mortar barrage. He was locked on to the tank.

  I sent Jonathan about forty yards west with the grenade launcher. His orders were to fire into the command area exactly one second after Tom fired the Stinger. Jon set up an assortment of explosive, phosphorus, and frag rounds in a semicircle and prepared to fire. He was a genius with the blooker and I had no doubt he could cause catastrophic damage. I ordered him to move back to Sumner and Courtney after he’d fired six rounds and continue firing from there.

  Before the shot, I lined up on the scope and quickly surveyed the area. Christina was locked on to her target. As I scanned, I saw a sniper on the other side, about forty yards beyond and bit higher than Santos. He had Christina lined up for a killshot. I yelled “fire” just as I saw a puff of smoke from his gun. Christina got her shot off but a millisecond later she was hit by the sniper’s round, which struck her scope and fragmented. She screamed in agony as bullet fragments and glass shattered her right eye. Something about the way the shot was set up struck a chord in me.

  I didn’t have time to spot Christina’s shot as I pulled her back into the spider hole. Tom shot the Stinger and I heard Jonathan fire, but we were pinned down by the sniper, who was raining down fire at all of us.

  Based on the amount of noise she was making, Christina would survive. We had to keep our heads down until the sniper moved on.

  I remembered that the spotter scope had a video recorder feature on it. I pulled it back into the hole and replayed the video. It was hard to see but there was something familiar about the sniper, something about his movements and body position. I couldn’t see if Christina’s shot had hit or if the tank was intact. But I saw the sniper pull back a bit into his spider hole. There was just something about him. I knew I'd seen him before.

  I gave Christina a shot of morphine and bandaged her eye. After a bit she calmed down enough to speak.

  “I got him, Jack. I think. He was down. But I saw him move. I don't think it was a kill.”

  Chapter Forty Seven: Battle Over

  I called back to Jim and told him to redirect the mortar fire onto the command area. He quickly got the mortars on target. After a bit, the sniper stopped shooting and we were no longer pinned down. I threw Christina into Tom’s red wagon and pulled her back towards the Fort.

  When I reached a safe spot, I looked back through the spotter scope. The sniper had gotten Tom, but not before Tom had nailed the tank. Jonathan had gotten away and I could see him firing away from the mortar position. They were laying deadly mortar and grenade fire on the command post, which was completely obscured by smoke, dust, and fire.

  I radioed Jim for a status report. The news was not good. “We’re taking fire all around the Fort. They’ve crash landed a bunch of ultra lights in here and taken out some of us. I’m hearing shots down in the cave, too. I think they may be attacking from underneath. Hang on.”

  Jim came back on a few minutes later. “We’ve got it under control here. Sean poured about a thousand gallons of diesel down there and lit it up with phosphorous grenade
s. He saved our asses. The cave is quiet and I don’t see any more ultralights. The Fort is secure.”

  “Okay.”

  I quickly called over to Mickey to blow the boat and all of the explosives on the east side. Then I radioed Cam to blow the south-side explosives, since the enemy was massing on the shore and starting to cross over the ice, which had frozen over. I told Cam to send Sharon over and bring Christina back to the fort and ordered everyone else back there except for Cleve.

  I called him on the radio. “You ready to go out with a bang!”

  “As agreed, boss. I’ll see you at the bunker.”

  One night weeks ago Cleve and I had stayed up on an all night drunk. Cleve had realized that the Fort was not ready for an all-out frontal assault yet. There were multiple weak points, which Cleve showed me on a model he’d built. We’d spent some time working on the weak points but the Fort just wasn’t ready. Cleve and I had decided that we had to thin out the main force before it even approached the Fort because otherwise the Fort was a goner . We also agreed to keep it quiet because we didn’t want to panic everyone. They’d fight better if they thought the Fort was safe.

  So Cleve and I had built our special bunker and added some additional defenses and features into it. We planned to fight to the death but we’d build a final lockbox deep under the bunker to hide in if we were overrun. Just to give us some hope. Like when they give a couple of guys in a firing squad a blank in their weapon.

  I called Jim on the field telephone. “Jim, you’re in charge of the Fort. Get everyone back there and prepare to defend it. The horde is coming.”

  “Did the explosives work?”

  “Sort of. We’re safe on the east for now. There’s a huge gap in the ice over there. A bunch fell in but the rest started south. Most of the stuff to the south didn’t work so there’s a bridge about ten or twenty feet wide that they can cross on foot. I don’t think they could get tanks or vehicles over. In fact, I think Tom blew their only tank.”

  “Where are you? When will you be back here?”