Knight of the Dead (Book 4): Realm

by Smorynski, Ron

  “You save a lot of people?” she wondered aloud.

  “Not a lot, some. We have a fort. We're fighting back,” he said.

  She nodded, chewing. “My husband is dead? My children are gone?”

  Dad nodded.

  She chewed slowly, staring off. She then sipped from a warm water bottle. “What about the government? The army? Where are they?”

  Dad blinked out of his concerned look, thinking now on an epic global scale. “Well, the military is about, further out that is. There are many survivors in small towns, remote areas, away from the cities. This is happening all over the world,” he said, not sure what her mental state was.

  She didn’t respond.

  "How are you so awake suddenly? You know, starving and emaciated?"

  She looked at Dad, then at her petite body, "How many times?... This is how I look! I'm vegan!"

  Dad stared wide-eyed a moment.

  “Can we get out?” she asked, seeming normal and thoughtful.

  “No, the streets are all jammed with traffic,” he said, shifting in his suit of armor to loosen up. “This is the most populated county in America, Los Angeles.”

  “Figures,” she said, finishing up, wiping crumbs from her mouth and quickly putting her hair up. “Find the keys?”

  “What?” he said, looking at her. She was very attractive, some Hollywood Hills wife or something.

  “The keys? Motorcycle?”

  “Oh?!” Dad pondered. He looked around. It looked like a nice home, clean and crisp. There was no sign of motorcycle stuff. No helmets or jackets or leather gear strewn about.

  She walked past him, through the kitchen.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To the garage!”

  Dad nodded and hurried after her.

  They stared at two Harley Davidson bikes. “Wow,” Dad said.

  “Would these do?” Melany said, winking at him. She hop-skipped down the steps and rubbed her hand along the massive first bike. It was some custom job with wide handles. "Guess we can forget about the bike outside." She then straddled the big beast of a Harley. "What about this one?"

  “That's too big,” Dad said. “Be too hard to get through.” He sauntered over to the other one. It was still big and solid. However, it was leaner looking, long and laid back. The handlebars were narrow. He figured it was probably a loud beast as well. The bike outside was smaller, cheaper, and probably why it was parked out there and these in here. It would be a better choice. But, he couldn't. He had to take this one.

  He then thought about the driving and the mass of swarming zombies along the street and the danger to her. He could fight his way through. But with her on the bike, she'd easily get bitten or pulled off.

  “How's this?” she spoke up.

  He turned to see her in a leather jacket. It was a woman's jacket. There was a cupboard of motorcycle gear and helmets.

  “Great, use the helm, gloves, the boots, whatever will protect you,” he said, peering at it all.

  He tested the keys, got the right one and tried the bike. It started. It had a deep engine roar. It was loud, even in idle. But Dad thought, not bad, not too loud.

  He had Melany straddle the bike. He looked at her. "I drive. When I turn the bike, you don't fight it. You hug me and just stay with me. You are one with me and my motion. Let me do all the counter balancing, okay? Just hug me, let me move both of us. If I jerk one way, just go that way... I do all the balance, counter balance, got it?"

  "Yes sir." She nodded in her slick helmet and leathers.

  He tried lifting the garage door. It was stuck but he eventually powered through it, yanking it up. The early evening sun and chilling Southern California winter air rushed in. He stood staring at two ghouls. They were standing there looking at him. He realized they were breathing or pulsing somehow. He didn't think they were alive in that sense or needed air. He wasn't sure. But they were breathing like angry hungry animals.

  Melany cried out, muffled in her helmet, “Kill them!”

  Dad pulled out his sword and advanced. They advanced. His blade sliced one's torso in half as it plopped. The other he bashed as it grabbed him. It tottered as he swung up, severing its head off. He then finished the one crawling with its guts spewing out.

  Dad turned to see a cool motorcycle chic sitting back straddled on a sexy bike giving him two thumbs up. Dad was a sinner.

  When Dad got back to the school, Tom and Stu opened a dumpster to let them in. They were ready. They tossed burning limbs to slow down any zombies following. Dad had distanced himself from any large horde so there were only the zombies in the area.

  He drove through to the school as Tom and Stu noticed a hot new motorcycle accompanied with a hot motorcycle chic on the back. They shrugged and turned back to smoking out the gathering of zombies.

  Many gathered to see Dad return on a tough looking Harley. It wasn't the big fancy custom ones typical of biker gangs. It was a street bike, a cruiser, with everything tight and solidly built. His wife stepped forward to see as the woman got off the bike, Dad putting out his gauntlet to help her. She took off her helmet and waved her curly blond hair, retying it.

  His wife came up to Dad as he got off, quickly trying to hug him when he was not aware. That was painful to her, for his movements in armor were unforgiving. She awkwardly cried out in pain. Everyone looked odd at her. Dad turned to see her. “What, honey, careful!”

  She stepped back rubbing her arms and cheek.

  “I'm Melany,” Melany said, putting out her hand to Dad's wife.

  “I'm his wife. This is my man, the leader of this group, my husband,” his wife said quickly.

  Dad pulled off his helmet and gave a quaint smile. Melany looked to and fro. She noticed Duanne doing a double take.

  His wife helped, “That's Duanne Henderson, famous movie star. You two should get to know each other!”

  Dad, Duanne, and Melany's eyes bulged. Eva wasn't there, but if she were, she probably would have yelped a little.

  “Okay everyone, I'm tired,” Dad said.

  “He's sore. He saved me. Saw me naked too,” Melany quipped.

  Dad cringed. His wife stared at him as he quickly walked off.

  28. Castle Works

  Dad woke up. Everything seemed quiet, peaceful. He sat up in the classroom that was his and his wife's. He felt slightly guilty that he and his wife have the only room not shared by others. Though he thought Beth and Randall now have a classroom on their own, at least for a while since they were newlyweds. Katrina, Amanda, Trish, and Eva had slept in there with Beth, as it had become the women's room. The ladies must be sleeping in another classroom on the upper floor, the one with all the armour and work tables.

  Lena and Lisa slept with the kids in another classroom. They wanted Rondo to sleep there, but Dad had Rondo sleep at the top of the stairs. He wanted him there to be their alarm, just in case anything happened. Dad setup a cushion there and Rondo knew immediately it was his spot. Each night, the kids petted him and left him there. Dad nodded to him, reminding him, “Guard.” Rondo knew his spot.

  Marcus, Stu, Cory, and Jake slept in the classroom where the windows went out onto the auditorium roof, where a mass of zombies where once piled up. The windows were heavily fortified now, with several slots removable to have access to the roof. It had been incredibly filthy but the women did their job. Dad felt chauvinistic thinking about women being awesome as their home makers and yet, why? It was amazing to have women who desired even in this hell to clean everything up.

  Jake sometimes slept on the roof, watching and staring at the dark city and all the evil and nightmares that abounded. Andt with no city lights, he could see the stars. In all this hell, they were still there and gave him peace.

  Back in Dad's classroom, with his wife, they fortified the windows there as well, for it overlooked the east wing, the cafeteria and courtyard. In the last battle, zombies were not as attracted to that side, and didn't build up a mound there but they
could. It was that side that Dad and the late Rick Gomez dropped down to get to the school bus toward the front.

  The school library was setup as the kid's play room. They read books, played games, and watched movies in there. Though the cables to the solar panels were damaged several times in the onslaughts, they had been repaired or replaced. It was pretty important to have power for the power tools, but most importantly for entertainment.

  A few hours before sleep the kids settled into watching something. Actually, everyone settled into watching something or playing a silly app on a phone, or reading a book by a faint light, whether a lamp or phone. They were lucky both solar rooftop units, each across a street from the school, were still intact and working.

  Because of all the physical activity, it wasn't hard to get the kids to sleep. Everyone was encouraged to wake up early, in the brisk cold, right before dawn. It felt like the most peaceful time when the zombies seemed the least active.

  Benjamin and his wife had the small corner room on the second floor. It was too small for a regular sized classroom, and was used to hold special computer classes. It had an adjoining supply closet. He had all the phones, radios, and electronic devises, with a long cable running in and a ton of power strips spider webbed around. He was becoming something of a tinkerer in there, charging the phones, the power tools, and listening to the reports by military sources.

  Dad listened a few times, but found it too depressing. He asked Benjamin to give him a summary from time to time, especially on any major developments.

  Across the world, there was a pandemic, an infestation, as the rabid destroyed the world. Everything from fires to nuclear missiles were tried to end them, to no avail. The only survivors, it seems, were in remote towns, especially in mountainous terrain. There was hope in the mountains. They were setting up defenses and could handle small groups of zombies. No hordes were spotted there yet. Given the low population numbers in those regions, that wasn’t a surprise.

  The sad part was that even in colder climates, it was still bad. So Dad didn't see any hope that winter might end them or slow them down completely. A chill lulled them, but didn't disable them. Perhaps when the winter freeze came, which would be soon, that should affect them in colder areas, and allow humanity to regroup. But how long it would take for the survivors, the military, to come south to their aid was the real question.

  In America, nuclear strikes were not yet tried, but they were considered. And it was in the urban areas where the infestations were in the millions that it was being considered. But there were still survivors so the military was trying to figure out ways to draw out the hordes into fire zones.

  Dad did not want to tell the others, that this place could be nuked. He made Benjamin promise not to tell the others. Of the nearby military bases, Edwards Air Force Base was still standing. Many tried to go there. The base was remote, set apart from the town, in a dry rugged desert. Sadly, many civilians, having been infected, were gunned down. A warning was sent that any who came would be quarantined till they knew if they were safe. Any that did not comply were shot on the spot. They had a tent city nearby where they forced people to wait, to see who might be infected. Well it happened. Someone turned and the whole refugee camp turned. They had to destroy everyone in it, blasting it from the sky.

  They were waiting on instructions from the government, hidden in distributed secret remote locations, planning strategies and gathering what resources they could. Everything was disastrous and delayed. They were still in the communications and networking phase. Periodically, they’d get reports that one of the locations would suddenly go dark.

  Dad didn't see any help from them. Hollywood was far away, across miles of densely packed urban areas, suburban areas, hilly neighborhoods, jammed roads, streets, freeways then mountains beyond, littered with plenty of wandering zombies, and then the harsh desert. Beyond that, there were more sprawls of homes and businesses, several small towns packed out there, then the air force base, separated and barely hanging on.

  On the first floor, courageous Ray and Cherry had a room. Ray turned the meeting room into his own space. He drew lots of designs, seeing what materials they had acquired and figuring out how best to construct the walls. He was coming up with medieval road warrior type contraptions. He used to illustrate and design for movie sets. It was just part of his psyche and something to do in the evening hours. Duanne and Howie stayed with them.

  The main building was heavily fortified. Ray, Amador and Nick reinforced all the doors and windows. It was turning into a castle, a real medieval keep. It looked gruesome, like some warlord wasteland junkyard fortress. Dad kind of liked it. He walked about, testing the stuff, kicking it. Ray devised sliding doors that had hooks to keep them locked. He figured that since the zombies only know how to push, sliding doors that were reinforced were hard to push open, but easy enough for them to slide open and get through. They made sure the locks were hidden and protected in case any smart ones were at the front.

  There weren't any welding tools, so Amador and Nick did a lot of drilling, screwing and bolting. But it all looked solid and defensible. It wasn't that they could necessarily survive another vast horde attack. They didn't look at it that way. It was more that they could fight, kill, burn, then hide, hoping the fires would weaken them as they hid within. It was all they had.

  Dad wondered about getting vehicles armored up, ramming the hell out of the zombie masses. But the buses and vehicles in the area needed work, garage-like work from solid mechanics. The batteries were mostly dead now except the ones they unhooked. The ones on the boulevards were smashed up. Many were losing air in their tires. There were some in driveways nearby that looked good, especially the ones in garages or kept out of the sun. Ray and Nick unhooked them. It was something still to consider.

  Howie's Hummer helped. On occasion, Tom, Randall, and Stu would lure in a large group. They weren't too loud. After Dad's last return with Melany, a large swathe of them were wandering on Sunset. They made sure to not alert them crazily. It was a subtle alert. They snuck toward them, gave them some subtle noises to get the closest group to turn and wander over.

  It was a new tactic. Instead of awakening them and having them bark out a chain reaction of alerts down the streets, they got the ones in the area to sense something and come toward them.

  They learned to move slowly, to lure and to bring them into the school yard. It was slower, but safer, drawing in just the ones in an area and not creating a vast line of barks to form a swarming horde.

  Howie would start up his Hummer between two classroom buildings, sheltered and quiet like, then drive down to the playground and slowly drive around, running and crushing the dozens they drew in. They did this a few times in the cold morning, bringing them in like sleep walking lemmings to clear out the immediate vicinity. It was good enough that no zombies would be in the vicinity to hear their construction or play. It gave them a sense of relief as they built up the place, made weapons, trained in the courtyard, and farmed the area and the pots on the roof.

  They set up the car blockade and dumpster gate down at Sunset Boulevard. They made that blockade even better, using the canyon wall of smashed up cars as the main blockage, while rolling in service trucks to block it further. If a horde rambled along Sunset, they wouldn't see the street up to the school. It was perfect. It gave them a block of safe cushion, separating them from the main thoroughway.

  Amador rigged a ladder of sorts, with steps, so it was easy to climb atop the blockade wall and look over to see what was going on out there. They used that to lure in zombie groups, and run'em over.

  Dad noticed the new survivors were still weak. He could tell they survived by hiding. Any that braved going out were killed. These definitely needed some sort of awakening, some sort of bravado. His wife was upset that he seemed so dour, punching him to be patient. He knew he just had to train them, to get them to get a sense of action. One may not always know what exactly to do in a situation, but knowing on
e thing, instinctively, and acting is all one needed. Bravery wasn't about being right or making the right move, it was about focusing on what one trained to do, and acting upon that.

  Lena, Lisa and Marcus trained the new ones. All were gaunt, weak and in ragged clothes. They didn't swing so much as lurch the practice weapon over and over on the pell. They just flung it, not swinging, not using their torso or body. They placed it like they were placing a book on a shelf or their junk food wrappings in a trash. Dad snarled.

  Marcus worked with them, doing football drills. He huffed and puffed with each drill as they floundered. Damn, Dad thought. Were these new survivors going to be leeches or make fatal mistakes? They certainly ate enough. They drank their water. They shit and pissed. But when it came to work, they cowered and milled about.

  Dad thought about yelling at them, not yelling loud and alerting the whole neighborhood, but some sort of marine drill sergeant seething hissy fit through gritted teeth.

  But he didn't have it in him. Their dreary weak shouldered composure must have had an effect on him. He didn't feel like doing it, just like they didn't feel like fighting for their lives. He knew they'd run, weakly, to hide when the inevitable next battle occurred.

  Lena and Marcus looked optimistic. Cory and Lisa helped too. It appeared they were attracted to each other. That was fine by Dad. He saw in them the future. He realized he was just becoming that damn curmudgeon, even in a hell like this. Especially in a hell like this.

  It was his children and these new survivors. They were the up and comers. He smiled at that. And they'd have kids. The children are the future. Dad realized, after his aches and pains got the best of him, he would be a grandfather at some point. He'd be taking care of toddlers. That was frightening.

  Dad got up and walked around, surveying what everyone was doing. Rondo followed him, sniffing and coming up to whomever Dad came to, seeking attention. Dad rarely gave Rondo any attention, just a pat on the head. Rondo sought everyone else, sniffing and putting his head against their leg. Dad had to keep reminding the dog to settle down. But everyone would pet him and give him the cuddly attention he craved. Dad would roll his eyes and ignore it, looking at what they were doing.