The Rabid Mind

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  One said, “Sounds good to me. It’s payback time for those people.”

  The leader added, “Once we take that cabin, that little girl is going to be tonight’s entertainment.” The men all whooped it up in agreement. They drove back to their safe house and rested.

  About an hour before sunset, they drove back and headed up the dirt road leading to the cabin. “Let’s play it smart this time,” the leader said. “You two come with me and we’ll sneak up on this side of the road.” He pointed to two others, “You two sneak up on that side and try to stay a couple of hundred yards off the road. If they are sitting up to ambush us, we can sneak past them.”

  One of them suggested they wait until dark, just to play it safe, adding, “I bet they don’t have night vision.”

  He thought that was a good idea. “We’ll wait until it is dark.”

  The Hive leader was about 100 yards down the hill from the men. They had been hiding under the trees all day, waiting for darkness. He grunted and pointed and the Hive began walking through the woods to draw even with the five men. There would be fresh meat for their dinner tonight.

  Once the sun was past the mountain, it would be dark enough for them to charge. They watched them, waiting, drooling and smelling the men. The wind had shifted and was coming straight at them. Their leader made a grunting sound and pointed. They charged, shrieking their ear-piercing scream.

  The five men turned and, seeing the Hive charging at them, they panicked. Jumping into the bed of the truck, they began firing. The raider’s leader jumped into the cab of the truck, starting it up and driving up the dirt road as fast as he could. It was the only way for them to go, as the Hive had them surrounded on both sides of the road. He gunned the engine and quickly out distanced them, climbing up the hill.

  His companion in the front asked. “What do we do now?”

  The leader said, “We’re going to get away. There’s what, 4 or 500 of those things coming after us? If we make it past the landmines, we’ll ask to join them and fight. If there’s three of them, plus our five guns, the eight of us might be able to hold them off.” He then said, “Give me something white to wave so they don’t shoot us. The guy stripped off his shirt and pulled off his T-shirt. He stopped at the leveled off place, where the burnt out wreckage of the first vehicle could be seen. He jumped out of the truck and waved the t-shirt, yelling, “We surrender! Hundreds of infected are coming and we must join forces to survive.” He was met with silence.

  He climbed back in the truck and tossed the other guy the T-shirt. “Roll your window down and wave it all the way to the cabin.” He heard the guys in the back start shooting and he called out, “You guys back there hang on. Here we go.” As he drove past the wrecked truck, knocking it out of the way, he hit a piece of sharp metal and blew out his front tire. He gunned the engine. “Come on baby. Now is not the time to give up. Just get us up this mountain. Come on baby, you can do it.” He slammed the 4-wheel drive lever down. The truck was now in 4-wheel drive. He kept the gas pedal floored. Only one steep spot was coming up before it leveled off for the cabin. The truck was laboring up the incline with the flat tire. He kept coaxing it up, but it was too much for the truck and they slowed all of the way down to 10 miles an hour. “Just 50 more feet. Come on baby, you can do it.” His foot was mashed to the floor and the engine moaned in protest. Now at 5 mph, it felt like they were crawling foot by foot. “Come on, only 30 feet to go. Come on baby. We’re almost there.” He cried out, trying to coax the truck up over the hill. Moving at a crawl, they just barely made it over the rise to the flat ground. Without the strain, the engine took off and they pulled up and stopped by the cabin. He jumped out waving the T-shirt. “Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot.”

  A voice called out, “What do you want?”

  “There are hundreds of infected right behind us. Please let us in and we can fight them off together.”

  Jim laughed, thinking it a ruse, and called out, “Get in the truck and head up over the mountain and get out of here.”

  In a panic, the leader said, “We can’t. We have a flat tire.”

  Jim said, “Gee, that’s too bad. You made it this far; you can make it over the top. That’s the last really steep spot, so get going. Get out of here.”

  The leader was half crazy, thinking about what was coming. He pulled his pistol and started shooting up into the air, yelling, “Let us in!”

  The Hive had just crested the hill and, hearing the loud shots, they were screaming and spurred on. They raced forward and the men still in the back of the pick up opened fire, but they were quickly overwhelmed. They were being eaten alive and their screams would not be forgotten.

  Inside the cabin, Jim told everyone not to shoot. He whispered, “Don’t make a sound. Maybe the Hive will move past us after they finish eating.”

  Chapter 36

  The screaming finally stopped. The only sound now was the Hive fighting over the scraps to eat. One of them broke the arm off the leader and, like a dog trying to run off with some food from the rest of the pack, it raced straight into a the rebar pike. It screamed in pain while the rest ran up, tripping and tangling in the barbwire. Another ran into the sharpened rebar and screamed in pain. The others rushed around it, confused, while five of them were trying to wrestle the arm free from the one that was caught. The Hive leader was watching and smelled the air. Was that fresh human smell coming from the cabin?

  He shrieked and shouted commands. The others became silent as they all turned their heads towards the leader. He pointed to the cabin, gave a long grunt, and then a garbled primal command. They surged forward and soon the pike spears were loaded up with bodies and the others started crawling over the top.

  Jim yelled, “They’re coming over the wire. Everyone get out front and stop them.” Jim opened the door and was the first one out with his shotgun. The others followed and they spread out in front of the fence, shooting any that tried to crawl over the top. The night was filled with cries of battle. The infected grunted and screeched as they saw more food and they surged forward even more ferociously, but as fast as they knocked one down, another filled its place.

  Matt yelled out, “I can’t see the bombs. We have to blow one to stop this surge,” as he was using a stripper clip to reload the SKS.

  Jim yelled, “I’ll be right back.” Debbie was firing her beloved Rossi lever action rifle. Sandra and Matt were each using a SKS.

  Jim ran inside and grabbed the one million-candlelight power spotlight and put his 12 gauge down. He grabbed his 30-06 and raced back outside. Debbie was reloading, jamming the shells in one at a time. Sandra just locked open and she reached for another stripper clip to reload. Matt was pounding them back now and over 30 were stuck on the poles. The rest were trying to climb over. “No time.” he yelled, “Everyone back in the cabin.” He shone the light into the beasts’ eyes. They were stopped for a second and confused, giving them time to get inside.

  Matt shot the last two rounds in his gun, but the Hive was too large and they surged over. Everyone raced to the cabin door. One of the faster infected raced toward Jim. Sandra and Debbie made it inside while Matt stopped on the porch, pulled out a stripper clip and jammed it in. With the 10 rounds loaded, he tossed the stripper clip and yanked the handle back, charging a fresh round into the chamber. Jim fired at one with his 30-06, but there were more racing at him. Matt opened up, dropping them. He yelled, “Jim, get inside. Don’t look and don’t stop.”

  Jim raced pass him and into the doorway. Matt emptied his gun and jumped in, allowing Jim to slam the door closed and lock it. The crazed bloodthirsty animals surged forward and were beating on the door. Jim yelled, “Everyone reload quickly!”

  Matt said, “Is that door going to hold?”

  Jim responded, “It damn well better. We built it to keep bears out, so it should hold.”

  Debbie asked, “What are we going to do now?”

  Jim finished loading both the 30-06 and the shotgun, saying, “Luckily
we were already sealed up with the shutters on the windows. We can just open the windows and use the shooting crosses we built into the shutters to pour lead onto them. Let’s make every shot count.”

  He grabbed the shotgun, opened the window and tried to look out. He could see shadows passing in front, but it was too dark to see much else. He stuck the muzzle out and fired. The flames shot out and three fell as he worked the pump and fired again. Even with the flashes from the gun, he still couldn’t see.

  There were only two windows to shoot out of on the front of the cabin, so Matt headed to the east side where the window was facing the breach in the fence. He had the same problem of not being able to see much, just shadows, but he poured lead at them. The muzzle flash temporarily blinded him so that he couldn’t even see the shadows. He ran back into the other room and saw that Debbie and Sandra were taking turns shooting out of the other front window. One would shoot and step aside, and then the other would shoot.

  “Jim,” he yelled out over the racket, “That door isn’t going to hold all night. We have to clear them out. Anyone have any ideas?”

  Jim looked around and said, “We could use the crawl space and hide up there.”

  Matt glanced up and then said, “I have a better idea. I could cut a hole in the roof and climb out to lower a bomb over the edge and then you could shoot it. It will clear the porch and then Sandra could climb up with her .270 and I can use the spotlight so she can hit the other bombs. What do you think?”

  “How am I supposed to see the bomb you lower? It’s pitch black out there.”

  “You could have Debbie hold the spotlight over your shoulder from behind you.”

  Jim said, “I don’t know, but let’s try it. You get to work up there and take your rifle with you. Sandra, after he gets a hole cut, you be ready to tell me what’s going on. In the meantime, find some rope and tie it off to the bomb.”

  He told Debbie to start shooting towards the door to thin them out and try to keep them away from beating on the door. She was able to angle her rifle towards the door enough and began firing.

  Jim turned his aim towards the door and he was shooting roughly 4 feet out, which was the best angle he could get. As the muzzle flashed, he saw hundreds of infected in the yard.

  The noise from the beating and shrieking was intense and, mixed with the blast from his shotgun and Debbie’s .357, it was deafening as it echoed across the valley.

  Matt set the flashlight down, picked a spot between the rafters to cut the hole and began pounding away. It was slow going, but he finally managed a small hole and was able to get the axe tip into it, splitting the plywood. He kept beating away until he had roughly an 18-inch square. He called down to Sandra. “Do you have the bomb ready?” She told him she did and climbed up the stepladder, handing it to him as she wished him luck.

  Matt ducked down through the hatch to see exactly where Jim’s window was located, so he could lower the bomb as close in front of it as he could. He climbed up on the roof and steadied himself. The cloudy night was not helping any and it was like being in a cave without any light. He crawled over the roof peak and slowly worked his way down to the porch roof. He yelled out, “I’m lowering it now.” Sandra relayed the message to Jim.

  Debbie turned on the spot light behind Jim’s right shoulder to illuminate the area, but there were too many infected in the way. She told him to clear a path and he emptied the shotgun. That did the trick and cleared his line of sight to the bomb.

  Sandra told Matt to swing the bomb back and forth so they could see it, which he did. Sandra yelled to Jim, asking if he could make it out, and he said he could. He put the BBB goose load shells in the shotgun and fired twice to keep the path open while Debbie shone the light. Sandra told Matt to keep swinging it and lay down. Matt lay down with his legs spread and continued swinging the rope back and forth.

  Jim waited until it was on the door side of the swing and took the shot. The boom from the explosion was devastatingly loud.

  Immediately Matt felt the pain as a piece of hot lead ripped through the roof, lodging in the calf muscle of his left leg. He cried out in pain “I’m hit.”

  Jim didn’t have time to witness the results, as a piece of hot lead ripped through the shooting slot, hitting Jim in the face. It lodged into the left side, by his mouth. He dropped the gun and went to his knees. It was burning like hell. “Get it out,” he screamed in pain.

  No one was sure what damage they had done to the Hive, but the pounding had stopped. Matt didn’t notice because his ears were ringing so badly. He was just about to the hole when he heard the loud shriek. He thought that the next batch of the creatures was coming.

  Sandra shouted out, “Bring the first aid kit. Matt’s been hurt.”

  Debbie heard her, but was helping to pull the piece of metal out of Jim’s face. Using the pliers on the Leatherman tool, she had a hold of it and was slowly trying to work it out without ripping the hole bigger. Sandra came to help, holding his head, and said, “Hold still Dad, you big baby.” Debbie finally worked it out and covered it with some gauze soaked in alcohol.

  Sandra grabbed the first aid kit and headed for the ladder. She climbed up into the crawl space then out through the hole and onto the roof. She carefully crawled over to Matt and asked, “Where are you hit?”

  He pointed to his leg and said, “In the calf. I’ve already pulled it out. I just need you to bandage it up.” She pushed up his pant leg and said, “Here, hold the light so I can see.” Matt held the light and looked at the wound. It was dripping blood, but it wasn’t that bad. It felt worse than it looked.

  Sandra put a 2-inch square of gauze on it and taped it in place. “Thanks.” Matt said, “Do you have your .270 and the spotlight?”

  She rolled her eyes and said. “No. You were more important.” She headed back to the hole and said, “I’ll be right back.” She ducked down out of sight, returning a moment later with the light and rifle.

  “Okay, the plan is that we crawl up to the peak of the roof and you rest your gun on top. I’ll hold the spotlight behind you, aiming at the bomb, and you shoot it.”

  Sandra nodded and said, “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Matt used the spotlight to sweep the yard first, trying to assess which bomb they should aim for. There were 50 or so infected still alive, but they looked like they were dazed and in a state of shock, just stumbling around the yard.

  He shone the light over by the truck and there were at least 50 bodies stuck on the homemade spears at the fence. As the spotlight moved down the road, they caught sight of a big bunch of them, maybe 75, in a group. There appeared to be one pointing and shrieking unintelligible commands and the others were listening. He zeroed in on the closest bomb and said, “Shoot that one and make it count.” It was not the perfect placement, but it should be able to take out half of them.

  She took careful aim and fired. The shock wave of the explosion hit them, knocking the group to the ground, but only about 30 of them. The leader shrieked and pointed down the hill and the rest ran out of sight.

  “What the hell was that?” Matt said.

  Sandra shrugged and said, “I think that one is in charge and he told them to get the hell out of here.”

  “Oh, just perfect.” He said drily. “A thinking commander for the infected. Let’s save your rounds for shooting the bombs and I’ll use my .22 to do a cleanup of the ones left in the yard. Can you please go and grab it for me? My leg is a little sore. Is your dad okay?”

  Sandra was moving back to the hole and turned to say, “Yes, he’s okay. He caught a small fragment in the face, but we managed to pull it out. He’s going to be fine, but there is going to be a hell of a scar.” She left and then returned in a few minutes, handing him his trusty AR-7. “Dad said to hurry up and clean them out before the hive reorganizes and rushes us again.”

  “Okay, I will. Stand behind me with the spotlight just over my shoulder and find a target. Let me get my sights on its head and keep the ligh
t on it until it drops. We’ll move to the right and keep going until they are all dead.”

  They crawled up to the peak of the roof and when, Matt was ready, she hit the spotlight. The first thing Matt noticed was that there were only about 20 left in the yard now. He told Sandra to quickly shine the light over to where they were climbing in and she did.

  Just as he’d thought, they were all leaving. He told her to keep the light on that group and then he started picking them off. He missed his first two targets because he was rushing the shots as they escaped. He calmed his breathing down and managed to drop the next six before they got away.

  He changed magazines and dropped the next eight as they tried to escape and then he turned around and sat up, having to reload again. She handed him the bullets one at a time until both magazines were reloaded.

  He got positioned again and there were none trying to get over the fence. She shone the light all over the yard and only about twelve were left. He quickly cleaned those out and they scanned the area for more, but it appeared they had killed them all in the yard.

  Sandra kissed him and yelled, “Yahoo. We are going to make it. Fuck you Zombies! You can’t kill us. We are going to win. FUCK YOU ALL!”

  Matt said, “I wasn’t sure we were going to see daylight either. Thank God your dad came up with that bomb idea.”

  “Yeah, and thank God you came up with the idea to come up here.”

  Matt said, “Come on; let’s go see how the slave driver is doing.” They climbed back inside and down into the cabin.

  Jim greeted them with, “Mighty fine shooting. So are they all dead?” His speech was a bit slurred due to his injury swelling up.

  Matt smiled and said, “All of them we can see are dead, but we have some bad news. A large group of them, that were being led by some type of leader, pulled back and more than 75 of them got away.

  Debbie, with fear in her eyes, asked, “What do you mean by a leader? Like a commander in charge of them?”