by catt dahman
an hour that drivers who got out of a vehicle would be ‘ass-kicked, not going down south, and probably kicked out of the group’.”
“I heard.It’s good you listened and did what they said. Look, they’re here.
Speak of the devil….”
Max motioned Jet to go talk to the rest if he wanted but said he was staying in place as directed. Max saw Len raise his hands a few times, shake his head, slap his
own forehead, and yell at the sky.
Kim looked at the ground and shook his head a few times, too. Hannah and Ponce listened; Hannah let Len and Kim see her bandage, and she drank water with the pills she was given (antibiotics) while she listened to both men. It looked as if Len and Kim were not angry toward Hannah and Ponce but furious over the encounter.
When they walked over to look at the creature, Len kicked it violently. Kim
spat on it.
The bodies were pulled to a spot to be burned, and Len saluted Max for staying
in place. Kim walked over and leaned into the truck, “Good job. I know it sucked, but
it may be what keeps us alive. Want me to put someone else in a while to drive?”
“I’m fine. When someone wants to drive, he can; does Hannah wanna drive?”
“Good thought.” Kim turned around, “Hannah, you are the driver; take it easy a while.” He smirked at her.
She traded places with Max and used a finger to poke him in the ribs as she got into the driver’s seat. “Very funny.”
Chapter 26
Jefferson, Texas: House on the Hill
Right after that, the third and fourth teams arrived to take point.Len ground his teeth when he saw Matt and Julia, another couple with children and Mark, who was acting Governor, but Len also knew they were excellent at what they did. Everyone said that being out had always been dangerous and that they were not going to stop fighting nor teach their children to hide behind fences.
Each took a long, hard look at the body of the hybrid that attacked Hannah; they called him a Berserker, a name that Teeg suggested and which stuck quickly. As the day wore on, the term became ‘Berz’ and then ‘Buzz’. “Now, we know how slang terms evolve and end up not making a lick of sense,” Len grumbled.
“Buzzzzzz.” Rae laughed.
Jessie and his friends reported the way ahead was clear of movement, and as they pushed on, only DeVon made a kill.
The group made it to Jefferson with little problems since the highway was amazingly clear of cars, and the few that were left were quickly moved off to the sides. The rusted cars were lined up so that any attacking zombie hordes would be held
back, long enough for the creatures to be killed.
Hannah had them drive around, then backtrack, and finally park at the house where she, Jet, and others camped for a few rainy days in the past. It was a little cramped, but they used all the rooms for sleeping and eating. Like Hannah and her friends had done long before, some of them ran hands over the old furniture with interest and admired the old-world charm of the house on the hill.
On watch, Hannah sat on a swing, gliding back and forth. “I love this house.”
“If we split from the group for fear of becoming a Buzz, we’ll need to live somewhere,” Ponce said, “I like it here, too, and it’s close enough to Hopetown to be
a decent place. Add some fences…it has a nice, dry barn, and the house is sturdy.”
Hannah nodded, thinking. But something nagged at her. “Us, huh? Me and you?”
“We’ve been through a lot together and kept our secrets; we understand one another. We have trust and respect. Maybe the rest will come in time.” He blushed.
Hannah was only twenty-two, and Ponce was pushing forty. Maybe he was a fool for even thinking she might care for him, something he had thought for a few years but never dared to suggest.
Hannah didn’t say anything; she didn’t know what to say because she didn’t know what the future held. She knew she was a Berz who wasn’t yet a Buzz. So was he. She felt like a ticking time bomb. And that made her think of Juan and how he tried hard to be a good father to her when Kim was missing.
Good men were priceless.
She reached over and lightly held Ponce’s hand. Other than that, they didn’t speak but listened for trouble and watched for movement.
Chapter 27
Traveling to Port Arthur: Bad Memories
DeVon, Hannah, and Ponce rode with Jessie, Derek, and Manuel as they avoided Stephen F. Austin State University, taking Loop 224.
Zombies might shamble over from the university to this area if they heard the vehicles being moved. That was a definite concern for when they moved supplies and the families, but Jessie pointed out that despite the sometimes-bumpy pavement and road conditions, the strictly enforced thirty miles an hour for the vehicles would work.
“There isn’t a zom that can shamble fast enough to cause an issue.”
“If they are in a horde of thousands, like Hannah said they saw, then they would be a problem. They can knock over a car or stall one that’s running over them,” DeVon argued.
“I agree,” Jessie said, “and if we see that, we go back or forward and bug out
until we can take them out with something bigger than rifles. Len and I talked about that. We can run if we have to.”
“It all depends on everyone’s being calm and following directions.”
“I don’t ever want to see that big of a horde again,” Hannah said.
“Right over there, we hid once when we escaped. A cute Asian girl was with us;
her name was Yuki although we called her Kee Kee sometimes. She was a hybrid, but
her leg was just gnawed to the bone by the zoms. No one could imagine how bad it
was, but I could see the muscle and fat, and she screamed a lot. We had to cauterize
the vessels with a hot knife; her leg was chewed flesh and burns…horrible.”
“Sounds bad,” DeVon said.
“She died. We tried to keep the wound clean and help her, but she needed antibiotics, yet even with the medicine, she still might not have been saved. We buried her; her boyfriend, Neal, killed himself before we got to Hopetown.”
Ponce squeezed her hand.
“They were all together at a house long ago. That is where I met Adam and then re-met him, and for a while, he was normal and sweet….”
Behind them in vehicles, the rest cleared the road of cars and killed any stray zombies they found. Some of them were Reds, filthy, stinky people, in stiffened clothing that was so caked with dirt that the clothing was like armor.
Others were zeds, with their hands and arms bitten, flesh torn, and limbs missing. The work was going very fast now that the group had a routine:beat them in the heads, pull them away, and burn their bodies.
They stopped for a break.
Jessie got out of the SUV and looked over the highway ahead. Hannah had told them what to expect, but it was still horrific to see the big airliner on the ground, twisted and burned amid the rubble.
The plane was out of place, and, even in its wrecked state, was huge. “Even with everything else going on, can you imagine an outbreak aboard an airplane with nowhere to run and no weapons to defend with?”
“Raul and Jake went down over there,” Len said. “We’ll leave the bodies but cover the bones and all with rubble for a burial. I don’t see much of them left,” Hannah said.
“Lance and Jet will hate seeing this again. They tried hard but didn’t have a chance….”
This was another spot they worried about since before, a horde of thousands had passed by that section, looked for prey, and did their strange hive behavior. More than
a few shambled about the plane wreckage; the survivors lost count at thirty.
Because most of the zoms were around the plane, Len tossed two grenades, and almost all were blown apart. The sound might attract more, but it was a simple solution, and it covered the remains of many with more rubble from the explosion.
Twice they came across large groups of shamblers, and three times they had to deal with Berserkers; one almost bit Carl, but Teeg shot the thing in its head.
US Highway 287 out of Lufkin got them to Port Arthur where the real work would begin: with moving cars and trucks and killing more shambling zeds.
They expected large masses of zombies there, but rumor was that many had gone west towards the Houston area where they could hunt the less-likely-to-fight-back wounded from the massive bombings in that city. Storms also had taken out many over the years with no one left behind to care for the land and structures.
Len cocked his head and then bent to look at marks on the ground. He used binoculars and surveyed the area and then shook his head with confusion.
“I would swear that some big army unit came through here and cleaned out a bunch, but if it happened, then it was long ago, and I can’t say who it really was.”
Chapter 28
Damned Good Job in Very Bad Conditions
In the years since Z day, some had forgotten the difficulty and horror in facing a large group of the moaning monsters, but they remembered how to fight and admitted reluctantly there was a thrill to it.
“Let’s clear that bridge, run the cars back off the bridge, and take out all the shamblers. Matt, guard our asses from attacks, and take out any zeds coming up behind. Lance, as soon as you can get through, get across, and get a hold on the other side; that’s critical,” Len said with a glance to Mark, who nodded.
“Be safe,” Mark said, “that puts us both in vulnerable positions.”
“As long as Matt’s team can hold our rear, then we should be okay getting to the island; it looks quiet.”
Len climbed into the truck and looked at Rev seriously. “Where did she learn to drive again?” He looked at Rae through the window.
Rev laughed. “If she hears you...well…good luck escaping her wrath.”
“Eh…Foxy Roxie Rae can get over it.” Len chuckled.
Big Bill sighed and said, “Boss, you started calling her that when we were cleaning
out that trailer park, and she got so feisty. Me, you, Rev, and Miss Rae was a team to be feared back then. We saw some awful things.”
“Yes, we did. And you have always been on my team for everything we did; you’re the guy I trust to watch my ass,” added Len.
“That’s my job, Boss. You never showed me nothing but friendship, and here we are again; I sure am proud to be by your side.”
“Stop talking like we’re in trouble, you guys.” DeVon frowned at them. “We’ve come all the way south and done fine. We’ve cleaned out a bunch of Zs and gotten
the road clear, and I like working with all of you. Seeing that the dead zeds have rotted and most are gone now, I feel great.”
“You a stripper? Hell’s bells, girl, you sound like a cheerleader,” Len said as he laughed. “Gonna call you De-rah rah-Von now.”
She leaned to one side as she laughed. “Big Bill, you look the other way sometime so I can kick Len in the shin, huh?”
“Oh, Yes’um, I can sure do that.”
Len pretended to frown and grumbled, “I sure have some bad seeds on my team wanting to kick people.” He jumped out and shoved a spear through a Red’s eye; Len pulled it back out with a yank of his arm and his foot on the thing’s head.
Devon, Rev, Hannah, Ponce, and Big Bill worked on the others that moved around the stalled, rusted cars, which sat on the bridge.
In one car, a family of Reds slapped at the windows and moaned inside their prison. The windows were crusted with filth, but the zeds wanted out to feed. It was sobering to see them still locked in a time, ten years before.
Matt’s team fought with a few that were alerted by noise and came along the road. Teeg’s group moved vehicles off the bridge, but Kim and Jet stopped to lend a hand whenever they found Zs.
When they got to the car with the family in it, Pak yanked the door open, and when the male zombie fell out, Kim crushed his skull. The female crawled over her husband and clawed at the humans, but Pak easily speared her.
Carl yanked the back door open, and they allowed the two children to get out of the car before Carl and Kim finished them off.
“Clear,” Kim yelled.
Lance led his team on foot across the long bridge, and they took out all the ones they found, but they kept pushing for the other side.
A large group blocked the road about halfway across. “We’re going to run past them. If you get pinned, kill, but we want past them, and then there is nothing, so we’ll fight back from the other side and meet in the middle.”
Mark nodded. “Jessie…you and me…let’s make sure our backs are safe.”
“Got it.” Jessie and Mark took point. Mark began to run, dodging grasping hands and ducking lunges, but these were all the slower Reds and easy to out maneuver.
Time not only made the Reds less intact but also almost seemed to make them more stupid. Jessie pushed a few back with his bat and stayed close to Mark. The rest
of the team followed.
They were three-fourths of the way across with no movement from the far side; Mark and Jessie watched for anything coming up from the island so they could motion the others to jump into the fight.
“Good Lord, Kev.” Nick laughed dryly as his friend beat a zombie’s head until it was like red pudding mashed into the pavement.
“I hate them.” Kevin had spent the last seven years hating them for being the cause of his losing his partner, Alex.
Long ago, they had his pity, when they seemed to be innocent, sick people trapped inside of shells of sick bodies, but like the rest, his sympathy waned, and now he felt only hatred for them, young, old, male, female, all were evil in his eyes and needed to be killed.
Len’s team fought forward, and Lance’s team fought from the other side. One
of Lance’s guys swung, missed, and lost his balance; that mistake allowed a zombie to
latch on to his arm and bite the man’s forearm. The man yelled with more fury than
pain.
“Robbie….” Lance shouted, fighting to get to his teammate.
Robbie, the man who was bitten, swung his bat, bursting open heads and putting the ghouls down as fast as he could. He cursed, and blood freely ran down his hand. The sadness in Lance’s voice made him feel ashamed that he let the team down because Ricky was the only one who had been bitten besides Hannah.
“Give me a machete,” Lance demanded, holding his hand out expectantly;
“get a med kit out too ‘cause we will need it.”
Robbie blanched. “No way, dude.”
Lance took the sharp blade from Nick who handed it to him. “Nick, get me a fire going, and I mean yesterday.” He ripped his belt off and grabbed Robbie, pulling him to the ground.
“No, don’t do it, Lance….” Robbie didn’t fight as much as he wept.
Lance snapped on latex gloves.
Lance didn’t hesitate, but with a groan of pure horror, he lifted the blade and slammed it right below Robbie’s shoulder before he could back out.
He could hear the rest yelling, “man down” in the other areas, but this was his job. Robbie screamed much louder than he had when he was bitten; it took three more swings of the machete and three more screams to finish. Lance used his belt to make a tourniquet. “Nick, fucking hell, but I need that blade hot.”
“I’m on it. Five seconds, and it’s a go.” Nick watched the fire and the blade as he tried to ignore the screams and what was happening around him.
Lance was brave and dedicated to his job in ways Nick didn’t know he could ever
be. Nick never shirked duty or acted in cowardly ways, but he didn’t have the
fortitude Lance had developed.
Len’s team still worked, and the rest of Lance’s team fought to meet them. Manuel and Derek were like machines as they bashed skulls to a pulp, not looking back, but sure Lance and Nick could handle the job before them.
That was what this world was all about if one wanted to survive; a person had to wade forward without questioning whether others would be there to watch or help and had to do his own job well.
A coward or a fool lasted only a short time.
“Mark. Sitrep?”
“All clear. Your sitrep?”
“About to apply heat.” Lance set the blade into the fire and waited while he dug into his pack and slipped Robbie a few pain pills, antibiotics, and water. The other meds would have to be retrieved from other packs.
“Please, no, Lance…no more.” Robbie wept. “Let me go. Come on…bullet to the brain…please. Let me go.”
“No can do.” Lance took the hot blade and set it against the torn flesh of Robbie’s shoulder, making the man scream until he passed out. Lance dropped the blade and used a wad of gauze to put pressure on the seeping blood vessels. The cauterizing would help, but he had to stop the bleeding quickly. The ground was soaked crimson.
“Applying pressure to stop bleeding,” Lance yelled to Mark, “he took his pills. How long was it?” He meant how long was the time between the bite and removal of the arm.
“Less than a minute,” Nick said, “that’s within parameters if we’re lucky.”
Rae drove over bodies and pushed zombies out of her way to get to Lance. The rest could kill the ones she knocked down when they got to them, but her goal was to get to the wounded man.
Lance and Nick watched her and admired her skill. Their team cleared a big part
of the bridge, and Len’s team was closer.
Lance yanked open the back of the van, and he and Nick picked up Robbie and laid him inside. They covered him with blankets. “Change out with Rae,” Lance told Nick.
Nick went to the driver’s door and indicated they should switch. The rule was someone was always in that seat.
Rae ran to the back of the van and saw Lance holding the gauze in place. He said she was better than they were at getting an IV going.
With quick movements, Rae set up the IV, inserted the needle, and taped it. She took handcuffs from her belt and snapped one part onto Robbie’s wrist above his IV and the other onto a bar in the van. Pain pills, antibiotics, IV, handcuffs, and blood stoppage, after removing the offending area, were standard if there were to be any chance.