Moving to option three, I drew my knife and moved as quietly as I could. The zombie was of medium height, its clothing in rags. Hair had fallen off its decaying head in patches. I was actually glad I couldn’t see its face. I stepped up and plunged my knife into the top of its head. I twisted the knife and the corpse collapsed at the foot of the door. I dragged it out of the way as more shots came from the outside.
I knocked on the door. “Anybody alive in there?”
There was a scrambling, then a young face peered out at me. “Didja kill it?” asked the boy, whose age I guessed to be around twelve.
“Deader than dirt,” I said, pointing to the body.
“Cool! Thanks! I’m Cody and…” the boy’s introduction was interrupted by the hand that pulled him back. His face was replaced by a woman’s, his mother by the resemblance. Her relief was palpable when she saw me.
“Oh God, Mr. Talon. Thank you so much. I don’t know how we would have…” she started.
“Save it for later,” I interrupted, “we need to get out of here, now. There’s zombies inside the fence.” I ushered her and her son out of the house.
We exited just in time to see Charlie shoot another walking dead down. Cody looked around and I could see he was excited. His mother looked scared out of her wits. More zombies were heading our way and we would be overwhelmed if we didn’t do something soon.
“Do you have a car?” I asked, shaking her arm.
She looked at me blankly. “I…yes…it doesn’t have any gas…”
I turned to Cody. “You need to get your mother to the city hall right away. Can you do that without being seen by the zombies?”
Cody actually saluted me. “You bet! C’mon, Mom!” He took her by the hand and led her away, sneaking into the backyards of the row of houses.
As I looked around for a second, I knew we had to stop the breach. I tapped Charlie on the shoulder. “We need a vehicle that runs,” I said, unslinging my rifle and shooting a stray zombie. The line of undead worked its way back to the breach and the numbers were getting heavier.
Charlie nodded. “Follow me.” He ran up three houses and stopped outside a house identical to the one we had been in. Opening up the garage door, there was a dilapidated pickup truck sitting in the garage. Charlie walked over to it, hopped inside, and started it right away. I just stood there with my mouth open. Charlie backed the vehicle out and pulled up along side me.
“You coming or what?” he asked.
I was stunned. “How the hell did you know that was there and how the hell did you know it would start? Nobody’s that lucky.” I said as I climbed in.
Charlie grinned at me through his mask. “That’s my ex brother-in-law’s house. This is his truck.”
I was still in shock. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
Charlie shrugged. “I never liked the asshole.” He gunned the engine and sped towards the breach. “Got a plan?”
“Yeah,” I said, shaking off my disbelief. “Ram this sucker into the container and close the hole.”
“Works for me.”
We came within sight of the opening, which trickled dead people like an hourglass from hell. They were spread out around us, but at the sight of the truck, started to converge.
“Now or never!” I said, buckling up and rolling down my window. A beer can poked me in the small of my back, but I ignored it for the time being.
Charlie gunned the engine and sped forward, knocking zombies left and right. One got caught on the hood and moaned at us until it slid off. Charlie got as much speed out of the old truck as he could, then we slammed headfirst into the container, knocking it back and sealing off the fence.
We didn’t have time to admire our handiwork. We had crushed a number of zombies in the headlong rush, but there were still many out there and headed our way. I popped out of the cab and shot the nearest zombie. Another came close from the side and had to be taken down with a rifle butt to the face, followed by a boot stomp to the head. Not the neatest way to kill them, but whatever works.
I could hear gunfire to the north and I hoped like crazy the sheriff had gotten his people in place, otherwise this was going to be a long day, with house by house clearing. Fortunately, most of the townspeople were accounted for, save for the few stragglers like Cody and his mom.
Charlie slammed his door against a ghoul that had gotten too close and the door had a nasty black stain where the dead girl’s goo got on it. He kicked her back when she got up, then used a tomahawk to finish her.
I jumped up into the bed of the truck, figuring to lesson the likelihood of being overrun and Charlie did the same. We pulled our rifles, checked our magazines, and started killing.
After about three minutes, my ammo ran dry. I had fifty dead people on my side and Charlie had about the same. “I’m out,” I said, holding out my hand for a magazine.
Charlie slapped my hand away. “What do I look like, an ammo dump?” he asked.
“You really want to know what you look like?” I eyed a group of Z’s shuffling closer. “You got ammo or not?”
Charlie fired a round, then looked at his rifle as the bolt stayed open. “That’s it for me.”
“Time to go,” I said, slinging my rifle over my shoulder and pulling out my pickaxe. I jumped off the bed of the truck and ran towards the first zombie, Charlie right behind me. I swung my weapon hard at its head, knocking it off its feet and into the path of three of its cousins. They tumbled to the ground and we planted them for good as they tried to get up again.
Running up Route 113, I ran towards South Broadway Street, pausing once to listen to the sounds of the town. I could hear moans all around me, but there didn’t seem to be any screaming. I did hear shots to the north, so I turned up Broadway and ran to the sound. In our wake, about a hundred zombies slowly worked their way up the street. Too many to handle without serious firepower. Between the two of us, Charlie and I had about seventy-five rounds of ammo for our pistols, but since there was no immediate threat as long as we kept moving, I wanted to save the ammo for real emergencies.
We ran unopposed until we reached Third Street, then we were blocked by a small crowd of about seven walking corpses. They were headed to the sound of the shots, but when we came running up, they turned around. Various noises came out of their mouths as they saw us, and as one, started for us.
“Left.” Was all I said. Charlie moved to the right without a word, his tomahawks swinging wide as he limbered up his shoulders. I moved to engage a small man, about sixty, if it was possible to judge age on a dead person who had been walking around about a year longer than he should have been. His torso was bare and a large strip of grey skin hung off of him, as if he was in the process of being skinned when he reanimated. I slammed the point of my pickaxe into his temple, dodging his long arms as they reached for my flesh. As he fell, I jerked my weapon out of his head and swinging it in a high arc, crushed the skull of a woman who wheezed at me, her throat torn out.
I stepped back, giving myself some room from the other two that had begun to crowd close. They looked like twins, roughly the same size and shape. They moved as one, which presented a problem since I could only kill one at a time.
I hit on a solution, literally. My foot bumped my first zombie and I reached down to grab him by the ankles. Swinging him around like the sack of shit that he was, I threw him at the twins. The three bodies collided and went down in a heap. I stepped up and spiked the first twin, while the second grabbed my ankle and tried to bring it in for a bite. I stepped back, dragging the Z with me, then killed it with a blow to the back of its head. It sounded like dropping a coconut off a three-story building. I was actually used to it, something a year ago I would never have thought possible.
I looked around for another enemy, but Charlie had finished off the other three. I pointed down the street and we both looked at the crowd working its way towards us. That would have not been so bad, except the crowd was dead and wanting to rip us apart and eat
us. Not my party, thanks.
We jogged farther north and reached Fourth Street. I could see the town hall from where we were and things seemed to be holding. Sheriff Harlan had pulled his people off the wall and they were concentrated in a ring around the town hall. The zombies were being held back by a string of cars that had been placed in front of the building and groups of people were dealing with the ones that managed to get past the cars. I could see Tommy and Jason directing crews of people to the defense, knocking the zombies over with long poles, then rushing in to smash their heads in with hammers, sledgehammers, picks, and pipes. I wondered briefly why the firing had stopped, since I found it hard to believe that everyone had run out of ammo. Maybe they were saving it for last ditch fighting.
Charlie and I watched for a second, as I was unsure how we could help. We couldn’t work our way forward without running into a mess of zombies and with the crowd behind us coming up, we were in the unenviable position of right in the damn middle. So far, we hadn’t been noticed by the attacking zombies, they were focused on the meals in front of them.
Charlie bumped me and pointed to an area by the side of the building. It looked like the zombies from the side were going to get in and attack the defenders from behind. We had no choice, we had to do something or everyone was going to die.
13
I gritted my teeth and spoke to Charlie. “If you want to help them and be with Rebecca in case it all goes to shit, I wouldn’t hold it against you.”
Charlie shook his head. “It’s a good day to die, brother.”
It was my turn to shake my head. “You’re a corny one, you know that?”
“Just move, I got your back.” Charlie said.
I wasn’t about to waste time with sentimentality. I ran to the right of the attacking zombies, my movement detected by some on the fringes and starting them towards us. I drew my SIG and shot the nearest one in the face. The sound carried over the crowd and dozens of dead faces turned my way. I shot another one, and lined up a third for another shot.
“Hey, you fuckers! You want it, come and get it!” I screamed as I fired, dropping a third one. In the abrupt silence, I shouted as loud as I could to the defenders. “You’re breached on the east! Go!” I could see Tommy spin around and grab Jason and head for the side of the building.
Roughly two thirds of the attacking horde started my way, me being the easier prey and the ones coming up the street turned my way as well. All I could think of was a line from a funny zombie movie. Oh, bullocks.
I slowly backed away from the advancing horde, taking the time to shoot as many as I could. I could hear Charlie’s sidearm barking next to me as he started dropping zombies as well. I knew we were still looking at well over three hundred zombies even after our ammo went dry, but a dead zombie was a good zombie. I wanted to draw away as many as I could, giving the defenders of the townsfolk time to deal with the internal threat and regroup. My goal was to reach the bandstand gazebo in the park. I had seen it the other night during our tour and it made the most sense as a position of defense. It was a large elevated platform, surrounded by a fence, accessible only through one stairway. If Charlie and I could make it there, we stood a good chance of being able to blunt the horde and make them attack us in fewer numbers.
I walked at a normal pace to the edge of the steps to the platform, making sure Charlie was with me and the horde had followed. Some of the back ones went after the town hall defenders again. Essentially, Charlie and I were in the fight of our lives.
I stopped about fifteen feet in front of the steps and waited. The crowd moved slowly, their shambling gait looking like a rippling body of grey water. The sun climbed higher in the sky, shortening the shadows on the lawn. None of these things was relevant, but for some reason I noticed them. A slow burning rage was building within me, causing me to grip my gun tighter and check the availability of my spare magazines. I would not go down without a fight and would take many enemies with me to pay my toll.
I looked over at Charlie, who seemed to be absorbed in the same thoughts I was, looking around, then settling into the inevitable with a cold look in his eyes and slight snarl on his lips.
“Make a barrier,” I said. “Make the fuckers work for it.” I was immensely glad the platform had only one set of stairs. If it had two, we’d never have a chance here.
I shot the first one to reach my killing zone and another, the sound of the shots bawoinging off the ceiling of the gazebo. That would have gotten old fast if it wasn’t so desperate. I killed as they reached my zone, the bodies falling on top of each other and forcing the ones behind to stumble a little. It was a little uncomfortable, waiting for some to get close for a shot, but we needed to make every shot count and kill as many as we could. If we could get a barrier of bodies up, then the rest would have to work to get to us and we could have the advantage.
I shot quickly, dropping a few more as they started to get closer and attack en masse. Sometimes I got lucky and one shot would nail two of them. Not often enough, sadly. The pile of grayish bodies grew and Charlie’s gun cracked as much as mine did. We piled up several bodies in succession. I didn’t see them as individuals, I just saw them as targets.
I backed up a few steps as the bodies collapsed slightly towards us from the push from behind by the rest of the mob, then changed magazines again. I had one more fifteen round magazine, then I was out. I called this out to Charlie and he replied he was done in seven rounds. We backed up to the foot of the stairs and fired still, the barrels of our guns hot to the touch and smoking. The bodies were piled about five feet high, which made a decent barrier to slow down the horde. We were still in for a bitch of a fight.
My gun clicked empty and I holstered it, pulling out my pickaxe with my other hand. Charlie was ready with his twin tomahawks and we faced the oncoming, crawling horde like a couple of warriors from ancient times. If we just had a couple of half-naked buxom beauties to protect on the platform I might have actually enjoyed myself.
The horde surrounded the gazebo, cutting off any retreat we might have had and the high walls prevented them from hitting us from behind. All we needed to do was wait for them to come to us.
And come they did. The first one to cross the barrier was a small female, probably a teenager, with ripped jeans and halter top. Her mottled grey skin glinted in the sun, and her dead blue eyes stared at me with unquenchable hunger. I split her skull and, picking up the dead body, threw it on the pile, knocking back two others who were clumsily making their way across the corpses.
Figuring I was going to need another weapon, I pulled my knife, waiting for the next ghoul to come near while I watched Charlie dispatch a man who was completely naked, his pallid skin streaked with claw marks and bites. The body was kicked into the barrier as it fell, the man’s big butt pointing towards us when it finished falling. I let out a grim chuckle to be joined by Charlie’s soft laugh. It’s not often the dead moon you, especially after you’ve killed them.
I kept the image of my baby boy in my mind and I fought for him. I would not allow the world to come to this, where the last few humans make a stand against the coming wave of death. My son would not inherit this world.
As I killed, once again I had to restrain myself from charging headlong into the fray and killing my enemies as they killed me. The ancient fire of battle burned in my veins and I welcomed it as I welcomed the horde with taunts and sneers. “Come on, you witless fucks. Come and die. I’ll set you free.” Beside me Charlie began to growl low in his chest. I recognized it as his battle cry. Let the harvest of the dead begin. “Come on!” I raged at the dead faces staring at me.
The dead began to advance and Charlie and I killed them. We killed those who came to the barrier and those who tried to climb over it. We piled the bodies up until we were crushing skulls that peered at us from behind other corpses. We fought until our arms were leaden. We fought until I broke the handle on my pickaxe and had to use a shortened grip on splintered wood. We fought until C
harlie broke a tomahawk handle, leaving him to fight with a single ‘hawk and his nine-inch knife. We killed the owners of the grasping, clawed hands blackened with old blood. We killed former mothers, fathers, and their children. We killed white collar workers, blue collar workers, and everyone in between. We fought until the pile of the dead fell forward from the push behind, and we retreated to the middle of the stairs, killing those zombies who crawled towards us, single-minded of purpose.
Charlie and I were covered in zombie gore up to our necks and still we fought. As I killed, a line from an ancient legend came to mind, describing a battle between a hero and a horde of advancing enemies; a hero who died so his companions could live… “He held the bridge at Gallerbru.” I idly wondered if what we did here today would ever be remembered as I speared another zombie in the eye with my knife, killing him and slamming my pickaxe into the skull of another, who had grasped my shirt and was pulling me towards him for a bite.
Inevitably, we began to tire. What took only one hit before was now taking two, and the horde pressed forward, causing Charlie and I to retreat higher up the stairs. We pushed the bodies back as we killed them, trying to slow down the horde, but they pressed on. Charlie and I had to retreat to the top of the stairs and we left bodies three and four deep all the way up.
We were getting into a desperate situation. If the zombies pressed us any further, then they would be able to get around us and then it would be over. We could not retreat any farther.
We fought harder, trying to open a space where we could push back, but we had been fighting for so long that we could barely lift our arms. The only thing keeping us going was sheer willpower and the determination not to become one of the diseased husks that slobbered for our blood. I kicked at the ones coming up, tumbling them onto the zombies behind them, but they crawled back up as quickly as we kicked them away.
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