To Survive

by Mike Staton

  “Who put you in charge?” Lieutenant Adams asked.

  “Not interested in a dick measuring contest, but this is my team.” Percival looked from Judith to Lieutenant Adams. “If you’ve got advice contrary to what I’ve just said, by all means. Please, tell. But, I’m thinking going about this quietly is best. This town was void, and I’ve never seen a voided town, the first time we came through. How many times have you been here and not found a single walking corpse?”

  Lieutenant Adams shook her head and ignored his question. “Anything truly important, however, goes through me. I’m the most experienced person here.”

  “We’ll discuss this tonight.” Percival thrust the voice of Morrbid to the side as he whispered murder into his ear.

  “Want me up here for fire support?” Kat called down from the tree.

  “Negative. You’re with us. We’re hand-to-handing this, with the exception of Judith’s bow,” Percival called back.

  Kat began her descent.

  “Quick, quiet, and we find a good spot to hole up for the night. We don’t know how many wander the woods around us.” He let his helmeted gaze drift among each of his team members. Samuel patted his bat. Judith thrummed her bowstring. Kat dropped down out of the tree. Lieutenant Adams drew a K-Bar knife.

  “Questions, comments, or concerns?” Percival asked. He bit back bile at the thought of leading these people into the town and thrust his doubts aside.

  This was the right decision, despite an almost immediate outburst from Lieutenant Adams. He expected that was more that she didn’t like taking an order from a civilian than anything.

  “Comment and a concern: Hand-to-hand is exceptionally dangerous with the undead,” Lieutenant Adams pointed out.

  “Noted. Hence Judith being on point. Judith, I trust you to drop as many as you can before it comes to bloodying our melee weapons.” Percival looked from Lieutenant Adams to Judith. She nodded once. “Kat, keep the .22 ready. It’s the quietest of our firearms and I trust you to not shoot one of us.”

  “Don’t want me whipping out the hatchet?” Kat stroked a hand over her hand-axe.

  “Not unless you need to. Want you ready with your rifle, it’s your specialty after all. But only use it if you absolutely need to.” Percival looked around them once more as he dropped his shotgun into his homemade holster and brought out his sledgehammer. “Ready? Break.”

  Chapter 18

  The descent into the town was quiet and uneventful. Even their first few movements through Danielsville proper went without an encounter. Though Morrbid practically screamed in his ear as they turned a corner and nearly ran into a small troupe of zombies.

  Judith brought her bow up smoothly and loosed an arrow. It slid beneath the zombie’s chin and the large man staggered for a moment before he flopped to the ground. His mouth still gnashed in at them, despite the rest of the body not responding.

  Percival hefted his sledgehammer into a ready position as Judith drew another arrow and slew a second zombie. The second arrow punched through the girl’s left eye. He stepped to Judith’s side as she smoothly lined up her third shot. Samuel moved to her other flank. The zombies staggered toward them.

  “I’m coming for you.” Morrbid sounded impossibly close.

  Percival shook off the feeling of his hair standing on end as Judith felled another zombie with her fourth shot. Samuel stepped forward and smashed the last zombie’s face in with a single smooth swing of his bat. The metal gave off a pleasant metal ping as it connected.

  “Collect your arrows.” Percival moved toward the sole surviving zombie. He brought his hammer over his head and ceased its gnashing jaws. He thumped it once more with his hammer for good measure. “There’s more out there.”

  “Mmhm. I counted eight or nine from my perch in the tree. This was only five,” Kat confirmed. “This place crawls.”

  “Believe it or not, this is pretty tame compared to some of the places I visited during my extended scouting.” Percival gestured forward.

  Judith tossed aside a broken arrow, the shaft bent beyond recovery, and resumed her post as point-woman. They moved near silent down the street, rounded a corner.

  Percival slowed a few steps to put himself in line with Lieutenant Adams. He spoke in a hoarse whisper. “You know this town better than we do. Best place to find lodging?”

  “Southern edge of town. Jiles and 9th. There’s a duplex there that we’ve used in the past.” Lieutenant Adams didn’t bother to look his way. “Keep on this street for three more blocks, then head east to cut over to 9th and run that down to Jiles. It’ll be the two story building with green siding on one side and a soft purple siding on the other. Hard to miss.”

  “Thanks.” Percival split from her and caught up with Judith at the next corner. He repeated the directions from Lieutenant Adams. “Good to go?”

  “Got it boss,” Judith answered without looking away from the intersection. She peeked around the hard corner of the brick store she’d stopped by and moved across the street at a low crouch.

  Percival dropped into a low crouch and peeked around the corner before following her. Two zombies shuffled in the street partway between their intersection and the next. Neither seemed to notice his or Judith’s passing. Judith paused at the next building corner. Percival moved past her, turned, and watched the others mimic the lead’s crossing.

  As their quiet footfalls didn’t alert the pair of zombies, Percival let out a sigh of relief.

  “I’m coming for you. Just wait for it. It’ll be so grand. You can’t protect anyone.”

  Percival gestured for the group to continue on. He didn’t know where Morrbid was hiding, but had little doubt that he’d bump into the dead priest before the day was out.

  Together they made their way along the street. They passed by a couple more storefronts, the interiors were just as looted and empty as the pharmacy had been, and cut down the street recommended by Lieutenant Adams. It was a smaller, grass alley more than a proper street, road that cut narrowly between two brick buildings. Drift trash had gathered in the causeway. A zombie shuffled in the narrow space between. It stopped and peered at them.

  The zombie lifted one arm as its head rocked back in preparation for a feeding moan. Judith whipped her bow up and loosed the arrow she already had nocked. The arrow ripped off the rotting, right ear of the creature.

  Judith uttered a curse as Samuel maneuvered past her. The zombie belted out a summoning curse in the form of an otherworldly and primal feeding moan that echoed off the brick walls to either side of them.

  The moan cut short with a ping from Samuel’s metal bat. The zombie dropped to the ground and suffered two more swings from Samuel. An answering moan echoed from some streets nearby.

  “The duplex, is it defensible?” Percival asked of Lieutenant Adams.

  “I’d not have recommended it if it weren’t.”

  “Move quickly, do so as quiet as possible.” Percival took point.

  “I’m sorry.” Judith appeared at his side as they jogged down the alleyway street. Samuel drew up behind them after they passed him.

  “It’s fine. No one’s perfect. Andrina nearly shot me once.” Percival came to a quick stop at 9th. The feeding moans turned the once quiet Danielsville into a moaning hum.

  And underneath that audible din, was a strangely Gregorian-like chant from Morrbid. Percival thrust the man’s distraction aside and pressed forward. He rounded the corner, almost right into a zombie, and brought his hammer around in a reactionary swing. He crushed one arm and knocked the zombie sideways and into the concrete wall.

  He brought his foot up and slammed it into her rotting chest. The zombie staggered backward a couple steps before he swiped his sledgehammer up and over and crunched it through her skull.

  He shook the hammer off and let the zombie drop to the street. Percival let out a slow breath. Samuel’d just finished with a second zombie and Judith didn’t miss her shot on the third. Its head was cocked back and about t
o belt out its God awful song to call its brethren.

  “You still have me to contend with. And I’m coming for you,” Morrbid screamed.

  Percival didn’t bother cleaning his hammer’s head. He moved without a further word, down the street. He took point on his own. If he was going to run headlong into some zombie whispering into his psyche with Morrbid’s voice, he wanted to do so before anyone else.

  Percival drifted to the middle of the street as he led the group toward the duplex. The street was empty of walking corpses and he led them quicker than he likely should have.

  The moaning din of the zombies faded behind him as he passed intersection after intersection without more corpses to add to it. If anything, the feeding moan uttered closer to the town center might have turned out to be a boon.

  He slowed after a few streets free of zombies and allowed his team to condense around him. He caught his breath.

  “Going to need to check your stitches when we reach our resting spot.” Kat moved up next to him and spun to face the direction they’d just come. “How’s your arm?”

  “Feels fine.” Percival hadn’t even noticed anything abnormal about his arm until she’d mentioned it. Where the stalker’d ripped into him throbbed, but didn’t breach over into fully hurting. He’d likely come close to messing up her fine work with his combat prowess. He looked past Kat to Lieutenant Adams. “Near?”

  “Couple more streets. Think the dead’s hanging out behind us for now.” Lieutenant Adams didn’t turn away from keeping an eye behind them.

  “Good. Let’s get underway then.” Percival turned away and took three steps down the street.

  The red splat against Samuel’s neck preceded the coughing, gagging noise of a spitter. Percival spun in place.

  “Shit, ow… that crap stinks.” Samuel turned, picked at the red-brown globule stuck to his neck. He crouched as the coughing noise stopped.

  “Anyone see where it came from?” Percival demanded, far louder than he’d intended.

  “Comin’ to getcha,” Morrbid uttered in a singsong voice like some demented and perverse hymnal. “Everything comes to Him as He comes to me.”

  Percival spun toward the coughing, gagging noise as a wet, hurled hunk of diseased meat clipped his helmet. The projectile slapped wetly to the ground.

  “There.” Judith lifted her bow in time with her words.

  Percival caught sight of her target. Morrbid stood, dripping globule of diseased flesh in one hand, red grin across his face, his black cassock spread wide. His priest’s collar was dyed brown from decayed blood. He grinned widely despite the bullet hole in his forehead. He stood in a large second story window.

  “My congregation comes with me.” Three zombies shuffled into the window near him. He cocked his arm back and whipped it forward in the same moment that Judith loosed her arrow.

  The arrow and glob of vomit passed each other in the air. Percival dropped his hammer, wrapped one arm around Judith and wrenched her out of the way of the diseased projectile. It slapped wetly into something behind them as her arrow found purchase in Morrbid’s forehead.

  He dropped out of sight behind the windowsill.

  Kat’s .22 barked sharply and quickly three times and Morrbid’s ‘congregation’ dropped before any of them could sing his praises and call more zombies.

  Percival let go of Judith, spun back to the rest of his team. Kat still had her rifle lifted toward the window, Lieutenant Adams faced the opposite direction. Samuel was on his ass in the street, the second globule of vomited zombie flesh stuck just below his chin.

  “The shots are likely to draw more. Let’s double-time it. Samuel, you good?” Percival extended his arm toward the man on the ground.

  “Not particularly.” Samuel scraped the sticky hunk off his neck and threw it on the ground. He climbed to his feet with Percival’s help. “I’m good for a couple hundred feet. Definitely want a wet nap though.”

  “Can’t blame you there.” Percival took point once more. “Let’s move.”

  He set a quick pace, clearing the last couple of streets in just a handful of minutes. Krista hadn’t been kidding when she said the duplex would be difficult to miss. The building stood out from the others around it. While those nearby were also two story buildings, they bore conventional colors or wood panels on their outer walls.

  The duplex he angled them for was bi-colored, pastel green and soft purple, and clearly a split home. The building mirrored itself down the middle, two one-car garages, two stairwells leading up to two front doors. The doors even mirrored each other: one was pastel green in the sea of soft purple while the other was soft purple in a sea of pastel green.

  Lieutenant Adams moved past him and right to the white garage door set in the purple half of the duplex. She shoved her K-Bar into its sheath and bent to wrap a hand around the door’s handle. It rose surprisingly quietly.

  “Everyone inside.” Lieutenant Adams motioned past her.

  Percival didn’t mind her taking lead here and ducked under the garage door. He clicked on his flashlight in the sudden darkness of the garage. A single door led further into the duplex.

  The garage stank of old oil and musty air. The floor was unfinished, smooth concrete with a couple dark, he assumed, oil stains. The walls were bare, but judging from some of the discoloration of the pale paint, that was a recent development rather than something done by the previous owners.

  Percival turned back to the opening. Lieutenant Adams was the last person to slip under the door. She closed it behind her and threw the locking bar down.

  “Should be good here for a while. Percival, a word.” Lieutenant Adams moved across the room, opened the door leading from the garage and into the duplex proper.

  “Spread out guys. Relax a bit. Samuel, get cleaned up, I’m sure we can find something to help you with that.” Percival nodded once to the rest of the group before following Lieutenant Adams into the basement of the duplex. The door opened to a stairwell that led straight up to a single long room. A brown, overstuffed couch rested against one wall while an entertainment center with a large, flat screen television dominated the opposite wall. A bar stretched part ways across the far wall, dividing the room slightly. The shelves behind the bar, unfortunately, were empty.

  A doorway led deeper into the basement while in a small open room opposite the bar and on the other side of the entertainment center resided a pool table, sans anything to actually play pool. It was encircled by chairs.

  Lieutenant Adams marched past the entertainment center and through the doorway by the bar. Percival followed her a moment later. The door led to a barebones laundry room and storage of the duplex’s essentials: unused boiler, central heating. Lieutenant Adams flicked the door closed, crossed her arms over her hanging carbine, and squared herself toward him.

  “Alright, we need to have a chat.”

  “Clearly.” Percival slid his hands behind his back and adopted something close to an ‘at ease’ posture. He didn’t like that he felt like he was staring up at a woman shorter than he was.

  “I don’t appreciate you undermining my authority out there. I let it slide because we were in the midst of the shit, but will readily point out that your leadership got a member of your team stru—“

  “I’m going to stop you right there. I have seen the consequences of poor decisions. Today wasn’t among them.” Percival did his best to keep his voice even and calm as he cut her off. “This isn’t a military operation. Not yet at least. And while you are the professional soldier here, I’m the professional explorer.”

  “Professional explorer? Some Indiana Jones type?” Lieutenant Adams scoffed. “You’re going to get people killed.”

  Percival shook his head. He reached up and slowly took his helmet off. “Been there. Done that. They haunt me. I know about losing people. This isn’t how it goes. I know a thing or two about moving through the countryside. Or small town in this case. It’s when we’re facing assholes with guns that I’ll be flyi
ng blind. While we’re out here maneuvering through zombie infested territory? I’ve more experience than likely the rest of you, save Kat, combined.”

  “You think that qualifies you to guide them?” Lieutenant Adams shook her head. “You issue dangerous orders.”

  “Dangerous in a traditional combat zone.” Percival tucked his helmet under one arm. “Are you going to look me in the eye while we bicker?”

  Lieutenant Adams reached up and took her helmet off. She met his eyes silently. Her features were contorted into a mirage of silent rage.

  “I value your opinion and expertise. If I didn’t I’d not have asked you for advice on where to go when the shit hit the fan.” He took a breath and let it out slowly. “Keeping away from the corners means we don’t bump into walkers as readily. The middle of the street… Well, spitters aren’t precisely common. Call it a calculated risk. You—“

  “These are lives you’re talking about. You realize that, right?” Lieutenant Adams shook her head.

  “I’m not an armchair general. I’m here in the muck with you. I make snap decisions that…” He shook his head. “I understand that a decision I make can get someone killed. Get me killed. It’s a blatant reality we live in. Now…”

  “Stupid, kid.” She let out an exasperated sigh and reached for the door knob to leave.

  Percival reached out and pressed his hand against the door. “We’re not quite done.”

  “You don’t want to test me, Percival.” Lieutenant Adams didn’t look up at him.

  “I’m not trying to. I want you and I to be on an even understanding.” He waited long enough for her hand to drop from the knob. “I respect you, Lieutenant Adams. I do. It may not seem it, but you’ve more knowledge of how to operate in a dangerous field than anyone else in present company and the drive to use that knowledge for the betterment of your fellow man. That being said, you’re not in charge here. I respect your opinion and will heed your advice, unless I know for certain through my own experience, that it isn’t sound. I don’t say that—“