by Chesla, Gary
Shaun approached them and heard Bill swearing. “Shit!”
“What’s going on?” Shaun asked.
Bill turned. “We’ve got trouble coming.”
“What kind of trouble?” Shaun asked.
“The dead.” George replied. “Thousands of them.”
“I’ve got the boys bringing the arrows down to the wall, but from the sound of it, I don’t think we are going to have enough arrows.” Bill said.
Shaun turned and looked out over the wall down at the highway. He couldn’t see anything yet, but a steady groaning could now be heard off in the distant. The air was beginning to feel heavy as the smell of the approaching horde drifted their way.
“Where are they now?” Shaun asked.
“We had a lookout checking out down Route 30. The front of the horde is down near Giant Eagle, they fill the whole valley and are coming this way. All he said was there had to be thousands of them. Not like that little group of a few hundred that came by here the other day.” George replied with concern showing on his face.
“Is that catapult of yours ready?” Bill asked looking at Shaun.
“It’s together, but we haven’t tested it yet.” Shaun answered. Not sure he liked the way Bill said ‘that catapult of yours.’
“Now would be a good time! You said it could help reduce the number of the dead that would reach the fort. If it doesn’t work, we are going to have our hands full. What do you need to make it work?” Bill shouted distracted by the growing volume of the groaning coming from the dead.
“Get two men to help me. Get three more to watch while we test the first catapult. After they see how I work it, they can go over and use the second catapult near the front wall.” Shaun said.
Bill ran to get the men. Shaun looked at George. “Until we get a few shots off with this thing, you better tell the guys on the platform on the left side of the gate to get down and move over in the grass away from the wall. Until we get off a few shots to see where the rocks are going to go, I don’t want to take out our own guys. After you see how we do, you can send them back on the wall when you feel comfortable with our aim.”
“Good Luck.” George said as he headed back down to the gate.
Shaun turned and started to run back towards his cabin. Megan was pacing in front as she watched the men standing on the walls looking down towards Route 30. The sound of the dead had her feeling uneasy.
Shaun reached Megan as Doug and Lisa came running around the side of the cabin.
“Doug, come with me.” Shaun shouted. “Meg, you and Lisa get in our cabin and stay there. Don’t come out until this is over. If you see that the dead have managed somehow to get through the walls, go up to the inner fort, but otherwise just stay in the cabin and out of sight. Shaun gave her a quick kiss. ”It’s going to be fine. Your biggest problem is going to be figuring out how to keep Lisa under control.” Shaun smiled then turned and left with Doug.
“Is it the dead?” Doug asked.
“George said it looks like a few thousand of them.” Shaun replied.
“Shit!” Doug swore.
“What can I do?” Doug asked.
“Just stay with me. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.” Shaun said.
Shaun went over to the catapult where five guys were waiting for him.
“Bill said we were to help you.” Two of the guys said. “What do you want us to do?”
Shaun looked at the catapult. “I’ve never shot one of these. I’m just guessing. We can’t all pull the tire back, if we didn’t let go all at the same time, who knows where we would toss one of these rocks. I can’t pull it back by myself?”
He looked and thought.
The sounds were getting louder, the smell was getting strong. Shaun looked down the hill and over the wall and saw the dead on the highway. They were nearing the road that came up to the fort. Many of the dead were struggling to cross the center barrier to come at the fort. Others were falling into the culverts along the highway. Some were walking into the Loyalhanna Creek. None of these paths would lead to the fort. From the creek the dead would find themselves faced with an unclimbable rocky hill. The creek and hillside made it impossible for the dead to get at the front wall. Those that would be able to reach the fort would have to come off of Route 30 and come up Route 711, the road that passed the front gate. Many of the dead, intentionally or by accident were now coming up the road towards the fort.
Shaun looked around, everyone was watching him.
“No pressure!” He thought.
He went over and picked a bowling ball sized rock and carried it over to the catapult. He grabbed the half tire hanging from the ropes. He pulled the ropes tight and sat the rock in the bottom of the U shaped half tire.
“OK. Line up behind me in a straight line. Doug, reach around my waist, someone get behind Doug and do the same and the next guy do the same. When I say go, start pulling me back until I say stop.” Shaun shouted.
They lined up as the others watched the strange formation.
“I hope this works.” Shaun thought.
Shaun began to pull back on the tire and the poles began to bend backwards. He shouted to the others. ”Pull!”
Shaun pulled and hung onto the tire as hard as he could. The others pulled and he slowly stepped backwards.
He watched the poles bend backwards. He watched how far the tree poles were bent back.
When the poles were bent back about a quarter of the way back or in the ten o’clock position he called out for the guys to stop.
His arms were aching and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could maintain his grip on the tire. He quickly tried to judge the angle and bent his knees in an attempt to aim and then he let the tire go.
When Shaun released the tire, he and the guys that pulled him back all stumbled back and fell to the ground.
The ropes made a whooshing sound as the poles whipped them forward.
They all watched as the rock flew over the wall. It landed in the highway in front of the approaching horde, bouncing once before slamming into the mass of dead bodies.
The brittle bodies of the dead did little to slow the rock as it plowed through the mob clearing out a large path. Body parts could be seen flying in the air as the dead were knocked down.
Shaun stood and watched as more dead flooded over the fallen. As the dead began to press forward again, Shaun and his group heaved another heavy rock at the dead. This time the rock landed further in and to the right, but the results were the same. At least fifty of the dead had been downed as the rock again plowed through the group. The mass of the dead was now getting more and more dense as the dead that followed were crowding into the ones in the front that were being slowed or crushed by the rocks.
Shaun signaled the guys at the other catapult to begin. They took turns lobbing rocks down into the dead.
It was working better that Shaun had hoped. They had crushed, knocked down or destroyed hundreds of the dead in the first hour. The mass of downed bodies became a barrier to the dead coming from further back. The pile of dead bodies was many layers high. This “Dead Barricade” caused a major obstacle as the horde was funneled into the corridor they had to follow to reach the fort.
George had the men on the walls take out any of the dead that managed to get through and reach the gate.
Thanks to the success of the catapults, the archers on the wall did not have to use many arrows.
Their pile of rocks for the catapult was down to only four or five in each pile.
Shaun ran down to George.
“This is working great.” George said.
“We don’t have many rocks left. When we run out, the dead trying to crawl over that pile are going to start making it through. I was thinking, a lot of those dead bastards burn real easy. I was wondering if you could maybe shoot a few flaming arrows down into that pile and catch it on fire? With them all bunched up down there right now, if we could light them up before they break through, it could do so
me serious damage.”
“I would have to use one of the big cross bows to reach that far, but I think I could do it.” George answered.
“Do it fast.” Shaun said.
George ran down off the platform and brought up the can of animal grease he had in a can that he used to lube the gate hinges. He pulled off his shirt and soaked it in the grease before wrapping it around the end of one of the large arrows.
He pulled the bow wire back and hooked it over the metal peg. He aimed the bow and told his helper to light the shirt.
The flames flared up as the shirt was set on fire. George had been ready for the bright flames as he had the bow aimed before the greased shirt ignited. He let the arrow fly.
They watched as the ball of flame streaked across the sky from the fort and drove into the large pile of dead bodies.
Shaun signaled the guys manning the other catapult to hold off and save their last few rocks.
They all watched as smoke started to rise from the barricade of dead bodies. Many of the still living dead had managed to crawl over the pile and came tumbling down out of the smoke, landing in front of the pile. They struggled to their feet and began to continue their journey to get at the fort.
They were soon backlit by the bright flames that started to reach skyward from the barricade of dead bodies.
The men at the fort watched for the next hour as the dead burned. The dead were pushed from behind into the burning pile, making the flames grow higher and begin to spread back through the horde.
The sick sweet smell of burning flesh settled over the fort as the black smoke from the burning dead drifted up the hill and into the fort.
Many of the dead on the edges of the group were pushed into the creek and they wondered down the creek or against the hillside where they would spend hours trying unsuccessfully to climb the cliff. Some ended up wondering off in other directions, some made it up to the fort and were quickly eliminated. But most of the horde was destroyed by the fire.
The fort would have to keep the gate closed for the next few days as they watched for those that had escaped the fire and were wondering around among the buildings and trees.
They never knew how many of the dead had attacked, there weren’t many bodies left to count after the fire died out, but they hoped they wouldn’t see this many dead at one time again anytime soon.
The tension in the fort eased as they stood around and watched the flames do most of their work for them. The number of the dead that made it past the fire, the sturdier of the walking dead, those that had not decayed as much as many of the pathetic looking monstrosities that dragged what was left of their bodies along aimlessly.
These were easily dispatched by the archers standing watch on the walls.
George walked up through the grass towards Shaun. Shaun was sitting on the grass leaning his back against the bottom of one of the catapult poles.
George looked down at the sweaty looking Shaun. “Are you sure you were never in the army? Those were some impressive tactics you came up with to stop that horde.”
Shaun looked up and gave a tired smile. His hands and arms were tired from pulling the catapult. His waist was sore from being pulled by the others.
“When I saw how the rocks from the catapult caused that pile up, it was easy to figure out what to do next. Fortunately the dead were coming at us from down on Route 30. The fort being up on a hill, the creek and steep rocky hillside make a natural barrier the dead can’t climb. The buildings along 30, block the dead further down, they only have a small opening they can use to come up to the fort from the highway. We only have to focus on that small area. Did you ever have a horde come through the town and attack the back of the fort?” Shaun asked. “That would be a nightmare. They would be coming at you from dozens of different directions.”
“A few, but not too many.” George replied. “The other side of Ligonier is mostly mountains. Not many dead come from that direction. They dead that come out this way mostly come out through the valley on Route 30.”
“We’re lucky they don’t have enough brain functions left to realize that it would be a lot easier to attack the fort by coming in from behind the fort.” Shaun said as he slowly got up off the ground. “The catapults and cross bows would be useless back there.”
George smiled.
“Did you guys ever think about building a wall or another gate down near the intersection to make it harder for those dead bastards to come up from the highway?” Shaun asked. “Maybe we are better off not doing that. Better to have a choke point to fight them at one place then have them wonder around and find a back way in.”
Shaun smiled. “Forgive my rambling. I’m too tired to make sense right now. I just like to try and think about all the possibilities and figure a way to defend myself if that were to happen. Meg and I have lived out in all of this on our own for six months and believe me, we have seen all kind of weird shit happen.”
“I’m sure you have.” George said.
Shaun was ready to go back to his cabin and check on Megan when Bill walked up to him and George.
“Hey Bill.” George said. “I was just asking Shaun if he was sure he had never been in the army.”
“You two did a nice job today.” Bill said. “I’m glad your catapults worked.”
“So am I.” Shaun smiled. “Talking about what we did before. What did you do before all of this?”
“I worked right down there at the bottom of the hill at the old Sunoco station.” George said.
“What did you do there?” Shaun asked.
“I was a mechanic and changed tires.” George said. “That’s why Bill put me in charge of the front gate.”
George smiled as he watched the confused look come over Shaun’s face. “Because I am familiar with the area around the fort. I worked here for ten years and would know the local people and if anything would look out of place. Of course there are no local people anymore and everything is out of place.”
Shaun laughed. “What did you do before, Bill?”
“A couple of the boys and I ran Millers Market on the other side of town. Every year during deer season, when someone got a deer, they would bring it in and we would cut it up and wrap it for them. The rest of the year, farmers would bring in cattle and pigs for us to process.” Bill answered.
“Those skills must have come in handy running the farms.” Shaun said.
“Yea, some skills from our past lives are still useful.” Bill smiled.
“I better go check on my wife.” Shaun said.
“Go relax!” George smiled.
As Shaun left he heard Bill making arrangements with George to have a few men go out to stand watch for the boys while they went back outside the fort to replenish the pile of rocks for the catapults.”
Shaun walked slowly back towards his cabin.
His lazy morning had quickly turned into a day of frantic battle against the dead. Something that occupied most of his waking hours before he had come to the fort.
He decided if he had to battle the dead, it was much better to have a twelve foot wall between you and the dead.
Chapter 16
Lilly opened her eyes.
She was looking at the ground and her feet.
She didn’t want to look, but she had to look.
Her eyes lingered as she looked at the gag that was now hanging below her chin. It was red and brown colored, the color of her stomach contents. The color continued down the front of her night clothes and on to the ground around her feet.
The smell was enough to make her vomit again, but there was nothing left in her stomach to come up.
The dry heaves made her feel sick.
She knew when she raised her eyes, the heaving would start again. She wasn’t looking forward to that feeling again, but she was looking forward to what she had seen before even less.
But she had to look.
What she saw before had terrified her and made her throw up.
But she had
to look again.
She was apparently in more trouble than she first thought.
In order to find out something to tell her what kind of trouble she was in, so she could figure a way out, if there was a way out, she had to look again.
Tears started to run down Lilly’s face as the vision of what she had seen flashed across her mind.
The tears started to flow faster, blurring her vision as she raised her head.
She raised her head further and the shapes started to appear through her blurred vision.
As her eyes cleared, her body heaved.
Lilly fought back against the sickening urge.
She forced herself to look at the shapes until her eyes cleared.
The feeling of the horror she felt at the sight spread through her body as she tried to force herself to accept what she saw.
But she could not believe what she saw.
It was impossible.
The world had changed and she could not believe half of the things she had seen over the last six months. The death and destruction that she had lived through. She had forced herself to accept the things she had seen before. It was just the way the world had become.
She had accepted the fact the dead had come back to life. The number of the gross deformed dead bodies that were roaming the world could not be ignored.
They were a fact of life now. Their dead rotting corpses smelled to high heaven, but she had accepted the fact that they were real.
She didn’t know why they were there, why the dead rose up and attacked the living, but the fact they were out there everywhere, was something she had to see every day and deal with.
She had seen the dead surround and kill a living person. It was horrible, but she understood what was happening. The living person was torn to pieces and eaten by the dead. It had been terrifying to see. But she understood. The dead were the hunters and the living was their prey. It was horrible, but it was like when a cat caught a mouse. It was horrible, but it was what happened.