Dead At Last

by Boyd Craven III

  “Did any of those deadheads get close to you two?”

  “No” we both chimed in out of breath.

  “Good, let’s get back to the van and reload. I figure we made enough noise for the group to start coming out pretty soon.

  Back at the van we all loaded our pockets up with ammo, Brice reloading clips for his colts and he put the grenades away and sort of slid a bucket of tools and rags in front. Just as Mariah and Tres were putting their shotguns in the rack on the sidewall of the van, and reloading our rifles, the FSG started moseying in from all areas. It was time to wait for them to get close.

  Chapter - 10 - Post Hunt

  “Tres, Mariah, scope those guys, I want to see who all is headed our way.”

  “Gotcha.” The kids both shoulder their rifles and start checking out the folks as they start moseying through the parking lot.

  For the first time Brice took a very long and hard look at the group. Many of them were dirty and disheveled. Half of them looked malnourished, and a few of them were armed. By the looks of it, shotguns and rifles, the same as what the three of them had. No pistols that he could see. After getting the coast is clear from the kids covering the other side of the van and feeling safe that none of the group had been turned, Brice hopped off the van.

  “You are getting mighty trigger happy.” Somebody yelled. You couldn’t quite make out who hollered though, because a lot of the folks were bunched together.

  “Brice, does it seem like more people than last time?”

  “Actually…” it did. The group of norms walking towards them numbered close to 40 if some quick math was working. Actually, make that closer to 45 because some were drifting in outside the bunched group. Jake and Stephen were drifting in separate from the big bunch of people.

  “Ok everyone, let’s make this quick. We made a bunch of noise and so far we didn’t get very many dead heads coming after us.”

  “Stephen, Jake, howdy.”

  “Hey Brice, Nice way to wake up huh?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  Once again the angry murmur from the group started up.

  “You guys started hunting early huh.” One bystander asked.

  “Never too early to do this.”

  “Whatcha think yer gonna do, shoot up every deadhead in the city?”

  “If we have too.” Brice said

  “How come you guys always have ammo and food?”

  “Where do you guys get all your food?”

  “I need some ammo, how about sliding a brother some.”

  “We need some guns to protect ourselves.”

  “Whoa whoa whoa!!! Wait a darn minute folks.” Brice Started in “We have covered this before. Other than the dead, there is guns, food and ammo all across the city. All you have to do is go get it.”

  “Oh yeah? You know that isn’t safe, we’d be risking our lives to do that.” A woman shouted.

  “What do you think we’re doing whenever we go out?” Tres shouted back.

  “You stupid kid, you follow this fool blindly. Don’t you know the good lord would want you to share what you have with everyone?”

  Tres looked over to Brice. Brice smiled and shrugged.

  “Hey lady, I don’t know who you think you are, but in case you haven’t noticed, god has left the area. For a long time now. Besides, why should we go risking our necks and lives so you can eat? I don’t mind the sharing but it’s the fact that you expect it of us all the time that’s starting to get irritating.”

  Jake and Stephen stepped up to the kids and stood behind them silently. Tres looked around because he could smell gun oil, and it wasn’t from him. Stephen had a desert eagle out and held loosely in front of him with Tres shielding the move with his back. Stephen nodded so Tres looked forward. He didn’t know why, but he was thinking that the old Vet had a couple of tricks up his sleeve still, and things were about to get ugly. Any close friend at this point would be great.

  “Brice, you stupid prick! If you don’t want to share your food, maybe we should all just come join you and make you share? What are you going to do about that?”

  “Scarpetti, that you?”

  “Yeah, you think you are all high and mighty. You leave for a few years during desert storm and now you think you are King poop. I say we just mosey on over to your hideout and have a good meal and talk about this. Who’s with me?” The last of that was shouted. The crowd actually started cheering his words a bit.

  That’s when Brice moved. Never had I seen him this angry. Never had I seen him move so fast in my life. He walked up to Scarpetti and drew both colts quicker than I could imagine possible. Put one to the temple and the other to the groin. He must have pulled both triggers at the same time because his brains and balls both blew off and backwards at the same moment he was thrown to his feet.

  “Ok folks that’s enough.” Stephen said stepping forward and leveling the big automatic. Tres racked a shell in the rifle and Mariah worked the action of her lever gun. (overly dramatic I know)

  “What, you going to shoot all of us if we don’t leave you alone?”

  “Lady” Stephen’s voice was loud “why don’t you take a look around you. Looks like the three of them killed 60 dead heads or so. Think you can take on somebody like that?”

  Brice rejoined the others while the crowd regrouped. Some of the women were weeping quietly.

  “Ok people, I’ve said it before, and this is the last time I am going to say it. Scavenge for food. Most of the houses in the area have canned food in them. Go to pawn shops, sporting good stores, police stations. Stock up on guns and ammo. Me and Tres have been doing this ever since the lights went out. You all should have been doing the same.

  Look at you folks. Most of you are half starving, filthy and wearing ratty rotted out clothing. Wake up. There is no more government. There are no more police. It is us versus the vampires and zombies. Why the hell would you want to steal from us or each other when you could be joining the fight?”

  He let those words sink in. Many dropped their eyes in shame and the anger left many of their faces.

  “Anybody else here think that they are entitled to our supplies?”

  Even the crickets were silent.

  “I don’t want to see any more fools and idiots. I won’t be coming back to these meetings. And if any of you jerks ever try to follow us back to our hideout, we’ll kill you on sight. No more nice guy. You’ve shown us who you are and what you are really about. We will protect our food, our guns, our ammo, our lives. Got that assholes?”

  “I hope the vampire lords string you up Brice!” The same woman shouted. “I hope they string you up and let the zombies have at you.”

  Boom ChickChock Boom

  Tres smiled. What was left of the angry woman was sort of flopping on the ground with a red mist still hung in the air where her head used to be.

  Everyone sort of turned and stared at Tres who just shrugged.

  “Ok folks, meetings over.” Brice said as he hopped off the back tailgate of the van. Most of the group took off running. Only a couple remained.

  "Tres, we have to talk.. Later ok?" Brice said, looking around.

  “What are you guys waiting around for?”

  “Just wanted to let you know that I agree. I may want in on the hunting, but I’ve only got my old deer rifle. I figure I’ve got about 30 rounds of ammo left, and I’ve been using it slowly over the last year or so to take down the odd buck or doe that I run across when I get a hankering for fresh meat.”

  “Don’t the deadheads smell your cooking?”

  “Naw, I am set out on top of an old building here in town. If the smell reaches down to the street, well, they haven’t figured out how to get up to me when I pull the fire escape ladders up with me.”

  “You’re sitting awfully exposed to the vamps at night time up there though. Those guys can fly.”

  “For a fact. But I’ve got me a little deterrent I’ve been using and they pretty much leave me alone anymore. Na
mes Jake by the way.”

  “I'm Brice, this is Tres, and Mariah.. The few of us are going to scoot for now. Do all of you folks feel the same?”

  Nods by the three that were left over.

  “We’ve been wanting to fight back, but most of the folks who are left after the lights went out are fools. They are part of the want something for nothing crowd. I just didn’t want to speak up when they were all mobbed together. Plenty more of those folks than us.”

  “Yeah…” Brice sighed.

  “Ok, let’s mount up and skedaddle.”

  Chapter 11 – Planning on taking back the city

  Stephen was a familiar face to Brice and Tres. The other wasn’t. Not knowing who to trust (which was a mutual problem) they decided to go to a different spot in a days time to meet up to talk some more.

  Since Flint is a big city but not as large as some others, they decided to meet somewhere open, where there was plenty of room for everybody to feel safe. It meant a big open area. The U of M parking lot was really starting to get ripe with all the flyblown deadhead corpses so the 7 of them decided on meeting up at the Big lots on Dort Hwy south west of where they were at.

  As Brice, Tres & Mariah pulled up they noticed that Stephen was already there. Oddly enough the parking lot was pretty empty with the exception of some blackbirds picking at the odd corpse here and there. No dead heads, and being sunlight, no vamps. It was always a good day when you didn't see a suckhead, they were hard to kill and twenty times as smart as the zombies.

  While they were waiting for Jake to show up Brice decided to let Stephen in on the big secret.

  “Stephen, something we gotta tell you.” Brice said

  “Sure thing, what’s up?”

  “You know, we are sitting pretty good on guns and ammo, and on one of our shopping trips we were able to pick up some C4.”

  “Hmm… “ Stephen said waiting for Brice to go on. When he didn’t he said “I suppose you knocked off the Flint National Guard Armory then?”

  “Not exactly, right Idea, wrong town.” He said with a grin. Obviously Stephen knew more about things in general than Tres gave him credit for. He was always a straight talking guy, and Tres found it strange that Brice hadn’t invited him out more.

  “Ok, so you either went to Detroit, which would have been suicidal or you went to Grand Ledge eh?”

  “Haha you got me. Grand Ledge it is.”

  “How come you didn’t go to the Flint Armory then?” Stephen asked.

  “Because that’s where the most of the vampire lords are holed up, with all the scumbag wanna be norm suckheads are hanging out.”

  That bombshell almost knocked me over, and Mariah who’d been silent as well this whole time steadied me and put her arm around my neck. Although I liked it, I suppose I turned 4 shades of purple before she dropped her arm and I gave her a playful smack on the shoulder.

  “Hey, I see Jake!” Mariah almost yelled.

  “That’s not all I see” I said as I pulled my shotgun off the sling and started unloading the buckshot and reloading the Fletchette rounds.

  “Guys, Stephen open the van quick, Tres, Mariah take these. Use the .45’s as a backup, things are really looking grim”

  He wasn’t kidding. Jake was running for all he was worth, and it looked like every zombie in the city was chasing him. The problem was, he came running from the side of the building by the alleyway and we were all watching Dort Hwy. The zombies were way too close to take long shots. While I had time to notice all of this Stephen had opened the van and hopped out with a vest on full of ammo clips and threw another vest to Stephen.

  “Put this on, and hurry. We have to knock some of them back or Jake won’t make it. Here, got something else for you. “ Brice pulled out two of the M-16’s. “Stephen, this is an M4, probably different than your service rifle. Works exactly the same except you have single shot fire and 3 round burst.”

  “Got it Brice. What’s the plan after that?”

  “Get Jake to hop into the back of the van and we are going to get the hell out of here. JAKE!!! JUKE NORTH NOW!”

  He did, and started running parallel with Dort Hwy. Suddenly he was out of my field of fire and I was raising my shotgun when Brice yelled for me to shoot. I quickly emptied the shotgun, the closest deadhead was within 25 feet of me when suddenly I felt 2 sets of strong arms pull me into the back of the van. Brice and Stephen sent 2 clips worth apiece into the deadheads when Jake jumped into the back of the van.

  “Drop the door and GO!” Brice was screaming to Jake as he run towards the front of the van, trying to latch the 2 side doors while the guys were struggling to close the back slide down door. Mariah was screaming and I turned to look to see several arms of the zombies stuck in the bottom of the door and one had ahold of her legs, pulling her towards the hungry mob on the other side of the door.

  Stephen started to react but I guess being 13 has its advantages. I beat him to the punch and stomped the arm that was trying to pull her through. When that didn’t work I used the butt of the shotgun. The sickening sound of bones snapping was even louder than her screams and Stephens cursing and suddenly she was free. Apparently the van was moving now as the other arms fell out the back because the van was moving faster than the zombies. We slammed the door down and used the make shift internal latch for a situation just like this.

  The adrenaline started to wear off and suddenly I was tired. Almost enough to fall asleep. I doubt I’ve ever been that scared in my entire life. I sat with my back to the side of the cargo area behind the driver’s seat before I fell down.

  “Hold on” Brice shouted and everyone in the cargo area slid sideways as the van made a sharp turn. That’s when the van stuttered and died.

  “Start you hunk of steel!” Brice was shouting while grinding the starter down to nothing. Then we were surrounded by the dead. Hands were slapping all over the sides of the van. Suddenly it caught and we were free from the swarm. Brice started driving easier now and we all stood up and peeked through the opening of the cargo area to the windows in the front. Unbelievably there appeared to be hundreds of zombies running or way.

  “Stephen, I am going to get about 100 feet ahead of this horde then pop the back open and start tossing these fire-frag grenades” he said handing him a satchel.

  “I’ll yell when I stop, toss 2 or 3 in the mass and then close the door, we won’t have much time.”

  “Brice, I was throwing these things while you were still looking at your dad’s girly magazines, I know how to do this” He said with a grin. “Tres, hold the satchel for me, Jake, you stand on the other side of him and shoot any that are really close and give me about 10 seconds, then slam the door closed.” Everyone moved into place and was almost ready to go when Brice yelled go. The van lurched to a halt, and the door was raised. Much faster than I thought possible Stephen pulled the pins and threw 3 grenades before the first one went off. He threw a fourth in front of the group and yelled “DOOR!”

  Thankfully the door closed just as things started slapping the back of the door, and some holes appeared on the top edge. Brice must have gunned it because we were all tossed about again, and Mariah landed on top of me, her .45 still in her hand.

  “You ok Tres?” She asked me.

  “Uh, you’re sitting on me.”

  “I didn’t ask to be sitting here, but you know what? I just wanted to say thank you for saving me back there.” Then she did the most horrible thing ever. Everyone in the van would recount this story forever, and I would never and I mean never live it down. She kissed me.

  Chapter 12 – Girls aren’t Gross?

  Before I knew what was going on, I had my arms around her and was kissing her back. She pulled back and we both stared at each other. I think it was a wtf moment, not that I’ve had them before. Then Stephen and Jake were cheering and whistling. I expected to turn red again, but oddly enough I just felt a little hot under the collar.

  The van was still moving and I tried to untangle mys
elf as much as I could without hurting Mariah and poked my head through to the drivers area.

  “Hey Brice, did we get them?”

  “Yeah buddy, look out the side window here when I turn”

  And I looked. There were bodies and bodies of deadheads all over the parking lot. Many of them still burning from the grenades.

  “Did anybody get hit by any shrapnel?”

  Stephen poked his head in also, and said “No, but the top of the back door got peppered with it, punched a couple of holes. Nothing came anywhere near us… would you look at that!”

  He had also seen the piles of bodies and suddenly he went rigid.

  “Brice, drive faster..” and then I saw it. Sure enough, we killed a lot of zombies, but when I said earlier it looked every zombie in the city was chasing Jake, I guess I was closer to the truth than I thought. The entire road behind us was full of deadheads running after us.

  Weaving in and out of traffic is certainly slower driving, but many people died and left their cars on the road; most of them left running until the gas ran out and the battery killed the lights. It wasn’t horrible, but it did slow the driving. Fortunately the van was able to triple the pace of the deadheads and Brice hopped on the expressway at I69 and stopped at the top of the onramp.

  “What are we doing Brice? Won’t they catch up with us here” Mariah was asking. It’s funny, I would have called the waver in her voice snotty or bitchy a week ago, but I realized that she was just scared.