“They’re probably trying to keep them from catching Rune,” Jason replied.
“Not that. That!”
Jason looked up and his blood ran cold. Three zombies had clambered over the barrier and were racing toward them.
“Oh, shit!” Jason jumped to his feet and reached frantically for his gun.
Calhoun took a shot and hit one of the runners in the shoulder, spinning it around, but it recovered immediately and kept coming. Jack leaped onto the first runner and sank his teeth into its shoulder. The creature went down, struggling to get free of the growling canine. Like all other zombies, it was not interested in eating animals. Jason saw Calhoun stagger as the runner Jack was battling grabbed the old man’s ankle.
Another bullet from above took out one of the runners. Jason aimed at the last one. He saw puffs of dirt kick up around the zombie and realized that someone in the fort was shooting at it—and missing. The zombie screeched as it barreled toward him.
It was on him in an instant. The creature grabbed Jason’s long bangs and jerked him toward its mouth. Jason lost his balance and he and the zombie both fell to the ground, Jason on the bottom with the zombie’s howling mouth just inches from his face. Shoving his hand under the thing’s chin, Jason pushed it away, his desperation giving him strength.
In the next instant, Jack was on the zombie, clamping his jaws on the back of its neck. The undead, howling thing tried to hold on to Jason, but Jack yanked it off his master.
Jason scrambled to his feet. To his horror, he realized that Calhoun was using the detonator to bash the other runner’s brains out.
“Calhoun, no!” Jason gasped. He heard a terrible sound—a steady beeping. “Jack! Let go! Come here!”
Jack whirled around and rushed toward his boy. The nearly decapitated runner pushed itself to its knees just as the sniper finally found the range. The zombie fell over, truly dead.
Finished with his runner, Calhoun blinked at Jason, then stared at the bloody, battered box in his hands. It kept beeping; the light that had refused to come on was now blinking red. “This is not good,” the older man said calmly.
“Run!” Jason shouted. “Now!” He raced away from the fire line. The sounds of the fight had drawn more attention from the zombies. About fifty were trudging over the barricade.
Jack growled at the shambling undead, then ran after his boy. Calhoun threw down the metal box and began to run, putting on as much speed as he could. Jack barked at him and darted back and forth between man and boy.
The three of them were halfway to the fort when the fuel tanks exploded. The force of the blast blew them off their feet. A wash of heat, followed by flames, filled the air.
On the fort’s walls, people ducked for cover as fiery debris rained down and the roar of the explosion rang in their ears.
* * *
Katie hauled herself to her feet and saw that the fire line had roared to life as the accelerant-drenched debris exploded. Flames roared across the top of the barricade, encircling the fort in a wall of fire. Many zombies had been blown into bits; others, burning brightly, had been tossed back into the approaching mob. The horde was splitting apart as the zombies tried to avoid the flames.
Clutching the railing, she peered through binoculars into the acrid smoke and realized that at least twenty zombies were still on the move inside the fire line. But where are Jason, Calhoun, and Jack? At last she spotted the dog that was barking anxiously at the zombies who were moving determinedly toward the fallen figures of the teenager and the old man.
“Oh, shit!” Katie grabbed her walkie-talkie. “Jason and Calhoun are in danger near my point!”
* * *
“Right now, don’t worry about the two lines that are moving away from the fort,” Nerit said over her walkie-talkie. “Concentrate on anything that breaches the outer perimeter. Anything that moves into your hot zone is a target.”
“The outer ridgeline is on fire. It’s splitting the horde in half just like we hoped.” Kevin drew rapidly on the map, updating the battle. “We’re going to win, Nerit.”
Her reply was a slight smile.
* * *
Travis arrived at the wall just in time to see his wife about to slide onto the makeshift elevator. “Katie!”
“I need to get Jason!” Her gun was already in her hand. She looked at Travis with an expression of both fear and determination on her face. “He’s Jenni’s boy. I have to.”
“You’re not going down there,” Travis said firmly. He saw her jaw setting and he shook a finger in warning. “Jenni wouldn’t want you risking the baby.”
“Dammit,” she said, sighing as she conceded his point.
Travis grabbed her and kissed her. “Now, get back to your post!”
* * *
Jason slowly returned to consciousness, coughing. A figure lurched out of the smoke and fell to its knees beside him. The thing’s dead, gnarled face moved to bury itself in his soft flesh. Realizing in that instant that he still held his gun, Jason raised it to the zombie’s temple and fired.
The thing collapsed.
Blinking, Jason sat up. Jack hurtled out of the swirling smoke and nearly landed on the teen, barking frantically. Jason almost called Calhoun’s name, then thought better of it. The zombies would find him faster if they heard his voice. Holding on to Jack’s collar, he clambered to his feet, then bent over to whisper, “Find Calhoun,” to the dog.
Jack looked up at him with clear brown eyes. Jason saw concern and puzzlement in their depths, but after a moment the German shepherd began to lead Jason slowly through the hot, acrid air and dark smoke.
A moan near him made Jason jump. Jack growled low in his throat, and Jason raised his gun. The stench of decaying burning flesh filled his nostrils and he stared into the smoke in terror.
A woman lurched out of the mist, and Jason instinctively pulled the trigger. The impact of the bullet knocked her back a few feet; then she snarled and started forward once more. Jason fired again, this time aiming more carefully; the bullet punched through her forehead and the zombie fell.
Another one staggered toward him and he quickly swung his gun around to aim at it. Jack shoved Jason’s legs hard, knocking him sideways just as the smoke cleared enough to reveal that the new zombie was actually Calhoun, who was still alive.
“Damn clones!” Calhoun grabbed Jason’s arm. “They’re all over the place. We gotta back up toward the wall.”
“Where’s your gun?” Jason whispered.
“No clue. Got the living bejeezus knocked out of me by that explosion,” Calhoun answered.
The dark smoke began to dissipate; the fires were burning out. The two men and the dog moved a little faster as more and more zombies were revealed.
“This ain’t good, boy,” Calhoun said quietly.
Another explosion near the barrier showered them with body parts. Then the roar of a motorcycle filled their ears.
“Crazy hippie,” Calhoun complained as Rune’s Harley drew close to them. The biker looked a bit bedraggled and was covered in soot.
Rune motioned to them. “Get on.”
Calhoun shoved Jason onto the bike, then managed to squeeze his skinny butt on as well. Jason wasn’t sure what smelled worse: the zombies or Calhoun.
“Sorry, boy, you gotta run back,” Jason told Jack as Rune gunned the bike, heading for the fort at top speed. Jason and Calhoun clung to Rune as the bike weaved around the zombies.
Glancing back, Jason saw Jack running as fast as he could, a big doggy grin on his face. The teenager smiled; he supposed a motorcycle was almost as good as a car when it came to chasing.
The motorcycle reached the elevator just as it hit the ground. Above them, Reggie shouted, “Hurry up!”
Rune lifted his shotgun and calmly blew the head off an approaching zombie. “Gotta leave you here, Charlene,” he said to the bike, patting it as he got off. “Sorry, babe.”
Rune helped Calhoun off the bike and onto the elevator. Jason followed.
Jack leaped onto the crowded platform, and Jason went down on his knees to hold on to the dog as the elevator began to lift.
Just as they reached the top, a shift in the wind blew much of the smoke away from the fort. Jason looked over the wide expanse of land and saw that a lot of the zombie horde had split in two and was moving off away from the town. The fire had spooked them.
“Did we do it?” Jason asked breathlessly, not sure if he could trust his eyes.
“I’ll be damned,” Rune said with awe. “Watch those fuckers go.”
Calhoun sniffled loudly, surveying the two lines of the undead shambling away from the fort. The burning remains of the zombies caught in the explosion smoldered before the barricade. “Well, I ain’t cleaning that up,” he declared.
2.
Breach
Peering through her binoculars, Katie kept watch on the fire line. From her perch on the southwest corner of the fort, she could clearly see the retreating shambling forms of the undead. The sheer numbers of the walking dead were astounding. Would the walls have stood against so many?
The flames dancing along the barrier were beginning to die. New explosions reignited some sections, sending huge plumes of fire and smoke up into the blue sky. Katie turned away, the heat and smoke making her eyes burn. Coughing on the acrid air, she lifted the binoculars again.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered.
One of the fire-trap detonations had blown a hole in the barrier. Burning bits of debris littered the ground, and the dirt stirred up by the impact had doused some of the flames. A few zombies staggered through the gap. Spotting the people manning the wall defenses, they lifted their hands and shambled toward the fort.
“No, no, no,” Katie whispered, lifting her binoculars. “This can’t happen.”
To her horror, more zombies slipped through the break in the barricade.
* * *
Nerit and Kevin watched the retreating mob of zombies with reserved optimism as they continued to monitor the situation.
“It’s looking good,” Kevin said.
“It is,” Nerit agreed.
The walkie-talkie beside Nerit came to life as Katie’s voice broke through the static. “Nerit, we have a problem.”
Lifting the device to her mouth, Nerit said quickly, “What is it?”
“The fire line is breached. We have about two hundred zombies about to hit the wall on the southwest corner.”
“Understood. We’ll sound the alarm,” Nerit answered.
Kevin somberly handed her the bullhorn that had been resting on the corner of the table. “You should do the honors.”
Wrapping her fingers around the handle, Nerit pulled the trigger.
The loud blast cut through the air.
And the fort went to war.
3.
The War
It is common knowledge that war is hell. It is not so well known that war is surreal. Hyperreality mixes with moments of feeling disconnected from reality. A sense of fragility is wrapped in a feeling of invincibility. Nothing about war makes sense. Nothing about it registers fully in the human senses.
As the dead trudged over the smoky remains of the barricade, the fort occupants unleashed the fury of their weapons upon them.
The morning air was filled with the creaking of catapults showering the undead with their loads of discarded junk. The sharp twangs of the massive crossbows were followed by hissing whistles as each load of twenty arrows soared through the air in gentle arches before slamming into the battered, mangled bodies of the undead. There came the sudden whoosh of gas jets being activated on the field below; the loud bang as they ignited; burning zombies wailing.
The smell was unbelievable. Charred flesh. Rotting flesh. Fire. Human sweat and fear.
The area surrounding the fort had been divided into sections, each of which was protected by specifically assigned crews of defenders, from sharpshooters to catapult and crossbow squads. The walls had been painted in different colors to mark off each zone. If something crossed into an assigned zone, the defenders in that area fired. There was plenty of swearing and shouts of rage as something undead moved just before a toilet smashed to the ground right where it had been standing.
At Nerit’s command, Juan activated the traps: the fire jets, the quick-drying cement, the stakes. A shuffling family of four, complete with a toddler, flailed around in the cement until snipers shot them. An armless woman in scrubs turned into a torch when a gas jet ignited right under her. Zombified firefighters, clad in tattered turnout gear, were skewered on the stakes.
Lenore worked with feverish intensity, loading her crossbow, then waiting for something to move into her zone. Every time the shambling dead went down under her arrows, she would grin fiercely. “This is for Ken, fuckers,” Lenore said as her crossbow split zombies apart, pouring their putrid innards onto the ground. She pumped her fist in the air.
Jason and other teenagers worked the slingshots, launching Molotov cocktails with startling accuracy. Their T-shirts had the words FOR ROGER written across their backs in Sharpie. Jason’s also read, FOR MY MOM.
Rune ran across rooftops, shooting anything trying to come up the side streets. Most of the traps had already gone off with zombies dangling from the razor wire.
Monica and Bette reloaded their catapult countless times. The discarded junk of the old world flew out over the battlefield, causing brutal devastation among the undead. They would high-five at each particularly gruesome death; a favorite was that of a zombie priest who lost his head to a flying toaster oven.
Calhoun, followed by his pack of dogs, ran along the wall, smiling gleefully as he activated more traps. If zombies began to congregate in one area, he would trigger a variety of swinging arms strung with lawn mower blades. These were his pride and joy; swiping through a group of zombies, they’d obliterate anything they hit.
Katarina took out the living dead with terrible accuracy. Being a sniper meant she witnessed their ravaged faces, their empty eyes, their mutilated forms. Every age, every gender, every race wandered into her view, and every single one was given a final rest by her bullets. She was startled to feel peace instead of the fear and dread she had lived with for so long. Instead of feeling rage, she felt sorrow. Every bullet, she realized, was a blessing to those creatures, an exit from hell.
Bulldozers rolled through the battlefield, clearing the edge along the wall. The cabs were heavily fortified to keep the drivers safe. The wicked blades of the large vehicles swept the truly dead corpses out of the fray to keep them from piling up against the walls.
Those who could not fight watched from the hotel’s opulent ballroom. They’d been terror stricken when the zombies first swarmed toward the fort. The beginning of the battle had been mesmerizing as the dead were met with fierce resistance. Now it was hard to tell what was happening below. The battlefield was a ruin. Smoke filled the air. Fear and hope filled the hearts of the spectators.
In the communication center, Yolanda listened to a war she could not see. Her pistol lay on the counter. If there was a breach in the wall, she would fight … but she would save one bullet for herself.
Katie gagged on the putrid stench. All along her part of the wall, the crossbows and catapults finally fell silent and still. The catapults on the east side were still firing, but most of the rest no longer had moving targets. Relief began to fill her as she surveyed the carnage.
“Is it done?” someone yelled.
“I don’t have any in my zone,” Lenore called out.
Katie lifted her walkie-talkie. “Hey, what’s going on?”
From his point on the wall, Kevin could see most of the west side of the battlefield. A few severely mutilated zombies were trying to pull themselves along the ground; the rest of the corpses seemed truly dead.
“This might be it,” Nerit said hopefully. .
“Get the copter up,” Kevin said into his walkie-talkie.
Moments later, a lone helicopter lifted and began making a pass over th
e fort, the town, and the hills.
All over the fort, the defenders reloaded their weapons and held position. Some sat in chairs; others collapsed to the top of the wall or to the ground. People tried not to breathe too deeply; the air was full of the stench of warfare and death. Everyone was tired and aching, not daring to think that the battle might be over, yet hoping that it was.
An eerie silence filled the morning, broken only by the sound of the helicopter and the dull hum of the moaning dead as they shambled farther and farther away from the fort.
Nerit surveyed the map of the battlefield as she waited for the word.
There was a burst of static over the walkie-talkie.
“That’s it,” Greta said through the radio. “Holy God in Heaven, that’s it. We see two columns heading away, east and west. As for the ones that hit us straight on … boys and girls … what you see in front of you is it!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
1.
The End
Katie watched in awe as the fleeing zombies skirted around the burning fire line. Rubbing her sore back, she followed Travis as he hurried to the command center. Nerit and Kevin were both talking on their walkie-talkies as the helicopter swooped low over the retreating hordes.
Juan was crouched down, setting off traps remotely. The sound of fire traps going off punctuated the retreat of the moaning undead. The smaller traps would continue to go off and keep the barricade burning until the zombies were gone.
Along the wall, the fort defenders watched the departing zombies in silence, as though unwilling to accept the ease of their victory.
Katie felt tears pricking in her eyes as she thought of all they had endured to reach this moment of sweet victory. Glancing over her shoulder at the zombie retreat, she knew for sure they had won.
“Greta is reporting in that both columns are heading away from the fort and that there are no more zombies heading our way,” Nerit said with the most beautiful smile Katie had ever seen.
Kevin picked up his binoculars and peered out at the battleground. “We got them all. The ones that attacked the walls are down.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 97