“Thanks for that,” Richard nodded. “Hold on just a second,” he held up a finger. “Come in, Dan,” he spoke into his radio.
“This is Dan, go ahead,” came a tired response several seconds later.
“Dan, go ahead and start waking everyone up. Sounds like we got biters potentially headed this way…a lot of them.”
“Copy that.” Dan answered.
“You all married?” Richard looked back to the couple, glancing down at their hands for signs of wedding rings.
“No,” Lance shook his head.
“We were thinking about getting engaged just before the syndrome hit and well…” Max let her sentence trail off with a shrug and a dejected grimace.
Richard nodded quietly. Similar stories of lives so rudely torn asunder by the appearance and rapid spread of the Carchar Syndrome were a dime a dozen.
“Where were you before you decided to head for St. Louis?”
“We were holding up in a house outside Springfield for a while,” Max said. “A couple weeks back, we heard a radio transmission about a possible safe haven in St. Louis.”
“We heard the same transmission,” Richard nodded.
“Anyway,” Max went on, “we were about out of food, and things weren’t looking good where we were, so we decided to give getting to St. Louis a shot. We’ve been moving from place to place, spending a day here, a day there, scavenging supplies along the way where we could. Usually we look for an abandoned building or a house or something to hold out in at night, but like Lance said, we kinda got caught out tonight. We tried to find a secluded spot where the biters wouldn’t bother us, but, well…I don’t know. This herd just came out of nowhere. Tons of them. And…”
A shot fired somewhere nearby cut her response short. Then Richard’s radio beeped.
“We got biters here at the B and C Street barricades! A slew of ‘em headed this way by the looks of it,” a voice squawked through the radio.
“Shit!” Richard huffed, slumping somewhat dejectedly in his chair and shaking his head. “I was hoping they might bypass us. But it sounds like we’re gonna need all hands on deck. You all competent with firearms?” he asked the new arrivals.
“Don’t have much of a choice but to be these days,” Lance nodded.
“You too?” Richard nodded at Max.
“Better shot than he is,” she nodded toward Lance with a smile.
Richard’s eyes flickered over to Lance.
“She is,” Lance conceded with a tilted head shrug.
“Ben, come in,” Richard called into his radio.
“This is Ben…go ahead,” came the response.
“Ben, we’ve got biters. Will you and Jill make sure River Drive gets secured? I’m heading for the main gates. If everything looks good down there, go ahead and meet me at B Street as soon as you finish up.”
“Copy that,” Ben answered.
“Eric,” Richard turned to the young man who had remained quietly leaning against the wall during Richard’s interview of the new arrivals, “take Lance and Max, get them armed, and secure the alley gate.”
“Will do,” Eric nodded.
Lance and Max rose from their chairs.
“Thanks again for the heads up on the biters,” Richard said as he stood. “We appreciate all the help we can get around here. You help us out with these biters, and we’ll have a hot meal ready for you once we’re done.”
“Sounds good,” Lance smiled eagerly.
“Here,” Eric handed Lance his gun back.
“Thanks,” Lance tucked it into his waistband.
“She have a weapon?” Richard asked Eric.
“No,” Eric shook his head.
Richard opened a desk drawer and pulled out a 9 millimeter handgun. He handed it over to Max, butt end first. “It’s loaded,” he said.
“Thanks,” Max accepted the weapon. She ejected the magazine, double-checking that there were indeed rounds ready to fire and illustrating her prowess with the weapon to Richard.
“All right,” Richard nodded. “Let’s move.”
* * *
“We got a problem down here, Michael!” Manny’s fear-filled voice echoed through the radio.
“What’s up?” Michael responded from where he stood, still looking out on of the fourth-floor windows.
“Uhh…it’s getting pretty rough down here. You might want to come down and check it out.”
Michael sighed and grimaced. Manny was often known for jumping the gun when it came to biters. Michael could understand the young man’s nervousness regarding being around such creatures. But he thought this jitteriness would be slightly better by this point in the syndrome’s evolution.
“I’m sure they’re just getting rowdy because they’re hungry or cold or something,” Michael did his best to placate Manny’s fears.
“I don’t know, Michael,” Manny said uncertainly. “They’re getting pretty rough with our barricade. I mean, they’ve been rough before, knocking into things and stuff like that when a herd comes along. But this time, well, this time seems different. It’s like they’re actually working on the barricade. You might want to come down and see this for yourself, Michael.”
“Yeah, I’ll be down in a minute,” Michael huffed.
“You want me to come with you?” Josh asked.
“No, that’s all right. You’ve got boys to get to bed.”
“Well, just call if you need me,” Josh nodded.
“Will do,” Michael nodded. “But I’m sure it’s just Manny being Manny. Still, you gotta check these things out…just to be safe if nothing else.”
“Okay boys, let’s hit the hay,” Josh led the three boys to the stairwell.
Michael followed them down.
Just as he reached the second floor, however, his radio beeped again. He was starting to get aggravated now. It was late, he was tired, he still needed to finish his inventory work with Ms. Mary, and now he had Manny’s nonsense to deal with.
“Michael! They’re breaking through the barricade! We need help down here right now!” Manny’s frantic cries came through the radio, not even waiting for Michael to acknowledge his call.
Michael envisioned a small breach, something likely caused by a couple biters bumping into a particular portion of the barricade in just the right spot, jarring something loose. But what he found as he exited the stairwell to the tower’s ground level was far more than that. In fact, as he made his way over to the tower’s front entrance, a biter was working to wiggle his way through a growing gap in the barricade where one corner of a sheet of plywood had been splintered and ripped away.
Michael could see the hands of biters reaching in and around the barricade in other spots. But they weren’t just reaching in, groping blindly as they’d done in previous efforts to infiltrate the tower. This time, they seemed purposeful. The hands were pulling, pushing, ripping, and tearing as though they knew their efforts would result in further damage to the obstruction keeping them from getting inside the tower.
Manny and Margaret were both standing about ten feet from the entry barricade, open mouthed, just watching the destruction of the barrier unfold before them.
By this point, the Blenders had found enough extension cords around the tower, paired with the ones they’d brought with them, to wire every floor with at least one light. The offices on the fifth floor had assisted them with this effort, providing several standing floor lamps, one of which they’d set near the center of the ground floor as their main lighting unit.
Like moths to a flame, the biters tended to be drawn to light sources at night. They seemed to associate, and rightly so, light with the prey that kept them fed.
Michael’s plan for when he arrived to assist Manny and Margaret had been to simply turn off the lights and wait for the biters to move along. It wasn’t a particularly mind-blowing solution, and it was one he thought Manny and Margaret had the ability to come up with on their own at this point. But he quickly realized that this time was differ
ent. Manny was right, the biters seemed to have realized that by working together, and using the tools at their disposal – their hands, their collective weight, and their hunger-fueled aggression – they could make relatively quick work of the barricade that had thus far prevented similar-sized herds from gaining access to the tower.
“Shit!” Michael hissed as he realized the extent of what was occurring.
“Right?” Manny turned and nodded, wide-eyed, looking at him.
Michael unclipped the radio from his belt. “Josh! It’s Michael. We need everyone on deck and to their stations asap!”
“The boys too?” came the response.
“Everybody!”
“Copy!”
The biter who was working his way through the opening in the barricade seemed to have gotten stuck halfway through. Michael pulled his .45, took careful aim, and fired a single shot, striking the biter square in the forehead. The biter slumped motionless and Michael hoped that his body would help to seal the crack in their defenses – a ‘finger in the dike’. And in normal circumstances, it would have. But a few seconds later, Michael, Manny, and Margaret watched in stunned disbelief as the biter’s lifeless body was pulled from its position to re-reveal the gap in the plywood. And rather than this hole being re-filled by another biter, as it most likely would have in previous instances, and which would have made it incredibly easy for the tower occupants to continue killing each respective biter in turn, it was instead refilled by pairs of hands working to widen the gap.
Something was definitely not right, and Michael knew it. It was as if these were humanlike brains placed inside biter bodies. It was almost as though the biters were evolving. And that was a terrifying thought.
“They get much more of that barricade down, and we’re in a world of hurt,” Michael said.
Just as Michael finished the words, there was a loud cracking sound, and another gigantic piece of plywood was ripped free from the barricade.
“Be ready to haul ass upstairs,” Michael instructed.
“What about the barricade?” Manny asked.
“They’re tearing it apart too fast,” Michael moved to their nearby stockpile of armaments and grabbed a semi-automatic rifle.
Manny followed suit.
“You two hold the office,” Michael said to Manny and Margaret. “I’ll take the main stairwell. As soon as one biter gets through, shoot it. If we start to get overwhelmed, we retreat upstairs. But we have to buy the others some time to get organized and in place upstairs. Got it?”
Manny and Margaret nodded that they understood. They both looked terrified. Michael couldn’t blame them. He was scared himself. He’d never seen anything like the energy and organization these biters were demonstrating. If it’d only been a pack of five or six, he wouldn’t be that bothered, but this herd appeared to number a hundred or more.
“What’s going on?” a voice came from behind Michael at the main stairwell.
It was Chris.
“Biters are going berserk,” Michael nodded toward the entry barricade. “It’s like they’ve learned how to work together all of a sudden.”
Michael aimed at a biter currently working its way inside the tower and fire. The biter fell back out the ever-widening gap in the barricade, but it was replaced by another an instant later. The boards and other materials around the entrance were trembling under the biters’ ferocious assault.
“Here,” Michael moved to where Chris stood at the base of the stairs and handed him the semi-automatic rifle. “Manny and Margaret are holding the office and rear stairs. We’ll take these stairs. Remember, I’ll shoot until I’m out. You cover me when I need to reload. Got it?”
“Got it,” Chris nodded as confidently as he could even though he felt anything but.
“Are the others ready upstairs?” Michael asked just before he fired twice more to take out the next biter in line at the entry door.
“I think so,” Chris said once he could hear again.
Michael glanced over at the lower level’s small office. He could see Manny at the door, his rifle aimed at the barricade and ready. He suddenly felt concern over having assigned Manny and Margaret to hold the office. He probably should have split them up. They weren’t the most competent of defenders to be helping him hold the first floor – their main line of defense. But it was too late now.
Suddenly there was the loud screech of metal. The sound ripped through the tower’s ground level as one of the file cabinets emplaced at the front door was shoved aside and crashed onto the floor.
Pieces of plywood were bulging inward against the weight of the biters outside.
“The barricade’s giving way!” Manny cried.
“Hold tight and stay calm!” Michael tried to steady the young man.
But it didn’t work. As the first biter lurched through the broken barricade, Manny let loose with several bursts from his semi-automatic rifle. He did the same with the second biter as well as the third. In just seconds, he was out of ammo.
Michael could hear the rapid firing of Margaret behind Manny as Manny worked to reload his weapon.
Michael fired slowly but steadily, rarely utilizing two bullets on any one biter. But it wasn’t enough. The floodgates were open and biters were pouring inside the tower now. And the lack of fire coming from the office drew the biters straight for the married couple now standing in the office doorway, both trying to reload their weapons. They had directly disregarded Michael’s repeated instructions to avoid firing at the same time so that a defending pair both ran out of ammunition at the same time. In the process, as the biters quickly crossed the floor toward the pair, Chris was forced to open up with his own rifle to assist Michael in covering Manny and Margaret. But it wasn’t enough. With the tower’s main defensive barricade breached, and with the huge number of biters outside, each biter Chris and Michael managed to drop was replaced by at least two more.
Within mere seconds, Chris and Michael were also out of ammo.
“Upstairs!” Michael yelled. But it was too late.
A wave of biters surged toward the small office. The lead biter reached out for Manny, who still stood in the doorway, focused frantically on reloading his weapon. It went to grab him but slipped awkwardly on some of the shell casings left on the floor from Manny’s weapon. In the process, it fell forward, hitting Manny, who, intent on his weapon, reeled backward, plopping down onto his butt on the floor. Margaret, also in the midst of reloading her own weapon, paused in her work to assist her fallen husband. But the lead biter, having recovered, grabbed Margaret and yanked her violently away from Manny and out of the office toward the growing number of biters now inside the tower.
Michael quickly reloaded his weapon, but by the time he’d retrained his gun on the dozen biters now inside the tower, it was too late. Michael heard Margaret cry out as she was yanked into the midst of at least six biters surrounding her. Then she stumbled and went down hard onto the floor. Michael aimed and fired, hitting first one biter that was beside Margaret, then another. But more kept coming. And just as Michael took aim at a third biter and was ready to squeeze the trigger, Manny had entered the fray. He had recovered and made it too his wife’s aid. But all that did was insert another body into the mix that Michael had to work around when trying to shoot biters.
Manny was quickly surrounded by biters as well, but he remained on his feet, which made it even harder for Michael to get a clear shot at the snapping, drooling, raging beasts around him. Michael heard Manny scream in fear and then in pain as one of the biters tore into his bare hand. Then there was another biter on his back, sinking its teeth into his neck. And then Manny also disappeared into the hoard of ravenous biters. They ripped into him more viciously and more voraciously than Michael had ever seen biters attack.
Then both Manny and Margaret were gone from view, absorbed into the mass of biters, and Michael knew there was no hope of getting to them. Even if he did, would it matter? He’d seen Manny be bitten multiple times, and he
was sure it was no better for Margaret. With biters having engulfed the couple, even more were pouring inside looking for fresh prey. And they saw it in the form of Chris and Michael for whom they were now headed.
“Let’s go!” Michael pushed Chris back up the stairs. “We’re coming up!” he yelled as loudly as he could ahead of them. He didn’t want to be mistaken for biters by the Blenders at the top of the stairs and shot. “Biters are behind us! Be ready!”
Biters were now entering the office, and more were headed Michael’s way. There were at least two dozen of them inside the tower, and the line pouring in through the broken barricade seemed endless.
Michael aimed, shot two more of the lead biters approaching them, and then turned and followed Chris upstairs.
Ms. Mary and Caroline were at the top of the stairs, crouched behind the barricade, guns at the ready. As Michael reached the stair-top landing, Chris handed him a waist-high file cabinet that Michael wedged in place among the debris that filled the stairwell. This sealed the gap that had been just wide enough for a person to pass through, but it left room to fire overtop at the approaching biters.
“Be ready!” Michael yelled to the other side of the second floor. There, Christine Franko and Patrick were holding the office stairwell landing.
Almost as soon as he finished the words, he heard them begin to fire. He prayed that they used better judgment in the use of their weapons and ammunition than Manny and Margaret had.
It wasn’t long before the first of the biters made its presence known on their own stairwell. And it was readily punished for its appearance by several well-placed bullets from Ms. Mary’s .22 caliber rifle.
Several more biters were right behind the first, but something interesting, and rather frightening to the Blenders, occurred as the biters climbed the stairs. Rather than standing upright, as most biters did as they attacked, they crouched down, using the materials that the Blenders had put in place as their stairwell blockade, as cover for their approach. This made it much more difficult for the Blender defenders to get a good read on where the approaching biters were. And the darkness in which the stairwell was enshrouded didn’t help. Michael had expected to use the light from the ground level to silhouette the approaching biters, making them easy targets. But when the biters crouched down, their forms were largely hidden from view behind the stairwell barricade’s darkness.
The Last Bastion [Book 3] Page 14