Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  “Who else is in the truck?” Randy asked. He completely ignored the man’s question to him.

  “Just us man. If you’re looking to get across that bridge, I suggest you do it now. We saw your kids running around to the front of the truck is the reason we didn’t just ram your van and start shooting. There’s a ton of Zombies that followed us down the road. They’ll be getting here pretty soon. We don’t want no trouble with you.” The man said. A loud shriek echoed in the still air as if timed to back up his claim of being followed.

  Randy looked over at Kelly. She shrugged. He looked over at Kyler who also shrugged. Deciding he really didn’t have a problem with it either he stood up and told them to cover him.

  “I’m going to come over and check out your truck. If there’s not a bunch of guys waiting to jump out and kill us as soon as we put our weapons down, then we can all hold hands and skip over the bridge together.” Randy said walking towards them with his rifle pointed somewhere between the ground and the truck.

  The big guy nodded slightly in understanding. He moved slightly to the side to allow Randy to walk past him to look in the back of the cab and then check out the bed. Satisfied there wasn’t anyone hidden in either section ready to jump out and shoot them he walked back over to the big guy.

  “Randy.” He said holding out his hand.

  “We really going to hold hands and skip?” The big man asked with a smile before reaching out to shake the proffered hand.

  A few more shrieks that sounded much closer led to a very abbreviated round of introductions. They gathered the kids and slid on backpacks heavy with supplies. Kyler and the big guy in the tight shirt led the way through the maze of vehicles blocking easy access to the bridge. The big guy was of Asian ancestry and looked a bit like the actor the Rock. Everyone had been a bit taken back when he’d announced his name was Henry. His traveling companion was named Sarah.

  Henry easily pulled a large chunk of fence out of their path. It’d been arranged to block anyone from easily moving between two cars that were blocking the way to the bridge. They squeezed between the cars with Henry in the lead and Kyler following. They both had their pistols out in the narrow confines of the car lined path. It was easier to move the pistols around than it was to wave around rifles. You could forget about the long ass barrel of the antique shotgun Kyler was still carrying on a strap across his shoulder. Kyler had watched jealously as Henry dumped several fully loaded magazines of nine-millimeter rounds into the pockets of his camouflage utilities. He hadn’t said anything as it didn’t seem prudent to let the two newcomers know that they were running low an ammo.

  Kyler hopped backwards as Henry jumped back to scramble on top of the hood of the car that they’d just moved past. Kyler stuck his hand in the air to let Myriah and Caitlyn know not to bring the little kids any closer. A sudden screech from in front of them told him there must be a Zombie up ahead. He drew his knife and moved forward confidently with his flashlight so he could take out the screamer as quietly as possible.

  Before he’d taken too many steps forward Henry waved him back and pulled out a dented aluminum bat from the side of his pack. Henry pointed down in between the cars at a shadowy shape lying on the ground. Kyler moved forward slowly shining his flashlight in front of him. An evil hissing noise erupted from the shadowy shape that turned out to be a Zombie on a leash tied to a truck. The light from his flashlight revealed the Zombie had both legs tied together so it couldn’t stand up. It could crawl and slither like a madman though which is what it was currently doing.

  Henry jumped down from the hood of the car and beat the Zombies head in with a couple swings of the bat. He gave Kyler a ‘what the hell was that’ kind of look then kept on moving towards the bridge. Kyler turned and motioned for everyone to keep following them. Caitlyn and Myriah quickly moved the beams of their lights off the dead infected with the leash so the littles didn’t have to see the mess. Bringing up the rear of the pack Sarah, Kelly and Randy kept watch while putting the obstacles back where they’d come from. They repositioned the section of fence Henry had tossed aside. They were hoping the Zombie wave coming towards them would break on the cars and fences before it reached them.

  A large section of fence with barbed wire at the top of it was the last obstacle in their path to crossing the bridge. A locked gate stood in the middle of the fence. Henry stopped about ten feet back from the fence and whispered urgently for Kyler to kill his light.

  “What is it?” Kyler asked. The sounds of the Zombies on their trail were getting way too loud and close for comfort.

  “Dead bodies in front of the fence. Looks like a nice sized pile of them. I don’t know who’s shooting them or if they’re still there or whatever but walking over to the fence might be putting you in a snipers scope.” Henry said. He kept glancing behind them as he explained what he’d seen. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. The hard place may be all in his head though. No telling how long ago those bodies had been dropped in front of the fence. He couldn’t imagine the leashed-up Zombie had been there very long though. With this being the only bridge still standing other refugees were bound to have come this way.

  Hoping the bodies were those of infected and not the bodies of regular people fleeing the Brotherhood expansion into South Carolina Kyler walked over to the fence. He stood there nervously trying to figure out how to get around the locked gate. It was a standard gate like you’d see at any ball field. The lever holding it closed was down and had a chain wrapped around it with an attached padlock. It was the same kind of lock you’d put on your high school locker. Kyler and Henry both were carrying bolt cutters that’d make short work of the lock.

  “Are we going to run through this gate and get shot down you think?” Kyler asked. He wasn’t worried for himself so much as for the little girls and the rest of the family behind him. If it was just him, he’d have already lopped off the lock and started jamming across the bridge.

  “Really only one way to find out.” Henry said shoving a small pair of bolt cutters through the fence. His arm bulged as he squeezed hard for a second before being rewarded by the sound of the lock snapping.

  “See you on the other side.” Kyler said opening up the gate and jogging through. He wanted to make sure he had a good head start on the kids. If there was going to be any random gunfire, he wanted it to be aimed at him instead of the girls. At least the people shooting at them wouldn’t be able to see very well. A batch of clouds had rolled in blotting out the light that’d been reflecting down on them off the moon.

  Using the darkness as cover Henry and Kyler ran down the pedestrian area on the side of the bridge. When they were about a third of the way across a handful of huge lights like you’d see illuminate a stadium clicked on.

  “On your knees! Hands in the air!” A megaphone enhanced voice announced. Henry and Kyler both hit the concrete hard and looked for some kind of cover.

  Behind Henry and Kyler, everyone else had already come through the gate and began the long jog across the bridge. Kelly had just shut the gate and was working with Sarah to wrap the chain back around it when the lights came on.

  “That can’t be good.” Sarah said quietly. She might as well have not worried about speaking quietly. A few seconds after her hushed comment the first of their pursuers screamed in triumph at having caught up to them. The tall sore covered mess of a monster ran and smashed itself into the chain link fence in front of them. Kelly and Sarah had already jumped back from it. They’d wrapped the chain around the lever holding the gate so unless one of the Zombies figured out how to operate the lever then they should be good to go. Unless of course so many Zombies came that they just knocked the fence over.

  A few more Zombies came jumping over the cars smacking into the fence and screeching their heads off. Then it was like driving into a rainstorm. The first few drops hitting the windshield like the first few Zombies smacking into the fence. An unearthly roar from behind them erupted. The cheers of a thousand de
mented demons watching the world cup from hell. The intermittent splatter of Zombies smashing into the fence becoming the rapid-fire staccato of an afternoon deluge. The fence wasn’t going to hold for very long.

  Kelly and Sarah turned and ran. Randy waited until they were running then he picked up Zoey and tossed her over his shoulder. He started running as well. Up ahead in the bright lights he saw Henry and Kyler stand up. The lights made their huge shadows stand out behind them. They were obviously questioning what they should do. Randy handed Zoey off to Henry and screamed at him to run. Henry looked like he was about to argue then took another glance at the tall fence bending under the weight of the Zombies and started running. Randy turned around and ran back to grab Ali. He stopped when he saw Kelly had already picked her up. Caitlyn had Doreen and everyone was running.

  The man with the megaphone began yelling at them to run faster. His tone sounding desperate as he directed them to run for their lives. Randy and Kyler let themselves drift to the back of the group. They had their weapons up and ready to fire. Kyler’s leg felt like it was on fire, but he kept running. A few of the adrenalized Zombies sprang over the top of the fence that’d been lowered by the other infected pressing on it. Those Zombies started streaking towards Kyler and Randy.

  “Incoming!” Randy yelled. He’d seen the Zombie freaks make the impossibly high leaps over the fence. Kyler and Randy both slowed their pace before stopping completely to turn around and fight. Taking careful aim to conserve ammunition, they shot the closest Zombies as more began pouring over the top of the fence. They rapidly shot until they each ran out of ammunition in their rifles. Pulling out pistols they both turned and started running again. There were too many of the Zombies for them to possibly be able to shoot them all. They’d be lucky to shoot enough of the adrenalized ones to be able to win the footrace across the bridge. Both of them were already thinking they’d probably end up having to stand and fight until they died to give everyone else a chance to make it. Kyler morbidly thinking that if the fast ones stopped to munch on him maybe that’d give Randy time to escape with his family.

  Henry ran with the little girl held in his arms. He’d known these people for about twenty minutes and here he was risking his life for them. He considered handing off the girl to someone else so he could fall back and help out with the rear guard against the Zombies. Considering they were running straight towards some other unknown enemy though he didn’t really know where he was going to end up being needed the most. He was mostly wondering how long the damned bridge was. It felt like they’d been running forever. The roaring of the Zombies surging over the fence at the other end of the bridge completely covering up the sounds of the man on the megaphone at this point.

  Kelly ran as hard as she could with Ali held tightly in her arms. The little girl had a death grip on Kelly’s shoulder and neck. She ran with her full pack and the girl weighing her down. She was carrying her rifle with the rest of her weapons bouncing around on her as she ran. Her breathing was labored. She was covered in sweat in the cool night air. She focused on getting to the end of the bridge. She knew that behind her Randy and Kyler would be more than willing to lay down their lives to make sure the Zombies didn’t catch her and the girls before they made it off the bridge. She heard the shots ringing out behind her. That encouraged her to run even faster. She knew she’d never see her husband again if he thought she wasn’t going to make it off the bridge with their children. He’d turn and fight to the death. She wanted to turn and fight with him so bad she could taste it. Tears of frustration pouring down her face she pumped her legs even harder to save the children.

  At the far end of the bridge figures were moving around urgently. The five men stationed there were preparing to blow up the bridge. They’d left this one standing since they thought they may need it in the future to move troops or supplies across the river. The rest of the bridges had been demolished to keep the forces from the south from having an easy route up into North Carolina. They had the bridge rigged with enough explosives to take down a skyscraper with ease. They’d been ordered to pull the trigger on the explosives at the first sign of a Zombie mob or men from the south trying to cross. The man in charge of the patrol wasn’t ok with blowing up a bunch of little girls though.

  He stood on the tower beside the bridge with a pair of night vision binoculars watching the group battle their way across. He saw the two men in the back turn and fire into the tsunami of Zombies fixing to break over them. He ordered his man with the remote detonator for the explosives to stand down until given the word. If the Zombies made it to a certain point on the bridge before the family was off the bridge then he’d have no choice. He’d have to order the bridge to be blown or he’d risk them being overrun and the herd making it into his home territory.

  Seeing the group wasn’t going to make it without some assistance he made sure his headset was on tight and ordered his men to follow him. The one with his finger on the detonator was ordered to stay behind and pull the trigger if the Zombies made it to this side. One of the men looked like he wanted to question the sudden change in orders. He realized the men wouldn’t have been able to see the kids from where they were standing. He pressed send on his walkie and let the men know that it wasn’t just the two soldiers they’d seen on the bridge. It was a family with a bunch of little kids. On hearing there were children on the bridge the man who’d been about to complain shut up and started running towards the horde of Zombies along with the rest of them.

  Henry saw figures scrambling over the cars parked on the far end of the bridge and running towards them brandishing assault rifles. Carrying Zoey and running as fast as he could from the Zombies behind him Henry just gritted his teeth and kept running. If the men were coming out here to shoot him then he was dead. Not much he could do about it. Less than thirty seconds later the first armed warrior streaked past him running straight for the massive force of Zombies flooding the bridge. Henry kept running as he heard the thump of grenades exploding in the distance behind him.

  Randy and Kyler were walking backwards shooting the fastest of the Zombies with the last rounds from their pistols when the cavalry arrived. Four heavily armed men in camouflage joined them forming a line across the bridge. The four men began unleashing hell on the wall of flesh pressing towards them. The sound of exploding grenades and automatic weapons being unleashed rivaling the screaming of the horde for the next sixty seconds. The four men did enough damage to the Zombies leading the rest of the pack that the Zombie charge across the bridge actually stalled out momentarily.

  At some order that Kyler and Randy couldn’t hear the group of men stopped shooting and all started popping smoke grenades. The Zombies would hopefully be further confused by no longer being able to see their prey. Once the smoke was popped one of the men yelled at Randy and Kyler to run as fast as they could. He demonstrated how fast they should run by spinning on his heel and taking off like he was trying out for the Olympics. Renewed screaming from behind them let them all know that at least a few of the Zombies had managed to navigate the freshly killed pile of their dead brethren as well as the thick smoke billowing across the bridge.

  In the light thrown off by the strings of lights that’d been wired into the bridge they could all see the rest of the group had made it to the far end of the bridge. The four men who’d come out to save them weren’t sticking around to help the two remaining men run any faster. Kyler was limping as he ran. Randy was running alongside of him refusing to leave him behind. The four camouflaged rescuers were getting behind the concrete barricades at the end of the bridge and reloading to shoot the Zombies as they began emerging from the smoke.

  Randy and Kyler were still a good twenty feet from being completely off the bridge when the order was given to blow it up. One of the soldiers was physically keeping Kelly from running back out on the bridge to try and help Randy and Kyler.

  The world stopped. A massive explosion ripped through the center of the bridge. The ground shuddered.
The air seemed to be sucked out of the space around them. Less than a second later that air was pushed back in a concussive wall of force that slammed everyone standing down on the ground. Kyler and Randy were blown off their feet and slid the last ten feet until colliding with the large concrete barriers. A few Zombies stumbled out of the cloud of dust and debris and continued rushing towards them heedless of their massive concussions and collapsed lungs.

  Two of the soldiers shakily rose to their feet and walked towards handful of Zombies still coming at them. Their rifles went off, but Kelly couldn’t hear anything. She assumed it was from the blast of the explosives and just hoped her hearing would come back at some point. The men moved forward efficiently killing the remaining Zombies. Kelly put Ali down and glanced around quickly to make sure all the kids were ok. They all looked as well as could be expected. She jogged around the barriers and ran to check on Kyler and Randy.

  One of the men in uniform met her. His face covered by a black baklava. His intense eyes staring at her through the slit in the face mask.

  “Get your kids back about thirty feet behind the barriers. We have some vehicles there. We have to get out of here. That blast is going to get every Zombie on this side of the bridge within twenty miles excited as hell. I want to be gone way before they get here. We’ll grab the two guys on the ground. You get the kids.” The man ordered in a voice that was used to being obeyed.