by Joe Kelly
“Better deal with this group,” Jill, who stood at his side said as she pointed to the closest group of undead that had wandered up, drawn by the sound of motors and people. There were only Ten zombies in that group and they were still fifty feet out. There had been almost twenty of them in the beginning, but Chris and his team had whittled the numbers down as he watched, leaving scattered corpses on the ground. The remaining undead of the current mob broke into that odd staggering jog that they used instead of running. In some cases, it was a fast walk. Cursing himself for letting his attention wander he focused on the task at hand.
“Remember, if at all possible, knee shots to cripple them, and then kill them. Much safer that way” Jared said pulling both combat tomahawks as he started forward.
Logan felt a knot of fear in his belly as he walked forward just to the right of Jared. Jill hadn’t even drawn that sword she wore. What she planned on doing with a wall hanger, one of the nicest he had ever seen he admitted, was beyond him. He didn’t doubt it would break the first time she hit a bone. The sharkskin grip and silk wrapping as well as the decorations on the hilt and the scabbard must have cost her a pretty penny.
Three zombies pulled ahead of the group, arms outstretched, mouths working, fingers spastically clutching the air in anticipation. Logan braced himself as the undead closed. Then without warning Jared and Jill exploded into action, Jill glided forward drawing her sword and attacked the outer left zombie of the group in one fluid motion. Cutting from left hip to right shoulder. The blade sheared through the dead flesh and muscle with ease. With a twist of her wrists she brought the blade around in a diagonal slash that, to Logan’s surprise, swept the head from the zombies’ shoulders.
Jared took the zombie on the far right. Hooking one of its arms with a tomahawk he pulled it off balance. As the zombie stumbled and fell the second tomahawk slammed into its temple with a crack of breaking bone. Something dark and thick oozed out of the hole. Coagulated blood, Jared assumed.
Jason armed with a Machete, took out another that had come up fast and tried to lunge at Jared with multiple strikes to the head and neck. Jill hadn’t paused as the zombie she had beheaded fell she pivoted and snap kicked the middle zombie in the knee. The bone shattered, the thing toppled to the ground.
Jared grunted with effort as he tore the tomahawk from the head of the zombie on the right, blocked a grasping hand of a zombie that had reached them with the shaft of his offhand tomahawk and as the center zombie, its knee gone, began to topple over, Jared pulped the back of its skull with his weapon, the zombie didn’t move when it hit the ground.
He pivoted to the left outside the grasping arms of the newest arrival. Hooking it behind the knee with one tomahawk he pulled it off balance and brought the other weapon down on its skull as it fell.
Logan was surprised at the speed of the violence. Not about to be called a coward for hanging back he caught up and after that stayed on Jared’s right. They hit what was left of the group head on, Jill taking a head then cutting a leg off another. Jared face planted a tomahawk in a third and placed the end of a steel toed boot in the side of another’s face. One zombie, its white face covered in old blood, ran at Logan, all he could see were the eyes and the gnashing teeth. He knew it was reaching for him, he cocked back and swung the bat he was holding, rotting hands with blackened nails scored at his shoulders, but his bat struck it cleanly in the temple and dropped it like a rock.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jared use an elbow strike to a zombie’s chest, bone snapped, the zombie staggered back, and half fell into Logan’s zone. Logan swung with all his might and put it right out of the park, then almost threw up as his bat tore away the zombie’s jaw and sent it flying across the street to vanish into some weeds, something dark splashed on him, the stench was indescribable.
He hit the zombie a second time and it went down. Logan blinked and realized all ten of the undead were down. Jill and Jared were dispatching the crawlers as he watched.
“That’s the strongest wall hanger I’ve ever seen, most break the moment you hit something hard” Logan said almost awed as they backed away to their prior position to gain a bit more space and time to react against the next group. Jill smiled as she wiped the blade with a swath of silk then sheathed it with a flourish like he had seen in movies and she did it without looking.
“It’s not a wall hanger.” Jill said her left hand almost caressing scabbard at her side. “I had this made for me, it was traditionally forged by a master sword smith in Japan ten years ago, it took a year to be forged and cost me fifteen thousand dollars” Jill explained. Logan stared at her, fifteen thousand dollars for a sword.
“You’re kidding.” Logan said after a moment. She shook her head slowly.
“No, I am not, I’ve been involved in the martial arts since I was a kid. I saved up for years to have this sword made and I waited till I had gotten three black belts in as many styles and reached the final ranks in kenjitsu.” She explained.
“That explains why you have it with you all the time” Logan commented, feeling like an idiot. Okay so she was pretty but till this moment he hadn’t really accepted that she was as deadly as the stories around camp made her sound. He had dismissed the stories as being overblown and not having seen her spar with Jared, he had just assumed she wasn’t any better at fighting than anyone else. Probably worse, judging her by the women that had traveled in Logan’s old group. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have underestimated you.” He said after a moment. Nothing like feeling like an ass he told himself.
“do not worry grasshopper, I will hit you in the head with my boot repeatedly till you learn” she said smiling, Logan looked puzzled as Jared snorted a laugh at what must be a private joke. “And speaking of, less talk and more zombie killing” Jared said pointing to another group that had closed to a distance that could get dangerous.
Jared smiled as he heard first one then another deuce rumble to life at the check point. YES! He silently cheered.
✽ ✽ ✽
“crap” Jared muttered as they pulled into the campground and saw the mob of undead around their camp. Many of the dead were already heading towards the sound of the motors. “I hate these things” He said as he sped up. “Hang on” He warned the people in his van.
He plowed into the knot of zombies in the lead, wincing as several vanished under the hood and sound of breaking bones could be heard. Then the first Deuce and half pulled past him running down another group of undead. Veering away from the larger mass behind them.
The people in the camp were firing on the mob now, and bodies were falling, most rose to their feet again, but it slowed them down and help splinter the mob into smaller groups. Jared turned the van and started back as the two Deuces roared past him again and slammed into the mob of undead once more.
“Keep back Jared, we can deal with them.” Steve said over the radio. “these trucks can take it far better than your van.”
“Roger that” Jared said as he turned away then stopped. He wasn’t eager to run them down, the sound of bodies being crushed made him sick.
It didn’t take long for the Deuces to make short work of the mob, then the entire group both from the camp and from the teams started the dirty work of putting down the cripples.
“damn I’m getting sick of this” Steve said as he wiped off the blade of his axe and surveyed the bodies sprawled outside the camp. The only bright point was there had been more undead killed by the Deuces than crippled. But there were still enough cripples to haunt their dreams for a long time to come.
“Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger” Chris commented as he passed by heading for the groups camp.
“Let’s get the supplies inside, sorted and loaded. I want everyone ready to pull out at a moment’s notice because if another mob shows up, we are leaving.” Jared said. “Rob, check out the vehicles make sure they are ready to go.”
“here, you need this” Jill said two hours later as she sat a cup of hot chocolate in
front of Jared.
“should have saved this for the kids, not me” He said unable to ignore the smell rising from the cup. There is a point that sacrifice is stupid, he thought as he picked up the cup. “but I am not going to say no either” He said as she smiled.
“at least we ended up with a good haul” He said tapping the list that She and Bridget had made for him.
There was a total of ten m16a3’s, eight magazines for each, Six M-4’s with five mags for each, thirteen combat vests with ammo pouches, four cases of ammo. 800 rounds of 9mm, Three Night Vision Goggles, Radios, microwave com gear, twenty cases of MRE’s, blankets, flashlights, batteries, a field surgery kit, basic medicines, first aid kits and compression bandages, twelve fifty-gallon drums of fuel for the Deuces and an assortment of other things. It was one of the best hauls they had made in a month not to mention getting their grubby hands on both Deuce and half’s.
Tomorrow Jared planned on returning and taking down the tents and retrieving the truck with the water tank as well as recovering the large pull behind diesel generator on the site.
“You know there is a limit to how many vehicles we can drive, right” Chris mentioned over dinner.
“Don’t be a smart ass, that water truck is vital to us.” Jared pointed out. “And the Deuces are necessary.”
“What about all the Com gear, we have a bunch of it now” Chris asked, absently flexing his hand, a habit he had developed after having two fingers broken. “do we really need any more?”
“Spare parts in case we need them, Rob and Gary are installing the systems we didn’t have” Jared replied.
Chris shook his head, other than basic radio communications between the members of the group he didn’t really see the point in taking the large com rigs. The RV that had been dubbed the Com shack, was damn near full between the ham rigs, the systems taken out of the Command truck, the laptops and now the new systems.
“You know how it works, when we really need the com gear something will happen, and we will be down to slap flares, whistles and waving our peckers for attention.” Chris said.
He stopped speaking suddenly and looked up to see Beth glaring at him. Several of the kids were tittering like they always did when they heard a dirty word.
“Sorry Beth, I’ll try to watch it” he said. “end of the world and we still have to be politically correct” Chris complained with a smile.
“It’s called being polite you knob” Ronny said grinning. “or would you rather have Mary deal with minor language infractions.”
“After she got done spanking my butt, Shelly would kill me for dropping my drawers for the spanking” Chris remarked with a tired smile. His handsome face looked drawn and exhausted, like everyone else.
“Damn straight boyo” Shelly said. “if she wants to spank you, I WILL drop your drawers for you”
Jared picked at his MRE, it wasn’t one of the worst ones, but it by god wasn’t real food. He had some smoked turkey stashed away he ought to give this to someone else and go sneak a bite. But no if everyone else had to suffer thru this crap so did he. At least he didn’t get stuck with that nasty Mexican enchilada meal. Which tasted nothing like Mexican food, and only had a passing resemblance to food in general.
“Jared can I see you” Linda, the groups registered nurse asked from the entrance to the social area. Her brown hair was mussed, and she looked tired, he thought. Normally the fit and plain looking woman was full of energy but the last couple of weeks of caring for Pappy and the other sick were taking their toll on her.
Jared shoved away his MRE and made himself look regretful at having to interrupt his meal. He was pretty sure he wasn’t fooling anyone though.
“No problem, I can drag myself away” he said as he followed her outside. He glanced up at the roof to make sure John was on guard duty, and then focused on Linda.
“What is it?” Jared asked, hoping it wasn’t bad news.
“Pappy keeps asking for something to write on” Linda said.
“asks, I thought you couldn’t take him off the oxygen?” Jared asked almost shuddering at the mental image of the tube down pappi’s throat. She had intubated him a week ago because the old man had still been having problems. The biggest problem aside from the stroke, was the longer the tube was in the harder it would be for him to breath on his own.
“Hand signals Jared, hand signals” Linda explained. “I’m going to take the tube out when I’m sure he can breathe on his own. Probably in the next two or three days”
“So, what’s the problem?” Jared asked.
“No real problem really, it shows that his mind is intact. But the first thing he did was to write your name and won’t write anything else now” there was something about her face, he thought. “that’s all he wrote was my name?” Jared asked suspiciously.
“well almost all, about the third time I asked him to write down how he felt and what he needed, he….” Linda paused and blushed. “he wrote, get Jared, you needle pushing pussy” inside the hall everyone eating paused as they heard Jared explode into laughter.
Jared sat down on the edge of the bed, where Pappy lay hooked up to tubes and wires. He looked around for a moment. “do you people take a special class in how to make any room look like a depressing hospital room” he asked. Privately pleased that they had all this working stuff, and that there were two people in the group who actually had a small clue on how to use it.
He looked at pappy, whose single working eye was fixed on him. Pappy tapped the pad that lay next him. Jared leaned over and picked it up. “You want me to read this?” he asked rhetorically. Pappy could still manage a ‘your stupider than a bag of hammers’ glare Jared noted. Pappy’s hand writing had never been great Jared knew but it was barely legible after the stroke.
I had dream, Jared read, so read it all shit head. It wasn’t a normal dream. I was in this room at a cat house I used to haunt, where an old pal of mine from the war was talking to me, he was a Cherokee, good soldier, good whoring partner. He said tell you go to the Ocanaluftee there’s someone you need to meet there. Don’t know where it’s at. and there was something about a number. Tell my son not to worry about me, and you shit head, you keep these people together. There’s something out there, that wants you all dead, especially the kids
Jared quickly read the note then tore it from the pad and shoved it into the cargo pocket of his pants. I am not ready for anyone else to read the note, he thought as he placed the pad back beside pappy. But it shows his mind is working pretty well, he thought feeling buoyed at that.
“Now you listen to me, you hang in there. I know it’s rough, but like Jeff, I haven’t given up hope for one more miracle.” Jared said with feeling that might have surprised others. He really was fond of the foul mouthed old coot. Pappy picked up the pencil and wrote for a moment. He tapped the pad when he had finished writing.
Jared saw that Pappy had written. You’re not surprised about the dream? Jared read “actually I was surprised, surprised that a marine can write and without eating his crayons” Jared replied with a grin as Pappy glared at him then slowly gave Jared the finger.
Jared rose and then leaned over pappy. “You hang in there you old fart, I mean it. But if it comes down to it. I’ll send you on to the pearly gates myself.” He said then patted Pappy’s shoulder. For the first time he could ever think of, he saw a look of thanks in that old faded blue eye and a single tear. Jared left Linda to do her job and headed back to the hall he had a map to look at.
“Why this sudden change in routes” Steve asked as he looked at the map Jared had spread out over the table the next morning.
“Because it passes thru mostly empty areas.” Jared said not wanting to explain dreams and portents to them. Particularly Pappy’s dreams and portents which surprisingly didn’t lead to whore house.
“It takes us near Cherokee too.” Chris noted. “I remember that place didn’t we hike thru there a few years ago?” Jared nodded. Ronny grinned suddenly.
> “That’s the place where that really hot Indian girl…. Um gave us directions to the waterfall” Ronny finished lamely, glancing at Mary who gave him a withering you’re an idiot and going to pay for that later glare.
“That would be the place” Jared replied, wondering if he should find some way to charge Mary for paddle making.
“At least there won’t be a huge amount of undead in the area.” Shelly said as she sipped a cup of coffee.
“Shouldn’t be but it does means we have to cut back west then south, then taking this road,” He said tapping a spot on the map. “will keep us away from any real towns till we reach the Smokies and then we swing east and stay in the foothills. I doubt we will see many of the undead till we get close the main entrance to the park.”
“Okay I guess its settled then” Steve said looking around at his friends. “I would also like to ask, what the hell is up with Henry and that college girl.”