100 A.Z. (Book 2): Tenochtitlan

by Nelson, Patrick T.

  Many, many men lost their minds and ran yelling away, but there was nowhere to run. Most held their posts, as much from a total lack of options as duty. Sara froze in horror. She couldn’t fathom what she was seeing. Bowen was screaming at men to stay at their posts and get the walkers south of their position. The herd was a half-mile away, giving them maybe fifteen minutes. Geldings were being rapidly moved to the south as well. They’d been so focused on the city they’d left their rear completely open. Sara saw the mistake now. This was the end.

  The men who stayed were close to panicking, as the roar of the herd grew nearer. Some shook in absolute terror and couldn’t grab ropes or form a sensible thought. No small number of men were heard crying for their mothers, lost in momentary insanity. Men trampled their neighbors to the ground, as some suffocated in the mud. Bowen screamed at them to maintain structure, as he ordered a last-ditch maneuver. He directed all humans into the narrow path they’d been clearing. Then they would close off the entrance with about two thousand geldings. The men clawed to get ahead of the others around them in a fight to get in the path. They had maybe ten minutes to get in and to put the geldings behind them. Bowen saw men wildly shooting or stabbing others around them to get ahead. Almost ten thousand men were packed into the small area when the gelding “plug” was put at the entrance. There were still thousands on the unprotected side. The Academy walker army was still harnessed but on the other side of the gelding barrier. The handlers had simply let them go. Sara watched helplessly as the herd came and swept away her undead. At first they held firm in their harnesses, but within minutes they were lost in the mix. She couldn’t distinguish hers from the herd. She’d lost her walker army and five thousand men. All those years breeding people at Peterson, gone in a flash.

  The herd collided into the geldings, sending a ripple through them and into the packed-in Academy soldiers. The men closest to the lake were only feet from it and they yelled for the men ahead to hold their ground as they were being forced closer and closer to the rotting liquid. There was no room to move, men were shoulder to shoulder in the path. All had to push forward against the momentum of the herd if they were to survive. They pushed against the man in front of them and heaved in unison against the force. More men lost their footing in the mud and slipped to their doom. The whole army acted as a single organism, no one could move independent of the undulating mass.

  “Keep pushing!” Bowen shouted over the roar. His men shoved continually into the geldings as they slid closer and closer to the lake.

  Chapter 15

  Sal realized his effort to document the magnitude of the herd was fruitless. The guy he’d had talk to Ellie wanted more information than was his business, and Sal already knew everything he needed to know. Anyway, this wasn’t as much a mission of facts, as it was of emotion. He needed people to truly understand the danger they were in, yes, but more importantly, to see Sal’s coalition as the only solution.

  “If you want to be a part of something great you have to create it yourself,” he mused. He looked over Ellie’s shoulder, as she studied the latest imagery.

  And if you can’t create something great, just fake it! Ellie thought to herself.

  “S-S-Sal?” Ellie asked.

  “Yes, my dear?” Sal said with a disconcertingly pleasant lilt.

  “I-I-I had a question about the herd. From looking at the map, I don’t think the herd will be very dense by the time it reaches us,” Ellie stammered.

  “What do you mean dense?”

  “C-c-concentrated, c-c-crowded,” she replied.

  “So what?”

  “I-I-I…”

  “Ellie, don’t worry about things that are over your head. Just look at the imagery and tell me what you see,” he said, fustily scratching his head before stamping off to make preparations.

  She sighed and looked back at the map on her wall. It was faded and ripping at the folds. It said it was a tourist map, printed in 2010. She spent the rest of morning daydreaming about it and tourism.

  The following day, Sal told Ellie she would join him on the expedition southeast. He assured her it would be completely safe and they would have a large security entourage that would protect them.

  “Much larger than when we went to Colorado. This time I’m getting serious about security,” he said. Ellie wondered if that meant he hadn’t been serious before.

  “I d-d-don’t–”

  “Fantastic! I’ll tell the logistics folks to pack extra food. This is going to be great, like the good ‘ol days roaming the countryside and getting into trouble. It’s strange; this time I feel a greater degree of responsibility. I want to see this mission succeed like never before. I think that’s maturity, El!” Sal said, slapping her on the back.

  Man, she thought. He was getting worse every day.

  Sal wouldn’t allow Ellie to provide any route support for the journey. He left that up to Chambers, Captain Obevens’ replacement. “He’s also fairly handsome,” Sal had offered.

  She didn’t even pretend to smile.

  Chambers was the man who’d killed the last rebels after Sal returned from the Springs trip. Once word got out the Rocky Mountain Government no longer existed, people panicked. Men who’d thought they could do a better job than Sal attempted to take power. Fighting broke out. Nobody trusted each other. Sal’s death squads eliminated those who resisted his authority. The remainder of the resistance had holed up in a dining facility and barricaded the door with tables. Chambers had given the order to burn the structure down with the rebels inside.

  Ellie agreed he was handsome, but in a way that signaled he thought he was really handsome. He strutted around with his chest out and gave orders this way and that as his men ran about to meet his needs.

  He put his hand on Ellie’s shoulder and tried to give the most sympathetic look he could. “Ma’am, we are going to do everything we can to ensure your safety and comfort on this trip. Don’t you worry about a thing. If you should need anything don’t hesitate to ask. I am here to serve.”

  Ellie nodded but felt slightly nauseous.

  Sal wasn’t joking, the team was going to be much larger than before. The security team was twenty men deep, and they were armed with assault rifles, hand weapons, and body armor. There was a benefit to having some of the last military gear on the planet. The team would take a horse for every member and another twenty for supplies. Sal got two horses for his own supplies. Ellie couldn’t imagine trying to maintain a low profile with so many men and horses but then reminded herself, “Oh yeah, that’s over my head.”

  She was reminding herself of that a lot lately. Chambers had no field experience. Some of the horses were obviously not healthy, they weren’t bringing very much ammunition, and the “rebels” Chambers had killed were the only ones who’d actually worked in the field and seen the outside world. Once again, though, over her head.

  “Ma’am, I don’t think you are going to need those,” Chambers said to Ellie, motioning to her maps of California, Arizona, and Texas. “We’ve got some very smart boys on this trip who will make sure we find our way home.”

  She still packed the maps.

  Once the team was ready, they headed out from Los Alamos toward Texas. Ellie asked for more specifics about the destination, but Chambers told her not to worry. Sal informed the group there were a number of independent tribes unaffiliated with any government who would be willing to join the coalition. There was one in particular he was interested in.

  “They’re wild and uncouth, so we need to be careful,” Sal said.

  “Those are the kind of men we need—wild and untamed by the feminizing walls of civilization! Those are the brave men who’ll fight the herd!” Chambers bellowed. Ellie rolled her eyes. She wished Obevens were here so they could make fun of these jokers.

  “Now that we’re on the road, I’d like us to all sing some marches I learned while in basic training. I hope you can all humor me,” Chambers began, grinning toothily. Ellie stared at h
im, horrified.

  Chambers rode up to the front of the pack and awkwardly flipped around in his saddle so he was facing the team. He cleared his throat and raised his hand in the air to get everyone’s attention. Ellie looked around to see if anyone else thought this was ridiculous, but they all were young, sober faced, and readying to sing.

  “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again…” Chambers began loudly and off key.

  Ellie felt ill. She began looking around for the walker herd that was surely zeroing in on their position right now.

  The herd never came, almost to her disappointment.

  She followed the team’s progress on her map, as the weather warmed and elevation dropped. Chambers would often take deep inhalations through his nose and make some sort of remark like “This is the life,” and slap Sal on the back. Sal played along.

  They reached a junction, and she watched as the team members looked at a map to determine which way to go. Ellie consulted her tourist map, which wasn’t much better, and listened for what they ultimately decided. They chose the northerly route, which Ellie didn’t object to, but their reason concerned her. They believed north was a more promising route because Chambers always liked to take “the high road.”

  ***

  The fourth night they camped in a flat, dry area covered in sagebrush with no hills in sight. It was dusty and windy, which made tent setup a challenge. Sal’s large tent was set up for him, as he laughed with Chambers over a story from the “good ol’ days” in which Sal rescued a tribal leader’s daughter from a bear, and the man wanted Sal to marry her. “‘Sir, I would, but I think I may have rescued the bear and not the girl.’ She was so ugly I couldn’t tell the difference!” Both men erupted. They were taking swigs from an unmarked bottle.

  The team set up a security perimeter and appointed lookouts . It would be easy to see any threats coming across the barren landscape. The sun went down and Ellie’s stomach wasn’t feeling very well. It may have been the dried venison she’d eaten the day before. Something hadn’t looked right about it. She rushed from camp to the designated trench to frantically get rid of the offending matter. After what seemed like an hour she crumpled onto the ground by the trench in a ball from the cramps. She turned her head to look up at the stars as her mind began replaying every mistake she’d ever made. The sad, humiliating moment culminated with imagining how Obevens had probably met someone else.

  “He can’t meet anyone else, stupid, he’s a prisoner,” she said out loud. She thought of Sara and what kind of woman she was. Hopefully she wasn’t trying to get her hooks into Obevens.

  The sound of shuffling footsteps approached. She quickly picked herself up from the dirt and looked into the direction of the sound. It was dark.

  “I-I-I’m okay, just not feeling well,” she said, presumably to the approaching guard. There was no response. Ellie stood up and began walking backwards, away from the approaching figure. She couldn’t see who it was in the dark and even if she could she didn’t know all the team members’ names.

  Great, she thought. This jerk is lonely and here I am all alone out here. She wished Sal had given her a gun.

  “H-h-hey, who’s there?” she said trying to sound tough, but failing.

  Still no response. The figure was about ten feet from her when she turned and fled back toward her tent. As she approached one of the camp guards yelled at her. “Identify yourself!” before seeing it was her. “Oh, it’s just you.”

  “T-t-th–” but she couldn’t finish her sentence. A walker groan came from the direction she’d been.

  The soldier cursed as he leveled his semi-automatic rifle toward the sound and plugged off shots into the dark. Ellie had been in front of him and sidestepped just in time to avoid getting shot.

  The camp was in chaos, as men jumped from their tents and began firing in every direction at every movement seen and imagined.

  Chambers stumbled from his tent and yelled, “Cease fire! Cease fire! You blasted morons! Stop shooting!”

  It took another minute or two to finally get the shooting to stop and figure out what had happened. Somehow the blame came back to Ellie.

  “Ma’am, I don’t know what you are used to or how you imagine a lady is to conduct herself in camp, but this is unacceptable! You don’t go running up to a man with a gun and start yelling that we’re under attack! It just isn’t done!” He was fuming.

  They did a roll call. Two men were missing. They began fanning out in a search. After thirty minutes of searching, they found one of the men with a bullet through his chest. Friendly fire. They found the zombie Ellie had seen with a dozen rounds all over it and one in the head. They never found the second missing man.

  Chambers apologized to Ellie for his previous statements. Given her fear and inexperience, her actions were completely understandable, and the man’s death wasn’t her fault. He wouldn’t want to put that kind of guilt on a person. In Ellie’s mind, there was no doubt of her innocence in the matter. It was his inexperienced men and poor leadership that had caused this mess.

  “You are still a welcome and valuable member of the team,” Chambers said with a forced smile.

  Ellie was escorted back to her tent and given a personal guard from that day on. A babysitter, she thought.

  They buried the man and headed out the next day two men short and with a lighter load of ammunition. Not a mile out of camp, they saw a walker’s jerky figure on the distant horizon. One of the men rode out to it and a few minutes later they hear two pistol shots from the rider. He rode back and informed the group it had been the other missing man, who had been bitten.

  “Next time use one shot,” Chambers said.

  Unfortunately, this poor shooting had given Chambers an idea.

  “It has come to my attention that some members of our team are somewhat lacking in the marksmanship department—today we will remedy this,” Chamber shouted to his men.

  They set up some targets; rocks, branches, anything sizeable, to begin practicing. Before they actually began Chambers gave a detailed history of how he’d learned to shoot. He expounded on his disdain for a particular philosophy on shooting none of them had heard of. It involved shooting to kill versus shooting to wound and the difference in opinion in the books he’d read… It went on for forty-five minutes while they stood at attention listening. Did Chambers know only a head shot worked, Ellie wondered.

  “Watch me, watch how I do it,” Chambers said as he steadied his handgun and put three rounds into a tree stump.

  “Poise, position and patience. That is how you drop an adversary. Say it with me, ‘Poise, position and patience,” he chanted as the men followed along.

  “Ellie, you too, this might save your life,” Chambers commanded.

  “C-c-can I have a gun?” she asked.

  Chambers looked at Sal and they both agreed it was a bad idea in light of the need to conserve ammo.

  “All right, commence shooting!” Chambers yelled. The men began unloading round after round into the dry landscape around them. Ellie left to find a tree to sit under.

  After the shooting lesson, some of the men asked Sal why they’d seen so few zombies on the journey. They’d all expected to be fighting them at every turn.

  “There were no towns so no walkers. We’re nearing a populated area, so there will probably be more.”

  On day eight, they reached the approximate edge of the tribal territory. There were walker skulls fixed on sticks. These were the people Sal wanted to persuade. Ellie looked at her map. They were nearing a pre-outbreak city, “San Antonio.” Sal had them set a course to bypass it.

  “W-w-w…”

  “Why don’t we go there? I’d rather not say,” Sal replied, avoiding eye contact.

  They gave the city a wide berth and hastily made camp as night fell. The guards were told to show extra vigilance, as they were in especially dangerous lands, being this close to the city. Ellie thought that lesser vigilance might be safer with the
ir shooting habits.

  In the middle of the night, they heard a loud noise in the distance. It was a moan, but like a human imitating a zombie. They all came out of their tents and looked in the direction of the sound.

  “That is a human,” Sal asserted.

  The sound went on for another hour before stopping. They all lumbered back to bed except for the skittish lookouts. Just as everyone was getting back to sleep the sound started again, but on the opposite side of their camp. Chambers could be heard cursing in his tent. Despite his newfound love for the outdoors and wide open spaces, he was a man who liked his sleep. This time, they all stayed in their tents while the lookouts congregated on the side of the camp where the sound had come from. Ellie peeked out from her tent at the guards pointing and speculating. She went back in and tried to get some rest.

  She was woken again by the noise, only this time it didn’t sound like one person moaning, but several. Everyone popped out of their tents ready to shoot whatever was coming. They searched for their lookouts, but they were gone. As were the horses.

  “What the…?!” Chambers said as he tried to comprehend what could possibly cause a man to disobey an order of his.

  “Biters!” one of the men yelled. He began firing rounds into the oncoming undead. Ellie sprang from her tent and ran to where all the men were clustered. They were firing at will into the night. In the flashes of their weapons she was able to make out six walkers approaching the camp.

  The lack of head shots was appalling to Chambers. He ran around behind them with his hands balled up in fists yelling “No! No! No!” The men kept firing even after all six walkers had fallen to the ground.

  Chambers ordered a cease fire and walked over to inspect the zombies. They were his missing lookouts. He was now down to twelve men, Sal and the girl. His ammo was frighteningly low.