Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (10 page)

“Just drive north, but not too
fast,
” I
replied.

Sarah got it instantly. 
“Army’s problem.”

“Army’s mess.
  It’s time Freeman cleaned
up his own
.”

“I fully agree.”  Sarah pulled forward, but stay
ed at a speed of about five mile
s
and
hour.  Immediately, Rebecca pulled in behind, staying close.  Duncan had a bit of a difficulty getting his truck started, which allowed a couple of soldier zombies the opportunity to grab on to the mirrors, but once he got rolling, they fell off quickly enough.

The town of Kirkwood was a big place, and like several places of its size after the Upheaval, found it was difficult to take care of all the people it housed.  So the town was actually populated by about half of
its
former three thousand, and the rest had gone to other communities, bolstering their defenses and contributing what they could.  Eventually the city would return to its former size, but they just didn’t have the resources yet.

We crested a small hill and saw a line of soldiers facing us.  They were standing by their vehicles, which had been parked sideways across the road.  Right
away,
I knew we were going to have trouble.  I told Sarah to speed it up so we could get better defenses prepared.

We pulled up to the trucks and I got out, waving a soldier over.

“Where’s Colonel Freeman?”  I
asked
.

“Back at the command post,
sir,
” The soldier, a kid
,
little older than twenty, answered nervously.

“Better go get him, son.  You’re about to be
attacked,
” I
said.  The boy ran off, and I went over to the milling men.

“Listen up! These trucks need to be off the road, I need three on the east side, three on the west side.  Angle them all so they’re facing southwest-northeast, and put them about ten feet apart.  Move now!”  I yelled.

Thankfully, the men were ready to listen.  They must have heard the shots from the south, but their vision was obscured by the small hills.  Those small hills
probably saved their lives, because the little zombies would have taken their rampage right into the heart of Kirkwood, and we’d have lost the rest of the damn army.

As the last truck was being put in place, Tommy and Duncan were organizing the men into firing squads, three groups of five.  One group would fire until they were empty, then the next group would advance up to the firing line, while the first went back to reload.  The trucks were angled to prevent the men from shooting each other, and a large opening down the middle would allow for firing from the front.  It was the best we could do for troops not used to zombies and with a
short
amount of time.

“Talon!”
Colonel Freeman’s voice cut across the road.  “Thank
God,
you’re alive!”

“
Colonel,
” I said, waiting for the man to reach me.

“What’s going on, why are these men being deployed,
have
you heard from my troops to the south?  We heard firing, but felt it was better to maintain our position and protect the people of Kirkwood.”

“Your men are being deployed to handle the threat of zombies; yes, I have heard from your troops to the south, and by the way, here they come now.”

Chapter 17

The first group of zombies came into view as they shuffled their way over the hill.  No one could mistake them for living, the slow gait and low moan marked them as undead even to people unfamiliar with them.  Some of their helmets were skewed and covering an eye, while others were dark with blood.  One had no face left, and another was
drooling
a dark liquid on the ground. 

I walked away from Colonel Freeman, who was frozen in horror, and stood in the middle of the trucks.  “Hey!  Right here!  Hi guys!”  I was more
worried about some nervous nitwit
shooting me in the back
,
than the hundred or so zombies on the way.

The zombies responded warmly and shuffled quickly in my direction.  Actually, I think they were just moving downhill as opposed to wanting to make a new friend.  I waited until the number of zombies reached about fifty,
and then
I went back to Freeman.

“The rest of your men are dead, killed by the little zombies and finished off by us and some friends from
Smithshire
.  You need to figure out what you are going to do with the rest of your men, because unless you do something right, you’re going to get them all killed, and leave everyone in those zombie’s path defenseless.”  I was harsh but honest.  Freeman wasn’t a fool, and he did what he could with what he had, but he was outgunned with this one.

Freeman watched the zombies come forward.  Sarah and Rebecca were keeping the men in the main road from firing, and Tommy, Duncan and Charlie were waiting with their groups to open fire.  If it all worked to plan, we’d be done here in about fifteen minutes.

“What are you going to do?”  Freeman asked.

“I’m going home to batten down the hatches.  I know what I’m facing and know how I need to prepare.  I have a family that might be in danger right now, and I need to get home.” I looked at the sky, and the sun was about two hours away from setting.    I did not want to spend another day away from home, and I was tired of sleeping in the truck.

“Talon.
  This is the hardest thing for me to admit, but I don’t know what to do.” Freeman looked at me for a moment,
and then
looked down.

I sympathized with the man.  I knew what it was like to be the one everyone looked to for answers, and the pressure put on a leader was immense.  We always questioned ourselves, always wondered if we were doing the right thing, praying for miracles, readying our excuses for failure. 
Sometimes,
all we wanted was to be the one looking for the answer, not the one expected to provide it.

I looked
around;
making sure no one could hear us.  “You can’t fight them head on, this mess proves it. 
Do the next best
thing
, get your men ahead of them,
and warn the communities.  Let them know what they’re facing. 
There’s
enough veterans of the zombie wars out there that they’ll know what to do.  Hell, they might take out a few for you.  But they have to know about the threat.  Go tell them, and do it as quickly as possible.  You’re running short on time. The ones who
caused this massacre are like
ly three miles away by now. You’ll probably never catch them in
the open, but you can ambush the shit out of them with everyone watching where they go.  That’s your best option.”

Freeman opened his mouth to answer, but the first crash of rifles interrupted him.  Fifteen zombies dropped, and then the killing began.  The horde got it from the sides and from the front.  In a short amount of time, the road was strewn with dead again bodies.  There was a bit of commotion as some soldiers broke down after killing friends, but it was handled by Charlie and Tommy.

I looked at Freeman.  “Get this cleared,
and
then get away.  You know what to do.  Break your men into groups of ten, and use every vehicle you have.  You’ll have to take every road you can see, and check all the communities from here to Chicago.  But you have to get it done now.”

Freeman nodded, and I waved a hand to get my crew back together.  We regrouped at the trucks, and within twenty minutes, we were on our way.  I told Sarah about what I had told Freeman and she agreed completely.  I then spent about fifteen minutes looking over the map, trying to put together some kind of path that the kids were following.

The only thing I could put together at the moment
,
was
that
they were travelling
in
a kind of north-northeast direction, which given the attacks we just saw and the sparing of Kirkwood, I’d say Monmouth was not likely to get hit, being further north.  The only town of any size in the way was Galesburg, and Freeman would be on his way there.  I didn’t think he’d make it in time, and I said so to Sarah.

“What’s the plan, then?”  Sarah asked as she drove without direction. 

“Stay on 34 until it breaks north to Monmout
h, check in with them, and then
head east.  There a tiny town right in the way of these zombies, if they’re still headed the way I think they are.  If anyone’s there, they’ll be dead in short order.”  I said.

“You got it.”

I relayed the plan to the van, and Charlie brought up a good point.  He wanted to know where we were going to hunker down for the night.  I told him we had to warn Cameron, the town in the way, and after
that,
we could bed down for a few hours.

Chapter 18

Sarah pushed the truck as fast as she could, hoping to get ahead of the zombies to Cameron.  It was only about ten miles, and I hoped the landscape would slow down our little friends to give us enough time to catch up.  I would welcome another chance at the horde, and if we could do some serious damage, we could slow the threat down to manageable levels.

We passed Monmouth in a short time, and paused only to send in a message.  Monmouth was a decent town, and
the people there
had decided on a unique approach to the zombie problem early on.  Instead of building defenses, they dug them.  Monmouth had two main roads that went right down the center of town, dividing it into four equal parts.  In addition, there was a road for each border of the town.  The people of Monmouth just took their trackers and
earthmovers,
and dug up the roads.  Then
they
just kept digging, eventually making the trenches about fifteen f
eet deep.  After that, they simply
put up some barricades to keep themselves from falling in, and went about their lives.  There was a single drawbridge to get into the town, and it was manned at all times by a couple of very serious looking men with scoped rifles.  We gave our message to them and they promised to pass it along and make sure they were ready.  I didn’t worry too much about the birthplace of Wyatt Earp.

We took 180
th
Avenue all the way to Cameron, and it was almost disappointing to have no one there to warn.  We knew we were ahead of the zombies, but without actually seeing them, we’d only be guessing as to where they were.  The town was quiet, and as the sun was casting long shadows over the land, I knew it was time to pack it in for the night.

“See if you can find someplace
secure,
”  I
said, looking once more at the map.

“Will do.
  You want someplace high?” Sarah asked.

“If you can find one, that’d be great.  I don’t see anything we could use, though.”

“A little faith, Mr. Talon.”

If she saw something I didn’t, I was more than willing to go along.  My head was heavy and I just wanted to curl up into a little ball and sleep.  I was consoled by the notion that we should be home by tomorrow evening and I would be back with my sons.  This trip had been so much longer than I had anticipated, and I was going to owe my brother a lot for watching the kids as long as he had.

Sarah pulled up Highway 5 and turned onto Church Street.  Two blocks
up
and there was the structure I was looking for.  I wasn’t able to see it from the ground, but somehow Sarah had.

“Well done, Mrs. Talon.  Very well
done,” I
said, giving Sarah’s leg a small squeeze.

“You can appropriately thank me another
time,
” Sarah said, picking up my hand and giving it a small kiss.

I walked around the grain silos and saw they were
well placed
to keep us safe.  At the top of one of the silos was a control booth, and it looked big enough to sleep about four of us.  That was the
good
news.  The not-so-good news
was
that
two of us would have to sleep in the van or truck.

The rest of the crew stretched out of the van and we took a minute to walk around the silos.  Charlie gave the structure a thumbs-up, and even managed a grin when Rebecca pointed out the shack on top.

“
Dibs,
”
was
all he said. 

I laughed.  “Let’s get our stuff and get up there, all of us.  I don’t know when or where our friends are, but I’d rather be up there and unseen as soon as possible.”

We climbed up the silo, and there was a small platform around the booth that allowed us some more room.  A walkway stretched out to the other silo, and ended in another small platform.  I had to admit, when Sarah picked them, she sure did a great job.