Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (2 page)

I looked at Charlie in surprise, along with Tommy and Duncan.  That was probably the longest speech I had ever heard Charlie make.

Shaking it off, I said, “Let’s get going.  Those zombies are getting further into Illinois with every minute, and we need to figure out where they’re travelling.”

We got back in the vehicles and slowly wound our way through the rest of the army
,
as they waited for the road to clear.  Many of the men were lounging about, lying in the sun and just taking it easy. 
A couple was
using the time to clean their rifles
,
and those were the ones I figured would do better than the others.  They at least had their priorities straight, and could be certain of their guns’ functionality in case of need.

We cleared the southern end of Burlington and made our way south.  We had to detour several times, since the airport was in that area and was choked with cars that had never been removed.  There was no place to put them, so they just stayed and rusted.  I noticed none of them had any occupants, ghouls or otherwise, so this may have been one of those rare, orderly evacuations.

We took Madison Avenue out of the city proper and followed the river south.  Sarah was looking nervous, but I didn’t need to ask what was wrong.  She was thinking about our children, and hoping to get there as quickly as possible.  I didn’t admit it out loud, but I was thinking the same thing.  I had a bad feeling our
screw-up
at the bridge was going to cost us dearly.

Madison Avenue turned into County Road X62 for no apparent reason,
and then
it became Summer Street
,
since it turned a corner. We took Highway 61 south, which became 354
th
Ave just for the hell of it.  Tommy called from the van and asked when we had returned to Ohio.  I guess he had been paying attention to the street signs as well
,
as
he
was equally confused as to why
the
roads just couldn’t be one name from beginning to end.

We passed by Hillcrest Memorial Park, a vast forested area with a little go-cart track on the east end. South of
that,
we reached the Great River Road and prepared to cross the bridge
in
to Illinois.  I stopped the truck and got out, with Sarah tossing me curious looks.  I held up a finger to Charlie, who gave me a quizzical look as well. 

The bridge was an interesting affair, combining a car bridge with a railroad bridge.  The car part was on top as it crossed the river, and on the other side
,
the two separated and were next to each other before splitting completely.  I hadn’t seen one like it before and it caught my attention.  The road rose sharply up and I couldn’t see anything after twenty yards.

Wh
at also caught my attention was the three army trucks
parked
on the bridge, angled and arranged
in such a way as to funnel attackers into a narrow choke point
along the far north side
,
allowing for easier kills and greater control.  Whoever had been in charge of this group knew what they were doing.  That same person was currently missing, which had me curious as hell.

I pulled my rifle out of the back of the truck, and handed Sarah hers as well.

“What’s the story?” Tommy asked, looking over the trucks on the bridge.

“Don’t know
yet,
” I said.  “The trucks are here, they had to have gotten the message to rejoin the army by now.  Where could they all have gone?”

Duncan moved cautiously over to the trucks and using the tip of his sword, eased the canvas back on the rear of the trucks.  Sarah joined him and aiming her rifle as he opened the door, the two of them checked the cab of each vehicle.

Both of them returned quickly with more confusing news.

“No blood or any sign of trouble on any of the vehicles
,
” Duncan said.

“The keys are even in the ignition
s,
” added
Sarah.

Stranger and stranger.
  “Okay, well, it really isn’t our
problem;
they probably spent the night in some house and aren’t
back
yet.  Duncan and
Tommy,
get the two far vehicles backed up and out of the way, we’ll be able to get around them.  Charlie, you and Rebecca are with Sarah and I, we’ll check the nearby houses and see if we can find them.”

Heads nodded and we were about to move when Tommy shouted from the bridge.

“
We’ve
got company!”

Chapter 3

We all looked in Tommy’s direction, and sure enough, there were five men moving slowly along the bridge.  Even from this
distance,
we could tell who they were, and more importantly, what they were.

“Looks like they got caught out in the
open,
” Charlie said
,
as he looked them over through his rifle scope.

“How bad?”
I asked.

“Lot a bites, lot of
blood,
” Charlie reported. 
“Looks like they died hard.”

“No
doubt,
” Sarah said, looking through her own scope. “Wonder if the rest are on the other side of the river.”

“We’ll see, I’m sure.
  Duncan!  Watch yourself!” I yelled.

Duncan stood up on the running board of one of the trucks and looked towards the oncoming soldiers.  He waved to us,
and then
took a minute to back the truck up.  Parking it, he looked again at the oncoming zombies and I could see him calculating the timing.  He must have figured he could get it done, so he ran to the next truck, and moved it back alongside the others.  He got out just as the ghouls were stumbling into fighting range.

Duncan pulled out his pistol and fired three shots at the nearest ones, striking them in the head and knocking them to the ground. 

I wish I could have seen Duncan’s face when the Z’s he had shot didn’t stay down, they got back up and started moving for him again.  But I did get to see his face as he raced back to our position.  If ever there was a poster for “WTF
,”
Duncan’s face was it.

Charlie was the first to get the point across and clarify things for Duncan.

“Ever wonder why they’re called ‘bullet-proof helmets?’” He asked.

Duncan stared at Charlie for a moment. 
“Oh, geez.”
  He wasn’t
as
much embarrassed
,
as he was dreading the inevitable teasing that was going to follow once we finished up this business.

We all chuckled a
bit, I watched as Sarah
and Rebecca stabilized their rifles on the hood of the truck.  Sarah fired first, sending a round through the eye of the closest zombie, dropping him to the ground.

Rebecca killed the next, shooting him dead before the first even hit the dust.  Sarah followed suit and the next four were eliminated
quickly
.

I went over to the corpses to make sure they were dead, but it was
clear
they weren’t coming back.  The bullets had entered their heads, bounced off the Kevlar helmets, and reentered the skulls, seriously scrambling their signals.  The clothing on several had been torn around the legs and arms, telling me there had been several attackers.  A couple of the soldiers had huge tears in their throats, which
told me that
they had been attacked wh
ile
they were
sleepin
,
or had been finished off when they had been taken to the ground.  Either way, it wasn’t a good way to go.

Tommy joined me at the corpses
,
while the rest of the crew waited by the trucks.

“Something about this is sitting wrong, John
,
” h
e said.

I looked around for any movement stirred up by the shots before answering.  “Talk to me.  What’s on your mind?”

“If these guys had bunked in the trucks, they’d have been pretty safe from
attack.  So they had to be coaxed
out.”  Tommy looked down at the soldiers.  “How could they have been lured out?”

I shook my head. “We aren’t going to find answers here, and the only place to get them is where they came from.”  I pointed to the other side of the river.  “We have to get over there anyway.”

We walked back to the trucks and I laid it out plain for the crew.  “We’re crossing here, and I don’t know what’s on the other side.  Charlie and I will take point, Tommy and Duncan, you two ride in the truck bed and give us cover if we need it.  Rebecca, you drive the van up front, we’ll keep the side door open in case we need a retreat.  Sarah, you’re on the truck, make sure Duncan doesn’t fall out.”

“Hey
!” Duncan protested.
“One time!
And it was
a
big bump you hit!”

We all laughed
, and
then got serious as we loaded and made ready.  I had magazines within easy
reach;
my pickaxe and tomahawk were loosed and ready to go.  My knife and pistol
mags
were within easy reach, and I figured if I was to cross over the great divide today, I was going to pay my way dearly.

Charlie and I walked ahead of the vehicles, but close enough for a quick retreat.  Rebecca kept the van just slightly back
and to the left of us, leav
ing an open door within easy reach.  If it got bad, we could be inside within a second or two.  I figured we still had five to ten soldiers to deal with, and possibly several zombie kids, so we had to be careful.

Charlie spoke up as we reached the top of the first hill, placing us directly above the railroad tracks that crossed the river.

“Figure the zombie kids did this?”  He asked.

I nodded. 
“Can’t be anyone else, except for new zombies made by the kids.”

Charlie thought about that for a second. “You realize that this means the little Z’s split their group up to make the crossing at two places.”

“Yeah, I thought about
that,
” I said. “We’ve got to tell Colonel Freeman as soon as we can
,
that his men down here are dead.”

“Think the
group to the north is
dead, too?”

“No way of knowing yet, but if they are, we have some serious trouble on our
hands.” I
said.

“How so?”

“This group probably won’t come right at us, looking for a fight.  We’ll have to hunt them down and it’s going to cost us a lot.”  I said.

“You worried, John?” Charlie asked, looking over at me.

“Hell,
no,
” I said.  “I’m scared shitless.”

Charlie nodded. 
“Me, too.”

Chapter 4

We stopped talking as we reached the middle of the river.  The road narrowed a bit, and we could hear the gentle voice of the water below us as it moved around the pylons and artificial islands that held up the bridge.  Apart from the threat of vicious attack by zombie children, and the fact that we could possibly be walking into as nasty an ambush as we had ever faced, the day was fairly pleasant.

“
Movement,
” Charlie said, bringing up his rifle.

“How many?”
I asked.  My carbine didn’t have a scope, so I was limited to my own eyes, and I didn’t feel like pulling my binoculars out of my pack.

“Four
,
I can see, and it looks like there’s another on the ground, moving, but not
up,
” Charlie replied.

“Distance?”
I flicked the safety off on my rifle and moved it to a more comfortable position.

“Three hundred, maybe three fifty.”  Charlie signaled to the truck and van that he had spotted movement, and I could see Duncan and Tommy settle in and find some kind of base
on which
to brace their rifles.

“I’ll take the right
side,
” I said, moving over to the side of the road.  I had to be careful.  These country bridges weren’t built for pedestrians, and there was a lot of open space for a person to fall through.  Come to think of it, there was a lot of space for a car to fall through.  I shook my head and concentrated on the zombies that were shuffling around at the far end of the bridge.

There
were
four of them moving, and they were in their gear, which told me they had either been attacked last night before they had set up watches, or it had happened this morning, once they had gotten their day moving.  I was hoping for this morning, so we could be only an hour or two behind the horde, but it probably wasn’t going to happen.