Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (22 page)

“Think we got ‘
em
?” he asked, readying himself for a ride.

“Hope so, old friend.  Hope so.”  I tried to sound convincing, but deep inside
,
the fear of getting others killed was starting to grow and chew into my gut with tiny icicles for teeth.

Chapter 38

We moved north as quickly as we could, three motorcycles moving a convoy of cars, trucks, and trailers. I would have liked to
be
able to reach
Leport
before nightfall, but I knew it was impossible.  We were too far south and too deep in the sticks to find roads that would take us north fast enough.

As it was, we were able to secure some night lodging in a casino just south of
Joslin
.  Charlie and three of the other men checked the place out, and declared it safe.  The rest of us went inside, and I was stunned at how pristine the place was.  It looked like it was ready to open the very next day.  The place was dusty, but not bad, and the tables and slots were all covered in plastic.  Tommy pulled the cover off of one slot machine and it gleamed in the thin light of the flashlights. 

“What’s your game, John?” Duncan asked, walking around a dormant roulette table.

I shook my head.  “Craps was my game.  My brother and I would celebrate each other’s birthdays by going out to dinner and hitting a casino afterwards.
” I
ran my hand over the side of a craps table.  “It was a good little tradition.” I said softly.

“Well, times change.” Donna said, pulling the cover off of another craps table.  “Right now, these tables are a good place to sleep, dust-free.”

I couldn’t argue with that, and soon enough, all of the craps tables and roulette tables were occupied with men and women spreading out their blankets and bags.  Andre pushed two blackjack tables together, and Duncan made a bed out of bar chairs.  I had a craps table myself, and I lay my head down among the high dollar chips I always chased
,
but never seemed to catch.

The night crept up on us, and I was surprised at how tired I suddenly was.   I lay quietly among the lines of the craps table, and I was humorously struck with how ironic it was that I was in a place that required luck, and here I was, someone who at times had denied its existence.

Suddenly, Donna’s head popped up over the edge of the table. 

“Hey
,
Handsome!
  You want to try your luck?”  Donna said with a wicked leer.

I chuckled.  
“Oh,
Lordy
.
  No, I think I’ll keep my life, thanks.”

“Just a figure of speech, just a figure a speech.
  Seriously, though, you got room in there?”  Without waiting for a reply, Donna slipped over the side of the table and lay down next to me.  I shifted to my side to make room for her, and she lay on her side facing me.

“Truth
talk
,
John,
” Donna whispered.

“As you
wish,
” I whispered back.

“What are we really facing here?”

I considered the question and who was asking it.  “It’s probably your worst nightmare, Donna.  These are just little kids, from about twelve years old to around four or five.  But they stalk you, they ambush you, and they wait for you to make a mistake.  They can communicate on a basic level, and they have a kind of instinctual fight or flight mechanism.  If they can’t win, or face overwhelming odds, they flee. 
Simple as that.”

Donna mulled it over for a while.  “I don’t know, John.  I don’t know if I can kill them.  I might hesitate long enough to let one of them get to me, and then where would my kids be?”

I thought of a different tack.  “You are actually fighting for your kids.  This group we’re chasing isn’t the original.  They’ve recruited all along their path to here.”

“What do you mean, ‘recruited’?”

“Every town they’ve attacked, they either bite the kids or carry them off to bite them later.  If they win, and then head south, all of your kids could be in danger.”

Donna shuddered. 
“Oh, Jesus, John.
  Now what do I do?  If I go, then you’re
short handed
.  If I stay, then my kids are defenseless.”

I didn’t envy her choice, so I tried to make it easier.  “Where would you have a better chance of survival?  Here among all of us, the best the Upheaval could
produce.
  Or down home, where you’d be by yourself?  How long could you hold out against a smart, determined, fast, dead enemy?”

Donna thought for a second.  “Well, when you put it that way…”  She turned away and scooted towards me, reaching behind her for my arm which she promptly wrapped around her healthy chest.  “Night, John.”

I lay my head down my other arm, content to breathe onto the back of Donna’s neck until I fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of night, still wrapped up with Donna.  I don’t know what caused me to wake, but I listened very carefully to the small sounds all around me.  I could make out Duncan’s
high-pitched
snoring, and on the other end of the
spectrum,
I could hear Charlie’s deep, bellows-like breathing.  Donna seemed not to be breathing at all, but I could feel her chest rise and fall against my forearm.  Not hearing anything I couldn’t place, I went back to sleep.

Chapter 39

In the morning, I woke to the sound of movement all around me.  Men and women were gathering up their things, and Donna was off getting herself ready for the day.  I took a drink of water from my bottle and used a little to wash the sleep out of my eyes.  A quick bathroom break and we were assembling in the foyer that led to the outside parking lot. 

The sun was just coming up over the horizon, casting the clouds in brilliant shades of red and orange. The river behind us added a low mist to the picture, blotting out the parking lot in a gray, swirling vapor.  Behind the parking lot was a huge forest, and it was clear the forest had
its
eyes on taking over the asphalt, since roots and tendrils reached out all along the border of the lot.

I started to say something when Charlie held up a hand. He had been staring out at the mist for a while, so he must have seen something out of the ordinary.  Everyone moved back into the shadows, with weapons coming up and safeties being switched off.  Three of the group slipped over to the right side of the door while three more moved to the left.  The rest took up positions in the rear, overlapping their fields of fire in case of a break in.  God, it was nice to work with professionals again.

“Talk to
me,
” I said, not moving a muscle.

“Four of them, far end of the lot, two males and two females.”

“You loaded?” I asked, referring to his shotgun.

“All ready.”

I looked back for a second.  “
There’s
four of them out there.  Charlie and I will go and get them.  Cover us from the
rear;
we’ll try to draw them closer.”

I didn’t wait for a reply because I wasn’t going to get one.  We
k
new what to do and how to do it.  I reminded myself once again that this was a good crew to work with.  Then again, the crew I worked with before got killed by these monsters as well. 

That comforting thought accompanied me out to the parking lot as I held my shotgun out in front of me.  We all could die, if we didn’t get this under control.

Out in the parking area
, things were amazingly quiet.  I could hear the river behind us, as I could hear the sounds of the
forest next to us.  Across the way
, I could see the zombies moving at an easy walk.  I doubted they even knew where they were going, and left to themselves, they’d probably walk until their feet fell off, or they hit water, and moved along the bank until they came to a bridge.  They were smarter than the average
zombie was
, but they weren’t that smart.

I crouched and moved to the left, trying to stay out of sight for a few seconds.  The mist was about waist high, and
thick
.  I could see through it to about fifteen feet in front of me, but after
that,
it obscured my vision
effectively
.  Once in place, I sent a hand signal to Charlie, who had moved off to the right.  He was crouched as well.  Out of the corner of my
eye,
I could see the rest of the men and women watching from the doorway.  I only hoped I didn’t trip or my fly wasn’t open before we opened up the dance.

Charlie raised a hand, and at the
signal,
I stood up and called out.

“Hey, over here!”

The change was nearly instantaneous.  The four of them turned their heads, then ducked low, coming right for me.  They weren’t much taller than the mist, so when they crouched down, their heads were just under the surface.  The swirling vapor parted as they rushed through it, swiftly hurrying in my direction.  The effect from where I was standing was like watching some large fish moving towards you in water.  For a second
,
I felt like a cow that had fallen in the Amazon River.

When the zombies were halfway to me, Charlie called out on his side.

“How about over here?”

The zombies stopped suddenly, and two heads popped up from the fog.  They oriented on Charlie, and I thought they were going to head his way, when they ducked back down and all four kept heading right towards me.

Really
?
I thought as I brought up my shotgun.  Thank
God,
I wasn’t going to try and do this with a rifle.  I waited until the swirling mist was about twenty feet away before I opened fire.

Shogun
blasts crashed through the air as I opened up on the Z’s.  I aimed where I thought their heads might be, and fired all of my rounds as quickly as possible.  I grabbed a
reloader
and shoved the rounds in, losing precious seconds as the mist swirled closer and closer. 

Charlie came to the rescue, blasting the area with his shotgun.  The buckshot whipping through the fog caused swirls, which created openings to see through.  I could see one down, and another crawling.  A third was coming closer, and I let him have it in the face with a blast.  That finished him.  The fourth was nowhere to be seen, and Charlie shot down the second one on the ground.

I waved Charlie back, not wanting to take the risk of getting bit while this fog was around us.  We moved slowly, easing our way to the entrance doors.  Charlie and I both scanned the fog, but we couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.  I knew the little shit was in there somewhere, but I had no way of flushing him out. 

I decided on another tactic, one that Sarah would kill me for i
f
she ever found out.  I motioned Charlie to go inside, and he raised a curious eyebrow at me.  Waving him in, I knelt down and started to whistle.  Not being the creative kind like Duncan, I just carried an impromptu tune across the drifting mist.

In a minute, I heard it.
The telltale clicking of a zombie, hunting its prey.
  I couldn’t explain it to anyone why they did it, any more than I could explain why they were the way they were.  It just happened, and we dealt with it.

There was an odd echo off of the parking garage to the east, but I didn’t pay it any mind as I watched the mists swirl in front of me.  I held the
shotgun;
very much aware I only had a few shots left.  We had depleted our supplies pretty well, but I knew our rifles and more ammo was waiting for us in
Leport
, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

The clicking stopped, and I knew the little shit was close.  I wished the sun would come out suddenly and fry off the mist, but even if it did, it would still not be enough to see by.  I let out a long breath, not whistling this time.
  I was sweating in my clothes.
  There was ten feet of
visi
ble space between
the fog and myself,
and that wasn’t a lot of time to get things done.

The mist swirled suddenly in front of me causing me to swing the muzzle and fire into the fog.  The blast parted the vapor for a moment, revealing absolutely naught.  I shook my head at myself because I was shooting at shadows.

I fretted for a minute,
and then
decided against moving. I figured they would come to me soon enough.  I waited, and watched.  The rising sun turned the grey mist white, and I could see a small shape standing next to one of the massive yellow pillars holding up the giant awning which stretched out into the parking area. I lined up the ghost ring sight, waiting for the opportunity to fire.  For all I knew at this point, I was aiming at a plant.

The form shifted, and I thought it was nothing, when it suddenly ducked low and raced at me.  I shifted my aim slightly and pulled the trigger, the recoil of the shotgun shoving my shoulder back.  The little zombie’s head snapped back, catching at least three or four of the buckshot.  The momentum of its legs swung the lower half of
its
body upward, and the back-flung head carried the rest into a backwards somersault.  I didn’t often impress myself with my shooting, but that one was pretty cool.