Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (4 page)

“Get up on the shelves,
quietly,
” I whispered.

I moved as silently as I could, which wasn’t too hard, since the shelves were empty.  This town had been a casualty of the zombie wars, and everything of use and everything resembling food was taken away for the effort.  On the top shelf, I saw Duncan and Sarah had already
beaten
me to the top.  There was only about three feet of space between the shelf and the ceiling, so it was going to be tight, but we
didn’t have
a lot of choice. 

I signaled to Duncan to make some noise, and he responded by throwing a small piece of wood he had found.  Sarah readied her weapon, and I readied mine.

Duncan threw the block down the aisle, and when it reached the end, a little zombie jumped out at it.  Sarah popped it in the head and dropped it.

That seemed to be some kind of signal.  Five little zombies suddenly tore around the corners of the aisles, running full tilt down the centers, their eyes wide and their
mouths twisted in vicious leers.  There were three boys and two girls, each of them
had a
pale color of clay.  None of them looked to have been a day over eight
years of age
when they died.

Two were in Duncan’s aisle and two were in Sarah’s.  I had a little girl in mine, and they all stopped about halfway down the aisles in what could only be described as bewilderment, if that was possible in a zombie.

Five shots later, Duncan and Sarah climbed down off their shelves.  I was halfway down when a small snarl got my attention.  I looked at the end of my aisle and a small boy was racing towards me.  I dropped to the ground, tripping on the girl I had shot, and fell against the shelves.  My rifle was pinned to the shelf by my weight, and I was off balance with my right arm pinned to the shelf.

The little Z threw himself at me, and I used my left arm to push myself off the shelf.  My foot caught on the girl on the floor and
I
fell over the prost
ra
te form of the other ghoul, dropping my rifle in the process, while the moving zombie crashed into the space I had just vacated.  I got up on one knee, just as the boy spun to the attack, and I grabbed for my ‘hawk as he threw himself at me again, arms outstretched.

The blade end of the trench hawk slammed into the collarbone of the Z, embedding itself and taking the kid to the floor.  He grabbed at my legs, and managed to get a grip on my pant
s
, pulling himself closer for a bite.

No thanks.  I pushed back on the hawk with my left hand, burying it deeper into his neck and keeping his face away from my flesh, and pulled my pistol with my right.  A single, very loud .45 report ended the career of the little zombie in a nameless town in a minor grocery store.

Sarah and Duncan appeared just as suddenly as the zombie
, with
their weapons up and pointing at me, uncomfortably.

“You good?”
Duncan asked.

“Yeah, fine, just be careful, there may be more.” I looked at Sarah.  “I need to talk to Tommy about his ability to count.”

Sarah smiled.  “Go easy on him.  He was counting from two hundred yards away.”

“True.” I looked around.  “Well, at least we can say we won this one.”

Sarah put an arm around me as we walked out the door. 
“Finally.
  Maybe this is the turning point.”

“God, I hope so.”

We moved outside and saw the relieved faces of our friends.  I didn’t have to give Tommy a hard
time,
Duncan took care of that for me.  Charlie and Rebecca came over to Sarah and I, and we discussed further plans.

“Tried to get hold of Colonel Freeman, but the operator on their end said he was busy, but would relay a
message,
” Charlie said.

“Did you tell him about the troops?”  I asked.

“Nope.
  I just told him he wouldn’t be seeing his southern platoon anymore, and Colonel Freeman could call us back for details.”

I laughed.  “That will get his attention.  Good job.  I’m sure he’ll send men for the trucks, at least.”

“If he doesn’t, I say we snare one or two later for our own
use,
” Charlie
said.

“We’ll worry about that later.  Right
now,
we need to clear this area.  I have a feeling we’re going to be hunting little zombies for a while
,
” I said.

“Let’s do it.”

The town was small, so it took us just a little time to clear it out.  Charlie walked in a wide circle around the entire town, looking for any sign that the little zombies had passed that way.  If there
were
, we’d have a general direction in which to follow and possibly a trail. 

The rest of us poked around the town, checking any open doors or dark places. We didn’t have any evidence that the little zombies were smart enough to close doors after themselves, and we hadn’t seen them do much besides wait in ambush, so this cleanup was relatively easy.

When we finished the town, we waited for Charlie to return.  Sarah and I chatted about our kids and how different they were.  Aaron was getting to be a big boy, and I figured he probably be bigger than Jake
some day
.  Sarah disagreed, she thought Jake would be the bigger one, but time would have to tell.

Tommy and Duncan compared daddy notes on their little ones, and fortunately for all of us, Charlie returned just as the debate over poop smell was getting under way.

“What news,
Dan’l
Boone?” Duncan asked.

Charlie gave that only a single eye roll and went to the back of the truck.  He pulled out a map and laid it on the truck bed.

“I found tracks to the north, but not many.  I’d say the six you finished in the grocery store were about a third of what came through here.  I found tracks leading off in that
direction.
”
Charlie pointed northeast, “and I figure they are probably m
aking their way along the railroad
, like they were in Iowa.”

“What’s the next town along the tracks?” I asked, looking over.

“Map says Lomax, which is directly south of the crossing at Burlington.”

“Think they’re trying to regroup?” Rebecca asked.

“That’d be a level of sophistication I’d be scared to
contemplate,
” Tommy replied.

We all nodded.  We had to alter our attack plans to deal with a smarter group of zombies, what had killed other groups was
their
not adapting fast enough.  I hoped our army, such as it was, would be able to deal with the new threat.

Chapter 7

We headed north along 130, taking care to try and pick up the trail of the zombies.  Charlie was in the bed of the pickup with the biggest pair of binoculars we could give him. At each road crossing, we would slow down and he would scan for movement.  Lomax was just a few miles along the road, and I was hoping we’d get there before another massacre occurred.

Tommy radioed from the van, and told us he had contact with Colonel Freeman.  Freeman was angry his men had been killed, but there was nothing to be done for it now.  He had asked us to be his southern flank, but Tommy had refused.  I agreed with that decision.  I did not want to be obligated to the army in case we had to get the hell out of Dodge and take care of our own.  I asked Tommy if there was anything more to the message, and Tommy said we’d likely see the army again pretty soon.

“Why?” I had to ask. The army should have been racing to set up perimeters and a
mbush zombi
es.

“Freeman is sending the army out in small groups, hoping to cross the trail of the zombies and get a read on where they are going.”

Jesus Christ.  The one damn thing guaranteed to fail.  I spoke out loudly. 

“Dammit.  Get him back on the radio.  I need to talk to him.” I pulled the truck over and waited for the van to pull up.  I got inside just as the Colonel’s voice came over the speakers.

“What do you need, Mr. Talon?”  Freeman asked politely.

“Colonel, are you planning on sending out all of your men on limited reconnaissance?”  I asked point-blank.

“Yes, Mr. Talon.  I think it a good measure to send all the men out on a hunt and kill mission.  We’ll whip these little bastards at their own game
,” Colonel
Freeman said.

“Colonel Freeman, with all due respect, you’re going to get these men killed.  You haven’t faced them four times and we have.  We know now what we are dealing with
,
and breaking the men into small groups will kill them.”  I nearly added
,
‘You damn fool’, but figured it wouldn’t advance my case very much.

“I’ll think about
it.
  In the meantime, we’ll be deploying along the north and south of Route 34, so be alert for my
men,
” Colonel
said as a way of finishing the conversation.

“I’ll be alert for their
corpses,
” I said darkly
,
as I switched the radio off.  I knew it was hopeless, but I could hold out for a small chance that the soldiers might actually be up to par and get the job done.

I turned to the assembled crew.  “We should get moving, and try to find out where they are.  The best thing we can do for the situation is to just report movement as we see it.” 

“
We going
to engage?” Duncan asked. 

“Only if we can
win,
” I said.  “I’m not going to risk my neck out here when my home might be under attack in the future.”

Any further discussion was cut off by Charlie yelling at us from the top of the truck.  “I got movement!  Town limits of Lomax. 
Looks like they’ve been hit!”

“Here we go
again,
” I said as I ran to the pickup.

“You’d rather be fishing?” Sarah asked as she grabbed her rifle from the bed of the truck.

“Not
really,
” I said.  While I didn’t enjoy hunting zombies, I really didn’t enjoy fishing. 
Couldn’t explain why to anyone.
  I just didn’t have the patience for it.  Maybe there wasn’t any thrill like there was with chasing down Z’s.  Although the fish didn’t try to eat you, it just wasn’t the same.

Chapter 8

Lomax was located just a few miles away from the river, and they had the railroad running
along side
it, so with the little zombie
s
, it wasn’t a matter of if they were going to get hit, it
w
as just a matter of when. 

We raced up Route 130 and passed the sign that told us it was becoming 175N.  I could see the railroad right next to the road and couldn’t help but think
,
we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we had just gotten here sooner.  Damn delays cost us some lives.

At the edge of Lomax, we pulled up and took a serious look around.  The town was very small, and by the looks of things, it had been largely abandoned a while ago.  Only a few houses looked like they had any residents in them, and they were the only ones left around. 

Charlie and I took point, and Sarah and Rebecca followed at a small distance, well separated to pro
vide us cover with their higher-
powered rifles.  Duncan and Tommy followed at a larger distance, covering our backs.  We developed this system during the zombie wars, when the Z’s had taken to the buildings.  Often they would see the two groups move past, then make their way out to try and hit from behind, only to get taken down by the two that hadn’t shown up yet.  The people bringing up the rear tended to get the most action, so we rotated a lot just to keep from getting burned out.  Duncan liked it, though, and volunteered more than his share.  I didn’t mind, I liked point better, anyway.

Route 96, or 175N, or 130N, took us through the center of town, so we stuck to that path.  A couple of the zombies that Charlie had seen were out in the fields, but they started a fast walk towards us when we came into view.  One was a man in his late thirties, and the other was a woman about the same age.  I figured they were probably married, and died together.  I was curious if they had had any children, and if they might have survived.

I was watching the zombie movement, figuring out angles of attack, when Sarah called out my name.  I looked back and she was pointing to a row of five houses.  All of them were along the main road, but that wasn’t what got my attention.  All of them looked like they had been lived in and all of them had children’s toys in the yards.  Not a good sign.

“Sarah, you and Rebecca check out the houses, Tommy and Duncan, back them up.  We’ll take care of these
two,
” I
said.  Charlie slung his rifle over his shoulder and took out one of his ‘hawks.  I followed suit, but I pulled out my pickaxe instead.