Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (9 page)

I radioed to the other van and truck. “Let’s head south and see if they got caught there as well.  May as well see how big the cleanup will be.”

We drove south, weaving around
bodies, trucks,
and other vehicles.  I stopped every once and a while to check a truck, and we got lucky here and there with some extra ammunition.  Tommy walked along the road and picked up weapons, chucking them into the back of the truck Duncan drove.

At the big bend of County Highway 11, just outside of
Smithshire
, we reached the end of the line.  South of us there
wasn’t
any more trucks, nor any more corpses.  It seemed to me that hope was dying as quickly as the
army was
.

“Well, here we
go,
” I
said, climbing out of the truck.  I pulled out my rifle and joined Charlie on the road.  Sarah didn’t get out, and I was intrigued when she slid into the driver’s seat.

“I’m going to check the town for any help with the
cleanup,
” she
said as she drove away.

I shrugged and held up a fist to Charlie.  “Ready?”

He nodded. 
“One, two, three…Dammit!”

I chuckled.  “You nearly always pick rock, you dope.”

“I like rocks,
you
paper
sissy,
”  Charlie
said over his shoulder as he headed into the grass.  His job, which we always contested over, was to go into the brush and get the zombies that had wandered off.  We were fresh enough upon the scene that the dead weren’t
rising
, but it was going to happen soon. I figured by the time we reached Kirkland, we’d be fighting the suckers head-on.

The road duty was easier, but messier.  On the grass, blood seeped into the ground and didn’t spread all over.  On the road, it was harder to avoid.  There was also the inevitable release of bodily wastes when death occurred, which amplified by a few hundred souls and I felt like I was walking through a toilet.  I walked slowly, carefully putting a .223 round into the face of each soldier I encountered. 
Blood was everywhere, and some of the men had been brutally savaged.  There were women here, too, as our new army didn’t really care about your gender as long as you came to fight.  Not many, but a few.  A couple of the soldiers were face down, and I just put the barrel of my rifle at the base of their necks and fired upward.  If it didn’t hit the brain
,
it obliterated the spinal cord, which killed the zombie pretty well, too.

I checked the cab of the first truck I came across, and it was a bloody disaster.  The soldier that was in there didn’t have a face, but pieces of it were all over the dashboard.  Blood covered the seats and windshield, and the torn throat of the soldier showed how rough this death was.  I put a round into the empty eye socket and moved on.

Behind me, Charlie cursed as he scampered over the road, heading to the other side to check the bushes and tall grass.  I didn’t pay attention as I approached the next vehicle, but I could have sworn I heard the words ‘goddamn
paper,’
as he slipped over the far ditch.

Five more corpses led me to a small car, and I got a surprise when I saw
that
the window seemed to have been smashed in with a rock.  Sure enough, in the lap of a very surprised looking dead man, was a stone the size of a softball. 
Wow. 
Using tools, too
.
  I thought to myself.  This just keeps getting better. The soldiers that took refuge in the car had chewed up faces and hands. 
Defensive wounds against an enemy that came in right at you.

A shot from the east drew my attention and I could see Charlie making his way through a field.  His work will be impossible in a short while, we’d have to leave it to Rebecca and Sarah.

Sarah came up from the south, leading a convoy of about ten cars.  They ranged in style from pickup to minivan, but the people inside were of a single stripe. 
Survivors.

They pulled up to a stop behind the van, and Rebecca got out
to greet
them.  Charlie was out in the field, but when he saw what was going on, he came over quickly enough.

Fifteen men and ten women greeted me, and I thought I saw a few familiar faces in the crowd.  This was the group we should have had facing the zombies, not the new army.

“
Hey,
” I said, as a way of greeting.  I assumed Sarah had filled them in on most of the details, anyway.

A man stepped forward, a tough looking guy about my age, with an axe handle peeking over his shoulder.  “Talon, right?” he said extending his hand.

“That’s right.”

“Turner Hass, from
Smithshire
.
  Your wife says we got some cleanup to do?”

I gestured with my hands.  “This road is covered all the way to 34.  Don’t know about anything further north.  The line was supposed to go to 116, but I think it got ended here.”

“
Damn,
”
said
Hass.  “Where you need us?”

I thought for a minute.  “You guys know the terrain around here better than we do.  Why don’t you take the countryside, and we’ll take the road.”

“Sounds good.
  Can we get some weapons off these soldiers?”  Hass asked.

“Sure, but I’ll save you a
trip,
” I
said as Tommy and Duncan came rolling up.

After introductions, I brought the group to the back of the truck, and Tommy had piled up dozens of rifles and magazines.

“Help
yourself
,
” I said.

Hass smiled and took the weapon Tommy offered him, along with a spare mag.  The rest of the crew from
Smithshire
armed
themselves
similarly, and went off the road, looking for zombies.

Tommy gave me a glance, and I shrugged. “We’ve still got a bunch, what’s twenty five out of a couple
of
hundred?”

Duncan spoke up. 
“Twelve percent.
  We
gonna
stand here all day?”

“Nope.
  You get in touch with Freeman?” I asked.

“I think we’re out of range, but I’ll try further north.”

“All right, let’s go.”

Tommy joined me on the road with Charlie, while Sarah, Rebecca and Duncan drove the vehicles.  It became a kind of routine.  The first one to come upon a dead soldier would shoot it,
and then
the other two would drag it off the road.  This continued for about two miles, and after
that,
it became impossible, since the dead were rising and not inclined to lie quietly until it was their turn to get shot.

It was about that time when the crew from
Smithshire
began to earn their way.  One of them walked through the field, getting the zombies to follow them, and when they were bunched up following, two more would run forward with a length of rope, knocking the crowd down.  The rest would step in and finish them off.  It was
efficient
, and the ease with which they used it told
me, they were very familiar with
this practice.

About a mile from
Kirkwood,
we pulled up and called in the crew from
Smithshire
.

“Hey,
Hass,
” I said, pronouncing it ‘
hoss
’, and the man grinned broadly.

“Hey, Talon.
  Thanks for the
hardware,
” He said, cradling his rifle.

“You all earned the heck out of
it,
” I said. “Let me do you another.  That truck over there looks abandoned.  Why don’t you take it back with you? 
Saves you the walk back to you
r
vehicles.”

“Hey!  Thanks, Talon.”  Hass held out his hand and I shook it.  It seemed almost surreal, having this conversation while about a hundred zombies were converging on our position, but after the Upheaval, we tended to take these things in stride.

Chapter 16

Tommy went over to check the truck out, and that’s when we found our survivor.  He was tucked in the fetal position on the floor of the truck on the passenger side, his arms wrapped around his legs with his knees up by his chin.  He was shivering
,
and his eyes were staring straight forward, seeing nothing.

I waved Tommy off and motioned Rebecca to come forward.  Charlie was right behind her in case the situation turned south.  Rebecca spoke in low tones to the man, trying to calm him down and bring him out of his shock. 

Whatever was going through the man’s head, he wasn’t going to calm down at all.  He started breathing hard,
and then
he covered his ears with his hands, blocking all sounds.  His rocking became worse, and I knew he was about to explode.  I waved the two of them off and walked over.

“
Soldier
!”
I barked. 
“On your feet!
Move it! Move it! Move it
!”  I figured if I couldn’t break him out of his shock
,
we’d have to physically pull him out of the truck, and someone was going to get hurt.

“Sir!”
  The boy actually shook himself out of his state and tried to stand up, cracking his head on the dashboard.  He rolled out of the truck and tried to get himself to attention while holding his head, but when he saw the massacre and the advancing zombies, he fell to his knees, and I was afraid he was going to relapse.

“
Get on your goddamn feet
!  No one told you take a nap! 
Get up
!”  I yelled again, using my across-the-playground Principal’s voice.

The soldier stood and I got in his face.  “What the fuck happened here, soldier?  Don’t waste my goddamn time with bullshit.  You have one fucking minute, or I will gouge out your eyeballs and hang them from my mirror!”

Somehow, that worked.  The soldier told his story quickly while Hass and his townspeople loaded up the truck and headed away, throwing waves to the rest of my crew and swerving around oncoming hordes of zombies.

“Sir.
  They came at us from the southern end, attacking everyone.  The men from the line at 116 tried to come to help, but they got overrun.  Everyone just shot bullets everywhere and died.  They smashed windows to get us. They tore us apart.”

The soldier’s eyes misted with memories and I let him alone for a minute.

“How many?”
I asked, using a gentler tone.

“I don’t know.” The soldier hung his head.

“Take a good guess, how many would you say there were?”

“I don’t know!  I just ran and ran and ran.  People were screaming and dying, running into the grass, trying to escape.  I don’t know!”

“Soldier, we’re about to be attacked in ten minutes, and I need to know how many.  Take your best guess, then I’ll let you run away
again,
” I
said.

The boy closed his eyes, and I could see he was working through his memories, trying to sort out a number. 

“There
was
at least a hundred, maybe a hundred and
fifty,
” he
said finally.

Jesus
.  “Okay soldier. Take off.  I think you’ll find Freeman at Kirkwood to the north.”

Without another word, and with no attempt to retrieve a weapon, the soldier just bolted up the road.

“Nice work
,
”
s
aid Charlie.  “You sounded like someone we knew.”

“
Yeah,
” I said.  “But we’
ll
have to stop Nate from killing him for cowardice.”

“True.”

“John?” Tommy asked as he lined up a shot on an advancing zombie.

“Yeah?”

“We
gonna
fight, or what?”

I went to the truck.  “No.”

Duncan paused in pulling out his sword.  “What are we going to do with these guys, then?”

“Bring them with
us.
  Mount
up,
” I
said, winking at Sarah.

Sarah just shook her head at me
,
but smiled when I kissed her.  “Thanks for bringing the best of
Smithshire
.”

“No problem. They looked bored when I rolled up, and were happy to help out.”

“Well, they did, so now we can get
rolling,
” I said.

“All right.
  What about the zombies?”