“Someone has to clear that damned fence,” Jun heard the sergeant swear beneath his breath at her side.
As if in response, though Jun was sure that there was no way that the major could have heard him, Major Wilkins shouted down the line in their direction.
“Sergeant, take another member of your squad to assist you and get out there and get that bloody log off of my bloody fence!”
Sergeant Josiah just nodded in the major’s direction, then turned towards the ladder which lead back to the ground.
“You’re with me, kid,” he said as he rushed past Jun, slinging his Springfield across his back as he went. Then he called back to the rest of the squad, “The rest of y’all, keep the bastards off our backs while we work, you hear?”
As Jun moved towards the ladder after him, Hector moved out of line to follow close behind her.
“I’ll join you if you don’t mind,” Hector called down to the sergeant who was already approaching the main gate in the stockade fence. He waggled the Enfield No. 1 revolver that he held in one hand. “I’m not much good with this peashooter of mine at long range, but I’m a sure enough shot that I should be able to help keep the rotters off your back from close up. Press on regardless, eh?”
“The more the merrier,” Josiah answered with a humorless grin as took hold of his 12-gauge shotgun with one hand and rested his other on the handle that would open the main gate. “Y’all ready to hustle?”
Jun and Hector nodded in reply, readying their weapons.
“Okay, then, on three…” Josiah tightened his grip on his shotgun, his jaw clenched in concentration.
“I’ll get that!” One of the junior officers who had been manning the wall when the squad arrived the night before was hurrying over, waving his arms to get the sergeant’s attention. He skidded to a halt just short of the door and gestured towards the handle. “The major says I’m to let you out and then keep the gate shut until you’ve got the foreground cleared.”
Josiah tilted his head to one side, and only slowly took his hand away from the handle. “Sounds to me like could be the major isn’t so sure we’ll be coming back in at all…”
The officer just shrugged, and took hold of the handle himself. “You shout out and I’ll get the bloody thing opened quick as a wink, you’ve got my word on it.”
Josiah didn’t reply, but readied to fire his shotgun, and then stood in position while Jun and Hector moved into place on either side of him. Then he nodded towards the junior officer, raised the stock of his shotgun to his shoulder, and narrowed his eyes.
From atop the stockade fence the barrage of fire from their squad mates and the other defenders of the camp intensified.
“Let’s go, already!” the sergeant shouted, and in response the junior officer yanked down on the handle and the gate swung open.
The rotting remains of the fallen undead already littered the ground beyond the stockade fence, and as Jun and the others advanced through the gate into the zone marked out by the wooden fence within and the electrified wire without, there were still more of the zombies lurching towards them. From where Jun stood, she could see even more scrambling over the log across the wire fence.
Jun swung up the barrel of her Thompson submachine gun, but before she was able to squeeze the trigger and fire, the head of the zombie that she was targeting exploded.
“We’ll keep the flies away, dear,” the voice of Sibyl called down from the ramparts above. “You stem the tide and keep more from getting in!”
As if to punctuate her words, the Englishwoman potted another round with her Lee Enfield at one of the shambling Dead who was lurching towards Jun with its arms outstretched and bony hands grasping. Sibyl’s shot hit true, and a bloom of black ichor blossomed on the forehead of the sunken-cheeked wretch a split second before the back of its skull blew out and rotted brains and bone fragments sprayed out over the heads and shoulders of the zombies bringing up the rear.
“Come on, then!” the sergeant roared as he fired first one round and then another from his pump-action shotgun, hitting two of the Dead in rapid succession, sending both of their lifeless corpses sprawling to the ground like marionettes whose strings had both been cut in one fell swoop.
Jun and Hector followed close behind Josiah as he advanced steadily to the northeastern corner of the enclosure, where the fallen limb traversed the perimeter fence.
Though there were still only a relatively few of the zombies within the fence, they were packed so closely together that it was difficult to draw a bead on any one of them individually. Waving arms and the erratic shambling of the Dead in the lead tended to draw the fire of the defenders along the wall drawing their sights on the Dead bringing up the rear, so that despite a constant barrage of sniper fire from atop the stockade fence, still Jun and her two companions found that they were advancing towards a small horde of the Dead who remained on their feet, defiantly upright and blocking their path towards the fallen log.
Suddenly and without warning, one of the faster-moving zombies burst from the pack, and it took Jun only a split second to see the primed grenade clutched against its bony chest.
Only bare seconds remained before the suicide zombie closed the ground that separated them. Jun raised her Thompson but managed to squeeze the trigger a split-second too soon, so that the submachine gun burst hit the suicide zombie not in the head as she’d intended but full in its abdomen. And though the burst blew large chunks away from the zombie’s rotting torso that flew away and fell to the ground some distance away with a sickening sound, the shot did nothing to halt the zombie’s forward motion.
The zombie was only steps away now. Jun raised the barrel of her submachine gun but had trouble drawing a bead. She needed to make the next shot count or else…
Between one heartbeat and the next, Hector charged forward directly into the path of the oncoming suicide zombie. With his left hand he took hold of the grenade, and he used his right to drive the barrel of his Enfield No. 2 directly up under the zombie’s lower jaw. Hector wrenched the grenade free from the zombie’s grip at the same instant that he fired a round from his revolver directly up and through the zombie’s rotting brain. And then without hesitating an instant, he reversed and hurled the grenade away from himself as far and as hard as possible.
The grenade detonated in midair directly above the horde of Dead who crowded together on the far side of the electrified fence. The shrapnel rained down on them, driving into the heads and hearts of more than a few of the Dead, dropping them to the ground.
“Well done!” Jun could not help exclaiming, sincerely impressed. Not only had his quick thinking potentially saved her life, but he appeared to have given them the breathing room they needed to get the job done.
“Yes, yes, I hit for a six, but there’ll be time for pats on the back when we’re through,” Hector shot back without turning around. “Now get weaving before we touch bottom!”
Jun wasn’t sure the precise meaning of Hector’s words but the general sense was clear enough. They needed to make use of every advantage they had.
With the stem of Dead coming over the traversing log temporarily slowed by Hector’s well-placed grenade toss, they only had to clear the zombies who still stood in their way and then they could shove the offending limb off the wire fence before any more of them made it over. Sibyl and the others atop the rampart were still busily picking off the Dead who had broken from the pack and advanced towards the stockade fence, so only a handful remained between the sergeant’s ad hoc fireteam and their goal.
“Run and gun, serpentine!” Sergeant Josiah called back over his shoulder as he charged forward, hitting another of the Dead square in the face with a blast from his 12-gauge, then jinking to one side before pumping another round in the chamber and firing again and haring off in a slightly different direction. “Don’t give them time to close with you!”
They were getting closer to the electrical fence by the moment, but every instant that passed meant tha
t more of the undead were approaching the perimeter from the east, and the greater the chances that one of the shamblers milling around the edge of the wire fence would make it up and over the log.
Hector blasted one of the Dead in the face with his revolver just as Jun picked off another with a short burst from her submachine gun, and suddenly they were within arm’s reach of the fallen limb.
“You keep them bastards at bay, kid,” the sergeant ordered, slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. “Captain, help me get this damned thing off of here.”
Jun nodded a silent assent, and took up her position just to one side of the breech as Josiah and Hector each took a hold of the log and tried to push it up and over the fence.
There were a handful of Dead still up and walking in the zone between the perimeter and the stockade, and while most of them still seemed intent on scaling the wooden fence, no doubt drawn by the life and heat of those within, one or two of them had taken notice of Jun and her companions, and were redirecting their steps to carry them back towards the electrified fence and the more readily available prey standing there.
“We got more trying to get over!” Josiah shouted.
Glancing back Jun could see another of the shamblers trying to climb up on the fallen limb from the other side. She fired a round at the nearest of the Dead approaching her from the stockade, then turned and fired at the shambler on the outside of the perimeter who was just now mounting the fallen limb. Her first shot hit a little wide, blasting a hole in the zombie’s shoulder but doing little to arrest its forward progress. The zombie had gotten on top of the fallen log with both feet squarely under it before Jun’s second shot hit it dead center in its forehead. The zombie toppled, but instead of falling on the outside of the perimeter, its headless corpse landed so that it was draped over the top wire of the perimeter fence, and began popping and smoldering as electrical current surged through its lifeless form.
“Any time now, sir,” Jun urged as she turned back around to fire at another of the approaching Dead from the inner zone of the perimeter, then swung back to scan for any others attempting to climb over the fallen log.
“Trying!” Josiah shouted back. “Damn thing won’t budge!”
“It seems to be snagged on the wire,” Hector observed, bending down to look sidelong at the place where the irregular bark and broken branches on the fallen limb touched the perimeter fence itself.
“Careful not to touch it!” Josiah cautioned. “If you as much as brush against that wire, then ZAP, you’re done for.”
“I’ve worked with electrical systems since the first day of flight school, sir,” Hector answered, a little haughtily, “so I like to think that I know how to handle myself around a livewire…”
Sparks arced between the top and middle wires of the perimeter fence, causing Hector to jump back, eyes wide with alarm.
“Point taken,” he said quietly, with evident relief.
“We’ve got more incoming,” Jun said as she fired a short burst at another zombie who was close to mounting the fallen lob on the other side of the fence.
Josiah and Hector were wrenching the log back and forth as hard as they could, causing the wires to thrum like guitar strings as they did, but still the fallen limb seemed bound to the wires of the fence as if welded to them.
“Maybe if we set fire to the damned thing?” Josiah said through gritted teeth as he wrestled with the end of the fallen limb.
“Wouldn’t that muck with the electricity?” Hector looked puzzled.
“How should I know?” the sergeant snarled. “I thought you were the expert in electrics!”
Now the defenders atop the ramparts, having dispatched all of the Dead who had made it over the log and into the inner zone, were directing their fire at the zombies approaching from outside the perimeter fence. For a brief moment, at least, Jun could turn her attention away from the Dead on the other side of the fence, with Sibyl and the others covering the approaches.
“Let me help,” she said, slinging her Thompson M1A1 onto her back and putting her shoulder to the log.
“Okay, on three,” the sergeant said, pressing both hands against the underside of the fallen limb and nodding to Hector to slide into position on the opposite side of Jun. “One. Two. Push!”
Jun clenched her jaw with the strain of shoving up on the end of the log, and the top wire of the electrified fence hummed like a harp string with the reverberations of their efforts. They pushed with all of their might, straining to the breaking point, but still the wood remained stubbornly hooked onto the wire itself.
The trio slowly eased off, catching their breath after the exertion.
“Well, maybe we should try burning the bally thing, at that?” Hector said, panting.
Jun reached up a hand and felt the outer layer of bark on the end of the log. She was able to flake off a section of the bark with her fingertip, revealing the dried wood below. An idea was slowly coming into focus in her head.
“Hang on, let me try something,” she said, and motioned for Josiah and Hector to step back. Then she unslung the Thompson from her back, took aim at the branch itself a few inches away from the point where it traversed the wire fence, and then emptied the remainder of her drum magazine into the wood, spraying machinegun fire in a narrow arc from the top of the branch to the bottom and back again.
As she was pulling the emptied drum off the Thompson and reaching for a refill, Josiah stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “I think I see what you’ve got in mind, let me give it a shot.”
Jun stepped aside as the sergeant moved into position, and emptied round after round from his pump-action shotgun into the branch in the same spot that Jun had targeted. Splinters and bits of shattered bark flew in all directions. The log remained in one piece, but daylight was breaking through in tiny places here and there.
When the sergeant’s shotgun ran dry, Jun stepped forward and grabbed hold of the end of the branch once more. “Now, don’t push up,” she said, glancing back over her shoulder at the sergeant and Hector who were both taking up their positions on either side of her, “pull down.”
The three of them put their full weight into it, Jun so much so that at one point her feet were lifted off the ground as she dangled full body from the end of the limb. And at first it appeared that they were having no better luck this time than any of their earlier attempts, but then a series of loud cracks and pops could be heard, one right after another. More splinters were flying from the limb now, as the wood began to bend along the seam etched out by their barrage of gunfire. Like perforations in a piece of card, the holes that their bullets and shot had driven through the limb had weakened the wood just enough to make a difference.
For a moment Jun worried that the added weight and strain they were putting on the fence might snap the wires from their moorings on the posts, but the major’s crews had clearly built to last. With a final sigh, the portion of the limb overhanging the inner side of the fence broke free in their hands, with the fence’s wires still holding fast.
“Damn it!” Josiah spat as Jun and Hector threw the severed limb to one side. “God damn it!”
Jun could see immediately what the sergeant was reacting to. While they had succeeded in breaking off the part of the limb that overhung the fence, the other half of the fallen log was still propped up against the fence’s top wire. The Dead still had their ramp up and over the fence, provided they maintained their balance and didn’t hit the electrified wire before getting across.
Or so it appeared.
“Look out!” Jun said, raising the barrel of her Thompson and aiming at the far side of the fence. The jostling horde of undead had been joined by the newcomers that they had seen approaching from the east, and even with the relentless barrage of sniper fire from atop the ramparts, one or two of the Dead had succeeded in reaching the spot where the end of the fallen limb met the ground.
Jun hit one of the encroaching zombies squarely in the face with a short burst, s
ending it staggering back as the back of its head exploded. But another of the zombies was already clambering onto the makeshift ramp.
Hector was already firing off rounds from his Enfield revolver as Jun swung the barrel of her submachine gun up and sighted for the zombie’s head, but suddenly and without warning the log slipped off the top wire and slammed hard onto the ground on the far side of the fence. The force of their attempts to dislodge the limb, or the loss of the overhanging portion, or a combination of the two, had apparently dislodged whatever part of the log had been snagged on the wire, so that the weight of the zombie trying to climb over had been enough to pull it loose and send it crashing down to earth.
For the briefest of instants the top wire oscillated widely up and down, like a guitar string violently strummed. But the zombie who had been attempting to climb over the log when it fell was pitching forward, skeletal arms flailing. It sprawled across the top wire of the fence and immediately began twitching violently as the strong electrical current surged through its rotting flesh. The inhuman shriek the Dead had made as it was being electrocuted still echoed in Jun’s ears as the stench of its charring flesh reached her nostrils.
Chapter 14
“WELL, THAT WORKED, I guess,” Josiah said, shrugging slowly as he wrinkled his nose in distaste. He and Hector had picked up the broken half of the wooden branch, and used it to push the electrocuted zombies off of the perimeter fence and sent their rotting corpses flopping down to the ground beyond.
“Good show!” came a voice shouting from behind them, and turning around Jun could see Major Wilkins shouting down from the ramparts above. He was motioning broadly with his arm, waving towards the gate in the stockade fence. “Get back inside, and quickly now!”
Hector clearly didn’t need to be told twice, and took off jogging back towards the gate right away. But Jun was a firm believer in hierarchies and the chain of command, and turned to Josiah to get direction.
Fortress of the Dead Page 11
