Books of the Dead | Book 9 | Dead of Winter

by Spears, R. J.

  “Who the hell are you going to call?” I asked.

  “Just give it to me,” she said. “I have an idea.”

  I had nothing but terror, so I handed over my walkie-talkie.

  She immediately pressed the talk button. “Richard, come in. Richard, if you’re out there, pick up.”

  I leaned in over Alex and strained to listen, but the only thing I heard from the walkie-talkie was uneven static. I swiveled around and saw a whole mess of zombies turn the corner a half-block away. It was only a matter of time before we would get to test the strength of the bulldozer versus a whole pack of zombies.

  “Come on, Richard,” Alex said, her voice tight.

  More static filtered from the speaker, and Alex brought the walkie-talkie against her lips, then said, “Come on, you son of a bitch. Call me back.”

  After ten more seconds of static, Richard’s voice came from the speaker. “Is that any way to treat the man who just risked his ass to save your’s?.”

  Alex let out a sigh of relief, then she asked, “Where are you?”

  “I’m in the southwest research building,” he said. “That’s where the tunnel led.”

  “We need some help,” Alex said.

  “Haven’t I done enough?” Richard said.

  “What are friends for, other than to ask for favors?” Alex said.

  Richard let out a moan on the other end of the call. “What is it?”

  “We need you to pull some of these deaders off us,” Alex said.

  The zombies coming from behind us had cut the distance in half, and I could swear that they looked like they were wearing eager expressions on their faces. Eager to eat you, said the wicked witch.

  “They might swamp the dozer,” Alex said.

  “What do you need?” Richard said.

  “Can you maybe take some shots at them?” Alex asked. “If you do, it might get some of them to head your way.”

  “You make that sound so appealing,” Richard said.

  “Come on,” Alex replied.

  “You know I don’t have a way back to the research building, right?” Richard said.

  Alex bit her lip, then said, “I wouldn’t ask if we didn’t need it.”

  There was a few seconds of silence from the walkie-talkie’s tiny speaker, but Richard finally said, “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Please do it fast,” Alex said.

  The zombies were less than fifty feet behind us, and I thought I could hear their moans flowing our way. When they made it to twenty-five feet, a shot rang out, and I saw a zombie at the back of the pack fall.

  Another shot echoed off the buildings, and another zombie lost the top of its head. A few of the deaders at the back of the mob stopped, turned, and headed toward the sound of Richard’s shots. That was their way. They were pretty single-minded, but if something loud happened, they were easily distracted.

  Richard popped off four more shots, and four more zombies fell. Another group of zombies peeled off from the main group and headed toward the source of the shots.

  A small sense of relief washed through the cab. We still had a lot of zombies headed our way, but it might be manageable. Might was the operative word.

  Chapter 41

  Take Me To the River

  “Time to move,” Alex said, sounding like she was trying to motivate herself.

  By the time she got us rolling again, the leading edge of the mob behind us was just ten feet from the back of the bulldozer. Their smell preceded them and wafted in and over us, causing my nose to wrinkle. The only blessing was the rumble of the dozer drowned out most of the moans and grunts of the deaders.

  Alex took us about twenty feet before she cut the big beast to the right, and we started down a narrow street that would take us back out onto the main road. The rumble from the engine echoed off the walls of the buildings on each side of us, sounding like a locomotive. I was beginning to doubt whether Richard would be able to make enough noise to keep the horde off us, but it was the only play we had.

  Looking ahead, I saw a lot of zombies streaming up the street, but an equal number were heading right at us. I knew the dozer weighed fifty tons and was basically a tank, but something underneath my surface-level thoughts was the idea that this bulldozer might become our mobile coffin.

  “That’s an awful lot of zombies,” Lori said.

  “Don’t worry, I got this,” Alex said, and she actually leaned forward in her seat.

  “You’re getting pretty intense there, Alex,” I said.

  “We’re about to take on fifty or so zombies.”

  “But you’re looking like you’re driving a Formula 1 car,” I said.

  She looked back at me and said, “You want to take over?”

  I raised my hands in surrender. “All good. You got this.”

  I thought I heard two more shots, but the roar of the bulldozer’s engine was overwhelming, vibrating through my entire body. I felt sort of like a Mexican jumping bean. Lori and Naveen bounced off of me almost every ten seconds.

  The zombies behind us were getting further away, but the ones in front were coming up fast. Not that it bothered them. I think they thought dinner was being delivered.

  At this point, they spanned from one side of the street to the other and were about five deep. It wasn’t all that wide of a street, but they still looked intimidating. There was no avoiding them, so this was going to be a direct hit, but as always, they just kept coming at us.

  Lori reached out and squeezed my arm to the point where it almost hurt, but I barely noticed it as my body tensed up for the collision. I couldn’t help but notice that Naveen covered her eyes, not wanting to see.

  The moment of truth was on its way, and we were going to find out if the bulldozer would roll over the zombies or whether we would flounder on them. Floundering would be a very, very bad thing.

  Remember that thing I said about the cab possibly becoming our coffin? Well, that could be a very real possibility if we got caught up on the mass of undead coming at us. I was confident they would not leave us alone inside the cab if we did flounder. The glass encasing the cab was great for seeing out but also left us exposed and in clear view of the zombies. With the way we were packed in, there would be no hiding. That left us trapped inside unless we decided a bullet was a better way out when compared to starvation.

  Like a slow and inexorable lava flow, we were closing on the zombies. I felt my mouth go dry, and I felt like I had to pee at the same time. As a kid, there were times when I got really, really nervous and felt the desperate need to urinate. Usually, I was at bat in little league or giving an oral report in class.

  With how tightly packed in we were, that was impossible, and there was no way I was whipping out my johnson. Not in front of Naveen. So, I filled my head with happy thoughts as we closed in on the leading edge of the zombies.

  The zombies had no idea of what was about to hit them, and we had no idea if hitting them would be the end of our escape plan.

  We hit the ten-foot line, and the zombie’s faces looked expectant and eager. Some had their teeth bared. At the five-foot mark, many of the zombies had their arms extended and ready to get their hands on us.

  Impact. That’s when the truth was told.

  If there had been a scoreboard, it would have said, Bulldozer 55, Zombies 0.

  The bulldozer rolled over the zombies and squished them flatter than jello. The treads ground their bodies into the pavement, crushing bones and pulping muscles and flesh. I refused to look too closely.

  Alex shouted, “Hell, yeah! Take that, you undead bastards.”

  We continued rolling along. In some instances, a zombie might get a handhold on the treads, but then it would be jerked under the dozer. In one case, a zombie that approached from the side was able to grasp onto the treads. It was yanked forward and dragged along the treads and ultimately was pulled under them to become bloody mush.

  In other words, it was no contest. 50-tons of metal proved to be the
absolute and undisputed winner of the face-off.

  I don’t know why any of us expected anything different. We were in a rolling, death-dealing, metal behemoth. The zombies didn’t stand a chance.

  But our story was not over. Out on the main street were even more zombies, all crowded together in a huge, churning mass. They, like the other zombies, were solely focused on us. We were the main attraction because we were the only food in the area.

  Alex plowed into the crowd on the street with the same results. Despite the utter gruesomeness of the scene, I couldn’t help but feel a little confidence start to grow. I knew that was a bad idea because my life in the apocalypse had always been an absolute shitshow.

  Still, the bulldozer mowed down zombies like undead blades of grass, and we were making good progress. The only problem was that there seemed to be an unlimited supply swarming around us. More and more were coming on the scene, drawn in by the rumble of our engine, and that gave me some pause.

  Sooner rather than later, we were going to have to leave the safe confines of the cab unless we planned to drive it to Cincinnati.

  “How much fuel do we have?” I asked, yelling over the rumble of the engine.

  Alex’s head nodded forward slightly, and I could tell she was scanning all the dials.

  “A quarter of a tank,” she said. Then she followed it up with a question. “What are you thinking?”

  The last thing I wanted to talk about was what I was thinking.

  “How fast do you think this thing can go?” I asked.

  “I think what you’re asking is whether this big hog can outrun those zombies?” Alex said. “This thing isn’t fast, but neither are the deaders. But yes, I think we can outrun them.”

  “Once we get down to the river, we’re going to have to get out of this thing and get to the boats,” I said.

  “And?”

  “How are we going to do that when those dead things are all over the place,” Lori asked.

  “That’s a good question,” I said. “We have a few minutes to figure that out.”“You mean you didn’t think of this before we left?” Lori asked, the pitch of her voice rising throughout the question.

  “If you hadn’t noticed it, Joel is a make it up as you go kind of guy,” Alex said as she continued rolling on, pulping zombies as we went.

  Naveen took that moment to speak up, “Joel is very good at making things up.”

  That was a real vote of confidence, but I had no idea what we were going to do. So, to keep the troops calm, like the Grinch, I made up a lie and made it up quick.

  “Yeah, I have a plan,” I said. “It’s percolating. I just have a few details to lock down.”

  Chapter 42

  Wake Up Call

  “He’s getting away!”

  Kara jerked out of the trance she had fallen into four hours ago, slamming her legs against the table she was sitting behind. Since she was half-dead, she didn’t even feel an ounce of pain.

  “What?” She asked aloud, barely conscious.

  She had secluded herself back in the storage room where she usually took refuge from the zombies. She had been inside the room for two days and deep down in her trance. A part of her never wanted to come out of it. Reality was so much worse.

  “Joel is trying to escape the area,” The Night Visitor said, his voice filling Kara’s head.

  The mention of Joel’s name brought Kara back to full consciousness.

  Without really thinking, she asked, “Where is he going?”

  “It doesn’t matter!”

  The voice was so loud inside Kara’s head she winced. The pain forced her to close her eyes. Obviously, despite not feeling any external pain like the undead, there was a kind of pain she could feel.

  “What matters is that he is leaving,” the Night Visitor said. “And he’s taking the girl with him.”

  “Naveen?” She asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “And she is immune. She has taken the vaccine. She can’t be allowed to leave with him.”

  Kara narrowed her eyes and said, “I will never harm Naveen.” She let out a long breath and added, “Never.”

  The Night Visitor began to laugh, and the sound of it got louder and louder. Kara was sure it resonated off the walls. It was so loud, even though she knew the voice was only in her head.

  “I will never release you from this half-dead existence,” he said as soon as he stopped laughing. “I will make you suffer.”

  “Worse than already I am?”

  “I can,” he said.

  A heavy silence filled the room as Kara wrapped her arms around herself and slowly began to rock back and forth.

  “Remember how much you hate Joel. Remember, you are suffering because of him. All you need to do is stop them,” he said.

  She knew better. If she released her undead soldiers on Joel and Naveen was with him, how could she stop them from killing Naveen?

  As if he were reading her mind, the Night Visitor said, “You can grab Naveen and get her to safety.”

  Kara stopped rocking back and forth. Her dead gray eyes blinked several times, and then she said, “I can do that.”

  The thought of being reunited with Naveen somehow warmed her from the inside out. This was a new and comforting feeling and she embraced it.

  “Then you can do what you need to do to Joel and the others,” he said. “You can make him finally pay.”

  Chapter 43

  To the Boats!

  Alex plowed the bulldozer through the wall of zombies, smashing, folding, spindling, and mutilating them with extreme prejudice. She might have even chuckled a little as she pushed the dozer through the four-lane intersection that marked the last bit of pavement we’d be covering. An open field was beyond the intersection and then we’d be at the river.

  While Alex seemed to be enjoying herself, Lori looked a little green. Naveen had been seasoned by carnage like this, so she remained stoic. Well, mostly. When blood spurted onto the windshield after Alex squished a particularly juicy zombie, I caught Naveen wincing a little.

  The last mob of zombies was the final big collection of them. Ahead of us were sets of deaders scattered about, some wandering and some taking notice of us. Of course, behind us were a shit ton of zombies, following us along as if we were the Pied Piper of the dead.

  “Joel, you’re going to have to guide me to the boats,” Alex said. “I haven’t been down this far in well over a year and have no idea where you guys came ashore.”

  I leaned forward and pointed to the left at about a twenty-degree angle, directing her to an overgrown pathway that led alongside a bridge. The bridge rose upward, spanning over the Olentangy River, and provided cover for us when we originally came ashore.

  It didn’t look a lot different from when we came ashore, other than everything was dormant and looked bleached out from the harsh winter weather. The scrubby undergrowth was barren of leaves, and the few trees were nothing but dark trunks against the pale white background of the shoreline.

  “Get in as close to the bridge when we get closer,” I said, and then took a look behind us to check the status of the deaders we had in tow. There were a lot of them. When I looked to the south, I spotted another group plodding across a long parking lot on their way to us from the south. If we weren’t able to get into those canoes and head out of there quickly, things were about to become very interesting.

  “Ahhhh, Joel,” Alex said. “We may have a problem.”

  I wheeled around and asked, “What?”

  “The river looks partially frozen,” she said.

  A sheet of ice spanned out into the river, extending about ten to fifteen feet from the shoreline. There was no telling how thick it was, but this was going to make things complicated. An ugly thought flitted at the back of my mind, and an image of the canoes locked in blocks of ice appeared.

  The only hope dangled out there was a dark flow of water in the center of the river. It looked to be about forty feet wide with ice on both sides. />
  “Do you think we can even get out into the water with all that ice?” Lori asked, and I could hear the trepidation in her voice.

  “Oh, sure,” I said with all the confidence of a used car salesman trying to push that clunker off on an unsuspecting customer.

  “And what is that plan you’re working on?” Alex asked.

  “Well, there are some details to be determined,” I said. “I...I--”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Alex said, cutting me off. “Here’s the plan. I get you down to the river’s edge. You hop out and check to see if those damned canoes can even be found, and then if you can get them in the water. Once you do, I send Lori and Naveen down to you.”

  “What are you doing while I’m getting to do all the fun stuff?” I asked.

  “I’m going to be running down some deaders with this lovely, little beast,” she said as she patted one of the levers. “This thing is almost like a tank.”

  We were about under the bridge by then, with the dozer chugging along. I had a better view of the landscape ahead. The ice looked fairly solid close to shore, but cracks started a few feet out, leading across the ice toward the flowing water.

  “I’m concerned about the ice close to shore,” I said.

  “What are you saying?” Lori asked.

  “Well, it looks pretty thick,” I said. “I’m wondering how we’ll get the canoes across them and into the water.”

  “Use your bang-bang stick,” Alex said.

  It was my turn to say, “What?”

  “You have guns,” she said. “Use them to shoot through the ice.”

  “Oh,” I said, then added, “You know, I’m glad I promoted you to be a part of the team. You get a gold star and a smiley face.”

  “Shut up,” she said. “Just look for those damn canoes.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said as I scanned under the bridge.

  We approached the river’s edge when she brought the bulldozer to a complete stop. With a deftness that I didn’t think she should have, given her limited time piloting the dozer, she pulled a lever and pivoted the whole thing one hundred and eighty degrees. The maneuver left us facing back toward the medical complex. It wasn’t a pretty sight as hundreds of zombies headed our way.