Books of the Dead | Book 9 | Dead of Winter

by Spears, R. J.

  We were blessed with the fact that while the bulldozer was slow, the zombies were even slower. By my estimation, we had about four minutes until the center of the mass of zombies were upon us. That meant we could possibly be facing off the leading edge before we hit the water in the canoes. That is, if we could find the canoes.

  “Time to hop,” big guy,” Alex said.

  I reached out and popped the side door on the cab open.

  “Be careful,” Naveen said, sticking out a hand to touch my arm.

  “I’ll be as smooth as silk and as fine as wine,” I said.

  “That is what has me scared,” Lori said.

  “Go!” Alex shouted.

  “Alright,” I said. “What a grouch.”

  I stepped out on the treads, shut the door, and hopped off onto the hard-packed ground. Time to find some canoes.

  I let my eyes scan up and down the shoreline, and it took me about ten seconds to spot them. They were wedged up against the side of one of the support beams. Frankly, I considered it a major miracle that they didn’t float away. Brother Ed had done what he could when we brought them ashore, but anything could have happened to them in the past few months.

  “The canoes are over there,” I shouted to be heard and pointed toward the canoes. “They don’t look too encased in ice.”

  “Great!” Alex shouted back. “Now get them free and ready for us. I’ve got some zombies to demolish.”

  She must have slammed down the accelerator because the engine roared to life, and a heavy gout of black smoke shot out of the exhaust pipe. The big beast jerked forward and, from behind, it did sort of look like a tank as it rumbled toward the horde coming toward it.

  My time of admiring it was limited to about five seconds. The clock was ticking, and I had canoes to get ready. As I approached the frozen shoreline, I could see the ice had cracked in many places. That meant it wasn’t too thick, but that also made it dangerous. Breaking through and slipping into those cold waters could be very deadly if you didn’t just drown outright.

  I ran along the edge, trying not to fall on my ass, and was forced to slow down or that very thing would happen. A thin patina of ice covered the shoreline, making movement treacherous.

  Once I made it to the first canoe, I found out that all it took was a hard jerk to wrench it free from the ice. The second, not so much. After I got the first canoe into position and checked to make sure there were paddles inside, I was forced to walk out onto the ice to retrieve the second one.

  Cracking noises sounded with each of my footfalls, and I saw a spider web of cracks fracture across the ice. This was both good and bad news. Good in that the ice was, indeed, not that thick. Bad, in that one wrong move could mean someone went into the icy water. I felt my entire body cringe at the idea.

  Once I made it to the second canoe, I tried to jerk it free, but the ice held it fast. I tried to yank it harder, but felt the ice start to break under my feet. That forced a reappraisal of the situation.

  When I surveyed the boat, it looked as if the front of it was stuck in the ice. When I had pulled on it, the backend seemed to have wiggled. Just a little, but it was something.

  I didn’t have time to finesse it, plus there was the risk that I just might go through the ice and into the cold waters.

  So, I pulled out my pistol and aimed at the ice just off to the front of the canoe. This, of course, seemed quite risky. If I made a mistake and a bullet pierced the hull of the canoe, we were screwed. There was no way all four of us could fit into one canoe.

  I sent a prayer heavenward and asked God to help me avoid being a total screw-up. After a fast amen, I pulled the trigger three quick times.

  God must have listened because my bullets flew straight and true, cracking through the ice in a line that arced around the front of the canoe. I reached out and grabbed the back of the canoe. At first, it resisted, but I gave it a hard tug, and after a loud cracking sound, the canoe broke free from the ice.

  Unfortunately, all of the effort forced my foot to crack through the ice. It was only my right foot, but it sank about a foot and a half. Cold water wrapped around my leg and filled my boot, sending icy cold shock waves up my leg.

  “Son of a bitch!” I yelled, hating the feeling of the frigid water in my boot.

  It wasn’t fatal but supremely uncomfortable.

  I was able to tug the boat on shore without getting my left foot wet. I maneuvered this second canoe next to the other one and checked to make sure it had paddles -- which it did. We were set when it came to transportation. Now, to get Alex, Lori, and Naveen back to the boats.

  We hadn’t worked out a signal, but I looked out to see Alex going to town on the zombies. She had plowed into them, crushing and mashing a long and bloody swath through the center of the mob. It was not a pretty sight as zombie bodies were tossed about, sending blossoms of blood into the air.

  I was able to see a face looking out of the back of the cab. It was Lori. Alex must have put her in charge of checking on my progress.

  I put both of my arms in the air and waved them back and forth to signal I was ready.

  Lori must have spotted my signal and transmitted it to Alex. The bulldozer slid to a stop, then Alex put the big beast into a violent spin.

  I hadn’t paid much attention, but the bulldozer had a digger arm on the back. Alex had somehow got it extended, and it acted like a huge battering ram. It slammed into the zombies and sent their broken bodies rolling across the icy hard ground. It made me think of a small child getting pissed off and angrily tossing his toy soldiers across the floor.

  Once she had the dozer centered on my location, she put the pedal to the metal and shot the bulldozer toward me. With smoke churning from the exhaust, the bulldozer looked like an angry bull charging my way. All I had to do was wait and hope that it outran the pursuing deaders, but that was when I realized I had troubles of my own.

  Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught movement to my right. When I turned that way, I spotted a small group of zombies headed my way from the south. In making a quick estimate, it was easy to see that they would arrive before the bulldozer did. So, I was on my own to deal with this encounter.

  Chapter 44

  Boats Away!

  The decision wasn’t all that hard. Since the bulldozer made enough noise to draw in zombies from a mile away, there was no use being quiet about my actions.

  Still, I only had so many rounds of ammunition. So, I couldn’t go wild.

  Just as I had been trained, I pulled up my rifle and lowered myself to one knee, and began targeting the zombies. My decision came down to one that haunted me in childhood -- belly or the head. In this case, it was legs or the head, though.

  Headshots were the best and most final way to take down deaders, but the way their heads were bobbing back and forth, targeting their heads was a real challenge. In the past, blasting off knees or snapping legs had proven effective in slowing them down. Since I didn’t intend on being in this spot to give them enough time to crawl at me, I decided to try the leg shots.

  That didn’t mean it was easy.

  After about thirty seconds of drifting my aim across the deader's legs, I realized I was procrastinating. So, I let rip with a spray of bullets, sending them tearing across the front edge of the zombies.

  Depending on your perspective, it turned out to be a successful endeavor. From my view, bullets smashed through legs, sending the zombies face-first to the ground. Even ones I hadn’t hit ended up getting tangled in the ones I had taken down. All-in-all, I created a really nice pile-up of deaders, and I hoped it gave us enough time to get our boats launched.

  Now, from a zombie’s perspective, it must have been crushingly disappointing to see food only a few dozen feet away, only to end up eating dirt instead.

  Obviously, I didn’t let petty little things like zombies' disappointment bother me. Not in the least.

  I turned back to track the bulldozer’s progress. It was somewhat promising. Alex
had not only cut the distance to the river down by half but had also gained some space between herself and her undead pursuers. That was a positive sign, but in the distance, I could see another larger group of the undead headed our way. There was very little doubt that we would be cutting this one close, but seriously, what else is new?

  I decided my time was best spent getting the canoes in position and cutting a way through the ice to make that happen. Since I didn’t have an ax or other object to make a path in the ice, I had to shoot my way through it.

  This time, I decided my rifle was the best tool. I had no idea just how thick the ice was along the shoreline, and I didn’t have the time to do any testing. So, I just aimed on straight lines in front of the canoes and let it rip.

  Bullets do an amazing job of cutting ice, but that was based on how thick the ice was. Closer to shore, it was thicker, requiring a few extra shots. I hated burning through my ammo, but it was what it was. We had to have a way to get the canoes through the ice and not end up going in the water ourselves. Since we would be trapped on the water once we set off, I had little doubt that a dip in the ice-cold water could mean real trouble. Hypothermia could take any one of us down.

  After I made two decent-sized lines through the ice, I readjusted the canoes to put them on the best glide path to the water. Once that was done, I got ready to turn around to check on the dozer’s progress, but it was obvious to me that it was mighty close from the rumble of the engine.

  When I turned around, my suspicions were confirmed. Alex was only feet away, and I sure hope she left enough stopping distance because if she hadn’t, I was about to be flattened.

  She hit the brakes, and the big beast started to slide. Alex hadn’t taken into account the icy ground. It was coming at me looking like the side of a building, and like the idiot I was, I just stood there.

  I know it was childish, but I closed my eyes, playing by the principle that what I couldn’t see wouldn’t hurt me. Reality was quite different. If that bulldozer hit me, I’d either be pulped or knocked into the middle of the river.

  I opened my eyes when I heard the engine of the bulldozer idle down and discovered there was about six inches between my face and the big shovel of the bulldozer.

  “Why did you stand there like some kind of fucking idiot?” Alex yelled down at me after popping the cab door open.

  “Sorry, I froze,” I said.

  Alex locked me in one of her patented cop stares and said, “We can’t afford you freezing. You can’t do that again.”

  “Noted,” I said. “Let’s get everyone out and into the boats.”

  Alex swiveled around, grabbed Naveen under the armpits, and lifted her down to me.

  “Head for the first canoe,” I told Naveen.

  She looked a little reluctant, but I said, “I’ll be with you. Now, go.”

  She nodded her head slightly and started for the first canoe.

  Lori stood on the treads of the dozer, and I could tell she was judging how to make her ascent. Just before she jumped, I noticed she looked back toward the approaching horde. She looked down toward me, and there was something in the set of her expression that made my insides clench up.

  “What?!” I shouted at her.

  She didn’t answer but instead leapt off the side of the bulldozer and ran right at me.

  As soon as she got to me, she said, “It’s Kara.”

  “What?” I said.

  “She’s leading the second surge of zombies toward us,” she said.

  I took a slide step to my right and tried to see through the first set of zombies headed our way, but all I saw were the faces of the undead. As always, they looked gruesome, empty, and merciless at the same time.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “She’s right,” Alex yelled from up on the bulldozer. “Your girlfriend is leading them right to us.”

  Alex jumped down with her guns and backpack and immediately headed toward me. She did not look happy.

  “I hate anything to do with boats,” she said. “I get seasick even looking at a picture of a ship.”

  “I think that’s the least of your worries,” I replied.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said.

  I pivoted around and saw that Naveen was sitting in the back of the first canoe looking about as thrilled as Alex said she was.

  I was forced to fight every instinct inside me screaming to get to Kara. To try to get her to turn away. To try to change her mind to come away with me.

  That had as much of a chance as hell freezing over.

  “Joel!” Alex yelled. “We gotta go.”

  Alex was right. The only thing I could do was run. It was something I was getting really good at. Practice makes perfect, right?

  As planned, Lori was beside the second canoe with Alex, ready to shove the canoe into the water. So, I made my way to the other canoe and got in behind.

  “Ready to go for a little boat ride,” I said to Naveen.

  “Please, Joel,” she said. “No joking around. I’m really scared.”“I’m scared, too,” I said. “But we’ll make it.”

  “What about Kara?” she asked.

  Her question hit me like a gut punch. I didn’t have a good answer, but I was always an idea man, so I went back to my original plan. I wasn’t sure I believed it or whether it would even matter.

  “We’ll have to come back for her once we have a cure,” I said, nodding my head up and down a little too enthusiastically. “Does that sound good?”

  “Okay,” she said. “We better go.”

  “Yeah,” I said while looking over my shoulder to check the progress of the first wave of deaders. They were less than a minute away. I put my hands on the back of the canoe and began to shove. The plan was for me to get the canoe into the water, and then I was to jump in. I just hope I didn’t end up dunking myself in the icy waters.

  I heard the sound of the other canoe rubbing along the hard ground as Alex pushed it toward the water. Five seconds later, I heard her canoe splash into the river.

  A moment after that, I felt my canoe crash through the broken ice and make its own splashdown. That’s when I made my little jump into the canoe.

  Against all odds, I made the jump perfectly, although there were no judges to give me my final score, ruining my chance for the gold medal. Life’s full of those little disappointments, I guess.

  The momentum of my push and little jump drove the boat through the fractured ice and into the river. With that, we were away and drifting on the frigid waters of the Olentangy River. Thankfully, those waters were calm, albeit scattered with small flows of ice we had to paddle around.

  Nothing was stopping us now. Or so I thought.

  Chapter 45

  One Final Look Back

  Some say waiting is the hardest part. Some say losing is the hardest part.

  I say leaving is the shittiest part, and it was what I had been doing for the past two years. Sometimes, I was forced to leave a place. Other times, I left because it was a part of our bigger mission. Our so-called, ‘Holy Mission’ placed upon us by the Man upstairs.

  Along with everyone else I knew, I had been driven from my home when the Outbreak hit. Then, when the rogue soldiers attacked and almost demolished the church we had been staying in, our group had been forced out of Portsmouth. We had a sweet little deal out in the country at a luxury retirement community. It was almost idyllic.

  That was until zombies, and rogue soldiers drove us out of there.

  Kara, Naveen, Jason, and Brother Ed had parted ways with our closest friends to fulfill the holy mission of finding a vaccine in Columbus. Jason was the key to that since he was immune.

  That had led us to Doctor M. He had come through with a vaccine, but it was only a preventative and not a cure. A cure was what I needed for Kara -- if that was even possible. I also had to factor into the equation whether she would even want it. Contemplating that caused me great trembling and trepidation. I was on the edge of great
weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

  Of course, Jason sacrificed himself in the final showdown with Colonel Kilgore. Just another loss in a long stream of people lost along the way.

  Now, Brother Ed was gone. Another stab in my heart. Sure, we had never really become fast friends, but he had been there all the way along the road. When the chips were down, he made the same ultimate sacrifice that Jason had made to get us past the ghost of Private Juan Soto.

  It seemed like this whole zombie apocalypse thing had become like slow-motion torture. Death by a thousand cuts, and it was becoming almost unendurable.

  The only thing that kept the crippling depression away was the constant need to survive. Yeah, there’s that.

  Now, I was leaving Kara, but I can tell you one damn thing. I was not giving up on her. Never.

  If there had been any way to save her by staying, I would have done it, but that seemed to be an impossibility. My only chance was to, once again, risk my life and the lives of the people around me in a desperate attempt to find that cure. Even if it was a moon shot.

  Frankly, I had no idea if Doctor Richter could pull a rabbit out of his hat. He could have been spreading bullshit wide and deep for all I knew. But Doctor M must have thought there was some possibility, or else he would have never surrendered two doses of his precious vaccine to me.

  I was so lost in these thoughts that I didn’t hear Naveen speak.

  “Joel!” She shouted to get my attention.

  Her voice had a sense of alarm in it. It made me think that maybe we were heading toward an iceberg the size of what sank the Titanic.

  “What?!” I shouted back.

  “Look on shore,” she said.

  I turned to see her pointing toward the shoreline.