Bloody Sunset

by Gwendolyn Harper

  Geeks stumbled around the small grassy courtyard—the gap between the building and the football field downhill from them—making grabs for the nearest warm body.

  Thirty had been a lower estimate, and more were filing through the break in the fence, exactly where the razor wire had been.

  Questions flooded Caitlin’s mind that she’d have to put a dozen pins in until after they managed to survive.

  Blackened, decaying mouths widened, hungrily seeking out living flesh. Gnarled and filthy hands swiped and clawed, attacking anything they could get within range of.

  Caitlin spun her knife in her hand, aiming for the eye socket of the closest Geek.

  Stabbing it through the skull, she pulled the blade down and out, dislodging it quickly and stepped over the corpse.

  With her head on a swivel, she tried counting how many of theirs were in the fray.

  Five, maybe six. But she couldn’t see Booker.

  And still more Geeks tumbled into the yard.

  Caitlin swung her knife out, plunging it into the next Geek’s temple, and twisted it free.

  Then another. And another.

  Her arm ached by the sixth, but she continued pushing forward, clearing inch by agonizing inch.

  This would not be their end. They didn’t not make it that far to get taken out by a wayward herd of undead shitheads.

  Grunting, she kicked one Geek in the abdomen, sending it sprawling onto the ground, and stabbed another from under its chin.

  Run, run, run…

  Defend, defend, defend…

  Turning, she spotted Alonzo struggling to shove a Geek away, and ran to help him.

  Halfway there, something caught her by the ankle, sending her to the frozen ground with a terrified yell.

  The Geek was partially buried in other corpses, slowing its attack, but its rotting maw still looked ginormous from that angle as it groaned, desperate to bite down on her perilously close ankle.

  Kicking with all her might, she still couldn’t free herself from its grip on her jeans.

  With one hand grabbing onto the dry, frost covered lawn, she fought to retrieve her gun from the back of her belt.

  The commotion caught the attention of two other Geeks as they turned and lumbered closer.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” she gasped.

  Sitting up, Caitlin slashed at the hand of the Geek that had grabbed her, nearly severing it at the wrist.

  She could feel it in her gut.

  Three seconds—that was all she had.

  Not enough time to get up and kill both Geeks coming for her. She’d maybe take out one, but the other…

  Just as the shadows of both loomed over, signaling her end, a gunshot rang out.

  Brains splattered across the ground as both Geeks fell dead.

  Inhaling sharply, she took the opportunity to stab the trapped one through the temple before leaping to her feet.

  “Jack!” She cried, ready to reach for him.

  But the man holding the .45 in his hand wasn’t Booker.

  “Are you okay?” Seth asked, lowering his weapon a fraction.

  Caitlin blinked.

  Seth had saved her?

  “Yeah,” she said finally. “Thank you.”

  He smiled. “No problem.”

  And with that, he turned to continue fighting.

  Remembering why she’d been running over in the first place, Caitlin searched for Alonzo.

  He was already yards away, taking care of another Geek in a torn mechanic’s jumpsuit.

  Tossing her hair out of her face, Caitlin gulped air and focused on her next target.

  More and more people from inside the school rushed to their aid, carrying guns, baseball bats, machetes… Anything heavy or sharp, ready to defend their home.

  Nicole’s bright red hair flashed across the courtyard as she and another person ran to try to staunch the flow of undead creatures.

  Even through the chaos, Caitlin spotted familiar faces. Edward, Trish, Steve, Luna, even Scott had made it outside carrying a heavy pipe.

  But where was Booker?

  Nathaniel emerged with a buck knife, slashing and stabbing his way to Caitlin’s side of the yard.

  “You good?” He asked, sinking his blade into the back of the skull of a smaller Geek.

  “I’m fine,” she told him, looking over her shoulder to be safe. “But I can’t find Booker.”

  “I haven’t seen him,” he said with a worried frown. “But I’m sure he’s here somewhere.”

  As more and more corpses piled up, that sentiment wasn’t a comfort.

  In the distance, an engine revved and for a brief moment, Caitlin believed their luck had truly run out. A goon squad finding them was just the icing on top of the shitstorm they’d found themselves in.

  HONK!

  Caitlin stalled.

  HONK HONK HONK!

  “What the fuck,” she breathed, turning in a short circle.

  Another Geek stumbled closer and she dispatched it quickly, still frowning at the sounds gaining on them.

  From around the corner of the school, one of the stolen Ark buses drove up, barreling towards the gap in the fence.

  Realization smacked Caitlin in the face.

  “Get out of the way,” she screamed, waving for her friends to move. “Get back!”

  The bus didn’t slow as it collided with decaying bodies, either sending them flying or crunching them under heavy duty tires.

  “Move!” Caitlin yelled, reaching for the closest person—Donna—and dragging her out of the path of destruction. “Move!”

  The driver laid on the horn and tore through the thickest cluster of Geeks. Blood and brain matter coated the ground, turning everything into a grotesque mudslide.

  Stopping right in front of the fence gap, the driver’s side door swung open and several gunshots rang out.

  Caitlin would recognize that rifle sound anywhere.

  Turning his attention to the horde still clawing to get through, Booker swung his weapon over his shoulder and climbed from the door to the roof of the bus.

  Joyous relief swirled in her chest as she watched him, but Caitlin didn’t have time to be thrilled for long. There were still dozens of Geeks pinned inside, and the bus was only a temporary fix. They’d need to finish off the herd.

  The side door opened, and Caitlin glanced back to see how many other people were able to help.

  Carrying a cloth sack in one hand, Sister Agnes aimed a small .22 at any close undead and fired, clearing a swath of space for her to run through.

  “Caitlin,” she called. “Here!”

  The nun shoved the bag into Caitlin’s hands.

  To her surprise, it rattled.

  “I thought you could use these,” Sister Agnes said, just before lifting her weapon and firing off several more shots.

  It was the first time Caitlin had seen the woman kill anything larger than a troublesome mosquito.

  Taking a look inside the sack, Caitlin gasped.

  Bullets. Hundreds of rounds. Full clips, as well, and a box of rifle ammo.

  “Thank you,” she breathed, grazing the woman’s arm before turning and bolting for the bus.

  Booker was firing strategically, trying to buy time not just kill whichever Geek he saw first.

  Caitlin stabbed two more through the eyes as she pushed ahead, and once she was within earshot, she shouted for him.

  “Booker! Catch!”

  Twisting around, Booker grabbed the sack midair, careful not to spill the contents.

  With her other hand free, Caitlin began her ascent to the bus’s roof. Hoisting herself up, she scrambled with her feet while Booker continued firing.

  “I thought something happened to you,” she said breathlessly as she checked her revolver’s ammo.

  “’N I thought you were inside,” he said before squeezing the trigger.

  Delirious with adrenaline, Caitlin grinned. “What, and miss all this fun?”

  Aiming her own wea
pon, she blew apart the head of one Geek pushing against the bus door, nearly bending the hinges.

  “Could really use a Molotov cocktail right about now,” Booker commented, changing his aim to several bodies moving along the chain link.

  Caitlin squatted to open the bag, retrieving the box of ammunition for his rifle.

  “Guess this’ll have to do,” she said, holding it up for him.

  “Aw, hell yeah,” he exclaimed.

  From behind, she heard the bus door squeak and Caitlin spun, ready to take out the brave Geek attempting to climb up to them.

  “It’s me,” Nicole called, one filthy hand gripping the edge of the roof as she pulled herself up. “Figured you could use some help.”

  Aiding her friend to clear the edge, Caitlin frowned. “Do you even have a gun to shoot?”

  From her back pocket, Nicole withdrew a pistol. “Snagged it from Clark on my way out the door.”

  “Cae, you take that side of the herd,” Booker ordered, gesturing to the right. “Nicole, stick to my left and keep an eye on that piece of fence there.” He jerked his chin at the wobbly metal. “Dunno if it’ll hold long.”

  As the others cleared the Geeks from the courtyard, the trio took their places on the bus roof, and lifted their weapons.

  Thunderous shots rang out, layered on top of each other to the point that all Caitlin could hear was gunfire and the resounding tinnitus.

  Each row of Geeks crumpled and fell, only to be trampled by their herd-mates.

  Blood splattered across the side of the bus as they slaughtered more and more undead.

  Caitlin lost count, but by the looks of their ammunition stores, they were nearing seventy Geeks or more.

  The mound of corpses grew and grew, the stench filling their noses.

  In the distance, two late comers tripped through the weeds.

  Glancing at each other, Booker and Caitlin grinned before firing off their final shots.

  The silent calm didn’t seem real.

  Turning, Caitlin looked out at the courtyard, scanning for any signs of despair or loss.

  Bloody, bruised, and exhausted, everyone still stood.

  They’d lived. Every single one of them.

  A soft rumble of allayed laughter rolled through several of the guys—Alonzo and Edward especially, as they hugged and clapped each other on the backs.

  Swinging his rifle onto his shoulder, Booker looked at Caitlin.

  “Now, who’s hungry?”

  Both Nicole and Caitlin groaned, shoving him from either side.

  Laughing, he spread his arms out. “What?”

  * * * * * * *

  The teacher’s lounge was packed with people, everyone standing shoulder to shoulder around the IKEA table and chairs.

  “Our priorities need to shift,” Luna said, folding her arms. “We got cocky thinking we’d have enough heads up to handle any rotters that came through. Today could have been a massacre.”

  Steve frowned. “The ground is too frozen to dig post holes for the fence repairs. We tried a few weeks ago and it took us hours to make it only an inch.”

  “Y’all got other materials though,” Booker said, looking over at the man. “Bricks, plywood—”

  “Not enough to build a wall,” Trish cut in. “And we don’t have concrete to secure it. We’d just be making a very heavy Jenga stack ready to topple over the second a rotter wants to push in.”

  “Well something is better than nothing,” Nathaniel said. “We could scavenge the hardware supply warehouse a few towns over and hope they have things we could use.”

  “That’ll take a lot of time and fuel,” Max said. “None of our vehicles are large enough to carry that kind of load in one go.”

  Caitlin bit the inside of her lip, waiting for the fence talk to wind down.

  Their faulty perimeter was a concern, but it wasn’t the main issue.

  How did a herd that large find the one gap in their defenses?

  They’d only seen a few Geeks at a time since moving into the school. Caitlin remembered seeing a cluster of ten on the road once, on their way back from a trip.

  She and Booker had taken them out easily, the cold seeming to stiffen their undead joints.

  But the herd of over seventy, that moved much faster than any they’d come across that winter were an anomaly even then.

  Nicole’s voice brought her attention back.

  “We don’t have to fix the fence right away,” she said. “We have enough corpses to circle the whole building.”

  The stunned silence and owlish stares were nearly comical.

  “I’m sorry…” Nathaniel started. “Are you suggesting…”

  Nicole glanced around the group. “You guys didn’t realize?” Her stare darted to Caitlin and Booker. “The smell of zombie corpses deters other zombies. They aren’t attracted to the flesh of their own rotting dead—it’s why they don’t eat each other. If you lay out the bodies, the smell will keep other zombies away.”

  Mildly horrified, Scott leaned closer. “Do I want to know how you figured that out?”

  “The first group I was with found out,” she said. “We’d put a few dead ones around whatever place we’d holed up in for the night to keep from getting attacked in our sleep.”

  Booker nodded. “We cleared a farmhouse in Mississippi and dumped the groaners around the outside. Prob’ly what kept us safe when a huge herd came shufflin’ down the road.”

  “You’re saying we just have to leave a ring of corpses around the place and we shouldn’t have another attack like today?” Trish asked, furrowing her brow.

  “I’d still suggest patching the fence,” Nicole said. “But until we can, yes. The bodies should do the trick.”

  “Isn’t anyone curious how they got here?” Caitlin blurted out. “A herd that large, when the biggest group we’ve seen since getting here was only ten or twelve strong? And they zeroed in on the hole in the fence. Geeks aren’t that smart. They don’t rationalize.”

  “There were people in the yard,” Nathaniel said. “The rotters must’ve seen movement and B-lined for us.”

  “Okay, sure, maybe,” she conceded. “But those Geeks weren’t out in the freezing temps for months. They moved too fast and easy. And they weren’t covered in frost—”

  “Well they weren’t just dropped on our doorstep,” Steve said. “They must’ve broken out of somewhere. Remember the Walmart with hundreds of rotters inside?”

  Several of the others mumbled in agreement, remembering the day vividly.

  Caitlin pressed her lips into a line.

  Shifting closer, Booker whispered to her, “What’re you sayin’, Cae?”

  And that was the problem. She didn’t know.

  She couldn’t accuse someone of doing anything nefarious without first being certain said nefarious thing occurred.

  “I think…” She took a deep breath. “I think we need to take a look for ourselves.”

  Booker made a noise at the back of his throat—a barely audible grunt of approval—and nodded once.

  “T’night,” he whispered.

  “Definitely.”

  The group continued to discuss patrolling tactics, the necessary additions of more people and the weapons needed. They debated whether to find more ammunition before the end of the next day or if they should wait until the next supply run.

  Caitlin simply listened, digging her thumbnail into the side of her middle finger deeper and deeper, trying to quell the urge to bolt.

  * * * * * * *

  “Y’sure you don’t wanna wait until mornin’?” Booker asked, sweeping the beam of his flashlight over the uneven ground in front of them.

  “We might lose evidence if we wait,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “And if my hunch is right, we’ll want evidence.”

  Keeping her own flashlight steady, Caitlin led them from the outside of the fence through the weeds and tall grass the herd had stumbled through only hours before.

  Most of the
corpses had been moved, per Nicole’s instructions, but a few particularly crushed and mangled bodies were left strewn across the ground.

  “So, what weren’t you sayin’ in that meetin’?” Booker asked, staying as close as possible without crowding her.

  Caitlin moved her light to search the surrounding grass.

  “I think someone led those Geeks right to us,” she said. “I don’t know who, but someone made sure to lure a herd to the one weak spot in our fence.”

  Booker was quiet a moment.

  “Y’don’t think Nathaniel’s right? They might’ve seen movement in the yard…”

  She tilted her head, considering the option.

  “Maybe. But that doesn’t explain the other stuff.”

  “What other stuff?”

  A speck of red caught Caitlin’s eye and she carefully stepped closer.

  “Those Geeks hadn’t been out in the cold all winter,” she told him, suddenly very aware of the chill attacking her nose and fingertips. “They weren’t stiff or covered in frost. Which means they were being kept somewhere and then released.”

  “Or…” Booker countered. “They broke outta someplace.”

  Sighing, Caitlin turned to face him in the dark.

  “It’s fine if you don’t agree,” she said. “But just humor me for a minute, okay?”

  Booker half-shrugged. “Hey, I’m here, songbird. I’m with ya. Just lead the way.”

  Swinging the beam of her flashlight back over to the splotch of crimson in the grass, she stooped closer.

  A bisected squirrel lay covered by leaves and a few twigs, its blood dripped along the brittle stalks of the tall, dry grass.

  Caitlin curled her lip in disgust as she found another stick to poke at the rodent, uncovering it.

  “That ain’t from a predator,” Booker said, squatting down to get a better look. “See the spine?”

  She did. Too well.

  “An animal bite is ragged. They tear at their food.” Booker picked the squirrel up by the back of its neck, holding it in the light. “This was cut. By a knife.”

  Caitlin scowled. “It’s fresh too. The blood is still red, not rust colored.”

  Dropping the dead rodent, Booker wiped his fingers on the shin of his jeans.

  “A’ight,” he said, sighing. “I think your theory’s startin’ to hold water.”