The Deadland Chronicles | Book 4 | Siege of the Dead:

by Spears, R. J.

  “Garver!” He shouted, and he pointed back over Garver’s shoulder, and that was his mistake.

  Garver’s mistake was turning around to look instead of jumping onto the MAV. Not that it would have made much of a difference.

  The RPG hit the MAV at the front end, close to the ground, taking out two of the tires.

  Then, Garver was gone, swept away by the force of the blast, blowing him twenty-five feet away, shattering multiple bones, and ripping ugly holes in his flesh.

  The only blessing was that he died quickly.

  Chapter 79

  Just Another Hole in the Wall

  The zombies circled the wall for two-hundred feet in both directions, emitting that low moan they always did. They clawed at the wall, trying their best to get at the tasty humans just above them, but found this frustrating as the humans were just out of reach. A few tried to make their way past the giant metal blade of the bulldozer, but just as soon a hand made it inside, Jo was there to break it into pieces with the butt of her rifle. It was grueling work, but Jo found something satisfying about it.

  A man beside Bonds fired down onto the head of a zombie, blowing its brains out and dropping it. None of the surrounding zombies took any notice, and another one immediately took its place at the wall.

  “Don’t shoot at them,” Henry shouted.

  Bonds, who was next to the man, put out a hand for the man to stop.

  “If you shoot them, their bodies will build-up, and they’ll use them to climb their way up to us,” Henry shouted. “They get onto the wall, and we’re all dead.”

  The man dropped his aim, but he didn’t look happy about it.

  “Henry,” Molly said from behind Henry, “can we please talk?”

  Henry wheeled around her and asked, “About what?!’’

  The ferocity behind Henry’s question forced Molly to take a step back.

  Her eyes were red-rimmed with tears. “Please, Henry, I did what I thought was right.”

  “You killed my mother,” Henry said, his voice as icy as the tundra.

  By then, Jo had made her way onto the wall and was in position beside Henry and Molly. She was caught in the land of indecision. She hadn’t been there when the rocket hit the wall, but from what Molly and the man named Kent had said, there was no saving Ellen. Either she would have died from her wounds, or the zombies would have gotten to her. The latter was a fate too horrible to even contemplate.

  “Please, Henry,” Molly whined, and this wasn’t like her. She had never pleaded in her life except when the zombies took her parents. The parents who had protected her. The parents that gave her enough time to escape to the church to shelter with the people there. The parents that had died to make sure she lived.

  Jo cleared her throat, then said, “It sounds like Ellen was lost when that rocket hit the wall.”

  Henry pivoted toward Jo and said, “You weren’t here, and she died when she,” he pointed directly at Molly, “shot her in the head.”

  “I don’t know if I would have been able to do it, but it sounds like a mercy killing,” Jo said, not being able to look Henry in the eyes.

  “Mercy killing!” Henry said, his face filling with color. “I could have gotten down to her.”

  “And you would have died, too,” Kent said in a cautious tone, not really wanting to be a part of this conversation.

  “But I didn’t even get a chance,” Henry shouted, his voice filled with anguish.

  “Please, Henry, calm down,” Jo said.

  “How do I do that?” Henry said and his eyes filled with tears. “She’s down there. She’s dead.” He fell into Jo, and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in.

  Her own son wasn’t much older than Henry. She had no idea where he was and whether he was still alive or not. He had been out west when the Outbreak hit and the government shut down travel.

  She patted Henry’s back, soothing him, the way she would have done with her own boy, and she found it also comforted her. Henry’s back shook, but he didn’t make a noise, crying soundlessly.

  Molly stood back but took a tentative step toward Henry and Jo, putting out a hand for Henry’s back, but she withdrew it before making contact. She stepped away and dropped her head.

  Jo broke her embrace with Henry and put a hand to his face to wipe away his tears. Ashamed to show any weakness, Henry looked down.

  “Henry,” Jo said in a soft voice, “just like your father, your mother would have done anything to keep you safe and alive.” She paused and leaned in a little closer to his face. “She wouldn’t have wanted you to lose your life to try to save her.”

  “But I might have been able to do something,” Henry said, his voice shaky.

  “But you most likely would have died,” Jo said. “She wouldn’t have wanted that.”

  Henry let out a long breath, but it caught several times. “How do I go on?”

  “You just do,” Jo said, and gave his shoulder a squeeze.

  Uncomfortable, Kent looked off into the distance and something caught his eye. A silver flash, the sun catching something metal. It came from within a group of the undead at the back of the pack. It was hard to follow it with the bobbing heads of the undead in the way, but a second later, it was impossible to miss an explosive flash. Something streaked through the sky, heading for the wall.

  Kent’s mouth went dry, but he shouted, “Incoming!”

  The rocket hit the gate, eighty feet away, shattering the hinges where they connected to the wall. The back gate, as it was called, wasn’t constructed in the same fashion as the front gate. It had none of the reinforcements the one out front had and was designed simply to swing open, letting people or vehicles in or out. It had been deemed safe against zombies, but no one had expected an all-out attack from the undead combined with well-armed human confederates.

  It had never been contemplated that living, breathing humans would or even could combine forces with the undead to assault the Sanctum in such force or with such numbers. It was so far beyond the pale that this sort of unholy alliance could ever become true. Only the insane would prepare against such a possibility.

  But that’s where they were. In an utterly insane shit storm with zombies no longer knocking at the door but ready to come in.

  The zombies that had been in the way of the rocket were acceptable losses when it came to getting entrance to the Sanctum. The person behind the attack had clearly calculated that and made the cold equation decision.

  Besides, there were always more undead in the world. Millions more, really.

  Chapter 80

  Someone’s Knocking at the Door

  Audrey didn’t know how she knew it, but Maxwell was dead.

  There had always been this thin and tenuous psychic connection between the four half-dead beings. As it had been said of some twins, there seemed to be some knowledge beyond the rational of how they communicated without speaking and how they were connected. It wasn’t telepathy or mind-reading. They just sensed each other’s presence and sometimes even thoughts and feelings, even when they weren’t close together.

  It was how they knew Grayson had left their quartet and struck out on their own. When he left their little group, they sensed that he had broken that connection.

  That’s how Audrey felt now. The connection between herself and Maxwell was broken, but this break seemed like it had been totally severed, abrupt and permanent. Somehow final.

  The humans inside the walls had killed Maxwell. Maybe it was the helicopter? Maybe a rocket? Maybe a lucky shot? It didn’t really matter; he was gone, and he had been the only bit of brightness left in her murky and dark world.

  When she surveyed her handiwork, she saw that the gate’s right door sat off-kilter, leaning inward. There was a foot and a half sideways gap between the right and the left door. It wasn’t wide enough for the zombies to get through, but she knew it was only a matter of time. The zombies were tenacious when it came to getting at humans. Like water, they’d find a
way in that gap.

  Audrey’s only regret was that she only had two warheads for her rocket launcher. If she had a third, she would have blown the doors off that motherfucking wall. The humans inside would pay for killing Maxwell.

  It was as if the zombies read her mind as they started en masse to move toward the crack in the doors. Ones along the wall, side-stepped toward the broken gate. Others in the field, seeming to sense a chance to get inside, pressed forward, putting more and more pressure on the gate door.

  Audrey could see it budging against their pressure, giving way. It was only a matter of time.

  Her big question was, how could she help them get inside faster? The answer was to get more warheads. The only way to do that would be to get to Lance.

  She knew he was on the other side of this little city within the walls. This tiny city of people who had killed the man she loved. While she didn’t like the idea of walking around the walls to the other side, she conceded it was her only move. Besides, the zombies would get inside eventually, whether she helped them or not. Another rocket would just make it sooner, rather than later. And she was okay with that.

  Audrey put the rocket launcher over her shoulder using a rifle sling as she watched the zombies press against the gate, widening the gap an inch at a time. Maybe they would need her, but there was nothing else she could do here.

  She drifted back into the shadows of the building she had been hiding behind and left the undead to their deadly purposes.

  Chapter 81

  Out of Commission

  The right side of Sergeant Jones’ body felt like it was on fire. Fine shrapnel from the rocket peppered his arm, torso, and leg, feeling like a thousand burning needles. His head swam from the concussion of the blast, and his ears rang as if a giant iron bell was being pounded on, bringing on a wave of nausea.

  The sky passed above, the fluffy, white clouds seeming innocent and harmless. He felt the rumble of the MAV beneath him, each bump resonating throughout his body, amplifying the pain. A part of him was totally aware of what was going on, but another part wanted nothing to do with it. It wanted the hell out of Dodge. It said, fuck this noise. Enough is enough.

  Jones wanted to be all-in with escaping reality, but the pain held him there, selfish and needy.

  Memories flooded in from when he had been injured in Afghanistan. One of his men had set off a roadside IED. He had been across the road, but pieces of the device cut into his leg, dropping him like a rock. All the while,the medic had worked on him, he was certain he would bleed out, but the medic did his magic and saved Jones and his leg.

  The MAV skidded to a stop, and Jones felt his body slide across the unforgiving surface of the MAV. He couldn’t help himself and cried out in pain.

  A barrage of gunshot sounded somewhere in front of him, and a few seconds later, two faces appeared above him. He recognized one as Donovan and the other as...as...the name escaped him. It started with an M.

  Mike. Manny. No, Mason.

  “Hey, how are you doing, Sarge?” Donovan asked, leaning in over Jones. Donovan’s face seemed bright and blurry at the same time.

  “Hurts like a son of a bitch,” Jones said through gritted teeth.

  Mason’s face came into view, and he said, “It looks worse than it is. I’m sure of that.”

  “How the hell do you know how much it hurts?” Jones said.

  “See, if you can joke about it, it can’t be that bad,” Mason said, putting on a big smile.

  It was the same smile that the medic in Afghanistan had used. He didn’t believe the medic then, and he didn’t believe Mason’s smile, either. But he had survived, so that medic wasn’t completely full of shit.

  “Get him off the MAV,” A voice shouted from out of Jones’ field of view. He did recognize the voice. It was Eli.

  “We need to get a stretcher,” Donovan said, but there was no smile on his face. He was pissed.

  “We don’t have time for that,” Eli yelled back. “Drag him off now.”

  “We need this vehicle inside,” Donovan spat back.

  “That thing is out there,” Eli said. “Behind that building.”

  “What are you going to do?” Mason asked, more than obviously aghast. “Are you going to just drive past a hundred zombies?”

  “This is our chance to take out that smart son of a bitch,” Eli said. “We have to make him pay for what he did to Jones. For what he’s done to us.”

  Jones tried to turn his head to see Eli, but a shock of pain stopped him. “Don’t do it.”

  Donovan put a hand on Jones’ shoulder. “Hey, Sarge, take it easy. We’ll get you off here.”

  “How are you going to take down the smart zombie?” Mason asked, and his voice was thick with skepticism.

  “With this?” Eli said as he held up a small metal canister.

  “What is that?” Donovan asked as he looked up.

  “A canister of the gas that took out the first smart zombie,” Eli said.

  “How are you going to get it to the smart zombie?” Mason asked. “It looks like you’re going to have to get up-close and personal with something like that.”

  “That’s my problem, not yours,” Eli said. “We’re pulling out in fifteen seconds.”

  Jones grabbed Donovan’s hand and used all his remaining strength to squeeze it.

  “Don’t let him,” Jones said. “He’ll get himself killed. My men, too.”

  “Jones said you’ll be killed,” Donovan said.

  There was a long pause, then Eli replied. “Get him off now, or else he’s going with us.”

  Jones heard more gunfire, then footsteps coming toward the MAV. Someone said, “Here it is.”

  Donovan said, “Sorry, we have to move you now.”

  Something clattered onto the MAV, sounding like it was made of both wood and cloth.

  “Roll him over,” Donovan said.

  Jones felt two sets of hands grab hold of his side, one set near his shoulder and the other at his hip. The hands were gentle at first, but then gripped hard, and he felt his body being pivoted onto his side. Jones saw across the field filled with zombies, a cluster of the undead lay strewn about in the field looking like discarded dolls. That view went blurry as pain flooded into his body, and he screamed, then the world fuzzed out for a few seconds.

  He came back to reality when something bumped into his side, and the hands slowly let his body fall back down.

  Someone said, “Here we go,” and Jones felt himself being lifted. Whatever he was on tilted, angling his feet lower than his head, and he saw that they were just outside the main gate. A couple dozen fighters stood nearby, firing streams of bullets into the field. Jones guessed the undead were on their way.

  The angle of whatever he was being carried on leveled out, and he was on the move again, this time inside the gate. Just as soon as they got him inside, he felt himself being spun around, and he had a view out of the gate. He saw the MAV start off into the mass of zombies shambling toward the wall.

  The fighters who had been outside the gate flooded back inside as people on the wall provided covering fire. The shots sounded like sharp drum beats, cracking in the air. The final view Jones saw was the gate slowly closing with zombies trudging along as bullets fell like rain into their endless horde.

  He heard a woman’s voice. “Let’s get him to the doctor. Come on, step it up.”

  Jones thought he recognized the voice, but it got lost as he drifted down into blackness.

  Chapter 82

  Plugging the Hole

  “They’re going to get in,” Henry said, and the words made the blood in his veins feel as cold as ice.

  Zombies weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but a deep-seated animal cunning remained deep down in their shriveled little brains. And that cunning told them they had an opening as they surged toward the damaged right door of the back gate. Henry saw one zombie had its head and one shoulder through the gap, flailing its arm in the air, trying to grab at a
nything.

  A rifle cracked to Henry’s right and the zombie’s head exploded, sending a spray of blood against the door. The zombie slumped down and clogged the gap for a moment.

  “That might hold them back for a little bit,” Jo said as she lowered her rifle.

  The moment didn’t last long as another set of undead hands pushed through the opening, clawing the dead zombie out of the way. Five seconds later, this new zombie poked its ugly head through the gap, ready to wriggle inside.

  Clayton yelled up from the ground, “Can we move the bulldozer over to the gate?”

  “They’ll get in the other hole,” Henry yelled down to Clayton.

  A shot sounded from off to their left and this second intrepid zombie collapsed in the gap in the gate. Most of its head was missing.

  “That will slow them down for a while,” Jo said, then added, “but look at the gate. It’s starting the bend forward. All the weight behind it is forcing it inward.”

  “How much time do we have?” Henry asked.

  “There’s no telling,” Jo said. “It could be hours, but it could be minutes.”

  Footstep sounded on the narrow catwalk that ran along the top of the wall, and when Henry looked in that direction, he saw Bonds speeding his way toward them. The skinny guy named Jeff followed close behind them. Since the catwalk on the back wall was narrower than the one on the front wall, they had to weave around people that gave way to let them pass. More than once, Henry thought one of the two men would tumble off the side.

  Bonds panted from the exertion and fear once he made it to Henry and Jo.

  “What are you going to do?” Bonds asked, his eyes as wide as saucers.

  It was then that Jo knew that Eli had put all his eggs in one basket and that basket was on the west side of the Sanctum. That left the back side of the Sanctum severely lacking. It was clear from a leadership perspective that Bonds was not up to this challenge. Far from it.