by Smith, S. L.
Padre was slowly letting off the brake as he spoke. “It’s not a random swarm. They’re coming from the fence surrounding the airport. Something has been drawing them to the fence.”
“And for a very long time,” Lee said, swallowing hard.
*****
After radioing the situation back to St. Mary’s, they decided to lead the newly discovered swarm farther up the Morganza Highway. After a half mile or so, they would cut across the narrow strip of land between the highway and the River Road and then double back to the airport. Padre was obviously wary of leading several hundred zombies toward what remained of his congregation in Morganza, but there were still several miles between there and here.
They were to radio back updates to St. Mary’s regularly. St. Mary’s, for their part, would inform all their other bases and outposts, especially St. Anne’s, of the new swarm. If Padre’s group missed more than one scheduled update in a row, St. Mary’s would immediately send a crew to intercept them. As it was, however, Isherwood told them he would be setting up a defensive line near the gas station. Padre’s group was to fall back to Isherwood’s position if overwhelmed.
Isherwood, as de facto commander of all the outposts, decided he wanted to keep the swarm away from the center of town. They had been building new defensive perimeters through the town, including barrier walls, but he didn’t want the new walls tested just yet. There were still gaps.
“I don’t understand,” Gill was asking inside the Humvee. “What would’ve been attracting all those zees to the airport? You thinking there’s survivors inside the fence?”
“Could be that there were survivors at one time,” Lee said. “But not anymore.”
“Nah,” Gill said. “They get distracted after a couple days, at least.”
“Maybe somebody left a TV on or a radio, and it hasn’t thunked off yet,” Holly said, as she downed the last swig of her Coke and shove it somewhere.
“Back up power, maybe. It’s possible,” Lee mumbled. “I’m hoping for survivors, though, like the pilot kind.”
“If it’d’ve been a pilot, don’t you think he would’ve flown the coop by now?” Gill asked.
“Maybe he flew in and got stuck,” Lee shrugged. “Injured or something.”
Padre was slowing down. They were about midway between Morganza and the airport. “Will that take us to the levee road? Looks pretty rough,” Lee frowned. “What was that? A prison?”
“A school,” Padre answered.
“Looks like the sheriff or the guard or somebody tried turning it into a shelter,” Gill thought aloud. “Not successfully. Hope we can get through.”
The road was littered with abandoned vehicles. The Humvee was clipping off side mirrors as it went and even grinding against some of the sides of the cars and smaller trucks. “My guess,” Lee said. “This is where people went that had no other place to go. Little to nothing packed in these vehicles.”
“I think this was the backup shelter,” Padre said. “After the elementary school and the civic center fell apart.”
“Look,” Holly said. “The doors. They’re moving.”
At her words, the others’ blood ran cold. As they looked to where the girl was pointing, they saw what appeared to be the school’s main doors. They were chained shut, but heaving as something enormous pushed against them from the inside.
Gill cursed. “They probably heard us bumping against the cars.”
There were symbols spray-painted in orange around a large ‘X’. It would be a poignant image for any person from southern Louisiana. The same symbols were used to mark the houses of the dead following Hurricane Katrina. There was a difference, though. These doors were marked, as well, with another message. In black, dripping spray paint was written “KEEP OUT DEAD INSIDE.” Bloodshot and yellowed eyes flashed across the reinforced windows of the doors, rising from the darkness within like messages from inside a Magic 8-Ball.
“Let’s just ease on by real quiet like,” Lee whispered. “Try not to knock anymore of the cars in case an alarm—” Even as he said it, the passing Humvee lightly tapped an old Toyota Tercel. It started howling immediately.
The eruption of sound sent the zombies into a frenzy. The metal doors started contorting and bending, as though struck from inside with a battering ram. Little puffs of dust started spilling from the hinges as their anchor bolts writhed inside their sleeves. The chains, still holding strong, began to tear off the door handles from the rest of the door. In his side mirror, Padre watched as the airport zombies arrived. They spilled into the narrow space between the abandoned cars.
“Just get us out of here, father,” Holly said with rising panic, “and I’ll convert to whatever religion you want.”
The doors burst open like the wings of a flushed bird. They would have bounced back closed, but for the onrush of bodies from inside the school. The first several zombies were ground underfoot as they fell forward. The zombies streamed from inside like an uncoiling snake.
Padre eased serenely onto the accelerator. It moments like this, he had the sense that something or somebody else was guiding his actions. The Humvee was accelerating slowly. They could see the road beginning to curve up ahead as it turned into the levee road that would lead them back to the airfield. All eyes were on the road ahead. As their angle slowly shifted, each of them could feel a heaviness dropping into the pits of their stomachs. By someone’s, likely a dead someone’s, bone-headed design, the road ahead had been repurposed as a parking lot. The cars were wedged in so tight, they wouldn’t even be able to walk between them.
“Who the hell wedges cars in like that?” Lee was shouting, as he started pounding his fists against the dashboard.
“Can you, uh, can this thing drive over one of the tinier cars?” Gill was asking. “Or ram it out of the way?”
“There’s no room to maneuver,” Padre answered. “We have two choices, maybe three. We stay inside this tank and use up all our ammo, hopefully it’s enough. We abandon the vehicle hear and run for St. Anne’s—”
The first several rotting hands slapped against the back of the vehicle, interrupting the priest as they all jumped at the sound.
“St. Anne’s, my church, it’s only a few more miles down that road,” Padre said pointing his thumb westward.
The din of the converging hordes was growing louder and louder. Padre was having to yell just to be heard over the angry moans.
“And the third option?” Gill said.
“We get down and hide in the vehicle. A couple of us bug out as a diversion, leading the horde away and past St. Anne’s. Whoever’s left in the vehicle catches up with those on foot by taking side roads.”
Holly had been holding the door handle with one shaking hand while her other hand had been pulling it back. She was having a panic attack. She wanted to get out of the vehicle. She couldn’t breathe inside of it. The cavernous vehicle was collapsing in on her. Upon hearing Padre’s third option, her resolve and composure vanished. She through her door wide open and dashed out of the vehicle. She jumped atop the Nissan Sentra that stood between the Humvee and the open fields west of the school. She hiked up her sagging jeans over her hips and started waving and cussing at the hordes. She kept cussing at them even as her lungs seemed to lock up. The cars were parked so tightly, bumper to bumper, however, that the line of cars served as a pretty effective barricade.
Meanwhile, inside the vehicle, Gill just stared at the door that Holly had left wide open. Still staring at the door, she started unhooking her seatbelt and began scrambling over the high platform that ran down the middle of the vehicle’s interior.
Lee cussed. “Wha—where are you? But you’re girls,” he finally spat out, protesting. “We can’t stay while you all …!”
“Shut up,” Gill said, turning around after jumping out the backseat door. “This isn’t a feminist thing. You better turn off this vehicle and hide your skinny butts. That’s my sister out there, or, uh, as good as, and she’s not going out there
alone without me. Padre’s the only one that knows the roads, and you,” she said, wincing as she looked at Lee. “You’re no – this ain’t for you, buddy.”
“Here,” Padre yelled as Gill was turning away. He was pushing something towards her. “Take a radio.” Gill rolled her eyes as she grabbed the radio and thrust it down into the front of her tucked-in flannel shirt. In a flash she had spun around, slammed the door, and was standing beside Holly. Padre shut off the engine, as Lee started scrambling into the backseat. All the doors were locked tight. They watched as the horde grew thick around the Nissan Sentra that the girls were standing on. They could feel the Humvee lurching sideways inch by inch as the horde pressed in. The same force was lurching the Sentra and the vehicles in front and behind it forward, as well, but several feet at a time. They saw as Holly stumbled off the far side of the Sentra losing her balance, but Gill was quickly there beside her, leaving a red streak of ponytail in her wake.
“It’s working,” Lee whispered, unsure if Padre could even hear him over the sound of metal scraping against metal and glass breaking. The horde had not only pushed the line of cars out of the way, it had rolled several of them. The Nissan Sentra, Padre saw as he peaked over the window sill, had rolled two or three times. It was now laying upside down in the field several car lengths away.
There were hundreds and hundreds of zombies still streaming past the Humvee. All of them were bent towards the two young ladies, snapping their jaws at the fresh meat. Padre caught just a glimpse of the two girls running across the field. Lee, who was still crouching on the school-side of the vehicle, was struggling to get a look at the girls’ progress.
“Can you see ‘em?” Lee asked. “Are they okay?”
Padre nodded quietly in response. “They still coming out of the school?” He asked.
“Petering out, but still coming,” Lee whispered as he craned his next to look behind the vehicle. “Must be eight or nine hundred of those things all told. Wish we could just put ‘em all back in that school.”
“It’s an idea,” Padre said.
After another ten minutes or so, the bulk of the swarm had passed the Humvee. The field was still full of zombies. Padre watched as they tripped over the deep furrows that ran the length of the weed-strewn field. The onrush of zombies had broken through the line of cars that had hemmed in the Humvee in the first place. The military vehicle could now easily pass through the gap made by the rolled Sentra. It could cut across the field or around it and climb onto the levee road.
Padre knew he could use the levee road to get to Morganza before the girls did. He could scoop them up and still have enough time to investigate the airfield. Only, this would leave nearly a thousand zombies roaming around near his church at St. Anne’s. That option was unacceptable.
Lee had been staring at the school’s entrance for a while now. He was trying to piece together what had happened here and how things went sour. There were tents set up inside the fenced-in sections of the school that might have served as triage for the wounded. The problem could have easily started there. Some of the wounded likely had undisclosed bite wounds.
The shelter looked like it had many resources that would have helped it to succeed. It was a well-organized shelter for a hurricane, maybe, but not zombies, Lee thought. There was an eighteen wheeler still full of supplies. At this, ideas started popping through his head like a string of fireworks. He couldn’t see inside the truck, but it must be nearly full. He knew this because he could see it was still being unloaded when disaster struck, presumably. There was a forklift seemingly frozen in time, still carrying a plastic-wrapped pallet of supplies. A trail of blood was leading away from it. Idiot, Lee thought. That guy would’ve been sitting pretty in there. The operator’s seat of the forklift was protected by a shield of plexi-glass as well as a high gauge wire cage.
“Hey, speaking of ideas,” Lee said, nudging Padre. “I think I’ve got something.”
*****
The radio Gill had tucked inside her shirt suddenly crackled to life. “Gill, come in. This is Padre, over. click-shh.”
“I’d almost forgot it was in there,” Gill said, cussing and almost stumbling at the surprise. Holly was beside her. They were keeping pace at a light jog maybe twenty yards in front of the swarm. The swarm had thickened up into a solid mass spanning the entire roadway. Holly was beginning to show signs of tiring, but her panic attack had passed, thankfully, and there was no immediate cause for alarm.
“Yeah, what’s up, Padre? Over.” Gill said. She was suppressing all the sarcastic comments that had originally come to mind.
“How’re y’all holding up? Over. click-shh.”
“Just fine and dandy,” she answered with a twang. “Where’s this church of yours? For that matter, where’s this town we’re supposed to be running into? Over.” And then after a pause, she added, “Hey, wait. You gave me your radio, how’re you talking to me? Uh, over.”
“I’m on Lee’s walkie. Plus the Humvee has a CB, so we can talk to home base, too. Anyway, here’s the plan, that swarm is too big for St. Anne’s. I’m getting the Humvee back on the road, coming your way. We’ll try to turn the swarm’s attention back to us and get ‘em off your tail. Then, we’ll lead it back to the school. Lose the swarm by crossing over to the levee road and head back here, okay? Over. click-shh.”
Gill and Holly exchanged looks of suspicion. “What’s a levee?” Holly asked between breathes.
Gill looked at her wild-eyed. “You grew up in Louisiana and you don’t know what a levee is?”
“Nah, just moved here from Dallas before all this crap,” she said.
Gill rolled her eyes. “Well that is a levee,” she said pointing off to their right. “That long hill back there behind those houses. You do know the Mississippi River is just on the other side of that, right?”
“The what? Over there?” Holly immediately regretted admitting to her ignorance. It seemed to her that Gill’s hair and face both pulsed red at her.
“Yeah,” Gill said into the radio, ignoring the conversation left hanging with Holly. “We can manage that. Over and out.”
Just as Gill released the button on the radio, she noticed that Holly was pointing into the distance. “What is that?” She asked.
“It’s a car,” Gill answered, but that much was obvious.
“You think Padre sent it to pick us up? Like from the church or something?”
Gill could feel the hairs on her arms standing up. She felt less concerned about the horde of zombies at her back then the lone car in front of her. It was a small black vehicle. “No,” she said in answer to the question.
“Why?” Holly asked. The car was coming right for them, as though oblivious to the oncoming horde.
“No idea,” she said. “But it’s definitely time to get off the road.”
“But why would they be putting themselves in danger, if not to …?”
“GET OFF THE ROAD,” Gill roared.
*****
“You ever use one of those things before?” Padre asked, after ending the radio conversation with Gill. He had just walked up to Lee who was sitting inside the forklift. “BOBCAT” was written across one side of the piece of equipment.
“Uh, no,” Lee answered. “Got the pallet off, though.” Padre looked to the far side of the Bobcat forklift. There, sprawled in a heap across the grass, was the ruined pallet of supplies.
“Nice,” Padre nodded.
“I know, right?” Lee said proudly. “I’m just trying to figure out … the controls seem pretty simple. Raising and lowering the forks, check. But how do you turn this—?” The machine suddenly cut Lee off with a loud grinding of gears. Slowly at first, then gaining speed, the machine started turning. Padre stumbled backwards out of the way.
“Whoa-oh, boy. Whoa.” Lee shouted as the forklift started spinning in place. The thing could turn on a dime. If Padre hadn’t fallen down, it’s likely the forks would have knocked off his arm and a chunk of his torso, as well.<
br />
As the priest got back to his feet, he was staring in wonder at the spinning machine. Slowly, and with more grinding of gears, Lee was able to put the Bobcat back in line. After a couple more minutes, he was driving it across and around the concrete patio which marked the school’s main entrance. It was full of benches. It would have been where the buses and the parents dropped off and picked up the kids. Lee was soon weaving in and out of the benches with ease.
After a couple minutes, Lee pulled the Bobcat alongside Padre. The priest was still smiling in wonder at the thing.
“Ol’ hoss is pretty sweet once you break her in,” Lee said.
“Do you realize what you’ve got there?” Padre asked. “That spinning thing you did … you could take down a dozen at a time.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Lee said excitedly. “I’ll set this thing in front of the horde and you park behind me, mopping up what gets past me with a rifle from that turret.”
“Get that thing into the roadway. I’ll get out there and lead ‘em to you. They can’t be that far away. It’s been less than a half hour.”
“Hurry,” Lee said. “You need to draw ‘em away from the girls. I’ll be ready. Just make sure I can stay on a paved surface.”
*****
Gill and Holly had dashed off the road. They reached the side of a red brick house and looked back to the roadway. The black car had pulled into the driveway. A couple men both armed exited from the backseat, just as the horde was starting to spill over the roadway and across the ditch.
“Run,” Gill whispered. “Over the levee.”
The car screeched its tires along the pavement as it reversed back onto the road. The rear wheel drive lurched over a couple knocked-over zombies. The wheels were wrapped in snow chains. One back wheel lost traction as it collapsed into the rib cage of one of the zombies the car had bowled over. The spinning tire sprayed up a rooster tail of viscera as the small car skittered in place. The car finally lurched forward as the back wheel crunched through the zombie’s rib cage.
