“Any others?” Antonio asked.
Mason Henry looked over to Richie who stood at the other corner, he only pointed at the ones Mason Henry saw and held up six fingers, he waved the other direction and shook his head.
“That’s it,” Mason Henry said, “Just those six, coming from the west.
“All right, Sabaton!” Chuck called out. “You know what to do! Inside – Outside!”
The ones outside the building split up even further. A mix of adults and assassin kids spread out on the stands of the fence, three of them on the ground right in front of the gate entrance. The rest formed two lines and, as soon as Mason Henry opened the gates, they ran out and split off left and right, forming a line in front of the gate and fence.
This was very much like the last zombie attack. That one was twenty zombies but there were no mutants in that bunch. The mutants still surprised them every time they saw them. They were usually faster than the regular zombies were, so Chuck was surprised to see them staying behind the zombies.
They must be getting smarter, using the dumber zombies for fodder first. Shit, not a good sign.
Chuck noted this and again wondered just how smart the mutants were getting. The four zombies stumbled up and looked back and forth at the row of meat. It didn’t take long for them to head to whoever was moving the most. Everyone started to dive in to surround the zombies.
“Hold your positions!” Tamar yelled out clearly. “Only two apiece on the regular zombies, hold the line against the mutants!”
She was shocked to see both mutants jerk their heads in her direction then immediately look at each other.
Uh oh, we may be in some shit here.
She sidled up next to Edd and Em and told them what she wanted to do. They nodded and waited for the attack. Sabaton easily took out the four zombies in no time. As soon as the last one was dispatched, one of the mutants looked to the other. It abruptly turned and began running away.
“What the fuck?” Antonio wondered aloud.
Before they could wonder where it was going, the remaining mutant charged the gate, bowing its head as a battering ram. Chuck and Antonio were on both sides of the entrance and simultaneously hit the mutant with their axe and club. It stumbled back and then settling its feet, started to charge again.
“Yah!” Tamar screamed as she flew off the back of Edd and landed with both her feet on the shoulders of the mutant. She had her sharpest blade already in her hand and plunged it straight in its eye.
She yelled out, “Go get the other one! It may be going for reinforcements!” She continued to stab into both eyes until it dropped face first on the ground. She jumped off just before impact; the ground shook slightly when it landed. She looked around and saw that the other zombies were already dead. She nodded to Edd and Em, who grinned as well.
That worked perfect! She had run towards the mutant while Em clasped her hands for Tamar to use as a step. Tamar put her left foot in, and while Em boosted her up, she jumped on to Edd’s back, while was bent over. He pushed up just as she landed and went flying! The distance she flew was amazing. It didn’t hurt that she was smaller than an adult and weighed much less. Nevertheless, she was infinitely more dangerous!
Chuck and Antonio ran after the mutant, who they discovered could run very fast when it wanted to. They suddenly stopped when they couldn’t see it anywhere. They were at an open area and didn’t see any dust clouds to indicate it was still running. A few shrubs and boulders were scattered around and it could be behind any of the boulders, there was no way it could fit behind the shrubs without being seen, it was too big. They heard feet pounding on the dirt and turned to see Rick and Zach catching up to them. They all nodded in silence as they looked around. They peered around several of the boulders and were down to the last one. Chuck and Antonio each took a side and started to surround it. Antonio was walking between a shrub and the boulder on his side while Chuck took the wide open side. Rick and Zach kept a lookout and Rick’s brow was furrowing.
Something wasn’t right with that shrub. It wasn’t big enough for the mutant to hid behind it, it wasn’t thick enough for that either. For some reason the loose dirt on the ground near the base of the shrub was bothering him. Once he figured it out, it hit him like a lightning bolt.
“No!” he bellowed, diving at Antonio.
He took him down around the waist and the axe that the mutant was swinging caught him in the back. They both landed hard on the ground and Antonio pushed out from under Rick and jumped up, watching the mutant climbing out of the hole it had dug behind the shrub and had been squatting down behind. It had set a fucking trap!
“Holy shit...” he trailed off and, after a quick glance at Rick’s unmoving body, ran behind the boulder towards Chuck. Chuck had heard Rick scream and jumped back to the front of the boulder. He ran to Antonio’s side to see the back of the huge mutant, holding a bloody axe in its hand. He winced when he saw Rick face down in the dirt, covered in blood. He was vaguely aware of Zach at his side with his knives out. Zach’s face turned white when he saw Rick. He tapped Chuck and pointed at Rick and Chuck nodded, jumping quietly over Rick to sneak up on the mutant.
Forgive me, Rick.
He swung his club, large spike out, and caught the mutant in the side of its knee. Its leg collapsed and it fell sideways. Antonio heard the roar of the mutant and spun on his feet in a 360. As he and Chuck both swung their club and axe repeatedly, the creature couldn’t even stagger to its good knee. They kept hitting even after it was dead. When all was done, its head was a mashed pulp of green infected brain matter and bone shards.
“Rick,” Antonio spoke, running back to where he fell. Zach had turned him over and he was miraculously still alive. Frothy blood bubbled from his lips and his faltering breath was hitching. The axe had ripped open his left lung and he was drowning in his own blood.
“Let me drain the blood—” Antonio started, but Rick grabbed his arm weakly and said, “No good... old man. Got more... than my lungs... got my spine too. I can’t feel anything... below my chest and I can barely move my... arms.”
“Rick,” Antonio sobbed, “you’ve always been like a son to me.”
“Daddy,” Rick grinned through bloody teeth. “Don’t worry... it doesn’t hurt. Tell the others I love them. Tell them... just wished I’d... the damned Z.E.D.s... Wished I’d…” he trailed off and his head fell to the side, his eyes staring at the sky.
“He saved me. Again,” Antonio cried. “He’s saved my life so many times, but this time it should have been me. It should have been me!”
“He goes back with us. We bury him with honor,” Chuck said, putting his arm around Antonio’s shoulder.
Antonio hefted Rick’s body to his shoulders while Zach and Chuck each took a side with their weapons out. As they walked back to Salvation, they realized a new and deadly fact. The mutants were getting smarter.
As soon as Tamar was sure that every zombie and mutant in front of the fence was down for good, she started to go after Chuck and Antonio. She could see the backs of Rick and Zach ahead of her and was about to put on a burst of speed to catch them when she heard the alarm bells—four of them.
Again?
She skidded to a halt and turned around to come back. The dust cloud that formed in front of her and blocked her way back to the gate cleared to expose the largest mutant wolf she’d ever seen. She’d come across some of the smaller ones, and mutant dogs were huge but this one’s muzzle was even height with her head. It opened its mouth and its long and barbed, snakelike appendage lolled out like a tongue. Green pus dripped to the ground.
Shit.
That put its reach beyond her reach with any of the blades she had on her. She thought about all she knew from watching these monsters. They were very fast and never seemed to run out of energy. However, their sheer bulk made it hard for them at turning corners. She watched wild horses get away from them because they couldn’t turn quickly.
Without warning, she ran to th
e left of it towards the compound screaming, “Everyone inside the fence! I need spears! In the ground now! Spread them out!”
Everyone scrambled inside and spears were brought to the fence. All of the kids were experts with spears and threw them into the ground, scattering their locations. She ran to the nearest one, pulling it out of the ground as she passed it. She spun in the air and threw it at the mutant, hitting it below the shoulder. It bellowed and stumbled but kept on going. With a quick glance around, she counted six more spears waiting for her. She was hoping that would be enough. She kept running around, turning quickly and causing the wolf to skid, his ass still going straight while his front tried to turn. She took advantage of these times to pull out another spear and throw it. The mutant was slowing down from all the impaled spears and tripping over the broken spears as they bobbled under its feet. She got to the last spear, grabbing it as she swung around and threw it, this time waiting until it was closer to her. It went into its left eye and dropped to the ground, howling in pain but still wasn’t out. She continued her turn and leapt on its back as it opened its mouth. Anticipating this, she pulled out a long dagger and impaled the now slow moving appendage to the ground. She then pulled out two more blades and drove them deep into both ears. She was thrown off as it whipped its head around for a moment before dropping to the ground, finally dead. The spears were all broken but shafts could always be replaced.
That’s a lot of blades to clean.
She yelled to others, “Any more?”
“No!” Mason Henry shouted back, and opened the gate to let everyone back out.
“Wow!” Tracy said in awe, walking up to the small redhead.
“Never underestimate the power of a Tamar!” Izik, one of the boys, said grinning.
“Oh no!” everyone heard Mason Henry sob.
They all froze and Tamar saw that he was looking past her so she turned her head. The others were coming back, but Rick’s dead and bloodied body was draped over Antonio’s shoulders.
They buried Rick in the small plot they had set aside at the back of the property. Only those who died naturally, without infection, were buried there. They couldn’t take the chance of any infection seeping through the earth and into their precious water supply below. After Rick’s burial they brought out the old collecting truck and removed all the dead zombies and mutants. They pulled out shovels and scooped up any earth beneath them that held seepage. With their hearts still heavy over the loss of Rick, they drove to the quarry to dump the carcasses.
“Sometimes I think we’ll be doing this forever,” Tracy said sadly to Mason Henry, who volunteered to join Tracy, Steve, and Susan in this detail.
“Maybe not,” he replied. “Maybe there will be a cure. Maybe they’ll just die out. Maybe—”
“And maybe a rainbow will fly out of my butt,” Tracy interjected with a wry smile.
Mason Henry smiled and shook his head, how do I respond to that?
“We’ll survive,” he said, “that’s what we do.”
“Rick was like a brother to me,” Tracy said, starting to cry again. “He came to us, and Antonio took him under his wing.”
Steve and Susan were tossing the last body in the quarry as she reached up to her face to wipe her tears away. Mason Henry grabbed her gloved hand just in time.
“Let the tears fall,” he said, holding her arm down. She nodded in shock at what she almost did.
“Let’s go home so we can shower,” he said.
“Together?” she asked.
“Forever,” he replied, planting a quick kiss on her lips.
Susan and Steve smiled at each other; Mason Henry and Tracy seemed to forget they weren’t alone. As they drove back, they didn’t feel the rumbling below them as the earth shifted.
It was a somber couple of days; it always was when they lost someone. Antonio didn’t want to come out of his room for several days and the guilt ate at him.
I should’ve suspected what that mutant might have done, I should’ve assumed, I should’ve...
He knew he was beating himself up for no good reason. No one really knew just how far the mutants had evolved. What that mutant did was beyond anything anyone had ever seen or imagined. If they all evolved this way, the human race might have a bigger fight on their hands. On the third day after Rick’s burial, he came out of his room and took a shower. He took his bedding to be washed and went to the kitchen to get some food. He’d eaten very little since he closed himself up and knew for the good of Salvation, he needed to eat or he’d be useless in an emergency. There was no way he’d let anyone else down again.
“What is that noise?” Shirley asked Richie as she walked up to him.
She had just finished hanging up the laundry and kept hearing a rumble, like a rockslide in the distance.
“Are you sure you aren’t just hearing things, Shirley?” Richie asked her after combing the land through his binoculars. “I don’t see anything moving except for a rabbit. Too bad it’s not a bunch of them. Rabbit stew would go down good about now.”
“There’s not a damn thing wrong with my hearing!” Shirley countered, cuffing him on the ear. “You know better than that.”
He shied away with a grin, he loved to tease that old lady; he loved her like crazy.
“I know yo—” he froze as he suddenly heard the noise as well, it was very faint, but it was out there.
“See. You heard it too.”
He jumped from bench to bench, corner to corner; eyeing all the surroundings but still couldn’t see anything. He kept listening but it didn’t repeat itself. Nevertheless, it made him uneasy and he asked Shirley to tell Chuck and have him and Mason Henry to come out. Mason Henry had the best eyes in Salvation. If a flea hiccupped, he’d see it.
Not three minutes later Chuck and Mason Henry rushed out; Tracy and Shirley at their heels. He smiled when he saw Tracy. He was happy to see their blossoming relationship. Love didn’t happen often in the wasteland and he knew Mason Henry deserved it. Chuck looked at him with a questioning look and Richie shook his head. Mason Henry pointed to the opposite corner and Richie nodded and trotted over. Between the two of them, they now covered the entire area. Chuck, Tracy, and Shirley stood on the benches and watched quietly.
Another ten minutes went by when the gravelly sound was heard again.
“That was it!” Shirley said smugly.
Chuck looked to Mason Henry after they both searched with his binoculars. He shrugged and shook his head. Richie ran back with a puzzled look on his face.
“It doesn’t sound close at all,” Tracy said, “but it sounds like it’s echoing off of something; causing the sound to bounce to us.”
“That’s what I’m thinking too,” Richie agreed.
“Both of you stay on sentry for now. High alert until we know what we’re dealing with,” Chuck said. “I’m going to get a small team together to see what it is. I’d hate to think it was a diversion to draw Sabaton from Salvation so they can attack. So we’ll keep the team small. Tracy, help them out with an extra pair of eyes.”
She nodded and gave Mason Henry a loving look.
What? How did he not see this coming? Chuck grinned and went inside to find Tamar and Antonio.
“It sounds like a rockslide but we don’t have any cliffs nearby,” Chuck started once he got Tamar, Antonio, and several others sitting at the table. “The noise was strange. I mean most of the rocks out there are boulders but even so they are all on flat ground.”
“Oh shit!” Kerry jumped up as an epiphany hit him, “You’re thinking cliff, but I’m thinking quarry.”
“What the hell would be in the quarry?” Antonio asked. “That’s just dead rotting zombies and mutants.”
“It’s the only place close enough that I think could make that sound. It’s far enough that our sentries can’t see anything below ground level.” Kerry added.
Chuck nodded, “It makes sense. The sound would bounce off the walls of the quarry to kick it out to here. Dammit it
does make sense.”
“But what could be making the noise?” Susan asked. “Could it just be collapsing? It is full of rocks and they’re embedded in the walls.”
“I don’t think it should be ignored,” Chuck said. “If it’s just a collapse, then I’ll be happy to feel stupid when we get back and feel we’ve wasted our time. If we ignore it and it isn’t a collapse...”
Everyone nodded and Tamar asked, “Who’s going?”
Chuck wanted to keep Antonio at Salvation. As his second in command, he needed to stay home while Chuck was out. Tamar jumped up and gave Chuck a look that he didn’t dare refuse. He laughed and pointed to her.
“Pick two more,” he added and she picked Zach and Susan.
Chuck added Kerry and JJ, then they geared up.
“Keep a close eye out,” Chuck told Mason Henry as they were about to leave, “I brought a flare. If you see it go up, you give it four bells even if you can’t see what’s hitting us. Give Antonio and the others as much time to prep everyone.”
Mason Henry nodded and opened the gate. It slammed shut as soon as the truck was through. Chuck, Tamar, Zach, Kerry, Susan, and JJ were on their way to the quarry.
Chapter Twenty-Three
They bumped along the rocky ground, their view of the quarry getting closer with each minute. “It sounded like a collapse to me,” Susan said adamantly. “What else could it be?”
“If that’s the case, we may have to get a crew out here to shore up the sides and get more rocks built up the side,” Chuck replied. “That’s the best dump site we have. I’d sure hate to have to dig one. We were lucky to find that one already.”
As they got closer, they noticed a horrible smell emanating from the pit, worse than usual. Everyone covered their noses and breathed through their mouths.
“Stop here,” Chuck said to JJ.
”Why?” JJ asked, “Are you afraid the land around the edge of the quarry won’t hold us?”
Survive (Book 1): Salvation Page 13
