Zombie Crusade

by J. W. Vohs

  In the dim light Jack eventually made out two people approaching their position, finally recognizing Maddy and Zach.

  “Hey you two, hangin’ in there?” Carter asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Zach answered with a subdued tone while Maddy nodded her head in agreement.

  “Any close calls up there today, Zach?” Jack asked the tough teen.

  “Yes, sir, I wouldn’t be here if Maddy hadn’t saved my bacon a few times.”

  Jack frowned, “I didn’t know you were up there Maddy. How’d you get by me?”

  “I went up with Drake Ross’ squad, sir,” she answered a bit defiantly. “I wasn’t going to stay down here with Zach and the rest of you fighting for me; you know I don’t roll that way!”

  Jack smiled in the dark, “So how did you manage to save Zach instead of the other way around?”

  Maddy was silent for a minute before sadly explaining, “I saw that Drake Ross was being mobbed after he stopped to help Haley, and when Zach started to go to them, I started screaming at Zach that I’d hurt my knee. I figured that if he had to choose to save someone it would be me. And I don’t feel guilty about it neither; from my position I could see that it was too late for Drake.”

  Jack patted the ground next to where he had his back against the wall, “Come here, sit down beside me.”

  She did as Jack asked and he put an arm around her and gave a strong squeeze before explaining, “My orders were that nobody stop for anything if we had to retreat. You saved Zach’s life, even if you had to fib a little bit. You did the right thing.”

  She sniffed back a few tears, even though she prided herself on not being the crying type. “Thanks,” she finally whispered in a small voice.

  Satisfied that the youngster was going to be all right after all of the trauma of the day, Jack asked, “Now why did you two hunt down me and Carter?”

  After Maddy and Zach had a long talk with Jack and Carter, another meeting was been called for the cafeteria. Everyone was updated on the effects of the rock bombardment and the destruction at the firing ports in the windows and doors. Jack then explained, “That probably leaves somewhere around two thousand zombies on the grounds still hoping to turn us into dinner.”

  He then called Zach and Maddy forward and formally introduced the teens to everyone else. “This is Maddy Johnson and Zach Kinstler. They both fought with distinction at Station 2 and the courthouse rescue, and they were on the hill today with Drake’s squad. They brought an idea to me and Carter a few minutes ago and wanted me to present it to you, but kids are going to have to grow up fast in this world so I’m making them stand up and tell you their plan.”

  He turned to Zach and Maddy, “Go ahead.”

  Zach turned to the group and quietly explained, “Well, we brought our idea to Mr. Smith as volunteers for the mission, because it seemed so dangerous to us.”

  Maddy jumped in, “Everybody in the buildings is saying that we aren’t gonna be able to stay cooped up in here very long, so me and Zach just sorta figured this out on our own.”

  Carter politely interrupted, “Go ahead and spit it out; we’re all grown-ups here, or near enough.”

  Zach went on, “We volunteered to fight our way out of the building on the west side and head up the wall there. Then we’d be fighting from the high ground again, and taking the pressure off of the buildings down here. We know it sounds crazy, but everyone in our squad wants to do it.”

  Again Maddy spoke up, “Eventually the zombies will push us off the top of the wall, but we figured that they’d chase us out of here if everyone was quiet around the buildings.”

  Jack finally stepped forward and motioned for the somewhat embarrassed kids to sit down as he turned to address the gathered leaders. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this idea first, but as soon as I heard it I was in. At day break a group of volunteers will be busting out of here and heading to the top of the west wall. If we’re overrun the survivors will retreat down the back of the wall and try to lure most of the zombies out of here. Hopefully, what’s left down here can be dealt with.”

  Tina interrupted with a shout, “I volunteer!”

  Everyone else in the room immediately began to yell out their desire to volunteer until Jack shouted for the group to quiet down. Finally he explained, “Team leaders have dibs on volunteering, and they can select from their people. We’ll need a diversion on the east side of the roofs of both buildings before we break out, and we need some fighters here to deal with the zombies that don’t follow us.”

  At this point John stood up and forcefully spoke, “You followed my orders in combat when I was your LT, and I have one more order to give.”

  Jack respectfully nodded and said, “Go ahead, sir.”

  John cleared his throat as he declared, “You built this place, and everyone here follows you. You can lead these people in this new world, and they will follow. We’ve all seen that this is true. Your courage and fighting ability is unquestioned. Now, you need to learn to command. You will select leaders for tomorrow’s mission and send them out to do the job, and you will stay back here and command. If the mission fails, we can’t lose all of our best people out there, and you know it.”

  Jack began to argue but shouts came from around the room in support of John until Carter stepped forward and leaned up to his ear, whispering, “He’s right. And, I’m stayin’ too.”

  Finally Jack raised a hand for quiet, “All right, you have a good point, but I don’t have to like it. John, you organize the column for the break out. Todd and Bobby will be on the roofs with M1As hitting the zombies hard and fast. I know we’ve wanted to conserve ammo for future threats, especially after the fight at Hunter’s Ridge, but we’ll just have to find more when this is over. Maddy, you’ll help me put together a diversion on the east side of the buildings just before dawn.”

  As she started to protest Jack explained, “Look, we accepted your idea, and I know you want to be at Zach’s side. But that break out is going to be more of a rugby match than a fight until we smash our way through to the wall. Fifty people get to volunteer for the break out, and every one of them needs to be a beast. I want former football players and other athletes, I want Rangers out there too, and anyone else who’s big and strong and likes to run into other people. The rest of us will form the reserve and stay in here until we see our chance.”

  Maddy demanded, “What’s that chance gonna be?”

  Jack smiled grimly, “Once all of the zombies are trying to eat our people on the west wall we’re going to lead the reserve out of the east doors. Then we work our way around the horde and hit them in the flank. Is that all right with you?”

  Maddy smiled back and nodded, “We’ll be ready, sir.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Somewhat to Jack’s surprise, everyone was ready to go an hour before dawn. By spreading out to the roofs, basement, and every other bit of safe space, most people were able to get at least a few hours’ sleep in spite of the heat and odor. Everybody had received another meal and as much fluid as they could hold, and Jack could only hope that what they had gotten would be enough to see them through the fight ahead.

  On the east side of the roofs of the house and barn, Jack and Carter stood by with several other soldiers and enough rope to harness and lower Maddy, and against Jack’s fervent objections, Andi, toward the zombies below. The planned diversion to draw the creatures away from the west-facing doors was to dangle the women, who would be screaming and wailing at the top of their lungs, over the edge of the roof without actually dropping either of them into the flesh-eating hordes below. Carter had taken Andi to the barn roof, not trusting Jack to either follow through with the plan, or ever forgive himself if something went wrong with his rope-crew.

  The people inside the buildings had been as quiet as possible throughout the night, and blackout curtains had been in place since dusk. The zombies still crowded around the dwellings and constantly scratched at the doors, but Jack couldn’t hear any of the ro
aring moans the creatures used when they sighted their prey. Now, in the last half-hour of darkness before dawn, four strobe lights were turned on and thrown a few feet over the eastern edges of the roofs. The steady flashes sent a ripple of moans through the horde, but every zombie in the compound turned toward the east when they heard the women begin to shout and scream.

  For ten minutes or so Maddy and Andi put on a great show for the zombies, and the monsters crowded together and reached for the prey so tantalizingly close. But the girls had conspired earlier in the night on how to draw the creatures in as closely as they could, and when Andi shouted, “Now,” toward Maddy they both pulled their daggers free and drew the blades across the backs of their fingers. They knew Jack would kill them for hurting themselves if they all lived through this mess, but when the drops of blood began to trickle down into the mouths of the voracious zombies the monsters became a frenzied mob. The creatures were now literally crawling on top of one another trying to reach the two women, and Jack was certain that they had the attention of every zombie on the premises. He called over the radio to let John know that conditions were as good as they would get, then he asked the soldiers helping him on the rope to hold on for just another minute or two.

  John was peering out of one of the west windows when he heard Jack give the go-ahead. He spent another five seconds observing the situation on their side of the building before whispering last minute instructions to the anxiously waiting soldiers. “Every zombie on the property is trying to reach the eastern side, but they’re still ten-feet deep over here. Don’t try to fight until we make the crest; only our armor and speed are going to get us through the crowd.”

  He pushed his way forward until he was standing behind Zach, who had the dubious honor of leading the charge for which he was so physically equipped. “Just like those tackling dummies at practice, kid,” John whispered from behind. “On the count of three Bruce is gonna open that door, and we aren’t stopping ‘till we’re on top of that wall.”

  If Zach was scared he was hiding it well. He calmly replied, “Yes, sir.”

  Then John raised his right hand in the air so the troops further back would realize the count was on. “One, two, three!”

  The door flung open and a spotlight immediately flickered to life on the roof above the soldiers as they rushed through the portal into the arms of hundreds of zombies, shouting their war-cries as they shouldered aside the reaching monsters and ran over those in their way. Zach was an unstoppable force crashing through the crowd, and the column of soldiers stayed right behind the teen as he hit the base of the earthen wall and began trudging up the slope. He couldn’t see anything but open ground in front of him, but Zach could hear John and many other soldiers screaming and shouting as they followed him past the zombies. The creatures finally massed together against the remnants of the column now climbing the wall, forcing the last ten soldiers to fight through the ranks of the monsters with nothing but their gloved fists, hand held daggers, and a fierce determination to destroy the zombies blocking their way. Miraculously, six of the ten made it through, and for a few moments the warriors now gathering on the top of the hill had time to catch their breath and prepare their weapons as the closest zombies all piled onto the mounds that marked the places where four of the soldiers had fallen.

  As the stragglers made their way to the top of the wall, Zach and the other soldiers he had led on the desperate charge from the house quickly assembled the two-piece halberds they had gathered from the armory and rammed the butt-end spikes into the ground. In the brief span of time that task absorbed, hundreds of zombies had advanced beyond the base of the earthen berm and were scrambling to reach the humans gathered above them so tantalizingly close. John had given orders for the soldiers to move ten paces back down the slope once their halberds were planted. They would meet the zombies’ charge there with their pistols and slowly retreat back to the top of the wall.

  Not many of the fighters made it ten paces before dozens of the creatures reached their line, but as the front rank of zombies collapsed at their feet, the effect of their fire was obvious. Most of the soldiers were putting faith in their armor as they allowed their targets to approach within several feet before firing at them point-blank, and more than a few of the warriors ended up shooting zombies who’d latched onto an arm or leg before being destroyed. As John and the other planners of the escape had hoped, zombie corpses quickly began to pile up and trip those who followed them up the hill. Many of the monsters were shot through the backs of their heads as they struggled to regain their feet after falling over the bodies of their comrades who’d reached the humans before them. Observers from the buildings realized with joy that the plan was working, but within a few minutes their hopes began to wane as the reality of too many zombies attacking too few soldiers became apparent.

  The soldiers had steadily retreated as they emptied their magazines into the faces of the advancing horde, and when they stopped to reload the mob of zombies inexorably pushed them back to the crest of the wall. By the time the soldiers emptied their second magazines and grabbed their halberds, they had destroyed at least another five hundred zombies, but the crowd in front of them seemed to have doubled since the battle had begun. Five minutes into the struggle the forty-six humans now stabbing and hacking with their medieval weapons had instinctively slid closer to one another, defending a front of slightly more than one hundred yards against almost two thousand zombies now filling every square inch of a wall at least three hundred yards long.

  If the soldiers had been facing an army of humans they would have already been outflanked, surrounded, and destroyed by such a massive force, but all the zombies could think of was reaching their next meal by the most direct route possible. The creatures massed tightly together, almost fighting one another as they struggled to climb the slope at an angle that would lead them to their food. But as Jack observed from a second story window inside the house, the pressure of the stampede was now pushing zombies over the hill on both sides of the human fighting line, and once those creatures regained their footing they immediately began moving to attack the rear.

  As he fought back the urge to sprint out of the house, Jack watched with pride as the soldiers on each flank began to curl around to face the new threat, forming J-shapes on each side of the line. All he could now do was hope that the fighters at the end of each J would meet up with one another so the troops would at least have the protection of a circle from which to fight. Dozens of zombie corpses lay still at the rear of the horde, evidence that Bobby and Todd were efficiently plying their deadly craft from the rooftops, but Jack realized that what they were doing wouldn’t be a determining factor in the struggle taking place on the wall; there were just too damn many of the creatures still alive. Then Carter’s voice came over the radio, “Jack, we’re ready to go!”

  “Exit in ten seconds,” Jack replied, before slamming down the visor of his helmet and running downstairs toward the front door.

  Rushing past the line of ten armored soldiers waiting to help their beleaguered friends on the wall, Jack sprinted through the door that Maddy threw open for him and immediately turned hard to the right. He then led his tiny column along the rear of the zombie horde pushing up the slope. Few of the creatures noticed the small group of humans behind them, and Jack and the others simply shouldered their way through the small number of monsters that grabbed for them as they reached the north wall and began climbing as quickly as they could with the weight of their weapons and protective gear slowing them down. Carter was leading a similar group to the south that included Andi, but Jack forced himself to focus on the task at hand and not worry about his best friend and the woman he was falling in love with. There were some zombies on the northern wall, but Maddy had pulled even with Jack and the two of them used their halberds to quickly spear the monsters and toss them aside. Finally, they reached the crest of the earthen berm and turned left to follow the top of the western wall toward John’s besieged soldiers now
fighting in a circle formation about a hundred yards away.

  Jack and his soldiers immediately found themselves up against the flank of the attacking zombies and headed down the back of the wall in an effort to try to get around the mob and reach their friends. They had to fight their way to the center of the wall, but the soldiers had better balance than the zombies and were generally able to grab the creatures in their way and send them rolling down the steep slope. One of the soldiers was also sent tumbling downhill after a zombie managed to hit him hard in the shoulders with a flying leap, but Jack watched with satisfaction as the fighter gained his feet at the base of the wall and killed several zombies before heading west as all of them were ordered to do if they found themselves cut off from the main group.

  Finally Jack heard shouts over the cacophony of moans and looked up to see John’s circle of fighters on the top of the wall, separated from the reinforcing squad by several dozen zombies who were mostly ignoring the ground below. Jack’s soldiers quickly used the lack of zombie attention to their advantage, using maces to club the creatures and send them rolling down the slope. In less than a minute they reached the fighting line, which opened a few feet to allow the breathless squad into the ever decreasing circle struggling to hold back the overwhelming number of attacking zombies. Amazingly, as far as Jack was concerned, he found Carter’s squad waiting for him inside the circle, every fighter present.

  Now the nineteen soldiers under Jack and Carter’s command attached their maces back on their belts and pulled pistols free from holsters. This was a new idea Andi had suggested to Carter after he pulled her back up on the roof and they’d watched John’s group being forced into a circle on the top of the wall. Within seconds all of the reinforcing soldiers spread out behind the fighters manning the circle formation and began shooting past the humans into the snarling faces of the hungry zombies. After a few minutes of this a symbiotic relationship between the shooters and the wielders of halberds developed that allowed the radius of what had been a steadily shrinking defensive circle to stabilize. John’s troops conserved energy by simply holding the zombies at bay as Carter and Jack’s soldiers efficiently shot them down. When a shooter needed to reload, the soldiers with the halberds had to work a little harder, but all in all the combination of medieval and modern weaponry proved incredibly deadly to the thinning crowd of zombies.