Snareville

by David Youngquist

  “Squad, take aim!” I shouted. Rifles came up, and safeties went off. “Private Jinks, Private Rizzo… drop a round of WP at the back of the swarm. Ready… aim…”

  The flames had almost gone out directly in front of us. The Zeds could squeeze through pretty easy now, if they wanted to.

  “Fire!”

  The barrage ripped through the front rank of corpses. They went down in a heap as the WP exploded behind them. Walking corpses went up in flame as the front rows surged forward.

  “Watch for runners!” I shouted as we backed up. It wasn’t hard to stay ahead of them, as long as we moved at the same pace.

  A block down, the whole swarm moved past the tanks. The heavy machines turned and helped to herd the shuffling mob along. It worked. We moved down Main Street, and the Zeds followed like rabid sheep.

  At the west end of the street, we scrambled over the gate. The tank crews slammed the east gates closed. The Hill Street gate was already locked. The Zeds were in.

  We looped around at a jog on the back streets. I found Kenny at his CP.

  “Your brother’s five minutes out,” he said. “I’ve asked for rockets down the corral. Whatever's still movin' after that, we can finish with the Garands an' such.”

  “Yessir,” I said. “We need to clear my side of town. I don’t think they all followed us.”

  We headed east. In the distance, I could hear the faint slap of rotors against the dense air. I checked my watch. Only ten o’clock. Lord, it had already been a long morning.

  “Take Catfish and her squad. That should give you enough firepower, so you don’t get cut off.” Kenny signaled. Catfish and Tony trotted over. We gave them the plan, and they called the rest of their squad to join up. We were up to fifteen troops as we started out at a jog back to my side of town. Other squads were out hunting Zeds in the areas of town that might have been missed by the tanks and troops early on.

  Back in my neighborhood, we found Wilson, Beecher, and their crews still in the tower by the southwest gate. Bodies were piled up six feet deep all around them. Their guns were dry. I radioed Kenny. He called up a team to repair the smashed gate and send up ammo. A small box truck lay on its side just inside the fence. That came through first, and the Zeds followed.

  The choppers swooped low overhead now. The concussion from their blades slapped at the air. I counted ten birds—everything from Apaches and Blackhawks to Vietnam-era Hueys and a couple of Cobras with Marine Corps markings. The choppers did a slow circuit of our little town, then the Blackhawks peeled away to the south. The Apaches began their run over the Zeds, followed by the Cobras. On foot, we started to pick our way between the houses.

  Explosions rocked the morning. The sound peeled through town like a wave. I hoped our windows weren’t breaking out. I’d never been this close to rocket fire before. I felt sorry for the people at the firehouse, only a block off Main Street.

  Some of my platoon was able to come out and join us. The Zeds had mostly left town or been killed. House by house, we searched. We found a few. Where some of my people were holed up, we found a half dozen or so deaders. Easy kills.

  We made it onto my block. The only place with any zombies out and about was mine. Jenny sat on the roof of the porch with Sandy, their rifles laid across their knees. On the porch under them, a cluster of Zeds beat on the door. The yard was littered corpses. Our garden looked okay. We’d put up a tall fence last year to keep out the deer and rabbits. Looked like it worked for zombies, too.

  “You mind gettin' these pests off the porch?” Jenny radioed over the rockets. “They figured out if they step off, they die. Haven’t had a shot in twenty minutes.”

  “No problem. Babies okay?”

  “They’re fine. Heather radioed me about Pepper.”

  “It was touchy.”

  “Aren’t you Captain Understatement?”

  We started popping the rotten bastards with our pistols. Two of them shambled down the steps at us. One tripped and fell. She tried to get up, and we put her out.

  When the deaders were killed, the group waited in the yard while Bill and I went inside. He must have felt the same way I did. He just grabbed his wife and hung on. I took the stairs two at a time and came upon Jenny as she hurried from the nursery. I swept her into my arms, and we said nothing. I dropped my K-pot on the floor and kissed her long and hard.

  “Glad you’re okay,” she said at last.

  “Me, too.” I couldn’t find words for anything else. We were safe.

  I heard the choppers pull away. Rifle fire started after that, but it was winding down. Rachel started to fuss in her crib. Funny how I could tell the cries apart. I stepped into the nursery as footsteps came up the stairs.

  “She wants her daddy,” Jenny said as I stood over our baby.

  “Can’t," I said. "I’m covered. And now Michael’s starting up.”

  “He can’t let his sister get in the last word.”

  I grinned. I wanted to pick them up, but I was covered in Zed-juice. All the babies had been inoculated, but they were still so little. I didn’t want to take the risk.

  On the floor, the mike in my helmet crackled. They were calling me from outside.

  Jenny stroked my cheek. “You better go.”

  “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  She smiled as I passed Bill in the hall.

  “You stay here. I’ll leave Dog’s squad for perimeter duty.”

  Bill nodded as I headed down the steps. Outside, one of the troops pointed to a small cluster of deaders milling around a house across the street.

  “Who’s in there?” Jinks asked.

  “Someone I shot, if she ain’t dead yet.” I turned to the group. “Dog’s squad, stay here and establish perimeter. Sergeant Hanson’s in command. Catfish, your squad is with me. The rest of you fan out and find any last Zeds. Put ‘em down.”

  We started across the street. I dropped the first Zed as he started toward us. Tony dropped another as it came around the side of the house.

  “Who’ve we got here, Boss?” Catfish asked.

  We passed the body of the Savage I’d killed in the yard. He’d been gnawed on pretty good. Most of his flesh was gone, and he was down to bones and a skull with a bullet hole through it.

  “I don’t know. Some Savage bitch. Put a round through her leg after I dumped her boy here.”

  We dropped two more deaders as they came off the porch at us. After that, it was quiet. I sent Tony and Hunter to search the yard and garage. I waited on the porch with Catfish. The guys came back with an all-clear. I tried the door. It was locked. At least she was that smart. I gave it a kick the way Tony taught me, and it flew inward.

  We cleared the door four-stacked and found her in a sticky pool of her own blood. She was still breathing. Back against the wall, she faced the door. Her leg looked like someone dipped it in blood from the thigh down. She had on nothing but a torn, black T-shirt, some chains, and a pair of old jeans. Tattoos covered what skin was exposed, including a big, five-point star over one eye. She looked like a female Ace Freely. Her ears were ringed in metal, and blonde roots showed through her black-dyed Mohawk.

  “Hiya, Star,” I said. I leaned over to lift her.

  She smiled. “Death.”

  I heard a loud pop. I felt something smack me in the chest. I backed up and found a little twenty-five pocket pistol in her hand. She laughed as her finger started to tighten on the trigger again. I didn’t give her the chance; I wound up and punched her in the face.

  Her nose flattened as her head snapped back. The pistol fell out of her hand, and I kicked it away. She tried to focus, but her eyes rolled back in her head. She went limp.

  “Problem solved,” I muttered. “Upsy-daisy, bitch.”

  I hoisted her over my shoulder, and we headed for the firehouse. I didn’t like her, and we had no place for prisoners, but I wasn’t about to let her die. Maybe I could send her back to the Arsenal with my brother.

  Chapter Eight


  The gunfire had died away to sporadic bursts as the troops cleared town. Already, the bucket tractors were in play, scooping up killed Zeds like so much burning shit. They dumped the corpses into the backs of the city dump trucks. The first full load followed two backhoes out of the town to the south. The crew would find a spot to dig a new hole on top of a hill in the fields a couple miles away. It would have to be a big pit to hold all the corpses this time around.

  Danny ignored it all as he carried the woman on his shoulder to the firehouse. She stirred, grumbled, and cursed. After one outburst, he smacked her on the ass with his free hand. She yelped as pain streaked through her shattered leg. Tony carried his commander’s rifle as they made their way through town.

  They splashed through the little creek, now flooding because it was clogged with Zed corpses. A crew already worked to clear the stream, but they had to dodge the pockets of floating napalm as it drifted with the sluggish current. The pop of a pistol signaled that the work crew had found a wiggler. A disabled Zed, but still an active Zed.

  Danny eased between two fire trucks as Catfish opened the door to the station for him. Inside, he flopped the Savage woman onto a table. She yelped again and spat curses at him.

  “So that’s how you pick up the chicks, eh, bro?” A major in digital BDUs stepped forward from the crowd. “I’ll have to try shootin' 'em first next time.”

  Danny grinned and shook his brother’s hand. “Good to see you, Tom. Thanks for the air support.”

  “Well, we weren’t doin' anything today, anyway. Figured it was a good day for a leisure trip.”

  A snarled curse interrupted the brothers.

  “Who’s the charmer?” Tom nodded at the girl on the table behind them.

  “That'd be Star. Main fuck-bitch of Wolf, leader of the Savages. I think he's the one I killed when this shit started this morning.”

  The two stepped closer to the table, where the doctor had sheared the pants off the bitch to get a better look at her wound. He approached her arm with a needle—something to kill her pain—and she fought back.

  “You do her, too?” Tom asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Lousy shot.”

  “Went where I wanted it. We need to know how they led that whole swarm up here. Can’t get that if her brain’s splattered all over the yard.”

  “True.”

  They watched as Doctor Leary struggled to slide the needle into the woman's arm. Finally, Danny stepped forward, cocked his pistol, and stuck the barrel under her nose. She froze.

  “Hold the fuck still so they can fix you, cunt.”

  Leary got the I.V. going. Danny holstered his pistol.

  “Great bedside manner you have there, Captain Death,” Leary noted. “Now get out of my way. Go see Pepper.”

  Danny walked away. Tom lingered at Star's bedside. He wanted information from the bitch, too.

  On a cot in the back room, Danny found one of his wives. Pepper lay bundled in heavy blankets tucked to her chin. Eyes closed, she looked to be sleeping. Danny picked his way between the other cots to kneel beside her.

  Softly, he brushed a stray lock of hair from her face. When they married, her hair had been buzzed off. She wore it longer now, but still in a boy-short cut. If he knew her at all, he knew the little bangs would soon be gone. She didn’t like them long.

  “Danny?” she whispered, her lids struggling open.

  “It’s me, Pepper.”

  “Danny!” She wrapped him in a bear hug. “You’re okay.”

  “Are you?”

  She sniffled a little yes into his shoulder. He gently pressed her into the cot and covered her back up with the blanket. He eyed the bandage over the bite on her neck. For a few long minutes, they said nothing. He simply held her hand in his.

  “Doc says I’ll be okay, but I’ll be in quarantine for a week. Everybody else, too.”

  “Dog here?”

  For a moment, she didn't answer. Her eyes welled with tears. “He didn’t make it, Danny.”

  The tears burned. Danny swallowed hard. Dog was a good man. They’d known each other five years now. One of the first guys he met back when he moved to Snareville.

  “How many others?" he asked. "Do you know?”

  Pepper shook her head. “No.”

  She paused, unable to meet his eyes. Finally, she looked up as emotions chased across her face.

  “Danny, I lost the baby.”

  “What?” His guts twisted into a knot.

  “Doc Leary said it was the shock.”

  Danny wrapped his arms around her as she began to cry. He stroked her head, rocking her back and forth.

  “It’s my fault!” Pepper sobbed. “It’s my fault, Danny!”

  “Shh," he managed. "It’s not your fault, Baby. You lay down and get some rest. Heather’s here. She’ll watch over you. I’ll be back.”

  Pepper sniffled miserably as she eased back onto the cot. Danny tucked the blankets up around her chin. With a single backward glance, he strode from the room. As he stepped through the door, he drew his pistol from its holster.

  Leary worked on Star’s leg in earnest now. The bitch just lay there, drugged out but conscious, as the nurses washed her leg and prepped her for surgery.

  Danny didn’t see Tom anywhere as he shoved his way past the doctor. He cocked the gun, brought the muzzle to Star's eye, and squeezed the trigger.

  The hammer fell on the web of Tom’s hand. Danny looked up.

  “Let go of my gun.”

  “Are you fuckin’ nuts? Get away from her.”

  “Let go of my gun.”

  Tom grabbed his brother by the wrist. By now, the surgical staff stood back, screaming at them both. Tom dragged Danny away from the table and jerked the pistol free.

  “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Dog’s dead," Danny hissed. "Pepper lost the baby. All because that bitch and her boy led all those Zeds up here.”

  “Dan… I’m sorry. I know how you feel.”

  “How do you know?" Danny cried. "You’ve never lost a baby!”

  Danny felt his brother’s grip tighten on his wrist and realized his error.

  “Tom, I’m sorry. I… I forgot about Savannah. I didn’t mean it.”

  Tom didn’t relax his grip. He pulled his brother closer as Danny tried to yank away.

  “Both of your wives and your babies are alive," Tom snarled. "Get out of my sight before I shoot you. That’s an order.”

  Danny stumbled back a step. Lost for words, he turned and left the building. Outside, he gathered his crew in a daze. Together, they helped the work crews load the dead into the trucks. The creek was still plugged. Water flowed down the street into the storm drains. They’d have to start the generator out at the treatment plant to help clean up the mess. It was midnight before Danny showered and fell into bed next to Jenny.

  At ten the next morning, he met with Kenny, Tom, and the other commanders for an after-action report. Twenty people from town and from Tom's unit had been quarantined. Ten people from Snareville would be buried by nightfall, as would a squad of five soldiers who'd been cut off and overwhelmed as they tried to ward off the Zeds from the firehouse. It was the Raiders' biggest loss to date.

  After the meeting, Danny walked quietly to the school. Jenny held his hand as the sidewalk unrolled under their feet. Tom trotted up beside them.

  “You okay, Danny?” he asked.

  “Lost a lot of good people yesterday, bro.”

  “Yeah. We both did.”

  “Hard to take. I knew every one of them. Hell… some of them were buddies long before this started. One of the gals was an old girlfriend.”

  “I know. We all know everyone in this fight. I knew those troops I lost. I’ve served with them for at least four years. They were my men.”

  “How do we keep doing this?” Jenny whispered, her eyes stuck to the sidewalk.

  “Like all troops do. We do it until we can’t.” Tom sighed. “You people stood down a
swarm of twenty thousand Zeds yesterday. That’s no small accomplishment.”

  “Without your equipment, it would have turned out a lot differently.”

  “I know, but that’s just it. We’re getting more organized. We’re getting better. We’re able to stand these things down in a fight. Small towns like this are perfect for defense. It’s the huge urban centers like Chicago that are a problem.”

  Together, the three continued on to the school. Danny kicked a stone ahead of him for a few steps.

  “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. I know you haven’t found Kathy or Savannah yet.”

  For ten paces, Tom said nothing. When he spoke, tears clogged his voice.

  “I found Vannah this spring when I was out on patrol. She was with a pack of kid Zeds. They were eating a dog down in Rock Island. She’s at peace now.”

  Danny's breath stopped. He put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Damn, Tom. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll live.” Tom drew a deep breath and steadied himself. “Just stay clear of Star. She told me yesterday that your meetings this past winter with her and the other Savages didn’t go well. She’s more valuable to us alive than she is as a corpse. Just leave her alone, okay?”

  They walked across the old schoolyard. Six horses raised their heads to watch them from the soccer field. Deciding these people weren’t a threat, the animals went back to grazing.

  “Yeah, okay. She’s all yours.” Danny pulled open the door, and the three of them stepped inside.

  Pepper rested in the old history classroom, third door on the left. Star slept in the biology room halfway down the hall to the right. That way, if the bitch did make her way out of bed, she faced an equal distance to run past the guards on either end.

  Danny and Jenny turned left; Tom turned right. They went their separate ways for a time.

  A week later, Danny worked a mound of earth growing around the south side of town. Buckets of dirt were passed up from the bottom of the trench to be added to the top. The mound followed the border of town between the homes and the fields of vegetables growing in the old cornfields. He remembered learning long ago about ancient, fortified cities encircled by moats and mounds. As he dumped another five-gallon bucket into place and trod it down flat, he mused over the full circle humanity had turned in history. Out on the north side of town, backhoe tractors did the work. It would soon be his turn in the trench.