by White, A. L.
The crowd was starting to back Charlie up with more than a few yelling out ‘You tell ‘em Charlie’ and ‘Damn right brother!’
“For those of you that want to leave, I can’t stop you. I will not even try to stop you. I will just wish you luck on your journey. Any man or woman that has a weapon and wants to fight for what we have, please meet me in the library parking lot in a half hour.” Charlie walked off the stage and tried to make it to the stairs. The mood in the gymnasium was electrified with the excitement of people who had run far enough.
“I guess this means that we are fighting?” Albert asked Lori. Lori shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Virginia and I will fight, but I can’t decide for you, Al.”
“There is no decision, child. We are all family now, and we’re staying with you and your sister,” Zoe added before Albert could say anything.
“Damn straight pops!” added Jermaine.
“Then I guess we should start making our way out to the parking lot then. I only ask to be by Virginia and those dogs during the fighting,” Albert replied with a smile.
Virginia wondered how many would stay and fight as she surveyed the room. When they arrived yesterday, a lot of the faces had looked like they were just waiting to die and be free of this new life. Now she could see life in a lot of those faces. There were still many she did not think could make it there or out on the open road. It was funny to her how easy she felt it was to decide who had it in them to live, and who did not.
Outside there were fifty or sixty people standing in the street between the school and library. Weapons amongst them ranged from handguns and rifles to large scissors and files. There was a man that Virginia didn’t know standing on top of a metal barrel yelling something out to the crowd. From where she was at Virginia couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. Whatever it was, the crowd up close was going nuts at every one of the man’s pauses.
“There you guys are!” Todd ran toward them. “Mister, Doc says I should bring yous straight to the Library and not stop for any hot chocolate.”
“We will follow you then,” Lori replied as she motioned the rest of the group to follow.
Virginia and the lads fell in behind Todd as he cut a path through the crowd into the Library parking lot.
Inside they found Doc, Charlie, and a few men that Virginia didn’t know.
“Welcome, please come in,” Doc said. “Sit any place you like.”
The room had a large conference table in the middle with the walls covered in bookshelves.
Doc motioned over to Boo, who then stepped forward to the head of the table. “We asked Todd to go find you guys because we have a big favor to ask. A few days ago, we created what we are calling the RCG, or Rivers Crossing Guard. We have between twenty or thirty people who volunteered.”
“Sounds like a decent number for a beginning,” Jermaine stated.
“True enough. We just have a few small problems, though. I don’t think the majority of them have ever been in a fight; let alone fought those creatures out there,” Boo added.
“How can that be? How can they still be alive and not have dealt with the zombies?” Lori asked shaking her head in amazement.
“Most of them hid or sought shelter in the school from the beginning,” Charlie replied.
“What do you need from us, then?” Al asked.
“Boo and I are the only ones who have actually had any run in’s with the creatures. Doc here has killed his fair share, but most of them were behind bars. None were coming at him without an obstruction between them. We need to make a group that can react to any breakthroughs,” Charlie paused to gauge their reactions. “We think that you people would be perfect for that. Of course, Boo and I would also be part of it.”
Lori looked over at Jermaine and Al, who nodded in agreement. Then before she could look at Virginia, she answered for them, “We are all in. Where do we start?”
“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but aren’t you just a little young for this? You may feel more comfortable hanging with the others at the school,” Doc offered to Virginia.
Before Virginia could voice an objection, Albert spoke up, “You may feel more comfortable with her hanging back at the school, and I am sure the folks over there would become very comfortable with her being there. I, for one, am more than comfortable with her and the dogs with us. If you have any notions of self-preservation, then she is with us.”
Boo thought back to how he had seen the group calmly fighting against the onslaught of the creatures out on the road. Two people had stood out on that night apart from the others; one was the girl in question, so he too spoke up, “The girl is as much a part of this unit as anyone else is. She stays!”
“Now that we have that settled, what exactly do you want us to do then?” Lori asked.
Boo walked over to the one wall that didn’t have windows or shelving units on it and pulled down an old map of Rivers Crossing that had been hanging in the library since just after it had been built. Carefully placing it on the conference room table, Boo pulled a red felt tipped marker from his pocket and began drawing a red circle around the town. The circle started on the bridge they had crossed to enter town, followed the river to the raised train tracks, down past the school, around to what looked like a creek, and then back to the river.
“This is the area we had hoped to keep free of the creatures and in our control. It still is the primary goal now,” Boo said as he was pointing to the Main Street Bridge and the creek bridge. “We have a watch set up of three people each, on both bridges, taking eight-hour shifts. They are armed and have a flare gun to alert us here if their bridge has been crossed by the creatures. In addition, we have another group taking eight hour shifts over along the train tracks on the other side of town.” Boo paused and looked everyone over, “What we will do is try as best we can to plug any incursions.”
“The six of us?” Albert asked.
“Well, I have a few other guys that are out showing the watchers what to do, so about ten of us,” Boo replied. “The hope is that nothing gets past the circle, and we are all doing a whole lot of worrying for nothing.”
Chapter 21
After the meeting ended, Lori took the others back to the RV while Virginia decided to take the lads out into the school yard. While they were in the library the snow had begun to fall, once again blanketing all the ground in a fresh coat of fluffy snow. It would be easy to see zombie tracks in this, she thought to herself. Not that she needed the tracks with Zeus and Perseus and their keen sense of smell. The crowd was alive and very noisy; she thought that maybe deciding to fight back was bringing many of them back to life, if only for a little while.
“There you are, child!” A voice said from behind Virginia, she instantly recognized it as Zoe’s.
“I have been looking all over for you!” Zoe stated exasperated.
“I was in the library with the others,” Virginia replied.
“Making the war plans, I assume?”
“Something like that, I guess,” Virginia replied with a forced smile.
“I am sure they have the best plan that they could come up with under our present circumstances,” Zoe said looking off down Main Street. “Child, do you remember me telling you that we would need to keep an eye on Roy?”
Virginia remembered; it was the only reason that Roy was alive today. She had completely forgotten about Roy after they arrived at the school. He probably was doing his best to blend in with the survivors that were already here, rather than face the ones he had let down costing Joey his life.
“Old Roy took the last watch on the bridge we came in on about an hour ago.”
Virginia could barely hide her surprise at the news. Roy was a coward in the worse way possible. Everyone in their group, including his wife, knew that Roy would sacrifice all others to save himself if it came down to that.
“Maybe the lads and I should go keep an eye on him,” Virginia suggested, smiling at Zoe.
“I
was thinking the exact same thing, child. Mind you, don’t let him see you. Just make sure he is doing what he is supposed to be doing.”
“If he does something else?” Virginia asked.
“Child, if he runs and hides again, you do what you feel needs done,” Zoe replied looking down into the snow. She knew she had just told Virginia to end another human being’s life because he was afraid. Most of the time, no, all of the time, Zoe would have protected someone like Roy as best she could. In this case, old Roy had already cost her great nephew his life and there could be no more.
Virginia understood what Zoe was saying and knew the reasons behind it. Whistling to Zeus and Perseus, she led the dogs out the parking lot gate and up to the corner of Main Street. It felt good to be away from everyone again. It reminded her of being back at the bunker going on searches for zombies with the dogs. It was just her and the dogs back there, and in a small way it was what she wished for now. Things were much simpler than; she took care of Zeus and Perseus, they took care of her.
About a block away from the bridge Virginia picked out a house that would have an ideal view of the bridge and would get them out of the snow for a little while. It wouldn’t be much warmer, but there would be no wind inside, and that would warm them up a bit.
Making her way off the street into a backyard, so as to not been seen by Roy, they cut through the yards until they made it to the front door of the house. Turning the handle and finding it to be unlocked, Virginia stepped aside and said to Zeus, “Ok boys, you know the drill. Go check it out for me.” The lads stormed into the house, going in and out of every room until they were satisfied that no zombies were present. Once they returned to the living room and sat down, Virginia entered the house and locked the door behind her. She made her way through all of the lower rooms, just as the dogs had. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them, Virginia was checking for any ways into the house that might be open. The last thing she wanted was to be concentrating on Roy and have something surprise them from behind. Not that Zeus would ever let that happen, she knew that, but being careful had kept her alive so far. Now was no time to quit.
Upstairs she found the master bedroom with a perfect view of the bridge. Stepping away from that momentarily she went in every bedroom and grabbed the blankets off the beds, bringing them back with her. Keeping an old quilt for herself, she made a large bed for the lads to lie on, and pulled out some bacon saved from breakfast. Splitting it up into three groups she gave the lads their share, “That has to hold you until we get back, so don’t swallow it whole, Perseus,” She chuckled looking at the lads enjoying their share before settling in to keep an eye on Roy.
On the far side of the bridge she could see that the herd was now gigantic in size and inching close to the make-shift fence. Roy, on the other hand, was sitting in the tow truck running the motor. From the look of it, Roy was doing more drinking from a bottle than watching the bridge.
***
The sound of the crowd could only be likened to that of a festival outside of the school. It carried over the raised train tracks like a hypnotic call to the zombies crossing the bridge. Earlier they had begun to mosey back off to wherever they had come from in search of food, but now the noise was calling them back and working them into a frenzy. What had been a few hundred less than two hours ago, was now nearly four thousand creatures, pushing against each other and toward the stone wall of the raised tracks. As the pressure began to smash the creatures caught against the wall, they turned to the left and right to escape, causing a mass of decaying flesh to push against the van. At first the van held solid where Charlie had parked it, then it began to slide; a little at first, then a foot or so, until it created an opening that the creatures could see through. The visual way in caused the creatures to work up to a frenzy, and the van slid further, opening the gap wider through to the other side.
The first few zombies went unnoticed by the jubilant survivors, until the first person was taken down. The woman never saw death coming for her until she felt the teeth bite down into the back of her neck. At that point it was too late for her. Those standing near her had time to see her die before they too were brought down. The screaming and panic that followed worked the herd up even more and caused the survivors to panic. Where only a few minutes earlier they were giving their oaths to protect what they had and those who could not defend themselves, they were now running for the doors of the school. The elderly and young were being trampled by the very people they had been led to believe would protect them.
The first shots that were fired to help came from the roof of the school. In the lone gunman’s state of fear, he wasn’t picking out targets. Instead, he was firing a constant volley into the crowd hitting both humans and zombies indiscriminately. The major difference was that the humans went down to be eaten by the zombies that kept coming forward. Not until he ran out of ammo did his gun fall silent. Even then, he kept squeezing the trigger as if he had a full magazine loaded.
Chapter 22
The sounds of the rifle shots penetrated the library conference room where Doc, Charlie, and Boo were still going over safety plans. Boo ran to the window first and saw the melee of zombies and people trampling over the bright red snow. At first, a wave of fear washed through his body, but that was quickly replaced with disgust and anger. Grabbing his rifle off the side table, Boo smashed the window out and started picking his targets. First one zombie’s head exploded, then another.
“What the hell!” Charlie screamed out when he reached the window.
“Charlie, take Doc and go through the tunnel! See if you can’t help some of those people in, and then button her up tight.”
Charlie forced himself back into reality and grabbed a petrified Doc by the shoulder, dragging him toward the door.
On the first floor they could see the carnage outside of the windows. Doc started to stop and bring his hands to his mouth, but Charlie forced him on to the stairs leading to the basement. Once they reached the tunnel, Charlie took the lead, not knowing what they would find on the other end. It was dark and damp in there, but neither man stopped until they reached the door leading into the kitchen of the school. Charlie turned the handle slowly then kicked the door wide open to be greeted by Tressa aiming an old World War II forty-five at his face. Seeing Charlie, she dropped the pistol down to her side and said, “Thank God it’s you two!”
“Are the creatures inside of the building?” asked Charlie.
“I don’t think so,” Tressa said. “There are a lot of us who got in, but I think even more are trapped outside.”
Charlie nodded his head, “Doc, see if you can help Tressa out with the ones that made it back in.” Making his way up the front stairway to the third floor, Charlie went into their room where he knew Boo had hidden some crates of dynamite under his bed. At the time, Charlie had thought it was an odd place to keep them, but that in a way, Boo was an odd old man to begin with and Charlie had never thought much of it after that. At the moment Charlie was incredibly grateful for that odd old man and his explosive packrat tendencies. Grabbing a crate, he headed up to the roof, finding Tim still squeezing off rounds from his empty gun.
“Tim! Give me a hand here!” Charlie ordered, forcing Tim to come back to reality.
Tim dropped his gun and grabbed the crate from Charlie, placing it on the ledge near where he had been standing a few minutes ago. Charlie handed Tim his rifle and said, “Make every shot count.” Tim started firing indiscriminately again when he felt Charlie’s hand on his shoulder, “Watch what old Boo is doing, Tim.” He pointed over to the library window where Boo was shooting from; they could both see Boo picking his target out carefully, then firing, exploding the head of a zombie, taking the creature to the ground in a heap. “Pick your target, and hit only that target, and in the head.”
Tim took a deep breath and picked a zombie out from the mass of bodies below them. Closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, Tim opened his eyes and selected his first t
arget. With a thunderous boom, the gun fired as he squeezed the trigger, and the side of a zombie’s head exploded. Looking over at Charlie Tim asked, “Like that, Charlie?” Charlie smiled back and lit the first stick of dynamite, then threw it has hard as he could toward the road.
***
Lori heard the screams first and reacted by grabbing her crossbow and heading for the door. As hard as she tried, the mass of bodies pushing against the side of the RV was blocking the door, preventing her from opening it. Jermaine jumped up to join her in trying to force the door open, but it was useless. Outside all that they could see was a jumbled-up mess of zombies and humans; too intertwined to get an accurate shot off. Just as Lori would line a zombie up, a human face would replace it. The last thing she wanted to do was help in the slaughter of fellow survivors.
As if by magic, the faces appearing zombies more and more. Only it wasn’t any magic, the human numbers were growing fewer. Once targets became clearer, Lori started firing off arrows as fast as she could, and Jermaine forced the door of the RV open. Charging out, Jermaine began clubbing the nearest zombies until he was certain their heads had caved in. Albert, following behind, started toward the door to help the remaining survivors. With his right hand he was firing off shots at the zombies as he called out to Jermaine to help him reach the door. Once they had crossed in front of the RV, Lori started the motor and slid the gearshift into gear, cutting off the zombies that were now behind the guys. That was when an idea came to her. If she could use the RV to block the viaduct, they could possibly stem the flow into the area and retake the grounds.
