Dead Surge

by Joseph Talluto

  The sun was warm on my face and I took a step towards the field, picking up a stone in the road. I threw the stone far out into the field, and the clicking stopped immediately.

  I got back into the truck and Sarah glared at me. I shook my head at her and said, “I think the noise was some of those big grasshoppers. They stopped when I threw the rock into the field.”

  Sarah relaxed then laughed. “Bugs. Jesus, we’re jumpy. Better let Charlie know.”

  I agreed and got him up on the radio as we pulled away from Nordaway. Everything would have been normal except he had to ask a nagging question.

  “So where are all the people then? Crystal said Nordaway was populated and we haven’t seen anyone at all.”

  Well, that killed the relief. Suddenly, I was back on alert and looking very hard at windows and buildings, trying to get a sense of what might have happened to the people here.

  I radioed back to Charlie. “Maybe we need to get up high again.”

  “Agreed. Find a tower and we’ll send Duncan up again.”

  I laughed as I heard Duncan protest over the radio. “Got it. I want to get to 34 again and get off these lousy farm roads.”

  “Well, what’s keeping you?”

  “Talon out.” I tossed the radio onto the seat while Sarah giggled.

  Chapter 30

  We moved north and the sun began its descent into the afternoon. The landscape was green turning to brown, and the winds occasionally brought a hint of the winter to come. Since the Upheaval, the winters had alternated from severe to not bad, with one being downright mild. That had been a bad year, since the zombies had been active the entire time and didn’t give us a break at all.

  A few miles up the road, we passed a farmhouse that was situated up on a hill. The owner had dug the ditches around his home deeper and cut a trench across his driveway. A drawbridge had been created with some big planks of wood, and that served as a workable gate blocking the driveway against anyone making it across the trench. As we passed and turned onto 34, the owner came out of his house to wave. We stopped for a moment and gave him the rundown of recent events and the seeming abandonment of Nordaway. He thanked us and we were on our way, but in the rearview, I could see the man checking his fortress for weak spots. I hoped he’d be okay.

  A few miles up the road, we found a cell tower on the intersection of Ginkgo Ave and Route 34. According to the map, the town of Brooks was about a quarter mile from us, but I wanted to look around before I committed to anything. Charlie drove the van over to the tower and Duncan climbed up with a big pair of binoculars hanging from his neck. He got to the top in good order and radioed down.

  “Looks like there’s another grain elevator to the south of us, just east of the town of Brooks. There isn’t any activity I can see from here, just some live activity on farms to the north,” Duncan said.

  Good enough. “All right. Let’s go have a look at Brooks, and we’ll set ourselves up for the night somewhere around here,” I said.

  We moved down into the town of Brooks and I was actually surprised to see it was dead. It was far enough off the beaten path that it wasn’t a likely haven for anyone running from the cities, but then Sarah pointed out that the city of Corning wasn’t far away, and a zombie could have easily made the trip once the Upheaval had taken full effect.

  We drove into the town and saw a lot of old activity. Several of the homes showed signs of break-ins. There were old bones bleaching in the sun, and a house even had a truck rammed into the front. It was a common theme revisited once again in the annals of the Zombie War.

  I stopped the truck on Commercial Street and got out, figuring to look over the maps again to figure out our next move. That was the plan, anyway. Funny thing about plans is that the second you work one out, if you listen hard enough, you can almost hear God laughing at you.

  Tommy and Duncan spilled out of the van, and Charlie came over to my side. Rebecca and Sarah decided to find some relief in the tree-lined homes to the south of us, figuring to do a quick once over for supplies and trade goods.

  “What’s the plan, boss?” Charlie asked.

  I pointed to the town of Corning. “This is a big place, and I remember it still being alive in the southern portions. If anyone is still there, and they haven’t had any outbreaks, then we can safely say we’ve managed to get ahead of the threat and we can radio into the capital what we have.”

  Charlie nodded. “We’ve been gone for only two days, so we’re actually doing pretty well, all things considered.”

  I was about to answer when the radio popped to life.

  “John? Charlie?” It as Tommy.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Better get up here.” Tommy was fairly calm, but he sounded agitated.

  “Where are you?” I looked around and all I could see was Sarah and Rebecca coming back to the vehicles with a small sack over Rebecca’s shoulder.

  “At the end of Commercial on the east side, right where it turns north.”

  “All right, we’re on our way.” I hooked the radio on my belt and pulled my rifle from the truck bed. Charlie trotted back to the van and grabbed his weapons. Sarah and Rebecca tossed their loot into the truck and geared up as well.

  As a group, we walked down Commercial, noting the emptiness of the town and the destruction of long ago. Out of a house on the right, a Z came stumbling out of the ruins of his home, his dark grey skin and skeletal features marking him as one of the old ones. He limped slowly towards us, his right arm outstretched and his mouth open, seeing a meal for the first time in years. His eyes were milky and he was missing his left foot, which made for awkward mobility.

  “Got it,” I said, crossing the street and picking up a length of fencing as I did. When I got close enough, I smashed the zombie on the head, just as he opened his rotting mouth to groan. The heavy board easily cracked his skull, sending him on to eternity. Behind him, a female bounced off the doorway as she stumbled out, her dress torn and weathered. Her arms were shredded skin, and her legs were torn as well. This one looked like she had fought hard against her attackers before succumbing.

  I took the same board and finished her off the same way, burying the edge into her skull and driving her into the ground. She lay next to her husband and hopefully, they could finally rest in peace together.

  I went back to the group and we continued walking, keeping an eye out for more zombies. Over the years, we discovered that quiet towns usually had zombies hiding out indoors, some bizarre survival instinct keeping them out of the detrimental effects of weather. It made a kind of sense, but it was creepy, too.

  Two houses up and another zombie came out to greet us. This one was a teen that was missing its left cheek, exposing black teeth almost to the ear. Its nose was gone, leaving a black hole in the face, and one eye was gone as well.

  Charlie stepped over to this one and when it reached for him, he kicked it in the chest, knocking it into an overgrown bush. The zombie struggled for a moment, but ceased when Charlie tapped it on the noggin with one of his tomahawks.

  Right at the edge of the populated area, three more zombies came out for the party. Sarah stepped up to the smallest one and busted its skull with her spike. Rebecca stabbed a second one in the mouth with her spear, kicking the other one down as she did so. As it landed on the ground, Sarah was already stepping up to kill it. Charlie and I just watched in admiration.

  Chapter 31

  As we walked further, I could see Duncan and Tommy crouched down by some trees. We ducked ourselves, and made our way over to where they were. In front of them was a swath of trees, and I could see a small river winding its way through the countryside. To the south of us was a railroad bridge, but the tracks were lined with trees. I could see the river extending to the south, forming a decent barrier to attack from that direction.

  Tommy and Duncan were waving us over and I could see they were a little agitated.

  “What’s up?” I whispered, getting in low by the pair.<
br />
  “Take these and look to the north of those trees on the other side of the water,” Duncan said.

  I looked and winced. There was probably a hundred, to a hundred and fifty zombies milling about on the other side of the river. They didn’t seem to be agitated. They were just in wander mode, hemmed in by the river and the trees.

  I handed the binoculars back to Duncan. “Glad we didn’t shoot those zombies we met on our way over here.”

  “No shit,” Tommy said. “What do you want to do?”

  I thought about it for a minute before deciding. “May as well finish them off. Want to guess where they came from?”

  “Son of a bitch,” Charlie said. “Did they look fresh?”

  I looked again. “As a matter of fact, yes. Guess we know what happened to Nordaway.” I turned to Rebecca and Sarah. “Want some rifle practice?”

  In reply, the two women nodded and ducked back under cover to jog back to the vehicles. In ten minutes, they were back, each carrying a .22 rifle and a small box of ammunition. We had long ago discovered the high velocity stuff easily killed a zombie at fifty yards, as long as you hit it straight, so this was going to be pretty easy.

  Sarah loaded up and moved to a clump of bushes directly in front of the mass of zombies. Rebecca moved slightly further down, and into a grove of trees. Both were going to shoot from concealed positions, which lessened the chances of the zombies swarming across the river. All we had to do was watch the show.

  Sarah opened the ball by dropping five zombies fairly quickly. When she’d shot her magazine empty, Rebecca started firing from her position. The zombies were pretty agitated, but since they didn’t have anything more than noise to go on, they weren’t in attack mode. Rebecca finished her shooting and Sarah opened up again. It was almost boring.

  Charlie bumped me out of my observations and pointed back towards the town. The road we had come out here on had four zombies walking our way, obviously attracted to the noise. I figured we could do our part, so I told Duncan and Tommy to wait while Charlie and I dealt with this. We crept under cover until we left the firing line, and moved back towards the road. The zombies were spaced pretty evenly apart, so I thought it would be a good time to show my improving skills with my tomahawk.

  “All right, watch this,” I said, limbering up my arm. “I’m going for that old man in the front.” I watched the man move for a minute, mentally calculating his rate of speed and his relative distance away, which was about twenty yards. I figured on about three full rotations, so I waited until he was about fifteen yards away and let fly. The black weapon sailed through the air, past my target, and buried itself in the lower abdomen of the zombie behind it. The unintended target didn’t even slow down or acknowledge the eighteen inches of black polymer sticking out of its crotch.

  I didn’t want to look at Charlie. I really didn’t. I could hear him, and that was bad enough.

  “Say anything, and I swear I’ll knock your stupid ass out,” I said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” Charlie snorted, barely containing himself. “Oh, Duncan!” Charlie called.

  “You. Suck,” I said, pulling out my pickaxe for the converging Zs.

  “What’s up? Whoop! Zombies. Got a cure for that,” Duncan said as he pulled out his sword. “Hey, that one has a black…tomahawk…in…its…crotch.” Duncan stared. “Hey, John? Isn’t that your axe?”

  “No,” I said as I stepped up to the old man. He reached out for me and snarled, rolling his eyes up as I crushed his skull with my pick. I kicked a second in the hip, knocking it to the ground, and buried the point in the top of another’s head. I stepped over to the one holding my axe for me and speared it through the eye with my knife, jerking out my ‘hawk as it fell. Duncan decapitated the last one, and I had to say again that the sword impressed me more and more.

  The shots died down from the river at the same time, and Sarah and Rebecca came over to see if they could help. When they saw they couldn’t, they shouldered their weapons and we all took a stroll back into town to get to the vehicles. I had to clean off my weapons and the ladies wanted to clean their weapons as well.

  I looked at the sky and figured we had about two hours of sunlight left. It was a good time to find a place to hole up for the night. I didn’t want to stay in town. There were too many ghosts out there, and enough leftover ghouls to make the weary weep.

  We finished cleanup and drove out of brooks, heading east to the big grain elevator on the railroad. I was looking for a decent place to camp, and I was well aware of the dangers of camping out here in these woods in this particular situation.

  The grain elevator was a massive complex, with three huge bins on the south end by the tracks, a tall building attached to a six-pack of smaller silos, and a very huge maintenance facility to the east. We drove past the big silos, and under the observation platform. Several freight cars waited on the siding, their cargos patient for transport that would likely never arrive. I circled past the big buildings, and went to the north side. I was looking for some space, some place that could give me a kill zone should I need it.

  On the far north side, a small road led off through the fields, and led to a large construction site that had been cleared, but not developed. I could see the rolling hills in front of me, and I watched, as the shadows grew longer in the evening. I parked the truck in the middle of the area and waited. Charlie pulled the van up alongside, facing the opposite direction. We were going to be sleeping in the vehicles, but that was nothing new. We just wanted to make sure we were in a place we knew was safe. There was nowhere to hide for fifty yards.

  Sarah and I wandered over to the van and we spent a good hour going over the maps and plans for where we wanted to go next. I figured we should just follow 34, since that seemed to keep us in the middle of things, while Tommy and Duncan wanted to just head for home and let someone else handle the mess. Charlie voted with me, and Sarah and Rebecca did as well. I could understand the two men, since they had young families to take care of, but we needed to be able to do what we could out here as best as we could. Besides, we hadn’t found any viable communication yet.

  When the sun went down, we went back to our truck and settled in as best we could. I took the front seat and Sarah curled up on the back. It would have been nice to be able to sleep together, but we could still talk and this mission wasn’t going to last forever.

  “John?” Sarah’s voice drifted over the seats.

  “What’s up?”

  “Why aren’t we running for home? We know what the threat is and its general direction, why not let the army handle it?”

  I admitted she had a point, but there was a good reason and I let her know. “If we take off now, the little buggers could shift direction and we’d be running blind. Meanwhile, town after town falls to them, with the dead kids building on their own army. If we keep nearby, find some communication, then we can lead the army right to them and watch the show.”

  Sarah mulled that one over and I could almost hear her nod. “That makes the most sense so far. Why didn’t you mention it before?”

  “Truth is, I just thought of it.”

  There was a silence then Sarah spoke in an awed voice. “I’ll be damned.”

  “What?”

  “You really do make this shit up as you go along.”

  “Go to sleep.”

  Chapter 32

  At about two in the morning, I woke up. I couldn’t say why, I just did. I sat up very slowly, letting my eyes look around without moving my head. Sarah was sleeping on her side, snoring very softly in the back portion of the seat. The sunroof was cracked open about an inch and the doors were thankfully locked. The driver’s side of the truck was close to the van, and as I sat there, wondering what it was that woke me up so completely, I heard a noise outside between the two vehicles.

  It was so subtle, gentle almost, like a caress. But there was no mistaking the sound for the wind. It sounded like someone or s
omething was running their hand along the truck as they slowly walked around it. From where I sat, I would be face to face with it in seconds if I didn’t move.

  I slid down onto the seat and removed my sidearm from the center console. After a quick moment of thought, I realized I didn’t have a shot, since the bullet could strike the van and hurt someone inside. Add to the fact that I would have to shoot through the window, it didn’t work out as a viable solution. The upside, I was safe. There was no way a zombie could get in here. My concern was there might be others, and a confrontation would bring them in a hurry.

  As I lay there, I kept my eyes on the window, hoping for some sign of what was moving out there. I couldn’t see over the seats, as I was lying down, so my vision was limited to the passenger side. All I could do was wait.

  After ten seconds, the top of a head appeared at the window. It was a scruffy head of hair, tangled and matted. From what I could see, it could have been an orphan, come out to check if anything interesting was in the two vehicles that showed up out of nowhere. I closed my eyes so I could barely see, but keep anything from seeing the whites of my eyes as I looked around.

  The head stopped and I could see it slowly rising, as if the person were getting on their tiptoes. I breathed as quietly as possible, knowing the slightest sound would draw attention. I could hear Sarah still snoring, but I hoped it wasn’t audible through the windows. The sunroof was cracked slightly to give us some air, but that was only done on a high vehicle like our truck. We learned a long time ago that windows opened even slightly were like giving a key to the door to a zombie. They just grabbed and pulled the windows out.