I looked through the binoculars at the town. “Galena? That’s a nice place, too. Lots of hills and hidden areas.”
“Maybe when this is all over, I’ll go up and take a look. Angela and I are hoping to find a place like Starved Rock, “Tommy commented.
“Eagle Ridge is similar. Likely occupied, but worth a ride,” I said. “Looks like the town got hit, but the zombies seemed to have moved on. There’s no activity at all that I can see.”
“Let me have a look,” Tommy said.
I gave him the binoculars, and he looked carefully for a few minutes. While he was looking he asked me a question.
“When you were a principal, were you a good one?” he asked.
I thought for a minute. “Not really. I never got into it like my colleagues did. They read the articles, did the conferences, and learned the new procedures. I never really cared about that. I just wanted to run the building and make sure my teachers were doing their job effectively. Why?”
“Just wondering,” Tommy said. “I don’t see anything, either. Should be okay to take a closer look.”
We tumbled down the hill, sliding and tripping through the long grass. I thought about what this area must have been like during the Upheaval, and figured if they had enough warning, or figured out what was happening soon enough, they would be in pretty good shape. The only problem would be the highway, which right now didn’t seem to play a factor.
I stopped by the other truck where Charlie and Duncan were arguing over who was a better western hero, John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. When they asked me, I just said Jimmy Stewart.
“We’re going in. From up top it looks like things are quiet, but we’ve been down this road before. Full gear, and we’ll take 13 in as far as we can. If we’re lucky, we can make it through the other side without trouble. “
Charlie snorted. “Heard that one before.”
Duncan smirked. “Yeah, and the punch line always seems to be the same.”
“Let’s move out,” I said. We put our gear on and checked out packs and mags, making sure we had everything we needed.
Route 13 had a few cars we needed to get around, but for the most part, we were able to go through fairly easily. The ramps to and from the highway had a lot of cars on them, and the highway itself seemed to be full of cars. By all accounts, we should be fighting by now, but there wasn’t any zombie to be seen. It was quiet, and there was not a single source of movement anywhere.
I got on the CB and called up to Charlie who was in the lead.
“Any thoughts on this? Over,” I asked.
“No real feel for anything, but we should have seen something by now. Over,” Duncan said.
We drove a little further, passing a few gas stations and abandoned businesses. Behind the hotels and restaurants, the houses seemed empty.
“Think they might have been drawn off by another group?” Over,” I asked.
“Can’t see it as anything else. Over,” Duncan said.
“That might be it,” Tommy said, pointing to the south.
Across a huge parking lot, there was a mall. It was a smaller mall, with only a couple of anchor buildings, but there was a long connecting area between the two. Around the doors of the anchor buildings and the one door to the shopping area there were about a hundred zombies each. From where we were, it looked like they hadn’t yet found a way to get in.
As we watched, a lone figure on the roof started waving their arms and trying to get our attention. I stuck a hand out the window and waved back.
“Thoughts?” Tommy asked.
“Well, it’s been a dull trip into Illinois so far,” I said.
“That’s a lot zombies,” Tommy said.
“No one lives forever,” I said.
“You do if you’re a zombie, apparently.”
“Go for it.”
Tommy honked the horn three times. The zombies on the outer edge of the crowds looked our way. When they didn’t see anything that looked tasty, they turned back to their crowd.
Duncan got out of the truck, and Charlie honked again. Duncan waved his arms around and sashayed around the front of the vehicles. It’d have been funnier than hell if it wasn’t so serious. On the brighter side, it seemed to do the trick. The zombies that saw Duncan set up a groan and started our way. When the first started, others began to follow suit. In a matter of minutes, two of the hordes were headed our way, and since the third didn’t want to be excluded from the fun, they started our way as well.
“Okay, now what?” Tommy asked, pulling the truck out of the parking lot.
“That was pretty much my plan up to now,” I said.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Yep.”
“Jerk.”
“Let’s get back slowly to the highway. We can get up on the bridge and make our stand there,” I said.
We drove back the way we came, keeping the zombies following us. I hoped that when the Zs left the area of the mall, the survivors would get out of that area. If they didn’t then we were getting in trouble for nothing.
“What’s the plan, John?” Charlie asked over the CB.
“Get on the bridge, make a stand there,” I said.
“Not enough room with the cars,” Charlie said. “Need another plan.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” I said.
“Turn onto 13 west, and follow the road.”
“Plan?”
“Survival. Got an idea.”
Duncan and I shared a look, and I shrugged. Charlie was pretty good with his ideas, except they usually involved one of us sticking his neck out a little further than we are comfortable with.
We drove slowly, trying to keep the zombies coming, but at the same time I was nervous because it meant that we would very little time to prepare for whatever Charlie had in mind.
We drove on 13, and we reached Crab Orchard Lake in about a half an hour. We had to drive around a few abandoned cars, but nothing crazy. When we reached the middle of the bridge, Charlie ordered a halt.
“Park your truck there,” Charlie said. Duncan did, and Charlie pulled his truck in behind us, blocking the road, but not completely blocking it from zombies. They would squeeze their way through a lot of obstacles, and it was a disgusting sight to see. Typically they left a lot of themselves behind.
“Help me with the cars!” Charlie said, looking at the horde that was advancing on us. He grabbed a floor jack from the back of the truck, and Tommy grabbed the other one from our truck.
The jacks worked like they normally did, but when we used two, it allowed us to move the cars where we needed them. In this case, it was in front of our trucks.
“Tip them over!” Charlie said. He put his jack under the lead car and raised it as high as he could. When it was about two feet up in the air, the four of us scrambled under and pushed it the rest of the way onto its side.
“Hurry up!” I yelled. The horde was closing fast.
“Over!” Charlie said, pushing the second car.
“Make it three, now!” Charlie yelled.
We fairly tossed the third car on its side. When they were on their sides, Duncan looped rope around the wheels and lashed the cars together. It wasn’t the greatest of barricades, but in a pinch, it would do.
We looked at each other, winded but otherwise okay. At about the same time, we realized we were on the wrong side of the barricade. Four men scrambled like maniacs to get over the barricade they had just erected.
In the bed of the trucks, we grabbed our weapons. Just in case the horde broke through, we would need to start the killing.
“Got any more of those neat explosives of yours, Duncan?” Tommy asked.
“I do, but I can’t use them here.” Duncan said.
“Because why?” Charlie asked, slipping a full magazine into his AR.
“Because I’d prefer not to have my own precious noggin perforated by a metal cube,” Duncan said.
“There is that,” I said. I turned to Charlie. “Was th
is the extent of your plan?”
“Almost,” Charlie said. He poked his head over the barrier. The zombies saw him and set up a groan. They hit the cars and actually managed to move them a little.
“We could just drive off, now that we blocked the road,” Tommy suggested.
“They’d eventually go back to the mall, and if those people there aren’t out, they’re right back where they started,” Duncan said.
“Hang on,” Charlie said. “Let me try something.” Charlie went over to the far edge of the cars and swung a leg over the side of the bridge. He shifted a little, moving towards the zombie side of the barricade.
The zombies made for him right away. The ones on the far edge moved in for the kill, only to hit the rail on the bridge. The rail was only three feet high, so the lead zombie reached out and promptly fell over the side of the bridge. The next one, being obviously smarter than his brethren, tried the same thing with the same results. The loosening of the lead let several more Z’s surge forward, and they pushed the front zombies over the edge. Pretty soon it was a deluge of zombies falling into the water. A couple were short enough to not fall over, but they were pushed over nonetheless. Charlie kept himself hanging out, changing arms when one got tired. Finally, the last one tripped over the barricade.
“Well, that was easy.” I said, looking over the road.
“Lifting cars was easy?” Tommy asked. “My back is gonna hurt for a week.”
“My shoulders start to hurt after the twentieth zombie or so,” Duncan said.
Charlie swung around the barricade and dropped beside the trucks.
“If you old ladies are done talking about your boo-boos, we can get moving,” he said.
“Ouch,” Duncan said.
“Yeah, that kinda hurt,” Tommy said.
“New boo-boos?” I asked.
“Yeah, these hurt deeper, but leave no scars,” Tommy said.
Duncan tried to look hurt, but it didn’t work when he started to giggle.
“Let’s move. The day is getting on, and we’ve got a university town ahead of us,” I said.
“How big?” Charlie asked.
“Last I knew, there were twenty-thousand students here,” I said.
“Jesus,” Charlie said. “And we’re really headed there?”
“The Upheaval hit full force around spring. Maybe the kids were on spring break?” I suggested.
Duncan nodded. “Not a bad bet, but we could be walking into fifty thousand zombies.”
Tommy agreed. “We could be. Is there a side way to get around, maybe scope it out before we jump in and possibly die?”
“Damned if I know. Road maps don’t include county side roads,” I said.
“Time for good old boy country reckoning,” Charlie said.
“And that is?” Tommy asked.
“I know I’m going west, I’ll just keep taking roads that get me there,” Charlie said, firing up the truck.
“And here I thought it meant you farted into the wind and followed the scent,” Duncan said.
“When we stop, I’m gonna pound you,” Charlie said, laughing.
“Guess we won’t stop, then,” Duncan said.
I laughed, but in the back of my mind I hoped like hell those kids went home before the world ended. At least they would have been with their families, even if those same families tried to eat them.
Carbondale, IL
The darkness was nearly absolute in the forest. Tree branches reached out and either smacked me or caressed me, depending on how far up the branch I hit. My movements were a beacon to the Z’s that chased me, and I could hear them crashing through the brush behind me. I knew they were gaining on me; one look over the shoulder, and I could see the little bobs of light dancing in the air behind me. Only these weren’t will-o-the-wisps. These were the glowing eyes of the zombies that wanted to tear me from limb to limb.
I was in the woods behind a huge concrete building. I could see its outline as a darker shape in world of shadows. It was actually the only reference I had for where I was. Under my feet I could feel a path, but the treacherous trees had dropped dozens of branches, slowing me down considerably.
The good news was it slowed down my pursuers. They tripped and fell, tumbled through the brush, and crunched through the leaves. If I could hear them, I could avoid them. Problem was, they knew I was here even if they couldn’t see me.
I was trying to reach a road or some sort of open area. I had originally gone to inspect the big building, since I had thought I had seen a light flash from one of the windows. Problem was, I couldn’t find the source; night had fallen faster than I had expected, and when I tried to reach my friends, I had been spotted by a few wayward zombies. I tried to give them the slip by ducking into the woods, but I hadn’t counted on there being more zombies in there as well. Duncan and Charlie were somewhere east of where I was, but I couldn’t draw them into this fight. They would have no idea what they were walking into.
The big complaint I had was I couldn’t use my guns. The muzzle flashes would blind me and I couldn’t afford to lose my night vision right now, and the report of the shot would draw every zombie on campus.
I was pretty sure I was moving south, but I couldn’t be positive. All I knew was the woods seemed to go on forever, and there seemed to be more and more Z’s coming up behind me.
Well, most of them, anyway. As I moved, a pair of glowing eyes rose up from the ground in front of me. They kept going up and up and up until they floated a good foot above my head. At first I thought the zombie must be standing on a bench or something, but I realized it was a very tall zombie the same time a very long arm reached out and grabbed my sleeve. It pulled me in and tried to get another hand on my other shoulder, but I wasn’t having any of that. I ducked under the arm, pushing the elbow back towards the face, keeping the arm between the teeth and myself. I pushed back on the zombie, and as luck would have it, the ghoul fell over a large branch that was blocking the trail. As further luck would also have it, the zombie took me down with it. I could see the eyes closing in, and I had no choice but to shove my knife into the Z’s face.
That didn’t stop it either. I could hear the teeth clink on the steel as they bit and gnashed on the blade. The edge cut into the foul thing’s mouth, but it still forced its face forward, hissing its foul breath into my face. I pushed down trying to pull myself from its grasp, but it got another hand on my shirt and doubled its efforts to try and bite. I was running out of options, and I could hear reinforcements looking for the battle. I twisted the blade, holding off the zombie with my other hand. I kept the knife in the Z’s mouth, since the blade was the only thing keeping the zombie from chewing on me. The steel grated on bone and made an awful noise. The zombie tried to groan, but it came out more like a deep exhale which I really didn’t appreciate. I managed to get the point of the blade into its mouth, and from there I shoved it upwards. It took a hit from the heel of my hand to get the knife to penetrate the skull, but I finally did it. I stood up, and kneeling on the incredibly tall zombie’s chest, I ripped my blade out.
Just in time, too. Two zombies came at me from behind, one just in front of the other. I gave up trying to be quiet, and I bolted down the trail, flinging zombie goop off my blade. I was in a losing situation back there, and I felt no shame at my retreat.
I’d met people who were pretty far gone in the “zombie killer’ mode. They lived for the fight, something they couldn’t escape even if they wanted to. And most of them didn’t want to. The call of battle is strong, and if you’re wired for it, you can’t do anything about it. Sometimes they were just fools using the apocalypse to prove something to themselves. Those types didn’t last long. Sometimes they were psychopaths using the zombies as a reason to satisfy their need to kill. Those men were usually outcasts when the threat was gone, retreating back into the corners of their own dark minds. Sometimes they were true heroes. Men and woman who had something in their genes that took advantage of the situation and
allowed them to rise above. They possessed just enough skill, speed, and clarity of thought not only let them survive, but to succeed. They were the ones that rebuilt, creating on the foundation they fought for.
Me? I figured I was just a victim of circumstance. I survived because the right thing happened at the right time, and the right people showed up to help me along. Where those people were right now, I would give a whole roll of luxury toilet paper to find out.
The woods suddenly ended, and I found myself standing on what was left of a road. To my left was a dark mass of a building, likely not a safe place. To the right was an open road, but I wasn’t sure where it led. I remember seeing something like a stadium in the map we had when we got here, but I wasn’t certain.
A breeze blew into my face, and it carried the smell of water. If nothing else, that might be shelter, at least for the night.
The thrashing behind me was all the motivation I needed. I knew I was running into the wind, but it was a risk I was going to have to take. I headed for the water.
A small clutch of trees gave me some shelter from my pursuers as I ducked back into darkness. The trees ended quickly, and I was standing in a clearing with a small gazebo. I was also interrupting the zombie picnic taking place in front of me. Two ghouls were eating a deer they had somehow taken down, and when they saw me, they raised their bloody mouths like rotting baby birds.
“I think not,” I said, pulling my pick from my back. I wasn’t running from these two. The first one stood up, and I put him back down, caving in his skull from the side. The other reached out and tried to grab my leg, but a swing from my knife took that hand away. As he stood up, I brought the pick down, killing him where he crouched.
The picnic shelter was geodesic in shape and very poorly placed for defense. I walked back out and went to the water’s edge, hoping I could find something that I could use as a float. Maybe a piece of dock or even a boat of some kind. A quick look showed me nothing.
“Dammit,” I said, following the trail around the lake. I figured maybe the trail would at least guide me in the right direction, although the way my luck ran I would find what I was looking for only after I had circled the entire lake.
The Zombie Wars: Call To Arms (White Flag Of The Dead Book 7) Page 14
