by TJ Weeks
The group stood quietly for a moment as the zombies decided that there was nothing left to eat and began to move on to the vomit from the soldiers that were not able to take the sight. They grabbed handfuls and smeared it across their faces trying to hit their mouths. When the zombies would stand erect after the consumption of human puke, soldiers would quietly stab them in the tops of their heads. No one screamed or yelled, they just stabbed them.
The killing escapade continued for over four hours, finally the horde diminished to a few dozen and all were far off around the plant or outside the gate, not realizing that just a few feet over from where they were outside the fence trying to get in, the fencing/wall was torn down.
They all took a short breather. The men that were in the back of the trucks were finally able to sit down and relax for a moment. They dropped their heads as if they had been beat. Some cried and shed tears for their fallen soldiers, some stared off into space.
Holsinger was able to open his door and step out of the driver’s seat. He stepped down onto a pile of the dead, his foot rolled off of one of the heads, it tore off at the neck of a man and rolled off of the pile, Martin’s foot slipped with it and he fell ass first onto the grotesque mound. He jumped up and slid his hands across his back side to wipe off any of the grossness that may have gotten on him. He hurried to the truck behind his.
“Everyone okay? Guys, talk to me, don’t look defeated. These guys have fucked with the wrong unit!” He stated running to the next truck. “Hey, let’s get this place secured, grab that damn fencing!”
They all peered at Martin like he had gone nuts. But obeyed by slowly jumping down grabbing the fence as others walked to the broken down wall and began to drag it away, the others began to push up the chain link fence they had brought and stabilized it with the steel pipes. They placed the bent up wall back behind their chain link and secured it the best they could with what they had. With the noise, the zombies that were at the gate began walking that way and started banging on the fence they had just put up. The men backed away and waited to see if the group was going to be able to break through. They could see the fence bowing in towards them a bit, but was secured enough that it did not allow them in. They all gave each other a thumbs up. After a few minutes, the zombies moved on and began to limp in a different direction.
Holsinger made his way to the fence, hearing the growling of the persistent ones that had stayed there. He glared through the fence for a few moments wondering if it was necessary to kill them since they were unable to get to him from there and decided that it would be less to kill later. He stabbed his knife through the chain link, and one by one took them out in the forehead. They would fall and Martin would grip his knife, it would slide back out and he would do the same to the next one, until the remaining few were lying dead at the gate.
Some of the men had listened to Martin and decided they would not be defeated by these things and began to walk down the fence line and put up the rest of the chain link where needed; while some still sat inside the trucks or on the back looking as though there was no point in doing anything.
“Y’all need to get the fuck up and help the fuck out. There are plenty of us assholes that just destroyed these bitches!” He gave them a pep talk.
Most of the men raised their heads and stared at him as the thought finally entered their minds that they may have a chance to overtake this place they had been sent to. They all began to look around to see all that they had to work with.
Far to the left was the power plant, which appeared to be locked up tight, but smoke still spilled out of the smoke stacks. Far down to the right was a school where Humvees sat and a huge truck that looked to still be loaded with goods from the unit was there before them. There was so much land, they all knew it would take time to clear out all of the zombies, but hoped they were able to do it.
“We have lost quite a few men, but I need the remainder of you to get started on this fencing wall bullshit, let’s do the same as we have, and put up our fence and then if there is any wall remaining that has been torn down, put it up behind it for a little more security. I need a few to go check out the plant and see what needs to be done to keep it going.” He instructed.
Some started to jump out of the beds of the trucks and others just sat there. Holsinger stood there and stared at them waiting for them to move then began pulling them off of the trucks to the ground. He forcefully pushed them towards where they needed to go.
“Let’s go mother fuckers! Don’t just stand by and not do shit!” He screamed at them.
Holsinger turned to make sure that the gate itself was secured and then began to make his way to the Humvees that had made it in before his truck had and instructed them to go park the vehicles somewhere out of the way and check out the surroundings of their new base.
Martin suddenly heard bouts of screams as he gave his instruction to the rest of the unit. He ran to toward the blood curdling sounds, turned around and ran back towards the trucks as soon as he saw what the noise was about. A mass of them were making their way towards him from the huge roll up door like an avalanche of snow. His men had opened the biggest door of the place and apparently the workers had already been taken over. He scanned behind him looking for any of his men that may have survived; all he was able to see was his group lying on the ground in front of the door and right inside the building.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!” Holsinger screamed as he ran.
He jumped into the closest truck he was able to get to and hollered to all of the men that were already out.
“Enemy Six O’clock” Martin yelled.
The men began to run his way, some jumped up on the truck with him and some ran past him ready to take on the horde coming at them.
They swung their weapons through the crowd that roamed in their direction and Martin could see numerous knives come up into the air and blood splatter as they came down. He heard screams that made him close his eyes knowing another brother was lost. He hoped that his group was able to come out on top as they had before, but knew that numerous men had been taken from his unit.
The dead ones that made it through without being bludgeoned in the head were taken care of by Martin and the group that had joined him on the truck. It felt like forever they were up there stabbing and pulling their knives in and out of the heads of those trying to defeat them.
Martin became angry at all of the screams he was hearing.
“This is it!” He thought. “I am taking these mother fuckers out!”
He grabbed the M4 that laid on the front seat through the window of the truck, took aim and shot over and over. He knew that it would attract more, but maybe they would stop losing so many men. One by one they fell to the ground. Martin heard more shots being fired from behind. There was no time to see who was helping or who had followed his lead; as long as the dead were dying, he didn’t care.
The pack was dropping like dead flies being swatted with a fly swatter. He was thankful someone followed his lead and was willing to help him scatter the brains of these assholes.
Finally, the bulk of them were dead with only a few lingering that were able to be taken care of by the ones that survived on the ground. With all of the zombies from the plant taken out, Martin was able to see all of them spread across the ground, as well as his Brothers in Arms that had been taken by the horde. Martin looked around and realized that there seemed to only be about twenty men of his unit left.
Now he dropped his head feeling defeated. Thoughts ran through head like water through a faucet. He had to figure out how to save the rest and not have them killed. He knew that he was going to have to find help. He refused to let these dead assholes win over the Army.
“Okay, let’s move the vehicles we haven’t been able to move over along the fence line and get them out from in front of the gate. We have our two Humvees and four trucks. There are a couple of trucks and two Humvees up ahead by that school.” Martin suggested.
The men began to head t
oward the vehicles and start the ones that would and began to move them to where Martin had advised. A few of the trucks seemed to be broke down and only one of the Humvees wanted to start. The ones that would not start were just pushed off out of the way. Martin stood at the gate and watched the clearing of the vehicles when he started seeing movement throughout the mounds of zombies that laid on the ground.
Martin watched for a moment before finally realizing that the movement was his men. A few were starting to sit up and some had figured out how to stand.
“Hey they are alive!” He screamed at the others.
He began to run towards the few that were moving as they clumsily stood and turned toward him and started to make their way to try and walk. The two that rose to their feet began to limp at him and reached their hands out to grab him. It was only once they were within arm’s reach, Martin noticed that they were not asking for help, they wanted him for a meal. He fumbled for his knife and stabbed the first one in the head as it grabbed for his hand. The second one fell towards him, missed and smacked its face on the hard dry ground. It lifted his head back up to him, his jaw bone had come off and laid at Martin’s feet. He closed his eyes and placed the knife at his forehead.
“I’m sorry brother.” He stated to the already dead.
He slid the knife in the top of his head and pulled it back out.
“What the hell are you doing, those are our brothers!” One of the men shouted as he ran up to him.
“Well, you go check them out!” Martin told him.
The man walked over to another heap of movement in uniform and tried to help him up to stand. He placed his arm over his shoulder and pulled him up. He grabbed his jacket to hold him up and help him walk.
“No man left behind Holsinger!” the man blurted out with a smart ass tone.
He looked over to view his Army mate’s injuries when the man chattered his teeth at him and gripped firmly around his upper arm and began to pull him to him. Its mouth wide and coming at him. The still human compadre of Holsinger jumped quickly into action and ducked out of the way before he was bitten and let his once brother in arms fall back to the ground.
“WHOA! What the fuck!” The man backed away.
“They are turning, have you not seen zombie flicks stupid ass!” Martin laughed at him.
Martin walked over to the Army zombie that was reaching for his buddy and stabbed him in the top of the head. The creature’s hands and head drooped to the ground, as Holsinger pulled out his knife, the zombie twitched as he fell hard and Holsinger stuck it back in for good measure just to make sure that he had hit his brain.
“I…I Thought you were trying to kill our unit, sorry bro!” The man told Holsinger apologetically.
“You have to be careful with these things, always watch your back and your friends’ backs. Always stay on your toes.” He explained to the small group that was left.
“We need to see what the other unit brought in before we got here. Let’s start unloading all this shit and get it somewhere, maybe in a safe place that has none of these shit heads in it. Maybe check out the school. First, I would suggest that we at least get the fence secured that is nearby. The far off fence we can get to later, we can see those ones coming, and we just don’t want any creepers creeping up on us. All we can do is what we can do.” Martin explained.
Martin watched as the men actually started acting like the Army and not some pussy military boys. The men began to move in line formation with knives drawn, each one turning slow circles with each step they took looking for the slow walking, torn to pieces sons of bitches that wanted to eat them. As they would get to a broken down piece of fencing, two would stand guard while the others pieced it back together with the chain link fencing they had brought and the others had brought in before them.
Once they reached the nearby school, the fencing turned from the tin wall that surrounded the plant to a four foot chain link that was supposed to keep in the children at play; apparently no one ever thought of keeping out zombies. The small group unwound the rolls of six foot fence and put it up behind the small fence to double the security.
They made their way to the front school doors, they all hesitated as they wondered what would be inside.
One of the men held up one finger, then two, then three and threw the double steel doors open. All of the men half crouched and began to walk through the entry way. Army cots were still folded up and leaned up against the wall of the hall way. Boxes of MRE’s were stacked inside the door from floor to ceiling.
“Doesn’t look like these guys made it too far in. Keep your eyes open.” One of the men suggested.
The group of eight men cleared the first two open doors and left them open so that they would know that they had been in there. The third door of the hall way was closed. One of them grabbed the handle and turned to make sure he had some back up. He slowly turned the knob and pulled the door open, as a crack of light was allowed to enter the room, a loud bang sounded from behind the door and the man was pushed from the door way. Three men escaped through it and lunged at the knife yielding men. One pierced his knife through the eye of one that tried to take a bite of his face, as the next zombie attacked him from the side. The soldier that was pushed to the floor, crawled over and dug his knife into the nape of the zombie’s neck and rolled him off of his friend. The third zombie appeared to have backed another against the wall and he had dropped his knife as he was hit by the massive man in uniform that decided he was hungry. He wrestled him as he came in for the kill pushing him back with all of his might. The zombie suddenly crumbled to the floor like his legs were not even there. The bones cracked as he hit and his head bounced hard enough it spurted brain matter onto the Army boots of the man that was about to be eaten. Holsinger stood behind the fallen zombie, bloody knife still held up in the air.
“No man left behind, you okay?” He asked the man that was a smart ass to him earlier.
“Yeah, I think so.” He stood up off of the wall.
There was a blood spot on the wall behind him as he pulled away.
“You’re bleeding brother, let me check it out.” Holsinger stated.
“Nah, I’m alright!” He stated back and pulled away.
As he turned to make his way back through the doors they entered, Holsinger could see a blood stain on the back of his head. The zombie had gotten to him. Holsinger knew what he had to do and dreaded it since he was still considered human at this point. He scanned the small group of men, each dropping their heads and taking a step back as Martin’s eyes grazed over them.
“Assholes.” He whispered.
Martin walked up behind his brother in arms, he reached to the front of him and slid the knife across his neck and let him drop to the cement slab that led back out to the school yard.
He looked back at the group, they all turned and showed their backs to him.
“He would have just turned, don’t you think we have enough of them to deal with?” Martin asked them to their backs. “I can’t help that all of y’all have no nuts to take care of this shit. I want to live.”
One by one they turned around. They all nodded and headed back to their duties. They cleared rooms one by one. Martin headed back to the front gate to watch for any dead or survivors. He figured there would be more of the Army sent or someone would see the smoke from the smoke stacks that still blew up into the air.
He began to secure the gate more than it was by tightening the links that looked worn and decided that a tower would be the best thing to build there. He scanned the trucks to see if there may be anything to build it with and was able to find very limited building materials. He began to build a small room on the side of the gate to at least have something there for him to hideaway in if necessary.
The few that were left from his unit came barreling out of the front doors of the school and zombies followed directly behind as Holsinger set up the last piece of wood from a truck that had been brought in before they arrived. He quickly grabbe
d his knife and headed their way. Some of the zombies had already gotten to a few of the men that were clearing the building, only three were running through the yard. Zombies fell tripping over the threshold of the doorway, some made it over them and kept on walking toward the men. Two of the men stopped and turned once far enough out. The first man that stopped began to put his blade into the first zombie that reached out for him, the other man that stopped froze as if he was glued to the ground and made into a statue. His eyes got big and he just stood there, a zombie was able to pass by the first man that was trying to rid the yard of them and bit into the one that stood still in fear. He dropped to the ground without making a noise. There were no screams or grunts of pain from him. Holsinger watched in terror wondering why he would just stand there and give up like that. Holsinger ran over and began the normal stabbing of the others that were surrounding his brother. The last of the three still ran across the large field like he was running a marathon.
The two remaining tried their best to put their blade in and pull it out in time for the next one to attack. There were still more coming and Holsinger knew that they would be dead in a matter of minutes. He hurried to the gate and grabbed his M4 and while running back to his last partner left began to shoot at the mess of them heading out of the door with hopes that his brother was able to stab the others. Holsinger prevented the dead from coming anywhere near the others that surrounded his only help and kept them in his peripherals. He side stepped as he shot trying to make it over to help. He came within arm’s reach of the group that surrounded his only friend and halted his shooting to stab a few of the others in the head. He then shot some that were making their way outside and then went back to stabbing more next to him. This same routine went on for ten minutes until Holsinger heard his brother scream. Martin looked over his shoulder and saw a woman attached to his hand with the knife in it. He dropped his knife as two more bit him on each shoulder and another that had crawled to him had bitten his thigh. Holsinger continued shooting; finally with only one or two stragglers staggering out of the building, he turned the gun on the ones that were in the process of eating his last remaining cohort and shot them, as he did, he also shot his brother in the head to assure that he would not come back as one of them.
