by Brown, TW
It took almost twenty minutes, but eventually everything was in place. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. It read five o’clock. In exactly twenty minutes, he would light the fuse. If everybody else was having as easy of a time as he and his group seemed to be having, this problem would be over in no time.
He uttered a silent prayer to whatever mystical being might be listening. Just once, could we have something go according to plan? Please?
The sweeping second hand appeared to slow down as the time drew near to light the fuse. He looked at the kids crouched beside him and was just a bit surprised at how calm they all looked. They could be waiting for a school bus for all the emotion that they showed.
A scream.
It was just one, but it was long, loud, and obviously in a lot of pain. And it was coming from just the other side of the barricade. It was not one of his people, of that he felt fairly confident.
It was still ten minutes before things were scheduled to begin. That would mean that, if he had this timed properly, Aleah was headed this way right now. She probably heard the scream considering how quiet the world was nowadays, but there was no guarantee.
Another scream, this one weaker and followed by shouts and cries.
That’s what I get for praying. God probably hates hypocrites, Kevin thought. The children were showing emotion now. One of the boys was even starting to edge back and away. Kevin snagged his arm and shook his head. The boy tried to pull away, but then Deanna grabbed the boy’s other arm and gave one very curt shake of her head.
Kevin risked rising up just enough to peek over the vegetation. Out on the road, nothing was moving. Across the way would be the general direction that Aleah should be coming from at any moment. Catie finding that one large herd was a stroke of luck. That had helped Kevin finalize his plans.
She had estimated their size to be in the range of almost ten thousand. When she was out on her mission to scout the camp of their target, she’d seen a dark smudge on the horizon to the south. She’d gone to see if it was a potential threat to their location and been surprised to discover that the enormous pack of zombies had simply reached a spot in the middle of a field and stopped.
Using binoculars, she had taken a closer look to see if she could discover the cause. It was as simple as the fact that the head of the heard had entered a three sided depression. The sides were too steep to climb and, at some point, the herd had just stopped.
They sort of mushroomed out from the single point of entry, but those in the rear showed no desire to just roam away on a tangent. Thus, Kevin had reasoned, they would simply stay put until they were stimulated to change. They were far enough away from the encampment that the noise was not at a level that could be picked up by the zombies—that was going off of Kevin’s assumption that sound played at least some part in their process.
It had all come together too easily. However, this time, Kevin was embracing things. Okay, this was not the movies, but why can’t real life play out as planned every once in a while? This time, he was going with what he considered to be a very straightforward and simple plan. Yet, here it was, just minutes away, and there was definitely something wrong happening inside.
The noise from beyond the barricade was escalating. It actually sounded like a pretty major fight was going on. There were yells and curses…and a fair amount of anguished screams and cries. He was beginning to worry. Sure, part of his plan involved noisemakers, but what he did not want is for him or any of the other groups to get trapped between the hoard that should be coming into view any moment now and the walls of this camp.
His final instructions had been very explicit: Do not vary from the plan. Stick to the schedule.
A loud ‘whump’ was quickly followed by a teeth-jarring ground-shaker of an explosion. Kevin looked at Deanna and gave a slight nod. She tapped the two boys and retreated into the growth. For some reason, he trusted this girl to get them back to the rally point safe and sound.
Popping up again, he inched back until he could see up into the closest tower. At first he thought that it was not manned, but a flash of a shadow finally revealed that there was at least one person up there. It was also obvious that they were not looking out. All of the action was inside the barricade at the moment. Part of him wanted to cheer. Was this a stroke of fortune that would assure that his plan was a success?
Looking back, he saw the first of the zombies cresting the small ridge. That meant that Aleah had done her part. She was supposed to get that herd to follow, and it looked like she had been successful. Now he just needed to do his part.
Kevin glanced at the watch. Less than a minute. And it was the slowest minute in his life. He did not wait one second longer and it seemed that the other groups were just as anxious. Kevin lit the fuses and moved away. Less than ten seconds later—the fastest in his life—the airhorns started to blare as their timers went off. The sounds of sirens and bells came in a tsunami of sound that drowned out anything that might be happening inside the barricade. Less than twenty seconds later, the explosions overwhelmed everything.
Kevin could not resist popping up to take another look. At first he was heartbroken. One of the locations where he had planted a bundle of dynamite was smoking, but he could not see any sort of breech, but the second location was a different story. A cavernous gash that looked to be hiding a fire-breathing dragon would offer plenty of access to the approaching hoard. Kevin swiveled his head and was thrilled to see the zombies doing just as he hoped; almost as a single organism, the teeming mass of undead pivoted and homed in on the walled camp.
Now that the explosions had subsided, the sounds of the noisemakers could be heard once again. There would be five more sets along each wall that would go off at different times. This would ensure that zombies would move for each side that had been breached. Also, in the unlikely event that anybody from within came out or somehow managed to disable one set of noisemakers, there would eventually be another.
Ducking down again, Kevin almost stepped on the crawler that was making its way through the overgrown field that was providing such excellent cover for his strike force. Stepping over it, Kevin moved and waited to see if it would turn for him. When it did, he took the time to end it for good. He had hoped that the constant noise would draw it to the target, but apparently the close proximity of a potential meal was too great for a zombie to resist.
As Kevin neared the road, he heard the first of ‘the screams’ that indicated the zombies were inside the barricade. It did not matter how big and bad you thought you were, being torn apart and eaten alive made even the biggest badass scream and shriek in a register that was almost painful to the human ear.
As he reached the road, Aleah popped up from the ditch on the far side. She was sweaty and dirty, but at the moment, she was the best and most beautiful thing that he had ever seen. He suddenly realized how perilous her part had been. To run through unknown terrain and get the attention of a herd of zombies that numbered close to ten thousand if you believed Catie’s estimate—and having seen for himself, he had no reason to doubt her numbers—and then lead them on a chase where she needed to stay within their field of vision until they were close enough…and then escape and find a place to hide. What had he been thinking when he chose her for that part of the mission?
“Where are the rest of the kids?” Aleah asked with genuine concern.
“Huh?” At first Kevin did not know what she could be talking about, then he realized that they were supposed to be with him. “When whatever went off inside that place began, they were getting scared. I had Deanna hustle them back to the rally point. She has a good head on her shoulders. I have no doubts that she will get them there okay.”
“But I thought the groups were supposed to stick together…‘no matter what’ I believe was the phrase that you used on numerous occasions.”
Kevin gave her a shrug and started up the road to the old brown farm house that had been chosen as their rally point. All teams were supposed t
o make for that once they had done their job.
Kevin arrived to discover Deanna and the two boys sitting on a rusted out tractor that poked from the tall grass. Once he got close, he said in a very stern voice, “I realize that guns are becoming less frequent these days as what was once thought to be an infinite supply of bullets is running out, but anybody with a scoped rifle could have picked you off from a couple hundred yards. And the thing is, you would not even hear the shot. From that distance, the bullet would hit you before the sound made it to your ears.”
All of the kids paled; even Deanna. Aleah shot him a nasty look, but he chose to pretend that he didn’t see it. These kids needed to learn. It was better by far if it came from a few words out of his mouth versus some of the alternatives.
Within a few minutes, Catie and Sean both arrived with their respective groups in tow. Catie seemed to be taking in everything at once and immediately turned up the heat on Kevin’s level of alertness. Sean, in contrast, was smiling like a kid who just came down on Christmas morning and discovered every single thing he wanted was under the tree.
Deciding that he didn’t want to rile everybody else up, he waved Catie over to the side while the children all clustered around Sean talking about how “amazing” and “awesome” and a multitude of other adjectives to describe their reaction to this operation were bandied about.
“What’s up?” Kevin whispered.
“Did you hear all that stuff going down just before we hit them? Do you think they had some other prisoners in there?” Catie asked.
“I didn’t…until just now. But seriously, groups like that are usually run by a bunch of knuckleheads. How they have even survived this long is one of life’s unexplained mysteries.”
“No, something was wrong in there. I heard bits of some of the stuff being said, I couldn’t make sense of it, but there was something going on.”
“It doesn’t really matter now, does it? We did what we came to do, and it can’t be undone. We need to get back to the others. Hanging around here with zombies running out of munchies is not the best choice.”
Kevin turned back to the others and got everybody moving. Catie stayed put for a moment, her eyes locked on the rising plumes of smoke from the fairgrounds. She could not shake the feeling that there was something there that they missed.
“Catie, let’s go!” Kevin hissed.
The group headed back to the cemetery where Heather and the other children were waiting. Catie wasn’t the only one who kept looking over their shoulder. Kevin had heard things beyond that barricade as well. He had dismissed it then as just being hyper-aware from the rush of adrenaline that had flooded his system. But when Catie had said something, it had planted a seed of doubt.
***
“So we leave in the morning,” Kevin announced.
All of the children were gathered around, most just sitting on the ground. Some were paying attention, but most of them did not look like they could care less if he were to just up and go right this minute.
“Any of you that want to come will be welcome, but I am not going to lie…the trip will be long and hard. And once we arrive, there will be a lot of work to do.”
Kevin looked around to see if there might be any questions. When it was clear that was not to be the case, Kevin shrugged and walked away leaving Heather, Catie and Aleah behind. He had to take care of a few things.
One of his top priorities was to dispose of that bad crate of dynamite. It wasn’t that he did not think Sean was a smart, responsible kid, but he was still just that: a kid. All he had to do was decide one day that he could “probably” handle that unstable dynamite with the proper care and end up blowing himself to bits.
Just before he climbed the fence, he glanced back at the crowd. Heather was laughing and smiling. Aleah was holding a little boy or girl—the kid was simply too dirty to be able to tell—and acting amazed at whatever it was that the child was telling her. Catie had separated herself from the group and had climbed up on the stone entrance to the crypt area. She was still looking back in the direction where the black cloud from the fires burning at the fairgrounds continued to rise high in the sky.
Kevin imagined that the fire would probably spread and burn for at least a few days. Given that the nearby fields had never been trimmed back or cut away from the wall, they would be fast fuel. Fortunately, things were not too dry. Otherwise, it was very possible that the fire could actually make life difficult for these kids. Glancing skyward, he saw one more ally coming their way. A long line of dark clouds were bearing down on them from the west. He could see the rain bands already.
Kevin continued heading to where the dynamite had been hidden. There was a large farm with a few silos on the property. The dynamite had been hidden in one of those silos.
He limped along and noticed that a few lone walkers could be seen. They were all headed in the general direction of the fairgrounds…unless they spied him, then they changed course. Kevin drew his machete. There had not been any zombies here when they had come that first time. He would need to be a bit more careful.
Perhaps I should have brought somebody with me, Kevin thought as he waited for one of the nearby zombies to come within range of his blade.
This particular zombie had been a big guy. He was easily over six and a half feet tall and over three hundred pounds. His coveralls were just rags now. The body was riddled with bullet holes, and it looked as if he’d taken a shotgun blast to the face, but at a distance where all it had managed to do was pepper him.
Kevin was about to swing and take this one down when he heard a mewling cry from right behind him. The start caused his swing to come down wrong, and the machete buried itself in the shoulder of the big zombie. It shattered collar bone and almost severed the arm, but that did nothing to dissuade the zombie from its intended meal: Kevin.
Having no other choice, Kevin dove. As he did, he saw what had made that sound: a child.
Crawling out from under some rotting sheets of plywood was a little boy of no more than five or six. His once blond hair was matted and a filthy brownish color. A bite had taken away most of his nose and his left arm was gone about midway between the elbow and shoulder. The stump was jagged and ugly looking. Only the waistband from his underwear remained. Everything else had been ripped away. Or possibly even rotted, Kevin thought as he looked at what had to be the filthiest zombie he had ever seen. But he did not have time to really analyze it much further.
Billy-Bob Zombie was tottering his way. If it toppled and fell on him, he would be totally helpless. Kevin rolled and went to his hip where he kept his emergency hand ax. He scooted away on his butt until he felt he was far enough away to get to his feet.
He steadied himself just in time and swung down as hard as he could. The ax went deep into the forehead of the massive zombie. It fell and tore the weapon away from his grip, wrenching his wrist. He could not bite back the yelp of pain.
Shaking it off as quickly as it came, Kevin knew he was not out of the woods yet. He reached for the machete that still jutted from the huge shoulder of the downed zombie and spun to face—
Nothing.
The child was gone.
10
Pain and Suffering
Moving through the woods, I started to doubt my sanity in volunteering for this mission. For one, I had my field pack on. Not that I haven’t carried a thirty pound pack for literally hundreds of miles by now…but this was a constant and steady uphill trek. Add in the fact that I was in my protective gear, and that it was uncommonly warm and sunny, and I was melted Jell-O.
I pulled up on top of a rocky outcrop and popped open my canteen. The water was just on the cool side of lukewarm. So far, there had been absolutely no sign of zombies. However, I also saw nothing to indicate that I was getting any closer to the people who had been following us. I was starting to wonder if maybe they had gotten spooked or something.
“When you finished working on your tan, why don’t you come with me?” a voi
ce whispered almost in my ear.
I jumped and went for my gun. By the time I could remember how to work my hands properly and managed to get untangled from the shoulder harness that the M4 dangled from, I was staring into three spear points.
“Just keep your hands away from that weapon and you come away without a new set of holes to try and breathe through,” a man’s voice came from one of the black silhouettes. The sun was keeping me from getting a look at their faces.
“Maybe we should take that from him,” another man’s voice said.
“Would you want to be running around without a weapon these days, Ed?” the first man’s voice asked.
“Naw…guess not,” Ed, the owner of the second voice, replied.
“Besides, if he is from that group down at the rest area, I imagine that he is here to talk?” the female voice that had whispered in my ear spoke.
“My name is Billy Haynes.” I figured that it might help if I started with the formal introductions. “Yes, I am from that group.”
“Little young to be the leader,” Ed snorted. “They send the most disposable?”
“Knock it off, Ed,” the woman said with what sounded like authority in her voice. “My name is Katrina, the guy with the breath to match his attitude is Ed, and the ugly one is Hank.”
I made a show of putting my arms out to the sides to indicate that I was not making a move for my gun, and I stood up. They trio stepped back a few feet, presumably to give me some room.
“I came up to see if you were following us out of curiosity or if you actually had a reason.” I figure Jon or Jake would say something with much more authority, but it was all that came to mind. It was at that moment that I realized I had not made any plans for what I would say once I finally encountered somebody from this group.
“And you just came on your own?” Hank asked.
