World Memorial

by Robert R. Best

  Park went a few more inches and he was past the corpses. The platform groaned in protest. The metal holding it in place buckled. The chains securing it to the wall strained, stretched to their limit. Lilly was still over the group of corpses.

  "Keep going!"

  "Fuck off I'm doing it!" she said, climbing across the ladder. Park grabbed hold of her with one hand, keeping one hand on the ladder. The corpses turned to face them, under the looming platform.

  "Let go of me!"

  "Shut up for a second!" yelled Park. He let go of the ladder and dropped to the snow behind the corpses. The corpses groaned and reached for them.

  The chains gave way and the platform fell. Still carrying Lilly, Park ran out of the way. The platform smashed down on the corpses, crushing them into the ground. Black glop and bone flew out in all directions.

  Lilly stopped struggling in his arms for a moment. She raised an eyebrow. "Not bad, old man."

  "Yeah yeah," said Park, setting her down.

  "What happened to the bear?" she asked, untying Park's belt from her waist and dropping it.

  "What?"

  Then the bear ran from the side of the crumpled platform.

  Park whipped his gun from his shoulder. Lilly screamed and ran behind him. The bear lunged just as Park brought the rifle up and fired. The bullet slammed into the bear's open mouth and tore through the back of its head. It fell as Park and Lilly stepped aside, sliding across the snow, gurgling and twitching.

  Park shot it through the head and it stopped moving. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked around. Corpses and animals were everywhere. A few had already noticed them.

  "We gotta go," he said, grabbing her hand and running.

  * * *

  Carly screamed again, backing away from the corpses as they closed in. The motion only brought her closer to the ones coming up behind. She looked in all directions. There was no way out. She was done.

  Then she heard her grandfather yelling. Elton ran around the corner, his rifle ready. "Carly! I heard you screaming and ...." he trailed off as he saw what was happening.

  He pointed the rifle at the corpses. "Down!"

  Carly dropped to her knees, clutching her clipboard to her chest. Elton fired over and over again. Bullets tore through the heads of the corpses above her. Black blood and hunks of frozen flesh fell around her. The corpses groaned and toppled. There were still more, still coming. Carly heard Elton's gun run dry. She heard the click as he attempted to fire and got nothing. She knew he didn't have time to reload.

  Screaming, Elton rushed in among the corpses.

  "No!" Carly screamed. Elton ran into the midst of the dead and grabbed her collar. He pulled her free, rolling her across the snow as dead mouths closed on him. He screamed as blood spurted across them.

  "Grandpa, no!" Carly stood and rushed back toward the corpses.

  "Go, Carly, go!" he yelled, grunting in pain as the corpses tore at him. Blood seeped from his mouth.

  Carly stopped, tears running freely.

  "I'm sorry, Carly," he said. "I'm sorry for everything..."

  "Grandpa, no..."

  "I love you...."

  And then he was gone. The light went from his eyes and he fell, hidden amongst his attackers.

  Carly stared for a moment, listening to the sounds of them feeding. She was numb with shock. The sadness was too much to process. She stared blankly, like she didn't understand what had happened.

  Then one of the corpses turned to her. Fresh blood—her grandfather's blood—coated his chin. The corpse groaned and reached for her.

  Carly screamed and ran.

  * * *

  Maylee swung her bat at the corpses surrounding her, looking for an opening. The stuck weight swung above her, creaking on its chain. Snow howled by above it. The guards shouted and shot around her, hitting corpses and missing her. For now.

  "Get out of there!" said someone in the Guard.

  "I'm trying!" yelled Maylee, smacking aside a dead woman. The weight creaked loudly. She heard it shift above her.

  "Fuck it," she said, and dove into the nearest corpse. She rolled with it, across the snow and out of the way of the weight. The chain finally gave and the weight fell, slamming into the group of corpses she'd left behind. Thick globs of goo and dead flesh splashed over her as she stood. The corpse she'd rolled with reached up at her from the ground.

  "Oh fuck off," she said, whamming her bat down into the corpse's skull. It split open. The corpse's hands fell limp to either side.

  More corpses were closing in to replace the fallen ones. She looked upward in every direction. They'd used the last weight trap.

  "Fall back!" she yelled, taking a step backward. The guards ran, heading for the center of town.

  "We gotta get to the kids! Whatever it takes, keep the corpses away from the kids!"

  * * *

  Angie backed across the snow, using her cane for support. Growling and groans came from every direction. Gunshots and screaming. Crashing and banging. The town was fighting for its survival.

  The guards with her backed up as she did. A thick group of corpses advanced on them as they moved.

  "Yeah, that's right," said Angie, keeping her eyes on the corpses as she moved backward. "That's right, you ugly assholes, we're doing this again."

  She took a step backward and glanced behind her. A large trench had been dug there.

  "We're at the trench," she said. The guards hopped over. With help from them, Angie followed.

  The corpses staggered forward, toward the trench.

  "Come on, dumbasses..."

  The corpses stumbled forward and fell into the trench. They splashed as they hit the gasoline filling it.

  One guard broke from the group. She ran toward a fire barrel and pulled a small plank of wood from her belt. One end of the plank was wrapped in cloth, like a torch.

  Angie waited until most of the corpses had fallen in. "Now!"

  The guard lit the torch in the barrel and tossed it into the moat. The moat exploded in flames. The corpses groaned as they burned. The ones outside the moat backed away, moaning. A few toppled inside, moaning as they fell.

  Angie looked at the flaming moat and the burning corpses within. "Okay, everyone. Let's move—"

  A roar came from the other side of the moat. Angie saw movement through the flickering flames. A second roar sounded and a panther, its fur blackened and burning, leapt through the fire and across the moat. It was heading right for Angie.

  A shot rang out as the cat was mid-flight. It tore through the panther's torso, knocking it off course. It toppled into the fire, roaring in pain and anger.

  Angie watched the flames for a second. The panther's roars and the corpses’ moans dropped away.

  "Okay again," she said. "Now we move on."

  They hurried through town, pausing only to shoot any corpse or animal that got too close. They wove around buildings and hurried down alleys. Angie heard Maylee shouting and looked to her right. Maylee was leading a group of guards through the town. She saw Angie and changed direction, heading for her.

  The two groups met. Angie looked to Maylee. "We gotta get to the kids."

  A corpse drew near, a thin man with one arm long torn away. Maylee slammed the bat into the man's temple. His head ruptured and he fell as the group moved on. The guards were firing more frequently now. More and more corpses were near, more animals, more screaming townsfolk fighting back.

  "I know," said Maylee. "If the corpses get much closer to the center of town..."

  She trailed off, stopping mid-step. Angie and the watch stopped with her.

  They had reached the center of town, emerging out from among the buildings. A thick throng of corpses surrounded the children. The post had fallen and the moat was lit. The guards with Dalton and the children were firing but the corpses were growing in number. Animals weaved in and out of the corpses, looking for an entry

  Angie and the others hurried out into the area, lo
oking for a way past the corpses. The guards shot into the corpses. Corpses jerked and fell, but many remained.

  Carly ran up from one side, clutching her clipboard and crying.

  Maylee rushed to her side. "Carly?"

  Carly stared at the ground. "Grandpa..."

  "Oh shit I'm so sorry," said Maylee, hugging her. Carly hugged her back, weakly.

  Shouts and screams came from behind and all of them turned. A mob of people—Angie recognized none of them from the town—raced toward them. They were half-naked and covered in blood and excrement. They were clearly alive but had the same wild, feral looks as the animals. Their insane eyes were locked on the children.

  “I recognize them!” yelled Maylee. “They were in the church! The flock of that preacher!”

  "We're gonna need plan B," said Angie.

  Twenty Four

  "Stop them!" yelled Angie, pointing her cane at the flock as they raced for the children. Angie didn't know what their intentions were, but their expressions spoke horrors.

  The guards turned their fire on the advancing flock. They kept racing forward, disregarding the bullets. A few fell as bullets tore through their bodies. The rest seemed to revel in the bloodshed and kept racing forward, bellowing in fury.

  The flock rushed headlong into Angie, Maylee and the guards. The guards kept shooting. The flock toppled many guards to the ground, screaming and clawing at their faces. They raked their fingernails across skin, gouging out thick streaks of blood.

  “The truck!” yelled Angie. “Get the kids to the truck!”

  One guard slung his rifle over his shoulder. He ran around the moat, headed for the beaten pickup. Angie hoped the thing would start. Hoped the thing would make it over the moat and get the children safely to the fallback point. Then she and the others would lead the corpses the other way. The crazed flock were another matter, however. They were focused, determined. Angie wondered how she could lure them away. They struggled with the guards, who were holding them back for the moment.

  The guard reached the truck and flung the door open. A group of corpses broke off from the rest, following him. The guard climbed inside and slammed the door. Angie heard the engine struggle, trying to turn over. The engine struggled two more times and died. The corpses surrounded the truck, too many to escape. They broke through the side window and pulled the screaming guard from the truck to the ground, tearing into him as he screamed and died.

  Carly dropped her clipboard and ran. She ran through the guards and was quickly out of sight.

  Shrieking and howling, one of the flock jumped through the fire and over the moat. The wild man cried out as flames washed over him. Then he was inside the circle, racing toward the children.

  "Stop him!" Angie shouted, pointing into the fire with her cane.

  The children screamed as the man ran into their midst. The guards who weren't fighting off the flock aimed their rifles through the fire. They hesitated to shoot. Angie knew why. The flames were too thick, and the man was too close to the children. They couldn't get a clean shot. Angie braced herself, still not knowing the wild man's intention.

  The man grabbed two of the children and pulled them away from the group. He headed for the edge of the moat. It was clear he intended to take them with him. For some other purpose.

  Angie doubted it was any better than what Beulah had in mind.

  "Drop!" Dalton roared to the children with the man. "Like I showed you! Drop down!"

  The children went limp in the man's arms. They slid out of his grasp and fell to the ground.

  Angie understood Dalton's plan. "Fire! Fire!"

  The guards opened fire, over the children and into the wild man. He screamed and shrieked as bullets tore through him. He stumbled backward, pockets of blood exploding out of his back. Screaming, he toppled into the moat on the other side. He shrieked, burned and died.

  Angie turned back to the flock. They fought with the guards, shrieking and clawing. Maylee smacked them aside with her bat. The corpses behind them closed in, clearly oblivious to the flock. They were coming for Angie and the others.

  The standing guards turned back to shoot into the flock. Many of them fell dead. The others broke off, howling and screeching. They raced down an alley, casting looks at the children. Angie watched them go, wondering what they had planned. And who was directing them.

  She turned her attention back to the corpses, who were closing in from all sides now. The children, even though protected by the moat, screamed as the corpses drew closer. They crowded together. Angie saw some were shaking. Brief flashes of light came from inside the flames. The children were still standing, blinking and staggering as they flashed.

  "The corpses are too close!" said Angie. “We have to hold them back! The truck is gone!”

  "Where's Carly!" Maylee bellowed, wrenching her bat from a corpse's skull.

  * * *

  Carly raced through the chaotic streets. She passed group after group fighting with corpses and animals. Each time, she wove around them and kept running. She felt guilty about each group she didn't stop to help. She kept moving anyway.

  Screams, groans and snarls rang out all around. People defending themselves or dying. Carly ignored it all as best she could. Flashes of her grandfather dying kept coming. She pushed them down and ran.

  She rounded a corner and a corpse stood in front of her. It was a big man with large flaps of skin torn away from his abdomen. A thin layer of viscera held his guts in, wet and red behind the frozen skin.

  She screamed and jumped back. He advanced on her, groaning and grasping at the air. Her eyes searched around for anyone who was close enough to help. There was no one. She had no weapon. She didn't even have her clipboard. He kept coming, reaching for her with frozen dead fingers.

  She took another step back and kicked him in the stomach. The layer of viscera split and the man's organs spilled out. She jumped back as the man came at her. He slipped on his own slimy innards and fell forward, landing on the pile of dark red gore with a loud "splat." He rolled side to side, trying to right himself. His groaning mouth was pointed at the ground.

  Carly took the chance and ran over the prone corpse. She ran over his head and back. He groaned as her boots stamped on his frozen body. She jumped the rest of the way and landed on the ground behind him and kept running.

  She ducked behind a set of fire barrels and there it was. The camper, right where they had moved it before the siege started. The camper she and her grandfather had shared for years. The camper that had been their sanctuary.

  She raced to it and up the metal stoop. She threw open the door. She took one look around the area. It was clear.

  She ducked inside the camper and slammed the door.

  * * *

  Angie, Maylee and the guards kept the horde back as best they could. The guards shot and Maylee swung. Angie, sword out, speared corpses through the eye.

  She twisted her wrist, grinding the blade into the eye and brain of a young woman with black frozen lips and long gouges in her face. The woman groaned, reaching for Angie. Then she slumped as the blade destroyed her brain.

  Grunting, Angie wrenched the blade from the woman's eye. The woman slumped to the ground.

  This was it. The last stand. Plan B was a bust. With no vehicle, there was no way to get the children to the fallback point. No way to hide them as the others lured the corpses away. This was where they would all die.

  All was chaos and screaming. Groaning and fighting. Some corpses got past the guards, stopping at the moat of fire. The children screamed, sending off little flashes of light. Angie saw Dalton move those children to the other side of the island, as far away from the corpses as possible. It was working, but Angie wondered how much longer they had before the gasoline burned itself out.

  Angie heard Park shouting somewhere beyond the corpses. She heard Lilly screaming.

  "Park!" Angie shoved a dead man aside as he staggered at her. Maylee rammed her bat into the man's head, split
ting it open.

  "Park! Where are you?"

  "Over here!" Park yelled back. Angie turned her head until she placed him. Past the mob of corpses and to the left. Angie heard Park's rifle, farther away and quieter than those of the guards, cracking again and again. "Stay back!"

  "What?" yelled Angie, spearing a corpse through the eye and twisting.

  "I'm talking to Lil!"

  Lilly screamed again.

  "I said stay back, Lilly!"

  Angie shouted over the corpses between them. "Keep away from the corpses!"

  "Really?" yelled Park. "I hadn't thought of that!"

  Lilly screamed again. "Owwwwww! It hurts!"

  "Quit running at them, dumbass!" yelled Park.

  "I hate them!" Lilly shrieked. "Get back assholes! Ow!"

  A small opening formed in the mass of corpse and animal. Park darted through it, pulling Lilly with him. The two reached Angie and the others. Park put Lilly behind his back and let go of her wrist. She was surrounded by guards. Protected for now. Park lifted his rifle and resumed firing.

  The corpses around Angie and the others closed in. The cries of the rest of the town grew louder. Angie could see snatches through the mass of grasping dead flesh. Townsfolk and guard, animal and corpse, all were gathering in the center of town. The battle was centering here. The only group Angie couldn't see was the flock.

  "How's plan B going?" said Park.

  "It’s gone!" Angie replied.

  “Well fuck us, then,” said Park, firing and cocking. “This is it.”

  “Yep,” said Angie.

  “It’s been fun,” said Park, smirking at her.

  Angie frowned at him. “You think?”

  Park snorted. “No.”

  They all kept shooting, screaming and fighting. The whole town was in the square now. The children cowered on their island, behind the moat of fire. Corpses and animals crushed in from all sides. Angie steeled herself. She would go down fighting.