by Mark Clodi
The kid behind him yelled, “No!” as Dave twisted sideways and pulled the sword hilt out of his hands with his body's weight. Then Dave lifted his hand up and deflected the sword by hitting the flat of the blade, which bent the weapon slightly. Continuing his twist he backhanded the shorter youth, knocking him to the ground. Dave briefly saw Nuke fighting with the kid on the ground and he turned full circle and and stood facing the the taller kid once again. Dave spread his arms wide, ducked briefly to let another arrow fly past his head and then leaped on top of the youth, knocking him down and landing on top of him.
In a classic bully on the school yard method Dave pulled himself and the blade of the sword up the kid's body and then sat on his stomach and delivered another volley of fists to his head, stunning or knocking him unconscious, Dave could not pause to find out. Reinforcements were arriving in the form of one of the girls who had hung back and the other, young kid who had been checking on the guy Dave had shot.
Quickly standing and putting the new combatants between himself and the archer Dave stretched, then reached up and casually tore the arrow out of his throat, followed by removing the other arrow from his shoulder. Rotating his shoulders and clearing his throat Dave tried to talk, his damaged throat would not allow it yet, though his leg seemed to be completely better. Cracking his knuckles Dave then reached behind him, grasping for the hilt of the sword under his left shoulder blade with his right hand. It was a tight reach, until Dave used his left hand to push the blade back through his body, making the hilt stick out a little more and easier to grab.
Clearing his throat again, Dave wondered at why they were not jumping him, instead they seemed to be watching him, waiting to see what he would do. Glancing quickly sideways he saw Nuke pinned under the bike with the other brat on top of him, pistol whipping Nuke with the Glock! Well there was nothing Dave could do for him now, he would live or wouldn't. Shrugging his shoulders and clearing his throat yet again, Dave found he could speak again, albeit his voice was rough, “Wh-hat are you waghting for?” he asked them.
The girl, who had a smaller shield on her arm and a long sword, answered him, “You.”
“What? Why?” he asked.
“It is the damage moron, the more you use your body to heal up damage the slower you become, you lose your reflexes, we've seen it before.”, she answered smugly.
'Huh?', thought Dave, he hadn't really noticed that, though it made sense, still he had gone into this fight well fed and was sure he was still stronger than he had ever been. He tried a feint with the sword, the woman didn't even flinch. Instead she said, “Oh please, you are not even in reach of me yet!”
Snorting, Dave lunged into reach and stabbed at her, using his speed to take her by surprise, only she was not where he stabbed, she had sidestepped and delivered a sharp thrust to the side of his head above his ear. A thrust which he barely was able to pull back from before it shattered his skull! Further her companion, had stepped forward and slashed at Dave's legs from behind, cutting through his denim into his calves! He almost went down, instead staggering forward and beyond the reach of their swords. Turning he put his back to the archer, and watched them intently, when he heard the arrow released he stepped right, to the other two it was as if he had just disappeared and reappeared two feet to the left of where he had been, the arrow, unimpeded, smacked into the boy's shield.
Casting the boy a sidelong glance the young woman said, “Ron, you better let me handle him.”
“You sure Whitney?” said Ron.
She nodded which was enough for Ron, he then stepped back behind her, saw the little kid still pistol whipping Nuke and then stab his another dagger into Nuke's head. Nuke's back arched lifting the whole motorcycle off the ground momentarily, then he stopped moving. Dave got pissed, Nuke was his, his, well just his, no one else got to kill him. Only Dave got to do that. Leering he moved up towards Whitney, “You'll handle me? You'll handle me? What makes you think so? You cocky, young bitch?” Gripping his sword in two hands Dave strode forward on unhealed legs and started beating on Whitney.
For her part she managed to dodge some of his blows and took the rest on her small shield, until the shield started to come apart in her hand. Then she realized she was going to have to fight back, not wear her opponent down, she went on the offense and Dave was amazed, where as the young men were all brute strength and force, she was agile and did not telegraph her moves, making it harder for Dave to dodge her blows. They traded blows, with Dave nicking her thigh and Whitney opening up Dave's stomach, his entrails spilled out over his legs and almost by mutual consent they both spun away to drier ground. Guts hanging around his legs like an obscene kilt Dave and Whitney fought on. Dave started to get tired, Whitney was also breathing heavily. Dave knew any breaks in the fight would only serve to give her time to rest and, if she had told the truth, make him slower as his body healed up any damage he had already taken. He kept the fight up, jumping right back into combat with her, at a pivotal moment Whitney and he crossed blades. Dave pressed in close, both hands on the hilt of his weapon and his body pressed up against hers. His strength was winning the contest, pressing her downward, seeing an opportunity he swept out with one foot sweeping her off of her feet, at the same time she 'gave', shoving the hilt of her weapon into his face, breaking his nose and causing him to lose vision in one eye, both stumbled and fell backwards to the ground. He was quicker to regain his feet and slashed his sword across her torso as she rose. The blade did not seem to penetrate her chain armor shirt, but it threw her back to the ground, as he raised his sword over his head for a possibly killing blow he felt a sword slash to the side of his head, clipping the bottom of his ear off. As he had raised his own sword it had inadvertently blocked the blow from Ron, who had sneaked up behind him.
As he fell sideways away from the blow Dave snapped his foot out, catching Ron in the groin with enough force to actually lift the young man off of the ground. Rolling sideways Dave sat up on the ground and got his bearings. He still held onto his sword. Ron was throwing up off to one side, Whitney was climbing wearily to her feet, the bow woman had an arrow drawn and pointing toward him, but was not firing, that left.....
“Ow! Goddamn it!” the kid hit him over the head with the Glock, the pistol shattered as it hit Dave's head. Dave reached back and grabbed the kid as he was trying to backpedal. “No, fucking no! Sonny Jim! I have about had it with you guys.” Holding the boy with on hand clamped like iron around his leg, Dave struggled to his feet. As he stood up he pulled the boy's leg with him, jerking him easily off his feet. He pulled the kid up through his guts and used his other hand to lift the kid above his head. Once he hand him there, he took an arrow in the chest, wheezing he threw the kid at Whitney, knocking them both down hard, plucking at the arrow he turned towards the young woman with the bow.
“You missy, are getting on my fucking nerves!” Dave stomped towards her as she calmly drew arrows and fired at him, Dave ducked the arrow that would have hit his head, knocked one aside with his sword and took one to his thigh before he reached her. Stepping on top of the guy he had shot as he made his way towards her, Dave continued his tirade, “I mean come fucking on, how many zombies have you killed with your goddamn bow?” she continued to fire as he stepped off the guy, “For fuck's sake girl, his gun” he pointed at the slightly moving body on the ground, to the ax and revolver laying beside it, “is right fucking there!” She had spunk, Dave had to give her that, she fired another arrow almost right into his face, he barely deflected it with the sword hilt. Swinging the sword around viscously, she blocked with the only thing she had in her hand, her bow, which was cut into two parts. Panting heavily, Dave yelled into her face, “His gun is right fucking there!”, he then pushed her backwards trying to knock her over.
The young woman took two quick steps backwards but managed to stay standing, she then pulled out a long dagger. Dave spat at her, “Oh Jesus fucking Christ! Don't you know when you are beat? look at 'em! All your friends are d
own bleeding, unconscious or dead and you wanna pull out another toad sticker and go mano-a-mano with me? I mean if you had ran I might have let you go. Now I changed my mind you stupid little cunt!”
Dave took a step forward and his back leg was swept out from under him, he spun around seeing sky then pavement then sky again. He did keep enough presence of mind to roll over and foil anyone's shot on him, when he finally stopped and sat up he was about fifteen feet away from the kid with the ax, the one he had shot, who was sitting up pointing his revolver at Dave's head.
The bow girl rushed to his side, trying to hold his armored bulk up. The kid had blood pouring out of his mouth, however the gun in his hand was rock steady. Dave noted that his foot had not made the journey with him, and was still standing upright not two paces in front of the kid.
“Dammit, I liked that foot!” he shouted, then twisted sideways as the first bullet tore into his body. Several confused seconds passed before Dave realized that he was still alive. He was on his belly crawling away from the ax guy, his arms were not moving right, not quite right, one of those bullets must have come close to taking him out, he awkwardly put his right hand on the ground and tried to push himself up, looking back over his shoulder he saw a grim faced bow girl striding towards him with the ax. She jumped and landed on his back, forcing him to the ground once again, Dave felt the strength draining out of him, he tried to scream that it was all a mistake, the last thing he felt was the blade of the ax entering the top of his head.
Chapter 26
They were lucky they were so close when Dave jumped them, otherwise the kid would have died. That's what Hank thought anyway. Still, he reflected, the kids were lucky any of them had made it. He was surprised to see them alive and knew they would have a story to tell, he would get the rest of it after he finally figured out what the hell was going on at the Sky Ridge facility. The electronics still worked, which surprised Hank, he thought they would have been destroyed by the nuclear bomb, he seemed to recall that nuke's messed up electronic devices, destroyed batteries, that sort of thing. When the power went off, shortly after the bomb had burst, he was sure there would be no more television, cell phones, cars, anything. Doc said something about the EMP, electromagnetic pulse, only knocking out electronics close to ground zero. Doc also conjectured that the bomb had been a tactical nuclear bomb, designed to take out a small, compact force, not rain down destruction over a broad area. Doc seemed to know more about it than Hank, all Hank really cared about was the radiation, were they all going to die? Did they need to move? He was in the middle of these questions when Michael and his group trickled in and Doc had been called away to try and save them.
The answers Doc gave were heartening, no they probably were not going to die of radiation, Doc thought the zombies were far more likely to overwhelm them, as he doubted the bomb had got them all, and they made more where ever they went. Doc also said 'No' to moving too, at least until someone who knew about the weather patterns could them which way the winds blew. Doc thought the winds blew kind of south easterly, which should mean not directly at the club. The one thing Doc was really concerned with was radiated zombies, if some of them were exposed they could spread the contamination to whomever they contacted. This was something Hank was not going to worry too much about, if a zombie got close enough to give you radiation poisoning you probably had other, more important, things to be worrying about.
Picking up the phone the other board members had given him, Hank put call through to Juan. The phone rang a few times, then it clicked as someone picked up, “Amigo?” Hank asked, “You there Juan?”
“Si.”
Ah just like old times, Hank thought, “ How're things going? Ya'll see the blast this morning? Well of course you did, everybody okay?”
“Si, well sort of Hank. Don't know 'bout Mary, she is alive, but bitten. Charlie ain't letting visitors in, he seems worried. You okay at the Club?”
“Er, yeah mostly. Say Juan you remember those kids at the clinic right? The ones with the swords and the ax and stuff? All dressed up like knights? They said they would hook up with us here after checking on their parents?”
“Yeah, yeah, oh yeah! They come in?” asked Juan excitedly.
“Well yeah, but Juan, ah, they ran into Dave before they got here.”
“Mother Mary! That guy almost killed you and you are the toughest guy I know, pretty stupid, but tough. What happened Hank?”
“Most of them made it through with bruises, you ain't gonna believe this amigo.” pausing for a moment, Hank continued, “They got him Juan.”
Silence on the other end of the line, then, tentatively, “They got him? They got Dave?”
“They seem to think so, Whitney split his head open with that ax Michael had. Everyone was hurt pretty bad, the least of 'em were bruised up, one kid looks to have a God damned broken testicle, Doc says they will pull through, they got an ass kicking they will never, ever, forget. You know how you said you felt all weird after killing that guy at the hospital?”
Warily, Juan answered, “Si.”
“Whitney and you, you two are gonna have to have a little talk when you get the chance, she says, and her friends say, something happened to her too.”
Juan was quiet for a moment, then said, “Okay, we will talk, maybe all three of us, anyone who killed a zombie up close and personal. Hank, we had something happen here too, you know? I gotta talk at you about it, try and get my head around it.” said Juan.
“Shoot partner.”
Juan proceeded to catch Hank up with the guardsmen, telling him as much as he knew, with help from a nearby Nanci, about how they had, Juan thought, been a spotter or something to guide the bomb towards its eventual detonation. He went on to say that he was in contact with the infantry and they wanted to send troop carriers up to get people from the hospital and the Mike's Club.
“Well, what do you think?” Juan asked after giving Hank a few minutes to digest the information.
“You talked to 'em, what do you think?” countered Hank.
“I don't think they mean any harm, I think they want to help. I say we meet with them and figure out how we are going to do things.”
“So that is what we do then Juan, call 'em back up and tell 'em we'll see them later this morning if they can get up there to Sky Ridge, and I will get down there too, we'll get this shin dig going and see if we can actually get a good night's sleep for a change. Ask them about fallout and if it is safe for us to be outside, Doc is worried.”
“Si, I will, probably I would worry about the zombies more than the radiation though, the zombie will get you first, huh?”
Chuckling ruefully Hank answered, “Exactly what I think Juan.”
Chapter 27
Juan hung up the phone, he was till on top of the building and was looking out over the distance towards the still visible smoke cloud to the north east. The wind looked to be carrying the smoke to the south east, not so far south, more east, the smoke would miss Sky Ridge and the Mike's Club, Juan was sure of that. He looked at Nanci and smiled. Talking in Spanish he said, “The military guys will be here, they will figure this stuff out. You will see we will be okay again.”
Nanci frowned and replied, “Military are still under civilian control, not the other way around, we are still going to need you, Hank and the others as our voice. Plus if the military is dropping bombs on the zombies we are going to be in trouble, the bombs will be gone long before the zombies are.”
Looking over at the smoke cloud Juan thought that maybe Nanci was right about this. He took her hand and stared at the horizon for a few minutes wondering, what, exactly they could do about anything. Slowly he let go of Nanci's hand and approached the radio, picking up the headset he said, “Hello? Is Ed Stanson there?”
A reply was almost immediate, “Yes sir, is this John?”
“Yes.” a moment later Ed's voice came back at him.
“Juan this is Ed. What is up?”
“Hello Ed, we have been
talking a little bit and think we should meet up as soon as we can to figure out what we are going to do. When can you get here? Or do you want us to come to you?”
“No, you stay put, I will fly out to you in say, a half an hour? Will that be okay? If you have any badly injured, I am talking the worst couple of cases, not a whole bunch of people, we can take them with us when we leave. We pulled up a map of your location and should not have any trouble finding it, there is a helipad on the roof of the hospital right?”
“Oh yeah sure, I am almost standing on it now, I will wait here for you, okay?”
“Yes, that is perfect son, I'll see you soon!”
Nanci mumbled something about getting them coffee and Juan decided to stay up on the roof, he walked over to look down at the emergency room entrance and was not surprised to find the zombies had gotten closer. Concentrating he urged them to move away from the ER. As one the small crowd of them looked up at him, when they looked, the guards on the entrance also looked up, seeing him looking down they waved and said something that was lost in the distance. Juan waved back and nodded trying to convey an 'Everything is alright' sort of look. By now though the rumors of the soldier's death had traveled through their small community and the door behind Juan opened up much too soon to be Nanci coming back with coffee.
Seeing Jack and Charlie over by the ropes that led to the bodies dangling over the side of the building Juan started to walk in that direction, he was joined by a few of the people from inside the building. Jack explained what had happened as best he could, pointing to the smoke cloud was was now just a steady stream rising into the sky.
One of the men, he looked like a medical intern, said, “That doesn't look like a nuke, at least not what I thought one would be like. Is it true the Army guys killed themselves?”
