Although we were ninety-nine percent certain there would be no roadblocks, we went cautiously down the back roads. We eventually reached State Route 44 and followed it to Ravenna. We passed the old pallet repair place and memories flooded back to me of our former home. So many pallets we took from there and boarded up and reinforced the house. Not that it mattered. That horde tore through those wooden panels and destroyed everything and killed Tim.
Shivers ran down my spine.
I saw Jim had looked at it, too and I wondered if the same thoughts were going through his mind. I suddenly thought about the other isolated house we found after it all. We had reinforced it so well. Wood and sheet metal with multiple layers. We made it like a small fortress. I thought I’d like to go see how it was now. Maybe it was found by some survivors. If so, hopefully decent people. Maybe we’ll look sometime.
As we neared town, we shut off our headlights and took it slow. The moon was about half and only partially cloudy, so that helped a bit. Soon we reached main street and turned right. We passed the building we lit ablaze. There was nothing left but charred wood and brick. We continued on until we felt we were close enough and turned into an alley. From there we went to the building where we first scoped the place. We’d had a perfect view like before and we could show Mark and Ray exactly what we were dealing with. We drew them a diagram earlier, but they needed to see it a little bit from the roof. More importantly, we had to see where everyone on watch were at.
I looked through the night scope and focused in. Two men, as expected, were at the front atop some trucks on the inside of the gate. They didn’t look tense or alert. Frankly, they looked extremely bored; one of them yawned and shook his head. Toward the far wall where the alley was, another man stood on top of another truck. Opposite side, I caught a lantern moving. It was Harry walking the perimeter, checking slave sleeping quarters. He eventually vanished from sight as he headed toward the tent zone. Lanterns were with every man on watch. In the center of the street four oil drum barrels burning wood lined down the road, about twenty feet apart.
I handed Mark the scope and he was quiet as he studied the layout. After about ten minutes he was ready. I checked through the scope again and weighed the options. I took a long look at Victor’s building. No sign of anyone in the windows. A faint light could be seen in a few upstairs windows and the downstairs lobby area.
ME: Change of plan. Forget the alley, let’s hit the opposite and get into tent city. Harry walks past every ten to fifteen minutes if he keeps his current routine.
RAY: Works for me.
TODD: Let’s do this.
We each made our way down the ladder and grabbed the extra guns that we set by the wall. Each of us carried an extra rifle and pistol to pass off to willing and able slaves inside.
We then grabbed the two ladders the Head Hunters had left behind and walked behind the building that would lead us down the wall. Once the wall was in view we strayed further from it to keep out of view of chained Shamblers. Finally, we arrived outside of where we knew the tents to be. We walked a little further down to pass the building the tents were in front of. A Shambler was chained nearby where we wanted to be. It was looking down at the ground. Completely unaware of our presence. Mark pulled a knife from his side pocket and signaled to the rest of us he had it. He crept up slowly as to not alert it, but it looked up when he was a few feet away. Mark rushed at it when it’s mouth began to open.
He plunged the knife through it’s left eye socket and grabbed a hold of it’s arm as it slumped forward. He carefully lowered it to the ground, making sure it’s chain didn’t hit the wall.
He looked around and then motioned us all over. Still hunched, we lurched over to him. This section of wall, made of wood, was about seven feet or so. Quietly as possible, we placed a ladder up, and then the other about five feet further away.
I nodded and made my way up the first one, Todd up the other. I slowly looked over the wall. No sign of Harry and the front area wasn’t visible from that range. I looked at Todd, he nodded. I looked down at the others. I took a deep breath and lifted myself to the top of the wall and jumped down. Todd followed immediately after.
Hitting the ground sounded like a bomb inside my head. It felt like a prison break…except we were breaking in. I half expected a siren, search lights and barking dogs at any moment. Two at a time the others dropped down, Ray, last, by himself.
We looked around wide eyed in every direction. Silence and darkness, minus the faint illumination toward the front. We went along the wall and into a small patch of trees and foliage. Directly ahead were the tents. No one was moving that we could see. The glow of a lantern emerged down the road. We watched through the brush as Harry walked the street past the parking lot of tents. We waited until he turned around and made his way back and then out of sight.
When he was gone, we heard noises now. Some rustling among some nearby tents. I crawled to the edge of the trees and part way onto the pavement. A tent was ten feet away from me. A man was crawling out of it. His hair was long and his shirt red.
I whispered over to him.
ME: Psst!
[he looked over startled and bewildered]
ME: Are you Wayne?
WAYNE: ….Yes…who the fuckin’ hell are you?!
ME: I’m, we’re, here to help.
[he looks to the street, then makes his way over]
WAYNE: How do you know my name?
ME: One of the former men here. Hank. He said to look for you.
WAYNE: Skittish fellow. Did he run from here? A lot are missing, what’s going on?
ME: Hank is with us. Not here right now, I just mean in our group. We’re part of a community nearby.
WAYNE: Where’s the other men?
ME: We killed them.
WAYNE: Victor has been on a warpath. He personally beat someone to death a few days ago.
ME: A few days ago they attacked our home.
WAYNE: Shit. Yeah, I noticed some men didn’t come back that day, too. There’s seven left by my count. Including Victor.
ME: Yeah, and his two private details. Harry and the other three?
WAYNE: Done your homework. The hell is your plan? How many of you are in the trees?
ME: Seven if you include me.
WAYNE: Oh, alright. Brought even odds. You like fifty-fifty odds??
ME: We had to keep guards at our home. Just in case. But we’re planning to put the odds in our favor. We brought extra weapons. Here, take this rifle!
WAYNE: My birthday has arrived early!
ME: Who else will take up arms?
WAYNE: Oh, I can round up some people. How many guns you got?
ME: Thirteen more. Rifles and pistols.
WAYNE: Leave them here, I’ll dispense them to those I know will fight. Stay here until I get that done, will ya?
ME: You got it.
He grabbed the guns and took them over to his tent. He picked a few rifles up, looked around, and then crept away among the tents.
JIM: I’m feeling a lot better. I’m scared shitless, but there’s some confidence flowing.
RAY: Glad you have that feeling…I’m about to soil myself. Clearing out a house is one thing, dealing with an infected here and there…this is a whole new ballgame for me.
TRAVIS: Is for us all, Ray. Calm your shit.
RAY: You’ve already fought some of these guys. I ain’t done a damn thing!
ALEXIS: Keep it down, guys.
TODD: Exactly. Stay at whispers.
TRAVIS: I am whispering!
MARK: Travis…don’t make me put my boot up your ass. You won’t even be able to soil yourself then.
TRAVIS: …
Wayne returned to his tent and grabbed some more rifles and pistols and vanished again. Fourteen minutes later he returned to us.
WAYNE: Thirteen men ready to go and everyone else is filled in. Minus the people up toward the front of town.
ME: Anyone gonna be any type of problem?
>
WAYNE: No, they will scatter if they must, help if they can, hide where they can until the fighting ends. What’s the plan?
ME: I was thinking maybe we make some noise down here? Get a few of them this way and you guys open fire? Me and my crew will head over across the street and down further and fire from that area.
WAYNE: Okay. I’ll have some guys here act like they’re fighting over some food or something, That will get attention. Guy named Jimmy will help with the distraction, guy over there in the brown hoodie.
ME: Alright everyone, let’s get into place!
My crew and I made sure Harry wasn’t nearby, stuck to the shadows, and made our way across the street to the wall and headed about fifteen yards toward the front. I looked over the street and gave Wayne a thumbs up. He nodded and turned to Jimmy.
[in shouts]
WAYNE: I had another granola bar in my bag. Where the hell is it, Jimmy?
JIMMY: I didn’t take your fuckin’ granola bar, asshole! Step back!
WAYNE: I saw you near my tent!! I had two in there in my bag and now there’s only one!
JIMMY: Fucker, I have my own food, I don’t need to steal yours!
I saw Harry making his way partly down the street. He shouted:
HARRY: The fuck is the problem down there?? Shut your mouths or you’re gonna get some cracked skulls!!
Wayne and Jimmy kept going and got louder in their mock argument. Harry screamed this time, his voice echoing down toward us, to shut up. Harry isn’t the smartest apparently. Wayne and Jimmy were being only loud enough to be heard. Harry though could attract infected a mile away!
Harry became irate now and signaled to one of the men at the front gate.
HARRY: Frank, get down here! Go get Steve off the wall down there and then see what the fuck the problem is in fuckin’ tent town.
Frank sat on the edge of the box truck and hopped down to the ground and made his way quickly down the street. When he got halfway Steve had hopped down and jogged over to Frank. They made their way down and soon were in front of the parking lot full of tents.
FRANK: Can you guys shut the hell up? It’s a damn granola bar. Deal with it. Take your dirty dumbasses to bed.
Wayne and Jimmy looked over and smiled at them.
STEVE: What are you smiling about, fuckhead?
WAYNE: This!
Wayne and Jimmy swung rifles from behind themselves and aimed. Near a dozen others stood and aimed as well, then they began firing. Todd and myself fired some rounds but it wasn’t needed and we stopped. Frank and Steve made a run for it. They were making for a large dumpster a few yards away. Frank took a bullet to the ribs and neck and hit the street hard; his head bouncing off of the pavement.
Steve had his head grazed by a bullet followed by another that tore the back of his leg. He managed to make it behind the dumpster and started screaming and cussing.
I saw Harry scramble his way back toward the front.
HARRY: Get off the fuckin’ wall, Cal! Someone’s in here!
CAL: Is it them? The fucker’s we attacked?
HARRY: There was hardly any of them! This sounds like a lot. Just take cover somewhere and keep an eye out!
Cal ran over and behind a blue car. Harry took off somewhere out of sight near the building Victor lived in. As for Steve…we could see him by the dumpster. He was shielded from tent town, but not us. He had no clue we were there. We didn’t want to give our position away with a gunshot. I nudged at Alexis and nodded toward the dumpster.
Alexis drew an arrow from behind her. Carefully she pulled back and aimed. Seconds later she let it fly and it hit Steve directly in the side of the head. He slumped forward and into the street; now visible to tent town. A few surprised and impressed mutters could be heard.
Five left. Wayne looked over and pointed toward the front. I agreed with a nod and we moved down each wall toward the front.
Soon we passed the truck where Steve had been on watch and the building came into view. We stayed low and in the dark. We knew Cal was behind the blue car, but we lost sight of Harry. We inched our way closer, as did Wayne and his crew.
Across the road we could see the small plaza that held the old little shops that now served as indoor slave quarters. I saw faces near the bottoms of the windows.
Soon they caught glimpses of Wayne and the others and their faces turned to surprise. Especially upon seeing the firearms.
I could see one motion to Wayne from inside that someone had gone into the building. Harry obviously.
Suddenly one of Wayne’s companions got overzealous. Pent up aggression no doubt and the man wanted revenge. Wayne tried to call him down but it was too late and many of the others followed him into action. Half of them fired on the car while the others fired at the buildings doors and windows.
Cal, in a panic, bolted from behind the car and tried for the building. He was cut down and riddled with bullets. He sprawled toward the sidewalk and bled out all over.
The shooting stopped.
From the shattered doors of the building Harry rushed out firing rapidly followed by four other men. The math wasn’t adding up now and a slight sense of panic came over me. They spread out and opened fire and mowed down multiple people. The people in the windows dropped from view, but not before some of them took bullets.
Wayne and some of the others took cover wherever they could. Cars, stacks of tires, etc. They were totally penned down. Now it was our turn. We flanked the four men that came out and unleashed everything we had. They turned toward us in shocked surprise trying to fire. Splattering wounds erupted all over the men. I spotted Harry running around the far side of the building.
In the firing, Alexis ran across the street and jumped into the broken windows of the slave quarters. Smart…no one would expect a shot to come from there.
We had to breach the building. We didn’t have a choice. I doubted any of those four had been Victor’s two guards. Hopefully there were no more surprises waiting for us and the count was right again. I pointed over to Wayne and the others and told them to hold ground there and cover us. We clicked lights on that we had taped to our rifles and rushed into the dark building.
**
Despite being lived in, the the small lobby space was a little musky. We shined our lights in every direction and stayed close to the walls.
I ran over to an old desk that had once served as a check out for a store. I took cover there for a moment and was joined by Todd.
TODD: There’s the stairs over there. What do you think?
ME: Clear the few small rooms down here and then take our time going up. I don’t want gunned down on a staircase.
TODD: Let’s go.
The six of us cleared the entire bottom floor. It was empty. I made my way toward the steps and carefully leaned to look up. Most of the view was obstructed, we couldn’t be shot at from above easily. I started up with the others close behind me. I heard some footsteps above us. They were leading off from the top of the stairs to the left. At least we’d known the direction that one of them was in. The other three were anyone’s guess.
We reached the top and I moved farther to the left so Todd could stand next to me. I nodded to the right. We both leaned our rifles into the halls. Him right, myself left. They were clear.
Down the right hall were two doors on opposite sides of the hall. Todd and I headed down the hall while Mark and Jim covered the left if anyone rushed out. Everyone else covered the rear. We took the doors on our sides of the hall, again Todd right and myself left. Mine was a small old office space with a bed inside and table. Few boxes. I went to Todd’s and saw the same thing, with just a few more boxes and some old chairs. I assumed it was where Duke and Will slept.
We headed back down to the other end. Mark and Jim looked at us and then proceeded down the hall ahead of us. All four of the bastards were on this side of the building somewhere. We arrived at a door to the right. Mark opened it and Jim leaned forward crouched and checked it. Turned
out to be a restroom. Todd and I moved closer so that we were right behind them. Travis and Ray kept to the stairs and watched our backs. Harry or anyone could have ran out the back and not upstairs. If anyone creeped up behind us we’d know.
A sudden voice rang out down the hall ahead from some double doors:
MAN: Leave now! This is your last chance to get the hell out. We’ll call shit even, how’s that? Or you can keep coming and you can all die…your choice.
ME: Call it even? Little late for that, wouldn’t you say?
The Dead Lands Diary Vol. II) Page 15
