When I saw Nate I burst out laughing. Tommy looked at me like I was nuts, but when he saw Nate he started to laugh, too. Nate was standing in the river, with the empty gallon jugs around his waist, cursing and fuming at the Z’s waiting for him on the side of the water. The jugs made it look like he was wearing a big plastic tutu and any minute I expected him to pirouette out of the water to bust on some undead ass.
Our humor was short-lived. The second I made a sound, three of the zombies turned and spotted me. As soon as they made eye contact they moaned loudly and started for me. The movement made the rest turn and they started for me as well. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
I waved Tommy to the woods on his side and stepped back into the woods on my side. I pulled the radio and got hold of Duncan.
“Duncan?”
“Yeah, John?”
“Tommy and I will deal with ones by the RV, when we get them clear, take care of the ones by Nate. You probably won’t be able to shoot from the roof, so you and Janna will have to get out there and take them down,” I said, stepping back deeper into the brush.
“Will do. Watch yourself.” Duncan signed off.
“You too.” This was going to be hard. We couldn’t use guns because we wouldn’t be sure of where any of the crew was so we couldn’t risk a shot. It was old fashioned hand-to-hand with the undead. Strangely, I was clam about it, just accepting it as a job to do and nothing more. Once upon a time it was hard for me to kill them because I would think about who they might have been, where they might have come from, whether or not they might have loved ones holding out hope they might see them alive again. Now I didn’t care. They were the enemy and I had a job to do.
I backed deeper into the woods, hoping I could draw most of them in, letting Tommy take a few out from the rear. But it didn’t last long when a fresh chorus of groans signaled that Tommy had been spotted. That was good news and bad news. Bad news was my plan for a rear attack just fell apart. The good news was some of the ones following me were now after Tommy and the odds just got better.
I’ll take what I could get. I shifted my grip on my pickaxe and made sure I had swinging room as the first zombie stumbled into view. They had a rough time of it, since the woods had gotten somewhat overgrown and tangled their legs up somewhat. I’m sure they’d complain to Mulvaney if they could
The Z, a guy who looked to be roughly my age, came bouncing off a small tree on my right. I swung hard and brought the semi-pointed end down right on the top of his head. The metal cracked through the skull without much resistance and scrambled his eggs but good. He dropped with an exaggerated sigh and I readied for the next zombie, a fat guy with no shirt on and large open wounds on his big stomach. The wounds leaked a nasty black fluid which I was sure was all bad news. I brought the pick around in a baseball swing and cracked a home run on his temple. He spun around and I was treated to a view of his back, which was missing so much flesh I could see his stretched rib cage. I guess when he bought it he was face down and revived after the zombies had chewed him for a bit. It was still gross.
I turned around and walked twenty feet deeper into the woods, then turned at a right angle and moved ten more feet away. Two more zombies were crashing towards me and I wanted to make things more difficult.
The first one was a young blonde woman, who looked like she might have turned fairly recently. Her skin was not yet fully grey and her eyes were clear. She opened her mouth and moaned as she grasped at air, trying to reach me. Her companion, a gent probably in his sixties, dressed like a businessman except without shoes, came from completely the opposite side.
They were coming at me at the same time, so I couldn’t get one without the other getting to me. I couldn’t back up any more, because the underbrush had gotten thick enough that even I couldn’t push through it. Nothing to be done then. My timing was going to have to be perfect. The woman was slightly faster, so I had a second to deal with the man.
I raised the pickaxe high and the second she was in range, brought it crashing down on her head. I left it in her skull as she tumbled to the side and spun around to face the other zombie. My right hand was pulling my knife as I turned and I brought up the blade from my waist. The zombie arms were inches from my shoulders when I lunged, slamming the knife up under the chin and puncturing the brain pan. The zombie’s arms stayed outstretched for a long second, frozen as the brain stopped sending signals to them. Slowly the man fell back, my blade sliding out of his chin with a wet sound. He fell straight like a tree, landing on a rock and looking for all the world like he was sleeping.
I wiped my blade off on his coat sleeve and went to get my pick. The woman had died less peacefully, her features were frozen in a mix of hate and hunger. It was pitiful to look at, but she was in a better place now, anyway. I put my foot on her head and braced it, taking the top of the handle in one hand and knocking the blade out of her skull with the other. It reminded me of removing an axe from a stubborn tree. The things you think of these days.
No more threats were nearby, so I started to venture out of the woods. As I moved to less undergrowth, a tree trunk suddenly exploded in front of me, just as I heard a shot coming from Tommy’s neck of the woods. I ducked instinctively, cursing and ran forward to get out of the line of fire. The last thing I needed was to get shot by one of my own crew members.
As I stumbled out of the woods, I ran right into another zombie. I hit it so hard I knocked it over, sending in back onto its butt while its arms flailed in the air. The momentum laid it out completely and I used the opportunity to stand on its chest and spike its head. The arms grasping at my legs fell away and I looked to see three more coming at me from the water where Nate was starting to come out of the river.
They were bunched together, making it difficult to single them out for destruction, but I had a plan for that. Grabbing the zombie I had knocked over by the collar of his shirt, I waited until they were in range, then swung the body like a dead cat. I hurled the corpse at the other three and managed to knock down two of them. The third came at a rush and I spun away, letting it pass by. I swung my pickaxe around and buried the flat end in the back of its skull. It fell with a croak and I faced the other two that were starting to get up.
Not wasting an opportunity, I walked over to one and kicked it over, stepping away from the hands that tried to grab my ankles. I stabbed the zombie that was on its hands and knees in the back of its neck, shutting it down, then swung my pick at the Z that was starting to sit up. My spike went into the temple and buried itself to the shaft. Glazed eyes rolled up as the zombie fell over.
I scanned the area and watched as Nate dealt with the last zombie. Dripping water, he simply walked up to it, kicked it in the chest, knocking it to the ground. When it sat up he kicked it in the head, putting it back down. While it was down he stomped on its neck, snapping it like a twig.
When it was over, he walked back to the river and collected his water jugs like nothing had happened. I chuckled and looked back to where Tommy was supposed to be and he stumbled out of the woods, dragging a zombie that had a grip on his leg. Tommy was dragging it along and the zombie was getting a full face plant in the dirt as it kept its mouth open to try and bite.
“Little help?” Tommy asked.
“Shoot it, doofus,” I said, laughing at the scene.
“Can’t, my gun’s jammed and I can’t stop to clear it,” Tommy said apologetically.
“Oh. Hold on.”
I walked over, picking up a small log on the ground. When I got close enough I swung the log with a heave and slammed it down onto the zombie’s head. The log, which was rotten, promptly disintegrated and did no more damage than had I used a pillow.
“Are you kidding me?” Tommy asked as he continued to drag the zombie along.
“You could do this yourself, you know.” I replied tartly as I brought up my pick and crushed the Z’s skull. It released Tommy’s ankle and lay face down in the grass.
“Do you see a
weapon on me?” He replied, turning and walking back to the woods. I did see then that he was without his knife or melee weapon.
“Whose shot nearly took my head off?” I called over my shoulder as I surveyed the area around the RV. I didn’t see any more zombies, but there may be more coming because of the noise.
I went over to the river to help Nate pick up the jugs of water. “We should probably get moving,” I said, grabbing a handful of water.
“Why’s that?” Nate asked, stringing a rope through the handles and heaving the jugs onto his shoulder.
“Guy I spoke to said he saw what was probably Thorton heading by a few hours ago,” I said.
“Dammit! Thought we left that fool behind.” Nate paused. “Wait, what guy?”
I spent the remainder of the walk to the RV explaining about Ed Mulvaney and what we talked about. When I finished, Nate simply shrugged his shoulders.
“He’s got a nice setup; can’t fault him for wanting to keep it. But if there’s a dead town right across the river, he should want to start clearing it out. But if he falls in line, he’ll probably make a good ally. This would be a good spot as a jumping off point for an eastern campaign,” Nate said while he looked around. Tommy was emerging from the woods as we spoke.
“You volunteering for general work?” I teased, knowing Nate was as keen to get home as I was.
“Leave it for the young bucks,” Nate said. “Speaking of which…” Nate climbed into the RV and I could hear Duncan squawk and Janna laugh as Nate dumped forty pounds of water jugs on him.
I went to the back of the RV and grabbed the spray bottle, using it to clean off my weapons. Tommy joined me as I was finishing and began spraying and burning his own.
“We headed out soon?” He asked.
“Yeah, we need to keep moving,” I said, looking at the sky. “Hopefully, we’ll find a place as nice as this before dark.” The sun was well past the high mark and we had probably four hours of daylight left. It was enough to get rolling and find a place to hole up.
Inside the RV, I was going to ask Duncan why he didn’t get up to the roof and lend a hand, but when I saw the pile of disassembled guns, I figured I knew what the answer was. Nate got up in the driver’s seat and I waved him to get moving. Tommy and I got out of our gear and stowed it where it belonged.
As I sat heavily at the table, Janna spoke.
“Where to now?” she wanted to know.
I sat back and closed my eyes. “We need to move quickly. I was hoping to stay ahead of Thorton, but he was closer than we thought and actually managed to get ahead of us.” I blew a long sigh at the ceiling. “We can’t survive another ambush. Hopefully, he thinks we’re still ahead of him.”
Janna was quiet for a minute. “I saw you out there fighting. You’re pretty good.” Duncan looked up briefly from a gun but said nothing.
I shrugged. “These days, it’s what I do.”
“Well, you do pretty well.”
I looked at her. “After the way you took out that Milovich guy, I’d say you do well enough by yourself.”
Janna beamed and began reassembling a rifle.
Chapter 3
We rumbled out through the gate, pausing briefly to reattach the gate with some zip ties. There were some more zombies on the bridge and I figured Mulvaney didn’t need surprises like that. We followed Route 50 and rolled past some suburbs that looked normal on the surface, but a closer inspection showed a lot of zombie activity. Route 50 was joined by 68 and we had to navigate around a few abandoned cars, but nothing too difficult.
When we reached Nemesis Park, the two roads split and 68 went through Parkersburg while 50 went east. Across the river I could see hundreds of zombies lurking about and every once in a while one with better vision would follow our progress on the road. I contemplated setting a fire just to make the job easier in the future, but Thorton would know we were behind him then. Given the terrain of trees and hills, I didn’t want snipers around every turn.
We crossed the river again and rolled past some subdivisions and strip malls. Everything was a mess. This area looked like it had been hit hard, then hit again. I doubted there would have been anything of value and doubted even more that we might have found anyone alive.
We travelled under the I-77 interstate bridge and moved past rusting cars and trucks. There were huge scorch marks on the bridge, suggesting at one time there was a serious fire which blocked the way. Heck of a choice. Get burned alive or eaten alive.
“John, you want to see this.” Nate’s voice from the front of the RV interrupted my thoughts.
I pulled myself to the passenger seat and looked out. I could see the column of smoke very clearly; whatever was causing it was still burning well. It was very close, as a matter of fact. We could find the source fairly quickly. I nodded to Nate.
“Let’s see what it is, doesn’t look like we’ll be too off base if we investigate,” I said.
Nate nodded and began looking for roads that would take us closer. A side road looked promising, so we turned down Red Hill Road. A few hundred feet took us to another turn, which seemed likely to take us right to the source of the fire.
We rounded the bend and drove up what looked like the entrance to a subdivision. There were large homes on either side of a center lane and a gate had been placed across the road. Forest surrounded the homes and in the trees ropes or cables had been used to create an effective barrier to any wandering zombies. Whoever lived here had kept an eye on the long haul. The thing that was odd was there didn’t seem to be any guards and the gate was wide open.
Nate looked at me and I shrugged, figuring we might be able to puzzle it out by looking around a bit. One of the houses was ablaze, the source of the fire, but the homes were far enough apart that no other dwellings were in danger. I put my gear back on, loading up more on ammo than before and bringing my heavy rifle with me. Tommy, Duncan, and Nate all suited up as well and Janna belted on a pistol, too.
The minute I stepped outside, I could feel it. I looked back and could see the others sensed it as well. It wasn’t a feeling of immediate danger, but it was an overall oppressive feeling. I got the sense that once we crossed the mountains the feeling was going to get worse.
We spread out and approached the open gate and Tommy was the first one to speak. “Anybody else feel that?”
Duncan replied, “Like we just walked into a graveyard?”
“Exactly,” Janna said.
It was then I realized what it was. We did just walk into a graveyard, only it was the entire east coast. This land was dead. It was owned by the dead and they were its masters. Everything felt like a threat. The hairs on the back of my neck stood out so much I was amazed they didn’t fly off and imbed themselves into the nearby trees.
“Tommy and Duncan, check the tree line. Janna and Nate, check the houses. I’m going to look over the fire. I’ll see you in a minute.”
A chorus of ‘Roger that’ hit my ears and they were off. Duncan and Tommy split up to take either side and in seconds they had disappeared. Janna and Nate went to the first house across the street from the burning one and went inside. I approached the burning building and looked it over, trying to see what might have caused the fire.
I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until I worked my way around to the other side of the house. There, in the grass was a man lying face down, badly burned.
I rushed over to him and saw that he had been shot as well. This was a bad sign. I began to turn him over when he cried out in pain. I was so startled I nearly fell over.
“Hang on. I’m going to try to get you away from the flames.” I tried to grab unburned parts of his arms and managed to pull him further away from the fire. His face was contorted in pain and tears streamed down his cheeks. I turned him over and tried to give him some water. He pushed my hand away and tried to speak.
“Kids…kids…” he whispered.
“Were there kids in there?” I asked, looking back at the flame-engu
lfed house. I didn’t have any hope of rescuing anyone from there.
He shook his head slightly. “Last…last… house.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. I stayed with him until I saw Nate and called him over. Nate came running and when he saw the man he cursed.
“He says there’s kids in the last house, I think,” I said. “Check fast, there may be trouble.”
Nate nodded and waved Janna over and together they ran up the street. I looked back down and saw the man was trying to speak again.
“Killed… all of… got… them… back.” He spasmed in pain and it seemed like he passed out. I thought he might have passed away, but he opened his eyes and in a fit of strength grasped my hand. “Save them! Save… us…” His eyes closed and his hand fell away. A second later a rattling breath escaped his burned lips as his head turned away.
I had seen death enough to know when a soul was gone. I gently laid him down and looked back at the burning building. The flames were dying down and through the broken windows I could see several blackened forms scattered about in the rooms. The fire had not been kind and I stopped counting after I reached twenty. I walked away from the man and the fire, silently saying a prayer for the dead. I wasn’t much of a man for religion, but after what these people went through, I hoped they had some peace somewhere.
I walked out to the street and tried to figure out what the man had been talking about. ‘Got them back’ made no sense, how might he have gotten revenge on his killers? Deep down, I knew who was responsible for this and I hoped one day soon there would be a reckoning.
“Holy Jesus.” I looked up the street and the strangest procession was coming back at me. Janna was holding a baby and Nate was cradling two small children. Behind them a procession of seven kids followed, trailed by Duncan and Tommy. All four of my crew had on the most hardened expressions I had ever seen. If a zombie horde walked out of the woods at that moment I might have given them the option to run away before facing those four.
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