The ground was littered with bodies of the dead that had already fallen in the battle. I dropped my bat and pulled the two hand guns that I keep strapped to my hips free from their holsters and began to take aim and fire. Life became nothing more than sight and fire and repeat. They were almost on top of the group, but I had noticed that it had looked that way the entire time I had been shooting. Taking a longer look at the picture before me I realized that they were all moving backwards towards the bank that sat on the other side of the road. They were buying more time to clear the horde before they had to start fighting up close and personal. I wondered if they had noticed me picking off some from the back of the group. Amanda or Jane had to have noticed by now. I had taken down six of them. I sighted another zombie, but before I could pull the trigger I was tackled from behind for the second time today. The two that had been looking at me from the sidewalk, how had I forgot about those two? For the second time in under five minutes I rolled as I landed, and the trick worked again. Momentum and gravity sheered the zombie from my back and flung it out into the parking lot. I was rising to my feet when a second body fell on top of me. I had no momentum to use against this one and gravity would be working against me at this point. I had already lost both of my guns in the first collision, so I placed both hands, palm flat, against the pavement of the parking lot and I pushed up as hard as I could. The movement was enough to make the zombie on top of me lose its balance and topple off and to the side of me. I rolled the opposite way as quickly as I could, trying to create as much distance as possible from both of my attackers. This time I did manage to get to my feet and realize how lucky I was. The two zombies that were coming for me were an elderly woman and a teenage boy. The boy must have been the first one to hit me because he was further away than the woman; both were already on their feet. They were standing, still looking at me and doing that moaning, hissing thing that the other guy had done. I began to side step to where I had dropped my bat when I had pulled my guns out. Getting to the guns was not an option and the knives I had strapped to me would be just as dangerous in this situation as fighting them with just my fists. These two would be quick, not as quick as a full grown man, but still quick. Trying to use a knife would more than likely leave me open to an attack from the other one. The bat was the same deal to a lesser degree, but it was my best choice from my list of bad options.
The old woman let out a half growl, half moan, and reached out her right hand to try to grab me, but I slid back and noticed that the boy was still standing completely motionless where he had stood up. It was like he was waiting his turn or something. The problem with this was that he was standing about four or five feet from where my bat was laying. I was hoping I could lure them a bit down the lane and then, once I had the room I needed, I could make a dash for the bat and then get this party started in the same manner that the Mighty Casey did in his day. If this kid didn’t move that was going to be hard to do. I began to wonder if he was intelligent or not. He seemed to be in his late teens, was that too old to get the gifts that the child zombies received? I began trying to think back to whether or not we had encountered any teenage zombies up close and personal during the last four months, and I couldn’t think of one single time. Surely they couldn’t be in that short of a supply. If this kid could think as well as use what speed and strength he still possessed, I was in deep, deep trouble. The old woman made another grab at me and I side stepped then brought my fist down into the side or her face as hard as I could. The blow rocked her off her feet and sent her tumbling into the pavement below. The teen zombie roared at me when he saw this. His eyes narrowed, and I no longer had any doubts that he could think. I was positive he had been plotting a way to end my life. I planted all my weight on my back foot waiting for his attack. He closed his eyes, roaring louder than ever, and rushed me.
SEVENTEEN
I have spoken before about the training classes that we made mandatory for anyone living at our castle in the sky. Amanda and Jane had to take all of their knowledge and decide what would be best for us newbies to focus on. It was eventually decided that the best thing for us to learn would be an almost purely defensive style with some striking moves thrown in to help finish off any attackers we couldn’t outmaneuver and escape from. As I watched the teenage zombie come at me I felt time slow down. I was tearing through my memories trying to find any move I could use against this guy. The bad thing for me was I kept coming up empty. I had spent months learning and perfecting these moves and now, when I needed that knowledge, I had nothing.
The zombie was almost on top of me when a thought popped into my head. It came quick. Just a brief snap of a thought. I fell onto my back and shoved my feet into his gut. I kept my legs straight rolling backwards letting our combined momentum carry me up onto my shoulders. The zombie left the ground and was carried above and behind me as the momentum threw him off my feet tumbling him across the parking lot behind me. I ended up in a kneeling position sitting on my knees. I stood up and ran to where my bat was laying as the zombie began getting to his feet. I needed to end this now. I needed Bertha.
Grabbing the bat, I stood and faced the older female zombie. She was no longer moving very fast at all and I knew I had enough time to take a glance over at the teen zombie before I turned my attention back to her. She had advanced maybe half the distance to me when I started to take slow, even, strides towards her. I had the bat cocked in my arms and was waiting for her to take another swipe at me. That seemed to be her favorite attack. When I got a few feet from her she did what I was waiting for. I rocked onto my back foot getting me out of her range then I took a step forward planting all of my weight on my lead foot and unloaded. There was an audible crack as the woman’s head caved in across her forehead. Blood actually shot out of her eye sockets as she was driven backwards by the force of my swing. I watched her now permanently dead body crash onto the parking lot as the teen zombie began charging at me. He never made it more than two steps before the side of his head blew out and he tumbled to the ground. Amanda stepped out from behind one of the cars. She seemed pleased at something.
“That was text book hand to hand combat training in action.” She said and now I could see the rest of the group coming out with her.
“Makes you feel good to see that a student has been paying attention and learning his lessons doesn’t it?” Jane said, and Amanda nodded. “You did well Charlie. We had both of them in our sights just in case, but you didn’t really need us here. The only reason I put a bullet in that one is because I want us out of here before the next wave shows up.”
This time it was Jane nodding at Amanda, “Yeah, all those gunshots are going to bring them out of the woodwork. This parking lot will be crawling with dead before the hours up.”
Sass walked over to me and handed me my guns while Amanda handed me my back pack. “Good job.” Sass said as I reloaded my weapons and put them back in their holsters.
“Thanks man.” I said wanting to say more, but I was starting to feel the shakes that come when you allow the fear of the situation to wash over you. Amanda handed me my bag and looked to the others. Marky Mark looked unaffected by the battle, but Fred looked as white as a sheet. He was definitely getting more action then he had signed on for.
“We are leaving.” Amanda said and motioned for me to take the spot behind her again as we began to move back towards the road where they had made their stand against the fast moving zombie mob. As we got closer I became more and more impressed by what I saw. There were bodies everywhere. I looked down the lane towards the stores and saw bodies even laying half out of the windows. Jane and Amanda had to have had their rifles out and dropping them as they backed their way towards the intersection. The sheer number of bodies on the ground was enough to scare you all over again. How were we able to face this many and walk away without anyone getting hurt? It seemed impossible.
“It’s not impossible.” Amanda said to me. I guess my face gave away what I had been thinking because she
shot me a wink and said, “Yes, I know what you’re thinking.”
“Really because if that was the case I fear you would have shot me in the pee pee a long time ago.” I said with my own wink. This remark got me a mean look followed by a short wisp of a smile.
“You are thinking, 'How could we have done this without anyone getting hurt?' The answer is simple, preparation. We have been preparing to fight these monsters as safely as possible for months now. Between your and Jane’s experiments and constant revamping of what uniforms we should wear and even the training you, Sass, and Marky have undergone from Jack, Jane and I, we are more than ready for this.”
I wasn’t sure I was buying this. Yes, we had been training and had put in a lot of time and thought into what we should wear when going down to the ground, but there had to be more to it than that.
“I think there was a good amount of luck on our side as well.” I said.
“Can I ask you a question?” Amanda asked.
“Sure.”
“Were you scared while all of this was going down? When you realized that you were on your own and were going to have to fight them with no backup, did you feel fear?”
I thought about it. I can honestly say that, no, I didn’t feel any fear whatsoever. Not until it was over.
“No, not while it was going on. I was too busy assessing the situation and finding my enemies' weaknesses. I was too busy finding a way to survive. But now that it’s over I’m feeling sick to my stomach and my hands can’t stop shaking.”
Amanda looked back at me and I gave her a weak smile.
“The shakes will pass. As you are put into the situation more and more you will eventually reach a point where they stop all together. Do you know why you didn’t feel any fear until the fight was over and you were safe?”
“I guess it’s because I was trained to lock away anything but assessment and action. That was how Jack taught it to me. Assess your enemy, his strengths and weaknesses. Once you have found that weakness act without mercy. Anything else is a hindrance. Everything but assessment and action must be locked away until you have won.” I said.
“So, you are saying that you fell back on the training you have been receiving for over three months now. The training that is, at this point, almost second nature to you.”
“Yeah, I guess I am.” I said.
“You were also tackled from behind twice, and yet, you weren’t bitten or scratched. Your clothes aren’t even ripped up. Is that luck or is that because we spent time and a good deal of effort determining what would provide us the best protection while in hostile areas?”
“I see your point Amanda, but still to say there was no luck involved is just crazy.”
Amanda slowed down and turned to face me frowning.
“Understand what I am about to say to you Charlie, there is no such thing as luck. Not in combat and not in survival. Luck is just a word people use instead of taking credit for their own hard work and forethought. There was no luck today. Not for you or the rest of us. We were prepared for this and we acted without hesitation. Luck is a word that describes a situation where you are more prepared than your enemy. End of story.”
The others had now caught up with us. We had walked out to the main access road for the shopping center and had started down the hill to the road that fed back out to State of Franklin. Here we had a choice to make. Turn right and go back out to the main road. Go straight onto what was known as the Med Tech Parkway or turn left and go into the suburbs, at least I think it was suburbs, from where we stood I could see what looked to be houses and condos up on the hill above us. Jane said that he thought going back out onto State of Franklin would be a bad idea seeing as how we still had a good number of businesses to pass on that road, and who knew where the Head Hunters' base was in all of this. He also didn’t want to go the left because he thought there had to be subdivisions up that way, and with all the gunfire that we had just took part in, he was afraid all the houses and apartments would be emptying out as the local dead wandered this way to see what all the fuss was about. That only left straight ahead, and that wasn’t a good option either seeing as how that road would wind across a hill and eventually lead us back to State of Franklin as well. The worse part about the straight ahead option was that between where we stood and where the road ended there was nothing but medical buildings. We were all of the opinion that medical buildings were no place for anyone to be messing around.
“Well, what do you say Charlie?” Jane asked.
“Whoa! Wait one minute! Why is it his decision?” Fred asked almost in a panicked voice.
“Because it is. He is our leader, it’s his call.” Amanda said, all business.
“Look, no offense Charlie, I’ve never had a problem with you, but you’ve got to be kidding me. Charlie is nowhere near the best suited to make this call.” Fred said.
“And why do you say that?” Sass said.
“Are you serious here? Every time we have had to fight zombies today has been because of him. You tell him not to stop for anything and he stops. You tell him to go left he goes right. Then he has panic attacks and is either unable or unwilling to keep control over that dog he insists on taking with him everywhere. All his decisions are putting us in danger. Can’t anyone else see that?”
I could see it. In fact, I thought he was right. I thought he was dead on the money. I had heard of off days before, but what I was having didn’t even qualify for something that good. I was having a disastrous day and I thought that Fred was well in his rights to question my decision making abilities. However, I was still not convinced that Fred wasn’t the enemy, so I didn’t want him to be able to call any of the shots. This was going to make me call him on this and do my level best to shut him down. I agreed with Jane, going straight ahead seemed to be the best route that we could choose to go. It was risky because of the medical buildings, but also, they didn’t sit right up against the road so we had a nice buffer area. It would be nothing like what we just went through with the shopping center.
“Fred, I understand your concern, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you because I agree with Jane that going straight ahead is our best option and it is my call.”
“I don’t understand you people at all. I have made this trip before and did so without drawing any attention from any of the dead. The path I took has to be the safest route that we have to choose from. Why won’t you all just let me lead the way?”
Fred did look completely clueless as to why we wouldn’t trust him to lead us safely to the Med Center and perhaps I was being stupid about the whole thing. Surely, he wouldn’t lead us into a trap before we got to the Med Center, even if he was one of the bad guys. But there was that room for doubt. He wanted us to travel on a certain, specific path. Why was that? Was it just for safety reasons or was it for something else? If I couldn’t trust him then I had to distrust him completely. I couldn’t start rationalizing that I could trust him from A to B but then distrust him for C, D, and E. That just made no sense to me. Also, the only reason we believed there was such a thing as a Head Hunter Group was because he told us there was. What if he was trying to take us the long way while his friends took Sam straight down State of Franklin to mommy?
“I told you it’s against my better judgment, but we will help. However, that help will be done our way. If this is something that you can’t abide by then just let me know and we can part company right here with no hard feelings.” Fred looked at me like I had just punched him in the face.
“Either way we need to move soon. This place is going to get a lot of tourist traffic before long.” Jane said looking around.
Fred didn’t like what he was being told, but he did want us to come with him. Actually, I thought it was more than that, he needed us to go with him. Knowing this made it easy for him to decide that he should shut up and agree to go our way. There was something on his face though that told me he knew what lay down this road and had no desire to go there.
Across the road from where we stood was a huge bank with mirrored windows. It was the Bank of Tennessee building at one time, but now it was just another empty rusting hulk of a building counting the days until it fell over. Some of the windows were already broken, making dark squares appear across the shiny mirrored sides of the building. I kept expecting to see an entire dead army come pouring out of one of those missing windows and begin its assault on us. The last words I would hear would be Fred screaming, “Why couldn’t you just listen to me?”
The bank sat well off the road and as we passed it nothing moved at all in the parking lot or in any of the dark holes that marked the missing windows. It was almost scary quiet. Beside the bank was a low brick building that set a bit closer to the road than I was comfortable with. The Johnson City Eye Center sat dark and unmoving in the morning light. Looking up at the sky I was amazed to see that the sun had climbed a good distance and hung there as if daring me to question it. How much time had we burned in that shopping center? I had originally figured that we would be able to make to the Med Center before noon but that wasn’t looking to be the case.
Nothing moved at the Eye Center and I was starting to wonder if there were any zombies in this area at all. We were hugging the left side of the road due to the fact that as we climbed the hill the only thing on that side of the road was a large hill slanting steeply up to a tree line far above us.
Samantha's Song Page 18
