"Who is Didi?" Angel wanted to know. She came up and curled up close to Ike, who smiled when she did.
Darlene approached Ky and the men and women walking with him. "Are you in charge?"
Ky smiled. "For the moment." She noticed him glancing at the man with the goatee and glasses next to him. "Who are you?"
Darlene didn't think they had time for this, but she quickly introduced her companions and made note of the people around her. "Ky, we need to assemble these people quickly."
"We have a contingency plan in place," he said proudly.
"But we have half the people we started out with the last time we drilled," Tiki said. "And we're missing a few more people now."
Darlene estimated there were about thirty to forty survivors, and most of them women or children. "There will soon be thousands of them upon us." She looked up to the roof, where Cesar was now out of sight. "And he was nice enough to ring the dinner bell."
"I think the idiot who took shots at you called the first dinner bell," Brewski said and stared at Jeff, who was doing his best to blend into the crowd. "They were already on their way."
"It doesn't matter anymore. We need to come up with a game plan and quickly." Darlene turned to Ky. "Are you alright to walk?"
"No, but what choice do I have? I'll take a team to the far corner, nearest the water, and we'll try to keep the gate intact until we need to break out."
"Then why not just go en mass to the exit and get out of here?" Tiki asked.
"Because I am not about to abandon our only viable position," Ky said.
"I agree. Until we know if the sailboat is filled with good samaritans or pirates, we need to defend this compound. Their true nature will reveal itself." Darlene saw the gate straining against so many bodies. She pulled the machete out, preferring to fight with it.
John had his compound bow ready and moved without being asked.
They heard another sound of grating metal to their left, at the other entrance.
Darlene turned to Ike. "You need to man that position, and take a group with you. We're wasting time."
Ky smiled grimly. "Good luck. All of you." He addressed the milling crowd. "We have two choices left: we stand around and die like sheep or we defend the last place on earth we call home. I think the right answer is easy enough to accept. I need everyone to follow a group, as quickly as you can to an exit, and fight like you've never fought before. For the love of all you hold dear, like family, friends and freedom." He genuinely smiled and put the Gurkha Black Dragon cigar in his mouth. "I'd rather die killing zombies than getting raped by them. Who's with me?"
Darlene
Darlene was about to ask about arming everyone standing around when a striking redhead pushed a rickety dish cart from the nearby Mezzaluna's Pizzeria. There were dozens of makeshift weapons: broken furniture legs, baseball bats, a hockey stick, pipes, garden tools like rakes and shovels, the neck of a Fender bass guitar, and an assortment of kitchen knives.
People began taking items and scattering to one of the three exits.
"I'll come with you. I'm Melissa," the redhead said with a smile. She was holding a Louisville Slugger.
Darlene nodded at the Irish woman, who looked to be a few years older than Darlene. She caught John staring at her and elbowed him softly.
"What?" he asked innocently and looked away from Melissa.
"Can you use that thing?" Darlene asked, pointing at the baseball bat.
"I was on a winning softball team in junior high back in New Jersey." She laughed. "Well, we won a couple of games."
"Good enough." Darlene led John and her to the metal gates just as they began toppling over. There were about ten people already fighting with the zombies as they attempted to cross into European Village.
"Form a wall. Who are you?" Darlene asked the tall, thin brunette.
The girl, younger than Darlene, smiled. "Sarah."
"Cover the space between us." Darlene turned to her right. "I'm Darlene. Cover the space between us, buddy."
"I'm Jeff. My pleasure, ma'am."
Darlene wondered how many of these dozen or so people would be alive in the next few minutes, and if she'd be one of them. Already, the gate was down and the swarm was moving slowly toward them.
John, standing behind Darlene, began shooting into the zombies. "I'm going to run out in about ten shots."
Zombies fell, slowly trampled underfoot by their uncaring brethren.
Jeff took a step backward but Darlene pointed her machete at him. "Jeff, stay with me."
"I'm… scared." Jeff turned and ran.
"Damn you," Darlene hissed.
Melissa moved over and filled the gap. "We don't need him," she said. She looked positively frightened but kept eye contact with Darlene. "I'm not going anywhere. But I might pee myself."
"I think we all will before this is over," Darlene said.
The first zombies hit their wall and were repelled, limbs hacked off and skulls crushed. Darlene sliced deeply into a neck and Sarah finished it off with a brutal chop.
John got onto the far side of Melissa, which pissed Darlene off for a jealous second. As if you have time for this shit, she thought. When we get out of this hot mess, alive, I'll kick his ass.
They were in the alley right before Europa, four abreast with plenty of room to swing and fight.
Sarah, who wasn't all that big to begin with, looked winded.
"Fall back and someone fill the hole!" Darlene yelled.
Melissa skipped out and someone else took her place, driving a two by four into the face of an undead woman.
Darlene and John kept up their pace like they'd done more times than they wanted to remember, in sync with their blows and cuts. Darlene let her adrenalin take over and wash away the fear and repulsion of the battle and the blood and gore splashing all around her.
But her arm was getting tired and the zombies would never tire. The man fighting next to her slipped on blood and went down. Before Darlene could react and try to help him, two zombies fell to their knees and began biting him.
John stepped closer to Darlene and began dispatching all three, since the man would turn into a monster shortly. Melissa stepped back into the hole recently occupied by John and attacked.
Darlene realized they were slowly moving back under the onslaught, and soon they would be into the open end of the courtyard. "I need people behind me to get ready," she said loudly. "As soon as we clear Europa, they will spread out."
As if they heard and understood, the zombies began pushing into the outdoor seating area of Europa.
"Someone get the ones to my far right," Darlene yelled out. "They'll get behind us."
The left door of Europa opened and Ambroz stepped out, smashing a zombie in the face with a heavy frying pan. Darlene didn't know where he'd come from or why he was hiding inside, but she was glad he was there. Like a man possessed, he began driving the pan into face after face, knocking zombies over.
John was piling bodies in front of him with abandon, almost creating an intentional wall as he fought, and using falling zombies to block new ones from advancing.
Sarah was back in the thick of the battle, keeping the left side of the wall from crashing and spilling zombies into the courtyard.
But there were too many, an endless wall of zombies slide stepping to their prey, forcing them back by sheer numbers.
"Breach," Sarah yelled at the same time the zombies broke around Ambroz to the right. Ambroz ducked into the right door of Europa.
Darlene, exhausted, stepped back and let someone else fill the gap. She gasped for breath, leaning on her baseball bat.
We're lost, she thought sadly. We haven't even made a real dent in their numbers.
Sarah was bravely fending off two zombies when an older man with white hair came running out of Farley's Irish Pub with a bar stool and joined the fight.
Melissa, winded and now standing next to Darlene, pointed at the man. "That's Mort. He owns Farley's. Didn't thi
nk he had it in him."
Mort was holding his ground but the zombies were all around him. Sarah was separated from him, fighting with three as they closed on her.
Darlene tried calling up unreserved strength, knowing she didn't have much left, and joined Sarah before she went down. Melissa was right with her.
The three women finished off the zombies before them and turned just in time to see Mort go down, a gang of undead falling on the poor old man and ripping him apart.
John, rubbing his shoulder, came up to the women. "We're in trouble. We can't contain this."
Darlene knew he was right. Two more people went down in the attack, trudged underfoot instead of bitten to death. They were losing by sheer numbers alone.
"Fall back," Darlene said. "It might be time to get out of here, I think."
Melissa screamed as a zombie bit into her forearm and another fell heavily against her legs, tripping her up.
John and Sarah killed the zombies but there were many, many more ready to join them. Melissa, bleeding profusely, tried to stand but failed. "Run," she croaked. "I'm bitten."
Darlene tried to remain calm when she realized the line had fallen. As one, she, John and Sarah turned and ran; the zombies in slow pursuit.
Ike
Ike led his contingent to the southeast corner of the triangular shaped compound. Brewski walked next to him and glanced over his shoulder at the rag-tag platoon of survivors.
“I’d feel a lot better if we had a few assault rifles and about 40 more people,” he said.
Ike looked at the four-foot piece of cast-iron pipe in his hand and grinned.
“Look at it as a drill in improvisational tactics,” he said.
“Fuck that,” Brewski said, holding his Louisville slugger up. “I’ll take the assault rifle over this any day.”
Angel, who had not been more than two feet from Ike since they entered the compound, carried an aluminum baseball bat. Her eyes were already losing the innocence Ike had seen in them when they met at the Matanzas Inlet a few hours ago.
“I wish I’d played baseball with my brothers when I was a kid,” she said. “I don’t really know how to use one of these.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ike said. “Just hold it with two hands, swing for the head and, whatever you do, don’t drop it.”
“I’ll hold on to it as if my life depends on it,” she said.
“Exactly,” Ike said, “because it just might.”
“Fucking great birthday this turned out to be,” a voice came from behind.
Ike turned to see a blue-eyed brunette carrying a table leg in one hand and a plastic big-gulp cup in the other. Judging by the look in her eyes, the cup was not full of diet coke.
"I'm Bethany, the birthday girl. Thanks for coming to my party."
They were fifty feet from the entrance when the chain-link fence surrendered to the mass of zombies pressing against it. They watched as the undead shuffled into the compound. Those that had been closest to the fence when it fell lay on the ground, while the rest walked over them without a care.
The brunette’s eyes widened and she took a final sip from the straw in her cup before tossing it aside.
“Okay kids,” Ike said. “It’s hammer time. Spread out so we don’t hit each other and watch each other’s backs.”
Brewski took out the first zombie with a blow to the head that would have been a home-run in any major league ballpark. An attractive blonde stood next to him with an eerily calm smile on her face.
“Good job,” she said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Brewski said.
“I’m Ariane,” she said, as if they were casually meeting in a bar.
Brewski looked at her with a furrowed brow.
“Shouldn’t you have a weapon?” he asked.
“No,” she said calmly. “I’ve been through this once already, never again. I’m what you might call, the sacrificial lamb.”
Before Brewski could ask her what she meant, she casually strolled away, directly toward the advancing horde. Several zombies turned on her and soon she was completely devoured in a mass of undead. Her act of self-sacrifice bought them a few minutes to regroup. Brewski shook his head and returned to the task at hand.
Ike swung his pipe at one zombie, neatly removing the top half its skull, and continued the swing until he made contact with the next one in line.
Angel’s first swing was somewhat timid and only served to slow the zombie down a bit. Her second had more behind it and did the job nicely. The zombie balanced in place for several seconds before collapsing in a heap.
Ike saw an elderly black woman doing her best to fend off a zombie with a hockey stick, but she was not going to hold out much longer. He sprinted over and rammed the end of his pipe through the zombie’s left eye and then swung the pipe hard to the ground. The zombie’s head exploded against the brick pavers.
Several of the others had fallen to the onslaught. They were now a group of six against a force of dozens. As if by cue, Darlene appeared and called to Ike.
“We can’t hold them off,” she said. “The southeast exit is our only way out.”
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Ike said. “Let’s go everybody; time to get while the getting’s good.”
The group turned and ran for the far exit as the zombies shuffled after them.
Ky
Ky tried to ignore the pain in his leg, as he led his group of survivors to the southeast exit, but it wasn’t easy. Big Mike, the owner of Mezzaluna's Pizza, had volunteered to help him walk, but Ky insisted he stay with Lisa instead.
He looked over his shoulder at her. She walked with her right arm over Big Mike’s shoulder—his massive left arm around her waist. It made Ky sad to see the sparkle gone from her beautiful green eyes.
They numbered 16 all together with Tiki and Crista bringing up the rear.
The southeast gate was the one best suited to withstand a heavy assault. It was a small consolation though, since there was little doubt that this would be their last stand, one way or the other. All of the effort he had put into creating a safe haven was about to go out the window. He tried not to think about what was next. How long could they exist like this…constantly running and hiding…not knowing which stand was going to be the last.
The rattling of the chain link fence startled him back to reality. Zombies were pressed against the fence like fans at a Who concert. The gate was holding, thankfully, but did he really care anymore? Were they only postponing the inevitable?
As they drew closer to the fence, the rattling seemed to grow louder. The undead sensed their approach and increased the intensity of their charge.
There was a commotion at the back of the group and Ky turned to see Tiki bolting in the opposite direction.
“Bartender,” he yelled, “where are you going?”
Tiki kept running, either not hearing or not caring…Ky didn’t know which, but he didn’t have the luxury of trying to find out. They had more pressing issues to deal with.
“Listen to me,” he said to the group. “This fence will hold for a while. Those with knives, get up there and stab as many as you can. Aim for the eyes and twist the blade after it’s in.”
Big Mike helped Lisa to a nearby bench, then pulled two large kitchen knives from his belt and charged the fence. He plunged the knives through the fence, piercing both eyes of a zombie. He twisted the knives and let out a guttural scream as the zombie collapsed to the ground. He was a one-man army now—moving along the fence line, stabbing undead and screaming at them as if they understood.
“How do you like that, mother-fucker?”
Ky used a piece of copper tubing and plunged it through the eyes of any zombie that got within his reach. He looked to his right to see a young girl, no more than ten, jabbing her butcher knife through the fence at the groin of a zombie. It may not have killed it, but the wound was enough to drop the zombie to the ground where it was immediately trampled to death.
As he ramm
ed his pipe into the brain of another one, Ky asked himself again, what they had come to, when children were turned into assassins.
Two men, at the opposite end of the fence, had dragged a heavy concrete bench over and were standing on it, reaching over and cracking skulls with 2x4s. The conflict grew inside of him. He was proud of his survivor-army, but he couldn’t shake his confusion about the quality of a life devoted to violence and killing…even if it was only killing zombies. He glanced at Lisa. Somehow, she had managed to fall asleep on the bench, the fever continuing to take its toll on her.
There was a scream to his right. He looked over to see the fence beginning to surrender. It wouldn’t be long now. His band of soldiers was beginning to tire and the zombies were swinging the momentum of the battle in the opposite direction.
Like a gift from the gods, the other two groups of survivors, led by the two newcomers, Ike and Darlene, appeared.
Darlene jumped onto the bench and swung a machete over the fence, decapitating a zombie with a single blow. Ike produced a large military-style knife and lunged at the fence next to Big Mike, who hadn’t shown any signs of slowing down.
For a minute, Ky’s hopes began to rise…until he looked at the courtyard behind him and saw the horde approaching them from the rear. They were pinned. Trapped like proverbial rats.
“The fence isn’t going to hold,” he heard somebody yell.
Ky dropped his pipe and went to the bench to be with Lisa. As he sat and held his wife’s head in his lap, he spotted Crista running from the pack. He didn’t have the energy to call after her and didn’t see the point in it anyway.
He looked at his wife and prepared to say goodbye when there was a thunderous explosion on the other side of the fence, followed by a massive fireball.
Tiki
Tiki sprinted into the building, the added satisfaction of Ky, probably being pissed off he'd left. Not that it mattered. Tiki had a game plan; one he thought would work and help them to escape.
Dying Days Ultimate Box Set 1 Page 33
