After we moved everyone to our current location, and brought everything we could fit that wasn't permanently attached to the floor, Gregory and the others only visited a few more times to try and find whatever supplies we might had left behind. They left us alone for a little while. We thought maybe they assumed we had left... But they knew we were still there. And that's when they stopped trying to steal from us and started trying to bleed us dry. Gregory knew about our crops, but up until then we had thought it was impossible for him to reach them without venturing over the cliffs. We were wrong. He lit the trees in the orchard on fire, luckily we were able to put it out before it was too late. If he had been successful in destroying all the crops we never would had made it through the winter. To this day I'm not sure how Gregory was able to make it into the fields. I've tried finding his tracks and tracing them back but haven't been successful. And he's never attempted to visit the location again.
When I finally assumed the storm had passed, Gregory and the others began to commit their worst deeds. Anytime someone would go foraging or on patrol they would be abducted and we would never see them again. No body to be found, no clues, nothing. At first we thought it could have been an attack from the undead, or they defected to The Compound in fear of what future attacks may bring. But that wasn't the case. After more and more began to turn up missing we called for a lock down and no one was permitted to leave the grounds through The Town, the fields were still safe. Marshall took a group of men and made their way over to The Compound to investigate. Up until this time Marshall and the others had only visited The Compound during the initial construction. When they breached the treeline they were shocked at the massive structure that stood in front of them. It was many times larger than the initial group of shanty huts and walls that were initially erected. As they approached Gregory and Dorian opened the front gate and met them in the middle of the field between The Compound and the treeline. This was the first time they had spoken to each other face to face in some time. Although Marshall approached the situation seriously, Gregory and Dorian treated it as if it were some kind of joke. They clearly felt they were in complete control of the situation. Marshall was speechless at the changes that had taken place. The Compound was fortified and the size of Gregory's militia was formidable. And with this so apparent, Gregory informed Marshall of his intentions...
“We are going to eat every single one of your group to ensure the survival of The Compound. You are like cattle to us and there is nothing you can do to stop us. If you try to attack us we will crush you and feast on the corpses of your dead. And you brother, I will take pleasure in devouring your heart so then we can live together in The Compound until the end of time.”
With that, Gregory and Dorian turned around and walked back into The Compound. After the gate closed Marshall and his men could see the faces of soldiers emerging from above the wall, and with them rifles staring at them with what could only be assumed as the intent to kill. As they began slowly walking back to the treeline the group of men behind the wall lowered their weapons and could no longer be seen. On the way back to The Town everyone in the group was speechless. In fear of alarming everyone of Gregory's true intentions Marshall swore his men to secrecy and proclaimed that all those who had left had joined The Compound. But deep down everyone knew what was going on. From that point on those who were still in The Town were in a state of arrested development. Surviving on a day to day basis waiting for the day that was ultimately inevitable. Time had become the enemy alongside Gregory. And clearly time had run out.
Chapter 11
Eight days had passed and I knew the clock was counting down to the zero hour. I was in the middle of helping Cynthia with the children when Reese approached me. It was the first time that I saw him step outside of the armory.
“It's time for us to sit down and talk. Marshall and I will be waiting downstairs, come after you've finished up with the children.”
I nodded my head and Reese left the room. I wonder what they had been planning these past couple of days. I helped Cynthia with the children and told her I had to go speak with Marshall. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I made my way to meet with them.
When I arrived the door was already open and they were sitting at the table waiting for me. I walked into the room and took the closest available seat at the table. At this point not a word had been spoken. Marshall stood up and began pacing back and forth in the room. Then he spoke.
“Barrett, first I just wanted to thank you for all the help you've given to us since you arrived. But we need to get down to the brass tacks. Things have begun to change dramatically. Gregory and the others are pushing much harder than we could have foreseen at this point in the game. When we spoke to you eight days ago about forming a plan we never though we'd be facing a situation as we are today. We've had men patrolling the perimeter of The Town and even some pushing down the road towards The Compound. They've been reporting signs of scouts from The Compound pushing closer and closer to us on a daily basis. It seems as if they are also planning something. And we're afraid if we don't strike first it will mean the end for us all. We've devised a plan that we think will help neutralize the threat of The Compound, but we need your help in order to complete it. We're hoping to rescue our people who are still alive and take out Gregory and the others in one fell swoop.”
“So what do you need from me exactly? You know I'll help you in anyway I can.”
“You've been inside The Compound and are somewhat familiar with the layout, specifically where our people are being held and where the council members might be. But we can't think of a way to gain access to The Compound without taking heavy casualties. If we attack from outside the walls we'll be mowed down just as quickly as the undead.”
“There's a tunnel system that The Compound relies on to move people in and out during a zombie attack. It's also connected to where the others are being held. I assumed you knew.” I said.
“No, That's amazing, no one has ever been able to come back with any information about secret tunnels in The Compound. They must be using the old mining tunnels that the towns people worked in before they were closed down. Can you get us in?”
“There's an entrance to the tunnel in the woods, but it's always heavily guarded. I can tell you during a heavy attack they open the tunnel to get behind the undead. That would be the best time to force your way inside and get into the tunnel system. If you were somehow able to lead a horde into the clearing I could see it being possible... But I don't see how you'd possibly do that.”
“Leave that to me.” Reese interjected.
“We move them around like that all the time. Have you taken a look around recently? We barely have any undead roaming our area. We round them up and use a runner to point them out of our vicinity. We've actually begun corralling them in an old horse stable located not too far from here. It's risky and we've lost a few good men doing it, but it's for the greater good of the people.”
“...That's pretty demented, but if it works then we can do this. So what's the plan once we get into The Compound?”
“It's simple, first we rescue the people in the tunnels, which should be quite easy since they're located so close to the secret entrance. But then we're going to burn down The Compound from the inside.”
“That's pretty bold...”
I thought to myself before responding.
“Leaving all the people inside to stay and burn or flee to the woods to fend for themselves... I understand they're your enemy... But they also were once your family and friends... My conscious is telling me this is wrong on so many levels. I can help lead you into The Compound and rescue your people, but I won't burn it down with everyone inside. That's up to you to accomplish, I won't have that on my conscious no matter how badly others might have been treated inside those walls. My prerogative is to help whoever is still down in those tunnels before it's too late. There's just one thing though, you aren't worried about any backlash reaching the town?”
“We're actually planning on it. We can only assume Gregory is planning to infiltrate the town and take as many people as he can to stock up for the winter. That's why we're going to secure the entrances to the town and hopefully hold them off. If need be we'll evacuate following the paths through the fields and keep the women and children safe.”
“So when does all of this go down?”
“Tomorrow night, we're hoping to get all the men prepped and ready, Sarah is going to gather the women and children and make sure they're safe in the event that anything goes awry.”
I wasn't sure what else I could say. Everything had happened so fast I wasn't sure if my brain had totally comprehended all of the information. This is truly a sick world that we're living in today. Not only do we have to worry about the undead. But we're fighting a war against our own brothers and sisters. Could I live with the deaths of those people on my mind? I suppose in reality they were no different than the undead, both of which are eating the living to survive. But my only real mission was to rescue Jesse. I could only hope that he was still alive in The Compound, that they hadn't punished him for helping me. If I could find him and bring him back to Cynthia everything would be okay.
“You have tonight to get your affairs in order, in the morning we'll meet back up and prepare for the mission.”
I nodded my head and turned to walk out of the room.
“Oh, and Barrett. I know religion has lost most of its meaning in days like these, but maybe say a few prayers before going to sleep tonight. Every man has to meet his maker eventually. Hopefully this time around it won't be us.”
I left in silence and began walking to my room. On the way I saw Cynthia and she greeted me with her usual smiling face. It was obvious something was wrong and she began questioning me immediately. It was important that I let her know what was going on. But I needed to make sure no one else became aware. I leaned over and whispered into her ear.
“Meet me in my room after everyone's gone to sleep. I promise I'll tell you everything then.”
Without waiting for a response I went into my room and shut the door. Cynthia walked off with a look of bewilderment on her face. But soon enough everything would be clear to her.
Chapter 12
I laid in bed for hours pondering the best plan of action for tomorrow nights siege. For the past three years the only thing running through my mind was my own survival. Now others were counting on me to rescue their loved ones. But most important to me was getting Jesse back.
At that moment I heard a knock on my door and I slowly walked over to see who it was. Cynthia had come to my room like I had asked her. I quietly let her in and we sat down on my bed.
“What's going on Barrett? Why did you ask me to come here this late? Is something wrong?” She questioned.
“Cynthia, I need to talk to you about this now, because I won't get another chance until it's too late. Tomorrow Marshall and his men are planning to infiltrate The Compound to rescue the others and put an end to Gregory's reign of terror. I'm leading them into The Compound and hopefully everything will go smoothly. I just want to let you know that I promise you, with all my heart, I'm going to bring Jesse back with me, or I won't be coming back at all.”
Cynthia began to cry and clenched me tightly.
“But why? Why does this have to be happening now?”
“It has to happen if we're ever going to be safe from Gregory and the others. They're planning something big and if we don't do something to stop it now everyone we love and care for will suffer. And I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you. But you need to listen to me very carefully. I have a bad feeling that things may not go as smoothly as Marshall and Reese have planned. Sarah is going to be in charge of the women and children in case something bad reaches us here. I want you to stay close to Sarah, but if something happens you have to promise me you'll leave everyone and look out for yourself.”
“I...I can't do that, they're all like family to me.”
“Listen to me carefully, if you stay with the group they might catch you and then that's it. I won't be able to find you and we might not get an opportunity like this again. Once I find Jesse I'll make sure to make my way back here to you. But if something happens, it is extremely important that you wait for me in a location away from everyone else. Sarah is going to lead everyone through the caves and into the farmland. But after you've followed them through the caves I need you to wait for me in the orchard. Climb up into one of the trees and wait for me there. I promise I'll come get you with Jesse. I promise.”
Cynthia laid crying next to me in my arms for the duration of the night. No other words were said. The emotions that we shared with one another were unspoken. She eventually drifted off to sleep as I laid staring at the ceiling. I knew Gregory had something planned far more sinister than Marshall could ever prepare for. I owed my life to these people, but I need to ensure Cynthia and Jesse would be okay.
The sun began to rise and I woke Cynthia up so she could go back to her room before anyone could become suspicious as to why she was with me all night. I needed to make sure everything was kept a secret in hopes to her being able to successfully hide in case something were to happen.
I left my room and walked down to grab some food. The hall was packed with men who I had only seen in the armory, never really mingling with the other survivors. Everyone must be trying to get some food before the mission began tonight. As I ate my meal I noticed Marshall and Reese standing on the other side of the room. When I finished up I walked over to them to see what was going on. They gestured for me to follow them and we continued to the armory.
“Grab everything you're going to need now so we don't have to worry about you being stuck in a bad situation later. You're the most important person on this mission and without you there is very little hope for success.” Marshall said.
I took the ammo I needed for my handgun and a few extra magazines to carry just in case. I wasn't planning on doing very much shooting during this mission. But you could never be too certain.
“You aren't taking a primary weapon?” Asked Reese.
“I don't think I'll need anything passed my handgun. I've been through hell and back with it and I've never needed anything else.”
“I really insist that you take something else with you. You never know what you're going to encounter. We aren't just fighting the undead here... Gregory and his men will be out for blood. Here take this.”
Marshall reached out and handed me a rifle.
“That carbine uses the same ammo as your handgun. So if you have any problems you can interchange the ammo between the two.
“Looks like I’m good to go. But I wanted to ask you, how are you going to round up the undead needed to pull this off?”
“We’ve actually been corralling the undead in a stable not too far from here for awhile now, even before this plan came into fruition. As you know, the more time that passes the undead become slow and docile, traveling in herds. We found that if we corralled the undead rather than killing them, we noticed fewer occurrences of fresh zombies. I suppose they can sense large number of other zombies and this makes them stay away, assuming there is less food in the area to survive, if you can still classify it as survival.”
“But how are you going to get them to go towards The Compound rather than back to the town?”
“It’s common sense that zombies lust for human flesh. And when blood hits the air a zombie can smell it. I suppose with the dulling down of all their other sense, they have a heightened sense of smell strictly for human flesh, but especially blood. We have a few runners who will head towards The Compound. They’ll be carrying clothing items that have been doused in blood. We’re confident the zombies will be preoccupied enough to disregard the town and stay focused on our runners.”
After explaining the rest of the plan Marshall, Reese and I met with a group of men in town. Everyone armed to the teeth, ready to lay siege on The Compound. Marshall turned to addr
ess the men.
“Alright everyone, there’s little time for me to be giving a long drawn out speech. We all know what’s on the line here today. There’s no other choice but victory. A loss today means game over for everyone here. We’ve gone over the plan with everyone in depth and you all know your tasks. Everyone here is to follow Barrett to the entrance to the tunnels while Reese leads the other group that’s awaiting orders at the stables. Lets move out.”
We began traveling on foot towards The Compound. Cutting through the woods between each road to minimize the odds of possibly being seen by a scout. The trip seemed much longer this time around when compared to my initial trip. I suppose my nerves were much different now than before. After all, there was much more on the line this time around. I had to find Jesse...
With every road we crossed tensions steadily rose. Everyone knew what was in store for us the further we traveled. Were they anticipating our attack? Had Gregory set traps? The mental anguish was tormenting. These are things you don't have to worry about with the undead... They don't prepare... They don't set traps...
Human Zombies: The Compound Page 9
