Following the tall man, they ended up at the far end of the complex, where a new platform had been erected for the sentries to keep watch. They had created a blind to keep the zombies from seeing the guards, but it also limited what the guards could see. Mike had taken down the blind and he pointed down, over the wall and past the hurricane fence.
Four zombies were twisting on the metal spikes, groaning and pumping their arms and legs as if they were trying to swim away. A fifth had landed headfirst on a spike and was finally really dead. The four impaled zombies saw the living staring at them and went nuts trying to get free.
“Fucking shit, they’re climbers now.” Juan cursed in Spanish.
Travis swallowed hard at Juan’s words. “Some of them, at least. Wake up some more people, Juan. We need to triple the guards and get them armed. We don’t need those things swarming us in the middle of the night.”
“We better check the entire exposed perimeter,” Katie suggested.
Travis saw she and Jenni were holding hands. “Yeah, dammit. Just when this place was feeling a little safe.”
“I knew those fuckers were smarter than they appeared. Dammit, first they’re runners, now they’re climbers. They’re breaking all the fucking zombie rules!” Juan looked personally insulted by this development.
Travis turned to the two women and laid his hands gently on their shoulders. “Both of you get some rest. We’ll watch the perimeter.”
“Fuck that! I’ve slept enough. I’m gearing up,” Katie argued.
Jenni nodded, agreeing. “I’m with Katie. If there are zombies coming over our walls, I’m going to be there to shoot them.”
“You’re both crazy, you know that?”
“Yeah, Travis, but that’s why you like us,” Jenni said flirtatiously.
Katie flashed her brightest smile. “We’ll be right back, Rambo.”
Travis watched them hurry away and turned back to Mike and Juan. He could tell how dire the situation was. Juan hadn’t even glanced at the departing women.
“This isn’t good,” Juan said grimly.
“We’ll deal,” Travis answered. “We have no other option than to deal with it and not let them in.”
Mike picked up one of the makeshift spears. “I’ll take care of them.”
“Make it quick,” Travis answered. “We don’t need to give the rest of them ideas.”
“Climbing zombies. That’s definitely breaking the rules,” Juan complained.
Travis ran his hand over his holstered gun. “Yeah, well, the rules are shit now. Let’s get to work.”
3.
Not Fast Enough
Katie couldn’t get dressed fast enough. Shoving her feet into her boots, she glanced over at Jenni, who nearly toppled over as she hopped into her jeans. Jason was fast asleep and snoring; Jack was snuggled into the boy’s side and watching the two women suspiciously. After zipping up her camouflage pants, Katie leaned over and quickly tied her boots. Her arms and hands hurt from dangling off that damned “elevator over hell,” as Juan had put it.
“Think they’ll all come over?” Jenni asked worriedly.
“No, or they would have already, but we need to move fast, before enough figure it out to cause us real trouble.” Katie grabbed her rifle and headed out the door. “Meet you down there.”
“Okay! I’m almost ready!” Jenni flopped onto her cot and started in on her boots.
Dashing down the stairs, Katie ran into a few other people, all men, who were also on their way out to help fortify the guards. She had been surprised by the lack of women in the fort, though it took her a while to notice it. All this made her feel that she needed to prove herself and pull her own weight.
Juan stood near the back door, instructing everyone where to go. One by one, the defenders spread out. At last, Juan turned to Katie and said, “Travis wants us to meet him up on the balcony.” He looked very tense.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Hey, Loca, we’re wanted upstairs,” Juan said to Jenni as she came up to them. There was an evil glint in his eye.
“Bite me, redneck,” Jenni retorted, making a face at him.
Juan made chomping noises at her.
“I’m so out of this,” Katie said. She turned to head back into the building and up the stairs. She could hear Juan and Jenni still arguing as they followed her.
“Redneck.”
“Loca.”
“Redneck.”
“Muy loca.”
“Redneck,” Jenni said again as they followed Katie up the stairs.
“Are you calling me a hick spic?” Juan asked in his thick West Texas twang.
“No! I’m calling you a plain ol’ hick!”
Juan laughed and Jenni smacked him.
Katie decided not to pay attention to their antics. It has been clear since she had returned that Jenni and Juan were locked in a bizarre battle of words.
Stepping carefully onto the rickety balcony, she found Travis looking over the zombie horde. Because all the guards were visible to the crowd, the zombies were fairly evenly dispersed inside the corral.
“I don’t see a weak spot,” Travis decided.
Katie looked over the perimeter slowly, studying it. “Me neither.”
“I’m telling you, they’ve gotten smarter,” Juan said, his tone serious as he lingered just inside the doorway. “Just like in Romero’s Day of the Dead. Remember Bub?”
Jenni timidly stepped out and surveyed the crowd below. “They’re just doing what they always do.”
“Yeah, but somehow five managed to get over the trucks.” Travis rubbed his chin nervously. “I don’t see how.”
Katie’s gaze swept slowly over the mass of the living dead. Something was amiss. She scanned the crowd again before she registered what it was. All the zombies were going crazy trying to get to the guards, but one zombie, toward the back, was standing still, studying the trucks and the barriers that kept it from its meal of warm flesh. It kept swinging its head back and forth.
“Some are thinking.” She pointed and the others looked.
“Shit, she’s right,” Travis grunted with disgust.
The zombie moved slowly to one side to let a small crowd of zombie children through to pound on one of the trucks. The “thinker” was one of the more stripped-down zombies; not much flesh was left on its bones. Its skull-like head turned once more to look at the perimeter.
Kate slipped the safety off her rifle.
The zombie moved resolutely toward a large truck that was full of dirt with cement bags packed under it and between the cab of the truck and the load. It forced its way through the crowd, reached up, and started trying to open the door.
“Dammit!” Juan’s voice was an almost feral growl. “Fucking shit! These things are breaking all the gawddamn rules!”
Katie slung her rifle off her shoulder and raised it.
“Katie?” Travis looked at her curiously.
“Can’t afford for a smart one to survive,” Katie answered.
Her finger started to close on the trigger; then she hesitated. “Travis…”
The zombie, its broken body barely able to stand, gave up on the door. It staggered to one side and clawed at the sandbags, as if to get purchase to lift itself up. Around its neck hung a crocheted purse.
“I think that’s Laura,” Katie whispered.
“Shit.” Travis said.
“Who’s Laura?” Jenni asked.
Katie took aim again, sighting the remains of the girl carefully. The zombie that had been Laura managed to get a good grip and started to heave itself up. Katie shot it through the head and it fell back.
The other zombies ignored the shot and continued to bang on the trucks.
“They’re getting smarter,” Katie muttered.
Travis, looking ill, agreed. “Yeah. I think so.”
“We have the ammo. It’s time to kill them all,” Katie declared.
Jenni vigorously bobbed her head. “Yeah! They’re all co
rralled! Easy pickings!”
“We can’t—,” Travis started, but stopped himself. “Okay. In the morning.”
“We shouldn’t waste all that ammo,” Juan muttered. “Even if it is like shooting fish in a barrel, we gotta be careful.”
Jenni had one of the biggest grins on her face Katie had ever seen. “Yeah, it’ll be fun. Like shooting fish.”
“You are so loca,” Juan scoffed. “You don’t even get a vote on this.”
“Oh, yeah, hick spic?”
“I am so not a part of this,” Katie declared, and slipped past them into the hall. She felt Travis following her, and when they were far enough from the arguing two, she turned toward him. His face was a mask of pain and uncertainty. “We have to do this.”
“Once we start firing those guns, we may bring more down on us, Katie.”
“Do you want to risk more of those things figuring out how to get past the trucks?”
Travis exhaled with exasperation. “Yeah, I know. In theory, the spikes could slow a lot of them down. The hurricane fence would probably stand for a little while, but then they’d be up against the wall.”
Katie’s expression was tense. “We cannot afford to lose ground to them.” She felt it in her bones that if the zombies ever breached the first perimeter, things would not go well for the living, despite the security of the wall. They needed to gain ground, not lose it.
Travis looked back at Jenni and Juan, who were now cursing each other out in Spanish.
Katie glanced back down the hall, then grinned. “Kinda like kindergarten flirting, huh?”
“Uh, you’re not jealous?”
Katie snorted. “Yeah, right. Like I’d be jealous of Juan.” Despite her joking, her stomach was coiled into knots. She was horribly afraid. Would there never be time for peace?
Travis said, “Let’s start planning what we’re doing. I guess I’ll wake the mayor.”
She reached out and touched his arm. “Travis, it’s a war. We have to fight.”
Travis’s expression was heavy with worry as he answered, “The thing about war is that there are always causalities.”
Katie felt a chill flow down her spine, and glanced toward Jenni. She felt her stomach tighten, then returned her gaze to Travis. “We have no choice.”
“Yeah, I know,” he answered miserably.
They stood in silence.
At last, Travis said, “We better get the mayor. …”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1.
The Killing Grounds
Jenni flipped Juan off discreetly behind Katie’s back, then found a place to sit down in the mayor’s office. The mayor looked weary and overwhelmed by the news that the zombies were climbing over the trucks. Tobias’s death had weighed heavily on him, and he looked haggard. Curtis, on the other hand, looked a little better than he had a few days earlier. It was as if he was finding his role in this world and growing comfortable with it. Jenni thought he was cute in a little boy sort of way. Jason and Curtis often hung out, talking and just being guys. It made Jenni happy. Jason needed a friend, considering all he had lost.
Jenni was glowing with happiness. Katie was back. And, of course, Travis was back, too. That fact made her girlishly giggly with delight. She couldn’t help it.
During the meeting, Jenni paid attention only when they talked about killing the zombies. She was surprised that anyone opposed the plan, but Juan was worried about running out of ammunition if they used so much right off the bat. The mayor was concerned about riling up the zombies even more. Jenni rolled her eyes at some points, and Katie leaned over and took her hand. Jenni knew it was the behave signal, so she tried not to give any more snarky looks—which wasn’t easy.
The debate went back and forth. Katie was adamant about wiping out the zombie horde before it got any bigger or they got any smarter. Jenni thought that made the most sense. Travis was conflicted about the whole gun issue, but agreed with Katie. Juan argued that maybe they should try to find an alternative way to wipe out the zombies. Jenni mentioned smacking him upside the head.
Juan was sitting near her and kept muttering in Spanish. Jenni muttered right back at him. Soon they were discreetly swearing at each other. The crux of the argument was that Jenni was a bloodthirsty psycho and would waste all the ammo while Juan was too stupid to understand guns were made to be fired.
“Where did you learn Spanish?” Katie whispered at one point.
“My mom was Mexican,” Jenni whispered back. “But my dad was Irish.”
“So you’re a lazy drunk,” Juan quipped, wagging his eyebrows at her.
“I am so going to kick your ass,” Jenni said with a surly pout. Part of her was sure she hated Juan’s guts, but another part of her really got off on their arguments. It was too much fun. And she had to admit, fighting was a stress reliever. Neither one of them really took the insults seriously.
“Look, I’m all for killing the zombies, but if we use all our ammo now, we’re fucked. I say we thin them out with spears and then use the guns for the ones we can’t reach,” Juan suggested.
“What if they rush us? Guns are so much faster!” Jenni protested.
“We can’t take any risks right now,” Travis added. “I don’t like the idea of using the guns and bringing more zombies down on us. Trust me. This isn’t easy.”
“We have to think about the people we’re protecting,” the mayor reminded them. “We have to do the right thing.”
“But if we use all our ammo, we’re screwing ourselves,” Juan reiterated.
“Don’t we have people who are good shots? Use them. I always used to go to the range with my dad. I can hit a target. I can kill those zombies.” Katie looked at the faces around her and tried to fight back her agitation. “If they’re coming over the barricade, how do we have a choice?”
“I’m all for killing them!” Juan snapped. “But what if—?”
Mike ducked in through the doorway, and the mayor looked up. “What is it?”
“Two more. They climbed over the back of one of the trucks. One of them fell right onto a spike and took his head clean off. The other one tried to jump past the spikes and ended up impaled at the pelvis. This isn’t good,” Mike insisted. “I’m worried a whole slew of them will be heading over onto our side soon.”
Juan threw up his hands. “We’re screwed.”
Katie turned to the mayor. “What do we do?”
The mayor set down his pen and appeared to make up his mind. “When the sun rises, we’ll kill them all using the guns and ammo we have. Agreed?”
Jenni looked toward Travis, who nodded. “Yeah, agreed.”
Juan stood up slowly and said, “Okay, so we have no more time and no choices. But we can’t do it this way again. We won’t always have guns or ammunition. We need to be able to defend ourselves in other ways.”
“Absolutely,” Katie concurred .
Travis obviously agreed wholeheartedly by the adamant nodding of his head. “The guns make us safer for now, but, yeah, you’re right.”
Jenni stood up and stretched. “Just tell me where to go and I’m so ready.”
Juan laughed. “Big surprise there.”
Jenni gave him her snarkiest look.
2.
Tinker Bell of Death
“I don’t like this,” Katie said as she stood beside Jenni.
Jenni shrugged. “We have to be able to hit the ones that are out of view.”
Katie sighed. “Yeah, but why you?”
“’Cause I volunteered. Besides, I get to be harnessed up and fly.” Jenni grinned. “Kinda like a lethal Tinker Bell of death!”
Katie laughed despite her worries while she watched Juan securing Jenni’s harness. Mike had also volunteered for the front line and he was already strapped up. They would be positioned on the dirt trucks directly in front of the fort. If there were any zombies in that area, they were not visible from the sentries’ positions. If Nerit had been at the fort, she probably could have taken th
em out from the top of city hall, but no one else had her sniperlike skills.
Jenni kissed Katie’s cheek, then swatted at Juan’s hands. “Hey, stop feeling me up!”
Juan gave her a look. “Aw, am I turning you on?”
“Ewww,” Jenni responded. She felt giddy and excited. It always felt good to be doing something and she enjoyed killing the enemy. Each time she dispatched one, it was delicious revenge for her dead children.
Katie hugged her, then headed for her post. She and Travis were going to be on one of the platforms. Since only people who had experience firing a gun had been recruited for this task, the freshly built sentry posts along the newly constructed wall were now staffed mostly by hunters of both sexes and a few former military men.
“Be careful, Mom,” Jason admonished, and hugged Jenni tightly.
Holding him close, she closed her eyes and relished the feeling of being a mother. “I will be. I promise.”
Jack was giving her a quizzical look, probably not sure what to make of her harness. The dog probably thought it was a weird leash.
Jenni bent to kiss the top of his head. “I’ll be okay. I promise.”
“Ready?” Juan asked.
Mike and Jenni both gave him thumbs up. Juan signaled the two crews handling the wires.
They were hoisted up into the air. Quickly, the horde of zombies sprang into view.
“Kinda wished they didn’t smell so bad,” Mike complained.
“Yeah,” Jenni said, and wrinkled her nose.
They had reached a good height and were slowly moved forward. Jenni enjoyed being swung over toward the dirt truck. It felt like flying, so she struck a Superman pose that made Mike laugh. But her joy died away as the zombies grew more agitated and the enormity of what they were doing was made clear. They were carefully lowered onto the truck, and both immediately knelt down so they were less visible to the zombies below.
“You know,” Mike said after a beat, “the black man always gets it in these scenarios.”
“Well, in the zombie movies, the black guy is usually the hero,” Jenni said in an attempt to console him.
Mike laughed. “Yeah, but that cracker shot him at the end of the first movie.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 22
