by Joe Kelly
Jared knelt in the snow and lifted his rifle, men who were retreating from the wall, streamed past, racing for the bridge. The DFP’s were separated from the foot bridge by three acres of pasture, three long acres. The dead were strung along the base of the ridge and a large number had curled south across the farm as they had tried to reach the men on the wall. Now that their prey was fleeing they were swinging back and followed the living, forming a hook that encircled the cabins. Well those are a hundred yards behind us, concentrate on the ones to the east, Jared told himself. He grimaced as he saw a woman, slower than the rest of the fleeing fighters get dragged down.
He cursed heavily as he took aim at the woman. Rest in peace, He said silently as he put two rounds into her forehead ending her pain and suffering. I am so sick of these things he told himself as he picked another target, sighted, controlled his breathing and stroked the trigger. The zombie face vanished from his sights. He shifted to another target; beside him Steve was doing the same thing the snow slowed the dead down, but in the end, it might not make much of a difference.
His eyes widened as he saw Logan running from a DFP, Kevin strapped to his back, the horde giving chase. Kevin was bouncing wildly and trying to shoot at the approaching mob.
We can help, we just have to move at an angle to keep this arm of the crescent getting to us, he thought mind racing as he considered the situation. If I live Jill will kill me, Jared thought.
“Ready to do something heroically stupid.” Jared asked his men pointing towards Logan who was steadily losing ground to the undead.
“let’s do this John Wayne shit” Steve replied, tension causing him to bite off each word. If they moved fast they could save Logan and Kevin and reach the bridge and there was no time to waste.
They swept forward in a loose v, firing as they came. The arm of the horde behind them following. Jared was in the zone, sighting, firing shifting to the next target. His movements mechanical, deep muscle memory ingrained from years of training and experience. The undead to the right lost ground quickly but the others curled in after Jared and his friends, it was going to be close, very close.
✽ ✽ ✽
The men from the wall raced to the footbridge joining the men from the DFPs, streaming across to the fortified camp Jared and his people called home on the other side. Those already in position behind the barricade, fired into the mob trying to thin out its numbers and help Logan put some distance between them.
Clay bounded through the mass of men, with the speed and agility only a man with blades for legs could manage. Jared and Logan needed help and he could give to them. He leaped over two kneeling men, and kept going, springing forward as fast as he could. Reaching the .50, Ma deuce as Jared called it, he grabbed the spade handles and swung the barrel to his left and rocked the butterfly trigger. Surprise almost made him let go as the weapon thundered. Playing video games had not prepared him for the real thing. Holding tight he walked the fire across the line of Undead to Logan’s right, the heavy rounds smashed bones, ripped away legs and the occasional arm. Bodies tumbled to the ground, some were even dead. He swung the barrel back again, hoping he wouldn’t see the carnage in his dreams tonight.
✽ ✽ ✽
"Hang on Kevin?" Logan said his head down as he ran, but with Kevin on his shoulders he was to slow. I will not leave him, Logan silently vowed, though every fiber of his being was screaming for him to drop Kevin’s weight and save himself.
the gunfire from the barricade intensified, one of the .50s was rattling and rolling now, burning through the precious supply of ammo. Undead were falling, crippled and maimed but few fell back into death. The horde kept coming, with the single minded determination that only the dead possessed.
A bullet smashed past, so close Logan could feel the heat, his eyes came up and saw Jared and his friends advancing towards him in a combat crouch weapons swiveling from target to target. They were also moving to slow, he thought. The muzzle flashes were like strobe lights in the winter morning.
"I'm sorry, leave me" Kevin said into Logan's ear. "you can make it without me."
"No. we do this together or not at all" Logan said harshly, hating himself for wanting to listen to Kevin.
He kept moving as fast as he could, the snow making it even harder. The gunfire was closer now, Kevin was silent, his breath coming fast as fear pulsed in his veins.
Jared took out the closest zombie to Logan and then the one behind it, and then fell into a pattern of sighting, shooting and moving, always advancing.
Bullets whipped past Logan, the ma deuce was hammering again. The stench of the dead grew stronger the closer they came. “I don’t think we are going to make it” Logan ground out, trying to find energy he didn’t have. He didn’t want to die, and all he had to do was drop Kevin and he could make the bridge. NO! we both make it, or we both die. He told himself as he staggered on.
“Grenade” Lloyd warned as he lifted the m16 he carried, the stock tucked under his right arm and held tight as he sighted the under-barrel grenade launcher. He squeezed the trigger and with a booping noise a 40mm grenade soared towards its destiny. 18 revolutions later it was armed, two seconds after that it impacted a zombie who had stepped in the way. The explosion knocked down zombies in a twenty meter circle, the shrapnel and shock wave maimed and even killed a few of the undead with in ten meters. The zombie the grenade had hit and those packed in around it were shredded and fell motionless.
Another meter or two and the grenade would have impacted to close to Logan and Kevin, but it hadn’t, and Lloyd had just bought the two younger men time and distance but not for long. The zombies to either side of the hole in their ranks were already surging into the gap heading towards the fleeing men, closing the distance to the stumbling exhausted Logan.
Jared’s weapon went dry, he slung it on his side, hand darting to the pistol on his thigh. the weapon came up, he put two shots into the head of the zombie nearest Logan, two more rounds and another zombie when down, the .45 rounds decapitating it. He fired rapidly, Targets falling. when the slide locked back, he swapped mags and was back in combat.
Something had ripped the top of Logan’s ear open, and a bullet had scored a burning line across the side of his neck, but Logan was still alive and from the cursing coming from behind him so was Kevin. Faster, he urged himself, he lifted his eyes and saw the foot bridge, men were shouting and waving at him, urging him on. Jared and his team were just to Logan’s left now, Steve was right, Jared was a nightmare with that pistol of his.
The muzzle flashes from Jared’s pistol came so close together that it almost appeared to one long jet of fire. If I survive this I want him to teach me how to shoot a pistol, his thoughts were coming wildly. His lungs felt like they were on fire and his legs and back hurt so bad that being eaten alive might actually be a blessing.
Jared and his team got in behind Logan placing themselves between the exhausted younger man and the undead, weapons blazing. Then as if there had been a signal all of them fell into a line and started falling back making the undead pay for every inch of ground. Lloyd sent another grenade into the mob, then a third. The flashes blinding, the sound like thunderclaps rumbled back from the ridge.
Logan stumbled as the ground under foot changed, it felt more solid and it sounded… with a start he realized he had reached the bridge, men grabbed him and pulled him and Kevin to safety on the other side.
YES! Jared wanted to shout, hearing someone shouting that Logan and Kevin were safe. “We gotta go!” Steve yelled tapping him on the shoulder. Jared nodded. The zombies were too damn close. “Fall back” Jared shouted. As one the team turned and bolted for the bridge, one zombie managed to rip the collar off Chris’s shirt but that was all the mob achieved.
Reaching the bridge, they pounded across, the old wood creaking under their weight. Lloyd stumbled and fell to his hands and knees. Jared reached down with his off hand and snared Lloyds collar and half dragged half threw the man to the end of the bridge
where others helped Lloyd move to the back.
Jared and Steve ran past the sandbagged position where Clay manned the remaining Ma Deuce, the undead flowed after them, a wall of dead moving flesh, eager to get at the living on the other side.
Jared turned and saw the horde was close on their heels, the defenders were firing steadily. he checked his pouches automatically, “I’m out” He told Steve. “Here, all I can spare.” A nearby man said handing Jared three AR magazines. “you’re a better shot than I am.”
“Thanks” Jared replied. he reloaded quickly as he waited at the bridge gate watching the undead surge across the bridge which was only wide enough for three zombies at a time. Those that tried to cross the ice, fell through and were dragged down river, or trapped under sections of ice.
Clay rocked the .50s trigger the heavy .50 caliber slugs tore through the zombies at the front in a shower of gore, shattering limbs and body’s. the massive thumb sized slugs, tore through not one but two sometimes three corpses at a time. Sending many to tumble into the water.
Small arms fire from the assembled men, ripped into the zombies on the far bank. Gunfire thundered in the early morning, it was madness, madness the men embraced, and every bit of hatred and fear they had felt for months flowed out directed at the walking corpses that just kept coming.
The snow was fouled by the coagulated blood that oozed from the shattered undead. The stench was almost overwhelming.
Steve and Lloyd began to punch 40mm grenades into the zombies behind the bridge. Explosions ripped holes in the horde. It didn’t matter if the grenades killed them, it crippled enough of the dead that it would make mopping up easier. Bodies toppled and fell, mangled beyond mobility in many cases.
“Rob, do it” Jared suddenly transmitted. The bulldozer that sat seemingly abandoned in the field roared to life, its blade lifted just enough to clear the ground as it lurched forward plowing into the horde. Many of the dead swarmed the dozer, vanishing under its treads or its blade, it was a slaughter,
Suddenly it was over; The Undead lay tangled in heaps of torn bodies. Jared slammed the last magazine he had into the well and looked out over the farm. Bodies lay everywhere. It wasn’t the battle he had expected; they had barely even engaged the raiders. But the third player in the game of life had hit both sides hard.
“Evil zero, Living 2.” Ronny muttered shivering as the adrenalin started to fade and he began to feel the cold thru his sweat soaked clothing.
“Everyone take five. Get the kids calmed down. Find out how many we lost” Jared said as he sat heavily in the snow. “Then we get to start cleaning up. Merry fucking ho ho Christmas everyone”
Shelly was worried about Mary, during the battle she had looked out and become so pale it had scared Shelly, Mary had muttered something about a man in a hat and then repeated it’s not possible several times before she fell silent.
“You okay?” Shelly asked finally, touching Mary’s arm. Mary blinked several times and then gave her a shaky smile.
“Fine, really. I’m fine” there was a quiver in her voice, but it faded. “Just saw something, it was my imagination, no biggie.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Gayle was standing by the window, when the door to her study slid open and a man walked into the room. She nodded to him politely. Kat knew everything she had to know, but there was so much more to pass on. Maybe in a dream she thought, almost eager to see her husband again. She gazed at the man she had known all his life, and knew that this was not the man she had known, not any longer.
“We have some trouble at the wall, and…” he began only to be cut off.
“don’t lie to me, I know why you’re here.” She said her voice as strong as she could want. He cocked his head studying her.
“Do you now.” He said, a dark grin that quivered cross his lips. “I guess that you do.” He said producing a pistol. “I’m surprised to be totally honest.” He said still smiling as he stepped around the couch. “But no matter, this has been fun. So much fun really, I hate that it has to end, you spoke to someone, a red head. You should have kept out of it and you might have been able to live a few more years.” He said his body hunched slightly forward. She could feel, the only word that came to mind was, Evil, radiating from the man she had watch grow from a boy to a man. “Why is he familiar to me?” He suddenly asked.
“I wouldn’t know.” Gayle replied. “But I think he is going to get those kids to safety.”
“There is no place in the world safe from the dead,” It said almost snarling. Then that bone chilling smile was back. “He isn’t the champion of the light, only its tool and he will fall to the dead like everyone else.”
There are champions and then there are champions and I think you just might end up surprised at what that man and his friends can do, she thought calmly. It was almost over for her and after that peace. But first one question, maybe it will answer maybe it will not, she told herself, it was pointless the answer wouldn’t help her but she was curious.
“What are you?” She asked. Two Feathers was just a meat puppet now and she really wanted to know who was pulling the strings of the man she had watched grow up.
“Oh, you are smart, maybe there is something to the whole Indian medicine man bull.” He said grinning again; it was a dead thing, no humor and no life in it. “Why I am human of course. Through and through. But since you asked so nicely, manners are important you now, I am what you might call the Servant. But what really matters is your dead. We can’t have you passing on messages like some spiritual western union to people like him. You’re just another fraud after all, did the news the dead bring you save you. NO! So, we regret to inform you of your impending death.” He said his voice cold and mocking. Something dark and hungry glittered in its eyes.
He lifted the pistol and fired twice smiling in satisfaction as the old woman crumbled and fell in a pool of blood. He felt a flicker of annoyance as he saw she was smiling as if she had one final joke. “Jokes on you old lady, you’re going to rise and eat half of your family, then they will finish off the rest of your people.” He stiffened as the door slid open and a woman’s voice from behind him said. “Actually, you’re the punch line” and his world exploded in a flash of light and the thunder of God.
Kat, pistol in hand rushed over and shot her Great grandmother in the head before she could rise, tears spilled down her cheeks, this woman had been part of three generations of lives, it didn’t seem right that she was gone now, not like this. “I did what you wanted, and you won’t be coming back” Kat said aloud then turned and gave look of pure disgust at the body of Two feathers where he lay on the floor in a pool of spreading blood, her eyes slowly lifted to the door where two of her cousins stood, weapons ready.
“It should be over here and at the farm soon” she said as she stepped back and let them gather her Great Grandmothers body. She hadn’t wanted to take over for her great grandmother. But that didn’t matter, her great grandmother had asked, and Kat had said yes because she had no right to refuse after all that her Great grandmother had done for her people.
✽ ✽ ✽
The zombies that infested the roads were blocked by the barricades and the steep hills, bluffs and ridges, and were no real threat at the moment. The horde that had tumbled down the ridge onto Cove road, had mostly turned and followed the retreating Raiders. A few remained before the wall, milling about seeking a way inside.
They would have to deal with the undead outside the farm later Jared knew, but not today. He got things organized, sending half the men forward again, too cover the other group of men who would spend the rest of the day gathering the corpses around the farm, piling them up by the river in the north pasture to be burned.
He sat slumped in a chair, exhausted and tapping his pencil on the open note book in front of him. “how many?” He asked Jill who had just returned from the makeshift triage center they had set up in the parking lot. “Six dead from Lloyds people,” She replied worried about Jared he
looked like he was about to collapse. “twenty people wounded, Doc Winston says two of them are iffy, but he thinks he can save them.” She said then added, “Carl and Michael were killed at the wall.”
Carl had been nineteen, Michael had just turned twenty, both had escaped Knoxville with Logan only to die here at the farm, Jared thought. “what about Steve?” he asked. Steve had collapsed shortly after the fight had ended, he had been wounded at the wall and had not said a word, just kept going till blood loss had dropped him.
Casualties were lighter than expected, but still a blow to both groups. “Doc said he’s fine, just needs a few days of rest.”
“I note no one has asked about me,” Chris said as he slipped into a seat across from Jared.
“you got a couple of grazes, and Doc probably gave you a lollypop for being a good boy after he put on the band aids.” Ronny commented. “did you see the gash in Warrens face? A .50 round punched through sending a big splinter into his face, Doc said it was seven or eight inches long and as thick as a pencil. He’s going to have a killer scar from his hair line down to his jaw. Lucky he didn’t lose his eye.”
