Fighting to Survive (63 page)

“
Now,
let's put cherry on top,
”
Nerit said.
“
Signal
Jason.
”

On
top of city hall, a camouflage's sheet was thrown off. The teenagers
and Roger quickly unfurled the long slingshot and loaded it up with a
nice homemade Molotov cocktail. The kids had been practicing for
weeks, so when their first shot hit the last bandit truck and sent it
bursting into flames, no one was really surprised. Cheers erupted all
over the fort.

Below, the bandits
panicked. Through the smoke, they could be seen scrambling to get
back into their trucks.

It
was then that the mini-bus flew down Main Street, zombies flowing
behind it. Ed was leading the zombie horde like a pied piper for the
undead. Through the smoke, the bandits did not see the mini-van or
the zombies, until the mini-bus turned into the quickly opening gate.

The
zombies, finding fresh bodies, were immediately on the bandit trucks.
They ripped at Shane's body, the guy Katarina had shot in the knee,
and the body of the dead girl. They lay siege to the trucks, beating
on them, desperate to feast on those within.

Meanwhile,
the gates closed quietly behind the mini-bus, not one zombie slipping
in with it. They were too intent on the bandits.

The
bandit trucks slammed into each other as they tried to escape, then
finally the remaining trucks roared off, the fresher, stronger
zombies running along behind them.

In
the street was the burning truck, a few straggling zombies, and the
dead.

***

Silence filled the
eagle's nest. They knew they had won. They felt it and it was
glorious. But they had gone to a place that was not quite pleasant.
No one could seem to make themselves look at Nerit.

Finally, she stood,
and shouldered her sniper rifle.

“
That'll
teach them to mess with the Amazons,
”
Calhoun decided.

“
They're
afraid now,
”
Nerit said. She looked at Katie and Travis, then at Juan and Curtis.
They were all quiet and overwhelmed. Only Calhoun was grinning and
dancing a weird jig.

Katie
finally looked up.
“
We
did the right thing.
”

Nerit
shrugged slightly, then said,
“
I
need a smoke.
”
and walked away. She could hear the cheers of the people in the fort
as she made her way to a quiet corner. Calhoun jigged away to the
music in his head as Curtis sit in sad silence, his hands over his
face, weeping. Katie rested her hand on Travis
’
shoulder and he kissed her forehead soothingly.

The
cigarette was lit and dangling from her fingers when Katarina sat
down across from her a few minutes later. In silence, Nerit offered
her a cigarette. The younger woman took it. Katarina lit up and
slowly exhaled.

They
looked at each other and said absolutely nothing, but they exchanged
something powerful in their gaze. They would always be the ones to do
what was right and hard.

After
two cigarettes, Katarina finally said,
“
I
should have shot his dick off.
”

They
both laughed.

1. Alone Time

Bill was weary, bone
weary. Every muscle in his back was cramping. If it was possible, his
eyes were even cramped. Rubbing his grainy eyes, he sat on top of the
city hall roof. Since the hotel had opened, that roof with its
gazebo, pool and nice patio furniture had become the place to hang
out. The wind could be brutal up there, but the building had been
angled to break down the wind. Personally, he preferred the city hall
roof. He sat in a plastic chair, staring out over the fort.

He
could hear sounds of the party in full swing up on the top of the
hotel. The music and laughter were loud. People were ecstatic at
their victory. He wished he was.

Popping
open another beer, he exhaled slowly. Nearby Katarina was on patrol.
She was so silent he barely noticed her. Well, he did notice her. She
was pretty in a sort of rough way. Her face was very lean, her cheek
bones high. Her eyes were very keen and had fine lines around them.
Of course, what was truly beautiful about her was her long, thick red
hair that was now always braided down her back. He had considered
asking her out, but when he wasn't sure what that meant in this dead
world, he just gave up. One thing for sure, she was Nerit's star
pupil, and scary as hell when on the job.

He
sighed.

Right
now, he hated his job.

A
lot of people had thought it was all over when the bandits
high-tailed it out of town. Of course, that wasn't the end of it, but
the civvies had thought it was. While they celebrated, Bill and
Curtis, with a small group of armed guards, had exited out the
loading dock door and grabbed one of the surviving bandits. Actually,
it had been easy to grab him since he was crying hysterically and
banging on the door. The two survivors from the vehicle that had
chased Travis' team had tried to shoot their way out of town. Out of
ammo and his partner being eaten by the zombies, the last man
standing had run back to the fort.

It
had been Clyde Otis. Bill knew him. Clyde was the youngest of a
family of crooks that hung out with the Boyds. The Otis Auto Repair
Shop was nefarious for underhanded dealings and the scamming of
unlucky travelers who broke down in the county. But the family was
also in the center of other illegal dealings that went back a
century. Though the Boyds were the main crime family in a three
county spread, the Otis family was tied into it by marriage and
association.

Clyde,
all of twenty-two, had cried like a baby the second Bill had hauled
him into the fort. He reeked of alcohol and body odor. His
red-rimmed eyes and haggard expression spoke of hardcore drug use.
Unfortunately for Clyde, he was on his way back down from a high and
completely overwhelmed. He had not struggled one bit. As a precaution
they had tied him to a chair, but all Clyde did in response was cry
more. He was unshaven and pale. His pupils were dilated and his nose
raw.

“
Lots
of drugs, huh,
”
Curtis had said coldly.

Clyde
had cried harder.

It had taken nearly
an hour for him to calm down. The story came out in angry, then
desperate answers to their questions.

The
story was simple.

When
the zombie plague hit, the Boyds rounded up their buddies and went on
a crime spree. The first few days were full of looting, raping,
revenge murders, and zombie hunting. The Boyds took full advantage of
the situation. Clyde, unmarried, cried when he said his Mama and
girlfriend had been eaten, but admitted that the gang had not
attempted to protect their family other than the boy children. The
wives, who had often sported broken noses, blackened eyes, and had a
terrible lack of teeth, had been left to fend for themselves. The men
gathered up the boys and took off in a caravan of death.

They
picked up women survivors along the way, used them until they were
lost to the zombies or died. Sometimes they played games with the
women, dangling them off a rooftop over crazed zombies. Sometimes the
women were bitten and they tied them down until they died. Clyde
swore up and down he had nothing to do with it, but Bill had seen all
the classic symptoms of a man who was lying.

The
bandits lived in a blur of violence, drugs, and alcohol. The new
violent, deadly world was to their liking at first. They would listen
to the fort's contact with survivors until they figured out where the
survivor's were located, then swoop in if there was any indication of
women or food.

Clyde
admitted that the ruse that had often worked was to hold one of the
women or young girls they had kidnapped at gun point and threaten her
life if they were not given supplies. It was a ruse to get the
survivors to open up their safe haven. The false promise to let the
girl go was often believed, much to the bandits' amusement.

Moving
from one place to the next, the bandits had slowly dwindled in
numbers. In fighting among the bandits, zombies, and armed survivors
had an impact on them. From the sound of it, most of them had been
inebriated or high as a kite through most of the first months. The
bandits had avoided the fort out of fear of a military presence. It
was only later that they realized the fort was just civilians.

Then
the hot weather blew in and their steady diet of drugs, junk food,
and alcohol began to have an impact. The need for food sent them
scavenging. It was then they realized that the fort they had been
ignoring had salvaged the food before they arrived. They had done
some drunken hunting to sustain themselves, but eventually, their
desire for guns and food had pushed them toward the fort.

Bill
took a long drink and stared out toward the hills.

How
long the bandits had watched, Clyde wasn't sure. But their leader,
Martin, had been smart and sober enough to herd some zombies down to
the fort to see how the survivors reacted. He had put the gun store
under constant watch. Martin had been sure that the people in the
fort would return to the hunting store when they felt threatened
enough by the bandits and zombies. He had monitored enough of the
conversations between the fort and Ralph to know of its importance.
Clyde did admit the truck that attacked the rescue mission Bill had
been on had not been planned. Martin had a sense of prison justice
and the men who had screwed up so royally were given a fate similar
to Shane's.

Bill
rubbed his brow and sighed.

The
survivors in the fort had been so terrified of the bandits. The
precautions taken had been extraordinary. Every inch of the fort had
been scrutinized. Extra spears had been made. They had tried to
attach barbwire along the tops of the walls. Contingency plans were
made for every possibility they could think of. Everyone had been
gripped with paranoia. Even the children had been instructed in
protecting themselves. One of the worst images in his mind was of
Peggy's son wielding one of their makeshift spears. Peggy had to take
it away from him before he stabbed someone through.

Taking
a long swig of his beer, Bill sat back in the plastic chair and let
the warm breeze flow over him.

The
bandits had been routed and were not anything more than drug addled
hoodlums. But that did not mean that more dangerous and clever people
were not out there. That thought terrified him. Could they truly be
that thorough? Truly make the fort as safe enough to withstand
anything? Hell, they had actually bricked up all the windows on the
second floor. The basements of all the buildings were secured. The
wall was being reinforced...

He
looked over the street and sighed softly. There were no lights to be
seen anywhere but the fort. The world was so black and empty, the
stars shone with unequaled brilliance above.

How
long the fort's lights would stay on was anyone's guess. So far it
was good, but there were plenty of generators on standby. Hopefully
things would remain as they were for the fall and winter.

He
was glad that his deceased wife, Doreen, had not lived to see this
day. She had fought the cancer so diligently as it slowly ate her
away, but now he was glad she had lost that battle. It would have
been sheer hell to see her endure this. He was very lonely, but it
was better than seeing her suffer. Besides, if she had been in a
clinic or hospital when it all went to hell, she could have very well
ended up one of the undead.

Glancing
over at Katarina, Bill sighed. When they let Clyde out the side door,
he had been sobbing, begging to be allowed to stay. Curtis had handed
him a spear and sent him on his way. Clyde had only made it a few
steps before Katarina ended his life. Even though Bill had seen it
coming, he had flinched.

He
lifted the beer to his lips and took another long drink. He was
thinner now, but his beer belly persisted. Rosie was working on
brewing her own beer, so chances were it was not going away once the
local supply was used up.

Katarina
slowly walked up to him and stood over him, her sniper rifle cradled
in her arms.
“
Shouldn't
you go sleep? Or maybe go up to the party?
”