Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (20 page)

I stopped my bike, and spun around, punching a large hole through the head of the little demon who was about to launch himself at me.  He was the closest, and I shot the next two that were edging up on me.  Two more shots in the general direction of the horde and then I reloaded and was gone.

The zombies kept coming, having only me to chase, when Charlie showed up from the south.  He came out of the woods like a vengeful god, firing as he went, and when he reached the main
horde,
he used his shotgun as a club and knocked one down as he passed.  That little girl hissed loudly as she regained her feet, only to lose her footing as Duncan returned and shot her in the head.  Four more shots and he was gone again, disappearing to the north.  Several zombies broke off and followed him, which wasn’t a good thing, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.  I just kept heading east, drawing the main horde with me, hoping to see Charlie again.

Just then, Charlie reappeared.  He followed the same pattern, firing into the crowd, and running into another kid that got in his way.  It would have worked, too, except the kid was kind of large and got caught up in the area between the engine
and the front forks.  Charlie couldn’t dislodge him, and ended up putting the bike on its side, jumping clear as the bike spun off the road and into a tree.

“Charlie!  Run for it!” I yelled, firing at the horde again. I thought we’d be able to handle this
,
when suddenly the zombies disappeared.

I was speechless for a second, not understanding what was happening, when Charlie called out. 

“They’re stalking!
  They just ducked down.  Meet me over on the trail!” Charlie bolted, running like he was late for dinner.

As I swung the bike around, I could hear the clicking of teeth that always accompanied an attack.  I wondered if it was just a herd
thing
or something worse. The tall grass concealed the zombies pretty well, but if you looked, you could see the tall weeds and grasses parting as the deadly little hunters made their way forward.  I resisted the temptation to fire, since it would just be a waste of ammo.

Charlie reached the trail ahead of me, and was waiting with his gun up, ready to kill anything that showed its ugly face. I raced over, and covered the ground as he situated himself on the back of the bike.  He faced backwards, and used the slings from the shotguns to rig a makeshift harness for himself.  This took longer than I was hoping for and the Z’s attacked again as we were sitting there.

Charlie fired five times,
and then
I fired while he reloaded.  I reloaded while he fired, then I fired again.  We were making some
good
progress knocking this horde down to size when they suddenly shifted and ran to the north.

“Dammit!  How do they know when to cut and run?” Charlie complained as he reloaded again.

“I think these little suckers run on pure instinct, and when they feel they can’t fight, they take
flight,
” I
said, reloading again.  I had four
speed loaders
left, and I took a second to fill two empty ones.

Charlie didn’t say anything for a minute, taking a second to reload a couple of his
speed loaders
as well.  When he did speak, I was surprised.

“That’s probably the most accurate thing about these little bastards I’ve heard so
far,
” He said, complimenting me.  “Let’s find Duncan.”

Gunshots to the south told us the direction to travel, so I kicked the bike into gear and headed that way.  It took me a minute to get used to the extra weight on the bike, and to be perfectly honest, Charlie was a tough passenger to have.  He was built like me, with most of his weight on his chest and shoulders, which put the point of balance on the BMW very high.  On a hard
turn,
we’d go down in a heartbeat. Add leaves to the equation and I’d be surprised if we weren’t walking in ten minutes.

We moved slowly through the trees, hoping to catch sight of our little friends.  I would be happy to catch sight of our larger friend Duncan, but since I still heard the occasional shot, I knew he was still in the fight.

Chapter 36

Charlie tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the trail ahead.  I stopped the bike and we both got off.  I moved forward and slipped into the lighter brush by the trail.  Charlie was on the other side of the trail, and moved as quietly as I did.  Ahead of us, a small group of ten zombies was moving slowly our way.  Had we kept riding
,
we would have plowed right into them.

I looked over at Charlie, and signaled for him to get higher.  I scrambled up a nearby tree that had a branch about eight feet off the ground.  It stretched out over the trail, but I was content to lean against the tree and straddle the branch.  Charlie found a spot directly across from me, but a little lower to the ground.  Since we were across from each other, we had to get higher.  This way, we could shoot in the other’s direction and not worry about hitting each other.

The zombies advanced, moving slowly, looking in all directions.  They seemed unconcerned with the shotgun blasts that were coming out of the woods around them, focusing only
on
the motorcycle sitting in the middle of the path.  There were eight of them, in various states of decay and raggedness. Two of them didn’t have shirts, but they didn’t have ears either, the cause which I didn’t want to think about.

Charlie looked over at me and I signaled him by sticking out four fingers and moving my hand across my chest to the left.  Charlie nodded.  I was telling him I was going to take the four to the left when they came into view, and he was going to take the four to the right.

I waited until the small band passed us, and when the middle kid was directly below, I cut loose on the four leaders to my left.  On my signal, Charlie blasted away on his side.

My first two shots cut down the zombies without warning, and the rest of the gang looked around for a second before trying to move.  That second was fatal, as it allowed me to shift my aim and fire three more times.  I dropped the last of my side a second before Charlie dropped his.  One of his managed to turn and start a run for the brush, but the buckshot ended those intentions.

I reloaded and clambered down the tree, trying not to hurt myself in the process, and looked over our prey.  Three of them were still moving, two of mine and one of Charlie’s.  Their heads were shifting, but the rest of them
was
quiet, telling me that
they
had large lead balls lodged in their spines.  I took out my pick and finished them off, pulling out a lighter to burn off the virus.  Charlie smacked the life out of his,
and then
burned his hawk as well.

We stood for a minute, listening carefully to the woods.  We didn’t hear any movement, or any teeth for that matter, and I actually took this as a good sign.  We didn’t have an accurate count as to how many of them there were, so we had no way of knowing if we’d killed them all.  All I could hope for was the chance that some of my brother’s killers were dead at my feet.

“Come on, let’s go find
Duncan,
” I
said, heading back to the motorcycle.  The BMW had just sat through the whole thing, purring contentedly while it waited for us to return.  We mounted up and moved again towards the sounds of conflict. 

Three minutes later and we were off the bike again, moving quietly through the brush.  From where we were, we could see Duncan sitting in a tree, contentedly killing the occasional zombie when they tried to move around him. He saw us coming through the grass and started to make some more noise, keeping our arrival quiet from the zombies in the tall grass.  I didn’t think he could carry a tune, and Charlie’s face reflected the same thought when Duncan started up a rousing rendition of “Crazy Train.” 

The kids thought it was awesome, with several of them running up to the tree and raised their arms in adoration.  I’m sure he would be very well received if he tried body-surfing across that little sea of terror.

Charlie and I used the distraction to spread apart, approaching the tree through the brush.  I stepped over several bodies, and hoped the group we had here was the last.

I waved at Charlie,
and then
got my reloads ready.  I was going to use everything I had, and figured Charlie would, too.

Charlie and I opened fire at the same time. The kids were confused, not understanding where the firing was coming from. I cut down several children, aiming at their necks and heads, shoving five more rounds in my gun after the mag went dry.  Charlie spaced his shots a little wider, and we managed to keep the noise up pretty well.  Duncan just took cover in the crotch of the tree, and waited for the firing to die down.

After two minutes of killing, we stopped to assess the damage.  The Z’s didn’t have a single point to focus on, so they just milled for minute, giving us the opportunity to cut them down. 

“How’s it look, Duncan?” Charlie called.

“Looks like nap time at a day
care,” Duncan
said.

“You’re sick.”

“Probably.
  But you know…oh shit.  Get down!”  Duncan yelled, pulling up his gun.

Charlie and I hit the deck, learning a long time ago to trust every member of our crew implicitly.  If anyone ever said ‘Duck’, or ‘Jump,’ you did so without hesitation.  I dropped to a knee in the tall grass and hunched low, effectively hiding from anything not three feet away from me.  I quietly checked my pockets for shotgun shells, and was relieved to find ten left.  I reloaded my
Benelli
and one
speed loader
, and waited for Duncan to fill me in.

Duncan didn’t disappoint.  “There’s sixteen more, coming through the trees to the
north,
”
he
said quietly.  There was enough of a breeze and enough leaves rustling around that his words didn’t carry much further than us.  “They’re spreading out, moving
slowly
.”

“John, slide to the west. Keep going.  Keep going. 
Right there.”

Duncan waited, watching the zombie kids moving slowly towards us.  I was sweating.  If they came across
me,
I’d have no time to get into action before they overwhelmed me.

“Charlie, head south.  Other way,
dipshit,
” Duncan
chided.

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard a whispered “Fucker!” from Charlie’s end of the woods.

“Here they come.  I’ll try and get their…
shit
!” Duncan yelled
,
and there was a crashing sound and a heavy expelling of air. 

This time I know I heard the word “Idiot!” because I was the one that said it.  There was no other explanation for what had happened.  Duncan had fallen out of the damn tree.

Chapter 37

The noise caused the zombies to go into attack mode, and we could hear the clicking of their teeth as they advanced.  I slowly raised my head and was level with the top of the grass.  To the
north,
there was a lot of grass swaying in the wind, and not all of t
he movement was caused by
air.

I caught a bit of movement to the south and Charlie’s head peeked above the grass.  He gave me a small wave,
and then
ducked back down.  At least I knew where he was.  Duncan stood up behind the tree, using it as cover as he stood and stretched his back.  He exhaled slowly to the sky,
and then
inhaled slowly, a sure sign the wind had been knocked out of him. That probably saved his life, since it shut him up. Had he called out, the zombies would have been all over him like ants on a cough drop.

Duncan saw me looking
,
nodded, pulled out his sword
, c
rouched down, and I could see him heading towards the zombies.

I gave it a
second
thought,
and then
figured it would be the best plan.  Instead of waiting for them to come to us, and possibly getting surrounded, we were going to go to them.  I liked this much better.  I wanted to close in to my brother’s killers and cut them down face to face.  The more I thought about Mike, the more I started to get angry, and the cold fires started again. 

I held my knife in my left hand, keeping my ‘hawk in my right.  I slipped further north, hoping to come around them from the back and take them out as they moved in front of me.  The clicking kept up, which actually helped a great deal in determining where the little bastards were.

Tall grass parted in front of me, and I used the long blade of my knife to lead the way.  I moved quickly, circling around and coming up from the rear.  When I thought I was about in the middle of their formation, I moved south, keeping an ear out for any movement to my left or right.  It would be downright embarrassing to stalk these kids so well that I wound up in the middle of them.