Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (23 page)

The shotgun’s slide locked back, and I quickly felt my pockets for more ammo.  Not finding any, I placed the shotgun on the ground and started pulling the reloading tubes out of my pockets. I had all of them out and on the ground when they attacked.

Three little zombies flew out of the fog at full speed, their little mouths open and hissing, while their black eyes glared hatred and hunger at me.  Their hands wer
e stretched out in front
, and their legs burned up the distance between us. 

I whipped out my pick with my left hand, using the momentum of drawing it to slam it into the head of the nearest and center zombie.  I let the handle go as I drew my trench hawk with my right hand, swinging the spike end up into the temple of the small boy attacking on the right.  My left hand wasn’t idle while I was killing this zombie, since the one on the left was nearly on top of me.  I drew my knife in an awkward cross-body draw, just managing to get the blade reversed and into the head of the third one. 
Its
momentum brought it into me, and as it
died,
it looked up into my eyes.  For the briefest of seconds, I looked into what made these kids monsters, and it was a very frightening thing.

I pulled my weapons from the heads of these three as the doors behind me opened up.  Men and women stepped around me and looked down at the bodies.  The way they looked now, you would have thought they were just sleeping. 

“Jesus, John.”  Andre spoke first.

“What?”  I didn’t think I had done anything wrong.

“I think you’ve actually gotten
better,
” Donna said, standing next to me, looking down at the bodies.  Her eyes were misty, and I knew she was thinking about the kids back at her house.

There was assenting murmuring going on around me, which always had always made me uncomfortable.  I never sought the limelight, never looked for accolades.  I just survived.

“Good work.  Next time
,
keep the
help,
” Charlie admonished as he complimented me.  It was a weird combination.

“
Well,
it’s done, and you guys saw how fast they are and how they can ambush.  If anyone wants to head home, now’s the time.” I said, gathering up my stuff.  I took out a lighter and burned my weapons.  No one paid any attention to the red flames.  We’d seen it so often it wasn’t even interesting anymore.

Donna spoke, still not taking her eyes off the kids.  “I don’t think I can do it, John.  I don’t think I can kill them.  I’ve always had a problem with the kids, and this just makes it worse.  I can’t be where I might hesitate and get someone else killed.  I need to be at home to protect my own in case you guys can’t keep this outbreak contained.”

I understood.  “Go home, Donna.  No dishonor.  You can make preparations and get everyone around you ready.  No one doubts your ability.  We all have that one thing that makes it different for us.”

“What’s your thing, John?”  Donna asked, finally taking her tear-filled eyes off the kids.

“My
family,
” I said, without hesitation.  “If I thought they were in danger
,
I’d be doing what you are doing right now.  Difference is
,
I have the guilt of not being there when I knew there was danger
,
and I lost my brother because of it.”

Donna gathered up her pack.  The sun was fully up, and was quickly burning off the fog of the river.  Out in the parking lot, small forms were being revealed, remnants of the fight Charlie and I had.

Just before she left, Donna gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek.  “Give my love to Sarah and your boys.  Keep them all safe, John.”

“I will.  Keep your kids safe, too.”  I returned the hug and watched as Donna walked over to one of the small cars.  Duncan came over to watch her walk away.

“What a shame for us
men,
”
he
said, shaking his head.

I knew what he meant.  “People can’t help what they are. I feel sorry for her, though.”

Duncan looked at me. “Why?”

“There weren’t that many lesbians before the Upheaval. I would imagine there are darned few afterwards.”

“Good point.”

I changed the subject.  “We ready to roll?”

“Cycles are warming up, and we got a message from
Tommy,
” Duncan said.

I brightened.  That meant they were all still alive.  “What is it?”

“’Hurry up here, or we’re in deep shit.’”

Given how my day started, I took that as a really bad omen.  I wondered if this was going to be our last stand, the last chance to keep what we had fought so long for.  For a second, the rage flared, and I looked forward to the prospect of battle.  When it settled, I realized I was as scared as I ever was.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter 40

“Talk to me!”

“I’m trying!  Hang on.
Will you stop shooting for just one damn second
? Thank you!  Take it outside! All right, where was I?
Oh yeah, the zombies.”

I cursed.  Sometimes Tommy had a lousy way of rela
y
ing information, especially when he was in the middle of a zombie fight.

“All right.
  We hit the main horde further north than we had hoped for, but they were still travelling east.  Luckily, several veteran groups had gotten the message and made a push south, forcing the zombies to re-route and head east closer to the river valley.”

“How far north?”

“What?”

“Fuck it all. 
How far north
?”
I shouted into the transmitter.  Duncan just shook his head while Charlie looked worried.

“Oh.  We caught up with them near Oswego.  A group of about twenty of us had made a stand just south of Aurora.  We managed to push them south and took out about sixteen of them.  They didn’t try to
fight;
they just veered off, running
east,
” Tommy
said.

Charlie mouthed a few words at me, and I repeated them out loud to Tommy. 
“How many?”
  I knew it was a serious question, since the route of the zombies took them through some decently populated areas.

“As far as I
could tell
, we were looking at a horde of over three hundred.”

Jesus.  They must have run through some good-sized communities and somehow found some reinforcements.  Still, it could be worse.

“Hey
,
John?”

“Yeah?
”

“
I heard a report that there are more coming up from
Joslin
. 
Apparently,
there was a breach in the boundary.  Not big enough for an adult zombie, but…” Tommy let that one hang and I just shook my head.

“How bad is that news?”

“Maybe five hundred, maybe more.
  It was second hand guessing from someone who said they saw them in the dark, but I don’t doubt it.”

I nearly dropped the transmitter. 
Anywhere from eight hundred to a thousand.
  I looked at Charlie and Duncan and they were as shocked as I was.  I exhaled slowly before answering.

“All right.
  Where are you now?”  I could still hear some firing in the background.  It was sporadic, which told me the main fight was over.

“We’re actually on the south end of Naperville, cleaning up the mess these kids left behind.”

Charlie was a step ahead of me as he pulled a weathered map out and spread it on the dashboard. I looked at it quickly and made some calculations.

“All right.
  You need to get to I-55 and set up on the highway.  You need to herd those kids to the river,
and then
head them south to the main bridge at 355.  We’ll get to the capital and round up everyone we can, and make defenses for that bridge. 
You have to keep them from going anywhere but that bridge, you
understand.
  You have to!”  I was getting louder and Duncan stopped m
e
by shaking his head.

“I got you, John.  Sarah sends her love by the
way,
” Tommy
said.

“I’ll see all of you soon.  The net tightens along the 55 corridor and the canal.  No one gets past, and get them to the
bridge,
” I repeated, already forming a strategy in my head.  If it worked, we could finish this once and for all.  If it failed, the world would finally surrender to the dead.

“Got it.
  By the way, we have about a hundred people here working this end.
Tommy out.”

That last was
good
news, and I needed it.  I really hoped the capital would have what we
need;
otherwise,
this was going to be a
hard
fight.  I stepped out of the truck to address the assembled men and women.

“They’ve caught the main horde, but it’s going to be tough.  We’ll need to get to the capital as fast as we can to set up defenses and make sure everyone is prepared.  We don’t have much time, so let’s get moving.”  I kept it
short;
there wasn’t any need to elaborate.

The sun rose steadily as we worked our way north.  I rode in front, with Charlie and Duncan flanking me.  I thought about Donna, and her decision to sit this one out.  I felt guilty, because I might have been able to keep my brother alive had I sat this one out myself.  Just as I thought it, I knew it was hopeless.  I couldn’t have sat out any more than I could send another person in my place to do something for me. It just wasn’t in my nature.

Working our way around
Joslin
proved to be tougher than I had thought.  There was a lot of debris and junk on the roads that I didn’t remember being there before.  Charlie gave me a look as we had to pass around another roadblock consisting of fallen trees, abandoned cars, and a strange collection of chairs and tables.

We crossed the river at Brandon Road, passing over the locks that haven’t run in years.  If we tried to open them now, they’d break apart and block the passage, which would accomplish exactly the opposite.  We usually tried to avoid stupid when we could.

Patterson Road was a difficult trek, mostly because it was a route that people had taken hoping to avoid the congestion of the highways and main roads.  Trouble was, everyone else had the same thought, and it was choked with cars as well.  They were all rusty and had broken glass everywhere. No zombies were still sitting in the cars, but the debris slowed us down considerably.  I figured it took us about an hour to go two miles.

Chapter 41

We finally reached Route 52, which took us north again.  Charlie led the way this time, while I hung back and shouted a conversation with Duncan. 

“
What’s the plan?
”

“
We’ll set up firing points, with fall back positions
.”

“
Just like Denver
?”

“
Just like Denver
.”

I was hoarse after a few minutes, so we rode in silence for a while.  We rode under the I-80 junction, and had to be careful, since there were several cars all over the place.  We had to get out and push one car around so we could pass by. 
A few
were upside down, mostly because they had been thrown off the bridge.  When we cleared the way, the guys on the crew looked forward to
overpasses;
since it wasn’t often you had the chance to drop a car off a bridge.

Charlie took us east on Fourth avenue, which was strange since he had no more idea of where we were than I did. But I trusted his sense of direction, which found us north again and picking up Route 171.  I gave Charlie
a big thumbs
up, and he replied by shrugging, since we both knew it was blind luck we weren’t still cruising around
Joslin
.

We flew up Route 171, following
the canal all the way up to Free
port.  This was the road we needed to g
o
to
Leport
.  The sun was getting higher and I was getting more and more anxious, since I had the feeling we were running on borrowed time. 

As we passed Free
port and made our way north, I saw several cars join our procession.  I figured they were more veterans coming to join the fun, and I was glad to have them.

On the outskirts of town, we passed a small shop, just south of the 143
rd
street interchange.  It was a gun shop, one of the three I visited many years ago, when the winds of the Upheaval were just starting to blow.  A few memories played with my head, and I found it ironic I was back here after all this time.  As we passed, I reminded myself that the last time I was here, Ellie was still alive. 
So much since then.
 
So much.
I thought to myself.