Siege (2 page)

Her own feelings about the baby were mixed. On the one hand, she was happy for her friend and ready to be an aunt, but on the other she feared for that new life being born into a world full of the hungry dead. Was it really fair to bring a new life into a world so full of death? Would it have been fair to try to raise her boys in this undead world? Jason was older, almost an adult, but Mikey and Benji would have lost whatever remained of their childhood innocence.

Frowning, she felt her stomach tighten at the thought of her dead children. Tears burned in her eyes as she realized she would rather her boys were with her than dead. Juan would have been a good father, and they would have worked hard to give the boys a good life. But that would never happen. Somewhere, her boys were part of the undead hordes.

“Something is going on,” Katarina said, pulling Jenni away from her dark thoughts.

The caravan was slowing down.

“We got problems ahead,” Ed’s voice crackled over the CB. Jenni snatched up the mouthpiece. “What’s up?”

“Bunch of zombies have a van surrounded. Looks like people are up on top of it. Whole way is blocked.” Ed sounded peeved by the whole situation.

“We have to save them!” This was Curtis’ voice coming through the static. Jenni could imagine the grim expression on the young policeman’s face.

“Got any ideas on how to handle it? ‘Cause I’m listening,” Ed answered.

“Pull up,” Jenni said to Katarina.

With a nod, Katarina shifted gears and moved their truck out of the line to drive to the front where Ed’s vehicle, a school bus, sat idling at the top of a hill. As they drew up next to the bus, Jenni scowled.

“Fuck.”

It was hard to see how many people were on top of the van, but it was easy to see the crowd of zombies gathered around them. It looked like the van had stalled out and the occupants had managed to get on top of it through a sunroof. The door on the side was open and zombies were jostling each other to get inside. Another group was busily consuming someone near the side of the road.

Ed slid open the window next to the driver’s seat and peered out at them. His grizzled face looked pissed beneath his battered hat. Jenni pushed the button for the window and it slid down. “What do you think, Ed?”

“Got at least three dozen down there trying to get to those folks. I figure we can either drive close enough to try to get them to come to us, then flatten them. Or we can open fire and risk hitting the people.”

“They won’t draw off if they’ve got fresh food in front of them,” Jenni reminded him. “What if we get close enough to thin out the outer edge with the guns, then go in and clear out the rest with machetes, spears and my trusty ax?”

Curtis walked up next to the vehicles, his weapon out.” His truck was idling behind Ed’s. “We need to hurry whatever the hell we’re doing. It’s getting bad down there.”

The zombies were so anxious to get to the people on top of the van, they were beginning to rock the vehicle. Someone on top was trying to stand to wave down the caravan and Jenni gasped as he tumbled off into the zombies. His screams tore through the cold air, then broke off abruptly. The zombies were moaning with delight as they swarmed him.

“We gotta move now!” Jenni shoved her door open, nearly ramming it into Curtis. Yanking her ax out of the truck, she motioned with it for Felix and Katarina to follow her. Shoving the ax into the specially made sheath on her back, she slammed the door shut with her hip. Determined to bust some zombie heads, she headed down the hill.

“We don’t have a plan, Jenni!” Ed shouted after her.

Jenni stalked toward the undead swarm. “Kill the fuckers! That’s the plan!”

3. Sentries of the Dead

The zombie slammed its mangled hand against the fort wall again, growling with what sounded like frustration.

Katie looked down at it from her sentry post, her blond curls flowing in the wind. Rubbing her cold, reddened hands together, she studied the creature’s distorted features. Most of its flesh had torn off and one eyeball rolled up toward her in a gouged socket. How it could see her, she could not imagine, but it howled even more desperately as it caught sight of her. It had no lips, so its bloodied, decaying teeth looked hideously large as they chomped together hungrily.

“I can’t even tell if you’re a boy or a girl,” Katie muttered, blowing on her fingers to warm them.

“So gross,” Stacey remarked, peering over the edge of the wall. The slim, young woman leaned her elbows on the cold, cement bricks and stared at the zombie. “I think it’s a boy.”

“That one patch of hair on the back of its head is kinda long,” Katie pointed out.

“Yeah, but lots of redneck boys have long ponytails. Trust me. There were a lot of guys back in my old town with ponytails longer than mine.” Stacey reached behind her head to tug on her short braid. She looked far healthier than she had when first rescued. She had been terribly thin, her shoulder blades and collar bone sticking out of her tanned skin in sharp angles. Now she was fit and muscular and recently, the former coach had started sports activities in the fort to keep people fit.

“Clothes are kinda on the neutral side. Yellow shirt, I think.”

“Could have started out white.”

“Maybe.” Katie tilted her head as she studied the creature. “I think it’s a girl. Still ugly as sin.”

“Uglier. Guess we should put it down.”

“Yep,” Katie agreed.

Now that her hands weren’t cramped from the cold and the bloat from her pregnancy, she reached out for the huge crossbow that was rigged up on a sliding track. It was one of Jason’s creations and it made killing the zombies up against the walls a lot easier. Using the mirrors attached to the contraption, she adjusted the crossbow using a lever to get it into the accurate position.

“I’m not saying I miss the big crowds of them, but lone zombies just seem so sad,” Stacey decided.

“Until they try to eat you,” Katie reminded her.

“Well, there is that.” Stacey watched Katie carefully aim. “Jason is like a genius, huh?”

“Jenni says that he’s always been one of those kids tinkering with stuff. She said he once took apart his Xbox, put it back together and it still worked. I don’t think she’s surprised at some of the things he’s come up with lately. But I’m pretty stunned. For a teenager, he’s pretty amazing.”

Katie checked her mirrors and saw that she had the zombie perfectly lined up. She squeezed the trigger.

The bolt slammed into the top of the zombie’s head and it fell backwards onto the street, limbs askew. Later, a cleanup crew would remove the body and toss it into the landfill on the outskirts of town.

“Penis! I see a penis! It’s a boy!” Stacey sounded far more excited than she should be.

“Gross!” Katie made a comical face. “That is so disgusting!” She couldn’t help but look. “Ugh! Stacey!”

Stacey giggled and wiped her bangs away from her forehead. “It flopped out!”

“It’s not funny! It’s a poor dead guy.” Despite herself, Katie was laughing.

“My God, the gallows humor around here is thick.”

“Freud would have had a blast studying us,” Stacey agreed.

“Oh, well. Either we be a little crazy and laugh at the absurdities of life or just give into the despair and die.” Katie shrugged and reset the crossbow, taking care to show Stacey each step.

“I’ve done despair. It doesn’t help anything.” Stacey fell silent for a moment, obviously pondering something. “The fort hasn’t really had anyone go nuts and commit suicide or anything has it?”

“Well, a city councilman in the first days tried to save his zombie family and ended up eaten. And we do have the Vigilante pitching people over the wall.” Katie slipped her hands into her jacket. Her swelling belly was straining the zipper. She would need to find a new winter coat. “Some of us haven’t handled things as well as others.” She thought briefly of Jenni.

“And others have used the crazy to survive.”

“Who do you think the Vigilante is?” Stacey pulled the collar of her coat up a little closer to her face and huddled down into it. Katie bit her bottom lip, not sure what she should say, then opted out by just shrugging. “No clue. I’m sure everyone has a theory.”

“I think it’s Nerit,” Stacey confided.

“She wasn’t here when the first guy got pitched over the wall.”

“The meth dealer?”

“Yeah. Ritchie.” Katie remembered far too vividly the young man’s mutilated body as he stared up at her from the road, duct tape still over his mouth.

“Well, there goes my theory.” Stacey watched the street thoughtfully. “A few people think the Vigilante is doing the right thing.”

“I had no love for Phil or Shane, but what the Vigilante did to them was inhumane. Stranding them with gimped weapons in the middle of the zombie deadlands.” Katie shivered.

“They kinda deserved it.” Stacey shrugged. “I’m not gonna cry over them.”

“Maybe not. But what if the Vigilante gets mad at you, or Eric, or someone else you care about? What if the Vigilante kills them out of some skewed sense of justice? The Vigilante killed Jimmy because he panicked when we took the hotel. We all have our moments. All of us. We’re human. And zombies are so fucking terrifying how can we not be afraid?”

Stacey’s brow furrowed at Katie’s words. “When you put it that way...”

Katie pulled her cap down on her head a little tighter, the cold wind whistling in her numb ears. “Life is hard enough without worrying about someone judging you and casting you out of the fort based on their own sense of right or wrong.”

Stacey leaned her elbows on the wall, avoiding the rebar poking out of the top of the cement blocks. “I just want to feel safe.” Her gaze was on the mutilated body of the zombie below. “But I never really do.”

They smelled Calhoun before they saw him. The scrawny, old man shoved them roughly aside and looked down into the road.

“Hey, Calhoun, watch it! Katie is pregnant, you know!”

“Checking something,” Calhoun muttered.

He scribbled in a battered notebook, making quick notations with a stubby pencil. Katie craned her head to take a peek, but couldn’t make sense of the marks.

Stacey covered her nose with her gloved hands, trying not to gag while Katie felt her eyes watering. Calhoun was more ripe than usual. Calhoun whipped out a strange contraption that looked like rulers taped together at odd angles and held it up, studying various views. Grumbling something about the city planners being imbeciles, he made more notations.

“Calhoun, um, we’re supposed to be guarding this area. You need to move along.”

“Dear God, woman! Do you understand the gravity of what I am doing?

No, you do not! I am trying to make this fort safe from the messed up clones.” Calhoun pointed down at the corpse in the road. “Dear God, they don’t even have the decency to cover their junk. Heathens!”

Folding her arms over her breasts, Katie stared at Calhoun, one eyebrow arched.

“Fine! I will return later!” Calhoun whipped around, his long coat slapping their legs. His long scrawny legs carried him down the stairs past Travis, who was just starting up to the sentry post. The cold wind ruffled his hair over his furrowed brow as he climbed up the wood steps. Katie winced. “I’m busted.” She fumbled with the crossbow, making sure it was locked into place.

“Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. He has that look, too.”

Katie slowly turned to see Travis stepping onto the platform. He looked amused and annoyed all at the same time. He folded his arms slowly over his chest and cocked his head.

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping Peggy with the inventory?”

“Yeah, but Stacey needed training and the supply caravan isn’t back yet so Jenni couldn’t help her so...” She rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. I’m just sick of being cooped up and not doing anything.”

Travis kissed her brow lightly, his hand sliding over her belly. “Yeah, but you’re pregnant and, after that bad cold you had, Charlotte told you to take it easy.”

“Standing here, manning the crossbow, and shooting zombies really isn’t that taxing,” Katie assured him. She hated to admit she was a little weak from her illness. “I need to feel I’m doing something.”

“Inventory is doing something,” Travis assured her.

“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to do it.”

“True,” he admitted, grinning. “But it keeps you inside and warm until you’re back to full fighting form.”

Katie tried not to look as peeved as she felt. Her husband was damn annoying when he was being over-protective, but she really couldn’t blame him. This was their first child, and conditions were not the best for bringing a baby into the world. Medicine was limited, and their food supply was not very rich in nutrients. They were living off of a lot of processed food, but there was hope the gardens would have a good yield and bring them healthier meals.

“You better not be trying to keep me off of sentry duty when I am feeling one hundred percent. I don’t like being coddled. I already agreed not to leave the fort on supply or rescue runs.” Katie gave him a grumpy glare, but let herself lean into him.

Travis hugged her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “You’re so cold. You don’t need to relapse. Please get in where it’s warm.”

Stacey was trying not to pay attention to their discussion, but she was smiling slightly.

“Fine. Then you finish up here.” Katie put on her gloves now that she wasn’t manning the crossbow.

“Will do.”

“And let me know when the caravan gets back. They’re running late and I’m starting to worry,” Katie added.

His lips were cool against hers. “I will. Now, get going. Peggy was muttering about you not helping her.”

“Fine. Fine.” Katie waved to Stacey, then climbed down the stairs. On the ground, she felt even colder. The construction site wasn’t nearly as busy or crowded as it had been in the first days. A large area was roped off for a garden, and a few people were working at breaking up the earth. Juan’s mother, Rosie, was among them. She looked up briefly and waved. Katie waved back, then headed to the entrance of the hotel. She felt uneasy despite the security of the walls and she hoped Jenni and the others would be back soon. She shut the door behind her, blocking out the cold wind that moaned like the undead zombies in the world beyond the walls.