Snareville II: Circles (12 page)

“Well, Boss, I’m open to suggestion on how to get out of here,” Bill said as he stood beside me, fists on hips. He spat a wad of tobacco onto the pavement.

“We ready?”

“Yeah. Everything’s stowed.”

I walked back to my rig. “Jinks, you bring the blooper tube?”

She ducked back down her spider hole, came back up with the M-79. The bore on it was huge. Looked like a massive sawed off shotgun.

“Any girl tells you size don’t matter is lying,” she grinned. Her blue eyes sparkled. She was a good kid, but a bit goofy at times.

I couldn’t help myself. I grinned back. “I’ll keep it in mind to ask Pep and Cindy. What kind of feed you have for the thing?”

“All the goodies in the grab bag.”

I laid out the plan. Every gun would be running full out. Trucks were lined up, pointed at the gate. My crew mounted up, except me. I climbed into the giant green forklift; it was a high-lift fork truck with an extendable system. I should be able to get the forks under the gates, lift them out of the way and make an opening for my crew.

The diesel engine fired. Black smoke billowed from the exhaust. I signaled Jinks. From on top of one of the semi trailers, she cut loose on the swarm with her flechette rounds. One shot. Two. Three. Thousands of sharpened nails sliced through the horde. Hundreds went down to be ground under the rotten feet of their mates. She followed those with high explosives. Forty millimeter grenades ripped bodies to pieces. Last rounds to be lobbed into the mess were white phosphorus. Ol’ Willie Peter will burn anything, even under water. It liked rotten meat and old clothes. Several burning corpses staggered into their mates, set them on fire and shuffled on, dripping flame and burning flesh. Jinks scrambled down and jumped into the Humvee.

Directly in front of the gate, the line thinned and I shoved the forks under the frame. I worked the controls. Forks strained against locks and hinges. Metal groaned; the noise drowned out the noise of the zeds. I gave the machine more gas and the gates popped loose. One went up over the cab; one fell forward to crash down on a cluster of zeds that weren’t smart enough to get out of the way. I gave it throttle, drove into the swarm. Forklifts don’t move fast, but the cab was secure. Forks swung back and forth. Rotten bodies fell. I rolled through the swarm.

Over the noise, I heard my crew shouting on the com link. Guns started to fire. They were through the gates. Humvees in the lead, semis between, like we had planned. I swung out of the drive, gave the forklift more throttle and headed down the street. This was the sticking point of the whole plan; I was trapped in the cab of the forklift, the things don’t move real fast and I needed to get back into my Humvee. Half a block up and we were still in the midst of the swarm.

I pulled the forklift onto the side of the street. We kept moving, but it was slow going. We needed to bust ass out of town, but we weren’t going to do it this way. More zeds plastered themselves against the window of the cab. I waggled the truck back and forth and most fell off. I felt like a hamster in a cage with a room full of cats.

“You guys go on and get back to Snareville. I’ll drive as far as I can in this thing and then hoof it home,” I shouted into the com link. More zeds slammed against the glass. I fought the urge to unload my pistols on them. Guns fired next to me. Pistol and rifle both.

“Daniel Matthew Jackson. If you fucking well think Pepper and I are bringing these children into the world without their father, you’ve lost your mind. Stop bein’ noble and get your ass in this Hummer.”

A couple of feet away, my rig rolled to a stop. Cindy stood next to Jinks in the spider hole. Both girls popped zombies with pistol shots. Deaders fell between the vehicles as they waited. More zombies surged forward.

“I’m open to suggestions,” I said into the link.

“There’s a top window on the thing, right?” Cindy shouted. I could hear the pitch of her voice go up. She cranked more rounds into the swarm. It was getting close. I took the hint. The roof of the fork truck was a good seven feet off the ground. I could jump to the Humvee.

As I thought it, I did it. My pistol spat bullets through the glass. Shards sprinkled down on me. Most of it went out. I stood, shoved my elbow against what was left of the glass and pushed. I climbed up onto the roof, cut my neck on the way out. Apparently zombies have a good sense of smell, although Cindy never mentioned it, because the moans turned to near screams as I flicked crimson droplets from the slice.

I stood on the metal roof as soggy hands slapped the edge. One of the rotten bastards tried to climb up the arm of the truck. I convinced him otherwise with a .45 slug. But the others had seen him do it. Two more came up the same way and I blasted them down.

“Just jump!” Cindy screamed.

Over the noise, I heard a rifle shot. Blood blossomed on Cindy’s shoulder.

“Murderer!” The word cut through the noise. For a moment, no one spoke. The zombies fell silent. I turned to look down the block. The half-rotten looking guy with the black hair and rifle must be the king. He screamed at us again and raised the rifle. I give my guys credit, every gun swiveled his way and cut loose. A wall of rotted flesh closed in around their king as he dove away.

I jumped onto the roof of my rig, slithered through the spider hole and shouted at Wally to drive. He complied. The Hummer jumped into gear. He mashed the throttle and we blew out of town in a cloud of black smoke. All the rigs followed. We ground deaders in the treads of our tires like so much cow shit.

We blasted through Wataga, on to Oneida. Jinks patched the hole in Cindy’s shoulder as best she could. The bleeding slowed. She lay with her head in my lap, ashen, but not shaking. That was a good sign. Shaky means shock. Shock out here would kill you faster than the bullet.

“It passed through, Boss,” Jinks said. “Small military round, I think. Must have been full metal jacket. It didn’t do a lot of damage. If it’d been one of your varmint rounds, she wouldn’t have a shoulder left.”

I smiled. It was weak, I could feel it, but there was relief in it.

“Getting’ dark, Boss,” Wally said. “We camping out or headed home?”

“Home, as fast as we can get there. Pass word. People need to keep awake. Keep alert. We topped off back there when we loaded up so we should have enough fuel to get home.”

Wallace nodded. He picked up the microphone and passed word. He flipped frequency and radioed home to be expecting us to come in on the run. Cherry took his hand as we rolled on into the night.

“I’m not leaving you,” Cindy whispered. “I lived through being a freak. God brought me to you. I’m not leaving.” She rolled her blue eyes up to look at me. “I could feel him, Danny. Before he shot me, I could feel him worm his way into my mind. He’s crazy. Crazier than I ever was.”

“It’s okay, Baby. We’ll get home. We’ll get away from him and get you patched up. We’ll be home in a couple of hours.”

“He’ll find us, Danny. He’s coming. He can find me. All he has to do is reach out his mind far enough.”

Chapter 17

Cindy lay in the hospital bed. She had finally dozed off. Pepper sat with us in the soft chair. I had the hard-backed one. We’d built a small hospital in Snareville, behind the library: small emergency room, an office, two birthing rooms and a surgical room. Beyond that there were five patient rooms. Supplies and furnishings came from the Perry Hospital in Princeton. It was a bad run when we had to go snag supplies. The place was outright creepy. There was still blood all over the place, along with half-eaten corpses that had rotted to bones. We took what we wanted and left.

It was touchy going with Cindy. With her pregnant, Doctor Leary had to be careful with what he used as a pain killer and what he used to put her asleep when he patched up her shoulder. She had a tube in the wound to help it drain. The exit had been closed. Leary had her arm immobilized. Her regular breath was nice to hear. I knew she was scared. Not really of the wound, but of that nut finding us.

I turned at the soft knock at the door. Tess stepped inside, followed by Lieutenant Gibson. “How’s she doing?” Tess asked.

“Physically, okay,” I said. “That’s not what I’m so much worried about.”

“I’ve heard some weird rumors, Danny. I need you to confirm them.” Tess sat as I stood. She and Gibson were having a baby soon as well and I didn’t want her on her feet.

I told her the story of the king and queen in a soft voice. Tess said little. Asked a few questions as I explained as best I could what happened. It was hard for me to get my mind around, but I had no reason to doubt what my wife said. At the end, Tess nodded. She looked up at Gibson. He took her hand.

“You want to go home and get some sleep, Boss, we’ll look after her,” Gibson rumbled. “You look about all in.”

“Thank you, Tony,” Pepper said. “We appreciate it. I didn’t want to leave her here alone. C’mon husband. Let’s go. We can’t do anything more tonight. They’ll send word if anything happens.”

She held out her hand, I took it and helped pull her to her feet. I kissed Cindy on the forehead, told her I loved her and started back the few blocks to the house. I noticed on the way out one of the other rooms was occupied, but there were usually one or two beds occupied throughout the week, so I thought little of it.

We took our time getting home. I liked having time with Pepper. We didn’t say much. I knew Cindy would be okay. I knew she’d heal. It worried me that she was scared of this nut, but there was little I could do about that. Pepper told me that Bill and his family were moved in across the street. We could start decorating the spare room for the new babies.

“One of these days, we’re going to have to stop making babies, you know?” Pepper said. “We can get condoms and such now.”

“Thought you liked being pregnant, Pep.” I pulled her close with a smile.

She looked up at me, gave me a soft kiss. “I do silly but I need a break. Two in two years is a bit hard on the body. Let’s take a breather and just practice awhile after this one. Besides, we’re already doubling them up. We keep this up, we’re going to have to build a bigger house.”

I pulled her close. She still fit under my arm, but her belly led the way home. “Okay,” I chuckled, “next year or so we just practice. Promise.” I patted her side. The baby thumped me back. “Boy, she wants out.”

“Won’t be long, she’ll be out to see her brother.”

Ella met us at the door. I updated her on Cindy, gave her a hug and went upstairs to shower and go to bed. Rachel and Michael were asleep in their little beds. I could hear them breathe as I stood outside the door. It was strange to see the empty bedroom across from ours, but it wouldn’t be long before it was occupied. I stumbled into our room. Pepper waited for me, naked. There’s something about pregnant women that is so sexy, I’ve never been able to put my finger on it, but she always amped up my motor. Too bad she was at the stage where we couldn’t do anything about it.

“I saved you something to do,” she said as she handed me a jar of cocoa butter. I laughed as I took a handful of the stuff and began to rub it on her belly, up around her breasts, down along her sides. I kissed her shoulder.

“You’re not helping my blue balls, you know?”

“I thought you’d be too tired to think of that.”

“I was until I got in here. Do you know how beautiful you are?”

She wriggled in my arms as I rubbed more of the cocoa butter down her side. “I feel like an orca, but thanks for thinking different. It’s weird this far along. I just want it over. Early on, you feel sexy and then it just gets hard.”

“Sorry, Babe.”

“Don’t be. It’s a little different than what I dreamed of as a little girl. I never figured to have a husband and a wife. I never figured there actually would be such things as zombies, but I’m happy and content.”

I finished and we lay in the bed together, my arm around my wife and child. Last thing I remember was the crickets outside and the soft sounds of sleeping children.

Morning brought a knock at the door. A young Raider stood on my porch. I opened the door for her. She came in with a formal salute and stood at attention until I returned it.

“What can I do for you this morning, Private Smith?”

“Captain Death, Sir, Colonel One Shot requires you and Sergeant Pepper to accompany me.”

“Where to, Private?”

“I was told not to say, Captain, but the matter is pressing. Lieutenant Gibson is already there and the other officers are gathering.” She paused a moment. “Please, Sir.”

I headed upstairs, met Pepper on the way down. We went upstairs and pulled on our clean BDU’s. If all the officers were going to be there, I figured we better look like a unit. I even put on my polished boots. Pepper wore about the largest shirt we could find, to cover her belly. Smith waited for us, led the way outside and down the block. We turned a street before the library and headed for the hospital. Pepper and I looked at one another, but I figured Smith wouldn’t say anything. She was a good soldier.

“Room three, Sir,” Smith said as we walked through the doors.

I peeked in on Cindy in room one. She was still asleep, so I went down the hall. A soldier stood on either side of the door. One Marine, the other a Raider. Both saluted as we stepped inside.

Gibson was there with Tess. A few other officers stood around the walls. Leary stood at the head of the bed. Only Hunter and Bill were missing and they came in directly behind us.

Kenny lay in the bed, eyes closed as if they hurt. What breath he took in was raspy, weak. His face was sunken, damned near the color of the white cotton sheets he lay on. He’d trimmed his beard not long before, as it was cut close to his face. The door closed behind Bill and we were all crammed inside. Pepper slid her hand into mine as we waited.

“All here?” Kenny asked without opening his eyes. Leary murmured we were.

“I’m dying,” Kenny said in a forced whisper. No one said a word. “Uncle Sam can notch one more victim on his belt. Killed in Vietnam, just didn’t know it for awhile.”

We looked at one another, but I had an idea what Ken was talking about. Gibson did too. I could read it on his face. Leary spoke up.