The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (37 page)

Night
watch ended at sunrise. Everyone had breakfast together. Day watch began after
breakfast was over. Following breakfast, they sent out a search team to look for
a ham radio. This team was led by Gafar, with Sabah, Hsen, Allahohnim and Roya accompanying
him.

“All
right, we need to go across town to the other side. We have not searched that
side of town yet. The only thing that we do not need is water. Anything else
that we find is great, but the radio is the primary item that we are looking
for. Once we find one, we stop searching and return home. If we find a radio
that works, we’ll be done for the day. It will be the most important thing that
we have ever found.”

“That
works for me, Gafar. We should have time to search for three to five hours.”

They
walked to the other side of the town. It was a long hike. As they neared the
other side of town, they were starting to pass a train switching depot below
the small ridge that they were on. As they approached the terminal, they could
see through the large doors inside. What they saw was something that would
scare anyone out of their skin.

Allahohnim
was leading them down the ridge, and was the first to see it. He waved everyone
to come close to him. He held a finger in front of his lips to let them know to
be quiet. In a whispered voice, he said, “Stay right here. Do not make a noise.
Do not move. I looked into the terminal. If you look closely you can you see
into the darkness. Do you see them?”

“If
that is what I think it is, we may be in for a lot of trouble. That is a huge group
of zombies. It would not surprise me if there are 300 or more zombies in there.
We know that they do not come out until late afternoon to start hunting, but I
never thought that we would find where they hide until they came out to hunt. I
think we might have just discovered it. I want to stay here for a minute to
take a good look at the terminal. Then we need to back away from this place as
quickly as we can. There are several hours until they come out. I don’t want to
be here when they do.”

“Okay,
Gafar. What can I do to help you?” said Allahohnim.

“All I
want to do is look at the building to see if there are more of them or what the
building has to offer that we can use against them. On the way back, we can
search for the radio we need.”

After
looking at the terminal for five or ten minutes, they backed out of the area.
As they headed back home, they searched as many buildings as they could. Luck
was with them; they found an old ham radio with a hand-cranked power source.
They took a minute to power it up to see if it worked. Much to their surprise,
it did. They quickly packed it up and headed back.

On the
way back, they didn’t talk very much. When they reached the house, they were
ushered in by the day watch. Kamal was the first to say anything.

“You
guys look beat. Did anything happen while you were out? Was your day not
successful?”

“Kamal,
we found the radio that we were looking for, but we also found something
horrible. We discovered where the zombies rest until they come out to hunt.
They are in the train station switch house on the other side of town. If I
never see that again, it will be fine with me.”

“Gafar,
you found a zombie nest? What were they doing?”

“They
were in a huge pile, one on top of another, resting.”

“It
was so spooky to see them just lying there like that!” said Sabah.

“It
must have been terrifying. Gafar, do you remember that we had heard that the
zombies were afraid of fire? Do you think we can get that terminal building
locked up? If we can, maybe we can set it on fire. If we can hold them in the
building as it burns, we might just kill them.”

“I
don’t know Kamal. If it does not kill them, we need to be sure that we do not
drive them back towards our house here. I think we need a better plan to make
sure that they do not come back this way. If we had three teams with four
people each. Two teams would close the big doors as they set the switch house
on fire on all four sides. The third team would set houses or buildings between
us and the switch house on fire. The zombies do not cross burned areas. The
main door of the switch house looked like it was the only way in or out. The
door is nearly closed so it won’t be too much to close it tight. One team would
be our strongest men at the doors to pull them shut. The second team can set
the building on fire. If we do this right the zombies will not be able to get
out. It is an old building made out of timber. Once it is lit it should burn
for hours. The last team will set buildings or houses on fire between our house
and the terminal. If any zombies survive the fire, the line of burned buildings
will block them from coming this way. This should work.”

“Gafar,
I think you have a good idea. The only other thing that we need to watch is the
weather. We should plan to start this start around ten am. The wind will need
to be blowing away from our home, towards the mountains on the other side of
town. That way if the buildings we set on fire gets out of control the fire
will be blown away from us.”

“Kamal,
to make this as easy as possible we should make bundles of fire starting
material. This way all we have to do is drop it, light it and move on to the
next bundle. Once the last night watch has determined that the wind will favor
our plan we should be able to kill or drive the zombies out of this town.”

“Gafar,
my friend, that is a good idea. We need to get our dinner ready for tonight.
Tomorrow we will start making fire bundles for this. Nothing else but this task
will be worked on until this is ready. I want the three teams to be you on one
team with Husayn, Hsen and Allahohnim. The four of you are the strongest of our
group. I will be on the other team with Tetsuo, Raja, and Ahmed. The last team
will be Gawdat, Sabah, Maana, and Roya. This will leave Badr to stay in our
house to lock the gates behind us as well as to stand watch until we return. Is
everyone okay with this plan?”

Everyone
was on board with Kamal’s plan. Dinner was being prepared. It was ready as the
plan was agreed to. They ate in silence. The night watch was started. The rest
of them went upstairs to lay down to sleep. They broke off into small groups to
talk quietly. The next day they got up with the sun. They had their breakfast.
Then all of them except the day watch started to construct the fire starting
bundles. They used many of the burlap bags that they found in the back
courtyard. The bundles were loaded with straw as well as small limbs off of the
trees that were around their house. By the time that the day was finished they
had everything they needed to start a fire. One in the switch house then in the
other buildings on the way back. During dinner, it was Roya that spoke up.

“Kamal,
tomorrow if we do not have the wind in our favor, it would be a good idea to
take the fire bags out to walk them most of the way. This way we will not have
to carry them on the same day that we plan to use them to start our
fires.”

“Roya,
that is a superb idea. Yes, it would be a good idea to take our fire bags out
to carry them most of the way if the wind was not in our favor. Doing this, we
won’t be as tired on the day that we will be setting the fires. No matter what
happens tomorrow, we will get the fire bags spread out. Thank you for your
idea.”

They
rested that night. The people on watch stood their watch. The next morning the
wind was not blowing at all. To make this work in their favor they wanted the
wind at their backs. They set out to carry their fire bags as far towards the switch
house as they thought would be safe. The rest of the day they spent resting or
talking. That night they had dinner. The night watch was manned as well. At
first light, they were awakened. As they ate their breakfast, they felt a
slight breeze that was blowing towards the switch house. Today was going to be
the day that their plan would be put in action. Kamal finished his breakfast
first. He stood to speak to everyone.

“Today
is our day. Today we will either kill or drive most if not all of the zombies
out of our town for good. Is everyone ready to go?”

Everyone
was ready. They formed up into a single group as they started towards the
switch house. As they got closer, the third group stopped in their assigned
position. They had their fire bags ready from the day before all they had to do
was light them. These fires would drive any escaping zombies away from their
house back into the hills. The other two groups continued on to towards the
switch house. They picked up their fire bags that had been dropped off the day
before. As they crested the small hill overlooking the switch house. Kamal
stopped there so he could speak to his two teams.

“I
want one team to set our fire bags in place around the building ready to light
the bags. The other team will have two men on each door. As the men on the
doors are ready, they will start closing them. At that time, I want all of the
fire bags lit. If this works, we will have trapped the zombies inside. If this
works for us, then we need to get it out on the ham radio after we get back.
With any hope, we will have found a way to kill zombies in a large group. As
soon as the doors are closed with the fire bags burning we need to get out of
here as quickly as we can. Is everyone ready?”

All of
the people on both teams gave a thumbs up. They snuck down to the switch house.
The first team was setting their fire bags in place. Kamal’s team split off to
close the massive doors on the switch house. The doors had not been moved for a
long while. They were stubborn. The doors started to move but it was a
difficult job. It took every ounce of mussel the men had to close the two
doors. But close them they did. As the fire started to rage, the doors were
nearly closed. Some of the zombies had started to become agitated. The men on the
doors got them both closed as a few of the zombies shuffling towards the
opening as it closed trapping them inside. The old, dry building was beginning
to burn quickly. Kamal with the two teams did not stop running to look at what
was happening. They ran like their lives depended on it. The last team had
started their fire bags, the buildings near the switch house were burning as
the other two teams ran by. All three teams met on the ridge that was less than
three kilometers away from their home. They stopped to look at what they had
started. Everything that they could see was burning including the switch house.
Gafar was the first to speak.

“I did
not see any of the zombies make it outside of the switch house. I do not think
any of them got out. Did anyone see anything?”

“Gafar,
I do not want to place any hope on the deed we just did. No matter what anyone
else says the zombies were people at one time. What we have just accomplished
was to kill them. That is what I will carry with me from what we did today.”

“Kamal,
it was not easy for any of us to do this thing. If we did not do this, then we
would have allowed them the luxury of killing us at a time of their choosing.
Nobody won anything today. We need to find a way to stop this outbreak so the
world can start living again rather than just surviving.”

The
three teams stood for a while watching what they had done. After about 30 or 40
minutes, they started to walk back to their house. No one spoke. They were let
into their house by Badr. She had been watching from the roof of their house.
As the teams came into the house, it was quiet. No one spoke. No one cheered.
No one looked at anyone else. They all just sat blankly staring at the walls.
They ate their night meal in relative silence. They started their night watch.
At first light, they got up to have their breakfast. Kamal spoke to the group.

“Yesterday
was hard on us both physically and emotionally. We burned a large amount of our
little town. We need to make sure that we accomplished what we had set out to
do. I want four people to come with me so we can get as close to the switch
house as we can. We need to see what is left of the zombies. We know that the
zombies flee from fire so any zombies that were out would flee by going over
the hill on the other side of the city. The people I want to take is myself,
Gafar, Hsen, Allahohnim with Husayn. Is that all right with the four of you?”

“Kamal,
I will go. We need to make sure that this is over.”

“I
need to see what we did to them, Kamal. I will go. We need to be prepared to
run at any time that we are out.”

“This
was done by us. We need to make sure that what we did is over. I will go with
you.”

“This
will be a hard thing to see, but we do need to make sure that what we started
ended as we believed it would. I will go as well.”

“Thank
you. We will travel through the ashes of the building that we burned as much as
we can. We know that the zombies do not like the burned areas. By walking
through the ashes, it should give us some comfort that the zombies will not be
there. If all we did was move the zombies away from our town using the fire,
then they may be back at some time. We need to go so we can get back early.”

The
five men set out for the switch house. As they walked thru the ashes of the
burned buildings, they did not see any zombies or anything else. When they got
to the ridge that overlooked the switch house, they could see that it was
nearly burned to the ground. A very small section of the building was left
standing. One side had not burned completely to the ground. It was some two
meters at the highest point. It was an old building built forty to sixty years
ago if not longer. It was made out of wood. They could see that the doors had
fallen into the fire and burned. Husayn looked at the men as he spoke to them.