“Then what’s the plan?” Sawyer asked.

  “I call in a lot of our men,” Eli replied. “We’ll take them out on the bridge.”

  Del asked, “Why not take them out from inside the safety of your walls?”

  Eli didn’t respond right away, but after a few seconds, he shook his head. “I don’t like it. Some could come to the Sanctum’s walls, and some could waltz on by then turn back on us. They are a threat we’ll have to deal with sooner or later. No, this bridge is a natural chokepoint. If we can lock them down there, we can take them out.”

  “That’s a lot of fucking zombies,” Sawyer said.

  Eli shot him a disapproving look, and Sawyer asked, “Sorry. But that is a crapton of zombies.” He paused and followed up with, “What if they just try to cross the river?”

  Eli put his index finger into the air and said, “First, we have watched these things a lot, and they do not like to go into the water unless they have a really good reason to. It’s like they have held onto two of our primal fears, fire and water. Second, they have no idea how deep the water is. I know for a fact there places on the river where it runs ten to twelve feet deep. These things do not swim. Third, that river is about eighty-feet. That’s a lot of water for them to cross. The current is all that swift today, but it will take them downstream, and that will be that.”

  “Do you know the depth of the river by the bridge?” Del asked.

  Eli looked a little flustered and said, “I don’t know, but it could be eight feet.”

  “Or it could be four,” Del said.

  “And it hasn’t rained in days, so the current is pretty gentle,” Jo said.

  “Enough!” Eli said. “We could speculate all we want, but I like my plan, so that’s the way we are proceeding.”

  Jo and Del knew they were really just along for the ride. They had had their say, and the decision had been made.

  As if on cue, Sawyer said, “I think they’re on the move again.”

  They didn’t need binoculars to see that the mob was on its way toward the bridge. The zombies flowed like dark and deadly floodwaters, surging inexorably along toward an inevitable conclusion.

  “Is that one in the lead?” Del asked.

  Eli lifted the binoculars to his eyes and watched the herd of zombies heading down the roadway. Jo could tell from Eli’s body language that the lone zombie was, indeed, leading the pack.

  Jo said, “You need to get more people down here and now.”

  Eli shot her a look, and it looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, he unclipped his walkie-talkie from his belt and brought it up to his mouth.

  “Bonds, you need to get our people down here and do it now.” He continued giving orders for nearly a minute. While giving the orders, he seemed completely in control, but when he lowered the walkie-talkie, Jo could see his hands were shaking. In her opinion, that did not bode well for them.

  Chapter 30

  All Hands on Deck

  Donovan had been watching all the commotion out the window of the dining hall for the past half hour. Eli’s men were on the move, and he saw the tension in their expressions. Something was going on, and it had to be big.

  He hated being caged inside the building with no information. It was the opposite of being on the outside, looking in. It was nowhere with nothing.

  Mason walked up beside him at the window and said, “Any update?”

  “Something is up,” Donovan said, still looking out the window. “It does not look good.”

  “What do you think it is?” Mason asked.

  Donovan turned to Mason and lowered his voice and said, “It could be the horde.”

  “Oh shit,” Mason said. “These people are not ready for this. We aren’t ready.”

  “I know, I know,” Donovan said, but as long as they were locked up inside the building, there was nothing he could do.

  “Do you think that’s why they took Jo and Del?” Mason asked.

  “Probably, but we are completely in the dark here. Dammit.”

  The doors at the front of the room burst open, and a guard Donovan knew as Bonds came into the room with two other men.

  “Hey, everyone,” Bonds shouted. “We need you to come outside.”

  Donovan left the window and strode toward Bonds. “Everybody,” he said in a raised voice, “stay where you are.”

  Mason followed closely behind. When they got to Bonds, Donovan said, “Before anyone goes outside, you need to level with us.”

  “So, you’re in charge of these people?” Bonds asked.

  Donovan looked around the room and took an inventory of the people. It seemed like almost all of them were his. “Most of them, yes.”

  Bonds leaned in close to Donovan and said in a near whisper, “We really need you to come outside.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on,” Donovan said, matching the volume of Bonds’ voice. “You could be ushering all of us outside into a firing squad for all I know.”

  Bonds’ eyes widened, and he said, “That’s the furthest thing from the truth. We need your help.”

  “Tell us what for first,” Donovan said.

  “It’s zombies, isn’t it?” Mason said from over Donovan’s shoulders.

  Bonds kept his voice low, “Yes.”

  “The horde is here, isn’t it?” Mason said.

  “We don’t know what it is, really,” Bonds replied. “Eli’s very skeptical of this giant horde idea, but it’s just a lot more than we have ever encountered at once.”

  “You guys aren’t ready for this,” Mason said.

  “That’s why we need you,” Bonds said, teetering on the edge of exasperation. “We have your weapons outside. You’re our back-up just in case.” He leveled a hard stare at Donovan and asked, “Are you willing to help?”

  “If it’s what I think it is, it’s in our best interest to lend a hand,” Donovan said.

  Bonds waved his arm in a gesture that seemed to invite Donovan and Mason to move towards the door. “Then let’s go.”

  Good to his word, Bonds had a truck with an equipment cart outside the dining hall filled with the weapons. It was a literal cornucopia of guns. All of Donovan’s people were able to gather a weapon, and sometimes even two. The more, the better, they thought.

  Mason found his rifle and checked it for ammunition. It had the two clips he had had before, plus there was a large wooden crate with several types of ammunition. Once Mason had what he felt he needed, he turned to Bonds and asked, “Are they coming from the west?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where are they now?” Mason asked,

  “From what I heard, they are on the other side of the river,” Bonds said.

  “Are they headed into the city?” Donovan said as he came to stand by Mason.

  “Not yet,” Bonds replied. “Eli’s says they’ve stopped just short of the bridge.”

  “Why have they stopped?” Mason asked.

  Bonds reached up and scratched his head and said, “Well, that’s the damndest thing. Eli said it looked like one of the zombies might be leading them, and that one had stopped in the road on the other side of the river.”

  Donovan’s jaw dropped open, and he said, “Say what?”

  Bonds opened his mouth to respond, but the speaker on his walkie-talkie squawked to life.

  Eli spoke, “They’re moving toward the bridge again. What is the status of our people getting down here?”

  “They’re on their way,” Bonds said.

  “What about us?” Donovan asked. “When do we get on the move?”

  “Eli wants you held in reserve,” Bonds said.

  Mason took a step closer to Bonds and said, “That’s insane. They need us down there.”

  Bonds took a step back and said, “I have my orders. You are to hold here, and that’s it.” For a moment, it looked like he was about to reach for his pistol, but he pulled back. “Listen, just do what we’re asking. Please. This is...is an evolving situation.”

  While they didn’t like it, Donovan and Mason agree to remain in a holding pattern -- for now.

  Chapter 31

  Facing Down the Dead

  “They’re at the base of the bridge,” Sawyer said as he surveyed the movement of the herd of zombies trudging along the road on the other side of the river.

  The quartet of Eli, Del, Jo, and Sawyer remained in place in their vantage point in the stands of the football field, watching the zombies approach, and feeling tendrils of fear creeping through their bodies. Although Del and Jo had faced down some large packs of zombies, there was no guarantee they’d make it through this one. It was becoming clear that Eli and Sawyer were out of their league.

  “Is that one still in the lead?” Eli asked. He was looking in the opposite direction, checking to see if any of his men were on the way yet.

  “Maybe,” Sawyer said. “It’s hard to tell. They’re all bunched together. Plus, there’s trees blocking my view some of the time.”

  “Keep watching,” Eli said.

  “Where are your people?” Del asked, anxiety clearly noticeable in his tone.

  “They’re on their way,” Eli said, bristling at the question.

  “If we’re taking on these deaders, it’s got to be more than the four of us,” Del said.

  Eli refused to turn back to address Del directly but continued watching up the road past the Convocation Center to the university grounds. “They’ll be here,” he said with a slight growl.

  “They better be,” Del said. “Or else we’re trapped here waiting for these undead bastards go by and us hoping this isn’t the endless horde coming from the west.”

  For her part, Jo split her time monitoring the progress of the horde and checking the roadway for reinforcements. From time to time, she checked their escape route. There was no way she was spending an extended stay in the stadium if they were on their own.

  Off to the right, she heard a low rumble, and when she looked eastward. She saw something big moving through the trees along the roadway leading back to campus. It only took her a few seconds to recognize a row of vehicles headed their way.

  “They’re here,” Eli said, and there was palpable relief in his voice. “Let’s head down to meet them.”

  Jo watched the convoy and saw that it was a mix of pick-up trucks, SUVs, and even a couple of military troop transports. All the vehicles looked filled with heavily armed people. This gave a little boost of confidence, but not more than a little.

  “Come on, Jo,” Del said.

  She pulled herself away from view and turned to see the others rushing down the stairs between the bleacher-style seats. As she hurried to catch up, she wished they could have been in the stadium to watch a football game instead of running to fight a herd of zombies. But she knew that wishes were just that - wishes. Reality is a harsh, harsh bitch.

  By the time the two forces marshaled in the street leading toward the bridge, the zombies were halfway across the bridge. They were two hundred strong, stringing across the bridge and onto the roadway. Like all deaders, they came in all different shapes and sizes and varying degrees of decay. Some missed limbs. Some were badly mangled, gouged, and dismembered. It was a regular rogue’s gallery of the undead.

  The combined forces of Eli’s away party and the ones that joined them numbered in at forty-eight people. Most were men, there were a few women scattered in among the new group. Jo couldn’t help but notice how tight their expressions were. If it wasn’t outright fear in them, it was definite anxiety.

  Each one of the new groups carried weapons ranging from AR16s to M16s to M4s. More than a few had shotguns in sling-style carriers. Every one of them had a sidearm. They also had bags of extra ammunition. One of the men ran to Eli and gave him a duffle bag with eight grenades. They were armed and ready for whatever war was about to happen.

  Jo and Del had faced down there like in the past, but maybe not in these numbers. Still, they had experience. It was clear to them that Eli’s people did not. Of course, experience didn’t make it any easier. They knew that many of their “experienced” friends had fallen to the undead. Despite moving at a turtle’s pace, when the zombies came in large numbers, they were as deadly as any natural or unnatural disaster.

  They had faced down some small groups, but nowhere close to this size. A herd this size was beyond intimidating. It was a sphincter-tightening, total fear fest, and Jo could see the terror rippling through their ranks.

  Del leaned in close to Jo and asked, “Do you think they’ll hold the line?”

  “I sure hope so, or we will be up shit creek without a paddle,” Jo said.

  “You notice that none of Donovan’s people are here?”

  “Yes, and I don’t see Donovan or Mason,” Jo replied. “I think we need as many people as we can. Donovan and Mason are pretty cool under pressure.” She glanced across the ranks of men there, surveying them. “I don’t know these people, and they look scared to me.”

  “Yep,” Del said. There was nothing more to say. They were in it up to their necks.

  Eli walked into view and shouted an order for a few of the men at the left side of the line to tighten up their spacing. He had positioned the men in two rows, making her think of Revolutionary War soldiers lined up to face-off against the Red Coats. Only these Red Coats were very, very dead, and they weren’t afraid of the gun Eli’s men held. They feared nothing and no one.

  “When should we start shooting?” One of the men asked.

  Eli turned to the man and said, “We can’t let them off the bridge. Once they reach this side, start firing and don’t let up.”

  “Do you see that one zombie that was in the lead earlier?” Jo asked Del.

  Del surveyed the oncoming herd of undead for a moment, then said, “No, but he could be in there somewhere. There’s so many of them. He could be lost in the crowd.”

  The undead continued shambling forward. They had spotted the tasty humans on the other side of the bridge, and now nothing was going to stop them. They would continue on their sole mission to devour each and everyone one of the people waiting for them. Then they would continue on, looking for more and more to eat, much like a plague of locusts.

  Del looked to Jo and said, “I hope this doesn’t end up like Custard’s Last Stand.”

  “That’s thinking positive,” she replied as she lowered to one-knee and raised her rifle to take aim.” Her target was a tall and lanky zombie with extremely long arms wearing what looked like a basketball uniform, but it was badly soiled. It moved in a broken loping stride, lurching forward and swinging its arms. She hated the idea of shooting down what this thing once was - a person with a life and probably people he cared for. But the truth of the matter was that person was long gone, replaced by a mindless, ravenous creature that would rip her face off if she gave it a chance.

  “Single shots at first!” Eli yelled. “We have to conserve ammunition.”

  Del said, “Oh shit. How many rounds do you have?”

  “I have what’s in my rifle and three clips,” Jo replied. “What about you?”

  “I only grabbed two extra clips.”

  “Not smart,” Jo said.

  “I didn’t know we were going to war,” he responded.

  “Remember the Boy Scout motto,” she said. “Be prepared. Or something like that.”

  “When were you a Boy Scout?”

  “Never, but my son was one,” she said.

  Eli shouted again, “Focus up, everyone.”

  The first wave of zombies was about to come off the bridge and onto the street proper. Jo glanced down the row of men and women. All of them had their weapons up. More than a few of the barrels trembled.

  The first zombie landed his foot off the bridge when Eli shouted, “FIRE!”

  Despite using controlled single-shots, the noise of all those guns shooting at once sounded like holy hellfire. Fire spit out of the barrels of all the weapons and bullets flew faster than the eye could ever track. Some of the more panicked shooters ignored the single, measured-shot rule and just let loose, burning through the first clip in sort order.

  To say that it was a slaughter was an understatement. The first wave of zombies took the brunt of the fire, and were literally shredded. Pieces of flesh and bone blew into the air, splattering the zombies behind them in what looked like dark red paint.

  Of course, many of the second and third rows of zombies were also hit as the bullets that didn’t land on bones flew through the first wave of the undead. These secondary impacts were nearly as devastating on them as it was on the first row.

  Many zombies collapsed under the withering rate of fire. A few at the ends of the rows were even propelled over the side of the bridge and into the water below. Some of the unlucky ones missed the water and slammed onto the bank, breaking many bones in the process. It was not a pretty sight, least of all for the zombies.

  Too bad, none of the other zombies cared. They just kept surging across the bridge, stumbling and sometimes falling on the carcasses of their undead brethren. A few of the downed zombies that hadn’t taken headshots flailed their hands in the air or tried to push themselves up on broken and battered limbs. In any other context, it might have been sad or even pathetic, but Jo felt no pity for the undead. She knew they would have no mercy for her.

  A pall of smoke from the gunfire wafted back over the shooters, stinging their eyes. The acrid smell of all that shooting burned their nostrils, but they kept pulling their triggers until most got through their second clips.

  Ears rang from the cacophony of all the guns being fired at once. Eli did his best to shout over the few shots between what was the second volley and what would be the third.

  “HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!” he shouted while waving his arms at the right side of the line.

  Almost all the people on that side heard and heeded his call for a ceasefire. It took physical taps on the shoulders to get some of the shooters on the left of the line to finally hold their shots.

 

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