The Deadland Chronicles (Book 3): The Endless Dead, page 30
part #3 of The Deadland Chronicles Series
The bushy-bearded guard moved a step closer to the cart while also leaning away from it at the same time. “Why do we need to keep that thing alive?”
Doc Wilson jumped forward protectively and said, “We can learn from him. He says there may be more of his kind.”
“What is his kind?” Karen Gray asked, her face almost a grimace.
“We’re not sure,” Jo said. “A smart zombie. One that is half-dead and half-alive who somehow maintained their human intelligence.”
“Your kind did this to us,” the smart one said. “You have to pay for this.”
“You want me to crack you upside the head again?” Del asked, drawing back his rifle.
“No, please don’t,” Doc Wilson said as he took a step toward Del in hopes to ward him away from the creature. “He’s too valuable.”
Just as the Doc got in between Del and the creature, the half-dead thing surged up from the cart, partially snapping the moving strap holding him down. He was able to squirm a hand free and grabbed Doc Wilson by his jacket and yanked him toward his prone body.
Doc Wilson let out a grunt of surprise, and his face registered both shock and fear. Just as the smart one was about to fully draw Doc Wilson in for God knows what, Henry jumped forward. As he moved, he slashed down with the barrel of his rifle and cracked it down onto the smart one’s forearm. Even fifteen feet away, the others could hear the bone crack.
The thing released the doctor simply because the structure of his arm was so damaged that it could no longer maintain a grip. Doc Wilson lurched forward and free, falling onto his knees, landing hard.
Del didn’t hesitate and whipped the butt of his rifle across the thing’s skull. Again, the sound of bone cracking could be heard. The smart one slammed down onto the cart and fell still.
Doc Wilson pushed himself off the ground with some effort and got to his feet again. “Did you...did you kill it?” It was more than just a question. It was almost a plea for Del to have not killed it. Despite the thing grabbing him, Doc Wilson knew the knowledge gained from it might be the difference between them surviving or them being wiped out.
“I don’t think so,” Del said, leaning closer to the cart, but also maintaining a safe distance. “Did you see that? That is one strong mother.”
“Yes,” Doc Wilson said, “with three ruined limbs, it still had the strength to break the strap and grab at me.”
“Doc, it sounds almost like you admire it,” Molly asked. Unlike the others, she still had her gun trained on the smart one’s head. “I’d put a bullet in its brain if it were up to me.”
Karen Gray stepped forward, and there was a difference in her demeanor. Her shoulders were squared back, and her eyes looked sharper than before. She said, “We need to get to the gate. From what you’re saying, we may have the battle of our lives on our hands. Better to face it straight-on.”
“What about this damn thing?” the bushy-bearded guard asked, nudging his rifle toward the creature on the cart.
“Bring it along,” Karen said. “It sounds like it could be an important player in our future.”
She stepped around the cart, giving it a wide berth, and her entourage of guards followed.
Jo looked a little surprised but said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter 57
The Calm Before the Storm
“Here she comes,” Eli said, looking down a corridor of green space that once made the campus attractive to potential students. It had been well groomed then, but now endless vehicle traffic rutted it in several places. The flatter sections had been pounded down by endless foot traffic.
“The one in the lead is Karen Gray,” Eli said. “She’s in charge of the Sanctum.”
Jones balanced on his crutches and watched the procession. He tried to look past Karen Gray and her gaggle of guards. Past her, Doc Wilson trudged along beside what looked like a cart. Pushing the cart, he saw the young kid, Henry, and he caught a glimpse of Del. While it was hard to make out, it looked like a body on the cart, and when he saw it, his heart sank. At this distance, it was almost impossible to see if it was a man or a woman.
Some little secret voice inside him desperately hoped it wasn’t Jo and he was surprised by it. But concern for who it was, wiped away any surprise. Not being mobile, he was forced to wait for the group to come to him.
The people inside the walls of the Sanctum stood warily back from the small caravan of soldiers that had just driven in. Jones had ordered that most of the vehicles remain outside the gates. He wanted to play it safe. If things went south, his men could drive away, and the ones inside could fight their way out. He found it wasn’t strange to contemplate things like that anymore. The apocalypse had beaten the optimism right out of him. Things just went bad, and you had to have contingencies.
Still, he didn’t think they’d have any problems. Not after Eli’s flight over the land to the west. That had been one thing he had been confident about -- seeing a massive horde of zombies changed your perspective.
The closer the procession got, the better Jones was able to see that it was a male on the cart. It looked grievously wounded, and he was sure it was dead. He just hoped to God that it wasn’t someone he knew.
Once Karen Gray got closer, he saw a look of grim determination on her face. This was a woman on a mission. He just hoped that mission included his men.
Over Karen’s shoulder, he saw a familiar face, and he felt something unclench inside his body and spirit. He had known he had been holding his breath, and he finally released it.
The face belonged to Jo. When she saw him, she broke into a smile. Without hesitating, she pushed by several other people, picking up speed as she got going. She wasn’t running, but her pace was quick as she made her way around Karen’s guards.
As she got closer to Jones, she slipped the sling of her rifle over her shoulder and opened her arms. Even though he was on crutches, Jones did the same, but only with his right arm.
She fell into his body, wrapping her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
“I was sure I’d never see you again,” she said in a hushed voice.
Jones held her for a moment but then released her. Things were about to get interesting.”
Some people looked on with curious stares. The primary spectator was Karen Gray. Something in her expression seemed to say she wasn’t happy with Jo’s move to beat her to this little gathering.
She must have gotten over it because she asked, “Eli, why did you let these men in here without asking me?”
Eli took a moment to form him a response, then said, “Well, it is a necessary step. If--”
“What is necessary is you informing me before you make unilateral moves like this,” she said.
“If you let me explain--” Eli started, but she cut him off again.
“The Sanctum only has so many resources,” she said. “If we are to survive in the long term, careful consideration must be taken with each decision. We need to--”
This time Eli cut her off, “If you’d shut up and let me explain, then you’ll understand.”
Karen stepped back as if he had been slapped her face.
“There is a massive horde on its way,” he said. “We’re going to need any armed man and every gun we can get.”
“But you were always skeptical of this massive horde idea,” Karen said.
“Karen, I’ve seen it with my own two eyes,” Eli said. “Sergeant Jones,” he gestured with his hand toward Jones, “took me up in one of his helicopters. It’s true. All of it. This horde extends on for a half of a mile. I’m guessing it’s at least fifty thousand in strength.”
Jones knew then his ploy of getting Eli in the air had worked. Seeing is believing.
“Why can’t we handle this ourselves?” Karen asked.
“You’re not hearing me,” Eli said. “This horde is every bit as big as they say it was and more.”
“Well, why did you build these walls?” Karen asked. “Won’t they protect us?”
Jones disengaged from Jo and crutched his way to Karen. “Hello, ma’am. May I call you Karen?”
It took her a moment to concede to Jones, but she nodded her head.
“Karen, my name is Nathaniel Jones. I was, well, am a Sergeant, and I’m in charge of what’s left of the only operating military force in this area. We don’t have a lot of men, but they are mostly well trained and have a lot of experience with battling the undead. Plus, we have some hardware. I take it, you’ve seen our attack helicopters?”
“Yes,” Karen said. “They did fly over and from what I could see, took care of the zombies outside in short order. Are you saying your helicopters could wipe out of this horde?”
“No, not at all,” Jones said, putting a hand in the air and waving it back and forth. “They can have some effect, but we don’t have enough ammunition to make much of a dent in something that big.”
“Then what use are you?” Karen said, and she quickly realized how sharply those words had been spoken. She waved a hand in the air as if to push the words away. “That didn’t come out like I wanted it to. We are deeply appreciative of what you did, but we only have so much space and resources here. I’m not sure how you could fit in here.”
“Karen, this is bigger than you think,” Eli said. “I know I didn’t believe this talk of a giant horde.”
“I understand your reservations, but me and my men could stand between you and being overrun,” Jones said. “Your walls will act as a great first defense, but I can see a scenario where you kill the first wave. Then you kill the second, and you repeat this until you have a mound of undead against the walls. Then the rest just walk up that mound and over your walls.”
A light bulb went on behind Karen and Eli’s eyes. They had been counting on their walls as the ultimate defense. The thought of a monster horde had never entered their minds. What this Sergeant was saying made total sense.
When Jones gazed around the crowd, he saw the same doomed comprehension budding on the faces of the other people inside the Sanctum.
Karen shook her head back and forth, but it was as if she were looking at something a hundred miles away. She stopped shaking her head and looked back into Jones’ eyes and asked, “If we’re so doomed, why did you stop here to offer help? It certainly wasn’t out of the kindness of your heart. Why didn’t your men just keep heading east?”
“Well, ma’am, we don’t have much of a choice,” Jones said. “We are running low on fuel and, frankly, won’t make it much further. We look at your...your Sanctum as the best place to make a stand. You have walls. You have supplies. You have fighters, weapons, and ammunition. It is my thought that both for your people and my men, the only chance we have of making it is by combining forces.”
Karen looked down, obviously mulling over what Jones had just told her. After a few seconds, she glanced up to Eli and asked, “Eli, what do you think?”
Eli’s face puckered for a couple of seconds, then he said, “I agree with Sergeant Jones.”
“These people,” Karen gestured to Jo, Donovan, Doc Wilson, and the others, “seem to think that these smart zombies are leading the rest of the zombies.”
“Eli mentioned this to me when we were up in the air,” Jones said, “but I find that hard to believe.”
Jo put a hand on his arm and said, “It’s true. This one talks.” She pointed toward the creature on the cart. “It reasons. It plans. Plus, it’s strong as hell.”
“It looks half-dead to me,” Jones said.
“Sergeant Jones, I’ve watched it talk and do all the things Jo said,” Doc Wilson said. “There is no denying it. Maybe they are evolving? Maybe this one is one of a kind? But something it said to us makes me think there is a good possibility that there are more.”
“Three is what he said,” Donovan said. “He said he is one of four.”
Jones took a long breath and let it out. “So, the working theory is that there are smart zombies out there. How does that explain why all these zombies have collected together? I mean, we can just shoot three smart zombies.”
Doc Wilson raised his hand with his index finger pointed upwards and said, “It’s just that we think they attract the regular zombies. This is very limited data, but we have seen them group on this one.” He pointed his finger at the thing on the cart. “I don’t think they control the zombies. We’ve been through that already, but these smart zombies are like a magnet for other zombies.”
“How is that even possible?” Jones said, and he felt a light-headedness pass over him. This was just getting to be too much.
“We don’t know,” Doc Wilson said. “It could be pheromones. It could be some signal that these zombies send out, maybe even psychically. We know the zombie virus rearranges the brain.”
Donovan stepped into the small scrum of people and said, “None of this matters. They could be advertising on billboards. We have to focus on the horde coming this way. It is coming, and there seems to be no avoiding that.”
Karen Gray asked, “What can we do to get ready, and how much time do we have?”
“Sergeant Jones thinks we have a day and a half to two days before they get here,” Eli said.
Karen’s faced blanched at the harsh truth of what Eli had just said. Piling up the fact of the smart zombies and the scenario by which zombies could pour over their walls, and Karen was about to be bowled over by the tsunami of bad news. She took a stumbling step backwards, but Eli jumped forward and grabbed her by the arm, steadying her.
“Karen, we have got to come up with a plan,” he said, staring intently into her eyes, trying to bring her back from the brink.
She blinked her eyes furiously for several seconds, then looked at him. “Yes, yes. We need a plan. This was a university. We have some good minds among us. Real scientists.”
“And engineers,” Eli said, coaxing her along.
“Yes, and engineers,” she said.
Jones gave Jo a sideways glance that seemed to ask what the hell was going on. Jo just shrugged. Her experience with Karen and Eli had been limited, but Karen had come across as a more than competent woman. Despite that, it was clear that her experience in academia hadn’t prepared her for facing down a zombie horde.
“Just get your best people together,” Jones said. “We have two hours to plan and thirty-six to execute whatever we come up with. Are you good with that?” With his question, he locked all of his attention on Karen. It beamed onto her so intensely that she actually shrunk back from it.
After a few moments, she just nodded her head and looked more than ready to abdicate any authority, right then and there.
“What about that thing?” Jones said as he nodded his head in the direction of the smart one. “Can we learn anything from it that will help?”
“I don’t know, but we might be able to get something from it,” Doc Wilson said.
Jones took a long look at the group amassed inside the main gate of the Sanctum. He saw different expressions on each of the faces that ranged from stoic to determined to skeptical. What he saw most was fear. Who could blame them? Most really had no idea of what was coming and, even worse, how to handle it.
“Jo, Donovan, Eli, and Karen,” Jones said when he stopped his survey, “let’s find a place to meet. The clock is ticking, and we have no time to waste.”
With that, the group broke up. Eli shouted orders to his men, and Jo and Donovan marshaled their people. Even through all their uncertainty, they all knew one thing -- they were getting ready to get into the fight of their lives.
Chapter 58
The Endless Dead
The monster horde came to a stop at the edge of an expansive area of deep woods. Prior to the fall of the world, it had been a State Park, but now it was just a place where the wild creatures roamed. This day, it was full of throngs of the undead, soulless, wretched things that blotted out the forest floor with their presence.
A lone creature strolled along the front of the multitudes of the undead. With each step, zombies collected behind it, following it along as if led by some internal beat or unspoken need. The lead creature paid them no attention but did its best to stay at the leading edge of the group.
This was a female, and she wore muddy jeans, heavy work boots, and a dark sweatshirt, torn in several places. Before being turned, she had been in her thirties with shoulder-length chestnut-colored hair. She had always been pale, but her skin was almost the color of faded chalk now. What set her apart from the rest of the undead was a presence behind her eyes. It was brighter than the undead collecting around her. The other distinguishing element about her was the seeming deliberate path she took.
There was nothing random about it. There was intent in her actions. She was heading somewhere she wanted to go.
After traversing almost a quarter of a mile, she arrived at her destination in front of another seemingly undead creature. A man, or what used to be a man. Like her, his complexion was a chalky white, and also like her, his eyes had a light behind them.
Zombies nudged into his shoulders, jostling him, but he ignored them. Instead, he peered off to the east as if seeing something no one else could.
She stood in front of the male thing, swaying back and forth as if waiting for some sort of cue to speak. Like the male, zombies clamored around her, gently ramming into her as she stared intently at the male creature. Unlike the male, there was something in the set of her face that hinted that the attention of the zombies all around her was more than bothersome.
Without any warning, she whipped back her right arm, slashing her elbow into the face of the zombie directly behind her. A loud crack of bones broke the quiet as the zombie’s skull crunched inward, ruining the creature. It collapsed to the forest floor and didn’t move again.
As was their custom, the other zombies paid this no attention. Instead, they just moved into the newly opened space, crushing the body of their fallen comrade into the dirt and tree roots coursing through the soil.
