Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter (7 page)

With little time to react, the only thing I could think to do was to get away from the advancing crazy, create distance between myself and my attacker. Autopilot kicked in and I did a body roll to the right, sort of like an adult version of a kid’s summersault. I came up on my rear end and immediately turned in an attempt to locate my attacker. What I saw was Lara standing where I’d been crouched only seconds ago. She held the Mosin like a baseball bat and as I watched, the stock of the heavy laminate wood struck the crazy woman across the temple, sending her gaunt, mottled body backward. The woman fell like a limp doll, first hitting the carpet on her ass, and then rolling backward and smacking her head against the floor.

In an instant, the woman sat up and was already trying to struggle to her feet. Not to be outdone, it was Kat’s turn to spring into action. Stepping in front of Lara, Kat raised her right arm and sighted her Beretta M92 at the creature that was now up on one knee. Like an expert marksman, Kat took a two handed, thumbs forward grip, and fired two 9mm rounds. The first round entered the woman’s left eye, and even as her head was snapping back from the impact of the first bullet, the second entered through the right side of the bridge of her nose. The infected woman was dead even before her body finally fell in an awkward pile on the carpet.

I remained sitting on my ass for a few seconds taking in what had just happened before I finally made an attempt to get my feet under me. I stared at both women for another moment before finally attempting to break the tension by saying, “Thanks, ladies, but I had this under control.”

In typical Kat fashion, she just rolled her eyes and shook her head in exaggerated fashion. Lara simply made a puffing sound under her breath and said, “Whatever.”

Kat asked, “What were you looking at there that had your mind so occupied that you’d let one of those things get the drop on you, Matthew?”

Shaking my head and wrinkling my nose to show my distaste, I said, “The skin just looks weird and feels…slick. Like a frog’s skin.”

Both Kat and Lara exchanged a glance and then at the same time moved forward to have a look for themselves. I halted them, telling them there was too much infected blood by both corpses. Unlike me, neither woman could boast that they were immune to Mad Swine. Although we could not prove that the disease had no affect on me, the fact that I was the only member of our supply expedition to survive unaffected by Mad Swine seemed to confirm the theory.

Together, we checked out the rest of the house to make sure we were alone. I didn’t expect to encounter any other of the infected. In fact, I was surprised that more than one had even made it into our community. I was more surprised that they’d both found Mr. Elmore’s open door and had stuck together in exploring the home. In the bedroom we found Mr. Elmore’s body. I examined his remains while Kat and Lara watched from the doorway. He was not bitten or attacked by the two things that lay dead in his living room. From the look of his body, Mr. Elmore had been dead for a few days. My guess was that he’d died from exposure. He’d run out of wood at some point and was unable to regulate the temperature within the house. Although he’d fallen asleep under two very thick blankets, he’d become hypothermic at some point and died.

I closed my eyes and shook my head, disgusted that one of our own had lost his life because of a lack of cord wood. Why hadn’t he come to me or Sam or anyone and asked us to get some wood for him? Why freeze in your room rather than ask for help? This angered me deeply and I felt as though I had failed Mr. Elmore in some way. As leader of this community, I should have been aware of his situation and done something to ensure his well-being.

Making a mental note to discuss with Reverend Reggie the creation of a community wellness group that could make it a point to visit our residents periodically to make sure they were getting along, I left Mr. Elmore in his room. Kat and Lara were no longer in the doorway where I’d left them; I found them both out on the front porch.

“What are your orders?” Kat asked, straight to business.

“Have Sam come in and take a look around and see if there are any supplies she needs. Ask Reggie to prepare a service and let him know we need a disposal team. Tell them to be careful. We can’t have another outbreak.”

Kat nodded. I stopped her on the first stair and added, “I need you to get a patrol together for me. We need to get firewood.”

When Kat was gone I turned my attention to Lara. It had been a rough morning for her. She always put on a brave face, but I knew her well enough to know her true feelings. The dead bodies were something she just could not get used to.

“Hey, slugger,” I said. “Thanks for what you did in there.”

“You’re welcome.” Her freckles were cute when she smiled.

“I have to get to the CP. Are you okay for sentry duty here for a little while?”

“Of course.”

“Just until Sam gets here and gets what she needs. Once she’s gone, get a replacement to stand watch until Reggie and the disposal crew finish up. Tell them to use whatever fuel we might have left to burn those things out by the northwest side.”

“You can count on me,” Lara said.

“Meet me in the CP when you’re done?”

“It’s a date.” She winked at me. When I was halfway down the walkway leading from Mr. Elmore’s home, Lara called down, “Are you ever going to invite me over to show you how to make coffee?”

I just shrugged. I didn’t yet have an answer to that question.

The late afternoon sun was bright but the air was crisp and cold, and it stung. The light dusting of snow had stopped an our ago, giving us a momentary reprieve. After the incident at Mr. Elmore’s home I didn’t expect Lara and Kat to actually join me on the patrol. I’d asked Kat to assemble a squad; she showed up with Lara, Justin, and Chandra. They all looked eager and raring to go, but I was still on edge. Anytime I had to face the damn crazies was a terrifying experience, but when they made it over the wall and into our safe-zone people started to lose faith in our security. I’d have to assure everyone that was just an isolated event and that we’d take further precautions.

We gathered near the western wall beyond which Reverend Reggie’s church sat isolated in the distance, surrounded by thick trees and shrubs. Early on we considered making the trek to the building, which was just a mile and half away. Reggie claimed there were supplies that could be collected. However, the first patrol sent out lost one man and two others were injured. I decided the unknown supply cache was not worth another life. At the time we were still rich with food and supplies and no one would step up to argue the supplies were worth the risk. After today’s meeting, however, I strongly reconsidered the possibility. I was surprised no one else had remembered at this morning’s meeting.

As I watched, Justin set down his back pack and unzipped it. From within he pulled out two sets of folding fire escape ladders. Each ladder was constructed of tough nylon strapping and epoxy coated steel rungs. According to the manufacturer, each ladder was capable of supporting 1,250 lbs. Justin had purchased them for his townhome just weeks before the outbreak. He and his wife Laura lived in one of the middle three-story units and he was worried about escaping fire from the third floor bedroom. He never actually expected to use the ladders; he’d purchased them more for peace of mind. But in the last three months we’d used them many times with great success.

Kat picked up one of the ladders and together she and Justin began to affix them to the wall that surrounded our community. By using two ladders, we could send our people over in teams, which was safest. With two people on the ground they could easily cover each other while the next pair made their ascent. Like all of our lessons, we’d learned this one the hard way.

Lara and Chandra stood in front of the makeshift wooden sled. Designed by Paul, our resident engineer, the sled would hold the weight of the wood to be equally distributed across the surface of the snow and keep it from sinking below. It was the same concept as snow shoes, but I was still immensely amazed by the man’s ingenuity. Without him, life would be almost unbearable. In fact, many of us would not have survived this long. I was consciously aware of our dwindling number.

Both women were armed with impact weapons. Lara favored an aluminum baseball bat while Chandra hefted a twenty-four inch crowbar. Chandra had frequently practiced and expertly executed a move where she used the bent end of the crowbar to hook her attacker’s ankle or shin and knock them to the ground. Once down, she would follow up with planting the hooked end into the skull and ending the confrontation. Each woman also carried a pistol, per my orders, as backup should the situation get really nasty. The small chainsaw that now rested on the bed of the sled could also be used as a weapon, if necessary. Neither the firearms nor chainsaw would be used unless absolutely necessary as the noise would surely attract attention to our group.

As usual, I was armed with my splitting maul as my main impact weapon. On my left I carried my
Junglas
machete and on my right hip I carried my 1911 as backup. Over the shoulder of my coat I carried a sling backpack; my shoulder bag had seen better days, and after the war with Providence it had been retired. My sling was packed with one day’s worth of food and water, a first aid kit, and a few other odds and ends. Every patrol needed to be treated seriously, and everyone needed to be prepared to face any emergency, including being stranded away from the community.

Justin was finishing fastening his ladder to the wall. He was testing the anchors by pulling on them with his full weight when Kat stepped up and punched me on the shoulder.

“You ready for this?” she asked.

I tried not to look at the scar on the right side of her face, but it was unavoidable. Kat pretended not to notice. She’d grown accustomed to people gawking at the angry red line. Instead of looking away, her blue eyes held mine confidently.

“Someone’s a little anxious,” I said. “You don’t get out much, do you Kat?”

When she smiled her scar turned into a zigzag of welted flesh. She wrapped her scarf around her lower face, covering her mouth, nose, and most of the damaged side of her face. She tugged her black wool cap down further over her blond hair so that only her eyes were visible. She was not ashamed of her scars; the less flesh exposed to one of the infected the better. Their sharp nails could rake flesh like a warm knife through butter.

“We’re good,” Justin called over his shoulder. He shrugged back into his back pack and took up his weapon, a set of modern Tomahawks. Each of the weapons featured a cutting blade on the front and a spike-like protrusion on the back. Justin said he liked the Tomahawks because he could hit his enemy whether he was coming or going. Either end of the weapon would do the job.

I nodded my head and looked at the rest of the group. They were ready to get this show on the road. We were all dressed similarly in thick canvas coats. Everyone wore a hat and covered as much of their face as possible without limiting their vision. Leather gloves and boots covered hands and feet. Most of us wore two pairs of jeans hoping the extra layer of denim would stop teeth from penetrating and reaching skin. They looked like battle-hardened veterans, and they were.

“All right, folks, listen up,” I said. “Kat and Justin are up first. They’ll provide cover for us on the other side and make sure there are no surprises waiting for us. Lara and Chandra will follow with the sled and I’ll bring up the rear. No one moves out until we’re all on the other side, together. After we all put feet on the ground, Kat and Justin will do their thing with the ladders while the rest of us are on lookout. We clear?”

The group responded in the affirmative and without further delay our patrol was underway. I watched as Justin and Kat ascended the ladders while Lara and Chandra pulled the sled into position. In less than five seconds two bodies were behind enemy lines.

Lara and Chandra paused a moment, listening for any warnings from their team mates. All was quiet on the other side. I stood between the two women and helped them by supporting the sled while each climbed their ladder and lifted the sled until it rested securely on the ledge of the wall. Slowly, they lowered the sled down to the other side using the nylon rope secured to each side of the sled. Without delay they slid over the edge and dropped down into the soft snow.

Now it was my turn. I climbed the rungs of the ladder using one hand and holding the splitting maul in the other. I made quick work of climbing and within seconds I sat on the top of the wall. Below, my team had fanned out slightly and were scanning the area. I used my vantage point eight feet off the ground to scan what I could see for any signs of the crazies. Between barren trees and branches I saw pristine white snow. Except for where we’d landed on the other side of the fence, the ground was unmarred by footprints, human or animal. By all appearances, this was just a winter wonderland scene in a magazine sitting on a table in a doctor’s office.

I jumped down and put my own imprint into the cold ground. The snow was deep; with my full weight I sunk down in snow that came to just about mid calf for me and knee deep for those who were shorter. Although the sled was equipped with the equivalent of snow shoes, we did not have the luxury. Because we did not often venture out of the walls we had not prepared for a trek in deep snow.

I heard Kat’s footfalls in the snow as she approached. The snow made odd squeaking-crunching sounds as the weight of our bodies as it compacted below our feet. “Looks clear,” she said. Plumes of white vapor filtered through her scarf. “What do you think?”