The First Days: As the World Dies (21 page)

3. Not Fast Enough

    

    Katie couldn't get dressed fast enough. Shoving her feet into her boots, she glanced over at Jenni, who nearly toppled over as she hopped into her jeans. Jason was fast asleep and snoring with Jack snuggled into his side watching the two women suspiciously. Their nonstop chatter had annoyed the teenager earlier in the evening as they had caught up on all that had happened while they had been apart. Katie had enjoyed that time immensely.

    It had almost been like a slumber party. But now, dammit, reality had hit.

    Zipping up her camouflage pants, Katie leaned over and quickly tied her boots. Her arms and hands were hurting like hell from the bruises and sprains she had received from dangling off that damned “elevator over hell," as Juan had put it.

    "Think they'll all come over?" Jenni asked worriedly.

    "No, or they would have already, but we need to move fast before enough figure it out to cause us real trouble," Katie grabbed her rifle and headed out the door. "Meet you down there."

    "Okay! I'm almost ready!" Jenni flopped onto the bed and started in on her boots.

    Running down the stairs, Katie ran into a few other people, all men, who were also on their way out to help fortify the guards. There was a surprising lack of women in the fort and it had taken her awhile to realize this. Most of the women were older and married. It saddened her, but made her feel that she needed to prove herself and pull her own weight.

    Juan stood near the back door instructing everyone where to go. One by one, the men spread out to take up positions. Katie found herself to be the last one Juan paid attention to.

    "Travis wants us to meet him up on the balcony," Juan said. He looked very tense.

    "Why?"

    "I don't know. Hey, Loca, we're wanted upstairs," Juan said to Jenni with an evil glint in his eye.

    "Bite me, redneck," Jenni answered and made a face at him.

    Juan made chomping noises at her.

    "I'm so out of this," Katie said, and hurried back into the building and up the stairs.

    "Redneck."

    "Loca."

    "Redneck."

    "Loca."

    "Redneck."

    "Mucha loca."

    "Redneck," Jenni said again as they followed Katie up the stairs.

    "Are you calling me a hick spic?" Juan asked in his thick West Texas twang.

    "No! I'm calling you just a plain ol' hick!"

    "Oh, I am so out of this one," Katie said firmly, and walked down the hallway toward the balcony.

    Juan laughed and Jenni smacked him.

    Katie could tell they were tussling by all the noise behind her, but she decided not to pay attention. It has been clear since she had returned that Jenni and Juan were locked in a highly adversarial battle of the wills.

    Stepping carefully onto the rickety balcony, she found Travis looking over the zombies. Because all the guards were visible to the crowd, the zombies were fairly evenly dispersed along the perimeter.

    "I don't see a weak spot," Travis said to her.

    Katie looked over the perimeter slowly, studying it. "Me neither."

    "I'm telling you, they've gotten smart," Juan said, his tone suddenly quite serious.

    Jenni timidly stepped out and surveyed the crowd below. "They're just doing what they always do."

    "Yeah, but somehow, five managed to get over the trucks." Travis shook his head. "I don't get it."

    Katie's gaze swept over the crowd slowly. Something was amiss. She swept her gaze over them again, then saw what it was. All the zombies were going crazy trying to get to the guards, but one zombie, toward the back, was just studying the trucks and the barriers that kept it from its meal of warm flesh. It's just kept swinging its head back and forth.

    "Some are thinking, "Katie said softly. She pointed and they all looked out.

    "Shit, she's right," Travis grunted with disgust.

    The zombie moved slowly to one side to let a small crowd of children through to bang on one of the trucks. It was one of the more stripped down zombies; not much was left on its bones. It's skull-like head once more turned to look at the perimeter.

    Kate slipped the safety off her rifle.

    The zombie moved resolutely toward one particular truck. It was a large truck full of dirt with cement bags packed tightly under it and between the cab of the truck and the load. It pushed its way toward the crowd, reached up and started trying to open the door.

    "Gawddammit!" Juan's voice was almost feral. "Fucking shit! These things are breaking all the gawddamn rules!"

    Katie slung her rifle off her shoulder and raised it.

    "Katie?" Travis said softly.

    "Can't afford for a smart one to survive," Katie answered.

    Her finger began to close on the trigger, then she hesitated.

    "Travis…"

    The zombie, its broken body barely able to stand, gave up the door. It staggered to one side and began to claw at the sandbags, as if to get purchase to lift itself up. Around its neck hung a crocheted purse.

    "Yeah?"

    "I think that's Laura," Katie whispered.

    "Shit."

    "Who's Laura?" Jenni asked.

    Katie took aim again, sighting the remains of the girl carefully.

    The zombie that had been Laura managed to get a good grip and started to pull itself up.

    Katie shot it through the head and it fell back.

    The zombies ignored the shot and continued to bang on the trucks.

    "They're getting smarter," Katie said softly.

    Travis looked ill and nodded. "Yeah."

    "We have the ammo. It's time to kill them all."

    Jenni blinked. "Yeah! They're all corralled! Easy pickings!"

    "We can't-" Travis started, but stopped himself. "Okay. In the morning."

    "We shouldn't waste all that ammo," Juan muttered.

    "It's not wasting it if we are securing our perimeter and our safety,"

    Katie answered.

    "It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel," Travis sighed.

    Jenni had one of the biggest grins on her face Katie had ever seen.

    "Yeah, it'll be fun."

    "You are so loca," Juan declared.

    "Oh, yeah, hick spic?"

    "I am so not a part of this," Katie declared and slipped past them into the hall.

    She felt Travis following her, and when they were far enough from the arguing two, she turned toward him. His face was a mask of pain and uncertainty. "We have to do this."

    Travis nodded. He said softly, "Once we start firing those guns, we may bring more."

    "Do you want to risk more of those things figuring out how to get past the trucks?"

    Travis sighed. "Yeah, I know. In theory, the spikes could slow a lot of them down. The Hurricane fence would probably stand for a little while, but then they'd be up against the wall."

    Katie nodded her face tense. "We cannot afford to lose ground to them."

    She felt it to her bones that if the zombies ever breached the first perimeter, things would not go well for them, despite the security of the wall. They needed to gain ground, not lose it.

    Travis looked back at Jenni and Juan who were now cursing each other out in Spanish. He blinked. Jenni knew Spanish?

    Katie glanced back down the hall then grinned. "Kinda like kindergarten flirting, huh?"

    "Uh, you're not jealous?"

    Katie snorted. "Yeah, right. Like I'd be jealous of Juan." She gave him a bemused look. But her stomach was coiled into knots. She was horribly afraid. There seemed to never be time for peace.

    Travis gave her a decidedly goofy look. "Yeah, well, anyway, let's start planning what we're doing. I guess I'll wake the Mayor."

    She reached out and touched his arm. "Travis, it’s a war. We have to fight."

    He sighed and said. "The thing about war is that there are always causalities."

    Katie felt a chill flow down her spine and she glanced toward Jenni. She felt her stomach tighten and she looked back at Travis. "But we have no choice."

    "Yeah, I know," he answered sadly They stood in silence for a long moment and Katie looked toward the still arguing Juan and Jenni. "We better get the Mayor…"

    

    

1. The Killing Grounds

    

    Jenni flipped Juan off discreetly behind Katie's back, then found a place to sit down in the Mayor's office. The Mayor looked weary and overwhelmed with the news of the zombies climbing over the trucks. Tobias' death had weighed heavily on him and he looked haggard.

    Curtis looked a little better than he had. It was as if he was finding his role to play in this world and growing comfortable with it. Jenni thought he was cute in a little boy sort of way. Jason and Curtis often hung out, talking, and just being guys. It made Jenni happy. Jason needed a friend, considering all he had lost.

    Jenni, meanwhile, was glowing with happiness over what she had gained. Katie was back and she was just ecstatic over that fact. And of course, Travis was back, too. And that made her girlishly giggly with delight. She couldn't help it. He was such an incredible guy.

    She phased in and out of the conversation that followed. It really didn't interest her except when they talked about killing the zombies. She was surprised there were opposing voices to the plan. Juan was worried about running out of ammunition if they used so much right off the bat. The Mayor was worried about riling up the zombies even more. Jenni rolled her eyes during some of the discussion and Katie leaned over and took her hand.

    Jenni knew it was the "behave" signal, so she tried not to give snarky looks. It wasn't all that easy.

    The debate went back and forth. Katie was adamant about wiping out the zombie horde before it got any bigger and they got any smarter. Jenni thought she was making the most sense. Travis was conflicted about the whole gun issue and argued that maybe they should try to find an alternate way to wipe out the zombies. Jenni considered smacking him upside the head.

    Juan sat near her and kept muttering in Spanish. Jenni muttered right back at him. Soon they were discreetly swearing at each other. The crux of the argument was that Jenni was a bloodthirsty psycho and that Juan was too stupid to understand guns were made to be fired.

    "Where did you learn Spanish?" Katie whispered at one point.

    "My Mom was Mexican," Jenni whispered back.

    "Oh."

    "My Dad was Irish," Jenni added.

    "So you're a lazy drunk," Juan quipped and waged his eyebrows at her.

    "I am so going to kick your ass," Jenni said with a surly pout.

    The Juan thing: she wasn't sure what that was about. A part of her was sure she hated his guts, but another part of her really got off on their arguments. It was too much fun. And, she had to admit a stress reliever.

    Neither one of them really took the insults seriously. It was just, well, she wasn't sure. A way to make life more fun maybe.

    Finally, just when she and Juan had started to play rock, paper, scissors, and it seemed a stalemate was inevitable, Mike came in.

    "Two more. They climbed over the back of one of the trucks. One of them fell right onto a spike and it took his head right off. The other one stood on the truck and tried to jump past the spikes. She ended up impaled at the pelvis. This isn't good," Mike said.

    Katie turned to the Mayor. He slowly nodded under her intense gaze.

    "When the sun rises, we'll kill them all. Agreed?'

    Jenni looked toward Travis, who nodded. "Yeah, agreed."

    Juan stood up slowly and said, "Okay, so we have no more time and no choices. But we can't do this again. We won't always have guns or ammunition. We need to be able to defend ourselves other ways."

    "Absolutely," Katie agreed.

    Travis nodded wholeheartedly. "The guns make us safer for now, but, yeah, you're right."

    Jenni stood up and stretched. "Just tell me where to go and I'm so ready."

    Juan laughed. "Big surprise there."

    Jenni gave him her snarkiest look.

    

    

2. Tinkerbell of Death

    

    "I don't like this," Katie said as she stood beside Jenni.

    Jenni shrugged. "We have to be able to hit the ones that are out of view from all angles."

    Katie sighed. "Yeah, but why you?"

    "Cause I volunteered. Besides, I get to be harnessed up," Jenni grinned.

    "Kinda like a deadly Tinkerbell of death!"

    Katie laughed and watched as Juan rigged up Jenni. Mike had also volunteered to take up a forward position on the front line. They would be positioned on the dirt trucks directly in front of the fort. Any zombies up in that area were not visible from the sentry positions. If Nerit had been at the fort, she probably could have taken them out from the top of city hall, but no one had sniper-like skills.

    Jenni kissed Katie's cheek then swatted at Juan's hands. "Hey stop feeling me up!"

    Juan gave her a look. "Aw, am I turning you on?"

    "Um…ewww," Jenni responded.

    She felt giddy and excited. It always felt good to be doing something.

    Killing the enemy was something that she actually enjoyed. Each time she pulled the trigger, it was delicious revenge for her dead children.

    Katie hugged her once more, then slipped away to join Travis. They were going to be on one of the platforms. Only people who had experience firing a gun had been recruited for this task. Mostly hunters and a few military men were manning the sentry posts now.

    "Be careful, Mom," Jason said, and hugged her tight.

    Holding him close, she closed her eyes and relished the feel of being a mother. "I will be. I promise.

    Jack was giving her a doggy quizzical look, not sure what to make of the harness that had her hooked up to a pulley system that Juan had created in the first days of the zombie holocaust, as he called it. He probably thought it was a weird kind of leash for humans. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head and snuggled him up for a moment.

    "I'll be okay. I promise."

    "Ready?" Juan asked.

    Mike and Jenni nodded.

    They were hoisted up into the air and suddenly the horde of zombies swam into view.

    "Kinda wished they didn't smell so bad," Mike said stoically.

    "Yeah," Jenni said, and wrinkled her nose.

    They reached a good height and were slowly moved forward. She rather enjoyed being swung over toward the dirt truck. It was rather like flying, so she struck a superman pose that made Mike laugh. But it died away as the zombies grew more agitated and the enormity of what they were doing was made clear. Juan carefully lowered them onto the dirt truck and they both immediately knelt down as they were told to do. It limited how visible they were to the zombies below.

    "You know," Mike said after a moment, "the black man always gets it in these scenarios."

    "Well, in the zombie movies, the black guy is usually the hero," Jenni said in an attempt to console him.

    Mike laughed. "Yeah, and the cracker shot him at the end of the first movie."

    "Oh, yeah," Jenni said, and winced.

    "Just keep steady and we'll both be okay."

    Jenni nodded and bit her lower lip lightly.

    "We're all in position. Starting the count down," Travis' voice said over the walkie-talkie attached to Mike's belt.

    Mike winked at Jenni. "Keep cool, girl."

    "Five, four, three, two, one…" Travis voice intoned.

    The crack of rifles filled the early morning air.

    Jenni rose up with Mike at her side and began to aim and fire. The first zombie was an old man and she split his head nicely in two. She barely moved the rifle, sighted the next zombie, a young woman with her face torn away, and fired.

    Aim… fire…

    Aim… fire…

    She reloaded as quickly as possible and kept firing. The zombies were pushing hard against the truck and tiny tremors could be felt under their feet.

    Mike fired with precision and swiftness. She tried to match him the best she could.

    Each mangled, screaming, distorted face that dissolved into bloody mist beneath their assault made the knots in her stomach ease just a bit. They were thinning the crowd, making them pay for what they had become. She hated them. She fiercely, passionately hated them, and each time their head burst beneath the hail of bullets, she felt her smile grow.

    Ten minutes in, the killing in full swing, she started to reload. It was then a zombie came up over the sandbags and began to charge her. She was so startled by his abrupt appearance that she was surprised when her hand automatically drew her revolver and shot a nice little hole into it’s head.

    "Fuck," Mike exclaimed.

    Another was scrambling rather easily onto the truck.

    Mike took this one down, firing over Jenni's head.

    Jenni stood up and Mike quickly went back to firing into the area that he was assigned.

    "Cover that area, Jenni," he said.

    She stepped cautiously toward the edge and blinked, then blinked again in horror. "Juan, get us the fuck off of here!"

    By killing the zombies toward the front of the crowd, they had inadvertently made a nice little ramp of bodies right up to the truck.

    Two more zombies rose up at the far end of the truck and started to race for them. Jenni shot both of them.

    "Fuck!" Mike grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Get us the hell off this thing!"

    More zombies were beginning to charge now. At least four. Jenni kept firing, but more were coming.

    Her body was jerked upwards so hard, the revolver fell from her hand and she gripped her rifle tightly with the other. Pain erupted through her back and arms as she was dragged upwards. The zombies kept coming. She curled her legs up to her chest as fast as she could, and they swung their arms under her trying to catch her. Being far taller, Mike was much longer, and one zombie gripped his leg. The large black man screamed in anger and fear and fired point blank into the zombie's face. Another grabbed his booted foot and was lifted with him. Mike kicked his leg hard, but the creature was tenacious and was trying to pull itself up to bite him.

    Jenni tried to take aim with her rifle, but they were swinging a bit wildly due to being hoisted so quickly. "I can't get him."

    "Muthafucka," Mike snarled and kicked as hard as he could. The zombie fell and landed face first on a spike.

    At least a dozen zombies had clambered up onto the truck now under them.

    "Why aren't they swinging us back," Jenni screamed.

    They were now lifted high enough that no zombie could grab hold.

    "We're bait," Mike answered.

    Sure enough, Jenni saw that all the zombies making their way up onto the trucks were pooling directly under the two humans hanging over them.

    Sadly, Jenni saw their bags of ammo were getting trampled into the dirt.

    They both hung there, over the zombies' heads, watching them leap and scream, trying to grab them.

    "They can't take us toward the fort or they'll follow," Mike said. "And that will compromise everyone."

    "Do we shoot?" Jenni held tight to her rifle.

    "Praying sounds good to me. Told you, the black man always gets it,"

    Mike said grimly.

    Twenty of the undead were now crowded onto the truck.

    "Oh, well. We're not dead yet."

    "Yeah," Mike said. "Yet."

    

    

3. Close Encounters

    

    Things were going to hell. Travis and Katie felt as if the world was toppling around them. The guards were all shouting at each other. Jenni was screaming as Mike’s voice yelled over the walkie-talkie. Juan was arguing with the Mayor. Jason was screaming, "Get my Mom down!" And the zombies were clustered on top of the one truck, trying to get to Jenni and Mike.

    "Fuck me," Travis whispered.

    "Who's a crack shot," Katie demanded, looking around at the men with the rifles.

    "I am. Through the eye every time," one man said. He was older and had a weather-beaten face.

    "Take out the zombies on the left end of the truck," Katie ordered.

    Travis looked sharply at her. "Are you sure? They are so close to falling into the spiked area."

    "As the zombies fall back, they'll fill up the top of that ramp of dead bodies and the other zombies won't be able to scramble over them." Katie pointed. "We might be able to eliminate that slope in the pile and make it harder for them to get up."

    Travis studied the situation. "Yeah. I see that. And if they try to climb, they'll pull the bodies down on them. Go for it, Ed." He nodded to the volunteer.

    Ed nodded and began to target the zombies.

    The rifle began to roar and Katie watched as the zombies began to fall backwards back into the corral. She was grasping at straws, she knew it, but they had to do something.

    "Shoot the fucking ones under us," Mike shouted into the walkie-talkie.

    "They can't reach you," Juan's voice answered over the cackling static.

    Katie ran down the stairs from the guard post and toward Juan. Jason came running toward her. "Katie, get her down!"

    "Jason, we're doing our best without compromising everyone," Katie answered, resting her hands on his shoulders for a moment.

    Jack was barking hysterically at the zombies that were still intent on getting Jenni and Mike.

    "Why don't we have grenades? Or flame throwers or something like that!" Jason's voice was high and strained.

    Katie sighed and moved on toward Juan. "Because we're not soldiers, Jason. We're just trying to survive." She glanced toward the zombies to see that Ed, the hunter, had significantly reduced the population. But there were still maybe ten or so under Jenni and Mike. "Juan, what are we going to do?"