'Til Death Do Us Part (83 page)

My rifle had been up against my chest, I would not be able to pull far enough away to use it anyway, the knife strapped to my thigh seemed the best course of action. That was up until BT came over the other side. I winced as BT’s butt stock made bone crushing contact with the side of the man’s skull. His eyes didn’t even have enough time to roll back in his head as he fell over.

“Thanks, man,
” I told BT. “Hold Tracy back for a sec would you?” I asked as I leaned down. Blood was oozing from the side of the man’s head as I reached down and yanked the vial off his neck. I stuck the chain in my pocket
,
then grabbed the man by the waistline and the back of his collar, when a slight break came in the zombie traffic I tossed him a few feet into the fray. He moaned for a few heartbeats as the zombies made short work of him.

BT gave Tracy the all clear sign when the zombies closed the gap around the man.

“Why the delay?” s
he asked
,
looking around.

“Mike ripped one, I waited until it cleared away.”

“Thank you for that,
” Tracy said
,
placing her hand on BT’s arm.

I flipped him off.

The Bulkers

“Yes
,
Eliza, that’s what my man reported. He said the zombies started running away from the house and then started running towards it and now they are right up against it. I bet whatever they were using
had a power surge
,
then blew,
” Kong said to Eliza. He felt bad
; he had hoped that the Talbot
s might make it through. If something as evil as Eliza wanted them destroyed then they must have walked strongly in the light. The world needed more people like them if it was ever going to recover
,
and now he was on the opposing force. If there ever was a history
, how would he be remembered?
I’m the fucking Benedict Arnold of the zombie apocalypse
, h
e thought sourly.

“Releas
e the contents of truck fifteen,
” Eliza said as Kong wrapped up.

He wanted to question the validity of her plan
,
but as long as it didn’t involve his men
,
he thought discretion was the better part of valor. He might
not be able to save the Talbot
s
,
but he would do all he could to save the people that he called his friends and co-workers.

He nodded to her. He noted the
look of concern on Tomas’ face;
apparently the boy had the same reservations that he himself had. He walked away from the duo and back towards where the majority of trucks were parked. “Roy
,
radio the guards tell them to pull back to the fallback area.”

“We getting out of here?” Roy asked
, the hope clear in his voice
.

“Just do what I said,
” Kong told him as he walked by. “Walt!” Kong
yelled motioning with his hand.
Walt had been reading when he heard Kong’s yell. He stepped down off the truck holding on to his book fearful he was going to lose his page.
“What are you reading?” Kong asked, astonished that the man could concentrate enough to read in the midst of all that was going on.

“
BeSwitched
by
Molly Snow
, it’s a paranormal romance, funny shit.”

“Romance?” Kong asked.

“It takes me away from the horror of all this.”

“Fair enough. In about ten minutes I’m going to need you to open up your trailer.”

“You’re really going to let them go?” Walt asked.

“
I’m
not doing anything Walt.”

“Shit.”

“Just make sure you get back in your truck as soon as you undo the latch.”

“I appreciate the advice
,
but that’s like telling me not to put my hand on a stove burner.”

“I’m sorry for getting you into this
,
Walt.”

“I’m a big boy
,
Kong, I should have taken one look at Eliza and left.”

“Just get back
in the truck as fast as you can,
” Kong said
,
clapping the man on the shoulder.

“Not a problem
,
even being in the cab knowing they’re locked in the trailer is an uncomfortable feeling.”

Kong wasn’t sure where Eliza got the new breed of zombies, but they terrified him. There was rumor that she had a doctor that coul
d genetically alter the zombies;
some thought she had perhaps gone to a ‘Fat Farm’ and bitten the residents there. Though no matter where she got them from
,
the zombies in the bac
k of Walt’s truck were enormous;
the smallest of the them tipping the scales at
five hundred
pounds
,
and they were meaner than the normal zombies, the vials were no guarantee against an attack. More than one of Eliza’s helpers had been devoured while they were tasked with the unenviable job of strapping helmets on the brutes.

Eliza had armed herself with the zombie equivalent of a tank and she was about to unleash her armada. God help them all.

Mike Journal Entry 19

We were advancing slowly
. T
he zombies were beginning to thin out a
s we got further from the house
where rifle shots were starting to ring out. Thoughts of Little Turtle shot across my brain plate. I shook them out, that hadn’t ended so well. Tracy kept looking back
,
worried about the kids. I was being cautious looking for guards
.
I knew that they must have sought safer ground for a moment as the zombies retreated
,
but that didn’t explain the complete lack of them now. They were nowhere in sight. Normally that would have made me happy, except for that damn nagging pit in my stomach that told me all was not right in Oz.

“You feel that?” BT asked.

And I had
. I
t was a slight tremor
,
then it began to build
.
I could feel the vibrations as they moved up my legs. We all were looking around trying to figure out what it was.

“Maybe hide?” Tracy asked the best question of the day.

We moved forward to get in a
nd around some raspberry bushes.
It
wouldn’t stop a bullet
,
but we were damn near invisible.

“Tanks?” BT asked.

“We have to go back!” Tracy said
with alarm as s
he s
tarted to rise.

“It’s not tanks,
” I told her
,
cocking my head to listen better.

“How do you know that? We have got to go back and protect them!” Tracy was on the verge of panic.

“Trace
, hold on, it’s not tanks.
I’m not saying it’s good, it’s just not t
anks,
” I told her
,
trying to get a bead on what was happening. The hanging raspberries in front of us were starting to dance on the vine.

“How do you know that
,
Mike?” BT asked looking around.

“Been in a few combat missions, tanks are noisy as fuck, so loud you can’t hear yourself think.” Now the bushes the
mselves were starting to sway.
It
’s fucking huge whatever it is
,
I thought
,
keeping that little nugget of discor
d to myself. “Here goes nothing,
” I said as I slowly stood up so I could look over the hedge.
At first I didn’t see anything…
and then I’
d wished I hadn’t seen anything.
Amazing
how quickly that change in thought set came about. I dropped down.

“Well?” BT asked.

“Tanks would have been better,
” I told them.

Tracy hazarded a
look. “Oh my God.”

BT popped up.
Had
anybody been watching
,
they would have thought they were catching an episode of
Mere Cat Manor
on NatGeo. “Are those helmets? Are those giant fucking zombies with helmets?” BT asked
as he sat down hard in our make
shift hidey hole. Tracy had not yet come down
.
I pulled on her shirt.

“How can something
that big be moving that fast?” s
he asked, looking off into a distance only in her field of vision.

“Now at least we k
now why all the guards are gone,
” I said.

“Now what?” BT asked.

“Eliza pulled her men back because of those things, so apparently they’re as dangerous to her side as they are ours. We wait until they pass.

“The vials don’t work?” BT asked
,
holding tighter on to his.

“I’m not sure m
aybe you should go check it out,
” I told him.

“Oh hell no. A
s the only black man surrounded by a bunch of whities, I’ve already bucked the t
rend by staying alive this long.
I’m not going to do anything that would threaten that now.”

“Fair enough,” I told him.
Wait
it is.

Last Stand

Travis had been behind the steel curtain firing
rounds at the advancing zombies.
It
was like killing mosquitoes
;
no matter how many you took out
,
there was always another one to take its place. Rifle fire was happening at various
parts of the deck as the Talbot
s tried to keep the zombies at bay. The trench claimed a fair number
,
but was rapidly filling in as zombies literally fell ‘on the sword’ for their brethren.