This Shattered Land - 02 (11 page)

What
the hell? Where did these bastards come from
? I thought as my weapon thumped
into my shoulder. I lowered the muzzle long enough to take a look around, and
my heart sank all over again. There was no way that we were going to kill all
of these infected before they reached the fence. We needed a new plan. I looked
around to assess my options while racking my brain for ideas. Every foul word I
ever learned flowed out of my mouth in a livid stream of desperate frustration.
I felt a crazed, irrational urge to grab an axe and climb over the gate. Some
kind of mad, suicidal gremlin in my brain wanted to run howling at the ghouls
and feel the satisfying crunch of skulls breaking under a heavy blade.

Stop
it, Eric.
An inner voice told me.
Get that temper under control and calm down. Be a
man and think for a second. Even if there are enough of them out there to break
down the fence, it’s going to take them a while. You still have time to come up
with a plan.

The
voice in my head sounded hauntingly like my father.

“Everybody
stop! Cease fire!” I shouted.

The
three of them had taken a few steps back from the fence to stay out of reach of
the undead. Dozens of infected had made it to the fence line and heaved
impotently against the sturdy steel rails. The fence shuddered but held steady.
Everyone stopped firing and looked at me. Gabe’s expression was grim.  Brian
was wide-eyed with fear and stood close to his mother.

“We
need to keep putting as many of these things down as we can.” Gabe said.
“Unless you have a better idea.”

“I’m
working on it. Come with me and give me a hand. Tom,” I point at the older man,
“Get your family down into the shelter. Don’t come out until Gabe or I give the
all clear.”

“The
hell you say.” Sarah strode over to me and gave me a hard stare. “We’re not
going to hide in a hole while you two get yourselves killed.”

I
shook my head and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Sarah, what I’m about to do is
a two man job. Anybody else would just get in the way. I can handle this, but I
need you three to get somewhere safe. Please, Sarah, don’t argue with me on
this one.”

She
glared at me for a moment longer.

“Fine.”
She pointed a finger an inch from my nose. “But you better not screw this up.
If I have to come up here and save you, you’re gonna be on the business end of
an ass-kicking, you understand me?” 

I
gave a grim smile and nodded. “We’ll be careful.”

“I
don’t like this, Eric.” Tom said, coming to stand beside Sarah. “We should all
get down in the bunker. If we wait down there long enough they might wander
off.”

“Right,
but not until they destroy our fence, and wreck our home nineteen ways from
Sunday. You have to live here after we leave. I’m not about to let these rotten
pieces of shit destroy everything we’ve built.” I laid a hand on Tom’s
shoulder. “Please, just do this for me. Everything’s going to be fine, just get
down there and wait. We’ll get this sorted out.”

“Come
on, honey.” Sarah said as she took her husband’s hand and started toward the
shelter. He gave me one last doubtful glance, and then followed his wife. Brian
stopped in front of me before following them.

“You
sure you don’t want me to stay and help?”

In
spite of the madness of the situation, I had to smile at the kid’s courage.
“No, you’ve done enough for today. Go take a breather.”

Brian
shook his head and went after his parents. A few seconds later, they were all
down the ladder with the lid closed tight behind them.

 “Alright,
hero. What’s the plan?” Gabe said, staring out at the growing horde.

“Let’s
get the ladder from the tool shed. I need to get a better vantage and try to
see how many of these things we’re dealing with.” I replied.

Gabriel
retrieved his telescoping ladder. The latches on the segments clicked into
place as we pulled on either end to extend it and lock it open. Gabe held the
base as I climbed up onto the cabin. The steep pitch of the roof provided
treacherous footing as I moved to get a better look at the horde. Solar panels
took up most of the space underfoot, making it tough not to step on them. I
cupped my hands around my eyes to shield them from the sun, and began making a
rough count. I held up enough fingers on one hand to cover ten ghouls, then
brought my other hand up and covered the same number. Hand over hand I counted
over the length and width of the horde, keeping count in my head. When I
finished, I gave a low whistle and rested my hands on my hips, shoulders
slumped.

There
were over a thousand of the things.

Something
was not right.

Where
did all these things come from? I hadn’t seen more than twenty infected moving
as a single group in over a year. What motivated these rotten bastards to get
together all of a sudden and come after us? I looked down to the gate to see
how it was holding up. So far, it looked okay. A length of chain lying near the
gate caught my eye, and I remembered Tom saying he thought the lock had been
cut.

“What
do you think?” Gabe asked as I climbed down the ladder and turned to face him.

“You
want the bad news, or the really fucking bad news?” I replied.

“Just
tell me, we don’t have time for bullshit.” He snapped.

“The
bad news is that there are about a thousand of the things. As for the really
fucking bad news, I don’t think those infected came here on their own.”

Gabe’s
scowl deepened. “You think someone led them here?”

“I
don’t know. I think the chain on the gate was cut. It’s still there, let’s go
get it.”

I
walked over to the scrap pile and picked out a length of two-by-four. Gabe
covered me with his SCAR as I stood near the fence and worked the chain closer.
Once I had it out of reach of the infected, I picked it up and examined it.
Gabe and I took a few steps back to escape the stench of all those dead bodies,
it was enough to make my eyes water. I turned the chain over in my hands and
found where it was broken. My jaw clenched, and I could feel my temper heat up
as I handed it to Gabriel.

Someone
had cut one of the links clean through.

Gabriel
cursed in about six languages as he hurled the chain to the ground.

“Some
fucking coward doesn’t have the balls to take us on, so he sends a bunch of
undead after us to do his dirty work.” He growled, fuming. “I’m gonna find this
fucker, Eric, and I’m going rip him apart. I will kill every goddamn one of
those infected with my bare hands if I have to.”

Gabe
is a scary guy when he is in a
good
mood. Right then, his face was a
mask of fury and waves of anger boiled from him like a rising thunderhead. His
fierce grey eyes blazed with murder, and I swear I could hear the handle of his
rifle crack a little under his grip. The scars on his face stood out a livid
purple against his skin. This was not good, he needed to calm down. I laid a
conciliatory hand on his shoulder and gave him a little shake.

“Hey,
I’m with you old buddy. If we live through this today, I’ll help you find
whoever is responsible for this and I will personally hold the son of a bitch
down while you peel his skin off. In the meantime,” I said pointing a finger
toward the bunker, “we have to figure out a way to get ourselves, not to
mention the Glovers, out of this alive.”

Gabe
looked toward the bunker and nodded after a moment. He heaved a deep breath to
calm himself.

“Okay.
I vote we get some more rifles up here and get to work culling the herd.” He
said. “We got enough ammo to put them all down, it’ll just take a while.”

As
if on cue, a violent
creeeeaaaak-SPANG
screamed from the fence as a weld
on one of the lower support struts gave way. We spun around with weapons
raised, half expecting to see a wall of corpses bearing down on us. The undead
strained forward where the fence was starting to give, reaching and clutching
through the gap. It was not yet wide enough for them to get through, but it was
only a matter of time.

“We
don’t have that kind of time, Gabe. We need to go to plan B.” I said.

“We
have a plan B?”

“Um…yeah.
I think we do.” I turned and looked to the western fence, the one that led out
to the cliff. There was a section a little way northward from the fire pit
where the precipice narrowed down to about twelve feet.

If
only we could…yeah. That should work
.

“Gabe,
go fire up your Tacoma and park it over there where the cliff narrows outside
the gate.” I turned him around by the shoulder and pointed. “Put the front
bumper as close to the cliff as you can, then lock the fence and get into a
shooting position on top of the cabin.”

Gabe
looked perplexed for a moment, and then a grin spread across his face.

“I’m
on it.” He said.

I
waited for Gabe to pour a small amount of our precious fuel supply into the
truck, just enough to do what we needed, and then opened the gate for him.
While he parked the vehicle, I ran up and down the edge of the fence waving my
arms and shouting at the undead to draw their attention. The fence shuddered
violently under the strain as the mass of ghouls redoubled their efforts to
tear it down. After calling out to let me know the truck was in position, Gabe
climbed onto the roof of the tool shed and settled down into a stable firing
position. The horde followed me around to the other side of the fence, their
wasted faces fierce with hunger. I took my time climbing over, being careful
not to slip and fall on the way down. A sprained ankle or a twisted knee right
about then would have been disastrous. I wanted to run when my feet hit the
dirt on the other side, but I forced myself to calm down and walk. There was no
need to rush, the walkers were coming for me as fast as their rotten legs could
carry them. Just to make sure I had their complete and undivided attention, I
unslung my HK, removed the suppressor, and started taking potshots. The loud
crack of the rifle had the intended effect. The whole horde heaved and trampled
over one another trying to get to me. You have to give the undead one thing;
they are wonderfully predictable. I checked behind me, shuffled back a few
steps, and dropped a couple more walkers. 

Check,
shuffle, fire.

Check,
shuffle, fire.

Again
and again, bullets devastated the heads of revenants shambling near the front
of the crowd. Every time a corpse ate the dirt, the walkers behind it tripped
and fell over its carcass, further throwing their ranks into disarray. Gabriel,
being the bright fellow that he is, saw what I was doing and started blasting
away with his SCAR. The straining, heaving mass of walking dead struggled over
one another in undulating waves as I led them back around to the cliff on the
other side of the mountain. They bunched up, climbed over the fallen, and
slowly stretched out their front line. Any ideas I had about the undead showing
advanced intelligence was laid to rest as I watched the stinking mass of
flesh-eating horrors chase after me. There was no unit cohesion there, only a
bunch of mindless animals fighting each other to be first in line at the
buffet.

Minutes
felt like hours as I rounded the edge of the fence and drew the horde toward
the narrow part of the cliff. A quick check of my belt showed me that I was
down to my last couple of magazines for the HK. I slowed my rate of fire to
conserve ammunition.

The
edge of the horde to my right bulged out as the undead in the back tried to
force their way to the front. The ones that fell down crumpled under the
pressure of hundreds of stomping feet breaking their bones and, occasionally,
their skulls. That was fine by me, it made my job that much easier. I dropped
back to load my last magazine and felt the metal of the Tacoma’s driver side
door against my calf. The closest undead were less than twenty yards away. I
fired off a few more rounds until the chamber locked open on the rifle. I
shifted it behind my back and drew my pistol.

I
managed to drop four more infected before the rest got too close and I had to
turn and jump into the bed of the truck. Once I was on top of the roof, I waved
my arms and shouted at the waves of infected, just barely out of reach of their
skeletal, grasping fingers. Looking out over the sea of corpses, I saw them
start to bottleneck and bunch up at the edge of the fence line. As they closed
the distance, the walkers on the far side toward the cliff were beginning to be
pushed out over the edge by the ghouls behind them. For a moment, I stood there
holding my sides and belting out half-mad peals of laughter at the shambling
idiots. I guess it was one of those situations where you either laugh, or you
into hysterics. Laughing feels better, and was less likely to get me killed, so
that’s what I did.

 The
horde packed in tighter and tighter, forcing more and more of their number over
the side of the cliff. Gabe continued pouring fire at the ones toward the back
to thin out their numbers. I refrained from shooting the ones at my feet for
fear that the undead behind them would use them as a stepping stool to get
closer to me. In very short order, there were so many corpses trapped between
the truck and the fence that they actually managed to slide the truck backward
a few feet. I nearly lost my balance and had to hop down into the bed and leap
for the fence. My foot slipped on the rail, and for a terrifying instant, I saw
myself being pulled down into the press of corpses and savagely ripped apart.
The image sparked a desperate burst of adrenaline that lent me enough strength
to haul myself up with just my arms until my feet could gain purchase. With my
heart pounding like a kick drum, I reached the top of the fence and hooked a
leg over the uppermost rail. My instincts were screaming at me to climb down
and run as fast as I could in the other direction, but I knew it was important
to stay where the undead could see me. Wherever I went, they would follow. I
wanted them to keep doing what they were doing and annihilate themselves, so
running away was not an option. A few deep breaths helped me get myself
together, and I settled in to watch the show. The truck slid a few more inches
in the hard gravel under the weight of the infected pushing against it, but not
any further. Corpses poured over the cliff by the dozens, then by the hundreds.
Their chilling, ravenous eyes never left me for a second, even as they toppled
over the edge.