Dead Surge (10 page)

I was about to pull out the pick when Duncan stepped up beside me. “Allow me,” he said, pulling his sword out of its sheath. It was a big two-handed affair, with a long double-sided blade.

“Oh, by all means,” I said, bowing out of the way. I winked at Sarah and nodded at Tommy, who was shouldering his rifle to give Duncan backup.

Duncan stepped up to the first ghoul, who was reaching for him with skeletal hands, both of which were missing fingers. Duncan swung quickly, neatly severing the Z’s head from its neck and cutting off the hands for good measure.

The second zombie took a quick stab through the eye that still left a foot of steel coming out of the back of its skull, and the last took a cut right at eye level, completely removing the top of the corpse’s head.

All three kills took less than ten seconds, and I looked back at Charlie and Tommy with raised eyebrows. Tommy just nodded and put away his rifle, while Charlie was taking a serious look at Duncan’s sword. I had to admit, that was a pretty effective and silent method of killing zombies.

I stepped over a zombie that was sprawled across the ditch, and climbed the small berm. I hoped to see some activity of the living, but I wasn’t hoping for much. As it was, I was hoping for too much.

“That’s what I mean. There’s nothing here. The homes are busted into, and I can see some zombie activity further down the way, but I other than that, there’s nothing living here.” I hopped off the berm and crossed back to the group.

“How do you want to play it?” Tommy asked.

“We need to know why this town is suddenly dead, and how is it moving from town to town. Obviously, it’s the virus. But how is it getting here?” My big fear was the virus had become airborne, and that’s just what I was suggesting now.

“Well, we won’t learn anything here. Sarah and Rebecca, you two take the truck and the van and get across to the other side. We’ll take a stroll and meet you on the other side,” I said, bracing myself for the onslaught.

“What! Hey, wait a minute…”

“Are you kidding? John…”

I raised my hands. “No joking. We need coverage from the other side, and you two are the best rifle shots we have. If we need a lane to escape through, I need someone who can put a round where they’re supposed to, and not through someone’s leg.” I didn’t look at Duncan, but I didn’t have to. I knew he was cringing.

The ladies jumped into the vehicles and drove off, mollified, while the rest of us felt ourselves up for weapons and ammo.

I looked over at Charlie, who had decided to arm himself early with his twin tomahawks. “Care to be a distraction today?” I said as I pulled my long knife and trench ‘hawk of my own.

“Love to.” Charlie replied, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck.

“You two, give us ten minutes. The houses are yours. Check as many as you can, don’t bother with locked ones, and see if you can figure out what the hell is going on,” I said to Tommy and Duncan, who both nodded.

I took a deep breath, stepped over to the other side of the ditch, and climbed over the berm. Charlie was right beside me, and with a final stretch of his big arms, he nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We started off at a brisk pace, ignoring the groans and shuffling that came from the homes and side yards. We weren’t there to fight them all. We were just there to herd them along like little lethal pied pipers.

There was a risk to what we were doing. If enough zombies ahead of us heard the ruckus and started closing in, we could find ourselves between two large groups. If that happened, we had to make a break for a house to hole up in until the cavalry arrived. That was a reason not to start shooting.

We also had to make sure we cleared a path for ourselves and make sure Tommy and Duncan weren’t left high and dry. The goal was to herd the zombies along, freeing up the houses for inspection.

The good news was there wasn’t a lot of zombie activity in the street itself. Had there been a good number of the ghouls, we never would have used this method. The bad news was we couldn’t just take a leisurely walk. Tommy and Duncan were going to have to do a hurried search for clues.

Charlie and I walked about a block before the zombies started shuffling our way. We stayed ahead of them through a combination of walking and jogging. Our kills were going to have to be fast, and it sucked not to be able to shoot.

“On your side, fast stepper,” Charlie said.

“Got it. I’ll let him reach the street,” I said, readying my weapons. Part of me wanted to get another tomahawk, but the crew would never let me live it down, after I had extolled the virtues of my pick for so many years.

The zombie had long legs, which gave it speed, and was recently dead, as evidenced by its lack of grey color and abundance of blood all over it. I stepped forward, and when it came within reach, I slammed the spike end of my ‘hawk into the top of its head. A quick jerk got it out, as the Z collapsed, and I waited for Charlie to catch up.

Behind us, there was about thirty zombies, stumbling out of homes and shambling over yards. They were about twenty yards away from us, and over by the berm, I could see two heads popping up, checking to see if it was okay to start looking into homes.

“Let’s lead them on.” I walked backwards for a bit, keeping an eye on our friends, making sure there weren’t any real fast ones needing to be dealt with. For the most part, it was your standard horde, except this one was still relatively new.

On the right, Charlie saw a couple heading our way, and a quick trajectory calculation put them ahead of us at the wrong time. He jogged over to the first, smashing it across the head with his first hit, finishing it with his second. The second zombie, a smaller woman, reached for him and he used his free weapon to crack her in the temple, dropping her on top of her companion.

I walked over to a yard first and kicked a zombie teen in the chest, knocking him to the ground. His throat was torn out, and his shirt was drenched in old blood, but his eyes still had that ‘whatever’ look to them. I planted my axe head between those eyes and closed them for good. Stepping back into the street I explained to Charlie what I meant.

“If we look into fifty homes, and see that everything is just fine, but the cabinets are bare, the logical conclusion is the lack of food tells us someone was there before us and took supplies,” I said.

Charlie nodded. “Okay, I see where you’re going. So we need to look at what is not in front of us to have an idea of what might be.” Charlie thought for a second. “Nope, just managed to confuse myself. Try again.”

“Hold on, we have a problem,” I said. In front of us were about fifteen zombies, and they were all in the street. We couldn’t take them all on before the ones behind us would flank our rear. Time to get speedy.

“I’ll run left, you go right. Meet you on the other side of those houses.”

“Got it, go.”

Charlie and I split and headed in opposite directions. I went to the left and ducked between two homes, running through the backyard and up the other side yard. Charlie was running right for me from the other side and as we passed through the front yards, we both yelled to get the Z’s attention that had started to follow us to the back. We needed them in the front, because Tommy and Duncan, who were still sneaking along in the rear, would have had them to deal with if they were hanging out by the barbecues.

Chapter 21

Back in the street, we paused to catch our breath.

“How much further?” Charlie asked, moving south again.

“Not much, I can see the business district from here. According to the map, the girls should be on the other side of Coolidge Street,” I said looking for the nearest street sign.

“Again, how far?” Charlie actually sounded winded.

“Three blocks, if this is 2nd Street.” I looked back and nearly jumped. Four zombies had outpaced the rest and they were about ten feet from us.

“Shit! Back!” I shouted, whipping up my axe. The upstroke caught the zombie under the ear. Unfortunately, it was a larger gentleman who was missing half his face, and the blade lodged in his head at a bad angle, doing little to kill him. I let go of the handle and backpedalled, pulling out my pickaxe and finding some firmer ground to stand on. The second Z, a smaller ghoul whose jaw had been ripped off, stumbled forward and died as I planted my pick in his head. I dodged the clumsy grab of the big guy, and kicked him in the hip as he went past. He tumbled to the ground and as he bent over to get up, I cracked his skull with my weapon. I pulled out the ‘hawk from his throat, chastising myself for trying for a kill in such a difficult spot.

Looking over at Charlie, I saw him finish off his second and wipe the blades off on the zombie’s bathrobe. The horde behind us was a lot closer, and unless we wanted to get into a serious fight, we’d have to get moving.

“Let’s get some distance, shall we?” I said jogging away from the groaning mass.

“Grand idea, right behind you,” Charlie said, dragging his corpses to the street to try and trip up a few zombies. Mine were already there, so it might give us a few seconds.

We jogged for a block, and then waited. The houses thinned out as the streets gave way to businesses, so the possibility of attacks was smaller. Still, we’d been surprised before, so we waited in the open intersection of Linn and Sharp streets. Across the way, a large building rose up out of the grass, and the sign on the side told me it used to be a YMCA. To the south of us, a block away, was Coolidge Street, and I could see the defensive berm, as it wound its way around the southern portion of the safe zone.

“All righty then. Any sign of the Banana Brothers?” I asked, scanning the area, looking for any signs of activity. The town was pretty intact, for all general purposes, and would make a good place to live, barring whatever had wiped it out.

“Yeah, they just scooted out of the last houses. We’d better distract the masses,” Charlie said. The zombies were about fifty yards away, and were surprisingly quiet. Very few were actually groaning, and part of me wondered if that had anything to do with what we were dealing with here.

I took out my trench ‘hawk and banged the head of it and my pickaxe together. Charlie did the same, and the loud pinging was like a dog whistle to the Z’s. They zeroed in on the sound and I swear they shuffled just a little faster. Several zombies that were drifting off at the edges of the group re-focused and joined the horde.

Around the outer edges of the horde, Tommy and Duncan came streaking past, surprising the zombies and causing them to redouble their efforts to get to us. It was a hopeless cause, since we just turned and ran away. I wasn’t worried about this town being full of zombies, since they had managed to seal themselves in when they had originally sealed the zombies out. I take wins where I find them.

Chapter 22

We crossed the berm and ditch, walking past a plumbing supply warehouse and following Coolidge into the heart of the business district. At Vine Street, we reconnected with the women, and took a moment to burn off the zombie gunk on our weapons.

Sarah pulled out the map. “Rebecca and I found the communications center for this town, and before you ask, yes, it works, and no, we didn’t contact anyone. We figured having no new information was no better than no information, so we waited. Second, we may have an idea as to the source.”

That shook me. “Really? What is it?” I asked.

Sarah shook her head. “We’re guessing, so we need to put together anything you guys found.”

Tommy put his hands up in a surrender gesture. “On my side of the street, I found homes that had been lived in up until recently, and there was a lot of blood in the bedrooms. That was it. Weapons were left in the open, and nothing of use to a survivor was taken.”

Duncan nodded. “It was the same on my side of the street. Lots of blood in bedrooms and on beds, and nothing taken.”

I looked at Charlie. “Notice anything about the ones we faced?”

Charlie thought for a minute. “A lot of them died from torn throats, I didn’t see any defensive wounds, but then I wasn’t looking for them, either.”

I thought about my own kills. “That fits what I saw, too.” I looked back over to Sarah. “What does that add to your theory?”

Sarah smiled. “A lot, actually. If I had to guess, I would say all of these people died the same night, and when they were sleeping. That accounts for the blood in the bedrooms. Next, we have something missing from this place, and something missing from the last town.”

“What’s that?” Duncan asked.

“Kids,” Sarah said. “Where are the kids?”

I was speechless. In a sick way, it made sense. Zombie kids were different from the adults. The kids were faster, a lot more vicious, and in many cases, more intelligent that the average zombie. They were like the special forces of the zombie army.