Deadfall: Hunters (10 page)

Yesterday I went into my first battle against our foe. Never in my entire short life had I ever imagined myself as a soldier on the field of battle, but this morning I held my weapon in fear, anguish, anxiety, courage and anticipation. We had been training for a month, which really doesn’t seem like a very long time, but I don’t think time was a luxury we had. We were confident in what we were doing despite the fact that when I looked around me, I saw office managers, data entry reps, warehouse stockers, a bartender, a teacher, a police officer and a fitness instructor. Not a single one of us had ever imagined being in the front line against an enemy that seemingly wants our destruction.

The battle was won, mother. It was a complete success. Not a single man or woman today was killed and only a few were even moderately hurt. Our plan on how to face our enemy seems to work and oddly enough, I now look forward to more battles.

I always thought, when younger, and watching movies or reading history books, just how it would be for a man to take up arms against another man and willingly take his life. I was apprehensive as we drove out to where we would fight, mentally preparing myself for the thought of taking another man’s life, but mother, these are not men. They look like our neighbors, our friends, some of them look almost normal, but they are not men. There is something deeper, something horrible, inside of those shells, something ancient and evil. We stood there in a line, waiting for them to come to us, and when they saw us, they screamed and moaned, as if they hated our very existence. They came right at us and as we impaled them, they continued relentlessly, their opaque eyes filled with hatred. They want us all dead, and I can’t understand why. I may never.

I thought maybe, that I could be “professional” about being a soldier, that I could just stand proud and do my job. I think this is beyond that though. I think that if we can’t find a way to fight back, there will be nothing to fight for.

Mother, I miss the food most of all. No one here is going hungry, and there really is food everywhere, since, there is no one left to eat it all. But I do miss your food.

Everyone is celebrating tonight, and that’s to be expected. Word is we get one day to rest tomorrow and then we start going out on active patrols attempting to find more of our enemy.

I miss you mother. I am sorry I was not there.

I am sorry and it was hard, but I made sure you were not one of them.

If there is a heaven, and you are there, please forgive me.

Your son, Gregg

3
rd
Hunter Group

7 miles south of Clinton, NC
2 Days

6,457 Limps

On DATE!!!!!! We received radio messages relayed to Tower 87 from a new tower south of Clinton. It had been established by survivors with the help from Fayetteville and Tower 87. 33 survivors. 3 days ago the survivors had been surrounded and as per protocol had closed themselves in the tower out of sight. When they emerged today, the Limp horde had mostly dispersed but too many had stayed behind and had caused a bad situation for the survivors. Radio messages asked for help and the 3
rd
was tasked with scouting and assessing the possibility of eliminating that particular horde and if that was possible, then tasked with eliminating the entire Limp population in that area. Clinton had a pre Deadfall population of around 8 thousand people, with maybe 2-3 thousand more in the surrounding rural areas.

3
rd
group has been in active daily patrol duty since our first battle two weeks ago. Most of our encounters have been less than 100 Limps at a time, easily dispatched. The potential of encountering multiple thousand Limps required careful planning. 1
st
and 3
rd
Hunter groups were tasked for this operation.

Clinton tower is located just south of city limits. Exiting the city south are two major state highways, 701 and 421. That corridor would be used to draw the enemy out into and into ground we would determine once the horde started moving. Scouts from both groups along with a new group dedicated for the sole purpose of drawing out Limps, dubbed the Noisemakers, would be tasked with getting into Clinton and drawing the Limps out down towards our location south of the city. Noisemakers used an assorted type of vehicles, most with any kind of noise reduction removed from them. Noisemakers and scouts would come into the city from the northwest and north east, from the east and south east, head through the city, drawing as many Limps as they could going through a westerly direction until reaching highway 701 on the western part of the city and attempting to draw them down south to our location.

In the few weeks of live action we have noticed a phenomenon among the Limps we have dubbed the horde march. Once again, without fully understanding any level of communication the Limps might have between themselves, we have been able to establish that when a large quantity of the creatures are set into motion in one direction, there appears to be a buildup of momentum wherein the ever growing horde continues to feed off new Limps that see the moving horde. This horde march then usually follows the easiest path, the path of less resistance, in the general direction it is heading, in most cases, roads and highways. This phenomenon would explain the many stories we have of gigantic hordes roaming the larger highways in the country. How these marches are begun is impossible to know for now. What we do know is that once started, they are only stopped when there is something physically in the way to stop them; the ocean, a river, a mountain or canyon. In this case we planned to be that physical force.

The point of encounter was planned for the intersection of highway 701 and 421. As an operation of this scale had never been done before, we hoped the southward direction of 421 would allow us an easy retreat if needed. Operation was scheduled to begin on DATE!!!!! With scout and Noisemakers deployment. 1
st
and 3
rd
groups would begin preparing at the intersection. Barricades would be placed in order to attempt to funnel the movement of Limps into our lines.

While scouts and Noisemakers began entering the city that morning, both groups deployed at the intersection and began setting up. Units rotated between setting up barricades and barriers and standing guard for the constant trickle of local Limps attracted by the noise of our work. Most of that dispatching work was done by the Flankers of each unit. By the evening of that first day, we received reports that the scouts and Noisemakers had not yet been able to get a horde march going, but would keep moving through the night in continuing attempts to start the march.

4:15 a.m. of the second day, scouts came roaring into camp. Miles behind they had news of a formed horde still following the Noisemakers, headed south on Highway 701B, the main road through the western edge of Clinton. As had been hoped, we had managed to bring the horde down through the narrower road as opposed to the larger highway that was 421. This would keep less numbers directly on the pike lines. Hopefully the horde was large enough to serve as a siphon, drawing as many of the Limps out as possible from the small city.

First Noisemakers drove by around 5:20 a.m. All units were fully mustered at this point and deployed. 3
rd
group would start first in line, units two through five with one in reserve. There were many open fields along 701, but before the intersection was a heavily forested area on either side of the road. Units deployed across the road facing north and into either side of the road. Snipers were set up on trucks on the overpass behind the units, serving as lookouts down 701 and west down 421, ensuring no hordes came from that direction. 1
st
Group remained in reserve under the overpass, ready to come up and relieve.

First Limps crashed into the main line, Unit 3, at 6:00 a.m. Combat was constant for the first seven hours. 1
st
group relieved 3
rd
group at 8:00 a.m., stepping quite seamlessly into the line. By this point the pile up of bodies was starting to impede the movement of the horde, which was spilling out into the field next to the wooded area northwest of the intersection, and some were starting to come around the left side onto Highway 421. One unit with 3
rd
formed a line under the overpass and easily held off the overflow there. By 10:00 a.m., when 3
rd
group was ready to go back to the main line, leaders decided to form a new line below on Highway 421, just south of the intersection, to allow for the horde to continue moving. 3
rd
formed and 1
st
unit moved off the overpass down past the 3
rd
group’s line.

At 11:30 a.m., 1
st
group formed alongside 3
rd
group. The horde was coming off 701 and was moving down 421 into our lines. At this point there had been no reported casualties but leaders began considering the possibility of retreat wondering how long until fatigue set in if both groups were continually in combat. Each group maintained one unit in reserve, rotating them in and out every twenty minutes if possible. There were two large open fields to either side of the highway at this point, but it appeared the horde mentality would hold true.

Unit 4 in 1
st
Group suffered a slight set back at 1:15 p.m. A pikeman was seriously wounded and the Limps broke through for a moment. Flankers did their jobs though and the line held just fine, and was rotated in by the reserve unit.

Combat began to die down around 2:30 and by 3:00 it was evident we had cleared the main portion of the horde. At this point in time, 3
rd
Group formed the main line allowing 1
st
to go back into reserve. Both groups continued rotating in and out of the line throughout the rest of the day.

Between 6:00 and 6:30 we were presented with a new challenge we had not yet faced. The horde was clearly beaten, but the siphoning of the Limps from that area was still ongoing. We were unable to end combat directly because Limps were continuously coming down the highway, even if in far smaller quantities than before. Leaders convened and it was decided we would not leave until there was no march left. Groups would rotate through the night if needed. 1
st
group began a four hour shift while 3
rd
was allowed to stop, rest, eat and sleep a bit. At around midnight 3
rd
group took over. Only two units were needed at a time, generally in a very loose formation. This rotation continued throughout the night and it was only at 8:30 the next morning that combat was officially over, with no visible Limps marching. I'm sure the cheer would have been great if the exhaustion wasn’t even greater.

Cleanup took three more days. Official count at that location was that 6,457 Limps were dispatched and burned.

Video Interview with Corey Fount
June 22, 2053
Part 3

Video Begins…

Interviewer: “So where you there at the Battle of Clinton?”

Corey: “I always found it funny that there were names given to all those fights. We never gave them names. We never felt like we were at war, not yet at least. It really wasn’t till years later that we looked back and saw it as the start of the war.

Yeah, I was there. I was barely eighteen years old at the time, still a kid really. But I was there, yeah. We had been doing the whole patrol thing for a few weeks I think, and it had been really easy up to that point. You see, most of the time, we only fought a few here and there. One living guy against a zombie, one guy who has his wits about him, it’s really easy.

Did you know they called them Limps? Do you know where that came from?”

Interviewer: “Yes, it was the technical...”

Corey: “The soldiers, the military, they called them the Living Impaired. You know, they always had to have some kind of technical term for all their shit. Well, it was just too damned long to call them that, so they called em Limps for short. We had all sorts of names. Most are words I probably won’t repeat now.”

Interviewer: “What do you remember of that battle?”

Corey: “That’s the first time it got really serious. We always thought we would fight for an hour or so, like a brief workout, but that fight, we were in it for a day, a whole day, 24 hours it was I think. We had a whole week off after that, we did nothing but sleep and rest. And it wasn’t just that we were awake and fighting for that whole time, but it was our arms. I remember that morning, when I dropped my pike, my arms, they couldn’t move. I remember when we’d come off the line, our captains would be telling us not to put the pikes down or we might not be able to pick them up. They had to feed us. Put the food in our mouths for us. But we just stood there and kept swinging away.

That what also when we realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as just standing there and bursting their heads like balloons. Have you ever imagined what it’s like? The Zombies? They had no weapons, or guns or nothing. They came straight at you and tried to kill you with their hands, feet, teeth, heads, anything. You know us people aren’t equipped with claws or huge fangs, so most of the time they just went at you crazy like, smashing at you with their fists, elbows, heads, anything. Yeah, they’d bite you, but that’s rarely how they killed you. They were really strong though, stronger than a normal person I think, or maybe they weren’t, but just didn’t have whatever limitations we put in ourselves. See, I probably couldn’t rip your arm out of your socket, not because I physically can’t, but probably because my brain tells me that’s just a dumb thing to do, so I can’t do it. Now a zombie, he doesn’t think, there's no conscience. I saw one guy once, the zombie got him by the hair and just ripped his scalp off, or most of it, right down the ear, all from just pulling at the hair. Most guys that died, they were beat to death.

So at that battle, when it was one right after the other, we started getting some ideas. The first one after that battle was armor. It took us a long time to figure that one out. See, we couldn’t just get dressed up in old ages metal armor or we’d roast in that sun. Summers down in Americana, back then it was North Carolina, it was hot then. But after that battle, many of us started wearing leather jackets if we could, biker helmets, anything to get away from the beating we got. Most of us were so bruised up. No matter how tight our line was, they would squeeze in there and they would be flailing at us with their hands, or kick at us. It was like a temper tantrum, except, it never stopped. It was relentless.

No one died that day. That was good.

You know most of us were guys. A lot of the flankers were girls though. They made good flankers, just, mean. A lot of them, the women, those that had survived, they were tough.”

Interviewer: “Why do you say that?”

Corey: “You know what bothered me so much about Deadfall? You know? Other than the obvious. It was the fact that we have the whole world falling apart, these zombies want to kill every living thing, and what do I find out my co man wants to do? Find the closest woman and rape her. This happened way too much and I never got it. The world goes to hell so you make someone’s life a personal hell as well? So most of the women that fought with us, so many of them had been through some horrible stuff. Some were open about it, and took it out on the zombies. Most were not, but still took it out on the zombies. The funny thing? Or not so funny? All the ones I knew personally, ended up being amazing mothers later on. Helped raise the next generation of men.

On that day though, the flankers were bouncing in and out of the lines. Most of them had swords or machetes, but this one girl, one of the two flankers in our unit, Stacy something, Stacy Morgan, she only had a bat. So as the zombies came at us, so many would keep getting stuck on the pikes when we missed, and we missed a lot that day, we still really were no good. So we would yell out “stuck” or something to that nature and here she would come. She was short, had short black hair, and she would bounce in and just smash their heads in. One pop, it was amazing. She was really short, even for a woman, but she never missed. She would mash their head in and then with the same bat, slide the thing off the pike and off she would go to the next one yelling “stuck”. They were probably key that day, making sure we didn’t get bogged down. “

Interviewer: “What were some of the lessons learned from that battle?”

Corey: “There were so many. The pikes were too heavy. We were going to need more people. We needed a better way to deal with the zombies. The pike lines were key, key to making sure they came to us and for us to control how we killed them, but we needed other ways to kill them. We wanted to make catapults with large rocks we could throw on them to crush them, but who wants to haul around rocks? We did these large nets, and those worked really well, except they usually got completely trashed after each battle, and we only could use a few each time, and that was that, so we mostly saved those for emergencies.

You hear of the Elephants?”

Interviewers: “Not the real ones correct?”

Corey: “Oh. That would have been amazing. Probably would have worked well too. No, someone had suggested using those large pavement asphalt roller machines. We had managed to find two, and they were nicknamed Elephant and Rhino. We added them to our convoys. Now, they only worked on roads, but oh man, did they work. We had built them up so the guy inside was protected, and then it would come rolling down. We had practice were our line would open just enough for them to go through. They were slow, and sometimes zombies were able to walk right around them, but for the most part, they just walked right at it, and disappeared under a mush of pulp underneath it. What they worked best was for smashing down all the bodies we left behind.

Did you know that day we killed over six thousand of them? You ever seen six thousand human bodies in one small place? They take up a lot of space. Our biggest problem was that the bodies we were making were forming a wall, and that wall stopped the zombies from coming straight at us, which is what we wanted. We had to keep moving back to allow them to come at us. Later, we would use Rhino and Elephant to come directly down the line in front of us, and press that mass of bodies into wet mush. It was horrible at first, bodies bursting under the machine, but it was very effective.

We also found out we were going to need more people. Six thousand of them killed by just over two hundred of us. That felt really good, until we realized that six thousand was really a very small number. There were hordes out there that had thirty thousand. Those were the ones we had been able to count, and by count I mean take a really good guess as to how many there were. We would find out later that there would be even bigger hordes. Then, we just realized that two hundred guys just wasn’t going to cut it. We needed more people, and that meant finding more people out there, helping the Towers out and making it easier for them to find us. ”

Interviewer: “Did you know General Steers? Personally?”

Corey: “General Steers was just a Group commander then, although everyone knew that the Hunter groups had been his idea. He was a young guy, maybe a few years older than me. He never was a soldier, just a really smart guy, and, angry. He had a dry humor about him, he would crack jokes sometimes, but there was something deeper, darker. He was pissed. Angry. Focused too though. He would always come out of each encounter more refined, and with focus he would refine the groups even more. After 3
rd
group, he formed 4
th
group, and that’s when the pikemen started wearing that plastic armor, and using the shields. Every group adopted that as well.

He just really wanted the zombies gone. We all did. At Clinton, we found out it was going to be really hard, but very possible. It was just going to take a long time. Like a really bad workout. Long and boring. We really didn’t expect anyone to die. Benson would change all that now didn’t it?”

Interviewer: “The Battle of Benson?”

Corey: “That’s when we realized we actually had an enemy. Everything changed then.”