Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (18 page)

I thought for a second.  “The river will slow them.  Get on the horn and tell Dot to block all bridges that cross the river.  Thank
God,
there’s
only four of them.  Use cargo containers, anything, but get it done now.  That’s the only thing containing these little fuckers right now
,
is the damn river!”  I yelled as I ran out to the garage to get out the big trucks.  We weren’t kidding around anymore. We were getting the big guns.

As I looked over our trucks, I realized we had better transportation at hand, and a better highway.  I moved over to another garage, and opened it.  Inside were three motorcycles.  Two were BMW R1100’s, and the other was a Honda CBR.  I thought about it for a
minute
and the better and better it looked to me. 

I fired up one of the BMW’s and rode it down to the dock.  Leaving it there, I ran, jogged, and walked my way back up the stairs and back to the garage.  Fortunately, Duncan and Tommy were there, putting large duffle bags into the back of our biggest truck.

“Slight change in
plans,
” I said as I started the second BMW.

Tommy eyed me doubtfully, and Duncan just looked like he normally does.

“Duncan, get on the rocket and follow me.  Tommy, put together a duffle of shotguns and
ammo,
” I said, pulling away.

“Shotguns?
Why?” Tommy called after me, but I didn’t have time to explain.  Duncan and I rode down to the dock, and I left the second BMW there.  I had Duncan give me a ride back to the garage where I met up with Tommy for the second time.  Duncan rode off to the dock to carry out the instructions I had given him.

“Thanks,
Tommy,
” I said, hefting a large duffle bag.

“What’s the plan, John?”  Tommy asked pointedly, flicking his head in the direction Duncan took.

“We’re splitting up.  Charlie, Duncan and I
,
are going to head off and kill the group that’s south of 80, while you
,
Sarah and Rebecca
,
head north of 80 and get to
Leport
as fast as you can.  I don’t know where the main horde is, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to engage them wholesale when they might have a second group coming up to bite me in the
ass,
” I said, putting the bag on like a backpack. The straps were going to cut into my arms, but it would only be for a short time.

Tommy flinched slightly, drawing a snarl on his face.  “You think they’re that sophisticated?”

I shook my head.  “No, I think they’re just pack animals now, and if you ask me why the hell they keep running east, even away from the main group, I haven’t got an answer for you.  But I
do
think they will eventually go off on their own, and when that thought goes through their diseased, dead brains, we may as well be in the second Upheaval.”

Tommy mulled that one over for a second.  “You know, in a weird kind of way, that makes sense and isn’t as scary.”

I slapped him on the shoulder.  “Be afraid, my friend.  It keeps us alive.  Let’s get going.”

I went back into the lodge, mostly because it was the quickest way to the stairs and I knew Sarah would be waiting for me.  I was slightly surprised to see my father there, but I could handle that.

“We’re heading out upriver, and I need you and Rebecca to go with Tommy.  You’re going to go to
Leport
and set up defenses
there,
” I
said quickly, hoping to get out of a lengthy discussion.

Sarah looked at me with narrowed eyes.  “Where are you going?”

“Charlie, Duncan and I
,
are taking a boat and getting over to the wilderness.  The group that killed my brother is on their way there, and if we can get in there, we can hunt that group down and eliminate it as a threat.  We’ll meet you up in the capital.”  From my point of view, it sounded reasonable.

Sarah wasn’t buying it.  “What about Jake and Aaron?”

“My dad is
here,
” I said.  “I think he may have fired a gun or two in his life.  I think Marines do that from time to time.”  I was getting impatient, and I tended to become a world-class smartass when that happened.

Dad spoke up, cutting Sarah off. “Sarah, it will be fine.  Let John go, he needs to get that group.  Get your stuff, and we’ll talk.”

I caught my father giving Sarah a wink, and my warning bells went off.  Whatever was about to happen would be something I probably wouldn’t like, but at the moment, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

“Do what you have to, but get moving.  This horde isn’t waiting for
anyone,
”  I
said
,
as I went back out the door to the patio and the stairs.  Charlie was waiting for me, and Rebecca was with him. 

“Let’s get moving.  There’s been a change in plan.  Rebecca, you’re going with Tommy and Sarah.  We’ll meet you at the
capital,
”  I
said quickly.

Charlie raised an eyebrow.  “Where are we going?” He asked.

“We’re going hunting in the woods.”

Charlie gave me a grin that was pure evil,
and
then kissed Rebecca goodbye.  He picked up his own bag and headed off down the stairs. Just as he disappeared over the edge, Tommy rounded the corner.  I waved him over to speak with him and Rebecca at the same time.

“Gather the veterans as they make their way to the capital.  Set up as many retreating stations as you can, and keep that horde near the river.  Do not let them get around you.  Push them to the bridge at
Leport
as best as you can, then get to the capital.  I’ll see you
there,
”  I
said.

“What if they don’t cooperate?” Tommy asked.  It was a legitimate question, and one that had serious
repercussions
.

I had nothing left but bravado.  “Make them.”  With that, I turned and headed for the dock.

Chapter 32

Down by the boats, Duncan had managed to accomplish what I had asked of him.  The three motorcycles were standing side by side on our pontoon boat, and the engine was idling, waiting for me to get my but
t
down there.

Charlie was lounging on the
backbench
,
as if
he had been there all morning, but I knew he had arrived a minute before I did.

I
unwrapped
the mooring lines and stepped aboard as Duncan eased up the throttle.  The boat was low in the water, thanks to the weight of the cycles, but since this was a party boat, made once upon a time for a crowd of fat drunks, it handled it fine.

I put the duffle bag down and eased my shoulders before unzipping the bag.  I pulled out the first shotgun and handed it to Charlie.  The riverbanks slipped slowly by, and Duncan began to give the boat more throttle as he got used to the rhythm of the water and the weight of the boat.

I pulled the second shotgun out, and then the third, laying the two on the floor.  I dumped out the rest of the duffle bag, which consisted of several boxes of buckshot, ranging in size from #4 to double ought.  I gave a box to Charlie and he loaded the first gun up with five rounds of buck.  Double ought
buckshot
contained nine balls roughly the same size as a .38 bullet, so some decent damage could be done
i
f you worked the gun right.

I loaded the other two shotguns to capacity as well.  The guns were
Benelli
M4’s semi-auto shotguns we had picked up from an armory that hadn’t been completely destroyed.  When the Upheaval went bad, the regular army had received orders to destroy their armories, with the thought that civilians with superior firepower might not be so willing to obey the government if things got restored to normal.  It was a monumentally bad decision, since more armed citizens could have stemmed the tide of zombies and contained the damage. 

I loaded fifteen speed loaders, and Charlie loaded nine.  Shotgun speed loaders were simple affairs.  They were tubes with handles, and the first shell rested on the handle.  You put rounds into the tube, and when it came time to reload, you put the end into the feed tube on the shotgun and shoved the handle forward.  You could reload five rounds in a couple of seconds compared to the time it would take to load each one separately.

When we finished, we separated the loaders and had eight each.  That gave us
forty-five
rounds of buckshot to use on our little friends.  Normally, I would use my rifle, but as I thought about the attacks we had seen, and the way the little Z’s came at us, precision was a luxury we couldn’t afford.  Fire a shot at a zombie and it was the only round headed their way. 
Fine, well and good.
  If they were slow and you had a chance to aim, you’d likely kill it.  With a fast, short zombie, the smarter thing to do was use a gun that threw lots of bullets in the general direction, and you had a good chance of one of them being a killing shot.  We didn’t have shotguns with us in Iowa, and it may not have made a difference in the long run, but we certainly were going to use them here.

“Coming up to
Marsailles
,
” Duncan called out.  Charlie and I were just watching the river flow by.  We didn’t feel the need to talk about anything just yet, and it was nice to just let the river take over our thoughts.

“Keep it
going;
we need to get to Seneca before we get
off,
” I said. The sun bounced off the water, and created neat light reflections that played along the reeds and trees that lined the banks.  I actually found it hard to believe that just this morning
,
I found my father at my brother’s grave.  That was
only
six hours ago, and now we were charging into the woods to take out a threat, but to avenge his death as well.

“Righty
ho,
” Duncan
whistled slightly as he drove the boat, giving this whole experience a rather surreal feel to it. 

A second thought occurred to me, and I was curious enough
finally
to ask it out loud.

“Hey
,
Duncan.”

“
Yo
.”

“How do you feel about leaving Janna and your child behind to go fight zombies?”

Duncan turned around slightly to give me a look before continuing his piloting of the boat.

He didn’t answer right away, and I worried I may have offended him, but when I thought about that, I realized I couldn’t possibly offend him by asking him something that I seemed to do on a regular basis, sadly.

“It sucks, John.  It really does.  But I know why I do it, and I accept that it’s part of what we do.  I don’t have to, but I do it
anyway,
” Duncan
said.

“Okay, I get that, but why do you go?”  I was really curious, and maybe I was looking for answers as to why I constantly left, instead of sending others away.

“Simple answer is you, Charlie, and Tommy.  You’re closer to me than brothers, and I don’t think I could stay while you went into danger. If something happened, the question that would always haunt me is whether or not my being there might have made a
difference,
” Duncan
said.

I thought about it and it made more sense than anything I could have come up with.  I couldn’t describe my relationship with my friends.  It was more than friendship, more than brotherhood.  It was a special kind of bond, and impossible to describe to anyone who had never felt such a thing before.

Whatever thoughts I had about that were interrupted by Duncan announcing we were coming up on Seneca.  Charlie and I loaded up our vests with the
speed loaders
, and filled another for
Duncan.
  I spread out two more boxes of shells in my vest’s pockets, and Charlie did the same.  Duncan told us he would take care of that himself once we landed. No offense intended
,
he just didn’t trust Charlie’s hands in his pockets.

Charlie didn’t say anything, but when he stood up, he casually took a swipe at Duncan’s head with his hand.  Duncan easily ducked it, anticipating Charlie’s response.  I just shook my head and waited to land the boat.

Chapter 33

When we pulled up to the dock, several things were wrong all at the same time.  Apparently, the last flood we had did some serious damage to this part of the river, and the dock was one of the casualties.  The posts were knocked almost over, and the end of the pier was dipping into the water.  Several planks were missing, and there was no way we could use this thing.

“Any ideas?”
I said, looking over the damage.  Duncan slowed the engine to an idle that kept us in place as the river tried to push us onward.