Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (21 page)

I moved forward carefully and heard something directly in front of me.  I took a quick peek above the grass and was rewarded with the sight of a small boy turning around to look directly at me.  His eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with dark tissue, giving him an obscene look.  His nostrils flared and his mouth opened, showing me bits of decaying flesh stuck in his teeth. 

He started to turn and my hand shot forward, spearing one of those awful eyes right to the hilt.  The curve of my knife swept the blade into the brain, and I gave the knife a reflexive twist.  I pulled the boy back towards me and caught the back of his neck, easing him to the ground.  I had to be careful when I grabbed him, since I didn’t want to stab myself with a knife that was covered in bits of brain. 

I slowly eased the knife out, wiping it off on the Z’s dirty shirt.  I moved forward again, a little more quickly, seeking another target.  This time it was a girl about ten years old, and she never saw me coming.  I stabbed her in the back of the neck and let her momentum pull her off my blade. 

I stepped forward some more, and then suddenly stopped.  The clicking had ceased, and I didn’t want to be too far forward if they discovered me.  I waited in the tall grass, listening intently.  I didn’t hear anything moving, so I didn’t want to be the only one making noise and become a target.

Suddenly the air was split by a huge bellow. “
John
!”

It was Charlie.  I stood up and saw Charlie standing in a small cleared area, surrounded by zombies, who were advancing slowly.  Charlie couldn’t shoot, because Duncan and I would be in the line of fire.  I did the only thing I could think of to do.

I hurled my trench hawk, burying the blade in the back of the head of one of the zombies.  I sheathed my knife as I ran forward, pulling my .45 from
its
holster.  If I was close enough, I could shoot more at a downward angle, reducing the chance of shooting Charlie or Duncan.

“Here, you bastards!” Duncan suddenly yelled, standing up and brandishing his sword.  It was bloodied from mid-blade to tip, and Duncan held it like a baseball bat, practically daring the Z’s to attack him.

That distraction turned a few heads, and I took the opportunity to shoot three of them down.  The noise spun their heads back to me, and Charlie stepped forward to kill two of them.  Duncan rushed the two coming at him, and he cut them down without mercy.  One leaped at me, but I dodged to the side, bringing my gun around and firing at
its
head at point-blank range as it passed by.  The extra push
threw
the small body through the grass like a rag doll.  I swung the gun around but by this
time,
Charlie had his out and was firing as well.  He killed three on his right side, and I finished off one that was moving away to the tree line. 

Charlie and I waited with our backs towards each other as Duncan scrambled up the tree he had fallen out of.  He leaned out over our position and gave us the all clear before losing his grip and falling to the ground again.  This time he was
ready
and only managed to jam the hilt of his sword into his side as he landed.

“That it?”
  Charlie asked, wiping off his tomahawks and knife.

I nodded.  “I think we did it.  If there are any more
,
they’ve gone.”

“How do you think the others are doing?” Duncan asked. 

I shook my head.  “No way to know.  But we’d better get ourselves moving and find a place for the night. We should be well north by noon tomorrow.”

“Are we riding or floating?”  Charlie asked.

I hadn’t thought about it.  If we were riding, we’d be able to address any further outbreaks.  On the other hand, the boat would get us to
Leport
that much faster and a much more direct route.  Then again, the bikes were a
lot
faster and we’d make it there quicker along an indirect route.

“Let’s get the bikes.  Charlie, you think the CBR is road-worthy?”   I asked, remembering Charlie had put the bike down earlier.

“Only one way to find
out,
” Charlie said. “Duncan, give me a lift, hey?”

“Surely,
surely,
” Duncan said, turning and heading out of the woods.  He had left the bike in between a couple of trees, and it only took a second to get fired up.  I ran back to the other BMW and we all rode carefully back to where Charlie first put the CBR down.  The bike was scraped to hell and back on one side, but the front forks were fine and the tires were still good.  The clutch handle was bent a little outwards,
but Charlie said he could reach it just fine.  The bike was still on, but the battery had enough power to turn over.  Charlie got it started on the fourth try, revving the engine and checking the systems for damage. 

When he was satisfied, he gave Duncan and
me
the thumbs up, and we turned our bikes north and then headed east, following the river until it turned further north.  We had no option but to cross or head east, and I didn’t want to cross just yet.  I knew there were a lot of things going on up north, and I didn’t want to find myself in the middle of it just yet.  The plan was to head to
Leport
, and that was what we were going to do.  Besides, I had another plan to get through, and it was to the east of us. 

Chapter 38

I opened up the BMW and raced along the farm road, going as quickly as I could.  Strangely enough, farm roads survived the seasons better than the ‘well-travelled’ roads.  It made sense, since farm roads weren’t maintained as often, nor travelled as often. I followed a
zigzag
pattern through the underbelly of the Illinois River, passing signs for Morris and
Heidecke
Lake.  I cruised along Pine Bluff Road, coming to a stop outside the entrance to Goose Lake Prairie State Park.  A truck was parked by the entrance, and two men were sitting on the tailgate arguing over a map.

I pulled up about twenty feet from the truck, nodding at Charlie and Duncan.  Those two got off their bikes and stood apart from me, about where I needed them in case of an ambush.  Charlie kept his right thumb hooked in his belt about an inch from his gun, and Duncan stood with his hands inside the armholes of his vest.  If you didn’t know better, Duncan looked like he was just relaxing without a care in the world.  In fact, he actually had his hands on two small pistols which were resting in holsters sewn into the inside of his vest.  In the blink of an eye, Duncan could have two guns out and firing before you even knew he was armed.

I walked apart from my cycle, circling wide to keep it out of the line of fire.  The men on the truck continued to argue about the map, and I just laughed out loud. 

“Has it been that long, Andre?”  I called over. 

The dark haired man on the right broke into a huge grin.  “That it has,
John, that
it has.”  He let go of his side of the map, showing me the gun he was holding in his other hand.  He hopped off the bed of the truck and limped over to me, where he wrapped his big arms around me in a fierce hug.

The man on the left jumped off and scampered over to Charlie and Duncan, giving hugs to both. 
“Go
od
to see you, boys!
  Good to see you!”

Charlie and Duncan returned the favor, with Duncan asking questions.

“Where you living now?
  What’s happening in the south?
Any outbreaks?”
  He said.

Kyle, the dark haired man, answered in his broken way.  “We’re south of here,
‘
bout 40 mile.  No breaks, just farm.  That’s all. 
Just farm.”
  Kyle was a man of few words, but he was a deadly fighter.  He was part of the group of veterans that had fought with me all the way to Colorado.  He was an engineer who helped close the gaps in the mountains, sealing off the West Coast forever.  His speech was a result of a car accident many years ago.

I returned the hug to Andre before asking some questions of my own.  “
How’s things
?  You okay?”

Andre looked down.  “Beth died last winter. 
Pneumonia.
  Hard to believe after all we went through.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, man.  She was a good woman.  How are the kids?  They okay?”

Andre smiled a bit.  “They’re better.  We’re busy with the farm and the forge, so that helps.” Andre was an amateur blacksmith who happened to have a talent with metal.  His knives and weapons were sought after, and he did well in
his
trade.  Charlie’s tomahawks were made by Andre last year, replacing the ones that had
been with him for so long.  Andre’s were better balanced, flew farther, and kept their edges longer.  Couldn’t ask for more, as Charlie said
...

Andre looked at me.  “What are we facing, John Talon?”

I got down to business.  “We’re heading north to the capital, trying to hook up with as many veterans as would answer the call.  The zombies we’re facing are not like anything you’ve seen before.” 

Andre held up a hand.  “Hold on, we all need to hear this.”  He put his hand to his mouth and blew out a strong whistle.  Fifteen men and nine women emerged from the trees, all well-armed and well-equipped. 

I smiled in spite of myself, and was rewarded with big grins and smiles in return.  I knew all of these men and women, and felt almost relief in having them with me.  If this group had accompanied us to Iowa, the threat would have died there, no question about it.

I spent several minutes shaking hands and giving hugs, and one woman threw her arms around me and gave me a huge kiss.

“That’s better!” said the buxom blonde attached to me.  “How you been, John?  You still married or have I finally gotten lucky?” she asked saucily.

I put the woman down gently. 
“Sarah’s fine, Donna.
  She misses you, too.”

“
Arrgh
, why did she see you first?” Donna growled.  She was a tall woman, with generous curves, and a beautiful, care-lined face.  In her
day,
she was probably stunning, but time and worry had taken a small toll in wrinkles and creases.  She ran a farm down south, and when the Upheaval had hit, she took it upon herself to take in every orphan she could find or fight for
,
whose parents had succumbed to the disease or zombies
.  When I met her
,
she had forty-
seven kids on her
fifty-acre
farm, and was managing to care for all of them.  She joined our effort across the country, for no other reason than to take care of the children we found.  There wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t defend Donna to the death for what she had done.

I gave Donna an extra hug, with a butt squeeze thrown in to make her squeak.  She swatted my hand, but didn’t knife me, for which I was grateful.

When the catching up was quickly finished, I took the map and outlined what we had been doing and where we had been.  I described everything to the veterans, right down to the death of my brother.  Several heads went down at that news, as Mike was a well-liked man.  They were especially quiet when I described the zombies, shaking their heads at what the Z’s could do and how they were doing it.  I finished quickly, and we mapped out a route to the capital.

“I think we killed off the horde that was south of the river, but I don’t have a way of being
sure,
” I said honestly. “I don’t know how many attacked the lodge or how many might have splintered off.  If there are any more, then they went further south.  I don’t have the time to look for them.”

Donna raised a hand.  “I don’t think I could kill them, John.  I just don’t know.”

Andre patted her arm.  “They stopped being kids when they became zombies, you know that.”

Donna nodded and let it go.  I continued. 

“Right now we need to get to 53 and head north.  I figure we can pass by
Joslin
without any t
rouble, and head up through Free
port, reaching
Leport
from the south end.  Tommy, Sarah, and Rebecca are meeting up with veterans on the north side of
the river, hoping to engage and guide the zombies towards the 355 bridge.  If we’re lucky, they’ll take the bait and try and engage us on the bridge.” I looked at the map. “Bad luck would have us making preparations for one bridge and they end up on another.”

I rolled up the map. 
“Any questions?”

One hand rose above the rest.  I looked for a second,
and then
suppressed a laugh.

“Yes, Duncan?”
I asked patiently.

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

“No. 
Anyone else?”
I asked the group of chuckling men and women.  “All right, let’s get this done.  And everyone?”  I said, turning people’s heads my way. “I sure am glad to see each and every one of you.”

Charlie, Duncan and I went back to our motorcycles and fired them up.  Charlie popped me on the arm.