World Memorial (45 page)

"Bring me the children!" Sharon yelled after them. "Alive!"

Beulah stomped her way over to Sharon. "You're weaker too, Sharon," she said. "Using power to keep your army in check? Keep your hordes from tearing your new flock apart?"

"Why did you stop pulling the children to you?" Sharon said, frowning.

"Because I sensed you, sister," said Beulah as she drew near. "I sensed your thoughts. Your plan."

She grabbed Sharon and pulled her forward. Sharon pushed back, but Beulah was right. She was using too much energy controlling her massive army.

"And here's what I realized," said Beulah, looking into her eyes. "If I can distract you long enough, your corpses will reach the children. And if they do, the kids go off. They release their life energy. Then all I have to do is release my outposts all over the word. And this all ends!"

Sharon grabbed Beulah's head and squeezed. So tight it should have cracked her skull, but she couldn't spare the power. "So that's what's distracting you!"

"Shut up!" yelled Beulah, shoving Sharon back. Sharon flew, tumbling across the snow. She knocked corpses and animals aside as she tumbled.

She stood as Beulah stomped toward her.

* * *

Dalton strained against the post. The glow in his eyes was nearly blinding. The pain of resisting Beulah was almost too much to bear. The children pulled with him as one. Dalton had cajoled them all into trying. Into resisting. Together, they were countering Beulah's pull. The post leaned forward, against the force of her will.

"That's it guys....." he said, gripping the hands of the children next to him. They gripped back and pulled. Dalton blinked through the white light clouding his vision. He could see the corpses getting closer. The guards cocked their rifles. There were many, many corpses. Maybe too many to shoot. He tried not to think about it and focused on resisting the pull.

Suddenly, the pull stopped. Dalton's vision cleared. The glow vanished from the eyes of the other children. They all stumbled forward, pulling the post from the ground. The children looked around in confusion, their chains suddenly slack. Several scurried out of the way as the post fell forward, almost falling into the moat.

"What happened?" said Dalton.

Then the children were screaming as a corpse stumbled toward them. It was a thin woman with grey skin and blackened teeth. She hissed as she drew near the moat. The guards opened fire, exploding her head across the snow behind her. She slumped to the ground but there were many more.

Dalton undid the strap surrounding his waist. The older children followed suit, undoing theirs and helping the younger ones out.

Dalton ran to the edge of the moat. Another corpse, a muscular man with thick exposed tendons running down his throat, was drawing near.

"Give me a gun!" 

A guard looked like she might argue, then shrugged and tossed Dalton a pistol. Dalton aimed and shot, ripping through the large man's skull. More drew near and the guards kept shooting, as did Dalton. The children screamed and crowded together.

"Light the moat!" yelled Dalton as he fired.

A guard pulled a flint lighter from his pocket, lit it, and tossed it into the moat. The gasoline filling the moat exploded, sending a barrier of flames all around the children.

Dalton winced at the flames and kept firing. Many corpses were coming. The guards shot and the fire burned.

Dalton hoped it would be enough.

* * *

Park gripped the platform as tightly he could. He'd managed to sling his rifle over his shoulder and was now holding on with both hands. Lilly swung from the belt tied to him. She screamed at the corpses reaching up for her. Her eyes glowed and she gritted her teeth in what looked like both pain and anger.

"Fuck you....fuckers!"

The bear paced among the corpses, growling up at her hungrily.

"You too…bear!"

Park climbed further up the platform, pulling Lilly and himself away from the corpses. He looked down to see how much distance he'd made. It was better, but not enough. The corpses groaned and reached. Lilly cursed at them and glowed.

Then, abruptly, the glowing stopped.

"Oh thank fuck," said Lilly.

The platform slumped under their weight, shifting downward. They leaned over the corpses, lower than before.

"Oh fuck!" Lilly dropped lower. She kicked and spat at them.

"Hold on!" Park hooked one elbow on the ladder for support and let go with his other hand. He leaned down and grabbed the belt. Gritting his teeth with effort, he wrapped the belt around his arm. He did it three more times, pulling Lilly toward him. He swung her toward the ladder. She grabbed hold and clung to it, a few feet from Park.

"You got it?" he called down to her. She nodded. He undid the belt from the loop in his jeans so she could move freely.

The platform shifted again, slumping further over the corpses.

"Up!" shouted Park, climbing a step up the ladder. "Up!"

"Are you crazy?" Lilly stayed there, clinging to the ladder.

"Just do it!"

They climbed up the ladder as the platform shifted further. It slumped more and more as they rose. Soon, the platform was hanging over the corpses with Park and Lilly climbing above them. Snow and debris whipped across the sky. Groaning corpses were to their backs, reaching for them.

Park went a few more inches and he was past the corpses. The platform groaned in protest. The metal holding it in place buckled. The chains securing it to the wall strained, stretched to their limit. Lilly was still over the group of corpses.

"Keep going!"

"Fuck off I'm doing it!" she said, climbing across the ladder. Park grabbed hold of her with one hand, keeping one hand on the ladder. The corpses turned to face them, under the looming platform.

"Let go of me!"

"Shut up for a second!" yelled Park. He let go of the ladder and dropped to the snow behind the corpses. The corpses groaned and reached for them.

The chains gave way and the platform fell. Still carrying Lilly, Park ran out of the way. The platform smashed down on the corpses, crushing them into the ground. Black glop and bone flew out in all directions.

Lilly stopped struggling in his arms for a moment. She raised an eyebrow. "Not bad, old man."

"Yeah yeah," said Park, setting her down.

"What happened to the bear?" she asked, untying Park's belt from her waist and dropping it.

"What?"

Then the bear ran from the side of the crumpled platform.

Park whipped his gun from his shoulder. Lilly screamed and ran behind him. The bear lunged just as Park brought the rifle up and fired. The bullet slammed into the bear's open mouth and tore through the back of its head. It fell as Park and Lilly stepped aside, sliding across the snow, gurgling and twitching.

Park shot it through the head and it stopped moving. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked around. Corpses and animals were everywhere. A few had already noticed them.

"We gotta go," he said, grabbing her hand and running.

* * *

Carly screamed again, backing away from the corpses as they closed in. The motion only brought her closer to the ones coming up behind. She looked in all directions. There was no way out. She was done.

Then she heard her grandfather yelling. Elton ran around the corner, his rifle ready. "Carly! I heard you screaming and ...." he trailed off as he saw what was happening.

He pointed the rifle at the corpses. "Down!"

Carly dropped to her knees, clutching her clipboard to her chest. Elton fired over and over again. Bullets tore through the heads of the corpses above her. Black blood and hunks of frozen flesh fell around her. The corpses groaned and toppled. There were still more, still coming. Carly heard Elton's gun run dry. She heard the click as he attempted to fire and got nothing. She knew he didn't have time to reload.

Screaming, Elton rushed in among the corpses.

"No!" Carly screamed. Elton ran into the midst of the dead and grabbed her collar. He pulled her free, rolling her across the snow as dead mouths closed on him. He screamed as blood spurted across them.

"Grandpa, no!" Carly stood and rushed back toward the corpses.

"Go, Carly, go!" he yelled, grunting in pain as the corpses tore at him. Blood seeped from his mouth.

Carly stopped, tears running freely.

"I'm sorry, Carly," he said. "I'm sorry for everything..."

"Grandpa, no..."

"I love you...."

And then he was gone. The light went from his eyes and he fell, hidden amongst his attackers.

Carly stared for a moment, listening to the sounds of them feeding. She was numb with shock. The sadness was too much to process. She stared blankly, like she didn't understand what had happened.

Then one of the corpses turned to her. Fresh blood—her grandfather's blood—coated his chin. The corpse groaned and reached for her.

Carly screamed and ran.

* * *

Maylee swung her bat at the corpses surrounding her, looking for an opening. The stuck weight swung above her, creaking on its chain. Snow howled by above it. The guards shouted and shot around her, hitting corpses and missing her. For now.

"Get out of there!" said someone in the Guard.

"I'm trying!" yelled Maylee, smacking aside a dead woman. The weight creaked loudly. She heard it shift above her.

"Fuck it," she said, and dove into the nearest corpse. She rolled with it, across the snow and out of the way of the weight. The chain finally gave and the weight fell, slamming into the group of corpses she'd left behind. Thick globs of goo and dead flesh splashed over her as she stood. The corpse she'd rolled with reached up at her from the ground.

"Oh fuck off," she said, whamming her bat down into the corpse's skull. It split open. The corpse's hands fell limp to either side.

More corpses were closing in to replace the fallen ones. She looked upward in every direction. They'd used the last weight trap.

"Fall back!" she yelled, taking a step backward. The guards ran, heading for the center of town.

"We gotta get to the kids! Whatever it takes, keep the corpses away from the kids!"

* * *

Angie backed across the snow, using her cane for support. Growling and groans came from every direction. Gunshots and screaming. Crashing and banging. The town was fighting for its survival.

The guards with her backed up as she did. A thick group of corpses advanced on them as they moved.

"Yeah, that's right," said Angie, keeping her eyes on the corpses as she moved backward. "That's right, you ugly assholes, we're doing this again."

She took a step backward and glanced behind her. A large trench had been dug there.

"We're at the trench," she said. The guards hopped over. With help from them, Angie followed.

The corpses staggered forward, toward the trench.

"Come on, dumbasses..."

The corpses stumbled forward and fell into the trench. They splashed as they hit the gasoline filling it.

One guard broke from the group. She ran toward a fire barrel and pulled a small plank of wood from her belt. One end of the plank was wrapped in cloth, like a torch.

Angie waited until most of the corpses had fallen in. "Now!"

The guard lit the torch in the barrel and tossed it into the moat. The moat exploded in flames. The corpses groaned as they burned. The ones outside the moat backed away, moaning. A few toppled inside, moaning as they fell.

Angie looked at the flaming moat and the burning corpses within. "Okay, everyone. Let's move—"

A roar came from the other side of the moat. Angie saw movement through the flickering flames. A second roar sounded and a panther, its fur blackened and burning, leapt through the fire and across the moat. It was heading right for Angie.

A shot rang out as the cat was mid-flight. It tore through the panther's torso, knocking it off course. It toppled into the fire, roaring in pain and anger.

Angie watched the flames for a second. The panther's roars and the corpses’ moans dropped away.

"Okay again," she said. "Now we move on."

They hurried through town, pausing only to shoot any corpse or animal that got too close. They wove around buildings and hurried down alleys. Angie heard Maylee shouting and looked to her right. Maylee was leading a group of guards through the town. She saw Angie and changed direction, heading for her.

The two groups met. Angie looked to Maylee. "We gotta get to the kids."

A corpse drew near, a thin man with one arm long torn away. Maylee slammed the bat into the man's temple. His head ruptured and he fell as the group moved on. The guards were firing more frequently now. More and more corpses were near, more animals, more screaming townsfolk fighting back.

"I know," said Maylee. "If the corpses get much closer to the center of town..."

She trailed off, stopping mid-step. Angie and the watch stopped with her.

They had reached the center of town, emerging out from among the buildings. A thick throng of corpses surrounded the children. The post had fallen and the moat was lit. The guards with Dalton and the children were firing but the corpses were growing in number. Animals weaved in and out of the corpses, looking for an entry

Angie and the others hurried out into the area, looking for a way past the corpses. The guards shot into the corpses. Corpses jerked and fell, but many remained.

Carly ran up from one side, clutching her clipboard and crying.

Maylee rushed to her side. "Carly?"

Carly stared at the ground. "Grandpa..."

"Oh shit I'm so sorry," said Maylee, hugging her. Carly hugged her back, weakly.

Shouts and screams came from behind and all of them turned. A mob of people—Angie recognized none of them from the town—raced toward them. They were half-naked and covered in blood and excrement. They were clearly alive but had the same wild, feral looks as the animals. Their insane eyes were locked on the children.