Deadfall: Hunters (27 page)

The pikes were useless at close quarters. The tank had not done us any favors. Instead, we all drew our small weapons, swords, machetes, axes, and one guy had a giant hammer. Then there was Blevin. This was his element. He saved my ass a couple of times up on that wall. I wasn’t about to run away, but I was no swords man. I just hacked and slashed with my gladius, mostly to keep the monsters off of me. One grabbed me by my left arm and nearly spun me around, but when I saw, Blevin had torn off the creature’s arm, tossed it every so carelessly down the wall, took the creature by its neck and tore the head off, throwing it at a zombie walking up, knocking it off balance and stumbling back down the hill.

It was awesome.

Gunfire began to erupt somewhere out in the brush in front of us. Then a loud crack came from just a few feet to my left. It was Tague. I knew it was him because I heard him say ‘I got him’. Then, just like that, that little formation of zombies fell apart. The cohesion was gone. They got slower, dumber, just like the ones we were used to. I looked back and saw Tague pointing at a body dressed in black down near the barricade.

The handler.

I dropped down to the ground and looked around for what I had seen earlier. The poor officer’s radio. I found it, half buried in blood and sand. I pressed side button, hoping it was as simple as that, and started shouting into the radio: ‘kill the guys dressed in black. They control the zombies.’

I don’t know how long it took before they got it. All I know is that I was back on my feet with a pike in my hands and I was just trying to finish off the confused zombies. There was this brief respite sometime after that. I looked around by everywhere I could see on the wall, the zombies were attacking in their coordinated groups. At the same time, we defenders had gotten far better organized. The wall looked like a living thorn bush, with its thorns springing out and stabbing the zombies as they marched up. Hundreds upon hundreds of undead bodies rolled back down the wall, sometimes knocking other zombies over like bowling pins.

I heard another loud explosion. Somewhere down the line, beyond my sight, one of the tanks had fired off a shot. I scanned around until I found the other tank. It was stuck at an odd angle. Its tracks were turning, churning a mass of black oozing bodies, sand and grime underneath them. It tried a few times to get loose, but something on the far side of it was preventing its movement. Zombies were starting to crawl over the bottom half of the tank, but the tank swung its turret around, knocking them off. It was comical, if not effective. The top hatch popped open and a guy came out of it, rifle in hand. He got completely out of the tank, firing shots as he went. Once he was out, he took one look at his predicament, and scrambled back inside of the tank. They were too far from the wall to be able to abandon the tank. They were safer inside till it was all over, if it were over.

Shots continued firing every so often. Sometimes, I could even see a group of zombies unravel and become easier to destroy. But no matter what, the waves of undead kept pounding at the wall. It was an endless supply of the undead. Worst of all, it wasn’t even late morning yet.

A jet went roaring by above our heads, and when I turned around I saw Evan’s hunter group coming up to join us. The other three groups had remained on the southern half of the wall, and by now, the zombies were hitting all portions of the wall. Every able bodied man and woman within Sunny Pointe was up on or near the wall. The entire length of the wall, was being defended. Those that couldn’t fight were being evacuated onto boats on the river. If they could hold the wall, then survival was still an option.

I got off the wall when I first saw Evan coming up, with that rifle touting kid in tow. The rifle he had was taller than he was. It had a big huge tip on it. We shook hands there for a moment, like a dramatic scene between warriors. He got me caught up on everything going on and handed me a radio I could use to reach him directly.

He looked so much older and it had only been a few months. And it wasn’t just the dirt and grime and the tanned skin. It as his eyes. The way he talked. The words he used. He didn’t joke as often. In fact, I don’t think he joked at all. I guess I can’t blame him. This was no joking matter. Maybe it was that mantle of leadership, the burden of having others’ lives dependent on your actions and decisions.

Maybe he was just a bit older. Even if just a few months older. I think we’ve all gotten older these past few months.

He didn’t have good news for us. Right now, everyone on the wall was doing their best just to keep the tide from flowing over the walls so that those that couldn’t fight could evacuate. He thought it was just a matter of time, and he hoped that once that time came, everyone was evacuated and that they’d have enough boats to flee on themselves. If not, they’d die there, on the walls. It was grim.

That’s when it got real. Everyone kept going on about this battle as a suicide mission. They were expecting to lose. Sunny Pointe was a lost cause. I knew it was coming, I just had hoped it wouldn’t. Evan took me aside, back behind one of the trucks that had brought their group to the wall there. He started by saying he didn’t want to ask me, but that he had to. I knew what it was, but I waited for him. He hesitated, but finally relented. He asked me to use the dust.

I had my reply ready. I told him I had no idea what it would do. I told him it might not help at all. I waited for his response: it worked in Haiti. I told him I didn’t know how it worked. Evan had more points, some that I knew he would raise, and I countered with the responses I had already thought about hundreds of times. The back and forth went a few more times, but it was inevitable. I already knew deep down what my answer would be, but I wanted them to earn it. It just sucked that it came from Evan. He was a friend.

I stopped him, and told him I’d do it.

He was stunned for a moment. Probably because I was arguing it so hard just before.

So I had made my choice. I had no idea what I was doing. At that point, Blevin joined me, Sarah and Clayton right behind. I had my little pouch out already. Sarah looked concerned when she realized what I was about to do. I opened the pouch and took a little bit out on my fingers. It was cold, smooth, like soot, but shiny, like silver. I ran it through my fingertips. I asked how I should do this, and Blevin laughingly said to shove it up my butt. To make matter worse, Sarah said that was possible. I wasn’t about to do that. Evan said to snort it. So I raised two fingers to my nostrils, shoved them in, and sniffed as hard as I could.

That’s the last I remember until now. I woke up with a slamming headache. We’re in a truck that Tague is driving and Evan is following behind us in a different truck. We are headed back home, to the mountains.

What happened?

It’s 3:00 a.m. I’ve learned a few more things in these few hours. Sarah is awake too. She’s here sitting with me, checking my pulse, making sure I’m still alive.

So it appears that the initial dose I took during the battle was far too much. I have been going in and out of, well, a drug induced stupor for the last ten hours. I wasn’t realizing it at first. I thought I had just taken a nap the first time, especially since my head was still killing me. It’s not as bad now, instead of blinding pain in my temples and eyes, now I just feel like a survived ten seconds with Mike Tyson. But when I woke up from that ‘nap’, I was met with stares from my concerned friends.

Then it happened again, but when I woke up from that trip, I could remember something. It wasn’t clear, just, haziness, like a bad dream.

This is the fifth time I’ve taken this nap, and I had to start writing things down because the last dream I had, I remember clearly, and it wasn’t a dream.

What I first remember is standing on top of the sand wall that surrounds Sunny Pointe. It was dark. Not like night time dark, not pitch dark either. If you have ever been in a solar eclipse, then that is what I’d compare it to. It’s dark, but not. Hard to explain.

So I’m on top of the wall, looking out, but instead of thick brush of southeastern North Carolina, it was a desert. Sand dunes rolled as far as I could see. I don’t remember looking behind me. I don’t think it mattered in my vision.

Yeah, I called it a vision.

The zombies were out there, fighting. But instead of the rotting corpses of our former fellow humans, they were wisps of smoke. Smoke arms lashed out against the sand wall and into any humans they could find. The men and women of Sunny Pointe were covered in earth. Dirt, mud, whatever it was. It was like armor. The smoke gassed off the earthen armor without hurting the men. Slowly, the armored men marched forward, cutting down swaths of smoky forms with large scythe like weapons.

I sensed words in my head. The leaders of these earthen men were relaying their orders back to me, and I was instructing them what to do. All in my head. I wasn’t speaking. Beyond the dunes, I could see more and more undead, rolling over the desert like a black fog. My armored warriors were going to get overwhelmed. They were going to be destroyed.

They weren’t trying to survive. They were just buying time.

I looked behind me. I was standing in front of a giant cylinder. It towered over me, way up into the dark sky. I could see the stars. They were incredibly clear. It was like one of those National Geographic star pictures only pros can get. It was unreal. The stars reflected off the tower, almost perfectly. Directly in front of me was a door that led into the cylinder. It was completely dark inside.

I heard something.

When I turned to look back out to the desert, my warriors were being overwhelmed. They were dying, and I could hear their cries of pain and anguish, but also their shouts of pride and bravado. Theirs was a losing battle, but they all knew it from the start.

I felt something on my hand, and I looked down. My hands were white, slender, and long fingers branched from the palms like weeds. There was something in my palm, a small flat box. It was vibrating and a small green light was blinking. It was time to go. I stepped inside of the cylinder. I heard one final voice. It was someone I knew. They were saying goodbye. In the horizon, thousands of smoky forms continued to flow towards me, now without anyone in their way. But I wasn’t scared.

Above, in the sky, something large was coming down. Several such objects were coming down all over. It was time. The door begin to close on the cylinder just as the large object came falling from the sky. It closed just before it impacted into the ground, hundreds of miles away.

And then everything was dark.

I heard another voice. It was me. Or whoever I was in this vision. I felt my hand being held in the dark. I was led away to a glowing light. Just under the light was a small dish, filled with a silvery dust. The dish exploded and dust filled the air and I breathed it in, deeply.

There was a roaring sound outside of the cylinder and the whole structure began to shake. The dust was coursing through my lungs and into my blood. I could feel it burning in my brain. I could see lightning.

The voice spoke, “You must silence them.”

Then I let out a scream.

And I woke up. And I wonder why I have a headache.

I talked to Evan, Chris, Sarah and Tague mostly, to understand what happened when I was having my trip. Blevin interjected a few times when I was talking with Sarah, but he was all over the place. Everything was pieced together as best as I could, but between them all, I can really only be sure of a few main things.

Tague started the narrative.

I was standing there when I stuck the fingers in my nose and breathed in. Apparently, I just stood there. No one said anything for thirty seconds because no one was sure what would happen. Blevin said that we were waiting for a superhuman transformation. Instead, I just stood there. Tague asked me first, if I was ok. I didn't answer. Sarah then check my pulse. I guess I was still alive, breathing and whatnot. She did say my eyes were focused, but, not there. Not glassy eyed or anything, just, looking at something that wasn't there. I could tell them what it might have been.

Tague tried to get me to walk, and I would follow him, but, always as if I wasn't there. He had to take me by the hand and guide me, and I'd walk easily enough, but if he stopped or let me go, I'd stop too, and continue staring off into the distance. With Blevin’s help, they were able to get me back up the wall. Just as we reached the top, another group of controlled zombies was reaching the top. They heard a commotion and Blevin had to charge out ahead of us to keep the zombies from attacking us. Tague tried to backpedal and get me back down the wall, but a whole group of Hunters was coming up the same section of steps Tague had brought me up and we were stuck. Then it was Tague and Blevin just fighting to keep me alive, although they weren't even sure if I was alive or not.

The zombie force pushed hard. The top of the wall was only about ten, maybe fifteen feet wide. The hunter group was trying to get past us and push against the walkers and link up with a group of soldiers fighting some thirty to fifty feet down the wall. Some zombies were even spilling down the inside part of the wall, rolling down to the ground. I can only guess we had people down there mopping up. I'm not sure though. Well, things were chaotic to say the least. At least that's how Tague explained it. He struggled to keep an eye on me, standing there like a mindless idiot, and the zombies attacking him and me. At this point, Blevin had restarted his rampage and pushed further into the zombie surge.

Now, Tague doesn't know for sure, but he claims he missed one. A bunch of Hunters were trying to pass on my left, trying to get around me. Tague lunged for a walker to my right and failed to see the one right behind him. Like I said, chaotic. So when he jabbed the one he saw, and it collapsed, he watched in horror as this hidden from sight zombie reached out and grabbed me. He shouted out in warning, as if I could have been able to do anything. All he saw was the zombie and myself tumbling over onto the ground. Then, they all started falling.

Blevin said it was like a cascade. He was fighting one and when he went to swing at it, it dropped to the ground before he could hit it. He swung so hard that when he missed, he threw himself on the ground too. From that position he watched as all the zombies around him began to collapse. This phenomenon spiraled out about thirty to forty feet around me. Soldiers watched in stunned silence as their enemy just dropped dead.

Then the screaming began. All over the field, as far as anyone could see, and more importantly hear, the zombies started to scream. We had all heard zombies moaning and groaning, but it was always this silent drivel. A lackluster effort really. But Sarah described the bone chilling scream, unearthly, that rose from their throats. Even Tague mentioned the hair raising effect the piercing scream had. And just like the zombies around me had dropped, the scream spread out like a disease, spiraling around the circle of dead zombies and going from there. Many men covered their ears, and the more zombies joined in with this scream, the louder it got.

Then, just as soon as it had started, they were silent again. The fighting began anew, but this time, the chaos was tenfold. That was because the zombies were now fighting everyone. And by everyone, I mean, they were fighting themselves as well as us. And to make matters worse, they were suddenly moving far faster than before.

Chris was watching everything from his vantage point with his rifle. There were several towers located among the wall that they had constructed for look outs. The young sniper was watching in awe as the zombies howled and then began to lash out to everyone and everything. He said it was like they had been super charged. If anyone had a reason to be afraid of the zombies, this was the time. They were feral, savage, tearing and biting and smashing with their limbs. Chris watched through his scope a particular zombie wail at another zombie with his arms with such ferocity and strength that the arms were broken in several places. Despite that, it continued to fling them at his opponent until one arm ripped clean off and went flying off into the chaos.

Everywhere they could see, zombies were attacking everything. Sure, that included each other, but they also attacked whatever human was in front of them, but with their added ferocity. The zombies were scrambling over the wall in alarming numbers. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t anything the Hunters or soldiers could overcome. Of course, their mission had been to just hold the horde back before evacuation, but that part was over. Someone, somewhere higher up, gave the order and everyone began to scramble off the wall.

Many didn’t make it.

Tague had the added effort of trying to get to me. He admitted he was panicking amidst the chaos, but when he finally found me, I was fine. That’s because all around me there still was this circle of, I dunno, undead death. He picked me up and started dragging me part way up the outer side of the wall and then down the inside. When he reached the top with me in tow, my circle followed me. Zombies that came rushing at us collapsed twenty feet from me. Tague wasn’t about to question the why. He yelled out to Blevin. The giant man came crashing through the zombies, covered in blood, a lot of it his own. He took me in one swoop and we all went rushing down the wall. Sarah came running out and met us. Apparently she was shocked to see me and started asking what had happened.

Zombies continued to spill over the walls. Sometimes, they were chasing the fleeing humans, but more often than not, they just stayed and continued whatever rampage they were carrying on against each other. Those that weren’t swept up into the chaos managed to get away once they were out of the reaching arms of the zombies. The screaming continued though, but it died down as the distance grew further and further.

The Army had setup a small line of defense around the last couple of ferries, but the horde never made it that far. Everyone else was evacuated to either ships or across to Carolina Beach, which had just recently been cleared of the zombies from the attack months ago.

Sarah stayed by my side the entire time. She couldn’t snap me out of whatever it was I was under. My heart rate was way down, but my breathing was normal as was my blood pressure. My eyes were focused, just not on anything there. I could stand, walk, and sit, if prodded into those. It was only when we were on board a boat and nearly to the other side of the river did I then, actually, pass out.

Helicopters kept an eye on the rampaging zombies. As they flew up and down the wall, the reported that the fighting continued everywhere they saw. The chaos continued for nearly fifteen miles in every direction. Apparently, that’s how many zombies there were there. Beyond that the horde was breaking up and zombies were wandering off.

Maxie lived. I was glad to hear that. He had loaded his boat up and left most of his ‘sailors’ onboard when the attack came, but he and a few volunteers were actually at the wall when everything had gone down. He had lost two men there. Tague had spoken to him, briefly, on the boat. He was taking his people and leaving, heading out to sea. They were going to head north and scan the coast for survivors.

I wish I could have said bye.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.

Meanwhile, once the top brass found out I was responsible for what happened, meetings took place. They were the kind of meetings with big important people. None of us were there this time. Of course, I was still out. They could only guess as to what was going on inside. Maybe they wanted to use me as a bomb, a zombie repellant bomb. Maybe they wanted to dissect me, find out how I worked. Whatever it was, there was no way of knowing if it was going to be good. Apparently, because or despite of this, the decision was made to get the hell out of there. Also, that infighting horde just across the river probably helped the decision.

Aaron showed up with two pickup trucks he had snagged, we loaded what little we had left with us, and headed out. The plan was to make it to one of the further out tower cities and hope it was safe enough there to spend the night. We also had to hope that the way there was safe. Apparently, as it’s night time now and we are still driving, it hasn’t been. We’ve been making detours all over the place. The biggest reason we do is mostly because we just don’t know where the hordes are. We had been told they had broken up after whatever it was that happened at the walls, but we had to be sure. One could easily outrun a small mob of walkers while in trucks but if we took the wrong turn down into a horde, no truck would be able to get out of it and we’d be toast.

Evan has a map with all the current tower cities. I took a look, and I’m impressed. In the months we were gone, nearly thirty new towers went up all over the area. I guess I didn’t realize just how many survivors there were out there. Evan said many of them were associated with Sunny Pointe and that the Hunters had small scouts in nearly all of those, but there were some who strictly independent, and probably wouldn’t be happy to host us.

We are just a small distance from a tower just north of Salisbury. That’s north of Charlotte. It’s one the westernmost towers. From there, it should only be a day’s drive to the mountains. I think we all need a break though. We could all use a good night’s sleep.

Actually, I’m rather not looking forward to sleep. Sarah’s supposed to help me with that though. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.