Snareville II: Circles (11 page)

“Who do you think you are? These’re my people. They go where I tell them to. Dale, let’s go.”

Dale turned to look at Jessica and Henry brought the butt of his rifle down on the man’s nose. It blossomed red under the gun. Dale shouted as he grabbed his face. Henry snatched the keys from the ignition and stuffed them in his pocket. He swiveled the gun around, pointed it at Jessica.

“You bastard. You broke my fuckin’ nose,” Dale shouted.

“Be glad I didn’t shoot you,” Henry said. “You see that car and pickup up there about half a block? That’s a defensible position. We can shoot from cover there. I don’t need the whole group, but I need some of you to help me out.”

The two teenage girls stood from their seat. Both had AK-47 rifles. They slung two bandoleers of ammunition over their shoulders. The blond was obviously pregnant. Henry had heard it whispered she got that way paying for items from a band of nomads.

“We’ll go,” the redhead said. “We’re tired of living in shit. Anything’s better than it was back in Galva.” The two shuffled down the aisle.

“You can have the keys when we’re done,” Henry said as he stepped down.

“We’ll take them off your dead body when the zeds are done picking you over,” Jessica replied.

The doors swung closed. Henry crouched, darted for the vehicles. The girls were right behind him. So far, the zombies had paid them no attention. They were intent on getting through the gate. Shots came from inside and a deader would fall, but there wasn’t much outgoing fire. Henry braced himself across the hood of the truck. The girls stood side by side behind the car.

“Remember, head shots to kill. Put a bullet through their hips or break their spine to disable them. We’ll kill them later.”

Henry squeezed a round. His rifle cracked, a head exploded black gore. The deader went down. One of the girls fired, but pulled her shot. The bullet missed the brain box, but tore the jaw off the zombie. She cursed, adjusted her aim and put the next round between his shoulder blades. He dropped like a sack of wet cement. Not dead, but snarling in the dust.

They started picking their shots as the zombies turned their attention to the new threat. Sometimes there would be runners within the group of dead, but this looked like an older group of zeds. No one moved quickly. Shots started to ring out from behind the gate and above on the wall. Henry and the girls poured on the fire. The zombies, caught in the crossfire, fell in rotted heaps. Some of them made it to within twenty yards of their position, but no further. The blond switched her rifle to full auto and swept the group at head level. Decayed faces dissolved under the storm. It was over.

Henry stood from behind the truck. A few of the zeds twitched, a couple still moaned. He slung his rifle, pulled his pistol and began to walk through the fallen and put a final end to their unlife. The gate swung open and several people came out to do the same. They met in the middle of the mess as Henry popped an old woman who tried to bite through his shoe.

“Where you been, Long Tom?” Henry asked. “You could have had this mess cleared up before I got here.”

A tall, skinny man held out his hand. His dark ebony skin shone in the sun. Henry shook the massive paw. “Well heck, Hawk. We know how much you like killin’ zeds, so we saved you some.” They both turned to the girls, then the bus. “Besides, we didn’t know when you be getting’ here and we didn’t want to shoot you up too. So, we waited until we knew you was there.”

“Thanks,” Henry said. “I brought you some people. You said you got room?”

Long Tom looked at them; looked at the bus as people began to straggle out. “Yeah, we have room for some white folks. They look in pretty bad shape, Hawk.”

“They’ve been in Galva for three years living on cat food and whatever they can kill. Their boss said they started with five hundred. What you see is what you get.”

Long Tom grunted. “Not many. Might take ’em awhile to adjust.”

“Yeah, no power, no water, nothin’ much else.”

Long Tom waved them all forward. The people carried their small sacks of belongings with them. Some had nothing more than the clothes they wore and a rifle. As the small group picked their way through the dead, Henry tossed the keys to Dale.

“Thanks for the help,” he said to Jessica. She simply glared at him, then turned her eyes to the sight before her. As they crossed through the gates and introductions were made. The Cock Blockers looked around them, some with tears, some with mouths agape. Yards were mowed. People worked in their gardens. Windows in houses had glass in them.

A dozen people with rifles met them as they gathered in the parking lot of a hotel. A man and several women in hospital scrubs stood with the group. Long Tom nodded and they turned into the lobby of the hotel. It was clean and the power was on. He turned to address the group of newcomers.

“Okay, what we goan do is put you in here for a week. You’ll each have a room, unless you be a family and then you can stay together. The docs here’ll check you out and give you your shots so you can’t get sick from the zed virus. After a week, you can pick out you new homes. Leave your guns though.”

Quiet sobs filled the lobby as people stacked their guns. Cock Blockers clung to one another as they filed down the hall to find a room. A group came through the doors with clothes. Mostly sweats they got from storage until they knew what sizes for the newcomers. The rags they wore would be tossed into an incinerator. It would be a long process of washing, delousing and physicals.

Henry watched as the last two, the girls who helped him, passed into a room and closed the door. They left a trail of filthy clothes behind them, until both were nude as they went inside.

“Your woman’s waitin’ for you, Hawk,” Long Tom said. “We told her you were comin’ in.”

Henry turned and grinned. “I supposed I might as well stay until they get out of quarantine. Danny did put me in charge of them. If you need me, I’ll be at Stacy’s.”

Long Tom grinned. “I figured you would be.”

Chapter 15

A single zed stood in the eastbound lane of Interstate 74 outside of Galesburg. His skull blossomed black and he fell to the pavement in a soggy pile. Another, this one female and relatively fresh, took a bullet to the brain on the overpass she stood on. She dropped forward, splattered onto the concrete and was ground under the wheels of the Humvees as the Raiders rolled into town.

At the Sandburg Mall, the King’s head snapped about twice as he felt his sentries die true death. Those around him shook their head as they felt their kindred leave them. Moans took on a new pitch as that part of their world went black. They no longer could see the roads and fields on the east edge of town in their collective minds. The pain passed. The confusion was gone, they looked to their king.

“I wonder who that is?” the man asked one of his queens. He had been a middle aged lawyer when the outbreak struck. His black hair was shot through with streaks of silver. His soft body had only gained flab as his diet changed with the infection. “The Cock Blockers wouldn’t have the balls to come into town, let alone kill one of my family.”

He shared the sunken look of the rest of the zombie horde around him. Almost shriveled and dehydrated to the point of an Egyptian mummy. The woman who sat to his left had been the French teacher at the Galva High School. She survived his infection as well, but her mind wasn’t quite as solid.

“I do not know, My King. We should have more scouts out to inform us of what they can find.”

“Good idea, Sharon, My Pet. We shall send word.” He turned to one of the zeds next to the raised platform in center court of the mall. The man was an older zombie. Not much flesh left on parts of his body, but his brain still functioned at the reptilian level. He could follow orders as well and the King passed word to find these intruders. The King wanted to know what the intention was: if they passed through town, or stopped in his realm. The horde may well have a fine meal.

Two hours passed and word came back that a group of fleshies stopped at the old army base and were behind the fence. Others in the swarm were already piling against the wire. Many were dying, which the King could feel with each shot. He ordered them to pull back a block away from the depot and wait.

“Sharon, you need to go talk to these people. Invite them to come speak with me.”

“I do not know if they will listen, Freddie.”

“Insist they do. If they do not, tell the rest of the children they may take the fence down and drag them to me.”

Sharon stood. Her swollen belly bulged tight against the dress she wore. “Yes, Freddie. I’ll do as you command.” She gave a slight bow and picked her way down from the platform. From the swarm, several female zeds followed her. These the King had deemed her “Ladies in Waiting.” The small group left the mall and started their hike to the west.

A half hour later, she approached the main group of zombies as they stood silently on the street, in the yards, through the alleys of the town a block from the Military Depot. The front of the base was open to all. People were allowed to come in and talk to the personnel when it was in operation. After the outbreak, it had been locked down and there was no way in or out of the building. It was assumed that those inside had died or killed themselves, as no one ever came out.

Behind the building, a solid, chain-link fence ten feet tall topped with three strands of tight barbed wire kept climbers at bay. The gates were barred and locked tight. No one had been able to get inside for three years.

Now, there was activity behind the wire. People scurried here and there. They loaded boxes into the backs of semi trailers. Fork lifts rushed between a warehouse and the trailers, small yard tractors pulled cannons across the asphalt to be hooked onto the rear of several green HumVees parked in the lot.

Zombies parted in a wave as Queen Sharon approached. None moved forward with her as she walked to the gate. None moved, as with a shout, one of the fleshies raised the alarm and other fleshies grabbed their guns. The queen stopped just outside the gate, behind a pile of corpses that resulted from the initial contact. She raised her hand.

“I bid thee good day,” she said to the people behind the gate. So far, no guns had fired. One of the men, blond and bearded, approached the fence.

“Hello,” he said. “What can I do for you?” The look of puzzlement crossed his face, chased by other thoughts.

Queen Sharon smiled at him with blackened teeth. “My good King Frederick asks that you would accompany me to meet with him at his throne in the mall.”

Dan looked at the woman on the other side of the wire. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” he said. “We’re busy here and when we’re done, we’re going to head back the way we came.”

“I was told to inform you, you have little choice in the matter,” Sharon said.

Dan raised his rifle. Two others stood beside him now. A blond woman with short cut hair and another man carried arms as well. “I think you’re going to have to wait awhile,” Dan said. “We really don’t have any plan to meet your king and I don’t think you can get in here to do much about it.”

“Tell me, Sir Knight, how has the world fared?”

“We’re trying to put things back together. Trying to get life back to some form of normal.” Dan paused. “We’ve got a cure for the virus. You come in by yourself, we can get a dose into you.”

“A true nobleman.” Sharon looked around her. “Sir Knight, I would pray thee end my life. There is no cure for what infects me. The abomination within was conceived of infected seed. Tis not long before it eats its way from its mother. I do not wish to be aware of that process.” She rubbed her hand across her swollen belly. The thing inside thumped against her hand. “It carries a hunger.”

The shot came from the blond woman’s rifle. The bullet shattered Sharon’s skull. As she fell, more bullets ripped her middle apart. What may have been a child, what may have been a demon incarnate, was ripped to shreds. She fell to the ground in a pile of black blood and viscera.

On his throne, the King felt his wife and child die. With a roar, the rest of the zombies surged toward the fence. King Frederick put out a mental command and from across town, more of the walking corpses started to shuffle toward the depot. They would feast on fresh meat for the first time in weeks.

Chapter 16

“I don’t think that was such a good idea,” I told Cindy as we watched thousands of the rotten bastards come at the fence. I looked at her, her face streaked with tears.

“I could feel what she did, Danny. She was scared and she was crazy and she was like I used to be. That thing she was carrying was a parasite. It wasn’t a baby.”

“C’mon.” I wrapped her in one arm and headed back to the group. Bill followed as we directed traffic. The loading had gone smooth so far. I heard a crash, turned and saw the swarm slam into the fence.

“How we doing, Wally?” I shouted over the noise of a green forklift.

“Almost done with what we can get for today. I was hopin’ that we could get more, but they’re about as loaded with as many shells as we can get haul. Guns are hooked up, we stowed a few mortars away too. I don’t feel like standing around to jaw.”

“I don’t either. We got another way out?”

“On foot? Yeah. Trucks, same gate we came in.”

“We’ve got a few folks want to get in that way.”

“So I see. Whose idea was it to shoot the crazy lady?”

“Her own. Cindy obliged her on the trigger work.”

“Great. She could have waited until we rolled out.”

“Hormones. Not thinking straight.”

“Alright. We’ve got to finish and figure how to get out of here.”

We went back to work. Wallace directed the loading and what he needed to take. I jumped up in one of the trucks and helped stack and tie down the freight. Last thing I wanted was for a shell to get loose and roll around the trailer. Didn’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling about that.

Within the next fifteen minutes the trucks were loaded, the cannons all secured behind the HumVees. The fence was rocking and rolling with each slam against it. I was glad the dumb bastards couldn’t climb. I was gladder they couldn’t use guns. We’d have a real mess then. So far, we hadn’t opened up on them. Ammo was a valuable commodity. No sense wasting it when we were secure, no matter how annoying the rotten things were.