Snareville II: Circles (32 page)

“I don’t like it, Boss,” Henry said. “We’re not really secure out here. It’s bad enough on a normal night. With this storm rolling in, we’re going to have deaders all over the place.”

“Give me your coordinates and I’ll send help out to pick you up.”

He read his location off the GPS. Inside, Cat had started supper. Jenny was in her playpen, the kids were watching a DVD of some horse movie. Kevin just sat, mesmerized by the show. I got hold of Gibson, gave him a mission. I didn’t want people out there if I could help it. He was going after Henry’s team with busses, stock trailers and box trucks. Gib asked me to explain. I simply told him we were bringing home some more folks. He started gathering his people soon as we signed off.

Cindy came home. She was worn out and ravenous. She told me they had only lost one casualty. One of the Amish men had taken too much shrapnel to the guts and legs. They just couldn’t get all the holes fixed soon enough. He bled out while she and Leary worked on him.

“Your girlfriend makes a pretty good meal, Danny. But I need some sleep.”

I gave her a kiss goodnight as she headed upstairs. I rubbed her tummy, as the baby kicked at my hand.

“Your son needs to stop doing that,” Cindy groaned. “He’s been using Mommy as a soccer ball all day.”

“Sorry, Babe,” I said as she walked upstairs.

She waved her hand and reminded me to wake her up in a couple hours so she could trade off with Pepper.

I helped with dishes. Cat washed, I dried. She was worried about the deaders out wandering in this storm. I told her we’d be fine behind the fence. She reminded me Gibson was going out and Henry wasn’t secure where he was. We looked at one another and told ourselves everyone would be fine.

Dishes done, the kids played a little or watched another DVD. There wasn’t much to do in the evenings after dark. We adults played cards and I taught Cat the finer points of cribbage. We played a few hands and Pepper stumbled through the door. She looked exhausted. Cat got her a plate and laid the meal out for her. She about fell asleep more than once as she ate. Finally done, she gathered Jenny and headed upstairs.

TJ had fallen asleep on the floor. We picked him up and laid him in a chair. Cat wrapped him in a blanket I found in the closet. I asked if she wanted to stay the night. She accepted. I loaned her a set of sweats as she lay down on the couch.

“What, no goodnight kiss?” she asked.

I glanced around. All the rest of the kids had headed off for bed as well. Ella had tucked in the little ones, then went to sleep in her room. I bent over Cat and gave her a quick kiss. She smiled up at me and snuggled down into her pillow.

As I was headed upstairs, Cindy was headed down. She had showered and changed and was headed back into the hospital. Everyone was done in surgery and it was now just a matter of waiting through the night to see if everyone would make it. I gave her a hug and a kiss as she headed for the door. On the way out, she pulled a shotgun from the rack as she took the keys to the truck.

It was eleven o’clock as I slid under the covers with Pepper. Jenny still snuggled up against her mommy. My troops were out there in the dark, in Indian Country, trying to link up. Sleep was not going to come easy.

“Catfish stay?” Pepper mumbled.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “She’s on the couch.”

“Good. No room for her up here.”

I glanced over at the extra space in the bed. “Huh?”

She snuggled close to me in the bed. “Dan, I don’t mind your paramour being here and helping out. She did a great job today and Cindy and I didn’t have to worry. I like Cat. But don’t you be having her up here in this bed. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“We’re just figuring out rules as we go along.”

“Yeah. How’d surgery go?”

“Better than we figured. We saved seven of them. As long as they get through the next twenty four hours and we have enough medicines, they’ll make it.”

“Do we need to get up to the pharmacy?”

“Not yet. But we will after they’re on the mend. Go to sleep.”

I listened to her breathing and within minutes, she was asleep again. I envied her that. She told me it came from being an emergency room nurse and being on sixteen hour shifts. You slept when you could.

The thunderstorm was cracking away next time I was aware of anything. Windows rattled in the wind. Rain beat against the roof. I heard footsteps in the hall. I started to roll for my pistol, when Ella whispered for me.

“Dad? You awake?”

“I am now,” I whispered back. I swung out of bed, yanked on a pair of pants as Pepper stirred. I picked up Jenny and put her to sleep in her bassinet. I shut doors behind me as I stood in the hall.

“What’s going on?”

She was dressed and dripping wet. Her hair was plastered to her face in long ropes. “Cori sent me to get you. Neither one of us was sleeping good. She heard Kevin get up and leave.”

“What for?”

“That’s what we couldn’t figure. He took your keys and a flashlight and went out the door.”

“What? Is he crazy?”

“Don’t know, Dad. He headed east out the trench gate and across the fields.”

I stepped back into my room, pulled on a shirt and the holster from off the bedpost. I strapped the gun on as I stepped into the hall.

“What the hell is going on?” I wondered aloud. Ella followed down the stairs. “Where’s Cat?”

“Said she’d meet you at the eastern guard gate.”

“Great.” Lightning flashed again. I stuffed a hat on my head, grabbed a jacket from the pegs. “You stay here. Be ready if I call. This doesn’t feel good.” I slid the satellite phone into a pocket, checked the pistol to make sure it was loaded. Brass shone back at me and I had three spare magazines.

Half the garage had been converted in the first year to stalls. Cherokee and Chloe nodded sleep. I flipped on the light. The horses blinked in the sudden light. I stepped into Cherokee’s stall, slid a bridle over his head, opened the door and stepped out into the rain. He jigged a little in the storm as I grabbed a handful of mane and swung aboard. I went to meet Cat at the gate.

“Keep your eyes open for deaders. They’ll be out in this mess. I don’t want them sneaking up on us. You know the drill,” I shouted to the kid manning the post. He and his partner let us out.

“Yes, Sir.” He saluted as he closed the gate behind me.

I held out my hand. Cat grabbed it, put her foot on top of mine and slid on behind me. The storm was building as I gave Cherokee his head.

“How’re we goin’ to find him in this?” Cori shouted in my ear.

“Keep your eyes open. If he grabbed my keys, he might be headed for the other gate.”

Lightning flashed close. White light and noise filled the valley at the same time. Cat tightened her grip on me. I remembered how much Jen liked storms. Kevin couldn’t have gotten far. As the light winked again, I spotted a small form climb out of the ditch. I nudged the horse in the ribs, Cherokee jumped into a lope and we caught him. I reined the horse to a stop. He stood frozen as I slid off and handed the reins to Cat. Lightning cracked again.

“Okay, kid. You better have a damned good reason for having me out here in this storm and scaring the hell out of me. You know how many zeds could be out here wandering around?”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Just looked at me, then around into the woods. He started shaking as the tears came. “I know,” he sobbed, “that’s why I got to let them in.”

“Them who?”

“Them. The others.”

I took him by the shoulders. “Kevin, the others who? You’re not making any sense.”

Cat slid off Cherokee and stood beside us. Kevin pulled away from me and buried his face in Cat’s chest. The sobs rose over the storm.

“I wanted to tell you guys. I don’t want to lie. But Madison would kill my brother if I told you. But the storm came up and the zombies will be walking around. I have to let them in tonight.”

We let him cry himself out. I had to wrap my head around this. We got the whole story. He was part of a group of nomads who at times raided small settlements. They didn’t have much to bargain with. The women of the group didn’t like to trade sex for supplies. Most leaders of settlements didn’t trust other adults, either, so the boys were used as moles. Kevin was supposed to get into town, get in good with the boss and then find a way for the others to get in. There was someone watching the gate every night he’d been here. When they saw a flashlight, they would bring the rest of the group down from the camp. Madison was the leader of this group and had laid claim to the brothers when they found them hiding in a small town in Nebraska.

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do.” Thunder rumbled again. The storm was building. We were less than a quarter mile from the gate. I started walking. “We’re going to let them in, but I’m going to disarm them as they come through.”

I pulled the phone out of my pocket, turned my back to the storm and dialed Hanson’s number. Third ring, he picked up. I told him to roll twenty five people in battle gear in ten minutes and meet me at the far east gate. Havoc weapons and pistols only. Zip cuffs too, if he could lay his hands on any.

We stood inside the gate. In one of the explosions of light, I saw some dismembered forms as they staggered through the field.

“Okay, Kevin, shine your light where you need it.” He stepped to the gate, saw the deaders too and whimpered. I laid my hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be okay here. Let’s hope your people can fight their way in.”

He nodded up at me, turned and flashed his light twice out to the far hills. He paused for a count of five and repeated the flashes.

“There,” he said as he pointed to the far side of the valley. “See, out there in the timber.”

I saw. And I saw a pack of about ten deaders out there too. We’d have to help them in, if the dead spotted them.

“I see it. Where are you guys camped?”

“A big livestock farm up on top of that hill.”

The Dever place. They could hold out at the farm, maybe, but it’d be easier to get down here and get in. I took Cat and Kevin by the arm and led them deep into the ditch. The rain let up some under the trees.

“Zeds see heat. I don’t want to be in their direct line of sight if they look this way,” I told them. I got my phone, redialed Hanson. Told him to hurry along and alert the guardhouse that there were deaders outside the fence. I hung up, called Boss Connie with the Mennonites and told her the same thing. She said she’d step up her guards. They were the furthest ones out from town. The settlement was mostly tucked away in the timber on top of the hill, but if the dead saw lights or stock in the yards, it might well draw them.

Five minutes later, Hanson showed up with his troop. More zeds had come out of the southern tree line across the fields. I put Cori and Kevin on the back of Cherokee and pointed them at the house. No sense them being out in the rain any longer than they had to be. We parked the trucks on the side road that led to Plow Ridge.

We stood at the gate and watched as vehicles crept down the hill in the dark. Lightning flashed and they were at the bottom of the road. They moved slow. Probably they had seen the dead out in the field too and wanted to get as close to the gate as they could before they had to start fighting.

More dead shuffled across the field. Rain made things slick and several fell in the long grass. A small pack came out of the trees on the other side of the creek directly to our south. They started to moan as they saw us. My troop opened up. Five zeds were stilled. I hoped the people coming in couldn’t hear pistol shots. The dead could though. Out across the field, a half-dozen turned our way. They were a hundred yards out or better, so I wasn’t really worried that they would get here before the little caravan, but I kept my eye on them.

In a flash of lightning, headlights came on from the vehicles that came toward us. The one in the lead only had one light. Others didn’t have anything but amber running lights. But they illuminated what was going on. The deaders had seen the moving vehicles and started to surround them. Shots rang out.

“Gun it, dumbass,” I muttered. I hoped they would just plow though the pack.

“C’mon, drive over them,” Hanson said from beside me.

They didn’t. As more and more deaders climbed out of the field and timber, the caravan stopped. Muzzle flashes came from inside the vehicles as people shot at zeds. Not many fell. I started to hear screams. Fuck.

I slid the key into the lock. My troop stepped out into the unsecured zone. I left two behind to man the gate. If we didn’t get back, they were to call more fighters and clean the mess up. If we made it back on the run, they needed to have the gate open.

My group formed up in two wedges, an inverted W. Point person on each wedge would be able to shoot, as would those on the outside. Those on the inside of the wedges used the axes, clubs and machetes they carried. I tucked a borrowed hand ax into my belt as we jogged down the road.

Pistols popped on either side of me as Raiders stilled dead that stumbled toward us. Hanson ran at the point of the other wedge. Twenty yards from the knot of zeds, he brought his gun up. First shot, a corpse fell. I joined him. Another dropped as I squeezed the trigger. They turned their attention to us. With moans they came at us, arms outstretched. Filthy mouths dribbled black slime as rain washed down their mangled faces. My pistol counterpointed the lightning and the night filled with flashes.

I roared with the adrenaline rush that blasted through my body. Another trigger squeeze, another deader stilled. Then we were too close for guns. The swarm was among us. Guns slid back into holsters as blades came to hand. I swung the ax. Black blood spattered into my rain soaked jacket as I split skulls. A woman missing half an arm came at me. My aim was low, or she moved at the last second. My blade buried in her jaw. She reached for me with her good arm. I kicked her off me as my ax came away with part of her cheek. I swung again and this time I hit true. Her skull caved in as she fell to the pavement. I felt an arm try to take me from behind. I brought my elbow up, crunched bone and spun.

The zed was a friend of mine from work, eons ago it seemed. Doug had been a good guy, all around gentleman. Someone I could rely on when I needed a hand. Now, he stood in the rain, guts gone, leg half chewed off, left eye missing. I felt bile rise in my throat. Life just was too fucking ridiculous. He came at me again and I buried the ax in his face. He went to his knees and I hit him again. This time he fell still.