The Dead Series (Book 4): Dead End (7 page)

“What kind of blast can we expect from them?” Steve asked.

“About a third as much as the dynamite I set off,” Brain told him. “The big difference in these, though, is that the shrapnel from the nails is going to do a lot more damage. We’re going to get a lot more Zs staying down after the blast.”

Thing one and Thing two took this as a sign to dance around
as Steve asked, “You’re sure they’re going to work, though?”

Annoyed at being asked the same question twice
, and feeling like Steve was questioning his abilities, Brain asked defiantly, “Have I ever been wrong?”

Steve laughed and
made a placating gesture with his hands as he said, “Just making sure. Everything hinges on blowing a hole through the Zs so we can make it to the woods.” Looking at the bombs lined up on the counter, he asked, “Can you set them to go off one by one?”

Brain sho
ok his head and replied, “We’ve only got one transmitter to detonate them, so they’ll all go off at the same time.”

Steve thought about this for a second before saying, “Then we can
only use six of them on the dead since we need the last one to blow a hole in the fence. Is there any way you can set one of them to go off separately?”

“
No, but they also go off if you throw them against something,” Brain told him. “The impact will do it. I used the leftover Styrofoam to make a dozen extra that we can bring with us. I figured they might come in handy. I can use one of those to blow the fence and the rest to slow down the Zs that will be following us.”

Steve nodded
as he brought up a mental image of the map and considered the most effective places to use these as he asked, “Who’s going to be carrying the bombs?”

Puffing out his chest a little, Brain replied with a touch of bravado in his voice,
“I am.”

With a smile, Steve said, “Then if you trip and fall, make sure I’m not around.”

***

Climbing up through the hatch in the roof
, Steve could hear the muted sound of firing pins falling on empty chambers above the low whining of the dead. Surprised that he could hear anything above the voices of the Zs, when he was completely on the roof, he noticed a marked drop in the volume coming from below.

Seeing Heather helping a slightly overweight man adjust the sling on his rifle, he waved to her but ignored
the glances he received from the group standing a few feet away with their rifles held at a semi-resemblance of port arms. Edging to the side of the roof, he cautiously looked down.

Disgust welled up in his throat at the sight of the nude and semi-nude dead bodies pushing up against the side of the building. Disfigured and torn in ways that would gag a maggot, they were strangely silent. Pushing away his revulsion, he studied the dead for a moment as he tried to figure out why they were being so quiet.
Nothing had changed in their demeanor, as they were still desperately trying to get into the mansion, but most of them weren’t making the high-pitched keening sound anymore.

Realizing Tick-Tock had joined him, he asked, “What gives
? Not even a couple hours ago, you couldn’t hear yourself if you screamed up here.”

Tick-Tock shrugged and said, “They were like this when we came up. I thought they’d start back
with all the noise when they saw us, but it’s been like this ever since. Maybe they know we’re trapped or some other shit and they’re saving their breath.”

“They don’t breathe,” Steve said absently as he focused on a Z with the left portion of its skull missing and its brain exposed. Dark fluid covered the wound
, and he could see that underlying grey matter was actually a dark red.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Tick-Tock said with a laugh. “What was your first clue
they don’t breathe?”

Shaking off the sight below him, Steve turned to his friend and
laughed. “Sorry, just talking. The sight of these things makes me want to blow chunks, but it also makes me want to know what makes them tick.”

“You should have been a scientist,” Tick-Tock said wryly.

“And you should have been a proctologist,” Steve shot back with a laugh.

“
Then you’d only have to worry when you felt both my hands on your shoulders,” Tick-Tock replied.

They both laughed at this old joke before Steve asked
, “How are your trainees doing?”

Tick-Tock shrugged and said in a low voice, “A couple of them show promise, but…”

“But what?” Steve asked.

“I need
at least two days with them to be able get them to shoot straight,” Tick-Tock answered.

“You’ve got until tomorrow morning at dawn,” Steve told him.

Already having guessed this, Tick-Tock was nonetheless excited at hearing they would be going soon. With a slight grin, he said, “I figured as much, that’s why I’ve been busting ass to get these people ready.” Pointing to the dust cloud to the east that had dissipated for a short while, only to reappear closer to the mansion, he added, “Looks like the Zs crossed the lake. Even tomorrow morning might be cutting it close, but we should be able to get out of here before they hit us.”

Steve nodded and said, “If I had it my way, we’d go today, but we don’t have enough light left. We need to keep an eye on that herd
, though, so they don’t surprise us. I want two people on watch at all times through the night. Even if they can’t see shit, I still want them up here.”

Tick-Tock nodded and said, “Done deal
. Denise and I will take the first watch, and then you and Heather -”

“The trainees take their turn
, too,” Steve cut him off. “Split them up and get them organized. They stepped up, so they’ll help in everything we do from here on out. I want one of us and two of them to take each watch. I hate to be still making the distinction between us and them, but until they get up to speed, that’s the way it is. I want everyone well rested for tomorrow, so that means they pull their weight, too.”

Tick-Tock nodded and said, “Consider it done, and it’s about time.” Turning to where his people were standing along the edge of the roof, he said in a loud voice, “We’re done snapping in, so now it’s time to use live ammunition. For those of you with a magazine fed weapon, I want you to
extract the clip from your pocket and insert it into your rifle like we showed you. For those of you that have a top-fed, bolt action rifle, I want you to load your bullets into your rifle like we showed you.” Pointing to two men holding lever action rifles, he added, “And I showed you both how to load your weapons, so go ahead and do it.”

Steve noticed that no one made a move to do as they were told
. He was about to comment on this when Tick-Tock barked out, “Ready… load.” In a flurry of motion, the trainees inserted magazines and loose rounds into their rifles. When they were done, they stood waiting.

Impressed at the discipline that Tick-Tock had instilled in
these people in such a short time, Steve said, “Looks like you have everything well in hand.”

“
Not even close,” his friend replied. “I can still use some help, since none of them have ever fired a gun before.”

Without hesitation, Steve asked, “What do you want me to do?”

Moving back over to the trainees, Tick-Tock said, “We’ve got plenty of targets, but I want to make sure they’re hitting – or at least hitting near – what they’re aiming at. With all the Zs down there, it will be like lining these guys up along the side of a boat and telling them to shoot over the side and hit the ocean.”

“So what’s the plan?” Steve asked
as he followed.

They reached were Denise
and Heather were standing as they waited on them, and after exchanging greetings, Tick-Tock said to Denise, “Steve’s going to help us by marking our targets, so give him the splat gun. That frees you up, so I want you helping me and Heather on the firing line in case anyone gets a jam or does something stupid.”

Denise
extracted a paintball gun from the pack at her feet and said to Steve, “We took the big feeder off the top, so you have to load it one shot at a time.”

Hefting the weapon, Steve asked, “Why?”

“So you can load different colors,” she explained. “We want to make sure they’re hitting what they’re aiming for, and we want to be able to tell different trainees to aim for different colors when we teach them snap shooting.”

Turning to Tick-Tock, Steve asked, “Are you sure they’re ready for
snap shooting?”

“I’d rather teach them how to do everything right from the get go,” he answered. “I know it takes a lot of practice to be able to raise your rifle or pistol in a flash and snap off a shot that hits your target, but I want them to at least know the basics and how to do it safely.” In a lower voice, he added, “I doubt any of them will remember half of what I
teach them, but I have to go through the motions. Maybe enough of what I tell them will sink in so they don’t accidentally shot each other or one of us.”

Steve nodded and said, “You’re the instructor.”

“Damn right I am,” he said with a smile before raising his voice and saying to the line of trainees, “Remember your sight picture and remember that the only person shooting will be the one Heather, Denise or myself is standing behind and telling to shoot.” Turning to Steve, he said, “I need about twenty targets spread out across the back of the house. Try to find the ones on the outer edge of the mob that aren’t moving around too much. I don’t want to make it too hard at first, and we’ll get to the part about how to hit a moving target later.”

Steve complied, and within a few minutes twenty of the dead had splatters of red, green, and yellow paint marking their heads
and chests. Tick-Tock moved behind the first person in line, a woman who looked extremely nervous but determined, and said, “Pick one target and tell me which one it is.”

The woman looked for a moment before pointing directly out in front of her and saying, “The one with the red paint dripping down its neck. It’s got what’s left of a flannel shirt hanging off its back.”

“Then raise your rifle, get your sight picture and squeeze the trigger like I taught you,” Tick-Tock told her. “I’m going to be right here, so don’t be afraid.”

Hesitantly, the woman raised her .22 rifle and put it against her shoulder
, the barrel moving around a bit as she looked down the sights and searched for her target. Finding it, she steadied herself and then squeezed her eyes shut.

Seeing this, Tick-Tock said, “You’re pulling a Brain.”

She laughed nervously as she thought of the story he had told her of how Brain thought shooting was aiming in the general direction of a Z, closing his eyes and pulling the trigger until he was out of ammunition.

Resettling the weapon, she aimed
again and jerked the trigger. The shot went high and struck a dead thing standing behind her target in the arm.

“Damn it,” she said out loud, “I missed.”

“Squeeze the trigger,” Tick-Tock said gently.

“I was worried about the kick when I shot, but there’s hardly any,” she commented as she looked down the sights again
.

It took her three more tries, but the Z finally went down in
a small spray of black pus.

She let out a little squeal of delight and said excitedly, “I did it.”

“That you did,” Tick-Tock told her. Turning to Steve, he said, “Mark another target for her and let her go at it. She’s got six more rounds, so let’s see if she can get six more.”

“I know I can,” she said confidently. “This is easier than I thought.”

“Then get to it,” Tick-Tock told her before moving on to the man standing beside her with his rifle at the ready.

For the next two hours, the air around the mansion was filled with the sounds of gunfire.

***

Steve entered his room and fell into bed with his boots still on. Coming through the door behind him, Heather said, “I don’t think so, buddy. Get those things off. We’re not barbarians
.”

Reluctantly, he sat at the edge of the bed and started
untying them but stopped suddenly as a thought hit him. Looking at Heather, he asked, “Have you seen Grimm lately?”

“Not since you went up on the roof to help Tick-Tock,” she replied. After a second, she said, “Come to think about it, I haven’t seen Thing one and
Thing two for a while either.”

“
They were with Brain in the kitchen when I went down there earlier, but I haven’t seen them since. We still need to find out what Grimm’s going to do,” Steve said. “It looks like Igor is along for the ride, and she knows she can come with us, too, but the last time we brought the subject up, she said she was going to stay.”

“We can’t let her
stay,” Heather said. “When that herd coming from the east hits this place, they’ll overwhelm it.”

“We can’t force her to come,” Steve said. After a second, he added, “And I don’t want to be the one to try
it and end up with the pointy end of that scythe up my ass for my efforts.”