The Fall (Book 2): Dead Will Rise (27 page)

“They're from the bunkers,” she explained. “They've never had to deal with the dead. Spent the last two years behind a big steel door. They don't even think they
can
be fought.”

Kell raised an eyebrow. “But not you?”

The woman shook her head. “We're all from Hope,” she said, sweeping an arm toward the volunteers. “Little community in New Mexico. We all joined up with the UAS a while back.”

Kell was about to ask what the UAS was, though it clearly referred to the larger group from the bunkers, when a shout went up from the trees. Tim cursed.

“That's Nicole. She's warning us. They're here.”

Emilia pulled the trailer door shut, breaking the handle off with the butt of her SMG. Kell saw her climbing the ladder to the top as he swung his attention toward the road. From there she would be able to fire at will on any enemy alive or dead.

Juel pelted through the brush and into the camp, handing the RPG up to Emilia and drawing her machete. After a moment of hesitation, she unstrapped the shield from her back.

“Sword and board, I like it,” Kell said as she stood beside him.

“I don't get it,” Juel said.

“It's a nerd thing,” Kell replied. “Never mind.”

The volunteers stood in a rough circle near the fire, all facing the road. Though the light was faint at that distance, the first shimmers already played on dead skin and milky eyes.

“The seven of you stick together, all face outward,” Kell barked. “We'll thin them out for you.”

The swarm stepped from the road and into the grass. The first of them were twenty feet away from Kell, Tim, and Juel when Kell noticed something out of place.

“Uh, Tim, do you need a weapon?”

The big man grinned, scars stretching tight across his face. “I'm good.”

From one cargo pocket Tim pulled a rolled length of dark cable. From his boot he drew a knife. Without a word, the three of them exploded into action.

Kell kept to the middle, letting Tim and Juel have plenty of room to each side. His spear slid through the air like a living thing. There was no thought as his muscles and bones fell into the patterns of rigorous training. Step with one foot, slide with the other, lead with the point, thrust. The first zombie to fall for him was New Breed. It actually raised a hand at the last second in an attempt to deflect the needle tip.

The spear burst through its palm and into the thing's mouth, erupting from the back of its head. As he'd done a thousand times before, Kell twisted and pulled before the momentum of the falling body could begin to pull his weapon away.

Then it was an armored fist to the face of a dead woman who moved in too close for comfort, the force of the blow knocking her back into her fellows. Kell took the opportunity to dart forward for another thrust, taking out one of the bodies she'd fallen into. The ghoulish woman righted herself just in time to become victim number three.

From the corner of his eye he saw Juel dancing between enemies. She slashed with the heavy machete, lodging the thick blade in the head of a dead man as she knocked another aside with her shield. Gunfire cracked regularly; Emilia was picking off the spares.

Bodies streamed in, parting around Kell and between the other fighters like sand between fingers.

To the left, Tim was having entirely too much fun. The big man—without armor or any apparent self-preservation—rushed into the fray at full speed. His knife moved in a liquid blur, stabbing upward here to part the flesh of a soft palate, sideways there between vertebrae in a display of precision to boggle the mind. Five bodies, then six in the time it took Kell to create three, all with one hand. And that wasn't all.

Tim moved deeper into the swarm, looping one zombie around the neck with the strange coil, which had a sort of slipknot built into one end. As he moved, Tim deftly wrapped three more coils, simple twists of the hand, around the throats of three more enemies before running out of cable. He held the end while flipping the knife in his right hand to stab a zombie through the eye—number seven—then in the slight lull that followed, yanked on the cable, putting his hips in it.

Four zombies fell like dominoes, arms and legs tangling together and with those of the truly dead littering the ground.

“Fuck! Help!”

Kell spun to see a wall of zombies pushing at the volunteers. They were certainly fighting back-to-back now; the weight of their enemies gave them no choice. Kell hesitated, not wanting to leave the main swarm, but Nicole made the choice for him. Out of the woods came the day-bright strobe of muzzle flash, pop pop pop, and three of the crowd found themselves several inches shorter.

No time to get fancy
.

Kell choked up on the spear as he rushed toward the hard-pressed volunteers, bringing it down in fast overhead jabs. One skull after another, like a farmer chopping at the dirt with a garden hoe. Rather than attempt to punch through and join the circle, he worked around the outside. Using the distraction to his advantage, Kell attacked from behind with devastating effect.

After a handful of kills, the zombies noticed him.

Kell brought the spear down badly on one of the bunch that turned around to face him, only hitting the heavy muscle in its shoulder. Then it was a contest of strength—losing, on his part—as he held the weapon out sideways in an effort to keep a safe distance. Hands tore at him, fingernails and raw bone scraping against his coat. Two sets of hands managed to grab tight onto his lapels, and the strain on his arms as he tried to hold them back with the spear grew worse. It wasn't much of a deterrent to begin with, the slim metal pole doing a poor imitation of a barrier.

With his strength failing, it would cease to be one altogether.

“Close your eyes, K!”

Though blinding himself should have gone against his better judgment, Kell didn't hesitate. A second later something heavy thumped against him. There was a sound of breaking glass followed by the punch-you-in-the-face smell of ammonia. The zombies immediately drew back, but being at ground zero had no clue which direction to go. The result was a mass of twisting bodies slamming into each other, all efforts to attack the living evaporated.

Kell was pushed to the ground, the now-desperate zombies overpowering him. Sharp panic sent his heart racing as he tried to move his arms—but no. The spear lay on his wrists, pulled from his hands, and the weight of his attackers held it in place. He screamed for help.

Then the volunteers were there. Moving in a wave, their weapons sought out enemies with brutal efficiency. In moments the zombies scrambling atop Kell were dead, and the red-haired woman was staring down at him. A thick baton hung from her hand, topped with a wicked spike sticking out at a right angle. In that moment she could pull back and, with minimal effort, drive the thing into his ear. He was utterly helpless.

Instead she hauled bodies off him and put out a hand, helping him to his feet just in time for Nicole to skid to a halt next to him.

“Thank god,” the scout said as she saw him stand. “It was a long throw, I couldn't see if I hit you with it.”

All around them lay bodies. Two of the volunteers were injured, one dead. Juel limped over, grasping Tim for support. Her shield was missing. A handful of zombies receded in the distance, vanishing in the gloom beyond the failing light of the fire. Nicole was unharmed, as was Emilia, who sat dangling her legs over the edge of the trailer.

Kell saw them all. Every person standing—or sitting, or curled over some wound or another—had fought the good fight. They stood together in the night to face the common enemy, regardless of all other circumstance. Kell saw people he knew, others he didn't.

But for the life of him, he couldn't see an enemy
.

“What happened next?” Chris asked.

Kell shook his head. “Must have made an impression on them, because the people who fought with us just let us finish up disabling their vehicles. The rest stayed in their cars. Like they were scared of us or something.”

Everyone laughed. Kell grinned. “The pile of zombies might have helped out there. Good thing, too. Without cars or radios, their buddies in the other camps have no way of knowing anything is wrong. When their relief does
finally show up, we're hoping
they'll think the bunker was abandoned a while back.” Kell didn't put much stock in that hope as he studied the room.

They sat on crates in the basement of a farmhouse seventy miles from John's shelter. Thin light filtered through the windows set at ground-level, six-inch tall slits covered in iron bars. The basement itself was huge and open, stretching seventy feet on the long side, forty on the short. Steps led upward on each end of the vast room; one to the house itself and a ground-floor exit, the other to an old-fashioned set of storm doors that opened on the back yard.

It was ideal for their needs in every way. The place was isolated, sitting in the middle of a huge tract of land stretching for miles in every direction. It wasn't completely removed from the world; on the western side, seven miles away, was a small length of road lined with supply depots. From seeds to farm equipment to building materials, the place had everything a new settlement would need.

Which was the plan.

John, looking more like his old self than ever, leaned back on his crate—which held a microscope—and put his shoulders against the cinder block wall. “How long do you think it'll be before you get someone out here?” he asked. “I don't mind being alone, but out here I'm exposed.”

Kate patted him on the knee. “No, out here you're inconspicuous. Even if someone drove by this house, the driveway is a thousand feet long. It's just an old house like all the rest. Much less obvious than a fortified bunker, don't you think?”

“It won't be long,” Kell said. “Even if Will doesn't go for it, we'll find a way to send people out here. One way or another you'll have help fortifying this place and getting it set up properly.”

“When are you coming?” John asked.

Kell smiled. “No idea, man. If things go well, maybe in a few months. If not, then longer. Maybe a lot longer.”

Scotty grunted a laugh. “If what you've been telling us is right, this...UAS? They're going to be a nightmare. If they're grabbing land and killing whole communities, it'll mean war. No one will let them get away with it.”

“He's not wrong,” Chris added. “The numbers they must have, how can we face that?”

“
We
face it,” Kate said. “You two don't. You and Scotty are the only two people in our group that know about this place for right now. You're the ones who will have to move between here and New Haven if the rest of us can't. So while we fight when we have to, you stay safe. We do our part for New Haven. But this is the end game.” Kate gestured at the basement. “Whether Will works with us or not, the goal is to survive whatever fight is coming so we can help John with his work.”

“You two are going to be his lifeline,” Kell said. “While I'm trying to work out a cure in New Haven, John will need as much help as he can get.”

Scotty put his hands to his heart in a fair impression of a swooning lady. “Oh, dear sir, you do so flatter me!”

Kell took a halfhearted swipe at him. “I'm serious. You guys can handle yourselves. Kate and Laura won't be able to do all the work. A lot of it will be on you.”

“We're up to it,” Chris said, a note of pride in his voice.

“I know,” Kell said. “You guys managed a small miracle getting all this stuff up here unobserved. I trust you.”

“For the record,” John said, “I do too.”

As simple as that, it was settled.

Later, as Kate took a last walk around the property with Kell.

“...Tim took the Jeep and headed south. I looked like an idiot riding on the back of Juel's bike all the way up here.”

“Don't step there,” Kate warned as they crossed the driveway. “Trap. We put them all over the place.”

Kell chuckled. “Not willing to put all your faith in being far away from everything?”

“Nope,” she said. “We even have a nice little hidey hole set up in case John has to run.”

“What did you guys do to the bunker?” Kell asked. “Can the UAS get in there if they really try?”

Kate smiled wickedly. “Sure. They'll have to deal with a couple zombies between the front and inner doors. And if they open the inner one, they're going to have bigger problems than a few dead people. We rigged it to set the whole place on fire if the trap isn't disabled.”

They walked in comfortable silence for a little while.

“You want to come back here,” Kate said. “Work with John.”

He nodded. “We always did our best work together.”

“I thought you were worried about having the two of you in one place.”

The early spring wind picked up, dancing through his open coat. “I was. But the more I think about it, the less comfortable I am about staying in any place outside of our control. New Haven is nice, the people are good. Hell, I even trust Will not to treat me as a bargaining chip if it comes down to it.”

“What's the problem, then?”

“Those people, those big communities...they come with politics. Complications. Sometimes they have to do things that I just can't be a part of.”

“Really?” Kate said, surprised. “You? Didn't you say you'd kill Laura and me if it would bring your family back? And you
did
kill that DARPA agent.”

“I did,” Kell said. “What I did to Jones ate at me, changed me right along with this shitty world we're in. I thought I was something I wasn't. That I would go to any lengths to stay alive and find this cure.”

Kate stopped and faced him. “It was driving you crazy, wasn't it? Thinking you were capable of those things.”

“Yeah. Not just that, but knowing I'd already started doing them. That I felt they would be necessary, you know? I hardened myself to it. It was killing me.”

“I know,” she said, looking up at him. “I was there, too. After what Laura and I went through, I almost lost it. I spent hours in that trailer thinking of all the things I'd do those men. I
wanted
to, Kell. I wanted to kill them a dozen times each just to watch them hurt.”

“But that's understandable. What happened to you...”

“Was terrible,” Kate said. “No one should have to endure it. My reaction might have been right, but is that a good thing? I spent months fucked up and crazy because of it. I thought I was the worst kind of person for the exact same reasons. Because I knew I could do it if I had to. Kill without hesitation, even in cold blood. I did it, too, remember? I killed Phillip without a second thought.”

Kell was silent.

“My point is, you should have talked to me,” Kate said. “The really funny thing is I started to even out eventually. I regret Phillip now, among other things. We've both done pretty monstrous things, Kell. But in the end we aren't monsters. We're just people. It's only when you don't regret that you should start to worry.”

“That makes a lot of sense, actually.”

Kate slapped him on the shoulder and got moving again, pulling him along. “And if you'd just talked to me, I might have been able to help. Remember that next time you start getting all dark.”

“Is that a black joke?” Kell said, feigning indignity.

“Nope,” Kate replied. “Just an offer.”

“Thanks.”

The trip back was relatively uneventful. There were no sightings of the UAS and only a few random swarms of zombies, none of which posed a serious threat.

Kell was eager to get back. Despite his desire to get away from the dangers that came with living in a large community, he missed the place. The impending clash with the UAS aside, New Haven was a far cry from North Jackson or the desperate loneliness of his old cabin. Beyond the friends he brought with him, he had begun making new ones. As the last few miles home dwindled, he found himself profoundly relieved that he would see them again.

It was a tired but happy group who passed through the north gate. There was Phil, waiting at the side to see if anyone was wounded. Down the road, Patrick was enjoying the weather with his nieces, tossing a football back and forth as best he could with one hand.

People worked the earth on every street. Beads of sweat ran like rivers as people labored not to kill, but to raise up new life from the vanishing grip of winter.

Kell smiled. It really did feel like home.

Before any other consideration, Kell's group—including the scouts—had to meet with Will for a debriefing. He pushed aside his desire for food, a shower, and a long sleep somewhere safe. There would be time afterward.

The meeting went about as well as expected.

“You're telling me you found this man, John, and just left him out there on his own? Why the hell didn't you bring him back here?” Will said, his voice rising to a shout. “Don't you realize the risk you're putting him in?”

“Actually, sir, he's safer where he is,” Nicole said. Kell gaped at her, but the woman's face gave away nothing. “The location of the bunker was chosen because of the area's low population. The house we put him in is far away from anywhere we've seen swarms move. If he were here, his presence would not only raise questions, but he would be in as much danger as any of us. And you know we suffer casualties.”

Will chewed on that. “This is your professional assessment?”

“Yes, sir,” Nicole said.

“Fine. So, what, we just leave him out there to fend for himself?”

“Ah, no,” Kell said. “We were hoping to get your help on that front. We want to send people out there to build a small community. There are already materials to use. We just need fuel. The idea is to slowly create a safe place where he and I can work. Until that happens, I plan on staying here.”

“Sort of like a research outpost,” Will mused. “It's not a terrible idea. I can organize something, I think. I have a few people I trust to—”

“Sorry, but again, no,” Kate said. “We would feel better if John's location stayed secret. Which means you don't know, nor anyone else outside this group. At least for now.”

For the first time, Will grew angry. “Excuse me? I'm the one who runs this place. You do realize that, right? You can't honestly expect me to give you resources and let you dictate the terms. What's to keep the scouts from telling me where he is?”

Nicole, ever the good soldier, didn't show a hint of reaction to Will's tone. “I'm sorry, sir, but none of us will give up that information. We agree that John is too valuable a resource. We can't risk letting the information get out.”

Will looked from face to face, seeing no cracks in the team's armor. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but fine. I'll see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” Kell said. “We aren't trying to upset you. We only want to keep John's work neutral, safe from everyone out here. We already know the UAS wants him. How many other groups would go looking for him, do you think?”

Will rubbed a tired hand over his face. “I get it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.”

The meeting took another thirty minutes, but Kell only paid attention when asked a question. Of course Kate had told the scouts everything. There was no way to hide what John was working on once the decision to move him had been made. Kate told them everything when they came back to the shelter with Tim.

Relief was the best way to describe the floating sensation that held him up through the rest of the meeting. Nicole hadn't been thrilled to learn who Kell was, but once the scouts had a few minutes to process the information, they were happy to help. After all, who wouldn't want two men working on a cure simultaneously?

“Thanks,” he said to Nicole as they walked from the meeting.

“Just make sure you fix this thing,” she said before joining up with Juel and Emilia.

Kate, Kell, Chris, and Scotty made their way through the inner east gate. When the thick doors opened, they were treated to the sight of their little corner outlined by the sun. As if they had left yesterday, Dan walked down to greet them.

“Welcome back,” Dan said. “You're just in time for lunch.”

Though they had only been gone a short while, the place looked more lived-in than ever, the most obvious sign being the long foundation set in the ground at one edge of their little settlement. Kell pointed at the flattened dirt crisscrossed with thick timbers where people worked.

“What's that?” he asked.

Dan smiled. “Laura said you might need a place to work,” he explained. “Didn't say why, but we figured since you've helped so many of us find a new home, the least we could do was give you a little space of your own.”

“You're back!” a tiny voice shouted. Seconds later a girl-shaped cannonball hit him in the middle. “We missed you!”

“Hi, Michelle,” Kell said, returning the hug. “Where's your mom?”