This Shattered Land - 02 (9 page)

I
got to my feet with a grumbling curse. The three cups of whiskey in my belly
made me sway a bit as I drew my pistol. A quick glance behind me told me that I
was the only one who had drawn a firearm.

“Faaaaannntastic.
Don’t suppose you folks got any weapons, do you?” I said.

Sarah,
forward thinking lady that she is, leaned down and drew a little snub-nosed
revolver from a holster on her ankle. I didn’t even know she had that.

“Gabe,
Tom, get between us.” She said, pointing her weapon toward the moans growing
steadily louder on her side.

“Like
hell.” Gabe rumbled. He stomped over to the woodpile nearby and came back with
a splitting maul in his fists. The big half-axe, half-sledgehammer tool would
have been too heavy for most people to use as an effective weapon, but Gabe was
not most people. He took a fighting stance next to Sarah and drew a
disapproving frown from her.

“Make
sure you stay behind my line of fire.” She said. Gabe grunted.

Tom,
not having anything on him to use as a weapon, settled for a thick chunk of
hickory from beside the fire. I shook my head at him.

“Tom,
stay behind me, and stay close.” I said. “Anything gets around me, you bash its
fucking head in, got it?”

He
glanced at me and nodded. I didn’t really need him to watch my back, especially
considering that the stupid chunk of wood he held wasn’t going to help him
against the dead, but I figured encouraging him might keep him from getting
panicked, not to mention spare his ego. The four of us started moving slowly
back toward the gate, the moans of the dead growing louder and closer. Looking
over my shoulder, I could just make out the galvanized steel bars of the fence
reflecting light from the fire. Funny thing—during the day the gate sometimes
looked dangerously close to the cliff. Right about then, with the ghouls
nipping at my heels, it seemed impossibly far away.

The
moans kept growing louder until a single revenant walked into view. He must
have circumnavigated the fence to reach us. The fiber optic sights reflected
the firelight as I drew a bead on its forehead and squeezed the trigger. The
round went through its skull and kept on trucking out the other side. The
creature shuddered, stiffened up, and tumbled sideways down the side of the
mountain. Another ghoul walked out of the darkness behind it. It was once a
tall, heavyset man. Nearly half of its face was missing, and I could see gray
and black bone protruding through its ruined flesh. Its shoes had long since torn
apart and yellowish strips of entrails dangled from its waist all the way to
the ground. Two more trigger pulls ventilated its decrepit skull. The walker
swayed in place for a moment before doing a face plant into the dirt, a putrid
ring of body fluid spraying out in a black halo as it slapped the ground. Two
shots rang out behind me. Sarah cursed, and then fired again. I risked a glance
over my shoulder. Two ghouls were down in front of her, one of her shots must
have had gone wide.

“How
many bullets you got left?” I asked.

“Three.”

She
fired again.

“Make
that two.”

“Use
‘em, then get behind me.” Gabe said, adjusting his grip on the maul.

I
dropped a few more walkers that got too close and heard Sarah use her last two
rounds.

“I’m
out.” She said, falling back.

“Alright,
give me room to swing.” Gabe said.

I
moved as quickly as I dared toward the fence with Tom and Sarah in tow. Only a
few steps away now, but we were at the edge of the light cast by the fire. The
closer we got, the less I could see. Behind me, I heard Gabe grunt and the wet
thunk-crunch
of his axe bursting open a skull. Movement to my left caught my eye. I turned
to see Brian rushing toward us with a flashlight, the bright shaft of light
bobbing up and down as he ran.

“Brian,
shine the light out that way.” I shouted, pointing.

“Okay,
got it.” He said breathlessly as he reached the fence and shined the line in
the direction I indicated. There were only two more revenants on my side. I put
them down, then had Brian shine the light in Gabe’s direction. Six more were
closing in. I turned to Tom and Sarah.

“You
two get the gate open, I got the rest of ‘em.” Sarah gave a quick nod, grabbed
Tom by the sleeve, and dragged him the last few steps to the fence at a sprint.

“Gabe,
back off for a second.” I said, running over to him. He buried his axe one last
time before dropping back behind me with gore dripping from his weapon. I took
a couple of deep breaths to steady my aim. The sights lined up, my trigger
finger tightened, and the gun went off. One more down. The next five went like
clockwork, one dropping every other second as Gabe’s shooting lessons droned
through my head at the speed of thought.

Focus
on the front sight.

Don’t
pull, squeeze. You want the shot to surprise you.

Keep
your thumbs-up on the grip.

Don’t
forget to breath, or you’ll start shaking.

And
then they were all down. My heartbeat had slowed, and my breathing was back to
normal by the time I fired the last shot. My hand was steady as I holstered the
Kel-Tec. I was getting way too used to this stuff. The fire flickered low and
sullen over the now permanently immobile corpses as I turned back toward the
fence.

 “Okay,
dammit, from here on out, no one goes outside the gate without a firearm. That
was way too close.” I said, locking the gate behind me.

Tom
flashed a smile and clapped me on the shoulder. “You handled things pretty good
out there, man. That was impressive.”

I
frowned and shook my head. I could smell the booze on Tom’s breath, and I
couldn’t help but wonder if he would be so cavalier about the situation if he
wasn’t a couple of sheets to the wind.

“It’s
not me I’m worried about Tom. You and Sarah have a son to look after. Fuck’s
sake, how did you two manage to survive this long? What would you have done if Gabe
and I hadn’t been there?”

Tom’s
smile faded, anger darkening his features. “Look, we’ve fought the undead
before, lots of times. We know how to handle ourselves. Ever since we ran into
you two, we haven’t had a chance to do much fighting. You and Gabe always jump
out front and smash everything in sight. When the hell have we had a chance to
prove what we could do?”

I
opened my mouth to say something, but Brian stopped me. “Would you two stop it?
What’s wrong with you, you sound like a couple of old women.” He said, pointing
an accusatory finger at me. “And don’t talk to my dad like that.”

I
looked down at the boy’s indignant face, and all the irritation drained out of
me in a flood. There’s nothing like getting scolded by a twelve year old to let
you know when you’re being a jackass. Tom was right. We
had
been overly
protective of them, mostly because of Brian. Sarah stepped forward and put a
hand on my arm.

“Listen,
you’re right, we got sloppy tonight. I’ll make sure we’re all armed before we
leave the fence from here on out, okay? I know you’re just trying to look after
us. I really do appreciate it.”

I
sighed. “Alright, fair enough. I don’t want to ruin the evening any more than I
already have.”

“Eric,
you didn’t ruin anything.” Tom said. “You risked you life to protect
us—again—and then you got mad at us for not being smart enough to arm
ourselves. I understand why you want to lash out, but you need to remember that
we’re all on the same team, here. We can’t start fighting amongst ourselves, not
with all those things out there.”

I
managed a half smile and a nod by way of response. Truth be told, I was just
tired and a little drunk. Living in a world where I measured my life in days
rather than years had been wearing on me worse and worse lately. I needed a
break from it all, but that was not going to happen any time soon. If ever. 

“Okay,
you’re right. I’m sorry, I’m just tired is all. I don’t know about you guys,
but I think I’ve had enough excitement for one evening. I’m going to go get
some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You
sure you’re okay?” Sarah asked, her expression concerned.

“Yeah,
I’m fine. Just…you know, craziness.” I made a vague gesture at the corpses
strewn about beyond the fence. Sarah looked dubious.

I
bid everyone goodnight, and crawled down to the bunker, making sure to shut the
hatch behind me to keep the cold air above from seeping down. Gabe and I had
been sleeping underground ever since the Glovers moved into the cabin. The gas
lantern by the ladder lit the way to the control desk as I walked by row after
row of empty metal shelves. My footsteps grated against the bare concrete floor
and echoed a hollow refrain against the white steel walls. A year ago, I
wouldn’t have heard my own steps. The abundance of supplies on the racks around
me would have muffled them, but two brutally hard winters had seen our stores
dwindle down to nearly nothing. The bunker felt empty and forbidding without
the comforting closeness of abundant supplies. I sat down in front of the
laptop and opened an application that controlled the power coming from a bank
of batteries a few feet away. They were at just under ninety percent. First
good news of the day. I turned on a couple of lights over my bed and twisted
the knob on the lantern to shut it off.

My
gun belt went over a hook beside my bed, then I peeled off my boots and changed
into a loose fitting t-shirt and a pair of shorts. The drawer on my bedside
table rasped open with a tug and yielded a bottle of scotch stashed inside. The
particular brand I poured into a heavy tumbler once cost hundreds of dollars a
bottle back before the Outbreak. Now I drank it like cheap swill. Sitting on
the edge of my bed, I stared at the Kel-Tec hanging from its holster. I took it
out, replaced the partially empty magazine with a full one, and laid it down on
the table beside me. How screwed up had my life become that I couldn’t get a
good night’s sleep without a gun in easy reach? I shook my head as I took a
long sip of the warm brown liquor. It bit into me sharp and crisp, the flavors
of peat, smoke, honey, and scorched white oak mingled on my tongue and warming
up me on the way down. I set the glass on the table and stared at the gun
again.

So.
Tonight?

No.

Not
tonight.

Brian
would be upset, and it would make a hell of a mess.

That
would just be rude.

“Congratulations”
I muttered to myself, my words beginning to slur. “You found an excuse for one
more day.”

The
bedsprings creaked as I laid back and picked up a paperback from the table. The
book was a field guide that detailed how to find wild edible plants, and how
best to prepare them for consumption. It also focused on ways to attract
attention for rescue, but I ignored those parts. No one was coming to rescue
me, and there was nowhere for them to take me even if they did. The pages in
front of me grew increasingly blurry as I put down more booze. Finally I just
gave up and put the book down. The room spun slowly around me as I lay staring
at the dusty ceiling. I would need to be unconscious soon if I wanted to avoid
being sick. The bed creaked again as I struggled to sit up and pull open the
drawer beside me. Clumsy hands that felt like they no longer belonged to me
grabbed an orange prescription bottle and fumbled out one small white pill. I
couldn’t make out the words on the label, but I knew that they expressly warned
against combining the pills with alcohol.

To
hell with it
.
I thought.
What’s the worst that could happen?

I
popped the pill, washed it down with one last shot of booze, and lay back to
wait for it to kick in. It didn’t take long. My mind grew hazy as I began to
float on a warm sea of buzzing numbness. I liked it there. It was comfortable.

I
didn’t care if I ever woke up again.

Chapter 3

Swarm

Of
course, I woke up. I always do, and like always, I was none too happy about it.
A pot clanging on a stove sent peals of agony hammering around inside my head.
I sat up and looked into the kitchenette. Gabriel was mixing some venison and
beans in a bowl with a few wild onions. Flatbread sizzled on an iron skillet
atop an electric range, and a teakettle was just beginning to whistle. Gabe
wore a red t-shirt with the USMC logo on the front, and a pair of the mesh
shorts he preferred for his morning exercise routine.

“Feel
like eatin’ something?” He asked, not looking up.

“Not
really, but I will anyway.”

The
food would have smelled delicious if not for the ball of eels is roiling around
in my gut. I had to bite back a wave of nausea as I stood up and walked into
the kitchen. Gabe scowled at me a little more than usual as he handed me a thin
metal plate to put my breakfast on. The walk back to my bed seemed to take
forever, step by painful step. I slumped down onto my bed, folded the bread
over like a big taco, and took a bite. It was warm and chewy, and the onions
added a nice flavor. I swallowed and waited. The first bite stayed down, and
didn’t give any signs of trying to come back up, so I took another.