Zombie Dawn Apocalypse (29 page)

“Dylan!” shouted Bruce.

“Yes, boss?”

“We need to bolster those gates, we cannot have them falling as quickly as the first, get some tree trunks and bolster them between the gates and ground, that should help a lot!”

“I’m on it!”

It was a matter of minutes before the horde began hammering at the middle wall. Bruce climbed down onto the main battlement and picked up the biggest rock he could find and leaned over the edge, throwing it with force. The large jagged rock crushed the head of a creature, smashing it into a bloody pulp on the ground.

“Have that,
ya
bastard!”

The other fighters along the wall followed suit smashing the creatures below with the rocks. Another thirty minutes went by and the last of their ammunition was gone. Bruce climbed back up to the tower where Hackett was watching the progress of the battle.

“What now?” asked Hackett.

“We’ll bolster that gate, but there’s nothing much left to do but wait, fight if they breach, fall back to the last wall if we can’t hold, and fucking hope the Yanks arrive in time to do some of the work.”

Bruce walked to the edge of the tower and looked out across the survivors who stood watching the horde with nothing to do but wait.

“Listen up all of you!”

The Islanders turned to listen, only just able to hear him over the sound of the groaning and bloodthirsty horde below.

“I know you’re all tired, but the chances are that help will be with us soon, maybe by the morning. We just have to hold! I think we are safe here for at least a few hours, so I want you to get some rest, take it in shifts, get any sleep you can, even if it’s just an hour!”

“You think the walls will hold till then?” asked Hackett.

“Maybe, the horde can’t get quite as much pressure on here, they have the remnants of the outer wall blocking them, and they are spread over a wider surface area, we have a reasonable chance.”

“Then get some sleep, I’ll take watch here.”

“It’s much appreciated, mate.”

He slumped in his chair, his clothes soaked through with sweat. Within minutes Bruce was asleep, not because he was at peace or comfortable, but because he was thoroughly exhausted. His worries and stresses were not enough to keep his eyes open. Six hours later he was abruptly woken up by shouting. He leapt to his feet and looked down to the gate where he could see Dylan hacking away at a creature, other people were joining him in the fight. Looking out across the main landmass of Resolution Island to the east some light was already shimmering off the forest, it was almost daylight. Hackett appeared at the top of the ladder and jumped into the watchtower.

“The gate is breached, but it’s holding for now, it’s a major bottleneck.”

“The Yanks have to be here soon, we just need more time!”

Bruce moved to the southern side of the tower.

“Amy! Get your people on the ground, spread out across the inner wall, they could breach at any point, we must hold!”

He turned to the northern side, seeing Christian stood watching the fight at the breach.

“Christian! Spread out along the ground!”

“What do you want me to do?” asked Hackett.

“Grab a weapon and be ready to go where I go.”

As the words left his mouth he saw a section of the northern wall, a long way from him, smash down and several creatures tumble through the breach.

“To the north! To the north! Fill the breach!”

Bruce slid down the ladder and ran towards the north where Wilson and Bart were taking the first strikes at their new foes. Thirty fighters converged on the opening and smashed the zombies before them, slowly hacking their way back to the opening. Bruce reached the fight and immediately threw himself into it, smashing a creature with his mace. The other fighters were boxing in the creatures with their shields, driving them back to the wall and stamping over the bodies of their victims.

“Bruce, we must retreat!” called Hackett.

“No! We must hold as long as possible!”

In their push to drive the creatures back, two of the foul monsters grabbed hold of Gordon and pull him through the breach with them as they were forced back. Blood spewed from his neck as within seconds they bit into him.

“Bruce, we can’t hold!” shouted Hackett.

Before Bruce could respond, a loud booming sound rang out around the valley, the sound of a ship’s foghorn. The survivors and the creatures stopped for just a second, all as curious to see the source of the sound as each other.

“It’s the fleet!”

“Fight on! Give them all you’ve got!” shouted Bruce.

USS Harpers Ferry

The sky was clear and the Island was starting to take form in the distance. On the deck of the military vessel the marines were lined up and checking their gear. Running to the side of the small ship was the old Coast Guard vessel Jarvis, the Hamilton-class high endurance cutter. Of the marines that had originally joined the Flotilla many had been killed or injured over the years. Luckily, their number had been bolstered by new recruits. Even so, the total number of combat effective marines was now just forty-two though they all had additional jobs when not on combat operations. A small colony could not afford to all be warriors. As well as the marines another two dozen volunteers from the other vessels had come aboard to help with the relief of the island. This extra crew was armed with a variety of mixed armour and weapons. Each of the marines wore the now distinctive custom combination of combat fatigues and modified armour. Captain Black wore his well-used combat gear, as well as a few extra modified pieces from the metal armour he’d salvaged at the abandoned camp just over a week before. He especially liked a small breastplate that he wore in place of his old ballistic body armour. It may not offer any more protection than he already had but he liked the idea of making use of something from the old world that was still effective. The two hovercraft were ready and their engines were growling away as they were prepped for action. They looked more like small ferryboats than hovercraft and were used to transport men, vehicles and equipment directly into action. Captain Black turned back to the men and women on the deck.

“The latest radio report says they have a breach to the right and the barricades are being torn down near the causeway. I’d say they have an hour tops, after that we may as well not bother,” he said.

“Shit, can we go any faster?” shouted Carlo over the din of the hovercraft.

“No, they can though,” said the Captain as he pointed to the hovercraft.

Captain Black gave a cutting hand signal and the engineers cut the engines of the craft, instantly lowering the sound on the deck. The Island was getting closer.

“This is the plan. Carlo and
Reinier
will lead the first hovercraft to the breach to the right. I want your squad to hit the gap first. You’ll need the assault gear for this one, as you’ll be driving right into the breach from the outside, the same side as the undead! You can expect close quarter fighting. Take most of the marines with you but you must hit hard and hit fast. Get on the breach through the gaps and clear the perimeter, then sweep towards the causeway. You can reinforce any gaps with your reserves on the second hovercraft, just make sure your assault team pushes onto the causeway and meet us. The second hovercraft will move in behind the wall and help push back any that have made it through the breach.

I will take the Jarvis, as she can hit almost thirty knots, right down the waterway connecting the Island to the peninsula. We will hit the causeway, sever the connection and halt the undead reinforcement. We will then meet at the breach and ensure it is properly sealed. Between the Jarvis, the deck weapons and your assault squad we should be able to solve this little problem. Understood?”

The marines let out a gutsy “Ooh-rah” before turning to their allotted vessels. Captain Black made for the small motorboat waiting to take him to the cutter. Fernanda and Kowalski flanked him as he climbed down the rope ladder to the boat. As it moved off Fernanda leaned over to the Captain.

“You think we’ll fit down the channel?” she asked.

“Yeah, according to our charts we’ll be ok, but it might be a bit tight,” he said.

“Oh great,” groaned Kowalski.

The first hovercraft was already moving away from the Harpers Ferry with the second close behind it. On the deck were two dozen marines, all heavily equipped and ready for action. At the front was a small six-man unit, comprising the Afghan veterans Carlo,
Reinier
, Talia, Ken, Ian and
Veya
. This unit was the most heavily armoured of all, each carrying additional plating and armour on their limbs and shorter ranged weapons. They looked like some bizarre mix of a combat veteran crossed with a medieval soldier. Behind this group were the more conventionally armed marines, though all wore armour to one extent or another. The shoreline was now only a few minutes away and as they moved closer the importance of the Island became clear to them all.

Along the causeway side of the Island was what was left of the multi-layered single barrier that was marked with a number of watchtowers that could maintain a vigil over the perimeter. Behind the barrier the roofs of various structures and chimneys could just me made out though the Island was substantial. From the satellite maps they had seen the dozens of crop fields and buildings that had been built and erected for the community. Of more importance
though
was that there were signs of movement along the edge of the Island. Carlo lifted his binoculars to the right hand part of the island, looking for the breach that Captain Black had described. The left hand side was a narrow channel that separated the Island from the main land mass of larger undead occupied island. There was a slight break in the outline that drew his attention a dozen or so metres to the side of where he was looking. Then he spotted the breach.

“Man, they’ve got trouble,” he said as he passed the binoculars to Talia.

She looked carefully whilst Carlo shouted to those behind him.

“The last wall is about four or five hundred metres along. In the middle where the main gate is you can see a major fight going on. Further along the wall though, near the water’s edge is the second breach. It’s about four metres wide and it looks like they’ve broken in through the outer perimeter. Yeah, I can see damage and gaps along the entire length of that section. They must have fallen back to a secondary defensive line. We are going to go in hard and fast. Take us right up the beach and to the gap, we can’t wait any longer. We’ll hit the breach from both sides and then move along the wall to help with the main fight,” he said.

“Yeah, I can see them fighting inside. From what I can see the main action is as we thought, at the damaged causeway and the breach further along in the secondary defences, looks like they’re using hand weapons, not much if any in the way of firearms,” she said.

“Just as well we’re here then,” said
Reinier
, as he lifted up an improvised metal
warhammer
. He carried a police riot shield on his left arm.

Carlo looked to the left as he spotted the foam spraying up from the Coast Guard Cutter. It looked like a small, sleek military vessel and though rough looking it was well maintained and moving at a good rate of speed. He could just make out the shapes of Captain Black and Kowalski who were preparing the weapons on the bow of the vessel. A tap on his shoulder from
Reinier
let him know they were only a few seconds from the shore. He turned around and signalled to the rest of the team. They returned the hand signal, they were ready to go. He looked forward, the shore came racing towards them and the craft moved smoothly up the beach and towards the barricades. Carlo stopped counting at twenty-four zombies before they slowed down and without pausing he leapt off the front, closely followed by the other five assault marines. Behind them followed the rest with their weapons at the shoulder and ready.

As Carlo hit the ground he found scores of the undead in front and to both sides, all of them pressing into the breach. He didn’t pause but simply lowered his automatic shotgun and fired round after round into them to clear a path. The other five did the same and as each creature fell they took a step forward. Though space was being created in front creatures still tried to overwhelm them from the sides. The marines following poured fire from their rifles and carbines into this mass and through sheer weight of bullets they reduced their numbers enough to get up to the breach.