Zombie Dawn (16 page)

            “Just a bit low, buddy.  You got him in the chest.  Finish him.  Nice shot.  Now get the rest.”

            Mike took another three shots, finishing his first Z and bagging two more, and let Bobbie have a shot, then Sean.  They all did great.  They were psyched.  I think it gave them a feeling of safety and control.  I could tell that we would have to set our .50 up ASAP or we’d never hear the end of it.

            We never spent a lot of time philosophizing about the zombies but we did that night.  I guess we treated them like vermin or maybe hostile aliens from another planet.  It was just something you knew when you saw them.  They were not people, they were not who they used to be, and there was no chance to rehabilitate them or co-exist with them.  It could jar you a bit when you recognized one but that was it.  Jim had ended his old football coach and I’d ended my mechanic.

            Kate, of course, being a woman, had to process it.  “How can we let the kids kill them?”

            “We do that, Kate, so the zombies don’t eat them,” chucked Jim.

            “I know that, you tool, but what about the impact on the kids?"

            "They'll just have to deal with it.  That's they way it is now."

            That was it for the night, and we went to bed.

            Kate and I spent some time talking that night before sleep. 

            “Katie, what do you think about this setup?”

            “He’s done a great job.  I don’t think he’ll come with us, though.”

            It was funny.  Kate and I were always on the same page.  Even though we’d just found a safe and welcoming refuge neither of us wanted to stay.

            “Too tight around here, huh?”

            “Yes.  Living inside the wall is just a bad feel.  I want more space.  Also, I think it’s going to be a long time until the world comes back and we’re going to need to farm and ranch to survive.”

            “I bet we lose of few of our folks to old Jim, though.  They’ll want to stay right here.”

            “You are right, babe.  But I’m going to try to recruit a couple of Jim’s guys to come with us.  We could use a couple more guys since we’re kind of loaded with females right now.  Maybe we trade some women and kids for a couple of his guys?”

            “This isn’t Fantasy Football, you ass!  You can’t trade them away!”

            “But we can set it up.  Just watch the negotiations begin.”

            “What about Jenny?”

            “I don’t know.  She’s been through a lot, and I bet this place is appealing to her.  I won’t try to influence her either way.  If she stays here, they’ll get a great nurse and Jim will be happy.  If she comes with us, I’ll be delighted.  Let’s see what happens.”

            “Can we at least stay for a few days?”

            “Sure, Babe.  I definitely want to stay for a bit.”

            We went to sleep.

            The next day, everyone slept in, since Jim’s guys were standing guard.  It was a nice, safe feeling.  We got up around 8 and went and had breakfast with Jim. 

            He cut right to it.  “Are you guys staying?  We’ll set you up in a nice spot if you do.”

            “I’m not.  I want more space.  Can you take some of my people if they’d like to stay?”

            “Absolutely.  I think a few romances sprang up last night.”

            We left it at that for the time being.  Jim offered to hold a demonstration of the Chute and Stan, Jake, Mike and I decided to tag along.  The others would stay and relax for a bit.

            The operation started off smoothly.  Twelve of us went out in two National Guard Hummers armed with .30 cal machine guns.

Jim’s second in command was Arthur, who had been with Jim for fifteen years as a key employee.  That day, Arthur and his son Artie rang the bells.  We dropped Artie off at the first bell and Arthur at the second bell.  Each had a mountain bike to ride from bell to bell.  We had an arranged spot for them to meet us at after the operation.

Jim was going to drive the south dozer with me and my guys as shooters.  Jim assigned a five guy crew to the north dozer.  They would hide underground until the zombies had passed their end, then mount up and drive the north dozer south. 

We decided to look around for an hour or so until things heated up.  There was not much to look at because Jim had cleared out the entire area.  We did grab a few warm sodas and stale chips as a snack.  Mike found an old machete in a garage and stuck it in his pack.

We heard the bells ringing and a few shots.  Arthur or Artie called in from time to time to update us.  It was looking like a pretty good “crop.”

A while later, Arthur called.  “Okay, I think the Chute is filling up pretty well. Let’s do it.”

Jim gave the order, and I heard the north dozer start up around the corner while a tightly packed bunch of zombies, but not a horde, came around the corner towards us.  There were at least a thousand of them.  At the front were a group of three tall, well preserved ones who moved well.  I asked Jim if he’d heard of “Brains” or “Speeders.”  He hadn’t heard about “Brains” but knew about the fast ones and had lost a few guys to them.   They called them “Wolves” because they were aggressive and moved in packs.

I told him what I’d learned at Jenny’s and from Bill, Jr. and we watched the three through our scopes.  They definitely were controlling the group somehow but it was difficult to see how they were doing it.  Their heads always turned in unison and the crowd would surge wherever their heads pointed.  They were surrounded by a group of large, relatively healthy zombies--“Speeders.”

We radioed back to the north dozer and told them to look out for these smart ones.  They called back and told us that they could see something like that towards the back of the pack but weren’t sure.  Jim told them to keep an eye out and drop them first if anything unusual happened.

Right about then, it all turned to shit.  The plan relied on the Zs staying in the Chute where they could be crushed by the Cats.  Instead of cooperating, a bunch of them climbed over the Jersey barriers on the sides and began to spread out while others, led by the Brains, started to push against the Jersey barriers.  It looked like they were trying to move them out of the way to escape.

Jim quickly gave the order for the dozers to move and for the shooters to shoot, so we did.  Most of the zombies were still trapped in the Chute so we got them.  We were able to pick off most of the others with rifles. But at least fifty or a hundred, moving quickly, were able to get back into the tree line.  Rather than go in after them, Jim pulled out another of his toys, an M79 grenade launcher, and fired a bunch of high explosive and phosphorus rounds into the woods, which lit right up.   Mike’s eyes were the size of softballs.  Boy, did he want an M-79.  We couldn’t tell how many Jim got, if any, but it was an impressive display.  Jim decided that the operation was over for the day.

We parked the dozers, got back into the Hummers, and went to pick up Arthur and Artie.  They were not at the meeting spot, so we backtracked a bit.  We found their bodies a half mile away.  They hadn’t fired a shot, so we figured they had been snuck up on and overwhelmed.  They were mostly eaten, badly enough that we didn’t need to end them.

Jim was very upset.  “That was the seventh time we’ve run the Chute.  It’s worked perfectly every time.  I can’t believe they got Arthur and Artie.”

I decided to state the obvious, just in case it wasn’t obvious to everyone.  “They seem to be learning.  They tried to escape, and they got your guys.  They must have some form of residual intelligence.  Those assholes at Jenny’s called them Speeders, but they remind me of wolves.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll need to switch it up next time.  I was hoping that we could just pick them off at will, but it looks like the game is on.  Did you see that group that got away?  It was mostly Brains and those Wolves.”

Mike jumped in.  “But you got them all with your M-79, right Uncle Jim?”

“Maybe a few, buddy, but they were moving fast.  There’s a stream just through those woods.  They could have escaped through there.”

“Well, we need to clear them out before we leave,” I interjected.  “They’re smarter, stronger, and better looking than you, Jim.”  I was joking, but I was also nervous.  If Jim didn’t evolve his techniques, and if we just stayed put close to the highway, I was afraid that a horde would get him, no matter how good his fort was.

Chapter Seventeen:  Division

That night, we had a joint meeting.  I spoke for my group and Jim spoke for his.  It was friendly, and mutually supportive, but also contentious as we knew the stakes were high and each “knew” we were right.  Those big brother/little brother vibes were all over the place.

Jim began.  “I’d like you all to stay here.  This is where we grew up, and we have the ability to survive.  We can expand the wall and continue to expand it so we’ll all have plenty of room.”

I countered.  “I do think you have an excellent setup.  I also think that it’s too close to the highway, and that hordes of zombies are going to be moving down that highway.  It’s wide open and there’s no way to block it.”

Jim responded.  “We have enough heavy equipment to build a wall, over time, across the entire valley at both ends.  We’ll be able to find supplies, guns, and once we control the valley we’ll have the space to farm and ranch and we’ll control a large area with clean water, open fields, and probably quite a few survivors.”

“Jim, I can see how that might work.  But you’ll need to evolve your techniques now that we know that the zombies are changing, or that there are different types.  The Brains and Wolves scare me.  What’s next?  You’re a sitting duck if a big enough horde comes along.”

“Obviously, Jack, I will learn from today and from whatever else happens as we go along.   No more Chute.  I already have the guys out mapping the valley and the valley walls to locate weak spots that we can close off.  We’ll put a team at each end and a team at each side and we can be done within six months at the outside.”

“Sounds good, Jim.  I want you to know that I just can’t stay.  I don’t know who plans to come with me, but all are welcome.  We’re looking for a more protected spot with fewer people and zombies and no highways.  I realize it will be remote, but we’ll homestead it with farms, ranches, and dairy farms.  It won’t be long before all of these leftover supplies will be gone or rotten.  I just have to be away from the highway.”
            We decided to let everyone decide their own fate and that the decision would be made the next day. 

The night passed quietly.  Jim and I agreed that neither of us would do any lobbying.  We spent the night up on the platform, plinking and drinking.  We did begin to lay out an arrangement where his “colony” and my “colony” would be in constant communication, and maintain an active trade route between us.  We agreed to use certain primary shortwave frequencies and set up relays as necessary to speak to one another.  We hoped that his colony could spread up toward us and we could spread down toward him and maybe some day we’d meet.  We got along pretty well for two guys whose varying opinions forced them apart.

            We had decided that each person would get one pink tennis ball and one yellow tennis ball.  People under 16 would stay with their mother or father and therefore they’d vote as a family.  Those over 16 could have their own vote.  A pink ball was a vote to come with me, while a yellow ball was a vote to stay with Jim.  How I got pink, I don’t know. 

            We really had no idea what would happen, and it actually worked out pretty well.  We each had a bucket in front of us, and people or families would come over and vote.  Although the stakes were high, it was relaxed and kind of fun.  Each camp would cheer when it got a new member and jeer at the others.  It was kind of like the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors.  The zombies were the Slytherins.  I forget the other one.

            When the dust settled, I actually had a few more travelers on my team than I expected.  I had, before Jim and I made our deal, carefully recruited two of his heavy equipment operators, and they came through.  One was sweet on Christina.  The other was sweet on Jake, who clearly reciprocated.  No anti-gay bias in the Brave New World!

Stan, Marj, and Christina were with me, as were Tom, Li, George, and Sumner.  Jake, naturally.  Julie.  Bill and Nancy Johnson along with Tyler and Cody.   My five stalwarts.  Four of the moms and seven of the kids that we’d rescued at Jenny’s.  We were just starting to learn their names.  We had a group of about thirty.  Jim had about fifty.

            Jenny, some of the rescued moms and kids, and the great majority of Jim’s guys stayed with him.  I’d miss Jenny and her kids, but we hoped to have visits in the future and to stay in touch.  I was glad that Jim would have some medical help; I actually considered Jenny more useful than Nancy in that department.

            Once the vote was over, everyone was relieved.  We spent that day partying and planned to pack on the next day.  Before we started packing, Jim and I exchanged presents.  I gave him and Jenny a bunch of pictures I’d taken from Mom and Dad’s house, although I kept a few, too.  I gave Jenny Mom’s rings and Jim Dad’s .357, which he enjoyed. 

Jim had focused on hardware.  He had a new M-79 for Mike plus two cans of ammo.  He had filled up all of our vehicles with gas, and had his guys fortify them better and build the firing platform on top of the bus.  It was beautiful.  They mounted our M-107 up there and built a circular turret for it.  Jim had provided a day and a night scope and had added a couple of cans of ammo to the supply that Tom had brought.