Zombie Fallout: 'Til Death Do Us Part Part 44

"Tanks would have been better," I told them.

Tracy hazarded a look. "Oh my G.o.d."

BT popped up. Had anybody been watching, they would have thought they were catching an episode of Mere Cat Manor on NatGeo. "Are those helmets? Are those giant f.u.c.king zombies with helmets?" BT asked as he sat down hard in our makes.h.i.+ft hidey hole. Tracy had not yet come down. I pulled on her s.h.i.+rt.

"How can something that big be moving that fast?" she asked, looking off into a distance only in her field of vision.

"Now at least we know why all the guards are gone," I said.

"Now what?" BT asked.

"Eliza pulled her men back because of those things, so apparently they're as dangerous to her side as they are ours. We wait until they pa.s.s.

"The vials don't work?" BT asked, holding tighter on to his.

"I'm not sure maybe you should go check it out," I told him.

"Oh h.e.l.l no. As the only black man surrounded by a bunch of whities, I've already bucked the trend by staying alive this long. I'm not going to do anything that would threaten that now."

"Fair enough," I told him. Wait it is.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.

Last Stand Travis had been behind the steel curtain firing rounds at the advancing zombies. It was like killing mosquitoes; no matter how many you took out, there was always another one to take its place. Rifle fire was happening at various parts of the deck as the Talbots tried to keep the zombies at bay. The trench claimed a fair number, but was rapidly filling in as zombies literally fell 'on the sword' for their brethren.

"Should have dug it deeper," Ron said as he came in next to Travis. "Any return fire?"

"Nothing," Travis said, taking a moment to reload. "I don't think they're there anymore, but like my dad says, 'life isn't something you gamble with' so I haven't stuck my head up to really look around."

"Smart boy. They're going to have that trench filled in soon, and the fire won't last forever. The blood and gore from the zombies is going to clog the nozzles."

"You know that's pretty gross right?" Travis asked as he put his rifle back up to the firing slot.

"You feel that?" Ron asked as he watched a spent casing jump.

"You've got to see this," Travis said, pulling back and handing the scoped rifle to his uncle.

"What am I looking for?" Ron asked, looking through the scope.

"Look at the edge of the zombies."

"What...the...f.u.c.k?"

"Yeah that's pretty much what I thought." Travis said.

"They moving in heavy machinery?" Gary asked, running around the corner of the house.

"I guess that settles the idea of guards still being out there," Travis said. Standing so he could get a better view of the oncoming nightmare.

"Cave trolls!" Gary yelled. "Where did they get cave trolls?" he asked, looking at his older brother who had just stood up.

"They're zombies, Gary," Ron told him.

"They have cave zombies?" he asked.

"There's no part of cave in it, I think," Ron said, doubt creeping into his voice.

"So we've got shufflers, speeders, headers, and now bulkers," Travis said, looking through the scope at the approaching horror.

"Headers?" Ron asked.

"The ones with the thicker foreheads. We didn't really prove it, though," Gary told him.

"They're running over the smaller zombies," Travis told them.

The smaller zombies that could not move out of the way in time found themselves melding into the ground as they were trampled underfoot.

The giant zombies had pa.s.sed us by when I chanced another sneak peek. "They're just mowing the others down. It looks like a pro football team playing a pee wee team." BT and Tracy joined me.

"It does look like the other zombies are trying to get out of the way, though, doesn't it," Tracy asked as more of a statement.

"That's strange behavior in and of itself," BT said.

"Not entirely. I think they have a rudimentary self-preservation mode. It's pretty under-developed, but it's there. Come on, this doesn't change our mission. If anything, it means we need to move faster.

The bulkers were at the edge of the trench. They traversed over the broken bodies of those that had gone before them, never once slowing their stride.

"Off the deck!" Ron yelled. "Everyone off the deck now!" he yelled louder.

He had just stepped into the living room when the first of the bulkers slammed into one of the support beams for the deck. The house shook from the contact-the unmistakable crack of pressure-treated wood cracking came next.

"That's a four by four support post," Gary said. "I should know, I'm the one that set it there."

"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Tony asked coming across the room, he had been stationed on the other side of the house.

"Giant zombies." Ron told him.

"Will the bas.e.m.e.nt door hold?" Travis asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

"It's a solid oak door with a two-inch thick piece of steel laid across it and the mounts are set with four inch concrete screws," Ron informed him. He seemed to be doing the math in his head, with the strength of the doorway with the force being applied. Although it was difficult to concentrate with the house shaking like the foundation was set on liquefied lard, and the deafening sound of splintering wood as the deck began to sag as its support posts were destroyed.

Planking rained down as it was torn free from the moorings to the house. The heavy decking crushed a few of the bulkers, but not enough to celebrate a victory.

"Holy s.h.i.+t," Cindy said as she gripped the couch. Dust hung thickly in the air as it poured in the open windows and doorways.

The bulkers surged back in following the brief lull, after the collapse, the house once again began to shake as they kept ramming into it apparently looking for the weak spot.

"We need to get everyone that isn't making the last stand into the bunker," Ron said.

"You don't think the door will hold up?" Cindy asked.

"It will for a little while," Ron said, looking a little lost in his thoughts. The zombies would destroy his house and that wasn't sitting well with him.

"Last stand?" Gary asked. "Is that literally or figuratively?"

"Figuratively," Ron clarified. "I'm not just going to give them the house...plus, we have got to give Mike, Tracy, BT, and Azile a chance to get back here. If we close up shop, they'll have nowhere to come back to."

"I'm in," Gary said.

"Me too," Tony said.

"So are we," Justin said putting his arm around his brother.

Everyone who was upstairs at that point volunteered. Ron pared it down to the Talbots; "his house...his rules" he had told them, and it seemed fitting anyway that they should be the ones to defend the homestead.

"Well at least let me figure out if there's a way to keep the door shut for a longer amount of time," Mad Jack said.

Ron waved him to go, Gary went with him.

"Alright, everyone else, grab what's important to you and get going, consider anything left out to be gone forever," Ron said having a hard time believing his own words.

"Better get moving, little brother," Ron said to the departed Mike as he walked around his house one last time.

"She's in that truck right over there," I said, pointing. We were a good ten or so feet within the trees.

"Oh, you mean the one on the other side of the road with all the men near it?" BT asked.

"Did you really think it was going to work out any differently?" I asked him.

"A boy can dream," BT said in seriousness.

"Hey at least they're not congregating around it." I told him.

"Is that her?" Tracy asked.

"Where?" I asked, looking up and down the road.

"She's looking out the window, it looks like she's going to try and make a run for it," Tracy said.

"I told her to stay put," I said.

"Talbot, how much luck have you had with telling any woman to do something?" BT said.

"Good point, BT."

"She can't see the one leaning up against the back of her truck."

"She's going to get caught. I do not want to get into a firefight right now," I told my band of travelers. I started waving frantically hoping she would see me, but all of her attention was to the front of the truck. The driver's side door started to ease open.

"Why doesn't she go out the pa.s.senger door and into the woods on that side?" Tracy asked.

"s.h.i.+t," Azile said, peeking through the winds.h.i.+eld. There was a man going down the line of trucks and looking in the cabs, she was far enough over on the shoulder that she'd been able to watch him go into the last five trucks. He didn't appear to be on alert, like he was looking for somebody, more likely something. But her cab was not big enough that she would be able to hide.

"Come on, find what you're looking for," she said through gritted teeth. She watched raptly as he stepped up on to the truck two spots ahead of her. He was in for about a minute, then jumped down, heading to the one right before hers.

"s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t." Azile couldn't take the chance that he actually found what he needed in that next truck. The view ahead and behind, from what she could tell, seemed mostly un.o.bstructed, there were men about but they were mostly distracted talking with each other. She figured she could slip out the driver's side, cross the street and hide in the woods until that night when she would either get back in her cab and wait one more night for Mike or hunt down Eliza herself. Within moments, she was about to get to find both, although not on her terms and not even remotely how she would have planned it.

She opened the door as quietly as possible and climbed down, her left foot touching the pavement when she heard, "Well, well, what do we have here? A stowaway?"

She turned to see the trucker heading her way, his face split with a lascivious grin.

"d.a.m.n blind spot," she said softly. "I'm not a stowaway, this is my rig." She held herself high, trying to sound convincing over her fear.

The man faltered for a moment, but recovered. "There's no women on this haul."

"I was a last second addition, Kong needed someone to haul more zombies," Azile, said, sounding convincing even to herself.

"I'm still not convinced, there would have been talk of a woman...especially one that looked like you."

"Fine, let's go talk to Kong about it," she bluffed. Take the bluff, take the bluff!

He looked like he might walk away. "Fine, I needed to talk to him anyway."

Azile looked over to the tree line, wondering if she should make a run for it, that was when she saw Mike looking back at her. She didn't want to bring the fight to him. "Let's go." Azile waited until this man caught up so that he could lead. She saw the look of concern Mike displayed as he watched her walk down the roadway.

"Where are they going?" Tracy asked me.

"Brunch," BT said.

"Nice timing," I told him.

"Thanks, I've been working on it. Do we save her now?" he asked.