“Roger that. Weapons out. We keep moving. Shoot it if it’s in the way, otherwise, just run past. Follow me.” I pressed my carbine into my shoulder in a low-ready position.
We moved out at a quick jog, running along the main road. After about forty feet, we could hear the moans of the dead as they spotted us and gave chase. I looked back once to see if there were any little fast ones to worry about, but there didn’t seem to be any at the moment. We would know in a few minutes after they had outstripped their contemporaries.
We moved down the road and headed east, passing a few older, Victorian-style homes that seemed to be in nearly every small town in America. Each one we passed we gave a once-over and in every case, the homes seemed fine. The only evidence that there was any problem was a few homes looked like they had been left open after their inhabitants had left.
After a couple minutes of jogging, Duncan got my attention.
“Zombies on the left,” he said.
“Got it, just keep moving,” I said, angling away a bit to get past them.
Tommy spoke up. “Fast ones, coming up from the rear.”
I looked back. Sure enough, four little quick ones were running ahead of the others. They weren’t at a full run, but were way quicker than older ones would have been
“Let’s get some distance from these others, then take them out,” I said, moving a little faster. Tommy and Duncan kept up, although we were starting to get a little winded.
After about another fifty yards, I slowed to a stop and turned around, taking aim at the little Z’s who were barreling down on us.
“I got the one on the left. Call it,” I said to Tommy and Duncan.
“Got the middle,” Tommy said.
“Got the right,” Duncan said.
“Whenever you have the shot. First one down takes the leftover,” I said, lining up the little kid’s head. In another life this casualness would have horrified me, but a lot had changed since the end of the world.
I was aiming my shot when Duncan fired first, knocking down his target and swinging his aim to another. I fired once, sending a little girl tumbling forward. Tommy fired, shifted his aim, then fired again. His second shot was true and finished off a small boy. Duncan waited a second, then kneeled quickly and fired, blasting back a Z, nearly flipping it completely over.
“Took you two,” Duncan said over his shoulder.
“My front sight is a liar, thank you very much.” Tommy said defensively.
“Later, gents. We got more company.” I pointed to another horde coming down a side street, with more spilling out of various homes and businesses.
“Man, this is like a bad dream,” Duncan said as we started running again.
“I don’t have dreams anymore.” Tommy said darkly as he brought up the rear.
We ran down the street, passing a small corner strip mall. There was a cleaner’s, a White Hen and a thing called the Black Cow. I guessed the last was an ice cream place. On the far side of the strip mall was a restaurant and veterinary office. Several cars were parked in normal places, making me wonder yet again what the real story behind this town was.
I looked up the road and finally saw the RV. Nate was flashing the lights and doing everything he could to get our attention. We ran towards the truck and I glanced back the way we came.
Nearly a thousand zombies were headed our way, some much faster than others, but all of them were making good progress. I’d need a wall, twenty men with two hundred rounds of ammo each and whole boatload of luck before I would even attempt to try to take this town back. That or a deep freeze and sledgehammer.
We ran up past a second abandoned ice cream parlor called the Creamery and we were fifty feet from our sanctuary when a group of fast-moving zombies ambushed us in the parking lot of the business.
There wasn’t time to fire a weapon, they were on us that fast. There were five of them and had any of us fired, we might have hit each other. It was pure hand to hand.
I punched one of them to the ground, holding it down with a foot on its neck while I elbowed another in the head, spinning it away from me. A third got hold of my vest and lunged in for a bite at my stomach, thwarted only by the AR magazines in my front pockets. I tangled my hand in its greasy hair and viciously wrenched its head around, snapping its neck. The second one was on its feet and after me again, coming in low and fast. I stepped off the one on the ground and drew my blade, a simple Buck Nighthawk Tanto. I liked this blade because it could punch through sheet metal and skulls with equal enthusiasm. As the zombie neared, I pivoted away from the snapping teeth and plunged the knife hilt-deep into the back of its neck. The powerful blade sheared through its spinal cord and paralyzed it instantly. I turned my attention to the one on the ground, who had crawled up and was rearing its head back for a bite on Duncan’s calf, Duncan being occupied with a squirmy Z who refused to hold still and die.
“No!” I yelled, reaching down and grabbing the zombie’s ankle and hauling it away from Duncan. The ghoul twisted around and blackened teeth streaked at me like a striking rattler. I swung my blade up hard and slammed it under the chin of the zombie, burying it in the brain pan of the monster. The zombie looked surprised for an instant, then slumped dead.
I pulled out my blade and quickly searched for new threats, not seeing any but watching Duncan and Tommy finish off their enemies. I quickly wiped my blade off and picked up the rifle I had dropped in the fight.
“Thanks, man. I owe you one,” Duncan said, cleaning off his knife.
“No score, brother, you know that,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Tommy spoke up. “More coming.” He pointed down the street. “We gotta get out of here.” His sleeve was torn, but I didn’t see any bites.
“You’re right. Let’s get the hell out of this town,” I said, running over to the RV. We would clean up later, right now, we needed to get away to relative safety.
We jumped inside and stowed our gear, stripping away any clothing that might have zombie virus on it. Tommy took off his shirt and I was relieved to see he didn’t have any bites. Duncan had a welt on his leg, but that was the worst of it. I was very careful removing my vest, since the little Z had gotten its mouth on it.
Nate moved the RV out of the town, heading out again on Route 40. I slumped in the passenger seat and looked over at him.
“Well, that was a bust. Did you manage to get any gas?” I asked, hoping for some good news.
Nate grimaced. “No and they jumped me so fast I left an empty can behind. So we’re going to need another one from somewhere.”
I sighed. I guess this confirmed my suspicions about the place, but something was nagging the back of my mind and wouldn’t let go. I mulled it over for a bit and when the answer hit me, it was like a ton of bricks.
I called Duncan and Tommy up to the front. They had changed clothing and were in regular duds.
“What’s up?” Tommy asked, dropping into a kitchen seat. Duncan plopped down beside him.
I looked at both of them. “Remember when we were walking, we had a bad feeling about the place?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Duncan asked.
“What was your feeling on the situation?”
Duncan looked up. “Let’s see. We were moving through what looked like an abandoned town, but when we got away from our safety, suddenly there were Z’s everywhere.”
“Right,” I said. “What did you think right when we saw all the zombies?” I knew what I thought, but I wanted to see if they shared my sentiments.
Tommy spoke up. “I remember thinking we had just walked into a trap.” His face suddenly fell. “Oh, man.” He said.
Duncan looked stricken as well. “If they laid a trap, then here’s a whole new ballgame.”
I nodded. “It goes in line with the doorknobs,” I said.
Nate piped in from the driver’s seat. “What about the doorknobs?” I explained and Nate responded in typical fashion with eloquent cursing. “Well, that just about finishes off a shitty day,” he said, angling the big rig around a car in the road.