As The World Dies: The First Days-A Zombie Trilogy Read online

  Her body was jerked upwards so hard, the revolver fell from her hand and she gripped her rifle tightly with the other. Pain erupted through her back and arms as she was dragged upwards. The zombies kept coming. She curled her legs up to her chest as fast as she could, and they swung their arms under her trying to catch her. Being far taller, Mike was much longer, and one zombie gripped his leg. The large black man screamed in anger and fear and fired point blank into the zombie's face. Another grabbed his booted foot and was lifted with him. Mike kicked his leg hard, but the creature was tenacious and was trying to pull itself up to bite him.

  Jenni tried to take aim with her rifle, but they were swinging a bit wildly due to being hoisted so quickly. "I can't get him."

  "Muthafucka," Mike snarled and kicked as hard as he could. The zombie fell and landed face first on a spike.

  At least a dozen zombies had clambered up onto the truck now under them.

  "Why aren't they swinging us back," Jenni screamed.

  They were now lifted high enough that no zombie could grab hold.

  "We're bait," Mike answered.

  Sure enough, Jenni saw that all the zombies making their way up onto the trucks were pooling directly under the two humans hanging over them. Sadly, Jenni saw their bags of ammo were getting trampled into the dirt. They both hung there, over the zombies' heads, watching them leap and scream, trying to grab them.

  "They can't take us toward the fort or they'll follow," Mike said. "And that will compromise everyone."

  "Do we shoot?" Jenni held tight to her rifle.

  "Praying sounds good to me. Told you, the black man always gets it," Mike said grimly.

  Twenty of the undead were now crowded onto the truck.

  "Oh, well. We're not dead yet."

  "Yeah," Mike said. "Yet."

  3. Close Encounters

  Things were going to hell. Travis and Katie felt as if the world was toppling around them. The guards were all shouting at each other. Jenni was screaming as Mike’s voice yelled over the walkie-talkie. Juan was arguing with the Mayor. Jason was screaming, "Get my Mom down!" And the zombies were clustered on top of the one truck, trying to get to Jenni and Mike.

  "Fuck me," Travis whispered.

  "Who's a crack shot," Katie demanded, looking around at the men with the rifles.

  "I am. Through the eye every time," one man said. He was older and had a weather-beaten face.

  "Take out the zombies on the left end of the truck," Katie ordered.

  Travis looked sharply at her. "Are you sure? They are so close to falling into the spiked area."

  "As the zombies fall back, they'll fill up the top of that ramp of dead bodies and the other zombies won't be able to scramble over them." Katie pointed. "We might be able to eliminate that slope in the pile and make it harder for them to get up."

  Travis studied the situation. "Yeah. I see that. And if they try to climb, they'll pull the bodies down on them. Go for it, Ed." He nodded to the volunteer.

  Ed nodded and began to target the zombies.

  The rifle began to roar and Katie watched as the zombies began to fall backwards back into the corral. She was grasping at straws, she knew it, but they had to do something.

  "Shoot the fucking ones under us," Mike shouted into the walkie-talkie.

  "They can't reach you," Juan's voice answered over the cackling static.

  Katie ran down the stairs from the guard post and toward Juan. Jason came running toward her. "Katie, get her down!"

  "Jason, we're doing our best without compromising everyone," Katie answered, resting her hands on his shoulders for a moment.

  Jack was barking hysterically at the zombies that were still intent on getting Jenni and Mike.

  "Why don't we have grenades? Or flame throwers or something like that!" Jason's voice was high and strained.

  Katie sighed and moved on toward Juan. "Because we're not soldiers, Jason. We're just trying to survive." She glanced toward the zombies to see that Ed, the hunter, had significantly reduced the population. But there were still maybe ten or so under Jenni and Mike. "Juan, what are we going to do?"

  Juan was studying the situation with great intensity. He lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Travis, status?"

  There was a burst of static then, "We slowed them down from getting up on the truck. They can't just walk up anymore onto the truck, they're struggling to try to get up now. Katie had a good idea, but it may not last. The more they claw at the dead, the more they slide down. But they'll be able to get back up soon if we don't hurry."

  Juan looked at Katie, then toward the zombies. "I think we should pull Jenni and Mike back and leave them over the spikes and let those last few zombies fall into the spikes."

  Katie winced, then nodded.

  "We need better weapons," Jason said angrily from behind Katie.

  "Yeah, we do. Know where to get any or how to make them?" Juan's voice was sharp. He turned away and began talking into the walkie-talkie, instructing the pulley operators.

  Jason threw up his hands and stalked away angrily.

  Katie sighed and looked toward Jenni and Mike. They looked so vulnerable up there. The operators on the pulleys began to tug them back in and the zombies began to leap for them. A few tumbled into the no man's land where the spikes were. Two were impaled, but two more glanced off the spikes and landed on the ground.

  Juan cursed loudly in Spanish as he motioned to the operators to stop hauling the two in.

  Another zombie made a flying leap at Jenni and his fingers glanced off her shoe, but he fell hard against the hurricane fence.

  Another three tumbled off onto spikes, but now they had some zombies up against the hurricane fence rattling it.

  "Gawd, this keeps getting worse," Katie muttered.

  Travis voice cackled again. "We have a breach." His voice sounded overwhelmed.

  Katie looked up to see more zombies flowing onto the trucks. Because they had pulled Jenni and Mike back, the zombies were now hurtling into the spiked area. Many were impaled, but more and more were falling to the ground as they glanced off their undead companion's skewered bodies.

  "Juan, we're fucked if we don't hold that line," Katie exclaimed, and moved toward the stairs that lead up to the top of the wall.

  Travis joined her and Juan followed her as the Mayor shouted at them to do something fast.

  "Keep the guns thinning the herd at the back of the corral," Travis said.

  "We need to go in with spears," Katie said, almost over him.

  "We need to keep someone shooting the ones trying to get over the truck," Juan added.

  "Sounds like a three prong plan," Travis said.

  "Great minds...do something..." Juan said, and waved his hand at some of the construction workers who were hanging back waiting to join the fray.

  Travis grabbed hold of Katie's arm as she turned to grab a spear. "You don't have to."

  "Yeah, I do," Katie answered. She slung her rifle over one shoulder and double-checked her revolver.

  Jenni and Mike were now dangling over the spikes, screaming to be pulled back in, but Juan motioned to them that it wasn't going to happen. Katie understood why. At this point Jenni and Mike were the main focus of the undead cannibals. Drawing them into the fort would just turn the zombies' attention to all of them.

  "This is crazy!" Jason's voice drew Katie's attention. "We need better weapons. We need grenades and...and..."

  Katie looked down at him and gripped the spear tightly. "Jason, we'll take care of it."

  Travis and Katie looked down at the ladder that led to the area between the fence and the wall. A few zombies saw them and grabbed the fence and began to shake it. Katie muttered "fuck" a few times then let herself down the ladder. Her hands were shaking so badly it was hard to hold on. All that separated her from a gruesome death was a wire fence.

  Travis dropped down behind her, followed by construction worker, then another. Katie pressed herself back against the wall and s
tared at the crazed, rabid faces of the zombies just on the other side of the fence.

  "Katie," Travis said softly.

  "Yeah," she answered. She peeled herself off the wall and took a step forward.

  Beside her, a short Hispanic man drove his spear between the holes in the fence and into the eye of a zombie. And with that simple act of violence, the world turned bloody and surreal. Using the spears with screwdrivers at the ends, the construction workers began to thrust hard through the gaps in the fence, trying to drive the sharp ends through the eyes or mouths of the screeching zombies.

  Katie took a deep breath and gazed into the face of a female zombie screaming and growling on the other side of the fence. Her fingers, stripped of most their skin, clutched the fence tightly, and she shook it as hard as she could, trying to rip down the barrier between her and Katie. Katie lifted the spear and aimed the end at the woman's eye. As hard as she could, she thrust the spear forward and felt the sickening squish of the woman's eyeball. Shoving harder, the spear pressed deep into the screaming woman's head and finally into her brain.

  "Scramble it!" Travis voice was jagged with exertion as he struggled to impale an enormous zombie on the other side of the fence.

  Katie jiggled the spear around and felt the woman go limp with one harsh cry. Leaning her weight back, she drew the spear out of the now dead zombie's flesh. Blood splattered her clothes.

  "Shit."

  "On a stick," Travis said.

  More zombies were trying to leap off the trucks onto them, but due to the foresight of Travis and Juan, the truck perimeter was a good distance from the fence and they kept landing on the spikes, or tumbling to the ground.

  Katie felt sweat dripping off of her and she thrust the spear into the eye of another zombie. Then another. Over and over again. It was hard work-gory work-and the screaming faces made her tremble. But she kept going.

  Juan's voice sounded over the walkie-talkie. "Travis, we nearly have the corral empty. Most of the zombies are now up against the truck or down in the trenches with you."

  Travis nodded, though Juan couldn't see him. "Then this fucking battle is almost over."

  "Let go! Let go!" someone shouted, followed by a harsh scream.

  Katie looked to the side to see that a construction worker had been foolish enough to brace his foot against the fence to draw the spear out of his victim and two other zombies had managed to grab it. He had fallen, sideways, against the fence and now the remaining zombies were tearing bits of his flesh away with their fingers and teeth.

  Katie dropped the spear and walked over to the man. Another man was trying to wrestle him away from the zombies.

  She drew her gun.

  "No, no, just save me," the man pleaded.

  "I am," she answered, and aimed. She fired four shots, point blank, through the holes in the fence, killing the zombies who had bitten into the man.

  "Thank you, thank you," the man whispered.

  Katie said softly, "No problem" and shot him square between the eyes.

  "Bitch!"

  She was tackled from the side and knocked to the ground. The man above her didn't hesitate to punch her so hard across the face that her vision swam.

  "Stupid fuckin' lesbo bitch!"

  He hit her again and her vision began to darken. Dimly, she heard Jenni screaming.

  "Get off her! Get off her!"

  Someone tackled the man and pushed him off her.

  Katie tried to roll over and tasted blood in her mouth. She spit it out and managed to roll onto her knees and palms. Men's voices were shouting and arguing behind her and she heard the impact of a fist against flesh. There were more screams. She crawled to the wall and resting her hand against it, drew herself slowly up. Her body was shaking and she felt like vomiting. The world swam around her. Slowly, she realized she was still clutching the gun.

  Swinging around, she aimed at the man who had punched her. He had Travis in a strangle hold and two other men were trying to get him off of Travis. The zombies were almost all dead. Just two more rattled the fence and screeched.

  "Let him go," she whispered.

  The men continued to fight.

  "Let him go!"

  The man looked at her, his green eyes bright with fierce anger. He let go of Travis abruptly and lunged at her again. The gun slid up his slick skin to his neck as he tackled her to the ground once more.

  "I'm going to feed you to those things," he hissed in her face. "You killed my brother, you bitch."

  "He was already dead," Katie managed to say as his weight slowly pressed the air out of her lungs. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

  From the gleam in his eye, Katie realized he didn't give a fuck about the gun. He put his hands on her throat and started to squeeze. Something fell on him from above, smashing into the back of his head and Katie gasped as the weight of it knocked all the air out of her. Gasping, she tried to hold onto the gun, her vision darkening still. Her assailant's eyes rolled up into his head as he slid into unconsciousness. Then Jenni was over her, smoothing back her hair and whispering, "It's okay."

  Travis pulled Jenni away and knocked the now unconscious attacker off of Katie. He leaned over her and took the gun from her hand. "Katie, try to breathe, okay?"

  She struggled for breath as her hand grasped his arm. Jenni stroked her hair gently, trying to calm her.

  Finally, she managed to say, "sonofabitch," and that made both Travis and Jenni smile with relief.

  Travis lifted her up into his arms and carried her back toward the ladder. She could see that the no man's land between the truck barrier and the fence was nothing but dead bodies.

  "We...did...it," she whispered hoarsely.

  "Yeah," Travis assured her and hoisted her up.

  Juan and Mike lifted her up over the wall and laid her down on the platform.

  "Dropping from the harness is real loca, Loca," Juan informed Jenni. "What if you had missed and hit the spikes?"

  "Um, you would miss me?"

  Juan snorted. "Yeah, right."

  Travis leaned down and gingerly touched the side of her face. It was throbbing and hurt like hell. "Katie, Katie..."

  "I think I'm going away," Katie whispered.

  She passed out cold.

  Beyond her, past the wall, past the fence, past the trucks, the corral was seeped in blood and gore and nothing moved.

  They had won.

  Chapter 16

  1. Voices

  Katie swam to the surface of consciousness slowly. The darkness was deep and stifling. She clawed at it, trying to rise, trying to break free.

  "...defending all of us..."

  Travis' voice.

  "...shot a man in cold blood..."

  That was the Mayor's voice.

  "...there is no cure for a bite..."

  Juan sounded pissed.

  "...we would have had to shoot him anyway..."

  Curtis was defending her. Wow.

  She struggled to push up through the thick membrane of the darkness and strained to speak.

  "Don't be an idiot," a woman's voice said.

  Peggy, the city secretary.

  "Yeah, this world has all new rules. Katie did that guy a favor."

  Jenni, safe and sound.

  "Who is in charge around here?"

  The Mayor again, sounding shrill.

  "Well, I would say Travis," Juan said.

  There were murmurs of agreement, Peggy and Curtis included.

  "I'm an elected official!"

  "Well, the new elections were just held and you lost," Juan answered.

  "Take the handcuffs off," Travis ordered.

  Handcuffs?

  Katie realized the cold brace around her wrists was metal. She tried to open her eyes and failed. Something cold and wet was resting on her forehead and eye. An ice pack.

  "Curtis, I am your boss!"

  "Not anymore," Curtis answered.

  "Give me the keys," Travis said.

  Again, s
he tried to open her eyes.

  "Hey, you awake?" Travis' voice, warm and strong. So much like her father.

  Her eyes fluttered and light broke the darkness.

  She felt him fumbling with the handcuffs.

  "Kinky," she moaned.

  Travis laughed and his features swam before her eyes and slowly solidified.

  More figures pushed into her vision and she saw Jenni's large eyes.

  "Not dead..." she managed.

  "And not arrested," Juan assured her.

  "You can't let her go," the Mayor protested.

  "Watch us," Travis answered, and leaned down and gathered her up in his arms.

  The ice pack tumbled off her head and onto the cot.

  Wrapping her arms loosely around his neck, she whispered, "...need...to...stop...playing...romantic hero..."

  "Yeah, I keep telling you that, but you just don't listen," Travis chided her playfully.

  "She's bullheaded that way," Jenni agreed, following him as he carried Katie out of the room.

  Katie slumped against Travis. "Head hurts," she said.

  Then she slipped away again.

  2. Movement

  Jenni pushed her way into the city council meeting room and elbowed her way past the many people gathered there: townspeople, construction workers, city workers, other stragglers who had found their way here. Everyone was pressed into the room.

  At the council table sat Katie, Travis, Juan, the Mayor, Peggy and Curtis.

  The room was already in an uproar.

  "...we should have a say..."

  "...who says what we should do..."

  Jenni was relieved to see that Katie looked very alert despite her swollen face and blackened eye. Her lip was still swollen and cracked, but it didn't take away from the fierce look on her face.

  Jason was seated toward the front and motioned Jenni over. She slipped into the seat he was saving for her and Jack rested his chin on her knee so he could have scratches behind his ears. He gave her a doggy grin of satisfaction as she commenced her scratching.

  Curtis stood up slowly. "Okay, okay, let’s be civil about this. A lot has happened since yesterday. We need to stay calm."

  The room quieted down a bit.

  Curtis sat down and Travis stood up. "I'm not real good at leadership stuff, but we need to do something to make sure that what happened yesterday doesn't happen again. Now, my strong point is building and I can design new fortifications for this...uh...fort. Juan also has a lot of ideas and we are working together to expand our fort and also make it safer. Safer to live in. Safer to get in and out of. We're going to need a lot of volunteers. Now, the Mayor here, he can run a city and he will be dealing with the logistics of that. Food distribution, water consumption, living quarters, all that."