Zombie Dawn Exodus (15 page)

“Alright, sit tight, we’ll think of something and
get back to you. Big Brewski out,” said Bart.

“So what’s the plan boss?” asked Dylan.

“Nothing we can do but sit tight and hope they come
up with something. The Hog can’t move and we won’t be able to get
out of this crowd on foot,” said Bruce.

“That’s it? Sit and wait?” shouted Connor.

“That’s right, this group has taken too many
liberties with the rules recently and look where it’s got us. I
won’t take this bullshit any longer, we’re sticking to the rules we
set out! Now break out the supplies, we could all do with some food
and water,” said Bruce.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

MID-WEST, UNITED STATES

The week had finally passed, toiling of the land and
the ever necessary and boring patrols. The community awoke on
Saturday to the exciting thought of a ball game, something they’d
only done three times since the Zombie outbreak.

Madison got out of bed and within ten minutes was
dressed and out of the front door. Jack and her father were talking
by Jack’s truck in front of their church. She could already hear
that the discussion had become heated, she walked cautiously
forward.

“No, no, no, this is a day to relax and enjoy
ourselves, as a community!” shouted Wells.

“Yes, and I appreciate that, but we’re also burning
through supplies quickly, and those supplies are becoming more and
more difficult to find, taking more time and work,” said Jack.

“One day will not make all the difference, surely?”
asked Wells.

“Yes, it will, we’re just managing at the moment,
but barely, with no leeway. What happens next time we go out and
find nothing? A day lost, which would be disastrous. You’re
suggesting we take a day off now, how is that any less disastrous?”
said Jack.

“We must learn to become completely self sufficient
and not have to rely on things from the old world.” said Wells.

“Yes, but we haven’t done that yet, have we? Until
we have, I’m heading out!” shouted Jack.

“No, you’re not, I order you not to!” shouted
Wells.

“Order? I take orders from no man anymore. I give
all my energy every day to helping this community, I’ll be damned
if you’re going to stop me doing that!”

“Hey, hey, hey! Stop it!” shouted Madison.

Her words and presence calmed the two immediately,
them both now paying her complete attention.

“That’s enough, arguing is achieving nothing!
Father, you want to have your game, fine, for those who can and
want to. We do not own Jack, we do not pay him and he uses his own
truck risking his life to support this community. Let him do what
he knows best,” said Madison.

Jack looked thankful, her father disapproving and
annoyed, he was already shaking his head. Wells knew he could not
win this battle and must bend to their will, which he did.

“Alright, go, good luck,” said Wells.

Jack and his crew of five mounted up on their four
dusty and dirty trucks and fired up their engines. The vehicles
rolled on by as Wells took his daughter’s arm and led her into the
church where no one could see or hear them.

“You just lost us a lot of discipline and structure,
and made me look like a fool!” said Wells.

“I’m sorry, but I’m only doing what’s best,” said
Madison.

“What’s best? Best? You haven’t a clue what’s best
for you, for me, for Jack or this community. We have stayed alive
and free because the community has followed my command, you have no
idea what you are doing!” shouted Wells.

“And you have no clue about feelings. We’re human
beings, we need more than a calculated existence of survival and
nothing more!” added Madison.

She shrugged off her father’s arm and ran out of the
building. Wells was getting more and more angry, as he could
already feel his hold on the community getting weaker. He may come
across as a bastard to some at times, but he only ever acted in
what he thought to be the best interests of the community. He was
already growing to dislike this day, one that he’d allocated for
fun and relief. Wells calmed his breathing and relaxed, deciding to
forget his troubles and move on in the best way possible. He went
outside and started preparing for the game in the field beside the
church.

It was a pleasantly warm and sunny day, they went on
as planned, at least most of them did, playing their games. The
Pastor sat on the sidelines with the few spectators and marvelled
at the community he’d managed to sustain.

* * *

The truck rumbled along the sand and dirt covered
road with Jack at the wheel, his navigator, Riley, sat beside him.
His ‘98 Dodge Ram used to be a vibrant and deep red, but it had
faded significantly since it had left the factory. Much of the
rough bodywork was now covered with dirt, and the front wings were
dented where the bodies of zombies had met with its metal. The
truck had wire fence sections bolted over all the windows, taken
from the local school.

Jack kept the speed to fifty. They had a simple rule
to never go above that, as they needed to drive as economically as
they could. High speeds in vehicles had been the end of many of
their friends in the first days of the outbreak, hitting objects
such as cars, zombies, or simply just losing control in the heat of
the moment.

The hunters were well equipped with protective gear
and weapons, but like the guard and patrol duties in Babylon, they
could not afford to use the ammunition. Back at the base they had
thousands of rounds of ammunition stored, it was regularly picked
up on hunts, but all knew that it was to be kept for dire need
only. In fact, the hunters specifically avoided all contact with
the creatures, only fighting in self defence. The column of
vehicles had been driving for four hours when Jack squinted to
comprehend what he saw before him in the distance.

“Oh my fucking Christ!” shouted Jack.

“What the fuck?” shouted Riley.

The men were as shocked as each other. A mile ahead
on the open plain they could see a horde of zombies, not hundreds
but thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, all staggering towards
them. Jack slammed the brakes on and the truck slid to a halt, the
vehicles behind him braking and veering to their sides to stop.
Jack opened his door and took a few steps in front of his vehicle
whilst he simply looked out in astonishment. The five other men
joined him, each as speechless as the other for a full minute.

“What the hell do we do?” asked Riley.

“I, I, I have no idea, we’ve never had to deal with
odds like this!” Jack replied.

“Well they’re heading straight for Babylon, what do
we do? Why are there so many of them?” asked Riley.

“This is a real shit storm, let’s get back to base,
I’ll give it some real consideration on the journey back, mount
up!” said Jack.

The vehicles turned around and headed back to
Babylon. The four hour drive home was an anxious one. Initially
Riley tried to talk to Jack about it, but he was providing few
responses, until Riley finally went quiet. For the long drive home
Jack could only run all the potential actions through his head,
though not finding a single one he was happy with.

It was the middle of the afternoon when the three
trucks rolled back into town. The populace of Babylon was spread
around, relaxing and chatting after their day of games in the heat.
As Jack pulled his truck up outside the church, Wells came to the
door, surprised to hear vehicles at that time of day. He hadn’t
expected them back for at least several more hours. Jack
immediately got out of the vehicle to meet Wells, who already
looked justifiably concerned.

“What’s happened? What’s up?” asked Wells.

“Four hours down the west road is a horde the likes
none of us have ever seen. Not hundreds, but thousands, as far as
we could see,” said Jack.

“Doing what?” asked Wells.

“Heading straight here,” said Jack.

“But how? Why so many and how do they know to head
this way?” he asked.

“I have no idea, maybe it’s simple coincidence,
maybe they can smell us from hundreds of miles away, maybe they
have group intelligence, but none of that really matters,” said
Jack.

“My God,” said Wells.

The Pastor turned around, hiding his concern from
those who could see him, simply staring up at his church. The two
men were silent for a minute whilst both considered the
situation.

“How long till they get here?” asked Wells.

“Well they’re no more than two hundred miles away,
maybe less, and assuming they average two miles an hour, we have
about four days, certainly no more,” said Jack.

“Will they definitely not pass us by?” asked
Wells.

“It’s highly unlikely, they’re following the main
roads right towards us,” said Jack.

“Do you think you could stop them?” asked Wells.

“With every capable man and woman here, with every
firearm and round of ammunition we have stored, there is a chance,”
said Jack.

“How would you do it?”

“Assemble about a dozen vehicles, and use them as
mobile weapons platforms, matching the hordes speed and direction.
The plan would work in theory, it would only be a question of do we
have as many bullets as there are enemies, and could we kill them
quick enough, before they reached Babylon?” said Jack.

“Alright, assemble everyone except the sentries to
the trucks here, we need to share this information,” said
Wells.

Wells walked back into the church with a hopeless
expression on his face. He stood, silently and alone, looking at
the cross before him, praying in his mind for victory. Twenty
minutes later the people of Babylon were gathered by the trucks and
church, the intersection that had become their town’s centre. Most
of the crowd were still happy and content from the day of games,
completely unaware of what they were about to face.

The Pastor strode out of his church to meet his
invited crowd, he climbed onto the bed of Jack’s truck so he could
be seen and heard by all. They immediately went silent, knowing
that whatever he had to say, it was clearly important.

“A half hour ago, our good friend and guardian Jack
returned early with no supplies, you may all be wondering what the
meaning of this is. A horde is approaching the town, the likes of
which could only be gathered and guided by the Devil himself. We
have perhaps four days until they reach Babylon,” said Wells.

“How many are there?” asked Dale.

“It’s hard to say, but thousands, maybe tens of
thousands,” said Jack.

The crowd gasped, astonished by the news. The
survivors had managed to establish a safe and pleasant community,
having thought they’d faced the worst already.

“If we’d built the walls I told you to six months
ago this wouldn’t have been a problem!” shouted Greg.

“None of that matters now, we can argue about the
past or we can go forwards and maybe save this town!” said
Wells.

“We cannot stay here. How do you expect us to fight
those odds, we’ll all die! We should leave while we can!” screamed
Greg.

“And go where? We’ll eventually face this danger
anywhere we go, we’ve given up so much of our lives to these
creatures, would you happily give up all that we have left?” asked
Wells.

“What we have left is our lives, and we should like
to keep it that way!” shouted Greg.

“There’s a chance that we could stop them,” said
Wells.

“What do you suggest?” asked Dale.

“I’ll have to pass you over to Jack.”

Jack climbed onto the back of the truck alongside
Wells, the crowd desperate to hear what amazing solution he had to
the biggest threat they’d ever known.

“For the last year we’ve been stockpiling weapons
and ammunition for use in the event of an emergency. This is the
sort of emergency we were preparing for. It’s hit harder than
anyone could have expected, but nonetheless, we must deal with it.
Perhaps we will have to run, but you should never run when you have
some chance of holding onto a position as strategically important
as your homes,” said Jack.

“But we’ll be swamped, we won’t be able to kill them
fast enough!” shouted Dale.

“Not if we wait for them to come to us no, I intend
to take the fight out to the bastards!” explained Jack.

“That’s suicide!” said Greg.

“No, it’s the safest way of fighting you can
imagine. We’ll fight from the backs of vehicles, always keeping the
pace of the horde towards the town, never letting them get close.
We’ll fight using nomadic tactics. They cannot shoot back and they
cannot charge. We will shoot, fire and throw everything we have got
at them, and just hope we can reduce their numbers enough in the
days we have,” said Jack.

“And if that doesn’t work?” asked Dale.

“We’ll leave a number of people in Babylon, fixing
up vehicles in case of evacuation, and others fortifying the town.
Maybe we can’t kill all of them out there, but perhaps we can kill
enough that the rest can be dealt with on our own walls!” shouted
Jack.

“And what then? We’ll need all of the ammunition we
have, a lot of the gas, more water to keep people hydrated, what
will we have left?” asked Greg.

“We’ll have our lives and our homes, bullets and
water can be replaced!” shouted Wells.

The crowd muttered, but none spoke out any
further.

“This has become a military matter now, I will leave
all of the planning to Jack who has the most experience in these
matters, and once he has concluded his plans, I will take charge of
the work in the town,” said Wells.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. Thirty five
people will be needed for the fighting, ten will handle the
building of defences, five to source, repair and modify vehicles
for a potential evacuation, and five for guard duties in Babylon.
Those on building duty can cycle with the guards for rest. No
person here can slack!” shouted Jack.