Authors: J.A. Crowley
So, we’d use day fourteen and return before the end of day fifteen. We hadn’t really accomplished everything we wanted but so far it had been a productive trip. We’d partially blocked access from the north and cleared a decent part of St. Albans, but there was a long way to go.
We decided to crack the armory on our last day in town. We got up early and, to our surprise, Edith had another great breakfast waiting for us. We thanked her and told her that we might not be back and that we’d see them next time we were in town, which would be soon.
We’d unloaded all of the stuff we’d found at the Bat Cave, so we had an empty truck, the Hummer, and the trailer to fill up with our finds that day. We got to the armory at daybreak and checked for signs of occupation. Nothing. I took my sledgehammer and broke into a back door and four of us entered the building. George stayed in the Hummer, manning the .30 cal, and Mike covered him, and the rear of the armory, from a protected position behind a granite wall.
The armory had clearly been attacked, then cleaned up. There were smears of blood and gore on the walls and floors and even on the ceilings. No bodies, but lots of bullet holes and brass everywhere. We were in a corridor of offices. We checked each one carefully. They were pretty well shot up. In one, there were some military spec laptops and what looked like field phone equipment so we grabbed that and put it in the hall to take later. That was it for that corridor, which ended in a t shape. I decided to go to the right first. At the end of that short hall was a large freight elevator and set of utility stairs. The elevator was blown to hell but the stairs were clear so we took them down. We figured that they’d keep the good stuff underground.
Jim had set us up with tactical lights for our M4s so we were ready for the dark down there—at least a little bit. It was still scary as hell. From the ground floor we descended at least four more floors to the bottom of the stairs. We moved out into a large open space; it was so big that our lights didn’t reach to the end. Stacks and stacks of stuff in boxes and crates piled to the ceiling as far as we could see. I had no idea how we’d get it out but it was there. It was so far underground that it was actually warm in there, about 55 degrees.
I motioned to Jake, Ben and Darnell to stick with me while we covered the entire perimeter of the room. It was 90 paces long before it turned to the right, then about 100 paces, then another right turn. In the middle of that wall was an opening into another wide corridor. For the first time, we started seeing bodies. Lots of bodies. This looked like an area where a last desperate struggle had occurred. We moved over and through the bodies to a machine gun emplacement that guarded an open door. Through the door was a lab, and in the lab were eight dead men and woman in white lab coats wearing some type of gas masks. There bodies were intact; no bites or wounds. There were a bunch of dead soldiers on the ground as well. Their bodies were ripped up, as were the dozens of dead soldiers and scientists stacked around them.
"Don’t touch anything!” I whispered. “I think these scientists used some type of gas or bio weapon as a last ditch defense and it killed them. We might already be dead men, but hopefully it wore off already.” I grabbed a leather journal from one of the scientists and stuck it in my pack."
Just then, Ben turned and knocked a vial of something off of a desk or table. It made a huge crashing sound that echoed in the dark space. We all jumped and I almost shot Ben.
Ben figured it out first: “Is it cold enough down here to freeze them?”
Seconds later, we heard rustling sounds, followed by the familiar low moaning. A lot of rustling, and a lot of moaning.
"We’re gonna find out, kid.” I replied. “Darnell, check that .50 cal. Ben, stack bodies in front of the emplacement but leave room to shoot. Jake, if there’s ammo, you’ll feed Darnell. Short bursts. Ben, you cover them. Save your shots for when they reload. I’ll cover your rear. Shut off the lights and keep quiet.” I grabbed some cotton balls from a jar and told everyone to use them as hearing protection; that .50 would be loud.
Jake and Darnell confirmed that there was plenty of ammo for the .50 and set it up. It made a huge noise when they racked it. I hoped it would fire. The rustling sounds picked up, as did the moaning, and now the shuffling began. They were coming.
I didn’t want any surprises from the rear so I quickly ended the eight scientists with my new Buck knife. They were not frozen so the blade slid right in. I took a quick look around the lab, which was pretty small with only two other doors. One led to a closet; the other led down another hallway. I listened but heard nothing down there and decided that would be our emergency escape if we were overrun. I closed the door and mentally noted where it was. I decided to wait until Darnell fired to put my own cotton balls in.
When it was over, we had learned an expensive but valuable lesson about the Zs. They lived in packs and had some type of collective intelligence, kind of like bees or ants. There were worker Zs, (your basic shamblers), army Zs (your Wolves), and other specialties as well. Turns out the Brains are just middle management. This particular armory was home base to what I’d call the regional manager. She’d gone to ground in the underground storage facility knowing or sensing that they would not freeze down there. They’d gone dormant in the darkness and cold but had been partially awakened by our noise and had snapped awake when Ben knocked the cylinder over.
For the first time, they used a ruse on us. A bunch of shamblers appeared and Darnell, properly, waited until they got closer to fire. Just before he pulled the trigger, they scattered, moving very quickly. He delayed just a bit and his delay cost him. He got most of them but a small, quick one dodged through and took a swipe at Darnell just as Ben shot him.
The swipe hit Darnell on the face and opened him right up. To Darnell’s credit, he stayed on the gun, even knowing that he was a dead man. Jake knew, too, but just kept feeding belts. They were able to take down the rest of the Zs that came down the hall with the .50 cal. But not all of the Zs were coming down the hall. A few traveled overhead, above the suspended ceiling, and dropped down on Jake and Darnell, tearing them to shreds. I grabbed Ben and pushed him toward the door, screaming at him to run. To his credit, and per our training, Ben took off. His orders were to save himself from a hopeless situation.
I was able to drop the two who had fallen on Jake and Darnell with a couple of shots. A couple of the dead soldiers had grenades, and I rolled those down the hall, blowing up at least another dozen Zs. I think these were all Wolves. I had to end Jake and Darnell, too. It quieted down for a bit and I heard Ben gasp from down the hall. My hall was silent so I changed magazines and moved out.
Ben was surrounded by two Brains, two Wolves, and a new type of Z that I’d never seen. She was tall, stood erect, was clean and properly dressed, and moved well. Her eyes had the reddish/blackish tint of a zombie; otherwise she could have passed for human. She couldn’t really speak but just hissed at me. It sounded like words but I couldn’t make them out. My ears were ringing from the .50 going off in the tight space.
They were so close to Ben that I knew they’d get him even if I shot perfectly. Ben had his .45 out but it was down by his waist. I didn’t think he could get it aimed and fire it in time.
I decided to try a bit of trickery myself. I turned off my light and ran down the hall. I’d noticed a recess in the wall and I stood silently in it while the Wolves and Brains moved rapidly past. When they were around the corner, I returned to Ben.
The female zombie had ripped out his throat and was eating him. She hadn’t noticed me yet so I lined her up for a kill shot with my light. She sensed me and leaped right through the ceiling. I couldn’t believe it. From a crouch to a ten foot leap in the blink of an eye.
I knew the Wolves and Brains would be returning so I pulled the pins on my last two grenades and rolled them down the hall. That worked well; just as they arrived the grenades went off and blew them to hell. They were probably still “alive” in the zombie sense but they could not move or at least not very fast. I heard the Alpha bitch shriek in anger. Now I could hear what she was hissing from the ceiling. “He is coming. The king is coming.”
I turned off my light and sat down. I was absolutely silent. When the bitch hissed again I opened up on full auto where I thought she was. She fell heavily to the floor in front of me and I emptied another full magazine into her head and neck just to be sure.
I could hear some rustling behind me so I took off like a bat out of hell. I found a staircase at the end of the hall and raced up it. They were getting closer, but it was also getting a lot colder. I wondered if that would slow them down. Finally, I was on the ground floor, got my bearings, and headed to the back. They were still right on my tail.
I hit the door running at full speed and screaming. George was right where he should have been and I dove and rolled to give him a clear shot. I hit my head and knocked the breath out of myself. George opened up with the .30 and dropped a dozen Wolves and four Brains who followed me out of the building.
George hopped down off the Hummer to help me out when Ben ran out of the building. George turned to him and said something like “What the fuck” when Ben knocked him down and jumped on him. I tried to line Ben up for a shot but was seeing double. Thank God for Mike. He figured it out just in time and dropped Ben with a shot from the M24. The .338 Lapua pulped Ben’s head into mush and ricocheted off the building with a loud whang.
George was as white as a ghost. I jumped on the Hummer and manned the .30, but only a few shamblers struggled out. They were affected by the cold and moving really slow. I got the Hummer going, dragged George into it, ran the Zs over, backed over them, picked up Mike, and returned to the Farm.
Thankfully, all was well at the Farm. Everyone was devastated at the loss of Darnell, Jake, and Ben. They were great guys and would be missed. I made sure that everyone knew how they had died as heroes but also to point out that the zombies were changing and could do new and unexpected things. We had to be constantly ready for upgrades and new attacks.
We took about three days to recover. I told everyone about the Bat Cave and its new residents. They all looked forward to meeting Barry and Elliott, and Tom and Stan agreed that we had to set that place up with a shortwave, which they started planning immediately.
On the third day, we had a memorial service for Jake, Darnell and Ben. It gave everyone a chance to say goodbye. Cleve spoke for Darnell, and Courtney and Brittany sang the Ave Maria. It was beautiful. Not a dry eye in the house.
That night, we had a big meeting. As usual, there were two camps. One, led by Tom, leaned toward hunkering down for the winter and picking things back up again in the spring. The other, led by Stan, was all for an all out eradication campaign. It went on for hours and was well argued on both sides. My vote was for eradication but I kept kind of quiet because I knew I was angry and taking it personally.
Finally, Kate came up with a proposal somewhere in the middle. “Jack thinks that if we do it properly we can clear out the armory and get access to all the weapons and food that we’ll ever need. How about if we consider a quick raid on the armory, and some work to seal off the highway out of Burlington, then we take the rest of the winter off.”
Kate got some momentum going and in about twenty minutes we had a deal. Cleve, Mike, Kate, Courtney, and Christina would start to seal off the roads from Burlington. They’d have three days to do it. When they returned, Cleve, Stan, George, Sumner, Mike, Tom and I would mount a proper assault on the armory.
I had five days to help organize a defense while large groups of key people were absent. There was no problem for the first three days, since me, Stan and Tom could handle it. But we were concerned about the next trip.
I spent some time working with Bill Johnson and Scooter on their shooting and overall watchfulness. Bill had been working his ass off doing plumbing work and construction upgrades on a bunch of houses and barns to get ready for the spring. Scooter was his primary helper. He’d actually shaped up pretty well after a tough time when he got the drugs out of his system. He looked a lot better and had put on some muscle.
Neither was a great shot but they improved rapidly when I ordered them not to do anything but train with me for a couple of days. I also tuned Nancy, Brittany, and Li up for a day and they seemed okay as well. I checked Sally and Susan out as well. Sally was an amazing shot right off the bat. Susan couldn’t hit anything with a rifle or handgun. Ever. But she was okay with a 12 gauge.
I was very impressed with some of the younger kids. Bobbie, Sean, Tyler and Cody had been inspired by the scene in “Zulu” where the Brits lined up in ranks and devastated the Zulus with sequential fire. They’d worked with some of the other twelve and thirteen year olds and had formed a group of twelve kids armed with the .22 repeaters. They offered us a demonstration.
Bobbie, naturally, was in charge. She set them up in three ranks of four shooters each. The formation was about twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. She pointed out that they had ten round magazines, not single shots like the Brits. She had carefully chosen a bit of high ground where an enemy would be funneled into a narrow defile, and she had set about 100 pumpkins out between 30 and 60 yards away. She had also set out 100 soda cans between 15 and 30 yards away.