Authors: J.A. Crowley
My plan was to drop the flare through the window and ignite the gas. There was only one working door, and I’d blocked it with a pipe jammed through the door handles. I lit the flare, threw it in, and . . . nothing. The flare simply went out. Fuck!
I searched the area and found an old beer bottle, filled it with gas that I sucked out of a gas tank, stuck a rag in it, lit it up and threw it in. This time it worked. Not a huge explosion, but more of a “whuff,” almost an inhale, followed by a loud blast that blew out all of the windows and made the structure collapse, followed up with a nice fire. I’d been counting the rats and zombies and figured I got at least fifty rats and a couple hundred zombies, including a bunch of Brains and at least a couple of the higher ups.
I raced back to the Eagle’s Nest, fired up the Hummer, and headed north. After only a couple of miles, I ran into Jim, Stan, and Tito in another Hummer and told them what had happened. They’d been looking for us but they’d noticed greatly increased activity and had to move slowly.
We radioed back to the Farm and the Bat Cave to get ready for an attack. It made me sad to think of Mike and all of his nicknames for places. The people at the Bat Cave agreed to join us at the Farm, since there was simply no way to hold the Bat Cave against a horde.
We made good time back to the Farm. Once our friends from the Bat Cave joined us, I had Jim blow the north and south bridges so we had gaps of at least thirty feet at each, but there were still areas where the ice hadn’t thawed.
I told everyone what I’d learned. They were shocked that humans were actually helping the zombies, and glad that I’d taken some of them out. Everyone was crushed to learn about Mike and Kate. Sean and Bobbie were inconsolable. I had no idea how they’d recover from the loss of their mother and brother at such a young age—assuming they had the chance.
Stan and Sumner spent all day and night sending out warnings over the short wave. No one else had heard about zombies with human slaves but, to their credit, everyone immediately believed us. We continued to hear chatter about a huge horde approaching from the south. It was a chilling development for all of us but we’d simply become accustomed to horrible news. It was going to happen.
Those of us who had survived the first horde told the others about it in detail. The first horde was bad enough; now we had to plan for a horde supported by smart zombies with a control and command structure and aided by humans with weapons.
Chapter Forty One: Preparations
I met with Jim and Stan to lay out our defense plan. The first order of business was to send out scouts to get a handle on numbers and approach vectors. We had to know how many were coming and when they’d start to arrive.
The second order of business was to involve the Lynches and Spillers to coordinate our defense. We sent a messenger up to bring Dave and Danny to us for a meeting and for a detailed status report regarding weapons and personnel. We had to be able to rely on them to defend the northern part of the island.
The third order of business was to isolate the island as best we could. Jim had already blown the bridges so I had him radio the Canadians and get them to fire up their boat and use it as an ice breaker.
We knew from experience that we simply couldn’t defend the house against a horde so we secured it and got everyone moving weapons, supplies and water into the fort and the caves.
Marj supervised food, Courtney supervised water, and Jim supervised weapons. We quickly moved all of the weapons into the Fort and at least a six month supply of food and water into the caves. We buried the rest of our food and water so that the rats could not get at it.
A sign of our desperation and our abhorrence for the rats is that we intentionally left caches of poisoned food and water all around the island.
Chapter Forty Two: The Battle of the Farm
It began, as I expected, at about 3:00 a.m. They probably expected to surprise us but we’d maintained sentries around the clock. We’d run field telephones out to the sentries in case the attackers had radios. The first call was from Christina, who was watching the southern bridge. Although the bridge was blown, ice had built up under the bridge and it appeared that it might be walkable. The ice was too thick for the Canadians to break up with their boat but we had rigged it with explosives.
The next call was from Dave Spiller from the northern bridge. That area was pretty much clear of ice, but he could see humans putting small boats in the water, clearly intending to paddle over when the attack began. I told Dave to have four of his people fire on the humans to harass and delay them.
“Dave, I want you to get your guys to injure them, not kill them. I want them screaming and dying hard. Go for gut shots. Those rats are human scum and I think they’ll run like rats.”
“Okay, Jack. Will do.”
Also, Dave, fire your two grenade launchers at the boats and use your .50 cal sniper rifle to hole them. Nice and slow. Wait until they get out in the water, because I want them to drown.”
“Can’t say I like it, Jack, but okay.”
The Canadians called in on the radio; they’d been detailed to watch the eastern side of the island from the boat. They’d created a narrow patch of open water but the temperature was below freezing so we expected that lane to freeze solid. They were dumping gas and oil on the open water to keep it free of ice. Cam reported a huge concentration of zombies massing on the ice.
Fortunately, it was all quiet on the western front. On that side we had a lot of open water and the coast was further away. We had three sentries on the west. George was to the south, about 1000 yards from Christina. Cleve was on the northern side, where he could support Dave Spiller. I’d placed Tito in the middle. They each had a mountain bike to help them move around as necessary.
I moved Tito to the south to support Christina, as that was clearly going to be the main point of attack. I called Dave Spiller and told him to replace Cleve with one of his guys and moved Cleve to the east, where he’d built a bunker. I told the Canadians to abandon ship and man Cleve’s bunker.
We’d rigged the boat with explosives and loaded it and the surrounding ice with gas and oil to try to keep some open water. Water wouldn’t kill the zombies, but humans would drown. Zombies would at least sink to the bottom and be out of the battle, at least for today.
I’d built myself a bunker about a thousand yards from the southern bridge. I knew that the zombies would have to come through that way. It was nice and high, with excellent visibility around the entire southern rim of the island. I was loaded for bear, too, with a .50 caliber machine gun, a Barrett .50 sniper file, a .Lapua 338, three mortars, two grenade launchers, and assorted small arms.
The plan was for the scouts to the south to fall back to my fighting position and fight with me for as long as possible before retreating to the Fort. No one knew it, but I did not plan to retreat.
Jim and Stan had initially objected to me being a scout, but I got Jim to come around when I put him in overall command of the Fort. I was in charge of the scouts. Stan was in charge of the cave, where we’d built our redoubt. Tom was quartermaster, in charge of supply and ammunition. Sumner ran the artillery. Marj would supervise the younger children. None of us expected to survive.
I called up to Dave. “How’s it going up there?”
“The rats are running. We nailed a bunch and sank about twenty boats and the rest ran away.”
“Okay, leave four guys up there and send the rest down to the Fort.”
“Will do.”
Next, I checked on the Canadians. “Are you with Cleve yet?”
“Yeah, except Mickey refuses to get off the boat.”
“Mickey, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Jack. I tested the circuits on the detonators and some of them are dead. Maybe bad batteries or the weather. I need to check them all again.”
“Okay, Mickey. Keep working on the detonators. Without those, we’re dead. Cam and Tito, find a safe place on the shore and cover him. Start shooting Brains and Leaders when you have good shots. Fall back when Mickey gets the detonators working.”
“Okay, boss.”
I called Christina on the phone. “Chris, Mickey says some of his detonators are down. Have you checked yours recently? I want to make sure our special surprises are in working order.”
“Jack, three of them are down and I’m working on them now.”
“Tito, get over there and cover Christina while she fixes that. Do not fire yet.”
“Got it, Jack.”
“George, anything in your area?”
“No, Jack, it’s quiet over here.”
“Alright, stay in position and be ready to cover Tito and Christina.”
Aside from sporadic firing from Cleve and Cam to the east, it was quiet. All was well in the Fort, to the north, and to the west. For now.
The sun was about to rise, and I dreaded what I was about to see.
Chapter Forty Three: Attack at Dawn
We’d assumed in the event of a dawn attack that the enemy would try to attack from the east, to take advantage of the rising sun in our eyes. We were right. As the first rays appeared over the eastern horizon, the zombies began to march out onto the ice. They were all regular zombies, cannon fodder. There were thousands, too many to count.
The call came in from Cam. “Mickey is still out there. He says he still needs to fix one detonator. You should see this, Jack. About a million zombies. Holy shit!”
“Stay calm, Cam. Cover him for as long as you can but make sure he gets out of there. Mickey, you asshole, are you ready?”
“Just got it, Jack, I’m on my way.”
“Cleve, you can start firing your mortars. Start on the flanks and see if you can get them to mass toward the middle.”
“Okay, Jack. Fire in the hole!”
Like me, Cleve had two mortars. He and Sharon operated one and fired on the northern flank while Cam and Jackie operated the other and fired on the southern flank. We hoped to mass them in the center, where we had stockpiled explosives and booby traps.
It slowly began to work.
“Jack, they’re getting packed nice and tight in the middle. Some are starting to fall into the water but that hole is icing up fast.”
“Okay, Cleve, go ahead and fire long towards the rear. See if you can push them out on the ice.”
“Got it, Jack, but I can’t tell how far back they go.”
“Fire away.”
Cleve called back. “I don’t think there is a back edge to this thing. It’s massive.”
“Okay, blow the shore in two minutes.”
We had lined the shore with barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline wired with C4 plastic explosive. We’d also placed some along various roads leading to the shore and on some docks and piers. It was all wired to go up in one shot.
I called Jim to let him know the shot was coming. “Okay, we’re ready up here, Jack. I checked in with Dave after his guys got here; things are quiet up north and nothing from the west.”
The explosion was massive. It went off like a string of firecrackers, from north to south. There were secondary explosions everywhere. Jim had done a great job of mixing diesel and gasoline barrels and we had solid black smoke interspersed with blazing fire all along the shore.
The blast shattered the mass of zombies. Those not blown up were burned. As always, they burned well and completely. The fire melted parts of the ice, which broke up and dumped zombies into the water. Others were forced over the edge of the ice into the water, where they disappeared.
A few minutes later, Cleve reported that the entire mass of zombies had disappeared from the eastern shore.
Chapter Forty Four: Attack From the North
Just then, Dave Spiller sent out a call for help.
“SOS. We’re getting overrun up here. They came back with motorboats and jet skis and a hundred of them have landed already. There’s about a thousand boats out there.”
Jim replied. “Okay, Dave. We’re on our way. Jack, I’m heading up there with a dozen reinforcements. Stay put.”
“Got it, Jim. Will do.”
Jim loaded up two armored Hummers with six people each and raced to the north. Dave was doing a hell of a job fighting from his positions but there were simply too many targets and the motorboats and jet skis were too fast to target with grenade launchers. One of Dave’s crew was hit and killed by a lucky shot from the shoreline.
Jim set up his people in a line and ordered them to fire at will. “Fire at the boats, not the people on shore. Remember, we have a line of mines and booby traps along the shore. Let’s limit the number that land, then we can deal with any who get ashore.”
Jim set up with his .50 cal Barret in a tall tree and sighted across the water to the north. There he saw a group of Leaders and Brains. With them were two humans in military clothing. One was speaking into a radio.
“Jack, I’ve got some human military up here directing this thing.”