Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 2): Fighting the Hordes Read online

  FIGHTING THE HORDES

  TOTAL APOC TRILOGY #2

  By

  TW Gallier

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Rowdy Rooster Publishing

  Copyright 2016 by Thomas W. Gallier, Jr.

  Cover by Christian Bentulan

  This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and locations within either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  List of other titles

  About the author

  Fighting the Hordes

  Total Apoc Trilogy #2

  By TW Gallier

  "Screw south," Eddy said. "Go west. The Great Plains and mountains don't have a lot of people, so fewer zombies."

  He fought to my left. Lightning flashed, making him look ghoulish for half a second. Eddy grounded the point of his homemade spear in the muddy ground and used a bare foot to bend it back reasonably straight.

  "Our families are south of here," I said. A zombie made it through the razor wire and started up the chain link fence in front of me. He was wearing torn and bloody khakis and no shirt. All exposed flesh was bruised, cut, and bleeding. His nose was missing. "We have to go there first."

  Fewer zombies sounded like heaven, but the plains and Rocky Mountains felt like a world away. I tightened my grip on the makeshift spear, stepped forward, and thrust through the fencing.

  "Huugggh," the zombie wailed, but kept climbing.

  I missed the heart, so thrust into his throat and pierced an artery or vein. Blood gushed out of him. It squirted out in pulses. Some of it splashed on me, some on Olivia, but the rain quickly washed it away. Finally, I managed a strong enough thrust to punch through his chest cavity, straight into his heart and finally killed that poor soul.

  A butcher knife bolted to the end of a ten foot pole made a lousy spear.

  "Take that, Connor!" Ralph cried, stabbing another zombie climbing the fence.

  I watched his zombie die and fall backwards into the razor wire coiled in front of the fence. For mindless zombies, they were remarkably good at working their way through the coils of barbed and razor wire. All it did was slow them down, and cut them up a lot. Zombies didn't care about cuts, broken bones, or anything. They avoided fire and water, and nothing else I could see.

  Ralph's post was to my right, with Olivia between us. We were in the no man's land between the town and the zombie horde, inside what we affectionately called the NML Zone. There were ten foot high fences all around and holding about two hundred men and women inside that enclosure. The fence even went down into the rivers to either side of Emory, with the ends sealed off to keep us from escaping. The only things inside the NML Zone were three old Army surplus GP medium tents with cots inside. Of course, there weren't enough cots for everyone.

  "Ha," Olivia said, looking exhausted. "I'd sell your soul, if you had one, to poke holes in Connor."

  Connor was our "captain." He was a cop in Emory before the zombie apocalypse descended upon us. Now he was commander of the town's northern defenses. His troops were all people like me, Olivia, and Ralph, who were non residents seized and forced to fight for the town against our wills.

  "Is it possible to drown standing in a storm?" I asked.

  It was coming down pretty hard at the moment. The clouds were so thick it looked like twilight. My friends looked even bloodier and wetter than I felt. Our overlords took everything from us, including our weapons and clothes. It was odd seeing Olivia without her backwards cap. She'd braided her long brown hair to keep it out of her face. Ralph and I looked like crazy homeless guys, complete with two week old beards.

  Our evil overlords didn't even allow us to have shoes.

  I glanced back and up to the central watchtower. Connor was up there watching. The lightning lit his face up sometimes. He never gave any orders, so I wasn't sure what exactly he did to rate being called the Captain. Though, he was in charge of our meager rations, and providing us with clean orange jumpsuits every day.

  Fighting zombies was messy work.

  "I'm going straight to Colorado," Eddy said. "Winters are too cold for the infected, and it's got some sweet hunting. I'm gonna be a mountain man."

  "Who said it was too cold for them?" I asked. "Besides, winter is months away."

  The infected are what the good citizens of Emory called the zombies. They'd always be zombies or walkers to me. Most of my fellow fighters called them zombies, too, even though they weren't really undead.

  "Shut up," Olivia told him. She wiped rain water out of her eyes, squinted, and thrust her spear into a zombie on the fence. "They aren't going to let any of us go as long as there are zombies to fight, and I haven't heard a single idea on how to escape from you."

  "Bitch," he said.

  "Hey!" I cried. "That's my friend."

  "You're friend is a bitch."

  Eddy's temper ran hot and told. One minute he was your best friend, the next he was swing at you like a mad man. Personally, I thought he was insane.

  "I got your bitch right here," Ralph said, eyes narrowing.

  We never gave up. Eddy's already kicked all three of our asses twice in the ten days since our capture. He just made us so mad. Worse, he always made sure to fight next to us, eat next to us, and sleep next to us, like we were his friends or something. Personally, I think it was only because we were the only ones in the enclosure that he could defeat in a fist fight.

  Shouting between the five watchtowers between us and the town drew my attention up and back. I didn't see Connor, but could hear his voice. Something had them riled up.

  "Holy crap, it's a big attack," Ralph cried. "Here they come again!"

  I groaned as I looked out upon the zombie infested farmlands north of Emory. It looked like every one of them was stumbling our way. Of course, they were on higher ground so it always looked like all of them were charging us.

  Most of the time zombies just milled around. I think they were waiting their turn. You'd think they'd all be attacking all of the time. Nope. Maybe they needed to rest, though I'd never seen any sign of a zombie growing tired.

  There were always some zombies trying to get past our defenses, but big attacks only happened every couple of hours. After each attack, they pulled the dead away and ate them. Sometimes I wondered if they only attacked when hungry. Olivia thought anything that blocked their passage confused them, like rivers, walls, and fences, so it took them a long time to work out what they needed to do about our defensive fences.

  Poof. Poof. Poof.

  I looked up at the sound of men in the towers shooting 40mm grenades. They had a better view of what was coming, so it had to be a big attack if they were firing their dwindling supply of grenades.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Connor rang the alarm bell. "All hands to the fence! All hands to the fence!"

  Ralph grinned and shook his head. "When is someone going to tell him this is not the Navy, and we are not on a ship?"

  "I'd g
ive your left nut to be on a ship right now," Olivia said.

  "Ouch. The zombie apocalypse has made you mean," Ralph said.

  "You know," Eddy piped in. "Zombie apocalypse is a misnomer, because apocalypse actually means – "

  "Shut up!" all three of us shouted.

  Ratta-tat-tat-tat! Ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat!

  The walkers weren't even to the fence and the towers were opening up with their machineguns. Most were old M60s, with one .50 Cal in the center tower. Conner kept the big gun for himself. Talk about overkill.

  I watched dozens of zombies fall to be trampled into the mud. They were so thick it was impossible for the towers to miss them. Every shot hit at least one zombie, and most passed through more than one. Still, if not hit in the head or heart, zombies kept moving. They might bleed out and die, but they continued on as long as they could. Whatever chemical weapons were dropped on the US completely took away their sense of pain.

  "Of course they attack just before our shift ends," Ralph said. "I hate my life."

  My arms were tired from two hours on duty, constantly stabbing zombies on the fence. My hands were raw, and my shoulders ached, too. I was a mess. You'd think after ten days I'd develop muscles or something.

  Boom! Boom! The grenades were landing closer to the fence. Ratta-tat-tat-tat!

  The walkers reached the coiled wire. Mostly it was barbed wire, but there was razor wire at the base of the fence. Every one of them that got through would be bloody messes by the time they reached the fence. I was so tired of blood and guts. It was so bad I was nose-blind to the stench of death.

  When more fighters joined us, their sleep shift disturbed, I motioned to Olivia and Ralph to follow me. I trotted eastward, towards the Culleoka River, which was the larger of the two. Eddy glanced at us as we departed, but didn't follow for once.

  "Where are we going?" Ralph asked.

  "Down by the river," I replied.

  "Give it up, Kyle," Olivia said wearily. "The ends are fenced. They'll shoot us before we can swim out to here."

  "Not if they're distracted shooting zombies," I said. I indicated the fenced off ends of the enclosure, way out into the river. "Besides, it's been raining for five days. The river is rising and the ends are underwater."

  Ratta-tat-tat! Ratta-tat-tat-tat!

  It was dark from the storm, and soon it would be night. If the zombies were still attacking after sunset, it would be the perfect time to escape. The NML Zone was well lit at night during big attacks, but not out into the water. It wasn't going to rain forever, and that meant the river would go back down.

  "Even if we somehow manage to get out without being shot, there are a billion and one zombies on the other side of the river," Ralph said. "And the Culleoka is ten times wider and deeper than the Ravenna."

  I stopped and looked back at them with a grin. "I have a plan."

  "Why does that scare me?" Olivia asked.

  "Because you're a bright girl," I said, wagging my brows.

  "I think you've lost your mind."

  "Probably."

  I stopped and turned back to the fence before reaching the river. Mostly, I wanted to get a good look at the water level. The end of the fence was still underwater, and if anything the river was higher. And, of course, I couldn't fail to notice all of the zombies crowding the far shore.

  We were next to the Culleoka River, which was much wider and deeper than the Ravenna River on the other side of Emory. The town sat in the fork of the two rivers. Before capture, we'd been following the Ravenna River down. Just wading waist deep kept us safe from zombies.

  Thank god zombies were afraid of water.

  Ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat! They were shooting just over our heads, and I could hear the bullets zipping through the air, popping into zombie bodies. It was all a horrible sound I didn't think I'd ever be able to purge from my soul. Hell, I felt the sound of all that gunfire thumping my chest.

  "Now what?" Ralph asked.

  "We kill zombies until dark," I said. "If it looks good, we can try to escape."

  Both of them sighed gustily. It wasn't the first time I brought them to the river bank to wait for that chance. How would we know if the time was right? The guards in the towers had a much better view of us than we had of them.

  Zombies were dying in droves, torn apart by the vicious machinegun fire from the towers. But they were starting to fall across the coils of barbed wire, pushing it down and burying it under countless bodies. Soon the walkers behind them would have unimpeded access to the fence.

  "You realize that this is the worst section of fence, right?" Olivia said. "It's already been knocked down twice just since we've been here."

  I cringed to think about it. We were fighting in the center both times it came crashing down. Seven guys were bitten and infected the first time, forcing our guards to shoot them dead. Sixteen men were bitten and put down by the guards the second time the fence was knocked down.

  A great wail rose up from the horde. They didn't cry out often, but when they did it was dreadful. My breath caught when they surged forward. They were coming straight at us, trampling their fallen into the mud. When the horde hit the fence it leaned towards us. The defenders surged forward, trying to push it back up. At the same time, we had to avoid our hands being bitten by a zombie.

  Ratta-tat-tat-tat!

  "Aaaiieee!" a man screamed, hit by friendly fire.

  Five of our own dropped dead. The tower guards were never very careful. Godless bastards. The friendly fire had the worst possible effect, since everyone rushed back to safety. The zombies surged again and the fence came down with a crash and trapping five men under it.

  "Holy crap!" I cried.

  Zombies were upon us in a flash. Two towers started shooting down into the melee. They were killing as many defenders as zombies. Before I knew it Olivia, Ralph, and I were cut off from the others, backs against the river.

  "Into the water!" I cried.

  We waded out waist deep, and the zombies stood on shore and stared at us hungrily. I threw my spear and impaled one of them.

  "Time to go," I said, lowering myself until only my head was visible.

  Ralph and Olivia looked at me in terror, then up at the towers, and finally at the zombies. They threw their spears, and followed me out into the dark, cold water. The current was pretty bad, too. The thought that we'd drown before reaching the other side occurred to me.

  Chapter 2

  I swam out to the end of the NML Zone, to the corner of the back fence keeping us out of Emory proper, and then carefully felt for the razor wire coiled on top of it. It was already too dark to see under the water. We knew about where the submerged fence was, so swam over it nervously.

  "They are going to shoot us dead any second now," Olivia panted.

  I glanced up at the tower above us. No one was looking down at us. Did they even notice us enter the water? Of course, with the breach they had bigger worries than three escaping geeks.

  "Better shot dead than slaughtered by zombies," Ralph replied.

  I agreed with Ralph. The NML Zone was just a slow, horrible death. They barely fed us twice a day. All we were allowed to wear was those thin, worthless jail jumpsuits. I couldn't remember when the last time I got more than three or four hours of uninterrupted sleep.

  "Escape!" someone shouted high above us.

  Bullets hit the water all around and between us. We submerged and took off. Panic allowed me to stay under longer than I thought possible. Underwater I had no sense of Ralph or Olivia swimming beside me. I felt utterly alone, while bullets zipped through the water around me. When I came up for breath, Olivia was loudly sucking in air to my right rear and Ralph was rolling forward to go back under a few feet ahead of me.

  "They stopped shooting," Olivia said just before I went back under.

  I paused to tread water a moment. No one shot at us. Was it because they couldn't see us in the dark? More likely they were too besieged by the zombie attack.

  "F
ollow me," I said and took off swimming as fast as I could. "They'll send someone after us."

  There was a fifty foot clear strip of land between the inner enclosure fence and the town. The five watchtowers were evenly spaced and butted up against the fence. Men with makeshift spears, crossbows, and other low tech weaponry rushed up to the inner fence to fend off the zombies inside the enclosure. I got a little pleasure seeing the citizens of Emory actually forced to fight.

  I swam closer to shore once past the open area and we caught up to Ralph. The shore was lined with a concrete retaining wall. Businesses hugged the shore. I heard voices coming from somewhere in the dark shadows between buildings, but they spoke too softly to make out their words.

  Ralph and Olivia made for the shore. I stopped them.

  "They'll expect us to get out to the water," I said. "We should stay in the river."

  We had a heated little argument about whether being able to move faster on land or better hidden in the water was best. It took some convincing on my part, especially since the water was so cold. I think the prospect of armed men hunting us won the argument.

  "What's your plan?" Ralph asked.

  I heard voices on shore. They sounded too close for comfort.

  "Shhhh," I replied.

  Emory's river shore was lined with piers jutting out from the retaining wall, and a few launch ramps. Before the end of the world as we knew it happened, the people of that town had a thriving sports fishing industry. Lots of people came to go fishing. There were restaurants that boaters could float up to, bait shops, and marinas to fuel boats. Everything a recreational boater or fisherman could ask for was accessible from the water.

  And, most importantly, I'd seen boats tied to the docks when we were brought into the town. There weren't any boats visible from our location, but I was confident we'd find one.

  We swam under the bridge. It was the longer of the two bridges, arching above the Culleoka River. That river was navigable well past Emory, and it eventually emptied into the Mississippi.

  They were in full battle mode on the bridge, too. It looked like the hordes were coordinating their attacks. The zombies seemed to have some kind of telepathy. When we were captured and forced into Emory, I'd hoped they would tell us more about what happened during the war, but they just stripped us naked, interrogated us in that condition, before tossing us in the NML Zone. I didn't learn a thing about what made the zombies tick.