John Ringo - Under a Graveyard Sky

“Okay,” Faith said. “That’s just gross.”

She looked away and then turned back at another scream. Astroga had been attacked from behind by another infected. She was struggling to throw it off. Randall tasered it but there were more. Suddenly, the threesome was surrounded by zombies and there were now screams from the concert goers.

Looking around, Faith realized that there were more and more of the zombies closing on the concert.

“The lights!” Tom shouted. “They’re zeroing in on the lights!”

Suddenly, an M4 went to full auto and Faith heard rounds zipping by her head. Copley pushed his way through the crowd of zombies, dragging Astroga by the harness. She could see Randall, clearly out of rounds and with no time to reload, wielding his kukri and chopping zombies left and right.

“Rock and roll!” Copley screamed. “Just shoot ! We’re in armor !”

“Authorized,” Tom said, taking a two handed stance. “Try not to hit the good guys.”

“Uncle Tom!” Faith said, backing towards her group and firing to the side. “We’ve got more coming!”

“This way, too,” Stacey called. “They’re in the concert.”

Faith glanced over her shoulder and saw something she never expected to see. Ever. With the defenses around the actual stage, where the lights were, the zombies couldn’t climb up. Zombies coming down Fifth Avenue had bent around the stage until they hit the dancers in the mosh pit. A naked, writhing zombie was being crowd-surfed over the group. So far, the moshers seemed to consider the zombies to be a feature not a bug. Just more people to hit.

When it dropped into the regular concert-goers, the screams started. and there were more being crowd-surfed back.

“Remind me to pick up some mosh gear,” Faith shouted.

“On you,” Sophia called.

“Cover me while I reload,” Faith said. There was a tidal wave of zombies coming for them and she made if not the fastest reload in her life than close. She had to make sure to keep the magazine since she foresaw a time in the not too distant future when getting more would be a bit of a pain.

“And we’re back,” Faith said, taking three quick blasts to clear their side. “Where the fuck are they all coming from?”

“Thanks,” Copley said as the three soldiers reached the perimeter of the contractor group. “Thanks, thanks…”

“Reload and start laying down,” Tom said. “We’re not out of this yet. And call for back-up.”

“Roger, sir,” Copley said.

“You, specialist,” Tom said, pointing to Randall. “East side. Durante, South. Faith, West. You, private,” he said, pointing at Astroga. “North towards the concert. We’re going to start moving south. Myself and Steve will back Durante.”

“That’s right into most of them, boss,” Durante pointed out. He was keeping up a slow-aimed fire with his Saiga. “Reloading.”

“Covering,” Steve said.

“Questions later,” Tom said, taking down two zombies with two shots. “Sergeant, stay on the horn.”

“Roger, sir,” Copley said. “The NYPD liaison net is down. Ditto cell. I’m down to military radio.”

“Keep at it,” Tom said. “Durante, start moving forward as soon as we’re reloaded.”

The concert crowd had started to scatter as more and more of the infected swarmed the only light in a mile. Faith could hear screams over the music as they were picked off one by one in the surrounding darkness. She keyed on her tactical light as they moved down the road into the woods.

“No lights,” Tom said.

“Boss,” Durante said, firing.

“They’re attracted to the lights,” Tom snapped. “The reason we’re going south. No lights.”

“Lasers?” Faith asked.

“Authorized,” Tom said, firing carefully.

“Oh, my God,” Astroga said.

Faith glanced to the side and blanched. It was just possible to tell who was a zombie and who was a mosher but it didn’t look as if many of the moshers were left. And the zombies were fighting their way over the fences and razor wire to get to the band. Most of Voltaire’s back-up had quit, one was pounding a zombie with an electric guitar, but he was still strumming along.

“Jasper glittered all over the wall, so they /Hung him from the ceiling for a Disco Ball. /There was so much angst after the fight, /Edward and Bella broke up that night. /While some wolves chowed down on a puddle of food /That used to be some rasta vampire dude…”

There was a crackle of sparks as a zombie hit the power leads for the concert and the lights shut out with a sudden finality. Faith couldn’t see what happened in the darkness. But she could hear the screaming.

“You wanna, you know, fight zombies here?” Sophia asked. “I’m borrowing a pistol.”

“Go,” Faith said, returning to fighting. She tried to ignore the screams from the crowd.

“Don’t shoot!” a woman screamed, running towards the group. “Please! Help!” There was an infected in hot pursuit.

“Down!” Astroga shouted. “Get down!” The woman was directly in her line of fire. And she wasn’t listening.

“Cover!” Faith snapped. She could barely see, her eyes were still adjusting, but she drew her sidearm and tracked the zombie one-handed. There was a boom.

“Got it!” she shouted.

“Nice shot,” Copley said.

“Thanks,” Faith replied, firing into the darkness. There was a scream and something started thrashing.

“Thank you, thank you…” the woman sobbed.

“Hey, Christine,” Sophia said, airily. “I thought you wanted to be a zombie.”

“I changed my mind, okay?” Christine said.

“Quiet,” Tom said. Christine started to say something and he hit her on the back of the head. “I said, quiet . Listen.”

“I don’t like being under these trees,” Faith whispered. It was darker even than in the main square and very hard to see the zombies. She flashed her laser around and was rewarded by another thrashing sound. She moved it again and there was another thrashing.

“Are you playing laser tag with a zombie?” Sophia asked.

“I think it’s trying to chase it,” Faith whispered. The sound of the city had nearly died and all there was was the sound of their breathing, the crashing of zombies in the trees and the occasional scream in the distance. A horn started blaring and there were howls in the distance.

“Just keep moving,” Tom said. “Don’t fire unless you have to.”

A zombie came loping at the group and Durante turned to fire.

“I’ve got this,” Randall said, stepping forward. He let his weapon drop on the sling and held out his left hand. “Come on, zombie, nice fresh hand to bite…” He carefully drew his kukhri.

The zombie grabbed his arm and bit down on the offered hand. As he did, Randall brought the kukhri down and to the side, chopping into the back of the zombie’s neck. It dropped to the ground, twitching.

“Stay away from the blood spray,” Tom said.

“Oh, yeah,” Durante said. “Those masks and ponchos make more sense now. You get bitten?”

“Two sets of gloves,” Randall said, holding up his hand. “Rubber MOPP gloves and tacticals. Didn’t even penetrate the rubber.”

“You’ve been planning that, haven’t you?” Copley said.

“Since we got deployed.”

“Sergeant,” Tom said, quietly. “Support?”

“Multiple teams in contact,” Copley said. “The reaction team is in contact. The bases that aren’t deep in buildings are all under attack.”

“If you can, pass that they’re attracted to sound and light,” Tom said. “Go to NVGs.”

“Wish we had them,” Randall said.

They finally cleared the park. There was more light on Washington Square South but not much.