Joseph Talluto - Taking It Back

“You really want to know what you look like?” I eyed a group of Z’s shuffling closer. “You got ammo or not?”

Charlie fired a round, then looked at his rifle as the bolt stayed open. “That’s it for me.”

“Time to go,” I said, slinging my rifle over my shoulder and pulling out my pickaxe. I jumped off the bed of the truck and ran towards the first zombie, Charlie right behind me. I swung my weapon hard at its head, knocking it off its feet and into the path of three of its cousins. They tumbled to the ground and we planted them for good as they tried to get up again.

Running up Route 113, I ran towards South Broadway Street, pausing once to listen to the sounds of the town. I could hear moans all around me, but there didn’t seem to be any screaming. I did hear shots to the north, so I turned up Broadway and ran to the sound. In our wake, about a hundred zombies slowly worked their way up the street. Too many to handle without serious firepower. Between the two of us, Charlie and I had about seventy-five rounds of ammo for our pistols, but since there was no immediate threat as long as we kept moving, I wanted to save the ammo for real emergencies.

We ran unopposed until we reached Third Street, then we were blocked by a small crowd of about seven walking corpses. They were headed to the sound of the shots, but when we came running up, they turned around. Various noises came out of their mouths as they saw us, and as one, started for us.

“Left.” Was all I said. Charlie moved to the right without a word, his tomahawks swinging wide as he limbered up his shoulders. I moved to engage a small man, about sixty, if it was possible to judge age on a dead person who had been walking around about a year longer than he should have been. His torso was bare and a large strip of grey skin hung off of him, as if he was in the process of being skinned when he reanimated. I slammed the point of my pickaxe into his temple, dodging his long arms as they reached for my flesh. As he fell, I jerked my weapon out of his head and swinging it in a high arc, crushed the skull of a woman who wheezed at me, her throat torn out.

I stepped back, giving myself some room from the other two that had begun to crowd close. They looked like twins, roughly the same size and shape. They moved as one, which presented a problem since I could only kill one at a time.

I hit on a solution, literally. My foot bumped my first zombie and I reached down to grab him by the ankles. Swinging him around like the sack of shit that he was, I threw him at the twins. The three bodies collided and went down in a heap. I stepped up and spiked the first twin, while the second grabbed my ankle and tried to bring it in for a bite. I stepped back, dragging the Z with me, then killed it with a blow to the back of its head. It sounded like dropping a coconut off a three-story building. I was actually used to it, something a year ago I would never have thought possible.

I looked around for another enemy, but Charlie had finished off the other three. I pointed down the street and we both looked at the crowd working its way towards us. That would have not been so bad, except the crowd was dead and wanting to rip us apart and eat us. Not my party, thanks.

We jogged farther north and reached Fourth Street. I could see the town hall from where we were and things seemed to be holding. Sheriff Harlan had pulled his people off the wall and they were concentrated in a ring around the town hall. The zombies were being held back by a string of cars that had been placed in front of the building and groups of people were dealing with the ones that managed to get past the cars. I could see Tommy and Jason directing crews of people to the defense, knocking the zombies over with long poles, then rushing in to smash their heads in with hammers, sledgehammers, picks, and pipes. I wondered briefly why the firing had stopped, since I found it hard to believe that everyone had run out of ammo. Maybe they were saving it for last ditch fighting.

Charlie and I watched for a second, as I was unsure how we could help. We couldn’t work our way forward without running into a mess of zombies and with the crowd behind us coming up, we were in the unenviable position of right in the damn middle. So far, we hadn’t been noticed by the attacking zombies, they were focused on the meals in front of them.

Charlie bumped me and pointed to an area by the side of the building. It looked like the zombies from the side were going to get in and attack the defenders from behind. We had no choice, we had to do something or everyone was going to die.

I gritted my teeth and spoke to Charlie. “If you want to help them and be with Rebecca in case it all goes to shit, I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

Charlie shook his head. “It’s a good day to die, brother.”

It was my turn to shake my head. “You’re a corny one, you know that?”

“Just move, I got your back.” Charlie said.

I wasn’t about to waste time with sentimentality. I ran to the right of the attacking zombies, my movement detected by some on the fringes and starting them towards us. I drew my SIG and shot the nearest one in the face. The sound carried over the crowd and dozens of dead faces turned my way. I shot another one, and lined up a third for another shot.

“Hey, you fuckers! You want it, come and get it!” I screamed as I fired, dropping a third one. In the abrupt silence, I shouted as loud as I could to the defenders. “You’re breached on the east! Go!” I could see Tommy spin around and grab Jason and head for the side of the building.

Roughly two thirds of the attacking horde started my way, me being the easier prey and the ones coming up the street turned my way as well. All I could think of was a line from a funny zombie movie. Oh, bullocks.

I slowly backed away from the advancing horde, taking the time to shoot as many as I could. I could hear Charlie’s sidearm barking next to me as he started dropping zombies as well. I knew we were still looking at well over three hundred zombies even after our ammo went dry, but a dead zombie was a good zombie. I wanted to draw away as many as I could, giving the defenders of the townsfolk time to deal with the internal threat and regroup. My goal was to reach the bandstand gazebo in the park. I had seen it the other night during our tour and it made the most sense as a position of defense. It was a large elevated platform, surrounded by a fence, accessible only through one stairway. If Charlie and I could make it there, we stood a good chance of being able to blunt the horde and make them attack us in fewer numbers.

I walked at a normal pace to the edge of the steps to the platform, making sure Charlie was with me and the horde had followed. Some of the back ones went after the town hall defenders again. Essentially, Charlie and I were in the fight of our lives.

I stopped about fifteen feet in front of the steps and waited. The crowd moved slowly, their shambling gait looking like a rippling body of grey water. The sun climbed higher in the sky, shortening the shadows on the lawn. None of these things was relevant, but for some reason I noticed them. A slow burning rage was building within me, causing me to grip my gun tighter and check the availability of my spare magazines. I would not go down without a fight and would take many enemies with me to pay my toll.

I looked over at Charlie, who seemed to be absorbed in the same thoughts I was, looking around, then settling into the inevitable with a cold look in his eyes and slight snarl on his lips.

“Make a barrier,” I said. “Make the fuckers work for it.” I was immensely glad the platform had only one set of stairs. If it had two, we’d never have a chance here.

I shot the first one to reach my killing zone and another, the sound of the shots bawoinging off the ceiling of the gazebo. That would have gotten old fast if it wasn’t so desperate. I killed as they reached my zone, the bodies falling on top of each other and forcing the ones behind to stumble a little. It was a little uncomfortable, waiting for some to get close for a shot, but we needed to make every shot count and kill as many as we could. If we could get a barrier of bodies up, then the rest would have to work to get to us and we could have the advantage.