'Til Death Do Us Part

“Grab the ammo,” Tony said to Travis. “Station it every ten feet along the deck.”

“Ammo is a last resort, dad,” Ron stressed.

“Hurry up then,” Tony told Travis with a smile. The defenses they had built looked formidable, but every fortress was pregnable.

Travis turned and headed back in. He noticed Justin in the shadows of the darkened living room. His lips were moving but no words were emanating forth. “Justin?” Travis asked nervously.

“She’s fucking back, brother.” Justin shivered. Travis walked over cautiously to his brother. “Relax, I can see the concern on your face. I haven’t gone to the dark side yet.”

“No?” Travis asked. “How long have you known they were coming?” he asked before going to fulfill his grandfather’s orders.

Justin was caught off guard. Long enough, he thought.

Tracy was frantically calling out Erin’s name. The only thing answering back was the chirp of crickets that were beginning to still with the approach of multiple diesel engines.

***

Erin heard the ragged screams calling her name, but the peace the woods offered her pulled too deeply. That and the half bottle of valiums she had taken were all she wanted in life as she laid her head back down on the exposed tree root. Her breaths were shallow and her thoughts fogged over. “Paul?” she mumbled in question. “I’ve missed you so much.” She sobbed with relief.

Not this way, Erin, her husband said with a sad smile. It was too late; Erin’s heart slowed further and then stopped. Her eyes shot open, frozen in surprise at her final resting spot.

***

“How much time do we have?” Gary asked, looking out the small road that led to the house.

“Well, they’re on the access road for sure,” Ron replied.

“So within three miles,” Gary said aloud.

“Too close, brother. I know what you’re thinking.”

Gary was done thinking; he was heading for the front gate. Ron had dug out a pit in the middle of the access road; it was seven feet deep, twelve feet across, and the width of the road across about ten feet. They had built a makeshift bridge over the gap so that they could get in and out when needed. The aluminum structure was held in place with heavy metal rods which, if removed, would cause the bridge to collapse once anything of substantial weight bore down on it. The idea being that the defenses around the house were stout but would have great difficulty holding up to a tank or in this case tractor trailers ramming at full steam.

“Dad!” Ron said louder than he needed to.

“I’m covering…nothing yet,” he said, looking through his scope.

Travis was back with his second ammo run. He had just stood up and was turning to run back in. “Zombies!” he yelled, pointing into the woods about forty yards away. They had been heading towards the house, but changed direction when they spotted movement; Gary.

“There’s dozens of them,” Lyndsey said.

“Sis, get the kids down into the fallout shelter,” Ron said, not taking his eyes off Gary. There were dozens in sight, but more kept coming. “Gary, it isn’t worth it!” Ron shouted wrapping his hands around his mouth to project his voice. But that was a lie, it was worth it. One truck could smash through just about everything they had accomplished.

Gary was humming as he was running, then he started to sing softly, “Risin’ up, back on the street. Did my time, took my chances. Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet. Just a man and his will to survive…” Gary reached the bridge just as he completed the first stanza. He saw the zombies but still figured he had enough time to pull the pin. His shoulders, arms, neck, and legs, strained as he pulled on the two foot around pin. Inch by blessed inch it scraped free.

“Gary, get out of there,” Ron shouted.

Tony started shooting. Gary could hear zombies thudding to the ground.

“Still time,” he said as the bodies hitting the ground still sounded far enough away.

Added to Tony’s precision shots was Travis’ cover fire. “Uncle Gary, you should really get your ass moving!” Travis shouted.

“No swearing,” Tracy admonished him.

“This is as good a time as any,” he answered his mother in between blasts.

She was too lost in twisting worry to give Travis any flack over his response as she watched zombies streaming through the woods like ghostly bearers of death.

Gary had both legs dug into the ground and was pulling with all his might, the pin yielding but on its own schedule, not caring in the least that Gary’s timetable was running late. The majority of it was out, but now the bullets were of close enough proximity that he could hear them whining by like relentless deer flies. He pushed up and down until the heavy ‘pin’ dropped to the ground. He lifted it over his head and again broke out into song. “It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight…” Gary tossed it to the side and started running.

“Let’s go, Rocky, get your ass back here!” Ron was motioning for him. “If he starts shadow boxing while he’s running, I’m going to kill him.”

BT was beside Travis, they were keeping the zombies to Gary’s left from approaching any closer, but it was Tony’s sniper rifle shooting that was keeping the ones that had gotten up behind him from being able to drag him down.

Cindy held the gate open for him as he ran through. She quickly closed it and latched it, heading back up to the deck as the first of the zombies crashed into it. Gary gave the zombies the finger, sang one more stanza and headed upstairs. “Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival, and the last known survivor… ”

“Are you nuts?” Ron yelled at his younger brother. “You did good.” He gave Gary a hug. “Don’t do it again.”

Gary saw a trail of dead zombies where he had been. “Yeah, that’s probably safe to say.”

“It doesn’t sound like they’re coming any closer,” Tracy said.

“Looks like they’re just dropping their payload,” Ron said, looking as zombies were coming by the score.

Nicole came up to Ron’s side. “MJ wants to know if he should throw the switch.”

“Now would be as good a time as any.” Ron was still trying to bring his beating heart down to a manageable rate and not having much success.

The six-foot high chain link fence was swaying as more zombies walked into the impediment, the extra braces on the poles and the chain link section themselves would not be yielding anytime soon.

Perimeter lights flooded on just as the zombies touching the gate and fence stood bolt upright, a decent current running through their frames, enough to kill a man or at the very least incapacitate him. The zombies’ muscles were locked in place, and still more came pressing up against their stock still brethren only to join them in their rigidity.

“Is it killing them?” Tracy asked, hoping that was the case.

Ron grabbed his binoculars. “I can’t tell for sure. Travis, can you go down and tell MJ to turn the fence off for a minute, then back on? Thanks,” he added as Travis went by.

The first few zombies that had been the unfortunate first test zombies fell to the ground as the current let their muscles loose. More moved in to take their spot, but there were not yet enough that they blocked out the zombies on the ground as they stood and fought for access to the fence.

“Well that answers that question,” Ron said more to himself. He walked inside and yelled down the stairs. “Turn the fence back on.” Travis was already on his way back up and heading for the outside deck.

“Time to make them pay for their trespassing,” Tony said as he sent a bullet through the forehead of the nearest zombie. A plume shot out the back of its skull. Travis, Gary, and BT joined in the shooting.

“Take your time,” Tony told them. “One shot, at least one kill with them packing this closely. Bullets are