They had Lou to thank for these pikes. Another thing they owed their Captain...
Apparently, he was a member of some “Pike and Shot” society, whatever that meant. Well, what it meant was that Lou knew about medieval weapons and found a supply to arm most of their militia. Not medieval, Andrew corrected himself. Lou would tear him a new one if he said that again.
They got to the stairs leading into the ship in short order. It wasn’t very wide, but Lou had already instructed his charges to partner up at the stairs. They would ascend by twos. Lou insisted on going first. He also insisted that Andrew be at the rear of the column.
“If I go down, you’ll have to rally the troops,” he had told Andrew without a hint of emotion.
Andrew stood around at the bottom of the stairs for a full minute as other pairs marched up the stairs ahead of him. The dominant sound now was that of boots on metal threads, and the occasional clank as a weapon hit a handrail.
He looked back towards Tomas and his team. It looked like they were nearly done with their task. Lou had taught them how to use their weapons to maximum effect. Andrew figured that they had shot a volley of projectiles at the approaching deados first, using the small crossbows. Those things were a one-shot use, as it took too long to rearm them. They must have at the very least tripped up several deados with those shots. Possibly one or two would be down for good, as some of the guys were getting quite accurate with them.
The next step was to pick up the pikes and attempt to trip and ground their opponents. Tomas would also have tasked a couple of guys to be “club men.” The big man was probably one of those, himself. These fighters would carefully step around the grounded deado and use the heavy metal-ringed clubs to crush the skulls of their undead enemies.
Andrew could see Tomas and his group jogging to the ship. It looked like that part of the plan went off without a hitch.
As if on cue, a yell and a curse emerged from somewhere inside the ship. They had made first contact.
Andrew couldn’t stop to think, as it was time for him and his partner, a chunky woman named Alice, to climb the stairs and join the fight.
The dark maw of the ship’s entrance loomed before them as they got to the top of the stairs. That wasn’t the worst, as the smell of rot hit them when they took their first step. It was almost like a physical blow that stunned Alice, and she tottered. Andrew would have hesitated too, if she hadn’t done it first.
“Come on, Alice. There’s light up ahead.”
He’d caught sight of natural light about twenty yards down the hall, exposing an open area of some kind. Andrew guessed that it was a lobby.
His guess proved to be correct. The open area had a massive glass ceiling, set several floors up. The whole layout reminded Andrew of a courtyard hotel. A stairway led up to the next level, which overlooked the open area, same as the ones above it. The stairway also led down, to the lower level. Two men had been left at the hallway to safeguard their escape route.
Andrew didn’t have much time to look around. There was a fight going on.
“Watch your line! Tighten up!” Lou called out instructions from the middle of a set of two defensive lines, situated just to the right of the hallway that Andrew had emerged from.
They had set up the lines with the check-in desk behind them. Lou and five others had knelt, their pikes angled upward. Behind them stood a line of seven others, their pikes straight out, forming a human hedgehog. That hedge had caught three zombies. One went down as Andrew watched, collapsing lifelessly as a sharp jab perforated its eye.
Andrew and Alice knew their roles; it had been drilled into them. They seamlessly joined the pike wall. Two zombies still struggled against the pikes that held them at bay, the hooklike protrusions that flared off the spearheads keeping them from getting any closer while other pikes darted in to try and land the killing blow. A second zombie went down but was not out.
“Take downs! Pin them!” Lou called.
In quick order, the legs were swept from under the third zombie. Both were pinned to the ground by multiple pikes. It was gross, the way they continued to squirm even though their innards were leaking out.
“Clubs,” Lou ordered. The Shields had practiced this before and clubs were out quickly. Two men stepped around the squirming bodies and delivered skull-crushing blows.
Suddenly, quiet fell again. The coast was clear, for now.
Andrew had just enough time to get his bearings before Lou started ordering the troops around. The lobby area had a bar on the far side. The stairs were next to the bar. The only other access to the lobby were two hallways on opposite sides of the large room. Lou pointed at the nearest one now.
“Andrew, get a couple of guys at each hallway as well as those stairs. We don’t need any surprises.” Lou turned around and tapped Alice on the shoulder. “Go get Tomas and his team. Tell him to leave another lookout at the top of the stairs out there.”
“Yes, Captain!” Alice was off in a flash.
He turned back to Andrew. “We’ve got these two hallways and the stairs, which go up and down.” He tugged at his beard as he talked.
Andrew could tell that Lou was talking to himself. It was how he operated. Lou was what you would call an ‘”out-loud thinker.”
“We’ll need to keep this position as our base of operations. This is our beachhead, and we want to keep it secured. We’ve got two hallways and
