John turned to Jack. “Thanks for spotting it. Every zombie we take care of out here is one less threat.” He paused, seeing a mildly confused look on the young man’s face. “What’s on your mind?”
“I was just wondering.” Jack made a wry face. “What it was.”
“You mean, was it a boy, a girl, or an elderly grandma?”
Jack answered with a small nod, afraid that he had disappointed John.
“They’re nothing anymore, Jack. They used to be boys and girls and grandmas. Now they are husks. Shells... Puppets, under the control of these damn nanobots.” John pursed his lips. “Listen, Jack. Don’t try to personalize the enemy. You’ll only cause yourself grief. And worse, you might end up hesitating when you need to act.”
The boy digested that as they drove. He stared out the window at the houses as they passed.
“It’s not easy,” John said to the younger man’s back. “You risk depersonalizing yourself, eventually.”
Jack turned to the ex soldier. He was looking past Jack, out the window and far away. He snapped out of his reverie a moment later and met Jack’s eyes.
“You do what you have to do,” he said simply and again stared out of his own window.
They stopped a total of seven more times over the next fifteen minutes.
Then they got to the gate.
Jack’s eyes got wide as he saw the crowd of zombies. At least ten undead had gathered there. They reached through the bars of the gate, grasping at the vehicles as though they were within touching distance. Jack saw them shove each other and shake the gate. He watched them smash their faces into the bars, attempting to the destroy the obstacle keeping them from their prey.
“Perimeter check,” John said.
Everybody scanned out their windows and Abi radioed for the second vehicle to do the same. Sure enough, there were several zombies approaching from the near side of the fence as well.
“Let’s play it safe,” John suggested. He opened the hatch on the Humvee and stood, pulling his rifle up behind him. Jack watched the hatch pop open on the second Humvee. A moment later, Bill’s head and shoulders could be seen poking out.
The two snipers made short work of the approaching undead. In a minute there were five more destroyed zombies, and the coast was clear.
“Jack, Mike, let’s go. Abi, you take overwatch,” John ordered when he lowered himself back into the vehicle.
The trio stepped out and slowly walked to within ten yards of the fence. Michelle and Nat had joined them from the second vehicle, while BB was pulling their Humvee into a better position.
“OK, this is close enough. Mike, you start on the far left. Nat, far right. Jack, you start from the middle and work your way left. Michelle, same thing and go right. Do a weapons check first,” John instructed the team. He held his own weapon at low ready.
Jack felt a flush of adrenaline as he checked his rifle and lifted it to his shoulder. John came up behind him.
“Just aim down the barrel. Get the head in your sights....” He watched as Jack adjusted his aim. “Keep both eyes open. Relax. Take a breath and squeeze the trigger as you let it out.”
Jack took his shot. It was a hit. He lowered the rifle and turned to John with wide eyes.
It wasn’t until after his shot that he noticed three things. First, the sound a rifle makes next to your ear is deafeningly loud. Second, the other shooters had waited for Jack to shoot. They now started taking their shots, adding to the ringing in Jack’s ears.
The third thing Jack realized was that he’d never noticed whether his target was a boy or a girl, young or old. In fact, he couldn’t remember what his target looked like. That baffled him.
John smiled at Jack. “Good shot, son.” He nodded towards the gate. “Take another one.”
Jack raised the rifle to his cheek once more and repeated the process.
“Breathe. Feel the natural movement of the rifle as you breathe in and out, Jack...” John whispered behind him.
Jack pulled the trigger and scored another hit.
“I do believe you’re a natural, Jack,” John said.
Trying not to let the sudden surge of pride distract him, Jack swallowed, drew another deep breath, and took his next shot.
A couple of minutes later, the gate was cleared. John led his team and asked Mike to unlatch it and pull it open as the rest covered him. It took him a while to open the gate, as the latch was all bent.
He was absorbed trying to bend the latch back when an arm reached through the bars and grabbed his jacket. Mike jerked back with an exclamation of surprise, snapping the latch clean off the gate. Jack could see that the gaunt, tall figure still held on to Mike’s jacket. The size of the creature, as well as its dark hair and long face eerily reminded Jack of his dad.
Except its skin had turned a shade of gray, its eyes a darker gray now, the pupils barely visible. And it had its head pushed into the bars of the gate, its mouth wide open as it attempted to bite Mike.
Then John was there. The ex-soldier stepped around Mike, his sidearm drawn. The zombie still latched onto Mike’s jacket but turned his face as John’s gun poked into his temple.
BLAM! And the threat was removed.
The gate was opened in short order. John had the group push the zombies out of the way and the vehicles pulled past the gates. They were out.
There was a moment of alarm when they realized that the gate couldn’t be fully closed, but Mike took his blood-covered jacket and used it to tie it shut.
Jack watched the gate disappear from his view as his vehicle turned a corner. He took a breath, realizing that he had first left the safety of the Ren, then the safety of the school grounds, and finally the safety of the gated community.
They were well and truly
