"Terra Mortis" - Chapter 8

Terra Mortis

Chapter 8

By Dwayne MacInnes

"Give me the crossbow. If we stay quiet we may be able to dispatch them without attracting attention to ourselves," Sarge said.

Brady pulled over the crossbow. Ronald set it on the floor next to him as he began to open the window. The smell was now even stronger. It filled the entire room. "Thank God no one had breakfast," thought Brady.

Coop shot straight up from his bedrolls and looked over at Brady and Ronald. He knew what was going on and crept over to the window's edge. Then Coop retreated to Nori's bed.

"Coop, get all our stuff gathered up. Brady, there are some Molotov cocktails I made in that closet. We'll use them as a last resort," the sergeant said in a cold calculating voice.

The sound of a low moaning now could be heard emanating from the undead soldiers. The noise was very disconcerting. Brady pulled the Molotov cocktails over to Sarge.

"Brady, get Nori to the east bedroom. That's the one closest to the barn," Sarge ordered.

Brady went over to the bed and wrapped Nori in a sheet and lifted her up. He had never actually carried anyone. She was a lot lighter than he expected. He then carried her to the room as he was ordered. Afterwards Brady returned to Sarge.

Ronald was crouched in front of the window with the crossbow against his shoulder. The sergeant was taking careful aim at the closest zombie. Slowly the sergeant squeezed the trigger. The twang of the released string reverberated in the room. Brady watched the lead zombie crumble to the ground with a bolt sticking through its head.

"Got him!" Sarge exclaimed.

Brady smiled. There were only three more of them. Maybe they could just finish them off or leave now and avoid them all together. Certainly, the latter choice would be the wiser one.

Coop came running into the room.

"Sarge, we're surrounded. They are all around us."

"How? There were none when I last looked," Brady asked.

"I think their moan alerted every walking dead in the area," the sergeant said with a forced calm.

"But how did they know we were here?" Brady continued.

"Same way we know they are there. We smell their death and they smell our life. It was one of the theories in the briefcase," Sarge said as he got up and started heading for the other rooms.

The situation was worse than the sergeant had hoped. There were about thirty of them around the house. Unless, they could clear them from the east and keep them occupied no one would be able to make it to the barn.

"Brady, break out the guns. We no longer need to use stealth. Coop, you are getting your first lesson with an M-16."

Brady did as ordered. Sarge showed Coop the fundamentals of using an M-16. Brady went to a window and took careful aim at a zombie's head. The first shot was right on. The zombie dropped as if it were a puppet that suddenly had its strings cut.

The small band started firing from their improvised fortress. But the number of zombies grew. They couldn't drop them fast enough. It wasn't long before the undead were beating at the walls and trying to pry the boards off the window.

"Conserve your ammo," Sarge ordered. "We'll need it later. Brady, start tearing apart those steps."

Brady grabbed a nearby crowbar and went to work on the bottom step. It was very unnerving to be working downstairs as the sound of the dead moaning and banging on the walls filled the darkness. After the first step was removed, Brady worked on the second slowly retreating up the stairs. What felt like hours was actually only fifteen minutes of work.

The party remained upstairs as the zombies continued to hammer on the walls outside. The sun rose to its zenith and then started on its way back down. Sarge kept the boys busy with different orders to help them get their minds off the zombies. Nori lay unconscious throughout the ordeal.

There had to be close to one hundred zombies as the sun was setting. They had been under siege all day. There were zombies outside each window effectively cutting off all escape routes. Sarge couldn't think of any way to get the zombies away from the east window facing the barn but one.

"Brady, give me a couple of those cocktails," Ronald said as he shouldered his Savage. He then grabbed another rope from his backpack.

Brady handed two bottles with the volatile liquid to Ronald who stuffed them into his belt. The Sarge tied the rope off on newel post at the head of the stairs. He then grabbed the crowbar. Before Brady could stop him Ronald had jumped down the demolished stairs to the ground floor.

"Get ready to get Coop and Nori out of here when the way clears!" shouted Sarge.

Ronald then ran to the front door and pried off the boards. The door began groaning in protest as the zombies pushed on it from the other side. The sergeant then retreated to a back room.

Brady lost sight of Ronald and watched as the door finally burst in with an explosion of slivers and splinters. The downstairs flared into light as Ronald lit the first cocktail and threw at the lead group of zombies. The undead instantly flared up. Some of the closest zombies to the inferno tried to retreat from the fire but still others continued to push their way in, shoving more zombies into the spreading flames. The other cocktail flew into the burning room adding its fuel to the fire. Flames spread across the floor and up the walls. Yet, more zombies pushed their way into the burning building. Their moans filled the house with the sound of the crackling fire.

Brady ran to the east room. He glanced out the window. The zombies were all gone. Brady didn't know how long Sarge could hold off the zombies, but he had to take charge. Brady quickly lowered the rope to the lawn outside the open window. He motioned for Coop to go down first.

"Keep a good eye out Coop. If you see anything heading towards us you run towards that barn and get into the truck, OK?" Brady explained.

The small boy nodded. Coop scrambled down the rope and crouched low with an M-16 at the ready. He then looked up at Brady and gave the OK sign. Brady quickly tied the rope around Nori's arms. He tried to secure the sheet onto her as best he could but this wasn't a time for modesty. Nori then was lowered down the side by Brady. Coop instantly went to work of untying Nori and dragging her away from the wall.

The smoke now filled the upstairs. Brady could hardly see and began coughing. Working by feel he hefted his backpack onto his back. With one last glance toward the hall he saw flames starting to scale the walls. Brady started his climb down the rope. He could see flames seeping out between the boarded up windows on the ground floor. The climb down was actually more of a barely controlled fall. Thankfully the gloves he had grabbed at the outfitters kept him from getting rope burn. As he hit the ground he motioned for Coop to run towards the barn. Brady quickly grabbed Nori and picked her up. Then he threw her over his shoulder as he ran with the shotgun in his other hand. He didn't even look back as the fire lighted their path towards the barn.

Brady ran through the barn doors and grabbed Coop's pack and ushered him into the old red truck. He then deposited Nori onto the seat next to Coop. Brady then added his backpack and guns to the already full truck bed. He jumped into the driver's seat slamming the door shut beside him. "Damn," Brady thought, "a manual. I've never been good at driving these things."

Brady tried to start the truck, but it wouldn't turn over. Coop and Brady were so concerned with starting the truck that they didn't notice the arm that reach out of the darkness and pulled open the door. Brady turned in surprise. Coop screamed as he tried to bring his M-16 up.