Jason glanced back over his shoulder to see most of the zombies were stumbling past the opening a couple of hundred yards behind them. The dead didn’t seem to notice them with all the noise Rune was making with the grenades.
“The gremlins probably took off when they saw Jack,” Jason said, trying to calm Calhoun. He needed the old man’s mind working on a solution, not freaking out over invisible opponents. Jack barely glanced at Jason when he heard his name. He was poised to attack, his body rigid, his eyes narrowed at the undead. The boy had told him not to do anything and he was obeying for now. But if those smelly things came toward them, he was going to rip them to pieces.
“Yeah, gremlins hate dogs,” Calhoun conceded. “Good old Jack here probably got them running for the hills.”
“Yep,” Jason assured the old guy and wondered if Calhoun even noticed the zombies. Nervously, he looked back toward the undead filing past the fire line. They were still unnoticed. Trying to concentrate, his trembling fingers moved methodically through the innards of the contraption he and Calhoun had built together.
“Jason,” Calhoun whispered.
“Yeah?” “The clones are here,” the old man’s voice trembled.
“I know,” Jason answered and flipped through the wires and studied their connections.
Jack let out a low whimper.
“Well, uh. I think they noticed us.”
Jason quickly looked over his shoulder to see one lone zombie staggering toward them. It was so badly decayed he wasn’t sure if it was a woman or a man. Jack let out a low growl and looked to Jason, awaiting orders. “It’s still far away.” Jason returned his gaze to the contraption. “Don’t shoot it or the rest of them will come at us.”
Calhoun drew his gun anyway. “I don’t like the idea of those things having an all they can eat at the Calhoun buffet.”
Jason moved so he could keep an eye on the lone zombie moving toward them and keep working. It was clear Calhoun’s concentration was shot.
The zombie kept coming, its movements jerky and rigid. It was obviously hard for it to move.
Jason dug deeper into the box, his fingers tracing the wires carefully.
Jack growled angrily and woofed slightly. Looking up, the teenager was startled to see the progress the zombie was making. Then, abruptly, it fell backwards and lay still. Calhoun scrambled forward and looked down at the thing.
“Right through the head! DAMN! That old woman is evil!”
Realizing the snipers had taken the zombie down, Jason felt safer and kept working. He could still see the zombies staggering past the entrance in the distance. The two humans and the dog had to be obscured from view from below. They were not drawing any attention. Another explosion in the distance sounded. Jason heard a catapult creaking as it unfurled its arm and tossed a load of microwaves and TVs into the crowd of zombies passing alongside the fort. “That’s not good,” Calhoun decided, scuttling along the ground on his hands and knees.
“They’re probably trying to keep them from getting Rune,” Jason answered.
“Not that. That!”
Jason looked up once more. But this time his blood ran cold. Three zombies were running up the hill, pushing past the shambling ones and rushing straight toward them.
“Oh, shit!” Jason jumped to his feet and scrambled to get his gun out.
Calhoun took a shot and hit one of the runners in the shoulder, spinning it around. But it recovered immediately and kept rushing toward them. Jack launched himself into the first runner and snagged its shoulder in his teeth. It went down under the momentum of the dog’s leap and struggled to get free of the growling canine. As with all other zombies, it was not interested in animals. It only wanted to break away from the dog to get to the humans.
Another runner went down under a sniper shot. Jason managed to get his gun out and aimed it at the next one coming up fast on him. He saw puffs of dirt kick up around the zombie. Whoever was shooting from the fort was not Nerit. They were missing. The zombie screeched as it barreled toward him. Calhoun took another shot and missed. Jason could see the old man stagger back as the runner Jack was battling grabbed the old man’s ankle.
Jason raised his gun and aimed at the zombie, but then it was on him. It took a swipe at his arm, its bloodied face seeming to streak toward him, and Jason ducked away. He felt the creature grip his long bangs and Jason spun around on his heels as he lost his balance. They both fell. The zombie’s howling mouth was inches from his face. Jason barely managed to get his hand under the thing’s chin and push upwards.
In the next instant, Jack was on the zombie, his jaws clamping down on the back of its neck and pulling it away from his master. The undead howling remains of the man tried to hold onto Jason, but Jack yanked hard and it slid off Jason.
Calhoun was nearby using the detonation device to bash the other runner’s brains in.
“Calhoun, no!” Jason managed to utter, then heard a terrible sound. A steady beeping. “Jack! Let go of it! Come here!”
Jack whirled around and rushed toward the boy. The nearly decapitated runner pushed itself to its knees but then the sniper finally got the right shot and it fell over.
Calhoun looked at Jason startled, then up at the box. The light that had so determinedly not come on before was blinking red. Calhoun looked toward the fuel tanks then the boy. “This is not good.”
“You triggered it,” Jason shouted back. “We need to run. Now!”
Jason glanced toward the opening and saw zombies were now trudging toward them. They had finally been noticed and around fifty zombies were already past the fire line. He didn’t say another word, but turned and ran.
Jack growled at the shambling zombies, then ran after his boy. The stinky old man threw down the metal box and began to run after them. He was bit slower because of his creaky old bones. Jack barked at him to hurry it up, darted back to urge the stinky man on, then ran back after the boy.
The teenager and the old man ran as hard as they could as the red light blinked faster and faster. They were halfway to the fort when the fuel tanks exploded. The blast blew them of their feet and hurled them to the ground as a gush of hot air, then flames filled the air.
On the fort wall, everyone hit the ground as the blast filled the morning sky. Fiery debris rained down as the roar of the explosion rang in the fort occupants’ ears.
When the flames began to die down, zombies were burning, debris littered the wide expanse before the fort, and a boy, a dog, and an old man laid unmoving on the ground.
*
Katie lifted herself up off the floor and looked over the rail at the devastation the fire line had wrought. Zombies were burning, as was the makeshift outer wall. Many of the zombies had been blown into bits and others tossed back down the hill into the mob. Clutching the railing, she tried to see through the acrid smoke.