©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY
By Wayne Webb
Chapter 10.6
Derek had one of Ben’s stick devices in his
hand; he had retrieved it from where Ben had stashed some things from the
wreckage of their car. He had been given precise instructions on where to find
it, and it was harder than he expected. Ben was obviously adept at deceit and
subterfuge, he had hidden the objects quickly but so completely in an
unfamiliar environment.
Dawn was underway and the half-light
afforded Derek the opportunity to move to the site pretty quickly, but then he
had to take a long way around on the return journey to be able to see the gaps
in the views that the guard towers would have. He would have to climb the hill,
the one with the wood where he had first approached the town, but scouting
further along away from the gate as the curve of the town took a dogleg between
two of the guard towers.
It was not heavily watched but it was not a
place where the breaching was easy either, the wall being treacherously
vertical with zero hand or footholds. Though that was perfect for their
purposes, a section of wall thought to be safe and perfect to target the undead
for their fiery mission. The day was underway but as this was on the west side
of the town the walls covered most of the approach in shadows.
Derek set up two of the sonic devices and
measured about fifty feet between the two of the spots, both just inside the
dogleg of the wall, concave enough to prevent anyone from seeing what was
happening there unless they right above it or already around the corner in the
gap. ‘
The devices were in place but not yet
activated and he walked back along his tracks and paced out the spacing between
the two sticks one more time. Then he walked along the wall hugging it as he
went, checking around both corners for any patrolling guards, seeing none but
also looking to see which of the devices would attract the undead first.
He had to take action, it had already taken
longer than planned to go and deploy the devices and now he had to do it, to
make the diversion as effective as it needed to be. The plan was all about
timing at least from Derek’s perspective.
He walked the distance from the furthest to
the gate to the nearest and paced it out for one last time before slowly
walking back with the can of petrol in his right hand. Derek spread a third of
the gas in a circle around the device, about ten feet in diameter and then
switched on the beacon. He could not see or hear the undead but anything in
range would start to come towards it now.
He ran the gap to the other device and
switched it on too, spreading maybe half of the petrol on and around that device, trailing backwards and connecting the
two circles of petrol soaked ground with an unbroken line before sloshing the
last of it in a line backwards from the midpoint, marking the length of the
fuse he planned to use.
His shoes were soaking in fuel and so he
took them off and threw them up the hill a little way and then hunkered down on
the ground close enough to his fuse point to smell it but not so close to be at
risk of being burned with it. He wrapped his hands in a rag he took from the
car and wiped as much of the surface fuel from his hands as he could and then
slowly the undead turned the corner and came to the first device.
There were thirty or forty of them crowded
around it now and more pouring in from the front of the town. As he heard
shouts from the guards zombies came around the south corner as well, moving in
on the second beacon and making a placid bee line for the device and the circle
of petrol soaked ground.
“Over there!” came a shout and he knew that
it was time to light the fuse, as much as he had no love for the town and for
whatever plan they had, they were still human beings and live ones. He had no
intention of murdering real people with his diversion, there were so few people
left in the world already why would anyone want to lessen humanity’s chance of
survival even if they were suspect?
His hands were shaking and he prayed rapidly
that the fumes and liquid that may have soaked into his skin were gone or not
enough to risk his being burned. The shaking made flicking the lighter on
impossible and he had to stop, take a breath and try again.
With a burst of flame and a sparking clack
it came to life, burning a small cloud of fumes in the air but puffing out and
leaving just the flame, he had his starter fire. Derek leaned up on his hands
and knees and with his outstretched hand he threw the lighter slowly in a low
arc towards the fuse.
There was a puff of smoke and a small
whomping noise as the flames caught the petrol and the line raced through the
grass, splitting and the line and creating the dumbbell shape on the ground in
flames.
The undead just stood there and bumped into
each other, not trying to escape the fire but drawn like moths to the beacon
and catching fire and beginning to burn as well.
There were more than the space allowed and
they were lined up against the wall of the Town as planned.
“Holy shit!” came an anguished cry and two
guards came around the corner to see flames beginning to take hold and lick up the
walls of the town as nearly a hundred burning undead all stuck together in a
burning assembly, flames spouting from limbs and lighting up the shadows in an
orange hue.
The smell of burning, rotten flesh was strong and Derek hated himself for the
rumbling of his stomach as he thought about Frank’s famous BBQ, the one he and
his brother had grown up on, survived on after the GZA.
The flame was lit and by the panicked
shouts the guards made into their radios, the trap had been sprung well.
Now he had to find a new way into the Town
and meet up with the others again.
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