The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(42)

"You okay?"

Jenni smiled immediately under the attention. "Yeah. Just nervous."

Katie kissed her cheek lightly and slid her arm around Jenni's waist.

"Yeah. Me, too."

And then, outside, the moans and screeches of the dead rose to mingle with shouts of alarm.

The zombies had arrived at the perimeter.





Chapter 9





1. The Night of the Dead





Travis rushed over to a window, pulled back the curtains and swore under his breath.

"You two stay here," he said, and rushed out the door.

Curtis looked at the two women, then lowered his head solemnly. He seemed worn down, tired, and overwhelmed. Katie remembered that Travis said that the police force had been wiped out. She had a feeling Travis had asked him to oversee the communications center they had set up to keep him from the action. Curtis looked no older than twenty-one and Katie bet he hadn't been on the job long.

Jenni grabbed her hand. "If we go upstairs we could probably see out the window."

Katie nodded. "Let's go see."

Together, they ran out of the room and up the stairs.

A small crowd of people clustered around the windows to watch.

Managing to worm their way into a good position to watch out of one of the windows, Katie and Jenni looked down at the men taking position to fight the zombies. Ladders had been used to scale the wall and get up onto the trucks.

The harness lines glinted in the light from the huge lights set up around the perimeter. The men had only shovels and strange spears with what looked like trowels attached to the ends. Since the windows were looking out at the street over the top of the wrought iron fence, it was easy to see the zombies desperate to reach the men. Moaning loudly, some of them screeching, thirty or so zombies clustered under the men, beating the sides of the trucks, demanding the flesh of those above them.

Katie's heart jumped a little, as she caught sight of Travis running up one of the ladders, still fastening his harness, his spear under his arm. Of course he would be part of this. He was not the sort of man to send others to do something he wouldn't do himself.

It was as if his presence on top of the truck was a sign, all the men began to squat down and ram their weapons down as hard as they could on the heads of the dead below. Katie could see the shovels busting open heads as the trowel-ended spears were driven through the eye sockets in upturned faces. Some of the zombies managed to grab the weapons and those wielding them immediately let go and were handed a new one. She wondered if the man that had been lost in the earlier battle had tried to fight with a zombie for his weapon. In this new world you had to learn fast to survive.

In the first few minutes, the construction workers took out at least ten zombies. The crush of the other zombies against their now truly dead comrades became greater, holding up dead. This made the men reach out further to actually hit one of the living undead. One man lost his footing altogether and swung out over the crowd. Juan shouted and immediately his towline was drawn up and back. Zombies tried to grab his feet, but the man was swung to safety.

"Shit," someone said nearby and Katie couldn't agree more.

Her eyes continuously strayed to Travis. He had a greater reach and seemed to be driving his shovel down with a strange, staccato rhythm.

"He is kicking so much ass," Jason said from behind her.

Even Jack had managed to wedge himself between people to get a view out the window. He let out a series of low growls.

Travis yelled something and all the men backed away. Then that great mechanical arm came swinging over their heads, loaded up with what looked like bags filled with dirt or maybe cement. Travis made several motions with his hand, guiding the driver of the machine to just the perfect spot, then made a downward stroke with his arm. The driver released the load of heavy bags right into the center of the remaining throng. Most of the zombies were effectively crushed.

Out of the original throng of thirty zombies, maybe five staggered about, falling over their dead comrades.

Travis made another motion and the men retreated down their ladders, picked up the ladders, walked to the wall, rested the ladders against the wall, and scrambled up and over into the construction site. Once the ladders were back over the walls and everyone was safe, cheers erupted throughout the complex.

Katie turned to Jenni and saw her face was very flushed and excited.

"He's amazing!" Jenni giggled and hugged Katie.

Katie hugged Jenni to her and said, "Yep, he is."

And Travis, at that very moment, looked up at the window they were in, his gaze meeting Katie's, and smiled.





2. Another Moment





Exhaustion hit Katie like a sledgehammer. She almost felt drunk as she finally lay down on the cot set up for her in a small empty storage room on the fourth floor of city hall. The old building's sloped roof made standing up straight a little difficult unless you were in the center of the room. She had a feeling Travis had pulled some strings to get them a place inside the building and not camping out in portable buildings that were now dorms. Evidently the basement of city hall had long ago been set up as a bomb shelter during the Commie scare and loads of cots and musty blankets were brought up for those taking refuge in "the fort".

Jenni had seemed wired and very awake after the zombie attack. After they had talked to Ralph on the CB and he agreed to provide weapons to the fort if they could figure out how to pick them up, Jenni had slipped out with Travis to follow him around on the complex. He had asked Katie, but she was far too tired and had begged off. Now she sat on her cot watching Jason fix a bed on the floor for Jack using a blanket he had pinched when no one was watching the supplies.