SEASON 3 EPISODE 1: Sound Barriers

            [Rich]: Some of y’all might think I’m crazy…but if we do this…we won’t ever have to deal with the dead. Ever.

               The rhythmic electronic humming could most definitely be heard several miles away. Even with the cold winter winds blowing at thirty miles an hour it could be heard echoing across town. That was just the beeping alone. The ruckus also included a large, roaring crane rolling across the highway as it carried a harness full of massive concrete highway barriers. Every vehicle within view had been pushed to the side to make room for the crane and multiple trucks dragging trailers, which also carried barriers with them.

            Rich was following behind one of the trucks on foot, as well as Mrs. Reed, Lee, and Dylan.

            [Mrs. Reed]: Watch the vehicles! A rover could have made it behind one of them!

            Just then a thin, rotting, desiccated rover pounced from one of the vehicles, but before it grabbed Mrs. Reed with it’s yellow, meat-jammed teeth, an arrow congested into it’s eye socket, throwing the corpse to the ground. Dylan lowered his crossbow and reclaimed his arrow, and proceeding with the others.

            [Lee]: There'll be more. Look.

            Lee pointed over the edge of the highway, and down below under the overpass was a large collective horde of the undead. At least three hundred rovers with their sharp, bulgy jaws and glazed, white eyes aimed towards the sound of the crane and multiple trucks. From above, it looked like a dark cloud below them was following their path.

            [Lee]: Eventually this overpass is gonna reach it’s end and we’ll have that to deal with that.

            Just then one of the trucks behind Rich and his team pulled up beside them. Brittany rolled down the window.

            [Brittany]: Did y’all see the herd?

            [Mrs.]: Yeah.

            [Brittany]: This would have been a whole lot easier if we had another team to lead them away!

            [Rich]: We don’t have enough people, you know that! We’re stretched thin as it is.

            [Brittany]: We don’t have enough people to fend off 300 rovers, either!

            Rich looked at Brittany for a moment, then back at the herd below. As much as he hated to admit to himself, the girl was right. They had two options. Option one: speed up and outpace the rovers and risk overheating the crane, damaging it and preventing the group from building walls in the first place. Option two: Stay the course, preventing any damage to the crane, but then having to fight the herd head on.

            Pulling his communication remote from his belt, he looked at the driver of the crane.

            [Rich]: Sherman, do you read?

            Sherman removed his yellow hard helmet and turned around to grab his remote.

            [Sherman]: Yeah?

            [Rich]: How much can the crane take before overheating and breaking down?

            [Sherman]: If by “how much it can take” you mean how much it can overtake those rovers down below…Betty can take it, but we’d have to make repairs on her by the end of the trip for sure.  

            [Rich]: How long will that take?

            [Sherman]: A day at least.

            The group would have to fight the herd off either way. They’d need all the help they can get…including Christian; Rich's own son. Is this worth it? Is any of this worth it?

            [Brittany]: Why you didn’t think of these things before, Rich, I’ll never know!

            [Rich]: Shuttup, Brittany! We’re moving full speed ahead. Let the trucks get ahead of the crane, and get to the church so we can prepare for the herd that’s coming!

            [Brittany]: Or we have one truck stay behind and lead them away from our direction.

            [Rich]: If that doesn’t work we’d have less people, and less barriers to make walls. We need every barrier we can get we’ve been planning this for weeks.

            Brittany grew more impatient by the second as she was forced to argue with Rich and drive a truck with a trailer all at once.

            [Brittany]: Not we. You. You rushed into this while we were just putting supplies together for it. You obviously didn’t think of this happening.

            [Rich]: I don’t need this right now. You just focus on your job!

            Mrs. Reed pulled Lee aside,

            [Mrs. Reed]: Lee, you’re fast, and you’re our supply runner and this isn’t the first time you’ve had to lead rovers away from what I’ve heard…

            [Lee]: You want me to lead them away. I got it.

            As the four walking members of the group maintained the pace with the slow-moving crane and trucks, Dylan side-stepped in front of Rich. The two paused and stared at each other for a moment, Dylan was suddenly regretting his sudden move.

            [Dylan]: I-I think we should go with Brittany’s plan. It’s also your plan…mostly your plan. Everyone else goes ahead to the church and one of the trucks leads the herd away. We can do this, I think.

            [Brittany]: My trailer only holds one barrier. Better to lose one than more in case the mission fails.

            Rich knew it was a good plan. He hated that he knew, but he knew all the same. There was no other option at this point. Any other tactic would kill members of his group, and most likely the three construction workers they found with the crane as well.

            [Rich]: Fine. Lee go with her.

            Brittany whispered a curse under her breath, or at least one she made up herself. Did he really have to come along too? Brittany could easily lead the herd away on her own.

            Lee climbed into the passenger seat of the truck and nodded to Rich. Rich readjusted the settings on his remote so that everyone received.

            [Rich]: All trucks pass up the crane and get to the church as soon as possible. Sherman, Vergilio, and Lashaun, get the crane to the church as fast as possible without hurting the crane.

            [Vergilio]: You got it, amigo!

            [Sherman]: Lashaun, stick behind the crawler and keep an eye out for the counterweight, and those stray rovers on the highway.

            [Lashaun]: Right.

            One by one, the five trucks following behind the crane began to pass it up. Maddy was the first to pass up the massive, crane. After her was Kelley, Alyssa, Christian, and finally Jenna who picked up Rich, Mrs. Reed and Dylan.

            Brittany steered the truck around, heading in the opposite direction of the crane. Taking the nearest exit off the overpass, they come back around headed in the direction of the church and stopping just beside the herd of rovers.

            [Lee]: Air horns?

            [Brittany]: Back seat.

            Grabbing two of them from back passenger seat of the truck, Lee stuck his head and two arms from the side window and blared both horns at the same time while Brittany pressed the horn of the car. The noise almost instantly got the attention of all the rovers from the herd. It took all of about a few seconds before they were all scrambling towards the truck. Brittany didn’t spend an extra moment. She turned the wheel of the truck and drove down 242 a certain distance before stopping so that the rovers could catch up.

            [Lee]: Where are you going?

            [Brittany]: Down 242 to The Property, then circling back towards the church taking 1314.

            [Lee]: Gotcha.

            Pressing her hand against the horn again, Brittany added some comfort to the awkward silence all the while keeping the hungry dead focused on their menu. But that steady noise soon drowned out too, and the awkwardness returned. She hated it. She just wanted things back to normal. Not just for the world but for friendships and relationships. There was always something going on. Ian and Jenna separating, Ian still out there doing Lord knows what, Tim’s guilty depression hasn’t slowed, Rich is soon becoming a tyrant of a leader, a community living nearly right beside the Church was discovered to be in league with the death of everyone Brittany loved; people like Shane…and so many others. And on top of all of that, Lee and Brittany had the break up talk after Zach Golden’s death was confirmed. Then just when things couldn't get worse, Lauren’s brother just might die at the church any moment after that accident in the dollar store. It was all just too much; too much for Brittany to handle. But Brittany knew that God was in control. He had a plan to make things better for everyone...right? 

            [Lee]: Brittany!

            Lee suddenly yelled out. Snapping back into attention, she realized that the herd was already caught up and crawling onto the trailer and moving up closer towards the side view mirrors. Stepping on the gas, the truck lunged forward rolling several rovers off the trailer and skipping across the concrete.

            The truck came to a stop a hundred yards from the herd, Lee stepped out of the truck blaring the air horns and making sure that the herd was focused on them. It had been a week since Lee officially broke things off with Brittany. It was nothing neither of them did that caused him to do it, and most people are probably gonna think he’s the bad guy. In fact, Lee is sure that most of the group already thinks that. But that’s okay. It doesn’t matter what who-thinks-what right now. The focus right now was survival and staying alive. That was why he ended it in the first place. There was just too much happening and too much loss…so much that it took away every drop of joy he had. So much that having a girlfriend didn’t seem to help and only added to the pressure. Not that she was a problem, just having a girlfriend as a whole. Zach was dead. He knew it before, but actually seeing the look on Tim’s face when he and Christian confirmed it…it was like seeing Zach die in his mind all over again. His best friend since that one Round Up event at church, and since all those great times at comic book stores and movie theaters…till now. Now he learns that his best friend was found dead and rotten in the middle of a road with the top of his head chopped off. That was almost too much. He only cried about it when he was alone. That was when he was happiest, ironically, when he was alone. That was the reason behind the break up was when he realized he was happier right now while he was alone. No one will ever understand, but he doesn’t expect them too.

            [Brittany]: Lee! Behind you!

            Spinning around, Lee stumbled back as three rovers leaned over on top of him.

            Hunter Reed hadn’t left the door of the youth center sent his mom left. It was the first time in a very long time since she’d gone out. Last time she did, she went with her husband…and only one came back. It wasn’t long after that when his home was attacked and he lost his little brother. Since then she swore to Hunter that she would never leave him again. But things changed, he knew that. He understood. She had to go; it had to happen and at the cost of Hunter not knowing if he’ll ever see her again. Suddenly a hand rested on his shoulder and he almost nearly jumped.

            [Audrey]: Sorry…didn’t mean to scare you.

            [Hunter]: It’s all good.

            Awkwardly, Hunter wrapped his arm around his much taller friend.

            [Audrey]: She’ll come back.

            [Hunter]: I-I know. It’s just…

            [Audrey]: Yeah. I know. We can’t know, but I feel like she will. She has a lot to survive for.

            Hunter didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to. She was right, mom did have a lot to live for, but so did dad. So did my brother. 

            [Audrey]: I think you really need something to get your mind off everything.

            [Hunter]: No, I’m good.

            [Audrey]: You sure?

            [Hunter]: Yeah…she could pull around the corner any moment, ya know? I have to be there; to see her come home.

            [Audrey]: Yeah…

            Pulling her arm away she backed away from Hunter and walked down stairs to the kitchen. Inside she found Bailey and Lauren. Both of them looming over a table with a small body laying still over it. So much has happened the past seven days that everyone has almost shut down completely of all their emotions.

            Stepping beside the two and looking over the table. Audrey hugged Lauren gently.

            [Audrey]: He’ll be okay.

            Lauren had stopped crying as of this morning. But she hasn’t moved since. For almost twenty hours Lauren had been standing in this one spot.

            [Lauren]: Mom put me in charge…she made me responsible…

            [Bailey]: (Sniffling) Lauren…it’s not-

            [Lauren]: Don’t tell me it’s not my fault because it is. I let him go with Lee.

            [Audrey]: We did what we could…he’ll make it. You have to hope.

            Wiping her nose, Lauren leaned over and kissed her little brother, Hunter. She lifted the blanket covering his body, revealing his amputated leg above the knee.

            [Lauren]: You did what you could. I just want space now.

            Letting go of her embrace, Audrey and Bailey both left the room. Walking back up the stair case, the two sisters stopped midway.

            [Bailey]: I’m guessing you haven’t seen signs of Tim, yet.

            [Audrey]: No. Kelley doesn’t even know yet. Where could he have gone?

            Honestly, Tim could be anywhere. After Zach, he met his breaking point. Bailey saw how broken he was. He was a liability to the group, he hardly did anything to help. Then this morning, very early in the morning, he was gone. With only his AR-15 and ammo missing. Nothing else.

            [Bailey]: Honestly, Tim could be anywhere. If the Lord heals him, he’ll return.

            For a split moment, Brittany just stared; frozen in her place like the same Brittany that froze when Shane was shot to death in that van. But this was a different time; a different Brittany Brown. This new person was fearless, and cold. Broken by the new world, and then remolded by it. It made her strong enough to do things she didn’t think she ever could, and by the time Brittany unfroze and snapped back to attention, she was standing outside the car with a pistol in her hand aiming at the rovers Lee was desperately guarding himself from. Writhing on the ground, all three of the undead were scrambling to sink their rotted teeth into Lee’s flesh. Barely able to push their heads away from his body, Lee managed to evade infection for the time being.

            Then, there was a single mistake. A slip up, nothing more. It was miniscule and almost insignificant. But the smallest trip-ups in this new world caused more damage than anything else. Lee’s hand slipped across one of the rover’s faces, providing no resistance, and urging the rover forward as the other two were occupied by Lee’s two hands, making him completely vulnerable to the third rover. Without someone else there to intervene, Lee would have died.

            The next thing Lee heard was a gun shot, then a muffled popping noise, followed by a blast of black blood into his face. Then a second and third gunshot resulted in chunks of brain matter and skull shards bursting all over his clothes and the road under him. Pushing the bodies off him, Lee rolled to his feet and smeared the dripping blood off his face. Brittany just stood there watching him.

            [Brittany]: You good?

            [Lee]: Yup. Had it under control.

            Stepping behind the wheel, Lee waited for Brittany to get into the truck. Sitting in the passenger seat, Brittany turned her gaze towards the window of the truck. Lee drove down the road continuing the process of leading the herd away from the church.

            Pulling into the Church property, Rich, Mrs. Reed, and Dylan leaped off the tailgate followed by Maddy, Alissa, Christian, Jenna and Kelley.

            [Hunter]: Mom!

            Before she could even reach the outdoor steps to the youth center, Hunter was already in his mother’s arms. Mrs. Reed fell to her knees gripping her son tighter than she ever had in a very long time. He was much taller than her now, Mrs. Reed noticed. His hugs nearly overpowered her. Mrs. Reed cried; it made her think of her husband.

            [Rich]: Park those trucks and get to the armory! Every single one of us needs to prepare for a fight in case Lee’s mission fails.

            The eight members of the group that returned rushed inside the facility and into the armory which used to be the closet behind the stage inside the youth center. Coincidentally, their youth pastor, Dustin was very much into “Nerf” and had collected dozens of Nerf guns that he stacked and supplied in that very same closet. It had grown to be a major upgrade from Nerf guns and stage props to automatic weapons, shotguns, and melee weapons.

            [Bailey]: We only have a couple of boxes left!

            [Rich]: What kinds?

            Examining the rounds in the boxes, Rich could see the frustration on Bailey’s face.

            [Bailey]: Two boxes of twenty-twos, and one box of thirty-eights.

            [Rich]: Give me the ammo. I’ll use the Smith and Wesson MP-15, and Christian will use the .357 mag revolver.

            [Bailey]: What?

            [Rich]: Yes, and the rest of you guys take the bows, and melee weapons.

            [Bailey]: Alright whatever.

            Grabbing a handmade spear, Bailey stepped out of the armory, and soon others rushed inside to grab melee weapons.

            Running to Rich’s side, Dylan stocked more arrows in his quiver as Christian and his father loaded the only firearms that were going to be in use.

            [Dylan]: Shouldn’t we give the guns to someone else like Mrs. Reed and Lauren?

            [Rich]: Why them?

            [Dylan]: Mrs. Reed is kinda an older woman and isn’t strong enough to fight with hand weapons, and Lauren has to watch over her brother somehow and she can’t defend against rovers as good using a wooden spear.

            [Rich]: She won’t have to defend anything if we do our jobs right.

            [Dylan]: I guess…so should we all get airhorns and spread the rovers out and thin their numbers? It would make it easier to take them while they're spread out especially with how many people we have.

            Having loaded the rifle, Rich began to walking towards the exit door of the youth center. Everyone was still collecting weapons and supplies. Dylan followed closely behind Rich.

            [Rich]: Listen up! We are not splitting up. We will fight together and take them head on-

            Suddenly, Kelley burst into worship center of the facility in tears. All eyes immediately fell on her.

            [Kelley]: Where…is…Timothy?  

            The process of leading a heard away was a very long and enduring work. Lee remembered driving to Zach’s house to play airsoft, and just the trip itself at 60 miles an hour the whole way felt like forever. He remembered placing mementos on the trip to tell him how close he is to his friend’s house: the gated power lining outpost, the gas stations on either side of the road, the blinking yellow lights just down the road from the property; these working as signs telling how close they were to the property. Now as he leads a herd of rotting corpses, forced to drive at 15 miles an hour, his patience level was wearing thin, and the presence of his ex-girlfriend sitting right next to him in the truck didn’t help much either. Could this drive possibly get any worse?

            [Lee]: You think… once the herd passes the 242 and 1314 intersection we could just drive at regular speed and loop around back to the church?

            [Brittany]: Sure.

            [Lee]: I mean-well like…you sure? Cause…

            [Brittany]: It’s fine, they won’t be able to follow us.

            Brittany focused her eyes toward the window of the car the entire time. She just wanted to pretend that she wasn’t in a truck next to her ex driving at 15 miles an hour with an army of rovers behind her. But who could help but hear the thundering roar of the dead, and Lee’s stuttering sentences he makes when he gets uncomfortable? No one.

[Lee]: You uh…think you can check if the rovers passed the intersection?

            Rolling down the window, Brittany stood through the door and peered over the back of the horde. A few seconds later she sat back down and rolled the window up.

[Brittany]: We can speed up now.

            Slamming on the gas, Lee sped down the road, turning right on Firetower. As they passed the old property, the two student’s attention gazed forward as they noticed thick gray smoke curling from behind the collection of trees and brush; the same location as the property.  

            [Lee]: What the heck??

            As they drove further down the road, they noticed many differences than the last time they saw it: Brittany’s car that had been obliterated, and Shane’s body as well as Josh’s were missing. Not to mention the Merlet’s bus containing Hannah Golden and all those children were no longer sitting on the road painted black with ash. They were just…gone.

            [Brittany]: Lee…slow down.

            [Lee]: Just about to.

            Slowing the truck down as they drove past the property, they nearly jumped in shock at the sight. Lee touched the brakes and the vehicle came to a halt. The entire land; the trees, the yards, the two houses, the storage units, the gunroom, the fences…everything…was completely burnt to a crisp. Both houses were crumbled, the trees were withered-black and branchless, the ground was nothing by gray ash and pockets of orange glow and black chunks of dirt. The fences were fire tainted and nearly rusted away, and the storage units were bent and rusted and warped in all directions.

            Amongst the catastrophic damage, if eyed carefully, you could spot the tangled piles of seared, brittle flesh littering different areas of the property. Rovers had obviously been attracted towards the fire and many had been killed or simply crippled under the heat. Some still managed to keep their heads above the flames wagging their ash-black, crackling heads and gnawing at the air, gazing with the remains of what used to be their eyes, which had turned to a sappy, orange goo that had popped and hardened around their sockets.

            [Brittany]: What…what happened…

            [Lee]: We’re getting out of here.     

            At that, Lee pressed down once again on the gas pedal, and they sped down the road. The property vanished out of view, but the smoke worked as like a thick gray fog for hundreds of yards. As they passed the property and reached 242, they cleared down the intersection with the rovers slowly disappearing out in the distance.

            [Kelley]: Answer me!

            Kelley cried amongst the silence. Everyone only stood and stared. Most of them didn’t even realize that Tim was missing until now. But those who did had no idea what to say; they didn’t know either. Finally, Bailey stood forward.

            [Bailey]: Kelley…this morning I noticed his gun and ammo supply was missing but nothing else. If he was leaving for good he would have taken all his supplies with him. He’ll be back.

            [Rich]: Whatever his reasons are, what he did was leave us stranded when we needed him the most. If this place gets overrun because we didn’t have enough people it will be his fault.

            [Alyssa]: Oh, so he’s in charge again?

            Alyssa’s sarcastic tone was like a giant spotlight glaring down on Rich. For a few seconds he only stared at her. Then he smiled. Fully preparing his rifle, and grabbed the handle of the door and peered outside.

            [Rich]: I guess it would be my fault wouldn’t it? All the same, having an extra hand might be the game changer.

            Just then, the sound of a large crane rumbled into everyone’s senses. Swinging open the door, Rich pointed at the crane.

            [Rich]: He’s here with the rest of the barriers! Everybody out let’s move!

            Before Christian ran down the stairs, his father took him aside.

            [Rich]: Christian I gave you the gun because I love you. If everything goes bad, I need you to run. Run and don’t stop till you can’t see the church. Then keep going.  

            Watching his friends run down the stairs armed with machetes, crossbows, knives and spears, Christian pulled his long black hair behind his head and tied it in a bun.

            [Christian]: The moment I run is when everyone I love is dead.

            Brushing his father’s shoulder as he walked down the stairs, Rich only watched him. He never understood why these people meant so much to Christian. You would think that in a time like this, blood was what became more important. From what Rich knew, he and his son were the last of their biological family. The McDowell name had to thrive. It had to go down in infamy. But here is his only surviving child, putting his Sunday school pals before his own life. Would they do the same for him? Would they literally put a stop to their hearts that had been beating their whole lives so that his only child’s heart could continue beating? No. They wouldn’t. Rich knew they wouldn’t.

            Stepping beside Mrs. Reed, Christian looked at the spear shaking in her hands. Then he looked at his revolver held firm confidently his hand. It only took a moment to decide the priorities. If only his father was the same.

[Christian]: You wanna trade?

            Mrs. Reed look at Christian and smiled.

[Mrs. Reed]: I’ve never seen you in a bun before…it’s not bad.

[Christian]: (Chuckles) Umm yeah…it gets in the way sometimes.

[Mrs. Reed]: I don’t think your father would like you giving away a better weapon.

[Christian]: My dad never liked Twenty-One Pilots. I made him listen to my CDs in the car anyways…take it.

            Handing the gun to Mrs. Reed, she was hesitant, but gave in and took the gun and handed the spear to Christian. Holding the light weight in his hands, he gave a reassuring smile to her.

[Christian]: I like spears.

            Coming to a complete halt, the crane parked beside the student center along the makeshift line of cars surrounding the property. Climbing out of the crane, Sherman, Lashaun and Vergilio united with the rest of the group. Sherman walked over beside Rich.

            [Rich]: How much and how soon will they be here?

            [Sherman]: At least a hundred ignored Brittany and Lee and continued towards our direction. But the herd was picking up more rovers as they went, so there could be much more than that. We’ll start hearing them pretty soon.

            Rich tightened his grip around the rifle, and Sherman pulling his Beretta out of its holster, the man combed his long beard and readjusted his hard hat before inquiring Rich.

            [Sherman]: You really think we can take them all on? I think it would help a whole lot more if we split up and spread them out. Redirect them with cars.

            Just then, the sound of the rovers came in like an ocean taken by the wind. It grew louder, building with each moment. Looking up at his father, Christian looked into his eyes.

            [Christian]: …We can’t do this.

            Speeding down the road at this exact moment, Lee wasted no time to get to the Church. The entire time, Brittany was silent and staring out the window. Every bump in the road shook the truck, and jolted the trailer latched behind them.

            Turning on 1314 onto the road towards the Church, Lee didn’t expect to come parallel into a horde of the undead. Brittany’s gaze immediately turned from the window to the great numbers of the herd.

            [Brittany]: These must have broken off from the highway…

            [Lee]: I don’t see the crane behind us. They might have made it to the Church.

            [Brittany]: Or they could have been overrun.

            [Lee]: It wouldn’t hurt to be a little optimistic.

            Slamming his foot on the gas, Lee lunged the truck into full speed as the herd closed further in towards the truck.

            [Lee]: We gotta get ahead of them!

            The herd stretched on for hundreds of yards, and they all could see the truck coming; all of them were closing in on the vehicle.

            [Brittany]: Don’t drive off the road, we’ll lose the sound barriers!

            [Lee]: If the herd gets in front of us we’ll lose everything!

            [Brittany]: Then drive faster!

            [Lee]: What do you think I’m doing?!

            They were inches too late.

            Time seemed to have frosted over. Yet, as each moment passed, the roaring of the dead grew ear piercing loud. There seemed to be nothing that the group could do but stand there in the parking lot and wait. Armed with makeshift spears, machetes and a few firearms, the young teenagers, two adult parents, and three construction crew members had already begun to lose in their hearts.

            [Lashaun]: There’s gotta be…hundred of ‘em.

            [Vergilio]: More than that, hermano. I saw five hundred. We’re screwed.

            [Rich]: I will not hear this talk from any of you!

            Turning and facing the crew members, and ever slightly rotating his gaze to the students, Rich bellowed out above the noise of the rovers with blind confidence.

            [Rich]: I know most of you people don’t like me very much. You think I don’t care about whether you survive or not. And for these new members of our group, you probably think I’m the biggest a** hole you’ve met-

            [Sherman]: We worked construction. We’ve seen much worse.

            [Rich]: Whatever your opinion is about me, that doesn’t matter right now! What matters is that we fight today, and we survive. We battle hard; work together, help each other! Some of y’all might think I’m crazy…but if we do this…we won’t ever have to deal with the dead. EVER!

            Just then the sound of a truck speeding down the road pierced over the noise of the rovers. The group turned their gaze from Rich to the vehicle coming in; it was Lee and Brittany. The truck was covered in shredded body parts, and drenched in blood. The wipers were jammed halfway across the windshield under what looked like the remains of an arm, and the grill was clogged solid with jammed meat, and intestines.

            Running over to meet them, Maddy nearly tackled Lee as he climbed out of the truck.

            [Maddy]: You came just in time, we could really use ya’lls help.

            [Lee]: We noticed, we took out five or six of the rovers on the way so…your welcome.

            [Maddy]: (Sarcasm) Oh Lee, you’re out savior. 

            Collecting his buck knife, revolver and ammo, Lee joined the group just as Brittany carried her shotgun from the blood sopping truck. Stopping next to Christian, the two waited with the rest of the silent group for the soon-to-come herd of the dead.

            [Lee]: So, did we miss the inspirational speech?

            [Christian]: (Smiling) You literally just missed it.

            [Lee]: Dangit. Where’s Tim?

            Overhearing the conversation, Alyssa turned to Lee and Christian.

            [Alyssa]: We don’t know. His gun and ammo were missing when we searched his room.

            [Lee]: What? He bailed?!

            [Alyssa]: I don’t think so…if he left for good he would have had all his stuff but he didn’t.

            [Lee]: Gotcha. So, he’s probably on a supply run. Probably has no idea what’s going on right now. The moment he’s truly needed he’s gone.

            [Christian]: Yeah…I don’t know, he’s really let us down lately. I feel for him though, he lost people.

            [Lee]: Yeah, but so did we. He wasn’t the only one to lose Zach. He was my best friend. But we lost him there on the Property. I’ve moved on. I knew he was dead a long time ago ya know?

            [Christian]: Yeah.

            [Rich]: Okay heads up!

            Set on high alert, the group adjusted their grips on their weapons as several rovers began to stumble through the main entrance of the Church. But the several rovers were met with sixteen survivors. They were put down with ease.

            [Lee]: (Gamer voice) Wave 1 completed.

            [Christian]: (Chuckles)

            A couple of minutes went by before a group of at least a dozen rovers closed in about ten feet from the entrance of the Church. Jenna took steps forwards so as to meet them head on.

            [Rich]: Wait! Let them come to us!

            Stopping in her tracks, Jenna listened to Rich and rejoined the group. The dozen rovers shuffled inside the perimeter, but were instantly swarmed by the living, Dylan firing an arrow directly into two rovers at the same time through the eye sockets. Audrey stepped forward thrusting her spear directly into a corpse’s forehead and leveraging it into the ground before heaving the spear’s end out of his rotted skull. Alyssa used the blunt end of the spear to break the knee of one of them. Falling to its knees, the rover was just at the right height for Alyssa to jam her spear through the underside of the jaw and into the brain stem.

            One after the other the small group of the dead was picked off but just as the final rover crumbled to the ground, the rest of the herd of the undead was already at the Church’s door, pouring through like a river.

            [Rich]: Gunners get in front!

            Rushing forward, Rich, Mrs. Reed, Brittany, Lee, and the construction crew took aim and unloaded into the rushing herd. The first wave of shots was fired, and the first of many layers of the dead dropped to the group with chunks of brain matter absent from their heads. But that first layer was washed over by the next layer, then the next, and then dozens of others after that. Barely a minute went by before all the armed group members ran out of ammunition, having shot down a small chunk from the herd.

            [Rich]: Take out your side weapons! We’re not done yet!

            [Mrs. Reed]: We can’t take them all on! We need a new plan!

            [Rich]: We don’t have time!

            Charging into the herd, different members of the group fiercely attacked every rover that came into arm’s length. Dylan lagged behind picking off rovers from a distance making sure none of them got too close to his friends. Maddy stayed back as well, using every throwing knife and hatchet she had left with her before pulling out her knife and joining the rest of the group.

            As Brittany knocked over a rover, and thrusting her knife’s blade into its temple, she looked over the crowd, and saw as least one hundred rovers still coming in. They weren’t going to survive at this rate. They might take half the herd with them, but every single one of these people will be overwhelmed and torn apart by the rovers if they stay the course. Her mind racing, Brittany looked for an alternative. Suddenly, her eyes met the crane, and like a lightbulb clicking on, an idea rushed her over to Sherman.

            [Brittany]: You know how to operate the crane right?!

            Smearing splattered blood off his face, Sherman took off his helmet and beat the rim of it into a rover’s jaw.

            [Sherman]: Course I do! Why?!

            [Brittany]: We can use it to fight them off!

            Placing his hat back on his head, Sherman smiled in the same moment he twisted off a corpse’s head.

            [Sherman]: I like your thinking ma’am! We need to get the rest of the people inside though!

            Screaming over the mayhem, Brittany called for the group to fall back as Sherman ran for the crane. Every saw what was about to happen and instantly took a break for the student center.

            As Alyssa speared her last rover before attempting to make a break for the building, she tripped over a rover’s corpse. Brittany turned around seeing Alyssa fall over.

            [Brittany]: Alyssa!

            It was like the times Brittany spent with her friends in the Galveston beach. They would all stand in the water as deep as they could go and wait for the salty, cold ocean water to sweep over them like a blanket and pull them closer to shore. At least that’s what poured in her mind as the ocean of the undead swept over Alyssa, pulling her closer to death’s shore. Brittany couldn’t see her, but she could hear her screams until they faded away.

            Grabbing Brittany’s arm and yanking her inside the building, Rich scrambled everyone inside and slammed the door shut.

            [Rich]: Everyone upstairs! Let’s move!

            [Bailey]: I’ll get Lauren and her brother!

            Rushing toward Lauren, Bailey carefully lifted Hunter’s unconscious body.

            [Lauren]: What are you doing?!

            [Bailey]: We need to get upstairs. Now!

           

            Climbing into the crane, Sherman turned on the engine, and began yanking levers and jamming buttons as the crane heated to life.

            [Sherman]: (Slides chewing tobacco in his mouth) Draw your guns, you son of a b***h!

            Rotating the crane’s arm far right, Sherman lowering the sound barrier off to the side, then in one swift turn of a handle, the long-iron cable whipped around just low enough to sweep across half the heard. Blood splashed up like fountains in a pond, and torsos were launched dozens of yards in every direction. Sherman didn’t stop there. Without hesitation, he drove the crane forward, swing the cable to the other side, mowing down a significant crowd of the dead. Returning the cable back into the pulley, Sherman pushed the crane at full speed, driving the plated tracks over the wheels directly over the rovers, flattening them like processed meat.

            As everyone huddled inside the top floor of the student center, Brittany simply stood frozen up against the wall. Mrs. Reed was counting heads, making sure Hunter was beside her at all times. She thought she miss counted. Brittany noticed that; she found the mother counting heads multiple times before she finally stopped and looked at everyone in the room.

            [Mrs. Reed]: Where is Alyssa?

            Brittany blinked hard. Tears ran down her face and she quickly wiped them away. Rich humbly walked over to Mrs. Reed and whispered the answer into her ear. She covered her mouth, dropping to the floor and sobbing. Hunter knelt beside her and put his arm around her. Everyone else just cried.

            Then the sound of footsteps silenced everyone. They all quietly grabbed their knives, spears and machetes and stood at the ready. The footsteps grew loud, and the pace and the timing between them seemed all too familiar. They had heard these same footsteps before in the past. Whoever was walking towards them down the hallway towards the entrance doors was a friend. Someone they knew from before. Then the person appeared…

            It was Timothy. He was covered in blood. In one hand was a communication remote, and his left hand was missing.

            [Timothy]: (Panting) There’s something…I have to tell you.

THE END