Sunday, January 3, 2016

Toll City, Colorado (Part 1 of 2); The Zombie Wars





Toll City, Colorado (Part 1 of 2); The Zombie wars

Twelve twenty seven a.m. March 3rd, 2018

We knew they were coming; we just didn’t know when or how many.  Reports said they were in their thousands maybe tens of thousands; calls came in hourly and some just contradicted others.  One thing we did know was it was going to be ugly.  The last report from the South came in at Ten forty five p.m. via radio from the extreme Southern scouting party.  Radio scratchy from the distance and nearly unreadable due to the extreme volume of automatic weapons fire and explosions told the whole story without understanding every word spoken.  Just one part of one sentence froze my heart “… It’s a fucking sea of them, they …” Then the radio went dead; silence.

Toll City, Colorado sits nearly in the center of the State of Colorado and somehow became home base to We the survivors nearly one year ago as the spread of the zombie apocalypse came to the U.S. shores.  Unique in the structure of the downtown area made it easy to construct tall walls and heavy defensive positions around a group of five buildings in the center of the city.  The buildings sat in the middle of what from the air looks like the hub of a wheel with spokes being streets running away from the center towards the outlying areas of the city.  We walled in the area around the five buildings and had a readymade fort in mere weeks.  Construction has continued nearly around the clock only stopping to fend off attacks from the local zombie population for nearly the full year.  We think we are ready for the hoards when they come.

Twenty five miles South

“Get in the trucks! Move…..we can’t stop them!” Screaming at the top of his lungs John Michaels barely heard his own words; deafened by gun fire and grenades; high pitched ringing was all that was left of his hearing.  Grabbing men and pulling them backwards as they sprayed automatic gun fire into the charging zombies he and the closest three men jumped into a humvee slamming doors as zombies hit the windows.  “Go go before they get too deep!”  The humvee rocked side to side as hundreds of zombies pushed to get to the fresh meat sealed inside.  Tires spinning climbing over fallen zombies the humvee heaved left and right slowly picking up speed bumping and throwing the screeching mass to the sides.  “Hit the brakes hard; throw them off the hood!” Michaels barked.  Zombies slid off the humvee hood and disappeared under the vehicle; bouncing hard the humvee drove over the bodies, arms grasping at the underside.

“Anyone else make it?” Michaels asked “We’re the only vehicle; they didn’t make it to the jeeps.” Jimmy Owens said staring into the rear view mirror. “Markus; get on the radio and let Toll know we’re heading in as fast as we can go.  Tell them the bad news.”

Standing in ankle deep snow with my back against the cement block wall that surrounded our tiny five building sanctuary, I hoped it would be tall enough at twenty five feet.  Looking down Center Street it was a sea of barbed wire standing four feet tall in rolls from one side of the street to the other.  Steel X’s welded together and lay on their sides stood five feet tall and at least that wide; fifty lay staggered along the Street.  Barbed wire I understood but I questioned the need of the steel barriers.   “Slows them down so we can shoot them easier, doesn’t give them a straight line run towards the walls.”  Matt Wells said in his slow southern drawl.  “Don’t want the fast ones getting here too quickly.”  Wells was an architect in his former life; he’s now the lead in defensive structures.  “I got a couple real good surprises for them in all these other buildings too; surprises they aren’t gonna like.” 

“Ok get ready to stop; you guys get down below the windows; if I get taken keep going.” Michaels ordered and quickly jumped from the humvee slamming the door as he ran from the truck.  Spinning around he opened fire on the zombies clinging to the top of the humvee cutting two in half as he raked the top with full automatic fire.  Walking back to the truck he placed single rounds through foreheads of snapping jawed undead still managing to hold tight.  Pulling on heavy gloves he dragged the undead from the vehicle making a stack in the middle of the road.

“Got one; stand by for the shot” The numbers “four four zero” were clearly visible in the distance on the side of the brick building.  Looking down the streets yardages had been painted on building sides all along Streets leading away from the center defensive zone.  The zombie was stumbling along the right sidewalk dragging a broken shoulder against the building keeping him from falling down.  Placing the cross hairs just at the top of the zombies head, slightly tightening the squeeze on the trigger “Stand by, Shot”; everyone jumped at the huge explosion coming from five stories over head in the firing position; zombie brains splattered the brick wall, body dropping in a tangled heap.  Three heavily armed men slowly twisted their way through the wire and steel barriers towards the fallen zombie.  David Sims pulled his scope back to twelve power to widen the field of view looking for another target as the men drew close to the tangle of rags that was the dead zombie.  Sims watched as they untangled the zombie spreading him out flat on his back.  Pulling a wallet from the rear pocket, one member raised his radio to his mouth “This one’s from Northern New Mexico says the I.D. and the shoes are worn way down; I think he really did come that far; Over.”“Copy; pull the body into a near building and bring in the I.D.”  “Copy” All three men disappeared around the corner pulling the dead zombie behind them.

With a gentle shake, “Chief; John Michaels is coming in from the South scouting party. Only four made it back; we lost six men and two humvee.” Keith Ames said quietly waking James Meek the security chief at just before 3a.m.  “Ok…… get the generators going and a couple three fire teams ready to go; how long before they get here?”  “About ten minutes; he called in his report.  It isn’t good.” Keith said as he left the room.  Getting to his feet James climbed the stairs to the command center located on the seventh floor in the center building surrounded by the other four smaller buildings that made up the safe zone.

With generators running at full speed powering the electric motors pulled the wire apart down the center of Market Street making a narrow lane a vehicle could be driven through.  Headlights could be seen a full mile down Market Street as the surviving team drove towards the safe zone.  As they approached the outer wire switches were thrown and the heavy barbed wire slowly pulled apart opening the narrow drive.  Five zombies appeared stumbling from a door way moving slowly towards the noise of the vehicle engine.  Two fire teams with night scopes fired sending brains flying in a red mist.  Waiting for the wire to open driver Jimmy Owens rolled his window down to get fresh air into the moist aired humvee.  Michaels opened his mouth to tell Jimmy to roll his window up when a fast mover hit the open window and drove his snapping mouth against Jimmy’s face sinking his broken teeth deep into Jimmy’s soft cheek.  Three doors flew open as Michaels and the other two Scout party members jumped from the vehicle guns shouldered and pointed into the interior of the humvee.  A thunderous explosion sounded from the fifty floor fire team and the biting zombies head exploded covering Bruce Durk in zombie blood and brain matter, Durk slowly fell to the Street also hit by the bullet as it passed straight through the zombies head.  Marcus Wright standing three feet away from Michaels on the right side of the humvee swore under his breath.  Michaels raised his hand towards Wright giving him the quiet sign.  Rustling cloth to seat could just be made out as Jimmy Owens made the change to a zombie.   With jaws snapping Jimmy flew across the humvee straight at Michaels standing just three feet from the open door.  Falling backwards Michaels pulled the trigger on his rifle in full auto exploding the humvee door glass taking Jimmy’s head off his shoulders as he flew out of the humvee.  Jimmy landed with a soft thud at Michaels’ feet; looking down at the dead Jimmy Owens, Michaels realized Durk on the far side of the humvee had made the change and had climbed under the humvee sinking his teeth into Marcus’s left ankle biting deep into his leg.  Falling Marcus Wright pulled the trigger on his rifle firing 600 rounds a minute the last few rounds from the thirty round magazine blowing both his feet off.  Michaels standing just out of reach stared into Marcus Wright’s eyes watching the pained scared eyes change filling with dark red blood and rage witnessing the change from human to zombie.  Michaels placed the muzzle of his rifle against Wright’s forehead and pulled the trigger.  Walking alone through the rolls of wire Michaels slowly made his way the 300 yards to the heavily fortified safe zone carefully watched by the fire teams.

Just after first light the first wave of zombies came into view at over a mile down one of the spokes; runners in the front followed by fast walkers then the broken zombies and lastly the crawling dragging zombies.  The sound of the charging swarm hit our ears at a half mile; an eruption of gashing teeth, groaning growling guttural sounds; dragging, scraping noise filling in the cacophony.  The advancing mass spread filling four spoke streets to the horizon; the zombie legion had arrived in the hundreds of thousands. 

Waves of zombies filled the streets to as far as the eye could see; the fast runners hit the rolls of barbed wire at full stride tangling spinning into tight wiggling shapes pulling the wire tight until it sang with tension. Walkers climbed over the tangled zombies moving towards the walls with slower zombies stumbling, falling or crawling over the growing piles of zombies caught by the wire.  At one hundred yards we opened fire cutting wide swaths in the advancing mass; a barrage of bullets cut them down, bodies piled into rows as they were cut down in long sweeping fire.  Like a flash flood they flowed over the stacks of bodies and kept coming in a rolling mass of slow moving zombies, each fighting to get past the one in front to them.  Zombies stacked eight deep tangled in wire as we cut them down with withering fire; zombies hit with bullets rolled down the front and back of piles.  Barrels heated to red hot melted twisting useless were thrown down into the gleaming faces burning zombies to the bone as white smoke blew in the breeze as hot metal hit zombie skin.  Making it to the walls zombies stacked against the twenty foot wall pushed from the rear they climbed over each other higher and higher towards the top, buckets of gasoline mixed with thickening agent were poured down over the stacking climbing zombies.  Those that survived the flames moved left and right starting new piles climbing over those on the bottom.

Unable to breach the walls zombies filled the surrounding buildings trying to find a way to reach the fresh meat inside our walls; as the buildings filled with zombies, Matt Well’s surprise was set off; windows blew out under the heat and fire; flaming zombies rained down into the street leaving smoke trails as they fell from windows.  Thick sickening sweet smoke mixed with heavy black carbon smoke choked lungs of the firing teams; tears of black soot poured down our faces.  The heat from the flaming buildings made it impossible to fire down into the mass of zombies; white phosphorus grenades were thrown down into the throng burning zombies into pieces starting clothing on fire spreading the raging fires into the stacks of their dead.

The Southern wall was breached at two p.m.

Zombies piling up climbing on each other’s backs reached the top of the Southern wall; bucket after bucket of flaming gasoline mix failed to stop the advance as one fire would slow the stacking just to stack higher twenty feet away; our people fought until the last man barely made to safety and intense hand to hand combat to close the steel door before being over ran.  A general fall back order was called and all defenders moved into the buildings closing heavy steel doors and windows; Zombies poured over the top of the walls.  Moving up two stories more gasoline mix was poured burning hundreds zombies.  Taking up new firing position we rained automatic fire down on the zombie mass with little effect as thousands more filled the streets pushing towards the safe zone.

Building four overran three p.m.

Building four sitting the most Southern of the five buildings which made up the safe zone fell to the zombie swarm as defenders fought floor to floor slamming heavy steel doors between floors just to see them beat open by sheer weight of zombie bodies being thrown against them.  Again Matt Well’s planning saved lives as the fighting reached the top floor and fire teams roped across to adjoining buildings and ropes cut as zombies tried to follow.

Buildings two and three overran five p.m.

Both buildings two and three fell in much the same manner as building four; overran by sheer weight and numbers and supplies ran short and defenses faltered under the mass of zombie bodies.

Full retreat seven p.m.

The full final retreat was called at seven p.m. and everyone fled locking all doors and windows behind them to slow the zombie advance and ran for the basement of building five.  Building five the center building of the five buildings complex held four buses that had been retrofitted with heavy wire over the windows and no climb wire screening on all sides and top to slow the piling on of zombies on the buses.  Tires and wheel wells were reinforced and covered with heavy wire to protect the delicate rubber tires.  All buses had been filled with supplies as the zombie hoards began the initial attack on the safe zone and were ready to go.  Heavy security garage doors slowly started to inch open at seven thirty p.m. and the garage flooded with hundreds of zombies trying to breach the buses; we didn’t put up any kind of resistance fearing killing zombies in the garage area would trap the buses with their bodies.

Slowly the buses pushed through the thong inching forward a foot at a time; following one after the other so close together the zombies couldn’t force their way between the buses clearing a path through the hoard.  

It was and sounds rather dull after fighting and killing hundreds and hundreds of zombies before we pretty much calmly hurried to the buses and drove away leaving the remaining thousands of zombies in the dust losing very few of our people during the struggle; but thanks goes to the planning and building of formidable defenses and gives us hope we will one day win back the world as we once knew it.

In a line of four buses we headed slowly north hoping to find another sanctuary city we could join before the zombie legion caught up with us again.  Our numbers have slowly dwindled under the zombie scourge but our hopes are high.

See you on the other side.

This is part 1 of 2; please read part 2,  Toll City, Colorado.  Running Scared!
From the Ramblings.


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