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.
t
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