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The Church Part 9- Working Together, Chapter 9This story may contain adult content. |
| Written by john mccuaig | |
| Monday, 14 July 2008 | |
It's now nearly winter, the days are getting far shorter and the weather is taking a turn for the worse by the day it seems. About a couple of months have past since the day that our two groups started to work together. As Dawn had said at the time the mistrust and suspicion was pretty strong in both camps but thankfully that has been steadily waning.
She and Matt had decided early on to get both sides involved in as many projects as possible. Working together is good at breaking down barriers and building bridges. I myself have been put in charge of a joint operation in making a safe passage for us to and from each of the compounds.
It's been so much hard work; we have been able to barricaded all of the side roads that come of the main route that we have picked. We even managed to get the heavy forklift from the supermarket up and running again.
This is a fine example of us all working together, the church had the mechanic and the supermarket had the machine.
Each and every one of these barricades has several abandoned cars stuck on top of each other. We had no shortage of vehicles to chose from as there was hundreds of them just strewn around everywhere. They have been stacked as many wide as was required, sometimes three or four, but always we made it three high. We have quickly, over our time in this hell, learned that those stiff and rotten zombies can't climb over anything of any reasonable size.
The blockades were pretty difficult to complete but with a dozen good marksmen you can keep the hordes at bay for a decent while whilst the forklift went about its job. Then when the numbers of the beasts gets just too bad and dangerous to stay we all backed off to a safe location until they had all lost interest and wandered off to somewhere else. Once it had cleared the whole process just started over again. It was of course a very time consuming job but it really had to be done like that as it was definitely the safest way.
Once all the roads are blocked we then had to set about securing all the houses along the route; its of no use having a perfectly secure roadway if the deadheads can just walk on through a house or garden. This was to prove to be the most dangerous part of the whole operation.
Before we started on the houses we also had to clear away any of the zombie stragglers which were left on our side of the barriers. They were picked of fairly easily one by one and the disgusting bodies were thrown back over the barricades on top of their friends. We must have had to kill over a hundred of them.
Clearing the houses was as I said a hell of a lot worse; it meant that over two hundred buildings all had to be individually checked. There was no way we could go into them mob handed, there just wasn't the space inside to get that many guys in and out of there safely.
We soon decided it was best to do it with two teams of four and to tackle only two of the houses at a time. There was also four other guys stationed outside each of the two houses being searched ready as back up to go in and assist either of the teams, if and when they were required.
It was all going too well; yes of course we ran into the occasional zombie which had been stuck inside a house but we were at least always expecting that. Usually they would had been in there for about half a year by now so they were in such a pretty poor condition due to being without having any nourishment that it wasn't usually much of a contest.
I can only guess that the teams were getting a little bit too cocky. Their standards had obviously slipped by the time they got to that house. That damn house where we had made our escape through that day when Dawn and I were "caught" by Matt and his guys when we set out to make peace. At the time nobody, including myself I must admit, seemed to even realise it was that very same house.
We have since surmised where and how it had started to go so wrong. It seems that as we escaped that day six of the chasing zombies had followed us into the house. Our last man who went out through the back garden had shut the rear door to help our escape by blocking their route out. Somehow those ******* brainless zombies also managed to shut the door into the kitchen. They were then trapped inside; trapped that was until we came along and opened that ******* door.
The team went in as normal; not really expecting that much trouble. They were all far too close together when the lead guy opened the kitchen door. Before they could move a muscle out poured the half dozen hungry ghouls and they were clambering all over the team before they even got a single shot off. They all fed on our guys with their insatiable and vast appetite forcing them forwards.
It was turning out to be a big dinner party being held in the kitchen that day.
The screaming that was coming from the house was inconceivable; that heart breaking sound will stay with me forever.
The second team went flying in to help but they soon fell back due to the restricted space; exactly what the stupid and careless first team should have done. The sensible team returned to the street and waited patiently for the zombies to come on out. After about ten minutes they did exit the house with their stomachs full and bulging; they were quickly picked off by the crossbows before they even had a chance to harm anyone else.
Once they were destroyed the second team had the truly dreadful task of going back inside and putting a head shot into each of their friends still, for the moment anyway, bodies.
We lost four brave good men that day. As how they died spread throughout the camps I can assure you this with one hundred percent certainty. No one was ever that careless again.
It pains me to say it now but the "highway", as we now call the now safely secured road, was maybe worth at least some loss of life.
We have now even got a couple of the cars up and running and they ferry items and people back and forward between our two sites. In truth most people actually prefer just to walk along the route, after being stuck in just the one place for so long it's such a simple joy which is often grasped, by me included.
A simple joy? Well it certainly does takes a bit of getting used to. Walking by each and every barricade which has behind every one of them dozens of zombies groaning and baying for food, baying for you.
The joining of the two groups was working well; most people now don't even see themselves as being part of one group or the other. We are now just one large community, all working together, working with each other for a common goal, for building a better future.
Some of the people have even started going back to mass. There was obviously no priest here now but they would all just take turns in each reading out their own favourite passages from the bible. They still needed it; they needed the hope that God would still one day return for them.
I still sleep up on my roof every night but that is going to have to change real soon; it was now getting far too cold at night for me to sleep comfortably. I have already requested a sleeping area in the church halls, I could have gone over to a room at the supermarket but I would still like to be near my roof for when I needed it.
One of the woman has came over and told me that tonight we are having a meeting where everyone in both camps has been asked to attend. Matt has supposedly got some news he wants to share with us all. It sure sounds intriguing; I wonder what's going on?
I go down to the church just as the sun starts to set, thankfully we have long ago decided we will never ring those bloody bells again.
"My friends," Matt stands up at the meeting, he has so much charisma he always has the full attention of everyone when he speaks, "I have some great news to bring to you all. With a happy heart I bring the joyous news that we have two women in our midst who are carrying a child. Please ladies will you do us the honour and now stand up and show yourselves so that we can all share with you this joyous news?"
Geraldine who joined the church about the same time as me is the first of the woman to rise. The crowd cheers and claps and she just shyly smiles and does a mocking bow to the audience but then the place almost erupts at the sight of the next standing figure- its Dawn! She walks over to where Matt is standing and they share a long tender kiss. The joy on all of their faces is certainly a sight to behold.
Matt quiet downs the crowd and then he continues, "If you have ever doubted why we need to survive its right here in front of you. We now have a future. We are now on the road to fully rebuilding this world. Children shall and will be the future of this planet. I also now have a idea; a plan to next extend our property. I want us to take back from the beasts some more houses; we need somewhere to properly raise our children!"
The crowds are once again cheering; they seem to love the idea. The thought of bringing life into this living Hell might well seem totally absurd but the children can hopefully outlive the zombies and may be able to one day live in a safe world.
But as I am doing my usual scan around the room there is something that is beginning to worry the life out of me.
A cough. I have noticed that Matt is coughing every couple of minutes or so. Just a little hardly noticeable tickly one but its very regular. I look around at every one of the people who are at the meeting and its easy to notice he isn't the only one that's doing it. There must be at least fifteen other people that have got the exact same cough.
What the hell is going on now. Copyright 2008 john mccuaig |
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