Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Simpson, A. (pride and prejudice read txt) 📖

to defend a different section, they wouldn’t have to carry crates of bullets with them. Sharpshooters with deer rifles and hand loads were making last minute checks of their range cards for distance and their sandbags for stability. They knew from Blackfoot that they had to take out the black uniforms. They could walk among the undead and they could jump twenty feet. They would find an unguarded portion of the wall, get in and start cutting people down. Shooting them in the back like the cowards they were. Their job was to reach out and touch them before they got close.

Jimmy and Tony found Lizzie and Gage at the Gold Digger and they were catching up, swapping stories and trying to stay out of the way like they’d been told. The town was bustling but organized and for once the kids couldn’t think of anything to do to help. Sandy came over with a plate of burgers for them then hustled off. It might be a long, drawn out battle and Adam had every grill fired up, prepping food in advance for the men and women on the walls.

“Dang, y’all must be eating good here.” Tony said. “She sure put on some pounds. You guys get cheeseburgers every day?”

“You can’t say anything about a girl’s weight!” Lizzie scolded and smacked him on the arm.

Before he could ask why not, a Chinese lady hurried homemade root beers over to them then disappeared back into the kitchen to help with the preparations. They dug in and talk turned to how they could help Tombstone. What their role in the upcoming fight should be. All around them people had jobs and were hustling in and out, getting ready for a life and death struggle. They knew there wouldn’t be any surrender, they’d heard the talk. With the Bradley, the rockets and the machine guns from Lakota, they were pretty confident they’d be okay. The trick was to keep the zed’s away. Send the Bradley out to kill as many as possible far away from the walls. Don’t let them ramp up and claw their way over. Maybe even get the hordes to follow it off. If it could lead them a few miles down the road, get them spread out then turn around and run them down. The snipers would take care of the Anubis cult guys. Maybe all the hubbub and hustle was going to be for nothing. Since they had been warned and were prepared, maybe the big battle was going to be a boring skirmish.

“There really ain’t much we can do.” Gage said. “They’ve got nearly every round of ammo already staged on the walls. We’ve loaded thousands of magazines already, we’ve been doing that for days. They’ve got machine gun emplacements and snipers and the secret weapon, the Bradley. They’ve got buckets stacked up at the courthouse in case there’s a fire. I think we might be able to sit this one out.”

“We can go up to the church tower and be lookouts.” Lizzie said. “It’s the highest point in town.”

“Sounds good.” Sammy said and sopped up more ketchup with his fries. “We can watch the whole thing and let them know if we see anything they might miss.”

“They’re coming.” Knuckles said into the radio from his hide, a few miles south of the wall. “I can see the dust they’re kicking up. Must be a lot of ‘em.”

“Okay, you better come on back. You don’t want to get trapped out in the open.” Tackett said into the microphone and set it down.

They’d gotten reports from the other scouts who had been spread out in all directions miles from town. They knew the hordes were coming, now they knew how close they were.

“Sound the alarms.” he told the sheriff. “With a little luck, we can get the fastest ones separated from the packs and take them out as far away from the walls as possible.”

There were grim nods from the gathered cowboys and ranchers as they dispersed to their duty stations. An undead army of thousands was marching on their town. It only took one to get over the wall. It only took one bite, one rampaging lightning fast freshly dead zombie to wreak havoc. Last week their fortifications seemed just fine. Built from rail cars, they were thirteen feet tall and ten-foot-wide with strings of concertina wire angled to the outside. They seemed impregnable. Impressive defenses to hold back anything that was thrown at them. Today they seemed about ten feet too short.

The Bradley sat idling in the sally port and when the Mayor gave the word, the gates opened and they trundled out as the scouts came racing back in on their ATV’s.

“The biggest horde is coming from the West.” Tackett said over the radio. “You boys go do your thing. If you can keep them occupied, we’ll take care of the rest.

“Roger that.” the commander said, and the driver hit the gas. They got up to speed quickly, the tracks clanking on the road and within minutes saw the forward edges of the horde running behind a truck leading them forward.

“Fire at will.” the Track Commander said. “Take out the cult guys first.”

When the driver saw the tank coming right at him, he immediately veered off, narrowly missing the machine gun fire walking tracers towards them. The undead tried to run faster at the new noises as the truck crashed through the scrub brush and into a creek running along the road. The men jumped out, abandoned their ride and disappeared from sight, wary of the main gun.

“Implement the Eyes of Horus.” their commander said into the headset as they ran, fast as jackals. They hid among the scrub and low hills, crouched down behind boulders.

“Keep on them, light them up!” the Bradley commander yelled and popped his hatch so he could get a better look.

“I don’t see them!” the gunner shouted into his mic and spun the turret, searching for the scattered men.

“Hank, get