Someone must have done the locking. And I don’t need more than two guesses to figure who it could be.
Sue hasn’t moved, and her scythe ain’t any good at putting down one tiny little boy, anyway. So I walk forward to the thing that was once Thomas, swallow the scream that wants to well up, and end it.
“Told you this town was no good,” comes a voice. “There’s too much scheming about for a body to live in peace.”
I whip around at the interruption, but Sue is scowling into the distance, puzzling out something on her own and paying me no mind.
And so I turn my attention back to Jackson.
He stands a little ways down the lane with his arms crossed, dead scattered at his feet. It has occurred to me that I see him because I’m going mad, because there ain’t no other explanation, but that doesn’t mean he is full of nonsense.
Besides, I could use a little otherworldly guidance right about now.
“Those dead will be inside the town proper in about a quarter of an hour,” my personal haint says, digging a cheroot out of a breast pocket and lighting it up. I swear I can almost smell the sweet smoke. “That Gideon fellow might have some interesting tricks for slowing down those dead, but ain’t nothing stopping a horde that size. Nicodemus is finished. Don’t forget you made a promise. Best keep it or I will harry you the rest of your days.”
I squint as one of his vest buttons glints and blinds me for a moment, and the next I see, Jackson has dissipated into sunshine and dust.
“Jane! Sue!”
Katherine and Lily come thundering around the corner running at full tilt. They skid to a halt when they see the carnage around me, and Katherine raises her gloved hand to her mouth in horror. “Oh my God.”
“God ain’t got nothing to do with this,” I say. “This is all the province of man.”
“You do not know how right you are,” Katherine says.
“What’s that mean?”
“It was Gideon,” Katherine says, expression somber. “He said there was a miscalculation.”
“That’s a hell of an error in arithmetic,” Sue says, mumbling a quick prayer to herself.
“His serum? It turned them shambler?” Lily’s eyes are wide, and a host of emotions flicker across her face before settling on disbelief.
“I knew it. I just knew it,” I say, voice hard, stamping my foot. “That boy is a damned dangerous fool. And if I get the chance, I swear I’m going to make him pay for what he’s done here.”
“Later, Jane,” Sue says. “Where’s everyone? Ida? Callie? Lucas? We need to shake a leg, that horde ain’t gonna wait forever.”
As if to punctuate her words, a crashing bang comes from behind us. We all turn toward the front of town, when the banging comes again. Sue leads the way as we run toward the sound, and we skid to a stop in the middle of Nicodemus’s main street as the front gate, our last, best defense against the dead, comes crashing down.
“Well, hell,” Sue swears.
Katherine nods. She is calm, even as the dead begin to lurch into town. “Let us go find everyone.”
Sue leads us, and we run down the last couple of empty streets to the livery where everyone has been staying. Lucas sees us first, jumping to his feet. “We ready?”
“More than ready, we got dead in the town. Time to shake a leg,” I say.
Lucas nods. “We don’t have much in the way of provisions, but we got canteens and a bit of jerky.”
Ida walks up, rolling her shoulders as she tries to loosen up for a fight. “Then let’s take what we’ve got and get moving. If we head east, we’ll eventually hit the Mississippi. I figure that’s as good a goal as any,” Ida says.
“Rear gate is our best bet. Front gate is bound to be swamped,” Sue says. Katherine and I nod in agreement.
“We got to get everyone out and in an organized way,” I say, swinging my sickles and limbering up my wrists.
Katherine draws her Mollies and moves the blades in slow circles.
“Sue, we got enough Miss Preston’s girls to do a decent wedge?” I ask.
Sue nods. “Yep,” she says, hefting her scythe. “I’ll take point.”
Katherine takes a deep breath and forces a tremulous smile. “Well, then, let us lead the way.”
The wedge is a triangular formation that’s meant to punch through large groups of the dead. It would be impossible to take out the entire horde, but it’s a good protective strategy that will keep the kids and folks that don’t know how to put down the dead a little safer as we make our way out of town.
“The Summerland patrols will take flank,” Ida says, drawing her cavalry sword and lifting her chin. It’s a dangerous role, and from their grim expressions, they know what they’ll be up against. But there is confidence there as well. They have real weapons now, and their audacity speaks not to foolishness or pride, but to an understanding of their own worth. It’s a fine change. I nod at them so they know that I see them, even if it ain’t something that I have time to say out loud.
“Let’s go, then,” I say, feeling heavy with dread at trying to flee yet another horde.
At some point this has to get easier.
We move out quickly. It doesn’t take long before we hear the sounds of more dead. Their moans echo through the town. It’s a maddening chorus, the breathy rise and fall of it, and it’s curious to hear only the dead and no sounds from the living, no screams of terror or shouts for help. It’s only half of a two-part harmony of terror, and hearing the dead alone raises goose bumps on my arms and quickens our feet.
The people of Nicodemus still haven’t left their houses. I’ve seen this nonsense before. The fools are hoping to ride out the storm.
We move down the dusty street, careful and alert, Sue having taken point, her scythe at the ready. I am surrounded on either side by Miss Preston’s girls, and behind me, Lily prays in a low voice.
It doesn’t take long to find the dead. They clog the wide avenue, pouring in through the main gate like water through a busted damn. The walls to either side of the opening sway under the press of the dead on the other side, and, as we arrive, the horde begins to reach the houses closest to the wall. Now we hear the familiar duet, screams of fear and surprise coming from several of the houses as the dead push their way in, then, too late, the sound of gunshots.
“We need to run,” Sue says. “Forget the wedge. If the shamblers are all concentrated on the southern end of town, we can make for the northern gate, but we have to move quickly.”
“To the northern gate,” Katherine says, adjusting her grip on her swords. I glance over my shoulder and give Lily a reassuring smile, even though she doesn’t return it. But that’s no bother. The only thing that matters is that she stays safe. I don’t aim to break that promise.
Sue leads our group through the town. I follow, Katherine and Lily hot on my heels, Ida and the Summerland patrols guarding our rear. Sue was right; the further we travel from the main gate, the easier the trek becomes.
Ida falls into step next to me, cavalry sword glinting in the sunlight as we run in the opposite direction of the breaking horde. “That gate might be open, but we’ve still got an electric fence and bobbed wire beyond that,” she says. “Any ideas on how to get through?”