The Dead Zone (Book One)

Chapter 15

 Bryson and Paige sat tucked deep within the branches of the same tree they'd used to view the layout of the city, the same tree where they'd formulated their plan. Zach had been held captive for over a week now- and to be honest, neither of them even knew if he was alive or not, but they had to try and find him. They had to hold out hope that he was. 

 Dawn was beginning to break, the enormous wall casting long shadows that crept slowly across the city, a blanket of darkness to cover them. The city had yet to stir, aside from the guards patrolling the wall and they jail where they'd discovered the prisoners were being held, when something caught her eye.

 "What are they doing?" Paige whispers, watching as several guards emerge from the jailhouse, surrounding a handful of frightened looking captives.

 "I'm not sure. They never bring the captives out this early." Guns at the ready, the group begins marching, leaving the town behind before disappearing into the woods. 

 "We have to follow them. What if one of those people were Zach?" It was still too dark outside to make out faces too clearly.

 "You're right. Whatever they're up to, it doesn't look good. I have a bad feeling about this."

 When Bryson had a bad feeling about something, so did Paige. The prisoners could be heard crying out ahead of them as the duo followed quietly behind, their chilling pleas bouncing off of the trees like disembodied voices of ghostly specters.

Sharing a look, both of them were becoming more and more uneasy by the second. Paige was beginning to wonder if they would ever stop when Bryson held his hand out, motioning for her to pause before pointing up ahead. The trees were clearing, and a large field could be seen. But it was what lay in the center of the field that really blew her mind.

 A large pole stretched into the sky, some sort of siren connected to the top of it. Around the pole was a deep trench, similar to the one that surrounded the town of Cedarville, but it didn't stretch all the way around. Instead, the trench made a sort of "C" shape, like a crescent moon, leaving what appeared to be a small land bridge so they could still reach the pole. Bryson motioned for her to stay back as they watched in morbid curiosity as the prisoners were led to the pole, before being tied up. Tears streamed down their faces and Paige's gut clenched painfully.

  As a nurse, she felt it was her duty to help others. That's why she'd chosen that line of work; right now, it was nearly making her sick to see these people in so much distress. "Shouldn't we do something to help them?" She asks, her hand going to the gun holstered at her hip. 

 "No. There's too many guards. I can't take that chance."

 "Bryson, we can't just leave them there!" Her voice was urgent, full of emotion. 

 "The guards are climbing the trees!" He cuts her off, not really seeming to hear her. His attention is directed elsewhere. When she finally looked closer, she saw that he was right. Several tree stands were mounted around the clearing, and her heart skipped a couple of beats. What the freaking hell were they planning? 

The siren wails to life, a long, earsplitting whine that filled the forest, causing her and Bryson to simultaneously drop the ground out of fear.

 "It's a tornado siren!" She yells, her voice colored with shock. How the hell were the tornado sirens still working? And why were they tying prisoners to it? Bryson grabbed her roughly by the arm, urging her up into the nearest tree, his eyes wild with panic. 

"They're using them as bait!" He yells, his voice nearly drowned by the blaring siren, which feels as if its about to make her head explode as it invades her ears, jarring her thoughts. Bait? For what?

 Its not until the first roamer limps out of the woods that realization dawns on her, the truth of what was going on down there as sickening as it was terrifying. All this time, she'd been wondering why they hadn't seen any roamers lurking about in the woods. Now, it all made sense to her.

 With the siren blaring loudly, any roamer within miles would hear that thing. The noise was attracting them here! And they were using the zombies favorite food, living people, for bait. She thought she might vomit as more roamers emerged from the woods, watching as dozens of them fell into the pit, while others fell to the ground from unheard gunshots. They were picking them off from the trees!

 Looking below them, a few roamers stumbled through the woods, toward the mayhem which would soon be a feeding frenzy.

 "We have to get back to town! Before the horde gets here." The last thing Paige saw was the spray of blood as the first of the zombies reached the tower, digging greedily into the neck of one of the helpless prisoners, whom she recognized as one of the people that had tried to escape yesterday.