School Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 32/Sheep and Demons: Dead Rising

Month 6 Day 10; 6:17 p.m.

Screams filled the air. That was the first sensation that I could distinguish. I watched as my people who were at the bottom of the hill were eaten and trampled and ultimately killed by the dead.

The second sensation that returned to me was a whisper. A whisper in the back of my mind. I was spun around from the horrors and faced Sasha. She screamed at me and I knew what she was saying without hearing her or reading her lips.

"I'll get everyone up here. You prepare counter-measures." She ran off and I looked back over the fray of the battle. I charged. I was running down the hill at such a fast speed that I was surprised that my feet kept up. The terrain finally flattened out and I charged at the nearest dead who was eating a fresh corpse. I drew my bat up into its face and drew it back down to crush the skull. I huffed and turned around to the corpse. It was the pastor's son, Jake. I stifled a shout and focused on my surroundings. I beat another walker as I turned around. I spotted Luke leading a small group to the hill, it was a failed attempt. People were constantly being dragged to the ground at the back of the group. Luke was urging them on though and slashing walkers in the way. I didn't take the time to ascertain who was in the group. I charged into the fray. I beat one walker to the ground to save Austin and slashed around to save a middle-aged woman.

"GO!" I screamed. They kept running and I followed them slowly as I cleared more dead. I beat one down and collapsed the knees of another before I took a knife and stabbed its head. I looked left and found another roaming around. I walked over to it and grabbed its throat. I stabbed the head and threw the body to the ground. Before I could think twice, I slashed open the chest and grabbed the guts. I quickly covered myself in the most repulsing camouflage that existed. I turned around and walked up the hill with the dead. I turned around occasionally and beat down some walkers, but when I got to the top, it was no holds bar. I turned fully around and held my ground the best I could as I beat and stabbed walkers. So many fell, I couldn't comprehend how many I killed, all I knew was that the more I killed the less were left to kill me. I heard someone scream and behind me laid Sasha. She charged and behind her was what she could round up of our splintered army. They charged and we stood and fought together.

Garrett and I stood almost shoulder to shoulder as we fought through the dead. Garrett took his ax and swiped it into the skulls of the dead. I took my bat and covered him as we fought into the raging storm. I could see some others through the fray at intervals.

I saw Hailey, Austin, and Luke with a small group of people scattered in a line formation confronting the dead. I swung my bat into a walker's head and proceeded to slowly walk toward them, bashing skulls along the way. I found A.J., Auston, Jake, and Ciara with another small group in a wedge distribution and I backed myself up in my attack to meet them. The unison groan of the dead made it harder to hear anything, but A.J. was leading and encouraging them, I could tell. He defended them when walkers began to close around them and he sometimes dragged walkers away from the others and turned it over before stabbing the skull.

"A.J.!" He turned toward me and almost took a knife into my skull until I grabbed his arm. "Form up! Reverse Horizon Tomorrow!"

"Got it!" He began yelling orders to his group and the wedge transformed into a line of equally spaced personnel approximately three feet apart. Horizon Tomorrow was a battle strategy I had developed that was a straight line that stood face to face with the enemy and killed. In a normal Horizon Tomorrow we pushed forward, but seeing our forces and the amount of dead I reversed it so that we backed up and would retreat to the house to fortify it.

As they were distributing themselves, I joined Hailey's group and distributed the orders. Luke immediately took the orders and in about fifteen seconds, they were in formation. We were one line that stretched the entire front of the dead. I swung my bat, again. I stabbed two walkers. I took a step back. I swung again. I stabbed a walker. I took a step back. It became repetition, a second nature. I was fighting to survive.