31 Fertilizer
Chapter 31
This better work, Rhett thought, pulling on a thick kevlar vest. If it doesnt, we are already dead. “Everyone kitted out and ready?” Rhett got a nod from Cass Mason, and a grunt from Judah Dixon. Gavin Hayes had his vest stuck over his head, but gave a thumbs up from the neck. The plan was simple, disperse the dead with shots from the front of the building, and run for the drain. If anything went wrong, they were dead. It’s just 30 yards.
“What's the count, Cass?” Rhett asked. Overnight more had surrounded the building, which was expected, but not in such volumes.
“Last estimation, 8 thousand. Several more in the lot.”
Gods above. Rhett shook his head, and pushed the count from his mind. He left the armory, and climbed to the root to speak with Rose. As he walked up the stairs, he paused, looking out over the warehouse. Demigods in armor, forges burning, archery in the far corner. He lost track of time, but was snapped out of it by a hand on his shoulder. He looked at it, black nail polish, but nails cut short, then looked up at Rose’s face. “Hey.”
She sat down leaning her head on his shoulder. “We’ll be free one day.”
“I appreciate your optimism.”
Rose kissed him on the cheek. “If you don't survive I will hunt you in the afterlife.”
Rhett laughed, and put his arm around Rose. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I love you, Rhett. Live for me.”
“I love you too, Ava.” Rhett said, pulling her into a kiss. She broke it, standing first. “I’ll see you when we have cleared up the dead.”
Rifles could be heard from behind as Rhett, Cass, and 20 sons of Arex and Athira burst from the rear door of the building. Rhett and Judah took the front, stabbing several of the dead before looking aabout. The smell of the dead was horrendous, sweet and putrid. The dead were a sea around them. Cass joined them shortly as they made their way through them.
As they neared the tunnel, the slackjaws began to ignore the sounds of rifle shot at the front of the building. They seemed to just know there was fresh meat about. Rhett and Judah turned, defending the others as they began to go into the tunnel. One walker, a former pest control man, was dangerously close. He wore a hard hat, like those of construction workers, and a thick full body suit. Rhett grabbed his shoulder, bringing his sword down on the Maw's neck. The head rolled off, but Rhett felt hands grab on his own shoulder. Shit.
Sure enough it wasnt a living being. The zombie had pale skin, eyes yellow, and hair falling out in brown clumps. He, or at least Rhett thought it was a he, wore biker shorts, and his chest and stomach were ripped wide open. Rhett wrenched himself away from the creature, stumbling over one of the fallen. He'd lost the grip on his sword, which fell a few feet away from him. "Fuck," Rhett grabbed at his belt, but the hilt was spun around to his rear. His belt loops were torn, which allowed it to go around. I really need to get that fixed. The walker was on top of him now, the emaciated corpse oddly strong. He kicked the creature, knocking it off balance.
Rhett barely had a chance to stand before several more piled on. He could hear the jaws snapping, the moans of the undead, and was overwhelmed with the stench of rot. The weight lessened as Judah and Cass pulled the corpses off, putting them down as they went. As the last one came off, Rhett stood, checking his limbs briefly, before bolting to the open storm drain.
They got through, replacing the grate as the swarm finally closed on the drain. "Well, that went better than I expected." Judah laughed, clapping Cass on the back. Cass just stared ahead.
"Cass?" Rhett asked, watching Cass closely.
"I'm afraid that's it from me." Cass said solemnly, lifting his arm. A perfect round bite. The flesh was exposed, bleeding around the edge of the wound.
It would have been fine, except they'd already experimented with removing bitten limbs. Cass was doomed to die within the week.
"God dammit." Judah said, breaking the silence. "God fucking dammit. Fuck."
"We can't think about that now. We need to cull the herd." Cass said, shaking his head.
They followed the drain, leading to the other side of a nearby access road. Rhett took them to an office overlooking the warehouse, and they began to clear it.
"Rhett to Rose."
"Present."
"Private channel."
"Aye."
Rhett switched his walkie talkie on to Encrypted, and gave it the Morse signal Rose and Rhett mutually shared. This would allow both walkie to encrypt decrypt messages, and others would be unable to access that channel.
Rhett popped in the earbud to the radio and spoke. "Rose?"
"Hey."
"Cass and Harrison got bit." Harrison was a son of Arex we found out was bitten later.
"Fuck."
A pause overcame the both of them. "We have to move on. I thought I should tell you. You can't tell the others until a later point."
"I agree. You're safe?"
"The rest of us were unharmed. You're safe?"
"More have been coming down the hill, but it hasn't overwhelmed us yet."
"Good. I love you, stay safe."
"I love you too."
With that the air went dead. Rhett sighed, then coiled up the earbuds and put the radio back on his hip.
Harrison's injuries were less severe than Cass, but would still be fatal. His was on his upper arm, but it had already been several hours, the virus or disease would have passed through his heart.
The demigods referred to the turning as corruption, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to Rhett. He walked the hallway back to the main central room, pondering the idea. How the hell can this not be a disease? It passes from person to person via bites, goes through the blood, and is irreversible.
He pushed the thought from his mind and sat down to eat. It was 6pm now, the days growing longer as time went on. Soon they would have time change. Man fuck that shit. I'm gonna have to stop us from that nonsense.
"Do we pick the crowd off from here maybe?" Cass asked, bandaged and clearly in pain.
"Can't without a very good route out of the building." Rhett said, causing Cass to smack his forehead.
"Is there a way to lure the dead away? Rather than waste bullets slaughtering them all?" Rico, Third of the Athirans, asked.
"Explosion." Judah grinned. Damn you, thats clever.
There were a few options for that. The nearby feed store would have ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and they could easily scavenge old diesel fuel from a semi truck. The two combined would cause a shockwave or at least a small crater.
Another option was a barrel or a dozen of Gasoline, rigged to blow. That would be quite loud, and if they added aluminum powder or steel pieces they could make essentially a giant's hand grenade.
The others were less likely to work, thermite wasn't a true explosive, regardless of how easy it was to get. Black powder bombs wouldn't have the punch needed for the horde. And Potassium or Sodium Chlorate were phased out of weed killer decades ago.
"Let's go with the fertilizer." Cass decided. Gotta go out with a bang I guess.
That was truly the easiest option. There was a tractor supply less than a mile away. Rhett warned the group back home, and the demigods and mortal left the office. "It's getting worse by the hour. We have to do this fast." Rhett said, pondering.
"Well, I can take some of my kin for diesel fuel. There's a tire shop I know of that used to sell 55 Gallon drums." Judah said, gesturing for 8 of his half brothers, all of the sons of Arex.
"Yes. We meet back here in an hour." Rhett said, grinning. This could work.
They were a half mile from the office building at that point, far enough to lure the herd away, and hopefully, to continue to the east. "We'll have to go further out for the actual explosion. Preferably another 3 miles." Cass said, grunting as he tripped and got back up.
"Agreed. It has to be violent enough to lure the horde."
"We also need a spot to be when it goes off, and to weather the horde."
"We could also do well with a second bomb even further out if we get enough diesel." Rhett said, taking a knife to a nearby walker.
"I'd like to head up that one if I could, Rhett." Cass met his eyes, and Rhett could see some finality in that.
"I can't stop you." Rhett nodded, trying to convey what he meant without saying it. It's for the best.
Rhett was the one to kick down the Tractor supply door, not that it was needed. All the glass was already gone. It crunched under foot as the group trod inside.
Rhett could hear the dead awaken at the prospect of food, but they made short work of the former employees and customers. One stuck in his mind, a child no older than 6 with multiple bites on the hands, missing some fingers, and an eyeball hanging out of his mangled face.
The store was in the standard layout, rugged farm clothes right by the entrance, large cages with deceased chickens and ducks, then further on, the animal food. At the back, Rhett tool a left, checking every aisle for deaders. He was going to continue to the back left corner of the store, but the animal meds caught his eye. Rhett gestured for thr others to continue, and pulled out his bag.
Ivermectin, antibiotics, sleep aids, tranquilizers, pain meds. Everything. After his back was laced with medications he continued to the others, and they all exited into the enclosed side area. More walking corpses stumbled from the back of the area, clumsy, tripping over planter pots and bags on the ground.
All told they filled the back of a pickup with the proper fertilizer, and headed to meet the sons of Arex.
Some of the endless sea around costco had followed them up and into the rest of the city block, but that hardly made a dent. Rhett set his binoculars on his dashboard as a truck full of war demigods rolled up.
"Let's get to work, people. Judah, how many barrels?"
"20, the second truck is down the road."
"All full?" Rhett raised an eyebrow.
"No actually. You only need 5% of the stuff, it's 95% fertilizer."
Rhett nodded. Half of the barrels were full, the other half would be used for the two explosions, and future use. "How the hell did you end up with so much?"
"A spike, mallet, and a bunch of useless deisel trucks." Judah smiled. A smile? Gods.
"Well, let's get her done."
Rhett and others filled 5 drums with the fertilizer pellets, and Judah came around filling each drum in turn with 3 gallons of fuel. the group let them sit and soak for a short while, then loaded up Cass 2 more of them, in a small pickup they'd hotwired.
"Cass," Rhett gestured, "Judah, you too."
Both young men joined Rhett, a distance away from the rest of their companions. "Yes?" Judah asked.
"I'll be taking the spare truck. Solo." Cass said, hand on Judah's shoulder.
Judah nodded, then took a deep breath and shook the son of Athira's hand. "It's been a pleasure, Mason."
"Likewise, Dixon."
"Cass, you should get going." Rhett said, somber. "We'll blow this sucker in half an hour."
Cass Mason felt the explosion behind him at sundown. Well, this is as good a spot as any.
He pulled the truck to the side of the road, right outside a starbucks in a dense college area southeast of Athens. He didn't bother removing the bomb, rather he sat and waited in a chair outside of the former coffee shop.
Cass had never been much of a drinker, but today was something else. He opened his flask, and downed the contents. Then a whole bottle. Once the sun fell behind the horizon, he grabbed the bomb remote Rhett had rigged up. It'd give him a bit of time after it was pressed. He didn't think twice as he hit it, and heard beeping from the device in the truck. He sat and counted, after 5 beeps, Cass felt an intense heat and pain, then there was simply nothing.
Rhett looked down as he heard the second explosion. God damn it. A tear fell, and a sense of resolve came over him.
Judah passed his mason jar of moonshine to Rhett. Instead of accepting, Rhett produced his own. The rest of the group learned of what was to happen after Cass left. He hadn't wanted to see their faces or hear their pleas. He knew he was going to die.
The group raised a toast to Cass atop the office building, then sat in silence as darkness fell over them.
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