Chapter Twenty-Two.

They crept up toward the entrance to their little refuge. The smell of decaying flesh intensified. They stopped. Alejandro whispered into Kathleen’s ear. “I think it best if we leaving the pistols here with the rest of our stuff.”

She nodded, “Hats too.” He nodded.

He continued, “They are getting closer. The rocks are having a path all the way around the top, a ledge. We needs to get them to following us away from this door. If they push against it, it might break from the weights of all of them. So we leading them around the back of this and then crush their skulls from the ledge. ¿Comprende?”

She nodded again. Eyes wide, "Maybe they won't find us.”

She could see his face clearly in the weird green light. He was looking at her like she was an idiot.

He nodded, “Only if our luck is changes.”

Only one word came to her mind, “Fuck.”

He nodded, “Si.”

***

They climbed the rocks on the northern side of the barred entrance. Both of them lying down on the ledge, they observed the walker herd. The fucking things were coming right for their refuge.

It seemed their luck would not get better. The dead walked right toward them. There were twenty Walkers in the herd. Luckily, there was only the one herd, so maybe their luck wasn’t that bad.

Alejandro whispered, “Stay here. I’m going to checking around our backside and see if there is no more.”

She nodded and whispered, “Hurry back.”

He crawled along the ledge until he disappeared from her view.

The Walkers kept coming. After what seemed like an hour, he scuttled back to the entrance on hands and knees.

Kathleen whispered hoarsely, “There’s another herd of sixteen!”

He settled down next to her, their elbows touching. Kathleen had only just met him, but having another human being in close contact was doing wonders to keep her calm. She tried not to think how she would react if she had been all alone.

Alejandro snarled, “Meirda! It matters not, the plan is the same. When they get close, we will standing up and get their attention. Then walk along the ledge and leading them away from the gate. We bashing in their heads before the second herd gets here. They can’t reaching us. We just needing to be careful and fast. We are not going to die!”

Kathleen nodded again. As she watched the monsters come closer, her mind wandered. She wondered at his tone of voice. Was he trying to convince her, or himself? If Josiaha had been here, he would have told her it wouldn’t help anyone or anything to ask that question out-loud, so she kept her fucking mouth shut. Another thing Josiaha would have told her was to pay attention to what the fuck was going on.

She missed his grouchy old ass. Josiaha didn’t have any children of his own. When her father had brought him on as the head of the guard force, he had tried to ignore the children in the fort. That had lasted for about a week. He had taught them how to track, shoot, clean game, gut fish, cook over a fire, hunt with a bow. What to do if you were cornered by Walkers.

How to fight. When to fight, when not to fight, and when to ambush.

This is perfect, she thought. Whenever she got in trouble for fighting, Josiah would say, “Girl, don’t you get into fight, 'cause only bad things will ever come of it. A real fight is to the death. If you 'aint doing that, you're just being a stupid bully. But if you gotta fight, you get mad before you do. Good and mad, but keep your wits about you. If you lose control you could kill or maim somebody."

Kathleen had agreed with the sentiment but had entirely missed the lesson.

She could make a game out of this. “What Would Josiaha Do?”

That was easy. Josiaha would tell her to follow the plan Alejandro had laid out, and bash those walkers right in their fucking heads. Then figure out who was going to take first watch and who was going to make the evening meal.

Just imagining him saying that in his gravelly voice calmed her down even more.

***

Alejandro watched the Nightmares come closer. He was covered in a cold sweat. Voices from his past came to him. Advice from the men and women who had raised him floated through his mind.

Papa: “Keep quiet and observe.”

Mamma: “Think things through.”

Ignacio: “Don’t fight. Walk away. If you can’t do that and you must strike, do it fast with everything you have and make sure he never gets up.”

His elbow was touching Kathleen’s. That little bit of human contact kept him from panicking.

The monsters kept coming.

Alejandro whispered, “Kathleen. We are going to leading them around the back of here and we are going to fuck them all up.”

Kathleen whispered back, “Fuck these guys.”

They looked at each other. They nodded, and then they both stood up.

***

The two stood up and each wrapped a scarf around their nose and mouth.

Alejandro whispered to Kathleen, “Don’t whistle, the animals might hearing you.”

Kathleen looked at him, then turned and looked at the approaching herd of the walking dead.

She shouted, “Hey! Fuck all of you!”

She started waving her arms about and jumping up and down and whooping.

Alejandro looked at her, aghast. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? This was your idea!”

“Meirda! This is wrong!”

“You just get ready to whack them right in their fucking heads!”

He shouted angrily, “You’re gonna get us both killed!”

“I’m going to live. You do what you want.”

“Fuck!”

“Move your ass around to the back!”

Alejandro screamed at the top of his lungs, “Fuck all of you!”

“That’s the spirit!”

"¡Vete a la mierda Pendejos!"

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"You got this!"

“Fuck you! ¡Yo cago en la leche de tu Puta madre!”

Kathleen yelled at him, “You watch your fucking mouth!”

“Fuck!”

The walkers were moving faster now that they had located their prey. Still yelling and waving their arms, the pair led the monsters around to the back of the refuge.

Alejandro started whacking walkers right in their fucking heads. The smell of rotting flesh filled his nose. The ghouls kept coming. Low moans from their corrupted mouths made a low background to his shouted, “Fuck all of yous!”

The Walkers reached up, attempting to grab. Bite. Turn and corrupt. A fate worse than actual death.

Kathleen was doing her part, but without all the noise.

Men were such fucking babies, she thought to herself.

Alejandro finally got his fear and his mouth under control. In less than ten minutes, the two of them put all the Walkers down. They stood on the ledge, looking at their handiwork. That was a good sized herd of Night Walkers.

Her hands shaking, Kathleen muttered, “That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

Alejandro glared at her. She met his gaze. With a scowl, Alejandro made it obvious that maybe he wouldn’t kill her for that.

She shrugged. They examined their handiwork. Not a one of the bodies lying at the base of the rocks even twitched. That was a good thing. Kathleen and Alejandro looked at each other and nodded.

Alejandro whispered, “Now, the next herd.”

Kathleen whispered back, “Why are you whispering?”

“Is seeming like the thing to be doing.”

With a scowl, Kathleen made it obvious she was about to kill him for that.

In a normal voice, she said, “Vamanos.”

Embarrassed, he turned and followed her around to the entrance. Once there, the two started looking for more threats. The next herd was about fifty yards away. Kathleen was searching toward the west, Alejandro the north. He groaned, “Kathleen!”

She turned and looked at him. Alejandro pointed to the north. Another herd of Night Walkers was approaching their stronghold. And behind those came another.

Another herd approached from the west. And another from the southwest.

Alejandro shook his head and whispered, “This time we should quietly leading them around back. And quietly whacking them in their fucking heads. And maybe whispering is a good thing?”

Kathleen nodded her head violently while her throat tightened. She managed a strangled whisper, “That,” she cleared her throat, “that sounds like a good plan.” She pointed to the herd approaching from the south.

***

Alejandro went into the refuge and returned with a small sack, then they re-located to the southernmost side of the entrance and waited there.

As he rummaged around in the sack, he asked her, “Is your hands being clean?” She took off her right glove, and he handed her some smoked deer meat. He drained half of his water skin, then handed it to her.

He whispered, “We have maybe fifteen minutes until the next herd arrives. We are needing to lure them over to this side of the rocks.”

Kathleen nodded, not taking her eyes off the approaching menace and gnawing at her jerky.

***

They didn’t want to build up a ramp of bodies. That would make it easier for the monsters to climb up onto the ledge. When the herd arrived, they led them to the southwestern side and crushed their skulls. This time, as quietly as possible.

Heavy breathing and grunts accompanied the cracking and squishing sounds. A disgusting harmony to the moaning background from the throats of the Walkers.

Both of them were sweating and shaking from the adrenaline coursing through their veins. Alejandro caught Kathleen’s attention with a wave.

He whispered, “How many in that next herd?”

“Twenty-three.”

“And the one after that?”

“I lost count at thirty-six.”

Scowling, he muttered, “Fuck.”

Nodding, she whispered, “Si.”

***

Again, they led the herd of Walkers to a spot between the two piles of walkers and began beating their heads in. They tried to spread out their kills, but they ended up with a pile of bodies that formed a small hill. Neither Alejandro nor Kathleen were going to go spread the bodies out.

Not with the other herds so close.

Alejandro was covered in sweat, steam rising off of his body. Panting, he whispered, “We need to getting the next herd on the west side, near the gate.”

Kathleen nodded her head, saving her breath. She went to the small sack that he had brought up earlier and brought out another water skin. She gulped half of it down, then handed it to him.

Looking at the piles of walkers around their little fort, she whispered, “We’re gettin' pretty good at this.”

Alejandro whispered back. “Maybe we could finding someone to pay us for this.”

Kathleen scowled at him. Idiota.

The next group arrived. This time, they stayed at the western side of the entrance before they started bashing in skulls. The Walker herd spread out, reaching the pile of bodies on the southern side of the rock formation.

This was bad news. Panic was not far off as they tried to destroy the walkers trying to climb up the ledge. Every one they killed became another step up toward them.

Alejandro hissed frantically, “I got these! Get them along the rock before they get here! GO!”

“Si!”

Kathleen moved toward the entrance, bashing away at skulls as she went. Trying to give Alejandro enough time to clear away the walkers climbing up the pile of bodies. Her lower back burned as she bent over again and again to crush skulls. She was exhausted. Her attacks were not nearly as accurate as they had been a couple of hours ago.

Now it took three or four attempts before she struck a killing blow. If it wasn’t for the strap connecting her tomahawk to her wrist, she would have lost it a dozen times over as she misjudged her attacks.

When her attack failed, she would hit a walker’s head with the shaft of the weapon right below the obsidian axe head, rather than the axe head itself. When that happened, the weapon would ricochet off the skull or slide down and hit the shoulder, causing the handle to twist in her hand, making her lose her grip. Sometime this would break the collarbone, causing the arm to droop.

Alejandro was not in much better shape. He was also losing accuracy in his attacks. He cleared the pile of any moving Walkers and hurried over to help Kathleen. Together, they destroyed the rest of the herd.

Both of them were breathing hard and were drenched in sweat. Steam rose from their bodies.

Their hands shook and cramped. They looked northward, trying to spot the last herd. The group of shambling nightmares was about seventy yards away, heading right for them.

Alejandro whispered tiredly, “Anymore herds after this one?”

Kathleen shook her head, “Din't see none, but that don’t mean there 'aint more out there.”

“I think we will not surviving if more show up.”

Kathleen muttered. “I think you're right.”

“I can’t end like this. I would sooner shooting myself than become one of those filthy things. Imagine getting turned and knowing forever my sister is at the mercy of those men. And not being able to do anything about it.”

Kathleen reached out and grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “We will not end up like that. We got shit we need to do, and nothing is going to stop us from getting them back.”

She didn’t need to explain who them was.

“An' if you get bit, I’ll whack you right in your fuckin' head.”

Alejandro laughed. Kathleen doubled over, laughing along with him.

They were shaking. Lack of sleep and terror swept over them. Both of them were convinced they were going to die, but neither wanted to admit it to the other. They stood up. Alejandro went to the north side of the entrance. Kathleen went to the south.

The walking dead came for them. As the un-dead came closer, Kathleen and Alejandro were able to make an accurate count of the monsters.

Thirty.

Kathleen groaned and pointed east.

Another herd. She started counting. Thirty-eight. Fuck.

They didn’t panic. But it was close. So close.

This group of Walkers were going to surround the rocks. They were going to climb the piles of the dead and they were going to be face to face with them as they were dealt with.

The two of them stood in front of the horde. Each gaining some courage from the knowledge that they were not alone in this fight.

The horde came closer, the individual walkers flowing around each other as they stepped on and over the piles of bodies surrounding the rocks. Moaning and reaching out with their diseased and rotted hands. Eyes glazed over and white. The smell of rotted flesh floated on the air like a miasma.

Alejandro and Kathleen attacked the horde as it approached the ledge. Breathing hard, sobbing and cursing. They lashed out at the nightmares that surrounded them. Leaning over the ledge, they attacked the heads of the walkers.

They were exhausted, muscles burning. They were wracked by thirst. Their attacks were missing more often than not because of their physical condition. Muscles wouldn’t work properly.

The ghouls came closer; they climbed the piles of dead flesh. The monsters reached out. They were going to bite. They were met with desperate violence.

And they kept coming.