Free This Shattered Land - 02 by James Cook Page B

steps away now, but we were at the edge of the light cast by the fire. The
closer we got, the less I could see. Behind me, I heard Gabe grunt and the wet thunk-crunch of his axe bursting open a skull. Movement to my left caught my eye. I turned
to see Brian rushing toward us with a flashlight, the bright shaft of light
bobbing up and down as he ran.
    “Brian,
shine the light out that way.” I shouted, pointing.
    “Okay,
got it.” He said breathlessly as he reached the fence and shined the line in
the direction I indicated. There were only two more revenants on my side. I put
them down, then had Brian shine the light in Gabe’s direction. Six more were
closing in. I turned to Tom and Sarah.
    “You
two get the gate open, I got the rest of ‘em.” Sarah gave a quick nod, grabbed
Tom by the sleeve, and dragged him the last few steps to the fence at a sprint.
    “Gabe,
back off for a second.” I said, running over to him. He buried his axe one last
time before dropping back behind me with gore dripping from his weapon. I took
a couple of deep breaths to steady my aim. The sights lined up, my trigger
finger tightened, and the gun went off. One more down. The next five went like
clockwork, one dropping every other second as Gabe’s shooting lessons droned
through my head at the speed of thought.
    Focus
on the front sight.
    Don’t
pull, squeeze. You want the shot to surprise you.
    Keep
your thumbs-up on the grip.
    Don’t
forget to breath, or you’ll start shaking.
    And
then they were all down. My heartbeat had slowed, and my breathing was back to
normal by the time I fired the last shot. My hand was steady as I holstered the
Kel-Tec. I was getting way too used to this stuff. The fire flickered low and
sullen over the now permanently immobile corpses as I turned back toward the
fence.
     “Okay,
dammit, from here on out, no one goes outside the gate without a firearm. That
was way too close.” I said, locking the gate behind me.
    Tom
flashed a smile and clapped me on the shoulder. “You handled things pretty good
out there, man. That was impressive.”
    I
frowned and shook my head. I could smell the booze on Tom’s breath, and I
couldn’t help but wonder if he would be so cavalier about the situation if he
wasn’t a couple of sheets to the wind.
    “It’s
not me I’m worried about Tom. You and Sarah have a son to look after. Fuck’s
sake, how did you two manage to survive this long? What would you have done if Gabe
and I hadn’t been there?”
    Tom’s
smile faded, anger darkening his features. “Look, we’ve fought the undead
before, lots of times. We know how to handle ourselves. Ever since we ran into
you two, we haven’t had a chance to do much fighting. You and Gabe always jump
out front and smash everything in sight. When the hell have we had a chance to
prove what we could do?”
    I
opened my mouth to say something, but Brian stopped me. “Would you two stop it?
What’s wrong with you, you sound like a couple of old women.” He said, pointing
an accusatory finger at me. “And don’t talk to my dad like that.”
    I
looked down at the boy’s indignant face, and all the irritation drained out of
me in a flood. There’s nothing like getting scolded by a twelve year old to let
you know when you’re being a jackass. Tom was right. We had been overly
protective of them, mostly because of Brian. Sarah stepped forward and put a
hand on my arm.
    “Listen,
you’re right, we got sloppy tonight. I’ll make sure we’re all armed before we
leave the fence from here on out, okay? I know you’re just trying to look after
us. I really do appreciate it.”
    I
sighed. “Alright, fair enough. I don’t want to ruin the evening any more than I
already have.”
    “Eric,
you didn’t ruin anything.” Tom said. “You risked you life to protect
us—again—and then you got mad at us for not being smart enough to arm
ourselves. I understand why you want to lash out, but you need to remember that
we’re all on