Free Surviving The Dead: Heartland Zombie Apocalypse Vol. 1 by Marty Brockschmidt Page B

adds up quick.  Crystal and the Brenner twins went back over to Percy.  Percy had assigned a detail to collect the spent casings, to be reloaded, while the rest stayed ready in case another wave came through.
     
    “Gunny I need to go let our people know the status and figure out what we do about this mess.”, Crystal said with a nod towards the bodies piled up outside their fence.
     
    “Very good Captain.”, Percy replied, hiding his pride in the young woman who had come so far.
     
    “What's the good word Captain?”, Mac asked anxiously.
     
    “The fences have held and the immediate threat has been taken care of.”, Crystal answered loudly so the room could hear.
     
    Everyone in the room visibly relaxed, but the mood remained somber.  That thing they were so afraid of, that thing they thought they had run away from was back.  This place that felt so safe just a few hours ago, now felt like a trap.
     
    “We have a few stragglers please stay here a bit longer.”, Crystal continued, then lowered her voice to speak only to Mac, “I think it best you gather the Council and meet us at the gate.
     
    As the council members approached the main gate the problem became obvious, there were over a thousand bodies lying just yards from the fence. 
     
    “There is a gravel pit about a half hour to the east.  It would be a job, but we could move them there.”, Mick suggested.
     
    Crystal looked at Percy for advice, but he just moved his hands urging her to speak her mind, “We don't want to run headlong into trouble.  Blade assemble a detail, we need to know there is not another wave coming and we need to know the way to the gravel pit is clear, be ready to go as soon as we can make a hole.  Amy ask the sergeant to join us, let's see what advice he has.  Bill, see if Doc can leave Doug for a little bit.  Lord knows what diseases were going to exposed to moving those bodies.”
     
    “Right then, we'll assemble some drivers and get a work crew together.  We'll meet back here in about ten minutes.”, Mac proclaimed.
     
    Eleven minutes later Mac returned with the work crew and three of their flatbed trucks.  Bill followed shortly behind.  Doc was unable to leave Doug, but gave Bill a couple of boxes of surgical gloves, advised him to get something to cover their faces and nobody with open scratches or cuts should handle the bodies.
     
    Sergeant Andrews added his two cents, “To be honest I've never been involved in moving the bodies.  It has always been clear a hole and move on.  I do know if it is a grazing shot or maybe doesn't damage enough of the brain, these things can get back up.  Approach them like you would a downed deer and I'd pop the brain again, just to be sure.”
     
    Crystal made a quick assessment and then laid out a plan, “We aren't that flush with ammunition if  anymore of these herds come along.  Mick, can you come up with something to pierce the skull.  Gunny we'll need two patrols to spell each other.  Mac break your men up into extraction crews and loading crews.  We'll put a pair of militia with a pair on the extraction crew.  One militia to stand guard and one to pierce the brain.  We'll focus on getting a way clear so Blade's detail can confirm the quarry is safe and we don't have another wave on the way.  Questions, concerns?  One more thing I want to know where this group came from pull ID's when you can, we'll look at them later.”
     
    Mick returned with a half dozen pieces of pipe, about five feet long and cut to a point on one end.  The crews struggled at first to find their rhythm compounded by the fear that at any moment one of the dead was going to rise again.  However, it is amazing how adaptable the human mind is.  In a relatively short span of time the bodies just became another load and they began to handle them like they would a sack of potatoes.
     
    When the first load was ready to be taken to the quarry Percy questioned Crystal's decision to go