It was a long night. The gunshots never ended because the horde of undead never ended. It was almost impossible to get decent sleep. I gave up around 3:30 am and got up to see if anything had improved.
No, it was worse. The walls were holding but the sheer numbers of undead was creating an imitation of a cresting wave . The zombies on the bottom were being walked on by other undead who in turn were being walked on. The wall of zombies was growing higher and would soon be in danger of crashing onto the tops of our two walls. I radioed Samuel to explain the situation and he gave the order for everyone to start shooting the top zombies and knock them back and down.
Easier said than done. We all opened fire all along the wall, all the way around the Alamo. I yelled for everyone to use single shots and aim for the head. We needed to conserve our ammo until we could take stock and find a way to get more. The order was passed down the line and I heard the shots slow down. It took almost an hour of everyone on the walls firing on the wave, but we were able to get the zombie surge under control, for the moment.
Once the wave had been knocked back, I went to find some coffee and something to eat. Instead, I found Samuel and his henchmen waiting for me by the area where we set up the outside kitchens. After listening to them, I knew we were up shit creek, without a paddle and with a slow leak in the boat. We only had enough food for three days at most with all the people inside the walls. Ammo was not much better, especially if the surge continued.
Samuel wanted to know if I had any ideas for how to restock our position with minimal casualties. I told him he was fucking crazy but told him I would ask some of the men around with battle experience. It was the best I could offer and they all knew it.
After this little intrusion, I had lost my appetite and just took the coffee. I went in search of my second in command, PFC Ross, and found him cleaning his weapons. I spent twenty minutes or so talking with him and he agreed to think about how to get out and back into the Alamo with supplies. I went down the list of my men and by the time I was on the walls, they had all agreed to ask around. If Samuel and him cronies didn't like it, well then they could come up with the ideas themselves. This one would need all the brain power we could get working on it.
We had to use the firearms to get the surge under control twice during my four hour shift and I found Samuel collecting everyone's private stores of ammunition to aid in our defense. That alone let me know how dire the situation was becoming. I rounded up my men and anyone else they thought would be useful and we got down to the nitty gritty of coming up with a plan. We cussed and discussed for over an hour and still, there was no plan.
I was starting to feel like this was all a horrible April Fools Day joke, but no one was laughing, especially not me. I was under no illusions, I knew that I would be one of the team sent out to find desperately needed supplies and I was not looking forward to going.
I left everyone with instructions to continue thinking on the matter and went to look for any plans of the Alamo that might be on hand. I was not hopeful about finding any, but I still had to look. I went to Samuel with an update which was not what he was hoping to hear and then asked him about the plans. We spent a couple of hours searching through the administration areas but didn't find anything helpful.
By the time we were through looking, it felt like it was already midnight. It was only 2 p.m. and all I wanted to do was find a place to catch some z's. I was able to find a spot in the old barracks and knew I would never sleep unless I wrote this down to get it out of my head. I really don't know if we are going to make it.
We should have been planning for fall back positions from the time we started building the walls. We could have had multiple places ready, stocked and protected so everyone would have had a place to retreat to. I now knew that this is where Samuel was going to keep himself alive and if anyone else made it, that would be fine by him. He made a mistake though. He let too many people in and so had no supplies to stay alive with beyond a couple of days. And he expects me to get him out of this jam.
I think I can sleep now. Maybe I will get divine inspiration while I am sleeping and come up with a plan before I wake up. Yeah, right. Like there is a God when the dead are rising and eating the living.
As a writer and artist, I appreciate
any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read
this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan
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www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology
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