"My grandkids," I heard marge whisper. I didn't even think of that. Marge's kids were old enough to care for themselves, but what about her grandchildren? Marge's grandchildren were only 6 and 9, and their parents would be able to take care of them. But only if they hadn't already been turned into those horrible zombie-looking things down the hill.
"What are those things" I heard one of the residents say. "By the looks of it, I would say some kind of robot/zombie," Abe said in his matter-of-fact voice. Abe had been me and Paul's technician during the war, with marge and Janet being the nurses that fixed us up when we lost our limbs. Abe had never really left technology behind. Even now, as an older man, he kept up with the newest advancements the younger generations came up with. He would drag us all together every time something "big" happened and rant for an hour or two about what could have gone better or how it would change the world. Frankly, I didn't care.
I was too old to pursue anything worthwhile, and I hadn't been able to have kids. So I didn't have anything that needed saving or protecting. All I had was the people around me and the friendship that came with that. I needed to protect them no matter the cost, and if marge was going to go down there to find her grandchildren, then so was I.
But first, we needed to be prepared. Raising my hand to block the relatively small entrance. I began to speak. "Before anyone makes rash decisions, we must prepare ourselves against those things." the crowd turned to me, waiting for me to elaborate on what I meant. "We need to create or find stuff to defend ourselves, and we need to create a barricade or something to block these things from getting in," I said, gesturing to the robot zombies.
Everyone kind of stood there mulling over my words. "Now, people!" I yelled at them. As if they had just come out of a trace, they all began running back into the building except for paul, marge, and Janet. "What makes you think those things will attack us?" paul asked. "Boom" A building just down the hill blew up. People began to run out of it in a panic. As soon as the people were within sight of the robot zombies, they began to run at them at full speed. It was only a few seconds untell the things were on top of the people.
I expected the zombies to bight or claw or something. Instead, they dog pilled the humans into the ground. Only for another zombie to show up with a cart of cybernetic arms, legs, etc., you name it; it was there. The zombie grabbed an arm and shoved it into a person's face. Immediately that person became slack. I looked over to paul, and paul looked over to me. "Ya, we should get to barricading then."
Paul ran inside to start grabbing things to barricade with. I was just about to help him. But I found myself looking back down the hill. "What the hell is happening" I muttered. I mean, I knew what was happening. Those robots were somehow making everyone into zombies. What I didn't understand was how, why, or even when. It was all moving too fast for me to understand. I guess I would have to do what I always do. Go with the flow.
Rolling myself inside, I found that the residents were just bringing back the things they would use to block the entrance. There were chairs, tables, and anything that wasn't bolted down. Hell, I even saw one of the guys bringing the TV I destroyed. Paul was in the back with abe, trying to get the ping pong table to the barricade.
Something that I knew we would need was weapons. As much as I despised having to pick one of them up again, there was no way I was going out there without a gun. Rolling over to abe and paul, and I pulled paul down to my ear. "Alright, boomstick, I know you've got some weapons left from the war up in your bedroom," I said softly into his ear.
Paul flinched a little. "I don't know what you mean," He said. "OK, I guess I'll just go check for myself," I said while rolling towards the dorms. "Fine, fine. I have some but ain't nobody taking my guns without my permission". I knew Paul would have something. He was like abe in the sense that he never grew out of his hobby. Blowing things up.
We moved to his dorm. All the dorms were practically the same—square boxes with a bed and a nightstand. In pauls case, there was also a massive safe in the back corner. Paul had dipped into his savings to buy this thing, and finally, after how long, it was going to be used for something.
We moved to the safe, and paul reached into his sock and pulled out a big old key. Grinning at me, he put the key into the lock and turned. The safe was covered wall to wall with guns and knives. "Are those grenades?" I asked paul. "Hey, you can't be too careful nowadays," he responded. I wanted to know how he could even get this stuff in here without anyone knowing. But I suppose I was talking about boomstick, the Boom expert.
In pauls safe, I saw both the M14 and the M16. I was familiar with both guns as I had used both during the war. The question now was if I should use either as I was crippled. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small pistol I recognized during my service. It was a colt 1911 with a small bayonet on the bottom of the barrel. That right there would do me good. As it was a pistol and not a rifle, it would be easier for an older man like me to use, and I could, if needed, use the baronet in close-quarter fights.
"What about that one, paul? Could I take that off your hands?" I said while pointing at the 1911. Paul just looked at me and grinned. He knew that I would need less kickback and more room to fire as a legless man. Paul said nothing and pulled the pistol out of the safe, and handed it to me.
Paul was still missing his arm. But that issue was resolved when he pulled out his old prosthetic from the safe. This one wasn't as fancy as his old one, only being able to move in pre-prepared sets. But it would do for now.
After covering the bayonet with a covering, I tucked it into the back of my pants. "You got some more ammo?" I said to paul. "Ya," He said while opening a cabinet that took up most of the bottom half of the safe. Inside were ammo boxes of all kinds. "Attachments?" he swung the left door of the safe a little wider so I could see. The door had scopes, bayonets, lights, and many others. I think I even saw a holographic weapon sight. "So it's not limited to older weapons," I thought.
I was afraid we would have to work with older weapons, but it looked like paul stayed up to date. That was good because it meant more options for us. Hopefully, we wouldn't have to use too many things in Paul's safe. But I was willing to bet that wouldn't be an option, especially if we were going to attempt to get marge's grandkids.
Just then, pauls room door opened with marge and Janet walking in. "Holy Jesus," marge said when her eyes landed on the safe. "What in the hell were you thinking smuggling all these guns in," she said scornfully. "How you know they smuggled," Paul said. Her only reply was to raise an eyebrow.
I could see Paul was about to argue further, but I wasn't having it. "Enough, it doesn't matter if he smuggled them or not. All that matters is that there here now," I said. And thank the lord that they are. "We wouldn't last the night if they werent," I thought to myself.
"Ok," I said while looking both of them in the eye. "How's the barricade coming," I said, hoping it was close to done. "It's almost done. It turns out old people want to live more than everyone thinks." Janet was the one to speak this time. I've known Janet almost as long as Id nown marge. Janet had been the nurse that helped keep paul alive when his arm got amputated.
"That's good news. We should have a meeting to figure out what's next. I have a feeling that the zombies are about to start coming up the hill soon," I said. With the hill being the only place in the city that someone hadn't turned into a zombie, they were bound to investigate soon.
We made our way into the sitting room and called everyone together. "Alright, with that barricade up, we should have some warning when those things get here. With that in mind, we need to figure out a game plan". I wasn't the leader type, but as I had been the one to react when the whole event started id became the de facto leader until someone more qualified took charge.
Almost immediately, the arguing started. Men and women all began to yell at each other. "Hey," I yelled. "If we can't all act like adults, I'll make it, so you have to raise your hands," I threatened. While the arguing wasn't as bad as before, it was still there. It was more manageable now, though.
Many suggestions were put forth, but I found that the best one was to hold this place down. We had roof access and plenty of food to last us. As well as guns and ammo to fight a war. The only problem was marges grandchildren as well as some other residents wanting to find their families. "If we can hold the fort until morning, we will improvise a team to go see what's happening, as well as find out if your families are ok," I said at the end of the meeting. I just hope that we can survive tonight.