Episode: Part 24

Rose sat up suddenly at the sound of the chain links in the fence ringing. She hadn't slept, and from the looks of everyone in the glow of the solar lantern, no one had. They all sat up together when the chain link sounded off. It was creaking now, more force was being applied.

"Stay here," said Gage walking toward the door with a Benelli auto-pump twelve guage shotgun, "it may get bad." The other men followed.

"We have to clear them away from the fence," said Alex, "if too many come, the weight will collapse it."

The five men went to work with a variety of weapons, shotguns and semiautomatic rifles, mostly. A few pistols came into play as well. It was a rough and gory undertaking, and, they were fighting a losing battle. For each dead they put back down, it seemed, two or three replaced them.

The men yelled instructions and questions at each other over the roar of the guns and the steady, haunting moans coming from the dead. They grew more frantic by the rounds expended and they started to scream at each other to look out or to duck or to get back or I'm low on ammo!

Rose and Miss Vivian sat, huddled together, Rose lending the older lady some of her strength. Finally, hearing the defeat and terror of her brothers and the others was too much for her to stand. She stood and walked purposefully toward the door, motioning for Miss Vivian to stay put. She stepped out of the door and into a scene of utmost horror.

The men were losing, pieces of the dead had breached the fence and were bearing down on them. There were hundreds of hands, arms, and even a leg or two encircling the bunker. Quentin kicked a hand/arm into the hoard that was coming for them. He was on the edge of losing his nerve, eyes darting, breathing fast and shallow. The other men were not much better off.

Rose stepped to the center of them, and, at the top of her lungs, she screamed,
"STOP!"

A bright white light flowed from her in all directions, as if a pebble had been dropped and the light was the ripple, ever expanding. The light permeated the men and the dead. It bolstered the men, they all felt euphoric all of a sudden. The light did not help the dead, it turned them to dust in an instant. If seen from overhead, it would resemble a slow motion nuclear blast, white light spreading out and turning all the dead to dust.

There would be no more trouble from the dead tonight. Rose was awed and humbled at the same time. She knew that the power had not come from her, she wasn't that naive. She also knew that the power had flowed through her, and she was exhausted. Shenstumbled to the cab of the truck and climbed into the passenger seat where she promptly collapsed.

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