They Call Me Daring

Chapter 36

"Stakes." I gestured to the ditch.
    "Stakes." Ted repeated, nodding.
    "Watchtower." I pointed up at the church steeple.
    "Watchtower." He agreed.
    "And..." I frowned at the huge front doors. Those were the church's biggest weakness. The stone walls could hold for an eternity... but despite the heavy oak of the doors, the bolt would give way eventually. I snapped my fingers. "Oil vat."
    "Oil vat." He repeated, nodding. Then he frowned, and glanced at me. "Oil vat?"
    I grinned. "Yeah. Get some buddies, find a bucket or two. Fill them with oil, set everything up on the roof. When they come along in full blow... light one of the barrels up and tip it over." I explained.
    I could almost see the lightbulb go off over his head. "Ah..." His brow furrowed again. "But... Where the heck are we supposed to get oil?"
    I shrugged. "I don't know. There must be some left in a gas station or something. Somewhere, there's got to be some left. Isn't there like a car shop a couple of blocks away?"
    He raised an eyebrow but didn't speak again, turning away to group up a few of his friends.
    "Okay, guys!" I called out. "The trench is looking good!" It was much shallower and narrower than the apartments- they had less people here. It was only five or six feet deep, and maybe a little wider. The width varied around the circumference, so in some places it was quite a bit wider, and it others, anybody could simply step across. "We need to find some metal stakes, and..." An idea struck me. "Maybe some wires. We're going to need an awful lot of extension cord."
    I got them started. Ted and a group of his friends set out with a kid's stroller in search of oil. I introduced the idea of a watchtower, and dug out a few crossbows and bolts, sniper rifles and ammo. Their setup was a million times better than ours back at the mansion- they had an actual warning bell. The only problem was that to ring it, you were basically sacrificing your own eardrums.
    I stayed and helped widen and even out the trench for an hour or two, then left them to their work and headed back home. I passed the apartments on my way and approved the stakes jutting out of the ground on the other side of the ditch, lining the insides. From wooden floorboards to horseshoe pegs, from sign-posts to croquet stakes, the earth bristled like a frightened porcupine.
    To my relief, I met no other zombies on my way back. I needed to keep calm for as long as possible. Once we were certain the disease had been eradicated completely from my body and mind, I could be ADHD all I wanted.
    "Yo! Liam, watch out!" Clark shouted down to me, and I skidded to a halt just in time. My momentum carried my body forward an inch further, and for a moment I teetered over the sparking wire, my arms pinwheeling wildly for balance. After a breath-holding moment, I rocked back on my heels, eyes wide.
    "Dude, what do you think the traffic cones are for!?" He called down from where he was straddling the stone wall, eating a sandwich.
    "They're not to warn people that you live here?" I retorted. I took a few steps down the path and flung myself sideways through the air, deftly running diagonally up the stone wall, grabbing the lip with my hands and swinging my body up and over.
    "Show off." Clark muttered into his ham.
    "I know you are." I shrugged. A loud electric snap went off somewhere on the street, and when he snapped around to look for it's source, I snatched the ham and cheese out of his sandwich and disappeared over the edge before he knew what had happened, leaving him holding two slices of bread and looking very confused.