We had both survived too much to want to die by something as preventable as freezing to death.

 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Like I said though, I just don’t know where to start.”

 

I picked my sword up from beside the fence rail. The undead was only about ten yards away. I expected it to start moaning and gurgling at us, but it didn’t. I held up a hand to shield my eyes from the sun, and saw that the infected that killed it had torn out its throat. That explained why it was not making any noise. It wore the tattered remains of a police officer’s uniform, and still had its duty belt on. I took a step back and let the corpse walk into the fence rail.

 

It had the same look on its face that all of the undead have. Wide, bloodshot eyes turned milky white, mouth hanging open, a look of perpetual hunger and anger on its wasted features. It ran into the fence rails and began to heave against them in impotent rage, reaching through the gaps trying to get at me. Gabe pulled his heavy Falcata short sword from a sheath at his hip, and in two swift strokes lopped off the creature’s arms at the elbow.

 

I brought my small sword up and drove the point through the undead’s eye, giving the blade a practiced twist as it went in. When I felt the blade hit the backside of the creature’s skull I quickly drew the sword back. As I did so, I covered my face with my arm to avoid getting infected tissue splattered on me. The corpse shuddered, then collapsed to the ground. I reached under the lowest rail in the fence, and pulled on the feet of the now permanently dead police officer.

 

“What’re you doin’?” Gabe asked.

 

“He’s still got his duty belt on. I want to see if there’s anything useful on it.” I replied.

 

Gabe reached down and helped me pull the body closer to the fence. We dragged it close enough for me to reach between the rails and unbuckle the duty belt. After some tugging and cursing on my part, I finally managed to rip it free and pull it off the corpse.

 

I stood up and looked over the belt. The expandable baton was still in its sheath, as well as a rusted can of pepper spray. The holsters for handcuffs, a radio, and a taser were all empty. The gun was still in the holster. I recognized it as a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol with a magazine in it, and two more magazines in holsters on the backside of the belt.

 

“Well I’ll be damned.” I said. “Look what we got here.” I held up the belt for Gabe to see. “Reckon we could get this stuff cleaned up and usable?” I asked.

 

“Probably so. That’s a good find. Guns and ammo are getting pretty hard to come by these days.” Gabe replied.

 

I nodded in agreement. A serviceable pistol and forty-five rounds of ammo was more than we had scored on our last two scouting trips. I stepped behind Gabe and put the duty belt in his pack.

 

“I tell you what man, I’m sure as hell glad we took the time to finish this fence.” I rapped on a fence post with the back of my knuckles, making a hollow ringing sound with each strike. “This thing makes life a hell of a lot easier up here.”

 

“Damn straight.” Gabe agreed. “We might have spent half the day tracking this asshole and his buddies if we didn’t have a good perimeter to work from.”

 

Not long after I made it up here, Gabe and I loaded a gasoline powered generator and an arc welder into the back of my truck, and set about finishing the fence.