Thanks to the power of the Internet, dozens of construction sites and construction companies that were far enough from heavily populated areas were found. A plea was issued for any and all citizens that were capable of operating heavy machinery.
Soon enough every bulldozer, every cement truck, everything that could be used for construction was being parked just outside the perimeter. They even took the risk of going to a Home Depot to the east of them for all of its raw materials. Materials weren't the only things gathered, though. No one knew how much longer the power was going to hold out, so every generator and solar panel was salvaged as well.
It was a long, slow process to drive everything to Yuba. All in all, it took almost two weeks to gather enough materials.
But there was one problem that could possibly put an end to all of the plans to build a wall: the tree-strewn hill to their north. So, on top of all the materials they gathered, chainsaws were also being salvaged. When the town's resident tree huggers found out about that, they weren't happy.
Eventually, the order was given to perform a sweep of the hill to clear it of any and all possible zombies.
Cameron and half the riflemen (and women) stood on top of the trucks on the northern perimeter facing the trees. Next to him was, of course, Becky. Inside each truck that made up that part of the wall was someone in the driver's seat.
His heart was beating rapidly. Never before did he shoot in such enclosed and uneven terrain.
"I wonder if we'll ever have a date that doesn't involve zombies," Becky sighed.
"Tell ya what," Cameron offered, "on the next supply run we'll get a DVD player, then raid a Blockbuster. Sound good?"
She smiled. "Sounds great. How about we watch 28 Days Later?" The two of them looked at each other before bursting out laughing.
"Yeah, I don't fucking think so," he responded, still chuckling.
Becky wiped away a tear, and said a little seriously, "Well, what I really wanna see is Titanic. I haven't seen it in so long."
Cameron rolled his eyes. What was it with chicks and Titanic? "Okay, but in return we're definitely watching Boondock Saints and Underworld."
"That vampire movie?" she asked, taken back a bit. "You like that kind of stuff?"
"No, it's just a good movie." Plus, Kate Beckinsale is a hottie, he didn't add.
The two of them continued to discuss what they might want to see, when the radio crackled. "Okay," Major Kyle's voice said, "make some noise."
All at once, every truck rumbled to life with loud roars, and each one blew its horns. The noise was deafening, but everybody had put in earplugs so it wouldn't be that bad. Immediately tons of zombies came pouring down the hill through the trees, and the work began.
Every person had a pole with a broken bottle or some kind of other sharp object attached. Cameron got down on his knees, and started to stab down at every zombie within reach, while Becky was grabbing his belt to make sure he didn't fall. Every five minutes or so the horns would honk again on the off chance that any zombies didn't immediately come running. And when Cameron's, or anybody else's arm got sore, they would switch with their partner.
Eventually all the zombies that had come to them were dead. The horns kept on honking for good measure, but after a half hour nothing more appeared.
"Alright, people, get ready," the radio crackled.
Inhaling and exhaling hard, Cameron picked up his rifle and strapped it to his over his shoulder.
"Careful, Cam," Becky said, giving his hand a tight squeeze.
He's been hearing that a lot lately, but he agreed nonetheless. Tossing a rope over the edge, Cameron traversed down it over the chain link fence and stepping onto the dead bodies. Once he gained his balance, he and the others that came down too trained their rifles forward. Up on the trucks, people stayed so that they could take care of any zombie that snuck past the line.
The radio came on again: "Forward, people. Nice and slow."
Gulping hard, Cameron moved forward one step at a time, keeping his rifle at the ready. There was always the chance that a crawler was just lagging behind, or maybe caught in something—hell, a bitten person might've taken refuge in a tree and reanimated up there.
There was only twenty feet between each person down the line. That line ran down from the field that was used as the shooting range to the road that ran north and south. But as the line moved farther forward, the more they naturally began to separate due to the curve of the hill.
"AH FUCK!" Cameron heard, followed by two bullets being fired.
Breaking formation, Cameron ran in the direction of the shout. Up ahead he saw man (Louis, he recalled vaguely) lying on the ground next to zombie that had a leg missing. Up ahead, a woman came running up too with her rifle up.
"Fuck," Louis breathed, clutching his bleeding leg. The crawler must've snuck up on the poor guy.
Cameron and the woman (Kelly? Cameron thought), just stared at each other and then down at Louis.
"You know the options," Kelly said, sounding sorry and pointing her rifle at Louis.
Instead, he found a fourth option and began limping away as quickly as his leg would allow him. Neither Cameron nor Kelly had the heart to shoot him from behind.
"Louis' been bitten," she called into her radio. "Watch out for him. Sheila out."
Sheila was her name, he now remembered.
"Get back to work, Cam," she told him, making him feel like an asshole for remembering his name.
As Cameron repositioned himself to compensate for the loss of Louis, he suddenly realized how little of an affect what just happened had on him. Dammit, he thought. Cameron did not want to start forgetting that bitten people were still humans until they reanimated, but at the same time one couldn't afford pity in a tight situation.
In zombie movies the main characters quickly learned that it was kill or be eaten—even if you had to kill your own. But it took Cameron longer to learn that you had to shoot anybody that's been infected without hesitation. Just now they let Louis go only because they knew that he wasn't going to pose much of a threat. Either he would run far away, reanimate, and eventually be put down; or run into someone who will do the deed before the reanimation occurs.
Soon enough he reached the top of the incline, and once again started to descend. Training his rifle downward, Cameron was once again glad to live in such a rural area. Any closer to civilization and even more zombies might be lurking in the woods.
The instructions were to keep on moving for one thousand feet, or until one reached the end of the woods on the other side of the hill. Cameron stopped at the former. In front of him was another field, and to his right the hill and trees continued. One-by-one people exited the woods as well.
"Marsh here. I'm done," he said into his radio.
Once everybody (minus one) had checked, the order came in over the radio for reinforcements to line the new perimeter. When Becky came through, it was Cameron that pulled her in so that they could kiss.
For the plan a shit load of abandoned trucks were scavenged from the deserted roads, and brought in. Over the next few hours the trucks were being parked, creating a whole new, and larger perimeter. To the northwest the new truck wall started at the creek and grew in length until it hit the trees all the way on the northeast, at the other end of the field.
It then turned south towards Cameron's right, where it stopped, once again, when trees got in the way. Cameron knew on the other side of the woods behind him another truck wall was being made. That created a gap between the walls, and it wasn't practical to try and get trucks to fit because the hill was too steep. After the trucks were in place, everybody was ordered to fall back to the inner wall.
The next day Cameron and everybody else were back on top of the inner wall next to the trees. The horns were honked once more, causing all zombies that wondered into the area overnight to come forward. It wasn't as tedious as the previous day, so soon enough the all clear was given again.
This time every rifleman trudged up the hill to the gap between the outer walls. There the shooters lined along the entire length to stand guard against any zombies, while in the distance the sounds of chainsaws were heard. All that wood wasn't being put to waste, though. The lumber was going to be saved up for later use. It took six grueling days of cutting down trees until a wide enough path was created through the woods…. The next step was digging out all those tree trunks.
It didn't take long for the entire thing to become extremely tiring to Cameron. Zombies were appearing less frequently, and all he was doing was standing around to the point of being careless. He really wished that he knew how to operate those machines. For god's sake, it took him a few weeks to learn how to use a damned gun, why not learn how to use a tractor?
Soon enough, however, something happened that sapped him out of his boredom.