“It seems they believe the two younger men are members of the resistance.” Jones looked a little confused, “I don’t understand, isn’t that a good thing?”
The conversation amongst the French civilians had been continuing and the old man had more to explain to Jones.
“Ah, I see, they are trying to persuade them to show them where the weapons are hidden,” he said.
The mention of weapons caught Jones’ attention, “Weapons you say?”
M. Poulain nodded and Jones moved straight up to the group. M. Poulain joined him to assist with the translation.
“What is all this about weapons?”
The group turned to him, paused for a short time and then continued talking. Jones pulled one of the loudest aside and called out even louder.
“Stop that. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but we are under siege here. If you have weapons I suggest you tell me, unless you want to get eaten like those others out there!”
The response from the group was delayed whilst M. Poulain translated. When he reached the end there were gasps. The two young men looked at each other and spoke a few words, the nearest of the two stepped towards Jones. He spoke in broken English.
“Ok, we show you guns.”
He beckoned for him to follow, leading him towards the church tower. The rest of the civilians made to follow, but Jones gave the word and two of the soldiers stepped in to keep them away. The two younger men entered the lower part of the tower and started moving the material away from the floor to reveal what looked like a hatch. One knelt down and moved his hand across the floor till he found the tiny gap where he could get a purchase. The second French man put his hand on the hatch, stopping it opening, he spoke in slow French but still not slow enough to be understood by Jones.
Captain Scott had spotted what was going on and brought M. Poulain over to see what was happening.
M. Poulain explained, “They are concerned that by showing you the cellar they will lose their secret cover in the village and won’t be able to help when the Allies make it here.”
Scott grabbed the young man that had just spoken and explained to him tersely, “Listen, we are the Allies and we are already here. We need everybody that can fight with a weapon. Those things outside are coming for us, for every single one of us.”
He pointed with his hand in an arc, tracking the group in the church.
“If there are more guns in there we need them, got it?”
Before they could answer Trent’s voice echoed down from the top of the tower. “They’re back!”
Smith shouted out loud.
“Everyone to your positions! Make sure everything is bolted down and the doors are secure. Hold your fire until the Captain gives the word. Captain Scott gave Smith a look of acknowledgement and then spoke one last time to the two young Frenchmen.
“No more time, get the weapons or get out of the way!”
The shorter of the two didn’t hesitate and forced the hatch upwards, revealing a dark expanse below the tower. Captain Scott stood up and started to move towards the centre of the church. He threw his orders out.
“Jones, follow them down and get every weapon you can. Stack them in the middle of the nave,” he pointed the space between the aisles.
Captain Scott moved from the nave and into the ground floor of the tower section so he could call up to Trent.
“How many and how long have we got?” he asked.
Trent vanished for a moment before reappearing, “They’re all around, larger numbers to the south and east, at least two, maybe three hundred, Sir.”
Scott gasped in surprise, “Two or three hundred?” He shook his head, “How long have we got?”
Trent answered immediately, “They’re slow, real slow, my grandmother could go faster, I reckon about ten minutes before they get here. Wait, I can see more, there are many more further away, probably fifteen minutes tops for them!”
A shot rang out quickly followed by another, then Trent reappeared.
“There are a few small groups a bit closer, I reckon they’re staying low or crawling, it’s pretty hard to spot them till just before they get to the wall.”
“Ok Private, keep at it, let me know if anything changes.”
Captain Scott returned to the nave where Smith met him. He’d heard the discussion and didn’t seem particularly pleased.
“So we could have three hundred plus hostiles out there, maybe even more?”
“It looks that way,” answered Captain Scott.
“Based on their numbers, and the fact that we have this position, I recommend we hold until relieved in morning.”
“How do you know we’ll be relieved in the morning, Sir?” asked a bemused Smith.
“Pretty simple, either Fritz will find us or our comrades will. If neither, then that means they’re all dead and we are already in a world of pain,” Captain Scott smiled, Smith looked less than impressed.
“On the positive side, these undead things are slow and we should be easily able to evade them once the sun is up. If we’re not reinforced by morning we’ll saddle up and make a break for the Orne River Bridge.”
Smith nodded, looking more comfortable with the situation.
Captain Scott looked about the church. The soldiers were all in the middle of preparing the position for an all out battle. Those in the nave took up their positions on their hastily arranged barricades that lifted them high enough to shoot through the windows. He sighed, in just a matter of minutes they were going to be in one hell of a fight.
Back at the top of the church, Trent scouted the area from his high position, watching in each direction for anything new. He shouted down with more specific information on the enemy.
“They’re approaching from all directions now, definitely heading this way. Most of them are coming along the road from the west. I counted fifty plus at the front, I can see more following up behind. I think some are coming from the old garage.”
Along with Trent in the tower were two more soldiers, Gardner and Harris. Gardner manned the captured German MG42 machinegun and Harris watched the perimeter with his Enfield rifle at his shoulder. From their vantage point the three men could put down a substantial amount of medium to long range firepower.
M. Poulain stood at the base of the tower whilst Jones and the two Frenchmen rummaged around in the basement. At the small windows in the ground level of the tower Lewis stood with his Enfield rifle. Opposite the church tower, at the western end of the building was the chancel with the altar. This part of the church was quite open and featured substantial windows. Captain Scott had deemed this a weak point, hence placing the redoubtable Sergeant Smith as well as Clarke, Wilks and Archer. Between them they could muster two Sten guns, a single Bren and an Enfield rifle.
The largest part of the church was the centre section or nave. Captain Scott was there from where he could command a central position in the defence of the building. He was flanked by Corporals Chard and Humphreys, armed with both Enfield rifles and Sten guns. Chard had placed his PIAT launcher in the middle of the room, cocked and ready to use.
Also in his centre section stood the five remaining survivors from the village as well as the two French girls, Madeleine and Adrienne.
* * *
North of the church was a large group of the creatures. Lacking any kind of discernable formation they walked slowly towards the village. Each one suffered from a wound or ailment of some kind. The most obvious ones were those with missing limbs and substantial injuries, though some of them seemed almost normal apart from the way they moved.