Clark had the outer ramp removed once the evacuation had been completed as he saw no reason for the zombies to have two ways of overcoming the outer wall. Gathering together every person remaining in Walton, Clark prepared them for the final stand that was coming.

"I had hoped this day would never come," Clark told his people as they stood in front of the government building serving as his office and residence. "Regardless, we have each sworn an oath to defend this town from all threats, and even in such dire circumstances as this, we shall not abandon our town or our duty."

He paused a moment to gauge the expressions of the town guard. They had similar looks on their faces and were the picture of an army facing certain death. Gloom and hopelessness darkened their eyes, and their shoulders were slumped as if already accepting defeat. Clark knew if he didn't do something to boost morale, some of the guards might not last until the zombies got into the city.

"I can understand if most of you don't know why we're still fighting for an empty city," Clark told them. "We all need to remember that we aren't fighting simply to blindly fulfill our oath. We are the last line of defense against an enemy that has ravaged every place on Earth."

Clark paced the covered porch of the Governor's residence, looking each man and woman under his command in the eye.

"Our people may have fled, but our responsibility to them remains," he went on. "Every undead who is either killed or becomes trapped within our walls is one less to chase after our people. Because of our efforts, they may get to live another day. Who knows, with what they've learned from the misfortune here, they may yet find a suitable defense. I intend to give them the best chance at survival I can; are you with me?"

A series of muttered agreements sounded in conjunction to a number of guards nodding their heads.

"The defense of Walton must be altered in response to what we learned when the outer wall fell," Clark explained. "Too many of the undead have come against us to be killed outright as no point in the city would be high enough to stay above the corpse pile we'd make. So, we must spread them out."

Clark stepped down from the porch and pointed to a few of the buildings nearest the inner wall.

"We shall put a guard post atop those buildings," Clark stated. "Two soldiers on both roofs. Their responsibility will be to kill as many zombies as they can at a distance. In this way, the bodies will pile up further from the buildings, giving each defensive post longer before it's overrun."

Clark turned back to his people and held up a hand to forestall any arguments or objections.

"I don't intend to abandon anyone to the undead," he promised. "We will put up ropes, cables, or lines of whatever we can find strong enough to hold the weight. They'll be strung between the buildings. When a corpse pile nears the top of one structure, the defenders will evacuate to the next. In this way, we can put down enormous numbers of undead before they reach even one of our people."

Clark gave them his most confident smile.

"They don't have unlimited forces, no matter how vast their horde may seem," he reminded. "They've already lost many to create the ramp, and they'll lose more, trapped between the walls with no way out. As we whittle down their numbers, who knows? We may even win the day, and our people can return."

Clark returned to the porch and leaned both hands on the railing in front of him.

"No matter what happens in the coming days, I refuse to simply give up," he declared forcefully. "This is our city! Let's send these rotting corpses back to their graves!"

A few cheered, but most of the guard remained silent. Their expressions had changed from hopeless defeat to a grim resolve. Clark knew they would hold when the fight came. To the last man, the last woman, and the last round of ammunition, they would hold.

Preparation for the coming onslaught began almost at once. Clark distributed his people according to where they had been previously stationed. Those who had been posted to the outer wall were placed in charge of establishing the defense posts on the roofs of the selected buildings. They gathered extra arrows for the bows as well as a stash of guns and bullets that had been reserved for emergencies in a basement room under the government building.

Since no one knew how long the defense posts would be in place before the zombies came, food rations, chairs, and mattresses were also added to flat roofs. The guards wouldn't be able to come back down once the zombies started coming, so everything they needed was put atop the building.

Clark put the defenders of the inner wall in charge of building barricades around the bases of the buildings to prevent the zombies from getting too close. If the undead managed to circumvent the barricades as they had the city walls, they still wouldn't be able to reach the roof until more were put down, and it gave the defenders additional time to thin the zombies' tremendous numbers before having to retreat.

The final guards, previously posted to patrolling the city itself, were given the special task of lighting up the wall. Ripping wires and light fixtures out of the town, they put the lighted bulbs every few feet along the upper edge of the entire inner wall. Clark had told them he wanted to be able to see the wall night or day, and if a single zombie managed to crawl over, he wanted to know before it hit the ground.

While his people worked on their assigned tasks, Clark personally undertook the responsibility of building the escape system needed to transfer between buildings when they were swarmed. The idea of having the guards pull themselves along a rope over a city filled with zombies wasn't acceptable to Clark. He wanted to build something allowing fast and safe transit as delays getting off a roof could cost someone their life.

What he ultimately decided on was a ladder supported by a quickly constructed yet still sturdy framework. At the pinnacle of the ladder, Clark had attached a rope. Throwing the rope to the next building over, Clark anchored it at the destination. To escape, the guards only had to climb the ladder and slide down the rope. It was simple and effective, and Clark knew it would keep his people alive for as long as possible.

While atop one of the ladders, attaching the rope to the frame above it, Clark glanced around. The preparations were well underway across Walton, but what caught his eye were the zombies. They'd been spilling in since the wall had first been breached, and like a drip of water slowly filling a large bucket, the undead were gradually taking up more and more of the available area between the walls. Although their progress wasn't fast by any measure, it was constant.

Looking beyond the wall to the surrounding woods, Clark couldn't find an end to the zombies still coming. The only good thing he could see about so many coming against his city was they wouldn't be chasing those who had left. The evacuees needed time to put some distance between them and the zombie horde, and Clark would make sure they got every precious second.

***

By the end of the first day, guards had trouble sleeping, exhausted as they were, because the moaning of the undead as they breathed through decayed lungs became more and more noticeable as the numbers of zombies increased between the walls.

Clark had divided his defense teams into two groups of two soldiers each. They were on a six hour watch rotation throughout the day and night, but he doubted any of them would get much in the way of sleep.

***

When morning arrived, Clark awoke with a start. His dreams were closer to nightmares, and he wondered if he'd truly woken up as he looked at his beloved city under siege. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and brought him fully awake as he noticed the space between the walls had been almost entirely filled. The zombies still had gaps between them, but those ceaselessly spilling over the outer wall added to their number and depleted what space remained. Clark knew it wouldn't be midday before the inner wall was compromised.

"Get word to the men," Clark told the soldier beside him. "Put everyone on full alert. We don't have much time."

The orders were carried out, and Clark's message was delivered to his people. His prediction came true far sooner than even he had suspected as the zombies started to cross the wall only a few hours later.

The undead were so tightly packed between the walls, those following them couldn't fall in between them and simply crawled across the top. They spilled like a waterfall into the city.

The bowmen readied their deadly arrows, stretching the bowstrings to their maximum point. Colored lines had been hastily painted on the inner wall to designate which defense post should take down the zombies. Clark had though of it to make sure they didn't waste their limited ammunition and arrows by firing on the same zombie. There were enough undead to go around.

The arrows released in a series of whistles, and four walking corpses returned to death. The archers fired again and again as more zombies crossed the wall and joined the onslaught. At first it seemed the defenders were holding their own, but the endless numbers continually pouring in made their efforts marginal to ineffective.

The zombies hit the first barricade, but the archers dispatched them with unerring shots. More and more zombies were felled, but they kept coming, undaunted and relentless. They spilled over the barricade and clawed at the sides of the house where the guards had taken their stand, trying to reach the men and claim them as their own. Their ragged fingers left bloody trails against the wood and stone of the buildings, but the structures held firm.

Remembering the mistakes at the wall, the guards didn't bother killing the zombies around the base of their buildings and risk having them swarm over the top. Instead, they continued disposing of those coming over the wall. It kept the piles of deceased bodies further away for a longer time period, but even that was fleeting.

As the hours passed, the dead continued to accumulate in greater and greater numbers. The heap at the wall started becoming too high and spilled toward the houses, providing an easier pathway over the barricades. The guards didn't hesitate, but kept up their elimination of the undead at the wall. The main problem they were encountering, besides the undead getting closer, was the first two defense teams had nearly exhausted their supplies of arrows.

One zombie managed to get skeletal hand on the edge of the roof, and when Clark saw it, he blew a high pitched whistle, calling for a withdrawal. Scooping up what remained of their weaponry and supplies, the guards scrambled up the ladders and slid down the ropes to the next building. Their boots landed with dull thumps, and the guards rolled to shed their extra momentum.

The second line of guards readied their bows. Although the first defense posts had fallen, the guards of Walton had many more. This battle was only getting started.