"Be careful guys." Gabe's eyes darted around their surroundings as he screwed off a lid. "One of you be paying attention to your surroundings at all times." Even at a whisper his voice had a sincere note of concern to it. "Keys are in the ignition. If you have to make a run for it honk like crazy so we know."
Without another word Gabe, remaining in a crouch, joined the others at the front of the truck. Chris peeked out around the front bumper and turned back around giving a nod. With that Gabe took off at a full sprint and the others followed.
Working their way through the neighborhood based on what Shirley had told them the group avoided the streets and kept to the back and side yards. Those that had them carried their guns either over their shoulder for the long guns or in a holster for the pistols. Everyone had something that they thought would be good for bashing a zombie in the skull. They had agreed not to use the guns unless they absolutely had to. They didn't know if the mob from the last town had stopped walking when they got to this town and they didn't know how many people in this town had turned. They could be facing two towns worth of zombies and they didn't want to bring them all down on top of them if they could help it. Even though it would have been useful to have Shirley along, the girls had stayed behind at the camp. They had left the .22 rifle with them and Shirley had the 9mm that Donald had traded with Gabe.
Trying to stay undercover and running from house to house Gabe saw a zombie up ahead of him. The zombie saw him and began to walk towards him, reaching out towards him with an open maw. The zombie had old dried blood on his face and hands and was moving very slowly. Without hesitation Gabe ran up to him and, with a two-handed overhead swing, hit it in the head with the fire ax he had picked up at the campground. The zombie went down without making a sound other than that of the ax his skull. Gabe stepped over him and leaned up against the brick wall of the house and signaled the all-clear to those behind him. As he ran to the next house Gabe almost tripped on a zombie that was sitting down leaning against the homes air conditioning unit. Gabe saw that its stomach was eaten away by whatever zombie or zombies had gotten a hold of the poor lady while she had still been human. As she got started to get up very slowly Gabe noticed the complete lack of blood on the face of the zombie and realized it had never successfully attacked anyone. As it rose up slowly Gabe took the time to line up his ax swing carefully. He felt like he owed this poor woman some kind of mercy. The others had seen him stumble and look shocked and had come running weapons raised but before the zombie could get halfway to a standing position Gabe delivered a killing blow to her head and she went back down again.
Gabe looked at the others gathering around him and nodded an acknowledgment that they had come running. “They seem to be getting slower.” He whispered to the group.
Continuing on he reached the end of the house and leaned against the wall as the others ran up behind him and tried to flatten out as much as they could against the house. Once everyone was together Gabe peered around the corner. Turning back to face everyone else he nodded and they understood that he saw the army surplus store. He then held up two fingers and then pointed around the corner. By prearranged signal, which had been Chris' idea, they also now knew there were two zombies between them and the army surplus store.
Gabe counted down with his fingers from three, and as soon as he put his last finger down, the whole group headed out towards the army surplus store. Gabe stayed in the lead and he could now clearly see that the two zombies were eating a body in the parking lot in front of the store. As he got close the zombies saw the group but kept eating. Gabe raised his ax as they got closer but, before he could swing, the closest zombie jumped up at him from the ground. After the slow movements of the last several zombies, Gabe was taken by surprise by the quickness of this one. It had moved almost as quick as a human and had launched itself at Gabe with determination.
Gabe brought the ax down but instead of landing a killing blow, he sliced through the zombie’s shoulder and sent it tumbling past him.
The other zombie jumped up and reached for Gabe who was now completely off balance. The zombie’s hands got a grip on Gabe’s shirt and in a fluid motion pulled its face up towards Gabe’s stomach. Due to being off balance and how quick it was happening Gabe was unable to fend the zombie off but right as he thought he would feel the teeth bury themselves into his stomach Chris yanked him back and while simultaneously putting a boot on the zombie’s face and shoving it back to the ground. Before the zombie could get back up Chase was already on top of it with his hunting knife and stabbed it right through the eye.
As Gabe regained his balance he saw that Kevin and his little brother had already dispatched the one that had first attacked him. Looking at Chase he gave a nod and a without actually making a sound his mouth made the word “Thanks” and Chase simply nodded back.
Everyone was a little shocked by that encounter and the group took a few seconds to give each other silent looks of surprise. They quickly formed back up and looked around, seeing the coast appeared to be clear and staying in a crouch, Gabe broke into a run. After a moment’s hesitation the rest of the group followed him. Gabe came to rest against the wall next to the back door of the building. Above the door a small sign read "Dry Ridge Military Surplus."
As the others joined him Chris took up a position on the other side of the door from Gabe.
“I think the longer they go without eating, the slower they get.” The others shook their heads in agreement.
“Or conversely,” Chris added. “The more recently they’ve eaten, the faster they are.” Gabe nodded in grim agreement.
As they turned their attention to the store they saw that the entrance had what at first looked like a screen door and then a solid-looking door painted plain white behind that. But up close Gabe could see that the screen door was actually a security door made of small bars of metal.
Gabe tried the door and shook his head no. Chris nodded and turned around and handed the hatchet and the large wrench he was holding to Kevin, trading him for the tire iron he was carrying that also doubled as a pry bar. Glancing around to make sure things were still clear he stepped up to the door and began to try and pry open the gate. With a loud grating noise the door finally came open but the amount of racket caused everyone to cringe.
Sure enough two zombies came walking from between two nearby houses, both dressed in the tattered remains of what appeared to be pajamas.
Everyone looked at each other nervously for a minute and then all of them started towards the zombies. Breaking off into two groups, Aaron, Kevin, Chase and Jack in one group and Eric, Gabe and Chris in the other, they made short work out of the two zombies and then went back to the door.
Chris again looked around to make sure they were safe and started trying to pry the door main door open.
"Who's there!"
The voice from the other side scared and surprised them and everyone flattened themselves against the building as if they could hide from the voice.
"Uhm, we're a group of survivors." Gabe said, trying to be loud enough to be heard through the door but not attracting any attention from any nearby zombies.
"Go away, this building is occupied."
"Uhm, we need supplies."
"So?"
Gabe glanced at the group wide-eyed and unsure. "Well we were hoping we could get some here." Gabe paused and thought for a second. He didn't like this at all, they were going to start attracting attention.
As if on cue another Zombie came into view. This time from the side road that connected to the buildings back driveway. Gabe pointed it out to the others and they nodded.
"Look, can you let us in, and we are attracting attention out here."
The group ran out and in a matter of seconds dispatched the zombie in the parking lot.
"Come on, we can work something out."
Just as everyone got back to the building Gabe could hear several latches click from the other side of the door and it cracked open. Gabe put hi
s fire poker in his right hand and took his pistol out of its holster. Even though he'd had it for several days now, he had only fired it once to test it and it still felt foreign in his hand. But as he slowly pushed the door open and walked inside, the weight and girth of the gun felt reassuring.
As the group filtered in behind him, Gabe looked at the front of the store. To his left there was a glass display case running the length of the store. The case had miscellaneous items in it such as expensive binoculars, knives and accessories, but towards the front of the store it held handguns. The other side of the store was shoes and boots, racks of clothes and then shelves of surplus items. But the most important thing was the guy to his right. In addition to being a large man in both stature and girth he was holding a shotgun. Gabe didn't know enough about guns to know what kind it was but he was intimidated none the less.
"Come on in towards me." said a new voice ahead of Gabe.
Gabe could see another man standing half-concealed behind one of the rows ahead of him. He was holding what appeared to be an M-16 or AR-15, again, Gabe didn't know enough about firearms to know the difference, but it didn't matter at this point, he just knew it was pointed at him. As the rest of the group came walking through the door only Chris also had thought to have his gun out. This made Gabe very nervous as he realized they had them in a potential crossfire and both had cover.
As the door closed the guy with the shotgun spoke up again, "Alright, what do you folks want?"
"Well, let me just be honest with you," Gabe hesitated, looking back and forth between the two men. "We kind of assumed this place would be abandoned." Gabe paused again but decided to just dive in with the truth. "We weren't planning on hurting anyone, but we kind of thought we would have the pick of the place... So I don't have a list or anything."
"Well I guess you are out of luck cause this here is my'n store." He poked his thumb into his chest a couple times emphasizing that he was the My in mine. "And we is still here."
"Okay, so then that makes you Bobby Ray?"
"How do you know my name?" Bobby Ray looked at him suspiciously.
"Everybody knows you. Gus up at the Crittenden gas station told us to check you out the day this all started."
"Gus. How is that old codger?" Bobby Ray seemed to relax some at the mention of Gus's name.
"Well last time we saw him he was doing great." Gabe let that sink in and then continued, "He is the one that told us you have to hit them in the head."
"Yeah, we learned that the hard way." The two men took their eyes off of Gabe's group just long enough to exchange a knowing look.
"And Shirley Huff says high. Donald, Donald got bit by one of them things and didn't make it."
"Ah, that's too bad. They's good people."
Bobby Ray's expression suddenly changed and he raised his shotgun to his shoulder. "Or, maybe you killed them and took their stuff."
"What, no way!"
"Then why are you carrying Donald's gun?"
Without looking he could see Chris come up tight to his back facing the unknown guy with the M-16.
"Whoa, I traded Shirley for the 9mm I was carrying. It was actually Donald's idea before he died."
"Alright, well enough of this. This is my store and you can't have nuttin."
Bobby Ray was still agitated but Gabe was just glad he hadn't started shooting.
"Well look, we need some MRE's and winter camping gear and good boots."
"And you look. This here is the apocalypse, and as much as I would like to just give everything away, where would that leave me? "
Everyone stared at each other for several tense seconds before the guy with the M-16 spoke up. "I am getting tired of MREs."
"What?" Bobby Ray replied in surprise.
"I said I'm gettin tired of MREs."
"Oh!" Bobby Ray said with sudden realization. "Yeah, okay, we can make a trade."
Gabe was suddenly glad they hadn't brought any of the girls with them.
"Go ahead. I'm listening." Gabe said cautiously
"We'll trade you a case of MRE's for a case of canned food. Good stuff too, fruits and veggies and canned meat." Bobby Ray shook his gun back and forth for emphasis, "Don't you go bringin' us a case of all peas or spinach or nuttin."
"Okay." Shirley had already told them where the local grocery store was, but they were assuming others had already scavenged it. But at this point Gabe was hoping that by agreeing to their deal he could get them out of their current situation alive, and who knew, maybe they might actually find some food.
"And bring us another two cases if you want to trade for boots and supplies." Bobby Ray added as if he had just had a revelation. "Two Boxes!" He and his friend smiled broadly.
Chapter 10
Getting to the store had proven pretty easy. It only took them about 10 minutes to get there by a combination of careful sneaking broken up by moments of running as hard as they could. They had unavoidably run into a few small groups of zombie but Gabe and his group had them dealt with them without incident. Without anyone saying "here's the plan" the group had developed a method of surrounding the zombies and then attacking. Although they often seemed to walk together, zombies didn't seem to have the ability to coordinate their attacks, so while surrounded one zombie would focus on one person and while their intended victim was defending themselves, it would allow someone else in the group an open shot to take the zombie out.
Coming up a slight incline between two businesses Gabe could see the locally owned grocery store catty-corner from them on the other side of a large 3-way intersection.
"There are a lot of them by and in the store." Gabe said, turning and whispering to those behind him.
Everyone was either squatting low or completely laying down behind the small hill, staying out of site. While Gabe talked everyone’s eyes were darting around. Gabe noticed it but knew it wasn't an issue of whether they trusted him or not, it was just becoming a natural instinct to make sure they weren't surprised.
It still bothered Gabe that they were all waiting on him... Waiting for him to lead. On the one hand, after years of being a pastor, leading a church full of people, it felt natural to him to be the one in front. But on the other hand he still didn't feel like he deserved it. His wife had left him for another man, claiming he never gave her attention and he had let his best friend die in the first few seconds of this nightmare. But now, here he stood, figuratively, everyone dependent on him.
Gabe felt like he would be happy to follow Chris. At least Chris was a vet. But Chris didn't seem interested. Chris was reliable and everyone seemed to like him, but he wasn't the talkative take charge type that Gabe wished he would be.
Everyone was staring.
"Chris, come here. Tell me what you think."
Chris scooted up to the join Gabe right near the top of their little hill.
"That's a lot of them."
"We've been having luck with them so far but I don't think our surround and conquer plan is going to work with that many."
As they both mulled it over they could see well over a dozen between them and the store, and while it was impossible to tell for sure, there was at least that many inside. There were two cop cars in front of the store and there were at least 20 corpses with headshots in front of the cruisers.
From his viewpoint Gabe could see what was obviously the remains of a cop uniform. Large pieces of the uniform were laying on the ground behind the furthest cop car. But even at his distance Gabe could make out an embroidered shoulder patch, and while he couldn't read it at such a distance, the star on the sleeve was easy to make out.
"Aw man." Gabe whispered in sad realization.
"Yeah..." Chris said in agreement. "Looks like they were trying to stop that mob that followed us from that other town. There were probably people in the store."
"That's just..." Gabe stopped and shook his head.
"I wonder why they tore him up so much?" Chris wondered aloud. "I mean, look at his clothes, they h
ave been shredded. Do you think it was the gunfire or do you think there was something in their dead minds that remembered what cops were, so they really wanted to get them?"
"Well it was a bunch of people from a small town, not like it was a group of dead gang bangers." Gabe said. “Between the gunfire and the fact that there were probably live people in the store that the dead were trying to get to… Those poor cops didn’t stand a chance.”
With a sad shake of his head Gabe turned back to the topic at hand. "I think if we go slow, stick together, we can take them. Just a straight forward attack."
"Yeah, but if we get in trouble don't be afraid to call for a retreat."
After a short and quite huddle the group burst out from between the two storefronts, Gabe had given the directions and had come up with the plan and Chris had agreed to take to be in the front. As they came out into the road they had no problem killing five zombies before any of the other zombies even noticed them. But as the fifth zombie went down with a loud thud, it drew the attention of some of the other zombies. Not only were there the ones that they could see from where they had been sitting, but there were also zombies all up and down the three roads, and as the group fought their way to the store, the other zombies started to make their way towards them at various paces. Some of the zombies were able to get up to almost a jog, while others seemed to only be able to shamble along.
Gabe had slowed down to let some of the dead get between him and the others so he could finish them off from behind. He knew that letting himself get cut off from the rest of the group could get him killed, so he was very vigilant. It was while swinging at the back of the head of a zombie trying to come up behind Aaron that he saw quick and fluid movement out of the corner of his eye. Seeing something moving that fast scared him for a moment and it actually caused him to flinch and let out a small gasp. Another zombie in front of him heard the gasp and reeled around towards Gabe and he had to return his attention to the task in front of him. Quickly dispatching the dead thing with a solid swing with the blunt side of his fire ax, he focused on the movement he had seen before.
Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Page 7