Nikki was incredulous. “Harmless? They eat people!”
“Those six zeds didn’t try to attack us. I don’t know about you, but for the first few years every zed I came across immediately tried to attack me. They weren’t afraid of me at all, even while I was killing their companions. Some zeds still behave like that, but those six didn’t.”
Nikki thought about it a moment. “So, we leave them and hope they don’t sneak up on us and take a bite out of our ass?”
“Yep.”
Nikki grunted, much in the same manner that Fred would occasionally grunt and continued eating.
After dinner, they cleaned up their cookware and stored it back in the truck. Fred explained to always keep the truck loaded and ready to leave at a moment’s notice. He glanced at his watch.
“Time to call in.” He led her to the truck and turned the radio on. “We’re going to send the message a little bit different than we did earlier.”
Nikki peered at it. “Okay, how?”
“We’re going to send it in Morse code. Do you know code?” he asked.
“Um, no.” Nikki hesitated a moment. “I’ve never even heard about it until a couple of weeks ago.”
Fred’s expression tightened slightly. “Alright, you’ll need to learn it at some point. They used to have a class at Weather. You might want to check into that.” He started to tell her Sammy was an expert with Morse code and could teach her, but then thought better of it.
“Sure, but why aren’t we just talking into the microphone? Wouldn’t that be easier?” she asked.
“Two reasons. First, most people don’t know Morse code, so it’s a little more secure. Second, the range is longer with dots and dashes than the human voice. Speaking of which, let’s hook up the outdoor antenna.”
Nikki watched as Fred walked over to the wall and grabbed a coil of coaxial cable that was hanging on a nail. One end of it snaked up the wall and through the roof. He took the other end and attached it to the back of the truck. He unscrewed the antenna cable attached to the radio in the truck and attached the other cable. He straightened to see Nikki staring and explained.
“Back a while ago, Zach and I put a directional antenna up on the roof. It’s set up so that it is pointed toward Mount Weather.”
“Okay,” Nikki said. She wasn’t exactly sure what Fred was talking about, so she simply watched.
Fred turned the radio on, and after tuning it, began using a button to tap out a series of beeps. When he was finished, he explained while awaiting a response.
“After identifying myself, I kept the message short and sweet. I tapped out, arrived, CX icy, n contact, CM. Tell me what I said.”
“Um, we have arrived, I don’t know what CX means, I guess that n contact means no contact with any soldiers, which is what we’re supposed to be looking for, and I don’t know what CM means.”
“CX is an abbreviation for weather conditions, and CM is an abbreviation for Charlie Mike, which means continuing the mission.”
“Oh.”
Fred frowned slightly. “Alright, add phonetics to the list of things you need to learn.”
Nikki held off a retort as a series of beeps emanated from the speaker.
“What’d they say?” she asked.
“They acknowledged the message and confirmed that we should continue our mission. Alright, let’s go ahead and give them a weather report.”
Fred thought for a few seconds before tapping on the button again. After finishing, he waited for a response, which came a few seconds later.
“The general SOP is to radio in the morning, letting them know we’re heading out, and then giving them a shout in the evening to let them know we’re still alive. If we spot something of significance, we radio them as soon as possible with a SITREP.”
Nikki frowned. “SITREP?”
“That’s an acronym for a situation report. Do you know what a SALUTE report is?”
“No idea,” she said.
“Okay, we’ll go over it later.”
“Go ahead and tell me now,” she insisted.
“SALUTE is an acronym. I’ll go over all this when you get a notebook and start taking notes so’s I don’t have to keep repeating myself.”
He then sat staring at the radio. Nikki thought they had finished communicating with Mount Weather.
“What are we doing now?” she asked.
Fred held up a finger to silence her. After a few more seconds had passed, she heard a couple of microphone clicks. Fred clicked back before shutting off the radio.
“Someone else listened in, didn’t they?” Nikki asked. “Who is it?”
“Not now,” Fred said and turned the radio off. He then unhooked the cable and rolled it up, storing it away. He glanced at his watch.
“It’s twenty-one hundred hours. Let’s tend to the horses and then turn in,” he directed.
“They’re going to need exercise,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, we’ll get them out tomorrow.” He pointed toward the barrel stove. “I’m going to drag a cot over and bed down there.”
“Can I sleep there too?” Nikki asked.
She could see him tense slightly, but after a moment he answered. “Yeah, sure.”
In no time they had a fresh log in the barrel and the cots were on either side of it. Fred explained they could not put too much wood in because of the smoke. He then spent the next thirty minutes explaining the specifics of a SALUTE report. He then yawned and pulled the blanket up to his nose. Nikki was fidgety and not ready to sleep.
“I want to ask you something.”
“Sure,” Fred said.
“Shouldn’t one of us stay awake and be on guard, or something like that? That’s what they teach at those classes.”
“Normally, I’d say yes, but nobody is going to be out in this weather. Besides, we have everything locked up. They’d have to breach a door and make a lot of noise to get in here. If that happens, we’ll hear them and kill them.”
Nikki heard him shift in the dark. The barrel had a slight glow, which put the room in a dull orange light. She could see him staring at her.
“One thing I need to hear from you. If it comes down to it, do you have the mettle to shoot another human?”
“You’re damn right,” she said without a moment’s hesitation.
He stared a second before speaking. “Okay, I believe you.”
Nikki beamed in the dark at the compliment. Fred was quiet now and Nikki suspected he was going to sleep, but she still wanted to talk.
“How did you know about this place?”
“Zach and I found it last year. We’ve set up a few spots like this one in various locations.” He paused a moment. “I guess this can be a training lesson. You want to make hideouts like this in your area of operations. Find a building that doesn’t stand out. You can’t have one on a main road, but it needs to be close. It has to be a building you can fortify without it looking fortified and have a way to escape, if you need to.”
“And put a cache of food in it,” she surmised.
“Yeah, some type of food that’ll last a while, like canned products. It’s good if you have a cold room to help preserve the food. Not a problem during the winter but the summer heat can and will ruin your food wares, even canned products. We stocked this one with a case of canned vegetables in a large Yeti cooler and those blue barrels over there have water.” He then gestured toward one end of the building and the other end.
“You want more than one entry and exit, but not too many. I don’t know if you noticed earlier, but there is a ladder to the roof, and we made up a couple of parapets up there. They have good fields of fire. We have one hundred-meter markers outside and there are strips of rags hanging at various locations to give you an idea of the windage, although they wouldn’t do any good right now because they’re all frozen stiff.”
Nikki thought about it. “You know, I understand the food and water cache, but you’ve gone beyond that. I would have never tho
ught about the range markers and the wind rags.”
“And don’t forget the radio antenna. There are other things we’ve done. I’ll show them to you tomorrow,” Fred said.
“When you say we, who do you mean?”
“Me and Zach.”
“Are you two close friends?” she asked.
“Yes, we are,” Fred said. “We’ve been through a lot.”
“You know where he is.” She declared. Fred did not respond. “I mean, I’m not trying to get any information from you. I’ve heard the president wants him arrested, but I’m not a spy or anything. You know what, forget I asked.”
“We’ll talk more tomorrow. Get some sleep,” he said.
He expected her to keep talking, but to his surprise, he heard her breathing deeply within seconds. Soon, he was asleep as well.
Chapter 29 – Fred and Nikki Continue Their Recon
Nikki sensed movement and slowly opened her eyes. It was still dark and the glow from the barrel was gone. Fred’s cot was empty. She sat up and when the blankets fell away, she was instantly hit with frigid air. She heard a door open and looked toward the restrooms to see Fred emerging. She laid back down and pulled the blanket back over her, but Fred walked up and nudged her foot.
“It’s time to get up,” he said.
“What time is it?”
“Almost five. You need to get a watch.”
Nikki was used to being an early riser, but five o’clock was about an hour earlier than she was used to. She didn’t complain though. Instead, she pulled the blankets off, stood, and stretched.
“I think I’m going to soak in a hot bath for a little while before breakfast. How about you fix us up some omelets and biscuits while I soak?”
Fred ignored her sarcasm and hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Let’s feed the horses and then get them saddled up,” he said.
They trotted the horses outside thirty minutes later. Nikki kept watch while Fred shut and locked the bay door. It was still cold, maybe a little warmer than yesterday but not much, and the sky was a dark gray with lots of somber clouds, but there was no rain. She looked up and saw the clouds moving west.
“We’ll need to clean up the stable when we get back, the manure will attract mice and rats.” He glanced skyward for a moment. “It looks like that front’s moving out. Don’t know what’s behind it, but it feels like the bad weather has passed.”
“When will it warm up?”
“Hard to say,” he answered.
“Alright, which way are we riding?” she asked.
He opened one of the pockets of his backpack and produced an old map. Carefully unfolding it, he pointed.
“We’re right about here. We’ll ride in an easterly direction and make a wide loop. If it works out, we’ll be back by sunset.” He gazed out at the empty city. “The last time I was out this way I didn’t run into any people and I don’t currently see any smoke.”
“So, nobody lives around here. Are there zeds?”
“Yeah, I’m sure there are more zeds out there,” Fred said. “We’ll only kill them if we have to. Only use that Ruger.”
“What about my bow?” she asked.
“If you want to risk losing arrows, go ahead,” he replied. “If we come up on any survivors, we start out friendly, but keep your guard up. Most people around here know about Mount Weather and what it offers, but they’ve turned down offers to join. They’re independent types, which can be a positive character trait, but I’ve come across some that haven’t been doing so well. Those types will kill us just so they can eat our horses.”
“I understand,” Nikki said.
Fred started to mount up, but hesitated. “Have you ever heard of cannibalism?”
“People that eat people,” she said. “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. Have you ever known of any?”
“Yep, I’ve bumped into a few. You’ve got to watch out for those kinds as well.”
Nikki nodded. She wasn’t sure if he was being serious or messing with her. She watched as he mounted Aisha and she did the same with Leeroy. Even though Leeroy was bigger and obviously stronger, Fred preferred riding the smaller Arabian. It caused her to smile. Leeroy wasn’t the only one who had a soft spot for the beautiful horse.
After twenty minutes of careful travel, they had reached I-95 at Occoquan Road. Fred led them to an overpass where the interstate went over Occoquan.
“Let’s take ten,” he said and dismounted. They each took a sip of water from a canteen and used a Tupperware bowl to give some water to the horses. It wasn’t much. Nikki offered Fred a piece of jerky. He gave her a micro nod and chewed it in silence. After a minute he gestured upward.
“Why don’t you walk on up to the interstate and have a look around. I’ll mind the horses.”
She stared in confusion. Why would he have her do something on her own while he sat doing nothing? She decided it was some kind of test. So, she nodded and began walking. She walked first to the south end and looked around. The embankment was at a steep angle and had heavy growth, which would have made it next to impossible to climb up by itself, but it was currently all covered in ice.
Cursing under her breath, she walked to the opposite side and found more of the same. In addition, there was a concrete barrier wall. There was no way she could have climbed up that embankment. She walked back to Fred, who was sitting on a wooden pallet that he’d found from somewhere.
“There is absolutely no place to walk up to the interstate from here,” she declared.
“What do you suggest then?” Fred asked.
Nikki scoffed. “Why don’t we mount up and ride to the on-ramp like they did back when there were people and cars?”
Fred finished eating the last morsel of jerky before speaking. “That’s an excellent idea, so let me ask you, why didn’t you notice all that before we walked under this here overpass?”
“Notice what? You mean how it’s impossible to walk up the embankments?”
“Yep.”
She suddenly realized what kind of test Fred was administering. “Um, I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention I guess,” she grudgingly admitted.
“Yep. So, what have you learned?” Fred asked.
“To always pay attention to your surroundings.”
“That’s true, but why?”
Nikki squirmed, trying to form the right answer. “Situational awareness,” she finally said.
Fred looked around before fixing her with an indefinable stare. “That doesn’t really answer my question.”
Nikki squirmed some more. “I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”
“While you were riding, I imagine you were watching for zeds and humans, which is good, but otherwise you weren’t doing anything else other than enjoying the scenery, right? Don’t answer, I know I’m right. What I’m trying to teach you is to look at everything and remember what you looked at. Suppose we rode here and took a breather, only to hear a big ruckus going on up on the interstate. You’d know it would be almost impossible for anyone to climb over the retaining wall and come down here. Instead of panicking, we could stay put right here, be as quiet as a church mouse, and wait for them to move on down the road before safely leaving. It’s the little things that’ll keep you alive out here when you’re on your own.”
“Gotcha,” Nikki said.
“Back when you were a little kid, things were different. People in my age bracket had a hard time adjusting to this environment. You have a little bit of an advantage because most of your life has been centered around survival, but you need to take it a step further if you want to be a leader among your people.”
“I’m not looking to be a leader, I just want to know how to survive,” Nikki said.
“You want to be some kind of lone wolf? What kind of life is that for a young filly like you?”
Nikki found herself fidgeting under Fred’s hard stare but did not reply. Fred stared a moment longer before making a head nod toward the road.
> “The Occoquan River is up ahead. Let’s go look things over. Can you swim?”
“Uh, no,” she said.
“Then don’t fall in,” he deadpanned. Nikki wasn’t sure whether to laugh or glare at him.
Fred mounted Aisha and began riding. Nikki hopped on Leeroy before the lovestruck horse took off without her.
Chapter 30 – Fred and Nikki at the Occoquan
“The Occoquan River is a tributary of the Potomac River, which flows into the Chesapeake, and eventually into the Atlantic,” Fred said.
Zombie Rules | Book 8 | Who The Hell Is That? Page 17