by Joe Kelly
The undead in small groups had been easy to put down, but now the numbers, though distant were to large for crossbows to take down. “Switch to rifles, but hold your fire” Jared said watching the closest zombies, about thirty of them twenty yards down the road, spread out in a arc. “Steve are you two almost done?” Jared asked.
“just have the transfer cases left to load,” Steve said as he and Kyle worked faster.
“Steve” Jared prompted a minute later.
“almost done.” Steve replied
“Steve I can see them putting on Bibs” Jared called out less than a minute later.
“Hang on, Union Break, ten minutes and then we can finish.” Steve said as Kyle loaded the last of the transfer cases.
“Catch up when you can, I’d suggest bathing in BBq Sauce before your guests arrive” Jared said as he waved at the team to get in their vehicles.
Kyle shook his head in disbelief, who jokes at a time like this, he asked himself as Steve laughed and headed for the safety of his cab. “Well Kyle, Are you coming?” Steve asked as he opened his door. “You deserve a nick name, I’m going to have to think of one.” Steve said as Kyle climbed in.
“I have a list of them that if used will get your ass kicked.” Kyle warned him. Steve chuckled again. Which surprised Kyle, normally they were both to tense and wary around each other to make nice. This was a side of Steve he hadn’t seen. To be honest he had seen a side of all them today that he had never seen. Jared had planned things pretty well and wasn’t hesitant out here, not like he had been back at camp. Not that I have turned into a fan. ‘yet’ but lately he seems to have gotten his act together and I know his friends have noticed and seem more at ease and confident. Which probably explains Steves behavior now that I think about it.
What ever the reason it was a pleasant change from the norm and Kyle hoped it continued, if it did he might actually get to liking these folks. Assuming we don’t all die here soon.
♦ ♦ ♦
not a bad day all told, Jared thought as the line of trucks pulled into the Camp. They had scored antibiotics and pain meds, along with other medications that people could take, at the vets office. Only after having to put down fifteen undead, then had to deal with the smell of Decaying animals. Animals that had been placed in cages either before a procedure or to recover from illness or procedures only to be trapped to slowly starve to death after the staff had died.
Jared had always loved animals, especially dogs. Mark was more of a cat person, why who knew. But Dogs were special as far as Jared was concerned, not that he’d had one in the last ten years which he regretted for all he knew there might not be a dog left alive.
Like the wildlife, free roaming house pets had fled at the arrival of the undead, There had even been a few news reports about the animals vanishing from some towns and cities just before it all went to hell, he hadn’t thought much about it at the time what with the stories of cannibals roaming in packs in the streets of the worlds cities, but now he was sure that like animals seemed to know and flee areas before earthquakes Animals had known what was coming and went to hide.
Regals hardware had been locked up, and because they had closed before everything went Tango Uniform, there were no undead inside. they had scored tools they needed, two run quiet generators and all the propane tanks Ori had wanted.
They had even scored a small supply of fuel, gasoline and diesel at one of the gas stations in Allred it would keep their trucks running for a little longer but by then he planned on having secured the fuel supply company in Bergstown at that point they would be fuel rich.
He climbed out of the truck and took a deep breath of clean fall air. Exhausted all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. But he had trucks to unload, a shower to take and then dinner, after that weapons to clean and check. Then do a little more reading on how to rewrap a generator. I think I work more now than before the dead.
“Better not be to tired” Jill whispered as she walked up and leaned against him. okay sleep is out of the question, Jared decided. Funny how almost normal life is here at Camp but out there the dead rule and life is anything but normal. Again he couldn’t help but feel lucky at how well he and his people had it. There were people still out there, starving and sick, dying off one by one.
He smiled down at her, then pulled away, “got things to do, if we are going to keep our date.” He told her.
Apparently, there really is a link a between danger and sex, Jared thought thinking back to the night before. He smiled to himself, then glanced down at open notebook on the desk in front of him. He doodled for a moment trying to organize his thoughts.
“Jared you might want to come outside,” Ori said poking his head into Jareds bedroom. Jared jumped in his seat, surprised, “asshole” he muttered and almost asked if Ori knew how to knock but didn’t, for one thing Jill was already up and going and for the second thing, Ori had rarely knocked on Jareds door in all the years they had known each other, so he wasn’t about to change now.
“What is it?” Jared asked rising from his desk and the notebook that he had been writing in, every chance he got for over a week now. “Deacon and Henry are nose to nose.” Ori said. Great, fighting is bad for morale and to make things worse I don’t like Henry but I can’t let that show either or the situation will only get worse.
Jared followed Ori outside and over to the Barn, arriving just in time to see Henry storm off heading for his RV. “well that’s over” he said softly as Deacon stepped out of the barn and stopped seeing Jared standing there. “Problems?” Jared asked. It was a question, but the tone of his voice told any one paying attention he wasn’t going to settle for anything but an honest answer.
“Difference of opinion” Deacon replied angrily, the younger man paused and took a deep breath. Jared thought the man was probably mentally counting to ten. “Sorry, but it was, a difference of opinion that is. Not even sure why I got so angry. But he just gets on my nerves Jared.”
Jared couldn’t very well say that Henry got on his nerves too, he was in charge and refused to appear to be taking any one’s side. But he understood how Deacon felt. “how about you start from the beginning.”
“no reason to, seriously, He asked a couple of question and sounded like he was being snarky, I bit his head off and he got pissed and bit back, then we yelled at each other, called each other a few names, I need lessons from pappy by the way, and then he stormed out.” He paused for heartbeat not looking at Ori,”and I might have threatened to beat his ass into the dirt a few times.”
“I see,” Jared said turning to Ori, “next time you come get me, I’d at least appreciate knowing exactly what I’m walking into” Jared said, a not so subtle way to tell Deacon that Ori had not been playing snitch which had to have crossed his mind. “I might even have run down here if I had known.” It didn’t matter that everyone had a duty to keep the camp from descending into chaos and giving whoever, the leader was the information needed to deal with a situation. People were people, and no one liked tattle tales.
“And you” Jared said turning back to Deacon, “I know you were angry, but we can’t afford to fight amongst our own, If there’s a next time, just walk way. Henry, like it or not is part of the team and we have to work together regardless of how we feel about each other, not driving a wedge between you and a man who might have to watch your back one day.”
“I know, I’m sorry” Deacon said. “normally I don’t go off like that.” He said by way of explanation. “this isn’t normal times Deacon, we are all under stress.” Jared said catching and holding Deacons eyes. There was concern and sincerity in Jared’s Emerald green eyes. Deacon nodded slowly. “We don’t talk about the reasons we Vets joke so much, Namely because we don’t really think about the why of it most times.” Jared said. “but it’s the way soldiers and vets deal with stress.” Jared said. “Maybe its just the way people like us are, or a self defense mechanism that we just picked up. All I’m saying is don’t think your alone
we feel the same way most times and are on the edge our selves.”
Every one needs a break, Jared thought. Of course there were no breaks to be had at half past the Apocalypse but it was a nice idea. He made a throwing away gesture with his off hand and smiled. “Don’t let it happen again, none of us needs the extra stress.”
“Got it Jared” Deacon said. Jared only hoped it would be that easy, reality however often has a way of making even the best intentioned people liars.
“You know,” Jared said as he and Ori walked towards the main cabin, “things will get better around here once we have enough supplies to keep us going for a while. The uncertainty of being able to eat on a daily basis or getting sick without medical care is eating away at all of us.”
That was the simple truth, there was little Jared could about the undead threat aside from taking every precaution he could think of, but those precautions meant little when people were worried about being able to eat or having some kind of medical attention to rely one beside prayer and good feelings.
“Eating is top of my list” Ori remarked with a glance at Jared. He had been glad to see the old Jared finally put in an appearance but he still worried about his friend.
“Its at the top of mine too.” Jared agreed frowning. “Tonight, we start planning the run to the hospital, can you have those propane bombs you were talking about finished in two or three days?”
“Not that I want to, but yes, two days max” Ori replied absently running his fingers through his thick blond hair, leaving it sticking wildly up in all directions. He hated working with explosives as Jared well knew and unlike Jared he knew exactly how nerve wracking it could be and how easy it was to make just one mistake and blow himself up.
Which is how he had come to cross train out of EOD and into the 19 Delta MOS, Calvary scout, where he had first met Jared. A couple of years later he was posted to the 502nd Strike, eventually Uncle sugar tucked him into an 11 bravo slot in of all places Jareds Squad. The army like God acts in mysterious ways, who knew why they would take an experienced 19 delta and turn him into a regular grunt, other than the often used “the needs of the army.” Phrase which explained nothing but left the mystery intact.
“Just don’t blow up half the camp okay, “Jared said.
“I’ll try not to blow myself up either thank you.” Ori replied gruffly then grinned.
“Oh, well yeah that too” Jared said with a laugh. As they reached the porch Jill stepped out carrying a load of towels. “hi, just carrying this over to Jeff.” She told Jared, not even looking at Ori.
Ori would have had to have been blind to miss the way Jared’s eyes lit at the sight of her and that smile she gave him in return was enough to melt a man’s heart. I truly hope they make it out of this alive, I’ve never seen him like this with any other woman and I doubt she has ever felt this way about another man. Ori thought as he slipped silently away leaving them alone. Even at the end of the world some people could still find love and maybe it would see them through, I hope so Ori thought as he pictured Beths face and smiled. I really hope so.
It was a beautiful night Jared thought waiting while every one got settled around the table, looking out the open window at the spangle of brilliant stars across the night sky. The cool night breeze was clean and sweet as it blew across his face.
“Okay, lets get to it,” He said briskly sounding almost like the Staff Sergeant he had once been. “we are going into town for the supplies that we need” He said as he stood and leaned over the table to unfold a map. “the problem is, that the undead seemed to have clustered around the center of town, with the majority of them in the town square around the courthouse” He said showing them on the map where he was talking about, most of them had never been here before in their lives so the map, a tourist map with little detail, was perfect. “As you can see there are two main roads that meet at the square, in order to reach the fuel supply place, the hospital and the majority of the pharmacies we have to cross through the town square. The only way to come at the hospital from the north is to drive almost to Brydstown, then take this highway down to here, then cut across here and here. Basically almost two hours on the road, which is wear and tear on the vehicles and wasted fuel. Going through town is the shortest route and better all the way around, except of course for the undead.”
“you sure there is no other way around,” Steve asked after studying the map.
“there might be some backroads outside of town I don’t know about and I know there is at least two side roads in town that would put us on the same road as the hospital, but both run through heavily populated areas of town and they are narrow so if there are lots of abandoned vehicles or wrecks we are pretty much screwed.” Jared said running a finger along one of the roads on the map. “also, its heavily wooded around that area so between the homes and the trees sightlines are broken up making it easier for the undead to get even closer to us without being seen till its too late and if we get stuck and have to abandon our vehicles, we are on foot in an area filled with undead. So no I don’t see them as viable and its too dangerous to scout on foot before we go in.” Jared said with out looking at Ori who still insisted that he could slip in and out without the undead noticing him. Jared was not willing to risk Ori’s life on that bet.
“but we could clear the road” Henry suggested, Jared ignored the rolling eyes at the suggestion. “Yes, but remember, the undead are drawn to running motors, hell any noise, and that area is full of homes, which means full of undead and even if they are all around the square, that’s too close and they will come running to the sound of motors, it takes time to hook up and drag wrecks out of the way.” He pointed out with out mentioning that Henry should have thought about that. But this was the first time Henry had been asked to attend one of the meetings and Jared was not going to turn it into let’s bash Henry party. He deserved to have his say and ask questions even if others thought they were stupid.
“We would still have to take the main road almost to the square just to reach either one of those roads,” Mark pointed out. “We spotted undead out to here” Mark said pointing at a strip center on the map that was a mile past the first of the two side roads. “so we would end up with a lot of them following us. Might as well push down the main drag which is wider and straight through the square.”
Jared nodded his thanks to Mark then smiled at the assembled survivors, “luckily we have Ori, Rob and Jill our super geniuses, Ori has come up with a way to turn those propane bottles we brought back into remote detonated bombs, between the pressure wave and the shrapnel it should cripple undead out to twenty or so meters, and possibly even kill the ones closest to the blast. Rob is working on turning the dozer into a zombie killing weapon. What I have in mind….” He talked for ten minutes laying out his plan, and then rose from the table to give them time to think it over and see if they thought of anything that could improve the plan or to find flaws he had missed.
He grabbed a frosty beer out of the bucket and went and leaned against the wall letting them talk, till this meeting no one here knew that he had a stash of beer and he wondered how long it would be before Ori or Ronny tried to discover where he kept his stash and smiled. Every NCO had a few tricks up his sleeve and beer at the end of the world was a ace in the hole. After this run I need to break more out and we can have a party. God knows these folks need something to help them unwind.
“ I still say we make a couple of flame throwers” Chris said suddenly.
“ Oh sure, and exactly what makes you think that zombies will just fall over when struck by flames. More likely you'll have a bunch of Flaming zombies running around after you. Which we will have to put out with fire extinguishers to keep from getting set on fire ourselves which defeats the whole purpose of setting them on fire in the first place” Jill pointed out almost but not quite rolling her eyes.
“get the flame hot enough and it will cook their brains in seconds” Chris said stubbornly, he loved the idea of having a flame
thrower.
“We could find a chemical supply place and douse them in liquid nitrogen, then we can let the kids run loose with little hammers and smash them” Ori said sarcastically.
“Actually that’s not a bad idea, but we would have to hit a larger town to find liquid nitrogen” Steve said loving the idea of making zompops.
“Why not just go with the normal run them over and then back up and do it again plan?” Jason asked. Steve glanced at Jared he was curious why Jared asked all the others to sit in on the meeting. He didn’t question the decision Jason seemed to be pretty level headed, he was just curious as to what Jared was thinking. “We could just hook up a horse trailer load people inside with guns roll it into the position after we’ve run over everything and shoot anything that moves after that from inside the trailer.”
“Because it’s possible that too many bodies crowded around the trailer, would make it impossible to move even with the our jacked up trucks. And even if the trucks make it over a pile of zombie bodies, a trailer would just get centered out. And that would stop the truck.“ Mark explained. “or worse dump the trailer on its side.”
“My girlfriend for a helicopter” Ronny muttered, Mary slapped him on the back of head. “ your fiancé, idiot and I’m the one that would be doing the trading” she corrected. He nodded in agreement, grinning not feeling repentant in the least. Jared shook his head in amusement.