'FUCK!' I think
The two in the area do turn to the sound and rush over to the hall entrance peering down. What I didn't consider was they would stay at the entrance of the hall rather than go down it. This means they are closer to the back door than they were before. 'shit shit shit' I think eyeing the two of them closer to my escape than ever. I need to do something,
I take off for the front of the store. There is no way I can make a clean exit through the back. So I take off for the store intending on going out the front of the store. I make it to and through the swinging door hearing the shouts of the others following behind me. I click on my flashlight keeping it low to make sure I don't trip over anything. I sprint straight for the front entrance of the store. I make it to and out the door into the brightly lit parking lot, my pursuers following behind me. I take off to the right towards the car dealership and other businesses down the road from here. I need to lose these guys before I circle back to the car hidden behind the building and where the others wait for me. Thankfully I had the forethought to wear trail running shoes. I am able to run comfortably albeit the jeans aren't doing my groin any favors. It doesn't take me long to create a significant gap between my chasers and myself. I make it to the far side of the car lot before I slow down and check behind me. Three people are bent over gasping for air having lost their breath trying to keep up with me. Clearly these guys aren't runners. I stand up confidently only breathing slightly heavier than normal. I have a big grin on my face knowing out here they have no chance of catching me. As long as I stick to areas they can't get into with cars anyway. I casually walk away and around the corner breaking their line of sight on me. After sixty seconds I pop my head back around. Watching them as they walk back towards the store having accepted that I got away. I go around the back of the car lot working my way towards the store out of view from the front parking lot. Moving towards the back of the building. I make it around the building. Coming from the back I can see the car clear as day and Adam and Sarah crouching behind it. I reach into my pocket hitting the unlock button on my remote. They both jump in fright when the lights blink. They both look around frantically before Adam notices me coming up from behind. I wave cheerily as he visually relaxes. I put my hand up indicating to stay quiet.
"Hey guys, Miss me?" I say handing the key to Adam.
"What?" Adam asks, looking quizzically at the key and back to me.
"They trapped me in the stockroom but I was able to make it out the front of the store and lost them over by the car lot. They have two cars out front and I don't want them following us" I say as I pull out the hunting knife strapped to my belt. " I'm going to take out their tires so they can't chase us. If you need to take off, wait for me on the highway. I'll find you" I finish and begin moving away from them.
Adam and Sarah watch me walk away back the way I came looping around to the front of the store. Probably shouldn't stab the tires, I think. That's a good way to lose control of the knife. Plus it'd be loud. While putting the knife back into its sheath and latching it in place. I make it to the corner of the store and peek my head around. Other than the SUV and a sedan, there is nothing and no-one around. I watch for a few minutes more making sure nobody is outside. Once satisfied the front lot is empty I creep myself towards the front door of the store. The cars are parked only a dozen meters from the entrance. Exactly where I had parked my car before moving it around to the back yesterday. I take a look through the doors ensuring nobody is nearby. Seeing no one I sneak over to the sedan and to the side you can't see from the entrance. Crouching near the back driver side tire I pop off the air cap and using the point of the knife start expelling the air. feels like it takes forever as I keep an eye glued to the front door over the trunk of the car. luckily nobody comes out and the hissing sound from the air while loud to me isn't a sound that'll carry very far. Once the air is out enough that a good bit of the tire is bulging I take the knife and slice into it. Without the air pressure, no jet of air shoots the knife out of my hand. With a flat tire, they will be forced to change the tire, not just air it up. With the car lot next door, they'll have no problem finding extra tires, the idea is just to slow them down. I move onto the SUV and repeat the process. Just as I'm sticking the tip of the knife into the stem to let out the air however I hear two people walk out of the store. I make myself as small as I can behind the tire and SUV waiting to see what they're doing. They stand there chatting for a few minutes about that bastard that got away. And how if they get their hands on him they'll make him pay. After a couple of minutes, they go back inside. I peek through the SUV windows getting a look at the store entrance, no sight of them. I wait another minute or so before slowly letting the air out of the tire and finally slicing into it as well. So far so good, nobody else has come out. They'll have no idea I sabotaged their cars. I take one last look at the entrance making sure no one is around. take off at a sprint covering the entire way back to the car jumping into the passenger side telling Adam to go. He starts the car without hesitation and floors the pedal, the tires peel out as we race towards the exit. When we pull into the road I look back and see a man standing at the back exit watching us drive away.
I breathe a sigh of relief "We should get extra tires and a jack" I say with a chuckle between breaths as Adam drives us to the highway.
#
Chapter 10
We spend the rest of the late morning and early afternoon driving. First north then east along the highways. We keep the river in sight the whole time. We're looking for farms or homes or any livable looking building near to the river. That way we will have a water source nearby. The area shifts into more rural and farmland property an hour out of town. This is when our search for a home begins in earnest.
We pull off onto the rural roads which are surrounded by farmland as far as the eye can see. A half of a mile down the first road we take and we come up to the first house. We stop in the street directly in front of the house. It's a small single-story white house with a large barn behind it. Behind the barn is an enormous farm surrounded by trees all along the perimeter. It's late fall and the farm is an empty field. I look around for any clue of people or zombies. Finding nothing I shrug and lean on the horn for a good five seconds, twice. I smack away the others as they try to pull me off the horn.
"What are you doing," they both ask in unison.
"Relax, we need to know if the place is occupied by zombies or people. Would you rather go walking around and stumbling upon one or the other?" I say. "Of course not." I honk the horn again and we wait for a while before I pull the car into the U shaped driveway and hop out heading for the door. Taking nothing for granted I make sure I have my hatchet in hand. The others following right behind me. I creep up the three short stairs leading to the front door and try the handle, It's locked.
"Let's try a back door," I say jumping the three steps to the ground and hurrying around the left of the house. Turning the left corner we come upon a side door, Also locked. 'UGH.' I grunt continuing my way around to the back of the house. Where I find a raised patio connected to the house interior with a sliding glass door. Having walked around the house I get a sense for the real size of it. It can't have more than two maybe three bedrooms. And this close to the river I'm guessing no basement but what do I know I'm a computer nerd. The sliding door is stuck as well but at least we can get a look into the house. The sliding door's connected to what looks to be a room dedicated to birds. Birdcages line the walls on either side of the room. Two on each side and a large bag of bird feed sitting on a shelf in the corner. I tap on the glass door watching the cages for birds, nothing. I'm guessing either the birds were taken when the owners left or they starved.
"Alright either we hope a window is open or we're going to need to break in. Or we give up on this house. Looks like it might be a bit too small for us anyway. Enough room for us three certainly but no room for anyone else." I say "But maybe we want it that way?"
"We could always move again later"
Sarah chips in.
"Sure but with winter coming whatever we choose is likely where we are stuck until spring," I say.
"Hmmm" Sarah hums to herself.
Adam shrugs
"Alright, whatever. Check the windows we have probably seven weeks before snow and the bitter cold anyway." I say checking the window next to the sliding door. We split up checking windows. I stay in the back Adam goes around left and Sarah goes around to the right. Only a moment passes before Adam hollers out that he found an open window. When I jog over he already has his top half leaning through the window.
"What's in there," Sarah asks, coming up alongside me.
"I'm not sure it's too dark to make anything out. But I think a dresser is right under the window." Adam calls back through the window
"Here take the flashlight," I say, holding it up.
Adam is through the window at this point and his face pops through the curtain with a wide grin. His hand slides out a moment later for the flashlight that I press into his hand.
"Meet y'all at the front door," he says as he disappears into the gloom.
Sarah and I walk around to the front. Adam is already standing on the front porch with the door closed behind him. He is looking a bit green, I notice as we walk up.
"Uhh, you OK dude?" I ask after closing the distance.
"No, I don't think this place is going to work out for us." He replies.
"Why not?" Sarah asks hurriedly.
"Dead bodies in the bedroom next to the office I climbed into."
"Oh uhhh maybe we can move them," I say though the thought of it disgusts me. Where will I find a hazmat suit and a working shower I think grossed out. I look up from my thoughts Adam and Sarah are already halfway back to the car.
"You can do whatever you want but I'm not going in there now" Sarah responds.
"Don't be a wuss, This is the world we live in now." I laugh while secretly thanking them for making the decision for me. I hurry to catch up and leave this place behind us. Moving along the road we pass up the next house down the line. It looks like no one has lived there in years but the lawn and fields are maintained. No idea what is up with that. Another mile flies by before we make it to the third farmhouse. Which is a dark green single-story house but from the road looks to be much larger. And with a patio that surrounds the entire house, it looks like. The house is more recessed from the road than the others with a long driveway leading up to it. Pulling into the driveway I creep in. Using the front yard to make a three-point turn so the car is facing the road on the off chance we need to gun it out of here. I reverse the last dozen meters before I lay on the horn. Ten seconds pass, thirty seconds, a minute passes before I am comfortable enough to shut the car off and get out.
Getting out of the car again with the hatchet in hand we make our way to the front door, locked. Shrugging "I don't know what I expected," I say aloud and check the nearest windows finding them also locked. I walk along the covered patio that extends around the entire house, checking every window as we go. As fortune would have it the backdoor is unlocked. I click on the flashlight and step through the doorway. The back door leads into a mudroom that connects to a kitchen and living room that have no separating wall. House is full of modern appliances and furniture. Hardwood floors and most excitingly a fireplace in the living room.
"Perfect! The fireplace can be used for heat and cooking even." I say excitedly shining the flashlight in the direction of it. We check the house one room at a time. Our strategy is to knock on the door and wait for the sounds of a zombie or not. Then we'd open the door and make sure it's clear before moving on to the next room. Me with a hatchet and Adam with the trekking pole. Sarah keeps her distance but also has a trekking pole at the ready. All in all, we find no people, zombies, or bodies hanging out in the house. Which ends up having five bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms and a large barn out behind the house. Besides for being in the middle of nowhere, this house would be amazing in better times. After we're satisfied the place is safe we go our own ways. Adam heads out the back, Sarah heads to the car to grab some food and drinks for a late lunch. And I wander around the house opening curtains and lighting the place up.
"Welcome home," I say, sweeping my arms grandly gesturing to the house around me when Sarah walks in with a pack of food.
"James!" Adam shouts from near the back door before Sarah can respond.
"We have a problem," Adam tells me as soon as I run out the back door.
Pointing at the barn Adam continues speaking "I went to check the barn. Turns out we have some friends in there"
"What kind of friends," I ask suspiciously
"Of the, I want to eat your face variety"
"Fuck, shit, fuck. How many?" I ask
"At least two. I saw two of them run at me from the door. Closed it before they got to me. I wasn't sticking around to count for others."
"What's going on?" Sarah asks, having joined us in the backyard .
"Fucking zombies in the barn" I utter.
"Alright fine. Anyone find any guns while searching the house?" I ask the two. Both of them shake their heads.
"We can't leave them in there," Adam says.
"Right yea but how? With how fast and strong they are there is no safe way to kill them other than a gun. Which I haven't really used so I wouldn't rely on my knowing how to use one anyway" I say. "Whatever they're not going anywhere, let's have some lunch and figure it out later"
For lunch, we have some of the beef stew MRE's we got from our army friends. Now I know why they were so willing to give us so many MRE's. These things are gross and starving just might be the better option. We mostly eat in silence letting the weight of the world and the zombies so close by drag our moods down. When suddenly Adam jumps up.
"The car!" he exclaims "What about instead of trying to kill them we use the car to lure them away. The ones in the city followed us until we were able to speed up enough to break their line of sight. So let's do the same thing but drive slow enough to lure them miles from here than double back after losing them."
"Genius but someone has to let them out of the barn before they'll chase the car," I say. Adam and Sarah's eyes drop before Adam looks up and says he'll do it.
I pull the car up to the front steps and the three of us quickly unload all our gear and food. Once empty I drive around to the barn reversing it until I'm only thirty meters from the barn doors. The front of the barn has large barn doors held shut by a padlock Which as it happens is hanging open. An idea comes to me.
"Adam, you won't need to open the door. I have a better idea." I say while grabbing some rope from the camping packs. Tying one end to one of the barn doors and stringing it out to the car. Where I"ll hold the rope and pull the barn door open from the car and drop it once it's open. With that all set up and ready to go Adam and Sarah hide inside the house watching from a kitchen window. While I move over next to the barn doors. I give them the thumbs to show a level of confidence that I don't feel myself but they don't need to know that. I take the padlock and remove it from the locking joint. I sprint to the car with the driver's side door waiting open for me. Closing the door and making sure the rope isn't tied up in the car door I began pulling the rope slowly opening the door. For as big as the door is it opens as easily as if I was pulling open a regular house door. The door is halfway open now and still, no zombies have come out. I take a breath watching through the mirror as I lean onto the horn giving it three quick short beeps. A moment of silence before the two zombies. No, three zombies come sprinting out the opening towards the car.
I forget to drop the rope as I hit the gas, it jerks out of my hand thankfully only causing a bit of rope burn. I make it to the end of the driveway with the three zombies only meters behind me. turning onto the road I take off back towards the highway. Watching the zombies in my mirrors while driving away. The sweet spot for speed to keep them chasing is about twenty-eight miles an hour. It doesn't take long to find this speed out but I did end
up having to slow down and speed up a few times in testing. It takes about twenty minutes to make it back to the highway with the zombies in tow behind me.
I lead them onto the highway. But I don't want to leave them on the highway, so I spend another twenty minutes leading them north to the next exit. I lead them down the road about five blocks. Before making a sharp left turn and flying up the street and another left turn to double back to the highway. Before I can make it to the highway however I run across a blocked road. The cars are lined up across the road and onto the sidewalks far too neatly not to be deliberate. I stop the car a good two hundred meters away and begin turning around. When out of nowhere a man holding a rifle pointing my way steps out from behind one of the car s sitting off to the side.
He motions for me to get out of the car. When I don't move he lifts a hand indicating off to the right and behind me. following his hand I see two other males holding guns pointing in my direction. The car is currently sitting perpendicular to the road. There is no way for me to complete the turn and drive away safely. I have no choice in the matter I think as I shift the car into park and open the door.
"Smart choice. Where ya off too?" he asks
"just passing through," I answered .
"mhm. What all you got in that car?" The man drawls on lowering his gun.
Glancing quickly at the other two. They are keeping their distance and guns at the ready. They are in the center of the street and I'm surrounded. There is no way for me to make a break for it. Hopefully, once they see I have nothing of value they'll leave me be.
"Nothing. I was chased out of home by zombies and didn't have time to grab any supplies" I say thinking quickly. I'm certainly not telling him the truth of the house and stockpile of gear and food my group managed to collect. He eyes me suspiciously before saying "Open the back, I'm gonna take a look myself"
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