by Thomas Baker
"What you're saying is possible," Linda conceited. "There is the little problem of the hundreds of miles of zombie hordes between here and the Rockies. Not to mention any other not so friendly people who could be out there. I was already done with this place before you got here. I'll go, if y'all will have me."
"Well,of coursewe willdarlin'! What say you there Sheriff?"
Randall stood up and walked over to the mantle, taking small steps, seemingly caught up in thought.
"You know, two weeks ago I wouldn't have considered leaving this town. But maybe it's time for me to retire from Gateway City. This whole church business has left a sour taste in my mouth. I've got access to a couple vehicles and some fuel storage. We could take all the supplies I have stockpiled here and at the station and head out. Another thing to consider though is the time of year. Around the corner is full blown winter. It could get nasty heading up into the mountains if we don't beat it."
"Linda," Hannah said, "I've heard western Kansas is practically a bunch of nothing. Maybe it will be empty. We could find some decent place for shelter and not have to see another zombie or person again. I'm done with any other groups. I've learned you are all I need, along with faith in God. From here on out it should be the five of us and nobody else." Hannah was beaming.
"That'd be a welcome change," JT nodded in agreement, feeling oddly hopeful considering all that had happened. He was ready to leave it all behind.
Tyrone, buddy. I let you down. That's on me. I did my best to pay Albright back. If there is a spirit or soul, I hope yours is at peace now.
"You're going to need me along anyways, to make sure Gus stays out of trouble," Linda said, smiling. "He's too old to be getting stabbed, shot or even get a hangnail."
Gus laughed. The rest of them joined in.
"Where Hannah and Gus go I go. You two are my family now," JT said slapping Gus on the back.
"JT, stop it. You're gonna make me all weepy eyed. That wouldn't do good for my image. I'm trying to impress Linda here with my mighty manliness."
They all laughed again. To JT it felt cleansing. Again a little ray of optimism opened up inside him. He wished he had something of Tyrone's to take with him, in remembrance. Not that he would be forgotten. Just something to symbolize him. It was a shame his iPodwas lost.
"That settles it," Hannah said, clapping her hands. "If there's no objection, let's do this."
Gus, Hannah, and Linda worked on gathering up anything useful from around the house, while JT and Randall left to retrieve the vehicles and gather up whatever was lying around the police station. JT took a moment of silence while he was back in the cellblock area. He took an oversized black marker and wrote Tyrone and Jelly in large thick letters on the concrete wall of Tyrone's cell. Below thathe wrote Peace Out.
Randall and JT finished up at the station. Next, Randall led him to an old service station on the east end of town. Randall had locked up two vehicles inside. JT hopped behind the wheel of the large silver Denali. He looked down on the passenger side floorboard and noticed a leather CD book. He couldn't resist the urge to thumb through it while he waited for Sheriff Randall to lead the way back. They were all blank CD's. Titles were written on them in blue marker. He grabbed the one titled Moondrops Burst and popped it in. Laughter overtook him as Spirit In The Sky played from the speakers.
JT followed Randall, jamming the music the entire time. It was therapeutic. Arriving back, Hannah looked anxious, waiting outside with piles of stuff at her feet. Everyone helped load the supplies. JT paused when they were done to look around one last time. In the kitchen JT found a pint of Crown Royale and another of Jim Beam. He mulled it over for a moment and took them both. He could use a drink for the road. JT head back outside.
"Well Sheriff, we're following you," JT reached out to shake his hand. "By the way, I never thanked you for coming down to the church. Or for getting us out of that jail cell."
Randall took his hand. "And I never apologized to you young man so I guess that makes us even."
"Alright, Rocky Mountains here we come!" Hannah had a spark in her eye JT hadn't seen since back when they first arrived at Harold's cabin. He knew it would take her some time to get over what happened here. For now, though she was hopefully. He felt he still loved her and he would help if he could.
Randall, Gus and Linda climbed into the cruiser while JT and Hannah got in the Denali. The two car convoy rolled out. JT looked to Hannah. She gave him a bittersweet smile. He returned it.
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JT had heard Kansas was supposed to be flat. Yeah right. Then why did they just spend days and days going up anddown rolling hills, following I-70 Interstate? His feet and legs screamed in agony at night when they stopped to bed down. He fell asleep every night with the same wish. That he could get a rubdown and some time in a hot tub, like back in his football days.
JT stood on the overpass, rubbing at the prickly growth on his chin. He was supposed to be getting a good look at what was ahead. Instead, thoughts competed for space in his head. He contemplated what lied ahead and dwelt on all the things left behind. With a shake of his head and a rub at his eyes with his palms, JT brought himself back to the present.
Looking out into the distance he finally saw what they meant about Kansas. Brown, dead grass stretch unbroken as far as the horizon. Not even an anthill as far as he could see. The only thing breaking up the endless land and sky were the colossal windmills which towered over the landscape. None of them turned. White sentinels of a now dead world. There was one other thing ahead that shattered the almost hypnotic flatness. JT muttered the first words that came to mind after seeing it.
"Holy shit."
There were not tens or hundreds of them. JT estimated there must be thousands of zombies ahead. They milled among the dead machines, a massive wave of flesh. They covered the Interstate like a cancer, crawling across the land and killing the host body, in this case America. Possibly the world. You couldn't even see the road. JT guessed this was probably what it looked like when settlers first came west. Instead of zombies, they saw endless herds of buffalo.
"What in the hell lured them here?"
He had seen his fair share of zombie hordes both big and small by this point. Usually they clumped together because the sound of something attracted them, something living they could munch on. JT wondered if there was some rhyme or reason the zombies grouped together. In the dead of night JT sometimes wondered if they could remember in there undead brains being human and wanted to seek other humans to be with. If the zombies could think at all. What could have attracted this many to this spot he had no idea.
JT heard a wonder struck whistle off to his right. He looked over at Gus, who stood beside a working truck they had found yesterday. His feet had never been more grateful; even more so his bum knee. Gus was dressed in a hoodie over a long sleeve shirt and blue jeans, just as he was. Winter wasn't here yet but you could feel its cold fingers in the wind.
Linda was behind the driver's wheel of the truck, which was still running. She was looking out through the passenger window; her face grim.
"I don't think I could have said it any better old timer." JT called over.
JT looked to his other side where Hannah stood. She also wore the same outfit as he and Gus. In addition, she was wearing a beat up flannel shirt and a baseball cap, to hold her now wildly long hair back from her face.
"What now?" He asked her, wondering what her response could possibly be.
It was hard for him to defer to her even now, weeks after leaving Albright's church. It was hard for him to even admit he wanted control so bad. He had been
telling himself he didn't want to be looked at as the leader of the group since they had met up. He didn't want the pressure and the responsibility of being in charge. The way he felt now, well it made a liar of him and all his protests to the contrary.
After the way he had botched things up since The Outbreak began, he thought it was better this way. How many people, how many friends, did he kill along the way? You have to face it JT. Maybe you weren't cut out for it. He ran his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He suddenly felt parched. He stopped himself from walking over to the truck. Not now. LaterJT took a swig of his water bottle instead.
He continued to stare at Hannah, who hadn't answered him. "What now oh fearless leader?" he joked.
She gave him a tight smile. "This does present a problem. Let me think."
"I'd say you got time darlin'," Gus said, sitting down with his back to the concrete barrier of the bridge. "Doesn't look like the zombies are in a big hurry to go anywhere."
JT didn't envy Hannah at a time like this. However, he knew what he would do, but he choked down his suggestion. No reason to start a fight now. It would have been a cheap shot and unfair, anyway. When Hannah first wanted to head to the mountains, where she thought the trip across Kansas would be safe from zombies and other people. That the land between the church and the mountains would be empty. She couldn't have known they would run into a situation like this.
Everything was still as everyone seemed to get lost in their own world. There were no sounds except for the constant whooshing of the wind and the puttering of the truck. The wind had become a constant companion, blowing day and night.
A sudden, unexpected truck horn blast made Hannah and him jump and take instinctive cover by ducking down. The sound had come from behind him. JT rushed to the other side of the overpass. Barreling down the highway side by side were two dump trucks. Behind them was a semi driving down the center lane line. Its horn sounded again as it drove towards the bridge. JT covered his ears as he ran back to the other side.
JT looked down. As the dump trucks barreled under them, going at what was probably their top speed, JT could just make out there were people riding in the back part of both trucks. They looked like they were all wearing a uniform, maybe police riot gear. He couldn't be sure, they passed in such a blur.
JT stood and watched with a mixture of awe and disbelief. The trucks smashed like lumbering dinosaurs into the zombie horde. Everything in its way was flattened or dismembered. Little dots sailed out of the back of the dump trucks. Then explosions went off on either side of the trucks, making open pools in the sea of zombies. Body parts flew through the airthen rained back down.
"Are they doing what I think they are doing, or have my old eyes shit the bed?" Gus asked.
"No Gus," JT chuckled. "They really are lobbing grenades out of the back of dump trucks into the zombies."
"Let's go," Hannah said abruptly. "JT and Gus, in the back on shotgun duty. They are plowing the road and I intend to follow them."
JT and Gus exchanged looks of raised eyebrows at each other, then did as they were told. Hannah joined Linda and Randall, who had also stayed up in the cab of the truck during their little recon. It was a tight squeeze.
JT gave Gus a boost up into the open tailgate and then pulled himself up. He grabbed his shotgun and put in the shells while the truck bounced off, accelerating down the exit ramp. JT saw Gus grimace a bitand grab at his side as his body pushed into the truck bed.
"You okay there old man?"
"Yeah. It's that little present Harold gave me. Seems like it just keeps on givin'. Don't worry, I can still blast the heads off of a few deaders."
The flat land zoomed by as they gained speed. JT laid the barrel of the shotgun up on the bed rail. The sounds of explosions grew louder. In a moment the expansive, flat land was blocked from sight. They had entered the horde. It was almost like they had entered a tunnel. One collapsing around them as they drove on. On either side of them were zombies upon zombies. The undead had been pushed back but were already mere feet from the Interstate shoulder. A glance behind him showed the zombies filling up the space like a zipper being pulled up.
"Instead of the Red Sea, they're parting the zombie sea," Gus yelled over to him.
"Let's hope it doesn't crash down on us," JT yelled back.
A loud bang reverberated his side of the truck bed. Hands, one missing three of its fingers, reached up over the side. JT glanced over, shotgun raised, to see a little boy zombie was pulling himself up and over the side. Must have been a Runner. Let me give you some peace, kid. JT blew its head off. The body did four rolls on the ground before being swallowed up and falling out of sight.
The blur of dead faces came closer and closer. JT took a moment to glance over the top of the cab. They were almost on the semi's tail. An explosion rocked the truck. JT fell over onto his side. When he sat back up, he saw fragments of reddish orange metal littering the side of the truck. Hearing a strange hissing sound, he leaned over a little farther. He could see the back driver side tire deflate in front of his eyes. The hissing sound turned into the flopping sound of a flat tire. The truck swayed this way and that as Hannah struggled to maintain control of the now bucking vehicle.
Gus fired at several zombies that had clamped onto the careening truck. He missed them all as the truck wildly bobbed again. JT leaned across and smashed a zombie in the face with the stock of his shotgun. It fell, leaving behind its hand and half of its arm still attached. JT swung again and knocked it off.
Explosions, smoke, and gunfire were now JT's world. He could feel the tension in his body as he struggled to stay in the truck and keep it cleared. The screech of metal on the road as the tire completely shredded made JT grit his teeth. Gus fired again and again. He glanced over at JT, his eyes worried, as he reloaded.
I don't think Hannah will be able tokeep control now. I'm amazed she has this long. We have to be at the end of this or we're dead.
JT thought they would never see the ground again when the horde visibly thinned. The truck lost speed. JT shotgunned a zombie that was hanging onto Hannah's side mirror. It fell under the exposed rim which cut it to shreds.
Linda opened the sliding window of the truck and hollered back. "Hannah said she almost lost control, she can't drive on. Get ready to jump and run like hell!"
The semi shrank further and further away. It and the dump trucks had left a path of destruction in their wake. JT thought they might have enough time, with the reduced number of zombies now, to get out before the path ahead closed. The truck did a sudden fishtail, throwing Gus against him. The truck stopped with JT and Gus sliding and slamming into the cab.
"Ma'am, I need to see your license and registration. I think you're driving under the influence," Gus yelled up as he straightened himself to a standing position.
JT hopped over the side, wincing a little at his bum knee as he landed. He opened the tailgate and helped Gus step down. They each threw their pack over their shoulders.
"Later officer," Hannah said, jumping out of the driver side. "Everyone grab your gear and let's get going."
They all ran as the two sides of zombies closed back together around them. JT had to shoot a couple survivors of the grenade blasts who shambled close to them. He could see some of the blasted zombies still mindlessly stumbled and crawled after them, even when half of there bodies were obliterated.
Hannah didn't let up the pace as they cleared the closure. JT's side burned, his breath ragged. To his left he saw Randall spot a Runner. He drew his pistol and took it down with a single clean head shot. All without stopping. Randall's skill once again impressed JT.
JT raised a hand to his eyes to block the glaring sun. He looked for the dump trucks and the semi but saw no sign. Only the still windmills and the black and grey line of the road, marching off into the horizon. Nothing else broke the flatness ahead.
He turned and jogged backward, looking at where they had escaped from the zombie herd. Already the zombies cover
ed road and the land again from left to right as far as the eye could see. It was like all the destruction hadn't even made a dent in the zombie horde.
It was a marvel they had made it through unharmed. The zombies had covered them like insects swarming over some dropped food. Now they were without a vehicle again. JT should have known it wouldn't last long. His leg and knee cramped like they were already protesting the thought of walking again. He turned back around and slowed to a walk. Not for the first time JT thought about what a crazy fucked up world he lived in.
The massive water tower in the distance proclaimed this was the city of Goodland. The sun sunk, massive and pink, on the horizon line. Hannah already shivered. This was a cold she wasn't used to. She thought it was good luck finding a town like this before dark. They were few and far betweenin the days they had spent in western Kansas. If they didn't run into any zombies in the town would be a blessing from God.
A sign ahead declared the truck stop they were walking towards was the 24/7 Shell Travel Center. Compared to most of the looted disaster areas they had come across the store looked fairly intact. A few cars were parked at the pumps and in front of the store. Two semi trucks were pulled side by side to the right of the building. She could see no dead bodies, normal or zombie. Usually they were lying everywhere. Still she drew her weapon. She tensed up, shoulders aching, as she got closer.
The five of them huddled at the store entrance. Hannah peeked inside through the glass, hands against either side of her head. She thought the store looked as if aliens had come and scooped up all the people as they were in the middle of doing their daily routines. Not a thing inside looked touched or out of place.
"Okay," Hannah said, motioning with her hands as she talked. "JT, you and Gus check the back room. Linda you take the restrooms. Randall you check the employees offices and the adjoining restaurant. I'll take the store."