Guns would be used as a last resort, and only to save ourselves or each other. Too risky to go shooting in the dark when you didn’t really know where your enemy, or more importantly, your friends were.
We slipped quietly out the back door, and by unspoken agreement decided to split into two groups and spread out away from the house. The recent activity would draw anyone out there to investigate, especially if they weren’t sure if they had made a kill.
Julia and I headed south and worked our way through the woods. Moving quickly and quietly, we ghosted our way for about twenty-five yards. At that point, I stopped Julia and pointed west. She nodded, and I continued for another twenty-five yards. When I figured I had gone far enough, I turned west myself and began making my way through the woods towards the road. I knew Julia was doing the same, and with a little luck we would be hitting the road together.
The moon slipped behind a cloud and bathed the woods in deep darkness. I moved as quietly as I could, knowing I was actually making more noise than Julia. Her dad had taught her to read the land through her feet and could move without disturbing branches or rocks.
Low branches reached out in the darkness and slowed my pace considerably. I had to make sure I didn’t snap anything as I moved through and around them. About fifteen yards forward I stopped suddenly, listening intently to the darkness around me. I had heard something and needed to sort out what it was.
I slithered over to a tree and eased myself down into a crouching position. Anything coming at me high would miss, and anything coming at me low would get a surprise. What I also wanted was something to cover my back. This tree was thick enough not to allow something to grab at me from behind, and had enough brush on either side to alert me to someone getting close. I eased my breathing and focused on listening to the sounds around me. I could hear the lake in the distance as the waves lapped up on the shoreline. Something metallic was being moved around; I could tell by the sound of some kind of soft booming noise. I didn’t hear any animals moving, which wasn’t really a surprise. Four humans in the woods tended to shut everything up. I could hear Jake and Kayla as they moved through the woods on the other side of the house, and I would have to chide them for that later. They had to be at least one hundred yards away, but I could easily tell where they were.
Suddenly, I heard it again. It was the creak of a harness as someone adjusted their position. I slowly turned my head, and I knew someone was behind me to my left. I brought my hand down to my knife and drew it carefully out. The blade was already black, having been cold blued by my father six months ago. In my other hand was my tomahawk, waiting for the signal to get into action. Gently, boys. Gently.
I turned my head and ducked as a huge knife slashed through the air where my neck used to be. I rolled forward, heedless of the noise, and spun to face my attacker. The man was right up on me, swinging again for my head.
I leaned to the side to let that one go and using my knife hand, I delivered a short, brutal blow to the side of his head. It wasn’t much, but it knocked him back a step, which gave me time to put another few feet between us. Twigs snapped and branches lost leaves as the man leapt forward, looking to impale me on his outstretched knife.
I was at a distinct disadvantage. While I could kill the man, I wanted him alive for questioning. He had no desire to speak to me, so he was free to try and disembowel me at every turn. I was a little discouraged at the whole unfairness of it all. Without really thinking, I swung my ‘hawk at his oncoming blade and knocked it away, getting a very loud pinging sound for my trouble.
That had an effect. Suddenly there was a cry of “Aaron!” from Julia, which caused another shout from Jake, further up the road. The man realized he was outnumbered and quickly spun on his heel, taking to the brush.
“Dammit!” I said, spinning the handle on my tomahawk so the blade was forward. I threw it after the fleeing man, hoping to at least injure him enough to put him down.
There was a gasp and a deep thunk, then silence. I wasn’t sure if I had hit anything, but I wasn’t going to go searching for anything in this darkness. Not yet. If I had connected and killed, they’d be there in the morning. I needed to stay out here to make sure they didn’t come back. I felt a little bare without my ‘hawk, but I compensated by pulling another knife.
“Aaron?” Julia was coming closer, and I needed her to be safe.
“Head back to the house, I need you and Jake and Kayla to stay there until morning,” I said, moving a little ways off into the brush. I needed to be away from the spot of the encounter, and quickly, if the man was still alive.
“What are you going to do?” Julia asked.
“Finish this. He may be dead or faking, but I’ll know in a little while,” I said, gliding towards another tree.
“First light I’m coming back,” Julia promised.
“I’ll need you for sure then, babe,” I said.
Julia left, and I used the noise of her retreat to cover some ground to another tree. I climbed quickly and set myself high enough so I would not be reached by any grasping hands. We knew now that there were zombies in the area, and another roamer wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. My question was, who was out there and why were they trying to kill people?
Tomorrow’s answers for sure.
Chapter 10
I like to think that I kept awake all through the night like a dutiful sentry, watching carefully over the land as my loved ones slept. I couldn’t have slept deeply tucked up in a tree like I was, so the truth was somewhere in the middle. I napped occasionally, but very lightly. When the first rays of the dawn began working their way through the trees, I knew it was time to leave my perch and get some answers. Or at least get my tomahawk back.
After scanning the area I slid down the tree and moved toward where I thought I had thrown my ‘hawk. I didn’t recall there being a lot of time between when I threw it and when I heard it hit something substantial, so I figured it had to be around here somewhere.
Once I got my bearings and found the spot where the fight took place last night, I stepped carefully through the leaves and grass. I really hoped I would be able to find that weapon, considering it would be hard to replace.
About twenty feet in front of me I found it. It was stuck in a small sapling about four inches in diameter. The bottom half of the blade had caught the tree, and the momentum of the tomahawk had turned it halfway around, still caught in the wood. I reached out to take it when I noticed something on the blade. I decided to wait until a better tracker than I came out to the woods.
I didn’t have long to wait. As soon as it was light enough to see, I figured Julia would be coming out after me. I almost didn’t hear her as she moved through the woods, but she was in a hurry and didn’t care if I had heard her or not.
“That you, babe?” Her voice came through behind me and was a welcome sound.
“Right here.” I stayed where I was and let her come to me. I didn’t think Jake and Kayla would be out here. Unless it was serious, Jake and Kayla liked to sleep in. Nothing against them, it was just the way things were.
Julia reached me, and slid her hands around my waist. She pressed herself against me and held me tight for a moment. She would never admit she was worried about me, no daughter of Charlie James ever would, but this was as close as she was going to get. I kissed the top of her head and gave her a reassuring squeeze back.
Once she disengaged, Julia looked up at me. “What happened over here?”
“Had a little disagreement with a guy this way. When it looked like I had reinforcements, he left,” I said. “Tried to take him down, but I missed.” I pointed at the tomahawk in the tree.
Julia looked at the blade still stuck in the tree, then her eyes narrowed, and she looked closer. I knew then she had seen what had made me leave it there in the first place.
My lovely bride patted me on the hand, then started off into the brush. “You missed, sweetheart, but you didn’t miss by much. Good job.”
I pulled the tomahawk out of the tree and followed Julia. She was ahead of me by about fifteen feet, and I wanted to keep her in sight. I didn’t doubt for a minute that the guy I fought with last night might still be around and may have staked out an area for an ambush. If he was the guy who had been doing the shooting, he was very good with a gun and had no qualms about killing.
Julia moved quietly and quickly through the woods, keeping an eye on the trail she followed. She didn’t look for each sign, but rather focused farther ahead and guessed where the person may have gone. She watched the ground for any turns or changes in the trail, and the blood sign kept her in the right direction.
At the edge of the woods she stopped and knelt down, running her hands over a section of ground near a tree. Beyond where she was the grass leveled out, and I could see the break in the trees where the road was.
“What do you have?” I asked, keeping an eye on the surrounding woods.
“This was where he left his rifle last night. He must have figured it wouldn’t do him any favors in the woods. He must have grabbed it on his way out and down the road,” Julia said.
“Do you think he’s gone for now?” I asked, shifting a bit. I had a decently cramped leg from last night.
Julia shrugged. “Probably. Him leaving the rifle here tells me two things. One, he was confident he would return. Two, he accepted the fact that he might not.”
I thought about that for a minute. “Well, that fits with what we already know.”
“What’s that?”
“This one doesn’t give a damn about his life or anyone else’s.”
Our conversation was interrupted by Jake stepping out of the house. He missed the first step of the porch and went crashing to the bottom of the stairs. Julia and I stifled laughs as we watched Jake jump up and look around quickly, scanning for anyone who might have seen him. When he thought he was alone, he relaxed and started back towards the house.
I winked at Julia and showed her the small handful of acorns I had scooped up while Jake was one the ground. I aimed for a break in the tree canopy and let fly. I didn’t think I’d get near him, but maybe I’d get lucky.
Did I ever. The acorns rained down on the gravel and van behind Jake, and he fairly leapt through the doorway. The last we saw of him was his feet as he disappeared into the house.
Julia and I held our sides as we laughed ourselves silly. It was a decent pressure release for the tension of the morning, but I kept it under control since I wasn’t sure there was a shooter still out there. I didn’t think so, but that was a risk we were going to have to take.
“Come on.’ I said, taking Julia’s hand. “Let’s go see what Skippy has ready for breakfast.”
We stepped out of the trees and I looked around. I scanned the area and relaxed. There wasn’t anything out there that was tickling my subconscious, so I figured our visitor last night was gone. In hindsight, it made sense to leave. His job was done, and to stay risked getting killed by superior numbers. It wasn’t ego, just tactically sound.
After a healthy breakfast of oatmeal and dried jerky, sprinkled with a liberal dosing of humor at Jake’s scowling expense, we packed up the van, buried the zombies we had killed the night before, and headed out onto the road. We figured to be in Casper very quickly, and I was looking forward to seeing some civilization again.
Chapter 11
We drove north, backtracking our way to Route 20, looking to head west again. When we crossed the river, we were stopped by a truck parked on the other side of the road. One of the men with the truck had stepped into the road, and we had the choice to run into him, or stop and see what he wanted.
I slid the back window open and flicked the safety off of my rifle. If this was to go south, a lot of bullets were going to fly very quickly. I didn’t stick the barrel out the window, no sense in letting them see what we had to offer. I didn’t think we would have much to worry about, though; the marauding and savage gangs that had roamed the dead world after the zombies had risen were pretty much non-existent now. When the army had rolled across the country, most of them had been either pacified or killed, depending on their preference, and the only thing we had run into on this trip were very curious teenagers looking for a chance to be considered “bad”.
Jake rolled down the window and stopped about ten yards back. He wasn’t a fool and usually didn’t walk into an ambush without a plan. Knowing Jake, he had already catalogued where everyone was, and how he was going to use the van as a weapon if it came to it.
The man who hailed us stayed where he was. That told me he was cautious and likely legitimate. Someone who wanted trouble would be approaching, trying to distract us while their comrades snuck up to do damage.
“Hello the van! Have you come from either the east or the south?”
Jake answered loudly. “Both actually. Just spent a night in a house by the lake, south of here.”
The man conferred quickly with the three other men by the truck, then turned his attention back to Jake. “Y’all didn’t happen to see a couple of little zombie kids, did ya?”
Jake nodded. “Matter of fact we did. They came on us last night, and we put them down. Buried them near the house this morning. Looking for them?”
The man nodded slowly, and one of the men in the truck looked down, cursing. If I had to guess, that one was likely a relation.
“Obliged to ya. Kids got into an abandoned ranch north of here, and there was still an occupant from the old days. Kids got away, but not before they both had been bit. We killed the zombie, but lost track of the kids as they headed south.” The man shook his head again, and the men began readying the truck for travel. “We’ll go claim the bodies for the family. Ya’ll are welcome at Douglas; tell them Zack Confero sent you. “
Jake thanked the man, and we headed off. From the look of things, we were rolling into a small personal tragedy. I didn’t think they would have had any answers about the shooter we had encountered.
Douglas was a small town in the middle of Wyoming, about half the distance to Casper. The interstate ran around it, and the river ran through it. We were stopped outside of town by the Broken Wheel Truck Stop, and after a few minutes of conversation, we were directed to the Douglas City Hall on the main street. The building was small and brown, and likely had seen a few better days. But it didn’t have the look of a building that had seen the worst of the Upheaval. It just looked like the townsfolk had other things to do besides paint a building.
Down the street was the Converse County Sheriff’s Dept., and that building looked like it had been hard hit at one time. The windows were smashed, and scorch marks topped the doors and windows. That made sense, since the hospital was across the street. During the bad times, my dad said hospitals were ground zero for the infection, and anything close took its hits. A police department next to a hospital was an invitation for disaster,
We got out and stretched a bit before we went inside. Several onlookers gave us the once over, but nothing that was anything more threatening than curiosity. Kayla and Julia got their share of attention as was to be expected, and I caught more than one man measuring my size against his own. As long as it stayed looks only, I was fine. Something more, we might have a disagreement.
The four of us trooped into the office and found a small reception waiting for us. Apparently Mr. Confero had a way of communicating with home that allowed for some advance notice. Three men were in a conference room near the front door, and a broad shouldered man with very red hair stood up to shake Jake’s hand. A l
arge map of the state of Wyoming hung on the wall. That map took my interest and held it.
“Mr. Talon? I’m Josh Nolan, mayor of Douglas. How are you today?” He shook Jake’s hand and then turned to me.
“Mr…?”
I smiled as I turned and gripped his hand. “I’m Mr. Talon, too. Jake’s my brother.”
“Ah! Excellent! And these young ladies are…?” Mr. Nolan’s eyes travelled a little too appreciatively over my wife for comfort, so I decided to settle that issue immediately.
“These ladies are Julia and Kayla, Mrs. Talon, both of them. “ I smiled but didn’t let the smile reach my eyes, a message the mayor received immediately.
He let his eyes return to Jake. “I received word this morning that you would be stopping by. Zack told me you had found our children?”
Jake nodded. “We had found a place to stay for the night when we heard a shot, then a yell, then nothing. A zombie that had been shot tumbled out at us, and Aaron took him down. When we checked the corpse we saw he had been shot but not killed. We saw then that he had been chewed on by little mouths. Afterwards we heard a clicking sound like you hear when the little zombie kids are hunting. We found a safer place to make a stand than in the middle of the weeds and waited for the kids to arrive. Thankfully, there wasn’t more than two. We put them down.”
Jake wasn’t the best at public speaking, but he got the point across. I noticed the two other men in the room nodding. One of them, an older man with graying temples and western mustache, spoke up.
“Y’all said the first zombie had been shot? Did you hear a shot?” the man asked quietly.
Jake turned his way. “We did. Matter of fact, it was the second person we had seen get shot like that.”
The man with the mustache cocked his head slightly sideways. “You don’t say. Where might the other body be?” he inquired, just as quietly.
Generation Dead (Book 3): Beyond The Gates Page 4