by Rudolph, J.
We decided to call it enough after the first house was gone through. We weren't in a rush and had found a nice supply of stuff, which was going to take a few trips. We were laughing and joking as we were walking down the street. The surprise in our good fortune had been a great morale booster. We weren't paying attention to where we were walking when Matt tripped over something in the road. He landed hard into the snow. He stood back up and went to investigate what tripped him up. From our point of view there was a slight snow drift around where he fell. He was brushing away the snow piles in front of him to see what made him fall when he made a gruesome discovery, almost losing his hand in the process. The unknown obstruction was a zombie. At the last brush away of the snow, Matt uncovered a twisted face, lower jaw snapping away. The zombie lying there was immobile with the exception of that teeth breaking, snapping jaw.
Zombies freeze. No wonder we hadn't seen any before that point. We just assumed that when the zombies finished ripping through this town leaving no food supply that they has just migrated on. I think we were giving zombies more credit than they were worthy of. There were points where the physiology of zombies was similar to ours. They had to have water as a part of their cells. The cells worked by fluid and the transfer of ions to make the cells contract to move. Something had to carry the electrical charge of the hijacked brain stem to the rest of the body. If there was a way to send the charge though the frozen pathways, rock solid frozen meat would not bend, no amount of hijacking could overrun that, the body would just have to wait until it thawed enough to move again. Trent took his knife from the sheath and stabbed the zombie in the eye. Foul black fluid seeped into the snow, staining the crystal white with gore.
With this discovery, the snow all around stopped looking so clean and pretty. It now was nothing but camouflage hiding threats under its blanket. Part of me wanted to stand there forever because I knew that I was safe where I stood, but a bigger part of me said I needed to get home and away from the snow, to where I could see where I was going to step. I wished that we had gotten around to creating real hover boards before the world ended. There were so many things that the movies of the past promised we would have by the new millennium that now we were never going to have. I really wanted to have that flying car too. I had to believe that I was not the only one that was not amused by this situation. I started off a chat with the others about movies like Back To The Future with the auto drying jackets and self-tying laces, and how all of that stuff would have been neat right now. It took a minute but Matt joined in with the episodes of The Jetsons and how little space ships would totally have a real world application here. Trent threw his favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone into the mix. It kept us walking and kept us focused on getting back. I was so grateful when we made it back fully intact.
When we got back, we slid the supplies into the barn. The guys went in for coffee while I began to poke around the workshop. I wanted to come up with a multipurpose weapon that we could use when we were walking. I played around with the shovels and rakes that we took out of Tom's closet. I looked over the handles trying to come up with something that could work as a probe in the snow to feel for stumbling blocks. I sat down on the cold dirt to think when it occurred to me that I saw a set of skis in the rafters when we took Tom's body down. The pole could work as a lightweight probe if we took off the ring, and with a little sharpening it would sink into a skull well. It also hit me that if we took the skis and a chunk of wood we could make a sled to transport things from the houses easily. The garbage can lids had worked, but it would be nice to have something that was larger and flat all around.
The other thing I wanted to come up with was a close proximity weapon. Trent had a large hunting knife that he loved. Lucas had his sword. I had a gun and a cross bow but nothing that would help kill zombies that were close without making a sound. I made a circle in the barn to see what else could work with some creativity. Lying on its side was a lawn mower. I walked up to it and studied the blade. I don't think I ever really considered the set up of a lawn mower before that point. I figured that a lawn mower looked more like a fan. I was surprised to see that it was one straight piece. I ran my finger lightly on the edge and noticed that it was pretty dull. It didn't need to be razor sharp, after all, it was there to tear grass. I decided to take the blade off and turn one end into a handle and then sharpen the other to create a make shift machete. It was a cliché to have a machete in a zombie apocalypse movie, but maybe they were on to something.
I went to work on removing the blade since it looked easy enough; all I had to do was remove one nut, after all. It took forever to get it off! Years of caked on grime worked as cement locking it in place. When it finally moved an eighth of a turn I felt like I had accomplished a miracle. When it finally twisted all the way off, I had a layer of sweat on my face, despite the below freezing temperatures. I gently lifted the blade out and turned it over in my hands. I liked the weight and balance of it. It was about twenty inches long overall. I looked at the edges and decided which one I wanted to sharpen and which one I would turn into a handle. I poked around for strips of leather and discovered a belt with a broken buckle. I wrapped it around the handle as a grip and tied the ends off. I gave it a test swing and a wide smile crept across my face as I felt like a super hero with a sword of justice. I took my new machete and the zombie probe stick into the house to ask how I should go about sharpening it. When I showed it to Trent, he looked at it with appreciation, especially with the probe. He commented that making more of these would be easy, pieces of wrought iron would do the trick. I told him about my thought on turning the ski blades into a sled. He thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that it was better than nothing but we needed to come up with other ideas too. I showed him the machete like it was Excalibur handed down from the gods. I asked him what he thought about how to go about sharpening the blade, but he didn't have any ideas that we could do without a power grinder or sander. He suggested I go talk to Lucas since he had a stone at least, and maybe there was something that he could tell me about sharpening stuff. Trent was still studying the blade edge when Lucas came through the door.
"I found it!" Lucas announced when he came through the door with much exuberance.
"Found what, exactly?" Trent skeptically asked.
"The propane tank," Lucas retorted, "I found an almost full propane tank in the shed next to the house. Lines look like they are in good shape and are still connected to the house. Looks like Tom had shut it off before he took the exit. I want to turn it back on, but I don't want people in the house when I do, just in case."
Kyle entered the room tossing a baseball up and down as he walked. "Why?" he asked, "You gonna blow up the place?"
Lucas laughed and answered, "No, little man. I don't plan on it. Just a little precaution." He turned to me and Trent and said, "Oh, and I found the water source while you were gone. There's a well powered by a windmill."
We all gathered in the yard as Lucas fiddled with stuff in the shed. He came out with a grin, and walked into the house. He stopped in the mud room and messed with the hot water heater, then went to the kitchen. A few minutes later he came out with a huge smile. "Stove works. Looks like the water heater is going too, though that will take a bit to prove."
Cheers rang out. We felt like we hit a jackpot of high living with the idea of cooking on a stove and having a hot shower. It would definitely be easy to over do these modern day conveniences so we would have to be mindful to not waste the precious resource of fuel. We made shower schedules and made sure the message had gone out about the 3 minute shower rule was understood by everyone.
Can't Stay Forever
Trent had been working on a snow plow idea with Matt. The idea was that we would hook it either to the Hummer or the SUV and have it run the lead position. It would clear the path for the rest of us to follow. In the mean time the scout team, which was made of Tyreese, Lucas, and myself continued to get food and siphon gas so when we fo
und the break in weather and had the plow ready we could leave.
Jody came up to me after we got back and had put the days collection in the trailer. "Cali," she began, "we have a lot of good stuff going on here. Why is everyone chompin' at the bit to leave?" She looked tired. Dark circles lined her eyes. JJ wasn't a fan of sleep. I knew this because he would go off every night, several times a night. I had the luxury of being able to roll over and go back to sleep. Jody didn't. She sighed and brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. "Why are we fighting so hard to keep going to a place that may not be any better? If there are places like this here then there will be places like this elsewhere. We could just hop from one to the next."
"I had that thought, too," I admitted, "but I keep coming back to how unsustainable this place is, how the house hop way would just be harder the longer we do it. This place is great but when the food and propane run out, this place will be a tomb. I think we should keep going until we find a place that we can build some sustainability in. Places like this are an awesome stop gap, but that's all it is."
"How do you know Idaho will be better?" Jody challenged.
"I don't. I figure worse case we keep moving after we find Trent's family. Maybe settle in Canada or something. Find a place we can farm and keep the kids safe. When we get to where we are going, we build great walls, put in crops of vegetables, stuff like that. We are in our modern-day pioneer trek. Instead of a covered wagon, we have a semi."
"I feel really hopeless, Cali. I feel like we are drowning here. I can't help but wonder what's the point to any of this."
"Jody," I started, "you've got a lot on your plate right now. I bet that the idea of going back on the road is hard. I gotta ask, though, are you having thoughts of doing something stupid? I see it all over your face that you are barely treading water." There. I said it. She looked up at me and while she said that she hadn't been, the look on her face said she had. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. At first her body was stiff in my arms then she melted into me and cried.
After she recomposed herself she chuckled and said, "Postpartum depression. It's a bitch all on its own. Add zombies and struggling to live? Not fun."
Mercedes wandered over to us, her face was also lined with exhaustion. "I heard you two talking. I wasn't eavesdropping or anything, just getting some air. I was wondering though, how well did you guys do on supply scavenging?"
JJ started to cry from inside the house so Jody excused herself and went back inside to feed him.
"Not too bad actually. There were a few houses that were prepared for a major snowstorm at the least and a couple sheds that were filled with the freeze dried foods to last a year for each person. We have another block to go still." I replied, not sure where she was going with this. I didn't have to wait for long though.
"I'm glad Jody went back in because I wanted to talk to someone without there being an audience on this one. You see, I've been praying on this a lot. I've been thinking that this could be a good town for me to raise Kyle and Annali. It's off the path and protected. I think the answer to the prayer is in the last block of homes. If there is enough to feed us for at least a year in those homes alone, then I think it is an answer we should stay."
"Mercedes, I have to say I hate this idea. Flat out hate it. I do not want to strand you in some little town. I don't think that being here will help. Really, what good would a year do you?"
"It would buy me some time to provide a stable environment for the kids. It would get them into a home. It would get me off the road because being an older person bouncing around in a car in the cold has not done nice things to my joints. It's a little better now since I'd been sleeping in a bed. I'd like to see what we find though before really deciding this, if you guys would be willing to let me cut into your finds."
I took a deep breath to quiet my head that was screaming out loudly to not even entertain this idea. There was no reason for us to split up. I looked Mercedes in the eyes to try to read how important this was to her. She had an earnest look on her face that could not be faked. "Let me talk to the others and see what we can do," I said after a bit of a pause, "this is just too big of a decision to make on my own."
"I understand. Let me know what everyone says." Mercedes reached out and gave me a hug before she went back to where it was warmer. I heard sounds of tools clattering from the barn so I went off to see who all was inside. I found Trent and Matt working on their project. I asked them if they had seen Tyreese. Trent told me that he had been checking on the cars, seeing if they needed any fluids. I asked Matt to find Lucas and come back here while I got Tyreese for an emergency meeting. Matt and Trent both gave me a questioning look as I turned around to get Tyreese.
Within five minutes we were all back together. I gave them the rundown of what Mercedes had proposed. Their initial reaction was the same I had, an adamant “no way”. After the initial reaction had settled down, Tyreese was the first to talk.
"I'm thinkin' maybe we should see if it could be done before we say no. We should collect everything and put it in the barn. Let her see what sort of stock she would have to work with. If after everything she still wants this then who are we to force her?"
Tyreese was right, but I had to object. "Really, Ty? Leave her? What if what happened in the complex happens here? How is she supposed to defend herself and the kids?"
"Well, it's not like we would just leave her to the wolves. We'd give her guns and cross bows. We'd make sure her car was ready to go. She also wouldn't be exactly alone. Kyle has become quite a mature kid who knows his way around a small rifle and can shoot with the compound bow better than I can. I bet you he could have competed with that thing had the world not fallen apart." Tyreese had a cool head when it came to these heavy issues and I valued his insight. He was very right, it was not a case of dropping her off in a forest with a pair of toddlers. If this did happen it would be because we left her with appropriate supplies. We would make sure she had a few escape plans, and of course, directions on how to find us again.
Mercedes
Trent opted to stay back to keep working on the plow project in the barn. Lucas, Tyreese, and I bundled up to face the outside world again. We trudged through the snow with heavy hearts. No one said a word as we considered what Mercedes had proposed. I wondered if we could, in good conscience, leave her behind in a place we knew was not sustainable. I considered her age and what a difference a year could make. I worried about how Kyle and Annali would manage if something happened to her. At the same time I wondered if I could, force her to do something I knew she didn't want to do.
I found myself hoping we'd find nothing in these houses so she would have to come with us. I toyed with suggesting that we should say there was too little to Lucas and Tyreese but understood that we all needed to have the right to land where we wanted to. Just because Trent and I were going to Idaho didn't mean everyone else was going to want to, and it seemed that to Mercedes, this was home.
The first house we came to was a small place with maybe two weeks worth of supplies. I felt bad because my first reaction was to be happy there was so little. The next house had a lot more, another place with a storage shed full of freeze dried food and packets of water. The following house looked to have been evacuated in a rush with all the good supplies missing. With four homes left it looked as though the option for her to stay was questionable. We found the first house stocked to survive the winter, the next for a bit longer, the third for much less. It all came down to this one last place.
We stood in front of the house for a moment. It was one of those moments where if we didn't open the door then she couldn't have the option to leave us. No one wanted to lead the way until Tyreese finally took the reins.
Tyreese turned the doorknob to find it secured. The door frame had glass panes on the sides. He located a large rock and slammed it through the little window. Glass sparkled as it caught the sunlight and fell with a soft tinkle. He reached his arm through the opening an
d turned the dead bolt with a loud thud. With another rattle of metal the doorknob was unlocked. After he pulled his hand out of the broken pane, he rested his hand on the knob a moment before he turned it. With a deep breath he rotated the knob and pushed the door open.