Sasha sighed. Great. They had just siphoned the diesel out of a truck in the small town, enough to fill up the extra 5 gallon tank they had. Looking into the Mauler, she could see Hud and Adam using their feet to slide a few blankets that had been left in the Mauler.
“Is it all gone?” She asked. Hud ignored her, but Travis turned to her.
“Yep. There’s a crack in the bottom, I don’t know how it happened, but pretty much every drop of fuel leaked into the Mauler last night.” He said.
Sasha climbed in to help them clean up the slick fuel that had soaked into the interior. The smell was surprisingly strong.
“We’re gonna have to go back out.” Hud grumbled, “there was hardly any fuel left in the generator the day before yesterday, and I would rather get it done today than wait and it get colder outside.”
Sasha could sense the frustration in Hud’s voice. He didn’t like having to do things over.
“Do you have another tank?” She asked cautiously.
“There’s some in town, I should have gotten us one yesterday.”
After they had wiped out as much of the diesel as they could, Sasha and Adam carried the ruined blankets and other things that had been on the floor of the Mauler to the other side of the yard. Leaving them in a pile, Adam turned to Sasha and was going to speak, but snapped his mouth shut as soon as Sasha looked at him.
“You okay, Adam?” She asked. She had a sense she knew what was happening, but was not about to be arrogant enough to believe it without hearing it first.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that…I just want you to be careful, that’s all.” He kept his eyes down.
“Careful? Are you talking about Derek?” She asked. She had no reason to believe that’s what he was referring to besides a hunch, and it proved to be right on the money.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s alright, but he’s weird. Sleeping all day, he’s so quiet too. And he has what they have.” He looked up at Sasha, his eyes squinting against the sun.
“Yes, he got bit. He has something, but he’s still like us. He doesn’t try to kill anyone, he doesn’t act like them.”
“Yet.” Adam said, turning away.
“He won’t. Anyway, nothing has changed. It’s still the seven of us, and Ripley, all stuck together here in this cabin with no idea what’s going to happen from one day to the next. You guys are all I have. What am I supposed to do, take Nora and go live in a cave somewhere away from everyone? Do you want me to be so careful that I lose even more than I already have?” She knew she wasn’t being fair, but this conversation was every level of awkward she could imagine and she wanted it to stop.
“No. I just mean…” Adam trailed off. He was losing his point and he didn’t even know how or why. Sasha had turned the table on him and he had no clue how she had done it, or how to get it turned back. He gave up.
“Never mind.” He walked back to the Mauler and left Sasha standing by the pile of diesel-soaked cloth. After a moment of guilt, both for Adam and for Lily, Sasha went back into the house. She wanted to go with them today on their scouting mission, she didn’t think she could stand to stay around the house while Derek was sleeping upstairs and not wake him up. She also wanted to see if she could find something to put on the floor in her room, a mat or something, so that Derek would be able to comfortably lay down in her room without disturbing Nora. She wasn’t going to mention that to anyone, though.
A half an hour later, Hud, Travis, and Sasha were driving away from the cabin. Adam had volunteered to stay back at the cabin with Nora. Although she trusted him in the cabin with Nora, especially with Derek there, Sasha couldn’t help but think that he opted out of the trip only to avoid her. It bothered her, but she was able to push that guilt to the back of her mind, as happier thoughts of Derek took the forefront.
The trip into the small town took about 45 minutes, Hud spent most of that time cursing to himself about the spilled fuel and wasted time and resources it was taking to replace it. Sasha bit her tongue to keep from asking Hud if he had something better to do. They had nothing but time anymore. The threat of the monsters was all but gone, the group had concluded that the majority must have starved. The few strays that they had come across since staying at the cabin had seem weak and barely alive as it was, trying to feed on wildlife. Derek and Lily had been able to easily eliminate them as soon as they were noticed.
It had been a consensus that the group stay in the cabin through the winter. They had ample supplies, a source of heat, a pretty secure building, and renewable food and water sources. However, the elephant in the room had turned into being a question of what to do when spring came. Keep travelling? Find the other survivors, start rebuilding the population? Even if all the infected had starved to death by that point, what would be left? Ghost towns and decomposition. It was easier on the mind to ignore that reality than to imagine it.
The future was bleak, to say the least. Each and every one of them had tried to rationalize it to themselves, and to each other. Nothing would ever be the same again, and how well they had each learned the age old lesson: you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Now everything was gone.
Everything except each other. Sasha reminded herself. Nora, Derek, even Hud and Lily and Travis and Adam; they were all important to her, they were her family, and she was going to build upon that as well as she could.
Hud had pulled the Mauler off of the wooded road to the cabin and onto a wider street that led to the small conglomeration of country stores that they had raided in the past. Sasha was surprised again at how quickly things seemed to fall apart without a population. The street was covered in everything from windblown garbage to fallen branches and leaves. The buildings already looked more worn out, the paint looked like it was chipping faster, and a lot of the neon signage already looked like it was ready to fall off the storefronts.
The grocery store that they had already looted was the largest shop on the street. The windows were busted out, they had already been like that when Hud had come across them, and he had carried several grocery cart loads of non-perishable foods into the back of the store, away from the open windows, to spare them from the elements.
“Do we need any more food?” Hud asked Sasha. She had been declared the unofficial chef, and had a better idea of what was needed in the kitchen than anyone else in the vehicle.
“No, but we can always use more water.” She suggested. The words had barely escaped her mouth as Hud pulled the Mauler up onto the sidewalk, almost into the broken front window of the small grocery store. Without so much as another word, Travis jumped out of the Mauler, disappeared into the store with a flashlight and a pistol, and came back a moment later with two cases of bottled water balanced on his arms.
They got loaded into the back of the Mauler, and they moved further down the street, stopping near the store that had the widest variety of merchandise. Sasha had been stunned the first time she had seen the sign labeling it “General Store.” She hadn’t been aware that general stores had existed past the turn of last century. It turned out to be the most useful shop of all, next to the grocery store.
Hud stopped the vehicle and they all stepped out into the early afternoon sun. Inside the store, Hud was stockpiling more items that could be used as defense; an armful of hatchets, a few cases of glass cola bottles, he even took a metal bar that was used for hanging clothing on, swinging it like a Louisville slugger before he carried it back to the Mauler.
Travis was getting packages of socks, undershirts, and a few more throw blankets that had children’s characters printed on them. Sasha smiled when she realized that some of the packages of socks he had retrieved were kids’ sized. He was making sure Nora was not left out.
Looking around the smallish store, Sasha was disappointed to find that there was nothing she could really bring back that would be good as a makeshift bed for Derek on her floor. She supposed to herself that she could just pile blankets down there for him, and then went back to wondering
why she was acting like a school girl with a crush. She couldn’t seem to get Derek out of her head. She tried to bring herself back to her task at hand, which had been to find anything else that could be used as entertainment, and that didn’t require electricity. There were magazines, she grabbed a few of them off the rack, and walked past a spinning rack of CDs. She spent a few minutes looking through them. She knew there wasn’t a CD player at the cabin, and the Mauler had been built without a stereo at all, but she had the urge to take a few CDs with her. It had been so long since she had heard music, the last time she could remember was the night that she had fled the apartment with Nora in her little car. She had left one of her favorite CDs playing in the stereo, blaring loudly when she started the car to escape. She had never expected, when she had switched off the CD player that morning, that she wouldn’t have a chance to hear music again.
She took a deep breath, left the CDs and headed back to the Mauler with Hud and Travis. They had stocked up on a few more essentials, and were ready to siphon some more diesel for the Mauler and the generator. Hud started up the Mauler and drove towards the truck stop.
Chapter 37.
Derek’s eyes flew open, he had been sleeping so deeply that it took him a moment to figure out where he was. Sasha’s bed. Like a faucet turned on, memories of the morning flooded back to him. He was immediately happy and saddened at the same time. He had finally made it clear to Sasha what he felt, and she had made it clear right back at him. But the admission didn’t really solve his most torturous dilemmas. He didn’t have to hide and avoid her anymore, but he still was locked in the life of a perpetual caffeine rush. His heart was pounding right now, his muscles eager to work. He had gotten used to it, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered how long a body could endure being under such high stress.
He was also still living in a cabin with the only other people he knew were alive. His family, although he couldn’t know for sure, were probably dead or close to it. Everyone he had known prior to the outbreak was gone. When he had been younger and had imagined his life in the future, the image was ever changing; college, career, family, etc. Now imagining his future was nearly blackness. The only spark of light in the equation at all was Sasha, Nora, and his ever loyal Ripley.
As if she could read his thoughts, Ripley’s face appeared over the edge of the bed. Derek instinctively reached for her to pet her, but in the next second he realized something was wrong. Ripley was tense, her breathing quick. He jolted up, and then he smelled exactly what it was that had made her so anxious.
Derek was out of the bedroom door before another thought went through his head, calling for Nora and Sasha. He was met at the bottom of the stairs by Adam, who was sitting on the sofa with a deck of cards splayed out on the ottoman.
“Adam, where is everyone?” Derek gasped as he searched around the room with his eyes. The light was making it hard for him to focus, but he could tell there was no one else in here. Ripley whined behind him.
“Went out to get more diesel, Lily and Nora are outside - you okay?” Adam was standing up, looking scared.
“They’re here.” Derek had gone into the kitchen, heading for the back door. The scent was getting stronger by the second, and he was almost hesitant to open the back door. He jerked it open.
It seemed like slow motion to Derek. He noticed that Lily had been sleeping on the swing that was outside. Nora was sitting cross legged on the concrete patio, coloring. The scent that was overtaking his nostrils was so strong it almost pushed him backwards, and the first step he took out the door, Nora’s head came up. Lily’s did too, but she jumped to a standing position, her head held high like a dog trying to catch the smell. She caught it and as she turned her head to look at Derek, the back fence began to move.
“Nora!” Derek yelled, startling Nora. He was reaching for her, wanting to pull her inside, but the back fence came crashing down; slender, gray human figures came pouring into the backyard. They looked starved and desperate, but they still moved with the dexterity of a healthy animal, and they were coming quickly.
Before Derek could surmise why they seemed to be travelling in a pack, and why were in this remote area in the daytime, Lily was moving through the yard in a blur, Derek could hear her talking as she ran.
“Get her inside!”
Derek already had Nora in his arms, and was turning towards the back door. Adam was standing there, mouth open, and Derek had to shove Nora into Adam’s arms and push him backwards to close the door.
It happened too fast, there was no weapons handy. After all the preparedness tips and warnings that Hud had drilled into their heads, he had let himself get caught totally unarmed against a slew of enemies. But he had no choice, he would fight them with his own hands.
Lily was already in the fray, she was outnumbered so massively that Derek was shocked that she was still standing. He wanted to keep the mass as far away from the house as possible, and he braced himself for the onslaught.
And it came. Lily was able to take down quite a few of them, but Derek was quickly surrounded by screaming, starving monsters, all trying to sustain themselves on the flesh of the newly found living. His arms had no problem shoving them away, his fists were more than strong enough to snap the neck connected to any head it came in contact with, but he wasn’t able to stop all of them. His eyes could not focus well enough in the sunlight to know how many, but he was sure that several of them had slipped past him and were heading towards the house. He hoped Adam had had the sense to move away from the door, hide Nora, grab a weapon.
As he was trying to back towards the door to use himself as a blockade, he was hit with a blow to the side of the head, hard. His vision waned, the edges getting dark. He stumbled, he hadn’t been hit by one of these things before. He didn’t know which one it had come from, but before he could stabilize himself, he was hit again, directly in the face, and the searing pain sent him down. As he was falling to the ground, losing consciousness, one last thought ran through his mind.
“I’m so sorry, Sasha.”
Chapter 38.
Sasha was uneasy. She suddenly was regretful of leaving Nora, but she tried to brush off the ominous feeling that had come over her. Nora was fine, she was with Derek, Lily, and Adam. They would take care of her. She was probably coloring or reading right now, waiting for Sasha to arrive with new books.
Hud and Travis were talking about Hud’s military experience again. It seemed to Sasha that his experience was greater every time he told the story, but she refrained from mentioning it. For all she cared, he could tell Travis he had been shot from a cannon at the enemy. Regardless of his past, his survivalist ways had kept her and Derek and Nora alive, despite the rough introduction at the base. She would always be grateful for him.
Hud turned the Mauler onto the cross street that the truck stop was on. She heard a gasp, and looked up out of the front window.
Several camouflage-painted jeeps were moving into the truck stop. Moving. Being driven by live human beings. No one said a word as the Mauler approached, 100 yards, 50 yards. When they were close enough to see the people in the vehicles, it was apparent they were wearing camouflaged uniforms as well.
“Military!” Hud cried, sounding more emotional than Sasha would have ever imagined him capable of being. He stopped the Mauler right where it was, and opened the door. Travis followed, and Sasha could tell that both of them were having to contain their excitement, forcing themselves to take slow, methodical steps towards the now stopped convoy.
Sasha moved to the front seat of the Mauler, but did not leave it. She watched as several men got out of the jeeps and came forward to Hud and Travis. There was a conversation going on, but she couldn’t hear it. She wished that she had the hearing capacity of Derek or Lily, how handy that would have been.
After a few moments of unsuccessfully trying to read lips, Sasha watched as Hud and Adam came back towards the Mauler. Hud’s posture was different. Straighter, more proud, than it had be
en.
“Okay, Sasha. Get this. There is a refugee camp about 50 miles away from here. There are a couple hundred people there, including a military made up of all of the armed forces members they can find. It’s kind of ragtag, but this is better than anything I thought we would find today.”
Sasha’s heart was racing. Survivors! Refugee camp! She had so many questions and was so thrilled that she couldn’t settle on just one word. Her mouth hung open with nothing coming out.
“Travis and I are going with them, you have to go back to the cabin and bring everyone else. And bring as many weapons as you can fit.” Hud continued.
Sasha’s body went numb.
“You’re going?” She asked, suddenly petrified to let Hud leave her behind.
Hud frowned, he obviously hadn’t expected her to react this way, although she hadn’t expected it either.
“We’re just going ahead of you. They are looking for more survivors, and eradicating any existing infected. They know what happened, they know what this thing is, Sasha. It’s not the end of the world like we thought. There’s survivors!” He was elated.
Sasha forced herself to breathe, and held her hand out as Hud was shoving something at her. It was a hand drawn map, showing how to get to the refugee camp. It was near Christiansburg, Virginia. Sasha had never heard of it, which seemed to make it feel safer.
“Go back and get everyone else, Sasha. Can you do that?” Hud was almost pleading. Sasha’s mind was swimming, but her natural strong personality came to the forefront and she knew she could do what he was asking.
“Yes.”
As she was answering, two of the uniformed men approached the vehicle. They were very young, maybe a few years older than Travis. Derek introduced them as Privates Hanson and Kernhauer. They seemed friendly enough to Sasha, ensuring her that within 24 hours, the convoy would be safely back at the refugee camp, and to Sasha’s surprise, they identified the refugee camps location as safely hidden in the hills of Virginia.
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