Out of LA

by Dennis Elder

  “I wish we could,” said Mark. “I know we’ll want them by the time we start farming in Utah. But we’d have to feed them, keep them watered. Do any of us know anything about horses?”

  Nobody offered any answers. They all realized they’d have to let the horses go.

  “Jake and Tyrone, you guys get the saddles off those horses and cut them loose. Everybody else finish prepping bikes and be back here in 10 minutes. I’ll stand guard until everyone is ready to go. Then I’ll grab my bike and we’ll push off.”

  The group moved fast. They didn’t want to be there when the HBs arrived. Over the last three days they’d seen more and more of them feeding off dead bodies. And they were starting to gather in groups now.

  Fifteen minutes later the team was traveling west again on East Lincoln. Less than a mile down the road Junior got a flat. They repaired it in eleven minutes and took off again. They passed under the Santa Ana Freeway and quickly turned north on Euclid Avenue.

  “Feels good to be moving North again,” thought Frank to himself.

  Boon constantly checked his map. He had it strapped to his handlebars for quick looks.

  They plodded along without incident until 4 pm. Then they began looking for good shelter. Jake was still riding scout well ahead of the group. He stopped between a Congregational Church and the First Presbyterian of Fullerton. The group quickly caught up with him.

  “Thought you might want to stay in a Church again,” suggested Jake.

  “Maybe,” replied Mark as he looked over the buildings. However, both were much newer and didn’t provide the same thick stonewall construction as the Church they just left.

  “We’d be more comfortable in a couple of houses,” offered Doc. “And we’ll sleep better on mattresses than on Church pews.”

  That got a few murmurs of agreement amongst the team. Mark heard it and agreed.

  “OK, but let’s move off the main road a bit to minimize our exposure,” replied Mark.

  Mark turned back to the group and said, “Doc, since it was your idea, why don’t you lead out and find us a couple of nice comfortable homes to camp in. Once we’re settled in, first team goes scavenging for dinner.”

  Doc moved to the front of the line and entire group turned right on the first side street. Two hundred yards later Doc pulled into the third driveway on the right. Half the group pulled into the fourth driveway. Once the teams had hidden their bikes inside the garages and moved the dead bodies outside, they pulled the curtains tight and spread out.

  Tonight’s five-person scavenger team was out for about an hour looking for dinner. They brought back oranges, cans of beef stew and five loves of six-day-old bread. They collected twenty five water bottles to replenish their day’s depleted stock. But the real treat was two boxes of Hostess Ho Hos. Once everybody had eaten their fill, they settled down for the night. Junior brought out his mini chess set, and he and Sam started a game by candlelight. Tyrone was a voracious reader, so he picked up his pocket novel and got lost in the story. Susan was already fast asleep in one of the bedrooms. Similar things were going on in the house next door where Frank, Boon, Doc, Jake and Randy were parked.

  Mark peaked out through the living room blinds. He had first watch. After today’s events he decided they’d post guards until sunrise.

  Chapter 37: 5 pm

  As the sun began to rise over Southern California, Silvia Harmon and all of her kids from the Nest found themselves piling the last of the church’s pews against the doors and windows of the Calvary Chapel Church in La Brea. While they were safe for the moment, they were also trapped with very little food and water. Just outside the weakening door, about fifty HBs were scratching and searching for a way into the building. They had been at it all night.

  The day before, around noon, Silvia was standing in the hallway of her home with one eye on her kids as they cleaned up after lunch and the other watching the front door. When slowly and almost innocently a manila envelope dropped through the front door’s mail slot. It landed with a muffled thud.

  By the time Silvia cracked opened the door and looked through it, there was no one there. Since the episode with the man at the bus stop, she carried her 357 Magnum revolver with her at all times. The nickel plated barrel came out first as Silvia opened the door just far enough to step out on the porch. After she quietly closed the door behind her, she slowly moved forward toward the end of the cement walkway leading to the sidewalk. She kept the gun out in front, sweeping left to right. Things had gone from bad to worse since the day their power went out.

  But there was no one anywhere - no one in sight at least. More than anything Silvia was listening, trying to discover the person or persons who had dropped off the envelop.

  “Give most people enough time and they’ll cough or step on something,” she thought to herself.

  After another minute or two, Silvia Harmon, slowly backed up the same way she came out, with her Magnum still in front of her, sweeping left to right. She opened the door with her left arm and stepped back through the door, finally sending the deadbolt lock home. Only then did she put her gun back into her hip holster and bent down to look at the manila envelope.

  It was plain. Not a mark or note on it. She picked it up by one corner and held it in her hands. But this time Robert walked up.

  “What’ca got there?” asked Robert in complete innocence.

  Silvia didn’t look up. She kept her attention fixed on the envelope, holding it in both hands now, feeling the weight.

  “Don’t know, son,” Silvia finally said.

  With that said Silvia turned back toward her office. Robert followed out of curiosity.

  After Robert entered Silvia’s office door, Silvia moved around her desk and sat down.

  “Shut the door will you please, Robert,” said Silvia. Robert complied and then sat down in one of the two chairs facing Silvia’s paper covered desktop.

  The manila envelope wasn’t sealed tight. But it had one of those metal clasps holding the flap down. Silvia bent the clasp straight up with two fingernails and then opened the flap with her other hand. When she lifted the back end of the envelope up a bit, a pile of photographs spilled out onto the desktop. Silvia methodically spread out the pictures. There was a photo of each kid and one of Silvia.

  Robert didn’t say anything but raised his eyes to meet Silvia’s.

  “Interesting,” said Silvia, looking down at the photos again. “What do you think of this?” continued Silvia.

  Robert was a big fan of the TV show CSI Miami. He never missed an episode - that is if his homework was done. He knew what the pictures meant.

  “Psychotic stalker,” replied Robert without hesitation. “Definitely one very screwed up individual.”

  Silvia raised one eyebrow at Robert ‘s comment and gave him the evil eye.

  “What?” responded Robert in his defense. “Freshmen psychology and CSI Miami.”

  “And you wonder why I’ve been concerned about your education,” quipped Silvia.

  Robert didn’t reply but instead noticed there was a single sheet of white paper in the pile and said, “Looks like our crepo left us a message.”

  Silvia’s police training kicked in. Never touch evidence with your own hands. So, she pushed the single white piece of paper to the side with the help of an eraser on the end of a number two pencil. She pushed it until she could read it easily. Robert couldn’t read the note upside down, so he got up and came around to join Silvia on her side of the desk.

  The note was clean except for a few neatly printed lines. Silvia panicked a bit, then picked up the page and began reading it out loud.

  “First I’d like to offer you and your brood my congratulations. There are very few of us who seem to have survived the recent holocaust. “

  “At least the guy is polite,” said Silvia stoically.

  “All the really weird psychos are,” added Robert.

  Then Silvia started reading the second paragraph.

  �
��By now you know we are well aware of your survival and your whereabouts. We collected these photos earlier this week while your group was out and about,” the message continued.

  Silvia and the kids needed food and supplies. Two days earlier they went out together as a group and grabbed some things from the local grocery store.

  “Obviously the Psycho must have taken the pictures while we were there,” thought Silvia, as she continued reading the message.

  “But I digress. Let me tell you why I’m sending you this correspondence. You have something I want, or should I say something I’m about to take from you. It’s simple really. I need women for my group. We are deficient in this area. You have a good supply of females.

  Here are my terms. You and the four boys leave the house by say 5 pm this evening without the females and you will live. Resist and we will take them anyway and then kill you and the boys. I have a vastly superior and well-motivated force.

  Remember, 5 pm is the final deadline.”

  That was the end of the note. No signature. Just the 5 pm reminder.

  “He sounds very confident,” suggested Silvia.

  “Psychos always are,” responded Robert, as he walked back around and sat in the chair facing Silvia. “Motivated?” continued Robert. “What’s that about?”

  Neither moved for a moment. Silvia looked down at the photos again. Then she swept all traces of the material from her desk into the trashcan and returned an even gaze toward Robert. Her warning bells were ringing.

  “What are we gonna do?” asked Robert with cool efficiency.

  Silva thought for a moment. She couldn’t leave the girls behind. She’d rather die defending them. It would be the same for the boys.

  They could either try and defend the place or make a run for it.

  “We still have that old bag of baseball mitts and bats in the basement?” asked Silvia.

  “Yup. It’s in the far corner next to the furnace,” responded Robert.

  “Be a good lad and bring it upstairs to the kitchen table, please,” continued Silvia. “We need to brief the rest of the family and make plans.”

  With that Robert got up and headed for the basement stairs. Silvia walked after him and then began calling the kids to gather together.

  Chapter 38: Mouth Breathers

  Down the street and about 100 yards from Silvia’s home stood Oscar Farrington. He was watching the home through a set of binoculars while standing behind a blind of thick bushes. Next to him two HBs breathed heavily through their mouths. Each HB was over six feet tall and had a bulky electronic dog collar around its neck.

  “Now?” one of the HBs asked gruffly, as he moved forward slightly.

  “No,” barked Oscar, as he punched one of two red buttons attached to his belt. It was a shock controller to the two dog collars.

  The HB that attempted to move forward winced in pain, stopped his advance and then returned obediently to stand next to Oscar.

  “Not yet, Mutt,” said Oscar, speaking to the returning HB. Oscar kept his eyes on Sylvia’s house as he barked the order to the brainless mouth breather. Oscar called them mouth breathers because they always left their mouths agape, never breathing through their noses.

  Oscar had learned how to command these two HBs. He named them Mutt and Jeff. And like Pavlov’s dog, they followed his every command. Oscar discovered he could also successfully manipulate larger numbers of HBs through Mutt’s and Jeff’s influence. Mouth breathers seemed to crave direction.

  In the yard behind Oscar there were about 50 HBs standing together. From the anxious sounds they were generating, it was obvious they were growing impatient. Oscar knew they’d need some direction pretty soon.

  Chapter 39:

  Silvia had all the kids sit around the kitchen table. Robert came in with the baseball bag and sat down in his regular seat. Silvia looked around the table. These were good kids and they deserved a chance at life. They’d overcome so much and done well. But now they were faced with something so vicious and so disgusting it was difficult for Silvia to put it into words.

  “I want each of you to know how proud I am of the way you’ve responded to our situation,” began Silvia. “We seem to be the only survivors around here. We’ve seen plenty of the walking people, and so far, we’ve been able to keep away from them and stay reasonably safe.”

  Jacob sensed something was coming and said, “But now we got a bigger problem.”

  Silvia was silent for a moment. She looked down at her hands and over at Robert for a moment. Then she put on her best smile and continued.

  “We’ve talked about how there might be others out there who may have survived as well. Some of them are sure to be good people like us. But we’ve also talked about how some of them might not be so good,” began Sylvia.

  “And,” said Teresa. Teresa was always suspicious. She could smell a problem a mile away.

  “And,” continued Silvia. “We seem to have attracted the attention of some of the not so good people.”

  “Psychos,” added Robert, who had been silent up until now.

  “That’s not helping,” responded Silvia in her best control voice.

  Robert went silent.

  “Someone or some group knows we are in this house. They’ve sent us a note and have demanded that we surrender,” said Silvia.

  “Surrender?” questioned William.

  “What does that mean, surrender?” commented Gracie, as panic filled her voice.

  “We’re not going to surrender,” responded Silvia.

  “Dam right we’re not,” added Robert.

  “You’re not helping here, Robert,” countered Silvia.

  The group was silent.

  Teresa turned to Robert and said, “What’s going on. What aren’t you telling us?”

  Everyone was watching Robert for his reply. But the young man showed formidable restraint and turned back to Silvia.

  “I’ll let the boss tell you,” offered Robert.

  The group turned back to Silvia.

  “All right. You all know something is wrong. Now I’m going to give you the details,” continued Silvia. “About 30 minutes ago we got a written message from someone or some group. They know how many of us there are, and they’ve given us until 5 pm to surrender.”

  “Screw that,” said Jacob. “I’m not surrendering to nobody.”

  “Me neither,” added Jeremy.

  “I’m not as worried about you, Jeremy, and my other young men,” said Silvia with a forced smile on her face.

  There was a slight pause as Silvia looked to Caroline sitting next to her. Silvia took Caroline’s hand before continuing.

  “I’m worried about my girls.”

  Gracie was a sensitive girl. From one bad childhood experience after another she had learned to read the signs of panic, anger, impending doom. She sensed doom in Silvia’s voice and defensively reacted as she always had. She curled up in a ball and put her hands over her ears and began to rock back and forth.

  The other kids picked up on this and were instantly alarmed too.

  Silvia and Robert spent the next 20 minutes going through the details and answering everyone’s questions. There was some additional panic, especially among the girls. The boys reacted as she thought they would, bragging how they would protect the girls and kill anyone that tried to take them. Silvia let the group vent. She also warned them they needed to keep their voices down, that someone might be listening. She gathered Gracie in her arms and had been able to comfort her to a point where she was participating in the discussion again. Once all the questions were answered Silvia began laying out her plan.

  “So now you know what we’re up against,” she began. “But we’re not going to play by their rules. We’re going to let them think we’re following their directions. Then when they least expect, we escape and regroup at a new safe location.

  “Regroup?” questioned Caroline.

  “Yes, regroup,” continued Silvia. “Here is what we’re goi
ng to do. Jacob, Robert, Caroline and Cheryl. You four go quietly to the garage. Find five of our best bikes and make sure the tires are full of air. Double check none of them have a flat. Then come back here. The rest of us are going to put together some food and water for our school back packs.”

  The kids didn’t need to be asked twice. They moved off quietly in multiple directions. Gracie was still sitting with Silvia.

  Silvia took Gracie’s face in her hands and made sure they had good eye-to-eye contact.

  “You and I have a special job,” said Silvia.