by S. Ganley
Garrett had to agree. While the man was painstakingly moving down the hedgerow, he was doing so with motions that told him that he probably had little experience in combat maneuvering. Constantly popping his head over the hedges and looking over his opposite shoulder every few seconds were wasted movements that would only draw more attention to himself. Those very motions were the ones that made him stand out to them against the backdrop of houses, trees and landscaping from over a block away. A more experienced fighter would probably have been able to skirt that row of hedges without them seeing him from this distance. Motioning for Calvin and Miranda to follow along, Garrett changed his direction of travel and instead of making a straight run for the back door of the house, he ran a diagonal across the open backyard until they came up behind the garage of the house that extended out from the structure into the driveway while jutting several extra feet into the backyard. From that point they were able to see up and down the street in front of the house and had a better vantage point of the houses on the street where their friend was still working his way down the row of hedges. There was a decorative wooden fence that separated the two houses directly across the street, at a point almost midway through both property lines a cluster of trees had been used to put in flowers and small gazebos on each side of the fence. It looked as though the neighbors had shared a close relationship and had worked together to form a little shaded oasis where he could see them coming together to share gossip and stories over their own side of the fence. Garrett thought that point on their property line offered the best opportunity for cover and concealment once they made a dash from behind the garage and across the street. He relayed that destination to Calvin and Miranda and once they were ready he led them through the front yard of the house they had intended on searching, across the driveway and over the street to the yard on the right hand side.
Calvin reached the gazebo on the right side of the yard first. Even though he was sure that Garrett could have easily outrun him over that distance it was obvious that he had hung back and kept pace with Miranda. Calvin was sure that only part of his reason for doing so was for any type of security reason, his friend was rather taken with the young lady and it was pretty obvious even if he wasn't yet ready to admit it yet. As the two of them reached the gazebo, Miranda was red faced and out of breath, Garrett having barely even broken a sweat during his casual jog, took her gently by the arm and guided her down onto the wooden steps of the gazebo where she could rest and catch her breath before they moved further.
Turning back to scan the next leg of their run, Calvin immediately spotted trouble ahead. He reached out an arm to grab Garrett and pull him down below the railings on the back of the gazebo while pointing to a spot in front of the house they had just arrived next to.
Garrett followed his gaze and saw the problem. Just across the street from the house they were hiding next to there were three zombies walking slow methodical circuits in a meaningless pattern they had already witnessed a few times before. They had come to think of this state as some kind of rest period for the zombies, they would stake out whatever little patch of earth they had ended their last bout of physical exertion and simply remain in place, wandering in this aimless fashion until something else of interest entered within range of their senses. It was just one more piece of evidence of how all humanity had been erased from them, their entire existence was now devoted to storing energy from their last meal in order to obtain their next. Now, they were facing three of them in this exact state, wandering from the shoulder of the road, down a slight depression several yards into the nearby grass lawn and then back again. Garrett tracked them for almost a full minute and with only a few momentary lapses in their pattern, at least one if not two of them were able to view the road they would have to cross at any given moment. There was no way they would be able to simply dart across unobserved at this point in the road.
Looking back up towards their friend skirting the hedges now less than a football field's distance away, Garrett saw that he had found a desirable spot and had just completed his crossing into the yard beyond the hedge and was now hustling over towards the garden shed with the zombie on the other side. If they were going to intervene in the coming encounter they were quickly running out of time. If the guy screwed up his attack on that zombie, there wasn't much doubt it would have enough time to get off a warning cry that would see at least these other three zombies running into the fray and more than likely many others as well. The zombies they had lured away during their drive through the neighborhood may already be on their way back and within earshot of the wails of their comrade. It would certainly make their planned scavenging trip much more challenging and would more than likely also get this other guy killed and served up on a buffet line for his neighbor’s pleasure. Doubling back and crossing the street three houses further down the block was an option. They would be able to cross at a slight bend in the road and down an incline that would provide them some cover as long as they kept low to the ground. Garrett knew that if they were forced to take that option there was no way they could make it across and intervene in the coming altercation in time. Even running straight across from their current location they would have to move quickly if they were to get there in time, the guy was almost to the shed already. Garrett figured that since he didn't seem to be carrying any type of obvious weapon that he planned on finding something in the gardening shed to improvise with. Give him two minutes to find something suitable, another two minutes or so to work up the nerve to actually do it, and his estimate gave them less than four minutes to get over there before the zombie dinner bell sounded.
Both Calvin and Miranda had reached the same conclusion as Garrett upon spotting the zombies not far from their route across the street. Once again, it was Miranda's sharp eyes that helped them find a ready solution to the problem. Without saying a word she pointed to a spot between the two driveways leading to the street in front of them. The driveways followed a winding path from the garages at the side of either of the neighboring houses, meeting up at a point where they were separated by only about fifteen feet of drainage ditch between them. The ditch was slopped out from the road reaching almost four feet down from street level at its deepest point as it flowed back into the yards. Almost directly in the middle of that portion of ditch there was a wide storm drain that ran underneath the road where it more than likely met a similar ditch on the far side. That side of the road had a nice dense patch of trees just on the upward side of the storm ditch that would provide adequate cover for their movements until they reached a point in the yard where they could dart across the front of the house using the angle that the house itself had been built to conceal them from the three zombies down the road. Garrett studied the storm drain and thought that even though it would probably be a tight fit for Calvin and himself, they should be able to squeeze through with little trouble.
"What do you think?" Garrett asked as he watched Calvin also sizing up the storm drain.
"I think that the lady has a good eye for detail. I saw that drain as well but didn't give it a second thought as a means for getting across the street." Calvin replied.
Miranda said nothing, but Garrett was sure he noted the slightest upturn of her lips as she beamed with pride inside for once again proving her worth on this little trip.
"Alright then, let’s get going. Our friend is just getting inside the shed now, I don't think we have much time." Garrett said as he dropped to a crouch and circled wide around the driveway following it to a point where the lawn between the two driveways dipped down enough that running at a severe crouch would keep them just out of sight of the street. The last twenty feet of grass between the driveways was going to be the tricky part. The lawn rose back up at that point almost level with the front of the lawn on the opposite side of the driveway and all the way to the edge of the ditch on their side of the road. Dropping flat onto his belly Garrett motioned for Calvin and Miranda to follow his lead as he wormed his way across that fina
l stretch of grass keeping his body as flush to the dirt and grass as possible.
"I like it girl, but you need to keep that little ass down on the ground." Calvin hissed from behind him. Garrett glanced back over his shoulder and caught a red faced Miranda working to pull her slightly raised backside down flatter to the ground. The way she had been moving along with it raised in the air would have looked like a small animal moving through the grass if any of the zombies across the street happened to cast a glance in that direction. Neither of them had any idea how those things would react in the presence of wild life so Garrett had to agree with Calvin's encouragement for her to keep pressed lower to the ground. Although he wished the man would sometimes consider at least the most primitive level of tact when making such observations. He also realized that he felt a slight pang of what he could only describe as jealously at the thought of his friend staring intently at that tight little well-formed butt wiggling along only a foot or two from his face. He shook the thought from his head and chided himself for even allowing such a brief indulgence, it was certainly not the time for letting his own mind wander with such juvenile thoughts.
Sliding into the mouth of the drain, Garrett had to pull his shoulders in as tight to his stomach as possible and even then he just barely fit. Luckily the interior was made up of corrugated metal so that he could use the divots in the floor to tuck his toes into and propel his body forward several inches at a time. He thought that if it had been solid concrete construction there would have been no way for him to get any leverage to use his legs to force himself ahead and he would have been stuck within the first four or five feet. Once he got a good rhythm going he was able to make short work of the tunnel and in a few moments his head popped out of the far side and he dropped down into a puddle of stagnant rain water about three inches deep. Miranda was coming along right behind him and had not had the same limitations inside the metal tube as he had. Like a limber monkey she shot out of the drain and managed to climb off to the side and avoid the muddy puddle that Garrett had landed face down in. As Garrett was pulling his soaking and mud covered body clear of the ditch, Calvin followed shortly behind Miranda and landed with a splash in almost the exact same muddy spot that Garrett had just left behind.
With both of them soaked and filthy Garrett told himself that their supply list was going to have to be expanded to include clean and dry clothes. Even with the warm weather they were having, the nights were cool and without dry clothes to change into, both of them were risking falling ill. The way things had suddenly turned in the world even simple things like the common cold could result in all of them being put at risk.
They could no longer see the shed from their position in the front of the house but Garrett could sense that they were just about out of time. By now the guy who had crept into the backyard would have probably already chosen a gardening tool for a weapon and was probably getting ready to move into position to strike.
Garrett studied the layout of the yard and decided on a course of action that would get them up close to that lone zombie beside the shed while keeping out of sight. The decorative fence covered with vines and flowers jutted out into the back yard a distance past where the creature was stuck. By making a wide loop into a patch of trees they could follow that cover until it came up even with the fence and then simply run straight to the side of it allowing the dense buildup of flowers and leaves to mask their approach. He motioned with hand signals for the others to follow him and took off at a trot into the row of trees while glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Miranda was keeping up ok. He could tell that she was not at all used to this level of physical exertion. Sprinting, crawling, ducking and slithering through metal tubes was just like running a grueling obstacle course and more demanding than running a straight even marathon. She was starting to show signs of fatigue and Garrett knew that they needed to stop soon and allow her to rest and recuperate before she dropped out on them. She caught his glance at her and even through the strain on her face still managed a reassuring smile to tell him that she was fine and could keep up.
Reaching a point within the trees where they were parallel to a spot along the fence that Garrett was reasonably sure was just about even with the zombie on the other side, Garrett stopped and dropped to a knee. Without speaking he motioned for Calvin and Miranda to remain there while he drew the long combat knife he kept strapped to his leg in a leather sheath. They hadn't discussed who would be the one to actually finish the job, but Garrett somehow felt that it was his responsibility to take care of it. He approached the fence as quietly as possible, keeping a close eye on where he placed his feet to ensure he didn't step on something that would make noise and announce his presence. He could hear the zombie as it thrashed about struggling to free itself just a few feet away from him. The moans and groans coming from the creature were almost in a distinctive rhythmic pattern. When it reached the limit of forward motion that the snare along its feet would allow it would bellow a loud grumbling almost hissing sound that Garrett thought resembled some form of aggravation at its inability to move forward. Then it would relax and step backwards two or three feet to gain momentum to try again, just as it started to move forward the zombie almost growled as though it was motivating itself to try harder on its next attempt to break free. He wasn't too worried about these noises, if they hadn't attracted attention to its predicament by now he figured that any other zombie hearing those sounds would not consider them to be something they needed to investigate further. He could see the outline of the zombie through the fist-sized square holes in the fence and breaks in the foliage covering it. The pattern of forward and backward movement was easy to follow and allowed Garrett to predict where and when the zombie would be at any given moment. He picked a spot along the fence that would put him in a position directly in line with where the zombie ended up at the extreme end of its range of forward motion. Garrett thought that this point was were the thing was the most focused on trying to free itself and least likely to be aware of subtle changes in its surroundings. He was just studying the fence and dense growth of flowers for the best spot to make his move when his peripheral vision caught a subtle shadow passing further down the fence moving into position just behind the zombie.
Chapter 4
It was almost midnight before Dr. Woods and his people were escorted by a squad of heavily armed infantryman and backed up at a distance by five armored Humvees with mounted machine gunners from the quarantine hangar to their new quarters in the partially completed science center. The complex consisted of four wooden buildings, the two largest of were designed to house their scientific work and equipment. Another large Quonset hut type building was stacked with bunk beds, an open shower bay and crudely constructed toilet facilities. There were only enough beds for a little over half of them so it was clear from the onset that they would be taking shifts with sleeping arrangements, a portion of their people down for rest periods while a crew was on duty around the clock working towards a miracle cure. The forth smaller building contained four small offices and housed all of their communications and computer equipment. While it was not the most modern facility that Dr. Woods and his people had ever worked in, it would suffice to get them back to work. The first order of business was to get all of the equipment they had managed to salvage set up, inspected and into operation. Workers had deposited a good deal of their equipment in haphazard locations throughout the buildings while leaving the rest inside two large metal cargo containers that had been deposited just outside the Quonset huts. Even though everyone was tired and annoyed with the way they had been treated since their arrival, Dr. Woods wanted to waste no time in getting the facility up and running. Working with the handful of his own staff that had joined him from DC, he outlined work and rest schedules, teaming up equal numbers of scientific and support staff to form three crews. The first order of business was to get the lab functioning and he informed everyone that until that was completed none of them would be getting any rest.
While his people went about diving into their first hot meal since arriving, Dr. Woods scooped up a hamburger and a plate of fries and trotted off to the communications section. He had some discreet calls to make in order to lay the groundwork for the next stage of their operations. Since he was sure that the request he needed to make would be refused by MG Brookover, he knew of one person who was still in a position to supersede his command and he also knew that this person would more than likely listen to reason much better than the General.