Jim was ahead of the group and turned the MRAP left, crossed into the other lanes and headed back to the wreckage.
Rick reached Steve’s truck and climbed up onto the passenger side door that now faced up.
Jim saw Rick make his way to the truck. He called over the radio and told everyone to stay in their trucks and watch for infected while he and Rick checked on Steve. As Jim drove closer, he watched Rick climb up on the cab and struggle to get the door open.
Jim came to a stop beside the jackknifed truck and was getting out of the MRAP when Rick bent down into the cab of Steve’s truck. With the light from the MRAP’s headlights, Jim could see Steve through the windshield as he lunged at Rick.
Rick heard the deep wet growl at the same time that he felt Steve embrace him in a hug, followed immediately by the pain of Steve’s teeth puncturing his right cheek. He pushed Steve away and back down into the cab. As Steve fell backwards he came away with nearly all of Rick’s right cheek and part of his bottom lip in his mouth.
Jim tried to keep an eye out for approaching infected as he made his way to Rick and Steve. Rick continued to kick Steve to keep him away and prevented him from climbing back up and out of the cab. At the same time Rick struggled to get his pistol un-holstered while he tried to keep his balance so he didn’t fall into or off the cab.
As he closed in, Jim saw room for a shot and took four. He fired through the windshield and Steve collapsed. His legs twitched for a second and then he was still.
“Dad, we have some infected heading toward us from the north and east,” Chris called over the radio. “Do you need help?” Chris asked.
“We don’t need anyone else here. If they get close, kill ‘em. If there’s too many everyone head toward the farm,” Jim replied as he reached Rick.
Rick jumped from the cab, stumbled and fell to his knees. He held his face to try and slow his bleeding and then took his hand away. “What’s the use? Huh, Jim?” Rick asked.
Jim let his rifle hang by the sling and opened a large multi-trauma dressing and handed it to Rick.
Rick shrugged, “That’s not going to do much for me, Jim,” Rick said but took the dressing anyway.
“What do you want to do, Rick?” Jim asked.
Rick leaned back on the grill of the truck and shook his head slowly. He knew what the question implied. “I’ll take care of it myself here. Y’all go on, Jim,” Rick replied.
Jim nodded his head and turned and walked back to the MRAP. When he reached the truck, he radioed for the rest of the convoy to move out.
With heavy hearts, the others drove by and looked at the wreckage and Rick leaning against it. No one asked. They all knew what must have happened and didn’t need to know the particulars.
Rick reached the cab of his truck as the other vehicles' taillights rounded a curve and went out of sight. He turned off the headlights and shut down the engine. When they came to get the truck tomorrow, he wanted to make sure it would have fuel and a good battery.
Rick walked back to where Steve’s truck had come to rest, its headlights still on but he didn’t feel up to crawling inside to shut them off, nor had he seen any need.
The noise from the crash and struggle, and the lights of Steve’s truck continued to draw infected from the surrounding woods.
Rick shot the closest of the runners and then sat down in the median with his back against the cab of the truck. Rick waited until the infected got closer before he fired. Soon there were too many of the quick infected coming toward him.
He had decided shortly after the plague started that he wasn’t going to be eaten alive or turned into a rabid shell of himself. “God forgive me if this is wrong,” Rick said before he placed the muzzle in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The convoy of trucks reached the farm and after a delay of a half hour to thin out infected, they entered the gate. Jim broke the news to Jen and Steve’s wife Janice. Jen, as could be expected, was upset with the loss of Rick, and Steve as well. But Janice completely broke down and became hysterical with grief. She had to be given a sedative.
Although they were exhausted from the trip, those that returned from Camp Blanding remained awake for the rest of the night to help with security. They took turns with quick naps when a moment presented. Their late arrival seemed to have attracted a large number of infected. It wasn’t like the numbers when they had overrun the farm, but still too many for anyone to get real sleep.
Chapter 23
The residents of the compound found the dawn had brought with it a clear sky. With the temperature in the upper thirties, it was the coldest it had been since winter began. As the day grew brighter, the temperature increased, but the wind picked up as well. Only the children seemed rested. Every adult was sleep deprived.
Jim, Chris, Royce, and Brent took a bobtail tractor, the tow truck, and the MRAP to retrieve Rick and Steve's remains and the abandoned trucks. First they needed to clear the bodies from the night before to make a path out the gate.
The residents that stayed behind at the compound that morning would continue on with work. This time they would begin digging the graves for Rick and Steve.
The trucks arrived on location. Jim drove the MRAP leading the group and had stopped far enough away so that Brent wouldn’t see his brother’s remains. What remained of Rick’s body was visible from where they stopped. He was bent forward at the waist and lay in front of the cab on his left side.
No infected were in sight. Jim tried to convince Brent to stay inside, but he insisted he wanted to help collect the remains of his brother and Rick. Jim pulled the MRAP closer and he and Brent got out.
Chris manned the M249 in the turret as his father and the others went about collecting their dead.
Rick and Steve’s bodies were placed in separate tarps that were taped closed and then placed in the MRAP. Rick’s body had little flesh remaining. Since Steve had been in the cab, it seemed he had mostly been overlooked for the easier meal. The bodies of several infected that had apparently been killed by Rick were placed in the ditch and burned.
Once the task of collecting their comrades' remains and disposal of the other bodies was done, the men gathered around the wreckage to try and figure out a way of getting the trailer off its side. After some discussion Royce came up with what seemed like the best plan.
They would connect the MRAP, tow truck, and bobtail truck to the wrecked trailer with chains and try to pull it back over onto its wheels.
Chris and the rest in their group had to shoot more infected that had walked too close as they worked. They were slow variety. The sunlight kept the quick infected away.
It took over twenty-five minutes to get connected to the wreckage, but once that was done it was pulled upright quickly. The men lowered the landing gear on the trailer, unlocked it from the fifth wheel and towed the wrecked tractor out of the way.
They siphoned the diesel that remained in the mangled rig’s tanks to be taken back. They soon had the bobtail hooked up and headed back to the compound with the bodies and the remaining loads of Hesco barriers.
Brent had wiped away some tears while they extricated his brother’s remains and some afterwards while they worked. He remained stoic throughout. While they were on their way back to the farm he allowed himself to cry and grieve for his brother.
Jen and Janice had both wanted the men buried on the farm. Janice cried and wailed inconsolably as they laid her husband and Rick to rest. She had become so distraught Jim injected her with a sedative again to calm her.
Brent and Marlene had to assist her inside the house. Over the next two and a half weeks, most of the residents worked to the point of near total exhaustion to erect the barriers around the farm. The Hescos were filled with dirt using the backhoe tractor and the assistance of some with shovels. With the aid of a local fire truck, water was also added as they filled them with the dirt to aid in packing the soil.
The barriers were placed close to the farm’s fencing before the residents had been forced to re
duce the area for security. Many of the guard towers were still in place from before, but with their reduced personnel the camera system Brent had been working on would help to partially negate their lack of numbers. One person monitoring the camera feeds could dispatch a roving patrol or two wherever a threat presented.
Janice seemed to be improving; she cried less and she began to speak again to the others, but usually only when spoken to. But it was improvement. She still spent most of the time alone and in bed.
After over four weeks of constant work, they could finally get some rest. With the new walls and the double-gated entrance in place, the residents felt safer—none completely safe, but it was a vast improvement to their situation. They now had an eighteen-foot-tall wall around them.
That evening they had planned on a grand celebratory feast, but their exhaustion kept it very subdued. After their early dinner, Marlene manned the video monitors that Brent had set up and called out adjustments while Brent, assisted by Rob and George, set up the remainder of the night vision capable cameras.
Jim and Royce helped out by running cables for the cameras while the rest of the residents went about other chores. Arzu and Jen measured out and finished marking off where they planned to place T-walls and Hescos barriers around the generators for noise suppression.
They finished installation of the cameras around 11:30 PM. They would come up with a schedule for watching the monitors the next day, but tonight Rob volunteered to keep watch until 4:00 AM and then Marlene would relieve him. Since the monitors were set up at the same desk as the radios, Marlene would likely be the one that watched them the most while she scanned the radios. They would just need to make sure she could get a break whenever she needed it.
After saying goodnight to everyone, Jen went to her bedroom. Like everyone else she could hardly wait to fall into her bed. When she got to her room, she noticed her bathroom door was closed and remembered she had let Janice use her bathtub. Janice had said she wanted to take a long hot bath. That had been over four hours ago.
Jen knocked on the bathroom door and quietly called out for Janice and then tried the doorknob and found it was locked. After a louder knock and call of Janice’s name, Arzu and Marlene overheard and came to Jen’s bedroom.
Arzu used a flat-headed screwdriver and unlocked the door. Arzu yelled for Jim when she and the other two women found Janice lying in the tub of pale red water.
An open pocketknife and an empty bottle of sleeping pills lay on the edge of the tub. Jim and others came in to try and help. Janice’s dark brown skin had turned pale and she wasn’t breathing.
Jim and Chris pulled Janice from the tub and the long lacerations that ran parallel from both her wrists to half way up her forearm became apparent. Like the water she had lain in, she was as cool as the ambient air and had no pulse.
She had lost too much blood and her heart had been stopped for too long for any life-saving attempts to make a difference. Janice was buried the following morning next to her husband.
Chapter 24
A week had passed since Janice had taken her life. The residents of the farm continued to work to reinforce their security and to establish sustainable food sources.
The greenhouse was finished and vegetables planted. Everyone, except for George, helped out. Except for the occasional sighting, he kept mostly to himself. The rest of the residents didn’t want to disturb him while he pored over files about the virus.
Jeremy’s youth and good health helped his back heal fast. He had been back to his normal self about a week after his injury. He and Chris had been helping their father on their latest of many projects, repairing and expanding the animal pens. Berk and Kayra had been pitching in as well. Their job was to help refill the holes around the fence posts.
Their dad left with their stepmother to get Berk and Kayra cleaned up before lunch. Jeremy and Chris wanted to place a couple more posts before they broke for lunch.
Jeremy stopped digging the posthole, took off his cap, and wiped the sweat away from his face with his shirtsleeve.
Even though it was January, the Florida weather had turned warm and humid. Jeremy looked over to the RV. “Does that guy ever come out of there?” he asked his brother.
Chris followed his gaze. “I only see George when he decides to come out and eat,” Chris answered.
Jeremy donned his cap and resumed digging. “Kind of an oddball. Don’t you think?” he said as he piled dirt beside the hole.
Chris went back to his work and dropped a post into a hole. “Yeah. I think that description fits. C’mon, let’s get the rest of these posts in. After lunch we can get the fence hung," Chris said. “Maybe we can get the pigs moved in here by tomorrow,” he added, and filled in dirt around the post.
“You idiot! They’re all talking about you right now. Are you blind? You’re stupid! You must be blind! How many times do you have to be told? They don’t give a shit about you!”
Multiple voices yelled at him. He told himself they weren’t real; they were just his imagination again. He’d get some more medicine and they would all but go away completely. “I’m not listening to you,” George mumbled. He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on keeping the voices silent.
Linda patiently waited in the lunch line behind George when she heard him say something. “I’m sorry. What did you say, George?” Linda asked.
“Huh?” George said. He opened his eyes and spun around to see Linda smiling at him. She’s laughing at me, George thought. “Nothing. I’m fine. Nothing at all,” George said. He smiled back and went to find a seat.
No, she’s not laughing at me, he told himself. George made a mental note to search the RV the residents had given to him as his quarters. A doctor had used it before; it could have some of the medicine that he needed.
“Don’t be an idiot! You are an idiot. If you weren’t an idiot you wouldn’t need the drugs,” the multitude of voices insulted and chastised George. He blocked them out again as he got up and made his way back to the RV to eat.
Jim and Arzu finished helping Berk and Kayra wash their hands at the outdoor sink and were headed in as George exited the house. Jim and Arzu greeted him but he passed without seeming to notice them.
“George. George,” Jim called out.
George stopped and after a couple seconds turned to face them. His eyes were open wide. He swallowed hard and attempted a polite smile. “Uh. Hi. Jim,” George said. He stood there rigid and held his plate of food.
“Everything going alright?” Jim asked.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Fine, Jim. Everything’s fine, Jim,” George replied and began to shuffle his weight from one foot to another.
“Okay, George. See ya,” Jim said.
George quickly turned around and walked at an awkwardly fast pace to the RV. Jim continued into the house with Arzu and their children.
“Odd man,” Arzu said as they got to the door.
“Yep. He is that,” Jim replied.
Jim and Arzu got plates of food for themselves and Berk and Kayra. They joined the rest of the extended Matthews family at a table. “After we get the pig pen finished I want to go out tomorrow and try to find a few things. I really need some hair clippers,” Jim said.
Others at the table mentioned soap, shampoo, and other hygiene products. Jen overheard and mentioned she could use some things as well. Other residents at the Yates’ compound mentioned they were lacking the same things. Hygiene products. In all the groups’ preparation and scavenging the priority had been given to food, water, and security.
“All of the kids could use some more clothes, too,” Arzu said.
“Okay. We’ll plan on going out and doing some scavenging tomorrow,” Jim said.
The next morning, Jim, Chris, Jeremy, and Linda prepared for the supply run. George approached and asked if he could go along. Jim agreed. He figured George could grab supplies while others provided security. He still didn’t feel comfortable with George having a firearm.
Linda
drove the MRAP as Jim and her sons went over their procedures for building entry again.
“Do I get a gun?” George asked. He watched Jeremy and Chris check over their weapons.
“Let’s wait until you can get some training and practice. Okay, George?” Jim said and patted him on the shoulder.
As Jim left his side and went into the turret, the voices came again. “You need a gun. You need a gun. You need a gun! You stupid shit! How will you defend yourself? You can’t depend on these people. They are part of the problem!” The voices yelled at George. He squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed his head in his hands. He held his breath as he concentrated on keeping them quiet.
“What’s wrong, George? George, are you okay?” The voices said. Startled, George jumped back and opened his eyes when he felt the hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t the other ones, the ones only he seemed to hear. It was Jeremy and Chris. They stood in front and looked at him with concern.
“You all right, man?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes. I’m fine. Just a headache,” George answered and forced a smile.
The first stop was at a clothing store in one of the two strip malls in the town, after two slow moving infected were dealt during the search of the store. The first place yielded only a few clothes for the children. Jim, Chris, and Jeremy discussed searching the Wal-Mart, but Linda suggested checking for storage containers behind the store. She reminded them extra stock was stored in the containers, especially around the holidays.
She was right; the containers that they had collected and used on the compound had been used to store Christmas decorations when they found them. Linda pulled up and stopped near the loading dock. As she had said, there were six storage containers placed behind the store.
After opening two of the containers and doing some sorting, they found several boxes of kids' and some adult clothing.
“Got some slow movers coming this way from the east,” Linda shouted from the driver seat as Jim and Chris handed up boxes of clothing to Jeremy and George in the MRAP.
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