by Lee Thomas
"Eric.” I said, just to get his attention.
"Oh. I'm sorry. Jaime, Helen, Susan, this is Sheldon. He is in charge of this group we have from Oklahoma. He has a plan, a good one. We came to find you and take you with us." Eric said, pointing at everyone as he introduced them. I shook hands with them and nodded.
"It's nice to meet you all, and I'm glad we found you safe. But we really need to get moving. So if you want to come with us, please pack your things so we can get started." I told them. I didn't want them to feel forced to be coming with us.
"I can't believe this, I thought we were just going to live here until our food ran out. I didn't know what to do after that. Of course we will come. If Eric says you have a plan, and a good one, we will be more than willing to help.” Jaime said, taking my hand once more. He shook it, then put his arm around Helen and guided her upstairs to pack. Susan, their daughter, smiled back at us then turned and went up as well.
"Eric, go help them, and try to make it quick. The rest of us will search the house for anything useful to take they may not think of." I said. Eric turned to go help his family while the rest of the men went to search. I motioned Jeff and Roger over to discuss our next move.
"Three more people. We still have room somewhere, right?" I asked. I knew Roger was keeping tabs on that for me.
"Yes, no problem. Are you planning on searching the town for more survivors?" Roger asked me.
"No. I don't think we have the room really.” I said, shaking my head. "We need to get to that ship soon. Getting some hydroponics started for growing vegetables is going to need to happen soon, before we run out of food."
"Ok. Let's get back then. Since it was only me and Eric we can fit all three of them in our car. We will get back, get the cars on the trailers, and head out ASAP." Jeff chimed in. That sounded good to me, so Jeff and I went to move the cars out in to the driveway. There was a turnaround paved out in front of the garage, so we had both cars pointed towards the street by the time the rest came out. We loaded their stuff up, got in the cars and left. I could see Eric's family looking back at their house, then turn around once we turned the corner. Luckily we didn't see any infected on the way back either.
Pulling back into the grocery store, we pulled the cars up to their trailers before everyone unloaded. Once our passengers were out, Jeff and I pulled the cars onto the trailers. Dave and a couple others got them strapped back down tight, and Dave shook his head at me and nodded to the store, indicating they had no luck. I headed back towards my RV, waving for everyone get loaded. Jeff was back in the rig and fired it up. Everyone got in and we started moving again, heading back down the two lane highway towards I-40 again.
It was already noon by the time we got back on the highway. I was wanting to be in Nashville by now, but it was only about two hours away, so we weren't too far behind schedule. We kept rolling east, trying to reach people on the radios as we went, just in case. No one ever answered back.
About halfway between the Brownsville exit and Nashville, we came across another wreck blocking most of the road. Jeff pulled up close, I pulled my RV up next to his and told the rest to stay behind him. A few of us got out and looked at the scene.
"This is lot of cars, and that looks like a jackknifed rig up there across the road." Jeff said. Roger had come up beside us, as well as Michelle, Dave, and a few others.
"Well, we have to get through it. What do you say, try to clear it, try to cross the median to bypass it, or turn around and try to find an alternate road?" I asked. I wanted options before making a decision.
"It looks like most of them are still upright at least, we might be able to just push them out of the way." Dave said.
"But I see several tires blown out. Those won't push so easy.” Michelle chimed in.
"The median has those wires running through it to prevent head on wrecks. We would have to cut those and pull up some of the posts before we could cut across, and then do it again to get back on this side.” Roger said, looking over the grass.
"And how do you propose we move the jackknifed trailer? If the rig is out of gas, or won't run, we can't push the trailer.” Jeff said.
"Fine. Jerry, run back and get the map. Let's see what we got." I told one of the men. He jogged back to my RV to get my atlas. I would review the map and see what we could do. I sent another man to tell everyone they could get out and stretch their legs for a while, just make sure to keep watch. Jerry came back with my map and I used the trunk of one the wrecks to open it and look.
"Ok. Didn't we just pass an exit for this Natchez State park?" I asked Jeff.
"Yeah, that looks familiar. It was about five miles or so back.” he answered.
"Ok. So we are about here.” I said, pointing at the map. "If we turn around and go back to highway 22 and go south to Lexington, we can take 412 over to Parson, then 641 back up here to I-40. Do we have the gas to get at least to Lexington?" I asked.
"In the RV's, sure, no problem. The rig might be pushing it. But there should be diesel available there.” Jeff said.
"Fine. Tell the drivers to turn the RV's around one by one and pull to the side until everyone is good. It might take Jeff a few to get the rig turned around." I told the few others standing there. They went to pass it on to the drivers.
"Think you can turn this beast around without getting stuck?" I asked Jeff. The rig would be the only issue that I could think of. He assured me he could do it though.
We watched the rest of them turn around without incident, but two of them did worry me a little by almost hitting the trees. Roger and I stayed back to help direct Jeff since it would be difficult for him to see. It took a little time, but we eventually had all the vehicles turned and facing the wrong way down the highway. Jeff started heading towards the front of the line while Roger and I climbed into the RV. We all headed out, following Jeff.
The convoy made it back to the highway 22 exit without incident, and since we were headed the wrong way, we took the on ramp onto the highway. It was a four lane road with no median, so we moved on to the right side of the road out of habit. According to the map, we had to head south to Lexington. I hoped it wouldn’t take us any more than half an hour to get there. I wanted to be back on I-40 in no more than two hours.
Rolling into Lexington was like most of the towns we had been in, broken windows, trash, abandoned cars. We rolled through slowly, not wanting to draw any attention to ourselves. Jeff said he was fine on fuel for now, so we didn’t bother stopping. A few infected were out walking around, and some of them saw us and started heading towards us. We easily outpaced them, so we didn’t bother wasting the ammo.
Making it through town, we turned onto 412 and headed east once more. After we turned, there were more infected wandering around in the road. Most of them turned to attack us, and we just plowed through them. One or two managed to hold on to the RV's a time or two and we simply opened the gun ports and got rid of them.
Passing through the rest of Lexington, we saw more burned buildings, burned cars, trash, and more bodies. This area had apparently been hit pretty hard. We rolled through at about fifty, picking up speed as the buildings grew sparser and farther apart. Our next stop would be Parsons, where we would turn north to head back towards I-40.
An hour later we pulled into Parsons. I had two drivers radio they were low on fuel, so I told Jeff to find a suitable place to pull over, preferably a gas station that had diesel so we could refuel him also. It was now pushing five o'clock, so we would need to be finding a place to camp for the night also, unless we wanted to drive all night.
Jeff pulled into a gas station that advertised diesel. He pulled around to the truck pumps while the rest of us took spots around the building. One RV stayed near Jeff just in case, but we hadn't seen any movement on our way in, so I thought we would be safe for now. Once again I had a team go for gas, and let Roger and Dave lead teams to clear the station. I spread my map out again to look at where we needed to go.
"We g
ot company.” yelled a watcher on top of an RV. I looked up at him and turned to where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was a fairly large group of infected headed this way.
"Get everyone back in the vehicles, now! Radio Jeff, Roger, and Dave and let them know. Move it!" I said, looking for Michelle and the girls. I saw the girls walking around so I went over to them.
"Girls, let's go, back in the RV. We got trouble coming.” I told them. I didn’t see Michelle at all. I hustled the girls into the RV, hopped in to grab a radio, and then turned and made sure everyone else was safe.
"Jeff, is Michelle with you?" I asked into the radio.
"Affirmative. I've already heard. She is in the truck already. Where are the girls and my kids?" he asked.
"Girls are loaded up, and I saw someone gathering all the kids. Make sure you guys are safe. We will fire from the vehicles, I don't want anyone outside fighting." I then turned and saw the gas team and Dave's team rushing back. I jumped back in myself and confirmed that everyone was inside an RV with the doors shut right before the first of the infected hit us. I heard gunshots and looked out my window to see infected starting to fall. I wasn’t very good with a gun, so I let three other men in the RV shoot while I kept in contact with everyone else.
Since the RV I was in was near the far end of the line from where the things started, none had made it up here yet. It looked like they were starting to get pretty thick around the others, so I threw my armor on, grabbed my sword belt, and went out.
"Dad, no!" I heard Desi yell as I stepped out. Angie and Cassie also yelled at me and tried to grab me, but I gently pushed them back in and shut the door, assuring them I would be okay. I then drew both swords and started for the infected. Most of them had their backs to me, so I hadn't been seen yet. The first one I came too I planted my sword in the top of its head and kicked it forward. I swung into the second ones neck, dropping it also. That got the attention of some of the others, who screeched and ran towards me. I got into a stance and prepared for the fight.
Gunshots kept ringing out, dropping some of them. I just started swinging, either head shots, or if I had to back up I tried to at least take out their legs. One grabbed my left arm and tried to bite the Kevlar arm pad. I couldn't shake it off, so after taking another one out with my right arm, I shoved that sword into its forehead. It fell as I pulled my sword out, but before I could get my arm back around another hit me and knocked me down. I hit the ground on my back, knocking the wind out of me, with the thing on top of me, trying to bite my face. Since I had a riot helmet on, the face shield blocked it, but I wasn’t sure how long it would last.
I shoved hard and rolled it off of me, but I had lost one of my swords in the process. I held the remaining one in my right hand since it was my dominant hand, punched it in the face with my left as it got up and rushed me again, then swung my sword hard into its neck. I cleanly decapitated it as I side stepped it, and the head fell off as it passed me and fell. I heard my name yelled from close by and turned to find Roger and three others with swords and guns as well. Tommy was holding my other sword out to me. I nodded, gratefully, and took my sword. There were still about thirty or so of infected left, so we lined up and waited for them to reach us.
Rifles fired, dropping several of them. I saw Mike come out with a shotgun, firing close to them, destroying the heads with each shot. He dropped five of them before he ran out of ammo, slammed the butt of the gun into the nose of another, then dropped it and pulled out a machete. He was fairly close to us, so we made our way to him to help him out. Others fired from inside the vehicles so we made sure we kept a clear line of fire for them.
By the time we had cleared them out, I remembered something I had noticed that I wanted to clarify before we took off. Once we realized they were all dead, I waved for people to come out. I told several men to gather them up and burn them, just to be sure. I told some to finish the search for gas, and then I motioned for Roger and Dave to follow me so I could look at something.
"I saw something during the fight I wanted to check on. Remember that one that bit me? While I was trying to shake it off, I noticed it looked like it had claws, and almost fangs for teeth." I told them as we walked back to where I had fought that one.
"How could that be?" Dave asked me.
"I don’t know, that’s why I want to look again. Maybe I just saw things in the heat of battle.” I answered. If these things had started to mutate, there was no telling where it would end.
We came to the body first, so we rolled it over and I lifted up its hands. Sure enough, it looked like the finger bones were coming out of the fingertips to act as claws. We all just looked at each other, not sure what to make of that. I stood and stepped over the head. I crouched down, not sure if I really wanted to roll it over or not. The other two knelt down around it as well, so I looked at them then reached down and turned it over. The mouth was open, but I used my knife to pry it open further. Again, I was right, the teeth were pointer than normal human teeth. We couldn’t tell if it was a mutation, or if maybe the thing was trying to eat something hard and filed its teeth down that way. I stood and turned away.
"So what does this mean? Do you think it could just be an aberration, or could they all mutate to some degree?" Dave asked me.
"I don’t know. It doesn’t change my plan. We still get to the ship. If anything, it only makes me want to get there sooner. You’ve seen that some of them are running, some seem a little stronger, now some are mutating. Let’s finish getting the gas and get out of here.” I said, brooding on my own thoughts. They both looked at each other, then turned and walked back to get their teams in order and finish gathering what we stopped here for in the first place.
"What's going on?" Jeff asked, walking up to me. I looked up and saw Michelle hugging the girls outside of the RV, and Jeff looking at me like he knew where my thoughts were.
"Look at this. They are mutating. Some are now faster, stronger, and now they are getting claws and fangs." I told him, pointing back to the body and telling him what we found.
"So what do we do about it?" he asked, sighing.
"Gather the drivers. We're not stopping for the night, we are driving straight through. I want to be at the naval base by the end of the day tomorrow. I don’t care what objections there are, we are not stopping unless it's to scrounge fuel.” I said. I didn’t want to be in charge, but since most of them let me be, I decided to start acting like it. This was my plan after all, and they were all trusting me to get them to some form of safety. Jeff just looked at me for a minute, then nodded his head, smiled, and turned to gather those that could drive the RV's. Not everyone could drive something that big.
I looked out away from the group down the road. I couldn’t believe that I was the one making decisions for a group like this. I knew I could do it with a small group, but now I had around a hundred people looking to me. I had a few I trusted here to help me make decisions and keep me in line. I turned and looked back at the group, watching the preparations for a little, seeing the ones gathering the gas, the watchers on top of the RV's, and the kids still being kids. This was such a weird situation to be in, no one really had any idea what to do, and I myself was just winging it. My only hope, and I wouldn’t admit it even to Jeff, was to get everyone to the ship safe. After that I had no idea really.
I shook my head and headed towards the group to help load. I had to trust the watchers would see any infected or bands of raiders. I knew there would be other dangers than just infected. We had already seen what some people were capable of. No law enforcement anymore meant that those so inclined could just take whatever they wanted, from whoever or where ever they wanted. No emergency medical services, or firemen, all of the things put in place to make us feel, and be, safe, were now gone. It was up to us to make our own safety.
It was now almost full dark, and I knew if there were more around they would be coming out soon. I had gathered the drivers inside the circle of vehicles along with my inner circle a
nd we discussed our next plan.
"Alright, it's already dark, so finding a place to camp would be difficult. I also don't want to start a panic, so do not repeat what I'm about to tell you. During the fight, I noticed something that I went back and verified later. One of the infected had claws. It appeared that its finger bones were growing out of its fingertips. Now I'm not sure if that meant the skin was simply shrinking and pulling back, or if the bones really were growing longer. Either way, they have claws of a sort. Also, its teeth were almost filed down they were so pointy, all of them. I propose we finish filling the tanks, get out of here, and just keep rolling. I want two drivers in each vehicle to rotate. That way we can keep moving and only have to stop for fuel or change drivers. We will stop and fill the water tanks next time we come to someplace to do that, as well as empty the waste. I want everyone to stay close, and we are not going to top 60 mph, got it? If we don't stop, we can be in Norfolk by dark tomorrow and hopefully already onboard ship. Does anyone have any objections?" I looked at each of them in turn as I spoke. I wanted to know if I was really leading this group, or if they were just waiting for an opportunity to take off. They all looked at each other, then back at me.
"It sounds like a plan to us.” Bob said. The rest just shook their heads, some offered some kind of agreement, but everyone was on board for the plan.
"Good. Let's get fueled so we can get out of here.” I said, effectively ending the meeting. We all walked back to our respective vehicles and climbed in. Michelle stepped out as Jeff and I came up close to mine.
"What's going on?" she asked, looking from me to Jeff. She knew one of us was bound to tell her.
"We are heading out. Sheldon has decided not to stop anymore, but head straight to Norfolk. One of those things that attacked us had started to mutate. We need somewhere safe, and fast.” Jeff told her.