by Lee Thomas
I ducked into my first room while he did his. It appeared to be a teenage girl’s room, judging from the pictures on the desk and the bra hanging on the closet door. I checked under the bed, then the closet, finding nothing. I stepped back out into the hallway just before Jeff did, and we just gave each other the clear sign and went to our next rooms. This one appeared to be a boy’s room, typically messy with clothes strung out, trash and food remnants left lying about. Again, I found nothing.
Stepping back into the hallway, I had one door left. Jeff was still in the other room, so I crept up to the last door, turned the knob, and pushed it open. As I thought, it was a bathroom. A quick inspection showed it was empty. I looked out into the back yard as I waited for Jeff to come back out. He flashed me the clear sign as he did, and we began to move back out.
Eric and Roger radioed their house was clear, and we confirmed ours was too. We repeated the process, leapfrogging houses so we could clear as many as possible as quickly as possible. By the time we had done three houses each, it was pushing noon. Jeff had radioed back to the group and they informed us they had scrounged all the gas they could find, no other supplies could be found, and the watchers and seen several infected milling about. I called it good and we loaded up and headed back.
Retracing our route out of the neighborhood, we made it back to the main road without incident. Turning left back towards the truck stop however, we saw a large herd of infected standing in the road, not really moving, about halfway between us and the truck stop. Jeff was driving, and looked over at me to see what I wanted to do.
"Radio to the group, tell them we have company. I don't want any more people coming. Tell them if they are ready, just take off, we can meet them down the road a little and put the cars back on the trailers.” I told him. Eric had the radio so he relayed the information. We waited for a moment to see what the infected would do, and for the group to let us know what they were doing. Dave informed us the group was ready to move, so I had Eric relay that we would meet them five miles down the highway.
"Wait a few minutes, let the convoy get moving. Then punch it. That way we shouldn't be leading this herd to the group.” I said. "I don’t want to engage them if we can help it."
We sat and waited, watching the herd mill about. They didn’t seem to have any real direction. A few of them looked in our direction, almost like they were looking at us, but none of them seemed to actually take notice of us. After five minutes or so I signaled Jeff to start moving. He slowly hit the gas, and we started creeping along. Apparently our movement caught their attention. One of them screeched at us and ran towards the car, which got the attention of several more, and started a chain reaction of notice.
"Punch it man.” I yelled at Jeff, who immediately floored it. We raced towards them as they ran towards us. The first two slammed straight into us, one of which flipped up and over the hood, hitting the windshield and spider webbing it. Jeff kept going, trying to avoid them if possible, or hitting them on one side or another to keep from throwing them into the windshield again.
"We can't take much more of this in this car.” Jeff told me.
"I know, just try to get clear of them.” I replied, weighing the options of just running, or trying to stop and fight.
We cleared the herd finally, but they were still following us. I saw we were about a quarter of a mile from the on ramp to the interstate. I didn’t want to lead this herd to our group, especially if they whole convoy was stopped.
"Take the highway, or keep going to lose the herd?" Jeff asked.
"Highway. We should be able to get far enough ahead that the convoy can stop and we can load back up before they catch up." I told him. We kept rolling and took the onramp to the interstate. As fast as we were going we caught up to the convoy quickly. A quick radio message got them to slow down and stop so we could load back onto the trailer. Once it was loaded back up, we got into our respective vehicles and took off again.
We managed to get to the middle of Nashville, where all the interstates met at, before we had any more issues. A massive pileup and occurred, and there were cars and trucks of all sorts mangled and scattered everywhere. Debris from spilled semi loads, and a flatbed hauling what appeared to be large drainage pipes had over turned and the straps had broken and rolled everywhere.
"Now what, smartass?" Jeff asked me over the radio.
"Stop short, let's go take a look.” I told him. Since I wasn’t driving at the moment I started pulling on my riot gear and swords. I also had one of the others with me radio to the rest to have a few men come with us to inspect. We needed to know if we could clear a path or if we would need to find a detour. I stepped out along with Eric and saw Dave, Roger, and a few others. I waved for everyone to gather around the rig so we stay as a group.
"Alright, let's see if we can clear a path. If not, I have someone reading the map trying to find an alternate path. Let's see what we got.” I said. Leading the way to the pile up, I kept swiveling my head to search for infected, as well as seeing how tangled the wrecks are. As we walked, all we heard was the wind and trash being blown around. The stench from what I was sure was more than a body or two floated in the air.
"This doesn’t look good man.” Eric said as he surveyed the scene. We had spread out a little, looking for anything of use that wasn’t burned, as well as trying to determine if clearing a path was even feasible. Everything was cool, which told me that the wreck and fire happened some time ago. I walked into the wreckage a little, looking into windows, peering under cars, and stepping over trash and debris. None of us found anything as everything seemed to have burned up pretty completely.
"Now what?" Roger asked, as we grouped back together.
"It looks pretty crammed together. I don’t think we're going to be able to move any of it, let alone enough to drive through. Let's go back to the RV and see what the map shows. There should be an easy detour route we could take. Let everyone stretch their legs, but keep an eye out.” I said. We moved back towards the vehicles and I stepped inside mine to check the map.
"Find an alternate route for us, Tim?" I asked as I walked in.
"Well, there are several interstates that merge around here, so it looks like there are several ways we could go, actually, especially since we don't really care about traffic laws right now.” Tim replied, pointing to the map, "The easiest route would probably be to loop to the south here on 440 which merges with 24 just south of returning to 40."
"Sound good to you Jeff?" I asked. His truck driving experience should tell us if that was a good route or not.
"As long as we don’t have another pileup like this, yeah." He answered me.
"We got company!" yelled one of the watchers on the rooftops. I couldn’t tell who yelled, but it didn’t matter.
"Back in the vehicles, now!" I yelled as people started running for cover. Since I already had my swords on me I ran back to where I could see what was coming. I made it to the side of the road and started jogging down the line of vehicles until I saw the group that was coming towards us. It wasn’t infected this time, so I relaxed a little. I could tell from the way they were walking and the gear they were carrying it was live, uninfected people.
I ran over to the nearest RV and asked them to radio the others and let everyone know it was live people, not infected. I then started moving towards the people. Others started exiting the RV's as I passed. A few had armed themselves, which was a wise idea. Just because these people were not infected, did not mean they were friendly. We had seen that before.
I stopped about fifty feet behind our last vehicle and waited for them to finish getting to us. I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Jeff, Eric, Roger, and Dave all coming up behind me, as well as quite a few others staying back near the vehicles. I nodded at them and turned back around to the new arrivals. I could see them eyeballing us as they approached, as much as we were eyeballing them; sizing each other up like two bullies in the schoolyard.
"Hello. You
look like a little tired of walking.” I called out as they got close. I waved for my men to relax, hoping they would do the same. I didn't like being out in the open like this and wanted to get the convoy turned around as quickly as possible.
"That we are. I guess you all have that problem solved though.” one of the closest men said, angling his head in the direction of the vehicles.
"Well, we do as long as we can continue to find gas. We were actually about to turn this convoy around since the road is blocked. Would you like to walk up here out of the way and talk?" I asked, waving my arm in the general direction of the shoulder.
"Sure.” he said, turning to his group, nodding and indicating they should move off the road. I nodded back to the others so they would start moving the vehicles. Dave and Roger came with me as I followed the apparent leader of the new group. We walked over to the grass and up a little ways, then his people started sitting and relaxing. He motioned to me to move a little way off from his group.
"I'm Daryl. You're the first group we've seen in weeks. Definitely the first with still running vehicles. We thought we were hearing things when we heard them pass on the highway.” he told me.
"I'm Sheldon, and you're not hearing things. We've just been trying to keep moving and avoid as many of these infected things as we can. It's been slow going since we have to scrounge for gas so often, but we have a good collection of gas cans with us as backup when we need it. Where are you headed?" I asked him.
"Nowhere in particular. We've come up from just north of the Alabama border. We thought maybe we could get up here and find a police station, or National Guard post or something, find some better weapons, maybe some body armor. Hopefully a nice, strong building we could hole up in.” Daryl said.
"We're from Oklahoma, so I don't know about anything in this area. We do have a plan though, if you'd like to hear it. Maybe we could help each other out.” I told him.
"I like a good story, let's hear it.” Daryl said. We spent the next thirty minutes going over my plan while waiting for the vehicles to get turned around. I explained it as best I could right now, without the benefit of the maps to show him how I planned it out. He nodded here and then, obviously thinking about it. Several times throughout the telling he glanced over at his people, and I guessed what he was thinking. Why do these people trust me, would they be happy with my decision, what could happen if I mess up. I had all of those thoughts run through my mind on a daily basis. Daryl glanced back at his group, then at the vehicles, and finally just stared off into space.
"Talk it over with the group. I'm going to see how we are doing. I see the vehicles are all moved, so we will be wanting to take off soon. Let me know if you want to come with us.” I told him. We shook hands and then I stood and headed back to the RV's. I wanted to check fuel levels and such anyways. I would give Daryl a few minutes to discuss it, but not long. I made it back to the RV and took my sword belt off. I radioed everyone else and asked for fuel levels.
Hearing a knock on the door, I turned as one of the others opened the door. It was Daryl.
"I need to find room for you?" I asked him with a hopeful look on my face.
"We decided since you have a plan, and we don't exactly know where we are going or doing, we would join with you.” Daryl told me, reaching his hand out to shake mine. I took it and nodded as we shook. I motioned outside as I stepped out behind him.
"Let's find some room for you then.” I said, walking with him towards the other RV's. I hoped there was room somewhere. I knew the RV's were already over capacity, and we had people riding in the cars already, but I would find room. I wasn't about to leave anyone who wanted to come with us simply because it wouldn’t be comfortable for us.
Val came out of her vehicle as we approached it and waved us over. I knew she was keeping track of where people were at for me. She would know where we could put the newcomers. I left them with her and headed back to my vehicle.
Stepping back in, I grabbed the atlas and placed it back on the table to look at our route. Running my finger over the map, it looked like our best bet would be to cut back a few miles to highway 155, take that south to highway 70, which should lead us back to I-40 with no further interruptions, I hoped.
The radio crackled as I heard Val telling me that everyone was situated. I acknowledged her and sat back down in the drivers' seat to get started. We fired up our engines and took off. Jeff was in the lead as we headed back down the highway. Luckily we didn't see any infected on the way back to the detour.
Taking the exit for 155, we headed south. More trash and abandoned cars lined the road, but at least nothing was blocking the way. According to the map, it should only be about a mile or so before we picked up highway 70 to head back east. Since it was now around three in the afternoon, I really wanted to be back on the interstate by four. I was hoping we would be able to make Knoxville at least by the end of the day. I wanted to be in Virginia by the time we stopped for the night.
Everything was going fine until we made the turn onto highway 70. Shortly after the turn, there was a huge bang and smoke started pouring from the passenger side tires of Jeff's trailer. A second bang and I saw rubber flying and the brake lights come on.
"Everyone to the left and pull over.” I said into the radio as I pulled off to the left as well. The rubber chunks bounced all over the road but at least they stayed to the right. Jeff slowed down and stopped in the right lane so I led the rest to a stop in the left lane next to him. After putting it in park I got up and grabbed my sword belt, and then stepped outside.
Hearing the cussing coming from the front of the rig, I chuckled as I watched Jeff climb down and start walking towards the back. He stomped past me, growling under his breath, and I just laughed as I followed him. It really wasn’t funny, as this would seriously cut into our time frame. Both of us walked around the back, glancing back at the pieces of tire strung all over the road behind us. At least Jeff had the experience to not put the truck into the wall or off the road when it blew.
"Can we fix it? You did acquire a jack and stuff, right?" I asked him. I vaguely remember him saying something about getting some tools and such at various truck stops.
"Yeah, but the air compressor is going to be loud. It may draw unwanted attention. I would think we would need to set some guards first, maybe search the area first too, just in case. Shouldn't take more than an hour to replace." he said as he checked the rest of the tires for damage. Seemingly satisfied with their condition, he turned his attention to the blown out tire. I left him to his business as I went to find Dave so we could talk about protection while Jeff changed the tire.
Knocking on Dave's open door, I stepped in and saw Dave sitting at the table.
"Hey man, how's it going? The tire able to be fixed?" he asked me, motioning to an empty seat across from him. I sat down and took the offered water bottle.
"Yeah, Jeff was smart enough to grab some tools and such just for this sort of thing at one of the service stations we've stopped at. I'm glad he had the foresight to think of that, I never would have.” I told him, sipping my water. "The problem is that air compressor is going to be loud. We need to organize some guards. I'm sure that we are going to draw some unwanted attention. I know you have a pretty decent idea on who could do that, so I figured I would come to you first."
"Alright. Well, there are several who have been doing well up top. I think Roger knows more about who is good with a sword, but we have plenty of guns and ammo for now. Do we just need to watch, or do want to actually form a wall?" Dave asked. He sat his water down, leaned back and crossed his arms. I could tell he was thinking of who would be good for guard duty.
"I'm going to talk with the new people, see who is good with a gun, and who wants to volunteer to pull guard duty. I'll be out there too, just let whoever else you think will be good know so they can join me. Get a couple of small groups to do a quick run for food, fuel, anything they can find, but tell them not to go too far." I told him as I stood a
nd reached out to shake his hand. He stood also, shook my hand, and then I turned and walked out.
The day was still bright, very little wind, and hardly any clouds. We could hear dogs barking in the distance, but nothing else. It was still so weird to be standing outside and not hear airplanes, cars, horns, people, or trains. Everyone outside knew not to be too loud, and even the kids playing kept their voices low. I glanced around at the buildings around us. It appeared we had stopped not too far from a hospital, with lots of businesses around with open parking lots. At least if anything came towards us we would be able to spot it early. Nothing moved except the occasional piece of trash blowing in the wind, and us.
Banging brought my head around as the wind apparently caught the trailer door and slammed it open. Jeff was climbing in the trailer to retrieve the air compressor and tools he needed to replace the tire. He looked back at me and shrugged, and I just shrugged back. There wasn't anything we could do about the sudden sound now except watch and see if it drew any attention.
I watched the people I was now responsible for moving about. Some were helping Jeff, some had taken up positions to guard the group from the street, a few were on the RV rooftops, and there was some that appeared to be setting up some lawn chairs, just to be able to sit outside for a bit. A group started walking towards me with weapons to help me watch this far side of the road while the tire was changed. I could see that Jeff had handed all the tools down, and the compressor was rolled over near the door while someone was stretching out the air hoses.
The other guards met up with me about the time Jeff fired up the compressor. It was loud, echoing off the walls of the trailer. All the watchers perked up a little as this was the point that we would get busy, if there was any infected nearby to hear that. Jeff jumped down and began the process of lifting the axle so he could fix the tire. The noise died down a little as he pulled the door to as far as he could. I turned my back on that and kept watch on the service road in front of me, and the buildings after that.