by Lee Thomas
Two cars came around the corner and headed this way. Neither car had lights on, but they did turn directly into the mall and headed straight for us. I looked up at the watchers and saw that several of them had hunting rifles and were aiming at them through the scopes.
"It’s Aaron and Eric.” one of them called. We all relaxed, and I told the watchers we were going to start loading up to leave. I went to meet Aaron and Eric as they pulled up to the trailers the cars they took belonged on to see how they fared. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that they found anything, but maybe luck was on our side for a change.
"Any luck?" I asked as Aaron and his team got out of the car closest to me.
"Not really. Every building we hit had already been fairly trashed already. A few changes of clothes, a couple of boxes of ammo, but nothing really useful. I don’t even know if the ammo is going to fit in any of our weapons, but we brought them anyways.” Aaron told me. He tossed the small bag of stuff they found back into the car for now as it finished getting tied down on the trailer. I saw the others loading back up into the vehicles, so I went to clean my blades and load up myself. Kids were being herded back into the RV's and the watchers were climbing down off the roofs. I saw Jeff waving to get my attention, and when I finally looked at him and he gave me a thumbs up sign to indicate the rig was fixed. I gave him one back and went inside my RV. I saw Jimmy in the driver's seat already, so I took off my sword belt and set the blades on the table to clean them while we drove. The radio crackled as the other drivers called in saying they were ready. Once everyone was set, I nodded at Jimmy who radioed the order to move, and I heard Jeff's rig fire up.
We proceeded back to the highway once more in the dark. I hated driving at night, but we were so close to our destination now I didn’t want to risk staying anywhere overnight and risk being attacked. I wanted to be in Petersburg by midnight or so. Finding a place to rest there and begin the search for Dawn and Tony was my next step. Knowing how Tony thought, the army base there would be where I went first. Being fenced, it should be fairly easy to defend, plus it would have supplies, vehicles, and some of the buildings would be fortified, as well as have some sort of underground shelter. That would be my first step, get us to Fort Lee, and find some sort of safe haven for the rest of the night.
Being a state highway and not an interstate, there was not very many lights on the road. With no real moon tonight, and hardly any stars yet, it was very dark out. Jeff was not going very fast, but at least we were moving. I finished cleaning my blades and put them away. Looking out the window, I watched the landscape slide by, thinking about what to do next. There were several cars along the side of the road, glimpses of trash in the headlights of the vehicle behind us, and the occasional animal looking for food. We saw nothing of any survivors, or infected for that matter.
Two hours later, around ten o'clock, we had made it about halfway to Petersburg. We were passing a small town called Farmville now, or rather just outside of it as the highway skirted it. The radio came to life every so often as drivers checked in with fuel levels and just to make sure we were all still together. It seemed everyone was keeping up just fine, and fuel was good for now. I knew we were getting low, but hopefully we wouldn’t need to scrounge for it much longer. My hope was that we would be done with this trip by noon tomorrow at the latest.
Turning from the window, I watched the girls sleeping, leaned up against each other and the wall. Being a parent, this was not the type of life I wanted for my kids, but this was what we had. All I could do was keep them as safe as I could, and try to give them some kind of life. I hoped my plan worked so they could have just that. They were strong girls, and smart, so I was sure they would be fine, no matter what.
"Sheldon, you better take this.” Jimmy said, holding up the radio. I stood up and reached for it. Brian got up from the passenger seat and let me take it, while he moved to the back. Sitting down, I told whoever was on the radio to go ahead. I could see Jeff pulling over in front of us and it appeared he was slowing down as well.
"It’s Jeff, I'm losing power badly, and I've got all kinds of warning lights on. There was also a loud few bangs, so I think something is seriously wrong now.” Jeff told me. He sounded a little worried, which was not like Jeff at all. He usually sounded calm, no matter what is going on.
"Can you get stopped safely?" I asked him, motioning for Jimmy to follow.
"Yeah, I think so, but the gears don’t seem to be co-operating. I may have lost the transmission. I'm coasting right now. This may be the end of the line for the rig.” he said. Jeff knew what he was doing when it came to driving, so I took him at his word and started running scenarios in my head if the rig really was toast. Most of the supplies we could load up in the cars, but the air compressor was too big, and since we were loaded up with a lot of supplies now, finding a place for the gas cans would be an issue as well.
"Brian, the map please.” I asked him as we passed a mile marker sign. I heard him looking for it as I watched Jeff scoot over to the side of the road. I could tell he was trying to get as far as he could without braking, which was good. I radioed to the other drivers to stay off to the left and prepare to stop, but to come up beside us first. I looked at the map and saw we were about ten miles outside of Farmville, without another significant populated area for at least another ten or twenty. There was one marker that indicated it might be a rest area, but I doubted we would make it that far.
Jeff finally ground to a halt partly on the shoulder, partly still on the road. I pulled up next to him and watched as the rest of the vehicles followed suit. They pulled into as close a defensive position as they could get on the road, and I put my blades and armor on while I waited for them to get settled. I then stepped out and listened to the night, to see if we had been noticed. The last of our engines shut off, and the quiet took over. With little light from stars or the moon, hearing something approach would be our only warning. Several others were also emerging from the RV's, weapons in hand, curiosity on their faces. No one knew why we had stopped, and this was different from what we usually did. Most of the group knew I didn’t like stopping in the open unless we had to.
Walking up to the truck, I met Jeff as he was raising the hood. I could hearing something dripping, which probably wasn’t good. Jerry was on the ground, scooting underneath the engine. I could hear them both muttering to themselves.
"What's the prognosis?" I asked quietly, I didn’t know how well the infected could hear, and I didn’t want my voice to carry.
"Give us a minute to be sure, but I'm almost positive it's the transmission. I can't fix it if it is." Jeff told me. The engine was still hot, so there wasn’t much he could until it cooled and he could look at it properly. I walked back towards the group and asked for the ones who were becoming un-official leaders to meet up so I could explain what was going on. One of the RV's was empty as everyone was stretching their legs, so I borrowed it for the meeting. Since Jeff was busy with the engine, but he was one of this group, Michelle was taking notes for him. The ones I had gathered were Dave, Val and Vince, Roger, Leni and Brian, Christy and Shayne, Kevin, and finally Daryl.
"Alright guys, we have a problem, as I'm sure most of you have already figured out. The semi is down. Jeff thinks it's the transmission, which would be un-fixable out here on the road. Now, most of the supplies are transferrable to the RV's, or the cars. Spare tires, the air compressor, and probably a good chunk of the gas cans would be a problem, and would most likely have to be left behind. Now, according to the map, there is what appears to be a rest area about ten or so miles from here. My hope is that it is there, and possibly has a truck or two in the parking lot. If so, we may be able to hotwire one if the keys aren't available, and come back for the trailer and the supplies. If not, we are about 200 miles from the base if I'm counting right. That’s about four more hours’ drive time, not counting scrounge runs." I said, looking around the group for reactions.
"So what exactly are you wanting
to do?" Vince asked. He always was one to get right to the point.
"If we leave the gas cans we are going to be limited in our driving range, right?" Kevin asked.
"Food is tight too. I don’t know if we can afford to spend too much more time on the road." Dave chimed in.
"I know, guys, I know. I want to check everyone's fuel levels. As long as everyone has at least half a tank left, we should have enough to make it straight through to the base. We do have some full cans, so I propose we split the extra between the vehicles, fill everyone up as much as possible, leave the trailer and get to the base. It's pushing eleven now, and I don’t like being out here like this at night. Who is with me on pushing forward to the base without the truck?" I asked. It meant I would have to reach Dawn and Tony while driving, or bring a vehicle back myself to Petersburg in the morning.
"Why don’t we leave Jeff and Jerry with a couple of volunteers to go search for a new truck, then they can follow later in the truck if they find one, or just catch up to us in whatever they take.” Brian said. It was a viable idea, but I would have to run it by Jeff and Jerry to find out if they were willing to do that. I would also have to find volunteers, because I would not order someone to risk themselves like that.
"Brian, you see if you can find volunteers for that, I’ll go talk to Jeff and Jerry and see if they want to. Otherwise, I say we plan on heading straight through to Norfolk.” I said, making the decision almost final.
"What about your friends in, where was it, Petersburg? The ones we were supposed to be meeting on the way?" Val asked.
"I will try to find them on radio as we go through. If I can, great, I will make adjustments then, but if not, I will get us secure on the ship, then bring a car back myself and look for them. It's only an hour to Petersburg from the base, so I could do that easily. Knowing Tony, and how he plans, they are probably set up on the army base and would have no problem holding out for one more day. He knows my basic plan, so if we don’t find him before much longer he will go in search of the ship himself.” I replied. I was worried about not finding them, or him already taking off to find the ship himself and not making it. I trusted him to keep Dawn and whoever else they gathered safe though, he was good at planning and things like that.
"Most everyone is exhausted, but a lot have been napping whenever possible, so we should have enough rested drivers to go straight through. Especially if they know this is the last leg of the road trip. That should be enough to give them a shot of energy.” Val said. I knew she kept an eye on the group to make sure there was little to no dissention, and to try to help keep stress at a manageable level for now.
"Good. Let's let everyone stretch for a few more minutes, we have watchers on the roofs. At eleven fifteen we will load up and head out. I'll go talk to Jeff now, see if he wants to stick together or try to find a new truck. Have any volunteers ready by quarter after just in case. We're almost done guys, let's just push through a little longer, then our only concern will be food. Safety will be guaranteed.” I told them, hoping a little encouragement would be enough to push through the night. We were so close, I hated that we had this massive of a problem this close to safety.
I walked around, feeling out the mentality of the group. Most were just tired, grumpy from being woken up, some scared at being out and exposed like this at night. I certainly didn’t like it either, but after all we'd been through already, and with the precautions we were taking, I hoped we would be alright. That hope was shattered when I heard the call from a watcher, quickly followed by somebody's screams.
Running as fast as I could towards the screams, I drew my sword as I came around the corner of the RV and saw a fairly good sized group of infected shambling this way. They appeared uncoordinated, which meant they were probably fairly recently infected. They were still dangerous though, so we would couldn’t let our guard down. There was several of my men there already trying to herd women and children past and into the vehicles, while several others had drawn weapons and prepared to fight. Before I could say anything though, the first shots rang out.
Men started firing, and infected started dropping. Some still hadn't got the idea that we had to shoot them in the head and were still aiming for the body. While the infected usually did drop, it shortly got back up and kept coming. A close range shot to the heart would do it, or a head shot, but small arms fire to the body wasn’t enough to do anything but slow them down. I waded into the ones that were getting close to us and started swinging. Aiming for the neck, I tried to duck around and swing from the back so I could hit the brain stem, which stopped them without having to completely decapitate them. I side stepped one and hit him square in the back of the neck, right on target. There was a woman right on top of me then, so I ducked and took her leg out. With her not being able to stand anymore, I backed away to stay out of her reach. I swung and gutted another one, not thinking about it not being a killing shot to these things, but it was effective as it tripped over its own intestines. More shots rang out as my other men kept firing.
I stepped back as the ones with guns were starting to make enough of a dent in the herd that they could keep them at bay. Quickly wiping my blades, I put them away and then headed back to Jeff. I wanted to talk to him about the option of looking for another truck or staying together. If there was infected in the area I wanted him to make the call. As I made it back to the truck, I saw that four men were standing guard around the cab, while Jeff and two others were working on the engine.
"How's the engine? Fixable, or is it for sure shot?" I asked, stepping up to the side.
"Shot to hell. Not only did the transmission go out, it looks like the alternator belt snapped as well. The belt we could fix, but the transmission needs a full service shop to repair." Jeff looked up and told me.
"Alright. Well, I have a couple of options to run by you. Let's take a walk.” I said. Jeff climbed down and we stepped towards the back of the trailer.
"I was looking at the map earlier, and it appears that there is a rest area up ahead about ten miles or so. Its large enough there might be a couple of trucks there that maybe we can hotwire, or hopefully find keys for. With it being dark, I wanted to run it by you as to what you want to do. Go try to find another truck, come back for the trailer; or load what supplies we can in the rest and abandon the whole damn thing. We are about four hours or so from the base I figure. What do you want to do?” I asked him as we walked around the back of the trailer. I didn’t really want to split up the group at night, especially this close to safety, but we needed some of the stuff we would be forced to leave behind.
“Ten miles? Do we really want to split up the group at almost midnight? It would be easier if we had a new rig to take the trailer instead of trying to find places to put the supplies.” He said as we surveyed the group. I could tell he was thinking about it. “Ten miles you said? What would the rest of you do if I do this?”
“If you decide to do this, I will lead the rest to Fort Lee and search for Dawn and Tony. I don’t want to split the group, but we need those supplies, and we need to get to safety. I don’t see how we have much choice here. If you can think of any other ideas, I’m listening.” I replied. Jeff just looked at me, then back at the people we were trying to save.
“No, nothing really comes to mind. It does sound like a tough choice. You don’t want to make it, do you? You want me to decide if I’m going or not, am I right?” he asked me.
“You’re right. I don’t want to make a possibly life or death decision for someone else. I know this group is starting to look to me as a leader, but I’m not ready to make a call that could possibly result in someone else dying, especially if that someone is someone close to me. This is a sucky, bullshit situation, and I just want to get to safety and try to start some semblance of normal again.” I replied, just staring out into the distance. I could hear the hushed voices of the group as they tried to figure out what was going on.
“Fine. Find me four volunteers as guards, I’ll see i
f I can talk Jerry into going, and we will go for a new rig. We will need a van, or else two cars, of course weapons, and in case we stay separated for a bit we will need our own food.” he told me. I knew he didn’t like this idea any more than I did, but it was viable, and if it paid off then we wouldn’t lose the supplies in the trailer. I just looked at him, nodded, and then clapped him on the shoulder. I wasn’t too worried about him, as I knew he could take care of himself, but I was still uneasy about splitting the group up like this, even if it was just for a little while.
I stepped away to find some volunteers for guards for him, and to inform the rest we were about to leave. I hoped to hit Petersburg and Fort Lee by morning. I wanted to find Dawn and Tony and be at the ship by noon. With how this trip has gone, I really didn’t hold out much hope for that plan to happen. I went and found Dave and asked him if anyone had volunteered yet. He gave me some names and I went in search of them. After informing them of the plan, they gathered their weapons and headed towards Jeff and Jerry to sort out a detailed game plan. I left them to it and went to do my own preparations.
After the volunteers gathered their supplies and taken the cars off the tow bars, the rest of us left. I took the lead and continued east towards Petersburg. The miles passed by smoothly, which was a relief as my thoughts were with the others. We made it to Petersburg around three in the morning. It had been years since I had been there, so I wasn’t too familiar with the area anymore. I slowed us down as we entered the city limits and started looking for signs directing us to the fort.
“We have a problem. I think I have a flat, I need to pull over.” came a voice over the radio. I wasn’t sure who it was, but it didn’t really matter. Mumbling under my breath, I applied the brakes and began stopping the RV. I managed to find a small strip mall and pulled into the parking lot. Once we had all came to a stop, we killed the engines and waited a few minutes. I stepped out after strapping on my swords and looked around. The night was still and quiet, with hardly any light from the stars. With the main city power grid down, there were no street lights, and none of the buildings nearby had an emergency generator apparently. Not very many people got out, of which I was glad. I could tell most of the RV with the flat had been emptied however, which made sense as we wouldn’t want to have anyone moving around or the extra weight when we jacked it up to change it. I just hoped we could do so quickly and quietly. I walked up to Dave to have him start gathering guards. I then found Vince and had him start changing the tire.