by J. W. Vohs
There was nothing he could do about the ankle-biter because two others hit him at the same time and sent him sprawling to the road. Jack rolled free of the scrum and jumped to his feet to find another zombie reaching for him. With no good angle for swinging the mace Jack simply reached out and grabbed the zombie’s hand, using the creature’s momentum to sling it to the ground. Breathing heavily he looked around with the eyes of a nearly-crazed beast beset by a pack of hounds, seeing two more of the creatures stumbling into the road in search of a meal. These two were moving slower due to horrible wounds they had received in their legs and arms, giving Jack the chance to measure his swings and take them both down with deadly precision.
He spun around with the mace extended, but nowhere in his field of vision did he see a standing threat. Accepting this new reality he turned back to the zombies now regaining their feet, and viciously crushed their skulls despite the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him. He stepped over to the zombie with the sword stuck in its head and pulled the blade free, then quickly looked around for his pistol. At that point a bit of reason managed to claw through the red haze of combat rage that had consumed him during the onslaught, and he noticed that there was literally a pile of zombies all around him. The pistol was probably under the mound of corpses, and he didn’t have the energy or the time to look for it as he could hear more branches snapping and moans floating out of the nearby brush. He stepped back to the girl and looked her over, considering it a miracle that no zombies had targeted her as an easy meal during the struggle, and that none of the bodies had fallen on her. He couldn’t even see a spot of gore from the horrific battle within six feet of the injured girl. He looked at her face and saw that her eyes were open. She actually tried to smile and croaked, “Wow . . .” before passing out once again.
Ten minutes later Jack was outside the gates of The Castle, honking his horn continuously and shouting at the guards to open up. Unfortunately for the wounded girl, the guards stuck to their training. They weren’t opening the gates at three in the morning without RRT approval. A minute later Tina came running up, shouting to the guards to open up and let Jack come in. He drove straight to the back door, shouting out of the window for Tina to wake up the doc and all the nurses. Less than two minutes later Doc Redders was in the trauma center with his wife, Julie, while Deb was in the next room cleaning up and pulling on scrubs.
Jack had carried the wounded girl into the clinic and placed her on a gurney, not sure if he would contaminate the trauma center if he went in without disinfecting himself first. He quickly told Doc everything he knew about the wound, which wasn’t much beyond the obvious, but he made sure that the medical team knew that the girl had lain helpless while zombies were brutally slaughtered all around her. Jack was worried about the possibility that the virus could spread through zombie blood coming into contact with an open wound, and he wanted the nurses to check the girl’s entire body for bite wounds too. Finally accepting that he could do no more for the injured teen, Jack headed off with Tina to brief the rest of the RRT.
Carter was waiting in the command center, and he had awakened John and brought him along as well. Once again Bobby Crane was on duty, and rounding out the team was Bill Haines, the teacher rescued just a few nights before. Jack looked at Carter with a raised eyebrow when he noticed Haines, but his buddy just shrugged and explained that the big guy was a beast in training and ready for a fight. Jack was too tired to argue, and figured that sooner or later everyone who wanted to survive in the new world was going to have to fight for the opportunity. He doubted that any of them would ever truly be ready for what they were going to face out there; they were just going to have to jump into the fray and learn, or die, from experience.
Jack sighed, “Cell phones are out everywhere, and I imagine power will go soon. I’m taking radios for each of the safe-houses so we can be in direct contact with everyone who’s on our side. I’m going to need you all to take care of Hunter’s Ridge addition for me. That’s where I found the girl. I put down a bunch of them getting her out of there, but there could be a hundred more for all I know. Just clean them up in the morning and check for survivors. Guys, you know it’s hard for me to delegate anything like this, but I’m exhausted and I think tomorrow is going to be the day the safe-houses draw some attention. So once I place those radios I’ll be hitting the sack. Please, go in hard tomorrow. Take at least four fire-teams; that place is a nest. Any questions?”
“Any idea how the girl ended up shot?” Bobby inquired.
“No, but it seems like a large entry wound for there to be no exit. I’m guessing she was hit by a stray bullet, either a ricochet or a long range shot. Still, keep everyone on the lookout for people who are shooting at anything that moves. There’s going to be a lot of panicked individuals out there.
Tina asked, “Should we worry about sound control tomorrow?”
“Set up Bobby and Todd Evans on their M1A’s someplace with a clear field of fire and no possibility of any zombies reaching them. If any of you get into a tight spot they can bail you out, but yeah, if you can do it without unsuppressed firearms I think it would be safer.”
Carter stood up and rubbed Jack’s hair, “Sheriff, ya should let us take over this war for a while. Ya’ll been killin’ so many zombies the rest of us need a chance to catch up.”
CHAPTER 14
Unfortunately for Jack his evening wasn’t over; he still had some radios to deliver. Also, before he headed back into town he decided to try to call his brother, David, figuring that he might not have another chance before the land-line telephones crashed as well. He called the apartment first and got the answering machine. “David, you there? Pick up if you’re there, it’s Jack.”
After waiting a few moments he continued, “Listen, David, our cell service is down, and power will be next. I won’t be able to reach you soon. I hope you’re ok. I love you. Be careful.”
Jack sat for a few seconds wondering if there was any point in trying David’s cell, but finally figured it couldn’t hurt to try and dialed the number. He couldn’t have been more surprised to hear his brother pick up on the second ring. “Jack, is this really you man?”
“It’s me. Are you ok?”
“Compared to most of the people in the area, yeah, I’m ok for the moment.”
Jack felt relief wash over him, “Tell me where you are and what you’re doing.”
“We just got to Christy’s parent’s house out in Westlake, about ten miles from downtown.”
“What are things like over there?”
“Cleveland’s dying, Jack; everything between here and there is pure chaos. The virus is everywhere; the infected are roaming the streets in mobs and attacking everyone they see.”
“Did you get the packages I shipped to you?”
“Jack, the things in those boxes are the only reason I’m still alive. My apartment building was overrun by the time Christy and I decided to try to try to make it out to her parents’ place.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Well, we could hear them attacking throughout the building, and the streets were filled with panicked people being chased by zombies. Too many of them were being caught; Christy is pretty traumatized.”
“She doing better now?”
“Yeah, she more than held her own on the way out here, but once we reached her parents she just fell apart. He mom gave her a Zanex, and she finally went to sleep. I’m sure she’ll be better tomorrow, but this whole thing has everybody freaked out.”
Jack agreed, “Yeah, it’s the same way around here. But listen to me, David, this is our new reality. The only way you can keep yourself and Christy alive is by not freaking out.”
“I know, I know. We kept ourselves together on the trip out here. We put on the gear you sent before we left the apartment, and carried the weapons too. We both killed several of those things on the way down to the parking garage, and that was after we got mobbed in the lobby and pushed our way through.”
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“Did either of you get bit?”
“Yeah, several times each. But none of the bites broke the skin on either of us. We’re covered in bruises though.”
Jack let out the long, thankful breath he had been unconsciously holding during David’s story. “How did you escape the city?”
“Christy has a Range Rover, or we never would have made it out of Cleveland. All the roads are gridlocked, so we literally ran over everything in our path, including zombies. Have you seen the things these new Range Rovers can do?”
“Yeah, we had one here at The Castle before we decided on Hummers and Jeeps. I can’t imagine a better factory model vehicle to have in that situation. Did people mess with you?”
“Yeah, several people tried to carjack us, but they ran off when we pointed our guns at them.”
Jack hesitated a moment before declaring, “David, for the rest of our lives, don’t you ever point that gun at anyone or anything without pulling the trigger. Do you hear me?”
“Hey relax, they ran off and we didn’t have to hurt them.”
“You got lucky, and eventually luck runs out. Just trust me on this; have I been wrong about anything since this outbreak began?”
“No, and Jack, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you from the beginning.”
“Too late for that now, just try to listen to me from here on out. Now, how are you guys set for food and water?”
“Good, I think. Christy’s dad was addicted to Doomsday Preppers on cable, and he’s been storing food, water, guns, ammo, medical supplies, you name it.”
Jack smiled, “You are on a lucky streak, bro. How safe is the house?”
“Well, Jim, that’s Christy’s dad, he was following this story since it first broke on the net and he got this place ready for a disaster. He basically tried to hurricane-proof the house, you know, plywood over the windows, disconnected the gas, that sort of stuff. He filled all the tubs and other containers with water, has a few hundred more gallons down in the basement. He thinks we have food for at least six months.”
“Ok, everything’s great so far. Now, are you guys being quiet?”
“Oh yeah, I’ve read your manual, and Jim’s reading it now. No lights or any type of motion are visible either.”
“Good, now I want you to start on another project. Is the house a two-story?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I want you guys to move half of your supplies to the second floor, then cut away about five or six feet of stairs. Use a ladder to get up and down, and if they manage to break through your defenses you can use height to protect yourselves. You don’t want to be trapped in the basement.”
David thought about his brother’s advice and agreed, “Makes sense. I’ll talk to Jim about it right away. We have about twenty zombies outside right now because they saw, or heard us drive into the garage when we arrived.”
“Well, they’ll probably move on after a while if you don’t give them a reason to stick around. As far as I can tell they don’t have a sense of smell, and even if they do it’s just a matter of time before someone comes down your street and the zombies go after them. Just play it cool for now.”
David grew thoughtful, “Jack, I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you until it was too late.”
“Stop apologizing. You plan on marrying Christy someday?”
“What? I mean, yeah, if the world ever returns to normal we’ll have a regular wedding, but we sorta married ourselves on the way out of town. It’s official enough for us, even without the paperwork.”
“So she’s the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with; the woman you’ll have children with?”
“Yeah, Jack, she is, but what does that have to do with me not listening to you?”
“David, what kind of man would you be if you left your wife and her parents behind? Do you really think you could have convinced them that what I was telling you was true before it was too late?”
David considered the question, “No, they wouldn’t have come with me. I probably could have dragged Christy along, but she never would have forgiven me for leaving her parents behind.”
“All right then, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. I sent you what you needed in order to have a fighting chance, and you just managed to evacuate from one of the largest cities in North America without being eaten. I’m proud as hell of you, David. I really didn’t know you had the ability to do something like that. Sometimes there is no good decision; you just have to do what you know is right. You stayed with the woman you love, and if you wouldn’t have done that it would have haunted you for the rest of your life. You did the right thing.
“Your next challenge will be even more difficult. This is the end of the world as we know it. I hate to sound so pessimistic, but I doubt that ten percent of earth’s population is going to survive the next year. Even those who manage to avoid infection are going to starve, get sick, have accidents, any number of things that we didn’t have to worry about much before the virus.”
“My God, Jack, is it really going to be that bad?”
“David, what you saw driving out of Cleveland is happening everywhere around the globe as we speak. I seriously doubt that twenty percent of Noble County is still alive based on the numbers I’ve dealt with today.”
“You have to be off on that, Jack—”
“I hope so, but I’m somewhere in the ballpark. The bottom line is that this is an apocalypse, David, nothing will ever be the same again. If we win the war and mankind isn’t exterminated, it will take decades to rebuild what we had. The reason I’m telling you this is because sooner or later you will have to leave that house; you can’t spend the rest of your life there. Somehow you’re going to have to locate and join another group of survivors. At The Castle, for example, we have years of supplies stored, but we also have livestock, seed, all kinds of agricultural implements, and we will use those things to build a sustainable life for our children and grandchildren. You eventually have to join a community of survivors in order to truly live life and raise a family.”
David didn’t disagree, but he had his own perspective. “I want to be with my brothers and sister; I want to be with you at The Castle for the long term.”
“I just don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future.”
“I’m only a few hundred miles away, Jack, we can make it over there.”
Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, “Listen, you might as well be on the moon as things stand right now. I really don’t know how you made it out of Cleveland to be honest with you. Between you and The Castle are two million zombies, plenty of desperate survivors, blocked roads, collapsed bridges; I could go on but you get the idea.”
David replied quietly, “I believe you, but we’ll be coming anyway. You said we would have to find a community if we intended to survive—well, we intend to survive, and I suspect that your community is about the best prepared group we could ever hope to find. I’m sure Christy’s family will agree with me—we need to plan for our future in a world unlike anything we’ve ever imagined.”
Jack knew the tone, and with it realized that his little brother would eventually try to get to him no matter what he said. Finally he decided to give advice. “Wait a couple of months for things to shake out a bit. One thing we don’t know is how long zombies remain active; for all we know they may soon decay into harmless corpses. When we end this call try to get on the net and download every map you can find on the area between you and me. If possible, get your hands on gazeteers for Indiana and Ohio. Every bookstore and library has them. Bring gas cans and siphoning equipment. Sacrifice food for guns and ammo. Strap bikes to the top of your vehicle in case you finally reach a point where the Land Rover won’t make it. Only camp in strong shelters, hopefully a good distance off the ground. Don’t trust anyone out there, and remember that you shoot anything you pull your gun on.”
David started to object, but Jack kept talking. “Read that manual
I sent until you have it memorized. Train everyone who will be coming with you. Always armor up when you’re on the road.”
Finally Jack could think of no more advice to give, but he knew that an hour from now a hundred things would be going through his head that he should have included. David interrupted his reverie by promising, “I’ll do all of that, Jack, and anything else we figure out as this thing unfolds. I know you’re scared to death for me, but to be honest, this is another one of those decisions that I don’t think I could make any differently and live with myself. Besides, you and I both know that there isn’t any place not controlled by the government that’s as good as what you’ve prepared there. I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering what’s happened to you guys, I just can’t.”
Jack couldn’t deny his brother’s logic, but felt as if he was sending him to certain death out there on the road. “Listen, David, this will probably be the last time I talk to you before you hit the road. Power will be out soon, and cell service here is already dead. I want you to know how much I love you before I go; I hope you know how proud I am of you.”
David could feel the tears sliding down his cheeks upon hearing Jack’s words; his big brother had never been the kind of guy to express much emotion with his siblings. “Jack, when you were away fighting in the war I never told you that I prayed for you every day. I never told you that I talked about you to my friends constantly. I never told you that you were my hero. Hell, you still are my hero. I love you too, and tell Carey, Tom, and Sarah how much I love and miss them.”
Jack was having trouble keeping his own tears in check. “I will, David, I will.”
“Jack, promise me one thing before we hang up.”
“Anything in my power, just name it.”
“Well, if I don’t make it over there and you guys never see me again, make sure you win this damn war. Then make a good life for yourself and all the people over there. Find a woman to love and make babies, maybe even name one after me. I’ll feel a lot better if I know you’re going to make it, so promise me.”