The steep incline ran up to a railroad track. Close to being out of water and all their food already gone they opted to follow the tracks and see where they went. If nothing else, it was better than staring at squirrels for another day. If they didn’t find some food soon the squirrels were going to be in serious danger. They’d held off on hunting them for now because shooting a squirrel wasn’t the worth the risk of attracting Zombies. If it came down to dying from starvation or shooting some squirrels though then they’d just have to run that risk. They’d also seen a few deer running around. A venison steak sounded a lot better than a burnt squirrel on a stick.
“You think they’re still running trains?” Ritz asked. He was watching Kyler carefully to make sure he didn’t pitch over headfirst or anything. The heavily scarred young man looked like holy hell. Ritz was super impressed the kid was still standing after all the abuse he’d taken. When he’d helped Kyler get dressed, he’d noticed all of the other scars from former battles. This was a tough kid.
“Wouldn’t surprise me. When you think about it a train is pretty Zombie proof as long as you don’t use the cars with the windows in them. If a bunch of Zombies show up just sit there until they leave. Probably not something you could use a lot. The noise would eventually just have too many of the infected hanging out around the tracks. You could use them to move a lot of troops and armor though. That’d be pretty slick.” Kyler answered.
That was the other thing that kept surprising Ritz about Kyler. Not only was the kid tough he was smart too. He was always thinking about everything from a bunch of different angles. He’d have fit right in with any of the special forces teams Ritz had ever been a part of.
Four hours of limping along the trail later they were caught. A patrol on horseback came up out of nowhere and demanded their identification. Kyler calmly stripped off his shirt and turned around to show them the Brotherhood brand. He gave them the name of one of the Brotherhood he’d known when he first joined. He knew better than to use his real name. They were going to check him against the database at some point. The official database probably contained some very uncomplimentary notes about him at this point.
“What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” One of the men asked.
“We were guarding a secret base. Now it’s a secret crater. It got bombed a few days ago. We barely made it out alive.” Kyler answered. He knew he was taking a risk talking about the secret base. People in the New America were typically a lot more protective of revealing secrets.
“Ok. Let’s have a look at you. You look like hell. Secret base?” The man on horseback responded. That guy and the others hopped down to give Ritz and Kyler food and water while checking Kyler’s bandages.
“We could tell you but then we’d have to kill you. Based on the bombing and everything I’d say it’s safe to assume it’s no longer a secret. If the enemy knows about it not a lot in harm in letting you guys know.” Ritz said sarcastically.
“How the hell are you still alive?” One of the men wondered aloud staring at the myriad of battle scars carved into Kyler’s flesh. Luckily, they hadn’t had to remove his pants to check out the wound. The giant pig bite scar on his leg was always a fun topic of conversation. People tended to shoot people who had large bite mark scars on their bodies. You could never be too careful.
“Just another day in the apocalypse.” Kyler answered. The men laughed and nodded along with him. It was easy to vilify the people in the south. The military men fighting for the New America weren’t all psychopaths though. Once you got to know them you realized they were just victims of geography. Everyone was trying desperately to grasp onto something that was real. Something that had a future and the New American militia had that going for it. It was definitely better than being one of the lower ranking classes serving the New American armies.
“How far are we from your base?” Ritz asked.
“We’re not assigned to a regular base.” The patrol leader answered. “We’re part of a patrol trying to make sure the tracks are cleared so the train doesn’t have to stop. A train you’ll most likely be riding. Doesn’t sound like you’re needed to guard that crater you mentioned any longer. Commands making a big push up north. They need everyone they can get is what I‘m hearing.”
“Sounds about right.” Kyler said.
“Hopefully it’ll give us a ride right up to the enemy’s door. As long as there aren’t a bunch of Zombies standing around on the tracks, we should be good to go. You guys happen to know horses?” The patrol leader asked.
Kyler shook his head no while Ritz nodded that he could. They sat Kyler up on one of their extra mounts and had Ritz lead it. They were headed south to continue sweeping the track until they ran into the train. Once they made contact with the train, they were going to board it horses and all. Kyler asked when they expected to catch up with the train and they let him know they’d actually already expected to see it today. The fact that they hadn’t had them worried something might’ve happened. In which case they were stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with orders to keep on riding south until they found it.
An hour later as they were riding around a particularly curvy portion of the track, they saw the train engine sitting up ahead. As they drew closer, they noticed a couple of figures moving around the front of the engine. They took the horses into the woods and tied them up to proceed on foot. The patrol leader left Kyler and Ritz behind to watch the horses. Once he’d made sure they were good with the horses he rolled out with the rest of the men to see if they could figure out what was going on with the train.
“Now would be a good time to take off if that’s the plan.” Ritz brought up. He gestured at the horses with saddlebags stuffed with supplies.
“I’m not really liking the horse-riding thing. I think it may be more fun getting home on the train.” Kyler said.
“True. Nothing like a nice long train ride. Hopefully we can make a bunch of new friends. Just remember that we’ll need to kill them all before our stop.” Ritz said.
Kyler had been about to respond when one of the men came jogging back.
“It’s all good. Some trees fell over the tracks and they had to stop to clear off the track. Zombies caught up to them while they were stopped so they had their bow guys killing them from the top of the cars.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go get our tickets punched.” Ritz answered with a friendly smile.
Chapter 17: Willy Wonka’s Wild Ride
Zombies started slamming into the sides of the suburban before they even made it onto I-40. The service road at the edge of the muddy field angled up the side of an incline that dropped them off on the side of the interstate. The big trucks were all the four-wheel drive models, or they wouldn’t have ever made it out of the field. As it was there were plenty of heart pounding moments when they thought they were screwed. The guy Bryan had sent to drive them was world class. It made sense now why he hadn’t just let them drive themselves out.
The new driver introduced himself as Phil. Randy had to ask him to repeat his introduction since he had a hard time listening with Zombies climbing up the front of the truck. An unwelcome side effect of the chain link fencing welded around the windows was that it gave the Zombies something to hold on to once they got close. Kyler had been the one who told them about the trucks the Brotherhood used that had web cameras attached to them so the driver could see out of the windows even when they were covered in Zombies. The settlements hadn’t received the memo yet for that particular apocalypse hack.
Phil agreed it sounded like a great idea. He smirked as he said it. Staring at a monitor that clearly showed the road in front of them would obviously be better than trying to peek through the crotch of the infected man currently spread-eagled on the windshield. They were bouncing up the road at a speed Randy considered very unsafe. It seemed especially risky considering the hazardous road conditions were only made worse by the visibility issues. It was hard driving when you could barely see due to a
pair of extremely soiled boxers hanging off of an infected freak clinging to the windshield.
Somehow Phil managed to get them on the main road without flipping the top-heavy beast they were riding in. They’d been told the road all the way to the settlements was kept cleared. Or, it had been until recently. There was no telling what was going on now that the Brotherhood was invading them. Bridges were probably going to be blown up. They’d be lucky if they weren’t killed in a friendly fire ambush. They had radios mounted in each of the trucks but there was no telling if any of the outposts were manned or not. Randy flipped through the channels as they drove hoping to catch any random transmissions that may provide them with very much needed intel.
Kelly kept the kids focused on the movie. They’d found a whole bunch of headsets in the back. A couple of tries on the radio presets had gotten those working. That meant everyone in the back could focus on Willy Wonka and his factory versus the sore covered mostly nude cannibals climbing the fencing all over the truck they were riding in. Phil had tried a couple of sharp turns to fling the creepy crawlers off the truck, but they weren’t letting go for anything. He gave up when it became obvious that they’d hang on until their parts fell off.
They lined up into a three-vehicle convoy tearing up the interstate. Frank was in the lead truck with a few of his men while Bryan was in the third truck with everyone else. They’d have looked pretty bad ass if the secret service sized SUVs had all been black. The two white and one silver ones they’d ended up with were rocking right along though. Not that the Zombies cared one way or the other. All the Zombies knew was that any moving vehicle was basically a lunch box they needed to catch and rip open.
The interstate was as cleared as promised in the brochures. If the stubborn Zombies would just finally fall off the fencing, then they’d be good to go. Randy and Phil were amusing themselves coming up with creative ways to try and get them to let go. Phil was starting to sound like he was ready to try out some of the less crazy ideas. Staring at a pair of boil covered legs leading up to a piss stained pair of boxers half covered by loose folds of fat was starting to get to him. Randy had been quick to point out that it’d be even worse if the boxers weren’t there. That conversation had gone downhill fast enough that Kelly had been happy all the girls were wearing headsets with the volume turned up to watch the movie.
Signs on the side of the interstate indicated they were coming up on the intersection with I-77. Randy and Phil quieted down so they could pay attention to what was going on up ahead. Randy turned the radio to the channel they’d opted to use for communicating between the cars. Radio silence was the word of the day unless these was an emergency. The enemy would be trying to pick up signals the same way Randy had been earlier. Although they probably wouldn’t get bored and give up after only doing it for a few minutes.
The lead truck brake lights flashed on up ahead of them. Phil cussed under his breath as he applied the brakes and swerved to the side to miss crashing into them. He’d barely seen the brake lights thanks to the Zombie trying to chew through the chain link fence on the windshield. He pulled up parallel to the lead truck to see what was going on. The truck driven by Bryan slowed to a stop on the other side of them. The window on the lead truck went down.
“We just wanted to help get those Zombies off for you.” Frank yelled waving his arm around outside his window.
That had the desired effect of getting the Zombies attention. All of them jumped off the trucks they were trying to get into and charged at Franks truck which was already accelerating rapidly away. Phil put the pedal down on their truck as soon as the last Zombie had jumped off. He ran over one of the infected that wasn’t able to get around them fast enough.
“It’s so much nicer driving without having to stare at Zombie crotch.” Phil exclaimed happily. He was even smiling now. He’d had a prominent scowl the last half hour of driving since they’d collected their infected hitchhikers.
“How’s the movie?” Randy asked loudly enough to be heard over the headsets he thought.
When no one responded Phil said it must be pretty good and they both laughed like it was the funniest joke ever. Getting those infected off the truck had been a huge morale booster. Randy was still chuckling when they got to the intersection with I-77. They were weary of the intersections being booby trapped or setup to use as ambush spots. Either the settlements or the Brotherhood may have them rigged to explode. It’d make more sense for the settlements to have done it but who needs sense when you have explosives. They’d be just as dead from explosives set by their own side as from the enemy shooting them.
Frank was cautious by nature. That caution showed as he slowed to about twenty miles per hour to pass through the intersection. Randy was wondering what kind of snacks they had when he saw Franks truck suddenly accelerate away from them. Phil didn’t need a written invitation to put the hammer down. Randy was pushed back in his seat by the sudden acceleration. He looked to his right and saw a whole freakin’ convoy rolling up I-77 towards them. That explained the need for speed.
In no time flat all three of their trucks were rocketing down the road at their top speeds. It appeared that they’d taken off fast enough to avoid the convoy spotting them. Kyler was feeling like they should be safe as long as they were able to keep up this crazy speed without crashing. Then the lead truck with Frank in it exploded.
Phil dodged the burning pile of metal in the road ahead of them. He slammed on the brakes and drove the skidding truck up onto the weed covered side of the interstate.
“Everyone out!” He yelled.
Randy flung open his door and ran around to the back of the truck pulling kids out as fast as he could. He grabbed bags of their gear and flung them on the ground. Phil was telling them all to run for the woods.
“We’ve got to go man! Screw that shit!” Bryan yelled running up behind him. He grabbed Randy and shoved him towards the woods. Randy started running with the two big canvas bags he’d grabbed and his personal go bag. The kids were already disappearing into the tree line.
The SUV they’d just been in exploded. Randy was pitched forward. His feet flew over his head. He landed painfully with a long piece of metal stuck completely through his hand. All around him everyone was getting up and running for the tree line. Bryan grabbed him and pulled him to his feet.
“Run!” Kelly was standing in the tree line screaming.
Half running and half being carried by Bryan he made it to the tree line. Bryan pointed at his hand.
“That sucks. Stand still.” Bryan reached over and grabbed Randy by the wrist. Before he knew what was happening Bryan had yanked the piece of metal clean through his hand. In shock Randy watched as Bryan wrapped gauze around the bloody hole.
“You ok?” Kelly asked running up to him.
Randy was still trying to catch up. Less than five minutes ago his biggest issue had been trying to figure out where Kelly had hidden the best snacks. Now he had a bloody hole in his hand he could easily stick a pencil through. Everything had gone to hell in a remarkably short period of time.
“We’ve got to go now. The Zombies will be swarming this area in a few minutes after all that noise. Plus, that damned convoy will be swinging by any time now. You good to make a run for it? We’ll have to carry the kids.” Bryan said taking control of the situation. Randy was happy for that since he was still completely out of it. He needed to get his head in the game for his family’s sake.
“Yeah. Let’s go.” He said with way more enthusiasm than he actually felt.
Phil grabbed Doreen, Bryan picked up Zoey and Caitlyn grabbed Ali. Kelly was keeping a close eye on Randy who’d obviously added another concussion to his medical history. The sounds of screeching were becoming more prominent. The good thing about the Zombies coming was that the enemy convoy wouldn’t be able to stop and send out soldiers to hunt them down. Of course, they wouldn’t need to since the Zombies would be hunting them.
They ran. Randy ran through the pain of hi
s newest medical trauma. He puked as he ran getting it all over the front of his shirt. A thoroughly grossed out Kelly nodding to herself at the confirmation that her husband was once again suffering from a concussion. They ran for about thirty minutes before Randy collapsed to the ground weakly waving at them to all keep going.
“I’ll catch up.” He said when Kelly squatted down next to him and tried to tug him to his feet. He picked his head up, smiled at her and puked for about a minute straight. He puked until there was nothing left in his stomach for him to get rid of. After that he dry heaved a little bit before collapsing to the forest floor and closing his eyes. He definitely didn’t look like he was planning on getting up and running again any time soon.
“We need to get moving.” Bryan said walking back to see what the holdup was.
“Why can’t we rest here for a few minutes while he pulls himself together? We’ve got to be a solid mile from the road now. We should be pretty safe from the convoy soldiers or any Zombies who went to check out the explosions.” Kelly said. Caitlyn stood behind her mom nodding along with everything she was saying.
Zombies! (Book 7): Still Standing Page 14