by White, A. L.
After the last of what they could take was loaded, Zoe herded everyone into the RV except Al, Lori, and Virginia. They would ride in the truck and lead the way to the barn, where Jermaine would be waiting with Joey and the bus. Once there the thought was, they would have a few minutes to decide who would ride where, and how they would rotate drivers.
***
The move from the new school to the old school was going well, with few difficulties. Charlie noticed that most of the survivors looked like they were a living version of the zombies. They went through the motions of moving around, but their eyes and facial expressions were blank. Many, Charlie thought, probably had to do what he had done this morning just to survive in this hell. He also noticed, when he talked to them, or had even walked by them, they seemed to come to life just a little bit. Probably because he had known most of them his whole life.
Boo Peterson saw Charlie watching the last of the move and walked over to him, extending his hand. Charlie shook his hand not knowing why, other than it was a warm greeting to another human being.
“I think I have a way to secure the yard for the night. It isn’t anything to keep permanent, but it would hold until morning,” Boo said.
“How’s that, Mr. Peterson?”
“Charlie, you can call me Beau or Boo, if you’re more comfortable with that. I used some of that chain link fence that I took from the hardware store and attached it to the bottom of a few of the school buses. All we have to do is drive them in front of the entrances.”
“Do you really think we need that?”
“I don’t rightly know, to be honest with you. Sure, wouldn’t hurt having them blocked off, just in case,” Boo replied.
Charlie shook his head not wanting to believe any of this was real. “I guess you’re right, Mr. Peterson--I mean, Beau.”
“There is one other thing that we need to talk about, Charlie. I know you have had a lot placed on your plate today…but this can’t be overlooked.”
“Sure, Beau, let’s have it then,” Charlie replied.
“It’s like this, Charlie. I went over the amount of food and water they moved over here today. Water isn’t a problem, because I can tap us into the river and pump water into the place for as long as we need. We can use the generator, or I can work something up using the wind or a bike.” Boo paused to make sure Charlie was following. “Food, now that’s another matter entirely. You have about thirty survivors so far, counting you, me, the Doctor and the group that came from the new school. You have enough food for about three days; unless we go on strict rations.”
“There has to be more food in the houses,” Charlie said out loud as he was thinking.
“That’s my thinking exactly, Charlie! The whole world out there is just one big super store filled with supplies.”
Charlie nodded his head yes. “I will see if Doc has a truck that I can use to go shopping then.”
“I think I will come along for the ride; we don’t need a truck; we can use mine.”
Charlie motioned for Boo to lead the way to his truck. Boo pointed over by the main stairs that rose up from Main Street into the school yard. “It’s just down there, Charlie. I will meet you there in about five minutes.” Charlie nodded his head and started off to Boo’s truck.
He wasn’t there very long when Boo appeared with Juan Martinez and his oldest boy in tow. “I thought maybe we should split the search up between two groups,” Boo stated.
Charlie nodded his head in agreement. “Juan, Carlos, good to see you. Thanks for lending a hand,” Charlie greeted them.
“Anything we can do to help you, Charlie. Anything at all,” Juan replied.
“Thank you all the same, guys,” Charlie said again, looking them over. “You look like you’re going hunting for big game instead of canned beans.”
“Charlie, we don’t know what’s in those houses,” Boo stated, handing him a handgun.
Charlie shook his head no several times as images from this morning flooded his head. Deep down, he knew that Boo was right; the world had moved on beyond the time of humans. Still, deep down inside of him, in a place where no creature or man could ever possibly find, there was his Annie. In that place there was no need for firearms or scrounging for food.
Charlie took the gun, “Let’s get started then, gentlemen. Juan, you and your son start over on Front Street. Boo and I will start on Elm Street and meet you back here in the middle.”
Charlie and Boo watched as Juan and Carlos rode off toward Front Street in the recently commandeered flatbed from the hardware store. Then they headed off toward Elm Street themselves with very little conversation until they reached their destination.
“Where do you want to start? Any preferences?” Boo asked Charlie.
“I think here on the corner is as good a place to start as any,” Charlie replied.
“I will go up this side, Charlie, while you go up the other side. We can meet at the Preacher’s house and do that one together.” Charlie nodded his head and started toward the corner house on the other side of the street. It seemed odd to be going in other people’s houses looking for things to take. He caught himself knocking on the front door and standing there, waiting for someone to answer; even had to stop himself from walking off when no one did.
Looking across the street he saw old Boo carrying out what looked like canned goods and coats. He gave a quick wave and Boo motioned for him to get a move on. Charlie frowned and reached down for the door handle. It was unlocked, to his surprise, so he went inside as if he had personally known the family that lived here. There was a pile of clothes in the front room, and all of the non-perishable food was neatly placed on the dining room table. In the kitchen it wasn’t as neat; cabinets were all thrown open, and from what Charlie could see, they were bare. Charlie didn’t bother with the double door refrigerator; nothing in there would be worth taking now.
A quick search upstairs offered little that could be used from Charlie’s perspective, so he returned to the first floor and started carrying the food out to the truck. It looked like Boo was a few houses further down the street than he was, and the back of the truck bore the fruits of his labor. Charlie had hoped that he would live as long as Boo, and he also hoped that he had Boo’s energy level when he got to that age. With Annie gone Charlie wasn’t certain whether to think like that or not anymore.
Most of the houses didn’t have a lot to offer, at least with respect to what they needed in the immediate future.
Boo had finished his side of the street and come over to take the next house after the one Charlie was in. They leap frogged each other until they reached the Preacher’s house.
At the front door, Boo started giving Charlie hand signals. Charlie really had no clue as to what they meant. Boo, exhausted by Charlie’s lack of action, kicked the front door in and entered the foyer. Charlie pointed his gun toward the back hall, where he heard a scratching sound. It reminded him of the scratching a puppy would make on the door to get back inside after being let out. Only this was slow and constant, without pause, more like a machine. The farther into the hall Charlie went, the louder the scratching became. Fixated on the scratching, Charlie was ignoring the doorways he passed. Just beyond the third door Charlie heard what sounded like an explosion, followed by a crushing weight falling upon him. The back of his head smacked the floor, sending white sparks off behind his eye. By reflex, he squeezed the trigger, discharging his gun. The weight stilled its movement.
Slowly the weight was lifted off him, and he could see Boo’s face near to his. Boo’s lips were moving rapidly, but Charlie couldn’t hear any words. All he could hear was a loud ringing that filled his head. Boo pulled him to his feet and pressed him against the wall, forcing the gun back into Charlie’s shaking hand. On the floor lay what could have been the preacher’s wife, possibly one of his daughters. At least that was what Charlie thought; he couldn’t really tell from the bits of grotesque face remaining.
Boo motioned for Charlie to stay
and made his way to the door at the end of the hall. Charlie couldn’t hear the scratching anymore over the ringing. At that moment, for the first time in his life, Charlie knew what it meant to trust another with his life. An eighty-six-year-old man with a world war two era M1 Garand held Charlie’s life in his ancient, shaky hands.
At the door Boo stopped, turned around, and pointed at Charlie, then at his own eyes, and finally, at the door. Charlie drew a deep breath and nodded yes. When Charlie raised the gun up and pointed it at the door, Boo nodded his head and held up his open hand. One by one he bent a finger closed to his palm, counting down to when he would go in. Charlie tensed with fear as the second finger closed, then the last one. With a swift kick, Boo knocked the door off of its hinges, inward into the room. Charlie nearly squeezed off a round as it landed on the floor and the dust rose from beneath it. Like a man of thirty, Boo charged in the room never leaving Charlie’s sight.
Charlie saw the defensive stance Boo took; then Boo lowered the M1 to his side and made a ‘calm down’ gesture with his free hand. Turning to Charlie, he repeated the gesture letting Charlie know it was ok. Stumbling forward, Charlie entered behind Boo and immediately saw the woman cowering in the corner. He wasn’t sure of her name, but he knew that she had been an assistant to the Preacher for a few years. He felt guilty that he couldn’t remember her name. Boo helped her to her feet and looked her over. There wasn’t much left to her fingernails, from the looks of it she had been scratching on the door.
Charlie was starting to be able to hear again, as the ringing in his head died down. The woman said she was ok and asked if they could help her get out of there. Boo assured her and walked her past Charlie, out to the truck.
Charlie headed back up the hall pausing at every doorway and checking every room, before stopping when he found the kitchen. The refrigerator door was wide open; the smell of the rotten food was horrible. Pushing it shut, Charlie started going through the cabinets, but found only a can of condensed milk. Shaking his head, he wondered how many ran out of food. A moment of sadness overcame him as he started thinking about the preacher’s family; what had gone through their minds when they first realized that there wasn’t any food left. A rapid firing of shots from outside brought Charlie back to the moment.
“You Ok?” Charlie yelled on the way out the front door, startling Boo.
“We’re good out here. That sounded like it came from the other side of town,” Boo replied.
“Let’s go check it out. Juan and his boy may have run into something like we did!”
Once inside of the truck, Boo tossed an old towel that he had pulled from behind the seat, over to Charlie. “Rip this up and wrap it around her fingers.”
Catching the towel, Charlie saw that it was covered in oil or grease of some kind. He tossed it out the window. Reaching down to the bottom of his t-shirt, Charlie ripped off a big patch. Wrapping her hands, the best he could, he looked over at Boo, “I don’t know if they are infected, but I am fairly certain they would be if I used that dirty old towel.”
“Point taken! Drop her off at the school, or go look for Juan, bringing her with?” Boo asked.
“No time. Bring her with.”
“Hold on, then,” Boo stepped down on the petal, hard, causing the truck to lurch forward.
They found the flatbed parked mid-way down Front Street, in front of the Donaldson’s house, loaded down with supplies. Boo eased the truck up along the curb, blocking the driveway. The stairs leading up to the wrap around porch were covered in blood and bits of human flesh. From the distance, Charlie couldn’t tell if it was Juan or his son. It could have been both, he thought to himself.
“Charlie, I want you to hang back with the girl. Move over here behind the wheel and keep the motor running,” Boo ordered as he exited the cab.
“I don’t think you should go in by yourself,” Charlie replied.
“Probably not. Still, there is no reason that I can see for both of us to die today,” Boo said with a smile.
Charlie watched Boo go up the stairs, leaving his footprints in the blood. He paused for a few minutes over a torso, studying it, and then moved into the house. There was no sign of Boo for a long time after that. Charlie climbed out of the truck and checked his gun. As he started around the front of the truck, the first of five shots rang out. The shots were followed by Boo flying out of the back door backward, landing on top of the torso. A large creature came thru the door, cautiously at first, and then advanced on Boo with haste. Like Annie, this creature moved quickly and with purpose; not clumsily like the others.
Charlie raised the gun and fired, nicking the porch pillar with the first shot. The creature stopped and eyed Charlie for a brief second. Charlie recognized it as Ted Donaldson. Ted had made Charlie’s life miserable growing up, and it looked like he was going to repeat it as a zombie. Charlie raised the gun again and held his breath while the monstrous Ted passed Boo on his way toward Charlie.
Steady, Charlie thought to himself as the space between them decreased. Steady now. He then fired, striking the Ted in the chest. It knocked him back a few feet but didn’t stop him. Charlie’s next shot found its mark between the eyes, and down Ted, or what was left of him, went.
“Boo, you ok?”
Boo started coughing like he was fighting for breath, then settled down, “I am alive, if that is what you’re asking. I thought I told you to stay in the truck, Charlie!”
“Lucky for you, I don’t follow orders very well.”
Chapter 8
Only a few hours after they had departed the bunker darkness was already settling over them and the snow fall was beginning to slow. Aunt Zoe, as the group had come to call her, had taken charge back at the barn and assigned vehicles to everyone. She seemed to have a logical sense of who should ride where. Zoe, Taquisha, Pam and the children were all in the RV, with Roy and Joey alternating turns driving. Lori, Virginia and the lads were in the truck leading the way. The rest were in the bus.
They weren’t moving as fast as Lori would have liked, but they were making decent progress. Looking for a good spot to stop until morning, Lori noticed what looked like a small fire on the horizon. It seemed to be a few miles away, but it was hard to tell out in the middle of nowhere. The only way to judge the distance was by the occasional tree lines in between farm fields.
The closer they got to the fire, the more it looked like a small campfire. Then, the hulking back of a screen became visible, followed by a sign that read “Toby’s Drive-in”. Lori slowly brought the truck to a stop and ordered Virginia to stay there and keep an eye out.
Jogging back to the RV door, Lori opened the door and went inside.
“Looks like there is a campfire over there behind the drive-in screen. I saw it a few miles back but wasn’t sure what it was until now.”
“Think we should check it out?” Joey asked.
“Of course, you should check it out!” Zoe stated. “There could be more survivors out there needing help.”
Joey started to answer, “Aunt Zoe, what if…”
“No, she is right. We need to go in and look,” Lori said, cutting Joey off.
Jermaine was standing at the open door, having come up to see why they were stopped. “I agree. Could be people, or something we could use.”
“Jermaine, could you get Al and meet me by the truck, please?” Lori asked. “Joey, you and Roy come too. We will put the dogs in here to keep everyone else safe while we are gone.”
At the truck, Lori didn’t wait for anyone to talk, starting into her plan for entering the drive-in. “Virginia, you put the dogs into the RV to keep the kids safe while we’re out, and then climb up on top of the cab of the truck. Keep an eye out for anything that looks like a herd moving in on us.”
Virginia nodded her head yes and took the lads over to the RV. When she returned, she had Taquisha with her.
“The rest of us will go in through the exit, since it is right here by us. Once we can see what is there, we wi
ll split into groups and search through whatever we find.”
Lori turned to Taquisha, “Are you sure you’re up to this?”
Taquisha nodded her head yes, and Jermaine patted her on the back. “That’s my baby!”
They moved up near the exit, looking more like a group of kids heading into the school yard than a search party. No one said anything as the fear of the unknown began to grow. Just as they reached the drive-in screen, Lori looked back at Virginia who waved that she was ok.
In the drive-in parking lot there were rows of campers and trucks parked just short of the inclines that the cars used to raise their nose skyward towards the screen.
“There is more here than I thought would be,” Lori stated.
“Yea, looks like there are a few fires burning towards the concession stand,” Al offered.
Taquisha pointed a little further down the exit way at the ground. “Look over there, at the snow.”
Following her finger, Lori could see that the snow about twenty yards down had been trampled flat to the gravel underneath. Whatever had been passing through there passed through in large numbers, and recently. “Can anyone see what is behind that tree line?” Lori asked.
“It’s too dark. Do you want me to go look?” Joey asked.
Lori thought for a few minutes and decided against it. She wanted everyone to get back to the vehicles as fast as they could. “No, we should concentrate on the campers and the concession stand.” She looked around at the different faces for their opinions. Handing Roy a flare gun retrieved from behind the truck’s seat, Lori looked into his eyes, “Roy, can you stay here and watch that area? If anything moves from there just shoot the flare into the sky.”