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The Reanimates (Book 3): The Escape

Page 7

by J. Rudolph


  Lacey and I decided to walk down the street to take in the neighborhood. This area was surprisingly beautiful for such a small town, and now that I wasn't clearing out piles of bodies, I let myself absorb the beauty of the homes. The mountains in the background looked like a painting, and I could imagine that when the people lived in this town before, they couldn't help but feel like they were connected to something bigger than themselves.

  We walked a couple of blocks when we found the ideal house for Lacey. The house was a two-story building with what looked like an attic, so we went inside to check it out. There were four bedrooms and indeed a usable attic that could be turned into another room. She was happy about the place, it definitely would be a comfortable fit for her expanded family. Next door, there was a three bedroom house that she knew Lucas would insist on Matt moving into. Since Merideth's death, Lucas didn't like Matt being too far away. This would serve their purposes well. Just like when Tanya found her home, Lacey had the same look of hope in her eyes. Hope was an amazing thing, and we took every shred of it as a gift and a reason to keep going.

  Two houses down on a corner lot was another three-bedroom home. You could see the field from the backyard. I took it as a prospective place for either Louise or Kristen. The kitchen was large, and had more than enough room to teach a whole village about cooking in it. On the counters were a variety of high end mixers as well as a series of antique ones that required no power. I imagined that the previous occupant loved cooking and had a soft spot for being able to do things the old fashioned way if there was a power failure. It even had an island in the center of the kitchen with a hanging pot rack over it, filled with copper-bottomed pans. This was Louise's home, no questions about it.

  Across the street, there was a two story house with three bedrooms. It backed up to the field and had its own little garden with several fruit trees in the yard and even a little greenhouse that had plants still growing in it, despite the lack of attention. Directly across the street was the elementary school. Even though we weren't going to be using the school itself right away, I knew that the playground would see a lot of action, and I wanted nothing more than to see my nephew take advantage of the jungle gym that one of the bedrooms looked out over. This was Kristen's house for sure.

  We decided that even though there were probably a lot of supplies in the other houses, we were going to leave cleaning those out for another time. We had the rest of our lives to go through those places, and we had enough work on our hands as it was. There was one exception, we did go in the kitchens and rummage through the pantries for food before we even started on the houses we wanted to move into. We took all the food we found and loaded it into the trunk of Lacey's car to take back to the group. Each can was a gift, even the super processed canned ham.

  We decided that the best way to do this clean-up was to pull out everything that we knew that the people moving in didn't want or couldn't use. We made two piles in front of the houses, one of things that were still able to be used after they were cleaned, and another pile of trash and stuff that we were going to burn with the bodies. The items that were placed in the good pile were going to be taken down to the mercantile, and people could take what they liked from there instead of us hoping we got it right and dropping things off in front of the houses, wasting time and energy. I imagined that we would all be able to pretend like we were shopping at the store, buying things for our new homes.

  We started at the school area, since it was the last area to be assigned, and decided that it would be easiest to just go house-to-house from there. Moving the contents of the houses was harder than we had anticipated. We knew that things like beds and sofas would be a struggle but we didn't take into account the completely repetitive motions of things like fishing out pots from the bottom cupboards or the arms filled with clothes from the closets. It occurred to me that the lack of calories in our diet was making things more difficult than it would have otherwise been as we went room by room.

  Not all of the houses had a zombie or a suicide in it when we cleared the area, but there were some. The things that we took from a zombie or corpse occupied room were automatically thrown into the burn pile; no one wanted to take the chance that they could come into contact with a surprise glob of gore. We stripped the carpet off of those floors as well, and poured an extra coat of bleach down. We knew that there was no way that we were going to render these places clean completely, and when it was time for each family to move into their homes, they would definitely have a lot of work ahead of them, but if we could make a dent in the work, we were going to be coming out ahead. I hoped that at some point we would come across a store that had paint, not just to cover up gross stuff, but so we could personalize the rooms. That idea crossed my mind as we were clearing out a very pink room in the house that Kristen was going to move into. Nathan was definitely going to reject the idea that he was going to have to be in a girl's room.

  After we took care of cleaning out Kristen's house, followed by Louise's, we decided that we hit a good stopping point for the evening. I spotted Trent and the truck not too far away so I went and retrieved the truck keys from him. We piled the truck bed high with the stuff we wanted to keep and dropped them inside of the mercantile for a later sort and shelve project. It would be a perfect job for the kids later, since they always wanted to help with something. After we made three trips, we returned to the burn pile and loaded it into the truck, taking care to not inherit any of the gore. Tanya had a great idea after we scooped up the first pile and went inside to grab trash bags. She pulled out her pocket knife and cut a slit at the top and on the sides. She slid the bag over her head like a poncho, creating a barrier between her and the nasty stuff. Fortunately, there were less burn items than there were keep items and it only took one trip with the truck to drop off the soiled stuff.

  On our way out to the dump site, we came across an interesting discovery. In the road, there was a large cardboard box with the words 'open me' painted on it. I was certain that it wasn't there when we came to town. I sent Lacey in the truck to go fetch the guys. I kept a bit of distance from the box, wondering what could be inside, and more than a little afraid of what it could be.

  Obviously, it was from the living, and my wariness came from our previous run-ins with people. I was afraid that there was something nefarious inside, like a zombie head or a bomb, or something like that, to tell us that we were not welcome in this area. I hoped that my anxiety was based more out of too many movies than anything real.

  When the guys came to see what the big deal was, they too had a flash of concern on their faces. It was funny how such an innocuous little package could trigger these feelings. We stood around this box in a circle of silence, no one wanting to be the one to have to deal with the mystery box. Finally, Trent decided that there was no point sitting in the street staring at the box and slowly approached it. He removed his hunting knife from its sheath and poked the tip under the flap to open the top. He leaned over the box and looked inside. His eyebrows furrowed in a twinge of confusion as he reached in the box and plucked a folded sheet of paper from the package.

  Trent unfolded the paper and began to read aloud.

  Good afternoon, new people moving in. We are in a settlement nearby and thought we should make the first contact since we already know the area. In the past, the neighborly thing to do would have been to knock on your door, but times have changed and, well, we know nothing about you.

  In the box there is a radio. We will be on channel five at dusk. If you are interested in introducing yourself and meeting our people, you'll turn it on. If we don't hear from you, we will have to assume you have more sinister purposes in mind, and we'd recommend against that course of action. We didn't survive this long to be taken out by a bunch of strangers, and if we have to we will defend ourselves with force. We learned that the best defense is a good offense.

  The choice is yours. Channel 5, dusk.

  Trent looked up at us with a look of skepticism
. He leaned back over the box and retrieved a small walkie-talkie from inside, and looked it over before he searched our eyes for a hint of what we were thinking.

  Lacey looked around the area we were standing in to see if there was anyone that was watching us. "We probably need to move this discussion inside of the safe house. I have a really paranoid bone that is buzzing like hell right now, and I know I would feel better if we were inside while we talked about this stuff." No sooner than she said that, did I feel waves of chills all over my spine. From the looks on the others faces, they too got their share of goosebumps. It was funny how quickly we all convinced ourselves that we were alone out here, and how quickly that security net was taken away. Lucas picked the box up out of the road, and we all walked with a brisk pace to the house.

  Once inside, Trent placed the walkie on the kitchen table and Lucas put the box next to it. Trent read the letter to himself one more time then stood there, staring at the walkie.

  "I don't know what to think about this, guys," Matt finally said, breaking the silence. "What if it's a fishing scheme? You know, sorta like when you responded to spam mail in the past and all that did was confirm you were there?" Tyreese put his hand out for the letter, and Trent handed it over to him.

  "Well, they clearly already know we are here,” Tyreese said, “They left this in the road outside a closed gate that wasn't there a couple months ago." Ty turned the paper over to look at the back and then flipped it back to the front when he saw it was blank. "I don't know really that we have any choice other than to connect with them. Worst case, we learn that our new neighbors are a bunch of jerks and we have to be super cautious with them. The best case is that we find that there are people like us that might be looking to start a trade route or something."

  Trent nodded his head in agreement. "I really don't like that they know more about us than we do about them, to be honest. I think that if we want to level the playing field a hair, we need to talk to them. I hate that they know exactly where we are but we don't have a clue where they are." Trent stood quietly for a moment, then added, "Well, it occurs to me, most of the council is here right now. Since this has a time table of a few hours, and we can't call on Kristen or my dad to hear their vote, we might as well decide on it now. Lacey, if you act on behalf of Kristen, and Lucas, if you act on behalf of my dad, we can still make this a fair decision."

  "I don't really see any other option than to go ahead and face the fear of talking to other people. We need to just do it and just be done with it." I commented. Lacey and Tanya nodded.

  "Well, worst case is that these guys will try and take our stuff by force. It's not like we really have a whole lot to lose at this point anyway. The kids are safe in Idaho, so let's grab the bull by the horns and do it." Lucas added.

  "I knew you were a good choice to have talk on behalf of my dad. You sound just like him right now." Trent laughed, and the rest of us joined in. We unanimously agreed that it would be best to go ahead and talk.

  We just hoped that we weren't opening a can of worms that couldn't be sealed again.

  Radio Hello

  The sun hung low in the sky, like a heavy weight that the heavens refused to hold up any longer. It was almost time for the first ever discussion with our mystery people, and the tension in the room was nearly palpable. No one said a word as we kept looking out of the window to see if it was time yet for our meeting. I don't know about the rest of the group, but I kept imagining the worst case scenarios with this, but another part of me was trying to hang on to the hope that we were going to have a good experience here. Hadn't we already had more than our fair share of the bad stuff already?

  The room that we were in started to glow with brilliant oranges and reds, painting the walls with the warm glow that no can of paint could ever match. Trent was holding the radio in his hands, and he was staring at the dials on the box like it was a loaded gun that needed to be treated with great caution.

  "Here goes nothing," Trent breathed out as he clicked on the device. He twisted the channel knob until the LCD display said the number five. The radio emitted a sharp hiss of static. We sat in a circle staring at the radio as we waited for some sort of feedback that the other side had connected as well. I wasn't the only one that sat chewing on my nails while we waited. In less than a minute the hiss changed to a softer sound, and we sat frozen in the moment. A soft squelch came over the tinny speakers followed by a male voice.

  "Wilsall, come back?"

  "What do we say?" Lacey asked in a whisper, her blue eyes were as large as saucers, and I imagined that she was a perfect match for my own expression. It seemed like she wasn't actually expecting anything to happen in this session. Part of me didn't really think that anything would happen either. I thought that they would just turn it on to see if we would follow instructions, then leave us some other letter. While we were waiting, I was trying to decide whether or not that would be a better choice to hope for, but a bigger part wanted to have it over with, and now the possibility wasn't there anymore.

  "Well, I guess we say hi, right?" Lucas replied, his voice just above a whisper as well, almost like he was afraid they would hear us if he spoke any louder. Trent nodded.

  Trent pushed the button down and replied, "Wilsall responding. Hello."

  "Wilsall, it's good to hear your voice. How are you this evening? Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?" The man on the other end of the radio responded. He spoke with a kind, yet confident tone.

  "Um, well, we're fine. How are you?" Trent's voice matched his puzzled expression, and his expression was most repeated across everyone in the room. I don't think anyone expected that the mystery people were going to remark on the weather.

  The man on the other end laughed warmly. "We're just happy to hear another person other than ourselves. I'm sure you have a few questions about this whole thing, don't you? Sorry about the cliché weather question, I'm a bit out of practice on the small talk myself." He let the button go and let the radio hiss for a few seconds. We looked at each other trying to decide if we should say anything just yet when the radio came back to life. "I suppose I should introduce myself first. I'm Jack. We have a little settlement not too much out of Clyde's Park. There are about forty or so of us out here, and we're doing okay. Noticed that there was a bit of traffic out there with all of those shipping trucks going by for the last little bit, so we took a trip up the road and saw that you guys are moving in. Gotta say, we kind of figured that we were going to be the last folk up here, and well, we wanted to make sure that you guys aren't coming up here to cause trouble. What are you up to?" He held on to the button for a moment longer before he let go, and I wondered if he maybe regretted asking his question.

  We looked at each other with surprise. It didn't really occur to me that people thought we could be the trouble makers. I was a little worried that maybe we moved in a little too close to this group, the road sign for Clyde's Park wasn't that far away from where we were now, if I recalled. I hoped that we hadn't taken anything in the area that they had eyes on, or crossed some line in the sand that we didn't even think to look for.

  "Well, Jack," Trent began, "let me start with this. You're right, it is nice to hear someone other than ourselves. I'm Trent, and I have several members of my group here with me right now. No, we aren't here to cause trouble, although I suppose only time will be able to prove that. We were surprised ourselves to find out that we aren't alone, and if we're being honest here, we're a bit defensive here ourselves on your intentions of talking to us, although I have to admit, I can see where you might see us as the threat since you were here first..." Trent let go of the button for a moment before pressing it back down. "What would you like to know about us?"

  "Tell us more about you, like what kind of people you are, stuff like that."

  "We're a group of six families. We've been calling Idaho home for the last little bit and we have been feeling more than a little cramped so we came out here to get some space and start over. New be
ginnings and all."

  "Heh, yeah the space out here is nice isn't it? It's why I moved out here before the zombies. Where else can you find emptiness and peace like this? I looked into Wisconsin for a while, since I had this picture in my head of having a farm, but the lack of landscape would have made me crazy. The mountains nearby are breathtaking, and some seem to have snow on them year round. We were so isolated that we were able to make a stand here and keep our heads above water. For a while, we thought that this whole thing would just blow by. One of my neighbors was, well is, a rancher that has been able to keep several of the animals alive, and that has saved our bacon. My advice to you guys is to get some animals so you can have something sustainable. Have you guys ever been to Montana before this?"

  "Honestly, no. Most of us are from California. My sister was the one living in Idaho, she has a bit of a green thumb, so we are looking forward to planting around here, but I guess that's the extent of our plan so far."

  "So you guys don't know a whole lot about running a farm? That's alright. We might be able to help you out there. Let me warn you right now. The winters here are tough. There may not be a lot of snow that stays around, but since we're so isolated, there aren't a lot of things that you may be used to. Keeping the animals alive will be a project, but like I said, we can help out on that. What we can't help you with is with medical, so you have to stay healthy. Bigger areas have well stocked medical centers and pharmacies on every corner, but we don't. When people get sick in these parts, it's harder to cope with. Before, we relied on medical transports with helicopters or ambulances since we're so remote. Our biggest non-zombie loss has been from people getting sick. There aren't a ton of medical supplies, and there aren't any doctors left who would know what to do with them anyway, so be careful."

 

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