The Reanimates (Book 3): The Escape

by J. Rudolph

  We were in luck when it came to the sheds. There was a very large one that measured twenty feet long and twelve feet wide, designed to look like a miniature two-story farm house, and three smaller ones that were eight feet long and seven feet wide. We found a cart and wrestled our shed boxes onto it. We also found a selection of deck boxes that were five feet long and two feet wide, that we planned on using as driver's seats. We decided that using the deck boxes to hold our weapons would be a good idea since someone would always be there in case we ran across something that was less than ideal.

  We wandered the store hoping to find some inspiration for the trip. Using the sheds for the covered wagon bit was all fine and good, but it wasn't like we could just have the horses drag the sheds. While we walked past the large plywood sheets, Trent had an idea.

  "If we stripped a car all the way to the frame and built a platform on it for the sheds, that would work. There are already wheels so we wouldn't have to fight with that kind of set up. Do you guys remember that welder that Matt found? Either my dad or I could make something to replace the steering box so we could have a way to get the horses to be able to turn. Heck, I bet there would be a way to link the brake pedal to the wagon. Would be a whole lot safer than just using a wooden block like they did in the 1800's, right?"

  "Man, I'm just glad you're coming up with something. I've been stuck on this idea on how we're supposed to be out there for months, and keep coming up blank. Jackson and Justin have been collecting a stockpile of old trucks from the area, stealing a part or two off of many trucks to make a couple of nice trucks. I'm sure they will have a few frames to choose from. I know they will be more than happy to offer their services to you, should you need it." Matt had a genuine smile at the mental picture of his kids helping out on this project. It was the first time in a while that he smiled that easily, but before I knew it, the smile was replaced with his usual neutral facial expression. I wondered if he would ever be able to smile for longer again. Maybe he could heal in Ireland. I bet the therapists there were making money hand over fist. I knew I was going to have to log a few hours on the infamous therapy couch myself after this.

  While the guys were talking about how to link up to the steering on the cars, I was lost in my head. I kept thinking about how radical this whole situation was and how much our lives were changed. I wondered if we could ever go back to normal again.

  My arms were getting full from the various things that I had been pulling off of the shelves, so I located a cart to dump my finds in. There were things that I knew the group could use, plant food and the like, and things that I thought about us needing. I remembered bouncing all around the back of the semi that we used to evacuate, and while I knew that we were going to be going much slower, and therefore be bouncing less, I couldn't help but look for things that would make the trip more comfortable. I yanked the carpet padding off of the shelf quickly, as though there might be another person right behind me that would try to take it.

  Pieces in Place

  Before our next meet, Jim, the leader of the folks from North Dakota, called up on the radio to talk to Trent and myself. They had a proposition to discuss.

  In the North Dakota group, there was a woman by the name of Charlotte, and she was expecting her first baby; and to add further stress for everyone, this baby was also the first baby that was going to be born in their post apocalypse group, so this was completely new territory for them. Charlotte's husband, Rory, was a horse breeder and trainer before the world ended, and continued in this line of work since horses became even more valuable as gas was increasingly more difficult to come by.

  Trent was building a reputation as an awesome woodworker. The furniture that he brought to the trade meets always went quickly, and Charlotte was a fan of his work. She also knew that I was a nurse, and she wanted to retain our services for the baby. In exchange, they were willing to part with the five horses that we needed for our trip.

  Trent was instantly on board with the idea. He knew that he could build furniture in his sleep. I was a bit more hesitant. The last birth that I was a part of was Shayla's, and I was scared of that situation repeating itself. I told Jim that I would need a couple of days to decide if I had the available resources for this job, but that I was going to be at the meet and I would have an answer for Charlotte then.

  After I was done talking to Jim on the radio, I went for a walk. I ended up at the playground where the kids were all playing. Lacey was sitting on a bench watching a very serious game of tag, and I joined her. She saw that there was something on my mind and I gave her the abbreviated version of my conversation with Jim.

  "Lacey, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I don't have a great track record with the baby delivery department. I want to help her out, and I really want those horses, but what if this is another Shayla case? What's going to happen if she or the baby dies? I seriously am afraid of the whole obstetrics thing right now."

  "Do you see that little guy right there?" Lacey asked, pointing at J.J., who was stumbling as he tried to run. He smiled as he realized that his pursuer was distracted by another player; which showed the sparkle in his gorgeous green eyes. "That little boy is here because of you. His mother went into premature labor because of her emotional distress and you delivered a healthy baby boy. He avoided any serious complications because you knew what to do. Charity lived for a few days because you had an idea of what a severely preterm baby needed. You don't know from pregnancy to pregnancy what to expect, even on the same mother, so you really can't tell what things are going to be like for a whole new person." I thought about what Lacey was saying, and I knew she was right. There was no real reason to expect that there would be anything wrong with this delivery, but still, I was afraid.

  "You're not going to be promising her that there will be sunshine and roses involved with having this baby. You will be offering her medical care in the event of a problem and someone who knows how to catch a baby that is sliding out. Everyone knows that you are not going to make miracles happen. There are always risks in life and there are limited resources. Make sure you spell out what you can do and what you can't. No one can expect any more than that." I sat in silence for a moment to let everything Lacey said sink in while I watched J.J. run around with the other kids.

  I wasn't going to make my decision right away, but I was feeling a lot more confident over the idea after talking to Lacey. I went back to the clinic to study my well-worn book on prenatal care. When I closed up for the night and went home, I found Trent drafting plans on a few different styles of baby cribs so Charlotte could pick the one she liked the most.

  When we went to the meet, Jim was waiting for us. He took us to meet with Rory and Charlotte. They were incredibly nice people. She was in love with all of Trent's plans and took a little bit to decide what her favorite was. After she made her choice, she turned to me and asked if I was willing to be able to take care of her and the baby. I carefully explained that I was equipped to deal with uncomplicated deliveries. I could even handle slightly difficult, but that if there was a serious complication, I would have no way of knowing what could be done. I told her that I would do the best I could, but there was no way that I could know for sure what kind of outcome she would have.

  Both she and Rory understood. Charlotte may have actually said something like, 'well, duh,' when I finished my outcome speech. They had been dealing with horses long enough to know that sometimes bad things happen in a delivery. Knowing that they weren't expecting the impossible helped when they asked if I was on board with the medical care. I was. They were getting a nurse and furniture, we were getting our ticket to New York.

  We spent the next few months preparing for the trip. Matt and his sons were building the wagons while Trent worked on the furniture.

  When we harvested the fruit trees for canning one last time before the snow settled in, we put aside some of the cans to go on the wagons; same with meat. Having projects to work on seemed to make the winter go by faste
r. Another Christmas came and went, and while we didn't make a big deal about this one, we did do a simple gift exchange. The gifts were definitely tailored to whether the person was staying in Wilsall or going to New York.

  Months passed before we realized it, and as the snow melted into Spring, we were closer to being ready to leave. We were getting a nice stash of stuff set aside for the trip and it finally came down to just needing to wait until Charlotte's baby was born.

  Charlotte went into labor the second week of March. When we heard the call on the radio, Trent and I climbed into the truck and raced over to her town. Jim met us at the front of his town and took us back to see Charlotte, who was already five centimeters dilated. She was definitely scared, but she came through the labor like a champ. She was very good at not fighting with her body as a contraction gripped her in painful waves; and in the end, she gave birth to a very healthy seven pound boy named Adam, who looked quite a bit like his father. Rory was super excited to be a new dad and on top of the horses that we agreed on, he gave us a horse trailer full of feed and the reins needed to steer the horses.

  Before we took the horses back home, I stopped by the motel that they were using as housing for those that caught TB. I was happy to see that there weren't any new cases of people that were infected, and only a couple of people had passed away. The rest were doing better than I expected. They were managing their symptoms well and were hanging in there. One girl came up to me and thanked me for making her sister feel better than when I first met them. I went away from their camp with a feeling that I did make a difference in this town.

  Jim organized a couple of the guys from their group to help drive the horses back to our town. This was the last piece of the puzzle, the last stumbling block before we could leave. In a few days we were going to be on our way. Suddenly the reality of it all washed over me and while I was excited, I was also terrified about what the future was going to hold. We stopped looking forward to stuff for so long that it seemed like a completely foreign concept to me to be anticipating something. I wondered if Trent had this same stirring in his stomach that more resembled a tornado than butterflies as I did.

  When our caravan of trucks and trailers drove to the gate, Tyreese was on watch. His face wore a mix of happiness for a job that went well, and sadness that the day was coming that he was going to have to say goodbye to his son and his friends. Tyreese had been with us from the beginning of the whole mess. We faced many scary things together and defeated those fears together. I was going to miss his gentle manner that made it so easy to work alongside him. When we passed through the gates I saw Tanya walking towards us from the garden area. It took me a while to get to know her well, but once I did, it was like being with a friend that I had since grade school, and I loved her very much. Tanya surveyed the trailers that were coming in with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and betrayed that she was feeling a wave of sadness. She knew what the delivery of the horses meant as well.

  It was time to start saying our goodbyes.

  We were putting the horses on the wagons for a test run around the town to make sure that the welded-on loop that was attached to the steering rods would actually do the job. Kristen was lingering in the barn, petting the horses on the neck and talking to them in a soft voice. When I came closer to her I heard her telling the young horse that he had a very serious job; that he was going to have to keep her brother safe on this journey. Kristen's blue eyes where shining as they filled with tears. She looked up and saw me as I leaned against the door frame.

  "I can't go, Cali." Kristen sighed before she continued, "Part of me really wants to, I want to get Nathan out of the land of the dead, but I can't wrap my brain around a three-thousand mile journey across the country and into God knows what sort of situations, into a city that was hit the hardest with the zombie apocalypse. If he was older, like Drew, I'd be more inclined to go. The other thing that my brain keeps being stuck on is if Trent and I both go, what would happen to mom and dad? We've been together since this whole thing started and sometimes I think that's what held mom together. She had to keep it together if for no other reason than Nathan needed his grandma to be okay. And I feel bad that I'm not going with you. I feel like I am abandoning you guys."

  "I know, Kris, it's okay. I know that you are in a hard spot, and I know that you are doing the right thing for you. I don't think you are abandoning us, and I believe that Trent doesn't feel that way either. You're doing the right thing by you guys and that's all that needs to happen. Besides, you are needed here. Someone needs to be running the herbal pharmacy, right?"

  Kristen laughed around her tears, which came out as an odd strangled sound. She sniffed a little to make the runny nose stop overflowing. I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

  "It's okay. I promise." I murmured in her ear. I felt her head nod.

  "What on earth is going on in here?" Mike said, a bit loud, in a demanding voice. It was a tone that was looking to startle the heck out of us, and he succeeded. Our yelps made the horse that Kristen was petting skittish; but a credit to his trainer, the horse didn't run off.

  "Mike!" Kristen cried out, "You scared the crap out of me!" Mike just laughed at her.

  "I couldn't help but to break up the chick flick moment. Are you guys done crying?"

  Kristen snorted at him and said, "If you don't mind, I am trying to say my farewells to my sister."

  "But you aren't saying farewell. You're saying ‘I'll see you later.’ I want Ireland, you want Ireland. It's going to happen, we just have to talk mom and dad into it and wait for Nathan to get a little older." Mike wrapped his arms around Kristen and held her close. "We're gonna meet them there. It won't be forever."

  "I'm going to talk to you later, okay guys? There are about a hundred places I need to be right now, but I'll talk to you both before we go, okay?" Kristen pulled back from Mike and wiped her face before she tried to give a convincing smile, and failed. I decided to let her think that she was convincing me that she believed everything was going to be fine while her nose was leaking snot, and I smiled back before I turned around.

  I went up to the clinic to see what needed to be done there before I figuratively turned over the keys to Trisha. I assumed that I would be alone since I hadn't been hailed on the walkie talkie for anything, but when I went in, I found Trisha sitting in one of the exam rooms reading through one of the medical books that I kept in the clinic. She glanced up after she put her finger on the spot she was reading. By the look in her eyes, I was about the last person she expected to see.

  "Looks like you're hitting those books pretty hard." I observed.

  "Yeah, well, I figure I need to make sure I'm actually ready for this job. It's a bit daunting."

  "You've been doing on-the-job training for a few years now. You've assisted me on some of the most horrible situations that I have had to deal with. And the really nasty ones? You handled yourself with amazing composure. You helped me operate on your brother back in the apartments, and you did an excellent job. You've stitched up more than your fair share of stupid cuts and the scars that you left are prettier than mine. I knew that you were prefect for this job, though, when you were there with me for Shayla. You were amazing, and I should have told you that a thousand times. You were amazing, no, you are amazing. This clinic is in beyond phenomenal hands, and I am so proud of you for the amount of stuff you've learned. You may be better than me, to be honest, because you are so resourceful and you don't get hung up on the used-to-be, you accept the challenges of now."

  Trisha's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't know you thought like that. I thought you only saw me as the junior varsity, because that's how I feel. Cali, I am so scared of taking over this clinic. You make it look easy going from case to case and I don't know if I'll be able to do that. I'm scared that there is going to be something serious and I'm not going to have a clue what to do about it."

  "You're going to have to be really good at looking things up. I st
ill have to do that. You'll find your rhythm. You just have to be thrown in to it. I remember the first time I worked as a nurse at the hospital. They gave us a few weeks of orientation, and that first day that I worked on my own? I was terrified. I didn't have my preceptor to run to, and everyone was so busy with their own caseload that I didn't have them to ask for help either. I went home that night two hours late and I cried myself to sleep because I felt so out of my depth. I wanted to quit, but I didn't. Each day, things were a little better.

  "When the zombies came, all of a sudden I found myself being an emergency room doctor instead of a cardiac nurse. When Jody told me she thought she was pregnant, I panicked. The only thing I thought I was able to do was manage a heart attack, and as much as I wanted Martha to have one sometimes, no one did. I learned on the job, and I had you right there with me. I was both student and preceptor, and now, you get to be student and preceptor to someone else, because as you know, one set of hands is never enough."

  "Yeah. I was thinking about that actually, and I wanted to ask if you think Erin would be a good second person. Kristen gets woozy at the sight of blood, but I think she'll get over it, and I can't think of anyone else that shows any interest in the medical stuff you and I do."

  "I think Erin would be a fine person to ask. I think Jack's group will still be doing their normal shopping up here so keep an eye out for anyone there that looks like they're interested too.