by Robert Brown
“If we have to fight, then it will probably be quite a firefight with us having to retreat, and escape their capture. That is why we can’t have the kids with us. If we need to run, we will literally be running for our lives to get out of there. We can’t move slowly and watch out for the hidden infected, we will have to move quickly, and hope we avoid all of the runners and slower infected that will be attracted to the sound of gunshots. Hannah could make it with us, but she needs to be here to take care of the others if we don’t or can’t make it back.
“The other bad thing about this, is if any of us gets caught and tortured, or even if Emily gets tortured, eventually these guys might find out where this property is. That is also why we need to get involved, Simone. These men have made a stronghold for themselves and will continue to expand the area they control. We may be out in the mountains and the woods here, but it’s only about two hours to Grants Pass by bicycle, and half an hour by car if they had one running.
“We can’t let men like that be the restart to civilization in the area. The longer they stay intact there, the more people like them they will add to their numbers, and the stronger they will become. They are a threat to us already, as much as if not more than the infected. If it looks like we have to fight them, then I’ll use the gas bombs to burn them out.”
Greg stands up and starts pacing back and forth, and says, “I didn’t put all the numbers together like you. What do we do here at the ranch if those men beat all of you?”
“If they make it through all of us, there won’t be that many of them left. You have a lot of buildings to hide in and plenty of guns and ammo to finish anyone off that comes along.”
Greg asks, “When do you think you will leave, in the morning?”
I shake my head, “No, not that long, probably in a few hours. I need get some rest, I still feel disoriented from the fever, and Simone hasn’t slept at all since this morning.”
“Yesterday morning,” Simone corrects me, since it is just after midnight.
“Why don’t you go to bed right now, Simone? I would like to leave in three hours so we can get there in the early morning before the Wal-Mart group is likely to send out patrols. Greg and I will get the bikes and supplies ready, and I should be able to get two hours of sleep as well,” I say.
She nods and carries a sleeping Benjamin to her room.
Greg asks, “What do you want to take with you?”
I stand and think for a moment. “I think we should get all of the bikes ready, or at least the ones I’m not taking, get them ready tomorrow to make a hasty escape to the far side of the property. If anyone shows up after we are gone that you don’t recognize, you need to shoot them on sight. We will not send any of the hostages here without an escort, so if someone shows up, man or woman, assume the worst and shoot them, okay?”
I can see Greg hesitate so I need to make it clear to him what is at stake. “Listen to me, Greg. If those men find their way here, they aren’t just going to move in and share this house with you. And they won’t just kill you either. They will rape everyone and keep them as their slaves just like they are doing at the store. If I make it through this and return here to find someone inside this fence that I don’t know or didn’t send, I will shoot them, and then I will shoot you, do you understand?”
Greg chuckles.
I smile at him even though I mean what I say. “I’m glad to see you relax a little Greg, but I am serious.” And I motion for him to look at Patricia, who gives him a look, and a nod that makes him stiffen up and turn back to face me.
“I have never left my kids where I cannot personally protect them, and if I feel you have compromised their safety in any way, I will make you pay. You know what I am capable of, so you do understand where I am coming from, right?”
Greg nods, and says, “Yes, I understand. You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll make sure Jessica and Lilly know what might be coming. You can count on them to make sure no one gets in here to hurt the children.” He pauses, and then ads, “What do you need me to do?”
“Are all the bikes still loaded?” I ask, and he nods. “Then I need you to take the supplies and stack them by the house. I am going to get what I think we need for this trip and pile it by the front door. I have less to do, so when I am finished, I’ll help you unload, and then get the new supplies loaded up. Sound good?”
“Actually Eddie, I think I’ll just unload your and Simone’s bikes, and then help you with the supplies. I can finish unloading everything else after we get your bikes loaded and you get to bed.”
I nod in reply, and we head out to get things done.
What a crazy life this is. I’m so stiff I can barely walk, and I get to make a two hour bike ride through an infected land in the middle of the night to face overwhelming odds in battle. How wonderful.
I write out a checklist of what I think we should take: Zip-tie handcuffs, night vision goggles, two-way radios, boxes of laser pointers, electrical tape, trauma kits, regular med kit, guns, ammo, and some food and water. Perhaps a Bradley armored vehicle would go nicely with this plan. Where can I find one of those about now?
*
I just finished getting all the supplies out by the bikes with Greg, and he is loading them up for me so I can get some more sleep. We didn’t talk much, just questions of, “Where is this?” and, “How much do you want of that?” Greg and I both know the odds of this turning out well are minimal. I will have to figure out how to put a tremendous amount of fear into these guys at Wal-Mart in order to get the hostages out without a fight. Maybe some kind of idea will hit me after I sleep or on the bike ride down there.
As I climb into the bed, I can’t help but smile with delight at how soft it feels, even through the numbness. My body has spent a week on the road and in various states of physical abuse at the hands of the infected. I don’t feel pain since I am still heavily infected with the parasite, but my body still interprets and sends comforting feelings like this soft bed, and for that I am truly grateful. I wonder what those people that turn feel, do they feel comfort, or is that as lost as pain is to them? As I quickly drift off, I contemplate the horrors that people must experience after they turn, but before the fever wipes out their human mind.
Chapter Twelve
The Trip to Wal-Mart
“Eddie. Eddie. You need to wake up.”
I hear a voice echoing in the distance, and it takes a few seconds looking around to register Simone standing in the doorway calling to me. “Eddie, it’s time for us to go,” Simone says. It takes some effort to get up due to the continued stiffness in my body. I am a thankful again that I cannot feel the pain that should accompany such tense muscles as I get out of bed.
“I’m up, Simone. I’ll meet you outside in just a minute.” She gives me a smile and a small wave and disappears back into the hall. I love my wife. She is a good woman. Good enough to put up with me and strong enough to keep me in check. If she felt this trip wasn’t something we should do, she would have told me, and I would have listened. We work well together that way, I mean listening to each other. She has never been the type of woman that asks me how her butt looks in certain pants, and I have never been one to lie about what I see, so she hasn’t encouraged me to lie, and I haven’t felt a need to.
As I walk down the hall to head downstairs, I look into the kids’ room and smile at their lumpy forms under the blankets. It bothers me to leave them here while Simone and I head out, but we have never specifically looked for a fight before. We have always tried concealment and stealth to avoid any issues with regular people. Even the infected we haven’t intentionally sought out yet, just taking them out as we encounter them.
What really bothers me now is realizing that this far into the end of the world, hiding out is no longer going to help us survive. More and more we are going to have to seek out trouble and try to stamp it out before it is strong enough to seek us out. That goes for the infected as well as human kind. The runner that tackled and bit me
must have been following the two slower infected, and was staying hidden. It was employing its own sneaking strategy and using the slow infected to flush out a human, like me, to sink its teeth into. I just hope we don’t have any radioactive infected people from the East start showing up here.
My thoughts come to an abrupt end as I step out of the door and see four bicycles loaded and six people waiting for me. Simone, Hannah, and Mike are standing by the bikes. Greg and Lilly are just off to the side talking with them.
“Who wants to fill me in?” I ask as I walk up to my bike.
Simone replies, “Hannah thinks she would be more help as an extra rifle than sitting here as a babysitter. Mike... Mike’s mother passed away in her sleep a short while after we went to bed. I told him I am not comfortable with him staying at the ranch when we are leaving our other kids behind. He isn’t sure that he wants to come with us, but I’m not willing to have him stay here right now.”
I look Hannah in the eyes to question her coming along, and then back at Simone. “Okay,” is all I can say.
“Mike, you understand my wife’s reasoning, right?”
“Yes, Mr. Keeper. I do.”
“If you come with us, you can go your own way any time you want all right, but you won’t be able to return here without us. You don’t have to deal with these guys at Wal-Mart, even if you make it all the way there with us, okay?” I ask. He just nods. I also feel better with him coming along than leaving him here with our smaller children. “I’m sorry about your mother, Mike.”
Lilly and Greg just stand there looking at all of us. He has his arm around Lilly’s shoulder in a protective hug. I survey the group and wish we had a bunch of ex-military people on the ranch with us. It would sure help right now… My mind drifts off with that last thought, and I know what we can do. I’ve figured out our bluff.
“Simone, Greg, come with me. We need to get the military uniforms from the bunk house attic.”
When we return, we start loading the boots and uniforms into the trailers, where there is some space left. “Lilly,” I start, “I have a pretty good idea how we’re going to handle the guys at Wal-Mart when we get there, and I’m feeling pretty confident now that my idea might work. The thing is there is a good chance that we will be bringing a bunch of people back here once this is done. The women aren’t the only ones being held captive, and there may be other people with the bad guys that may be coming here as well.
“I won’t let any of the men that have been involved in the rapes or murders survive this ordeal, but there might be others who have roles that are questionable, they might not have participated in anything but let the others do what they were doing just so they themselves could have a safe place to stay. Are you getting what I’m driving at, Lilly?” I ask.
Lilly shakes her head, and says forcefully, “I don’t think you should bring anyone back here but the hostages. Only the people we can absolutely trust.”
“I have to agree with her,” says Greg.
I nod, and reply, “Look, I know what you’re saying, and I agree. I will do my best to make sure no one involved in the rapes makes it here. What I mean is, some might slip through, and it will be up to all of us to figure out when they arrive if someone shouldn’t stay here, okay?
“We should also remember what Jessica told us about the girl that was killed in front of her. She feels guilty that she didn’t step in, didn’t fight to protect that girl, but we all know that she would have ended up dead as well, or at least badly beaten. There was no way for her to overcome those three men and stop what was happening. In a perfect world, sure, you fight and cry for help, but in this one, sometimes people have to make horrible decisions to survive.
“Jessica survived and quite possibly there are other people at that Wal-Mart that have been doing the same thing.” I look at both of them in the eyes and know they understand what I am thinking. “I promise you both, that if I am able to bring anyone back, none of them will be the rapists or killers, and I will let the hostages tell us who they are.”
Lilly steps away from Greg, stops two steps in front of me, and asks, “And what if all the hostages are dead?”
“Then everyone else will die too.” I smile while I say it. I know it isn’t the appropriate thing to do, and it must make me look a little evil as I reply to her question, but it makes me feel good to think about killing all of those bastards. I look at Greg, “We have a good chance of pulling this off if Arthur and Samantha haven’t made contact with the Wal-Mart group yet. Wish us luck?”
Sarcastically, Greg replies, “How about, break a leg?” We both smile at each other, shake hands and I walk around and sit on my bike.
“Mike, we are going to be riding at a good pace, not racing, but not a leisurely speed either. Simone and I will alternate between being the lead and rear bike since we have the night vision goggles. There is enough light out here to ride safely in the middle of the road, but we still need to look out for obstacles—like branches—or perhaps an infected that’s out for a stroll. We’re all responsible for each other while together. If you need to stop or rest, hoot like an owl. And don’t try and push yourself too hard. If you need a break or an easier pace, let us know. We will all need to rest as well at some point. If you see possible danger, bark like a dog and point but don’t stop, the person in the rear will look with their goggles.
“Reactions to danger from the side and rear will come from the rear rider. The calls we give are simple like, Bikes stop, shoot left or Bikes faster, infected at rear. Got it so far?”
He nods.
“Okay, so never pass the lead bike unless a switch or rear infected has been called. When we switch from front to rear, a switch is called out, and the front rider speeds out ahead of everyone, stops and looks behind at the group as they come up to pass. The rear rider speeds up to get in front, the stopped driver hops on, and catches up after everyone has passed them.
“Still following me?”
He nods again.
“It is pretty much the same scenario with a rear infected call, except the stopped bike in the lead would shoot the pursuing infected. That’s about it I think, any questions?”
Mike says, “Um yes, why don’t we just call out, I need a break, or I see danger, instead of hooting and barking?”
“First, because Simone and I need to look around with our goggles, to check everything out. There may be people and not the infected out there. If a sound is going to travel to potential bad guys besides the infected, I want it to be animal sounds, not voices. Second, it’s just more fun that way.”
Simone and I put on our goggles, and the four of us roll our bikes with their saddle packs and trailers out the gate, where we hop on and ride to the road. We ride for fifty minutes in the cool night air before we take our first break. It is just after 3 a.m., and we are on Wards Creek Road about forty minutes ride away from the east edge of Rogue River.
It’s nice to have those goggles off my head. It is bizarre to see the world as a bright green, fuzzy landscape. And the lack of depth perception definitely takes getting used to when riding on a bike.
The only issue we ran into so far was a tree that had fallen onto the road. We stopped and checked the area to make sure it wasn’t a trap or bandit stop, but it looked like it was just time for this tree to come down. The ground had been eroded from a small stream, and the whole root base had ripped up out of the ground. It was just dumb luck that it happened in between Arthur’s group coming through and ours.
“How are you doing, Mike?” I ask.
“I’m doing all right,” he says, casually. “It actually feels really good to be out here. Like I am finally doing something positive and not just running.”
Even though the night sky is dim, I can see him drop his head slightly, as if he is embarrassed. “Mike, there is nothing wrong with being happy that you’re alive. The whole point in this struggle is to survive.”
He just nods.
Simone and I look at the map to c
onfirm where I think we are and let Hannah and Mike know the plan.
“We have another forty-five minutes to make it to the edge of Rogue River,” I say. “Once we get there we’ll have to walk the bikes along the edge of town and be much more careful.”
Simone adds, “We also have about fifteen minutes left on this road before we start coming to houses right off the road. We will have to ride a little slower and be prepared to really peddle hard to get out of the way if anyone or anything is hanging out by the houses. At this hour it’s much more likely a thing, so really keep an eye out. The good news is, we have been this way several times and have already cleared out the locals that were outside by their old houses.
“Let’s all get going and remember, if we stop to shoot an infected, step off and away from your bike. If there are more of these runners out there, and they are following a slower infected, you don’t want to get tangled in your bike if you need to move quickly.”
*
We bike for another thirty minutes before I pull our group to a stop. There is a line of houses just off the road to the right, about three hundred yards ahead of us. I can hear the moan from an infected coming from up there. We can all hear it now that we’ve stopped, moaning, and a dull banging.
Mike asks, “What do we do?”
“This is going to slow us down, but we need to clear this spot. If we let that thing keep moaning, it will eventually attract others, if there aren’t others already on the way. Plus, it found something alive that it can’t get to. We have to make sure it isn’t a person that’s trapped.
“Hannah and Mike, I want you two to climb up a tree. Each on a different one, I don’t want you both getting trapped in the same place. It’s too dark for you to walk around these trees and bushes without night vision. A runner could be on top of you before you could shiver.”
“Can they see in the dark better than we can?” Mike asks.