by Chesla, Gary
“Unless there isn’t a broadcast tonight either,” Tony replied.
“Then it would have to be the radio,” Mike said. “I’m sure there is a logical reason. Since we are going to go back down to Outdoor World today, maybe you should try to find another of those hand cranked powered radios. That way you’ll know if the problem is your radio. That thing you have doesn’t look very sturdy. The way you have to keep cranking that damn thing, maybe it just wore out.”
“Maybe,” Tony replied.
After a few moments, Mike spoke again.
“What do you think we will find down at Outdoor World?” Mike asked. “It’s been almost a month since we were there.
Do you think those two creeps had friends that came looking for them when they didn’t go back home?
If their friends came looking for them, I wonder if they found where we ditched the truck and the bodies?
Do you think there will be anything left at the store?
Maybe their friends came back and cleaned out the place.”
“We’ve definitely had our heads buried in the sand for too long,” Tony grinned. “I don’t have an answer to any of those questions. If we had been doing our jobs instead of just sitting here for the last month, I’m sure we would have a better idea what we were going to find.”
“I agree we should have been doing more than just sitting on our asses for the past few weeks, but hey, it’s been quiet and peaceful, life could have been a lot worse,” Mike replied.
“Maybe we’ve just been lucky,” Tony said. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out today. But it’s always a good idea to know what’s going on around you.”
“You’re right,” Mike replied. “Especially when there are zombies running around, showing up when you least expect them. It’s just when we heard that broadcast telling us that the nightmare would soon be over, I just felt so relieved. As quiet as it’s been up here, I just felt like the nightmare was finally over. Until yesterday, I almost stopped worrying about zombies.”
“You and me both,” Tony added. “But like we’ve always heard, it’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
Both men turned when Linda came down the stairs, walked into the living room, moved in behind Mike and began to massage his shoulders.
Mike held up his coffee cup.
Linda took the cup from Mike and took a sip.
“I wanted to come down for a few minutes before you left,” Linda said.
Tony looked confused.
“You’re not coming with us?” Tony asked looking surprised.
“Not this time,” Linda replied. “I think it would be safer for Jamie if she and I stayed here this time. It’s been quiet around here, the house is secure and those two creeps we ran into last time still give me nightmares.”
“Linda and I talked things over last night and she feels it would be better for Jamie, and you and I can work a lot faster without having to worry about her and Jamie,” Mike added.
“But the two of you have to promise that you will both come home,” Linda smiled nervously.
“I think that is a good decision,” Tony said. “Just keep everything boarded up until we get back and you should be fine.”
“Is there anything you want us to bring back for you?” Mike asked.
“I liked those dry powdered packages that taste like cherry pies,” Linda replied.
“Cherry pie MREs,” Tony laughed. “If I had never met you before, that would tell me you were never in the military.”
“Just be careful,” Linda replied then smiled. “And bring me all of those cherry things that you can carry.”
When Mike came back downstairs after giving Jamie a hug and tucking her and George back into bed, Tony had the crossbows and arrows ready to go.
He tucked a penknife into his right sock and handed another penknife to Mike and suggested that he do the same.
They each grabbed a bottle of water, and after Mike kissed Linda goodbye, they went out on a porch and waited to be sure Linda didn’t have any problems barricading the door behind them.
It feels like it has been a long time since we did anything like this,” Mike said.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Tony smiled.
“That’s not exactly what I was going to say next,” Mike replied.
“Well, just relax and keep your eyes open,” Tony said. “It’s just a little recon mission. We’re not going out looking for a fight. Believe me, knowing what it is like out there now is better than not knowing.”
“I just keep thinking about the last time we went out,” Mike replied.
“It wasn’t as bad as everything we had to go through to get home,” Tony said. “Besides, don’t you want to know what has been going on out there?”
“Yeah, I do,” Mike replied. “At least I think I do. I hope I still feel that way when we get back.”
“Let’s go,” Tony said, then they started walking towards the old Buick. “You want to drive?”
“I think this will all go a lot smoother if you drive,” Mike smiled.
They got in the car and started to drive down the dirt road towards the trees.
Mike undid the chain that hung across the road and then secured it back in place after Tony drove past the chain posts.
They slowly drove through the trees until they reached the highway.
Tony turned off the car’s engine and told Mike to roll down his window.
“Let’s just listen for a minute and see if we hear anything before we pull out on the road,” Tony said.
They sat for a few minutes and just listened.
“Except for the birds, it seems quiet,” Mike whispered.
“That’s a good sign,” Tony said as he restarted the engine.
Tony pulled onto the blacktop road, turned left and began to slowly drive in the direction of Outdoor World.
Mike held his crossbow on his lap.
Tony’s crossbow sat on the seat between him and Mike.
They carefully studied the woods line on each side of the road as they drove while constantly watching the road ahead of them in case a car would suddenly appear from around the bend up a head.
After driving about a mile down the road, Tony pulled the car to the side of the road and turned off the engine.
“What’s wrong?” Mike asked.
“Nothing, I hope,” Tony replied. “I think this is where we ditched that truck and those two assholes. I’m going to go take a look and make sure they are still there.”
“OK,” Mike said.
Tony studied the side of the road for a minute, then looked over at Mike.
“Take your bow and take cover behind that small pine tree over there,” Tony said. “You can keep an eye on the car and will be in a better position to protect yourself and the car in case anyone shows up. This won’t take me long. I just want to know if anyone came looking for those two before we go any further.”
“That tree over there?” Mike pointed.
“Yeah,” Tony replied. “Just keep an eye on the road and the woods across the road from us. Don’t worry about what’s behind you. I’ll take care of that area.”
“What do you want me to do if I see anything?” Mike asked.
“Just yell,” Tony smiled. “I’m not a mind reader.”
“Smart ass,” Mike laughed.
“Just relax,” Tony smiled. “This will only take a minute. Besides, I can still hear the birds making a damn racket out there. I doubt there is anything around here we need to worry about. We’ll be fine. I just want to be sure our two friends are where we left them. That will give us the answer to one of our questions.”
Mike grabbed his bow and got out of the car as Tony got out of the driver’s door.
They walked together until they reached the pine tree.
Mike dropped down behind the tree as Tony continued to walk back into the woods behind Mike.
Mike loaded an arrow onto his crossbow, knelt down behind the tree and scanned
the trees across the road, then began to shift his gazed to where the road disappeared around the trees further to the right.
Tony walked into the woods.
It only took a moment before he spotted the Ford truck.
It was wedged between two trees, just where he had left it a month ago.
Tony studied the woods around the truck before proceeding to make his way to the truck.
He slowly moved up alongside the Ford until he was beside the bed of the truck, then glanced into the back of the truck.
After taking a quick glance into the back of the truck, he quickly scanned the area then stared into the back of the truck again.
There was only one body in the truck.
The guy that he had shot in the head was still there.
The body was now little more than dark dried skin tightly stretched over bone. The animals had apparently chewed away much of the flesh.
Except for the arrow sticking out through the side of the man’s skull, and a few clinging shreds of clothing, the body was now unidentifiable.
But the man Tony had shot through the heart was gone.
Tony quickly studied the woods around the truck before turning his attention back to the truck.
“How the hell?” Tony thought. “I’m positive I killed that bastard.”
Tony studied the bloody streaks that ran across the bottom of the truck bed.
He saw that the trail of blood ran across the truck bed and up over the tail gate.
He looked closer and saw a slight pattern of blood leading away from the truck.
“Did someone find the bodies here?” Tony thought. “Was that guy still alive and they took him away? Impossible, I know that guy was dead. I know I was a little rusty with the bow back then, but I wasn’t that rusty.”
Then Tony had another thought, “Maybe the animals that chewed up the other body dragged this body away.”
But as Tony studied the trail of dried blood, he decided against that theory.
If someone or something dragged the body away, the blood trail would have been different.
The trail of dried blood was too neat. The dried blood appeared to be drops of dried blood.
If the body had been dragged away, the blood pattern would have been in the shapes of long streaks.
“No, the guy either walked away or he was carried,” Tony thought, but either way, it had to be impossible. “I know that guy was dead.”
Regardless of what Tony thought, he could not dispute the fact that the body wasn’t there and a trail of blood led away from the truck.
Tony looked at the trail of dried blood and cautiously began to follow the trail.
“Why the hell would they take him in this direction?” Tony asked himself as he followed the trail of blood further back into the woods.
Tony continued to follow the drops of dried blood that clung to the leaves and blades of grass.
It led him further back into the woods until Tony finally lost the trail.
He was trying to pick up the trail again when he heard Mike calling his name.
“Was that guy and his friends back? Impossible!” Tony thought. But as Tony tried to determine why Mike was calling him, he knew after what he and Mike had been through, what they had seen, that he couldn’t rule out anything. In today’s world, nothing was impossible.
In fact, now days, impossible was the norm.
Tony turned and ran back to the tree line and stopped to look out towards Mike without giving away his position until he could determine why Mike was calling him.
Like before, him staying undetected could mean the difference between life and death.
When he saw Mike standing alone, looking down into a clump of brush, Tony slowly moved closer to the tree line.
“Mike,” Tony called out quietly.
Mike turned and looked in Tony’s direction.
“Over here,” Mike replied.
Tony studied the area for a moment, then began to walk towards where Mike was standing.
When he got closer to Mike, Mike turned and looked at Tony.
“Look who I found,” Mike said.
Tony cautiously moved closer as he heard the grass rustling in front of Mike.
When he got next to Mike, he looked down and saw a body, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, covered with dried blood.
One of the body’s legs and one of the arms were missing.
In the center of the chest, an arrow from a crossbow was sticking up in the air.
The body was badly decomposed and broken, but the head was still slowly turning from side to side and the teeth began clacking when the two milky clouded eyes locked on to Tony.
“I’ll be damned,” Tony said. “I was wondering where the hell he got off to. How did you find him?”
“I was watching the road and I kept hearing this sound coming from behind me in the grass,” Mike replied. “I came over to see what it was. I thought it was a snake or something. I hate snakes and I didn’t want a damn snake sneaking up on me. I almost crapped my pants when I saw who it was.”
“When I looked in the truck, I only saw one body in the back,” Tony said. “I saw a trail of blood and was worried that his friends had found him and took him away.
I started to follow the trail of blood and was trying to see where it led. I knew my arrow had hit him in the heart and he had to be dead, but I was confused as hell trying to figure out why his body wasn’t there. That’s when I heard you calling me.”
“He must have turned into a zombie after we left them here,” Mike said. “He’s probably been wandering around here in the woods for the last few weeks. I guess this is where his body finally started to break apart.”
Tony walked closer and put an arrow through the dry gray skull. The skull’s jaw and eyes stopped moving.
“I like to finish what I start,” Tony said.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t a snake,” Mike replied.
“I didn’t expect this, but it does answer the question as to whether anyone found these two,” Tony said.
“Yeah, what do you say we get the hell out of here now,” Mike said.
They got back in the Buick.
Tony started the engine and again began to drive slowly down the road.
“How the hell do you think that guy turned into a zombie?” Mike asked. “I saw you shoot that guy in the heart. He was as dead as a rock when you put his body in the back of the truck. This doesn’t make sense.”
“Beats me,” Tony replied. “How did the first person turn into a zombie. There had to be a zombie before a zombie could bite someone else and turn them into a zombie. My crazed infected squirrel theory doesn’t work here. The guy was already dead.”
“Maybe he was already infected before you shot him?” Mike added. “Since the virus kills the body before it turns them into a zombie, your arrow just helped the virus along.”
“Well, if we ever get to meet that doctor Kennedy, remind me to ask him about that,” Tony replied.
They drove quietly for the next few miles until Outdoor World came into view.
The drive had been quiet without any signs of either the living or the dead.
The only thing they had seen moving was the occasional bird that glided above the trees.
They stopped at the edge of the parking lot to examine a body that was lying face down in the gravel.
They both got out of the car and studied the store and the tree line behind the store.
After deciding that they were alone, they moved closer to the body.
“A walker?” Mike asked.
“That’s my guess,” Tony replied. “The body is emaciated, the skin color tells me it has been dead for a long time, no shoes and the bottom of the feet have been worn to the bone.”
Tony bent forward and poked the body with the end of his crossbow.
“Look at this,” Mike said. “His jaw is moving. It’s barely moving but it is still trying to bite someone.”
“It lo
oks like that doctor’s time line for these things to die off was pretty much on target,” Tony said. “But whether they are walking or flat on their faces, I think we should stay away from them. If we aren’t careful, one of these things could end up sinking their rotting teeth in to one of our feet. I’m sure they can still infect us.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to watch where we step,” Mike replied, “If I didn’t hear the grass rustling back up the road, I could have stepped on that one.”
“We should probably pick up some heavy work boots for everyone,” Tony added.
“Especially some for Jamie,” Mike replied. “I swear most of the time she could walk off a cliff and not know it. She just runs without watching where she’s going.”
Tony looked over at the store.
“What do you see?” Tony asked, motioning at the store.
Mike looked at the front of the store.
“It doesn’t look any different than when we were here a month ago,” he replied. “Do you think it is possible that no one else has been here?”
“I don’t know, it looks that way,” Tony replied.
The front of the store looked untouched, except for the previously broken windows on the doors of the front entrance.
All the other large windows on the front of the store were intact. There wasn’t any debris scattered around the door of the store or in the parking lot.
It wasn’t anything like all the stores and buildings they had passed by on their way home from the cabin.
“Let’s go in and take a look,” Tony said as he walked back over to the car.
“You want me to put an arrow in this walker to finish it off?” Mike asked.
“No, save the arrow,” Tony replied. “I’ll run it over it with the car. I know we have a lot of arrows, but this feels strange.”
“Strange how?” Mike asked. “It feels quiet and peaceful to me.”
“I don’t know,” Tony said. “I just keep thinking that maybe it’s too quiet and peaceful, you know like the calm before the storm. But, maybe I just worry too much.”