Born In The Apocalypse (Book 3): Jericho

by Joseph Talluto

  “Very well. I’ll radio headquarters and have their families notified,” Campbell said.

  “What’s the plan for tomorrow, sir?” Bell asked.

  “If the storm passes, we follow the tracks in the snow, Sergeant. Dismissed.”

  Sergeant Bell walked away shaking his head. Just when you think he’s an idiot, he actually says something smart, he thought.

  Chapter 39

  The snow lasted until the middle of the night, and I used the time to put together all of the things I wished to take with me. I couldn’t bring everything that belonged to my parents, so I settled on their wedding rings and a picture they had taken of themselves when they were on some vacation or something. I took my favorite books, which consisted of most of my westerns, and a few others. I had my money book, and that was about it. I brought my reloading gear, my arrows, and my guns.

  Kim had a few items of her family to bring, but the majority of her things were like mine. She had her weapons and some clothes, and a couple pieces of jewelry she favored. But there was not a lot there. We had a good amount of room on the cart, so we loaded up with as much traveling supplies as we had. Missy would carry a load as well, but not that heavy.

  Kim was over at her house when I got an urgent message. Our message system was nothing more than a string between the houses attached to small bells. I went over to the ringing bell and looked out the window. Kim’s house was dark, and I quickly blew out the lamp I was using and looked into the night. Out in the darkness, I could see dozens of figures moving about, circling the homes, testing the fence. They were deep black in contrast to the white snow, and the moonlight doubled the number of them with their shadows.

  This horde seemed out of place, as there had been no warning, no nothing. They seemed restless, too, moving faster than a normal horde would. I wasn’t worried about our walls they had held out for this long, they would hold out forever as far as I could tell.

  I watched them for a while, keeping back from the window. I wasn’t in any danger, but if they saw me or suspected I was there, they wouldn’t leave and I’d have to spend time killing the lot of them and using up supplies I would need later. When I figured they would not be a problem tonight, I went to bed.

  I woke before the sun came up and looked outside. My friends were still there and still moving around. A few of them were standing still, waiting for the next reason to move on. I was wondering what I needed to do to get them to move on, and I was just about to work up some fire arrows when I thought I heard a gunshot. It was hard to hear, but it definitely was a shot. There was another one and then there were several. The last shots were different sounding, so my first thought was another gun in a different caliber had joined the party. With the Trippers around my house, I could imagine they had surrounded another house in the area and whoever was making a stand had help.

  I went outside, keeping low and made it over to Kim’s house. She was up and she had heard the shots too.

  “Who do you think it was?” she asked, slipping her quiver onto her back.

  “I don’t know. Came from over that way.” I pointed north and Kim’s eyes got big.

  “You don’t think it was Kevin, do you?” she asked.

  I didn’t answer. Suddenly, things became very focused. I thought everything would be okay, and suddenly I knew in my gut that nothing was right.

  I looked out the window and watched as the Trippers headed north to see what the ruckus was. Whoever was up in that direction was going to be very busy very soon. The Trippers numbered at least a hundred, and they faded into the woods and houses down past the cul-de-sac.

  “We need to go. Now, today,” I said. “Those shots were the men who are hunting me. I’ll bring the wagon over to the back gate. You get the horses saddled up. Judy will pull the wagon. If you think we need it, we’ll bring it. But we have to go now.”

  Kim didn’t argue, thank God, and we got ourselves out in record time. I was hoping to have the time to go through and make sure there was nothing I needed left behind, but there was no time.

  Judy looked at me with dark eyes as I hitched her to the wagon. I had added some side poles and tied them to her saddle. The theory was a modified travois, and I’d improve it later. I climbed up on Missy who was stamping to go, and Kim gave me a smile.

  I looked back at my home and suddenly I was loathe to leave. I had never run from a fight before and something about being chased out of my own house really galled me. But the smarter part of me realized that while I could damage the men coming after me, they had the superior numbers and firepower. I couldn’t risk Kim or my horses, so the better thing to do was go get my own army.

  “Let’s git,” I said.

  Kim snorted at me, but she smiled too.

  Behind us, there was an odd sound coming through the woods. It was the wheezing of a hundred Tripper throats as they found their prey.

  Rifle shots chased our backs as we rode out down Sauk Trail, just a man and a woman and three horses. Nothing to see here, nothing to be suspicious about.

  Chapter 40

  “Who did we lose?”

  “Corporal Carver, sir. Dumbass thought he could punch one in the head and that would put it down. Tripper ripped his throat out before we could kill it,” Sergeant Stafford said. He was the other NCO on this mission. He was a career soldier, having been in several fights around the globe. He had volunteered for wall duty because he thought it would be a nice way to ease into his retirement. Looking down at the torn body of his corporal, he wasn’t so sure now that he had made the right choice.

  “What about the occupant of the house?” Lt. Campbell asked, changing the subject.

  “He saw us, opened fire. We shot back, took him down, sir. Corporal Snow thinks our shots may have brought the Trippers to us,” Stafford said.

  “You think?” Campbell scooped up an extra serving of sarcasm and Stafford appropriately flinched. Corporal Snow was going to hear about that one. “How many did we kill?” he asked.

  “Eighty-nine, sir.”

  “Drop in the bucket,” Lt. Campbell said, more to himself than the sergeant. “What direction did the Trippers come from?”

  “South, sir. The drone didn’t report any activity. Likely because it was dark and there’s no lights around here at all.”

  Campbell shook his head. “Spooky, isn’t it? I’m surprised that we find anyone alive after all these years. You’d think they all would have shot or hung themselves by now.”

  “Yes, sir,” Stafford said. He was learning that despite his youthful appearance, and his slight build, Lt. Campbell had more steel in him than people suspected.

  “Right. Well, the bike led us here, and we killed who was here. He had guns and supplies, and was probably the man we were looking for,” Campbell said.

  Stafford went over to the body and pulled out his cell phone. He pulled up a picture and compared it to the dead man.

  “Sir? Are you sure it’s the same man?” Stafford asked. “This one seems smaller than the man in the pictures.”

  Lt. Campbell came over and looked at the pictures and the dead man.

  “Well, the one picture is fuzzy thanks to the window, and the other one is a collection of cell phone pictures with the sun as photo-bomber,” he said. “What we have as proof is bike tracks leading away from the scene of a double murder, and ending at this place with this man. I’d say we have the better evidence.”

  “Stafford, get the men in the house. We’ll stay here for the rest of the day and then head back towards Indiana in the morning.”

  “Sir?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t mean to speak out of turn, sir, but Captain Vega killed the last man to come out of Illinois,” Stafford said quietly, making sure none of the other men around heard him.

  Lt. Campbell thought for a moment. “Point taken, Sergeant. But that man had been bitten by the Trippers. He was a dead man anyway. We’ve not received so much as a scratch, and there’s no blood on any of us
. We should be okay. Think of it this way, Sergeant. We’ve just gone where no one else on earth has been outside these walls. Says something about our careers, hey?”

  Stafford wasn’t so sure, but he was too good of a soldier to say so. He had a bad feeling about what might happen once they crossed back over the wall, and he had an idea as to what to do about it.

  What Stafford and Campbell didn’t realize, was their little battle had been heard for miles, and there were hundreds and hundreds of Trippers heading in their direction.

  The other thing they didn’t know was the Trippers had been evolving, and they were hungry.

  Chapter 41

  “I’ll admit it, we should have gotten a sled,” I said.

  “It’s not so bad,” Kim said, trying to be helpful.

  “The snow is sticking to the tires, and it just isn’t working,” I said, looking down at the wheels. Judy was pulling pretty well, but I could see she was having some trouble.

  “Let’s find a place to spend the night, and we’ll get the horses taken care of. Then we can go see if we can find something better.” I was not so egotistical that I was unwilling to admit when I had made a mistake. I thought the tires would make it through the snow, but they were not meant for that kind of travel.

  “What do you think happened back at Kevin’s house? Do you think he’s okay?” Kim asked. “All those Trippers headed in his direction.”

  “Don’t know. He’s a survivor, so he wouldn’t pick a place that he couldn’t defend. We don’t even know he settled in that direction. Chances are, he went further in to be closer to a water source,” I said. That’s what I would have done.

  Kim thought about it. “Good point. He’s probably fine, wondering what all the fuss was about last night and this morning.” She thought some more. “Do you think the soldiers would hurt him?”

  “You seem awfully interested in his health this fine day, Kim. Do you want to head back and check on him? I’ll wait with the horses once we find a place.” I was being sarcastic, but I was also feeling something that wasn’t very comfortable. I don’t recall ever being jealous of anything in my life, so this was an unfamiliar sensation.

  Kim smiled at me. “Don’t be that way. No, I’m where I want to be. I just was curious. Being killed like that boy for no reason other than talking to you isn’t right, even for someone who tried to take Judy.” Kim leaned over and patted Judy on the neck who responded with a shake of her head.

  I felt better, and we moved along at a decent pace. We were south of the homestead, having taken Harlem south past Laraway road and continuing south on it. It led us straight into farm country, and there would likely be some good farms and barns to spend the night in. I knew there were some subdivisions down this way as well, since I had ridden this way with my father several years ago.

  About noon, we made it to a small house and barn off the main road. The house was back from the main road about a hundred yards, and behind it was a barn-shaped garage. It was interesting in that it had two garage doors and what looked like a small living area or workshop above the garage.

  I pointed it out to Kim who nodded, and we turned our horses up to the house and barn. There wasn’t any fence, so I figured it was just another one of those houses that people left behind when they were trying to get to someplace else. Sad truth was that when the world ended in here, every other place was just as safe as the one you left behind. It was what you made it, not anything else.

  I checked out the garage and saw through the window that the right side was open. I tried the door, and to my surprise, it opened easily. I opened the garage door and Kim led the horses inside. I used a nearby extension cord to make a kind of stall for them, and Kim helped me push the other car out of the garage. It rolled backwards for a bit then slewed sideways into the bushes. Kim said it would help increase the illusion that this place was abandoned if the car was just tossed aside like that.

  I went upstairs and found that it was a workshop, with large woodworking machines. There was a smaller room in the back of the workshop area, and I went in there carefully. It turned out that the back room was a reloading room, much to my delight, but after careful inspection, it seemed that whoever lived here was interested in only reloading rifle ammunition. There was a safe, but it was empty of guns. In another cabinet, under a pile of books, was a box of 30-06 ammunition and a box of .308 Winchester ammunition. I happily took the .308, as I still had that rifle. I was gratified to be able to shoot back at long range if someone was trying that game on me. I had tried the rifle before and its range was impressive.

  A quick look out the window showed a long yard and there was a pond at the back end of it. That solved my water for my horse’s problem. The other problem I had was putting it in something. There were not troughs here, so we’d have to find something.

  Kim was waiting for me downstairs, and together we went over to the house. I told Kim about the pond, and she said she saw some buckets in the garage so that problem was solved.

  The house was locked in the front, but the back door was unlocked. It was amazing how many homes were like that. We went in and looked around. We didn’t talk, just looked around. The house was simple, and furnished that way. There was nothing in the way of food, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. The kitchen was a bit dusty but uncluttered. The living room consisted of three chairs and a couch, and a small bookcase of paperbacks. I gave the books the once over, but there was nothing of interest to me there. Kim picked out a couple, shrugging.

  I moved toward the other rooms in the house; one looked like an office and the other was a storeroom of sorts. I walked back and the floor creaked under my boot. Kim was standing in front of me and we both heard it at the same time.

  The ceiling, directly above me, creaked in response.

  I looked at Kim and she shook her head, alternating from looking at me to looking at the ceiling. I stepped back on the creaking board, and the ceiling above me spoke again.

  I drew my Colt and carefully walked towards the stairs. As I did, there was another board that creaked and a second creak came from the ceiling in reply, this time closer to where I was. The creaks were definitely following me.

  I got to the stairs without another noise and I took the first step up, leading with my Colt in my right hand and my knife in my left, just for good measure.

  The stairs turned about halfway up, and when I stepped on the landing, it creaked again. There were two creaks in reply, both of them getting closer. I could see the hallway at the top of the stairs, and it went in both directions. I took another step and decided to lay on the stairs and look both ways. I would still have a retreat if anything was there.

  I dropped onto the stairs and looked left and right quickly. There was nothing to my left, but to my right there was a Tripper. She saw me as I saw her and immediately charged. I launched myself backwards and retreated down the steps, spinning around as I got some space. The Tripper was down the stairs almost as fast, and she came at me with a horrendous wheeze in her throat. Her clothes were old and threadbare, and her eyes were deep red. If she wasn’t an original Tripper, I had never seen one.

  I raised my gun and fired, missing as she tripped over the rug and landed at my feet. She scrambled quickly and got up on all fours, lunging and grabbing my foot. Her teeth bit at my calf, and I fired again, this time at point-blank range at the top of her head. She collapsed in a heap, wheezing her last.

  Kim rushed over.

  “Did she get you?” She knelt down to check my leg.

  I pulled her up. “No, she just bit my boot. I’m okay.”

  “Your dad’s boots?”

  “Yep.”

  Kim nodded. “Then you’re good. Let’s get her outside and check for any others.”

  “If there were any others, they’d be here by now,” I said.

  “That’s true. Grab her arms, will you?”

  My father left me a pair of boots he had modified when the Trippers came out to play. The
y were thick leather, and he had placed strips of metal in between the layers. No Tripper could ever bite through them. I ejected the shells I had fired and replaced them from my belt.

  Chapter 42

  We dragged the Tripper outside and buried her in a shallow grave. I stuck a crude cross in the ground and gave it no more thought. It was better than I gave most of the Trippers I killed, but then I never knew where any of them lived. This one died in her home, and it seemed right to bury her here. After that, we gathered some water for the horses and made sure they were secure for the evening. Judy and Pumpkin were tired but Missy had energy for some reason, so I saddled her up again and took her out for a quick run up and down the road. She seemed to love running through the snow and causing large sprays of ice to fly from her hooves.

  I was looking for a subdivision, and fortunately, there was one to the south. It consisted of many large houses, so I figured they had to have what we were looking for. It would have been fantastic to find something at the house we chose to stay in for the night, but that kind of luck seemed to be reserved for children and fools. I can’t lay claim to the former, but I’d not want to hear anyone’s opinion about me concerning the latter.

  I brought Missy back, and Kim and I unlimbered our bows and slung our full quivers over our backs. I had my Colt and Kim had a small 9mm handgun she had picked up when I was visiting the rest of the state. It rode in a holster on her hip, slightly forward of her leg.

  We trekked south towards the subdivision, noting the time of day. I figured it would take about an hour to find something, and it was about a fifteen-minute walk to the subdivision. Without Tripper interference, I figured we’d need to break into two or three homes, four at the most for what we needed. Before we left the house and horses, I pulled a branch from a tree and swept our tracks away. Anyone who knew how to track wouldn’t be fooled for very long, but I didn’t feel the need to advertise. Kim reminded me that Judy wasn’t one to tolerate other riders, and Missy was a terror when she was riled up, so Judy being nervous would rile her up right quick.