by Jimmy Bird
Before we did anything, we talked about our next move. We figured that every road could be like that one and that our direct path to the super-center and supplies was straight ahead. We knew that if I could move the truck far enough forward then we could squeeze the SUV past it. We sat there for a few minutes just to make sure that the coast was clear.
It was agreed that Danny would stay in the car and watch over me while I went to investigate. I grabbed my spear that Ruff had made me and my pistol that I had stashed under the seat. I put the gun in between my back and waistband of my pants. I looked around, but couldn't shake the feeling that it was a setup.
When I didn't see anyone, I slowly opened the passenger door and looked around again. When I still didn't see anyone, I lowered my right foot towards the ground and slid out of the seat. I figured that I was being a bit over cautious, but we had learned the hard way not to trust anyone and I wasn't about to take any chances. Danny didn't feel the same way about things as I did as he frustratingly yelled for me to hurry up. He impatiently mentioned that the sooner we moved the truck, the sooner we could get back home.
Home? I don't even know what home feels like anymore. I guess my father-n-law's land could be considered home. I just never thought about it that way. To me, it would always be my father-n-law's place. We were just using it until he came back.
Came back? Who am I kidding? He was probably dead or one of the undead. The last place I felt even remotely at home was at the Warehouse, but that was when I still had my kids. No, the Sanctuary would never be my home.
Danny brought me back to reality when he told me once again to "Hurry up!" I looked around. I had momentarily forgotten where we were. I looked up and saw the nice cleanish truck in the distance and remembered.
I continued to slowly lower the rest of my body to the ground. Once both feet were firmly on the ground, I slowly turned around in a three hundred sixty degree circle. I still didn't see anything, but couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched.
I turned to face the truck and noticed that Danny was already halfway there. What was he doing? He was supposed to have stayed back in the SUV while I went to check on the truck. You could tell that he was frustrated by his mannerisms. He kept talking under his breath as he looked over at me and told me to hurry up. He turned and quickly walked towards the truck. He didn't even stop until he was within a few feet of it. He turned around and asked what was taking me so long.
To be honest, I didn't know. I wanted to walk purposely towards the truck, but something was stopping me. I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, that it was all a trap. I looked around one more time. When I was satisfied that no one was around, I put one foot in front of the other and began walking towards Danny.
I immediately stopped and pulled the gun from my waist. I quickly raised it towards Danny. Startled, he gripped his own gun. Lucky for me, he didn't pull it as he asked me what I was doing. I told him to turn around. He slowly turned his head so he could look out the corner of his eyes.
You could tell from his body language that he was expecting a few zombies behind him. He almost sighed his relief when it turned out to be a couple of men leaning on the truck with guns and their guns were aimed at him. Danny tried to say something to the guys, but was cut short by a woman's voice from overhead.
I looked up and saw around twenty people or so on top of the building to our right. Something told me to look to my left. I slowly turned and noticed about the same amount of people on the building to the left. Men, women, and teenagers. The were dressed in similar garments that Kevin and Bruce's men were dressed in. Man, we were so outnumbered and screwed.
I raised my gun towards the building tops and was told to immediately "Stop!" It was a males voice that I had recognized and it had come from behind me. With my gun raised, I slowly turned around.
Coming up from behind us was another ten or so people, led by a bearded man that I vaguely recognized. It looked like Robert, Bruce's brother-n-law. I had never been so relieved to see someone in my life. I lowered my gun and smiled. I raised my arms in a welcoming motion as I yelled out his name. My smile or actions were not precipitated.
I felt someone next to me and turned to see Danny standing there. He was panting as if he was trying to catch his breath. My guess was that he jogged to stand next to me.
I looked back towards Robert, who had continued towards us. His men had stayed put, their weapons trained on us. It was a little frightening.
He stopped just a few feet from us, his face had a serious look upon it. His look intensified as he took one step closer to stand in front of us. I'm not sure about Danny, but my body tensed up as I expected the worse. To my surprise, Robert raised his arms and hugged us, together. He pulled away, face softened up as he smiled.
He asked us how we were doing. I told him that we were doing fine. Danny agreed. Before I knew it, we were being hammered by questions. He wanted to know where we were staying. How many people we had? What kind of weapons we had? Why we abandoned the Warehouse?
I was shocked to say the least. Before I could say anything, his expression changed once again as he ask in a serious tone "Where was Bruce, Kevin, and our kin?" I stood there frozen. My mind raced with answers on what I should do. What should I say?
Bruce and Robert were brother-n-laws, everybody knew it. Bruce was married to Robert's sister. Before the apocalypse, they both worked at the Warehouse, in the same department. The only problem was that, everyone thought that they hated each other. Why would he ask about Bruce?
Robert must have noticed my expression because he asked "What? You didn't really think that we hated each other, did you?" I didn't respond as I stood there wide eyed. It was exactly what I thought.
His facial expression softened up once again as he told me that it was their plan all along, they wanted people to assume that. He made a comment that even though the Council met every other weekend to "train" on our surviving skills, they were meeting the other weekends to train with the rest of their family.
He could see my confused look and immediately pointed towards the two rooftops. My eyes followed the angle towards the roof. I knew immediately that we were in trouble. If there was roughly fifty people here and possibly even more out there then we were in some serious trouble. I knew that if Robert was looking for Bruce, Kevin, and their kin and if he didn't get what he wanted then we would die.
I felt an uneasy feeling that someone was standing right next to me. I slowly turned back toward Robert's group and found him standing a mere inches from me, with another serious look on his face. I stood still, as if I was a trapped frightened prey. Danny began to speak, but Robert cut him off. He didn't look in his direction as he told Danny to "Shut up!" Danny being Danny began to protest once again, something about having the right to speak.
Robert didn't even look in his direction as he lifted his left hand. In unison, all guns pointed directly in Danny's direction. Danny reacted by raising his own gun, but I stopped him. I told him to lower his gun. As if seeing his position for the first time, he reluctantly lowered his gun without any further outburst.
Robert's face softened up a little as he stepped back a few paces. He looked up towards the roofs as he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "See I told you, Jimmy was the reasonable one."
He began to walk around me and Danny as he spoke. We didn't move as he told us that they had been to the Warehouse. They had seen the damage and knew that there was some kind of battle.
He made a full circle and stopped right in front of me again. He cracked a small sadistic smile as he turned to face me. Danny tried to speak once again, but Robert shut him down by putting up his hand.
In fact, Robert spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. He wanted it known that if the shorter guy spoke again without being prompted then they were to shoot him. I turned my head toward Danny and made eye contact, warning him not to speak. The look he had in his eyes told me that he understood.
&nb
sp; Robert watched the silent exchange between me and Danny with fascination. He had heard that the Council members could do it, but never seen it in action. He smiled as he asked me about what happened at the Warehouse.
The words got caught in my throat as my mouth was dry. I licked my lips to moisten them and confirmed that there was a battle. Robert's smile faded as his face took on that serious look again. He asked about Bruce, Kevin, and the others. I told him that I wasn't entirely sure.
My mind raced as I tried to recall the details of what had happened. Did I tell him the truth? I figured why not, we were probably dead anyway.
I went for broke as I informed him that they had been there. They had sent in a couple of people to try to take the Warehouse from the inside and when that failed, they tried to take it by force. I let him know that we fought back, people died on both sides. He asked if Bruce and Kevin were among them.
This is where I decided to lie a little with a hint of truth. I looked him square in the eyes and told him that I wasn't sure. Zombies had showed up in the middle of the battle causing a cease fire as everyone ran for there lives. The zombies found a way into the Warehouse, forcing us to abandon it.
My blood began to boil as I recalled what happened. I let anger slip into my voice as I informed him that his people destroyed two escape buses that was carrying women and children, my own children among them. He just looked at me.
I know what you're thinking. Most people would have immediately backed off and apologized but not Robert. No, he had changed since the last time I had seen him. He was no longer the nice, quiet guy. He was harder to read and seemed much more dangerous. I wondered what had happened to him.
Robert stood there silent, as if he was waiting for me to continue speaking or was in deep thought. I wasn't sure. He turned slightly toward one of the people behind him and motioned them forward. Almost immediately, a young teenage looking girl carrying a rifle stepped forward to stand in front of him.
He told her to go to the Sanctuary and tell his sister that they were on Bruce's trail. He turned to look at me as he continued talking to the girl. He wanted his sister to know that no matter what they found, they would bring who ever was responsible to justice.
My eyes widened. He knew about the Sanctuary? What else did he know? My mind raced with questions. How could he know about the Sanctuary? It dawned on me, it was rumored that he used to be one hell of a tracker.
I wasn't sure if Danny caught on to Robert's hidden meaning, but I did. It meant that he knew all about my father-n-law's land and how many people we had left. How long had he known? It didn't matter. Our remaining loved ones were in danger, we needed to get to them fast.
He sent the girl on her errand, two men went with her. He stood up straight as he watched her go. I knew that we needed to do something, anything. It didn't matter what we did, we were still outnumbered fifty to two. We needed a miracle or we were as good as dead.
A miracle did happen, at least something that resembled a miracle. Robert's face softened up again as he looked over at us. He stated that he believed me about Bruce and Kevin. He added that he thought that they were most likely zombies and mentioned that he would go find just to be sure. He told us that we were free to go.
Without being told to, everyone lowered their weapons. Confused, I asked what he meant. He stated that he took a hunch on finding us and now that he has his news about Bruce then we were free to go.
Shocked, we asked what he meant. He stated that he had a direction on where to find Bruce. Without another word, he turned around and lifted his right hand over his head. He made the international sign for "move out" by sticking his first finger out and moving his hand around in a circle motion.
Without so much as making a noise, his troops turned and began to leave. Robert turned around one last time to face us. He smiled as he thanked us for our time.
Without another word, he turned and began to walk away. He took about five steps, stopped and turned toward us. He warned us that a massive zombie horde was headed this way from the south and if we wanted to survive then we needed to leave quickly.
When he was gone, I turned to look at Danny who had the same confused expression on his face. I was about to ask if he caught on to Robert using the term "Sanctuary," but he asked me first. So, he did notice. I told him that we didn't have time to search for supplies anymore. We needed to hurry back to the Sanctuary and get everyone before that girl gets there.
We turned and rushed towards the SUV. We opened the doors and jumped in. Danny turned the ignition and started the SUV just in time. It seemed that Robert had been correct about the zombie horde. They were coming up the street, their numbers were hard to estimate, but it looked like an army of the undead.
Danny shifted it into reverse and pushed on the gas. He backed up far enough to turn around. When we came to a stop, he shifted to drive and pushed on the gas. The wheels chirped as we took off, leaving the massive horde behind us.
Once we were clear from any immediate danger, I turned toward Danny and told him that we needed to get to my father-n-law's land. He glanced over at me and spoke through clenched teeth that he already knew that. To say that their was tension between us would have been an understatement. We knew what had just happened wasn't either of our faults, but that didn't change anything. The tension was still there.
We knew what we needed to do, but it was such a long drive back to the Sanctuary. We couldn't afford to look for supplies now because time was of the up-most importance.
Neither one of spoke the whole ride back as Danny did his best to move around obstacles at high speeds and I didn't want to break his concentration. He was doing one hell of a job, kind of reminded me of stunt drivers.
With my father-n-law's land out in the country, there was only two roads that you could really use once you got off the main road. If you were coming from Moore then it would be the first right after ten miles. The road was paved for over half a mile until you got to a turn. In the middle of the turn it changed to gravel. If you weren't careful and going at an excessive rate of speed then you will loose control and crash. The city had it planned to finish paving the road for over a year before the apocalypse, guess they did not get around to it. The next road off the main one was another dirt road. We hardly used that one because it was a long and curvy.
The street my father-n-law lived on was just off the dirt road, I did mention that it was in the country. Years ago it had been a gravel road, now it was just dirt. You could probably imagine what it's like when it rained. Less then a block down the dirt road was his driveway. Yep, even more gravel. His driveway is about a block long that curves up a slight angled hill.
We were hoping that the gravel would give us some kind of warning, much like an early warning system. Especially now with Robert's group out there.
We took the shortest route back to the Sanctuary which was also the noisiest. We figured that it was the fastest way to get back. It was a good thing too because we could see a small group of people already starting to file in through our secret escape route. We were out of time.
We pulled into the driveway as Danny pushed on the horn. We figured that it was the quickest way to get their attention. We pulled up to the house as Bobby emerged with his gun pointed towards us, everyone else was standing at the doorway.
I told them to quickly grab their stuff because we needed to leave. Confused, Bobby asked what was going on. I told them that we only had a few minutes, but I would explain everything on the way. He started to ask another question, but I cut him off by telling him that we didn't have time. We needed to hurry.
By the time they re-emerged with our stuff, we was already out of time. We could see the group of people emerge from the tree line, guns raised. I told Danny to start the SUV while I rushed to help carry our things. We didn't have time to grab most of our things as we rushed out of the door.
Once we were all in the car, Danny nailed the gas and accelerated down the driveway. The house get
ting smaller and smaller in the rear window. I noticed that the group didn't try to rush after us or even shoot. Maybe their plan wasn't to kill us, but to push us off the land. Maybe they wanted it for themselves. It didn't matter what they wanted it for because it was now theirs.
When we were a few miles from the Sanctuary, I relaxed enough to explain what had happened. Danny and I went into detail. We decided that our best bet was to go back to the Warehouse and get whatever supplies that we could find before leaving. With Robert out there, our best bet was to leave the area for good. We needed to find some place where there wasn't a lot of zombies, a place where he couldn't find us.
After throwing out numerous ideas, we finally decided on the secluded parks of Lake Eufaula. My family used to go camping there when me and my sister were kids. It was a good two hour drive away under normal conditions, so it would take whoever was following us even longer to reach it. The lake is big enough that no one could find us, if we so choose. I remember as a child people always seeing rented house style boats on the lake, so theatrically we could use one of those to escape danger. There was also the tourist caves of the notorious female "Old West" outlaw of legend, Belle Starr, that we could hide in. We could survive.
The more I thought about it, the more it became clear. We could actually live there in peace, no more fighting the living to survive. All we had to worry about was surviving the dead.
Writing all this down and the long drive back to the Warehouse got me tired. It was the first time that I got to relax since we abandoned the Warehouse and before I knew it, I was fighting sleep. All I kept thinking was that that the drive was pretty soothing.
I woke up to Danny swerving around something in the middle of the road and slamming on the breaks. It was a good thing I was wearing a seat-belt, otherwise I would have ended up in the floorboard or worse. Trying to quickly get my bearings, I looked around wide eyed, as if I was dreaming. I glanced over at Danny who was looking for something behind us. Everyone was questioning what had just happened. Guess I wasn't the only one who fell asleep.