by Joe Kelly
He gazed around the room for a moment, thinking of all the memories that resided in these walls. I’m going to hate leaving here, he thought with a mental sigh.
Tired of being inside he walked down the stairs and out onto the front porch.
Rv’s filled the yard leaving only just enough room to drive out, there was damn sure no way to squeeze anything else into the yard. the group was busy loading supplies in each Rv, dividing everything up between the vehicles.
Rob and Warren were on the roof of the one that had been chosen to serve as a mobile medical clinic installing some of the solar panels they had recovered from the South Fork national forest visitor center. Gary and another of Logan’s people were installing all the portable medical devices Jared’s people had recovered from the local hospital under the direction of Chloe one of Logan’s people who had, miracle of miracles, been a paramedic and Pre med. Linda was still dancing happily at the knowledge there was another person with real knowledge to help her tend to the medical needs of the group.
“you okay?” Jared turned at the question to find Clay sitting in a Chair on the porch, his legs propped against the wall beside him. Seeing where Jared was looking, Clay smiled “Stumps were hurting, so I’m taking a break.” He said. “so are you okay, you looked, I don’t know upset or something.”
“I’m fine, I realized that out of all of us, I still have a home. This was my place and now I’m going to lose it. I never really thought about it till today.” Jared said with a shrug. “its only a place.”
“But suddenly you get the whole meaning of home.” Clay said. Jared nodded slightly. “I guess part of is knowing that at some point we are going to be heading into the unknown, a real unknown. There’s no place to retreat to, no safe harbors, it doesn’t bother me but its unsettling. I guess I’ve hung on to the old world more than I had thought.”
“try losing your legs, for a long while you still try to stand up on your own two feet only to be reminded that their gone.” Clay said giving Jared a wry smile. “It took five years before I threw out all my old shoes. I should have waited, I got my first set of legs the next year and had to buy some new shoes for them.”
Jared chuckled at that. “Friend of mine, who was a soldier lost a leg to an IED, he bitched about having a closet full of brand new left shoes he couldn’t wear, Said it was stupid that no one would just sell him right shoes. So one day he got online and found another vet who had lost his right leg and they started trading shoes.” Clay took a moment before deciding that Jared was serious then laughed.
“Never thought about lost legs being used as a symbol for how to deal with losing everything in the apocalypse.” Jared said.
“I was just talking about losing my legs and being stupid, but if you want to make me sound wise go right ahead.” Clay said with a laugh.
Jared chuckled once more than patted the man on the shoulder, “thanks” He said then left Clay to his own devices as he headed to the Barn to check on the progress on outfitting the Mobile shop. Which had more or less become Ori’s baby since Rob was so busy with everything else.
The Package truck they had recovered for use as the mobile shop was starting to look good, he thought as he peered into the back. Ori and Rob had installed work benches, air lines and power runs. Expanded metal cabinets containing tools were mounted on the walls.
There had been some talk about making a slide out, but Jared had put his foot down on that, who knew if they had the time to get into that and having to abandon the truck and all the tools because it had a huge hole in its side when danger struck would suck.
“Got the compressor mounted this morning and one of the run silent genies. She’s pretty much set to go.” Ori said as he finished attaching a tool drawer to one of the benches.
“nice” Jared said. “now what about this rumor that you have yoked the kids into slave labor.”
Ori grinned, “I only feed them beans curds too.” He waved a hand in dismissal. “its that idiot Stephanie” Ori said already tired of talking. “not fond of her.”
No one else was real fond of her either, Jared suspected some of her personality was an act, something she had done for so long it had become habit. But that didn’t stop her from annoying the living hell out of everyone around her. Beth had called her a slut much to Jared’s surprise that kind of language just wasn’t her style. Pappy had taken great pleasure in offering alternative word suggestions each one more colorful than the last till Beth had silenced him a with a glare.
“how much ammo have you gotten reloaded,” Jared asked hoping for more good news today and trying to steer Ori away from the topic of Stephanie the woman had a knack for pissing people off.
“not as much as I’d like, A thousand rounds of 223 and six hundred 5.56 in the last two weeks, when I could squeeze in the time to reload. which hasn’t been all that often. Steve’s helped too.”
“Better than nothing” Jared replied. “If you feel the urge, reload .308 for yourself, you’re the best shot and I’d rather you had more ammo than the rest of us.” Jared commented as he moved out of the way so Ori could hop down from the back of the truck.
“Bitch called me an oompa loompa” Ori suddenly snarled.
Jared bit back a laugh, “well, you..”
“finish that sentence and die” Ori said as Jared laughed he could be forgiven if there was an edge to that laughter. Something about the end of the world had killed carefree happiness. But the fact that they could still laugh amidst the horror was proof that the undead were not winning.
At least I finally got everyone to stop arguing about who gets to ride with who, if and when we have to leave. Right, not if, but when be honest with yourself Jared. If I had to listen to one more person whine about having to ride with such and such I would personally have opened the gates to the undead and then see if they cared who they had to ride with to escape.
“any chance we can get our hands on some car haulers” Ori asked. “there’s a Uhaul in town that Seth probably didn’t burn to the ground, probably find some there.”
“You mean those tow bars, a car hauler is a big trailer pulled behind a semi” Jared said.
“Yeah the ones RV use to pull cars.” Ori said almost disinterested. He was past the point of wanting to talk and knew Jared was dragging it out just to see him squirm.
“Don’t see why not, and they could come in handy, I wouldn’t mind getting a tow truck either, one of the big ones that could come in handy on the road.”
Ori grunted in agreement making Jared smile. “so does Beth do all the talking when your alone?”
“we don’t talk in private.” Ori said as he reached for a wrench.
Jared chuckled and held up his hands to ward off the oncoming attack. “Just curious, Jill thinks she just talks for you, ‘so Ori would you like some peas’ ‘why yes Beth, you make wonderful peas.”
“fuck you Jared” Ori said then grinned. “go bother some one else.”
Jared strolled out of the barn, pausing to watching people loading up the vehicles. The off road trucks would be used to scout ahead of the column once they hit the road. Hopefully they could locate problems well ahead of time and keep the bigger heavier vehicles from ending up in places that they couldn’t get out of.
Rob was busy welding plates and expanded metal over the windows of some of the vehicles as armor. People were busying sorting through gear and getting ready, driven by an air of urgency that most if not all of the group felt and it grew stronger every day.
“hey Jared” Logan called out spotting Jared. He quickly placed the box he was carrying in the back of a truck and walked over to Jared who was talking to Rob about a special project.
Logan’s group was fitting in with the others pretty well, except for Stephanie, who most people couldn’t stand. Ronny was all for making her the official camp prostitute, a job that he insisted she was completely qualified for. Mary had expressed her disapproval with a hard slap to the back of the head then offered to h
old his head so any other woman that wanted to could take a swing.
To be honest Jared had been pleasantly surprised at how smart most of the younger folks were and how hard they worked to earn their keep. Even Kevin who was in a wheel chair, all of them accept of course Sorority queen Stephanie, the living blond sorority girl stereotype
“You still think you can make it thru the winter here” Logan asked. “I know with all of us here now its probably stretching your supplies and we were talking last night about doing our own resource collected to help out, so your people can take a break.
Jared shrugged then explained. “Maybe, maybe not. food wise yes, we could even feeding your people. but with the zombies, who knows. We can’t just sit back and let them block us in, and we can’t afford to waste ammo to break out or clear the area. But if they come at us scatter gun, we might be able to deal with them easily.”
“But you won’t know till they get here” Logan said nodding slowly seeing the problem. The zombie siege was how so many had died. As soon as the undead found people hiding in buildings they piled up against the building till either they got inside, or the people inside died.
“Actually, I know right now that it’s a horde.” Jared said with a shrug of his wide shoulders. “It’s a gut feeling.” He glanced towards the gate almost sadly. “Time is ticking down like a celestial stop watch and come Halloween it’s going to hit zero on us.” Jared said softly, He hated admitting it but deep in his heart he knew it was true no matter how impossible the knowledge was.
“So you’re going to leave?” Logan asked not doubting Jared’s gut feeling. Jared smiled grimly but said nothing for a moment. He didn’t need to. With Ronny’s reports about the town and the growing number of undead in the surrounding area and the rising number of people having those weird dreams no one really believed they were going to stay now despite the fact they were only supposed to be preparing for a what if.
“I am thinking about getting everyone out before Halloween and setting up somewhere else. Then I will come back and sit on that bluff across the way and watch and see what happens.” Jared replied. “if the dead don’t show up, we can move back in. But if they do, at least we won’t be trapped in here.”
Chapter 18
By October 20th, they were as ready to bug out as they could be. They only thing they had left was to send out a team to clear the undead from the camp ground they would stay at the first night or two. It was official now, they were leaving and to the survivors in the camp it was like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. But the building tension, the rising desire, the need to get out had only grown stronger with each passing day.
Jared found himself standing by Marks grave, wishing he could talk to him again. “I really need your advice” He said aloud. “I’d love to hear you tell me I’m an asshole and being stupid again.” He said almost smiling at the memories of Mark doing exactly that.
“truth is Mark I hate leaving this place. Its’ my home, the last place I can call my own. I know everyone lost theirs but I guess it just never sunk in to my mind that I am the last person in the world that I know of that’s still living on his own property. It’s stupid that it means so much to me. But there it is.” He fell silent for a moment as he knelt and placed a hand on Marks grave. “I know we have to leave, if we don’t’ everyone will die. Hell I’m certain of it and I don’t even know how I know it. Never believed in this stuff you know. But every day I feel it growing stronger and there’s this edge to the world like building electricity in the air just like the day it all went to hell.
The worst part is, I’m not the leader they need, yeah, I was a good sergeant but being the leader at the end of the world,” He snorted derisively. “It might look good on the old resume, but I’m scared shitless I’m going to get everyone killed Mark.”
He felt stupid talking to Marks grave, but at the same time there was a rightness to it as well.
“The thing is buddy, this place gave us time to get our crap together, recover as much as we could from the horrors we had seen and the devastation that we had lived through. Cope is actually the right word, because I don’t think we will ever completely recover from what we’ve seen and done. But whatever you want to call it its allowed us to prepare for the next step. Yeah, I know, it’s stupid to run off following dreams, but to many of us have had them. I can’t just ignore them not now.” He said as he wiped at his eyes that were suddenly moist. He missed Mark.
Mark had always been right there ready with a suggestion, or to argue a point when Jared was being stubborn. He was always there after Charisma, he had been there when my folks died, he helped me when I got buried trying to raise Eric and keep my own life rolling along. The pain of Mark’s loss was there below the surface, trying to push free.
“got something in my eye,” he muttered half amused at his own actions. “anyway, Pappy is still kicking he’s strapped down and being kept in the Medical RV. Its killing him not being able to cuss and insult people. I think half the camp actually misses his tirades. Let’s face it he was funny.” He paused again, Mark was really the only one of his friends who knew just how much He cared for Pappy. Pappy had been like family even before his own parents had been killed in that damned car crash. After the crash Pappy had helped whenever he could. Though Jared had not allowed Pappy to lecture his little brother on the proper way to live, like the don’t date, hire hookers till you meet a woman like my wife speech he had given Jared and Jeff throughout high school.
“Linda hinted around about putting Pappy down with some drugs, she meant well I know but there was no way I could agree with that and damn sure no way I was going to tell Jeff that. The man still prays for a miracle where Pappy is concerned, and I tell you buddy, with the walking dead running around maybe a few miracles aren’t all the farfetched.” Jared wasn’t going to hold his breath for it either but he couldn’t blame Jeff for hoping. Besides Jared wanted a miracle too, he liked Pappy a lot and the man had been there as a surrogate, if obscene and embarrassing, uncle since he had been a kid.
“To be honest, I want one too.” Jared said his voice soft. “anyway, got to get back to the rat killing, Just wanted to stop by for a few minutes. I hate it but once we leave here, you’re going to be alone. That bothers me, but I know you of all people would understand and approve.” He rose to his full height gazing down at the grave for a moment longer then turned and walked away. Jill, unseen, stood amongst the trees, she had come to ask Jared a question and then seeing him talking to Marks grave wouldn’t interrupt. She wiped at her own eyes and thought maybe she understood Jared a little better than she had.
October 29th, the caravan rolled out of the camp for the last time. Jared looked into the rear view mirror, already feeling the loss of the last place he could call his own. He didn’t know if he would ever see it again. Probably not but whoever might end up moving in would know they had been here, he thought looking at the sign Ronny had made and hung, out of reach, on wall beside the gate. The clenched fist with upraised middle finger had been carved deep into the wood of the sign as had the legend. “Evil 0, Living 1, we are still alive.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Seth settled himself on the ledge, safe from any zombies that might be here in the woods. He hummed silently to himself as he pulled out his binoculars and turned them on the camp across the hollow. He loved Halloween, its one of the greatest days of the year. his satisfaction faded as he saw the empty field, deeply rutted with Tire tracks around the Cabins.
Not a soul moved across the valley on the opposite bluff. No lights burned in the cabins, no one lingered over a beer or a meal on the porch. The Gap in their wall had been filled with several over turned vehicles as well as logs. He could see the hordes of undead wandering around outside the wall, but the will that had driven them this far from town was gone just as their intended victims were gone.
Seth and his friend had known that they might leave. It had always been possible, that the other side might just
interfere and get the red head and his people out before death came calling. Seth didn’t understand that part, the other side, but it had been a great concern for his friend. He took it as a bad thing, and didn’t doubt that the other side, whoever that might be had definitely interfered.
He had developed a deep and passionate hatred for the red head and his followers, one that grew every day. His home had been destroyed his supplies and fiancée stolen no man should have to put up with that kind of humiliation. Oh no and I wont. Seth silently vowed. I have a car and I will find you and I will kill you.
He sat there for a little longer then rose to his feet, it was time to get back to his hide out and prepare to leave. His friend would have to help him locate the bastard red head but once he did Seth planned on making the mans death slow and painful.
He climbed to the top of the bluff to retrieve his pack and found it gone. I had placed it there against that crooked looking tree, he thought as he looked around wildly. he didn’t dare use a flash light for fear his neighbors might come calling. He was certain that someone had stolen his pack.