“We were more or less in siege mode,” Brandon said. “There were simply too many of those things wandering around the city to do much of anything. We should’ve gotten out of that place a long time ago,” he lamented.
“But, they wouldn’t leave because of the labs. They were obsessed with finding a cure and we’d all heard about you,” Mike said, gesturing toward me. “The colonel believed you were dead, so your kids were VIPs.” I digested what he said and looked pointedly at him.
“I have a question and I want an honest answer.” I hooked a thumb at Justin and Ruth. “Don’t worry about them, you can speak your mind here without worrying about it.”
“Ask away,” Mike replied.
“How did Major Parsons treat my kids?”
“Like they were his own,” Mary said immediately. “Nobody mistreated your kids, Zach. We believed they were our last best hope for humanity.”
“If nothing else, they were spoiled rotten,” Rachel, who had been quiet up until now, added. The rest of them chuckled. I glanced over at Justin and Ruth. They looked back as if saying, are you satisfied now?
I caught Tonya eyeing me. I excused myself and walked over to her.
"Are you really going to let these newcomers live in the school?" I asked.
“I think it’s a good idea, Zach, but we’re going to need more beef cattle. A dairy cow or two would be nice also.” I eyed her. “Well, you practically dumped those two sisters and that kid on me.” I didn’t dump them, they made the choice on their own, but I didn’t argue the point. I was frowning, but I nodded.
“We should be able work something out.” Tonya smiled in victory.
I sat on the den floor and played with my kids until they could hardly keep their eyes open. They didn’t want to go to bed, but when I tucked them in and lay down beside them, their heavy eyelids slammed shut within a minute. I quietly left the bedroom and joined the women in the kitchen. Kelly gestured at the wind-up clock on the kitchen counter.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s only six. That son of yours is going to be rarin’ to go at about four in the morning. You’re on your own with that,” she said while smiling sweetly. I chuckled.
“I understand. What are y’all talking about?”
“While you watch the kids tomorrow, we’re going to find Janet a bed.”
I smiled. “Yeah, okay. I’m going to check around outside before it gets too dark out.”
“Shit,” I muttered. I saw them as I approached the gate. There were three of them, and it looked like one of them was actually trying to climb over the gate. I took no chances and dispatched them with my shotgun. Kelly met me at the door and I explained.
“I’ll burn them tomorrow, but I think tonight I’m going keep watch and make sure there aren’t more lurking around.”
“You think they’re more out there?” she asked.
“Remember the attack on the house?” I was referring to back in April of last year. The zombie I’d captured had somehow led an attack on our house after he’d escaped. Rowdy was bitten as a result and had to be killed. Kelly nodded her head at the memory.
“I’ll stay up with you,” she said.
“No,” I replied. “I’ll be alright.”
“No more Lone Ranger bullshit, remember?” she chided.
“Fine,” I said. “You better fix us a pot of coffee. I’ll see if I can raise Justin and give him a SITREP.”
I let Kelly use the night vision goggles. They still gave me headaches if I used them for more than ten minutes.
“Nothing,” she whispered after she’d made a sweeping scan. “Are we staying up all night?” It was a good question. I looked at the luminescent dials on my watch. They read a little before two.
“I think we should. I’ve never seen any of them get this close before and I can’t stop thinking about that night they attacked the house.” Kelly replied with a yawn.
“You can go to bed if you want. I’ll be…” I stopped in midsentence when Kelly put a finger to my lips. She’d cocked her head like she heard something before quickly raising the goggles to her face.
“Zach,” she whispered urgently. “There’s about ten of them walking up the road.”
“Alright, go wake up Janet and let her know what’s going on. Then get back here and watch my back.” I didn’t wait for her to respond and made my way toward the edge of the van where I had it parked facing the gate. There was a partial moon out with plenty of stars, so I could make out a few of them. When they got to the gate, they started pushing on it. The gate rattled in the darkness and one of them again made a clumsy attempt to climb it.
As quietly as I could, I opened the door to the van. I rested the fore stock of the shotgun on the window frame of the van’s door and turned the headlights on. A couple of them looked up as I took aim. I picked the biggest one first. He reminded me of another tall one I ran into not so long ago. I gently squeezed the trigger. The twelve gauge slug hit him squarely in the forehead and he fell like a sack of day-old shit. I got two more before the rest of them scattered.
“Coming in!” Kelly shouted as she ran up beside me.
“Get the truck,” I told her as I fed the shotgun tube with fresh rounds. “We’ve got to go after them.”
We were right beside the van, but I knew we were in all likelihood going to be doing a lot of four-wheeling.
“We’ve got to hunt them down,” I repeated.
“How many are left?”
“I got three. I saw a few more, but I can’t be certain.” I turned on the CB and tried to raise anyone. Ruth answered almost immediately.
“We’re heading that way,” she reported.
“Alright,” I responded and updated them. “Meet us at November Bravo.” It was our code name for the intersection of Nolensville Pike and Burkitt Road. Ruth acknowledged and we headed toward the gate.
There were the two I’d shot earlier, along with the three additional ones I’d just taken care of. Kelly watched nervously as I jumped out and opened the gate. I no sooner than got it closed than one of them emerged from the darkness, charging at me. It was a good thing I was paying attention or else he would have got me.
I sidestepped, ran around the truck. I was attempting to get enough space where I could stop and shoot, but Kelly stuck her rifle out of the window and dispatched him with one shot. I finished securing gate and jumped in.
“That was close,” she quipped.
Ruth and Justin were in their Humvee and drove up about the same time we did.
“We’ve killed six so far.” Justin nodded.
“There was one walking down the middle of Concord Road without a care in the world. We took care of it.”
“I have a feeling they’re going to try the house again. I’d like to get out and sneak back while Kelly drives back in the truck.”
“Alright, I’m with you,” Justin said.
“Wait, wait,” Kelly protested. “That’s not a good idea.”
“It’ll work,” I said. “You two ride up front. Justin and I’ll ride in back and slip out before you get to the gate. If any of them are lying in wait, we’ll get them.” Kelly looked at me nervously and then at the Marines.
“What do you two think?”
“I think it’ll work if there aren’t fifty thousand of them out there hiding in the weeds,” Justin said. “If there are, we’re screwed anyway.”
So, we did it my way. Kelly slowed to a crawl before turning into the driveway. Justin and I slid out, waited until there was twenty or thirty feet between us and the truck, and followed behind. I’d disabled the taillights long ago, so we were practically invisible in the darkness. When Kelly stopped at the gate, I was absolutely certain there’d be a few of them waiting. I wasn’t wrong.
As soon as Ruth opened her door, two of them started running toward her. I’m sure Justin felt the same as I did as we dropped to one knee and began to take aim; we were protecting our women. I know, it sounds cheesy, but that’s what w
e were doing.
Well, that’s what we thought we were doing. Our protection wasn’t necessary. Ruth’s sidearm came out quickly and she shot both of them in the head before I could get a good aim. It was damn good shooting. Even Fred would have been impressed.
Justin and I remained in the darkness and watched Ruth open the gate. As soon as she did, I heard loud braying. It was Shithead.
“They’re at the house!” I shouted and motioned for Justin to follow me as I jumped in the bed of the truck. Justin was right behind me and Kelly needed no instructions. She gunned it, causing us to lurch backward.
There were more of them, maybe twenty or thirty. Some of them were trying to attack Shithead, but they weren’t much of a match for him. These zombies must have been city folks. Donkeys could spin and kick you with deadly accuracy if they felt threatened. We shot the ones Shithead didn’t get first, and I paid special attention to any of them who decided to run off. Four of them attempted it, but I was ready for them.
When it was all over, it took a few minutes of coaxing before Janet would open the door, but none of us admonished her. She did her job exactly how I wanted her to.
“Someone from the school called on the radio and asked what was going on,” she said. “They asked for you but I told them you were too busy killing people.”
“They ain’t people anymore,” Justin corrected. She gave him a look but didn’t respond. He hooked a thumb out the door.
“That mule is deadly with those kicks,” he said. I chuckled.
“He’s actually a donkey, but yeah, he’s a tough one.”
“What’s the difference?” Ruth asked.
“A donkey is smaller, but can be more aggressive. They’re the descendent of an African ass. A mule is a cross between a female horse and a male donkey. You know, a mule is actually superior to a horse in several ways. For instance—”
“Okay, they get the idea,” Kelly interrupted. Justin and Ruth chuckled at my expense.
“I’m sure it’s a fascinating topic,” Ruth said. “One day I want to hear all about it.”
“Yeah, me too,” Justin said. “In the meantime, I want to know what you think about this, Zach. And by the way, what made you think there was going to be an attack?” Justin was perplexed, as was Ruth.
“Back about a year ago, they’d organized together and made a multi-pronged attack on both houses and the tour bus, which was parked right about where it is now…” I stopped suddenly.
“What?” Justin asked.
“Sarah,” I replied.
“Oh shit,” Kelly said.
“I tried to call her,” Janet said. “She didn’t answer.”
“Okay, Justin and I will go check on them. You all stay here. We’ll keep in contact with the radio.” Kelly started to object, but this time I held a finger up. “The kids,” I said pointedly. She understood.
It was quiet and dark when we drove up. I flashed the high beams at the bus and even dared tap the horn. After a moment, I saw movement in one of the windows. Ten seconds later, Sarah contacted us on the radio and she came out a moment later. Surprisingly, Rachel exited the bus a few seconds later.
“Any issues?” I asked when they came out.
“We heard some movement, but didn’t see anything. We thought it was cows or deer.” I walked around the area, using the goggles in an attempt to detect anything. I spotted Sate and Hank out in the field. I wondered what had happened to them.
“Anything?” Justin asked. I pointed out the horses.
“They got spooked and ran. We’ll round them up tomorrow.”
“So, they pulled a night attack on you guys a year ago?” he asked. I nodded.
“April of last year.”
“Damn,” he muttered and was silent for a minute or two before speaking again.
“This is an enemy force where you can never let your guard down,” he finally said. “You and your people killed over two thousand of them in this immediate area, and yet, they still turn up like roaches.”
“Yeah, I was convinced they would have all died off by now.”
“At least they’re not procreating,” Sarah said. “We just have to outlive them.”
Yeah, she was right. They both were. We could never let our guard down and we had to survive, we had to outlive them.
Chapter 27 – Firewood
In the spirit of camaraderie, everyone joined together for a day of cutting firewood. A mixture of men and women joined in with the axes and saws, and whoever was left over was either assigned guard duty or was back at the school with the kids and the chores.
Tonya had even joined us, but mostly she walked around and watched everyone working, like she was our overseer or something. I made no smart-assed remarks. After all, I owed her big time and the extra manpower assured us all of an abundance of firewood. We stopped for a lunch break and sat around in the shade, enjoying some fresh food.
“Cutting firewood is every bit as hard as it sounds,” Ward said with a huff. I chuckled.
“You two are doing fine. You know, it wasn’t so long ago when the two of you looked like a couple of powder puffs. Now y’all have calloused hands and hard muscles.” I lowered my voice to barely above a whisper. “Those two brothers are having a hard time keeping up.” I gestured over to them who were several yards away, lying prone on the bare ground. “Y’all are in better shape, I’m thinking.”
The two of them looked over at the much younger, more muscular brothers before looking back at me and beamed at my compliment.
“Well, I for one can say, as a nineteen year old, you’re quite strong, Zach,” Ward replied.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Were you always athletic?” Marc asked.
“No, I had to work at it.” I didn’t bother telling them what had motivated me to get this way. Nah, the only people who knew about all of that were long dead. Not even Kelly knew.
I smiled pleasantly as I listened to the conversation segue into complaints of blisters and sore muscles. Tonya, Ruth and Justin walked over during the middle of it.
“How much do we have so far?” Tonya asked.
“It looks like about twelve cords,” I replied. “That’s plenty, but while we have everyone together and pleasant weather on our side, we should keep going until sundown.” Tonya nodded thoughtfully. Ruth was looking at me like she wanted to say something.
“We have an idea we’d like to run by you,” she said and looked over at Justin.
“Well, yeah,” Justin continued. “We’ve been talking about it and think your trading post idea needs to be dusted off and revisited.”
“Justin has an idea that’s a variation of the theme,” Tonya added.
“Oh, yeah? Like a rendezvous or something?” Justin clapped his hands together.
“Exactly,” he said excitedly. “There was a movie I loved watching when I was a kid. Jeremiah Johnson, do you remember it?” I nodded. Justin explained. “Every year, the trappers and the Indians would meet up. They called it a rendezvous.”
“And they parlayed and traded,” I said.
“Yeah, exactly. I think we can do something similar.”
“What do you think, Zach?” Ruth asked.
“We certainly have enough people to pull it off now, and those trailers still have quite a bit of stuff that Mac had collected.” I finished my meal and wiped my mouth. “The biggest concern I had was maintaining security. We'd have to have people trained to respond to any threat. If some gang of marauders came in, we'd have to be able to deal with it.”
“That’s my thoughts exactly,” Justin said, and then corrected himself. “Mine and Ruth’s thoughts. We’ve talked it out extensively and with the additional soldiers, I think we can do it.”
“Something tells me you’ve already got the ball rolling. Let me guess, you’ve been broadcasting it on the radio.” Justin nodded apprehensively.
“Did I overstep?” he asked. To his surprise, I grinned.
“Not at all, I admire y
our initiative,” I replied. “I hope you didn’t schedule it during the winter wheat harvest.” I could tell from the look on their faces they had not even thought of that particular facet. “You do know the harvesting schedules, right?” I got blank stares for an answer. Floyd, who was sitting nearby listening, shrugged one shoulder as if to say, they never ask me anything.
“Did anyone think to ask for Floyd’s advice?” I asked. “After all, he knows more about farming than any of you guys.”
“Floyd?” Shooter retorted sarcastically. He had walked up during our conversation and felt the need to butt in.
“Yeah.” He scoffed at my reply.
“Why would anyone ask Floyd for advice about anything? He’s a dumbass gimp.”
“Oh? So, tell me, when is the proper time to harvest the sweet corn y’all have planted and what is going to be the expected yield?” Shooter started squirming, so instead of answering, he stood and stretched like he didn’t care. I stood as well and looked at Justin.
“If you want to know the correct answer, ask Floyd.”
“What’s your point?” Shooter asked before Justin could speak.
“My point is, Floyd is a valuable asset but y’all treat him like a cross-eyed stepchild.” Shooter responded by rolling his eyes. I started to say something else, but I was cut off by the sound of a distant gunshot. Everyone jumped to their feet. There was another shot, and then another, coming from about a hundred yards east of us.
“That’s Kate!” Shooter shouted and took off at a dead run.
“Everyone, form up in your teams!” Justin shouted. “Team one take the left flank!” I was in charge of team one. I didn’t want to take the left flank. I wanted to hop in the truck and haul ass back to the school where Kelly and my kids were. But, duty was duty. I gathered my team together as Justin gave me a nod and led his team off.
“Alright guys, follow me. If you see a threat, sing out.” I took off at a slow jog on a course slightly left of the source of the now constant gunfire. There was a small copse of trees blocking our field of view, but once we cleared it, we immediately saw what the ruckus was all about.
Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny Page 22