“How’s it looking Jorge?” Seth asked as we left Wilson County behind us and entered the next county.
“Not too bad, man. Lots of potholes. I’m only seeing a zombie or two here and there. Nothing big.”
And so it went. Our goal was not to stop and kill zombies. Whenever we came upon one, we ignored them. Jorge expertly drove around them and if they were close enough, they’d try to grab at our passing vehicles. The result was they’d lose their balance and fall. Sometimes they ended up being run over. Our speed was slow but fairly steady. However, sometimes we had to slow to a crawl as we maneuvered through and around the permanent traffic jams. There were only a couple of times we had to use the makeshift bumper on the semi to force other vehicles out of the way; otherwise, it was a peaceful journey. But, leave it to the Butter-Pooter duo to break up the monotony.
“Time to take a crap,” Cutter blurted over the radio at about the same time we passed a barely readable sign informing motorists that they were entering Putnam County. Kelly glanced over at me.
“As crass as he is, I need to go too, and I bet the kids could use a break.” I looked back at Janet, who nodded. I grabbed the mike.
“Jorge, find a decent spot for the convoy to pull over.”
“You got it, man. There’s a clear spot about a quarter mile in front of you.” Justin keyed up the mike.
“Alright, everyone, you know the drill. Stay with your teams. When you’re done doing your business, take a peek in some of these abandoned cars, maybe we can find something, but don’t engage with any zombies if you can help it. We’ll move out in thirty minutes.”
Little Frederick wasn’t a problem. As soon as I got him out of the semi, he dropped his pants and relieved himself in front of everyone. Macie on the other hand was a bit fussy and didn’t want me to change out her pull-ups, so Janet took over.
Relieved of my fatherly duties, I grabbed Josue and the two of us walked back a hundred yards, checking out the abandoned vehicles. Sadly, all of them had been rummaged through; trunks had been popped open, gas tanks had been punctured and drained. A couple of cars were still occupied. Josue and I made quick work of them with knives, but there was nothing to be gained.
“No good,” Josue muttered.
“Yeah,” I agreed. We walked back to the main group and explained our findings.
“Is it like this all the way to Virginia?” I asked Seth.
“As far as the roads and obstacles, yes. We didn’t take the time to search vehicles though.” Our conversation was cut short by the sound of gunfire. All of us instinctively brought our weapons up and crouched, fully expecting an assault of some kind. Justin was the first to spot it.
“Those morons,” he growled before jogging over to the westbound side of the Interstate. No surprise, the source of the gunfire were the Butter-Pooter brothers, who were laughing gleefully at their antics. Seth and I followed and caught up with Justin at the moment he was confronting them.
“What the hell are you two doing?” he growled.
“We’re killing zombies,” Shooter retorted in a tone to suggest Justin had just asked him an incredibly stupid question. I walked over and took a look at their vanquished foes. Two zombies, definitely category ones, trapped in their car. Even with the advanced decomposition, it was obvious they were an elderly couple. I pointed at them and then glared at Cutter.
“They’re so rotten they couldn’t even get out of their seatbelts. Why in the world didn’t you two use your knives?” Cutter stared at me hard, but he couldn’t seem to find a response, logical or otherwise. It looked like he was about to concede the mistake, but Shooter spoke up.
“We’ll kill zombies any way we see fit,” he said defiantly. “You ain’t our boss.” I ignored him and continued staring at Cutter.
“Here’s a good example of what I’ve been trying to tell you; your brother is an idiot.” I gestured at him and his stupid smile. “We have a limited supply of ammo, but shit-for-brains here doesn’t think about things like that. He’d rather waste it on a couple of old rotten zombies who’d have to put their dentures in before they could even take a bite out of you.” I pointed toward the back seat and looked at the two brothers as if they’d just eaten a turd sandwich.
“For fuck’s sake, one of them had to use a walker to get around.”
Shooter stared at me loathingly, trying to think of a clever retort, but, like his brother, came up empty. Josue got the back door opened, retrieved the walker and handed it to Shooter, who stared at it as Josue patted him on the back.
“Nice prize,” he quipped and walked off.
“Alright everyone!” Justin yelled loudly. “We’ve made too much noise and wasted too much time, so let’s load up and get out of here!” At Justin’s gentle urging, as if a career Marine could possibly be gentle when urging people along, everyone hustled back to their respective vehicles. But, we only made it ten more miles before Justin called for us to stop again.
I jogged up to his Humvee just as he raised the hood. A cloud of smoke rushed out of the engine compartment, enveloping him.
“What’s going on?” I asked. Justin’s expression was a combination of frustration and anger as he crawled under the vehicle. After a moment, he crawled back out.
“Cracked exhaust manifold. It’s the same one I welded back when we got back from Atlanta.” He looked at me grimly. “I can’t weld it again, it’s too far gone.”
“Alright,” Seth said. “I’ll get a defensive perimeter formed while you transfer the gear to another vehicle.”
“I’ll take care of the fuel,” I said. Ruth started unloading supplies.
“Do you have a preference?” Justin asked Ruth.
“The van has the most room,” she said. He nodded gruffly, still angered about the Humvee.
We were on the road twenty minutes later but had only been travelling a short time when Cutter spoke.
“We’ve got some company, dudes and dudettes,” he said in his best California surfer dialect.
“Do you think you can remember the protocol and be more specific?” Justin growled, obviously still pissed about the Humvee.
“An SUV, four or five people in it. I’d say they’re looking for trouble.” I wanted to jump on the radio and yell at him to follow procedure but Justin beat me to it.
“Everyone stop in place,” he demanded. Before I could get out of the truck, Justin strode past, his jaw clenched and an M4 in hand. I reached back, grabbed a shotgun and quickly followed him. We met up at the Ford truck, where the brothers and the sisters were standing outside. Butter and Pooter were busy looking Ramboesque; the two sisters each had a handgun, but were holding them like they were sticks of dynamite with a lit fuse. As opposed to the brothers, they weren’t itching for any type of a confrontation.
“Why don’t you two link up with Kelly back at the semi and cover us?” I suggested. They didn’t argue.
“They’ve stopped,” Justin said. The dark green SUV, it looked like a Land Rover, had stopped a hundred yards back. Justin peered at them with his binoculars.
“The windows are tinted but it looks like there’s five of them. They’re just sitting there staring at us.” Seth had wheeled the Stryker around and parked beside the Ford. He stuck his head out of the hatch and peered at the SUV with his own set of binoculars.
“I’m going to try them on the CB,” I said, reached inside the Ford and switched to channel nineteen. After numerous attempts without a response, I tried channel nine with the same results.
“They’ve got a radio,” Justin said. “I can see the antenna.”
“It’s not shaping up to be a friendly encounter,” I surmised. I was about to suggest the old tactic of one of us walking toward them with a white rag when Seth spoke up.
“Well, I have a suggestion,” he said. We all looked at him expectantly. “You guys load up in the Stryker, and we’ll drive down there and see what they have to say. I seriously doubt they have the kind of firepower to disable this bad
boy.”
It sounded like a logical idea. The five of us loaded up and Seth drove toward them, but they didn’t react like they wanted to meet us. When we got within fifty feet, the driver put their vehicle in reverse and backed away from us. Seth stopped and I once again tried to raise them on the CB. We tried it a couple of times with the same results. The last time they continued backing up until they were once again a hundred yards away from us.
“I’m getting tired of this bullshit,” Justin said.
“Me too,” I added. “They may be trying to draw the Stryker away from the convoy and their boys are going to ambush it.”
“Or they may just be fucking with us,” Cutter said.
“Whatever they’re doing, I don’t like it,” Justin said. “Alright, let’s get back to the convoy.”
“Yeah, the problem is, once we get underway, they’re going to keep following, I’m thinking,” I said. Seth looked at me thoughtfully.
“I believe I have a cure, if you gentlemen are agreeable.” We all looked at him questioningly. He pointed up.
“One round in their engine block with the fifty will put a stop to this nonsense.”
“Do it,” Justin responded immediately. I readily nodded. Seth aligned the crosshairs on the monitor, took aim, and popped off a single round. I took my fingers out of my ears and used Justin’s binoculars.
“Bull’s eye,” I said. The radio crackled to life.
“You sons of bitches!” one of them yelled irately. Cutter reached for the microphone, but I stopped him.
“Fuck ‘em,” I stated. “They had their chance to talk to us like peaceful folks.” I could see it in his eyes; he desperately wanted to give those men a bit of Cutter wisdom. I looked over at Justin, who at least wasn’t glaring anymore, and he shrugged indifferently.
“Oh, what the hell,” I said to Cutter. “Give ‘em your best.” Cutter grinned and grabbed the microphone.
“Don’t let us catch you little shit-birds following us again, or else.” Shooter stared at his brother with a disdainful look.
“Dude, that was lame,” he said.
“Nah,” I rejoined. “Short and to the point, I like it.”
We travelled until sunset, never encountering any other people or zombies, and stopped on the outskirts of Monterey.
It was a pleasant night out with a clear starlit sky, so Kelly and I opted to sleep on top of the eighteen-wheeler’s trailer.
“It’s so beautiful and peaceful,” Kelly said as we lay on our backs, staring at the heavens. “It’s hard to believe the world is so screwed up when looking at all of those stars.” I squeezed her hand in agreement, thinking of a night long ago when I was doing the same thing, lying on my back, staring at the stars with Julie and Macie. Kelly gasped and pointed.
“That’s the second shooting star I’ve seen in the past five minutes. Is that a sign?” I chuckled.
“Could be.”
“The trip’s going pretty well so far, don’t you think?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’d say so. Even the two dumb shits aren’t causing too many problems.” I glanced at my watch.
“Looks like I have guard duty in five minutes. Either we can try for a quickie or I’ll relieve Sarah early.” Kelly gave a short laugh.
“Yeah, right,” she said. I guess that meant guard duty. I stood and stretched. “Alright, I’ll be back in two hours.” Kelly smiled in the dark and pulled a blanket over her. I took one last look at her alluring shape before descending down the ladder.
“Three,” I whispered loudly as I walked up to the Stryker. Sarah was sitting on the top of it. I stopped several feet away and waited for the counter sign, indicating she wasn’t under any form of duress.
“Ten,” she answered. I walked up and climbed on top of the Stryker.
“Kate and Shooter are out in the weeds doing the nasty,” she said indifferently as she handed me the night vision goggles and pointed. “Outside of the perimeter.” I shook my head in disgust.
“It’d serve them right if they got bit.” I sighed. “Alright, I’ll go rein them in.”
I guess I was lucky, they’d already finished and were mostly dressed when I walked up on them. I didn’t need the night vision; one or both of them were smoking cigarettes. It was easy to find them.
“Jesus, guys, this isn’t safe at all.”
“A man has needs,” Shooter responded smugly. Kate ignored me and walked back toward the convoy.
“You’re not jealous, are you?” Shooter chided as he zipped his pants up.
“The point, Simon, is safety. We don’t have to like each other, but we have to watch out for each other – and not do stuff like this without at least telling someone so they could watch out for you. Why didn’t you tell your brother? He would’ve watched your back.” Shooter, Simon, whatever, stared at me, the way he did whenever he wanted to reply with a clever, condescending retort but his brain couldn’t come up with anything, which was common. Finally, he sighed.
“Alright, whatever.” I followed his backside as he walked back without waiting on me. Climbing up on the Stryker, I sat down beside Sarah.
“Alright, Major,” I whispered. “You are properly relieved. Grab some sleep.”
“I’m not very tired at the moment. I think I’ll hang out with you a little while.” That was fine with me. Having someone to talk to, even if we had to whisper, made the watch go faster. I stood and did a full scan with the goggles before sitting.
“The first day went pretty well, I’d say.” I waited for a response, but got none.
“I had a little talk with Shooter. I don’t know if he listened but at least he didn’t argue with me.”
“Yeah, that’s good,” Sarah said halfheartedly. Several minutes passed in silence. Sarah was not a talkative type, but I could sense there was something on her mind. It could take days before she’d tell me, so I tried the direct approach.
“Is something bothering you?” I asked. She didn’t answer. I prodded a little. “You know, I always feel like if I have a problem and I don’t want to discuss it with Kelly, I can always come to you. I hope you feel the same way.” There was another long moment of silence and I was going to let the matter drop, but then she spoke.
“I’m scared, Zach,” she finally said. I looked at her in surprise.
“You? Scared?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, yeah, I guess I’m a little bit scared of the unknown too,” I said. She shook her head slightly, I barely saw it.
“No, it’s not quite like that. I mean, yeah, it is, but not like you’re thinking.”
“Uh, okay. Now, I’m confused.” There was another long minute or two of silence.
“I spent two years alone. Totally alone. You have no idea how bad that was, Zach.”
“After my buddy Rick died, I was totally alone for a couple months. It damn near drove me to suicide, so I can only imagine going through that for two years.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“But, you’re not alone now. You have us, and you have Rachel.”
“That’s just it, Zach. Once we get to Mount Weather, who’s to say she won’t find someone else? I’m a few years older than her and I’m not sure she sees me as anything other than a convenient partner until someone better comes along.” She started sobbing then. She was quiet though, not a woman who blathered loudly. I reached out and found her hand in the dark.
“I can’t speak for Rachel; I’ve no idea what the heck she’s going to do. But, what I can tell you is that Kelly and I will always be there for you. We’re family.” She squeezed my hand tightly and sobbed some more.I didn’t say anything else, it wasn’t necessary. After a few minutes, she gathered herself and blew her nose. I guess this had been building in her ever since we first spoke of relocating. We sat in silence for almost an hour. When I stood to check the area, she stood with me.
“I believe I’m going to turn in,” she whispered, reached out, and hugged me tightly. “Thanks, Zach.”
<
br /> Chapter 51 – Bristol
“I’d always wanted to go to Bristol and watch one of the races,” Justin said. We’d taken a break and were about twenty miles from the city, stopped in the middle of the Interstate. “Any of you ever been?” There were shakes of heads.
“When I was a kid, my brother and I begged our father to take us to one of them, but he forbade it,” Raymond said. “He felt stock car racing was below our social status.” I chuckled.
“I never went to one either, but it had nothing to do with my lofty social status.” Raymond looked at me curiously.
“Did you not enjoy auto racing?” he asked.
“Oh, no, just the opposite. I loved NASCAR, but you see, I was what you’d call poor white trash.”
“I don’t follow,” Raymond replied. “I mean, no offense, but I always thought that NASCAR fans were, well…”
“Rednecks,” Kelly finished.
“Well, yeah.”
“On the contrary. NASCAR had fans all across the social spectrum. We just plain couldn’t afford it.”
“Zach was an orphan living with his elderly grandmother,” Kelly explained.
“Oh, I see,” Raymond said, a little awkwardly now. “I didn’t mean to be presumptive, I apologize.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” I said affably. “A buddy of mine had a big screen TV and surround sound. It was the next best thing to being there.” I decided to needle him a little.
“I bet you had a huge flat screen in your bedroom, am I right?” He glanced at me again and nodded.
“We had one in every room. I even had one in my bathroom. I could watch it while taking a bath or sitting on the toilet.”
Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny Page 41