by Ricky Sides
“I’ll have to cut the lock off,” Herb warned her.
“That’s fine. My folks would want me to use the meat.”
The men ended up having to unload a great deal of the canned goods they had already loaded in the back of Herb’s truck and load them in the trailer in order to make room for the meat and dry goods, as well as Amy’s clothing. It was a lot of work, but it was well worth the trouble.
They returned to the cabin a little after noon and got Amy settled in to one of the bedrooms. Herb and Randy would have to share a room, but that wasn’t a problem. One of the rooms had a pair of twin beds. They were small, but they had slept on much worse since the zombie outbreaks had begun.
Henry returned with the men to get the tractor. He knew how to hook up the attachments and how to operate one. They thought they would have to make multiple trips to get the farm implements, but that didn’t prove necessary because Henry was able to set them on a long flatbed trailer the farmer used to haul hay. Herb could pull the trailer with his truck.
The men fueled up the tractor from a large tank the farmer had out by the barn. They also filled up several five gallon cans they found inside the barn. Then the men used the tractor to load the implements onto the trailer. Henry drove the old John Deere tractor back to the cabin, with Herb driving escort and Randy riding shotgun.
They wanted to see about bringing the animals back to the cabin, but were afraid they might have the Akins parasites, since so many zombies had been in the area. That same fear eliminated the prospect of slaughtering any of them for their meat, or taking chickens for their eggs.
They arrived at the cabin in the early afternoon hours. Erma was waiting to oversee their decontamination, just as she had done when they had returned earlier with Amy.
“If you men keep this up, you’re going to run out of Clorox,” Erma chastised Herb. “That or luck. I’m not sure which is going to happen first.”
“We’re not crazy about it either,” Herb countered. “But we needed everything we brought back. It’s a shame about the animals. I’m going to miss eggs, and I do love fried chicken, but that’s just too risky.”
“I could go back with you and test their blood on the site. If they are clean, you could load them.”
“I don’t think Agent Marx would approve of that idea.”
“I don’t care whether he likes it or not. You need my help.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that,” Herb said. “I don’t want to put you at risk for a few eggs and chickens, and I won’t do it.”
Erma stared at him for several seconds. He thought she was going to argue with him. Instead, she smiled and said, “I just wanted to make things better for you here when you get back. Besides, I like eggs too. I was hoping we’d get enough overnight for some scrambled eggs to go with some of that ham you said you brought back. Martha will probably make some biscuits too.”
“Randy,” Herb said as he stared into Erma’s eyes.
“Yes?” his friend asked from beside him where he was scrubbing his hands.
“You up for one more trip to see if those chickens are good? Maybe we can get a couple of cattle too. A milk cow would be useful.”
“Heck yeah!” Randy said. “I love chicken stews, and eggs for breakfast again would be great!”
“Okay, Erma, you talked me into it. Let’s go break the news to Agent Marx.”
As Herb predicted, the Homeland Security agent didn’t like the plan, but Erma was firm in her argument that the survivors there needed the livestock for their long term survival. He relented when Herb promised to keep her away from the animals and said that either he or Randy would be near her on guard the whole time.
David Raines, Erma’s colleague, volunteered to go in her place, but Erma declined the offer. “I’ll face much graver dangers on the road tomorrow,” she said to David. “We all will.”
Amy had come outside to see the tractor and its attachments. Randy had been talking to her about their plan to return for chickens and possibly a couple of milk cows. When Herb joined them, she said, “You should take me with you. I can point out the best pair of milk cows for you. I can also make getting the chickens easy. Otherwise, you men will waste hours trying to catch them and come back with only a few.”
Herb was reluctant, but when Henry said he would go with them to help with guard duty, he relented.
Amy proved her usefulness in calling the chickens to her at the chicken coop. She sprinkled chicken feed onto the ground and the birds ran to the open door and converged on it. Amy would pick up one of the feeding birds and hand it to Herb, who then took it over to Erma for testing. He was careful to avoid being pecked or clawed, and made certain that the fowl couldn’t touch the doctor. As the chickens passed the test, they were placed inside a wooden crate that Henry had located and put in the back of Herb’s truck.
It took an hour for Erma to test the chickens, but they all tested clean of the Akins parasites. Unlike the dead chickens behind the house, these had avoided the zombies.
Next, Amy took a bucket of grain and called to one of the cattle by name. “You’re going to need the cattle trailer,” she said to Herb as one of the cattle started walking toward her.
“Watch her while I hook up the trailer,” Herb instructed Randy. “Henry, don’t let anything get close to Erma.”
Both men acknowledged the instructions, and Herb turned to the task of hooking up the cattle trailer.
Amy petted the cow that had come over to her for the feed. Erma approached it, but then Herb was there beside her. “I’ll do the cattle. They are so big you might get hurt.”
“Do you know how?” Amy asked. “I can do it. I used to work with the vet when he came to treat our animals. He showed me how it’s done.”
“Are you sure you can do it?” Herb asked.
“Oh yes. It’s not that hard. I’ve given the cattle shots and drawn blood more than a few times the past three years.”
“All right. Erma, give her the equipment.”
Erma handed over the syringe and a pair of latex gloves. Amy hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she knew the procedure. In less than two minutes, she drew the sample safely and set it on the little folding table where Erma prepared a slide. The cow tested healthy and was loaded into the trailer.
When she called the next cow to her, Amy noted that it had a torn patch of skin on one shoulder. “Something has been at her,” she said.
“Leave her. We’re leaving. I feel like we are pressing our luck here,” Herb said. He had a vague feeling that danger was closing in on them. He couldn’t pinpoint a source, but he trusted his instincts.
“Something is watching us?” Randy told Herb in a whisper that only he could hear. “I can feel it. I don’t know what it is, or where it’s located. But there’s something out there staring at us.”
Herb nodded his agreement. “Load up, everyone. It’s time to go.”
“At least we got one cow and the chickens,” Amy said.
Herb took his time leaving the farm. He had pulled a lot of loads with a truck, but never a cattle trailer. He was afraid he’d turn too short and throw the cow into the side of the trailer, so he was being extra careful. He was concentrating so much on the trailer that he never even saw the dog that moved out of the brush that lined the drive to the road as they drove past.
Chapter 20
On the road
At 6:00 A.M. the next morning, Martha set the table for the parting breakfast everyone would share before the scientists, and Agent Marx, along with Herb, departed for the secret government installation that was their destination.
Henry walked out to get the others, but met them as they walked toward the cabin. “You folks are up already?” he asked by way of greeting.
“I think we all smelled the breakfast and coffee,” Agent Marx said with a rare smile. “It was good of your wife to go to so much work.”
“She’s a good woman,” Henry agreed.
The large group ate in compani
onable silence. Martha had gone all out preparing the meal, which would be the last one that they all shared together. The hens were unsettled from their handling and the move the previous day, so they hadn’t begun to lay eggs yet, but Mrs. Jernigan’s refrigerator had held several dozen. Martha had made good use of half the supply by making a large bowl of scrambled eggs. She also made biscuits and gravy. There was a platter of fried ham, sausage, and bacon, as well as several jars of jelly from which to choose. The orange juice was from containers of frozen concentrate that needed to be prepared because of their lack of refrigeration. There were two gallon jugs of the stuff.
Randy noted Amy’s pale face as she nibbled at the food. Once he thought he saw her wipe am errant tear from her cheek. “Thank you for sharing your food with us,” he said to the woman. He understood that she would be remembering family meals with her relatives. The fact that they were eating the food they had taken from her farm was not lost to him.
“You’re welcome,” she responded shyly.
“Yes, thank you, Miss Jernigan,” Agent Marx said from his chair in the living room. “It was good of you to share with us.”
“It was good of you people to take me in when you found me. I wouldn’t have lasted long there all alone.”
“We’re glad you decided to come with us,” Herb stated. “I’m sure Martha will be pleased to have another woman in the house.”
“Indeed I am,” Martha interjected with a delighted expression on her face.
“I’d like to ask you scientists a question before you go,” Henry said. He was eating at the dining table with his wife, Amy, Erma, Randy, and Herb.
“We’d be happy to answer it for you, if we can,” David replied from the sofa in the living room. The open concept floor plan made it easy for the people to conduct conversations, even though they were technically in different rooms.
“Ordinarily, I’d not bring this up at mealtime, but you are all leaving soon, and if I don’t ask now, I’ll never get to ask at all,” he said apologetically. Then he voiced the question that was on his mind when he asked, “How smart are the zombies?”
That question surprised the scientists. “They are all but mindless, as far as we have been able to determine,” David responded.
“Then why do they come after people?” Henry asked.
“They are driven to do so for two reasons,” Sam explained. “Food and reproduction. When they attack people, they accomplish both. They gain a new host for colonies of the parasites, and they gain nutrition.”
“Well, thanks for bringing that up,” Randy grouched as he pushed his plate away.
“I’m sorry. That was not very sensitive of me,” Sam said apologetically.
“It’s okay. We do need to know about this,” Randy replied.
“What prompted you to ask about their intelligence level?” Erma asked Henry.
“I’m thinking we need a fence around the cabin to protect us from stray zombies. I was wondering if a simple barbed wire enclosure would work.”
“No, it wouldn’t. Once they sight prey, they won’t stop until they reach it. Oh, it might stop one or two, but if there are enough of them, they would just keep trying to walk forward until the press of their bodies broke down the wires,” Herb said.
“Then there are the animals to consider,” Erma added. “Take an infested dog for example. It would get through the fence with no problem.”
“So would crawlers,” Randy pointed out.
“What are crawlers?” Agent Marx asked.
“Zombies that had been wounded to the point they can no longer walk, so they crawl, or drag their bodies along the ground with their arms,” Herb explained. “I’ve seen them lose both legs to a grenade and pull themselves along on the ground in an attempt to get at me.”
“Yeah, those are bad because you tend to forget about them due to the fact that they are a lesser threat,” Randy agreed. “The thing is they don’t seem to realize that, so they keep coming at you. It’s best to put crawlers down sooner rather than later, because they will be lower than your line of sight most of the time when you’re fighting the others.”
“In a stall in the barn there are several rolls of welded wire. I think they should be about 48 inches high and about 50 feet long,” Amy said. “It’s a rectangular wire Daddy bought to build a new hog pen. You will find plenty of new fence posts in there too.”
“I don’t want you guys going back there until I return,” Herb said. “I had a bad feeling there during our last trip. I think you folks will be fine here, unless you go out and lead something back to you. We’re miles away from the nearest neighbors.”
“Remember, gunfire draws them, so if you have to fire your weapons, you’ll need to be vigilant for a day or so afterward,” he added.
“Ox will help us guard the house,” Randy said.
“You know, we never did test your dog,” Erma pointed out. “Don’t you think we should do that before we leave?”
“I do. Thanks for reminding me,” Herb said.
“How long will this take? We need to get going soon. We have a long journey ahead of us,” Agent Marx reminded them.
“I can do it in ten minutes,” Erma said. “But we shouldn’t leave Martha with all these dishes.”
“I’ll help with that,” Amy said.
“It’s settled then” Agent Marx said quickly. “Thank you again for the wonderful meal, Mrs. Echols,” he said as he got up from the chair in the living room.
Erma followed Herb outside where he looked for Ox, but the dog was nowhere to be found. “Ox!” he called loudly. “That crazy dog had wandered off again,” he said. “Some guard dog he is. Half the time, he’s off roaming the countryside.”
“You need to break him from that habit. It increases the chances of him becoming infested with the parasites,” Erma stated.
“I know, but I don’t want to chain him. He’d be defenseless if a zombie attacked him while he was chained.”
“Maybe that fence isn’t such a bad idea after all. At least it would keep him in close proximity, and keep stray canines away,” Erma observed.
“You’re right. I’ll make that a priority when I return. I still don’t want Randy and Henry going to that farm and leaving the women here alone, and one man making the trip to the farm would be crazy these days.”
“You do know that if you stay here, you’re going to have to clear the zombies out of this area, don’t you?”
“Yes, long term survival here demands that be a priority task.”
“Doctor Langley, are we ready to leave?” Agent Marx asked.
“I guess Ox will have to wait,” Herb said.
“I guess so,” Erma responded. She turned to the Homeland Security agent and said, “I’m ready. Well, I will be after I use the bathroom in the trailer.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” the agent muttered under his breath as Erma walked toward the trailer.
“Give it a rest,” Herb said to the agent.
“What’s your problem with me, Bennett?” asked the Homeland Security agent. “If we’re going to be working together on this mission, I need to know. You’ve hardly said a civil word to me since you got here with the doctor.”
“What’s my problem? You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I have no idea why you seem to dislike me so intensely.”
“You ordered my unit to violate the Constitutional rights of the people of Athens, which you must have known was about to be nuked.”
“Is that what this is really about? Do you think I knew in advance Athens was going to be targeted?”
“You bet your ass I do.”
“Yes, well you’re full of shit. I was just as surprised by that turn of events as you were.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t care what you believe, Bennett. The fact is that your opinion of me is irrelevant. As long as you do your job, I couldn’t care less, and I know you’ll do your job because you want the scientists to
get this mission accomplished as much as I do. And, unless I miss my guess, you especially want to protect Doctor Langley.”
“Of course I do. She is critical to the success of this mission.
“Yes she is, but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Agent Marx queried. “Yeah, I thought so.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Herb said.
“You didn’t have to say anything. I’m trained to note a suspect’s facial expressions when I’m interrogating them. Their face will often tell you the truth, no matter how badly they want to lie. Yours is easy to read, Bennett. You’re falling for the doctor, and that suits me just fine. That means you’ll do everything within your power to see to it that she survives this trip, and that’s my goal too.”
“I’m sorry I took so long,” Erma said as she came out of the trailer.
“That’s fine, Doctor. Corporal Bennett and I were just coming to an understanding about the mission goals.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, we both want the same thing. We want to get you to Fort Collins, Colorado, as quickly and safely as possible. It’s an eleven hundred mile trip, assuming we aren’t forced to detour too many times. That should take fifteen hours driving time. I want to knock out half that today. Hopefully, we can finish the trip tomorrow.”
“I’m ready when you are,” she responded.
Herb grabbed the bag he had set out on the porch earlier and carried it to the truck that pulled the CDC trailer. He would be driving it during the trip. Agent Marx had promised to secure transportation back to the cabin for him once the mission was completed.
He stowed his bag of clothing in the back of the truck and put his rifle in the cab, along with a satchel loaded with magazines for his pistol and the rifle. The bag also contained two grenades.
Randy, Amy, and the Echols waved goodbye from the porch. “Remember what we talked about last night,” Herb reminded the men. “And feed Ox for me when that mutt returns,” he added.
“Don’t you worry about a thing. We’ll take care of everything here until you get back,” Randy promised.