Mike and I were nailing quite a few ourselves. I had the M107 and used it to cripple their vehicles. They were trapped. Jim was ready, and his guys poured it on from the berm. The raiders had no place to hide and we picked them off at will. A few of them rallied, but the sun was coming up and George was able to adjust his mortar and nailed them again. I checked my watch. It was 6:10 and we were already on mop up duty. I radioed up to Dave and Cam to switch to some phosphorus rounds to light up the woods. Mike and I picked off a bunch of guys running from the flames. Pretty soon, there was no one moving down there.
Per our plan, we rotated to the east to support Stan’s team. Jim had actually sent out the cavalry over there—two armored Hummers—and they were all done as well. Jim directed one team to mop up to the south while the second handled the east. A few scattered shots while they finished some guys and it was over.
We knew some of them must have gotten away but we had already decided not to chase them down. I wanted to grab Jim’s people and whatever he had packed and head north. The Farm was my priority. Jim’s setup was too exposed and too close to the highway; it was not worth defending even though it was well designed.
We drove inside, filled up the Hummers, checked and reloaded our weapons, and prepared to leave. Jim’s crew had suffered terrible losses. Jim had lost his wife and two of his kids. Only Jim and Billy would be coming with us. Jenny and Katie were fine but TJ had been killed by a stray round. A few of Jim’s original crew were alive, together with some survivors who had struggled in. His fifty should have grown to seventy but instead had been reduced to twenty-five. The suffering caused by the humans who’d gone bad was almost worse than the zombies.
Jim had loaded up most of his supplies on three tractor trailers. I told him that we had plenty of weapons, food and equipment but whatever he had would be a big help. He loaded his people in four Hummers plus the three trucks and we rolled out of there and headed north. We took some sniper fire on the way out. One of Jim’s truck drivers got hit and the truck rolled over and exploded. There were no survivors. Mike got one of the snipers and Jim got another and the firing stopped.
Once again, we rolled straight through. We were all exhausted and pounding Vivarin and Red Bulls to stay awake. We made it back to the Farm in about sixteen hours without further incident.
Chapter Thirty Four: Winter at the Farm
Things had been quiet on the Farm, although Tom had nailed a few Wolves a few hundred yards out. They were able to cross on the ice, which had frozen pretty solid. We asked Tom and Kate to take charge, then crashed for 18 hours.
We spent a couple of days getting squared away and finding places to put the new people. There was another large house about a half mile away to the west and Jim and his people grabbed it and started setting it up.
Cleve and one of Jim’s guys, Larry, cleared a line of trees between the two houses so that we could see each other and started to dig a trench around Jim’s house but the ground was too frozen to dig much.
Jim set up his own defenses in and around the house. He looked to be all set, as the house was bristling with weapons. Jim built sandbagged machine gun positions on the four corners of the house and adopted our idea of a Crow’s Nest on top. Jim worked too much, at least 20 hours a day, to try to work through his loss.
Billy’s sadness exhibited as anger; he was a tough kid and got in a few fights with some of the other kids until I told him to lay off. We’d always had a great relationship and luckily he listened to me. He started to focus on weapons training and martial arts and became a huge help.
Jenny was also heartbroken and pitched in wholeheartedly to our medical crew. Katie would not leave Bobbie’s side except to sleep in Jenny’s room. It was sad to see but we were glad to have them with us.
Jim’s crew loved the fresh milk and meat that we had; they were sick to death of MREs. We put together some great meals and life got back to normal, or what now passed for normal, after a few weeks. Everyone started to get to know one another and relax a bit.
The hormones were flying and we had to develop an approach to sex education. Mine was to speak openly to whichever kids would listen to me about sex, marriage, babies and responsibility. I found myself alone a lot and learned to start one of my “sex” talks whenever the kids wanted to make demands on me. They would literally race out of the room.
Kate tried a moral/religious approach. Her crowds ran away even faster than mine did! Li and Jenny ultimately came up with winner. First, they gathered all of the condoms on the entire island and made them available to whoever needed them, anonymously, no questions asked. Second, they made everyone who was not already a parent spend real time taking care of babies. Third, they made them all watch videos of women having babies. After a while, it seemed to get through. The condoms were diminishing a bit, but to my knowledge we didn’t have any babies coming--yet.
As a group, we came up with a policy on abortion, since we knew we’d face the issue. No abortion except for serious health issues of the mother or the fetus, or for rape or incest. I wondered if Nancy believed in the policy because she was strongly pro-choice before the Incident. But the consensus now was that we should both rebuild the population and instill a profound sense of responsibility in all of us, and we thought the lack of a “free pass” might help.
We also came up with a policy on crime, which was: “We don’t have any jails so if you choose to commit a serious crime we’ll banish or kill you.” That seemed to work pretty well. We had enough of everything so there was no real theft issue. We were able to take turns on anything in limited supply as well. There was plenty of drama, breakups, name calling and stuff because we were all still people but it was pretty much under control.
We also came up with a policy on social welfare. It dovetailed pretty nicely with our crime policy, as far as I was concerned. I called it the “work your ass off and you’ll be fine” approach, but Kate tried the old “To each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities.” Stan refined it: “From each according to their full ability; to each according to their reasonable needs.”
We were starting with a strong gene pool in the sense that all of us had survived both the Incident and the flu. Since we mostly came from Massachusetts and Vermont we were not terribly diverse overall but when we shared our stories and our lineage it became clear that we were a bunch of mutts, genetically speaking. Nancy and Jenny thought we had a pretty good mix, if a bit skewed to the Caucasian flavor.
We didn’t have to develop a policy on discrimination because there was none. We’d save that for some future time when it was needed. In the meantime, we judged people not by the color of their skin but by how useful they were. Same with religion. Absolute freedom, but I would punch you in the face the third time that you tried to convert me. No one knew about that policy except one hyper-Christian and one Wicca who tried to export their beliefs to me one time too many.
One thing that was developing was a bit of competition between Jim and me. We were both natural leaders, and we both had substantial followings, although I had a numerical advantage in supporters. Jim and I were fine with the situation since we’d been doing it since birth, so we let it be for the time being and used the natural competition to improve things. I could foresee the day when we’d have to split, but I figured it would be a good thing when it happened; one of us and some followers would be ready to go and the other would help.
Dave and Danny were doing a great job up north. We reinforced them with a few of Jim’s people and they’d located some survivors who’d walked across the ice from Isle La Motte, a neighboring island. They had quite a crew up there now.
It was now late February, and we were anticipating the spring thaw. We asked Dave and Danny to reach out to the north with an eradication and barrier program while we reached out to the south, particularly Burlington. Dave and Danny enthusiastically agreed, and we loaned them the two Expeditions with .30 cals for the purpose. One of Jim’s guys, Miguel,
would go along and help with barrier construction. We let him take the big loader to do so. We were not too concerned about the north approach but better safe than sorry. Also, I’d begun to think about putting another settlement up on North Hero Island to expand our reach northward.
We’d been receiving a lot of shortwave reports about increased zombie activity down south, moving north as the thaw occurred. Apparently, zombies down in Florida stayed active all of the time but tended to rot in the wet, hot weather. Some of them were even starting to fall apart.
There was a large survivor colony in Nova Scotia that was constantly expanding its territory. Those old Scots were doing pretty well for themselves. We heard about a few other survivor groups as well, including one in Newport, Rhode Island and another in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The Provincetown area on the Cape was starting to come back. Isolated and island areas were definitely the way to go.
There were also some dark broadcasts from neo-Nazis, end of the world types, religious freaks, and other psychos. At first, they seemed bad for morale but we just got used to them. Who gave a shit what they thought? As long as they didn’t threaten us, they’d be fine.
As I planned my raids on Burlington, Jim was working on St. Albans. He loved Barry and Elliott and made repeated trips to fortify the Bat Cave and raid the armory. I hadn’t been out to the Bat Cave for a while, but it was a popular spot due to Edith’s cooking. They’d located a few survivors and a couple of our people had moved there so it was a happening place. Jim had fortified the living shit out of it so it seemed pretty safe but he’d carefully prepared a bunch of bug out routes as well. He knew I was right about the highways. St. Albans was right on a main one and would ultimately face a horde.
Jim’s guys built a huge storage bunker inside the fort walls at the Farm and loaded it up with the contents of the armory. Jim had an ex-Special Forces guy named Tito who knew how to operate the heavy duty stuff and trained some others how to use it. Jim built a series of bunkers in and around the wall and armed them with all kinds of stuff-rockets, machine guns, even chain guns designed for choppers and planes.
Tito was also a licensed pilot and we started to lay out a runway and figure out how to get him set up with a plane to act as a spotter.
Chapter Thirty Five: Back to Burlington
Stan and I planned a one-week trip to Burlington in early March to eradicate Zs and barricade the highway. We brought Cleve and his truck and forklift, with Mike riding shotgun, and Tito and the loader with Christina riding shotgun, plus a Hummer with a crew of 4—me, Stan, Kate, and Courtney.
Burlington was a good-sized area to block off. Kate’s crew had done a lot of work but much remained to be done. We set up Cleve and Tito with their equipment. Mike sniped from the roof of Tito’s tractor where he could see everyone while Christina covered Mike from Cleve’s tractor. Mike was busy because there were quite a few Wolves around. They wouldn’t attack the crews but they were watching. They weren’t quite smart enough to keep their heads down so our snipers were able to nail a bunch. They tried to sneak up on Mike and Christina picked them off as they’d approach. Then they’d try to sneak up on Christina and Mike would get them. This was by far the most Wolves we’d seen.
It was as if the Wolves actually wanted to prevent us from burning the zombies in the cars. We found quite a few cars that looked like they’d been recently opened, too. I wondered if they were freeing zombies and gearing up for the attack that we’d feared for so long.
Stan, Kate, Courtney and I kept going into Burlington. We wanted to check for survivors and also firebomb the place and burn as much of it down as we could. We also wanted to find a good spot for a listening post overlooking the highway and had brought a small generator, fuel, supplies, and a shortwave radio.
The city was a total mess. We’d burned quite a bit of it during our earlier battles there but there had been some activity since then. Almost everything had been looted and wrecked, apparently by human survivors, since it seemed to have been intentional and directed at stores rather than houses. They had apparently moved on because we didn’t see anyone.
We started fires with a bunch of emergency flares that we’d brought. All we did was fire up the flares and throw them into a building under something flammable. We’d do the same with cars that had zombies in them. It was hard work and seemed never to end. I wondered if humans could ever regain control of a real city.
Chapter Thirty Six: The Eagle’s Nest
We had our eye on an eight story apartment building that was right next to the highway. It was the highest building around and would give the best vantage point up and down the highway. We entered the building and cleared the lobby of a few frozen zombies. We used electric saws to cut off the heads, then threw the heads outside. It was gross, but we had to do it; the heads were frozen solid.
We slowly worked our way up each floor, opening the door with sledgehammers and chopping up any zombies we found. The heads went down the stairs. We found quite a few vacant apartments and noted the ones that had supplies and furniture that we could use. We left those doors open and nailed the rest shut. This building had been left alone, pretty much, and looked like we could make it into a good listening post.
We finally made it to the top floor where there was a huge penthouse apartment with picture windows facing in all directions. Stan had brought a drill bit that could cut glass, and drilled firing holes through each window. Kate taped them up with duct tape to keep the breeze out. It was cold in there but at least we were out of the wind.
Stan set up the generator and the radio and it worked perfectly. Kate and I brought up an M107 and two M4s with launchers. We had 10 gallons of gas for the generator; we would operate it just to run the radio so it would last at least a week. We also brought up three of the anti-tank rockets and put them up on the roof covered with a tarp. We decided to add one of Mike’s M-19s and a mortar next time we came.
By the time we had the place set up we were totally exhausted and it was the end of the day. We called Cleve and Tito’s teams in and stayed in the apartment that night. Mike called it the Eagle’s Nest and, once again, the name stuck.
The next day, we sent Cleve and Tito out to route zombie traffic right up the highway approaching the apartment building. They blocked the exit ramps with cars and cleaned up the highway to give us a good firing line that extended at least a mile out. Cleve barricaded the base of our building with crushed cars. We had a way in and out, but we didn’t think the zombies could find it or that they could get through en masse.
For the rest of our time in Burlington we continued barricading and burning. When the time was up, Kate, Mike and I volunteered to take the first shift in the Eagle’s Nest. We took a few days off and hung out a lot, playing some board games that we found and listening to the shortwave. Kate set up a tent inside the apartment, which helped with the cold when we all slept in there.
All was well at the Farm and at the Bat Cave and everyone made it back okay. We took turns watching at night but we’d agreed not to shoot yet because we didn’t want to give our location away. There was definitely increased Wolf activity on the streets and we noticed one building in particular, about a half mile away, where most of the activity occurred.
I asked Mike if he thought he could hit the building with one of the rockets. He willingly agreed to do it, but pointed out that we should maximize the attack. That morning, we drove around in the Hummer until we found an old oil truck with some oil left in it. We couldn’t start it, but we were able to push it up against the building. We opened the valves and took off.
When we returned to the Eagles Nest, we raced to the roof and prepared the rocket shot. Mike’s first shot was high, and blew right through a couple of windows in the third floor without exploding. It exploded a few seconds later, but we couldn’t see it. I let him take another one and he scored a direct hit with a nice explosion, but no real fire. Lots of Wolves boiled out of the basement and milled around. Kate ordered Mike to pick
them off with the M107 and told me to come with her. We hopped in the Hummer and Kate drove us down to about three hundred yards away. The Wolves headed for us, and I started shooting with the .50 cal. Kate calmly loaded a phosphorus round into her grenade launcher and fired, and the building blew up when the phosphorus finally ignited all that oil.
Hundreds of Wolves and Brains, many on fire, boiled out of the basement and ran towards us. Kate backed the Hummer down the street while I hammered away on the .50. When we got closer to the Eagle’s Nest, Mike started lobbing HE grenades into the pack and blew bunches of them to smithereens.
We noticed that others were trying to flank us, so we radioed Mike that we were going to draw them off and headed further down the street. The Wolves followed, but the Brains started sniffing around at the base of the Eagle’s Nest. We told Mike about it and he agreed to barricade himself in until we got back.
I lobbed grenades at the Brains and nailed a few before they moved off. They had marked us, though, and that was a real concern. Kate and I took a long slow ride around Burlington, picking off whatever Wolves we saw, plus a few Brains.
Clearly, Burlington was loaded. We decided to burn as much of it as we could, so I started to lob phosphorus grenades into the larger buildings and start some fires. At least ten percent of the buildings seemed to have Wolves in them. I knew there had to be some of the higher level zombies around, too. I wondered what the bigger cities were like.
Kate and I drove around for an hour or so, trying to stay quiet and give the Brains time to move away from the Eagle’s Nest. When we returned, everything was quiet and we quickly joined Mike upstairs. He told us that the Brains had hung around for a few minutes then left. I was deeply concerned about the concentration of zombies in Burlington and their improvements in intelligence and tactics.
Zombie Dawn Page 20