I followed her finger to a star on the map about thirty miles from where we were at, if I was reading it correctly.
“That’s Jackson Mountain. So if your people don’t come down, or we can’t fill all those farms because we don’t have enough people, I have a solution.” Andi gave River a mischievous grin.
“There are way too many people on the mountain, and while it was a good idea to rally around in a safe place, I guarantee that Cole will be more than willing to talk some of the family into spreading out.”
“Cole.” I rolled my eyes. “You know he’s never going to let me out of his sight again. I’m pretty sure he thinks that because we did that together last night, that I need to be near him at all times.”
“Honestly, I know the guys can seem pretty intense, but they just don’t know how to deal with us. It’s so ingrained in them to protect people. I mean, that’s what they’ve done day and night for years, but then suddenly, they’re supposed to turn that off like a switch. They can’t do it with civilians, so imagine how much harder that is when it’s someone they love,” Stacy argued, wanting us to see things from their point of view.
“He can’t love me yet. I’ll admit that he has strong feelings. I guess that in the long run, overprotective is better than someone who doesn’t really care. He’s just going to have to tone it down. I haven’t had anyone care for me in a long time. I have no idea how to react when someone gets close to me,” I confessed, bewildered at the whole idea of love.
“Ha! Cole isn’t one of those that’ll let go. He’s decided that you’re the one he wants, and I don’t think he’s going to let that spark die out,” Sarah Beth giggled.
“The sparks were nice.” I could feel my face turning red.
“Don’t worry, he can be very patient. Remember that I’ve grown up with him and my dad trying to protect me. Cole is the better at dealing with emotions than my dad. It could be because he’s not my dad, but honestly, he’s always been able to figure out what I need and calmed dad down from doing something crazy,” Andi explained.
“Talk to him. Tell him what you’re thinking, because contrary to common opinion, men can’t actually read our minds. You’re going to have to get vulnerable and let him in,” Stacy advised wisely.
“That’s easier said than done. Can’t I just keep using him as my hot sex toy? I’d much rather get naked than talk about my feelings.” I groaned at the thought of having this type of conversation with him.
My attention drifted as I saw smoke coming through the trees.
“Stop the truck.”
Sarah Beth slowly came to a stop. “What do you see?”
“Smoke. It’s through there. Can we find a road and see if we can see what’s causing it?” I pointed slightly behind us to an area that had been hidden from the road by trees.
“Um, there’s a road about a half a mile behind us that should lead to a house over that way,” Andi advised, consulting the map.
“Even though there aren’t a lot of cars around, I’m going to go over the hill and find a place to turn around that’s wider. These two-lane roads aren’t big enough to do a U-turn on, but there should be a driveway somewhere.” Sarah Beth started forward while looking for a way back to follow the smoke.
She had gotten more practice driving since the zompoc started than she normally did in an entire year of monthly visits.
“Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. It’s not like there are any police officers out here to give us a ticket if we don’t follow the driver’s handbook.” I wasn’t one to cast judgment, since I didn’t even have a license to drive.
“I can see the smoke too.” Stacy pointed to the skyline that was barely visible through the trees.
We drove slowly down the dirt road until we came to a clearing that allowed us to see where the smoke was coming from—a cabin farther up the hill. The chimney was smoking away, signaling that there were people alive.
“Not many people would have a fire going in the middle of summer because it’s too hot. Most cabins don’t have air conditioners, and it wouldn’t work way out here anyway because the electric should be out this far out,” Sarah Beth cautioned as we continued driving closer.
“Be on the lookout for anyone in the woods, or anything that seems a little funky.”
Stacy held up the rifle we’d brought with us and looked through the scope.
“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. There’s a truck parked up there, but it’s empty.”
“Let’s park in the trees and walk the last little bit up to the cabin, just to be on the safe side,” I suggested, feeling more comfortable with my bat rather than a gun.
“Good plan,” Andi seconded from beside me.
Sarah Beth pulled over and turned the truck off. “Don’t shut the doors all the way. We don’t want to alert whoever’s inside that we’re out here,” she cautioned us as we got out.
It felt so good to stretch from being in the truck for the past few hours. I was moving around, walking the blood back into circulation, when we heard the door to the cabin creak open.
“Who’s out there?” a younger voice called out. “We need help. If you’re here to rob us then you’re out of luck. We don’t have any food. Be careful of the traps we set.”
“He warned us. That’s gotta count for something, right?” I looked at the others to see what their thoughts were on the situation.
“If it’s a trick, we won’t know until we get closer.” Stacy tilted her head to the side, waiting for the rest of us to decide.
“Let’s do it.” Sarah Beth motioned us forward.
There was no point in trying to be quiet, so we moved over to the dirt road and walked right up to the cabin.
“I see you’ve got guns, but don’t shoot us, please.” The voice opened the door and stepped out.
He was a younger teen, about fourteen, who looked starved.
“Is there anyone else inside with you?” Stacy asked gently, not wanting to startle him.
“Yeah, it’s just me and Billy. He got hurt, and I think his leg is broken. Is one of you a nurse?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
“No, but let’s take a look. Have you eaten recently?” I couldn’t help seeing his arm shake as he lowered the gun.
“No. I didn’t want to leave Billy for very long in case he turned into one of the dead. I didn’t have anything left to put in the traps.” He walked back inside, leaving the door open for us to follow him inside.
“Andi, can you run out to the truck and get the first aid bag and the food pack?” I didn’t know what else we’d need, but those two things should get us started.
“Yeah, sure.” She turned and took off to get what we needed.
“What’s your name, honey?” Sarah Beth asked the young boy.
“Carson. We’ve been in this cabin about three weeks now. The others didn’t make it, and I didn’t know how to get back to where we started.”
His head turned as Andi came racing back into the room.
“Try this.” She held out a bottle of water. “Sip it slowly, and then try this orange. We found it a few farms over this morning.”
She uncapped the bottle because his hands were shaking so bad, and held it to his mouth.
“How’s Billy doing?” Carson asked after several bites of the orange.
“He has a broken leg, but it’s infected. We don’t have any way to fix him here. The church has some medicine, but we don’t have a doctor who could make any decisions about this.” Sarah Beth gave a worried glance down at Billy’s leg.
“Should we try and take him back to the church?” I asked, hoping that we weren’t inviting death into our home.
“I know where there’s a doctor or a nurse. I don’t know if she’d come here, but I can use the walkie and see if they’ll answer,” Andi offered.
“Cole’s not going to like it, though,” I argued.
“Yeah, well, that’s not something that you’ve cared about until now. I’ll go out ther
e and see if I can get them to come here.” She went out the front door so Carson couldn’t hear her conversation.
“Why did you have a fire going? That’s how we knew someone was here,” I questioned gently.
“It’s been so cold at night, and I was afraid to let it go out because we ran out of matches. If we did catch something, there would be no way to cook it, and I really had nothing else to do anyway.” He gave a shrug. “There’s a pump outside with a well, I think, but I didn’t want to drink water that was contaminated, so I’ve been boiling it. I’ve been so hungry that I couldn’t even go out there to do that for the past few days.”
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “We’ll make sure that you get some real food in your stomach once that gives you a sugar boost. We don’t want to overwhelm your system and make you sick.”
Andi came back in the room, looking nervous. “They’re coming.”
“The way you said that sounded really ominous. Are they going to kidnap us after they help?” I asked.
“No.” Stacy shook her head at Andi’s dramatics.
“I wasn’t there long, but what Andi’s really worried about is that her dad’s going to come and chew her out for leaving in the middle of the night. He would never have agreed to his daughter going out to try and find Sean and Sam,” Stacy explained.
“He’s had more than a month to get un-mad. He needs to learn to chill. I called him when I needed help,” Andi grumbled.
“The doctor is coming, though, right?” Sarah Beth asked.
“Yeah, and they’re bringing antibiotics and other medical stuff. Doug is going to escort them, along with my dad.”
“Angela’s not a doctor, though. She took care of about everything that most doctors did. At least she’ll know more about what we’re looking at than any of us do,” Stacy reckoned.
“If we can get Billy fixed up, can you guys help us get back to my mom? She‘s part of a co-op over in the next county,” Carson asked, looking up from eating more of the fruit that we’d found.
“That’ll all depend on if she’s still staying where you left her, sweetie. You don’t know that she’ll be alive or in the same spot that you were since it’s been over three weeks.” I didn’t sugarcoat it, because after what he’d seen the last few weeks, that was the last thing he needed.
“No, you don’t understand. We have a community. A town with lots of people who are alive. We made it out of the city when the zombies first got started and have been on my aunt’s farm since the beginning. Her boyfriend, Linc, gathered the town, and we have several farms working over there,” Carson informed us.
“A community? How many people are alive? That’s a small miracle these days.”
I wanted him to keep talking without realizing that we were pumping him for information.
“About half the town survived, but they had to get rid of Jim Danvers because he let Linc’s mom die. Since then, we’ve cleared out the farms, and they were just teaching us how to put in solar panels. We were supposed to go to the other towns and install them, but the other guys thought we needed alcohol for that since there would be other teens to party with.” Carson paused. “Can I have another bottle of water? Please?” he added as an afterthought.
“He’s got manners. Sure, kid. Just remember, take it slowly.”
I knew telling that to a teenage boy who hadn’t eaten in a while was like telling the sun it couldn’t shine again. It was going to happen, but at least I’d warned him.
“Did you find the alcohol you were looking for?” Andi asked curiously.
“Yeah, it’s out in the truck. They had a shack out in the woods with a hidden stash that someone would bring them. We loaded it up, but heard something in the trees. They didn’t listen when I told them it was probably the infected, and that we should get out of there.” Carson stopped, looking like he might cry.
“It’s okay. Honey, you did the best you could to warn them. They just didn’t listen.” Stacy placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort.
“No, it’s my fault. I told them I was fifteen, but I’m only thirteen. Tina had the hots for me, and we’d been making out on the way over with the others. When we got to the building, she wanted us to go out back and drink and stuff…” He trailed off, blushing.
“Oh, she wanted to do it, but you weren’t ready yet?
“Uh-huh. It just didn’t feel right. The others had brought another girl, and they were all telling me to do it. I just couldn’t. So she took Ben behind the shack, and we could hear them while we finished loading things up. Then the infected came out of the trees.” He blushed again. “She was really loud and drawing them to us. Then she started really screaming, and they were both being attacked. I knew there wasn’t anything we could do for them, so the rest of us got in the truck. We killed a few of them as we got the truck going, but she stopped screaming.”
“Carson, it’s really okay to cry. No one here is going to think less of you.” Andi walked over and sat right in front of him.
“Never mind, you need just need a hug.” She surprised all of us by grabbing him and holding him for a minute. “There, I feel better now.”
He sniffled. “Uh…yeah, me too.”
“It’s not your fault she was a witch with a capitol B, dude,” Sarah Beth chimed in, as Andi sat back on the floor, patting his leg.
She kept surprising me with her compassion and common sense. I just hoped that her dad realized what a unique daughter he had.
“We made it here, but Wendy and Cox went out to check the traps about two weeks ago with me and Billy. We heard screams, but all we could do was shoot them because the infected had already killed them. When a bush rustled, Billy panicked and fell, breaking his leg. It was just a rabbit, but I helped get him back to the house and we bandaged him up.
“I went back out and dug two graves, dragging them back here. Since then, I found a few things in the traps, and we ate all the cans that were here those first few days. Billy started getting worse, and I didn’t want to get attacked, so we didn’t venture far.”
“You did amazing. Most kids your age wouldn’t have been able to keep anyone alive, much less someone else that was hurt,” I consoled, trying to be reassuring.
“We were just sneaking out for a few hours. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. There were several huge groups of dead that we had to go around, and I knew that if I got out there and tried to drive back, we’d get caught, and I wouldn’t be able to get away.”
“I’m sure that your mom is worried, and they’ve been looking for you ever since you left.”
“I kept hoping that they’d come, but after the first two weeks and they didn’t, I knew we were on our own. I was just waiting for Billy to die. I was going to bury him, and then see if I could find a way back. It would’ve been easier to find food in a house somewhere, and maybe a map.”
“Do you remember the name of the town near the farm where you live?” Andi asked.
“Something like Teague, or League. I don’t know. We just always said we were going to go to town. They never really talked about a name for it since we all knew what they meant,” Carson explained.
“You keep saying ‘they.’ Who is they?” I wondered just how many this really was since he’d said half the town was still alive.
“Well, there’s my mom and three siblings. My aunt, two cousins, Linc and his three guys, because one of them was killed by Jim Danvers. I think they were ex-military, because they trained us how to use guns and do patrols when we’re not working on the farm. Aunt Jessica has cows and grows lots of stuff, so even though the infected are out there somewhere, we have to keep things growing.”
“Oh, wow. That’s a lot of people on one farm,” Stacy commented, having no idea what it took to keep one running.
Sarah Beth stood up. “Did you give them directions on how to get here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because someone just pulled up, and these guys don’t look like what you’ve described as y
our family.” She pointed out the dirty window. Lifting her gun, she was getting ready for whatever was about to walk through the door.
“They’re not from Jackson Mountain. I know just about everybody, and should recognize at least one person.”
Andi picked up the walkie. “Dad? How far away are you?”
“We’re about ten minutes out. We ran into a herd of those ZITs.” Dawson’s voice came through the radio.
I pulled the gun from the waistband of my pants. “Stop right there!” I yelled, cracking the door just a little bit.
“We’ve got you covered, so introduce yourselves.”
“Hey, now. We saw the smoke and thought we’d come over and help,” one of the six guys approaching answered back, lowering his weapon.
“Stay back and shoot them if they make a move,” I whispered to the girls as I stepped out onto the porch.
“What do you want?” I kept the gun trained on what appeared to be the leader.
“Just being neighborly.” The leader made a motion with his hand, and the others started to spread out.
I aimed in the general direction of the one closest to the side of the cabin. “I said stop. That means, don’t try to flank me.”
Andi was talking softly to her dad on the radio, telling him what was going on.
“Now, now, that’s no way to treat a neighbor. Figured you might need some help,” he scoffed.
“We never said we needed help. The smoke’s been going for three weeks now, and you just showed up? That seems awful suspicious, wouldn’t you say?” I questioned, hoping to stall them until the cavalry got there.
“That’s my fault, ma’am,” a different man answered, taking his cap off in a gentlemanly gesture.
“There are just so few people out here in this new world, that we wanted to make sure that you have the protection you need.”
I pointed to the gun in my hand. “I can assure you that I can take care of myself just fine, and the only person that’s going to need protection is the guy who’s moving to my right. I really suggest that you don’t move again. I aimed for you the first time, I won’t be so nice the next time. In fact, I think you should move over and stand next to your buddies.”
Against Zombies Box Set, Vol. 1 | Books 1-4 Page 46