He looked to the leader, who shrugged, before he moved a few feet back toward their vehicle.
“What did you want in exchange for this protection that you thought I so desperately needed from you?”
“Oh, there’s safety in numbers, ma’am, and we have a group that’s been together since the start. We collect those that can’t take care of themselves in this crazy place with dead walking around.”
“I haven’t heard anything that would sell me on what you’re offering. I’m going to have to pass today. You can go on back to wherever you’ve been camped out.”
They made no move to get back in their trucks until I took another shot at the leader, narrowly missing his head.
“Whoops. Guess I’ll have to practice some more. I was aiming for a little lower on your body.” I was keeping a straight face, but could hear the snickers from inside.
“That’s it, boys. Go get those girls. I’m tired of being nice,” the leader ordered his men.
The door had barely shut when the windows shattered, as Sarah Beth, Andi, and Stacy each took a shot at the unsuspecting guys.
“Just wound them. Let’s not kill them until we have to,” I ordered, using the small window in the door to see what was going on outside.
The unwelcome visitors had pulled their wounded comrades behind the vehicle, out of range. They hadn’t started returning fire, but that didn’t mean they weren’t trying to sneak around the cabin.
“Carson, is there a back door in this place?”
“No, just a small bathroom with a little window. I don’t think anyone could fit through it.”
“Here, take my bat and wait in there, just in case. We need another set of eyes so they don’t surprise us.”
He eagerly took it from me and hurried to the bathroom. It was amazing what a little food and water could do to restore someone’s health. Although kids recovered much faster than adults, and this way, he would be out of harm’s ways if bullets started flying back at us.
“Any sign of them?” Stacy scanned the yard for signs of movement.
“Nope.”
“Maybe I should let my dad know we hit a few of them.” Andi picked up the walkie.
“Don’t,” I cautioned. “I think that’s how they found us.”
“Crap. And then I gave them directions on how to get here.”
“I’m sure they thought a woman with a hurt man wouldn’t be well armed, and they could have taken you before reinforcements got here.”
“Not quite what they were expecting, huh?” Sarah Beth grinned at the thought.
“Oh, I’ve got something.” Stacy directed our attention. “To the left. If it’s not your family, Andi, then the infected have discovered us, and we’re about to be invaded.”
A few shots rang out, then there was complete silence.
“Andi, you in there, sweetie?” a male voice called out.
“Dad! Did you find the six guys that were out there?” she responded, but we waited to see what he was going to say before we just rushed out there.
“No. There are two dead out here from bullet wounds. Looks like they snuck back to their vehicle and took off. Can we come in now?”
Andi pulled open the door and jumped into his arms. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“Aw, sweetie. I was, but I knew that Cole was with you, and if you had to go and rescue people, he’s one of the few I would trust you with. Now these yahoos that showed up a few minutes ago are from a town farther south. I recognized Zeke, who’s dead now, from a group we’ve run across as we’ve been searching for survivors.”
“Oh, thank God. I don’t think they had very good intentions.” Stacy gave a relieved sigh.
“We’ve been wondering if they were listening in on our frequencies. Most of what we do is now in code, but there was no way to find out where you were without exact directions,” Andi’s dad explained.
“Where’s the patient?” Angela finally squeezed past the two blocking the doorway.
“Billy’s over here. He’s been out of it since we got here, but I figured that was from the infection.” I walked with her to the bed, but went past to let Carson out of the bathroom.
“Hey, kid. It’s okay to come out.” I pushed in the door, only to find Carson shaking his head, a finger to his lips.
“One of those guys is creeping back to the front,” he whispered.
“Andi’s dad?” I called loudly.
He looked my way, only to see me frantically pointing to the side. He immediately understood and clicked the walkie twice.
We all stood there holding our breath, listening to the scuffle going on outside.
“Dawson, we got something you’ll wanna see out here,” someone called from outside.
We all trailed out with our guns to find one of the guys that had been trying to get inside tied up on the ground.
“Mick was coming around the house. Where did the rest of your group go?” Doug, Stacy’s brother, questioned the captive.
“Noneya,” Mick answered.
“Don’t think that’s exactly the answer we were going for. Try again.” Doug pulled up on the rope holding his hands until they were in an awkward position.
“What’s noneya mean?” Carson whispered to me.
“None of your business.”
“Oh. I’ll have to remember that and use it on my little sisters.”
“Now, I’m gonna keep pulling up on this until I get an answer,” Doug warned.
“No,” Mick whimpered. “I’m just following orders.”
“Whose orders?” Doug pressed.
“Vinnie’s orders. He thought that we could take the girl by surprise. He’s been trying to find a way to infiltrate your group or trade something that you wanted so that he could get the best of you.”
“What else does he have planned?” Dawson interjected.
“He wants to get the food you have stored and a few of the women so the guys will quit fighting.” Mick winced as Dawson pulled a little harder than Doug had on the ropes.
“How many are in your camp?”
“I can’t tell you that. Vinnie will have me killed.”
“You have two choices: answer my questions and live for a while, or Vinnie can kill you as soon as you get back.”
“That doesn’t sound like a choice.” Mick looked between the two guys, trying to decide which one was the one in charge.
Pushing through the testosterone, I figured I’d settle this for them. “Mick, is it?”
“Yeah,” he gulped nervously.
“I’ll make this even simpler for you. If you don’t spill everything you know about Vinnie and his operation, then I use this bat on that sensitive area between your legs. I’ve heard it’s not only painful, but that most men value it pretty highly.” I swung the bat down into my hand, right in front of his face.
Since his hands were tied, he couldn’t protect himself, except to move his knees closer together.
“Talk.” I started to lean down and he gushed, trying to get words out before I brought the bat out to play.
“The camp is about ten minutes away from here. We change areas every week so that we can search for supplies. It’s getting harder to find stores that aren’t overrun with dead that we can get into for the food that’s edible on the shelves. Vinnie thought we should start raiding farms and killing the animals.”
“What would he do, because we showed up and they killed some of your guys?” Doug poked at Mick again.
“He’s gonna be mad. He’ll do pretty much anything, but he’ll figure that your camp’s easier to take over and head that way, hoping to ambush you on the way back.”
“Tie him to the tree over there and watch him.” Dawson ordered, walking back toward the cabin.
“Angie, how’s the kid doin’?”
“I think he might survive with the antibiotics, but we need to get his leg off to be sure. I can give him a small dose to knock him out, but it needs to be a clean cut right
above the knee.” Angie pulled the blanket aside to show them the problem.
“You know what needs to be done.” Dawson looked grim as he turned to Doug. “Let’s carry him out to the truck bed. Go ahead and give him the medicine.” Doug helped grab a few of the blankets off the floor and went outside.
I followed, curious what these two had planned.
“How are we going to keep Vinnie and his group from attacking us on the way to your camp?” I asked as I went to the truck the boys had arrived in to get a bottle of alcohol.
“We won’t go the same way that we came. Now that we know where this is, we can take a back road and come around behind them. It’s time we settled this. These guys have been following us around for weeks, and send ZITs toward us while they clear out whatever supplies we’re about to take.” Doug pulled an axe out of the back seat of their truck and held it out for me to pour the alcohol over.
“I wish we had something that hadn’t been used to kill those infected things. It might not be completely clean, even with alcohol.”
“Once we have it washed down, I’ll go in there and put in the fire for a few minutes. Then we’ll coat it again before we do it. Hopefully that’ll be enough.” Doug went back inside.
I’d seen and done a lot of stuff over the past few months, but this was by far the worse. I stayed out of the way as they moved poor Billy to the truck with his leg hanging off. It was when they started to untie Mick that I knew things were about to get messy.
This was more than I could do, so I went inside to stay with Carson while they took care of his friend.
“Are they going to take me back to my mom after they get Billy fixed up?” He got a little white as he thought about what they were doing.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to take Billy back to your community today. This gang of Vinnie’s would just follow, and then they might hurt your town. Dawson and Doug’s group is going take them out while the rest of us get you and Billy back to their camp,” I explained, not sure which group I’d be in—the one attacking or the escort.
“Will I ever be able to go back to my mom and siblings?” Carson looked to be on the verge of tears.
“Most of that will depend on what happens in the next few hours, but I want to get back to the church and Cole, so I’m going to bet that when us girls go back in that direction, we can make a slight detour.” I was actually looking forward to seeing that pain in my butt guy.
Hearing only voices now and no screams, I looked out and could see that they were almost finished.
Doug came back toward the cabin and I opened the door.
“Should I put out the fire?” I didn’t want to burn the place down. It wasn’t like we had fire departments that could come and put it out if things spread.
“Dawson says leave it. It’s pretty contained, and we don’t want to signal that we’re leaving. It might give us a few extra minutes of surprise on these guys.” Doug took in the mostly empty room. “You’re driving the truck Carson brought,” he informed me.
“In all fairness, I don’t have a license, but that hasn’t stopped me yet.” I grinned over at Carson, who suddenly laughed.
“Does that mean you’re a good driver, or that you failed the test and can drive since there isn’t parallel parking anymore?”
“This kid is smarter than I thought. I never tried, but now that there aren’t any rules about driving down the middle of the road, I haven’t had any problems.” I shook my head, realizing why the others had thought he was older. It was because he was more mature than most high schoolers were.
We were the last ones to get in the trucks, and they had Mick with his hands tied in front of him, sitting next to Billy in the back to make sure he didn’t get jostled around. He looked sick as he sat back there, paying attention to everything but Billy.
“Is it really a good idea to bring the prisoner with us?” I asked Doug as I walked over to the truck.
“We don’t have much choice, and we can’t leave him here. Plus, he’ll make a good trade when we catch up to Vinnie’s group.”
“Okay. I’m not in charge, but anyone that tries to kill me unprovoked doesn’t really get second chances in my book.” I shrugged and got in the truck.
“Hey, kid, you’ll have to hold my gun while I drive, and be on the lookout for anything out of place. Can you handle that?”
He nodded and slammed the door behind him. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Do they have someone watching the back way?” I asked, hoping we weren’t going to get our heads shot at.
“Yeah, but they know we’re coming and are on the lookout for us.”
“How could they know that? We didn’t radio them because of the other group listening in?” I turned to her, incredulous.
“Morse code, and a special set of instructions of code. These military, or ex-military guys, have a system that seems to work.” Angie smiled.
We had driven for about twenty minutes away from where Vinnie was expecting us, in the direction of the church, when we took a right and found a highway that was mostly empty.
This was where my new driving skills came in handy, because I had to avoid the infected, as well as the parked cars that had been abandoned with the doors open. It wouldn’t have been as difficult, but with the doors open on most of the vehicles, there wasn’t much space to squeeze through.
At the next major turn off, the group split up into two groups. Angie and Billy were moved over to our truck, while the other two trucks were ready to engage in a fight.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked Angie, since I’d never been to Jackson Mountain.
“Yeah. I’ve been out with them a lot over the past two months. Most of them are pretty smart, but they wanted me to get the medical supplies that we could find and teach the others what to look for.” Angie got a dreamy look on her face. “It didn’t hurt that Doug was along, since I kind of have a crush on him. If things work out, then Stacy will actually be Dillon’s aunt at some point. It’s been a while since I had a man interested in me who cared about what happed to my kid as well.”
“Angie, that’s so exciting for you. Cole keeps trying to catch my attention by saying the most random things, or saying something that’s going to make me mad because it’s so macho. I ignored him for the longest time, and finally gave in the other night. Then I left him there with no clue that I was going to be gone for a few days. That’ll show him.”
“I’ve noticed that there are a lot more people hooking up with people that they never would have given a second glance to in the previous world.” Angie sat with Billy’s head in her lap, holding a pistol, ready in case we needed it.
“I think we’ve all realized that we could die at any moment and have to make the most of whatever opportunities we came across, be it love, infatuation, or just scratching an itch,” I commented, keeping my eyes peeled for anything unusual since we were the only ones on the road now.
“The group on Jackson Mountain has been really inviting, but they did need some new blood to help pair off all those cousins. We don’t want to become like that southern state, having kissing cousins marrying each other,” Angie chuckled. “I’m only a nurse, but I know that inter-marriage between family members isn’t the way to start over in this new world. Oh, there, take that road and go slowly until you reach the county road sign and take a left. We’re going to come into the mountain roads from the back side,” Angie directed from the backseat.
We pulled up to a dirt road with a gate and cattle guard. It wasn’t until I started to get out of the truck that I realized that we were being watched.
“Hands in the air!” a voice called out, but I couldn’t see anyone.
“Mason, it’s us!” Angie shouted through the window.
The man peeled himself from the ground, behind what looked like a small fort that blended in enough that you wouldn’t have seen him until you were already dead.
“Ah, you’re River, the one that Dill
ion’s been talking about so much,” Mason commented as he opened the gate for me to drive through.
Slamming the door, I pulled forward, muttering, “Why does everyone say it like that? Oh, you must be River. Do I have a wanted poster out that no one told me about?”
“No, sweetie. You’re just a very visible individual. Even in the apocalypse, you’ve managed to keep your hair colored shades of green and blue. Plus, you win the hearts of everyone that comes in contact with you,” Angie praised.
“But I’m not some kind of saint. I mean, I take people out with a bat. I have a weapon of choice. That’s not someone that should be hailed a hero,” I protested, uncomfortable with her words.
“Might as well get used to it, because when Dillion sees you, he’s going to go crazy, and he could even give Cole a run for his money.”
“How does everyone know that Cole has a thing for me? I swear, I’m going to run away so no one can find me. I’ll become a hermit,” I growled in frustration.
Carson raised his hand. “Can you take me home before you go all wild mountain animal?”
“Gracious. I give up.” I shook a fist in the air to whoever was up there listening.
Mason’s son, Brad, had hopped in the back of the truck, and another camouflaged figure had taken his place at the gate.
He knocked on the window when we came to a fork in the road and pointed to the left, leading up the mountain.
“We have a cabin for those who are sick or injured in case they turn. We can’t take any chances on an accident happening to those who are alive. Billy will be in good hands while you two walk up to the main house and see Dillion,” Angie informed us.
“Have you heard anything from the other group yet?” I asked Brad, feeling like he was just an extension of Cole and Dawson.
“Nope. We’ve been keeping an eye out and nothing has happened at the two farthest checkpoints yet. Don’t worry, they’re trained to deal with guys much worse than these local yahoos,” Brad assured me.
“Thanks. Carson, let’s go get some food in you. I could use a chance to relax for just a little while. If we can, us girls will take you back tomorrow.” I slung an arm over his shoulder, holding my bat in the other hand.
Against Zombies Box Set, Vol. 1 | Books 1-4 Page 47