The Rabid Mind

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  They fished for a couple of hours and caught about ten trout. It was almost 10 o’clock and Sandra said, “Let’s clean the fish and pack them in wet grass and toss them in the sack. Wash your hands well afterwards, then meet me in our special clearing. I have a surprise for you.”

  Matt couldn’t grin any bigger and said, “Really, a surprise for me?”

  “Yes, now hurry up.” With that, she walked up the hill.

  Matt quickly finished cleaning the fish and filled the bag with grass, soaked it down, then put the fish inside. He thought that should keep them fresh. He left the fish in a shallow spot, with the water slowly moving across the bag, and tied it to a branch.

  Matt hurried to their special clearing of tall grass. The sun was shining down and it was quickly warming up. He reached the clearing, but there was no Sandra. He called out, “Sandra?”

  Just then, she stepped out from behind a tree wearing just her bra on top, but she still had her pants and boots on. Matt ran over to her, but she held her hand up for him to stop. “Wait a minute tiger. You have to earn this one.”

  “Earn it? What do you mean?”

  “You have to catch me first.” With that, she took off running. He raced after her and she ran around the clearing a couple of times before she let him catch her. They fell down in a heap and quickly had their clothes off.

  Afterwards, they were lying in the sun with her laying on his shoulder and running her fingers along his stomach. Then they heard the vehicle coming up the road. They quickly got up and got dressed.

  She whispered into Matt ear, “What do we do?”

  “We follow them up and see what they’re up to.” Staying right along the road edge, they jogged up, just in time to see them drop a guy off. They had only gone about a third of the way up to the cabin.

  As the guy got out, they heard the driver say. “If you get lucky, grab her and then we can be done with coming up here.” The guy nodded his head. Matt and Sandra hid as the truck drove back down the road.

  “They’re spying on us.” Matt whispered.

  “What do we do now?”

  “We stalk this guy and ask him what he’s doing.” They saw him duck off the path about 300 yards down from the cabin. They quickly ran up to where he left the road and stalked him quietly into the brush. They caught up to him just in time to see him lay down with binoculars to watch the cabin.

  Matt whispered, “They must want girls pretty bad to spend this much time here on just us. Let’s sneak up and find out what the deal is. You stay back about 50 yards and get a bead on him and I’ll jump him.”

  When they were about at the 50-yard mark, Sandra snuck off to the left for about 20 yards and found a downed log. She propped up her rifle and zeroed in on him with the scope.

  Matt slowly snuck up and, when he was 10-feet away, with his rifle pointing at the guys back, he said, “Don’t move.” The guy jumped with a start and then froze. Matt said, “Slowly and carefully move your hands out in front of you, and they damned well better be empty because I have an itchy trigger finger.”

  The man slowly raised both hands out in front of him. They were empty. “What do you want?” the man asked.

  “What do I want? That’s my question for you.” Matt said, “Why are you watching us? Are you raiders? What is this about grabbing the girl?”

  Nervously, the guy answered, “No, we were just wondering what you were up to. That guy was just kidding around.”

  Matt stepped up to him, putting his rifle against his spine. “I’m not kidding around. You were told that if you came back, the friendly talking was over. The only reason you would be watching us is if you planned on doing a raid. So tell me, how many are in your group and what kind of weapons do you have?”

  The man was trembling now. “No, no, you’ve got it all wrong mister. We’re just curious, that’s all.” The guy was hoping that Matt would hesitate for that one precious second and then he could get the drop on him. He said, “You just need to relax and point that gun somewhere else, so we can talk. Really, you have this all wrong.”

  Matt pulled the gun back a couple of inches and said, “Okay. What?”

  The guy quickly pulled his hands back, pushed himself up and sprung back toward Matt, but Matt’s barrel was only two inches away and when he hit the barrel, pushing the gun back, Matt pushed it forward and the rifle fired, breaking the man’s spine and killing him instantly.

  Sandra came running up. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. He was answering my questions and then he tried to jump me. I didn’t mean to kill him, it just happened so fast.”

  “What should we do now?”

  “We go tell your dad, drive down to grab the fishing equipment and fish and then hole up. Once they find their friend dead, we’re going to be in for a fight. I’m sure of that.”

  They quickly ran up to the cabin and Jim was sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee and a cigarette. He’d heard the shot and had his shotgun across his lap. He opened the gate for them and asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Trouble.” Matt said. “The raiders/traders came back and dropped off a guy to spy on us, telling him to grab Sandra if he had a chance. I confronted him, he jumped up trying to fight me and the gun just fired. He’s dead.”

  “Damn it. I knew those guys were trouble.” Jim said. “We need to haul in firewood and any supplies we might need. Get some more of the bombs set up on the side first. I would like at least two per side. Sandra, you go tell Debbie what’s going on. Matt, you start hauling firewood in. My guess is that they won’t be back for a few hours, so we’d better make good use of the time.”

  Jim grabbed two of the bombs and the pipe strapping, nails and a hammer. He quickly set those two up against trees on the front side. The blast would only go out to one side, but it was better than nothing. He broke branches down to make sure he would be able to see them from the cabin.

  Running back to the cabin, he grabbed four more and placed two of them on the west side and then two in back. Matt hauled in a bunch of firewood. When he’d finished, Sandra reminded him about the fishing equipment and fish. “We had better grab them now.” He ran out as Jim was walking into the yard. He said, “I left the fishing equipment and fresh fish at the river.”

  Jim said, ”Okay, let’s drive down and grab it.” They retrieved the stuff and drove back to the cabin.

  Chapter 35

  That afternoon the raiders returned and waited for their man. He never showed up. The leader told two of the men to go find out what was taking him so long. One of them said, “I bet he fell asleep.”

  “Whatever. Come on. It’s about two hours before dark and we have to get moving.”

  About 45 minutes later, he looked up the road and saw the two dragging the missing member towards the truck. He got out and ran up to them. “What happened?”

  “We don’t know, but he was shot in the back.”

  “Damn it. So they want to play hardball, do they? No problem. Toss him in the back of the truck and let’s go round up the rest of the boys. We’ll come back tomorrow to teach these people a lesson.” They tossed the body in the back of the truck and drove off.

  Inside the cabin, all four of them sat around the table discussing the situation. Sandra said, “What do you think they are going to do?”

  Jim replied, “I’m not sure. Maybe they might just move on, thinking we aren’t worth it. If there are only four of them, they’re now down to three and it might not be worth the risk to try and take us on.”

  Matt was holding Sandra’s hand and looked up, saying, “I don’t think they’re going to give up that easily. First blood has been drawn and they’re going to be mad and want revenge, so they’ll try something.”

  Debbie said, “We need to take them out. No more talking. If we can get a clear shot on them, then we need to take it.”

  Jim said, “Okay now, let’s play it smart. For the next three days, we stay inside. No one is allowed out for any reason.
We have cards and we can play spades. I don’t know how much time they can dedicate to try and take us out, but if something happens, we treat them the same way we would treat a Loco. We drop them in their tracks.”

  The raiders had a safe house that they used when they traveled in the area and they headed for it. An hour before dark, they pulled in. The next day they would have to make the three hour drive back to the main camp to get more men and another truck.

  The following day they arrived back at the main camp and buried their dead comrade, before the leader laid out the plan to his men. “We’ll head out at first light and get there around noon. We’ll have them cleaned out before dark.”

  Before noon, they had ten men total, with five in each truck. Thinking aloud, and not speaking to anyone in particular, the leader said, “We can shoot that little cabin to ribbons and set it on fire, shooting them when they come out.” He thought for a few minutes and changed his mind. “No. We won’t set it on fire, because I’m sure they’ve been good little drones and have collected all kinds of good stuff.” He wished they still had one of the tear gas guns that would work.

  The next morning before daybreak, Jim was up and mulling over the plan. He changed his mind about just waiting. The sun wasn’t up yet and the others were still asleep. He woke everyone up and asked them to meet him in the kitchen. He explained his thoughts and told them his new plan. “We’re just sitting ducks if we wait for them to attack us. We have to be proactive and take the battle to them.”

  Matt was wiping the sleep out of his eyes as he said, “What do you mean?”

  Jim set his coffee down and said, “Simple. We know they’re most likely going to drive up the road, so the two of us,” pointing at Matt, “should go hunting. We set up some bombs on the road and take out their truck before they can attack us.”

  Matt, more awake now, said, “That’s a great idea.”

  “Now you two,” he pointed at the women, “stay here, no matter what. If they get by us, you have the bombs around you. Just start taking them out, but, whatever happens, you don’t leave here. Both of you promise me that.” They both nodded their heads in agreement.

  “Okay. Matt, you pack up what you need. We’ll leave one SKS here for the girls and you can carry the other one. I’m going to take my 30-06 to shoot the bombs with. We need to pack food and water and we’ll plan on coming back at dark if they don’t show up. That is the only time you girls come outside, just to let us in. The signal is going to be two rocks tossed at the door. If you don’t hear that, it’s not us.”

  Matt and Jim got ready and then headed down the road on foot. They slightly buried two bombs in the road about halfway down. Jim could shoot the first one from 75 yards as the truck approached. If they made it past that one, they would use the other one, which was about 75 yards past where Jim’s stand was. They had placed them 150 yards apart.

  That first day was long and boring. No one showed up and nothing happened. They returned to the cabin. The signal worked great and Sandra came out to open the gate, once she saw it was really them. The women had prepared a great big dinner for them of Elk steaks, mashed potatoes and gravy. They all sat down at the table and ate.

  Sandra asked, “Anything? Did you see or hear them?”

  “Not a thing.” Jim said shaking his head. “We saw some squirrels and a couple of deer, but that was it.”

  Debbie focused on Jim and asked, “Do you think they just moved on and maybe we got lucky?”

  Jim’s mouth was full, so Matt jumped in. “Kind of doubt it. They might have headed out for more men. They were way too cocky if it was only the four of them.”

  Sandra said, “Maybe we should pack up and move to that other house? They wouldn’t know to look for us there.”

  Jim frowned. “No, we’ve done too much work here, besides it would take us a week or longer to move. That would also open us up to Loco attacks. Our best bet is to take them out if they come back.”

  The next morning at the raider’s camp, both truckloads of men headed out in the pre-dawn light. The leader’s men had gotten a good night’s rest at the safe house. He figured they should be set up and ready to attack in about two hours. He would spread his men out around the cabin and snipe them as they walked outside. As they drove over, he thought that getting a ton of supplies and that young good-looking girl would be worth any casualties they might incur.

  They made it to the turn off at 10:30 AM and he waved the first truck past him, explaining the plan. They were to drive about ¾ of the way up to the cabin and park the vehicle. Those five men were to circle to the back side of the cabin. He made sure that the group had two men that had been at the cabin with him before, so they would know where to go.

  “Remember, we want the girl alive but kill everyone else. I bet it’s just the three of them. We’ll be covering the front. The plan is to snipe them. If we can kill the two men, we can use the tear gas to drive her out of the cabin.” The first truck headed up the hill and they followed, about 50 yards behind.

  Jim had settled into his shooting position and had just poured another cup of coffee from the thermos, lit up a cigarette and inhaled. Hopefully it would just be another long boring day. He stretched out, leaning against the tree. He heard some squirrels chasing each other around a pine tree not far away and smiled. It was peaceful in the tees. He had rolled a log over to rest his gun on and to give him some cover, so he propped his feet up on it.

  The lead truck was driving just fast enough to keep the forward momentum going, but trying not to make too much noise by gunning the engine. They reached the crest at the top of the steep hill and it leveled off for about 50 yards before the next steep climb. The driver brought his speed up to 30 mph to help make the incline.

  Jim had just finished his cigarette and coffee and was placing the cup back on the top of the thermos when he heard the trucks coming up the hill. Showtime, he thought. Matt was above him as the back up and would make sure the top bomb would go off.

  Jim zeroed in on the bomb, sitting down with his gun resting rock steady on the log. He anxiously waited for the truck. He saw it coming up the hill and then saw the second one behind it. He realized that Matt was right. They definitely had more men. Under his breath, he said, “Well guys, here comes the surprise of your life. You should have listened to me and never come back.”

  The bomb was placed about 10 feet up the incline. As soon as the truck’s front end was almost over it, he fired. It exploded with a roar, flipping the truck over backwards and crushing the four guys in the bed of the truck. The other truck slammed on the brakes.

  Jim worked the bolt action and zeroed in on the driver of the second truck, but the passenger of the first truck came crawling out of the cab and started firing wildly up the hill. Jim switched his aim and quickly dropped him. The rear truck was thrown into reverse and was backing away. Jim managed one quick shot at it, just before it was out of sight.

  He watched the first vehicle, looking for any other survivors. The truck was on fire. Both front tires were ablaze and the gas line had broken open. That soon caught fire too, as the gas poured out of the gas tank, feeding the flames higher and higher. Jim was surprised how long it took before the gas tank finally blew up and flames consumed the vehicle.

  Was it over, he wondered? How many men did they have to lose before it was finished? The wind was coming towards Jim and the black smoke and smell of burning flesh was too much for him to stay there. He called up the hill, “Matt, I’m coming up to you.” He walked up the hill to Matt, thinking that all the killing was such a waste. All the survivors should be working together to fight the infected, but those fools wanted to play king of the hill. As he reached Matt he said, “I just couldn’t take the smell anymore.” He sat down next to Matt, poured some coffee and lit up another cigarette.

  Matt asked him how many were in the truck. Jim told him he wasn’t sure, but probably five or six men. He added, “Only the passenger survived the blast and, if he hadn’t come out
shooting, I could have killed the driver of the second truck and then we could have fought it out with the rest.”

  Matt nodded his understanding and asked, “What should we do now?”

  Jim finished swallowing his coffee and said, “I say we grab that last bomb and go back to the cabin. This trap isn’t going to work twice. Besides, I doubt if they can get by the wreckage. If they’re stupid enough to come back, they’ll have to do so on foot and try to take us out.” Jim finished his cigarette and coffee and then headed up the hill. Matt grabbed the second bomb and followed him.

  They tossed the rocks, but Debbie and Sandra had already seen them coming and ran out to the gate. They were full of questions, asking, “Is everyone okay? What happened? My God, that was loud when the bomb went off. Did you kill them all?”

  They walked through the gate and locked it. Jim said, “Come on; let’s get inside to play it safe.” Once inside, he explained what happened, adding that they should never come out of the cabin together, even when they knew it was Matt or Jim. If there was a sniper in the trees, they could both be killed.

  Debbie nodded and asked, “Do you think it’s over? Are we safe from them now?”

  Jim scratched his beard. “I’m not sure, but for now they’re gone. It all depends on how many men he wants to lose trying to take this place. I’m sure they’re either making a new plan right now, or leaving for good. I did warn them not to come back here. They have no one to blame but themselves.”

  The leader drove down to the main highway and stopped to talk things over with his men. The first question was, “What in the hell hit the first truck? Do they have a tank up there?”

  The leader said, “I don’t think so. I’ll bet it was just some form of homemade landmine. I say we go back to the safe house for the day and rest up. Just before dark, we’ll come back with the night vision gear and tear gas and we’ll smoke them out. With the night vision, we can just snipe them off as they run out of the cabin. What do you guys think?”