Sandra said, “Yes, that’s what it looked like. The others listened to him and understood what he was saying.”
Jim changed the subject and asked Matt, “How is your leg? Are you going to be okay?”
“I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks, but it still hurts like hell. How’s your face?”
“About the same, but I might have some trouble eating. I need you and Sandra to get back up on the roof to listen and watch so you can warn us if that group comes back. Debbie and I will get some sleep. You keep watch until 1 a.m. and then we can switch.”
Matt nodded and said, “Do you think it’s over for tonight?”
Jim said, “I sure hope so, but just in case, you two should take flashlights and both SKSs with you. When you call down and give us the all clear, we’ll crash out and get some sleep.”
Matt said, “Don’t you think we should plant a bomb out where they breached the fence, just in case they try another rush tonight?”
Jim shook his head. “I don’t want anyone walking outside until daylight, but if you can toss one from the roof onto the pile, that might work.”
“It’s a good idea, but I don’t know if it would land right so that I could shoot one of the ends.” Matt pointed out.
Debbie said, “You still have the rope up there. Why not hang one down again, but this time get back so you don’t blow yourself up.”
Sandra said, “Yeah, we could do that. Okay, we’re going topside. You two get some sleep, if you can.” They climbed up on the roof and scanned the area with their lights. The yard was clear and they continued to shine all around, but didn’t see anything moving. “Do you think we drove them off?” Sandra asked.
Matt replied, “I hope so. I don’t think we can take another major attack like that one.”
The rest of the night ticked by and the silence was eerie. The only thing they heard was an owl hooting off in the distance.
Every 10 minutes they shone the light around the yard and down the road. Nothing moved. Had they really left, Matt wondered. In the morning they would have to clear the fence of dead bodies and plant a bomb right there, so they could clear that area if they came again.
Chapter 37
When Jim and Debbie took over the watch, they had the same type of night. There was no movement or activity at all. Jim had to wonder - if this leader was so smart, would he think that he’d lost too many trying to take the place and just leave?
Once the sun was up, they climbed back inside the cabin. After they’d all had breakfast, taking turns watching for the group, Matt and Jim swept the yard and all was clear. The front wall of the cabin was full of embedded lead from the bomb and they could easily see daylight through the holes in the porch roof.
They both suited up with coats, gloves and face shields so they could start hauling the bodies off of the fence. The barbwire was trampled down from the weight of so many bodies and would have to be fixed. They hauled the bodies across the road and just made a big stack, like firewood, which they would burn that evening. Matt joked about the zombies smelling the roasting meat and coming back for seconds. Jim wasn’t laughing and said, “I guess that’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
By lunch time they had finished cleaning all of the bodies from the fence, the pikes and around the yard. While they did that, Debbie and Sandra patched the breach in the fence and strung new wire where it was needed.
That afternoon they sat down on the porch to take a break and Jim said, “As much as I hate to say this, we’re going to have to move out of here. It’s just not safe any longer and we got lucky last night. I don’t think we can take much more and if it had been a larger Hive, with no leader to call them back, we would have been over run.”
Matt said, “I agree. I was thinking the same thing, but for now we should stock food and water up in the attic, just in case we do get over run. That’s going to be our Alamo.”
Debbie said, “You’re right; they could trap us up there and just wait for us to starve or die of thirst. The good thing is that we could sneak off if the Hive slept in the cabin all day.”
Sandra said, “I think we should check the raider’s truck, get the tire fixed and then pack it so we are ready to go. We should pack the SUV up too, so if we have to make a run for it, we have plenty of supplies.”
“That’s a good idea.” Jim said. They spent the rest of the afternoon getting the vehicles ready and packed. Jim hauled up two of the 20-pound propane tanks into the attic.
Matt, with a confused look on his face, asked, “What are they for?”
Jim said, “If we have to leave the cabin to them, we can open the propane bottles and drop them in. We set one of our bombs on the doorway and shoot it as we leave, taking out all of them.”
“That’s great idea Jim, but how the hell are we going to reach the vehicles without getting torn to shreds?”
Jim said, “Good point. Any ideas?”
Debbie spoke up, saying, “If we survive tonight, I say we just leave during the day tomorrow.”
“But where do we go?” Sandra asked.
Debbie said, “We know where a big beautiful house is. Right, Jim?”
“Damn woman, you are determined to kill me cutting firewood.” He looked at Sandra and Matt, “Yes, we know of a great spot.”
They ran the generator to charge the batteries up for the night. They also charged the portable spotlight and nickel hydrate batteries for their small flashlights.
Matt said, “Let’s go in the morning, after we finish packing up everything useful from here. We can caravan. If we taking the CRV, the raiders’ truck and Jim’s truck, we should be able to get everything in one trip.”
Jim said, “That’s a good idea. Debbie and I will be in the front truck and, if necessary, she can be the shooter to clear the path. Sandra will take the middle in the CRV and you drive the raiders’ truck in the rear.”
Sandra said, “Okay, it’s settled. We leave in the morning.”
That night Sandra and Matt were taking the first watch and sitting up on the roof. Around 10 p.m. she said, “It looks like they may have left and we can just drive out of here in the morning.”
“Let’s hope so. Last night was as close as I want to come to dying.”
The pile of burning bodies helped to give the yard and surrounding area some light, but Matt continued to shine his light all around and down the road.
At 10:30 he spotlighted the road and saw one walking up. When the spotlight hit it in the face, it flew into a rage and raced towards the cabin, impaling itself on a sharpened rebar pike.
Then they heard the shriek from the woods. Sandra swung the spotlight over to the front of the cabin. She gasped for air and her breath caught in her throat. There were hundreds of them, charging forward. “Oh my God, they’ve changed their tactics and are attacking a new part of the barrier.
Matt didn’t waste any time and he started pouring lead at them with the SKS. He had dropped ten and was reloading, but the shrieking was getting intense. With a grim smile, he bet Jim and Debbie were awake now.
He spotted the leader for a few seconds. He was grunting, shrieking and pointing. The others understood and charged forward, about ten bodies wide. They filled up the rebar again and Sandra yelled, “Hit the bomb! Hit the bomb!” Matt told her to get behind him and hold the spotlight. He couldn’t shoot because the infected were piling over the top and blocking his view of the bomb. Sandra yelled, “Hurry! Shoot it.”
He ignored her and waited for a shot. He zeroed in, but more infected were now in the way. “Damn, this is bad. There are at least 20 under the wire.”
Sandra’s voice was panicky as she shouted, “Hurry up and shoot it already. We’re being overrun.”
There it was. He found his target and he shot, but just then another infected jumped up and the shot knocked that one down and a few behind it. Finally, he had a clear shot. He took it and the explosion took his breath away. The bomb cleared the area, but there were still about 40 that
got over the wire and were beating on the door. They heard the report of Jim’s shotgun and then Debbie’s rifle started firing. They were all quickly finding targets and started clearing those that were inside the fence.
Once they had finished with those inside the compound, they heard another shriek and babble. On the truck side, another hoard surged forward. Sandra zoomed right in with the spotlight and Matt hit the bomb next to them with the first shot. The shock wave took out close to 80 of the infected. The raider truck had been repaired with a new tire and was loaded up, but was too close to the blast area. Another tire and the radiator were taken out.
A new shriek was heard and then the incoherent babble and they could hear them moving off into the brush. Their leader had called for them to retreat.
“Looks like we won again.” Matt said.
“If we can just make it until morning, we can get the hell out of here.”
The night ticked by. Jim and Debbie took over at 1 a.m. and the rest of the night was uneventful.
In the morning they loaded up and transferred what they could out of the raider truck. It was too damaged to try and fix this time. Jim said, “We can come back in a few days for the rest of the stuff. Debbie and I will be in the lead and you follow us in the SUV.”
“Okay, slave driver.” Matt nodded, “Let’s get this show on the road. “
As they drove off, they saw the dead bodies of the infected that had only been wounded. They had stumbled down the road for maybe a ½ mile before falling over dead.
Chapter 38
Once they reached the new house and checked it out, Jim said, “Don’t get too comfy here. This place is a nightmare to even think about defending. We need to do some serious work before we can be safe and get comfortable.”
Debbie said, “Well, we’re going to enjoy it while we can.”
Matt, looking the house over, said, “You’re right Jim, it is a nightmare. I think we need to find a smaller house that we can defend. I am thinking a brick house and then we cover the windows with ¼-inch plate steel, lag bolted in place. We need a solid ¼-inch plate steel for the doors too.”
Sandra said, “Okay, I understand, but can’t we just enjoy this for a few days?”
They spent that evening covering all of the windows, hiding the truck and putting the CRV into the empty garage stall. Jim instructed everyone that if anything went wrong, they were to fight their way to the garage and get into the vehicle. “If all goes well, we can stay here for a week. Then we find a new place and get it fortified.”
That night, as they were lying in bed, Debbie asked Jim, “What about my children?”
Jim looked at her and said, “First things first. We need to get a new place fortified and stocked with supplies. I am thinking we can get a generator and some batteries rigged up. If we hook up some inverters, we can run the Genset to keep the batteries charged. We need to find a house with a propane furnace and a full storage tank, so we can cook and heat with it, but we will still put a couple of cords of firewood in, just in case anything breaks. After we get the house totally sealed up, the Hive could only sit outside and starve. Once that’s done, we’ll focus on getting your children.”
She hated putting off finding her kids, but agreed that they needed a safe place to live. She nodded and said, “That sounds like a good plan, Jim. We also need to find more ammo. We’re getting low on everything again.”
Jim agreed. “Someone around here has to have reloading equipment. If we can find it, along with the right dies and powder, we can reload ourselves. We still have a couple of boxes of those tire weights for the lead.”
“That would sure beat going out and scrounging for it. I sure would love to have about 1000 rounds put up for my .357.”
“Right. And once we have all that work done, we can give the CRV the ‘Mr. T’ special treatment and get it sealed up. I think then we would be ready to go and look for your children. I’m thinking all of this will take about a month.”
“Thirty days. Really Jim, that long?”
“I am sorry dear, but we have one heck of a lot of work to do. We have to find the house first and then make it into a fort. From what we’ve heard about that cowboy with the children, and the place they are going, they should be safe until we can get there.”
After three days of resting up, they returned to the cabin and found that it had been overrun again, but, finding no food, the Hive must have moved on. They loaded up both vehicles for the last time and left. The trip back was kind of sad. The cabin had been their home and served them well.
They spent the next week searching for the perfect house, one that had the requirements they were looking for- a brick house with a propane furnace and a full propane tank. They also wanted an attached garage so they could have the vehicles parked inside, a well, a septic system and a woodstove too. All of this was harder to find in one house than they had thought.
Finally, after a week of looking, they found the house. It had a 500-gallon propane tank, which was almost full, and a wood stove for backup. The only problem was, according to the receipts they found in a desk, the previous owners had normally filled the tank three times for the winter, because the stove and hot water heater also used propane.
“You know,” Jim said. “I think that propane truck we saw over at that garage might have 5000 gallons in it. That would sure take care of that problem. Now we just need to find a generator that runs on propane and we would be all set. We can keep any gasoline we come up with for the vehicles.”
Now that they’d found the spot, they got busy measuring all of the windows and doors for the plate steel. Cutting the metal was hard work and it was a team effort. Each couple had a job to do, with one couple cutting the T shaped shooting slots and the other couple drilling the 5/16-inch holes so they could lag bolt them in place. Day after day they worked on it, until all the windows were covered. The door set up brought a whole new set of problems. The door weighed in at 200 pounds.
Matt said, “Damn, this is just too heavy. We need to make some special hinges with steel plates on the inside of the wall to bolt it to, otherwise the weight is too much for the wood.”
Jim nodded as he looked at the doorframe. “I agree, plus it would be a nightmare putting it up in place. What if we drop down to 1/8-inch steel plate? That’s plenty strong enough to stop the Infected, but should drop the weight by half. I figure it would be around 100 pounds, or thereabouts.”
Matt scratched his chin as he studied the door. “Sounds good to me, but I do think we need to have steel plates on the inside to bolt it to. Something about 32” long and a foot wide would put the strength against three of the 2 x 4s to help hold the weight.”
Jim said, “That sounds like a good idea. You think two hinges, or three?”
“I’m thinking we’d better go with three. That way it will be stronger. I know it’s going to take longer, but we are going to bet our life on it, so I say three is the answer.”
It took them another week of work to make heavy-duty hinges and to cut the door just right so that it fit inside the doorframe. Finally the house was sealed up.
The next step was to stock it full of supplies. Getting the house hooked up for electricity was another huge job. They found several large semi-truck batteries, wired them in series and then connected them to inverters that would convert 12-volts to 120-volts. Jim wired the inverter into the main breaker box. They then needed to convert all the lights to the energy saving bulbs. If they could find some of the newer LED lights, it would save them even more energy.
They tested the system and it worked. They turned on the water pump and it was working well also. The house was livable in now and it was like a normal house. With plenty of extra batteries, they could go a full four days before they had to start the generator to recharge them. Jim figured that it would take 4 to 5 hours running time for a full charge. He also warned everyone to use lights and water sparingly, or the breakers would trip. Either way, he felt it was safer running the Ge
nset for five hours once every four days than running it each and every day.
The next week was spent collecting all the dry goods they could get their hands on, along with vitamins, antibiotics and anything else they could find. They grabbed all the rice, beans, oatmeal, sugar, salt and boxed food they could gather. Within a week they had about a year’s worth of food for the four of them. They still hadn’t found any reloading equipment, but found a few shells here and there.
At dinner that night, Jim said, “We have to find more ammo. The guns we got from the raiders are great, but we only have 316 rounds of .223 for them. We’re down to 248 rounds for both SKSs.” He looked at Debbie. “And you are down to what, 87 rounds for your .357?”
She nodded, “Yep, right around there, for sure.”
Matt said, “If we can find reloading equipment, and that’s one big if, the SKS ammo we have is steel cased and you can’t reload that the same as the brass .223 casing. Of course, if we could find .357 or .38 dies and powder, that would be the way to go. It takes a lot less powder to reload pistol ammo than rifle ammo.”
Sandra added, “Of course it would be nice if we could find more .357 caliber rifles to go with it.”
Jim said, “That’s why we sealed this place up. Hopefully, we won’t need as much ammo. Next, I want the fencing and rebar pikes put up again. Also, we should cut a hole in the roof and make a shooting platform on each end of the roof. That way all four of us can be up there shooting.
Matt laughed out loud, looked at Sandra and said, “See, I told you - he’s always the slave driver.”
Jim laughed too. “I guess you know what this means?”
“What?” asked Matt. “You never cease to amaze me when it comes to tiring me out with work.”
Jim chuckled. “Nope, it means next week Debbie and I are going to rig up the CRV, ‘Mad Max’ or ‘Mr. T’ style, so it’s safe to travel in, and then we’re going to leave to find her children.”
Sandra had a big grin on her face. “Really? When?”
The Rabid Mind Page 25