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But, we need to look for things that we can grow in the green house. Also, we need to count our meat sources.” Renee said, “I agree. I have some canned items here, but we will need more animals for meat. Marcus was just getting this started, as a surprise for me. He was not able to finish it all.” Nina said, “ It looks like we are okay with chickens. Maybe, we can check out some of the area farms, see if there are any abandoned animals? And, we could get out and scavenge, a little. We can pick mushrooms, wild plants, too.” Rose said, “Yes. That is good. Maybe, we could go out in groups. You know? Help each other out, while watching each others backs.” Scarlett and Stella exchanged a look. Stella said, “We might be able to help with that. In fact, we might be able to show you where you can get some animals to raise, too.” Now, they were all intently staring at Stella. Chloe asked, “How?” Stella continued, “Well. I can't promise anything, but I will talk to my Dad about trading a cow, in exchange for fruit from your orchard. Renee, you should know that, you have a walnut grove, too. And, I will show you where medicinal plants are. On your own property. If we trade, and help each other, we will all be okay.” Renee smiled, “Thank you. Stella, if you can talk to your Dad, and get him to agree to that. We can all benefit. That is a very generous thing to offer.” Stella smiled back. She said, “You are welcome. What kind of neighbor would I be, if I didn't want this?” Renee said, “I think that, we also need to put our heads together, and try to teach each other what we know how to do.” Scarlett asked, “Like what?” Nina said, “That is a good idea. Maybe, I know how to mix soaps, and Renee knows how to cook. And, you and your sister know how to pick wild plants. We all just, help each other out.” Will was talking to the men,“ We need to close everything off. Combined, we have what we need to survive on our lands. ” Jimmy said, “Yes but, can we even find enough material to do something like that? I mean, with the three properties, it would be like closing off a whole town.” Will answered, “ Well, we can use shippig containers, and tractor trailers for some of it.” Major Scott said, “I know where we can get enough material. But, I don't know if it's safe to go there.” Keith said, “Where?” Scott answered, “It's a warehouse. The military uses it to store everything. Food, medical supplies, and the fencing that they use to close off an area. And, a lot of steel sheeting and wood. We were up there, when this all started. When we meet, if you are all up to it, we can take a ride up there, and look around. But, I have to warn you, it may be over run with the dead.” The rest of the meeting, they all got to know each other better. They all left the meeting feeling a sense of hope.
Imogen was filling the water bottle at the kitchen sink. She turned, and said, “I am ready.” Kyle said, “Okay. I'm coming.” He walked past her, carrying a fully automatic rifle. She followed him outside. They climbed into the truck and drove towards the nearest town. Kyle said, “After we go through this place, I want to check out the warehouse that I told you about.” Imogen said, “Okay.” They drove along the lonely highway. Every now and then, they would see a few dead wandering around. It was a similar, creepy- view, each time. The dead..... dead, but living, while wandering around, looking for human flesh to eat. Imogen watched them through the window, as they passed each scene. She said nothing. She was becoming accustomed to the dreary scene, every time that she saw it. They pulled into the main street of the small town. She pointed to a feed store. “There. Go over there.” Kyle said, “Alright.” He stopped the truck in front of the feed store. They stepped out of the truck and approached the windows. He knocked on the glass. Three zombies slammed into the window. Imogen jumped backwards at the sight of them hitting the surface. They all clawed at the glass, as they snarled and growled at Imogen and Kyle. “Step back.” he said.
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He walked over to the door, pulling it open. He whistled. After a minute, the three leather-faced, zombies came staggering through the open door. Kyle grabbed the first one, and stabbed him in the temple. He tripped the second. It went down. He took the third, a woman-zombie, then stabbed her in the eye. Now, the second dead one had pushed himself back up. He stumbled into Kyle. The zombie and Kyle struggled. Imogen marched up to the dead one, and stabbed it in the temple. It went limp. Kyle let go of it, and it fell to the ground. He said, “Very good.” She stood still, knife in hand. She said,“He almost bit you! You should not play with them.” Still trying to shake off his shock over the struggle with the last one, he sarcastically said, “Sorry. I forgot that I need to stop shadow boxing with the zombies. I must need attention. I'm such a troublemaker.” She rolled her eyes. She insisted, “We need to be careful.” He pointed his flash light inside the the store. He looked around. They both tip-toed inside. They could see bags of chicken feed, and dog food. They walked down the isle way. As they turned around the corner, Imogen saw the rack that held seeds. She walked over to it. She stopped, and looked around for a bag. On another rack across the isle were canvas tote bags with the name of the store printed on the side. She picked one up and shook it open. Kyle read the name of the side of the bag. It read, in big red letters; NIFTEES FEED. She started to take packets of seeds and stuff them into the bag. Once she packed a bag, she opened another. She walked down the isle to where the gardening tools where. She started to take some of the smaller tools and she placed those into one of the bags.
She turned to Kyle, “Should we look through here for anything else?” He said, “Don't know. We could go try to find some canned food. But we should check out that warehouse. It has a lot to offer us. If it is safe to get into.” She said, “Okay. Let's go.” They walked out of the feed store. Kyle asked, “Do you know where the grocery store is?”
“Down the street.” She pointed to it. “We can walk form here...”
“No.” He said, “We should not park too far from where we go in.” They walked to the truck.Imogen opened the door, then climbed inside. Kyle also climbed into the truck. Then, drove it to the store down the street. Within minutes, they were hopping out of the truck. Kyle approached the door and pulled it open. They exchanged glance. “It's strange that all of these doors are unlocked.” he said to her. They crept inside. They walked up and down the isle ways. Imogen took a few cans of food, and placed them inside her tote. Kyle was carrying a duffel over his shoulder. He took a few things and placed them in his bag. Kyle said, “We need to get some bottled water, and canned meat. Soon, we won't be able to find protein.” Imogen responded, “And, some vitamins, too.” They turned at the end of the isle. Imogen saw a shelf stocked with different varieties f vitamins. She took a couple of bottles of multi-vitamins, and stuffed them in her bag. Then, she walked around to the end of a display. She saw some packaged nuts and dried fruits. She took several of the bags and shoved them inside the bag, along with protein bars. Her tote bag was full. She fastened the flap to keep the bulging tote from losing it's contents. Kyle said, “We fill these bags, put them in the truck . If it's still clear, we can come back and get a cart. Fill that up and take some plastic bags.” She said, “Okay.” They tip-toed back to the truck. They placed their tote and duffel inside the truck. They headed back towards the store. Before entering, again, Kyle put his hand on her shoulder. Turning to him, while raising her eyebrows. “ What?” He said,“We still need to be careful. Okay? Those things are all over the place.” She said, “I know. Why don't we get a cart?”
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Opening the door, they walked back inside. They walked down the first isle, while looking over their shoulders. Imogen pushed the cart behind Kyle, who had his flashlight, and gun pointed in front of him. This allowed him to see what was in front of them. Imogen filled the cart, as they walked. They came to the water. Imogen took a few bottles an placed them into the cart. As they walked around a rack, Imogen saw some seeds. She picked up bag, and opened it. She piled all of the seeds that she could into the bag. She took different things off of the shelves, as they walked through the isles. They came to an isle with protein bars, and cereal. Kyle turned to her,
“Take as many of those as you can.” He pointed to the protein bars. She opened another bag, and picked the boxes up and filled the bags with them. The cart was now full. Imogen whispered, “Kyle. We should go. We don't have any more room in this cart. We can always come back, later.” He didn't answer her. She stopped the cart, and watched Kyle. He had stopped, and held his hand in the air, gesturing for her to stop. He stood six feet away from her. He was staring at something. He pointed his flash light at a door to the end of the isle way. All of the sudden, the door came open a slew of living dead came stumbling through the door. The stench was horrible. They were growling, and snarling like animals. The dead rushed towards Kyle and Imogen, like leathery, uncoordinated, two-legged, attack-dogs. Kyle yelled, “Come on! Let's get out of here!” Imogen turned the cart around. As she pushed it, they both ran back the way that they had come. As they came to the end of the first isle, more leather faced zombies came from around the corner. One of them grabbed Imogen. She screamed.” Ah!” Kyle grabbed him, and threw him to the floor. “Run! Get back to the truck, now!” Imogen, ran as she pushed the cart, with Kyle following her. He yelled, “I am going to hold the door, get the cart to the truck!” He shoved the door open, while Imogen pushed the cart outside. Kyle tried to close the door. The dead piled up against the door, and pushed it open. He pushed on the door, as his feet slid on the ground. Two of the zombies squeezed out through the door as Kyle pushed it closed. They immediately, lunged for Kyle. Imogen stopped, and yelled, “Kyle!” He threw one down on the ground and yelled, “Get the stuff in the truck! Hurry!” She started throwing the bags into the back of the truck, while watching Kyle fight the dead. They snarled at Kyle. He grabbed the second zombie and stabbed it in the temple. It fell. This time, really dead. Now, the first zombie had come back at Kyle. Imogen saw, what looked like, a hundred other zombie faces pushed up against the store window. They had followed the fight scene, as it moved along the view of the window. This actually saved them from being mobbed by all of the dead. They were all clawing at the window. Kyle struggled with the leathery-zombie. Imogen had run to help him. She grabbed the dead one, from behind. Kyle stabbed it in the eye. It fell to it's knees, then onto the ground. Kyle stumbled back. He bent over, placing his hands on his knees. After catching his breath, he said, “ Come on.” Imogen asked, “Are you alright?” She took his face in her hands. She looked up at him. He said, “Yes. That one was a big one. We better get out of here.” She smiled. “Okay.” They put the last of the items into the truck. Once inside, Kyle asked, “Are you alright?” Imogen replied, “Yes. Now, I understand” He turned towards her, and just stared at her for a moment. He had been enamored with her, from the time that he had first seen her. She looked at him, smiled again, and said,” So, do you want to go back to the cabin, first? Or, to your warehouse?” He said,“We'll go check it out.” He looked around, to make sure there were no more zombies. Then, drove off towards the warehouse. It took them a while, before Kyle turned off onto a private road. Imogen could see the large brick building from the highway. As they came to the warehouse, they had to stop at a guard shack. There was a former guard, now an undead-soldier-guard, clawing at the window of the shack.
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They sat in front of the gate, while they look around the large compound. There were a few zombies, still dressed in military garb, wandering around the grounds. When they heard the truck drive up there, they turned and stumbled towards Imogen and Kyle. Imogen said, “I don't know, Kyle. I am sure that there are a lot more inside. We may get trapped.” He looked around, then stepped outside. He walked to the first gate. He took his knife out and started scraping it along the fence. Every time, a dead one came to where he was, he stabbed it through the eye. Imogen watched, as Kyle killed twenty-two living dead. She looked around, nervously. She stepped out of the truck. They walked over a ways, to try to get a better look at what was on the side of the very large building. They saw a parking lot, and a service road. They made their way back to the front gate, and while they were discussing what to do, they heard vehicles. Kyle turned towards the sound. Imogen, was now on guard. She warned, “Kyle. Look.” Before he could say anything, they saw an old Suburban, and a pickup truck drive into view, and stop behind their vehicle. They nervously, exchanged a look. Kyle unsnapped his holster. He took his gun out. A group of men, and one woman stepped out of the vehicles. They also had their guns out. Major Scott said, “We aren't here to hurt anyone. You can put your firearm down. We are just here to see if we could find some supplies. Do you know who is inside?” Rose stepped forward, “My name is Rose. This is Keith, Major Scott, Will, Aidan, and Jimmy. We don't mean you any harm.” Imogen gently put her hand on Kyle's arm. She said, “Kyle, I don't think that they want to hurt us. That is the woman from the video's.” She turned to the young woman, and took a few steps forward. “I recognize you. You were making all of those videos.” Rose said, “Yes. Keith and I, we were trying to warn people, before ...” she held her hands out, then pointed to the dead zombies on the ground. “Before, that happened.” Imogen said, “We were looking for supplies, too. We are just trying to be careful. Sorry about the gun.” She turned, and looked at Kyle. She whispered, “Kyle!” He was standing right behind her, now. He looked from person, to person. “I am Kyle Morgan. This is Imogen Cole. We, well... are trying to survive this. We were just looking for supplies.” Jimmy said, “I'm Sergeant Jimmy De Vito. This is Aidan Sandoval, Major Scott Russo, Will Neely. How did you know about this place?” Kyle said, “Through work. We were hoping for a safe way in.” Jimmy and Major Scott exchanged A look. Jimmy asked, “Were you active before all of this?” Kyle looked at Imogen. “In a sense. But not in the way I started out.” They were all standing in a circle, now. Will asked, “Do you know a lot about this place?” Kyle said, “I know the government kept everything here. Before....it all fell apart.” Scott asked, “Do you two have a safe place to stay? Are you with more people?” Imogen answered, “No, we aren't with anyone else. You guys are the first live people that we have seen in weeks. Well, except the government people back at home.” Rose and Will exchanged a glance. Rose slowly asked, “What did you see, when you encountered the government?” Aidan cut in, “Did they try to harm you?” Imogen and Kyle exchanged a cautionary glance. Imogen looked down. It was obvious that she did not want to talk about it. Kyle felt a pang of guilt. Will said, “Well. Why don't we all put our heads together? We could help each other with supplies. Split it all up.” They all looked at the complex. Kyle said, “Well, we haven't been inside, yet. I don't know what you all are looking for, but I am sure that there are more of those things inside. Maybe, too many to handle.” Rose asked, “Is there a fenced in area, in the back? Maybe, we could lure those we find to an area, and isolate them. Then, we would be able to look around, and get what we need.” Kyle said, “There is a grassy area on the side. I can't remember what the exits are like over there.”
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Will suggested, “Why don't we take a walk through the grounds, first? If, it looks too dangerous to go in, we turn around and come back to the vehicles. They all agreed. Kyle said, “We could open the gate and drive closer. I think that we can get to the other side from the entrance way over there.” He pointed towards a service road, winding around the side of the building. Major Scott said, “It does. I remember. It winds all the way around the complex.” Kyle asked, “So, you have been here, before?” Scott said, “Yes. They brought our unit in to collect supplies, before sending us out.” Kyle asked, “What happened to your unit?” Jimmy cut in, “We left them, after they turned on the public.” Kyle and Imogen exchanged a look. Now, Kyle understood that there were others like him. Imogen asked, “So, how large is your group? I could help with exams and health related advice.” Rose asked, “Are you a nurse?” Imogen said, “A Doctor. I had just finished my Residency at Community Hospital, and gotten hired at the free clinic, over in Lafayette. I had only been there for about six months. Well, before this.” Major Scott said, “I
'm a Doctor, too. Surgeon, to the military. Well. I was.” Rose said, “Well. We have two doctors, now. Go figure.” Keith asked, “Where have you been staying?” Imogen said, “We are in my Dad's old cabin.” Will asked, “Alone? Just the two of you?” Kyle said, “We're adjusting. It was too dangerous to stay in a populated area. Especially, with some of the people that were still around.” Aidan said, “It is only a matter of time, before they come out this way.” A serious look came over his face. He didn't know if he should invite them back to the orchard. But, he was going to anyway. He continued, “We have a place. It's not my place. But, the lady who owns it, she is a good person. She has been my neighbor for a long time. I think that she would welcome you two, if you wanted to stay there. We are here for materials to close off the properties. Will and Rose's properties meet Renee's place. We are trying to work with each other. So that, we can all be safe. If you are alone out there, with no barrier to protect you from the dead, it's only a matter of time before you are swarmed by those things.” Imogen and Kyle took everything in that Aidan said. Imogen looked worried. Kyle didn't like Aidan making Imogen feel afraid. But, he knew that he was right. He responded, “Maybe, we can take a ride out, and meet some more of your people.” Rose said, “That would be nice. I think that you should.” Keith said, “Yes. I think the both of you will like the group. Rose and I are on her Granny's place with her niece and nephew. Will, and his daughters, are at his place. And, Aidan's group is at Renee's place, with a few others. There are adults, and children there. Anyway, all three properties meet. We are trying to get the materials to close off the perimeters so no one, dead or alive, can sneak up on us.” Kyle asked, “How old are the niece and nephew? Have you had a problem with a lot of the dead getting onto the property?” Rose said, “Twelve and nine. Their parents did not make it.” Kyle said, “Sorry about that.” Imogen chimed in, “So sorry.” Will cut in, “Well, the dead ones did get up on Rose's place, at one point. We figured, more might come.” Kyle said, “I can show you where the materials that you will need are stored. But, if we don't stay at your place. I will take some of it, too. There is enough to close off part of a city. And, if there is not enough materials here, there are some other options.” Major Scott said, “Okay. Why don't we get the gate open, and drive around the complex? Then, we decide from there, what to do.” After the gate was opened, they all climbed inside their vehicles and drove up onto the grounds. As they came around the side of the building, it looked clear. They stopped the vehicles and everyone stepped outside. Will said, “This is a big place. Do we have enough radios?” Jimmy said, “I think so.” Aidan said, “Why don't we split up in teams of two? The girls can stay here, and look out for us. If any of us get's in trouble, get on the radio.”
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