When I woke up, she was gone, I heard some sort of heated discussion between Ben and Corbin. I didn’t think much about it, they argued a lot. Katie was in the kitchen with Edi. She had made some homemade biscuits and sent Katie to get the other kids.
When the three of them came into the cabin, I noticed Corbin had taken the truck. My first thought was he was going fishing. A few minutes later, probably enough time for Corbin to make it down the driveway, Ben came in.
“What’s going on?” I asked. ‘I heard you arguing.”
“Nila left on Seltzer,” Ben spoke soft. “I sent Corbin after her.”
“Why? She always takes Seltzer around the property?”
“One … she went looking for Scott.”
“Where did he go?” I asked.
“He told Corbin fishing. But I don’t trust that. I don’t trust him at all. That wasn’t the reason I sent Corbin. There’s a smell of death out there. Infected are close.”
I started to charge for the door. Ben blocked me. “Give him time to get her. She’ll be fine. Give it a couple minutes. Let me hit the john, then if you still want to go out, we’ll go uncover the station wagon.” Ben was calm about it, confident and even stole a biscuit before going out the back door.
I wasn’t so calm. With my coffee, I went outside to keep an eye out. After only a minute, I saw Scott at the gate. My first thought was Ben was wrong, Scott was fine and Nila would be back. Just as I lifted my hand to wave, two cars pulled up and seven men got out. One of the men tugged a woman from the car, she had a hood over her head, covering her face. I thought immediately it was Nila, that they had got her.
Every one of those men were armed, and when they lifted the hood off of the woman, I saw it wasn’t Nila, but an infected. Dropping my coffee, I barreled into the house, and immediately lifted the hatch to the floorboard storage.
“Edi, go get Ben, then get in your trailer. We have people trying to get it.” I grabbed Katie and carried her to the storage. “Boys. Now. In.”
“Lev, Lev, what’s going on?” Katie asked.
“Down. Now,” I ordered. “It will be tight but stay here, all of you.” The boys climbed in. “Don’t make a noise. Stay until you hear me or Nila tell you it’s safe.”
I remembered their scared faces as they crowded in that storage area staring up at me.
A shot rang out and Sue Ellen screamed.
“Stay!” I ordered, slammed the hatch, tossed the rug over it, engaged the rifle and walked outside. I could have stayed in the cabin, shot from the window, but I didn’t want gunfire round the kids. Just in case they screamed.
The second I stepped out, I felt the first bullet hit my arm at the same time I watched them gun down Sue Ellen.
I got off maybe two shots, when a second bullet hit my shin. I felt it break my leg and I went down.
The door was still open and all I could think about was making sure they didn’t find those kids. I lifted myself to stand, tried to turn, when another shot hit me in the gut.
My knees buckled, my leg wouldn’t move and I staggered into the living room. Edi’s screams carried in from outside, but I couldn’t do anything. My goal was the carpet that covered the hatch. I knew I was falling, I couldn’t walk, but I had to get there.
Giving it all I had, four good steps, I arrived and toppled to the floor. At the very least the kids were hidden beneath me, they were safe.
The men rampaged through the cabin, calling out, ‘get this, get that, hurry’. I knew Scott and the men were taking everything we had. In my mind I begged, ‘Please, Nila stay away until they are gone.’
Sometime during it all, I lost consciousness and didn’t regain any of it until I heard Ben’s voice within the dream of my father.
Whatever pain I felt paled in comparison to the pain of my emotions. I failed. I had the single task of protecting the cabin and those in it and I failed.
Sue Ellen was dead. I heard Edi screaming. Before that she had barely made a noise above a whisper, yet her cries were screeching and filled with pain and fear.
For the longest time I didn’t know if Nila or the kids were alive or dead. I hadn’t heard them at all.
Then after another round of unconsciousness, I woke to hear her voice.
My eyes were heavy, I tried to open them, to talk, I couldn’t.
“Any problems?” Ben asked.
“No. None,” Nila said. “Corbin and me were in and out. We got some other stuff too, if you want to take a look.”
“I will. But right now, I need to set the leg.”
“What do you need me to do?” Nila asked.
“Nothing. Just stay with the kids. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
The kids.
They had to be all right.
I heard Nila leave and that was the moment, I was able to make a noise. I believe I grunted in pain.
“Hey, there, Lev,” Ben said. “I’m setting your leg.”
I opened my eyes some and tried to focus.
“There you are,” Ben said. “Good to see you up. But ... unfortunately, I have to set your leg, so I’m gonna have to knock you out again.” He lifted a syringe. “When you wake up, you’ll feel better.”
He leaned to me, my whole body was in pain so I didn’t even know if he gave me the injection. I do know I passed out again. When I started to come to. I heard Nila’s voice.
“Will he wake up?” she asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Ben replied. “Nila, I’m worried about you. You need to stay out of the woods.”
Why was she in the woods?
“I was checking on things. Making sure.”
“Yeah, well, leave that to Corbin, please,” Ben said.
“Why? Because he’s a man.”
“No, there’s other reasons.”
“Will he remember?” Nila asked.
“Who?”
“Lev, when he wakes up, will he have amnesia?”
Ben laughed. “Nila, he didn’t hit his head.”
“We don’t know.”
“No, we don’t. But … I didn’t see any signs of that.”
“Were you looking?”
“Nila.”
“Sorry. Is he going to be all right to move tomorrow?”
Move? Where were they moving me? When I heard that, I started the struggle to wake up. My eyes were heavy, like they were stuck to my eyeballs and couldn’t move.
“I hope,” Ben said. “I don’t want him walking. Not yet. Not with the stomach wound. It won’t be easy for him. I’d like him to stay flat but he’s a big guy, heavy too. Corbin and I had a tough time getting him from the floor to the couch.”
“Maybe if we make like a gurney. He has to be like three hundred pounds,” Nila said.
What! I do not weight that much. I had to get my eyes open, say something. If I didn’t she would tell the story of my youth and weight issues.
“When he was a kid, he used to be …”
“Nila,” I groaned out. There, I spoke.
“There he is,” Ben said.
“Lev.” She hurried to my side, lowering down to be close. “Hey. How are you?”
“Sore,” I told her. “I’ll get better.”
“I know you will.” She grabbed my hand.
“I’ll leave you two be,” Ben said. “I’ll be back in an hour to check on you.”
After he was gone, Nila said, “He did so good for a plastic surgeon. We’re lucky you’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For?” She asked.
“I am so sorry I failed. I believed Scott, I trusted him. Sue Ellen is dead. Edi? I don’t know …”
Nila shook her head. “They brought an infected. It got her. They shot at Ben, but he lived obviously.”“
“I failed.”
“Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?” she asked. “Lev, my daughter, Corbin’s son, Billy, they are alive because of you. This attack was coming no matter what. Scott was with Helena’s camp.”<
br />
“Helena?”
“Yeah, he heard our names. That’s how he knew where to go. I’m guessing the smoke signal was to let them know the camp was clear.”
“So Helena and her people are at Big Bear?”
“Not yet. Tomorrow and they want us out. They took everything except what was in the floorboard space and anything they thought was part of the cabin and they said they have a large group. We go or we die.”
I closed my eyes. “What are we going to do?”
“We don’t have the man power to fight them. We have kids. We … We go,” she said. “I don’t want to leave my home. I don’t. But leaving for now is the only choice.”
“For now? You mean for good.”
“You never know.”
“Where are we going to go? Do you have any ideas?”
“Yeah, I do. But you need to rest, cause I need you Lev. I really need you.” She leaned forward and placed her lips to my forehead. “We have a long road ahead of us and I’ll be damned if I am going to take it without you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“You always do.” She smiled.
“Nila? There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Yes.”
I squeezed her hand. “I don’t weigh three hundred pounds.”
She laughed and lowered her forehead to meet mine. I knew at that moment, no matter what was ahead, we would conquer it.
SIXTEEN – SKILL SET
August 11
It was time to go. We didn’t want to take any chances of Helena and her people showing up before we left. I had spent the entire night getting ready and packing my entire life and memories in boxes.
I also spent a good bit of the night angry. It was different when leaving was my idea, when Lev and I tried to get everyone to a Green Area. Now we were being forced out and I hated it. I hated them.
There were things hidden within the house, like food and Lisa’s booze stash. Everything in both RV’s except the chickens was there, so packing took a while.
Surprisingly, there were a lot of things they didn’t take. Either because they didn’t know what they were, thought they were part of the house or planned on coming back. The solar generator was one of them and I was grateful for that. But it was one of the heaviest items to move.
The other was Lev.
I was super impressed when Corbin pulled out the Flex Flyer Sled from the shed. I had forgotten about that. It was old and rusty and a part of my past. As kids, Lev and I took that sled down the big hill between my cabin and Big Bear more times than we could count. Each time getting in trouble.
Lev was a solid kid, that sled moved fast and never flipped.
We used that sled to move a lot of items. Corbin wanted to use it to move Lev. I was high fiving and praising him until Ben slapped that idea down.
“Just back the truck up to the porch and we’ll carry him the ten feet,” Ben said.
There was no way Lev could ride passenger not with his stomach wound and leg. So it was decided that Corbin would drive the station wagon with his son and Ben would drive the truck with Katie and Billy up front while I rode in the back with Lev.
It was fast approaching time to go, and Corbin still had to get the station wagon from its hidden spot. I had to get him; he was by the graves, just standing there.
“When I left before with Lev,” I said as I approached him. “Walking away from this cemetery was the hardest part. I hated the thought of leaving my father.”
“So many graves,” Corbin said.
“Yeah, there is. Too many.”
“It’s not hard to leave now?” he asked.
“No, we’ll be back.”
“You sound so sure.”
“I am. We’ll be back. I promise you. At least to get our stuff.”
He gave me a quizzical look as if waiting for more of an explanation.
“We have to go.” As I turned I saw it. The door to the shed where we kept Lester was open. “Oh shit.”
“What?”
“The shed is open.”
“Yep.” Corbin nodded.
“Did he die?”
“No. He’s gone.”
“What happened? Did he escape? I asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Corbin kissed his hand then brought it to his mother’s grave. “I’m ready.”
“Corbin, did you set him free on purpose?”
“All’s fair in love in war, right?” he asked and started walking. “They brought one here, it’s only right we return the favor.”
Instantly, I got giddy. “You took him to Big Bear. When?”
“I took him close enough to get a scent about an hour ago, you know,” he raised an eyebrow, “when you were busy doing … things.”
“What was that look about?”
“Nothing. Do you miss gravy at all?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Corbin … How did you get him there?”
“Gotta love that sled.”
“Yeah, you do.” I followed him.
“You guys drop me off near the end of the driveway and I’ll get the station wagon. We can stop down the road and switch up.”
“Sounds good.” I walked to the truck.
Ben stood by it, waiting. “Do we know where we are headed?”
“We need to plan,” I said. “But for short term, I have an idea.”
I climbed in the back of the truck with Lev as did Corbin and we pulled from the property. I watched from the back of the truck as I left the cabin.
Just like we had done weeks earlier.
Only this time, I was certain, even if briefly, like I had told Corbin, we would be back.
<><><><>
We didn’t pass any of Helena’s people or a caravan of forty. We did however pass an unusual amount of infected and dead on the road. They moved about, some of the dead crawled with their last ounce of energy, limbs dragging behind them.
Were they brought here or had they migrated.
Whatever the case it made me start to wonder if we were on round two or three of the outbreak. Would there ever be a pause or an end where it was just us in a dead world.
Spending a lot of time in this rural back woods area, gave me the advantage of knowing what was around and what was close.
We needed a plan and we needed a place where we could give Lev time to gain his strength, as much as he wanted to portray he was on a fast track to recovery, I knew he wasn’t. Lev was pale and slightly warm from fever. Travelling to find a new home was out of the question.
Though Ben insisted we just shoot straight for Canada, even he didn’t want to be on the road with Lev. Not yet.
Knowing the area, I knew where we could go. It was about eighteen miles south, a thirty minute drive. One me and Bobby made numerous times once we were legally old enough to drink.
There was never a shortage of bars in the area but he and I favored the Windhaven.
It wasn’t far from Evans City on a road that transformed from a four lane major thoroughfare to a two lane road, from a bustling area to a rural one.
The Windhaven had a frame structure with beat up white siding and plenty of room to move. It wasn’t exceptionally large but it was big enough. I used to call it a firetrap because the first floor had only two doors and not a single window. There looked to be an apartment above it, but I’d never saw inside of it.
The lack of windows and entrance as well as how far removed it was, made it the ideal location to wait out Lev’s recovery. We could have found a home, but the Windhaven was more solid and a safer place than a home or business with windows that could be broken.
I expected the Windhaven to be like the veterinary hospital, isolated and untouched. I didn’t expect when we approached it to see a swarm of infected not just around the building, but hitting against the siding and doors, trying to get it.
We stopped far enough away and off the road to see, but out of sight and smell of the infected.
Corbin pulled the station wagon
right behind us, and Lev knew something was going on. He tried to sit up and I stopped him.
“What’s happening?” Lev asked.
“Get this, there’s like twenty or so infected hitting the Windhaven like Night of the Living Dead.”
Katie peered through the truck window and waved to me, unfazed by what was happening.
I returned the wave just as both Ben and Corbin walked up to the back of the truck, none of us really taking our eyes from the infected.
“Now what?” Ben asked.
“This is unbelievable,” I said. “I mean, we didn’t see a single infected for miles now. Then we get here.” I held out my hand, palm up, in the direction of the Windhaven. “What the hell? This is like in the middle of nowhere.”
Corbin scratched his head. “We can turn around. I saw a garage about a mile back.”
Ben shook his head. “Problem with that is it’s too close to the infected. We can keep moving, but honestly, we need to get Lev somewhere stable.”
“Why are they there?” I asked.
“One of two reasons,” Ben replied. “Either they are working on instinct and memory, like you theorize and they all came here out of habit.”
“Like they’re all Friday night regulars?” Corbin asked.
“Aw, see,” I pouted. “You’re making fun of my theory. You know, they’re still alive, so they’re still human, somewhere in there is a consciousness or memory that comes out.”
“I’m sure.” Ben nodded. “Or … or they’re chasing a scent.”
“You think someone’s in there?” I asked. “I don’t see a truck or car.”
“They could be trapped,” Ben said. “No windows. No way to shoot them and no way to get a clear shot from that second floor. They can either go out and kill them or wait it out.
I stared out toward the Windhaven where the infected were still oblivious to us. They wanted in the building.
“Well, you can pull the cars back. I’m a pretty good shot. I get a little closer and stay hid, I probably could take them out,” I said.
“What about noise?” Ben asked. “There’s about twenty or twenty-five. Even if you hit each one precisely with one shot, we’re still talking twenty shots going off. It’ll call more infected if they’re in the area. Not to mention, if Helena’s people are anywhere nearby, they’ll hear us.”
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