by Ann Riley
He starts whining and twisting, wanting to get down. When I put him back on the ground, he starts sniffing. He will sniff for a minute, then stop and hold his head in the air and smell. He puts his nose back to the ground and heads deeper into the woods.
Marc and I look as we walk. There are numerous places someone could hide out here, but where did she hide?
Riley heads over to a tree that looks to have been down for a long time. He walks circles around it. Then he stops and starts digging at the right end of it. Digging is his specialty. Burrowing, rooting around, and getting into thick growths are a dachshund’s gift. He constantly buries and digs things up.
Just as I am about to turn him to the other end of the log, Marc grabs my arm and bends down. There is a boot sticking out from under the leaves. I tie Riley to a branch and Marc and I start digging. When I uncover more of the boot, I start crying. We found her finally.
“That’s her.” I tell Marc.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” Marc says.
I sit down and put her head in my lap and brush the dirt off of her face.
I look down at her leg and can see it is covered in dried blood. I hope that means it has stopped bleeding. I put a finger on her neck to check her pulse. It’s there, but barely.
Riley is close enough so that he licks her on the cheek.
“Baby, can you hear me?” I say to her.
No answer.
“Tracie?” I whisper again.
Still nothing.
I can hear Marc coming back in the Pioneer. He walks back down to me and we pick Tracie up and carry her to the ride. I sit in the back holding her as he drives. Riley is sitting by her side whining. I knew he could find her. He doesn’t like to be apart from her so I knew he would be able to find her.
Chapter 20
Holy hell, why is my head hurting like this? Am I still in the woods? What the hell is going on?
I try and move my leg and almost pass out. Searing pain. That’s all I can say.
I lie still for a minute and finally decide to try and open my eyes. Damn, it feels like it is glued shut. Then I feel a warm wet lick on my cheek and start smiling.
“Riley.” I whisper.
I get another lick.
I feel someone place a kiss on my forehead.
“Hey baby.” Bobby says.
“Am I dead?” I ask him with a smile.
“Don’t say that.” He says.
“Of course I’m not because if I were I don’t think I would feel all this fucking pain.” I say through gritted teeth.
“Hey sister.” Diane says as she kisses my head.
“You scared us.” She says.
“I scared myself too.” I say.
“How is my leg? Was it bad?” I ask.
“Doc got the bullet out and stitched it up. He has you on antibiotics. He said a little closer and it would have got the femoral artery and you would have bled to death.” Bobby says.
“Well fuck.” I say.
“How did y’all find me? Did I hide myself pretty well?” I ask.
“Oh yeah. You did. Actually, we had to bring Riley down there to find you. We couldn’t see any place that was disturbed. So we brought him down and he sniffed around and found you.” Bobby says.
“Are you shitting me?” I ask, looking at Riley.
That little shit. I guess all the following me around came in handy.
“That’s my big boy. That’s my big baby.” I coo to Riley, who proceeds to slobber on my cheek.
“Did we get rid of the shooters? And the zombies. I do remember a few coming in when I crawled into the woods.” I say.
“We did. Marc and I have a couple of things to take care of. But we got things back under control.” Bobby says.
“Y’all have what to take care of?” I ask with concern.
“Just a couple of things we missed in the woods.” Bobby says.
I sit there looking at him through squinted eyes.
“Y’all wouldn’t be thinking of doing something stupid now, would you?” I ask.
“Us? Not at all.” Bobby says.
“Marc.” I yell out.
“Well, I see you are awake and back at it.” Marc says.
“Smart ass.” I say to him.
He comes over and hugs me.
“Bobby is telling me a lie so I am going to ask you. What couple of things do y’all have to take care of?” I ask.
“Nothing big. I am taking him hunting.” Marc says.
“Now I know both of you are liars because Bobby does not hunt, you ass.” I say.
They both turn and leave out of the infirmary. Isn’t that just a kick in my ass? They are no good at telling lies.
‘Where are they going?” I ask Diane.
“Well, I need to go in and cook some dinner.” She says.
“You bitch.” I say to her.
She smiles and keeps walking.
Chapter 21 - Marc
“Their house is through that clearing. Well, I say house, it looks more like a shack.” I say.
“We saw them storing ammo in that other small shack when we were out here a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t go in to see what all they had in there, but it looked like it was pretty stocked from where we were.” I tell Bobby.
Bobby nods.
“Let’s go over to that shack. I want to hide around the corner of it and wait. When someone comes out, chances are they will come to it first.” I say.
“She didn’t see who shot her. But I’m not leaving anyone alive here. They can all go fuck off. I don’t care if I have to burn the whole damn area down, they will die today.” Bobby says.
I nod.
Soon, we are rewarded with an idiot exiting the house. We both squat and wait to see if he comes to the shack. And he does.
I hold my fingers to my mouth to tell Bobby to be quiet. As the man reaches for the latch on the shack door, I plunge my knife under his left arm and pull him down.
“Remember us fucker?” I ask him.
I slice across his neck and watch as the blood flows freely.
We drag him back a little farther so that he can’t be seen easily and take our post again. We know there are four men and a woman here. What we don’t know is if she is here on her own or being held.
We hear a door creak open and see a man come out of the house and stand on the porch. A woman is behind him. She doesn’t seem to be in any distress so I take that as she is here on her own free will. Too bad for her.
I grab Bobby by the shoulder and rise.
“Get ready.” I tell him.
“Always am.” He says.
I step from behind the shack.
“Hey son of a bitch. Next time you shoot up our family, make sure you don’t leave any of us alive to come back and take southern revenge on your asses.” I yell out.
“Fuck y’all.” The man starts to say, but before he can get it all out, Bobby plugs him with his 30 30 rifle.
I take a flash grenade out and toss it up on the porch. The woman who was on the porch with the man tries to run back inside, but the grenade goes off and blows her into the yard.
She has shrapnel sticking in her face from the blast.
“Let’s go.” I tell Bobby.
I toss another grenade at the house and throw one into the shack. I’m not concerned with what they have in there; I just want it gone. And I run.
Bobby is almost at the truck when I hear the shack grenade blow. The whole wooded area is burning. The area is small and won’t spread due to them being situated in a small copse of trees. The fire will burn out. Or if it doesn’t, there isn’t much out here to burn.
We load into the truck and head back home.
“Feel better?” I ask Bobby.
“Yeah. I do. I never really understood how Tracie felt when her family was threatened, now I do. I thought she was going to die. She may have, had Riley not found her. And I can’t get past that feeling of not having her here anymore. So, yeah, I feel be
tter knowing they won’t hurt anyone else.” Bobby says.
“Yeah, me too.” I say.
When we get back home and head down the driveway, Trey is waving us down.
“What boy?” I ask him.
“Aunt Tracie is on the war path because Nana won’t tell her where y’all went.” Trey says.
Nana is what they all call Diane.
“Well, looks like you got some trouble on your hands.” I tell Bobby.
“Oh fuck me. She is going to be pissed when I tell her.” Bobby says.
“Good luck.” I tell him.
“Oh shut the hell up. She’s going to nail your ass too.” Bobby says.
When we stop the truck, there she is, in a wheel chair. At least she can’t run after us.
“Where in the fuck have y’all been? Nobody tells me shit anymore. I have been asking where y’all were all damn morning and everyone acts like they are suddenly mute. If y’all went to that house, I am going to kick ass when I am able to stand. Y’all get on my damn nerves.” Tracie shouts.
I walk over and hug her as Bobby is kissing her on the head.
We both walk into the house, leaving Tracie out on the patio to finish her bitch and gripe session.
“I guess she told y’all.” Momma says.
“You better be quiet, Diane. When she finds out you knew where we were, you will be next. And it would be a shame for her to find out that bit of information.” Bobby says.
“Both of y’all can kiss my ass.” Momma says and goes back to the kitchen.
We may not be perfect, hell, far from it. We may not have everything we want. But we have what we need, and we intend on keeping it. All we want is to survive in a world that has gone to hell. Doc says he needs to make a trip to the CDC. I’m not sure why. We don’t know if there is anyone left there. I’m not really up for going to Atlanta. There is no way in hell that will be an uneventful trip.
Epilogue
“Let me go.” I tell Bobby.
“Are you sure?” He asks.
I nod.
Tammy has me on crutches. My leg is better, but far from healed. It hurts like a motherfucker when I place weight on it. But I am getting there, slowly but surely.
“It won’t be long until I am back up and going places again.” I say.
With amazing synchronicity, Bobby and Marc both yell out, “No”.
Well, isn’t that some shit? Nothing like family to tell you like it is.
I know they are planning on a trip to the CDC, even though they are trying to hide it from me. Smart asses.
Riley comes over and gives me a hand lick.
“Hey little boy. That’s momma’s baby!” I coo.
He wags his tail.
Trey comes out and sits beside me, with his arm still in a sling.
“Well, aren’t we the cream of the crop? Both of us look like we been through the seventh circle of hell and back.” I say.
Trey snorts.
“They won’t let me do anything with them.” He says.
“Don’t feel bad. They are avoiding me too. They can kiss our asses. We will be back up and running before long Ginger.” I tell him.
Ginger is what I call him and Preston as both have red hair. And when I say red hair, I mean fire red hair, and both have freckles.
“Until then, we always have the Pioneer to cart us around.” I tell Trey.
“Let’s go for a ride.” He says.
“Can you drive? What am I asking? Of course you can’t drive worth a damn. Let’s go. If you wreck us, I swear I will kick your ass.” I say.
“Whatever. You can’t even stand up Auntie.” Trey says.
“Boy shut up and drive.” I say.
And off we go.
Lord help us.
About the Author
My name is Ann Riley, and I was born in the south. Most of you know this by now. I was born and raised in Pontotoc and Tupelo, Mississippi. I have always had thoughts of writing a book, but never considered it seriously. But over the last few years I put more thought into it. I decided to try my hand at it. I was never one for an over active imagination or being able to make up stories. But, I found when I started this book, ideas just came. I found that writing is something I enjoy very much.
I am outspoken and have a bit of sarcasm in me. Ok, a lot of sarcasm. So I tried to make some parts funny, serious and sarcastic.
I currently live in Mississippi with my husband Bobby and my little dachshund, Riley. All the names of family members I use in this series are my actual family members.
You can find all of my books on Amazon. Southern Zombies three book set (books 1, 2 and 3) will be coming to audio at the end of April. SZ 5 is in the works too. Stay tuned.
Please let me know what you think.
You can email me at [email protected].
https://southernzombies.wordpress.com/
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The End.... For now