by David Achord
“Oh. Ouch,” I said. It was the only response I could come up with. “I’m sure he was embarrassed. When we get back, you should go talk to him,” I suggested.
Riley shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, he’s nice enough, and he’s buff, but he doesn’t seem that smart. My husband owned several businesses and was rich as everything. He was really smart.”
I guess that’s why she said she didn’t mind older men back when they first arrived at Weather. I wondered what her father thought about that.
“There are other single men back at Mount Weather,” I said. “For example, there’s Flash and Slim. Both of them are decent guys about your age. Both of them are tall and lanky and they act a lot alike. They could pass for brothers, except for one is black and the other is white. And, there’s a group of eight or nine people living…” I stopped talking and slammed on the brakes.
Riley looked out and gasped. “Oh, shit.”
Chapter 31 – The Horde
I don’t know where they came from. Out of Baltimore or D.C., maybe. I hurriedly put the SUV in park and killed the engine.
“Why’d you do that?” Riley asked.
“So, they won’t hear the engine,” I said.
We were currently on Conowingo Road near an old Harley Davidson dealership. I think the only thing that kept them from spotting us immediately was eight or nine abandoned cars on the side of the road. I’d stopped a few feet behind one of them and it helped us blend in.
“There’s a lot of them,” Riley whispered.
“Yeah, several hundred,” I whispered back. I slowly reclined my seat until I could barely see over the dashboard. Riley did the same.
“What now?” she whispered.
“If they don’t spot us, we wait until they walk off, and then go home,” I said.
“And, if they spot us?”
“That’s a good question. We’ve driven over them before. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get hung up on them. I’ve seen it happen, and I’m starting to believe they will sometimes intentionally get themselves hung up around the wheels so their buddies have a better chance to get at us.”
“That would suck,” she said. “I thought they didn’t travel when it’s really cold.”
“They don’t, normally. They’re either starving and in search of food or something has displaced them.”
We spoke some more in whispers until they got to within thirty feet. As quietly as I could, I lowered my seat back all the way and Riley followed suit. I looked over at Riley, who had come up with her handgun.
“We don’t have enough ammo to kill them all,” I warned. It was true. I had two hundred rounds for my assault rifle and four magazines for my 45. It wasn’t enough.
She nodded, but I could see the growing concern on her face. I hoped they would walk past without spotting us, but no luck. One of them looked over, saw me, and attacked our SUV with a rabid aggression. That set off the rest of them. They surrounded the SUV and attacked in a rage. They were actually ramming the SUV and trying to claw their way in.
“I should’ve made a U-turn and got the hell out of here when we had the chance,” I said. No need for whispering now.
“Why didn’t you?” Riley asked.
“I wanted to get back home before dark, so I took a chance. Sorry, it was stupid of me.”
One of them slapped the passenger door, causing Riley to jump.
“Don’t worry, I put the caging on myself. They can’t get to us,” I said, referring to the heavy caging material that covered every window. It hindered visibility a little when driving, but it was well worth it. Right now was a good example.
“Well, what the hell are we going to do then? Sit here all day?” she asked.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” I said. When I looked at her, I could see she was getting frantic.
“Let me explain. If we start shooting, we’ll undoubtedly run out of ammo and the noise may attract other zeds in the area. If we try to drive off right now, there’s a possibility we’ll get a few hung up in the wheel wells.”
“Is there a third option?” she asked.
“I think so. We’re going to sit here until nightfall and wait for it to get really good and cold. Last night, it got down to four degrees in Marcus Hook. Now, granted, it’s on the waterfront, but rest assured, once the sun goes down, it’ll get down into the single digits here.”
I reached into the backseat where there were a couple of wool blankets. I handed her one.
“Alright, it’s going to get cold for us too, but those zeds are going to freeze up. Then, we’re going to start up the car and slowly drive over them. They’ll be frozen and all they’ll do is fall to the ground.”
“We can run the engine and keep warm, can’t we?” she asked.
I pointed. “See the ones on the hood? They’re keeping warm from the residual engine heat. We’ve got to let them freeze too.”
“Do you think it will work?” she asked after a moment.
“I hope so. I’ve done it before, but I had a four-by-four truck with big off-road tires, and then another time I was in an armored military vehicle.” I waved a hand at the Cherokee. “This doesn’t have as much ground clearance or big redneck tires, so, we’ll see. I think that’s why it’s imperative we make sure they’re good and frozen, so they don’t intentionally get themselves tangled up.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said.
“Me too.”
We sat there for the next four hours. It was difficult to carry on a conversation with all of the ravenous zeds snarling, slapping, head-butting, and clawing at the metal screens, trying in vain to pull them off. Riley tried to nap, but the zeds wouldn’t allow it. She finally sat up and twisted around in her seat, looking at the zeds. I could tell it was getting to her, so I tried to get her talking.
“Tell me about your husband. Ben was his name, right?”
“Yeah,” she said. “He was a lot older than me, but he was handsome, and kind, and treated me wonderfully. Back before, he was financially well off and had a two-hundred-acre farm. That’s where we lived.”
“Sounds like he was a good man,” I said.
“He was a wonderful man.”
One of the zeds suddenly slapped the roof of the Jeep, causing us both to flinch.
“You know, one or both of us are going to need to answer the call of nature at some point,” she said.
“Do you have to go?” I asked.
“Not yet. You?”
“Not yet.” I’d been casually watching the zeds until it got too dark, and then I listened to their antics. It was then I noticed something.
“I think they’re freezing up,” I said. “They don’t seem to be attacking the car with as much aggression anymore.”
“Yeah,” Riley said after listening a moment. “They’ve settled down. Are you sure they’re frozen?”
“I think so. I know I’m colder than a bullfrog’s ball sack right about now.”
Riley giggled before she could help herself.
“I believe that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you laugh,” I said. “We don’t know each other all that well, do we?”
“I guess not, but I like talking to you,” she said. “I’d never tell anyone about what happened with Logan, but you’re different.”
“Thanks, I guess,” I said.
“I mean, I know Kelly, so I feel comfortable around you.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said.
“How much longer?” she asked. “My ball sack is freezing too.”
I laughed. “Let’s go ahead and try it.”
Only a couple of them tried to attack the Jeep when I started it, the rest were too lethargic, which was a good sign.
“Okay, while we’ve been sitting here, I’ve thought about the best way to do this, let’s put it to the test.”
I turned the headlights on and watched them. They gave me some dirty looks, well, I mean, zeds don’t give warm smiles, but that was abo
ut it. I backed up, knocking a few of them down. They didn’t get up, so I continued backing, hearing the satisfying crunch of bones as I rolled over them. It would have been nice to back over all of them, but I had that trailer attached, so I put it in drive, jerked it forward for a few feet, and then slammed on the brakes. The ones on top of the hood slid off. Before they could stand, I ran over them. I then continued forward at a slow roll, knocking them over them easily.
“It’s working,” Riley said.
“Yeah, seems to be,” I said and continued forward. They were all crowded together, so it did not take long before we were free of them. I sped up, but only a little, and put distance between us and them. I kept an eye on my rearview mirror and the trailer looked different.
“Hey, crawl into the back and look at the trailer. I think we have an unwanted passenger.”
Riley did so and I watched her in the mirror.
“Yep,” she said. “One of them is holding on for dear life.”
I slowed to a stop and looked around. We were in a rather rural area, and with the exception of the headlights, it was pitch black. I grabbed my machete and got out. Riley got out as well with her handgun.
“Watch my back,” I directed and approached the trailer.
The zed appeared to be a teenage boy. He was on the top of the trailer and as we drove along, the wind chill seemed to have frozen him into a death grip. I stood on the trailer hitch and gave the top of his head a good, solid chop. That put him out of commission, but it was hard as hell pulling him off. I finally chopped some of his fingers off, and with a little effort, managed to pull him off. He dropped to the ground with a thud. I hurriedly walked around the trailer and Jeep to make sure there were no other problems before motioning for Riley to get back in.
“Not yet,” she said. “I’ve got to pee.”
I agreed. She took one side of the SUV and I took the other side. We were on the road a moment later.
“I used to be more tactically minded, but I’m getting sloppy,” I said.
“Like how?” Riley asked.
“First, before we even left, I should have gone over every contingency plan with you. For instance, if I had gotten killed just now, what would you have done?”
“I guess I would have driven back to Hook, I have no idea how to get back to Weather.”
“Exactly,” I said and pointed at some red spray paint in the road. “I’d like to take credit, but it was Roscoe’s idea. He’s painted a marker every mile. The H stands for Marcus Hook, and the W is for Mount Weather.
“Oh, and the arrows give the direction for each,” she said in understanding.
“Yes. It’s not a straight shot, there are several turns you have to make, but every intersection is clearly marked.”
“Okay.”
“Now, I also should have thought about what my reaction was going to be if I suddenly drove up on a horde. I honestly did not believe we’d see any in this cold weather, but it just goes to show you they’re hard to predict these days.”
“What should you have done?”
“The safest course of action would’ve been to beat it back to Hook and come back with people and guns.”
“It worked out though,” Riley said.
“Yes, it did,” I agreed. “It’s so cold now, I think we’ll be alright if we encounter another horde. By the way, did you notice anything while we were outside peeing?”
She looked at me in the dark and was silent for several seconds, and then she gasped. “I smelled smoke.”
“Yeah, I did too,” I said. “I thought it was my imagination, but it was definitely wood smoke. There was somebody nearby. We don’t have a record of any survivors living in this area, so it’s something we’ll need to check out later.”
“How do you do that?” she asked.
“We’ll send out a scout team. People are paranoid these days, but our teams have gotten pretty good about making contact with survivors without any bloodshed.”
We continued talking and finally arrived at the main gate well after midnight. Surprisingly, Fred was inside the guardhouse.
“I was about to come looking for you,” he said and then glanced at Riley. “Everything okay?”
“We ran into a horde,” I said and quickly explained. He walked over and looked the Jeep over.
“They’ve dented and scratched the hell out of it. Jorge will be upset,” he mused. “Hard to tell if there’s any undercarriage damage.”
“Nobody needs to be touching it,” I said. “We’ll spray it down tomorrow and then inspect it.”
Fred nodded and looked over at Riley. “Welcome back to Mount Weather.”
“Thanks. I didn’t want to stay at that place and Zach said I could come back.”
“Well, that’s mighty nice of him,” he said. “Let’s go inside.”
We walked Riley to the dorms. “Get some sleep and we’ll see you at breakfast,” I said.
“What happens next?” she asked.
“I’m expected to meet with the president after breakfast and update him on the status of Marcus Hook.”
“Will he kick me out?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t worry about that. After all, he’s well aware we have a shortage of single women around here. But, don’t be surprised if Lydia has a work assignment waiting for you after breakfast.”
She gave a slight scoff. “Yeah, I have no doubt.” She looked inside the dorm. “It looks like I’ve got the place to myself,” she said. “Okay, good night.”
Fred walked with me back to my room.
“She was giving you the eye a little bit,” he said.
“It’s not like that,” I said. “She didn’t like it there and talked her dad into asking me to bring her back here.”
Fred had no response, and soon we were standing in front of the door to my suite.
“Now I get to explain to my lovely wife what I was doing for the last twelve hours alone with a woman on a trip that only takes four hours.”
Fred grunted. “Good luck with that. See you in the morning.”
I nodded and walked in my suite.
“Honey, I’m home,” I whispered.
Chapter 32 – Grace’s Secret
“Anything?” Fred asked as I scanned the pictures. The three of us, Fred, Sammy, and our faithful companion, Zoe, were out riding our string of trail cameras. It goes without saying it was cold as all get out. We were used to it though and had dressed appropriately.
“Looks like four zeds. They’re wandering around this area.” I looked closer at one of the pictures. It was surprisingly clear. “Females. Humph.”
“Why are we putting cameras out here?” Sammy asked.
I started to answer, but stopped myself. Fred seemed not to be paying any attention, but I knew he was listening as he scanned for threats.
“Alright, Mister Sam, I think you need to answer your own question. Why do you think we put these cameras out here?”
Sammy looked at me in puzzlement as he bit his lip in puzzlement.
“Think it through,” I suggested.
“Um, to watch out for zeds?” he said tentatively.
“That’s one reason. We want to monitor zombie movement for what reason?” I asked.
“So, they won’t be sneaking up on us?”
“Sure, that’s part of it. Right now, we’re not seeing large hordes in this area, but that doesn’t mean it’ll always be like that. What if we download some pictures that are full of zombies?”
“We’d hunt them down, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “Okay, what are some other reasons?”
He looked to Fred for a hint, but Fred was having none of it and continued staring down the road.
“Well, I guess we want to watch out for people too,” he finally said.
“That’s a good guess. Historically, strong governments always have strong intelligence gathering processes. This is just a small part. If we download photos and we start seeing people and vehicles we don’t re
cognize, what do we do?”
“We find out who they are and what they’re up to,” he said with confidence.
“Yes, correct,” I said. “You’re getting the hang of this. Fred and I want you to learn all of this forward and backward, okay?”
Sam nodded. He and I looked at the photos. All we had were a bunch of pictures of deer and coyotes, but, the last two still photos were the four female zombies.
We watched as Sammy replaced the data card in the camera and put fresh batteries in it. Fred waited for him to finish before speaking
“Remember, intelligence gathering is always a necessity,” he said. “We’re not spying on people because we’re nosy, we spy to make sure nobody’s pulling shenanigans on us. And, by the way, the locations of the cameras are a secret, right? You don’t even tell your girlfriend where they are.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“All’s quiet,” Fred said, and then gave me a slight nod. There was an issue we needed to address, and it could only be done with a man-to-man talk with young Sam Hunter.
“Speaking of your girlfriend, how’s it going with her?” I asked. “What’s her name, Serena, isn’t it?”
Sam gave a nervous smile. “Serena Abbott.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Serena’s mom is Susan Abbott. She was Senator Polacek’s aide at one time. I believe she’s a little upset with the two of you at the moment, would I be right?”
Sammy dropped his head. “Yes, sir. How did you find out?”
“Because Susan went to Kelly, and Kelly came to me, and I thought I’d discuss it with Fred before talking to you.”
“I guess everybody knows now,” he lamented, his head still hanging. A couple of nights ago, Susan had caught her daughter and Sammy having sex. She reacted about how you’d expect a protective mother to react and chased Sammy out of their room while he was still in his underwear.
“I don’t know if everyone knows, but Serena’s mom is definitely not pleased.”
“It’s not like we’re the only ones around here doing it,” Sam said defensively.
“I’m sure you’re right,” I answered. “But, let’s concentrate on you and Serena. Are you two practicing safe sex?”