by Tim Yingling
I gave Adam a minute to take in everything he just heard. There wasn’t much, but it was enough to make him squirm in uneasiness. The look in his eyes was one I had seen before. It was a look of fear and determination mixed together. If I had to guess, something I usually don’t like to do that often, I would say that the reason he was that way was because he knew who I was talking about without even saying the name.
“You didn’t say who the General was,” he said after he had his thoughts. “You named everyone else, people that I have heard of but never worked with. But you didn’t give the General’s name. I would have to say that he is the person who is after you. Not for an excellent reason either. You proved him wrong, and in doing so you embarrassed him. So, that is why he is following you. Since he hasn’t attacked you yet, I would have to say that he is toying with you. And if this is the person who I think it is, someone that I have worked for while in group, I would have to say that you are in for a world of hurt.”
I had to ask the question. “Who do you think it is that is following me?”
Adam scratched his hairy neck. “It’s Robert Stone. I didn’t get a good look at him when I spotted him following you guys earlier today, but after hearing what you had to say, I would have to say that it is him. No denying it.”
I shook my head, “I’m not denying it. The crazy person following me, not Kate or Tom, just me, is Stone. He wants me because I did embarrass him. I especially made him look like the last three letters.”
Adam laughed as he said, “An ass. Yeah, he hates that. He likes things to be done the way he wants them and no other. But I need to warn you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“Stone is a dangerous man. You want to know how I heard of your father?”
“Sure.”
“It was through Stone. He told me that one of the members in his first team was your dad. And that your dad was among the best in group. So, if you know how dangerous your dad is…”
“I do.”
“…then you know how dangerous Stone is going to be. I have to advise you to just stay here until we can take care of him.”
“I appreciate the concern for me, but I have someplace to be and little time to get there.”
“I know, you want to get to your family. I understand that.”
“Good, then you know that nothing is going to stop me from getting there.”
Adam nodded, but didn’t say anything in response. He must have figured he lost this fight. I don’t blame him. He wasn’t going to change my mind about not going. Instead, he decided to help me.
“I want you to come into the basement with me.”
I looked to my left at the small window. The window faced the road we walked down. I could see out into the dead world. The light was dying as well, but wasn’t dead. I could still see from the orange glow the sun was setting. It was the direct opposite of what I had seen the morning before. Yesterday morning it was beautiful. This evening, the beauty was gone. All I saw in front of me now was more death. More destruction. More loss. And I could see Stone standing at the foot of the path to come up to the house. He didn’t dare move forward just yet. All he did was smile. I don’t know if he knew where I was or not, but it did seem he was looking right at me.
I turned back to Adam. “I’m pretty sure you’re not going to attack me in the basement, but what do you want me to go down there for?”
“Just come on.”
He stood and I followed. The basement door was in the kitchen. Honestly, if you weren’t looking for it chances are you would miss it. Much like everything else in the house, it was small. The stairway was no wider than my shoulders. I had to turn a little so I could follow him down to the bottom. The basement wasn’t a finished basement; it looked like he was working to make it a fallout shelter if need be. It didn’t look half bad for being half done.
There was one thing that was completely finished in the basement though. That was a room behind the stairs. The reinforced steel door took a thumbprint numerical combination and most of Adam’s strength to open it. Once I figured out what was inside I thought to myself that maybe he should find a better way of opening it. If he was in danger, then he would most likely already be dead. But he wasn’t in danger and he had plenty of time to fix the problem.
With the door wide open, I looked in on an arsenal. One that looked as if it belonged to the military, not in the basement of a newly found citizen. Even if that citizen was a former military member. Most of the weapons in the room were military grade M4s (some with grenade launchers on them), M9s, and machine guns, but there were also some non-military grade weapons. Some of which I wanted.
“I notice you looking at the H&K .762.”
I indeed was looking at one of them. I didn’t have the ammo for it so I wouldn’t ask to take it. As a matter of fact, I hardly had any ammo at all.
“And I know what you’re thinking. You have no ammo. Don’t worry about that. I have plenty to give you. You will have to drop most of the shit in all your packs, but that’s okay, I was going to suggest that you lose them all together anyway.”
“Are you saying that you are just going to give us weapons?”
“And ammo. I think two basic loads will be enough for you. Right?”
“Yes, it will. But why drop the packs?”
Adam walked to the rack the .762 was on to unlock it. He took the weapon out, checked the chamber quickly, and then inserted a magazine before handing it to me. “Because you don’t need them. Chances are you will find someplace to sleep every night, and you will be able to find food no matter where you go. You don’t need the packs. I understand why you aren’t driving or riding bikes, so I will also give all three of you a FLC.”
For you non-military speaking folk, a FLC is a Fighting Load Carrier. It’s not going to carry two combat loads of ammo, but it will help us out tremendously. Honestly, I couldn’t argue with him on any of this.
“I will only need one M4, a 320 to attach to Tom’s M4, a Colt 1911, and two M9 springs if you can spare them.”
Adam went to work preparing the weapons I asked for. He directed me to another door. I opened it to find an abundance of ammo. He easily had enough to supply a small militia. I don’t think us taking close to fifteen hundred rounds will be a problem for him. He had over twenty thousand.
As I gathered the ammunition we needed, Adam continued to talk to me. “Do you want me to attach the 320 to this M4 or do you want to?”
I had to raise my voice a little for him to hear me as he did when he talked to me. “I’m not attaching it to that M4. That M4 is for Kate. We are going to attach it to the M4 upstairs, Tom’s M4.”
“Is Tom getting the Colt?”
“Nope, I’m giving him my M9. I’m getting the Colt.”
I guess he was done with getting the weapons ready because he had come into the ammo room with me. “There’s more kick to this Colt than usual. As a matter of fact, to all my Colts.”
“Granted.”
“I didn’t want to change up the M9s all that much. There is no need. If someone can’t put another person down with a couple of rounds from the M9 then they don’t deserve to use a weapon. The Colt will put someone down with a paint round.”
“You don’t have to sell me on any of this, man. All I have to do is look at the weapons and know I am going to like how they fire.”
“Do you want any attachments for the .762?”
“Just a sight will do.”
Adam obliged. It didn’t take us long to complete what we intended to do. We were only in the basement for half-an-hour getting all the magazines loaded. We had to make a couple of trips back and forth between the basement and the living room to place the weapons and ammo. Rice had asked what we were doing. I didn’t stop to explain until we were done.
As I explained everything that would be happening from then on, I replaced the firing springs in the M9s, handing one back to Rice and putting the other with the sleeping Tom. He looked a thou
sand times better than he did that morning. It had to have been the walking and dinner.
“So, we are walking with no food or water now?” Rice asked as I was finishing with everything. The hour was growing late and her eyes were dropping. I needed her to rush off to sleep.
“Adam is giving us camelbacks to walk with. We’ll be okay, I promise. Now, will you please get some sleep? We are waking in seven hours and walking in eight.”
“Are you going to be able to get some sleep with Stone out there?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He can’t get to the house. Adam has landmines and claymores set up outside. We are just fine in here. I will get some sleep tonight, I just need to finish some tweaks before I go to sleep.”
Rice didn’t say anything else. She didn’t need to. I explained everything that needed to be said. She laid down in front of the couch Tom was on and was asleep in a matter of minutes. Adam walked in to see her asleep, bringing me another beer. I graciously took it but continued to work on attaching the M320 to the M4.
He whispered to me, “You need to lay down. Let me finish that for you.”
I shook my head. “I needed to ask you something anyway.”
“That would be?”
“I asked it earlier, but you never answered me. How long were you watching us?”
Adam snickered. He was trying not to laugh too hard in fear he would wake everyone else.
“I was actually down at the golf course getting a good nine in.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I tried to take a swig from the fresh beer, but I was laughing too hard. I managed to get out, “You know when I lost those eight miles or so today, I was actually thinking about golfing the entire time.”
Adam was trying to hold back his laughter, but he couldn’t. He had to get up and move to the front door. The left hand over his mouth was no use in opening the door. I couldn’t see why his right hand wasn’t going to be of use. I had to get up myself to open the door for him.
Adam was out the door in a matter of seconds. He waited until I had the door shut before he let his laughter go. I let him go for a few minutes as well. The man had been with only his wife for the last month. Little to no (I would say the “no” part is more accurate than the little) contact with the outside world. He probably didn’t have that much time to laugh nowadays, just like everyone else.
Once he stopped he turned to look at the road. I followed his eyes to the few zombies gathering to look in our direction.
“Don’t worry about them,” he said to me. “Even if they made it past the fence they still wouldn’t be able to make it past the mines or claymores.”
“Speaking of the claymores, aren’t you worried about the back-blast?” I had to ask the question. Not just for his safety, but mine as well.
He shook his head. He also had the look of wanting to burst out in laughter again. He held it back pretty good this time. “Nah. I have them set up to the point of them not hitting the house with the back-blast or the danger blast. The only thing we need to worry about is the deafening noises.”
“Okay then.”
We didn’t say anything else. I took that as my cue to get some sleep, but I wanted to have a cigarette first. I offered Adam one, which he took gratefully. We stood on the door stoop, smoking and looking out into the woods. We didn’t need to talk to each other to know what we were looking for.
Adam nodded in a direction to my right. I glanced over to the spot I figured he was pointing me to. Looking past two zombies, I could see what he wanted me to see. Stone stood at the base of the tree line. He had no visible weapon on him. At least not one I could see. He may have a pistol in a holster somewhere, or a rifle slung on his back. But I couldn’t tell at that point.
It didn’t matter. He couldn’t get to us anyway. For the night, I was safe and secure. Adam saw to that.
I offered Stone a wave. He looked like he waved back, but I couldn’t be sure. Stubbing my cigarette, I glanced over at him one more time before going in the house to turn in.
* * * *
Friday, 24 June 2016
Capers Chapel United Methodist, South Carolina
636 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana (330 Miles to Commerce, WV)
We did much better today. We made forty-two miles in ten hours. We were about four miles south of a town called Lowrys. We could have continued on to the town if we wanted to, and I asked if they wanted to continue to the town or not. They didn’t want to. They believed as much as I did there would most likely be squatters in the town, dangerous ones at that. We were lucky the night before with Adam and Beverly. But we wouldn’t always be lucky. I didn’t blame them for wanting to stop.
And, yes, Tom is talking again. He is definitely a lot livelier than he was for the last two days.
When my internal clock (although it could have been the smell of bacon) woke me at six in the morning, Tom was wide awake and there to meet me. He sat on the drab colored couch staring at me as I sat up.
“How are you today, buddy?” I asked, wiping the sleep out of my eyes.
What he said next got rid of the sleep altogether.
“I’m going to put this out there right now,” he started out. “I don’t think there should be any time to waste on the matter. I don’t want to walk with you, but as it is, I don’t think I have any other choice. I was tortured because of you, you son-of-a-bitch. I’m alive so I can tell you something. Don’t ask me what it is. He said I will know the time when it comes. If I’m not around when that time comes, then you will never know what it is. And just so you know, the first place I find that I feel safe, I will stay there. I do feel safe here, but I don’t think this is the right spot to stay.”
“Tom…”
“No, you don’t get to talk. You did this. I know you meant well, but there are always consequences. Some hurt a lot more than others.”
With that, he got up to go to the kitchen. I was now the one in a shocked state. That was until Adam walked in.
“Kate should be out of the shower in the next five minutes. You can go have one if you want.”
I looked at him as he walked by.
“And don’t worry about what Tom said. I’ve seen it in other men before. He will come around once he calms down.”
My head told me Adam was right. But the way Tom looked when he talked to me. He gave me the impression that I was someone he didn’t want to know anymore. I know I shouldn’t care about this, I wasn’t going to be protecting him or Kate for the rest of my life. Plus, Tom was a big boy. He can take care of himself.
It didn’t take her the five minutes to get out of the shower. Once I heard the water stop I waited another three minutes before going to knock on the door. From inside, I heard, “Come in.”
I had to ask before I entered, “Are you decent?”
“It doesn’t matter, we need to eat and get going. So come in and take your shower right quick. Adam and Bev have left some clothes for us.”
I steeled myself for this. I didn’t want to enter the room. For the last six years, the only woman I have seen naked was Hannah. Seriously, even when I went on TDY away from my family, I didn’t even do what most married military men do and go out to strip clubs or go out to try to cheat on their wives. I’m not like that when it comes to my family. I don’t cheat on them. I love them too much. As if you couldn’t tell by what I have been doing.
I turned the knob and entered to see Rice standing fully clothed in newish clothes. Newish because they are old for Bev but new for Rice. They fit her better than they look. Bev is a bit bigger than Rice, but not by much. I would have to say close to five to ten pounds heavier, but the clothes didn’t look as if they were falling off Rice at all.
I spotted only one other set of clothes on the toilet. I must have been out of it because I didn’t notice if Tom had been cleaned up and in different clothes.
I looked back up to the smiling face of Rice. “Gotcha.” Something must have shown on my face because Rice became all serious. “What’s wrong?�
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I waved her off. “Doesn’t matter. Let me just take a shower and we should be out of here in no time.”
She left it alone. I know a lot of women who wouldn’t have left it alone. Hannah is one of them. The only thing Rice did was walk up to me and gave me a hug. It was unexpected. I shuddered at first, then relaxed and allowed the tip-toed embrace to happen. Once she was done with it, she stepped back, still with her hands on my shoulders, and said, “I seen the same look on Tom. You two have some things to work out. So, you better get to them.”
She didn’t say anything else. She walked out to eat. I turned to look at myself in the mirror. Something I hadn’t done since the last time Rice and I were in a bathroom together. I had a lot more dirt on me this time, but it was probably sweat. It was going to be gone in no time.
I took my boots off to sleep, so I didn’t have to worry about those. There was a bag provided with Tom and Rice’s old clothes already in there. I tossed mine in, then turned back to the mirror. Along with the dirt and sweat on my face, it was all over my torso. They weren’t the only things there as well. The straps from my pack had been digging into my shoulders like they weren’t even there. The resulting red marks showed it. I was hurting. And since I was taking Adam’s advice, I wasn’t going to be hurting anymore.
I stopped wasting time. I turned the shower on and stepped in. The cascading water wasn’t fresh. It was freezing. I jumped to the back of the shower. Even without standing in the water, I was still cold. I looked at the knobs for the water. The hot water knob was turned about halfway. The cold knob was barely turned. I quickly came to the conclusion the hot water heater was on the fritz. Looks like more suffering for me.
The shower only took me two minutes. I jumped into the water and held it there for as long as I could. Luckily I didn’t have to go searching for the shampoo. It was available on a shower rack under the nozzle. Adam definitely knew what he was doing. The shampoo was a non-fragrant type that allowed me to also use it as a body wash. I lathered up as quickly as I could. And this is the part that took the longest. I had to get under the water and rinse myself off. It took me a good minute. Once all the suds were gone, I killed the water as fast as I could. The oncoming heat from the house helped me a little. The beach towel helped me even more. Getting fresh clothes on is what eventually warmed me up.