Travellers

by Tim Yingling

  “It’s simple. The house close by had someone in it. That’s why we didn’t stay there instead. I didn’t want to go into the house any more than you did. Did you see the curtain move?”

  She shook her head.

  “I did. Somebody who had zombies locked up the way those people did wasn’t someone I wanted to talk to.”

  The shocked look didn’t change. I didn’t even know if what I said registered with her. It did with Curtis though.

  “So, you think the people in this house you speak of blew up their own barn with the zombies inside?”

  I thought about it. It was likely, but probably didn’t happen that way. “Either that or the zombies somehow found a way to accidentally blow themselves up. Either way, I don’t see a problem happening tonight now. I suggest we all get some sleep and we’ll fly out to Commerce at first light.”

  Curtis nor Kate had a problem with that. Glenn and Drew were already asleep when we got to the third floor. I found a room with little to nothing in it. It was better than the schoolroom Kate and I shared not so long ago. As I put my things down to get comfortable I noticed Kate was nowhere to be found. I checked with Curtis who thought she was with me. Curtis wanted to help me find her, but I told him not to worry about it. This was my problem and I would find a way to deal with it.

  I found her on the roof of the building. She left her kit and weapon on the third floor with everyone else. From what I could tell, she was planning on staying up for the night. I couldn’t allow her to do that. I plopped down next to her without a word. She leaned into my chest when I put my arms around her. In no time she began to cry.

  I let her cry until she was done. It took her about ten minutes. Even after she was done I didn’t let her go. She needed the comfort.

  We sat that way until the shit hit the fan, again.

  * * * *

  Friday, 1 July 2016

  Murrysville, PA

  585 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana (280 Miles to Commerce, WV)

  I noticed it first. Kate was lightly snoozing until I shook her. I pointed to the east, the direction the fire was still coming from. Surprisingly, the fire didn’t spread. It probably should have, and maybe none of this would have happened. But it didn’t happen.

  Still, the lingering question was how it did happen. I certainly don’t have the answer. Nor is there anyone left alive who could answer the question.

  “What is that?” Kate asked from still inside the secured circle of my arms.

  The dark figure stood a hundred yards away from the chopper. There was no moon, so there was no light (except for the blaze of the fire far off) to offer any type of answer to her question. I couldn’t even see what he was doing until it was too late.

  Another blaze of fire happened. This time it wasn’t as big or spectacular as the blaze off to the east. It was small and precise. I knew it for what it was the second I saw it. And the second I saw it I knew I would be walking to Commerce.

  The rocket sailed through the air with ease. It connected with the Black Hawk on the tip of the nose. The second explosion of the night occurred not a second later. I fell on top of Kate, shielding her from the little debris of the busted helicopter.

  Once there was no more debris falling on us, I looked back up to the not-so-lone figure. Five people joined his cause. That wouldn’t have been so bad for us. It would have been a five on five firefight. I didn’t think they would have another rocket on them. And it wasn’t the rocket launchers I needed to worry about. Kate was the first to notice it.

  The shambling walk was the first thing she noticed. The number of zombies was the second. There had to be well over a hundred of them. We didn’t have the firepower to handle them.

  “We have to get moving,” I said to her. I tried to hide the fear in my voice. I was a strong believer in the fact that if someone heard the fear in your voice, then you were defeated already.

  The shock had left Kate sooner than I thought. I would have to say it was after her cry. The thing in her voice scared me even more. She had terror in her voice. I would have welcomed fear at this point.

  “Where will we go?”

  “I don’t care. As long as we are away from here.”

  She wasted no time. She stood and hit the door to get back into the building. I followed her. We had to go down two more flights of stairs to get to the room Curtis was sharing with Glenn and Drew. They were already up and ready to fight.

  Curtis tossed Kate her weapon. She caught it effortlessly.

  “We got work to do you two,” he said walking over to the window.

  “We can’t fight them off. If we had the 240’s from the chopper maybe, but not with these. We can’t take them out.”

  Curtis didn’t seem to hear me. He turned to the window, opening fire. Glenn and Drew followed his lead. Kate and I didn’t. I turned her around and hit the stairs.

  As we made the first floor, the front doors busted in toward us. The wheeze of the rounds going past me hurt my ears. I wanted to hit the ground for cover but thought better of it. That would waste time.

  “I know the way out,” Kate yelled from my right. She turned to run without even looking at me.

  My eyes followed her, but I didn’t. I wanted to check something first, seeing as how the firing had stopped on the doors. I walked to the formerly glass doors to look out. The zombies were still a good hundred feet away. But the person in the lead wasn’t a zombie. I got a good look at a man in biker drab. I looked to the right to see another biker, and then left to see another. They were guiding the zombies to the front of the building. They were setting them in attack mode.

  I had to get away from these people, and fast. I followed in the direction Kate went. She was waiting for me at the back door.

  “Did you see what you wanted to see?”

  “Yeah.”

  She took off for the highway, with me closely behind her. Neither one of us had our packs with the food inside. All we had were the clothes on our backs, our FLCs, and our weapons. That was okay. One of the first signs I saw on the road said we were close to Pittsburg. We just had to hold off for the day. We may be able to reach the city before nightfall. I wouldn’t be able to tell just yet.

  We ran for the better part of the first hour. It was like the first day of our travels. I had no sleep from the night before, but I had to move. This time, I didn’t think we had an enemy behind us like I did before. But Kate continued to say we should continue to run. And we did.

  Once she started to get tired, I suggested we go into a gas station to get some food. She couldn’t agree with me more. It was a damn good thing we did.

  We were inside eating some more of those disgusting canned sausages and drinking plenty of water when we heard the rumble. She heard it before I did, but it didn’t take long for me to hear it after she pointed it out. The noise was distinctive. It was the sound of motorcycles. How Kate knew the type of bikes they were, I found out later.

  The biker gang blew down the road. It was still a little dark outside (the sun was cresting the hills to the east) so neither of us decided we would try to hide from them. I did manage to get a number of how many there were. The count came to nine, six men and three women. The three women road on the bikes of three men. They weren’t looking from side to side on the road. I had a feeling they weren’t even looking for us.

  “I’m sorry I brought you here and got you involved with them.”

  I was wrong.

  I turned to Kate. The shock had come back over her face. From what I had no idea this time.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll explain as we walk. They are looking for me.”

  I didn’t protest. I figured the bikers would go another mile or two before they realized we weren’t on the road anymore. They would turn around and start looking for us.

  “We’ll pack light so we don’t make too much noise. Plus, I want more freedom of movement. And, we’ll skirt the road in the wood line. It will take us longer to walk,
but we need to do that if those guys are looking for us.”

  She only nodded her head. I found a knapsack in the store and threw some waters and a couple of canned goods. Kate led us out to the north side of the road. The traveling wasn’t too bad. We were able to maneuver easily. There was one time when we had to move back into the woods a little further than we wanted to. The downed tree even went to the road. I wasn’t about to walk back out to the open with those guys still out there.

  We traveled for close to another two hours without seeing the bikers. During that time, Kate explained who they were.

  “Back when I was in high school, I dated a guy. He was on the last bike, one of the guys with no one riding with him. He’s actually the reason I joined the military in the first place. I wanted to get away from him. He was abusive, and made me do things I was not proud of.”

  “Don’t you dare say he is the reason you continued to pine after guys for no reason.”

  “That’s just it. I think he was the reason. I wanted to find someone who would do those nasty things to me. No one ever did, so I just kept looking.”

  I wasn’t going to push the matter. I wanted to find out more about who these people were.

  “Tell me about them.”

  “Well, the club has been in the city for years. When I left for the military, there were more than thirty members. Now, I guess there are only six. The leader, Terrance, was the one in the front, of course. As long as I can remember, he has been the president.”

  I remember the guy. He looked to be in his fifties and muscular. The pronounced gut was the only thing that looked out of place. As a matter of fact, all of them looked to be your typical biker boys that society had placed on the stigma. Although, I didn’t think they would be too dangerous as she continued to talk.

  “They never did anything to draw attention to themselves. They kept a low profile, helped the community, and did their civic duties on occasion. Then they were also into drugs. Most people around this area were. I was before I joined the military.”

  “Okay, so they lived the life of bikers and normal people is what you’re saying.”

  “Yes.”

  “Except for a few of the members like your ex.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why did they send the zombies after us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Figured.”

  We walked for another mile before I said anything else.

  “Do you think they are coming after you right now?”

  “Clyde followed me to basic. They stopped him at the gate because he wasn’t wearing the right type of equipment on the bike. I didn’t find out about this until much later. But when I got sent to Polk, he found out where I went and went down there as well. I stayed on post for three months before he left. These men know how to fight. If you weren’t here to protect me, I probably would have killed myself by now. I don’t want to get involved in their shit. Especially from what we saw back at the apartments.”

  I could respect that. Again, I wasn’t going to push the matter. She wanted me to continue to protect her, and that’s what I was going to do.

  “Alright,” I began. “Here’s what we are going to do.” I pointed behind her to an opening. “We are going to take one of their bikes. I can see that they left the keys in the ignition. And we will hightail it down to Commerce on that, maybe. They will follow, but we should be able to lose them. I hope.”

  She turned to look. The clearing was only two hundred yards away from us. Luckily, the bikers hadn’t seen us yet. I only saw them because they were moving around too much.

  They must have decided they needed to eat lunch. It was getting close to that time. After they were done, they could turn around and head back down the road looking for us. Didn’t matter, anyway.

  “And exactly how do you plan on getting one of their bikes?” she asked. She looked surprised by the way I wanted to act this out.

  I pulled an object from my FLC. It was the last one of its kind I had. I showed it to her and said, “With this.”

  She didn’t stop me. I walked to the clearing. The bikers still had no idea I was there. I could be silent when the time came for it.

  They were talking amongst themselves. Mostly, it was about where Kate could be. Apparently, Clyde was still wanting her. I stayed hidden in the shadows to listen. Kate stayed back an extra ten yards just to be sure.

  The conversation did get a little out of hand as time went on. Clyde wanted to make sure I would be killed as well. He wanted me dead for taking her away. He was also under the impression I was sleeping with her. Obviously, he was wrong. From what I could tell, he was obsessed with her. He believed she was his.

  Kate’s eyes told me she wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. I couldn’t blame her. Clyde sounded a lot like a dumbass for the way he was talking. Even Terrance was trying to calm the kid down. It didn’t look as if he was succeeding in the matter. I guess it was time to step in.

  I shouldered my rifle before I walked in. The round object stayed in my left hand for the time being.

  “Clyde,” I began as I entered the clearing. “If you wanted me dead, why didn’t you just follow us when we left her parent’s place?”

  All eyes moved to me. Two of the men even pulled their pistols.

  I held up the object and said, “Drop ’em.”

  The eyes moved to my left hand. They became saucer plates when they realized the object was a grenade. One that hasn’t been armed yet, but my finger was inside the ring to pull the safety pin. Terrance motioned for his men to put their weapons down.

  He stepped forward to be the one to talk to me. “All we want is Kate. We know she is with you. If you release her to us, then no harm will come to you.”

  I pointed at Clyde. “Apparently harm will come to her through him. So, I can’t let you have her. I made a promise to protect her, and I intend to keep that promise.”

  “Who are you, guy?”

  I smiled. I couldn’t help it. “My name is Byron Yames. Most people in the military just called me Sarge. I am the type of person that will do anything to protect the people he considers friends. Kate is a friend of mine.”

  Clyde stepped forward. “I don’t give a shit. I know you’re fucking her –”

  I pulled the pin. He stopped talking.

  “If he talks again, I will drop this. And I promise it won’t be anywhere near me.” Everyone took a step back. “Kate come out here.”

  She did as she was told. Reluctantly. She stayed behind me, but I could tell she had her weapon ready to go if need be. She breathed heavily. I could only guess the reason was that she was so close to them now.

  “This is as close as you all will get to her. Understand?”

  Grumbles came from the bikers.

  “Why do you have to fight this?” Terrance asked.

  “I already told you the reason. I made a promise and I intend to keep that promise. Now, move back into the woods.”

  Terrance shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Terry, listen to me closely.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “We are going to take one of your bikes. Although we will leave the others for you, we only need one. Just so we can get a distance away from you all before you decide to follow us.”

  “You ain’t taking one of our bikes. There is no way around it.”

  I nodded. I kind of figured this was how it was going to go down. This was the only way I was going to get a bike.

  I said over my right shoulder, “Start moving to the bikes. Take Clyde’s for good measure.”

  Kate did as she was told. She had to know how to ride a bike if she grew up around bikers. Again, I was guessing here, but so far I have been pretty good at my guesses.

  “If she touches my bike, I will shoot both of you,” Clyde said.

  “No, you won’t.”

  That was the last thing I said to them in the clearing. I didn’t toss the grenade over-hand. Instead,
I turned my hand over and rolled it to them. They turned around and finally did as they were told. I, in turn, ran to my right. Kate was already on the bike getting it started. I jumped on behind her.

  The bike came to life. As she whipped the tail out to head to the road, the grenade went off. My arms were wrapped around her waist. I turned to look behind me. None of the bikers were harmed by the blast. I couldn’t tell if any of the bikes were or not. There was only one way I could make sure they wouldn’t follow us so soon.

  I pulled my sidearm and fired on them. They ran further into the woods. When Kate turned back onto the road, I stopped firing. She managed to get the bike going faster. I was happy I was right about her being able to ride. It was the only way we would be able to get away from them.

  I couldn’t hear anything over the rumble of the bike. On occasion, I would look behind us to see if they were following. For the most part, the road was straight, but there were occasions when I wouldn’t be able to see behind us because of the curves. That was okay. If I didn’t see them in the first mile, they were way too far behind us. But I am sure they would be following us.

  We road for close to thirty-five minutes. When I saw a sign that looked familiar I told Kate to stop.

  “Why are we stopping?” she asked.

  I got off to look around. I wanted to listen to the road for a minute before I said anything. I didn’t hear any approaching vehicles. It was probably hard for them to maneuver through the stopped cars than it was for us. Three of the other bikes were too big to fit through some of the spots and they would have to find another way to get through. That worked in our favor. Plus we were probably a good ten minutes ahead of them anyway.

  “Do you know this area?” I asked her.

  “I’ve been through it before, but I don’t know it like I know Dixonville. Are you going to tell me why?”

  I pointed at the sign. “Seventy-nine will take us straight to Charleston. We will be able to get to Grey and Commerce from there. It is only ten miles away. Both of us has had little sleep in the last forty-hours. We need some. I saw a trail that we can go up and hide in. If they come this way, they won’t be able to find us. We’ll put the bike in plain sight, and then we’ll hide on the other side of the road. Okay?”