by Tim Yingling
The route did start to go in the direction I needed. But it was still a long way off. When I did get to the curve that would lead me to where I needed to go I saw a sign. A good sign. A sign that offered me some hope. The sign read:
MORGANTOWN27
I followed the road the sign was on. I had to get off the highway, but I didn’t mind that too much. The closer I would get to a big city, the more unsavory people I would run into. Especially on major roads.
Shortly after I made the turn I needed, I found another gas station. This one didn’t offer anything I needed. I kept going. The little water I had would have to do. I could have stopped in the houses I saw along the way, but what would be the point. Either I would have to fight off zombies, or I would find someone still alive, or I would find the house bare. There was no point. I would conserve my water. Plus, I wasn’t that far off from Morgantown. I would make it in less than three hours at that point.
And it was less than three hours.
I saw a sign that said:
MORGANTOWN2
Another good thing. My ass and balls were starting to become excruciating. I shouldn’t say starting. They started about three miles into the horse riding. They became numb for a while there, but the pain was coming back. I needed to get off the horse.
The thing that excited me about the sign was my nickname and an arrow pointing to the left. To the normal person, that may seem like graffiti. To me, it said they were to the left at the next exit.
The next sign I came to was for a ramp to lead into a housing area. Morgantown was directly in front of me. My name was on this sign as well telling me to take the left. The arrow was underlined twice. I went up the ramp and to the left. As I trotted along, I looked to my left and right. I almost missed it, but that was only because they put the horses behind the motel. If it wasn’t for the horse shit in the parking lot I would have missed them.
I turned into the parking lot, guiding the horse to the back of the motel. The other horses were tied off to a fence. Someone had brought over a ten-gallon bucket for them. I dismounted my horse and tied him off. Before I left, I took the rifles.
I came around the corner to the front of the motel to being shot at. The sound of the shot bounced off the buildings around me. I didn’t know where it came from, but I was sure it came from the second floor of the motel. Kate wouldn’t shoot at me. It had to be either Ernie or Linny.
I walked into the parking lot with my hands raised. “It’s Sarge. Why the fuck are you shooting at me?”
Another shot was fired. This one closer than the last. Then a voice I never heard before spoke.
“You must be the one these three are waiting on.”
I shook my head in disgust. I just wish I could catch a break.
“Look, dude. I’ve been up since two this morning. I had to fight off nine bikers. And then I had to ride all the way here on little to no food or water. All I want to do is go to sleep so I can get up around six and head to Commerce to get my daughter. I don’t mean you any harm. Two of these rifles are for the two kids that I will be taking with me tomorrow. That does include their aunt.”
A man emerged on the balcony. He held an ancient six-shooter. I couldn’t tell what kind it was from where I was.
“So they were telling the truth about just passing through?”
I nodded.
The man looked to his left. He was looking into the room he had come out of it. It was my chance if ever there was one. I let the .762 drop from my right shoulder. I had to let that drop faster than the AK-47s so I could get to my pistol. Yeah, the rifle would have been better for most people, but I am a better shot with a pistol than a rifle.
I pulled the pistol, bringing both hands together on the butt, and aimed just to the right of the man on the balcony. I put one round into the wall behind him. In his shock, he dropped the long-barrel six-shooter and threw his hands to his head. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he had done that.
“Do I have your attention now?” I asked. Now I was aiming at his chest.
“Yes. Just please don’t shoot me.”
I wasn’t going to shoot him. Well, unless he gave me a reason.
“Get my friends out here. Be mindful, I will plug you if you try anything funny.”
He nodded while he moved to his left. He stopped at the door to the room he came out of and said, “Come on out.”
The man stepped to his right with his hands still on his head. Kate emerged from the room first. Ernie and Linny came out as one.
“What’s going on, Kate?” I asked not taking my eyes or the pistol off the man who looked about ready to piss himself.
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she led the others down the stairs. I moved forward to meet them at the bottom, never taking the pistol off the common perpetrator.
At the bottom, Kate said, “He doesn’t mean us harm. He just saw you with the weapons and flipped out.”
I looked from her to the man and back again. The pistol lowered a little as I said, “Did you explain who I was to him?”
“Yes, I did. And he thought you would still be dangerous.”
I turned to the man. “What’s your name, partner?”
He looked at me with his hands still on the back of his head. He kept them there even though the pistol was aiming nowhere near him now. He was scared. Can’t say that I blame him once he told me his story.
“My name’s Phil.”
“You from here, Philly?”
He nodded.
I couldn’t stand it anymore. “Put your hands down, Philly. Let’s go someplace you and I can talk.”
He dropped his hands before walking back up the stairs. I followed closely behind after I motioned for Kate to get the rifles. She took Ernie and Linny with her to get them. Phil didn’t stop to pick up his pistol. I got it for him. It was made to look like an Old West six-shooter, but it had newer parts to it. A good weapon for someone who was inexperienced with weapons.
I entered the motel room to see that it looked like every single motel room ever created. A bed with a shabby multi-colored comforter against one wall centered on the room to go with a desk across from it with a TV on it, and a nightstand on the far side of the bed. Nothing uncommon in here. That was except for Phil. I still haven’t put my finger on him yet.
Phil sat on the bed. I took a seat in the uncomfortable chair next to the window with the drab drapes. Phil took the six-shooter back as I handed it to him.
“Kate already tell you our story?” I asked him. If she told him about her I wouldn’t have to explain myself in the process. At least that was the way I saw it.
“Yes, she did,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know your story. How you ended up here and what happened to you.”
“My story is like everyone else’s,” he began. “I was here in town when the outbreak happened. Starting slowly, then gaining speed. The way I saw it, it gained speed because nobody could kill these things. I have seen many people try, but only fire is what takes them down.”
“Yeah, that’s what I found out.”
Kate and the kids rejoined us. The kids took residence on the floor. Kate laid on the bed behind Phil. He seemed to be apprehensive about it. I would soon find out why.
“Well, that may be the case, but once it hit the city the outbreak spread here like a wildfire. I had never seen anything like it except in books and movies and whatnot. Everybody became extremely scared. There were riots of course. And people died in the riots. Those people turned into the things. My wife and I were at home on the south side of town when everything happened. We decided it was best to stay in the house. And we did for a good three weeks. We had enough food to do so. When the food started to run out I had to go out and get some. I hadn’t seen anyone on the streets in a couple of days. I heard them, but didn’t see them. So, I went looking for food. At the time I didn’t have the gun. I got it last week. But the store we go shopping at was only two blocks aw
ay. I told my wife to stay in the house and I would go get the food. I was gone for no more than forty minutes. Upon my return, three men ran out of my house. I completely forgot about the groceries and ran into the house. They raped and killed my wife. She was already reanimating.”
He stopped and was beginning to cry. I nodded to Kate. She moved to comfort him, but he shoved her off.
“I don’t need your pity.” Too much anger in his voice.
I said, “It’s not pity we’re offering. You’ve been alone for, what… three weeks now? You saw the men who raped and killed your wife. We are offering you or condolences on the matter.”
Phil looked up. There was still anger in his eyes, but there was also a little bit of hope now.
I put my hand on his shoulder before I began to talk. “Tomorrow you are going to come with us. I’m not going to leave you here to wallow in your loss.”
“Thank you,” he said.
Kate nodded to me, with a smile. I motioned for her to follow me onto the balcony. Phil laid on the bed as we left the room. By the time Kate and I were done talking he was asleep. It was a good thing. We were getting up early in the morning. We had a long way to go and time was growing short for me.
“Do you have a key to a room?” I asked her as we stepped out.
The kids followed behind her. They stood on either side of us. She put her hand around Linny’s shoulders.
“No.” She motioned into the room. “He said he had to break into the room, which is why he picked the second floor to sleep on.”
I nodded. “Well, let’s find a room for you three.”
“Where are you going to sleep?”
I pointed behind me to the other end of the building. “Down with the horses. Just going to make sure no one tries to steal them or anything.” I turned to the kids. “You two mind riding double tomorrow for a bit? Just until we find another horse.”
They shook their heads. Ernie spoke for both them. “We’ll do whatever we can to help out. Linny and I don’t mind anything you want to do.”
Seemed weird he would say that, but I put it out of my mind.
“Okay.”
The conversation ended there. We still had a good hour before sunset. We ate dinner. It wasn’t that hard. There were plenty of gas stations around with an abundance of food. A few zombies lingered around the area. They had no idea we were even anywhere near them. It was astonishing how stupid people became once they were zombies.
I did see some living people about. Some saw me, and some didn’t. The ones who did see me kept a wide berth. I didn’t blame them, but I didn’t want to keep a distance. Any information they could give me, and I them, would have been helpful on both fronts. But I could understand why they wanted to keep their distance. They didn’t know me. All they saw with me was my weapons. Even in the wake of a worldly disaster, people were still apprehensive toward others with weapons. Granted, before the disaster, you wouldn’t see that many people with their weapons just hanging out. But you did know that people had weapons. And fear would take over if you did see a gun on someone’s hip. Now, almost everyone had a gun on their hip, or leg, or underneath their armpit. And people still didn’t trust others with a gun. To me, it seemed ass-backward. At a time when guns, knives, and any other weapon would come in handy, there were still people out there more afraid of them. I didn’t understand it. I don’t think I ever would.
We didn’t wake Phil to eat. The guy had been on his own for so long, he probably hadn’t gotten much sleep. We ate our dinner, and the kids were out shortly after that. Kate and I stayed on the balcony, smoking some of the cigarettes we found in one of the gas stations.
“I got a question for you, Sarge,” Kate said. “That is if you don’t mind answering it.”
“Two things, Kate,” I said without looking at her.
“That would be?”
I took the last puff off the cigarette I was smoking before I used the burnt end to lite a fresh smoke. I tossed the used one as I said, “First, I don’t think you need to call me Sarge anymore. I think I’ve been pretty adamant that I don’t want to be associated with the military anymore. Second, you don’t have to ask me permission to ask a question. You’ve earned the right to my trust. Not many people have my trust. You would be in a handful.”
She was touched by my sentiment, not only emotionally, but physically. I could see it in her eyes, but mostly in her features. She noticeably relaxed with what I said. It took her a minute to ask what she wanted to ask.
“Well, I guess my question is, what are you going to do if you get to Pilgrim and find that your family is not there, or worse yet, all of them are one of those things?”
She still seemed ashamed for asking the question. I didn’t see why she was. I had to think about my answer, though. Up to this point, I had one thought about it. I just always believed my brother (the one who lives in Pilgrim) would be there to help protect my family. It was just him and his wife. He and I have never seen eye to eye, but I don’t think he would let anything happen to his sister-in-law and niece and nephew. Our parents didn’t bring us up that way. Not to mention his wife wouldn’t let it happen either. She was always the voice of reason when it came to him.
Kate waited patiently for me to finish my train of thought. She didn’t notice I had noticed her looking at me, but I did. She didn’t become agitated with the way I was drawing the moment out. She didn’t even look like she cared. She gave me the time to think about her question.
Finally, I gave her my answer.
“It’s not that simple of an answer, anymore. I know you are looking for me to say something like, ‘I will continue to fight these things.’ But I can’t say that. If I get to Pilgrim and find my family either a zombie or just dead completely I don’t know what I am going to do because I won’t know the situation which led to them being that way. We’ll just see what we’ll see when we get there.” I paused for a second. Something came to mind as I was saying my last sentence. “Why do you want to know what I will do?”
Kate took no time to answer me. “Two days ago you said something along the lines that you wouldn’t care. If you said that again I would have to take my niece and nephew and leave you. With the answer you gave, that tells me that you’re becoming a realist.”
“How long have you known me, Kate?”
“A couple of years now, I guess.”
I nodded. “Then you should know me pretty well by now, right?”
She shook her head. I set her up to see where her mind was after the last couple of days, and it worked in my favor.
“I don’t think that even your wife knows who you really are. Let alone anyone else in the world. You can sit there and say you trust barely a handful of people, but when push comes to shove, if you have to choose between the three of us here and your family you will leave us behind. Am I wrong about that?”
“I’m glad you understand. And you can’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same.”
“Yes, I would.”
“And I don’t blame you on that.” I finished off the cigarette. This time I didn’t lite a new one. “I think in the last two weeks you have learned a lot from me. You have the tools to protect yourself and them without me being there. Honestly, you don’t need me anymore. But I have a strong feeling you’re going to stick with me no matter what.”
She tossed her finished smoke in the same direction I did, but she did lite a new one.
“You’re right about that, as well. You may think you know the reason I’m sticking with you, but you really don’t. The real question I wanted to ask you, and all of this has been a build up to it, is: What did the guys say about me in our old battalion?”
This little minx. Here, I thought I was working her. Trying to get her to show her cards when it came time for my family to show up. But no. She was working me. All she wants to know is about our past lives. I have to give her some sort of satisfaction.
I took her by the shoulders and turned her toward me. I wanted
to look deep into her eyes as I spoke.
“Kate,” I began. “Whatever those sick fuckers said about you back then doesn’t matter now. Most of them are dead.” I stopped to let that part sink in first. When she looked back up at me, I continued. “You have a second lease on life now, Kate. You can change yourself. I’m not saying what they said about you back then is true, but if you were the way they said you were then you have the chance to change it now. Whatever your decision is, I will support you on the matter.”
She nodded with tears in her eyes. “So you heard that I was a barracks whore?”
“I don’t care what the rumors were. Now, only you know the truth. They could have been lies that people made up, or they could be the truth. It only lives with you. I know what I heard, and I am telling you that I don’t care about the rumors. You have proven to be an exceptional friend. I can sit here and tell you that I love you. Not in a romantic manner, Kate, but I love you all the same.”
The tears cascaded down her face. She thrust my hands off her shoulders and moved in for a big hug.
“As long as you stay with me you will stay alive.”
* * * *
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Commerce, WV
308 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana
Nothing happened after Kate and I broke the embrace that night. She cried herself to sleep shortly after. It was still early night and the next day Ernie, Linny, Phil, and Kate were all up long before I was. They let me sleep till around seven. After that, I ate as quickly as I could. We were back on the road by eight that morning.
Linny rode double with her brother giving Phil his own horse. He didn’t take a rifle. He wanted to keep his pistol. I didn’t argue with the man. Eventually, we did find another ranch. We fixed Linny up with her own horse. It was getting close to lunchtime on the 3rd, so we ate there as well.