Travellers

by Tim Yingling

  She lowered her head. When she talked it was in a soft tone, but I could still hear her. “I know what you’re saying is the truth, but I still don’t want to leave. I’m more afraid of what’s out there than what is here.”

  I even had an argument for this. “Do you know how many zombies I have had to kill since I got back to the states? I can honestly count them with my fingers. If I take care of your parents out there, I will need to use one toe. We can maneuver around these things.”

  She looked up with hope just as Debbie came bounding down the stairs.

  “I’m ready to go,” she said cheerily.

  Debbie took my hand as I asked Sara, “What are you going to do? Watch your daughter ride away with me or ride along? Because neither one of you are stopping me from taking her away from here.”

  Thirty minutes later, after the four of us ate and I introduced everyone, we were on the move. We also had to take care of one other problem. Sara didn’t want me to, but it had to be done. I made sure that Debbie was on the other side of the house. We didn’t wait for the fire to subside, but the matter was taken care of.

  We didn’t have to go too far. We stopped almost twenty-five miles away at the house I lived in when my family lived in Commerce. It was a big house, three stories like most of the houses in Commerce, which stood close to I-64. I actually loved living in that house. Too bad I had to up and join the military. Didn’t matter, I wouldn’t have been living in the house that much longer anyway. My parents moved out shortly after I went away to basic training.

  Once at the house, Kate and I cleared it. There was nothing inside. The family that lived there had either taken off in a hurry or were killed while they weren’t home. Didn’t bother me either way. The house was empty and it still had some food we could use.

  While I lived there, my dad took it upon himself to attach a small generator in the basement. At the time, we couldn’t see what the point was going to be, but now I couldn’t question his intentions. It turns out the generator had come in handy. The thing wasn’t even dry. There was still a good amount of fuel inside. It was the reason I was leaning more toward the family being killed off someplace. The generator was recently operated. All the same, it looked as if no one had been in the house in about a week. The fridge had some food in there going bad. Then there was definitely some food in there that was bad. Anybody who was still alive wouldn’t have let that happen.

  There was still a lot of daylight left. Phil, Tayvon, and I went to the gas station down the street to look for any more provisions. It offered us some good products. The gas station wasn’t even raided that bad. There were canned goods, a lot of bottled water, and for me and Kate there was our brand of cigarettes. Phil loaded up on the canned goods and started heading back to the house. Tayvon and I were still getting things together when he turned to me.

  “I don’t appreciate the way you treated me and talked to Sara back at her parent’s place,” he said to me with anger in his voice.

  I didn’t turn to face him. “I don’t give two shits about what you do or don’t appreciate, dumbass.”

  “I want you to stop calling me that. I am trying to talk to you like a man here.”

  That got me to turn around. As I did, Tayvon took a step back. Anger was emanating off me and he could sense it.

  “All right, Tayvon, you want to talk like a couple of men, then I will.” I stepped closer to him; he took another step back. “You called my daughter your daughter. I believe I have made my stance pretty clear on that matter. You never refer to another man’s child as your own unless you have been raising them since birth. Let’s move on to the fact you weren’t keeping anyone safe. Did Sara ever tell you the reason we got divorced?”

  “She said it was because of some other girl. Although, she used a harsher word. I would have used it, but I don’t want you to hit me again.”

  “Good choice. And that’s not the reason. The real reason happened when I spent the night in the hospital with one of my soldiers. She thought I was out fucking someone else and told me I am getting out of the military first chance I get. No discussion, just trying to run my life. You know, like she is doing with you.”

  He nodded.

  “Although, I did notice something about her when I showed up at the house. She was seriously happy that I had shown up. She didn’t know what to do. And from what I gathered, she can’t rely on you to make decisions. You probably haven’t made a single hard decision your entire life, have you?”

  He shrugged his shoulders while puffing out his chest. “Of course I have, dawg.”

  I hit him a third time. This time I broke his nose. The blood took a second to begin its flow, but it did start. He threw his hands to his face in shock.

  Once he was back in control, he asked, “What the fuck was that?”

  “I told you in the house I don’t like that type of talk. You said you wanted to talk like a couple of men. Do I walk on all fours?”

  “No.” He squeaked a little.

  “Do I drink water and eat my food from a bowl?”

  “No, man.”

  “Do I try to lick my balls?”

  “No. Jesus, what is this?”

  “Then why the fuck would you call me a dog?”

  “It’s like I’m saying we becoming friends.”

  I breathed in deeply. He didn’t understand what I was getting at.

  “A dog is a companion, yes, but they are a companion that gets told what to do constantly. You saying I’m your dog means you think you can tell me what to do. Is that what you’re saying?”

  He dropped his hands and his eyes. “No man, that’s not what I am saying.”

  “Good. Now, I should inform you that there is no one person in charge here. Everyone brings something to the table. But so far, damn near everyone back at that house sees me as the leader. Can you accept that as we move on? Because if you can’t, tell me now and I will see that you get wherever you want to go safely.”

  He stuck his hand out for me to shake it. “I can accept it.”

  I looked at his hand. There was no way I was going to shake it. “Put your hand away. I’m not trying to be a dick, but your hand is covered in blood.”

  He laughed a little while shouldering his pack. “We going back to the house?”

  I opened the door to walk out. He followed, hovering over me.

  “No.” I pointed across the street. “There is a grocery store over there. I want to check that out first.”

  He pointed to his ten o’clock. “What about the hospital? Are we going in there?”

  I talked as I walked. “No. Probably too many dead in there. I don’t want to take the chance of that right now.”

  He didn’t express his acknowledgement, but I did feel it.

  We walked across Hal Greer Boulevard. The cars still standing on the road were like most of the people in the world: dead with no chance of coming back. Something did feel completely off about the road though. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like we were being watched. None of the vehicles I could see for a distance had anybody, or any former body, in them. I scanned the area around us. The buildings looked as bad as the cars. I didn’t want to continue on our trek, but I also didn’t want to leave any provisions we may have in the grocery store.

  We made it across the street without anyone coming at us, but I could feel it was going to happen eventually. Tayvon walked behind and to my right. It was a good thing he was right there. It offered us a chance to make a move.

  I didn’t turn to him as I talked. I barely even moved my lips. “I want you to reach down to the pistol and slyly take it out of the holster.”

  He actually made the mistake of looking at me. “Why?”

  “Don’t question it, just do it. Quickly.”

  I could feel his hand brushing my leg ever so lightly. His hand wrapped around the pistol grip while his thumb released the snap holding it in place. I sure wish he would not have questioned me and done what I told him to do in t
he first place. Then he would have been able to get the pistol out in time. But instead, we fell in a slight trap.

  “Tell that boy not to move his hand from that spot, Byron,” a voice came from somewhere to my left. The two of us stopped to look around. I couldn’t spot where it came from. “Well, he can move his hand he just can’t pull that pistol with it.”

  Tayvon removed his hand from my pistol.

  “You have me at a loss,” I said as I turned clockwise looking for wherever the voice was coming from. I’m glad I did because now I knew the trap wouldn’t work out the way the people wanted it to. We were too close to the grocery store. From what I could tell one of the sliding door windows was busted out. That was our out. Tayvon may not realize it, but I did. I just had to pick my time to get there. “You know who I am. Now, who are you?”

  The voice came back. This time I could pinpoint it coming from the north, toward the hospital. I turned to put my back to the grocery store. In that direction was nothing but more vacant cars. I wasn’t sure, but I did think I could see three or four people moving around in the parking lot. I did spot one person who wasn’t moving, though.

  “Not going to be that easy, Byron,” he said. There was something familiar about it. “But it does seem you have things that we need.”

  “Those being?”

  “The food and weapons. And most importantly, your services. That’s to include anyone else you have stashed wherever.”

  I motioned Tayvon to start backing up. He waited until I was next to him to make his move.

  “Look, whoever you are. You obviously know me, right?”

  “More than I wanted to.”

  “Then you should know my history, and the fact that I have been in the military the last twelve years. And I’m pretty sure that you haven’t done anything with your life until now. Now you have followers who see you as a leader for some reason. But you should know not to fuck with me.”

  There was a pause from the guy. His people even stopped moving. My rifle hung at my side and I maneuvered it to where I could turn the selector switch with him seeing it. All I had to do was make sure that I shot first. It wasn’t going to be that hard to fathom. I just wish I could see him and his men. Still, I took what I got.

  “I want you two to stop –”

  I didn’t let him get any further. I raised the rifle to hip level and fired in the direction of his men. I put several shots into the cars they were close to then turned and took Tayvon by the arm. I didn’t bother telling him where we were going. It was painfully obvious.

  Tayvon’s long legs actually helped him get to the store faster than me. Whoever these people were didn’t have any training on what they were supposed to do. They should have been firing at me the second I stopped firing, but they weren’t. I stopped once I got through the door and stopped at one of the cash registers. There was definitely more than five people out there. Sadly, I didn’t recognize a one of them. Although, I did get a good look at the face of the person who was talking to me. There was something familiar about him, I just couldn’t tell what it was.

  I turned back to Tayvon, pushing him toward the back of the store. We ran down the aisles. At the end of the aisle we ran down, Tayvon turned to go left.

  “No, not that way. We’ll be stuck if we go there.”

  I turned right and he followed. At the end of the back wall was a swinging door to the back room. If I remember correctly, and I hoped at that point I did, there would be a backdoor on this side of the building. There was one on the other side, that I did know, but that would just trap us even more if whoever this dick is sent men around the back.

  In the back area, I did find one of the things I wanted. We could have gotten more, but there was no time now. I grabbed the twenty-four can case of Dr. Pepper and handed it Tayvon.

  “Do we really need this?” he asked, taking the case.

  “No, but we’re taking it anyway. I’ll carry it if you have no problem doing the killing?”

  “I’m good.”

  I nodded, then moved back to the swinging doors. The window offered me a good sight of one man walking down the last aisle. He didn’t see me in the window, but once he got to the back wall he turned to go to the other end of the building. I kind of wished he would have come this way. It would have given me a good chance to create a diversion. All the same, it did offer us the time it took to get out the back door.

  Tayvon was the one who found it. It was right where I remember it was, next to the manager’s office. The lock didn’t prove to be troublesome for us. I took out my pistol and smashed it off. The door opened.

  Outside, we moved in the direction of the house. The fence that used to cover the back of the store had long been destroyed. It worked out for us. As we approached the corner of the building, I slowed to a stop. Tayvon wasn’t expecting it and ran into me. He pushed me a little bit, but not enough to send me out into the open.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be. You just gave me what I needed to see.”

  My suspicions were correct. That dick did send someone to make sure we weren’t coming out the back. Lucky for us, he was taking his sweet ol’ time. I backed up a bit, Tayvon moved with me, unslinging my rifle as I did. I didn’t get into the ready to fire position. There was no way I was going to give away our position. Instead, I raised it to shoulder level with the barrel facing away from me. Tayvon moved a little to his left so the barrel wasn’t pointing right at him. Didn’t matter anyway, my finger wasn’t on the trigger and I made sure the safety was back on when we took off running into the store.

  I could hear the guy coming. He was no more than five feet from the corner. Tayvon moved back to the door to put his weight to it. I’m glad he did. I never thought of doing it.

  The man was closer now. Once his foot entered my line of sight, I reared back with the rifle. The man turned the corner but was looking off into the distance away from me. I had to wait for him to turn around to do what I needed to do. He turned right into the butt of my rifle. I heard the distinctive noise of his nose breaking as I did it.

  But the guy didn’t fall down like I had planned. He took the hit in the wrong spot. I was hoping he would be slightly shorter than he was. The hit I did give him gave me time to readjust what I needed to do. There was just one thing I wanted to do before I hit him with the rifle again. I had to make sure he hit the ground this time. Plus, he was probably expecting another hit from the rifle.

  I kicked out swiftly with my right foot, connecting with his groin. I felt all three parts come in contact with my shin. This time, he did go to the ground. He even offered me a better spot to hit him with the rifle.

  I brought the butt down on the back of his neck. He was done for. I put the rifle down to lift him into a fireman’s carry. It wasn’t that long of a trek to the door I had come out of. As I neared, Tayvon moved out of the way for me to place the unconscious man down, blocking the door from being opened.

  “All right, let’s beat feet the fuck out of here,” I said. I barely got the words out before we moved. I snagged the rifle in one quick motion as I passed. Tayvon stayed behind me this time. There was no danger coming from that way.

  The run back to the house didn’t take too long. We were barely a half mile away. As we entered the back gate to the yard, I heard something I didn’t want to hear. There was a lot of yelling going on in the house.

  I turned to Tayvon to say, “Get the horses in the garage, quickly. I’ll handle whatever Sara’s yelling about.”

  Tayvon didn’t argue. He didn’t want to argue. He knew as well as I did that when Sara got on one of her tangents for whatever reason it was best not to get involved. But I couldn’t stay out of this one. I needed everyone to have a cool and collected head going forward.

  I entered the house to hear Sara say, “I don’t care how long you’ve been fucking that fucking asshole, you don’t get to tell my daughter what to do, bitch.”

  I entered the dining room to hear
Kate say, “First of all, I’m not sleeping with Byron. He would never cheat on his wife…”

  “I know that to be false.”

  “Secondly, I was merely suggesting that she take up shooting practice. I guarantee you that was Sarge shooting out there for whatever reason.”

  There were two other people in the dining room; Phil and Debbie. They were the only two who noticed I was standing in the doorway. Debbie even went as far as to motion for me to get involved. I didn’t want to just yet. I was curious to see where Sara was going with all this.

  “I don’t care who was out there shooting for any reason. MY daughter, yeah I put emphasis on ‘my,’ will never fire a weapon her entire life.”

  Now it was time for me to step in. “She’s my daughter as well, Sara.”

  “You weren’t –”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Shock overtook her face, as well as Debbie’s. I think Debbie never heard anyone say that to her mother. “You need to wake up. This entire world is now considered a war zone. I’m actually surprised you survived as long as you have with no ammo for your weapons.” I pointed at Debbie for my next sentence. “She will learn how to shoot –”

  Sara stepped forward, pointing her finger in my face. “You will not teach her how to shoot. She does not need to know how to use a weapon. As long as we leave those things alone they will leave us alone.”

  “Get your fucking finger out of my face right now.” I heard Tayvon enter the house. He tried to walk into the situation, but I stopped him. He did as he was visually told. And Sara did as I told her to do once she saw Tayvon was listening to me. “You need to realize the severity of this situation. You may think you’re safe, but you aren’t. It’s not the zombies you need to worry about, it’s the other humans out there. Now, Kate was correct in saying it was myself and Tayvon out there shooting. There was a group of about ten people who wanted what we have. The worst part is that one of them, the leader I think, knew me. I recognized him, but couldn’t remember his name.”